Welcome to Beyond Ordinary Guides, where we curate gorgeous imagery, locally cherished spots, and accessible stories. We hope you enjoy!
Understated elegance on a 200 year old Alentejo estate, we give São Lourenço do Barrocal 5/5 stars on all fronts. This is a place where design, landscape, hospitality, and sunshine come together to create a blissful vacation haven. A pleasing experience in every way, a stay at São Lourenço do Barrocal will spoil all your future hotel stays and have you debating if you ever need to return to the life you took a vacation from.
Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon is having a moment, so you’re likely already inspired to visit this tile covered town, but we hope these photos give you the extra push to go from inspired to purchasing a plane ticket.
Justine Grajski takes us on a photographic journey through the Roman, impressionist, white horse harboring town of Arles in the south of France. Markets ripe with summer fruits, vines loaded with green grapes, and streets humming with that laid back warmth that only French summers can conjure, we invite you along on a beautiful visual wandering of the charming town of Arles.
As founder Kristin O’Connell transitions from one life stage to the next, she reflects on pregnancy, sense of self, and enjoying one last trip to French Polynesia before baby arrives.
Just off shore from Split, Paklinski Otoci is part of a chain of islands that is popular with the boating community. With only a small market and a handful of high end restaurants, it’s an ideal stop for sea farers looking for a quiet place to moor, or spend an afternoon getting drinks on the beach. Once our sailboat was docked, we set off on foot to find a private cove to ourselves to enjoy the golden hour.
The tranquil town of Todos Santos on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula has long been a destination for surfers, adventurers, artists and bohemian types. Offering a complete 180 from neighboring Cabo San Lucas, it’s a place where getting off the beaten track – or in this case, the old dusty trail – is a maxim that still rings true.
It was the last full day of our 5 night sailing charter from Dubrovnik to Split and the normal itinerary would have taken us to the luxurious, party island of Hvar, but instead of spending our day on land, we wanted to take full advantage of having a boat at our disposal and go somewhere off the beaten path. We asked our skipper, Bartool, if we could go somewhere private and he brought us here, to Otok Šćedro, and for nearly 4 hours, we had this whole cove to ourselves.
There are so many adorable towns between Split and Dubrovnik, why stop here, at this little village of Maslinica on the island of Solta? Let us tell you why.
A medieval island surrounded by turquoise waters and the birthplace of one of the most famous explorers in world history, the island of Korčula (pronounced core-chula) makes for a relaxed, yet fulfilling day in the Adriatic. With no real “sights” to see, a day in Korčula is best spent exploring the bougainvillea covered narrow cobblestone streets of old town, stopping into the occasional shop, enjoying a leisurely lunch seaside, and then sunbathing on the rocks below. A visit to the Marco Polo house provides a nice lookout tower to view the town from above, and just enough history about this 13th century explorer. The pace here fit our vacation vibe perfectly.
Saguaro National Park is an impressive and worthy park to visit, but if you want an experience that is a little less crowded, with a canyon and seasonal creek, head to Sabino Canyon in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, where the wildlife is abundant and the trails are seemingly never ending. We recommend visiting in May when the Saguaro cacti are in bloom.
ou never know what you'll miss most about a place until you've actually been there. For Sri Lanka, I was expecting to miss a little surf town and the beaches. But I ended up missing so much more.
Where to stay in Tucson? Tucked in the desert foothills of Tucson, Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch is a wonderfully preserved Old West resort with plush beds and private patios looking out onto desert vistas. We loved roaming the meticulously maintained grounds, wandering from one charming adobe courtyard to another, on the lookout for road runners and hummingbirds. For a full throwback to what this place was like for Hollywood stars in the 40s, book the Hepburn-Tracy suite, which is the casita that Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy shacked up in on more than one occasion. A stay here is great for those looking for a classic Western experience, with all the modern amenities.
