Svetlana Kolchik

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine - The Vanguard of Luxury Travel • 2nd September 2023

Truffle Hunting in Tuscany: a Treat for Gourmets and Nature Lovers

It is an adventure of a particular kind. Searching for treasures with a determined canine as a guide amidst a thick Tuscan forest in a humid morning mist. The catch on the radar is a persistently aromatic and flavourful subterranean fungus called Tartufo Bianco – White Truffle. Ancient Romans called the truffles “the food of the gods” and the “miracle of the earth,” attributing them, among others, strong aphrodisiac powers. Thanks to this reputation, the truffles were deemed “devilish” by the ch

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine • 19th June 2023

The UpBallooning Adventure: Exploring Tuscany from the Skies

In the predawn haze, the air is crispy and moist, and the verdant hills surrounding Florence blend with the horizon. The wicker basket attached to a 30-meter-tall hot air balloon gradually starts to ascend, goosed by a blast of flame from its propane burner. The first golden rays of the sun gently cast their light over the panorama of blooming valleys and hills dotted by ancient towns and medieval castles. Passengers aboard are filled with thrill and delight as the Upballooning Tuscany adventure

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine - The Vanguard of Luxury Travel • 26th August 2023

The Elysian Eco Island Retreat: Barefoot Luxury at the Great Barrier Reef

This is what an ultimate luxury escape looks like. You are whisked in a small chopper flying over the endless blue of the Coral Sea to a secluded cove amidst the lush rainforest-clad hills. A handful of thatched bungalows hide there behind a swaying row of palms, exuding utmost privacy and calm. An off-grid Elysian Eco Retreat perched in one of the world’s most remote locations promises precisely that – the serenity kingdom and a chance to completely unplug from the world while still enjoying al

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine • 28th May 2023

Mythos Mosel: The Epicurean Adventure in a Glass

As the ancient Roman proverb states, good wine is a gift from the gods. When you add swirling, sniffing, and sipping good wine among Europe’s centuries-old vineyards, the gift is difficult to compare. Adding to that the delicacies served by master chefs, live chamber music, and a company of elegant gourmands, the experience is nothing short of s heaven for the epicurean. For the epicure, attending Mythos Mosel, a wine-tasting event in Germany’s oldest wine region, would be impossible to resist.

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine • 21st May 2023

Umbria Jazz Festival: The Best of Music, Food, and Wine

Once a year, this scene for the jazz lover repeats itself. A band, armed with trombones, trumpets, and saxophones, marches through the cobbled streets of an otherwise sleepy medieval Italian town. They pause and blare out New Orleans jazz at a thousand-year-old piazza. Moments later a solo sax improvisation ensues and with it, the crowd claps and stomps to the music to the point of hysteria. It’s one in the morning, and the fun is just beginning. Every summer Perugia provides this kind of party.

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine • 16th May 2023

The Arena di Verona Opera Festival: a Gift for Music and Italy Lovers

As the skies slowly dim and twilight deepens, silence breaks over the hushed crow. “Celeste Aida, forma divina”… (Heavenly Aida, goddess of Beauty) – Verdi’s dramatic music fills the air. Time freezes. Over 10,000 spectators from all over the world, opera aficionados and neophytes alike hold their breath in awe. They say Italy and opera are a match made in heaven. The Arena di Verona has created heaven on earth for over a century with the summer Opera Festival. It features a parade of internatio

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine - The Vanguard of Luxury Travel • 31st July 2023

Like Medici: Dining in a Secret Ferragamo Palazzo

What can be better than Italian food? Taking Italian cuisine and adding it to one of the most lavish settings in the world is a nirvana for a gastronomic explorer. In this ambiance, one could envision themselves dining as if they were guests of the Medici family 500 years ago. A medieval sala is bathed in candlelight, the tables are artfully set, and a flutist serenades the room. This secret Renaissance palazzo, owned by one of Florence’s most influential families, opens its doors to outsiders o

Beau Monde Traveler Luxury Travel Magazine • 28th October 2023

Hotel Healdsburg: All That Wine Country’s Charm

There’s so much more to a fabulous hotel than just a comfortable bed. An unforgettable hotel experience is about myriad details. It’s about how the staff smiles at you at check-in, the coffee roast quality at breakfast, the temperature in the room, and the massage pressure at the SPA, to name a few. Hotel Healdsburg in California ticks nearly all the boxes, in addition to its unbeatable location in the heart of one of the emerging food and wine capitals of America’s Northern Coast.

Hotel Healds

2nd March 2023

The Last Tourist, or What to Expect from the Future of the Travel Industry

Is mass tourism a blessing or a global curse? Svetlana Kolchik reflects on how the travel industry might change in the coming years.


Pristine beaches with glistening white sand and crystal water. Spotless jungle overflowing with wildlife. Untouched coral reefs. This is what the island of Ko Pha-ngan in the Gulf of Thailand looked like just a few decades ago — until the fateful day when the first tourists had arrived there.


This unspoiled natural gem changed in a matter of just a few years.

19th June 2023

Communal living is gaining momentum worldwide - but can roommates substitute for a family?

"We're all really happy here," says an elderly Danish woman named Merete. - I couldn't live anywhere else.

I want to believe her. We sit sipping lime at a wooden table in a clean kitchen with a large window without curtains. Merete has a bright two-storey flat in a beet-coloured wooden house.

"I fell in love with this colour straight away," smiles my new acquaintance as she cuts a plum cake.

I learned about this idyllic place in the Danish countryside years ago in a documentary called Happy.

19th June 2023

Two mums, two dads and lots of bonus siblings - why patchwork families in Europe are getting more common

Svetlana Kolchik, author of the book "The New Family" which will be published by the "Alpina Publisher" in spring 2023, explains the essence of the patchwork family phenomenon.

A Swedish woman named Erika, awkwardly (her eighth month of pregnancy is in the way), leans on a coffee table. Erika was sketching out a diagram of her new family in my notebook to help me make sense of the twists and turns of its many members. Her house has is lit by many candles; the entire living room of their three-s

19th June 2023

Why platonic co-parenting is a growing trend among millennials in Europe and America

"I'm not looking for love or a husband, I'm just looking for someone with whom I can have and raise a child," my Hamburg acquaintance, 40-year-old programmer Julie, who moved to Germany ten years ago with her husband from Sochi, says in her personal profile on the dating app Bumble.