The Curation: Volume 49
50 trips I want to take, non-expert pointers on points & miles, and predicting the next hotel hotspots.
There are a lot of new eyes today – welcome! I don’t know how you found me or why now, but it’s made my week. Thank you for taking the time to actively click subscribe. We have so many choices, so much content, I’m beyond flattered you decided to be here. Or maybe you just like hotels, in which case, same.
Today, we have a lot. It’s very long so do the thing where you click to view it in the app or in your browser if it’s too long.
First, as promised, the nearly-impossible list of 50 trips I’d like to take. What a challenge this was, but a seriously good one.
Then, six new hotels on the horizon that I’m predicting will be hits. At the very least, they deserve to be on your radar.
Lastly, my g-d was this a labor of love, my non-expert pointers on points and miles. I want to emphasize non-expert. There are so many points experts out there and I am not one of them.
I do know more than the average individual, if my friends and family are any indication. And this has been highly requested. I’ve been working on it for two months now and am over being worried if it is good enough. It is everything I know, and all I know is what I know. Therefore, it’s about specifically using points to transfer to airline miles. Ways to acquire them. How I use them. And, hopefully most valuably, a step by step of how I would go about searching for award flights. Because, again, I am only talking from personal experience, I am focusing on the airlines and credit cards I know the systems of: United, Air France/KLM, Virgin Atlantic, AmEx, and Chase. The mock flight finding is for a trip from SFO to Italy in June, in business class, debating between United, Virgin Atlantic, and KLM – in case you were wondering. I want it to be helpful, I hope it is!
On Sunday, I’m finally launching the new Founding Member experience. I will have one page with almost all the maps to all the hotel lists. All of the ones that are most asked for and about – Italy, of course, and Greece, and Spain, and the UK, and Ireland, and Morocco, and Switzerland, and Portugal, and Austria, and Scandinavia. All these maps are the most up to date, including hotels I have yet to find the time to share.
I’ve heard from people who have bought my guides that the maps are the biggest value and asset – and I agree. As has always been the case, Founding Members will also be able to request any guide on happyhoteling.com and I will send it to you. I am definitely not trying to upsell anyone (ever), there are certain people this will make sense for (travel agents, for example) and others it won’t. If you have questions or suggestions about this before it goes live, let me know in the comments! I always want to pick up what you put down.
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE and Happy Hoteling, you Good People with Good Taste!
P.S. No, I am no longer active on TikTok and I am no longer a practicing travel agent. I am here! And thrilled to be. Also side note, I am much less scared about the move to Italy now. Prettiest please, visa gods!
A quick prologue, today.
FOR CONSUMPTION
I finished one of my most anticipated reads of the year the other day, and damn am I disappointed. I’m a thriller girl, and I love Alice Feeney’s books, but Beautiful Ugly was utterly predictable and at times too frustrating. 3/5, because she does know how to nail the setting as a character.
The shopping section this week is a bunch of random stuff I would really like to own. Like this perfect green Lacoste sweater, and even though I usually am not one for wearing logos, I love the alligator and it’s on extra sale. The best though is this vintage Moschino jacket I’ve wanted forever, for $200 – take it before I do. Or these Givenchy loafer/ballet/flat that you’ll either love or hate or start to like in six months. I love a really good overall, and these are really good overalls. Lastly, one of my favorite Pucci dresses of the past few years is now 55% off.
50 Trips I Want to Take
This list could be endless. It was a major lesson in editing. And I’m sure I’m missing so many that I’ll think three days from now deserved a spot. But alas, I have had tremendous fun narrowing down 50 trips I want to take.
As is anything, this is based on this moment in time – where I’ve been and haven’t, and where I’m called to most. The world is so big, I know I will spend my life enjoying barely scratching the surface.
This list was the result of yet another fantastic AMA question submission. Thank you, whoever that was! I had thought of doing this in some form before, but I was over-complicating it. And in fact, in my initial response asking if you were interested (overwhelmingly, you were) I said I would share where to stay on each trip as well. Silly of me.
As I hope is clear by weekly reading, I spend a lot of time considering what to share on here. I go deep deep into research on pretty much everything. Even the things I know best. Ok, not Capri, there isn’t a single thing for me to research on that front. But everything else related to travel, which is 95% of everything on Happy Hoteling. So, I can’t possibly share which hotels I would choose for each of these 50 trips I’d like to take. I would need to do the research for all of them first.
Luckily, I have already done that for a handful of them, so I will start a series where I share a few itineraries from trips on this list, for paid subscribers. If you’re reading these and there’s one in particular you’d like an itinerary for, or a preliminary hotel list on, absolutely request it in the comments.
I’m so inspired by what inspires you and sadly I am no mindreader. Tell me what you like and would like more of, and I will always try to deliver.
If somewhere you really love or really want to go isn’t on the list, pretty please do not take that as any sign of anything. I’m just a brain attached to a heart, attached to a keyboard and these are the 50 trips I landed on. And also, I have been more places than most. And for the most part, these are places I haven’t been, or have been to the country but not there, or haven’t spent enough time, or was too young. And these are mostly what I think of as Big Trips. They’ll take me a long time to check off.
What a world we have to explore!