Podcasts about Viator

We're taking you to the incredible country of Georgia, one of the most underrated countries in the world where wine, history, and culture come together in the most magical way in the main city of Tbilisi and beyond. We explore historic spas, wine baths, local nightlife, cultural sites, natural wonders in the Caucasus Mountains.We also dive deep into our experience at ⁠WINECAST⁠, a five-day festival celebrating cinema, wine, and Georgian culture with film screenings, wine tastings and masterclasses, live music, and more!Highlights of Georgia:The rich history of Georgia as the birthplace of wine

Kirsten, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor and mom of three, joins us to break down how her family spent six nights in Puerto Rico for just $1,500 out of pocket on a trip that would have cost around $12,000 in cash. We get into exactly how she pulled it off using JetBlue points, Hyatt points, credit card travel credits, rental car status, and a Hyatt Guest of Honor award. Kirsten walks us through their stay at the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve, why Guest of Honor benefits saved them hundreds of dollars on breakfast and parking, and how Puerto Rico turned out to be an incredibly easy family destination for a February school break. We also talk about their adventures in El Yunque, natural waterslides and cliff jumping in the rainforest, a canceled snorkeling excursion that led to a great backup day at Luquillo Beach, and exploring historic Old San Juan. Plus, we cover the Capital One offer that earned Kirsten an incredible 30X on a Viator excursion, her favorite points and travel tools, and why Puerto Rico deserves a spot on your list if you want beaches, adventure, history, and tropical weather without needing a passport.Mentioned in this Episode:Relief Band - Use code WONDERLAND for 25% off!Find Us On Online:Sign Up for the Y! Wonder Travel NewsletterMary Ellen | JoFacebook GroupAffiliate Links:Seats.AeroBEST PRICE on CardPointers subscription!Comfrt.com 15% OFFChase/Capital One/Amex Card LinksOur Favorite Travel NecessitiesWe receive a small commission when you choose to use any of our links to purchase your products or apply for your cards! We SO appreciate when you choose to give back to the podcast in this way!

Wondering where to eat in Austin? We're sharing 11 of the best restaurants in Austin, Texas, from Caribbean and Mediterranean flavor bombs to steakhouses, Italian favorites, smash burgers, and gorgeous lakeside dining. Whether you're visiting Austin or a local looking for your next great meal, these are the restaurants we recommend again and again!In this episode, we cover: Canje, Ezov, La Piscina, The Kimberly, Hula Hut, Quince Lakehouse, Intero, ATX Cocina, Birdie's, NADC, and Steiner Ranch Steakhouse. Listen to here what's good and the occasion that would bring you into these spots.Austin hotels we recommend:​The LINE Hotel – Great location and view of the lake and bats​Hotel Van Zandt – Great rooftop pool vibes​The Downright Hotel – Cute pink, fun decor and a great pool vibe.​Lake Austin Spa Resort – All-inclusive wellness resort on the Lake, it is absolutely amazing! You can also book a spa day, see our Lake Austin Spa Review before you go!Check out fun things to do in Austin that we recommend on Viator. These are perfect if you don't have a car or want to have some unique experiences on this trip.Find a great flight deal to Austin with Thrifty Traveler Premium's flight deals. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Airbnb spent ten years swearing it would never be another OTA. It just started buying its experiences from Viator.For twenty years the industry has argued about whether anybody can build a real marketplace for experiences. Mitch Bach and Pete Syme think the Airbnb deal settles it. The companies with the deepest pockets have looked at the category, done the arithmetic, and decided to rent someone else's supply rather than build their own. The ones still committed to building are running on economics that get worse every year, even while the market underneath them grows. None of that stays inside the marketplaces. A business under margin pressure has only so many places to find money, and the commission operators pay is the one that moves the dial.Pete's answer for operators is not a new tactic, and he says so plainly. What has changed is the price of ignoring the old ones. Discovery sits underneath every other question an operator has, and more money flowing into the platforms meant to solve it has made it harder, not easier. His argument is that operators keep chasing discovery where it costs the most to win while walking past the customers already sitting in their own city, the corporates and schools and universities that book fifteen times instead of once. Mitch pushes on what that leaves for anyone running a general tour for a general audience. They land in the same place: the only bagel tour in New York gets found, and the two hundredth walking tour in Madrid does not.Resources:Peter Syme on LinkedIn, where he posts his breakdowns of the Viator and GetYourGuide numbersTourpreneur business retreats in PortoTourpreneur CONNECT

In this episode, Ray Cochrane breaks down NVIDIA’s case for world action models, the shift that swaps a robot’s picture-describing backbone for one trained to predict what happens next. He also covers Perseverance closing in on the off-world driving record, a derelict SpaceX rocket stage hitting the Moon, and Anthropic’s rework of Claude Fable 5’s biology safeguards. Finally, he digs into Gemini Omni, Google’s undisclosed trip-planning rankings, the Danube’s record low, and iFixit’s call for Apple to unlock the iPad bootloader. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a personal update. Wildfires in Eastern Oregon made for a rough week of heavy smoke, and a local building burned down, which he calls a real tragedy. Meanwhile, his work at Blubrry has centered on PowerPress fixes, where reproducing customer-reported bugs remains the biggest headache. Support tickets rarely carry enough detail, and the errors themselves are often too vague to diagnose. Consequently, he is leaning toward a stronger logging and error layer, and he asks experienced developers to share what actually works for them. Beyond VLAs: NVIDIA’s Case for World Action Models The featured story comes from NVIDIA’s developer blog, and it answers a question sitting underneath this year’s robot news. Why do robot arms fall apart the moment anything changes? Move a cup six inches, swap its shape, or change the lighting, and a policy that worked perfectly in training fails. The answer, according to NVIDIA, is not the robot but the model underneath it. For the last few years, the dominant approach has been the vision-language-action model, or VLA, built on an AI that originally learned to describe pictures. Consequently, it recognizes a banana it has never seen, in a kitchen it has never seen, yet it has no idea what that banana will do next. As the article puts it, such a model “does not learn what happens to a mug when the gripper closes, how a towel folds, where an object lands when released.” Because the physics never arrives with the model, every scrap of it has to come out of hand-recorded demonstrations. The proposed fix swaps the foundation entirely. Instead of building on a model that learned to caption images, a world action model builds on one trained to predict how video continues, so the physics is already paid for. Notably, these models output an action and a prediction of what the robot’s cameras will see, in the same pass. Cochrane likens it to forethought, imagining your own motion as you make it. NVIDIA’s implementation is Cosmos 3, pretrained on roughly 767 million images and 348 million videos of real-world dynamics. It ships in 4, 16, and 64 billion parameter sizes named Edge, Nano, and Super, and it runs in real time on a Jetson Thor board bolted to the robot itself. Cochrane recalls his dad owning one of those Jetson boards, and he asks anyone working in robotics to explain how the throughput figures fit together. However, he closes on an open question: where did 348 million videos actually come from? For deeper detail, he points listeners to the source article and to NVIDIA researcher Jim Fan. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Perseverance Closes In on the Off-World Driving Record Ars Technica reports that NASA’s Perseverance rover is about to take the record for most distance driven on another world. The mark sits at roughly 28 miles, set by NASA’s own Opportunity rover across more than fourteen years before it went quiet in 2018. As Cochrane works out on air, that averages about two miles a year. Perseverance will pass it in roughly five years instead. The difference is a navigation system called AutoNav. Since a radio signal takes several minutes to reach Mars, earlier rovers crept along pre-plotted routes and stopped every half meter to think. Perseverance carries a second computer dedicated to processing what its cameras see, so it plans while the wheels keep turning. Consequently, about ninety percent of its driving is autonomous, against roughly ten percent for Curiosity, and it averages around 110 meters an hour rather than 15 to 18. Cochrane notes researchers finding the rover at planned sites days ahead of schedule, and he wonders aloud whether world action models might drive the next one. A SpaceX Rocket Stage Slammed Into the Moon Next, Smithsonian Magazine covered the Falcon 9 upper stage that struck the Moon on August 5. That stage flew back in January 2025, carrying Firefly’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience landers, and it was never meant to end up there. SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman says a mixture of solar activity and gravity nudged the derelict onto a lunar path after nineteen months adrift. Four tonnes of dead hardware arrived at about 5,400 miles per hour. Nobody watched it happen, and the reason is a nice bit of physics. It struck sunlit ground near a crater called Einstein, and no impact flash has ever been detected on the lit part of the Moon. However, the instruments caught the aftermath. South Korea’s Danuri orbiter imaged a dark new mark, while the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope picked up sodium and lithium in the plume, the lithium possibly shed by the rocket itself. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell quipped that he has “Sir Isaac Newton’s personal assurance that it did indeed hit the moon,” while planetary scientist Hannah Sargeant warns against making a habit of it. Cochrane points out the Apollo landing sites are still sitting up there. Anthropic Reworks Claude Fable 5’s Biology Safeguards Anthropic published a post on how Claude Fable 5 handles biology questions, and the bind is genuine. Biology is the textbook dual-use problem, since the knowledge behind reading your own lab results also helps someone build a weapon. Rather than refusing outright, a classifier watches for risky requests and quietly reroutes them to Claude Opus 5, a capable model without Fable 5’s biological depth. Anthropic calls that mechanism a fallback. The trouble was how often it fired on people doing nothing wrong. This update cut biology-related fallbacks by roughly 85 percent in Anthropic’s own testing, with expected overall drops of 67 percent on Claude.ai and 55 percent on Cowork. Genuinely dual-use territory still trips it, and Anthropic names virology, toxicology, and molecular design. Cochrane hit the old behavior himself and found it irritating, so he welcomes the refinement. Even so, he would rather see a false positive than a model helping someone produce a virus. Five Builders Put Gemini Omni Through Its Paces Google highlighted five builders working with Gemini Omni. Omni is a model rather than an app, and it generates video from text, images, other video, or audio, while also editing footage you already have. Google claims it “combines an intuitive understanding of physics with Gemini’s real-world knowledge,” citing gravity, kinetic energy, and fluid dynamics. As Cochrane observes, that is the same bet NVIDIA is making with robots, only pointed at video generation instead. He also flags a naming collision worth knowing about. NVIDIA calls its architecture an omni-model while Google’s product is simply Omni, two different things landing in the same week. Additionally, he encourages listeners to watch the demos, though he still senses a disconnect in AI-generated video and concedes that knowing its origin may color the impression. Gemini Wants to Plan Your Vacation Another Gemini piece, a how-to on trip planning, drew Cochrane’s sharpest take of the night. Gemini plugs straight into Google Maps, Flights, and Hotels, pulling live locations, reviews, and prices to build an itinerary. Switch on a feature called Personal Intelligence, and it reads across your Google apps, turning a messy trip-planning email chain into a clean master plan. Clever, but he calls it extremely concerning. Once these become services, he expects partnerships to quietly push particular hotels, restaurants, resorts, and destinations onto users. Notably, Google’s post never explains how any of it gets ranked, and the words sponsored, ad, affiliate, commission, and paid never appear once. There is no disclosure of a commercial arrangement, and no denial of one either. Meanwhile the post hands readers off to Viator to book tours without describing that relationship at all. Cochrane suspects the real effect shows up slowly, in the shape of small businesses continuing to disappear. The Senate Blocks a Rule on Who Controls Research Money Science reports that the Senate passed a temporary spending bill in the early hours of Saturday the 8th. The Senate’s version carries a one-paragraph rider the House version lacks, and that rider stops the White House Office of Management and Budget from finalizing a set of proposed rules. OMB builds the president’s budget, clears agency regulations, and controls how approved money actually reaches agencies. The bill itself is a stopgap, which prevents a shutdown without settling anything. The rules reach every organization that takes federal money, a pot of roughly $1.1 trillion across 41 agencies, about $150 billion of it research grants. They would let political appointees second-guess which grants get funded, allow awarded grants to be pulled when the work does not match presidential priorities, and put several countries off limits for research partnerships, China first among them. Senator Susan Collins pushed the block through after telling OMB director Russell Vought the proposal was deeply flawed, noting nearly 500,000 public comments, the vast majority opposed. However, the 90-6 vote is not law. Both chambers are on recess. Vought reportedly said the rule would not have been finalized before December anyway, and the block only lasts as long as the stopgap, which expires December 11. The Danube Falls to a Record Low ESA published a pair of Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite images showing the same bend of the Danube, 45 kilometers upstream of Budapest, photographed a year apart. Cochrane calls the before-and-after shocking, going from green to brown completely. Wire reports put the Budapest gauge near 10 centimeters at the start of the month, about four inches of water, against a previous record of 33 centimeters set in 2018. The knock-on effects arrived fast. Budapest ran short on both power and drinking water, while the shrinking flow concentrated pollution in what remained. Romania hit record lows on its own stretch as well. Cochrane hopes the recovery is already underway. What a Heatwave Actually Does to the Power Grid That river story runs directly into a Carbon Brief factcheck. Nuclear plants cool themselves with river water, so when the Danube dropped, plants in Hungary and Romania throttled back and pulled roughly 2.5 gigawatts off the grid. Romania declared a state of alert in its energy sector, and its navy reportedly used explosives to steer more water toward a plant intake. Carbon Brief then walked through what heatwaves do to each way of making electricity. Nuclear loses efficiency when the cooling water is already warm, though its shutdowns are mostly regulatory rather than mechanical. Gas turbines pull in less air because hot air is thinner, costing capacity. Wind falls off hardest, since a heatwave is a big stalled dome of high pressure and nearly still air. Solar is the surprise: cells genuinely do get less efficient as they heat up, yet total output climbs anyway, with UK solar up 46 percent during a four-day June heatwave against the week before. Butterflies Are on the Move Everywhere A new study in Nature Ecology and Evolution covered 1,758 butterfly species, roughly one in ten of every species we have named. The team pulled 6,182 records from 105 countries, reading non-English research alongside 68 expert write-ups. Four out of five species pushed into new territory, and about 79 percent of the logged shifts traced back to climate change and extreme weather. Separately, 27 percent saw their range shrink somewhere, and 22 percent moved up or down a mountain slope chasing cooler air. That sounds like good news, and it really is not. Expansion means a boundary moved, not that butterflies are thriving, since a species can push its northern edge forward while its southern edge quietly collapses. Lead author Shawan Chowdhury says the shifts turn up on every continent where butterflies occur. Additionally, monitoring gaps leave Central Africa, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and the Amazon Basin barely counted at all. Cochrane recalls hearing years ago that butterflies were disappearing in Hawaii, and he invites listeners spotting unfamiliar species locally to contribute what they see. Primates Make Friends Across Species Cochrane called this one a fun find. A study in the journal Primates, led by Cyril Grueter at Oxford, gathered 427 documented cases going back to the 1970s across 88 primate species and 127 partner species. Play and grooming dominated at 139 and 136 cases, alongside carrying, huddling, food sharing, and even adoption. Primates usually started the interactions themselves, with juveniles playing most, adult females handling grooming and caregiving, and adult males least likely to join in. The examples are remarkable. Japanese macaques on the island of Yakushima groom sika deer and climb on their backs, a silverback gorilla cradled a tiny wild bushbaby, and wild capuchins in Brazil adopted an infant marmoset in a bond that held for weeks. However, Grueter rejects the pet-keeping headline and prefers the hedged term proto-pet keeping. The actual claim is smaller and more interesting: curiosity, tolerance, caregiving, and play have roots running far deeper than humans do. iFixit Tells Apple to Unlock the iPad Finally, an opinion piece from Charlie Sorrel at iFixit struck a chord. This fall, iPadOS 27 drops support for a batch of older iPads, including the 8th-generation iPad, the third-generation Air, the fifth-generation mini, and the first-generation iPad Pros. Cochrane owns one of those Pros and reports it still works fine. Those devices will not break, but they stop getting OS and security updates until apps abandon them and the battery gives out. The obvious second life is Linux, except the bootloader stays locked. Apple’s iBoot will not load anything else, unlike a Mac, a PC, or most Android phones. Sorrel argues it “should be a user choice, not a vendor choice,” and Cochrane agrees flatly. You own the device, so why does Apple decide what runs on it? He compares the situation to jailbreaking, and he suspects most consumers have never pushed back simply because it never occurs to them. Nevertheless, he hopes an unlock eventually breathes new life into hardware that still works perfectly well. Cochrane wraps with housekeeping: become a GNC Insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider, email geeknews@gmail.com, subscribe to the newsletter, and grab a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com. He thanks GoDaddy for over twenty years of keeping the show on the air, and he signs off wishing listeners a wonderful evening. The post The Robot That Imagines First #1872 appeared first on Geek News Central.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane digs into Anthropic’s admission that Claude models reached real systems during sandboxed safety tests. He also covers OpenAI’s Astra model cracking ten decade-old math problems, DeepMind open-sourcing its WeatherNext cyclone forecaster, and Europe’s brutal fire season. Finally, he wraps with the MacBook Neo sweeping K-12 schools, WhatsApp calling in the browser, and the troubled rescue of NASA’s Swift observatory. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a personal update. He just got back from a trip home to O’ahu, where he helped his mom with projects around the house, caught up with friends, and finally rode the island’s new rail line ahead of its phase-two extension to downtown. Also in the pipeline, a September trip to Michigan is coming up, and he is closing out three years at Oregon’s Finest to focus on Blubrry and the show. Then he turns to the featured story. Capture the Real Flag: Claude Reached Real Systems During Anthropic’s Safety Tests Cochrane’s featured story comes from Anthropic’s own investigation. A misconfiguration left evaluation machines connected to the live internet during capture-the-flag safety tests, and Claude models reached real production systems in three incidents across 141,006 reviewed runs. One model extracted working credentials and entered a real company’s database, another published a malicious package to PyPI for about an hour, and the newest model recognized the environment was real and walked away from the flag. Notably, Anthropic found no evidence of models pursuing goals of their own. The models did what their evaluations asked. The review began after OpenAI disclosed that its own models escaped an isolated test environment. Cochrane praises the transparency of the postmortem. However, he argues the incidents signal an industry-wide gap: evaluation infrastructure needs the same security rigor as production systems, and he hopes every lab takes the hint. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. An OpenAI Model Cracks Ten Open Math Problems OpenAI says an internal model called Astra produced ten new results on open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, each stuck for at least a decade. The wins range from sphere packing to a lattice problem behind post-quantum cryptography, plus two entries from Paul Erdős’s famous problem list. None are peer-reviewed yet, but every proof carries a machine-checked Lean 4 certificate. Cochrane finds the results impressive precisely because they reach past what humans could derive quickly, though OpenAI has not said how much human steering was involved. Scientists With LLMs Will “Do More, Less Well” Next, Nature’s news desk covered a modeling study predicting that scientists who adopt LLM tools will “do more, less well.” The team, which includes University of Washington biologist Carl Bergstrom, used optimal foraging theory to model researchers under publish-or-perish incentives. Faster AI-assisted work pushes them toward fresh projects instead of follow-up experiments and extra analysis. Cochrane relates from his own research: heavy LLM assistance can mean understanding the work less, which makes digging into the whys much harder. Intel’s Chip-Stitching Hub in New Mexico Intel’s newsroom showcased Fab 9 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, its U.S. hub for advanced packaging. Since single chips max out at the reticle limit, Intel stitches specialized chiplets together with Foveros stacking and EMIB silicon bridges until they act like one huge processor. Packages already reach eight times that single-chip ceiling, with twelve times targeted by 2028. Cochrane muses about a future where consumers simply snap extra compute onto a board. Gemini Robotics ER 2 Is a Brain for Robots DeepMind released Gemini Robotics ER 2, its most capable embodied reasoning model. The system chats with humans, plans multi-step tasks, and hands motor control to whatever vision-language-action model a robot runs. Moreover, it calls tools like Google Search mid-task and plans its next move while its hands keep working. Demos show it orchestrating Boston Dynamics’ Spot and Apptronik’s Apollo 2, and developers can use it now through the Gemini API. DeepMind Open-Sources Its Cyclone Forecaster Staying with DeepMind, the new WeatherNext Cyclones model adds more than a full day of extra warning on a storm’s track, intensity, and wind structure. It ran live with the National Hurricane Center during the 2025 season, helping forecasters spot Hurricane Melissa’s rapid intensification before its Jamaica landfall. Best of all, DeepMind open-sourced the code and model weights for research and commercial use alike. Cochrane, a longtime fan of the lab, calls the public release a huge service. Climate Change Supercharges Europe’s Disasters Eos rounded up how climate change is supercharging Europe’s heat, drought, and wildfires. Southwestern France has burned through about 287,000 acres this year, and roughly 330,000 people across France and Spain fled their homes in one of Europe’s largest evacuations since World War II. France also recorded more than 5,700 excess heat deaths in under three weeks. Meanwhile, a Bordeaux-region blaze spawned a pyrocumulonimbus fire cloud, and Cochrane notes that hearing “unprecedented” every year is starting to create a precedent. Ten Years of WILDLABS and Arm Arm is celebrating ten years of backing WILDLABS, a network connecting more than 16,000 conservationists across 180 countries. The goal was never to invent new conservation technology. Instead, it closes the information gap so tools and lessons get shared openly. Cochrane highlights a team using miniaturized GPS tags to track migrating bats, and says the project bears the heart of open source. FarmBeats Brings AI to Ag Classrooms Microsoft and the National FFA Organization expanded FarmBeats for Students nationally. The program teaches future farmers with smart soil sensors, data science, and AI, mirroring how real farms automate tractors and deploy drones against pests. At launch, 185 middle and high schools received free classroom kits. Interested families can grab a kit for $35, and the Microsoft Learn training is free. MacBook Neo Pulls Schools Off Chromebooks Apple’s earnings call revealed the MacBook Neo displacing Chromebooks and Windows machines in K-12. Close to half of the Neo’s large U.S. education purchases last quarter replaced competing fleets, including 25,000 students in Pinellas County, Florida. Cochrane sees the first truly affordable Apple laptop finally competing where Chromebooks have lived for a decade. He expects Apple to keep taking K-12 share from Google and Microsoft. Apple Upgrade Turns iPhones Into a Lease Apple also launched Apple Upgrade, a hardware leasing program backed by Klarna. iPhones start at $17.99 per month with 12- to 36-month terms by device, and lease-end options let you upgrade, buy out, or walk away. However, entry-level hardware like the base iPhone 16 and Mac mini is excluded, and enrollment requires a Klarna account and a soft credit check. Cochrane admits he has never been a leasing fan, having once bought his phone outright with tip money, but he expects plenty of takers. WhatsApp Calling Comes to the Browser Meta brought calling to WhatsApp Web, no app download required. Browser calls keep end-to-end encryption and add screen sharing, a dedicated Calls tab, waiting rooms for group links, and automatic HD video. Additionally, group calls now transfer between devices mid-call, and a Drown Out the Noise feature suppresses background racket. Everything rolls out gradually over the coming weeks. July’s Gemini Drop July’s Gemini Drop adds voice control on macOS, letting users dictate and transform text in any active window. Gemini Spark, the always-on assistant, expands nearly worldwide, except the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Nigeria. New Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite models arrive alongside avatar-based image personalization and app hookups for Dropbox, Zillow Rentals, and Viator. The Rescue Satellite That Needs Rescuing Katalyst Space Technologies’ LINK spacecraft, launched to boost NASA’s sinking Swift observatory, began tumbling in late July. Two of its three reaction wheels failed and its cold-gas thrusters degraded, so engineers used an electric xenon thruster to cut the spin from nine degrees per second to about 1.5. CEO Ghonhee Lee says a capture attempt is “very much in the cards,” with rendezvous in late August at the earliest. Cochrane wonders what happens if the window closes, and he promises to keep listeners updated. Curiosity Finds a Honeycomb Valley on Mars Finally, Curiosity rolled into a Martian valley nicknamed Valle Grande and found a honeycomb landscape. Polygonal fractures just inches wide stretch in every direction and climb a butte named Miraflores. Project scientist Ashwin Vasavada says the “sea of polygons took our breath away.” The rover just passed fourteen years on Mars, and scientists suspect ancient warming and cooling cycles fractured the ground. Cochrane wraps with housekeeping: become a GNC Insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider, email geeknews@gmail.com, subscribe to the newsletter, and grab a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com (he uses Pocket Casts himself). He signs off until Monday’s show. The post Capture The Real Flag #1871 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Wandering Works for Us PodcastDate: 1 August 2026Title: York & Corbridge, UK: Ghosts, Vikings, and the Wall That Ended Our England LegSummary of EpisodeYork earns the title of favorite city on the trip: walkable, atmospheric, and layered with Viking, medieval, and LGBTQ+ history. We cover the Shambles and its Harry Potter branding, the Jorvik Viking Centre's ride-through experience (built on the actual Coppergate dig), a haunted pub crawl at the Black Swan, a walk on the city walls at sunset, and the Holy Trinity Church plaque marking Anne Lister and Ann Walker's 1834 union. We're honest about regretting skipping York Minster. From there, we head to Corbridge for one final England stop — reuniting with an old friend, visiting Corbridge Roman Town, and touring Hadrian's Wall — before the coastal drive north to Edinburgh closes out the England chapter of the trip.Key Topics[03:25] The Shambles and its Harry Potter-themed shops[06:10]  The butterbeer verdict (get it for the show, not the taste)[11:00]   Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate — Anne Lister and Ann Walker[13:00]  The Black Swan and York's haunted-pub reputation[13:30]  Walking York's city walls at sunset[15:00]  Where we ate in York (Côte York, The Fat Badger, Kalpakavadi)[16:35]  Jorvik Viking Centre: the Coppergate dig and the immersive ride experience[23:50] York Minster — the one we regret skipping[26:00] Corbridge and the Golden Lion Inn[26:30] Corbridge Roman Town and its museum[27:40] Reconnecting with an old friend for a personal tour of Hadrian's Wall[29:00]  The coastal drive north to EdinburghImportant Links To follow all of our antics and adventures, please visit our social media pages and our website at wwforus.com! You can send us a message at any of these places, and feel free to email us at wandering@wwforus.comLike what we are doing? Buy us a gin and tonic and help us keep going!InstagramFacebookTiktokYouTubeLooking for a tour guide in Portugal? I have a whole list!Blog post for this episode: Things to Do in York: Vikings, City Walls, and a Butter Beer we wouldn't order again.RESOURCES & LINKSLooking to plan your next trip to Portugal? We can help! Check out our guides and Itineraries at wwforus.comFree Lisbon ItineraryPacking ListEssentials for every tripRenting a car in PortugalLooking for a tour guide in Portugal? I have a whole list!**Wandering Works for Us contains affiliate links and is part of Viator, Get Your Guide, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Awin,  and Amazon Services Associates Program LLC. If you make a purchase using one of the links, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/wandering-works-for-us/donations

We're taking you along on our 6 day trip to Puerto Rico for every mojito, empanada, and beach. We share our honest opinions about Puerto Rico's vibrant culture, beautiful architecture, and local beaches. We cover where to stay, what to eat, driving tips, how much the trip cost, our experience at the Puerto Rico Wine & Food Festival, and plenty of recommendations to help you plan your own Caribbean getaway without needing a passport.You can download our 5-day Puerto Rico itinerary and take this exact same trip.Episode Highlights:How to get to Puerto Rico as a U.S. travelerTransportation, driving, parking, and money saving travel tipsWhere to stay in San Juan and what made our resort experience specialExploring Old San Juan, El Morro, La Perla, and colorful colonial streetsVisiting the Puerto Rico Wine & Food FestivalBoat excursion to Culebra Island and relaxing at Flamenco BeachLuquillo Beach, Playa Buyé, Domes Beach, Crash Boat Beach, and PonceOur favorite Puerto Rican food, cocktails, and restaurants from the tripHotels in Puerto Rico we recommend:La Concha Resort - Where we stayed here. The location is great with plenty of bars and restaurants in walking distance, just 15 minutes from the airport, Condado Beach is stunning and the resort has many great amenities.The Royal Sonesta - Swim up bar!Caribe Hilton - Huge pool and big balconies overlooking the ocean.Check out our Puerto Rico tours and things to do in our Viator shop.Find a great flight deal to San Juan with Thrifty Traveler Premium's flight deals. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Massimo Diana"Breviario laico"Meditazioni sull'umanoPrefazione di Romano MàderaGabrielli Editoriwww.gabriellieditori.itCinquantadue meditazioni – una per ogni settimana dell'anno – tratte dal patrimonio delle scienze umane, al fine di promuovere una  spiritualità laica che comprende ogni via di senso, di orientamento complessivo della vita, anche di chi religioso non è.Un breviario è uno strumento da utilizzare per la riflessione e la meditazione personale, un gesto quotidiano di cura del proprio mondo interno, nella convinzione che è anzitutto alimentando e costruendo dentro di noi una umanità più inclusiva, tollerante, aperta ed empatica che possiamo efficacemente contribuire alla costruzione di un mondo più giusto, più bello, più vero, più buono.È laico perché i testi che ispirano le cinquantadue meditazioni – una per ogni settimana dell'anno – non sono tratti dal patrimonio religioso e spirituale ma dal mondo più ampio della cultura umana, al fine di promuovere una  spiritualità laica che comprende ogni via di senso, di orientamento complessivo della vita, anche di chi religioso non è.Di fronte allo sconvolgimento epocale a cui stiamo assistendo abbiamo urgente bisogno di comprendere cosa stia accadendo e cosa vi sia alla radice, anche al fine di individuare possibili risposte, che interpellino tutti e ciascuno. Come e quando siamo divenuti quello che siamo? Cosa significa divenire ed essere umani? Perché siamo capaci, in modi così estremi, di altruismo e di egoismo, di solidarietà e di aggressività?Il breviario laico prova a rispondere a queste domande, privilegiando il punto di vista che le psicologie del profondo e altre scienze umane come l'etologia, l'antropologia culturale, la psicologia sociale, offrono, nel tentativo di comprendere che cosa avviene sotto l'iceberg della storia e della geopolitica.em>“Spiritualità laica” è anche un progetto di dialogo e di impegno solidale, aperto senza prevenzioni a ogni “spirito” che voglia cercare un senso consapevolmente, operando per approfondire e dispiegare le energie legate alle condizioni e ai modi fondamentali della vita umana: fiducia, solidarietà, cooperazione.Romano Màdera, dalla PrefazioneMassimo DianaFilosofoÈ analista biografico a orientamento filosofico (SABOF) ed è docente alla Scuola Phi­lo Pratiche filosofiche. Tra le sue ultime pubblicazioni: Unde Malum? L'enigma della distruttività umana, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2022; Breviario Spirituale, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 2023; Breviario Universale, 5 Voll., Viator, Milano 2023/2024; In principio. Una Weltanschauung psicoanalitica, Alpes, Roma 2024.Diventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

Las Vegas is the pool party capital of the world! With so many options to swim, dance, and enjoy the day clubs, who knows where to start?! In this episode we share some of the best day clubs in Las Vegas, dress codes, how to get in for free, and what to expect from music to vibes to drinks and costs.The hotels in Las Vegas and their pool parties we recommend:Fontainebleau Las Vegas - LIV BeachCaesars Palace - Omnia DayclubThe Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas - Marquee DayclubEncore Las Vegas - Encore Beach ClubMGM Grand Las Vegas - Palm Tree Beach ClubThe Venetian Resort Las Vegas - TAO Beach DayclubARIA Resort & Casino - Liquid Pool LoungeCirca Resort & Casino - Stadium SwimResorts World Las Vegas - AYU DayclubVirgin Hotels Las Vegas - Kassi Beach HouseMandalay Bay Resort and Casino - Daylight Beach Club Encore Las Vegas - XS Night Swim (night pool party)Check out the Las Vegas experiences and activities we recommend in our curated Viator shop.Find a great flight deal to Las Vegas, or anywhere else, by signing up for ⁠⁠⁠Thrifty Traveler Premium⁠⁠⁠ and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Wandering Works for Us PodcastDate: 13 June 2026Day Trips beyond Lisbon, Part 2: Palácio do Bucaco, Grutas da Mira de Aire, Quinta do Cerejeiras, and Buddha Eden GardensSummary of EpisodeWe're back with another round of day trips from Lisbon — and this batch might be our favourites yet. In this episode, Shelley and Beth head into some of Portugal's most surprising corners: a fairy-tale palace lost in an ancient forest, the largest caves in the country (that almost nobody outside Portugal knows exist), and a vast sculpture garden full of Buddhas and terracotta warriors tucked between vineyards. Yes, really.If you loved our first Lisbon day trips episode, this one goes even deeper off the well-worn path.In This EpisodePalácio do Buçaco (~2.5 hours from Lisbon) A neo-Manueline palace inside a UNESCO-protected forest — the kind of place that genuinely feels like it shouldn't exist. We talk about the centuries-old forest (planted by monks, over 700 tree species), the extraordinary palace interior, and the shadow of King Carlos I, who was assassinated just a year after it was completed. We also get into the Battle of Buçaco from the Peninsular War and why the old convent on the grounds is worth seeking out. Our honest take: this one is better as an overnight or paired with Coimbra, just 30 minutes away.Grutas de Mira de Aire (~1.5 hours from Lisbon) The largest open caves in Portugal, discovered by accident in 1947 when a local farmer noticed steam rising from the ground on a cold morning. Formed during the Middle Jurassic era (yes, dinosaur times), the caves stretch 11 km but 600 metres are open to visitors. We walk you through what the guided tour is actually like, the app you can use if your tour is in Portuguese, and that final room with the fountain show — a little kitsch, absolutely wonderful. A car is needed if you are doing it yourselves, but you can get a tour through Get Your Guide from Lisbon, and it pairs beautifully with Fátima for a full central Portugal day.Buddha Eden & Quinta das Cerejeiras (~1 hour from Lisbon, near Bombarral) This one needs to be seen to be believed. Thirty-five hectares of Buddhist statues, Easter Island heads, and terracotta warriors set among vineyards in the Óbidos wine region — created by collector Joe Berardo as a response to the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. We share what the experience is actually like, why you need comfortable shoes and more time than you think, and Beth tells the story of the train. We also cover Quinta das Cerejeiras nearby — the historic home of Abel Pereira da Fonseca — and how to actually get inside (hint: you need to call ahead).Key Topics[01:10] Palácio do Buçaco–Sorry about calling Luís I, Louis. I guess we went French for a minute. Make sure you check out our episode on Braga too![09:50] Grutas Mira de Aire underground cavesQuinta do Cerejeiras and wine tasting[27:15] Buddha Eden Gardens Mãe d'Água Restaurant  Important Links **Wandering Works for Us contains affiliate links and is part of Viator, Get Your Guide, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Awin, and Amazon Services Associates Program LLC. If you make a purchase using one of the links, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.To follow all of our antics and adventures, please visit our social media pages and our website at wwforus.com! You can send us a message at any of these places, and feel free to email us at wandering@wwforus.comInstagramFacebookTiktokYouTubeLooking for a tour guide in Portugal? I have a whole list!Blog posts for this episode: Grutas, Palácio do Bussaco, Quinta de Cerejeiras, and Buddha Eden Gardens.Want a guided day trip to Grutas de Mira de Aire? We've found a great option via GetYourGuide! Click here to see it.Head to wwforus.com for the full written guides with photos, practical details, and everything you need to plan these trips.Enjoyed this Episode?If the podcast is helping you plan your Portugal adventures, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, leave a review, or share it with a friend who's got Lisbon on their list. You can also find us on YouTube if you prefer to watch.And if you'd like to support what we do, you can buy us a gin and tonic over at Ko-fi.Until next time — keep wandering.RESOURCES & LINKSLooking to plan your next trip to Portugal? We can help! Check out our guides and Itineraries at wwforus.com

May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and on this important episode of Fishing the DMV, I am joined by Mercy Viator, Dermatology Certified Nurse Practitioner, to talk about two of the most dangerous threats facing anglers, hunters, hikers, kayakers, campers, and outdoor people everywhere: skin cancer and ticks/Lyme disease.When most people think about outdoor danger, they usually think about bad weather, rough water, accidents, hooks, wildlife, or getting lost. But the truth is, two of the biggest long-term health risks for people who spend a lot of time outside are sun exposure that can lead to skin cancer and tick bites that can lead to Lyme disease. These are serious outdoor health risks that every angler, hunter, and outdoorsman needs to take seriously before their next trip.In this episode, we break down why preparation matters, how to better protect yourself, and why prevention should be part of your regular fishing, hunting, hiking, and outdoor routine. Anglers are especially exposed because we spend long hours on the water under direct sunlight, reflected UV rays, and constantly changing weather conditions. We discuss the importance of routine skin checks, early detection, sun safety, and making UV protection a non-negotiable part of your gear.Mercy shares insight on the right type of sunscreen for fishing, how often you should reapply it, what sun-protective clothing actually helps, and why wide-brim hats, face coverings, sunglasses, gloves, and lightweight UV gear should be treated just like rods, reels, tackle, life jackets, and safety equipment. Whether you're fishing a tournament, bank fishing a local pond, wading a river, kayaking, or spending all day on the boat, protecting yourself from the sun is one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy for the long run.We also dive into ticks and Lyme disease, another major threat for anyone who spends time outdoors across the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. If you fish from the bank, hike through wooded trails, hunt, camp, kayak, or walk through tall grass to reach your favorite spot, tick prevention needs to be on your radar. Lyme disease can have serious long-term effects, and we discuss practical steps you can take to reduce your risk, check yourself after outdoor adventures, and make sure you are prepared before heading outside.The goal of this episode is simple: help anglers, hunters, and outdoor people understand that preparation can make all the difference. You can't always control the sun, the weather, the woods, or the water, but you can control whether you wear the right clothing, use the right sunscreen, check for ticks, and build smart habits that protect your health.This episode is a must-listen for anyone who loves fishing, hunting, hiking, kayaking, camping, boating, or spending time outside. Protecting yourself from skin cancer and Lyme disease is not optional — it is part of being prepared.Topics covered in this episode include:Skin Cancer Awareness Month Melanoma prevention for anglers Why sun exposure is dangerous for fishermen Sun safety while fishing Best sunscreen habits for outdoor people UV fishing clothing and sun-protective gear Fishing hats, face masks, gloves, and sunglasses Why anglers should get routine skin checks Tick prevention for fishermen, hunters, and hikers Lyme disease awareness in the outdoors How to check yourself for ticks after fishing or hunting Outdoor safety tips for the Mid-Atlantic fishing communityWhether you fish the Potomac River, Shenandoah River, Susquehanna River, Chesapeake Bay, Lake Anna, Smith Mountain Lake, Buggs Island, the Upper James River, or your local pond, this episode is a reminder that protecting your health is part of being prepared on the water, in the woods, and anywhere the outdoors takes you.On this exciting episode of Fishing the DMV, I am joined by Mercy Viator, Dermatology Certified Nurse Practitioner.  Mercy Viator on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dermnpmercy?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== Mercy Viator on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dermnpmercy?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Mercy Viator Top Choice on the best sunscreen to buy: https://shopmy.us/collections/5423594 Please support Fishing the DMV on Patreon: https://patreon.com/FishingtheDMVPodcast If you are interested in being on the show or a sponsorship opportunity, please reach out to me at fishingtheDMV@gmail.com LMD Enterprises: http://lmdoil.com/  Jake's bait & Tackle Website: http://www.jakesbaitandtackle.com/  Link to Tactical Fishing Company: https://tacticalfishingco.com/  Fishing Pro Tech: https://www.facebook.com/FishingProTech  Phone Number: (757) 566-1278  Email: lin@fishingprotech.us   Fishing Pro Tech Address: 7812-A Richmond Road, Toano, VA, United States, 23168Support the show

Jackie Griggs, CNM, is a Certified Nurse Midwife who has been practicing in the Houston/Beaumont area for the past 35 years. She is a mom of 5 grown sons, 3 born at home with the help of midwives. Three grandchildren, … Continue reading →

We're taking you inside The Sphere, one of the most talked-about attractions in Las Vegas. We're sharing our firsthand experience attending Illenium's Odyssey show and what makes this next-generation venue unlike any other, from its massive 360° LED screen and immersive visuals to spatial audio and interactive effects that make you feel like you're inside the performance. You'll also get practical tips on tickets, seating, and what to expect when visiting, making this episode a must-listen for anyone planning to see a show at the Sphere.Hotels in Las Vegas we recommend:The Venetian - The Sphere is connected to this hotelWe love The Flamingo for a good location on the strip at a great price with amenities, a good free pool and flamingos!Or check out these highly rated hotels in Las Vegas Check out the Las Vegas experiences and activities we recommend in our curated Viator shop.Find a great flight deal to Las Vegas, or anywhere else, with Thrifty Traveler Premium's flight deals. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

We're taking you to Dallas, TX, a vibrant and fast-growing city packed with incredible food, unique neighborhoods, and endless things to do. From scenic spots like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden and the Katy Trail to deep history at the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, we're covering how to explore Dallas like a local, a few restaurants and spas we love and share practical tips for navigating this sprawling Texas city.Episode Highlights:Top things to do in DallasBest neighborhoods: Deep Ellum & Bishop Arts DistrictUnique stops like the EyeboretumSpa experiences at WorldSprings & Spa CastleWhere to eat: Pecan Lodge, Hutchins BBQ & Eatzi's Market & BakeryTravel tips: weather, transportation & hotelsHotels in Dallas we recommend:Canvas Hotel DallasMarriott Dallas Las ColinasMagnolia Hotel Dallas DowntownOr check out these highly rated Dallas hotelsFind more fun things to do in Dallas, and even some that we wanted to do but couldn't get to, in our curated Viator shop.Find a great flight deal to Dallas, or anywhere else, with Thrifty Traveler Premium's flight deals. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast

Jusqu'ici, Claude jouait dans la cour des grands : Microsoft, Canva, Asana… Plus de deux cents intégrations professionnelles au compteur depuis juillet 2025, mais rien pour la vie de tous les jours. Ça, c'était avant.Cette semaine, Anthropic franchit un nouveau cap en ouvrant son répertoire de connecteurs, comprenez ces ponts logiciels qui relient Claude à des applications tierces, à une quinzaine de services grand public : Spotify, Uber, Uber Eats, Audible, AllTrails, TripAdvisor, Instacart, StubHub, Taskrabbit, Viator, Resy, Booking.com, TurboTax ou encore Credit Karma. Fini le jonglage entre applis : tout se gère désormais dans une seule et même conversation.Concrètement, ça donne quoi ? Vous planifiez une rando ce week-end. AllTrails vous suggère des sentiers adaptés à vos préférences, sans même que vous le demandiez. Vous ajustez : plus court, adapté aux chiens, plus sauvage. Tout ça sans changer d'écran. Si deux connecteurs peuvent répondre à un même besoin, Claude vous les présente côte à côte, classés par pertinence. Dans un seul fil, vous passez d'une recommandation de sentier à une réservation de restaurant sur Resy, commandez un Uber et remplissez votre panier Instacart. Claude comme interface unique entre vous et vos services. Anthropic tient aussi à rassurer sur un point sensible : pas de placement, pas de réponse sponsorisée. Avant tout achat ou toute réservation, Claude vous demande confirmation. Vos données ne servent pas à entraîner les modèles, et vous pouvez déconnecter chaque service en un clic.C'est louable, mais jusqu'à quand ? OpenAI développe déjà ses flux d'achats automatisés, Google s'appuie sur son empire publicitaire. Plus les partenaires seront nombreux, plus cet engagement sera difficile à tenir. Ce qui distingue Claude, c'est moins l'idée, ChatGPT intègre déjà Spotify et consorts, que son exécution : des suggestions contextuelles, sans que vous ayez à choisir vous-même le bon outil. Un dernier bémol, pour les auditeurs européens : la majorité des services listés restent centrés sur le marché américain. Visiblement, certaines fonctionnalités ont du mal à traverser l'Atlantique. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

-DeepSeek has released its latest AI models, the V4 Pro and Flash versions, a bit over a year after it went viral and became the top rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US. -Anthropic can now link up with your accounts on AllTrails, Audible, Booking.com, Instacart, Intuit Credit Karma, Intuit TurboTax, Resy, Spotify, StubHub, Taskrabbit, Thumbtack, TripAdvisor, Uber, Uber Eats and Viator. -A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig Polymarket bets on the weather at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes going on a trip is better than no trip at all and our three nights in Kyoto proved it. We fit in so much, I have zero regrets, and I'm sharing everything: what we did, what I'd do differently, and why you don't have to do it perfectly to have an incredible time. In This Episode You'll Learn ✔ How we got from Tokyo to Kyoto on the bullet train using the Smart Ex app and what we learned about IC cards (Suica vs. ICOCA) for the whole family ✔ Why we stayed at the Hyatt Place Kyoto and how we booked it using free night certificates and points ✔ Our honest review of Nishiki Market what to eat, how much time to give yourself, and how it's cash only ✔ What the Samurai Ninja Museum experience was actually like (hint: throwing stars and blowing darts are involved) ✔ The Sakura Light Festival at Nijo Castle, a cherry blossom illumination event I stumbled upon that ended up being magical ✔ Why I switched our Day 2 plans and prioritized Fushimi Inari first, and why I'd do it again ✔ The VoiceMap app walking tour that made Fushimi Inari one of the coolest experiences of the whole trip ✔ The "secret" bamboo grove at Fushimi Inari, what I know, what I couldn't find, and what I'd do differently ✔ Our full Nara day: feeding the deer (it's a little chaotic, here's what to know), seeing the Great Buddha, and why both my kids said Nara was their favorite ✔ Ramen Row at Kyoto Station how to find it, why it's worth it, and what we ordered ✔ The kimono fitting and tea ceremony at Camellia Flower Tea House in the Gion district why I'd book it earlier next time and what I wish I'd known ✔ Why I didn't book dinner reservations that last evening and why that was the right call ✔ Seven-Eleven Japan breakfast the smoothie machines, egg salad sandwiches, and the whipped cream fruit sandwich my daughter was obsessed with ✔ How to think about early mornings vs. real rest when you're traveling with kids This Episode Is Especially Helpful If... You're planning a family trip to Japan and trying to figure out how to actually fit Kyoto in You want to use Hyatt points or free night certificates for Japan travel You're overwhelmed by "do everything perfectly or don't go" thinking and need permission to just go You're trying to decide between the big Kyoto sights, Fushimi Inari, Nijo Castle, Nara, the Gion district, and what to prioritize You love the idea of meaningful, immersive travel experiences (like a tea ceremony or a shrine walk) but also want practical logistics You're traveling with kids or teens and need a real, honest take on pacing Resources & Mentioned in This Episode Smart Ex App — for purchasing bullet train (Shinkansen) tickets online Suica Card / ICOCA Card — IC transit cards for trains and subways in Japan Hyatt Place Kyoto — booked on free night certificates and points, one king bed and one twin bed rooms could be adjoining Nishiki Market — cash only; great for Wagyu beef, mochi with strawberries, green tea boba, homemade donuts and so much more Samurai Ninja Museum, Kyoto — interactive ninja experience + samurai museum guided tour; add the ninja experience add-on if you have kids Sakura Light Festival at Nijo Castle — cherry blossom illuminations, outdoor market, and optional evening performance (seasonal) Fushimi Inari Taisha — free to visit; Dorothy highly recommends the VoiceMap walking tour Golden Pavilion— A single loop around Kinkakuji temple VoiceMap App — self-guided audio walking tours; ~$10 each, one account works on two phones Nara Park — deer feeding, the Great Buddha at Todai-ji Temple Ramen Row, Kyoto Station — 10th floor; multiple ramen restaurants, including a vegan/gluten-free option Camellia Flower Tea House, Gion — book via Viator; kimono add-on available 1 hour or more before your tea time (book earlyit sells out!) Gion District, Kyoto — pagoda, lantern-lit streets, shops, shrines; beautiful at night Seven-Eleven Japan — smoothie machines, hard boiled eggs, whipped cream fruit sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, protein bars; ATMs inside work with MasterCard debit Loved This Episode? If this inspired you to take the trip, do the thing, and stop waiting for the perfect moment, I would be so grateful if you'd leave a review! It helps more women find this podcast and get the inspiration and tools they need to live fully. Thank you so much, love.

Hoy les contamos que el Rey Felipe Sexto ha comprobado de primera mano en la base de la Legión en Viator, los avances tecnológicos más pioneros del ejercito adaptados al combate y que marcarán los conflictos del futuro como por ejemplo vehículos robotizados para reducir el riesgo de los soldados. Muy atento, el monarca observaba las demostraciones que por las diferentes estaciones de trabajo que recorrió dentro de la base. La jornada estuvo marcada por drones, por la robotización o la inteligencia artificial.Enseguida se lo ampliamos pero antes Conocemos otros titulares del día:- La oficina de extranjería de Almería será la única de toda Andalucía, habilitada para poder presentar presencialmente las solicitudes para la regularización extraordinaria de inmigrantes.- La pasarela costera del Bocal en Santander donde murió una almeriense de 20 años junto con 5 estudiantes más se colapsó por la rotura de un herraje por efecto de la corrosión. Así lo ha concluido un perito judicial.- En los deportes si el Almería gana este domingo al Málaga en casa se hará con el gol average y si el Depor pincha volverá a meterse en puestos de ascenso directo.- También repasaremos lo más destacado de la agenda cultural de este fin de semana, donde la Feria del Libro sigue siendo la protagonista hasta el domingo en la Rambla de Almería.Escuchar audio

Wyndham Rewards pushes beyond hotel nights into experiences, and Michael Shiwdin, Global VP of Loyalty at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, explains why: engagement drives direct bookings, and direct bookings drive owner value. I talked with Michael at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar in Puerto Rico about how Wyndham Rewards Experiences works and what it means for hotels in the portfolio.

We're sharing the best restaurants in San Diego—from waterfront dining and rooftop hotspots to must-visit local favorites. As locals and former residents, we break down where to eat, what to order, and which spots are perfect for date nights, happy hour, and special occasions. Plus, we cover how to maximize dining credits from cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, and Amex Gold to save money while traveling or dining out. Whether you're planning a trip or just looking for your next meal, this guide has you covered.More resources to help our San Diego trip planning:Fun tours and things to do in San Diego via our curated Viator list1 Day San Diego Itinerary3 Day San Diego Itinerary Recommend San Diego hotels: The Westgate Hotel downtown for its amazing rooftop pool, The Lafayette Swim Club & Bungalows in North Park for its beautiful decor, fun bar and restaurants, and amazing pool, and Pacific Terrace Hotel in Pacific Beach to be front and center on the boardwalk in Pacific Beach.Get a great flight deal to San Diego with alerts from Thrifty Traveler Premium, use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

We're sharing how to spend four full days enjoying all the best Miami Beach has to offer. We share amazing beachfront properties to stay at, great places to eat, where to get Miami Beach drinks, beautiful rooftop bars, how to enjoy the beach beds and umbrellas, and where to go out dancing for some of that iconic Miami nightlife!We break down the differences between South Beach, Mid-Beach, and North Beach so you can choose the perfect area for your stay, plus hotel recommendations from mid-range gems to luxury oceanfront resorts.Miami Beach hotels we recommend (and stayed at during this trip!) are the Eden Roc Hotel for a bougie oceanfront option and the conveniently located Albion South Beach Hotel for a mid-range option.There is so much more to do in Miami, check out our Viator shop for other things to do in Miami we recommend for more inspo!Find a great flight deal to nearby Miami with Thrifty Traveler Premium, sign up to get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription!—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

We continue with part 2 of this historic 9-day adventure through Egypt exploring the impressive Abu Simbel, and continuing on our Nile River cruise stopping in Kom Ombo Temple, Edfu Temple, and ending in Luxor - a literal open air museum. In Luxor we take you into the most colorfully preserved tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the impressive cliffside Temple of Hatshepsut, take you through the largest Temple of Karnak, and end with seeing the Temple of Luxor, right in the middle of the city, lit up at night. We close the episode with one last spa day at the amazing Hilton Cairo Heliopolis.On this trip we went with Gate, cruised on the Queen of Hansa and in Cairo stayed at ⁠Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Khayyam Casino ⁠and ⁠Hilton Cairo Heliopolis.⁠ If those Cairos hotels are booked, check out these other highly rated hotels in Cairo.Check out our recommended Egypt experiences on Viator to visit all the same sites we did on this trip.Find a great flight deal to Cairo by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

We take you along a 9-day adventure through Egypt starting with the iconic Pyramids of Giza and Great Sphinx of Giza and then taking to the seas for a 4-day Nile River cruise stopping at ancient temples in Aswan Luxor and Kom Ombo. We bring you to Abu Simbel, colorful tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum throughout this part one of our two-part episode series.On this trip we went with Gate, cruised on the Queen of Hansa and in Cairo stayed at Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Khayyam Casino and Hilton Cairo Heliopolis. If those Cairos hotels are booked, check out these other highly rated hotels in Cairo.Check out our recommended Egypt experiences on Viator to visit all the same sites we did on this trip.Find a great flight deal to Cairo by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.—---------------------------------------Shop: Trip Itineraries ⁠& ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠Connect: ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Mitch Bach talks with Jenn Barbee, co-founder of Destination Innovate, about the real inner workings of DMOs, those three letters that every tour operator has an opinion about but few actually understand. Jenn has spent 30 years inside destination marketing, from a shoestring US Department of Commerce team trying to promote America on a $50,000 budget to her current work closing the gap between DMOs and the small businesses they are supposed to serve. The conversation covers how DMOs get funded, why they sit on valuable visitor data, and what tour operators can actually do to get beyond the dead-end website listing.It goes further than the typical "how to work with your tourism board" advice. Jenn and Mitch get into the identity crisis hitting tour operators and DMOs at the same time: both are losing ground to OTA platforms, both need direct guest relationships, and neither is building enough local partnerships to fight back. They talk short-term rental hosts as untapped referral channels, guerrilla marketing tactics that cost almost nothing, and the hard truth about inbound tourism to the US heading into World Cup and the 250th anniversary.Key TakeawaysYour DMO has expensive visitor data that could sharpen your product, pricing, and ads, but they will not hand it over unless you ask. 06:14 – 07:19 DMOs invest in data about visitor appetite, competing markets, and traveler clusters by neighborhood and interest type. That information rarely trickles down to small tour businesses because DMOs feel pressure to contextualize it or fear judgment on their numbers. Frame your ask around strengthening the destination's tourism product, not just helping your business, and you stand a real chance of getting access to insights you could never afford on your own.The single best first move with your DMO is to find the community manager and introduce yourself with specific visitor language, not a sales pitch. 11:48 – 12:58 Audit your tour product against what the destination website is promoting in terms of itineraries or themes, then reach out where you see a match or a gap. Lead with collaboration. Once you have that baseline, you can inch toward higher-value asks like data sharing or co-promotion, but only after you have earned the relationship through showing up and being useful.Survey your customers about whether they booked the experience before the hotel, then bring that data to the DMO. 56:29 – 56:39 If you can show a DMO that your tour attracted bed nights, you are speaking their only real language: occupancy and bed tax justification. Most tour operators never collect this data, and most DMOs have never seen it from a small business. It positions you as a strategic asset rather than another name on a listings page.DMOs are shifting from marketing organizations to stewardship organizations, and that tension is something you can use. 08:50 – 09:59 Many DMOs now describe themselves as "destination management" or "stewardship" organizations, moving toward what is right for their communities. Their boards and bed tax collectors still want heads-in-beds KPIs. If your tour disperses visitors into underserved neighborhoods, supports local businesses, or tells a more honest destination story, you become the kind of partner that helps a DMO justify its new direction to the people holding the purse strings.Getting listed on the DMO website is a win. Stop underestimating it. 13:10 – 13:45 Many operators treat a listing as table stakes, but some DMOs do not even offer that without a paid membership. If you are listed, follow up by tagging the DMO constantly on social media and feeding them content they can reshare within their brand guidelines. The social media managers have more flexibility than the executive staff and will amplify content that feels fresh or on-brand.If your local DMO is stuck promoting only the marquee attractions, skip them and go to the state level. 17:38 – 18:32 A DMO locked into bread-and-butter promotion is usually in protection mode, worried about occupancy numbers. State tourism offices have embraced experience-driven programming and are more open to working with operators who tell a broader story. For most small tour businesses, the state governor's conference on tourism is where accessible DMO relationships start.Short-term rental hosts are closer to the guest than any DMO, and tour operators should be building direct relationships with them now. 24:31 – 26:00 Short-term rentals nationally overtook hotels in occupancy as of September 2025. Those hosts talk directly to guests about what to do in town. A recommendation from a local Airbnb host is warmer than any OTA listing and costs zero commission. Finding them is manual (social media DMs, local searches), but the payoff is a direct referral channel with no middleman.Stop chasing first-time visitors. Loyal, repeat visitors spend more, stay longer, and sustain the businesses that matter. 32:49 – 33:32 DMOs and operators both fixate on acquiring new customers while ignoring the people who already love the destination. Repeat visitors become patrons of smaller, niche experiences and local businesses. For multi-day operators especially, a returning guest who books a deeper or different tour is more profitable than constantly feeding the top of the funnel.Identity beats branding. Know who you are and say no to the rest. 38:44 – 41:27 Jenn draws a hard line between brand (what you market) and identity (who you actually are and who you serve). When you lead with identity, you market less because the right people find you. That means turning down some customers and product ideas, which is terrifying for newer operators, but it prevents the bland, generic positioning that makes you invisible on platforms like Viator and GetYourGuide.The "book direct" movement matters for tour operators just as much as it does for short-term rentals and hotels. 42:58 – 44:28 Hotels lost roughly 80% of their distribution to OTAs. Tours and activities sit around 40% OTA-controlled, which means there is still time to build direct channels. DMOs missed the OTA boat the first time and are caught in a relevancy crisis. That creates a shared interest: both of you need to reclaim the guest relationship before the platforms own it entirely.Guerrilla, person-to-person marketing is the only thing worth betting on in this environment. 34:16 – 35:03 Replace coffee sleeves at a local shop for a week with a message like "next time mama's in town, try this." That costs almost nothing and puts your name in front of a local audience in a real, physical moment. Operators burning money on flashy ad campaigns and agencies are losing to the ones doing the manual work of building one relationship at a time.Bring tour operators, short-term rental hosts, and local businesses into the same room. The collaboration that comes out of it is worth more than any campaign. 30:35 – 32:17 A 12-person Tourpreneur meetup in Dallas turned competitors into collaborators planning joint tours before they left the room. Those rooms should include short-term rental hosts, restaurants, coffee shops. Nobody is organizing these cross-sector local gatherings yet. That is the opportunity.Rethink the "travel presentation at the library" model. Gather local people around something that is not your tour. 53:23 – 54:46 Jenn pitches a revival of the house-party model for travel: 10 to 15 people, food, conversation, then introduce the experience. For multi-day operators, this replaces the stale slide deck. Book clubs are surging. House gatherings are surging. The sale happens because you built trust in a personal setting, not because you ran a Facebook ad.Quirky, unpolished video cuts through. But virality does not equal business success. 36:32 – 37:38 Behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life content is what is actually getting traction on social right now. The less templated and less AI-generated it feels, the better it performs. Use that attention as a hook, then shift to collaborative content and real relationship-building that converts. A weird 30-second clip of your tour prep is worth more than a polished banner ad.The inbound tourism situation in the US is worse than most operators realize, and pretending otherwise is a losing strategy. 48:28 – 50:43 Canadian airlines are pulling US routes for summer 2026. Sixteen countries now have travel advisories against

In this episode, Nathaniel gives us the briefest of histories on this ancient site located in the region of Campania in southern Italy. From early tribes like the Enotrians and Greek settlers from Sybaris to the Grand Tour and WWII, Paestum has endured and served many purposes through thousands of years. We'll tell you all you need to know before you go. If you're looking to book a hotel in or around Paestum, we recommend the hotels below. There are several different areas to stay in when you visit Paestum, near the archeological park, in the modern city, or near the beach. Next to each hotel we have listed the general area it is in. Tenuta Duca Marigliano Boutique Hotel - near the archeological park of Paestum -  Expedia | BookingHotel Villa Rita - near the archeological park of Paestum - Expedia | BookingSavoy Hotel & Spa - near the beach of Paestum - Expedia | BookingMec Paestum Hotel - in the modern city of Paestum - Expedia | BookingHotel Royal Paestum - best budget hotel near the beach of Paestum - Expedia | BookingHotel Dei Templi - best budget hotel near the archeological park of Paestum - BookingIf you're looking to take a tour in Paestum, we recommend these from Viator. Small group tour of Paestum with an archeologist ViatorPrivate tour of Paestum with an archaeologist ViatorThese hotel and tour links are affiliate links, and while we don't represent any of the companies listed, we do receive a small commission which goes towards supporting Only A Bag. We appreciate your support! If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and follow Only a Bag wherever you listen to podcasts! If you'd like to get in touch, you can send us a message on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Want to help the podcast? You can check out all of our affiliate links ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! If you book through any of them, we receive a small commission, and it helps to keep us going! You can also donate to Only a Bag on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to keep the podcast going! As always, thank you all so much for listening.x Darcy and Nathaniel Only A Bag

On this week's Just the Tip, Kim is taking you along on a bucket list experience The Blue Lagoon in Iceland! This world-renowned steamy turquoise spa experience is as amazing as it looks. In this episode, we bust a few mistruths and share the full experience to get you excited to visit yourself!You can book the same ⁠Combo Blue Lagoon & Transfer ticket on Viator⁠ that we used.Since you are going to The Blue Lagoon, you'll want to check out our ⁠Sky Lagoon⁠, ⁠Winter Iceland Trip⁠ and ⁠Summer Iceland Trip⁠ episodes too and our ⁠Iceland Itinerary⁠ too!Find great flight deals to Iceland by signing up for ⁠⁠Thrifty Traveler Premium⁠⁠ and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Shop: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Trip Itineraries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Storefront⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and contact us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.

This episode is a continuation of our essential need-to-knows about visiting Venice. In this episode we're talking about food, tours, shopping, and more details on getting around, including the cheapest way to experience a boat ride across the Grand Canal.We'll answer questions like "What are cicchetti?," "Should we take a walking tour?," and "How do we know if the souvenirs we buy are really made in Venice?" In this episode we talk about taking a traghetto across the Grand Canal for €2. There are several points where you can do this, but not all of them run frequently or consistently. Here are the departure and arrival points that we recommend:San Tomà to/from O GarzoniS. Maria del Giglio to/from SaluteDogana to/from San Marco (Vallaresso)The city of Venice charges an entry fee to tourists staying outside of Venice and coming into Venice for the day. Here is a link to dates when those fees apply: ⁠⁠official Municipality of Venice website⁠⁠. That fee is €5 for booking the entry ahead of time and €10 for 3 days within the entry period or day of. More on this in our next headlines episode.For the map of the vaporetto, you can ⁠⁠click here⁠⁠. The map is in Italian and English, and while it doesn't have a timetable, it allows you to plan out when a vaporetto will be helpful! Below are some of the links we mentioned to hotels, tours, and more. Any link with an asterisk (*) is an affiliate link. Even though we don't represent the company, we receive a small commission if you use the link to book your stay. We mentioned the hotel we stayed at in Venice between the Ponte Realto and Piazza San Marco which is the "⁠Graspo de Ua"⁠.*Another hotel that we've heard amazing things about is the "⁠Hotel ai Mori d'Oriente⁠".* We also mentioned the super-swanky in the previous episode ⁠JW Marriott hotel*⁠ if you want to stay on this private island. And for the even more swanky, like, almost TOO swanky, we talked about the hotel on ⁠San Clemente.⁠* If you want to take a tour while in Venice, check out Viator.com*.Food tours in Venice*Gondola rides and tours*Tours in Murano*Likewise, if you're thinking about taking the train into Venice, you can check out ⁠Omio⁠* for tickets. They're an aggregate with an English-speaking help desk which can make any hiccups easier to solve. You can read more about Venice in our articles on onlyabag.com!If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and follow Only a Bag wherever you listen to podcasts! If you'd like to get in touch, you can send us a message on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Likewise, if you'd like to read our "Retrospective" of the year, you can check it out on Substack: "⁠⁠⁠A Year in Retrospect: Ai Tempi Belli⁠⁠⁠". Want to help the podcast? You can check out all of our affiliate links ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠! If you book through any of them, we receive a small commission, and it helps to keep us going! You can also donate to Only a Bag on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to keep the podcast going! As always, thank you all so much for listening.x Darcy and Nathaniel Only A Bag

In this episode, Scott McNeely, Head of Product and founding team member at Epicurate and co-founder of Modern Adventure, traces his journey from “kid with an Apple II+ in his mom's dessert business” to building and scaling product teams in travel, publishing, and tech. He reflects on growing up in humble circumstances while attending an elite LA boys' school, stumbling into travel writing, and then helping Lonely Planet and Viator navigate the shift from print to digital products. Along the way, Scott shares how his bias for action, love of ideas, and willingness to figure things out on the fly shaped his career.Scott opens up about the moments when those same strengths became liabilities, like a shouting match over digital transformation with Lonely Planet's leadership, and the emotional gut punch of being passed over twice for what felt like his perfect VP role. He talks candidly about anger, grief, and self-doubt, and how he rebuilt his confidence by zooming out, leaning on movement and thinking time, and staying curious. From scaling a team from 1 to 65 at Viator to learning to delegate, slow down, and create space for others, Scott offers a grounded, human look at what it really takes to keep growing as a leader.In this conversation, you'll learn:How to read your environment and decide whether to push for change or move on, using Scott's Lonely Planet experience as a case study.What it really takes to evolve from “get stuff done” operator to leader of a 60+ person team, including delegation, structure, and support systems.A grounded way to rebuild confidence after major setbacks, from being passed over for a dream role twice to anchoring your identity beyond one job.Things to listen for:(00:00) Intro(02:09) Scott's upbringing and early influences(08:28) Thank you to our sponsor, Navattic(05:53) Early career pivots and first big lessons(13:16) Pushing change and hitting resistance(27:27) Reading your situation with clarity and EQ(28:48) Leadership growing pains and delegation(31:29) Scaling fast teams and personal evolution(42:48) Career setbacks and shaken confidence(52:09) Centering habits for focus and resilienceA huge thanks to this episode's sponsor:Navattic: Interactive Product Demo Software - https://navattic.com/value Resources:Connect with Scott: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmcneely Learn about Epicurate: https://epicurate.vip/Learn about Modern Adventure: https://modernadventure.com/ Connect with Andrew:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcapland/ Substack: https://media.deliveringvalue.coHire Andrew as your coach: https://deliveringvalue.co/coachingJoin Growth OS: https://deliveringvalue.co/growth-operating-system

In this episode, editors Sara V. Torres and Nahir I. Otaño Gracia discuss the themed issue of Viator they co-edited entitled "Early Global Insularities." They are joined by three of the contributors to the cluster (Tarren Andrews, Tanvir Ahmed, and Jonathan F. Correa Reyes) for a conversation about both pre-modern discourses of insularity, the lasting legacies of discourses that approach insularity as a form of isolation, and some of the ways in which insularity can be theorized as a form of connection. Islands occupy a sometimes ambiguous place in center-periphery models. As the conversation explores a wide range of conceptualizing islands in medieval, early modern, and modern texts, it "centers" insularity as a topography, a literary conceit, and a disciplinary trope. In a time of climate crisis, the precarity of islands and archipelagoes (so often the sites of colonial violence) brings a sense of urgency to this reappraisal of the historical ideation of insularity and the relationship of the local to the global. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

Kevin and Sylvia launched iRide Arusha in July 2024, offering motorcycle tours and rentals in Tanzania. Within 18 months they scaled across four East African cities through a franchise model called iRide Africa, with partners operating in Rwanda, Nairobi, and Mombasa. The franchise structure allows riders to cross borders and book multi-country tours.The episode covers operational realities: importing equipment across borders, navigating tourism regulations, managing multi-country payment processing, and running rentals and guided tours as two distinct businesses with different customer profiles and sales cycles. Kevin and Sylvia share how they find customers through motorcycle clubs, price for premium buyers, and use immediate response times as a competitive advantage.TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS1. Test adjacent niches when your market is saturatedRather than launch another safari company in an oversaturated market, Kevin and Sylvia identified motorcycle touring as an underserved adventure niche in East Africa. Consider what adjacent experiences your destination supports that competitors aren't offering.2. Franchise models can scale faster than going soloWithin 18 months, iRide expanded across four East African cities through franchise partnerships. Partners share mechanics, bikes, marketing resources, and customer referrals. This creates a network effect where riders can start in one country and end in another, adding value no single operator could deliver alone.3. Target communities, not just individualsKevin reaches out directly to motorcycle clubs in major US cities. One Chicago BMW Riders club is bringing eight people in February. Booking one club creates the revenue of eight individual customers with a fraction of the acquisition cost. Find the clubs, associations, or communities that match your experience type.4. Customer service is a competitive advantage in developing marketsTheir immediate response times and willingness to hop on Zoom calls builds trust fast, especially for customers who've never been to Africa.5. Platform diversification requires testing, not guessingiRide is on Get Your Guide, Viator, Klook, WeTravel, and fielding Facebook messages, but hasn't found the magic channel yet. Test widely, track what converts, double down there.6. Price for the experience you're actually delivering, not your self-doubtKevin admits they severely underpriced at launch. Beginner business owners often can't see their own value clearly. If you're offering wow moments and authentic connections, charge accordingly.7. Guided vs. rental requires different marketing and operationsRental customers (experienced, self-sufficient, quick decision makers) need less hand-holding than guided tour customers (more questions, longer planning cycles, higher price points). These are functionally two different businesses with different messaging, pricing, and customer profiles.8. Gross revenue and net income are very differentVehicle maintenance, cross-border parts sourcing, and insurance eat into margins constantly. Build cash reserves and expect hidden costs, especially in asset-heavy businesses.9. Local language fluency unlocks competitive advantagesSylvia's Swahili fluency helped navigate Interpol holds on imported bikes, handle tourism police complaints from competitors, and build long-term supplier relationships. Language access isn't just customer-facing—it's operational power.10. Differentiation isn't just what you do, it's how guests connectGuests consistently cite the vastness of the landscape and local interactions (like lunch with Sylvia's 88-year-old farming grandmother) as their standout memories. Design for connection points your format uniquely enables.

This week's Travel Tuesday takes you along our girls trip to the Napa Valley wine region! Britt and Kim meet Robin there for four winery and tasting experiences, three days, two nights, and one wholesome, silly, and cute weekend. We loved Napa, and you will too!On this trip we went to 4 amazing wineries and had an amazing brunch:St. Supery Estate Vineyards - ⁠From Grape to Garden Wine and Vegetable Pairing Experience⁠Round Pond Estate - ⁠Gourmet Experience⁠Sterling Vineyards - ⁠Hilltop Experience⁠Winston's - Sunday morning brunchHere are some resources to help plan your trip to Napa:Download our ⁠Napa Valley Weekend Itinerary⁠ FREEHotels in Napa: ⁠Hilton Garden Inn Napa⁠, ⁠Napa Winery Inn⁠, ⁠Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa⁠, or ⁠The Cottages of Napa Valley⁠Places to Stay in Yountville: ⁠Napa Valley Railway Inn⁠, ⁠Mason Fleurie, A Four Sisters Inn⁠, ⁠Napa Valley Lodge⁠St. Helena Hotels: ⁠Vineyard Country Inn⁠, ⁠El Bonita Motel⁠, ⁠Harvest Inn⁠⁠Napa Valley wine experiences, tastings, and tours⁠: If you want to do Napa escorted, we highly recommend hiring a local private vehicle through Viator to take your group.Travel ⁠reusable wine packing envelopes⁠ to keep the bottles you buy safe until you get home.Find a great flight deal to Napa, or anywhere else, by signing up for ⁠Thrifty Traveler Premium⁠ and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Shop:⁠ Trip Itineraries ⁠⁠&⁠ ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠⁠Connect:⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠⁠, and⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Elizabeth, a mom of three boys from Louisiana, planned an intentional one-on-one 12th birthday trip with her oldest to San Diego in October 2025, staying at the iconic Hotel del Coronado. In this episode, she shares how they spent their days tide-pooling in La Jolla, exploring the San Diego Zoo, and hiking Torrey Pines. She also walks us through how San Diego's Kids Free October program helped stretch their budget by making most of her son's entry fees free, and why this trip was such a special way to celebrate turning twelve.This episode is now available to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kelseygravesIf you'd like to share about your trip on the podcast, email me at: kelsey@triptalespodcast.comBuy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/kelseygravesFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsey_gravesFollow me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mskelseygravesJoin us in the Trip Tales Podcast Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1323687329158879Mentioned in this epsiode:- Kelsey's COMFRT Hoodie 15% off discount link: https://comfrt.com/KELSEY279- Hotel del Coronado neighborhoods: The Views, The Victorian, The Cabanas, Beach Club, Shore House- Hotel del Coronado breakfast at The Veranda, sunsets and drinks at the Sun Deck overlooking Point Loma- San Diego Zoo, panda exhibit- Cowboy Star Steak Restaurant- Sunset Cliffs at Point Loma- Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: Guy Fleming Trail, Razor Point Trail to Red Butte- Birch Aquarium in La Jolla- Kayak Tour with Everyday California (leopard sharks!)- Tide-pooling in La Jolla, Viator tour with Snorkel Matt- Scripps Pier tide pooling- Village Pizzeria Coronado Island - Travel Agent: Katherine Boulet

We spend one day in each port - Sydney & Brisbane Australia and could Sydney be the best port view in the world? Here's how we recommend that you spend one day in each of these port cities in Australia to get just a taste, especially if you want to see the native species. Listen in for our experiences and tips and continue to follow along as we sail from Tasmania to Singapore with Pricess Cruises. Some links are affiliate links. See our disclosure. Travel More, Spend Less, Skip the Search, Join Travel Deal Insiders and get the latest and hottest travel deals delivered straight to your inbox -- for the price of a cup of Joe, you could save hundreds, if not thousands on your next trip. You're already planning everyone's vacations. Might as well get paid for it. Get Our Ultimate Packing Guide for Traveling Smart and Packing Light + Access to Exclusive Weekly Content here. Do More with Viator. Visit sunshinetravelers.com/viator to book local tours & experiences you'll remember. Stay connected when you travel for WAY LESS than using your carriers international plan, download an Esim from Gigsky and save a ton of money. Use code sunshine for 10% off Never Overpay for a Flight Again, Get Daily Drop Pro Don't waste your precious vacation time with Jet Lag, Get Flykitt and watch Jet Lag disappear! Protect your privacy, increase your security, keep your browsing data secure, and don't get locked out of websites with Express VPN - get 3 months free with a yearly plan Follow Sunshine Travelers Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Read more about this and other travel destinations on our BLOG Follow our travels on TikTok @sunshinetravelerspodcast Follow us on X @sunshinetrvlrs Connect with us on LinkedIn @sunshinetravelerspodcast Get travel tips and follow our travels on Instagram: @sunshinetravelerspodcast Connect with us on Threads @sunshinetravelerspodcast Connect with us on Threads See our travel videos on YouTube @sunshinetravelerspodcast Save our travel ideas on Pinterest @sunshinetravelerspodcast Music: This Acoustic Happy Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay

Montini made history with a win over St. Laurence, Joliet Catholic stunned Providence to make the playoffs and St. Patrick defeated St. Viator in a matchup of former NFL players turned head coaches. Marian Catholic, Brother Rice and Carmel each added wins in Week 9.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/friday-night-drive--3534096/support.

This season, Trade Secrets is hosting the Trade Secrets Tech Summit. Every Monday, co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada will feature a different travel technology company that works with travel advisors. A representative from the featured company will begin with a five-minute elevator pitch to tell advisors about their product, followed by a 15-minute Q-and-A with the hosts. This week’s featured company is Viator, represented by Chief Commercial Officer Sarah Dines. Trade Secrets is using Host Agency Reviews’ list of technology providers as a basis for this season. If a technology company doesn’t have a profile, advisors are encouraged to send a link to the hosts to be added to the list. This episode was sponsored by Europe Express. Further resources Sarah Dines on LinkedIn Viator on the web Viator’s travel agent center Viator partner support: Help center Contact Viator on social media LinkedIn Instagram X Facebook TikTok YouTube Get in touch! Email us: tradesecrets@travelweekly.com Theme song: Sock Hop by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4387-sock-hop License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're taking you to the incredible country of Georgia, one of the most underrated countries in the world where wine, history, and culture come together in the most magical way in the main city of Tbilisi and beyond. We explore historic spas, wine baths, local nightlife, cultural sites, natural wonders in the Caucasus Mountains.We also dive deep into our experience at WINECAST, a five-day festival celebrating cinema, wine, and Georgian culture with film screenings, wine tastings and masterclasses, live music, and more!Highlights of Georgia:The rich history of Georgia as the birthplace of wine

Join Melissa Perri as she dives into some of the best advice about career growth in product management from an incredible group of industry leaders. Monica Lewis from LinkedIn, Kristin Dorsett from Viator, Dheerja Kaur from Robinhood, Lucie Buisson from Contentsquare, Ben Hafele from the Lean Startup Co., Marco De Freitas and Amber Brestowski from Vanguard, Oliver Seil from Belkin International, David Myszewski from Wealthfront, and Eilon Reshef from Gong share their insights on developing strategic judgment, embracing learning, and leveraging AI for productivity.Discover how focusing on impact over scope, obsessing over problems, and starting small can accelerate your growth in product management. Our guests also discuss the importance of market fit strategy, learning from missteps, and being open to unexpected opportunities.Want to accelerate your product management career with practical advice from industry leaders? Tune in to this episode for actionable insights and strategies to help you grow and succeed.You'll hear us talk about:07:45 - Embracing Learning on the JobKristin Dorsett talks about not sweating the small stuff and embracing learning on the job, emphasizing that nobody has it all figured out and the value of continuous growth in product management.15:22 - Leveraging AI for ProductivityLucie Buisson explains how using AI can enhance productivity, allowing product managers to focus on strategic thinking and customer engagement by freeing up valuable time.23:10 - Starting Small to Prove ConceptsBen Hafele introduces the "Convinced Do Loop," highlighting the importance of starting small to prove concepts instead of trying to convince everyone at once, thereby enabling more effective product management strategies.Episode resources:Monica Lewis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicamlewis/Kristin Dorsett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristindorsett/Dheerja Kaur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dheerja/Lucie Buisson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-buisson/David Myszewski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmyszewski/Amber Brestowski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-brestowski-019b56ab/Marco De Freitas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-de-freitas-80416714/Oliver Seil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-seil/Eilon Reshef: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eilonreshef/Ben Hafele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-hafele/Check our new course: https://productinstitute.com/p/mastering-product-strategy-overviewTimestamps:00:00 Introduction03:03 Monica Lewis: Grow where you are04:28 Kristin Dorsett: Don't sweat the small stuff07:36 Lucie Buisson: Use AI to reclaim time for strategy11:12 David Myszewski: Lean into what's working13:30 Amber & Marco: Obsess over problems, be ruthless with priorities18:50 Oliver Seil: Learn with intention21:20 Ben Hafele: Start small and let doing drive buy-in

On this episode we are sharing some of our top tips for finding good guided day tours or special experiences when you are traveling. We will walk through how to find them, how to book, and tips for taking city tours. Episode Highlights On your arrival day, don't schedule a guided tour since your plane may not be on time and you may be tired from traveling. If anything, look at doing something impromptu like a hop on hop off bus or just walking around on your own. On your first full day in a city, it is helpful to take a guided tour to get the lay of the land and get recommendations from a local Some common tour booking platforms are Viator and Get Your Guide. Just understand that these are platforms advertising different tour companies or operators, the tours aren't actually run by Viator or Get Your Guide Often you can find the tour operator name on the listing and if you want, you can look up that company and book direct to support small businesses Be sure to read the details of what is included on the tour and whether or not you are going inside points of interest or just seeing it from the outside Pay attention to the meeting points and end point to choose ones that are fairly convenient for you based on where you are staying Make sure you look at the reviews and ratings before booking a tour Look at the number of people that are on the tour. It will often list the maximum number of passengers on a tour. Some tour companies, like Shore Excursions, offers a back-to-ship guarantee, which is great if you are booking cruise excursions Look at what tickets are included Put in the date when you are looking at pricing as it can vary depending on the season, day of the week, etc. Also, go through the full checkout screen to see what additional fees or taxes are added when building your budget Some other tour companies that we like are: Walks (or Take Walks), Livtours (small groups), Devour Tours (food tours), Eating Europe (food tours), Tours by Locals, The Tour Guy, and City Experiences You can also Google "free walking tours" to find pay as you go or tip-based walking tours by locals Always plan to arrive 10-15 minutes before the tour starts to check in Map out the meeting place before you go and know how you will get there Know if you need to be dressed a certain way (headscarf, covered shoulders, etc) or if you can't bring bags/backpacks, etc. Private tours are great for families or if you have mobility issues because it is easier to customize them Don't forget to tip a good tour guide. Group tour tip is typically $5 per person and a private tour is $10-20 per person if it is a half day or full day Have small bills handy for tipping Rick Steves has great audio tours for Europe, GPS My City has self-guided tours, and VoiceMap is another app for self-guided audio tours that are more cost-effective than a guided tour.

In this week's Travel Flashback Episode, we're taking you on an epic road trip through the Dakotas! In this episode we detail our 6-day road trip that takes you through both North and South Dakota as we explore new cities, state parks, national parks, and unique roadside attractions including:Mount Rushmore National MemorialCuster State Park Jewel Cave National MonumentWind Cave Tour National ParkBadlands National ParkTheodore Roosevelt National ParkCrazy Horse MemorialWall Drug Spearfish Scenic BywayWe even talk about add ons like Carhenge and Toadstools Geological Park If you want to take this exact trip, you can download our 6 day ⁠Dakotas Itinerary⁠. The Dakotas itinerary gives travel tips, restaurant and hotel recommendations, links to every activity we booked, packing list, and a day by day itinerary for you to follow. If you are looking for activities & experiences in the area, check out our recommended ⁠Viator list⁠. We've listed hotel recommendations for this trip below: ⁠Bavarian Inn⁠ and ⁠Holiday Inn Express⁠ are both good choices for stays in Custer Stay at the ⁠Best Western⁠ or ⁠Cambria Hotel in Rapid City⁠Choose to stay at ⁠AmericInn by Wyndham⁠ in Medora or the ⁠Bowman Lodge & Convention Center⁠ in Bowman when visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park Find a great flight deal to the Dakotas by signing up for⁠ Thrifty Traveler Premium⁠ and watching the daily flight deals (points & cash) that are emailed directly to you! Use our promo code TS10 to get $10 off your first year subscription- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Shop:⁠ Trip Itineraries ⁠⁠&⁠ ⁠Amazon Storefront ⁠⁠Connect:⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠⁠, and⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠and contact us at travelsquadpodcast@gmail.com to submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising. Submit a question of the week or inquire about guest interviews and advertising.

In this episode, Jess, Pam, and Alex break down their recent spring break trips to Costa Rica—highlighting three unforgettable resorts, two different travel styles, and one shared love for how easy (and affordable!) this country is to explore with points and miles.  Flights on Points Alex and Jess both flew Southwest—Jess from Houston and Alex from Salt Lake City—and Pam chose United. Between Southwest Companion Passes, smart rebooking, and good timing, Jess got a great deal for round-trip flights for four people. Pam, always loyal to United for the elite-status perks, flew out of Denver and got a free upgrade to first class on the way home.   Where They Stayed: Andaz Papagayo, Rio Perdido, and Tabacón Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort (Hyatt Category 8): A luxury resort with monkeys, pools, and a new beach club you access by boat. Jess scored a Bay View Suite with a birthday upgrade, while Alex's family enjoyed connecting rooms with a rollaway for the kids.  Rio Perdido (Hilton SLH): Jess took her family here for a more boutique, off-the-grid experience. Set in the rainforest with private bungalows, thermal rivers, and mud baths, Rio Perdido offered a quieter, more immersive vibe.  Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa (Hilton SLH): Pam and Alex's family stayed at this jungle escape near La Fortuna. Booking via Hilton points and free-night certificates, they enjoyed connecting rooms, views of the Arenal Volcano, and unlimited access to the hot springs.   Rental Cars, Shuttles, and Driving Tips The Squad breaks down everything you want to know about whether to rent a car or book a shuttle service in Costa Rica and how to decide which option is best for your trip. They even advise on what kind of vehicles to avoid renting and recommend a great woman-owned transportation service if you don't want to drive yourself.    Activities: Adventures for All Ages Alex's crew went full-on jungle mode with: A zipline and rappelling canyon tour through Maquique Adventure A night walk with frog and snake sightings (not for the faint of heart!) Exploring La Fortuna  Jess and Ella did a canyon adventure at Rio Perdido, complete with a pro photographer tagging along. Meanwhile, everyone raved about thermal pools and monkey spotting! Whether you're team luxury resort or jungle bungalow, this episode proves that Costa Rica is made for points travelers—and families. 

Bomani Jones is joined by Domonique Foxworth for another edition of Foxworth Friday. On today's episode, the guys start off by talking about Bo's cornhole playing ability (0:38) and the proper etiquette when attempting to compliment a woman (11:28). They move onto the big game, where Domonique jokes that he has picked both teams on various shows (20:43), while Bomani isn't picking against Patrick Mahomes, despite knowing the Philadelphia Eagles have the superior roster (30:21). They also discuss Myles Garrett's trade request (34:35) and joke about Cam Newton being superhero size (38:18). The show rounds out with them agreeing on the best compliment you can give a man (41:02) and Bo's story about his 8th grade science project. (45:24) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, comedian Roy Wood Jr. joins Bomani Jones to talk about why his 2025 has been off to a busy start. The show begins with Bo plugging Roy's new special on Hulu Lonely Flower (0:34) and why Roy is not one of the typical depressed comedians (1:14). They move onto a wide range of topics including why kids are bad at speaking to adults (4:56), why they're both more comfortable staying at home (8:38), Roy getting invited to a sex party (11:56) and friends who go through divorces (16:06). Roy talks about his experience being on Celebrity Jeopardy (29:04) and what makes going to Knicks games at MSG so special (44:00). The show rounds out Roy's San Antonio Spurs prediction (50:16) and his thoughts on the current political climate. (51:33) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones reacts to the Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis trade that rocked the NBA world. (1:00) Bo starts the show by trying to compute this massive trade and ask why the Dallas Mavericks would trade a 25 year old superstar, that basketball fans actually pay to see play? (7:47) Bo also makes sure to point out that Anthony Davis is still a great player and should be given some credit instead of being crushed online. (20:56) Bo then looks at the Los Angeles Lakers perspective, where LeBron James now is no longer the centerpiece of the team, and why Rob Pelinka had to hide this trade from Rich Paul. (29:02) And finally, we have another round of If You Haven't Heard stories involving litigation against sports gambling, DeepSeek, and Bryan Johnson's weird medical test with his son. (38:31) Then Bomani listens to some voicemails about the craziest thing you've heard a coach say in the locker room. (48:38) IYHH Contributors:  Matteo Wong, Staff Writer at The Atlantic: “China's DeepSeek Surprise: What to make of China's suddenly popular new AI model” https://bit.ly/4hCzDvc Sean Gregory, Senior Sports Correspondent at TIME: “The Man Who Took On Big Tobacco Has a New Target: Sports Betting” https://bit.ly/40ZOt9G  Kase Wickman, Culture and Society reporter at Vanity Fair“Don't Die Tech Mogul Bryan Johnson Is in an Actual Penis-Measuring Contest—With His Teenage Son” https://bit.ly/42MueNQ  . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bomani Jones is joined by Domonique Foxworth for another edition of Foxworth Friday. On today's episode, the guys start off by talking about Christmas after Domonique sees Bomani's festive Christmas hat. (0:30) After discussing the cold weather, which could be a big variable for College Football and the NFL playoffs (4:24), the guys transition to the news of the United Healthcare CEO who was murdered in NYC this past week. They breakdown the details of the assassination and how it sounded like hit job from aa movie. That inevitably leads to a conversation about health care, capitalism, and market economies in 2024. (8:54) After the break, the guys come back to have a discussion about Jameis Winston who has been pure comedy the last few weeks. What in the hell is going on with that man?! (28:00) From there they talk about other assassinations involving celebrities like Tupac and Biggie, and also bring up Joe and Hunter Biden and whether or not you would pardon your own son. (38:05) And finally, Bomani asks Domonique why he prefers the Eagles vs the Lions when it comes to the Super Bowl contender for the NFC. (53:20) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Visit BetterHelp.com/BOMANI today to get 10% off your first month. Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode, Bomani Jones recaps everything that went down this weekend in College Football and the NFL. He starts the show by sharing his frustration with the current Thanksgiving week schedule in the NFL. Having the Thursday games, along with the Friday game, completely devalues the Sunday slate. (0:50) That leads Bo to breakdown the one good game on Sunday; Bengals vs Steelers, where we have two teams going in completely different directions this season. (4:30) Then Bomani discusses the Bills and the Ravens which includes a conversation about the MVP Award. The Bills beat up the 49ers with Josh Allen winning the game for his team, while the Ravens lost to the Eagles and Lamar Jackson was not at his best. Lamar wasn't the reason his team won or lost but at some point this season you have to be the reason either way. (6:08) From there, Bomani finally transitions to this wild weekend in College Football that involved way too many flags being planted. His take stands firm on the idea of outlawing Flag Planting because it leads to fighting. And if fighting is allowed, then flag planting is cool but this weekend showed that whenever an opposing team plants a flag, it automatically leads to a fight. It's the height of disrespect, and disrespect will not be tolerated. (17:33) And finally, another round of If You Haven't Heard stories and Bomani answers three voicemail questions about anything. (37:56) IYHH Contributors:  Yasmin Tayag, Staff Writer at The Atlantic: “Your Armpits Are Trying to Tell You Something” https://bit.ly/3AZhd8u Kimanzi Constable, Author: “I have 5 Gen Z children in the workforce, and they don't prioritize their careers. It made me rethink my life.” https://bit.ly/4fQ1mbx Ali Breland, Staff Writer at The Atlantic: “The Right Has a Bluesky Problem” https://bit.ly/49m58GX . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Visit BetterHelp.com/BOMANI today to get 10% off your first month. Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bomani Jones is joined by Joel Anderson, of The Ringer, who starts the show by revisiting the “greatest Texas athlete you've ever seen in person” question from an earlier episode. Then Bomani reveals he's been saving a topic for Joel, why is Ne-Yo is the Big-12 Championship Game halftime performer? The guys wonder if there was literally anyone else who was available to perform. With the news of Joe Douglas getting fired, Bomani and Joel have a conversation about Aaron Rodgers and Jet's owner Woody Johnson. The guys wonder whether or not Tyrod Taylor should replace Rodgers and also if Woody Johnson is actually good at anything? And finally, the guys reflect on the 20th Anniversary of the Malice at the Palace. Where were they when it happened and how has their reaction to it changed from then to now?  . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Download EarnIn today in the Google play or Apple app store. When you download the EarnIn app type in The Right Time with Bomani Jones under PODCAST when you sign up. Visit BetterHelp.com/BOMANI today to get 10% off your first month. Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bomani Jones is joined by Nate Tice, of Yahoo Sports, to discuss all things NFL. Bomani catches up with Nate, the pair discuss the current state of weather between NYC and Las Vegas, and realize just how old they are with this conversation. (0:35) That inevitably leads to a discussion about cold weather football and how smaller players, especially quarterbacks, are not built for the cold vs bigger guys. From there, Bomani asks Nate to help him decide whether or not the Steelers are legitimately good this season. Nate breaks down their defense, offensive live, and admits that even with Russell Wilson as quarterback this team can make some noise in the playoffs. (7:51) After briefly touching on the Chargers and the Bills, the guys transition to Anthony Richardson's performance this past weekend. (16:22) They discuss why the Colts can't give up on him, which leads to a conversation about former big boy QB's like Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb who have succeeded in the league. (33:35) Finally after reminiscing about Mike Vick's prime, Bomani ends the episode by asking Nate to speak praises about his Detroit Lions. (53:20) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! Download EarnIn today in the Google play or Apple app store. When you download the EarnIn app type in The Right Time with Bomani Jones under PODCAST when you sign up. Visit BetterHelp.com/BOMANI today to get 10% off your first month. Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for ten percent off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with VIATOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clicking a button to book vacation tours might feel normal today, but Rod Cuthbert helped create that future through his company, Viator. Founded in the early days of the internet boom, Viator emerged almost by accident from a failed partnership with another company. As online booking grew, Rod correctly predicted that travel agents would become outmoded, and began working with local providers to help travelers book anything from skip-the-line tours of the Sistine Chapel to cooking lessons in a Thai kitchen. Viator was purchased in 2014 by Tripadvisor for $200 million–and remains a top virtual destination for anyone headed to a real one.This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. This episode was edited by Neva Grant, with research by Olivia Rockeman. Our audio engineers were Robert Rodriguez and Gilly Moon.You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.