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Hello all,

I’ve had a refreshing couple of weeks off here in Spain, so I’m sending many thanks to my colleagues who helmed this newsletter and allowed me that reprieve. You’ll hear a lot more about Spain in the coming months. Not only is it poised to recapture its spot as the most-visited country in the world, but its capital city, Madrid, is very much having a moment.

Further north, we have Chloe Berge’s dispatch from Scotland where the forests the Ancient Romans wrote so passionately about are down to a mere 1% of their former size. But lucky visitors to the area can now see the work that conservation and ecotourism groups are undertaking to preserve and restore the forest–where half a century ago the mountainsides might have been completely bare, delicate green saplings are harbingers of hope.

For the architecture lovers out there, I’m sure you have enjoyed Anthony Paletta’s features for us over the years taking us everywhere from the lobbies of New York City skyscrapers to a Frank Lloyd Wright campus where you can actually touch things. This time he takes us to a valley in Vermont where some of the coolest architects of the last half century have built some pretty zany houses–many of which you can stay in.

Rounding out this week’s selection of great stories, Liza Weisstuch takes us bar hopping in London for the city’s greatest contribution to drinks–gin, and Liz Warkentin shares how today’s glitzy Swiss resort town of Zermatt’s rise to to fame was due to disaster tourism.  Enjoy!

— William O’Connor, Travel Editor

The Scottish Forest Immortalized by Romans Is Almost Gone

Only 1 percent of the Caledonian forest remains in Scotland, but these people are working to restore it.

A Vermont Valley Is Back to the Future and Back to the Land

Architects frustrated with an absence of hands-on building in architecture began to cluster in the area in the ’60s, producing a substantial grouping of experimental designs.

Where to Drink Gin in London, the City Where It All Began

An expedition to find the best gin joints across London.

The Tragedy That Made This Glitzy Swiss Village Famous

At the time, Zermatt was like any other village in the Swiss Alps: a poor agricultural village.

“Technology would be our friend, not our master. We rented a car online and used GPS, which for better or worse kept us off the side of the road and away from inquisitive cucumber farmers. Like old times, we closed our eyes and stuck our finger on the map, except it was on the screen.”

—Paul Rimple recounts a recent epiphany that all these gadgets don’t have to rule our travel lives.

Edinburgh, Scotland (Vrbo): Now, your vacation is your vacation and we wouldn’t dream of telling you how to plan it given how desperately you need a break. (No, those faces you’ve been pulling on the office Zooms are not subtle.) But just take a look at this perfect picture of a castle on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Take in all that space, the vast grounds, and what we’re assuming is an unpictured dungeon. What we’re hinting at here is that, given the upcoming winter holidays and that this fabulous palace sleeps 24, it might be the perfect time to plan a long overdue family reunion. Here, you can reconnect (or do what our family affectionately calls f-cubed—forced family fun), while still having the space for everyone to spread out—waaaaay out—when things inevitably start to get a little tense.

When you’re playing Queen for the week, a chef isn’t an option…it is a given. Here, all of your meals will be whipped up by the on-site chef and his culinary crew who specialize in Scottish farm-to-table.

Book Your Stay: Kirkliston Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland $10,720/night via Vrbo

Don’t miss previous OMG, I Want to Rent This House posts, which spotlight the most spectacular and unique homes that you can actually stay in.  Check out the full archives. 

Travel Around the World With Surfers

Few things in travel read more like an addiction than a surfer chasing good surf. There is this constant pull they talk about, and they’ll travel far and to dangerous places to get it. So while millions of us travel every week to the seaside to lounge and relax, they’re headed there for an adrenaline rush. The latest selection for Just Booked, our series on gorgeous coffee table books, catalogs the work of the magazine that tries to capture this world–Surfer Magazine: 1960-2020, published by Rizzoli.

The book is filled with spectacular shots, made more remarkable given the images are an attempt to capture in static form an action (man with ocean) full of movement and energy. Over the decades one can see how the depiction of the sport changes not only in terms of logo designs and artwork, but also in how the bodies, skin color, and genders shift too.

Don’t miss our other selections for our series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books, Just Booked.

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