Gabrielle Brechner

For me, travel is all about the high-low. I don't enjoy a vacation if all I see is a fancy hotel and the same museums as the next guy. I want to return to a fantastic room at the end of the day, but I prefer it to be somewhere unique that is a reflection of the place I'm in and its people. I want to spend my days in proximity to locals, and eat in the best places - not necessarily the fanciest. I truly feel the same joy eating at a street vendor in Bangkok, enjoying a Seine-side picnic with a €4 bottle of Nicolas wine or dining at Noma. I want to leave a place feeling I know it just a tiny bit - my version of it. I want to walk a city until I drop, leaving no stone unturned - and then recoup by spending an hour in a piazza with a coffee or a glass of wine, talking to people around me.