Simon Ford is a author and cocktail guide, in addition to the founding father of his namesake gin model. It’s made with 9 botanicals sourced from world wide – a nod to Simon’s love for globetrotting, together with its slogan, “the well-travelled gin.” Fords Gin simply celebrated its 10-year anniversary and is now obtainable in 28 nations.

He’s a SkyTeam loyalist quite than a single airline flier. “If I have been to speak about lounges, it might be Virgin. If I used to be to speak about meals, it might be Air France, and it’s a customer support factor for Delta,” Ford says, noting that he’s aiming for million-miler standing on the latter, logging 200,000 miles within the air on this 12 months alone.

The 50-year-old Briton lives in Nashville along with his spouse and daughter, aged 9. Listed here are his journey suggestions.

You possibly can safeguard in opposition to pickpocketing with Ford’s easy methodology

I are inclined to have a foul behavior of placing my cellphone and my pockets on high of one another after which placing them on high of a desk, and somebody can sneak alongside and seize that.

So I often pack two wallets and break up up my ID and bank cards between them in case one goes lacking; I’ve an English driving license and a US one, too, so I break up these up.

One will all the time be on my particular person and one in a random a part of my suitcase as backup. This got here in useful after I left my pockets and cellphone at the back of a cab in Berlin final 12 months. I used to be in a position to purchase a brand new cellphone and work out my onward journey. With a bank card, you should buy a flight, get overseas and get house.

Typically, the old-school means is finest

Deal with journeys like a chessboard, the place each component is a bit you may rearrange and transfer. Once I’m travelling to 4 or 5 totally different locations, I get out a bit of paper, and map it out month to month.

I’ll write within the issues the place I completely should be after which begin maps to see what else is shut. Proper now, I’ve bought September by means of December in entrance of me. It’s all about with the ability to visualise it in a single area, and I can see the place I can transfer issues round from a extra logical, logistical place.

The memento rule

I used to be given some wine by the bartender at Picco, in São Paulo, that was fairly uncommon – a glowing Brazilian wine, Cave Geisse Terroir Nature – and the subsequent factor I do know, I discovered myself sitting subsequent to a pure wine nerd in Paris on the Mary Celeste and went, “Oh, we have to open this.”

It began a convention the place I often journey with a bottle of native wine or spirit that comes from the final place I travelled to, as a present for somebody on the subsequent vacation spot; I could be the one traveller that you’re going to come throughout that checks a bag to try this.

That is what I name taking hospitality on the highway. Bartenders and wine nerds, simply as a common rule, fill their suitcases with issues they cannot get at house. An American bartender? They cannot get Havana Membership as a result of Cuban issues should not obtainable there. I’m at the moment in Poland on the lookout for one thing native to carry the place I might be travelling subsequent.

Whether or not it’s alcohol or meals, make sure that it’s particular

I often purchase one thing consumable – and perishable – as a memento to pay it ahead. I not too long ago picked up all of those fancy condiments in Copenhagen. They have been created by the chef René Redzepi; he is doing all of those experiments on this meals lab in Copenhagen, for Noma Tasks.

There’s Smoked Mushroom Garum, Dashi RDX and Vegan XO Sauce. I purchased some for a buddy in London, however I additionally purchased them for a buddy in Nashville, who – I do know – they’re each such meals nerds.

That is Ford’s important piece of equipment, whether or not he’s mountaineering on mountains or between bars

I’ve climbed Kilimanjaro, and I love to do hikes in Dartmoor Nationwide Park in Britain. And I like to journey with my LARQ self-purifying water bottle; I’ve the 25 oz PureVis insulated model and the 32 oz Motion PureVis, which is greater and lighter weight than the insulated one.

It’s the appropriate factor to do this present day; I’ve most likely saved a fortune on bottled water. However having the addition of UV know-how that kills micro organism – and the journey filter – makes my water style higher and may give me peace of thoughts when consuming totally different water sources. It has a water filter and a air purifier.

All of them include the UV, however you should buy the filter individually that sits inside it. I purchased somewhat rubber band to go across the high, too, which is one other additional, and clips it to my bag.

The world’s finest cocktail metropolis proper now? Don’t anticipate finding it in America or in Europe

Proper now, I might say one of the best metropolis for a cocktail might be Singapore. The sheer quantity of bars doing unbelievable issues there – and doing them in a brand new, distinctive means – is kind of past something I had anticipated.

28 HongKong Avenue was the way it began, and it impressed all the opposite bars opening there. There’s the Atlas Bar, and it has a three-story marble gin tower. (Nobody’s bought a gin tower, as a result of that often will get reserved for whiskeys and issues).

And within the basement, there’s a Champagne room with among the oldest Champagnes on the planet. On the Tippling Membership, all of the bottles are hanging from the ceiling they usually simply pull them all the way down to pour.

And there’s a zero-waste bar referred to as Native that discovered how you can use substances from eating places to repurpose them into drinks, and a Japanese-style cocktail bar with hand-blown glasses referred to as D. Bespoke.

In the event you’re an over packer, do that suitcase

My massive suitcase is the most recent Tumi, however I’m attempting out small ones. I attempted Away, however the zips on them stored breaking for me. I’ve a Swiss Military one, and that’s been troublesome to get fastened when it broke. However my newest is from Rimowa, which is my favorite suitcase up to now.

It has a tough steel casing, which I don’t often do, as a result of I need a delicate suitcase to pack issues into – shoehorn all the things in if I purchased a bunch of issues. However I’ve chosen to go for a steel case to manage my purchases on sure journeys and self-discipline myself after I’m travelling. It simply limits my skill on all the things. If it does not match within the suitcase, then there’s nowhere for it to go. I choose particular journeys to apply it to.

There’s nothing higher than reuniting with buddies in a far-flung place to do that

Once I’m planning when to go someplace, I would verify to see what’s occurring – a pageant, for instance, like Trinidad Carnival, or a band I actually need to see.

And there are particular audiences for sure bands in sure components of the world, the place the power and ambiance is totally totally different from again in England or the USA. It’s very nice to expertise that within the context of a special nation. I noticed Metallica in Panama Metropolis, Panama, for instance.

Residing in Nashville, everybody comes by means of there, and gigs are a dime a dozen. However when a worldwide famous person involves fill a stadium someplace like Panama or in Mexico Metropolis, the power and eruption of pleasure is so elevated.

I bear in mind listening to Keith Richards, after I learn his biography, saying enjoying in Argentina proper now seems like after they have been at their peak within the ’70s, how the crowds and power works. As a 50-year-old, it’s like discovering that power of going to a gig once you have been 20.

There is a bizarre sense of hazard going into one other nation and seeing a live performance. You do not fairly know what to anticipate and anticipate. And when I attempt to get all my buddies collectively to go on a trip, I counsel a live performance.

Head to this nation in Africa for world-class mountaineering

I like mountaineering. I do not suppose there’s a single spot in Rwanda the place the view is not spectacular. It truly is a spot the place the horizon is an limitless view of hills and mountains; there are 374 named mountains in Rwanda, and it’s generally known as the Nation of a Thousand Hills.

I first went there by means of a charity, Youngsters Play Worldwide, which my buddy Tracy Evans began. She was an Olympic freestyle skier. She brings Olympians out to encourage youngsters there from the USA, and the Olympians from Rwanda take part there; it’s in Gatagara, which is tremendous distant.

They’re there serving to the youngsters, and everybody desires to get some train in, in order that’s the way it began – going off on hikes and getting the locals to take us on adventures to areas which might be very rural and clearly fairly international. We did the Kamiranzovu Path, which went by means of the wetlands. It hasn’t been as developed for tourism as the opposite facet of the nation.