(Bloomberg) -- At Bloomberg Pursuits, we love to travel. And we always want to make sure we’re doing it right. So we’re talking to road warriors to learn about their high-end hacks, tips and off-the-wall experiences. These are the Distinguished Travel Hackers .
Kathy Fang’s family is the force behind House of Nanking, the storied San Francisco restaurant founded by her father, Peter, in the 1980s. Her charisma and drive—not to mention cooking skills—earned her a slot as one of the San Francisco Examiner’s first-ever San Franciscans of the Year in 2024. The family also starred in the docuseries Chef Dynasty: House of Fang on Food Network/Discovery+, and she’s been a two-time winner on Chopped, as well as appearing on the likes of Beat Bobby Flay and Guy’s Grocery Games. Fang also just published her first cookbook, Easy Asian Cookbook: 100+ Takeout Favorites Made Simple.
She logs around 35,000 miles at 36,000 feet every year. “If I could fly any airline, all the time, it would be Emirates,” she says. “For one, they have a bar at the back of the plane, and I like my gin martinis. So I really love that little perk. And they offer complimentary BMW car services from the airport to your hotel.” Fang also calls out the can-do attitude of the cabin crew. Once, she grilled a staffer about the perks of his job, which included free health and wellness treats. “He was so happy to be there, and it shows,” she says. “The last thing you want, when you’re flying business or first, is a flight attendant who just feels like they’re doing their job.”
Fang, 42, lives in San Francisco, where she was born and raised, with her husband and two young children, age 6 and 4. These are her travel tips.
It’s worth making room in your luggage for this unlikely device.I’m traveling tomorrow to Portugal and I am literally packing the rice cooker right now—I use a Japanese one from Tiger that’s about $40. I learned this from my best friend 15 years ago after she started traveling with kids. I thought she was crazy when she told me she lugs a rice cooker around when traveling to four-star hotels. Then I had kids and was hooked. It’s a portable kitchen wizard that delivers comfort food on demand. You can make rice, you can make oatmeal, you can make congee; you just plug it in. When I was in Hawaii with my family, my daughter had an upset stomach and couldn’t eat anything heavy; room service had chicken noodle soup, but even that was a little greasy, so this was a lifesaver. If I'm going somewhere that’s not a major city, I'll pack just two or three portions of rice in a triple Ziploc. Buy a dry miso soup packet and you only need a quarter cup. You can measure this at home, put it in with a quarter cup of rice; make it with two cups of water, and it becomes congee for you. Trader Joe's, they have these little individual packets of ginger powder, and you can pack that, too.
You won’t have to worry about feeling embarrassed by this in-flight beauty secret.My skin gets so sapped when I’m flying, and I tried the sprays, the serums and none of it worked for me. Then I found this sleeping mask, or pack, that’s basically clear—you put it on your face, and sleep in it: the Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica, which includes a clear gel formula that’s applied like a regular moisturizer. You rinse it off before you land for plump, hydrated skin. It doesn’t crust up, and no one would even know that it’s on your face. It’s the best thing ever because I’ve never been brave enough to wear real masks on the plane. It’s so jarring.
Come to this corner of Vietnam and you’ll experience the country through new eyes.Vietnam actually has some really, really clean, pristine white sand beaches, blue waters, but no one ever talks about that, right? People maybe talk about going to Vietnam and having amazing food and whatnot, but the impression tends to be of very touristic places like Hạ Long Bay. But Vinh Hy Bay is a pristine stretch of coastline in Ninh Thuan province. We felt like we were on our own island. There was almost no one there. And I liked that. We were going to Vietnam on a work trip for my husband and I wanted to tag along for some fun. Aman opened a property there, and that’s one of the hotel chains I like to follow—they always pick stunning locations. We went to the floating fish markets and didn’t see a single tourist; you can buy seafood from markets floating on buoys, take it home or have someone cook it there for you.
Rehydrate from jet lag—or food poisoning—with these handy sachets.I work in the restaurant industry, so believe it or not, I don’t actually drink a ton of water; it means a lot more trips to the restroom, and I don’t have the time when I’m cooking. My doctor told me to find ways to hydrate and recommended this thing called DripDrop. It’s been developed for places where they don’t have access to clean water, so one pack delivers the equivalent of how much [electrolytes and minerals] you need in one day in an eight-ounce flask of water. And I started bringing it on flights, because you get dehydrated then. It’s also good if you have kids who get sick, or if you get really bad food poisoning—way better than Pedialyte or Gatorade, as it doesn’t have all the sugar.
Everyone should travel with a MacGyver Bag, Fang-style.My husband packs our MacGyver Bag. It has a Roku stick so you can stream movies and TV shows on a regular TV, a Wi-Fi extender hub for spotty Wi-Fi, all the chargers and cables for the phones and computers of the entire family, plus a small screwdriver set, a small mini power strip and a universal travel adapter. Buy this one from Amazon. If I need help fixing my computer or my phone is dying, that bag takes care of it.
Think of working with a travel agent as getting someone to handle the grunt work.I like working with a travel agent—I work with Linda Terrill, and Artisans of Leisure, which has incredible, pre-organized private packages. The thing I like about working with them is they do a lot of the initial legwork. They always have perks, like early check-ins, or a complimentary upgrade if something’s available. A lot of times I also have them help me just figure out routes for flights, if it’s a complicated trip. What’s the most efficient way of going from, say, London then Lisbon and then France. I just planned a Japan trip and wanted to think about the bullet train versus flying, or a car from the hotel to the train. I could Google it, but a travel agent is going to be able to just say, “No, this is the quickest, and you should do it this way.”
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The best city for a cocktail right now might surprise you.Taipei is a foodie city that’s so under the radar. People think of Taiwan as a really small place, known for street food, but when I go? I almost never eat the street food, even though that’s what it’s famous for. I’ve had some of the best cocktails there, and the drinks programs blow away most of the cocktails I’ve had even in San Francisco. Go to UnDer Lab bar—it’s female-run —and have a teagroni or a jamon cocktail with clarified tomato water. Bar Mood has the most amazing guava fizz I’ve ever had in my life. Washu has one of the longest cocktail menus I’ve ever seen and features cocktails based on a single-ingredient flavor profile, like curry or wasabi or radish or even pizza.
Overindulged in-flight, or at one of those bars? Fang’s well prepared.I travel with ZBiotics, these very small, very light vials of prebiotics. You can drink them before you have alcohol if, say, you’re going to wine country in France, and drinking a lot more than you usually are and this prevents hangovers. They’re small enough to be part of your allocation for carryon liquids, too. This girl likes her martini.
The best souvenirs are small, and precious.You know how people buy coffee cups or shot glasses? Well, my husband and I started this habit when we first started traveling: Pick up a piece of jewelry as a souvenir. And I can always remember where we were when I pick out a piece to wear. “Oh, this is when we were in Bali, and went to this factory and I picked it out.” There’s always a story, a memory, a feeling.
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