(upbeat music) - I'm curious, is there like a Lonely Planet or another source of like the world guidebook where it's like, you know, a page or so and about each country where you can kind of just start to like wet your palate on different places or I know Lonely Planet, I don't know if you still do, but they used to have this thorn tree forum online where you could go ask questions.

Anything in that realm of kind of broader inspiration? Obviously, you know, if you knew Slovenia, you could go get a guidebook about Slovenia and get the inspiration. But if you didn't know Slovenia, you know, do you start with a continent or any ideas there? - Yeah, I mean, there is actually a Lonely Planet world book.

I actually don't know the last time we put it out, but I've seen it before. It's this huge, thick doorstopper of a volume that's just like an overview of the world. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that. It's a big, big read to start going through. I mean, for better or for worse, I do think social media is a huge part of it.

And it takes a little bit of your own work, I think, to filter through all the BS, so to speak, and the surface level stuff and the oversaturated photos and the, you know, influencer shots on the beach that aren't really telling you anything about the place. But once you get past that, you can find some really incredible information on social media, just regular people out and about who put a Slovenia hashtag on something, or maybe not.

Maybe they put a bike touring hashtag. And you're looking at the bike touring hashtag 'cause you're interested in doing something with bikes. And you're like, where is this? Like, where is this person like drinking a glass of wine, looking at this beautiful valley with a bike in the background?

Oh, it's Slovenia, huh, really? So I think like searching kind of subject areas and social media is sort of the digital equivalent of hanging out at a bar with the entire world and asking for recommendations, you know? And it means you got to comb through some garbage to get to the good stuff, but it's in there.

And it's the most, like the really genuine, from the heart, personal stuff that when you get to those recommendations, I think they mean a lot. I do it even as a journalist. If I'm like interested in seeing where people are bike touring or where people are backpacking or hiking, like I'll search those hashtags.

I'll follow those accounts on, you know, TikTok and Instagram or whatever, and just see where people are hanging out and what people are talking about. 'Cause for better or for worse, it is a pulse and you're looking for a pulse and you're looking for a trend and it's there.

So I think that's one way. I think, you know, what I like to do is, yeah, starting with a continent, maybe. Maybe you're like, okay, Europe. I want to do a trip in Europe, but maybe I'm thinking beyond Spain, Italy, France. Just like look at a map and pick a country and be like, oh, Albania.

Like what's going on in Albania? And then you can start looking there and maybe something's going to interest you. Maybe it won't. Maybe you'll be like, okay, this looks a little too rough for me. I need something with more infrastructure. And then you look West and you're like, okay, maybe one of these, you know, maybe Croatia, maybe Slovenia, maybe Czech Republic.

And just like looking at a physical map and like dreaming about it a little bit. And 'cause I know we'll probably get to this later, but I am of the firm belief that everywhere, literally everywhere has something to offer if you open yourself up to it. It has something that's going to blow your mind.

If you spend a little time, if you approach it with an open mind, you'll find something that's going to blow your mind, even in your own backyard. I live two blocks from Prospect Park in Brooklyn. If I go into the Prospect Park today with the mindset that like I'm looking to be educated, I'm looking to learn, I'm looking to have my mind expanded, I'm going to have some interaction, whether it's, you know, staring at a Cardinal for 20 minutes or watching a couple hanging out on the lawn or, you know, playing with a random dog that's going to like make me feel good and make me feel fulfilled.

And I really firmly believe that it really starts with mindset, which loops all back to that idea of like, why are you traveling? And if you go in with the right mindset, it doesn't matter. Honestly, it doesn't really matter where you're going. You're going to have your mind blown in some way.

- So I want to dig into that process. But before I want to mention, well, I don't know if the average listener is thinking of Reddit as social media. I want to plug it because I use it a lot for travel. And I just did one quick search and I said, you know, "European wine tour site colon reddit.com." And it's like crowdsourcing my wine tasting trip to Europe, who's got suggestions.

There aren't a lot of comments, unfortunately, but the person who wrote it came up with all these suggestions that include Slovenia and Croatia and Alto Adige, which I don't even know where that is. - Alto Adige, yeah, it's like northern Italy, I think, yeah. - So this at least had a bunch of suggestions, even though there weren't a lot of comments.

So I use that a lot. - I do too, and actually it's a great example. I, during the pandemic, I feel like you're going to end this podcast being like this guy's obsessed with bikes, like shut up about bikes. But I like went down serious rabbit hole with cycling and bike, especially bike travel.

Like I'm not really interested in the, you know, head to toe Lycra racing stuff. Like I'm, I love traveling by bike 'cause I think it like slows you down. You really get to notice a lot. It's just a great way to like feel, get the feel of the place.

But I really went down a rabbit hole during the pandemic because I was stuck at home like everyone else. I don't, I live in New York City. I don't own a car. So I was like looking at ways to tap into this idea of adventure and travel while still being close to home and doing it with the tools that I had, which was a bicycle.

And Reddit was like a goldmine for that kind of stuff. I just, as an example, I remember finding someone talking about the route vert, butchering that French, but it means the green route. And it's like a network of trails and routes in Quebec and Canada. Never would have thought of it.

Like my knowledge and desire and understanding of Quebec starts and ends with Montreal, like it has for a long time. And then suddenly reading about this network of hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails that exist in Quebec, started talking to my partner and we're like, you know, I hear the border's about to reopen with Canada.

What if we just went and did this trip that I like saw on Reddit? And we're like, okay, well, we don't have a car, but what if we took the train with our bikes as far North as it goes, and then got on our bikes from there and rode across the border into Canada and did the trip that way, which is exactly what we ended up doing.

We took the train to St. Albans, Vermont, literally spent the night in Vermont, left that morning, rode to Canada, and then spent a week riding around Quebec and then rode back to Vermont and took the train home, all without ever getting in the car. I wrote about it on Lonely Planet's website actually, but it's a great example of something that just like started with like a tiny little spark of being like, huh, the green route Quebec, like sounds kind of magical.

Like, I wonder if we could do it. Next thing I know, a few weeks later, we're on a train with our bikes on our way up to Canada. So that just goes to show, I think, like how the germ of something, if you have the right curiosity and the right mindset could turn into like a really great adventure.

- I think there's two things to take away there that you didn't mention. One, I imagine that was a pretty inexpensive trip for something you described. You describe it in a way that people talk about these once-in-a-lifetime adventures that they plan for years and years and they spend thousands of dollars.

That doesn't sound like something that took a lot of advance notice or a lot of money to make happen. - We didn't know where we were staying every night. Like it was one of those kinds of trips. And it was amazing 'cause you could do that in a place like Quebec.

We'd be like, oh, we're starting to get a little tired. We've been riding for 60 miles. It looks like a storm's coming in. Pull out my phone and be like, what's the nearest bed and breakfast? Give them a call. They're like, yeah, of course, come on through. Next thing you know, we're staying there.

So, and I think that's a great point that you make that like, one, that these kind of big, this is actually the point that I make in my story too, where like you think of like the capital B, capital T, big trip as something that you spend years thinking about, planning every moment.

You know, you're gonna go on a safari. You're gonna go climb to Everest Base Camp. You're gonna do these huge things, which is great. And those have a place. And those kind of big goals are important. But what this taught me at least was that a big trip can come from like a small idea.

A big trip can be something that is largely improvised. It can be serendipitous, it can be spontaneous. Again, I really do think it comes down to mindset. I think we could have gone into that panicking about not having a place to stay, tired. You know, we got rained on.

We had flat tires, all this stuff. But because we had the attitude where we're like, this is an adventure. Like, what, this is like, we've been cooped up at home for a year and a half because of the pandemic. And now we're out here doing this amazing thing. Like, how lucky are we?

And because we came in with that attitude, it just turned into like a really fulfilling, if exhausting, adventure. - You know, it was kind of in your backyard per se, right? It wasn't directly there, but you took a train. You didn't have to cross an ocean. You didn't have to spend thousands on plane tickets.

So, you know, I think a lot of times everyone plans vacations like, gosh, where can I go? That's, you know, halfway around the world. And it's cool to hear that, you know, If you just think about it, you might find something not too far away.