Your archetype
The Explorer
One bag, a good hotel, no fixed plan.
You have a passport with more stamps than your friends and a bag that has never been checked. You judge cities by their trains and their breakfasts. You can leave on a Friday with an hour’s notice. Your weakness is a home that looks like a hotel room, because you are rarely in it.
Your ritual: Book the next trip before you unpack from the last one.
- The suit
- A travel blazer in high-twist wool that shrugs off a night on a sleeper
- The watch
- A GMT or a field watch: Rolex Explorer II, Tudor Black Bay GMT or a Hamilton Khaki
- The drink
- Whatever the local bartender is proud of
- The car
- A Land Rover Defender 110 or none at all
- The scent
- A cologne that survives a long flight: citrus and neroli
Your signature
Your reading list
The Explorer: your reading list
Travel · Packing
A Week from One Carry-On
Seven days, one bag, nothing checked, including a jacket for dinner. The method, the list and the three things that make it work.
Travel · Bars
Ten Hotel Bars Worth a Detour
The best bars in Europe are inside hotels you may never sleep in. Where to sit, what to order and when to arrive, from Mayfair to Milan.
Travel · Cities
The Long Weekend, Solved
Thursday night out, Monday morning back, four cities where three days feel like a week. Lisbon, Copenhagen, Vienna and Palermo, with the hotel, the table and the walk.
Travel · Trains
Take the Train: The Return of the Sleeper
Dinner in Paris, breakfast in Vienna, no airport in between. The night train is back across Europe, and for a man with one bag it is the civilised way to move.
