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Welcome to Cheryl's Travel Blueprint! Iâm a former Spanish teacher turned travel advisor, passionate about curating unforgettable experiences. My expertise lies in European adventures (with a special love for Spain), cruising, and all-inclusive Caribbean getaways. I specialize in creating tailored trips for families, multi-generational groups, and teachersâwhether theyâre traveling solo, with colleagues, or leading student groups.
In this podcast, we celebrate the joy of travel, uncover hidden gems, share practical tips and tricks, and embrace the spirit of adventure. Each episode features inspiring conversations with fascinating guests from all walks of life as they share their unique travel stories, lessons, and favorite destinations. Whether you're planning your next getaway or simply love to dream about the possibilities, this is your place to explore the world from wherever you are.
Letâs embark on this journey together! đâď¸
What if I told you the most authentic travel experiences aren't found in the postcard perfect capitals, but in the overlooked cities that pulse with real life, unfiltered culture and untold stories. Imagine traveling where tourists don't, where every corner reveals a secret most guidebooks completely miss. Before we dive into the world of second city travel, I've got an exclusive travel deal that will transform how you think about your next adventure. So stay tuned for that. I'll tell you about it a little later in the episode, and I hope it changes everything for you. Second -city travel is a trend of choosing lesser -known, second -tier cities over more popular, overcrowded areas, and instead going for more authentic, less crowded, and more sustainable experiences. I've had a few of my own personal experiences with some of these overlooked destinations. And so I thought I'd talk to you a little bit about why major cities aren't always the most interesting travel experiences. Because with so much overcrowding and over tourism, it can be less inspiring and just very generic. For example, a lot of the tour companies tend to offer the more just the They tend to offer more tours that are just not as authentic as other ones, and people are seeing just very generic things. So it's always great to visit a second city. When I think of overcrowded cities, Venice comes to mind. I went to Venice a few years ago, and it was just wall -to -wall people. I mean, and it is a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, but it's got a lot of people. So I would just recommend either skipping Venice for a similar city or going during the, you know, during the off -peak season. That's another option for you. I know for me, Venice was very, it was like a concrete jungle in a lot of ways, and it was very, is very crowded, especially in St. Mark's Square. Trying to get from one place to another was just, was quite challenging for us, I know. And I know that I remember, I'm thinking back to a trip to Paris that I took with not only relatives, but also with students. And while we were there, we decided to buy some crepes. And we were standing in front of the opera house, very popular place to be. And we were just kind of enjoying our crepes and eating them. And my cousin, who was standing next to me, she bit into her crepe. And the next thing you know, this little kid just comes up and grabs her crepe out of her hand. And he runs over to where the rest of his family was. And he's just and she said, oh, she hit him. I remember she hit him in the she hit him in the face. She. punched him in the face. And he was like 10 years old, and she's a teenager, but I think he just caught her so off guard. That was her natural reaction. And it didn't faze him one bit. He just ran away. He went to where his parents were, and he just started laughing at her. And he's like, mm -mm -mm, this is good. And so I'm never gonna forget that experience. And I don't think she will either. And the funny thing about it is that she's really a quiet person, or at least she was at the time. And she was part of the group and it was a bunch of other high school students that she didn't know any of them because they were my students and I had invited her on the trip to go along. And I think they started calling her Muhammad Ali after that. I'm not quite positive, but she got more popular after that. But I guess all this to say, when you go to popular cities, there's a lot of overcrowding and a lot of times that takes away from authentic engagement. People are trying to get that perfect Instagram worthy shot. And I don't know that they necessarily are appreciating where they are. I think it's just all about. saying you've been someplace sometimes, not always, but sometimes. And not only that, but large cities are really suffering from over -tourism and they're fighting back in a lot of ways against it. And sometimes they blame the tourists for higher prices because people tend to, you know, they run out their Airbnbs and that gives, that causes the prices to go up for locals, not just for housing, but also for transportation. for other resources like food and transportation, all of those things. So I know that in several cities, they've decided to, you know, they're working with government to change the rules for Airbnb, giving like surge pricing for different activities so that you can't, you know, maybe staggering times that you can visit different places. So those are some things that they're putting into place to ease the burden on everybody. And recently in the news, they've talked about Barcelona and how one of the things that people are doing, one of the things that people did was they got water pistols and were aiming it at tourists while they were at restaurants and things like that. So it makes people a little hesitant to want to go to places like that because they don't know what's going to happen to them. They don't know if they're going to be safe. Park Guell. is an extremely popular destination in Barcelona. And one of the things that they've started doing is charging for entry into certain areas of the park. And I believe they stagger their times as well, just to make it more comfortable for people so they don't have to be as overcrowded. But you're still encountering all of that. So lots of disruption in these large cities. I think of Greece, I know Amsterdam, Barcelona, Venice, they've all been in the news for those kinds of things. And different governments are handling it in different ways, so we'll see what happens. And so many travel markets offer these, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, they offer the typical tours, the ones that are really popular. And that means that the more authentic options get pushed to the bottom and people can't find those. And so they're not really having the authentic experience that they hoped for. So those are reasons that I think you should definitely consider a second city. It provides cultural authenticity. You can experience life away from mass tourism. You don't have to be standing in lines forever. You have more genuine interactions with people. People want to talk to you and you're getting a deeper cultural immersion and you get a really good sense of discovery when you have less crowds. You can spend time, you can linger. Like think about museums and things like that. If you want to go to a museum and just enjoy it, if there's a lot of people there, it just makes you want to, I don't know, when I'm in a museum that's crowded, it just, you know, I can't sit there and look at something as long as I want to. And I just feel like I just want to leave. So you definitely have just a lot more comfort when you don't have those huge crowds. I can recall in Barcelona, I just was talking about Barcelona, an alternative to Barcelona might be Girona. And Girona is a medieval city, not far from Barcelona. We took the train, and I think it was less than an hour to get there. And it was very quiet. We walked the streets and got to see a lot of things. It was just very peaceful. was just very laid back. And I believe we saw, I don't remember the name of those steps, but it was Game of Thrones. Anybody who watches Game of Thrones, there was a scene that was filmed in Girona that we got to see the, it was the stairway to a cathedral, I believe. I wish I could remember the name of it. It's been a while since I've seen Game of Thrones, so I apologize for that. But, Maybe I'll put it in the show notes when I remember. The economic impact of alternative tourism is it's great for local economies, it generates income, tax revenue, it generates jobs, and then it takes the pressure off of those major cities because then you're distributing the tourism benefits more evenly. You're not just giving one city all of that All of that, you know, all the things that come with it. And visiting a second city also helps you to break those travel stereotypes. You can see more authentic experiences. Like I said before, when you go on those tours that everybody goes on, it's just not going to give you the same feeling or give you the same deep discovery that you would get if you got to see some more authentic experiences. So you want to go beyond those hot spots. Find some unique cultural offerings and see what the local charm is all about. So there's so many hidden advantages of exploring these less traveled destinations. So now I want to tell you a little bit about the travel special for this week. Ryu Hotels and Resorts in Europe and the rest of the world, from top destinations in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the UK and beyond, you can find something for everyone at Ryu Hotels and Resorts. You can explore exciting cities or lay by the beach at any of their incredible resorts. Hopefully you can find one in a second city. The travel dates for this special are from now until December 15th of 2026, if you book by December 31st of 25. Okay, so. Back to our exploration of second cities. Some of the top second cities worldwide include Hamburg, Germany as an alternative to visiting Berlin. Mumbai, India is an alternative to Delhi. Tartu, Estonia is an alternative to Tallinn. And Montreal, Canada is another great destination. I think I've been there, but it's been so long I cannot remember anything about it. Krakow, Poland. as opposed to Warsaw, Zurich, Switzerland. And I have been to Zurich. I went on a high school trip. Right after graduation, I went on a high school trip and we were on a six country tour. I think we went to England, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Monaco. And I don't know the order, but I know that we flew into I don't even know which country. England was our last city. I don't remember which country we started in. We did see a lot of big cities, like what you would call first cities or main cities, but we did do a lot of second cities. In Zurich, Switzerland, what I remember about it the most was just the beautiful Alps. It was quiet, it was cold, or it was just really cool. The weather was cool, it was very quiet, and this is in the middle of summer. And we took the bus from Zurich to some other place. I think we took the bus everywhere we went while we were in Europe. So it was a long, it was a long trip, but it was broken up by, you know, Europe is so close. So all the countries are close to each other. So it wasn't too terrible. But that had a lasting memory with me. Milan, Italy is another alternative to Rome. There are lots of alternatives to Rome, I think, in Italy. Amalfi would be another one, if you get the chance. And I already mentioned Barcelona and Girona being an alternative. Another alternative to Barcelona might be Seville or Valencia, as a matter of fact. Both of them are beautiful cities, lots of things to do, but just not nearly as crowded as Barcelona. So those are definitely things that you want to consider. And an alternative to Venice might be Verona, Italy or Treviso, just to get away from those huge crowds. And those are both places that have, you know, they've got the canals and things like that. So you can you can take advantage of that. So you're still getting something similar to Venice. So when it comes to choosing someplace, you want to think about your budget. It's almost always less than a major city. when you decide to go to these second cities. So what you want to do is do your research, you want to prepare, be ready culturally, you know, it's, it's really important for you to research what are their cultural habits, behaviors, things like that, because you don't want to offend You want to have a good time and you want people to like you when you're there. So definitely do your research and find out what the locals do. And it's easier when you go to these smaller places because the locals really do have curiosity towards the travelers that they see. They will maybe seek you out. I know we were in Mexico and we started in Cuernavaca, but we did a lot of side trips. And we, I remember we were in, I don't remember the name of the town, but we were taking, we were just taking a little break in probably in the main square and someone who was studying English came up to us. and just started asking us questions. And he just wanted to know, you know, he was just, he had an assignment, he just asked us about what our, he asked my son, I remember him asking my son, what kinds of, what kinds of activities do you do? What kinds of things do you like to do for fun? And he mentioned golf. And I think at the time, he was probably, eight years old, and he got started with golf because my dad golfs. And so he's been golfing for a long time. And he was just like, oh, you golf? That's an old man sport. So it was just kind of funny to hear that perspective. And I think, and it was just also great, because you get a chance to, it was an opportunity to have a conversation with somebody that I don't know if we would have had that opportunity had we not gone to that town. And, you know, to a place where locals seek out people when they know that they're just traveling through. Because they have just as much curiosity about us as we do about them. So that was something memorable. And it kind of takes away some of the anxiety because you find that you want to meet these people. so it kind of breaks the ice a little bit when they want to meet you too. So as I said earlier, it's really important to research customs and traditions so you can adapt to these different cultures when you're there and have the best time. I would really recommend, you know, when it comes to documenting your trip, photography is always important. So you can capture some of the diverse scenes that you're going to see, you know, going from cityscapes to countrysides, angling, you know, you're just doing different angles. And if you don't want to do it yourself, another great thing to do is to hire a photographer. That's a really popular thing lately. A lot of A lot of places like Viator, for example, I'll put them in the show notes. They offer photography in just about every city you can think of. And so, I mean, that's a great way for you to, that's another great activity for you to help you experience some different things. You can go to different locations that you might not have thought of, maybe a winery, you know, somewhere in the country or like in Greece. I know one popular thing is the flying dresses. that a lot of women do that. And those are always gorgeous. So hire a photographer to do something like that with you. So but you just you just want to do your research on pricing when you think about not just for the photography, but You definitely want to do your research because there's a lot of different types of photography out there. You want to find the best fit for you. But like I said, when you decide where you want to go, you definitely want to do your research and make sure that the city that you want is, you know, compatible for you. And you're going to get, like I said, said before, you're going to get a better deal because it's not as popular as those main cities. So if this episode has expanded your travel universe, if it's shown you that the most incredible journeys often happen where nobody else is looking, then you cannot miss what we have coming up. So subscribe to Nostalgic Travel Talks right now. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just beginning to explore, we're here to reveal the world's most incredible hidden stories. Next episode, what happens when education extends far beyond classroom walls? Join us as we explore how student travel reshapes perspectives, builds global citizens, and creates connections that last a lifetime. A former colleague of mine and one of our students will reveal their extraordinary stories that prove that travel is the most powerful classroom.