Travelling with an addition.

I haven’t contributed to my own blog for a while, not only because I’ve spent more time holding a camera and less time on a keyboard, but because a little ray of sunshine has come into the world. On April 23, a year ago today, Archi-Lee was born.

I felt like I’d been productive in my life; I thought I’d been drained, and I thought I’d been time poor. But nothing quite had me prepared for the adventure that awaited in my first year in fatherhood.

As I write this at 4:30 in the morning, I have been determined for the past few weeks to get these notes down. I reflect in pure fondness on my new inspiration, my new purpose, and the reality that this often solo traveler is checking in now for three.

My wife Hyemi and I were determined to not let this be the end of our traveling adventures. By hook or by crook, this first year of his life has seen him hit up some remarkably important destinations.

Auckland - New Zealand

Firstly, Auckland, New Zealand - meeting uncle Eric.

Auckland’s not unlike Adelaide; there’s enough to keep you busy, but not so much it feels like metropolitan chaos (a real advantage when you have a 6-month-old).

Getting around by car is fairly simple (if you’re happy to substitute Baby Shambles for Baby Shark). But the best thing we did was stay in a location that made it easy to stroll to a bunch of great sites.

Art galleries, pasta bars, dark sand beaches, and happy days. The main lesson I learned is to not try to do too much. A 9-5 itinerary has to include multiple entries for resting, feeding, and drinking craft beers at your Airbnb with a good podcast. Which, to be honest, at thirty-five is probably as appealing as mezcal cocktails at the trendy new bar anyway.

Seoul - South Korea

To visit Korean Grandpa and see where mum’s (Hyemi’s) from. I’ve been with Hyemi for six years now, and through the pandemic, a bunch of canceled trips, and a tight living cost crunch, I’ve never had the chance to experience her culture. More so, she went years without the chance to regularly be around the friends and family she holds dear. Sometimes zoom is just not enough.

Korea is a wild place. Staying in Hong Dae, within arm's reach of the cousins, I found it fascinating to see the urban integration of residential living, retail, and a thriving and very unique hoso/arts scene.

Baby in hand, we explored the traditional and less traditional pillars of Korean life together.

Baby Travel Tips:

• Do less; enjoy your family more.

• Less on a whim, more booked in.

• Carry distractions at all times.

• Take advantage of the baby lane.

Port Adelaide - Things Unseen

Over the past few years, I’ve been keeping my creative experiences private a bit. But, after developing my skill set, I think it’s probably time to share my recent works with video as a medium.

In 2023, I worked on a short series of interview stories based in Port Adelaide. Things Unseen is about the characters that make a neighborhood great, the personalities that come to define how an area is received and what they bring to their communities.

Overarching campaign piece.

Sometimes they are obvious, running a public class or showing you around the exhibit of a museum. Sometimes it’s behind closed doors, in the back of a kitchen, or sitting in a dimly lit gallery space working away at the latest piece.

Like all port towns, there’s a bit of nostalgia floating around, building a natural sense of charm. What I love about Port Adelaide is that there’s just enough going on to make it feel productive, but not too much that it’s hard to see what’s important.

I’d like to introduce some characters that felt important to me. Very different people, all bringing life to a sometimes understated community.

Phil Donnelly - The Baker - Pastry master, former rockabilly and self accredited inventor of the cheeseburger pie. Having a yarn at the Mayfair Bakery.

Thomas Readett - The Muralist fierce First Nations artist with incredible can control. Works can be found in gallery spaces and on city streets around South Australia.

Kylie Macey - The Historian with a full sleeve of tattoos and a penchant for South Australia’s past. Guiding you at the South Australian Maritime Museum.

Eleanor Scicchitano - The Curator brining the arts community together and cracking a smile the entire time. Residing at the Post Office Projects.

Dr. Allison French - The Instructor - Here to fix your back and your mind at Dock Studios.

The crew I worked with was lean but mighty. Timothea Moylan helped me produce the series, Josh Trezise acted as our key videographer and DOP, and the City of Port Adelaide Enfield funded the series. Insider Studios, the creative team I direct, was the central production house for the piece.

San Francisco Pocket Precincts

Through 2017, 2018 and 2019 I spent time researching and producing the San Francisco Pocket Precinct Guide with Hardie Grant Travel. This is my second production within this series and can highly recommend them as a must-have travel companion if you are heading to any of the available locations.

Here's my introduction from the guide - It explains the concept well.

"Beat Poets, groovy people and techtrepreneus alike - there’s something about thinking differently that comes with the territory in San Francisco.

A place where you are free to be what you want and ‘do you’ whoever you may be. The perfect backdrop for creativity – a judgement-free zone. Where ideas become a reality and where concepts become actualisations.

Although a place of constant change, it’s a place that respects history. A place where some restaurants have had the same item on the menu since the ’50s and the same person serving since the 70s. The nostalgia isn’t just in the Victorian homes and the fog rolling in over the Golden Gate, it’s in the attitude.

When something is done right, it’s rewarded. In a place that might seem full of trends and market growth, doing something well is valued and held close to locals hearts for generations.

In one of my favourite diners hangs a sign, ‘welcome stranger’ – This to me is the most authentic image of San Francisco. More so than a Giants game, Janis Joplin or the Transamerica Pyramid.

Perched on a barstool, cosy in a leather booth, or on the rattling chair of a streetcar. Chances are someone is going to make you feel like they want you there. Tell you what they love about being a San Franciscan and point you on the right course. Sharing is Californian caring.

Maybe an SF native can’t see this, but having come from afar and stayed for bursts at a time these things always range true to me ever so authentically.

I’ll point you in the right direction to make a start - paying equal homage to the classics that make the Golden City so iconic and the current trends that make it so progressive at the same time.

We’ll explore the heart of downtown, from the stalwart diners and dive bars to shopping chic retailers and decadent cocktail haunts.

When it’s time to escape the hustle, we’ll hit the road on day trips through pivotal cultural hubs in the outer Bay Areas and then even further to California’s acclaimed wine regions, coastal scenes and national parks. "

OFF THE GRID

The Off the Grid Series is presented in collaboration with the City of Adelaide. Each guide is designed to provide a different perspective on life in our fine city.

Go at your own pace. These guides are designed for both visitors and locals to discover the hidden gems of Adelaide. Be responsible and enjoy what the pubs of Adelaide have to offer.

Each guide offers checklists, online content and a local insight into the topic under discussion.

Public houses

The Public House (Pub) was the cornerstone of the town - acting in kind as the Restaurant, the Saloon, the Post Office, the banker, and on occasion, even the barracks and the mortuary.

If Adelaide’s the town of Churches, it’s undoubtedly the City of Pubs -- with over 70 within the city terraces. This density of active historic hotels is unseen anywhere else in Australia.

Here’s a few of my favourites for you in order.

Crown and Anchor, The Exeter Hotel, The Governor Hindmarsh, The Kings Head, The Wheatsheaf Hotel.

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Orientation

There is a lot going on when you come to a new town. It can be hard to know where to start. Your checklist is long and your time is short. We’ve put together a collection of things we think you might find handy to have on hand as you get orientated in the great City of Adelaide.

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Kids and Teens

Designed for parents travelling with kids of all ages or for locals looking to discover a few new ideas to add to their usual stop-offs.

We hope a few of the locations listed here will be enjoyable for both you and your little ones.

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SATC Touring Routes

Growing up in South Australia, summer holidays were spent racing BMXs around seaside caravan parks, throwing a lure off the jetty and hoping there was still pine lime splices left in the general store.

My teens living in the foothills, heading out on day trips through hiking trails or going for a dip in rock pools. As I got older I started to enjoy the closeness to good booze and produce, attempting to be sophisticated at cellar doors and hopping through tasting paddles at craft breweries.

But it took well into adulthood to see the uniqueness of this -- to realize that access to such a diverse range of activities is an absolute blessing.

Working with our Tourism Commission (SATC) to evolve an existing set of travel routes was a fairly nostalgic and natural exercise.

The routes are broken down into key areas of the state - from coastal cruises and wetland retreats to exploring The Outback and our countries red center.  The curation of locations leaves you with itineraries that cover anything from a week to a month.

Following this I took the points of interest and evolved it into an appealing set of maps wayfarers can carry around and use as a reference throughout their journey.

I really enjoyed working with their team to in both research and design capacities. Having spent a lot of time road tripping over the past few years, in the future, I’d be thrilled to evolve these routes into more comprehensive field guides. 

Half-Full Adventure Maps

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In early 2016, I was road tripping and van living. We were hitting a string of North American cities at a fairly rapid pace. Often trying to keep up with our freelance work at the same time, we were regularly stuck without any day plans.

We liked to spend our evenings imbibing local craft beer, cooking on the fire pit or getting our fingers greasy in north western diners. But the idea of hanging out at the end of the night in the back of our 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan researching things to do the next day with shoddy, stolen Wi-Fi under the headlamp just wasn't that enticing.

While we always had a good time, we continually experienced this sinking feeling that maybe we had missed something. Was there was some essential sandwich style loved by locals, or a flaming cocktail served out of a Peruvian puzzle mug that we should be drinking?

What we really needed was a hit-list of the right things to do. So, we decided to start brainstorming ideas in advance while we were driving. We'd often even test ourselves to make sure we got them all in—writing a list and making it a challenge to check them all off.

We'd only ever stay a few days in one place, because you know, the road is always calling when you've got to go back to work in a month and you’re running out of funding and fuel. It was therefore absolutely essential that we clustered our must-dos (food, drink, activities, art and experiences) together. There was no point in bouncing from one side of the city to the other and back, all the while wasting precious time trying to park our beast or jammed in a metro car trying to interpret a subway map for half of the day.

The next thing was to make sure we had back-up plans. The travel gods are not always on your side. Even Google sometimes gets it wrong. There is nothing worse than finally arriving at some majestic corner of a city only to find your port of call is closed for renovations. So, we needed alternatives nearby that ran a close second in our researching and brainstorming stage!

We also needed a mix of destinations—Fuko likes arty spaces, Sam likes learning how booze is made, and we both love greasy food and appreciate a touristy experience or two along the way. Diversity on our trips is key, and god knows that if I didn't plan for it, I was going to be spending 8 hours a day hanging out with Fuko, Rembrandt, Picasso and Pollock slow-walking Museum Mile.

We both have a huge love for music—we would frequently be hanging out on NME or reading Wikipedia as we drove past the exits to towns, hard punching thumbs to the screen to see who was playing tonight, or what bands grew up around the corner.

Having a playlist of songs queued up that represents the city you’re in can teach you a lot about the streets you’re walking. The sounds of the scene are also a welcoming companion for the solo traveller or when the person in the passenger seat is sleeping—not to mention less people bother you when you've got your headphones on during metropolitan strolls.

The comfort of recommendation

The final thing that has really rung true to me my entire life is paying your travels forward. I absolutely treasure when a friend (or a friendly bartender) writes down a list of his or her favourite spots to check out the next day. I also dig it when I rock up to a youth hostel and the departing traveller dumps his or her knowledge on you. Finding the right 'know it all' will help you cut out the clutter.

Having spent time in a few major cities around the world, I regularly write lists of my hidden treasures to share with others before they depart on their journeys. After a while, I decided I really kind of wanted a template I could use to do this in the future. An easy way to hand all these discoveries onto my next fellow adventurer.

Most of all, I wanted this thing to be small and compact and stored in something I could thrash about—especially because I've destroyed so many maps to the point I can't even read them anymore.

So, from 2016 to 2018 we set off further exploring the cities that had meant the most to us in the past, all the while compiling a mixture of what people had to see and what we loved the most about those places.

The final list of cities included New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Melbourne.

In mid-2017, Hardie Grant stepped in to help me revise and publish the guides I had constructed. The advice and help from the team there was pivotal. It's not hard to see why they're one of the most on-trend and on-point publishing groups.

A huge thanks to Susan Paterson and Megan Cuthbert for their literary expertise and the advice they could provide as a result of their extensive experience in the travel industry. Thanks so much to Melissa Kayser and Astrid Browne as well for allowing me to give it all a go and having faith in what I could do.

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Off the Grid Part II - Heritage and Folklore

When deciding to add editions to the Off the Grid Guides (developed in conjunction with the City of Adelaide), we decided it was important to present a guide to the unique and often intriguing historical sites our city has to offer. Haunted histories, interesting folklore and architecture that literally has storeys to tell all lay behind the folds of this here map.

This project really called for me to pull a mixed set of skills out of the hat. I worked on the concept, graphic design, illustration and  cartography. I even produced the audio companions with the help from sound editor Joshua Trezise and narrator Peter Marks. With the aid of a range of existing source materials at our disposal from the SA Library and existing council material we compiled a super interesting set of information.

Undeniably my favourite aspect of the map is the 'Above the Canopy Trail'. This trail takes what looks like a regular pedestrian mall and turns it into an open air museum. It explains the details that are hidden above the modern day shop fronts - what remains of the old shopfronts tells a clear story of what existed here in the yesteryear.

Below are the sample audio tracks that correspond with the tour. The audio tracks are marked on the physical map and are designed to be played / triggered at pre selected locations on the physical map.

Current day locations compared to the 1920s

The locations of where iconic photos were taken are also presented on the map.

Insider Guides - Melbourne 2018

2018 marks the 10th year of Insider Guides. Insider is designed to help international students survive the transition into living in a new country. For me it has definitely played a huge role in developing my love for guide books... It has taught me just about everything I know about publishing, design, content and sharing experiences through a print medium.

When approaching the layout this year we used a lot of existing elements but tweaked them in a way that would give them “a more mature aesthetic”, combined with the evolving look and general vibe of our website, in an attempt to unify the brand.

In this 2018 Melbourne edition, I took charge of the illustration, a lot of the photography and the all of the layout. It was great to be involved in so many different facets of the publication. Many of the locations from the guide are some of my favourites which I spend time at repeatedly when I visit Melbourne.

Pinned Up Pin-Ups @ Naked For Satan

Fuko Pattern Hunting on Smith Street

I believe Melbourne was the first city outside of Adelaide that I started making guidebooks for. Even prior to that, my mother used to visit Melbourne for work trips when I was a teenager, so while spending time with her, it was really one of the first cities outside of my hometown I had the chance to explore.

Flinders Street

View From Eureka Skydeck

Today, I still look forward to any opportunity that would let me spend more time in this city. 

San Francisco Music Alliance

I went to San Francisco initially to spend some time living in the US with my partner Fuko. In addition to always having an interest in the Bay Area (who doesn’t?), I was lucky enough to secure some research work there for a long term project.

As usual, I was on the hunt for some side projects to work on and after not too long, The opportunity arose to work with the San Francisco Music Alliance.

The mandate of SFMA is to promote vibrancy in the foggy city’s music scene – engaging with venues to ensure the health and longevity of such an influential part of American cultural antiquity.

I’ve always been attracted to San Francisco, it’s been the breeding ground for so many scenes I’ve been interested in over different periods of my life – well… music,  booze, coffee, design and even the techy stuff too, to some extent.  

Since I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock, a stack of the bands I prized in my teens were from the Bay Area. What I didn’t realise was the extent other genres were thriving in the 7x7 too. I knew about the hippie scene, Haight-Ashbury etc.. but I had no idea about the influence of the Fillmore Jazz scene or the grass roots hip-hop movements.

The sheer volume of music available daily was staggering to me – not just like the local blues night Tuesdays I’ve been used to living in a smaller town… I mean big bands, almost daily.

Some of the venues I was able to visit included the Fox Theatre, The Rickshaw Stop, Bottom of the Hill and The Mezzanine. We were even lucky enough to spend a day at Stern Grove! It was easy to feel the history and the energy that had been stored in these magical places.

Crowd on a hillside @ Stern Grove Festival

The brief: come up with a way to demonstrate SF’s broad music culture collaborating with writers and local stakeholders to demonstrate the impact and promote the availability of live music in San Francisco.

Music in SF gave me a place to go when I didn't really know anyone. It was a welcoming experience to have something be available for me; a place to go. In the Bay, it’s not a daunting thing to go to a show by yourself, in fact it's a place to feel comfortable and enjoy music purely for music’s sake.

The map will be distributed throughout music venues in SF. Thanks to the SF music alliance – particularly Joe, Maggie and Ben who made this all a pleasant experience for me and welcomed me with open arms (literally).

San Francisco, I'm sure we'll cross paths again soon...

Adelaide Pocket Precincts

I was commissioned in early 2017 to produce a comprehensive guide to Adelaide’s precincts for Hardie Grant Travel.

In the past, they have released the popular coffee table ‘Precinct’ series in cities like Melbourne, London, and Tokyo.

For the Adelaide edition, they aimed to produce a more compact guide. These guides would be handled in the field and provide a top-level view of different areas of the city while people were on the move.

The guide is perfect for extracting the author’s most loved places quickly. So I think the personality comes through from the selection of sites. Along with Adelaide, 2017 brought the release of a Hanoi and Kyoto edition in the same compact form – I’ve used the Kyoto edition and I highly recommend it.

I think it makes an excellent reference for anyone you know looking to visit Adelaide, and for locals looking to get out and see some areas they aren’t overly familiar with.

I’ve always strived to discover both the institutional and contemporary aspects of Adelaide that make it unique. Located in such a compact area it's seamless to get out of town and see more than just the regular tourist spots.

Cruising down Rundle Mall 

"The Summertown Aristologist"

I think the project was a great opportunity to develop my skills in writing and photography. It also helped me see things from a different perspective in both publishing and my home town.

Throughout the reviewing and researching stage, I’ve enjoyed discovering and revisiting some of my most treasured locations and also had the chance to add some newbies to this list.

Feast @ Pickle in the Middle

Burger @ Bread and Bone

Clarity Records

Hans Heysen's Cottage

Tots @ Low and Slow

Truffles @ Rundle Mall

You can find your local stockists here (AU): http://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/adelaide-pocket-precincts-by-sam-trezise/9781741175547

Concrete Playground

I’ve always used Concrete Playground when traveling interstate. They’re an excellent resource for discovering things to do in cities on the East Coast. By reviewing points of interest in a really succinct way, they provide a quick and simple insight when you're looking to get a general overview of what’s on offer.

I think that we share similar visions of what makes a good city guide. So we came up with some ideas we can work on together. 

What we’ve created is a summer hit list - the must-sees and dos around Sydney. My main focus was the cartography, layout and illustrations of the guide.

What makes this guide awesome is that it breaks things down clearly into the classic and up and coming locations. I think as a traveler it’s important to know and experience the local favourites whilst feeling hip at a brand spanking new hangout. So this guide is definitely for travelers and locals alike.

During my trip to the east coast with Fuko, we even got a chance to sample some of the locations listed. Some of our favourites included Bulletin Place, which had an evergreen cocktail menu (which changes daily) and their sister bar, Dead Ringer.

"Southside cocktail @ Bulletin Place"

Shady Pines Saloon was also a highlight, it’s basically a classic western themed bar. I remember this place from a couple years ago - they were really laid back. Back then they would serve free peanuts for every drink just so people can be slack and cover the entire floor with peanut shells. It wasn't a surprise to see that this wasn't a custom anymore, it must've taken hours to clean up. 

"Tinnies and Peanuts @ Shady Pines Saloon"

We even stumbled upon their HQ on our walk.

"Hey CP"

The guide and associated map were really-useful. I could see one being handy in every season.

"Chinese Garden of Friendship" 

"Road to Sydney - Summer 2018"

"Back to Adelaide"