Bourdain to Buena Vista Social Club – readers reveal their travel heroes

Writers, chefs and musicians have instilled a wanderlust in our readers but so, too, have heroic grandads and intrepid aunts

Anthony Bourdain every time. He was not perfect, and some episodes of his TV shows are hard to watch given what we know now about his mental health struggles. But he showed the joys of travel: a drink and a chat with the table next door; eating street food at the stalls with the longest queues; and navigating the morals of travelling with humility and open eyes when you’re often richer than the local people. I started watching his shows in my 20s, and it was because of him that we roughed it across Morocco, landed in Mumbai with no plans, and went to the most expensive wineries we could on a shoestring in Italy (arriving sweaty on bikes – they weren’t impressed). He changed my life.
Lydia Taylor