Don’t Compromise on the Future

Sustainable and soulful stays in Sicily, Spain, Mexico, and New York.

Access to nature, community, inspiring design, incredible food, and the most rested version of yourself can be found in: 

• a new set of cozy mountain huts in the Catskills

• a 300-year-old finca in Ibiza

• a self-sufficient Sicilian farmhouse and inn 

• a carefully guarded coastal region of Mexico

• a Tuscan castle turned bed-and-breakfast

  

  Photos by Daniel Schwartz.

  A New Reason to Visit a Catskill Classic

  When it reopened in 2016, Scribner’s set a standard for a new age of Catskill hotel: boutique, bespoke, and a far cry from the Borscht belt resorts of old. In the years since, the hotel has managed to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded market thanks to thoughtful programming (meet-the-makers series and regular DJ sets by the pool), an ever-evolving restaurant, and its Instagram-famous barrel sauna. The latest reason to check in? The Rounds, a collection of eleven luxury cabins modeled after European mountain huts and located just up the road from The Lodge. These distinct, twelve-sided, wood-clad structures, designed by Post Company, come in two layouts — standard sleeps up to four while the suite accommodates up to five — and are best suited for travelers looking for a private, back-to-nature, all-season experience without going off-grid.

  

  Photo by Ana Lui / courtesy of Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel.

  Discovering the Soulful & Sustainable Side of Ibiza

  The mythical energy of Ibiza can only be felt by stepping foot on the Mediterranean isle. While the so-called White Island is famous and revered for its party side, attracting renowned DJs for fiestas that rage from dusk until long after dawn, the soulful side to Ibiza attracts another type of traveler. I recently discovered it at Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel, a former 300-year-old family farm (finca in local parlance) leading the island in luxury sustainable stays. In 2024, the hotel celebrated its 20th anniversary, and I visited to learn what attracts such star-studded regulars as Kate Hudson, Shakira, and Rihanna.

  

  Photo by Carlotta Lombardi.

  Sublime (and Delicious) Self-Sufficiency in Sicily

  When a Sicilian tells you, “I can manage,” believe them. These are hearty people. They’d have to be, given the waves of invaders that made their way to the geographically strategic island throughout the centuries — Phoenicians, Swabians, Normans, and Arabs, to name but a few. This spirit thrives at Susafa, a boutique eco resort in the Madonie mountains in northern Sicily, an hour from the northern coast. The countryside is pastoral and serene — a sea of golden fields of wheat and grain; gentle hills and valleys stretching to the horizon. The old farmhouse, granary, and storehouses have been converted — as sustainably as possible, with solar panels and careful water and energy conservation — into a restaurant, lounge, 17 spacious guest rooms and suites, and a cooking school.

  

  Photo courtesy of Las Posadas.

  Mexico's Costalegre Steps Into the Spotlight 

  Mexico’s Costalegre (“Happy Coast”), about 200 miles south of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Ocean, is a hard-to-reach spot where pristine nature, glamor, and intrigue mingle. It's the kind of place you search for when you are turned off by Tulum’s TikTok takeover or sad that so many other Americans found you hiding out in Punta Mita. Spanning 150 miles from Puerto Vallarta to Manzanillo, the regional landscape of Costalegre is thick jungle and desert and beach all at once. The area has a certain mystical quality that has drawn artists and eccentrics and savvy real estate developers who had the sense to build sustainably and tread lightly to preserve the area’s biodiverse ecosystem and keep the vast majority of the acres under protected care. On a scouting trip this spring, I checked out a few of the under-the-radar dreamscapes as well as a few of the over-the-top ones.

  

  Photo by Cindy Chupack.

  Plan Not to Plan (a Perfect Stay in Tuscany)

  I wish I could say, “I’m writing this from the tower of a castle in Tuscany,” but instead I’m back in Los Angeles dreaming about the tower at Castello delle Serre, where my 13-year-old daughter, Olivia, and I just spent one magical week.

  “Plan not to plan,” is what Kaci Matthews told me she would advise visitors staying at Castello delle Serre, the beautiful Tuscan castle that's turned luxury bed and breakfast that she and her husband, Antonio Gangale, own and run along with Antonio’s father, Salvatore. The castle sits atop the medieval village Serre di Rapolano, close to Siena and a short distance from Montalcino, Montepulciano, and Pienza. Originally built in the 9th century, its most recent update (before Salvatore purchased it in 1994 and, along with Antonio, made it what it is today) was done in the 1800s.