About The Places I Love
How hard is it to find places that fit your idea of the perfect place? Often it’s all about the personality of a place, the little details, how it feels. And it’s a totally personal thing of course. It’s almost impossible to rely on information from guides or websites, because one person’s idea of heaven leaves another cold – and whilst we eventually find guides that we can rely on with reasonable success, my best source of information invariably comes from people that I know, who have a similar style and taste.
We get so excited when we find places – any type of places, anywhere in the world, that we fall in love with – so do our friends – and we love passing on our ‘finds’ to the friends that we know will love them too. And that - basically - is how The Places I Love was born.
The Places I Love offers a community of people who enjoy finding, sharing and experiencing their special places in the world – places to eat, stay, hang out, experience, enjoy nature, shop, whatever it is. The way it works is that you will find other members who match your taste in the places that they list which will enable you to feel confident about their recommendations for places that you haven’t yet discovered. Simple.
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How it works
The way it works is simple. The more places that you list, the more you will match other members that share your taste and style. You can then confidently trust their recommendations for other places that you’ve yet to discover.
Becoming a member is free. All we ask is that you provide a bit of information about yourself (which helps other members get an idea about you and your style) and that you share the details of the places (any type, anywhere) that you totally love.
The more places that you list, the more effective the matching mechanism will be when you come to search for new places that you have yet to discover. And the more people that sign up, the bigger the choice and potential for finding your perfect matches. (You can use the site without being a member of course, and enjoy our recommendations and those of our founder and new members, but you’ll get much more from it by joining up).
Once you’ve joined up and added some of your favourite places, your search results for new places will be rated with a Likely to Love percentage which will give you an indication of how this place matches according to your matches with other members who also recommend this place. We’ve also included a Most Loved rating which just shows you how many members love this listed place, should your search or browse not return any specific matches.
About Us
The Places I Love has been created by Jennie Withers and Graeme Montgomery and a ‘family’ of founder members that are as obsessed with gorgeous places as we are.
Jennie Withers http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/Jennie/
The upside of chronic perfectionism, an obsession with food and a head in permanent fantasy has been a lifelong quest for places that are 'just right' for whatever the occasion, and huge excitement on their discovery. Born and bred in the UK, Jennie's life and career have taken her to many places across the world. She has lived in Hong Kong (a short-lived aspiration of a career in real estate), and Portugal (slightly more successful establishment of a branding consultancy in Lisbon), and spent chunks of time in France (as an au pair and a ski rep), as well as travelling extensively during her career in advertising and branding working with clients in the US, Europe and Asia and doing photo shoots all over the world, as well as her personal travels and adventures.
In these more settled years, she lives mostly in New York with time at 'home' in London too with her partner, Graeme, and new baby, Victory Alexander, and travels a whole lot less, although still manages to drive everyone crazy with her searches for the perfect places. Her love of good wholesome food, places that care about our planet and our people, places that care about creating beauty and places that are authentic and soulful determine the kind of places that she gets excited about these days.
Graeme Montgomery http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/graememontgomery/
Graeme realised he desperately needed something like The Places I Love after planning a rather unsuccessful romantic weekend away for his girlfriend. The question was why he never bothered get any recommendations from his trusted friends - silly him. The answer of course, would have been a website like The Places I Love - which, funnily enough, was conceived during that disastrous weekend ... and miraculously, the relationship survived too.
Graeme splits his time between London, New York and Milan, photographing luxury items for the world's top fashion brands and magazines. He has travelled all over the world for photography assignments as well as for pleasure, with a particular love of good places to do yoga, go horseriding, or eat nice food. His favourite places are those that just feel authentic - and these days, places where he can take his baby son.
Founder Members
Jonny West & http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/jonnywest/
Jane Molloy http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/janemolloy/
Jane Molloy (interiors stylist) and Jonny West (fashion and interiors photographer) fell in love while laying a choir carpet in a houseboat in Chelsea. Their mutual passion for soulful settings has lead them all over the world and down some very dodgy alleys. They live with a dog called Jonah and the knowledge that there's ALWAYS somewhere new and groovy to check out.....
Richard Bence http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/Richard/
Richard is Travel Editor of Attitude, Europe’s biggest gay lifestyle magazine, and freelances for The Guardian, Conde Nast Traveller specializing in hotels, restaurants and bars. Last year Richard visited Brazil for the first time where he enjoyed a helicopter ride over Rio and sunbathing by the rooftop pool of Sao Paulo’s Hotel Unique. If it’s insider style knowledge you want on glam destinations across the globe, Richard knows his stuff. Recently, however, his life has been turned upside down by the addition of a rescue dog called Macy, which has taught him that there really is no place like home.
Peter Pugllese &
Anne Marie Mustafa http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/AMP/
Peter runs one of New York's top photographic agencies. Anne Marie spent her time designing the interiors of New York's most elegant homes until the birth of their son last year. They are obsessive about finding the best of everything be it Sushi or a crib.
Sarah Carrol http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/sarahc/
As one of Next Directory's art directors Sarah is always looking for beautiful places to photograph a shoes. This pursuit regularly takes her to Cape Town, New York, Miami, Majorca and Cyprus to name a few. She also loves to travel with her family and friends in search of good food, and great art and design.
Giles Kershaw http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/Giles/
Giles has divided his life between Britain and Australia with a few diversions in between including India, Brazil and a trek to the North Pole. He is a graphic designer and Ashtanga Yoga teacher and created the identity for The Places I Love.
Rachel Meddowes http://www.theplacesilove.com/members/profile/rachel+m/
As interiors editor of Hapers Bazaar Rachel always had impeccable taste. She is passionate about beautiful objects and furniture. Now living in Edinburgh with her son Bing and her dog Dixie she continues to work in the luxury lifestyle and interiors business both as a consultant, writer and stylist and has added a Children's Bedroom Decorating section to her life. Rachel is loving the super bright winter mornings and searching out places with style and chairs that don't scrape.
We felt this was important to add as a category, as personally, we mostly love places that are authentic, responsible and promoting sustainable ways of being and doing business. This category covers places to eat that are committed to organic, natural and/or locally sourced food, places to stay that are as environmentally responsible as possible, or any other type of places that are conscious about their environmental and social impact.
News
Press enquiries please contact Jennie Withers info@theplacesilove.com