Here's a sneak peek from this week's episode. But it wasn't as natural to us as if they had asked the question, where's the favorite place you've ever visited? I'm Scott. And I'm Alyssa. And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoyed as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. In this week's episode, we spend some time talking about why we choose to travel internationally when there is so much to do right here in the USA. Join us as we give a behind-the-scenes peek into how we think about travel planning.
Melissa and I were recently at an event where, surprise, surprise, the topic of travel came up. And the husband asked us what our favorite destination domestically was. We both looked at each other with this blank look, and for the first time in a long time, we were speechless. Don't get us wrong, we were able to recover and rattle off some great places and also get some recommendations from them as well, but it caused us to take a step back and really look at what we want to accomplish both personally and as travel creators. Melissa, you made the comment at dinner later that night that made me think that this would be a good episode for our podcast. And you mentioned that there are a few things that really drive us to focus more on international travel rather than domestic. Do you remember that? I do.
And I think I also made the comment that if you were to ask me if there was anywhere that I could, you know, choose to go on a vacation, and we're saying like a vacation, whether that's like more travel focused or just relaxing focused, whatever, just a vacation, that I would probably name off dozens of international destinations before I came up with a U.S. destination.
I came
Yeah, just go look at our travel bucket list.
Yeah. And so, I mean, we did that just because we were like, huh, that is an interesting observation that we hadn't thought about. And sure enough, we have a travel bucket list. And then we also have narrowed it down to like, here's our top 10. And there is not a U.S. destination. Now, have we talked about U.S. destinations we'd like to visit? Yes, sure. But they're not necessarily written down on that
that list. Well, matter of fact, I remember us talking about that a lot of these domestic locations, they're almost kind of like filler, things that we'll do in between our
trips. Yeah. So, for example, I made the comment, we were in St. Augustine, and I made the comment that, like, we were just there for the day, but you could spend a couple of days. But, like, literally, that is a vacation destination where somebody might say, okay, this is my week off, and this is where we're going to take the kids for a vacation. And that's great. But just for us, like if we said, OK, this is the amount of time and we're going to go on a vacation like that wouldn't personally be our choice. And so why do you think that is?
Well, I think we have a number of different reasons why we like international travel right up top. One of the very first reasons we came up with was the cost of travel and the cost of flights. Yes, you may be thinking, gosh, a trip overseas is so much more expensive than a trip domestically. And we just wanted to give you an example, actually a couple of examples where that is not true. And so recently I flew from, we were in Orlando, and I flew from Orlando to Atlanta. That is an hour and 20 minute flight, something like that. And that was nearly 55,000 sky miles round trip to make that flight. Yeah.
And so I booked my flight for our recent trip to Europe. And it was Jacksonville. I stopped through New York to London. And then on the return trip was Athens, Greece to Atlanta, back to Jacksonville. 75,000 has come off.
See, that's just crazy. And so when we start thinking about travel and the cost of travel, I mean, honestly, yes, you can spend tens of thousands of dollars to travel internationally. Like, for example, we looked at first-class tickets from Jacksonville to get to Morocco, and I think that was going to be like $10,000. So, yes, you can have very expensive travel. But just that example of where an hour and 20 minute flight for us being, you know, 55,000 miles, and then you got that multi-city international flight for 75,000, you know, that is one of the reasons that we think that we like that travel so much.
And let's not just say, because you might be thinking, okay, well, that's great. You have all these sky miles or you have all these points. SkyMiles probably are not, we know, is not the best redemption of points. Right. But if you have them, you've got to use them for Delta. But let's just talk about some prices. And so just give an example. So if you follow us on Instagram, occasionally I'll share out some of these travel deals that I see on these sites that I follow. And so recently, so just give me an example. In the past week, some of the deals that I have gotten to Spain, $530. To Europe, lots of places in Europe. So when they usually say Europe, it's usually lots of places from $420 to $500. Here's one Ecuador, $285 to $329. And we'll say when we did the Galapagos, like I think it was 35,000 sky miles round trip for us. So there's a lot of here's one Atlanta to Milan and usually like an Atlanta to an Italy destination is usually pretty expensive because it's pretty far is $441. So like, you know, starting there. And so a lot of times when you so you book a lot more domestic book, even if it's for work where you pay money travel, for they're in between the $500 and the $1,000 it, wouldn't you for domestic travel range, typically? say, And so then another example that we so you might be you told me about this So how did you get from London you how'd you get from London to Greece? And so we did some in our Europe airlines. have, wondering, okay, flight. to, know, Athens, And we've done that a whole right? lot, Because we found that it's just a lot better redemption or a lot cheaper and to not use miles and things like that. So we actually, all of us flew, took the train, ended up in Frankfurt. We all, six of us that were on the trip, flew from Frankfurt to Athens, Greece with our baggage, having to pay for baggage. Six people for less than Not one not $600. from Frankfurt ticket, to each. with our Athens, Greece, having to pay for baggage, six people for baggage, less than $600. Not one ticket, not each, but six people. So when you think like you just can't assume that just because it's in the U.S., like it's a lot cheaper. And these deals come in constantly. And I have a couple of them that I watch going as one thrifty travelers, one constantly looking at those. And so then the other thing is like, oh, you know, yes, if you have like a very specific time and a very specific location, but if you're kind of open and you have all these ideas on your bucket list, and we've talked about that, that can be a great way to say, okay, this, you know, this fits into my schedule. So that's just one example.
But it's not just the cost of flights. It's also the cost of hotels. Yeah. not just the cost of flights, it's also the cost of hotels. We found that the reward redemptions in Europe go a lot further than they do in the US. You're going and staying in a courtyard by Marriott here in the States, and you could pay $35,000 to $75,000 for not even a four-star hotel,
Yeah. not just
5,000 for not even a four-star right? And redemption of And you know, hotel, points. then, even dollar values, I'd say like the, you know, on the cheap side, one of those is going to be 130 bucks or something like that. But you take that same and go overseas and your redemptions go a whole lot further. And one of the examples that I had was in South Africa. Matter of fact, the cost of a Marriott property hotel in South Africa was so cheap that it wasn't even a good redemption of our points because just paying for it outright in cash was so cheap.
Yeah. Like what? Like a deliver over $100 a night, $100. And I mean, you just can't even touch that for any kind of property in the U.S. hardly anymore. And another
And I
example, and this was the example that I had told them, I said, oh, you know, have you ever thought about going to Greece? She mentioned they would love to go to Croatia. And I said, oh, we enjoy going to Greece. We stayed at a place once we got there. Luxury penthouse place, elevator, swimming pool, three bedrooms, full kitchen, three levels. I guess two levels, three levels, two levels. What would you think it would cost to rent something like that in Florida? Like, let's say on 30A or in Miami or I mean, it'd be thousands of dollars a night and it was less. Views of the
three levels, two
it was less. Views of the water. Oh,
Oh, yeah. Views of the water on all the sides, views of the mountain in the back, you know, less than $500. And that was a splurge for us. But, you know, we had, you know, extended family. Right. And so we needed the space. That was a bit of a splurge. Even in Greece, we could have found somewhere cheaper. But you just couldn't even touch something like that in the U.S. for that amount. True. You probably could have found somewhere
we could have
amount. True. You probably could have found somewhere cheaper. But I mean, think about it. If we had had to have multiple hotel rooms, right? And especially sometimes when you travel, you know, it's hard to get big enough rooms for a family. And if we'd had to have multiple hotel rooms, we would have easily paid close to that. have multiple hotel we would rooms, have easily paid close to that.
paid close to that. So you this is Yeah. a good just, And know, so it's saying, just not okay, only, well, value. I can get it for okay, It's just like the cheaper. quality of what you can get as as an example.
example. well, And then one of the other things that I've talked about you later this week, is, know, I'm going to be traveling for work and I have to go out west. And, you know, it's going to take me the whole day to get there. And so some people might push back and say, yeah, but, you know, the shortest flight from here to, you know, one of the gateway cities in Europe, six to eight hours, right? Those would be the shortest flights. Well, it's going to take me that long or longer to get out west later this week.
Yeah. And I think sometimes, too, when you fly overseas, like it counts the overnight. And so it doesn't seem like it's that much time. And then you, you know, and then when you come back, you know, like you're flying during the day. But I mean, yes, it takes the day. But just because of the time, you know, then you get back at night or whatever. So, yeah, I mean, it eats up a lot of time. And so an example of that is like we wouldn't think, so we're on the East Coast, right? So it's difficult for us to go outside these places out West that we might want to travel to because of what you said, we can't go visit Arizona and the Grand Canyon for a weekend trip. Right. But another example that I thought about is that several years ago, you were working in the northern part of the UK. And so like we were set up in a certain place like during the week. Right. And on the weekends, we would say, OK, we're going to go explore these other places. So from there, we could fly to Amsterdam for the weekend. Right. Inexpensive. I think you said it was what, like. Forty nine dollars each way.
Forty nine dollars each way.
Yeah. And then a couple hours. Like, I remember us getting up fairly early, but we could get to Amsterdam in time for breakfast. We could spend the whole day Saturday, the whole day Sunday, come back kind of late at night, right? And be in a completely different place. You gave the example in the last episode that might be of value to share here is the size of the UK, for example, is the same as the state of Oregon or the state of Ohio as well. Right. So those are similar in size. So just thinking about, you know, even if you are in Ohio, right, to be able to go and see and do like you can explore this whole country or how easily you can
those are similar
country or how easily you can move from London to Paris or all these other places.
Well, and we're no different than anybody else. We tend not to travel in our own backyard, right? So you mentioned going out to the Grand Canyon. Well, there's tons of stuff that we've never done just right here in the state of Florida. And we could spend every weekend traveling and doing something new, but most people just tend not to do that. You don't travel in your own
backyard. Yeah, that's true. Different from when you are actually traveling. Yeah, there's lots of springs and stuff like that in Florida. But I would say, like, if you weigh for us, if you weigh the time component, right, so the time you have to take off, you know, or whatever, especially if it's a vacation and the money component of it. And I were to have to pick right if I could have an extended week. So we like to do like nine days, for example, like at the very minimum. And I could pick anywhere to go. Like the top of my list is going to be an international destination just if I weigh both of those things.
And I think that's because we enjoy new experiences. And when we go to Barcelona, as an example, we like the tapas there. You know, we love the fact that they eat later in the evening so that we can go off and explore and do stuff during the day, have time to come back, change, maybe rest a little bit, and then go out to dinner. We love new experiences like driving in the UK, Scotland, or Ireland where you're on the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the road. We're not thrill seekers where we're jumping out of airplanes and cliff diving and stuff like that. But we do love the new adventure that you would get from a road trip in a foreign country. And, you know, just being able to take the train from one city to another, that's something that you don't have here in the U.S. another. That's something that you don't have here in the U.S. And so I think those are the things that we really like about traveling internationally that excites us more than traveling domestically. Yeah. The other
The other thing, too, about that is a lot of times in the U.S., like, I mean, it's just it's so spread out. So even if you are driving, you know, unless you have a specific, like, let's say road trip planned, right, where you're driving to this and then spend the night and then we're going to see this and that, it's very hard to say, okay, we're just going to stop by and see, you know, this state park or this landmark or whatever, because it could be like way out of the way compared to what we talked about in the last episode in the UK. OK, if you're traveling from London and you're going to the Cotswolds, we'll stop by and see the town of Oxford. Or if you're going to Bath, we'll stop by and see Stonehenge. Right. And so it's just like a lot more doable where in the US, like it's, you know, driving-wise or whatever. Even for us, we, you know, in the episode about, that we talked about, where we went to the Grand Canyon, you know, getting from where we were in Scottsdale, you know, to Flagstaff to take the train, but it took like several hours, right? So then planning for that and then, you know, not getting to Flagstaff in time to, you know, really see anything or do anything or then driving back from the, you know, just the time factor of, you know, driving to see and do those things. And you can't do those in a weekend or a long weekend and really see that effectively. And one
of the last things I think that we would just add in is this whole concept of history, right? The age and history of all the buildings across Europe and the Middle East and other places, you know, we just don't have anything like that here in the U.S. And, you know, one of our favorite stories is we there's this restaurant in Madrid that we like to go to. And that that building has been a restaurant since like 1492. And that building has been a restaurant
has been a restaurant since like 1492. Now, it's not the same restaurant
restaurant going that whole time, but there's been a restaurant there. And show me anywhere in the U.S. where you can go and do that, right? It's called Camp like that. The gilded churches down in Quito, Mayan ruins in, you know, Belize and Mexico. These are experiences that we just can't have here in the U.S.
Right. And so, I mean, I know it's different for everybody, too, right? So if you are into some of these extreme sports or you're like big into hiking. Right. And you have all these trails that you want to do. And a lot of them there in the U.S., for example, like that could be your bucket list. Right. And so totally get that. It's just it's just a little bit different
different for us. that couple, that made us realize that while these are our reasons for enjoying traveling internationally, not everyone wants to travel the same way that we do. And so we thought we might include a few of the ideas that we had suggested to them during that conversation. And then we also sat down over dinner that night because, quite honestly, it was uncomfortable for us to sit there as, you know, having introduced ourselves as travel podcasters. And when they came with that question about what's your favorite, you know, place to travel domestically, and we were just kind of like, now, granted, to them, it probably didn't seem that way because like i said we had recovered fairly quickly on that one and was able to spit off some places but it wasn't as natural to us as if they had asked the question where's the favorite place you've ever visited yeah that's true right
true right yeah because then of course it's always a international destination for sure. The other thing I want to point out before we kind of get into this list is she she mentioned something that I thought was very interesting. They are also from Florida. And so she just said we wanted our kids to see be able to have these experiences and see something besides Florida. So they had done some road trips out west, too, because we kind of asked, okay, well, what have you done? Right. And, you know, not to have that repeat, because if they've already done some of these things that we would recommend, but she said, we wanted to be our kids to be able to see what California looks like, right. Or be able to see what Arizona looks like and Nevada and places like that. And kind of, and she kind of compared and contrasted like what they, what the kids like thought about them and stuff like that. But I just thought that was a great perspective, right? Because that is, that is very important as well. And the same thing with international though, like until you go do that, right? You don't have that concept of what, how different it is here versus somewhere else. And I think
And I think they also mentioned just kind of briefly their fear of traveling internationally, you know, and really, we shared probably the same thing many, many, many years ago when we made that first trip overseas and it was just kind of a lot of unknowns and stuff like that. And I think getting that first trip behind you is often you see the, oh, well, okay, that wasn't bad. And actually, it was really fun. And you get that past you. And so I have to say we're well past that stage, right? We've been to so many different countries. It's crazy. in the way that I've traveled for work in the like I've been to just some very, past, very different places than what we're used to here in the US. I'll use, you know, India and the Philippines as examples. So I think we're past that, you know, we're beyond that, you know, fear and trepidation of traveling to a new place. And now we've seen the adrenaline that we get from traveling to those new places. So let's see if we can just kind of recover a little bit here. And we're going to share with you a few of the places that we had recommended to them. So thinking more back on the domestic side of travel. And then at the very end, we're going to close out with what are a few places that we want to visit? Now, these may not be on our bucket list, but they're on our travel destination list because those are two different things for us. We're going to share a few of those with you. So, Melissa, you want to kick it off with some of the recommendations that we had made to them?
Yeah. So, the first one that I thought about, if they hadn't done it, and which they had, was to visit Scottsdale, Phoenix, go up to the Grand Canyon, you know, add on some places like Flagstaff or Sedona. If they had time, go up into Monument Valley, over to Saguaro National Park. Because that's just a great, you know, place for, you know, everybody to see the Grand Canyon and to experience some of those different things. There's lots of museums and, you know, zoos and just all kinds of things that you can do and plus the national parks.
And if you had a week or, you know, nine days, the way that we kind of define a week when we're traveling, you know, both weekend days and then the week in the middle, right? So in those nine days, you could definitely cover off all of that at enough detail, right? Obviously, there's going to be some places that you say, oh, I wish we had had more time to spend here. When you do that, you know it's a great trip, right? And our saying is always just tuck it back on the list. Go back again. Right. And when you're looking for that place you you want to go back and do somewhere kind of and, but know, a little bit different. familiar, Go back to those places where you I wish we'd say, had oh, more Yeah.
had oh, more Yeah. time. And we can point you in the direction of where we talk about that in detail, especially if you are interested in doing the train into the Grand Canyon. And so we talk about that in detail back in episode 41.
Well, another place that we would recommend, and we did this one year for my birthday, but we went out to Palm Springs, stayed in the Palm Desert, and then went to Joshua Tree National Park. And I think that's something they said they hadn't they hadn't heard of. Yeah, she said she hadn't heard of it.
Yeah, she said she hadn't heard of it. I think that he had said, oh, yeah, I'm familiar with it. So but that was just I mean, that's a that's a neat trip. And that's one that you could really do, you know, if you had, you know, you wanted to have some relaxing time by the pools. I mean, it's not beach. But I will say in this case, if you had a whole week, you could combine it with a trip to L.A. We flew in and out of L.A. We went to Disneyland for a day on this particular trip. But you could go to the beach. You could do some of the L.A. stuff, some of the beaches there, and then head over into Palm Desert and Joshua Tree. You know, you need to rent a car and do that. But be hot in the summer. I think we did this in December. But yeah, unfortunately, we do not have a podcast episode on this particular but that one, was one that we suggested. And so that kind of piqued their interest because like you said, they said that they had not heard of that.
And they seem to be kind of more interested in like the national parks and stuff like that. So I think that's the other thing that you have to take into consideration is, you know, what are your travel preferences? And we've got a great episode where we're like 20 questions on what kind of travel do you like and what do you prefer? And so that might be a good start if you're wondering. Go back, listen to that episode, and then you can start to pinpoint some places that you might want to visit. But another place that we do enjoy going to is Napa and Sonoma.
Yeah, that probably wouldn't have been a suggestion for them because they really were looking for a place for kids. But yeah, Napa and Sonoma for sure. Yeah, just a couple's
just a couple's getaway for a nice, maybe an extra long weekend where you have three or four days that you can spend there. That is a great location. And we've got an episode out there as well in that one. And we talk about, you know, if you're going to drive, you might want to do this. Or a great option for doing Napa and Sonoma is to hire a driver for the day.
Yeah. And can't go to Tuscany. I think Napa and Sonoma would be a great, you know, a great thing to do because there are, you know, some very beautiful landscapes, right? And some of those wineries and those vineyards just have outstanding, you know, places that you can relax and look out and stuff too. Yeah. And I think the best times to visit those are kind
And I think the best times to visit those are kind of late spring, early fall.
Yeah. And then the fall and they do the harvest, which we have actually never done that. But yeah, so we talk about extensively in episode 33. So if you're interested in planning a trip to Napa and Sonoma, that would be the place to go.
Well, let's talk a little bit about some ideas that we're considering that would excite us for travel in the US. So like I said, these aren't necessarily on our bucket list of places that we've got to do before we die, right? Definition of a bucket list, but they are some travel destinations that we have written down, places that we want to visit. Maybe they're tuck-in trips, maybe they're filler trips for us. So let's jump into that.
Yeah, so specifically, that couple talked about taking their kids. Well, they'd actually done, I think, a long trip. I think it had been like through Nevada and seeing the Grand Canyon and all that and then up into California as well. But I would like to do the Pacific Coast from the Northern California up into Oregon, Seattle. to Oregon, Seattle. I know that your brother and sister-in-law did that several years ago and just raved over just the variety of experiences and scenery that you can see and do there. And we did little small parts of that as
small parts of that as well. In Oregon,
yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. They also, maybe we need to have them on an episode because they've done a lot of these places. But they told us about Mackinac Island and honestly didn't know anything about Mackinac till they went there and they were telling us about it. But this is a place that has no cars. So I think you had the choice of bicycle or horse and carriage.
carriage. Yeah, horse-drawn carriages. And so the only other place that I have ever been where there's no vehicles is the island of Idra, just right off the coast of Athens that you take a ferry over to. And there's no, they have donkeys if you, you know, have a donkey ride or whatever. So, well,
ride or whatever.
yeah, that's true. So on a few cars, most people had golf carts. Most of them were like delivery trucks and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
So on a few cars, most people
So, but Mackinac Island, very romantic looking destination. Probably is a romantic trip. That's a good one to go do. But then also, we definitely have had many conversations about wanting to tour more of the national parks. Now, Melissa grew up with her family going to a lot of national parks, doing a lot of camping and stuff like that. That's not something that my family did growing up. And so I haven't been to the same number of national parks as she has.
Yeah, but most of ours were on the East Coast, right, as well. And so we and we spent a lot of time there instead of, you know, because we didn't we didn't fly. go out to Utah and hit like Arches and Bryce and Zion and then go out to California and see Yosemite and, you know, the Redwood Forest. And because we have been to Muir Woods outside of San Francisco and but to go to the Redwood Forest. And so I think I think
and, you know, the Redwood
doing some of those are pretty high on our list as well. Yeah.
And a few weeks ago, we talked to a fellow podcaster and author, Dean Klinkenberg, and he actually has us now interested in exploring some of the Mississippi headwaters, like Itasca State Park in Minnesota. And like that was nowhere on my list of places to visit that was even near my radar.
Yeah, thinking about, I guess, the Mississippi beyond what we talked about in the episode, right? Of being in the South and seeing the part in the Southern, but then visiting, you know, Minnesota, which is a state that I haven't been to, you know, and seeing it from some of those places and some of those vantage points, right? Where he says you're, you know, it's down here and, you know, you're up above and stuff like that. And just seeing that from that from that standpoint, too. So, yeah. So I had a couple of episodes back to episode 60, if you're interested in that. But that's definitely has made our list.
know, you're up above and
Yeah. And this next one, you probably don't want to visit there in the summer, but the hot springs in Arkansas.
I just thought Yeah, that would always I just thought be, that would be interesting, you know, to visit some of those places, the hot springs and, you know, the spa things that they have built around that and enjoy that and being able to see that.
And then finally, you know, I think the TV show, although it was not filmed in the Ozarks, You I think the TV although it was know, not filmed in the show, you they had the TV show Ozarks, that was but, supposedly know, filmed or supposed to take place in the Ozarks called Ozarks.
you that's a place that it brought at least awareness on my even though But, the show know, really had nothing to do with the Ozarks. behalf, But it brought awareness to the Ozarks. As someone who grew up in I didn't know much about it. Georgia, We didn't vacation there.
and I Well, think you and I we do also, like mountain destinations. You know, I think we do tend to seek you out, know, beach and stuff like that. But we have spent a good bit of time, you know, in the mountains. And so I think just exploring some of, you know, places like the Ozarks or, you know, even the Poconos or, you know, would be interesting for us too.
I think for us, one of the reasons it was so hard is because it really comes down to our favorite place being Amelia Island. We're lucky enough to live in a place where many people would choose to vacation. But it also spurred more conversation about places in the that we U.S. do want to visit. What should we put on our list? Email scott at me, sunshinetravelers.com, and let me know what you would recommend. We are always inspired by your travel stories.
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