Tango Diva is so proud to welcome
Peter Greenberg, travel guru, to the Tango Diva Man Issue 2007. One of the nation’s preeminent experts in the travel field, his insider tips, recommendation and vast experience can be found on NBC’s Today show, CNBC, MSNBC, AOL, Men’s Health magazine, Oprah and The View. Yes, he’s feminine friendly!
Peter is also author of The New York Times bestselling series, The Travel Detective, which uncovers secrets the airline, hotel, cruise and rental car industries don’t want consumers to know. Fabulous titles like The Traveler’s Diet: Eating Right and Staying Fit on the Road, Flight Crew Confidential and Hotel Secrets round out his impressive body of work.
Whether online at
PeterGreenberg.com, on TV or in that book by your bedside, Peter’s plethora of travel wisdom awaits!
1. What was the best decision you made in your life?
The best decision I could have ever made was realizing that it’s always smarter to admit what you’re dumb at: my father was a brilliant doctor who helped and healed countless patients. He wanted me to be a doctor. But I soon realized that while I might have had the intelligence to pursue medicine, I didn’t have his passion or his discipline.
I also realized that journalism was my medicine as well as my passion—it allowed me to see and experience the world, and as long as I could always make an important and essential distinction that it was more important to be interested than interesting I could make a difference another way.
2. What is your most memorable travel moment?
There has never been one moment, and that’s the beauty of travel. It’s a history of moments, both new and old, that remind you of why you get up in the morning. And you get those moments when you feel you are a true citizen of the world, that you can hit the ground running anywhere, and that you can make those moments happen as long as you don’t let your ego get in the way and can immerse yourself in another culture and respect it.
3. What was the worst travel experience you had?
Sadly, there are too many of those as well. a tourist is a victim waiting to happen. A traveler is a tourist who has been abused. But to be fair, I’ve never really had a worst travel moment. I’ve had bad ones that I’ve learned from and allowed me to be a better traveler.
4. What have you learned about yourself through traveling?
That i know less and less each day, but am always open to learning. Perhaps most important, I’ve learned that when you travel it’s all about adjusting. And that’s really the key—how fast you adjust, how well you adjust, how sensitively you adjust when you travel is really your guide to how you live the rest of your life. If you can adjust to everything that’s inevitably thrown at you when you travel, you can accomplish and experience anything.
5. If you could choose your ultimate travel companion, living or dead, real or imaginary, who would it be?
Why would I ever limit it to one person? I really can’t. But since travel (at least in my definition) is an experience meant to be shared, then my ultimate travel companion would have to be the woman I’m in love with.
6. What moment in your life did you feel the most alive?
Every time my plane rolls down a runway, or my ship leaves port, or my train departs the station. Call me a hopeless, sentimental romantic, but I still seek (and find) great style and romance every time I leave home. It energizes me.
7. If money and time were no object, where on earth would you go?
There are more than 200 countries in the world. I’ve been blessed to have been to 130 of them, which sadly is 129 more than most Americans. But I don’t possess a checklist of destinations. I’ll go anywhere at least once.
8. Who is your hero?
My sister—a giving, brilliant doctor who has chosen to dedicate her life to people in need, many of whom feel lost and without hope. She also rescues dogs. I can’t think of two more noble endeavors.
9. Name a place in the world that you know a lot about and would make a great resource for our Divas. Tell us about it.
One of the places where I live is Thailand. A country with great style and grace, history and culture, and with people who have defined (and continue to refine) true hospitality and service. Most American travelers to Thailand will enjoy the food and great shopping. I do as well. But head north to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. Spend time near the border with Myanmar with the Hill Tribes, or meditate near or in the temples, and you begin to understand how this kingdom can teach us so many lessons in humility as well as inner strength.
10. And finally a word from our Featured Man, you in your own words—give us a stirring, Diva-worthy battle cry for women everywhere to hear!
If I realize anything in my life now, it’s that you should never become a prisoner of your possessions. Understand that “someday” is NOT a day. That you should—in almost every facet of your life—jettison the word LATER from your vocabulary. Any time you use it in a sentence, I can almost guarantee that you won’t do something as well—or even, at all.
This is your time to be spontaneous without being irresponsible, for not just seizing moments, but making them. And travel plays a huge role in this. Whatever you do, don’t overthink everything. Whenever you’re offered an opportunity, ask yourself these two questions (which can be answered in less than fifteen seconds of total elapsed time, and will help you to minimize the dreaded overthink): if I do this, will I be hurting myself? If I do this will I be hurting someone else? If the answer to both questions is no, then do it immediately!
To Learn More:
To try to keep up with Peter as he jets around the globe, stay tuned to
PeterGreenberg.com, where videos and the latest travel news and tips await. And if you want The Travel Detective to illuminate industry facts and foibles, Peter’s blog is a must read at The Travel Detective.
