Travel Advice You Never Considered From Anthony Bourdain

When you're traveling 200+ days per year, you get pretty knowledgeable about the ins and outs of globetrotting. Anthony Bourdain, a certified master of "no reservations" travel, definitely fits this description! In an interview with Esquire, Bourdain laid out his travel methods — from reading material to restaurant choices, the renowned chef has a unique tip for every aspect of the travel experience. While all his travel advice is sound, here are some of the most unexpected bits of guidance for adventure-seekers.

• Check your bags: "I hate the people struggling to cram their luggage in an overhead bin," says Bourdain of his fellow travelers, explaining why he checks his own baggage.
• Choose fiction over guidebooks: The traveler suggests reading fiction set in your travel location in lieu of guidebooks, because: "Fiction is in many ways more useful than a guidebook, because it gives you those little details, a sense of the way a place smells, an emotional sense of the place."
• Skip the airplane food: Since he's a great chef, it's not shocking that Bourdain suggests skipping your airplane meals. "Much better to show up in a new place and be hungry and eat at even a little street stall than arrive gassy and bloated, full, flatulent, hungover. So I just avoid airplane food. It's in no way helpful. "
• Have market mornings: "When I'm in a city that's new to me, I try to go to the central market very early in my trip. I'll go at 6 a.m., when people are shopping for businesses. You get to see what people buy and really eat," says Bourdain.
• Angry nerds give good tips: "The other great way to figure out where to eat in a new city is to provoke nerd fury online. Go to a number of foodie websites with discussion boards. Let's say you're going to Kuala Lumpur — just post on the Malaysia board that you recently returned and had the best rendang in the universe, and give the name of a place, and all these annoying foodies will bombard you with angry replies about how the place is bullsh*t, and give you a better place to go," recommends Bourdain to travelers seeking the best local eats.