My June travel journal

I’m writing this from San Diego, my hometown, before I head to Mexico City on Sunday. Which brings me to one of Southern California’s best-kept travel hacks: Tijuana Airport. You park on the US side of the border, walk across the CBX Bridge, and land directly inside the terminal—the runway literally fringes the border wall. From there, you can fly all over Mexico for a fraction of what you’d pay stateside. My flight to Mexico City didn’t break $200.

Obsessed with Mexico but allergic to tourist traps? Subscribe to Mexzine, a twice-weekly newsletter that I co-publish with one of my favorite Mexico City-based editors. You’ll find the best design-centric, fiercely independent, anti-mega-resort-in-Cancun Mexico travel recs. Start with our latest Oaxaca guide. 🇲🇽

Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to recap my June—where I went, what I’d recommend, you know the drill.

In June, I took my dad and his girlfriend to Tumbling River Ranch in Grant, Colorado, for Father’s Day. Nearly two hours from Denver, the ranch sits in a valley ringed by forested mountains. We slept in our own woodsy cabin—two rooms plus a common area—rode horseback, hiked a local trail, and ate farm-to-table meals from a private chef (the chicken fajitas were the standout). There are mineral jacuzzis alongside a resident stream, and I committed to the full circuit: jacuzzi, sauna, cold plunge into the creek. The dining room has uninterrupted views of the landscape, majestic at every hour of the day. Getting work done there was scenic, to say the least. Something special about this trip in particular is the way I was able to return the love to my Dad—he’s a big traveler and ignited a lot of wanderlust within me growing up. As a kid, we’d take a father-son getaway once a year, calling it my birthday trip: Seattle, San Francisco, Montreal, and Peru for my high school graduation, among other destinations (almost all in the USA or Canada).

Anyway, then, Breckenridge, which I was lukewarm on. The used bookstore, the farmer’s market, and the candy-colored Victorian buildings on Main Street were lovely. But the town felt like an alpine Disneyland, stocked with souvenir shops all selling the same thing: t-shirts stamped with the town name and racks of skiwear.

My dad lives in Boulder, so we ended up there—and I’ll say it: Colorado is one of the most livable places in America, and Boulder might be its high point in terms of quality of life. Everyone is pleasant. The resident university means people actually value education and the arts. Pearl Street gives you the walkable core I consider non-negotiable. Nature is at your doorstep, and if you need a big city or a well-connected airport, Denver is an hour away, give or take. My favorite stay is Hotel Boulderado, a historic landmark with a mountain-west interior that feels like the pioneers actually used it for something back in the wild west days.

One of my favorite meetings in June was with The James, who are building a new hotel in Miami Beach. Do I love Florida? It’s not my all-time favorite place in the world. But here’s the thing—my audience adores it. Our Sunshine State stories consistently outperform, so who am I to argue with the data? And humidity aside, even I can’t deny Miami’s design and hospitality scene, which is why I was also there for LE Miami, a hospitality conference that’s anything but frumpy. Inside the Miami Beach Convention Center: pink light displays, fashionable people, dashing hotels. It felt like a tasteful, Millennial-driven nightclub, and I mean that as a compliment. I’m already looking forward to next year.

A note on how these conferences work: you take a matchmaking assessment, ranking who you’d like to meet, then an algorithm weighs everyone’s picks and builds your schedule. Somehow, the machine was kind to me—my dance card was full of wonderful meetings. They also threw extravagant parties that oozed Miami-chic, from the bumping DJs spinning tropical deep house to dress codes where not a conservative suit was in sight, but rather button-down shirts slathered in floral patterns and flowy white pants.

The one meeting I keep thinking about was with Bvlgari Hotels. I find hotels helmed by fashion and jewelry houses fascinating: are guests loyal to the brand, and the hotel is incidental? Or do they genuinely love the property? Let me know what you think.

Some other fun happenings from the month: I moved to Midtown Manhattan (even though I’m now spending much more time in Mexico)—and moved in with my partner for the first time (big life moment!). Rosewood gifted me a limited-edition soccer jersey they designed with Christian Jeffery—and I have essentially not taken it off since. And my good friend Sara launched an app for her brand, Opulist—think of it as a highly-curated search platform for beautiful places. Oh, and of course, Mexzine—which I publish and co-edit with Cristina Alonso, who is based in Mexico City.

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