The more I travel (and the older I get!), the more I realise how little I know, and how wrong I've been about so many things! In this episode, I chat with three guests about various ways their travel experiences have transformed their thinking and perspective, and the general consensus is that everything's more complicated than we first think.

I speak with Nikki Padilla Rivera about her experiences in Vietnam and Cuba, two very different work trips that introduced her to local knowledge and culture in varying ways and smashed her preconceived ideas about these places. Next, my discussion with Tom Sykes harks back to our younger years of travelling and how we now reconsider our old thoughts and attitudes, and in general how much travel teaches us about the nuances of the world, politics, culture and more. Finally, I round out the episode with a story from James Ward about a perspective shift in his daughters after he took them to Zambia.

Links:

• Nikki Padilla Rivera of She Shapes History NYC - https://sheshapeshistory.com/nyc
• Tom Sykes - https://tomgsykes.co.uk/
• Tom’s book The Years of Travelling Anxiously - https://amzn.to/4cbKPPC
• James Ward - https://jameswardphotography.com/
• James’ Rewild Safaris - https://rewildsafaris.com/
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/389

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program

NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Iceland is a place many travellers dream of visiting; if, like me, you've been lucky enough to see Iceland, you probably desperately want to return. In this Chats with Locals episode, I talk with three Icelanders about their country: why they like living there, what Icelanders are really like, and all about their favourite Icelandic traditions. I also ask them what surprises visitors to Iceland, why they think it's such a popular place for travellers, and what important information we need to know before we go.

The Chats with Locals series, sponsored by Slowly, a global penpal app, is something I've been wanting to do for ages: some of the best moments of our trips come from speaking with local people, learning about what's the same or different where they live compared to us, and getting the unexpected stories that you don't know about (for me in this episode, it's about the fame of cats in Reykjavik - there's an intriguing reason!). Since Iceland is one of my all-time favourite places, it seemed a great place to begin! A huge thank you to my three guests Ragnhildur, Alda and Halli for so openly and warmly sharing information about their home country, Iceland.

Links:

• Thanks to sponsor, Slowly - download Slowly to start building genuine friendships today -available for free on the App Store and Google Play - https://notaballerina.com/slowly
• Ragnhildur Jóhanns, artist -

  https://www.instagram.com/ragnhildur_johanns/

• Ragnhildur's shop The Heart of Reykjavik -

  https://www.hjartareykjavikur.com/ and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theheartofreykjavik/

• Alda Sigmundsdóttir - https://aldasigmunds.com/
• Alda's books about Iceland - https://amzn.to/4s8cXYC
• Alda's new book The Shape of Silence, coming soon
• Haraldur (Halli) Thorleifsson - https://www.haraldurthorleifsson.com
• Halli's Ramp Up - https://www.rampup.team

• Iceland reading list on Amazon https://amzn.to/4dpAyR3

• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/388

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program

NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A decade ago to the day - 25th March 2016 - I launched the first episodes of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. Somehow, I have just kept interviewing great people about their thoughts on travel, put together episodes almost every week, and magically, I've now been running this podcast for a full ten years!

To celebrate, I've compiled some of my very favourite snippets of stories my guests have told me over the years. I've got the sad stories, the hilarious stories, and the ones that gave me advice I've both ignored and also followed!

A huge thanks to every listener and every guest over this decade - I appreciate you all so much, because without guests and listeners, this would be a very boring podcast indeed. Here's to another decade!

Links:

• James Mwenda in Episode 246 - Deep Dive Interview https://notaballerina.com/246
• Dean O’Shea in Episode 133 - The Big Trips That Changed Everything https://notaballerina.com/133
• Nicci O’Mara in Episode 174 - Life Lessons from Travel https://notaballerina.com/174
• Matt Eakin in Episode 78 - Border Crossings https://notaballerina.com/78
• Bex Thomas and Angela Correll in Episode 344 - Learning Languages and Making Mistakes https://notaballerina.com/344
• Stephen Henson in Episode 1 - Food in a Foreign Language https://notaballerina.com/01
• Tim Tricker in Episode 224 - Big Purchases on Your Travels https://notaballerina.com/224
• Narelle Wilson in Episode 128 - Travel Planning and Research https://notaballerina.com/128
• David Soto Jr in Episode 13 - Slow Travel https://notaballerina.com/13
• Heidi Brown in Episode 358 - Solo Travel for Women https://notaballerina.com/358
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/387

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some travellers have a much keener sense of adventure and embracing physical risk on their travels, and others just stumble into a travel drama they didn't anticipate; we have all kinds on this episode about things going wrong!

First up, Tudor Morgan, a veteran of many Antarctic stays and current Antarctic Ambassador for HX Expeditions, calmly explains a near-disaster he experienced some years back when working for British Antarctic Survey.

Patrick Nash then explains a tricky border crossing from the 1980s between then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), and the Central African Republic. Over the years, I have heard a number of harrowing border crossing tales from my guests and this is up there with the best of them!

Finally, I chat with Shannon O'Brien about an accident she was involved in while travelling in Myanmar. To go with the theme of this episode it could, of course, have been so much worse - though it was already pretty bad, I reckon!

Links:

• Tudor Morgan of HX Expeditions - https://www.travelhx.com/en-au/
• Patrick Nash - https://www.patricknash.co.uk/
• Patrick’s book Shots Across the Water: Tales of a Journey Through Africa - https://amzn.to/4cMl0UQ
• Shannon O’Brien - https://www.shannon-obrien.com/
• Shannon’s memoir Stray - https://amzn.to/4bQdiKT
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/386

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program

NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 hearing more about this from listeners who contributed to a chat on this in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group.

History is also not the same for women - and women are often omitted from the history we learn about a place when we travel there. I chat with Nikki Padilla Rivera of She Shapes History about how this happens and what this fabulous Australian-born tour company is doing about it.

Links:

• 2025 International Women’s Day Episode 340 - https://notaballerina.com/340
• She Shapes History walking tours and more - https://sheshapeshistory.com/
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/385

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 updates at https://thoughtfultravellersbookclub.substack.com/

You can also read more about it at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub, and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program
NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 travellers about their own experiences with non-visual senses, starting off with travel writer Tom Sykes, who also emphasises why this is important for writer as well. I then chat with Hannah Ballint about some of her fondest travel memories, which often involves sound and smell, across Vietnam, the United States and Australia. Finally, Ethan Kavanagh takes us through some of his highlights of a trip to Ireland with a focus on the feel and taste, too.

Links:

• Tom Sykes - https://tomgsykes.co.uk/
• Tom’s new book (coming March 2026) - The Years of Travelling Anxiously - https://amzn.to/4cyr2L1
• Tom’s book recommendation, Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All The Brutes - https://amzn.to/4u1LAlo
• Hannah Balint - https://www.hannahbalintcoaching.com
• Ethan Kavanagh - The Perth Tourist - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-perth-tourist/id1823861279
• Ethan on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/noisepilotau/
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/384

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program - NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 how long these people stay in our minds, even when we don't know their names.

In this episode I share some of my own small but memorable encounters, as well as including stories from four guests. Eryn Gordon starts us off with a tale from Thailand, where the people are stereotypically friendly and she proves it to be true. Amy Willis then shares a place she goes where it's easy to make a connection with the local people wherever you are. Nomad Bianca Rappaport explains how she's managed to both make and maintain connections during her years of housesitting in many places around the world, and finally Heidi Brown highlights one of the big benefits of repeated visits to a beloved place.

Links:

• Eryn Gordon’s website Earth to Editorial - https://earthtoeditorial.com/
• Eryn's TEDx Talk on “What it means to be a good traveler” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WQYSdm-5ps
• Amy Willis from Ker & Downey https://kerdowney.com/
• Amy's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amynwillis/
• Bianca Rappaport Website: https://wanderwell.club/
• Bianca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanderwellclub -
• Heidi Brown - https://www.heidikristinbrown.com/
• Heidi’s memoir The Map I Draw: A Memoir of Travel as a Passport to Self - https://amzn.to/44Mky6T
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/383

*Full disclosure: Amazon Services LLC Associates Program

NotABallerina.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.