Go like a pro with tips from 3 world famous travel gurus

Listening to modern-day travel gurus regale us with tales of on-the-road adventures can activate wanderlust within the staunchest of armchair travelers. With that in mind, get ready to spring off that couch: We’ve rounded up travel tips and memories from some of the world’s most prolific travelers to inspire your next vacation.

RELATED: Take a little advice from 80s-movie heartthrob turned travel master Andrew McCarthy

Note: If you like what you read here, go back for seconds at the Travel & Adventure Show, a massive, interactive experience open to the public, where these travel experts will give extended talks and live meet-and-greets. Top tour specialists and globe-trotting storytellers will also be on-hand to provide advice and ideas for your next vacation. Here are the show’s 2017 destinations and dates:

• Washington, D.C. (January 14–15)
• Chicago (January 21–22)
• San Francisco (February 11–12)
• Los Angeles (February 18–19)
• San Diego (March 4–5)
• Denver (March 18–19)
• Philadelphia (March 25–25)
• Dallas (April 1-2)

Until then, here’s a sampling of tips and advice from some of the travel experts who’ll be at the show.

Flickr CC: World Travel & Tourism Council

Peter Greenberg

CBS News Travel Editor. Known as the “Travel Detective,” this Emmy award-winning reporter, producer and travel connoisseur also hosts a weekly radio show titled “Peter Greenberg Worldwide.”

What was your first trip that truly shaped your love of travel?
When I was 12 years old, my parents took me on my first trip to Europe—to Paris, Rome, Florence, Lucerne, Venice and London. I can still vividly remember almost every single moment and I mark my love of travel from that first trip.

What do you find the coolest thing to check out in each new destination you visit?
This might surprise you, but as an active fireman in New York, the very first place—and the coolest—I check out in each new destination, is the firehouse. Why? Firefighters know everything about their destination. After all, they’ve been in every house, hotel, restaurant, resort. They know the coolest places, where to go, and perhaps most important, where NOT to go.

What not-so-obvious items do you never-ever travel without?
Gorilla tape. It fixes just about everything on the road.

What is your proudest “travel hack” moment, where you felt like the MacGyver of travel?
In Pezula, South Africa, we lost all communications six minutes before a live broadcast. We somehow ran our microphone through two cell phones and an extra battery charger (yes, gorilla tape was involved) and managed to broadcast live to the U.S. for three hours.

What is the most underrated travel destination of the moment?
The coast of Mozambique and some of the coastal islands of Colombia. It’s all about the combination of fear and accessibility. But where there’s a will …

RELATED: 3 perfect days in Cartagena, Colombia

Pauline Frommer

Editorial Director of the Frommer Guides, Publisher of Frommers.com and co-host of nationally syndicated radio show, “The Travel Show,” with her father, travel legend Arthur Frommer.

What was your first trip that truly shaped your love of travel?
I’ve been traveling since I was four months old (with my guidebook-writing parents), so I can’t really pinpoint what trip did it for me. For me, traveling is like breathing in and out: It’s something I have to do to stay alive. It’s not just a pleasure, it’s what informs my worldview and keeps me young.

What is the coolest thing to check out in each new destination you visit?
I always love wandering through local grocery stores and markets. Seeing the goods that people use in their daily lives is often as fascinating as visiting the magnificent structures they build.

What not-so-obvious items do you never-ever travel without?
I don’t fetishize any object, to be honest. To me the point is not what I’m bringing, but what I’m taking home (by which I mean experiences, not souvenirs). Beyond my toothbrush and computer (since I’m always working), there’s no one object that I always have with me.

What is your proudest “travel hack” moment, where you felt like the MacGyver of travel?
I don’t know if this counts, but I was recently traveling with my daughters from LA to Minnesota (on college visits for the oldest one), and the traffic was so horrific that we got to the rental car place really, really late. I realized that while I was on the rental car bus to the terminal that we would be getting off at the last stop … and that wouldn’t work, since the traffic at the terminal was horrendous, too. So I guess my “Mom MacGyver” moment was successfully convincing teenagers that getting off at the bus’ first stop and then running a mile through the terminal was “fun.” My second “McGyver” moment was convincing them to let me talk everyone in the security line into letting us go ahead of them. We got to the gate just as they were doing last call for the flight. I felt like I’d just won The Amazing Race, and the kids were kind of elated too.

What is the most underrated travel destination of the moment?
Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. It’s an absolutely gorgeous nature destination, with so much to see and do. But it’s having a bit of an identity problem, since the name was changed back to the First Nations name a few years ago, so people are confused about where it actually is.

ALSO: Here’s your “MavGyver of travel” moment—join Orbitz Rewards and earn on travel instantly!

Johnny Jet

Editor-In-Chief of JohnnyJet.com. He clocks roughly 175,000 miles and more than 20 country visits annually.

What was your first trip that truly shaped your love of travel?
I used to not only be afraid to fly, but to leave the house. The trip that changed my life was my first international one … Hong Kong with my college girlfriend to visit her parents for a month.

What is the coolest thing to check out in each new destination you visit?
I love visiting grocery stores and farmer’s markets. You get a real sense of what the destination is about.

What not-so-obvious items do you never-ever travel without?
Ear plugs and an eye mask. It helps tremendously to get a good night’s sleep. I also don’t leave home without at least two credit cards that have no foreign exchange fees.

What is your proudest “travel hack” moment, where you felt like the MacGyver of travel?
I have many and it usually involves duct tape. It can repair almost anything.

What is the most underrated travel destination of the moment?
Canada. It’s so close and everything is 25 to 30 percent [less] since the U.S. dollar is so strong.

Tagged: Uncategorized