Although I never studied abroad myself I have no doubt at all that I would have loved every minute of it - and my three guests today certainly remind me of all of the many ways a study abroad experience can be life-changing. I start off chatting with Pam Petro who studied a graduate program in Wales, and not only learnt something from her course but began a lifetime obsession with all things Welsh. Next, I speak with Brandon Miller who studied abroad in France. He has now co-founded the Too Fly Foundation which helps students from under-privileged backgrounds access experiences like study abro ..read more

For travellers like us, knowing a tourism business we are about to use is properly thoughtful, taking into account the impact we will have on the community and the environment, is important. But with an industry full of greenwashing and unsubstantiated eco-credentials, it's sometimes difficult to know what we can trust. Over the past few years now I've had a growing awareness of B Corps but was very keen to dig deeper, so this podcast episode is here to satisfy my own desires to know more, but also to help my listeners understand what makes a B Corp so they can make decisions about their trave ..read more

This is an episode I never imagined I'd need to make; family lore was that my mum June would live to a hundred. But very sadly, after a sudden terminal cancer diagnosis in late January, my beautiful mum passed away early in February. As the biggest fan of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I knew I couldn't restart it after my time away without mentioning my mum and how she encouraged me to travel - I definitely wouldn't be here creating this podcast without her influence throughout my life. My dear friend Di Bortoletto and I sat in her spare room last weekend to record this chat about my mum's tr ..read more

Staying in someone’s home is the ultimate in starting to understand the local way of life when you travel, and I’ve had some brilliant homestay experiences in the past. In this episode devoted to homestay accommodation, I first tell you my own tales of Russian homestays, with some of the delightful interactions with homestay hosts in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Moscow and St Petersburg. I then chat with Nina Karnikowski who explains many of the thoughtful values of homestays, and has a great example of her own experience in India. My other guest is Iris Villarreal, who tells me about some home ..read more

Tales of things going wrong - or almost - are always popular, and I think if you throw in the trickiness of a border crossing, these stories are top-notch entertainment! In this episode, I start off chatting with Michael Jensen about a triple-border experience in northern Thailand recently - made more fun by knowing exactly the spot he was talking about as I was lucky enough to visit that same spot just last year. I then talk to Antonio Cala who has not one but two border crossing tales to tell from a long motorcycle trip he and his wife took from the top to the bottom of Africa in 2022. The f ..read more

I am absolutely convinced that taking kids travelling is one of the best things you can do for them, and in this episode I've gathered together the thoughts of four fathers who agree with me! First up, I chat with Rupert Grey, who took his daughters across the world at a young age - in particular, he tells me about their experience visiting Bangladesh in the 1990s, and the impact that their travels has had on them now that they are adults. Cristian Martinus tells me about the reactions from kids on his tours in Morocco, then has a great example to share about a time when things went wrong whil ..read more

Connecting with local people when we travel is a true joy for me - whether it's just a quick conversation in a queue, or a deeper day or more spent together, learning about how our lives are the same and different - I love it all! In this episode I chat with three guests who agree, and have found various ways to meet locals when they travel. First up, I get the tour operator perspective from Cristian Martinus, who confirms that guests who travel on his Moroccan tours particularly enjoy any opportunities for genuine connection with local people - but (appropriately, I think) he warns against "s ..read more

If you decided to escape the corporate world, would you buy up a plot of land in an isolated part of Japan? It's not my first thought, but this is what Walk Japan CEO Paul Christie did at the age of forty, and with many good consequences. One of these is that Walk Japan has a strong social, "giving back" element, between the Community Project in Kyushu - which springs from Paul's initial plot of land - and its emphasis on taking travellers to rural areas of Japan which can really benefit from the tourism dollars (quite apart from being some of the most beautiful parts of the country, with the ..read more

It's common knowledge that train travel beats air travel in the sustainability stakes, but in recent months I've put this to the test a bit more than usual, in a country where it can be hard to do: my homeland, Australia.  It all began when Dr Susanne Etti, the Global Environmental Impact Manager for Intrepid Travel, challenged me to fly the shorter route to Melbourne and then take the train with her from Melbourne to Sydney, on our way to speak at SXSW Sydney. The Melbourne to Sydney route is one of the busiest domestic air routes in the world, and seeing how the train alternative worked ..read more

The statistics tell us so: more and more of us want to give back and do good when we travel. This is heartening, right? Now we just have to start figuring out the best ways to contribute to the places we visit, in genuinely useful ways - and some of these are described in this episode. First up, I chat with Roger Smith of Echidna Walkabout who gives a good overview of giving back, and shares his wisdom from a tour operator perspective. I wish every tour operator thought like Roger! Next, I speak to Meg Jerrard and Mar Pages, two hardworking women I've known for many years, who now run small gr ..read more