The former winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race has turned a run-down old motel in Palm Springs, California into a queer paradise—the Trixie Motel.
The refurbished mid-century motel contains seven rooms of whimsical, Barbie-style fabulousness, located in the heart of inimitable Palm Springs.
Until it’s time to sashay away, guests can enjoy over-the-top everything from wild wallpaper and art installations, to retro furnishings like flamingo lampshades and heart-shaped beds, all of which make you feel as if you’re actually on a RuPaul set. The neon motel sign, which is visible from the road, would normally be the loudest thing at a motel, but remarkably, it feels almost understated here.
Imagine telling your grandparents that a holiday in the future would be going to a farm, collecting eggs from the chooks for breakfast and foraging for your own vegetables for dinner. Working, in other words.
But this is 2023, not 1923, and we can see why the fresh air of Wildflower will appeal to those over in the Big Apple only 90 minutes away.
This is a stay that offers break from the grind, the fresh food on your plate – you know it’s fresh when you pick it yourself. Wellness tourism is a growing trend and, although this has traditionally seen as spas and exercise, eating is obviously a major part of being healthy.
This isn’t any old farm, either. No sleeping in hay stacks here; rooms of bespoke luxury are tucked neatly beneath sweeping tree canopies or within wildflower fields, where it gets its name.
Whether you’re into this sort of holiday or not, it is refreshing to see hotels placing a premium on the most basic of human pleasures – like the crisp air of the Hudson Valley.
There's an evil-looking horse that stares you down as you flee Denver Airport right after you land. It’s the sort of statue that immediately makes you rethink your decision to visit Colorado at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
My friends all gave me strange looks when I told them I was travelling.
“You mean, like, out of the house?” they said to me. My mother actually stopped talking to me when I told her, and after just a few days away, I could sense she was sitting next to the phone in a semi-manic trance waiting for my call.
All the signs – including the horrific sculpture of an iron horse from hell – were telling me that coming to the mountains of Colorado was a bad idea.
Although I did enjoy this horrified drama from my loved ones, the illusion of danger quickly melts away once you’re in the Mile High City.
Denver is a bright, clean place with a pleasant mix of history and modernism. My city hotel is in the Cherry Creek neighbourhood, which by all accounts is corporate but not sterile, with cheerful beer halls and an upmarket shopping district. My first stop is downtown, where I’m greeted by the majestic Union Station in the heart of the city, a landmark which once stood as the launching pad for brave settlers heading west.
In a move that couldn’t be more contrasting, I hop in an ‘eTuk’, which is Denver’s new answer to clean tourism and COVID-19-friendly transportation. These open-air electric tuk-tuks zip around the city offering a far superior view then any tour bus. What’s more, your guide knows all the sweet spots and local lore to get your mind salivating about diving deeper into this unclaimed jewel of the west.
Small and zippy, these little pregnant rollerskates zip through traffic like it doesn’t exist, and I find myself seeing the best that Denver has to offer at almost light-speed. I visit the Brown Palace, which is a regal old dame of a hotel that has a functional artesian well you can actually drink from. I get lost in City Park with its 1.2 square kilometres of greenspace, and I’m introduced to the hip RiNo (River North Art) district of the city, which is covered in street art and rife with hip eateries that I wish I had more time to see.
But there’s not enough time in the world because Colorado is big. Damn huge. And because I’ve been stuck in the house in lockdown for six months straight and I’m now free to travel, I naturally make my way toward the cool mountain air around Aspen, to see what the rich and famous claim is America’s answer to St. Moritz.
Aspen is the personification of affluence in America. But it’s also a place laden with art, culture and fine food. On the way to my hotel, I pass the famous Anderson Ranch Arts Center, where some of the best and brightest artists from around the state come to nurture their passions. Then I cruise downtown, gazing up at the famous Little Nell Residences where you can ski from your bedroom onto the slopes.
But it’s in the Bauhaus-inspired Aspen Meadows Resort that I find myself not so much staying in a resort but more sleeping in a philosophy. If you can imagine that the best hotels in the world think of every detail as something to inspire an emotion or an experience – then dial that up to max volume – you start to understand the sublime feelings you succumb to while staying here.
While on the surface the Meadows can seem to be a bit out of place in this town, its celebration of farm-to-table dining and world-class shopping definitely still fits the mould of a town that strives for excellence at every corner.
Excellence is what I found that night at Bosq: a funky eatery with mad-scientist-slash chef Barclay Dodge at the helm, who turns out exquisite dishes that inject intense global flavours into these remote mountain peaks. “This is a special corn that I got from a farmer in a small town in Mexico,” he tells the table. “It doesn’t exist anywhere in the United States, and because there was a frost coming, we had to harvest it.
So this is the first and last time we will ever eat this dish here.” Needless to say, I chewed it very slowly.
As delightful as Aspen is, the call of Colorado had me hitting the road early the next morning to reach Telluride. Both Telluride and Aspen attract big names and big money, but the truth is that the two towns couldn’t be more different.
Telluride resembles an old mining village inside a deep gorge, with houses lined up symmetrically as though on a Monopoly board, all surrounded by impossibly tall mountains. The people (and personalities) that call Telluride home are as tall as these mountains. Enter ‘Telluride Tom’, who is the unofficial mayor of this snow-capped canyon hamlet.
Telluride Tom has a mess of white hair and a voice that is both velvet and Gatling gun at the same time. Like an old frontier cowboy, he doesn’t walk but rather slides through town, usually with a drink in hand or on the way to get one.
Tom would be my spirit guide while I’m in Telluride and on our first meeting he hands me a Chair Warmer, which is basically a shot of locally-made peppermint schnapps. “This will make the day settle in better,” he tells me.
Now that I’m inoculated against the cool mountain air, together we meet with Pete Wagner who crafts legendary custom skis in a handsome shop in Mountain Village. Mountain Village is the other town here, and the special hack that gives Telluride its unique character. It’s in this town – rather than Telluride – that you’ll find all the burger joints, chain restaurants, familiar resorts, and family fun that isn’t permitted in the picture-perfect postcard town in the valley below.
“You know how we keep out the big chains?” Tom asks me with his crooked smile. “We have a law [in Telluride] that doesn’t permit large signage. Corporations can’t handle it. Imagine a Starbucks without a sign? You can’t, neither can they.”
The gondola gently lowers us to Telluride in just eight minutes.
Once below, I find a vibrant city, full of little bars, hip local restaurants, and locals that truly love their town. The energy in Telluride is electric. Immediately I want to get lost in the summertime fray, but Tom insists that we must go do the Via Ferrata first.
“Trust me, you’ll earn your drink, and you’ll feel better,” he says.
Living in Manhattan I’m used to heights. That being said, I found myself soon appealing to a God I didn’t believe in as I precariously dangled off the sheer face of a cliff about 300 metres off the ground, with nothing below me below me but a thin metal rung that someone put there half a century ago.
“Um, are you sure this is rated for Italians? We’re dense people,” I ask our guide of my perilous footing.
I’m assured it is impossible to fall while strapped into the dubiously thin safety cable. The Via Ferrata is a hiking trail that runs horizontally across a rock wall. These were originally invented in the Dolomites of Italy to quickly move troops through the mountains, but some genius thought it was a hoot to put one here in Colorado for tourists.
I’ve jumped from planes, zip-lined in the Philippines, and even risked a tattoo in a Shanghai bar, but nothing ever made me feel like this. The combination of terror, adrenaline and views were unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed before.
About an hour later, back on terra firma, I’m in a bar called the Fat Alley with Tom.
“Here, put this in ya,” Tom says as he slides over a greasy shot glass filled with bourbon and topped with a piece of bacon. “It’s called a Mitch Morgan and it’ll straighten you out.”
I’m told that the trick to drinking a Mitch Morgan is that you really have to concentrate to pick up the grease-lined glass (which does calm your nerves) just as much as the fat from the bacon blocks your arteries to slow down your heart rate.
Doctor Tom was right again – one gulp and my faith in life was restored. Now elated to be alive, I finally start to understand the magic of this tiny mountain town. “You see,” Tom said sliding deep into his chair. “People go to Aspen to be seen, they come to Telluride to hang out.”
It was then I realized that the evil hell horse at the airport isn’t there as a warning for incoming visitors – it’s there to warn you that you’re leaving paradise.
What are the top three things that pop into your mind when thinking of Utah?
As a travel agent I have the unique opportunity of speaking with hundreds of travellers as well as my social media followers, giving me a real sense of public opinion on travelling through the Beehive State. Unsurprisingly Mormons, desert and national parks topped the list of interests.
But while Utah certainly has an abundance of all those things, there is so much more on offer here, making it (in my opinion) one of the most underrated frontier states in all of the U.S.
The most surprising thing about Utah – aside from the fact it has the third largest number of national parks in any U.S. state – is that the is that the sheer number of state parks and national monuments are so impressive they rival any of the Mighty Five® which the state is better known for; these are Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks.
If you’re an adventure lover and a fan of the great outdoors, there really is no other place on the planet quite like Utah. One hour you can be swiftly pedalling down ruby red-coloured slick rock, the next you’re wedged between a towering slot canyon, waist deep in crystal clear water. You could be cruising down world-class ski slopes in the morning, and hiking through a wonderland of hoodoos (columns of weathered rock) and pine trees that same afternoon.
Utah shines in every season, with 238 days of sun a year (well above the national average) so when you visit really depends on what you’re hoping to experience. For snow lovers, mid-November through to April is best, especially in January to March if you’re craving deep pow. For hikers, look at the seasons of Spring (March to May) and Autumn (September to November) for comfortable conditions. The summer months (June to August) are best for alpine hiking and water sports.
We laced up our boots in the capital, Salt Lake City, to kick off a monumental road trip. You can take a hike from day one on your visit by heading out to the Great Salt Lake or acquaint yourself with the state’s fascinating Mormon roots by checking out the Temple Square complex. The Utah State Capitol building and the National History Museum are also well worth some time while you’re still in the big smoke, and if you can catch the Utah Jazz basketball team at home, it’s game on!
We ventured through rocky desert landscapes, pristine forests, glistening waterways, and the wild west ...
From Salt Lake City, we ventured through rocky desert landscapes, pristine forests, glistening waterways, and the wild west, all the way down through the deep south of Utah, to Las Vegas, Nevada.
While hiking and landscapes were what we were originally craving on this visit, we found ourselves smiling from ear to ear with charming locals, falling in love with quirky desert towns, and having foodie experiences that still make my taste buds moist at the memories.
If I had to sum up Utah in an elevator pitch, I’d say it’s like a game of pass the parcel. When the music stops and you rip off the next layer of wrapping paper, you’ll be squealing with delight and it’s one of those games where Mum and Dad have packed an epic present in each layer.
DANA’S TOP FIVE EXPERIENCES Here’s five epic recommendations, a detailed road trip itinerary from our creator and the best way to discover (and book) the real Utah with get lost:
It’s not a cliche: it should be a God-given right for everyone to have the opportunity to experience the magic and diversity that Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks offer. It still blows my mind how different each of these parks are, yet they’re so easily accessible to navigate within a week.
The AU$115 America the Beautiful pass, gives you access to all federally managed land units (national parks, national forests, national monuments, etc.) It’s good for a year from the month of purchase. You can pick one up at any national park entrance station.
Part of the ‘Trail of the Ancients’, this national scenic byway is a roadway that drastically switches back and forth on itself at a mind boggling 11 percent grade, carved into a cliff face. You breathe in while you’re driving this stretch of road simply as a natural protection instinct from the sheer drop. Yet, the views over San Juan River Canyon will balance your adrenaline. It is simply stunning at the top. It was a combination of both these elements that made me really feel alive.
I went all gung-ho to tick off the Mighty Five® national parks. And while they are certainly pretty epic in their own right, I was floored by how insane the lesser known parks were. I was questioning how they could not be honoured with the same national park status? There are 44 state parks, 9 national monuments, and several other areas defined as really cool landmarks. At this point, I decide that I need to move to Utah to visit each and every one.
TAKE A HIKE
AU$108 for an annual State Park Pass which is a no brainer if you’re visiting a few. They can be around AU$15 per park if you pay individually.
If the aqua coloured truck doesn’t stop you in your tracks as you pass by the town of Boulder, the scent of perfectly cooked Mexican wafting through your window will have you parked up in no time. Sit under the cottonwoods to enjoy their fare, and take some extra away with you to fuel you on your next hike.
You’re in the most adventurous state in the U.S, so it’s time to try something new. Challenge yourself on a higher graded hike, mountain bike, canyoning adventure, bouldering ledge, rock climb, fly fishing trip, ATV, jet ski, water ski, snow ski, snowboard or slackline. If you’ve ever wanted to try something new that will really get your heart racing, Utah is calling your name.
TAKE A HIKE
Choosing to get out of your comfort zone = priceless
DAY 1 SALT LAKE CITY DAY 2 SALT LAKE CITY TO GREEN RIVER DAY 3 THE FIRST OF THE MIGHTY FIVE DAY 4 THE WILD WEST DAY 5 MONUMENT VALLEY TO CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK DAY 6 WORKING ON THAT MIGHTY FIVE DAY 7 BRYCE CANYON TO KANAB DAY 8 THE FINAL FIVE DAY 9 ZION TO CEDAR CITY DAY 10 CROSSING THE FINISH LINE
In a city where there’s no shortage of places-to-be, the Tommie is the new place to be in Los Angeles.
It’s not difficult to see why this Hollywood hotspot has racked up this reputation in six short months. During the day, go full maxo-relaxo at the rooftop pool, a relaxed oasis which feels miles away from the craziness of the day-to-day L.A.
By night, debauchery seekers should head around the corner to the Desert 5 Bar, a hedonistic treat in the form of sweeping city skyline views, endless pitchers of margaritas, live music and a serious, serious vibe.
In between these two bookends you’ve got sleek 1960s-themed rooms to kick back in, and a restaurant with a very meat-strong menu from an award-winning chef (Wes Avila) to eat at.
There might be finer or quirkier places to stay, but nowhere in New York City quite has the bohemian street credit of The Hotel Chelsea, which has re-opened after a four-year renovation.
The hotel probably peaked as a creative hub in the 1960s and the 1970s, when the likes of Patti Smith (pictured below), Jimi Hendrix, Robert Mapplethorpe, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Madonna and a heap more resided at the Chelsea, on 23rd street Manhattan.
Jack Kerouac could often be found there when not on the road. Decades earlier Dylan Thomas drank himself into a stupor in his room, and earlier than that Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again within the confines of the hotel’s grungy walls. Leonard Cohen wrote “I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel…you were talking so brave and so sweet,” in memory of Joplin, forever entwining the two.
The hotel is now a upmarket trip down memory lane, refurbished with new coats of paint and expensive art. The Spanish restaurant has been retained, but upgraded. The rooms are glamorous, featuring restored marble fireplaces, Marshall speakers and retro couches. There’s a spa, a gym and, obviously, a bar. It’s shabby elegance has gone, replaced by a nostalgic elegance.
Colour is splashed throughout, reflecting the building’s colourful history.
Circa Hotel & Casino is a new behemoth property in Sin City, geared entirely towards rabid American sports fans.
The first new casino-resort to open in downtown Vegas since 1980, Circa now sits head and shoulders above its ageing predecessors — both physically and metaphorically — boasting an amphitheatre-style pool dubbed ‘Stadium Swim’, an enormous sports bar (which is, in fact, Nevada’s largest indoor bar spanning 50 metres) and a three-story indoor betting stadium (yes, you read that correctly). This is the hottest ticket in town for America’s sun-seekers and sports lovers. Just be sure to bring a fat wallet for the booze and betting tables.
YouTube superstar couple, Johnny and Iz Harris are no strangers to visiting unique properties around the world, so when given the opportunity to renovate and design their own forest retreat just outside their home in Washington DC they grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Taking a historic and dilapidated church from the late 1800s, the couple completely transformed the former place of worship into the ultimate entertaining pad with enough room for an entire family. Some properties are just built to be most enjoyed during winter and the Shenandoah Church House is one of those, with its roaring indoor fireplace and outdoor seven-seater hot tub.
And soon, you can keep them all close at the New York City mansion made famous from the 1972 absolute classic The Godfather, which will be available to rent on Airbnb from July 28.
The iconic 1930s built home is instantly recognisable from the front, with the stately drive and gate lined with hedges leading to the stonewalled exterior of the famous house.
While renovations have been made throughout there are still many recognisable features from the home, including the study of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), and Vito Corleone’s basement bar.
This is an unmissable stay for any film buffs or fans of the trilogy. The best thing about this all is that you hardly have to make them an offer they can’t refuse: it’s just $50 USD a night to stay at ‘the family’s house’.
You’re not told where you are you are staying until after you book (all we know is that they’re within a few hours drive of Toronto) and when you do arrive, the shimmering mirrored walls of the cabins give the impression they are camouflaged.
There’s forest bathing and hiking but if it’s us, we’re hanging out in the cabin…invisible to the rest of the world.
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