About TAOA

My hope is that The Art of Arrival isn’t just a travel blog—but more of a celebration of presence, pleasure, and the power of showing up fully. It’s where curiosity meets care, and where even the smallest rituals—packing a bag, boarding a plane, choosing an outfit—become acts of intention and meaning.

This space is for those who endeavor to move through the world with intention. Who know that luxury doesn’t always mean excess (though it does mean abundance), and that true richness is found in connection—to people, to places, and to self. Whether you’re crossing an ocean or crossing a threshold, The Art of Arrival is your invitation to slow down, savor more, and step into each experience like it matters. Because it does.

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About Your Hostess, La Donna

Rachael is here with more practical content sometimes, too. We’re reflections of each other. She’s built movements and shaped messages, led Femme Mafia back in the day, and has ghostwritten words for leaders of all levels. But this space? This one’s different. Here, we’re sharing stories and experiences to build a doorway—and we’re inviting you to walk through it with us.

This is a place for stories with weight and relief, symbols that shimmer, the little luxuries that linger, and a love of history—not just the kinds etched in stone, but the kinds whispered through marketplaces, weaved into textiles, and etched beneath the statues of half-forgotten goddesses. This is a space to write about the moments that shift something: a flight delay that turns into an unexpected adventure, a perfect stranger who gives you the perfect recommendation, and the quiet, essential abundance of choosing yourself, again and again.

We must demand space for pleasure, from ourselves and from the world around us, in order to survive as humans in an increasingly dehumanized world. The balance must be pursued, and each end of the spectrum of experiences must have its expression. The well-timed mistakes that turn out to be gifts. The playlist that turns a walk into a strut. The inside jokes, the soft fabrics made softer because of last night’s stony mattress, the minor mischiefs that reminds you you’re away from home, alive, and allowed to enjoy it.

Maybe you’re here for some practical things—packing lists that bring the magic (and not just the magnetic clips), a personal testimony about getting Botox on a cruise, or reviews of the best kept (mostly) secret islands in the Caribbean. Maybe you’re here because you’re tired of being told how to travel like an influencer, when what you really want is to arrive with consciousness and leave like a whisper (or maybe a legend?) Whatever brought you, we are glad you came. And we hope you stay long enough to remember what you already know: that arrival isn’t just about crossing borders — it’s about transcending the mundane to become someone worthy of the moment.

You’re not lost. You’ve just arrived.

Always with love,
La Donna