The world according to Dan Linstead
Mountain/Desert/Ocean/Jungle... which one are you?
Mountain – ideally overlooking jungle, with ocean on the horizon.
What was your first great travel experience?
Inter-railing round Europe aged 18: Paris, Lucerne, Venice, Zagreb, Athens, Rome, the French Riviera. An unrepeatable whoosh of freedom. Long hours watching the continent roll past a greasy window, smoking unfiltered Gauloises and scouting for girls…
What has been your favourite journey?
The overnight drive from London to the Isle of Skye: dusk over Brent Cross, dawn over Loch Lomond, noon amidst the Cuilins – the magic never fails.
What are your Top 5 places worldwide?
Cape Reinga, North Island, NZ /
Palmyra, Syria /
Knoydart peninsula, Scotland /
Hoi An, Vietnam /
Tangalle, Sri Lanka
Recommend a special place to stay
Batu Ritung Lodge, Pa Lungan, Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Take a twin Otter flight from Miri to Bario, then a four hour walk into the jungle to Pa Lungan, a hamlet of forty Kelabit families surrounded by rice paddies.
Which three items do you always pack?
Swiss army knife
Nurofen
Phone charger
Which passport stamp are you proudest of?
Syria – an unpackaged, seldom visited and strangely romantic country that occupies a blind spot in most views of the Middle East
Which passport stamp would you most like to have?
I should probably say somewhere like Chad or Turkmenistan, but there are too many places I genuinely want to go before I start ticking off ones just for form. So: Namibia.
Where or what is your guilty travel pleasure?
In-flight meals. It’s something to do with all those neat compartments and sealed packets – and the free wine.
Window or aisle?
Window. The alternative is absurd.