About Becca Hensley

Who I Will Be Someday
Someday I'm going to be that little old lady, bedecked with jewels, wearing an exotic turban, swathed in a kaftan, and living out my senior years in a stunning hotel. You know the one. She's a duchess or an aging movie star, a mysterious figure with a puzzling past, but what matters is she's happiest ensconced in the lavish surroundings of a suite with a view and room service, a well informed concierge, and maitre d' that always saves her table.

Who I Am Now
Right now, I'm a travel expert and my beat is the luxury market. Seeking out thrilling hotels that maintain a personality in these homogeneous times is what I do. I've floated through the air like an uncertain leaf on a prop plane en route to the Hotel Guanahani in St. Barths; listened to a serenade of the Alphorn from the balcony of the presidential suite of the Victoria-Jungfrau Hotel in Interlaken while gazing at Alpen peaks that suggest Toblerone Bars; and whirred across Venetian waters to Giudecca Island beneath the full moon in the Hotel Cipriani's vintage taxi.

I am an Austin-based, well-established, and frequently published freelance travel and lifestyle writer, poet, and monthly columnist. "Chic Retreats," my luxe-focused travel column, appears in Austin Monthly, an urbane, intelligent, just-trendy-enough city magazine. I am a regular contributor to American Way and the Austin American Statesman, and my work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Self, Preferred Lifestyles, Robb Report, Coastal Living, Spa, Healing Lifestyles, and many other consumer and literary publications. I cover sundry subjects: food, wine, art, architecture, and beauty and fitness trends from around the globe. I have learned French in Sancerre while sipping wine, taken Nordic Walking lessons in the Tyrol, and perspired to a singing yoga teacher at Parrot Cay. Having grown up a world traveler, I continue that addiction today, visiting hotels all over the world, weighing and measuring them, and never tiring of the adventure. I travel several times a month and write about every aspect of my sojourns.