Scott Barronton (00:02)
We have a jam-packed episode for you today. We're sharing what's been going on behind the scenes at Sunshine Travelers, including some exciting travel plans for this year. From scouting hidden gems to building out resources for fellow travelers, we're working hard to bring you the best ways to explore the world.
Scott Barronton (00:20)
We also want to talk a little bit about Sunshine Travelers experiences, our way of helping people travel more and better, whether that's through itineraries, custom planning,
or even hosting group trips to bucket list destinations like Egypt, South Africa, and Antarctica. Plus, we'll chat about a recent meetup in St. Augustine with some fellow travelers
and share some of our upcoming adventures. So pack your bags because this episode is about to take you around the world.
we're just a couple of weeks away from our first trip of the year. And I don't know about you, but it's really exciting for me. I feel like once we get this first trip under our belts, the rest of the year is going to really fly by. And so we've got a lot of travel planned for this year, but we still have a lot more that we need to plan that's on our list of things to do.
Yeah, so today we just wanted to give you a few updates and share a few details about those trips and that Scott referred to and then some other things that we're working on. Yeah, so let's start out talking a little bit about, what's going on over at the Sunshine Travelers. I know we do this weekly podcast and we share a lot of tips and destinations But, just a little bit of kind of behind the scenes real quick. Yeah, so really a few things. So we're currently planning out a few trips for the year.
And so, I read a long time ago that a lot of the excitement of the trip is also in the planning. And I know that's not true for everybody, but just the looking forward to it even. So not if, you know, not necessarily just the planning, but the looking forward to it. So we are really into the details of being in London and then being in Iceland. we've had those things and like we've said to you guys before, we booked
usually flights, then hotels, and then the activities kind of at the last minute. So really into the nitty gritty details of that. And then couple of other trips, I guess I should say, we won't go into all the details here, but a lot of the other trips that we've got planned. just like into the planning of that and looking at when, when we need to book what. And then also, we've also been trying to do some local stuff, right? So just really,
disconnecting, whether it's just like right close or yesterday we went out to, we really want to go see a lot of the Springs, explore some of the state parks. We got a state park pass this year and so we went out to a spring yesterday, took the dogs with us. And so really trying to explore some things locally too, just to really get out and enjoy some different aspects of Florida.
And then also bring that, you know, bring those to you guys as well. It's not just beaches and it's not just Disney, although we love those things and those things are great, but there's just so much to explore in this state. doing that. Yeah, this is the year where I believe that I'm going to call it the park pass year. Cause this year we not only have a state park pass, but we also have the national park pass. And so we've been using that.
a lot to share so far. so we've already gotten more than our value out of that. You know, figuring out some ways to share that. I guess the other thing for me and for you a little bit too, Scott, like you're trying to think of some ways to, with podcast technology and how we can, you know, do some things on YouTube, maybe, with the podcast, that kind of thing. And then for me, just good ways and better ways, different ways, maybe.
to share the destinations and hidden gems, and then also some of the resources that we can create as well. So a lot of things that you don't see, like you hear us here on the podcast, and you see a few things on Instagram and Facebook and some of the other places where we post, but just a lot of those things, trying to find the best ways and good ways to bring you content and bring you resources that are valuable for trip planning.
Yeah, I think Melissa's making an assumption that everybody started out from maybe our social media. But for those of you who have just found us through the podcast and you didn't know about all of our social media content, we invite you to come and follow us on social media as well, because there's a lot of tips and tricks and things that we share that we don't necessarily talk about on the podcast, but we share it over on social media. Yeah. and a lot of
times those things end up overlapping, right? Like it'll be like, oh, you know, I thought of this and shared it on a story, let me create a little video about it. Or then we'll end up talking about the podcast. And then we also do have like, like a weekly, yeah, I'm going to say like, I'm going to guess it is kind of a newsletter, a weekly email that we send out, We share a little snippet of, behind the scenes, like what are we doing, what it's going on, and then a few things that we found useful.
whether it's resources that we've created or resources that we've seen from other people, tips that we've collected along the way. And most people come to that from our packing guide or one of the other guides, right? So once you opt in to one of those things, right, then you get those resources. And we try to find ways to make those different and valuable each week. So if you're not on that,
Basically, if you go to sunshinetravelers.com and fill out, I think I've got it on almost every page, but get the free packing guide, for example. That's the best way because we want to give you something from the get-go that's useful and helpful and then send the other tips. So there's lots of ways, I guess, to kind of connect with us in whatever, you like the best. So there are a lot of things that we do behind the scenes from this and share things in different ways.
Yeah, and then once you're on that mailing list, that opens up a lot of resources to you as well, like all of the itineraries that we post to Sunshine Travelers. So let's talk a little bit about Sunshine Travelers' experiences. And for those of you who maybe have just stumbled across this and haven't heard any of our previous episodes, we started a travel agency, and it's called Sunshine Travelers' Experiences,
But we started this with the purpose of helping people travel more and better. That's been part of our mantra from the very beginning, even with Sunshine Travelers, was just to provide information to help people think outside of what they've always done and think of ways that they could go to more places and open up their experiences.
So through this, we have learned that while we can share our itineraries and tips and tricks here on the podcast, on the blog, on social media, in those different ways. And there's those of you who feel comfortable traveling based off these. You enjoy planning the trips, you do seek out those blog posts or people's itineraries or different things, and then feel comfortable going and booking those and just going off on your own. But we know that that...
is not for everybody.
So from kind of hearing that feedback, we wanted to create a way that then we would be able to host group trips and take people on trips where they may not feel comfortable either going to these places on their own, planning it on their own, but then not just joining a group trip, right? Where you just go and it's like a bunch of random people and then it's
I don't know, just not feel comfortable doing that, right? So that's not for everybody. And so we wanted to create a way to do that, to go to places like Egypt. So for example, when we were in Egypt, like we thought, what a wonderful way, you know, to show people this amazing thing. But there are some things that you have to know, right? Where you stay and then having a guide that was amazing. So how do we put that together? And then we also want to do that in places like Safari, South Africa, Morocco, and then of course, Antarctica, which we have that one in the works and we're going to.
talk a little bit more about that. So, and then of course the possibilities are endless. Those are just a few of the places that we thought about
And so then just having a way to put that together, right? Because there are, you know, around the world, there are ways you have to, you know, have tour operators. You have to have certain things in place. You can't just, you know, go off with a group. So having those ways in place, right? To be able to take a group. Yeah. And some of these places we're going to go, they're places that we're interested in because we have love having fellow travelers with us. We're just going to invite you to come and go along with us.
we hope to open up a lot of group trips in the near future. This is something that's a real passion for Melissa and I. so Sunshine Travelers experiences was in way a vehicle to allow us to do that. And you're going to hear a lot more about it in the future. But right now we can help you if you want to just go to that bucket list destination and you need some help planning that and getting that booked for you.
We can help you with that. Yeah. And so the way that we have kind of started that is you can go to sunshine travelers.com. So just our sunshine travelers website, slash guides, and we'll put a link to that, but there we already share free itineraries and guides and places that we have, been. And if you're interested in traveling to those places, the tips, so whether, you know, depending on where it is, like,
all the places that we snorkeled or the best places to stay or eat and just the things that we learned along the way. What areas do you want to stay in? What's the best places to rent cars or get airport transfers and just any tips and tricks that are on there. And so we have put those on there. So if you just want to grab those and then go and take and plan your own trip.
But then from that, you might say, okay, but I don't want to hassle with any of this. Can you help me book it? I want to look at these dates, that kind of thing. So we can take something like that and customize it or just create a custom itinerary for wherever. So that's just an opportunity for you to come and say, have enjoyed your resources, your podcasts, we traveled, we want to take your experience, your tips.
and help us plan a trip. So whether that be London, for example, somewhere we've been multiple times, that we can kind of share, here's what we would do as well. So that's another way to do that. So yeah, it's a way that you can work with us one-on-one. So you could take those itineraries. And so any of those means really that we've talked about communicating with us, but...
Like Scott mentioned, you can go to sunshuntravelersexperiences.com or sunxtravel.com to make it easy. And then there's just a button that says plan your trip and you can kind of put in some details and what you're thinking. And then we can just have a chat with you to see, what you're looking for and how the best way that we can work together in order to help you make that dream, that goal a reality. Well, great. Yeah. Like Melissa said,
Just go out there, sunxtravel.com, and maybe get started on that next adventure for you.
Well, let's move on. I wanted to talk a few minutes about our recent trip to St. Augustine where we met the Hendricks tribe. So the Hendrix Tribe is a traveling famiy that we met through Instagram
And so we've just kind of enjoyed getting to know each other that way. They are in Florida for a little while. And so we met up a couple of weekends ago in St. Augustine, a place that we had explored before. And so what was great about that is Scott had mentioned us getting that America the beautiful pass, the national park pass in the Grand Canyon, but the castle there, the Castilla there.
you can actually use the park pass to get in up to four adults, And then kids are free. And so it's something where you might not have wanted to, I don't know, necessarily pay. from, you know, between that, I think the park pass was $80.
And so then it was $35 at the Grand Canyon and then that right there, $15 a person was another $60. So now our National Park Pass has already paid for itself, which is really great. And then we could spend, an hour or so just really exploring that.
So because it was a weekend, had a lot of people, volunteers in costumes, they had the cannons that they shot off and they were there just to talk about the history. They had some little talks and stuff like that. So that was fun. Hendrick's Tribe has three young kids and so for them to get to experience that. So that was a great way to experience that history. And then like I said, then now the park pass has already.
you know, paid for itself, which is really neat. So, and I wanted to just point out real quick. if you are in the military or a veteran, if you have a fourth grader this year, there's some different ways that you can actually get that for free. And then seniors get that at a very much of a discount. So definitely check into that. And it's not good just at national parks.
there are a bunch of national forest service lands, different parking areas. For example, we could use it for our parking when we also went to Sedona. I had forgotten about that. That included the parking there. So all those little things add up. So that was really neat. that was just neat for us to, even though we had been to St. Augustine several times, it's neat to travel to a place with other people who have never been there because then you really see it.
from a different perspective. So yes, St. Augustine can sometimes feel a little bit touristy, but it's just, really is a neat downtown area. We tried to find some, a restaurant's The Treylor Park that is a little bit off the beaten path, Foxtail Coffee, which was a little bit off the beaten path. And then of course, Mayday Ice Cream, which is.
I think a Florida thing that we really enjoy that had a nice little seating area. We explored the Flagler College. They actually had it open the last time we were there. They didn't. It was the weekend. You can actually go into the entrance and it's just a fascinating. It was an old hotel, which is now a college and it's absolutely beautiful. You actually feel like you're in Europe, probably especially Spain with the architecture and all that and just getting to see that. So getting to see the city through the eyes of people who have never been there.
It's always fun to experience a place like that. Well, let's talk a little bit about some upcoming travel that we have. We hinted to it earlier, but this year is probably one of our busiest travel years that we've ever had. we've got a lot of things that are planned and it starts in just a couple of weeks when we leave to go to London.
Scott Barronton (16:04)
So in a couple of weeks from now, we're heading to London again. And London is one of those places that we've visited several times. As Melissa talked about earlier, she said, you know, it's one of those places we've visited multiple times and we have a lot of advice that we can give about visiting London. And we're excited because even on this trip, we're planning new things that we've never done before. Yeah. So actually going back a little bit talking about
how we can help people with Itineraries I'm actually helping somebody plan their first trip to London and just giving them advice about how to lay it out, what to see on a first trip and that kind of thing. And ran across something that reminded me, something that we used years ago, which is like a London pass. So this particular one is the London pass by Ghost City. And so we're actually gonna get one of those and use that to do...
Several of the things that we haven't done that is actually on our list, right? Scott, you had mentioned things like Shakespeare's Globe. I haven't been in the Shard going out to Greenwich. So there's tons of things besides the, you know, a lot of things that we've done, you know, like St. Paul's and like Hampton Court Palace that we've done and the Tower of London and things like that. So it has so many opportunities of things that you can see and do. So we're excited to share.
More of that and the things that we do, we're gonna do like an updated London episode because I think it's always great. And Scott, going back to mention, you could do things forever, right? There are, I can't even tell you how many, like there are so many Instagram accounts that are dedicated to nothing but London, food in London and this place in London, you all kinds of things to see and explore. So we're super excited about that. And then one of the things though that we're actually gonna do, I have actually been out to Richmond before.
before we watch Ted Lasso. And so we're actually going to just do a day trip and go out there and explore a little bit of Richmond, go to some of the Ted Lasso sites just for fun. So if you're a Ted Lasso fan, be sure to follow along. We'll obviously come back and talk about that. But we'll be sharing some of that too. Yeah, we're actually watching Ted Lasso again on Apple TV, just so that we can have a lot of these places fresh in our minds as we go there.
and then have the story in our mind as well. But if you haven't seen Ted Lasso, we highly recommend it. It's a really funny but good heartfelt story on Apple TV. Yeah, and one of the other things about finding ways to research travel, So for that particular one is using an AI.
to help us say, hey AI, we wanna do something like this. Can you help us locate some of these things and put in some parameters, right? We have one day and kind of give us. So that was kind of fun to experience that. Now here again, you always wanna fact check, right? Things and it's also good. You can ask for, hey, where are you getting these? Like what is your resource, right? You can go back to some of those links too.
whether they be blog posts or news articles or different things like that. So you can always ask for those resources. And you always want to fact check that and make sure, you know, not just go straight from that. But that's been a fun way to kind of maybe plan, you know, plan that day for us.
Well, one of the things that we decided we were going to do this time is we were going to extend this trip out a little bit. And so on the way back, we're stopping over in Iceland for a few days. Yeah. So I laugh because this is kind of like classic me, classic us on the way home, right from London, we're going to stop in Iceland. And the way that we ended up doing that, we've heard a lot about these different stopover programs. And so Iceland to the flights in the wintertime.
It's not like the summer where like a lot of people or a lot of airlines travel there. So Icelandair was really a great option and also being in London and doing that as a stopover. just in case you are interested in ever doing that, I check flight deals and prices and all the things like.
seven ways from Wednesday, like to call it. And it was cheaper actually by about 50, I don't know if I ended up paying for that in euros or if I looked at it in dollars, I don't know, it's about 50, I think they're about the same right now anyway, but about 50 euros, I think different or cheaper to do it as the stopover and you just book it and you say, wanna do a stopover for this many days, et cetera. And so that was actually the way that we ended up booking that.
So we're gonna fly from London to Reykjavik. In Reykjavik we'll rent a car and I think it's important to note that depending on the time of year that you're there, you definitely want to look into what kind of car is necessary because a lot of roads require four by four. so planning that part out is a key. So we rented a four by four and
Whether we need it or not, that's a different story, but we'll have it if we do. And one of things that we really want to try to see on this trip is the Northern Lights. But we've talked about this before, right? It's not like someone just flips on light switch and there's the Northern Lights. It's a naturally occurring phenomenon, and maybe you see it maybe you don't. So we've made sure that we put ourselves in the best positions to be able to see it.
at night, but if we don't, we're also going to see some really great things during the day. Right. So we have planned because it is a winter time trip and we're there for, I think we have four whole days, which I know is really short for Iceland, but we are going to do the Golden Circle and then the very south part of the Ring Road. so that will really be the bulk of what we're going to explore. I think we'll basically do three whole days for that.
And so, and then of course we have done one of the lagoons that we have pre-booked. We'll decide later if we want to do anymore and if there's availability We are going to stay one night in Reykjavik. We're going to do a food tour with Wake Up Reykjavik. We're super excited for that. We love to not only do tours.
but do the food tours and learn a lot about the history and stuff. And one other thing I wanted to add about tours is that if you don't feel comfortable driving, there are lots of tours that go out every day from Reykjavik to these areas, right? It would be all day tours, but they also do it where they have it to where you could do two day tours and three day tours. You book it with that company and you basically, you get yourself to Reykjavik you do all the things that you wanna do, and then they go out and,
organized the whole tour, right? You have transportation, have hotels, different things like that. So hopefully we'll, you know, look at, share more of that as well. But we decided for this trip, just kind of, we kind of want to have some downtime too, and just really explore on our own. But there's so many waterfalls and geysers and different things to see. So excited about that trip. Well we started planning this trip in January for March, right? So we're going to be traveling in March,
and that's probably fine if you're going to do it in the winter, but if you're going to do a trip in the summer, you need to prepare well in advance and you need to start your planning well in advance of that trip because that's a very popular time. It's their high season to travel during the summer. I definitely would suggest that you start looking anywhere from.
six months to a year out in planning a summer trip. Absolutely.
Well, another trip that we have planned for this year is to go to Germany. And we're going to go over there. I've got a colleague that worked for me. He's retiring this year. And I wanted to make sure that I was there and could, wish him well in his last day as we celebrate him. But we're going to take the opportunity since we will be in Germany to extend this trip out a little bit longer. And that's just kind of how we roll.
Yeah, so we're currently looking at some different options, some different opportunities that we may have. We might be thinking of Denmark or Finland, maybe somewhere else in Europe to do some kind of walking trip. So we're looking at our options right now. And so we're open for that for suggestions, right? We'll be in the northern part of Germany. And it's fairly accessible, right, to get to a lot of places, both by flights and by train. So if you have some suggestions, we would love.
for you to share those with us.
And Melissa, you're planning on going to Paraguay. We talked about this a couple episodes ago when we were talking about Voluntourism and service travel. And so we had mentioned that you would be going on a trip with Habitat for Humanity's Global Village to do a house build down in Paraguay.
Yeah, so really excited about that. We had also mentioned that while we've done service trips before, it's actually been a while. And so there are actually a couple of spots as of right now, that are left on that trip. So if you're interested, you can reach out to us and we need to sign up quickly or you can go to the episode 97 and there's a link there to get some more information.
And then later in the summer, in August, we are actually planning a family trip to Alaska with part of Scott's family. And I want to say about planning that Alaska is a very popular destination. We did talk about that. We also had episode a few episodes ago about popular destinations for 2025. And when we started looking at this, we weren't sure we have some availability in the summer. We actually were looking in.
July, which is obviously the window for Alaska is very short. And a lot of things that we already wanted were already booked out. So that's something that you want to look at in advance. So we're going to go in August. this really wasn't on our kind of our slate thinking about it for this year on our agenda for thinking about this year, but we just, got to talking about it and we want to take the advice that we always give you
just book the trip, This is something that we know that we want to do. And so we just, we want to book it and we want to have this experience. it is something that was actually in our original bucket list on our wall to do an Alaska cruise.
So while we have done Alaska previously as a road trip, this is gonna be something completely different, because we're actually gonna go to places that we did not go before. if you're interested though in Alaska road trip, be sure to go back and check out episode 11, because we give you all the details about that, We did that specifically because we had people on that trip who went with us. was a family trip also, different group of family, but could not cruise.
or do not cruise. And so that was just a different way to do that. So again, we'll be visiting places that we have never been. We're actually gonna start the trip. The cruise leaves out of Vancouver, but we're gonna spend a little bit of time in Victoria. That has been somewhere that I have always wanted to visit. I remember my parents talking about, my mom specifically talking about Bouchard Gardens. And wanting to visit that and spend some time in Victoria, which is a little bit smaller.
Right. Then spending time in the big city of Vancouver. So really excited about that trip and then sharing that experience with you guys. Yeah. And then we're going to go a little bit later in the year to Ireland for the TBEX conference. This is the one we went to in Puerto Rico last year where we were nominated for best travel podcast. And we're going to go back again this year to Ireland to that conference.
We have done southern part of Ireland on that southern ring before starting out of Dublin and going around to Galway But this time we're gonna be in the northern part of Ireland and so we want to see more of Northern Ireland and the northern portion of Ireland on this trip if you have any recommendations for Northern Ireland, I know there are a lot of
filming locations for different things that we're definitely gonna have to check into. So if you have any recommendations for Northern Ireland, we would love for you to share those with us too. And if you want our Southern Ireland road trip guide, Scott has put that together as an itinerary, again, sunshinetravelers.com slash guides, and you'll see Dublin and Southern Ireland there, and that'll really get you started on planning.
One of the biggest tips that we have about that is finding small local places to stay. And so those are, you know, links to those that are booked basically directly through them. A lot of times are on that guide.
Well, one of the biggest things that we had on our list this year that we have to get done in 2025 before we get set off on the cruise to Antarctica is that we've got to visit somewhere in Asia and Australia. And so those are two really big check marks on our list this year. We have not planned that out yet. And matter of fact, we said the other day we were going to take some more of our own advice.
And we're going to see if maybe some fares would help guide that direction. So get some really good fares to a location in Asia or to Australia. And then we'll plan the trip based on that. But, you know, if you have any, recommendations, once again, we're happy to take those so far. We've gotten recommendations for Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, but
we're open to anything else that you can think of. Yeah, so excited about that because we really don't necessarily after September, you know, have a timeline for that really. And so like Scott mentioned, taking our own advice and letting a deal or something kind of guide that because so many of our other trips, you know, if they're centered around work or, you know, centered around the cruise or centered around the conference or something like that.
And we have to be very, you specific. yeah, letting a deal guide that trip. let's jump back real quick for a few minutes. Sunshine Travelers experiences, because the biggest thing that we're excited about is our group trip to Antarctica. And if you're joining in the first time and you're like, what in the world is this group trip? It's not too late to get registered for that trip. So we're going to start in Buenos Aires. That's where everybody will meet and
fly into. From there we'll go together down to Ushuaia, Argentina. That's where we'll actually go into Patagonia, a small park in the southern part of Patagonia, and do a tour there. And then we'll get on the boat that evening. And that's when we travel out across the Drake Passage and over to Antarctica.
We'll spend several days in Antarctica and then we come back. But this is a once in a lifetime trip and we encourage you guys to think about this. This is something that most people would never just take on and go and do themselves. Matter of fact, a lot of people might even be thinking about, I've never even thought of going to Antarctica, And so here's that opportunity for you to really get outside of
Maybe what your normal is and to really stretch the boundaries of things that you might do. And then you get to come and do it with us. You get to do it with the Sunshine Travelers. We've already got a group that's already signed up and we're all getting excited for this trip, but you have really a year right now to get prepared for that. All you have to do is make a small down payment right now to reserve your spot and to reserve your cabin on the ship.
and then finish your payments out by 120 days out. So I think Melissa just mouthed to me October, it's the date on that. So, you you still have time and we really want you to come and join us. And one thing I want to point out, this does not have to be your seventh continent. The only reason that it has to be Scott's seventh continent is he and Stephanie, who is going with us, my sister that we talk a lot about for different trips and
but have always had a thing about who's gonna go to Antarctica first or who's gonna finish the seven continents. And so that really is that. It does not have to be your seventh continent. It can be your second continent. It's an amazing trip. It is an amazing place. And as we have mentioned before, we did a lot of research about the size of the ship and the offerings of the ship.
And of course the price point and the time frame and lots of different things like that. So don't think, well, I haven't checked off all these other places. I've got to wait. No, you don't have to wait. It can be your second continent, third continent, whatever. So we'd love to have you come and go with us and just experience that together. Yeah, that's true. Matter of fact, we've talked about that. There's going to be a lot of rubbing. That's a rubbing is racing, right? There's going to be a lot of rubbing.
to see who gets off on to Antarctica first. I'm going to have to be the referee, I think.
Well, that's a wrap for this episode. We hope you enjoyed catching up on our latest travel plans, the exciting projects we have going on, and our upcoming adventures. If you have any recommendations for our future trips, whether that's the must-see spots in Northern Ireland, the best way to explore Australia, or hidden gems we shouldn't miss, let us know. Don't forget to check out our itineraries and travel guides at sunshinetravelers.com slash guides.
And if you're interested in joining on one of our group trips, we'd love to have you. sure to subscribe so that you don't miss out our next episode. We would also like to invite you to spread the word about our new travel agency. You can find us at sunxtravel.com and we'd love to help you put together that once in a lifetime trip that you have been dreaming of.
The world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year that you explore beyond the familiar.
