Condé Nast Traveller's Melinda Stevens
The Travel Diaries
Holly Rubenstein
4.6 • 758 Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2019
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today I’m joined by one of the world’s most influential and multi-award winning travel writers, the global editor in chief of Condé Nast Traveller UK and US, Melinda Stevens. She’s a trend setter, taste maker and considered by many to be travel royalty.
After beginning her writing career at Vogue Magazine, Melinda went on to become a columnist for the Sunday Times and Evening Standard, and the travel editor at Tatler, before taking the helm at Condé Nast Traveller.
Reading Condé Nast Traveller - the way the writers would transport me to far flung places with the power of their words - was my inspiration for becoming a travel writer. So heading to its offices in the heart of London’s Mayfair, where the walls were lined with its iconic covers, was really thrilling.
Unsurprisingly, Melinda has her finger on the pulse of the hottest destinations, which we of course discuss, as well as reflecting on some of the all time greats. And she gives a real insight into the makings of a top magazine. This is wanderlust guaranteed.
Destination Recap:
- Frinton on sea, Essex, England
- The Long Mynd, Shropshire, England
- Bali, Indonesia
- Road trip from Seattle, Washington, through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana
- Road trip from Sun Valley Utah, through Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico
- Danakil Depression, Ethiopia
- Kazakstan
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- The Bahamas
- Kerala, India
- Rajasthan, India
- Cala di Volpe, Sardinia
- Amilla Fushi, Maldives
- Hotel Escencia, Mexico
- Le Bristol, Paris
- The Mercer, New York
- La Reserve, Paris
- Honduras
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Soviet Russia
- Egypt
- Sleeper train from London to Scottish Highlands
- Belmond trains
- Japan
Condé Nast Traveller magazine is available in all good newsagents.
You can follow Melinda's Instagram here, as well as the magazine here, for all the travel inspo you could ever need.
Thank you so much for listening. If you haven’t yet left a 5 star rating, why not do so now! Your support is so greatly appreciated and most importantly, helps others to discover the podcast.
Come and find me on Instagram - I’m @hollyrubenstein - and to find out more about the podcast, visit TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com
This episode was produced by Holly Rubenstein
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast. |
| 0:10.1 | Thank you for tuning in. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Holly Rubinstein. |
| 0:13.5 | I'm a travel journalist and editor. |
| 0:15.7 | And here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest |
| 0:19.7 | about their adventures around the world and the travel |
| 0:22.8 | experiences and destinations that have shaped their lives. Today I'm joined by one of the world's |
| 0:29.0 | most influential and multi-award winning travel writers, the global editor-in-chief of |
| 0:34.5 | Condé Nast Traveller, UK and US, Melinda Stevens. Melinda is a trendsetter, |
| 0:40.6 | a taste maker, and considered by many to be travel royalty. After beginning her writing career |
| 0:46.8 | at Vogue magazine, Melinda went on to become a columnist for the Sunday Times and Evening |
| 0:51.7 | Standard and the travel editor at Tatler before taking the helm at Condonass Traveler. |
| 0:57.0 | Reading Condonast Traveller, the way the writers would transport me to far-flung places with the power of their words |
| 1:03.7 | was part of my inspiration for becoming a travel writer. So heading to its offices in the heart of London's Mayfair where the walls were lined |
| 1:11.8 | with its iconic covers was really thrilling. Unsurprisingly, Melinda has her finger on the pulse |
| 1:18.1 | of the hottest destinations, which we of course discuss, as well as reflecting on some of the |
| 1:23.7 | all-time greats. And she gives a real insight into the makings of a top magazine. |
| 1:29.0 | So let's hear from Melinda Stevens. This is Wanderlast Guaranteed. |
| 1:38.0 | Melinda Stevens, welcome to the Travel Diaries. Thank you so much for being here. How are you? |
| 1:44.0 | Very well indeed. Thank you. I am so excited because I'm in the Holy Grail of Travel Magazine offices at Condé Nast Traveler in your office. So tell me, I are seeing a lot of post-it notes on the wall and postcards lined up. Tell me what is it that I'm looking at here? |
| 2:02.3 | I should have really tidied before you came. |
| 2:04.5 | I'm just, I'm seeing it through your eyes and the pot plants and the pterodactals and the mirrors and they're photographs and the books and the bags. |
... |
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