The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

We know that having expectations can often set us up for disappointment - and many thoughtful travellers will also know that letting go of these expectations and just embracing whatever happens can often lead to the most memorable and enjoyable trips. In this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three guests who prove just that. Firstly, I talk with Diana Fischer of Detours Zürich about some of her experiences of travel and how she’s learnt that being humble and open-minded can teach her the most. I then speak to windjammer captain Noah Barnes who explains that both his own travel experiences and those he observes of his cruise passengers have taught him that having expectations is the enemy of fun, and that a certain amount of discomfort is actually the best recipe for a memorable trip. Finally, Nancy Edwards gives some examples of the unexpected occurrences she’s faced on travels in Sierra Leone and Laos, reminding us that being prepared for anything is likely to both teach us the most and

It's the season for Antarctic travel - but should we really encourage Antarctic tourism? That's the question I had in mind when I chatted with Justin Watson (well-known to listeners as my Book Club co-host), who travelled to Antarctic recently on a true trip-of-a-lifetime. We chat about the highlights of an Antarctic trip, Justin's tips for deciding on a ship to join, and also our thoughts on whether Antarctic tourism is for better or worse. You'll have to listen to find out what we decided! Links: Justin’s blog with some great photos on his Antarctic posts - https://justins.world  Nikki Gemmell’s book Shiver - https://amzn.to/3Dqfvei  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/283 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the 2022 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Peel Me A Lotus by Charmian Clift with my co-host Justin Watson, and later joined by Thoughtful Travellers member Philippa. 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 Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friendships made while travelling are some of the best friendships of all, right? I think the kind of person we act as while we travel is closer to our best self than usual, plus we’re likely to interact with people who have similar interests and values - and then, whammo, we suddenly have friends for life! In this episode I start off with a beautiful story from Diana Fischer about a friend she made on her first backpacking trip to Asia, in Sri Lanka. It’s a friendship that has stood the test of time. Next, I speak with Noah Barnes, who describes both his own travel friendships, as well as the many friendships he witnesses being made every sailing season aboard his windjammer in Maine. Finally, I chat to Oliver Jähnke about travelling for his YouTube channel, Queers of the World, and how the people he makes contact with ahead of every trip help provide him with instant friendships on arrival. Links: Diana Fischer from Detours Zürich - https://www.detours-zurich.ch/  Maine Windjammer Association - https://www

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the December 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Sovietistan by Erika Fatland with my co-host Justin Watson. 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 Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all see the headlines about how travelling is bad for the earth - and yet I know my podcast listeners also agree that travel is so very good for us, in so many ways, that we need to find a way to continue to travel. This makes the ideas of regenerative travel and sustainable travel important to talk and think about, and I'm pleased to have put together this episode to help us all do just that. I chat first of all with Dr Susanne Etti, who's currently the Global Environmental Impact Manager at Intrepid Travel. We discuss how we can "make flights count", and her ideas on what we should do about carbon offsets, too. My second guest is Diana Fischer from Detours Zürich, a small but impactful tour business running in Switzerland. It's exciting to hear Diana's thoughts behind how and why she set up the business and it's a good reminder for us to consider the impact of every business we choose to support when we travel. Finally, I had wonderful chat with Sam Combs from the middle of a rainforest in Belize, where

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the October 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about A Beginner's Guide to Japan by Pico Iyer with our special guest, Miyuki Seguchi, host of Japan Experts podcast. Get your own copy of the book at https://amzn.to/3oXYz5y  You can listen to Japan Experts on any podcast app or at https://anchor.fm/japan-experts  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 Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm one lucky gal. Work and being (suddenly!) the parent of a high school kid has kept me from too many big trips this year - along with the after-effects of Covid on travel - but I have been able to spend time running workshops in various parts of my beautiful home state, Western Australia. When I look at all those trips together, I realise properly what fabulous experiences I've had this year, and I wanted to celebrate this special 280th episode by chatting about how I saw my home state thoughtfully. My first 2022 trip was in March, to Broome in the far north of Western Australia (in other continents I would have crossed multiple countries to get there!), my first time to this iconic destination. One highlight was meeting a local friend and hearing more about what life is like in Broome for those on the margins. I headed "down south" in June, basing myself in Busselton for a few days of work and exploration. It's an area I've visited frequently, so I set myself the challenge of finding something new, and in

For many kinds of travellers who belong to some kind of minority - even large minorities! - the experience of travel can be quite different to the mainstream. The plight of travelling as an LGBTQIA+ person has been in discussion in our household of late thanks to my son's interest in soccer and his disgust at what he's been learning about Qatar's treatment of gay people - and the concern for gay travellers headed there to watch the World Cup later this month. That made it seem just the right time for me to release this episode which includes contributions from three travellers from the LGBTQIA+ rainbow. My first guest is Mark Chesnut, who chats about the changes he has seen in travelling as a gay man over the past three decades, from the interesting perspective of being a travel writer. I then speak with Oliver Jähnke, a trans man from Sweden, about the way his travels and approach to travelling has changed throughout his transitioning years. Finally, I have a wonderfully insightful contribution from the Bare

What happens if you just say yes? When we travel, there are times that an interaction with a local person offers us something a bit off the beaten path - an experience you won't find in a travel brochure. The three guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast all said yes to invitations from locals and came away with some very interesting stories to tell! First up, I chat with Oliver Jähnke, who visited Kyrgyzstan and met a family who, on learning about his interest in horses, sent him off to the mountains with a relative to have a very unique experience. Next, Nathan Thomas tells me about what saying yes to a friend in China meant one weekend. And finally, Sophia Bentaher explains the story of having dinner in Bulgaria with a man who held rather opposing political beliefs - and the lessons she learnt from this experience. Links: Oliver Jähnke - Queers of the World - https://www.youtube.com/queersoftheworld Nathan Thomas of Intrepid Times https://intrepidtimes.com/  Nathan’s new book Travel Your W

A human connection - whether it’s brief and in passing, or deeper and more lasting, is a wonderful side product of travelling in another country. Those connections help us learn so much more than a guidebook or top ten list can ever tell us, and are often the most memorable parts of a trip. Sometimes a language barrier prevents this connection and so in Episode 277 we talk about the ways knowing a local language, whether just a few words or fluently, can make a huge difference to the quality of your experience. As well as fabulous anecdotes shared by members Anuj, Justin and Carolanna, members of the Thoughtful Travellers community, I also speak with three guests. Eliza Raymond summarises perfectly how a common language is so connecting, and then James Patterson gives a great example of learning some words of local language during his stays on Orkney. Finally, Kayra Martinez, who’s spent a lot of time studying many languages, discusses the value of language learning not just amongst travellers but amongst ref

The Cape to Cape Track has loomed iconically in my mind for many years, although its location down in the south-west corner of Western Australia means many of you won't have heard of it. Running from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin - and more traditionally, from the lighthouses at each end which I've visited as tourist attractions many times throughout my life - this 124km walk passes along beaches and cliffs, through forest and up and down dunes, all the time with the ocean either boldly visible or at least close enough that you can hear the waves. In short, it is amazing, and what's even better, my friend Catherine and I have just come back from hiking it. This episode includes a chat between Catherine and I after we returned from our week-long hike. We'd had grand plans of recording small snippets each night but soon realised that hiking over 20km per day took all our energy and brain space, but I think this more reflective chat after the event will give you a really good idea of what this experience mean

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the October 2022 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. We chat about Raynor and Moth's journey from homelessness to a farm in need of rewilding, her experience of writing and publishing The Salt Path, and their hiking trip in Iceland. Thanks to Justin, Pam and Philippa for joining me!   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 Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My own kid is twelve years old now, and thanks to the pandemic had spent more than two years without a trip outside his home state of Western Australia. I wish it could have been otherwise, but what excited me no end on our recent trip to New South Wales was that all this time without travel hadn't blunted his enthusiasm for it - quite the opposite, perhaps, he was more excited than ever to step on a plane and explore someplace new to him. On this trip I saw so many ways that our past travels had shaped him, so I was keen to put together this episode of other voices saying the same about their own kids. First up, I chat with Carmen and David Allan-Petale who spent a year and a half travelling around Australia in a caravan with their young daughter. The stories they share of her experiences and how they believe it shaped her personality are truly heartwarming. Next, I speak to Erika Kritikides from Intrepid Travel. Her son's experiences of China as a six-year-old - what was important to him, and how he dealt w

Dale Neill, photographer, traveller, teacher and all-round nice guy, is my guest for this special Deep Dive episode. I've known Dale for a decade or so and many times been entranced by his fantastic stories (travel and otherwise!) and it was such a pleasure to chat with him at length for this episode. Dale's tales on this episode start in Borneo photographing orang-utans, then move to meeting local dogs on Naxos in Greece. He's led many tours so has a crazy tale to tell of dealing with tour participants with high expectations in Turkey, and we finish up with his expectations not being met in a hotel in Vietnam. Links: Dale’s website - http://www.daleneill.com.au/ Previous stories from Dale: Episode 178 Interesting Plane Passengers Sitting Next To You - https://notaballerina.com/178 Episode 136 Photography for Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/136 Episode 146 Travelling in Iran - https://notaballerina.com/146 Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfult

Broome in Western Australia is in my home state, but it’s over 2000km away, so earlier this year was the very first time I’d finally got that far. Of course, it was worth the wait in many ways. Episode 273 is about my Broome experience, which was mostly a work trip, but it’s also about being a thoughtful traveller, and how I went with applying some of the key principles of thoughtful travel to my days in Broome. This was a very special trip for me - my first flight since January 2020, when I returned from Kuala Lumpur amongst rumours of this strange virus circulating. Getting quite far away from Perth was a wonderful reset and refresh and I hope you enjoy hearing about it. Links: Salty Plum Social for bar and art tours - https://www.saltyplumsocial.com.au Documentary I watched in Broome - Djkamirr - https://www.birthingoncountry.com/djakamirr  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://

Whether you're hitchhiking, making new friends or buying a train ticket in India, all of these things take confidence. We talk often on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast about the myriad ways travel helps you grow, and one of the biggest benefits I've had from travelling is that it's given me immense confidence - a trait that's carried through into my personal and professional life far beyond my travels. In Episode 272, my three guests tell me about incidents from their travels which have given them lasting confidence. I start with Sophia Bentaher who has a great philosophical approach to what she's learnt from travel and thinks that travelling gives a compounding benefit as you see the results of your actions and become increasingly confident in all that you do. I then chat with Nathan Thomas who describes the daily achievements in travel like buying a ticket at an Indian train station where even the scam artists are dressed in an official-looking uniform. Each of these kinds of achievements add to your confid

Can you believe this - because I almost can't - that The Thoughtful Travel Podcast turned six years old recently?! Unfortunately, my household were all suffering with Covid on its actual birthday, but I've now recovered enough to put together this episode to celebrate. In particular, I'm excited to share some wonderful voice messages from friends and listeners of the podcast - collating these gave me such a thrill! In this episode I also outline a few of the last year's successes, and talk about some plans I have for the next year of the podcast. Thanks so much to everyone who listens, shares, participates in our groups and in all other ways supports The Thoughtful Travel Podcast - I am so very grateful for you all. Links: Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/271 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don’t think we’re at the post-pandemic stage yet, but we definitely seem to be at the stage where people are travelling a lot more - even the Australian border is open now, and Western Australia’s will be soon too. So it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the great hopes of 2020 - when we all said that after the pandemic we’ll be much more thoughtful travellers, basically. In this episode, I talk about some academic research and a prediction of the different ways people will approach travel after the pandemic - they’ve based it on ‘terror management theory’ which is intriguing in itself. After discussion both the short and long term predictions of how people may change their thoughts about travel, I dig into the anecdotal evidence I’ve been able to collect in recent weeks. Basically, I think there is good news and bad news. And I really hope the good news wins out in the end! Links: “Proximal and distal post-COVID travel behavior’ in the Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 88, by L Miao, J Im, X Fu

Working in the tourism industry sounds like a dream, right? (Well, maybe not during a pandemic ...) But there's certainly something to be said for working in an industry where the focus is on something happy and joyful, and the three guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast all have had some wonderful experiences working in tourism and travel.  I start off by chatting with Lucky Legong who migrated from South Africa to Australia to continue working in the hospitality industry. She started off spending several years on gorgeous (but remote!) Kangaroo Island and then moved to Lord Howe Island - there are definitely some perks to this work, especially the beautiful surroundings. Shelley Winkel spoke to me about her career in publicity in the tourism industry, with a wide-ranging list of appointments across the globe, though for some years now her big love has been promoting Queensland - which is how we originally met. To finish up I talk to travel writer Bev Malzard about one of the most envy-i