The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast has reached its 20th episode, and Amanda is celebrating by sharing a collection of special stories her guests have offered that haven’t fit into a particular topic yet, but are far too good not to share. Annalicia Lynn kicks off this episode with some of her fascinating experiences in Taiwan, and in particular some of the more unusual English name...

In Episode 19 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda returns to the topic of travelling with kids - she's on a mission to prove to everyone that taking kids traveling is beneficial both for the kids and the parents.    First up, she speaks with Bethaney of Flashpacker Family who has several years of experience of travelling with very young children and is certain it has many benefi...

  Discovering new cultural norms and comparing them to our own is one of the most fascinating parts of travel and the three guests on Episode 18 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast have all given this issue a great deal of thought as well. First up, Annalicia Lynn describes the cultural confusion she felt when she first moved to Taiwan to speak English. The assumptions she made about the culture...

Where does wanderlust come from? It’s a question that’s intrigued Amanda ever since she discovered that some people don’t like travelling, others love it despite their parents never mentioning it, and others still (like Amanda) have been led to a life of travel by their parents’ example. In Episode 17 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks to three travel lovers who...

Travel is a powerful tool for so many things but one more way that travel can bring great meaning to your life is by helping you to process grief - and that’s what Amanda's two guests in this episode have certainly discovered. Episode 16 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast features two women who have found travel to be very therapeutic in dealing with grief. Amanda's first guest is Av...

Gaining confidence from your travels is just one more great reason to get out there and travel often. In Episode 15 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks to three guests who all agree that travelling has increased their confidence substantially and helped them out in all kinds of ways, including life beyond travel. First up, Amanda chats with Jeff Sandquist of Intentionally Wandering,...

In Episode 14 Amanda returns to the topic of scary tales from our travels. Frightening experiences can be entertaining, but they also teach us that most travellers simply feel the fear and travel anyway. The three guests in this episode certainly do.   Annalicia Lynn is a yoga and pilates instructor who taught English in Taiwan for a year and had some really interesting experiences there - in...

Slow travel is a real buzz word these days but many travellers have been using slow travel principles for decades - because travelling slowly is a fantastic way to see the world and really get to know it well. In Episode 13 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda talks to three different travellers who have all embraced slow travel in their own way. First up is Tim Leffel, who prefers smaller tow...

Cultural differences make our travels so much more interesting (if somewhat complicated at times!). In Episode 12 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, we talk about culture clash, and the differences we discover when we travel abroad. Stephen Henson has spent many years travelling back and forth to China, as well as doing business there, and has many tales to tell - today’s stories ab...

In Episode 11, Amanda is celebrating the magic of getting lost on our travels. Back in Episode 2 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast she talked about the terror of getting lost, but this time round everyone’s getting lost stories are way less scary and are usually just plain fun.  First up in this episode Amanda speaks with Dianne Bortoletto, a Perth-based travel blogger, and they spi...

It's always a bit sad to hear someone say they didn’t want to travel somewhere because they were worried about not being able to get by in a foreign language. Struggling to communicate can be half the fun of a trip (at least in retrospect!) and we can learn so much from cultures with different languages and customs. Today Amanda has gathered together some tips and tricks from a number o...

In Episode 9 of Amanda returns to the frightening parts of travel, because a lot of the time the story’s in the scary bits. What’s scary to one person might not worry someone else, but if something creates fear for you while you’re travelling, it’s probably something you’ll remember long after your trip is over. Jean of Traveling Honeybird has a great story to te...

In Episode 8 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks to parents about travelling with their kids, and then turns the tables and talks to some kids about travelling. First up is Mike Campbell, a fellow Aussie who’s currently spending a year house-sitting his way across the United States with his family. He’s learnt a lot about the differences between travelling as a couple and tra...

Episode 7 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is all about making unexpected friendships when you travel. Getting to know local people is one of my favourite parts of travelling, and my two guests have had some great experiences doing just that in various parts of the world. First up is Bethaney Davies from Flashpacker Family, who has two really interesting stories to tell about friendships she estab...

Whether good or bad, facing surprises is usually part of travel. In Episode 6 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I’m talking to two other travellers about the surprises they’ve encountered on their travels.   First up is Candace Rardon, someone I was super-excited to interview and have known online for some years. Candace is a sketch artist, writer, photographer and all-round travel...

Episode 5 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is partly about fear, and partly about confidence. I think they go hand in hand when it comes to travelling! I’ve certainly experienced my share of fears about travelling and I know I’m not alone. My first guest today is Leyla Giray Alyanak of Women on the Road, and although she’s one of the people I think of as a guru in the solo travel...

Episode 4 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast starts the conversation about the thorny issue of cultural stereotypes - and how travelling and meeting people of all different cultures can really help you smash through stereotypes and learn that people really are all the same. The first guest in this episode is Canadian travel blogger turned Peruvian resident Nora Dunn of The Professional Hobo, and she...

Episode 3 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is all about staying with locals on your travels and some of the many bonuses that come with meeting local people. It is definitely a different experience to staying in a hotel in the main tourist zone!   I start of this episode chatting with Kerstin Pilz about her many experiences staying with locals, such as the time she went to Cuba accidentally a...

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast! This episode has some great stories about both successes and failures when trying to get something to eat or drink in a country where English is not the first language (and one where it is!). Everybody who’s travelled has struggled with this situation many times, and I got to chat with several travellers who’ve had both fun and fru...

In Episode 2 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, it’s all about those times on your travels when you wind up having no idea where you are, or how to get out of there. Getting lost when we travel is all part of the fun - but then sometimes it’s only fun and interesting in retrospect.   In this episode, I start off talking to Leyla of Women on the Road, who has had some truly ama...

This is the preview episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast with Amanda Kendle. Each episode will feature chats with travel writers, photographers, travel bloggers and other travel lovers about topics centred around why we love travelling and what we learn from it. This episode introduces both me and my new podcast, and includes a story of my own about that time I ended up in the Zagreb bus stati...