When Art Leads the Way

When I think about what kind of trip I want to take, I often start with art.
Where can we see beauty?
Where can we stand still?

What will stay with us?

Because art does stay with us. Long after the trip ends. Long after the museum gift shop and the snacks in your bag and the photos you almost forgot to take.

It stays in the way you saw something—maybe for the first time.
In the way a painting slowed you down.
In how a sculpture made you feel strong or soft or… human.

I’ve built travel days around single museum visits. I’ve rerouted plans just to see that one piece. I’ve stood in front of a Georgia O’Keeffe and felt like I could breathe again.

We’ve walked through the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and then made the drive to Abiquiú, where her house sits quiet and wild, overlooking the desert she loved so much. That studio window? I still think about it.

We’ve wandered Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where Van Gogh and Degas feel almost too close.
We’ve waited in the line at the Louvre, and even with the crowds, there’s a kind of reverence once you’re inside.
In Florence at the Galleria dell'Accademia, David really does stop you in your tracks.
And in LA, The Getty is this mix of sunshine and sculpture that somehow makes you feel like you’re floating through someone else’s dream.

I love all of it. The big name places, sure—but also the quiet galleries tucked into backstreets. The studios. The places artists lived.

Because when you follow art, you're not just sightseeing. You're looking for feeling.
You’re tracing the steps of someone who once had something to say.

So when people ask why we plan trips around museums and artists and beauty, my answer is simple:
Because it matters.
Because it fills us.
Because art shows us how to be alive.

And that’s what travel should do too.

Let’s build a trip around that.
Visit wildhertravel.com – and let’s make space for art.