Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast

Journey to Canada's most underrated province - Saskatchewan - where the simple act of hiking feels like time travel. From Badlands replete with fossils, to miles of Prairie grassland teeming with wildlife where bison roam, join adventurer Phoebe Smith as she explores the National Park you've never heard of - but definitely should add to your to do list.  Practical travel help is baked in...

A manta ray glides through water as though it owns the ocean, then you remember the uncomfortable truth: many shark and ray species are sliding towards extinction, and we still do not have enough data to protect them properly. From Ishigaki in Okinawa, join adventurer Phoebe Smith as she becomes one of the first people in the world to complete the PADI  (Professional Association of Dive Instructor...

Pooh Sticks looks like a simple game, until you’re standing on the real bridge where it all started, in Ashdown Forest watching your stick float on the water underneath the slats and realising Winnie the Pooh began right here in a living landscape. Join Adventurer Phoebe Smith as she travels to East Sussex to find the real Hundred Acre Wood behind the 100 year old Winnie-the-Pooh story. Along the...

A ferry announcement about whales comes over the tannoy and suddenly the cafeteria empties, the crew step away from their tasks, and everyone presses to the windows. That shared pause is the heartbeat of slow travel, and it’s why Adventurer Phoebe Smith takes you onboard BC Ferries’ “Milk Run” from Vancouver Island up through Canada’s Inside Passage. This isn’t a floating resort. It’s a working su...

What if we stopped saving our dream journey for “one day” and booked it now? Wander Woman Phoebe Smith hits pause on the grind and takes a micro‑retirement across North India by rail—soaking in Kolkata’s dawn ferry music, the riot of colour at the flower market, and the earthy taste of chai, before tracing slower paths to Bodh Gaya, Varanasi and Agra. The result is an immersion into India that her...

A rewilded valley, a returning herd, and a community finding new roots—come with Wander Woman Phoebe Smith to Portugal’s Côa Valley where tauros and sorraia horses are reshaping the land and jumpstarting local livelihoods. Join her as she learns how large herbivores create healthier mosaic habitats that reduce wildfire risk, boost biodiversity, and draw back predators like wolves, and listen in as...

The sky is stirring over Canada's Northwest Territories, and we wanted to know what it really means when the norhtern lights dance. So Wander Woman Phoebe Smith sent her editor and correspondent Daniel Neilson to travel to Yellowknife to sit with Dene guides who treat the aurora as memory and medicine, not a bucket list stunt. Join us for stories that bring light to the darkness and stir the...

Cold breath on the air, pancakes at dawn, and the hush before a bear appears at the treeline – join Wander Woman Phoebe Smith as she journeys from Finland’s close‑to‑Helsinki wilds with a foraging guide to paddle a quiet nine kilometres to a lean‑to where two dogs double as companions and hot‑water bottles. The theme is deliberate slowness: built in boredom, and the forest fills the space. Before...

A simple walk can change a life and a place. Join Wander Woman Phoebe Smith as she head's to Umbria to undertake part of Italy’s lesser-known pilgrim path - the St Francis Way - and see how it is bringing life back into the region. In association with this episode's podcast partner Sloways . From truffle hunts on the village edges to choirs echoing through convents, to ridge walks above...

With the rise of the Far Right across the globe, things have never been so tough for refugees and asylum seekers. So I head out with a new social enterprise that’s training immigrant women to become tour guides across Britain so they can celebrate their culture whilst earning their own income and teach us all a thing or too about our most well-known cities. Join Phoebe on an exploration of Syrian-...

Think you have to travel far to feel like you've had a proper expedition? Think again. In an effort to prove that you don’t need to travel to far flung lands – or spend very much money at all to have a proper expedition, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith attempts a timed walking challenge with the Long Distance Walkers Association across two counties, to discover the joys (and pain) of walking 50 mil...

With scenes of protest erupting in some of the most visited cities and countries in the world – telling tourists to go home – Wander Woman, Phoebe Smith, shows how merely travelling a little north of the Croatian honeypot of Dubrovnik to explore the region of Zadar the rewards can be great - for travellers and locals.  From discovering the 3,000-year-old Old Town and dancing to the sustainable (an...

Would you ever walk the 'Backbone of Britain'? 2025 marks 60 years since the UK got it’s first official long distance pathway - the Pennine Way. As political as it was pioneering, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith delves into the history of this hard-fought-for trail - one that is integral to all the rights walkers enjoy today, discovering a kick-ass, bell bottomed jeans wearing hiker in the 196...

Can walking a coastal path really heal a broken heart? As bestselling book The Salt Path becomes a major film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Issacs, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith heads to author Raynor Winn's favourite 2-day section of the South West Coast Path in Cornwall - walking from Zennor to Minnack. Along the way she meets other hikers and discovers the power of simply placing one foo...

What if everything you thought you knew about voodoo was completely wrong? This episode Wander Woman Phoebe Smith heads to Togo and Benin in West Africa - the birthplace of the religion, with Explore, to seek out the real voodoo beyond the sensationalist Hollywood portrayals of evil dolls and sinister spells. Journeying to the rural north of both countries she invites you to experience with her th...

All across Britain, in some of the wildest places you can find, is a network of mountain huts - called bothies. But unlike shelters found in the rest of the world, these were never built for walkers. Former schoolhouses, farmsteads, gamekeepers lodges, coastguards lookouts and miners bunkhouses, there are around 100 buildings (across Scotland, England and Wales) left open for walkers and climbers...

In the land Down Under one island in Western Australia is in the midst of a bold project to return it to a pre-European state. The Dirk Hartog Island National Park: Return to 1616 initiative has seen sheep farming (the mainstay for the single resident family for over 100 years) be replaced by eco-tourism. All cattle has been removed, invasive species have been culled and slowly, the vegetation and...

Adventurer Phoebe Smith heads to the Central American nation of Belize, to see - in the wake of the rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in the USA - how multiple cultures can live in harmony while still celebrating their own uniqueness. The country is found on Central America’s north eastern coast,  bordered by Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea.  It's one of only tw...

Halloween – with the costumes, pumpkin carving and trick or treating – is believed by many people to be an import from the USA? But where did it really start? Join adventurer Phoebe Smith as she journeys on a mission to locate the home of Halloween. Her research takes here to Ireland, where an ancient Celtic ceremonial fire location was discovered a few years ago that may be the ground zero for it...

Deep in the Rockies in Alberta, Canada, is a small unassuming hut that - unknown to many - houses a teahouse that has been serving hikers since 1904. In the heat of high summer the cabin swarms with hikers in search of a brew. Early or late in the season, though, it’s possible to bag the best view in the house on the porch overlooking Lake Agnes before choosing from the impressive menu of loose-le...

What if one simple question could help save the planet? Join Phoebe as she heads to the Maldives to ask the difficult question - can travel to these islands ever really be sustainable? Learn about the unsung hero of marine conservation: underwater seagrass, which so far has been ruthlessly removed in pursuit of the 'perfect' image of paradise despite it capturing 60 times more carbon tha...

There’s a new buzzword in travel – “multi-generational” or multi-gen. That is at least 3 generations of the same family travelling together. Grandparents, parents and children choosing to holiday together despite each having their own specific wants and needs. SOUNDS TERRIFYING! Yet it is reportedly a growing trend. Keen to go behind the headlines as ever, Phoebe takes her whole tribe - 75-year-ol...

Saudi Arabia is a controversial place - one that for years was closed off to westerners without a special invite. But that all changed in 2019 with the announcement of a new tourist visa and a huge investment in infrastructure - beginning with the north-western oasis city of Alula . So far, most travellers have been Instagram influencers, keen to get 'that' shot of Elephant Rock or the i...

Pour yourself a glass of Albariño and settle in as Phoebe puts her navigationally inexperienced friend in the lead (and self-guided specialist tour operator InnTravel to the test) as they wander along the Camino Portuguese's Espiritual Variante aka The Old Way . Walking between Tui on the Portuguese/Spain border all the way to Santiago - with much laughter on the way - the question is will th...

Embark on an adventure to Shimokawa, in the heart of Japan's Hokkaido region, where this small town is breaking new ground in the world of sustainable living. Phoebe Smith will take you through the streets and forests of this pioneering community, uncovering how they've transformed from a lumber-dependent economy to a beacon of environmental harmony. From making chopsticks (to avoid the...