Unpacked by Afar | Travel Smarter, More Responsibly

Latest Episodes:

Where to Travel This Winter Sep 28, 2023

Show notes

Winter is coming. (But not in a threatening, Game of Thrones-y kind of way.) So this week on Unpacked, AFAR’s mighty destination team is helping you prepare. We talk dreamy winter destinations, how to repurpose winter gear, the best time to fly during the holidays, and so much more.

Meet this week’s guests

Mark Ellwood, freelance travel writer
Chloe Arrojado, associate destinations editor
Tim Chester, deputy destinations editor

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Explore our ideas for where to go in November.
And explore our ideas for where to go in December.

Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us.

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Being a Person With Dwarfism Has Never Stopped Me From Exploring the World Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

Christophe Zajac-Denek is an actor, a podcaster, a traveler—and he’s 4 feet 4 inches tall. On this week’s episode of Unpacked, he shares how being a person with dwarfism has never stopped him from exploring the world.

Meet this week’s guests

Nicolle (Nikki) Galteland, Unpacked producer
Christophe Zajac-Denek, actor, surfer, and podcast host

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Listen to Christophe’s podcast, I’m Kind of a Big Deal.
Watch Christophe's documentary, Standing on Water, about surfing and dwarfism, which was just awarded "best short" at the Jersey Surf Film Festival.
Listen to Nikki's podcast, Looters, a sci-fi western role-playing podcast.

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How Maps Reveal the Secrets of our World Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

You may use Google Maps every day, but how often do you think about how that map was made—and more importantly, who made it? In today’s episode of Unpacked, we do just that. You’ll never again look at a map the same way.

Meet this week’s guests

Billie Cohen, AFAR executive editor
Evan Applegate, editorial cartographer
Clinton Johnson, Antiracist Geospatial Architect
Dr. Atyia Martin, executive director of a nonprofit called Next Development Leadership (among many other things)
Cymone Davis, former town manager of Tullahassee, Oklahoma, the oldest historically Black town in Oklahoma.

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Listen to Evan’s podcast, Very Expensive Maps, and check out the maps he makes.
See Clinton's National Geographic Explorer award.
Explore Cymone and Dr. Martin’s Black Towns & Settlements Project.

And a special thanks to our September sponsor, Explore Asheville.

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Can a Pledge Really Help Cure “Bad Tourists”? Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

If you’ve been following the news, it’s been a summer of “bad tourists.” There was the woman who carved her initials into the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the drunk Brits, ahem, leaving their marks around Amsterdam. Of course, these are just the travelers who rise to the top—most people would never think of behaving this way on a trip. (Right??)

Still, it feels like the right time to explore a tool that’s trying to curb this bad behavior: the “travel better” pledge. If you haven’t heard of them, or signed one, essentially, a travel pledge is a promise that a traveler makes to follow a certain set of guidelines set out by the host community. Countries around the world, from Iceland to Palau, have launched pledges, which travelers can sign and share on social media.

The idea is to encourage people to think more about a place and its vulnerabilities, its values, and its needs, before a visit. Some pledges require a fee, and the money is funneled towards a particular cause, while others offer volunteer opportunities or help visitors tap into the ethics of a place. But in the end, they’re just ... words. And how effective can those words be, really?

That’s the question that AFAR deputy editor Tim Chester, our guide for this week’s episode, asked himself recently. Tim signed his first pledge last year, during a trip to an Indigenous community that has been highly impacted by the world. After returning home, he did a little digging and found that this pledge was part of a larger movement in travel.

Meet this week’s guests

Adora Nobuo, the program coordinator for the Friends of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary
Rebecca Ingram, the chief executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa
Ben Lynam, head of communications for the Travel Foundation, a nonprofit based in the UK

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Read (and sign) Palau’s pledge.
Watch New Zealand’s pledge video.

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Think Travel Insurance Is Boring? Prepare to Be Dazzled (or Just Financially Protected). Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

Travel insurance: It's not the sexiest subject, is it? And yet, it can play a huge role in saving you money, time, and even sanity. In this episode of Unpacked by AFAR, we speak with five experts to help you understand how to decided if and when you need insurance, the different types of policies you can buy, and how to use travel insurance if something goes wrong on your trip.

Meet this week’s guests

Wendy Perrin, travel expert
Christina Tunnah, general manager of marketing and brands for World Nomads
Beth Godlin, President of Aon Affinity Travel Practice
John Gobbels, vice president and COO of Medjet
Nick Cavanaugh, founder and CEO of Sensible Weather

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Read our primer on travel insurance.
Explore Wendy Perrin’s website.
Use sites like travelinsurance.com or insuremytrip.com to help you decide on the right policy.
Learn more about World Nomads.
Discover more about Aon Affinity Travel Services.
Learn more about Medjet.

Find out more about Sensible Weather.

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A Skeptic's Guide to Birdwatching Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

Have you ever considered birdwatching? If the answer is a "heck, no"—or even a "not really"—than this episode is for you. Host Aislyn Greene, also a birdwatching skeptic, dives deep into the world of birding to discover how to do it well, the equipment you need, and most importantly why to give this sport (yes, it's a sport!) a shot.

Meet this week’s guests

Dominik Mosur, animal care specialist at the Randall Museum and birding tour guide
Kara Cook, rooftop biologist for Audubon Florida
Aunt Cheryl, Aislyn’s bird-loving aunt

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Find a bird tour around the world.
Find a field guide for your region—here’s a California example.
Download the Merlin app and the eBird app
Discover your local Audubon chapter.

Don't forget to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic. And a special thanks to our August sponsor, the Austrian Tourist Office. To learn more about the Bregenzerwald region, a collection of 23 villages deep in Austria’s western Alps, visit afar.com/austria-nature.

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National Parks Are America’s Greatest Idea—and Biggest Problem Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

When you think of America’s national parks, what comes to mind? For many of us—myself included—it’s the sense of openness, freedom, and awe that places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite can spark. And yet, as we’ll learn in today’s episode, that’s not the whole story.

Hundreds of years ago, Indigenous communities throughout the United States lived on and cared for much of the land that makes up America’s 400-plus national parks and other protected lands under the National Park Service (NPS). Then settlers arrived and an ugly chapter in our national history unfolded, one that included the forced removal of Native peoples from that very land. In recent years, however, there’s been a growing movement to return that land—or at the very least, to work with Native communities to co-manage it.

Associate editor Mae Hamilton is taking us on a journey into that movement. She speaks with our current director of national parks, Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III—the first person of Native descent to hold the position—about his connection to the parks and his efforts to bring tribe members into the conversation. She also speaks to two tribe members who have worked closely with the NPS and are cautiously optimistic about the new chapter currently unfolding.

Meet this week’s guests

Mae Hamilton, AFAR associate editor
Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, directorof the National Park System
Hanford McCloud, a member of the Nisqually Tribal Council
Tracie Revis, director of advocacy, cultural preservation and conservation of the Ocmulgee River

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Learn more about Joint Secretarial Order 3403 and what it could mean for the national parks and Native communities.

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Should I Give Money to Panhandlers When I Travel? Aug 10, 2023

Show notes

There are few things as challenging as the moment when, while walking along a sidewalk in Paris, San Francisco, or Cartagena, someone in need asks you for money. (I will also say that I imagine there are few things as challenging as being in a place in your life where you have to ask strangers for money.)

What do you do, personally? Do you give? Do you avert your eyes and keep on walking? Is it somewhere in between? Regardless of the decision you make, it’s a complex moment from a human perspective. And that complexity was the subject of our inaugural digital advice column, also called Unpacked. In it Dr. Anu Taranath, a speaker, consultant, and author of the book Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, responds to a reader’s question asking if she did the right thing by giving money.

And in today’s episode, Dr. Anu expands on her answer. We talked about her initial reaction to the question, the insidiousness of inequality, and the times in her life when she’s encountered panhandling. (She has an incredible story from a trip to Senegal.) What I love about Anu’s response is that she doesn’t have a definitive answer. In fact, she says, there are no easy answers when it comes to living in an unequal world.

But her advice is empathetic and full of understanding that the world isn’t black and white. And most importantly, she shares how to navigate these situations with dignity and grace—for all involved.

Meet this week’s guest

Dr. Anu Taranath, speaker, consultant, and author

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Read Dr. Anu’s original response to the reader’s question.
Read Dr. Anu’s second column, about what to do when the person sitting next to you on the plane is drunk.
Buy her book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World

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Will the "Real" Waikīkī Please Stand Up? Aug 03, 2023

Show notes

AFAR senior deputy editor Jennifer Flowers—who heads up all our hotel content—has a deep familiarity with Waikīkī, the two-mile stretch of sand known for its hotels, waves, and tourists. Her mother is from Hawai'i, and her parents (both in the hospitality industry) actually met while working in a hotel. She played on Waikīkī as a kid, but for years, she's seen it as a kinda shiny, glitzy place—a place that seems a little, well, inauthentic.

So on a recent trip to O'ahu, she met with four different locals who helped her see a new side of Waikīkī.

Meet this week’s guests

Jennifer Flowers, AFAR senior deputy editor
Misty Thompson Tufono, executive vice president of Tihati Productions
Dylan Ching, vice president of operations for TS Restaurants, which includes Duke’s Waikīkī
Aunty Luana Maitland, director of cultural experiences at the Outrigger Reef Waikīkī Beach Resort
Bonga Perkins, world-champion longboard surfer

Resources

Read this episode’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
Read Jenn’s story about the cultural experiences she had on Waikīkī.
Check out the Royal Hawaiian and its luau, run by Tihati Productions.
Explore the menu at Duke’s Waikīkī.
Discover the cultural center at the Outrigger Reef Waikīkī Beach Resort.
Watch Bonga surf! (And check out his surfboards.)

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The Promise and Peril of Digital Nomadism Jul 27, 2023

Show notes

Digital nomadism has been hailed as a way to save communities—and slammed for raising rents and pricing out locals. In this week’s episode, Chloe Arrojado, an AFAR editor and digital nomad, explores the complicated ethics of working remotely.

Meet this week’s guests