We Asked Our Founders Where They’re Actually Traveling This Summer. Here’s the List.

Before Orli existed as a place guests could check into, it existed as a running list of notes, collateral, and photographs. These are the materials two people compile once years of hotel stays start to form a pattern, then a passion. We asked our founders to walk us through how they actually travel, and the answers ended up telling us as much about Orli as anything we could write ourselves.

 

What destination is at the top of your list this summer?

The opportunities are endless. Jackson Hole at Caldera House, the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, the Prospect in Hollywood, 1 Place Vendôme in Paris, Castle Hot Springs in Arizona, the Newman in London’s Fitzrovia, Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France. Between the two of us, the list runs long, and neither of us is inclined to shorten it.

 

Do you plan trips based on food, experience, or location?

Usually the location comes first, then the food and experience get built around it. Unless a hotel is remarkable enough on its own terms, and then, of course, that becomes the destination.

 

Are you more of a plan-every-detail traveler or a figure-it-out-when-you-get-there type?

It depends entirely on who’s coming. For us, family trips get scheduled to the hour, free time included, with a printed itinerary waiting at the airport. Work travel goes the opposite direction, loose and spontaneous. Trips with friends land in the middle: dinners are booked ahead, everything else stays open.

 

What’s the one thing you always pack that most people forget?

Medicine, always, since there’s no telling what a new destination will throw at you. Vitamins and protein powder come next, some structure to hold onto while eating and drinking through a new place. One of us also throws in extra adapters, mostly because friends can be counted on to forget theirs.

 

Best meal you’ve ever had while traveling? Where was it and what made it stick?

There have been so many incredible meals over the years. A farm-to-table dinner in San Miguel de Allende, each course paired with a different tequila, introduced a wider range of Mexican cooking than expected, with predictable results by the end of the night. On the other side: a chef’s table at Palazzo Avino in Ravello, a tagine in a small town outside Fes, and a home-cooked Egyptian feast a guide’s wife prepared in Cairo.

 

What’s a place you keep going back to and why?

Eden Rock in St. Barths, for the setting and the island as much as the hotel itself. St. Barths has an aura that’s difficult to describe until you’ve experienced it, it’s effortlessly elegant.

The Amalfi Coast is the other answer. From Positano to Capri to Ravello, it’s a stretch of coastline that never loses its appeal. The food is unforgettable and every winding road seems to reveal another view more spectacular than the last. It’s one of those rare places that somehow lives up to every expectation.

 

What amenities do you look for at hotels when booking a stay?

A well-equipped gym is a must, but a thoughtful wellness offering takes it even further. A sauna, cold plunge, or both can completely change the rhythm of a stay. And if there’s a specialty coffee counter that’s genuinely worth stopping at before heading out for the day, even better.

 

What have been some of your most memorable experiences at a hotel?

There was a temazcal ceremony at Chablé Yucatá that will be impossible to forget.. A turtle conservation project in the Galápagos during hatching season. A full wellness day at Caldera House, massages, a sound bath, and yoga worked in around everything else.

One hotel-arranged our mom’s 65th birthday celebration, complete with a sunset cruise, local entertainment, and a chef’s dinner. And a breathtaking private dinner in Amanzoe’s candlelit amphitheater, that really became the standard everything else gets measured against.

 

If you had a free weekend with no plans, where would you drive from La Jolla?

Los Angeles for family and good food, or Palm Springs for something slower, with a stop at Bar Cecil an absolute non-negotiable. The other vote goes across the border to Valle de Guadalupe for wine tasting and excellent meals.

 

What’s a trip that changed the way you think about hospitality?

So many trips have impacted our view of hospitality, some more profoundly than others. A recent stay at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York felt like a return to an older vision of what a hotel could be. Every guest is looked after by a dedicated butler, someone deeply trained in the art of intuitive hospitality, ready to elevate a stay with anything from an in-room martini to thoughtfully curated experiences.

The philosophy of omotenashi, hospitality rooted in anticipating a guest’s needs before they ever have to ask, continues to influence the way we think about every interaction. A mindset of genuine care, where thoughtfulness is woven into even the smallest details.

A trip to Cambodia did something similar, where again hospitality wasn’t confined to the hotels, but showed up in the smallest exchanges, from a taxi driver to a tour guide.

 

Favorite hotel you’ve ever stayed in that isn’t Orli?

There are too many variables to crown a single favorite. Caldera House, for a concierge team that treats every request like it genuinely matters. Aman Tokyo, Amanzoe, and Amanbagh for their extraordinary sense of place and quiet precision. Rosewood Mayakoba for its seamless balance of luxury and warmth. Castiglion del Bosco for the feeling that time slows down the moment you arrive. And the Belmond Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which isn’t technically a hotel, but deserves a place on the list all the same.

 

What destination or hotel is still on your bucket list, and what’s drawing you there?

The bucket list is forever growing. Our Habitas AlUla, for a landscape hotel built into terrain unlike anything either of us has seen, distance being the only real obstacle. Casa Polanco in Mexico City, which is close to how we’d picture an Orli in that city. Passalacqua on Lake Como, always the stop that gets cut when a Europe trip runs short on time. A cruise to Antarctica, filed under things to do before it’s too late. And further out: Hong Kong, Singapore, Machu Picchu.