These Travel-Inspired Perfumes Will Transport You to a Kyoto Garden, the Italian Riviera, and Beyond
Everyone is familiar with the notion of armchair travel—especially after the last few years. But what about medicine cabinet travel? Or bedside table travel? Or top-of-your-chest-of-drawers travel? Scent has a powerful ability to move you through time and space: the sweet smell of Gardenia might be pure Carolina summer of 1998; a whiff of honeysuckle could take you straight to springtime in Venice. We noticed a lot of perfumers bottling that particular vacation feeling. Below, find 31 of their most evocative scents.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
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Louis Vuitton California Dream
For a Route 1 road trip: Master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud uses juicy mandarin and milky vanilla to capture the devil-may-care feeling of driving with the top down along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris Intensément
For a rendezvous at the Eiffel Tower: This bottled love letter to the most romantic city on earth conjures une petite affaire with its dewy Damask rose, sweet-tart black currant, and narcotic datura. A tryst on the banks of the Seine? Oui, s’il vous plaît.
Floraïku I See the Clouds Go By Eau de Parfum
For a meander through a Kyoto garden: This hypnotizing combination of cassis absolute, cherry blossom, and white musk is so zen-like, you may as well be strolling near mirrored ponds and golden maples at Tenryū-ji.
Caswell Massey Old Faithful
For a hike through Yellowstone: From America’s oldest perfumery comes a line of scents inspired by the world’s oldest national park. The unisex tonic riffs on botanicals found near Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, including sagebrush and sweet blue lupine. Bonus: Proceeds benefit nonprofit park partner Yellowstone Forever.
Hermès Cedre Sambac Eau de Toilette
L’Occitane Néroli & Orchidée Eau de Toilette
Aesop Rozu Eau de Parfum
For a sojourn in the Japanese countryside: The newest bottling from cult-favorite Australian brand Aesop was inspired by late French Modernist architect and designer Charlotte Perriand. She was as enchanted with Japan as we are with this provocative scent—a heady mix of Nippon rose, bergamot, shiso, ylang ylang, and pink pepper.
Ormaie Paris Marque-Page Eau de Parfum
For quiet time in an old-world library: This hedonistic coalition of oud, geranium, and tea-like davana transports you to the fabulously Baroque, 18th-century Joanina library at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, its shelves stacked floor to ceiling with leather-bound books.
Diptyque Do Son Eau de Parfum
For a junk sailing in Halong Bay: The limited-edition jade green bottle does a fine job channeling the emerald waters of Northeast Vietnam. But the real splendor is in the sumptuous dance of tuberose, jasmine, and amber wood—a tribute to Diptyque co-founder Yves Coueslant’s childhood memories of summering in a pagoda built by his father.
Aēsop Erémia Eau de Parfum
For a forest bath in the Pacific Northwest: Famed nose Barnabé Fillion is behind this mysterious new bottling from Aesop. The heady mix of patchouli, iris, and plush musk is designed to evoke a “forgotten wasteland” but does the opposite—whisking us off to the life-size terrarium that is mossy Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park.
Sana Jardin Paris Jaipur Chant Eau de Parfum
Byredo De Los Santos
For a Día de los Muertos celebration in Pátzcuaro: This genderless formula pulls you into its clutches with palo santo and clary sage—at once musky and piquant. To wear it is to find yourself dancing among strumming guitars, flickering votives, and garlands of marigold.
Veronique Gabai Souvenirs de Tunisie
Mami Wata Neo-Animism
For a surf break on the Western Cape: Etienne de Swardt, the South African-born founder of fragrance house Etat Libre d’Orange, teamed up with French nose Mathilde Majoul to develop a scent any surfer would love. The name, Mami Wata, is West African pidgin English for “Mama Water” or “Mother Ocean” and that’s exactly what you get: wild barrel rolls threaded with notes of imperial red seaweed and bright lemony-fresh Sunlight laundry bars.
Phlur Phloria Eau de Parfum
For sun and surf in Key West: With top notes like cheerful lemon and wet greens, a heart of ylang-ylang and golden gardenia, and a sensual woodsy base, this breezy fragrance nods to the crystalline waters and Hemingway-approved Papa Dobles of the Conch Republic.
Elorea Fire Eau de Parfum
MCMC Fragrances Maui
For a Hawaiian beach vacation: This tranquil blend of green bamboo, young ginger, star anise, honeyed tuberose, and frangipani make us want to bliss out on the jet-black sand of Honokalani Beach and do a whole lot of nothing.
By/Rosie Jane Lake Eau de Parfum
Kismet Olfactive L.A. High
For a drive down Sunset Boulevard: It might just be a Hollywood fantasy, but the mellow L.A. lifestyle that appears in our daydreams is all sunshine, palm trees, and taco trucks. That’s this fragrance in a nutshell: a slow-burning fusion of tart Granny Smith apple and funky marijuana that makes you pine for your younger, breezier self.
- Bohemian Reves
Bohemian Rêves Desert Fleur Eau de Parfum Natural
For a camping trip in the Sonoran desert: This line of plant-based, artisanal perfumes is hand-crafted in St. Petersburg, Florida, but its vibes evoke the spirit of the Southwest. One spritz of the patchouli-forward, vanilla-laced fragrance and you’re standing among the cacti in Saguaro National Park.
Goldfield & Banks Australia Sunset Hour
Kelly + Jones Mezcal Roja
For a pilgrimage to the agave fields of Oaxaca: Like the top-shelf spirit for which it is named, this smoky-sweet fragrance celebrates terroir. Perfumer Kelly Jones worked closely with maestro mezcaleros (master mezcal distillers) to develop its earthy profile, complete with notes of cacao blossom, corn silk, and ocote wood. There’s a charitable component, too: A portion of the proceeds benefit Programa Vaca, a Mexico-based organization using sustainable architecture to rebuild rural parts of the country impacted by earthquakes.
Penhaligon’s The World According to Arthur
For turning back time: Everything about this fragrance is fantastical, from the weighty gold dragon cap to the fire-and-ice intensity of the scent itself. Tahitian vanilla, tonka bean, and clary sage duke it out like knights in King Arthur’s Camelot, producing an aroma that can only be described as otherworldly.
