Schellenbaum discusses Buddhist monasteries, travel apps, and the best places to travel in 2015 (Kansas City, here we come).

by Joanna Demkiewicz

photo by Jay Schellenbaum

Traveling might be one of the most universal acts, perhaps on par with falling in love. We all do it or lust to do it, whether it’s the commute to work or crossing far-flung cities off our bucket list. I often romanticize travel and consider antiquing in Iowa as fulfilling as deep sea fishing in Mexico. Any opportunity to experience a different pocket of the world feels like the most satisfying privilege.

Discussing travel with the like-minded Amy Schellebaum, then, only made me pine for new destinations. The former senior editor of Curbed (a real estate and interiors online magazine) made the jump to Travel + Leisure in February of this year, and as a digital editor she focuses on the magazine’s online presence, writing about Marriott’s “selfie packages,” snowboarding on a Copenhagen waste plant, and Ireland’s newest tourist attraction (it’s a priest).

We discussed adventure travel, how getting lost while abroad is a dying art, and that one time she skied off a cliff in Montana. Get ready to add a couple more pages to your bucket list.

Joanna Demkiewicz: What was the transition like moving from working for a magazine about interiors (Curbed) to working for a magazine (generally) about exteriors (Travel + Leisure)? Or am I reading too much into it…?

Amy Schellenbaum: It’s a great question. I think the distinction is not so much literal interiors and exteriors, but this idea of the inside world — the home, your family sphere, the surroundings you build for yourself — versus the outside world. Travel is everything that happens when you step outside of your home, everything beyond that inside world. Travel is about exploring the environs and the people that are unfamiliar—and that’s intoxicating. In a way that distinction actually illustrates my transition out of Curbed, too. I built my home there, writing about architecture and design, but now I’m so excited to see the whole world open up. Food, style, art, news. Kolkata, Kyoto, Kuala Lumpur. It’s astounding.

I should also note that a lot of my most awe-inspiring travel experiences, going back from when I was a kid, involve indoor spaces—cathedrals, archaeological sites, palaces, and the like.

JD: You’ve written on SkyMall, the lost Malaysia Flight MH370, Conan in Cuba and the views of Dubai dispatched from the back of an eagle for Travel + Leisure. What’s your dream story? What’s your dream subject? What’s your dream destination?

AS: Oh man, I don’t want to say! I still hope they’ll actually come about, and I don’t want anyone to scoop me. Is that lame?

Certainly my writing goals are about as varied as my interests. I’m fascinated by the contemporary life of architecture created by Germany’s Bauhaus school, for example. I’m also very interested in design as it pertains to gender identity and the public good. As far as travel stories go, I’m fascinated by adventure travel—Patagonia, Greenland, etc.—and spiritual places in Southeast Asia. I guess when I want to get out of NYC life, I want to get as far from NYC life as possible. My dream destination right now is Bhutan. I’ve been practically weeping looking at photos of Buddhist monasteries.

JD: I’m struck by what you just mentioned about your interest in design as it pertains to gender identity and the public good. What do you mean by that, exactly? Can you give me a couple examples?

AS: Ok, so we’re about to get really far into the weeds here, but basically it’s clear that design (of spaces, of objects, of visualizations) has a lot of power to compound or counter social structures, including the gender binary. It can be as explicit as gendered toys or tools, or it can be more subtle. Structures can divide its users along social lines that need not (or, more accurately, do not) exist.

What I mean by architecture “for the public good” is design whose main thrust comes from problem solving rather than icon-creation. It’s about answering the question “Who am I designing this for?” in a way that’s not “the highest bidder.” Last year I wrote an (admittedly inflammatory) piece for the Verge that basically said that architects need to check their egos, because the future of architecture “isn’t about them.” I stand by that. Last year, the winner of the planet’s most primo architecture award went to Shigeru Ban, a guy best known for his brilliant disaster relief housing (it was made out of surrounding refuse) and a cardboard cathedral to serve a community suffering in the wake of a huge earthquake. He’s really inspiring, and, because I’m an optimist, I take that as a good sign of things to come.

JD: As the digital editor of Travel + Leisure’s website, you’ve professionally got digital media on the brain. Do you, personally, have an itch for print as well? Do you have some favorite print publications that you regularly seek out?

AS: I love the internet. I really, really love it. Of course that “itch” for print is somewhere inside me, but you’d be surprised at how seldom it niggles at me. There are probably a fair amount of journalists who still think that writing for digital is junior varsity play — but that’s totally outdated and absurd. Writing for digital is so alive, so real, so conversational, and so (dare I say it?) democratic. That’s incredible to me. Yes, there’s magic in opening up a magazine or a newspaper and seeing your work come together in some great crescendo of images and proprietary fonts, but that’s not the pinnacle of the written word for me.

That being said, I want to write a book. Everybody wants to write a book.

JD: Last summer, there were a lot of great summer reads, including Emma Straub’s The Vacationers. What are you looking forward to reading this summer, either pre-backyard BBQ or while lazing on the beach?

AS: I’m super ready to dig into Unabrow [by Una LaMarch], a funny memoir-in-essays with the tagline “Misadventures of a Late Bloomer.” My colleague recommended it recently, and the essay titles (like “An Open Letter to Rompers”) make me think it will really speak to me.

JD: Back to Cuba: Since President Obama eased notorious travel restrictions to Cuba in January of this year, Airbnb has become the country’s fastest growing market. Vacationing there is certainly a new trend, mainly because we didn’t have access before. What other interesting travel-destination trends have you noticed for this year?

AS: One thing we really tried to emphasize in our feature 40 Reasons to Travel Now is that people are seeing the world for as many reasons as there are travelers. Heading to Cuba, of course, is a monumental trend (one we’ve covered extensively in the last fewmonths), but it’s really just one of our official “Best Places to Travel in 2015.” Lately I’ve seen a lot of interest in the Catskills and other domestic locations like Kansas City, Nashville, and Las Vegas. Also on the watch list: Istanbul, Hokkaido, Milan,India, and Iran.

Some places, of course, will always be popular, and for good reason. Paris, the Caribbean, and Italy are on most people’s bucket list. Now I see a lot of people looking for a more “authentic” experience in these well-trod destinations, and there are plenty of services now that peddle authenticity in travel. Airbnb is an easy example, but there are plenty of startups that connect you with locals or otherwise map out the “real” city.

JD: What are some of your favorite apps or other digital resources to help with travel in general – from packing to nabbing cheap tickets to finding a city’s coolest ice cream shop? I’m thinking of these apps, recently featured by the New York Times, that track your walking routes as you explore new and foreign cities.

AS: To be honest I live very simply, app-wise. I rely on the basics: Instagram, Twitter, Google Translate, FlightStats, and GTFO (formally called Flight Tonight), which lists cheap flights that leave today. For example, looking at it now, I can get a round-trip ticket from NYC to Panama City for $498.

There are tons of travel apps out there that do wonderful, wonderful things. A colleague recommended Booking Now and Hotel Tonight, both of which are last-minute hotel-booking apps I’m eager to try out on a summer road trip. That all being said, I try to use my phone a little less while traveling. Getting lost while abroad is a dying art form.

JD: What’s your travel style? Are you an itinerary woman? Do you have an over-packing problem? Do you like to hit the tourist spots or hang with the locals?

AS: I usually have a very loose itinerary. When I went to Berlin, I used Google Maps to pin a bunch of architecture I wanted to check out, and throughout the week, if I was in the area, I’d walk over to see, say, Norman Foster’s Reichstag. Otherwise my itinerary looks something like this: “X club,” “Y museum,” and “Z monument.” I’m not into guided tours or planning things day-by-day, though I can’t deny I’ve left some places wishing I had planned a little more.

Like all things, moderation is key for tourist spots. If it’s my first time in a city, I’ll want to cover the basics. I’m not going to Rome and missing the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum. On the other side of the coin, some people travel like they’re on a high-stakes scavenger hunt—spending an eye-blink in hotspots just to get the Instagram and the right to say they went there. That’s super weird to me—and exhausting! I guess I’m pretty chill. I like walking around, having picnics, and staying out until daylight. I like catching live music. I like shopping. I like journaling in coffee shops.

JD: To piggyback off of that a little (travel-style-wise), I read recently that more and more people are traveling solo, and those solo travelers aren’t necessarily single. A number of people are also traveling by way of farming. What’s the most interesting mode of travel you’ve discovered since working for Travel + Leisure?

AS: I feel like river cruising is really having a moment. In the past five years, half a dozen cruise lines have begun operating in Southeast Asia, for example. (I have had literal dreams of taking one on the Mekong River in Cambodia.) Meanwhile, in Europe, close to 30 new river ships launched in the last year alone.

JD: Ok, everyone has one: What’s your classic, I-always-tell-this-one story about a family vacation?

AS: I skied off a cliff in Montana! Classic family moment. 

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Joanna Demkiewicz is The Riveter‘s co-founder and executive editor. Find her on Twitter at @yanna_dem.