Unpacked: Capri, Nice, My wedding story (!), The Grove, LA & more with Design & Travel Editor, Amira Hashish

0:05Hello and welcome to The Travel Diaries Unpacked, your weekly weekend dose of wanderlust. I'm your host Holly Rubenstein and today I am joined by the travel and design editor Amira Hashish. Amira is the founder of creative studio Rapport and she spent 12 years as the executive editor of the evening standard. She's my go-to for all things style and design and I'm so excited to chat to her on today's episode about everything from antiques hunting in Nice to finding the quieter side of Capri. We're exploring some of her favourite escapes with a little Florence inspiration and insider tips for making the most of a trip to Los Angeles.

0:49Plus I'm sharing my family-friendly hotel of the week. So let's buckle up and get started. Here's Amira.

1:03amira welcome to the travel diaries unpacked oh thank you so much for having me it's such a joy to be here oh my goodness i feel like this has been a long time coming i'm so happy to see you likewise i think do you know what our problem is holly we're just always traveling so to pin each other down in this way is quite a treat isn't it uh i've just put away the suitcases I've been literally unpacking oh actually they're just behind you, got back last night I thought that was part of the set just always have a suitcase in tow not sponsored by Adler but we have got a lot to unpack today because we have got to first of all unpack Celia Imri who was my guest this week who in particular has a special soft spot for Nice in France we're going to be going to my hotel of the week, finding out where you've come back from and answering a listener question.

1:58That is a really good one and one that you're definitely going to be very well placed to answer. So let's kick off with Celia and a place that instantly captured her heart. Let's take a listen. When I landed in Nice, I did fall in love with the place and I'm so thrilled that I went out one day apparently this is a cliche I didn't realize it was because it really did happen to me I went out for a baguette and came back with a flat I've never done such a thing I love it because it's a very busy city as well as being breathtakingly beautiful I mean it just gets on with itself okay so that was Celia on Nice in the south of France I saw on your Instagram as I was scrolling through this morning but it was just a few few months ago that you were there as well absolutely do you know it was so nice to go back I used to go loads as a kid and my dad worked in fashion so we would often travel to these cities and Nice was one of them and I hadn't been in in quite a few years so it was it was a real pleasure to return as an adult and and you know remember what it was all about so I had a beautiful time there actually.

3:08So how would you paint a picture of Nice for somebody who hasn't been? It's a great coastal city experience you know I which is something I'm always partial to I love it if you know you've got the coast there but you've also got loads going on so you've got the Riviera on your doorstop but you also have these fabulous markets and great restaurants and galleries and shops and and all the architecture you know so it has this this lovely Mediterranean feel but it's also um it's got the sea and and I think that's a great combination isn't it my home we we did a big renovation on it and it's always evolving and it kind of has a Mediterranean theme in terms of the colors that we've used and the sort of product that I've brought in the furniture I've introduced so whenever I'm away it's just another excuse to find more gorgeous things and then figure out how we're going to get them back so um so Nice has this this market that happens every Monday in the old town and it I think every other day it's a flower market but it turns into this incredible antiques market and it is vast it's sprawling you could spend the whole day there and so along I went and just ended up buying loads of artwork which is something I will yes because I think there is always more space when it comes to walls I'm kind of running out of space on ground level, but I'm happy to fill up the walls.

4:35So I ended up buying lots of artwork and we did manage to get it back. And, you know, how do you get it back, though? Because whenever I see something when I'm away, my husband, Alex, is always like, how's that going to get back? To be fair, my parents, because my dad's American and we spent most of our childhood holidays traveling in the US. Did you? I didn't know that. Yeah, so I know the US really well. And we went to places like Santa Fe, which have an amazing art scene in Arizona. And my parents, they thought it was worth shipping back the odd piece of art. And actually, those are the things that I really treasure now.

5:14Yes. Is it an investment or do you fit it in your bag? Well, I have carried, well, I say I, it wasn't me, was it? was my husband but he's carried a lampshade back from Hudson in upstate New York in the overhead luggage you find ways and means and also 28 cups and saucers from Joshua Tree Desert managed to get that into the suitcase bubble wrap it all up we did invest in a new suitcase for the occasion and we brought that back too so you know there are you find a way if you love something enough sometimes I've had to leave something behind like you know sofa or something that I've fallen in love with and it's just not going to happen yeah but if it's something that's small enough yeah yeah sofas are tricky when it comes to big bulky finisher items although there is always a shipping option but uh yeah I think if you can make it happen do it because you will always look at that thing and you will remember that moment the story behind it and the destination it's a way of bringing all these travel memories exactly so much better than a tacky souvenir totally agree I totally agree so you when you're going through these kind of brocants um is there like any technique for how to or is it just taking your time well there is I think just through doing lots of it you do start to become more familiar with things that are just tapped and and actually pieces that that are really well made that have stood the test of time so I think as you just mentioned taking your time is important the other resource that is now really useful is is google image search sometimes if i see something and i don't quite know what it is or it's from it's remarkable that if you take a picture and search on google a lot of the time you will find even very niche information so i would always recommend doing that too that is so true so that if you at least if you have an iphone yeah you just open the camera up take a photo of it and then you swipe up and it's one of the options like search with google lens yes and then it just tells you so and it's actually if you're drawn to things that seem to have a theme it's a good way of understanding more about pieces that you happen to be interested in but ultimately just go for something that you love and if it's a little bit tacky that's okay as long as you look at it and it makes you happy i also think there is another market if we're thinking about people who like antiques vintage design or you know even just a nice day out there's a market called Marsha Pousse and that's on Tuesdays to Saturdays that's really worth a look around you know you can find everything from a bit of Chanel to a piece to take home sorry for your home so have a little mooch about there and then there is a great little square called Golden Square and it has a mix of luxury boutiques if you like that sort of thing but also you'll find the odd independent so another good place to stroll about if you are looking for some inspiration there is also museum messina and that is just off the promenade so super central it's this old palace essentially with these state rooms and lots of historic furniture and decorative pieces so that's a fun way to spend a couple of hours too so yeah i mean you could but it's one of those cities and it's a short flight lots of flights are there any parts of nice that you'd recommend exploring kind of beyond the obvious tourist spots yes so obviously you know we all think about the promenade and the old town and i love them both but the old port area is very beautiful as well and it has lots of great restaurants and it's quite twinkly and magical in the evening so i'd always recommend going there but also uh there is another neighborhood called simiae and it's a more residential area it's perched above the center of nice so you get a really good outlook but also it has quite a lot to explore so there are roman ruins there there's the matisse and chagall museums as well and then lots of glorious bellepoque mansions that you can just take in and you know get some inspiration from but uh but yeah I would say that's a neighborhood that maybe a lot of tourists don't think about going to but it's definitely worthwhile it's a bit quieter as well great tip where did you stay when you went I actually stayed at mama shelter oh yeah yeah I booked it pretty last minute and uh I it's funny you know it's grown so much mama shelter because I think of it it's original guys when it was more of a kind of designy backpacking spot which is not what it is at all now it was a very playful but luxurious hotel and it was slightly out of the center so it was a little bit quieter but also super easy you know you could still walk into the old town into that port area and I really liked it it's got a great rooftop pool and yeah and actually it was really hot when we were there so that was a bit of a savior but uh it's quite buzzy it's got a good cafe there's a restaurant on site everything you would need any favorite places to eat in that part of the world yes there are a couple of great ones there's a restaurant that i i went to this time called les mimosa decor and it's in the old town next to the the flower market or the antiques market depending on which day you go it's just got that really great French bistro vibe but there's a lot of local cuisine involved in what they're doing but you know as it gets a little bit darker into the evening it's all candle lit and cozy but they've also got the great terrace outside just felt like you were really in the heart of things and and I like that about it there's also another restaurant nearby and that is called La Miranda I know it has lots of praise it's very hard to get a table but again really buzzy you feel like you're in the thick of things so I would recommend that fabulous well that has got me inspired to return to Nice for sure and I suppose his passion for discovering you know places and objects really feeds into Club Rapport which you founded you describe it as a home for the new dawn of travel design and lifestyle and I love how those different worlds come together do you feel that travelers are increasingly choosing destinations based on design the creative scene I think so I think people you know we have so much choice now and we have so much information that's thrown in our direction so I think we can do our homework a bit more but we want things that feel more considered and design and creativity often play into that.

12:04People want to delve into stories and makers and you know who's behind that hotel room that you're staying in or who's created the the menu for this amazing restaurant. You want to get to the heart of the story and I think that's you know something that will continue to be increasingly important especially also as the world gets more tech focused I think the irony is is then we become more and more interested in craftsmanship and and you know you want to hold on to that and so many of these incredible destinations around the world can give us those stories and I think that yeah I think in answer to your question it's it's definitely a growing way of discovering the world well speaking of which then you know is there a destination in particular that you think is really exciting from a design perspective at the moment there are so many Holly how do I narrow this down I'll give you a couple well I've just come back from Florence and and that's always you know it's not there's nothing new about Florence being inspiring when it comes to design however what is new is these modern interpretations of very historical buildings so I stayed at a place called Palazzo Ottaviani which is part of the Longano group so it's the Ferragamo families hotel and apartment collection interesting yeah and it's in this incredible old palazzo but the design is actually quite contemporary and and I really appreciate that crossover between the old and the new there's also another hotel that I stayed at called Il Torno Buoni which is right in the center of Florence and it's opposite the Pucci fashion store but they're bringing some of the Pucci homeware into the hotel and that's inspiring its design scheme and I just think that that juxtaposition is is really interesting so Florence Milan is is a very inspiring design destination and beyond Salone not just for that occasion you know go there anytime and you will see these rising stars of the design and hospitality scene working together but then if we want to go a bit further afield I think Mexico City and I have been to Mexico but never to Mexico City and I'm desperate to get out there because I just keep hearing and seeing things up you know modern architecture Mexican craft contemporary food fusions and I just think it's it's where it's at we need to get out to Mexico oh for sure Ruthie Rogers on her episode spoke a lot about Mexico city she lived there for several months while her husband was recuperating in a hospital there and the food scene the architecture like you say it was so evocative how she brought it to life and it's also got some of the best restaurants in the world now exactly I actually did um a podcast chat a couple of years ago with Santiago Lastra who is the Mexican chef who's in London in Marlborough and he made me so excited about it you know and he's someone who I think was born and raised there and I think ever since I've been dreaming about this trip to Mexico City so that's one but then also I went earlier this year to Arrowtown in New Zealand.

15:19Arrowtown? Yeah I haven't heard of it. Okay this is a little bit of a an under the radar gem it is it's in the South island of new zealand and it's this old gold mining town oh wow and the original high street makes use it repurposes all these buildings which were part of that gold mining scene so you kind of feel as if you're in some kind of cowboy movie set but they've turned it's just a really great use of architecture and giving a new lease of life so they've turned these buildings into restaurants cafes bars there's live music everywhere I love that isn't it great there's even this pharmacy that looks like a saloon and yeah there was just it was it's really small you can walk it all in in the space of a couple of hours but it's also set against this mountainous backdrop so it's uh it's quite dramatic as well and I would just encourage people to if you do go to that side of the world get out there and see it there's a lot going on there as well oh that sounds fantastic it reminds me a little bit of a place called Silverton in Colorado okay which is a similar vibe I think I think a lot of the architecture in Colorado is just that you know again that's mining town or you know western town feel and you feel like you're stepping onto a film set yes yeah yes which is you know I quite enjoy a bit of that yeah but you're not are you you're not it's authentic it's real but make me feel as if I'm in a movie why don't you yeah absolutely so Florence aside I was also very recently in one of my favorite places Capri I love Capri so when I went to Capri for the first time I said that that was where I wanted to get married then I looked into it and realized I could never afford to get married there in a million years but there is something in instantly captivating about that island oh it's just the best it is old school la dolce vita and you know we were just talking about feeling like you're in a movie set and you absolutely do you know you've I feel like I'm Sophia Loren and we've we've stepped back a few decades and everything's glamorous and gorgeous and it's still retained that feel you know it hasn't given in to the the big guys when it comes to tourism it's still got that and it's just breathtaking in terms of the views the scenery that piazzetta when you arrive you know and you kind of sit in the main square and you just feel like life is good yeah so getting to Kepri is relatively easy you fly into Naples another city that I love and I'd always encourage people to spend a couple of nights there and then hop on the ferry they're very frequent there are ferries that run throughout the day into the evening and it's about a half an hour ferry to Capri itself it drops you off at Marina Grande and you can either stay in that part of town or you just get the little funicular up for five minutes and you're in the center so there's not a huge once you get to Naples there's not a great deal of traveling to do it's just not somewhere that you would navigate by car yeah you don't have car ferries do you it's you don't no car ferries it's all by foot once you're there you want to be footloose and fancy free hop on the local bus or one of their very expensive but fun taxis if you need to go somewhere further afield are there like little moak type things that also zip around there are but you're not technically meant to get them unless you're a certain of a certain age oh no way I didn't realize that I wonder if that's changed since I was there maybe yeah there are these well there are also there's these little zip cars that that are meant to be for luggage but occasionally you see a celebrity on the back of one of them and actually a friend of mine was there a couple of years ago she turned around and there was J-Lo in the luggage truck just being transported around I mean that's the kind of that's what you might end up seeing it's it's makeshift however they can get you up those hills they will because the hills are quite steep the hills are steep if you want to go from the center of Capri where most things happen up to Anna Capri which I would love to talk about um because I think that is a destination within itself yeah so there there are lots of hills to get up there but it depends where you base yourself because you might not need to to do a j-lo at all let's talk about anna capri then so that is the kind of second town of the island essentially yes i actually fell in love with it a few years ago because i i've been going to capri for years have you yes i have i'm a big fan i'm a regular visitor they know you on the aisle they some of them do and it's quite sweet when you see a friendly face so I would always stay in the center which I I did this time as well it's fab but then I discovered Anacapri during that time you know when it was kind of Covid and but it wasn't and you could travel but then you couldn't all that sort of stuff well I ended up in Anacapri and um and I stayed in this really adorable guest house called Rale Capuscuro it's run by Guido and Martina this newlywed couple but it's their part of the family that have owned it for many years and it was just so low-key in a way that you're not really used to that island being and you did get to know the locals and yet there was so much going on and there are these gorgeous little ceramics shops and places that you can go and get your sandals made and great restaurants you know there's a there's a restaurant there called La Zagara which is under the lemon trees and it's it's a kind of the food is actually really impressive but the setting is just exquisite it's similar to da paulino's which is a very famous restaurant on the island but again a bit more chill so i like to do a blend of i almost work my way up i like to to start in uh marina grande which is where the ferry brings you in spend a couple of days there then head up to the capri center and then go to anacapri tickle tickle the boxes yes yeah just I mean this time I went I think people think of it sometimes as a day trip which is I think where a lot of mistakes are made it's it's an island that you need to bed into but I think a lot of people stay for like three days four days this time I stayed for 11 days and really and you didn't get bored of it I didn't get bored of it I think again you know because we moved to those different parts of the island then it broke it up a bit but I was not remotely bored I could have done another 11.

22:16So do you have any recommendations for where to actually stay in Capri? Capri, I should say. It is Capri. Like we think we have our Capri Sun drinks growing up. Well, do you know, the funny thing is, I met someone when I was out there this time and it turns out that the owner of Capri Sun was getting married in Capri, which I just thought was very fortuitous. Yes, I have absolute recommendations. If you want something very iconic, then the JK Place Capri Hotel is is one of the most impressive hotels I think I've ever stayed in really and that's saying something because you've stayed in some great hotels I'm very lucky I have that one it's just felt well first of all I think you can stay in many hotels which look the part and you know I'm obviously always looking for really well designed properties which this one is but they lack that certain feeling and what I loved about the JK was that there was just such a warm welcoming joyful feeling amongst the entire team and from the moment that we stepped into the hotel to the moment that we left I mean they just couldn't have been more on board with making us have a great time hospitality yeah exactly and and so it totally nails that but then the interiors are by Michaela Bonan who's one of Italy's great interior designers and he's designed the property to feel as if you're in this magnificent home and and they are just it's just all delectable I mean I could I would have liked to have brought everything back and stuck it in my own home yeah and there's this pool that is next to the the panoramic terrace overlooking the sea it's just magnificent so it's a bucket list hotel is what I would say and then right in the center of Capri but away from all the noise there is a new opening which I'm kind of nervous about not gatekeeping because I feel like everyone will flood there and it'll get booked up forever but it's called Villa Helios and it's part of the small luxury hotels group so you know you know it's going to be of a certain standard but it's only got nine bedrooms oh wow yeah so very exclusive but beautifully designed and it has this um you know it's quite an unusual design for capri because the usual theme is the kind of blue and white clean crisp look yeah this has got a lot of moroccan tilage going on it's uh yeah it's quite you know there are lots of hints of brass and gold it's um it's very beautiful but it also has this lovely alfresco restaurant which is set in amongst the trees and has a great outlook as well so I just thought that it was a really smart one because it's you can literally be at the in the piazzetta in about three minutes but somehow it's kind of down one of those side lanes that people don't really kind of turn down yeah so once you get back to the hotel you just escape from everything so and it's got a rooftop top pool as well so you can just chill there during the day wait for all the tourists to leave and so this is a real hidden gem it is therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough it shows up in the smallest moments you bite your tongue instead of escalating you put your phone down instead of firing off that text you say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most.

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26:28And you can book a therapy session in minutes and begin in as little as two days, not the national 48-day average. See if you could pay as little as$0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com slash start now that's growtherapy.com slash start now growtherapy.com slash start now availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan we move on now to my hotel of the week which is a place that i uh spent a weekend in the summer the Grove in Hertfordshire now you have been there as well Amira I have many moons ago so I'd be really interested to see what you think of it actually Holly yeah so I was coming to it from a family travel perspective I went with both my kids who at the time you know three and a half and nearly nearly 12 months and I get a lot of questions about hotels that really genuinely cater to to children particularly young children that are within easy reach of London where there are a lot of my listeners based and I really felt like this hotel was quite exceptional in that way In particular, it had an Ofsted registered kids club.

27:56Wow. Which is, I think, you know, quite an unusual offering. In the summer when we were there, it had a huge outdoor cinema, picture house cinema, which was really, really charming. And for me, the Holy Grail, an outdoor heated pool. Oh, the heated element. The heated pool is a complete game changer. and they put on these amazing things for the kids like we were I dropped Isabella at the kids club and then I came out to the pool and saw that their kind of tent had been erected by the pool right which was full of a petting zoo and apparently that petting zoo was there every weekend there were giant tortoises wandering around snakes of all different shapes and sizes lizards it was an absolute blast and Isabella I literally just went to retrieve her immediately she spent all of about three minutes at the kids club that day and came out and got to like hang out with all these amazing animals and throughout the year they put on these really unique experiences for the kids which I thought was really fun yeah and when it comes to the dining again it is it's very much set up with the children in mind, like buffet style, every cuisine under the sun, but classy.

29:19And the room set up also, I thought, was really good for people who are looking for maybe a night away out of London. You can get kind of interconnecting junior suite type rooms. I think that you can actually get two bedroom ones as well. But we had two interconnecting junior suites, which was very ideal for us looking out over the grounds. The grounds are are beautiful I really felt like it you know we could be in a stately home in terms of how well landscaped and manicured that they were I would say that it did feel at times a little bit busy okay yeah well it sounds like it has something for everyone right yeah and you know I felt that with a couple of UK family centric properties the same with Four Seasons Hampshire actually it also felt quite busy a little chaotic at times I feel like maybe because it is they are large hotels that um when it's a beautiful sunny day which we were lucky that it was the pool can get a little bit packed but it had excellent food great facilities and I think you know if you want to go away with the family and it and it's you know an hour or so out of London in a lovely setting it's a really good option well I guess the the killer question is would you return again absolutely oh well there you go yeah I'd love to I think it would be very Christmassy in the winter but I also think in the summer to make the most of that space is really an exceptional offering there's also an indoor pool there and a shallow kids pool as well so whatever the time of year I think that there'll be plenty to do to keep you occupied there's also a ginormous golf course if you're into golf which I'm not but I think as far as golf courses go it's a really good one okay so it is time for our listener travel question thank you so much to Carly in Dundee she got in touch and said I have got three days in Los Angeles I don't want to spend half of it in traffic oh I feel you which area should I base myself in and what should I actually do so I understand this dilemma entirely LA is maybe my all-time favorite city Amira you are always jetting back and forth to Los Angeles I see on my Instagram so I feel like you're very well placed to answer this one for us thanks Carly yes I'm delighted with this question and I I like you absolutely love LA I do a lot of work there with rapport we host lots of events there so yeah always back and forth and Carly the answer to your question is West Hollywood base yourself there it's the most walkable or one of the few very walkable areas of LA you have everything you need there are also some great little boutique properties there so yeah West Hollywood is where it's at for you okay let's deep dive into West Hollywood because I also love it haven't been there for a long time so tell me about like the hot spots that we need to include in Carly's trip so if should we start with where she might want to stay please yes so there is a great hotel called short stories hotel short stories short stories hotel okay yes I've actually hosted an event there but it's fab it's kind of um well its location's very good because you're opposite the grove shopping center which is like Disneyland for adults I know that for modern families oh there you go they go to the grove there you go so the grove and the old farmer's market which is actually great for food but the hotel itself is is really fun and has a cool bar downstairs a really beautiful patio and uh and it's not that expensive you know in LA terms you can get a room and for a couple hundred dollars and and it will be a lovely room you'll be well looked after so that's an amazing tip then yeah I do think short stories is uh again one of those properties that I've stumbled upon and thought oh I feel like surely this is just going to be booked up all the time but I have always managed to find a room which is great the other one that I stayed at last time we were in town it was Pally House West Hollywood oh yeah part of the the Pally group again always impeccably designed never too big great little buzz um and I really enjoyed it uh our room was super comfortable again well located for for just having everything outside your front door great coffee shops magnolia bakeries across the road which is very dangerous what's your order of choice there oh the banana pudding right you know the i just i love it it's and i try other banana puddings and it's just never quite the same and and then if you want something a little bit more quirky i would say petita mataj have you ever stayed there no okay so that is uh in a slightly different part of west hollywood it's it's towards sunset but it is it's kind of how do I describe petite it's quite uh flamboyant there are a lot of characters who work there but it's got a fab rooftop pool and you never know who you're gonna spot on the rooftop it's been there for years and uh it's quite quirky it's not for everyone I'd say it's more it's it's less for the kiddos and and more for the grown-ups but uh but yeah that's another place that I would really enjoy in terms of staying I think once I actually the first time I went I was really lucky because I had someone who was really knowledgeable about LA say to me don't think of Los Angeles as one city yeah think of it as a series of cities totally make up LA totally agree each one has its own vibe yeah so many things to do so you couldn't possibly on you know within three or four days cover all bases you just need to hone in on one or two so would you then just hone in on West Hollywood where would you then add on if you were there for the three days well I would I think my first if it was just three days I would think about whether I wanted to be by the sea or in the city yeah I think you do have to kind of make that choice because they are fairly far from each other and you don't want to be stuck in traffic Carly yeah so if it was West Hollywood you can then take in Silver Lake and La Brea and Larchmont and and focus on that area so if you were going to go for the city vibe I think that's a great little collection of hot spots for you or you could do the coast so that you then do Malibu Santa Monica spend some time in Abbot Kinney which is a great street around that area yeah lots of restaurants I always loved Jelena for lunch and you know there are some some cute little boutique hotels around there as well so Venice as well Venice as well although some bits of Venice are a little bit sketch now yeah a little bit sketch yeah I've heard that so you do have to be a bit careful but I think that's that's three days within itself yeah and then also downtown LA is a whole other so that wasn't even like a thing when I was last there well downtown is cool it's It has a lot of great art and, you know, some really amazing small businesses are sort of rising there.

36:35There's a great food market in downtown. And you've also got La Brea, which is an amazing art gallery. But you're not going to fit all these things into 72 hours. So, you know, there's always a reason to return. But if it was just one zone that I had to base myself in to really get to grips with it all, I think it would be West Hollywood and the and the surrounding areas I think also West Hollywood is a really good place to get that intoxicating magic of LA as well like I think it feels very LA it does doesn't it encapsulates it yeah and that's what you want you kind of you know you want to spot someone famous and you you want to go to these spots that you grew up in you grew up watching exactly you know i mean i i love uh griffith park and the observatory there stunning so beautiful i would say like of the touristy things to do in la griffith park and the observatory is probably the number one thing to do you know you can say you went on a hike but actually it was just a walk that was to the top of the observatory um and you know you have those amazing views over the city which is worth it you have your la la land moment your la la land moment exactly no I I'm with you on that I think if you had to pick one touristy thing to do yeah that would that would probably be it um but then you know there are so many things I'm with families as well I think LA is a great family destination so much to do so much and you know if you've got young kids you can do the cheesy stuff which you'll secretly enjoy as well go to the studios you know do a little paramount afternoon go to universal see warner brothers get to sort of sit on the friend's sofa or whatever you might want to do you know it is this if this is the magic of LA and I think you have to embrace it.

38:17There is so much cool stuff going on and I love the, I think the food scene there is really interesting and also, you know, the Mexican food that you get is fabulous. Gracias Madre, have you been there? It's one of my favorites. Gracias Madre, right. All of Amira's destination recommendations are in the show notes. So guys, don't worry. You can open up on your podcast app and see all of these places. I'll hyperlink them as well. Great. is there anywhere else you'd like to recommend to carly before we move on to your bucket list destination well i think i mentioned earlier pasadena and this is somewhere that i only discovered in one of my more recent trips but there is a great if carly if you're into interiors there's a really fabulous antiques and design center there where you can find lots of of cool quirky pieces and again you know take that take that little bit of la home and there's also the Rose Bowl flea market which which is worth a visit if it's on when you're there too that's near Pasadena so it's a little bit further out but but it's a really fun place to go and it's quite calm for LA you know it's it's it's not the kind of hectic vibes it's it feels fairly residential but then there's also a lot to discover okay fabulous great tip and I hope Carly that you're maybe able to combine LA with somewhere else in California because there are so much that is fabulous around there palm springs i was i was literally gonna say are you gonna add on palm springs are you gonna add on santa barbara i i got married in santa barbara you didn't i love that for you where in santa barbara um in montecito yeah before harry and megan but you you put it on the map they followed you they copied you now they're back here copying you all over again but i love that you got married in montecito is that where your dad's from no no he's from Brooklyn actually okay but we were uh doing a seven week uh road trip across the U.S.

40:16um I was reviewing like a zillion hotels and when we were in Malibu or maybe actually it was just before we hit hit California actually come to think of it we decided what we'd already been planning our wedding which was going to be in December in England but we thought we just wanted to have a moment that was just us so on the fly we we i bought a dress in malibu a red flowery dress and then we had a couple of nights in um well in that area and then we went up uh we stayed at the rosewood miramar montecito which is a stunning hotel it had just opened at the time and we last when it found this company called weddings by the sea shout out to them they provided for like literally I think it was about$400 a photographer um the celebrant the certificate all of it a guy called Dusty married us and we and we stood on the sand and uh it was really really really special and we had the wedding certificate up in our it's a beautiful wedding certificate it's like this beautiful blue with lovely drawings on it was really fun that is one of the most romantic and fabulous stories I think I've ever heard.

41:28I love this for you and you know it is it's such a happy place to have got married. I mean life is good in Montecito right? It is it is so good. That morning we went to the flower market. I bought some calla lilies like the produce there is so gorgeous. It was really nice. I went to like a very very local hairdresser and had a blowout. you know they must have loved it so everyone must be so excited for you but this impromptu wedding yeah I feel like you need to do a whole episode just on that because we set up our parents on ipad so they they they watched well while it happened were they okay with not being there I think that um I didn't I think that maybe we should have thought that through a little bit more um but I think that they were and ultimately what was really nice was them and we had our wedding in the UK because we were already actually technically married our mums were our um officiants this is so cool so they were they were such a part of our wedding in England that it made up for it it was fine yeah but I love that you had that moment just for the two of you do you know what for anybody who's listening who is potentially considering you know a low pick abroad or doing something like that um and is planning to have some celebration like with a larger crowd for me I really felt as though it meant that we were able to truly feel the feelings and the enormity of actually getting married because sometimes you can get so wrapped up in the the you know chaos of the big day and making sure everything's running on time and stuff that you can lose sight of what the actual purpose of this celebration is so for us I found it like unbelievably emotional and special and then was really able to let my hair down at the big wedding we had in England so I think it worked out really nicely you're so right and it is such you know you I think people get caught up in the chaos of a wedding and trying to please everyone yeah and make sure everyone else is happy but it is a moment between two people which is the most intimate you know experience and to give each other that moment and just let it sink in is is very special and hugely romantic and well done you i knew i loved montecito but now i love it even more so so i always love to end and each of these episodes with asking the destination that is at the top of your travel bucket um i think at the top of my list at the moment is the copacabana in rio have you seen that that the belmont have redone it oh i have seen yeah and i haven't been there yes i have well anything belmont does you know is going to be glorious but i've never been to brazil and i love the idea of starting a trip off in rio staying at copacabana i mean i will have barry manilow's song in my head for the whole time but if i can get through that i just it just you know i love places that feel like they have real soul and character and And I feel like Rio is one of those places and it's been on my radar for ages.

44:41But now that that fabulous hotel is there as well, get me on that flight. 100%. Actually, speaking of Belmont and character, the most characterful hotel I think I've ever stayed and I mentioned earlier in this season, the Belmont Splendidale in Portofino. Unbelievable use of local artisans and beautiful tiling mosaics and so on. It was just, you have to, have you been? No, I haven't. Oh my gosh, yeah. If you're into design, it is like the number one, in my opinion. Well, I need to add that to the long list of places. The thing is, how do we fit it all in? What do we do? We take this show on the road, maybe.

45:18Thank you so much, Amira. It has been an absolute joy. Will you come and join me again? Please. Thank you so much for having me.

45:28A huge thank you to the lovely Amira for joining me and leaving us with quite the travel wish list. all the places we've discussed are in the episode show notes today and on my website thetraveldiariespodcast.com if you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to follow the travel diaries on your podcast app of choice and share it with a friend if you think they'd enjoy it too i'll be back on tuesday with another episode in the meantime wishing you all safe travels

46:05Thank you.

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