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Fearlessly Female Uncensored
A comedic podcast featuring two friends sharing unfiltered stories and hilarious takes on life as modern women.
Fearlessly Female Uncensored
Travel Experiences: Jet-Setting on a Budget & Practical Tips
Click Here to Chat with Us! We're all ears (& probably wine).
Travel doesn't have to be a luxury reserved for the rich or adventurous. Join us as we uncover the secrets of jet-setting on a budget, sharing hilarious tales from partying with seniors on cruises to adrenaline-packed under 30 tours with EF College Break. Ever thought you could enjoy tax-deductible trips to exotic locales? Groups like Souls for Souls make it possible. We promise you'll pick up practical tips like timing your trips during the off-peak seasons for unbeatable rates and learning to appreciate the transformative power of travel, even if it's just to your local landmarks.
Reflecting on personal journeys, we share how travel has shaped our lives, from Brittany's eye-opening adventures in China to collecting art and unique keepsakes from around the globe. We discuss the joy of playing tourist in your own backyard and the surprising revelations it can bring—like discovering iconic sites you've never bothered to visit. As we spill the beans on our own travel plans, we're here to ignite your wanderlust and encourage you to embrace the spontaneity and excitement that travel, near or far, can bring. So grab a drink, kick back, and get inspired to explore the world without breaking the bank!
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Welcome to Fearlessly Female, where two blondes make a right. We are Megan and Brittany, the hosts of Fearlessly Female. This podcast was born out of ambition, drive and a lot of wine. We're two powerhouse comedic women having uncensored conversations about topics that affect women. We're airing all the dirty laundry, so grab your favorite drink and give us a listen. Today's podcast is All Bosses Need a Break, where we highlight some of the wildest travel experiences we have had.
Brittany:Don't worry, we're not talking about scaling Kilimanjaro here, just some good old-fashioned travel Warning. Calm your tits. Offense will not be taken here. So grab your favorite drink, burn your bra and let's have a good time.
Meghan:When we say we cover everything. We cover everything in this podcast, but I think the importance of talking about travel experiences is one so you get lessons learned from us. We made a few mistakes, but also we talk about it because traveling is so incredibly important to the education of your life, important to the education of your life and has impacted on how you think about careers, gratitude, perspectives and a whole unknown squish that you can't tie to anything. I know it made some difference personally in my life. Oh, I love that Unknown squish.
Brittany:I 1000% agree, and it's crazy how much traveling impacts you. I think there's different ways to travel too, and also how you travel dictates the experience you get right. So, for example, if we go in like cheap off brand names, you know you're going to have one hell of a story when you get back versus you know, just sticking to only brand names, like eating at McDonald's, you'll see some cool stuff, but the stories won't be nearly as fun.
Meghan:Oh my gosh, foreign Foods could do an entire podcast on, but I want to start talking about how you travel for cheap, because we can talk about all the fun stories, but if you're sitting there or driving Right sitting driving, walking or drinking and thinking, oh this is grand, but I don't have the money to travel. Have we got news for you? Britt and I have unlocked a few cheat codes for you.
Brittany:I think one of my favorites is going through a under 30 tour. It's called EF College Break.
Meghan:Why does it have to be under 30? Is there an under 40 I can use for like six more years.
Brittany:I feel like you know under 40 would be cool for that one. So this one is all about like it was more or less geared towards like younger people, so they do like more active things. They traveled all around the world for whatever duration you can go, like you know, if you want to go for a whole like month, or just a couple days a week, two weeks, whatever, but they were very active. There was people that were more or less within your age group, right. So I totally get the under 40 things, but you also have to keep in mind you're with people that are like 18 and 21 and you know they want to. You know go out and like binge drink, so pass on the 18 year olds.
Meghan:Love y'all, but I am way too old for that.
Brittany:But that one was cool, right. So they have like payment plans, right, you can make payments over time, they have discount codes, sales, all that jazz. But then on the flip side, I went on a cruise with my mom and it was kind of like a last minute thing. She's like just come on this cruise with me to Germany. Okay, whatever, cool, I haven't been. So I went and it turns out it was like a whole like senior cruise which.
Brittany:I love. Oh my gosh. I had like the time of my life, so I had like under 30 tour and then like the senior cruise and man, let me tell you, those people can party so much. It was a tad bit more expensive but, oh my gosh, it was still so much fun. But it was definitely like two different flavors. Going under 30 in the senior cruise. What tips do you have for traveling?
Meghan:on the cheap. So if you listen to our Giving Gives Back podcast, you heard me talk about Souls for Souls. I traveled twice with them, once to Costa Rica and once to Tanzania. Both trips were about $2,000 each and tax deductible folks. Now please understand. I went on these trips because they were places I wouldn't necessarily go alone. I was curious about the Peace Corps at the time and it was recommended to do something smaller, try it on for size versus making that huge of a commitment. And it was cheap For $2,000 to fly across the world. Have all lodging, food, itinerary handled. It was such an easy decision for me. And then, yeah, it was nice when I got my taxes back.
Brittany:Oh, I bet, Especially going to places that you wouldn't normally go to, at least you know you're safe and with like a group. And yeah, I'm all for that Absolutely, and I hate to say this, but I saw this, you know, for that Absolutely, and I hate to say this, but I saw this, you know, trips planning guide on Instagram. I'm rolling my eyes right now because I have to make that reference, but they did make a lot of like good suggestions on there, and one was, you know, travel in the off seasons. It really, you know, kind of depends where you're going, of course.
Brittany:So if you're coming to Florida in July, you might get swept up by a hurricane, you know just saying but it's still nice, right, you're not going to be paying as much as if you're going to come in December. Just don't pack a sweatshirt or pants, you don't need them. And then two is let the destination be the deciding factor, not the date, because you know you do have those peak travel times, but this allows you to book flights and hotels when they're at their cheapest, versus trying to something, trying to find something that fits your schedule because you know it's Labor Day, weekend, christmas, whatever.
Meghan:I would also say that if you go to a country that has cheaper currency exchange rate or that may be recovering from a harsh economy I went to Greece for fairly cheap and it met both of these criterias Two weeks, two people, 5k including all the extras, like brand new luggage. Basically, the more flexible you can be, the cheaper it will be.
Brittany:oh, I love that. I love that. Okay, so now that we have our cost out of the way and our options, you know, for destinations, let's talk about experiences hands down vietnam.
Meghan:oh my gosh. I've traveled all over the world and so I've experienced different cultures. Right, we're in the United States. If I travel to the UK, there's so many similarities it's not really a different culture, and so I encourage you to travel and experience different cultures. So I had done that by the time I went to Vietnam. So when I went to Vietnam, I went with my parents and I got to see them experience that culture change, right Because.
Meghan:I had already done it so I knew how it rolled. It was so fun to watch them. But I can tell you like we you know 24 hour flight we land and we go to this family's house. It's three stories. We're on the rooftop. There's like so much food it's unreal. Like.
Meghan:I mean platters upon platters upon platters. All these servants keep bringing out more food and I'm like who's this? For? There's three of us right in the family like super small, just, I mean pile hide with crabs. Like I can only eat one crab plus. Like a corn on the cob. I can't eat like this much food, right? So it starts raining and we kind of like get under like an awning. It starts raining and then it stops and if you're familiar with places like this, after it stops raining, humidity shoots through the roof. So it starts getting like massively hot, right. And imagine this I mean we're jet lagged, we've been in the country a few hours and it starts shooting through the humidity and more food is brought out.
Meghan:And dad and I just lost it, like we were hysterically laughing, could not believe, like we're like where's all this food going to go? So it was like the mix of jet lag, humidity, food, chaos and that was day one. Like I was there for two weeks and have that many stories. So you will actually hear more stories about when I was in Nam.
Brittany:Oh my gosh, I'm like picturing this to like hairs, just like poofing out, and then you have like sweat on top of sweat from the plane and then, oh, good, good, just what I want is more. I don't want to be rude because you guys are like hosting, right.
Meghan:Like, we're like trying to eat as much as we can, but there's just no way it's happening. What about you, brittany? What do you got?
Brittany:Oh, I have like a whole bucket load of stories here. I'm going to probably pick something a little bit more tame, but one of my best ones was when I went to Italy, and the reason being is I didn't really travel like a lot from I don't know, maybe like second, third grade, up until I graduated school. I was just very focused on school. So it was like my first trip out of the country in a long time and it was something that I really wanted to do. I've always wanted to go there and I don't know how, but I somehow talked like two of my friends into coming with me and it was just like the best experience, like ever. So we were there. I went with the EF college break, so I was about I don't know 20. Am I really 20? I'm not going to date myself here, but it was just so much fun. We had a blast. We got to see so much cool stuff.
Brittany:You know I had some you know more or less advice from my parents that had gone, but you know it had been quite a while since they went and I more or less take people's advice. My mom's like don't bring heels. Blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of cobblestone. Okay, cool, got it. Well, what my parents didn't tell me was that entire country is the Stairmaster 5000. You wonder why Italians are not fat and eat pasta and bread like it's coming out of places that you don't want it to come? It's because they're hiking up stairs and it's not just cool like stairs as a handrail. Now these are like cobblestone stairs, right? So we have our luggage and you know, I have a couple of friends that aren't really like the best packers, right? So they have these giant luggages that they're trying to like pull up these stairs and I'm like I have my little thing and I was just struggling and it's just hot and humid and it's just, oh, it's just fun.
Meghan:If you spend any time with me, you will know that Megan does not believe in checked luggage. I'm sure this will come up, but, yeah, no lugging huge luggage across Cobblestone, and I will definitely not pack heels because Italy is on my list and I would love to go, but I think that's the best like making memories with your friends. So let's talk about traveling more on the like impact or something that was hard For me. It was Tanzania. It was one of my favorite places and I say that about so many right, but they're favorite for different reasons.
Meghan:It was incredibly hard from an emotional standpoint, though. We landed in the country a dirt runway by the way. And before they would even let us up, we were being held up with guns Like they didn't want to let our group into the country.
Meghan:So, like I mean eyes wide open, right, that's that like culture change experience that I had Welcome to our country Right Like by the time I got to Vietnam I was like this is cool, like I can do this because I had already been held up with guns before, like no big deal. But we got to love on children in orphanages. We were washing their feet and giving them brand new shoes, and then we got to play with them like going down the slide and swings and on a jungle gym with them, and it was just. It changes your heart, right. And when I came back I had to remind myself that other people didn't have that experience and so I certainly lost patience several times when people would complain about like little stuff.
Meghan:I'm like you don't even know Right but. I forget they didn't have that experience. So it was very hard from an emotional standpoint. Incredibly rewarding. I wouldn't change it any other way. But I did learn so much, particularly that kind of relation of not being allowed into a country, and I mean obviously we were. But you know, just having that stop gate first.
Brittany:Yeah, I don't agree with you there. It puts things in a perspective and it humbles you really quick. But it's also good too, because you see how genuinely happy people are with not even like half of what you have in America. So you come back and it's like what do I have to complain about Really?
Meghan:Like. I could not agree more. I mean, the joy that you could see in the children was unmatched. But what about you, brittany? What was your most impactful or difficult trip?
Brittany:Oh, my goodness, All right. So when I was probably second third grade, my parents, we took a cruise throughout Southeast Asia and one of the stops was China. And at the time, you know, this is back in the 90s, so the internet was China. And at the time, you know, this is back in the 90s, so the internet was just coming up. There wasn't Instagram, all that jazz. So we get off the ship and at the time I had super long blonde hair like down to my butt, and it was bright blonde, and then I was like you know, a little hot shit, my little pink, hot pink fleece, little jacket, Okay pause for a second.
Meghan:First off for our listeners. You probably can't see how long her hair is. It's still down to her butt Like she's very much in denial. Continue Pink jacket.
Brittany:So I get off the ship and we're walking, you know, into town and these people had just never seen a blonde person before. And so I have like, basically like a small mob of like Chinese people like coming up to me and they're like, oh, lucky hair, lucky hair, you know and asking if they can touch my hair. And you know, at the time I'm in second, third grade, right. So it was very traumatic, like being bombarded by all these people, but you know, it was. You know, gold is very lucky in their country. They wanted to touch it and stuff like that. So, okay, fine, so I ended up, just, you know, putting my hair in a bun and then putting my hood on, which you know was pink I still stood out because I was white and you know whatever. But fine, I kind of like got over that.
Brittany:But then we were at a restaurant and my aunt was outside smoking and I was just hanging out with her and my dad comes out and is like, okay, where's Brittany? And it's like, ok, where's Brittany? And he's looking around, looking around, and he sees this like Asian woman that just kind of like took my hand and is like walking off with me down the street and my dad's like what the hell Like? You're like basically trying to kidnap my kids. So he's like running after me and, you know, grabs me, but I don't know. Just the whole part of like kind of almost being kidnapped was being a little traumatic and I try not to think about how my life could have been a lot different if he didn't come out at that time. But you know, that was the whole experience there. I don't know if I necessarily go back to China. I'd probably have to go through a lot of therapy before I go back.
Meghan:I'm glad you made it back and weren't actually kidnapped. But let's lighten it up a bit. So what is one thing you always bring back, no matter where you travel and why?
Brittany:Oh my goodness All right. So I love like print and like art, so canvas art, I love going to try and find you know little mom and pop shops that have different art and really kind of portray the country in certain ways Very colorful, bright, cheery. You know, sometimes I'll get like the black and white ones, but I think I just went to Paris and got you know like the landmarks and then a couple cool pieces, but I think it's just very fun just to see the different styles you know throughout the world.
Meghan:What about you? So I collect sand. I started this collection in 1999. I was visiting my Bible school teacher and she had a sand collection that she was showing me, and I happened to be going to the UK after that trip, and so I said, oh my gosh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to start a sand collection. This is a perfect time, I'm starting to travel. And she started me off with my first sand, and so she gave me some sand out of her collection, and it was from Egypt.
Meghan:And so I have this huge map in my guest bedroom that has like all the sand pins, and Egypt is number one, and I have over 150 samples of like sand, and it's not just me who collects them. I have a lot of friends who have contributed to it. I don't care if you have to smuggle it, if you get in trouble like, bring me the sand right, and so there's so many stories that have like added to this collection. It's a mix of stuff that I've traveled on and that other people have traveled with as well. And then a little side note to our listeners if anybody's going to Russia, I need some sand.
Brittany:I'm really struggling to get some sand out of Russia right now. Yes, I agree, that's so funny, funny story. Megan asked me to bring some sand out of Russia right now. Yes, I agree, that's so funny, Funny story. Megan asked me to bring some sand back from. I think we were in Vienna. I want to say I almost came back with the husband from there because I'm out here on this like beach right. So we're docked on this cruise to Germany. It was like through you know a couple of countries and I'm there, my mom's like what are you doing? I'm like I have to get sand for Megan, just, you know whatever. And then I meet this like random guy, like walking, and he's like talking to me, like oh, cool, Hi, you know, you know small talk, he's friendly. And then he starts following me back to the cruise and like walking me back, asking me like all these things when I'm coming back next. And it's just a bunch of fun stories, right.
Meghan:Yes, so I am absolutely willing to sacrifice your life for my sand.
Meghan:But let's talk about our biggest learning as it relates to travel. So not everyone travels the same. You need to find someone who does, and so I have two examples of this. One person I traveled with. She just kind of started getting like attitude and wanted me to be like her little social media manager and like I had taken a video wrong and like just it was a lot of like drama, right, and we ended up actually not speaking for the rest of the trip and we were sharing a queen bed. Oh, and then, by the way, she also was my employee and like fast forward a year.
Brittany:I ended up having to fire her, but that's another podcast.
Meghan:And then the second example is a friend I'm still. I ended up having to fire her, but that's another podcast. And then the second example is a friend I'm still really really good friends with her, but we travel so differently. So if I'm going to be on a plane for 24 hours, 18 hours, whatever it is you best believe, I'm hitting ground and I'm running Like we are going to see this place right, jam-packed agenda. I don't know when I'm going to come back here, so I'm going to just try and cram it all in. But my friend, who I'm still friends with and I love she, was like, okay, we'll meet in the lobby at this time and then we'll leave at this time and we'll figure it out. And we met in the lobby, not at that time, and it just everything felt so slow and I just felt like I was wasting my time. And so just know that when you're traveling, you may want to find someone who likes the speed that you're traveling or like beat your guests into compliance, because I have several stories of that as well.
Brittany:I'm the same way too. I'm like, if I'm getting on a plane to go anywhere, like I expect, either you're planning the itinerary or I'm planning the itinerary but it's going to be jam packed and we're hitting all the highlights and some off the road stuff and you're getting some great stories about it. But yeah, I definitely agree, you have to figure out what their travel style is like and stick with those, otherwise it's not going to be fun and you really just have to be, you know, open minded and adopt, you know, more or less like a go with the flow vibe. You know stuff's not always going to be. You know, go according to the plan or the itinerary. You might order the wrong dish, you're going to end up with goose liver or something disgusting, but you know that's where the fun comes in, right, and that's where the memories are made and you have the fun stories to tell.
Meghan:Oh, absolutely. I went to Catalina and like I wanted to make the most of it, right, like I got this bracelet and you, you bought the bracelet and it gave you however many experiences you could fit in. And I realized like if I rent a golf cart, it'll get me to the experience faster because, like walking was too slow and we're talking like 500 feet Right, and so it was just like jam packed, jam packed, jam packed, right, and you know, had to make dinner at a certain time and then we were going to go hit another experience. And finally the person I was traveling with was like stop, we're not going to go on that experience, we're going to sit here and drink wine. And I was like, okay, so, like I love going in with a plan, but if something goes awry, going with the flow is the best advice, because, you know, the worst of it was I had to enjoy a bottle of wine.
Brittany:Oh darn, such a bad time. I know I went on a camping trip. Me and my girlfriend planned it. We were working at retail at the same time. So we got off work, we're like, all right, we're going to go camping, we're going to meet our family up there, we're going to road trip. It was only supposed to be a two-hour drive, so we got off work, left right off work and we're supposed to be there at 7, right, maybe 8 with traffic. So we're driving and we're not at the campsite and I'm like, okay, cool, you know, we're on a dirt road.
Brittany:And then it started to get like a little bit like four-wheelie, which fine, but in like a Hyundai, like sedan, not, you know, like an SUV or any sort of four-wheel vehicle.
Brittany:And we have our dog in the back and again, not a small dog, he's about like an 80 pound, like pitbull, and this poor guy is like trying to jump between, like the driver's side door panel and her door, like into her lap, because we're like on an off-road trail and not an off-road car.
Brittany:He's like scared, like shitless, and we ended up like sleeping at a gas station. And then the next day we left like, okay, we're going to find this campsite and we ended up like on the ATV trail, a couple more dirt bike trails. They only finally found this lake but, like you know, the sign for it was just like so tiny and when you're looking at it you know things to expect, like in certain parts of your visual cue, like okay, it's gonna be left, the right, it was like hidden behind, like this tree. Long story short, we ended up finding the campsite finally, but it was just like the whole story about like having to sleep at a gas station. We didn't know if we were going to be like murdered in the middle of the night.
Meghan:Yeah, that's exactly where my brain went is like, oh my gosh, brittany could have gotten murdered and we wouldn't have this podcast, but at least I would have been able to listen to her on Crime Junkies Little shout out to them, I love them Well. Anyways, I have just very few soapboxes I get on, but one is travel. I have a friend who has lived in California her whole life and she has never been to Yosemite. Like, people travel from all over the world to go to Yosemite and that's a day trip from the Bay Area. So my biggest encouragement is, if you can't travel abroad, like, find what's around you and go do it.
Brittany:Yes, you definitely have to do like the touristy things in your backyard because, I mean, it's always fun to play tourist for the day and you know you have things when people come and visit like, hey, these are cool things to do, but I think we're out of time because I'm going to go grab my passport and probably hop on a flight pretty soon. But if you guys have ideas on destinations, trips, even planned itineraries, you know, shoot them our way, Add them to our comments section, Add your favorite places too, and you can always email us at frisleyfemaleuncensored at gmailcom.
