What makes the perfect vacation?

Is it the destination? The hotel? The food? The activities?

Or could it have more to do with understanding what kind of traveler you are?

In this Season 2 finale of Explorations All Over, I sit down with travel advisor Dee Koger to explore how our personalities, preferences, and travel styles shape the vacations we choose—and the memories we bring home.

Our conversation covers everything from family travel and multigenerational vacations to cruises, independent travel, and the questions Dee asks her clients before recommending a destination. Along the way, we discuss why two people can take the exact same trip and have completely different experiences, and why your favorite travel memory may reveal more about your ideal vacation than your bucket list ever could.

Whether you work with a travel advisor or plan every detail yourself, this conversation may change the way you think about travel planning.

Thank you for joining me throughout Season 2. From Christmas Markets and Antarctica to Ancient Faiths, Uganda, French Polynesia, Turkey, and now this conversation with Dee, it's been an incredible journey.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode and whether you'd like to hear more conversations like this in future seasons.

Connect with Explorations All Over on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss the adventures ahead when Season 3 launches this September.

Because the best journeys begin long before we ever leave home.

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In this immersive episode of Explorations All Over: Far Flung Adventures, Russ takes you from the streets of Istanbul to the skies over Cappadocia, through the ancient city of Ephesus and into the everyday moments that ultimately changed how he and Duncan viewed Turkey — and perhaps how they saw travel itself.

Featuring:
• the sounds of Istanbul’s call to prayer
• bustling spice markets and hidden neighborhoods
• hot air balloons rising over Cappadocia at sunrise
• underground cities, ancient mosaics and Ephesus
• unforgettable meals and unexpected human connection
• and field recordings captured in the moment throughout the journey

This isn’t just a story about Turkey.

It’s about what happens when you challenge your assumptions and step into a place you don’t fully understand.

Because sometimes the trips we almost don’t take…
become the ones we never forget.

🎧 Companion visuals and videos from the trip can be found on the Explorations All Over YouTube channel (coming soon!)

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Thanks for listening. Check back in 2 weeks for the next episode. Don't forget to subscribe and make sure to "like" the Explorations All Over" Facebook page, too!

For many trips, I’ve traveled with a purpose.

I wanted to learn something.
Understand something.
Come home with a story that explained not just where I went — but why it mattered.

French Polynesia was different.

This wasn’t a trip about meaning or growth.
It wasn’t about checking boxes or chasing experiences.

It was about letting go.

In this episode of Explorations All Over, I share what it felt like to slow down in one of the most beautiful places on earth — floating in crystal-clear water, swimming alongside reef sharks, diving coral reefs, and stepping inside those iconic overwater bungalows you see in photos and wonder if they’re even real.

But I also talk about something else.

How easy it is to miss the moment while trying to capture it.
How travel doesn’t always have to change you.
And how sometimes the most meaningful journeys are the ones that ask nothing of you at all.

If you’ve ever felt the need to make every trip “count,” this episode might just give you permission to travel a little differently.

Share your thoughts on this episode.

Support the show

Thanks for listening. Check back in 2 weeks for the next episode. Don't forget to subscribe and make sure to "like" the Explorations All Over" Facebook page, too!