Author: Ariana

How to turn a rented villa into a five star hotel

The argument against renting a villa has always been the services you give up. We spent a week testing the counterargument: bring the hotel to the house. A masseuse, a photographer, and the system that makes it repeatable.

Where students went: our study abroad impact report

Fifty-seven percent of the students we surveyed had already committed to go abroad and still were not sure they belonged there. That finding shaped everything we built in year two. Here is our first annual report: five Fellows, 15 workshops, $3,455 in donor dollars, and the four numbers we are committing to by 2028.

Ariventures Graduates from the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business Program

Ariventures was selected for and has completed Cohort 9 of the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program, a five-month business education program developed with NYU Stern. The firm graduates with a completed growth plan and joins an alumni network of nearly 2,000 businesses generating $240 million in combined revenue.

Front row or don’t bother

A front row sunbed on the French Riviera for 35 euros sounds like a typo. It’s just Saint-Cyr. Our beach club day, the nap of the summer, and the one warning we owe you about drinking in that sun.

Twenty minutes to the prettiest secret in Provence

Thirty minutes from Marseille sat one of the prettiest port towns in France, so we gave it a Saturday afternoon. The harbor delivered, the shops surprised us, and nobody made us feel like tourists. The full verdict inside.

Entre nous, no. 1. Cannes, a hotel on probation, and a lesson in status

Our new weekly column opens the way it means to continue: a day in Cannes among Americans who moved here, a hotel we’re not ready to rule on, a train seat worth knowing about, and one observation about status we’re still deciding whether to laugh at.

We flew to France for Bad Bunny. Obviously.

One of the best travel strategies we know fits in one sentence: see your favorite artist in another country. On July 1 we practiced it at the Orange Vélodrome, with receipts. Concert Passport, episode one.

Europe hit snooze on its new border paperwork

Europe hit snooze on its new border paperwork. ETIAS is delayed to 2027, which means one less thing between you and the Riviera, one long line that still exists, and one scam already circling. The overview, from our side of the border.

Rumor Has It We Live Here Now

The rumor is true. Ariventures has an address in the South of France now, and we are announcing it on France’s own holiday, because we have a sense of occasion. Here is why we moved in and what it means for our travelers.

The Address We’ll Never Post

We are hotel people. We admit it freely. Then a villa in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer spent a week dismantling every argument we had, one pool day at a time. Here is what it takes to convert us.