Writer and avid hiker Peggy Orenstein is exactly the kind of person you should send off into the wilderness with an iPhone and a pair of hiking boots. And for this episode, we did just that. In October 2022, Slovenia rolled out the 167-mile Juliana Trail, a route that circles Slovenia's Triglav National park and the Julian Alps and takes walkers back in time. Peggy tackled a portion of the trail and along the way, she found: Well-preserved remnants of World War I. A rich farm-to-table...

How does a place change when the person who defined it for you is now gone? That's the question we're exploring in this week's episode of Travel Tales by AFAR. Author Shruti Swamy grew up in the United States, but her parents grew up in Mumbai, India, so she has a unique relationship with the city, in some ways intimate and in some ways totally distant. Her aunt, Ila Mami, was the person who helped her find Mumbai’s pulse, who helped her fall in love with the city’s colors and tastes and...

50 years after Picasso’s death, AFAR associate editor Mae Hamilton traveled to Spain and France to retrace his life in Europe. She started in Málaga, Spain, where Picasso was born, and ended in Mougins, where Picasso spent his final days. As an art lover, she believes that art is one of the best ways to get to know a place. In this week's episode of Travel Tales by AFAR, Mae shares her story as well as:  The ways that art can help us understand a place more deeply.  Mae’s favorite places on...

Comedian and writer Baratunde Thurston wants to tell a better story of us. The narrative around the United States is often one of fracture and discord. So in his PBS show, America Outdoors, he travels around the United States to better understand Americans' deep connections with nature—and how that tells a more positive story of the country. In this week's episode of Travel Tales by AFAR, we sit down with Baratunde to talk about season two, including: Where he traveled, including the swamps...

Tales Tales is back! Starting Thursday, October 5th, each week, we’ll share a story of someone who took a trip—and came home transformed. We’re going to be hearing about a whirlwind Picasso art pilgrimage, what it’s like to eat your way through France, how a blind surfer navigates new waves, and so much more. And this season, host Aislyn Greene is sitting down with each guest to talk about their trip, about what travel means to them, and the ways it can transform us. Listen in for people like...

You may use Google Maps every day, but how often do you think about how that map was made—and more importantly, who made it? In today’s episode of Unpacked, we do just that. You’ll never again look at a map the same way. Meet this week’s guests Billie Cohen, AFAR executive editor Evan Applegate, editorial cartographer  Clinton Johnson, Antiracist Geospatial Architect Dr. Atyia Martin, executive director of a nonprofit called Next Development Leadership (among many other...

If you’ve been following the news, it’s been a summer of “bad tourists.” There was the woman who carved her initials into the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the drunk Brits, ahem, leaving their marks around Amsterdam. Of course, these are just the travelers who rise to the top—most people would never think of behaving this way on a trip. (Right??) Still, it feels like the right time to explore a tool that’s trying to curb this bad behavior: the “travel better” pledge. If you haven’t heard of them, or...

Travel insurance: It's not the sexiest subject, is it? And yet, it can play a huge role in saving you money, time, and even sanity. In this episode of Unpacked by AFAR, we speak with five experts to help you understand how to decided if and when you need insurance, the different types of policies you can buy, and how to use travel insurance if something goes wrong on your trip. Meet this week’s guests Wendy Perrin, travel expert Christina Tunnah, general manager of marketing and brands for...

Have you ever considered birdwatching? If the answer is a "heck, no"—or even a "not really"—than this episode is for you. Host Aislyn Greene, also a birdwatching skeptic, dives deep into the world of birding to discover how to do it well, the equipment you need, and most importantly why to give this sport (yes, it's a sport!) a shot. Meet this week’s guests Dominik Mosur, animal care specialist at the Randall Museum and birding tour guide Kara Cook, rooftop biologist for Audubon...

When you think of America’s national parks, what comes to mind? For many of us—myself included—it’s the sense of openness, freedom, and awe that places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite can spark. And yet, as we’ll learn in today’s episode, that’s not the whole story.  Hundreds of years ago, Indigenous communities throughout the United States lived on and cared for much of the land that makes up America’s 400-plus national parks and other protected lands under the National Park Service...

There are few things as challenging as the moment when, while walking along a sidewalk in Paris, San Francisco, or Cartagena, someone in need asks you for money. (I will also say that I imagine there are few things as challenging as being in a place in your life where you have to ask strangers for money.)  What do you do, personally? Do you give? Do you avert your eyes and keep on walking? Is it somewhere in between? Regardless of the decision you make, it’s a complex moment from a human...

This week, we're sharing an Unpacked episode that explores one of Hawai'i's most iconic beaches: Waikīkī. AFAR senior deputy editor Jennifer Flowers—who heads up all our hotel content—has a deep familiarity with the beach. Her mother is from Hawai'i, and her parents (both in the hospitality industry) actually met while working in a hotel. She played on Waikīkī as a kid, but she's always seen it as a kinda shiny, glitzy place—a place that seems a little, well, inauthentic. So on a recent trip...

Digital nomadism has been hailed as a way to save communities—and slammed for raising rents and pricing out locals. In this week’s episode of Unpacked, Chloe Arrojado, an AFAR editor and digital nomad, explores the complicated ethics of working remotely. New! Subscribe to our show notes email. Meet this week’s guests Chloe Arrojado, AFAR associate editor, destinations Olga Hannonen, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Luci Jerkovic, head of global PR for the Croatian...

Airport lounges can be one of the most complex, mysterious parts of the airport experience. Aside from buying a business- or first-class ticket, how do you access them? Is it worth buying a day pass? Are they really worth all the fuss? In this week’s episode of Unpacked, AFAR points and miles expert Paul Rubio reveals the secrets to gaining airport lounge access—no premium tickets required. New! Subscribe to our show notes email. Meet this week’s guest Paul Rubio, AFAR points and miles...

Which countries are the most family friendly? How do you help kids deal with jet lag? What about routines, bedtimes, and kids in business class? In this week’s episode, four AFAR editors, all parents, share their answers to all those questions, plus real-world advice about traveling with small children—including one editor’s genius hack for making sure her kids eat. New! Subscribe to our show notes email. Meet this week’s guests Laura Dannen Redman, director of digital content  Sarika...

It’s a holiday week, one that (we hope) finds you swimming in a lake, or traveling to a new city, or otherwise enjoying these fleeting summer days. We don’t have a new episode this week, but given that we are halfway through 2023, we wanted to reshare our first episode of the year, our Where to Go in 2023 episode, in which editorial director Sarika Bansal and the team that puts together our annual list broke down said list and shared their thoughts on travel, present and future.  In it, they...

Kids and flying can be polarizing—anyone else remember popcorngate? But in this week’s episode, flight attendant (and mother of two) Andrea Davis shares her secrets for flying with children, whatever their age. She has has tips on packing, jet lag, crying babies, and why it’s worth it to travel with little ones, even when things go sideways. And she has tips for the child-less adults on flights: It's worth a listen—as a reminder that kids and parents are usually doing their best and that,...

Can $30 per traveler really make a difference when it comes to carbon offsets? For Rick Steves, the answer is “absolutely.” For the past four years, his company has paid a self-imposed carbon tax—in 2022, they donated $1 million to a dozen, carefully selected nonprofits to mitigate the carbon cost of their travelers. In this week’s episode of Unpacked , we chat with Craig Davidson, COO of Rick Steves’ Europe, about how their Climate Smart Commitment program works—and the life-changing...

Hey Travel Tales listeners, this week on Unpacked, we have a fantastic interview with travel legend Rick Steves. Since he launched his company in 1976, he has sent millions of Americans abroad, either through his guided tours or via his many, many guidebooks. But his mission—to “curate culture shock”—comes with a cost.  Rick has long been aware of the environmental impact of encouraging so many people to travel, but he found that carbon offset programs didn’t do enough to alleviate his...

This episode starts with a sunburn. That’s how on-topic it is. Because yes, it’s summer! And wow, do we have a lot of tips for you this year. To get them, I spoke with Mark Ellwood, the (sunburned) freelance travel writer who handles all of our monthly Where to Go columns, as well as the two editors who make up our mighty destination team, Chloe Arrojado and Tim Chester.  We started with planning—Mark is a planner, Chloe is not—and segued into how to score flight deals, if and when to travel...

Hey Travel Tales listeners. This week, we have an Unpacked episode about ChatGPT and travel. Would you let ChatGPT plan your trip? Chris Dong, the host of this week’s episode, isn’t sure. As a travel writer, he knows his way around the world—and when we tasked him with writing a piece about the technology, he was initially skeptical about handing over the reins to, well, a robot.  To get answers, he spoke with Hannah Mieczkowski, an AI expert who holds a Ph.D. degree in human and AI...

Hey Travel Tales listeners, as we ramp up for season four, we wanted to share another episode from our Unpacked by AFAR podcast, this one an interview with travel writer, actor, and director Andrew McCarthy. Want more? Follow the show here: https://megaphone.link/AFAR6756233083 Show notes Hiking Spain’s Camino de Santiago trail is one of the world’s great pilgrimages. And actor, writer, and director Andrew McCarthy has walked the 500-mile Camino Frances, not once but twice, most recently with...

Hey, Travel Tales listeners. We're hard at work on season four, which we'll be releasing in fall 2023. In the meantime, we'll be regularly featuring episodes from our sister podcast, Unpacked, which unpacks a tricky topic in travel each week. This week: How does the hotel that attracted luminaries like Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, and Sid Vicious undergo a renovation without losing its gritty, celeb-packed history? In this week’s episode of Unpacked, we’re debuting “If These Walls Could Talk,”...

Hey, listeners! We're hard at work on Travel Tales, season four. But in the meantime, we've released the second season of our podcast, Unpacked by AFAR, where we unpack the trickiest topics in travel each week. In this episode of Unpacked, we explore the confluence of climate change, travel, and anxiety. It’s no secret that our climate is changing fast. From hurricanes to wildfires, those changes are impacting us more and more each year. How do we deal with the anxiety? And more...