Reid Bramblett Q & A

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED AS A TRAVEL PROFESSIONAL?
Gypsy curse. I was looking for a job in book publishing, and one publisher said they had openings in the trade, educational, and travel departments. I can't be certain, as there was no mirror nearby, but I'm pretty sure an actual, physical light bulb popped into existence over my head at that moment. I'd stumbled across a way to mix my loves of travel and of writing. I've now moved from book editor to freelancer to magazine editor and staff writer, dabbling in the Web, consulting, TV, and other oddball projects along the way, none of it planned except for the move from book editing to book writing. I guess you could call it an accidental career.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU FLY?
As a freelancer it varied widely, but on average six to eight international trips and two to four domestic trips (largely personal ones) a year. The domestic figure is misleading, though, as I tend to drive to anything with 1,000 miles.
IN A YEAR HOW MANY MILES/POINTS DO YOU EARN?
I'm awful about frequent flyer miles as I invariably buy the cheapest ticket I can find, so rarely do the miles on any one airline stack up high enough to earn me the freebies. Besides, frequent flyer statements seem to fall into the category in my brain that is occupied by bills and tax forms, so I have a sort of natural aversion to paying any attention to them. However, I must thank you for asking me, as I dutifully went to all the appropriate Web sites and checked up on my various mileage accounts. Wouldn't you know it? I've managed to rack up enough over the past five years or so for free flights on two different airlines, plus two more free trips via a (rather overtaxed) credit card. Thanks!
WHAT CLASS OF SERVICE DO YOU MOSTLY FLY IN?
Coach, baby, all the way. I once got bumped up to business class. Very nice. The wider, cushier, more-inclined-to-recline chair even allowed me to catch some sleep over the Atlantic (something at which I normally fail miserably). But if business class costs twice what an economy ticket would, I'd rather fly twice in coach than once in style.
FAVORITE AIRLINE?
Virgin Atlantic. Every other European airline just seems to play catch-up when it comes to general friendliness, amenities even in coach, and low prices. Most major U.S. ones haven't even yet realized they need to play catch-up. I also like how Aer Lingus has revamped itself to become Europe's first "flag-carrier" to adopt the no-frills attitude and structure.
FAVORITE AIRCRAFT?
Whichever one doesn't crash. I seem to favor Airbus over Boeing whenever I'm in a plane, notice myself thinking "this is a worthy craft," and pick up the safety card to see what kind it is. However, I feel that the make and model of plane has lees to do with the experience than the configuration the airline installs within the shell. You really do notice those extra few centimeters of legroom on the new American Airline flights--and I'm not even a tall guy.
FAVORITE HOTEL?
Tough call. I’d have to say the Pensione Maria Luisa de' Medici in Florence because it brings together so many perfect factors (not the least of which that it is located in Florence). It manages to (a) be the most unique hotel in town, (b) charge some of the lowest rates, (c) come with breakfast in your room, and (d) sit bang in the center of Florence, precisely halfway between the Duomo and the Uffizi (four blocks from either) on a narrow pedestrian street lined by shops and cafes.
Want more proof?
You walk up the broad, stone staircase of an ancient palazzo around the corner from Dante's house, past slowly fading pastel frescoes, to the hotel's third floor entrance. The single, long crooked hall lined with sitting nooks are packed to the gills with art from the baroque era on, including genuine (if semi-ruinous) canvases by Van Dyck and Sustermans, neoclassical statues, and a chipped della Robbian glazed terracotta bust. All of these items were collected by the hotel's owner, Dr. Angelo Sordi--who now convalesces in a back room--back before the baroque became hip again.
He also collected plenty of wacky designer furnishings in the 1950s and 60s, items which are now displayed reverently in museums of modern art around the world. These whimsical modern tables, chairs, and lamps jostle for space amongst giant antique armoires and dressers in the generally spacious rooms.
Dr. Sordi's Welsh-born business partner Evelyn Morris now runs the hotel, right down to cooking you up cheese toast and other Welsh breakfast goodies to bring into your room on a tray each morning. Some rooms are cozy and quiet and perfect for two, others ramble with curtained nooks and five beds good for small groups or families. Some come with private bathroom, some do not, so it'll please both crowds.
I've used this place to house everyone from my parents to my Boy Scout troop (side note: think real hard about it before agreeing to accompany a group of teenage boys through Europe for three weeks; no really, it was fun), as well as to my readers, and, so far as I've heard, everyone's been delighted.
FAVORITE HOTEL AMENITY?
Until I got a cell phone that allows me to go on-line remotely, it was an in-room phone, preferably one where I didn't have to unscrew the plate from the wall, strip a few wires, and alligator-clip my modem line into it. Nowadays, all I ask is a truly comfortable bed--no lumps, no poking springs, no obvious stains or incessantly chewing bedbugs, neither concave so's you have trouble getting out of it nor convex so's it tries to buck you off each time you move. That and, in summer, either A/C or mosquito screens in the windows (preferably the former).
FAVORITE AIRPORT?
Any one small enough that most people have never heard of it but large enough to accept my international flight. The "London Lutons" of the world. By dint of their small size and small operation, they simply lack everything one hates about the airport experience--long lines, harried staff, interminable walks between terminals, long lines, epic waits at the baggage claim while the same taped-up cardboard box labeled "band equipment" keeps going around and around and around while your small suitcase appears content to continue hiding behind those rubber flaps, and did I mention the long lines?
I once stepped off a plane at Luton, walked down the staircase and across the tarmac, into the terminal, flashed my passport at the smiling British custom's official, strode to the baggage claim belt just beyond where my green bag was trundling into view, plucked it up, headed out the door, and was on board a bus bound for central London in 11 minutes flat.
FAVORITE AIRPORT TO PASS TIME IN?
I’d have to say my old home base, the Philadelphia International Airport. The shops (a goodly selection of fun stuff to pass the time) and dining areas are easily accessible from two terminals without the need to waft in and out of security lines, and scattered about are big old white rocking chairs to sit and rock in (surely a legacy of hometown lad Ben Franklin). I've also rarely encountered obscenely long lines, for check-in or security.
One drawback: for some reason Philly planes are the only ones to fly in and out of Terminal 4 at London's Heathrow. Why, I've never asked. What it means is once there you usually get a long trip on a bus across the tarmac, weaving between vehicles and planes, and cutting between various buildings where you get all sorts of fascinating glimpses at the airport's inner workings. One really shouldn't get such glimpses. I really don't want to see how my luggage is handled in between the conveyor belt at check in and the one at baggage claim. I have enough despair in my life.
FAVORITE CITY?
Rome, Italy. Three thousand years worth of architecture, history, fun-loving people, art, culture, religion, food, politics, wine, lifeways, laws, street plans, and stray cats all of it--even the ancient bits--vying to exist simultaneously, jostling for physical and spiritual and mental space, all of it flawed, all of it beautiful.
FAVORITE ISLAND?
Is Sicily too big? No? Then Sicily. Cuba's pretty stupendous as well, but too problematical to rank as a "favorite."

FAVORITE SPA?
Don’t really go to spas. I have occasionally during research trips, but they never really clicked for me. Once a spa person slathered mud all over my bare skin, made me put my arms at my sides, wrapped up my entire body below the neck like a mummy, then pointed at a large red panic button on the wall next to the slab upon I was laid out and said, "If you need us, smash that with your forehead." Then she left the room. So, I don't really go to spas.
FAVORITE RESTAURANT?
A shall-remain-nameless little osteria in the back alleys of Rome I found one night when I declared I wanted to eat in one of those places with no sign, no menu, just strings of beads in the doorway from which drifts the sounds of clinking glasses and silverware mingling with the murmur of Roman dialect. We found it, and it was a perfect. A family-run spot where you get excellent home-cooking--nothing fancy, but all delicious, including the best frittata wedges you've ever had. A year later, by coincidence, we moved into an apartment half a block away (but only for seven months, sadly). Over the past decade I've watched the family's kids grow up, the patriarch pass away, the sister-in-law take his place, and, eventually, a wipeboard menu and wooden sign appear despite my protests--though, with the arrival of the sign, I did finally learn that the place had a name. That name, however, I shall take with me to my grave.
AISLE OR WINDOW?
Aisle. Window is great if you plan to try and sleep, but I always fail at that, and with the aisle your trips to the bathroom are not at the mercy of that kindly but heavyset couple sitting next to you who fell asleep promptly after take-off and appear set to snore all the way to Mumbai.
ETICKET OR PAPER?
Eticket. I'm getting sick of carrying a quarter-inch stack of cardboard slips around in my moneybelt for months on end then have some ticket agent berate me over the spindled, sweat-soaked lump of inky pulp it inevitably turns into by the time I'm ready to fly home.
TRAVEL AGENT OR ONLINE?
Online all the way. Haven't visited a travel agent since 1996, and that was just to pick up a plane ticket bought from the airline itself but for which I needed a physical copy posthaste.
FAVORITE TRAVEL WEBSITE?
Well, that'd be a toss-up between my own (www.reidsguides.com), my magazine's (www.budgettravel.msnbc.com), and Johnnyjet.com. (Well, what kind of answer did you expect?) I'd also like to tip my hat to New Zealand's tourism site (www.newzealand.com), by far the most interesting, most well-interconnected, most informational, and most fun official tourism site I've ever had the pleasure or surfing for research purposes. Also, wasn't it nice of Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com) to put their entire series of guidebooks on-line for free?

FAVORITE TRAVEL COMPANION?
Actually, it depends. I could take the same trip by myself, or with my girlfriend, or with my buddy Stew, or with my parents (all of them common travel companions of mine), and have a blast every time. Each would be a very different trip, but a lot of fun regardless.
IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A TROPICAL ISLAND, WHAT THREE ITEMS WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU?
(1) Sunscreen, (2) my palmtop with batteries (time to catch up on all the writing I've been meaning to do), and (3) a way get off the island.
WHAT DO YOU HATE MOST ABOUT TRAVEL?
Being away from my girlfriend for long stretches. Heck, even for short stretches. That and doing my laundry in the sink.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT TRAVEL?
No dishes to wash. No, seriously, getting out of my own head and wrapping my brain around the challenges and thrills of experiencing another culture, soaking up someone else's conceptions of beauty, morals, and politics, curling my toes in sand, trying foods I would never willingly let pass my lips at home, being free to follow any whim of curiosity and investigate some new observation in depth, picking up useful phrases in a variety of languages and figuring out how our very language affects the way we view the universe, the serendipity of festivals, playing impromptu tour guide for some lost tourists just for kicks, being inspired to write poetry (poorly, yes, but it’s the inspiration itself that counts), and writing it all down in as interesting a way as I can manage in an attempt to find some way to share the beauty and wonder of the world with my friends, family, and anyone else who will pay attention in the hopes that they, too, will get out there and hit the road.
BEST TRAVEL TIP:
Travel on a budget. A comfortable padding of excess dollars only shields you from a destination while a frugal attitude gets you closer to the culture you traveled all this way to see. It’s an exercise in finding fun and rather than buying it, an opportunity to dine out with the locals in the native equivalent of a diner rather than fellow tourists in a posh hotel, to stay in guesthouses and pensions rather than cookie-cutter international chains where the only way to know whether you're in Hong Kong, Honolulu, or Houston is to look out the window for clues. It's taking the city bus, not the tour bus, the ferry not the cruise ship, renting a bike instead of hailing a cab, having a quick coffee in the corner bar with workmen rather than high tea in your hotel lobby. Those who have done so and loved it know that to travel on a budget is to travel richly, indeed. Oh, and always take the kids with you.