As travel editors, we get to cover a lot of ground—and we don’t just mean miles, but all the proximate joys that come along with life on the road, from the restaurants we’re dining at to the books we’re reading on the plane. This June, the editors at Condé Nast Traveler are ushering in summer with World Cup games in Kansas City and regattas in Sorrento. Euro summer is in full swing, and our team is scattered between Megève, Copenhagen, Patmos, and Ibiza. As you can imagine, inspiration is coming from all corners, whether that’s in the form of maximalism at the new Vanderpump hotel in Vegas, or the history of art on the streets of Florence. Below, what our editors across our London and New York City desks are loving this month.
Olivia Squire, features editor
June is that time of year when the UK is at its most outrageous, show-offy, and blindingly beautiful—when all I want to do is drift around a walled garden, lie under an oak tree, or drink rosé in a pub garden. I started the season with a trip to Glen Dye, a collection of art-suffused cottages and cabins in the Scottish Highlands. Its just-opened “luxury dry goods store” is a tiny, brilliantly obtuse (those wanting to procure items have to write, call, or visit) shop championing British crafts. Then to the new Hope by WildLand, where the outside is brought in through gloriously tactile materials like flax, tweed, and stone. Its ongoing rewilding of 120,000 acres of Sutherland wilderness is truly inspiring—as is Isabella Tree’s Knepp in Sussex, where I dropped into the Wilding Kitchen for a glass of Wiston Estate sparkling wine.
I was there to check out the Black Horse, a gorgeous, 11-room revamped pub in the tooth-achingly sweet village of Amberley, where the star of the show is the Italian-inflected menu by chef Antonio. He uses produce from the nearby Nutbourne Estate, which I popped into for its first “Burgers and Bubbly” of the season. Other recent weekenders include Somerset’s The Newt, which I’ve had on my list for years—its astonishing gardens didn’t disappoint—and my annual pilgrimage to Charleston Festival. I picked up Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book after hearing them speak about darkness, sex, and intrigue in 1970s Rome—a summer beach read with bite.
For all that countryside gallivanting, there’s nothing like London in the sun. Bar Etna is going to be the place of the summer, and I also can’t wait to try The Golden Tooth. As an Olivia, I’m naturally piqued by OLLY’s x Voodoo Ray’s olive-heavy menu for National Olive Day. And as a millennial woman who Lily Allen has in a chokehold, I’ll be heading to Mighty Hoopla to see her for my first festival of the year. For my summer wardrobe, I’m coveting these fishermen’s sandals from Cos, a nautical-ish shirt from Sézane, and some Chloe sunglasses to channel French girl chic; but realistically, you’ll see me stomping around town in my new favorite Damson Madder dress (it’s giving picnic blanket). Finally, I’m off to Ytri, a remote island retreat in Norway, to take a breather from all that midsummer madness.