Episode 62- Kristen Sargent, Legit Trips

Travel

Feb 2

Travel gives people a sense of understanding their place in the world. There is this desire for people to understand the beauty of all people, places and species and once you’ve traveled and you see that magic for yourself, you want to share it with others.

You want every single person to sit beside you and have that sense of awe and wonder.

Christine grew up in a small town community in Montana. She remembers asking her mom why they don't we have culture.

Christine knew her mom thought she was crazy but she was that kid who had all the pop stars on her walls, but also had pictures of Africa, Jamaica, South America and all these places that she wanted to go.

When she was young, she only had two channels on the TV. Christine couldn't get enough of National Geographic. She had the sense that there was something greater, and she wanted to be a part of it. After experiencing travel and exploration firsthand, Christine knew she wanted everyone to be a part of it.

Christine had this notion that once you were there, and you met the local people, you spent a moment in time with them, and they became a part of your family, your global community. Christine is so happy to sit down with someone who has felt that feeling of exploration and wonder and wants to share that with others.

Christine’s guest today is Kristen Sargent. Kristen is a nomad, entrepreneur, and Life Coach.

Kristen is living her wildest dreams. She owns Legit Trips with her best friend, travels every day with the love of her life in their RV, and contributes as a life coach in a way that feels her soul.

Legit Trips was born out of an understanding that the world is better when we're connected to it and each other. They're in business to help people discover the world together.

They strive to help people feel curious, alive and free to try or do new things. And they aim to help their guests live their best lives so their guests can share their unique awesomeness with the world.

Join Christine for her soulful conversation with Kristen Sargent.

In this episode, Christine and Kristen discuss:

Kristen’s background and why travel is important to her
What it means to live a nomad life
How Legit Trips connects and creates community in each of their experiences
How to make room for the magic of travel in our itineraries
The ways Legit Trips focuses on giving back through their business
Exploring who travel is for right now and how it differs from the way travel has looked and felt in the past
What travel means to the communities we visit and the opportunities travel brings

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

Learn more about Learn more about Kristen Sargent here.

Book your next adventure with Legit Trips at https://www.legittrips.com/

Follow Kristen Sargent And Legit Trips on your favorite social platform:

Instagram @kristendsargent and @legit_trips
Facebook kristensargent
LinkedIn kristendsargent/

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Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of women who are industry professionals and seasoned travelers and community leaders who know travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart-centered change makers.

The guests work in all sectors of the tourism industry. You'll hear from adventure-based community organizations, social impact businesses, travel photographers and videographers, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, and transformational travel experts. They all honor the idea that travel is more than a vacation and focus on sustainable travel, eco-travel, community-based tourism, and intentional travel.

These conversations are meant to educate, inspire and create community. They are directed to new travelers and seasoned travelers, as well as industry professionals and those who are curious about a career in travel.

If you want to learn about new destinations, types of travel, or how to be more intentional or live life on purpose, join Christine Winebrenner Irick for soulful conversations with her community of fellow travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe. These conversations highlight what tourism really means for the world.

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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor.) Kristen Sargent (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing and production by Rayna Booth.

Transcript

KEYWORDS

travel, people, trip, guests, community, travelers, tourism, world, place, sharing, book, journey, business, life, connect

Christine Winebrenner Irick 00:08

Thank you for joining me for soulful conversations with my community of fellow travelers, exploring the heart, the mind and the globe. These conversations highlight what travel really means for the world. Soul Of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. Each week, I'll be speaking to women who are tourism professionals, world travelers and leaders in their communities will explore how travel has changed them and how that has rippled out and inspired them to change the world. These conversations are as much about travel as they are about passion, and living life with purpose, chasing dreams, building businesses, and having the desire to make the world a better place. This is a community of people who no travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness, and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart centered changemakers I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick. And this is the Soul Of Travel.

Kristen Sargent is living her wildest dreams. She owns legit trips with her best friend, travels every day with the love of her life in their RV, and contributes as a life coach in a way that feels her soul. Legit Trips was born out of an understanding that the world is better when we're connected to it and each other. They're in business to help people discover the world. Together. They strive to help people feel curious, alive and free to try or do new things. And they aim to help their guests live their best lives so their guests can share their unique awesomeness with the world. In our conversation, Kristen and I talk about the importance of community and how Legit Trips connect with and create community in each of their experiences. We also talk about making room for the magic of travel in our itineraries and the ways they focus on giving back through their business. We end by exploring who travel is for right now, and how it differs from the way travel has looked and felt in the past.

Join me now for my soulful conversation with Kristin Sargent.

Welcome to Soul Of Travel. I'm so happy today to be joined by Kristen Sargent with Legit Trips. And we're going to talk a little bit about her background, her nomad life and what it's like to be a traveler in 2022. So welcome, Kristen, I'm happy to have you here.

03:10

Thanks, Christine, I'm really happy to be here.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 03:13

To begin this conversation, I'd like to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself, give us a little bit of background on legit trips, and then we'll dive a little bit deeper into your own personal travel journey.

03:30

Sure, I'm one of the CO owners of legit trips, I own the business with my best friend Megan. And we had worked together in a past life. And during that time, I just became great travel buddies. And we built this like an annual friends trip that just got bigger and bigger every year until it kind of got out of control. And we had 18 people on our last friend's trip before we decided we should turn it into a business. We had some issues between friends like not paying each other back for things. And we're like, man, you know, traveling together with your friends is supposed to be this great thing. It shouldn't come between friends. And we were sitting on a beach in Belize and just talking about it. And Megan in her always thinking forward and pushing forward ways was like we're coming back here in one year. And we will have a group travel company that does all the work and people can just stay friends and pay us and not fight with each other. And I said okay, that sounds kind of cool and thought maybe it would happen. But one of the reasons I'm very grateful to have Megan as a business partner is that she always makes sure everything happens.

So one year later, we had our first trip. We were an LLC like a real company and after that we did about six trips our first year and now We've been in business for this is our seventh year. And we do about 20 trips per year, 20 to 25. And really just go all over the world wherever our guests would like to go. And we sort of handcraft and pre-populate these really cool itineraries, and then we sell them to the public. So whether you're a solo traveler or a small group of friends, or even a couple, you're welcome to join any of our trips that are open to the public. And you'll sort of like to be welcomed right into the family and have a little group to travel with, wherever you're headed.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 05:37

Thank you for sharing that, I'd love that image of you sitting on the beach in Belize. One because it's a super special place for me as well. But I have a best friend that we are always kind of hatching these Harebrained Schemes, and neither one seems to be the Megan of the group, because we haven't managed to do it yet. But it doesn't mean that maybe that doesn't list out or live out somewhere else. But I love the kind of the context that you painted because from what I know of you, and what I've seen of legit trips like that is what the vibe really feels like is this community of friends traveling together, whether there are people that know each other ahead of time or not like very much by the end of the trip, it seems like this is what happens is they become friends. And this sense of community is a really important part of the trips that you create. Definitely, well, you talked about how legit trips came together. But I would love to get a little bit of a sense of where you come from and how travel became important to you.

For our listeners, you also currently live as a nomad like you are traveling. You are right now outside of Arizona, we were just connecting about that, when you and I first met, we realized that we were actually not very far apart from each other in Montana, which was super amazing. Like we actually thought we might connect along the highways of Montana. Yeah. But what is travel for you? Why is it so important? That is such a big part of your life.

07:12

I think for Megan and I both, we grew up in a small town, mostly people who were just like us. And we didn't really know that there was difference in this big wide world that was out there. And on two separate journeys, we each studied abroad in college. And that was the switch, right? Like, oh, wow, there's so many different types of ways to live. And that maybe our way isn't the best way. And we reconnected when we started, you know, traveling together, we reconnected about that story that we both shared of studying abroad and really committed sort of to each other. We're gonna keep doing this, and keep learning and sharing it with as many people as possible, because for us, it made us better humans, it changed the way that we thought about life and approached other people. And we really do believe that when we connect to each other, and to different places, even just the animal species of a place, like it just makes us so much more empathetic to what's going on in the world and just a lot more understanding. So it's our sort of little way of maybe creating some more peace in the world. And I think that's really at the heart of why we continue to do this even when it gets hard. Yeah,

Christine Winebrenner Irick 08:41

I love that I feel like that is actually underlying for so many people that I know in travel is that it's this sense of understanding our place in the world. And then also this desire for people to understand the beauty of all of the like, nooks and crannies and people and places and species, like you said, like, once you've traveled, and you see that magic for yourself. It's not like we want to keep it to ourselves, right? You want every single person to sit beside you and have that sense of awe and wonder. And I also think that makes people that come into travel from that space. What they create is something very different from the typical travel experience, which again, I think goes back to that sense of community and connection that you were sharing about.

I also really resonate with the story or your background of growing up in a small community and not really having everything very, very same. I grew up in Montana in a really small town. And I remember asking my mom like why don't we have culture and she's thinking, I'm sure I'm crazy. And I was the kid that had like all the pop stars or whatever on my walls, but I also had pictures of Africa and Jamaica and South America and all these places that I wanted to go and I was just mesmerized like, I couldn't get enough of like National Geographic. And yeah, just knowing and you know, when I was young, we had two TV channels. So it's not like I even really knew what was out there, right? It's not like you Google it, I just had this sense that there was something greater, and I wanted to be a part of it. And then much like you like after experiencing it, I wanted everyone to be a part of it. And I just had this notion that once you would be there, and you meet these people, and you spend a moment in time with them, they become a part of your family or your, you know, your global community.

And that is very much this idea of peacekeeping and peacemaking. So, yeah, I'm always just so happy to sit down with someone who has felt that feeling and that's where you operate from. I think that's a really good segue to talk about with legit trips. I know, when you create your journeys, giving back and supporting local communities is a huge part of what you set out to do. And also incorporating responsible travel into how you design your trips. Can you just share a little bit with us about what that looks like and, and why that's important to you?

11:22

Yeah, we strive to be slower tourism, slightly D tourism, you know, there's all these new words for travel that aren't an all inclusive, it isn't a big cruise, it isn't doing the top five things to do in the place as fast as you can do them. So we spend time building relationships with local vendors, so that we can make sure the money is going right back to them. And sometimes we have to make a hard decision between, you know, for example, and getting to the islands in Belize, there used to be two ferry companies.

One was locally owned, and one was owned by a big corporation from China. And eventually, they did put the smaller, locally owned, you know, the ferry, basically to get from the mainland to the islands out of business. But for five and a half years, we supported the local ferry company, even though their times weren't as good, you know, like, you're probably gonna have to wait longer to catch the ferry after getting off the airplane. But like, we would tell our guests were using this one, even though you might see a flyer somewhere that has times that lineup better with your airline, because and we always give them the because, you know, when we go to Thailand, you're going to go to an elephant sanctuary where you can't touch the elephant. And that is because, you know, like, we just always give them the reasons. And we're very lucky that our guests support that they're not like, No, I want to ride the elephant. They're like, Oh, my gosh, thank you for doing the research. Thank you for choosing tours and activities and suppliers that do align with my personal values. So I think that's one thing that people can just always expect when they come on a trip with us is that we care a lot. So we've done that research to make sure that you're not going to get shoved on a tour that disrespects the people, the place or the animals of where you're visiting. And that's just really important to us for the way that we give to the impact that our travel has on the place that we're going. But also for the future.

We want the local people to help us take care of the environment, we want them to stay in business, you know, there's, we have a little like scuba community subset within our travelers. And some people have said like, well, can't we do the shark cage? And we're like, No, we don't do that. You know, like, it's just we're very lucky as business partners, we have the same values about how we want to take care of this planet. And many people will say like, travel is not great for the planet, because there's a lot of emissions involved, right. So we do everything we can to offset in a different way. Whether it is people just experiencing the ocean for the first time, we have had people that have never been swimming in the ocean come and try scuba diving with us. And they're like, oh my gosh, I didn't know I cared so much about the fish. And they go home and start a nonprofit to get straws out of their local town. Like that's the stuff that we hope people connect in some way and go back and make the world a better place, even if it's just because they're then showing up as a better version of themselves. There's enough positives there that it offsets the emissions and the impact and we're always just trying to Reduce it as much as we can.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 15:02

Yeah, I love that so much. I think travel has such a great opportunity for education, like you mentioned. And the example in Thailand is such a great one. Because, you know, when we look through brochures, we just see these experiences. And it's just this snapshot in this moment. And we think, Oh, great, I would love to do that. But there's often not that transparency behind an activity. And so when you connect with an operator, I think sometimes it feels intimidating to say, I'm going to draw this line. But I think when you tell the story, I mean, it's the story of humanity. So it resonates with most people, like, I just didn't know. And it's okay, like, you can't know what you haven't already been told. And so I think this also creates that community, like travelers feel like they've grown with you. And so they can trust you that they trust that you have their best interests at heart, because you're already showing them something that they didn't know about themselves or about the world. And so I think it's really great to kind of get to be in that space. And also, you mentioned, you know, being able to operate within your values. I think this is something that a lot of people in the tourism industry have been trying to do for a really long time.

But I think now it's, I hope, becoming something that's more accepted by that community or that consumers are asking for that right, like they actually want to travel aligned with their values, that they're intentionally seeking out these businesses. And I remember being at a tour show, like right after I launched my company at this big travel market, and one of like, for responsible or adventure travel companies, then like this little tucked away corner. Like when people would find us, they would be really excited because there's, you know, 90% of the people in this market aren't representing what they want out of travel. And then, you know, a few people would walk by and they'd look at my itinerary for Peru, and they're like, have you sold many of these today? Or like, you know, why don't you go to Machu Picchu? I bet you would do better if you did. And at first, it was like, the startup and he was like, Oh, my gosh, am I making a mistake. And then I would say, you know, I've actually chosen this ruin in the community that has a lot less environmental impact.

You know, this ruin is less accessible, you're meeting with communities that don't get travelers. Your dollar is going to go so much further in this space. And some of them will be like, Oh, that's so cool. I never really thought about it. And some of you like, I just want to go to Machu Picchu. And I'm like, that's fine. It's amazing. I hope when you go, you find a local operator, and they're sustainable. And right now, I'm just not offering that. And it's so hard as a business. Like when your goal is to sell something, right, you think I must sell the thing. But yeah, I think we're finding that it's okay to hold those boundaries and find our people and create, again, create a community that holds up to what we believe as well. And I don't know if you've found the same thing or feel the same way.

18:16

Yeah, certainly, you know, we do go to Machu Picchu, but we take the Less Traveled Salkantay route. And for a lot of those same reasons, you know, it's just over tourists, it's full of trash, we don't want to contribute to that route just continuing to be degraded. And it's not a great experience for our guests, either. We do make some unpopular decisions. And our guests now I think, really appreciate it. And like they'll go anywhere that we say might be great, because they trust us now. And you know, most of our customers are repeat customers, they come year after year or twice a year with us.

And we have built that trust and even changed some of those people that you know, in your example might have wanted to go to Machu Picchu. Some of our guests have come along on this journey with us and really changed the way that they travel. I specifically remember this one day I was out running errands or something. I got a call from a guest and I'm like, okay, stopping like in the aisles at CVS to take this call. And she's like, I'm so sorry to bother you. I'm at the store trying to pack for my trip. And I just don't know which sunscreen is reef safe. And I was so happy that I couldn't have won such a small thing that was her third or fourth trip with us. So she knew very well by then.

But no matter where we were going we would only ask the guests to wear reef safe sunscreen. And she wasn't sure so she was asking and the fact that she now cared was like oh my gosh. Now who's she going to tell? And like we get to keep this ripple going? Do people understand that there is a repercussion to wearing Coppertone on the reefs? And so it's really cool to see that when you do take the stand and maybe make an unpopular decision that as long as you're supportive and you can tell the why, that maybe people will change their ways just because of one experience. And so it feels really good. No, it might feel awkward in a moment sometimes. But overall, it just feels real good.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 20:37

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Yeah, I love that I feel like those moments. Yeah, they just feel like you've contributed to that thing that you want to contribute to Right? Like, it doesn't have to be huge. And I think that's another thing when you're in this realm of sustainability, people get overwhelmed by the hugeness. And it can be as simple as this one person making this choice like you, you've literally changed the course of life, at least those actions and like you said, you don't know how far that's gonna ripple just from that person. So I think it's okay to just feel like you can start with small actions. I know another thing that is kind of cool about your travel while it's group travel, and it's structured. And your aim is to kind of make it easy for people, you also allow for flexible itineraries and flexible travel within your itineraries. And I think that's something that's really unique. Can you talk about what that means or what that allows for during the travel experience?

22:47

Absolutely. So on the easy side of things, basically, our guests can just book their flight, and we will do the rest. And they can come by themselves, they can come with friends, like, if they need a roommate, we'll match them up. So it's, it's not this, like, oh, I have to find a date that I can travel with that all my friends can travel with, we're going to go together. No, like, we're here for whatever dates work for you. We have a group of people going somewhere, and you can go with them. And also, we create incredible value by doing group trips. So maybe you can afford to do things that you couldn't have afforded to do on your own. So those you know, and we have a trip leader on site 24/7. So if you're scared to travel, you don't speak the language, you have barriers that are keeping you from going for most people, having one of our expert Tory leaders on the trip is the safety net that they need. It's like I have someone I can see and reach out to when I need help. So those are the ways that we make it easy.

But on the flip side, we love the Spartan Navy, we love serendipity, we love to challenge our guests. So we spend the early part of a trip doing what we called the discovery where we will create some space in the itinerary for people to kind of go out on their own venture about kind of get the lay of the land. And then the middle phase of the itinerary is always a challenge. It's something that you're scared to do, maybe have never done before. Swimming with sharks, eating street food and Morocco, you know, whatever that pushing you outside of your comfort zone thing might be, um, and then we have some sort of celebration at the end. And during the course of all of that we check off like the things to do in the place. We make sure that that's in the itinerary. But then there's always just space that new travelers will be like, Why is there nothing scheduled on Tuesday before 3pm Like, oh, that's for you to go discover the world. And we gave you these cool people to go and do it with so a lot of the job of our trip hosts is connected so day one, they're just getting to know everybody the best that they can so that they can connect people throughout the trip like, oh, Christine, you're into yoga, I heard there's yoga studio down the street. And did you know that Kristen loves yoga to like, maybe you guys could go together.

There's a class at 9am. Tomorrow, like, we want people to see the things that aren't on Google. And we go and seek out some of those things. But we want them to go and discover them on their own. And so when people get back to us, and they're like, there's nothing scheduled on Tuesday, I'm like, That's awesome. Go discover the place that you're in. With, don't research on like, don't look online in advance, don't look for the top 10 things to do, go meet a local, ask them what they like to do on Saturday afternoon, have them take you if they will, you know, like, we push people to kind of not have an itinerary. And it does make some guests a little bit uncomfortable, but especially after one trip of having that moment of serendipity where things just come together. And it's the best thing ever. Most of our guests really love it. And for the like super planners, the on site trip post can help them plan things when they get there. But I'm always like, you aren't gonna find like the best tours are not on the internet, most of the places that we go, so we schedule, sort of like the best top five things, and then we really encourage them to go find five other things that they're going to take home as memories.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 26:40

Oh, I love that so much. Because I feel like most of my greatest and most memorable adventures are kind of from getting lost somewhere back or just like, you know, thinking, Oh, um, um, I remember one time in Antigua and Guatemala like, like, I really want to go here. And for some reason, when I looked on my phone, it had the driving directions to where I was trying to go. But there's all these one way streets. And so I knew in my mind, it was kind of over here. So I would start walking that way. But then my GPS, when I checked, it was like sending me this way. And so I walked for like two hours before I got to where I thought I was going. But in the course of that time, I ended up being outside of this church, when people's families were gathering to go inside. And there was a vendor setting up these small little stands to provide snacks to people going into the church. And then, you know, there was this other thing that happened. And I ended up with this huge festival. And I'm like, none of this would happen.

If I bought on to the thing, or if I hadn't just been okay with letting the travel happen to me. And so I think that's such a gift to be able to teach people how to do that. Because especially coming from the Western world, we're like, okay, let's see what's happening this 10 minutes, okay, we have a like four and a half second break water in the bathroom, and then kind of do the next thing. And we don't even know how to travel with an expanse of three or four hours with nothing to do that seems like a waste of time. And so to bring people to know that, actually, that's going to be the probably the highlight of your entire trip is a huge task. But I love that you've taken it on.

28:29

You know, we do consider that in the destinations that we choose. If it's a place where people really can't like, self-serve, we really, really consider it before we choose to go somewhere like that. So yeah, we tried to set them up for success.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 28:46

Yeah. And I think it's so fun. And I would love to hear from them like what that has brought. But I think that ties really well into the next topic that I wanted to bring into our conversation, which is kind of over these past two years, obviously, flexibility and resiliency as operators as travelers as humans, has been required. A lot of our businesses have changed. And I know one of the things that you've brought into legit trips is becoming a professional life coach and kind of bringing that even deeper experience into travel. So I'd love for you to share, like your journey to that space, and then what that brings to your travelers.

29:31

Yeah, I had my own personal development journey that I thought was just for me. I was really miserable at work. I was desperately unhappy in my marriage. Like just things were terrible. And I was googling on the internet. There's got to be someone that can fix my life. Right? And I was very, very like, regimented about every minute of every day and planning I never would have allowed the serendipity in my old ways. And so I discovered Tony Robbins, I started going to his events, I followed him all around the world for a year and a half going to every event, becoming a certified master and all of these different areas of life. And I just never really had time with my travel business, to think about wanting to pursue coaching, or how to integrate personal development into legit like, we were busy. And when COVID happened, that was the time that I could say, Okay, there's really not a lot to do now that we've processed all of these changes. And like, what, what do I want to do with my life? If it's not this? You know, most entrepreneurs don't question what they want to do with their life, once they've committed to their business. And COVID gave us that little bit of a gift, where it was like, Is this even what I want to do, and you kind of had a free ticket out, if you wanted it, you know, it would have been very easy to just say, this is hard, I'm out, I'm gonna go get a job. And my business partner and I both had moments where it was like, I can't do this, this is really hard. And luckily, we had each other.

And we each kind of just started exploring different things that we were good at, which at the end of the day has only helped the business. And for me, I had the opportunity last fall, to have an event that I thought was just like weird, crazy Christian all in one weekend. And we hosted it as a legit trip, it had the elements of a legit trip that, you know, it's traveled to a really beautiful, inspiring place where you get to go and see and do some of the things. However, it was also mostly personal development workshops every single day, most of the day. And I also used to have a yoga studio. So I taught yoga every morning, breathing and meditation. And it was just like these three parts of my life that I never thought really belonged together. And somehow people were interested and came to the retreat, and that now is part of our business, and will continue to be at least once a year, if not twice a year, I will post these retreats that sort of bring travel and personal growth together. And I'm getting to the point where like, I definitely will need some help. Because it is really hard to be the Travel Planner, and the coach and the yoga teacher all in one trip. So I appreciate everything that our vendors do for us on all of our other itineraries because having to be with them for a whole trip was very challenging, but really rewarding.

And just a very different depth of transformation that came out of that trip. Transformation is a word that we use to drive our decisions on all of our legit trips, like, is there an opportunity for transformation on this trip, if there isn't, we're going to go and find one, and make sure that it gets into the itinerary. But, you know, the retreat style really allowed for a deeper focus on that instead of it just being like one part. So it's really rewarding for me to be able to sort of have that gift of time to focus on coaching. I got a bunch of certifications to actually be a life coach and a career coach and build that business. And now it just kind of runs alongside legit trips. And I feel like the best of both worlds. That legit trip feels kind of macro to me at this point. And coaching feels very micro like I work one on one, you know, it's just like a direct line of communication, you're not going anywhere generally. So it's just a really nice compliment and balance.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 34:09

Yeah, I think it's been really fun to see my other colleagues kind of go through that same process this year, right like, like once we put out the fires and like took a breath and figured out like what are we going to do right now? We started exploring, you know, like what else is there? Like if I'm not doing travel, who am I and what else do I love and what else can I bring into it and then also very interestingly like all of them kind of happen to lay upon travel which I think is really speaks to the power of travel and the importance of travel and and kind of going back to what you said before like how how can travel be something meaningful to people and to others and to place and offset any of the like environmental Things that is creating like, what? What's the balance with that? And I think it's these things that people are bringing to tourism and to travel.

And I know for me when I created my company, I was kind of the same, like, what are the things I love about travel. And then I also had my own journey. And I think so many of us land and travel because we did do this kind of exploration or we're seeking. So we're already seekers. And again, like, we want to bring people along that journey. So then, I think it is really natural for us to want to deepen how we can communicate that to others. And yeah, bring this element of life coaching and career coaching to travel because travel is already going to give you some of the answers. And so it's just all this like a big magic puzzle, I think. So I appreciate you sharing what that has felt like for you. In terms of travelers, I know that especially right now with AMI cron, and like us feeling the use, like this repeat or Groundhog's Day a bit in the industry. Like we're like, oh my gosh, are we here? Again? Where is it? What are we doing?

I even was looking at traveling and had to . I couldn't even get myself to the spot where I felt really comfortable saying yes for a certain trip. And this was because of political reasons in the area I was going to, but it made me re-examine like, what is travel? Or what are travelers asking themselves right now, who is traveling right now. And you and I were talking about this a little bit before we jumped on to this conversation. But I would love to just spend a few minutes talking about

36:49

what travelers can expect out of travel, who is the best person to be traveling right now and kind of what your experiences look like. And if you would like to share I would love for that. Absolutely. I think that travelers need to be patient right now. Especially right now, flights are getting canceled all the time, because the airlines don't have the staff, you know, they can't afford for 10% of their staff to be out sick, and it's happening over and over again. And so I think people that have plenty of vacation time or can take their work on the road with them are probably the ones that will enjoy traveling the most right now. Because you are likely to have delays, whether it is with your flight, or, you know, if you were to test positive in a different country, you have to wait before you can come back to the US. So that can add on a bit of time to an itinerary like, it is not a good idea to try to go away for the weekend.

Right now, that is a recipe for stress and disaster. But if you're planning a big trip to Antarctica, or to see the northern lights, or 10 days in Morocco, like those types of trips, I think they are still worth it. If you can afford to handle some delays, some cancellations, we had a trip to Greece this summer, which it was it was kind of quiet and the way of COVID affecting things this summer in Greece, but there was a shortage of very drivers and our ferries were delayed and, you know, just there's a lot of unpredictability. So if you can embrace whatever is happening, and be grateful for the experience, and not be trying to have it your way, or have it just so you can definitely enjoy great travel right now. Um, but there are many unexpected costs, delays, you know, a cost of money, a cost of time, like you need to be able to have the space in your life or in your budget to accommodate the unexpected. Um, you know, you could be on a tour, and they find out that someone on the tour was exposed to COVID. You know, the tour operator could ask you to take a test in the middle of your trip, which you didn't plan on, and that's going to be at your expense. So it's 100 bucks or so pretty much anywhere. Now to get a COVID test and to go on any trip. Now, you probably need at least two COVID tests. If not sorry, that doesn't account for the unexpected one. Then there's insurance to cover for the unexpected stuff. So, you know account for the cost of the trip plus two or $300 in COVID tests plus about 10 to 15% of the cost of the trip for insurance, and we are encouraging a lot more insurance than we typically advise. It's not really something we ever, like required of our guests, we would offer it but not require it, we're still not requiring it, but we're pushing it a lot stronger than ever before.

And also encouraging people to get additional insurances that cover specifically for, if you're stuck in a different country waiting out a quarantine, that you can have hotel and food paid for, until you can get back into the US. That's the one that we've never offered before. We've never, you know, sold to anybody. And now we encourage that to every single guest. Because, you know, heaven forbid, you can't get back to work, you can't get back to take care of your dog. You know, like there's so many things that if you expect to come back January 10, and you can't come home till January 15, or 16th. There's a lot of cost involved in that. So if you can handle the cost, and the waiting, you know, everything is it's taking longer to clean and to sanitize, when it comes to restaurants and hotel rooms, like there's just more waiting, and more coffee, but we have a lot of guests that are just so hungry to travel. And they're, they're going and they're having great times and great experiences. And many, but not all of our destinations this year have been quieter than normal. So maybe you have an opportunity to see a place without quite as many tourists as normal. We always struggle with that, because it's like we are tourists.

But we don't want there to be millions of tourists. I know that our group in Morocco very much had that experience, it felt so private, like they had their own guide who was with them the whole time and was very, like you can go anywhere and do anything kind of experience. And it was a very rich, deep cultural experience for them that, you know, could have been taken away from by sharing it with more people. And you know, there's some good deals out there to be had, you know, there's definitely a silver lining, and there's reward for people that are willing and able to travel right now. That's a different world. As a whole don't expect it to be like it used to be.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 42:35

Yeah, I remember early in the pandemic, seeing pictures of places like Taj Mahal, or Machu Picchu, or places, they usually just have droves of travelers, and there's just no one. And my traveler bug in me was like, let me at it, like I want that moment. Like being the discoverer of these magical places. And to have that moment with them in quiet like it would just it would I can't even convey like the magic that would be from that experience. So I do think there's a lot of places I've talked to other avid travelers who've landed, you know, on islands where there's normally hundreds or 1000s of tourists, and there's just them. And so like there's these moments to be had by being able to navigate, like you said, some of these challenges and restrictions that are being put in place in order to travel.

But I think really realistically understanding what it means to be a traveler right now is something that people who are listening really just need to take into consideration. And like you said, not to discourage traveling, but just to know, really what to expect. And to know that people like you and myself and people in the countries that we're working with, are all really trying to serve and create amazing experiences. Like that's still top of mind for us, top of heart for us. But yeah, so many things are out of our control. Like we can't control how many drivers in Greece have COVID are not working. And so you hear stories like that all the time. But I also think maybe there's that moment where you got stuck waiting for a ferry for two hours. Were you about to do something you didn't anticipate to So yeah, just just knowing and I think one conversation I had about insurance that I hadn't really thought about is so many people are putting in claims right now. And so like knowing that not only do you need to have the insurance, but you might need to have the funds to pay for the quarantine while you're quarantined and submit it to insurance. And you might wait for a little bit of time. So travelers just need to be really savvy like this is not the time like you said it's not about weekend travel. It's not about this kind of like it's not as free as it used to be like you really need to think about it.

And it also actually takes me back to like early explorers, right there was a risk to travel but there was a risk Yeah, and so it's almost a little more magical like that, like, we have to have a little more personal skin in the game, to take travel. It's not just what it was before, where it was very kind of self serving and very demand driven. Like, it's not about that, it's about people really needing to be out there in the world and connecting with one another and supporting one another. And so I think that, while there's difficulties, there is reward. I wanted to talk to you a little bit, before we end about this kind of idea of what travel does mean for communities. And you were sharing with me earlier about your trip to Morocco. And, and this idea that there are a lot of places that have been incredibly impacted by the loss of travel. But this is also creating a space where communities want to welcome travelers, again, offering this kind of different, richer experience because of this space of travel. But I'd love for you to talk about this, what this travel really does mean for communities right now.

46:10

Yeah, I mean, we spend a lot of time just going to third world countries, places that are not as developed. And many of them rely on tourism for their income. And so it was very heartbreaking to sit around for a year in 2020, and feel like we couldn't do anything. And the only thing that we came up with was to offer virtual tours and learning with our vendors so that our guests could get on Zoom and get a tour of a nice neighborhood and do like a little cooking class with our vendors in Bali. But you know, that was all we really felt like we could do, there wasn't you just couldn't travel. So now that we can travel, is this balance of the community ready for travelers? You know, what are the restrictions? Oftentimes, there's like a curfew, you can't be out during certain hours and things like that, like, is the community really ready. And luckily, we have local contacts and close contacts pretty much everywhere that we go now.

So we can ask, like, what's what's really happening on the street? Are you ready for us and make sure that it is going to serve them. But generally, most of our destinations are so desperate, they're like, you can come here and risk bringing disease with you, and give us money to buy food. Or we're going to go hungry. You know what our destination was where we started the company within key Caulker Belize, and the food banks were out of food, like nine months into COVID. And it was like, well, the solution is that tourism has to come back. Because there's nothing else that they can do. It's a teeny tiny island, it's really difficult when a community has their main product is tourism. And for the first time ever, tourism has been turned off for an extended amount of time. So a lot of the communities that we visit are just really struggling. And it feels incredible, to be able to go and give them something, you know, it's a lot of hope. We are not enough people. Legit trips is a very small travel community. And we're not enough to keep them afloat. But we can go and have a positive experience and share it with others.

And then those people feel like maybe they could go and have a positive experience. And we're hoping that we can just be part of the solution of getting some of these communities back on their feet. And you know, Morocco has had a really tough ride of the borders just being closed completely. And then people are afraid to go there even once they reopen. And we have had a very successful trip to Morocco, where the guests just felt so compelled to give to everyone in the community. You know, they rely so much on tourism that just having 100% of their income cut was so challenging that our guests were just like what would it take to get you to where you need to be? No, take me on another tour because I just want you to have food for your family. And that is how dire it is in some places like they don't have money for food. And, you know, it's not a good thing when a community's only product is tourism. So I'm hopeful that throughout the pandemic, and some of these places, they've been able to cultivate other industries and skills and ways of building income. But tourism is kind of like a quick fix. So for better or worse, it feels good to be able to contribute in a very meaningful way. You know, for example, in Morocco, we had nine guests, and each of them tipped about $100, to our guide who was with us for 10 days.

So you know, $10 a day per person, for a tip. And to most of our guests, that was nothing. And to him, it was more than a quarter of his annual salary, typically. So to know that in 10 days, we can get him 25% of the way back to, like, what he needs, feels like we made a very substantial impact. And it is just really super grateful for the generosity of our guests and them wanting to use their means in a really positive way. So it is, it's hard to see some of the places that you know, and love will be different when you go back, especially for, you know, the short term future, but just doing what we can, yeah,

Christine Winebrenner Irick 51:32

Thank you so much for sharing that. I think, again, depending on how you travel, you don't always see, you don't always see that impact. If you're in an all inclusive resort, or you're on a cruise, like you're, you're kind of sheltered from all of these other pieces that support tourism, and that were impacted by this loss of tourism. And I think it's really important to understand how important it is. I mean, it's the largest industry in most countries around the world. And so it has been hugely impactful. And at the same time, I love the idea of you know, when you're traveling, and you feel like you want to help saying like, Okay, can I take another tour with this guide, and know that this is going to greatly impact them and their family and their community and and then carrying that forward?

So the next time you travel? No, I'm going to look for a local guide. And I'm going to ask them to take me on, you know, to do this excursion, versus whatever one I found on the internet, which might not have a direct local connection. And I think, again, hopefully the experiences that we're having or the way that we're thinking about travel right now we'll move forward to bring this idea of how can we partner as communities as as this collective to bring about change to if we're traveling to community repeatedly that has been impacted by the loss of travel? How can they diversify where their income comes from?

Can we support small businesses in a different way? Are there venture capital initiatives linked to some of these smaller areas, like there's so many ways once we start looking at what travel means to then support travel outside of actually traveling, which is what where a lot of us have been this last year, as well, like we are deeply connected to these communities that we believe in. And so, yeah, we, as business owners, have wanted to do that as well. And to bring that to our travelers. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of this. Before we wrap up, I want to give you the opportunity to talk about where people can find you and where they can find what you're currently offering. And then we're going to end with a series of rapid fire questions before