How Location Scout Kevin Hodder Got His Awesome Job

BT: How did you get your awesome job? Tony: In 1972, I was recently married, 25 years old and just graduating with an MBA. Maureen (the other half of the 'recently married') and I decided to take a year off and get travel out of our systems by following the 'hippy trail' across Asia to Australia. We had such an amazing time in places like Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and South-East Asia -- remember the Vietnam war was still on -- that we wrote a book about it, Across Asia on the Cheap, and that was the start of Lonely Planet. BT: What do you love most about your job? Tony: Of course LP today has hundreds of writers, and although I still love guidebook writing and try and do some every year, I'm no longer necessary for the company. Nor am I needed on the business side; we have lots of hard-working and dedicated staff that's far more talented in the business sense than I am. But I still get to travel a lot and get to do a lot of what made LP's name in the first place--getting to those really unusual out-of-the-way places. How many people can claim they've been a tourist in Afghanistan, Angola, Central African Republic, and Iraq in the past 12 months? BT: What advice do you have for someone who wants to do what you do? Tony: Travel. There's no other way of learning the travel business than to travel. It's a learn- by-doing job. BT: What the worst job-related travel experience you've ever had? Tony: I don't think I've ever had a really bad experience. I've said often enough that you can be cold, tired, hungry, fed up, frightened but never, ever are you bored. And in the world today, that's worth a lot. I think of moments like being with a bunch of people on a fishing boat crossing from Nukufetau to Vaitupu in the Tuvalu Islands, so crowded the only space was on deck and then going through a rainstorm where you got soaking wet and freezing cold. But wow, there you are out in the middle of the Pacific. I wouldn't miss that for anything. BT: How has your job changed the way you travel? Tony: Well, the fact that I get to do a lot of it is obviously important. But you can never switch off. Any restaurant you eat in, you take notes. What I particularly like are the extremes. In the last few months I've stayed at the Minaret of Jam guest house in Afghanistan, where you unroll your sleeping bag on the floor, and the Banyan Tree Resort in Phuket, Thailand, where you have your own swimming pool in your own garden. Last year, I flew from Cape Town to Casablanca via nine different African countries with an assortment of mainly American travel addicts (and not a Bush voter amongst them!) in a chartered aircraft. But I also traveled from Singapore to Shanghai via Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and finally China, and stuck strictly to surface-level public transport: bus, train, car, boat, motorcycle (quite a few motorcycle taxis along the way), and even the back of a truck in Cambodia.

BT: How did you get your awesome job? Lori: After graduating from college, I became a pastry chef and was ultimately asked to work for Trader Joe's on a special project simplifying Trader Joe's sandwich making, which used to be done in each store. I never left. My job has evolved over the course of 25+ years to be what it is. BT: What do you love most about your job? Lori: I get to work in a medium that I love and have the freedom to be creative every day. Plus, I feel good about developing delicious, healthy, affordable food for customers. I really believe that what I do helps to improve the quality of peoples' lives in a small, and hopefully significant, way. BT: What advice do you have for someone who wants to do what you do? Lori: You have to be in the right place at the right time...honestly! Once you're in the door, you have to be passionate about whatever you are doing. BT: What the worst job-related travel experience you've ever had? Lori: I really haven't had any bad travel related experiences that I can recall other than eating some tainted smoked salmon in Paris just before I drove to the south of France. I was violently sick the whole way down and the trip took forever. BT: How has your job changed the way you travel? Lori: I'm not a very good tourist as a result of all of the business travel I do. And not for the reasons you might think. It's because I really love what I do and thoroughly enjoy hunting for new products and visiting with current suppliers. When I'm not on a business trip, I find myself interested in the same things I am for work. I go to outdoor markets and grocery stores to see what things are like in different countries. I might do a bit of sightseeing if there's something significant where I am, but that's often not the thrust of what I end up doing. If I'm not traveling for business, I am most likely lying on a beach somewhere.

So you think you know everything about travel? Think again. Budget Travel has teamed up with veteran travel journalist Nadine Godwin to create a fun (and challenging!) quiz based on her new book Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia. Test your knowledge today--we dare you! Want to hear about more web-exclusive travel quizzes and contests? Sign up for our e-mail newsletter!

So you think you know everything about travel? Think again. Budget Travel has teamed up with veteran travel journalist Nadine Godwin and created a fun (and challenging!) quiz based on her new book Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia (TravelTriviaBook.com). Test your knowledge today -- we dare you!