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Not just hey, we had a family reunion where we sat and had hot dogs. I roomed with someone whom I had known for 50 years. It was a disaster. Government websites are a bit overly cautious, but that's their job. And that's why for me, like I always like to go and talk to people, meet people. So many jobs in the US, you get such limited time off in the year. Our vacation times per year feel pressured to go to certain places. Fast travel is more than normal travel cuz people don't always get 12 weeks in a row to take off. HEY THERE FELLOW TRAVELERS, MARK HERE WITH BALD TOURIST TRAVEL Ships and I are back and this time we're going to
be answering your question in this month's podcast because you all have been so supportive of the new podcast, whether it's watching, commenting, sharing, reaching out to our guests. It's been a fantastic thing. We want to say thank you for that. But also we want you to know that we are listening to you. You do impact the topics we talk about and the things we focus on in our podcast and in our videos as well. And so today's video or today's podcast, we're really going to focus on you know, your comments and your questions, but also your stories. So uh Shebs, welcome back my friend. How are you doing? Mark, it's great to be back here. I am really
looking forward to this episode because the viewers, as you just said there, they are the forefront of our show, the new podcast and what they give or what they tell us makes a massive impact in Walter's World community, Honest Travel podcast community. But actually some of the stuff that they say makes it into the news because they are telling us what they know what they think should be happening to certain things and next thing you know, it's in the news. So World Cup our World Cup podcast and literally it was like, wait, I think they were using quotes from our people in there. So that was really kind of a cool thing. So I was texting you like Mark, this is just in the news. This is in the news.
I was like, we talk we covered it in the last episode. So we're well ahead of the game. So you're in good hands here. So we just want to say thank you for that, but let's be before we get into your questions, let's talk about travel. Shebs, you've been anywhere cool lately since our last podcast? Yes. So I actually just got back from Cyprus and I'm actually going away to Lithuania next week. Cyprus was in the news obviously for certain [snorts] what's happening right now and stuff, but I would say the only thing I noticed was airports were a lot more quieter and the destination itself was a lot more quieter, but that was going to be quite inevitable. I think people are quite nervous, but I went there. There
was no issues whatsoever. Had an amazing time and I think you also traveled in the last couple months as well. So the I would say you just have to be cautious when you're traveling. And you just have to be you have to have your wits about you, I'd say as well. It was a great trip, but I did notice it was very quiet and we were the only people in the hotel as well unfortunately, but that's how it is. Yeah, I mean you were down in Cyprus which is pretty close to what's going on. So I can see how they've had their tourism structure or infrastructure or their tourism just overall has really been impacted. I know like I've traveled
a lot here in the US for the last couple months. We've been in California, we've been to Ohio, we've been to we've been all over like just basically US stuff in Georgia and all over and you know, what I've noticed is like I don't feel as many of the people traveling. Like you know when you go to the airport and you have that like excitement like we're going to go travel like we're going to have fun. I'm not feeling that at the airport. It's not scared trepidation. It's more like I mean maybe it's cuz it's like the end of the school year and people aren't really traveling yet, but usually towards the end of the school year I get
more of that buzz when I go to the airport people excited about traveling and I'm not feeling it as much, but it could also be cuz there's a lot of people like hey, the world cup there's a lot of bad news for that cuz the prices and stuff, but it is kind of interesting how like the vibe was a bit off um at the airports. Not that it was bad, just had like it wasn't the usual like happy families going to go someplace. It was more of like I saw a lot more business travel than I saw like kind of like personal travel at least from that I usually do. So it was kind of an interesting thing cuz I always love like when I take trips like you know, early May, late April kind of stuff you have all these people like
"Hey, school's out. The You know, we're backpacking Europe. Semester's over." kind of thing. And it just I haven't feel I didn't feel that vibe as much. And that's And this is in place that aren't impacted directly by any conflicts or anything. So, Well, the I was actually technically on a work trip. So, they took us out there to promote the destination. So, um because they need the custom for the summer holidays coming up. Because as you just said there, school's out. People They want people to come over. And what we could do is just sort of we can go out there for you guys and let you know that it's absolutely fine. Yeah. Nothing wrong. The airports are fine. If anything was actually easier cuz there's hardly much many people going through the
airport. So, it was actually a lot easier. But And you didn't need your priority pass or your You might pay for these extra things cuz the lines were quite short. So, that was actually quite a bit That was actually a benefit. Saying that though, I would love to see more people go out there because obviously I travel, you travel, Mark. We want people to travel out there, don't we? Cuz what you see in the news is always like they don't show like the Amsterdam airport where you're getting through the EES system really quickly. They show Lisbon where people are waiting three or four hours. I mean, Ryanair had a post that like, "Oh, the flight's an hour and a half, but two and a half hours to get through the you
know, the EES line in Lisbon." I mean, these things are insane. But there was there was an announcement uh European Union is allowing countries to suspend the EES at certain times. I know Vienna was talking about it how they're going to have like from 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning, like their two big international flight kind of times. They're looking at to kind of like not have EES at that time. Um because for those who don't know EES, European Entry Exit System, basically is like where you get like your fingerprints and they take a picture, you know, just you like what we do when you come to the US. They're getting everybody in the database. It literally only takes I mean, I've done
it before. It like takes an extra like 3 seconds fit No, maybe 35 30 seconds if you want cuz you have to do this and that's it. But it's just everything got backed up cuz it didn't have the boost for it. And so, these lines were getting crazy, like Lisbon, Portugal is notorious cuz there's a lot of Brits that fly out. And so, therefore, there's like a lot of them to go. And then, hey, we have to go through the entry exit system. For Europeans, it's not a big deal, but if you're a if you're not from basically European Union, you're going to have a nice long wait. But, that's Lisbon or Algarve, and they show that, and it scares people off. But, like, when I flew to Paris, I flew to
Amsterdam, literally, I mean, I was I'm like, don't I need to do something else? Like, no, you're done. Bye. I mean, literally, walk right through. So, I can tell you my trip to Cyprus, there was hard, there was no queue, there was no line whatsoever. They had enough booths going through, and that's not reported. So, I can tell you mine was a very smooth. I was thinking, um, goodness me, I'm going to be stuck here for 2 hours. It wasn't. It was like literally 5 minutes. You take your picture, you they scan you, everything, straight through. And I didn't have a checked luggage, so I was out the door within like 5 minutes.
It's an ironing out phase right now, and I think it will get better and better as time goes on. But, I had no issues in my on my trip anyway. If you've had some experience with EES, please comment in the, you know, down below in the show notes or in the comments section, let us know like, what's your experience been so people can have an idea. But, say what airport you were at cuz honestly, Paris and Amsterdam, I had no issues whatsoever. Well, we're going to go through some of your comments now because, uh, again, please do leave your leave more comments with us so we can answer them in a few months time. And then, but we do obviously each episode try and go through the one and two best ones anyway. But,
we'll do what we do going to do in the next couple of months time just to go through everything because, as I said to you, your comments, your views really do matter to our podcast. It makes a massive difference, and it helps us actually plan maybe a next episode. So, really do appreciate it. We're going to go through a couple of few here, and Mark's going to do his best to answer them for you. He's going to give your ex his expertise on these. But, I think one question, well, one comment that comes up regularly, Mark, and I just want to just go through cuz we've not had we've not tackled it because a lot of people there's one guy called Josh Lunt 7827 always comments.
Always comments. Thanks Josh, I appreciate it buddy. Always love Liverpool in the background. Yes, my background is a Liverpool skyline. I actually you came over to my area Mark, didn't you? You came over a few years back. We went around, we had dinner. We had I think we had dinner twice, wasn't it? Yeah, we did. I don't know how many times it was. We had a drink etc. and stuff, but yes. I'm up north. So the skyline that you see is from a very famous skyline. It was a there's a well-known TV show here in the breakfast show here and they used to film in Liverpool before they moved to London. So I've just used the same skyline because I'm not too far from it. So that's why I've got it here. So it all
depends on so if it depending on location. So if I'm I might be filming in the future where I might be in Rome or wherever, I'll just use that background. But yeah, what you see is definitely Liverpool. It's those of you don't know, like Liverpool is like the butt of so many jokes in England about oh that's where you go to get robbed. That's where you go to get robbed or whatever. Like they always talk smack about it, but I'll be honest with you. I went there. I thought the people were awesome. Like there's a yes, there's Liverpudlians and there's Scousers and just the people were incredible. Like I had such a good time when I was there.
Um so like I it's near and dear to my heart. That's why I always love that. So yeah, it's a good time. So Josh, if you get a chance, hit up Liverpool my friend. I cannot say anything bad about it cuz I had such a good time when I was there. We'll start with another question for you Mark for you to answer and it's from Daniel J. Robinson and so again, thank you very much for your comment. We really appreciate it. It's all to do with the fact that there's so many people traveling to destinations and overtourism. Yeah, overtourism. So we had a lot of comments on that. So he's put here, people need to change their perspective on what it means to be a tourist traveler. It shouldn't ever be
about checking the box. While yes, it's important to see the popular historic stuff, it's about making an attempt to live as though you were a native in the country. If more people were aware of this, there would be more diversity in places people travel around the world, which would help soften the impact on major tourist cities like Paris, London, and even Tokyo and national parks across North America. So, Mark, your thoughts on that and yeah, we tackled this topic a few [snorts] months ago. So, your thoughts on what Daniel has said there. I'm I'm very much like I understand when people have their bucket list, but my problem is when you have a bucket list and all it is I saw it, I
take a picture, check off the list, and go. Cuz then you're not adding anything to it. You're not getting much out of the visit. I mean, getting the picture's nice, but I feel like we've become such of these like if I got to have the Instagram picture. Like, if the Instagram picture is dictating your trip, that's not a good thing cuz you're not going to enjoy the trip cuz you're just trying to take a picture. And that's like That's what I understand like the bucket list kind of thing. I've I've been to Paris a number of times. But I don't remember the muse- I mean, I've gone to museums. I remember museums, but what I remember is like, "Oh, the Louvre? Yeah, that's where my
son learned how to walk." You know, Auschwitz, I went there. Yeah, I've had great times there, but I also the time that my kid fell down a flight of stairs and we had like ketchup at the bottom. His head's bleeding and all kinds of things. I mean, it's the memories you make that really make your travels better because if you're just doing the bucket list, then all it is like I finished the checklist. Okay, what did you get out of the checklist? And that's why for me, like I always like to go and talk to people, meet people. And then somebody made a really good comment. They're like, "How do you go meet people? How do WHY
DO PEOPLE TALK TO YOU?" And someone made a comment, "He's a golden retriever as a human. He goes up and talks to everybody." But like that's you got to kind of be. You got to be that golden retriever like, "Hey, how are you?" I mean, don't be weird about it, but you'd be surprised how often people are willing to share about their culture, about their city. Even in your own town, you might not know. I mean, "Hey, where's a good place to eat? Hey, what should I do when I'm here?" Like so many people become like a tourist agent or a tour guide of their town, and it's like something that's really important to
them, and they open up. And I think that's really good. I think if people would do that, I understand their meaning like, "Hey, if you kind of wanted to learn more culture than checklist, you would be more open." Cuz I saw this a few years ago. We were in Greece, and our friends had run like apartments in Crete. Like they had like 40 or 50 apartments they ran for various families and stuff. And they're like, "We're going to leave early." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" Greece has got this overtourism thing. They're like, "No. All the tourists are doing is they're going to Athens to go to the Acropolis to get their picture. They go to Mykonos for like the sunrise or whatever, and
Santorini for the sunset." And like And all those places were super packed. They have a video on overtourism at the Acropolis, and that was that summer. And our friends are like, "No one's coming here to Crete." I mean, that's the thing is like, if you go to the other destinations that are out there, you really do have a lot of these places to yourself and sometimes even in busier seasons. And I think that's one of those things like, "You know what? I want to learn more about the culture." You can learn more. Cuz think about it, whatever country you're in, the biggest city, it's a big city. It's always an international city. You go to like the second or third biggest city, all of a
sudden it's a whole different place. Like Paris versus Lyon. You go to Lyon, the food, I mean, it is the gastronomical capital, you know, the food's like insane when you're there, and you get a lot more locals. I mean, yes, I want you to go see You should go see Paris. You should go see the Eiffel Tower. You should go to see the Mona Lisa. It's silly not to. But then, from there, go out and explore some or go explore some of the different neighborhoods. Go do some day trips just to give yourself a different perspective of things because yeah, I mean, it can be that I'm just doing the checklist if all I'm doing is like, "I got to see the big city." It's like, "I go to New York.
I've got to see, you know, uh Times Square. I've got to see the Statue of Liberty, and I've got to see the Empire State Building." Yeah, but you know what? You go out to Brooklyn, get some really great restaurants, go to Queens, have a good time. I mean, Chinatown, come on, there's so many more things you can do. And I think they make a point. I'm don't necessarily agree that, you know, we should be travelers not tourists. I think it's totally okay to be a tourist, but I just want to say if you want to get more out of it, I think that's one of those things. Just that little tiny kind of change in your mentality can do something. So, but yeah. And I've spoken to you about this
about the UK where we have a lot of days off work wise anyway. A lot of our holidays but no we minimum usually is around about 4 to 5 weeks off, but in the states is a lot less and this actually comes into one of the comments that that we've got here from Connor underscore Weggy and he's put down here, "I think part of the problem with people along all going to the same places is that so many jobs in the US you get such limited time off in the year. So, our vacation times per year feel pressured to go to certain places. That combined with flight prices overseas being so much no matter where you go, big or small makes it a lot of people want to go to all the big places and then that is a problem. So, as I
said to you, we have a lot of days off here so we can maybe spread our holidays or vacation times, but you guys in the states don't necessarily have those time off." I mean, that's one of the reasons why I started Walter's World. I mean, I got a guide book that really oversold these places in Italy and I'm like, "This isn't fair." I mean, people travel what we have to realize is people travel internationally now so much more than they used to. Even 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago when I started making these videos and it's incredible because you're like, "I get one trip a year and I get 10 days so I got to see everything." That's why, you know, I always find it kind of mean when like
Europeans will pick on Americans. Oh, "You're going to go four countries in 2 weeks so you're a loser." I'm like, "No. We have this one chance to go and so we're going to go." Like, when you go to the US you go to like six or seven states, it's the same size comparison. And that's the thing is like I understand. It's like, "Look, if I only get one trip to Europe this year or one trip this decade, I'm going to see everything I can." Americans we get made fun of for a lot of things and one of the things we have earned is the limited vacation time. And that's why I mean, that's why with our videos I try to give everybody as much information before and so they get the most out even if they only have a short period of
time. And I think that's one thing that it's that is very much a different cultural kind of thing and that's why we're like, "Go, go. We have to see that." cuz we don't get the whole month of August to do nothing, you know? Like we have to be back to work. And if we're not at work, we literally have to have a little message on our thing saying, "Hey, Mark is gone for this week. If you need I will only check my email sporadically and if you do have an issue, call Shebs at da da." for any help. And I think that's one of the things people forget. It's like we do have different work cultures when you go around and so therefore we have different travel habits, too. So, I know like in Germany, at least I know back when I used to live
there, they would schedule all the like school holidays off so they weren't all at the same time. So, they kind of were staggered so it wasn't everybody going to the Bodensee at the end of your play constant at the end of you know, the summer. And here in the US, it's kind of like June 1, we're out between June 1 and June 14, we're out. Everybody goes back to school like the 4th of August. But it's like everybody goes the exact That's why I always tell people, if you can go early May or like through May, you'll be okay cuz you don't have any travelers or families. It's just you going and cuz once you get to June, then it's boom, the families start coming down. When you do have the time off and
you do get to go, so cuz another comment that we've got here from Laura_and_Schandman has said, "How do we who are okay with non-primary cities find those second or third cities? Mark, I loved those Lyon videos. Can't wait to visit. I'm trying to learn some French first." How do we find those second cities, Mark? Or third cities even? Well, one, you can check out Walter's World cuz we have a lot of the top places to visit outside the main destinations. So, there you have that. Basically, what I would do is I just know like look up the just go by population and just the top population cities, just knock those out. Nope. And the second one, I mean, Lyon is the second biggest but like block that out. Then all of a
sudden you've got that middle-sized thing. I would recommend looking for cities in that like if you want a city, like the 250,000 to 500,000 range. I mean, maybe their metro is bigger, but like that gives you like a Porto. That gives you, you know, a Strasbourg. That gives you, you know, uh Cordoba. You know, it gives you these other cities that aren't quite as popular, and you'll notice and if you're like debating, search them up online. Like, "Hey, I saw this Cordoba, but is there anything Oh, there is some things there." And when you start seeing a lot of views, "The hidden gem, the hidden this." That's going to be a place that isn't quite as popular with the tourists sometimes.
Monkey, when you came to London, you came as I said to you, you came to my small town. It was like not many people would think about it. That's the thing. So, just do your research or maybe ask people like who might be living up there just cuz you could easily do this now. And so, you came up here and you said you loved it, didn't you? And that's that's the thing. And that's that's another thing cuz I was thinking like they're looking for the states. If you're looking for smaller towns, I mean, you can enjoy small towns everywhere. Cuz that's one thing is like I was driving through Indiana, okay? Indiana is the crossroads of the yes.
There's literally it's cornfields and like some There's a racetrack in the middle, you know? But like I was going in my son and I were not going to these little towns. Like we went off the highway instead of going on the big old the you know, the M5 or whatever. We like got off there. We're taking the backroads, and all of a sudden there's a nice little village. We spent 2 and 1/2 hours in this village. What did we do? Oh, we went to the toy and candy shop. We went to the antique shop that was there. We went and had the local pie, and we had uh local lemonade made for us. So, it was like a nice little like break. And that's the
thing is if you rent a car and kind of drive around, you can give yourself that chance to hit up those little villages that no, they're not a what stay there for a week kind of place, but they're worth it for some time to spend, and that kind of helps out. And you know, that's where things like France and Belgium and Germany and you have all the trains that go all over, you can hit these smaller towns relatively easy without a car. You can look online the most popular places for people from that country to go, that's going to help you out. Cuz if you look up popular place to go in France, I mean, they'll put in Colmar, that's very popular for the locals to go there. It's a small cute
village. And now tourists have found it now, of course, but it's one of those things like, oh, that's where they're going, that gives us an idea. You're here in Illinois, where do people in Illinois go? Oh, we go up to the north northwest part of the state cuz there's the Galena there's a beautiful town up there. That's where the Illinois people go. You'd never hear about it cuz all you hear about is Chicago, right? So, A lot of our members or a lot of our people commenting have talked about is slow travel, and I've done slow travel my part myself in the past because when I used to work, I used to have these times off, and so I was able to do this slow travel, but we've had we had a
comment from, and this is from Kong \{hyphen\} kg6 IJ has said, "I know you guys are all focused on fast travel, but some content on slow travel would be welcome, specifically people who stay at least a month in a place before moving on." Now, I'm just going to before I get you to answer that, Mark, I did it a few years back when we were going back 6 7 8 maybe 9 10 years ago now, where I went from Europe, then I flew into Central America, then went through to South America, then went through to the Middle East, then went through to Asia, and it was all a 2-month trip. I did It was a long trip, but it was amazing because it allowed me to It gave me lots of time, and I was on a bit of a
budget, but I just went with the flow, and it allowed me to grow, and I think that's an important thing. So, we just talked about people not getting those time off. But for those who do have those time off, where abouts would you even start, and how would you even go about because I would say myself it's all about budgeting because you need to make sure, right, okay, if I'm going to be off for 6 Well, not 6 months, but could be 2 to 3 6 months. How do I budget everything? What do I eat? How do I party if I wanted to party, go out to drinks, eat, all that kind of stuff. Have you done it yourself, Mark? Have you done slow travel yourself?
Cuz you obviously lived in places, but how often have you tried slow traveled? We've done some of the slow travel, and I understand their point about the fast travel versus the slow travel. I don't like I mean, not saying that they're saying this, but like some people say they like to look down on fast travel. I think fast travel is more normal travel cuz people don't always get 12 weeks in a row to take off. Slow travel, this is where I see like if you're from the Netherlands, you have 12 weeks in a row. In Germany, we have like 6 weeks in a row, or you're retired. Like for me, like for the US, it's those retirees, "Hey, we want to do slow travel. What should we do?" And what I always
recommend when you're first starting out, like you want to do this, one, look at your budget. Like you were saying, like if you want to do a slow travel, can you spend 2 months in Switzerland? It's really expensive. But you can spend 2 months in Argentina? Yeah, you can do that. Like you can do that pretty easy. 2 months in Southeast Asia? Ever wonder why all those influencers are based in Bali? Because they can afford it, right? And I think that's that's a really good thing is like know your budget first. But one thing I'll tell you, if it's retiree ones, you've probably traveled a little bit before, and there's places you said, "Oh, I could live here." Then go do that.
Go to those places, stay for a month to really take it in because it's one thing when you go for a place for like a week or two cuz it's vacation, right? Cuz then you're like you're doing the vacation things, you're not really getting with the culture, you're just like, "Hey, I'm seeing the sights, I'm eating the restaurants, and then, you know, then I'm off." You stay someplace for a month, you start to make friends there. You might join a gym. You start having your local market that you go to, and they know you. And these things you start to develop relationships, and that might be a place that, "You know what? I really enjoyed my time here. I could come back here again." You know, like
for us, it's Vicenza. Like we spent so much time in Vicenza. I spent a month there, and literally learned Italian in a month cuz I just loved to be in there. We back all the time. Like literally, we're going in a few weeks again cuz we love it so much and you can have that. So, think about it that way. Like, "Hey, where would I kind of want to live?" But, also with a budget you want to have that. But, if you want to kind of plan out multiple ones, sometimes it's a good idea to kind of plan out like how yours is like part by part. So, it could be, "Hey, you know what? We're going to go down to Nicaragua cuz
Jocelyn loves that. We're going to rent a place in one of these lettuce in Lake Nicaragua. We're going to go from there." And then from there, we're going to fly down to Columbia. We're going to stay in Cartagena for a month cuz she's thought about living there sometime. And from there, we're going to head over to Asia and we're going to, you know, do some and we're going to stay in Vietnam for a month to kind of understand that culture better. But, have it kind of planned out. And sometimes that's slow travel. You could just do it one place the whole time or you could break it up into a few of them to get more of a like a taste of different things. And then one thing I'll see is when people do that slow
travel, eventually fall in love with one place and that becomes their kind of like go back to place. When I have traveled to some of these places, one of the things I do, obviously always, is check the websites to see if it's actually safe to travel because we have a lot of comments people say and we've we spoke about this well. We obviously just touched on upon it on my trip to Cyprus just then. The government website might say you shouldn't travel or you should travel. And I don't know the ins and outs on this, but a lot of the times when I see it's overly cautious and that's a comment that we've had from KellerNMatt4457 has said checking government websites such as the US State Department for travel warnings, which I feel sometimes
are a little overly cautious. I like to go to another country's website like Australia or something and look at their travel warnings. I'm using Australia just because I like their website just to get another point of view on a location. So, that's really important, I think, because if you look if you read the UK website, I just don't even take the advice anymore because they're they're just overly cautious on things and things that have happened in the past and they're saying oh this could happen. Sometimes take it with a pinch of salt. I don't know about you Mark. What's your thoughts on that and what's your take on that? Government websites are a bit overly cautious but that's their job.
Like they have they can't be like oh it's okay if you make good decisions. Let's be honest common sense isn't always a normal thing for people and so therefore they have to give like the biggest one. It's kind of like your mom when you're a little and your head not to ride your bike. She's like put your helmet on and oh stranger danger here's a whistle in case someone tries to take you and what's the password? Like mom I'm literally riding across the street to Johnny's house. But they have to do that. Like they have to put all those things there. That's why it is a good idea. Like they had a really good thing. They check out the Australian one. Like you do these different sites
to kind of get a rough idea kind of like it's a triangulation. It's kind of tell you go that way you know to go kind of that way but if I say go that way and then Chev's your pointing from that way and go that way gives you more of a oh that's where it is. It kind of brings it together and we do the same thing. Like I will look on the State Department site. I will look on the BBC or not the BBC's one. The Foreign Office's site and I'm always like okay that's worst case scenario. Like that is the meteor is going to hit us you know kind of thing like but then I'll go and I'll look online for people that are actually there and that's one thing I've seen cuz I you know we El Salvador is pretty safe now but we were going to El Salvador when it was the
murder capital of the world. Brazil they're like oh don't go there you're going to get Zika and then you're going to turn into a Zika zombie and then they're going to kill you they're going to rob you and they're going to do all this and then they're going to bring you back to life and then rob you again. I'm like oh come on. What it is it's kind of like if you are the most unaware traveler these things might happen to you. So this ties in nicely actually to another comment and this is from I don't know if I'm pronouncing this correctly is Yiannos or Yannos Chios I think it is. Hello thanks for your channel. How about a short video on travel insurance especially health insurance. Have a great day. So, that's
actually ties into to travel insurance and health insurance. What And what if something happens to you on a trip? Travel insurance and travel health insurance are two completely different things. Like when you're buying your insurance to go travel, you might be thinking, "Oh, I'm worried that they're going to lose my luggage." And so, they lose my luggage or that I lose a you know, I have to go to the hospital. That's the same thing. It is not. Cuz like when you're buying a like maybe your credit card gives you some travel insurance. So, "Oh, if your flight gets delayed, we'll put you up in a hotel." That's different than, "Hey, I got sick and I need a new spleen when
I'm in, you know, Ecuador." That's a whole different thing. And so, you really have to think about these things. So, what you have to realize is there is if you travel a lot, I do recommend you look for like a year-round program. So, you don't have to buy one every single trip. You just have it. And so, there is that. But if you're only traveling once a year or once every other year, when you're booking your tickets, a lot of times they sell it right there. Like Alliance or Allianz, like they're they I used to get that with I'd buy tickets from Delta, they'd have that option. Like, "Sure, I'll get that." And one time we had to use a job Well, Josh had to use it cuz her luggage got lost on the way
to Paris and it was chasing her around Europe and they never could get it to her till like the day before she flew home. So, she had like 11 days of no clothes. But she had the good stuff and she had all the receipts. Keep every receipt, believe me, every receipt, every police report. You can't say you got robbed. You can't say you got pickpocketed. You have to have the police form that says you were pickpocketed and robbed, all that stuff. She sent all those things off. It took a few weeks, but she got a check that covered most of the stuff that was there, not everything. And you can't go and like, "Oh, well, you lost my luggage, so I'm going to buy a Louis Vuitton bag." No, they're not going to
let you do that. Even if it was a Louis Vuitton bag you lost cuz they only insure up to a certain amount for the airlines, too. That's why it's important if you have your own, this can help you out. If you are from the US and you're on Medicare. Medicare or Medicaid, that will probably not That's not going to help you when you go abroad. You have to get insurance when you go abroad. Elderly travels is extremely important. I've One of my dear friends from Australia, he is now He's a little older now and he can't get insurance to travel anymore cuz of his health conditions and stuff and his age. They're like, "No, we're not We're not going to We can't cover you cuz just in case something happens."
But you can look at your own travel like your own insurance you have with work. Some of those might have things that cover when you're abroad or in certain countries. Like if you're European and you're going to another European country, your insurance your national health insurance might be covered there. Especially if you're looking to come to the US for the World Cup. Our health care is insane expensive. Like insane expensive. Like, "Oh, you got a broken arm? Oh, trade us your house." You know, if you don't have a I mean, it's not that way, but it's like it's crazy. And so, I would recommend everybody coming, make sure you get that insurance that travel insurance, but also the medical travel insurance. That's
what you want to have in case something does happen. So, it's all precautionary. And there's actually There's a couple questions that we're going to finish on. And one of them actually goes in nicely with the other one. So, someone's asked me and we'll cover this. We promise you we'll get to this topic very soon. It was Daniel more videos about extended family travel. We're in the building stage of a family trip to Disney in Orlando. We're taking aunts, uncles, and cousins totaling 24 people. That's a lot of people to take on a trip. But yes. I'll say a prayer for you, my friend. I'll say a prayer for you.
I think this is a fantastic thing for a family to go because it gives you memories. It's not just hey, we had a family reunion where we sat and had hot dogs. It is that when we all went together to Disney, when we all went together to Mexico, when we all went together to London, you know? And it doesn't have to be Home Alone memory. He's really left someone behind. But it is really good. But one thing I want to tell you, you have to have the conversation about the money up front. Like this is one day and this is whether it's a family trip or a friend trip, you got to talk money cuz what are pe- who's paying for what? You know, not everyone's at the same economic level and not everyone's okay with spending a
certain amount of money. If you have someone that likes to spend, they're like, "WE'RE GOING FIVE-STAR HOTELS EVERYWHERE." Then you have someone that's like, "Dude, I just need a bed. It's Paris. I don't need a fancy hotel." There could be conflict there cuz that is the number one thing when there's issues in group travel is the money thing. And I'm going to tell you, if you can't have the conversation about money, you can't talk about some really tough topics before you travel, you're going to you shouldn't travel with them. So, I always say talk about the money, you know, what like are we going out to restaurants every meal or are we going
to the market for something cheaper? You know, are we staying in a high-end hotel or just a normal kind of place? Are we And then also ask them how they travel. Like are they, you know, like I'm a museum guy. I love museums and culture. My kids love outdoor activities, so we have to do a balance. Because all of a sudden, if you have one person that schedules everything and it makes it their trip, you end up getting resentment because, "Oh yeah, we had a great time on Sheb's trip." You know, and that's one thing you don't want to have cuz the goal of a family trip or a friend trip is to still have friends or family when you come back from the trip,
all right? So, you want to think about that. And I think another thing with that, when you're going to have that many people with 24, I one I would contact Disney direct. And they have their own people there. They go, "Hey, look, we got a group of 24. How can we do this?" Or what you could do is go through a travel agent because here's the thing, the travel agent, you don't have to ask Uncle Benny for his money. Uncle Benny, the travel agent is like, "Hey, if you want your ticket, you got to pay me so we can buy your ticket." They're not going to buy and say, "Oh, pay me later." Like that's one of the things I see with group travel and people are like uh they're like, "Oh, we're going to go do it." And then
you end up buying all the tickets for everybody and they don't pay you back for a couple years. Yeah, that'll ruin friendships and family. So, that's that's a thing there. Also, another thing with that many people, you're going to need to make sure it's okay that we're not all together all at the same time cuz you are not going to get a table of 24. You can get six tables of four or four tables of six, but you're not going to get one table of 24. So, be okay with going separate for things. Like, "Hey, who wants to do shopping?" So, the shopping group's going to do something. "Who wants to do Who wants to hit back to the park?" You're going to go Epcot, you go there. "Who wants to go Walt Disney World Kingdom?" We'll go there
and be separate cuz remember, the separation makes the return that much more delightful when you're together again. I've been with families with big groups and we've gotten along and stuff, but I went with a cousin not long ago Well, I say not long ago, but about 15 years ago and it was a bit of a slow start, but we found our way through, but you have to just talk. You just have to just talk to one another and make sure that you are not getting in each other's nerves and stuff. And it was actually these nice into the this point here from Barbara Lazy A 352.
I now solo travel. A number of years ago, I traveled with close family friends. I roomed with someone whom I had known for 50 years. It was a disaster. I am an early to bed, early riser. She was the opposite. She wanted everything her way, meals, sights. The trip could not have ended fast enough. Lesson learned. I now travel solo. So, Mark, those are very the common thing that can happen on a trip. Yeah, I mean, that's what I say. It's like the people like for example, like when I travel, like I get up early and I go film. I'm like, "You know what? You guys sleep in." Like, they're like, "We don't
need breakfast." I'm like, "Dude, I want my breakfast. I'm paying for bre I want my breakfast and I want my I want to go film." So, I literally get up or cuz I get up like 5:00, 6:00 in the morning anyway. So, I'm up 5:00, 6:00, get showered, get dressed, go have breakfast. I'm out filming at 7:00 a.m. to like 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. I got all my filming done. I come back. They're finally like showered. Like, "All right, let's go see the day. Cuz therefore, I'm not like waiting around cuz that's where people get upset. Like, I came on this trip and instead of doing stuff, we waited for you to get ready. Like, that kind of stuff you don't want to have. And that's why some people think they have to always be
together. You do not always have to be together. It's okay not to be together sometimes when you're on a trip. I think accepting that but having the talk about that is going to be helpful cuz I've seen people like, "Oh, I'm so mad at mom." And they're like, "Why?" I'm like, "All she wanted to do was shop." I'm like, "Yeah, mom's 65 and she likes shopping. What did you How's that different when she's at home?" Like, when you travel, all this accentuate who you are. That's why I always recommend if you're thinking about marrying someone, go on a trip with them cuz then you'll see them at their best and at their worst. That's a good advice. But also, if you're thinking about doing a group trip, like a long
trip with anybody, I would do like a weekend. You're like, let's say like Shevs and I, like we're friends, right? And we've hung out together, but could we travel together? Well, probably what I do is like, "Hey, Shevs, let's do like a what we have like a short trip together. We'll go to We'll We'll go to Cyprus together. We'll go, you know, for like See how we do for like a guys weekend." If that goes well, "Hey, you know what? Why don't we go to Bangladesh together?" You're like, but if but if it doesn't go well, I'm like, "All right, we can do short, but we can't do the long ones." And I think that's a good thing. Yeah, when you came over as well, Mark, I think it was like you were staying in your hotel
and stuff, but we met up. So, it's it's a slight different dynamics. So, we weren't in each other's ears or in each other's faces 24/7, and that's the difference, isn't it? Oh, yeah. And cuz think about it, like if it's your family, look, I'm I'm I'm not young. I moved out of my parents' house 30 some years ago. I love my parents, but when we travel together, I know that every fourth day, hey, I'm off by myself. You guys do you. I'll come back later, you know? You have to give yourself that space. There's a couple of things that I want to finish off on, Mark. And again, we appreciate everyone sending in their comments and
stuff. We've already gone longer than we were anticipated, but I think it was important to get some of your views in and really do appreciate keep sending those comments in and we'll try and do another one later on in the year, but we just have to talk about and you've covered it on your video recently as well about Spirit and unfortunately they went bust recently. So, a comment from Jimmy James 6492 budget airlines like Spirit are definitely needed. Wishing the best for all the employees. And that's a really good point because what Jimmy said there what we have here in Europe, I am we are very fortunate because we can travel to parts of Europe for so cheap and we can
see the whole of Europe. Yep. But if we didn't have those budget airlines, then I don't think many of us would be traveling unfortunately. But so it's sad to see what's happened, but what can be done at the moment with the situation that's going on right now? Yeah, so for those who know Spirit Airlines it's like the equivalent of like a Ryanair, EasyJet but in the US and they fly in Central America and to the Caribbean, but they go over the US. That is the $49 one-way flight kind of thing. They're infamous for their baggage fees and nickel and diming and everything just like Ryanair. Thing was they employed 10 like I think it was like 10 or 15,000 people. Like they all lost their job in one day. Like that's horrible, you know? And do I like
everything Spirit did? No, cuz it's like Spirit's one of those ones that hey, charge for baggage, charge for all this stuff, charge that has now leaked into every airline. So, every airline should thank Spirit for all that extra revenue they have. But my big thing for Spirit is I didn't fly them. I am not going to lie to you. I did not fly them. I prefer I flew legacy carriers lot. I'll fly ultra low cost sometimes too, especially when it's like the price is so good you like you you can't justify paying 10 times the price. For a lot of people it made travel [clears throat] possible. I mean you have to you can't like the people that say you can travel the world for free are a bunch of it's a bunch of BS.
Like those people like no, you got to spend the $4,000 on a credit card. Well, you were going to spend that money anyway. Not everybody spends $4,000 in 3 months, Jan. You know, so like that's the thing is like look, this made it possible that the people that were stuck and their whole child their whole life they could maybe go to the closest town, that's it. Now, wait, I can fly down to Florida, I can fly down to Costa Rica, I can actually see Jamaica where my aunt's from. I mean, these kind of things it changed how people could fly. That's why as much as I, you know, I may make fun of Ryan Air and stuff, but I thank them because they made travel possible for everyone. And that's what's sad with
Spirit disappearing from the US, that means less competition, means higher prices, and for a lot of people it means there's no longer a fare to a destination they want to go to that they can afford. It is very sad and unfortunately that as you just said that the employees that all got we wish them all the best. Yeah, we wish them all the best. Hopefully they can get back on their feet and find another role within the maybe the airline or the aviation or maybe something else they want to do. So it could be a bit of a break out for them, but yeah, it's all it's always sad. Yeah, we had a lot of people from Spirit reach out, their family members that work there and everything and that's why I mean, like I
said, I didn't fly them, but I would never wish an airline to go under. I mean, that's people's livelihood. Like there's literally 15,000 families now have been impacted. You think about it like damn. And for all the jokes for people who are like, oh, thanks for the extra baggage fees. Thanks for this, you know what? There's a lot of families that never got to travel and they let them happen. So and I'M NOT A SPIRIT FAN, BUT I CAN respect what they did for travel in terms of open it up for people. So to those that lost their jobs, we just want
to say hey, we're sorry and we wish you all the best. I would never want anyone to as you just said that there's livelihoods, people who put rely on that income and it's always sad cuz people always get affected by it and but I think that's a good place to sort of leave it, Mark, and we want to thank everyone for leaving all those comments and hopefully please do leave more comments we what we've gone through and can go through more of them in the future. As I said, we try and cover at least one or two in an episode, but we try and we'll try and do more of these going forward in the future. But Mark, I'm going to leave it to you to finish off. I'll say thank you from here and I really appreciate everyone and
I'll see you on the next one cuz I will be going on a few trips and we can talk about it on the next episode. There'll be a lot of fun trips coming up before the next episode, but we want to wish everybody a fantastic beginning to summer travel. Um if you have topics you'd like us to cover in the podcast or if you want me to cover in some of our videos, let me know down in the comments below. And also if you leave your comments and questions in our next Q&A video, we'll put some of those in there to help out. So your question could be there and you could see your name in pixels on your phone or your TV wherever you're watching this. Anyway, I wish y'all the best. Happy travels and thank
you for watching the Honest Travel Podcast with Walter's World and my buddy Shep. So uh have a great day and I'll see you later. Bye.
