Anthony Bourdain's Off-the-Menu Travel Tips

If you’re like us, you’re more than envious of Anthony Bourdain’s life of exploring fascinating cultures and people of the world while tracking down the most delicious, authentic food on Earth—and getting paid to do it. But the jealousy doesn’t prevent groupie-like devotion to his Emmy-winning TV show No Reservations, now in its seventh season on the Travel Channel (Mondays at 9 p.m. EST). The fact that his strong, sometimes eviscerating opinions do not always flatter his fellow celebrity chefs—as expressed, in part, in his latest memoir Medium Raw (a sequel to Kitchen Confidential)—just makes us trust his travel advice even more. Bourdain is really telling it straight. And he has the travel chops to sift the extraordinary stories and places from the merely great.

We tapped Bourdain for some world-wander culinary wisdom and insights from the current season of No Reservations, his most adventurous yet, featuring Cuba, Iraq, the Brazilian Amazon, the American Southwest, and even one of the last sittings at Spain’s El Bulli, once the best restaurant in the world. Of course, there were some surprises too, such as thoughts on the importance of being a good guest, swapping Viagra for rhino horns in traditional Chinese medicine, and the idea that eating yourself to death is fine, just don’t use stuffed-crust pizza and other fast food to do it. If all goes according to plan, Bourdain will dine in Libya this year. 

In next week’s episode he'll dive into California's Mojave Desert with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme. —Mary Anne Potts

Did you have breakfast this morning?
Anthony Bourdain: Ah, no. I never eat breakfast. Maybe coffee, but that's it.

What are some adventurous things you've done to score something good to eat?
A.B.: I don't know that that's been my prime motivation. I travel for travel's sake at this point. I do it in a food-centric way, but I'm not going to go into a war zone just for food, you know? But I have gone into war zones. 

I did go into the Amazonian region of Brazil. They have prehistoric river fish that weigh in at around 600 pounds, which you don't see anywhere else. And foods that cannot be exported or even found in other parts of Brazil. This region was described to me by Ferran Adria [chef of El Bulli] as the last frontier of food. So that’s where people do extraordinary things to get food.

GPS Goes Social: Delorme and SPOT Bring Facebook and Twitter to the Backcountry

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could update your Twitter feeds and Facebook pages via GPS units when we are far afield? Well, the wait is over. By Keene Haywood

As the social networking scene explodes around us, it seems there is nothing it has not touched in our lives--except for maybe those venturing into far-flung corners of the world. But this, too, is changing.

One of the pieces of technology that has been with backcountry travelers for years is the venerable GPS unit. These devices have become our virtual wayfinders--a bit of comfort on the trail and a great tool to know where we are, where were are going, and where we have been. While GPS has been in the backcountry for some time, the more urban mobile world has only recently embraced GPS technology, where it is now embedded in almost all modern smartphones that use the technology to tap into a myriad different location based apps.

Norway is the Most Desirable Place to Live, According to UN

Norway, the land of fjords, Vikings, vodka, and blonde hair, is now also the most desirable place to live, according to the United Nations.

The UN’s Human Development Report 2008/2009, done annually, ranks Norway numero uno because of the country's human development index ratings, which evaluates certain criteria, including educational factors, gender equality, and life expectancy (Norway’s is a not-so-impressive 74).

Australia comes in number two this year, followed by Iceland (last year's number one), Canada, and Ireland. The U.S. is relaxing at spot 13, one bump down from 2007/2008, with a life expectancy of 72—not too shabby considering Zimbabwe’s heartrending 38.

And, perhaps prophetically, we featured Norway as one of our Best New Trips in the World in our November issue (on newsstands October 20), complete with an adventure guide. —Michelle Faber; Photograph by Steve Casimiro

The Amazing Race: A Previous Winner Tells All

Imagine a chance to travel all over the world with your best bud and share a million dollars—if you can handle the obstacles that true adventure travel throws at you. Well that’s The Amazing Race, which pits teams of two against each other as they race around the globe for the pot of gold at the finish line. With the premiere of season 15 at 8 pm EST on CBS, we wondered, what does it mean to win the race? ADVENTURE caught up with season three winner Zach Behr in New York. Behr, now a supervising producer on MTV’s Made, explains what you do when you win half a million dollars, the importance of experiencing local color, and the simple pleasure of eating Vietnamese chicken satay from a street cart.

So you won The Amazing Race and split a million dollars with your partner, Florinka Pesenti, a friend from your days at Vassar College. What'd you do with the money?

I took a chunk of it with my then girlfriend, now wife, and went to Costa Rica for ten days and traveled around. 

Sebastian Junger, Scott Anderson, Chip Brown Read ADVENTURE

Some of our favorite writers will be reading from our new anthology, The New Age of Adventure, next Monday night at the Half King in New York City. Here's the lineup:

SEBASTIAN JUNGER, reading from “The Lion in Winter,” his profile of Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghan warrior who fought the Taliban in the years before September 11, 2001.

SCOTT ANDERSON, reading from “Coming of Age at Band-iAmir," a story about a year-long road trip he took across Asia with his father.

CHIP BROWN, reading from “The Last Cairn," a profile of Johnny Waterman, the mad genius of Alaskan mountaineering, and his mysterious disappearance.

Attendees will have the chance to win a Timex Expedition watch and other great prizes.

We'll post pictures after the event. Stay tuned!

GET IT NOW: Preorder your copy of The New Age of Adventure: Ten Years of Great Writing here.

Our Favorite Adventurers on Twitter - Updated 9/2

Who better to follow in 140 characters or less than our favorite explorers? We've put together a roster of tweeters, from eco-activist David de Rothschild to alpinist Ed Viesturs, to keep an eye on the ever-changing world of adventure. 

This list is by no means final, so keep checking back to see who's been added. And, as always, tell us who we left out in the comment section below. We're particularly interested in adding gear manufacturers, conservation groups, and outfitters that are tweeting, so if you're out there, let us know.

Of course, you can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ngadventure

See the full list after the jump.

New Guide to the National Parks Now Online

Text by Laura Buckley

When planning a trip to the National Parks you will inevitably have questions--and the National Parks Owner's Guide 2009, a comprehensive online trip planning tool from the National Parks Foundation, will help you answer them.  How long will it take to hike to Fort Bowie and back in Fort Bowie National Historic Site? (At least two hours.)  When's the best time to go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park?  (After 11pm to see the stars.)  What's the deepest lake in the U.S.? (Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park.) 

The guide is fit for both the novice park goer and extreme explorer, complete with must see sights, insider hints, detailed maps, and photos--all for free.  "Every citizen is a part owner of the National Park System, and this guide has everything you need to get started planning your trip in one place," says Jamie Patten, senior vice president of the National Park Foundation.  "Getting outside and into the parks has never been easier."

For more information on the National Parks, check out ADVENTURE's June/July "Best of the National Parks 2009," and National Geographic's guide to U.S. National Parks. 

Send Yourself to Space... For a Price

Text by Joe Battle

There are many different paths to take to float with the stars, but a majority of them revolve around a wallet that could plug a black hole.

One of the leaders in promoting private space travel is a company known as Space Adventures.  A meager $100 million will “secure” your personal trip to the moon…whenever that again becomes a reality.  So far Space Adventures has had six clients, most famously Anousheh Ansari, co-founder of Telecom Technologies. Her family provided the sponsorship for the Ansari X Prize, which was a major catalyst for making private space travel a reality. The goal of the prize was to break away from government organizations and create a reusable manned spacecraft. In 2004 the SpaceShipOne accomplished just that and the X Prize Foundation delivered the prize money of 10 million dollars. Ansari is one of the trustees on the X Prize Foundation along with PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. Musk is the CEO of Space X, which quite possibly represents the future of private space travel.

But if you want to get to space within the next five years, our 2008 Lifetime Achievement recipient, Sir Richard Branson, is your man. His Virgin Galactic will, for $200,000, take you on a two-and-a-half hour trip to the outskirts of our atmosphere, where you’ll feel weightless. It’s been reported that 300 people have paid a majority of the fee, while 80,000 people have been interested but haven’t yet ponied up the 200,000 clams.

Virgin Galactic is not alone. XCOR aerospace is planning a shorter and less expensive suborbital trip.

Travel Tech: Twitter Apps For the Adventure Set (For 3GS iPhone)

Text by Laura Buckley. Also see Steve Casimiro top 20 travel apps.

Two very interesting things happened last week: Twitter made front-page headlines, showing skeptics just how useful the micro-blogging tool can be to connect people on the move in distant places; and Apple released the speedy new iPhone 3GS. If Twitter can effectively organize demonstrations in Iran, it certainly can help keep tabs on the most itinerant of travelers--now with video and better photos. This inspired us to put together a list of some of our favorite iPhone Twitter apps for the adventure set. With these apps, it's easier than ever to keep your friends, family, and fans in the loop about your excursions. It's twit-tastic, really.

Twitterfon, free
Also availale in a pro version ($4.99) for the advanced Twitterer, but we like the free version. No bells and whistles here--it's just simple and super easy to use. Did we mention it was free?

Tweetmic, $0.99
Although it's currently experiencing some problems due to the Twitpocalypse bug, this twitter add-on app only does one thing, but does it well: tweetcasts. It's perfect for recording audio of your screaming excitement from your latest sky-diving expedition and upload to twitter.

Tweetie, $2.99
Tweetie is super fast and easily allows you to upload photos, follow your friends and manage multiple accounts. Its interface is clean and very user friendly.

Twitterific Premium, $3.99
This winner of the 2008 Apple Design Award for best social networking app can manage multiple accounts and be customized for your personal tweeting needs. Not recommended for those new to the Twitter scene, but could be for you if you're a twitmaniac.

Twittelator Pro, $4.99
The future of tweeting? You can now shoot, edit, and upload video tweets with the updated version of Twittleator Pro to accompany the new iPhone 3GS. You're friends can't doubt you landed the jump when you've captured the video.


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Nat Geo Explorer Mireya Mayor on Expedition Africa, Mark Burnett's New Show

Anthropologist, television host, former NFL cheerleader, National Geographic Emerging Explorer . . . Mireya Mayor is many things. A homebody isn’t one of them. In the past year, she has led expeditions to Madagascar (where, in 2003, she discovered the smallest primate on Earth, the mouse lemur) and helped set up a program to protect lowland gorillas in Congo (“Have you ever had a 300-pound silverback run at you?” she asks. No. No, we have not). Oh, and she also squeezed in a trek from Zanzibar across Tanzania, re-creating Henry Morton Stanley’s 1871 quest for David Livingstone while filming a new History Channel show produced by Survivor’s Mark Burnett. The making of Expedition Africa: Stanley and Livingstone (which premieres on Sunday) will be particularly grueling: Mayor and her three traveling companions were given nothing but a compass, a few maps, and Stanley’s journals from the original trip to guide them. Someone almost died, she tells us, but you’ll have to watch to find out who. 

Read our interview with Mireya Mayor >>