This year's Go List was illustrated by Nashville-based artist Lauren Cierzan.
With work that’s been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, and Lenny Letter, Cierzan has developed an illustrative style that is simultaneously beautiful, funny, and wonderfully vivid. She first caught our eye with her sketches of people–she casts a wide and inclusive net to portray the full depth of humanity. So often, we focus our Go List on the place, rather than those who live there. But with Cierzan’s art, we’re hoping to capture the vibrancy of the people who make any city what it truly is.
We asked Cierzan to take our Fodor’s questionnaire.
FODOR’S: What’s one thing you never travel without?
LAUREN CIERZAN: A book, always.
City or country?
LC: I enjoy both, so an ideal trip involves a little of each. If forced to choose though, city usually wins out in the end.
What’s the first thing you do when you arrive in a new place?
LC: Eat–trying local food is generally priority number one.
Do you like traveling solo?
LC: I do–it’s freeing to be totally on your own schedule, moving at your own pace. You have a flexibility that leaves you open to opportunities and certain types of spontaneity you might have missed when traveling with other people.
Train, plane, or ship?
LC: If I have the time, I’ll always pick train travel over anything else. It’s incredibly relaxing (or at least it is to me)–there’s something so lovely, almost meditative, about watching the world scroll past a train window.
Carry-on or checked?
LC: Carry-on, 100 percent. I can’t remember the last time I checked a bag.
What’s on your travel bucket list?
LC: Bhutan, New Zealand, Denmark, Patagonia, Iceland, Morocco, India. The list goes on and on.
Recommended Fodor’s Video
What are your favorite countries, destinations to travel to?
LC: The Lake District in England is unbelievably gorgeous. Any and all of the Greek Isles are amazing–Santorini, Crete, Corfu. I spent some of last summer traveling the Oregon coast and that was really beautiful as well–I’d revisit any of those places in a heartbeat.
What is your favorite time of year to travel?
LC: Whenever flights are cheapest–any chance to take a trip, I’ll take.
What will always earn a spot in your carry-on?
LC: A snack. By which I mean, multiple snacks.
See more of Lauren Cierzan’s art here.