David Sedaris, the author of “Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls” and “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” spends his time in West Sussex, England, when he isn’t on his twice-yearly 45-city lecture tours. Hotels figure highly in his repeat vacation spots. He returns to the Four Seasons Resort the Biltmore Santa Barbara again and again (“Everyone there looks like Mitt and Ann Romney”), and he loves the Ambassade Hotel in Amsterdam (“I’ve probably stayed there at least a dozen times, and they keep the same people there. It’s a nice feeling to go to another country and have people remember your name and be so warm”).

His favorite thing to do while traveling? Shop. “I was recently in Lisbon with a friend,” he said, “and our driver would constantly say, ‘David, look out the window to your left, that’s a statue of —. ’ I wanted to say: ‘Whatever made you think that I care? You’re talking to the wrong person. Here’s a list of shops I want to go to.’ ”

He calls Tokyo the top city for shopping: “It really is the best. Usually you’ll go to a city, and it has one street with interesting, exciting shops. But in Tokyo it just goes on and on and on. It’s harder now, though. When I first moved to Paris, I could bring people back a Diptyque candle or chocolate from Maison du Chocolat. Now those things are everywhere. But in Japan there are still things you can buy that people at home haven’t heard of.”

And his dream trip is a brief — very brief — visit to India. “You know how everyone goes to India for three months? I want to go to India for three hours. So I can leave when I get thirsty, and then I can get back on the plane without any risk of getting a stomach bug.”