July 17, 2026 • 53 mins
In this powerful episode, the Wishing Well's Terrie Dean marks the show’s sixth anniversary with a deep, honest exploration of the modern travel experience — the good, the bad, and the beautifully imperfect. Drawing from over 40 years in the industry, Terry reveals how today’s travelers are breaking free from ordinary tourism and embracing intentional, meaningful journeys that reconnect them with wonder, curiosity, and the world itself.
You’ll hear how slow travel, astrotourism, and immersive local stays are reshaping global exploration — and why travelers are choosing sleeper trains, dark‑sky destinations, and boutique community‑based lodging over crowded hotspots and algorithm‑driven itineraries. Terrie also exposes the “ugly” side of modern tourism: overtourism, corporate travel toll booths, and AI‑optimized travel funnels that push everyone to the same places at the same time.
Terrie shares unforgettable personal stories, listener moments, and the emotional spark that keeps us traveling despite delays, fees, and frustrations. From solo midlife backpacking to radical resets, from unexpected adventures in Mexico to awe‑striking moments in Japan, this episode reminds us why travel is a radical act of optimism — and why choosing the road less traveled leads to a truly life less ordinary.
You’ll hear how slow travel, astrotourism, and immersive local stays are reshaping global exploration — and why travelers are choosing sleeper trains, dark‑sky destinations, and boutique community‑based lodging over crowded hotspots and algorithm‑driven itineraries. Terrie also exposes the “ugly” side of modern tourism: overtourism, corporate travel toll booths, and AI‑optimized travel funnels that push everyone to the same places at the same time.
Terrie shares unforgettable personal stories, listener moments, and the emotional spark that keeps us traveling despite delays, fees, and frustrations. From solo midlife backpacking to radical resets, from unexpected adventures in Mexico to awe‑striking moments in Japan, this episode reminds us why travel is a radical act of optimism — and why choosing the road less traveled leads to a truly life less ordinary.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a Lifeless Ordinary, the travel showing podcast from
your friends at the wishing Well two forty three f
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at the wishing Well dot
PiZZ The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge, travel
agency and a lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel showing podcast
hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty years of
experience in the travel industry to help guide you to
(00:21):
great experiences in your travel, whether it be around the block,
around the country, or around the world. Now let's bring
in Terry Dean and say hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, Hello, Chris, how are you today.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I'm great, Terry. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's been a couple of weeks since we've sat down
and got a chance to talk talk travel, talk about
a lifeless Ordinary, and our nation celebrated a big birthday
and we did all that celebrating. Now I want to
celebrate us.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It absolutely, it's our birthday. It is we're going into
our seventh year. Can you believe that it's been that
long that we have been sitting here talking to listeners
about wonderful, luxurious places to go and how to go
so I'm excited. I mean, this is kind of a
(01:10):
milestone for us. Seven years. You know, that's a lucky number, right, Chris, Yeah, yeah,
it is a lucky number.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You guys started during during the pandemic, So I mean
that had to be you know, as you launched a
new show like this, wondering, Okay, who's listening? Where are
they going to travel? That was a hard time to
start a show. And here we are. You know, you've
completed six years of episodes and this is an appointment
(01:38):
for a lot of our listeners every Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah. And you know, I remember, if we dial that
clock back a little bit, Chris, I can remember the
apprehension that people had during that time about what is
travel going to look like from this point on? Are
we going to get to travel the world like we
want to? I mean, all of those things were things
that I think we're at the top of people's minds
(02:02):
at that very time. We've come a long way. I
would say seven years seems like a short amount of time,
but we've come a long long way.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The pandemic messed up all of our timelines in our head.
It seems like that took forever. And then it also
feels like it was just yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, doesn't it though? Yeah, and yet, you know this
two week hiatus that we've had during the summer, here,
a lot been going on, but I cannot tell you
how good it feels to return to this microphone back on,
settle into this chair, and slide those headphones back on
my ears. And when you step away, honestly, Chris, from
(02:44):
the microphone for a couple of weeks here, you start
to look at things a little bit with more fresh eyes,
kind of notice the rhythms of daily life that were
so easy to get trapped in. Your alarm goes off,
the coffee brews, the email box fills up, the whole
world starts to feel very very small, very very fast. Yeah.
(03:06):
So that all got me thinking about the exact reason
this show even exists, and traveling isn't just a hobby.
At least it isn't for me. I have the best
conversation with a lady today who listens to us very
faithfully here every Saturday, and I'm going to say to
(03:27):
her this morning, good morning, Sharon. I really appreciate the
comments and the good talk that we had this afternoon,
But this isn't just something we do here to kill
time or count vacation days. It's a declaration, Chris. It's
a rebellion against the mundane, I like to say, and
packing a bag is a physical statement that says, I
(03:49):
refuse to let my world shrink. I want to see
what is over that next horizon. Now, if you have
picked up a newspaper or scrolled through social media lately,
you kind of know the travel industry is in sort
of a weird place. It's automated, it's crowded, and if
you follow the standard mass marketing path, it actually can
(04:12):
feel a little incredible and transitional. But today I'm really
not here to complain about airline baggage fees or hotel searcharges.
Today we're going to talk about something a whole lot bigger.
We're going to talk about the beautiful resistance of the
modern traveler. And I think that's so so important to
(04:33):
focus on. And I think sometimes we get kind of
lost in the forest and the trees and we sort
of forget that there's travelers out there. You know, those
are the people we really want to talk to. And
today we're going to take an honest look at the
state of travel. But Chris through a totally different lens.
(04:53):
I'm going to explore, with your help, the collapse of
ordinary tourism. It's actually the best thing to ever really
happen to real explorers. We're going to be diving into
the good, the bad, and the ugly, which, by the way,
is the name of today's show.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
What do you mean by ordinary tourism?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, so it's the thing that gets us caught in
a rut, and a lifeless ordinary is about anything but
getting caught in that rut. We like to actually propel
people out of that when it comes to travel. So
that's what a lot of today's show is going to
be about. So we're gonna unlock, Chris really some of
(05:36):
the secrets of what makes us keep booking the next
ticket anyway? I mean, why do we keep doing it?
You know, if what we believe that we hear is
true on social media and the news, and why do
we keep buying those tickets? Why do we keep doing that? Well,
I want you to grab your passport and turn up
(05:56):
the volume a little bit, because we're going to be
diving into why the soul of travel is a whole
lot more love right now than it has ever been.
So our first segment, Chris today is going to be
called the Good, and I like to start with the
good all the time, you know, but this is the
new era of wonder, I'd like to call it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Can I add some good to our show? For just
a split second? You said hi to Was it Shannon
that you want to Sharon?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Sharon?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well? I want to say hi to Eric at the
Lowrey Fudge Company. I found out, uh oh well a
couple of weeks ago. He says he makes his trip
over the mountain every Saturday morning. He listens in, so
I want to welcome him in again this morning. And
he keeps saying, I live vicariously through all of your stories.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I like Eric already. He's at the fudge Company.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So let's let's get started with our first episode, The.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Good, yep and so if you're just joining us, we're
going to take that deep dive today into the heart
beat of the travel industry. And that's really important to
me because I got to tell you, Chris, after forty
eight years, I've sort of learned where the pulse is
of this industry and it's something that I can feel
(07:16):
every day. Every day I come into work. It's not
just something that I open my emails and start looking
at the work on my desk. There is actually a
pulse and a rhythm on my desk of the day.
I can feel it, and you can also feel it
in the industry. It forces and shapes how I see
(07:38):
the travel industry, and right now why the magic of
exploration is kind of fighting back. And so I said,
we're going to start with the good we are because
despite what those headlines say, there really is, Chris, this quiet,
beautiful revolution happening right now and the way people are
(07:58):
choosing to move across the globe. And for the longest time,
the travel industry treated us like items on a conveyor belt.
And I don't know if you ever felt that or not,
but here you go, You got your bag packed. It
was all kind of about the checklist. Go to Paris,
take a picture of the Eiffel Tower by the keychain,
go home. That is not what the real experience of
(08:22):
travel is about. For today's traveler. That is not the
experience they want. Is it the experience you can have? Sure,
but that's what we call ordinary travel. That's the rut.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, And that is not what this show is about.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It is absolutely not what this show is about, and
something incredibly wonderful in the last couple of years, I
would say, even since COVID that might have even been
the catalyst. So I think it's so apropos that we're
celebrating an anniversary going into our seventh year kind of
talking about that and reflecting on that, because something really
(08:58):
has shifted. Are pushing back against that frantic pace and
we're seeing the rise of what I love to call intentionality.
You know, we did a couple of shows a couple
of back that we talked about intentional travel, what we
do very intentionally, and people are trading in that little
checklist for here you go experiences. You're going to take
(09:24):
that massive boom in slow travel. For example, sleeper trains
are having a spectacular renaissance across Europe and North America
and people are actively choosing a twelve hour train journey
over a one hour budget flight. Now why are they
(09:46):
doing that? Because they want to feel the geography that
is so important. That word feel is exactly what this
show today is about. They want to watch the mountains
change outside the window. They want to share conversations with somebody,
(10:07):
They don't know, in a dining car, and they actually
want to earn the destination. If that makes sense to you.
Does that paint a good picture for you, Chris?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah. So we're also seeing this massive surge in what
scientists are calling astrotourism, and people are booking trips to
remote corners of the Earth, not just to see a monument,
but they're doing that to look up at a dark sky,
completely untouched by light pollution, and they are chasing glimpses
(10:45):
of eclipses. They're searching for those northern lights. I can't
tell you I've sold more northern light trips in the
past two years than I've sold in my entire career.
That tells me that the scientists are right. There's something
called astrotourism that is coming onto the forefront, and people
(11:06):
are seeking out those moments that remind them just how
small and how incredibly lucky we are. Can I don't.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Can you book me a trip up on one of
the SpaceX rockets or whatever the Amazon rockets, I don't
know which one is. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
In fact, Chris, those are available for sale if you've
got tons and tons and tons of money. How they
are for sale?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's probably easier just go to Alaska and see the
northern lights.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah. Probably, so I wouldn't disagree with you. And look
at the way we're staying in places. I mean, talk
about astrotourism. The rise of immersive community hosting means travelers
are bypassing these giant, sterile hotel chains to stay with locals. Now,
(11:56):
they love that these boutique hotels man, you know, small
luxury boutique hotels. They're really coming into their own. People
want to learn regional cooking secrets, and they want to
invest their money directly into communities that they visit. They
want their travel to make a difference. And the good
news today is that the modern traveler doesn't want to
(12:19):
be a spectator anymore. We want to be a part
of the story and the place we are visiting. But
to protect that magic, we've got to look honestly at
the things trying to automate it. So we want to
(12:40):
probably take a quick break when we come back. Chris,
I want to talk about the bad and the ugly
things too, because those are the things that are robbing
us of the extraordinary experiences.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Terry. I like that you like to keep it real
when we talk. We enjoy the good, but yes there
is the bad and the ugly, and we'll get in
into it next. Here on a Lifeless Ordinary. Why do
you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed, customize vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(13:24):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Or on the web at the Wishingwell dot biz. Hey,
and welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well.
You'll find them on f Avenue in Harrisonburg. They're online
at the Wishingwell dot biz and you can give them
a call at five four zero nine oh A twenty
three thirty three. We join Terry Dean every Saturday morning
to talk travel. We're celebrating our big anniversary. This is
(13:52):
our first show of the seventh year of A Life
Less Ordinary, and our show today is entitled the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly, and we are talking about
all aspects of your travel experience. And we talked a
little bit about the good stuff, but yeah, we're going
to get into the bad and the ugly too. So
(14:12):
segment two, i'm guessing is titled the Bad.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, Chris, Segment two is called the Bad and the Ugly,
the ordinary quote unquote travel trap. And before we went
to the break, we talked about the beautiful shift toward
intentional slow travel, and I want us to keep that
in mind as we go through some of these other segments.
(14:38):
But really, honestly, to appreciate the light, you really have
to understand the shadows. And I think that's important. That's
why I felt like it was important to sort of
introduce some of that as well into today's show. So
I want to talk about the bad and the ugly
of the modern travel industry, except I want to frame
(14:59):
the a little differently. So if you feel like traveling
has become a little frustrating, maybe stressful, overly corporate, I've
got some comforting truth for you. It's not travel that's broken.
It's ordinary tourism that's broken. The ugly of the industry
(15:21):
today is how heavily optimized and transactional the standard path
has become. Some of you who are computer geeks might
understand this. I had to look up some of what
this meant and research it for today's show. But algorithms
now rule the mass market travel world, and that is
(15:44):
so sad to me because passion used to and it
still does for me. But now we talk about things
in the industry that I never talked about before. Those
were foreign terms to me. Algorithms. What the heck of
an algorithm?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So are the are the algorithms dry having like our destination?
Are they driving the price point? Are they a little
bit of both of those? How's that algorithm affecting where
I end up and how much I enjoy my vacation.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah that's a great question, and actually that's a valid question.
But in simple terms, I could answer that with two
letters a I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh, it's ruling the world, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, it is. AI trip planners and social media feeds
funnel millions of people to the exact same crowded viewpoints
at the exact same time to take the exact same photograph.
It's created this crisis of over tourism in these beautiful
(16:48):
historic cities, turning places that should feel sacred into crowded
amusement parks. I can tell you for a fact, Chris,
when I just recently visited Barcelona, had the time of
my life. But when I walked into what I hoped
was going to be a reverent, wonderful, spiritual experience at
(17:10):
the Sigurada Familia in the center of Barcelona, I was appalled.
It was like I was shoulder to shoulder with people
and it was like a free for all until I
got into the sanctuary, where thankfully there is still some
reverence there. But getting in and around that building something
(17:34):
that everybody should do. By the way, if you ever
go to Barcelona, is you need the Skip the Lion ticket.
You must have that, and you really do need it
with a guide. But that's what we're talking about when
we're talking about ordinary tourism. And meanwhile, we've got the
corporate side of travel that's turned into a game of
(17:57):
digital tollbooths. You've got basically enemy tickets turn human comfort
into an add on luxury. You want a window seat,
there's a fee for that. You want to bring a
carry on bag, there's a fee for that. And tourist
taxes are popping up everywhere. It feels like the industry
is kind of constantly trying to squeeze the spontaneity out
(18:20):
of the journey. And that's disheartening a little bit for people,
and quite frankly, it's why some people push back and
they don't like ordinary travel. Hello, welcome to a life
less ordinary.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
You know, and you've got an answer to that. You
don't do ordinary travel.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We do not. And you know what, if you are
even picking an ordinary destination, the travel planners here at
a Wishing Well like to take those experiences and turn
them into something that, at least for you can be extraordinary.
And that's the beauty of what we do.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And you talk all the time here on a lifeless
Ordinary about what luxury is, and it's what you want
luxury to be, not what somebody else tells you. It
is right, and so you know, there's nothing wrong if
you want to go to Paris, nothing wrong. You want
to take a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower,
but don't let somebody dictate that to you. You can,
(19:22):
they're the wishing Well. You can curate an amazing experience
for that person who wants to visit Paris.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, And it's like I said, you know, don't be
that person who get buys your ticket, flies to Paris,
stands in front of the Eiffel Tower, takes a picture,
packs your bag and goes home. That is not the
extraordinary experience that we are longing, yearning for you to
have when you travel. Because there is a difference. But
(19:53):
here's why this is actually a good thing for you.
This whole business about ordinary travel and the listeners of
the show, this corporate algorithmic tightening. That's the ultimate wake
up call. It's the universe telling us that the conveyor
belt of ordinary vacationing is dead. When every trip is
(20:15):
optimized by an app, we lose some beautiful accidents, those
wrong turns and the unplanned encounters that actually make travel
life changing. And I have to ask you, Chris. I
don't mean to put you on the spot, but you
told me a story one time about an accidental travel
(20:37):
experience that you had in Mexico, and it floored me.
I mean, I was rolling laughing about that, But wasn't
that wouldn't you say that was part and parcel of
the experience that you had and the stories you told
about it.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Oh, yeah, I mean that's I think. There are two
things that came out out of that trap to Cancun, Mexico.
This was, gosh, fifteen twenty years ago. Now. We went
to a restaurant that served shrimp that were the size
of your fist. They were like lobster tails. So I
brag about that all the time. And then the mistake
(21:17):
of all mistakes, which ended up being sort of a
fun story if it weren't so dangerous. My travel companion said, oh,
you can get on the bus. It takes you to
the end of the island, it loops around it to
bring you back, and you can just stay on there
and see the whole island. So I got on the
bus and it just kept going and going, and it
was late at night, and it ended up they stopped
(21:40):
in what was the most sketchy place I've ever been
on planet Earth, and there was one street light up
above a guy sitting in a lawn chair in front
of a laundry mat who was collecting the money from
the buses as they pulled in at the end of
the evening, and they forced me off the bus, and
I was probably I was probably twenty miles from the
(22:02):
hotel district and I'm out on the street trying to
wave down a cab. I don't speak Spanish, and the
cabby's knew how dangerous it was. They wouldn't stop, so
I had to. I actually jumped out in the street
in front of a cab. He sort of slammersh brakes on.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out all the
money I had and showed it to him and just
(22:23):
kept yelling Zona de la hotel, erra sure, and he
kept going no, see soa de la hotela, and he
finally let me get in and he took me back
to the hotel and I had the nicest trip in
that cab. We barely could communicate, but I knew that
Mexico was playing in a soccer match, so I kept
(22:45):
asking about football, and he told me his name and
his kids' names, and I felt like we were dear
friends by the time he got me back to the hotel.
But that's the story I tell it. It was a mistake.
Oh man, that's how Dateline NBC specials start. Tourists goes missing.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
But that's what we call beautiful mistakes because that became
part of the written story that you had about a
great international experience, when you talked to your friends and
family and retold that story, and that becomes part of
what is entertaining about what makes travel fun. You know.
(23:30):
I often say to people, please, don't expect perfection when
you leave your home. If you want that, stay home,
you know. And that's not to say we want things
to go wrong. Heavens no, there's no way I want
things to go wrong. But when they do, when those
wrong turns come around, and the unplanned encounters, those sometimes
(23:53):
can be some of those beautiful accidents and they don't
altern out bad. We know that some do, and we're sorry,
but you know, some of them turn out to be
a great story. Now, the bad and the ugly of
the industry, those aren't roadblocks keeping you at home. They're
the exact reasons why you need a break away from
(24:16):
the herd. These are actually the catalysts forcing us to
become true conscious explorers again. And if the standard path
is frustrating, you know what, it's time to step off
the path. We're going to talk now about something I
(24:37):
call the road less traveled. And if you've been with
us from the start of this hour, we've kind of
unmasked the modern travel industry. We're looking at the beautiful
rise of intentional travel, the exhausting traps of algorithmic tourism.
Now I want to talk about how this plays out
in real life, because one of the most inspiring trends
(25:00):
kind of emerging from this broken corporate landscape is this
massive wave of what I call solo midlife backpacking and
radical resets. How's that for a term? For decades, Chris,
the industry has told us that there was a strict
(25:21):
timeline for travel. It kind of says, you backpack when
you're twenty, you sleep on hostile floors and you eat
instant noodles. Then you get a job, You buy the
resort vacation packet, You sit by a pool surrounded by concrete,
You disconnect from the culture around you, and you have
a great time. Right in that what it looks like
(25:44):
for a lot of people, it does, you know, but
people in their thirties, their forties, and their fifties and
really beyond, they're tearing up that script. They're looking at
the standard resort vacation and they're saying that feels ordinary.
I want something more and they're packing a single backpack.
(26:06):
They're leaving the luxury bubbles behind, and they're heading out
on solo journeys to clear their minds after years of
intense career or family focus. Now, when you travel so
lo later in life, you bring a completely different kind
of curiosity. You aren't just trying to party or collect
(26:30):
a stamp. You might have done that when you were
twenty or younger, but that's not what you're doing now.
You're traveling to listen. You're traveling to reconnect with that
version of yourself that you might have lost that existed
before the mortgage and the deadlines and the daily grind
took over. And doing it without a rigid itinerary. You're
(26:54):
stepping away from those apps and you're just letting the
road guide you. And that is how you find the
antidote to the corporate travel trap. It's about arriving in
a small town asking a local where they eat. I
love that whenever I travel, Chris, I do that all
(27:14):
the time. I say, you know, to maybe a taxi driver,
an Uber driver. I did that just recently. I was
in Tennessee and actually had an Uber driver and I said,
where's the best place to get some barbecue around here.
He goes, well, I could tell you where the locals go,
but I can also tell you where the tourism office
would tell you. I said, I want to know where
the locals go.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yep, and you don't have You probably don't have as
much of.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
A line exactly exactly. And if you ask where they eat,
you're going to discover a whole world that a travel
algorithm is never going to help you find, because a
human gave you that, somebody who actually eats the stuff
you know and likes the stuff. This is how you live, folks. Listeners,
(28:01):
Chris an extraordinary life. We're going to step away now
for thirty seconds for a quick break, and when we
come back, we're going to answer Chris the biggest question
of all. Despite all of the headaches and some of
those we've talked about, what is that undeniable spark that
(28:23):
keeps us returning to the road.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Stay tuned, we'll talk about that next here on a
life lest ordinary.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Why do you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating
customs and more. Wishes really do come true At the
wishing Well. Visit us at two forty three and a
half Avenue, call us at five four zero nine zero
(28:54):
eight two three three three, or on the web at
Thuwishingwells dot biz.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, welcome back to a life lesson Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well.
I love Saturday morning. Terry Dean and occasionally Harry Rife
and I get to sit down and talk at travel.
And this week's show is entitled the Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly. We've discussed those three elements Cherry of travel.
(29:18):
We are right forward and went to break. You mentioned
what what's that spark? What really gets us to, you know,
make that next move so we can start enjoy our travel.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, and that's the exciting parts of travel for me.
I think are the sparks, you know. I remember once
upon a time when I was taking a class in marketing,
they said, Terry, it's all about the sizzle, you know,
And I'm like, isn't travels the same thing? It's all
about the sizzle, you know, and this next segment that
(29:52):
we're gonna go into, Chris, I've called the core theme
the beautiful resistance. And as we're entering the home stretch
now of this deep dive into travel today, we have
looked at the good, the bad, and the ugly, and
we've looked at those corporate toll booths and what I
(30:13):
called the algorithmic crowds. And that brings us to the
ultimate burning question at the center of the modern travel experience,
and that is, why do we keep doing it? When
the flight is delayed, when the baggage fee is outrageous,
when those lines are long, and the industry seems intent
(30:36):
on making it harder than it ever needs to be
to leave our homes? Why do we still open our laptops,
put on our credit card numbers, and book the next
flight anyway. We do it because the human soul cannot
be commodified. We do it because packing a suitcase is
(30:58):
a supreme, radical act of optimism. Think about what you're
doing when you travel. You step out of your comfort zone,
out of your language, out of your safety net. You
actually are choosing to trust that that stranger across the
world is going to help you when you're lost, like
(31:20):
you found in Mexico. That same story, Thank goodness for
that story is making its way, I'll tell you. But
you're choosing to believe that the world is fundamentally good,
that it's beautiful, and it is waiting to welcome you.
And Chris, you know, week after week after week, that
(31:45):
is the message that I try to convey to our
listeners every single time, is that the world is beautiful
and it's waiting to welcome you. We tolerate those smaller
seats on the aircraft and the logistical headaches because we
know that a single moment of absolute awe and now
(32:09):
I mean that might be standing at the edge of
a canyon. I remember my first awe moment when I
stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and it
took my breath away. I went, I can't believe I'm here.
I can't believe I'm seeing this magnificent, intentional invention by God.
(32:33):
I'm seeing this myself with my own eyes. You kind
of get that moment where you share a laugh with
somebody whose language you don't even speak, and all of
a sudden you realize they had one conversation you had
another and you're eating a meal and that's cooked from
a century's old family recipe. Maybe you're doing that with
(32:56):
some chef in Italy. You're going to wipe away every
single hour of airport frustration in those moments, and travel
changes our internal chemistry. It breaks that digital bubble that
we sit in all day long. It forces us to
look up, to breathe, and to remember that life really
(33:21):
is this vast, wild and unpredictable paradise. We keep returning
to the road because we know, Chris, that that discomfort
of the journey is the price of admission for guess
what a life less ordinary. We don't travel to escape life.
(33:43):
We travel so that life doesn't escape us. And I'm
going to let that sink in for just a minute.
I want to head into our next segment now, and
I'm going to call that listener mail and close. And
I think it's been an incredible hour so far. I mean,
(34:04):
I have to tell you, as I wrote for this
show this week, Chris, I was inspired really by my
own previous travel moments. And I was also a little
tickled because I knew I was going to put you
on the spot with that Mexico story. But really we're
(34:27):
unpacking the state of our traveling world with you. But
a conversation is no fun if it's just a one
way street. I want to open up some opportunities, Chris,
even if you have any that are those great stories,
maybe of something that you remember from a trip that
(34:50):
we could maybe talk about and share here on the
show that was kind of a fundamental thing that happened
to you on a trip that you went on.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
The probably my baseball trip. I've talked about that here
on a Lifeless s Ordinary in the past. About fifteen
years ago, I decided I wanted to go to see
I think it was nine baseball stadiums in a week,
and I don't know I made it to nine or not,
(35:23):
But I thought I was going to be my own
travel agent. And I planned out my week and hit
each one of the cities and took in a baseball
game and tried to do all the local stuff where
you just mentioned about, you know, where where do the
locals get barbecue in Tennessee. I went to Saint Louis
(35:44):
and I said, where do I get you know, where
do I get some good ribs?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Went to Chicago and I said, I you know, I
want some really good pizza. And it's amazing to me
how people that typically would be like, leave me alone.
I'm too busy. I've got my own problems in the world.
When you say, hey, i'm traveling, I'm visiting and I
(36:09):
would like to know where. You know, as you mentioned
the rips, where are the pizza place is, They're like, oh,
you need to go to UNO's Pizza. And when you ordered,
they're gonna you're gonna be in line and you're gonna
wait an hour. But it's worth it, you know. It's
like they get your preps, you're ready, you know everything
you need to know before you even arrived there. And
I think that for me when I took that trip
(36:32):
was getting to know people, meeting the locals. Having someone
asked me, oh, are you a huge, uh you know,
Tigers fan when I was in Detroit and I was
like no, and they're like, then why are you here?
You know, I'm I'm wearing my Detroit Tigers jersey of
my hat and I'm like, oh, I'm touring baseball stadiums
(36:52):
and I wanted to try the food each place I
went everything and they were like, wow, that's really and
it was. I'm not sure if they were trying to
be polite, you know, like the bless his Heart, that's
really interesting, or they really thought it was interesting. I
don't know, but that was just getting to meet people
and learning about their their town and their culture. And
you know what the difference is between a Chicago hot
(37:14):
dog and uh, you know Cincinnati's was it Cincinnati's chili? Cincinnati?
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:22):
You know, over to port over top to spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
So, I don't know if you can tell most of
my stories around food. Yeah, food, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I mean so so you are definitely a culinary of Ficinado.
You like what you like, and you like to travel
and find things that are different. I think that's great.
I mean, everybody has something that they travel to find
out more about. I get ask a lot of times
(37:52):
Chris about my travel experiences. I mean, I think people
are just naturally curious about the person who sits behind
the computer who helps plan their next experience. Where have
you been and what have you done? And I have
to tell you this story. I remember when I was man,
(38:12):
I started in this industry when I was so so green,
I mean I was so young. I was like you know,
barely twenty and I was flying on a plane for
the first time on PanAm Airlines, the company that I
worked for at the time, took all of us as
travel agents on what we called a fam trip, and
(38:35):
I was able to fly on PanAm in first class.
But here's the sad story. I was so terrified of flying,
and it was a direct NonStop flight to London, that
I kept my head down on my seat back chair
the whole flight long. And there was a gentleman who
(38:57):
sat next to me who obviously didn't no I wasn't
even twenty one yet, and he said, ma'am, do you
need a drink for this flight? He said, I'll be
happy to order you a drink, And I'm like, no,
I'm just scared to death. But those are the kinds
of experiences that you don't forget. I remember, also in
(39:20):
my young years in the travel industry, when I was
just beginning, putting my feet in the ocean for the
first time in Panama and actually also having a most
unusual experience like something right out of a national geographic magazine,
where on that same trip, when I went to Panama,
(39:40):
I flew in a small beachcraft aircraft over to what
we call the San Blas Islands. They are basically uncivilized
to some degree, and they you really do get the
sense that you're in a national geographic magazine, and I
it's all for the first time in my life, really
(40:03):
what it looked like to be a part of that
national geographic experience. It was awe striking. And then one
of the other experiences that always always comes back to
my mind, Chris, was my trip to Japan that hasn't
(40:24):
been so long ago, but I remember standing at the
top of the street called Rapungi, and I was walking
down that street and I saw this massive movement of
what just looked like a black carpet, when in fact
it was the black hair of all of the local
(40:47):
Japanese people walking literally almost shoulder to shoulder. It was
as crowded as any place I had ever seen in
Japan while I had been there, but it was almost
spiritually quiet. They were so reverent and so respectful of
(41:07):
one another. And they walked in such a sort of
a complete stride. Almost it would have looked like arm
in arm and hand in hand. They weren't, but it
just looked like that. And I can remember thinking to myself,
what a wonderful country that was. To see how unique
(41:30):
it was for all of these people to be in
such a crowded situation and not see one hiccup. I
was so impressed with Japan. It was one of the
best trips of my life. When people ask me, Terry's
one of the best places or the most impactful place
you've ever been, without a doubt, has to be Japan.
(41:50):
And I'm so happy that today Japan here in twenty
twenty six has come back into its own and people
are flocking back to Japan again. They want to experience
something that is there, something that beckons us to that place.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
So when we think Paris, we think Eiffel Tower. Go
to London you see Big Ben, go to Buckhan Palace
and maybe right on the eye Ferris Wheel. If I'm
going to Japan, do they have I mean, I guess
there's the Imperial City where the emperor lives. What is
(42:29):
other than just the amazing culture? What are those things
that are going to be instagram worthy when I go
to Japan?
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Yeah, so it's the temples. The temples are beautiful, and
the architecture there and the gardens are magnificent. I mean,
there's something so there's such talent I think that is
woven right into the DNA of the Japanese people. They
can simply create something of beauty out of nothing. Give
(43:01):
them two pieces of straw, and I swear you'll have
a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
They are some of the best woodworkers you'd ever see
on the planet.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Aren't they though? And I mean to be able to
see that and experience that real time with something in
my memory bank, I will never ever forget.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
How do we handle when we travel overseas if we
go to and I guess most countries they speak English,
But when we go somewhere like I don't understand any Japanese,
how do I get that experience that we've been talking
about where I'm asking the locals where to go and
they're saying, oh, First off, probably in the language I
(43:44):
don't understand, but also the terminology they're going to use,
even for the way they describe their food is going
to maybe need an interpreter as well.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, so that's a great question, Chris. The interesting thing is,
and probably what is would be maybe shocking to you,
I don't know, is that the Japanese people, as a
second language. They speak English, and they speak English very
well as a matter of fact, and they are very proud,
most of them, especially the younger generation of Japanese young folks,
(44:18):
they are very proud of the fact that they have
and are becoming a lot more westernized. They love that.
They love everything about America and Americans and the way
we live and the way we dress. And you know,
and I look at them and I think the same thing.
But there's this mutual admiration society going on between Americans
(44:41):
and the Japanese right now. And language is really not
a barrier. And you know, the good news is we
live in such a technological age, Chris, that you know,
even if language, say, would be a barrier of some
kind like you experienced in Mexico today, there's a piece
of cake. We've got things like Google Translate on our
(45:03):
phones and it does the translation for us. We talk
into that, we tell somebody what we want to know,
and it instantly translates that into something that they can
readily understand and communicate back to you.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Yeah, and they appreciate that, I think they do.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Anytime you try, you know, I always say to people,
you know, one of the things that you should do
if you're traveling internationally, is that you should try to
pick up one or two phrases of something in that
country's dialect so that you can at least communicate thank
you and please, and things like a bathroom. You know,
(45:43):
those are things that you need to know when you're there.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
For sure. We've been doing the show for a long
time now. We just entered our seventh year of a
Life Less Ordinary. It's brought to you by your friends
at the wishing Well. That's Terry Dean, whose voice you've
been hearing all this hour, also Harry Rife, who joins
us on the show pretty regularly. If you go back
through the volume us amount of episodes that we have
(46:08):
available both on the iHeartRadio app and on the website
the wishing Well dot bizz up in the upper right
hand corner, you'll find a link for all the past episodes.
You will find episodes that speak specifically to what Terry
just mentioned about learning a few phrases, a few words
everything you need to be prepared before you go on
your amazing hopefully not once in a lifetime, once this year,
(46:35):
once in a year experience where you get to go
out and enjoy these luxurious getaways. You have everything you
need to be prepared, what luggage to take, what to
put in the luggage, what phrases you should learn. That's
what I love about our show is, you know, each
week we take on a different theme, and each one
(46:56):
of those shows gets us even more prepared for getting
out and joining the world that is out there that
we have just not yet experienced. Terry.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah. And you know, for us, Chris, and I think
even you, as you've come along with us through this
journey of a lifeless ordinary, I think even you've begun
to learn and appreciate the benefits of luxury travel because
we've defined it so many different ways. And what we've
taken a lot of time to try to do as
(47:27):
we celebrate this seventh year that we're going into, is
that we've let you understand, as a listener, as a
traveler with the wishing Well, that luxury is defined by
your own preferences, and if those preferences are checked in
all of those boxes, to you, that's luxury. The other
(47:49):
thing that I wanted to actually comment on is the
fact that folks come into our office sometimes, Chris, and
they really don't know where they want to go. Sometimes
that's a gray area for folks. And recently I invested
in a book. It's called Destinations of a Lifetime. And
(48:12):
I love this book because it's kind of a look book.
It's a book that when folks come into my office,
they can sit down with me and I can say, okay,
so if you don't know where you want to go,
let me give you a few minutes with these Destinations
of a Lifetime and look at this and tell me
what speaks to you, because you know, that's the magic
(48:33):
of travel. Sooner or later, a picture that you see,
some food that you've experienced, some family member who's been
to a certain place that will speak to you, and
that suddenly becomes someplace you want to experience for yourself. Why,
Because we're basically curious. People are really really at heart,
(48:55):
we're all curious. I had a client who came in
the other day who said, who's planning their own honeymoon?
And I asked them where they wanted to go, and
of course it was someplace exotic. And I said, I
really need to understand what drove you to want to
pick this particular destination. And they said, well, I'll tell
you why, Terry. It's because we just got back from
(49:19):
a friend's wedding in Madagascar, and it was so amazing
that we decided that for a honeymoon it just couldn't
be ordinary. And I'm like, I so get that, you know,
I so get that. We with the show that we've
just talked about today, how to really unhinge from ordinary travel,
(49:44):
that rut of ordinary travel. Let me tell you something.
If anything is changing today in the way we travel,
it's honeymooners. My goodness, I remember a day like going
back to my mom and dad's honeymoon. They honeymooned in
Niagara Falls. And there are still people who do that today,
(50:04):
I know that. But gone are the days when people
think about going to a hotel, maybe in Richmond, or
just for a couple of night getaway. I've got clients
who are going to the Maldives, who are going to
Bora Bora, who are going to over the water bungalows
(50:26):
in Fiji, and you know, this couple settled on Saint
Lucia in Jade Mountain, where the fourth wall of this
particular resort is completely open to the petons. We're talking
major experiences, and that's when we step over from the
(50:47):
world of ordinary travel, and I'm so happy that these
young couples are able to do it in their very
first most important trip they'll ever take together, their honeymoon,
into the land of extra ordinary travel.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
We really enjoy this show each week, and I don't
know if we really here in the Valley appreciate that
we have someone with the skill and the knowledge and
the talent that you have to make these unforgettable experiences
come true for us. We're really lucky that we live here,
(51:26):
and I feel really lucky that each week I get
to talk with you, and it's like I'm in a
university lecture. Each week I'm learning and taking notes and
hoping someday just to know a small portion of what
you share with us about your experiences traveling the world,
traveling around the US. You just bring so much to
(51:50):
the table each week, and I just want to say
thank you. And I'm looking forward to our seventh and eighth,
and ninth and tenth year as we continue on with
a lifeless.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
Ordinary I am too, Chris, and I'm looking forward to
introducing new travelers that I've never seen before to the
world of luxury and experiences and creating memories for themselves.
I love the wishing Well too. It is always such
a pleasure Chris, to share this time with you on
(52:19):
Saturdays and with our listeners. Would love to invite people
to come and join us anytime. We're easy to find.
We are at the wishing Well, two forty three f
Avenue in the Valley Center. You can of course call
us at five four oh nine oh eight two three
three three or look us up on the web. Chris,
we are at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
This has been on Life Less Ordinary, the travel show
and podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well. There
are two forty three f Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you
have any questions on topics discussed today, please reach out
to the wishing Well online at the Wishingwell dot biz
or call five four oh nine oh eight twenty three
thirty three. Past episodes are of on the iHeartRadio Lab
(53:01):
and we'll see you again next Saturday morning at tend
for a Lifeless Ordinary from the wishing Well
This is a Lifeless Ordinary, the travel showing podcast from
your friends at the wishing Well two forty three f
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at the wishing Well dot
PiZZ The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge, travel
agency and a lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel showing podcast
hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty years of
experience in the travel industry to help guide you to
(00:21):
great experiences in your travel, whether it be around the block,
around the country, or around the world. Now let's bring
in Terry Dean and say hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, Hello, Chris, how are you today.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I'm great, Terry. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's been a couple of weeks since we've sat down
and got a chance to talk talk travel, talk about
a lifeless Ordinary, and our nation celebrated a big birthday
and we did all that celebrating. Now I want to
celebrate us.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It absolutely, it's our birthday. It is we're going into
our seventh year. Can you believe that it's been that
long that we have been sitting here talking to listeners
about wonderful, luxurious places to go and how to go
so I'm excited. I mean, this is kind of a
(01:10):
milestone for us. Seven years. You know, that's a lucky number, right, Chris, Yeah, yeah,
it is a lucky number.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You guys started during during the pandemic, So I mean
that had to be you know, as you launched a
new show like this, wondering, Okay, who's listening? Where are
they going to travel? That was a hard time to
start a show. And here we are. You know, you've
completed six years of episodes and this is an appointment
(01:38):
for a lot of our listeners every Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah. And you know, I remember, if we dial that
clock back a little bit, Chris, I can remember the
apprehension that people had during that time about what is
travel going to look like from this point on? Are
we going to get to travel the world like we
want to? I mean, all of those things were things
that I think we're at the top of people's minds
(02:02):
at that very time. We've come a long way. I
would say seven years seems like a short amount of time,
but we've come a long long way.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The pandemic messed up all of our timelines in our head.
It seems like that took forever. And then it also
feels like it was just yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, doesn't it though? Yeah, and yet, you know this
two week hiatus that we've had during the summer, here,
a lot been going on, but I cannot tell you
how good it feels to return to this microphone back on,
settle into this chair, and slide those headphones back on
my ears. And when you step away, honestly, Chris, from
(02:44):
the microphone for a couple of weeks here, you start
to look at things a little bit with more fresh eyes,
kind of notice the rhythms of daily life that were
so easy to get trapped in. Your alarm goes off,
the coffee brews, the email box fills up, the whole
world starts to feel very very small, very very fast. Yeah.
(03:06):
So that all got me thinking about the exact reason
this show even exists, and traveling isn't just a hobby.
At least it isn't for me. I have the best
conversation with a lady today who listens to us very
faithfully here every Saturday, and I'm going to say to
(03:27):
her this morning, good morning, Sharon. I really appreciate the
comments and the good talk that we had this afternoon,
But this isn't just something we do here to kill
time or count vacation days. It's a declaration, Chris. It's
a rebellion against the mundane, I like to say, and
packing a bag is a physical statement that says, I
(03:49):
refuse to let my world shrink. I want to see
what is over that next horizon. Now, if you have
picked up a newspaper or scrolled through social media lately,
you kind of know the travel industry is in sort
of a weird place. It's automated, it's crowded, and if
you follow the standard mass marketing path, it actually can
(04:12):
feel a little incredible and transitional. But today I'm really
not here to complain about airline baggage fees or hotel searcharges.
Today we're going to talk about something a whole lot bigger.
We're going to talk about the beautiful resistance of the
modern traveler. And I think that's so so important to
(04:33):
focus on. And I think sometimes we get kind of
lost in the forest and the trees and we sort
of forget that there's travelers out there. You know, those
are the people we really want to talk to. And
today we're going to take an honest look at the
state of travel. But Chris through a totally different lens.
(04:53):
I'm going to explore, with your help, the collapse of
ordinary tourism. It's actually the best thing to ever really
happen to real explorers. We're going to be diving into
the good, the bad, and the ugly, which, by the way,
is the name of today's show.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
What do you mean by ordinary tourism?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, so it's the thing that gets us caught in
a rut, and a lifeless ordinary is about anything but
getting caught in that rut. We like to actually propel
people out of that when it comes to travel. So
that's what a lot of today's show is going to
be about. So we're gonna unlock, Chris really some of
(05:36):
the secrets of what makes us keep booking the next
ticket anyway? I mean, why do we keep doing it?
You know, if what we believe that we hear is
true on social media and the news, and why do
we keep buying those tickets? Why do we keep doing that? Well,
I want you to grab your passport and turn up
(05:56):
the volume a little bit, because we're going to be
diving into why the soul of travel is a whole
lot more love right now than it has ever been.
So our first segment, Chris today is going to be
called the Good, and I like to start with the
good all the time, you know, but this is the
new era of wonder, I'd like to call it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Can I add some good to our show? For just
a split second? You said hi to Was it Shannon
that you want to Sharon?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Sharon?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well? I want to say hi to Eric at the
Lowrey Fudge Company. I found out, uh oh well a
couple of weeks ago. He says he makes his trip
over the mountain every Saturday morning. He listens in, so
I want to welcome him in again this morning. And
he keeps saying, I live vicariously through all of your stories.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I like Eric already. He's at the fudge Company.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So let's let's get started with our first episode, The.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Good, yep and so if you're just joining us, we're
going to take that deep dive today into the heart
beat of the travel industry. And that's really important to
me because I got to tell you, Chris, after forty
eight years, I've sort of learned where the pulse is
of this industry and it's something that I can feel
(07:16):
every day. Every day I come into work. It's not
just something that I open my emails and start looking
at the work on my desk. There is actually a
pulse and a rhythm on my desk of the day.
I can feel it, and you can also feel it
in the industry. It forces and shapes how I see
(07:38):
the travel industry, and right now why the magic of
exploration is kind of fighting back. And so I said,
we're going to start with the good we are because
despite what those headlines say, there really is, Chris, this quiet,
beautiful revolution happening right now and the way people are
(07:58):
choosing to move across the globe. And for the longest time,
the travel industry treated us like items on a conveyor belt.
And I don't know if you ever felt that or not,
but here you go, You got your bag packed. It
was all kind of about the checklist. Go to Paris,
take a picture of the Eiffel Tower by the keychain,
go home. That is not what the real experience of
(08:22):
travel is about. For today's traveler. That is not the
experience they want. Is it the experience you can have? Sure,
but that's what we call ordinary travel. That's the rut.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, And that is not what this show is about.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It is absolutely not what this show is about, and
something incredibly wonderful in the last couple of years, I
would say, even since COVID that might have even been
the catalyst. So I think it's so apropos that we're
celebrating an anniversary going into our seventh year kind of
talking about that and reflecting on that, because something really
(08:58):
has shifted. Are pushing back against that frantic pace and
we're seeing the rise of what I love to call intentionality.
You know, we did a couple of shows a couple
of back that we talked about intentional travel, what we
do very intentionally, and people are trading in that little
checklist for here you go experiences. You're going to take
(09:24):
that massive boom in slow travel. For example, sleeper trains
are having a spectacular renaissance across Europe and North America
and people are actively choosing a twelve hour train journey
over a one hour budget flight. Now why are they
(09:46):
doing that? Because they want to feel the geography that
is so important. That word feel is exactly what this
show today is about. They want to watch the mountains
change outside the window. They want to share conversations with somebody,
(10:07):
They don't know, in a dining car, and they actually
want to earn the destination. If that makes sense to you.
Does that paint a good picture for you, Chris?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah. So we're also seeing this massive surge in what
scientists are calling astrotourism, and people are booking trips to
remote corners of the Earth, not just to see a monument,
but they're doing that to look up at a dark sky,
completely untouched by light pollution, and they are chasing glimpses
(10:45):
of eclipses. They're searching for those northern lights. I can't
tell you I've sold more northern light trips in the
past two years than I've sold in my entire career.
That tells me that the scientists are right. There's something
called astrotourism that is coming onto the forefront, and people
(11:06):
are seeking out those moments that remind them just how
small and how incredibly lucky we are. Can I don't.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Can you book me a trip up on one of
the SpaceX rockets or whatever the Amazon rockets, I don't
know which one is. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
In fact, Chris, those are available for sale if you've
got tons and tons and tons of money. How they
are for sale?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's probably easier just go to Alaska and see the
northern lights.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah. Probably, so I wouldn't disagree with you. And look
at the way we're staying in places. I mean, talk
about astrotourism. The rise of immersive community hosting means travelers
are bypassing these giant, sterile hotel chains to stay with locals. Now,
(11:56):
they love that these boutique hotels man, you know, small
luxury boutique hotels. They're really coming into their own. People
want to learn regional cooking secrets, and they want to
invest their money directly into communities that they visit. They
want their travel to make a difference. And the good
news today is that the modern traveler doesn't want to
(12:19):
be a spectator anymore. We want to be a part
of the story and the place we are visiting. But
to protect that magic, we've got to look honestly at
the things trying to automate it. So we want to
(12:40):
probably take a quick break when we come back. Chris,
I want to talk about the bad and the ugly
things too, because those are the things that are robbing
us of the extraordinary experiences.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Terry. I like that you like to keep it real
when we talk. We enjoy the good, but yes there
is the bad and the ugly, and we'll get in
into it next. Here on a Lifeless Ordinary. Why do
you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed, customize vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(13:24):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Or on the web at the Wishingwell dot biz. Hey,
and welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well.
You'll find them on f Avenue in Harrisonburg. They're online
at the Wishingwell dot biz and you can give them
a call at five four zero nine oh A twenty
three thirty three. We join Terry Dean every Saturday morning
to talk travel. We're celebrating our big anniversary. This is
(13:52):
our first show of the seventh year of A Life
Less Ordinary, and our show today is entitled the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly, and we are talking about
all aspects of your travel experience. And we talked a
little bit about the good stuff, but yeah, we're going
to get into the bad and the ugly too. So
(14:12):
segment two, i'm guessing is titled the Bad.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, Chris, Segment two is called the Bad and the Ugly,
the ordinary quote unquote travel trap. And before we went
to the break, we talked about the beautiful shift toward
intentional slow travel, and I want us to keep that
in mind as we go through some of these other segments.
(14:38):
But really, honestly, to appreciate the light, you really have
to understand the shadows. And I think that's important. That's
why I felt like it was important to sort of
introduce some of that as well into today's show. So
I want to talk about the bad and the ugly
of the modern travel industry, except I want to frame
(14:59):
the a little differently. So if you feel like traveling
has become a little frustrating, maybe stressful, overly corporate, I've
got some comforting truth for you. It's not travel that's broken.
It's ordinary tourism that's broken. The ugly of the industry
(15:21):
today is how heavily optimized and transactional the standard path
has become. Some of you who are computer geeks might
understand this. I had to look up some of what
this meant and research it for today's show. But algorithms
now rule the mass market travel world, and that is
(15:44):
so sad to me because passion used to and it
still does for me. But now we talk about things
in the industry that I never talked about before. Those
were foreign terms to me. Algorithms. What the heck of
an algorithm?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So are the are the algorithms dry having like our destination?
Are they driving the price point? Are they a little
bit of both of those? How's that algorithm affecting where
I end up and how much I enjoy my vacation.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah that's a great question, and actually that's a valid question.
But in simple terms, I could answer that with two
letters a I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh, it's ruling the world, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, it is. AI trip planners and social media feeds
funnel millions of people to the exact same crowded viewpoints
at the exact same time to take the exact same photograph.
It's created this crisis of over tourism in these beautiful
(16:48):
historic cities, turning places that should feel sacred into crowded
amusement parks. I can tell you for a fact, Chris,
when I just recently visited Barcelona, had the time of
my life. But when I walked into what I hoped
was going to be a reverent, wonderful, spiritual experience at
(17:10):
the Sigurada Familia in the center of Barcelona, I was appalled.
It was like I was shoulder to shoulder with people
and it was like a free for all until I
got into the sanctuary, where thankfully there is still some
reverence there. But getting in and around that building something
(17:34):
that everybody should do. By the way, if you ever
go to Barcelona, is you need the Skip the Lion ticket.
You must have that, and you really do need it
with a guide. But that's what we're talking about when
we're talking about ordinary tourism. And meanwhile, we've got the
corporate side of travel that's turned into a game of
(17:57):
digital tollbooths. You've got basically enemy tickets turn human comfort
into an add on luxury. You want a window seat,
there's a fee for that. You want to bring a
carry on bag, there's a fee for that. And tourist
taxes are popping up everywhere. It feels like the industry
is kind of constantly trying to squeeze the spontaneity out
(18:20):
of the journey. And that's disheartening a little bit for people,
and quite frankly, it's why some people push back and
they don't like ordinary travel. Hello, welcome to a life
less ordinary.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
You know, and you've got an answer to that. You
don't do ordinary travel.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We do not. And you know what, if you are
even picking an ordinary destination, the travel planners here at
a Wishing Well like to take those experiences and turn
them into something that, at least for you can be extraordinary.
And that's the beauty of what we do.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And you talk all the time here on a lifeless
Ordinary about what luxury is, and it's what you want
luxury to be, not what somebody else tells you. It
is right, and so you know, there's nothing wrong if
you want to go to Paris, nothing wrong. You want
to take a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower,
but don't let somebody dictate that to you. You can,
(19:22):
they're the wishing Well. You can curate an amazing experience
for that person who wants to visit Paris.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, And it's like I said, you know, don't be
that person who get buys your ticket, flies to Paris,
stands in front of the Eiffel Tower, takes a picture,
packs your bag and goes home. That is not the
extraordinary experience that we are longing, yearning for you to
have when you travel. Because there is a difference. But
(19:53):
here's why this is actually a good thing for you.
This whole business about ordinary travel and the listeners of
the show, this corporate algorithmic tightening. That's the ultimate wake
up call. It's the universe telling us that the conveyor
belt of ordinary vacationing is dead. When every trip is
(20:15):
optimized by an app, we lose some beautiful accidents, those
wrong turns and the unplanned encounters that actually make travel
life changing. And I have to ask you, Chris. I
don't mean to put you on the spot, but you
told me a story one time about an accidental travel
(20:37):
experience that you had in Mexico, and it floored me.
I mean, I was rolling laughing about that, But wasn't
that wouldn't you say that was part and parcel of
the experience that you had and the stories you told
about it.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Oh, yeah, I mean that's I think. There are two
things that came out out of that trap to Cancun, Mexico.
This was, gosh, fifteen twenty years ago. Now. We went
to a restaurant that served shrimp that were the size
of your fist. They were like lobster tails. So I
brag about that all the time. And then the mistake
(21:17):
of all mistakes, which ended up being sort of a
fun story if it weren't so dangerous. My travel companion said, oh,
you can get on the bus. It takes you to
the end of the island, it loops around it to
bring you back, and you can just stay on there
and see the whole island. So I got on the
bus and it just kept going and going, and it
was late at night, and it ended up they stopped
(21:40):
in what was the most sketchy place I've ever been
on planet Earth, and there was one street light up
above a guy sitting in a lawn chair in front
of a laundry mat who was collecting the money from
the buses as they pulled in at the end of
the evening, and they forced me off the bus, and
I was probably I was probably twenty miles from the
(22:02):
hotel district and I'm out on the street trying to
wave down a cab. I don't speak Spanish, and the
cabby's knew how dangerous it was. They wouldn't stop, so
I had to. I actually jumped out in the street
in front of a cab. He sort of slammersh brakes on.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out all the
money I had and showed it to him and just
(22:23):
kept yelling Zona de la hotel, erra sure, and he
kept going no, see soa de la hotela, and he
finally let me get in and he took me back
to the hotel and I had the nicest trip in
that cab. We barely could communicate, but I knew that
Mexico was playing in a soccer match, so I kept
(22:45):
asking about football, and he told me his name and
his kids' names, and I felt like we were dear
friends by the time he got me back to the hotel.
But that's the story I tell it. It was a mistake.
Oh man, that's how Dateline NBC specials start. Tourists goes missing.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
But that's what we call beautiful mistakes because that became
part of the written story that you had about a
great international experience, when you talked to your friends and
family and retold that story, and that becomes part of
what is entertaining about what makes travel fun. You know.
(23:30):
I often say to people, please, don't expect perfection when
you leave your home. If you want that, stay home,
you know. And that's not to say we want things
to go wrong. Heavens no, there's no way I want
things to go wrong. But when they do, when those
wrong turns come around, and the unplanned encounters, those sometimes
(23:53):
can be some of those beautiful accidents and they don't
altern out bad. We know that some do, and we're sorry,
but you know, some of them turn out to be
a great story. Now, the bad and the ugly of
the industry, those aren't roadblocks keeping you at home. They're
the exact reasons why you need a break away from
(24:16):
the herd. These are actually the catalysts forcing us to
become true conscious explorers again. And if the standard path
is frustrating, you know what, it's time to step off
the path. We're going to talk now about something I
(24:37):
call the road less traveled. And if you've been with
us from the start of this hour, we've kind of
unmasked the modern travel industry. We're looking at the beautiful
rise of intentional travel, the exhausting traps of algorithmic tourism.
Now I want to talk about how this plays out
in real life, because one of the most inspiring trends
(25:00):
kind of emerging from this broken corporate landscape is this
massive wave of what I call solo midlife backpacking and
radical resets. How's that for a term? For decades, Chris,
the industry has told us that there was a strict
(25:21):
timeline for travel. It kind of says, you backpack when
you're twenty, you sleep on hostile floors and you eat
instant noodles. Then you get a job, You buy the
resort vacation packet, You sit by a pool surrounded by concrete,
You disconnect from the culture around you, and you have
a great time. Right in that what it looks like
(25:44):
for a lot of people, it does, you know, but
people in their thirties, their forties, and their fifties and
really beyond, they're tearing up that script. They're looking at
the standard resort vacation and they're saying that feels ordinary.
I want something more and they're packing a single backpack.
(26:06):
They're leaving the luxury bubbles behind, and they're heading out
on solo journeys to clear their minds after years of
intense career or family focus. Now, when you travel so
lo later in life, you bring a completely different kind
of curiosity. You aren't just trying to party or collect
(26:30):
a stamp. You might have done that when you were
twenty or younger, but that's not what you're doing now.
You're traveling to listen. You're traveling to reconnect with that
version of yourself that you might have lost that existed
before the mortgage and the deadlines and the daily grind
took over. And doing it without a rigid itinerary. You're
(26:54):
stepping away from those apps and you're just letting the
road guide you. And that is how you find the
antidote to the corporate travel trap. It's about arriving in
a small town asking a local where they eat. I
love that whenever I travel, Chris, I do that all
(27:14):
the time. I say, you know, to maybe a taxi driver,
an Uber driver. I did that just recently. I was
in Tennessee and actually had an Uber driver and I said,
where's the best place to get some barbecue around here.
He goes, well, I could tell you where the locals go,
but I can also tell you where the tourism office
would tell you. I said, I want to know where
the locals go.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yep, and you don't have You probably don't have as
much of.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
A line exactly exactly. And if you ask where they eat,
you're going to discover a whole world that a travel
algorithm is never going to help you find, because a
human gave you that, somebody who actually eats the stuff
you know and likes the stuff. This is how you live, folks. Listeners,
(28:01):
Chris an extraordinary life. We're going to step away now
for thirty seconds for a quick break, and when we
come back, we're going to answer Chris the biggest question
of all. Despite all of the headaches and some of
those we've talked about, what is that undeniable spark that
(28:23):
keeps us returning to the road.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Stay tuned, we'll talk about that next here on a
life lest ordinary.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Why do you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating
customs and more. Wishes really do come true At the
wishing Well. Visit us at two forty three and a
half Avenue, call us at five four zero nine zero
(28:54):
eight two three three three, or on the web at
Thuwishingwells dot biz.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, welcome back to a life lesson Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well.
I love Saturday morning. Terry Dean and occasionally Harry Rife
and I get to sit down and talk at travel.
And this week's show is entitled the Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly. We've discussed those three elements Cherry of travel.
(29:18):
We are right forward and went to break. You mentioned
what what's that spark? What really gets us to, you know,
make that next move so we can start enjoy our travel.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, and that's the exciting parts of travel for me.
I think are the sparks, you know. I remember once
upon a time when I was taking a class in marketing,
they said, Terry, it's all about the sizzle, you know,
And I'm like, isn't travels the same thing? It's all
about the sizzle, you know, and this next segment that
(29:52):
we're gonna go into, Chris, I've called the core theme
the beautiful resistance. And as we're entering the home stretch
now of this deep dive into travel today, we have
looked at the good, the bad, and the ugly, and
we've looked at those corporate toll booths and what I
(30:13):
called the algorithmic crowds. And that brings us to the
ultimate burning question at the center of the modern travel experience,
and that is, why do we keep doing it? When
the flight is delayed, when the baggage fee is outrageous,
when those lines are long, and the industry seems intent
(30:36):
on making it harder than it ever needs to be
to leave our homes? Why do we still open our laptops,
put on our credit card numbers, and book the next
flight anyway. We do it because the human soul cannot
be commodified. We do it because packing a suitcase is
(30:58):
a supreme, radical act of optimism. Think about what you're
doing when you travel. You step out of your comfort zone,
out of your language, out of your safety net. You
actually are choosing to trust that that stranger across the
world is going to help you when you're lost, like
(31:20):
you found in Mexico. That same story, Thank goodness for
that story is making its way, I'll tell you. But
you're choosing to believe that the world is fundamentally good,
that it's beautiful, and it is waiting to welcome you.
And Chris, you know, week after week after week, that
(31:45):
is the message that I try to convey to our
listeners every single time, is that the world is beautiful
and it's waiting to welcome you. We tolerate those smaller
seats on the aircraft and the logistical headaches because we
know that a single moment of absolute awe and now
(32:09):
I mean that might be standing at the edge of
a canyon. I remember my first awe moment when I
stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and it
took my breath away. I went, I can't believe I'm here.
I can't believe I'm seeing this magnificent, intentional invention by God.
(32:33):
I'm seeing this myself with my own eyes. You kind
of get that moment where you share a laugh with
somebody whose language you don't even speak, and all of
a sudden you realize they had one conversation you had
another and you're eating a meal and that's cooked from
a century's old family recipe. Maybe you're doing that with
(32:56):
some chef in Italy. You're going to wipe away every
single hour of airport frustration in those moments, and travel
changes our internal chemistry. It breaks that digital bubble that
we sit in all day long. It forces us to
look up, to breathe, and to remember that life really
(33:21):
is this vast, wild and unpredictable paradise. We keep returning
to the road because we know, Chris, that that discomfort
of the journey is the price of admission for guess
what a life less ordinary. We don't travel to escape life.
(33:43):
We travel so that life doesn't escape us. And I'm
going to let that sink in for just a minute.
I want to head into our next segment now, and
I'm going to call that listener mail and close. And
I think it's been an incredible hour so far. I mean,
(34:04):
I have to tell you, as I wrote for this
show this week, Chris, I was inspired really by my
own previous travel moments. And I was also a little
tickled because I knew I was going to put you
on the spot with that Mexico story. But really we're
(34:27):
unpacking the state of our traveling world with you. But
a conversation is no fun if it's just a one
way street. I want to open up some opportunities, Chris,
even if you have any that are those great stories,
maybe of something that you remember from a trip that
(34:50):
we could maybe talk about and share here on the
show that was kind of a fundamental thing that happened
to you on a trip that you went on.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
The probably my baseball trip. I've talked about that here
on a Lifeless s Ordinary in the past. About fifteen
years ago, I decided I wanted to go to see
I think it was nine baseball stadiums in a week,
and I don't know I made it to nine or not,
(35:23):
But I thought I was going to be my own
travel agent. And I planned out my week and hit
each one of the cities and took in a baseball
game and tried to do all the local stuff where
you just mentioned about, you know, where where do the
locals get barbecue in Tennessee. I went to Saint Louis
(35:44):
and I said, where do I get you know, where
do I get some good ribs?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Went to Chicago and I said, I you know, I
want some really good pizza. And it's amazing to me
how people that typically would be like, leave me alone.
I'm too busy. I've got my own problems in the world.
When you say, hey, i'm traveling, I'm visiting and I
(36:09):
would like to know where. You know, as you mentioned
the rips, where are the pizza place is, They're like, oh,
you need to go to UNO's Pizza. And when you ordered,
they're gonna you're gonna be in line and you're gonna
wait an hour. But it's worth it, you know. It's
like they get your preps, you're ready, you know everything
you need to know before you even arrived there. And
I think that for me when I took that trip
(36:32):
was getting to know people, meeting the locals. Having someone
asked me, oh, are you a huge, uh you know,
Tigers fan when I was in Detroit and I was
like no, and they're like, then why are you here?
You know, I'm I'm wearing my Detroit Tigers jersey of
my hat and I'm like, oh, I'm touring baseball stadiums
(36:52):
and I wanted to try the food each place I
went everything and they were like, wow, that's really and
it was. I'm not sure if they were trying to
be polite, you know, like the bless his Heart, that's
really interesting, or they really thought it was interesting. I
don't know, but that was just getting to meet people
and learning about their their town and their culture. And
you know what the difference is between a Chicago hot
(37:14):
dog and uh, you know Cincinnati's was it Cincinnati's chili? Cincinnati?
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:22):
You know, over to port over top to spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
So, I don't know if you can tell most of
my stories around food. Yeah, food, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I mean so so you are definitely a culinary of Ficinado.
You like what you like, and you like to travel
and find things that are different. I think that's great.
I mean, everybody has something that they travel to find
out more about. I get ask a lot of times
(37:52):
Chris about my travel experiences. I mean, I think people
are just naturally curious about the person who sits behind
the computer who helps plan their next experience. Where have
you been and what have you done? And I have
to tell you this story. I remember when I was man,
(38:12):
I started in this industry when I was so so green,
I mean I was so young. I was like you know,
barely twenty and I was flying on a plane for
the first time on PanAm Airlines, the company that I
worked for at the time, took all of us as
travel agents on what we called a fam trip, and
(38:35):
I was able to fly on PanAm in first class.
But here's the sad story. I was so terrified of flying,
and it was a direct NonStop flight to London, that
I kept my head down on my seat back chair
the whole flight long. And there was a gentleman who
(38:57):
sat next to me who obviously didn't no I wasn't
even twenty one yet, and he said, ma'am, do you
need a drink for this flight? He said, I'll be
happy to order you a drink, And I'm like, no,
I'm just scared to death. But those are the kinds
of experiences that you don't forget. I remember, also in
(39:20):
my young years in the travel industry, when I was
just beginning, putting my feet in the ocean for the
first time in Panama and actually also having a most
unusual experience like something right out of a national geographic magazine,
where on that same trip, when I went to Panama,
(39:40):
I flew in a small beachcraft aircraft over to what
we call the San Blas Islands. They are basically uncivilized
to some degree, and they you really do get the
sense that you're in a national geographic magazine, and I
it's all for the first time in my life, really
(40:03):
what it looked like to be a part of that
national geographic experience. It was awe striking. And then one
of the other experiences that always always comes back to
my mind, Chris, was my trip to Japan that hasn't
(40:24):
been so long ago, but I remember standing at the
top of the street called Rapungi, and I was walking
down that street and I saw this massive movement of
what just looked like a black carpet, when in fact
it was the black hair of all of the local
(40:47):
Japanese people walking literally almost shoulder to shoulder. It was
as crowded as any place I had ever seen in
Japan while I had been there, but it was almost
spiritually quiet. They were so reverent and so respectful of
(41:07):
one another. And they walked in such a sort of
a complete stride. Almost it would have looked like arm
in arm and hand in hand. They weren't, but it
just looked like that. And I can remember thinking to myself,
what a wonderful country that was. To see how unique
(41:30):
it was for all of these people to be in
such a crowded situation and not see one hiccup. I
was so impressed with Japan. It was one of the
best trips of my life. When people ask me, Terry's
one of the best places or the most impactful place
you've ever been, without a doubt, has to be Japan.
(41:50):
And I'm so happy that today Japan here in twenty
twenty six has come back into its own and people
are flocking back to Japan again. They want to experience
something that is there, something that beckons us to that place.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
So when we think Paris, we think Eiffel Tower. Go
to London you see Big Ben, go to Buckhan Palace
and maybe right on the eye Ferris Wheel. If I'm
going to Japan, do they have I mean, I guess
there's the Imperial City where the emperor lives. What is
(42:29):
other than just the amazing culture? What are those things
that are going to be instagram worthy when I go
to Japan?
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Yeah, so it's the temples. The temples are beautiful, and
the architecture there and the gardens are magnificent. I mean,
there's something so there's such talent I think that is
woven right into the DNA of the Japanese people. They
can simply create something of beauty out of nothing. Give
(43:01):
them two pieces of straw, and I swear you'll have
a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
They are some of the best woodworkers you'd ever see
on the planet.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Aren't they though? And I mean to be able to
see that and experience that real time with something in
my memory bank, I will never ever forget.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
How do we handle when we travel overseas if we
go to and I guess most countries they speak English,
But when we go somewhere like I don't understand any Japanese,
how do I get that experience that we've been talking
about where I'm asking the locals where to go and
they're saying, oh, First off, probably in the language I
(43:44):
don't understand, but also the terminology they're going to use,
even for the way they describe their food is going
to maybe need an interpreter as well.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, so that's a great question, Chris. The interesting thing is,
and probably what is would be maybe shocking to you,
I don't know, is that the Japanese people, as a
second language. They speak English, and they speak English very
well as a matter of fact, and they are very proud,
most of them, especially the younger generation of Japanese young folks,
(44:18):
they are very proud of the fact that they have
and are becoming a lot more westernized. They love that.
They love everything about America and Americans and the way
we live and the way we dress. And you know,
and I look at them and I think the same thing.
But there's this mutual admiration society going on between Americans
(44:41):
and the Japanese right now. And language is really not
a barrier. And you know, the good news is we
live in such a technological age, Chris, that you know,
even if language, say, would be a barrier of some
kind like you experienced in Mexico today, there's a piece
of cake. We've got things like Google Translate on our
(45:03):
phones and it does the translation for us. We talk
into that, we tell somebody what we want to know,
and it instantly translates that into something that they can
readily understand and communicate back to you.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Yeah, and they appreciate that, I think they do.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Anytime you try, you know, I always say to people,
you know, one of the things that you should do
if you're traveling internationally, is that you should try to
pick up one or two phrases of something in that
country's dialect so that you can at least communicate thank
you and please, and things like a bathroom. You know,
(45:43):
those are things that you need to know when you're there.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
For sure. We've been doing the show for a long
time now. We just entered our seventh year of a
Life Less Ordinary. It's brought to you by your friends
at the wishing Well. That's Terry Dean, whose voice you've
been hearing all this hour, also Harry Rife, who joins
us on the show pretty regularly. If you go back
through the volume us amount of episodes that we have
(46:08):
available both on the iHeartRadio app and on the website
the wishing Well dot bizz up in the upper right
hand corner, you'll find a link for all the past episodes.
You will find episodes that speak specifically to what Terry
just mentioned about learning a few phrases, a few words
everything you need to be prepared before you go on
your amazing hopefully not once in a lifetime, once this year,
(46:35):
once in a year experience where you get to go
out and enjoy these luxurious getaways. You have everything you
need to be prepared, what luggage to take, what to
put in the luggage, what phrases you should learn. That's
what I love about our show is, you know, each
week we take on a different theme, and each one
(46:56):
of those shows gets us even more prepared for getting
out and joining the world that is out there that
we have just not yet experienced. Terry.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah. And you know, for us, Chris, and I think
even you, as you've come along with us through this
journey of a lifeless ordinary, I think even you've begun
to learn and appreciate the benefits of luxury travel because
we've defined it so many different ways. And what we've
taken a lot of time to try to do as
(47:27):
we celebrate this seventh year that we're going into, is
that we've let you understand, as a listener, as a
traveler with the wishing Well, that luxury is defined by
your own preferences, and if those preferences are checked in
all of those boxes, to you, that's luxury. The other
(47:49):
thing that I wanted to actually comment on is the
fact that folks come into our office sometimes, Chris, and
they really don't know where they want to go. Sometimes
that's a gray area for folks. And recently I invested
in a book. It's called Destinations of a Lifetime. And
(48:12):
I love this book because it's kind of a look book.
It's a book that when folks come into my office,
they can sit down with me and I can say, okay,
so if you don't know where you want to go,
let me give you a few minutes with these Destinations
of a Lifetime and look at this and tell me
what speaks to you, because you know, that's the magic
(48:33):
of travel. Sooner or later, a picture that you see,
some food that you've experienced, some family member who's been
to a certain place that will speak to you, and
that suddenly becomes someplace you want to experience for yourself. Why,
Because we're basically curious. People are really really at heart,
(48:55):
we're all curious. I had a client who came in
the other day who said, who's planning their own honeymoon?
And I asked them where they wanted to go, and
of course it was someplace exotic. And I said, I
really need to understand what drove you to want to
pick this particular destination. And they said, well, I'll tell
you why, Terry. It's because we just got back from
(49:19):
a friend's wedding in Madagascar, and it was so amazing
that we decided that for a honeymoon it just couldn't
be ordinary. And I'm like, I so get that, you know,
I so get that. We with the show that we've
just talked about today, how to really unhinge from ordinary travel,
(49:44):
that rut of ordinary travel. Let me tell you something.
If anything is changing today in the way we travel,
it's honeymooners. My goodness, I remember a day like going
back to my mom and dad's honeymoon. They honeymooned in
Niagara Falls. And there are still people who do that today,
(50:04):
I know that. But gone are the days when people
think about going to a hotel, maybe in Richmond, or
just for a couple of night getaway. I've got clients
who are going to the Maldives, who are going to
Bora Bora, who are going to over the water bungalows
(50:26):
in Fiji, and you know, this couple settled on Saint
Lucia in Jade Mountain, where the fourth wall of this
particular resort is completely open to the petons. We're talking
major experiences, and that's when we step over from the
(50:47):
world of ordinary travel, and I'm so happy that these
young couples are able to do it in their very
first most important trip they'll ever take together, their honeymoon,
into the land of extra ordinary travel.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
We really enjoy this show each week, and I don't
know if we really here in the Valley appreciate that
we have someone with the skill and the knowledge and
the talent that you have to make these unforgettable experiences
come true for us. We're really lucky that we live here,
(51:26):
and I feel really lucky that each week I get
to talk with you, and it's like I'm in a
university lecture. Each week I'm learning and taking notes and
hoping someday just to know a small portion of what
you share with us about your experiences traveling the world,
traveling around the US. You just bring so much to
(51:50):
the table each week, and I just want to say
thank you. And I'm looking forward to our seventh and eighth,
and ninth and tenth year as we continue on with
a lifeless.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
Ordinary I am too, Chris, and I'm looking forward to
introducing new travelers that I've never seen before to the
world of luxury and experiences and creating memories for themselves.
I love the wishing Well too. It is always such
a pleasure Chris, to share this time with you on
(52:19):
Saturdays and with our listeners. Would love to invite people
to come and join us anytime. We're easy to find.
We are at the wishing Well, two forty three f
Avenue in the Valley Center. You can of course call
us at five four oh nine oh eight two three
three three or look us up on the web. Chris,
we are at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
This has been on Life Less Ordinary, the travel show
and podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well. There
are two forty three f Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you
have any questions on topics discussed today, please reach out
to the wishing Well online at the Wishingwell dot biz
or call five four oh nine oh eight twenty three
thirty three. Past episodes are of on the iHeartRadio Lab
(53:01):
and we'll see you again next Saturday morning at tend
for a Lifeless Ordinary from the wishing Well
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