Writer and editor Meghan McEwen started Designtripper in 2011 as a collection of independent, alternative and family-owned inns, B&Bs, lodges, ryokans, riads, treehouses, apartments, villas and haciendas. After being inspired by the places she was writing about, she opened Honor & Folly in Detroit, giving travelers an alternative to the soulless hotel landscape of the city.

Designtripper explores the intersection of travel and design: the most special and rare places to stay for people who value authenticity and character over amenities, thread count and flat-screen TVs; vernacular architecture; historic and handcrafted details; the Russian dacha and Scandinavian summer cottage; personality-driven inns run by eccentric innkeepers obsessing over every last detail; the art gallery with a bedroom upstairs; the Italian lemon marmalade recipe passed down over hundreds of years and made with lemons grown in the backyard; and the stories of all the people trying to make life more interesting through travel.

Meghan’s work has appeared in Conde Nast Traveller, Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, Afar, Martha Stewart Living, Budget Travel and others.