The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

Oftentimes you can't choose the passenger sitting next to you on a plane. This can be both good and bad! Episode 178 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast includes conversations with three different guests who all have interesting tales to tell of someone they sat next to on a flight. First up, Paul Pichugin tells the hilarious tale of ... well, a woman passenger next to him, and I don't want to give t...

African travel seems to have been constantly on my radar lately - I guess it's nearly time for me to go and explore more of that continent? For now, at least, it'll be through Episode 177 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast because I've chatted with three guests lately who had intriguing tales to tell of Africa. First up, I chat with Rick Antonson. He has a delightfully unique reason for choosing to...

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the January 2020 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, discussing The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. 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 current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Faceboo...

We sometimes see people doing glamorous jobs and travelling the world and think: wow, they have a great life! It's those kind of people who are in Episode 176 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast: I have a travel journalist, a guidebook writer and a guitarist who have all had the opportunity to travel widely and for long periods of time as part of their work. All of them are grateful for the travel an...

If you've ever wondered what it's really like to head out for days or even months and just keep walking, Episode 175 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast will give you many insights into hiking and walking experiences on your travels. I start off speaking with Laura Waters, who spent five months tramping from the top of New Zealand to the bottom. As you can imagine this is no easy feat at all (but the...

Travelling teaches us a lot - there's nothing like having a big range of different inputs in a short time to wake up your brain! Episode 174 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast includes chats with three travellers who've learnt some solid life lessons during their travels. I start off by chatting with Nicci O'Mara about a sad but important life-changing moment that happened to her in Africa a couple...

There's a bit of a myth out there that we travellers are brave, confident people who never get anxious. From my own life and knowing many other travel-loving friends who also have experienced anxiety, I can promise you this is wrong. Episode 173 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast includes two very special conversations with women who divulge some of their very personal experiences with anxiety and i...

Wanting to help others when we travel is a common theme amongst experienced travellers, because we've all realised how lucky we are and how unlucky many people around the world are. In Episode 172 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I'm not giving you all the answers on how to solve the world's problems but I do want to bring you stories from three travellers who've helped others in three different w...

It's one thing to travel to a foreign country, but to completely migrate and move to another country is another level of experience entirely! In Episode 171 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I'm chatting with three guests who've made the big move: one to Mexico, one to Japan, and one from Brazil to Australia. We've got half the world covered! First up, I talk with Queen D Michele who retired from h...

It's 2020 (and arguably not the start of the decade but let's skip that discussion) and I want to look back on the years from 2010 until now. Travel has changed a LOT in that decade - more than I realised, until I started thinking more deeply about it and asking what some of my favourite thoughtful travellers thought. In Episode 170 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I talk about many of the ways i...

Let's kick off 2020 with something we've never covered on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast before: romance and travel! Episode 169 covers the whole gamut of travel romance, from dating apps to testing new relationships by travelling together and exploring the cultural differences that come up when you date someone from a different country. First up, I chat with Christine Retschlag who has done a lot...

Celebrating the turn of the year can be a lot of fun, and if you happen to be somewhere away from home for December 31, it can be even more fun and memorable.  This week's episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is a replay of my first New Year's Eve travel episode from three years ago, as I know many current listeners won't have heard it. It features Kim-Ling's story of New Year's Eve on Ib...

It's Christmas time again - it comes so fast! - and I'm replaying this Christmas episode of the podcast from the early years, which I know many people won't have heard. It's full of both fun and poignancy, and even includes a guest appearance from the Easter Bunny. At this time of year, when I've mostly wound down from work for the year and am spending lots of extra time with my son, who's on holi...

2019 is coming to an end - and it's been another big year for The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. You can hear about some of our travels in Episodes 150 (Thoughtful Travel in Denmark) and 160 (Cairns and Queensland), and in this episode I'll tell you some of the statistics from this year (including in how many countries The Thoughtful Travel Podcast has been downloaded in ... it's quite a lot!). I also...

You never want to need your travel insurance ... but you should always have it. Episode 165 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is a mix of trips gone wrong (but yippee - travel insurance was there!) and some expert advice from people in the insurance industry. Let's just say - I learnt a lot! First up, I chat with Shelley Winkel who had cause to use her travel insurance after an injury far from any...

I might be a little bit obsessive about this topic - although it's been a long time since an episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast has covered it - but I really passionately feel that taking your kids travelling is so very beneficial for them (and you, too!). In Episode 164 I chat with some great guests who feel as strongly about why you should travel with your children as I do. First up, I cha...

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Wheeler, most famed for being the co-founder, along with his wife Maureen, of the Lonely Planet guide book empire. He gave a keynote address at the conference attended for the Australian Society of Travel Writers and I had the chance to chat with him later that day, and asked him if he'd like to be a special guest on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast - and l...

Have you ever thought about living abroad? I've done it - in Japan, Slovakia and Germany - but it all just kind of happened, and I never had the intention of moving there for the foreseeable future. That's why Episode 162 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is particularly interesting to me - my guests have all travelled with the intention of finding a place to live abroad permanently or for at least...

Ever thought about cycling around the whole world? I sure haven’t - but today’s two guests in Episode 161 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast have both spent years and thousands of kilometres exploring the globe by bicycle and despite what you might assume, they seem quite normal! First up I chat with Alastair Humphreys who spent four years on his bike, covering five continents and learni...

Time for something different for Episode 160 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast: you can listen in on my diary! I've just spent a week in Cairns, Queensland, and after many requests to do this, I actually recorded a podcast diary on my trip. Well, most days - it was a very busy trip! The first part of my trip saw me explore Cairns, the Nerada Tea plantation and taking the Skyrail to Kuranda on my ow...

Travelling in foreign countries is only half the fun when we know the language, right? Plenty of intrigue and hilarity ensues when you're trying to communicate in a language you only know a few phrases of, and that's a big joy when I travel - picking up little pieces of a new language and learning how it all fits together! In Episode 159 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three travelle...

Getting around on your travels is not always smooth sailing and things do go wrong. Does that mean your trip is a disaster? I think not! If my three guests in Episode 158 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast are anything to go by, a travel mishap is purely fodder for a great story to tell later. In this episode I chat first with Nate Hake. He tells the tale of visiting Bolivia and running into some tr...

Visiting places that not many people go to is a special joy for me - I love not knowing much about a place and honestly, I feel a bit proud to tell people if I've been somewhere uncommon. I'm probably not alone in that feeling! In Episode 157 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I speak with three travellers who've spent time in more uncommon destinations recently and loved their experiences. First I...

Travel can stretch your comfort zone in a multitude of ways, and the fact that it does is one of the biggest benefits of travel, I think. You can stretch a comfort zone at home too, but pushing the boundaries of what you feel comfortable with is so much easier in a new place, and there are usually a lot more opportunities too. In Episode 156 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I start off talking to...

India is one of those countries that people seem to visit and then rave about for the rest of their lives. In fact, it's really the only place I can think of that I hear so much deep love for. I've never really understood the pull to India that many people have, but after speaking with the three guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I'm keen to go and see it for myself. I first...