Travel

Start with what matters

A good trip needs a reason, not a checklist.

I’m not interested in collecting countries simply to say I’ve been. I would rather return to a city that still has something to show me than rush through somewhere new just to add another pin to a map.

São Paulo is the clearest example. It has become a place I keep returning to, with restaurants and bars that make me look forward to the next visit before the current one is over. Evvai is my favorite restaurant in the world. Tan Tan has become part of every São Paulo trip. Familiar places can be a reason to return without making every visit identical.

Barcelona brought together several of my interests: Formula 1, restaurants I wanted to experience and a city I wanted time to explore. The race mattered, but so did the days around it. That is how I prefer to build a trip: identify the experiences that genuinely excite me, then give them enough time.

If you are still choosing where to go, start with my destination guides. Here, I’m more interested in the next question: how do you turn that destination into a trip you will actually enjoy?

Where you come back to

Choosing a hotel I’ll be glad I booked.

I appreciate a beautiful hotel. I also want to know what staying there will feel like after a full day out. Location, comfort, service and the surrounding neighborhood matter more to me than a photograph of a perfect lobby.

My interest in hotels did not begin with this website. W Union Square became part of my New York weekends after I moved farther from the city. Renaissance São Paulo became part of the story of why I fell in love with traveling again. A hotel can make a place easier to enjoy and give a trip a rhythm that you remember afterward.

At Sir Victor in Barcelona, the rooftop and its view toward Casa Milà are part of what I remember. But when choosing a hotel, I also think about the less photogenic questions. Where will I spend my evenings? How much of the trip will be spent going back and forth? Am I paying for facilities I will barely use?

The most expensive option does not automatically answer those questions best. Sometimes the right splurge is the hotel. Sometimes it is a dinner, a better race seat or an extra night that makes the whole itinerary less rushed.

Reservations worth making

Yes, I will build a trip around dinner.

A great meal can be the starting point for an entire itinerary. I enjoy the anticipation: reading about the restaurant, looking at the menu and wondering whether the experience will live up to what made me book it.

Once I’m there, I pay attention to more than the food. The welcome, the pacing, the conversation and the atmosphere all become part of the memory. A tasting menu can be extraordinary, but a recommendation from someone behind a bar can be just as valuable to the rest of the trip.

I also try to remember that a reservation is only one part of a day. A long lunch followed immediately by another elaborate meal may look impressive on a schedule and feel very different in practice. I want time to enjoy the experience I planned, rather than spend it thinking about the next place I need to be.

My food and drink stories explain what stood out and why. The useful question is whether an experience fits your interests, appetite and budget, not whether you can reproduce every reservation I made.

Leave room for the place itself

Research the essentials. Leave some hours open.

I like knowing which experiences need advance planning. I do not need every hour accounted for. There is a difference between arriving prepared and spending a holiday trying to keep up with your own spreadsheet.

For a place such as Sagrada Família, I would check the official Sagrada Família website for current tickets and visitor information rather than rely on an old article. After that, the surrounding day can have some breathing room. A landmark deserves attention, and so does the neighborhood you walk through on the way there.

My photographs from Machu Picchu, Barcelona and New York remind me why I want that space. Travel includes the places you came to see, but also the streets between them, the changing light and the moments when you stop looking at the plan.

Beyond the race ticket

A Formula 1 weekend changes the plan.

Race travel has its own practical lessons. The seat matters, but so do the journey to the circuit, the weather, the time on your feet and how much energy you have left afterward.

At Interlagos, I experienced the uncovered concrete seating of Grandstand G in 2024 and covered metal seating in Grandstand N in 2025. Those details affect a weekend in ways a circuit map cannot fully explain. So does traffic: having a private car did not make the bumper-to-bumper journey disappear.

That experience is why I look beyond Sunday when planning. I want time for the city as well as the race, without pretending that a full track day and a tightly timed evening reservation will always fit comfortably together.

Read my São Paulo Grand Prix travel guide for the firsthand context. For current event information, check the official São Paulo Grand Prix website. My experiences describe the weekends I attended; access, schedules and arrangements can change.

The details I want to bring home

An honest travel story should help you decide.

I want to explain what impressed me, what fell short and what I would do differently. A place can be excellent without being right for every traveler. Someone planning a quiet break will want different things from someone building a week around restaurants and a Grand Prix.

Firsthand experiences are the foundation of my stories. When I discuss a researched option rather than somewhere I have personally stayed or eaten, that distinction matters. If an experience is sponsored or part of a partnership, I will disclose it. The opinion should still be mine.