Celebrity Travel: Go away with Art Bell
In the 1980s, Art Bell developed the idea for a 24-hour cable comedy network, which would eventually become Comedy Central. In his memoir “Constant Comedy: How I Started Comedy Central and Lost My Sense of Humor" (Ulysses Press, $24.95), Bell writes about his beginning at the network, where he met a young Jon Stewart, and his eventual dismissal from the company he founded. Bell, who resides in Greenwich, Connecticut, is currently working on "The Origins of Comedy Central" podcast, which is scheduled to premiere in April.
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: I took up scuba diving a couple of years ago. My wife and I spent a week at a dive resort on Little Cayman Island. Fabulous. I hope to find more diving spots like that all over the world.
Q: To someone who was going to Little Cayman Island, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?
A: Scuba dive. Of course, if they don't dive, there's not much else to do, so don't go, in which case I will suggest a trip to Australia. We spent three weeks in Australia five years ago and it is not to be missed. See the Great Barrier Reef – you can dive, snorkel, or just look over the side of the boat, I guess. Don't miss the Sydney Opera House. It's astonishing. I couldn't take my eyes off it. And we stayed at Saffire Freycinet in Freycinet National Park. That was the single best lodging experience in my life.
Q: What trips did you have to cancel because of this pandemic?
A: We were supposed to go to Wakatobi in Indonesia, but the pandemic hit so we have postponed that trip.
Q: What untapped destination should people know about?
A: Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It's not necessarily untapped, but it is out of the way, and we chose to stay inside the park at a very small hotel. Because cars weren't allowed in the park, we had to take a four-hour bus ride to get there. We hiked every day, avoided a confrontation with a grizzly bear, thanks to our quick-thinking guide, and met some remarkable people at the hotel. The view of Denali mountain was spectacular.
Q: What was the first trip you took as a child?
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