Hi Reader,
Spring has been nonstop around here in the best possible way. Late spring in the travel world is basically our version of tax season: we’re finalizing summer itineraries, locking in fall travel, and already deep in conversations about holiday trips and even 2027 planning.
Meanwhile, our team is getting fresh destination guides up on the site, sharing travel tips on Instagram, and I’m currently in that very specific pre-trip phase where my suitcase is still empty but my nightstand is stacked dangerously high with books.
I'm on the Big Island of Hawai‘i this week for research, and before every trip I do the exact same thing: I read.
The First Thing I Pack Is Usually A Book
Long before I started Salt & Wind Travel, I was the kid who always had a book in her bag. These days I still read more than 50 books a year, and honestly, a huge amount of my travel research starts there too.
Before every research trip, I read at least one history book and one novel or memoir by a local author. Sometimes it’s food history, sometimes political history, sometimes fiction that captures the feeling of a place better than any guidebook ever could.
The best trips rarely come just from knowing where to go. They come from understanding why a place feels the way it does. That’s often what separates being a traveler from being a tourist.
Understanding why a region became known for a specific ingredient or wine. Why locals dine later, dress differently, linger longer over coffee, or care deeply about certain traditions. Once you understand the context, the history, the etiquette, the rhythm of daily life, you start noticing the nuances in the architecture, the art, the food, even the energy of a neighborhood.
It’s also why our team spends so much time building what we jokingly call “the brain,” our internal database of reading lists, films, boutique shopping recommendations, iconic walks, hidden viewpoints, restaurants, guides, and cultural references for the destinations we specialize in. We’re constantly collecting, curating, and refining it so we can match travelers with experiences that actually fit how they want to experience a place.
A lot of our clients are readers too, so before many trips we’ll send over curated books, films, or articles alongside restaurant recommendations and hotel confirmations. So here’s a little peek at what’s currently sitting on my nightstand.
Four Books That Changed How I Experience A Destination
France | A Bite-Sized History of France by Stéphane Henaut and Jeni Mitchell
One author is a cheesemonger, the other an academic, and together they tell the story of France through food and wine: Roquefort, Champagne, Cognac, Calvados, bread riots, royal feasts, monastery traditions.
What I love most is how the book makes classic French food traditions feel fresh again. It reminds you that dishes and ingredients people now take for granted are actually tied to centuries of craftsmanship, regional identity, and cultural history. It changed the way I experience meals in France because suddenly every bite feels connected to a much bigger story.
Italy | Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
This is one of those books you finish and immediately start texting friends about. It follows the true story of Pino Lella during World War II in Milan and Northern Italy, and it completely changed how I think about the region.
Suddenly Lake Como, Milan, and Lake Garda stopped feeling like mere vacation destinations and started feeling connected through the complicated final chapter of Mussolini’s regime and the Italian Resistance movement.
Hawai‘i | Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn
This one is absolutely wild and everyone we know in Hawai’i is reading it right now. The author uncovered that her own grandparents were Nazi spies living near Pearl Harbor before WWII, which launches a decades-long investigation into her family history.
What stayed with me most is how much it reframes Hawai‘i beyond the vacation version many travelers know. The islands have such a layered and complicated history politically, culturally, and strategically, and understanding even a small piece of that changes how you experience the destination.
California | California: A History by Kevin Starr
If you love California, or honestly even if you’re confused by California, this book helps explain so much of why the state feels the way it does.
The Gold Rush. Agriculture. Hollywood. Water wars. Silicon Valley. The layered history behind California’s food culture, wine industry, and obsession with reinvention.
It gives context to every Highway 1 road trip, every farmstand, every vineyard, and every conversation about why California can feel less like one state and more like several distinct regions stitched together. Anyway, I’d love to know: what’s the last book that changed how you saw a destination?
P.S. If you’re planning travel to Italy, France, Hawai‘i, or California this year, we’re deep in booking season and would love to help you experience these places beyond the obvious highlights. The best trips are rarely about checking boxes. They’re about context, connection, and knowing where to look.
