The Tastemaker
Core Drive: Beauty, pleasure, and presence
Growth edge: Experiencing the moment rather than perfecting it
You notice the things most people walk past.
The quality of light in a restaurant. Whether a hotel room has been designed or merely furnished. The difference between a meal that's technically good and one that makes you feel something.
That's the Tastemaker instinct — and it makes you a remarkable traveler. You don't just visit places. You read them.
The Tastemaker moves through the world guided by the senses. They notice what others overlook: the way sunlight falls through a café window, the texture of linen sheets, the balance of a meal that feels effortless but perfect. Travel, for them, is about experiencing the art of living well. They are drawn to places where design, culture, and flavor intersect and where every detail feels considered.
Tastemakers are discerning but not fussy. They value authenticity over extravagance and understand that luxury is less about price and more about intention. They curate their itineraries like they curate their homes, with thought, consistency, and a deep appreciation for what feels right. Their travels often revolve around local craft, good food, and architecture that tells a story.
They prefer boutique hotels to chains, guided tastings to buffets, and moments that engage the senses rather than overwhelm them. They often inspire others without trying to, simply by knowing what feels stylish, balanced, and true. The Tastemaker’s strength lies in their ability to bring beauty into motion and to make travel itself a form of design.
Their opportunity for growth lies in stillness. Because they are so attuned to beauty, they can sometimes rush to capture or perfect it. The next step is to allow moments to be beautiful without curation, to experience pleasure without documenting it, to feel wonder without needing to refine it. In doing so, The Tastemaker learns that presence itself is the ultimate luxury.
Check out some sample itineraries for The Tastemaker below.
How Andrew designs for the Tastemaker.
When I work with a Tastemaker, I'm not just building an itinerary — I'm designing a sensory arc. The pace matters as much as the places. So does the quality of light in your hotel room, the restaurant that doesn't try too hard, the morning that has nothing on it.
For Tastemakers, I focus on: boutique and design-led properties with genuine character, dining experiences that are curated rather than celebrated, neighborhoods that reward slowness, and enough white space to actually absorb where you are.
What I'm careful to avoid: over-programming, tourist-track restaurants, hotels that confuse size with luxury.
The sample journeys below are starting points — every Tastemaker I design for ends up somewhere a little different.
The Tastemaker in Bali
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![Traditional Balinese temple with layered thatched roofs, situated by a calm body of water, with mountain and cloudy sky in the background, and its reflection visible in the water.]()
Six Days of Light and Ritual
Bali is a mood that never asks permission. It doesn’t perform, it pulses. For The Tastemaker, it’s a sensory immersion in earth, water, and ritual: incense curling through morning air, mango on the tongue, the sound of rain on bamboo roofs. Every sense sharpened, nothing wasted.
Duration: 6 Days
Stay: The Slow, Canggu is part gallery, part sanctuary. Polished concrete, teak, and salt air. Rooms that feel like music slowed down.
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![A scenic view of a tropical beach with turquoise water, large rock formations, and lush green cliffs, with palm trees along the shoreline.]()
Top Three Things To Do
The Morning Table at The Slow. Order the turmeric tonic and coconut pancakes, then linger. This isn’t breakfast; it’s ceremony.
Afternoon at Taman Beji Spa, Ubud. Cold plunge meets candlelight — proof that contrast heightens pleasure.
Private dinner at Mason. Barefoot dining under frangipani trees, a menu that treats fire as flavor.
Must see:
Tirta Empul Temple. Skip the crowd. Go early. Watch the water ritual in silence before stepping in, not to be cleansed, but to understand rhythm. The repetition is its own kind of luxury.
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![Group of people dressed in traditional Balinese clothing participating in a cultural ceremony or parade in front of an ornate stone temple, with colorful umbrellas and decorative elements.]()
Challenge Yourself
The Tastemaker’s challenge here is surrender. Bali doesn’t need you to curate it. Skip the photos, the playlists, the yoga studios. Sit on the edge of a rice terrace at dusk and listen to the frogs begin their chorus. It’s not about quiet, it’s about receiving.
The Tastemaker in Paris
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![Paris bridge with ornate lampposts and statues taken at dusk, with a cityscape and dome in the background.]()
Five Days of Taste and Texture
Paris rewards those who look slowly. The light hits the stone differently here — softer, somehow more intentional. For The Tastemaker, it’s an orchestra of texture: velvet chairs, golden croissants, perfume in the air, and that particular hush that falls in a well-designed restaurant. Pleasure lives in precision, and Paris has mastered it.
Duration: 5 Days
Stay: Hotel des Grands Boulevards has candlelit corridors, quiet elegance, and cocktails that arrive like small works of art.
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![Bronze sculpture of a man sitting on a rock with his chin resting on his hand in thought, outdoors with trees in the background.]()
Top Three Things To Do
Have dinner at Septime. A minimalist temple to taste with seasonal, subtle, and plated like sculpture.
Visit the Musée Rodin. Sensuality in marble. Walk the gardens slowly; it’s a masterclass in restraint.
Spend a morning at the Palais Royal. Coffee at Café Kitsuné, then watch the light shift over the black-and-white columns.
Must see:
The Musée de l’Orangerie.Two rooms, eight paintings, and silence. Monet’s Water Lilies swallow you whole. It’s proof that stillness can feel infinite.
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![People seated at outdoor tables with red umbrellas outside a cafe in a busy city street, with flowers and a building in the background.]()
Challenge Yourself
For The Tastemaker, the temptation in Paris is to consume. It’s to taste, to buy, to collect. The lesson is to observe. Spend one afternoon doing nothing but people-watching from a café window. No phone. No notes. Just attention. Because sometimes, the richest experiences are the ones that never make it onto a menu.
The Tastemaker in Tulum
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![Aerial view of a tropical beach with white sand, blue ocean waves, palm trees, and beach huts with thatched roofs.]()
Four Days of Earth and Ease
Tulum is never still. The air hums with heat and salt, and the jungle feels alive enough to breathe for you. It’s a place that indulges the senses completely with its sound, texture, and taste layered like a slow song. For The Tastemaker, it’s paradise in raw form: the kind that asks you to let go of polish and feel something real.
Duration: 4 Days
Stay: Nômade Tulum a barefoot blend of canvas, sand, and candlelight. The kind of hotel that smells like wood smoke and lime. Dinner under woven lanterns, hammocks swaying with the sea breeze, its indulgence stripped down to essence.
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![Large wooden sculpture of a person with intricate carvings and gold accents, holding a glowing light inside their chest, surrounded by greenery and trees.]()
Top Three Things To Do
Swim in Cenote Dos Ojos. Cool limestone water, echoes in the dark, prooving that pleasure can also be elemental.
Dinner at Arca. Fire, mezcal, and open-air dining that blurs the line between kitchen and jungle. Every dish is an argument for imperfection.
Late morning at Yäan Healing Sanctuary. A solar-powered spa tucked into the canopy with sound therapy, herbal oils, light shifting through palm leaves.
Must see:
Sfer Ik Museum. A structure made of curves, clay, and air. Part gallery, part meditation. It feels less like architecture and more like a thought that never quite settles.
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![A pink cocktail with ice in a tall glass garnished with a dried lemon slice, set on a wooden surface with green tropical plants in the background.]()
Challenge Yourself
For The Tastemaker, the temptation here is to keep seeking the next high — another cocktail, another swim, another photo. But Tulum teaches a different kind of luxury: presence. One evening, skip the beach clubs and stay by the firepit. Listen to the jungle at night — the low drone of insects, the rustle of leaves. You’ll realize stillness has a sound, too.
The Tastemaker in Kyoto
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![Two women wearing traditional kimonos walk down a quiet street lined with wooden buildings in a Japanese town during sunset. A pagoda is visible in the background.]()
Five Days of Quiet Luxury
Kyoto is beauty with restraint, elegance translated into temperature, texture, and light. For The Tastemaker, it’s proof that pleasure doesn’t always mean abundance; sometimes, it’s a single perfect thing done with precision. Here, indulgence takes the shape of order: soft tatami under bare feet, porcelain cups that fit the hand just right, silence that hums like music.
Duration: 5 Days
Stay: Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto has ambiance that whispers. Steam, stone, and stillness held in balance. The onsen alone is worth the flight.
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![View of tall bamboo stalks reaching up into a lush green bamboo forest canopy.]()
Top Three Things To Do
Private tea ceremony at Camellia Garden Teahouse. Learn the choreography of grace with small, deliberate movements that make time stretch.
Dinner at Kikunoi. Kaiseki dining as theater: seasonal ingredients, ten courses, no misstep. Every dish feels like a poem about temperature and tone.
Morning walk through Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Arrive before dawn. Watch the light shift from silver to gold as the world wakes.
Must see:
Nanzen-ji Temple Gardens. Moss, rock, and raked sand. It’s composition as meditation. The kind of beauty that reveals itself only if you’re quiet enough to notice.
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![A boat with passengers is floating on a river lined with cherry blossom trees in full bloom, with buildings and street lamps alongside and a sunset sky in the background.]()
Challenge Yourself
The Tastemaker’s instinct is to consume beauty; in Kyoto, the challenge is to coexist with it. Don’t try to capture the moment. No photos, no notes. Let the details imprint themselves by repetition: the sound of sliding doors, the warmth of miso broth, the feel of paper lantern light on your skin. Pleasure, here, is precision.
Ready to design your Tastemaker journey?
These itineraries are the starting point. The one Andrew builds for you will be shaped around exactly how you travel, what you value, and where you want to go next.
Not sure if you're a Tastemaker? Take the three-minute quiz:
