Unpacked: New York, Greek Islands, Monastero Santa Rosa, Scandinavia & more, with Conde Nast Traveller Digital Director, Sarah Allard

0:00Today's episode is supported by Kimpton Los Monteros Marbella. Marbella is one of my favourite places in Europe, especially at this time of year. It has that lovely mix of sunshine, sea, a little bit of glamour, and Kimpton Los Monteros has been part of its story for more than 60 years. Following its renovation, Los Monteros reopened last year with a more contemporary luxury lifestyle Mediterranean feel while retaining the glamour that made it a Marbella institution. If I was planning my perfect day at Kimpton Los Monteros, I think I'd spend the morning exploring Marbella's old town. I'd come back for a long afternoon by the pool, then head up to Escondido rooftop for a cocktail, some Mexican food and views across the sea.

0:45Or maybe I'd make a day of the hotel itself, play tennis or paddle at the racket club, book a treatment at the spa and finish with dinner at Jara where the menu draws on local ingredients and Spanish favourites. If you're an early riser, there's rooftop yoga. If you're not, then you can start the day with a slow breakfast instead. And there's La Cabane by Dolce & Gabbana for a proper Marbella Beach Club day. You know, that's really the appeal, isn't it? you can fill your days with food, exploring and a bit of activity or simply find a sunny spot and switch off. Discover Kimpton Los Monteros Marbella and start planning your next Mediterranean escape at kimtonlosmonterosmarbella.com.

1:31Hello and welcome to The Travel Diaries Unpacked, your weekly weekend dose of Wanderlust. I'm Holly Rubenstein and today I'm joined by Sarah Allard, the digital director at Condé Nast Traveller, someone whose job involves keeping her finger firmly on the pulse of where we should be travelling next. And she has brought some brilliant recommendations today. We're talking about a Danish island that might just be your next summer holiday, her favourite Greek islands and how to combine a trip to New York with a few days in the beautiful Hudson Valley. We've also got some gorgeous foodie escapes for an autumn weekend here in the UK and I'm sharing my hotel of the week on the Amalfi Coast, complete with the best swimming pool I've ever swum in.

2:16So wherever you're listening, settle in and let's get unpacking with Sarah Allard.

2:25Sarah, welcome to the Travel Diaries Unpacked. It's amazing to see how you doing I'm good how are you I'm really well thank you I'm actually just packing again uh flying off tomorrow morning to Italy so it's been busy but uh I'm good fabulous one thing that I think everyone be really curious about I mean people who are tuning into this podcast have a love of travel and you've like got the dream gig working at Condé Nast Traveller is there a destination at the moment that everyone is talking about right now that maybe isn't so mainstream yet like a hidden gem essentially I mean we have been talking about this quite a lot on the team because you know we've seen such a it's been you know such an interesting summer obviously the heat has been so intense and I feel like ever since Covid travel behaviors have changed so dramatically every year we're seeing so many different destinations coming up and you know behaviors changing in terms of like when people travel how people travel because of over tourism because of the heat because of you know costs as well I think at the moment there's a real buzz around northern Europe particularly and I and I guess probably because you know the heat that we've seen more and more people are avoiding south Europe southern Europe in in the peak summer months and I think there's so much about northern Europe that's still there to be explored and to be experienced particularly you know Sweden and all the gorgeous islands around there and Finland and Norway's Lofoten Islands we actually also recently did a piece on Bonholm in Denmark so I think a lot of those destinations I think there's just so much to explore there so I'm sure that we're going to see a lot more of that over the next few years as people figure out how to kind of avoid that really intense heat and those really crazy crowds that you're seeing so much.

4:24So, yeah, I'd say Northern Europe for sure. But I don't know that place in Denmark that you mentioned. Tell me a bit more about that. Bonhomme is actually funny because we had someone pitch it to us as a piece a few weeks ago. so we've we just recently ran something on it but it's actually a place that um is quite close to my heart because my sister and her wife got married there and this is a while ago now um no way they got married there they got married there yeah my my sister's wife is um she's Norwegian but her family her parents live on Bonholm um for most of the year so they they go there every single summer and it's an incredibly special place for for them and their family so we got to go there for their wedding which was just amazing and it's just really beautiful very peaceful gorgeous beaches and the people are just so friendly and it's just it's just so nice to go somewhere a little bit different you know just to kind of it's it's not somewhere we'd never been before but you can kind of get everything there it feels very outdoorsy you can have just this amazing um amazing kind of seaside type trip or you can you know you can go hiking and it's just it's just lovely it's very picturesque I have a few weeks there every summer um and it's just so pretty I would definitely recommend taking a look at that if you're ever interested in and trying somewhere a little bit different it's gorgeous that is such a hidden gem that is such a hidden gem how did you spend your days when you were there or how do they spend their days as well They will go and they usually take the kids for like a cycle ride.

6:03They'll go down to the beach. They'll just, they probably spend most of their days at the beach, to be honest. You know, in and out of the sea, getting ice creams. My sister's father-in-law has a speedboat, so they'll be out and bow on the speedboat. And they just, it's all very, it's very picturesque and it's just so lovely. Very wholesome. Very wholesome, very wholesome Scandi vibes. So yeah, it's lovely. So we just, yeah, we recently did a piece on Born Home and it did so well. So, yeah, if anyone's wanting to have all to investigate more, head to Traveller and check it out. Because, yeah, it just is such a hidden gem.

6:39I feel like not many people know about it, but it's well worth a look. That's an amazing one. Where else have you been to recently, Sarah? I turned 40 in June and I really wanted to do a special trip. happy birthday didn't realize that thank you um and I'm yeah I'm a bit of a birthday brat and I just wanted to do you know I was trying to think where do I want to wake up on my birthday I don't want to be in London you know I want to be somewhere that's kind of special and fun and meaningful so I just I landed on New York because I just couldn't think of a more appropriate place to wake up on my 40th so that's what we did so we did we actually went upstate for a few nights first and then we drove down into the city and that's where I was for my actual birthday so we were there we were in and around New York for a week in June and that yeah it was great it was so much fun.

7:34So where did you go upstate? So we stayed in Hudson Valley we actually stayed at a hotel called Inez they're in a place called Accord and yeah it's it was really really lovely it's this kind of modern farmhouse I would describe it as so you kind of you can have rooms inside their actual farmhouse building or they have all these lovely cabins dotted around and it's kind of this really beautiful combination of Scandinavian chic meets kind of rustic Americana but you can kind of just yeah spend your day doing whatever you like really you can explore around all the little towns and villages nearby you can come back and just sit by the fire pits with a cocktail i just thought they have these amazing views over the valley so you can just sit with your cocktail and the fire going um and it's yeah it was it was very relaxing it was it was so chilled i loved it i do think that the hudson valley is a bit of a hidden gem for uk travelers i mean obviously new york city such a popular destination but both the catskills and the hudson valley allow you to go and have both a city break and then a completely contrasting experience and there's so much character and so much creativity uh just a couple of hours outside of manhattan in a completely different way um they're they're real creative communities aren't they both hudson valley and catskills area yeah absolutely i mean we we have our um we have our team that are based in new york and they so they kind of you know they explore that part so much so I always get so envious that they have that on their doorsteps.

9:14I guess it's like our Cotswolds, I suppose. The Cotswolds, exactly, yeah. I've been once before, actually. We'd stayed at one of the auberge properties. It's called Wildflower Farms. What a lovely name. Yeah, yeah. It's lovely. Yeah, I could highly recommend both properties. Both very different. Wildflower is much bigger and there's much more of a cabin experience. And, yeah, it's really cool. We absolutely loved it. and there's a little bit smaller um a bit more intimate and but again just really lovely and just it just every time I go I want to go back um because there's so many lovely towns to explore and it's just amazing you're literally an hour and a half drive from Manhattan it's just crazy yeah it's it's so so special well how did you spend your days while you were upstate what were you what what did you do kind of each day we wanted to have at least one day where we were just you know just staying still um and enjoying the property because i feel like usually when we travel it's a little bit like right we've got to go here there and everywhere and i really wanted just to build in some time just to just do nothing basically so we did spend a bit of time at the hotel we also drove to um rhinebeck which is just this lovely little town nearby it was lovely they had like a farmer's market which i'm such a sucker for i absolutely love a farmer's market um they had an amazing restaurant kind of bistro called little goat um which was really lovely we had a really great lunch there and yeah and we just kind of drove around i think that's the the nice thing that you can just drive around and you'll you'll see a farm shop or or a market or a cafe and you can just stop and by the side of the road and just pop in and so we did we did quite a lot of that to be honest which was really nice i mean i'm a passenger princess so it's definitely nice for me I could just sit in I don't have to worry about the driving yeah exactly and how was your time in New York how was the birthday morning it was great yes I love a plan and my poor husband I was like the first things first I want to have bagels from here so bless him he went out and got bagels for us um and then I had this like very strict itinerary of things that I wanted to do on my birthday um so then we went for brunch and we went shopping and yeah we had just a great dinner and yeah martinis obviously because I'm a big martini fan so we made sure there was plenty of martinis involved we've got to break this down though where did the bagels have to come from and where did brunch have to be so the bagels we got from pop-up bagels which I've never had in New York before I've had a few of the different um we went to a few of the different bagel places last time we were there we had like fresh bagels and they they give you like all the little dips and things we had the cream cheese and then i think we had like a cinnamon butter or something and it was oh it was all delicious um and then we went to the commerce inn for brunch it's just it's amazing it's kind of like it kind of actually feels like a sort of like an old english pub that's like the vibe inside it's like an old tavern so we had brunch there i'd seen that they do this these amazing blueberry pancakes so we ordered the blueberry pancakes um so that was wonderful and then yeah we just kind of spent the day like mooching around popping in and out of some of the shops and then that evening we went for dinner at a place called Keen's which is a really old steakhouse and I just wanted that classic kind of New York experience where we're having like steak and fries and martinis and it absolutely delivered on all fronts it was it was great um so yeah I would recommend Keene's so where where is Keene's it's basically it's so central it was right by Empire State Building um Midtown South I think you'd say um but yeah it's actually very close to Pop-Up Bagels I'm just looking at my map now um so you could you could plan your day around Pop-Up Bagels and Keene's Steakhouse um but yeah I would highly recommend.

13:09I just love Greece. I mean, everyone in the office kind of will have a laugh about it because I just, I go there every year. I just think it's just such a relaxing, easy, and just such a gorgeous place to visit. And I just usually go sort of September, October time. So I feel like it's that perfect time of the year where you kind of, you've had your summer and then you have that lovely little reset in sort of September, October time. and then you come back into the madness of pre-Christmas in London and it's that perfect time to switch off and just have a bit of a reset. It's such a good place to go out of season.

13:44Well, I would say it's kind of almost peak season now, isn't it? September, October to prolong the summer is the dream. It really is the dream. I think it's kind of mad to go peak summer now. I mean, it's just, I've been to Athens in August and my goodness, terrible, terrible move for me. It was so, so hot. so yeah this is definitely the best time to go September October or you know early spring as well is so lovely but my my absolute favorites are I would have to say it's definitely the smaller islands I've done a few of the bigger spots um but Sifnos is one of my favorites Paros as well so Sifnos I can't even picture where that is tell me tell me where it is it's in the Cyclades so yeah it's kind of I think we got to it from Athens I'm trying to remember now there's no airport on it so it's it just kind of feels a lot more remote it feels a bit more undiscovered I would say I mean people know about it but it's it's not as busy as your Santorini's or your Mykonos's let's say.

14:44So the Cyclades is the one that has Mykonos, Santorini, Paros right and so is it that same kind of look that same kind of feel? Yeah it's quite rugged it's very chilled and the food scene there Holly is just so good the food is amazing it's very unfussy and the ingredients are really fresh and you can just eat exceptionally well without it feeling too formal as well which I really love when I'm going on holiday I don't want anything to feel like too stuffy it's very laid back and yeah there's one particular restaurant that we went to called Cantina which if anyone is going to Sifnos absolutely make sure you book in advance because I think it gets very busy and for good reason like it's just probably the most spectacular restaurant setting that I've ever experienced it's just so gorgeous oh what's it like tell me it's all facing like a bay and you sit on these rocks and you're all kind of it's like an amphitheatre style seating so you're all kind of like stepping up on these on this sort of rock sort of restaurant and yeah it's just lovely you're you're facing the water and you just sit and eat your dinner and the sky kind of turns pink as the as the sun sets and it's just really it was just so special it was just lovely it wasn't just the food it was the setting it was the service and just being there at that time like the whole thing kind of came together together to be just this amazing experience where did you stay when you were there on the island we stayed at a hotel called NOS um NOS and it's just this gorgeous little 18-room boutique hotel.

16:24It's close to a sleepy fishing village called Pharos. But it feels like it's kind of built into the rugged landscape. It really feels very remote when you're there. And the views are just incredible. And you can see the famous monastery. I think you pronounce it Cruisipigi Monastery. You'll probably recognise it. It's that kind of iconic, beautiful white building. And you can see that from the hotel. And yeah, it was just, it was so relaxing. It was lovely. What was the water like? Did you swim in the sea much? We did, yeah. And it's just, I mean, everywhere in Greece. I don't feel like I've ever come across an island where it hasn't been great for a dip in the sea, you know.

17:08We were recently in Paros and it's the same. It's that kind of rugged kind of landscape. we were in a slightly different part of Paros to where I've been before which has been a slightly more touristy part yeah so what would you choose Paros for versus choosing Sifnos I feel like Paros has got a lot more going on maybe if you're kind of with like friends or you're with you know wanting to have a bit more of a a buzzy kind of trip and you weren't just wanting to just sort of sit by a pool or a beach a beach all day there's lots going on in paros we stayed this time at lura which is a brand new hotel and it's on the west coast so it's slightly quieter and it's just the most incredible place we absolutely loved it it's kind of like a gallery meets hotel they have all these amazing works by international and local artists dotted inside and outside of the hotel and And so it just everything felt very considered and it's very beautiful.

18:10I'm just looking it up now. The images are spectacular. It's amazing. Definitely you have to add it to your list. It's so special. I did a first stint on Traveller, which is always so exciting because you're kind of going in with no expectations of what a place is going to be like. And I've obviously seen a few of the press shots, but it's such a different feeling when you're going into a hotel having not been able to talk to anyone really about their own experience. experiences of a place and to just experience it as like you know one of the first and it just feels very special and it was yeah it was amazing also an incredible breakfast buffet which is just one of my absolute favorite parts of a hotel stay anywhere totally but it was very good where's been your all-time favorite breakfast buffet if you have to scroll back through all your hotel stays gosh that's such a good question best breakfast do you know who does an amazing breakfast is um Glen Eagles and if anyone has been I don't even know if you could call it a buffet it's just so beyond a buffet it's ridiculous a banquet a breakfast banquet it's like a whole room of breakfast it's it's ridiculous but um I can't really think about breakfast at a hotel without mentioning Glen Eagles because it is just so iconic you know somewhere that had an incredible breakfast actually was my uh hotel of the week this week Monastero Santa Rosa and the Amalfi coast oh my goodness what was amazing about the food in this hotel was that well firstly it has a michelin-style restaurant called il refatorio and it utilizes all these ingredients that are primarily grown in the hotel's garden well okay a lot of hotels might say that they grow their own produce but this is a hotel that is suspended down a steep cliff on the abalfi coast and you and how they utilize the land to grow this delicious sun infused food is just like in itself quite incredible I think and they did this fantastic kind of a la carte breakfast where it was very decadent and very rich it's a former 17th century monastery and it's kind of I think it is almost the grand dam of the Amalfi coast in the way that it sits it's this dramatically suspended above the sea property you can see it wherever you are on the coast if you're out on a boat trip um it's between Amalfi and Positano I actually took my my mum there for her 70th birthday and and most importantly I think it's a hotel with history and a hotel with soul because you know So there are just, you and I have both been so fortunate to visit a lot of hotels, but for somewhere to feel as though it's got a lot of character and personality, it's quite easy for there to be like quite a lot of cookie cutter type properties.

21:06But this was completely different because it really celebrates its history. It has original vaulted ceilings. It has stone corridors. It has this monastic architecture, but it's juxtaposed with very kind of tongue in cheek references to the nuns that used to live there the nuns that used to live there were silent nuns and oh my goodness yeah they didn't speak to anybody they couldn't make eye contact with anybody at the local market so you could almost feel the nuns in the corridor I have to say when I looked it up online um I don't necessarily feel that the photos of it do it justice because it looks quite austere but it isn't it's actually unbelievably luxurious and comfortable and beautifully done I guess it's just the kind of dark woods and the kind of monastic elements kind of give that impression a little bit but the thing that I really wanted to spend time in was the infinity pool because I think it was my number one swimming pool that I've ever been in in my career it was uh looking out with kind of 180 views over the malvi coast with capri in the distance it's one of those places that almost is like too perfect in photographs to to believe it's real but it it genuinely genuinely was and i really liked the fact that it was only 20 rooms so and all of them have a view a view that includes the water pretty much so it's definitely a splurge hotel it was starting around 700 euros a night so you know obviously it's a very very special treat place but there were a lot of honeymooners there people celebrating their anniversaries it's adults only and you know i you'll probably ask this a lot as well in fact i was going to ask you that about lura but i'm often asked if luxury hotels are worth the money and i find that such an impossible question to answer because it's so nuanced and everybody is coming at it from such uh you know different budget different point of view um but if i was saving up a lot to go away somewhere for a night i'd very happily spend that at monastero amazing you won't be able to get that view from literally anywhere else like that is such a unique like viewpoint that they have yeah well i think also people have this impression of the amalfi coast as being unbelievably hectic which it is um because of cruise ships and because of over tourism but because this is a monastery up on a cliff you feel like you could be the only people there in the world it's so peaceful and it's such a lovely place to return back to if you are venturing out into that um kind of busyness of of the mafia today's episode is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb.

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26:26Well, we move on to our listener question of the week, and that is coming from Annie in West Sussex. And I feel like you are very well placed to answer this. So she says, I'm looking for a chic boutique property that I'm looking to go away to for an autumn weekend in the UK budget is max 400 a night ideally less do you have any recommendations well I mean as we've touched on a bit of a foodie so I I would definitely I would definitely go for a spot that I know is going to deliver on the food front and I feel like there's nothing better than like an autumn weekend where you could just hunker down somewhere super cozy and just eat extremely well yeah that's like my absolute dream super cozy is what we're looking for if there's an open fire absolute bonus so I think the two that spring to mind for me and two that I've stayed in more recently first would be number one Bruton oh yes and someone said have you been oh yes I have I have I've been a couple of times actually it's a great place to also stop off if you're going down to Cornwall yes yeah I want to break up the drive it's a long old drive yeah exactly and I only think I've only been once and I'd been hearing so much about Bruton and it's no secret that it's really beautiful, very creative little town that's become so popular, so many amazing restaurants, obviously you've got House of Runworth Gallery there At the Chapel you've got At the Chapel, yeah exactly Lovely little hotel there that's set in a chapel that has amazing breakfast I mean Bruton we should just say is a kind of very fashionable market town in Somerset and it's got the river running along the bottom of it, River Brew, which is so pretty.

28:12It's just such a lovely place. I actually think if I was to move out of London, that's where I'd like to move to. You could just spend a whole day just on that high street, popping in and out of all the lovely little boutiques. And they have these amazing like secondhand shops and vintage spots. And it's just lovely. It's really, it's really fab. So I would definitely recommend a stay at number one. And the food there is just incredible so they have Briar which is their restaurant it's headed up by Sam Lomas and it kind of strikes this amazing balance of like a buzzy spot but it still feels very relaxed as well and they just they do this incredible small plates super seasonal as you would expect very local produce is really like the highlight they really champion everything that's local and it was just such a lovely experience we had the most delicious dinner there that's a really really great one to choose I and also it's such a great base for exploring the kind of broader area around there which as you say is just kind of jam-packed with kind of cultural highlights any other places you think might be a good fit and any other counties potentially I also love Glebe House so we stayed there quite recently earlier this year I've always wanted to go oh Holly you You would absolutely, you'd love it.

29:30It's so, so lovely. That's in Devon, South Devon, I believe. It's such a special place, so unique. It's just this completely different proposition. And they kind of combine this charming restaurant, small holding, a collection of cabins, and then you can stay in rooms in the main house as well. So you've got lots of different options if you wanted to stay there. But we stayed in one of their cabins, one of the newer cabins. and we took our dog with us actually um and it was just absolutely perfect it was again like very cozy um the food is just such a big focus for them that so the owners Hugo and Olive Hugo is is super foodie he's worked on the menu with their head chef David um but he gets really involved in the kitchen he does the breakfasts so he's kind of like running that side and then Olive um is she's this incredible artist so the whole property is just full of her art but also other artists as well so it's just lovely you kind of leave thinking wow like I kind of want your life like this is amazing why am I going back to London it's really peaceful it's very like creative you kind of come away feeling genuinely re-energized in a way so yeah I would highly recommend Glebe.

30:53Oh that sounds amazing. What's the setting like? You're basically in the middle of nowhere so you're in like a you're in like a you know in the middle of the countryside and as you kind of come up the this country lane if you're you know when you're driving I think you would need to have a car because it's quite a lot of winding roads to get there but we you kind of drive up and you just see this beautiful white farmhouse which is the main building and then they have the cabins but they're kind of hidden away a little bit they're kind of tucked into the woods almost. And you just, from the cabin, like we had a tub on our deck of where we were staying.

31:32So if you're in the tub, you just have these incredible views of the fields. And you really, it does feel very remote. It's lovely. The dog was just in his absolute element. He loved it. We had a wood burner in the cabin and they very sweetly put the dog beds right in front of the wood burner. So he was honestly in heaven. He just like settled straight into his spot in front of the fire. And yeah, he was having such a lovely time. So great if you've got a pet and you want to take a dog. How long did it take you to get there? Yeah, we drove from London. I would say it's probably about four hours.

32:06I mean, we're East London. It's quite a long way, isn't it? It's a bit of a drive, but honestly, it's absolutely worth it. It's worth it, yeah. 100%. For those breakfasts and for that food, I would do double. yeah it was it was well worth it again I should caveat that I am the passenger princess but yeah it's it's so worth the drive that's a brilliant recommendation I hope that that answers uh your question and gives you a couple of places to add to your travel wish list Annie and let me know if you end up going to either of those those properties I'd love to know and finally then I always love to ask my guests what's at the top of your travel bucket list where's left for you to discover Sarah oh my gosh there's so many places I've actually just started to think about my travel for next year because it gets that time of year doesn't it when you're like right okay all the all my trips for this year are kind of the weather happened or you know they're all fully planned and I need to start thinking about um next year so yeah I would really love to do India I've never done India which is kind of crazy that's very high on my list um egypt like a nile cruise i'm sure i feel like everyone probably says that to you but that's well i mean yeah it's on my bucket list too for sure and there are some amazing ones that seem to have launched recently really amazing ones so that's so that's very high on my list i've i've never been to montana so i'd love to do that kind of part of the states um there's one and only moonlight basin which i think launched was it last year i can't quite remember now maybe it was earlier this year but that looks like an incredible property I would love to experience that and then more of Scotland because yeah I just don't feel like I've done enough anywhere near enough um I've done you know we've been to Edinburgh and Glasgow but I really haven't done much outside of that so I'm I'm hoping to visit um Hope which is the property by Wildland which looks really really gorgeous it's sort of insane super super north and it kind of looks basically like a sort of scottish safari lodge basically it's like all kind of windows that you just look out into this rugged um landscape and i think the idea is that they encourage you to really explore explore the explore the landscape and to kind of get out there and and see as much of that as possible but it just just looks so beautiful um so i'd love to experience that at some point more scotland definitely oh well i hope you make it up there soon sarah thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your insider insights a huge thank you to sarah allard my travel wish list has grown considerably after that conversation i'd love to know which of today's recommendations caught your eye and if you have a travel question you'd like us to answer on unpack don't forget It's thetraveldiariespodcast at gmail.com or send it my way on Instagram or TikTok.

35:08I'm at Holly Rubenstein. If you enjoyed the episode today, make sure you're following the Travel Diaries on your podcast app so you don't miss the next one. I'll be back on Tuesday with another guest sharing the seven chapters of their Travel Diaries and next weekend with more Unpacked. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. Have a lovely rest of your weekend.

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