Jade Moyano

We recently welcomed friend & fellow globetrotter Jade Moyano as A Hotel Life’s newest Culture Editor. Jade will be sharing her picks for the most fascinating and exciting news & events in the travel world…stop by the culture section to check it out!

What do you do and how did you get here? 

I juggle a few things. I write, edit, and manage a travel site. In addition, I’m lucky enough to contribute to magazines such as Monocle and Conde Nast Traveler UK, teach private yoga classes, do freelance strategy, marketing and copy work, and travel every chance I get. I got here through a very introspective creative process where I would blog for myself and read a lot of Latin American literature. Reading really makes me want to write and writing really makes me want to travel. Combining all those ideas with a lot of hard work got me to where I am now.

Tell us a bit about Travel Dose and how it came to be. 

Travel Dose is a labor of love. Ani Tzenkova came up with the idea to create a network of sites to filter all the content out on the web, to de-clutter the Internet and serve as a resource of curated content for creative professionals. Travel Dose is one of them. I had been thinking about starting a travel site, so when we met our worlds aligned and she was kind enough to let me run the operations. We’re both unconventional travelers that avoid itineraries and really want to get in with the local culture. We spent a few months curating and producing original content while the site was being built. I was traveling a bunch during that time and was super inspired to start featuring places and interviewing people. From then on it just grew, it was a very organic process. Having relied on word of mouth marketing until now, we’ve attracted a nice following of creative professionals and contributors all over the world.

With Travel Dose…what inspires you daily? 

The process of discovering something new every day and knowing that I do exactly what I Iove to do the most. That’s inspiring and really uplifting.

How did you become involved in the travel + hospitality industry? 

I grew up speaking close to 3 languages with parents that were always on the move. My father is from Argentina, my mother from Brazil. They both worked in hospitality. Being from another country and living in NYC means that you are already traveling, even if that’s your everyday life. When you live in a constant state of discovery you just can’t stop feeding that curiosity that sparks from learning. One language leads to another, one country leads to another. I just fell in love with it really quickly.

Favorite trip you’ve ever taken? 

It’s so tough to choose. I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in Marrakech and staying in a Berber village in the Atlas Mountains. However, flying over the Colombian Amazon in the driver’s seat of an ultra light was pretty magical.

Is there a destination you daydream about visiting? 

India. I’m so fascinated by its unique blends of beauty, culture, food, and spirituality. Besides the diversity in landscape - from Himalayas to Indian Ocean, historically it is one of the most interesting countries to me.

Most memorable travel mixup? 

I’m not going to forget Fiumicino airport in Rome this past summer. It was such a disorganized mess that I actually enjoyed it. I missed my flight due to the fact no one knew where my terminal was, they even told me I was at the wrong airport, which I knew wasn’t true. In broken Italian I tried to get some directions but all I got was the famous “buh”. There was true Italian spirit in there, where everyone just had their hands in the air and a grin on their faces. I ended up having to drag my luggage in the airport’s freeway for 30 minutes to go find my plane, which had already left. I was mad but ended up spending time in Copenhagen instead since the new flight had a connection there. I love long layovers, have you eaten at that airport? It’s amazing.

Where will you be on your next day off? 

Probably looking through vintage and enjoying my ever-changing neighborhood or on the back of a motorcycle heading to the Hudson Valley.

What will you be doing a few years from now? 

I’m not too much of a planner. Rather than thinking about what I will be doing in the future I like to think about how I can be the best version of myself right now. There will be nothing to look forward to if I don’t realize my aspirations today. I hope I’m teaching yoga, traveling, and being creatively engaged in my passions.

If you could invite anyone to a party - dead or alive - who would it be? 

Grace Jones!

Is there anyone you’re admiring in the industry?

At the moment I’m all about Claus Sendlinger and Design Hotels. I think he does a fantastic job representing the creative generation of hoteliers, his curation is so on point; he’s definitely a visionary. Design Hotels hone a high level of authenticity and taste and I love that the stories of those entrepreneurs matter as much as the aesthetics of their hotels.