Who doesn’t want to travel like a designer? Especially when a designer has selected, curated, and culled the experiences. This means all you have to do is book your hotel, make those dinner reservations and enjoy the experience. We are so pleased to announce that our Curated City Guides for the Visually Minded are ready for you just in time to start traveling again. So why our guides? Well these highly curated itineraries are put together by two traveling architects, myself and my husband, Graham. We present those must-see places through our design-oriented eyes (and our limited budget). As creatives (and partners) we have curated the best design and lifestyle tours to inspire you and spark your creativity.

These are practical itineraries combining the best of our travels with an acutely design-focused exploration. It’s the best in creative travel, without the hassles that come with trip-planning or getting lost. We think there is always a good return when you invest in experiences. That is how we approach travel, as an opportunity to collect experiences and curate memories and pieces of art for our lives and homes.

You Travel Differently Than The Average Tourist, We Have That In Common

Our curated city guides help you to develop your ability to find inspiration, see beauty, and appreciate life with a designer’s eye. So, essential travel and design, curated by experts, experienced your way. If you want to travel differently than the average tourist give our guides a shot!

Why Have We Designed These Curated Experiences For You?

Because we’ve had some really incredible opportunities on our travels and want to share what we’ve learned with you. We’ve done the hard work (and fun) of sifting through massive amounts of information and distilled the best of our experiences to make it easy for you. We gathered suggestions from our extensive social network of creatives and adventurers (our friends), plus a few of our own mistakes, following (or straying from) pre-planned routes, and discovering incredible places on the fly. Follow the full itineraries or just include some of our picks in your day because our destinations are organized into travel zones so you can easily plan transportation and discover your own fave spots. The Guides are formatted to easily blend with your travel style. They are simple to use because all you do is download and store them on your smartphone or print out the pages you need. All digital versions have links to more information for diving deeper as the need or mood strikes you. We link to google maps so directions are clear and you no longer need to worry about which way to go!

How To Approach Travel in Los Angeles

Our first two guides are for Los Angeles. LA, the city of stars & instagramable moments is a wonderful city to visit if you know how to explore it. In the words of Burt Bacharach, “LA is a great big freeway”. And it really is… so you have to approach Los Angeles quite differently than most cities and see it as a series of discreet smaller towns- like jewels on a necklace with the freeway as it’s chain. We learned that to truly explore this city you need a good PLAN. Our curated city guides do this for you.

Downtown Los Angeles: East of the 110 Freeway

Downtown LA is a faded diamond regaining its sparkle. It is reinvention in the most community minded, progressive way and deserves recognition PLUS its own guide. Once a place nobody went to, DTLA is now a shining star in Southern California. This guide mixes classic with contemporary and goes beyond conventional tourism. We take you to those thought-leading places that give hope and inspiration for a better tomorrow. Highlights include the new cultural/arts hub, the Arts District, revived theatres in high Deco style as well as the new green architecture that is part of Los Angeles’ rebranding. We focus on walking to really get a ‘boots on the ground’ feel for the downtown. The tour is part eduction, part stimulation and part indulgence. All in byte-sized, digital pieces to keep you engaged and on track.

Los Angeles West of the 110 Freeway

Our other Los Angeles guide focuses on the neighbourhoods west of the 110 Freeway. Our insider’s, curated, 5 day city guide for West Los Angeles will take you to 5 neighbourhoods that lead the world in creative impact. Day one we start in West Hollywood; followed by Day 2 at Pacific Palisades and Venice Beach; on day 3 we hit Los Feliz and Silverlake, day 4 it’s Beverly Hills (the high life) and finally, on day 5, we slide over to South Bay. Each day’s excursion will immerse you in culture, history, shopping, food, coffee, nightlife and more. Stops include Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, Richard Meier, Morphosis, Pierre Koenig and more. We’ll hit a few art museums, not all widely known, iconic restaurants and, of course, the beach. 

What Our Readers Are Saying

“A great read- informative, not too much info, not too little. A nice balance. Enjoyed the “tid bits” to break it up a bit. It’s a well curated tour. LA is presented as a dynamic, visually and historically interesting urban environment and by the end I wanted to put it on my list of to do’s…” (Leslie Sengara, Vancouver, BC)

“The guide is comprehensive and fun. It’s a docent in my pocket. I can imagine standing on the sidewalk and reading aloud to my travel companions. It provides a launch into discussions of design history and city planning and culture and art and why our public spaces are mirrors of our best and worst traits. I do like that this is something I can download and use when I don’t have roaming data–something I can access easily. The photography is absolutely smashing…” (Mithra Ballesteros, Mequon, Wisconsin)

Take A Trip The Easy Way With Us

Want to try one of our Curated City Guides for the Visually Minded? Why not take a trip with us. We promise you will have fun! Link here: Studio Do Curated City Guides.