Where PaperCity’s Editors Are Traveling to Beat the Texas Heat This Summer 

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The tres chic bar aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is the place to be this summer.

The Lincoln Hotel in Biddiford, Maine, is a must-visit summer travel destination.

One of our editors is headed to Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana this summer.

PaperCity’s Shelby Hodge picking strawberries in Nantucket.

Another PaperCity editor hopes to make it to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Chileno Bay Resort and Residences | Auberge Collection is a perfect escape during the Texas summer heat.

The US Open Tennis Championships is a dreamy summer getaway.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, nestled on 134 sylvan acres in Bentonville, Arkansas (Photo © Tim Hursley)

PONANT EXPLORATIONS GROUP, the luxury fleet of boutique expedition ships, is strengthening its partnership with The Explorers Club through exciting new voyages. (Courtesy of Benjamin Hardman)

It’s that time again: the glorious summer travel season when everyone you know jets off to glamorous locales, chic hideaways, and serene sanctuaries. Texans in particular treat it as an annual pilgrimage, fleeing to cooler climates and waterside escapes to beat the steamy heat of our beloved Lone Star State.

PaperCity‘s editors are no exception. From recent coverage of design-forward corners of Scotland to the hottest new hotel openings in Mexico and Florida, our travels offer plenty of inspiration for your own summer plans — whether you’re chasing a beach escape, crisp mountain air, or celebrating America’s 250th birthday. This summer, we are practicing what we preach. Our editors are jetting off this season right alongside you.

Here’s where the PaperCity team will be dispatching from this summer.

Georgie Miller
Managing Director, Content Strategy & Operations + Travel Editorial

My summer schedule is ambitiously packed with newsworthy destinations to continue piling up as part of my duties as travel editor for PaperCity: Greece, Kokomo Private Island in Fiji, and Montana’s Tippet Rise are all on the docket, with stories on each coming your way soon.

As I write this, I’m aboard Le Commandant Charcot, PONANT’s luxury icebreaker ship, on an expedition through the Arctic Circle. We’ve just navigated the Northern Norway’s picturesque fjords of Svalbard and are heading toward the ice packs of East Greenland. Trading Texas heat for below freezing Arctic temperatures is already proving worth it for scenery this untouched.

Melissa Smrekar
Digital Executive Editor, Dallas

Freshly jetlagged, I just returned from an epic 40th birthday celebration that started in London (for the Schiaparelli exhibit at the V&A) and Paris (for the women’s final at Roland Garros) before I boarded the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train. During the once-in-a-lifetime journey, we meandered through Switzerland and Austria before arriving in Venice, Italy. With a black tie dining carriage at dinner and denim strictly prohibited at all times on the Orient Express, it was every bit as glamorous as I imagined!

Next up? After traipsing around the UK and Europe, this Texan needs a tan! Like a true Dallasite, I’m headed to Cabo, of course. The beautiful Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, Auberge Collection awaits!

Shelby Hodge
Social & Lifestyle Editor, Houston

Nantucket, here we come! Although the airfare has doubled from last summer, we would not miss the opportunity to spend waterfront days and cool nights with my husband’s daughter and her family at their summer home. Lobster rolls, clam bakes, beach time, and shopping for the amazing produce and flowers at famed Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm. Add rollicking afternoons at Cisco Brewers. Sweater weather, yes!

Megan Ziots
Digital Editorial Director, Dallas + Fort Worth

Having just returned from a quick weekend getaway to Cinnamon Shore in Port Aransas, I’ll be spending most of the summer in Dallas checking out new restaurants and playing lots of pickleball (indoors!). But after playing tennis for my entire life and almost a decade of saying “We’ll go next year,” I’m finally headed to New York for the US Open this August!

Billy Fong
Editor in Chief, PaperCity Magazine

Alas, a trip I had planned for Saint Tropez just didn’t come together (I have a senior dog who has been having issues).

Laura Landsbaum
Digital Editor, The Woodlands

While I’m headed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July (yikes), I dream of returning to the coast of Maine, a frequent spot I visited when I lived in Boston. The Lincoln Hotel in Biddeford is a great spot.

Edward Brown
Digital Editor, Fort Worth

As I file away my latest PaperCity article, my lightly packed backpack waits by the door. Tomorrow, I’m making the 40-minute drive to Granbury with my daughter. The town is “sleepy” in the best possible sense: It’s bed-and-breakfast territory, an unfussy community content to remain comfortably distant from those big cities to the northeast.

The town square is one of the most charming in Texas, and I’ll soon be among the locals and visitors meandering through boutiques, galleries, and restaurants.

We’re also planning a trip to Austin later this summer, and we’ll probably take the Amtrak Texas Eagle — a slower mode of rail-based travel but one that’ll be more scenic and less stressful than driving.

One of my closest friends is nudging me to visit him in Seattle, preferably in August. Turns out, the month that is practically persona non grata to Texans is the ideal time for visiting that corner of Washington. I hear Mount Rainier National Park is bucket list-worthy.

Catherine D. Anspon | Executive Editor / Visual Arts + Features

In the summer of our Semiquincentennial, this arts writer is road tripping to the museum that showcases the broad swath of our country’s visual art history, both celebrated masterpieces as well as underknown treasures ripe for discovery. That would be Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, nestled on 134 sylvan acres in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Walmart; Walmart heiress Alice Walton had the vision to establish this pilgrimage-worthy museum that opened in 2011.

A rare institution that marries art and nature and is an arboretum, the museum is also an inspiring work of architecture that honors its Ozarks setting. Why go now: On our 250th, Crystal Bridges has just unveiled its breaktaking 114,000 square-foot expansion designed by original architect Moshe Safdie.