The Curation: Volume 40
Hotels for seeing the northern lights, an art-centric guest house in Somerset, my favorite of Anthony Bourdain's favorite hotels, my top hotel choice for Seville, and more!
Today, we go all over the place. From above the Arctic Circle to Tanzania, hotels mostly, but also one very good serviced rental and forthcoming train. And finally, this should be under a 20-minute read. The perks of having 6 posts a month instead of 4! Also, I’m so sorry I had to cancel the first Substack Live last week because I was sick. Unfortunately, that turned into more than a cold and I’m still down for the count in any way that requires talking. Let’s put it back on the books for next week, October 30 at 3pm Pacific. I’ll remind you on Sunday, too.
These are the specials du jour:
Searching for the Northern Lights – six hotels in Finland and Norway to see the aurora
A cozy art-filled getaway in Somerset that’s bucket list material for the Art People, without usual associated price tag
I researched all of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite hotels and share my six favorite, around the world
A new luxury train journey that’s slated for a Scandinavian unveiling next Fall
Updating my top choice hotel for Seville, Spain, and it is quite an exciting discovery
A curation of 21 vintage outerwear finds from Etsy, because that is another one of my mostly useless talents
And then, I’ll be back on Sunday with a guest In Residence and a lot of other things to inspire and equip you.
Happy Hoteling, you Good People with Good Taste!
Searching for the Northern Lights
In my career as a strategist, one of my highlights was writing (and pushing for) the tagline “Natural Magic” for the best non-alc beverage on the market, Aplós. I think this sticks out for me because the concept of natural magic drives my insatiable thirst to discover the world. I find little more thrilling than experiencing something 100% Earth-made that looks like something AI-produced. In life, but in travel especially, the emotion I chase most is awe. I like to be struck by what I see before me. The ripples of heat on hot concrete. The natural mosaic that appears when you cut a cabbage in half. The faraglioni rocks in Capri, obviously. Deserts and mountain peaks, beaches and the sand on them – natural magic is everywhere. But, perhaps the loudest and proudest of them all are the northern lights. A supernatural phenomenon, if taken without context and with an edible. But in fact, very real and (relatively) easy to experience. Wherever you go from the places I share below, to give yourself the biggest chance for aurora sightings, you need to stay at least four days, to allow any weather to pass.
There are a lot of good and varied options above the Arctic Circle on The Scandinavia Hotel List, but these are my top choices for aurora-seeking and why.
Let’s start in Finland, above the Arctic Circle, as is important to maximize your opportunity for sightings and you need to go very North.
My elementary and middle school was really good at teaching us young about the world and the wonders of it. I think it was third grade when, in December, our teacher taught us about the real North Pole (in the Santa sense), Rovaniemi, Finland. They taught us about the Sámi people (the only EU-recognized Indigenous group), a culture I’ve been fascinated by since. They taught us