The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

How does travel differ for the LGBTQIA community? It's a question I've long pondered and in this episode I get to chat to four excellent guests to hear about their thoughts and experiences on the matter. First up, Debbie Clarke explains why she started a tour company focused on LGBT travellers, and why such a thing is necessary even in a country as progressive as New Zealand. I then chat with Bren...

Happy new year! It’s 2022 and who really has any idea this year has in store for us - I’m sure we’ve now learned our lesson about having expectations. I want to start the year, in fact, by having a look back over 2021 for me: a year without travel. It’s a very weird thing for a travel podcaster to not take a plane or leave the state - or barely even leave home - for a whole...

You mightn't think there's a place for tales of celebrity encounters on a podcast about thoughtful travel but I'm sure you'll listen to this episode and realise there absolutely is. It turns out that many thoughtful travellers are kind of oblivious to who's famous and can hang out with a celebrity without even knowing! That's certainly the case for my first two guests. I start by chatting with Jen...

Travelling for work can be very different to other kinds of travel, but when I had the chance to travel to south-west Western Australia to run workshops recently, I decided to document my trip and decide whether or not I was being a thoughtful traveller. This episode includes audio-diaries of my three days in Yallingup - two of which were recorded under a blanket in a hotel room, trying to soundpr...

It's time for a deep dive and I absolutely loved getting to know the two women behind the GOOD Awaits podcast - New Zealanders Josie Major and Debbie Clarke. Their podcast arose from an almost chance meeting and focuses on regenerative tourism, something that aligns very closely with thoughtful travel. During the chat, I asked Debbie and Josie about how their love of travel began and what sustains...

Hearing languages I can't understand is one of my favourite parts of travelling - it's one of the surest ways to feel I am away from home, exploring a foreign-to-me place. I've also been lucky enough - from an English-speaker perspective, especially - to have studied quite a few different languages over the years. I still wish, of course, I'd been born somewhere in Europe where I would have grown...

History, current events and politics are intrinsically interesting, but when you have the chance to travel to the places where important world events have taken place - or be somewhere at the moment something historic actually occurs - then that's even more impactful. In this special episode, I trace my personal history with the city of Berlin, and how my travel experiences there have brought hist...

Focusing away from the big tourist attractions and being more open to just seeing what comes your way when you travel is one way we can be “less tourist, more traveller”, and this episode includes several stories which are wonderful examples of what happens when you do just that. First up, I chat with Kate Peterson about an experience she had in Greece. While it starts off being a tale...

Getting to meet all kinds of people is one of the best parts of travelling and this episode is full of stories of connecting with people in all kinds of different ways. First up, Kate Peterson tells an amazing story about both her parents' connections with a Greek man back in the 1970s, and her follow-up explorations when she lived in Greece decades later. I then chat with Tobi Barth, who takes pe...

In this special collaborative episode, I chat with Jeremy Bassetti of the Travel Writing World Podcast. We talk about our most memorable and influential travel reads, what's important about travel literature and why we enjoy it. (So many reasons!) We also compare our podcast experiences, including talking about writers we've enjoyed talking to (spoiler: we only say nice things!). And of course, re...

Travel is fun, but even more, it teaches us so much. From life skills to personal development and even changing our fundamental personality, travel has the potential to do it all. I start off this episode briefly mentioning some of the research that has backed this up, but the most important thing is hearing the stories from my three wonderful guests. First up, I chat with Jennifer Johnston who ha...

In the fourth of my Deep Dive Into Thoughtful Travel interview episodes, I chat with Dr Vincie Ho, founder and executive director of the RISE Travel Institute. We met while I was studying for a Certificate in Sustainability and Anti-Oppression in Travel through RISE and I couldn't wait to chat with her about her travel history. Vincie and I discuss where her love of travel came from, some of her e...

The ultimate long trip is not a trip at all: migrating to another country has much in common with long-term travel, but then, you never go home. Episode 254 is about migrating to Australia in particular - it interests me greatly to hear more about how and why people have moved to my home country, and what they like or dislike about it. First up, I chat with Catherine Marshall, who migrated from So...

Walking is such a wonderful way to explore the world - it's a way to slow down, really look around you, often to get in touch with nature too, and it's healthy and environmentally-friendly as well. In Episode 253 I chat with travellers who've walked in many parts of the world and got so much out of it that it'll make you want to follow in their (literal!) footsteps. First up, I chat with Kath and...

Should we ride elephants? (For me, the answer is definitely no.)  But did you know that at one stage, the offering of elephant rides was seen as being part of "saving" them from a tortuous life working in the forestry industry, dragging heavy logs around? And did you know there are now thousands of domesticated elephants in Thailand who still need to be supported, somehow? While I always stri...

In the third of my Deep Dive Into Thoughtful Travel interview episodes, I chat with Penny Rafferty in South Australia, with a wide-ranging discussion about all manner of thoughtful travel topics. I started off asking Penny about her fascinating career trajectory, which sees her now taking the roles of both Head of Sustainability at Tourism Australia and Executive Officer of Luxury Lodges of Austra...

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the August 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about All the Way to the Tigers with author Mary Morris. You can find out more about Mary at her website https://marymorris.net  and read the book at https://amzn.to/3cfiEzY   If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at...

It's the semiquincentennial episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast (and listener Justin, who features in this episode, told me about that crazy word in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group) - in any case, it's Episode 250, a round-numbered episode and time for something totally different! One of the most fabulous parts of running this podcast for over five years is the people I've met - some...

I’m usually talking about elephants in the sense of seeing them on safari, or of how we should ethically visit elephants in appropriate sanctuaries, and how we absolutely shouldn’t ride them. But this episode is  about what happens when travellers and elephants collide - quite literally! I first chat with Catherine Marshall, who has travelled extensively throughout Africa and has...

Studying in other countries isn't just about getting a qualification: oh no, it's SO much more! In Episode 248 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I chat with three women who've spent some time studying abroad, both undergraduate and postgraduate, and without fail they mention how significant and life changing this experience was. First, I chat with Kaitlyn Jain. She hadn't never been outside of Nort...

I've been raving about the benefits of travel with kids for many years now (almost my whole life!), and I loved putting together this episode about the benefits of family travel. The benefits run in all directions - both for the children and the parents, and beyond. My first guests are Kath and Howie of The Museum of Us, who have travelled for many years with their daughter. We discussed their thr...

In my second Deep Dive Into Thoughtful Travel interview episode, I speak with James Mwenda in Kenya - and I'm really excited to share our chat. For almost a decade, James was a caretaker for the last three - then two - northern white rhinos in the world, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. It's heartbreaking to imagine working with the very last animals of a species - and James talks about the emot...

My definition of thoughtful travel has come a long way since I named this podcast over five years ago; I’ve also been excited to see a lot more people giving thought to the question of what thoughtful travel means. Episode 245 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast gathers the ideas of many more people to help us consider this important question. I chat with four guests about what they think thoug...

Most of travel involves a flight, train or ferry ride, and things can go wrong - that's why Episode 244 is all about transport glitches when we travel. Some of these stories are just plain crazy - the amount of stuff that can go wrong one trip is unbelievable! - and others remind us that even when things go wrong, there's often a silver lining (or at the very least, a good story to tell!). First u...

This month's special guest for a deep dive into thoughtful travel is JoAnna Haugen, founder of Rooted Storytelling. JoAnna has appeared in a couple of past podcast episodes but her knowledge and experience in many important areas of thoughtful travel is so vast that I wanted to get deeper into some, well, really thoughtful stuff! JoAnna and I chat about what she believes thoughtful travel is, whet...