Conde Nast Traveler

’TIS THE SEASON for shopworn aphorisms about starting fresh. You know the ones I mean: all those old chestnuts about it being a new year and a new you, about turning over a new leaf, about how, if you can dream it, you can do it. Like so many clichés, they’re easy to dismiss as pabulum, and yet they’ve endured because they contain a kernel of truth. What does this have to do with travel? you may ask. One of the funny paradoxes of trip taking is that it can be an escape from all the headaches back home and also serve as a means of growing as a person so that you are better able to meet your challenges in the place where you actually live—often at the same…

AS THE SUN DESCENDS behind the Sierra de la Giganta mountains, I join the end-of-day procession to Loreto Bay National Park, a protected marine area in the Sea of Cortez. Fisherfolk, families, and out-of-towners stroll the Malecón, a mile-long esplanade that traces the water, watching as the sea turns the same sherbet hues as the evening sky. Seabirds dive-bomb for their dinner, and when a gray whale spouts remarkably close to shore, I hear myself gasp. The seaside village of Loreto, five hours north of the Baja California Sur capital of La Paz, is still the type of one-traffic-light Mexican town whose cobblestone streets are lined with familyowned restaurants and cafés. Papel picado, a vibrant folk art made from cutting elaborate designs into sheets of colorful tissue paper, and lucha…

“ROME HAS ALWAYS HELD a magnetic pull for me,” says fashion designer Mary Katrantzou. “The first trip was with my family when I was 12 years old, and I remember being struck by how deeply history and beauty are embedded in every corner of the city, from the ancient ruins to the color of the stones. It felt like walking through an open-air museum.” It was an experience that she—having grown up in Greece, where the past and present are also locked in conversation—instinctively connected with. And while she may now be based in London, Katrantzou’s work as the first creative director of leather goods and accessories for Bvlgari, the Italian jeweler and fashion house, frequently brings her back to the Eternal City. “Everything we do,” she says, “begins with Rome.”…

THE WALKING IS GLORIOUS on the Wine & Wilderness Trail in South Australia’s Clare Valley. We pass blue gum flowers on the crest of hills as well as deep purple patches of wild lavender. Rustles in the trees at times reveal a wallaby. My guide, Tim Grigg, says he often sees echidnas and koalas, but I was holding out for a kangaroo; perhaps he and I would see one scampering between the orderly rows of vines. Until recently Clare Valley, which is less than a two-hour drive north of Adelaide, has been overshadowed by its better-known neighbors: McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, and the Barossa Valley. That is changing fast, thanks to the elegant Shirazes and outstanding dry Rieslings and to new accommodation and experiences like this six-day, 62-mile trail, which…

ROSAMUND PIKE’S FILMING SCHEDULE never stops taking her to unexpected places. “I was recently shooting in South Africa near the northern border by the Orange River, which is somewhere I probably would never have gone otherwise,” she says. “It’s wildly beautiful and forbidding, and you feel vulnerable, as the environment is so hostile: There’s no water, and no shade until the sun goes down. These otherworldly experiences are so precious and exciting.” It also means that, at this point in her career, the actor and Dior Capture ambassador has nailed down how to maintain her wellness habits during long flights and time zone shifts. Here, Pike, who admits she “doesn’t travel light,” shares her tried-and-true must-packs for when she’s on the road. IN-FLIGHT ESSENTIALS As much as I’d love to…

THE SPRINGTIME HEAT was sweltering inside the 300-squarefoot community seed bank in Unión Zapata, just outside Oaxaca, Mexico. The open door let in light and the occasional gust of wind on an otherwise still day. But neither Sean Sherman—the Oglala Lakota Sioux chef who’s a three-time James Beard Award winner and the owner of the Indigenous-focused Minneapolis restaurant Owamni—nor I minded. We were mesmerized by the dozens of heirloom varieties of maize, beans, pumpkins, and quelites (wild greens) sitting in rows of glass jars. Even Sherman, who I assumed had seen it all after working for more than a decade to revitalize Native American foodways, was impressed to see a jar of amberhued teosinte seeds, an all-important ancient grass thought to be the ancestral wild progenitor of corn. Sherman is…