If Betty Ford treated wanderlust, actor Ewan McGregor would be the first admitted. The 38-year-old gets his travel fix by working on multiple movies (coming up: Amelia, The Men Who Stare at Goats), then taking off for extended motorcycle tours across Africa and around the globe. For our annual travel issue, we asked the actor to share his hard-won wisdom. All of it, by the way, applicable to non-movie stars.

I’d never considered traveling to out-of-the-way spots before I visited Churchill, Canada, to make a documentary about polar bears. Then I was hooked.

I’m always on the road, and most of the time the only thing I can’t do without is a laptop. Some other necessary items: warm sleeping bag, tent, GPS—that’s it for a good trip.

I don’t have my pilot’s license yet because I haven’t had time, but I got to fly in a P-51 Mustang for Amelia. Flying over Africa, that would be a dream. I also haven’t done any real sea adventuring—I need to get to the Poles.