Zicasso

10/16/2026

Few things tell you as much about a place as how it takes its tea.

In Argentina, mate is passed around a circle, and whoever pours drinks the first, most bitter gourd before handing it on. Japan’s most celebrated matcha comes from Uji, where the tea is shaded before harvest. Morocco’s mint tea comes in three glasses, each with its own meaning. In Turkey, çay is poured all day in tulip-shaped glasses, brewed strong and thinned to taste.

Which is yours? Your greatest travels begin here: https://www.zicasso.com/?utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=where-to-go-tea&utm_content=facebook-image-carousel

10/15/2026

In a small workshop in Japan, the person who designed the watch sits across the bench from you and asks how you’d like it to look.

Japan approaches craft as a lifelong discipline. It’s a country where the dials of timepieces are modeled on the snow outside the studio window and where one city still produces almost all of the nation’s gold leaf. A watch-focused trip in the country becomes something broader: a way into Japan’s devotion to making things well.

Crown & Caliber looked at the rise of the watchmaking vacation, and our journey through the country’s artisan watch culture is part of the story. It is worth the read:

From a $5,650 group safari through Swiss manufactures to a $27,700 Bürgenstock Resort package where guests build their own Cyrus watch, operators including Zicasso, Scott Dunn, and The Luminaire are selling collectors a seat at the bench in Switzerland and Japan.

10/14/2026

There's a little rule worth knowing before your first round of mate: only say "gracias" when you're done. Say it too early, and the gourd quietly passes you by.

Most of what makes Argentina memorable works this way. You learn it by doing, alongside people who have done it all their lives. A gaucho on an estancia, patient through your first dozen throws of the lasso. A chef at the parrilla, explaining why the chorizo and morcilla come off first, and the steak waits. A former professional footballer running a clinic for your group, followed by private visits to La Bombonera and El Monumental, the home grounds of a rivalry that has split Buenos Aires for more than a century.

It's a trip best shared with friends, and our specialists design it around your group, from the first ride to the last asado. Here's how it comes together: https://www.zicasso.com/a/argentina/culture-and-traditions?utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=argentina-culture-traditions&utm_content=facebook-image

10/09/2026

Most people plan a safari around comfort. October in northern Botswana asks you to plan around something else.

This is the end of the dry season. The Okavango's floodwater has drawn back into its permanent channels, the pans have dried and cracked, and the heat builds through the afternoon. As the day cools, elephants come down to the Chobe riverfront in their hundreds and everything else stays close to the water.

It's also when the year's wild dog pups leave the den. Born in winter, they spend their first months close to home. By October, they're running with the pack, clumsy at first, then quicker, learning the hunt one attempt at a time.

October also comes after the July and August rush, so fewer vehicles share each sighting and the ones that do have room to stay.

Where you see this depends on where you are based. In private concessions, guides can follow a pack off-road and stay with it. A Zicasso specialist, drawing on longstanding relationships with camps in the best wild dog country, builds the trip around exactly that kind of access and knows why the hottest month is sometimes the right time to go.

When to go and why: https://www.zicasso.com/a/africa/botswana/bt?utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=botswana-in-october&utm_content=facebook-carousel

10/08/2026

Greece offers two quite different kinds of trips. One involves Santorini, which we all know and love, where the view is the point and the day is arranged around it.

The other is Zagori, in the mountains of Epirus in northwest Greece, for the traveler who would rather earn the view. Here you walk down into Vikos Gorge, follow the Voidomatis River over white limestone, and pass through stone villages joined long ago by arched Ottoman-era bridges. If hiking is what you're after, April to May and September to October are the months to go, with fall usually the drier of the two.

Neither is the better trip. They simply suit different travelers, and it helps to know which one you are.

The full video is on our YouTube channel. Watch it there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYcE0pN5lc&t=6s&utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=zagori-greece&utm_content=facebook-reel

10/07/2026

There’s a pond in northwest Kyoto that many visitors photograph without ever learning its name. It is called Kyōko-chi, or Mirror Pond, and on a still morning you understand why.

Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, sits at its edge, its top two stories covered in gold leaf. The water reflects the pavilion, the pines behind it, and the sky above. A breath of wind and the second pavilion disappears; when the surface settles, it slowly returns.

What many people do not realize is that the building is not the original. In 1950, a young monk set fire to it, an incident Yukio Mishima later fictionalized in his best-known novel, “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.” The structure seen today was rebuilt in 1955.

Arrive at opening for your best chance of a quieter visit and a clearer reflection. With a private guide, you can make the most of an early visit before continuing to quieter temples and gardens nearby. In fall, changing maples add color to the reflection too.

Your greatest travels begin here.

Life-enriching and immersive custom tours, vacations, and safaris by Zicasso, the world’s most-reviewed and highest-rated luxury travel company.

09/30/2026

Some places don’t need embellishment; they just need context. At Anse Lazio, on the Seychelles island of Praslin, the granite boulders along the shore are some 750 million years old. Press a hand against one and you’re touching stone older than the dinosaurs, on one of the world’s only mid-ocean granite islands.

Inland, the Vallée de Mai is a UNESCO World Heritage Site often likened to the Garden of Eden. It’s home to the coco de mer, a palm found in the wild only on Praslin and neighboring Curieuse, and bearer of the largest seed in the plant kingdom. Sailors who found its distinctive seed washed ashore once believed it grew on trees beneath the sea. Beneath the palms, the forest is cathedral quiet; birdsong is the only thing that disturbs the solitude.

Farther out lies Aldabra Atoll, one of the world’s largest raised coral atolls. Accessible only with prior authorization, it is home to more than 100,000 giant tortoises, which vastly outnumber the small team stationed there. Charles Darwin was among the scientists who petitioned to protect them in 1874.

This is one of five destinations in our look at why real luxury travel has never been about the beach. The full video is now on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ic2J26BVj0&utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=seychelles-best-beaches&utm_content=facebook-reel

09/29/2026

Water takes color away as you descend, and red goes first. That's why Belize's shallow reefs are where the fish look most like themselves: gold, violet, and electric blue, lit by the sun a few meters overhead. In late September, the water is at its warmest, the reef is at its quietest, and a private boat to Hol Chan or the outer atolls can mean an hour among them with no one else in the water. Further out, at the Half Moon Caye Wall, the reef drops into deep blue, and the fish keep you company to the edge. It's still storm season, and the days are best left loosely planned. For those who travel that way anyway, there's no better time to be here.

The reef is one reason to go. The rest are in our guide to the top things to do in Belize: https://www.zicasso.com/a/belize/td?utm_source=meta&utm_campaign=belize-top-things-to-do&utm_content=facebook-image

09/28/2026

Do you know what actually happens at Art Basel Paris beyond the walk through the Grand Palais?

Most visitors see the booths and call it a day. But on Friday and Saturday of the fair, taking place from October 23 to 25 this year, participating galleries present new works at their booths as part of an initiative called “Oh La La!” This year, actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu serves as its art director. It’s the kind of detail that can shape which day you choose to visit. The fair also brings together over 200 galleries from 41 countries and regions.

The same is true of the city holding it. The Petit Palais sits directly across the avenue from the Grand Palais. Its permanent collection is free to enter and is also part of this year’s fair-week public program. A short walk east, the Place de la Concorde is home to an obelisk that’s about 3,300 years old.

This is the kind of knowledge our specialists build into every trip: not just getting you to Art Basel, but making sure you know what the week and the city actually hold, down to which day to be there.

Curious what else Paris has to offer beyond the fair? We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite spots in the city:

From cafe terraces to the aroma of chocolates, the visions of Impressionist painters to the history in hidden catacombs, the 12 best places to visit in Paris provide insight into the celebrated culture, remarkable history, and fascinating heritage of the city and greater France.

09/24/2026

There's a version of Marrakech that only exists in March, before the square gets compressed by summer's volume of arrivals. The Jemaa el-Fnaa wakes into spring in the evenings: smoke from the food stalls drifting into floral air, the whole place still holding room to breathe.

Just outside the city, above Ouarzazate, the almond trees are in full blossom. And to the south, the Sahara is at one of its more accessible points of the year, warm enough that the dunes hold the day's heat well into the night, without yet tipping into the punishing heat of summer.

It's shoulder season at its most persuasive: the infrastructure of a fully operational destination, without the crowds that tend to arrive with the warmer months. The kind of timing that rewards the traveler willing to plan a few months ahead.

The full video, covering where to go each month of the year, is now on our YouTube channel. Watch it there.