Getting Around with William O'Connor

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The Photos of Notre Dame Are Bumming Me Out

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

It was supposed to be the prize at the end of a gloomy day spent traversing the pothole-riddled road from Armenia to Georgia and vertiginous mountain passes in blinding rain. But when my boyfriend and I arrived, we found the ancient Akhaltsikhe Castle (Rabati) cartoonishly new. Just a few years before, this fortress dating back to the 9th century had been restored and rebuilt.
Roubaix Is One of the Best Day Trips From Paris

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

This week’s feature is from my archives, one dear to my heart that no longer exists because the outlet is defunct—so I’m giving it new life here. If you’ve read it before, feel free to jump to Department of Grievances and industry news. Next week I’ll be covering the hotels opening in 2025 I’m most excited about.
I Wish Restaurants Would Stop Doing This

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

I’m flying this afternoon to Europe. London, to see my sister, then Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, and Athens for a wedding. Keen on having a productive visit, I spent much of the latter half of last week doing something I really don’t enjoy–researching and selecting restaurants. I spent ages taking recommendations from friends and readers and balancing them with online reviews and lists that so often focus on things utterly irrelevant to me.
I Tried Ina Garten's Favorite Cheeseburger

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

I’ve never had a reason to question the taste of Ina Garten, the celebrity chef known by her Barefoot Contessa moniker. Cooking shows weren’t something I watched, and the few times I baked from her recipes I had no complaints. Her cheeky but jovial persona I glimpsed now and then in viral clips came across as authentically endearing. And I’m not a stan of any celebrity, so her alleged snub of Martha Stewart gets no rise from me. Getting Around with William O'Connor is a reader-supported publication.
The Pulitzer Amsterdam Hotel Has a Fun and Scandalous Palm Beach Connection

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

Good morning and welcome to fall! I’m sitting here in the gardens at the Hotel Pulitzer Amsterdam. In addition to being one of my favorite hotels, for those into hospitality lore, it’s also a piece of one of the more fascinating and dramatic high society tales. Made up of 25 historic townhouses, it was cobbled together in the 1960s by Peter Pulitzer and Howard Johnson to create what they dubbed Amsterdam’s first five-star hotel.
Does Vancouver Live Up to the Hype?

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

It’s a disease of the traveler’s mind—there’s probably a German word for it—that when a destination charms you, you begin to think, “I could live here.” You weren’t hunting for a new home. In fact, there’s nothing practical or realistic about this sequence that repeats over and over. But if you’re like me, you become obsessed, looking up real estate, how good the airport’s connections are, how brutal are the winters, and so on.
In Rio de Janeiro, a Modernist Mansion-Turned-Hotel

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

It’s a rather tired cliche in hospitality, the whole “making you feel at home” thing. I’ve never understood it because the whole reason I’m there is that I don’t want to be at home, and if we really care about making me feel at home, then who the hell are all these other people? What I do like, however, is feeling like I’m in somebody else’s home. Especially somebody with taste and a budget more elevated than my own.
A Popular Hiking App Has One Annoying Flaw

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

Moments when I feel like I’m still spry are few and fleeting these days. It takes immense self-control not to wag my finger at younger friends and family members who complain about aches and pains and retort, “Just wait till you’re my age.”So perhaps I should just be grateful to AllTrails rather than gripe about its rating system. Finishing a “Difficult” hike hours ahead of its suggested time and finding it easy or moderately challenging should be a small victory I savor and milk for months.
10 of Mexico City's Hottest New Restaurants

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

Once arguably one of the best underrated cities in the world, Mexico City is anything but under the radar these days. Since the pandemic, the second-biggest city in the Americas is an “it” destination thanks to its magical combination of history, architecture, food, nightlife, and cool neighborhoods. For years, the typical visitor to Mexico City hit up the same circuit of restaurants—Contramar, Maximo Bistro, Lardo, Quintonil, Pujol, etc.
10 Hotels I'm Excited for in 2025

Jan 12, 2025 | gettingaround.substack.com | William O’Connor

One of the more fun parts of running The Daily Beast’s travel section until a year ago was figuring out which hotels we wanted to cover. There are so many talented, ambitious, and creative people working in the hospitality industry. Getting to champion, critique, and experience these places before most of the public was, well, awesome.