Earlier this year, I was at a conference of travel writers in Charlottetown, PEI. There were delegates from South Korea, Australia and Mexico. And then there was Tim Johnson from Toronto. He, I heard in elevator chatter, travelled a lot. I was curious. I too have the enviable job of writing about new places. But what's it like to travel all the time? To travel like Tim? So we caught up in a coffee shop and he dished on roommates, jet lag and his passion for a white noise machine:


How much do you really travel?
I travel about 300 days of year. Throughout the year a typical amount of time for me to be home between trips is one to two days, sometimes less. I had a time this year where I flew back from Kuala Lumpur via Hong Kong and had less than 12 hours before I had to fly to Yellowknife for a fishing trip. I really only have one portion of the year when I’m home for any significant amount of time and that’s usually around Christmas. I really just relax and just get all my couch potato moments at once.

What’s it like to travel that much?
It’s exhausting, definitely. Jet lag is unpleasant and a big part of my life. But the travel is also wonderful because every day is filled with new things: meeting new people, learning about their lives, how they live, seeing new places. I have a few favourite places but mostly I don’t travel to the same place twice. 

So where is home for you?
I rent a townhouse with two other guys in Toronto. They’re both there all the time. I’m the only one who’s travelling like this. One’s a lawyer. The other one, I’m not sure what the other one does. I am the perfect roommate. I actually pay a base amount of rent, and then I pay a per day rate.

What’s your lineup for the next three months?
I go to Italy after this. Maui and Molokai. I may have a week off after that, during which time I may go down to Michigan and take in a football game. I’ve got Fiji after that. I also have Turkey and Botswana that I have to fit in somewhere. And I have to get down to Brazil because I have a deadline to write about Manaus. And those are the trips I know about.

With all this travel do you still consider Canada home?
Yes, absolutely. I think I am more aware of my Canadianness now than when I was actually in Canada for long periods of time because travelling this much you get to see what Canada looks like in the eye of the international community. 

Is there somthing you always travel with? Canadian pins?
I remember being in an orphanage in Kenya earlier this year and handing out the pins and they were a huge hit. I never leave home without my laptop and I have a travel alarm clock that also makes white noise. The fact that I’m often sleeping in seven different beds on seven different nights, the fact that I can have some consistency like that is helpful.

Hobbits, golden rings, sheep. Yes, New Zealand is all that. But what do locals love best?

Here in my Globe and Mail Insider, rugby star Tim Bateman (captain of the Maori All Blacks and midfield back for the Hurricanes) reveals his favourites stops in Wellington. 

"Ski cross is the most fun you can have on skis," says Marielle Thompson, "maybe other than powder skiing. That's her on the left, in the lead. The two-time Canadian ski-cross champion is a strong contender to compete at the Winter Games in Sochi.
And where does she have fun in her hometown? 
In my new Insider in The Globe and Mail, the Olympic hopeful shares five places she loves in Whistler, B.C.