Guest Bio
Angie Orth is an award-winning travel and lifestyle content creator, author, and speaker. She is best known for her long-running travel website, AngieAway.com, and the travel series “The Jet Sisters,” which she co-hosts with her sister. With a background in public relations and journalism, Angie has covered travel for outlets such as The Today Show, AFAR, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, and Lonely Planet. Her debut memoir, “Flirting with Disaster: True Travel Tales of Fear, Failure, and Faith,” chronicles her adventures and personal growth through her global travels.
Show Summary
In this episode, Angie Orth shares her journey from a public relations professional to a prominent travel content creator. She discusses the challenges and rewards of documenting her travels, the evolution of her brand, and the importance of authenticity in storytelling. Angie also reflects on her experiences co-hosting “The Jet Sisters” and the process of writing her memoir, offering insights into balancing personal narratives with engaging content.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Authentic Storytelling: Sharing genuine experiences fosters deeper connections with audiences.
- ✓ Adaptability: Embracing change and evolving with industry trends is crucial for sustained success.
- ✓ Personal Branding: Building a brand that reflects personal values and passions enhances credibility.
- ✓ Collaboration: Partnering with others, like co-hosting with a sibling, can diversify content and reach.
- ✓ Resilience: Overcoming challenges and learning from failures contribute to personal and professional growth.
What You’ll Find on Angie Orth’s Platforms
- ✓ AngieAway.com: A travel and lifestyle blog featuring destination guides, travel tips, and personal stories.
- ✓ “The Jet Sisters”: A travel series showcasing sisterly adventures, destination highlights, and travel hacks.
- ✓ Flirting with Disaster: Her memoir offering an intimate look into her travel experiences and personal journey.
- ✓ Podcasts: Hosting roles on “Traveling with AAA” and “But Did You Die?!,” discussing travel insights and stories.
- ✓ Social Media Channels: Engaging content across platforms like Instagram, sharing travel photos, behind-the-scenes moments, and lifestyle tips.
👉 Visit Angie Orth’s Official Website to explore her offerings and learn more about her contributions to the travel industry.
Learn more about Angie Away Media and connect with Angie at:
https://angieaway.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast. Super excited today to have Angie Orth with Angie Away Media, an author, a traveler, a podcast host, all kinds of things. Angie and I first met several years ago when she was doing some marketing and PR stuff for a firm in New York and I was working for Orvis and we worked together on a…
project with the Ministry of Tourism in the Bahamas. And so when I started this podcast, immediately thought, OK, got to get Angie on the show. Angie, welcome. So happy you’re here. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. It has been many, many moons since we last worked together. But it’s very exciting to see you on this podcast. Well, thank you. And I mentioned right before I hit the record button, Angie, you showed up in the room and I can see your face. And.
The only thing is that I’ve aged more than you have. You haven’t aged at all since we worked together and I clearly have. And so you must be doing something right. It must be all these adventures that you’ve been living. So I appreciate you taking a moment to come on and share your secrets of youth and vitality and all that stuff. No, we’re not talking about Sephora or anything like that today, but just super excited to have you here. And you’ve got…
Part of what we wanna discuss is you’ve got a book coming out, Flirting with Disaster. And when is that coming out? It comes out March 12th. Okay, so I wanna make sure we throw that out right away. And now we’re gonna step back and talk a little bit more about just your personal journey, how you got from where you were even before when I met you, living in the city, working for the big PR firm and all that stuff. But I’d love to…
have our listeners hear a little bit about kind of your upbringing. What got you into this adventurous type of stuff? And basically how you got from where you were then to where you are now. So tell us your story. Gosh, it’s been quite a journey from there to there to there and finally to here. So I grew up in Florida, was born in Jacksonville, went to high school in a very small town called Middleburg.
Jason Elkins (02:53.646)
And I was, I think I was just kind of bored. You know, I thought, oh, I’m from a small town and there’s nothing to do here. And the world is so much better. And I traveled a bit with my grandparents for dog shows. And then, you know, here and there, I would just get a little taste of the rest of the world. And I was convinced the rest of the world was better. Like, and I had to go get it. And I was not sticking around here. Like I was not gonna be that girl that stuck around here. So went to college, went to the University of Florida, got a degree in PR.
moved to Atlanta after that, which my family was like, you can’t move away. You can’t move away. There were really no jobs here then. So it was, you know, it was the thing to do. To Atlanta. And how far is Atlanta from Jacksonville? It’s a five hour drive. It is a 45 minute flight. Yeah, it’s a 45 minute flight. It is not far away. It’s the next state over. This is not scary, right? And it’s only five hours because of the traffic, I think. I mean, yeah. OK, so.
So they were worried about you living that far away. The big city, right? And so I was there for a couple of years working in PR, getting my feet wet. And then my best friend from college had moved to New York. And I always wanted to live in New York. And I had that whole, like, if I can make it there, I had stars in my eyes. And so I decided to move to New York. Again, parents freaking out. Like, you can’t do it. And I moved there without a job and very quickly got hired by my PR agency and got hired to work on the travel team.
which like could not be a better thing to publicize than travel. Everything I had done up to that point, it was like acne medicine and pressure washers and like stuff that fine, but it’s a job, right? Like it’s, I’m not really passionate about pressure washers or wool or eggs. Like the things I was working on, I just wasn’t that excited about it. So getting to work in the travel team was like.
Everything was great. Was that an accident or was it a specific job you applied for on the travel team? Or how did you? Yeah, it was a specific job on the travel team. And I applied for a whole bunch of jobs. And that one just so happened. I was like, man, I would actually really like to do that. That’s not just I mean, because I could have gone into beauty PR, I could have gone into health care PR, I had a little experience in everything. So I could have done anything. And I just the
Jason Elkins (05:13.962)
That one, I was like, no, that’s the one I want to do because that’s fun. I’m like, they work for the Bahamas and Royal Caribbean? I’m like, maybe I’ll get to go somewhere. Oh, did I ever? I went somewhere all the time and that was great, right? So got to live in New York, got to travel to the Bahamas and all over all the time. So wonderful, wonderful. After probably, after a few years of that, I don’t know, I wasn’t bored.
but I was like, what’s the next thing? And I happened to come across somebody talking about round the world trips. And for whatever reason, that took hold of me. And I was like, I have to do a round the world trip. That is the thing, I must do it. And of course, at this point, I’m like 28. Like, well, I’m gonna have to get serious pretty soon and figure out my life and be an adult. And so if I’m ever gonna do this, I have to do it pretty soon. So I started formulating and I got to this
I had this idea, so I’m gonna spend my whole 29th year traveling around the world. And that meant quitting my great job and leaving my apartment and my friends and this whole, I built so much and everyone’s like, why do you keep leaving? You get to a good point and then you leave and I’m like, I just, I don’t know, I gotta go do this thing and then I’ll come back. That was always my plan. I’ll come back to New York, go back to PR and life will continue on. I’ll just take this little break. And I needed a break. Working in PR.
in New York, no matter how good your clients are, how fun it is, I needed a break. So I did and I left and that was 2011, the year that I was abroad on my own for a year. And it was, that’s what my book is about actually. It’s about that year, 2011, flirting with disaster. It was a very natural disaster heavy year in the world. And it felt like everywhere I went,
there was destruction, like immediately following, like hugest, the biggest hurricane, you know, that Australia has ever seen and the worst flooding Brisbane’s ever seen and the worst earthquake Christchurch has ever seen. And I’m just, you know, here to there, to there. And my mom’s like, come home, come home. You have to come home. Did you feel like, or did your mom feel like the world was trying to tell you something to go home? I mean, obviously your mom was trying to get you to go home. She did.
Jason Elkins (07:37.134)
I’m not sure that I necessarily felt like that, but I certainly felt at times like, this is a lot. Like this is not restful. I needed a break from fast paced corporate life and now sometimes I’m like running for my life and just constantly, you don’t know where you’re staying every night and as fun as that sounded before I did it, you get to a point where like, this is exhausting. It’s hard to not always know what’s gonna happen and to have no normalcy.
I went from having some, you know, I went from boring small town life to like, I don’t know where I’m sleeping tomorrow and I don’t know who these people are and maybe I’m going to sleep at their house. And that’s so it was great. But you know, I think in the end, I kind of found more balance after that year and it made me appreciate balance a lot more. Were you? I was following you on social media. Were you?
working or generating revenue during this time? Or is this money you just saved up and you were just like trying to just make it the full year without running out or what did that look like for you? It’s not, my, sorry, my dogs are barking. There must be a mailman outside. Stop it, stop it. So yeah, I didn’t intend to work or make any revenue. That really wasn’t a thing you did with blogs and writing and stuff back then. I mean, Instagram kind of kicked off
while I was on my trip. So that’s sort of where we were. I had a blog and I had my personal Facebook and my personal Twitter account. Like that was kind of all I had going. It was, you know, I had already started a blog years before when I moved to New York. And this was just sort of a continuation of that, you know? I was just keeping people updated on what was going on. It was never intended to be a revenue source or a career or anything like that.
No, it’s interesting because I remember when you started your journey, I believe we had a conversation right around the time you were leaving saying, hey, this is what I’m gonna do. And I was already working in the travel business. I was visiting a lot of places, but frankly, I was jealous. You know, I had the family, the kid, the dog, the cat, the house, all that stuff in Vermont. And I just thought, man, that is so cool. I wasn’t even really, like I wasn’t on Instagram. I saw you on Facebook. Yeah. And…
Jason Elkins (09:59.486)
As you kind of progressed, all of a sudden I started to become more aware of this influencer thing. And if someone were to walk up to me and say, Hey, Jason, do you know any influencers? I just, the story in my head, I’d be like, yeah, I know one of the first ones. And it’s Angie, because in my mind, when, when people started talking about influencers, like, oh, they travel around and just write about their trips and they take pictures and they post things and this and that I’d be like, oh yeah, that’s what Angie does.
Yeah. You know, and I remember thinking that. So anyway, I just wanted to share that. Yeah. Like in my mind, you’re the first influencer in the world. So I’m excited to have you here. Close enough, I guess. Yeah. I mean, as far as in the travel space, I was I had this amazing sort of front row seat working in PR to.
to where we were starting to say, what are these people? What are we gonna do with these blogger people? And at first it was very like, ew, gross, bloggers. Why would we ever work with bloggers? And truly, I felt that way. And then it got to the point where I was like, maybe we can do something with them. And so before I left, we did our very first ever blogger press trip to the Bahamas and I took a bunch of bloggers. And literally, nobody’s monetizing. Nobody even knows what that is. It’s just…
It’s just a big experiment and it went great, super fun. And then I went and did it. And it truly, the way I look at it is right place, right time, right connections. It’s just, I went from my one career that I really loved to this next career that I also love, but wasn’t even a career when I was in college. I couldn’t have planned for this. I didn’t go to college thinking, I’m gonna be an influencer or a content creator.
It wasn’t a thing, you know? I was fully like, I’m gonna do editorial, like editorial, journalistic, whatever. And the whole thing changed, you know? The whole thing changed from the time I started working in PR to the time I left and compared to now, gosh, totally different, you know? The whole new world. So you did the year, avoided all these disasters. I don’t know if avoided, you were pretty close. And-
Jason Elkins (12:14.978)
So did you get through that year? What happened at the end of that year? So I got through 2011 and I had a little bit of money left and my blog had kind of done really well and things were going well and I could not imagine going back to my cubicle as much as I did love my job and you know still love New York to this day. I was like I just
I don’t think I can go back and do that. Having now done what I’ve done and seen what I’ve seen and had that kind of freedom, like turns out I’m actually not built for nine to nine stress work in a fast pace, that kind of environment. Like fast pace, my own environment, sure. But fast pace, making money for other people.
and never seeing daylight and not getting sleep and answering emails on the weekends. I don’t wanna do that necessarily for everybody else. So it really changed my perspective on work. And yeah, and I got to the end of the year and I was like, okay, I’ve got a little money left. And at this point I had some consulting gigs lined up in Berlin and Jordan to go talk to people in PR about social media and working with travel bloggers. So we were just kind of building and people were taking a chance.
marketers were taking a chance and saying like, tell us what to do. Like tell us what you need as a, as a travel writer, as a travel blogger, what do you need to be successful? So we just kind of did that. And then I was doing a little bit of freelance writing, sort of whatever came my way, you know, whatever, wherever I could make a thousand bucks here and there, I did. And so I just kept going and got some freelance PR work. And you know, it just kind of sorted itself out throughout, throughout the year. And traveling is actually a lot cheaper than
living in New York. So, you know, especially doing it the way I was doing it, which was writing about the places I was staying, you know, I had obviously severe discounts on the various things I was doing. So it’s not like I was paying full price for everything. Like if someone quit and just wasn’t a blogger or writer, but yeah, so I just kept going and left again after Christmas, went back on the road in January and kept going for another year.
Jason Elkins (14:32.738)
pretty much full time for another year. She kind of touched on some of the struggles. It wasn’t quite as exciting, romantic, whatever, maybe it didn’t quite line up with your expectations yet. You went and did it again. Yeah. So that’s a sign. And I get it. I’ve been traveling full time for a couple years now. And so a lot of those things you mentioned, like not knowing where you’re going to be the next night, it’s constant. I mean, there’s been quite a few times I booked an Airbnb think, okay, I got a plan.
And I show up, I’m like, there’s no way in hell I’m gonna stay here tonight. So where am I going next? And that’s a challenge. I’m curious, what’s the challenge that maybe caught you most off guard? Cause I think people can kind of expect that might be a challenge. But if you haven’t done it, traveled by yourself, full time without like a home base, what’s the biggest surprise that you think people should probably be aware of?
so they can maybe check their personalities. Like, do I, is that aligned with my personality? Should I sell all my stuff and buy a one-way ticket or should I maybe just go for a few weeks and try this out? You know, what would you like to share? Oh gosh. Yeah, I think when you’re on your own and it’s sort of, you don’t have everything set in stone and you’re just kind of winging it, you spend a lot more time than you think you would trying to figure out what you’re doing next.
So, you know, you think you’re just like, I just imagined I would have this year of blissful free time. And I didn’t have as much free time because you spend, especially me, I will analyze a place to stay to death. Like I read too many reviews. I, you know, is it safe? Is it this, is it bug free? Like I am, I read too much and.
It takes a lot of time. And then, you know, if you’re going to a new place every two days, that’s packing everything up and unpacking everything. And then like, where are you gonna do your laundry? Once a week or once every two weeks, you have to figure out where to do your laundry. And then that takes time. So it’s just doing all the normal things you have to do in life somewhere else where it’s less convenient, you know? So it’s not nearly as
Jason Elkins (16:54.382)
It’s freeing from some things, you know, it’s freeing from the cubicle, sure. But getting laundry done in New York City when you’re at work all day is hard, but it’s also hard to do it when you’re in a country where you don’t speak the language and you don’t know what a laundry, like where the laundromat is. So or no currency or, you know, there’s, there’s just so many things and you’re like, am I getting scammed right now? Like every time you get in a taxi, you’re like, is this about to be a scam? And every person you meet.
I don’t know if this is like a stronger on the woman side of things, but every person you meet, you have to weigh, is this person safe? Like I’m just having a conversation in a hostel. No conversation in a hostel is just a conversation. It’s, I’m assessing for dangers, you know, because you meet somebody and they’re like, let’s go on that fun hike tomorrow. Well, of course that sounds great, but are you a murderer? You know, and you really do have to think about these things everywhere you go.
And so if you’re going country to country, every time you go somewhere new, you’re like, what are the scams in this city? What am I watching out for? So I don’t know. You have to take care of yourself. And so there’s this extra whole backpack full of fear that you kind of have to bring with you to stay safe. And it can be exhausting. It’s surprising. I get it. And so much of that resonates with me. And I’m a six-foot-tall guy. Yeah.
weigh 210 pounds and like to be teacher on too much. I don’t generally feel in physical danger. So when someone invites me to go do something, I have maybe a few seconds of, is this totally stupid? Is this like so stupid that if something bad happens to me, somebody is gonna say you should have known better? Or is this just a calculated risk? I’m sure it’ll be fine. And I’m just gonna go for it.
What are they gonna do? Take my phone or the $40 cash I have in my pocket. Where I do think as a woman, a couple things. One is, you and I live in a different world. Realistically, I do believe that because our world is what we perceive. So whatever you perceive is your world. Whatever I perceive is my world. And I get that. The finding laundromats. It’s like,
Jason Elkins (19:19.618)
Google does work a lot of places, but it’s not necessarily up to date. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked around in these neighborhoods with my laundry bag over my shoulder. Nope, that one’s boarded up. It looks like it’s been closed for a long time. Or it’s actually a money laundering laundry, or it’s a brothel. Like you don’t know the things that you’re getting into. Yeah. Am I gonna get a bag full of just…
maybe clean clothes, but not folded because I don’t know how to explain that I want them folded or whatever, those things. And I want to touch on one thing that I’ve experienced and had a lot of conversations with as well. And I’m just kind of curious if you maybe have some tips or tricks because some of the people listening to this might be considering that type of solo travel. One thing you mentioned is like moving every couple of days. You also mentioned that you were kind of
creating it sounded like maybe some accommodations for articles and blog posts and social media stuff, which does, I imagine, put that pressure on you to keep moving. Because how are you gonna say, I’m gonna, can I just stay here for a month? And I’ll write a, you know. People aren’t super keen to let you stay for a month. It’s like, that’s not gonna work. So I can see where you might’ve had a lot of pressure to keep moving. I’m fortunate, I’m not dependent on trading accommodations for anything.
So I can stay for a month. So it gives me a little bit mobility to kind of acclimate or whatever. I don’t know why I’m thinking of this, but I know some people like only wear black polo shirts. Some guys I think it was maybe Steve Jobs or somebody. And we’ll say, well, it reduces the number of decisions I have to make each day. Because we only have so many decisions we’re able to make each day and still make effective, efficient decisions.
And when you’re traveling so much and your decision, like you said, is what am I gonna do today? It does, it can get very, very exhausting and somewhat inefficient. I mean, there’s many days I’m like, okay, it’s three in the afternoon. I’m all decisioned out. Yeah. I’m like, I’m just gonna go sit in front of a TN desk, drink a beer and watch the world go by. Yes. And where was I going with this? Okay. And the thing that I’ve seen consistently
Jason Elkins (21:42.122)
people that are, especially the ones that sell all their stuff and tell their family, I’m leaving for a year, two years, three years. Hard to make, hard to change that decision. Cause our identity is tied up in it. Why? Yeah. Did you know that? I am an influencer. Yes. I have told all my friends that I’m going to do this. I’m not going to come back a month later with my tail tucked between my legs and say, Ooh, big world was too scary. Ooh, I couldn’t handle it. Yes. So we just keep.
going. Yes. Even when our mental health says, dude, you probably need to make a change, whether that stay longer in one place, go back, spend some time with some family, make some friends or whatever. So I don’t know, I think you probably know where I’m going with this is loneliness is one of the biggest challenges that I’ve seen because you’re moving. You met in hostels, the other people in the hostel are moving.
Jason Elkins (22:42.646)
we lived in Florida, if you lived in Florida or you lived in New York, you had your key friends. Like I’m bored, I’ve got some friends, I’ll go out with my friends, do something. That’s a little harder when you’re traveling. So a really long way to ask, what are some tips and tricks maybe that you learned for staving off that loneliness or creating connections? Because also you mentioned, you’re not sure if everybody’s safe. So that makes it hard too, right? Yeah.
What did you learn about that? One thing I learned is that even as a solo traveler, you’re not alone very much. Now that doesn’t mean you’re not lonely, but there’s always someone around who’s willing to talk, willing to chat. But I think there’s nothing like a solo trip to help you figure out who the heck you really are and what you really want. Because…
I sure learned and I didn’t set out to learn anything about myself because I had it all figured out. I was like, you know, I’m just traveling, you know, maybe I’ll meet somebody and it’ll be so great and you pray love, la la. But I was not trying to find out like who I was as a person because I had it figured out and turns out I did not have it figured out.
doing stuff every day and meeting people every day and being an extrovert is not actually who I am. I’m actually a much more calm and chill introverted person. And the whole reason that I thought I needed to leave New York was because I had so many roommates. It was just so many people all the time. So I’m like, oh, I have to solo travel so I can get some peace. But that was not really the situation. I just needed some me time.
I think if I’d had any me time or actual vacations in the in the time that I lived in New York, I probably never would have gone traveling. But I really just needed some peace and quiet. I didn’t need to bungee jump every day. I just needed to be able to sit somewhere quietly and process life. And I didn’t really have that opportunity when I lived in New York. So I learned that and, you know, learned the value of friends wherever they are.
Jason Elkins (25:04.302)
Um, 2011, we were just getting to the point where you could stay connected all the time. Um, I did not have data on my phone at that point. So I was dependent on wifi and you know, the few social networks that we had at that point. And, and so, you know, I would, I would Skype with my family, but now it’s gosh, it’s so easy to stay in touch with everybody back home. You’re not nearly as untethered as.
is maybe traveling in the, I mean, people who used to travel with, you could only check in via snail mail, like- A handwritten letter, yeah. Right. Or like when I studied abroad in Paris, I would go to the internet cafe, because I didn’t have a computer. So I had to go to the internet cafe every day to send a long, stupid email to my stupid boyfriend at the time, you know? And like what? Now you can text all day long with everybody.
back home or wherever they are in the world. So you don’t really have a chance to be as disconnected, which is nice. It’s good and bad. It’s hard to escape the outside world if you’re trying to, but you can be lonely if you want to, or you can be surrounded by people if you want to. I think for me, I’d much rather stay in a luxury hotel by myself than go to a hostel and make a bunch of sort of temporary friends, if that makes sense.
I love meeting people and I love people’s stories, but after that year, two years of just meeting people and you, you know, I’m an oversharer. I’m a pour my heart out to everybody kind of person and that happens and then you never see these people again or you’re friends with them on Facebook. And I’m like, I have no idea where I met this person because we went on one hike in Slovenia once and that was the extent of it and we really hit it off and then never.
to each other again and now I’m not sure how we got to be friends. You know, like it’s wild and it’s a big world and there’s just people everywhere and it’s so easy to stay connected. You know, I think probably the hardest part is just discerning who the people you meet along the way are like forever people or just for now people. And I’ve learned a lot about that because I used to be everybody is a forever people. That’s apparently not the case, but you know.
Jason Elkins (27:23.69)
You learn a lot. I think you definitely see that solo traveling. I know I’ve, I kind of vacillate between the, okay, I want my own place. I want some peace and quiet. I wanna just kind of hang out, chill out in my room, whatever, or go maybe go do some excursions by myself. I don’t want that. I also do identify as an extrovert. So every once in a while it’s like, I think I’m gonna go spend the weekend in a hostel and I’m always the oldest person there.
But it doesn’t matter because it’s like, okay, I’m a bunch of people. Okay, I got that out of my system. But I would say the biggest thing for me is just, is like you said, is learning about yourself, about what you really want. And you have, I tend to have so much more time to really think about, okay, I’m uncomfortable in this situation. Why am I uncomfortable here? Like I stayed in a place in Mexico City. It was really fascinating for me. I’ll start real quick.
I booked an Airbnb, booked it for like a month, showed up, place was not the right place. I’m trying to be as nice as I can. It was horrible. Sure, okay. And, but then I was like, well, what’s, like I must not be socially or like culturally adept enough to stay in a place. Like there’s this woman, she’s Mexican, she lives there.
So what’s wrong that I should be able to live there too. I’m a former army paratrooper, infantry guy, used to sleep in the dirt. So if I can’t sleep in this lady’s house, what does that say about me? I must be a wimp. And if I’m gonna be traveling the world, I need to just change my standards. And I stayed there for two nights and by day three I was crying. What is wrong with me? Da da da. And I finally realized
Oh my gosh, I’m punishing myself for something. Like I’m literally like, I don’t deserve at the time. I think it was one of those moments where I hadn’t had a new contract come in while I was like, I felt like, oh man, this is all I can afford. I’m just going to punish myself and hard and work through it. And da da. And that felt like, why am I punishing myself? What, what I’m like, this is so stupid. I have the money. I can go to another place.
Jason Elkins (29:42.878)
If Airbnb doesn’t give me my money back, it’s not the end of the world. If I stay here for 27 more days, it might be the end of the world. That’s a long time. Yeah. Yeah, you don’t have to be unhappy or uncomfortable. Like, it’s all up to us, but there is that, the expectation of what a world traveler is supposed to be. Yeah, exactly. I had a few friends,
in the travel space who had kind of done these round the world adventures before I did. And so they were the ones that I looked to and I’m like, they left for a year. I have to leave for a year, you know? And I can’t come home. And I came home three months in and I had been sick and I had my heart broken and you know, all this stuff. And I kind of like slunk home.
after three months, my sister had an event and I wanted to surprise her. But I slunk home from Bali. That’s not like an easy place to get home from. Yeah, it’s a long one, yeah. And I just kind of like snuck back and had a little bit of downtime and then I went back out again. And then like, I don’t know, five months later, I came back again for a couple of weeks just to switch my clothes out and get different shoes and just like have a breather. And guess what, that’s okay.
I can have different standards than other people. Like I thought, I really thought I had to go out and stay in hostels every night and go skydiving and write on my blog every single day and, and. Like I just, I had this idea of how things had to go and gosh, it just doesn’t have to be like this. You can really just build the life you want, but you have to know what you want first. And sometimes you don’t until you see what it is. Yeah.
figure those. I mean, you, you mentioned like, I must not be a good enough world traveler because I don’t want to do this or I don’t want to do that. Or like, I’m not going to take antibiotics when the local food hits me sideways. Because people say, Oh, you just, you must have just got here. You’re not used to the flora and the fauna in the food and the water.
Jason Elkins (31:53.73)
You just need to get used to it. And you know, you’re, you haven’t traveled enough to the third world or duh or whatever. So I’m like, I’m not going to go to the pharmacy. It’s so stupid. I’m just going to wait until my body, my, till my body gets used to it. And then finally, you know, I, and Columbia I went through, I’m sure oversharing. You said you’re an oversharing. I’ll share overshare. It’s just a podcast. And I drank or ate something that was not quite right.
And I waited probably a good month and lost like a lot of weight. I was like, I’m pretty sure it was, um, uh, I’ll, I’ll think of here in a second, but I had some sort of parasite and I was like, yeah, I’m losing a lot of weight, but that’s good because I kind of have some extra weight to lose. I’m going to tough it out. I’m going to wait when my body recovers from this, I’ll like be immune to amoebas and parasites and all that. So stupid. And finally I’m like,
Okay, I can’t do this anymore. I’m staying in Airbnb. I can’t be sick all the time. And you know, I go down to the pharmacy and it’s like $3. Like no prescription needed. Like you just, you Google it. Like, okay, I have these symptoms. Okay, you get the name. Whether you speak the language or not, you just go and show your phone. At this point, yeah. It’s like $3 and the next day, like, oh, I feel much better.
Yes, I no longer have similar to that place in Mexico City. Yes, it was Giardia. Yeah, I think that’s what I had in Thailand. And I was also like, well, I’m not going to the doctor because I have this American idea of what going to the doctor is. And that’s there goes your entire savings account. Right. So I’m not going to the doctor. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll just let it work its way out. And yeah, lose a ton of weight. This is great. You know, I’m like, this will be fine. Don’t forget. I mean.
then you don’t do anything the whole time. I spent two weeks in Thailand, sick and alone. So what did I do? To save $3. Right, to save $3. What did I do in Thailand? Yeah, I didn’t go scuba diving with the whale sharks. Like I didn’t get to do all those things because I was dying in a luxury hotel by myself. So yeah, you definitely learn along the way like what you’re willing to put up with and when to say when and.
Jason Elkins (34:19.082)
went to call it and say this destination is not what I thought it was gonna be. You know, they’re like Chiang Mai, right? Lovely place. Everybody loves Chiang Mai, right? I think I had the same experience you’re getting ready to share. Well, and every, you know, at that point, everybody was like, expats in Chiang Mai, everybody, all the New York bloggers, they’re all in Chiang Mai now. And I’m like, great, I’m going to Chiang Mai and it’s gonna be great. There were so many roaches on the ground in Chiang Mai that I was like, I’m leaving. Not that.
It was any different anywhere else in Southeast Asia, but I was like, I hate it here. I don’t even like it. And so I left, but I felt so like I just didn’t, I’m not good at this. Maybe I’m not a real nomad because I don’t like Chiang Mai and it is what it is. Now I could not care less about anybody else’s opinion of how I run my show, but it’s very different than 12, 13 years ago.
when I kicked it off and I just, you know, you kind of thought you had to fit into a box. Now there’s a hundred million influencers. So everybody’s doing whatever they want, wherever they want. And you know, you find your people who are into doing things the way you do things. The people who follow me are not trying to sleep in the dirt or, you know, sleep in a place with bugs because it’s $12 a night. I don’t care. Like there’s no amount of money that I am not willing to spend to not sleep where bugs are. So.
It just, it is what it is. And I’ve learned a lot about money over the years. I’ll find more. That’s how I look at it. I’ll just get some more later and I will not worry about this one night. Yeah, no, that’s cool. Cause you’re right. It’s just that expectation. I went to Chiang Mai. Actually, before I started traveling full-time, it was still kind of the tail end of COVID. It was like, I was like, I’m going to Chiang Mai cause that’s where all the digital nomads go. I’m going to be a digital nomad.
I started identifying as a digital nomad before I bought any tickets. I was like, that’s my thing. Yep. And it didn’t go to Chiang Mai because of COVID. It was, it was a real pain in the butt. So I went to Columbia, which was kind of the, the new hotspot, especially with the situation. And I loved Columbia when I finally went and, but then I kept thinking I have to go to Chiang Mai because I’m not a real nomad unless I go to Chiang Mai. So I bought a plane ticket to go to Chiang Mai. Well, I’d never been to Asia. I’m happy I went to Asia, but I started in Chiang Mai.
Jason Elkins (36:44.482)
I was like, yep, I got to stay there at least a month. I’m going to meet all these other nomads and I’m going to like make all these, like I’m going to really be part of the community. And I got there and it was burning season. It was smoky. Everybody that could leave had already left and gone somewhere else. And I was like, I knew it was going to be smoky. It was interesting. I didn’t dislike the town, but it was just such a difference from my expectation.
and feeling like, well, I need to stay here at least, so I had to go get a month membership at one of the coworking places just so I could say I’m a legitimate, I’m not a tourist. I’m not no bad. And then I was like, okay, I got to see the sun. Finally, it kind of was one of those moments. It’s like, I’m going to Bali. So I bought a ticket to go to Bali the next day. I was like, man, what a great choice. Not to say that Bali’s better than Chiang Mai, it was just.
I made a choice that I thought was gonna be better for me instead of trying to live up to somebody else’s. Yeah, so I get, and I hope people are listening to this that I do, I see the nomad thing, whatever you wanna call it, around the world trips. That’s super, super adventurous, whether you’re a tour operator offering tours or not, it’s adventure travel. Yeah. Absolutely. So I hope that people are listening to this. You’ve given a lot of advice and you’ve
Maybe you’ve already given the one that you think is the most important, but what’s like the number one thing if they only listen to one thing in this conversation, they’re considering doing around the world for a year. How would you summarize the most important piece of advice you could give them? Oh, God. The most important thing, gosh, I would probably say. Pack light. Pack light because. Yeah.
you’re gonna drop a lot of stuff along the way because you’re just like, I can’t with this. And you’re not gonna, if you normally dress cute and dress up, like you’re not doing that anymore, just pack light and have a capsule wardrobe where you can mix and match things and light fabrics that dry easily, really important. You know, that’s probably the biggest thing because you have to carry all that stuff. My computer that I took with me was so heavy and that’s just how computers were.
Jason Elkins (39:00.678)
in 2011, you know, that was a solid chunk. And so if I’m moving somewhere every two days, my back hurts every two days because I’m hauling stuff up and down stairs and in and out of cabs and, you know, those kinds of things. You just, you gotta take care of yourself before you can have all these adventures. Because if you’re not at full speed when you’re doing your adventures, then you just remember how much your back hurt or how you twisted your ankle because, you know.
things don’t go as well if you’re, if you’re not nice to yourself. So just like think of how you can be kind to yourself along the way. And you know, when you’re, when you’re traveling, my experience, and I’m a guy, maybe it’s a little different, but like, I don’t go to an office every day, I don’t need to wear different clothes every day. Yeah. It’s like, I very seldom see the same people from day one, you know, one day to the next and the people that are living in the guest house or the hospital or the hostel.
They’re all in the same boat. Yeah. Nobody cares. It’s like, I’m finally at a point in my life where I’ll wear a shirt for three days if I have a social get together, I might put on a clean shirt. Yeah. But yeah, life is just so much easier when you let go of that. It is possible to find a laundry place. I know we were chatting about that earlier, but it’s possible. And it’s usually cheap to just have somebody. You know, it’s, it’s a value. The few times I’ve tried to do laundry myself somewhere.
there’s always been a train wreck because the machine breaks and then I feel like I broke the machine or yeah, and then you have to explain out the backyard today. Yes, yes, exactly. It’s it’s I mean, everything about it is challenging. Life is challenging, no matter where you are. So it’s just a matter of what is the challenge that you’re accepting for it. When I lived in New York, it was hard, like getting toilet paper to my apartment was hard. You know, you want to buy 24 rolls, but that’s hard to carry.
from the Brooklyn Target. Like it’s not an easy thing to do. So you have to choose which kind of hard you’re into. And, you know, so I didn’t really cook for a year, basically when I was traveling. That’s great. I didn’t really have to do dishes for a year. That is something I got to give back to the world and instead pack my stuff every other day and worry about this and that. But, you know, I will say on the wardrobe topic,
Jason Elkins (41:20.374)
because Instagram was just coming around. Like literally Instagram was whatever we took a picture of, we just stuck it on Instagram. There was no aesthetic, there was no fashion, there was no like staring off into the distance. It’s changed so much that I think people who are traveling now, me included, when I travel, I think, you know, I need a different outfit for this place and this place because of what the photograph is going to be that I’m then going to use to talk about it. So that is an annoying part of…
doing this for a living is that you have to actually think about those things. Nobody wants to see me in the same green sweater every day for a year with AI now. Can you just change your clothes? I have not figured AI out yet. I don’t know what to do with it. A couple of people have asked me if I wrote my book with chat GPT. Well, I suspect there are a lot of new books coming out on the market, but it’s possible that yours will stand out.
So I want to ask, I do, I want to learn a little bit more about the book. You kind of touched on a bunch of stuff that I suspect you’re covering in the book. And when you and I reconnected about having this conversation, actually, I think it was in your bio, you were like, don’t ask me where my favorite place is. So I’m not going to, because I know that’s oftentimes a dreaded question, but instead of asking you about your favorite place, I want to ask you about why you asked me not to ask about your favorite place.
I think, you know, because I’ve been working in travel one way or another for so long, literally going on 20 years, right? So I think everybody says, what’s your favorite country? What’s your favorite country? And I am just not a person who can pick favorites about anything. Like I don’t have a favorite color. I don’t have a favorite food. I don’t have a favorite restaurant. It’s just not in my, don’t ask me in my makeup. I don’t know. I mean, I
I can find something to love about every place I go. And so, yeah, like every place has something to recommend it. So it’s kind of like, what am I in the mood to do? And that is the place I would go to. If someone asks me, what’s your favorite place to go with your husband, then maybe that would be an easier thing. Or what’s your favorite place to go with your sister or by yourself or things like that, then I could be more specific.
Jason Elkins (43:41.51)
your typical response, I’m guessing, because I’ve heard the question too. What’s your favorite place? It depends, right? It depends. That’s your favorite place. It depends. Where’s that? It depends. Yeah, it depends on what’s whatever for what am I what am I escaping or what am I trying to do on this in this destination? You know, it’d probably be easier to say like, what’s your least favorite place you’ve ever been? But yeah, that’s actually, yeah, you can see that.
And is it fair game to ask you, I like to ask this question sometimes, magic wand, you can go anywhere in the world you want for any reason to do anything, anytime of year, you’ve got two weeks, all expense paid, where do you go? I’m going to go to Tahiti, probably with my husband, because I’ve never been, we can never seem to, he has a normal job with normal vacation time, so we can never string enough time together to go there.
and those overwater bungalows have been calling my name for my whole life. And it’s one place that’s on my bucket list that I just haven’t gotten to. So I would drop everything and go to Tahiti. I know I would love it. You can swim with sharks and turtles and there’s tons of underwater stuff to do and it’s just beautiful. So yeah, definitely Tahiti. Fair enough, very, very cool. So tell us.
We’ve discussed a lot of topics. I’m not sure. I haven’t read your book yet. So I’m not sure which ones we’ve covered and which maybe there’s some teasers. Maybe there’s something you want to add to the conversation. So is there anything I haven’t asked, should have asked that you want to make sure our listeners.
Jason Elkins (45:22.038)
walk away from this conversation with? I don’t know. We actually touched a lot on book things. Kind of inadvertently, we talked a lot about sort of the plot of the book and where it takes us. We’ve got the natural disaster piece of it and then the flirting piece of it. There’s some romance in there and some not so romantic endeavors in there. That’s a whole topic on its own is.
Traveling the world as a single person, dating and all that stuff, we could have a whole different. Oh my gosh. I could, seriously, I think there will be chapters in future books about sort of the difference in travel in my life as a single person versus as a married person. Because now when I’m out traveling, people could just not talk to me and that’s fine. Like I don’t need to make friends. I don’t wanna talk to some random at a bar. Even if they’re just being nice, I’m like, I don’t need this, I’m married. Like don’t talk to me, you know?
So I don’t know, it’s a complete change. I’m a completely different person than I was that year. And it’s absolutely wild to think about just the changes. The changes in the world, the changes in the places that I went to that year, I mean, there are full on buildings that I stood inside that are no longer there due to natural disasters. And there are governments that are no longer in place that were when I was there.
It’s just crazy to think about how quick the world changes. And we can go on our little eat, pray, love trips and meet cute boys with accents and stuff like that. But like the world is kind of on fire in a lot of ways. So it’s, I don’t know, there’s a big balance in trying to figure out how to enjoy the good and learn about the bad and empathize with the people who are going through it because there’s always somebody going through it.
somewhere in the world. And how do you bring goodness and peace and kindness wherever you go, no matter where it is? How do you be a good representative for your home country? And how do you not be that ugly tourist that people expect you to be? So I don’t know. There’s just so much learning that takes place on any trip. And it doesn’t have to be a year’s trip. Every trip you go on is an opportunity to learn, grow, and leave a place better.
Jason Elkins (47:47.926)
than when you got there. That’s such an interesting point. And when you said that, the reality is like, even in a place, you can have all of those things happening in the same place. Yeah. Especially, I mean, obviously we have issues in places in the US. And when you find yourself in a place like, oh my gosh, it’s so beautiful here. The f***.
the culture, the people. And then you look over your shoulder and there’s somebody without legs. Sure. Navigating themselves down the street with a trash bag wrapped around their waist. Yeah. And it’s like, it’s a reality check. It’s like, okay, I had a friend here not too long ago. I’m in Columbia right now.
I was like, Oh man, your country, you gotta be careful. You know, like your country is amazing. This is amazing. I love everything about it. And she said, yeah, my country’s a lot of fun. If you have money. Yeah. Well, a hundred percent. I think of, I do touch on this in the book, how, you know, I’m chilling in Bali at a yoga retreat with an onsite spa.
and I’m all like, wow, because this boy broke up with me. But at the same time, I’m like, there are people within walking distance who would kill for this, you know, cushy little situation I have going on right now. Like, yes, my heart is broken and yes, it’s my own fault. And yes, I made a bad decision and I’m so dumb. But then I’m like, but you know what? I can pack up tomorrow and fly wherever I want to go. First world problems, is that what they call it? It’s a hundred, yeah, it’s that first world problems.
I think encountering and confronting your first world problems while you’re outside of your little first world bubble is really eye opening. It puts your whole life into perspective and in a way that I don’t think anything can. If you don’t leave your bubble, if you don’t leave your small town, you don’t know what everybody else goes through. So
Jason Elkins (50:07.634)
I always think, I always used to think adventure is just like the fun things you do and the adrenaline things you do. But I think just leaving your town and doing something outside your bubble is, is an adventure one way or another, whether it’s fun or whether it’s fun or terrifying or dangerous, you know, life is that understanding, that understanding, like, you know, I chose big world made small for reason. That’s just kind of in my mind. It’s like, that’s explore. Let’s get out there.
not just the good stuff, because there’s stuff that needs to, we need, I believe, I don’t know, it needs the right word, but I think we grow from being exposed to things. I’m going to, that’s maybe this weird example, but I’m going to bring it up. You know, you travel the world, you see a lot of prostitution issues. And if you’ve never traveled, if you haven’t really experienced that, you just like, you have
a mindset around, I have to be careful what I’m saying because I don’t want anybody to misinterpret anything I’m saying. Yeah, hopefully people that have traveled will resonate with this. It’s like, when you look at how hard some people work to provide for their families, they will literally, their job is to go through the trash and sort it out. Yeah. You know, the people in the Morpzka neighborhoods, they just put a trash bag out on the street.
Someone comes along, picks up the trash bag, puts it on a cart, stacks the cart, higher than a semi truck full of trash. They take it to a place, they unpack it all, they sit there and go through the trash. And keep in mind, they don’t flush the toilet paper in a lot of the places. So there’s all kinds of stuff in the trash. And there’s people, that’s their job, to sort out the paper from the cardboard, from the this. And they’re doing that all night long so that the next morning there’s not trash all over the street. And then you think, well, how could somebody go into prostitution?
Jason Elkins (52:03.094)
How could somebody go into selling drugs? If it’s a better option. They’re not doing it for fun. It has nothing to do with morals or right or wrong. It’s survival. They’re trying to take care of their families. They can sort through the trash all night. And I’m pretty sure the people sorting through trash all night.
making a couple bucks somehow. I don’t know. Yeah. It’s hard for me to get their head around it. Yeah. And then you’ve got tourist traffic comes into a place for certain things that they’re looking for. And there’s opportunities to make a lot more money in a lot less time, selling drugs, getting towards being tour guides. There’s all, there’s things. I’m just saying that when you travel the world and you see what people are willing to do to make money, it really is a big eye opener.
And for me, it creates a stronger connection. I’ll never completely get it because I didn’t grow up in it. But anyway, so I think that’s important. So, Totally agree. I’m happy to have that conversation. It’s really perspective changing to go anywhere. And I mean, I felt that way on my first international trip when I went to London. Now I did not confront.
the third world in London. I went to the Tower of London and the dungeon and like I did the most tours at the Ripley’s museum, like the wax museum. We did the touristy stuff and I like it, it blew me up. It changed my life because I was like, the whole world is amazing and it’s not that scary and it’s so fun and there’s history and it’s great. Everybody has cool accents. Like I was just into it and you know, that opened the door to go to other places and experience other cultures.
Yeah, I think once you once you kind of confront your own. Plenty, you can never ever, ever look back and say, like, oh, I don’t have enough. Like, I just I don’t have that capacity anymore. And I, like I said, when I was younger, growing up in a small town, I’m like, I don’t I don’t have anything. I don’t have everything I want. And we don’t have this. And our car is old. You know, you think those kind of thoughts. And now I just wouldn’t think that.
Jason Elkins (54:21.45)
You know, I’m just, I’m happy with what I have. And it, I’m also happy to be back in my town, you know, and I’m happy to have a house most of the time when things aren’t breaking and you’re not replacing appliances. That’s not fun no matter where you live, but you know, then you remember back to when you were in Bali and you saw some of the things or wherever and it’s, say at least I have a washing machine, you know, I have a washing machine in my house. Like after having,
after those five years in New York and then all the years traveling, the fact that I can just do 10 loads of laundry a day is the miracle of my life. I love it. It’s super, super cool. I like at the line in Guatemala, you know, there’s women down there. They get paid. That’s their job. They say and all day they stand in the lake and up to their waist washing clothes on a rock. And then there was this time and I think it was in San Pedro. That’s a fun who like would.
put the basket full of the wet clothes, strap, you know, in a basket full of wet clothes, some sort of belt or something, belt up over his forehead. And I know this is a podcast, so I’m not, hopefully people can visualize this. Belt over his forehead, strap to the basket, and he would carry this basket up the hill, like 10, 12 times a day. I had a conversation with somebody who knew him was telling me all about this, and these are wet clothes. They weren’t dry yet.
And the guy’s like 80 or maybe he was only 30. I mean, it’s just work drill art. I don’t know. But he looked like 80, but he’s just doing this. And the guy was telling me he makes about six or seven bucks a day. You know? So next time you’re like, oh man, my washer, my dryer’s not working very well. It’s like, okay. But anyway, I mean, I just encourage people to get out and see the world and connect. It’s the connections, the conversations you have with people. Learning languages, having conversations with people that.
You know, that’s been a big one for me. Yeah. Okay, we discussed a lot. I have a feeling we could do many, many Yes, we could. podcast episodes. I cannot wait to read your book. And I’m sure when I read it, I’m gonna reach out. Hey, Angie, we need to come back and have a conversation about the dating or the whatever it is. Yes. And I would love to do that. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share your story. I will obviously have links to your website, which I’m sure is the best way for somebody to get through and…
Jason Elkins (56:46.61)
and buy your book or whatever information you want to share, let me know, I’ll make sure that it gets out there. And just look forward to following your continued journeys and working together on projects in the future. Thanks, Angie. Thank you.
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