Ep 123 Travel Planning Tips for the New Year Hosted by Dr. Tatyana Reznik

Hi everybody! I hope you were able to enjoy last week's episode, which was part 1 of an interview that I did with Dr. Tatyana Reznik on her podcast, the Voices of Women Physicians Podcast. This week we're back with part 2 to talk about travel planning tips for the new year.

If I had to sum up the sentiment of this episode with a quote, it would be this: "Before we think of 'we can't,' think of 'we want' and 'how can we?'"

This was certainly my approach to travel when I first started on this journey in 2022, and it didn't let me down. As a matter of fact, booking one trip at a time and thinking only about how to make that trip happen in terms of finances, work, family, etc... led me to travel outside the continental United States seven times within my first really dedicated year of travel!

Of course, since then I've caught an even bigger case of the travel bug and I've learned a lot more about travel planning to make life easier, especially for women physicians like myself. So in this episode, I wanted to share my top tips with you all!

In this episode we talk about:
⏱️ Optimizing PTO time
💡 Making it happen financially with travel hacks and "geographic arbitrage."
👩‍👧‍👦 Traveling with kids
📖 How I like to frame travel within the different chapters of life.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and if you're interested in learning more about Dr. Reznik's work, please don't hesitate to check out any of the resources below:

Voices of Women Physicians Podcast  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-of-women-physicians/id1630624425

Joyful Success Life Coaching https://joyfulsuccessliving.com

Dare to Dream Physician Resources:

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome back everyone to the dare to dream position, travel podcasts. This week, we are continuing to share the interview. That Dr. Tatiana Resnick did with me on her podcast, voices of women physicians. If you haven't listened to the last episode, go ahead and listen to that one. Cause we do a review of the three questions in life planning. as is this the beginning of the year If you haven't already plan out. Your travel. It's a great time to plan out your travel for the entire year. In this episode, Dr. Tatiana interviews me where I share some tips about travel planning, I hope you enjoy. Remember especially if you're a women physician check out Dr. Tatiana resonates podcast, voices of women, physicians on all podcasts apps to out there. All right. Let's dive in. Mhm. Welcome eveRyone to Voices of Women Physicians podcast. Now we have a second episode with our amazing, yes, Dr. Valerie Gray. And today we have a fun topic to discuss. We're gonna talk about travel. Dr. Gray, welcome to this episode. Please tell us very briefly again about yourself in case if our listeners of this episode, did not have the chance to hear previous one. Yes. Well, thank you again for having me. This is so much fun. I love the energy. You radiate so much joy. I just love listening to your voice. But for those of you who didn't hear the last episode, by the way, you should go and listen. It's really good. But if you listen after this one, I'm Dr. Weylie Gray. I'm a sleep doctor who practices sleep medicine in a rural critical access hospital in Vermont. And I am also the founder of Dare to Dream Physician Travel Podcast, where we put out a weekly podcast to inspire doctors to live their life to the fullest through travel. And I am super excited to be here to talk about how do we incorporate travel in our life to make our life better. Thank you so much, and I'm so impressed by what you told us in the previous episode about visiting seven different places in one year, four of them international travel, and all of this as a busy physician mom with five people, family, including three children, and how did you make it happen? Tell us! Yeah, so it's funny because so what I encourage the listeners to do is not listen to this and think oh There's no way I can do this Like it's overwhelming to think traveling on seven trips in about a year when I started this I did not plan to do this I just did the next thing right? So I was saying the last episode So about a year ago, I felt that travel was gonna be this new chapter in my life, and we didn't even have passports at that time. And so I just did the next thing. I applied for passports and then I picked the first trip that was outside of the continental us, but you didn't need a passport, which is the US Virgin Island. So we started going on that trip. And through each experience, it built on one another. So after that trip, I booked the next trip. And after the next trip, and I might have booked the next two trips, actually. But basically, if you have an inkling, like, Hey, I really want to travel. Maybe I want to see the world, but I don't know if I actually feel confident traveling to Africa on my own. You don't have to get overwhelmed by that thought. Just start with the next thing. Like, if Africa seems overwhelming to travel to, go somewhere outside the continental U. S. Maybe even just in the U. S., right? And then just go from there. So that would be my how, is there was no way I would have believed if you told me back in October or November of 2022 that I was gonna do what we did. Let's talk about each part of this travel. How did you make it happen? First of all, time. How did you get so much free time? Yes. So that's going to be a little bit different for each doctor, right? So for me, I think at that point I had worked about six to seven years in my attending job. I've been in the same job since I finished my training and all the docs in my hospital get a fairly generous PTO allowance. The really interesting thing is, and I think it starts with our limiting beliefs. Right. Most of the doctors at my hospital do not use anywhere near the amount of PTO that we were given. I think there's just something about, well, I can't leave my patients or, oh, I mean to do it, but it's too late. I can't request next month for a week off because you didn't request it soon enough. And so what I would suggest for all doctors who are listening, whether you have four weeks of PTO or eight weeks of PTO per year is to really sit down, look at your calendar. And if you have kids or you have a spouse that have their own calendars, just get all the calendars on your computer screen and on your phone and just block those times, right? Put that request in. If you are a hospitalist or anesthesiologist. Anesthesiologist or a shift worker put the request in. If you don't put it in, someone else is gonna get those dates, right? So just plan. So I think the first is just us. Make use of what you have. I think that is just key for everybody. So for me, I was one of those doctors. I never use all of my PTO and a year plus ago when I decided to embrace travel, I have a lot. extra PTO because they do let us roll over about half of what we don't use, so I had like a bonus travel time. So that helped. But that being said, it's case by case basis, and so that's one way. The other way that I made this work was some of the time when I travel, for example, I didn't even count this as one of the trips, but I live in Vermont and I have family in California and San Francisco, and it was really important for me for my kids to get to know that part of the family, and they really didn't have time to study. been with that part of the family until I made this intention to travel. And so we spent two or three weeks at my aunt's house in San Francisco. So my kids were there, but during that time I did telehealth clinics, right? I could bill for telehealth clinics as a sleep doctor. So it was a creative way for me to be in a different place. Being in San Francisco, I mean, I was still able to see the Golden Gate Bridge and do these fun trips that I wouldn't be able to do in Vermont and escape some of the winter that's in Vermont in January and have connections with my family but also not use up all my PTO time. So that's another way is just being creative with how can I be away and you have to draw boundaries on how to enjoy your time so that you're not just working and working all the time but also not use up all my PTO time. So those are two things. Also for those of you who maybe do shift work or my clinic hours are part time. We asked my husband, I work way more than 40 hours a week, but with all the other things I do, like sleep studies and whatnot, but I have to be in the hospital about three days a week. So what I do is I'll look at the calendar and it's like, here's the two week pay period. Here's another two week pay period. And I tried to schedule the trip so that the week before the week after, if I just do an extra clinic or for hospitals, if you do an extra ship, you're not using the. whole entire time off. You can make up for it a little bit where there's a will, there's a way. So before we think about, we can't think of what do we want and then how can we? And I think that's how I came up with all those different strategies. Makes sense. Absolutely. And now let's talk about as important part, money, how to make it financially possible, especially you had mentioned that your sole main provider for family rate and work part. So how to make it happen? people in the family and seven international trips. What travel hacking tips would you recommend? Absolutely. Like you mentioned, I am the sole income earner in my family. My husband is an engineer turned homeschooling, stay at home dad, and my kids are homeschooled. So people may listen and they're like, well, that's how she makes it work. But I want you to think what's my situation and how do I make the most out of the situation I have? If you are no two income earner family, you have more income, so you might not have as much time, but you have money, so you can optimize it that way. In my case, I don't have to worry about my husband's work schedule, so we have more time, at least only one schedule to worry about. And then my kids have a little bit more flexibility because they have homeschooling online classes some of the time, but it's not as rigid as that. the school classes. So for us, it was just making that work. So we do try to travel in the shoulder seasons, and then I try to match the trip. So this past summer, my kids didn't have school at all, even though they're homeschool, they still have to do school, but they didn't have to do any school in the summer. And so we went on these trips where we have to take advantage of that free time. So we went to Taiwan, we spent about two weeks there. That's early in the summer. And then later in the summer, we spent three weeks in Australia. Those were like place to place to place was busy. It was action packed. It was adventurous. It And it took a lot of energy. There was no way they could have homeschooled their way through those trips. And we did that intentionally because they didn't have to be in school. And then in March, we went to Eleuthera, Bahamas, which is this beautiful off the beaten path island in the Bahamas. And it's a small island. It's really chill. And it's beautiful. There's snorkeling opportunities, the beaches were beautiful, and you really didn't have to plan all that much. There were caves to explore, so much nature. So what we did for that is my kids had spring break, so they had a week off where we didn't have to worry about school, but then the other week they had school and they just attended their online classes and we worked around the time around the classes. So that was another way. We stayed at a vacation rental, and it was a very relaxed. Same vacation where we didn't feel like we had to go from place to place to place. You couldn't, it took like two hours from one end of the island to drive to the other end, and you didn't have to do the crazy like go through the whole continent of Australia. So those are some ways that we made it work time-wise, financially, I will say when we first started, like the first out of the seven trips, I honestly didn't even worry that much about the finances. There's seasons in life and the season before our travel chapter, I didn't really have that money, expensive hobbies. So we were able to have a cushion. I invested most of that money. It's not like I had a huge amount of money in the bank. But when we started this new chapter in our life, the first trip, I really just wanted to go on a trip. I mean, I wasn't going to go into debt for it, but I also didn't worry too much about how much it costs because we didn't even go on any trips for about two years. And so that trip, U. S. Virgin Islands, for those Who haven't been there is very expensive. The vacation rental costs, I think it was maybe 8, 000 for us to stay there for 13 days, but it was a beautiful villa. It had a pool, had two jacuzzis. You had this beautiful view of the Caribbean sea and my family of five was there and during part of it, my mom joined us. who had recently become widowed. And so it was way more money than I ever spent on a vacation rental, but it was also what we needed at the time. So that was an example of we didn't worry too much about the money and it was an expensive trip. But for example, my most recent trip to Portugal, we stayed in the month of November. My family had rented for almost the entire month, a villa with a pool in this island called Madeira. in Portugal. So Madeira is an island, they call it the Pearl of the Atlantic. It's on the Atlantic Ocean. It's closer to North Africa than it is to Europe, but it is an autonomous region of Portugal. And for those of us who are maybe familiar with Portugal, one of the great things about Portugal is that the prices compared to the rest of Europe and certainly compared to the U. S. It's relatively inexpensive. So we rented this beautiful villa. I just found it on the internet, and it was about 5, 000 for the whole entire month. And so you think about that, you think about, okay, it was 8, 000 for not even quite two weeks in the U. S. Virgin Islands. And that doesn't count the food prices and the restaurant prices and all the other things in the U. S. Virgin Islands versus this. Also, beautiful island in Madeira, a little bit off the beaten path for the Americans. I mean, people in Portugal certainly know about it. And we were able to stay there for a month for less than the price, way less, 60 percent of the price than two weeks at another place. So we call it like geographic arbitrage, right? just like you have geographic arbitrage in your regular life. So making the most of that. And honestly, travel hacking actually. When we started the whole chapter in traveling and our life, that's when I started signing up for cards with points and all of that. And so when we first started, you don't have enough points to really use it. But then I try to book stuff early. So when I said I found this amazing villa and I was able to book it for the whole month of November, I was doing this. at least six months in advance, right? Because when you get closer, things get booked up and things get a little bit more expensive. But I also booked our first round trip business class tickets to Portugal on points. We did it through Aeroplan. We flew TAP Portugal. And so that was such a fun experience. And that was on point. So it's funny because the flight probably didn't cost any more than it costs to go to the U. S. Virgin Islands, even if you convert the point prices. So flights didn't cost more. And that's. part of our strategy is we tend to like to go to off the beaten path places. So we don't tend to use points for hotels. We tend to just pay for our lodging, especially since most of the time we're a bigger family, we do a vacation rental house, but we try to use the flights with points because you can fly to a place that's more inexpensive on points. And then when you get there, the lodging and the food is fairly inexpensive, cheaper than it is in the U S. Yes, points game, it's so interesting and so helpful. For our listeners, listen to episode 45 if you would like to learn more about points, where amazing Dr. Devon Gimbel will share her journey and so many helpful tips. It was episode last spring. So, episode 45, but let's go back to our travel hacks. So, geographic arbitrage and points game, what else helped you? Yeah, I think the timing. So using the timing of the traveling. So like I said, everyone has to look at their life and look at the schedules that they have to deal with and figure out what is the best way. So for example, I try to travel in the off season or in the shoulder, shoulder seasons are the best. Because and it's dependent on the location you want to go to, like, for example, Australia. So when we went to Australia, it was August, but it was their winter, right? And Australia is a very big continent. It's a very big country. So when we went to the north part of Australia, the part that's closer to the equator, that was actually their high season. So it was very clear the prices were way more. But then when we went to the southern part of Australia, that was their winter and it was actually colder and the prices were way cheaper. So just an example of, you can try to go to places that are shoulder seasons or low seasons because you have the advantage of flying. So even if it's like, hey, it's our high season because it's our kids summer breaks. You can fly somewhere where in that country, that's not their summer, right? So it's not their kid's summer break. So actually it was a very laid back trip traveling through Australia because it wasn't their high season for most of it, except for this one part that we were in. So that's one hack. The other hack is if you're like, well, I only have time to travel on the holidays, right? Like my kids And we have the Thanksgiving week off or the Christmas week off. Well, we spent Thanksgiving in Portugal and especially in the part of Portugal that we were in, there are very few Americans. So they didn't know what Thanksgiving was. They didn't know what Black Friday was. I thought it was amazing. I was like, why is everyone advertising for Black Friday? But so they know Black Friday, but Thanksgiving is not a holiday for them. And because there weren't a lot of Americans traveling there, it wasn't really like high prices. So there are ways that you can, especially being strategic about where you're flying to, or just. If you're able to take September to travel because you're not tied to the kid's schedule, then do that because it is a much better month to travel to many parts of the world because the kids are in school. Oh, yes. Anything else which can help to get financial part easier? Yeah, I think The other thing that I try to do is I try to work directly with, so let's say in a lot of places, I just do it by myself. Like Australia, I planned that trip by myself. I booked all this stuff on my own and we rented a car and we did it on our own. But in countries, like for example, in March, we were going to the Galapagos and Ecuador and that felt really overwhelming. There's the opportunity cost of doing all this research and your time too. So I just didn't have time to plan that trip and plan. Plus sometimes working with a tour operator or working with a travel agent is even financially a better thing. However, when you choose who you work with, I think that is very important. So the tour operator that maybe your doctor friends recommended or that you found in some like fancy catalog may not be the best. one. So what I try to do is I try to look for the local, And anytime you go through a third party, you want to ask yourself, is there a value add, right? If there's a value add, then by all means go pick that because realize that whenever there's a third party, you're paying for that third party as well. So for me, I try to look for the local, even on the eight or I'm like, Oh, that looks like an interesting tour. What is that company locally? And then I try to just. Search for that on my own and then work directly with them if the deal is better. So because you're cutting out the things that may not be adding value and there's something about being able to directly communicate with the person who was actually going to be helping you. So I think that's also a very important thing too. Any particular websites or any other resources which you found helpful? So it really depends on the location and I think when I was saying if you get a random recommendation from a physician friend that may not be the best one but I'm happy to share the things that I've gone through like on my podcast or I have a Dare to Dream Physician travel Facebook group too so I'm happy to be a support as I'm gaining more experiences through my travels. So I try to ask people do a lot of travel who tend to working with the local networks. I do a lot of Google search. So if you go to a website and you're like, wow, this looks great. They're describing the Galapagos or they're describing this. And then you go to that website and there's like 10 destination That's probably a sign that they're not local. They are contracting with a local company, but they are not local. Or if you go to the website and you search for the destination I usually search for like the destination name and local travel agent or something. And you look at their website. And they're focused in that area, then that's a better sign. And then you then try to look for reviews or like, you try to learn a little bit more about their reputation to see if they're a good fit to working with. Local travel agent. Yes, it's important. And what to do about the situation when a child doesn't want to travel. I make it I love that question. It's so good. Yeah, I mean, this is funny because I loved travel before I became a mom and before I became a doctor. So in college I did a lot of world travel. A lot of it was through Europe. And it was this part of myself that I totally forgot until about a year ago. And I had this initial limiting belief. I was like, gosh, I would love to get into travel again, but the kids are getting in the way. Like literally that's what I thought. I was like, the kids are getting in the way of my world travel dream. And then asked the version of me from a year plus ago, I would have been like, well, I guess I have to travel despite the kids. Like if I could choose, if someone could magically watch them and keep them happy for the time, then I could just fly away somewhere on my own and leave the kids there. Like that literally was the ideal situation in my mind. But after traveling with my kids for a year, I now wouldn't have it any other way. And so two of my kids were gung ho about traveling. explain to them what we were doing, and they were like, let's do it. But I had one child who, I think when we started this process, was about 8 years old at the time. And he would not have it. I mean, literally when we announced our decision to go on the first trip to the US Virgin Islands, which is a little bit far away and out of our comfort zone at that time, he was crying. He did not want to go. And when we went, we flew from Vermont, and at the time, it's cold, you had to wear socks, you had to wear jackets. And so he started wearing that and then we got to the US Virgin Islands. It was 80 something degrees. It was hot He was sweating He was still wearing his vermont clothes and he refused to take it off because he's like I am not here Like I am still in vermont like he just was He did not want to travel at all. I mean there was tears and kicking and maybe not screaming but close to it And so that was the kid like a year plus ago And it's frustrating as a parent because you're like, Oh, is he going to get in the way of me traveling? Is my kid going to get in the way of me living my best life? But we just tried to meet him where he was. So I was persistent. But at one point I convinced him to take off his socks. We brought his bathing suit. Somehow I caught him at a weak moment. I'm like, why don't you also put on your bathing suit? And then somehow he was in his bathing suit. And we were at this beach where you could snorkel. My kids didn't even know how to swim when we first went to the Virgin Islands. But we had the life jacket and I knew how to swim. And we also got the snorkel and the mask. for them beforehand. And so I'm like, this ocean is so amazing. There's so much cool fish in here. Why don't you just go in there? And he's like, no, no, no way. But eventually I kept asking him and I convinced him to go in the water. And that was it. He was in his life jacket and I held his hand and we snorkeled and it took him a few tries to get the snorkeling thing to work. But we went through this amazing reef and we just saw all this colorful Fish all this underwater life and he was hooked. So the next time he didn't have any trouble getting his bathing suit I'm, like, hey, do you want to go on another snorkel? Like he was all in and did he resist other things later? Yes But this is now also the kid who's now giving me other travel ideas When I do suggest a trip, my husband's usually the last one I try to pitch it to. I pitch it to my kids first. I'll be like, I think I want to go to Africa next June. And I'm showing them pictures and videos. And this same kid who was crying and kicking and screaming and not wanting to go to the Virgin Islands is now like, Oh yeah, I'll go, I'll go. So it's a growth process. I mean, every kid is going to be a little different, but I think to understand that it's a growing process for them, too, and then constantly trying to expose them to be able to grow. You have to be persistent, because if you just let them sit there, they will just sit there. But I just kept asking him and asking him, and eventually, it happened. It is awesome. Anything else which can make travel with small kids easier? I think it's lowering expectations. During the first Virgin Island trip, I had this thing. So we live in rural Vermont. It takes us at least two hours, sometimes three, depending on the airport we go to, to drive to the nearest airport. And then usually we like off the beaten path destinations. So you do a layover and you fly and you get to the destination. So in the Virgin Islands, we drove two hours to the airport. We did a layover and then eventually we got to St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands, but we were on another Island called St. John, which is kind of the wilder, more of the national park Island. By the time we got there, we had to do a. Very once we got to the airport in US Virgin Island, and then once we got on the ferry, we had to drive to the other side of the island. It was insane. When I feel overwhelmed or stressed, I try to use that as a learning pearl. So I'm like, next time I'm going to break that travel up. So now we just try to make it easier. We may just get a hotel at one of the connecting points or get a hotel to stay. If we have to drive to the airport, get a hotel to stay at the airport. So we travel very slowly just so that it's less overwhelming, especially the transition. It is important for it. It actually makes it easier. Anything else? I would say if you are a female doctor and you're listening to this, no matter what stage of life you are in, whether you're in the stage of life with those little kids and you feel overwhelmed with your life already, or your kids are out of the house, or you have this freedom to travel independently, whatever stage of life that you're in, just think or reflect, really look deep within. I think if for some reason my health didn't allow me, what would I miss? If I want to travel, where do I want to go? That's how I usually do my exercise in my brain is I'm like, if I don't have everything that I have right now, what would I regret, right? Like, what did I regret not doing? So if I take myself in the future and I'm like, oh, I have sciatica and I can't walk as well, or God forbid someone's not as healthy anymore and now we can't go anywhere, what I have told my old self that I really needed to do and then go do that now because life is precious. Life is uncertain and make the most of what we have now. You are not going to regret it. It is true. You live life to the fullest every moment. It's true. Wonderful. And if you'd like to tell anything else and how our listeners can connect with you. Yes, I love that Dr. Tatiana is putting out this podcast and creating this resource for women physicians to find their voice, to feel empowered. And because you are on a podcast platform, if you want to have inspiration to dare to dream, live your life to the the full list. Use fun, adventure, and travel to help make your life magical. Go and look for my podcast, Dare to Dream Physician Travel Podcast, and subscribe. I'd love for you to listen and connect with me. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. I also have a Facebook group called Dare to Dream Physician Travel as well. I'd love to connect with you. Let me know what I can do to help you live your best life. Just go book that trip and go. You're not going to regret it. Thank you so much. Such a wonderful, such an inspiring journey. Thank you and great, great tips. Mhm. Mhm.