GoNOMAD Writer Profiles

Cathie Arquilla: A Travel Writer With Style

Cathie Arquilla knows style. That is to say, she's a stylish woman who chooses her clothes, shoes and bags as carefully as she chooses the words in her travel articles. While she loves discovering the stylish side of cosmopolitan cities, she doesn’t shy away from the “off the beaten path” adventure travel that we at GoNOMAD like to dish out. She tells our readers about everything from morel mushrooms to moguls, all with a slant toward the glamorous side of living.

As a fashion stylists to celebrities and individuals, Cathie has dressed clients for everything from David Letterman interviews to Roman holidays. She currently is Design Director and founder of MyStylist, a fashion styling business dedicated to helping people “discover and present their best selves” through the clothes they wear. Her love for travel is equal to her passion for fashion and as a “travel stylist” she’s a hybrid of the best sort, writing about fashion and travel with an easy conversational style that brings you along for the ride.

Cathie’s fashion and travel musing and soap box opinions; cashmere wraps, delicious for travel, white sneakers, not in Italy, can be found on her blog at mystylistcathiearquilla.blogspot.com.

As a regular contributor to GoNOMAD we know that Cathie can go from Tevas to Manolos in a New York minute and we’re happy to have her writing about everything from fondu to Ferragamos!


Links to all of Cathie's GoNOMAD articles are below:



The Hunt For Morels In Idaho

“Is it a brain or is it deer poop?” asked my companion as we hunted for prized morel mushrooms in the Payette River Mountains of central west Idaho. We started out the day optimistically with plastic shopping bags to carry our mushroom loot.

Our guide explained that it was “greener” to have mesh bags to carry your mushrooms so they could drop spores, release critters, and breathe as you walked along. But he said that as long as we shook the mushrooms off after picking them we would be boosting the morel mushroom crop of 2009.

About a half hour into the hike with not a mushroom between my hunting companions and me, I knew I had to adjust my expectations. So I decided to extinguish my competitive edge and enjoy the sounds and smells of the hike. At first I wondered aloud if the white noise I was hearing was rushing water or a highway. When guide Dave Williams answered, “Yes. READ MORE

Morel mushroom hunting in Idaho

Skiing Utah: A Four-Day Women-Only Getaway

When people say they are going out west to ski Utah, easterners think, "Oooooh, aaahh isn’t that for serious skiers who mean it, terrain chock full of double black diamonds, narrow steep chutes (between boulders), big mountain skiing?" 

All true, but Utah is also host to oodles of intermediate and beginner runs which allow the novice or more accomplished skier to feel the rush of breezing downhill.  I’m a strong skier and I can manage most of what a resort has to offer, but I wanted a ski vacation which was relaxing –- perhaps that’s an oxymoron. 

But on a four-day, women-only ski getaway, I soaked up the peace and grandeur of Utah’s forest and mountain while listening to the background music of my skis swishing downhill. It was relaxing and my female companions made it doubly so. With the exception of an occasional male guide or van driver, it was just us gals and we skied mostly solid blue squares (intermediate runs), but as our delightful Park City hostess Picabo Street pointed out,  “There’s no shame in that!” READ MORE

Biking in Ojai, California.

Padua: A Northern Italian University Town

There is nothing like a University town to make you feel inspired. Being “on campus” feels great. The pursuit of knowledge is intoxicating. You feel a cocktail of emotions; one part expansive, two parts rejuvenated, a dash of nostalgia, a jigger of optimism.

University towns are often the best places to experience local flavor and cultural highlights. Padua is no exception! Perhaps the most illustrious science university in Italy, the University of Padua, has an academic history that contains volumes.

The town itself was host to some of the greatest philosophers, scientists and artists in Western culture. Think Dante, Galileo, Giotto, Donatello and Copernicus. Padua is hallowed ground for learning, but it also celebrates the upbeat individualism of students today.

Walking this city of frescoed porticos and visiting places like the Palazzo della Ragione, the Ghetto, and St. Anthony’s Basilica, will satisfy your Italian art history craving and give you a chance to experience a vibrant 2010 University town. READ MORE

Toronto: Fun for Kids and Parents Alike

Some might say a “family-vacation” is an oxymoron. A friend told me once a family vacation isn’t a vacation, it’s a trip. With limited resources and time you really can’t afford to have a vacation that doesn’t feel like one.

So the biting of nails and gnashing of teeth that usually comes with planning your family vacation, is completely reasonable.

The trick is to create the overlap in your itinerary–things that kids and parents will both enjoy. And I believe a successful family vacation is based on the overlap being at least 50 percent. I’d say the other 25 percent is for them, the kids, and the remaining 25 percent is for us, Mom and/or Dad.

With her son James looking at dinosaurs in Toronto.

Visiting Toronto, there is plenty to do that falls into the overlap category. My son, James, and I spent about four days there sampling a typical family vacation. We were shown a variety of family friendly venues and attractions that were interesting and fun for both of us. READ MORE

Read more articles by Cathie

Martinique: C'est Francais! Mais Oui

Lake Geneva region, Switzerland: Our Style Writer Reports

Temecula California:  A Girlfriend Getaway to “Where The Sun Shines Through the Mist”

Ojai, California: A Weekend With the Gals

A Three-Generation Vacation in Carlsbad California

Stowe, Vermont: A Classic New England Town and a Ski Resort, Too

Barcelona: You've Just Got to See It!

 

	GoNOMAD Contributors
	Kent St. John		David Rich
	Max Hartshorne		Stephen Hartshorne
	Sonja Stark		Paul Shoul
	Mridula Dwivedi		Tim Leffel
	Shady Hartshorne		Kelly Westhoff
	Lucy Corne		Laurie Ellis
	Rick Millikan		Cindy-Lou Dale
	Cathie Arquilla		Habeeb Salloum
	Cindy Bigras		Esha Samajpati
	Matthew Kadey		Janis Turk
	Bill Pfeffer		Kate Cosme
	Inka Piegsa-Quischotte		Jean Miller Spoljaric
	Tristan Cano		Kathleen Broadhurst
	Susan McKee		Helena Wahlstrom
	Peter Sacco		Shelley Seale

	Elle Rahilly	?	This could be you