Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

In early April, we were both struggling to focus and looking for an escape from a shut-down world, so we turned to the National Book Foundation's Lisa Lucas and author and Books Are Magic owner Emma Straub for some reading recs. Now, exactly 99 days later, Lisa is back, this time with podcast regular and Riverhead Books publisher Jynne Dilling Martin to restock our shelves with recommendations. Th...

You probably first heard Sara Nelson's name in early 2019 when she called for a general strike, leading to an abrupt end to the extended government shutdown. Now, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, is fighting something completely different: a pandemic, as well as imminent layoffs for airline workers. We caught up with Sara, named "the world's most powerful f...

A special three-part series of the Women Who Travel podcast, presented by Cloudy Bay Over the next few months, we'll be talking with some of our favorite travelers about how they treat themselves in travel, whether by taking time to get away, refuel their motivation, or challenge themselves to try something new. (It's all inspired by our I Deserve This column, which you should check out, too.) Fir...

Being a parent right now is hard. Many are juggling work, childcare, education, their families' health and safety, and so much more. And while a trip to the beach with the kids—or better yet, a child-free getaway—would usually bring peace of mind and a modicum of relaxation, vacation planning these days comes with new levels of stress and confusion. As neither of us are parents, we brought on Laur...

When cabin fever first set in during the early stages of the pandemic, we turned to the experts for help: three women who chose to live in isolation for long stretches of time, whether at a fire lookout in Idaho, on a remote Greek island, or in a sea kayak, like Sarah Outen did while rowing solo across the Pacific Ocean. Three months later, and we're still grappling with what it means to isolate o...

While we truly love to drink wine, we would hardly call ourselves experts. And after downing quite a few delicious bottles over the last few months without a sommelier or bartender to guide us, we thought we'd check in with two of the least snobby wine snobs we know: Women Who Travel contributor Shanika Hillocks and Helen's Wines' Helen Johannesen. We talk all about how our taste—and willingness t...

We've been spending a lot of time at home these days, which means more time staring at the art on our walls, the tchotchkes on our shelves, and the souvenirs we've chosen to display. It's also made us think about how to find more meaningful souvenirs on future trips—pieces that bring back memories of trips, a sense of place, or a glimpse of history. So, we checked in with Kiyanna Stewart and Janna...

This episode was originally broadcast in July 2019. With music festivals on hold this summer, we thought we'd share one of our favorite episodes from last year, recorded live at Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. Lale teamed up with Pitchfork's senior social media manager Vrinda Jagota to chat about travel, music, and more with Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, the French-Cuban sister act behind Ibeyi....

Since this season is sure to be unlike any other high season, thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we've been asking a lot of questions about summer travel here at Traveler—from how much we'll be traveling, to how we'll be getting around, to where we'll stay. And this week, we're tackling all of those questions (and more) in one episode with the help of some top notch experts: associate edi...

In the wake of ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism across the U.S. and all industries, much has been made of listening and learning—and amplifying Black voices in the process. Which is why this week, we’re passing the mic. Hosted by Them's executive editor Whembley Sewell, featuring Jessica Nabongo and Evita Robinson, our latest episode focuses on how the industry as a wh...

This week, we're joined by Moonlynn Tsai, co-owner of Bon Appetit Hot List winner Kopitiam, and Mei Lin, from the James Beard-nominated Nightshade, who share their stories about everything from how they've found support systems in other restaurant owners to what they're cooking at home right now, and, most importantly, how you can support the restaurant industry during this difficult time. Their b...

Nikki Smith is a professional rock climber, boulderer, photographer, writer, and climbing guidebook publisher, with more than 150 first ascents under her belt. She also just happens to be transgender. An advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in the outdoors and an ally fighting for diversity and inclusion in climbing and beyond, she's taking a break from climbing during the pandemic, citing the risks...

With the near-constant stream of coronavirus news on our feeds these days, we understand if you want to run screaming from another coronavirus-related chat. But we promise this is not all doom and gloom. In fact, we hope that by answering some of the most frequently asked questions about travel and the coronavirus (Should you cancel a fall trip? Hop on a flight deal for later in the year? Use your...

This episode originally aired in June 2019. In this wild time, Lale and I have found ourselves going back to the episode we recorded with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert last year. Our conversation was filled with a little grief, a lot of joy, and plenty of travel wisdom—all of which we need right now to tide us over until we can travel freely again. We'll be back next week with a brand n...

Unless you're an essential worker, chances are your work travel has slowed down a lot recently. For comedian and actress Catherine Cohen, the world on pause has meant postponing her upcoming tour in Australia and swapping her weekly show Cabernet Cabaret, at New York City's Club Cumming, for Instagram live performances streamed out of the Berkshires cabin she's currently self-isolating at. We caug...

We need the escape that books provide now more than ever. So this week, we're joined by the National Book Foundation's Lisa Lucas, calling in from Los Angeles, and New York Times-bestselling author and Books Are Magic owner Emma Straub, who's currently self-isolating with her family in Brooklyn. Throughout the episode, we share the books that are transporting us to the places we miss (New York Cit...

Earlier this month, we put a call out on our Instagram and asked you to share what travel stories you were interested in hearing more of during this time of uncertainty. There were so many great ideas, some of which we'll be tackling over the coming weeks. One that stuck with us was a request to hear how our personal travel plans were being affected—so that listeners could feel a little less alone...

At the beginning of this year, Sarah Khan decided to settle down—well, at least get an apartment of her own to call a home base after eight years of traveling and subletting full time, thanks to her job as a travel writer. She didn't plan to take a trip until March, a travel hiatus that's now been extended indefinitely due to coronavirus. As she stays put for the longest time in almost a decade, w...

We're back—albeit this time from a closet in Dallas and a Brooklyn living room, rather than the podcast studio. This week, we're joined by comedian and actor Jenny Slate, who, despite growing up thinking the only way to have a relaxing vacation was at the beach, has traveled everywhere from Norway's Lofoten archipelago above the Arctic Circle to Chilean Patagonia. Along the way, she's come to term...

We sat down with Samin Nosrat just after the premiere of her Netflix show, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, to talk about how she managed to transform a cookbook into a piece of television in such a short amount of time, how growing up eating Iranian food informed her own cooking, and why, in her opinion, a PB&J counts as a legitimate dinner option. Most importantly, though, she explains why she chose to es...

This week's episode is a rerun from October 2019. We'll be back with new episodes (recorded from home) soon. As we all spend more time taking solitary walks—and relishing in Facetime and Zoom-based friendships—it made sense to share this episode where two best friends practice the French art of flaneuring, or wandering without intention. Since most of us have been forced to slow down, here’s an ep...

As we mention in the intro to this week's episode, we recorded this installment of Women Who Travel well before the coronavirus has changed the landscape of our day-to-day lives. But in a world where we still dream of our next trip, we wanted to continue to share our tips on where to go next for you to squirrel away for when the time is right. So, this week, we're back with a Frequently Asked Ques...

At 19, Jen Gotch had a panic attack in the airport, just ahead of boarding a flight back to college. "I, on a cellular level, felt like I was going to die if I got on that airplane," says the Ban.do founder and author of the soon-to-be-released Upside of Being Down: How Mental Health Struggles Led to My Greatest Successes in Work and Life. Now, years later and hundreds of flights under her belt, t...

In the third installment of our "How I Became" series, we're focusing less about traveling around the world—and more about traveling up the corporate ladder. In conversation with Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity Cruises' president and CEO and the first woman to hold that title in industry history, we look back at how she started her career and rose to the top with no female mentors or advocates in sig...

When we read a preview of Everything I Know About Love, the debut memoir from Dolly Alderton, we knew we had to bring her on the podcast. The book, which charts her love life (romantic and platonic) from her teens until now, centers strongly on female friendships and the highs and lows of travel—both on your own and with friends. (There's a chapter near the end set in the Orkney Islands that is pa...