Smells like wanderlust: fragrances that transport you to your favourite destinations

“No memory stimulus breaks my train of thought so abruptly and completely, transports me through the past so rapidly to some remote scene, as a proper quality of odour,” Dr. Walter E. Bundy once wrote .

The tart sweetness of an orange grove, the smell of wet moss underfoot, the sharp brininess of the seaside: scent, memory and place are undeniably interlinked, shaping many of our travel memories. As Bundy says, a whiff is enough to have you reliving some of your favourite trips – years and miles away from the place you visited.

This is true for Xavier Yin Tsang, the founder of Hong Kong candle company BeCandle . Burnt leaves recall his childhood home in Sai Kung, where his family swept away and burned the autumn foliage that clogged driveways. The aroma of cheese and basil rising from pizza furnaces transports him to Florence, where he lived for a year, and the fragrance of leather returns him to Mercato San Lorenzo. 

“The smell that gives me strongest association with Florence reminds me of arriving at the Arno River, where layers of algae, mud and mineral from the ancient stones evaporate into the air under the Tuscan sunshine,” he says. “It’s like the smell gently tells me the history of the city.”

Much research has been done on the relationship between smell and memory, nearly a century after Bundy’s musings in 1935. Liana Cafolla, the Creative Director of Hong Kong brand Carroll&Chan , says, “Many studies have shown how scent is directly linked to the limbic part of the brain, which houses memories and emotions, so there is a clear biological reason why scent triggers memories."

It’s therefore no surprise that travel has been a fount of inspiration for fragrance makers. For Michael Wong, founder of Hong Kong perfumery One Day , food and environmental smells – scents related to “shared experiences of a city” – were influential when crafting the scents for the brand’s Ethos of Cities fragrance collection.

“The first step in my approach was to explore if there was any gourmand element of the local culture that I might be able to incorporate into the fragrance,” he says of the travel-inspired collection. “From there, I extended the construction of scent to the environment.”

As for the scent Wong finds most evocative? That of wood and moss, which instantly transports him to the churches and monasteries of Lisbon.

While fragrance can be deeply personal, experts like Yin Tsang, Cafolla and Wong have made it their life’s work to express joy through fragrance – and maybe even return you to the places you once visited.

“It’s all worth it when we watch people smell the scent for the first time and see the smile on their faces,” Cafolla says.

Here are a few fragrances that will transport you around the world, including a hand-picked selection by Cafolla and Yin Tsang. Best of all, you can purchase some of them through our shop using Asia Miles, cash or Miles Plus Cash.

Scented candles and perfumes for travel inspiration

Hong Kong: White Michelia, Carroll&Chan

“The scent of White Michelia, the tiny white flower that grows wild in Hong Kong, immediately takes me back to the city,” says Cafolla. “It’s our best-selling scent because it has the same nostalgic effect on our Hong Kong-loving customers.”

Those who’ve grown up here probably recall the sight of people on roadsides touting palm-sized packets of these flowers, to whom Cafolla nods with the illustration on this candle.

“It’s a highly fragrant, sweet scent from the jasmine family. Varieties of jasmine grow around the world, from France and Italy to Hong Kong and across Asia – all places that have long, hot dreamy summers that I love to remember,” continues Cafolla.

Buy this candle here and browse more candles on the Cathay Shop below.

Hong Kong: 1904 Heritage Wood Diffuser Set BeCandle X, BeCandle

Made in collaboration with HK Tramways, each of these wooden diffusers is carved from planks taken from retired ding ding trams. To finish, they are stamped with the “all cars stop here” sign and adorned with a tram logo crafted from upcycled metal. Their aromas conjure memories of travelling through the city. 

Yin Tsang explains, “When we are creating a beautiful portrait of a place through smell, we take a more abstract and poetic approach […] We have created two scents, 1904E and 1904W, to mimic the feeling of riding West and riding East along the tramway.”

For those travelling eastward, notes of lime, mint, eucalyptus and cedar await, while the westward-bound can expect the scent of cedar, pine, vetiver and patchouli to transport them to their scentsational destination.

Buy this product here and discover more BeCandle products on the Cathay Shop below. 

Philippines: Sampaguita, Carroll&Chan

Getting Sampaguita right was a labour of love for Cafolla, especially as the fragrant jasmine flower is the national flower of the Philippines. Calling it the “most loved flower scent” in the country, Cafolla explains it was important for her team to work with experts there to nail down an "authentic experience”.

"We went to the Philippines and asked many scent and flower lovers to test our samples. Based on their detailed feedback, we worked with our scent makers to get it exactly right,” she says.

The illustration on the candle by Reena Gabriel also evokes a sense of place, featuring a traditional woven wooden plate strewn with its namesake white blooms. Cafolla says, “We worked with a wonderful Filipino artist who created the artwork for Sampaguita based on Filipino culture and traditions.”

Buy this candle here and browse more candles on the Cathay Shop below.

Taipei: Taipei, One Day

Taipei has inspired One Day to create two fragrances: their first, Oolong Tea, was the result of Wong’s 2015 visit to a teahouse there, while their second, Taipei, is a toast to the city’s dining scene. Given that the latter placed as a finalist in the 10th Art and Olfaction Awards following rounds of blind testing, it clearly succeeds in capturing Taipei’s essence. 

Wong began creating the perfume in 2022 as an addition to One Day’s Ethos of Cities collection. “I started working on a scent that was inspired by the breakfast [and] dessert.”

Glutinous rice, taro and soy milk all serve as inspiration for this fragrance, giving it a comforting feel. Wong continues, “I hope that anyone who uses it experiences a connection to Asian cultures through the scent.”

Buy this perfume here and shop more fragrances on the Cathay Shop below.

Thailand: Thailand, One Day

Thailand’s rich culinary scene was the main influence for this fragrance from One Day, which features fresh green and bubbly citrus notes like sweet basil and tomato leaf. Wong says of the perfume, “You may observe [hints of] lime soda and spice.”

Notes of ylang ylang and jasmine round out the savoury notes, all carefully considered by Wong. “It’s important to strike a careful balance with gourmand notes. After all, the majority of us won’t enjoy spraying scents of food onto ourselves and smelling like walking bubble teas.”

Buy this perfume here and browse even more fragrances on the Cathay Shop below.

Japan: Mt Fuji Scented Candle by Ciaolink, BeCandle

The delicate iris flowers of Mount Fuji form the base notes of this beautiful candle, combined with scents that evoke sea breeze, minerality and green forests, with hints of rosemary and cedar. Featuring a landscape illustration of Japan’s sacred mountain by artist Ciaolink, the jar is covered in Pachica: a type of paper which turns transparent when warmed – or in this case, when you light your candle. 

“For artistic projects where we have to mimic an authentic smell, we do a lot of observation, research, walking and foraging,” Yin Tsang explains. “We try to capture and recreate the smell of a place with our library of natural and synthetic scent molecules, with a lot of experiments and trial-and-error.”

Buy this candle here and browse even more candles on the Cathay Shop below.

California: Golden Coast, P.F. Candle Co

This candle pays homage to the redwood forests and roaring beaches of Big Sur, a sprawling stretch of California coast which never fails to captivate. A labour of love for the California-based P.F. Candle Co, its marine notes conjure memories of waves crashing against rugged cliffs, while the scent of fir, redwood, sage and eucalyptus vividly recalls a walk among towering redwoods. 

Citrus and floral undertones round out the candle, combined with the comforting note of palo santo: a wood believed to help clear negative energies – it’s a playful nod to California’s fascination with the spiritual.