Simon Ford is a author and cocktail marketing consultant, in addition to the founding father of his namesake gin model. It is made with 9 botanicals sourced from all over the world – a nod to Simon’s love for globetrotting, together with its slogan, “the well-traveled gin.”

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

You may safeguard towards pickpocketing with Simon’s easy methodology

I are likely to have a nasty behavior of placing my telephone 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.

One will all the time be on my individual and one in a random a part of my suitcase as backup. This got here in useful once I left my pockets and telephone at the back of a cab final yr. I used to be in a position to purchase a brand new telephone and work out my onward journey. With a bank card, you should buy a flight, get in a foreign country and get dwelling.

Do not consider your digital calendar as the easiest way to map out a journey schedule; an analog method could cause you to see it otherwise.

Deal with journeys like a chessboard, the place each aspect is a chunk you’ll be able to rearrange and transfer. Once I’m travelling to 4 or 5 completely different locations, I get out a chunk of paper, and map it out month to month.

I will write within the issues the place I completely should be after which begin maps to see what else is shut. Proper now, I’ve received September via December in entrance of me. It is all about having the ability to visualise it in a single house, and I can see the place I can transfer issues round from a extra logical, logistical place.

Take a memento from one place to present while you arrive at your vacation spot

I used to be given some wine by the bartender in São Paulo, that was fairly rareand the subsequent factor I do know, I discovered myself sitting subsequent to a pure wine nerd in Paris and went, “Oh, we have to open this.”

It began a practice 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 is perhaps the one traveller that you’re going to come throughout that checks a bag to do this.

That is what I name taking hospitality on the street.

I often purchase one thing consumable as a memento to pay it ahead. I not too long ago picked up all of those fancy condiments in Copenhagen created by the chef René Redzepi. I purchased some for a pal in London, however I additionally purchased them for a pal in Nashville, who-I do know-they’re each such meals nerds.

That is Ford’s important piece of package, whether or not he is 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 700mlPureVis insulated model and the 900mlMovement PureVis, which is larger and lighter weight than the insulated one.

It is the precise 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 ingesting completely 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 a bit rubber band to go across the high, too, which is one other further, and clips it to my bag.

The world’s greatest cocktail metropolis proper now? Do not look forward to finding it in America or in Europe

Proper now, if I’d say the very best metropolis for a cocktail might be Singapore. The sheer quantity of bars doing unimaginable issues there – and doing them in a brand new, distinctive way-is fairly 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. And within the basement, there is a Champagne room with a number of the oldest Champagnes on this planet.

On the Tippling Membership, all of the bottles are hanging from the ceiling and so they simply pull them right down to pour. And there is a zero-waste bar known as Native that discovered use elements from eating places to repurpose them into drinks, and a Japanese-style cocktail bar with hand-blown glasses known as D. Bespoke.

For those who’re an overpacker, do that suitcase

My large suitcase is the most recent Tumi, however I am attempting out small ones. I attempted Away, however the zips on them saved breaking for me. I’ve a Swiss Military one, and that is been troublesome to get fastened when it broke.

However my newest is from Rimowa, which is my favorite suitcase to this point. It has a tough steel casing, which I do not often do, as a result of I need a comfortable 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 regulate my purchases on sure journeys and self-discipline myself once I’m travelling. It simply limits my potential 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 mates in a far-flung place to do that

Once I’m planning when to go someplace, I’d test to see what’s taking place.

There are specific audiences for sure bands in sure components of the world, the place the power and ambiance is totally completely different. It is very nice to expertise that within the context of a unique nation. I noticed Metallica in Panama Metropolis, for instance.

Dwelling in Nashville, everybody comes via there, and gigs are a dime a dozen. However when a world celebrity involves fill a stadium someplace like Panama or in Mexico Metropolis, the power and eruption of pleasure is so elevated.

I keep in mind listening to Keith Richards, once I learn his biography, saying taking part in in Argentina proper now seems like once they have been at their peak within the 70s, how the crowds and power works.

As a 50-year-old, it is like discovering that power of going to a gig while 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 count on. And when I attempt to get all my mates collectively to go on a vacation, I counsel a live performance.