Where They Travel & Why: Haley Seidel

Some people plan a trip around a beach or a restaurant reservation. Haley Seidel has been known to take a long drive into the Portuguese countryside on nothing more than the vaguest lead that there might be a master weaver at the end of it.

Haley is a product strategy and design consultant whose work centers on artisanal and handmade textiles, décor, and furniture. She partners with brands and retailers to develop thoughtful collections that blend timeless design with traditional craftsmanship, and her work has taken her around the globe, collaborating with artisans and discovering the people, places, and creative traditions that continue to inspire both her work and her travels. When your job is knowing why a beautiful object feels the way it does, you travel differently, and I wanted to know exactly how.

We talked about the two places she cannot stop returning to, the best trip she has taken in years, and the surprisingly practical way she decides where to go next.

When I asked Haley where she keeps going back, she could not pick just one, so she gave me two, and her reasons for each could not be more different.

Paris is about the rhythm of the city itself. She has visited almost ten times, and what pulls her back are the simple moments, wandering through a new neighborhood, admiring the architecture, discovering a great shop or restaurant, or losing track of time at a cafe. “I love the vintage shopping, flea markets, museums, and of course, the food and wine,” she told me. It helps that her parents spend time there every year, and that she has friends from Paris as well as friends living there who are always introducing her to places she never would have found on her own, which is honestly the best possible way to know a city.

Portugal is about the craft. “Portugal is home to some of my very favorite hotel stays,” she said. “Each one feels connected to its surroundings, with design that is understated and serene.” Her best memories there sound like something out of a novel, meeting a rug weaving cooperative by chance in Alentejo, or setting off into small villages chasing a rumor of a weaver. She also loves how easy it is to move through the country and find landscapes and vibes that feel completely distinct from one another, which is something I say about Portugal constantly.

And because she truly could not narrow it down, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Morocco, and Japan all earned honorable mentions, each for different reasons, but all sharing a richness of craft traditions and some of the most memorable hotels she has ever stayed in.

Her answer here came fast, Milan during Salone del Mobile. She spent three days fully immersed in Design Week with some incredible meals along the way, and when a product designer tells you her best trip in years was the biggest design fair in the world, you understand that for some people the line between work and travel is not a line at all, it is the whole point.

This might be my favorite answer in the whole interview. So much of Haley’s travel is tied to work, but when she is planning a personal trip, she starts by seeing where she can go on airline miles and builds the trip from there.

“That’s how I ended up in Guatemala for my first solo trip in 2016,” she said. “It turned out to be such a memorable experience that I’ve continued letting my miles influence my destination ever since.”

I love this because it flips the usual planning process on its head, instead of picking a dream destination and paying whatever it costs, she lets the miles open a door and then trusts herself to find the magic once she walks through it, and a decade of good trips says the system works.

Haley just made her 2027 travel wish list, and it reads like a design lover’s grand tour. She wants to return to Milan for Salone del Mobile, get back to Paris for Maison&Objet and Déco Off, and finally make her first trip to Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design.

A calendar organized around design fairs instead of seasons or beaches feels exactly right for her, and selfishly I cannot wait for the reports back.

Coming Monday for paid subscribers: Haley’s Travel Style. The two hotels whose design details she still thinks about (one reachable only by boat), the shoes she can walk miles in, the packing tool she finally gave up on, and the first-day ritual that started with a stranger in a Lisbon cafe.

You can find Haley at haleyseidel.com.