The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

It's Christmas time which - weirdly, I guess, since I live quite far down in the southern hemisphere! - makes me think about the North Pole, about snow, about cold climates. That made it feel an appropriate week for my episode about seeing the Northern Lights or aurora borealis - an incredible phenomenon I haven't had the chance to witness yet, but after hearing these four guests describe their sightings, I'm more keen than ever. First up, I chat with Justin Meneguzzi who has a particularly romantic tale about his Northern Lights sighting (although it didn't all go quite to plan). Next, Karen Emanuel makes me rather envious as she describes not one, but two trips she's been on which led to seeing the aurora. Following Karen, I chat to Travis King who got to experience a surprise sighting in Alaska. Nearby in the Yukon region of Canada, my final guest, Tobi Barth, runs a tour company which specialises in aurora hunting, and he tells me how that works. Links: Justin Meneguzzi - https://www.justinmeneguzzi.co

2020 is nearly over, and I know many people in the travel industry (and beyond) are breathing a sigh of relief over that. But what will the travel world look like in 2021? It's all a bit unknown but I wanted to chat with people who were on top of the research and could tell us more about what travel trends for 2021 are looking like. First up, though, I asked the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group for their opinions, and I talk about these: in particular, whether there'll be more planned or more spontaneous trips, what will be important to travellers in destination choice and what trends my listeners think might be coming up. Then I speak with Nissy Atassi, the Director of Global Communications at Expedia. Nissy had lots of interesting trends to tell me about, including current booking trends and the big changes she expects us to see in 2021. Finally I talk with Damian Perry, Managing Director for the Asia/Pacific region for Hurtigruten, the Norwegian expedition cruising company. He confirms a few 2021 tr

The friends you make while you're travelling are, I think, often destined to be lifelong friends, because you've probably got a lot in common. If you're travelling in a similar way, or you're in the same destination, or however it is that you meet - you're already well on the way to a solid friendship. That's certainly my experience and I can think back over a long list of great friends I've made this way - and I'm not alone, judging by the guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. First up, I chat with Tasha Goldberg, who's spent a lot of time travelling for work. She's formed many great friendships but the example she gives in this chat is a woman she met in the airport in Senegal. Next, I talk to Travis King, who has a great story about creating a "travel family" while travelling long term. And there's a bonus dangerous dolphin tale thrown in! Finally, I loved speaking with Monique Ceccato (while she was in hotel quarantine in Norway) about a very special trip she went on to New Caledonia

There are countless lessons we can learn from travel: from small to large, nice-to-know to completely life-changing. I'm sure that I'm a completely different person thanks to the things I have learnt while travelling - and hopefully a better one! In this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I chat with three guests who agree that we can learn a lot when we travel. First, I speak with Justin Meneguzzi who has a personal lesson connected to confidence, and a broader lesson about social norms, and right and wrong. Next, Tasha Goldberg explains one of her most important personal lessons from travel, learnt while travelling after a heartbreak; she also talks about how she learnt the difference between the theory and framework of policy and what it's like to meet people actually experiencing that situation. Finally, I chat with Lindsay Williams, a language-learning expert, about some of the lessons travel can teach us about speaking another language. Links: Justin Meneguzzi - https://www.justinmeneguzzi.co

Paul Theroux returns! This episode is the second half of my interview with travel writer Paul Theroux - if you haven't listened to Episode 214 yet, go and do that first! In this final section, we talk about another widely-varied array of travel topics, including the magic of train travel, one of my very favourite ways to get around. We also chat about some cultural differences and discuss some of the things that are peculiar to Australians. We move on to discussing road trips in Australia and the United States, and finish up talking about our children - I know that Paul's sons Louis and Marcel have made truly impressive creative careers for themselves, so I ask him for some parenting tips! I still feel so privileged to have had this great chat, and I hope you enjoy listening to it just a fraction as much as I enjoyed recording it. Links: Deep South - https://amzn.to/3pUcmef  Riding the Iron Rooster - https://amzn.to/2J0Svt6  Dark Star Safari - https://amzn.to/3pRQlN8  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtfu

I'd need a time machine to be able to tell for sure, but I think that Paul Theroux's "The Great Railway Bazaar" was probably the very first travel narrative book I ever read. It shaped a lot about what I thought about travel - that you should talk to local people, that you should travel slowly, alone where possible, and not in a group of tourists, for sure - and it gave me quite an obsession with trains and the Trans-Siberian railway in particular. So when I was offered the chance to interview Paul Theroux - of course, I said yes! Episode 214 is the first half of this interview - Paul was a very generous interviewee, and our chat is too long to publish in a regular episode, so you'll find the rest in Episode 215.  In this half, our chat is wide-ranging and includes leaning languages, ways to get to know the locals, and the pleasure of teaching and studying in a foreign country - a very sneaky way to properly get to know a place! Links: The Great Railway Bazaar - https://amzn.to/35Ca6QB  The Tao of Travel -

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the November 2020 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Down Under (aka In a Sunburned Country) by Bill Bryson. 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.

Over recent years, more of us have paid attention to ways in which we can travel a little more sustainably, and harm the environment a little less - but we still have such a long way to go. In Episode 213 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three travellers who are also very concerned about the impact we are having on the environment, and have a wealth of tips and ideas to share with us. First up I speak with Brighde Reed from World Vegan Travel, who spends a lot of time writing and thinking about how what we do affects the planet. She has a host of practical tips and I suspect there'll be something useful for everyone. Next, I chat with Louise Southerden, a very thoughtful travel writer who has plenty to say about sustainability as a broader topic along with some excellent tips for travellers. Finally, Anna Chittenden talks about more practical ways to be sustainable when we travel, including some specific tips in Asia, and also raises an important topic which we'll have to put a pin in for a fu

Travelling is often fun but if you're travelling for a super-special reason like to get married - well, then that's even more fun! This episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is full of amazing destinations and very special trips indeed. My first guest is Scott Antcliffe, who told me this story about his honeymoon in the Maldives - I loved his tale so much that it inspired me to find some other wedding or honeymoon stories to put into this episode. Shaney Hudson, my second guest, answered the call - because she is a real over-achiever at weddings! She and her husband got married not one, not twice, but three times, and on three different continents and in quite incredible situations. Finally, Emma Lovell did something I think many travel-lovers would like to do: she eloped to somewhere foreign and special, and she and her (now) husband had a really unique wedding. Links: Getting Engaged While Travelling - https://notaballerina.com/197   Scott Antcliffe on Twitter - https://twitter.com/cliffy94 Shaney Hu

Quirky limestone pillars, Spanish street names, a barbecued pizza ... all this and more in our most recent trip. It's been a busy year - oddly enough! I was due a break, and I took my son off for four days to Cervantes, a couple of hours north of Perth. This had all the hallmarks of some of my favourite kinds of travel: slow travel (staying in one destination rather than moving around), finding things to be curious about (there is always something to be curious about!) and having fun with good people. My son and I recorded our thoughts about this Cervantes trip in two parts, and although the highlight of the stay was visiting the Pinnacles desert (now that's a weird place!), there were lots of fun and interesting moments which I think our chats have captured well. Links: Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/211 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Episode 210, a nice round number so it's time for a special edition of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. As some of you may know, I've spent a fair bit of time working on my first book about thoughtful travel, and in this episode, I decided to tell you some stories from a particular section of my book that talks about how travel really helps us to understand the world better - in a way that no textbook, movie or book can ever do. The first tale I share is one of many situations I've been in where travelling helped me understand world history more deeply. It's simultaneously one of my least favourite but most impactful travel days, visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in southern Poland. Next, I move on to another less-than-cheery (but important!) topic, with a story about how a small incident on my travels got me thinking more deeply about racism. To lighten the tone, I then have a story to share about what travelling has taught me about religion - it's a story involving a car and a shrine

Episode 209 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast was inspired by a chat I had with Rick Antonson a year or so back, who described a trip he'd taken in Canada with his ten-year-old grandson Riley. Since then I've been looking out for other stories of travelling with grandchildren and am excited to publish this episode with its three great tales. First up of course is Rick's story which began it all - and I particularly love it because it takes place on a great train journey in Canada, something I'd like to emulate one day (hopefully before I have grandchildren of my own!), Next, I chat with Nan Caple who is grandmother to ten - and has a wonderful family tradition of getting together on a trip with the extended family. I think her grandchildren are very lucky! Finally, I loved speaking with Fiona Newman, a listener of the podcast who volunteered to tell her story of taking two of her grandchildren on a very special trip to Europe - the kind of trip that, I have no doubt, those kids will hold very dear in their

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the September 2020 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Step By Step by Simon Reeve. 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 might not be travelling as far and wide as usual thanks to Covid-19 and our state's border closure, but my son and I have just had a quick getaway to a town a couple of hours east of Perth, and it is worth telling you all about! I'm a big fan of travel for random reasons, and this one was pretty random. The destination was dictated purely by my 10-year-old son, and meant we ended up staying near the town of Meckering, in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia. Meckering's only a memorable name to most West Aussies because a particularly bad earthquake struck there back in 1968. On our trip, we learnt more about that, but also got to enjoy some big views and the quiet of farm life - and in this episode, I chat about our experience with my son, as well as giving you my thoughts on why this kind of trip is valuable and worthwhile, too. Check the show notes for some photos of Meckering and surrounds. Links: Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultra

My first creative love is writing, and it's exciting to me to be able to explore how my guests combine writing and travel in this episode about writing retreats around the world. First up, I chat with Suzanne Moore, a novelist who lives in Perth but took the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks completely alone in Japan to work on her book, in the scenic landscape of Hokkaido. Next, Catherine Marshall explains her month-long writing retreat at Ledig House in New York State - and I get quite envious over the idea of spending an entire month focused on writing, in a beautiful place with fascinating people! Finally, Patti Buff tells me about a writers' retreat she organised within the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, held at a particularly picturesque spot in southern Germany. Links: Suzanne Moore https://www.suzannemoorewriter.com/    Suzanne’s book The Place Between - https://amzn.to/31KM6aD  Catherine Marshall - http://catherinemarshall.com.au coming soon! More from Catherine and fri

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the July 2020 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. 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.

Episode 206 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is a special one: for the first time, I'm doing a crossover episode with another podcast, because I'm sure it's one my listeners will love.  I chatted with Erin, the host of Alpaca My Bags, earlier in the year when we had just gone into Covid lockdown. Erin and I discussed our travel histories, all about what our podcasts stand for, and highlight some of our favourite episodes. I get to be a bit self-indulgent and talk about moving abroad in my twenties and my theory about brainwashing my son so that he loves to travel (so far, it's working!).  Links: Alpaca My Bags Podcast - https://www.pinatravels.org/podcast  Alpaca My Bags Holiday special chat - https://audioboom.com/posts/7462567-a-holiday-special-for-travelers-and-friends Alpaca My Bags No White Saviors episode - https://audioboom.com/posts/7496097-voluntourism-and-no-white-saviors  Interesting Plane Passengers Sitting Next To You - https://notaballerina.com/178 Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travel

What turned you into a traveller? I've been pondering this question and in Episode 205 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I chat with four travel lovers about the origins of their travel addiction. We start off delving back into childhood times to find some of the sparks that interested us in travel, and I speak first with Evan Petrelis. His particular entry point for learning about the world is quite unique! I also chat with Bob DiMenna who grew up loving learning about wildlife around the world, which led on to an interest in world cultures and travel. Next, we consider how you go from a casual traveller into something more serious. I talk to Ferenc Elekes who learnt an important lesson while on a two-week holiday in Australia, chatting with longer-term travellers. I also chat with Kate Manser about how visiting her friend in French Polynesia had a significant impact on her life, too. Links: Episode featuring my Dad talking about Papua New Guinea -  https://notaballerina.com/20  Evan Petrelis from Renaissa

Island life, island time, there are all kinds of phrases we use that evoke that special feeling of islands - be they tropical or otherwise, small islands are exotic places to visit and I've got such a long list of islands I've loved, and long to return to. Turns out I'm not alone and in Episode 204 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three guests about some of their own favourite island experiences and what it is they love about island travel. First up is Seana Smith who, despite being born in a "small, freezing Scottish town", discovered that she could indeed travel to far-flung islands and describes experiences in Africa and Asia. Next, Ben Pearson takes us to Indonesia and has a fun story he likes to tell about a particularly famous island, home to a certain dragon ... Finally, I chat with Nan Caple who has spent many years returning to Kangaroo Island in South Australia, a special place that has captivated her family and turned into something more than just a spot they love to spend their ho

Travel can have a lasting impact at any age but if you’re a teenager and you’re away from your family on some kind of student exchange program then it’s even more likely to be life-changing, and Episode 203 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast looks at this idea in this episode about student exchange trips. First up, we hear briefly from Abby Lewtas who describes her experience as a fourteen-year-old on exchange in the United States - the same as I was when I went to Germany on an equally life-altering school trip. I then chat to Patti Buff, an American writer who by chance happened to spend a year as a teenager here in my very own home state of Western Australia. It was so fabulous to chat with her and this is just an extract of a much longer conversation! Finally, one of my listeners, Jane, spoke to me about another angle of student exchanges: being the host family. Jane taught me a lot about all the benefits of student exchange trips to those families where the students end up staying - something I’d never