You want a vacation. No. You need a vacation—a break from your daily routines, and the opportunity to step out and explore beyond the borders of your everyday life. But do you know what it is you seek in your journey? In this week’s episode of #thedeliciousstory, we talk with travel blogger and trip adviser Chris Slack of Wandering Feathers about how to find your travel purpose and the perfect destination by way of finding your travel self.

First up, we visit about Chris’s beautiful blog filled with lush photographs and details of places such as Southern Spain, Poland, Thailand and Italy. If you want to know Chris and how she views travel, explore her stories and generate ideas for yourself.

Then we delve into how Chris helps clients not just select the place they want to visit but assess why they want to travel in the first place. Whether you want to experience high profile destinations or see sights that take you off the beaten path, Chris shares her expertise to achieve your best and truest travel vision.

PLANNING TRAVEL WITH HELP

Investing in travel is no small thing, so identifying your goal is essential to making the most of the experience. These days, people can book their flights, reserve their rooms, and pick places they wish to go—services that used to be the purview of a travel agent.

But for those who desire a customized itinerary that caters to their specific interests, a travel adviser can become their partner in success. Trip advisers such as Chris fulfill the role as trusted resource, saving their customers loads of time. Chris works to understand her client’s wishes and offers streamlined answers that shine the way to the best options for the journey.

As experts, travel advisers have done the travel and developed the relationships with many of the vendors for accommodations and transportation, so they’ll recommend the right options for their customers. Since they’ve done the travel homework, they can save their clients frustration and money.

But it all begins by understanding your travel self which Chris, as a travel adviser, helps her clients dive into first. For example, my husband David and I have been fortunate to take a number of trips where our preferences and separate goals become readily apparent.

David loves the planning and likes to schedule down to the hours in each day. It’s a guarantee we’ll see the noteworthy museums and landmark sights because he organizes well in advance.

I, on the other hand, enjoy planning and the anticipation of the trip but prefer a less scheduled pace. I can read books, watch people, and peruse a travel book all from the comfort of a restaurant chair with no formal plan. Plus, I find catching the major tourist sites to be exhausting due to crowds.

Clearly, travel types such as David and I would benefit from working with Chris, who caters ideas to meet specific needs. And Chris’s specialty is helping her clients with suggestions that are less traveled, and thus more authentic to the residents and culture of a location.

Chris is especially enthused to highlight the influences of a place by way of architecture and food. What’s not to like in those two things? During our conversation, Chris spoke of Southern Spain as an example where the influence of Middle Eastern and Moorish cultures has shaped the structures and people of the region.

This fusion of people from other places is not limited to Europe but occurs everywhere we travel and live. We are civilizations of the present influenced by civilizations of the past. When we view a journey through the lens of this evolution, our connectivity to each other heightens the travel experience.

EATING WITH ANCESTORS

Chris’s memorable meal stories were delightful and, of course, took place abroad in places including Sri Lanka and Poland. Her story of eating Pierogi was lovely, and you’ll want to hear her share the details to get the full effect.

But for yourself, just imagine eating a dish all your life and knowing it hailed from your family history. Then you go to the homeland of your ancestors and eat that very meal in the place where generations of your predecessors lived. It’s nothing short of dining with the ghosts of your family encouraging you to enjoy the meal.

I’d not heard of Pierogi but it’s a Polish staple made of dough which serves as a wrap for an assortment of savory or sweet fillings. Each pastry is then either baked, fried or boiled. Pierogi was considered a peasant meal but became a national favorite, and it’s a dish which has all the elements to make for a hearty feast.

All this talk of breaded pockets of meat or sweet filling has me hankering to give Pierogi a try. If you’re eager for a whirl, here is a recipe.

TRAVEL WITH YOUR TRUE TRAVEL SELF

Even though travel is more accessible than ever, it still taps into limited resources of time and capital, so planning well matters. Having a trusted person in your corner to assure you have covered all the bases for your adventure might make the investment most worthwhile.

Understanding your travel self and your goals for your trip are a good start. Commissioning the support of a trip adviser such as Chris can ensure that the trip you take is memorable, because it fits exactly with who you are and the memories you want to make from a vacation well-traveled.

Sherry is the founder of Storied Gifts a personal publishing service of family and company histories. She and her team help clients curate and craft their stories into books. When not writing or interviewing, Sherry spends loads of time with her grandchildren and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

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