A Spiritual Revisiting of the Lost Beatles Ashram

‘Roll up! Roll up! for the mystery tour’… a mystery indeed, given the chaos that subsequently engulfed The Beatles on their return from India to the West in 1968. Following the ground breaking success of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Fab Four plus an entourage of no less than 60 people (including wives,…

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Found Photographs of Perfect American Road Trips, Fifty Years Too Late

Trailer parks just don’t look like this anymore! What I wouldn’t give to go back 50 years and re-do the American road trip just like I picture it in my mid-century kodachrome dreams. Today I found a fabulous Flickr account full of old slides and photographs found at estate sales and garage sales by a nostalgic…

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The Summer of ’78 in St. Tropez

Okay, here’s a bit of a naughty one (come on, it’s Friday). Photographer Elliott Erwitt went spying on the beautiful people of St. Tropez for us in 1978 and came up with these pretty rad photographs (each one available to buy as a print by the way). I’m obligated to warn you that there are…

A Pilgrimage to the Ancient Penis Monastery

Deep in the Himalayas you’ll find Bhutan, an ancient kingdom with an equally ancient Buddhist monastery that is bound to make you blush. It’s called Chimi Lhakhang, and it’s a temple dedicated to fertility and the “sacred phallus.” Emphasis on the phallus. A carved “welcome” sign invites Western visitors to explore the monastery and its surrounding village,…

Instagram’s Most Adventurous Naked Hippie

I think this is the shot that got me hooked on the Magdalena experience. Yup. It’s got everything I could ever need in an Instagram photo: abandoned building; check, ghost town; check, vintage typography, old neon sign, female body confidence and serious wanderlust vibes; check. It was taken in Rico, Colorado, a historic silver mining town in the Pioneer Mining District, which has…

All Aboard the Incredible Flying Yacht, circa 1950

They don’t call it the ‘Golden Age of Travel’ for nothing. If you thought you were having early symptoms of the pre-summer travel bug, this will surely finish you off. Found deep within LIFE magazine’s archives, introducing “the flying yacht” … Hold the phone! A flying yacht in 1950?! Or an amphibious airplane, depending on…

Paradise Lost: The Hippie Refugee Camp

Let me tell you about a place called Taylor Camp, a tropical ocean-front utopia without rules, politics or bills to pay. Anti-establishment all the way, clothing was optional and decisions were made according to the “vibes”. It was the ultimate hippie fantasy. Taylor Camp began in the Spring of 1969, with thirteen hippies seeking refuge…

The Bittersweet Story of the World’s First Motel

It’s as American as Apple Pie in all its neon-lit glory, evoking our collective cultural memory of 1950s road-tripping, film noir fugitive hideouts and the golden age of kitsch. The motel is as much a part of the American open road as the gas station and the roadside diner, an indispensable amenity to the roving motorist; the…

The Louvre’s Secret Apartments

The Louvre; or, as we’ve prefer to call it, Paris’ most exhaustingly gorgeous tourist trap. In the MessyNessy guide, Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris, there’s even a chapter called, “Anything but the Louvre” that steers folks away from its selfie-stick jungles, and into the arms of more overlooked museums in the city. But this weekend, we decided to pay…

Your Ticket Aboard the World’s First Cruise Ship

Let’s take a cruise through history (see what I did there) aboard the SS Prinzessin Victoria Luise, a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1900 and credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship. It only spent six years in service before it was accidentally grounded off the coast of Jamaica (oops),…