Travel Support Thursday

Welcome back to Travel Support Thursdays.

That's too much.

No, it's not.

That's too much.

Welcome back to Travel Support Thursday.

We are back at home.

We just got back from New Zealand.

Such a great trip.

It's nighttime.

We are just super jet lagged.

Just incredibly jet lagged.

We're awake and we're doing it.

It's Travel Thursday.

We are committed.

So on today's episode, we're going to talk about our top three favorite places

that we've ever been to.

Just three?

I guess.

I mean, I don't know.

The question actually only asked for one, but I figured I'd give us three.

Thank you.

We're going to talk about this amazing list that BuzzFeed just came out with of all these

super useful travel gadgets.

And I put useful and giant air quotes for those of you listening.

Hilarious.

Yeah, we're just going to go down the list and see how useful are they really?

Yeah.

Are any of them any good?

Number one is a hairbrella.

We're going to finally address this Patrick Wilson lookalike rumors that has just been

showing up ever since we started doing this YouTube thing for me specifically.

Are you going to tell them the truth?

That I am Patrick Wilson.

And for the very last thing, we're going to talk about advice that we would give our

parents if they were just retiring and just about to start traveling full time.

What would we tell them?

All right.

We have a lot of good questions to go through today.

Let's get started.

Oh, but first.

Oh yeah.

Let's get this over with.

Don't begrudgingly do it.

Travel Thursday.

Travel Thursday.

We're jet lagged and back at home.

Okay.

So before we get into the questions, I just wanted to talk about this poll that we put

out today.

We wanted to thank all of you for your input on this participation.

You got all the participation trophies.

Virtual.

They'll be coming in the mail very soon.

So the poll was basically for your YouTube watchers out there was, should we keep this

podcast on our main channel or should we move it to its own channel or should we just like

stop doing it entirely?

And out of those options, it was pretty overwhelmingly keeping it on this main channel, which even

though the algorithm probably hates that, honestly, I don't care.

Like, uh, we just want to do what's best for all of you out there.

And honestly, that's the thing that we want to, so for those of you that voted, you know,

you don't listen or you don't watch the podcast or like you answered what podcast.

We totally get it.

You know, it's not for everyone, but if you, if you're remotely interested, feel free

to check them out.

Otherwise we're still going to keep doing though our normal three days and X or three weeks

in New Zealand videos coming soon.

Yep.

And the podcast is going to stay right here on the main channel because that I think makes

the most sense.

And that's what everybody voted for.

So that's what we're doing also just a reminder, this is an audio podcast.

So if you just want to like listen to this while you're on a run or doing the dishes

or doing the laundry, just like whatever other things are happening in your life, you can

just go to podcast.leasonjosh.com and that'll bring you a list of all the links of where

this is for your favorite podcast player.

And you can just search for us on whatever you normally listen to podcasts on.

But if you also want to see how good our hair looks after being back in the salty air, just

feel free to turn on YouTube.

Behold.

Behold.

Yay.

So our first question from Sharon Papkin eight, five, seven, four says, Hey guys, what is

your favorite city that you have visited?

And I thought that picking one was going to be impossible.

So I just said our three favorite places that each of us have ever visited.

So how do you want to do this?

Rapid fire?

I think from like, like third, second, first, oh, we have to rank them.

All right.

All right.

Okay.

So, okay.

So each of us have three in our heads.

So why don't you just start with yours and you'll say yours and then I'll go to mine.

And then we'll.

Okay.

So do you got your three in your head?

We'll just go one by one.

You'll do one.

I'll do one.

This just feels impossible, but here we go.

Okay.

The first thing that comes to mind is Tokyo and it's obviously an amazing city.

So many people have been there and you know, like you can just keep going back and back.

But the thing that makes it close to my heart, it was the first place that I ever took a solo

trip to Tokyo has to be on that list.

I remember distinctly getting off the bus and, and not having data and not, not knowing

where I was going and just being in shock and awe of what a magical place Tokyo was.

And I'm sure this is like an easy answer for so many people because it's got all the amazing

public transportation.

It's just so different than any other place.

It's a magical place.

It truly is.

It truly is.

And the convenience stores.

What?

Oh yeah.

The convenience.

For me, it's interlock in Switzerland.

Just a spectacularly beautiful place, kind of in the middle of nowhere, like it's not

exactly easy to get to, but I think that that's part of what makes it awesome.

So much skiing there.

If you come during winter, incredible views all year round, you can take a train up into

the mountains.

It's just, it's just awesome.

And I have this like very vivid memory of the first time that I went there.

So there's this hostel that had a like hot tub right next to it in the campground that

was right there.

And I remember like buying some super cheap beers from the Lidl, I think, down the street

and then bringing them back and drinking them in the hot tub while the snow was falling

on me looking up at the mountains.

And that's just one of those memories that I think is going to stick with me for a while.

I mean, you went into so much detail there.

So I, yeah, that paints a pretty magical and interlocking is an incredibly beautiful, beautiful

place and just like a hub of cool adventures, but also beautiful nature.

What's your number two or no, you're not ranking them.

So what's your, what's your second place that you've been to that you love?

What's your, what's another, we're very good at this today.

Okay.

All right.

So what's another, what's another of your three favorite places that you've ever been

to the thing that comes to mind next is Barcelona.

And I know it's not, it doesn't exist on YouTube land yet.

Like we haven't been there in the YouTube era, but it, Barcelona blew me away.

It's incredibly beautiful.

It's a big city, but it also feels like a small, small town feel almost.

There's so much art.

There's so much history.

There's so much good food that people were incredibly friendly.

I don't know.

There was something really, there was like a great vibe to Barcelona that I can't really

explain.

It just holds a special place in my heart too.

I remember that being the thing that like struck me the most, all the gaudy art.

And the food and the wine on the street and like the constant kind of like party atmosphere

that exists there at all times.

It was a pretty incredible.

I think my second one, sorry, is also Tokyo.

Oh yeah.

We're so cliche.

I know, but it's just like, it's the city that I compare every other city that I go

to back to.

They're going to be a lot of upset people out there constantly because like the public

transportation immaculate, everything's super clean.

The city has like esoteric weird stuff as well as like gigantic touristy stuff.

And it's just got beautiful hotels, vending machines, vending machines everywhere.

A lot of things that are really affordable and a lot of things that are like way outside

of our price range.

The food, I mean, maybe it's the place with the most Michelin stars out of any city on

planet earth.

I think that's true.

I think that's true.

It's just so different.

There's so much from our typical normal, the lives that we had before.

Kind of.

Yeah.

And it felt like the first like really massive culture shock that I had on my trip.

I think I went to, I think it was the third place that I went to on like my first time

ever leaving the country.

And I remember just feeling like it was so far away, but also just so accessible.

So whenever people ask me like, Hey, it's my first trip ever outside of the United States.

Where should I go?

I always say Tokyo because it's safe, it's comfortable, but it's also going to feel totally

different.

It's going to feel totally every single way from where you came from.

And I think that like that mixture is just, it's just so rare.

It's just so cool.

Oh, what a city.

What a city.

Okay.

Okay.

I actually am going to make a last minute swap because I thought I knew this next one,

but I'm going to change it.

My next most favorite city, the next one that comes to mind is Wanaka, New Zealand.

It's just, we've been there twice now that once on this last trip, but also for the

first time I went in 2019 or we went in the 2019 and there's just something about that

town.

It's incredibly peaceful.

It's incredibly beautiful surrounded by mountains, lakes and, and I don't know, I just remember

the feeling each time that we were in Wanaka and it felt like time stood still.

Like I was never in a rush.

I never had to be anywhere else.

Like this was the place that I needed to be.

And Wanaka just has that special like, I don't know, special draw is the nature, the people,

the calmness and it's not a huge city.

You know, it's not, it's not a massive city, but I think that's what makes it so incredibly

amazing.

Yeah.

I can safely say it's the only place in the world that as soon as I get there, I feel

like I immediately want to like buy a piece of land, build a cottage on it, have 2.5 children

just like settle down and be, uh, I don't know, a hops farmer for the rest of my life.

And you did say specifically that you would get a dog there and I'm like, what, you're

a cat person.

I don't know what kind of person like Wanaka turns me into, but it's like, it's like this

very like peaceful cottagey sort of person that it's just, uh, you know, it's, it's

a nice place.

It makes me feel very calm and at peace.

So side note, I remember on our trip there in 2019, I specifically remember I had like

some eye issue.

I think my eye was really red and itchy and I went, we remember, I went to an ophthalmologist

and it was in Wanaka.

They were super kind.

I remember feeling, oh, this is going to be weird.

Is this the first time that I have to get healthcare outside of the U S and it was such

a great experience.

It was so easy, we went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist that gave us a prescription

for my eyes.

Like gave me steroid drops.

He had moved, I think from the U S to New Zealand.

He said, I said, what brought you here?

And he said, you know, I just came here and then I decided after my vacation, this is

where I'm meant to be.

And I thought, yeah, there's something about Wanaka.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what it is.

What's yours?

This is my favorite place anywhere on planet earth.

We even made a video about this place saying that it's my favorite place in the world.

Right?

Like, so this is Langkawi, Malaysia.

And I have so many good memories of this place and I think some of it is nostalgia

for sure.

Like we talked about last night.

Absolutely.

Some of it is nostalgia.

But this was like the first kind of unspoilt or like just right spoiled island paradise

that I had ever been to in my entire life.

And it felt so far from home, but had so much adventure everywhere that you could go like

and I set up at this like tiny hostel in the jungle.

And this was kind of well before this western part of the island was like fully built out

in a lot of ways.

It's changed a lot since then, but it's still amazing.

And rented a motorbike and just started driving from like hidden beach to other tiny hidden

beach to incredible waterfalls to this place called monkey beach, where I got like chased

out of a park by a gigantic group of like hundreds of angry monkeys.

Nostalgia.

Well, I mean, that's like terror and fear, but it's it was still it was one of those

memories that was just I have so many good memories of this place that are a direct result

of just how like amazing, kind of remote, but still accessible it is.

And just how like spectacularly unbelievably beautiful it is.

It seems like a lot of our favorite places are tied to like these, these memories that

we have and these like these core, core experiences that we've had in these cities, which make

sense.

There's something about places that we've been before that just that we hold on to.

I don't know.

I'm curious if you out there have some favorite cities, share with share with us what your

favorite cities are.

We'd love to know why they're your favorite cities and what core memories make make them

your favorite places.

Tell us about all the awesome things in the world that we don't know about yet.

Okay.

One, two, good old buzz.

Here we go.

Good old BuzzFeed.

Good old BuzzFeed.

Okay.

So the title of this article is article in quotations.

This is my actually BuzzFeed is my favorite form of reading and research.

So yeah, I'm going to call it an article.

Yeah, it definitely is.

The title of this article is 32 small travel products that'll make a big difference during

your next trip, big, big, big difference.

Okay.

So number one here, and the thing is, is that this article takes itself so seriously.

Do you think they're actually taking themselves seriously or they're just, they're just trolling

all of us.

Okay.

So number one, a hairbrella.

So just imagine yourself walking in Paris, right?

It's, oh, it's starting to rain outside.

Oh, better duck into this croissant shop and pick out this beautiful croissant and then

walk outside.

Oh man, the rain's gotten worse.

Time to slip on my hairbrella.

So what this does is this effectively is a very, very aggressive looking hat and it's

basically like a visor attached in, you imagine a visor attached to a satin bag that you put

over your head.

Right.

It kind of looks like a baggy hat, but the visor, I mean, in some ways, like, why would,

I guess I'm trying to see why would an umbrella.

Yeah, I don't know.

Was this, how is this even remote, like it rains down on you and just going to drip all

over your hat.

I mean, the person in this is literally wearing a plastic bag to prevent the rain off of their

head.

So not only do you need the hat, you also need the plastic bag that goes with it.

I mean, I guess I could see the use case where like, if you're going to a gala abroad

or you're going to a wedding and suddenly, or it's going to rain.

I mean, yeah, sure.

I want to protect my curls.

Okay.

But wouldn't an umbrella do a better job than a hat with that?

You know, if you add wind and the angle of the rain.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

Tell us what you think.

Would you use it?

Parabarella.

So this number four, this number four on the list, silicone earplugs.

Actually I've used it before.

They're called earplanes and they're these like moldable kind of ear screws almost.

They look like screws that you basically twist into your ear.

And the idea is that it's supposed to help reduce the pressure in your ears when you're

getting on a plane.

And normally I don't, I don't have any issues with pressure as we fly, but I actually bought

some on our last, last trip because I dove into the lake, got some water in my ear, couldn't

get it out.

And I was worried about getting on a plane with plugged ears.

So I bought these and I mean, I don't know what it would have been like had I not used

it, but I didn't, I didn't have a blown out eardrum.

Yeah, probably would have just exploded your head right off.

My best guess.

Okay, doctor.

But yeah, I would say that's just science.

This is like, I think your mom even uses these.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I would say they're useful.

Sure.

And they're small.

Sure.

Why not?

Okay.

Number eight here as zipper puller.

I mean, just a necessary item in every person's travel backpack, you know, like why would

you bring clothes or maybe food or a passport when you can definitely bring the zipper

puller?

So tell me what a zipper puller does.

Okay.

So imagine that you are going scuba diving.

And you need to get out of that wetsuit, but you can't reach all the way behind you

to reach the zipper.

Oh, this is that thing.

This is that thing, except for it's for dresses and or anything else that you have.

So if you're like traveling by yourself and you have these dresses with tricky zippers,

you attach it to it somehow and then you use this, this big long rope attached to your

zipper to pull it all the way up and zip you in can't, can't say that I have any piece

of clothing that I would use this for.

But I don't know, maybe solo travelers out there.

Right.

If you're trying to get into your prom dress during your backpacking trip to Europe, this

is, this is a must have.

Okay.

All right.

A bottle of drop it made to remove the sulfates and tannins from your glass of wine.

What?

So apparently if you remove the sulfates and tannins from your wine, you will not get a

hangover is what this thing claims, even though I'm sure that that's what is even this bottle

looks so not legitimate.

It's true.

It looks like you're bringing a bottle of blood, like a little bit, a little tiny bottle

of blood called drop it.

Well, and what is in it?

What is it?

I don't know.

I did this.

These are good questions that I don't think anyone outside of explain to me, have you

used drop it before and I don't know.

I'm all for you take this little bottle and you drop a couple of drops into your glass

of wine and you swirl it around inside of it and then supposedly it removes the sulfates

and the tannins.

How does it remove it if it, if you're just adding stuff to it and I bet that if it removes

those things, it probably makes the wine taste a lot worse.

I would guess.

I mean, nobody likes having a hangover, but I think that the tried and true hangover cure

of anywhere in the world going out and buying a McDonald's cheeseburger and then drinking

one of those Yakults, you know, those little, those little yogurt drinks, puncture one of

those, toss in that back and then drink it about a gallon of water and then sleeping

for four hours.

I don't know why you'd mess with such a perfect hangover cure.

Well, I don't know.

But I guess if you could never get a hangover cure, this is a pre.

This is a hangover prevention.

Hangover prevention.

Prophylactic.

Prophylactic for hangovers.

I don't know, drop it also just sounds, sounds bizarre.

Like I don't know that I would trust that because what is it?

Drop it.

Hmm.

I can't believe.

I just don't like the idea of people putting stuff in there in my drinks, you know, also

a big difference.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Okay.

Here we go.

Number 19.

Could you tell us what you're seeing here?

This is a travel pouch, but we're looking at the travel pouch hangs off the side strap

of the bra or the front of the bra, I just so the idea is that it's a travel pouch that

attaches to your bra so you can keep it literally close to your breast.

Yeah.

But I mean, could you imagine how sweaty that thing would be under any amount of clothes

also like what's the what's the way that you would get the money?

It's true.

I couldn't imagine every time that I have to pay cash for something or credit cards

for things that I'd have to reach into my shirt.

Reach into your boobs.

Either here or here to grab money that draws way more attention than just having a wallet.

I don't know.

Thank you for coming to the Vatican Museum, ma'am.

We need to see your passport before we can let you in.

Excuse me.

Hold on.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It would be really sweaty and really uncomfortable.

Pals are very uncomfortable as is, I can't imagine adding a travel pouch to it.

Anti-chafing bands.

Here we go.

Protect your thighs when you're wearing that beautiful dress.

I'm actually kind of curious about these because for those of you who have thick thighs

that save lives, yeah, it is a thing like when you wear shorts or a dress and you're

walking for a long amount of time, your thighs just graze and they can chafe.

So I don't know.

I don't know that I would go to the extent of wearing those, but I'd be curious about

if they have worked or I'd just wear pants.

I don't know.

Okay.

So to really round this off, if you're feeling like your trip is just missing that important

part, like let's say you're flying to Europe and you're like, you know what I don't like?

Any of the European coffees.

I hate all of it.

I'm going to bring my own portable espresso maker and this thing is pretty frigging big.

It lets you use Nespresso pods to make your essential brew from anywhere.

Yes.

Wow.

So you bring this, you bring this gigantic piece of plastic.

It's the size of like three to four coffee cups stacked on top of each other, right?

And you put a Nespresso pod in the top of it.

You close it up, put in some hot water and then you like push this big button on the

front and it squeezes the water through the Nespresso pod and then pours out espresso

at the bottom.

I mean, it's kind of cool.

But like, maybe for a camping trip.

Yeah.

I mean, the pictures do show it in nature and in the mountains.

I don't think I would bring it on a backpacking or European backpacking trip.

Definitely not.

And it costs $55.

That's true.

That's true.

That's, that is literally 55 espressos and it doesn't come with the pods in, in anywhere

in Europe.

Yeah.

No.

And then you do also have to bring Nespresso pods.

Also, how does it work?

Battery operated?

No.

I think it's just like pressure.

It's just like jamming.

How does it get hot though?

You have to like have something that makes hot water and then you pour that into it and

then it pushes it through the Nespresso pod.

Yeah.

So, so you also need to have all of the other things that would make coffee and then you

have this additional thing that allows you to make espresso.

So maybe the big difference here is that it takes up more space in your suitcase.

A ton.

Of all the things on the list, the thing that I have the most questions about is the drop

it.

Oh, sure.

Well, just like for many reasons.

Yeah.

Cause if like somebody came over to you, you know, you're like having a wine or whatever,

they're like, Oh, check this out.

I got this weird little vial and you're going to have no hangover tomorrow.

You're like, Oh, no.

Let me just drop a few drops of this in your drink.

You're going to be like, listen guy, no.

Moving on to this next topic, which is a very, very hot topic that we've been getting quite

a bit.

I don't know.

Maybe we should do it.

A ticker counter future, Lisa.

Oh man.

How many times people have called you Patrick Wilson?

So what is this about?

Okay.

So have any of you guys seen these insidious series, for example, or maybe Aquaman or maybe

a conjuring, I think the conjuring, I never watched it, but that's what or yeah, or maybe

watchmen.

He's been in any of those sort of like big movies.

This is a guy named Patrick Wilson.

I got to say, first of all, what a compliment that is a good looking dude.

He's a very nice looking man.

That's a good looking dude.

Yeah.

The entirety of the internet now believes that I look exactly like this guy and I just

want to say thank you.

And what I'd love to do is just take Patrick Wilson to Tokyo on a private tour in Tokyo

and just show them all the cool stuff that we know and love in all the places that we've

been.

The two of us are right next to each other eating sushi or like doing karaoke replacing

me.

Josh and Patrick.

I think he's replacing me.

Honestly, an upgrade in pretty much every form.

Big time upgrade.

Okay.

So next thing, just a real quick question from lovers get lost.

Apologies if you've answered this before.

What app do you use to keep track of what you're spending each day?

So we use Trail Wallet for this.

Great app.

Absolutely incredible.

It backs up all your stuff.

It has like every single currency ever.

It hasn't been updated in a very, very long time, but it's the best tool that I've found

so far to just be able to quickly enter an expense and make sure that we're keeping track

of all the things we're buying.

Because that way, when we make the videos, we can actually accurately report how much

everything costs.

Next question comes from UOFW who asks, have you thought about living somewhere for an

extended length of time or actually taking steps towards migrating somewhere specifically?

If you're not interested in relocating to another country, what is the greater purpose

of the nomadic lifestyle?

Very interesting questions, a lot to unpack there, but I will say, I mean, we kind of

touched on this in a previous podcast, we have relocated and have a home base now, but

I think that the other question about, have we thought about migrating somewhere else?

Definitely.

Yeah.

All the time.

Of course.

Yeah.

Of course.

I mean, all these places we go to, we show up in them and they have so many wonderful,

incredible things and people and opportunities and real healthcare.

Yeah.

Most importantly, public transportation.

Public transportation, just like, yeah, all these things that make it so easy for us to

travel there.

And I think there are a lot of places that we've been to that we've kind of fallen in

love with for sure.

And would consider probably moving to for a longer period of time.

We have friends, we have family here, we've spent a lot of time living here and it's just

we're always called back to be a little bit closer to home.

But have we, yeah, would we ever move outside of the US?

I think so.

Yeah.

I think so.

Maybe not like forever, but definitely for at least a couple of years, maybe in a couple

of different places to see what each of them are like.

If we were lucky enough to be allowed in to do that sort of thing, but yeah, absolutely.

I mean, the world is a big place and I think to expect that I'm going to find like everything

that I love in one singular country or in one singular city is just unrealistic.

And I think that there's so many places that have had so many great times in that I'd love

to see it from a different perspective, not just from the tourist there for a week or

whatever perspective, but more from like a long-term slower paced thing.

I think to touch on that question of like, what is the purpose of the nomadic lifestyle,

right?

And I think we are a little bit nomadic, but now we have a home base.

Luckily, we were nomadic for a few years and that was nice because it gave us flexibility

and freedom and the purpose there was to try and basically see as many awesome places as

we could and it was much more affordable to travel while you're abroad than to come back

like all the way to the U.S. where we're from.

But I also think that like, it sounds like this question, the purpose of the nomadic

lifestyle, it sounds like you're kind of getting at the idea that the only purpose

of traveling is to maybe find another place to live in, another place to settle down in.

And I think that perspective, I don't think that necessarily applies to me, is that I'm

not going out to Tokyo or to Seoul or to Paris or to whatever shopping for a new home.

I'm going out to experience the world and to see what they have going on there and to

understand the culture a little bit more and to understand just the world in general a

bit more.

And I think that for me is more than enough purpose for a nomadic lifestyle and it's not

necessarily about just trying to find some new home base or anything like that.

It has nothing to do with that.

The home base is separate.

Of course, there are parts of what we take from our travels and we wish that like where

we live had all of those pieces for sure.

And I think that's a little bit of the purpose of our travels is we like to see how other

people live.

I do think, I mean, what do you think keeps us from not moving?

Because we do talk about, I mean, on a daily basis, we talk about the qualms that we have

and the things that we wish we had like universal health care or public transportation as lucky

as we are to be able to live here.

I dream of just saying, you know, especially because my parents came to the U.S. from a

different country.

They were immigrants and they just did it.

I don't know why.

I mean, we dream of it.

I sometimes I dream of it, but it feels like it'd be such a hard thing to do.

For sure.

For sure.

Moving to a new country like what your mom did.

Yeah.

When, you know, she moved to the United States however long ago that was, 50 years, how long

ago was it?

Yeah, about 50 years ago.

Moving blank slate, no real job, no real anything just like coming over and just making it work

in another country.

Taking English language school, yeah.

That seems so, so hard.

So, so hard and I don't know, yeah.

For now though, I think we're content and we're happy and we feel lucky to be able to

do this life of like half a home base and travel from said home base because then we

get all the like pieces of our lives that we love, right?

Like being able to spend time with friends and family, but then also being able to go

out and experience the world.

I think there's always a piece of me that worries that if I moved to New Zealand or to

wherever in the world, it would be really hard to, to lose all of that.

Yeah.

So, I don't know, for now though, we're content.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And for any of you out there who have done this, who have moved to a fully different

country, we'd love to hear what the experience has been like because there may very, that

may very well be a thing that we try to do in a couple years and we'd love to hear any

advice you have out there.

But speaking of family, I think that moves us on to our last question of the day.

So from Erin Austin here, it says like next, it says, next week, can you talk about advice

you would give your parents or their friends if they wanted to travel full time?

We're working to do this and we're in our sixties.

How do we approach tech?

How adventurous should we be, et cetera?

And I think like the center of this question is that like, hey, we've been like working

our entire lives and we're about to approach retirement.

So what advice would we have for transitioning from like working full time to traveling full

time?

I mean, we could answer this question, but my parents are just in the next room over

there here visiting.

So I'm just going to see if I can grab one of them.

I think it'd be better to hear it straight, straight from them.

One sec.

Please hold.

Yay.

Okay.

Have a seat right in the middle.

Okay.

So this is my mom here right here.

You've probably seen her in some of our other videos that we've done.

So the basic question here from Erin Austin is they're in their sixties right now and

they're just about to transition from like a lifelong work and career sort of thing.

And they're about to go into full time travel or at least like part time travel, which is

basically what you and dad have been doing for the past little bit.

So I think they're asking for advice of like, how should we think about this?

What are the challenges?

How was it?

Like, what was it?

Was it what you expected or was it harder or easier?

And I guess like, did you learn anything from us along the way that you think would be useful

for them?

Okay.

So here you go.

Okay.

I guess I would say, first of all, like about the whole, my whole life experience with travel

is that when I was growing up, my parents moved around quite a bit.

And so we lived in different countries and we lived in different cities and different

states.

And I actually really enjoyed that experience of traveling around.

So my whole working career where I was stuck in one place, all I thought about is, well,

when I retire, we're going to be able to travel some more, I'm going to be able to just get

out and see the world again.

And so that is maybe different from a lot of people's experiences, but that's where

I came from.

So I'm always, I think travel is kind of my happy place and it's something I super enjoy.

So having said that, as far as preparing like to travel after retirement, I did learn a

lot from live kids who like to travel, which is extremely helpful.

And YouTube has been a lot of videos of other people doing travel and sort of taking mental

notes on that.

And of course, I've got sort of a wish list built up of places I'd like to see and you

know, places I've never been before.

So I guess what I would say if you are nearing retirement and you also have the travel bug

and think that's something you really want to do, I would say spend the last couple years

of your working life preparing for it, because that gives you like a dream and a goal.

It makes those last couple years of work go faster.

I know it certainly helped me because I had just because of my job situation, I actually

had to work two years beyond my expected retirement date, which was kind of a blow.

But I spent those two years like preparing for the life I wanted.

And so if you're close to retirement, think about it as this is like your exit ramp.

You can spend this time being excited and preparing for the thing that you want to do.

Did you guys know two years before you were retired, you were going to retire that that

was like the thing the way you wanted to live out your retirement was to travel full time?

Yeah.

Yeah, we really did.

Because we have family that we visit and of course kids that we spend time with and we

have a cabin that we go to.

But then as far as like our really big retirement goal, the thing that we really didn't feel

we had enough time for before when we were working was travel because before the longest

I could ever get away from work or both of us could ever get away from work was two weeks.

And that was like a big deal to be able to go somewhere new for two weeks.

Just once we retired, then it was like, oh, if we want to stay for a month or if we just

get to that one place and then we see a place that we want to just move on to and just keep

traveling, we're going to be able to do that.

We've never had that for you before.

So like my four top hints for preparing to be a traveler and retire.

All right.

It is prepared.

Okay.

We love it.

Okay.

The first one is spend those last couple of years saving your money and saving credit

card points.

And the credit card points are almost as important as the money.

And if you aren't sure how to do that, these are the guys to turn to they have done videos

on this and they have like a skill share on it and stuff.

And they helped us like so much with that piece of it because as old people, we really

didn't know much about the whole credit card point system.

And they, they got us to saving and building up those points so that our first really big

trip we took, we got our flights for free.

We got a lot of our hotels for free.

It just made a huge difference.

So save up your money, save up your points, figure out how to work with your credit cards

to make that happen.

So that'd be the first thing you do as you're, as you're getting ready to retire.

And then the other thing you want to do is talk to your travel partner and you want to

come up with some kind of a wish list.

You want to discuss where each of you wants to go or where you both want to go and maybe

start kind of ranking it or deciding, well, once we get to that part of the world, what

else do we want to see in that part of the world?

Or do we want to just start in America?

Do we want to see all the national parks, you know, make your list so that you can, you

can keep, you can start dreaming on that and start building up knowledge by watching videos,

talking to your friends, talking to your kids, whatever, building up knowledge towards being

able to take those trips.

That's a great tip.

Cause if you don't have that goal, you don't know how to save for it either.

Yeah, right.

The third thing that I think a lot of people don't think about is if you're really serious

about traveling a lot in retirement, what does that mean about your housing situation?

For us, it meant selling our big family home and buying a condo, because if you really

seriously plan to be gone, like we're gone about six months a year.

And if that's what you're thinking of doing, do you want to have a big house to maintain?

Do you want to have to hire a house sitter?

Do you want to have to hire somebody to mow your lawn and shovel your snow while you're

gone?

Or do you want to just immediately choose a more low maintenance lifestyle?

So you know, something to just toss around in your mind, I'm sure most people don't want

to give up their family home and all that.

But think about in your head, okay, if I'm really serious about traveling a lot, what

does that mean for how I maintain my house and my car and those big permanent items that

I have at home right now?

That's a really good point.

And then I would say the fourth thing is, and this sounds minor, but it turns out to

be real important, start watching those packing videos, because what you pack and how you

carry it around with you has a huge impact on the way you're going to enjoy your travel.

So you know, think about what type of, are you a minimalist traveler or are you the type

who doesn't mind like calling three suitcases with you?

What types of items are you going to need because you're in need specific items when

you travel that you don't use at home?

And really, if you take off on your first big trip and you haven't thought that through,

it's going to, you're going to be like wishing you had.

So, so, you know, something else to think about while you're, while you're ramping up

to do big travels, what am I going to take?

What am I going to wear?

Am I a suitcase or am I a backpack person or what type of traveler am I thinking through?

Don't just jump off the cliff without thinking that through either.

Those are really great tips.

I feel like I haven't thought of those before.

Where would you guys say how, how would you say your guys's travels have evolved in the

last few years?

Like, were you guys adventurers?

Were you guys road trippers?

Were you minimalist and where are you now?

Okay.

I would say we started before we could retire.

We started as road trippers, I would say we have traveled all over the country as far

as you can go in like 10 days.

And I think we learned to be minimalist because we discovered that it's easier and you have

a lot more fun if you aren't bringing a lot of literal baggage with you.

Or emotional baggage.

Any of it.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so we've road tripped all over the country and just kind of honed our travel

skills doing that.

And then as we got closer to retirement and our employers were giving us a little bit

more vacation time.

We started traveling over in Europe and that is a really easy, I would say if you want

to do international travel, but you're a little nervous about it because maybe you haven't

done it before.

Start with like an English speaking country like go to London, you know, very, very simple

way to really dip your toe in or almost any European country like Germany, for instance,

so many people speak English.

And that's a, that's what we did.

We went to, we went to England.

We went to London.

We went to Switzerland.

We went to just countries where there's a lot of English speakers and yet it was a completely

foreign country and we had to learn some foreign travel skills.

And that's how we, that's how we started out.

How do you guys decide where you pick to go?

Like do you guys always align in your wish list?

I would say for the most part we do.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

And for the most part we do, you know, part of it too is like weather related.

Like I like going to warmer countries.

My husband enjoys like cooler weather.

So we do some compromising on that.

Like just recently we did a trip to Alaska, which was something he was really looking

forward to.

And then we did a trip to Hawaii after that, which was something I was really looking forward

to.

So you can, you can definitely do little compromises like that too.

Okay.

So for the most part, what do you think would be your number one tip for people who are

transitioning from this life of like nine to five work and then downshifting?

It sounds like downshifting into a life of like full time travel of making that transition

happen, not like logistically, but like emotionally how to deal with that transition.

That actually is a big transition because if you're like most people, you take your

job very seriously, you know, you think about it night and day, you put a lot of effort

into it and then to have that be like pulled from your life.

And now you're the rest of your world is open to you.

Seems like it would just be a dream come true, but there is definitely an adjustment

to that because now you have all that energy that has to be redirected to something else.

And so that's, you know, even beyond just travel thinking about how you're going to

redirect all of your energy is definitely worth thinking about.

But specifically for travel that that meant that I had to learn to slow down because when

you have a job, you're used to, you have to get up at a certain time, you've got to be

somewhere in a specific time, you've got deadlines to meet all the time.

And all of a sudden when you're retired, you know, if you go to a city, you don't have

to get up at 7am and see the whole city by noon, you know, so that was that was maybe

the challenge, maybe for me specifically was just, just learning to pace myself.

And so it takes a little, it's going to take a little time to learn to reset the way you

pace your life, but you will enjoy travel more if you can, if you can do that, if you

can learn to pace yourself when you travel and enjoy the moment and realize that it's

not all going to go according to schedule.

You're going to have your little itinerary and it's not all going to happen and it's

going to be okay.

That's super helpful.

Okay.

That's it.

See, I told you that was going to be better than me trying to explain it.

We'll do that.

It's going to be better.

Straight from the source.

All right.

So that is it for today's travel support Thursday.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

Leave your questions down in the comments below and we will, we'll see you next week.

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