Travel Journal

Ena’s Little Black Book on the only hotel at Machu Picchu. Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, 31 rooms at the gates, and sunrise at the citadel without the 4am alarm. The only hotel at the entrance to Machu Picchu –  which is either the most obvious reason to stay, or the only one you need. There are […]

From Ena’s Little Black Book – Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp on the edge of the Masai Mara with leopards and a hot-air balloon at dawn. My Mom had waited her whole life for this. Our guide Zack took one look at her and called her Mama Safari. He wasn’t wrong. Kichwa Tembo sits on a […]

From Ena’s Little Black Book: where to stay in Sultanahmet. The Four Seasons with a prison past, a rooftop view of the domes, and the concierge worth trusting. It was my first Four Seasons, and the start of a love affair, with the hospitality, and with the property itself. You do not so much arrive […]

Ena’s Little Black Book on Elephant Pepper Camp Mara, a private conservancy stay, breakfast with hippos, and the quiet of having an entire safari camp to yourself. The quiet that comes with having an entire camp to yourself is something else entirely. Tucked beneath a grove of elephant pepper and fig trees in the private […]

Ena’s Little Black Book on the Couvent des Minimes Provence, lavender fields, stone cloisters, and the one hotel we wished we’d booked a second night at. “We said goodbye the next morning already kicking ourselves for not booking a second night.” The approach alone tells you something. The hotel sits just outside the hilltop village […]

Our Croatia sailing charter with Alex England, the last minute skipper who took six first timers around the islands and into a storm. Alex was not supposed to be our skipper. Our original skipper canceled at the last minute, and Alex stepped in to take six women, none of whom had ever spent a night […]

Erg Chigaga Camp, Nick, Bobo, and the night the staff carried our mattresses outside so we could sleep under the Sahara stars. The drive from Marrakech takes about nine hours, and it earns every one of them. Mountain passes, lush valleys, Berber villages clinging to cliff sides, crumbling kasbahs, palm groves, rock formations that look […]

Looking for a private guide in Iceland? My notes on Kristinn, the geophysicist who took us through canyons, moss fields, and his own Iceland. Kristinn didn’t just show us Iceland. He showed us his Iceland. Kristinn is a geologist/geographer, which meant the nerd in me had found her person. I could ask endless questions about […]

An Azores photography tour with Bruno Azera. The photographer who showed us his islands, planned the picnic, and became a friend. It started, as many of my travel adventures seem to, with an email to a complete stranger. I was planning a girls trip to the Azores and wanted a local photographer who could take […]

Ena’s Little Black Book on the Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet. Yasin the concierge, the best couscous of my life, and what the best concierges actually do. I don’t remember his name. I remember the couscous. At least, that’s how this story began. During our first stay at the Four Seasons Sultanahmet, we asked […]