Conde Nast Traveler

the editor’s letter

This evening I went for a bike ride through the empty streets. I don’t like leaving the house anymore, if the truth be known. Leaving the inside brings the outside realness in. And I refute this city I see, with its shuttered windows and its bone-bare sidewalks and its masked figures. I wheeled along the roads I know so well in a kind of aimless amble, until I spotted a favorite fruit-and-vegetable shop. It was full of artichokes and fat squash, bundles of mint leaves and shiny grapes. What most caught my eye was a wooden tray of strawberries. I bought them and happily stuffed them in the basket of my bike, so that as I cycled home, the whiff of them—morning rivers, earth sap, fallen leaves—wafted up to my…

we are travelers forever

From where I write, my view is not of the wide-open American landscapes my heart longs for at this time of year, but of orderly Brooklyn backyards parceled out by high wooden fences. I’ve always liked the outer-borough domesticity of this scene, but right now I sure wish it weren’t the only view available to me. I’m grateful, however, to see little green buds on branches and, a few doors down, a cherry-blossom tree that in the past few days has erupted into an ecstasy of pink and white. It’s a reminder that even in a plague season the normal seasons keep changing, the Earth keeps turning. And that helps me remember that this plague season too shall pass, though we all can see how far-reaching its damage will be, in…

how to keep calm when you carry on

Even before the coronavirus, many of us were seeking ways to access moments of zen—and hotels were devising ever more innovative ways to deliver them. So when we get out there again, there will be no shortage of methods for achieving serenity. In January, Accorowned Novotel teamed with the relaxation app Calm to offer mindfulness master classes and bedtime stories. That same month, Hilton announced Tempo, its new lifestyle brand, and with it, a collaboration with the burnout-fighting platform Thrive Global that gives guests a mini guide of morning and nightly rituals, including breathing exercises and stretches. And Hyatt will soon offer short meditations produced with the mindfulness app Headspace through guest room TVs; for now, members can access content from home via the World of Hyatt app. “Now more…

dressed for dinner

It’s 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in Japan’s food-obsessed third city and I’m standing outside an empty Louis Vuitton store, gesturing at a security guard inside to let me in. First, he shakes his head and crosses his arms. Then his face softens into a revelatory ah! He whispers into his earpiece, slips out the door to guide me around the corner, and taps his white-gloved hand on a plain metallic entrance. “Fourth floor, please,” are his only words before vanishing. It’s a fittingly discreet introduction to the French fashion house’s latest and most exclusive venture: Louis Vuitton’s first restaurant and café, located within the just-opened Maison Osaka Midosuji, the brand’s billowing, sail-shaped Osaka flagship. I enter the now empty Le Café V (daytime shoppers put their name down and wait…

made by hand

Internationally acclaimed ceramist Anna Westerlund will tell you that Lisbon’s growing popularity has had a wonderful effect on her hometown’s traditional artisan scene. Sure, for more than a decade the city has had the groundbreaking boutique A Vida Portuguesa, Catarina Portas’s one-stop homage to local craftsmanship: a mecca of beautifully stocked shelves of linens and soaps you’d happily max out a credit card on. But recently a wave of equally gorgeous shops, including Westerlund’s, has opened, offering cozy woolen blankets and scented candles, making this Europe’s next great shopping city. Here, seven spots to know that showcase contemporary Portuguese creativity. Together You may have spotted Anna Westerlund’s whimsical creations at global retailers like Anthropologie, but the Swedish-Portuguese artist’s multi-brand outpost in Chiado is the best place to browse her wares, as well…

global, but local

For most of the past decade, in-the-know travelers have been drawn to the colonial architecture of Mexico City’s Roma enclave to seek out that new farm-to-table restaurant or small-batch mezcal bar. Recently, though, tastemakers and those who follow them have migrated north to Colonia Cuauhtémoc (“kwau-te-mok”), a sliver of a neighborhood next to the bustling Avenida Paseo de la Reforma. In the past couple of years, this central business district has welcomed numerous independent shops and restaurants, most concentrated around peaceful Rio Panuco road. Popular with the city’s denizens, they give visitors the feeling of living there. MORE THAN JUST A COFFEE JOINT Inspired by kissatens, or Japanese-style tearooms, the narrow Enomoto Coffee Bar kicks off the day with flat whites and toasted cheese sandwiches, which are best enjoyed on one of…