Check out Native Traveler's full-length KILIMANJARO show!

Contributor Ann Abel entitled her heartfelt feature for this show I Lost My Job, My Marriage, and My Home, So I Climbed Kilimanjaro. Ann won a North American Travel Journalists Association Award for this story. Deservedly so. It's a compelling kickoff to our exploration of the routes and wonders of summiting Africa’s highest peak, even drilling down to what to bring. And then we talk girl power in tackling such challenges, and other places where women and wilderness are coming together. Cue Mother Superior's solo in The Sound of Music.

Ann Abel//Award-winning travel Journalist

Aka Girlie Badass—Native Traveler feature contributor and award-winning travel journalist for Forbes, Robb Report, Departures, Afar, National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Brides and more. Will try almost anything once.

Dervla Pinto // Kensington Tours

Dervla Pinto is a “Destination Expert” for Kensington Tours, a custom-tour company based in Toronto. She’s traveled to 58 countries across six continents and studied in Tanzania, where she climbed Kilimanjaro at age 22. Not surprisingly, she’s an Africa specialist, but also has a soft spot for countries like India, Vietnam, and Bolivia.

Jennifer Haddow // Wild Women Expeditions

The owner of Wild Women Expeditions, Jennifer Haddow. She's also Editor-in-Chief of the new Wild Women Magazine. See below an excerpt from the first issue's letter from editor.

"I wanted to read stories about these wild women, who favour cooperation over competition, connection and compassion over ego and fear. Women who are bold and brave adventurers and warriors who protect what we love. Women who are deeply dedicated to the conservation of wild places and who step lightly on the land..."

Check out WWM's first issue:

Rozanne Pilbeam // MEC Brand and Event Management Specialist

Scenes from Kilimanjaro

(From travel writer, Ann Abel)

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(From Kensington Tours Tanzania expert, Dervla Pinto)

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(From MEC, Rozanne Pilbeam)

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Check out Native Traveler's full-length ARIZONA show!

I've fallen in love with Southern Arizona, thanks to the contributors and guests of today's show. San Francisco-based journalist Breena Kerr shines a light on the colourful, quirky afterworld of old copper mining town, Bisbee. I love this piece. Megan Kimble of Edible Baja Arizona reveals Tucson's rich, inclusive, community-based food scene, of which great restaurants are just one thing. And the writing of award-winning author/journalist Tom Miller beguiles me. Even if you never go to Southern Arizona, you'll be better off for having read one of Tom's books. I know I am. Nine more to go.

Writer, Breena Kerr

San Francisco writer, Breena Kerr, takes us to Southern Arizona's wild west afterworld in her Native Traveler feature, The Ghosts of Bisbee.  

Author/Journalist Tom Miller

Award-winning author and journalist, Tom Miller, shares his affectionate, funny, always clever take on his beloved Southwest.

The voice of all things food in Tucson,

Edible Baja Arizona

Edible Baja Arizona editor Megan Kimble reveals the wide-ranging, community-wide vision of food in Tuscon that helped the city earn a recent UNESCO World Food Heritage Designation.

Tucson Becomes an Unlikely Food Star // Kim Severson, The New York Times

 

A great overview of why Tuscon has been catapulted onto a world foodie stage.

There are food deserts, those urban neighborhoods where finding healthful food is nearly impossible, and then there is Tucson.

When the rain comes down hard on a hot summer afternoon here, locals start acting like Cindy Lou Who on Christmas morning. They turn their faces to the sky and celebrate with prickly pear margaritas. When you get only 12 inches of rain a year, every drop matters.

Coaxing a vibrant food culture from this land of heat and cactuses an hour’s drive north of the Mexican border seems an exhausting and impossible quest. But it’s never a good idea to underestimate a desert rat. Tucson, it turns out, is a muscular food town.

Images of Bisbee Arizona

(Thanks to Breena Kerr and the Town of Bisbee)

Linda Ronstadt's Borderland // Lawrence Downes,

The New York Times

We love the insight here, both into the borderlands of Southern Arizona and Linda Ronstadt.

We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.

In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.

Check out Native Traveler's full-length AROUND THE WORLD TRAVEL show!

It's quite a thing to ditch life as you know it and take off to explore the world. Today we celebrate this spirit of open-ended adventure and the life lessons therein—big and small. We learn about how and what happens when you do this as a family. We also look at the best of authentic street foods around the world—often the fare of choice for those budgeting to stay on the road as long as possible. Enjoy!

Kim Dinan

Kim Dinan is an author and adventurer. Her writing has appeared in Parks and Recreation magazine, Northwest Travel magazine, Trailer Life magazine, Go Explore magazine, and OnTrak magazine, among others. Her popular blog, So Many Places, was named one of the best outdoor blogs by USA Today and has been featured online by such sites as Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. Her debut memoir, “The Yellow Envelope,” hit shelves 4/4/17.

Heather Greenwood Davis

Heather Greenwood Davis is a Contributing Editor at National Geographic Traveler.  She is also an award-winning freelance writer, columnist, TV and radio personality and the voice behind GlobetrottingMama.com—an internationally-acclaimed family travel blog. Heather advocates for travel as a tool for both education and family bonding, themes that often appear in her storytelling across various media.

KF Seetoh

Hailed as “Food Guide Maven” and the “Guru of Grub” by The New York Times and CNN respectively, KF Seetoh has been championing street food culture in many ways. He was accorded and recognised as Singapore’s Food Ambassador by the late former President Mr SR Nathan. After a decade of professional stints in the media industry, KF Seetoh put a lucrative photography business aside and founded Makansutra.

ABOUT THE WORLD STREET FOOD CONGRESS:

The brainchild of heritage and street food maven KF Seetoh of Makansutra, the WSFC was created in 2013 largely to capitalise on all the relevant aspects and opportunities of heritage street food culture around the world. It seeks to address three most pressing points of this culinary Street Food culture which serves to be the Pillars of the event:

1. To Preserve… it’s foodways, heritage and celebrate the culture.
2. To Professionalise... with a new thinking of delivering, serving and entertaining with street food culture.
3. To imagine new Possibilities... to seek a new space for tomorrow’s world of street food soldiers to defend and game on.

ABOUT WORLD STREET FOOD CONGRESS 2017:

Date: 31 May to 4 June 2017
Venue: Mall Of Asia (MOA), Manila

The World Street Food Congress 2017 (WSFC17) will be held in the Philippines again, in what CNN calls one of “the world best food destinations”. In 2016’s WSFC, a record 73,000 food wise and hungry people came for the 25 stalls from 12 cities and patiently tore into Iga Bakar, Chocolate Martabak, Prawn Paste Chicken Burger, Truffle Paella Lechon, Nambo Banana Sticky Rice and much more.

ABOUT MAKANSUTRA:

Founded in 1997 by entrepreneur-photojournalist KF Seetoh and headquartered in Singapore, Makansutra (S) Pte Ltd is a company that celebrates and promotes food culture. They endeavour to share and celebrate all aspects of the culinary kingdom through their food guides, online content, eateries, specialised events, projects, and TV shows.

To quote the American author and journalist Bill Buford on food: “It is an identity, culture and history. It is science and nature, and botany. It is earth. It is our family, our philosophy, our past. It is the most important matter in our lives. It is more than its ingredients... But it is also just dinner. It is serious, and not.”

Check out Native Traveler's full-length ALGONQUIN show!

Here we celebrate ice out on the lacework of lakes and waterways across Canada, but specifically that of Algonquin park—Canada’s oldest provincial park three hours northwest of Toronto. We talk lost canoe routes and tripping techniques. We take a look at one of Ontario's most beloved wilderness lodges. First, though, we mark the 100th anniversary of the death of a Canadian art icon, Tom Thomson, in Algonquin Park and the making of a Canadian legend.

The Happy Camper

A Perfect Fall Day on Canoe Lake

Check out Native Traveler's full-length SILENT PLACES show!

When was the last time you heard nothing? This week we explore wild silence—the most extraordinary places for travelers to find it, why we need it, and how we can enjoy it while being pampered with the ultimate in creature comforts. Shhhhhh and listen below. 

From Ann Abel's Instagram Account // @abeltotravel 

New York

Aganoa

Colorado

Bhutan

Sacred Valley

Ultima

Check out Native Traveler's full-length DORDOGNE show!

The Dordogne feels eternal. We marvel at landmarks reaching back to pre-history, bucolic landscapes and unhurried traditions that defy a trend-driven hyper-wired world. Its beauty and history aside, I think the sheer endurance of a Deep France way of life here restores us, and, more recently, reassures us that perhaps these wonky times too shall pass.

Caledon and la Dordogne: Home truths from deep France // In the Hills

Here's the full story I wrote about the Dordogne shortly after meeting la famille de Commarque about 8 years ago.

Check out Native Traveler's full-length KOREA show!

The transformation from outsider to denizen within any foreign land can be gradual, sometimes hard-won. Certainly, embedding in the fascinating, unfamiliar culture of South Korea is no exception. Our very own Segment Producer Lindsay McEwen walks us through her subtle yet profound metamorphosis over three years teaching English as a second language in Seoul. This lovely feature kicks off Native Traveler's full hour exploring South Korea—just in time to inspire those contemplating a visit to the 2018 Winter Olympic in Pyeongchang. 즐기세요 (enjoy)! 

Lindsay's Korea Snapshots