Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Meet your hosts - Anniversary Special
After a year of episodes, we thought it may be time to introduce ourselves.
We're Kristen and Carol - longtime friends with a passion for travel. We're on a journey to learn the details and culture of places we would like to visit and set some bucket list slow travel destinations! 🥰✈️🚦🚗
Michelle from IG: @trvlwithintention, interviews us about how we started and where this podcast has taken us in YEAR 1️⃣! ✈️ Michelle's travel blog: https://travelwithintention.com
Thank you for joining us as we learned about new destinations this past year. We've enjoyed building a community that is focused on experiencing not just the beautiful places around the world but the incredible cultures that make them special!
Where do you want to visit next? 🙋🏼♀️ Let us know!
Please download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/
View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure.
Speaker 2:Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In today's episode, we hear from Carol and Kristen yes, us, your hosts. For our one-year anniversary, we decided to share an interview where we answer questions we have heard from listeners about what inspired us to start this podcast and what sparked our love of travel. The interview was conducted by Michelle at the Travel With Intention blog.
Speaker 3:So welcome Carol and Kristen. It's so good to have you guys with us today. I'm super excited. I'm a fan of your podcast, when Next, and I really cannot wait to dive in. So I'm just going to let you guys share with us a little bit about your background. How did you two meet and come to create this awesome podcast together?
Speaker 1:So we met in our 20s our early 20s I think and we were living in Walnut Creek in an apartment complex, kitty corner to each other, and found out also we ended up working at the same company, but just in two different offices. I was in Oakland, she was in Walnut Creek and actually back in that time there were five of us my roommate and the two gentlemen upstairs and Carol that we would rotate every Wednesday dinners, so every fifth week we only had to cook, and so we became pretty close friends. Then we moved, got married, moved away. She moved to Hawaii, I stayed here in the Bay area and you know, 20 years went by, or?
Speaker 1:however long it went by 15, 20 years and then we got reconnected in a Christmas card last Christmas and I had actually I also have another podcast called the future of women at work.
Speaker 3:And so.
Speaker 1:I've done quite a few episodes and that, but Carol said I want to do a podcast. Traveling and living anywhere digital nomad. That's her passion and we both love to travel. Our kids are almost graduating high school and it's our time coming up in with COVID and not being able to travel but also wanting to. We started to explore countries all over to talk to people that either live there or spend time there or have traveled extensively there and know it intimately, and then we get to interview them about everything in that space that they're in and also diving into, not just the traditional things that you know, like the Eiffel Tower in France, but what is it that you don't see, that you would recommend? You know kind of the underground places and sites and foods and things like that you would share if you had someone staying with you, and so we've gotten a chance to.
Speaker 1:I think we have 22, 25, I don't know 25 or so conversations that we've had so far and that's just kind of how it started.
Speaker 3:I know I've enjoyed it. I have enjoyed it hugely, so I'm very glad you sparked that idea, carol. That has been a huge benefit to me. What are some early experiences for you with traveling that were really formative and put you on this path to want to have the travel podcast, to want to dive into that?
Speaker 2:I'll go. I have the two things that kind of sparked me to travel. I originally grew up in Minnesota and so I was just freezing all the time.
Speaker 3:And so.
Speaker 2:I'm like there's gotta be other places to live that are nice. Also, minneapolis is a great city, lots to do, very friendly. I went on this exchange program to University of Hawaii when I was in college and so went out there, experienced that. And meeting people from all over the world is really what oh my gosh, there's so much to explore. And then when I met people, they would invite me oh, you should come see me in Boston, you should come see me in Vancouver.
Speaker 2:Then I just started like traveling a bunch. And then after I finished college, I would. I was working in the hospitality industry and I would work for three, four months and then I'm like, oh, I have enough money saved, now let's go on a trip. And so that's what I would do, and I really wanted to be a flight attendant. Didn't make that happen, but it really sparked my interest.
Speaker 2:And, and one thing I also found is I lived in Hawaii and I lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Every time I moved I got a really new experience. But like Los Angeles, for example, oh, los Angeles is awful, it's so fake, all these like stereotypes but I love living in Los Angeles, I would totally live there again, and so I feel like I can't trust just all the hearsay. So that's part of also why I really wanted to do this podcast, because there's some podcasts out there like a Travelocity, whatever those reviews, but I want to know, like Kristen said, I want the real deal.
Speaker 2:Is it safe? Are you worried? What's the crime? Is it easy to get a job? Is there a lot of discrimination or what are the challenges if you want to spend some time somewhere? And so I've been always loving to travel, and having kids have limited that, and I know a lot of parents that have made that happen with their children. We didn't go down that path. We went into like heavy duty sports but really enjoyed. We spent most of the time here in Colorado that's where we're living now with the kids and skiing and back country camping and having these new experiences, just local. And honestly, right after I had babies, I'm like I don't think I ever want to travel again. I was just like so tired all the time, but now I have so much energy, I'm like ready to go, can't wait. Can't wait to see where to go next.
Speaker 3:All that energy has been building up on the back burner. You're like it's my time.
Speaker 2:Yes, and to find the podcast. If anyone doesn't know, you can follow us on Instagram. It's just at where next podcast or we're on most of the all the podcast directories. Next.
Speaker 3:And Kristen, what about you? Was there a formative experience that kind of lit the fire to get you interested in travel?
Speaker 1:It's interesting because as a kid my parents were divorced. We didn't do very much. We just did one week at a Christian camp in the San Bernardino mountains and then fast forward. I went straight from actually in college when I graduated. I'm Swedish, so I'm first generation here. Grandparents, as a gift, sent me, shipped me off to Sweden for a month to stay and meet all my relatives, and actually there was a girlfriend of mine at my college that we were going to travel all through Europe, stay in hostels, and we had a Euro pass, and then she backed out last minute. So my trip just ended up being Sweden and not everywhere, and I still my plan is still to do that. I haven't done that yet. My daughter, I think, will be my recruit or someone else in mind, but, or Carol of course doing lots there, but but travel has always been a big part of what I've wanted to do.
Speaker 1:I just haven't. And then in college my stepmom started working for American Airlines and then she started traveling. She traveled 30 years after that, nonstop, for nine months out of the year, living everywhere and people are Our house in Southern California. We're in Palos Verdes, right next to the beach. It was like an Airbnb of just people coming and staying with us. So through college on, it was a lot of that. My brother's a pilot. Now he's with United, so the last 20, 30 years he's been flying as well. And then my sister's married to a Frenchman, so she travels to France and here and there, and they have houses in Mexico.
Speaker 1:I have a place in Maui, a condo across the beach, that honestly, have stayed one week in 16 years and I rented out and that's it. So I haven't done a lot of travel, except for right before kids. I did a big trip. I was really involved in my career, spent 24 years at a staffing agency and then, in 2001, they changed our vacation policy and said we had to take all our cumulative vacation or we were going to lose it. And that was an aha. I ended up having 16 weeks that I had to use in 2002. So four months and I'm commissioned. I was, and I still am, a recruiter, so I find people, jobs. I've done that for 26 years and so I remember at the time I was I don't have kids. I have to take this time. I'm just not. I was top in the world every year, so next year I'm not going to be and I'm going to live life. And so I ended up taking 12 out of the 16 weeks, did a whole bunch of research and trips, but my biggest trip that was really influential was one to Costa Rica where I went for a month backpacking in the jungles and everywhere by myself. I just did it. I was married. It's just ended up being only me. That was a huge catalyst to the people I met and the relationships I built.
Speaker 1:And then I came back and ended up I started having kids. So then I was locked down and then my sort of outlet I would do with work. I never worked full-time again, so I was a mom through and through, so I worked full-time. And it was a mom full-time, so it was challenging and fun. Then I was a mom through and through, so I worked full time and it was a mom full time, so it was challenging and fun. Then I started taking summers off like in Sweden everyone takes July off, so I started taking August off because it was hard to find childcare. And then my family is in Southern California. I'm in Northern California, so then I would go down there for two weeks and then I would take my kids.
Speaker 1:I did a lot of outdoor stuff so like camping and backpacking, and a lot of that was my outlet. And then I did do trips, like we took one big trip to Disney world and the Caribbean cruise as COVID hit, like that January of 2020. And so I've taken the. And then we did Sweden or family reunion in 2015. So I haven't done a ton of travel, but it's really. I am dying to create this life. So when Carol was talking about wanting to do this, it was like heck, yeah, oh, I have. I started a company two years ago. I got laid off and my husband at the time he got laid off, so then I was like got to start a company to do what I do.
Speaker 1:And it's been awesome, it's good, it's been really successful and I'm super grateful. But it's really do some hard things and think through my goals. And on an index card I have my goals and at the bottom it says say hell yeah five times a day. So that's my motto. Whatever's like a hell yeah, I'm doing that. Whatever my gut says, just go with that. And when Carol asked me about the podcast, that was definitely a hell yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, I'm so hanging on to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have Carol and I have a big vision of where we want this to go and it's just, it's hell yeah the whole way. I just am excited about what we're creating. I can't wait to travel with her as well. We want to do remote podcasts of where we're going. I think the first one's going to be Portugal it podcast of where we're going. I think the first one's going to be Portugal. It has to be Portugal for Carol. That was how this whole conversation started. Was her wanting to go to Portugal and me wanting to go to Costa Rica? Yeah, I think just being able to experience life, no matter who I'm with, that person's got to want to travel and live life.
Speaker 3:That's all there is to say about that and they got to help. You say hell yeah five times a day, absolutely, absolutely. Oh my God, that needs a sticker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's on a blue index card. Yeah, that is awesome.
Speaker 3:How do you feel that your podcast that you're doing together helps others create more of those moments, more of that intentional travel style? How do you see your podcast helping people with that?
Speaker 2:I think it's these questions that we ask, like Kristen was saying, like what's not normal, right? So it's not just what are the hot sites to see? Like one thing we really learned interesting in the France episode it wasn't in Paris, she's outside of a town, outside of Lyon, and one thing they do there is they do all these I don't think they call them walkabouts, but like hikes, hikes, hikes and what did they just say? And walks Like in the US we have all these 5Ks and 10Ks, but everyone still has to run. So they have these like community walks that people like go get some cheese. I mean it's like in Boulder we have the Boulder, the biggest 10K in the country, and everyone loves it because it's such a community event and people are sharing cupcakes and bacon and slip and slide and bands, every but that's what almost sounds like these walks are. They happen all the time in Europe and I heard about this in Switzerland and in France. So like that, just so. That's what we want to learn from intention.
Speaker 2:And then also, we've spoken to some people where this one young lady just left, when she's younger, and she went to go move somewhere and she got stuck in Thailand during COVID and her parents said you should come home. She said, no, I'm going to stay. And she just built this wonderful life for her and started her own business. Like sharing those stories with other people. Like it's not, it's scary, but it's not that scary, and you just take the steps. Like you asked about goal setting. Like set a goal and you do it. You're like, oh my gosh, I did it. Wow, okay, that wasn't that crazy. There's not all these roadblocks as scary as some people think. Even like my first trip to Hawaii. I'm actually here. How did this happen? I got a flight, I signed up for the exchange program, I took the transportation. I had probably 10 bucks in my pocket when I got there. But just don't let money stop you. Also, you don't want to be an idiot, but you need some cash in some way. But you can live pretty cheaply anywhere, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Just temporarily. And how powerful is it to help people see past those self-imposed barriers? Let them see by example how other people are doing that and making that work for them. That's incredibly powerful.
Speaker 1:I would say for sure that's been a big part of it and also, I guess my intention was first we reached out to just family and friends and then it's expanded, but it's still through that We've got such rich stories of how they ended up doing it, also their childhood and what led them to make those choices, to get to what they're doing, and then also just that we have a lot of episodes but they're not launched yet. But just to be able to go to a podcast and I think, see all these different countries and places that you may be interested in, and then clicking on it to actually hear from that person who is there and just sort of dive in, if you're doing a little research on wherever you're going, you can click and listen to this episode and you'll get all kind of background that way.
Speaker 1:Another part is just again the lifestyles, what people are doing. Recently I have a client of mine and he's a CEO of a company here in San Francisco but he's got three young girls I think they're seven, nine and 11. And they live in Italy like half the year. They took their kids during COVID to live there and put them in school over there and just their experience of how that transitioned from the Bay Area to now living with three little girls in Italy and running companies and doing business how did you make all that work? And I just the story was so cute that, like after school, the girls were going to go to some horse riding horses class. They were doing English jumping. On the first day she was like what You're jumping? Wow, her little girls are really adventurous. And just seeing and hearing about how the girls had to make that transition how did they do? And being really shy and quiet to getting integrated in Italy Just hearing those stories it's just so rich and just shows you that you can and in the perspective.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, getting that whole new perspective. What do you do after school? I go jump horses. What do you do?
Speaker 2:And that's one thing I found very surprising is we have talked to probably about at least four parents that took their kids on this travel with them and all of them said, oh, the kids adjusted just fine. And that's me? Oh my God, they're going to miss their friends and the routine's really important for child rearing. But everyone said this blows away their experience, like it was 10 times easier, and that was consistent across everyone we've talked to so far. So if you have kids, don't be afraid.
Speaker 3:And that kind of leads me to my next question, because I'm wondering what are you hearing from your audience? What have you experienced yourself as being a strength that people seem to have, or even a personality characteristic that seems to benefit these individuals that are more location independent, these travelers that are making these leaps, individuals that are more location independent, these travelers that are making these leaps, as you say, to take on these new adventures? What kind of personality characteristic is backing that up so that it's more successful?
Speaker 2:I was thinking about this. Well, I think people that are proactive, not attached to an outcome, I think is really huge, because I've heard some of the truths in traveling it can be exhausting the time, change the language, being able to put some effort in and patience. I hear like the red tape. That's one thing. Oh, there's so much red tape. But if you know the same here, like if you move to a new state even, or you come from another country to come to the United States, there's going to be red tape. You got to, like get your driver's license, et cetera, so it's. It sounds like it's the same thing, because not being entitled, so knowing that things are going to be work and work pays off, and also being a planner, is going to definitely help for sure.
Speaker 1:Some of the podcasts we've had have been people that had family in other countries and so they ended up going there because of that, initially. There are several of the ones jobs that have taken them to different countries, just experiences that they've wanted. There was one in particular again, her parents.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they were in the military, but I think it was the Thailand one that she had grown up traveling and living in different places and so it was more custom to her. So she's just not tied to something specific, but wanting an adventure and, yeah, humble, open, gracious, wanting to experience and learn about where you're going and research as well. I know our friend who's in Japan. He's a radio host. I think he went as an exchange or just to teach English, I believe something to that effect, and then really loved it and it's like I need to live and just stay here and extended. So there's been several of those as well where they've just fell in love with where they went and ended up staying. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think that's such an important thing to consider as well is that a lot of people are talking about okay, my kids are almost out of the house, I'm ready to travel for myself and I might retire soon and I'm going to get out there, but a lot of people that retire aren't done.
Speaker 3:They're willing to take on a new type of career that can help finance. So I really find it fascinating that people are looking at these more location independent type lifestyle choices, because there are so many options. I wanted to ask you what are some of the different ways you've seen? You touched on teaching. I know the gentleman in the Japan episode was teaching English in Japan and that's what got him in, but then he said I can't go home yet. I haven't even seen half of what I want to see. I can't go yet. And he stayed. What are some other ways you've seen people choosing to support this slower travel, location independent lifestyle?
Speaker 1:There was the one that was in the Airbnb. It's not Bali, or was it Bali? It was. It was another. It wasn't Bali, I can't remember, but it was a tropical place and he actually had a place and had to pivot to. Oh, it was Belize, bali's on my mind. I'm planning a trip for me and my kids to Bali in June. Yeah, same there, exactly, but just having to pivot during COVID and you had to make it an Airbnb to make it work, I think a lot of remote, the Costa Rica gal who is in real estate, just finding either where you go and what's available to work or doing something where you're remote and you can bring it anywhere with you, which is what Carol and I have, which is why we're so excited about what we can do with our businesses, and we're not even in similar industries at all.
Speaker 1:We're doing two separate things, but they're completely remote and just being able to have that you can go anywhere. It's just right now. We've got our kids in high school and we're just pipelining on where we're going to go and figure out our path forward. But I actually there was another person that lives between Maui and Montana Whitefish Montana and does half the year, the school year, in Maui and then lives the rest of the time in Whitefish Montana, and so there's folks that are bringing kids back and forth and doing that as well. I think that and she was in the, she was a newscaster or an anchor, and I don't know if she was in the. She was a newscaster or an anchor and I don't know if she was still doing that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, she does like video work now. Yeah, so she had just helped like marketing, people do video work.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So a lot of folks that can work remote and live in anywhere, I think, and honestly, with COVID. So I do again find people jobs and I do it remotely across the country and also hybrid or in person in the Bay Area but or anywhere. But I've noticed that in talking to all the C-level folks I talk to and everyone, that's the future, that's where things are going and that just opens up everything in terms of traveling, living anywhere, and we're already seeing that, even in terms of costs of real estate and California. People are leaving and moving to lots of different Idaho, nevada, texas, everywhere. You're just seeing a huge trend and it's interesting.
Speaker 1:Carol went to Maui recently. I've got my condo there and it was great talking with her because I had no clue she had been researching on rents and what costs are and from the time because I have a tenant in mind right now, it's doubled, almost tripled. So it's just been really interesting to see those really popular destinations. People can now live there and I knew they were doing it in COVID and then trying to come back for school when school started. So that was another interesting time period to view. The future is just completely wide open.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then other jobs that I've heard of, like when I was living in Hawaii. There's a lot of travel nurses. It's a very common and I remember meeting like a radiologist or something once and she's oh yeah, I travel, I'm just here for six months and then I go to Tennessee and then sometimes she goes overseas. So that is a career that I see you can definitely have a travel lifestyle.
Speaker 1:I had someone living in our condo for six months. That was a travel nurse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then I just thought, listen to a podcast. I can't remember who it was, but she was interviewing someone who was a travel nanny and that was such an amazing story. She had really high end clients and she had like private jets, like she had the best gig ever, but so she would take care of families and go on these nice trips. I'm like, wow, okay, that sounds like that. There's so many different career paths that you can do right. Then you just find that. Or teaching English. I can't believe how huge teaching English is. So we're so fortunate if you're a native English speaker. You're pretty much going to go to any country without it being like a. I thought you had to have a teaching degree or something, but what I've learned recently is no, you just, they sometimes just want you to be fluent. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, a lot of people are qualified to do that so I think, yeah, yeah, she was in Spain, went to Spain, she lived here, she was a girlfriend, we were in our twenties and then she lived in Spain and taught English for, I think, a year, with no teaching credentials, she just knew English.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a colleague of mine wants to do that in Dubai. She wants to go over to the Middle East and go teach English over there and I was like you, go for it. That sounds amazing.
Speaker 2:And that's what it's being in the Middle East. That's just another. Like Saudi Arabia, I don't want to go there. Just, you have these stereotypes in your head. And so, interviewing Karen from Saudi Arabia like she loves it there, she went there just as an experiment and she's staying there and she works on the at the university. So experiment, and she's staying there and she works on the at the university. So there is some protections there, but she says it's not scary when they go outside and they have to wear some you know different kinds of clothing and head garments. But yeah, that's why I love doing this, because we learned like, help knock down some of those stereotypes and get to the bottom of it.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and I think too, so much of it is just about the fear of difference and the limited information that we sometimes have. So it's amazing to me when people work so purposefully to break down those stereotypes and get that knowledge out to the public. So thank you for being a part of that, because that's huge. And I'm wondering, as you all travel, what helps you acclimate to a new place? I know you've had plenty of examples from your guests on your podcast, but what's something that you do to acclimate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had did a fair amount of traveling when I was younger and the one thing I would anywhere I'd go somewhere new first get a map. This is before Google Maps, so get a map of the area. So that's the main thing. And how do I get around? What's the metro, the fast train or whatever? Like what's the best way to get around? Um, and and nowadays, who takes cash? Who doesn't take cash? Like, just getting yourself a little acclimated with items like that, and maybe just just when we went to Maui, I was just doing a bunch of research. So, like, research is always good.
Speaker 2:It's like what not to do on Maui. Don't just take a paddleboard and just go out into the ocean and then don't call the locals natives, that's not the right word. So learning about what's offensive and respectful and if you're going to a foreign country, learn how to say thank you and please and where is, and just that I think is super important. But once you get there, like knowing that the train stops at 10 o'clock at night we don't get abandoned somewhere. That happened to me once. I was like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna get home? I just walked and figured it out. So I think that's what I do and what are, like, the highlights, the must-sees, so that's not the only thing I want to do. When you're in Rome, go to the Vatican.
Speaker 3:Kristen, what about you? What helps you acclimate to a new place?
Speaker 1:I think it just depends on what my intention is when I'm going there. So I do a lot of competitive wake surfing. So on my trips am I going to be on boats most of the time and then I just meet people and talk to them about where they're going, what they're doing, and pick up and make plans and have fun and then do a little research, just Google it to see what's exciting, what's new, and then just talk to people I've done. I like YouTube a lot. I just listen and find that there's a lot where I can, in five to 10 minutes, get a good quick snapshot and some other different kind of things to see and do. I'm planning a big trip right now to Korea and Bali. I'm taking my two kids just me and my kids and so looking at what will they be interested in?
Speaker 1:There was something interesting I do tiny research on you and what you've done with traveling with intention and they went to Montessori schools from first or eighth grade and they would take trips and I would chaperone them and they do something called pedagogy where they'd have to go into neighborhoods. They did a lot of research, like months I think at least two months or so of that location. They broke up into four teams and then they would dive in, you know, to those locations to really immerse themselves and then share, which I thought was really interesting. I know for my trip. I'm trying to do that with my kids. My daughter is a huge fan of BTS. We've talked about it for years and so she's graduating senior this year and I had told her a couple of years ago it's a graduation gift, I would take her to Korea and we want to see anything BTS related for this Korea trip.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 1:Gotta go where they live, all those little. And then I it was funny because there's the army is there like kind of fan base? And so I Googled what does the army look at? And so there was like 10 or 20 places that you've got to do and there's like a pizza place where she has a poster. So just like fun stuff can make it fun.
Speaker 1:And then one of our podcasts we did through a friend of mine. His sister-in-law lives in Korea, so we're staying with her, and then she's hooking us up and then she has these pros that are in Bali which you would hear on one of our episodes of her, and so she's hooking me and my kids up to go to Bali to surf with the pros. So that's exciting. And I'm a surfer I actually I have ocean surfed. I mostly surf behind boats now. So I'm looking forward to getting back out on the ocean and doing that. So that's just, I just go. I'm a very outdoorsy anything like anything hiking, biking, something physical, zipline, whatever. And we're on the adventure side. And then I want to learn about a culture and what's big important there, but also some underground things that just more experience the country as the natives would.
Speaker 3:I love it. I'm really hearing you pulling in the people that you're going with, so it's a shared intention for an experience. I just want to say thank you so much for joining me in this and being willing to be a part of this community. I hope this continues for all of us for quite a while.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate you spending time with us today. If you enjoyed the podcast, please follow us or subscribe to our show and you can support us super quick by rating us on your podcast app and if you have a few minutes, adding a review to join the conversation, the travel stories and keep up with the latest episodes. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at where next podcast, and if you'd like to be a guest or nominate one, then you can direct message us on Instagram. Again, that is at where next podcast. Thanks for listening.
