It’s 2017, everyone’s making plans for a new year, and it’s time to talk about one of the things that sometimes stops up making travel plans: fear. In Episode 39 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks with two great travellers who have had various worries before they’ve embarked on big trips, but they did it anyway, and of course are glad they did.

First up, she speaks with Cait Flanders who spent a couple of months on a solo road trip throughout North America last year. She confesses she was freaking out before she left … but of course, everything turned out fine and she learned a lot along the way.

Serena Star-Leonard is a traveller Amanda really admires for her seemingly fearless trips to all corners of the globe, and into sometimes challenging situations, but she confesses, too, that she’s not as confident as Amanda might have expected.

Links:

• Cait Flanders’ website
• Cait’s Budgets and Cents podcast
• Serena Star-Leonard’s Retire in 12 Months project
• Travel Kids Club
• Join our Facebook group 
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 38 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is the final episode for 2016 so Amanda is talking about New Year’s Eve Travels. Celebrating a new year is fun wherever you are but being somewhere away from home can make it even more exciting and memorable.

First up, Kim-Ling of Travel-Ling has a great story to tell about a New Year’s Eve she spent on the island of Ibiza. Let’s just say it’s probably not quite the story you’re expecting to hear! Following Ling, Di Bortoletto of Travelletto talks about a great New Year’s Eve she spent in Tasmania recently.

To finish the year, Amanda shares some of the travel resolutions and goals from listeners who are in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group - some of their planned trips might make you feel a little envious!

Links:

• Dianne Bortoletto of Travelletto
• Kim-Ling of Travel-Ling
• Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merry Christmas! With Christmas just around the corner, Episode 37 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast turns to travelling at Christmas time and Amanda chats with several travellers who have spent Christmas in far flung parts of the world.

First up is Annalicia Lynn who had an interesting Christmas in Taiwan while she was teaching English there. Amanda and Annalicia chat about the cultural differences between many Asian countries and English-speaking nations and she has a very sweet story about how her Taiwanese colleagues tried to create a Christmas atmosphere in the workplace.

Emma Mann has recently started a tradition of spending Christmas abroad, and she talks about the difference between spending Christmas in another country where the traditions are strong, versus a place where Christmas generally isn’t celebrated.

Finally, Joe Baur from the Without a Path podcast chats about his current experience living in Germany at Christmas time - one of my favourite places to be during this season!

Links:

• Annalicia Lynn of Yoga & Pilates Online
• Emma Mann at The Vagabond Feminist
• Emma’s Flying Foodie blog
• Joe Baur’s Without A Path podcast
• Joe’s book on Costa Rica - Talking Tico
• Joe’s post on the Drachenburg Christmas Market
• Tim Minchin’s White Wine in the Sun
• Join our Facebook group 
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s all about Japan in Episode 36 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. It’s rare that Amanda chats about a single destination but she's made an exception for Japan, because a bunch of my guests have talked about it and she's just come back from a fabulous week exploring one of her favourite countries in the world.

Photographer Martin Bailey moved to Japan 25 years ago to work in a lace factory and has now lived there most of his adult life. He has lots of wisdom to important about all things Japanese and yet they end up talking about toilets!

Aggie Lim joins Amanda next to speak about issues of nudity. For a very modest society, Japan is very forward when it comes to bathing with strangers and we Aussies have a hard time adjusting to the onsen way of life.

Finally, Joe Baur reminds Amanda of some of the challenges of getting by in Japan without fluent Japanese and we also chat about the amazing transport system.

Links:

• Martin Bailey
• Martin’s photography tours and workshops
• God in the Toilet on Wikipedia
• God in the Toilet song on YouTube
• Aggie Lim at Drawn to Explore
• Joe Baur’s website
• Joe’s Without A Path podcast
• 5 reasons I’m excited to return to Japan
• Onsens and nudity in Japan
• Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NotABallerina

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 35 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda has a lot of fun chatting about the magic of making friends while you travel. There are so many bonuses of travel they don’t advertise in the brochures and developing friendships with people from all around the world is certainly one of them.

Julie Jones joins Amanda to chat about the lifelong friendships she has formed while travelling and they muse on just why it seems easier to make friends when they’re away from home. After Julie, Amanda chats with Holly Galbraith about her many experiences of both making new friends and enhancing existing friendships through her travels.

Finally, one of Amanda's all-time favourite guests Jeff Ryan talks about a different kind of friend he made while travelling. You’ll have to listen to find out what “different” means!

Links:

• Julie’s blog Have Wheelchair Will Travel 
• Have Wheelchair Will Travel Facebook community
• Holly Galbraith’s website
• Holly’s Tourism Upgrade podcast
• Jeff Ryan’s author website
• Jeff’s book, Appalachian Odyssey
• Episode 11, The Magic of Getting Lost
• Looking for Yuko
• Join our Facebook group
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stereotypes of people by nationality are rife in the world, and come up all the time when we travel. In Episode 34 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda chats with three people of different nationalities about their experiences with stereotypes on their travels.

Jeremy Kloberdanz of The Life Bohemian has an interesting story to tell about an immigrant man he and his wife met while travelling around Italy; a man who wasn’t what he seemed.

Lola Akinmade Åkerström, a Nigerian travel photographer living and working in Sweden, has a lot to say about pushing back against stereotypes and has a lot of wisdom to impart about sharing your own culture with others as well as learning about theirs.

New Zealander Tom Parson of The Lego Backpacker also has some wise words about stereotypes and speaks about his experiences when working in China in the management of a furniture design factory.

Links:

• Episode 4 on Smashing Stereotypes.
• Jeremy and Katie Kloberdanz of The Life Bohemian website
• The Life Bohemian Podcast
• Lola’s site Geotraveler’s Niche.
• Lola’s post about breaking down stereotypes on Women on the Road
• Tom Parson of The Lego Backpacker on Instagram.
• Lego Backpacker website coming soon.
• Join our Facebook group 
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Chat on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might just be able to get the best of both worlds by travelling around the world and helping people by volunteering. It’s not always that simple, but in Episode 33 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks with three guests who have volunteered across several continents with a huge variety of organisations.

First up, she chats with Serena Star-Leonard who started off a project to create videos of great projects in a school in the slums in northern Colombia - in a place where most taxi drivers refused to take them.

Working with animals instead of kids, Amanda then talks to Diana Edelman who spent several years helping out at Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, a place that now gratefully accepts volunteers for short or long stints and does amazing work helping elephants.

Finally, Amanda moves to agriculture with Audrey Wanders and her discussion of WWOOFing around the world and her experience of volunteering on organic farms, and wanting to do more.

Links:

• Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group
• Serena Star-Leonard’s Retire in 12 Months project
• Travel Kids Club
• D Travels Round
• Elephant Nature Park
• Diana’s post - The Truth About Riding Elephants in Thailand
• Surin Elephant Round up post from Bounding Over Our Steps 
• Audrey Wanders
• WWOOF main website
• Join our Facebook group
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Chat on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lots of people keep a travel journal when they travel and in episode 32 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda talks with three guests about their travel diary habits. Chris Christensen of the long-running Amateur Traveler podcast kicks things off by describing the journalling habits he has learnt from his wife, a hardcore travel journal keeper from way back!

After Chris, Amanda speaks with Aggie Lim, who keeps varied travel journals including sketches and all kinds of paraphernalia. Finally, Holly Galbraith talks about how her commitment to keeping travel journals has ebbed and flowed over the years, but like many, she’s happier when she’s got a great record of her travels to refer back to.

Links:

• Try a module of Travel Journal School
• Chris Christensen’s site Amateur Traveler
• Chris’s Amateur Traveler podcast
• Aggie Lim at Drawn to Explore
• Aggie’s new toy - the Polaroid Zip mobile printer
• Holly Galbraith’s website
• Holly’s Tourism Upgrade podcast
• My first travel journal aged 8
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Chat on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 31 Amanda is talking about the different ways, both good and bad, that the internet has changed travel - how we plan and book it, how we act when we’re travelling, even how much money we spend on it!

Jeff Ryan has a great perspective on this topic having spent 28 years gradually hiking the Appalachian Trail in the US. Over those three decades, he has seen the internet change many aspects of how he travels, and he has fully embraced them.

Lola Akinmade-Åkerström has, as always, something particularly thoughtful to say about how the internet has changed travel - and Amanda agrees that we need to use its power pretty mindfully to make the most of it.

Finally, Mark Wyld rejoices about how the internet has changed the way we book and plan travel - and how it can save us money, too.

Links:

• Jeff Ryan’s author website
• Jeff’s book, Appalachian Odyssey
• Lola’s site Geotraveler’s Niche
• Lola’s post from Ireland - The Farmer Who Inherited a Medieval Kingdom 
• Wyld Family Travel
• Episode 21: Pros and Cons of the Internet for Travellers
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Chat on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's time for another round-figure episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, and Amanda is celebrating Episode 30 with a random mix of chats with some of her favourite travellers. What do they have in common? They're all talking about topics which start with L and have four letters! That's good enough for Amanda!

First up, she returns to the story of Martin Bailey, who moved to Japan pretty much on a whim 25 years ago to work in a lace factory. This move completely changed the trajectory of this life – but it also impressively helped him to become bilingual, thanks to a lot of hard work and determination on his part.

Next, at the special request of Amanda's six-year-old son, she digs behind the scenes of the Lego Backpacker by finding out more about how Tom Parsons takes very cool pictures of his Lego minifigures at famous destinations around the world.

Finally, Amanda chats with Lola Akinmade-Akerstrom about transitions when moving from place to place (having moved from Nigeria to the United States and then on to Sweden, she has plenty of experience) and about the curiosity which unites travellers.

Links:

• Martin Bailey
• Martin’s photography tours and workshops
• Tom Parson of The Lego Backpacker on Instagram
• Lego Backpacker website coming soon
• Bored Panda collection of the Lego Backpacker
• Lola Akinmade-Akerstrom at her site Geotraveler’s Niche
• Ellen Barone’s post, mentioned by Lola - Where Would You Go If You Only Had a Few Weeks to Live? 
• Ep 26 How to be Bilingual, with the start of Martin’s story
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Chat on Facebook

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.