Meet Stacey Leasca, Your New Favorite Travel Enabler

HAP Weekly

Meet Stacey Leasca, Your New Favorite Travel Enabler

Introducing HAP Weekly's New Editor, Palisociety Joins Design Hotels, and Mexzine, a twice-weekly guide to the most original, beautiful, and culturally rich corners of Mexico.

Our Top Reads This Week

Letter From Stacey

Welcoming our new resident "professional tourist," Stacey Leasca.

Hi, I'm Stacey, the new kid on the block at Hotels Above Par.

I've spent years writing about travel for outlets like Travel + Leisure, Departures, Afar, and Food & Wine, which means I've stayed in a lot of hotels. The good ones, the great ones, and a few I'd rather forget. But with experience comes wisdom I'm happy to share.

I'm also a PhD candidate studying journalism and misinformation, which is a fancy way of saying I take trust in media very seriously. (And as a researcher, I'll occasionally drop some science on you. Like, did you know that even a four-night trip can measurably reduce stress — and the benefits can last more than a month?). Trust here means that when I tell you a hotel is worth it, I mean it.

I’ve seen the travel industry grow and change over the last decade, and really, it’s all for the better as people seek out richer experiences than just checking off a destination. And again, science backs this up. Researchers from UT Austin, Penn, and Cornell found that spending on experiences rather than things makes people happier, no matter the price tag.

I'm not here to gatekeep the best travel experiences or turn my nose up at tourists. After all, I am a professional tourist. But I do want to help you go all the way in on every trip you take.

This is just the beginning. I want to get to know you, too. Got a hotel you love? A destination you're dying to explore? A trip that changed you? Or an idea about travel you want us to explore more here? I want to hear all of it. Drop me a line anytime at [email protected].
Now, let's go somewhere good together.

- Stacey Leasca, HAP Weekly Newsletter Editor

Ruby Gregg

What I Pitched To My Editor-In-Chief

HAP WEEKLY

The Boutique Hotel We're Obsessed With—The Baby Grand Coronado

The Baby Grand Hotel is an elevated boutique stay between Orange Avenue and the Coronado shoreline—grounded by an experience that stands apart from traditional coastal hotels in Southern California.

The mere 31 rooms, designed by CH Projects and the San Diego Hospitality Group, is redefining the term “maximalist” when it comes to hotel interiors. Sleep like a modern-day Poseidon in a sculptural clamshell bed, surrounded by subtle animal-print accents and palm-inspired sketches. High-gloss wood ceilings and richly furnished interiors bring a sense of tropical elegance, creating a space that feels both playful and refined.

The outdoor amenities include Night Hawk, Baby Grand’s very own Greek-inspired restaurant, as well as a coffee shop, and full bar. Hidden inside the lobby is Fallen Empire, a reservation-only oyster and champagne bar with a concealed entrance and intimate dining experience. No matter the occasion, The Baby Grand Coronado is not-your-average California hideaway.

HAP WEEKLY

HAP WEEKLY

Introducing, Mexzine

A twice-weekly guide to the most original, beautiful, and culturally rich corners of Mexico.

I launched a new twice-weekly newsletter called Mexzine, all about Mexico travel. Here's why.

Too many of my fellow Americans picture Mexico as one big beach lined with a thousand resorts. It isn't. It's one of the most layered, design-rich, surprising countries on earth—a place where a brutalist hotel rises out of the desert, where the best mezcal bar has no sign, where small towns fuse cutting-edge design with centuries of tradition in a way that stops you cold. And it deserves coverage that actually pays attention. That's the whole reason I started this: to skip the over-commercialized stuff—the colossal Cancún all-inclusives, the Hard Rock Cafes at the cruise port—and dive instead into the boutique, independent, gloriously original Mexico that makes me want to book a flight tomorrow.

So I teamed up with Cristina Alonso, one of the sharpest voices in CDMX, and twice a week we send you the Mexico we'd tell our closest friends to go see—think interviews, openings, destination guides, and much more. If you love Mexico for its beauty, its hospitality, its culture, and its endless capacity to enchant, this was made for you.

Subscribe for free here.

Editor's Note

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Brandon Berkson, Hotels Above Par