Tech Burnout

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

Travel Power

We all know the future is female. But in the travel world, the future is now. In the inaugural Women Who Travel Power List, Conde Nast Traveler recently rounded up the 30 women who are redefining what it means to explore the world. “These are the women paving the way for all the female travelers—from backpackers to civilian astronauts—who will follow them,” write the editors. It’s a wide-ranging list. You’ll learn about everyone from pioneering hotelier Liz Lambert to Lhakpa Sherpa, a Connecticut woman who has climbed Mt. Everest nine times.

Tech Burnout

In 2018, Wired wrote: “Our devices have never been more powerful, and people have never been so desperate to escape them through ‘digital detoxes’ and ‘dumb phones.’ Unplugging is the rallying call of our time.” Now, Skift says that tech burnout has made it into the travel sphere. But of course, travelers still want a seamless blend of travel and tech. So there’s a happy medium to be found. “At the end of the day, it’s all about people,” J. Allen Smith, CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said. “You can’t let the technology override that notion. Everything we do with respect to technology is in the quest of serving our guests in a more effective way and providing a better experience.”

Sinking Solo

Escape from the everyday is one of the most appealing things about a big recent trend: solo travel. But is going it alone on your explorations all it’s cracked up to be? Thrillist’s Kastalia Medrano says no. The benefits of “buddy travel” are just too extensive to ignore, she writes. It’s cheaper, it’s safer, it’s easier. “Traveling alone is cool, but it’s silly that everyone evangelizes it as a separate, superior category of travel, as if it’s the only way to obtain the kind of spiritual return you’re looking for. It's limiting.” Perhaps Medrano’s most convincing argument is food-related: you get to sample twice as many things when you’re traveling with someone else.

The Coachella Express

This might be the polar opposite of solo travel. According to NBC, fans may be able to take a train to the much-loved Coachella Music Festival as early as 2020. No more bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way from LA to Indio! The fun possibilities of a Coachella train are endless: live music performances? DJ sets? Pop-up cuisine activations? Basically, the train could be an extension of Coachella itself, taking the positive vibes of the fest onto the tracks.

Weekly Moment of Zen

This man fashions fabulous hats for the tiny toad who visits his porch every day. The results are genius.