On Returning

There’s a quiet kind of magic in returning.

The pressure to see, do, capture, tick off – it dissolves. And in its place comes ease. Familiar streets, known rhythms, that favourite corner café with a table just for two. Returning to a place we’ve loved before gives us permission to slow down, savour the small things, and rediscover the extraordinary in the everyday.

We feel this deeply in Paris. Specifically, the Marais – the city’s former Jewish Quarter, now pulsing with galleries, gorgeous stores, gay bars and some of the most memorable food in the city. We return to L’Hôtel du Petit Moulin in the upper Marais, (once a boulangerie and where legend says that Victor Hugo used to get his bread) a decadent bolthole designed by Christian Lacroix, and slip back into a version of ourselves that walks more slowly, breathes more deeply, lingers longer over lunch, and spends quiet afternoons in the picturesque gardens around the Tour Saint-Jacques – reading a book beneath the trees, eating pastries, and letting time pass unhurriedly, as if revisiting a memory we never quite wanted to leave.

It’s the same with Istanbul. I can never quite find the exact passage on a map (somewhere just off İstiklal Caddesi) but there’s a teahouse where the hours disappear in a flurry of backgammon games and endless glasses of çay (tea). Returning isn’t just nostalgia. It’s something richer. As Dr Charlotte Russell, Clinical Psychologist, explains in her blog The Travel Psychologist, returning to familiar places fosters a “sense of connection… a meaningful bond that becomes part of our well-being.”

Thailand unfolded in much the same way. Our first trips were filled with bucket-list stops and island-hopping speedboats. But the more we returned and the longer we stayed, the deeper we travelled. From hidden jungle stays in Khao Sok and unhurried temples in Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai to quiet stretches of coastline far from the crowds, we’ve uncovered stories and stillness we never knew we needed.

So when you ask if should go somewhere new or return to an old favourite, our answer is always the same: what do you want to feel? If it’s restoration, reconnection, and the comfort of familiarity, maybe the most transformative journey is the one you’ve taken before.

Yours in travel and the pursuit of the extraordinary,

(Ps. Travel Agents. Because algorithms don’t read fine print. And when things go wrong, they won’t fight for you! Read Why You Should be Using a Travel Agent for a little insight.)