About

Sand and Stars is a personal journal of images, places, and things worth noticing; a record of movement, curiosity, and details gathered along the way.

My background combines design and hospitality.  I began in fine dining after training in pastry, then merged this knowledge with my design background to craft spaces and experiences in the events world.  That path naturally led to hotel work.  Together, these disciplines inform how I read a place, not just how it looks, but how it feels, functions, and holds attention over time.

The idea of “the best” is often overused and, ultimately, too narrow and subjective.  How many places can be ‘the best’ before the word dilutes?  There are places that stand above good, thoughtful, refined, memorable, even extraordinary, but rarely in ways that can be meaningfully measured against one another.  While recognition has its place, the proliferation of rankings and “best-of” lists tends to flatten complex work into overly simplistic labels.  

This way of seeing has been familiar to friends and family for years.   It naturally led to questions: where to eat with a date or a client, which hotel would be right for a honeymoon, which neighbourhood is worth exploring…  I spent countless hours assembling restaurant lists and travel itineraries, complete with notes, photographs, and routes.  Over time, those requests extended to friends of friends and eventually to clients, so in 2008, that process became a blog, a place to hold and share this growing archive.  It gradually expanded beyond the exceptional to include the practical, the overlooked, and the bubbly fun.

On this website, there are no such lists or absolutes.  Instead, you will find places that resonate.  What matters most here is intention, clarity, care, and conviction, whether shaped over generations or in a single moment.  Reducing a place to a numeral is both undignified for the creator and misleading for the visitor.     

In this view, great or worth remembering doesn’t automatically mean the most awarded, luxurious, or expensive.  It means something true to itself, made with intention, carefully crafted in the moment, or refined over time.  There are many paths to discovery, but excellence reveals itself when you encounter it, and it is not always possible to describe it with quantifiables.

While yes, sometimes it is about convenience, most of the time I am happily uncompromising.  I would rather skip a meal than settle for an average one, and often walk ten thousand extra steps for a truly good coffee.   Following my instinct, sometimes quite literally, as in chasing a scent for blocks, to find the places that surprise even the locals.

Sand and Stars exists to search for, discover, share, and celebrate the people, places, and experiences that pull me in. I’m drawn to places that evoke joy and wonder. They don’t need to be luxurious to be remarkable, though sometimes they are. Restaurants don’t need star chefs, although some have them. The focus is never on accolades but on intention, craft, creativity, and design that can transport you, whether that’s a simple wooden bus stop in Kurokawa or the outstanding architecture of Les Cols near Girona.

This is wandering with intent.

If you come across a place you believe deserves attention, feel free to write to: sky@sandandstars.world. I’m always happy to discover something new.

Thank you for being here.  I hope you find joy and inspiration along the way.

Ondina