How To Optimize Your Travels (Costs & Experiences) - w/ Melissa

In this episode, my guest is Melissa Weinmann. Melissa is a huge travel enthusiast, with her current tally of countries and territories visited being 44 at the time of recording. Having explored most of this by herself, over the years Melissa has learned a multitude of travel hacks and tools that anyone can leverage while planning out their next trip. We discuss: -Melissa’s experiences in Europe, Melanesia, and Southeast Asia during her time with the Peace Corps. -The instagramization of travel and its implications for the future of travel. -Experiences in Vanuatu and Cambodia with the Peace Corps -Affordable travel experiences. -The essence of what makes traveling a fulfilling hobby for many.-Identifying tourist traps and optimizing experiences while traveling. -Lesser-known websites with hidden travel gems in every region of the world. -Credit cards and hostels -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support the Ready Set Do podcast:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Resources: https://www.atlasobscura.com/ https://www.spottedbylocals.com/ https://freetoursbyfoot.com/ Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro + Background (00:02:00) Melissa’s experience with traveling 44+ countries! (00:05:22) Usual vs affordable traveling and “peak seasons” (00:08:52) Identifying where to go - maybe where people don’t like traveling to? (00:12:30) The instagram-ization of travel (00:16:50) Transportation hacks (00:20:30) Peace-corps experiences in Vanuatu (00:23:50) Culture training in the Peace Corps (00:27:25) Experiences in South-East Asia - Cambodia (00:31:10) Tools for optimizing Food and experiences while traveling - Europe and Asia(00:37:35) Dodgy experiences with food in China and Syria (00:40:15) Identifying tourist traps (00:44:07) Identifying itinerary items that are “worth it” (00:48:52) Atlas Obscura, SpottedByLocals and WalkingToursByFoot (00:53:51) Credit Cards, Currency Conversion (00:57:40) Hostels (01:02:00) Outro + Gratitude