#28 "Building Skills and Memories: 5 Unique & Accessible Travel Opportunities for Teens" with Erica Forrest

Erica Forrest is a travel education specialist and best selling author who helps curious people learn more through their trips. As the founder of the travel education company, Trip Scholars, she blends over thirty years of experience in education with her experiences as an internationally certified travel coach and advisor.

Through her signature LEARN Through Travel Program, she helps curious people discover what they can do before, during, and after travel to bring more meaning, connection, and understanding to both their journeys, and their lives. She has hosted travel workshops for teens, young adults, and parents.

Erica has been a local NPR guest and published on over 60 travel sites. She has been featured in Wander Magazine, Buzzfeed, Apartment Therapy, and Best Life.

 

With her background as a former school director, high school teacher, and homeschool parent, Erica excels at expanding people’s excitement for travel into deeper understanding and joyful discovery. She is an expert in travel planning, and she takes pride in enthusiastically sharing tips and travel skills that will empower others to master these valuable abilities for themselves. 

 

Cheryl

 

Welcome to another episode of Teen Minds Redefined where we strive to redefine the relationships we have with our teenagers and foster their growth into their true authentic selves. And today I have a beautiful guest, Erica Forrest, who is a travel education specialist, a best-selling author, whose book is World Schoolers, who helps curious people learn more through their trips. And as the founder of the travel education company, Trip Scholars, She blends over 30 years of experience in education with her experiences as an internationally certified travel coach and advisor.

 

Cheryl

 

00:54Erica has been a local NPR guest and published over 60 travel sites. She has been featured in Wander magazine, Buzzfeed, apartment therapy, and best life. With her background as a former school director, high school teacher, and homeschool parent, Erica excels at expanding people's excitement for travel into deeper understanding and joyful discovery. She is an expert in travel planning, and she takes pride in enthusiastically sharing tips and travel skills that will empower others to master these valuable abilities for themselves.

 

Cheryl

 

01:30

 

Welcome, Erica.

 

Erica 

 

01:32

 

Oh, thanks Cheryl. I am so happy to be here with you. I really enjoy your podcast and I'm grateful get to have this conversation with you today.

 

Cheryl

 

01:41

 

Well, funny thing is when I started this podcast since we're kind of talking more to parents of kids who are near divergent or special education stuff. And it has just exploded into something completely different. And I'll tell you, I never thought, oh, I'm going to find a guest on travel.

 

Cheryl

 

02:02

 

So good for you for grabbing this unique niche that I would never in a million years. And yet, I love to travel, my kids love to travel. Like it's just, I get it, like there's such a beautiful connection there. So tell me how you got to this point.

 

Erica 

 

02:21

 

Well, sure. So you can probably tell I love learning and I am just fascinated with how people learn and what the journey of discovery is like for different people. And as I went through all of these different ways of supporting people and educating people and supporting families, it became so clear that most of our deepest learning happens when we're having an experience.

 

Erica 

 

02:51

 

And I invite your listeners to think about what are some of the most powerful things that you have learned, the most important things that you have learned both about yourself and the world. And I think for many of us, they happen when we're traveling. And so as our family, you know, in your bio that you read, thank you, You heard I was a high school teacher and I was a director of Montessori schools and our family eventually ended up homeschooling and at first, you know, it was traditional homeschooling. It became very child led and I ended up becoming more of a facilitator, helping them find resources.

 

Erica 

 

03:32

 

And we ended up doing a lot of our learning through traveling. And I would spend an enormous amount of time trying to find great resources to support what we were doing and make the learning really impactful and meaningful. And I kept thinking, gosh, wouldn't it be great if there was a place people could go, a place I could go to have a whole bunch of these creative ideas and some of the best resources. So I wasn't wasting time, you know, watching YouTube videos that weren't very helpful.

 

Erica 

 

04:09

 

And I realized, oh, I could, I could provide the service to other people. This is something that is so exciting and interesting to me. I love traveling and I love supporting people and learning. And, you know, 1 of the things I really like about your podcast is your focus on supporting teens and those of us who love teens and are supporting them into becoming their true authentic selves.

 

Erica 

 

04:38

 

And I think travel helps all of us do that. So yeah, I, Our youngest is 18. And so a few years ago, my husband and I are planning to move aboard a sailboat. He's been a sailor for a long time and live off of a sailboat and explore the world.

 

Erica 

 

05:02

 

And so a few years ago, when we were looking at this transition, you know, when we become empty nesters in the next 5 years or so, what what do we want to do? And I realized I could build a business around supporting other people in learning through travel. So I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to do that.

 

Cheryl

 

05:24

 

Well, blending everything into 1 amazing dream, that's kind of so cool. Yeah. I'm sitting here thinking we were both teachers.

 

Cheryl

 

05:35

 

I was a high school teacher and I can't imagine at home going, okay kids, we're going to go to March break, we're going to go here, and this is what we're going to learn. And then I'm going, then I'm not coming, because this is a break from school. So how do we incorporate that conversation or do we even have that conversation when we have, you know, 14, 15, 16 year olds going, if you're gonna turn this into a teaching moment, I'm not coming. How do we do that?

 

Erica 

 

06:06

 

I think all of us who have raised teens know that experience of being on a family vacation with people not necessarily wanting to be there or you know you're in a museum and they're on their phone or they would rather be back home with their friends or something like that. So it's a pretty universal experience a lot of the challenges that so I work with I work with families and individuals and then I've also been lucky enough to do workshops specific to teens and young adults and parents. So in all of that, a lot of these challenges are really common And they can, I've got some steps I'd be happy to share that could be helpful to parents and teens who are looking to do some trips together.

 

Erica 

 

07:00

 

And so travel is so expansive. When we're talking about it, I've been able to narrow it down into a program I called the learn through travel approach and learn as an acronym. And so L is listen to yourself. This is something we can do before we travel to have more meaningful trips and more authentic experiences.

 

Erica 

 

07:26

 

E is educate yourself about your destination. That's another thing we can do in advance. And A is advance our travel skills. There's all kinds of things we can do to make travel more affordable, something we can enjoy more of, and also less stressful and more enjoyable.

 

Erica 

 

07:43

 

Finally, or not finally, but next would be R, which is revitalize ourselves while we're traveling to be fully present when we're traveling. And finally N is nourish your travel dreams when you return, how can you integrate how you've grown, what you've learned and what your long-term travel dreams are into your day-to-day life. And so back to your question, what can people do to, you know, bring, engage our teams more into travel? First, I just want to say cheers to any parents who are planning family trips.

 

Erica 

 

08:22

 

I know you're already very busy. So what I wanna share, I really don't want it to feel like it's adding 1 more thing to your to-do list. The idea is to lean into some of these things and grow in more authentic conversations and connect more while we're talking about these things and build on the stuff that we really love to do or that our teams love to do. So back to listen to yourself.

 

Erica 

 

08:48

 

This is actually something I think a lot of us when we're planning a trip, you know, we might want to spend a little bit more time thinking about what is it that we really wanna get out of this travel experience? Why are we taking this trip? And why, and talking with our family members, why do they want to take this trip? And I think as educators, sometimes when we're traveling, we do wanna have all these amazing educational experiences.

 

Erica 

 

09:21

 

But if we think about it in advance, maybe we're also really wanting to have some connection with our family while we're traveling. And so if we think about that while we're planning a trip, we can realize we really do wanna build in some more downtime. We want to let the kids participate more in crafting the itinerary, right? The more we think about why we want to have this trip.

 

Erica 

 

09:47

 

And if there are teens listening, you might want to be taking a trip for adventure or to learn something new. A lot of times we are also taking trips to grow and find out who we are in relation to the world or in relation to new experiences, right? So to spend a little bit of time at the beginning and talking as a family about what do you want from the trip and then being able to lean into that throughout the trip planning and the trip experience can really help to make it better. Another thing would be me moving into the E part, to educate yourself about the destination.

 

Erica 

 

10:29

 

And especially with teens, you know, you might have some family photos where most of the people in the family are smiling at the destination, the place that you've been building up to, and then you might have a teen who's not so happy to be there. I can see this. I'm sure you can. We have photos like that too.

 

Erica 

 

10:50

 

I think a lot of us do. And 1 of the things that we you know, if it's not a pose picture, they're probably laughing and smiling. But 1 of the things that we can do to really help them have more engagement in planning it is to get their buy-in so that they're participating in helping to plan the trip. And there's a whole bunch of things that we can do to help this happen.

 

Erica 

 

11:23

 

I'd be happy to talk a little bit about that if you want. Yeah, of course. Okay, great. So 1 of the things I really recommend people do, whether it's you as a solo traveler or you as a parent of a child, or when you're working with, traveling with teens, they're going to be doing a lot of this on their own too.

 

Erica 

 

11:46

 

But to really think about what can we do in advance of the trip that we could understand our destinations better so that we can really appreciate it from a multifaceted perspective. And we can, there's actually studies that show people get more enjoyment out of the planning of a trip than they do while they're on the trip or even remembering the trip. So there's plenty we can do so that that's not necessarily true for you. But it is a really amazing opportunity to lean into that planning phase.

 

Erica 

 

12:27

 

And a lot of us, you know, we look at Airbnbs or we are on TripAdvisor finding activities we wanna do and that's all fun. But we can also use that excitement and that anticipation to discover more about where we're going. But you're already busy, your kids are already busy. And so 1 of the things we can do is think about what are what are your child's interests, or hobbies, their learning styles, any questions that they have or goals, and then try to match that up with things they already like to do and enjoy doing or that your family enjoys doing.

 

Erica 

 

13:07

 

So I encourage people to, you know, most of us are, if you're driving your kids around, you're probably listening to something in the car. You can be looking for a playlist related to where you're going, whether that's music or historic music or podcasts or, you know, audiobooks. If you do movie nights at home, can you start to watch some movies about where you're going or anime or documentaries or whatever it is that your family enjoys doing. If you're a family who loves games, there's amazing video games, board games, card games that are related to where you are going, or maybe you're going camping so you can play games related to nature.

 

Erica 

 

13:55

 

Whatever it is, leaning into what your kids already love doing or what your family loves doing, but finding that overlap with the destination where you're going so that you start to have more conversations about the trip. And it's a joyful, exciting thing. And then when you're watching the movie, you start to ask, you know, do you think that really happened? I don't know, let's find out.

 

Erica 

 

14:22

 

Or maybe your child likes cooking and you can encourage, you know, if they make dinner once a week, ask if they could try out 1 of these recipes or if you guys want to do it together or any of these opportunities to start to bring the trip to life and let them go with what is interesting and exciting about it.

 

Cheryl

 

14:47

 

I love the video game idea. I never have thought about that. Well, it's why you do what you do and I don't.

 

Cheryl

 

14:54

 

But what a great idea like OK, yeah,

 

Erica 

 

14:56

 

yes, or even if they like to program their own video games. You know, for example, our 2 of our kids ended up making a video game based on, it was called Ariadne's Thread, and based on the myth of the Minotaur. When our family was planning a trip to Greece, they, you know, we were talking about all of these things and we went to Crete and we went to the ancient palace and complex of Knossos where it's thought, you know, the myth of the Minotaur stems from, because it was this really advanced civilization and they had all of these underground passages.

 

Erica 

 

15:40

 

So it was a tremendously profound experience to get to, you know, intertwine their building of this video game and the real life experience of it. So yeah, there's just so many opportunities and I really want to acknowledge your kids are busy, you're busy, so this doesn't have to be, you know, we're going to study this. It can be a more natural and joyful experience. So, and also, you know, if your kids are developing other skills like photography or nature journaling or any anything like that you can also lean into skills like that and help them build that up before they go.

 

Erica 

 

16:31

 

So there's there's just so many opportunities but really partnering with your teens and then leaning into what's exciting and then inviting them to help participate in the kinds of activities that you'll be doing on your trip.

 

Cheryl

 

16:46

 

That's amazing. What in your experience, what is the value of saying, okay, we're going here, Monday is your choice. Whatever you want to do Monday is what we're doing Monday, and then Tuesday he picks and then Wednesday I pick.

 

Cheryl

 

17:03

 

Like what is the value of that in your experience?

 

Erica 

 

17:07

 

Yeah, I think that's a terrific question. And like an extension of what we were just talking about, say your child is interested in cooking, they start learning more about cooking a particular cuisine and then they want to go to the local market that offers the ingredients and all of that and then they watch a little videos about how to cook in that way. So then when you're planning, inviting them, letting them take some ownership and leadership of how the trip is going to go and say, what's your opinion about where we should eat?

 

Erica 

 

17:45

 

Or do you think a food tour would be, you know, something interesting? Or I found a cooking class. Does that sound interesting to anybody? Or, you know, as they get older, do you wanna look for a cooking class or a food tour that the family could take?

 

Erica 

 

18:01

 

So letting them participate in it, you know, it when for teenagers, they're obviously developing this autonomy and need for privacy and cultivating relationships with their peers in a new way. And when you're on a family trip, a lot of times everybody's in 1 room or 1 tent, or there's not a lot of alone time. People don't have the same kinds of privacy and freedom that they might get at home. So really acknowledging that.

 

Erica 

 

18:35

 

And even depending on the age of your teen, saying you know not everybody has to participate in everything that we do every day. What would you like to invite the family to do or letting them have a lot more choice can be so helpful.

 

Cheryl

 

18:55

 

Yeah, so I totally get that. So let's say now, The kids

 

Erica 

 

19:00

 

are getting a little older

 

Cheryl

 

19:03

 

and they are looking to travel alone.

 

Erica 

 

19:06

 

Ah, yes.

 

Cheryl

 

19:08

 

So what is the safe age and what are the conversations you're going to have around that and are there specific places you would say yes, go here, not here? Like are there guidelines to that?

 

Erica 

 

19:21

 

Those are great questions too, Cheryl. I think, you know, each family it's going to be different and like we have 3 kids, I think it is different for every child and what their interests are. Some suggestions would be start talking with them about what why they want to travel and that will help the more you can talk about it and again going back to that listen piece what are they wanting out of the experience?

 

Erica 

 

19:50

 

And learning to travel, whether this is a 12 or 13-year-old, and you're asking them to help navigate through public transportation, or this is a 19 year old who's looking to create a travel lifestyle for themselves. There's a big, a lot of steps in between both of those things, but travel can be just such a terrific way to learn some of these skills that we need in adulthood, because they're motivated, something they really want to do, they care about it, but it's also fun and it is manageable. I've heard the saying that travel is like life in miniature. So, you know, it's a, it's a compact experience that they can control parts of and also learn how to deal with, you know, the frustrations And travel has plenty of things that don't go the way that you want it to go, learning how to manage all of that, great place to make mistakes for the most part.

 

Erica 

 

20:56

 

And so your question about some other things that they can do as they step into travel, you can first start to let them help participate in planning family trips like what we were talking about and then as they get older or if they really like itineraries or schedules or anything like that letting them actually plan that or if you have a child interested in finance and money, they can help with the budgeting. And then younger teens, I would encourage them to try out things in your hometown. So, you know, before you go and take the metro in Paris, learn how to navigate your own public transportation at home. If your family is going to the museum or going to watch a performance, let them be in charge of getting the tickets so that when they're traveling independently a couple of years later, they already have this robust skill set.

 

Cheryl

 

21:59

 

That's great.

 

Erica 

 

22:01

 

Yeah. If they're planning on doing some solo travel, encourage them to, you know, when they're younger, go out to eat by themselves. That's a hard thing for a lot of people to do. And let them have that experience in the comfort of your own hometown.

 

Erica 

 

22:16

 

But then they can start to take trips to visit family or friends and you know when they're children and they're doing an independent trip like that you're probably doing all of the planning but now you can ask them to coordinate you know how they're gonna get to the airport and from the airport, what their itinerary will be when they go visit family and friends. And then if they are especially driven, letting them or encouraging them to start planning their own dream trip. And then this in itself will motivate people to, if they're planning a trip for a gap year experience, they might feel like they wanna go and get a job so that they can start saving money. They might, if they're planning to live in another country or travel to another country during a gap year or a special trip, they might want to start learning the language.

 

Erica 

 

23:13

 

So, or photography, that it has this ability to encourage this innate desire to learn and for us to stick with something that, you know, if it's something abstract, it's sometimes harder to stay with it. And then they can start learning more about budgeting and itinerary planning and all of that. So again to your question when is a good age or a good place? I think you know it's going to be a spectrum.

 

Erica 

 

23:45

 

So first start with things in your hometown, then start with safe travel to family or friends, and then maybe they're looking at other experiences. And travel is built on these skills, just like so many other things. And the more that you do it, the stronger those those muscles get until, you know, they could be a young adult doing nomadic travel around the world on their own or doing an exchange program, or there's a lot of different activities that older teens can consider. I'd be happy to talk about that too, if you want.

 

Cheryl

 

24:28

 

Sure. Yeah, of course.

 

Erica 

 

24:30

 

Of course. Okay. Yeah.

 

Erica 

 

24:32

 

So then for older teens, I think probably most listeners are familiar with programs like study abroad programs and exchange student programs. It's good for people to know that there are study abroad programs where the tuition is actually less expensive than many universities here in the United States. And, but you have a lot of listeners in Canada. I know you guys have a better program up there.

 

Erica 

 

25:03

 

And some of those study abroad programs are in English and at those reduced rates. So it's helpful for people to know that. There are also a lot of opportunities for people of all ages to travel for free and with more immersive experiences. And so there are programs like Workaway, Woofing, and Pet Sitting or House sitting.

 

Erica 

 

25:30

 

So these are all programs where you can sign up on different platforms and there will be hosts, people who are looking for volunteers to, you know, in pet sitting or house sitting, obviously come in, stay in the house and care for the animals. Woofing is working on organic farms and orchards and things like that around the world. And then- Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah.

 

Erica 

 

25:58

 

And then work away is 1 where there's a wide range of things, everything from the 2 things I just mentioned, to come and help our children learn English, and stay in our guest room. Well, you can use the bikes, you know, to ride your bike to ride our bikes into town. There's all of these opportunities now. And you in most of them have lodging, sometimes you get food, and you in many of these, you know, you're just volunteering for a few hours a day, 5 days a week, and then you have the rest of the time to yourself.

 

Erica 

 

26:42

 

So there's these great opportunities. Now you wouldn't probably want to do that at 15. You're not even allowed to. But those are skills you could be building.

 

Erica 

 

26:50

 

So if those things sound interesting to you, as a teenager, you can start learning about them now. And then say you want to do pet sitting. You could start walking, you know, dogs and building up the skills, building up the resume now, so that when you're a few years older, you would be able to be part of 1 of these programs and have this nice robust resume so that everybody who reads it is thinking, yeah, this would be a great person to invite here. Where have

 

Cheryl

 

27:20

 

you been? Where have you been? Like, honestly, this is so good.

 

Cheryl

 

27:26

 

This is so good. And I had no idea. Oh, sorry. OK, go.

 

Erica 

 

27:29

 

No, there's just so, I didn't either. Our family didn't travel when I was a child. I don't think I went out of state.

 

Erica 

 

27:39

 

Well, I flew out of state as an infant. But in my memory, we didn't even go out of state until I was a teenager. And I didn't, we travel just wasn't a part of our lives. And it wasn't until I got a car and a job that I started getting to take road trips.

 

Erica 

 

27:58

 

And I just fell in love with traveling. And I had no idea that all these resources were here. And then even as a young family, and taking our trips, you know, we did a lot, we did a lot of domestic travel, but I didn't realize how affordable and that there were all of these programs available so that we could travel more. And now, you know, I'm so immersed in this world.

 

Erica 

 

28:28

 

There's all kinds of travel opportunities. And so teenagers or young adults who are interested in travel, there's so many, obviously after COVID, there's so many location independent jobs available. But you can be thinking about, you know, whatever career you're interested in, look at it broadly, Is there a way that I could live in another country and do this job? And you could also consider being a travel professional of some kind.

 

Erica 

 

28:55

 

Everything from being a blogger to travel coach to a travel agent. But then there's lots of jobs in the travel and tourism industry as well, and things are changing so quickly, who knows. That's amazing. I love it.

 

Cheryl

 

29:13

 

So the pessimistic mom in me says, do we go over before I let my baby go? Do we go over a list of worst case scenarios? And what we're going to do?

 

Erica 

 

29:27

 

Yeah. So are you talking primarily about if they were to take a solo trip or as a family?

 

Cheryl

 

29:34

 

Yes, no, because in my head, my daughter just decided, I'm going to go to Paris for a month. Oh, did she really? She did, And I just about had cardiac arrest.

 

Cheryl

 

29:48

 

And I was like, oh my God, but you don't want to, you're like, she had the, you know, most of the money she worked for it. She knew what she wanted. She was going to do like a TEFL program, teach English for Second Language. Yeah.

 

Cheryl

 

30:03

 

And I just, I put her on this plane all by herself. She's so she's so strong and independent. I gave her 0 credit, but it was me going, oh, what? And, You know, when she flew off, I was like, I've never been to Paris.

 

Cheryl

 

30:19

 

I don't know what to warn her about. I have to make what's the emergency number. Who can she phone? Is she does she need a wife?

 

Cheryl

 

30:25

 

Does she need to call the police? Like it for a month. She had a phenomenal time. And I'm so proud she did it.

 

Cheryl

 

30:32

 

I cried for 37 days, but that doesn't matter. But I wish I had known then, okay, good, here you go. She's smart and intuitive, so I wasn't worried about that. But you know, you're in a different country with a different language.

 

Cheryl

 

30:47

 

And I would have loved to have said, okay, if this happens and you're gonna do this and if this happens and you're gonna do this. Yeah. You just might have ignored me, but I would have felt better if I had gone over it.

 

Erica 

 

30:59

 

Yeah, I completely understand. And I have been there too. And I think it happened because you're a great mom and you love her.

 

Erica 

 

31:06

 

So I think that is all normal and natural. I actually have a whole like a whole checklist related to health concerns and safety concerns related to travel. So when I'm working one-on-one with people, I share that as part of what we're working through, especially if they are newer travelers or young travelers. And some of the things in their air are meant to just be able to think it through.

 

Erica 

 

31:39

 

Obviously not every safety concern is applicable to every trip, but it is helpful to think about them and come up with a contingency plan. And so there's lots and lots of tips for exactly what you are talking about. I guess I could just share a couple of them, but 1 of them is, especially for a young person, what is your policy going to be about checking in? And just having an honest conversation, you know, I believe in you, I know you can do this, and yet I love you and I'm scared.

 

Erica 

 

32:17

 

And I need to know that you're safe every day. But I don't want to interfere with your trip, what sounds good to you for a check in plan and then have that conversation. So in our family, Like this summer, our 18 year old also was in France and Belgium traveling solo. And I was very proud of them also.

 

Erica 

 

32:42

 

And also, you know, we're moms, so of course, we're scared. And so we have had plenty of conversations in advance and came up with the plan, we're going to do a daily check in, it could be a photo, it could be just a emoji, it could be anything like that. But just so that we know, you know, that everybody's okay, Having a conversation about the itinerary beforehand and saying, I want you to have this independent experience, but I'd like a copy of your itinerary if you're comfortable with that and to know where you're staying in case there's an emergency. To have some backup plans, I think talking about things like safety, you know, in many of the places that our teens would be traveling for some of their first trips or as young adults.

 

Erica 

 

33:35

 

It's not necessarily that the biggest risk is going to be violent crime, but more likely to be pickpocketing or theft. And that can be really scary if you lose your phone and your passport. So having some contingency plans, like I encourage people to take a photo of their passport and their credit cards and any other important documents, prescriptions or whatever, and then email it to your parents and to yourself and that way if something happens they can send it to you or you can log into another computer and have access to it so that you can cancel those cards.

 

Cheryl

 

34:17

 

So smart. I'm going to start doing that. I don't do that.

 

Cheryl

 

34:21

 

Oh my gosh. That's so good.

 

Erica 

 

34:23

 

Yeah, it's a great idea. And you know, having, I always encourage people also have a payment method on you while you're doing your stuff, but consider also, you know, depending on if you're in a hostel or a hotel with a safe or any of those things, keep another card or some other cash and maybe a photocopy of your passport in another location. So that if somebody does get your bag, you still have a manageable way to deal with it without it being such a crisis.

 

Erica 

 

34:58

 

So yeah, there's just a lot of little tips like that. There's safety things that you can think about in relation to how you're carrying your stuff. Do you have, you know, a lot of us like to have that, like just the over shoulder bag, but you can get you can get a brand where it can't be slashed and has little clips for your zippers and everything so that people are deterred. You know you don't want to have your wallet in your backpack while you're on a bus, where people can get into it from behind.

 

Erica 

 

35:36

 

So just kind of thinking through a lot of those different scenarios. What would I do if I got a migraine? What would I do if I lost my purse? And then having a plan and having those conversations.

 

Erica 

 

35:48

 

I mean, it's like so many of the things that we do with teenagers, right? We not only are having the experience right now, but we're looking forward into the future and seeing, you know, how can this skill build on what they already know and help them get to being able to do this independently.

 

Cheryl

 

36:06

 

And when you're not in the middle of the vortex of the storm, if you already have a plan, it's like, oh, I think we talked about this. Exactly. Right?

 

Cheryl

 

36:15

 

Not in meltdown mode where you just freeze and don't know what to do. If we're talking about it beforehand, great. I think I've heard this before. Oh yeah, mom said or dad said, and yeah.

 

Erica 

 

36:26

 

Yeah, yeah. And so to have those conversations in advance and ask them, what do you think would be a good thing to do if your flight gets canceled or if your luggage is lost? Probably your luggage won't be lost, but if it is, and then maybe you have a conversation, then they end up deciding to do carry-on only so they don't have to worry about it.

 

Erica 

 

36:48

 

And letting again, like what we were talking about before, letting them take more ownership but that you're there to support them and help them think through all of those questions.

 

Cheryl

 

37:00

 

I love it. I love that. I just oh, here's 1 tip.

 

Cheryl

 

37:04

 

Make sure they take their roaming off their cell phone. So they don't get the $1,200 Rogers bill. They get home. There's tip number 1.

 

Cheryl

 

37:15

 

And to be honest, my son is 34 and he's engaged and my daughter's married and she's 30. And you know what, they text me when they get to the airport, they text me when they land, they text me when they're changing. And I always say, I know you're grown-ass adults, but I so appreciate this. And I know you don't have to I really appreciate that you do so I'm here and I love that you talked about all those other programs because 1 of my questions was like now you've answered is making travel accessible And you also touched on it when you said, you know, travel can be camping, travel can be, you know, your local transit, your travel can be, so I'm glad you said that because it doesn't have to be, we can never travel because we don't have $5 million to go to Paris with my family.

 

Cheryl

 

38:05

 

So there are lots of options from what you're even saying now. Travel is travel. We still call it travel. We can travel to camp.

 

Cheryl

 

38:13

 

We can travel and they know that.

 

Erica 

 

38:16

 

Yeah, I think that's such a great point that travel in many ways is a mindset, right? It's being open to new experiences and putting yourself sometimes in uncomfortable situations. And you can, I mean, during COVID, a lot of us are traveling from our couches right taking that curiosity and yeah as in relation to accessibility I also just want to touch on the fact that there are A lot of resources available for people who might find travel challenging for a variety of reasons?

 

Erica 

 

38:52

 

And so there are individuals hosting wheelchair travel experiences and There are places in airports and ways to move through airports so that people who are neuro-spicy have an easier time getting through them. There are, you know, museums and other sites that are now opening up to low stimulation times and theater experiences that are making it more accessible. So travel is for everybody and it doesn't have to be expensive And it doesn't have to be extra challenging because of physical or mental health issues any of us are dealing with.

 

Cheryl

 

39:42

 

I'm so glad you said that. And I know that we will share all of that stuff in this show notes so people have access to that. And so grateful that you talked on all of those points.

 

Cheryl

 

39:51

 

You're like the holy grail of travel. I just love it.

 

Erica 

 

39:58

 

I just love it so much.

 

Cheryl

 

40:02

 

Like you said, travel is a mindset. And I know that even when we, you know, drive across the border to Myrtle Beach, somewhere in Toronto, if we drive to Myrtle Beach, or we drive somewhere to Michigan, whatever, even a road trip. Yes.

 

Cheryl

 

40:16

 

It's so funny how something triggers in my brain when we get in the car and the luggage is there and the snacks are there and the playlist is there and my brain says I couldn't be on the way to work but my brain says it's done like we're here we're traveling and I feel like I'm always in the moment. I'm always, I feel like we're having much more, I mean, we have great conversations at home, but the conversation changes and I don't even, can't even tell you what it is. It's just like, everything's gone. So if you're thinking, there's no way I can travel.

 

Cheryl

 

40:54

 

I can't afford it, I can't get there, and my son has special needs or my, whatever. You need to hook up with Erica because you have to travel. It's part of it's just part of an experience that if you've never done it you have to do it. And I have a funny story my parents and I I'm an only child so we traveled every year.

 

Cheryl

 

41:13

 

We went to Florida or Florida or whatever and when I turned 17 I think my parents thought that I was too cool. And I'd want to travel with my parents. So they said to me 1 day, so we know we planned a trip and we're going to go to Disney World, we're going to go to Orlando. And I was like, Oh, great.

 

Cheryl

 

41:30

 

When do we eat? And we're like, Oh, you're never planning this romantic week without me. I don't think so. Book them Dano.

 

Cheryl

 

41:42

 

I need another. And it wasn't until much later when I thought oh maybe this was like this romantic getaway without me for a change I blew it up.

 

Erica 

 

41:58

 

Oh my goodness. Oh that's funny I bet they were touched that you wanted that. That's so sweet.

 

Cheryl

 

42:03

 

Well, I don't know if at the time.

 

Erica 

 

42:06

 

Yeah. Well, I would also I'll just put in a shout out for family trips are amazing. But I also encourage people to try to get away for a solo trip every once in a while. And people who are partnered make time and space for that because it can be so good on all of the different fronts.

 

Erica 

 

42:28

 

They're really different kinds of trips.

 

Cheryl

 

42:29

 

Yeah, yeah. Date night on steroids. Like you need to reconnect.

 

Cheryl

 

42:34

 

You really do. You need to reconnect. And even, you know, using the accessibility tips, you know, just taking 1 child or a mom and daughter trip or mom and son trip or like, those are the timers because everything else is over here the grocery list is here the dinner menu is here the bills are here like just do it those are the things you will always remember oh I love this conversation thank you so much again the holy grail erica forest Any last words before we have to sign off?

 

Erica 

 

43:08

 

Sure. I'd be happy to see any of the listeners on my website, Tripp Scholars, and I've got a gift there where up at the top on the header that is all about different things that you could start doing today so that you can start learning more about your destination, kind of what we were talking about earlier, but much more fleshed out. So I'd love to see anybody there or I'm on all the social media channels at Tripp Scholars. And Carol, it was just such a nice,

 

Cheryl

 

43:41

 

nice question. 1 question, Airbnb, Verbo or hotel? What do you choose?

 

Erica 

 

43:49

 

Usually Airbnb. But I know the impact on communities. But it is just so lovely to have, yeah, especially as a family, So nice to have a kitchen and separate bedrooms, just and to be right in the heart of a place.

 

Cheryl

 

44:08

 

This is it for me. Like we're going to Mexico in February, friends of ours have rented a house for 2 months and that's my, I don't know, my jam is like I'm going to be with local people, have local food, and I'm not going to be sold. And I'm not going to, you know, it's just going to be beautiful.

 

Cheryl

 

44:25

 

So I'm really excited.

 

Erica 

 

44:26

 

So anyway, what do you use? I mean, I probably equally use all of those if I look at all of our travel. But AirBnB's

 

Cheryl

 

44:37

 

been about the last 2 or 3 years of our travels been AirBnB. The last few years we've done some big road trips down the East Coast here and just found the best AirBnB's. It's been so fun.

 

Erica 

 

44:49

 

Yes. I'm so glad that you have gotten to stay in Airbnbs. We've gotten to stay houseboats in the Netherlands.

 

Cheryl

 

45:00

 

Oh, a whole new level.

 

Erica 

 

45:02

 

So many fun places, right? Right in the heart of Paris. I mean, just amazing things.

 

Erica 

 

45:08

 

On the beach in Crete, amazing.

 

Cheryl

 

45:11

 

Great, well, this has been beautiful. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Erica Forrest. Thank you for listening to Teen Minds Redefined.

 

Cheryl

 

45:18

 

Who knew there's a whole world out there that's accessible for everybody? Check out Erica Forrest. Thanks for listening. Thanks for stopping by and have a good flight.