My favorite travel additives

Adding a wrinkle to your excursions

Most people these days are building their travel plans around one mission: eating well. (As a restaurateur, I don’t mind.)

The most common request I get from from traveling friends (or newsletter readers) is not what museums to see - or what show to take in - but where to make dinner reservations.

I get it. That’s where most of my planning time is spent, too. Reservations anywhere are harder to come by than ever before, and though it’s imperative to leave some space for decisions on the go, it’s nice to have a few meals locked in.

But traveling on your stomach alone can leave much to be desired. Chasing the buzzy restaurant has gotten to feel a bit empty for me. Standing on line 45 minutes for a slice of pizza is just a depressing use of my time.

Travel (for me) is about connecting and communing deeply with a place, which allows you to connect and commune with yourself, really. This goes beyond restaurants, museums, or the cultural excursions you assume you’re supposed to take.

To that end, I wanted to share the things I do on the road to bring an extra layer to my travel. They’re my go-to additives to any itinerary that help me go deeper into a place, allowing me to feel more connected to the destination, the people in it, and in turn, myself.

Run

The first thing I do when I book a trip is plan my run. Perhaps this is a bit type-A, but there is no better way to see a city than on two feet. (And if you don’t run, or can’t, then a long walk is just as nice.)

Exercise on the road became a non-negotiable for me about 8 years ago. I knew I was fully committed when the first thing I packed for ANY getaway was a pair of running shoes and workout clothes. It’s continued to this day and I’m better for it.

My Strava page reflects a glossary of places visited and runs taken over the years: Paris, London, Rome, NYC, Sicily, Mexico, Copenhagen, and countless runs through Rome, dodging cars and cyclists amidst the cobblestone streets. I like to catch five or six miles, find a coffee shop, and watch the world wake up around me.

On a run you catch a glimpse of a place in a way you can’t in a car; if you’re up early enough, you can have the busiest cities in the world to yourself for fleeting moment. These runs take me down side streets and into neighborhoods I may not have explored, and more often than not they’ll lead to some incredible discovery - a shop, a bar, a restaurant, a park - that I return to later.

Bike/Swim

Like running, biking and swimming, especially on foreign soil, is particularly enthralling. And it has the added benefit of being good for you.

Most boutique hotels in cities now offer bikes to their guests free of charge. I have fond memories of flying through London traffic like an absolute jackass atop the beautiful bicycles awaiting guests at the front gate of the Chiltern Firehouse. I’ve never seen another guest using them, but for me they are my most used amenity. I will choose a bike trip over a taxi cab nearly every time; if winding through crowded city streets is not your thing, you can always find the nearest park and join the other cyclists and joggers for a leisurely ride.

I’m usually behind my wife:

Swimming is much the same. This is not something I’m doing for exercise as much as just being with a place in a different way. If you’re in a seaside place (like Italy!) there is no excuse not to wake up and greet the day with a dip in the sea.

More than any meal I can recall my swims in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, my morning swims outside La Posta Vecchia, and a drunken hours-long hang in the waters off of Sicily, so dense and salty that you could almost float without moving.

One of my more memorable swims was a skinny dip in the icy waters of the Scottish Highlands as the sun began to wane, edited below for obvious reasons:

Shop and Cook

This is tough to do out of a hotel, but in the summer my wife and I (and now our son) usually escape Charleston for an extended stay somewhere, booking a small house or AirBNB with a great kitchen.

I love shopping local farmer’s markets and specialty grocers for a literal taste of a foreign place, and when I can’t cook with all the great bounty I see I get a sense of missing out. I’m always pained to walk through the Union Square Farmer’s Market when I’m in NYC because I’m always staying a hotel and unable to play around with all the beautiful produce on offer.

This whole approach has the added benefit of saving money, and on an extended stay anywhere it becomes so important to have the lightness of a home cooked meal. Smaller portions, generally lighter on the salt and fats, that can provide a much needed reset for the system.

Dinner in London - Scottish Salmon picked up from Borough Market.

Green Space

Simply put: find a park and spend some real time there. Slow down, listen to the birds, people watch, and enjoy a place like it’s your own.

If you’re able, make it a picnic with sandwiches from a great deli. If you’re in London, this is my favorite. (Grab some Coronation Chicken sandwiches and head to nearby Regent’s Park.)

Enjoying green space is a brilliant way to take a beat, have a rest, grab a cold drink (beer is always nice on a sunny day), and recap your day. You’ll feel like a local, getting to pretend you live nearby and this is just a normal day for you.

London’s Hyde Park

Art Store

Finally, find a great art store abroad (always at the start of the trip) to grab a sketchbook and some great pens. Every big city has a winning art store, and if you’re overseas you’re bound to find a place that bests anything you have back home. Cornellison in London comes to mind.

This is a thoughtful way beyond photographs to record a trip. I haul the sketchbook around for the rest of the trip (I like them small) and use any down time to doodle or sketch the scene around me. If I’m having a pint at the bar, or lounging in the park, I’ll record those in between moments in pen and ink. Looking back on these drawings is always a treat - and for some reason they are more evocative of a time and place than any photograph, because I’m tuned in and focused in those moments.

Below is a little drawing that lives on our fridge - a vase of flowers in the window of a small pub in Five Dials in London. When I see it I can put myself back in that place immediately.