I’ve posted about Designtripper before, a site which beautifully combines travel and design, looking for interesting and alternative places to stay no matter where in the world you’re planning a trip (you can see my guest post about Hotel Amour in Paris here). And when it comes to mixing travel and design in interesting ways, Designtripper is just my style, and captures the scene in a way most sites are lacking. I’m so excited to have Meghan McEwen, founder of the site (and editor-in-chief for CS Interiors) for today’s Boarding Pass. Don’t miss her images below which capture some interesting things happening in design, both in the US and internationally. Thanks, Meghan!

{Hanging out in Red Hook}

last trip taken:
Road trip from Detroit to New Orleans with stops in Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville and rural Alabama on the way.

{Interior of the Pie Lab in Alabama}

{Front porch of the farm we stayed at in Alabama}

next trip on deck:
Popham Beach, Maine. I’ve been vacationing in Maine since I was a kid, and I wanted to create the same lobster-eating, tidal pool-exploring, mountain hiking New England tradition for my family, too. This is the second consecutive summer we’ll be heading to Popham Beach with our little ones, taking our time getting there and back (a favorite pitstop is Porches, a row of Victorian row houses transformed into a hotel across the street from MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts).

{My 4-year-old eating lobster}

one place you would go back to again and again:
Oh this is such a cliche, but it’s true: Paris!

{Wall from Marige Vogelzang’s original Proef cafe \ Sculpture by Weiki Somers at Vivid in Rotterdam}

place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
The Netherlands. I went a couple years ago and fell in love with Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The biking, flowers in random pots on every doorstep in town, the wonderfully kooky personalities, the amazing design that is a natural part of everyday life.

{Iconic Droog bench in Amsterdam}

preferred method of transportation:
Train. You never get tired from pedaling and you can see the quiet, behind-the-scenes scenery with a steady hum of the train rolling over the tracks to lull you to sleep. My dad took me on a cross-country Amtrak trip, and it’s one of my most special childhood memories.

{Floating village in Halong Bay}

place you’ve never been but dying to go:
Greece. My sister-in-law has family in Greece, and I love how she talks about the village where her Dad grew up. Also, Portugal, Morocco, St. Petersburg.

{Petah Coyne’s darkly magical sculptures at MASS MoCA}

place you’d never go back:
Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia. A time-warp straight from the counterculture 70s, Nimbin is a small-town hippie haven that smells like marijauna about five miles out. I have no reason to ever return. Australia is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and this experience seemed like such a wasted stop amid all that natural beauty (I was strong-armed into going).

{Showing boy his phoot in Hoi An}

most memorable trip in 2 sentences or less:
Vietnam with a dear childhood friend. We ate Vietnamese delicacies in Hoi An, biked through the Mekong Delta and took a three-day kayak trip through the emerald waters of Halong Bay, where floating shanties, anchored down and tied to their neighbors, sit in the shadows of the thousands of limestone formations jutting out of the sea. Teenage boys raise fish farms and women in sun-faded rice hats gather snails and shell oysters to sell at market. Their dogs bark from their wooden front yards, and kids play and chase each other like kids anywhere do.

{Fisherwoman in Halong Bay}

how do you prepare for a trip?
Make lists–for everything from packing to where to go once we get there.

{The High Line in NYC}

{Abandoned building filled with design studios in Noord}

how do you record your travels when you’re traveling?
Whatever notebook or paper source I have on hand. Handwritten. I have dozens of them.

{Town square in Sayulita, Mexico}

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
People, streetscapes, food markets, everyday activities–kids jumping rope, a guy getting a shave on the street.

{Market owner in Hong Kong}

{Dragonfruit}

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
500ish

{Tuscany}{The Dunes in Northern Michigan}

what’s in your “designer travel kit” ?
A Canon EOS T2i and my super convenient faux Gucci fanny pack. I get a lot of grief for it, but I love to go hands-free! And I love that it’s a fake Gucci.

{Magical farmhouse in Maine}

what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I used to make extravagant photo albums for each big trip. These days, I’m so busy I download the images to a hard drive a day or two after I come home and hardly ever look at them again, unless I’m writing a story and need to remind myself of visual details. And if our accommodations are beautiful, interesting or full of character, I take photos for designtripper.com.

{Rice paddies in the Mekong Delta}

favorite souvenir/thing to bring back?
Food! I hide it in my suitcase when I travel internationally, like a hunk of sausage we smuggled from Tuscany.

{Hong Kong \ Street food in Sayulita (right)}

Visit Designtripper.com for more from Meghan (or if you’re looking for an awesome place to stay on your next trip)!

Boarding Pass is a weekly column looking at the creative ways people travel.