In the second grade Brandon Presser won a ribbon for being the most inquisitive student in the class. He promptly asked his teacher what ‘inquisitive’ meant, and hasn’t stopped asking questions since.
Today, Brandon is a freelance journalist, author and television host whose work is informed by an unwavering curiosity about culture. He currently writes two columns for Bloomberg Businessweek: “At Your Service” explores luxury hospitality and the secret propensities of the ultra-rich, and “Two-Night Minimum” is a collection of obsessively vetted city guides for the gadabout excursionist. His nonfiction adventure thriller, The Far Land, won the SATW Lowell Thomas Prize for Best Travel Book of the Year.
For much of his almost-two-decades-long career, Brandon has been exploring and illuminating diverse destinations around the globe for readers and viewing audiences. Called a “rough-and-tough adventurer” by Entertainment Weekly, Brandon has traveled to over 130 countries, penned over 60 guidebooks and reference titles for Lonely Planet, written hundreds of features for an array of notable publications from The Washington Post to Vogue, and was the star of Bravo TV’s travel series Tour Group.
Beyond the page and the small screen, Brandon uses his experience in the field (3,000 hotels visited, and counting) to render services as a hospitality consultant, industry futurist, podcast guest, and frequent keynote speaker.
In his past professional life, Brandon worked at the Louvre in Paris and taught scuba diving in Thailand. Originally from Canada, Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and architecture from Harvard University. He speaks French natively, Japanese tolerably, and can order food in seven other languages.