Andrew Bender is an award-winning travel and food writer known for his Seat 1A travel site on Forbes and contributions to publications including the Los Angeles Times and Lonely Planet. Writing since the late 1990s, he has authored over three dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks and won the Eureka! Travel Writing Award for his coverage of California’s deserts. With an MBA from Wharton and a Master’s in East Asian Studies, Andrew is also a cross-cultural consultant and tour leader for Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese and French, has lived in Japan, France, and the Netherlands, and now resides near Los Angeles, blending travel expertise with cultural insight.