Explore every episode of the podcast Zero To Travel Podcast

Why have more people been to outer space than to every country in the world? Ric Gazarian grew up in Boston and spent years in financial services before a 2008 layoff sent him on a year-long trip and into a remote real estate business that has funded his travels ever since. He has now visited around 190 countries on his quest to reach all 193 UN member states. Ric hosts the Counting Countries podcast, organizes the Extraordinary Travel Festival, and has turned his tuk-tuk and rickshaw road trips through Cambodia and India into films. In this conversation, Ric and I talk about what traveling to every country in the world really involves, less crowded destinations worth visiting, unorthodox road trips by tuk-tuk and rickshaw, and how to get comfortable traveling to less visited places. Only around 500 people have ever been to every country on Earth, and Ric spends a lot of his time with them. That gives him a rare view of where the world's most traveled people actually go, and which places deserve far more visitors than they get. It's also a reminder that the best travel stories rarely come from the smoothest trips. If you've been craving something a little less mainstream for your next adventure, Ric makes a strong case for stepping a bit further outside your comfort zone. If you built a road trip around something you've never tried before, what would it be? I'd love to hear your ideas, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn What keeps Ric going on his quest to visit all 193 UN countries, and why some people give up along the way How the most traveled people in the world debate what actually counts as a visit How one book about a priest in the slums of Bangkok changed the course of Ric's life What Thailand's visa crackdown means for digital nomads and long-term visitors Where to find a Thai island with no 7-Eleven and barely a working ATM Why Ric calls Uzbekistan his favorite country in Central Asia, and the Tajikistan road trip he ranks as the best of his life How a $1,000 tuk-tuk that keeps breaking down can beat a luxury road trip Advice for getting comfortable with less visited countries, plus the safety systems Ric relies on Advice for leaving a career behind to take a year-long trip Which country surprised Ric most after he expected the worst Resources Sign up for our FREE newsletter GlobalGaz Counting Countries Podcast Extraordinary Travel Festival (code ZERO for $100 off!) Instagram Hit the Road Films Mercy Centre Mumbai Xpress Rickshaw Rally Every Passport Stamp Facebook Group Want More Visiting Every Country in the World…TWICE! With Gunnar Garfors Finding a Quest That Can Change Your Life: An Interview With Chris Guillebeau Independent Travel Gold With Graham Hughes Thanks To Our Sponsors Explore 100% human-made itineraries at exploreworldwide.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are successful people like before they become big? Before The Moment is hosted by music icon Nile Rodgers, who sits down with some of music’s biggest names to uncover the turning points that defined them, and, importantly, what was happening before everything changed. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Can you be culturally religious without being religiously religious? What if happiness had less to do with what you believe and more to do with what you notice? Hiroko Yoda is a Tokyo-born author, translator and folklorist who first came to the US at 17 as an exchange student in rural Indiana. She went on to earn a master's degree in international peace and conflict resolution and co-founded AltJapan, a localization company, with her husband. A former Tokyo editor for CNN Go and a certified Shinto cultural historian, she has coauthored several books on Japanese folklore and is the author of Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan. In this conversation, Hiroko and I talk about the Japanese idea of 8 million kami, how spirituality became part of everyday culture in Japan, and how travelers can visit Japan's shrines and temples with more understanding. Most of us grew up with the idea that you either believe or you don't. Hiroko offers a different way of seeing it, where Japanese spirituality and happiness grow out of a worldview that treats the sun, the wind, and even the words we speak with quiet respect. It's a worldview that shapes everything from how people eat to how they relate to nature, and it's hiding in plain sight for anyone traveling through Japan. Hiroko is honest that none of this makes life easy, which is exactly what makes her perspective feel useful. What's one small thing in your everyday life you could start noticing, and appreciating, a little more often? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: How an exchange year in rural Indiana in the 1980s sparked a lifelong mission to build bridges between cultures What the ancient concept of 8 million kami reveals about the Japanese worldview Why most Japanese people struggle to answer the question "Are you religious?" How a Shinto priest's definition of kami turns gratitude into a daily practice How losing her mother led Hiroko back to Japan's spiritual traditions What Japan's mountain ascetics, the yamabushi, can teach us about our place in nature Why the Japanese words for seafood and vegetables say so much about happiness How the Seven Gods of Happiness reflect Japan's radical inclusivity Advice for visiting shrines and temples respectfully, plus one major Tokyo spot Hiroko calls a textbook example of Japanese spirituality What a 107-year-old calligraphy master taught Hiroko about happiness and perspective Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Eight Million Ways to Happiness HirokoYoda.com Japan Happiness Newsletter Hiroko Yoda Instagram AltJapan Youth For Understanding Want More: Exploring Kyoto Japan, Creative Expression Through Street Photography, Connecting With Your Heritage Abroad with Taro Moberly How A Pilgrimage Can Transform Your Life w/ Paul Barach The Spiritual Journey + Travel and Creativity with Karan Bajaj Thanks To Our Sponsors: Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel Explore 100% human-made itineraries at exploreworldwide.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Norway is already known for its fjords, Northern Lights, and wide-open nature, so what makes Northern Norway an even better place to have it all to yourself? Joël Schwalenstöcker is a Northern Norway native who grew up in Tromsø with a German father and a French mother. For about 15 years, he has worked as a music agent, booking tours and shows for artists across Norway and Scandinavia. He is also the founder of Noraventura, which designs tailor-made trips through Norway for travelers who want to see the country beyond the usual tourist stops. Joël shares seven hidden gems in Northern Norway that most visitors miss, and why the region’s best-known spots have become so crowded. We also share Northern Norway travel tips on renting a car, packing for changing weather, and choosing when to go. Northern Norway is bigger, emptier, and wilder than most people expect, with the midnight sun in summer and the northern lights in winter shaping the rhythm of life there. It’s also a region where a short drive can change the entire feel of a trip. If you’re planning a visit, or you like the idea of seeing Northern Norway off the beaten path, this conversation gives you plenty to think about. Have you ever skipped the famous stop on a trip and found something you liked even better? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: Why a sailing trip toward the Arctic ended with Joël’s parents settling in Northern Norway for good How Northern Norway’s light, milder-than-expected climate, and freedom-to-roam traditions set it apart from the rest of the country Why the same few places dominate every search and social feed, and what that does to the travel experience Why the stretch of coast most people just drive through might offer the best mix of beaches and mountains in the country Where you can catch a concert inside a natural cave on a remote island community that has been inhabited for thousands of years What you’ll find when you turn right instead of left on a famous island chain How locals near the region’s biggest city escape to sandy beaches when the sun finally comes out How to trek the far northeast by following reindeer trails, close to the Russian border Advice on getting around, packing for weather that changes by the hour, and timing a summer trek to avoid the region’s fiercest insects How to get a real shot at the northern lights, plus one Lofoten stop worth adding to any itinerary Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Noraventura Unlisted Cheat Sheet (use code ZERO) Instagram Trænafestivalen Ytri Island Retreat Hov Gård Varangerhalvøya National Park Want More? Hidden Norway: 7 Off The Beaten Path Gems You’ll Love, Popular Norwegian Concepts Worth Stealing, Trekking In Bhutan, & Living At The Crossroads of Magic & Science w/ Torunn Tronsvang from Up Norway How To See The Northern Lights In Norway Top 7 Hidden Gems in Oslo, Norway with Curtis Rojak of Viking Biking Thanks To Our Sponsors Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel Explore 100% human-made itineraries at exploreworldwide.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the way you were taught to read stops working the moment you step outside your own culture? Ann Morgan is a UK-based author, speaker, and editor best known for reading a book from every country in the world in a single year, a project she chronicled on her blog A Year of Reading the World and in her book Reading the World (published in the US as The World Between Two Covers). In her newest book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing, she looks at what it actually takes to read well across cultural and linguistic lines. Ann returns to walk through five techniques for relearning how to read, covering how to notice your own hidden bias, why every reader fills in a story's gaps differently, what a book's assumptions reveal about who it expects you to be, and why this should all matter to us curious travelers. This conversation gets into something bigger than books: what it actually means to sit with not knowing, and why that discomfort might be exactly where the growth happens. Ann pushes back on the idea that understanding everything is the goal, and the reframe she offers reaches well beyond the page. If you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to get better at reading books from other cultures, this episode lays it out step by step. What's one time you filled in a story's gaps completely differently than the writer intended? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: Why the way Ann was taught to read stopped working once she started reading internationally How growing up in a culture that caters to you can hide how much of reading has been made easy for you Why she encourages readers to hold onto their questions instead of rushing to answer them How paying attention to what annoys you while reading can reveal a hidden bias Advice on knowing when to push through a challenging book and when to just put it down How noticing what a book explains, and what it assumes you already know, tells you who it was written for Why every reader fills in a story's gaps differently, and what that reveals about you How AI and shrinking attention spans are reshaping the future of reading and storytelling A story from Ann's recent trip to Greenland with her friend Tété-Michel Kpomassi, sixty years after his first journey there Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing A Year of Reading the World Ann on Instagram Reading a Book from Every Country in the World with Ann Morgan Michel the Giant: An African in Greenland Want More: Traveling While Black with Nanjala Nyabola The Geography of Bliss With Eric Weiner The Vagabond's Way: Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel w/ Rolf Potts Thanks To Our Sponsors: Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel Explore 100% human-made itineraries at exploreworldwide.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With centuries of layered history and some of Europe's most uncrowded natural beauty, why isn't Bosnia and Herzegovina on more travelers' radars yet?  Nermin Numic grew up in Sarajevo and spent over a decade living and working abroad in South Africa and Europe, where he met his wife Kathrin, who is originally from Germany. In 2020, the couple returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the pandemic and decided to stay. They went on to found .Cheyf, a boutique travel agency built around the Bosnian concept of ćejf, showing travelers the local side of Sarajevo and the country beyond it.  Nermin and Kathrin share seven hidden gems in Sarajevo, Bosnia, that most visitors miss, along with the history behind the city's mix of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Yugoslav influences. They also talk about day trips into the surrounding mountains, must-try local food, and starting a travel business together as a couple.  Sarajevo is a city where four major religions have lived side by side for centuries, where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand helped ignite World War I, and where the Bosnian War left scars that are still part of daily conversation decades later. Nermin and Kathrin don't shy away from any of that history, but they also refuse to let it be the only story visitors hear. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why they believe this is exactly the right moment to experience it for yourself.  What's a place you discovered by accident that ended up being the highlight of your trip? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Nermin and Kathrin decided to build their life and business in Bosnia after meeting abroad  What the Bosnian concept of ćejf means and how it shapes the way they run their tours  How Sarajevo's layout reveals itself once you leave the old town behind  Why a quiet riverside walkway just outside the old town is worth the detour  How a centuries-old bridge and a Viennese-style coffeehouse capture the city's cultural blend  A thousand years of Sarajevo history, from the Bosnian kingdom through Ottoman rule, Austro-Hungarian rule, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that helped spark World War I  Why Nermin and Kathrin built their tours around food and culture instead of the Bosnian War, and how that decision paid off  Why a mountaintop observatory and a rooftop terrace offer some of the best views in the city  How to see one of the world's most valuable religious artifacts during a narrow weekly window  Advice for exploring the mountains, canyons, and villages just outside Sarajevo  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  .Cheyf  Insgram  Want More?  Top 5 Alternative European Destinations (to Avoid the Crowds) with Joseph Reaney  Hidden Norway: 7 Off The Beaten Path Gems You'll Love, Popular Norwegian Concepts Worth Stealing, Trekking In Bhutan, & Living At The Crossroads of Magic & Science w/ Torunn Tronsvang from Up Norway  Tbilisi Travel and Hidden Georgia Gems with Local Guide Levan Giorgadze  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to become the first person ever to complete a full source-to-sea kayaking trip down Madagascar's longest river?  Oscar Scafidi is a history teacher, travel writer, and expedition leader who has lived and worked across more than 30 African countries since 2006. He has written guidebooks to Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Tunisia, and holds a Guinness World Record for the first source-to-sea kayak expedition along Angola's Kwanza River. In 2022, he and a fellow expedition partner completed the first source-to-sea kayak trip along Madagascar's longest river, the Mangoky, an adventure now documented in his book and film.  In this episode, I talk with Oscar about his years living and working across Africa, and the story behind his recent Madagascar kayaking adventure.  This conversation moves between two very different worlds: the classroom, where Oscar spends his days teaching, and the wild, unmapped stretches of Africa where he pushes himself to the edge. There's a real thread of humility running through it, a reminder that no expedition succeeds without the people who make it possible along the way. It's also a great reminder that a regular person with a full-time job can still build a life full of big, audacious adventures. If you're drawn to stories of grit, humor under pressure, and what it feels like when a plan falls apart in real time, this one's for you.  Have you ever pushed yourself into a situation where you genuinely weren't sure how things would turn out? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How a string of rejected job applications accidentally launched a two-decade career in Africa  What it was really like moving straight from Western Europe into a country facing serious political instability  How teaching and travel writing compete for Oscar's time and attention  Why staying humble matters when writing about places that aren't your own  What it takes to prepare for a multi-week kayaking expedition with almost no prior experience  How a mountain range with no water nearly ended the trip  Advice for handling corrupt officials and checkpoint shakedowns without losing your cool  Why local guides and communities deserve more credit than the explorers themselves  What's next for Oscar's expedition career  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Watch the documentary  Scafidi Travels YouTube  Kayak the Mangoky  Our Kids, Our Future Madagascar  Want More?  Top 7 Uganda Hidden Gems with Lynett Nakamanya  Reconnecting to Nature with Adventure, Purpose, Fun, and Travelers' Curiosity with Alastair Humphreys  Exploring Namibia: The Ultimate Road Trip, Uncrowded Safaris, and a Slower Pace of Life with Tuta Nangolo  Thanks To Our Sponsors:  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why would anyone choose to travel across two continents alone, with nothing but a cat and no real plan?  Mia Kercher is a copywriter, marketing strategist, and hypnotist who traveled overland from Serbia to Vietnam as a solo female traveler. She crossed twelve countries by car, foot, bicycle, and tuktuk, all with her cat, Cleo, by her side. Prior to this trip, Mia spent two and a half years backpacking through Europe, eventually settling in Serbia, where she built her energetic copywriting business, Evoke Writing. She recently finished writing a book about her journey.  In this episode, I talk with Mia about her journey, including the weeks she spent in Afghanistan, and how she kept her business running while living off-grid.  This conversation is about what happens when you choose curiosity over a plan. Mia's approach to travel has never been about research or certainty, and that mindset gets tested in a big way on this journey. We talk about the discomfort of being an outsider, the surprising kindness that can meet you in the most unexpected places, and how solo travel builds a kind of trust in yourself that is hard to find any other way. It is also a conversation about intuition, and how tuning into your subconscious mind can change the way you make decisions, both on the road and in business.  What would it take for you to say yes to an adventure with no plan and no idea how it would turn out? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Mia decided to leave her expat life behind and drive across two continents  What it means to travel by "chaotic order" instead of a plan  The single overlooked document that completely rerouted her entire trip  How she prepared to enter a country most of her friends begged her not to visit  What changed the moment she stopped fearing the attention she was getting everywhere she went  The stranger who gave her a private tour most tourists never get to see  A roadside encounter that turned from friendly to alarming in seconds  How one man's dream of becoming an actor led to an unexpected fundraiser  Her strategy for traveling with a pet without drawing a crowd, and when it backfired  Mia's business strategy for making money on the road when she knows she's going to be off-grid or without wifi for a while  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Mia's website  Instagram  Substack  Want More?  Solo Traveling Europe and "The Stans" in a Campervan with Maria Glaser  Overland Travel 101, the Pros and Cons of Full-Time Travel, and Favorite Hidden Gem Destinations With Eric Highland  Road Tripping To India: Life On A Land Rover Overland Trip  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel   Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app   Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it take to visit every country in the world, and could a journey like that actually help you heal from unimaginable loss?  Following the sudden loss of his wife Jackie in Botswana in 2017, Barry Hoffner set out to visit every country in the world, a journey that became the basis for his memoir, Belonging to the World. He has since traveled to 192 of the 193 UN member countries, an experience that included exploring his own heritage as an Iraqi Jew who grew up in the United States. Barry also founded Caravan to Class, a nonprofit that provides access to education for young women across West Africa through the Bourse Jackie scholarship program, named in her honor.  In this episode, Barry shares how grief led him to a global quest to visit every country in the world, and what he learned about identity, connection, and healing along the way.  This conversation is a reminder that grief doesn't follow a straight line, and that the way we choose to move through it can shape everything that comes after. There's a lot of honesty here about what it means to rebuild an identity from the ground up after everything familiar is gone. And there's a genuine sense of wonder in hearing how one goal, however unlikely it seemed at the start, can turn into a life fully lived.  What might it look like for you to begin again from year zero? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why one spontaneous coin flip during high school set the course for a lifetime of travel  How an early scam abroad taught a hard lesson about travel awareness  Why working overseas early in his finance career reshaped his approach to life and work  What it was like to survive a real plane hijacking  How exploring his family's Middle Eastern heritage as an adult changed his sense of identity  Advice for processing grief and using travel intentionally as part of healing  Why he calls the period after his loss "year zero" and what that mindset can offer anyone starting over  How a chance encounter with a stranger became one of the most meaningful moments of his journey  Why the goal of visiting every country mattered less in the end than what he discovered along the way  Advice on transitioning from decades of nomadic living to putting down roots in one place  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Belonging to the World  Caravan to Class  Barry's Instagram  Want More?  Finding A Quest That Can Change Your Life: An Interview With Chris Guillebeau  The Power of Death in Life with Gentle Rebel Bronnie Ware  A Personal Evolution Through Travel + Creating Your Own Path with Nikki Vargas  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel   Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app   Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes Namibia feel less like a destination and more like an escape from everywhere else?  Tuta Nangolo is the founder of Kamatjona, a coliving space and safari company based in Windhoek, Namibia. Founded in 2020, Kamatjona blends long-stay coliving for digital nomads with community-driven, self-drive safaris across the country. Tuta's approach to hospitality was shaped in part by years spent working in a backpacker hostel in London, an experience that inspired him to bring that same sense of connection back home.   Tuta joins the show to talk about what makes Namibia's culture and landscapes so distinct, and he walks through a self-drive road trip itinerary connecting the country's desert, coastal, and wildlife regions.  Namibia doesn't behave the way most people expect a safari destination to. This conversation captures a country defined by space, silence, and a slower pace of life, where the wild feels genuinely wild because so few people are around to interrupt it. There's a real sense of discovery running through this one, the kind that comes from a place still largely untouched by mass tourism. It's also a look at what it takes to build a sense of community in a country that's historically catered to a very different kind of traveler.  Have you ever shown up somewhere expecting one thing and found the complete opposite? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Namibia surprises most visitors expecting a typical African destination  How population density shapes the pace of life and the travel experience  Advice for planning a multi-day self-drive road trip through the country  Why safaris here feel different from more crowded destinations elsewhere in Africa  What inspired the shift from working at a hostel abroad to building a coliving space back home  How local culture blends European influence with African tradition  What to know about weather and timing before planning a visit  Budget-friendly tips for food, accommodation, and getting around  The role of community in shaping a more meaningful travel experience  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Kamatjona coliving and safari  Kamatjona on Instagram  Namibia Road Trip & Hidden Gems List Want More?  Top 7 Uganda Hidden Gems with Lynett Nakamanya  Safari 101: How To Plan A World-Class African Safari (Without Going Broke)  5 Surprising Experiences in Africa, How to Transition to a New Career After Travel, and Exploring the African Diaspora With Jay Cameron  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel   Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app   Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you plan a trip with one goal: to disappear from your phone, your inbox, and the news for as long as you can stand it?  Tony Fletcher is a British music journalist and the author of seven books, including the bestselling Keith Moon biography Moon and the definitive R.E.M. biography Remarks Remade. He started the fanzine Jamming! as a teenager in London and has spent decades interviewing artists across the music world. He now lives in New York's Catskill Mountains, where he writes about music, travel, and running.   Tony just got back from a solo month in Nepal, where a big part of the trip was a deliberate digital detox: two weeks completely offline, no email, no social media, no news. He joins me to talk through how he planned it, what it actually felt like to disconnect, and the unconventional route he took into the mountains.  This is a conversation about what happens when you actually let go, not just of your phone, but of the need to always know what's going on. Tony went in with real doubts about whether he could pull it off, and those doubts followed him further into the trip than he expected. What came back out the other side surprised even him, touching habits and instincts he wasn't trying to change. There's also a quieter thread running through it about choosing the harder, lonelier path on purpose, and what that choice does to how you experience a place.  Have you ever taken a real break from your phone or the news while traveling, and what did you notice about yourself in the quiet? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How he prepared mentally in the week beforehand, and how many times he nearly talked himself out of it  Advice for planning a trek that starts right from your hotel room instead of taking transport to the trailhead  Why he chose a quieter route over the two most popular options  How trekking solo and unsupported changed the pace of each day  What quitting coffee and alcohol on the trail taught him about resetting his habits  How stepping away from his phone opened up more conversations with strangers  Why he gave himself an extra week away from the news even after getting back online  Advice on budgeting, accommodation, and food costs on a multi-week trek  The story of nearly losing his phone for good, and what it says about staying present  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Tony's Substack  Nepal Trekking and the Great Himalaya Trail by Robin Boustead  CalTopo  Trekking Nepal: Your Adventure Guide podcast by Zero To Travel  Want More?  Life-Changing Trips, Interviewing Music Legends, Backpacking the World, and Fostering Transformative Connections with Tony Fletcher  Immersion Travel: Becoming a Porter in Nepal with Nate Menninger  Walking the World with Alexander Campbell and Tom Turcich  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel   Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app   Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does a tiny Nordic nation with just 5.5 million people feel impossible to summarize in a single sentence?  Lorelou Desjardins has been writing about Norwegian culture since 2013 at her blog and publishing house, A Frog in the Fjord. She has published six books in Norway and internationally, along with 250 articles in mainstream media including Norway's largest newspaper. Her latest book, How to Be Norwegian, offers a crash course into 55 essential Norwegian cultural quirks. She lives in Oslo and is now a Norwegian citizen.  In this episode, Lorelou and I dig into Norwegian culture and what makes this country so unique, covering the surprising scale of Norway's geography, the country's cabin culture, social dynamics among Norwegians, food and drink customs, the quirks of Norwegian English, and a Norwegian concept worth stealing for your own life.  Norway can feel like a country of contradictions: vast and remote in parts, intensely social in others, shaped by long winters and short summers that flip the whole rhythm of daily life. This conversation moves between practical travel insight and a more personal look at what it is actually like to live here long-term, even after becoming a citizen. Whether you are planning a trip, exploring your own Norwegian roots, or just drawn to borrowing a little wisdom from another culture, there is something here for you.  What is one custom or tradition from somewhere else in the world that you have brought into your own life? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How long Norway actually is, and which European capital it would touch if you spun it on its southern tip  Why a growing wave of travelers are choosing Norway over traditionally hot summer destinations  What Norway's "freedom to roam" law actually allows you to do  How cabin culture works, and how travelers can access cabins most visitors never think to look for  Why Norwegians have a reputation for being emotionally cold, and the bus ride that put that reputation to the test for me  Why Norwegians are so eager to talk about their own cultural identity with outsiders  The surprising history behind Norway's strict modern alcohol laws  Why frozen pizza and Friday tacos became beloved national traditions  The Norwegian concept that's similar to hygge, but with its own colder, deeper edge  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  A Frog in the Fjord  Lorelou's website  How to Be Norwegian  The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT)  Want More?  Cracking the Cultural Code, Ethical Travel To Indigenous Areas, & Life in Norway With Lorelou Desjardins  Hidden Norway: 7 Off The Beaten Path Gems You'll Love, Popular Norwegian Concepts Worth Stealing, Trekking In Bhutan, & Living At The Crossroads of Magic & Science w/ Torunn Tronsvang from Up Norway  Top 7 Hidden Gems in Oslo, Norway with Curtis Rojak of Viking Biking  Thanks To Our Sponsors   Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel   Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app   Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it look like to build a life that reflects exactly who you are and where you want to go?  Heath Armstrong is an entrepreneur, author, and co-founder of Rage Create, a company known for its unconventional affirmation and oracle card decks that have raised over $200,000 through crowdfunding. He spent years living and working nomadically, including a period traveling full-time in a self-built van across the United States. He now runs Deck Creators, a community for people who want to create and launch their own card decks, from his farmhouse in the mountains of North Carolina.  In this episode, Heath and I catch up on his journey from the early days of location independence to the businesses he's building now. We get into his approach to freedom lifestyle design, what it actually means to take inspired versus forced action, and the daily practices he's used to move from vision to reality.  This is one of those conversations that works on multiple levels. On the surface, it's about entrepreneurship and building a life around your values. But underneath that is something more personal: how to recognize when you're operating from fear versus genuine alignment, and what it takes to keep moving in the right direction even when things get hard.   Heath's been through real darkness, real financial uncertainty, and real pivots, and he's thought deeply about all of it. Whether you're designing a lifestyle business, mapping out your next travel chapter, or just trying to figure out what you actually want, there's something in here for you.  What's one thing you could do this week to move closer to the version of your life you actually want to be living? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Heath draws a sharp line between inspired action and forced action, and why that distinction changed everything for him  How the note card practice he started years ago still shapes his daily routine today  Why visualizing your goals in the present tense only works if you actually believe them, and what to do if you don't  How to tell the difference between resistance and intuition when they can feel nearly identical  What Heath's "totem pole" framework looks like in practice, and why it brings long-term vision and daily action into alignment  Why your environment and the people around you matter more than most productivity advice will tell you  Lessons from van life that Heath still carries with him, including why nature and isolation sharpened his business instincts  What Heath did when a tariff crisis threatened to sink a shipment, and why he frames problems like video game bosses  Why Heath thinks moving toward the life you want and being happy in the present moment are actually the same thing  Hidden gem destinations that left a real mark on Heath, including a spot in Oregon most people have never heard of  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Interested in the Being Box? Email Jason  Heath's website  Rage Create  Deck Creators Community  Heath on Instagram  The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn  The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale  Love Money, Money Loves You by Sarah McCrum   Want More?  Digital Detox: Downsizing Your Digital Life to Create Freedom + Reboot Your Lifestyle Business with Corbett Barr  Building, Growing, and Enjoying a Successful 7-Figure Lifestyle Business with Dan Andrews from Tropical MBA  How to Pivot to a Life With More Freedom (And Travel), Get More Free Time, and Unlock Your Intuition With Jenny Blake  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if one of Africa's most diverse and rewarding destinations has been hiding in plain sight — and most travelers only ever see a fraction of what it has to offer?  Lynett Nakamanya is a tourism professional and Kampala native who has worked across the East African travel industry for over a decade. She holds a master's degree in management science with a focus on project monitoring and evaluation in tourism, and is affiliated with the Uganda Tourism Board. She also runs her own trip-planning platform focused on sustainable and meaningful experiences across the region.  In this episode, Lynett shares her list of Uganda hidden gems and travel recommendations, the state of tourism in Uganda today, and the real impact that responsible travel can have on local communities.  Lynett brings a perspective that's hard to find — someone who grew up in Uganda, has spent her career inside the tourism industry there, and thinks seriously about what travel can and should do for local communities. She makes a compelling case for doing a little research before you arrive, because the gap between a standard itinerary and a genuinely memorable one often comes down to simply knowing what to ask for. She also shares a Ugandan saying about travel at the end of this one that's worth sticking around for.  What experience from this episode most surprised you, and has it changed how you think about where you want to go next? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why a beautiful crater lake just 20 minutes from Uganda's most famous attraction is almost never visited — and why it's worth the detour  How one of East Africa's most rewarding mountaineering experiences sits in Uganda, largely off the radar of international visitors  Why Uganda's 56 tribes make cultural immersion more rewarding when you focus on just one or two  What one of Uganda's most historically significant religious sites reveals about the country's layered cultural past  How a massive collection of islands right next to the airport offers everything from white sand beaches to wildlife encounters that most visitors drive straight past  Why one eastern Uganda destination pairs three waterfalls with some of the world's highest-graded Arabica coffee  Why doing your own research before a trip is the single best way to unlock experiences that never make the standard itinerary  How responsible travel creates a ripple effect through local families and communities that most visitors never see  What cultural mistake tourists commonly make in Uganda that creates more harm than help  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Uganda Tourism Board  Uganda Wildlife Authority  Explore Uganda  Want More?  Top 10 Hidden Gems: East Africa (Beyond the Safari) and Transitioning to Travel With Sasha and Megnote Lezhnev  5 Surprising Experiences in Africa, How to Transition to a New Career After Travel, and Exploring the African Diaspora With Jay Cameron  Safari 101: How To Plan A World-Class African Safari (Without Going Broke)  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the travel mindset you bring to far-off places is exactly what's needed right where you live?  Alastair Humphreys is a British adventurer, bestselling author, and speaker named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. He spent four years cycling 46,000 miles around the world and has since canoed 500 miles down the Yukon River, rowed across the Atlantic, walked the length of India's Kaveri River, and crossed Iceland on foot and pack raft. In recent years he has become one of the most well-known advocates for microadventures and local exploration, and his newest book is Unwilded: Finding Our Way Back to Nature.  Alastair joins me to unpack the ideas in his book, including why our growing disconnection from nature matters personally and planetarily, and how a travel mindset and nature connection can be tools for changing both.  Alastair has made this case before on the show, but Unwilded takes it somewhere new. This isn't just a conversation about microadventures or getting outside more. It's about a specific kind of blindness that builds slowly across generations, and what it costs us without anyone quite noticing. Alastair brings the same practical, adventure-first framing he always does, but this time it's in service of something bigger: a way to take the traveler's curiosity you feel on the road and put it to work where you actually live. The episode ends with a surprisingly simple exercise that can help you turn the world's overwhelming problems into something personal, actionable, and genuinely fun to pursue.  What's one small thing in your immediate environment that you've stopped really noticing? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why the traveler's curious, enthusiastic mindset is exactly what's needed at home, and why most of us leave it at the border  What "shifting baseline syndrome" is and why understanding it changes the way you see the world around you  How two apps transformed Alastair's relationship with his daily run, and how to try the same thing  Why spending 15 minutes in nature daily is harder than it sounds, and why that's actually the problem  How connecting with even a tiny patch of local nature can deliver the same buzz as a far-off adventure  What the Overton window has to do with how we approach climate change, travel, and everyday behavior  Why Alastair stopped flying and moved to a vegan diet, and the surprisingly positive effect it had on his life  What the 5-25 exercise is, and how it can help you identify the issues closest to your heart and take action without burning out  How the Netherlands transformed its streets in a generation, and what that says about what's actually possible  The vision Alastair wrote for the world 25 years from now, and why it's closer to reality than it might seem  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Alastair Humphreys' website  Unwilded: Finding Our Way Back to Nature  Adventure + Purpose newsletter by Alastair Humphreys  Follow Alastair on Instagram  Merlin Bird ID app  Seek app by iNaturalist  4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman  Want More?  How To Have An Adventure On Any Budget With Alastair Humphreys  Exploring A Single Map: A Travel Adventure For Everyone With Alastair Humphreys  Is Your Summer Vacation Destroying The Planet? w/ Seth Kugel  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Molly McDonald is a London-based YouTube producer and founder of Blue Door Productions, a YouTube-first content agency that brings broadcast-level production to digital storytelling. She studied journalism at Boston University and later earned a master's in Irish studies from NYU before building her career in television production in New York City. Her client list includes Red Bull, BBC, and National Geographic, and her films have accumulated over 200 million views on YouTube.  This episode covers Molly's journey from Irish-American New Yorker to YouTube travel documentary producer, including her work on some of the most extreme human endurance expeditions ever filmed and what she learned along the way.  Travel has a funny way of dismantling the stories we tell ourselves about the world, and Molly McDonald has lived that firsthand, from the pubs her family built in Manhattan to the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. She grew up straddling two cultures, and that dual identity turns out to be the exact foundation for the kind of storytelling she now does for a living: finding the human truth inside extreme, unpredictable adventures. There's a real conversation in here about what it means to travel to places that scare you, why the media often gets destinations wrong, and how following a story you can't fully control is actually what makes it worth watching.  What place have you avoided visiting because of how it's been portrayed in the media, and has anything ever changed your mind? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why growing up Irish-American in New York shaped Molly's approach to storytelling and travel  How Blue Door Productions brings TV-level production quality to the "wild west" of YouTube  What it was actually like to cross into Iraq during a live expedition, and what happened to all the fear  Why Kurdistan challenged everything Molly thought she knew about the region  How to capture authentic moments on camera when you can't predict what's coming next  Advice for aspiring YouTubers on what to cut, what to keep, and why most people share too much  Why the title and thumbnail of a YouTube video matter more than people realize  How to think about storytelling structure even when the story is still unfolding in front of you  What the concept of "soul places" reveals about how travel changes you over time  Why starting from zero on YouTube is actually an advantage, and what consistency really means  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Learn more about Molly's work at Blue Door Productions  Follow Molly on Instagram at @mollybmcd  Watch Mitch Hutchcraft's expedition on YouTube  Want More?  100 Documentaries Project: Traveling the Globe to Find Extraordinary Humans + Changing the World One Story at a Time with Robin Danehav  Transition to Travel: West Africa + Canoeing the River Gambia with Will Hunt  Independent Travel as a Female in Afghanistan, Hitchhiking Iraq, and Ex-Pat Life in Sudan with Jacquelyn Kunz  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I'm sharing a bonus episode from a brand new podcast called Y We Travel, co-hosted by my friend Eric Weiner, who has joined me on the show a few times over the years. Eric is a New York Times bestselling author and former foreign correspondent, and his co-host Erica Vella is an award-winning podcaster and former broadcast journalist.  There's no shortage of travel advice out there — who can save us a buck, what to do, when's the best time to go, where to go. But one fundamental question often gets left behind: why?  Born from an award-winning magazine series of the same name, Y We Travel explores the deeper motivations behind our journeys. The show unpacks the emotions, discoveries, and purpose that give travel its meaning.  In this episode, Eric and Erica discuss the origins of the series and their own motivations for travelling. Eric interviews author and Y We Travel essayist Pico Iyer, trading travel anecdotes from Japan to California to North Korea and discussing themes from Pico's piece in The Walrus magazine, which argued that we should travel to meet our neighbours. Erica continues the conversation with a selection of Toronto Pearson passengers, asking: "Why are you travelling today?"  Resources:  Sign up for the Zero to Travel FREE newsletter  Listen to Y We Travel on Apple, Spotify  Read the companion essays at ywetravelmag.ca  Contact Y We Travel: hello@ywetravelmag.ca  Learn more about Pico Iyer  Want More?:  The Geography of Bliss With Eric Weiner  How To Live a Long and Useful Life (The Wisdom of Ben Franklin) With Eric Weiner  Rick Steves On the Hippie Trail (The Making of a Travel Writer) with Special Guest Host Eric Weiner  Thanks To Our Sponsors:  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Gray is the founder and CEO of Pangea, a free social travel app built to help people coordinate travel plans, share recommendations, and connect with their network around the world. After a decade in product development and corporate M&A at a global fintech company, he left the corporate world in 2023 to become a full-time digital nomad and build Pangea full-time. He is on a personal mission to visit every country in the world. In this episode, we get into seven travel tech trends shaping how people plan, book, and experience travel, including why most travel apps fail, the rise of social travel, and what AI can and can't do for travelers right now. We also dig into destination recommendations, advice for running a remote business on the road, and what it means to bridge the nomad bubble. These are genuinely fascinating times to be a traveler and a builder in the travel space, and Matt sits at the center of both worlds. He's thinking seriously about why travel tech has such a high failure rate, and what it would actually take to crack the code, and he brings a perspective that is grounded in years of on-the-ground experience across dozens of countries and travel styles. There is a real conversation here about the gap between wanting to travel and actually doing it, and I think it will stick with you. The travel tech trends for digital nomads piece is insightful, but the human thread running through it all is what makes this one worth your time. Have you ever had a piece of technology genuinely change how you travel or connect with people on the road? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: Why so many travel apps are built to solve a single problem, and why that almost always leads to failure How being a "multifaceted traveler" is reshaping what a useful travel platform actually needs to do Why AI wrappers on ChatGPT are not the same as AI-powered travel tools, and how to tell the difference How social travel is changing the reason people book trips in the first place Why off-the-beaten-path destinations benefit most from the rise of connected travel communities How to break out of the nomad bubble and go deeper in the places you visit Why the people you travel with may matter more than the places you go Destination recommendations for regions quietly gaining traction in the nomad world Advice for running a remote team while living a location-independent life What it looks like to bring urgency to travel, not just talk about it And so much more Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Download the Pangea app Pangea on Instagram Couchsurfing Workaway Want More? From Expat to Digital Nomad: Finding Your Travel Rhythm, Balancing Burnout, and the Digital Nomad Lifestyle with Kristin Wilson The World's Most Traveled Person on the Ethics of Gamifying Travel, Best Regions in the World, and Why To Keep Traveling With Harry Mitsidis of NomadMania Top 5 Reasons For "Slomading" + The Benefits Of Boredom With Tim Marting From Citizen Remote Thanks To Our Sponsors Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it mean to stop measuring your life by the conventional yardstick and start building one that actually fits?  Blake Boles is a writer, experiential educator, and the founder of Unschool Adventures, a travel company for self-directed teenagers, which he has run since 2008. He is the author of several books on alternative education and self-directed learning, and his newest book, Dirtbag Rich: High Freedom, Low Income, Deep Purpose, was released in March 2026.   In this episode, Blake and I get into the philosophy behind "dirtbag rich" living, including what it really means to pursue a high-freedom, low-income lifestyle while still navigating the demands of modern capitalism. We also dig into the practical side of how to make a non-traditional financial model actually work, and talk about purpose, downward mobility, unschooling, outdoor adventure, and so much more.  If you've ever wondered whether there's a middle path between grinding toward a distant retirement and going full dirtbag with no financial safety net, this conversation is going to give you a lot to think about. Blake shares a lot of real practical substance in this one, alongside some genuinely fresh thinking about how to measure wealth, what freedom actually requires, and what gets in the way of most people finding their version of a dirtbag-rich unconventional life.  What does "enough" look like for you, whether that's money, time, adventure, or something else? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why the original dirtbag culture offers a useful framework, even if you'll never live in Yosemite full-time  How Blake figured out a way to earn good money in short bursts and stay free the rest of the year  Why "how do you know when you're wealthy?" is a more useful question than you might expect  What the FIRE movement often gets wrong about making a clean break from work  How to think about "downward mobility" as a feature rather than a failure  Why having freedom from something isn't enough without also knowing what you're free to do  What the real risks of a dirtbag rich lifestyle actually are, and how to go in with clear eyes  How purpose shows up differently for different people, and why measuring it in "I get to" days works  Advice for attracting the ideal clients and building work that doesn't eat your life  Why getting your ideal client to feel genuinely excited to work with you is the job before the job  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Blake’s website  Dirtbag Rich book  Unschool Adventures  Want More?  The Vagabond's Way: Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel w/ Rolf Potts   The 5 Best Hacks of “All the Hacks”: Travel, Money & Life Optimization with Chris Hutchins  Digital Detox: Downsizing Your Digital Life to Create Freedom + Reboot Your Lifestyle Business with Corbett Barr  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever considered traveling to or working from Uruguay?  Lucia Krygier is a Uruguayan entrepreneur and innovation consultant based in Montevideo. In early 2025, she spent two months working remotely from Cape Town, South Africa, an experience she describes as a turning point in her life. That trip led her to found Work From Uruguay, a community-driven workation program bringing together remote workers, digital nomads, and entrepreneurs to co-live and co-work in Uruguay.  In this episode, Lucia shares her journey from first-time remote worker to budding business owner, and makes a strong case for why Uruguay deserves a spot on your radar.  There is something worth sitting with in this conversation about what happens when you stop waiting for the right moment and just go. Lucia's path touches on trusting yourself through uncertainty, building a life around how you actually want to live, and what travel to Uruguay's hidden gems can unlock when you give a place more than a few days.   If you had the chance to spend a few months working and traveling somewhere completely new,  would you take it? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Lucia's first remote work trip to Cape Town changed the direction of her life  How she decided between constantly moving and staying in one place for an extended time  The hidden costs and benefits of spending more time in one place instead of country hopping  The mindset shift that helped her leave a stable job and launch a business from abroad  How she handled the uncertainty of starting a consulting career while traveling across Europe  Why she built her business around her home country instead of continuing to travel indefinitely  What Uruguay's digital nomad permit is and how it works for long-term visitors  The off-grid beach village that gets a "wow effect" from every single visitor who goes there  Seven specific places in Uruguay worth visiting, from a colonial port town to a bohemian surf village  What to eat in Uruguay, from the national sandwich to a dish tracing back to Italian immigrants  Advice for testing the work-travel lifestyle before committing to a full nomadic year  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Work From Uruguay  Instagram  Want More?  Building a Travel Lifestyle: Digital Nomadism, Slow Travel, Exploring Latin America with Kyle Cohenour  From Expat to Digital Nomad: Finding Your Travel Rhythm, Balancing Burnout, and the Digital Nomad Lifestyle with Kristin Wilson  Creating A Life Abroad + Expert Remote Work Advice with Chase Warrington  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you do when the adventure ends?  Tom Turcich is a motivational speaker, author, and the tenth person in history to walk around the world. Over seven years, he and his dog, Savannah, covered 28,000 miles across 38 countries and six continents, completing the journey in 2022. He is the author of the memoir The World Walk and the children's book Savannah's World of Adventure.  In this episode, Tom shares what returning home after long-term travel actually looks like, from the mental and emotional toll of losing the road, to the financial catch-up game, to the harder question of who you are once the adventure is over.  If you've ever come back from a trip and felt a strange kind of grief you couldn't quite name, this one is for you. Tom is remarkably open about the difficulty of that first year back, and the conversation gets into territory that doesn't often get talked about after a big journey ends. There's real honesty here about what it takes to find your footing again, how to rebuild adventure into a life that isn't handing it to you every day, and how to make peace with the constraints that come with settling down.  What's one thing you've held onto from a big trip that's hard to explain to people who weren't there? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Tom describes his first year back as the only depression he's ever experienced  How the world "stops coming at you" when you settle down, and what it takes to rebuild that muscle  The unexpected mental and emotional challenge of no longer having a North Star  Why consistency beats passion when it comes to making progress, in travel and in life  What two years of walking in the Atacama Desert taught Tom about happiness  Why your traveler identity matters less than the values underneath it  How walking became a years-long meditation practice Tom didn't see coming  The one mindset Tom would give anyone coming off the road for the first time  Why building community after a big adventure takes longer than most people expect  What it means to choose your constraints rather than just accept them  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Tom’s website  The World Walk book  Microadventures book  Want More?  Walking the World with Alexander Campbell and Tom Turcich  The World Walk (Trilogy): Lessons From A 7 Year Walk Around The World w/ Tom Turcich  Exploring A Single Map: A Travel Adventure For Everyone With Alastair Humphreys  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it actually take to give yourself permission to live unconventionally, and what's really standing in the way?  I had the opportunity to be a guest on the My Most Authentic Life podcast with Fede Vargas, a conversation we recorded live on the rooftop at Podcast Movement Evolutions during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Fede interviewed me about the themes that run through this show, including unconventional paths, pivots, lifestyle design, and what it means to choose differently.  This conversation pulls out some of my most honest thinking on what it means to give yourself permission to live unconventionally. We talk openly about my decade as a nomad with no fixed home, the internal and external forces that push back against unconventional choices, and how imposter syndrome never goes away but can be trained around. There's a lot here that I think will resonate if you've ever felt the pull of a different path but weren't sure you were allowed to take it.  Tune In To Learn:  Why giving yourself permission is often the first and hardest obstacle on any unconventional path  How imposter syndrome works as a muscle you can train, not a problem you solve  What it means to "pivot" before you've actually made any outward moves  Why the journey before the journey has more value than most people realize  How lifestyle design is less about optimization and more about filtering decisions through your ideal daily life  Why the "perfect average day" exercise is a practical starting point for anyone designing their life  How I spent a decade as a nomadic tour manager, including driving the Meow Mix Catmobile across the U.S.  What unexpected things can happen when you follow your gut, even last-minute  Why my definition of authenticity comes down to one word  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  My Most Authentic Life  Instagram  The Perfect Average Day  Laundry House  Want More?  How to Pivot to a Life With More Freedom (And Travel), Get More Free Time, and Unlock Your Intuition With Jenny Blake  How to Navigate Transitions and Design Your Life (Without the BS) with Lauren Handel Zander  Two Paths to Location Independence and Travel (No Skills Required) With Caitlin Sunderland and Janessa Klatt  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Get 20% of at Cozy Earth with code ‘TRAVEL’  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it take for you to actually turn travel into a lifestyle, not just a vacation?  Nick Wharton and Dariece Swift are the Canadian couple behind Goats On The Road, one of the longest-running travel and lifestyle blogs online. Since leaving Canada in 2008, they have lived and traveled full-time across Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Caribbean, funding their adventures through teaching English abroad, house sitting, freelance writing, and eventually building a successful travel blog and suite of online courses.  In this episode, Nick and Dariece share the real, unfiltered story of how two regular people from a small town in Canada traded their office jobs and oil rig shifts for a decade of long-term travel, and how they've figured out how to keep it going.  This episode covers what it really takes to make travel a long-term lifestyle, from the mindset shifts that keep you going to the practical ways people actually fund life on the road. Nick and Dariece have been doing this for over a decade and speak honestly about the challenges of traveling as a couple, building an online business from scratch, and knowing when to step back from work and just travel. I also share my own perspective on staying connected to your highest values as your life and travel style evolve.  What has been your biggest mental or practical barrier to making travel a more permanent part of your life, and has anything ever helped you push past it? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  *This is a previously released episode from the archives! Zero To Travel interviews are timeless, offering valuable insight whenever you listen.   Tune In To Learn:  What happened after their first 13-month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia that set everything in motion  The beach meltdown in Thailand that led to one of the boldest and most pivotal moves of their travels  What it really takes to travel as a couple 24/7, and the specific things Nick and Dariece do to keep it working  How Goats On The Road started and the shift in approach that became their biggest turning point  Why they almost let video ruin the travel experience, and what they did about it  How they've managed to avoid full burnout after more than a decade of living and working on the road  The mix of jobs and strategies they've used at different stages to keep the travels funded and going  How their travel style has evolved over a decade and what the lifestyle actually looks like for them now  My three principles for keeping travel a lifelong priority, no matter where you are in life  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Goats On The Road  Hash House Harriers  Want More?  Transition to Travel: From Burnout to a Year Around the World with Sofia and Teague  Building a Travel Lifestyle: Digital Nomadism, Slow Travel, Exploring Latin America with Kyle Cohenour  The Reality of Digital Nomad Life (Warts and All) With Steph and Dalt  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Get 20% of at Cozy Earth with code ‘TRAVEL’  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oslo doesn't hit you the way other European capitals do. There's no single monument everyone leaves talking about, and yet people consistently walk away from this city with a feeling they can't quite explain.  Curtis Rojak is an American expat who has lived in Europe for over 25 years and holds dual Norwegian-American citizenship. He is the founder of Viking Biking, Oslo's premier guided bike and hiking tour company, and has led more than 3,000 tours through Oslo on foot and by bike.   This episode is a local's guide to Oslo, recorded in my living room with Curtis. We cover seven hidden gems in the city, from a haunting mausoleum most tourists never find to a private island cabin you can rent for a night on the Oslo Fjord.  This episode covers what makes a place feel like home versus just a place you've visited, what it takes to genuinely know a city at a local level, and how to discover the experiences that don't make it into guidebooks. You'll also hear honest conversation about building a life abroad long-term, what draws people to certain places, and why the best travel experiences often come from knowing someone who actually lives there. Curtis brings real depth on Oslo specifically, but the broader themes about place, belonging, and authentic discovery apply to anywhere you're considering visiting or moving to.   Have you ever discovered a hidden gem in a city that completely changed how you thought about that place? I'd love to hear your story, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why one of Norway's most extraordinary pieces of art is hidden in a mausoleum most tourists never find, and how to actually visit it  How to spend a Norwegian summer day at a lakeside farm where animals roam free through landscape gardens  Where to find secret sea cliffs near the city, and where locals actually jump from  Why a restaurant on its own private island captures the Norwegian good life better than almost anywhere else in the city  What makes one of Europe's best cocktail bars worth the New York-level prices you'll pay  How to rent a private island cabin on the Oslo Fjord through a local organization almost no tourists know about  Why Curtis believes Oslo's greatest strength is also what most tourists only notice on their last day  What 25 years as an expat taught Curtis about choosing where to live and why gut feeling matters more than logic  How the "Lego Country" exercise surfaces the best things about multiple continents and destinations  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Viking Biking  Want More?  https://zerototravel.com/viking-biking/  Hidden Norway: 7 Off the Beaten Path Gems You'll Love with Torunn Tronsvang from Up Norway  Top 10 Reasons to Love Living Abroad with Botik Quest  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Get 20% of at Cozy Earth with code ‘TRAVEL’  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From destinations that challenge your assumptions to the routines and mindsets that make this lifestyle actually sustainable, join Caitlin and Janessa as they unpack what's been on their minds this month.  Remote Roundup is a monthly series hosted by Zero To Travel's associate producer, Caitlin Sunderland, and partnerships manager, Janessa Klatt. Explore what's new in remote work and travel, including helpful tools and resources, need-to-know trends, destinations, and insight into what it really means to live and work around the world.  In this episode, Janessa reports back from a solo trip to a destination most travelers hesitate to visit alone, Caitlin shares a surprisingly simple tool for building calm and consistency into nomadic life, and both take a hard look at a habit nearly every long-term traveler has that might be doing more harm than good. There are also a few remote work stories from the community that prove people will go to remarkable lengths to keep living life on their own terms.  Have you ever talked yourself out of a destination based on what you'd heard, or found a way to build more balance into a life that never really stops moving? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Janessa says this distinction is one of the most important things solo travelers can internalize when traveling somewhere new  How a single offhand comment on the podcast led Janessa to an unexpected scuba trip  What solo travel in Egypt costs, why Cairo might not be your best nomad base, and what to consider instead  A breathing technique that's worth adding to your daily routine while traveling  Why you may want to create intentional seasons in your year even when the weather never changes  The most committed remote work workarounds, and why it actually made sense   And much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Caitlin on Instagram  Janessa on Instagram  Diving Nomads  Want More?  Remote Roundup: Solo Travel Hot Takes, Nomad Budgeting, Rookie Mistakes, Cape Town & Mexico City (March 2026)  7 Epic Travel Fitness Adventures (For All Levels) and Solo Travel for Transformation with Heidi Nicklaus (+ Jason’s Ultimate Travel Blunder)  7 Pro Tips For Traveling In Dangerous Countries w/ Bjorn Palsson  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Get 20% of at Cozy Earth with code ‘TRAVEL’  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the part of Brazil most worth exploring is the one almost nobody talks about?  Eddie Lott is a Dallas-born expedition leader who has spent nearly two decades studying Brazilian history, geography, and culture. He rediscovered the Serra do Espinhaco in 2018 and has been documenting its trails and communities ever since. Elisa Oliveira is a Brazilian architect turned expedition coordinator who left behind her career and her previous life after a single weekend in the Espinhaco in 2019.   Together, they co-founded Gift of Go, a company that builds and leads founder-guided expeditions through one of Brazil's most layered and least-visited mountain ranges, and they are also husband and wife.  In this episode, co-host Paige McClanahan talks with Eddie and Elisa about how Gift of Go came to be, what their expeditions actually look like, and what travelers need to know before heading to this part of Brazil.  This is a rewarding listen for anyone drawn to real adventure travel in Brazil off the beaten path. Eddie and Elisa spent three-plus years walking the terrain, building relationships with local communities, and living in the region before guiding their first traveler. You'll hear why going deep into one place beats skimming across a whole country, how arriving somewhere by foot after 17 days on the trail completely changes how you experience it, and what it means to share a destination that still has almost zero international tourism presence.  Have you ever experienced a place that felt completely untouched by tourism? I'd love to hear about it, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Co-host Paige McClanahan is a writer, editor, and former journalist based in Paris, France. As the author of The New Tourist: Waking up to the Power and Perils of Travel, Paige is passionate about making sure our travels have a positive impact on the world. Learn more about her work here.  Tune In To Learn:  What makes the Espinhaco a microcosm of Brazil's most important ecological, cultural, and historical themes  How Elisa left an engagement and a five-year architecture career after one weekend in a remote mountain village  Why Gift of Go spent three years in the field before guiding their first traveler  What the Veranico is, and why January might be the most spectacular and unpredictable time to visit  How the expedition formats work, from 12-day group treks to fully bespoke solo journeys  Why Brazil receives fewer international visitors per year than the city of Miami, and what that means for the right kind of traveler  Practical tips for Minas Gerais: think in regions, know your biomes, expect limited English, and prepare for the warmth of the people  What to eat and drink, from cachaça and UNESCO-recognized cheese to fig compotes with dulce de leche  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Gift of Go Website  Instagram  Want More?  7 Chile Hidden Gems: Off-the-Beaten Path in Patagonia, Mapuche Culture, and More with Steph Dyson  How To Be a “New Tourist,” the Powers and Perils of Tourism, Embracing Tourist Traps, and the Impact of Travel With Paige McClanahan  How To Get Off The Beaten Track with Gunnar Garfors  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Get 20% of at Cozy Earth with code ‘TRAVEL’  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if one small act of kindness could completely change someone’s life trajectory?  Bryan Driscoll is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, and the author of The Goodness Game. He built a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio while running a marketing company, and he’s now focused on helping people create positive ripple effects through simple acts of kindness.  In this episode, Bryan shares the story that inspired his kindness philosophy and breaks down his five-rule framework for making the world better in a practical, sustainable way.  This episode offers a simple, practical way to approach kindness without overthinking it, something you can use at home or take with you on the road. Bryan breaks down how small, intentional actions can create meaningful impact, and why connection is often more valuable than money. It’s a grounded guide to taking action in a way that feels honest, natural, and aligned with your strengths, while also having a little fun.  What’s one small act of kindness you could commit to this week, even if it feels slightly uncomfortable? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why a random act of kindness at age 18 changed Bryan’s life forever  How the “Goodness Game” turns kindness into a simple daily practice  Why giving without recognition creates a deeper impact  How to identify your personal helping style and use your strengths  Why not everyone is your “assignment” and how to stay in your lane  How to avoid burnout when helping others by creating boundaries  How Bryan used Craigslist to test the ripple effect of kindness  Practical random acts of kindness ideas you can try this week  Why overthinking stops people from helping and how to just start  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Goodness Game website  Want More?  Walking the World with Alexander Campbell and Tom Turcich  Bicycling Across the USA Without Money in Search of Human Connection With Daniel Troia  Connecting with Strangers in 21 Countries as an Introvert, Battling the Loneliness Epidemic, Building Community at Home with Adam Schluter  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it actually take to travel well with a partner, and what are the hidden layers of that experience when you're also navigating the world as a queer couple?  Gabi and Shanna Meit-Sciara are a Brooklyn-based couple and the creators of 27 Travels, a platform launched in 2016 to document their adventures while building more visibility and resources for LGBTQIA+ travelers. Gabi is a photographer and graphic designer; Shanna is a videographer and video editor. Together, they've visited 40+ countries and built a full-time creative business rooted in their relationship and their shared love of the world.  In this episode, co-host Dianni Hall sits down with Gabi and Shanna to talk about what it really looks like to build a relationship through travel, how their partnership has been tested and strengthened on the road over ten years, and what the experience of traveling as a queer couple actually involves beyond what most people see.  This conversation is for anyone who's ever taken a trip with someone they care about and had to figure each other out in real time. Gabi and Shanna get specific about the roles they've each naturally fallen into, how they handle conflict during work trips without letting it ruin the experience, and the invisible, exhausting decisions queer couples make constantly on the road that most people never think about. If you've been wondering what traveling as a couple actually looks like when applied to a real, long-term relationship, this one goes deep.  What's a trip that revealed something unexpected about someone you were traveling with? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Co-host Dianni Hall is a queer, second-generation Latina, solo budget backpacker, freelancer, and host of the While She’s Away podcast, where she interviews women on their travel experience and expertise to help women live their best lives exploring the world. Learn more about her work here.  Tune In To Learn:  Why matching travel styles is one of the most meaningful early tests of a relationship, and how Gabi and Shanna discovered theirs on their first big trip to Arizona  How the roles partners naturally fall into on the road tend to emerge without anyone actually choosing them  Why adding content creation to a relationship and a trip is its own challenge, and what Gabi and Shanna have learned about navigating creative disagreements   What to actually pay attention to on a first trip with a partner, including the green flags most people overlook  How queer couples are constantly making decisions that straight couples rarely have to think about, from safety research to coming out to a stranger in a taxi  What the invisible labor of queer travel looks like in everyday moments: hotel check-ins, ride-shares, tour sign-ups  Why a loose itinerary almost always beats a rigid one, and why missing something can actually be the best thing that happens  New York City hidden gems from two lifelong locals: the case for Brooklyn, vegan food in Chinatown, and more  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  27 Travels  Instagram  YouTube  TikTok  Want More?  LGBTQ+ Travel and Making A Difference with Ravi Roth  Top 7 Cities for LGBTQ+ Travelers and Finding Your People Around the World with LGBTQ+ Travel Expert Alicia Valenski  Choose Travel NOW! Lessons from the World’s Longest Honeymoon with National Geographic Authors Mike and Anne Howard of HoneyTrek  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the key to planning your dream trip isn't choosing the right destination, but first figuring out what you actually need right now in your life?  Kelly Tolliday is the founder of Transform With Travel, a professional travel advisor and wellness travel expert with over a decade of industry experience, a retreat facilitator and 500-hour registered yoga teacher, and a podcast host. She has traveled to more than 45 countries and lived across four continents, including extended time in Australia, Thailand, and Costa Rica.  In this episode, Kelly walks through the step-by-step system she uses to plan bucket list trips and how anyone can apply the same framework to start planning their own dream trip today.  Kelly reframes the entire planning process in a way that most of us haven't considered, and it changes not just where you end up going, but how you show up when you get there. She also makes a strong case for why the best travel experiences often come from letting go, even when every instinct is telling you to hold on tighter. You'll not only get Kelly's framework, but destination recommendations and a call to action at the end that I hope you follow through on.  What's one destination that's been sitting on your bucket list for way too long, and what's actually been stopping you from booking it? I'd love to hear what they are, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why asking "what do I need right now?" is the most important first question in trip planning  How to use urgency as a real planning tool, and why some destinations carry a genuine now-or-never factor  Why mapping out your full route, including transfer time and cost, is often the step that saves the most money  How slow travel creates more space for the unscripted moments that people end up talking about for decades  Why booking independent, locally-owned tour operators almost always leads to more memorable experiences than going with the bigger names  How to approach accommodations with a "sense of place" mindset  Advice on when hiring a professional travel advisor makes sense versus planning a bucket list trip on your own  Why we both agree that physically demanding adventures should move to the top of your list sooner rather than later  Hidden gem destinations worth visiting now, including a little-known Thai island that has somehow stayed off the radar  How to reset your mindset when things go sideways on a trip  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Transform with Travel  Instagram  Want More?  Live Your Bucket List w/ Ryan Jacobson  Curiosity As Your Travel Guide + Exploring Overlooked Destinations with John McKenzie  7 Must-Visit Destinations for 2026 (Get There Before the Crowds Arrive!) with Lyn Hughes  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you do if your bus driver bought six Coca-Colas at the border, cost you your exit stamp, and forced you to sleep outside in malaria country between two countries?  Co-hosts Gunnar Garfors and Jacqui Kunz are back to share part two of their overland travel adventure through West Africa, covering the final stretch of their seven-country journey through Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast.  If you've ever been curious about what it actually takes to travel overland through West Africa, this episode gives you the unfiltered picture. You'll walk away with concrete tips on visa strategy, border navigation, shared transport logistics, and honest guidance on when to push through and when to bail and book a flight. Beyond the tactics, Gunnar and Jacqui model what it actually means to travel slowly and patiently through challenging terrain, staying flexible when things go sideways. If you're considering overland travel in West Africa or anywhere similarly complex, this episode cuts through the romance and gives you the real picture.  Have you ever had a travel experience where everything went wrong and it somehow turned into the best story you came home with? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message.  Gunnar Garfors is a Norwegian traveler, journalist, and author who became the first person to visit every country in the world twice. He is known for seeking out unusual routes and lesser-visited destinations, often traveling far beyond typical tourist paths. Jacqui Kunz is a full-time traveler who has explored more than 100 countries and was named “World’s Most Intrepid Traveler” in 2023, recognizing her commitment to exploring challenging destinations and traveling well off the beaten path.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Sierra Leone's land border crossing was a surprisingly smooth and welcoming experience  What Freetown is really like to explore, from the historic Cotton Tree to its beaches and police checkpoints  Why the city of Bo is worth a stop, and where to go nearby to see diamond mining  How a fellow passenger buying Coca-Cola at the border kiosk resulted in an overnight stay between two countries in mosquito country  Why Monrovia has a surprisingly American feel and where to stay, eat, and get cash  When it makes sense to give up on overland travel and just book a flight  How paying for an extra seat in a shared taxi can save your sanity, and why the "imaginary bag fee" is a negotiation you can usually win  Why timing your trip just after the rainy season can make roads far worse than expected  How Gunnar ended up in a Norwegian hospital with malaria, and why taking preventatives seriously is not optional  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Gunnar’s website  Gunnar on Instagram  Jacqui on Instagram  iOverlander  Want More?  Overland Travel in West Africa Across 7 Countries (Part 1) with Gunnar Garfors & Jacqui Kunz  5 Surprising Experiences in Africa, How to Transition to a New Career After Travel, and Exploring the African Diaspora With Jay Cameron  Adventure and Conservation - A 6,000 km Tuk-Tuk Journey Through Africa  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the secret to a truly meaningful travel experience starts not when you land, but long before you ever pack a bag?  Dr. Kristina Wachter is an award-winning professor, bestselling author, and CEO of Cross-Culture Connections. With over 25 years of experience in cross-cultural communication and education, she developed the Culture SPIN Method, a four-step framework trusted in 54 countries to help individuals and organizations turn cultural differences into genuine human connection.   In this episode, Dr. Wachter walks us through her Culture SPIN Method and how it applies directly to travelers who want richer, more meaningful experiences on the road. She uses real-world business stories, her own travel mishaps, and a live case study with Jason to bring the whole thing to life.  If you've ever shown up somewhere and felt like you were missing something, like you were skimming the surface of a place rather than really getting into it, this conversation is for you.   Dr. Wachter breaks down the cross-cultural communication tips every traveler can actually use, from how to research a culture before you go, to how to recover gracefully when you inevitably get something wrong. Whether you're planning a two-week trip or building a life abroad, there's a lot here to chew on.  What's a cultural moment from your own travels that surprised you or changed the way you see things? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why the Culture SPIN Method starts with looking inward at yourself before you ever look outward at another culture  How to build a personal "cultural Venn diagram" that maps your interests onto a new destination to create real connection opportunities  Why one U.S. executive unknowingly drank $300,000 worth of tea in a single business meeting, and what he did next that actually saved the deal  How a single joke in South Korea cost a businessman millions of dollars in 30 seconds, and what that means for travelers too  Advice for doing genuine cultural research before a trip, including reading fiction, watching local media, and finding primary-source content  Why "winging it" is one of the most common and costly mistakes people make when traveling or moving abroad  How to handle cultural mistakes with humility and recover without losing the connection you're trying to build  Why cultural agility, the ability to pivot and adapt without beating yourself up, is one of the most valuable skills any traveler can develop  What "cultural courage" really means and how acting deliberately outside your comfort zone invites reciprocity and deeper human connection  Why Rick Steves' idea of traveler responsibility hit home for Dr. Wachter  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Cross-Culture Connections  Culture SPIN: Your 4-Step Toolkit for Global Leadership and Cross-Culture Success  Get Dr. Wachter's free Cultural Courage Guide: ⁠info@crosscultureconnections.com⁠  Want More?  7 Mistakes to Avoid When Moving Abroad (Or Traveling Long-Term) with Chrishan Wright  Top 10 Challenges Of Living Abroad with BoTik Quest  Building a Life Abroad, Culture Shock, and Big Leaps with Traveling Jackie  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are you really looking for when you travel?  Sarika Bansal is a travel writer, editor, and former editorial director of Afar magazine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Vice, and she focuses on ethical storytelling, global perspectives, and the deeper impact of travel. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya, with her family.  In this episode, Co-host Paige McClanahan talks with Sarika Bansal about how travel shapes us, from living in Kenya to trekking in the Everest region, and how those experiences influence the way we think about travel itself.  This conversation explores what happens when we shift from collecting places to truly engaging with them, and how that shift can completely change the way we experience travel. Sarika shares stories from her own journey, from trekking in the Everest region to building a life in Kenya, and reflects on how stepping outside your comfort zone can reshape your worldview in unexpected ways. We also get into the idea of country counting, the value of returning to places, and how different stages of life influence not just where we go, but how we show up when we get there.  What do you think matters more in travel, the number of places you visit or the depth of your experiences? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Co-host Paige McClanahan is a writer, editor, and former journalist based in Paris, France. As the author of The New Tourist: Waking up to the Power and Perils of Travel, Paige is passionate about making sure our travels have a positive impact on the world. Get in touch and follow her on Substack.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Sarika’s move to Nairobi reshaped her daily life, pace, and perspective  What drove her to travel writing and how growing up between the U.S. and India influenced her approach to storytelling and travel  What a “questionable” volunteer trip taught her about ethics in travel early on  How trekking in the Everest region while pregnant forced her to slow down  What it’s like exploring quieter trails, monasteries, and local life beyond the Everest “highway”  How climate change is visibly impacting fragile destinations like Everest Base Camp  Why the idea of “country counting” breaks down when you question what it means to visit a place  Sarika’s analogy between travel metrics and personal health, and why both can become misleading  How different life stages, like traveling with kids, change how and where you explore  Unexpected ways to experience Kenya, from DIY safaris to birdwatching and coastal towns  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Castle Forest Lodge  Want More?  Ethical Wildlife Tourism With Kristen Diederich  The World’s Most Traveled Person on the Ethics of Gamifying Travel, Best Regions in the World, and Why To Keep Traveling With Harry Mitsidis of NomadMania  How To Be a “New Tourist,” the Powers and Perils of Tourism, Embracing Tourist Traps, and the Impact of Travel With Paige McClanahan  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you need some inspiration to make those travel dreams a reality, look no further! We're resharing some of our Transition to Travel episodes this month to help kickstart your plans in 2026. In this series, we interview a guest both before and after their travels (or during if it's long-term), so we can see how it all panned out and how travel has changed them. Sofia and Teague are a couple who left behind demanding careers, including law and personal training, to travel the world for a year. This conversation gives you a full arc of a transition to travel story, from fear and uncertainty to growth, burnout, perspective shifts, and ultimately redefining what “home” and “work” mean. You’ll hear how they saved money quickly, traveled on a budget, worked abroad, navigated relationship dynamics, and what surprised them most along the way. What part of your life might be ready for a transition, even if you don’t know exactly what comes next? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: Why the hardest part of long-term travel often happens before you ever leave How they saved $25K in a year to fund their trip (and what made it possible) What it actually feels like in the first few weeks on the road, including the uncomfortable parts How their expectations of travel compared to the reality after a full year abroad Why working abroad became the key to slowing down and enjoying the experience What happened when they decided to travel separately for part of the journey How letting go of identity, jobs, and “normal life” reshaped how they see themselves The moment they realized travel had changed their relationship in a lasting way What they didn’t expect about returning home after a year of travel Why knowing you can always leave again changes how you approach life and work And more! Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Vagabonding by Rolf Potts Workaway Couchsurfing Trail Wallet WhatsApp MapsMe Trekking Nepal- Audio Adventure Series Want More? Transition To Travel: From Big Salary to Frugal Travel Life Transition To Travel: Single Mom + 3 Kids Move to Mexico (Jenita's Story) Transition To Travel: Radical Life Change For World Travel w/ Jordan & Tyler Thanks To Our Sponsors Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten. Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever felt the pull to do something BIG, but weren’t sure if you were “that kind of person?” What if the bravest thing you could do is take the first step before you feel ready?  Lauren Roerick is a long-distance hiker who has traveled more than 12,000 kilometers on foot across countries and continents. Since 2019, she has completed trails like the Pacific Crest Trail, the Colorado Trail, the Hexatrek in France, Te Araroa in New Zealand, and sections of the Transcaucasian Trail. Through her solo journeys and films, she shares stories about resilience, self-trust, and choosing a life shaped by curiosity and courage.  Co-host Dianni Hall talks with Lauren about how to start thru-hiking, what solo trail life actually feels like, and how to move through fear, discomfort, and self-doubt one step at a time.  You’ll hear how Lauren went from zero backpacking experience to long-distance trails by breaking intimidating goals into smaller, doable pieces. She shares what training really matters, what gear is actually worth prioritizing, how trail community works, and why thru-hiking can build self-trust in a way few other experiences can. If you’ve been curious about how to start thru-hiking but feel intimidated, this episode will give you a realistic way in.  What’s one uncomfortable thing you’ve been wanting to try, and what would your version of the first step look like? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Co-host Dianni Hall is a queer, second-generation Latina, solo budget backpacker, freelancer, and host of the While She’s Away podcast, where she interviews women on their travel experience and expertise to help women live their best lives exploring the world. Learn more about her work here.  Tune In To Learn:  How doing a 100K with only six weeks of training (and despite hating running) changed her confidence  Why Lauren often takes a “how hard can it be” approach to new challenges  How she went from having no backpacking experience to taking on the Pacific Crest Trail  Why breaking big goals into smaller steps makes thru-hiking feel possible  What the mental challenges of solo hiking really look like, and how she works through them  How thru-hiking builds self-trust and strengthens your intuition  What role fear plays on the trail, and how to move through it instead of avoiding it  How to start small, even if it’s just sleeping outside for one night  How to choose your first trail based on your goals, time, and experience  What kind of training and gear actually matter, and what you can skip  How Lauren approaches content creation on trail without losing presence in the moment  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  YouTube  Instagram  Want More?  Hiking the West Highland Way in Scotland with Lynne Nieman  A 2,190+ Mile Mother-Son Adventure: Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail after a Decade of Nomadic Family Travel with Jessica and Largo Sueiro  Hiking the Camino De Santiago, Painting Your Travels, Letting Curiosity Rule, and Tiny House Living with Kari Gale  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have dreams of long-term travel? What are you willing to "give up" in pursuit of it?  If you need some inspiration to make those travel dreams a reality, look no further! We're resharing some of our Transition to Travel episodes this month to help kickstart your plans in 2026. In this series, we interview a guest both before and after their travels (or during if it's long-term), so we can see how it all panned out and how travel has changed them.  Becca Hall is a long-term traveler who left a high-paying nonprofit tech job in San Francisco to pursue a life of indefinite travel. We talk about how she saved $30,000 in just a year and a half, why she travels as if she doesn’t have that cushion, and the psychology behind adopting a frugal travel mindset. She also shares what surprised her most after leaving her job, including the months it took to mentally decompress from work stress. Later, we catch up a year and a half into her journey to hear how things actually unfolded, from bartending and working festivals in Australia to building out her own van and redefining what freedom looks like on the road.  What surprised you the most in Becca's journey? What was your biggest takeaway from today's episode? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Becca chose to act like her savings didn’t exist, even after putting away $30,000  How a no-frills travel mindset helped her save money long before she ever left home  What happened when cheap travel started costing her more energy than it was worth  Advice for navigating solo female travel, couchsurfing, and gut-check moments on the road  The surprising emotional hangover that followed quitting a job she was desperate to leave  Why earning less money ended up feeling like a better deal  How festival work and bartending became part of her long-term travel strategy  What pushed her from backpacking burnout into building a van in Australia  The unexpected lessons she learned from creating a home on wheels by herself  Why taking a break can feel strangely difficult when you’re traveling full time  How she decided whether bringing a laptop was freedom or just extra baggage  What indefinite travel taught her about pace, pressure, and finding her own version of flow  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Becca on Instagram  Mint.com  Want More?  Transition To Travel with Lance Wright  Transition To Travel: Radical Life Change For World Travel w/ Jordan & Tyler  Transition To Travel: Single Mom + 3 Kids Move To Mexico (Jenita's Story)  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when talking to strangers while traveling becomes the thing that helps you feel less alone?  Adam Schluter is an award-winning, National Geographic published photographer and writer, and the founder of Hello From A Stranger, a project built around spontaneous travel, portraits, and conversations with people he has just met. Through that project, he has traveled across 21 countries, created thousands of conversations and portraits, given a TEDx talk, published a book based on the work, and is now making a documentary.  In this episode, Adam shares how a period of heartbreak, depression, and isolation pushed him to buy the cheapest ticket he could find and start talking to strangers while traveling. That simple decision eventually turned into Hello From A Stranger, Monday Night Dinners, and a larger mission to help people feel seen.  We get into what travel can open up when you use it intentionally, not just to see a place, but to connect more deeply with the people in it. Adam talks about what he learned from being an introvert in unfamiliar places, why vulnerability worked better than trying to sound polished, and how genuine conversations helped him find purpose when he needed it most. We also talk about how he brought that same spirit home by inviting strangers to dinner, eventually building a recurring community gathering that now draws hundreds of people. If you’ve ever felt lonely, wondered how to meet people more naturally, or wanted to recreate a little of that hostel-kitchen magic back home, there’s a lot in this one.  Trigger warning: This conversation includes honest discussion of depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicide. If you’re struggling, call or text 988 for support.  What would change if you approached one stranger this week with a little more curiosity and a little less fear? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  The breaking point in Adam’s mental health, and how he navigated depression and isolation  Why buying the cheapest flight he could find became the start of an unexpected journey  The importance of creating a framework around his travels and what happened when he started intentionally talking to strangers  Why Adam’s first attempt at approaching strangers failed, and what finally worked  How vulnerability and awkward honesty opened the door to deeper conversations  Why solo travel can still feel lonely, and how to move beyond “ghost mode” while traveling  The story behind Monday Night Dinners, and how inviting strangers over changed his community  Why a simple conversation might matter more than you think  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Hello From A Stranger  Documentary Trailer  Want More?  100 Documentaries Project: Traveling the Globe to Find Extraordinary Humans + Changing the World One Story at a Time with Robin Danehav  How to Be a “Supercommunicator” and Connect with Anyone (At Home or on the Road) with Charles Duhigg + The Best of Baltimore, MD  Bicycling Across the USA Without Money in Search of Human Connection With Daniel Troia  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dreaming of quitting your job and becoming a digital nomad? Planning a career break to travel the world? If you need some inspiration to make those travel dreams a reality, look no further! We're resharing some of our Transition to Travel episodes this month to help kickstart your plans in 2026. In this series, we interview a guest both before and after their travels (or during if it's long-term), so we can see how it all panned out and how travel has changed them.  Lance Wright is a longtime higher education professional and the creator of The Midlife Crisis Traveler, where he shares the story behind taking a major travel leap in midlife. At the time of this episode, he stepped away from his role at Colorado State University to take a seven-month trip, and that experience led him to rethink work, identity, and how he wanted to live.  This conversation gets into the real stuff behind long-term travel. Lance shares what it was like to ask for time away from a job he actually loved, how he and his wife navigated his decision to travel solo, and what helped him through the lonely stretches on the road. We also talk about minimalism, masculinity, identity, and the surprising clarity he had when he got home.  What chapter in your life might be ready to close so a new one can begin? I'd love to hear your thoughts and hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Lance finally stopped waiting and committed to a seven-month trip  How he negotiated a leave of absence from a job he genuinely enjoyed  Advice for talking with your spouse about a solo long-term trip  What Albania taught him early on about connection and loneliness  How local tours, cooking classes, and Workaway helped him meet people  Why travel pushed him toward minimalism and a simpler lifestyle  How the trip reshaped his thinking about work, masculinity, and identity  What happened when he came home and realized he needed a new chapter  Why trusting your own travel style matters more than following someone else’s plan  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  The Midlife Crisis Traveler  Tours By Locals  Want More?  Transition To Travel: Radical Life Change For World Travel w/ Jordan & Tyler  Transition To Travel: Single Mom + 3 Kids Move To Mexico (Jenita's Story)  Transition To Travel: From 9-5 To Biking The USA with Joe Ferrara  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you try overland travel in West Africa across seven countries using only local transport?  Gunnar Garfors is a Norwegian traveler, journalist, and author who became the first person to visit every country in the world twice. He is known for seeking out unusual routes and lesser-visited destinations, often traveling far beyond typical tourist paths. Jacqui Kunz is a full-time traveler who has explored more than 100 countries and was named “World’s Most Intrepid Traveler” in 2023, recognizing her commitment to exploring challenging destinations and traveling well off the beaten path.  In this episode, co-hosts Jacqui and Gunnar share stories from the first leg of their West Africa adventure across seven countries, covering Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea.  They talk about what it’s really like to travel overland in West Africa, from chaotic border crossings and broken buses to incredible landscapes, unexpected friendships, and the patience required to move through the region.  If you’ve ever wondered what travel in this part of the world actually feels like on the ground, this conversation gives you a candid look at the challenges, surprises, and rewards of exploring West Africa slowly.  What kind of travel experiences become possible when you stop rushing and embrace the unpredictability of the journey? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why traveling overland in West Africa requires a completely different mindset about time and planning  How local minibuses work, and why you may be waiting a while to get going  What it’s like traveling upriver in The Gambia to visit River Gambia National Park and see chimpanzees  Why going inland in The Gambia offers a very different experience from the coastal resort areas  How to navigate crossings, visas, and illegal stamp fees that travelers are sometimes asked to pay  What happened when their bus broke down and the driver abandoned it on a remote road  How unexpected delays led to shared rides, new friendships, and memorable moments with local travelers  Why Guinea-Bissau ended up being the biggest surprise and favorite country of the trip  What it’s like traveling through Guinea’s highlands on roads compared to a motocross track  Why slow, overland travel creates deeper connections with people and places along the way  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Gunnar’s website  Gunnar on Instagram  Jacqui on Instagram  Want More?  9 Ways Travel Will Change You + Lessons from Cycling Africa and Visiting 95 Countries with Alex Hennock  5 Surprising Experiences in Africa, How to Transition to a New Career After Travel, and Exploring the African Diaspora With Jay Cameron  Adventure and Conservation - A 6,000 km Tuk-Tuk Journey Through Africa  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Caitlin and Janessa in this Remote Roundup as they catch you up on where they’ve been lately, the travel mistakes they’re learning the hard way, and the systems that keep long-term travel from turning into financial and emotional whiplash.  Remote Roundup is a monthly series hosted by Zero To Travel’s associate producer, Caitlin Sunderland, and partnerships manager, Janessa Klatt. Explore what's new in remote work and travel, including helpful tools and resources, need‑to‑know trends, destinations, and insight into what it really means to live and work around the world.  In this episode, Caitlin and Janessa share what it’s like spending a season in a southern hemisphere coastal hub and time in a vibrant Latin American capital known for culture, markets, and museums. You’ll get Caitlin’s solo travel hot take and the #1 travel mistake she keeps repeating so you don’t have to, and hear from Janessa on her perfected expense tracking system with tips for self-employed travelers.  What’s one “comfort” you’re keeping in your travel life right now, even if it costs a little more or takes up a little more space? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Considerations for making Cape Town a long-stay base, what to expect in the cultural capital of Mexico City, and a magic town you may want to add to your Mexico itinerary  Why it’s so easy to keep falling for the budget airline trap and more hidden fees you need to be aware of   Why you should always check your entry stamp and never assume you’ve been granted the maximum tourist stay  Janessa’s system for remote work and travel budgeting, including expense tracking apps, annual reviews, tax set-asides, and building a DIY PTO fund  Why Caitlin says she hates solo travel (yet still thinks everyone should do it), and why we need to redefine what “solo” means  A common travel mistake and what it can reveal about the expectations we carry into travel  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Caitlin on Instagram  Janessa on Instagram  TravelSpend  Trabee Pocket   Want More?  Going Nomad with Jason Robinson  Joys of Solo Travel with Manjinder Kang  Remote Roundup: True Costs of Long-Term Travel, Taxes & Borderless Living, an Underrated Productivity Habit, + More (October 2025)  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Listen to the Planet Visionaries podcast on Apple and Spotify.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would your life change if you decided to take a mini-retirement to travel the world, instead of waiting?  After saving for two years, Helen Lin and her former husband, Tim, put their life into storage, rented out their home, and quit their 9–5 jobs to take off on a mini-retirement traveling around the world. They documented their 25+ month adventure across 26 countries on their YouTube channel, Helen and Tim Travel. Along the way, their relationship was reshaped by the experience, and they ultimately returned home divorced, still grateful for the journey they shared.  In this episode, Helen shares what it actually looked like to plan and take an extended trip as a mini retirement, including the practical runway, the emotional realities, and the unexpected ways long-term travel can impact your relationships.  If you’ve ever dreamed of taking months off to travel, this conversation gives you a grounded look at what it takes to make it happen and what you might learn about yourself along the way. Helen talks about building a financial runway, using local guides to lower the friction of adventure travel, and why campervan trips can be their own logistical puzzle. We also get honest about the parts people rarely post, stress, mental health, and the way constant proximity can intensify relationship dynamics. Plus, Helen shares destination recommendations and the practical systems that helped them stay on the road, including earning 1.5 million credit card points over five years to offset major travel costs.  If you took a mini retirement, what would you want it to help you rethink about your life right now? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  Why Helen thinks “mini retirement” beats waiting for traditional retirement  How increasing your savings rate can create a real travel runway  Advice for choosing destinations around seasonality and the adventures you want most  How guided trips can reduce risk and planning overwhelm for big hikes and outdoor goals  What Helen learned from campervanning in Norway and New Zealand, and what she’d plan differently  How long-term travel can amplify relationship patterns, for better or for worse  Why “wherever you go, there you are” applies to mental health on the road  How to think about boundaries and personal space when traveling with a partner  How Helen and Tim earned about 1.5M points and miles over time to support their travels  What it looks like to come home and build a new chapter after a life-shifting trip  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Instagram  Helen and Tim Travel  Waves of Color  Want More?  How to Win at Travel with “The Points Guy” Brian Kelly  Travel Is Your Birthright: Breaking Free from “Too Broke to Travel”, Travel Hacking (Without Credit Cards), and Solo Travel in 90+ Countries with Shakeemah Smith  How to Plan Your Camino + Going Beyond the Camino Frances (Secret Routes, Donkey Highways, and Spain’s Hidden Village Network) with Shawn and Lainey  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Listen to the Planet Visionaries podcast on Apple and Spotify  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Earn Cash Back and rewards on nearly every purchase with Rakuten.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shakeemah Smith, aka The Passport Abuser, is a solo traveler who has visited 92 countries and helped more than 12,000 people ace their first solo trip. A former social worker from East Orange, New Jersey, she built her platform, Travel Like a Bawse, to teach practical strategies for traveling more affordably and flipping everyday bills into airline miles. She later relocated to Antigua and Barbuda, where she now lives as an expat.  In this episode, we talk about the personal shift that makes solo travel possible, how to travel for free without credit cards, and what it’s really like to move abroad and build a life in the Caribbean.  Shakeemah opens up about calling off her wedding three months before the big day, boarding her first solo flight to Paris in the middle of heartbreak, and realizing she didn’t know how to be alone. What follows is a conversation about self-trust, identity, and deciding to meet the “2.0 version” of yourself instead of waiting for permission.  We also get tactical. Shakeemah shares the exact systems she used to earn airline miles through everyday expenses like gas, groceries, utilities, and dining. And we talk honestly about leaving the U.S., adjusting to island life, and what it means to create safety and belonging on your own terms.  If you’ve been waiting for the right time, the right money, or the right person to travel with, this one might challenge that story.  Who would you become if you stopped waiting and just went? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How growing up near New York City shaped her worldview and early curiosity about the world  Why ending her engagement forced her to confront her fear of being alone  The insights and exercises that helped Shakeemah move from emotional dependence to independence and from fear to self-trust  Why she believes solo travel is a fast track to trusting your instincts and enjoying your own company  The moment she decided to build a framework to help others take their first solo trip  How she turned 34 countries’ worth of lessons into a structured framework for new travelers  The overlooked airline shopping portals that generate miles without opening new credit cards  How to earn flights from gas, electricity, and everyday bills you’re already paying  The mindset behind “bills to boarding passes” and why it works long term  Why she moved to Antigua and Barbuda during 2020 and what that decision taught her about safety and lifestyle design  The cultural adjustments of living on island time and navigating life as an American expat  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Travel Like a Bawse  Bills to Boarding Passes FREE masterclass  Instagram  Want More?  How to Win at Travel with “The Points Guy” Brian Kelly  Seizing Your Opportunity to Travel, Saving Money as a Solo Traveler, Lessons from a Career Break, and How to Figure Out What You Want (In 60 Seconds) with Leslie McKellar  7 Mistakes to Avoid When Moving Abroad (Or Traveling Long-Term) with Chrishan Wright  Thanks To Our Sponsors   Listen to the Planet Visionaries podcast on Apple and Spotify  Experience an audio guide to the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places with Atlas Obscura Podcast  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you experience the Louvre Museum in a way that actually feels enjoyable, not stressful? And what makes this museum so much more than the Mona Lisa?  Elaine Sciolino is a veteran journalist and author, former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, and the writer of several books about France, including The Seine, The Only Street in Paris, and Adventures in the Louvre. She has lived in Paris for over two decades and brings history, culture, and personal insight into every story.  Elaine joins co-host Paige McClanahan to explore Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum, diving into the history, hidden artworks, and practical strategies for making the most of your visit.  You’ll hear why the Louvre is more than just a building with the Mona Lisa and how its role in French history makes it extraordinary. Elaine demystifies visiting the museum, from understanding crowds and lines to discovering lesser-known works like Titian’s Man With a Glove and what she calls the “undiscovered Mona Lisa.” She shares crowd-beating strategies, best days and times to visit, and surprising places within and around the Louvre where peace and beauty await. You’ll get insider stories on heists, hidden collections, and how even children can be captivated by Egyptology and Islamic art sections that most tourists miss out on.  When you visit a major museum like the Louvre, do you tend to focus on the most famous works, or do you prefer to explore what’s less obvious? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Co-host Paige McClanahan is a writer, editor, and former journalist based in Paris, France. As the author of “The New Tourist: Waking up to the Power and Perils of Travel”, Paige is passionate about making sure our travels have a positive impact on the world. Learn more about her work here.  Tune In To Learn:  How the Mona Lisa came to dominate the Louvre’s identity, and why that fame is both a blessing and a burden  How the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa helped turn her into a worldwide obsession  The surprising historical roots of the Louvre as a royal palace and revolutionary museum  Lesser-known treasures, “undiscovered” masterpieces, and quieter sections of the Louvre worth seeking out  The unexpected history of France’s crown jewels, including how many were sold off and ended up in the United States  The story behind the recent crown jewels heist and what it reveals about museum security  How the right membership, 1:1 consultation rooms, and alternative museums can transform your experience of Parisian culture  Future plans for the Louvre’s expansion and what that could mean  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Elaine’s website and books  Louvre Museum  Want More?  5 Unexpected Things to Do in Paris and 3 Hidden Gems in France with Paige McClanahan  How To Explore Paris Like a Local, Working on Hospital Ships, and Becoming an Expat on a Mystery Visa With Jay Swanson  9 Best United States Museums and Advice for Fostering Your Creativity with Bob Eckstein  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Listen to the Planet Visionaries podcast on Apple and Spotify  Experience an audio guide to the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places on the Atlas Obscura Podcast  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the best hidden gems and local experiences in Ljubljana, Slovenia, that some travelers completely miss?  Sharon Kaufman is a licensed local guide in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and founder of MyLjubljanaTour.com. Originally from Israel, she moved to Slovenia with her family on what was meant to be a one-week vacation and ended up building a new life there. Today, she leads free and paid tours focused on helping travelers experience Ljubljana through local stories, food, and everyday culture.  In this episode, Sharon shares about her spontaneous family move to Ljubljana, how she built a life and business there, and her top hidden gems and local tips for experiencing the city like a resident, not a tourist.  If you’re planning a trip to Slovenia or curious about what makes Ljubljana special, this episode is packed with practical recommendations. Sharon walks us through lesser-known places to explore, affordable ways to get around, unique food experiences, art districts, scenic viewpoints, and easy nature escapes right from the city. You’ll also hear how her perspective as a local guide shapes the way she helps travelers connect more deeply with the city.  Which of these Ljubljana, Slovenia, experiences would you want to explore first? I'd love to hear what they are, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How a one-week family vacation unexpectedly turned into a move to Slovenia  What Sharon quickly learned about daily life, culture, and work-life balance in Ljubljana  How intuition and local conversations shaped her decision to stay  How she transitioned from online coaching to becoming a licensed local guide  One of the most affordable and fun ways to explore the city  Where to get sweeping views of Ljubljana without crowds or ticket lines  A hidden market area with local food and unique vending machines that most visitors walk right past  A hidden alley filled with public art, symbolism, and a secret pub  An alternative art district shaped by activism, creativity, and nightlife  A cafe locals love for great coffee, healthy food, and a relaxed vibe  An easy forest hike just minutes from the city center, plus what to eat at the top  The best times of year to visit Ljubljana and where to go beyond the city  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  MyLjubljanaTour.com  Want More?  Top 10 Iceland Hidden Gems (Highlands, Hot Springs, and Hidden Canyons) + Building a New Life Abroad with Jewells Chambers from All Things Iceland  7 Mistakes to Avoid When Moving Abroad (Or Traveling Long-Term) with Chrishan Wright  Top 10 Reasons to Love Living Abroad with Botik Quest  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Listen to the Planet Visionaries podcast on Apple and Spotify  Experience an audio guide to the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places on the Atlas Obscura Podcast  Go to https://surfshark.com/zerototravel or use code ZEROTOTRAVEL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Frank is an award‑winning writer, multimedia storyteller, and explorer whose work has appeared in The Explorers Journal, Sidetracked, and Earth Island Journal. She is a Fellow of The Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society. Kim’s latest book, Elephants in the Hourglass: A Journey of Reckoning and Hope Along the Himalaya, reflects her deep engagement with the human elephant conflict in northeastern India.   In this episode, Kim joins me to talk about her personal and professional evolution from mom and fiction writer to author and storyteller, tackling one of the world’s lesser‑known environmental crises: the human‑elephant conflict.  This conversation moves beyond travel storytelling to explore deep themes of identity, fear, and the bravery required to act. Kim shares how she navigated self‑doubt, embraced vulnerability, and found strength through community. Listeners will gain insight into the realities of conservation work, especially the nuanced human‑elephant relationship in the Eastern Himalaya. You’ll also learn how storytelling and openness can bridge cultural gaps and inspire action for coexistence. Specific personal stories, like balancing motherhood with fieldwork, and philosophical reflections on the space between are woven throughout.  What’s one fear you’re holding that might be the gateway to your next big chapter, and how might acknowledging two truths about it help you move forward? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How Kim’s childhood and family travels shaped her perspective on exploration and meaning  Why Elephants in the Hourglass became both a conservation story and personal memoir  What Kim learned about fear, confidence, and taking action in big life transitions  The role of mentorship and community in pursuing meaningful work  How cultural assumptions about motherhood impacted Kim’s work and identity  What the space between means and why it matters in our relationship to nature  The complexity of human‑elephant conflict and why simple narratives fall short  How language and framing influence conservation and public perception  Why holding opposing truths is essential to peaceful coexistence  Practical takeaways on curiosity, empathy, and openness in travel and life  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Kim’s website  Instagram  Elephants in the Hourglass  Wildlife Trust of India  Want More?  Living in Ecuador, Indigenous Communities, Rainforest Conservation, and Cultural Experiences With Photographer Mark Fox  100 Documentaries Project: Traveling the Globe to Find Extraordinary Humans + Changing the World One Story at a Time with Robin Danehav  Myanmar’s Secret Railways: Uncovering Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Oppression with Clare Hammond  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify  Atlas Obscura Podcast - Experience an audio guide to the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you let curiosity guide your travel experiences?  John McKenzie is a long-time traveler and curious explorer who shares stories and insights from off-the-beaten-track destinations around the world. Through his content and curated CuriosiTrips, he aims to expand others’ sense of what’s possible by encouraging a more curious, open approach to travel. He’s also a new contributor to National Geographic, writing the sections on Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia for The Traveler’s Atlas of the World.  In this episode, John and I sit down in person to explore the concept of curiosity as a travel compass, why some destinations gain reputations that don’t match reality, and how community and mindset shape meaningful journeys.  Travel is often framed around checklists and highlights, but John reframes it as a curiosity‑driven practice that enriches both travel and everyday life. You’ll hear how to exercise your curiosity muscle, embrace spontaneity, and responsibly explore destinations often overlooked or misunderstood. From challenging trips like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Syria to cultural discoveries and approachable recommendations like Malawi and Cuba, this conversation offers both a practical perspective and philosophical encouragement for travelers of all experience levels.  What is one place you’ve always been curious about but haven’t yet visited, and what’s holding you back? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Tune In To Learn:  How boredom and routine kick-started John’s curiosity and exploration  What approaching travel with openness rather than rigidity can uncover  Why connecting with others who’ve done what you want to do helps normalize the goal  How travel to “dangerous” or misunderstood places can be both safe and rewarding  The mindset shift from chasing destinations to pursuing meaningful experiences  How John defines “meaningful” in his own travel, and why that matters more than ticking boxes  Examples of destinations that surprised him and recommendations for your own curious travels  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  John’s website  Instagram  National Geographic Traveler’s Atlas of the World  Extraordinary Travel Festival  Want More?  7 Pro Tips For Traveling In Dangerous Countries w/ Bjorn Palsson  Independent Travel as a Female in Afghanistan, Hitchhiking Iraq, and Ex-Pat Life in Sudan with Jacquelyn Kunz  The World’s Most Traveled Person on the Ethics of Gamifying Travel, Best Regions in the World, and Why To Keep Traveling With Harry Mitsidis of NomadMania  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify  Atlas Obscura Podcast - Experience an audio guide to the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does queer travel in the US look like beyond the big cities? And what can all travelers learn from the LGBTQ+ travel experience?  Chase Vondran is a full-time travel creator and writer based in Chicago who helps transgender and gender-diverse travelers explore safely while advocating for greater inclusion in the travel industry. After an eight-year nomadic journey spanning 20+ countries, they now focus their work on queer travel, small queer towns, and inclusive travel guides.  In this episode, co-host Dianni Hall sits down with Chase to talk about queer travel in the U.S., exploring small queer towns and gayberhoods, and understanding the realities and joys of traveling as a trans person.  This episode offers a rare glimpse into queer communities thriving outside of major cities and highlights unexpected destinations where queer people not only exist but also flourish. Chase shares personal stories from their travels as a trans person, the differences in how the world treats them before and after transition, and what travelers should consider when seeking inclusive spaces. You’ll discover resources, tips for finding queer communities, and the emotional power of feeling seen. Whether you’re a queer traveler, an ally, or curious about inclusive travel, this conversation expands how we think about travel, identity, and belonging.  How has travel helped you better understand experiences different from your own? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.  Zero To Travel co-host Dianni Hall is a queer, second-generation Latina, solo budget backpacker, and host of the While She’s Away podcast. Learn more about her work here.  Tune In To Learn:  How travel gave Chase space to explore queerness and identity away from home  What it feels like to find queer community for the first time while traveling  Why places like Puerto Vallarta have become historic hubs for queer travelers  How the absence of visible queer community can change a travel experience  How queer history, artist communities, and other factors have helped shape small inclusive towns across the U.S.  Why destinations like Saugatuck, Michigan and Eureka Springs, Arkansas defy expectations  How Chase’s travel experiences shifted after coming out as trans and   What safety, visibility, and respect look like when traveling as a trans person and how it differs from traveling as a woman  Why small, community-driven queer spaces matter just as much as big cities  How to find queer community anywhere using apps, events, and local businesses  And so much more  Resources:  Sign up for our FREE newsletter  Dianni on Instagram  Chase on Instagram  Everywhere Is Queer  Quouch  Want More?  Choosing a One-Way Ticket Over a Master’s Degree + Lessons From 6 Years of Evolving Travel with Dianni Hall  Top 7 Cities for LGBTQ+ Travelers and Finding Your People Around the World with LGBTQ+ Travel Expert Alicia Valenski  LGBTQ+ Travel and Making A Difference with Ravi Roth  Thanks To Our Sponsors  Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it look like when travel becomes more than just a trip, but a lifelong evolution of identity, choices, and community? Dianni Hall is a queer, second-generation Latina, solo budget backpacker, podcaster, and podcast producer. She’s the host of While She’s Away, a podcast highlighting stories and advice from women travelers around the world. After choosing a one-way flight to India instead of enrolling in graduate school, Dianni spent six years traveling full-time across 30+ countries while building a freelance career and exploring what it means to find home. In this episode, we explore how Dianni’s travel lifestyle has changed over time, from solo backpacking and volunteering abroad to building a freelance career and eventually settling into a home base in Brooklyn. Dianni shares specific lessons from various phases of travel, including navigating her first solo trip, volunteering in an ashram, adjusting to slow travel, and balancing travel with long-term stability. She offers honest reflections on managing anxiety while traveling, the importance of community, and what it means to reimagine one's identity when traveling full-time comes to an end. What’s one travel experience, big or small, that changed the way you see the world, and how did it shape who you are today? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: How religious/spiritual curiosity shaped her decision to go to India What she learned from living and volunteering at an ashram What it felt like to “accidentally” become a full-time nomad and how teaching English in Spain opened doors to long-term travel and career growth Advice for navigating anxiety before and during travel, and how reframing your inner dialogue can make all the difference What solo travel taught her about confidence, community, and intuition The difference between feeling “at home” somewhere and choosing to build a life there Why returning to familiar places revealed a deeper need for belonging and community What drew her to Brooklyn, and how queer community became a central part of her rooted life And so much more Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter While She’s Away Podcast Dianni on Instagram Bar Lunatico Boyfriend Co-Op Want More? Solo Traveling Europe and “The Stans” in a Campervan with Maria Glaser Joys of Solo Travel with Manjinder Kang Seizing Your Opportunity to Travel, Saving Money as a Solo Traveler, Lessons from a Career Break, and How to Figure Out What You Want (In 60 Seconds) with Leslie McKellar Thanks To Our Sponsors Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the top travel destinations for 2026 that need to be on your radar? Lyn Hughes is the founding editor of Wanderlust Magazine and a leading voice in adventure and cultural travel journalism. She’s spent decades curating destination guides, championing responsible travel, and sharing stories that inspire deeper exploration. I catch up with Lyn to explore her curated list of the best places to travel in 2026 and why you should prioritize these destinations for the new year or near future. Lyn shares standout destinations including remote wilderness routes, under‑the‑radar cultural hubs, and wildlife-rich regions. She shares personal stories, explains why there is urgency around some of these locations, and gives insight into how we can engage more meaningfully and responsibly when we visit. If you're thinking ahead to your next big trip, this episode offers thoughtful guidance and some surprising ideas. Which types of destinations spark your imagination right now? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message. Tune In To Learn: Why Wanderlust creates future‑looking destination lists and how they’re curated How to balance adventure, accessibility, and sustainability in trip planning Advice for travelers seeking lesser‑known but rewarding places What Lyn looks for in a truly special travel experience How one rugged road trip remains one of her all‑time favorites Why wildlife travel can reshape how we see the world How curated content and AI might impact your next travel search What role community‑based tourism is playing in new travel trends Personal travel picks from a legendary travel editor And so much more Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Wanderlust Magazine Wanderlust: Off the Page podcast on Apple, Spotify Want More? Top 7 Travel Trends for 2025 with Lyn Hughes Top 10 Places We’re Dying To Visit That We’ve Never Been 14 Best of “The Best Places to Travel in 2025” (Jason’s Picks) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tune in for a quick update on what's to come on the Zero To Travel podcast in 2026! Happy New Year, my friend. Resources: Sign up for our FREE newsletter Thanks To Our Sponsors Holafly - Get 10% off your annual Holafly eSIM with code “ZEROTOTRAVEL” Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My wife, Anne-Dorthe, and I are together on the pod to share all about Christmas traditions in Norway and the United States. You'll hear what it's like to taste Julebrus for the first time, see who will win the theoretical battle between Santa Claus and Julenisse, discover the three main traditional dishes in different parts of Norway, get a special Norwegian treat from my wife, and so much more! Can you appreciate your traditions as if you were a traveler seeing and experiencing them for the first time? Have a wonderful Holiday wherever you are, my friend! *This is a previously released episode from the archives! Zero To Travel interviews are timeless, offering valuable insight whenever you listen. What are your Holiday traditions? I'd love to hear your thoughts and hope you’ll share them by sending me an audio message. Resources: Subscribe to our FREE newsletter Thanks To Our Sponsors Planet Visionaries - Listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices