A travel and hospitality expert, Managing Director/founder of Argeo Hospitality, and host of Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible, Anthony Melchiorri fills in The Affluent Traveler on his global travel adventures.

What are your favorite places to visit when you have time in your busy schedule?

For a quick visit, it's gotta be Coney Island in Brooklyn. First, it has the best pizza place: Totonno's. Second, it’s the home of the original and oldest roller coaster. On top of that, it has the Ford Amphitheater, a Live Nation venue with class-A concerts. Finally, it’s the home of the original and best Nathan's Hot Dogs. I “vacation” there three to four times a year because I live so close, and as a native to the area, it’s never really left my bloodstream. 

When it comes to an overnight destination, my pick is Scandinavia. I was doing an ice hotel special for the Travel Channel and I realized three things: 1. The Finns aren't big on words or handshakes, but they are like the mirror to Brooklynites – they tell you how it is. They also taught me to love saunas. I went skiing and the gondola I rode in was a sauna! 2. The Swedes have a country that is clean and just a generally happy place. 3. Norway is very much an outdoors-focused, athletic and family-oriented country. If I ever moved away from the United States, I'd probably move there.

Any place you haven’t been that you would like to experience?

Japan. I just want to be Japanese for a solid year! I want to watch, learn and fully immerse myself, one-hundred percent, in the language, customs, culture, restaurants, temples and everything the nation has to offer.

What’s the most unusual gift you’ve brought home from your travels?

A wood carved bust of my head donated by a fan. I'm not kidding.

Where do you like to go to relax and chill?

If I am alone and want to relax, you'd find me at a poker table at the Venetian in Las Vegas. If I'm with my family, however, then we would either be enjoying the sun in a two-bedroom condo at the end of a long beach in Turks and Caicos, or we would be at my family's epicenter just outside Rome in Civitavecchia.

If you could take one trip anywhere, where you go?

I would take a year-long, around-the-world cruise – but with a catch; I wouldn't want to know the destinations the ship would be headed, nor would I want to know the itinerary. Each day would be a complete and total surprise.