I’ve been a travel writer for many years but also write about spirits. Travel Distilled is my chance to bring together those two great passions – travel and distilleries!
AWARDS
I’ve written on travel for newspapers, magazines and websites in the UK, the USA, Australia, Africa and Asia. I’ve won several awards for my writing and photojournalism:
- Travel Distilled gained 3rd place in the AITO Travel Blogger of the Year Awards
- A Travelex Award for Best Consumer Magazine Feature. The story, for London’s Time Out, was about eating snake in China and is now the title piece in my collection of travel writing, Snakes Alive!
- A British Guild of Travel Writers Award
- Two Awards for Excellence from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild
- A Benjamin Franklin Award in the USA for a guidebook to Paris
- AITO Online Travel Writer of the Year
- Named as one of the 50 Most Influential Travel Journalists in the UK by the Press Gazette
GUIDEBOOKS
I’ve also written or contributed to over 40 guidebooks for major travel publishers, including the AA, AAA, National Geographic, Fodor’s, Insight, Dorling Kindersley, Thomas Cook, Michelin, Moon Guides and many more.
FOOD AND DRINK
I have always loved writing about food and drink for the travel pages, and as well as visiting distilleries I’ve toured vineyards in France, Greece, New Zealand, the UK and even Arizona. I’ve toured breweries in many countries, written about Bernachon’s chocolate shop in Lyon, visited the Champagne region of France and the sherry bodegas of Jerez. I’ve interviewed chefs including Raymond Blanc and Alain Ducasse, and worked for a week as a waiter in a taverna in the Greek islands. (As a result I now leave bigger tips.)
I also now write regularly about spirits – the kind that you drink, of course. As well as this website, I write for the drinks website Wine and Whiskey Globe, and have written a book about barrels, Cask Strength.
EXOTIC TRAVELS
My more exotic travels have taken me camel-trekking in the Sinai Desert, walking in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania to raise money for charity, learning to jive in Barcelona, looking for orang-utans in the rain forests of Sumatra and staying with a farming family in China.
OTHER WRITING
As well as hundreds of travel pieces and dozens of guidebooks, I’ve also written a podcast for American Express, worked on mapping software for Microsoft, written hotel reviews for Google, written a crime novel, an erotic novel and three radio plays for the BBC.
MORE INFORMATION
There’s much more information about my travel writing, guidebooks and so on on my website at www.mikegerrard.com.
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