When our family is in New York and we want to celebrate something big we go to lunch at Le Bernardin. In a perfect world we visit MoMA beforehand (Robert Rauschenberg retrospective, anyone?). Then we walk around the corner for one of the best meals we’ll have all year.
Read MoreIt’s a complicated time to travel. But let’s focus on the positive. Here are some hotels worth dreaming about. Some grandeur. Some ambition. After all, you never know.
Read MoreWe continue to live in strange times. We know that, and yet the strangeness shifts and we’re left to navigate new and unsettling circumstances.
Read MoreSometimes an indulgence evolves into a ritual—usually a promising development.
Read MoreI don't live a crazy life. I’m not attracted to danger and rarely do things most people would deem ill-advised (other than having the occasional second Armagnac). I don’t climb mountains or free dive, I’m perfectly comfortable at sea level.
Read MoreUnpacking after an overseas trip serves as an informal inventory of new acquisitions, smuggled cigars and wrinkled bad decisions. You nearly always realize you needed far, far less than you brought.
Read MoreI’ve been to Paris just about every year for the last three decades. That’s shocking to realize—one of these days I’ll stop being surprised by the math that comes with aging. Arriving here after two years away was more moving than I expected.
Read MoreI’ve got a new piece over on Huckberry about the joys of fly fishing. It deals with how to get into the sport, something I’ll be writing about in more detail next May when the trout season begins and my book comes out. But September and October is a very good time to get out on the water and try something new. So over on the newsletter I’ve got some ideas that might get you on the water.
Read MoreI’m very excited to be the guest editor over at Huckberry. It’s the first time anybody’s held that position there—we schemed it up together— and I’ll be writing stories, making product picks and collaborating with them down the line. My first piece is a personal history of my love of road trips and slightly (or very) obsessive approach to packing. It also deals with my beloved Saab that made it from Maine to Montana to Marfa, before I had to say goodby and I traded it for a fishing rod.
Read MoreI’m just back from a trip to England, where we quarantined for two weeks in the countryside. Why did we do that? So I could go fishing. Why did I do that? Because I’m writing a book and it all had to happen. To read more about it subscribe to The Contender Newsletter. More and more of the action is going to be over on the newsletter. That’s where I’ll be answering your questions, previewing projects, products and the new book. If you want to hold off on that then you can still get the big picture here on The Contender. Thanks so much for reading.
Read MoreI received a personal email a few weeks back saying that Shiki Juraku, beloved hotel in Kyoto, had closed and would not reopen. This is very sad news. I’ve been thinking a lot about Kyoto, it’s one of the places I want to visit when, and if, travel returns to normal. And Shiki Juraku was one of the reasons why.
Read MoreI can’t tell the story of Clara Hranek without talking about her father, Matt. One of the first trips we took for work, if you call going to Scotland work, was back when the Condé Nast Traveler US was still a going concern. We went to Harris, along with Jake Mueser, to see where the famous tweed was made. I was writing the story, Matt was photographing it, and I was shocked at how quickly he worked. He had a few cameras, didn’t fuss over them much, knew in his mind what he wanted but remained open to surprise. He was able, nimble and opportunistic.
Read MoreChris Black is not slowing down during or current lockdown—and you wouldn’t expect him to. He just can’t stop creating what the kids call “content." He’s hosting the How Long Gone podcast with Jason Stewart, and he’s just launched his newsletter from his other podcast, Public Announcement. I imagine we’re all thinking about favorite places that now seem impossibly far away. So I asked Chris, one of my favorite photographers, to share some images from a trip to Paris.
Read MoreI’m heading to Japan tomorrow with Sister Sarah. I lived in Tokyo for a year after I graduated from college (in ancient times, 1997) and absolutely loved it. To put that into perspective they had just opened the first Starbucks, which was regarded with much fascination. I bought a Sony mini disc player, which was going to be the future of music.
Read MoreSome recent stories I wrote on Ralph, a hotel in a 1217 château and a jacket worthy of the Scottish Highlands.
Read MoreI’m just back from Italy, where I witnessed firsthand (up to my waist) the floods in Venice. We arrived on Tuesday and the water was already high, but the streets that afternoon were dry. The consensus was that we could make it until the tide went up around ten that night.
Read MoreFlorence is elegant and timeless, a city of churches and squares. It contains some of the world’s great civic architecture that still sets the standard for enlightened proportions. For all its grandeur it’s an intimate city, of narrow streets kept cool in the shadows of ancient walls. It’s full of small specialty stores that do a certain thing very well.
Read MoreLast January I went fishing in Patagonia and couldn’t believe how great it was. I thought I was prepared—I’d been there a decade earlier—but everything struck me at once. The remarkable landscape, the kind people, the terrific food and, of course, the fishing. I wrote about the trip and a very large trout that I lost and am still recovering from.
Read MoreThe Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch is set on 900 acres in the Sawtooth Valley, along the Salmon River and is only open about four months a year. It doesn’t have a television in any of its cabins, which you don’t need anyway. It doesn’t have room service, which you can also live without. It doesn’t have a famous chef. But it’s one of the great hotels in America.
Read MoreI’m heading to Montana next week and one thing I plan every trip around is a meal at the beloved Western Café in Bozeman. It’s my strong belief that it’s the greatest American restaurant that closes at 2pm. These specific hours of operation led me to overlook this fine establishment during my early years visiting Bozeman (as well as its location at the far end of Main Street).
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