Seatmates: Yolanda Edwards
On living between countries, letting go of itineraries, and noticing what others overlook
This interview is part of Seatmates, a Window Seat series where tastemakers, travelers, and creatives share how they move through the world—what they pack, where they stay, and the travel rituals that shape their lives.
There are certain people whose work goes beyond inspiration in that it totally rewires something in you. People who expand your sense of what’s possible just by doing things their way. For me, one of them is
, founder and editor of Yolo Journal.When I first discovered Yolo Journal, it felt like a revelation. It had everything I’d been craving: travel that was elegant but unfussy, deeply personal, and grounded in feeling. Yolanda’s taste is unmatched, but it’s her perspective that keeps me returning to her work again and again. She has shaped the visual language of travel for a generation and continues to champion the kind of story-rich discovery that never goes out of style. Her work made me want to slow down, look closer, and really approach travel as an art form. In many ways, Window Seat wouldn’t exist without Yolanda’s example.
Read on to learn which hotel stay was so perfect she wanted to copy every detail, what readers of Yolo Journal can’t get enough of (hint: it’s not just destinations), and the one place she always returns to when she needs to reconnect with herself.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m the founder and editor of Yolo Journal, a travel lifestyle brand I started in 2019 that creates 3 print magazines a year and a weekly newsletter, Club Yolo. I live between New York, Rome, and rural France—but truthfully, I spend most of my time on the road.
Yolo Journal has become such a reference point for those of us who care about travel with taste, intention, and feeling. Has anything surprised you about what readers respond to most or what they’re craving now that’s different from when you started?
(First, thank you!! Makes my day to read that!) I was surprised by how much our readers love style content. I never imagined that people would care so much about what I and other travelers wear, how we pack—I thought that was just what I cared about! I figured we would be immersed in travel content primarily, but now we usually create one style piece per week.
You’ve said before that you’re less interested in what’s new and more in what’s really good. As a fellow traveler who tries to notice these things, how do you train your eye to stay open, especially in places that feel overly documented?
Living in Rome and New York, I’m definitely surrounded by places that are over-documented. In Rome, I like to bring my dog to the Villa Borghese in the mornings, and we run up the Spanish Steps. Of course there are many tourists taking photos of themselves (as they should! It’s special!), but after our walk in the park, we walk down a street that parallels the steps, and there are never any people on it, and, no matter the season, there’s always some incredibly picturesque moment. If there are too many people, just move a block over!
Is there a place you often return to—not to live, but to reconnect with a version of yourself you don’t always get to access at home?
Greece!!! It’s a place that is very special to me—I feel like I had a rebirth-type experience there when I was 18, and every time I go back, I feel that again. I turn off my planning brain and just go into the ‘being there’ brain.