Corinne Hamilton wants to bring the romance back to travel.
The visual artist and renowned Manhattan club kid devised her boutique travel agency and online magazine Haunt with the aim of helping people get out of the hotel and onto the streets. “I want to eschew the glossy tourism tropes of people who never leave a resort,” Hamilton tells me. “I want them to get their feet on the ground. Visit some authentic mom-and-pop places — places they wouldn’t normally think to go to.”
Haunt was established — purely by coincidence, says Hamilton — by and for queer people. Imbued with a gothic feminine touch, its website is populated with exclusive guides prepared by like-minded people she’s met on her travels: eccentric locals, esteemed artists and “it girls,” who share their favorite haunts in cities across the globe. “Through immersing myself in this realm of unconventional connections and sharing information, which I think a lot of trans women do to survive, that allowed me the agency to explore the world,” she says.
For the site’s debut — which Hamilton rang in this past May with a swinging electroclash party in Hollywood attended by Hannah Einbinder and other stars — queer icon Amanda Lepore wrote a personal guide to New York City, abundant in downtown nightclubs and public baths. Hamilton herself offers consultations, wellness retreats, and bespoke travel planning for up to 12 people per trip. A resident astrologer, Stevie Goldstein, is also available to consult on ideal timing and locations. “J.P. Morgan never did anything without an astrologer,” says Hamilton, citing the famed investment banker’s penchant for consulting the cosmos.
Shortly after the glitzy launch of Haunt, I caught up with Hamilton for iced coffees at Loupiotte Kitchen, a cozy French bistro in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. We spoke about building a global network of queer travelers, her favorite local discoveries, and how to plan the vacation of a lifetime.
What was your first major travel experience?
I am from Monterey, California. Big Little Lies territory. The kind of a town that is full of rich old white people masquerading as Democrats when they’re really conservative. That was interesting for me, being a little gay and trans kid. I always had these dreams of going to New York, then escaping to Paris... Not wanting to be wherever I was. [In high school,] I went on a trip to London for a theater trip, and that was my first exposure to any other culture that wasn’t American.
So you basically lived an Olsen twins movie?
Yeah. The Olsen twins were definitely serving cunt. And they continue to do so.
Since then you’ve become an artist, you’ve made films. How did that set you on the path to start your own travel agency?
I always had this seed planted in my mind that I wanted to create worlds through installation, immersive theater, or film. I didn’t get into the drama program at Marymount Manhattan, [so I went into] creative media. In the evenings, after class I would go out. I got introduced to this queer nightlife scene in New York, with Amanda Lepore, Susanne Bartsch, and Kenny Kenny. Club culture was the way for me to meet a diverse array of people who I had never been exposed to.
You premiered Haunt with a guide to New York by Amanda Lepore. Which places did you frequent with her?
We’d go to On Top at Le Bain, at the Standard Hotel. It’s like a fabulous rooftop party, with a jacuzzi dance floor. I got in the jacuzzi maybe twice, until [I heard] that people were getting diseases in there. There’s also the Soho Grand, where Susanne Bartsch has been putting on salons for queer performers, like Joey Arias, for the past 10 years or so. Amanda’s got a lot of recommendations for places to get facials and massages. But there are lots of accessible Chinatown spots. People would be surprised at the high- and low-end options, because that’s how you live in New York. That’s also how everyone's approach to traveling should be. True luxury is having options and knowing where and when to spend your money.
At what point did you get the idea to start Haunt?
I got the idea for Haunt while I was on my second solo backpacking trip through Europe. I traveled a lot in my early 20s. Through immersing myself in this realm of unconventional connections and sharing information, which I think a lot of trans women do to survive, that allowed me the agency to explore the world. So one night, I was meandering Venice, and walking past a lot of overpriced, Americanized pizza places, when I stumbled upon this little trattoria called La Antica Postie Vecie. It was covered in these hand-painted frescos with waiters in white blazers and red velvet curtains. I thought, “Why had no one told me about this place?” And that’s when I thought, “I could bring people here.” That developed into curating hidden-gem focused travel for people with discerning taste who crave authenticity.
Now that LGBTQ+ communities are bigger and more visible than ever before, we have to look out for each other, especially when traveling. Was the intent behind starting your own travel agency to facilitate safe experiences for queer people?
I think that because of who I am, that it will always be an integral part. All our contributors thus far are part of the LGBTQ community. Mitch Grassi [vocalist in Pentatonix] did our guide for Los Angeles; the model Raya Martigny, who is from Réunion Island, did our guide to Paris. The photographer Josephine Meng wrote the guide to Berlin. We all just happen to be queer.
I think the underground ethos of being a queer person is that you don't really have to try to find one another because we’re all in this pressure cooker and constantly dealing with societal standards. We’re all crawling out of the margins in the shadows and finding each other, it’s beautiful.
Have you created a guide yourself? What would it be?
I made a sample guide for Paris to give to my writers. But I would love to make one of my hometown [of Monterey.] It's one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it can be kind of daunting. But there are lots of little treasures that my trans mother showed me in high school. Her name is Jourdain Barton; she’s a fabulous poet. She exposed me to a queer underground culture within this weird bubble of the Bay Area that wasn’t San Francisco.
What was a place that she introduced you to that opened your world?
She introduced me to this goth club in Santa Cruz: The Box. She jokingly, but also seriously, refers to herself as the Queen of the Punks. It was nice to hop in her car and drive 30 minutes to be in this Blue Monday environment with all of these goth kids, who are the kindest, nerdiest, most wonderful people. I was in my hardcore scene phase… and Jourdain exposed me to French nihilists. I find myself taking tidbits of what she showed me wherever I go now.
I know you just launched it, but what are your future plans for Haunt?
A year from now, I'd love to do something at the Chelsea Hotel. Maybe Paris. But I also want to stress that Haunt is for everyone; we want to be inclusive, and we want to expose people to different cultures outside the West, where they don’t just speak English. I'd love to have guides for Nairobi, Marrakesh or Bangkok. My business is entirely woman-owned and operated. It’s important, and it’s why it offers this aesthetic perspective that comes from the sacred feminine. We’ll see that expand in the future. I want to bring an element of romance back to travel.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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