Travel tips and hacks from an expert who has been to every country and to space, from restaurants to steer clear of to what to pack

Entrepreneur and investor Jim Kitchen has visited all 193 UN-recognised countries and was part of the civilian crew on a Blue Origin space flight in March
He reveals why he leaves his wedding ring at home, avoids street food and hides an extra credit card in his shoes

Luxury travel

Bloomberg

Published: 5:15pm, 11 May 2022

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Jim Kitchen knows travel.

The 57-year-old entrepreneur and investor says he’s the only person on Earth to have visited all 193 UN-recognised countries as well as space – he was part of the civilian crew on Blue Origin’s rocket, the same trip on which comedian Pete Davidson was originally expected to fly in March.

In addition to that 62-mile (100km) milestone, Kitchen estimates he’s logged from 7 million to 10 million miles in the air.

Having worked in various ways in the travel industry for most of his career, including founding (and selling) group tour company SBT, he now acts as an angel investor and serves as a professor focusing on entrepreneurship at the US-based University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he lives with his wife, Susan. Here are some of the globetrotter’s top travel tips.

When packing, bring a cheap shirt, but leave your wedding ring at home

“I had taken a bike tour and we had played the uniquely Colombian game of tejo: you throw a 3-pound [1.4kg] weight – and there’s a circle – and if you hit in the centre of the circle, the whole thing explodes.

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“My guide asked me when we were playing, ‘So where’s next?’ And I said, ‘Oh, tomorrow I’m flying to Venezuela.’ And he’s like, ‘In those shoes?’ I had a pair of running shoes on, nothing fancy. He said that thieves will often size up foreigners by their shoes and jewellery.

“So off we went to the local flea market and purchased an old pair of leather shoes. I proceed to wear them, with this kind of scratchy, polyester shirt, looking like some Chevy Chase character walking through the airport. If you have means, travelling through the developing world is not the time to express that. It’s the time to fit in and lay low.

“I don’t wear my wedding ring, either, because I don’t want people to know that I’m married, because they could kidnap me and call my wife and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got your husband,’ and she would probably pay the ransom.”

Restaurants offering spectacular views of the city or sunsets, like Pier One in the Bahamas, often have terrible food, says Kitchen.

Don’t eat at restaurants offering great views

“In my 30-plus years of travelling, I’ve experienced that restaurants offering spectacular views of the city or sunsets often have terrible food.

“I have found this notoriously true in the Caribbean: Pier One in the Bahamas, for example. There’s this gorgeous, long pier with a restaurant [Pier One] built on top of the pier, and the views were spectacular, a million dollars, and the food was just awful. You were happy to feed it to the sharks – it was that bad.”

Why you should keep – and customise – a spare credit card

“I always put one credit card in the bottom of a pair of tennis shoes, so that if all hell breaks loose – like I’m robbed and everything’s taken – if they don’t take my shoes, I’m probably OK, because at least I’ll have a credit card to buy a ticket or to get something.

“It’s also a Visa card that you can customise with a photograph. I have a picture of me and my family on it, so it’ll be some sort of visual ID, too.”

A beach in Pongara National Park in Gabon. Kitchen says “Gabon has the best beaches”. Photo: Getty Images

There’s much more to tourism in Africa than simply going on safari

“One of the craziest experiences that I’ve ever had was in Gabon [a country on the west coast of Central Africa], meeting a guy named Tatayo, who looked like musician Keith Richards and practices this religion known as Bwiti. They eat the iboga root and go into a trance for like three or four days. And it messes you up, but it cleanses your mind. I did not participate, but it was fascinating.

“I would argue, having been to the 54 countries in Africa and being a beach snob, that Gabon has the best beaches there, especially the peninsula part of the country that juts out into the Gulf of Guinea.

“I love Pongara: it’s a white-beige sand beach that you walk up to the water – crystal blue water – and see fish teeming in it. I stayed at Pongara Lodge right there. Animals like elephants live adjacent to this beach, and I mean, they would frolic on the beach. It was a lot like if you had to imagine what Eden would look like.”

Astronaut Mike Good encouraged Kitchen to wear a male adult wetness protector for his trip to space.

When you’re planning a trip to space, this is what astronauts tell you to wear

“I hate to say this, but I was actually encouraged by a guy that was one of the astronauts that flew on a Hubble mission, Mike Good, to wear a male adult wetness protector – I don’t want to call it a ‘diaper’.

“We had a 45-minute delay [at take-off], because there was a telemetry issue. So you load into the capsule, you’re there, it’s nerve-racking, you’re waiting. You don’t know whether you’re going to launch or not. And my concern was, ‘Gosh, what if you have to go?’ The last thing you want to do is be concerned about is the bathroom; it’s a short enough flight, and you want to enjoy every second of it, right?

“Mike said: ‘Hey, just do the full astronaut experience, man. Just don’t worry about that.’ And so I kind of embraced it. The reality is I didn’t have to use it, but I just wanted to take that risk off the table.”

The Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo is “a true luxury hotel” according to Kitchen.

The family-friendly five-star resort he returns to again and again

“Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo is a true luxury hotel and one of the nicest in Costa Rica. It sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but the gorgeous tropical view is just one thing that stands out.

“I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time there with my family – surfing lessons, zip-lining, or you go visit the volcanoes, river rafting, hiking. We volunteered on the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border, with some local communities there. To me, that area feels like Hawaii was before Hawaii got really built up.

“I’m not like an avid golfer, I might play five or six times a year, but if you’re staying on the property, you can play one of the best golf courses in Latin America: the Ocean Course at Peninsula Papagayo. Most of the holes have drop-dead-gorgeous views of the ocean or bay, and can easily distract players intent on carding a low score.”

A scene from the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market near Bangkok in Thailand. Kitchen says he avoids eating most street foods. Photo: Getty Images

Kitchen is no fan of street food on his travels – and here’s why

“I want to de-risk anything as much as I can. My biggest fear while travelling is getting sick, and so I avoid eating most foods that are for sale on the street. Yes, I’ve made exceptions to this rule, but I generally choose not to seek out street food, no matter how tempted I am to eat it.

“There are those who advise the opposite. For them, trying new foods, especially street foods, is all a part of the adventure. I’m going to assume that, unlike me, they’ve never suffered the consequences of eating curried goat from a street vendor in Jamaica. You spent months getting visas for these places, and you did something stupid like eat curried goat, and I was sick for a week. I almost died.

“My thing is I’m trying to see the world and experience the world and talk to people. I don’t necessarily need to eat the food like chef Anthony Bourdain did and make food the centre. My centre is talking to people and getting to know people, learning about the country through the most ordinary of people in marketplaces around the world. That’s kind of my thing.”