Life in North Korea, Travel with Kids, and Responsible Tourism with Jessica Off from Guess Where Trips

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EPISODE SUMMARY:

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go we meet Jessica Off, Owner of Guess Where Trips. Jessica joins us for a chat about living in North Korea, travelling with kids, & starting a successful travel business during the pandemic. Jessica also talks about the impact of social media on travel & the importance of responsible tourism. 

Travelling through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun & quirky show from Travel with TMc that delves into all things travel & adventures from the road, in the air, & in between here and there. Subscribe for weekly updates!

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MORE RESOURCES & LINK FROM TODAY’S EPISODE:

Jessica's Song Choice - Home
Mini JetSetter
Copenhagen Downloadable Map + Trip Planning Tips
Troll Hunting in Copenhagen

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to Jessica Off, Owner of Guess Where Trips
03:50 First Trips & Childhood Experiences: Family Road Trips, Florida, & Hospitality & Tourism Education
06:13 How to Choose Where to Travel: Risky Destinations, COVID, & Family Travel
09:04 Travel Traditions
09:53 Scary Travel Experiences: Hitchhiking & North Korean Hospital Visits
11:28 Repeat Destinations & Trip-Saving Trolls
13:54 Pandemic Effects on Travel: GWT is Born
19:34 Language & Travel: Afrikaans, Maori, & a Great Non-Tech Tip
22:28 Impact of Tech on Travel Style: Maps & Data
23:13 Trip Planning: Google My Maps
24:17 Personal & External Impacts of Travel: Inspiration & Entrepreneurship
26:16 How to Respect Other Cultures as a Foreigner
30:09 Untried Types of Travel:  Bikes & RVs
31:12 Living vs. Travelling Abroad: North Korea, Cook Islands, New Zealand
32:58 How Are You Different when Travelling than at Home?
33:50 Weirdest Sleeping Spot: New Zealand Beach
34:45 Where is Home?
35:09 Using Points and Miles for Travel
38:06 Necessary Travel Items
39:44 How to Deal with Post-Trip Blues: Treehouses
41:25 Spotify Travel Playlist: Jessica's Choice
42:21 Speed Round: Spontaneity, Vietnam, Best Travel Apps & Gifts
4

Transcript

Tara (Travel With TMc) (00:08)
everyone. Welcome to Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go. I'm your host Tara and the founder of the blog Travel with TMc which is where this adventure all began. Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, is a fun and quirky show that delves into everything travel, whether from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. 

Make sure to subscribe so that you get notifications for new episodes. And don't forget to leave a five-star review and a comment to let me know what you think and which guests you'd like on in the future. This season, we cover all sorts of travel topics. It's my hope that you'll find one or many that make you go, "Hey, that's me. I travel that way!" Or that you find something that inspires you to travel in a new way as well. 

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, we meet Jessica Off, the founder of Guess Where Trips. It's one of my favourite travel companies and it's Canadian to boot. Jessica has had a fascinating life of movement around the globe. From living and working in North Korea, yep, I said North Korea, not South Korea, to building her company during the pandemic and now travelling with her young family, she's done a lot and seen a lot around the world. There are so many twists and turns in this interview that I know that you'll be hooked. I'm already hoping to have her back for a future episode. Okay, I guess that's it. Time to dive in.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (01:40)
Hi Jessica! I'm so thrilled to have you on the podcast. I'm a huge fan of your company and I tell people about it all the time because I think it's brilliant. I might even be a little bit jealous that I didn't come up with the idea, but for those of you who aren't familiar with Jessica Off, she's the owner of Guess Where Trips. I'll let her explain more about this kickass company, but I came across Guess Where Trips in 2020.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (01:41)
Hi!

You

Tara (Travel With TMc) (02:08)
and actually reached out to Jessica about working together after having purchased the Weird and Wonderful trip for Ontario in Canada. So we did end up collaborating. I had the pleasure of creating the Waterfall Route for them. And over the past four years, I've explored with several other itineraries. And literally in the drawer beside me, I have three more ready to go. So thank you so much for being here today.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (02:33)
Of course, that was a great introduction. And yeah, we worked together a few years ago. We still have that trip and it's still one of our most popular trips. So thank you for creating it. Yeah, and I actually haven't done it myself, but everyone on my team has and that's one of their favourites as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (02:42)
I'm sorry.

Oh nice! That's awesome to hear. Thanks for letting me know.

So why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and where you're calling in from today.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (03:02)
Yes, so my name is Jessica Off. I am the owner of Guess Where Trips. We started in 2020 right before COVID. It's been quite the journey and the actual business model has changed so much. But here we are today in, I think, 4 provinces and about 13 states. Our head office, sorry our head and only office is in London, Ontario so that's where I'm calling in from today.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (03:28)
Nice and did I see that you just opened something in Miami as well?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (03:32)
We did actually, yeah, so that's a lie. It's like a fulfillment office though. It's really where we're shipping out our trips because it's so expensive to ship from Canada to the US as many Canadians know. So we just wanted to cut some costs and we ship out it all. It's a fulfillment center essentially. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (03:49)
Nice, that's awesome.

So I'm curious to know a little bit more about you. I know that you're a big big traveller and that's kind of where the inspiration for the company came from, but do you remember the first trip that you ever took or where your travel bug came from?

Hehehehe

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (04:05)
My travel bug came from my mom who would always she would always put together these spontaneous road trips and while we were on these spontaneous road trips she would stop the car and she would turn the map around and she'd be like map attack like where are we where do you think we are and so we would have to guess where we are and then my mom would explain where we're going and it was honestly it was it was really exciting and she really

tried to always make us aware of where we were. Like she didn't want to just stuck on our Game Boys or watching TV or even reading a book. She wanted us to be fully aware of where we were going, what we were about to see and some history. So that's where I think I got my inspiration to travel. And then I just always became obsessed with the unknown and like looking at maps. I would always look at maps and be like, that town looks really cool. It's beside like two rivers and the ocean's 10 minutes away. I wonder what it's like.

And so yeah, that's I've always like I went to school for hospitality and tourism. I have my bachelor of commerce, but it was me during in hospitality and tourism and I've only ever worked within the hospitality and tourism sector. So I kind of always knew I wanted to be like a travel entrepreneur. And this is not my first business. This is like.

Three, I've had maybe three or four failed travel businesses under my belt before I started Guess Where Trips. Not a lot of people know about that. So yeah, that's where I am today. And I don't know what was the, I don't remember the initial question.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (05:35)
Yeah, I was wondering about the first trip you took and where your travel bug came from and it sounds like you had a childhood full of some really cool explorations.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (05:42)
Yeah, a lot of

road trips, like, sorry, a lot of like local local trips. Nothing too fancy, but I think the most memorable trip I took, actually the first trip I can remember was going down to Florida in a motor home and my sister and I got chicken pox. Like that was the first trip. Yeah, and then I remember the weather was like weirdly cold too. Like it was not a, I remember it as being a very fun trip, but for my mom I can imagine it being.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (06:00)
No, you did not. my gosh.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (06:10)
brutal. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (06:10)
Probably, yeah.

And how about like as you got older and even now because you have a family, correct? Yeah, so like how has your travel changed over the years and how did you choose where to travel pre -kids and with kids what does that look like for you?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (06:18)
Yes, yeah, I have a two -year -old and a four -year -old. Yeah.

Yeah.

So I was a crazy traveller before. Like I always wanted to go to the most risky destinations. I didn't care about the quality of hotels that I stayed at. I just wanted to experience as many cultures as possible and as many different places as possible, which I'm glad I got that out of the way because I have seen a large chunk of the world. And then now with a two year old and a four year old, I didn't travel for a long time with them because of COVID and because they are more high spirited children. So.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (06:56)
Hmm.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (06:58)
They, you know, they're not these like passive children who will just sit at a restaurant and like draw, like have a crayon and like draw on the menu. Like they will make a scene. So it was a little scary to think about travelling with them. But recently my friend, Mini Jetsetter, she inspires parents to travel with their kids and just to let kids be kids while they're...

exploring

a new destination. So I've actually travelled with her a few times and she's really made me a lot more confident in travelling with my kids. But still, I'm not taking to them to hostels, I'm not taking them to North Korea. I'm taking them to new destinations where it's fun for both of us.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (07:33)
Right.

Yeah, I think that's key, right? That it's fun for the parents and for the kids, for you to want to both keep on doing it.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (07:45)
Yeah,

like for a long time it was just Florida. We would just take them down to Florida, but I recently got back from Denmark last week. I've taken them to Mexico. We're doing a road trip down to Ohio to stay at a bunch of different tree houses. So yeah, we are doing a lot more trips now that COVID's out of the way and that they are a little bit older. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (08:06)
Super cool. And speaking of Denmark, you and I, outside

of the podcast today, had chatted about that because I just got back from Denmark. And as we had chatted, a friend of mine that I met while living in Ireland, shout out to Chloe, was actually following your trip through Mini Jetsetter. And she and her family are now moving to Belgium. And your friend has been a huge help for her. She's a big world traveller herself.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (08:23)
Yeah

Tara (Travel With TMc) (08:30)
It's the first big trip with kids and so Mini Jetsetter yeah, she's given confidence out to everybody it looks like.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (08:36)
Yeah, I know

she's inspired a lot of parents to travel with their kids and has some amazing tips. And I have to say she is a pro traveller with kids. I had a bunch of different luggage. I didn't have the right stroller. I didn't have the right car seat. And she travels with her whole family with one carry -on. And yeah, so she was just like whizzing through the airport. And I'm like, can you slow down? I had all these bags in my kids. So she definitely is a pro traveller when it comes to kids.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (09:03)
amazing, that's good to know. I'm curious to know what travel traditions you have, whether it's like a particular theme in your trips or if there's like a souvenir that you like to bring home or maybe something to do with postcards because I know you like mail.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (09:20)
That's a good, like when I was a kid a big thing was I would collect everything, like every receipt, every flight ticket, and I would put together a scrapbook. Like I loved scrapbooking. I don't really have a theme now. I'm trying to create some traditions with my kids. When we go somewhere we get like a key chain. But besides that the only common theme is that I get to the airport like way too early. And I just make sure a bunch of stuff is downloaded onto my phone.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (09:42)
Nice.

Yeah, nice, especially with kids you want to have that extra time there. Have you ever missed a flight or you mentioned you like adventure like hitchhiking, scary experiences, anything of the sort?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (09:51)
Absolutely, yeah.

Hmm.

So I wrote down, yeah, I've hitchhiked many different places when I was in my crazy travel phase. And then I actually, I've never missed a flight, I'm very proud to say that. And, knock on wood, and I actually spent about a month in, spent a month in North Korea teaching, yes, teaching a travel course to,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (10:12)
Yeah, knock on wood.

a month! Wow.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (10:26)
travel professors at a university. So that was probably the craziest experience I've had. I ended up in the hospital there, which I can show you some pictures to go along with this podcast, but the hospital there when you're a Westerner is like you're going back in time. It was like 1960s, they were in the little nurse outfit, the equipment there was so, it was so out of date, but it was still very clean. And you were just going into this, it felt like the Truman Show. We were the only patients in there.

And I had to get, I had food poisoning. So I was, and I had a stye in my eye. So they took it very seriously. Yeah, and I was in the hospital for a day in North Korea.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (11:07)
I feel like I already need to invite you back for a second podcast episode because I want to hear all of, you're the second person that I know personally who has been to North Korea, but they weren't there for a month. I'm excited to have you back.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (11:18)
Yeah, yeah, I have so many stories and

I have so many pictures to go along with it. So it was very interesting.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (11:26)
amazing.

Very cool. And do you have any places that you tend to go back to or in the past you would return to? Or are you like, I go to a place, I see what I want to see, and then I'm ready for the next place always.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (11:40)
So that's a great question. Before kids, I was like, there is no way I'm going back to Italy because I was just there two years ago. I want to go to a new destination. Now, I am fine with going back to the same place, but exploring something new and at a slower pace. And I also appreciate travel, I think, a little bit more now. I use it as a chance to really disconnect from work and just go at a slower pace.

Whereas before kids, it was like, let's see how many places I can see within that destination. How many different experiences can I go on? How many photos can I take for Instagram? Now, I travel for myself and for my kids. So it is a very different experience. And I would love, like I was just in Denmark and I would love to go back there. Even like next year, if you invited me back, like I would go back even though there's a million other destinations that I could go to.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (12:22)
Lovely, yeah, and then the...

It's so true. did you guys end up, because I know you were asking me about kid -friendly activities, did you end up checking out any of the trolls there?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (12:38)
The

trolls, yes, that saved us. Thank you for that recommendation. It was a travel day. We were going from Copenhagen to the Danish Riviera and we didn't know what to do and it was raining and then all of a sudden like the trolls, let's see where they are. We did about four of them and that was like, I think the most memorable thing for the kids. So thank you for that recommendation.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (13:01)
Wicked, I'm glad that that worked out.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (13:03)
And every country should have something like that because it's so simple. Obviously, it wasn't simple creating these trolls, but it was just such a hidden gem. It felt like we were the only ones with all the trolls and when you come across it, you're like, my gosh, I found it. You get so excited.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (13:06)
Yeah.

Yeah, even as an adult it feels kind of magical. Yeah, for anybody who's listening and isn't aware of what we're talking about, there's an artist called Thomas D 'Ambo and he's created these trolls out of recycled materials around the world and in and around Copenhagen there are six of them that you can find. I only made it to two but Jessica, it sounds like you got almost all of them there and yeah, they're pretty funky. They're very cool to go and check out and it's free I think for the most part. I know the ones that I saw so far

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (13:20)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (13:48)
have

been so it's really accessible for families or budget travellers as well. Yeah, I want to backtrack in time a little bit because this kind of coincides with Guess Where Trips, but I'm curious to know how the pandemic affected your travel plans or goals and also can you tell us more about Guess Where Trips and and fill everybody in who has not been in on one yet. Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (14:10)
on how it works, yeah. So I

started the company for, actually in late 2019, I think I incorporated in 2020, but originally I was actually associated with a travel agency and all the trips were multi -day. So you would fill out a quiz and you would say if you want a road trip or a flight and they would be three to five days, very similar to Pack Up and Go in the US, but this was like the Canadian side of things. And so that was going well, there was some interest.

But it was a lot of work on my end because I'm very detailed and so if someone's giving me five days and a lot of money, I want to make sure that they are seeing I'm creating the best itinerary for them. And so, yeah, then the pandemic hit and no one wanted to go on a mystery multi -day surprise trip. So everyone cancelled their trips and I lost a lot of money there.

And I actually had my son in March 2020, right when the pandemic hit. So it was actually nice timing because I got to really spend some time with him. And I didn't, I mean, I had no sales for many months and that was fine. I was okay with that. And then I started getting antsy after like the third month and I'm like, people are travelling locally. How can I tweak my business model to kind of meet these needs? And so I then created one day surprise trips. Actually,

That's a lie, I created one day scavenger surprise trips and then there was some issues with the scavenger hunt because people got lost and a sign would fall down and then they wouldn't know what the clue was. So then I just simplified the process from scavenger hunts to one day surprise road trips. So our trips now are, you get five envelopes, the first one is a before you go guide that tells you what to expect, what to pack, how long your trip will be, playlist recommendations, and then the day of your trip,

you open up the first envelope and we inside each envelope is a map, travel tips, different options, route recommendations, and you continue opening up the next envelopes and that makes a nice little day trip or we recommend an overnight accommodation if you want to stay over at the last stop and make it into more of a getaway. And so that's what our one day surprise road trips consist of and yeah, we've been selling that

model for about four years.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (16:29)
Yeah, and they're absolutely booming, like the speed with which you guys have been able to add new locations. Like it's something that I want to do on each trip that I'm on. Like for me, it's kind of becoming a theme or a tradition. But the other thing I love about them, not only is all the different locations and the different themes that people can choose from, but because they purchased the itinerary, which you can get digitally or paper, so snail mail people get the paper version, is that

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (16:38)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm. Yes. Yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (16:58)
Even if you don't complete it in one day, you can go and do it on another day or you can return to something that you really enjoyed because you have everything there with you. So that Weird and Wonderful trip that I took, the weather at the end or the time of day or whatever it was, wasn't great. So I've still got the last thing that I can go and do, which ironically pairs up with the Ontario 160 Most Unusual series that I started during the pandemic. So yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks. So yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (17:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that series. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (17:28)
Anybody who hasn't tried Guess Where Trips needs to get it.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (17:30)
It's an amazing

gift too or pre -planned date. Like if you wanna take your mom or your dad or your spouse out, like everything is planned out, you don't have to think about anything, you really just have to get in the car and go. And then it's, like you said, it's great to do at different seasons. And a lot of people are like, so I'm just paying for an itinerary? Yes, you're paying for an itinerary, but there's so many different options within each stop. If you don't wanna do the boardwalk at the first stop or if the weather's not great,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (17:33)
Yes.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (17:58)
do the cafe instead and come back and do the boardwalk later. And you can really do the same trip a few times, but have a completely different experience every time. So we also have different themes, everything from haunted themes to waterfall themes to kid -friendly themes, and we try to make it as accessible as possible. And we often try to make the, as much as we can, the stops free, because we know people are paying either $39 or $65.

For the trip, we want to make sure that they're not paying $65 at each stop. We try to make it as free as possible when you're on the trip.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (18:31)
Yeah, and I know you also focus on like local businesses and sustainability as well. So like when I was creating the Waterfall Route, a big focus for us was to chat to all the local business owners and see, you know, if there's a two for one or how can we promote their business? What did they want to talk about? And that was a big focus that you had put a lot of value on.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (18:47)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, we still focus on that because so often you go into a cute coffee shop and you're like, cute, this is, you know, I'm gonna get this and I'm gonna leave. But we try to focus on the story of the coffee shop. Like is it in a historic building or we need to know the backstories. Is it haunted? What's the owner's story? How did they start this up? Did they have a crazy story before they started this company? And those are just like.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (19:04)
No, no, no.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (19:15)
neat facts that I've always appreciated and I guess I just have a very curious mind and I've always been a very curious traveller because I don't want to just go to a destination. I want to know all the fun facts and the unique aspects of a destination.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (19:30)
Yeah, I'm 100 % with you on that. Okay, we're gonna go on to the next set of questions. So if people are just tuning in or maybe they don't know me personally, I love languages and that was actually my first love before travel. And I'm curious to know if you speak any and considering the destinations that you've been to.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (19:33)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (19:52)
Like, what's been your experience with either using other languages that you know or stumbling through the ones that you don't know? What's that experience been like for you?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (20:01)
I'm very

envious that you have such a passion for languages because I think that's such an important thing to have. I can barely speak English. That's the only language, like I just struggled with language, with the English language, with French when we were taught that in school. So I've tried, like I've tried learning a little bit of like Afrikaans because I spent some time in South Africa. I tried learning a little bit of Maori because I spent some time in the Cook Islands. I worked in the Cook Islands as well.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (20:05)
you

Hahaha

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (20:28)
So I always appreciate it and I always want to try to learn the key words, but it's never stuck with me. And I just think I just don't have that knack for it. But good for you. How many languages can you speak?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (20:29)
Thanks.

Yeah, thanks.

So I can get by in French and Spanish and English. My Italian is pretty rusty at the moment, but I find when I'm back in Italy, I can get back in the groove a little and then just enough to be polite in a few other languages, but like pieces of things here and there. Yeah, yeah. What, what

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (20:48)
Okay.

Good for you.

Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (21:03)
What are some tips then you have for people who don't speak other languages to get by when there's a barrier? And I know that we have Google Translate and everything now, but you've been travelling for a long time,

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (21:13)
when back in the, it was just a lot of pictures and pointing and facial expressions. I don't, I'm not the best person to ask when it comes to tips. Or actually I do have a bit of a tip. So one time I was travelling in Hong Kong by myself. I was like 21 years old and I couldn't get to my friend's hostel. And this was like before you were able to just like whip at your phone and Google it.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (21:21)
Hahaha

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (21:38)
And I was so lost, like the taxi driver kept, like different taxi drivers kept on dropping me off at different locations and I was doing this for like an hour and a half. And so I just asked to go to a hotel. And I'm like, just drop me off at a hotel. And so finally they dropped me off at a hotel and someone at the front desk was able to speak English. So that's my tip. If you are ever stuck and you're in the same situation as me, which hopefully you won't because of technology now, yeah, just.

go to a hotel and ask because they will most likely speak English or they'll have someone that can speak English.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:11)
That's a great suggestion. I've never heard anybody say that, but I love that. Like people might not have wifi or data for wherever they are. That's perfect. Nice. Okay, well.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (22:14)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And they're open,

you know, 24 -7. Most of them are, yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:25)
True, yeah, that's a great point.

Yep. Speaking of technology, how has tech changed the way that you travel personally?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (22:36)
Ooh, I think it's just the mapping, like using your map, downloading your map. It's a hard question for me because when I was travelling, like when I was like a really cool traveller, travelling all the time, technology was very different then. Now I am not, I don't travel a lot. I do travel a lot for work, but not to like really interesting destinations. But yeah, I think it's just the...

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:52)
Right.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (23:04)
How has technology changed how I travel now? It's just honestly the access to data. That's what's helped me now.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (23:10)
Yeah, yeah.

Nice. And then what do you do in terms of like preparing for trips? Do you use blogs or podcasts, YouTube, social media? Do you, like I know that you create itineraries, like you have been doing that for forever and having worked in the industry. What's your prep look like?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (23:24)
Yeah. Yeah.

So for Denmark, Olga and I kind of prepped everything together. So we had a map, I use (Google) My Maps, she uses Places. And My Maps doesn't like connect to your map, but you're able to change all the icons, which I love. And so we just had one giant map and we went through, I had like a Denmark travel guide.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (23:46)
Mmm.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (23:54)
which wasn't very good actually. But then we went through other travel blogs, got suggestions from there, just Googled things. A lot of like DMOs actually have pretty good websites right now for kid friendly things. And then your map is also very helpful, so thank you.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (24:11)
Awesome. Good to know. I will link that map for anybody else going to Copenhagen. Awesome. I feel like this next set of questions will resonate with you because of how you've described the kind of traveller you are and what you're interested in. But we often talk about how travel impacts us on a personal level. And so first, I'm curious to know how travel has changed or impacted your life, you know, the benefits or what do you appreciate from it or

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (24:14)
Yes, yeah, yes.

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (24:40)
some of the surprises that you've learned about yourself or other places on your trips.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (24:45)
Yeah. I just find it very inspiring. Like I'm always, I have such an entrepreneurial brain that I'm always looking at like different ideas that have been implemented in different cultures and different countries. I'm always looking at like the efficiencies. Like I love efficient countries and you're like, why don't they bring that back to Canada? Well, you could actually implement this here. Like I just have so many ideas when I'm travelling. So I find it very inspirational that way.

I also, so I actually used to work at a company called G Adventures, which I'm sure most people know what that is. Yeah, and there was this girl who would do all these G Adventure trips. She was from Russia and she would always email me after and she'd be like, I just always imagined her in a Russian accent being like, I loved Cambodia, how do I move there? Can you send me the visa documents for moving to Cambodia? And then she would go on another trip and she'd be like.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (25:19)
just talk to somebody from there today. Too funny.

you

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (25:40)
I loved Australia. How do you move to Australia? Can you send me the visa documents? She always just wanted to move everywhere she travelled to. And I feel like I'm kind of like that too. Anytime I go to a country, I'm like, my gosh, I would love to live here. I'm always Googling how to, for example, Denmark. I would love to live in Denmark. Would it be possible? Right? But yeah, it's just, with kids, it's just not possible.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (25:58)
I so agree on this. Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (26:06)
So I do get very inspired by destinations. I'm like, I would love to live here just for a couple of years. It never ends

Tara (Travel With TMc) (26:10)
Hehehehehe

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (26:12)
up happening. But yeah, they, one day.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (26:14)
Maybe one day.

Yeah. On the flip side of that, we of course impact all the places that we visit, whether we're passing through on a weekend trip or a day trip or whether we're living there for a few months or a year like you and I have done. And we've already talked about how you're very conscientious with your company for the impact that we have, but

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (26:23)
Yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (26:36)
Do you have tips for people on how to respect local cultures or traditions when travelling abroad, especially if it's quicker travel or especially if somebody's just starting out?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (26:43)
Yeah,

yes. I mean, I'm a big believer in local businesses and not supporting as many franchises when you're travelling. And also the other big thing when I've travelled is, like for example, Iceland. There was, you know, it says you're not supposed to swim in this cave, but everyone does. And I just thought like, okay, well, if everyone swims in the cave and you're not supposed to, then...

we're

really not leaving a great footprint here. Like, let's actually respect the signs. And it just, it really ticks me off when people, you know, it says, don't climb on this rock surface. There's a reason why that sign's there. So I hate, It drives me crazy when people like, don't follow the rules. Even within Ontario too. It's like, and I've reached out to a few of our our travellers Guess Where Trips who, there's this beautiful bridge on one of our hikes and you're,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (27:13)
Mm.

Right.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (27:36)
totally

not supposed to go under. And there were signs and they post, someone posted a photo of being at Guess Where Trips and they were standing on this bridge. I'm like, hey, you're not supposed to stand on that bridge. It was this historic bridge over a river. And so, yeah, I just always try to follow the different cultures and respect the signs and respect, obviously not leaving any trash. I don't know if that's the answer you wanted, but yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (28:02)
Right. Well, yeah, whatever you

have to offer people is helpful because there's going to be people listening to this who have never travelled before. There's going to be people who have travelled a ton like yourself. So, yeah, any tips you have are great.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (28:11)
Yeah.

So I guess my advice is even

if you see everyone doing something, respect the signs as much as possible because there are signs up for a reason. And then until they completely remove access to that area. And that's why so many important attractions you can't even visit anymore because people just don't respect those sites.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (28:23)
Yep, yep, love it.

Right.

That's a good point actually. Yeah. And I think it speaks to as well that everybody's actions have an impact. There's often, I feel like I'm going to tangent a little bit, there's pushback people say, what I do doesn't mean anything, but everything that everybody does has a ripple effect to it and has an influence on what other people can enjoy as well, local or visitors. Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (28:52)
Yes.

Yeah, also

a note, and this goes for a lot of the trips that we now have in the US, actually and in Canada too, we try to provide like Indigenous history, what the land rights were. And in the US, unfortunately, there's a lot of slave sites. So we don't just, and those are like big attractions, but we say, okay, this is like.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:10)
lovely.

Mm.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (29:23)
You know, it's a beautiful garden, but please know, this is the horrible dark history of it, and it's important to understand this history to kind of appreciate the area a little bit more or really understand where you are visiting.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:38)
Yep, 100%. Definitely. I think about places like, and I don't know how to pronounce it properly, but Uluru or Uluru in Australia.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (29:47)
Yeah, in Australia,

yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:49)
which is like a super sacred site and has been for millennia, I believe, for Indigenous populations, and many visitors have climbed it without realizing that and realizing that perhaps that's not the way to interact with that place. And yeah, yeah, that's great that you leave that information in the trips as well. Is there a type of travel that you haven't tried yet that you would like to and why haven't you tried it yet?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (30:04)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

I

would love to try bike travel. I would love to cycle a destination. I've never done that yet. I don't think I'm able to do that right now at my age with my family. I would want to do it for a couple of weeks, and I can't leave my kids at home for a couple of weeks while I go bike around Europe. So I think in the future I would love to do that. I'd love to try.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (30:23)
Yeah.

Mm.

For sure, definitely.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (30:45)
RV travel with my kids when they're a little bit older. I know you have your own RV. Do you still have your own RV? Nice, very cool.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (30:49)
yeah, I've got the camper. Yep, yep. I'm changing

things up a little bit this summer. I'm gonna work on it and then whatever extra time I'll travel in it. But yeah, it's honestly, it's the best.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (30:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, it looks so cool. So I mean, a lot of that stuff pops up for me on Instagram. It's just maybe in two summers we'll try it because we're a little too young.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (31:10)
Nice, nice.

Yeah, fair enough. This next set of questions has to do with living somewhere versus travelling somewhere. And you already talked about living in North Korea, and I'm curious to know, like, where else have you lived, let's say for a month or more, in a place like where have you bought groceries and settled in for a little while?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (31:19)
huh.

I went to school in New Zealand for about four months. So I, and I didn't, I lived in Auckland, not the biggest fan. Like it wasn't the most exciting city in the world. It was great because it was a great starting point for travelling the South Island. But I really wish I went and travelled say, I don't know, to Europe somewhere because I think that would have been more of like a cultural experience than Auckland. Auckland was very similar to like Vancouver.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (31:42)
I agree. Yeah.

Hmm.

Yep.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (32:02)
And we're all, Cook Islands was one of my favourite places. That was one of my favourite travel experiences, for sure, because we lived, it was me and three other girls, and we lived on this fruit farm right on the ocean. And I would hitchhike to work every single day. I worked for the Ministry of Tourism in the Cook Islands. And that's just the way to travel around. You just hitchhike because it's just one road that goes around the island. Obviously beautiful, very similar to Hawaii, but it's just actually like,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (32:22)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (32:31)
just a little bit more authentic. And then I guess North Korea. Yeah, I lived there for a month. Wouldn't really recommend living there. Yep.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (32:36)
Casual, I guess North Korea. Yeah, fair enough. We

actually have New Zealand in common. I lived in Wellington for a while. Yeah. Wellington's a super cool city. I would say to anybody going to New Zealand, like fly into Auckland and then drive down. Get like, spend a day or two, go to Giapo for ice cream, which wouldn't have been there when you were there, and then get out. Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (32:45)
there you go. Honestly, I think I would have liked living in Wellington a little bit more.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, no.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (33:03)
Okay, let's have a look here. what's something that you do when you're travelling that you typically don't do when you're at home? Like I know for some people it's talking to strangers or for other people it's trying new food. Is there anything that stands out for you?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (33:19)
I like to talk to strangers everywhere I go. So I'm just a talker, I'm just curious. I'm like, why are you going here? What do you get here? Like I try to just spark a conversation anywhere I go. I would say I honestly just disconnect from my phone a little bit more. I don't check emails as much. This is now. Yeah, I just try to just keep it a lot slower.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (33:21)
Yeah.

Nice, I love Especially being a business owner, it's hard to turn that off sometimes. What's the weirdest place that you've slept?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (33:54)
Weirdest place that I've slept? I've never slept at an airport. I would know, never at an airport. I think the weirdest, it was in Amsterdam, it's one of the cheapest possible room you could get, it's like 24 beds in one room. So yeah, just a lot of different smells and a lot of things going on when you're sleeping. Another weird spot I did sleep in, I think it's Coramandel.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (34:00)
Never had an airport?

Great.

Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (34:21)
Cove in North Island, New Zealand. That was a really cool experience. Like we slept on the beach, which was awesome. Yeah, I can't think of any other weird experiences. I did in South Africa, I did wake up and there was a scorpion in my bed. That was, yes, a small scorpion too, which are like the most deadly. Yeah, yeah, that was a lot of bugs there.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (34:32)
sweet.

A scorpion in your bed.

I would have lost my shit.

gosh. Has anywhere that you've been to felt more like home than like where you live now and where you grew up?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (34:52)
Hmm.

That's a great question.

I don't think so. When I travel around New York City, I'm like, ugh, I feel like I live here. I feel like I could easily live here or I lived here at another life. It does feel like home.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (35:07)
Yeah, I love that.

Very cool. do you use points and miles at all? I don't think we've talked about this before. Are you a travel hacker? Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (35:15)
I do. I

never used to be a travel hacker, but I think with the nature of my business, we spend so much money on shipping, right? Like for every package that ship, we're spending anywhere between 10 and $20, plus everything else goes on my credit card. Like when we're buying envelopes in bulk or paper in bulk, it all goes on my credit card. So for a while, I was just getting like cash back on MasterCard and I was like, I just need to up it a little bit. So I do, I have Aero-

Tara (Travel With TMc) (35:25)
Right.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (35:44)
plan Reserve card with American Express. And I will only ever fly like Air Canada when I can because my points just rack up. And then my biggest hack with them is the e -upgrades, which I don't know how many people know about, but I've been pretty successful with it. You accumulate e -upgrades. And then when you're booking economy or premium economy, you use your e -upgrades to upgrade for free. And so that's worked for me a few times, like flying back and forth.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (35:56)
nice.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (36:13)
from Vancouver, for example, and getting the live bed flats. So I did, actually this is a funny story, going to Denmark. I was in economy and it was with my four year old and it was an overnight flight. I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna bid on first class and see if I get it. And I got it. And they told me about a week in advance and I was like, this is amazing, I'm so excited.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (36:17)
Yeah.

amazing!

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (36:38)
and then on the way to the airport there was an aircraft change and then they bumped me because they didn't like they bumped me out of first class because I would I paid the least amount of money and they bumped me to the very last row where the seats don't even recline. I was so mad I still haven't even heard back from Air Canada about it I will always still fly Air Canada because of my points but I'm like you owe me a lot of money back yeah so that was really annoying yeah so I don't know if that's a

Tara (Travel With TMc) (36:44)
No.

no!

that's brutal!

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (37:05)
Yeah, that's just something to watch out for when

Tara (Travel With TMc) (37:06)
Air Canada.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (37:07)
you when you do bid you if you do win your bid, you're still at the bottom of the barrel. Like as soon as you get like an aircraft, there's an aircraft change, you'll get kicked right out of there. And then you won't have a seat selection. They'll put you anywhere.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (37:19)
gosh.

Yikes, that's a good little asterisk for everybody, but Aeroplan for sure. And if anybody listening to this is new to Points and Miles and they live in Canada,

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (37:24)
Mm -hmm. Mm

Tara (Travel With TMc) (37:31)
I do do travel coaching one -on -one with people and have an online course to help you learn all the tips and tricks from beginning to those who have been collecting for years. I had a client the other week who is a business owner and earns like a million points a year and has been redeeming for flights for years, but had been missing like a few key things and had been losing literally thousands of dollars. So we worked together and yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (37:57)
my gosh, I'm gonna use you. Because I feel like I only

use Aeroplan, but I wonder if there's anything else that I could be using it for.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (38:01)
Yeah, yeah,

no, we can chat for sure. What are two or three items that you always travel with?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (38:13)
Besides the obvious stuff, I always travel with multiple hair brushes. I can't think of anything else that's very strange, but two or three hair brushes just because I'm always losing my hair brush. And if I don't brush my hair every hour, then my hair looks disastrous. What else?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (38:21)
No.

Okay.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (38:35)
No, I'm a very simple traveller. I will tell you one thing though, I travelled with my own. So Olga had this like foldable $400 car seat that you could literally put on your back after. Car seats are a big thing when you're travelling with kids because it's like, how do you get around? Do you rent one there? But then usually when you rent a car seat in a foreign country, you don't know how to set it up and they won't set it up for you because then it's their responsibility.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (38:38)
Mm.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (39:04)
So, I was like, yeah, you know, grab this car seat. Yeah, it was was four or $500. I'm like, I'm not not that much money on a travel car seat. So, I'm like, I'm gonna bring my own car seat and I'm gonna put it in this, I bought this like $20 backpack, which was just really a garbage bag with two straps on it. I'm like, and this is what I'm gonna travel around with. I looked so ridiculous, I can send you the photo, but it was just, we were just travelling around travelling

I was in Copenhagen in Copenhagen had this massive backpack, bigger than a backpacker's backpack. I should have just rented one here. It was just brutal. And then you have to go to the oversized luggage. So that's one thing I will not be trolling with travelling time. Yep.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (39:34)
no.

Great.

That's a good point. Yeah.

How do you deal with post trip blues? Are you one of those people who like has a trip booked or planned as you're landing?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (39:50)
Yeah, my husband thinks I'm crazy. As he was driving me home, I'm like, why don't we

go to Madeira in a couple of weeks? We have a week. He's like, you have a problem. I'm like, no, this is like a common thing. People book trips as soon as they get back from another trip. So yeah, I have to book another trip as soon as I get back. And so we ended up booking. We just launched in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. And I want to go down and test a lot of the trips. And a lot of them are kid -friendly. And there's so many tree homes, tree houses, tree homes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (39:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (40:20)
down in Ohio. So we're staying in a bunch and testing out these trips. So that's what we have booked. So it's a little bit more feasible and a little closer to home.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (40:27)
Yeah.

Awesome. I can't wait to follow up. Will you share that on Guess Where Trips or because it's more personal?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (40:33)
I'm, yeah it's more personal but I should share a little bit more on Guess Where Trips. I'm really bad with sharing like my personal side of things on Guess Where Trips, but I'll try to do it a little bit more.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (40:40)
that's okay. Yeah,

I'm really curious to hear about these tree houses. I love stuff like that.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (40:46)
Yeah, yeah.

travel tip though, like a lot of tree houses in Ontario are like $500 to a $1,000 night because there's not too many of them. In Ohio, there's, because there are so many of them, like we got a three bedroom tree house. It's beautiful for like $200 a night. So, and that was the biggest one that we, that was available. There was like another one that would look so much cooler. It just wasn't kid friendly.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (40:53)
Right, yeah.

that's fantastic.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (41:13)
I think it was like $150 a night, so yeah. Ohio, yep.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (41:16)
Okay, good to know. Ohio you said, yeah?

Okay, all righty. Ohio, here we come. To round things out, we have, so I've been putting together a playlist, a travel playlist for podcast listeners, and I like to ask guests what's one song that either sums up your travel style or that reminds you of one of your trips? Because I don't know about you, but I feel like when I'm on trips, there always ends up being a song that

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (41:33)
Mm -hmm.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (41:45)
becomes the theme of the trip, whether it's from that location or somebody just keeps on playing it that you're travelling with. And if you can't think of one right now, email it to me and we'll add it in.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (41:47)
Hehehe

Yeah.

You know what's a good travel song that reminds me of like, I used to, like I backpacked around Southern Africa and this was the song that we had on repeat and it's Home by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes, which is such a great song. And so I would say that's like, I haven't listened to it in a while, but every time it comes on, it like makes me, yeah, it makes me think of back in the day when I was wild and free without kids.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (42:08)
Great song!

Yeah, awesome.

I love it. Okay, we're gonna end today with a speed round. We've kind of already covered the first two questions, but I'm gonna go over them anyway. So where was your last trip?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (42:28)
Yeah.

Denmark!

Tara (Travel With TMc) (42:32)
And where's your next trip?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (42:34)
My next trip will be Ohio.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (42:35)
And then would you say bougie or budget? Would you prefer to have unlimited time off with a tight travel budget or only one week off per year with unlimited funds?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (42:45)
one week off per year, that's with unlimited funds. I would honestly go somewhere in between if that's an option, but yeah, I would do budget over bougie then.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (42:55)
Nice.

Okay. What's your favourite mode of transportation?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (43:01)
Hmm airplane or like while I'm in the destination bicycle like I love I bike to run with my four -year -old in Copenhagen It was so cool to see the city that way

Tara (Travel With TMc) (43:03)
Okay.

Yeah.

nice. Did you get one of the bikes with like the big thing in front there? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. cute. Do you prefer planned or spontaneous trips? And the definition of each can be as you as you want it to be.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (43:13)
Yep. The big buggy? Yeah, it was great.

Well, I mean, it's I feel bad saying this because I basically I sell the whole spontaneous road trip idea to other people, but I do prefer to have a planned trip because I'm a very A type personality and I've never never truly gone on a surprise trip before. Because because I always know where I'm going. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that's one for the future.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (43:42)
Okay, all right, so maybe that's one for the future. Right, yeah.

Yeah, do you prefer guided tours or choose your own adventure?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (43:51)
Choose your own adventure all the way. Yep.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (43:53)
I figured I could see you saying that.

Has anybody, actually this is not part of the questions, but has anybody ever planned a trip for you given that you are the trip planner typically?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (44:02)
So

my husband is so sweet and he's now tried to plan two surprise trips for me, which is really cute with like an overnight getaway. But he always either leaves out the trip like on my desk or like on the kitchen counter. So I read through it being like, hmm, what's this? Or he like gets so excited. I think the last one he told me about it because he was so excited. So it was never, they were great trips and they were planned by him, but they were never a surprise.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (44:10)
Yeah.

Got it, got it, cool. Are you an underpacker or overpacker?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (44:36)
I'm an underpacker, definitely. Except for the car seat aspect. Yeah. Yeah. What were you gonna, what were you saying?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (44:39)
Most over... yeah, fair enough. I think it changes with kids anyhow.

Yeah, I was gonna say most overrated destination, either that you've been to or just in general.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (44:51)
I think Vietnam, like I was not a fan of Vietnam at all and after I talk, like after talking to a few travellers, a lot of people agree. Another overrated destination. Yeah, I don't know, I love everywhere I go, except for some parts in Florida.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:05)
Yeah.

Fair. On the opposite side, most underrated destination.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (45:13)
Ooh, the Cook Islands, for sure.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:16)
or international travel?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (45:19)
I'm a big fan of domestic travel now, it's just because it's easier and I'm really appreciating and loving discovering all these hidden gems in North America.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:29)
Yeah, nice. What home comfort do you miss the most when you're away?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (45:35)
Wendy's. Like I love a Wendy's cheeseburger. The cheeseburger, the bacon cheeseburger, I just discovered it. It's like so, like in Denmark, I'm like, we need to go to a Wendy's. Like they didn't, they didn't have anything. That's recent. I think before that, yeah, travelling Asia, you're like, you just, you just miss Canadian or like American food. Yeah. And having drawers, like having my clothes in drawers when I'm in like, hey, like living out of a backpack or living out of a suitcase is hard.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:35)
Any particular thing? Okay, there we go.

Yeah, yeah. What's the best piece of travel advice you've received?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (46:08)
Just go, just like, just do the trip while, you can, if you can travel, make time for it because you never know when like something can happen that would prevent you from travelling or an external event like COVID. So take the trip now.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (46:22)
Right.

Yeah, what about the worst piece of travel advice?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (46:27)
Worst piece of travel advice? Don't go on the trip. That's my husband, what I always say. Don't do it. We don't have to do it now. Let's save for it in the next three years. Worst piece of travel advice? I just like not... Yeah, I can't think of anything else.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (46:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Are you a window seat or aisle seat person?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (46:48)
Used to be window seat, but now I'm aisle seat because I let my kids beside me. I want them to be by the window. Yep.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (46:53)
Mom of the year. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah. Describe yourself as a traveller in three words.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (47:00)
spontaneous, this is two words, spontaneous road tripper. I love spontaneous road trips, yep. Pre -planned spontaneous road tripper.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (47:05)
Okay, nice, nice. Do you have... I

feel like that's a little bit off. Nice. Yeah, we'll take it still. We'll take it. Do you have a favourite travel YouTuber or blogger, podcaster, content creator that you would or that you have in the past suggested to people or that's maybe a go -to for you?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (47:13)
Yeah, now that's four words.

Right

now I would say it's Olga from Mini Jetsetter. I'm really plugging her here just because she has so much great content. Before it was a lot of Ontario road trip blogs like yourself. I came across your blog with the unusual attractions, just doing research and stuff. So Yeah, I guess it changes depending on what I'm researching.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (47:33)
Yeah.

That's a good point. I feel like I could answer this for you, but I'll let you take it away. Best gift for a traveller?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (47:57)
Guess Where Trips, it's 70 % of our, it's around 70 % of our purchases on Guess Where Trips are gifts because they make such a great and affordable experience that's tangible that you're actually giving to someone.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (48:00)
And there we go.

Definitely, definitely. And last one, best travel app.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (48:21)
travel app. Google Maps. That's the one app that I would not be able to travel without. I have nothing else that's unique. I'm pretty basic when it comes to apps.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (48:26)
Here you go.

Nice. All right, well, that is it for our conversation. Thank you so much for coming on. I learned a ton from you and I want to hear more about these North Korea stories, but I can't wait to see where you take Guess Where Trips and to hear about Ohio. Where can people find you? And is there anything else that you want to leave with listeners before we go today?

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (48:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, check out GuessWhereTrips .com. We also have a great Instagram and following on just @GuessWhereTrips where we share road trip ideas, we share some sales and how our trips work. I don't have a personal Instagram account. I should start one, but I just haven't, I don't have time. But yeah, that's where you can find what we do. And I'm on Instagram a little bit there.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (49:13)
Awesome, fantastic.

Great, and I will leave a promo for people who would like to purchase their Guess Where Trips in the show notes. Awesome, all right. Thanks so much, Jessica. Take care. Bye.

Jessica Off (Guess Where Trips) (49:20)
Yeah, yeah. Awesome, thank you so much. All right, have a good one.