January 12, 2024 • 53 mins
Travel Trends for 2024
It’s that time of year when we’re all figuring out what the next 12 months are going to look like, and the internet is full of suggestions on how to make sure our lives are on trend in 2024. Let’s take a look at the 10 hottest travel trends we’ve got our eyes on this year. The trends we cover include:
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Astro Tourism - Keep your eyes on the skies and seek out the best spots to view the Northern Lights, meteors, comets, and more as you explore the globe.
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Cool-cationing - Forget the beach! As summers get hotter, vacationers are seeking out cooler climates to the north and far south for their holidays.
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Gig Tripping - Follow your favorite band on their summer tour, catch a bucket list show at a legendary venue, or search the globe for the hottest music festival.
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Skip-gen Travel - Grandparents are leaving their adult children at home, and taking the grandkids out for bucketlist adventures or to share meaningful places and experiences.
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Luxury Rail Travel - 5 star hotels on wheels, travel in style without the stress of traffic or airports.
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Wild Feasting - Foraging for ultra-local ingredients to help prepare a meal, or dining al-fresco after a cooking lesson. Travelers are looking to go beyond eating local delicacies, and actually eat with locals.
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Dupe Destinations - Ditch the crowds, and look for spots that give a similar flavor, but aren't overrun with tourists.
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Set-Jetting - tourists are seeking out locations where their favorite prestige television shows and movies were filmed for a chance to get closer to the action.
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Authentic Cultural Immersion - parasailing and wax museums are fun, but travelers in 2024 want a chance to experience daily life and culture in the places they visit.
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Frontier Exploration - whether they're braving the Drake Passage to see Antarctica, or pushing personal boundaries by trying strange new foods, daring adventures, or unfamiliar locales, travelers in 2024 are all about going to undiscovered places.
For more information on these trends, check out this article from Key to the World Travel.
As always, a huge thank you to our sponsor, Key to the World Travel. For all your travel needs, Key to the World's expert travel advisors are standing by. Make sure you tell them the Gold Key Adventurers sent you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:30):
Have those bucket list trips once in a lifetime destinations that we'll get
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(01:06):
Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.
My name is Dan Leonard. Hi, Dan. Hey, joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait. Hello.
And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me.
Sure is. Our show, as always, is brought to you by Key to the World Travel.
Key to the World Travel is a full-service travel agency,
(01:39):
I love those guys. Yeah, they're pretty cool.
Well, it's that time of year when we're all trying to figure out what the next
12 months are going to look like. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Happy New Year! New us. I'm so squeaky.
That was bottles popping, Dan. He was popping the champagne.
I bet you had a loose over in there. I thought maybe you needed to go take care
(02:04):
of a situation real quick.
Yeah, well, the Internet is full of suggestions on how they think you should,
how we should make sure our lives are on trend in 2024, including the Internet
that KeepTheWorldTravel.com resides on.
So we're going to take a look at a list that we published of
the 10 hottest travel trends trends that we're watching this
(02:26):
year I gotta say I was unfamiliar with
these terms and I like that uh not only is
it a type of travel but it has a cool term for
each one of these and you know as Mr trendy Traveler I'm proud of you yeah I'm
a little disappointed that Ultimate World Cruising didn't make the the travel
Trends list because I've been down a real rabbit hole on Tick Tock lately following
(02:51):
all of the ultimate world cruisers.
Drama. Yeah, there's always new drama every single day. It's fantastic.
And we have some clients and one of our advisors on board.
So we've got the inside scoop. And it's, it is fascinating to me.
I love how dramatic the TikTok community makes it.
(03:12):
It's probably just, you know, fairly mundane and boring on board. But.
It's like a reality TV show unfolding on Royal Caribbean.
Yeah, between that cruise and Neil deSille, I haven't put down my cell phone
in weeks now. What is that?
What's Neil deSille? Neil deSille? You haven't met Neil? Oh. No.
(03:33):
I think it's either Australia or New Zealand. There's a colony of elephant seals
that beach themselves around end of December to molt.
Because apparently seals molt. They do. I do. And elephant seals smell really bad.
Yeah. Well, Neil the seal is one particular elephant seal who has decided that he likes the locals.
(03:56):
And he's not just laying there on the beach while he molts. He has moved in
and made himself a resident of the town.
Wow. And he frequently obstructs the roads.
He will crawl up to people's houses and bang on the doors.
Oh, fun. I've got to go check this out. And ask for them to come out and spray
him down. Yeah, he's become a member of the community. Love it.
(04:18):
So, yeah, you can find this article at keytosworldtravel.com,
and we'll link it in the show notes for you.
But we've got a whole bunch of trends to start with. Some of them we've talked
about a little bit before.
Some of them, like Jeff had, have been updated with hot new names for the new
year. Let's dig right in. The first one on the list is astrotourism.
So I have a question. Would being in
(04:39):
search of the Northern Lights fall in astrotourism, youth, do you think?
Because this is what I've been seeing all over the place in the last couple
of weeks, is everybody posting about the fact that those are supposed to be huge this year.
It's supposed to be a really great year for the Northern Lights.
I've always wanted to see that.
(04:59):
The auras are going to be huge in 24, everybody.
Yeah, when it's cold enough and if you're far enough north, You can see them in Michigan sometimes.
I have seen them. I've seen pictures. Right here off of my own back deck.
I would say it looks like the most crazy when you see people like in Iceland
watching these things. It's just bananas.
I would love to see that. And that certainly would be a spot for astro-tourism.
(05:24):
That's where people can go and watch them.
So I'm thinking astro-tourism is going to be hot in Miami this year after the
10-foot aliens at the Bayside Mall. all.
Have you guys heard about this? I think that's something different.
What's going on at the Bayside Mall, Jeff? Have you not seen this? No, I haven't either.
(05:45):
I've been watching Neil DeSille. I can't get off Neil Talk.
It's all Neil Talk all the time. I'm in Drake Passage Talk.
I haven't gotten the alien. Well, I'll send you a link later.
But there was a kerfuffle at the Bayside Mall in Miami.
And then some dummy said it was aliens. And now the whole TikTok is aflutter
(06:06):
with proof that there are 10-foot aliens that have arrived in a portal at the Bayside Mall.
And my thought is, why in the world would they show up in a portal in the Bayside Mall? In Miami?
Miami. That's a good question.
Anywho, that's – we'll have to do some investigative journalism on that one and get back to you.
(06:27):
But, yeah, 2024 is definitely a big year for astronomical events,
not astrological events.
As Heather mentioned, the Northern Lights are going to be really spectacular this year.
Also, there's a great big total solar eclipse happening in April.
(06:48):
And hotels along the path of that eclipse started booking up solid over a year
ago. This is crazy to me. People are really excited. Yeah.
I know that like basically immediately after the last total solar eclipse was
like a good five years ago or so, wasn't it?
People started booking their trips for the 2024 eclipse. Be in the path of it. Huh?
(07:11):
Interesting. That's right. I don't care. About that. Yeah.
I do. I've seen the dark before. I do. I will say that I never quite got it
when people are talking about stargazing in places where there's not a lot of
light pollution until I happened to be somewhere.
(07:32):
And this was when we did the Arizona and Utah Adventures by Disney,
and we were out in the middle of nowhere.
And it is kind of spectacular what you can see just with the naked eye,
just standing on the ground. It's very, very cool.
I don't know whether I would plan an entire trip around that,
(07:52):
but if there's somewhere you wanted to visit and that was a thing that you could
tack on, then I'd be all about that.
And people get really into the photography of the sky where you do time-lapse and all that.
So going somewhere like that, you get some amazing pictures.
Yeah, there's great places right here in the United States where you could go
jump on this astro-tourism trend. Yeah.
(08:16):
Yeah, there's a lot of places that it's been, for several years now,
they've been designated as dark sky parks, where they're remote,
more remote spots where the light pollution is below a certain level.
Isn't that supposed to be Disney's new fifth gate?
Yes. Right. I will say, if you're in one of these areas where the stargazing
(08:36):
is great, what's not great is the Wi-Fi.
So if that's important to you, keep that in mind.
They're not building a lot of antennas out there.
Yeah. There's one in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There's a dark sky park that you can visit.
Does not surprise me. Yeah, those are really popular. There's also a meteor
(08:58):
shower that's happening right around the time of the solar eclipse.
It's supposed to be one of the biggest, most spectacular ones.
I do love a meteor shower. There's a comet coming through that is leaving a
trail of meteors. That's going to be really good.
We've had a lot of people asking about Alaska for this summer to get in the
Northern Lights and check Alaska off their bucket list.
(09:19):
Alaska cruises are very hot right now.
Well, that goes right into our next topic. Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, stuff is melting, so now is the time to go see glaciers.
Yeah, even Alaska is melting. When Kendra was there last summer,
it was up in the 80s for most of their cruise. Yeah, it's kind of weird.
(09:40):
Yeah, so that it doesn't fit as well into this next one.
But this next topic or the next trend we've got our eye on is we're calling it coolcationing.
That would be where you instead of heading to the beach in the summer,
thanks to the ridiculous heat waves that we've seen, especially in like Europe
the last few years, people are starting to look for cooler climates to head
(10:05):
to for their summer vacations.
So a lot of alpine retreats.
Scotland only hits the mid-60s on average in the summer. Pretty far north.
Scandinavia, people that typically would go to the Mediterranean,
they are heading to the Baltic. And Latvia is apparently a really hot,
hot destination. A really hot, cool place.
(10:27):
That's right. The Arctic is on my bucket list now.
I've been to the bottom of the world. Now I have to go to the top and see a polar bear.
I cannot get my cannot get my family excited about this trend both of my kids
are like heck no we don't want to go where there are polar bears and you have
to have naturalists armed with rifles,
(10:48):
watching for the polar bears because they're starving and they will come eat
you my parents did that in the 70s so tell your family they're a bunch of i will tell them yes.
Again, their daily message. Yes. You know, the Southern Hemisphere also has
some spots that work for this trend as well.
Because when it's summer up here in the northern, it's winter down there.
(11:12):
So there are a lot of great skiing locations in New Zealand and Australia.
It seems weird to think about going skiing in Australia. I know,
but they've got some really tall mountains.
And they're really close to the South Pole. So you could head to Chile and Easter Island.
(11:32):
But the very tip of Argentina is pretty cold.
Most of the year, actually. It's fairly temperate down there.
Right. And this one never occurred to me because it's Africa.
But South Africa is very temperate in our summertime.
And you can see penguins in Cape Town, South Africa. That one is starting to
(11:55):
become a popular place to head for 2024 in the summertime or in our summer months.
I'm all for going somewhere cool. I've always wanted to do Alaska for that reason
because it's really hot here in Alabama in the summer. I don't want to be here.
Expedition cruises to the top and the bottom of the planet are still the hot thing.
(12:18):
We're seeing a lot more people. Yes, we're seeing a lot of people that are booking those.
The Ultimate World Cruise is about to enter the Drake Passage like right now, I think.
That's what's been all over my TikTok the last few days. They're headed down to Antarctica.
Didn't they skip over some Argentina and head straight to...
They did because the weather is getting so bad down there right now that they
(12:43):
changed their route route to have a quicker route through the Drake to avoid
the swells that are happening right now.
They're on a bigger ship, so it's not going to be quite as dramatic as on a smaller ship.
And they don't get to land anywhere. They won't be getting off the ship in Antarctica.
It's too big of a ship, but they'll just be sailing past some of the sites.
(13:07):
I get the feeling that a lot of the guests on that cruise aren't necessarily
the hearty, adventurous types that might be up to braving the Drake Passage.
Yeah. And I think another thing that like a lot of those, these spots that are
on this cool alternatives, they're kind of cultures and places that haven't been explored so much.
(13:32):
Everybody's been going to the Caribbean and to, you know, the Mediterranean,
these places for quite some time now. Oh, yeah, everybody's been to the Mediterranean.
I mean, it's been a part. In Europe, all the Europeans go there, right? Yeah.
Yeah, the Dalmatian coast is a great alternative to the Mediterranean,
seeing Croatia and some of those. I hear it's spotty.
(13:56):
Seeing Croatia and a lot of those spots along there, and they're really beautiful
countries, and everybody speaks English.
It's kind of crazy. That surprised me about that area of the world.
Well, next up on the list is something that we're calling gig tripping. Gig tripping.
Yeah, it's going to conjure up maybe visions of deadheads traveling the country
(14:20):
in vans. Is this just following bands around?
Well, traveling specifically for a show.
Yeah, because music festivals have really become over-the-top destination events.
Um events some of those you know huge crazy
things that look like you step into like a sci-fi movie or
something and then there's miss taylor swift's eras tour there's a lot of oh
(14:45):
and that new that new familiar with her that new um the sphere in vegas i've
seen a lot of people taking trips out there to see their favorite band yeah
in the sphere we're seeing in there i'll go so far So far,
nothing has really grabbed me enough to want to go out there.
U2 isn't getting your motor running. No, I've seen U2 enough times. I think I'm done.
(15:08):
I haven't seen U2 a single time. Well, you know, I wasn't excited about it. And I am a big U2 fan.
And their last couple of albums, notwithstanding, I still like them. But...
They sound awful on this tour, I have to say. The visuals look cool,
but they sound like hot garbage.
That's shocking because they have an army of musicians literally underneath
(15:30):
the stage playing everything for them. Really?
Oh, dear. Oh, they have. They have an army of clones singing what he used to
sound like. Yeah, they've done that for years.
It's a little trick. I guess I did this this summer. or I went to see Depeche
Mode in two different cities and seriously considered tacking on a couple more,
(15:51):
but I restrained myself.
I would go anywhere. I would go somewhere and see Taylor Swift,
but I was never able to secure any tickets, so I didn't. You didn't get an access code? No.
No access code. And I tried to go to Vegas to see Adele, and that didn't work either.
Well, it was when she came back, And the Weekends with Adele thing,
(16:12):
I've signed up for both times she was going to do it, including the one where
she actually did. And they sell out just so immediately.
Those residencies are definitely. That's my kind of thing. But I don't like
these big concert, these big festivals.
I'm not going to be out in a field of mud with a bunch of people and then sleeping
in a tent somewhere. That is not happening.
(16:34):
Did you see this one, though, that I linked to in the article?
It's the Untold Festival. It is in Transylvania, and it looks like...
Swedish house mafia? Yeah, it looks pretty over the top. It looks like there
(16:55):
might be... And Sam Smith.
Yeah, but the set looks like a big Gothic castle.
Cool. There in that video, they're playing and stuff. Leaning into the location.
I like it. Yeah, definitely.
It looks pretty phenomenal. It looks cool, but I'm still out in a field with a bunch of people.
In Transylvania. Yeah. That does make it, that set does look super cool.
(17:20):
Yeah, there's a lot of fire and stuff going on. That looks really cool.
I would go to Transylvania. I keep on getting ads on Facebook for,
hey, you can spend a night in Dracula's castle and then sign me up for that.
Sign me up for that. I don't know about the music festival, but I'd go to Transylvania.
I will go travel for music though I love concerts and I live in Birmingham And
(17:41):
we don't get all that many good ones And the ones we do get Are happening while
I'm out of town That's why you have to go to where the shows are Get your Volkswagen
van And just hit the road Start a new life Okay.
Well Goodbye everybody It was a good run Jeff Nice knowing you,
(18:04):
This next one doesn't quite apply to anybody in our group yet.
Not for a long time. We're missing out on both ends, but this is skip gen travel,
skip generation travel.
Something that's especially popular, it looks like from what I was reading,
especially in the U.K., but we're seeing it in the U.S. also.
(18:26):
And this is where grandparents leave
their children at home and take their grandchildren on a trip instead.
I did a lot of this with my grandparents when I was a kid. Yeah,
I remember a couple of trips to Kentucky and the Smoky Mountains with my grandparents that we did.
And it's becoming even bigger.
(18:47):
Grandparents are taking their kids to places that were important to them in
their life that they want to share with them or just things that they never
got to do before that they want to experience.
They want to form a bond with their grandkids. And also there's the fact that
grandparents are living a lot longer than they used to.
Have more money. And being grandma and grandpa doesn't necessarily mean you're
elderly and frail anymore. That's true.
(19:09):
So they're getting out there. They're getting active. They're taking kids to
places that are on their bucket lists.
Yeah, my grandparents would take me somewhere every spring break and every summer.
Any highlights? We'd go to a lot of Gatlinburg and that kind of stuff.
We did Disney a bunch of times.
(19:30):
They loved it. Yeah. Yeah, we would go visit family in Kentucky.
Highlight one year, there was a secret city in Tennessee that was involved in the Manhattan Project.
Oh, cool. There's a big museum there. Yes, Oak Ridge.
That's where my stepbrother lives. Well, it's a small world.
(19:50):
That my grandpa liked to drive really close behind the coal trucks on the mountain roads.
And we'd get going quick, and it was kind of like a roller coaster.
Drafting off the coal truck.
Yeah. He's a little crazy. This next one has been on Heather's radar for quite
some time. Yes, this is on my bucket list. I'm a little surprised you haven't made this happen yet.
(20:12):
Luxury rail travel continues to be a really big deal.
One of these days, you guys, I want to do the Orient Express.
Yeah the orient express looks phenomenal they're
doing murder mystery hopefully they're yeah they're giving
you opportunities to use your little gray sails on the train
(20:34):
uh the rocky mountaineer also looks phenomenal very cool
yeah i i have had my eye on a trip for with them for quite some time they you
can you know start in the canadian rockies and head down to see red rocks in
parts of the American desert or they do every single one yeah.
(20:58):
But have you seen one from a luxury train so glass roof train car from the back
of a pack mule way God intended you were with the Donner party right oh.
I made it out. Donner, party of 14, 13, 12.
(21:24):
I've done some rail travel through Europe, but nothing overnight and nothing
on the luxury scale of the Orient Express, which I really want to try.
We did a non-luxury train trip as a kid when we moved back from out in the South Pacific.
We came back and went to Seattle and then took a train there all the way,
(21:49):
zigzagged up and down across these United States till we wound up in Birmingham.
We just spent two weeks on a train.
Wow. Sometimes we had cabin cars. Sometimes we would stop and do a hotel and
get back on. But that was awesome as a kid.
That's cool. The whole train thing was really cool.
Alaska Railroad looks very cool, too. Those look so great.
(22:10):
Yeah. If I do Alaska, I would love to check out Alaska Railroad,
too. That looks incredible.
And bullet trains in Japan. That's not so much the luxury overnight thing,
but I think it would be really cool.
I've done some high-speed rail
in Europe. High-speed rail in Europe is pretty cool. It is pretty cool.
(22:33):
But I'm intrigued by the Shinkansen in Japan.
You just wanted to say that. Yeah. That and I liked that movie,
Bullet Train. That was a really good movie.
Yeah, a lot of these trains have, I mean, the interiors look like luxurious European hotels.
(22:55):
That's what I want. Their restaurant and dining are top of the line.
Pardon the train pun there. I'm here for it. I've got to find a way to do some
luxury overnight train travel.
Yeah, and the other cool thing about it is a lot of the tracks go through areas
(23:16):
where there's not roads, there's not towns.
So you're seeing things that you might not be able to see any other way than
traveling in this train.
Yeah, it's kind of a little bit like river cruising.
You're heading through the actual countryside of these places.
It's drier. It is a lot drier.
And fewer locks. Just next.
(23:40):
This next trend, I kind of combined two different things that we're seeing a
lot of into one label here with wild feasting. Wild feasting. I'm intrigued.
Yeah, this one might not be quite as familiar.
Wild feasting. That is entirely different. That's for the looky after dark.
(24:02):
This is a different thing. Wrong show.
So wild feasting has two different ideas on it. One, a lot of times it means
an experience where you go and you help forage and gather the ingredients for a meal.
These are a lot of like kind of guided experiences that you might have as a
(24:26):
shore excursion or as part of a guided tour.
Can I go somewhere with a pig and watch it hunt for truffles?
Yeah, I'm sure that you can pay a small Frenchman to take you out into the forest with his pig.
But it's also a lot of the idea of it's really popular to have these excursions
(24:46):
where you go and you dine outdoors with the locals.
People are at a point where cultural immersion in travel is really big.
And they don't want to just eat where the locals eat or eat the traditional food.
They want to actually eat with people who live in the place and experience what
(25:09):
a traditional meal is, find out how it's made, take cooking lessons and learn how it's made.
Our advisors did this last year on a trip that they did to Israel, at least once.
There was once where they were making hummus. I think there might have been a second.
There was. I can't remember exactly which part of Israel. reel there.
(25:30):
It was another one where they were in someone's home and they had a cooking lesson with the family.
Can't remember what they made. I know on Virgin Voyages there's several...
In the Dominican Republic, there's a trip where you get welcomed into a house and you eat with them.
So it's that idea of forming a connection with the place and the people that you're visiting.
(25:53):
Adventures by Disney, a lot of their itineraries have something like this.
The one that comes to mind is in Italy where they learn pasta making in a home.
That one looks pretty cool.
Yeah, those kinds of experiences are really popular. We did this once on a spring break trip to Paris.
We learned how to make croissants in a local bakery.
(26:17):
It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Really small, family-owned bakery.
And they took us into the back to teach us how to make croissants.
And I always knew there was a lot of butter in a croissant. But when you actually
see it, it's kind of shocking.
That's why they're so delicious. And so good for you. It was a really neat experience.
(26:39):
It was a very small group. It was just my family and one other couple.
So there were about six of us making chrysalons. It was really cool.
Yeah, wasn't the, Jeff didn't, I know I've seen pictures of Jeff making some
chocolate, but wasn't there a scone making session that you were super excited about? Oh, yes.
That was our Adventures by Disney, the England and France one.
(27:02):
I think that was Jeff's favorite thing, right?
Making scones? Yeah. I thought it was going to be stupid, and it was. It was fun.
The chocolate one was okay. I don't know. If you're there with family, it's fine.
Personally, I would rather have wandered around the amazing little towns that
(27:23):
we were in than go and sit in a commercial kitchen in a place and do a thing.
That's a little bit different experience there when it's not.
I do still have that scone recipe and I make them from time to time after learning how to do it.
We did learn some interesting facts and stuff about, like, the room that we
(27:44):
were in was actually the room where Prince Charles had changed clothes before he got married.
To Camilla. To Camilla. So that was kind of interesting to hear little stories.
And when we were there, it was right after Harry and Meghan had gotten married.
So that had happened right around the corner, too.
It was like I'm sitting in a, you know, some little rec room in a building.
(28:08):
Yeah, it was like a town hall kind of thing.
Yeah, in a rec room, and they're talking about these cool things.
I'm like, I'd rather be out there looking at the cool things.
You did like the tea they were dishing out about Harry and Meghan. Yeah, I like that.
If there's one thing Jeff's into, it's the hot goss. That's right. I love a celebrity goss.
(28:34):
So, yeah, I mean, it certainly isn't for everyone.
One that is that is true but if that's the kind of thing you're into that there's some really,
great ways to add that on to trips but these things
like the one you were talking about the ones they did our uh travel planners
did in israel looked pretty awesome they're in people's homes and eating and
(28:54):
cooking and sharing stories and all that as well as the everything i've heard
about the ones in greece that shore things from virgin does sound that's the one everybody loves,
And we have some, we can add this kind of thing on to any trip anywhere in the world, really.
We have some great travel partners that put stuff like this together.
(29:14):
So even if you're doing something that doesn't focus on this kind of wild feasting
trend, it's something you could add for a day time excursion on one of the days
of your trip, really anywhere.
Yeah, definitely. And it's really worth it. See things that you don't normally
see on a stereotypical guided tour.
(29:35):
The next two trends are ones that we've talked about in the past.
These are still hot, hot travel items.
And one of them, the first one is what we're calling dupe destinations.
Destinations uh so there's a
lot of places that people are saying realizing the
hot travels or the stereotypical travel spots
(29:57):
are getting overcrowded with tourists which i
mean it's fair everybody wants to see it but um for
example it didn't um didn't venice just put in place stricter rules for tour
groups they did um tour groups are going to be limited to no more than 25 people
So a lot of tour operators are having to sort of split their groups up.
(30:22):
And Venice is a, this is a tricky one because, you know.
Having now been there, I don't think there's anywhere in the world that is like it.
And I definitely think it's something that people should see.
It's it really was one of the coolest places I've ever been.
And I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.
(30:45):
However, I would say absolutely don't go there in the summer because it's going
to be just insanely crowded.
And the canals don't smell great in the summer from what I've heard because
of some things I learned on a tour there.
But so I'd say avoid Venice during the summer and go in the off season when it's not crowded.
(31:12):
And there's cool stuff you can do in the summer that's kind of a dupe destination
sort of thing. Any of the places along the Dalmatian coast, I had no idea that
most of them were settled by Venetians way back when.
So you're going to see a lot of the same kind of architecture and stuff.
A lot of the places in Croatia and Montenegro were all started by Venetians.
(31:36):
And there's really cool stuff to see there. So go to places like Kotor and Dubrovnik
and stuff like that in the summertime where it's not as busy there.
And save Venice for the winter months.
Right. Yeah. Yeah, so to back up just a little bit, the idea is find these,
(31:58):
instead of going to these busy places or in addition to, you know,
maybe spend a little less time in the overcrowded locations,
find places nearby that are similar but aren't full of people.
And they all have things worth seeing, right? Right there.
There you're going to get the flavor of flavor of the area.
(32:20):
But you might see things that you totally missed out because you had to go see
that tower that's leaning or something like that.
I've got a couple of articles with some some suggestions and some ideas.
I know that one that was mentioned.
Everybody wants to go see Santorini in Greece. The thing is,
like that entire area is full of little villages that look just like Greece.
(32:42):
Greece has so, so, so many islands.
And I don't even know that I was aware of it until a cruise that I took in the fall.
And we didn't visit any of the big, you know, famous ones like Santorini.
We saw Corfu and Cephalonia, Naxos. They were all absolutely gorgeous and not as crowded at all.
(33:05):
Right. Give those spots a chance. Even so much, you know, if you were thinking
about taking a foodie trip around Europe.
Maybe consider going to some of the less well-traveled boroughs around New York
City where you're going to find ethnic food literally from around the world.
(33:28):
You're probably going to cover more types of cuisine traveling around New York
City than you might on a trip abroad.
See a suggestion here is instead of going to Hawaii, try the Azores of Portugal.
There's places if you want to see some really cool architecture and places that
(33:54):
feel European, you could go to Quebec.
Montreal and Quebec City look a lot like Paris and Geneva some of those places
in europe but do they have the same conventions,
i hope so otherwise we're all in for some torture italy is the yeah italy is
(34:16):
the place that americans want to go on summer vacation and y'all it is crowded
in italy in the summer and And the airfare is insane.
Yeah, I'm discovering that currently.
Yeah. If you go to somewhere like Spain or Sicily instead of Italy in the summer
(34:37):
months, you're going to have just as cool an experience, and it's probably going
to be a little less crowded.
Not that I'm saying don't see Italy. But my cruise line doesn't sail from there. Yeah.
This one sat back. I was reading about Curacao is becoming a much more popular
(34:57):
destination, but still not as crowded as some of the other Caribbean islands
during the summer. It's so pretty there. It's gorgeous, yeah.
It's kind of like seeing Amsterdam with less weed.
Yeah, that is actually one thing that stood out to me from some of the trainings
(35:18):
or the conferences that we've had over the past year is the number of islands
that I may have heard a passing the name of,
but there's so many in the Bahamas, the Caribbean,
these little islands that I did not know. People aren't visiting.
Curacao was a place. I just thought it was that blue bar stuff.
The drink. The liqueur. Yeah.
(35:38):
Yeah, and apparently there's like seven different colors of it.
I didn't know that either. I thought it was all blue. You can get so many colors.
Yeah, there's orange and green and yellow and all kinds of stuff.
Yeah, we went to Curacao on a cruise in 2017 or 18.
It's gorgeous there. um you know
(35:59):
ideas like instead of instead of
going to bar jeff say barcelona for barcelona yes
go to valencia instead oh and that is a beautiful beautiful spot yeah another
beautiful ancient city that for some reason isn't quite as popular as barcelona
um go to the alps in italy but try out a different area of it.
(36:25):
The Dolomites are kind of the go-to there. Try the Piedmont region.
And you can, you know, there's wineries there. Osti is right there.
They make great Spumanti.
Yes, that's what I hear.
So, yeah, it's just look for alternatives because there's so many places in the world.
(36:47):
You don't want to be with everybody else. Try something new.
And more Caribbean resorts and Mexican are starting to do overwater bungalows,
if you've always wanted to go to the really,
really super expensive ones in the Pacific, and you can't get there,
you've got these kind of resort fields to go to as well.
Yeah, they've definitely caught on to where the money is for those things.
(37:11):
They still look just as gorgeous.
And so the next the next one on the list we've also talked about a little bit
is set jetting instead of jets. I get it. I get it.
Yeah. And this is where you chase the locations from this past summer.
Set jetting? You went to the White Lotus. Oh, that's right.
(37:34):
Totally forgot about that. How do you forget that?
Tell me you traveled too much without traveling. I forgot I was at the Four Seasons. Yeah.
So this is where you go to find the locations where your favorite prestige television
series or your favorite movies were filmed at. There's a lot of them.
A lot of the ones that are driving this trend are from The White Lotus and also
(37:59):
Game of Thrones are kind of the two biggest ones.
I forgot about that because the most recent season of The White Lotus was in
Sicily. And I'm sitting here thinking, I don't think I've been there.
But season one, yes, I did see that location.
So people are flocking to the resorts, whatever, whatever, you know,
(38:22):
the newest season of White Lotus, wherever that's filmed.
People are flocking there to see that.
Ireland and Croatia are incredibly popular for fans of Game of Thrones.
Still. This kind of goes all the way back to when people were headed to New
Zealand for Lord of the Rings locations.
A lot of people don't know this about me, but I have never watched Game of Thrones. What?
(38:46):
I am just hearing this information right now.
I've got one episode on you, Jeff. Harry Potter filming locations,
the studio, that's kind of a, you're not seeing countrysides,
but you can actually go to the studio where they filmed a lot of Harry Potter.
(39:07):
You can go see the steam train that they used for the Hogwarts Express.
That's in Scotland, the Jacobite Express.
You can go to the place where that famous shot of it, where it's moving across that big bridge.
(39:28):
Oh, yes, that aqueduct-looking thing.
This is entirely on speculation, but I imagine that there's been an uptick in
visits to dude ranches in the Yellowstone area.
Oh, for sure. Sure, we get a lot of requests for dude ranch vacations because of that.
Yeah, so there's another category I'm not interested in. I don't like dude ranch. Dude or ranching.
(39:55):
You sure you're not into the dudes? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
I don't know, Jeff. I think we could have a good time on a dude ranch. Yeah, sure.
I won't make you get on a horse. I've never ridden a horse before.
We'll keep that record. I don't like the outside. All of this is shocking to me.
(40:16):
How do you feel about helicopters and hot air balloons? Never.
Not going to touch them. No. Not going to touch them.
I do like seeing locations where things were filmed. I love when I'm accidentally
walking around in New York and you just roll up.
I recognize that from wherever. or the friend's apartment or just little things like that.
(40:40):
And there's all tours that you can do that are just filming locations.
Jurassic Park. If you're in Hawaii, going to see the Jurassic Park filming locations is a cool.
You can ride a horse through the valley where they filmed Jurassic Park.
I would be scared of the dinosaurs, though.
They are pretty scary. You can see the Christmas Story House in Cleveland, Ohio.
(41:03):
Oh, yeah. I would see that. Oh, I just looked at the New York City one.
And right here's the Friends apartment, as I was just saying.
Friends apartment. When we went to Salem a few years ago, we didn't do any of
the traditional witch stuff.
And we only went and saw filming locations from the hit 1990s film Hocus Pocus.
(41:28):
I'm not surprised by this in any way.
My sister is a very big Hocus Pocus fan.
And it was a major highlight of our trip really cool when is she gonna take
you for filming uh locations for things like deep blue sea and sharknado.
That would be on her bucket list as well she loves a good kooky disaster film,
(41:54):
especially if it involves sharks,
Yeah, she's been on to The Meg lately, both one and two.
She's a major fan. Those are her two go-to airplane films are The Meg series.
Yeah, the second Meg movie looked pretty good, I have to say.
It looked like a ton of fun. She's a fan.
(42:17):
The next one on our list, we kind of hit a little bit when we talked about food,
but this one covers just a wider experience in general.
People are looking for opportunities for authentic cultural immersion,
places where you actually get to know the people where you're visiting, see what life is like.
(42:37):
And so that's a very popular thing, looking for opportunities to not just sit
on a beach, but get a slice of life.
Yeah. Yeah. Again, we had quite a few travel advisors when they went to Israel last year.
And again, even their their trip to Italy this year, there was a lot of those
(42:58):
experiences where you were making the pasta, cooking,
meeting, you know, meeting people and seeing what life is like in the area.
And again, Adventures by Disney does a lot of that. Even better for that would
be Nat Geo Expeditions. Yep.
That's kind of really their niche is the cultural immersion side of travel.
(43:26):
Also, G Adventures and that that one is not just a cultural immersion,
but also they do a lot of sort of give back travel, which has been a trend. friend.
Voluntourism, I think was the buzzword a few years ago, where you visit a destination
and go work in the community as part of your trip.
(43:47):
And they kind of specialize in that sort of travel.
I remember.
Should have turned that off.
That was well-timed, but it's also two minutes late. We're having issues with
(44:09):
it. You're going to have to reset your cuckoo.
It keeps stopping. That's unfortunate. Next time I'm in Germany,
I'll pick up another one.
You've got to remember to feed that bird. Otherwise, he's not going to do his
job. He quits cuckooing. Yeah.
So, yeah, that is a big category that we see all the time is looking to experience the cultures.
(44:31):
This last trend is a little bit more conceptual, but the idea of exploring frontiers.
And there's not a lot of places on the planet that haven't been explored.
There's not a lot of frontiers left. But, you know, people are,
as Heather mentioned earlier, how many videos on TikTok do we see all the time
(44:53):
of people crossing the Drake Passage?
Or it is becoming more and more accessible to climb Mount Everest or even is
becoming popular to not even climb Mount Everest, but just to be able to go
and say that you camped at base camp at Everest?
Yes, we, Jeff and I know somebody who did that this past summer, did Everest base camp.
(45:14):
And when I was following along with his trip, I've never had any inkling whatsoever
of climbing Mount Everest.
I'm not a mountain climbing kind of gal, but following that trip, it looked pretty cool.
And I thought, you know, I could probably make it to base camp.
At the very least. That might be cool. Yeah. Yeah.
(45:35):
You still do have to do a little bit of climbing to get there,
but it's not like, you know, it's more of a steep hike than it is an actual
having to climb over crevasses and actually ascend to the top.
But it looked really cool. Right.
Yeah. And like Facebook keeps on serving me up samplings of posts from groups
(45:58):
that it thinks I might be interested in.
And since it knows that I'm interested in travel, it showed me a post from this
group of people sharing tips for visiting for trekking Kilimanjaro.
And it struck me that everybody in this group, they seem to be like 90 percent
middle aged, upper class, somewhat fussy British women. I could fit into that group.
(46:50):
Said, people are looking for less crowded places, experiences that you think
that you might not have tried in general, especially, you know,
taking on some of the more adventure activities that you can have in different places.
So in lots of different ways, that's why I said it's kind of a little more conceptual.
People are looking, you know, going and trying weird new foods,
(47:12):
experiencing unfamiliar familiar cultures it's it's people are looking to grow
another one jeff will never do space tourism,
i mean that's still on my list i i would absolutely do it if i was given the
opportunity 100 it's the final frontier yeah but it's too similar to a to a balloon i don't like uh,
(47:35):
unnecessary risk oh i went to a middle school named after a dead astronaut that.
And there were two other schools in my same city named after the other two guys in the capsule.
So I'm not feeling it. Was one of them a chaffee?
There was Chaffee and Grissom and I went to Ed White.
(47:58):
Roger B.'s from Grand Rapids. We've got a street named after him here in town.
Yeah, we sure do. And our planetarium is named after him.
So those are the top 10 travel trends that we've had our eyes on,
kind of leaving 2023 and now that we're into the start of 2024.
(48:18):
2024 is going to be a year for me. I'm getting to another place that's on my bucket list.
Finally, I'm going to be going to Japan this summer. I'm super excited about that.
Nice. I've been there a bunch of times. It's fun.
Yeah, you're the one who told us all about the Iron Wang Festival, right?
(48:43):
Looking forward to that. I'm also going to be going to Switzerland in a couple
of months and just discovered that one of the things we're doing is going to
the highest altitude suspension bridge in Europe,
a foot traffic type bridge.
(49:04):
I'm a little terrified, but I think I'm going to go for it. There's a lot of
really, really high up things in Switzerland. Yes.
I bet it's because of all those mountains.
We're going to see an Alp or two. Yeah. that qualifies as adventure travel right
yeah totally perfect your personality,
(49:24):
there's a fancy rotating restaurant on top of one of those yeah we're going
on some kind of rotating lift as well it's kind of like the Skyliner only it
goes up much higher and it spins while you're going up there so you can see all around,
Jeff looks horrified. It's totally turned my head. I don't need to do that.
(49:46):
Have you seen the double-decker cable cars that they have up in the Alps?
Yeah. That the top level is open air.
You can stand inside, or if you're not a pussy, you go onto the roof. Yes. And it's open air.
I'm a pussy. I would totally do that.
Music.
Yeah, I would probably do that. Cable cars don't bother me.
(50:09):
Yeah, but I did a cable car in the Alps. and it was really, really high. Yeah.
Stuff like that doesn't bother me. I don't want to stand on an edge of something
like near a cliff where that just makes me feel weird.
Look over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.
Scary stuff. Done it. Or like these roads you see where the truck can just barely.
Music.
(50:35):
Fit on the road and you have to careen along the side of the road. That makes me feel bad.
If I knew there was no other traffic
on the road and I could do it on the motorcycle, that would be awesome.
That's terrifying, Dan. It sounds like fun. I used to be cool.
When was that? Well, anyway, it was before you knew me, my friend. It must have been.
(51:02):
Long before.
Well, anyway, thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
If you are ready to jump on any of these travel trends for 2024,
Key to the World Travel has a stadium on the Taylor Swift ERA's tour schedule
full of expert travel planners, and they're ready to make your vacation dreams a reality.
Got to get that Taylor Swift SEO in there one more time. Yes.
(51:24):
See how many Swifties we can get listening to this episode.
Music.
(51:45):
Makes our show so great, and send them our way. You can find links to subscribe
to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest Gold Key Adventure updates
at www.goldkeyadventures.com.
Music.
Can't wait to hang out with you again, and we'll see you real soon.
For real, I promise. Bye, y'all. Goodbye, everybody.
To ask a question or share your travel story, you can reach us by smoke signal,
(52:09):
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And make sure you follow the Gold Key Adventurers Society on Facebook and Instagram.
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(52:32):
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Music.
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(52:53):
Find them on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour
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We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society. society.
And until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide. So go have an adventure.
(53:19):
Swear to God, we'll actually record some episodes this year.
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Have those bucket list trips once in a lifetime destinations that we'll get
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Ticket take the trip where do you want to go come on come on come on now tell
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it's a beautiful day,
(01:06):
Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.
My name is Dan Leonard. Hi, Dan. Hey, joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait. Hello.
And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me.
Sure is. Our show, as always, is brought to you by Key to the World Travel.
Key to the World Travel is a full-service travel agency,
(01:39):
I love those guys. Yeah, they're pretty cool.
Well, it's that time of year when we're all trying to figure out what the next
12 months are going to look like. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Happy New Year! New us. I'm so squeaky.
That was bottles popping, Dan. He was popping the champagne.
I bet you had a loose over in there. I thought maybe you needed to go take care
(02:04):
of a situation real quick.
Yeah, well, the Internet is full of suggestions on how they think you should,
how we should make sure our lives are on trend in 2024, including the Internet
that KeepTheWorldTravel.com resides on.
So we're going to take a look at a list that we published of
the 10 hottest travel trends trends that we're watching this
(02:26):
year I gotta say I was unfamiliar with
these terms and I like that uh not only is
it a type of travel but it has a cool term for
each one of these and you know as Mr trendy Traveler I'm proud of you yeah I'm
a little disappointed that Ultimate World Cruising didn't make the the travel
Trends list because I've been down a real rabbit hole on Tick Tock lately following
(02:51):
all of the ultimate world cruisers.
Drama. Yeah, there's always new drama every single day. It's fantastic.
And we have some clients and one of our advisors on board.
So we've got the inside scoop. And it's, it is fascinating to me.
I love how dramatic the TikTok community makes it.
(03:12):
It's probably just, you know, fairly mundane and boring on board. But.
It's like a reality TV show unfolding on Royal Caribbean.
Yeah, between that cruise and Neil deSille, I haven't put down my cell phone
in weeks now. What is that?
What's Neil deSille? Neil deSille? You haven't met Neil? Oh. No.
(03:33):
I think it's either Australia or New Zealand. There's a colony of elephant seals
that beach themselves around end of December to molt.
Because apparently seals molt. They do. I do. And elephant seals smell really bad.
Yeah. Well, Neil the seal is one particular elephant seal who has decided that he likes the locals.
(03:56):
And he's not just laying there on the beach while he molts. He has moved in
and made himself a resident of the town.
Wow. And he frequently obstructs the roads.
He will crawl up to people's houses and bang on the doors.
Oh, fun. I've got to go check this out. And ask for them to come out and spray
him down. Yeah, he's become a member of the community. Love it.
(04:18):
So, yeah, you can find this article at keytosworldtravel.com,
and we'll link it in the show notes for you.
But we've got a whole bunch of trends to start with. Some of them we've talked
about a little bit before.
Some of them, like Jeff had, have been updated with hot new names for the new
year. Let's dig right in. The first one on the list is astrotourism.
So I have a question. Would being in
(04:39):
search of the Northern Lights fall in astrotourism, youth, do you think?
Because this is what I've been seeing all over the place in the last couple
of weeks, is everybody posting about the fact that those are supposed to be huge this year.
It's supposed to be a really great year for the Northern Lights.
I've always wanted to see that.
(04:59):
The auras are going to be huge in 24, everybody.
Yeah, when it's cold enough and if you're far enough north, You can see them in Michigan sometimes.
I have seen them. I've seen pictures. Right here off of my own back deck.
I would say it looks like the most crazy when you see people like in Iceland
watching these things. It's just bananas.
I would love to see that. And that certainly would be a spot for astro-tourism.
(05:24):
That's where people can go and watch them.
So I'm thinking astro-tourism is going to be hot in Miami this year after the
10-foot aliens at the Bayside Mall. all.
Have you guys heard about this? I think that's something different.
What's going on at the Bayside Mall, Jeff? Have you not seen this? No, I haven't either.
(05:45):
I've been watching Neil DeSille. I can't get off Neil Talk.
It's all Neil Talk all the time. I'm in Drake Passage Talk.
I haven't gotten the alien. Well, I'll send you a link later.
But there was a kerfuffle at the Bayside Mall in Miami.
And then some dummy said it was aliens. And now the whole TikTok is aflutter
(06:06):
with proof that there are 10-foot aliens that have arrived in a portal at the Bayside Mall.
And my thought is, why in the world would they show up in a portal in the Bayside Mall? In Miami?
Miami. That's a good question.
Anywho, that's – we'll have to do some investigative journalism on that one and get back to you.
(06:27):
But, yeah, 2024 is definitely a big year for astronomical events,
not astrological events.
As Heather mentioned, the Northern Lights are going to be really spectacular this year.
Also, there's a great big total solar eclipse happening in April.
(06:48):
And hotels along the path of that eclipse started booking up solid over a year
ago. This is crazy to me. People are really excited. Yeah.
I know that like basically immediately after the last total solar eclipse was
like a good five years ago or so, wasn't it?
People started booking their trips for the 2024 eclipse. Be in the path of it. Huh?
(07:11):
Interesting. That's right. I don't care. About that. Yeah.
I do. I've seen the dark before. I do. I will say that I never quite got it
when people are talking about stargazing in places where there's not a lot of
light pollution until I happened to be somewhere.
(07:32):
And this was when we did the Arizona and Utah Adventures by Disney,
and we were out in the middle of nowhere.
And it is kind of spectacular what you can see just with the naked eye,
just standing on the ground. It's very, very cool.
I don't know whether I would plan an entire trip around that,
(07:52):
but if there's somewhere you wanted to visit and that was a thing that you could
tack on, then I'd be all about that.
And people get really into the photography of the sky where you do time-lapse and all that.
So going somewhere like that, you get some amazing pictures.
Yeah, there's great places right here in the United States where you could go
jump on this astro-tourism trend. Yeah.
(08:16):
Yeah, there's a lot of places that it's been, for several years now,
they've been designated as dark sky parks, where they're remote,
more remote spots where the light pollution is below a certain level.
Isn't that supposed to be Disney's new fifth gate?
Yes. Right. I will say, if you're in one of these areas where the stargazing
(08:36):
is great, what's not great is the Wi-Fi.
So if that's important to you, keep that in mind.
They're not building a lot of antennas out there.
Yeah. There's one in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There's a dark sky park that you can visit.
Does not surprise me. Yeah, those are really popular. There's also a meteor
(08:58):
shower that's happening right around the time of the solar eclipse.
It's supposed to be one of the biggest, most spectacular ones.
I do love a meteor shower. There's a comet coming through that is leaving a
trail of meteors. That's going to be really good.
We've had a lot of people asking about Alaska for this summer to get in the
Northern Lights and check Alaska off their bucket list.
(09:19):
Alaska cruises are very hot right now.
Well, that goes right into our next topic. Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, stuff is melting, so now is the time to go see glaciers.
Yeah, even Alaska is melting. When Kendra was there last summer,
it was up in the 80s for most of their cruise. Yeah, it's kind of weird.
(09:40):
Yeah, so that it doesn't fit as well into this next one.
But this next topic or the next trend we've got our eye on is we're calling it coolcationing.
That would be where you instead of heading to the beach in the summer,
thanks to the ridiculous heat waves that we've seen, especially in like Europe
the last few years, people are starting to look for cooler climates to head
(10:05):
to for their summer vacations.
So a lot of alpine retreats.
Scotland only hits the mid-60s on average in the summer. Pretty far north.
Scandinavia, people that typically would go to the Mediterranean,
they are heading to the Baltic. And Latvia is apparently a really hot,
hot destination. A really hot, cool place.
(10:27):
That's right. The Arctic is on my bucket list now.
I've been to the bottom of the world. Now I have to go to the top and see a polar bear.
I cannot get my cannot get my family excited about this trend both of my kids
are like heck no we don't want to go where there are polar bears and you have
to have naturalists armed with rifles,
(10:48):
watching for the polar bears because they're starving and they will come eat
you my parents did that in the 70s so tell your family they're a bunch of i will tell them yes.
Again, their daily message. Yes. You know, the Southern Hemisphere also has
some spots that work for this trend as well.
Because when it's summer up here in the northern, it's winter down there.
(11:12):
So there are a lot of great skiing locations in New Zealand and Australia.
It seems weird to think about going skiing in Australia. I know,
but they've got some really tall mountains.
And they're really close to the South Pole. So you could head to Chile and Easter Island.
(11:32):
But the very tip of Argentina is pretty cold.
Most of the year, actually. It's fairly temperate down there.
Right. And this one never occurred to me because it's Africa.
But South Africa is very temperate in our summertime.
And you can see penguins in Cape Town, South Africa. That one is starting to
(11:55):
become a popular place to head for 2024 in the summertime or in our summer months.
I'm all for going somewhere cool. I've always wanted to do Alaska for that reason
because it's really hot here in Alabama in the summer. I don't want to be here.
Expedition cruises to the top and the bottom of the planet are still the hot thing.
(12:18):
We're seeing a lot more people. Yes, we're seeing a lot of people that are booking those.
The Ultimate World Cruise is about to enter the Drake Passage like right now, I think.
That's what's been all over my TikTok the last few days. They're headed down to Antarctica.
Didn't they skip over some Argentina and head straight to...
They did because the weather is getting so bad down there right now that they
(12:43):
changed their route route to have a quicker route through the Drake to avoid
the swells that are happening right now.
They're on a bigger ship, so it's not going to be quite as dramatic as on a smaller ship.
And they don't get to land anywhere. They won't be getting off the ship in Antarctica.
It's too big of a ship, but they'll just be sailing past some of the sites.
(13:07):
I get the feeling that a lot of the guests on that cruise aren't necessarily
the hearty, adventurous types that might be up to braving the Drake Passage.
Yeah. And I think another thing that like a lot of those, these spots that are
on this cool alternatives, they're kind of cultures and places that haven't been explored so much.
(13:32):
Everybody's been going to the Caribbean and to, you know, the Mediterranean,
these places for quite some time now. Oh, yeah, everybody's been to the Mediterranean.
I mean, it's been a part. In Europe, all the Europeans go there, right? Yeah.
Yeah, the Dalmatian coast is a great alternative to the Mediterranean,
seeing Croatia and some of those. I hear it's spotty.
(13:56):
Seeing Croatia and a lot of those spots along there, and they're really beautiful
countries, and everybody speaks English.
It's kind of crazy. That surprised me about that area of the world.
Well, next up on the list is something that we're calling gig tripping. Gig tripping.
Yeah, it's going to conjure up maybe visions of deadheads traveling the country
(14:20):
in vans. Is this just following bands around?
Well, traveling specifically for a show.
Yeah, because music festivals have really become over-the-top destination events.
Um events some of those you know huge crazy
things that look like you step into like a sci-fi movie or
something and then there's miss taylor swift's eras tour there's a lot of oh
(14:45):
and that new that new familiar with her that new um the sphere in vegas i've
seen a lot of people taking trips out there to see their favorite band yeah
in the sphere we're seeing in there i'll go so far So far,
nothing has really grabbed me enough to want to go out there.
U2 isn't getting your motor running. No, I've seen U2 enough times. I think I'm done.
(15:08):
I haven't seen U2 a single time. Well, you know, I wasn't excited about it. And I am a big U2 fan.
And their last couple of albums, notwithstanding, I still like them. But...
They sound awful on this tour, I have to say. The visuals look cool,
but they sound like hot garbage.
That's shocking because they have an army of musicians literally underneath
(15:30):
the stage playing everything for them. Really?
Oh, dear. Oh, they have. They have an army of clones singing what he used to
sound like. Yeah, they've done that for years.
It's a little trick. I guess I did this this summer. or I went to see Depeche
Mode in two different cities and seriously considered tacking on a couple more,
(15:51):
but I restrained myself.
I would go anywhere. I would go somewhere and see Taylor Swift,
but I was never able to secure any tickets, so I didn't. You didn't get an access code? No.
No access code. And I tried to go to Vegas to see Adele, and that didn't work either.
Well, it was when she came back, And the Weekends with Adele thing,
(16:12):
I've signed up for both times she was going to do it, including the one where
she actually did. And they sell out just so immediately.
Those residencies are definitely. That's my kind of thing. But I don't like
these big concert, these big festivals.
I'm not going to be out in a field of mud with a bunch of people and then sleeping
in a tent somewhere. That is not happening.
(16:34):
Did you see this one, though, that I linked to in the article?
It's the Untold Festival. It is in Transylvania, and it looks like...
Swedish house mafia? Yeah, it looks pretty over the top. It looks like there
(16:55):
might be... And Sam Smith.
Yeah, but the set looks like a big Gothic castle.
Cool. There in that video, they're playing and stuff. Leaning into the location.
I like it. Yeah, definitely.
It looks pretty phenomenal. It looks cool, but I'm still out in a field with a bunch of people.
In Transylvania. Yeah. That does make it, that set does look super cool.
(17:20):
Yeah, there's a lot of fire and stuff going on. That looks really cool.
I would go to Transylvania. I keep on getting ads on Facebook for,
hey, you can spend a night in Dracula's castle and then sign me up for that.
Sign me up for that. I don't know about the music festival, but I'd go to Transylvania.
I will go travel for music though I love concerts and I live in Birmingham And
(17:41):
we don't get all that many good ones And the ones we do get Are happening while
I'm out of town That's why you have to go to where the shows are Get your Volkswagen
van And just hit the road Start a new life Okay.
Well Goodbye everybody It was a good run Jeff Nice knowing you,
(18:04):
This next one doesn't quite apply to anybody in our group yet.
Not for a long time. We're missing out on both ends, but this is skip gen travel,
skip generation travel.
Something that's especially popular, it looks like from what I was reading,
especially in the U.K., but we're seeing it in the U.S. also.
(18:26):
And this is where grandparents leave
their children at home and take their grandchildren on a trip instead.
I did a lot of this with my grandparents when I was a kid. Yeah,
I remember a couple of trips to Kentucky and the Smoky Mountains with my grandparents that we did.
And it's becoming even bigger.
(18:47):
Grandparents are taking their kids to places that were important to them in
their life that they want to share with them or just things that they never
got to do before that they want to experience.
They want to form a bond with their grandkids. And also there's the fact that
grandparents are living a lot longer than they used to.
Have more money. And being grandma and grandpa doesn't necessarily mean you're
elderly and frail anymore. That's true.
(19:09):
So they're getting out there. They're getting active. They're taking kids to
places that are on their bucket lists.
Yeah, my grandparents would take me somewhere every spring break and every summer.
Any highlights? We'd go to a lot of Gatlinburg and that kind of stuff.
We did Disney a bunch of times.
(19:30):
They loved it. Yeah. Yeah, we would go visit family in Kentucky.
Highlight one year, there was a secret city in Tennessee that was involved in the Manhattan Project.
Oh, cool. There's a big museum there. Yes, Oak Ridge.
That's where my stepbrother lives. Well, it's a small world.
(19:50):
That my grandpa liked to drive really close behind the coal trucks on the mountain roads.
And we'd get going quick, and it was kind of like a roller coaster.
Drafting off the coal truck.
Yeah. He's a little crazy. This next one has been on Heather's radar for quite
some time. Yes, this is on my bucket list. I'm a little surprised you haven't made this happen yet.
(20:12):
Luxury rail travel continues to be a really big deal.
One of these days, you guys, I want to do the Orient Express.
Yeah the orient express looks phenomenal they're
doing murder mystery hopefully they're yeah they're giving
you opportunities to use your little gray sails on the train
(20:34):
uh the rocky mountaineer also looks phenomenal very cool
yeah i i have had my eye on a trip for with them for quite some time they you
can you know start in the canadian rockies and head down to see red rocks in
parts of the American desert or they do every single one yeah.
(20:58):
But have you seen one from a luxury train so glass roof train car from the back
of a pack mule way God intended you were with the Donner party right oh.
I made it out. Donner, party of 14, 13, 12.
(21:24):
I've done some rail travel through Europe, but nothing overnight and nothing
on the luxury scale of the Orient Express, which I really want to try.
We did a non-luxury train trip as a kid when we moved back from out in the South Pacific.
We came back and went to Seattle and then took a train there all the way,
(21:49):
zigzagged up and down across these United States till we wound up in Birmingham.
We just spent two weeks on a train.
Wow. Sometimes we had cabin cars. Sometimes we would stop and do a hotel and
get back on. But that was awesome as a kid.
That's cool. The whole train thing was really cool.
Alaska Railroad looks very cool, too. Those look so great.
(22:10):
Yeah. If I do Alaska, I would love to check out Alaska Railroad,
too. That looks incredible.
And bullet trains in Japan. That's not so much the luxury overnight thing,
but I think it would be really cool.
I've done some high-speed rail
in Europe. High-speed rail in Europe is pretty cool. It is pretty cool.
(22:33):
But I'm intrigued by the Shinkansen in Japan.
You just wanted to say that. Yeah. That and I liked that movie,
Bullet Train. That was a really good movie.
Yeah, a lot of these trains have, I mean, the interiors look like luxurious European hotels.
(22:55):
That's what I want. Their restaurant and dining are top of the line.
Pardon the train pun there. I'm here for it. I've got to find a way to do some
luxury overnight train travel.
Yeah, and the other cool thing about it is a lot of the tracks go through areas
(23:16):
where there's not roads, there's not towns.
So you're seeing things that you might not be able to see any other way than
traveling in this train.
Yeah, it's kind of a little bit like river cruising.
You're heading through the actual countryside of these places.
It's drier. It is a lot drier.
And fewer locks. Just next.
(23:40):
This next trend, I kind of combined two different things that we're seeing a
lot of into one label here with wild feasting. Wild feasting. I'm intrigued.
Yeah, this one might not be quite as familiar.
Wild feasting. That is entirely different. That's for the looky after dark.
(24:02):
This is a different thing. Wrong show.
So wild feasting has two different ideas on it. One, a lot of times it means
an experience where you go and you help forage and gather the ingredients for a meal.
These are a lot of like kind of guided experiences that you might have as a
(24:26):
shore excursion or as part of a guided tour.
Can I go somewhere with a pig and watch it hunt for truffles?
Yeah, I'm sure that you can pay a small Frenchman to take you out into the forest with his pig.
But it's also a lot of the idea of it's really popular to have these excursions
(24:46):
where you go and you dine outdoors with the locals.
People are at a point where cultural immersion in travel is really big.
And they don't want to just eat where the locals eat or eat the traditional food.
They want to actually eat with people who live in the place and experience what
(25:09):
a traditional meal is, find out how it's made, take cooking lessons and learn how it's made.
Our advisors did this last year on a trip that they did to Israel, at least once.
There was once where they were making hummus. I think there might have been a second.
There was. I can't remember exactly which part of Israel. reel there.
(25:30):
It was another one where they were in someone's home and they had a cooking lesson with the family.
Can't remember what they made. I know on Virgin Voyages there's several...
In the Dominican Republic, there's a trip where you get welcomed into a house and you eat with them.
So it's that idea of forming a connection with the place and the people that you're visiting.
(25:53):
Adventures by Disney, a lot of their itineraries have something like this.
The one that comes to mind is in Italy where they learn pasta making in a home.
That one looks pretty cool.
Yeah, those kinds of experiences are really popular. We did this once on a spring break trip to Paris.
We learned how to make croissants in a local bakery.
(26:17):
It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Really small, family-owned bakery.
And they took us into the back to teach us how to make croissants.
And I always knew there was a lot of butter in a croissant. But when you actually
see it, it's kind of shocking.
That's why they're so delicious. And so good for you. It was a really neat experience.
(26:39):
It was a very small group. It was just my family and one other couple.
So there were about six of us making chrysalons. It was really cool.
Yeah, wasn't the, Jeff didn't, I know I've seen pictures of Jeff making some
chocolate, but wasn't there a scone making session that you were super excited about? Oh, yes.
That was our Adventures by Disney, the England and France one.
(27:02):
I think that was Jeff's favorite thing, right?
Making scones? Yeah. I thought it was going to be stupid, and it was. It was fun.
The chocolate one was okay. I don't know. If you're there with family, it's fine.
Personally, I would rather have wandered around the amazing little towns that
(27:23):
we were in than go and sit in a commercial kitchen in a place and do a thing.
That's a little bit different experience there when it's not.
I do still have that scone recipe and I make them from time to time after learning how to do it.
We did learn some interesting facts and stuff about, like, the room that we
(27:44):
were in was actually the room where Prince Charles had changed clothes before he got married.
To Camilla. To Camilla. So that was kind of interesting to hear little stories.
And when we were there, it was right after Harry and Meghan had gotten married.
So that had happened right around the corner, too.
It was like I'm sitting in a, you know, some little rec room in a building.
(28:08):
Yeah, it was like a town hall kind of thing.
Yeah, in a rec room, and they're talking about these cool things.
I'm like, I'd rather be out there looking at the cool things.
You did like the tea they were dishing out about Harry and Meghan. Yeah, I like that.
If there's one thing Jeff's into, it's the hot goss. That's right. I love a celebrity goss.
(28:34):
So, yeah, I mean, it certainly isn't for everyone.
One that is that is true but if that's the kind of thing you're into that there's some really,
great ways to add that on to trips but these things
like the one you were talking about the ones they did our uh travel planners
did in israel looked pretty awesome they're in people's homes and eating and
(28:54):
cooking and sharing stories and all that as well as the everything i've heard
about the ones in greece that shore things from virgin does sound that's the one everybody loves,
And we have some, we can add this kind of thing on to any trip anywhere in the world, really.
We have some great travel partners that put stuff like this together.
(29:14):
So even if you're doing something that doesn't focus on this kind of wild feasting
trend, it's something you could add for a day time excursion on one of the days
of your trip, really anywhere.
Yeah, definitely. And it's really worth it. See things that you don't normally
see on a stereotypical guided tour.
(29:35):
The next two trends are ones that we've talked about in the past.
These are still hot, hot travel items.
And one of them, the first one is what we're calling dupe destinations.
Destinations uh so there's a
lot of places that people are saying realizing the
hot travels or the stereotypical travel spots
(29:57):
are getting overcrowded with tourists which i
mean it's fair everybody wants to see it but um for
example it didn't um didn't venice just put in place stricter rules for tour
groups they did um tour groups are going to be limited to no more than 25 people
So a lot of tour operators are having to sort of split their groups up.
(30:22):
And Venice is a, this is a tricky one because, you know.
Having now been there, I don't think there's anywhere in the world that is like it.
And I definitely think it's something that people should see.
It's it really was one of the coolest places I've ever been.
And I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.
(30:45):
However, I would say absolutely don't go there in the summer because it's going
to be just insanely crowded.
And the canals don't smell great in the summer from what I've heard because
of some things I learned on a tour there.
But so I'd say avoid Venice during the summer and go in the off season when it's not crowded.
(31:12):
And there's cool stuff you can do in the summer that's kind of a dupe destination
sort of thing. Any of the places along the Dalmatian coast, I had no idea that
most of them were settled by Venetians way back when.
So you're going to see a lot of the same kind of architecture and stuff.
A lot of the places in Croatia and Montenegro were all started by Venetians.
(31:36):
And there's really cool stuff to see there. So go to places like Kotor and Dubrovnik
and stuff like that in the summertime where it's not as busy there.
And save Venice for the winter months.
Right. Yeah. Yeah, so to back up just a little bit, the idea is find these,
(31:58):
instead of going to these busy places or in addition to, you know,
maybe spend a little less time in the overcrowded locations,
find places nearby that are similar but aren't full of people.
And they all have things worth seeing, right? Right there.
There you're going to get the flavor of flavor of the area.
(32:20):
But you might see things that you totally missed out because you had to go see
that tower that's leaning or something like that.
I've got a couple of articles with some some suggestions and some ideas.
I know that one that was mentioned.
Everybody wants to go see Santorini in Greece. The thing is,
like that entire area is full of little villages that look just like Greece.
(32:42):
Greece has so, so, so many islands.
And I don't even know that I was aware of it until a cruise that I took in the fall.
And we didn't visit any of the big, you know, famous ones like Santorini.
We saw Corfu and Cephalonia, Naxos. They were all absolutely gorgeous and not as crowded at all.
(33:05):
Right. Give those spots a chance. Even so much, you know, if you were thinking
about taking a foodie trip around Europe.
Maybe consider going to some of the less well-traveled boroughs around New York
City where you're going to find ethnic food literally from around the world.
(33:28):
You're probably going to cover more types of cuisine traveling around New York
City than you might on a trip abroad.
See a suggestion here is instead of going to Hawaii, try the Azores of Portugal.
There's places if you want to see some really cool architecture and places that
(33:54):
feel European, you could go to Quebec.
Montreal and Quebec City look a lot like Paris and Geneva some of those places
in europe but do they have the same conventions,
i hope so otherwise we're all in for some torture italy is the yeah italy is
(34:16):
the place that americans want to go on summer vacation and y'all it is crowded
in italy in the summer and And the airfare is insane.
Yeah, I'm discovering that currently.
Yeah. If you go to somewhere like Spain or Sicily instead of Italy in the summer
(34:37):
months, you're going to have just as cool an experience, and it's probably going
to be a little less crowded.
Not that I'm saying don't see Italy. But my cruise line doesn't sail from there. Yeah.
This one sat back. I was reading about Curacao is becoming a much more popular
(34:57):
destination, but still not as crowded as some of the other Caribbean islands
during the summer. It's so pretty there. It's gorgeous, yeah.
It's kind of like seeing Amsterdam with less weed.
Yeah, that is actually one thing that stood out to me from some of the trainings
(35:18):
or the conferences that we've had over the past year is the number of islands
that I may have heard a passing the name of,
but there's so many in the Bahamas, the Caribbean,
these little islands that I did not know. People aren't visiting.
Curacao was a place. I just thought it was that blue bar stuff.
The drink. The liqueur. Yeah.
(35:38):
Yeah, and apparently there's like seven different colors of it.
I didn't know that either. I thought it was all blue. You can get so many colors.
Yeah, there's orange and green and yellow and all kinds of stuff.
Yeah, we went to Curacao on a cruise in 2017 or 18.
It's gorgeous there. um you know
(35:59):
ideas like instead of instead of
going to bar jeff say barcelona for barcelona yes
go to valencia instead oh and that is a beautiful beautiful spot yeah another
beautiful ancient city that for some reason isn't quite as popular as barcelona
um go to the alps in italy but try out a different area of it.
(36:25):
The Dolomites are kind of the go-to there. Try the Piedmont region.
And you can, you know, there's wineries there. Osti is right there.
They make great Spumanti.
Yes, that's what I hear.
So, yeah, it's just look for alternatives because there's so many places in the world.
(36:47):
You don't want to be with everybody else. Try something new.
And more Caribbean resorts and Mexican are starting to do overwater bungalows,
if you've always wanted to go to the really,
really super expensive ones in the Pacific, and you can't get there,
you've got these kind of resort fields to go to as well.
Yeah, they've definitely caught on to where the money is for those things.
(37:11):
They still look just as gorgeous.
And so the next the next one on the list we've also talked about a little bit
is set jetting instead of jets. I get it. I get it.
Yeah. And this is where you chase the locations from this past summer.
Set jetting? You went to the White Lotus. Oh, that's right.
(37:34):
Totally forgot about that. How do you forget that?
Tell me you traveled too much without traveling. I forgot I was at the Four Seasons. Yeah.
So this is where you go to find the locations where your favorite prestige television
series or your favorite movies were filmed at. There's a lot of them.
A lot of the ones that are driving this trend are from The White Lotus and also
(37:59):
Game of Thrones are kind of the two biggest ones.
I forgot about that because the most recent season of The White Lotus was in
Sicily. And I'm sitting here thinking, I don't think I've been there.
But season one, yes, I did see that location.
So people are flocking to the resorts, whatever, whatever, you know,
(38:22):
the newest season of White Lotus, wherever that's filmed.
People are flocking there to see that.
Ireland and Croatia are incredibly popular for fans of Game of Thrones.
Still. This kind of goes all the way back to when people were headed to New
Zealand for Lord of the Rings locations.
A lot of people don't know this about me, but I have never watched Game of Thrones. What?
(38:46):
I am just hearing this information right now.
I've got one episode on you, Jeff. Harry Potter filming locations,
the studio, that's kind of a, you're not seeing countrysides,
but you can actually go to the studio where they filmed a lot of Harry Potter.
(39:07):
You can go see the steam train that they used for the Hogwarts Express.
That's in Scotland, the Jacobite Express.
You can go to the place where that famous shot of it, where it's moving across that big bridge.
(39:28):
Oh, yes, that aqueduct-looking thing.
This is entirely on speculation, but I imagine that there's been an uptick in
visits to dude ranches in the Yellowstone area.
Oh, for sure. Sure, we get a lot of requests for dude ranch vacations because of that.
Yeah, so there's another category I'm not interested in. I don't like dude ranch. Dude or ranching.
(39:55):
You sure you're not into the dudes? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
I don't know, Jeff. I think we could have a good time on a dude ranch. Yeah, sure.
I won't make you get on a horse. I've never ridden a horse before.
We'll keep that record. I don't like the outside. All of this is shocking to me.
(40:16):
How do you feel about helicopters and hot air balloons? Never.
Not going to touch them. No. Not going to touch them.
I do like seeing locations where things were filmed. I love when I'm accidentally
walking around in New York and you just roll up.
I recognize that from wherever. or the friend's apartment or just little things like that.
(40:40):
And there's all tours that you can do that are just filming locations.
Jurassic Park. If you're in Hawaii, going to see the Jurassic Park filming locations is a cool.
You can ride a horse through the valley where they filmed Jurassic Park.
I would be scared of the dinosaurs, though.
They are pretty scary. You can see the Christmas Story House in Cleveland, Ohio.
(41:03):
Oh, yeah. I would see that. Oh, I just looked at the New York City one.
And right here's the Friends apartment, as I was just saying.
Friends apartment. When we went to Salem a few years ago, we didn't do any of
the traditional witch stuff.
And we only went and saw filming locations from the hit 1990s film Hocus Pocus.
(41:28):
I'm not surprised by this in any way.
My sister is a very big Hocus Pocus fan.
And it was a major highlight of our trip really cool when is she gonna take
you for filming uh locations for things like deep blue sea and sharknado.
That would be on her bucket list as well she loves a good kooky disaster film,
(41:54):
especially if it involves sharks,
Yeah, she's been on to The Meg lately, both one and two.
She's a major fan. Those are her two go-to airplane films are The Meg series.
Yeah, the second Meg movie looked pretty good, I have to say.
It looked like a ton of fun. She's a fan.
(42:17):
The next one on our list, we kind of hit a little bit when we talked about food,
but this one covers just a wider experience in general.
People are looking for opportunities for authentic cultural immersion,
places where you actually get to know the people where you're visiting, see what life is like.
(42:37):
And so that's a very popular thing, looking for opportunities to not just sit
on a beach, but get a slice of life.
Yeah. Yeah. Again, we had quite a few travel advisors when they went to Israel last year.
And again, even their their trip to Italy this year, there was a lot of those
(42:58):
experiences where you were making the pasta, cooking,
meeting, you know, meeting people and seeing what life is like in the area.
And again, Adventures by Disney does a lot of that. Even better for that would
be Nat Geo Expeditions. Yep.
That's kind of really their niche is the cultural immersion side of travel.
(43:26):
Also, G Adventures and that that one is not just a cultural immersion,
but also they do a lot of sort of give back travel, which has been a trend. friend.
Voluntourism, I think was the buzzword a few years ago, where you visit a destination
and go work in the community as part of your trip.
(43:47):
And they kind of specialize in that sort of travel.
I remember.
Should have turned that off.
That was well-timed, but it's also two minutes late. We're having issues with
(44:09):
it. You're going to have to reset your cuckoo.
It keeps stopping. That's unfortunate. Next time I'm in Germany,
I'll pick up another one.
You've got to remember to feed that bird. Otherwise, he's not going to do his
job. He quits cuckooing. Yeah.
So, yeah, that is a big category that we see all the time is looking to experience the cultures.
(44:31):
This last trend is a little bit more conceptual, but the idea of exploring frontiers.
And there's not a lot of places on the planet that haven't been explored.
There's not a lot of frontiers left. But, you know, people are,
as Heather mentioned earlier, how many videos on TikTok do we see all the time
(44:53):
of people crossing the Drake Passage?
Or it is becoming more and more accessible to climb Mount Everest or even is
becoming popular to not even climb Mount Everest, but just to be able to go
and say that you camped at base camp at Everest?
Yes, we, Jeff and I know somebody who did that this past summer, did Everest base camp.
(45:14):
And when I was following along with his trip, I've never had any inkling whatsoever
of climbing Mount Everest.
I'm not a mountain climbing kind of gal, but following that trip, it looked pretty cool.
And I thought, you know, I could probably make it to base camp.
At the very least. That might be cool. Yeah. Yeah.
(45:35):
You still do have to do a little bit of climbing to get there,
but it's not like, you know, it's more of a steep hike than it is an actual
having to climb over crevasses and actually ascend to the top.
But it looked really cool. Right.
Yeah. And like Facebook keeps on serving me up samplings of posts from groups
(45:58):
that it thinks I might be interested in.
And since it knows that I'm interested in travel, it showed me a post from this
group of people sharing tips for visiting for trekking Kilimanjaro.
And it struck me that everybody in this group, they seem to be like 90 percent
middle aged, upper class, somewhat fussy British women. I could fit into that group.
(46:50):
Said, people are looking for less crowded places, experiences that you think
that you might not have tried in general, especially, you know,
taking on some of the more adventure activities that you can have in different places.
So in lots of different ways, that's why I said it's kind of a little more conceptual.
People are looking, you know, going and trying weird new foods,
(47:12):
experiencing unfamiliar familiar cultures it's it's people are looking to grow
another one jeff will never do space tourism,
i mean that's still on my list i i would absolutely do it if i was given the
opportunity 100 it's the final frontier yeah but it's too similar to a to a balloon i don't like uh,
(47:35):
unnecessary risk oh i went to a middle school named after a dead astronaut that.
And there were two other schools in my same city named after the other two guys in the capsule.
So I'm not feeling it. Was one of them a chaffee?
There was Chaffee and Grissom and I went to Ed White.
(47:58):
Roger B.'s from Grand Rapids. We've got a street named after him here in town.
Yeah, we sure do. And our planetarium is named after him.
So those are the top 10 travel trends that we've had our eyes on,
kind of leaving 2023 and now that we're into the start of 2024.
(48:18):
2024 is going to be a year for me. I'm getting to another place that's on my bucket list.
Finally, I'm going to be going to Japan this summer. I'm super excited about that.
Nice. I've been there a bunch of times. It's fun.
Yeah, you're the one who told us all about the Iron Wang Festival, right?
(48:43):
Looking forward to that. I'm also going to be going to Switzerland in a couple
of months and just discovered that one of the things we're doing is going to
the highest altitude suspension bridge in Europe,
a foot traffic type bridge.
(49:04):
I'm a little terrified, but I think I'm going to go for it. There's a lot of
really, really high up things in Switzerland. Yes.
I bet it's because of all those mountains.
We're going to see an Alp or two. Yeah. that qualifies as adventure travel right
yeah totally perfect your personality,
(49:24):
there's a fancy rotating restaurant on top of one of those yeah we're going
on some kind of rotating lift as well it's kind of like the Skyliner only it
goes up much higher and it spins while you're going up there so you can see all around,
Jeff looks horrified. It's totally turned my head. I don't need to do that.
(49:46):
Have you seen the double-decker cable cars that they have up in the Alps?
Yeah. That the top level is open air.
You can stand inside, or if you're not a pussy, you go onto the roof. Yes. And it's open air.
I'm a pussy. I would totally do that.
Music.
Yeah, I would probably do that. Cable cars don't bother me.
(50:09):
Yeah, but I did a cable car in the Alps. and it was really, really high. Yeah.
Stuff like that doesn't bother me. I don't want to stand on an edge of something
like near a cliff where that just makes me feel weird.
Look over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.
Scary stuff. Done it. Or like these roads you see where the truck can just barely.
Music.
(50:35):
Fit on the road and you have to careen along the side of the road. That makes me feel bad.
If I knew there was no other traffic
on the road and I could do it on the motorcycle, that would be awesome.
That's terrifying, Dan. It sounds like fun. I used to be cool.
When was that? Well, anyway, it was before you knew me, my friend. It must have been.
(51:02):
Long before.
Well, anyway, thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
If you are ready to jump on any of these travel trends for 2024,
Key to the World Travel has a stadium on the Taylor Swift ERA's tour schedule
full of expert travel planners, and they're ready to make your vacation dreams a reality.
Got to get that Taylor Swift SEO in there one more time. Yes.
(51:24):
See how many Swifties we can get listening to this episode.
Music.
(51:45):
Makes our show so great, and send them our way. You can find links to subscribe
to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest Gold Key Adventure updates
at www.goldkeyadventures.com.
Music.
Can't wait to hang out with you again, and we'll see you real soon.
For real, I promise. Bye, y'all. Goodbye, everybody.
To ask a question or share your travel story, you can reach us by smoke signal,
(52:09):
carrier pigeon, or send an email to goldkeyadventures at gmail.com.
And make sure you follow the Gold Key Adventurers Society on Facebook and Instagram.
A huge thanks to our sponsor, Key to the World Travel.
For all your travel planning needs, visit www.keytotheworldtravel.com for a
free quote and help planning the trip of a lifetime.
(52:32):
Tell them the Gold Key Adventurers sent you. That's www.keytotheworldtravel.com.
Key to the World Travel, your key to a magical vacation.
Music.
Thanks to Outer Vibe for the use of their song Hoka Hei for the intro and outro of our show.
(52:53):
Find them on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour
dates, music, merch, and more.
Music.
We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society. society.
And until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide. So go have an adventure.
(53:19):
Swear to God, we'll actually record some episodes this year.
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