Window shopping #47
Screen-to-stay bookings, a designer collab at sea, and a Rome hotel worth every superlative
This is Window Shopping, a weekly mini-letter from Window Seat—your stylish scroll through what’s new and noteworthy in the world of travel. Each issue blends timely headlines, personal favorites, and design-forward hotels to keep your wanderlust well-fed.
The internet’s favorite Canadian cottage is officially open for bookings. After months of Heated Rivalry obsession, the three-bedroom Barlochan Cottage in Muskoka, Canada is officially coming to Airbnb, with bookings opening March 3rd. Priced at $248.10 CAD per night (an IYKYK wink to fans of the show) the listing taps into a bigger travel trend: booking the places we first fall in love with on screen. Consider this your sign to romanticize cottage country, ideally with someone special.
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection has partnered with designer Johanna Ortiz for an exclusive takeover aboard Ilma. At the center is a custom print inspired by Caribbean flora and woven with Ortiz’s signature sailing rope motif, nodding to travel as something to be felt, not just seen. Debuting for Ilma’s Winter 2026 Caribbean sailings and continuing into Summer 2026 in the Mediterranean, the collaboration signals a broader shift toward fashion-forward, design-led cruising where the setting is as styled as the guest list.
Travel in Mexico is returning to normal after days of unrest tied to cartel violence, but broader travel logistics travel remain unsteady. While flight schedules have largely stabilized, travelers are advised to double-check their airline status and consider backup routing options if a direct flight to the U.S. is canceled. Layer onto that a partial U.S. government shutdown—which has suspended Global Entry and could mean longer-than-usual security or customs lines—and this becomes a week to arrive early and monitor airport wait times closely.
As of late, I have been thinking less about destinations and more about how I arrive. The older I get, the more I want the journey itself to feel designed: not rushed, but immersive from the very first moment. For that reason, sailing keeps coming up. There is something about waking up on the water, moving slowly between ports that feels aligned with this softer, more sensory chapter I’m in.
Nautica Collective has been on my radar for exactly that reason. Their charters feel intimate and design-forward, more like a floating boutique hotel than a typical boat rental. Thoughtful routes, beautiful vessels, and an emphasis on social connection. If I’m going to romanticize the journey this year, this is the exact energy I’m after.
Orient Express La Minerva Hotel — Rome, Italy
The very first hotel ever launched under the legendary Orient Express brand opened just last year and to say it’s a stunner might be the understatement of the century. Tucked steps from the Pantheon in Rome's Piazza della Minerva, the property is a 17th-century palazzo given new life by designer Hugo Toro that features 93 keys, a bar under a dramatic glass skylight, and a rooftop restaurant with jaw-dropping 360° views of the city. Stendhal, Melville, and George Sand once called it home—new guests are in equally good hands.
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Tori Simokov is a Travel Writer and Graphic Designer/Strategist based in New York. To get in touch, email tori@v1projects.com. Want more? Check out Instagram, TikTok, or shop her curated favorites.
wow just added La Minerva to my list!
The shift from thinking about destinations to thinking about arrival is interesting. Most travel still treats the journey as friction to minimize - fastest flight, shortest transfer, least interruption.
Sailing flips that. It makes the transition visible again. You feel distance. You notice geography. You don’t just appear somewhere.
That’s probably why it resonates more as you get older. The “in-between” stops feeling inefficient and starts feeling intentional.
Design-forward charters are one expression of that, but the underlying idea is bigger: when the route is part of the narrative, the place tends to land differently.