The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

This is the fourth part of a monthly, six-episode series celebrating the fact that exactly 40 years ago this year, my family and I spent six months in a striped motorhome travelling around Europe. I was nine years old and yes, this trip had an enormous impact on my life - I'm sure you wouldn't be listening to this podcast today if Van Life 1985 hadn't taken place! Throughout the series, I'll inclu...

Solo travel might seem daunting, but as you'll hear from my guests today, the benefits can be amazing. While this episode features women who travel alone, the advantages they talk about are definitely relevant to anyone.  First up, Heidi Brown shares her love of solo travel and explains that she's developed a unique strategy for finding great restaurants when she's travelling alone - it's sur...

Did you know that one in ten jobs worldwide is in the tourism industry? I think we're all sometimes guilty of merrily going on our travels without giving much thought to the people behind the scenes that make this possible. In this episode I chat with three people in very different careers in the travel area and hear some of the behind-the-scenes of what makes tourism tick. First up, Suyash Keshar...

Two of my favourite things in life are reading novels and travelling, so it's about time they appeared in a podcast episode together - especially since so many other people love this combination of joys, too! Starting with a bunch of wonderful "novel on a trip" experiences from listeners, I next hear from Carol McQuaid about the long list of novels she created to read on a round-the-world trip, al...

This is the third part of a monthly, six-episode series celebrating the fact that exactly 40 years ago this year, my family and I spent six months in a striped motorhome travelling around Europe. I was nine years old and yes, this trip had an enormous impact on my life - I'm sure you wouldn't be listening to this podcast today if Van Life 1985 hadn't taken place! Throughout the series, I'll includ...

When you're given an intriguing invitation or an interesting opportunity on your travels, do you say yes? I try to whenever possible, and that's led to some very memorable experiences - and the same is true of the three guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast.  First up, Carl Klein explains what happened when he was invited to tag along with a family he'd got to know in northe...

Whether it's a bus, train or subway, using any kind of public transport or transit system when you're travelling can be very eye-opening (and a lot of fun!). In my opinion it's a much better way to get to know a place you're visiting, and of course it's also usually the most budget-friendly way of getting around, another bonus. In this episode you'll hear from four guests who have stories to share...

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the June 2025 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, speaking with author Ash Bhardwaj about his book "Why We Travel" - https://amzn.to/3EvnwSW   If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub,  and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our curr...

There's no single definition of mindful travel, but in this episode we talk about various ideas: from travel where we intentionally take time to practice mindfulness like on a yoga or meditation retreat, through the kinds of trips where we are really paying attention to what's happening around us, and even some specific ways we could travel that encourage mindfulness. First up, I chat with frequen...

This is the second part of a monthly, six-episode series celebrating the fact that exactly 40 years ago this year, my family and I spent six months in a striped motorhome travelling around Europe. I was nine years old and yes, this trip had an enormous impact on my life - I'm sure you wouldn't be listening to this podcast today if Van Life 1985 hadn't taken place! Throughout the series, I'll inclu...

It rarely takes much experience of travel to collect an experience of someone you meet while travelling being surprisingly kind. While we're often trained to think the worst, countless tales from travellers tell of strangers helping out and showing kindness in myriad ways - it's one of the most heartening parts of seeing the world, I think! In Episode 350, I chat with four travellers who have stor...

We all take hundreds of photos on our travels these days, but I was keen to chat with Nicole Smith, founder of Flytographer, about how their network of photographers take this to the next level in many popular travel spots around the world. Nicole is an avid traveller who caught the travel bug young, and after a very unfortunate photographic "accident" on a long trip through Asia, she realised jus...

This is the first of a monthly, six-episode series celebrating the fact that exactly 40 years ago this year, my family and I spent six months in a striped motorhome travelling around Europe. I was nine years old and yes, this trip had an enormous impact on my life - I'm sure you wouldn't be listening to this podcast today if Van Life 1985 hadn't taken place! Throughout the series, I'll includ...

Travelling on foot is the ultimate slow travel and you can have some amazing experiences when incorporating a walk, hike or run into your travel plans. In this episode I start by chatting with Chelsea Gruber, a big fan of solo travel who's had quite a few active adventures on her trips and when we spoke was in training to run the Paris marathon. I then chat with Patrick Nash who spent time some de...

Most of us want to make more sustainable and ethical choices when we travel, but it's not always easy to do! Avoiding plastic straws and disposable shopping bags is one thing, but how can we choose our accommodation in a way that does more good, or think about our carbon footprint and change our travel habits? In this episode, I start by chatting with two travel writers who have come to the realis...

My dear friend, the Barefoot Backpacker, is a thoughtful traveller, but they often approach travel in different ways to me. We've chatted many a time about our varied styles and decided that making a collaborative podcast episode about just this would be a lot of fun. So, this episode is a combination of the two of us as hosts from Travel Tales from Beyond the Brochure and The Thoughtful Travel Po...

Learning languages, in the early days, is all about making mistakes, and then as we improve, we can see the benefits of really getting to know people and cultures by having common words and expressions. We still make mistakes though! In this episode I chat with three guests who've spent significant chunks of time in France and Italy, and have learnt much about these second homes through their grad...

Happy ninth birthday to The Thoughtful Travel Podcast! To celebrate, I've gone back to three of the early guests and interviewed them again to see what's changed in their lives in the intervening years. It was so fun to do! First up, I chat with photographer Kiliii Yuyan, who first appeared way back in Episode 2 in 2016. Since that time, Kiliii has had an incredible career and been able to go on s...

Joining a tour connected to any special interest you have is bound to result in a memorable trip and when I heard about Political Tours, I was instantly attracted! This episode is a deep dive interview with founder Nicholas Wood, who used his skills and network from experiences like working as a foreign correspondent the New York Times to launch Political Tours back in 2011. We chat about how a to...

Confession time: I'd long assumed that virtual travel was a very inferior cousin to in-real-life travel. But then Covid hit, I experienced a couple of virtual tours, and really did feel transported to Thailand and China for an hour or two. Those kind of virtual tours are just the tip of the virtual travel iceberg though, and in this episode I speak with three people approaching virtual travel in d...

Since 1911, International Women's Day has been a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. To celebrate International Women's Day on 8th March 2025, I've gathered some of my favourite women travel podcasters in Australia for a conversation about impactful women in travel, and some of the most important lessons we've learnt while travelling, plus we...

Living abroad by choice can be such a wonderful experience - I was lucky enough to be able to spend time teaching English in Japan, Slovakia and Germany and these years were truly life-changing. In this episode, three guests share some of the fun, struggles and intriguing moments from their time living in Italy, South Korea and Poland. It's a real mixed bag of stories and I'm sure you'll enjoy it!...

Hostel life can be great fun and easy on the travel budget, too. I'll always remember my Dad, in his 50s or 60s, explaining to me that hostels weren't just for young people anymore, and anyone could stay there - a philosophy I have long enjoyed and used. In this episode, we chat about many sides of staying in hostels, starting with Jamie Burr and his description of why he loves to book hostels whe...

Travellers will all have their special memories about the wonderful learnings they've had from travel: from tiny things like a new way to enjoy a favourite food, to enormous life-changing epiphanies inspired by other cultures or someone they meet. In Episode 337 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three people about some of the ideas that have stayed with them or made them think. First u...

Encountering new and interesting people is part of the magic of a good trip. Chatting with a stranger on a train or making a new friend at a hostel or bar is often what you remember above the sights you've seen. In this episode, I start by chatting with Carol McQuaid, who tells of a special person she met while working on a cruise ship. Next, veteran writer Thomas Swick shares tales of several of...