385 Women in History and Travel - International Women’s Day 2026

It's International Women's Day again and I've got a different focus this year: some of the ways history and travel is not the same for women! When we travel, especially on our own, we can be confronted with cultural differences and people's opinions in a starker way than others, and I loved hearin…

Book Club 24: Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent

This special episode is the audio of the live-streamed February 2026 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, chatting with author Hannah Kent about her book "Always Home, Always Homesick" - https://amzn.to/3Kxcb7M   If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, sign up for our…

384 Travel With All Your Senses

We often focus on the visual when we travel ... after all, travellers go sightseeing, not "sound-hearing" or "taste-tasting"! But when we look back on our travel memories, it's often a smell, taste, sound or feel that actually has the most long-lasting impact.  In this episode we hear from three t…

383 Small Connections, Big Memories

One of the most memorable parts of travel is the people that we meet - not just the friends we make or the people we stay with but also the incidental encounters along the way. Speaking with people on our travels is one of the ways we learn the most about the places we're visiting and it's amazing …

382 Travel Meet Cutes

We need some light relief in these tricky times and I found these stories just perfect! Finding love while you're travelling sounds like it belongs in a romantic comedy, but even those must be inspired by truth: this episode has stories from three couples who met in far-flung parts of the world, so…

381 Elephants, Tigers and Responsible Animal Tourism

Various statistics suggest that more than half of travellers want to see animals when they travel: that's why we keep returning to the topic of animal tourism and how we can do this in ways that both keep humans interested in caring for animals but without doing too much harm - and while bearing in…

380 Pandemic Travel and Big Life Changes

It's (somehow!) six years ago that we started to learn about this new virus and then find ourselves caught up in a global pandemic. While there were some truly tragic parts to that crisis, it turns out there were also some good results, too. Quite by chance recently, two guests in the space of a co…

379 Overtourism and What We Can Do About It

Can you imagine that we didn't used to talk about overtourism? It's really only a decade since this word entered common usage but it seems we hear about it constantly now. In this episode I chat with two guests who have great perspectives to add on this issue, and I also share some tips on how we c…

378 Seoul Trip Report: Spontaneous Budget Travel to South Korea

I last saw South Korea's fabulous capital Seoul way back in 2002, so when my 15-year-old son spotted a great flight price in November I was very keen to take him there! This podcast episode reports back on our week in Seoul, and I even persuaded my son to come on and chat about our trip, too.  I'm…

377 Overlooked Perspectives on Travel

How often do we go somewhere with a preconceived idea and find it hard to really see other perspectives ... well, speaking for myself, pretty often! In this episode I share three stories which highlight ways to learn about and understand different perspectives - but are also just great stories on t…