Paris Part I: My Easy Guide to Plan the Perfect Getaway

Tomorrow, I leave for the ultimate “radiance retreat”: we’re going to Paris with a two-night stopover in Iceland en route back to Manhattan.

Whenever I return from Europe, I feel more creative, glowing, and inspired to savor life. It’s a “brain break”, leaving space for intuition and creativity to play. I inevitably come back with fresh ideas and solutions to challenges.

While a getaway can feel like a guilty pleasure—especially when you own a business or are a mom—it’s a mandatory frequency equilibrium for brilliance, beauty, and balance.

During a Savor Beauty meeting, our marketing assistant, Isabelle, asked me, “Can you write a blog about how you plan a trip? I get so overwhelmed with the details… a planning guide would be so helpful!”

As a former concert pianist, I sometimes traveled to more towns than a presidential candidate, zigzagging over 8000 miles in a month. Through trial and error, I learned how to pack minimally, travel with purpose, and make each visit count.

Here are my tried-and-true travel planning tips to inspire your next adventure:

Photo by Léonard Cotte

Pick Your Destination

Maybe you saw a movie set in a captivating city (Hello, Roman Holiday!) or heard about a phenomenal place to visit through a friend—when picking a travel destination, let inspiration always be your guide!

If you can’t decide, create a mood board with different options; sometimes your budget will be the deciding factor (here’s how I save up!), and sometimes the heart will dictate.

For this trip, it was a bit of both. I wanted to take my partner to Paris for his birthday; it would be his first time there, and it’s also the most romantic getaway I could think of.

When I was booking our flights, I noticed that Iceland Air had a “Stopover in Iceland” sale for half the ticket price of other airlines. I just knew that sitting in a steaming lagoon would be the perfect cherry on top for radiant well-being.

Photo by Jeff Sheldon

Choose Your Accommodation

When I was touring as a solo pianist (you can watch a documentary of one of my tours here), I would often wake up in the middle of the night not knowing where I was. Every town became a blur, so I began finding unusual and interesting accommodations to make each visit memorable.

Select Registry: I came to love B&B’s because a home-prepared breakfast made me feel less lonely. I quickly found that not all B&Bs are created equal, and Select Registry curates a list of the crème de la crème. I have yet to stay at a recommended bed and breakfast that wasn’t delightful.

Airbnb: One of my guilty pleasures is to spend hours scrolling through Airbnb homes to find the most magnificent and interesting digs. Sometimes, if I find a “wow” place (like this sweet luxury treehouse), I plan our travels around the home.

Local Bloggers: If you google “where to stay” in x destination, local blogs will often pop up with recommendations. Then you can check out the reviews on Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Google.

That’s how I chose where we would be staying in Paris; Montmartre—a quaint village in the heart of Paris (where Amelie was filmed)—is so romantic with its cobbled-stone streets. The reviews sealed the deal with travelers stating it’s quieter with a rooftop bar to see all the spectacular views.

Photo by Diogo Fagundes

Dream Up Your Experiences

Are you already getting excited? Now it’s time to plan your itinerary! I have a friend who likes to plan down to the minute—from where she and her husband will eat to the monuments they want to see.

I prefer a less structured approach; my travel philosophy is ça coule, which means “it flows.” I like to get lost in a city and find random adventures, make new friends, and discover magic in unexpected places.

Did you know that Airbnb has local experiences with guides? For Paris, I booked two experiences: the first night, I have a cabaret dinner planned for my partner’s birthday with a surprise “choux à la crème” cake. The next day, we’ll do a 5-hour bike tour of Paris ending with a cruise. From there, we’ll see what sparks our fancy and create day and night adventures.

Photo by JOHN TOWNER

Eat Your Heart Out

I like to decide where to eat through friends’ recommendations or Google maps. What I love about Google maps is that you can be anywhere and if you are craving Greek, you can google “Greek restaurant near me” and decide based on reviews.

Make sure you ask friends, too, because they are a wealth of information with good taste (after all, YOU are their friend!)

I received this surprise text from one of my most well-traveled friends, Paige, and you can bet I’ll be following her recs!

Here’s to your travels, radiant retreats, self-care sabbaticals, self-love adventures, and frequency equilibriums. You deserve it, radiant beauty. xx