TravelDay buddy

Camila Duarte

@crowdseason · she/her · Buenos Aires, Argentina

Book the city around the date, not the date around the city.

  • Festivals
  • Live music
  • Late nights
  • Fast pace
  • Mid range

Camila Duarte is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Camila Duarte travels

I am forty seven and I have organised my travelling life around other people's calendars for two decades. August is Edinburgh. Late September is Munich. February is home in a different sense, because it is Rio.

A festival city is two cities. There is the one the programme shows you and the one you find at eleven in the morning when everybody else is asleep. I book the mornings for the second one.

My only firm rules. Sleep further out than you think and take the train in. Eat before the show, not after. And leave one day of the trip with nothing in it, because the best thing you see will be the thing you were not planning to.

  • Festivals
  • Music
  • Nightlife

Cities Camila Duarte keeps going back to

  • Edinburgh

    United Kingdom

    Three weeks in August when the whole city turns into a venue.

  • Kyoto

    Japan

    July, for Gion Matsuri, when the floats fill streets that are usually for shopping.

  • New Orleans

    United States

    Late April at the Fair Grounds, and the rest of the year for the same music in smaller rooms.

  • Rio de Janeiro

    Brazil

    February. The Sambadrome is the show, the street blocos are the reason to stay.

  • Munich

    Germany

    Mid September to early October, for two weeks on the Theresienwiese.

What Camila Duarte recommends

Edinburgh

  • Edinburgh Castle · Sight

    Do it on the first morning of the Fringe before the programme takes over your days.

    • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

  • National Museum of Scotland · Museum

    Free, enormous and open when it rains, which in August it will.

    • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

  • The Witchery · Meal

    Right by the castle gates in rooms from 1595. Book the early sitting so you still make an eight o'clock show.

    • Seen in The Witchery. The restaurant's own site places it on Castlehill by the gates of Edinburgh Castle in buildings dating to 1595

Munich

  • Hofbräuhaus am Platzl · Meal

    Go at four in the afternoon on a weekday during the festival. That is the only hour it is pleasant.

    • Seen in Hofbraeuhaus. The house's own site gives Platzl 9, daily 11am to midnight, with the Schwemme hall and a Wirtsgarten

  • Augustiner-Keller · Meal

    Chestnut trees, long benches and locals. This is where I go on the days I skip the Wiesn.

    • Seen in Augustiner-Keller. The keller's own site gives Arnulfstrasse 52 and describes cellar rooms and terraces

  • Biergarten am Chinesischen Turm · Meal

    In the middle of the Englischer Garten. Bring your own food, buy the beer, that is the rule here.

    • Seen in Chinesischer Turm. The beer garden's own site places it in the middle of the Englischer Garten at Englischer Garten 3, run by the Haberl family since 1974

New Orleans

  • Commander's Palace · Meal

    Jazz brunch on the Saturday of the festival weekend. Jacket, and do not plan a two o'clock set.

    • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best restaurants in New Orleans

  • Antoine's Restaurant · Meal

    Running since 1840 on Saint Louis Street. Ask for a table in one of the back rooms.

    • Seen in Antoine's. The restaurant's own site dates it to 1840 at 713 Saint Louis Street and describes French Creole cooking

  • Napoleon House · Meal

    A warm muffuletta and a Pimm's Cup between sets. It is the coolest room in the Quarter in every sense.

    • Seen in Napoleon House. The venue's own site says the building is on the National Register and the Impastato family ran it from 1914

Rio de Janeiro

  • Confeitaria Colombo · Coffee

    A belle epoque room in the centre. I come the morning after a parade, when I can only manage coffee.

    • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best places to eat in Rio de Janeiro

  • Oro · Meal

    The one proper dinner of a Carnival week. Book it for a night with no parade.

    • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best places to eat in Rio de Janeiro

Plans you can copy

Five Fringe days in Edinburgh

5 nights · August · Fast pace · Mid range

Mornings for the city, afternoons and nights for the programme, one day left empty on purpose.

  1. Day 1

    Castle first, before the programme owns you

    • Edinburgh Castle · Morning · Sight

      Nine in the morning on your first day. It is the only time all week you will have the space.

      • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

    • Calton Hill · Evening · Walk

      Twenty minutes up for the view over the whole thing. Good for working out where the venues are.

  2. Day 2

    Music and a museum

    • St Cecilia's Hall · Morning · Sight

      Scotland's oldest concert room and a collection of instruments. Quiet in a very loud month.

    • National Museum of Scotland · Afternoon · Museum

      Free, and the roof terrace is the best unbooked view in the city.

      • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

  3. Day 3

    The other end of the Mile

  4. Day 4

    New Town, then dinner at the top

    • Scott Monument · Afternoon · Sight

      Climb it if you can face the stairs. If not, the gardens underneath are fine.

      • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

    • The Witchery · Evening · Meal

      Early sitting, then walk straight down to a nine o'clock show.

      • Seen in The Witchery. The restaurant's own site places it on Castlehill by the gates of Edinburgh Castle in buildings dating to 1595

  5. Day 5

    Nothing booked

    • Museum of Childhood · Morning · Museum

      Free, odd and forty minutes. Exactly the right size for a day with no plan.

    • The People's Story Museum · Midday · Museum

      Ordinary Edinburgh lives, told plainly. A useful corrective in festival week.

    • John Knox House · Afternoon · Sight

      Then let the flyers on the Royal Mile decide the rest of your evening.

  • Seen in Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe's own site says the festival runs for three weeks each August across hundreds of stages in the city
  • Seen in Forever Edinburgh. Named by Edinburgh's official tourism site among the city's headline attractions

Oktoberfest without spending it all on the Wiesn

4 nights · Mid September to early October · Fast pace · Mid range

Two days at the festival, two days in the beer gardens and museums everyone forgets.

  1. Day 1

    Centre, then the old hall

    • Mary's Column · Afternoon · Walk

      Stand under the column on Marienplatz and wait for the Glockenspiel. It is short and it is silly.

    • Hofbräuhaus am Platzl · Evening · Meal

      Four in the afternoon, ground floor, and share a table. Later in the evening it belongs to the tour groups.

      • Seen in Hofbraeuhaus. The house's own site gives Platzl 9, daily 11am to midnight, with the Schwemme hall and a Wirtsgarten

  2. Day 2

    The park day

    • English Garden · Morning · Nature

      Walk the length of it. It is bigger than you expect and it clears the head.

    • Biergarten am Chinesischen Turm · Afternoon · Meal

      Bring bread and cheese, buy the beer. The band plays on the tower most afternoons.

      • Seen in Chinesischer Turm. The beer garden's own site places it in the middle of the Englischer Garten at Englischer Garten 3, run by the Haberl family since 1974

  3. Day 3

    Machines, then a cellar

    • German Museum · Morning · Museum

      Give it three hours and pick two floors. Trying to do all of it is a mistake.

    • Augustiner-Keller · Evening · Meal

      Chestnut trees and a gravel floor. This is the Munich I come back for.

      • Seen in Augustiner-Keller. The keller's own site gives Arnulfstrasse 52 and describes cellar rooms and terraces

  4. Day 4

    Palace, and a last hall

    • Nymphenburg Palace · Morning · Sight

      Take the tram out. The canal and the park are as good as the state rooms.

    • Löwenbräukeller · Evening · Meal

      On the old brewery site at Stiglmaierplatz and big enough that you will always get in.

      • Seen in Loewenbraeukeller. The house's own site puts it at Stiglmaierplatz on the historic Loewenbraeu brewery site with room for 10 to 2,300 people
  • Seen in Oktoberfest official site. The official site says the 191st Oktoberfest runs 19 September to 4 October on the Theresienwiese
  • Seen in Munich city tourism. Named by Munich's official city site among the sights of the city

Carnival from the Sambadrome outwards

4 nights · February · Fast pace · Mid range

One parade night, one rest morning, and the city in between.

  1. Day 1

    Lapa, gently

    • Arcos da Lapa · Evening · Walk

      Start here, stay an hour, and work out which bloco you want to follow tomorrow.

    • Confeitaria Colombo · Afternoon · Coffee

      A belle epoque room and a very good coffee before a long night.

      • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best places to eat in Rio de Janeiro

  2. Day 2

    Behind the parade, then the parade

    • Cidade do Samba · Morning · Sight

      The warehouses where the floats are built. Go before the parade, not after, and it all makes sense.

    • Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí · Night · Sight

      Sector nine or eleven for the middle of the run. It starts late and finishes at dawn, so sleep in the afternoon.

  3. Day 3

    Recovery

  4. Day 4

    The rock, and a last dinner

    • Sugarloaf · Afternoon · Sight

      Two cable cars. Do the first one, walk the trail on Urca hill, then decide about the second.

    • Braseiro · Evening · Meal

      Grilled meat, no ceremony, and it is open when everything else has given up for the week.

      • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best places to eat in Rio de Janeiro
  • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of the best places to eat in Rio de Janeiro

Camila Duarte is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.