The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Travelling life
‘I had to eat about 35 courses at The French Laundry’
How often do you travel?
Four to five months a year. I do a lot of book tours and literary festivals, and also have to research my books. One of my standout trips of the past six months was to Brazil and Argentina for a mix of work and play. I love the South American lifestyle: people there seem to get the most out of life. I think we’ve forgotten how to enjoy life in Britain and North America…
Where did you go on holiday as a child?
I’d visit Blackpool pretty much every year and would also stay with relatives in Ireland and London. Going to Blackpool as a kid sowed the seeds of a lifelong love affair with the seaside town: I had my stag do there several years ago. There’s something very homely about the place: it has a post-war sense of Britishness that you really don’t find in the south of England any more.
Your first trip abroad?
When I was about 17, I went to Benidorm with a bunch of 20 guys and it was a completely crazy, debauched holiday. It was a sort of “idiots abroad”type trip with a lot of drinking and partying. I’m surprised we came back alive!
What you need for your perfect holiday?
I mix it up. I like to have one week lying on a beach doing nothing with plenty of reading material, and some decent nightlife to hand. And a second week enjoying a more cultural extended city break somewhere like Barcelona or Berlin, visiting museums and getting a feel for the place.
Most adventurous travel experience?
Probably visiting Darfur for Unicef some years ago. It was a pretty volatile place at the time, and you could see, for the first time, that these militarised guys with their semi-automatic weapons were aware of their own power. Either that or having to make an emergency landing in Pakistan in a six-seater plane after being caught in a dust storm.
The most remote place you’ve ever been?
Probably Greenland, though Kandahar in Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban, and the jungle of Southern Sudan with the rebel forces, felt that way too.
Most luxurious travel experience?
When I lived in San Francisco, I got to visit The French Laundry in the Napa Valley, which had just been voted the best restaurant in the world. I then had to sit there and eat about 35 courses for a restaurant review. Being in the royal box at the racetrack in Kolkata, which looks out onto the Victoria Memorial Hall, was also pretty special.
Favourite hotel?
I like the Standard, High Line boutique hotel in New York’s Meatpacking District. It’s all open glass; you feel like a fish in a goldfish bowl. I also love the Chateau Marmont in LA.
What’s your favourite city?
Buenos Aires. It has everything you want in a city: great food, architecture, culture, bars, nightlife, sport and amazing people.
Most memorable travel experience?
Visiting Greenland, because it was like nothing I’d ever experienced. You go thinking it’s just going to be white, but you soon discover that the snow has all these different shades and textures. Charging across a frozen lake with a dog pack was amazing.
Your worst travel experience?
On the return leg of a train journey from Chicago to New Orleans, my train broke down in Memphis. They said they were going to fix it but the hours went by, and they couldn’t, so they announced that they were going to bus us back to Chicago instead, an 11-hour ride away…
Best travel tip?
Travel light and don’t carry anything valuable that you can’t afford to lose.
How do you survive a long flight?
Flying steerage is horrible, and surviving the jet lag gets worse the older you get. I usually take a dose of Night Nurse and try not to drink nowadays.
Your travel essential?
A toothbrush. The most important thing when you go travelling is to have a good, clean mouth.
Where next?
I’m looking forward to going to Sardinia again with my wife this year, but the one place I’ve never been which I feel I really ought to visit is China. The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh is published in paperback by Vintage. T2 Trainspotting is available on DVD in June.