Ep 184 w/ Adventures of Matt + Nat (Part 1) – Travel Partners for Life, A Passion for Travel & A Thousand Places To See Before You Die

In this episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, I sit down with my good friends Matt and Nat, the adventurous duo behind Adventures of Matt and Nat. In Part 1 of our conversation, we dive into their love story with travel, from early adventures across the USA to discovering Greece and beyond.

We talk about how they managed to visit all 50 states in a single year, the moment they realised they were the perfect travel partners, and how travel shaped both their relationship and their outlook on life. Natalie shares what it was like growing up between Germany and the U.S. with an airline pilot father, while Matt opens up about his first big road trip that ignited his wanderlust.

We also explore their passion for food, culture, and history, how they balance fast-paced itineraries with meaningful experiences, and why having a home base matters even for full-time travellers. Along the way, we discuss their unforgettable group trip to Greece, hidden gems like Nafplio, and the inspiration they found in the classic book "A Thousand Places to See Before You Die."

This is a story about adventure, partnership, and the joy of discovering the world together—whether it’s local road trips, exploring America’s national parks, or travelling abroad for the first time.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Matt and Nat completed the challenge of seeing 50 states in one year
• The story of how they became travel partners for life
• Why growing up in different cultures shaped their approach to travel
• Insights into their first big international trip and what they learned from it
• Why Greece, Nafplio, and the Peloponnese left such a big impression
• The importance of finding balance between fast-paced trips and slow moments

Check out Matt & Nat's amazing content below.

YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@AdventuresofMattandNat

Website - adventuresofmattandnat.com/click-me

Patreon - patreon.com/AdventuresofMattandNat

Instagram - instagram.com/adventuresofmattandnat

🔔 Subscribe, leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review for Winging It, and support the podcast via Buy Me A Coffee!

Timestamps

00:00 The Journey Begins: From 50 States to YouTube Adventures

02:57 Exploring Greece: A New Travel Experience

06:02 Nashville: The Heart of Music City

08:56 Travelling Roots: From South Carolina to Germany

11:43 The Impact of Early Travel Experiences

14:40 Finding Travel Partners: The Vegas Connection

17:31 The Road Trip That Sparked Wanderlust

20:42 The Balance of Home and Travel

23:29 Careers in Travel: The Airline Perspective

39:09 Navigating the Airline Industry

39:45 Transitioning from Music to Travel

41:16 Evolving Travel Styles

44:14 The Importance of Local Travel

51:35 Accommodation Preferences

56:04 Types of Travel Experiences

01:03:39 Exploring 'A Thousand Places to See Before You Die'

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Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:

Smart Travel Podcast

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:

Smart Travel Podcast

Because I had to convince Matt to do this. We started our channel with seeing all 50 states in a calendar year. And so we finished that. And after that, we were like, OK, what's next for our channel? We love having like a story arc. And so we were in a play at Key West at a bookstore buying postcards for our patrons. And I see this book. And as Matt's checking out, like, oh my gosh, this lady, Risha Schultz, really put a bunch of the things that we did for our 50 states in a year.

They don't like how I travel because I like to do see and eat as much as I possibly can. And I want to walk 25,000 steps to get it all done. And I'm a little too much for them. And so they were like, can we please invite your boyfriend to this trip so we don't have to deal with you? Right. That was the whole thing.

True, this is not exaggeration, true.

Yeah, and so ⁓ Matt flew out too and it was one of the best trips. Literally was like, found my travel partner because he was just as crazy as me.

Welcome to the Winging It Travel Podcast, your weekly ticket to the world, dropping every Monday and hosted by me, James Hammond, proudly part of the Voy Escape Network. This is a travel podcast that throws out the itinerary and dove straight into the raw, real and unpredictable essence of global exploration, chasing moments over milestones, those spontaneous encounters, immersive sounds and unforgettable stories. Whether I'm hiking up volcanoes in Guatemala,

camping under the stars in British Columbia.

met incredible people, seen breath taking places and collected unforgettable stories. I now get to share them with you, alongside some of the most diverse and well travelled guests from around the world. Expect engaging conversations that bring fresh perspectives and inspiring travel tales. There are also raw, reflective solo episodes where I share personal insights, practical tips and honest stories from the road. This is a podcast for travellers, dreamers, backpackers and anyone who's ever thought, what if I just went for it and travelled? If you're looking for stories to tell, tips to share,

and experiences to inspire, then you're in the right place. There's so much travel content coming your way, it might just spark that trip you've been dreaming about for years. You can find Winging It, a more fantastic travel podcast from around the world at voyescape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. Hello and welcome to this week's episode in which I'm joined by my very good friends Matt and Nat, who are avid travellers, YouTubers and all-round great guys.

They've amassed 115,000 subscribers today on YouTube. So I'll be asking about that journey and get some background into their travel history, some favorite places to travel, why they started a YouTube channel, what they've learned from YouTube, et cetera, and the tour groups that they host and set out on a yearly basis. So guys, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

We are doing well and doing better now that we're on Hanging Out With You. Yeah!

You are too kind. You're looking very tanned, I must say.

Well, you know, as you said, the tour groups that we host, we just got back from one last week, I guess. And let's just say the grease weather was very good to us.

But know what, I'm little bit annoyed at that.

With all due respect, was like, ⁓ damn, I want to go Greece.

You know, after getting home to just rainy weather here, I'm a little bit annoyed with it too.

I was greased. Was that your first time visiting?

It was. It was incredible. The food, my gosh, amazing. And the people we went with, obviously, it made it way better.

Yeah, we, you know, we obviously when you have a group trip, you know, things travel slower, obviously, you know, you can't fit as much in. But we had, we built in some time on the front end to, you know, film some content in Athens and then we went on to NAFPLIO with the group from Athens. And so we didn't get to do any more, any of the islands, but we did, you know, Athens, the Peloponnese and then down to NAFPLIO, which was an incredible time.

We can't wait to go back.

think that's a great overland trip for people in Greece. I know the islands get all the news if you like and rightly so, but I think if you're looking to go on the overland part, I think Athens, the Peloponnese, Napier, I think that's a great trio to get started with.

Well, I'm glad to hear that because that was our first time. So we had a good experience with it. So, but you know, we didn't have much to compare it to with Greece that or anything to compare it to. So, yeah, it was a great time.

I went for the first time a few years ago in December and there's like no tourists around. So it's a bit strange. But yeah, if you can travel easily in Greece in winter time, think summertime is pretty easy as well. I guess everything opens up and everyone's back to the islands or back to their tourist spots, I'd imagine.

Yeah, for sure. mean, like I said, the weather was really good to us.

We're

there in the shoulder season too, so not a lot had opened up. Like we wanted to go to a beach club in Natalya, but it wasn't open. ⁓ I could see like what you were saying, going in the summertime when it's like on season would be really awesome.

But also I can't imagine Athens in the summertime with that heat. With that, my gosh. I was in the mid 80s Fahrenheit when we were there.

We're

all dying and sweating. ⁓

We weren't prepared for it. So yeah, I can only imagine that when it gets into the hundreds Fahrenheit, it'd be brutal.

Yeah, was in shorts in December. So that's how hot it gets, right? Yeah. Yeah. that's, think my biggest tip for Greece, if you can do it in shoulder season, off season, it's so much better, I think, as an experience. think the locals, they were surprised I was there. Like, what are you doing here in December? I'm like, so I'm not surrounded by tourists. And they welcome you and like, come hang out with us. We'll give you an omelet or we'll give you some Greek food or a coffee.

I love it. really is like a different vibe, I think. For Greece, I want a quick question. Nafplio. I had no idea about Nafplio. I thought, you know what, I'll add it in because it's sort of over there. It's the old capital. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I was there. When I was like walking through the old town, the boardwalk at the front, and then you put a video up of the the fort at the top and you can watch like, you can watch sunset or sunrise, but you can see the views. Incredible. What a place. Never heard of

Yeah,

no, was us, honestly. So when we were planning this Greece group trip, was a year ago actually, I think when we were planning it, roughly a year ago, I think. Yeah. Something like that. Anyway, we were planning this Greece group trip and we were trying to figure out what itinerary we wanted to do, know, less about what itinerary we wanted to do, of course, and what did our community want to do. So we put a poll out, you know, with three or five different itineraries.

And some of them had islands on it. I

of shocked that people chose this one. And then we looked, and it's in the book A Thousand Places to See Before You Die, Nat Fleo and the Peloponnese. And so we were like, ⁓ okay.

But just like you, had little to like really no knowledge of Neflio. I had to learn how to say it, you know. You have no knowledge of it. And then you get there and it's, you know, this ancient town, Venetian town really, you know, with all of the Venetian influence. But then it also has influence from the Ottoman Empire there as well and just all the history. yeah, beautiful beach town.

It is stunning.

And we ended up going during yacht week, so it was like very upscale. There's so many yachts.

yeah, there were dozens

upon dozens of multi-million dollar yachts sitting there, you know, we definitely did not fit in.

No, I'm not having that. think you fit in all walks of life. 100%. But for Napoli, I had to drive in, right? So I was like, oh, am I driving into like old town where it's like small streets? like, it really was a bit nerve wracking for me. I just like mini, like new mini. I was like, ah, I have nowhere to go because there's no one about. They said I was a park anywhere. It's fine. But I was really worried about going into those like little streets in old town where you can get lost a little bit if you like. And driving, I don't even fit down there. I think that's just like one way streets. I was like, I a bit nervous about it.

Understandably so.

Yeah, driving Greece is a different experience.

I was just about to say that I was very brave of you.

I don't know I told you my story, I went on the toll road and this is classic me. I saw the signs and one said card payment, which is normal. And one said e-payment. I was like, yeah, that's higher car, that's been paid for. So I went to the e-gate and when I got to the e-gate, the gate didn't open. I was like, oh shit. And there's like five cars behind me. I'm like, I'm on a motorway. I was like, what do I do here? I'm on my own. I'm like, So I had to tell the guy behind me that in English, I'm sorry, I've kind of messed up here a little bit.

And he's sending the guy like back up behind me and the guy behind him is going back up. It's like motorway. It's like people speeding towards like 70 miles an hour into this toll gate. I was like, Oh my God, I'm going to cause an accident here. But luckily I away bit, but that was like a hairy moment. I was like, I need to just stop winging it a little bit.

Just stop winging it, you you can't stop winging it, that's your motto.

It was very on brand. Very on brand.

I'm bringing it for you. it. Appreciate it. Okay, let's go a little bit back. Actually, no, first, tell the listeners where you're normally based day to day.

Nashville, Tennessee, the music city, country music capital, and I just want to say on record that we're trying to get James to come here. And can you also believe he does not know who Alan Jackson is? I will never forget it.

So do I.

I promise you I will find a place to put beans on your toast if you come James. We will. I was about to say it wouldn't be our baked beans.

But they've got to be proper beans there.

But where do you find that in Nashville? Is there a cafe that does it?

I would probably have to order them and pour it on toast myself to be honest.

But guess what? We would do it for you when you come here.

What stellar guys, I really appreciate that. So that means I have to go. Nashville. Yeah. On my list. Like apart from you guys, obviously, it's always been on my list. Big music fan. Is it still got that big sort of iconic music sort of vibe and venue about it? Like, is it still a place that thrives on that?

Every level too. Like obviously the top level, like ACDC was playing last night, right? Where we're supposed to with the storms. And then you also have just like the underground scene that not a lot of people know.

Yeah,

everything from when you land in the airport, there's probably going to be live music playing at all the bars, even at the airport. When you land all the way to, you know, all the bars on Broadway, the tourist center of the town, is it going to have live music probably on every floor of the bar? Cause they're usually like three to five story bars. Every floor is going to have a different band playing from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. Yep. 365 days a year. So it's very much. Yes.

And think it's 365.

in the DNA.

Yeah, thriving music city for sure. And of course, you know, just has boomed in the last 10 years with tourism growing just exponentially.

I

think for me, I'd like to just walk around and kind of ignore the big acts and just walk around some random venues, maybe drop in for a few hours, listen to some random musicians and play. I'm thinking more blues in my mind, but.

Yep.

There's some great blues. There's some great blues clubs and stuff. Most people don't get off the, you know, the little, I don't know, five block stretch of Broadway and Nashville. Everybody just kind of equates Nashville to be. But of course, like any city, we all know it's so much more beyond just the tourist center. You just have to be willing to maybe explore a little bit out of the tourist center.

But even in Broadway, for instance, like, there's, I think it was like 34 bars, we'll say that, I don't know, there's probably more now. But you each, on each level, there could be five levels of a bar. Every single level is different kinds of music being played by talented musicians. It is just something that I've never seen anywhere else before.

Yeah, we take it for granted to be honest. had some friends coming through on a road trip a handful of weeks ago and it was like, they were like, you want to meet up for lunch? We were like, yeah, let's meet up. So we went and went to one of the food halls kind of downtown and there was just an acoustic act playing on the stage. And for us, we were just like, okay, cool. You know, live music where they're coming from, they don't have live music. And they were like, man, y'all just don't know how lucky you are to have such talented musicians playing everywhere.

It was kind of, was a little bit of one of those kind of eye-openers of realizing like, yeah, they're probably right. We just kind of take it for granted to be honest.

think you are pretty lucky because here it's the big acts that they do come here, but Vancouver needs to be in bed by 11pm because everyone can't stay out. So they're done by 11 and that's it. There's nowhere to go. And that's it.

Very different vibe.

Very different, yeah.

Is that where you guys are originally from?

No. So no, I'll go first on this because mine is much simpler, shorter answer. I'm originally, I'm originally from South Carolina, a smaller city in the upstate of South Carolina called Greenville. I was born and raised there and lived there until moving to Nashville 10 years ago. So that's kind of my story.

That city though that's really close to you, not even a city, is it a town? There's no light.

What, where I technically grew up? ⁓ Possum Kingdom, South Carolina? Possum Kingdom. Possum Kingdom. Yeah, it's not really, we used to have a fire department. I don't know if they have one anymore. I'm not sure how that works, but.

name okay

I just love Nat's face here. It's very suspicious of this place.

I

mean, yeah, a possum.

I grew up definitely out in like more of the rural part. was 25 minutes out of the city center, know, so, but Greenville was probably I grew up. So, but yeah, again, other than growing up in an interesting named place, yeah, my upbringing was pretty straightforward as far as where I was. We didn't move. I grew up on the same property, pretty much same house my whole life and then moved to Nashville. So, Natalie's is a little more complicated.

It's a funny name

So I was born in Florida, South Florida, and then my dad got a job with Lufthansa, the German airline. Oh, lovely. And so we had to move over there. So I was less than a year old. So I pretty much grew up in Germany. I had to go to German schools because my parents had no affiliation with the military. So yeah, so I had to learn German, had to go to kindergarten there, and then grew up and did elementary school there. I don't know if that's what they call it, but elementary school. And then in Germany, by

Okay. Yeah.

year five, you have to know if your child's gonna be doing like blue collar work or if they're gonna go to gymnasium, which is college by fifth grade. Quacky. And I know, right? And so my parents were like, well, I don't think we're gonna be here that long. So let's move back to the States. Okay. So we moved there, moved back to the States to Georgia part-time. So we lived there for school year and then when the school year was out, we moved back to Germany. Because her dad was still working.

For Lufthansa.

So we did that until I was like 13, something like that. And then ⁓ we lived in Georgia. Then we lived in Gainesville, Florida, which is what I consider home. ⁓ Just so Florida, this is the big one.

Yeah.

Quite a few listeners from Gainesville actually. Really? They're not your relatives are they?

Maybe.

okay.

Florida is like in the top three states. don't really know why. I know one person there, one person, but in Florida, I'm not great with geography. obviously know Miami, got it, Orlando as well, but like Gainesville always comes up. I have no idea who's there.

It's a big college town, so that could make sense why you would have some listeners there, because it's the University of Florida's...

Go Gators! I'm so excited you got Gains though!

Wow, there you go.

He

did the action, yeah? Yeah.

Go

Gators! that's so cool.

Oh wow, there you go. Okay, cool. And I guess for travel, maybe very different experiences for both of you growing up.

Yes, very. Mine was, you know, I grew up in a single family income. So my dad owned his own business, but my mom stayed home. We homeschooled most of our lives, all the way up like high school. So she was the homemaker and my dad was a single family, you know, single income. So we didn't have a whole lot of income to be able to go do big trips and that kind of stuff. and then on top of that, having the time as, you know, a business owner is always a challenge. So we would do.

One trip a year, usually for a week, and it was either to the coast of the Carolinas, or we would go, we were big lake family, so I always grew up like wakeboarding and water skiing and all that. So we would sometimes go rent a small house on one of the local lakes there. And those were our vacations. We went to Disney one time growing up, when I was like 11, but other than that, like that was our vacations was just going to the Carolina coast or the Carolina lakes.

And we didn't know any different. We had a great time and still cherish those times. ⁓

Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're very similar to me in that respect. think we are single income family and you might go to the coast for us. It's about a 30 minute drive to the coast. don't know how far it from you.

But it was a few hours for us, still the same idea.

Yeah, relative right. that's all we got really.

Definitely weren't flying anywhere, you know

Oh

yeah, 100%. Yeah, password to us. Nope. And that yours must be very different.

Yeah, having a dad is an airline pilot. What's funny though is like, thought, because we would fly standby everywhere, right? Because when you have passes and you work for an airline, you fly standby. So I thought it was normal to go to the airport and you just sit around and wait and hope you get on a plane for like five to six hours. Like that's what that was my childhood was like, you just hope you get on. And so then when I was an adult one day and like I bought a ticket and I'm like, like I have a seat. Like, what do mean?

And so it was a very interesting, you know, when you're kids and you're like, my parents would give us books and all of this stuff to entertain us because we could be at the airport all day long waiting for a flight. yeah, I mean, also growing up in Europe, it's so different. Like the culture is so different in a smaller area. Like in the U.S., like we would we could fly to Alabama or Florida. And it's not that different. It is different, but it's not that different. Whereas, you know, growing up in Europe, I think that was something for me that really

made me love travel so much is the different cultures and different experiences. Like I remember going to Spain one time and I was the only English speaking kid there. Everybody else spoke all different kinds of languages. And my mom had to sit me down and they were like, you can figure it out as a kid, know, like do hand motions. And that's when I realized like all of us are just trying to figure it out. And so that was something that I thought was so beautiful. And I think just was like, I love this travel thing. I love learning about different cultures. And so.

Yeah, that's always been a part of it.

Many times when we, you know, for our YouTube channel, we go to places and document it and we'll say, you know, or I'll say, you know, this is our first time here. And then later her mom will correct me and say, well, actually she was there. She just doesn't remember it because she was in a stroller or so. yeah, she's been lots of places, but you know, many of them were like, you know, she was a kid.

I might have one picture as a seven-year-old, but that doesn't count.

Yeah, Natalie's got like 20 passport stamps, but at times she's seven or eight. I think for Europe, we are blessed in that sense. Cause when we grew up, to give you an idea, we had to do French or German as a language, which sounds really bad. But honestly, English people do not learn other languages. we're like, let's just piss around for a couple of years. We'll do it. But the upside is you get a history trip or a language trip, accompanying that if you do history as well. Right. So that was the first foray into Europe.

Unfortunately, at that age, you kind of see it as a school trip away. You're probably more interested in chasing girls or having a laugh rather than actually learning about these World War I and II monuments, et cetera, right? And also seeing this whole new country. So it's a bit of a shame really, but I think when you get older, you sort of realise, oh, I should pay attention a little bit more. That would have been nice, wouldn't it? But hey.

⁓ I'm glad we're not alone on that because even to the language point, know, we had to take a foreign language in high school, but by high school, we should have been learning it way, way, way before high school. I think it's changed probably some, it depends on where you grew up in the year. But where I grew up, you had to take two years of it in high school and it was just a class I had to take. wasn't actually, I didn't care to actually learn the language and now I kick myself.

Yeah.

just in Belgium and he was like, why didn't I learn and pay attention more in French class? And I took the easy route and I just took German because I already knew how it worked. And instead of learning a new language, like, yeah. So I kicked myself too.

You know, what's the saying, ⁓ hear people say youth is wasted on the young and sometimes wisdom is wasted on the old, know? Yeah.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Bloody hell. Weirdly though, I still do remember some German phrases in school. So must be drummed into every week, even though you're not sort of paying attention. It must be there somewhere. I do, when I go to Germany, we went to Austria in 2023, I was like, oh, I can speak a little bit to get some stuff going. So it is there somewhere.

Isn't it funny how that does stick around? Because even like with French, I do not claim to be able to speak French, but I can typically look at signs or words and get them pretty close to how they should be pronounced. Because I had, a year or two in college as well. Again, didn't really care about it, just had to take it. Whereas like Natalie, with her German background, she'll look at a French sign and be like, I have no idea.

⁓ I'll do word association with the closest English word I can think of. And Matt's like, that is not correct.

I do my best to get her by when we're in French speaking countries and she does a much better job at getting us by in German speaking countries.

So Natalie's great for Germany and Austria, but Matt could be more worldwide because obviously French is speaking.

Exactly.

Yeah, if I was only actually good at it.

And we both struggle with Spanish.

course, always a struggle. think what's a bit of a disgrace is we got pen pals at the age of, we must have been six or seven from German students who are the same age. So they're writing to us in English, but obviously we write back to them in English, not German. And it shows how far advanced they get in terms of like learning the language, right? It's really, it's quite embarrassing.

That's funny. He's right back in English.

Yeah, that's what we did.

English education system, can't beat it.

Did

you

But like you are right, in German schools we learned how to do multiplication and cursive in the first grade. So when we moved back to the States it was like, ⁓ I could skip a couple grades and I was like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be the weird, weird German girl. Like I'm okay. So it is true though.

That is true though, isn't it? think, yeah. If you combine Europe and USA. Yeah. Interesting. And for travel as well, was there a trip, Matt, this might be slightly more difficult. I don't know, but is there a trip in your mind when you're younger that maybe ignited a real interest in travel or at least an idea that maybe in the future you want to do more?

So I think I can maybe answer a little bit. So we did long distance dating for six years. Yeah, it's not as in young, but ⁓ we would do long distance dating. So we would see each other once a month and we would spend a couple of days together. And for the most part, we would plan a weekend. So we would have all of these different activities to do to either go and explore a city or a place. And we would do that. I mean.

Yeah, I that'd be a little later in life, but yeah.

for six years every other month. So if he'd come down to Florida, we would take him to like the Springs in Florida that not a of people know about or, you know, whatever. But I think a big one for us, obviously it was later on in life, was when we went to Vegas in 20, and it was my brother's 21st birthday. And my family was like, they don't like how I travel because I like to do see and eat as much as I possibly can. And I want to walk 25,000 steps to get it all done.

and I'm a little too much for them. And so they were like, can we please invite your boyfriend to this trip so we don't have to deal with you, right? That was the whole thing. Yeah, and so ⁓ Matt flew out too and it was one of the best trips. It literally was like, I found my travel partner because he was just as crazy as me and wanted to do see and eat as much as we possibly could.

This is not exaggeration.

yeah.

I think we had like 12 or 13 or maybe 20 things on the bucket list. I don't remember, but we only didn't do one of them. And that was the stratospheres, like rides up at the top, they were closed. But we did everything else.

Yeah, I think that was the thing that sparked our travels together for sure. Because like Natalie said, it was like that moment of like, ⁓ we like to do this the same way. Like, it's not like one of us wanted to lay around by the pool and just, you know, with a, you know, a drink with an umbrella in our hand and enjoy it that way. Like we were like, nope, we're going and literally walking is all over this city. ⁓ I think early on for me, I say early on, earlier on,

I think I always had this desire for like this wanderlust, this desire for adventure, but again, not having the means to maybe do it at a younger age. know, obviously there's so much that's not in your control at a young age. You know, you're just along for the ride of whatever your family is able to make happen. Like I said, I'm super grateful for all of those times we had right after I graduated high school, me and

My cousin who's still one of my best friends and another really good friend during high school. I was working for my dad at that summer and I was, he owns an automotive shop. So was like running parts back and forth between, you know, shops and parts stores and all this stuff. So I had a lot of time on the road. So I would end up talking to my buddies on drives, you know, so we were talking in early, this is probably beginning of summer. maybe.

The first week of June, we had really seriously started talking about what if we actually did this crazy cross-country road trip that we had been talking about doing for years. wow. We had always just dreamed of doing that American road trip from coast to coast kind of thing. But it was always like, yeah, we can't do that. When would we have the time? How would we have the money? So then the more we talked, it was more like, man, wouldn't that be awesome? And I remember my buddy, I was on the drive one day, and he said,

why don't we just quit talking about it and actually do it? And I was like, I was like, you know, I mean, we're in between high school and college right now. When are we, when else are we going to have time to do this? So we, we were like, all right. So I went into the, got back to the shop that day with my dad and kind of started like, you know, trying to slowly seed that idea of like, Hey dad, so, you know, what about if I, know, I know I'm working for you this summer, but what if I took some time off?

that yeah.

Yes, some holiday and took my 1995 Honda Accord and drove it from South Carolina to California. So long story short, me and those two really good friends, we left for two weeks, I think is all it was, because that's all we could get away. And we literally drove from South Carolina to LA, Malibu, all the way up into Oregon, back over to Chicago, and then back down to South Carolina. This was well before, you know,

smartphones and all that. ⁓ there's so much we didn't see that we drove right past and didn't even know we were driving past, know, because there wasn't like a, pull up the app and see what's nearest. was pull up the road Atlas and see if you can figure out where we're at, you know.

The good old days, I'd say.

Yeah, yeah, it was honestly great. Now navigating LA traffic as three 17, 18 year olds. yeah, we did end up in a parade. was a, didn't mean to. was, I adventures on that trip. And again, I think that was like that thing that like, I always had the wanderlust, but that like really lit the fire under me. And of course it wasn't till even much later before really got to

or you ended up in a parade.

So he had lot of adventures.

truly start fulfilling some of that wonder lust, but that really lit the fire under me, I feel like.

It's that time of life where it is before smartphones. I know I bang on about it quite a bit on the podcast, but there is something in that where you just don't know literally where you are. You're following a sign, but that's it. There's no extra information. You might see another sign that says this, you know, check this out and see what it's about. Right. But it's something about that that's quite strong, I think.

Yeah,

mean, and like for instance, like in LA for instance, we knew we wanted to see the Hollywood sign. We didn't know how to get to it. We didn't know anything. So we just drove around until we saw it. Like we were like, it's up on a hill. We can't miss it, right? So we literally, we were like, got in the general area that we kind of thought it was. And we were like, there it is. Cool. We did. Then when the Redwoods forest, we were up in Northern California and we were like, this is awesome, beautiful. And we stumbled onto the chandelier tree, which is the drive-through tree, like the most famous one.

literally stumbled onto it like we're driving and saw a sign that said, know, chandelier drive-through tree and I had remembered seeing that tree in my like sixth grade science book and that was like in my mind ingrained like I want to go do that and I saw that I was like we've got to go do that.

Yeah, that's a big moment, that, isn't it? Yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, exactly. To your point, exactly. There's something kind of special about those times pre-technology with traveling. Not all technology, because we did have phones, but yeah.

Yeah. And what's interesting is I hear on the podcast and that this is probably more for you. People who travel a lot when they're younger, don't tend to love it as much or travel as much when they're older. I've seen that a few times. don't know if that obviously doesn't resonate with you, but can you see why? Because maybe you have to keep moving houses or this is like probably for more like airline pilots or military, right? You to keep dotting around different countries and resettling and it probably grates on them at a younger age. So they probably yearn to stay still for longer and quickly, right? I'd imagine.

mean, that is true. It's always been, I mean, the grass is always greener, right? Even when I was growing up, I always wanted to have a house that I never moved. And you have all of these lifelong friends. I'm like, I can't imagine you have a friend that you've known for that long. Like, what? But I think just realizing, like Matt said, there's so many decisions that you didn't have as a kid and realizing that there's pros and cons to both. I think that's why we have a base.

I don't think I would ever really truly want to go full nomadic for a long period of time. We could probably do it for shorter periods or something like that. I do love having a home base where you have community near you. I think that's kind of important. So yeah, but can understand how some people...

Yeah, I mean, even to your point, Natalie's father, was an airline pilot from the time he was, until he retired in, you know, early 2000s. In his later age, he didn't care. Like we would talk to him, you know, he just passed recently, ⁓ but we would talk to him and he'd be like, I've done all the traveling I need to do. I'm good with being right here.

Yeah, because I work for an airline. And so I was like, Dad, you can fly anywhere in the world if you want to. I've got tickets, wherever you want to go. And he's like, I'm good. I've seen it. And I'm like, really? So yeah, to your point, I didn't think about that.

We're just going to stop right there before we crack on with the rest of the conversation in part one. If you'd to support this podcast, hit the link in the show notes to buy me a copy for $5. This really helps me and the podcast go forward and helps with the production costs. For free, if you head to your podcast app like Spotify, Apple, Castbox, whatever you use, hit that five-star review rating. That's pretty cool. And if you've got one extra minute, please leave a nice positive written review for the podcast. This is free.

and helps podcasts gain a bit of traction. And finally, word of mouth, tell your friends you've got a cool Winging It travel podcast that you listen to. It's got travel stories, travel tips, immersive cinematic experiences, solo episodes, loads and loads of different types of guests. If that tickles the fancy of your friends, share with them, tell them to listen, and hopefully we get more into the Winging It podcast community. Let's get back to the show. That's interesting, Maybe it just...

the amount of miles he's traveled, probably just gets, maybe there's a threshold for anyone who gets to that level where you're do you know what, I'm done. And maybe we're actually working towards ourselves, we don't know that yet.

True. We may meet those people that like, can go anywhere in the world. Here's the plane tickets. And we're like.

My

tea is here and I'm going to talk on

We're gonna be grumpy old people like now. I don't wanna do it. Yeah, I can't imagine that as of right now, but we'll see.

No, not at all.

But I think that the bass thing is an interesting one. I never thought I needed one until we went away two years ago. And we did a year and I was like, not again without bass. Because I think you do need to disconnect and just chill out for a bit if you have to or need to. I think it's key. I think it's actually key for long-term travel, I think.

Yeah, I would imagine so. Like we've always had a home base and there was a little time there we were like, man, what would it look like to, you know, do the fully nomadic thing, sell it all and just travel. And I think the more we thought about it and then the more we got into doing what we do, we were like, no, we, there's some sanity that having a home base brings for us, you know, and just a comfort to it, knowing like as much as we love travel, love being on the go, you know.

We typically don't travel for more than like three weeks to a month at a time on the longest end. Yeah. And you know, as much as we love it when you get home, there is that just kind of like sigh of like exhale, I'm home. ⁓

Yeah, I think that's underrated actually. Yeah. And you mentioned careers. I just want to touch very briefly on that before we go into travels. Nat, you mentioned you work for an airline. Now Matt sort of told me, well, she sort of does, barely does any hours.

I do.

Really, it's been amazing. I don't think we would have been able to do this without it. But yeah, so I work part-time for an airline. You can pick up as many hours as you'd like. I now give them as many of them as I can away because this has kind of taken over our life. And since I edit the videos, it just, you know, works out. But yeah, so I try to work as little as possible without getting in trouble. I might have gotten in trouble for not working as many hours.

So I've had

quarter. Every month we're like, am I going to be working for the airline? I don't know. So we'll see.

Let's not name the airline, we'll keep that secret. Matt did warn me that, she's sort of on the threshold here a little bit. ⁓

Well, you know, the good news is she does currently still have a job. That's But that's ever-changing. That could change tomorrow.

How do you find it as well, your job, sorry, like how do you... I've interviewed a few flight attendants, right? And they've got some crazy stories, I must admit. Sort of love and hate. I think love parts of it, some of it, hate's a bit of a word, but dislike some parts of it as well, can be pretty tough.

So the only part that I like, A, is my coworkers, they're really great, and B, the flight benefits. Because I work on the customer service side, right? So I'm the one that gets yelled at when there are delays. if your bag gets lost, none of which are really great. The only time that is nice is at the ticket counter when you're excited for your trip and you're ready to check in. But then I tell you your bag's 58 pounds and you got to take it out.

the gate or the ticket counter.

eight pounds. You know what mean? It's just never really great.

Or you tell them there's mechanical delays and...

Or the flight is canceled or, hey, sorry. Yeah, so I don't like confrontation. I don't like disappointing people. But it's been a really great thing for me because we have so much knowledge in the travel space that I'm always like, OK, this is not the airline employee talking, but like, tell me you put this on a travel credit card or that has travel insurance. Please tell me you do that. And they're like.

Well, actually, yeah, I think I did. And I'm like, OK, well, you call them. Making sure management's not listening to me because I'm, you know, all these other things. Because sometimes airlines will just screw you because it's a corporation. So it is hard just in the customer service side. And I hate getting yelled at all the time. But in those moments, like this week, I'm working, I think, like 24 hours just on Saturday alone to make up shifts because we were gone for our group trip.

Hang on, you're in a 24 hour shift on a Saturday?

Yeah, she'll pretty much stop.

of wows in a day. ⁓

So I'm literally working.

It technically overlaps into Sunday morning.

Yeah, to like 1.30 in the morning on Sunday. Like there all day. So that's kind how we were able to start this channel is I got to pick up shifts and move stuff around so we could travel.

Yeah, we always encourage, like especially if somebody's younger and wanting to figure out how to travel. You know, and if, and obviously the airlines, it can be a great career path for people as well. if you're just, if you're looking for ways to travel, if you love travel and want to find ways to do it more, the airline jobs are pretty incredible for that. Just the discounts that you get on flights make it, it's like Natalie said, it's honestly the only reason we were able to get our business off the ground. You know, it's...

Yeah, we wouldn't have been able do it without it.

No, and my mom was a pilot, that's how they met. So definitely recommend doing it. I would do it for one of the big ones, one of the legacy ones, if I had to do it all over again, maybe like Delta or American.

Is it the same benefits if you're, I don't know, a mechanic as opposed to customer service and a flight attendant? Are they all the same benefits or is there certain perks for each job?

Yeah, so it really just depends. It depends on the airline, and it also depends on where you're based, right? So in Nashville, I think some of them are business partners, right? So I think Spirit, United, and I think even American are business partners. So they're technically not American or United employees. They're a business partner employee, which means you get less benefits. So that's something that I always check out in the interview process is double checking exactly what you get, like what are the benefits that you get, because

in the airline industry, seniority is everything. So once you're in, a lot of stuff is based off of your seniority. So you don't really want to hop around to different airlines for that. So that's why, if you're going to do an airline job, definitely try and stick it out.

And like Natalie said, making sure like if you do, know, hers is a, from the beginning hers has always been a part-time job. Yeah. And that was by design. Cause if you work full time, you can't take as, you can't take advantage of the benefits as much. Yeah, of course. You know, but making sure that, you know, that airline is your employer, not a third party company.

Yeah. Okay. And Matt, what do you do?

Um, so I'm like Natalie said, pre Adventures of Matt and Nat, I was a full-time musician and honestly, all the way up until about two years ago, year and a half ago, um, probably two, two and a half years ago, was really, had pursued that. And it was a large part of my focus and my career is what I had done for more than a decade. Um, but now it's extremely part-time at this point. Um, I

play a couple of gigs a year with different friends who play, and then I lead worship at a church pretty much every Sunday that we're back in town. And they've been great to me. They're super flexible in understanding with our schedule, which is a hard thing to find because our schedule is all over the place, but they're always really kind about it. Yeah, so that's what I do. I'd say probably anywhere from 30, 30 to 40.

Sundays a year, I'm probably leading worship on Sunday at the church.

Okay, fair enough. And I've got some pot-shot travel questions first. all right. They're like, just like easy. You can answer in one word or a sentence, whatever you want. then we'll go into some of your travels and your A Thousand Places to See Before You Die, a book which is linked to YouTube. So, and then we'll touch on YouTube. What type of traveler are you? It's a broad question, but I'm going more along the lines of, you kind of mentioned a little bit already, are you go, go, go? Are you much more relaxed these days? Has it changed over time from being maybe younger to...

Sweating.

and meeting people now to more see a bit of culture, learning about more stuff like how, where you're at right now with what type of traveler you are.

I thought for a really long time, probably just until this year, that I was like a very go with the flow, I'm easy. But I've realized that I'm very type A personality. I like to have an itinerary. And I want to see, and eat as much as we possibly can. That's our travel style, right? Because if you don't have that much time, we want to fit in as much as we possibly can. do think we call them trips, right? Because again, they're work trips now. But before, that's how we traveled before. Vacations for us are more of the

relaxed, chill, maybe hanging out by the pool a little bit more. So yeah, we kind of have two different levels, I guess we would call it. Sometimes we're like, we need a vacation, not a trip.

But we don't really vacation.

always

end up filming

I never do it. I can't do it. I need it. I need it. I can't do it.

vacation on the calendar, you know, a specific, like we're going on a vacation to the Caribbean or whatever it is. We're not going to film. And then the closer it gets, like, well, you know, we could this video. And then before, you know, we're filming three videos in the five day time.

No filming,

We could maybe film one.

And then we need a break afterwards, ⁓

But yeah, I would say we land, think as we've kind of, you think you kind of hit on it a little bit as we have gotten a little bit older, we have less of this and what we do for our jobs now, obviously with our, travel channel, we have less of the scarcity mindset with travel. I think for a long time, it was kind of that idea of like, we're never going to be back here. We have to do it all. And I think now we go in and this has just been in the last couple of years, three years, probably we go into trips and we're like,

You know what, we don't have to fit everything in. Let's do what we can. And obviously for our videos, we're known to just pack in as much as we can because many people that are traveling, they probably aren't going back to the place again. We try to shoot our videos through that lens because that's who we're shooting our videos for. Many times those first time visitors that are going to a city and want to squeeze it all in. But I think us personally, we have...

gotten better at maybe, we're still fast travelers, no doubt, but we're much better at slowing it down. And we're very much, we love the culture, the history, we're foodies. So anytime we can learn more about a culture through their food, that's always a bonus. But yeah, we probably land somewhere in the middle now. It's, know, slow travel is something that would be great, but that's in.

luxury that people don't talk about. You know, it really is. but I think mid-tier, right? We're like the normal, we always joke that we think that we're like a little above average, but it always ends up being that we're just average.

Yes.

Yeah, for sure.

just the average tourist.

Yeah, I'm just it's an average podcast that doesn't matter. Yeah

She's

like, yeah.

We're all averages. How important is local travel? I mean, I know we're probably going to touch on this a little bit with YouTube, but do you think it's important to travel your own country a little bit before you go international or is it doesn't matter?

I think so. America especially is so huge, so vast. I'll tell you a story. So our first time out of the country was in our honeymoon. Yeah, right?

Well, yeah, because we only went to the Bahamas. mean, technically we went to the Bahamas, but yeah.

That is true, but our first big international trip where we flew there was our honeymoon and we went to Barbados. And it was a beautiful island and we're sitting with our taxi driver because we hired a private driver for the day. And he was like, why are you here? And we were like, what do you mean, sir? And he was like, America has everything. Have you seen it all? And it was one of those where a light bulb went off for both of us. And he knew more about our country than we did.

And it was very eye-opening to be like, huh, okay, yeah, you're right. Like that is true. I didn't think about it like that. And obviously when we did our 50 States in a Year series, we were able to really explore our own backyard and realize how beautiful and vast and amazing the U.S. is when it comes to the nature and just the different cities and cultures and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. And then also from the more cultural standpoint, I think it's important to explore more of your own country wherever it's at, whether it's the U.S., whether it's back home in England, because not to get on any kind of any kind of political rant here at all. But just to say, realize, know, media tends to divide people, you know, especially within countries, you you're divided. So when you get out and travel, you just

Are you able to realize how much you're alike with everybody? Even people that on paper you would look at and be like, there's no way I will ever get along with that person because media told me this is how they do this, this is how they do this. And then you sit down and have a conversation with and you just realize we're all, we're all very similar and most people are good people.

You're like.

Yeah, very key that as a key message of what I try to promote a lot because it is so true. So if anyone's listening and they're not sure, that is definitely true. If you go to any country or any state, they're probably going to be on the whole, all white people. Yeah. If you're in trouble or give you some advice, that generally does happen. Chris and Sarah, our friends are in England at minute and we're messaging them, they're like, we need all the tips. like, I'm actually a little bit ashamed. I don't have that many tips.

I've not seen much of my own country. I've seen my area of where I'm from a little bit, not that much, but a little bit. And I used to live in London, right? But other than that, was like, apart from watching football, I've not really been to anywhere. I felt a bit ashamed saying it. was like, Sarah, I've got all the recommendations where I'm from and here they are, but I've got really nothing else for much else.

You know that I love that because it's something we talk about regularly and I saw an Instagram reel or TikTok the other day and I don't even remember who it was by. I wish I could credit them. It was the idea that you always like when people come in Nashville, people are like, we'll get comments on our Nashville video. You know, we have an hour long Nashville video that lays out literally an extensive list of things to do in Nashville. Like just a wide range, broad net, high level what to do.

And then you can dig in deeper to figure out, you know, within these categories, what you want to do. But all that to say, we'll get comment every month or two, or you'll get, I'm sure you get it all the time. Like, like that saying, like, Hey, can you give us some places that the locals go? The places, you know, that aren't the tourist places, blah, blah, blah. And to your point, what you just said, I'm like, do you want to eat at Chick-fil-A? Cause that's where the locals are kind of going. I mean, you're going to be.

You're be

rude.

We

have a taco truck next to the dumpster behind the liquor store beside our house that's really good. We love

And then it's like, well, where do the locals go? I'm like, we usually don't go anywhere unless there's an event. So what do mean the locals?

It's the same for, there's a place called, well, a chain called Weather Spoons in UK. Did you go to Weather Spoons? It's a real cheap, I guess it's like low-end cheap drinking and eating. it's kind of the place you go to when you're a student because it's so cheap. And I jokingly put that in as a recommendation for Chris and Sarah. It's like, well, locals go to Weather Spoons. It's not going to be pretty. You're going to see some characters, but that's where local people go because it's cheap. And it's like the Chick-fil-A thing. Exactly the same.

Yeah,

and many times, like now I said, locals, you're probably going to be bored with what, they're just living life. Yeah, yeah. They're not out experiencing their city, you know, doing all the...

Eating at all the new hot restaurants every single week. It's like, no, we're saving money so we could travel. Like, what are you...

You know that that said we do have lots of recommendations for Nashville But it's you almost we almost have to be intentional about like seeking those Going out and going to new places rather than we're creatures of comfort, you know Everybody is so you kind of land in you these zones of like well, we know we like this place. Let's just go there again

And also too, you know, there's a lot of traffic and there's a lot of effort to explore and do those things where we can just stay on our little side of town that's a little bit less crowded and crazy and just stay there.

Yeah. And I was like, I don't know what to say really, but for me, I got caught out on a podcast episode once where I was wrapping my own city and he said, Oh, where do people stay? I'm like, I don't know. I never stayed anywhere because I had to reel off like two or three hotels I know in the city center, the probably really expensive. Um, but I listed them out and I was like, you could stay there.

Exactly!

We do the same thing in Nashville because, you know, we've, same thing. It's like, well, we live here.

Well, that's why we had to be really intentional with our Nashville video. got so many comments constantly. Like, Matt has a blog. I think it's a 28-minute read. Like, it is very extensive. And it was very intentional for us to do those things where we literally were like, okay, people want to know the hotels, people want to know the areas, people want to...

We spent like two, you know, on and off, not like consistently, but two and a half to three months ⁓ of going out and experiencing things, you know, going to these different places, doing the tourist, you know.

Research.

And

it was stuff that we'd never done before and we'd lived here for like six or seven years. it was like, yeah, it was really neat. It was neat.

Yeah, so we got to play tourists in our own town, but also got to give a little more of the maybe local recommendations off the beaten path stuff. But yeah, I understand that emotion of like, I don't know what to tell you to... I don't know where to stay. I mean, I can tell you our address, I guess, because it's where we stay.

Don't know where to start.

can give you Airbnb's website. Yeah. It's difficult one, isn't it? Yeah. I did a top 10 for Norwich where I'm from. And I was going through like, yep, never stayed there. Been in there once. I was listening to all these things to do and I'm I've not even done them myself. Yeah. Bit of shame to say that really, but hey, here's what it is. It's a great recommendation, by the way. Just want to go check out on YouTubers. It's good. Right. Okay. Let's go to accommodation. What do you normally stay in? Are you hostels? Are you mid range hotels? Are you luxury?

We're mid-range hotels and I'll say this, luxury when they host us or pay us to come stay there. ⁓

Change to luxury.

But hopefully one day we'll just be able to do it and pay it for ourselves. Come on, Matt. I'm more of the luxury person, let's be real. He is very frugal. So he will always do like mid-tier, $100 hotels, maybe. Let's do a boutique hotel. This would be cute. So we balance each other out.

I'm like,

We land in the mid range. We've done one hostel ever and it was in the US. Most people, hostels are definitely associated with Europe for the most part, but our only hostel we've ever done was in Jackson, Wyoming.

because the hotels were so expensive.

Yeah, we were on a... Our hostel was like 110 a night. And you know, it was a... It was a bunk bed. It was a queen bed in the wall is what it was, you know. And I will say it was nice. Yeah. Like it was clean and nice and modern. It was like that boutique upper tier hostel kind of thing. But it was in like the basement of another property. There was no airflow. It was really hot.

Hostile, it was like,

⁓

And the amount of money that they were making, like how many people, how many queen bunk beds were there? I was like, man.

Yeah, so that's our only hospital experience in Jackson, Wyoming.

Yeah. Do you know what, if we're having this conversation 10 years ago, I'd be like, you got to try a hostel. Like they're really cheap, they're good value, but current day to day, because I'm saying loads, they're just not that cheap anymore. And I think the mid range hotels are within reach now in terms of cost and value, which I don't think has ever been that way, especially in Europe and USA and Canada for definitely for sure. And Australia, New Zealand, that side of the world as well. just think.

There's more options now where it's a little bit more comfortable and it's a shame because it kind of ruins that backpacker feel a little bit. yeah, we went to Switzerland and stayed in a hostel and it's like 140 euros a night. I'm like, what is going on here?

yeah, I'm sure.

Yeah, that's not what I think of when I think of hostile. You know what I mean? You think of a good deal. And we did Airbnbs when we first started, especially in Europe, you know, they tack on all of these extra fees, cleaning fees, and then we would have to take the trash out and do all of this stuff. And it was like,

hunt for the key when I get there, like scavenging.

Got

to work for it,

Yeah, and it was like the same price as a hotel or maybe a little bit cheaper, but it was like with all the effort, it was like, we'll just stay in a hotel that they don't care if we have to find a key or clean up our trash or anything.

And as we've gotten older, I love the comforts of my space. Like having, you know, our private space. And then on top of also now we're traveling with a lot of gear. Yes. That's a whole nother factor. Being a couple, one, that's like first thing, like, okay, hostels get a little bit, you know, I know there's plenty of couples that do hostels, but ⁓ then we've gotten older and it's like, ⁓ I'll spend a little extra money. And kind of like you said, the mid-tier hotels are like,

right within reach now of many hostels, like at least hostels that we would want to stay in anyway. Yeah, yeah, of course. So, and then you add the fact that we're traveling with as much gear as we travel with now and have to think about charging that gear at nights for next day of filming. It gets to be a lot. So it's nice to just have a private space, know, is, you know, kind of locked off from everyone else.

That's an extra question for gear and content. I don't know if you do much on the road, but is that also key? Because I learned last year in Central America, I need a private room because I just need to do some stuff on a laptop with a desk for at least an hour or two, maybe every three or four days, I think that's needed. And if it doesn't have a good common room or a good guaranteed area of electricity, it kind of gets a bit of a problem. You guys must face that as well.

100%.

Yeah, that's why most of the hotels, like they have Wi-Fi and all that stuff. It's like, okay, you don't have to worry about it.

I've

got some deep questions here, but I'm going to avoid them for a minute. What's your favourite type of travel? And what I mean by that is, you looking to do adventure sports? Are you looking to do like wine and food sort of tours? Are you looking to do just walking and exploring kind of off the cuff? Like is there any type of travel you like? Cause I love doing like cafes in the day. I do like maybe four cafes in the morning and see if they've got great coffee, right? That's like a little content thing I like doing.

Enjoy it as well. Is there anything like that you like?

think for us, it's the variety that we love so much. And when we did our 50 states in a year, that was the one thing that we really loved was the variety part of it. And we love exploring the big cities and getting to just walk around and using the metro and stuff. But we also love national parks where we get to hike and see all that. also love beaches. So I think the variety part is for us the best. And I think it just depends on the location on what we're doing.

Yeah, but we do, a lot of our videos land in that, you know, city tour area, you know, if we're in cities, obviously, but we love, I mean, I love a good cup of coffee. So any place we're starting, I'm like looking for, you know, one of the better coffee shops or, you know, at least trying to find something like that. And then we always, we always love getting out on the water as well, you know, whether that's a sunset cruise or whatever that looks like. There's just something, I don't know.

That

draws both of us to watch.

Yeah,

we just are drawn to the water. I know they're touristy, like the sunset cruises and that kind of stuff. Man, we've had some great ones from... Portland, Maine was a great one. Yeah, there's just been some really good ones.

But it's great, aren't they?

Yeah, from Budapest ⁓

Portland,

Oregon, where we did the sailboat. yeah. And HUD.

Yeah.

yeah, yeah. The hood, hood river.

Alright,

okay.

Yeah, for Trump-a-thon.

Yeah, so there's yes, we love getting on the water city. We always like to some kind yeah, we're foodies. yeah, whatever that like if we're somewhere whatever that isn't, you that culture or that city is known for like we want to experience that thing, you know, you know, if we're in Switzerland, you know, if we're in. We're going to want to do some of the adventure stuff if we're in Switzerland, you know, doing whether it's.

yeah, we're doing adventure travel.

outside.

Bungee

jumping from the cable car or skydiving or something like that. Like, I want to do it if I'm there. It's the best place in the world to do it.

Yeah, yeah.

She's over here already. She's the one here that has actually skydived before. I haven't.

It's the best, isn't it? It's the ultimate freedom. ⁓

The bungee jumping is what scares me the most.

Oh

yeah, won't do that. Power guidance is my big thing. That's my next adventure thing. Power guidance is pretty cool.

terrifying.

I would love to do that. Where are you wanting to do it in Switzerland or you have a place or no?

I actually wanted to do it in Guatemala at Lake Atterdland, but I got there and I said to the guy, I'm really interested. Cause now, mate, I said, what do mean? I said that it's like 30 degrees sunny is now the winds are too strong and we think it's going to be like that for a week. And I've got like a whole week's worth of people waiting. I was like, ⁓ well I'll go in two days. ⁓ but apparently it's one of the best places to do it in Lake Atterdland, but I'm not really kind of married to a location. I just want to get the activity done, but it has to be proper. And yes, it'd be like good weather, good views. I'm not going to rush it.

But it's on my mind.

Yeah, I understand that. feel the same way. Like, you know, we're talking about doing Switzerland probably next year. And if it works out, we'll do it there. But I'm with you. The location isn't as much. I just want it to be a good location.

Mine wasn't great, like skydiving. We got it on a groupon. Oh yeah. don't know if you know it, like a deal with me and my bestie.

How many people do you know that would buy their skydiving off a groupon?

I think that's the first, yeah.

Two college kids that didn't have any money. And it literally was, like, not pretty at all. It was, the middle of Florida, so just, a bunch of farmland. was just flat. Like, you didn't even see the ocean or anything. It wasn't even that cool. And the plane broke when we got there. And they were like, so do you want to reschedule or do you want to, like, wait? And we were like, we'll wait. We drove here. We'll wait. And of course, we didn't tell my mom or anything. And then we got a call that the plane was fixed.

And we were like, I mean, it's the safest plane ride we're ever gonna be taking, right? We've already got parachutes on, right? And that was our rash. Yeah, our rash.

They just fixed the plane. Yeah, so we're fine. Freshly fixed.

freshly fixed. Bloody hell. If only you knew what that fix was, would that change your mind? yeah, the petrol gauge has kind of been fixed. Would you trust a non-leaking petrol tank? don't know. God, do know what? Unbelievable. That's unbelievable story. And fair play. That is, if I had that on my skydive, I'd be straight back on the bus.

That was dumb.

A rational person would do that, but not me. was like, it'll be fine. So dumb.

Unbelievable. Yeah, I did mine twice. I did one for charity, actually. First one, I was only 17. We have a, you must have it in USA, like an air ambulance organization. Maybe the hospitals have it where they fly out to like locations where it's a bit difficult to get to and they pick people up. So I did it for that. And the second one was in New Zealand and that was a, that was a experience. I don't know this is weird Natalie, I don't know, but just bear with me on this. When you skydived, did you have a problem breathing? Because what happened with me in the first time I was trying to breathe,

normally in and out, but because you're free-forwarding, you can't catch your breath, right? Because the wind's rushing past you. I felt like I was suffocating for like 35 seconds. It was a bit of an experience.

I mean, you don't, nobody looks cute when you're skydiving. Like we thought we were like your jowls are flapping in the wind. And it's like, you know, like you said, you can't catch your breath because the wind is just coming so hard at you. you just, yeah. I, the scariest part for me was seeing my friend, she went first and it was like, you know, when you spit outside the window and in a moving car, it just like flies by. Well, that was her. She literally was there and then she was gone. And I was like, I have to go next.

Like, do you mean? And then yeah, you choke to death on the way down with your full, you know, your cheeks going. It's not, yeah. We're filming for YouTube. I bet it's not gonna be that cute, but we'll still do it.

just hope I'm not the person that you know you see the ones where the guy like passes out, screams, passes out and wakes up and I'm hoping I'm not that person.

That would be...

But

there is a trick and there's an unbelievable bit of advice. Breathe through your nose. Just close your mouth and breathe through your nose. So when I was sitting on the edge of that plane in New Zealand, was like, right James, I'm not worried about free falling here. I'm not worried about people jumping off and not seeing them again. I'm like, just make sure you breathe properly and close your mouth.

And it worked.

Yeah

That helps you deal with all of the other anxieties that surround that experience.

That's my only anxiety jumping out with breathing. Weird. That's so funny.

Beats.

Just breathe.

How was that in New Zealand? Was that an awesome experience?

Yeah, it's at Lake Taupo, which is, I've got mountains around the lake. It's pretty serene. And I was on a key experience. I was pretty young and you get like a choice of activities as you drive around New Zealand and each island. So I just put my hand up for that one and I I'll try it again. And it's about eight of us who did it and it's pretty good experience. all, as you said, jumped off at the same time. Gone, gone. But I wish I got it filmed. see any things I need to do it again and have someone, I'll probably pay the extra to get someone there to do it with them.

it's all-

Yeah, for sure.

Just like on a GoPro. Nobody's ever seen it don't think because I thought it was so ugly of me that I don't think I've ever watched it back

Probably on like a GoPro Hero 3.

Quality is probably way bad.

You've

got to release that as a video.

I gotta find it first. That's a good idea. Okay, I'll look into it.

Bit of like behind the scenes content, maybe your patrons, they pay for some stuff like that, don't they? That's true.

I'm ready to my to-do list. Thanks James for giving me something else to do.

Alright, I don't want to see it. Okay, let's get some places where you traveled. Let's do... No, I'm going to start with 1,000 places to see before you die. I know that was a big thing for YouTube to start with, but tell the listeners, like, what is that book? I never read it. Like, why did you get embroiled in that sort of book to maybe base your travels off?

Do you want me to talk about it? Because I had to convince Matt to do this. So we started our channel with seeing all 50 states in a calendar year. And so we finished that. And after that, we were like, okay, what's next for our channel? We love having like a story arc. And so we were in a play at Key West at a bookstore, buying postcards for our patrons. And I see this book and as Matt's checking out, I'm like, oh my gosh.

You can if you want.

this lady, Patricia Schultz, literally put a bunch of the things that we did for our 50 states in a year. So I'm already starting to trust her a little bit because we've got great taste and obviously she does. so it was looking through and I was like, oh, we've done that. Oh, we just did that. Oh, that's, you know. And I was like, oh, this would be really cool. So other people can experience it with us. They can go buy the book and we get to do it together kind of story. And so I.

brought it up to Matt and Matt was like, no, that's too many places. ⁓

It's

a cool idea, but a thousand places? That's a lot. It was literally months, probably two to three months of us going back and forth of what's the next story arc for our channel. We felt like we were just wandering aimlessly a little bit without some kind of goal to point our efforts towards.

people had done you know the number of countries before and it was like okay what's something else that we could do and we loved the variety that the 50 states in a year gave us you know a lot of people were like or go visit all the beaches in the Caribbean and it's like you would get so bored with just doing the same thing over and over again we need that variety we need the difference in cultures and so

We'll do all the national part.

And me, I'm like, I mean, I'll do my best.

There's worse things to aim for, I think.

Exactly.

So for me, was making that understanding in my head of it was going to as many of the 1000 places as we could. ⁓ given the goal is still the same, it's just, had to make the switch in my mind of like, it just made it less overwhelming for me to be able to make that switch of like, all right, we're going to set out to do as many of these as we can rather than, all right, hard set, we're doing all 1000. Like that was a big thing for me. So, see, once I made that switch, we were like,

All right, I think we can do this. And so that was kind of how we launched it. Again, no affiliation with the book at all. We've had, now have communication with the publisher, with the publishing company, and Patricia Schultz actually knows who we are now and has seen our content.

sure or not.

That is big time.

Big

time. Big time.

Well, what's funny is my mentality with life in general is I would rather ask for forgiveness than permission. And we didn't know if they were gonna be like, yeah, no, you can't use the book if we would have asked for it in the beginning. Is it the chance? Exactly, they could have said no. And then we were like, oh my gosh, we just fell in love with this idea. Like what are we gonna do now? And so it was like, we're just gonna start it and we'll see how it goes. hopefully nobody...

And our first email we got from the publisher, we were like, is this good or bad?

Thank

God it was good.

You could just reframe it as like, we're to go to a thousand places that we like, but they just have to be the same.

That is ⁓

You

don't own these places.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm glad to hear they gave you the go ahead. That's great. How many places had you gone to at that point when you introduced the book and that was on the fence? Have you done like maybe 10 or 20?

Good

question. I think so. It was around there.

Probably no more than 15 to 18, but probably no less than 10. Somewhere in that dozen mark range somewhere in there.

And how many are you at now?

It's funny, I'm actually pulling that up now, because I'm trying to remember.

And I'm the last time we updated it.

No, I've done it, I have? This year.

Good for Matt. But that's not any of our 50 states in a year stuff, is it?

Yeah, there's something here. So we haven't updated it probably in like the last two months, but we're at, it looks like 91 right now.

So probably close to like 96.

Yeah, we're somewhere in there because we did quite a in Greece. We did some in Belgium as well. know, we tacked Belgium on.

another five.

Yeah, so yeah, we're probably in that 96 right coming up on the hundred so almost 10 % there

Is that a one or do you think about those things or?

We don't, we just are like, you know, what's, what's next? We're going to knock out all the really great ones early on.

Should, and make it more of a thing?

The last one's gonna suck so bad it's ⁓

With

some obscure mini-golf place and who knows.

It's funny because the OCD kicks in a little bit, right? I had an interview a months ago now with Jacob Blamansky. He biked around the world for 999 days. And for me, I don't care. I'm not OCD. But I know some people I know like, what the fuck? Are you not going to a thousand days? Why not random? ⁓

spot when you said 999 I was like yeah when you just do one more

Yeah,

he's like wasn't a thing even I'm like, oh, it's a little bit of a thing isn't it like in 999 days

At that point, you could've just thrown one extra thing in there.

It's so funny though. A great interview, like, played, Jake was a great guy, but a part of me was like, even I'm like, that wasn't really nice. did. Yeah.

He did that for Ragebait.

said, purpose for marketing purposes. He was like, okay, this is going to get people talking.

That is the end of part one with Matt and Nat. So we're going to stop right here because there's another hour and a bit to go and I can't do two and a half hours of editing for one episode. So I thought I'd split it up, give you a break, soak it all in, reflect and come back for more a week today. So part two is going to delve in more into their YouTube success, their group travels that they have and also what more travels are coming for the rest of 2025 going into 2026. It's a great chat.

a great couple of friends of mine. have a laugh every time we see each other. And it's just one of those episodes that has a great vibe. I love recording them and releasing them to you, the public, because it's great vibes to listen to. But if you're watching, you can see that come across the camera as well. Thanks for in. I'll see you next week for part two and I'll see you there. Cheers. Thanks for tuning in to the podcast episode today. If you've been inspired by today's chat and want to book some travel.

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