The One Piece of Gear That Makes Adventure Travel More Relaxing

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(Bloomberg) — At Bloomberg Pursuits, we love to travel. And we always want to make sure we’re doing it right. So we’re talking to road warriors to learn about their high-end hacks, tips and off-the-wall experiences. These are the Distinguished Travel Hackers.

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Edmond Huot makes a living helping airlines define their look and feel. As chief creative officer and founding partner of New York City-based digital marketing agency Forward Studio, he leads on livery design for airlines, which means choosing everything from the exterior paint color on planes to fonts—sometimes he’ll even be charged with choosing a name.

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For example, in 2021 he oversaw the branding and livery design for Northern Pacific Airways, a low-cost carrier operating out of Alaska and aiming to connect to Asia. (The airline was later rebranded as New Pacific Airlines.) He picked a color palette of white, soft gray and black with blue-green accent to make the brand stand out. His goal was also to evoke Alaska’s remote wilderness and midnight sun, which would also resonate with travelers from South Korea and Japan eager to explore the state.  

Huot’s work frequently takes him out of the office. He recently hosted a private dinner in New York for Avianca, a Bogata-based airline, for which his firm also does public relations. And soon Huot expects to head to Turks and Caicos to help revamp the branding for a private airline terminal.

Huot never misses a chance to return to his hometown of Winnipeg, even when it greets him with an icy breeze in the winter. When flying long-haul, his favorite carriers are Air France and Lufthansa for their service standards and newer planes. He always checks the aircraft type to ensure spacious cabins—an updated Boeing 787 Dreamliner will trump airline preference, and he recommends skipping on online upgrade offers and asking for deals at the airport counter. 

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Here are his best travel hacks.  

Hockey players haul gear—look to them when choosing luggage.

I avoid buying fancy or heavy roller luggage and instead use lightweight, inexpensive hockey bags. They pack double the quantity of clothing with zero worries about damage or wear. They cost about $30! 

Go camping to recharge.

I’m from Canada, so maybe it’s in my genes. Last summer, I went on an off-the-grid camping trip with a close friend to Lake of the Woods in Northern Ontario—Canada’s answer to the Adirondacks. Don’t ask for the men’s room: You’ll be handed a shovel and pointed to a large, bushy tree for cover. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a perfect way to recalibrate.

And pack this one item for outdoor comfort.

I’ve fully embraced hammock culture, both in the wilderness and now here in New York City parks. The Firiner 3-in-1 camping hammock set is a game-changer: It’s lightweight, ergonomic and keeps you dry and off the ground. Setup takes minutes and sleeping in a suspended cocoon beats any tent when it comes to comfort.

 São Paulo is worth the hype—and you don’t need to speak Portuguese.

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If you thought New York City was the city that never sleeps, go to São Paulo. It’s just mind-boggling. I had so many amazing experiences touring that city, and I do not speak Portuguese.

I’m a huge architecture fan and was intent on visiting Oscar Niemeyer’s Ibirapuera Park, one of the largest urban parks in South America. The São Paulo Museum of Art is popular and hard to miss architecturally as a Brutalist landmark. I loved the Osklen store on Rua Oscar Freire—the brand is local and makes the perfect pair of men’s short. I also discovered the pure joy and healthy decadence of Açai bowls, sold all over the city.

A good friend took me out to sample the nightlife, including a visit to the Week, a nightclub that blew my mind in terms of both its size and well-organized, professional management. Megaclubs are no longer a thing here in NYC, but in São Paulo, this club has become a local institution. I forgot what staying up till 5 a.m. felt like! 

If you’re on the road a lot, it’s important to have a place where the staff knows your name. I have a favorite little place—it’s Ristorante Il Melograno, an Italian restaurant on 10th Avenue and West 51st Street. You start going somewhere regularly and the waiters get to know you, they have a table for you. I just always go there and they treat me so well. That to me is very comforting. The level of community on this island is actually extraordinary in that it’s made up of all these little villages.

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Open up to the people you meet while traveling. 

I was on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Toronto a few years ago with my boyfriend, and I got into the most interesting conversation with the guy sitting next to me. He had been in a motorcycle accident that almost killed him—he fell off his bike on a highway in British Columbia, and slid across the highway​​​. He said the day before he had to do this motorcycle trip,  his friend convinced him to buy a full leather motorcycle garment. He had never worn them and he just decided to do it. It saved him.

As we’re having this heavy conversation, the airplane is starting to experience turbulence. Because I was so focused on his story, I was not really participating in the collective panic that was happening in the cabin.

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