Latest news with #PicoIyer

Condé Nast Traveler
01-07-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
Editor's Letter: Travel Is Better When You Have a Guide
One of the privileges of my job has been discovering, on trips everywhere from Spain to Seoul, how a great guide can unlock a destination. A long-ago trip to Kenya was especially instructive: My guide showed me things few travelers get to see (the singing wells of the Samburu tribespeople of upper Kenya, for instance) while also giving me richer insight into famous places (the ever-popular Masai Mara) than I could have gleaned on my own. Along the way we became friends. I hope you see Condé Nast Traveler as a kind of a guide too. Our goal is to take you deeper—with projects such as our recent digital package on the world's quietest places (you can get a taste in Pico Iyer's luminous essay here) and via YouTube programming that lets you in on local secrets, like where the world's most interesting chefs eat when they're not at work. And of course we want to guide you in our print issues, including this one, with stories—like Catherine Fairweather's pine-scented trek along the hiking trails of Corsica and Gary Shteyngart's restaurant romp through the Georgian capital of Tbilisi—that elucidate how history, culture, and regional identity can shape a journey. Over the years, though, many readers have told me how much they wish they could actually go on these kinds of trips with us. So we've taken a step toward making that a reality by teaming up with the venerable travel company Abercrombie & Kent on a new program called Curated Escapes. The first two trips, to Japan and to California's Sonoma County, mix unexpected takes on popular hits with under-the-radar experiences. Japan: A Cultural Journey, visits Tokyo, Kanazawa and other coastal enclaves, and Kyoto in a quest to showcase the country's renowned collisions between the future and the past. Sonoma: A Culinary Adventure, pairs a behind-the-scenes look at the winery Passalacqua and an epic meal at the legendary SingleThread with immersion into some of the region's wild natural places, like Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. We're just getting started—look out for a new batch of Curated Escapes in the months ahead. We hope to travel with you soon. This article appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.


New York Times
15-06-2025
- New York Times
Sharing the Secrets of Travel
Good morning. Here's the news you need to start your day: Manhunt: The authorities are searching for a suspect they say assassinated a Minnesota state representative and wounded a state senator. Middle East: Israeli jets attacked Tehran's main fuel depot, while dozens of Iranian missiles rained down on Israel. Shows of force: Tanks paraded through Washington as anti-Trump protesters marched in cities across the U.S. We have more on these stories below. But first, a renowned travel writer reflects on his role sending tourists to quiet corners of the world. Hidden gems By Lyna Bentahar I'm a member of the Morning team. I spent September traveling by myself along the length of Japan, from Nagasaki to Tokyo. I spent some of the hottest days of the late summer lying in the forested onsens of Mount Aso and eating sushi with strangers in Tokyo. I walked dozens of kilometers every day, sweating under cloudless skies. Along the way I visited Kyoto, a city steeped in both history and novelty. I had a plan to see the sights: the hundreds of torii of Fushimi Inari, the bamboo forest of Arashiyama. I did not expect that I would spend much of my time in one little bar filled with an eclectic mix of regulars, who pointed me to the city's hidden gems. This bar made my whole trip. It's every right of a travel writer to share with you the name of this bar. But should I? For 30 years, the writer Pico Iyer lived near a different, noiseless Kyoto. In an essay for today's Travel section, he wrote about the difficult choice between sharing the secrets of his chosen home or protecting the quiet city from being trampled by tourists: 'What's a travel writer to do? The very premise of the job is to tell you about attractive possibilities that you might not otherwise know about. But as those little-known jewels become better known, readers grow understandably indignant (that quiet and reasonably priced cafe is suddenly unquiet and unreasonably priced), while locals wonder how much to curse the onslaught of visitors and how much to try to make the most of them.' The various signs warning foreigners away from private residences made clear that my presence in Kyoto was an inconvenience. Posters on crowded buses encouraged tourists to please take the train instead. When I walked among the crowds of Kiyomizu, I felt less like a traveler and more like a body in a mob. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


NZ Herald
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Learning from the silence by Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer: Phoenix from the flames. Photos / Derek Shapton The actual title of Pico Iyer's thoughtful, compelling new book is Aflame: Learning from Silence. The flame has disappeared from our edition (the British) of the title: strange, when fire – physical and inner – is crucial to Iyer's life and quests, and this book in particular. The new subtitle


Arab News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: Pico Iyer's essay ‘The Joy of Quiet'
Pico Iyer's essay 'The Joy of Quiet' dissects modern life's paradox: the louder our world grows, the more we crave silence. The essay was first published in 2012 in The New York Times. With the precision of a cultural surgeon, Iyer — a travel writer famed for his meditative prose — exposes how digital noise erodes human connection, leaving us drowning in a sea of notifications yet thirsting for meaning. But this isn't a diatribe against technology; it's a forensic examination of our collective burnout. He maps a silent counterrevolution emerging in the unlikeliest corners: Silicon Valley CEOs fleeing to Himalayan monasteries, Amish-inspired 'digital sabbaths' trending among younger generations, executives paying to lock away their phones and nations like Bhutan trading gross domestic product for 'Gross National Happiness' as radical acts of cultural defiance. Iyer's genius lies in reframing silence as an insurgent act of self-preservation. A Kyoto temple's rock garden becomes a 'vacuum of stillness' where fractured minds heal; a tech mogul's secret retreats — funded by the same wealth that built addictive apps — mock his own industry's promises of liberation. The essay's sharpest insight? Our devices aren't just distractions but 'weapons of mass distraction,' systematically severing us from presence, empathy and the sacred monotony of undivided attention. Critics might argue Iyer romanticizes privilege (not everyone can jet to a Balinese silent retreat), yet his message transcends class: in an age of algorithmic overload, solitude becomes not a luxury but psychic armor. He anticipates today's 'attention economy' battleground, where mindfulness apps monetize the very serenity they promise to provide. His closing warning: 'We've gone from exalting timesaving devices to fleeing them,' feels prophetic in 2025, as AI chatbots colonize conversation and virtual reality headsets replace eye contact. Less self-flagellating than Orwell's colonial reckonings, 'The Joy of Quiet' offers no easy answers. Instead, it dares readers to ask: When every ping demands obedience, what revolution begins with a silenced phone? What if reclaiming our humanity starts not with consuming more but with the radical courage to disappear?


Los Angeles Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times Announces Winners of 45th Annual Book Prizes
The Los Angeles Times tonight announced the winners of the 45th annual Book Prizes in a ceremony at USC's Bovard Auditorium. The Times' Book Prizes recognize outstanding literary achievements and celebrate the highest quality of writing from authors at all stages of their careers. Winners were announced in 13 categories for works published last year. Additionally, award-winning author Pico Iyer was honored with the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, and Amanda Gorman received the Innovator's Award for her work promoting literacy, empowering youth and raising awareness on important issues. A complete list of this year's Book Prizes winners follows. 2024 Book Prizes Winners For more information about the Book Prizes, including the complete list of 2024 finalists and past winners, and eligibility and judging information, go to The Book Prizes ceremony is a prologue to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the nation's largest literary festival, which will bring together more than 650 writers, experts and storytellers, hundreds of exhibitors and an estimated 155,000 attendees. The 30th annual Festival of Books is presented in association with USC. Festival news and updates are available on the event website and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok profiles (#bookfest).