Latest from Condé Nast Traveler
Condé Nast Traveler
10 hours ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
21 Best Airbnbs in France, From Sun-Drenched Villas to Spacious Parisian Flats
From chic lofts in Paris to sun-soaked villas along the southern coast, France is home to some of the most unforgettable Airbnb vacation rentals in the world. Rich with homes that invite you to live each version of the vast country, you can check-in to chalets in the Marais with soaring windows and skyline views, first time bases for access to the Eiffel Tower, or breezy retreats above Saint-Tropez where the pool overlooks a patchwork of vineyards and sea. Garden-wrapped hideaways are tucked in Toulouse, and vineyard getaways await in Canon-Fronsac's wine castles. Some are cozy for winter, designed for curling up in layers of wool and woodsmoke; others are summer-perfect with loungers, limes, and the scent of blooming flowers in the air. No matter what you're chasing—style, stillness, or just a beautiful place to sleep—the best Airbnbs in France are bucket-list-worthy destinations in and of themselves. So, if you'd prefer to enjoy a more authentic experience with an above average rating on your next trip instead of splurging on a pricey hotel, scroll down for our list of the best Airbnbs in France, thoughtfully chosen and well-loved. These properties are a one-way ticket to the quiet kind of elegance you can only find while living like a local.
Condé Nast Traveler
11 hours ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
The Unwritten Rules of Visiting Los Angeles
If you're a first-time visitor to Los Angeles, don't worry—we know. You're also not alone. The city of Los Angeles has always attracted people from elsewhere, whether they're stepping off the Greyhound from Little Rock ready for that 'big break', or have immigrated to build a new life in the Golden State. There's a hopeful curiosity here; a sense of wondering who you could become in the city of LA, if you just have the chance. Whether you're 'from here'—either the city of Los Angeles, or the sprawling, nearly 10-million-strong LA Country surrounding it—or have been adopted by the sunny metropolis after years of calling it home, you know that the character the city plays on the silver screen is not the one you get everyday. When traffic clogs the 10 (freeway, that is), nobody is dancing La La Land style. It takes a certain prowess to navigate this city, without letting the rental cars and gritty buses and parking quagmires get you down. It also takes a savviness to know where to direct your GPS (spoiler alert: it's not the Hollywood Walk of Fame) to find the fantastic street food, artsy enclaves, and only-in-LA delights that await. But when you do it right, few cities smile on you like Los Angeles. So, how do you skip past tourist traps and pitfalls of being a 'first timer' in LA? We've rounded up the unwritten rules that locals know and live by. It's a real IYKYK city, and this is exactly what you need to know before a visit. 1. You need a car If you plan to travel beyond one section of the city, you need a car. Sorry! It's true. While public transportation here is moving at a snail's pace to expand and compete with the world's better-connected cities, you cannot count on it to successfully traverse the city. If you're going to be spending all of your time in one or two adjoining neighborhoods (Venice and Santa Monica, for example), fine—Ubers and Lyfts will work. But if you have even the thought of crossing town, or catching up with friends in various neighborhoods, you want the freedom of wheels. (Plus, how else will you ride along PCH with the windows down as Phantom Planet's California plays?) Consider picking your car up at the airport, since you'll be spending an arm and a leg to get out of there otherwise, then jet around town. Just make sure you've confirmed the parking situation with your hotel, Airbnb, or the friends you're staying with, and read those parking rules carefully. Related: plot out when you might plan to drink, so you know where you will leave said car accordingly. Yes, you do need a car—not only so you can drive along PCH with the windows down. Lena Wagner/Getty 2. Your neighborhood is your world Someone once told me that LA isn't a city, but a collection of little towns, and I've repeated it many times since. Echo Park is a town. Los Feliz is a town. Even if their borders touch, they often exist as a microcosm—and don't even get me started on how many worlds away (literally and existentially) say, Beverly Hills and Downtown LA are. If you know there are restaurants you definitely want to try, shops you want to stop at, or events you're in town for, pick a neighborhood that can be your world and home base for a few days. I'm not saying you shouldn't leave the bubble, but if breakfast is in Culver, lunch is in Frogtown, and dinner is in Malibu, you'll spend more time on freeway on and off ramps than anything else. Pick a hub—and at the very least, pick a side of town (East is for the alternative types, West for beachy living, with lots of variance in between). 3. The word 'walkable' is up for interpretation To belabor my last two points, be wary of the 'walk' option on Google Maps. As a walk-happy Angeleno and current resident of New York City, a 25-min walk alternative to a 20-min drive is usually something that makes me say, 'Let's just walk!'. Pause, please: I'm not saying you can't, and I often still do. But if you don't know the route or area, know that you might be walking under freeway overpasses, zig-zaging your way through uneasy, deserted streets, or struggling to find a cross-walk across a busy road. The choice is yours, but think twice before you drag your entire family on a lengthy commute by foot. 4. There's a beach, and you may never go This is a city that loves a tank top, a pair of sunglasses, and a sun-kissed glow. But unless you're based on the west side, getting to the beach might be a bigger trek than you realize. Many of my east side friends go to the beach less than I do in New York City, from Brooklyn to the Rockaways; plus, there are pools aplenty that'll save you the commute. If you want a beach vacation, you've got to stay in Venice, Santa Monica, or nearby. Years ago, I was aghast at being able to just walk onto the sand from Casa Del Mar after a lifetime of driving to the beach: This is the experience of westside Angelenos, and it's only yours if you prioritize it. 5. This might be America's Greatest Street Food City The mix of culinary traditions represented in Los Angeles restaurants is a wonder—it's one of the best things about the city (more on that in a minute). Immigrants, and particularly those from Latin America, also deserve credit for bringing a street food culture that doesn't exist in the same way in other US cities. That sliced fruit with lime and Tajín on the street corner will always hit; so will those tlayudas, those tamales, those bacon-wrapped hot dogs outside the club, and anything else you can get your paws on. Street food trucks are in yet another league, often acting as incubators for budding restaurants, slinging award-winning Korean food, seafood, and everything in between. So please, eat on the street. The barbacoa setup in that Huntington Park parking lot will be the best you ever had. 6. Don't sleep on strip mall restaurants Let me say it another way: Los Angeles is home to many types of unassuming spots that serve seriously good food. Sure, street stands and food trucks might have a more quintessential 'cheap eats' appeal to them, but don't lift your nose when you find out the restaurant you saw on TikTok is tucked into a bland strip mall. This is often a great sign, whether you're after soju and small plates at Dan Sung Sa in K-town or craving sushi with a side of paps at Sushi Park on the Sunset Strip. Same goes for marketplaces, particularly in south LA, like Mercado La Paloma (Holbox is easily my favorite place to eat in this city).
Condé Nast Traveler
11 hours ago
- General
- Condé Nast Traveler
July 2025 Horoscope: Travel Hiccups Might Change Your Plans for the Better
The other big news this month is Saturn and Neptune both stationing retrograde in your seventh house of relationships in the first half of July. So you're starting to see the writing on the wall about a significant other, or maybe the hard thing you're trying to do together is even harder than you anticipated. Maybe it's your current lack of partnership that's causing you to rethink some things about your life. This might be connected to your family or where you live, and the July 10 full moon in Capricorn will probably bring these issues into focus. Whether you're considering where to put down roots or where to visit, it seems like location can really make or break your experience right now. Scorpio Rising Things are pretty up in the air this month workwise, so your advice for July is to avoid committing to anything prematurely and to be patient with the process as you gather intel from your beta launch. Saturn and Neptune both station retrograde in your sixth house of work and health in the first half of July, and Mercury will go retrograde in your tenth house of career and status on July 18. There are some top-level logistical bugs to fix—some messaging that needs to be tweaked, or conversations to be revisited with your boss—as well as deeper issues to confront around your current capacity to handle everything that's on your plate. Certain aspects of your job have probably felt harder recently, and maybe your health isn't exactly running smoothly in the background, where you don't have to pay attention to it. Maybe you're struggling to manage more than your own workload because you're understaffed, or you're coming to terms with the fact that something about your project isn't going to work in its current form. Whatever the problem is, now is a really good time to be honest about what moving forward is going to require, to prioritize the needs of your body, and to take it all in stride if your deadlines are getting pushed back. Your ruling planet, Mars, also spends much of the month approaching a conjunction to the South Node on July 20. This is another sign that you're probably feeling pretty burned out right now, or that you'll have to surrender your plans and your need to have it all micromanaged efficiently. Indeed, wherever you've been going with your team, it seems as though you'll have to spend halftime erasing the whiteboard in the locker room and doing a tactical adjustment. It's entirely possible people won't be in the most peaceful or cooperative mood. If grievances need to be aired, hopefully it'll help everyone let off steam and move forward, but look out for some tempers and general combativeness between July 20 and 23 in particular. If all of this sounds exhausting, you're probably right! This is the kind of thing that could easily eat up time on your trip as you log on at the hotel room to answer urgent emails, or require that you ask for more help. Fortunately, Saturn's retrograde could be the perfect opportunity to take work off your plate, to have more flexibility around your job, and to walk back any commitments that may have been a bit premature in hindsight. Additionally, Venus and Uranus taking up co-residence in your eighth house could throw some unexpected support or funding your way in July. Take the help where you can get it, remain flexible, and don't mourn the plan that didn't come to pass too much. Sagittarius Rising In case no one told you lately, you're allowed to rethink everything. So much of what this current moment amounts to is that you're outgrowing the dream an older version of you had for your own life. You're also getting super honest with yourself about what it's going to take to bring your future into fruition. As Saturn and Neptune both station retrograde in the first half of July, happening in tandem with a Mars-South Node conjunction in your tenth house of career on July 20, you might put one of your more ambitious creative projects on ice for the time being as you run out of steam or reckon with how hard it's actually going to be to accomplish. If you're a parent (or thinking about becoming one), this could just as easily be about realizing that your kids need more attention from you right now, and that probably means something about how much energy you can afford to give to your work right now. The full moon in Capricorn on July 10 brings these things into sharp relief, and it might come with a price tag or a realization around how your financial reality might be affected if you change up the game plan. How to Travel With Kids, According to Globetrotting Parents Toddlers, teens, and everything in between. To be clear, 'putting things on ice' doesn't mean 'killing the project entirely.' Maybe you just need more time for things to bake. Mercury will also retrograde through your ninth house of travel, perspective, and knowledge beginning on July 18, so assuming you're not on a very literal journey of taking the scenic route, there's a lot of philosophical ferment happening for you through July and part of August — perhaps because you're rethinking what you believe and know about the world, or because you're literally going back through the notes you took in school. This could also be a meaningful time to go on a trip or visit places you've been before, but don't expect your travels to go entirely as planned. There's a higher-than-average chance of mysteriously vanished reservations, scrambled itineraries, and missed flight connections. But if you can embrace the chaos, there's a good chance you'll end up making meaningful connections along the way.
Condé Nast Traveler
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
How the Bezos-Sanchez Wedding Is Impacting Venice
The island of San Giorgio Maggiore is one of Venice's most beautiful attractions. Hovering in the lagoon directly across from St. Mark's Square, it's home to a church filled with Renaissance art, a bell tower with unparalleled views of the lagoon city, and an ancient monastery where visitors can take guided tours through the Renaissance cloisters, lose themselves in a labyrinth, or marvel at experimental modern architecture. But if you were planning on visiting the island this week, there's bad news: It's been reserved for billionaires. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, a former entertainment reporter, are due to wed in the open-air amphitheater on the island later today. This is an odd time to visit Venice. And yet it's the most talked about city on the planet this weekend, thanks to the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials, which are taking the form of a three-day extravaganza held in various locations throughout the city. A raft of celebrities have taken over some of the area's most famous hotels—Kim Kardashian, Orlando Bloom, and Leonardo Di Caprio appear to be staying at the Gritti Palace, a five-star grande dame on the Grand Canal, while guests who less attached to the limelight are camped out at the Belmond Cipriani hotel on Giudecca island, overlooking St. Mark's. I live by the Arsenale, the city's centuries-old dockyards where the wedding reception will be held on Saturday. Here, they used to churn out a galleon sailing ships in three days. Tomorrow, I should be getting a free Lady Gaga and Elton John concert. But the Bezos-Sánchez wedding has brought far less entertaining disruptions to daily life for many Venetians, who are stuck navigating blocked-off streets in residential areas. Yesterday, I was stopped on my regular walk by security guards as I was near one of the wedding sites. Today, my supermarket run was observed by guards with dogs. On Thursday, a block of the residential Cannaregio district was closed off while the wedding guests had a drinks reception in the cloister of the Madonna dell'Orto church. A video quickly went viral of one local being ordered to take a 20-minute diversion in the blazing heat to get home. Needless to say, that church—known for its dazzling paintings by Renaissance painter Tintoretto, who lived nearby—was also closed to visitors. Some tourists have also felt the squeeze. Those who'd booked the trip of a lifetime at the luxury Aman on the Grand Canal were reportedly moved to another five-star hotel when Bezos and Sánchez block-booked the entire building.
Condé Nast Traveler
a day ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
Timeless Cuyana Bags Our Editors Take Everywhere
Every seasoned traveler knows the importance of a well-made, hard-working handbag that can carry your essentials through bustling city streets, crowded airports, storied museum halls, and beyond with ease. But it can be difficult to find a travel bag that does it all; some force you to sacrifice style for durability, while others are made with materials that only last a season. Few brands deliver all of this and more quite like Cuyana. If you're new here, Cuyana is a leather goods brand focused on creating long-lasting, timeless pieces with high-quality materials—hence its 'fewer, better' motto. The brand is known for its thoughtfully designed leather bags that are as gorgeous as they are practical. It's easy to see why several of our editors trust the brand to carry our favorite things each day. From the best-selling Easy tote that holds a day's worth of must-haves to the ultra-chic Celestia bag that elevates every outfit, Cuyana is your one-stop shop for the bags you're taking with you everywhere you go. They're built to last a lifetime—and we just keep coming back to them, day after day, trip after trip. Below, we rounded up our editors' favorite bags to travel with from Cuyana. You'll find roomy totes, classic shoulder bags, and smart inserts that routinely earn a spot in our carry-ons or get put to use as our personal item, no matter where we're headed. The Classic Easy tote My love affair with Cuyana began a few years ago when I got my hands on the popular Classic Easy tote. It quickly became my go-to tote bag for running errands, souvenir shopping, and day trips. Like most tote bags, it doesn't have a whole lot of structure or pockets inside, but it sure fits a ton (a 16-inch laptop, a book, a water bottle, makeup bag, and wallet). For a spacious bag, the Easy tote is incredibly lightweight. My favorite thing about it is that it can lie completely flat in my carry-on, making it a nice 'just in case' throw in. Where Cuyana really stands out is its material: For a bag I've brought with me on countless trips over the last few years, it still looks brand new. We can thank its buttery-soft, Italian leather for that. It's built to withstand some wear and tear and only gets better with age. It features two different handle lengths on the top, but I prefer the longer ones for day-to-day use. It's offered in a Tall and Small version, too, and is even available with a zipper for added security. I think of this as an always reliable tote that I keep reaching for, whether I'm headed to a business meeting or shopping in the city. The Celestia shoulder bag My newest find from Cuyana is the Celestia shoulder bag. I'm not kidding when I say I gasped when I first saw it. It's the perfect shoulder bag—pretty, classic, spacious, and just the right mix of structured and slouchy. I was looking for a nice black leather bag to carry for dinner dates and special occasions. And while it comes in handy on nearly every fancy night out, I'm also able to use it for more casual settings, like city dates with friends and Sunday brunches. It's not too big that I can't take it out for a date night and it's not too small that it only holds my phone—it's just right. I'm able to fit my wallet, lipstick, sunglasses, keys, and a few other small essentials without it looking bulky. Not to mention, it's stunning and incredibly chic—something Meredith Blake would absolutely be carrying. Chevron Chevron Cuyana Celestia shoulder bag $398 Cuyana The System tote This one's for our commuters. Travel bookings editor Jamie Spain has been carrying the 13-inch System Tote to the office every day for the last year. Its structured, sturdy silhouette and sleek design caught her eye. 'The System tote is definitely more upscale than my average canvas tote, seamlessly befitting happy hours, work, and exciting new restaurant openings,' says Spain. 'I love the signature Italian leather exterior and interior, which is understated, tasteful, and compliments any outfit I threw on.' It's spacious enough for a laptop, book, portable charger, cosmetic pouch, and a few other small necessities. Aside from lugging it to and from the office each day, Spain also uses the tote as a personal item on the plane and even brought it with her on a road trip to Acadia National Park. 'The built-in interior pocket is perfect for storing essentials you need to reach easily, like your passport, earbuds, or some petty cash, and since the bag can be snapped closed, you don't have to worry about anything flying out (but if you'd like something a little more secure, there's a zippered version of the tote available as well),' says Spain. The System inserts Another thing our editors love about Cuyana is its thoughtful inserts that are purposefully designed to help organize your bag. Spain recommends these inserts to anyone using the System tote. 'The System laptop sleeve keeps my computer safe and secure, while the System pouch keeps all the bits and bobs (a wallet, coins, jewelry, makeup, etc.) from rolling around and getting lost at the bottom of the bag,' says Spain. 'Both snapped directly into the bag's shell so they wouldn't move around and were available in the same colors as the bag.' Speaking of colors, we appreciate Cuyana's range of timeless colorways, from classic black and dark chestnut to dark olive, stone, and caramel—all of which add a subtle yet sophisticated look to your outfit. The Paloma tote Another one of our editor's favorite tote bags from Cuyana is the Paloma. Associate commerce director Madison Flager has been using it as her work bag for the past few months. 'It's got so many great qualities going for it: The aesthetic is gorgeous—I love the unique pentagonal shape, and the fact that it has both top handles and long shoulder straps,' says Flager. 'It's well-designed inside, too—the exterior zipper pocket is perfect for keeping things like cash and my work ID handy, and the interior slip pockets are the right size for small items like hand sanitizer and lotion.' Flager also appreciates the snap-close key leash, so she doesn't have to dig around for her keys when she gets home from work or a trip. Her only con: 'There's no top zipper or snap closure, but there are leather straps you can tie to secure everything inside a bit more, which is ideal if you're using it as a personal item on a flight.' The dark chestnut color matches everything and hasn't shown any wear yet.
