Peter Jon Lindberg
Editor-in-Chief

Next trip? A week on the beach in Pine Point, Maine, where I grew up swimming.

Checked bag or just a carry-on? “Just a carry-on”?? Oh you must have the wrong guy.

When you arrive at your hotel, do you (a) unpack immediately, (b) gradually unpack, or (c) never fully unpack? It’s imperative that I unpack immediately. Drives my wife (Nilou Motamed) bonkers, but she indulges me.

You’re flying with your companion in a 3-3 seating configuration. Do you request the middle seat? Aisle + aisle across? Aisle + window with a stranger in between? Ha! Funny you should ask.

What’s your current screen saver? It rotates between Rockhouse in Jamaica (where I’ve spent more nights than at any other hotel) and a shot of the horses on the beach at Nihi Sumba in Indonesia (where I’d be happy to live).

Was there a trip you took when you were young that shook up your worldview in some lasting way — one that literally changed your mind? At 23 I spent six months backpacking through India, and I’m still trying to sort through all the revelations from that trip. In fact, that journey inspired the first travel story I ever published, 30 years ago this spring. (Yeesh, was it really that long ago?)

What item or souvenir do you most regret not buying on a trip? I’ll tell you what I do regret bringing home: the dozen Thai mangosteens that got me blacklisted by Customs & Border Protection in the early 2000s. Mangosteens are my #1 fruit, but they’re illegal to import into the U.S. — which didn’t stop my dumb self from trying to smuggle them home. (Sorry, CBP.)

What was your first vivid place memory? The London Underground. When I was three my family lived in England while my dad was on sabbatical, and I was absolutely mesmerized by the Tube — so much so that my parents gifted me a subway train set, which I still have somewhere.

What was the last place you visited that took your proverbial breath away? A perfect moonrise over Joshua Tree National Park, late last year. I’ve always had a deep connection to the Desert Southwest. I return as often as I can, to remind myself how soul-stirring a landscape can be.

In what city or town do you feel most inspired? Hanoi, Mumbai, London, Sydney, Rome, Los Angeles, and Trancoso, Brazil.

Is a “bad” trip as worthwhile as a “good” trip? Oh absolutely. Also, the trips that go horribly, hilariously wrong are more fun to write about (and read about). I’ve got enough bad-trip stories to fill three books, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Meal you’d travel all day for? A four-hour lunch at Lo Scoglio on the Amalfi Coast. On a good day — meaning any day I’m at Lo Scoglio — it may be my happiest place on earth.