Jennifer Hill, stationery designer, JHill Design, 617-524-2475, placesihaveneverbeen.com.

Hill’s line of hand-drawn stationery, Places I Have Never Been, typically renders brightly colored, far-off locales like Andalusia and Tuscany. But when she’s not dreaming of foreign landscapes, the Jamaica Plain-based artist is driving around New England, visiting various family, friends, and—most importantly—restaurants.

How does food play into your travel planning? My boyfriend comes from a family of chefs, so we’re very into consuming food. We’re not big on super touristy areas. We just like to find a regular town and see what’s going on.

What regular towns have restaurants worth the trip? In Massachusetts, Jack’s Hot Dogs in North Adams is great. It’s an old-time counter, and the dogs are only a few dollars—and so good. And I could eat a million of the roasted mushrooms served with sea scallops and cauliflower at Mezze in Williamstown. Also, Burdick’s in Walpole, New Hampshire—we crave the chocolate-and-raspberry birthday cake.

It sounds like food trumps art? At least once a year, we load up the car for a trip along Route 2 to MassMoCA. We stay at the Porches Inn, where we have breakfast brought to the room—it comes in an aluminum lunch pail with coffee, juice, a muffin, and the paper.

Suzanne Cats, owner of LuxLash, 232 Newbury St., Boston, MA 617-587-5274, luxlash.com.

For years, Cats’s vacations revolved around satisfying her endless appetite for knowledge—the history buff drove her daughter crazy with "kultchah"-laden trips to Ireland’s Asheford Castle and Venice. Lately, though, as the owner of Newbury Street brow and lash boutique LuxLash, Cats has looked for more therapeutic holidays.
So why the shift from the Great American Adventure to spa-centric getaways? Three days off is a luxury for me now. And since my daughter also works so hard in high school, when we go places, we just want to relax.

What’s the best place you’ve been recently? Last year, for the winter’s first ski weekend, I drove to Waterville Valley in New Hampshire and stayed at a friend’s condo. It was a stunningly beautiful, refreshing, healthy trip.

Do you have a favorite local luxury spot? The Norwich Inn in Connecticut. It’s very quaint. I wanted to check out their customer service for myself and see how I could learn from it. I had an eye mask treatment that was so relaxing—they did an amazing job.Do you shop a lot on vacation? I’ll pick up something I can’t get in Boston. [And] I always get a mug. That’s probably the only touristy thing I do.