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Here's a sneak peek of this week's episode.
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I'm Scott. And
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I'm Melissa.
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And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those that just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you follow along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth. This week we catch up with some dear friends that have been on their travel journey for a while now. They have literally traveled the world and are now slowing their travel down to have truly unique experiences in the places that they visit. So pack a bag and join us on a trip around the world with our friends Mo and Erica.
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Well, today we're joined by Mo and Erica, and these are friends of ours that we've known for a while. We started following them. Well, let me take a step back. I actually used to work with Mo, so. You know, we've known them for quite a while, but we started following their travel journeys several years ago when they did an epic travel trip that we're going to talk about today. And so Mo and Erica, welcome. Glad to have you guys on the
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show. Glad to be here. Thanks for having us. Super excited. So, you know, we
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have to ask where in the world are you guys right now? Because you are all over the place. So
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yes, we've been all over. This has been a busy travel year for us, but actually we're back home in Fort Lauderdale. I just got back last week from India visiting my dad. My dad still lives in India and we actually left Fort Lauderdale on June 8th to Europe, and then we spent about three months in Europe, and then we split ways. We did what we call the Camino de Santiago to end our time in Europe, and then we split ways. She came back home to the U.S., and I went to India to visit my dad, and we're back home
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in FLL now. Yeah, my sister was having a baby, so I wanted to get back and be here for that. help her out and stuff. So I went and spent a couple weeks with her and just returned
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just a couple days ago from Charleston. Yeah, how exciting. So, you know, Mo, when we were working together, the last time we were together was in the UK. You guys lived in London for a while. And, um, you know, I just remember thinking back then, because I don't think that we had really gotten super into the travel thing yet. I know I was traveling a lot internationally for work. Um, but I thought to myself, Oh, wow. How do you ever get to the point where you just pick up and, you know, move to another country like that? And I just remember thinking. Um, the, uh, didn't know anybody at the time that had ever done that. And so I thought it was quite interesting, but now, you know, we've been traveling a lot. We love it. And we really enjoy following you guys. And so I
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to get
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into that. Um,
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you know,
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first of all, is there, um, Do you guys document your travels and stuff like that? Is there somewhere where our listeners, if they wanted to follow along with you guys and see what we're talking about, where could they find you guys
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at? Sure. So actually we have something on Facebook or that's where we started it. It was called Raut finder. Uh, since. My name's, our last name is R-A-U-T, Raut, so it's kind of like a play on words. So it's Rautfinder.com, facebook.com slash rautfinder. We started this in 2013, Scott, when I know we were working together in London when we decided to take a break from our corporate jobs and do a 11-month trip around the world. So that's, at that point, I don't even think you know, Instagram was actually that big then. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. We, I wasn't aware of it, so. I think
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Melissa was probably the only person on it at
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time. And it was photographs, right? Just pictures and filters and all kinds of crazy stuff,
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but yeah. Exactly, so. So yeah, so we had this web page called, that's when we started RouteFinder, just so that we could document our travels. And for friends and family mostly, it wasn't more than that, but mostly for us as well. So we could look back on this, what I would say, once in a lifetime journey that we're embarking on.
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Yeah, but we're now on Instagram. And I have to say, like,
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after that, for that whole period of time, like, I was just always like, look, we're going Eric Carr. Did you see their post? And just so intrigued, you know, because our kids were, I guess our daughter had just graduated, but we had a son that was middle school going into high school, right? So we still had to, you know, get in school and stuff like that. So just so intrigued by your travels and you were able to do and everything you were
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able to see. Yeah before we started that trip or those travels you know much like you there were people actually that we didn't know that we followed their their blogs because it was all blogging at the time and you know drew a lot of inspiration from them and I think also it encouraged us and helped us kind of gain the courage to just be able to step out and try it. See what happened. I guess
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for our listeners, just talk a little bit about about that trip because I remember specifically that you were in Europe. You started in Europe and I remember you posting something about, okay, we're in Switzerland and our bank account is like draining, you know, and now we're going to Asia to where the money will stretch a little bit further and things like that. So I guess just tell, tell everybody kind of over this 11 months, what that looked like.
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Sure. So it took a lot of planning. Let me just start with that. I think since we were in Europe, it just made sense to rent a car and drive to Europe. And then the whole point was always to At that point, we both had 280,000 plus Delta SkyMiles each. And Delta was given this amazing deal where you could fly one way around the world for 280,000 miles in business class. So, I mean, that's just unheard
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of. I mean, yeah. That inspired the trip in a big way.
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Yeah, and they had a special dedicator on the roll desk. I was friends with those guys, like three people who you just knew like how many people are calling about this trip, right? So you spend hours with them planning the trip, they're telling you what the options are, and you just basically, you know, are part of the process and planning your trip with them. And, and that's, that's what drove the the inspiration behind the trip, saying, let's do this. We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance because of the miles we've accumulated to do something so amazing. And that's what got us going.
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I think my brother is probably yelling at his phone right now because I think he just biked 500,000 miles to get to Italy for one ticket. Yeah,
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and they don't do that round-the-world trip thing anymore. They must have been losing money on it. But
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with that being said, if people are interested in doing round-the-world trips, there are websites called airtreks.com. I think I've used that personally just to see how much a round-the-world trip would cost. And it builds you the itinerary. It tells you how much it would cost. It goes to various different the airline alliances that picks out the best flights for you. So I think that's a useful tool to just understand, to get your head around,
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okay, what would the journey cost? Yeah, so. Thanks. Melissa needed one more thing
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to inspire
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her here. I got a feeling if I don't hurry up into retirement, she's going to do this
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trip without me. So I don't
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know. But, you know, so we do want to come back to that trip, but your journeys actually started before that, right?
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And, you
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know, the things that got you inspired to travel internationally, right? I think. Go ahead.
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I mean, we both
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grew up traveling
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some degree, but mine was, you know, I grew up in the United States and I my parents on vacations, but they were all domestic. I always, I don't know what it was, you know, about the thought of international travel, but even in elementary school, I was, I can remember writing a paper about wanting to go to Japan and wanting to, like, go to Australia. I don't know where that came from. I think it just seemed so different. So like that desire was kind of already there. And then when we met, well, Mo growing up in India, he had an opportunity to travel, actually some internationally because his dad was a flight attendant. And so he came to the US at a very young age for visits and some other places as well. But then when we met, we both kind of already had a little bit of that love for travel. And in our, in the early days of our relationship, we went with a group of friends to Japan. And then we, when we got married, we went to Fiji and New Zealand. And then after that, it just, it continued. Like, I think the more we had, the more we experienced it, the more we wanted it. And then, you know, that just segued into annual vacations. Every time we had, you know, time off of work, it was like, okay, where's the furthest place we can go?
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Okay, and you know, I'll be the first one to say like the most diverse, amazing country is the country we live in. But I feel like we can do that at a later stage when I mean, they don't mind. getting into uncomfortable situations, trying to communicate with somebody who doesn't speak our language, that kind of stuff. So it's a little harder to travel. So I'm like, do that while we still can. And that was the inspiration as well. Let's do that while we're younger. We can road trip to the US when we're a little older, because that's more comfort zone kind of thing. So that was more inspiration. Like, let's see the world now. Why wait?
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Yeah, I think living in London also had a big impact on it, as well as we had other opportunities, both of us did, to work in international places during our careers. So that's, we were fortunate there. And for longer stints, not necessarily like a business trip. Like I spent six weeks in India, Mo spent some time in Brussels. I spent three
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months in Brussels. Yeah, working. And
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then on top of that, we love food. And the best place to try the international cuisines is in the actual country. So that's a big part
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of it. Yeah, and just, of course, Anthony Bourdain. I mean, how can you not? Like, if you just watch his shows, he just inspires you to explore the world, experience the world that's around you. So just Anthony Bourdain, of course, was a huge, huge influence. For us, at
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Yeah. I think he influenced a lot of people to go out there and explore and see new things and try new things.
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So I guess go through like, I guess just high level. So then go through kind of where, where all that trip, that round the world trip touched and how, and maybe I guess those air, those airline stops
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that you did and stuff like that. Yeah, sure. I mean, your trip is fairly simple. We rented a car out of Paris and then we did France. We did Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Germany, and Spain. And you know, it was, uh, It was a month. It was a month long. And my dad actually came and were part of it. It exceeded all expectations. I wasn't big on Germany. And the food, I mean, yes, the sausages are great. And I know about the rind, the wines, like Riesling, super sweet. But it just exceeded all of my expectations. The castles were just mind-blowing. So if you ever get a chance to go to Germany, I would say, take it, do it. I think it often gets overlooked. other than like Italy and other European destinations always take residence, but I think Germany is massively underrated. There's
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a route in Germany called the Romantic Road and that had inspired a trip for me and my girlfriends probably a year or two before I met Mo, so we went back and kind of redid some of that together. And it's just, it's all those castle towns and it's just beautiful. It's all through Bavaria.
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So I grew up going to Germany in the summers. And so we had friends that lived there and we would go stay with them. And since my mom worked for the airlines, it was free to fly. But that was back when we had
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to put on a coat and tie
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to fly.
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Yeah, I too was blown away our last trip to Germany. The food, how good the food was and how fresh and like it was so just amazing food there. And I was surprised at that as well. They, you know,
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Germany doesn't crack the top three of like, where do you want to go to Europe? I mean, Germany won't be there. And I think, you know, people need to have a second look at it. I think it's really good. And then from, from Europe, then we made it to Australia. We only spent two weeks, two weeks in Australia. We didn't do it justice. just because the exchange rate was terrible at that time in 2013. The Australian dollar was one for once, like a coffee was like $5 to $6. Pizza was $20, just to give you some point of reference. It was 10 years ago. The US dollar wasn't doing great. So we spent only two weeks there, but then we went to New Zealand and spent a month. And I think that was amazing. We rented a car in the South Island. So and just drove around, stayed in campsites. Six weeks. Six weeks, actually. And I think that was just, I would say, one of the best highlights of our round-the-world trip. If anybody's thinking of going to New Zealand, do it. Rent a car. The scenery
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is just stunning. And I mean, we basically spent our time driving from one place to the next. But then we'd have like two or three days in between. And we'd go on long treks or hikes. And it's
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just, yeah.
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out in this world.
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Beautiful. And so you camp, so what did you camp or like what was the setup for that?
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That's a great question. So basically there are I think almost like state-owned campsites and you get a pass. Not state-owned
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but it's like there's a network of campsites and you can buy like a membership which we did because we were realizing that we're staying at these places all the time. At the time everybody that we'd known that had done it was renting a camper van, but we were, that was expensive. So we opted to, we actually ended up with a station wagon and we thought we could sleep in it if we had to, if we were in a real bind. Mostly we stayed in these campsites in these little very basic cabins, just a room with a bed. And then you had access to the shared bathrooms and the shared kitchens, which were like immaculately clean. I mean, amazing. And that kept it very economical for us, much more so than the expense of, you know, gasoline on a camper van. Yeah. And that's kind
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of, we've seen in some places like that, even in Alaska too. Yeah. A lot more affordable. Yeah.
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And I mean, if you're traveling for 11 months, you're, you're not
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going to stay in a
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five star hotel every night.
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Yeah, that
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makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And
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I wanted to back up and just say that our Delta around the world ticket. The Europe part, obviously, we had some little flights here and there. We got ourselves back to United States and we departed out of Atlanta. And now the first flight was to Australia because we were allowed
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like 16 segments and six stops.
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Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So
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we used it for the big ones, the long ones.
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Sure. Because then it's cheaper to go here and there on some little small flights. Yeah.
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And also for, for anyone listening, like Star Alliance, like these networks, also have their own variations of round-the-world trips. So if you go to Star Alliance's website, they will allow you to build an itinerary through their network itself. So it's slightly more restricted. You can only fly United and its partners, and it'll tell you how much it costs or how many miles it would take to do it. So it's not as elaborate as what Delta was offering, but there are other options out there, like a little more Tommy down version of those. So yeah.
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Yeah. So you kind of hit on it a little bit. You use that for your long segments and stuff. But then once you got to areas like, you know, Asia and stuff like that, you could travel regionally. Yeah,
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very inexpensive. Exactly all the little by so basically after New Zealand, we were tired of bank account draining down. And the next stop was Southeast Asia. So from New Zealand, we went to Thailand. And we use Bangkok oftentimes for hub like we we spent lots of nights at this one double tree in Bangkok and they started like welcoming welcoming us back
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by name. because
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we just used it like as a hub for all those Southeast Asia flights, but Thailand we were there for a month and we kind of stayed put there. We only spent time in two different towns, Koh Samui and Koh Lanta. So one was kind of on the eastern side, you know, beach towns and one was on the left, the western side.
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Yeah, so we did Thailand, we did Vietnam. Vietnam was a again, another place that just exceeded expectations. So we were a little skeptical going there, just because as Americans, so like, you know, and we weren't seasoned travelers there. So I was, we were telling people that we're from Canada, like just to be safe. I don't know how they would treat us and stuff, but it was most welcoming, warm people that you would meet. And it was, you know, it was, it was one of, destinations that's just left a mark in my mind about just wanting to go back. Like I'm longing to go back to Vietnam. So I think I would recommend that. I think the food there is delicious and it's so cheap. It's
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beautiful scenery there again.
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Yeah. One of the things that again, little silly fact but you can get four set beers basically you can get a pint of beer for four cents so that should give you a point right yeah how good the beer is don't ask me but hey when you're on a budget four cents beers work right
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yeah no kidding And so you guys finished up this trip and now you're doing something a little bit different. And because in this case, you were moving around a lot, right? Not staying in any one place for really long. Our goal was to at least stay three
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days because we felt like at least then you don't feel like you're just constantly moving. But, you know, three days is a pretty fast pace, too.
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We talked about that. Melissa and I were just chatting the other day is often when we go to places like this, we miss out on one of the benefits of Marriott offers is the stay four nights, get the fifth night free. Right. But because we're moving around so much, we miss out on that. And so we've even said that. we need to start slowing down just a little bit and take advantage of it because that's
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a great benefit. That's if you book with points through
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the site.
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And Hilton does it
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too. So Merritt and Hilton do it. Because we've tried to take advantage
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of that sometimes on the bigger redemptions, like the more luxury type properties, like get night free.
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Think about it, you're staying three nights. so you're just one you know yeah one night away from getting that that free one and
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so and especially if you have status it's
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such you
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get the all this breakfast and you know so that all adds
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up as well so
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it is absolutely
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it does yeah yeah we try to always make sure to take advantage of that when they offer it because that's
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a that's
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a great perk
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it is
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So yeah, go
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ahead. I think just to end it. So from Southeast Asia, we spent some time in India with my dad. We did some local trips within India. Then went to Turkey. I think Turkey was great. We spent about three weeks. I think so. Three weeks in Turkey. And then from Turkey, we went to Argentina. That was a long flight. spent some time in Argentina and then we ended the the closing was basically an all-inclusive in Jamaica. So we ended
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our trip before going back to work and back
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to reality. So that was it. At that time in our lives we said if money was unlimited we would continue to travel so we wouldn't have stopped but then you know like Of course, everybody has constraints, and we had to come back to work. But so a lot of people have asked us this, like saying, OK, is that out of your system? At that point, they were just like, OK, now are you done with that?
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And my answer
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is no. Yeah, build out. Yeah, so I just wanted to throw that out there. It wasn't a checklist. It's more a way of doing things for us.
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I think that's what happened with us. We took that six
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week trip. And once
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we took that as game on, like this is, this has got to happen more. Right. We, we need this in our lives. It really just. you know, we both just came back probably looking 10 years younger because we had
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gone through
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so much, you know, we'd sold a house or our son had graduated, you know, we moved to a new house and we just, we had a million things that were in the fire. I was starting a new job and, you know, had wrapped up one that, you know, was just, it was stressful. And so, you know, then you get out there, And I literally didn't talk about work for
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six weeks.
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And I think we just relaxed. And by the time we ended up at our friend's wedding in the UK, they were like, look at you two. This big permanent smile on your face. Scott
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kept saying yeah where I'm ready to go home and whatever and I guess I was like I guess he's just trying to talk himself into
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this or something
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because he's like you mean
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you could
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and I'm just like yeah Well, I mean we
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had to
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come see Lottie So kind of mentioned it just a little bit ago, but now you guys are doing something totally different
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in your travel. Yeah. Sure, I think, basically, we're trying to be, you know, we're doing something we call slow travel, at least slow to us. So we, we try to really explore a place and you know, try to live in one place for at least for a month and truly try to, can never be locals, but be as familiar with the place, try to understand
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it, try to develop
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a routine. So just for an example, like if we go to a place and we stay there for a month, we don't feel the need to do every single touristy thing in and around that area. Because I'm like a local, a local would live his life, go to the local market, you know, kind of get coffee at a certain place. So that routine that Eric was talking about, just build that and see if we, you know, how that place speaks to us. So rather than just going at, you know, a million miles
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a minute. Yeah, that's not to say we don't do still spend some time like doing day trips and like mostly in
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area to
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see what tourist things are there, you know, but that's not the, well, first of all, you don't have to do it in like two or three days, which
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is
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nice. And then second of all, that's not the primary thing. I think just experiencing the culture and the place, like you said, to see what speaks to you about it. Correct.
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So hopefully we've done, go ahead.
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It's funny that you mentioned that, because I remember when we had dinner with you guys in London, two things, really. You were like, oh, what have you done? And we're like, we did this, and we did this, and we went to the Cathedral, and we went to the Tower of London, and we've done this. And I think
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Eric was like, we haven't
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even done all
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that stuff yet. And then the second thing was, I think, something about like we had we had taken the underground because we're very familiar with it and I think you guys had assumed like oh they had taken a taxi or something we're like no we've got our we've got our oyster card you know and all that kind of stuff so you know kind of mixing those two things we do try to hit hit all the you know see the touristy things yeah You're
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trying to reach way backwards.
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But London is one of those
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cities where it almost forces you to go like a million miles and there's so much to see, so much to do. Yeah, there's never enough time to explore it. We
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still see and do new things every time we go, and we've probably made six trips or so now. We always
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revisit and do favorites, but
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then we oftentimes do new things too. Speaking of slow travel, our Europe
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trip started with two weeks in London, actually, and we had an Airbnb just outside of London. Then again, to your point, there's so much to see, so much to do in London, and there's never a dull moment. But yeah, it's a little different the way we approached it this time, though. Yeah.
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Yeah. So do you want to talk a little bit about the
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summer? Sure. Melissa, do you have a question? No, no,
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no. Go ahead. That
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was just
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a rough idea.
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Yeah. We spent two weeks in London, and then we went to Croatia. We spent a month in a small town called Zadar. It's maybe like the third or fourth biggest city out there. If you haven't done Croatia, I think the best way for me to explain Croatia is it's Italy at half the cost and half the crowds, but just as pretty. So in some cases, maybe prettier. basically, geographically, it's just on the other side of the Adriatic. So if you look at it, so you could literally take a boat across. There were
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actually some ferries that go like between
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Venice and Croatia. So we spent a month there and Zadar is this little magical island that is somehow just not being hit as bad with tourists as like something like Dubrovnik or Split, which are the other cities that the Game of Thrones, basically, a lot of it was filmed there. So, you know, there are so many tours and tourists coming there. It's it's the infrastructure is not equipped to handle that much influx of tourists, especially in the summer month. So we really enjoyed our time in Zadar. I think the cost of living is very affordable. We had a a one-bedroom little
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place. Airbnb, a historic city center, walking distance
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to everything. We spent like $1,000 for the month. We did small trips from Croatia. We did go to Split, which is one of the more popular tourist destinations.
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We have some beautiful national parks there. So we visited one of those and would like to go back
00:29:22 SPEAKER_01
and visit the other ones. So a month in Croatia, I think that, to us, is almost should be part of our annual rotation. I mean, there are some places you want to go back to and some places you want to explore. I think Croatia, for us, is going to be one that has to be part of every year, if we can manage it. I'm
00:29:44 SPEAKER_00
glad to hear you say that because we kind of have a few places like that as well and sometimes we feel guilty about going back to them because you know we want to see more. They're just some
00:29:56 SPEAKER_01
of our favorite
00:29:56 SPEAKER_00
places and I don't know if you guys spent much time in like Greece and the islands. We have not.
00:30:03 SPEAKER_01
We've never been
00:30:04 SPEAKER_02
to Greece.
00:30:04 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. Yeah, there's
00:30:06 SPEAKER_02
so many
00:30:07 SPEAKER_01
places. Is Greece one of those? It's one
00:30:10 SPEAKER_00
of those. It's similar,
00:30:11 SPEAKER_02
right? Where
00:30:13 SPEAKER_03
not nearly as expensive and you can find places that aren't quite as touristy and that was what we love.
00:30:21 SPEAKER_00
Like, you know, at dinner you could get a liter of wine for
00:30:26 SPEAKER_02
four or five
00:30:27 SPEAKER_00
right? It's crazy. Really affordable. I thought the, you know, great food, very affordable. I didn't think like the housing and stuff like that was super expensive. So, but you know, you got to get outside of the, you know, you're not going to find that
00:30:49 SPEAKER_01
in Santorini and smaller
00:30:52 SPEAKER_03
So then from Croatia, what was next?
00:30:56 SPEAKER_02
Next, we went to Bulgaria, and we stayed in Sofia for, I think we were there 35 days, so a little longer, and it was even more favorable from a cost perspective than Croatia even was. And it was also an excellent place to do a couple other small trips or short trips to other places. For one, just because the airport was very convenient, is well connected with lots of Ryanair, with their flights going out of it. So very inexpensive from that perspective as well. But being a capital city, you still had a lot to offer in terms of culture and sites to see, but also as well as, you know, diverse dining opportunities, and some very nice dining at a lower price point. So that was nice. And we really did kind of develop a routine there. And really enjoyed it.
00:31:54 SPEAKER_01
We did go to Belgrade from there. An old college friend of mine lives in Belgrade. Now he's Serbian. So we did a little road trip. And then the other excursion we took was we went to Malta from Sofia for a couple of nights, Hilton Points. And Malta was pretty incredible. So just calling Sofia home base and just doing these little side trips for us. just fantastic
00:32:16 SPEAKER_02
yeah so we kept the airbnb all the way through so it's like you know we could pack even lighter and you know just take the things
00:32:24 SPEAKER_03
we needed for that little trip take that one little backpack on ryan yeah so then how so you mentioned like the markets are there other ways that you kind of tried to immerse yourself in the culture or get to know like the neighborhood the people
00:32:41 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so one thing about the people, I'll just start with that, is you'd be surprised how well people speak English in Bulgaria and Croatia. So, because, you know, even personal experience, like when you go to Italy, they want, it's more Italian, and they speak English, but maybe in Rome and stuff, but in Croatia, the English is fluent. In Bulgaria, in Sofia, people speak great English. So it's so surprising, you know, us, at least me as an American here, not very familiar with the Baltic bloc, if you will. I didn't know what to expect going in. I know Croatia's not, but the Bulgaria is, and I think, I think so it's easier to communicate. It's easier to assimilate. Like you can have a conversation on a coffee shop or a grocery store, very easy. Walking tours are in English. So you, to answer your question, Melissa, like how do you assimilate yourself? First thing you do is you go on a free walking tour and it's in English and it tells you where to go, what places to eat at. So that's, that's always a good starting
00:33:47 SPEAKER_03
point, I would say.
00:33:48 SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
00:33:49 SPEAKER_03
Good to know. And then before we move on to the next destination, what do you do, like, are there visa requirements and how long you can stay places? I guess for somebody who's thinking about doing something like this, like what, how, how do you learn
00:34:03 SPEAKER_01
about that kind of stuff? Great, great question. Actually, there are some thinking that needs to go behind this because the Schengen countries, I think there are, and I could be wrong, 26 countries And you can only visit the Schengen countries for a period of 90 days within a 180-day period. 90 days combined. Combined. So Croatia is part of that. UK not anymore with Brexit. But the rest of the EU, if you will, the Germanys, the Italys, they all count towards your 90 days if you stay there. A lot of people do this, and Bulgaria is not part of the EU yet. So when you stay in Bulgaria, it doesn't hit towards your 90 days in the Schengen. So that's something, you know, if you want to spend a lot of time in Europe, you have to be mindful of not overextending your stay. So just do your research on, you know, what countries are part of the Schengen that count towards the 90 days in 180 day period and what countries are not. Yeah. And then
00:35:04 SPEAKER_02
go spend some time in the ones that are not, where you can easily get back and forth.
00:35:08 SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
00:35:09 SPEAKER_03
Gotcha. And then there are going to be new requirements, visa requirements, starting in
00:35:15 SPEAKER_01
2024. Right. Yes. I think it's an electronic permit to enter. Yeah. You know, they've been talking about that since
00:35:23 SPEAKER_02
2022.
00:35:23 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And every year they've pushed it, but I think now they're talking 2024 to have that. Yeah. So
00:35:28 SPEAKER_03
just if you're listening to this in early 2024, going in early 2024, it's supposed to be some time. I think it's really going to happen this time, but it's, it's like $8 and you do it online and it's supposed to be pretty quick, but I would just try to make sure that you do it in time. And then of course, like you're saying, just make sure you understand if you're doing a longer trip, you know what your requirements are, but that's a great tip, right? To know, okay, how can we extend our time and make those 90 days work? I
00:35:53 SPEAKER_02
want to say it's
00:35:54 SPEAKER_00
an extended amount of time that that that travel. Oh,
00:36:00 SPEAKER_03
yes Yeah,
00:36:02 SPEAKER_02
there what was
00:36:04 SPEAKER_03
what was next So from Bulgaria,
00:36:07 SPEAKER_01
we did the we went to Porto Portugal which is where we started the Camino de Santiago which is basically a
00:36:19 SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it's just a network of pilgrims' ways or routes that lead to the Shrine of St. James, the Apostle St. James, which is in the Cathedral of Santiago Compostela, and that's in Santiago, Spain. So, the route that we choose started
00:36:40 SPEAKER_01
in Porto. It was 280 kilometers, roughly 170 miles, from Porto to to Santiago. And, you know, we just, we took minimal travel here. Yeah. So there's even service
00:36:53 SPEAKER_02
like luggage service. So we, the night before we started, we stayed at a Hilton property and we left our bag with them and we'd arranged a luggage courier to take it to our hotel at the final stay. So we carried only, you know, very a small number of items, knowing that we would need to do laundry along the way, minimizing because you're carrying your bag. There are also bag services where if you don't want to carry your bag, they will quarter it to each stay for you. So you can always have your stuff with you, but not have to carry it. So huge. Just in general, the Camino is just so well organized. I mean, you have to You have to choose how you're going to do it, but in terms of services and everything that's available to all the help that's available to pilgrims is just excellent for, you know, one of these multi-day journeys. Nothing like, I've talked to some folks that, you know, have have hiked parts of like the Appalachian Trail and, you know, it's nothing like that because very much more on your own in that scenario. So, it's also, I think,
00:38:02 SPEAKER_01
easier. Yeah.
00:38:02 SPEAKER_00
I was gonna ask that. It's like, you know, from a, if someone's listening to this, kind of a, you know, level of effort or whatever. What's this trail versus, say, the Appalachian
00:38:16 SPEAKER_01
Trail? So, I think the Camino truly is, like, one of the most unique walks in the world where you will see people of all ages and all abilities do it because it allows you to, you know, do it at your own pace and there's enough infrastructure and support system around it to where you will never be you know, in, in trouble. Far from help. Far from help. So we've seen folks that are, you know, multiple folks that are 80 plus doing it. We're seeing folks that are 20 year old solo backpackers doing it. So the range is, you just, you know, the entire breadth of the age demographic is covered in the Camino
00:39:06 SPEAKER_02
and it's quite inspirational.
00:39:08 SPEAKER_01
So you don't have to be in, um, marathon running shape by any stretch, but I think there is some level of elevation on some days, so you have to be somewhat, you know, okay to have those climbs. But outside of that, it's not going to be super difficult. I was watching
00:39:30 SPEAKER_00
your journey and it sounded to me like going to Disney with Melissa.
00:39:38 SPEAKER_02
So how much did you, yeah,
00:39:41 SPEAKER_03
so how much did you cover? Like how long did it take and then how much did you cover every
00:39:46 SPEAKER_01
day? So we, uh, cause we were in Europe and I'm just going to talk in kilometers for a second. So it was 280 kilometers. We did that in 11 days. So we averaged around 26 kilometers a day. I think that comes to about 18 miles. We front loaded
00:40:02 SPEAKER_02
ours a lot. So we were doing 30, 30 plus in the beginning just to get a little 30
00:40:07 SPEAKER_01
kilometers. Yeah, get
00:40:08 SPEAKER_02
ahead of the curve. But also I would say we did it a little, our pace was faster than average. And had we had more time, I probably would have slowed it down a little bit just so we could enjoy the towns a little bit more along the way. So that would be a tip, I would say. I think 14 days to do what we did would be more enjoyable if you had the time, but we were crunched for time. So it can be done in a faster period if that's all you've got. What is, do you
00:40:36 SPEAKER_03
what the average is? Do a lot of people take like a whole month or like anywhere between a couple of weeks to a month? 14
00:40:42 SPEAKER_02
our route? Yeah,
00:40:43 SPEAKER_01
it's route specific. The original one, I believe, is from France into Santiago, and that's like 700 kilometers. So that takes about a month. 30 to 40 days is the average time. So
00:40:57 SPEAKER_00
this was
00:40:58 SPEAKER_01
just 170 miles, and people say 13 to 14 days is the average time to cover it. Yeah, the
00:41:04 SPEAKER_02
other thing I'll warn you, too, is we were told that for most people once you do one you want to do it again so just be forewarned. Yeah
00:41:14 SPEAKER_01
and we didn't believe it but now we're talking about
00:41:17 SPEAKER_02
it. We got home and we were like Kamina was still on our mind like yeah I started already thinking like when would we do it again? What
00:41:26 SPEAKER_03
would we do again? You know we have to go with you then so you can tag along.
00:41:31 SPEAKER_01
I would strongly recommend doing it in September when we did it, because the weather is just perfect. I think a lot of vloggers I've seen who do it. I mean, it's not fun in the rain. And you have to do it through rainy conditions. And in the summer, it gets really hot. So September was just perfect for us. But that
00:41:50 SPEAKER_02
said, it is something you can do year round. Yeah.
00:41:54 SPEAKER_03
And you're
00:41:55 SPEAKER_00
walking mostly through towns and stuff like that, right? You're not out in the mountains, hiking on, you know, a very little trail. There
00:42:04 SPEAKER_01
is some of that like, and the map, it also depends on the
00:42:07 SPEAKER_02
route you choose. There's so many options. But again, for first timers, I would recommend the one we did the coastal route. First of all, it's it's a little easier, but it's also just stunning and gorgeous views. and you're walking a lot of it along the coast. So to your point, it's not, you know, not a lot of elevation on many of the days. There are some days where you, where the route takes you into like some pine forests and things like that. So you do spend some time in forests and you, there is, I'd say more, you know, pretty, pretty big elevation gains.
00:42:44 SPEAKER_01
And just the people you meet, I mean, you know, the friends you make along the way, because you overlap them every now and then. You're spending the night in the same town, so you end up having dinner and a drink with them, sharing experiences of your day. And, you know, it's truly global, right? a lot of Americans, but people from everywhere in the world are there, and they all have their own stories to tell and why they've done it. So it's truly a fascinating, you know, it brings the world together kind of experience.
00:43:15 SPEAKER_00
I'm ready. Let's go. You
00:43:17 SPEAKER_03
can have a whole podcast just talking to people on the El Camino, right? Yeah. And so you can't beat Portugal. And from what I understand then is that because you're close by those towns, like it literally is like there's accommodations all along the way. And that's designed for that, which makes it so much different from, like you said, the Appalachian Trail. Yeah they
00:43:35 SPEAKER_02
have a whole network of albergues which are like the hostels that some are privately owned but they even have publicly owned so they're very inexpensive like to get a bed there. We opted to stay in private accommodations and we didn't actually stay in any albergues. We wanted private bathroom. We wanted to be able to you know like stretch out and relax a little bit after a long day of walking. And when you're two people traveling together, it's still pretty economical to have one room. If you're a solo, I probably would do more of the albergues. One, because you'd have, you know, people to talk with and spend the downtime with or share a meal with. But two, just the expense perspective.
00:44:18 SPEAKER_01
Right. And just on that note, yeah, for us, I think, you know, we would always plan the day before, at least, on where we're going to target and try to book an accommodation there. Because I think both of us work to where I like a target in mind. You know, the last thing I want to do is, is walk for, you know, 20 miles, and the places are full. So they'll be like, you have to go to next time, which is 5 more miles down the road. Like, mentally, rather know where I'm going. So that's that's how it is. Yeah, that's good
00:44:46 SPEAKER_03
to know. So that's also interesting, because we've had a couple of people ask like, what, like, how would you travel solo? Or what would that look like? I mean, it sounds like if you were active and would enjoy doing something like that, that that's a great trip, because then you would end up not really traveling by yourself.
00:45:02 SPEAKER_02
Yes. And it's totally also just from like a solo female travel traveler perspective. It's super safe, you know, solo female travelers. We, we encountered many, there's nothing to be concerned about. Cause that's always something I think about, you know, just from a safety perspective, but, um, you know, no, I haven't yet heard one bad story. Good to
00:45:25 SPEAKER_03
know. That's something that we can definitely share then as a tip or a destination.
00:45:31 SPEAKER_00
So what's next for you guys? So, well,
00:45:34 SPEAKER_01
I was going to say next is a cruise that we were planning on in early December. We were going, we, we, we got that through some status match, creative status match. Thank you.
00:45:48 SPEAKER_00
We got, we got one too. I know. I
00:45:51 SPEAKER_01
saw that. That's amazing. So, and you were leaving.
00:45:56 SPEAKER_02
We're going
00:45:57 SPEAKER_00
in Thanksgiving.
00:45:58 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so we've got to take a few tips from you guys about the Bahamas,
00:46:03 SPEAKER_02
too, and the Atlantans. Yeah, because I knew that was something we could
00:46:08 SPEAKER_01
do, but we haven't cashed in on that one yet. So that was planned for early December, but we might be going to Japan on Tuesday, just trying to you know, take advantage of a buddy pass from Delta. I think it just, you know, buddy passes, standbys only, subject to load, and looks like the flights are favorable.
00:46:28 SPEAKER_02
So if the stars align, that's
00:46:30 SPEAKER_01
what we're doing. You can never have too much ramen, I'll tell you
00:46:35 SPEAKER_03
that. And so you if you get to do that, then how long you'll stay for a month or several weeks or just a
00:46:40 SPEAKER_01
week, I think, you know, it's holiday season and come back family year for Thanksgiving. So that's so. Yeah. So we'll
00:46:46 SPEAKER_02
be going
00:46:47 SPEAKER_00
for. Yeah. So we worked out for you. You got to let us know because usually can get a hold of somebody passes.
00:46:53 SPEAKER_01
OK. Yeah.
00:46:54 SPEAKER_02
We'll let you know.
00:46:55 SPEAKER_01
We will. I'll tell you exactly how this experience goes, because it's
00:46:59 SPEAKER_00
the first time for us to do it as well. It sounded like, you know, we were talking to you guys earlier. It sounded like you have a plan not going from one of the world's busiest airports,
00:47:09 SPEAKER_01
which is a problem. So, yeah. That's step one.
00:47:11 SPEAKER_02
Don't tell the secret.
00:47:12 SPEAKER_03
Don't tell everybody, right? I
00:47:14 SPEAKER_00
didn't say where. I just said you're not going from one of the world's
00:47:18 SPEAKER_01
busiest airports.
00:47:19 SPEAKER_03
And then what else? You have anything else planned?
00:47:22 SPEAKER_01
Yes, I think so. I don't know. I grew up playing tennis and I came to the US. to play college tennis, so I'm a big tennis fan. So I've done Wimbledon, I've done the US Open, I've done the French Open. The only one of the big four grand slams missing is the Australian Open. So that's been on the bucket list. So the opportunity presented itself for us to use some miles and go to Melbourne in January. So that's the next big trip that's planned for us to see the Australian Open. Yeah, and we're trying
00:47:57 SPEAKER_02
this year, last year we planned a lot like we planned a lot but we felt like we missed out on some of like the opportunities to do a little more travel hacking like with some good points redemptions and stuff on flights, because we have planned so much. So we're, we're, we're trying to do a little
00:48:14 SPEAKER_01
bit more. We're
00:48:14 SPEAKER_02
just not planning as far out. So after that we're going to go to India, see Bo's dad, and also we've got two friends from the U.S. coming to visit us and tour around for two weeks while we're there. And then the rest is
00:48:31 SPEAKER_01
a question mark. Well, just talk
00:48:33 SPEAKER_00
to Melissa. She can fill it up for you.
00:48:38 SPEAKER_03
So, so it sounds like, and just for everybody, you know, listening to is that you really have been able to capitalize a lot on your travel by using, um, airline points and just keeping an eye out for that and stuff like that. So is that a way, I guess, like people say, travel hacking, like with the welcome bonuses and stuff like that, but then also just your day to day spending on a credit card. So then you earn points and take advantage of that because it's available.
00:49:07 SPEAKER_02
Yeah, absolutely.
00:49:08 SPEAKER_01
Absolutely. I think we do that. We're still not as good as I want us to be. I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, but we're still learning in the ways. But we've already reaped a lot of benefits. For example, I took the longest flight in the world, getting back to the US from Singapore to Newark in business class for 87,000 points. basically in business class. And on
00:49:33 SPEAKER_02
that one, that one's interesting because he didn't have the points. So he bought the points. Buying the points was cheaper
00:49:41 SPEAKER_03
the flight. Crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. And oftentimes you will see not only on the airline miles, but also on the hotels. If you look at the points value, like it's like way less. And sometimes you'll see, oh, I could stay at a Marriott or a JW Marriott or whatever for the same as something The points would cost for like a courtyard or Spring Hill Suites and it's like, oh, I'm gonna go with this other one, but the price difference, right, is huge. So just being aware of that and
00:50:09 SPEAKER_02
looking out for those deals. Yeah, and on that point too, for the listeners that are thinking or wanting to do more international travel and have points, point redemptions at hotels are so much better outside of the US. We don't ever use our points in the US. We use them when we go somewhere else, usually. I won't say never, but just being mindful of what is a good point to redemption. And if it doesn't make sense to use points, just go ahead and pay that cash. I mean, that's what we do. Get on that credit
00:50:38 SPEAKER_03
card and get more points, right?
00:50:40 SPEAKER_02
Yeah, we look at it, and we say, is this a good solution or not? If it's not, we're going
00:50:45 SPEAKER_01
to save them for later. Yeah, and just one more thing for the user. The Chase card, which basically is the gold standard, if you will, for credit card brands when it comes to points. Chase is one of the only ones that transfers to Hyatt. And so I think the best value, in my opinion, for Points Redemption comes out of Hyatt, because they have standard ratings. It's not dynamic pricing.
00:51:14 SPEAKER_02
And their lowest room is 3,500
00:51:16 SPEAKER_01
points. 3,500. Our lowest is 3,500. So we stayed at the park Hyatt in Tokyo, which is the Watson Translation Hotel, where the whole Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson thing was filmed. that point it was going for about 1,500 USD a night and we spent 35,000 points to spend one night in there. So, you know, that's just
00:51:39 SPEAKER_00
value can't be felt. It's been
00:51:42 SPEAKER_02
35,000 on
00:51:43 SPEAKER_01
a room
00:51:43 SPEAKER_00
in Orlando at the Hampton Inn. So I think just,
00:51:46 SPEAKER_01
you know, a tip for your viewers, like the high points carry in most cases the best value. when it comes to hotel
00:51:55 SPEAKER_02
redemption. Yeah and we're not Hyatt loyalists at all. We don't have any status with Hyatt because it's just not one we've been able to attain but you know we're Hilton people but it is the best from that point of redemption perspective.
00:52:09 SPEAKER_03
So I think what people really need to like know, understand, pay attention to is that you could literally travel internationally sometimes for cheaper than you can take a trip in the US. If you can cash in some of these
00:52:28 SPEAKER_00
free, you know, miles, and then listen to what he's saying. 87,000 miles,
00:52:34 SPEAKER_02
he flew
00:52:34 SPEAKER_00
business class, right? On that long flight and 87,000 miles is to Phoenix or something like that, right?
00:52:43 SPEAKER_02
Yeah, we we're really late to the game on this whole points thing. I mean, like we the reason we had all those Delta points was because we were living in Atlanta at a time and we had a Delta credit card and we flew Delta a lot. But now we've learned that it's really better to have a card like a Chase. And I mean, we've got several of them where they have multiple transfer proper partners and you can look for the best price. Like we flew to London this year one way for 10,000 points on Virgin.
00:53:15 SPEAKER_01
I
00:53:17 SPEAKER_03
nothing. And Virgin is very nice airline.
00:53:20 SPEAKER_02
We value it at one cent per point, which is what most people do. It's
00:53:25 SPEAKER_03
Wow. Yeah. Right.
00:53:27 SPEAKER_01
So we do have a few
00:53:29 SPEAKER_00
questions that we like to ask at the end of each interview. And, um, you know, I'll just throw those out there. What is some advice for people that want to travel the world?
00:53:44 SPEAKER_01
I would just say do it, do it now. I think we're at a place where the information is at your fingertips. You can, you can, there is no unknown unknowns out there. And it is, travel is going to be safer than you think. I think that's less expensive than you think. and way more fun than you think. So I will, I think so. Just if you have the ability to do it, don't wait on it, do it now. That's
00:54:21 SPEAKER_00
great. And then secondly is what's your favorite place that you've
00:54:27 SPEAKER_02
ever visited? For me, I always say New Zealand because it really is. I mean, I do love it. We've only been there twice, but amazing. But every time I'm in Thailand, it just like pulls at my heart. There's something about Thailand that's just so magical to me. So, I mean, I can't I think from a from an ongoing visitor or as a tourist, New Zealand, but as a slow traveler,
00:54:54 SPEAKER_01
Thailand. I think for me, Four months out of the year, Croatia. The other eight months, not so much. But summer and shorter season, I think nothing comes close. And I agree with Erica. I think Thailand is just special. It is just
00:55:10 SPEAKER_03
a special place. Yeah. So for Croatia, it would be, so what
00:55:14 SPEAKER_02
four months?
00:55:15 SPEAKER_01
May to September? Even touching October, if you will. I think the summer months get super hot. And the tourists are full throttle. Yeah, if you do shoulder season.
00:55:27 SPEAKER_02
May, June, September,
00:55:30 SPEAKER_00
just spend those
00:55:31 SPEAKER_03
at the beach. Good
00:55:33 SPEAKER_01
to know. If people are debating, I would say go on the back end because the water is going to be slightly warmer than May. Because May you just can't get in. It's a little bit cooler. Yeah, so that's a Yeah,
00:55:49 SPEAKER_00
that's the same thing here for us. You know, being on the Atlantic, right, is those early season days, the weather outside may
00:56:00 SPEAKER_02
be
00:56:00 SPEAKER_01
beautiful, but the water
00:56:02 SPEAKER_00
is really cold. And then, so what's
00:56:05 SPEAKER_01
still on your bucket list? Where do we begin?
00:56:09 SPEAKER_03
I guess maybe top three each. How about that? Okay.
00:56:15 SPEAKER_01
want me to go? Yeah, you go. A couple of things you guys have done that is on our bucket list. That's easy. Alaska and Galapagos. And then I want to do Antarctica, so Ushuaia and down. So yeah, I think
00:56:32 SPEAKER_00
just talk about that because that's on our list of nearby, not too far in the distant future.
00:56:42 SPEAKER_01
out let's let's do it yeah so yeah we'd
00:56:44 SPEAKER_00
love to to do that trip with you guys
00:56:47 SPEAKER_01
would be amazing
00:56:48 SPEAKER_02
yeah i wouldn't say the same i mean we're on the same page i think from that perspective i mean there's other
00:56:56 SPEAKER_01
things too obviously
00:56:57 SPEAKER_02
but yeah i think
00:56:58 SPEAKER_01
they'll come in time a closed closed port as the machu picchu i think you know it's always been something that has excited
00:57:07 SPEAKER_03
us you know yes i want that's on my list as well so for sure
00:57:11 SPEAKER_00
Well, Mo and Erica, thank you for coming on, you know, one of those situations where we could probably sit here and talk for four or five hours easily. But we thank you for taking the time to come and talk to us. You can find them on Instagram and Facebook at Raut finder. I highly encourage you to go out and just follow their, their journeys because I am so inspired by some of the places that these guys go and Melissa and I talk about it all the time. Our bucket list is ever growing because of them. So. And
00:57:47 SPEAKER_03
it's R-A-U-T Finder, and I'll put the link to those in the show notes as well. And I think you've really given us some great tips, like for all kinds of different travel, right? How to afford it, where to go, like what to be aware of. And so we appreciate that so much. Thank
00:58:06 SPEAKER_01
you so much for having us on on your podcast. I think it's been
00:58:11 SPEAKER_02
great. We enjoyed
00:58:13 SPEAKER_00
it. I think we've got a couple of more episodes
00:58:16 SPEAKER_01
where we need
00:58:17 SPEAKER_00
you guys back.
00:58:18 SPEAKER_02
We look
00:58:19 SPEAKER_01
forward to it. Sounds good. Maybe we can do one in person from someplace
00:58:24 SPEAKER_00
we
00:58:25 SPEAKER_01
travel. There's
00:58:26 SPEAKER_00
an idea. I have travel equipment that I can bring with me.
00:58:32 SPEAKER_01
So yeah, we did. We did Puerto
00:58:34 SPEAKER_00
Rico from Puerto Rico. So we took the in St. John. So we took the equipment there and recorded live from those places. But very cool. That
00:58:46 SPEAKER_01
is cool. Yeah. Well, great.
00:58:48 SPEAKER_00
Well, thank you, guys.
00:58:50 SPEAKER_01
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for
00:58:57 SPEAKER_00
of mine and Melissa's inspiration for travel. We have been following their travels now for almost a decade. As you heard in the interview, many of the things that are on our bucket list were inspired by their travel experiences. As always, we want to encourage you to share your travel stories with us. We love to hear from you and get many ideas from the stories that you share.
00:59:21 SPEAKER_03
We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll find some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. Please consider going on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. The more five-star reviews we have, the more likely we are to be featured and discovered by others. Make sure to follow or subscribe to our podcast to be notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram as Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember that's travelers with one L. Most importantly, share it with your friends and help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
