Travel Dispatch is a publication for paid subscribers. It features deep dives into the itineraries I build for myself and clients. This one features the full report of our Euro Summer with our 5 and 7 year old children, Malia and Jack.

Our Euro Summer did not start out as a nearly month-long trip. It began as trip to celebrate my friend Laura’s 40^th birthday in her favorite place, the French Riviera. Our favorite direct flight to Europe is the United Denver-London flight, so then we decided to tack on a few days in England. Once I looked at a map, I realized that Nice was driving distance from the Dolomites, so we added Sonnwies because I’ve been dying to check it out. Then, we had to add in Paris.

This is how many of my personal travel plans develop. Luckily, I have a supportive spouse who says “yes” to my insane ideas, such as dragging our 5- and 7-year-old children to 6 hotels between three countries and six cities.

I affectionately call our children the Bougie Bunnies, which you will see on my Substack. They are incredibly spoiled when it comes to travel, and they love five-star hotels as much as I do. I love traveling with them. Our 5 year old is still a challenge, but he’s getting there. Our daughter is a blast to travel with at this point. I grew up in a family that took us everywhere, and want to instill that same sense of curiosity in our children.

Was this trip insane? Overly ambitious? Did I overpack? Yes, yes, and yes. We also timed it with the heatwave, got nine million mosquito bites, were yelled at by an angry French dude in a museum, and drove 7 hours instead of flying from the Dolomites to Nice, losing our entire plane ticket fare in the process. However, it was also absolutely worth it.

Our itinerary was:

• England: Estelle Manor 4 nights, Covent Garden Hotel 3 nights

• Dolomites: Sonnwies 5 nights

• Nice: Maison Albar Le Victoria 2 nights, a villa for 6 nights

• Paris: Hotel Regina Louvre 3 nights

  To Read the Rest of This Post, Please Become a Paid Subscriber

Read more

My Ireland packing list was popular, so here’s what’s going in my bag for my French Riviera trip with my Bougie Bunnies later this month:

French Riviera Packing List

French Riviera Packing List

Kayl…

Read more

A brief note on this publication. Travel Dispatch will be a new series you can opt into. The Upgrade includes three publications:

1) The Upgrade | Weekly. Everybody gets this. It’s free and arrives on Tuesdays in your inbox. Hospitality hot takes, industry deep dives, the Room Report of hotels worth a stay, and the Lobby Bar with hospitality industry tea and news.

2) Travel Dispatch. You’ll receive your first post for free this weekend. Going forward, they will be available for a paid subscription. These are personal travel essays, destination guides, and real itineraries I’ve built for myself and clients over 18 years in the luxury travel industry. This weekend - you’ll receive my mother-daughter trip to Paris with my bougie bunny. These are not weekly - they will come out once or twice per month.

3) Hotel History. My father, Richard Kelley, wrote a weekly newsletter about the history of our family company, Outrigger Hotels, for 40 years. Paid subscribers will receive occasional editions of my father’s archived Saturday Briefing articles. I want him to live on through his work now that he’s gone.

To customize what lands in your inbox, go to substack.com/settings, click on The Upgrade under Subscriptions, and toggle each section on or off.

Happy travels,

Anne Marie

Subscribe now

A Mother-Daughter Trip to Paris

My daughter is, undoubtedly, the luckiest kid I know. Last fall, she turned 7, and I let her choose a trip with me as her birthday present.

My Bougie Bunny chose Paris, (because of course she did).

Insane 7th birthday present? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Not for a second. I’m decently certain that my 7th birthday involved a Lisa Frank theme and Chuck-E-Cheese. But, my daughter went to Paris.

I’m a luxury travel planner, and honestly, if I can flex my planning skills anywhere, it should be on designing the quintessential Princess Paris trip for my offspring.

Malia loves the “Claris Goes to Paris” books, which feature a little mouse with expensive taste who wants to be a fashion designer, and proceeds to adventure around France name dropping Pucci, Chanel, and Dior. Malia also loves princesses, sweet things, and being the center of attention. She also complimented a woman in an elevator on her bag, saying “I just love your Chanel!” Yes, I know I’m in trouble.

I knew I needed to anchor the trip around fashion, food, and Marie Antoinette.

Where we stayed:

I chose Relais Christine both for its location near the Luxembourg Gardens (and their epic playground), and for its ornate decor.

Our room was fit for a princess, and the staff made sure to sing Malia happy birthday the first morning of the trip over a breakfast filled with hot chocolate and croissants.

What we did:

• A mother-daughter massage at the Cheval Blanc Dior spa

• A boat ride down the Seine blasting music so we could have a dance party

• A tour of the Dior museum to brush up on her fashion history

• A chocolate and macarons tasting tour

• A guided tour of Versailles after watching the Marie Antoinette movie

• A photoshoot in front of the Eiffel Tower

• A private shopping experience at https://www.lileauxfees.com/

Where we ate:

• Vagenende - art deco style French restaurant where Malia devoured escargot

• Huguette - sweet little restaurant with piano music and amazing clam dish

• Giraffe - fancy brunch with views of the Eiffel Tower

• The Ritz - afternoon tea

I am lucky enough that I’ve been to Paris several times in my life, but I’d never seen the city like this - at a slower pace, through her eyes. Everything felt magical, from watching the Eiffel Tower light up to riding the carousel at the Luxembourg Gardens together.

7 is special. She’s still such a little girl who loves dolls and Disney movies, who believes in fairies, twirls in dresses, and doesn’t quite understand what happened at the end of the Marie Antoinette movie. My daughter is also now able to travel as an excellent companion. She never complained about the long flight or distances we walked on winding streets. When it rained, she was thrilled to have a chance to carry an umbrella and sing in the rain. She charmed the pants off of just about every server and front desk person we encountered. I quite honestly had one of the best trips of my life with her.

Celebrating my daughter’s birthday was as much a celebration of my day of giving birth, and our bond together, as it was her moment. Let’s face it, motherhood is hard, and after seven years of it, I deserved to reap a bit of what I’d sowed.

Traveling with our kids gives us the brief gift of concentrated time together, focused on memory making and story sharing. There are no “just a second while I respond to this emails” while you’re walking through the Versailles gardens. There is a brief respite from endless navigation of soccer games, ballet recitals, birthday parties, and theater performances. Routine gives way to “yes” moments where you eat gelato at 10am because you are in Paris.

I am so excited to raise a traveler, and can’t wait for the adventures ahead with my wonderfully spoiled Bougie Bunny.

-Anne Marie, The Upgrade Weekly