The Letter that Started It All

Dear Reader,

As I write this letter to you, the pilot has just announced that we will be landing in Athens within the next 30 minutes. Emirates recently introduced internet almost as fast as its airplanes, and somehow my six-hour flight passed by while I was still very much working through it. Just when my colleagues Priyanka, Zoe, Tom, Karthik and our dear Asma (yes, the Asma I write letters to, and the Asma who will share her own version of Abu Dhabi within these pages) thought they might finally get some respite from my over-excited WhatsApp messages, that proved not to be the case. After all, we are redesigning Villa 88 Travel for you – so you can rediscover it, and hopefully, fall in love with it all over again.

My journey with Villa 88 Travel began rather spontaneously. I remember standing on the balcony of San Clemente Palace in Venice when Asma replied to one of my Instagram stories, asking how I was enjoying my stay. Thirty minutes later, the very first #LetterToAsma was sent. Months after that, I was given the privilege of curating stories for Villa 88 Travel’s readers. For you.

Villa 88 Travel was never meant to be a typical travel magazine. It never tried to say too much, yet it always managed to say enough. It was never designed to speak to everyone, but rather to those willing to truly listen. It celebrated life’s simplest pleasures alongside its finest things. It always felt like a discovery reserved for a discerning few – and from the moment I was introduced to the title, it resonated deeply with me.

Four years ago, when I moved to Dubai, the city I proudly call home today, my colleagues and friends Sharifa, Maissa, and Shadi introduced me to the UAE’s media landscape. Unanimously, they told me the very first title one needed to understand was Villa 88. To now contribute to its continued evolution, through this newly reimagined edition, is nothing short of a genuine joy.

This issue of Villa 88 Travel celebrates the UAE, our home. Its cover was designed by one of the true icons, in my opinion, of pop culture in the Emirates – Nadine Kanso.

The visionary behind Bil Arabi and someone who helped shape Dubai’s most refined contemporary aesthetic, Nadine expresses the UAE’s cultural heritage in one of the most compelling ways imaginable. For this issue, she did exactly that.

Through her brush-strokes, she playfully intertwined the names of all seven Emirates into a composition that breathes unity in diversity, wrapped in a profound sense of belonging. For that, I am deeply grateful.

Building on the spirit of our cover story, we selected remarkable individuals whose personal narratives reflect the unique character of the Emirates they call home.

Within these pages, you will discover Hoor Al Khaja’s intimate version of Dubai, experience Abu Dhabi through Asma’s rituals, and encounter deeply personal stories shaped by place, memory, and identity.

We also take you on an understated journey through the Balkans, beginning with my beloved Montenegro. From there, we travel through the timeless elegance of Belmond properties in Italy, rediscover the essence of Greece in Costa Navarino, romanticise life in Vienna’s Rosewood, indulge in endless shades of blue across Mauritius and the Maldives, wander through the landscapes of New Zealand, and grow nostalgic for summers in Japan.

We will speak about running, and what it truly means to discover a city on foot. We will capture the essence of slow living through some of the most beautiful frames that a camera can preserve on photo and film and words can capture in novels. We will explore the limits of bold fashion through hotel campaigns that blur the line between hospitality and art. We will meet one of the world’s first YouTube vloggers who became the global face of countless brands, we will understand what travel means to an Olympics medallist, and we will speak with the UAE’s first female film director. Through it all, we will move freely between the global and the local, because at its core, this issue is a celebration of the idea that borders and boxes exist to be challenged.

In one of our stories, we invite you to visit a post office and send a postcard to yourself. Just as my letter to Asma unexpectedly marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life, perhaps the postcard you send to yourself will find its way to Where the Heart Is.

I hope you enjoy the pages ahead.

And thank you, truly.

Editor-in-Chief MILO RADONJIĆ