Award-winning travel writer, TV screenwriter and print humorist has it made. CTV, Discovery, W, The Comedy Network and CBC are just a few of the television networks hes contributed to. Hegan was also a writer on CTVs Open Essay of the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»2010 Olympic Winter Games, a risky choice for the network, given he can apparently kill people with a single glance and has tens and tens of fans. Having once been published in Rolling Stone for a hilarious piece on the horrors of mascot abuse, the Vancouver-based raconteur is currently paid to travel for a living, generating sardonic yet enlightening content for MSNs and National Post. Not yet old enough to retire, the gig sounds as cruisy as it gets. WE hoped to garner some useful summer travel tips, so we sat back and gave him some bragging room:
Describe your travel experience to date:
To pursue my stories, Ive travelled to Cuba, Kenya, Belize, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, Israel, Spain, France, Guadeloupe, The Cook Islands, Scotland, Las Vegas, New York City, Arizona, Alaska, Austin, Hollywood, Park City, Banff, and New Mexico. And next week Im off to play drunken golf in Colombia.
Favourite place youve ever been?
Aitutaki in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific
When you start planning a vacation, what are your steps?
1) Ask friends on Facebook what they recommend. Then, if those friends have kids, I avoid those places.
2) Search for articles online about the worlds coolest unknown destinations
3) Talk to the tourism boards for those regions. See if theyre hosting an event that I could go participate in and write about.
Best way to keep things affordable/stick to a budget, in your experience?
I keep things cheap by sweet-talking my employers and foreign tourism boards into paying for all my travel, drinks, ransoms, and bail money. If I could get free trips to the tropics by tanning on a rich guys yacht in my bikini, I might do that too.
What items do you recommend to always pack with you?
Notebook/pen
Elmore Leonard novel
Noise-cancelling headphones. Because plane engines are loud and cramped and cranky people often suck.
Do you ever go all-inclusive?
Did it three times, long ago. It felt pretty cookie-cutter and lame until the group of happy, wide-bottom ladies from Atlanta showed up to take over the resorts dance floor. The only cruise Ive been on was a Scottish family reunion on a no-tipping cruise to Alaska. You havent seen joy in peoples eyes until youve seen Scottish people on a no-tipping-allowed cruise with an open bar.
Any horror stories?
Yeah, there was a beach hut I pre-booked in Jamaica. Arrived on January 1st late at night, after dark and the manager had locked it up cuz he was off drinking on a boat. I ended up sleeping in the taxi drivers bed ().
What trends are you noticing in terms of destinations?
People are scared of Mexico. No doubt something to do with the 40,000 drug-related deaths along the Mexican-US border in the last six years. Granted, Mexico is a huge country and that border is nowhere near the resorts in the south, but North Americans sound scared of Mexico. My family opted to avoid Mexico for our annual vacation. We inherited some cash from a distant Irish farmer relative, so we took over Costa Rica instead. Rented a jungle beach house. The experience and food were way better than a bland all-inclusive. I highly recommend rich relatives dying and leaving you money.
Where would you send someone for the big Annual Holiday?
Southwater Caye, Belize ()
Your fondest travel moment lately?
Costa Rica. Beach. Sunshine. Crashing waves. No people anywhere. Just me and my superfine girlfriend
