All the Things You’re Doing Wrong When You Travel, According to Anthony Bourdain
Carly Zinderman March 25, 2018
Given the amount of time Anthony Bourdain spends seeking out global foods to share on his popular television series, it’s safe to say that the famous foodie likely knows a thing or two about traveling. And when he travels with his film crew, it’s for very specific reasons. And he thinks that everyone should travel the same way he does.
On What to Avoid
Bourdain eschews sites like the Eiffel Tower or pyramids in favor of going off the beaten path. According to the Parts Unknown television host, spending 250 days on the road each year means that he avoids the typical tourist traps, skips standing in lines and never goes on prepackaged tours. Instead, the author takes pride in getting to a know a place through its smells and sounds as he passes through in a few brief days of filming.
On Eating Under the Radar
When Bourdain first began traveling, he did what many travelers find themselves doing in a foreign country: pointing and nodding when he couldn’t read or understand the menu. As in his first trip to Tokyo, when he ordered the same bowl of noodles as the guy next to him in a small hole-in-the-wall shop. Now Bourdain is much more knowledgeable about noodles from all over the world and can order them with ease—from Asia to Italy.
Thanks to Bourdain’s popularity as a travel host, he can find people to help experience countries “authentically,” whether he’s dining in a desert in the Middle East with bedouins or exploring the family-friendly restaurants of South American countries.
And because he avoids doing the research (at least himself), Bourdain dines in places that generally fly under the radar and for rates that he considers affordable.
On Choosing Carefully
Bourdain also recommends avoiding “frenzied compression”—trying to fit too many places and sights into a short time period. Instead, he prefers to spend days in just one place, soaking in everything but the main attractions.
The host also recommends skipping major review sites like TripAdvisor in favor of message boards on sites like Chowhound and visiting places that are recommended. But he does recommend finding hotels with good plumbing—and plenty of character.
The loquacious travel guru has plenty of other insights on how you should be traveling that you can find here.
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Hmm okay so the advice is... 1. Travel 250 days a year so you can spend enough time in places to go off the beaten path. 2. Have a team of research staff that can comb through local forums to find said off the beaten path places. 3. Visit places enough times where you don't need to go to the world famous sights. Great Read! Now I guess I just need to get my own show to apply any of these tips.
What Marilu said.
Pretentious doesn't begin to describe him. I had the "pleasure" of meeting him after a talk he gave with Eric Rippert. He is insufferable in person; I much prefer Rippert.
Oh puleeze! His whole trip is planned out by a crew of people so that he just has to drop in and follow the script. And he is constantly accompanied by that crew who know exactly where to go and how to get around. He avoids a packaged tour because he has a staff to package one for him. Makes things pretty easy to be so condescending to the rest of us.
LOL- agree with comments above. Used to like AB until he got political instead of just focus on food. I have noticed in my recent RTW travel that the places he and Andrew Zimner televise are not that great - kind of disappointing. Not sure if it is success that ruins them? I tend to do local food tours and their recommendations have been better than the TV personalities.