Whether you’re after breakfast with giraffes, the world’s hotspots for food, table tennis or underwater cave exploration, you’ll find something to inspire your next journey in this week’s roundup from NotVentures. To find out more about each post, click on its individual link.
The idea of a staycation is bull. It has recently been brought to my attention that i spend so much time in hotels in every city except my own (LA!) that i should get to know some of the ones in my backyard better. Ugh, questioning whether this is a ‘staycation’ (i recoil similarly to “jeggings”) led to discourse on what a “vacation” really is… and you can’t knock it till you try it, so when the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills offered me a suite, it seemed like the perfect excuse to give it a try.
So what IS a vacation? A change in perspectives. A break from your everyday. A chance to explore, relax, indulge, be pampered, be left alone, enjoy room service,… whatever it is you need! The Online Etymology Dictionary says: vacation - late 14c., “freedom or release” (from some activity or occupation), from O.Fr. vacation, from L. vacationem (nom. vacatio) “leisure, a being free from duty,” from vacare “be empty, free, or at leisure”. Staycation implies that location matters. But to me (and from the etymology), vacations are merely a state of mind! As i wrote over at OpenForum, vacations can be minutes or hours even, it’s all about perspective!
Anyhow, that is the last you’ll hear of staycations here. Upon arriving at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, not at all far from home, i was on VACATION! Impeccable service from their kind and friendly staff, new toys to play with (Jambox!), the surprise of a stunning suite on the 15th floor facing east… giving me views over Beverly Hills to Sunset Strip, Hollywood sign, Downtown, and snow capped mountains glistening in the horizon, dining room resulted in a little impromptu dinner party with delectable room service from Culina downstairs (the burrata…mmmm), gorgeous weather meant poolside relaxing to catch up with old friends… Vacation! A definite much needed perspective shift both physically and mentally has left me even more inspired and energized this weekend! So take a peek at the gorgeous views and into suite 1518 on the next page!
This week’s NotVentures roundup is full of travel inspiration from around the world. Do you fancy at trip to the cloud forest, Istanbul or the French alps? Find out more about each destination by clicking its individual image.
Sketches! I love when fun sketches come through the inbox ~ these are from the much anticipated Mondrian Soho that just opened in NY. Fun to see the direction the designers headed with it and where it evolved to. Morgans selected Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, the visionary behind the re-imagined Mondrian Los Angeles, to create Mondrian Soho in collaboration with their in-house design team.
“Noriega-Ortiz’s design for the hotel draws inspiration from Jean Coucteau’s 1946 romantic French fantasy film “La Belle et la Bête.” A powdery French blue color palette unifies the hotel interior and a custom carpet adorned with a rose vine design provide entryway to the jewel-box guest rooms, whose interiors features large dramatic mirrors, 10-foot ceilings and floor-to ceiling windows. No decorative art is hung in the rooms as the views are intended to be adornment enough and set the tone and scene for the guest.”
Sounds like a dream ~ and now i keep help imagining Beauty and the Beast (yes, the old disney one) and some of this lovely designer furniture coming to life… can’t wait to see it in person, but for now, take a peek into their world on the next page!
It’s back! I felt so free again this morning when my passport came back. There’s something about not having a passport on hand that feels like being trapped… albeit trapped in a HUGE country. On fun firsts, i finally reached the point where i had to add passport pages. One of the silly things i have been curious about since i was a kid, it now looks a bit frankensteined with completely different pages sewn and taped into the center! So, of course i had to take some pics to share the details of how it turned out! Take a peek on the next page… they even had some fun with the quotes and graphics!
Get some getaway Friday travel inspiration from NotVentures. To find out more about each destination, click on its image.
These ads will make you want to go on an adventure, learn a new language, explore new foods, make new friends, fall in love… with a city, a person, a whole new life… Absolutely stunning typographically happy advertisements set to fun music showing you how to LIVE THE LANGUAGE ~ EF Language School style. I haven’t been able to get them out of my head since i first found them on Wanken. These videos are Directed by Gustav Johansson, D.P: Niklas Johansson, fsf, Typography: Albin Holmqvist, Music: Magnus Lidehäll, and Produced at Camp David. Go get lost in Paris, Barcelona, London, and Beijing on the next page…
Get inspired for your next escape with NotVentures. To find out more about each destination, click on its individual link.
I was the girl sitting in the back of the old shiny black pick up staring up into the trees as we drove through Veracruz up into the coffee sanctuary… AMAZED. And constantly taking pictures of the spiky clusters covering ancient trees from trunks to tips… and upon closer inspection they are air plants! Bromeliads! Tillandsia! So this post is a special one for my mom… who somehow manages to keep my TINY air plants alive and flowering while i’m out of town, and somehow has hers flourishing and growing new bits all the time in her courtyard! And the species covering these trees are just like the ones that you will find hanging in little glass orbs, sold in lots of succulent centerpieces, and every where from trendy gift shops to nurserys… and here they are covering huge trees!
So all through the little hike in the coffee sanctuary, i was enamored by the sheer number of plants and how well they thrived, it was amazing the larger trees even stayed alive seeing how covered they were at times! And close up the tiny baby ones were SO cute. I kept imagining how they climbed their way up there… picturing those super slow time lapsed plant nature documentaries… seriously, it is mind blowing how many spiky clusters there were. And it was like EVERY tree. I guess the locals are used to it. In the little town of Coatapec where we were staying (bummed i forgot to take a pic! it was dangerous while in the middle of the street though!) i kept seeing growing tiny clusters of air plants around the middle of TELEPHONE LINES! Right in the center! Like where you’d see sneakers hanging… Anyhow! Check out some pics of them on the next page and see why i was so mesmerized ~ also take a peek at the adorable retro truck we rode around in!
p.s. if you want some, or just to estimate the amount of airplant value on one of those trees ~ Airplants4U.
Happy Friday! Here is your weekly dose of escapism courtesy of NotVentures. To find out about these great destinations, click on their individual images and check out NotVentures for more travel inspiration.
Adventures with Kahlua begin today, car came to fetch me for the airport when it was still dark… hopped on a plane to Mexico City, and the change in scenery happened so quickly… from Mexico City (awesomely mesmerizing circles at the airport) after a few delays… hopped a tiny plane to Veracruz (which had some crazy windiness, trouble landing, and ended up circling out in the Gulf of Mexico… check out the insane white caps in the pics!)… then hopped in a suburban for another 2 hours out to Coatapec near Xalapa… where we quickly joined the rest of the group who had been hanging out at the 150 year old Cantina for a good chunk of the afternoon. So before i pass out from quite the surreal travel day… take a peek at the latest Operation Window Seat! Still inspires and fascinates me to no end to see the world fly by far below, and all the patterns and textures and colors that emerge…
Beat the midwinter blues with some gorgeous travel inspiration from NotVentures. Where will your next adventure take you?
After embracing that 2010 was probably one of my most travel heavy years yet, i’m getting ready for 2011… and that included accepting a Mr & Mrs Smith GoldSmith membership to test out and help cut down on some of my travel chaos. From last minute changes, to assistance finding quality hotels for impromptu vacations, and more… i gushed earlier about their help regarding my recent stay at the XV Beacon and Bowery Hotel. Well, in addition to all the perks the membership allows, the welcome pack just arrived, and it should be no surprise that the packaging is beautiful. The same playfully elegant style that their site and branding convey… filled with surprises! While they’ve always hit my sweet spot of hand written scripts mixed with cleaner fonts… and gloss black on matte black… they just upped it a notch with their custom packaging from award winning packaging designers Burgopak… filled with some of their Hotel Collection books (which i adore reading, the way they present the stories of Mr & Mrs Smith vacationing their way through them is rather amusingly dreamy), membership card, In Bed With… CD, and Bill Amberg leather passport holder and luggage tag. Ready to see it all unboxed? Take a peek on the next page!
Just checked into the Morgans Hotel Penthouse… 1,500 square feet of hide away overlooking midtown to bring some fun folks together from around the globe to brainstorm a bit together and relax… and the first thing to grab me are the quote postcards they leave on your pillow. Fun, inspiring, nice clean typography, and the type of quotes that are perfect for the trouble we’re about to get up to! And as you’ll see, i had a bit of fun shooting them off the penthouse patios with the stunning snowy, glistening NYC backdrop… See all the Oscar Wilde, Mae West, and Woody Allen quotes from the The School Of Life’s IDEAS TO LIVE BY… postcard series for Morgans Hotel on the next page.
Where will you be escaping to this weekend? Find out about these great destinations at more from NotVentures.
