The new emerging travel platform, curating accommodations, experiences, and stories behind the characters, places, and spaces in various locations around the world for off road travel destinations.
We spoke with founder Madeleine Simani Lidjan in her Berlin apartment about Seeking Ro, and what the travel platform means to her contemporary and younger self.
Photography by: by Marcus Riggs
Styling by: International Citizen
Interview by : PRINCE Magazine
Seeking Ro:
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Seeking Ro
PRINCE Magazine (PM): What is Seeking Ro? Can you tell us more about it? What does it mean from a language and experience perspective for the brand/platform itself and for you personally?
Madeleine Simani Lidjan (MSL): Seeking Ro is best described as a compass for slow travel - helping guide you to stunning places in the quiet corners of the world, where you can reset your mind, body, and soul.
Ro is a small but mighty word shared by all three Scandinavian languages, and it means inner peace. It’s a state of mind that typically has to be sought out. Nature, slowness, movement, deep breaths, meaningful connections, solitude - these are all core pillars of the concept of Ro.
For me personally, there are times when I get overwhelmed with life and need to retreat somewhere to hit reset. Knowing where to go and researching online can be just as overwhelming, so I started to document my finds. Tips from close friends, colleagues in the travel industry, inspiring people I met at dinner parties, or screenshots I’d saved on my phone.
What started as a personal collection of places that I wanted to visit myself has now grown into a collection of hidden gems that is shared with our community of 6k+ travelers.
PM: Follow-up: What do you want your audience to gain from their own Seeking Ro in our contemporary landscape?
MSL: Slowness. Our lifestyles are so centered around busyness that many of us eventually find ourselves in a place where we feel disconnected from our inner selves and in need of a reset.
Our platform revolves around bringing people to places and experiences around the world that invite slowness. We hope to evoke transformative travel experiences that serve as the starting point for achieving inner peace for those seeking it.
PM: Seeking Ro operates on a global scale, showcasing numerous hospitality locations in various parts of the world to an international audience. How do you connect with the local community to bring their stories to your international platform, and what part of their stories are incorporated into Seeking Ro?
MSL: Storytelling is a central aspect of Seeking Ro. We just launched a Behind the Scenes series sharing the personalities behind the products on our platform. Most places on our platform are “mom & pop” in the sense that they are founder-run: whether by families, couples, or friends - we want to get personal and share the origin stories behind these places.
There is more to this as well. In the future, we aim to dive deeper into the building blocks that make each place unique: the local artists whose art might be present in the hotels, the local markets, furniture brands, textiles, foods, scents… There are so many interesting stories to extract and ways to establish a deeper connection with the local communities.
PM: What would you tell your younger self about Seeking Ro and the pathway that led to the creation of the platform?
MSL: From a young age, I’ve always had my head in the clouds. Figuratively and literally - frequent daydreamer and frequent traveler. This came with its pros and cons - due to daydreaming, I’m terrible with timing (shameful, I know), but I’m great at focusing and imagining things, vividly and intentionally. I used to manifest things as a kid, way before it became a trend.
I didn't think much of this as a kid, but as a young adult, I can only thank my younger self for unknowingly setting down the goals that would create the path that I have been achieving as an adult.
So, to my younger self: thank you. All the things that you dream can be done, by you!