What happens when you combine one of the fastest-growing sports in the world with a deep commitment to community, connection, and conscious travel? You get something unlike anything you've seen before. Today's guest has taken pickleball far beyond the court — into schools in the Dominican Republic and headed all around the world.

Melinda helps heart-centered people and communities design travel experiences that support their journey of connecting, honoring, caring for self, one another, and this sacred home we call Earth. From pickleball adventures and women's retreats to regenerative family travel and youth-focused journeys, everything Melinda creates is infused with what she calls "with heart" — the belief that travel, at its best, is an act of love.

Guest Bio

Melinda Alcosser is a travel designer, educator, and the founder of With Heart Travel and the Carpe Dinkum pickleball travel series. With a background spanning 14 years running an experientially-based middle school, humanitarian work, and travel coaching, Melinda brings a rare depth of purpose to everything she creates. She designs immersive group experiences for women, families, and pickleball players of all levels — weaving community giveback, personal growth, and genuine cultural connection into every itinerary. She is also a certified experience designer through the Transformational Travel Council and is building With Heart Incorporated, a nonprofit arm dedicated to making travel accessible to all. When she's not on the road, she's dreaming up the next way pickleball can change a life.

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari and wildlife tour host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator devoted to helping people reconnect with what matters most through meaningful travel. Her work centers on connection with animals, land, culture, and inner truth, and the quiet inner knowing that says, this is the kind of life I came here to live.

Episode Topics and Timestamps

1. Pickleball travel with a purpose — and the photo that says it all (00:00)
2. Welcome and introduction — Karen introduces Melinda Alcosser (00:10)
3. The "with heart" experience — visiting a Dominican Republic school and why it became the trip highlight (01:12)
4. How Melinda's pickleball trips work — all levels welcome, coaches included (07:36)
5. The Dream Team Pickleball Academy in Uganda and the Carpe Dinkum Giving Club (09:00)
6. The origins of pickleball — and why Melinda's husband may have been there at the very beginning (12:00)
7. Three buckets: pickleball travel, women's retreats, and youth & family journeys (18:04)
8. The Transformational Travel Council and why regenerative travel changes everything (19:00)
9. Awaken Your Spirit at Sea — January 2026 aboard the Royal Clipper in the Grenadines (22:00)
10. With Heart Incorporated — Melinda's vision to make travel accessible for everyone (24:04)
11. Where to find Melinda and upcoming trips (24:47)

Upcoming Trips

🏓 Carpe Dink’em Pickleball in Cancún — December 3–8, 2026 https://all-travel.com/pickelball-cancun-dec-2026/

⛵ Awaken Your Spirit at Sea aboard Royal Clipper — January 9–16, 2026 https://app.tern.travel/trips/2559333/landing_page/edit

With Heart Travel https://www.withhearttravel.com

Travel and Pickleball https://www.travelandpickleball.com

Join our email community to receive notice of upcoming trips, new podcasts, and find out the "Top Travels of 2026 to Soothe Your Soul" https://mailchi.mp/soulful/travels or https://soulful.travel

Be sure to Subscribe and review the podcast!

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-that-touches-your-soul/id1865822112

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IMDYh43NAVhKXXfoUUNls iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-travel-that-touches-your-315490361/

Facebook: Karen https://www.facebook.com/karentcleveland

Travel that Touches Your Soul https://www.facebook.com/RevKarenCleveland/

Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/safarisandsacredjourneys/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulfultravelchannel

Hello everyone I have with me today,

someone that has taken pickleball

2

travel to a whole new level that

you might not even know existed.

3

Welcome to Travel That Touches Your

Soul podcast and video channel where

4

we bring you the people and the places

around the world that help you connect

5

with something greater than yourself.

6

I'm Karen Cleveland, and my

guest today is Melinda Koser.

7

Hi, Melinda.

8

Welcome to the show.

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Thank you so much, Karen.

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It's great, great, great to be here.

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I can't wait to talk to you.

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Yes, , just to let everyone

know, Melinda helps.

13

Heart centered people and communities,

design, travel experiences that support

14

their journey of connecting, honoring,

caring for self one another, and

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the sacred home we call Earth, which

speaks directly to my heart as well.

16

So as I said, it's so great to have

you here You do some very unique

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experiences that I have not seen before.

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One of 'em, , that I'm going

to share some pictures it with

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is the pickleball experiences.

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it looks like I see a pickleball

racket around your shoulder.

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I'm holding a bag of items that were

giving to a school in the Dominican

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Republic, and this is a woman that I

connected with three years ago when

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I started in the travel industry.

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Actually, before that I've been

an educator for a long time.

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That's a whole other story.

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, But what's important to me is that.

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In my experience as a traveler and

now as a person who designs travel, is

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how travel can open hearts and minds.

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So I call it with heart.

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And Carmen here is the person

that invited me into the school.

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They didn't know what I was

talking about when I first called.

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I, I took a group of people

to the club, met in Punana.

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Okay.

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Or pickleball experience.

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And on my carpe dinkum sees

the dink pickleball trips.

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I bring some wonderful coaches and we

have, you know, a pickleball focused

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experience, but I always like to include

something I call it with heart experience.

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And in this case, there's a school

in, uh, the Dominican Republic.

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That I called and I said, we'd love to

come over to your school and work with

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students and also if you have anything

that you would like, any supplies that

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we might be able to bring and offer.

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I got a message back.

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We don't, we don't know

what you're talking about.

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Can we meet you first?

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So I arrived a day before the group and

went, and I do speak some Spanish Okay.

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But with a, with Carmen

here as a translator.

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Um, and meeting with the principal

and describing, , really what I was

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trying to do, which simply was to

gift them, , some items, but also

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to have an experience with students.

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To make a connection.

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And once they understood that,

it was like a real thing.

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They completely welcomed

us with open arms.

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That's fantastic.

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And the intention really, you know,

for me is that a lot of times, and

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this wasn't all inclusive resort style,

vacation, people won't leave the resort.

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People will mm-hmm.

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Be at the resort, feel perfectly safe and

comfortable there feeling like if they

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leave the resort, there's some danger.

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Or something that you know would happen

potentially, or just not really put

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the effort because yeah, you're on

vacation and you have a place to be, but

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being in the country, being somewhere

has much more to do with I believe.

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Meeting the people and, and really

experiencing the, the place.

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So I arranged for a bus transportation and

at the first year we did it, you know, a

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half dozen of the participants joined me.

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We went and we had 40 students

and we broke them up into groups

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and we worked, we played with

them, we did activities with them.

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And these were middle school

and high school students.

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and everyone said this was

the highlight of their trip.

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Yeah.

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And.

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The last time we did it, which was

this photograph was the third year, and

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we had brought a pickleball, net and

paddles and we came back and, you know,

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actually played pickleball with the,

with the students and with the staff.

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And again, and this time about 15

of my participants came and, um,

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this was a sisterhood of pickleball.

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I do women's trips for some of them.

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And again, they said, I, you know,

I am so taken by how welcoming.

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The students were how enthusiastic

and just really, I think really did

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change the, paradigm in terms of what

it could be to be in the Dominican

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Republic and experience the people and

the, and the place and the culture.

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You know, a little more directly.

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So that, that's my goal.

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And it, and it, and it's exciting

because it, it is met, you know, each

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time I do these with heart experiences.

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That's fantastic.

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And I think it's so

important, you're right.

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What's interesting is these

communities are so impacted

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by these big resorts, weather.

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Whether it's negative or positive,

, sometimes it's the trash or sometimes

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they are making money somehow, , because

the resort's there, so it can be a mix.

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Sure.

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And the visitors, the guests never

even leave the resort and see

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the impact that they're making.

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Again, negative or positive.

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Mm-hmm.

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Right.

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But, um, that's great

that you make an effort.

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To leave and you brought things with them.

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So when they got the

pickleball rackets mm-hmm.

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And the nets, did they know what it was?,

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Some of them have, yes.

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Some of the staff had experienced

it, not, not very much.

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Um, So, and we didn.

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make it a serious thing.

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We just help the kids kind of hit the ball

and enjoy that kind of an, uh, experience.

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But they were laughing and then, you know,

we had probably 60 kids this last time.

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Wow.

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And so we had to rotate them

through and, you know, we, how fun.

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It's, it's, yeah.

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It's really a, a grand time.

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I mean, they're, they're

never gonna forget it either.

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Right.

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And now, you know, the great thing

too is that I have this relationship

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with these, with this school.

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And so when I do go back, whenever I bring

a pickleball group, I call them and I say,

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Carmen, we, you know, here are our dates.

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And she says, Mikasa, essu, Casa.

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You know?

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Nice.

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So it's that kind of relationship.

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And it's great for the students, you know,

to see, actually the first year we went.

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One of the students said it was the

very first time anyone from the United

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States had ever visited the school.

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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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So it breaks down barriers,

you know, in both.

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In both ways.

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Yeah, for sure.

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In that, Is this at the school?

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This is, yep.

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Yep.

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Nice.

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This is one of the, that's nice.

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There's another, another

picture that's, yeah.

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That's fantastic.

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So how many, I know you do more than just

pickleball trips, and we'll talk about

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that in a minute, but how many actual

pickleball trips do you have every year?

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I've, you know, I've started doing

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to figure out like what is the

reasonable amount of trips, right?

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I've probably done about a dozen a

year, which it is a lot, you know, and

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so I'm kind of regrouping and kind of

seeing what you know is, is reasonable.

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Um, and I'm also expanding on

where I take these trips and

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including more travel because as.

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You know, the all-inclusive resort

is really a wonderful thing for a

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certain type of pickleball trip.

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But there are people now that want

to come back and continue to travel

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with me and have a travel experience.

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So, you know, places nowadays you can find

pickleball on so many parts of the world.

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I'm in a group called

Pickleball Changes Lives.

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And in this group there are people

from literally all over the world.

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And many from, um, African

countries nowadays.

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so I'm, I'm starting to think about how

to incorporate pickleball on a, on a trip

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to different parts of, of that continent.

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and I can talk to you now or later

in this podcast, but I do also have a

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fundraiser for, a group in Uganda called

the Dream Team Pickleball Academy.

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let's go ahead and talk about

it now and talk about that now.

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So I, I, I met this

person through Facebook.

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His name is Kabana Shafiq, and he

posted a bunch of things with kids.

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And as I said before, I've been an

educator, you know, for most of my life.

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And that's really my calling and

passion is to work with youth.

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Um, and his intention is to work with

underserved youth through pickleball.

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To elevate lives and Wow.

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Yeah.

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And so That's right.

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Pure alley.

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It is.

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And, and so you can find this, uh, group,

if you look on Facebook and, and look up

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Dream team, pickleball Academy, Uganda,

you'll see the incredible work that he's

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doing and these kids can really play.

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And he's now getting girls

involved, which is huge because.

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In villages like this, the girls

and the women are the ones that

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typically will spend their entire

day literally walking to get water

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that actually isn't clean, so, right.

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I have a, a friend, Martha Hoffman, who

runs an organization that's right in

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my hometown called Call to Care Uganda.

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And I said, Martha, can we build a, well?

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She, that's what she does.

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And really like completely

transforms a village.

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When a well is there and water is

accessible, people can have an education.

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They can be free from diseases that,

you know, a thousand children die.

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a day.

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I think it's, it's crazy

numbers of what happens with,

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you know, water that's, yeah.

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Not clean.

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So I am, I'm putting together a fundraiser

and I'm starting something called the

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Carpe Dinkum Giving Club, and my dream is

that every pickleball player, and there's

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like 14 million of them in the country.

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We'll donate once a year and we'll

fund a well and you know, other

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valuable causes could be offer off

offered through the good of pickleball.

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Nice.

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That's wonderful.

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Do you have plans to go to Uganda?

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Yes, I am in the process of

building a trip to Uganda and Okay.

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Visiting the dream team and also

doing some other things again

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to see the country and yeah.

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Experience it as well.

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Yes.

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. That's, that's fantastic.

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I'm curious, so it looks like

some more school pictures.

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Were you playing pickleball for

very long before you said, I gotta

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incorporate this into my travel plans?

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I, I have been playing

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Okay.

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And, and there's a funny story that

goes along with that because I started

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on a place called Fry Island in Maine

when people from the villages came

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and shared it there, you know, the

Florida, the community there, and

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took over a little bit of the tennis

courts and said, let's try this game.

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And it, it took hold.

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And at the time my husband

said, I know this game.

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And he recalled childhood

memories in Washington State

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where the game has invented.

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That he was there at the beginning

of when this all started.

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and his family actually hosted

political fundraisers for a person

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named Senator Joel Pritchard.

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Yeah.

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Who was known, have to have

in adv, invented the game in

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1965 on Bainbridge Island.

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Well, the fundraisers took

place on Whidby Island.

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Some years before 1965 and they played

a game called pickle pong and they got

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pickled and his aunt made kins pickles.

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So when you connect the dots, my husband's

family actually initiated pickleball.

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That's amazing.

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He wrote a book.

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Mm-hmm.

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And the book, actually the cover is there.

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I can grab one, but it, it's called

The Curious History of Pickleball

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from its Origins as Pickle Pong.

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It tells a hilarious story

of the origins of the game.

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Well, pre, pre pickleball.

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Yeah, pre I, I'm in

Seattle, so, um Oh, okay.

230

So you know that I didn't,

I didn't even know.

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I, I know some of that, but I

didn't know all of that for sure.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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So I'll send you a copy of the book,

Karen, you can give your address.

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That's great.

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, And these school pictures are

fantastic, They have a very

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nice court there, don't they?

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Yeah, so I, you know, to answer your

question, so I've been playing for a

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while and then I, I did run a small

school, um, an experientially based

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middle school and in, for 14 years,

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So I was.

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Looking for something else, you

know, to sort of do as, that

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wasn't a full-time program.

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And I got into the travel industry

and I started working for an agency

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in Los Angeles called All Travel.

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And between the two of us somehow got

this idea to run pickleball group trips.

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They wanted to do some group travel and I.

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It was into pickleball.

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And so the, the match happened

and that's when I started.

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It was 2023 when I did my first trip.

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And it's really, you know,

growing and, and evolving.

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it's fascinating how the right

connections are made and mm-hmm.

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These things grow and grow.

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There's a lot of people there, so.

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Yep.

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And that's the school that, that's,

those are the kids that we worked

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with and scattered amongst them

are the people from my, my group.

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So the people that come on the

trip with you, how good mm-hmm.

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At pickleball do they have to be?

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all levels.

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Okay.

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We take beginners, um, you know, generally

they're sort of mid-range players.

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They, they might be a

little more advanced.

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I don't do a trip that's meant to

be, um, training for tournament and

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competition, but, you know, higher level

players will get something out of it.

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Um, but I would say in, for the

most part, they're, they're kind of

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mid-level intermediate to advanced, you

know, players and beginners as well.

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People that have never played at all.

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This would be a great foundation to,

you know, come at, my coaches are

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really about learning how to play

the game, but they're bringing joy to

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it because the thing that, you know.

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When pickleball has become so

popular, it's like an adult play date.

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It's like you go out and you have friends

and you play and you have to be careful.

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There's, you know, stories of

injuries and that kind of thing.

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And I always bring an exercise and

a, um, sort of a body component to

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my trips to learn stretching and

balancing and in different ways.

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But it's a social sport.

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And, and, and literally, you know, people

talk about how pickleball has restarted

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their lives, um, you know, in their

forties, fifties, sixties, seventies.

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I have had people in their

eighties come on my trips as well.

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Yeah.

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I can't believe how many of my 70-year-old

friends are playing pickleball.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's, it's wonderful.

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'cause it's getting a them out

and active, so that's great.

287

Exactly.

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You know It is.

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Yep.

290

Yeah.

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Such beautiful pictures and

everyone is so happy, so joyous.

292

Mm-hmm.

293

I think that's wonderful.

294

So tell me a little bit about oh, this

is just a little bit different, but,

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so this looks like all adults here.

296

Yes.

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These are actually women.

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I in Turks and Caicos have, connected

with a group called the, uh, women in

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Sports of Turks and Caicos and the Turks

and Caicos Island Football Association

300

has a group called Girls on a Mission.

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So that was.

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The group that I connected with for my,

with heart experience and it was amazing.

303

And we went to their campus, which

is where we are in this photo, and

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did some three V three soccer, and

then they came to the resort and we

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taught them pickleball and we did

some, actually some pickle yoga.

306

Um, 'cause at that point I had a

yoga instructor as part of my group.

307

And empowerment and, and

leadership for young, young girls.

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And so this is a sisterhood of Pickleball

trip and we have a lot of fun on those.

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You know, it's very

sisterly and Nice, nice.

310

So, women's, women's focus trips.

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Okay.

312

So these pickleball trips,

they look fantastic, but

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let's talk a little bit now.

314

I'll stop sharing.

315

I think that's the last pickleball photo.

316

, Let's talk a little bit about,

what else you do because Sure.

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Like you said, everything,, you wanna

put heart in it It's community, What

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are some of the other, kind of trips

that you do or activities that you have?

319

So I have sort of three, three

buckets, I guess you call them.

320

One is the pickleball and the other

is women's trips and retreats.

321

I'm a, I'm a drummer and I, and

I love kind of ritual and, and

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connection and, the power that

happens when women are together.

323

So, , I am.

324

Working with, , some other,

a couple of other women.

325

And we're, we have a group of four

women designing trips for women

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and, um, all sorts of retreats.

327

So these are things that are in

process of really being launched, , in

328

different ways that can provide,

, connection to the inner world and.

329

, How to be in the outer world.

330

I've recently completed a, an

experience design course with a

331

com, an organization called the

Transformational Travel Council.

332

Yes.

333

Okay.

334

Yeah.

335

And so that.

336

Really touched my heart and soul.

337

Yeah.

338

And you know, when I first got

into the travel industry, I didn't

339

feel like I was finding myself.

340

, And that's why I created

what I call with heart.

341

but the Transformational Travel

Council brought me to what I, I

342

believe is sort of more of my tribe.

343

And it's about regenerative experiences

and, you know, thinking more about.

344

what the experience is meant to do.

345

You know, travel.

346

Travel by nature ha, is transformative.

347

When you go to a new place and you

find out about a new part of yourself,

348

you know, you, you can change in

some way, but the integration of that

349

takes a little more intention and

so, I'm really interested in, in, you

350

know, incorporating that for women.

351

And then the third bucket is going

back to my real roots of education and

352

working with youth is helping young

people engage in a more intentional way

353

and working with families to consider

where to go in the world, how to go

354

in the world, and, bringing that kind

of learning journey alive as well.

355

so I, I've got my travel

coaching certification.

356

you know, being a mentor to youth and,

and maybe helping, people that wanna

357

have these experience to sort of consider

what's important and the wise of, of

358

travel as a, as a practice really.

359

Yeah.

360

I think it's important.

361

Yeah.

362

, It just helps get us out of

our routine and expands our

363

minds in ways we don't know.

364

Once we get onto a different.

365

Culture time zone, , cadence.

366

, You just never know what's gonna happen.

367

Even simple things like the smells,

the sights, you know, our senses,

368

I mean, we, we take in information

through our senses, and that's what,

369

you know, builds our experiences.

370

And, you know, kind of, and

your, your podcast being the,

371

you know, the soul of travel.

372

It's like, what are our souls, you know.

373

What is that part of ourselves that

can be in the world from that place?

374

That I, I believe, is

what connects us all.

375

You know, that we have a, I think we're,

I think we're spirits within a body.

376

That's kind of how I approach life.

377

Yeah.

378

Yeah.

379

And I think that the, the

commonality comes down to love.

380

Um, and that is something that, you

know, is what my with heart is about,

381

is recognizing that all of us are

capable of, Love and when the ego

382

gets in the way, we're driven by fear.

383

So, which, you know.

384

True, true.

385

I'm going to share for a minute and let

you just talk for a minute about this

386

upcoming trip you have next January.

387

Mm-hmm.

388

Um, I was able to find it, so

I'm pretty sure you can see it.

389

Yes.

390

Yep.

391

Okay, so this looks fantastic.

392

This is in the Grenadines and Yes.

393

I mean, look at this.

394

Look at these sails on the ship.

395

That's amazing.

396

This is the world's largest clipper ship.

397

Wow.

398

Really?

399

Okay.

400

A company called Star

Clippers and it's, um.

401

A luxury vessel.

402

Mm mm-hmm.

403

Um, and we are doing a themed cruise

where my husband Patrick, who is a martial

404

arts master and healing arts master

with Qigong and Tai Chi and some other

405

forms of, you know, healing practices

along with a woman named Kathy Love.

406

Who wrote a book called My Self-Care

Shit and, um, she's got a whole

407

lot of, um, ways that she helps

people understand codependency and

408

understand what self-care looks like.

409

And then I'll be doing some other

kinds of, um, practices as well.

410

So that'll be part of what we do on board.

411

But then otherwise it's, you know,

being on a ship and taking some time

412

to relax and decompress and Right,

, unwind and really intentionally,

413

again, sort of un understand the

importance of rest to recharge.

414

And that's super important too, is yeah.

415

In order to be present anywhere, no matter

where you are in the world, you have to

416

pay attention to your self care as well.

417

Yeah.

418

Yeah.

419

And it's hard to do sometimes.

420

I mean, we're, you know, we're,

we're on the go quite a bit.

421

Yeah.

422

Absolutely.

423

It's hard to do.

424

Okay.

425

So, uh, this trip looks fantastic.

426

So I, would love for you

to share again mm-hmm.

427

Uh, your website, how people Sure.

428

Can reach out.

429

Of course, it'll all be in

the show notes, but Great.

430

Um, for those listening, where

can we find you more trips,

431

all the, all the good stuff.

432

Absolutely.

433

And I, and I do wanna also just say.

434

You know, I'm building something

called with Heart Incorporated

435

because I do believe that it's

important to offer travel to people

436

that could otherwise not afford it.

437

And so, , that's gonna be, , my

not-for-profit, , sort of arm of things.

438

And I, I wanna be able to offer,

Ways for anyone to travel.

439

'cause it, it is a, you know, there

is a separation between those who can

440

afford to travel and those who cannot.

441

And I'd like to bridge that gap as well.

442

So that's in process.

443

I love that.

444

I let, will there be, information

on your website about that?

445

Yes.

446

There, it's in, it's in the work.

447

So right now my, my website

is with heart travel.

448

Or, and or travel and pickleball.com.

449

Okay.

450

So either with heart travel.com

451

or travel into pickleball.com

452

and you'll kind of find me.

453

But I'm, like I said, building a unified,

um, way to get to both and, all right.

454

And I.

455

I love these journeys that you do

around the world that are with heart.

456

Um, that one that I

shared, the Grenadines one.

457

Mm-hmm.

458

Yep.

459

Will you be stopping somewhere

at either a school or a community

460

and doing some kind of Yes.

461

I dunno.

462

Okay.

463

Yep.

464

Nice.

465

There will be a, a giving

exchange of some sort, some sort

466

of connection on that as well.

467

Fantastic.

468

What a great way to, experience.

469

Local culture.

470

So thank you for doing that.

471

I hope so.

472

And thank you so much for

being, , on the show today.

473

, I look forward to talking

to you again sometime.

474

I hope so, Karen, , I love the

work you're doing, so thank you.

475

And thank you for being on the show.

476

Thank you for this opportunity.

477

I really appreciate it.

478

You're welcome.

479

And thank you everyone for tuning in and

I will connect with you later, so bye-bye.