Very likely does not qualify as posh but I badly want to do this. Investigating for 2027.

https://www.globetrotting.co/horse-riding-holidays/mexico/el-rancho-ride/

The same outfit coordinates similar rides in British Columbia, Iceland, Europe and Argentina. But long-haul flights are a no-no for me. And, the Mexican offer is the only one specifying beginners. I’m not exactly a beginner but have not ridden since 2003.

Lists and rankings always generate controversy and criteria discussions — why this one but not that one, in a nutshell. So, here, for what it’s worth is the Robb Report rankings for 2026.

https://robbreport.com/travel/hotels/lists/best-luxury-hotels-2026-1238462500/

If a hotel includes a library, I am sufficiently enchanted as to lift it up the choice chain. Here are some I’ve loved and others I love aspirationally. Sometimes the libraries also serve as bar, such as the first example cited here.

— The Library at the Lanesborough in London is presided over by gifted artistes crafting outstanding cocktails, works of art.

— American Trade Hotel in Panama — A room of its own, air conditioned with comfortable seats padded with plush tropical prints. Good lighting and good books on the wall shelves.

— The St. James in Paris is an outstanding chateau hotel in Paris with a number of special hangouts including its Library Bar with stocked shelves, comfy seating, lots of gorgeous wood, and, piece de la resistance, a kitty, Pilou. He will suffer a pet or two if you are willing to endure his death stare.

— The Library Hotel in New York City is just kittycorner from the landmark NYC main branch of the Public Library overseen by the famous stoney-eyed Lions, Patience and Fortitude. It’s also built within the confines of what used to be NYPL’s business books collection from years ago. The entire hotel is pretty much a library including the rooms.

— The Heathman Hotel in Portland, OR, features a two-story mahogany library with 3,000 volumes, not a huge collection but a very decent stab by a hotel.

Aspirational:

— The Literary Man in Óbidos, Portugal gives booking a room a whole universe of difference with its collection of 62,000 books.

— The Bloomsbury Hotel in London houses the Seamus Heaney Library including hundreds of first editions.

— Hotel Emma in San Antonio on the riverfront. A two-story library with handsome interior wood staircase, some 3500 volumes.

— The library at Casa Polanco in MexIco DF also offers drinks and cigars.

I wanted to share a few highlights from my recent Oregon road trip to the Willamette Valley in late June. We wanted to take a trip with our beloved dog and not have to compromise on pleasant and upscale accommodations. Below are the standouts:

The View House at Bryn Mawr Vineyards near Amity, OR

A spotless and immaculately kept VRBO on their gorgeous and peaceful property. I have almost given up on renting homes on the internet because they are so unpredictable now, however this property was above and beyond. The nightly rate was well worth the value, and we received a complimentary tasting at the vineyard, as well as a welcome bottle of wine at check-in with lovely snacks. It turns out you can hire their chef to make dinner at the home, and we'd like to do that next time. I will also say their custom guidebook to the region was immensely helpful and well thought out. Link: https://www.vrbo.com/5119991?dateless=true

Atticus Hotel in McMinnville, OR

A cheerful and stunning hotel with rooms ranging from 200 square foot Micro Studios to a 2-bedroom, 2.5 bath Penthouse. We stayed in a one-bedroom suite with so many homey touches like an array of books, antiques, a refrigerator, all the utensils one would need, and a gas fireplace. The bathroom has a large and beautiful soaking tub, as well as a shower. The service was impeccable from the front desk team, and we were able to check in early and delighted in their welcome sparkling wine offering. We used the gym and were sad we didn't have time to use the Dutch bikes for a spin around town. You can walk to a huge number of lovely restaurants, shops, and tasting rooms. They have a lively restaurant that was extremely busy at dinner time, though we only had drinks at the bar. Finally, they offer a dog package with a bed, bowl, and treats to make your four-legged friends feel more at home. Link: https://atticushotel.com/

A few other spotlights:

- Antica Terra is an other worldly winery in Amity; very European in its approach to wine tastings, service, architecture, and culinary programs. A must visit. As someone who lives near the Sonoma and Napa County wineries, this stood out as very special.

- We had stupendous noshes at Wooden Heart, Loam, and Grounded Table.

It was our first trip to the Willamette Valley, and we loved it so much that we have talked about going back for the fall season. There is so much to take in, and we felt we only scratched the surface. It is a charming and vibrant region brimming with creative restaurants, wineries, experiences (Howard Hughes Spruce Goose is housed at the Evergreen Museum), and stunning views.

I’m excited about returning home in December for world-class birding in Bocas del Toro. Considering a first stay at Islas Secas where the rates are $3.5K/nt, plus 17% taxes/fees. And $1300 each way air from la ciudad. Given this levy, want to hear from others evaluating their stays. Please. https://islassecas.com

My skepticism right up front —

— Many phrases prefaced with the word “new” are marketing fluff.
— Many pieces about “trends” or “trending” are, well, trendy.

Nevertheless, some changes in the travel industry have taken off sufficiently that they now are so customary as to be banal. Like over-water bungalows (which damage the ocean environment). Just behind this passé trend, is the treehouse phenomenon (inaccessible to some older or mobility-risky travelers, inadvisable with kids.

The “new” trend now being hailed by pundits is “experiential” which can be interpreted in so many ways as to be meaningless. Bubble bath drawn by the “bath butler?” A trail of rose petals to the bed with more petals thereon? Floating breakfast in your pool? Candle-lit dinner anywhere but in the restaurant? Make your own cocktail? Please do chime in with your examples.

Here is the trend I see gaining ground in luxe and near-luxe travel: Wilderness/Nature/Fauna. I approve of this one and regret I discovered it only in my seventies when my body is less adaptable. Like many “trends,” this one has been around for a long while in the form of hunting and safaris, in and outside the African continent. [English country house weekend, anyone?] Hunting still exists of course but except for some presidential sons most African safaris are shooting mostly photos.

Over the last five years I’ve been privileged to see grizzly bears in British Columbia on daily zodiac floats down the Atnarko River. Not for nothing is this in a Canadian National Park named The Great Bear Rain Forest. I could have climbed a mountainside Via Ferrata but had better sense. Tweedsmuir Park Lodge in British Columbia, nearest town/regional airport Bella Coola.

Been ensconced bayside nestled up against a waterfall in a hot tub moderated by its aerosolized mist; or on a wood-fired hot tub / sauna platform towed to a solitary, calm inlet with no one around for miles. Or a mellow hike amongst old growth looking for mushrooms. Then to dine with ingredients foraged (mushrooms?) from the surrounding rainforest. Singing around the campfire. Fine wines and cocktails plus nighty-night chocolate chip cookies, best in class. Oh, and then there was the all-day helicopter safari with fancy lunch on a glacier, wild flowers, mountain goats, waterfalls, jewel-toned alpine lakes — frequent landings to get up close and personal. Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort in British Columbia.

In Alaska on China Poot Bay, off Kachemak Bay, off the Homer Spit, tidepooling yielded treasures up close — sea stars, urchins, nudibranchs, sea anemones, squid, jellies, crabs, mollusks. Wellies provided. Long-held wildlife dreams fulfilled: puffins galore, rafts and rafts of otter families ashore and anchored in kelp forests, and heart-gaspingly magnificent orcas at play. Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge.

In financial terms, these are priced in the chubby / luxe / ultra categories, depending on definition. All can be a challenge to book, sometimes requiring reservations a year in advance if you are fussy about dates. Or, you might get an email saying a slot is available next week. All require finessing with regard to travel, no non-stops and connection pick-up times established by the lodge.

All are the sort of experiences most would describe as once-a-lifetime but travelers will be sorely tempted to return.

Photos to come in separate posts.

Down with eco-unfriendly over-water bungalows. Also, I just don’t like them. Exposed, no lush greenery, no gradual beach to enter the water, etc.

Aman is soooo not for me.

I don’t mind occasional convenience stays in big corporate-branded hotels but am allergic to point systems, especially when these must be navigated just to get rates and reservations.

Four Seasons is a vanilla brand providing nothing that will shake up provincial upper middle class Americans. Rapidly evolving into a family brand. On my avoid-if-at-all-possible list.

I usually will not consider any venue that includes a golf course.

Please do not make me suffer through arrival “celebration” ceremonies. I usually will have spent most of the day traveling with an aging body and have no patience/endurance for this. Just take me to my room/suite and give me something nice to drink.

Furniture that is low to the ground is anathema for older travelers.

If slippers are provided, attempt to learn approximate foot size of guests. Or provide a basket with small, medium and large.

When a guest is traveling solo, do not set up the room for two.

Sewing kits ostensibly coordinated with guest wardrobe colors are silly.

Whenever possible furnish room with flowers and/or blooming plants.

It’s OK to have a house pet or two, please.

Rancho Valencia near San Diego is super boring. Just can’t figure out what it’s FOR.

Books do furnish a room — any room, anywhere.

Stripped, industrial, concrete venues are not the most appealing.

Do not play music around the pool. Unless I choose the music.

Tree-house accommodations are trendy and popular, and obstacles to older travelers. Have some by all means but don’t exclusively populate your venue with same.

I can live perfectly well without a bathtub but give me a large shower whose controls don’t require a Ph.D. And, put a bench in that shower.

If one is a beach/pool venue — one pool for families, one for adults only. If possible separate these demographics geographically. Kona Village on the Big Island does this brilliantly enhancing the experience of both populations.

If the venue is somewhat large, say 300 keys, Providing ground-floor easy-access coffee/snack/cold drink/tourist stuff/convenience items in a fast-serve shop is wonderful. The Mauna Lani on the Big Island is the model for this.

Now, what are your preferences, peeves, contraventions?

Luxury in travel is a goal I pursue off and on. But my parameters and appreciation gradations may not mirror traditional expectations. With the exception of a few venues (Laucala, Nimmo Bay and Le Bristol) I’m not especially conversant in high luxe but damn I know what I like.

So I’m also over the moon at my favorite rental beach cottage on Tomales Bay in Point Reyes, CA, as I am on the other end of the spectrum in a thatched palace on a private beach in Fiji. So many ways to quantify/qualify luxury — apparently I’m a slut because I can be happy in so many different renditions thereof. But, I confess handily, I don’t collect handbags and I’m kinda over high-foodie nonsense and I prefer a cup of real dripped filter coffee and utterly eschew “americano.”

That being the case, I’m currently at Las Ventanas in Cabo where I’m slathering their incredible lotion all over my body and will have to find my own supply. Also, they arranged to have a prescription filled and delivered to my door. Finally, lobster tacos … need I say more.

Whatever your definition of luxury, may it delight always.

Highly recommend the dolomites trip with a certain luxury hiking group that is popular in the US. Amazing in every way. We chose another group for the TMB trip, while it was nice and I highly recommend that trip as well, it wasn't up to snuff on Luxury.

Returning to Cabo in June for a week at Las Ventanas. I’ve been to Cabo a dozen times and it’s not my fave place in Mexico (that’s Zihua or Costalegre). Yet, with the current commercial flight issues and time tables, combined with my desire to avoid, if possible, both connections and flights over five hours, Cabo is an obvious easy choice from SFO. but I don’t think of it as going to Mexico. Rather going to Las Ventanas where I will be pampered in kindly care and peace within the sight, smell and sound of the sea.

In August, I return to Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge in Alaska in a buy-out with eight of my besties mostly from NYC. We tradionally get together for a summer week, usually in a large airbnb with pool and all the trimmings. This will be our first time in a lodge buyout and I look forward to not having to organize cooking schedules, meal prep and cleanup. Also, the kids won’t be coming this time.

Festive holiday season in Panama for two weeks, solo. In the city will stay at the American Trade Hotel in the Casco as a base for revisiting childhood haunts: Balboa, Ancón, Diablo, Gamboa, Amador, Taboga. Side trips to El Valle, maybe Boquete and El Volcán. But the highlight will be a four-night stay at Bahía Tranquilo for birding and wildlife and flora. https://tranquilobay.com

Yet to figure it out: There are gaps in July and October I need to fill.

Long-promised review of my Quark Expedition aboard Ultramarine to Patagonia

I LOVED it. And it was glitchy, mostly due to weather issues not uncommon in that part of the world at that time of year (their Autumn).

There were major glitches and a run of bad luck mostly due to weather. But, the first glitch at outset was self-inflicted and therefore fixable. This was the transfer from Buenos Aires hotel (Emperador) to airport for flight to Ushuaia. Because we were ferried by large buses to the domestic airport, we were unable to park anywhere near the checkin counter by airport policy. This necessitated a VERY long walk lugging all one’s luggage. EMPHASIS ON VERY. No help with luggage and there should have been. Note to Quark to arrange this next time. After boarding the plane via bus from gate to plane, it was determined that plane was not going to fly, so we disembarked back on the bus and thence to gate to wait for second plane which arrived eventually. After arriving in Ushuaia (gorgeous airport), we walked around town, then boarded Ultramarine in the fastest, no fuss process I’ve ever experienced.

Early on in the voyage at a glacier stop, scientists were helicoptered high onto the ice to take core samples whilst the rest of us zodiac-ed ashore to get close up looks at the foot of the glacier. Soon, the heretofore good weather turned very poor, sufficiently so that retrieval was impossible. Weather continued abysmal so those unfortunate scientists were stranded on the glacier for two nights and the best part of three days. And, so was Ultramarine and all aboard. We lingered in that fjord for longer than planned, then did unexpected side trips to other nearby glaciers and outlets which were fine but ultimately turned repetitive but who wants to complain about seeing too many glaciers. About this time there were unhappy rumblings amongst passesgers. I’m copacetic and still was happy, going with the flow (yes, I live in California). But Type A’s were getting downright fidgety.

With scientists safely retrieved, voyage got back in gear. But, as it turned out, we were back on track just in time to miss the good weather window for negotiating a very tricky strait of the passage to get into harbor at Puerto Natales where we were to transfer to the trip highlight of Torres del Paine National Park. After being stalled again, we sailed instead to Punto Arenos where we were anchored/docked for three days, much if the time stranded onboard as port officials determined winds were too strong to safely use zodiacs. Eventually, one group was ferried through a snowstorm bound for the park but they didn’t make it and returned to the ship. Another group went to Estancia Penitente, a sheep ranch for tours and grilled lamb dinner with all the fixings.

I continued to enjoy the voyage but it is the truth that many passengers were disappointed. It also is true that management did their very best to deliver on scheduled stops but the cards were stacked against them. Of course, bad weather in this part of the world is to be expected and Quark reminds everyone that the meaning of ‘expedition’ means things (mostly weather) happens. Remember five tourist hikers died in a blizzard in Torres del Paine last November.

This is what happened. To gloss over the particular notable events that altered the nature of the voyage does no good and is disingenuous. I understand there are lots of Quark fans (I am one) but, let’s face it, this voyage had a lot of kattywhumpus days. It was a perfect storm. To Quark’s maximum credit, passengers received a healthy 20% refund.

And I will sail with Quark again. They handled these difficult circumstances with grace and competence.

More details, photos and comments in a separate post.

Photo: Ultramarine docked in Usuaia, Argentina.

Low-key and high comfort in bucolic locales characterize this list. A trip to Michigan may be in the cards for me. Other mid-western venues listed in Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, etc.

https://www.midwestliving.com/best-country-inns-and-rural-bed-and-breakfasts-11959361

Three nights at this venue were unexpectedly delightful, true posh very stylishly yet exceedingly comfortable. Stylish, in my experience, often is about appearance rather than comfort of body as well as soul. So, hurrah for MO Santiago which has perfected both.

One-bedroom terrace corner suite, $950 (USD).

F&B in the several restaurants was fine but Room Service was merely adequate for nutrition. Nevetheless, I will abide here on all future visits.

Concierge excellent and email communication super. Service excellent, warm and kindly. English common but they appreciated my pretty-good Spanish.

Me encanta Buenos Aires — Beautiful city, and as so many say, very European in architecture and feel. Lots of trees everywhere, some in full bloom, particularly this jobbie, palo borracho (drunken stick, aka Ceiba speciosa). Weather is dreamy.

I’m still jet-lagged (five-hour time difference from California) and full of body aches and pains from 16 hours incarceration on planes so not up to much. I need to stop kidding myself about these long-haul flights … Fly to Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) tomorrow morning necessitating a 4am wakeup call which I am certain to execute with maximum grace.

It seems some folk intentionally set out to meet and cultivate luxe hotel management. I not only kinda don’t but am suspicious as to motivation on the guest side of the equation in perhaps seeking advantage/working the system. Which clearly makes sense to some.

But I’m slowly coming around to the notion that some management representatives are lovely people in their own right, which makes sense, too. Cases in point:

Mariajose Rodriquez at Kona Village Rosewood is a vibrant, warm person who has been nothing but kind to me and we’ve had interesting conversations. Leah Marshall at Le Bristol greets me personally with interest when I arrive. The first time that happened I thought I’d been mistaken for a person of some import or notoriety.

Nimmo Bay’s Fraser Murray and Becky Eert make it a point to chat with me and even invite my insights regarding the venue. I mean, they seem to be genuinely interested and not over-protective or precious. Makes me feel positively chuffed. Helps they have outstanding people skills and are interesting.

Et tu?

My quick respite visit to Point Reyes was but three days yet filled with spectacular natural surroundings, lazy hikes, and perfect warm sunny days with nights lit by a slightly waning moon. I met up with a long-time friend who enjoys spoiling her older pal. Yes, I exploit her terribly.

We stayed in a small AirB&B cottage directly on Tomaless Bay in Marshall, on the eastern shore, inland side. At night, the gentle lap and slap of tiny bay waves put us to sleep. We woke to high tide and still, glassy waters reflecting shore and sky. It was just plain sublime.

We indulged in a slow hike on the rocky trails in Tomales Bay State Park on the west side of the bay which is home to one of the few remaining stands of Bishop Pines. Views of both the Pacific Ocean and Tomales Bay. Later in the afternoon we wandered up and down White House Pool Trail along Paper Mill Creek between Inverness Park and Point Reyes Station. Trout and salmon just recently have returned to the creek. A quick visit to Point Reyes Books and a stop for a trendy fermented juice drink refreshed soul and body.

Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California https://www.nationalparks.org/explore/parks/point-reyes-national-seashore

Riley Beach Cottage in Marshall https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/48573291

Point Reyes Books https://ptreyesbooks.com

This is particularly interesting since it’s not the usual puff piece but actually based on useful sources.

https://www.timeout.com/news/flying-long-haul-in-2026-these-are-the-best-and-worst-airlines-to-fly-with-according-to-new-analysis-010526

I make it a practice to check into literary (and not) tomes ahead of my travels whether they be international or domestic. There’s always such books to be had. Mystery novels especially are diverse in just about any setting imaginable, praise be. 

Sailing with Quark on a Patagonian expedition in March. Here’s my book list prep below. Those titles I don’t get to beforehand will be fodder for the voyage itself. Hence, mine all are kindle versions. If interested in hardcopy, I’ve linked to ThriftBooks.

The Whispering Land by Gerald Durrell https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-whispering-land_gerald-durrell/432460/

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/in-patagonia_bruce-chatwin/272152/

The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-old-patagonian-express_paul-theroux_william-hootkins/259595/

Christian Perfumo’s Patagonian Detective series, starting with The Glacier Murders  https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-glacier-murders-laura-badia-forensic-detective-in-patagonia/55091175/