When I’m looking to travel, there are a few things I consider. Is the destination welcoming of tourism but not yet completely torched? Is there some sense of youth culture? Can I sit on a patio and order cheap beers? But by the time a “cool” spot has hit my radar, it may already be too late. You can fly across the world to check out some small little town in Greece that you heard was a hidden gem, then find that everyone else sitting next to you on the patio is also from New York, and actually, those beers aren’t really even that cheap anymore. It seems impossible to know where to go. But rather than just close your eyes and throw a dart at a map, why not turn to the stars, instead?
In a time where you can go essentially anywhere, astrology seems as good a guide as any in picking where to go. Lately, people are turning to astrocartography, a method of using when and where you were born to discern where in the world might suit you best. It compares your birth chart, which shows the alignment of all the planets at your time of birth, to a map of the world, letting you better visualize where you should live, visit, and avoid.
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Like astrology writ large, astrocartography has become popular on TikTok, where dozens and dozens of videos have gone viral explaining how exactly to read one’s astrocartography chart. At first glance, it just looks like a map with a series of colorful straight and arching lines overlaid upon it, but each of these lines means something different. For example, as one TikTok explains, one of the green lines represents your “Venus” line, where you’ll allegedly feel the most admired by others.
Astrocartography isn’t intended to be read like a prescription—and more pertinently, you’ve gotta first decide whether or not you believe in it at all. Personally, I’m a skeptic with an appreciation for the mystical. I take what works and ignore what doesn’t. The same applies here: You ought to pick and choose what works best for your desires and circumstances. For example, my Venus line runs straight through where I was born and sits right near New York City, where I live now, so that sounds good to me. Meanwhile, many of my lines run straight through the ocean, and I’m in no rush to get on a boat out there.
Obviously, using astrocartography to decide where to travel is a bit less risky than using it to decide where to live. And for those of us who appreciate astrology but don’t need to rule our entire lives by it, this is a far more fun approach. And travel brands are beginning to take notice.
Moxy Hotels, part of Marriott, is among the first travel brands to lean into this growing trend of using astrology to shape travel plans. Other hotels like the Ultimo, in Sydney, have taken on astrological themes in its decor and offering guidance on where to visit in the city based on your sign, but Moxy has the benefit of being a chain: Odds are, there’s somewhere on Earth your astrocartography chart tells you you’d like that also has a Moxy to stay at.
In January, Moxy launched a partnership with astrology app Sanctuary to assess the best place for each of the signs to travel in 2024. For my sun sign in Cancer, for example, it’s recommended I pursue Tbilisi. Even more specifically, the Sanctuary app states that when “Saturn stations direct in Pisces” in mid-November, it’ll be the best time for me to pull the trigger on booking.
Ahead of this collaboration, Moxy invited me down to their South Beach Miami location to meet with astrology expert Lauren Ash to get an even more hyperspecific run-down of what astrocartography could offer. Looking at my chart and map, she told me not only where I would enjoy visiting, living, and maybe even retiring, but also where I should avoid.
Tucson, she said, would be ideal for a slower life, thanks to the location of my Moon line (which dictates a sense of security and the feeling of being “at home”). I have always felt relaxed in the Southwest, so this rings true. Meanwhile, she suggested I’d feel energized and at-home in Tokyo or eastern Australia. There, my Sun line, which correlates with self-realization, converges near several other planetary lines dealing with growth. However, I should avoid western Australia, as well as parts of China and Southeast Asia, where I may not feel at ease due to the placement of my Mars line, which can yield a sense of tension. Though Perth hasn’t exactly been on my mind, I’ve been hoping to do a Vietnam trip for years.
Again, it’s not as though any of this is a prescription. I’m not going to pass up a chance to visit any of these places, but I might think twice about moving to Hanoi. In talking with Lauren, though, I felt all the more affirmed in what I do enjoy about astrology: it’s most fun to use it to validate what you already think of yourself and indulge in those beliefs accordingly. I very much am a Cancer (with a Taurus moon and Virgo sun, if you were wondering). I spent the rest of my time in Miami drinking Moscow Mules, the Cancerian drink off the Moxy’s “Sip by Sign” menu, and swimming in the pool and the ocean as a Water sign should. Lightly hungover one morning, I saw a TikTok of a fat chihuahua staring at the camera while “Linger” by the Cranberries played and I cried. That’s definitely something a Cancer would do.
Miami itself does not play much of a role in my chart, though it’s not far from my Pluto/Lower Midheaven line. According to an online astrocartography chart, this specific line correlates with massive change and leaving family and home. It goes right by Sarasota, Florida, the city I moved for college when I ran away from my home state of Massachusetts at 18.
Now that the specifics of my astrocartography chart have been planted in my brain, I doubt I’ll be able to let it go entirely. I’m going to keep thinking about Tucson, Tokyo, and Tbilisi. Maybe that’s a vapid way of planning out your travels, but it seems no more frivolous than basing where to visit next on what destinations come up on our For You page, which is probably something many of us do consciously or otherwise.
In a sense, using astrology to dictate your travels also takes some of the pressure off: There’s less decision fatigue when you approach it as though the planets are guiding you. Sure, all those travel guides offer some great ideas, but who am I to deny the solar system?
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