My Travel CV: Comedian Ed Gamble shares awkward luggage mishap and travel tips

The English comedian travels for the love of food, but he’s had his fair share of misadventures while searching for the perfect dish.

Ed Gamble

4 min read

June 13, 2025 - 3:07PM

Lifestyle

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English comedian Ed Gamble, presenter of the Off Menu podcast and all-round food fan, shuns social media recommendations. This is his Travel CV:

My first holiday memory is…

Saving my teddy bear from a line of ants. There was a palm tree so maybe that narrows down where I was. Potentially the Caribbean or at a themed leisure centre in England.

I have no idea how many countries I’ve been to…

The great thing about living in Europe is you can zip about to lots of countries and they all have branches of Zara.

My favourite place in Australia is…

I haven’t been to much of it, but I love Melbourne. Food is the main reason to travel for me and it’s one of the best food cities in the world. Plus I saw some Aussie Rules, which I don’t understand but the songs were good.

The place I’d love to visit in Australia is…

I want to revisit places I’ve been and actually see them, rather than eating too much and having to sleep in the day. I’ll go where there’s good Chinese food and less spiders.

Melbourne is one of the best food cities in the world.

The place I’d rather be right now is…

Japan. A beautiful country where everything works and the food is excellent. No greater thing as an Englishman than being in a place where the trains come when they say they will.

The place I’ve visited most is…

Paris. My wife used to live there, which was very considerate of her. I can get the train there and what it lacks in cleanliness it more than makes up for in baked goods. It’s also one of the great walking cities – something I look for in a trip. If you can’t walk between places, I’m not interested. Looking at you, LA.

My most memorable travel experience was in...

Japan again and I can’t promise it won’t come up again. The first time we went I proposed to my wife in Shinjuku Gyoen Park, then we went to a robot show, ate two dinners and ended up in a heavy-metal bar. The best night of my life.

The place I’ve visited most is Paris.

The place on my bucket-list is...

South Korea looks culturally interesting and I love Korean food. For our honeymoon we did a road trip on the west coast of the US. I’d like to do more of that. Perhaps driving around the southern States tasting whisky and eating BBQ, but that sounds like a trip I should save for my divorce.

What I’ve noticed has changed in travel…

So many places are overcrowded because of a well-edited clip on social media. Luckily, the sort of food that’s popular online is rarely what I fancy. I don’t want doughnut-flavoured bubble tea, let alone a nine-hour queue.

The place that most surprised me was…

Iceland. It’s known as a beauty spot, but nothing can prepare you for quite how stunning it is. Everyone we met was fantastic – super-sarcastic and funny, as well as reassuringly dedicated to keeping their country beautiful.

For our honeymoon we did a road trip on the west coast of the US.

My holidays are mostly devoted to…

Still food. But more and more I’m enjoying non-food memories – nature, hiking, views. Never museums, though. If I’m in a museum, I’m there because I feel I should be. It’s like hydrating – it’s out of necessity not pleasure.

The worst thing that’s happened to me travelling…

As a type 1 diabetic I have to carry insulin, which can’t go in the hold because of the temperature. This momentarily escaped me when I let the cabin crew stow my hand luggage on a flight in the States. Cut to me suddenly remembering as we were taxiing, and the plane having to return to the terminal. I then had to walk up the aisle to retrieve my medication and slink back to my seat under a cloud of pancreatic shame.

The most interesting person I’ve met on a plane is…

I try to not meet people on planes. Long flights are an opportunity for me to watch films. They’re a cinema in the sky, and I’d never try to meet anyone at the cinema.

The place on my bucket-list is South Korea. It looks culturally interesting and I love Korean food.

My go-to for room service is…

If I’m getting room service, I’m doing a holiday wrong. I want to be out and about.

My travel tips are...

Don’t pick places based on social media, walk as much as possible and wear SPF50. Even indoors. And do what you want, not what you think you should do. Especially museums. Nobody wants to go to museums.

Travel has taught me...

Unfortunately, I’m a soft little prince. I’ve camped, I’ve shared rooms and I’ve taken buses. Never again. I have grown accustomed to an unsustainable lifestyle and for that I’m truly sorry.

The place I’d rather be right now is Japan. A beautiful country where everything works and the food is excellent.

How many flights have you missed?

I’ve only missed one flight, a connecting flight from Miami to Texas, because of delays on the first flight. I’ve never missed a flight through my own incompetence because I arrive obsessively early to the detriment of my own life.

Passports/cards/luggage lost?

I lost my card once in Paris and we missed our Eurostar home. This was my wife’s mistake (hate to shift the blame but it simply wasn’t my fault). The rest of the trains that night were fully booked, I didn’t have my card to get a hotel and we didn’t have enough money anyway. After a tense hour at the station, we were told we could squeeze onto the last Eurostar home. We sat separately and I had three mini wines.