TravelDay buddy

Amara Okonjo

@latecheckout · she/her · London, United Kingdom

Fewer places, longer stays, and one table worth crossing a city for.

  • Fine dining
  • Long stays
  • Quiet mornings
  • Slow pace
  • Higher end

Amara Okonjo is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Amara Okonjo travels

I am fifty four. I spent twenty years on aeroplanes for work and I have no interest in seeing five countries in ten days.

I book four nights minimum and I book the room I actually want, not the one I can justify. Then I build the days around two or three tables. A kaiseki lunch. A dining room in a station. A restaurant in a park that has been cooking the same way for thirty years. Everything else is a walk between them.

I do not think expensive and good are the same word. I think a good hotel buys you a quiet morning, and a quiet morning is what makes the rest of it land.

  • Luxury
  • Fine dining
  • Slow travel

Cities Amara Okonjo keeps going back to

  • Kyoto

    Japan

    The only city where I am happy to plan a whole day around one lunch.

  • Paris

    France

    Two museums, one long dinner, and the sense that nobody is rushing me.

  • Dubai

    UAE

    I stop here between flights and stay three nights instead of one.

  • Cape Town

    South Africa

    A mountain, a harbour and the best value fine dining of anywhere I go.

What Amara Okonjo recommends

Cape Town

  • Table Mountain National Park · Nature

    Go up early and come down before the cloud sets in. The cable car closes on wind, so keep the day flexible.

    • Seen in Cape Town Tourism. The official Cape Town tourism site centres the city on Table Mountain and lists Robben Island among its destinations

  • Robben Island Prison · Museum

    Book the first ferry. It is a sober morning and it deserves a light afternoon afterwards.

    • Seen in Cape Town Tourism. The official Cape Town tourism site centres the city on Table Mountain and lists Robben Island among its destinations

Kyoto

  • Hyotei · Meal

    Book lunch, not dinner, and book it months out. The garden and the pace are as much of it as the food.

    • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. Listed on the Guide's Kyoto page under Three Stars, exceptional cuisine

Paris

  • Le Pré Catelan · Meal

    A lodge in the Bois de Boulogne. Take a taxi in and walk out through the park afterwards.

    • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide's page marks it Iconic and names Frederic Anton as chef of the Napoleon III lodge in the Bois de Boulogne

  • Septime · Meal

    The opposite of a palace dining room and just as serious. Reservations open in batches, so set a reminder.

    • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide lists it at 80 rue de Charonne as modern, creative cooking

  • Le Train Bleu · Meal

    Go for lunch on a day you are not catching a train. Ask for a table by the window on the left.

    • Seen in Time Out. Time Out calls it an institution since 1901, inside the Gare de Lyon

Plans you can copy

Four nights in Kyoto around one lunch

4 nights · Late March to early April, or November · Slow pace · Higher end

A ryokan, two temple mornings and a kaiseki lunch that the whole trip is built around.

  1. Day 1

    Settle in, then the market

    • Tawaraya Ryokan · Afternoon · Stay

      Arrive in the afternoon and do nothing until dinner. That is the point of a ryokan.

    • Nishiki Market · Evening · Market

      A slow walk from one end to the other. I buy pickles and tea and nothing else.

  2. Day 2

    East side, early

    • Kiyomizu-dera · Morning · Sight

      Be at the gate at opening. By nine the approach is shoulder to shoulder.

    • Three-year Slope · Morning · Walk

      Walk down rather than up. The slope is kinder and the shops are quieter.

    • Two-year Slope · Midday · Walk

      The second slope, then coffee somewhere with a courtyard.

  3. Day 3

    The lunch

    • Nijō Castle · Morning · Sight

      Do the nightingale floors first, then sit in the garden until it is time to go.

    • Hyotei · Midday · Meal

      Three hours, no rush, and nothing else booked for the rest of the day.

      • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. Listed on the Guide's Kyoto page under Three Stars, exceptional cuisine

  4. Day 4

    West, and water

  • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. Listed on the Guide's Kyoto page under Three Stars, exceptional cuisine

Paris in four nights and three dinners

4 nights · September to November · Slow pace · Higher end

One hotel on the Place de la Concorde, two museums a day at most, and the evenings booked.

  1. Day 1

    Check in and walk

    • Hôtel de Crillon · Afternoon · Stay

      Ask for a room on the courtyard. The square is beautiful and it is not quiet.

    • Tuileries Garden · Evening · Walk

      Straight out of the door and east. A green chair by the round pond is the whole evening.

  2. Day 2

    Louvre in the morning, station at lunch

    • Louvre Museum · Morning · Museum

      Two hours, one wing, booked for opening. Trying to do more is how people end up hating it.

    • Le Train Bleu · Midday · Meal

      Take a long lunch here instead of a long dinner. The room is better in daylight.

      • Seen in Time Out. Time Out calls it an institution since 1901, inside the Gare de Lyon

  3. Day 3

    Nineteenth century, then the eleventh

    • Museum of Orsay · Morning · Museum

      Start on the top floor and work down. Everyone else does the opposite.

    • Rodin Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Buy the garden ticket if time is short. The garden is the better half.

    • Septime · Evening · Meal

      Small room, one menu, no decisions to make. I like being told what to eat.

      • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide lists it at 80 rue de Charonne as modern, creative cooking

  4. Day 4

    The park dinner

    • Eiffel Tower · Afternoon · Sight

      I look at it from the Trocadero side and go no further. Once was enough, thirty years ago.

    • Le Pré Catelan · Evening · Meal

      Dress properly and give it the whole evening. The walk back through the Bois is part of it.

      • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide's page marks it Iconic and names Frederic Anton as chef of the Napoleon III lodge in the Bois de Boulogne
  • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide's page marks it Iconic and names Frederic Anton as chef of the Napoleon III lodge in the Bois de Boulogne

Five nights under the mountain

5 nights · November to March · Slow pace · Higher end

A hotel with a garden, one hard morning on Robben Island, and the peninsula on a clear day.

  1. Day 1

    Arrive and stay put

    • Mount Nelson Hotel · Afternoon · Stay

      The gardens are the reason. I do not leave the grounds on arrival day.

    • Company's Garden · Evening · Walk

      Straight down the avenue from the hotel. Squirrels, old oaks and the first sense of the city.

  2. Day 2

    Up, while it is clear

    • Table Mountain National Park · Morning · Nature

      Check the wind before you leave the hotel. If the cable car is running, drop everything and go.

      • Seen in Cape Town Tourism. The official Cape Town tourism site centres the city on Table Mountain and lists Robben Island among its destinations

    • Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens · Afternoon · Nature

      The canopy walkway, then the lawn. Take something to read.

  3. Day 3

    The island

    • Robben Island Prison · Morning · Museum

      First ferry, warm layer, and nothing planned for the afternoon.

      • Seen in Cape Town Tourism. The official Cape Town tourism site centres the city on Table Mountain and lists Robben Island among its destinations

    • Greenmarket Square · Afternoon · Market

      A slow lap of the stalls on the way back into town.

  4. Day 4

    Bo-Kaap

    • Bo-Kaap Museum · Morning · Museum

      Small and worth an hour before you walk the streets above it.

    • Rhodes Memorial · Afternoon · Sight

      I go for the view back over the flats, and for how uncomfortable the monument is.

  5. Day 5

    The end of the land

    • Cape of Good Hope · Morning · Nature

      Drive out early. The wind gets up in the afternoon and it takes the pleasure out of it.

    • Company's Garden · Evening · Walk

      Back where I started, on the last evening.

  • Seen in Cape Town Tourism. The official Cape Town tourism site centres the city on Table Mountain and lists Robben Island among its destinations

Amara Okonjo is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.