Where Culture Lives: 5 Transformational Places That Changed Me While Traveling
Where Culture Lives: 5 Transformational Travel Experiences That Changed Me While Traveling
A “Where Culture Lives” Feature | Your City Entertainment Editorial by Alanna M. Lamar
Part of Your City Entertainment’s series exploring the places, people, and moments that stay with us long after we leave.
Travel isn’t always about what you see. It’s about what you remember. What seeps into your skin long after your flight home. Some places felt like conversations. Others, like coming home to a version of myself I didn’t know I’d left behind.
This feature is a love letter to the places that shaped me. That whispered stories I needed to hear. And for brands wondering what kind of traveler follows Your City Entertainment, this is her story.
Some destinations stay with you not because of their popularity, but because of their emotional and cultural resonance. These aren’t just tourist hotspots. They’re transformational spaces. From sacred lands in South Africa to jazz-filled streets in New Orleans, here are five places where culture lives and healing begins.
1. Kruger National Park, South Africa: Finding Myself at Zarafa Lodge
Location: Greater Kruger | Tsonga Land
Keywords: Kruger safari, South Africa lodges, spiritual travel in Africa
My first stop on the continent, and the first breath I took in South Africa, felt ancient. I landed in Johannesburg, stayed overnight to rest up, and headed on a five-hour bus to the Zarafa Lodge in the Greater Kruger area. The next my safari driver/guide picked me up before sunrise. He asked if it was my first time to South Africa. I told him it was my first time any where in Africa, and he responded “Welcome home.”
That simple phrase, said quietly by a stranger under the blush of early light, cracked something open in me.
Zarafa Lodge, tucked inside Balule Nature Reserve, wasn’t just remote, it was restorative. Luxury, yes. Romantic, yes. But I was alone, and somehow falling in love with myself a little more each day. The bush felt sacred. Elephants at sunrise. Candlelit dinners on a deck. Sound baths under the stars. I had phone service, but I there was a lot of just silence and my thoughts.
And as I sat with the stillness, I kept thinking: before our lives were interrupted, before captivity and separation, our ancestors were deeply in tune with this. Nature was our first language. And in returning to it, I was getting back to my own roots.
Plan Your Stay: Zarafa Lodge Listing »
Coming Soon on Alanna’s Travels: “Returning to the Mother Land”
2. The French Quarter – New Orleans: Echoes of What Once Was
Location: French Quarter, New Orleans | Chitimacha Land
Keywords: French Quarter History, culture in New Orleans
Walking through the French Quarter is like tracing a fading photograph. Beautiful, storied, and just a little haunted. The balconies still hang with iron lace, music still spills from corners and doorways, but something underneath has shifted.
After Hurricane Katrina, the Quarter remained a symbol of resilience, but also of change. Much of what once felt like communal celebration has turned into curated performance. It’s still magic, but the kind that comes with a tinge of nostalgia. A place reaching toward what it once was, and reckoning with what it’s become.
The sounds of brass bands echoing off pastel walls stirred both joy and ache. And while it was loud and alive, it wasn’t until I wandered into the Garden District later in my stay, beneath oak-lined avenues and quiet porches, that I began to process the contrast. There’s a soft stillness in the Garden District that holds space for reflection.
That’s New Orleans: grief and glory living side by side.
New Orleans Culture Guide »
Spotify Playlist Drop: “Brass and Bounce: The Frenchmen Set”
3. Savaneta, Aruba: Where Local Life Still Leads
Location: Southern Aruba | Caquetío Land
Keywords: Aruba fishing village, Savaneta Aruba, local travel Aruba
Aruba is often painted in tourist blues and resort whites. Perfect beaches, hotel chains, and price tags that rarely reflect the local economy. But venture past the glossy brochures, and you’ll find whispers of resistance. At some of the smaller beaches, graffiti tells a different story: “No More Hotels.”
Savaneta, a quiet fishing village, felt like a truth I hadn’t seen advertised. Conversations in Papiamento, Spanish, Dutch, and English. Kids playing near docks. A local man filleting fish just caught. Balashi beers clinking on plastic tables. A beach so calm and still, it felt like a secret.
This is where I found something real. And slow. And sacred.
Top Spots:
- Zeerover
- Flying Fishbone
- Local Artisan Stalls
Aruba Travel Guide »
4. Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg: Where History Speaks Truth
Location: Johannesburg | Sotho-Tswana & Zulu Land
Keywords: Apartheid Museum review, historical museums in South Africa, educational travel
The Apartheid Museum isn’t a place you visit. It’s a place that visits you—in your thoughts, your chest, your memory, long after you leave.
From the moment you enter, segregated by randomized racial identity, the experience demands presence. Archival footage, handwritten laws, and stories of activists unfold room by room. Painful, powerful, unforgettable.
It’s heavy. But it’s necessary.
As an elder millennial, I couldn’t escape the realization that my South African counterparts lived this. They survived apartheid, resisted, and are still rebuilding in its wake. This wasn’t distant history. It was now.
For travelers like me, especially as a Black woman, this space offered both grief and clarity. It deepened my understanding of South Africa, colonialism, and liberation. It reminded me that museums are not passive, they are places of participation.
Apartheid Museum Listing »
5. History Colorado Center, Denver: The Stories Behind the State
Location: Denver, Colorado | Núu-agha-tljvlj-pʉ́ (Ute) Land
Keywords: History Colorado Center, museums in Denver, cultural travel Colorado
Between the altitude and the art, Denver surprised me. And at the heart of it, the History Colorado Center gave me something I didn’t expect. Perspective.
The exhibits were honest, layered, and occasionally painful. They asked more questions than they answered. Questions like: Where are the Native people now? What would Denver look like if colonization hadn’t disrupted everything? What could have been?
The space made me think not just about the past, but the paths that were interrupted; and how we still feel those absences today.
History Colorado Center Listing »
Honorable Mention: Indian Hot Springs Idaho Springs, CO
After Erykah Badu’s concert in Denver, I slipped away to Indian Hot Springs for a digital detox and full-body reset. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was sacred. Floating in geothermal water under echoey ceilings, I realized that healing doesn’t need to be curated. It just needs space.
