‘Where To Now’: Zara and Wallpaper* launch offbeat travel guides
Zara and Wallpaper’s ‘Where To Now’ travel guides launch with five off-the-beaten-track adventures, from California to Naoshima, for armchair and actual explorers, available to buy now
Zara and Wallpaper’s Where To Now book series, more travelogue than forensic tourist guide, proposes five off-the-beaten-track adventures, in Bruton (UK), Ojai (US), Galicia (Spain), Naoshima (Japan) and Namibia. Including a 300-page coffee table book embracing all five destinations, as well as individual guides, also available as a boxed set, Where To Now presents a series of verbal and visual field notes for the armchair traveller and ardent explorer alike.
Where To Now guides by Zara and Wallpaper*
The project began during the dark days of the global pandemic, when people were confined to the four walls of their homes, tied to their devices but dreaming of escape, travel and adventure, and thinking, ‘Where to now?’ Take me to something other than this.
Inspired to produce a book series for would-be adventurers, Zara and Wallpaper* selected five (generally less-celebrated) destinations, from five different continents. Bruton, Ojai, Galicia, Naoshima, and Namibia are all places the editors at Zara and Wallpaper* have either already been to or would like to visit ourselves one day. Now we can.
Photography is shot by Salva López, Luis Díaz Díaz, Pia Riverola, Den Niwa, Kent Andreasen and Sophie Green, and essays authored by Wallpaper* editors Simon Mills and Pei-Ru Keh, with Celeste Chipperfield, Jens H Jensen, and Mazzi Odu.
The Where To Now books are compiled with a very specific kind of traveller in mind. Rather than someone who views each trip as an opportunity for accumulating a social media feed of envy-inducing selfies, they are pitched at someone who will be careful not to leave anything behind as they travel, and who will also be sure to let travel make its indelible mark on them.
The measured pace of the compiled imagery suggests a slow-travel tempo, encouraging a fluid and spontaneous kind of journey. So, if you do go to Bruton or Galicia or Ojai, the books’ narrative encourages a freewheeling approach. Don’t stick to any rigid, micro-scheduled itinerary, just let stuff happen.
Happenstance encounters with shops, people, alleyways, street vendors and off-beat architectural wonders will be so much more enriching than the coach-trip-and-queue farago of a poorly run museum or oversubscribed landmark.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Recommending independent stores, Where To Now’s colourful pages encourage travellers to pack light and shop local. Anything you do need when you get there – from a T-shirt to soap – can be bought, often cheaper, on the hoof. For souvenirs, think beyond tourist tat and, should the whim take you, pick up local tinned foodstuffs, kitchen utensils, lace, handmade shoes, hats, or exotic, luridly coloured booze.
Similarly, Where To Now gently urges you to eat what the locals eat, to have what they are having. Restaurants that translate their menus for tourists and display photos of their dishes outside on sandwich boards, or chain diners with globally recognised logos probably won’t offer much in the way of indigenous gastronomic adventure. On the other hand, that lunch of mejillones al vapor (steamed mussels) and pimientos de Padrón (Padrón peppers) that you gorge on at the local market in Padrón, south-west of Santiago de Compostela, will live long in your memory.
Now, don’t you have to be somewhere?
Buy the guides
The full Where To Now range of books, notebooks, and posters is available to buy at zara.com, or click through from the product links below.
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UK
As A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
By Jack Moss Published
-
Eurovision unveils its 2024 stage, designed by Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour creatives
This year's stage design aims to bring the audience into the performance more than ever before.
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Ikea meets Japan in this new pattern-filled collection
New Ikea Sötrönn collection by Japanese artist Hiroko Takahashi brings Japan and Scandinavia together in a pattern-filled, joyful range for the home
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Southern Arizona sets the scene for a corking vineyard experience at Los Milics
Los Milics winery, designed by Chen + Suchart Studio, is set among vines at the foothills of the Mustang Mountains
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debut
Six Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Dip into Janu Tokyo hotel, Aman’s sociable new sibling brand
Step inside the Jean-Michel Gathy-designed Janu Tokyo and discover its state-of-the-art wellness facilities
By Jens H Jensen Published
-
Step inside Juno Omakase, London’s smallest counter dining experience
Juno Omakase, inside Los Mochis Notting Hill, offers a one-of-a-kind tasting menu in which Tokyo meets Tulum
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Enjoy camp escapism at Hotel Bardo Savannah
Hotel Bardo Savannah is a sophisticated resort inspired by the grand tradition of the early 20th-century salon
By Sallie Lewis Published
-
Dario Restaurant brings a pink punk edge to Minneapolis’ North Loop
Minneapolis’ Dario Restaurant dishes up homemade pasta in quirky interiors designed by Wittkamper Studio
By Carole Dixon Published
-
Rent British musician Imogen Holst’s home via Modernist Estates
Discover Imogen Holst’s home, designed by H.T. Cadbury Brown, in the seaside town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Get groovy at The Pinky Ring, Las Vegas, a 1970s cocktail lounge shaking up the city
The Pinky Ring is a Las Vegas cocktail and live music venue designed by Yabu Pushelberg for Bruno Mars
By Tianna Williams Published