Hi, I’m Courtney Veinot.
I am the creative and traveler behind the Letters To Somewhere brand and community. Letters To Somewhere is born as the perfect blend of my love for travel, my intense desire to document the world around me and my fascination with the anthropological lens of the world around us.
As a kid I wasn’t fortunate enough to have travel be a huge part of my life, but I always loved to read and write about all of the far off places of the world. Whether it was stories, documentaries, guides and magazines I wanted to take in as much as I could, and record it through my own lens.
Once I did get on that first plane I knew realize these stories and images would be a huge joy in my life. Specifically learning the culture and history of these unique, but connected places. While trying to do more traveling I also studied anthropology in school and learned that there is always more to gain as a traveler and not just a tourist.
My Approach
My writing and traveling philosophy is directly tied to the idea of participant-observation, which is used in in-the-field anthropologists to try and work past and around the inherent biases of difference. It is a way of allowing yourself to be aware of the things you wouldn’t consider through only your own lens.
Essential to this in practice is slowing down the speed with which we alow ourselves to experience, and finding the ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Then having the discipline to write it down, and keep it. The Letters To Somewhere philosophy is not about documenting the highlights. It is about documenting everything else. The early Tuesday morning in a foreign city, visiting the same market four times to see how it operates as a social space, or understanding the border crossing that changes the way you think about home.
The main project of the brand is the Letters To Somewhere digital travel journaling platform who move through the world with intention. The ones who take notes of their day on the train, or journal about the café they went to that day. Built on the methodology of the field anthropologist and the aesthetic of a vintage cartologist, Letters To Somewhere gives slow travelers a place to do what they have always done, observe, record, return. Record you thoughts, findings and experience. Pin your travels to a global map. Mark your milestones with an intentional digital passport. And accumulate your travel archive over years not feeds.
The brand extends into a creative expression of writing and art in my Etsy shop. With guided journals, travel inspired artwork, stationery, and supplies, and apparel and accessories for the Slow Travel Society. These products are designed and currated for the lonely seeker, the digital detoxer, and the journalers who have been writing since before it was aesthetic.
Simple ideas
Slow travel isn’t a pace. It’s a practice. About noticing more, rushing less, and writing it all down before the ordinary moments are the things you wish you could remember.
Lasting impact
Most of what we experience gets quietly forgotten. Not because it wasn’t worth keeping, but because nothing was there to catch it. Letters To Somewhere exists for the moments that deserved more than a passing glance. Write them into your travel archive and they become a record. Something you can return to, share, and build on later. A record of a life lived with curiousity and intention. Still recognizable for years to come.