Where to go, and what it actually costs.

Mountain & Ski

Just a heads up to anyone planning a trip this winter to Aspen, if you’re planning to stay at the St.

Beach & Resort

The only one consistently incredible is Rosewood Las Ventanas in Cabo so we go there every year.

Beach & Nature

3) drop in to the cultural center which helps give a greater understanding to Hawaiian culture and the big island.

Beach & Nature

We did FS Maui and FS Ko Olina this year on two separate trips and had similar feelings at Ko Olina (especially compared to Maui).

Multi-Destination

We were just in a Four Seasons in Mexico and I was missing my own bidet at home.

Wine & Culinary

We were advised to stay at Bardessono because Napa 4S apparently wasn't up to par with the usual 4S standards.

City Break

For the caliber of city that it is, I don't understand how NYC's FAT hotel scene is so shit.

Beach & Luxury

Some hotels will tell you their WiFi won’t work with baby monitors (if it’s not password protected usually) and because of FS Palm beach I now know that’s not true and essentially they’re lazy 🤣 because they sent their engineer to our room to set it up so it would work, took him like 5 minutes.

Beach & Island

I finally accept this as the new normal after bad experiences with top tier villas or suites at FS Anguilla, Rosewood Mayakoba and Rosewood Carlyle.

Beach & Island

Got married at Sandy Lane in Barbados, the Rolls Royce to take the bride from the lobby to the ceremony was $1000USD.

Beach & Island

I agree with the person that said a lot of places in America, Caribbean and Europe (peak season) have gotten ridiculously over priced.

Beach & Luxury

I saw this video on insta of a woman that went to St Barths for 10 ish years and she's basically saying it's this massive continuous FOMO happening to everyone.

Beach & Island

Stillwater is also invested in the luxury Amanyara resort in Turks and Caicos and in 2014 invested in Change.org.

Nature & Adventure

Also, idk if there's a lot of flight options to go down to costa rica but there are some truly EPIC spas in costa rica's rainforest.

City & Nature

Misool in Raja Ampat, Tswalu in South Africa, Arijiju or Ol Jogi in Kenya, Isla Secas in Panama, Cristalino lodge in the Amazon.

City Break

Went to Buenos Aires for the first time this year and highly recommend staying in Recoleta for a first visit.

City Break & Nature

I haven’t been to Medellin, but was in Bogota and Cartagena earlier this year (as two women traveling together, not a big group) - private security definitely would have been overdoing it.

Adventure & Nature

For me it’s the places that involve more physical activities so like Patagonia, Dolomites, or really remote destinations that require flight/boat transfers.

History & Nature

I felt like I was in heaven. - hiking Machu Pichu at sunrise… spiritual - doing the adventure pods in Peru… hiking then sleeping over a cliff at 10k elevation - jumping off the wall of our air bnb into lake como with some of my best friends.

Coast & Islands

Our recent boutique in Amalfi area was probably the best service experience we’ve had in years.

City Break

I was in Amsterdam with friends a few years ago and while we rented an apartment we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner @ Restobar Prins & Aap in the hotel.

Coast & Islands

And snorkeling with giant sea turtles and sea lions - first time seeing the view of Capri at Caesar Augustus after a grueling 30+ hour travel day.

Coast & Islands

I have luckily never been so desperate for a split of mediocre champagne as to pay $85 for it.

Multi-Destination

Imagine thinking France is a failed state because you happened to visit during the world’s biggest event and found it to be “too crowded”.

Coast & Luxury

Like you can go to Costco and buy something that feels like you're wiping your bum with a freshly laundered towel, but can these hotels be arsed to shell out an extra 50 cents a roll for something halfway nice?.

Coast & Islands

Private yacht charters in the Greek islands is the way to go especially with how many tourists they have been experiencing.

Nature & Adventure

There are tons of great properties that are independent from Deplar Farm in Iceland to Arielles at Versailles.

Multi-Destination

Tipping in Italy is really egregious and they’ll actively solicit now in several spots.

City Break

If you can, I would stay over night in Lisbon for your arrival and transfer to douro valle the next day.

City Break

I find a tipping fee at an ultra premium hotel in London to be frankly quite embarassing and I wouldn't stay there as a matter of principle.

Coast & Emerging

For me, I find Montenegro to be a much better destination than Croatia but I suppose it is all personal.

Beach & Nightlife

On a side note,if you go to Mykonos and take a day trip to Delos (major archeological site) you'll be amazed how they care for the cats.

City Break

Outside of Aman and some smaller boutique hotels, everything here is extremely outdated and doesn't even come close to options found in London, Paris, etc.

Multi-Destination

TL;DR I’d hop on booking this out with some friends/family before prices go up and Portugal’s popularity continues to rise.

Coast & Islands

Then another day you get a luxury Italian boat picking you up from Capri for a full day boating adventure before dropping you off in Positano.

City Break

Earlier this year we had a horrible day travelling to Prague, nothing went according to plan and we were super stressed.

City Break

I broke it down that way to pay my guides in Rome and to pay my guides in Amalfi Coast.

Coast & Scenic

We should vigorously avoid the toxic tipping culture to expand outside US In santorini our hotel was full of Americans who randomly give 20 or 50 bills to waiters walking by just doing their job.

Beach & Coast

At the top end the most disappointing place I ever visited was Costa Smeralda in Sardinia.

Mountain & Luxury

What sets it over other spa experiences is that it is completely private, and the view of the Swiss alps is just unbelievable.

Wine & Culture

Edit: Now adding hours later for those that joined late - I do not own a castle in tuscany.

City Break

Definitely was *not* a thing for us a couple of weeks ago in Venice (Gritti / St Regis).

City Break

Park Hyatt Vienna: during checking we talked about how much my wife is excited to see the city, they booked a surprise horse carriage ride through old town, on their expense.

City Break & Luxury

Concierges in Dubai and UAE in general are used to receiving outrageous requests, especially from Emiratis.

History & Adventure

Nowadays it seems like everything is an Insta destination (saw a bunch of influencers posing in ridiculous outfits at Petra).

Culture & Nature

If you want unique, off the beaten path, and nature forward, highly recommend looking into Oman as a non-obvious option.

Safari

Try looking at andBeyond and their lodges in Botswana and beyond, they’re one of the best in Africa and provide white-glove service for planning and every step of your travel once you’ve landed in Africa.

History & Culture

Yep - Countries where violence and leering/uncomfortable situations towards women are prevalent and in some cases almost unavoidable even in the most metropolitan of areas are just generally off my list even if they are place that are interesting/worth seeing otherwise - Egypt, India etc.

Safari

I made a comment on this a couple of weeks ago on why I would not chose a big name “luxury” travel agent to plan our Kenya trip.

Culture & City

For example, in Marrakech the FS and Aman aren’t the golden standard for the destination, are they large players yes, golden standard? not necessarily.

Safari & Adventure

Komodo island cruise (Aman has a boat that does it - havent done it with them though) Rio Carnival Burning Man Huelmul treck in Argentinian Patagonia Havent done but is on my bucket list: galapagos cruise (small boat) Holi in India 4x4 in Namibia.

Safari & Wildlife

The one he was most stoked about was Joakim Noah at the Retreat in Kigali, because my husband is a Chicagoan so bumping into a player from his favorite team while thousands of miles from home was so exciting for him.

Beach & Island

Sarah literally called me on my cell phone one day to chat about some of the ideas I had (since I like to plan trips myself as well) and then helped book and take care of us while we were in the Seychelles.

Multi-Destination

Try finding hotels rich in history -- two that come in mind immediatly is the Ritz Paris and La Residence in South Africa or Belmond Mt Nelson.

Safari

To give you guys a primer 101 - the Serengeti is a huge national park in Tanzania, 12,000 sq miles.

Multi-Destination

Even Australia too....the payment process in restaurants is they charge the card at the table and rarely have a tip option in the machine.

Beach & Culture

Don't want to name names but some ppl just wanna feel like they are better than others on this sub, hence the "Alila Bali is not FAT" comments.

City Break

A concierge in Bangkok got us into the 2nd best restaurant in the world at the time, and best in Asia on no notice.

Adventure & Culture

I landed in Paro Bhutan and finally felt like I could breathe again (literally).

Culture & Wellness

We’re also considering Amanpuri + FS Chiang Mai or Golden Triangle for next year.

Multi-Destination

Heck, even fortune 500 companies in Asia or Japan don't put their employees/clients in Tokyo's FAT hotels, that should tell you enough haha (though there's a large cultural element).

Culture & Wellness

My wife and I were planning a trip to chill in Kyoto for a few weeks, and we figured we'd stop by Osaka for a few days.

Beach & Island

At Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, they will set up a tent on an empty sandbank, where you get the privilege of sleeping (with the wild crabs that inhabit the island) for $2,000.

Nature & Adventure

I’m ok to miss out on deals (now) and I’ve already done that big “once in a lifetime” trip, (safari) so for me it’s more Europe, assorted islands and Australia/New Zealand, none of it any more pressing than another.

Beach & Resort

Dinner scenes at Rosewood Phuket and spa/lobby/entrance was also actually shot at a few different Anantaras.

City Break

I asked for a baby bottle of milk for my son (2 or something at the time) flying premiere with the whole family from SINGAPORE to PARIS (long ass flight) The male flight attendant pointed to the whole plane saying “well If the whole plane asked for a cup of milk, would I have enough milk?.

Culture & Beach

I have wanted to do India or Sri Lanka for a while now and once my kids get a bit older I will definitely check it out.

Multi-Destination

One of my favourite stays was Trisara in Thailand and they gave us a huge number of complementary things.

City Break

The Italian restaurant at the Aman Tokyo in Q4 last year was the most embarrassing meal i’ve seen anywhere in years.

Multi-Destination

We recently stayed at a small hotel in Vietnam and you could see the owners charm and care in every deatail.

Beach & Island

We had a pool light out at the FS Bora Bora and they were going to upgrade us if they couldn’t fix it within the day.

Beach & Island

It’s things like the $20 for a $4 small Fiji bottle, the $70 for a $30 hamburger, or the $25 side of French fries that makes me roll my eyes.

Beach & Island

French Polynesia-- direct flight from SFO to Tahiti and same time zone as Hawaii.