The Real Reasons We Travel

It has been said that all we do in life comes down to two things. Two motivating forces: love and fear. Every other fluttering or stamping of the heart is just a version of these. When it comes to travel, these two forces are a little something different. What spurs us on our journeys, I believe, is the need for either inspiration or recuperation. The need to go out or the need to go within.

When our feet and souls get a little fidgety, we hunt out new horizons, adventure, a thorough shake-up. We seek new life or a new way of seeing life, to elevate us from the same old patter. To inspire us.

There are also, however, times when we deeply, urgently, need something quite the opposite. Something to quieten the noise. We crave a place to retreat to, to heal, to indulge, to go slow, to reconnect.

AtholPlace Hotel & Villa on the outskirts of Johannesburg, in Sandton, is a place of both inspiration and recuperation. It is a base from which to explore the bright city lights of Jozi town, and to come together with friends or family over fine wine and food in the hotel bar and restaurant.

But it is also a place where life’s little pleasures are the focus – resting, eating, drinking, eating. And eating.

Because after a slow bite of one of the dishes on the autumn menu from Executive Chef, Willie Malherbe, you find the light returning to life, to your mind and body. And perhaps that’s all we need sometimes. A gloriously good meal. One that revives and rouses.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf

Below is a taste of the glory to come… compliments of AtholPlace’s Instagram.