One thing I’ve learned over the years, from riding my bicycle from Alaska to Argentina to covering races like the Tour de France as a photojournalist, is that location is everything when it comes to where you stay.
There’s a simple rule I picked up somewhere along the way: stay where it actually happens.
Wake up, and you’re already in the heart of it. No transfers. No distance. No separation from the place and people you came to experience.
I’ll choose location over an extra star of luxury almost every time. I’d rather step outside onto one of the beautiful stone streets of Barichara, Colombia, for example, than stay three miles outside town in a polished five-star property that feels disconnected from the soul of the destination. I love the smaller places where the owners are still on-site, where breakfast turns into a conversation with the people who own and manage the property.
The older I get, the more I realize that the best parts of travel rarely happen inside the hotel.
They happen just outside the front door.
In the café that you walked to early in the morning. Before the rush, when the barista was still keen to have a conversation with her first customer of the day. In the plaza at sunset, eating ice cream with a third-generation coffee farmer. In the unexpected conversation about cultural sameness and difference with your kids or partner while wandering home after dinner.
I think this matters even more with groups.
When people are centrally located, the entire trip flows differently. Guests can move at their own pace. They can walk, explore, meet up naturally, and discover things on their own without every moment depending on a driver, transfer schedule, or logistical coordination.
That freedom changes the energy of a trip.
It’s one of the reasons many of the properties we select at WhereNext DMC are located right in the center of things. That’s not accidental. It’s a filter we’ve developed after years on the road, years scouting hotels, and years learning what actually creates memorable travel experiences.
Because in the end, I don’t think luxury is just what’s inside the hotel.
It’s what’s waiting for you just outside the front door.
#FeelSomething
