We Answer Your Frequently Asked Travel Questions, Part 4: Women Who Travel Podcast - Condé Nast Traveler

We Answer Your Frequently Asked Travel Questions, Part 4: Women Who Travel Podcast - Condé Nast Traveler

You can listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify each week. Follow this link if you're listening on Apple News.

In our past FAQ episodes, we've covered everything from how to stay warm on a plane and the best ways to plan a quick getaway to more urgent issues, like how to tackle flight and travel anxiety and what it takes to become a more eco-friendly traveler. And given that the questions keep on coming—both via our Women Who Travel Facebook group and our newly-launched advice column—it seemed like the best thing to do was, well, keep answering them.

In this latest episode, we're joined by Traveler's community editor (and WWT advice columnist) Megan Spurrell and special projects director Lauren DeCarlo to answer some of your most burning travel questions, including how to figure the right time to start traveling with your kids (spoiler alert: it's different for everybody), the right way to adjust to post-travel blues, and where to go in Mexico over Dia de los Muertos. Plus, Meredith gives her two cents on why you should use every single one of your vacation days—and how to negotiate with your boss for more time off when you need it.

Want to submit a question to the advice column or for a future episode? Drop it into the Facebook group or email womenwhotravel@cntraveler.com. Not only could you hear from Traveler editors themselves, but you'll have more than 140,000 women come to your aid, too.

Thanks to Megan and Lauren for joining us in the studio this week. And thanks as always to Brett Fuchs for engineering and mixing. Check back every Tuesday for the latest installment of Women Who Travel. To keep up with our podcast each week, subscribe to Women Who Travel on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and if you have a minute to spare, leave a review—we’d love to hear from you.

Read a full transciotion of the podcast below.

Lale Arikoglu: Hi everyone. I'm Lale Arikoglu and you're listening to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Condé Nast Traveler. Almost 150,000 women ask for tips, comments and recommendations in our Facebook group every day, which, if you haven't guessed already, is also called Women Who Travel. And this week we're back for our fourth FAQ installment on this podcast. With me in the studio today is my co-host Meredith Carey.

Meredith Carey: Hello.

LA: Plus community editor Megan Spurrell.

Megan Spurrell: Hi.

LA: And special projects director Lauren DeCarlo.

Lauren DeCarlo: Hello.

MC: Hi everyone. We're so excited because we have been doing this FAQ version of the Facebook group on the podcast for a couple of months now and we have just officially on womenwhotravel.com launched an advice column which also pulls questions from the group and taps Megan to answer them or find people who can. Can you talk a little bit about what the advice column even is?

MS: Yeah. So this is like our fourth episode, as Meredith said, and I think when we've done these episodes we've realized there's so many questions in the group and we get a lot of questions from our community when we share the different podcast episodes. And so we kind of wanted to have a place where we can really dive deep on some of the meatier questions every month. You can send in your questions either through the group or email us at womenwhotravel@cntraveler.com and we will answer anything. And if I can't answer it I will find someone who can. But yeah, we're just excited to kind of use the wisdom we have to answer your questions.

LA: Megan you saying answering anything makes me want to immediately send troll-y questions to you.

MS: You know, I was hoping for a few more troll-y questions from some of our friends and I didn't get that many actually. I got some really good questions, but send me your troll questions, too.

LA: And so tell us a little bit about the advice column that came out last week. Because I feel like that was a question that gets asked a lot in the group and I think is something that lots of women who love to travel but are juggling lots of things in their lives are asking.

MS: So we had someone write in through Instagram actually and she basically just asked the question that I'm sure many new mothers do of how in the world do I convince my husband to go on a trip with our small children, get the small children somewhere far away, and have a good trip while doing it. So that was a pretty fun one to dig in to because I'm no mother, but we have many here like Lauren who have a lot of wisdom that they've learned the hard way.

LD: Emphasis the hard way. I think as soon as I saw that question and I saw the words “convince my husband,” it just triggered. It was triggering. I can't tell you, there's so many things that I would advise... Right off the bat, if you have to convince anybody, just take a minute and think about what you're trying to convince them to do because let me just give you an example. I recently had to convince my husband to go to the beach to go on a quick beachy getaway and he had some concerns: “Our son who's three, he's going to be bored. He's going to sit at the beach for a few minutes and get bored. You can take him to the pool, sure, but then we're going to get bored. What are we going to do the whole time?”

And I was like, No, no, no. Don't worry about it. It's totally fine. We're going to be in paradise. This is going to be great. Totally got this. Turns out we totally did not got this. As soon as we got there, of course my son is on the beach for about 35 minutes and is like, “Now what, can we get out of here? What do we do now?" And I was just like, oh my god. And the whole time my husband is shooting me these glances, like, I told you, I told you this was going to be a problem. And I'm like, no, no, no, don't worry about it. We've got this. It's cool.

Nope, it was not and then not only was I feeling like I had to perform these tricks and keep everybody entertained, but then I knew my husband knew that I knew what he was talking about and it was just tense and not great. So the point of that story is talk to your partner before and say, "What are your concerns? What do you think is going to happen and what can we do to prevent that from happening? And what do we do if that does happen?" And if you can't get on the same page, then come up with something else because it's just going to be too much to handle when you're in a different location, in a different time zone with your kid. It's not worth it. It's just not worth it.

MS: Well, and it's interesting because when we shared this—we answered the question, Lauren weighed in, gave like some of these great stories and we had a few other mothers chime in as well—and when we shared the final answer to this question in the group, the word “convince” was the most talked about aspect. Like this idea that you're forcing someone and I wonder if when it was written in, if that was like super intentional or just kind of an off the cuff like, "I want to go."

LD: Honestly, I think it's just honest because when you are thinking of a trip and somebody has something else to say, you do want to convince them, like, No this is going to be great. I promise, we got this, we can handle it. But you cannot convince someone, if they are feeling insecure about it or have these anxieties, it's just not worth it to convince them. I mean you can come up with this happy medium where you still get to go on that trip and say you did this trip. Because I think a lot of the time, one of the things you have to realize is the trip, especially when you have a super-young baby or young toddler or whatever, the trip that you think you're going to have is not the trip that you had pre-baby. And no matter what you convince yourself of, it's never going to be that thing.

And the first step is to admit that and say, "This vacation is going to be unlike any other one we've ever been on. Can we agree to that? Great. Now let's move on to that." And if you're honest about it and you're honest about what the trip will look like, those little hiccups or major earthquakes that you encounter won't be as devastating. Because at least you realize like we talked about this, we knew this was going to happen, let's adjust. But also I would say for your first trip with a baby, don't go on the biggest adventure of your life. Just stay close. Bring your in-laws, bring your parents if you can. I know the idea of traveling with your in-laws sounds to some like the most horrific nightmare, but just it's-

MS: That’s a whole ‘nother question we could answer.

LD: But you need support. You do need support. And if that means having your mother-in-law or your father in law or even your mother there to just be there when the child wakes up in the morning so you can sleep in a little bit, that makes all the difference.

MC: I know you were talking about kind of treating these trips differently than you did before. And one of the questions that gets asked in the group every once in a while is, "When should you start?" And I know that we've talked about this before off this podcast, but you know, I think people are looking for advice or approval or whatever it is about when it's an okay time, when they might not be as stressed, when the convincing might not be as difficult. Do you have like a perfect age that you think works for people or is it just to each their own?

LD: Honestly, I haven't found it yet. Our son is three, it's not three. I can tell you that. Check with me next year, maybe four is better. I don't know. But I think what I've learned is that I know what we're capable of and what we're not capable of. And I know that I would much rather do a couple of days in a house with my parents and my sisters and their kids where there is this village to help us. But you know, just the three of us at a resort on a beach for three or four days, it's really hard. For us, it's really hard.

Some people I know that that's… They're safe. That's like the safety zone is an all inclusive where you don't have to really think of anything. You're not traipsing around some city and doing all these things that you used to do. But for me, I'm a little bit slower into figuring this out, but I think that's like to each their own, I think.

MS: Something that was interesting when talking to the different mothers for this and seeing in the comments in the group when we first shared it, was a lot of people talking about this question of if it's for your kids or for you. And I think something interesting was just people being like, "Maybe your kids won't remember it, maybe it'll be a disaster." But that getting used to the idea of being uncomfortable and exposed to new things is so valuable. And I just, I don't know, I think it's impressive that mothers go through what you've gone through to give their kids that.

LD: And I think it's important for kids to feel uncomfortable a little bit and taken out of their routine and I think that applies to parents as well. I think that for so many of us we get stuck in our routine of just being a parent and sticking to that schedule and the routine. I think when you shake it up a little bit and go to a different place and knock it all off schedule, I think that's valuable but I go into it knowing that it's going to be really hard at certain times. You know, it's not going to be the best vacation you ever had. It won't even be something you can really even call a vacation. But it's an experience that you have and I think the next time it'll be better and you learn how to do it better, but it's not a vacation. It's not relaxing. It's an experience.

LA: Lauren, I'm wondering, you're talking about this from a slightly unique perspective, which is that you work for a travel magazine, and you've been a travel editor for a while. Did you feel a pressure to be able to travel with your kid sooner and better?

LD: Oh god, totally. Totally. I've had so many coworkers over the years who are taking their kids all over the world, taking them to restaurants in Paris and all of these things. And I hear it and I'm like, "Well, why can't I... What am I doing wrong that I'm not able to do that?" Or, "What am I doing wrong that I don't feel comfortable or empowered to do that?" and I don't think it's me. I think it's just... I know what my day to day looks like and I know that if Charlie is throwing a shit-fit at dinner in my house, then chances are he's going to do that in a hotel restaurant. All of a sudden in some beautiful restaurant, he's not going to just all of a sudden be on his best behavior.

You know, I see a lot of people, those beautiful Instagram families who are traveling the world. And I'm like, "What am I missing? How am I not able to do this thing?" And I think there's a lot that is not shown on Instagram. I think there's a lot that's not told. And it's the same way, Lale, talking about coworkers who have had these amazing trips. They talk about all the amazing parts of it, but I don't think they're sharing necessarily all the parts that are terrible or the fights that they had with their husbands or wives and you know, the times when they felt like, "Oh my God, I would literally rather be anywhere but here."

And I think that it really helps to hear someone be honest about it and know that it's always not going to be great. It's always not going to be easy and you're never going to fully be able to master it in the way that you did when you were traveling by yourself or with your partner and however you traveled before kids. It completely just throws it out of whack. And I think knowing that other people are having a really hard time figuring out how to do it is... It makes me feel like I have to tell people it's okay to not feel like you want to just jump on a flight for 12 hours with your three-year-old. Like, I don't ever want to do that thing and it's okay. It's fine. Do it when they're five, six, seven. That's okay.

MC: So kind of along those lines, Steph in the group asked, our best friend's daughter is about to graduate from high school and she hasn't really had the opportunity to travel in the first 17 years of her life. And she is like an amazing best friend because she wants to treat her best friend's daughter to a trip after graduation, which I think is really lovely. We need more of those people-

LD: That's the best gift ever.

LA: Yeah, can we'll have this family friend?

MC: But if you're 17 and leaving the country for the first time, where would you want to go? What kind of trip would you want to have if this is your first big 12-hour flight, six-hour flight, two-hour flight. Who knows?

LA: So the options are endless.

LA: She hasn't specified budget.

MC: Nope. Nope.

LD: Lale's like, "I’ll chaperone.”

MS: That’s how I like my trips.

LA: Australia!

MC: Odds are it would probably be right after graduation, so first week of June-ish. But I feel like we can be flexible, use our imaginations. Where would you send this new graduate?

MS: I mean this isn’t an out of the box idea, but I just try to think of myself at that age and all I wanted to do was be in Paris or London.

LD: Oh my goodness I was going to say the same thing.

MS: You know, I just wanted to sit on one of those chairs facing the street and have a croissant and feel fabulous, which I obviously wasn't because I was 16. That was mean. Was that mean to 16-year-olds?

LA: Also, do you think 16-year-olds are listening to this podcast?

LD: It was more a dig at yourself at 16.

MS: This idea, you know?

LA: Okay. You were on a roll. You were on a roll. All right, you're in your chair, you're eating your croissant...

MS: You feel fabulous, which you know, not everyone is at 16.

MC: If you are 16 and you do listen to this podcast, please let us know.

MS: You've seen so many movies of this. It's like such a fantasy you have and I think now Paris is somewhere I'd love to be there or 12 other places before it on my list. But I think at that age it feels conquerable; you'll see other people like you walking around doing the exact same thing, indulging those same dreams. And it just... It's so amazing. I don't know. I think that I would do Paris or Rome or just these places that you've dreamed about.

LD: Also, I think there's this element of, I'm thinking about when I was that age, and it's like all you want to do is be this independent adult. And there's something about being in a city like, I've got this, I'm doing it. I'm going to have a glass of wine.

LA: Well then if you’re in Paris, firstly someone will serve you a glass of wine. I know also, you know, it's a big city. It's a relatively safe city. You can go off and explore on your own a bit. At least I did when I went to Paris when I was that age and so then you really get to kind of play adult, which is so exciting. And you get to kind of learn a lot while you're doing it. And I think one of the amazing things about traveling when you're that age and traveling for maybe the first time, is that travel cliches don't exist yet. You haven't experienced anything. So you're not going to roll your eyes at anything. Everything is going to be exciting.

MC: Standing outside the Moulin Rouge, still super exciting. Walking up the Eiffel Tower, still super exciting. Which also-

LD: I mean I'm still excited about that.

LA: And that's the thing. Some things will never get old.

MS: And I also would say if you're not doing an international trip, New York does that for you. It's that feeling of being in this gigantic place and like figuring out the subway yourself just feels like so empowering and amazing. And I think it's nice to get to experience those feelings before you become jaded and just are like, "Ah, big city, people in my way." You get the magic a little bit more.

MC: When I graduated high school, I went to Vancouver with my mom and my best friend and her mom. And we in part thought that the drinking age was 18 and it was actually 19, which was a real bummer when we got there.

LA: Oh that is crushing.

MC: We got served the first night, and then the second night they were like, you guys I don't think are old enough and we're like, no, we're 18 and they were like, no, no. But it was really nice because we got kind of a mix of city. And you know being from Texas it was still cool in June. And then we got to do a lot of hiking and outdoor stuff, which was also... It was a good mix and it wasn't that far and it wasn't that expensive, which were all pretty great options.

LA: I sort of said that I didn't have anyone in my life that would've done that for me, but I actually did kind of get to do that, which is when my best friend turned 18, her parents said that they would take her to Italy, she could bring two friends with her. So she brought me and another friend and we were near Lake Verona in this beautiful Italian town.

And that was actually great because firstly, we were staying in this beautiful place that we were very lucky to be able to stay at. But secondly there was this small town in the middle of Italy that we could just run around on our own. And we were 18; and we were adults but just barely. And it felt foreign and new and exciting, but it also felt very accessible. We knew our way around quickly. We didn't have to master transport systems and we could just like eat and drink and then find our own way back to the hotel. Then that was also kind of perfect. Doing something on a smaller scale.

LD: I also think... Just talking more about Europe. Europe is so great because you can just pop on a train and get somewhere else. So you kind of get a few destinations in. Like Amsterdam, Paris, London, it's so easy just to hop around. So you get so much more bang for your buck, as they say.

LA: I'm sure that this woman who wants to give this great gift doesn't have Interrailing in mind. But being 18 years old and Interrailing around Europe is a lot of fun.

LD: The best.

MC: Keeping with the travel agent hat, Kelly in Philadelphia just found out that her office is going to be closed for three days at Christmas and she still has two vacation days left, which means she will have the entire week off, and wants to know where she should go for Christmas. They are outdoorsy types.

LD: We did Christmas in Mexico one year and it was fantastic. I thought all of us East coasters would be missing the snow and the cold. Nope, it was great.

MS: Where in Mexico did you go?

LD: Oh God, I don't even remember. I think I was like 15 or 16, and I think that was my first foray into lots of margaritas. So I don't know where we were.

MC: I love how this has just turned into an underage drinking podcast.

LA: Underage drinking in America means something different from the rest of the world.

MC: I will say she mentions wanting to catch Northern Lights. And I know that going to a cold place in the winter, isn't necessarily everyone's idea of a great vacation, but I would say Iceland would probably be a pretty great trip, especially from Philly. Erika Owen, who was on our podcast a few weeks ago, has some great intel on traveling to Iceland, especially when it's cold. So go check out her Instagram and also the Iceland stories on Conde Nast Traveler. But I would say Iceland.

LA: Correct me if I'm wrong. Is it better to see the Northern Lights, do you have more of a chance to see them if you're in Norway? Or is Iceland the best?

MC: You have a better chance of seeing them the closer you are to the Arctic circle. So yeah, Norway, yes, but you'd have to be in pretty rural Norway where you wouldn't have to be as far away from a major city if you, or major town, at least if you're in Iceland.

LA: I always see people in the group debating their chances as to whether they're actually going to see them. And I was wondering?

MC: And there's no guarantee. And we're also in kind of a little bit of a lull; it's Northern Lights come in sort of a bell curve and we're at the bottom. But that doesn't mean they aren't still beautiful and amazing. You just... It might take a few more days—and if you've got eight, you got a better chance.

LA: Someone was recently telling me, sorry everyone for this aside, that they had gone see the Northern Lights and were really disappointed because they just didn't show up. They didn't make an appearance. But their guide-

LD: Didn't show up.

MC: Damn solar flares.

LA: Just like me to most parties. But that guide was like, Okay, well let's get everyone together for a photo and we'll take a picture. And he took a picture and when they looked at it, the Northern Lights were illuminating in the background, because the flash on.

LD: Wow. That's amazing. Who was that?

LA: I don't know, but it's an amazing story.

LD: That's great.

MC: Sixteen-year-olds and the person who told Lale that story, please contact us. You mentioned Mexico and somebody in the group, Kat, was wondering if there are any Day of the Dead parades—specifically near a Playa del Carmen—but any Day of the Dead parades that people should check out in Mexico? And I feel like, Megan you have thoughts about this.

MS: I sure do. I haven't been to Day of the Dead, but I'm dying to go. And yeah, I just think you should definitely do that if you're going to be around.

MC: Around when? November 1st right?

MS: Yeah. So it kind of rolls out over Halloween weekend. So you have the 30th, the 31st, the 1st, and 2nd are all different holidays based on where you are. In some places, obviously, you're going to see decorations and related events in the weeks leading up. But I think if you're in Mexico, the easiest place to get to, to see incredible Day of the Dead celebrations is Oaxaca. If you're in the city, you can easily check out different cemeteries, see things right in the main square. I know a lot of people think Mexico City is a great spot, because of that James Bond movie. Which was kind of a scam, because they did not have that big Day of the Dead parade that everyone wants to go for. And I think they do it now, right? Because of the movie. But-

MC: Yes.

LA: I was in Mexico City on the Day of the Dead before that movie came out and there was no parade.

MC: So the parade that they've instituted, they have partnered with local groups to make sure that it's culturally appropriate, and not just like a prop from the movie. And obviously the movie pulled from existing cultural icons that have to do with Day of the Dead. But no, I think the problem there was that Day of the Dead is a pretty somber—while colorful—holiday. So having a parade to celebrate your lost loved ones feels a little off, which is why they were working with obviously, the community of Mexico City to make sure that it was appropriate.

MS: Well I will say there are… Like, if you're in Oaxaca, there actually are big parties in the street. And it's celebrated in really different ways in different places. I think if you're in Mexico you can also go, and we have a story on cntraveler.com that has a bunch of different places in Latin America that celebrate it. But there's a ton of different towns in Mexico that have really distinct traditions that are different from each other. Merida has beautiful celebrations. I think Puebla, which is near Mexico City, does something as well.

If you go to Bolivia for example, they have totally different traditions. And let's say you're in Peru, they actually have giant parties in the graveyards where people wheel in barbecues and boom boxes and park it on the grave of their family member and party through the night and then pass out on the grave. And then get up in the morning and go home.

So it can be really celebratory, but there are a ton of different places to see it. But I would just say do your research because just because you're in Mexico doesn't mean everywhere is going to have super authentic experiences. That you might have a hotel putting some face paint on people—but you might want to see the real thing if you're there.

LA: And to that point of having in some countries being celebratory, and other countries being more somber. If you are wanting to get involved in the Day of the Dead celebrations and be a part of honoring it in some way, how'd you do it respectfully, especially if you're Instagraming and you want to post all the pictures of everything you've experienced and seen? Because it is so visually impressive.

MS: I would use the rule of thumb you would for any time you're trying to sort of immerse yourself. It's like ask someone. So whether that's the concierge at the hotel you're staying in, a guide if you are doing a tour at any point during the trip, or if you have an Airbnb, message your host and I would ask those questions. I always think it's better to ask people things and sound like an idiot, than not ask something you should have. And I think, express that you're like, “I want to be part of this. What's an acceptable way for me to get involved?”

And I think a lot of people are excited to bring visitors into their traditions. But I think just ask people. And if you don't have any kind of local connection and you're on the street, ask someone if it's okay to take a picture of whatever that thing is. And I think if you're unsure if you're culturally appropriating something or appreciating something, maybe just stand to the side and observe. When in doubt.

I know Day of the Dead this year is coming up—it’s like right upon us. But next year we're actually doing one of our Women Who Travel trips to Mexico City in Oaxaca is going to be over Day of the Dead. So they will be in Oaxaca during this time and get to meet a local woman who's going to show everyone how to participate in the celebration in the streets and is also going to take everyone to a local cemetery. So I think that's a great way to kind of get immersed in it without having to navigate yourself.

MC: And we'll throw the link to that trip in the show notes, if you are interested in learning more. Next question.

LA: So we have a question, which is a popular topic of conversation has come up on our podcast many times. But I can't talk about it enough, because I am a big advocate for asking for more time off work. So Camellia in the group asked for any tips on how to negotiate more vacation time off work. Meredith, I know that you have written about this a bunch, talked about it.

MC: Feel so passionate.

LA: I have yelled at your side. What's your advice?

MC: First off, you should listen to the podcast where at Lale and I actually talked to our manager Paulie about negotiating for more time off work. We will also link that in the show notes. But I think the biggest thing is to communicate either when you're starting, or when you're feeling really crushed by the amount of work, or you want to plan a vacation, communicate with your manager. There is no harm in asking and I think that if you don't ask, the answer will be no automatically.

So if you haven't said, "Hey, I need to take an extra day or I am looking to tack time off onto a work trip," or whatever it is, then you're never going to know what the answer is from your manager and you're just going to create imaginary situations in your head. But I would also recommend if you're starting a new job to work that into your salary negotiations. If you feel like you can't ask for more money or something outside of the range that you've been given, or that you've asked for, ask for a couple more vacation days. Because not only does that equal out math-wise into more money for you, it means that you'll have more time off in the long run and more time to kind of reset.

LD: And if you already have a job, bring it up at your reviews. Everybody has these at some point. It's so important if you can't get a raise, if you can't get a change in title, if you can't get the promotion that you want, use your vacation days as Meredith said a negotiating tool. Incredible.

LA: Lauren, do you think that over time, especially now that you have a family, have you got better at asking for that time? Or more forceful or more confident?

LD: I think that my days now are the days that Charlie needs to be off from school. So my vacation days are the Department of Education's vacation days. So I think our spring breaks or summer breaks, we kind of follow that calendar a little bit, but I think that, you know, at the end of the day, if you got to take a day, you just got to take a day. And I think that employers now are so much more flexible than they were maybe 15, 20 years ago, when I started working, if you needed a day off it was this whole like rigmarole, Why? “Fill out this form. Do this thing."

But I think now there are so many options. You could work from home, you can trade days, there's so much more flexibility. First of all, take the days off you already have.

MC: This is so important.

LD: Because so many people don't. I know Meredith, this is your mission in life is to encourage everyone.

MC: Every last hour.

LD: To take the days that you have, but like take the days you have and if there are more days that you need, figure out ways to get them because I think that you have more power when you just say "I need this time off. I will work another day, I will work overtime, I'll do what I have to do." But you just got to take the time.

MC: I think again going back to communicating, if you don't ask, you're never going to know if it's an option. So going back to that thing where I said if you do the math, you make more money if you ask for more vacation days. If you do not take all of your vacation days in the year, you are literally putting money that you were getting paid to not come to work on the table and leaving it behind. It's just a waste.

LD: It's not even on the table. It's in toilet. It's gone.

MC: It is the worst. Listen to our episode with Lindsay Stanberry. So many links in the show notes today. Where we talk about the math of that and how important it is in just respecting yourself and your self-worth—your financial self worth—to take all those days.

LD: Especially if your days don't rollover, right? They're gone. If your days rollover, then that's a different story.

MC: At this table, our don't rollover.

LD: They don't roll anywhere.

MC: Use them up.

LA: In certain states, New York being one of them, if I'm correct, you do not get paid out your vacation days when you leave a job.

LD: California does, right? California does.

MC: But yeah, use them up. Use them up people.

LD: New Yorkers, use them up.

MC: So switching directions, Tammy in the group returned home from three years of traveling, which is, I mean talk about vacation days.

LD: I think that's a relocation.

LA: Tammy lived somewhere else for a while.

MC: But she is asking about remedies for a serious bout of post-travel blues. And I know that at this table, not many of us can relate to maybe the three years of traveling and you can hear about people who do relate to that on an episode that we did with Jayda Yuan and Renee Hahnel. But when you come back from a two-week trip, like how do you make sure you're still excited to come back?

LA: Personally and obviously this all depends where you're going back to. I'm lucky enough that when I come back from vacation, I go back to New York and before that I was going back to London. So I'm very spoiled in terms of having endless resources in a city at my fingertips. But when I come back, the way that I get over those blues is get really excited to treat the place that I live in as I did the place that I just visited. Because when you're traveling you make an effort to see things, to walk around, to eat, to like be your most energetic, out-there self. And I try to bring that back into my life once I return home. And you know, it doesn't last very long, but it does like kind of ease myself back into normal life.

MS: I also think, in hearing that question, it kind of resonates with that feeling of when you come back from like study abroad or, like, I moved to Brazil when I graduated to teach English and I lived there for a little over a year. I also had these weird feelings coming back of like reverse culture shock I guess. I'm not sure if that's what she's looking for, but I do think that's a common sentiment when you've been gone for an extended period of time. It doesn't have to be three full years, but when you're dealing with that reverse shock, it's fine. You can find ways to kind of settle in better. When I came back from Brazil, I really wanted to hear live Samba music because that was something I used to do every single day and I missed that and it made me bummed to be home. I think you can kind of find those places back at home or wherever you are to make the transition a little easier.

MC: And I think if you can't find them, you can create them. Invite your friends over—maybe don't exclusively talk about your trip or like have a full slide show going over your experience—but I think, when my friends come back and they have been in Italy or they've been in Brazil and they're like, "I want to cook like a potluck" and everyone brings a dish from that place and there's music or you watch a movie... I think involving your friends—who odds are, if you're listening to this podcast, your friends like to travel—in that experience also sort of extends the trip and people will be interested in what you have to say.

LD: I also think there's something to that post trip nesting thing that I love. I remember after I did a study abroad in Paris 14 million years ago, all I wanted to do was just have dinner parties at my house and have friends over and just have like bottles and bottles of wine and good dinner and just kind of hang out and be at home and catching up with friends who I kind of lost touch with.

I still do that every time I go away. There's like this period, it's probably a month post-trip where I'm just like cooking the most intricate meals and having people just kind of at our house to hang out and just talk and catch up. I think there's really something nice about making home feel extra homey after a trip and just kind of like getting into it. Leaning into that feeling of like, this is where I'm going to be, everybody come over, let's talk, let's hang. There's something really nice about that, especially if it's the fall and winter and you're in a cold place like New York, that nesting warm meal. It's so nice.

LA: And Lauren, before we wrap up, you have some really exciting news that we've been rolling out on our website in the last couple of weeks.

LD: Totally. Our Women Who Travel advisory board. I'm sure if you follow us on Instagram or read everything that we're doing online, you've seen our Q&As with our advisory board members. We have assembled nine extraordinary women to kind of, in the spirit of advice and advising and just showing us the path and taking us further, showing us how to make women who travel bigger and better. On our path to global dominance, we have a team of nine women,. Some, like Megan Rapinoe, you've heard of. Others are just these extraordinary, badass businesswomen who are killing it in their fields and in travel, whether it's hotels, cruises. They are the leaders that we look to and so we're just really excited to share them with everybody and take this to the next level.

MC: And the Q&As will be rolling out over the next two months, month and a half. So you can keep checking up to see them. But you can find the whole list of advisory board members at womenwhotravel.com right?

LA: Yeah. And so far we have interviews with the Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario.

LD: So cool. She's just incredible. Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt.

LA: It's fine because I felt unworthy.

LD: Please check out her Instagram because if you have not and if you've not read her bestselling book, but just check it out.

LA: I mean she's a legend, a legend among us. So Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist, Lynsey Addario. We've also got Jessica Nabongo who I'm sure if you listen to the podcast regularly, you recognize her name.

MC: You also heard her voice last week on the episode.

LA: And have been following her journey on Instagram as she becomes—and has actually officially become—the first black woman to visit every country in the world.

LD: I feel like we needed an applause like sound for each of them.

LA: And as Meredith said, you can see the full list on our website at womenwhotravel.com.

MC: So Megan, if people want to get advice from you, from your travel specialists that you've been in contact with, where should they ask questions to be featured in the advice column and what kinds of questions should they ask?

MS: You can ask literally anywhere you can find us. I will be looking for your questions but you can email womenwhotravel@cntraveler.com which Meredith, can you put that in the show notes?

MC: Done.

MS: Is that how it works? Okay. You can DM us on the @womenwhotravel Instagram. We have a couple of posts in the group where we've shared previous advice. Call them questions. You can drop comments there and send a smoke signal, I am listening. But yeah, I think we have had a ton of questions roll in and some people have asked how to get their question chosen because again, we'll assemble a team of experts to dive in and give you answers. The best questions are the ones, like the last one we did about traveling with small children and the woman before that about starting solo travel. If you check them out, you'll see they have a lot of detail in what they're looking for and it's kind of a multi-part question. So those are fun for us to, you know, those kind of warrant a longer answer and those are the kind of questions we're looking for. But in terms of topics, I meant it when I said anything. If it relates to traveling as a woman, we're interested.

MC: And I know some people have DM'd you personally. So what is your Instagram handle for people to find you on the internet?

MS: You can find me at @spurrelly.

MC: And Lale?

LA: @lalehannah. If you DM me with your questions and problems, I'll direct you too @spurrelly.

MC: And Lauren?

LD: I'm @ldecarlo and can I just say, if anyone is feeling like they cannot handle family travel, just let's talk about it. You got a friend in me. I just want people to know that you don't have to always be that superstar traveler, even if you once were. It's okay for you not to be that person for five minutes while you're figuring it out.

MC: So Lauren's DMs are open and I'm @ohheytheremere. You can find the podcast every Tuesday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can read all of our stories at womenwhotravel.com. That's it. That's the end of the podcast. Enjoy.

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2019-10-29 09:19:28Z
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/we-answer-your-frequently-asked-travel-questions-part-4-women-who-travel-podcast
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