sneak peek from
stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. In this week's episode, we are celebrating our 52nd episode, which marks one full year of the Sunshine Travelers podcast.
we're going to cover our top 10 most downloaded episodes over the last year and add a few stories from each of those locations of why they are such special places. So pop some bubbly and raise a glass as we celebrate the completion of our first year.
of our first Can you believe year. that it's been a year since we started this journey, really
I No, really cannot believe that it's been a year. So I'm really glad that starting out on this, that we set like a goal for ourself to write, to say, we're going to do this once a week and do it on Tuesdays just to have that consistency. And sometimes it's been challenging for us, but I think it has been good to just have that, have that consistency.
Yeah. There was a few episodes. We always release it at 4 30 AM Eastern time. And I think that there were actually a few episodes that I finished editing at like 2 AM. Maybe Yeah. Eastern a.m. And time. I think that there were actually a few episodes that I finished editing at like 2 a.m. Yeah,
not that late. How many episodes have we had to re-record completely? Well,
one. I think
two. But remember the one in Puerto Rico when it was ambient in the room? And that was, I mean, that was understandable, right? That was the first time we tried to record somewhere else. So I think maybe two, but that's not, I mean, that's not too bad for beginners.
in Puerto
Yeah. Well, we've got another one coming
your microphone turned off in the interview. We'll be able to hear you, but it's not the same quality. So we'll apologize in advance when our listeners are listening to the episode on Norway. Well, you know, when we started this, we said, even if no one listens to it, we're documenting our stories in our own voices so that our children and grandchildren and many generations to come will be able to hear our stories right from our own mouths about some of the most amazing places that we've been able to visit and hearing our friends talk about the places that they've gone as well. So even if no one ever listened to a single episode, it was worth that. But fortunately, we've had a lot of listeners.
Yeah, we have. And now, I mean, thousands of downloads later, we do hear from people from all over the world and how much they enjoy certain episodes or things that they learned, or they'll contact us in one way or the other and say, oh, thank you for these tips. It really helped us. And so that's good to know, too.
to take a minute to thank all of our faithful listeners. It's so encouraging to hear from them after an episode as they give us notes of encouragement and appreciation. You know, we have people reach out to us and say, you guys are doing a fabulous job. And that just means a lot to us to hear that.
Yeah. Or for people to, you know, contact us and say, oh, do you like give us your tips on whatever? And then to send two or three episodes, like if people, somebody just recently, hey, we're thinking of going maybe to Aruba, maybe to Cancun. And it's like, okay, well, go listen to this, right? And then help you make your decision and then help you plan your trip. So that's nice to have that, you know, just as a resource too.
Well, I tell you what, let's dig in and get started on our recap of our top 10 episodes. So we're going to do these in reverse order. And this is based on the number of downloads, right? So this is what people have downloaded. And over the last year that we've been doing this, these are the top 10 episodes that were downloaded
good. All
Let's start with number 10, which was episode 13, Dublin and Southern Ireland road trip.
So this was, I'm pretty sure one of our first international road trips. I can't remember exactly if you had maybe driven in the UK prior to this, but if not, it would have been maybe around the same time. And so we talked about we rented a car after our period of time in Dublin. And of course, it was a manual transmission. So think back. Do you think this was the first time that you drove? I don't
I don't know. Maybe when we did that trip in the UK where we went to Stonehenge and rented the car while we were down in Leeds. And then you
and rented
would drive to Bradford and to the office and stuff like that. So maybe, but for me, this was the first time I had driven in, well, so I had driven on the other side of the road with the, because
would drive
guess it is Ireland. So on the other side of the road, and it was a manual transmission, which thankfully I can do, but Scott had gotten sick. I don't know if it was like a little virus or something he ate. And so thankfully we had made it to our hotel and he just was done for the night. And I think we actually may have walked or taken a taxi or something. So this was the trip. So you have to go back and listen. This was a trip that we went with my sister and her husband. And so anyway, the next morning, he was well enough to we were taking a boat to the Iron Islands. He was well enough to go with us, but he was just like, you've got to drive. And so it was just like, oh, okay, we've got to get there. So it was just really just like get in and do it, which, you know, might be the best way. So you just don't like freak out. But so, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I mean, you don't normally drive when we go places, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Scott likes to
drive. Yeah, I'm a driver hog. You know, I don't like to ride. And so, you know, we could probably have an episode about places where I've had to ride with you, like in Cozumel when we had to ride in that Jeep. And that was killing me.
Right. Yes, that was killing you for multiple reasons because I was having to drive, but also because it was just like a little bit of off-roading stuff, which you would have loved. And I was kind of freaking out about that, but yeah. Let's
Let's get back to Ireland. Yes.
Yes. So, but so a couple of things. So since then, because actually when we took this trip, this did not exist, but just recently we've talked about that resource Trippiamo too, right, that you can you can go on their site. And we will put a link, obviously here too, so that you can check that out if you want to go drive. So that was I mean, I think that was memorable, right in the end, just having that that memory for me, as well. So then also, I would say a few things that we did on this trip that we had not planned to do. Now, we had planned to do quite a number of things on this trip, right? So you go to the Book of Kells in Dublin, and I think we had planned to do like the Guinness storehouse tour and several things along the way, but then just having some room to add some things to your itinerary. And I think that's just always a good idea. I remember a few things from this one in particular. We stopped by a glass blowing place. We stopped by a pottery place and Ireland was great about like, they wanted you to spend money in their, you know, economy, but not have to worry about like taking all this stuff with you. So that was very, they were like, Oh, we'll ship it. Oh, we'll ship it. And it won't cost you much and we'll ship it. So that, that was the nice thing about that. But then also a couple of other things is my brother, our brother-in-law found the Joyce country sheepdogs and, you know, they were open and then we can go see that sheepdog demonstration. And that was just a neat thing. Cause then we found out, you know, it was from the movie Marley and Me, et cetera. We did an irish river dance and so we had we did those things that we hadn't planned to do but then on the other hand two places we had planned to rent bikes and it just it rained both places so we didn't get to do that but we did some other things so just the encouragement here is just to leave room in your itinerary for what comes up as well. And then of course, to listen to that whole trip and that itinerary. Get some great
ideas for your own trips. Right.
So you can go listen to that entire episode.
let's move on. The next one is episode 15. What you need to know about Aruba. Now, this episode was a research for us because we were planning an upcoming visit to go about Aruba. Now, this episode was a research for us because we were planning an upcoming visit to go to Aruba. And so now, you know, you're hearing this and we've just returned from Aruba and we will have another episode about our experiences because this episode was an interview of a friend of ours who's gone about a dozen times to Aruba. But in the next episode, you're going to hear about our firsthand experiences and what we did.
Exactly. Yeah. Taking her suggestions and then putting those into play. And like we had originally wanted to include going to Bonaire because that was one thing when we talked to her originally, maybe not on the episode, but as we were planning the episode and she was like, oh, you need to try to do ABC, which would be Aruba and Curacao and Bonaire. But we just didn't want to be too rushed. Again, like I just said, we wanted to have some room. So we didn't, but we are going to go to Curacao.
One of the things that we had not planned to do, but after we've talked to so many different people, they told us, hey, you've got to go to Flamingo Beach. And so we booked a night over at the Renaissance Hotel and we stayed at Flamingo Beach.
Yeah. So more details to come on that in an upcoming episode on Aruba. So we can share our experiences. We'll also talk about Curacao. And so you can hear more about Aruba.
right. Well, number eight, this is episode 28. Should you book a Mediterranean cruise? And the answer is yeah.
Absolutely. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would
say this was a very different cruise than the experiences we've had doing the Caribbean. Right. And just totally different experience, totally different feel to it. And we got to go to so many amazing places on that one cruise. Yeah,
I would say even from our most recent trip on the Caribbean cruise, just because, I mean, I guess we had a longer day in Cozumel, but the other days felt very short and very rushed. And that was not our experience in the Mediterranean. And so you're right. Like we got to do so many things. You had so much time in the different ports to really, I feel like, really get to explore, but then also get to relax. And so we did this cruise, if you haven't heard this story, as a part of a six-week trip through Europe. So that is by far the longest trip we have ever taken. And I think it really, and I've heard Scott tell this to several people several times, but it really just gave us like more of a travel bug to just get out and see and get to explore so many different places and things. Yeah,
it really drives that curiosity for seeing new places and experiencing new cultures. And, you know, I think that's really what led to us having this true wanderlust, right? It was the first time that we really had a chance to just enjoy the travel itself. So it wasn't tied to work. It wasn't tied to anything else. This was a trip just for you and I to relax and reset and just have no cares in the world for
also what was interesting is we had planned a lot. Okay. So there were certain things that we had definitely planned to do. We wanted to make sure that we got to go to Alhambra. We wanted to make sure that we got to go in the Sagrada de Familia, the church in Barcelona. We wanted to make sure that we did some kind of tour in Tuscany because we were still on the cruise ship. But there were a lot of times when we just didn't plan something ahead because for six weeks, you just can't plan something for every day. When we had got to Greece, we didn't really know on the islands exactly what we were going to do. And that part, that was kind of nice. Yes, I had a guidebook or a couple of different European guidebooks down the line of my Kindle. And there were some nights where we would look at the stuff ahead of time. But I think that was part of the relaxing part of it is having that mixture. So even though we were on the go, it was almost for us like slow travel because it wasn't like plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. I mean, yes, we were out doing stuff, but sometimes it literally was just exploring. Like the one day we didn't have any plans and we took the train from the cruise ship and went into Aix-en-Provence and just wandered around the town and got some things at the market. So it felt more relaxing.
Yeah, we made our own little chartreutery board from stuff that we got right there at the market and some fruit and stuff like that, and had ourself a little picnic right in the middle of Exxon Provence.
that was, and yeah, in the park, that was neat. So I do have to tell one story before we move on off this one is this is the trip where Scott learned the value of the jet lag tips that we talk about in episode six. So right before this, I had found where you do the pressure points. We use an app called Uplift and where you do the pressure points. And we sort of have over time developed a kind of entire process about it where we where we talk about that. So when we got to our hotel in Rome where we started, I was like, OK, Scott, we need to do this. And he got busy, you know, doing something else. And I went ahead and I went ahead and did it. And I don't know if it was just you got busy doing it, or you were just kind of like, this isn't really gonna do anything. And I don't know if it was you got really, you know, got busy doing something, and we just didn't come back to it. Or you were just like, Oh, that's not gonna do anything. I'm not gonna worry or a little of both. But anyway, I went ahead and did it. I remember very clearly. And I was good to go. Like literally that whole night I slept. He got up in the middle of the night, I think, walked the hotel. He was like, oh, I'm so tired. And I'm like, oh, what? And then when we got on the cruise ship, one of the mornings he was like, oh, there's this. And then there's And I was that. how do you like, know about all this stuff? And he was there's like, this oh, and then there's that. And I was like, how do you know about all this stuff? And he was like, I am not sleeping. And I literally am wandering this cruise ship at night. So I will tell you every single international trip since then, whether I am with him or not, he has this app and he's on it and he's doing this. And he, I love it because he literally tells all, everybody, all of his work colleagues, hey, you have to do this. And I know a lot of people don't listen to us, but it works so well.
Yeah. I'm going to be honest with you. I thought it was kooky. And so you really need to go back and listen to this episode because we do have sort of a system that we've laid out. This is one part of it, but I thought it was cookie, so I didn't do it. And then when you're, you know, honed in on the time zone and sleeping like a baby and I'm up walking the halls of the hotels and the ships, I said, I'm going to try this next time. And so since then, I've been bought in. And you really should go back and listen to that episode. So let's move on. In number seven, this is episode 13. And it's essential packing tips for smooth traveling. And so packing is something that I think everybody universally struggles with.
hard. It's hard to know what you need, what you don't need. Are you going to forget something? I mean, yes, you can go buy things, but it's not always super convenient. Do you, you don't want to spend your whole trip like, oh, I really wish I had, you know, whatever. It's just hard. It's that sweet spot between having what you need. And then we went to Scotland the last time. I think we had moved to the beach and then we it's going to be cold. were, no, Oh my gosh. We took way too much stuff and we were almost miserable. Even though we had a car, we were just like, oh, we've got all these suitcases and this is just miserable. So it's, I think it's important.
Yeah. We even got to the point where like we were leaving one suitcase in the car and just taking a few things into a smaller suitcase to go to the places where we were staying because we didn't want to haul that big suitcase around.
Yeah. And even when we went to the Galapagos, I felt like we did pretty well, but we still had way too much stuff. We didn't need all the clothes that we took. We probably had twice as much as we needed because we could just re-wear the stuff. And if they need, you know, we need it, they could wash it. And so.
I like what our friend Brian said is for some reason, when you go on a two-day trip, you pack a week's worth of underwear. I don't know why, but you do. And this is really what we're talking about in this episode is trying to help give you some practical tips on how to pack. And quite honestly, whatever you think you need, probably take half of that is a pretty good rule of thumb.
Yeah, I think we've mentioned that several times. And I feel like that you are either the person that plans everything out weeks in advance and you tend to overthink it and then you're're taking stuff out, and you're putting stuff back in. Or you're the person who waits until the last minute and then completely overpacks because you didn't take enough time to think it out. Now, I've done both, right? When we did our six-week trip to Europe, I think we did very well. I think that is the best we have ever done. I don't know how we planned that in advance, even though we had just moved 10 days before. But I think we were very intentional about.
this case, it was different because we knew we needed one type of clothing. It was summer and we were going to the Mediterranean, right? You just needed lightweight clothes and bathing suits.
Yeah, that's true. That would be very difficult to do in cold weather, you know, a cold weather trip for sure. I would
say that almost every trip that we go on, though, the one thing that we always say before leaving is, boy, we could have brought less with us.
Always. We always say that. So this is one area that we struggle with ourselves. But we do have some tips. I mean, we do have certain things. We have a certain system. have a certain system, we have certain ways of, you know, doing things, you know, as far as electronics that we use and all kinds of things that we talk about. And then and then, you know, how we pack. But I mean, we do struggle on every trip. It's just like, oh, the pack, if you could skip that part, right, if somebody else could do that for you, and it'd be perfect,
it would
just be so much easier and stressful.
Well, so when we go on our safari later this year, I'm going to challenge you to follow the packing list that I found. And it was basically you take two outfits, right? And you might have shorts and a pair of pants. But basically, you're working with two outfits and then using the laundry services and stuff like that along the way.
Yeah, which we did that in the Europe trip. We did laundry twice. And I think the key to this is only taking stuff that you absolutely love. And you know what's funny? I mean, is that I still, there's a few pieces that we took on that Europe trip that I still wear. Because those are your absolute favorite things. So I think that's the key. I'm not sure if we mentioned that in the episode, but I think we find that at home, right? We kind of wear the same thing. So I don't know why we are consumed with having so many outfits and clothes that we rarely wear. So I am on the hunt for my next suitcase. It's going to be an international carry-on for sure, just because the experience that we had, we talked about a little bit. There was another episode where we talked about travel disruptions where we missed. I think the only flight I've ever missed. I think you've missed other flights before, but because of the suitcase and them saying, no, you can't carry this on and then not being able to make the connection in London Heathrow. So I am on the hunt for that, that next suitcase. And I have a pretty good idea, but
see how that turns out. Number six is episode 21, our Scotland road trip.
I think has to be one of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Whether you are down south along the coast, or you're in the Northern Highlands, to me, it's one of the most beautiful places that we have been.
this is one where we actually gained a lot of followers to Sunshine Travelers podcast because of a story that we told in a video that we posted on social media.
Yes. So this was the trip that we took right after Queen Elizabeth passed away. Like
after. Yes,
days after. And, you know, what was so interesting as we were planning for this trip and kind of knowing where we were going to go and the road trip part we were going to take, I was like, oh, I'd really love to go to Balmoral. But then looking to see, it's like, oh, no, she's there, so you can't go visit that. And then come to find out, just like days before, like you said, she passed away there. And then as we were there learning what the funeral arrangements were going to be, then making the way, and we weren't planning to visit Edinburgh because we had been there before, but we were going to pass a know, pass a certain way. And then just,
been there before,
mean, not even really going out of our way, except for to stay on the M90 of, you know, a couple of miles in order to, in order to see that. So I'm sure that a lot of you have seen that video on Instagram. We've actually posted a couple of different times to share a couple of different, you know, stories along with that. And I've gotten so many comments and then just also talked to so many of you commenting on the fact that you saw it too or other times when you had the privilege of getting to see the queen or getting to go to the coronation of the king or just lots of different stories around that. But I know that Scotland held a special place in her heart. And she would visit there quite often and up to the Hebrides, which we would love to go to. But this is a place where hopefully you'll go listen to, again, the episode 21, the Scotland Road Trip, and at some point plan a trip there because there's just so many unique things from seeing the lochs to going to Loch Ness to getting to see the castles and enjoy the music and, of course, the scotch.
Yeah. And this is another one of those road trips. So you're going to rent a car and you're going to travel through Scotland. And we would, once again again point you to Tripiamo. So if you're not familiar with Tripiamo, we've talked a little bit about it on what it is, but go to sunshinetravelers.com slash Tripiamo. And you have a link there where you can find out more information about Tripiamo and then also access their services so that you can take those courses and be better prepared when you're going to try internationally.
Yeah, for sure. So this is definitely somewhere that we are going to return to and explore more of the highlands, the Isle of Skye, and just some of those like a little bit more remote places.
five, we're halfway through. This was episode 14. Discover Amelia Island, Florida, a local's ultimate travel guide. So we moved to Amelia Island about two years ago. And this is one of those vacation destination places. People love to come. And we find ourselves being vacationers here as well. So, you know, as locals, we've gone around, we've tried to do a lot of the vacation things, the touristy things as well. And, you know, trying to think about it in terms of if someone was going to visit the island, what would we tell them to do? And so we've got an episode on that. We've, and I would say over the last two years, things have changed or over the last year since we recorded this. And so we're going to do an updated episode soon on that. And, you know, we'll tell everybody what's new, what's no longer here that maybe used to be here. new, what's no longer here that maybe used to be here, and even new things that we've found over the period
we last recorded this. It's also interesting to me to see like how a beach changes. For example, we don't typically go to a lot of places over and over and over again. Cancun is kind of an exception. And we have seen the beach like, oh, it's a little different here and there. But to see it like we do here at home now, oh, the beach is completely flat or it's wide or it's that, you know, and I know the tides have a lot to do it and the storms have a lot to do it. But just getting to watch that, like how nature just kind of takes its course as well, too. But,
So this is a place, you know, Amelia Island, if you've never been here before, you're going to want to put it on your must visit places list. Yeah. So this is a place, you know, Amelia Island, if you've never been here before, you're going to want to put it on your must visit places list.
And so we're currently working on an update. We'll do the updated podcast, but also have our updated free visitors guide so that you can download that and just get, you know, like, sure, you pick up those magazines, right? And a lot of those things are advertisements, but we are going to say, okay, we go here. We're not going to say don't go here, but we're just going to like conveniently leave that off, right? So if it's not on the list, we don't recommend it. But also the thing is, is that we have lots of people come and visit us. And so we, okay, we're going to take them to do, you know, do these activities or see these places. And then people who come back again and again, oh, we want to go back to, you know, go back to this, or we'll tell them about, you know, for example, the new donut shop, or there's a new cigar lounge, or, you know, there's a new cidery or just, you know, lots of things. So it's just interesting to see. We also constantly hear from people how much they love Amelia Island. And sometimes it's funny, because if we're out like just talking to people, they'll say, okay, where are you from? And we typically typically just like, oh, Jackson, near Jacksonville or something like that. And they'll say, oh, I've been to Amelia Island. So then, of course, we'll say, okay, yeah, we're from, that's where we live. And then have a discussion about all the different experiences and things to do on Amelia Island.
a lot of fun a couple of weekends ago. It was a beautiful day here. The skies were just azure blue and not a cloud in the sky. And so we were able to get a lot of great pictures of the downtown and all of the different places that we would recommend. And so, you know, if you download this free visitor's guide, you'll be able to get to see some of those places and, you know, the gorgeous pictures that we got that day.
Yeah. So we will keep that updated, link that in the episode as well.
And so number four, episode 32, traveling around the world fast and slow with Route Finder. This one's such a fun episode because I think, you know, our friends Mo and Erica, they're Route Finder on social media, and that's R-A-U-T Finder. But, you know, they are slow travelers, so they do a lot of slow travel, and they haven't really pushed a lot of content and things like that. We would follow them and they'd post a little bit, but they've really been posting some amazing content recently. And I think being on the podcast really helped to kind of spur that. At least I'm going to take credit for it.
I've always enjoyed following them. I was fascinated when they did the world trip that they talked about on the podcast episode and they posted things on Facebook. And this was way back in like 2013, right? So they would post things on Facebook, mainly for family and friends, but I just loved living vicariously through them that year. And so, so yeah, they've, but they really stepped it up. They've started posting not, yeah, pictures, videos, but I think a lot more stories, too, which is what we love.
Yeah, we love to hear the stories. And so Mo and Erica, you guys are doing a great job. Keep it up. We're really enjoying your current trip to India and have really enjoyed watching that. and have really enjoyed watching that.
So yeah. So if you haven't started following them, go follow them
Yeah. And if you don't know what a slow traveler is, this is someone who goes and stays an extended period of time in one location. And they just try to kind of act a little bit like a local, right? They go to the same coffee shops and meet people and talk to people. And, you know, it's not about checking off a list of places that you want to go and see. It's really just about enjoying the culture and living the life for a period of time long enough to really soak that in and not being like, oh man, I wish we'd had time to do this or I wish we'd had time to do that. Which you often hear from us, right? Because we don't have that luxury of slow travel right now. But, you know, it's something that we definitely want to get to one day. you
And then just for them to go to some places that a lot of people may not get to Right. Yeah. visit. So they talked a little bit about being in Bulgaria or stay in a place in Croatia that's a little more off the beaten path. Because if you do you want to obviously save a little bit more Right. Right. this, money. And not stay like in the most touristy areas as well. So I think we could have Mo and Erica on for so many episodes and talk to them for hours and hours. And I hope that they will. And then also that you will join us on our Antarctica cruise. So we will talk about that more later. Yes. So
getting into the to the top three, right? These are the most downloaded. And I would say exponentially, these are more downloaded, right? And so episode number one, our very first episode, creating a travel bucket list. And this is one that while before we even knew anything about doing a podcast,, right, we didn't know how we were going to set up our format. Like, we just had set a date for ourself. We're going to get something out there. And this was our first episode, and it's in our top ten. Matter of fact, it's in our top three. And so, you know, this is great because we talk about our bucket list and how did how did that come about yeah
some time reminiscing about the bucket list chalkboard wall which actually i didn't i had completely forgotten about and so we you know started planning for that episode doing that and looking at a picture of that and then also how much our bucket list has changed you know since then you, check places off or thought. I don't know that we ever really, you know, why did we pick some of those? But even this past year, we went to one of those original places that were on that bucket list, which was New Orleans. Right. And then how much it's changed over the last year. And that, of course, now we've added so many more places to the list.
Yeah, our bucket list is extremely long at this point. So we've got to start checking some of those things off very quickly. So number two, episode 22, Greece off the beaten path. So we've talked about Greece a few times. We talked about it in the long trip that we took over summer through Europe. And that's where we went to the different beaches or the different islands in the Greek Cyclades. But in episode 22, we talked to our friend Suzanne and she talked to us about a trip and an excursion that they did on Santorini. I think
was so interesting when we did this episode was how you can be in the same place and have such a different experience for a couple of reasons, right? They came on a cruise and then this was her bucket list, right? To do the flying dress in Santorini. But then the experience of getting from the cruise ship, either with the cable car or with the donkeys to this, to where they do the photo shoot and everything. And we were just like, we never saw any of that because we flew in and then had they, somebody picked us up and took us and we stayed a little bit outside of the main town. And then we they took us to the ferry, which I think is in a different place from the cruise ship. To be honest with you, I don't know if there weren't any cruise ships when we were there or what, but we never I mean, yes, it was crowded because it's Santorini, but it just we had a completely different experience, which I think is so interesting. And here just recently, our daughter, we are actually returning to Greece in a few And so our weeks. daughter was asking us something else about And Santorini. here just our recently, we are daughter, actually returning to Greece in a few weeks. And so our daughter was asking us something else about Santorini. And we were like, you know what? We never saw this cable car or this or any of this. So that's what I think was the most interesting is that you can go to places and have such a completely different experience as well. So having said that, Greece does continue to be one of our all-time favorite places. We're going somewhere completely different. We are going to fly through Athens, but we will be going to the island of Crete. So we will have lots and lots to report about that. That is a big island, so we will not obviously see it all, but we will stay, splitting our trip, we're going to stay in a couple of different cities as well. But in this episode specifically tell you hey Santorini it was great you do need to go yes but some other places off the beaten path um to go visit and some of the things that we learned yeah
of things real quick on Santorini is I would say everyone loves to go to Santorini for the sunsets. And so if you go into, I think you say OIA, it's O-I-A, the little city there on the hill where the, you know, white cave houses are with the blue dome roofs, right? The pictures that you see of Santorini are in that city. And, you know, Instagram makes this thing look fabulous. Like all you see are these cave houses and stuff like that. But reality is it is thousands of people crammed in trying to get a picture of the sunset. And so, you know, this is a case of Instagram versus reality. But we found some places outside of that little city down the hillside a little bit where we just sat on a wall, an old stone wall, and enjoyed the sunset just as beautifully as they did. Maybe we didn't have the cave houses in our picture, but, you know, we were able to peacefully sit there and watch the sunset.
really the sunsets anywhere in Greece are just phenomenal. And then on the other islands, just being completely by ourselves on a little beach and having the sunset. So I'm glad that we did what we did because then you get like both So I would never say don't go to did because then you get like both experiences. experiences. Right. Right. So I would never say don't go to St. Trini. Don't go to Mykonos. Don't. But also make sure that you go to some other places like Sifnos and Paros. And I mean, what? Milos. And the thousands of other islands that you can visit in Greece. You know, like just take your pick. Something if you've never heard of it, it's probably a good idea to go there.
can visit
was talking to a coworker last night and she's planning a trip to Greece later on this year. And she was like, hey, here are the islands we're going to. And I was like, well, I've never even heard of these. So I looked them up and they're in a different part of Greece, right? So they're not down part of there, right? So they're Greece, not down there, part of those cyclades and they just looked phenomenal. So now I've got a whole new set of islands that I want to add to my Greece list.
actually on my bucket list is slow travel in Greece.
go. So we
to you with Crete because I already have like on my list, like there's some things about flights, like if you have family, you know, flying with kids and stuff like that, that you need to know about. And so we'll have lots to report back on in Crete and it will be just the very beginning of the touristy season. Like things will just start to be opening back up. So we'll have a little bit different experience. So So we'll excited have a little bit to different come and experience. talk So excited to to you come and about talk to you that. about that.
Yep. And, you know, just the last thing on that is I'll leave you with Suzanne's parting words, which was ride the donkey and do the Santorini flying dress excursion.
Yes.
right. And so drum roll.
And so drumroll, episode what nine, you need to know when planning a trip to John in St. the Virgin U.S. Islands. Wow. We could have never guessed
popular. You what was funny know, about this is when we first released I think at the it, very beginning it had the least number of And downloads. so I was like, wah, wah, wah, nobody cares about St. John. And we were worried about, I mean, I think the quality was good. Like we recorded this while we were there one night in the villa. But yeah, right at the beginning, I was like, nobody's interested in St. John. And then since then, you guys, it really, it's like week over week, it's like number one, which, I mean, I get. We absolutely love St. John. It's always going to have a special place in our heart. We have so many places we want to go, but I would go back to St. John in a heartbeat for the relaxing snorkeling. Yeah,
as a matter of fact, when our son got married this past fall, we gave him and our daughter-in-law a trip to St. John for their honeymoon. And, you know, it was just so special to us that we wanted them to have that experience as well. And I think they fell in love with St. John just the same way that we do.
they even found restaurants and things like that that we have since added to our list because that we did not explore. So the last time that we were there, just getting to snorkel. And I think also see how much, again, like, I don't know. There wasn't really so much about the beach. It changed. They had had the two hurricanes since we had visited. And we really didn't know what it was going to be like right like a lot of places took it a long time to reopen but then just seeing like would there even be any snorkeling i do remember like we did not encounter any lionfish this time because the first time was
oh you did
Okay. The first time we had gone to the national park and gone to the visitor center, and I remember the displays and them talking about the lionfish and what they were trying to do to help eradicate, right? Okay, so lionfish, if you're not familiar, it's an invasive species that actually hurts the ecosystem. They're not native to there, And there's lots of places, we've actually seen something recently where they hunt them in St. Lucia. And so it was kind of the same thing. And so to just to be able to, you know, hopefully see like that the coral was still growing, right, that there were turtles there. And we had some fabulous snorkeling. So even after the storms, right, even after these lionfish, you know, being there just to see this natural habitat just like reestablish itself.
Yeah. And I think one of our biggest tips for St. John is rent a Jeep while you're there. That way you can explore as much as you want. And who doesn't love to drive a Jeep? Right.
Now, what's interesting about St. John when you drive, like it will be that the steering wheel and the car setup is like it is in the US, but you drive on the opposite side of the road. And honestly, that's almost harder because there's been several times when it's like, oh, we're on the wrong side of the road. And you, I mean, thankfully you notice it. I mean, there's not much, there's not any traffic in St. John or anything like that, but you do like, oh, I'm driving on the wrong, you know, the wrong way. But definitely do that because here's what I would say is the beaches are all so different, right? There's particular ones where you're going to see more turtles because of the grass. And then, you know, there's ones that have, you know, services like chairs and, you know, things you can rent. And just they're all so different. And I think it's worth exploring every single one. And so we talk about that in the episode. And we've got an itinerary that, you know, goes through all those and kind of helps you plan that out. So absolutely love it that everybody loves that St. John episode so much because we love St. John a lot.
And so John and crew over at Trippiamo, if you guys need anyone to take you down to St. John so that you can actually film, you know, what it's like driving there on St. John, we're happy to be your guides.
Absolutely.
Well, you know, 52 episodes is a whole lot of content, but we're just getting started. We've got so much more that we're looking forward to, you know, just in the last few weeks, we've been doing a lot of interviews with people who have traveled to places we've never been to. Right. And this is all part of our research, guys. So hope you understand is when we have guests on this show, we're typically researching a future destination for ourselves. And that means we're going to get all of the great information so that when we get there, we can bring you back the most content possible. Yeah,
And that has been it's been inspiring for us. And then of course, educational for us too. So I hope you enjoy their content and their stories and just getting like, I think just like lots of different perspectives too, you know, on travel. And if you love to travel, I think you love to talk about travel. So.
a couple of more minutes. Let's let's talk about what the next year has in store for us. So in 2024, we're planning on visiting four new countries. You know, our goal was to visit one new country per year, but we will visit a total of seven countries this year unless more get added. And matter of fact, just tonight, we were looking at flights for our Africa trip, and there may be yet another new country that pops up in our journey to get there.
Yes, we're trying to figure out how to get there and get back the best way possible. So that's true. You never know with us.
And then I think you also just added another one today. Now, it's not a new country, so I guess I should preface that. But you've added yet another location that we've been to before, but this time we're going to try to go to a conference there.
true. So we actually got to do Puerto Rico last year for the first time. Lots of things that we didn't do. So maybe we'll have a chance to explore a little bit more of Puerto Rico this time, but we are, we're going to go to the travel, a travel conference, travel blogger conference to travel content conference, I guess. So that will be our first one. So we're super excited about that. We're to do the it's the t-bex north america being held in san juan puerto
is also going to be our first trip to the continent of africa so we talked about we're doing the safari this year um so africa we're going to get to cross that continent and off the list which will really just leave us with two
interesting is that, I don't know, most people do Antarctica as their seventh. So is it going to be our sixth or is it going to be our seventh? Because literally most people are like, we're at our seventh. So it'll be interesting to see.
And, you know, speaking of Antarctica, we're still looking to do a cruise to Antarctica. There's a lot of content this year that's out there by different travel bloggers and people who are making that trip to Antarctica. We still want to do this. We hope that you're looking at it and saying, boy, this is something that I've got to put on my bucket list. And as a result, we hope that you would join us on a listener trip to Antarctica. So we're busy starting to think about planning that because of the times of when you need to take that trip. It's most likely going to be a 2026 thing for us, but keep listening because you're going to want to get in on that trip just as soon as we announce it.
Yeah. And so make sure that you are following us on all the places. We'll talk about it, you know, on social media too, but you can always reach out to us, scott at sunshinetravelers.com or melissa at sunshinetravelers.com or we have a contact form on sunshinetravelers.com that you could, you know, reach out to us and say, hey, you know, at some point we'll probably put together like a wait list or something like that for that as well. So also, Scott, to finish up what we're going to do this year, we're actually traveling overseas with our grandchildren on their first trip outside the country. The smallest one has actually never been on an airplane either. And so they will actually check off three countries on their first trip, the UK, Germany, and Greece. Yeah, we're
to that. And I'm sure Melissa is going to find new ways to include additional travel along the way. So just stay tuned and hear where we're going next.
listening to this episode and haven't listened to one of these top 10, take a minute and go download it into your playlist now. If you have a destination that you'd like for us to include in future episodes, please send me an email, scott at sunshinetravelers.com, and let us know what you'd like to hear. Chances are that if we haven't been there, we know someone. When
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