0:01

When you visit a state as big and

0:03

diverse as Texas, there, are a million different trips you

0:05

can take. let's say, you've got an appetite

0:07

for white water kayaking. You can get your own.

0:09

own. So this is why they call it

0:12

Delos River! Trip to Texas. Or

0:14

maybe you have a natural appetite.

0:16

I'll take a pint of of brisket, six

0:18

ribs, three Links of sausage, and

0:20

a piece of of pecan, pie, Trip to Texas.

0:23

to Go to traveltexas.com slash get your own

0:26

for the only trip to to Texas that matters. Yours.

0:34

A few days ago, the U.S.

0:36

hit a major milestone. In

0:38

a quite ceremonial sounding press release,

0:41

the Transportation Security Administration announced that on

0:43

Sunday, for the first time since its

0:45

founding more than 20 years ago, more

0:49

than 3 million travelers were screened

0:51

on a single day at airports

0:53

across the country. And

0:56

while I was not in an airport this

0:58

past Sunday, I do feel

1:00

a shared kinship with these 3 million

1:03

people, because I've been doing a

1:05

lot of traveling this summer, for work, to see

1:07

family, that sort of thing. And

1:10

like everybody else, I'm also

1:12

slumming it through airport security,

1:15

desperately trying to find something not gross to

1:17

eat for breakfast. There

1:22

are so many indignities to

1:25

traveling, the stuff that we all put

1:27

up with to get to our destination. And

1:29

then there are those moments of

1:31

true travel nightmares. Hurricane

1:33

barrel disrupting thousands of flights today, truly

1:36

a mess. So here's

1:38

a look at the current numbers. According

1:40

to the website FlightAware, almost a

1:42

thousand flights are canceled in and out

1:44

of Bush International in Houston. Weather

1:47

disruptions, rerouted flights, and even turbulence. Something

1:50

that just used to feel like a word on

1:52

your travel bingo card now

1:54

feels legitimately life-threatening. This

1:57

was from a flight from Spain to Uruguay last

1:59

week. week. Tonight, terrifying

2:01

turbulence rocking a packed international flight,

2:04

injuring at least 30 people.

2:07

Video showing a passenger apparently stuck in

2:09

the ceiling of the aircraft, his feet

2:11

dangling over the aisle. You

2:14

see the badly damaged, blood-stained cabin,

2:16

a seat destroyed, and holes where

2:18

passengers slammed into the ceiling. And

2:21

it feels like our fellow travelers are

2:23

losing their minds. Shocking new

2:26

video of a brawl erupting on board

2:28

a Southwest Airlines flight. This

2:31

flying is a fight breaks out between two

2:33

men on this plane before it took off

2:35

from Dallas to Phoenix Monday. And

2:39

yet, even with all that, we

2:42

really love to travel. And

2:45

we're paying a lot of money for the

2:47

privilege of leaving our homes to see new

2:49

places. So how can

2:51

we minimize the bad stuff and

2:53

still hold on to the

2:56

romantic, life-changing, magical things about

2:58

traveling? Traveling

3:02

is a mess right now. We're

3:05

seeing extreme weather, severe turbulence,

3:07

significant delays, and because we're dealing with all

3:09

of this at once, I've been looking into

3:11

what's causing it and how we can deal

3:13

with it. That's Natalie Compton.

3:16

She's one of the post's travel reporters, which

3:18

means it's her job to help us game

3:21

the tourism-industrial complex. So

3:24

we went directly to her for her

3:26

fountain of knowledge about how we can

3:28

make the most of this summer travel

3:30

season. From

3:36

the newsroom of The Washington Post, this is Post

3:38

Reports. I'm Martine Powers. It's

3:41

Wednesday, July 10th. Today,

3:43

Natalie brings us her hottest tips

3:46

on how to be an efficient,

3:48

savvy traveler. We talk

3:50

about the reality of budget airlines,

3:52

how to be a discerning booker

3:54

of Airbnbs, and

3:57

her advice on how to stay

3:59

present on our planet. Precious vacations.

4:06

We have seen a lot of reports

4:08

that this summer of travel is going

4:10

to be very busy. I'm not

4:12

completely clear on why, because it feels like

4:14

everyone thinks things are expensive right now, which

4:16

in many cases they are. And

4:19

also, the era of YOLO

4:21

travel right after the peak

4:24

pandemic has already passed. So why are

4:26

people saying that this is going to

4:28

be the busiest travel summer ever? You're

4:31

right. It is counterintuitive, because

4:34

everything in life seems expensive. But

4:36

we are saying that that concept

4:39

of revenge travel doesn't really seem to

4:41

have slowed as much as analysts were

4:43

even saying that it could have this

4:46

summer. People are still revenging. People are

4:48

revenging, and airlines have added more capacity.

4:50

There are more flights going. Flights are

4:53

still full. We've seen that even though

4:55

a lot of travel has become expensive,

4:57

you can still find deals to places.

5:00

So I think if people see any

5:02

inkling of a flight deal, they're jumping

5:04

on it and traveling. We

5:07

also know that people held off

5:09

on some of their bigger trips earlier in

5:11

the pandemic. Some big travel takes

5:13

a year to plan. And so some of

5:15

those dream trips are coming to fruition now.

5:18

But Americans are driving. They're

5:20

flying. They're taking cruises. Everything is packed.

5:23

People are making it work no matter what. So

5:26

given what we're expecting, what is your

5:28

advice for people on how to avoid

5:30

the worst of that and to make

5:33

traveling during this peak season a little

5:35

bit more bearable? Stay home. Just

5:38

kidding. You should definitely, if you

5:42

can, try to avoid the

5:44

busiest places. Right now we're

5:46

seeing that classic Europe,

5:48

whatever European city you're thinking of right

5:50

now when I say classic Europe, those

5:52

are going to be... Paris, London. Yes.

5:55

Berlin. Italy is swamped

5:58

already. Like,

12:01

I feel like there are more

12:03

of these, like, it

12:06

almost feels like the, like,

12:08

airlines have headed in two different directions. Like, there

12:11

are the big names that we know, and like,

12:13

the American and the Delta and United, and a

12:15

lot of people take those things. But I feel

12:17

like I'm seeing a lot of these airlines that

12:19

I've never heard before. I went to New Haven

12:21

recently and took a

12:23

Velo, which we got to the airport, and the

12:25

person was driving, and was like, I, like, where, where

12:27

are we going? Where am I dropping you off? And

12:29

we have to drive all the way to the end

12:31

of the airport, and there was one little sign that

12:33

said a Velo. How

12:36

much should we be looking at

12:38

these smaller airlines? Like, is there anything

12:40

to be concerned about when it comes

12:42

to these names that some people haven't

12:45

heard of before, both here in the

12:47

U.S. and even more internationally? There

12:50

are pros and cons of going with

12:52

an ultra low-cost carrier or a new

12:54

kind of startup airline. Mm-hmm. Sometimes you

12:57

might be dazzled by low prices and

12:59

think, wow, why shouldn't I take

13:01

this $200 round-trip flight? Some

13:04

risks are they might not have as

13:07

many flights on their agenda. So if your flight

13:09

is significantly delayed or canceled, you might not be

13:11

able to fix your travel plans that day. You

13:13

might have to wait a day, two

13:15

days, three days, until you can get on another flight to

13:17

wherever you're going. So that's a risk. Sometimes

13:20

with ultra low-cost carriers, they might not have the

13:23

best customer service. So it might be harder to

13:25

get a refund or it might be harder to

13:27

get a flight rescheduled. But if

13:29

everything goes according to plan and you just

13:32

needed to get to New Haven, you could

13:34

get a really good deal with some of

13:36

these newcomers. I will also say that the

13:39

price that you see when you first search

13:41

may look one way. It's not the price

13:43

that you get at the end if you

13:46

want to do something so bold as to

13:48

perhaps bring a carry-on bag with you onto

13:50

the plane. And

13:53

suddenly your ticket price has gone up $50,

13:55

$100 because you did want that carry-on bag.

14:00

slide and sometimes they're charging for. So it

14:03

might look like the best deal, but

14:05

for $50 more you

14:07

might be able to fly a quote unquote legacy

14:09

carrier that gives you more protection or is a

14:11

little more flexible. So I wouldn't

14:13

necessarily say it's always best to go with

14:15

the cheapest flight you see out there, but

14:18

for certain trips it can make sense. I

14:21

also want to ask about something that has really struck

14:23

me in the headlines of late and this is a

14:25

little bit of a different sag. It's not about money,

14:28

but more about safety. It feels

14:30

like there's a lot that is out

14:32

of your control safety wise when it

14:34

comes to being on

14:36

a plane and so many people were horrified

14:39

earlier this year at the door panel that

14:41

came off the plane and just imagining like,

14:43

what if that were you on that flight?

14:45

But the thing that has really struck me

14:48

is turbulence. I feel like I'm seeing a

14:50

lot of headlines and videos

14:52

of people on planes where the

14:55

turbulence has been extreme

14:57

and scary and has caused

14:59

injuries. Now a Qatar Airways

15:01

flight has hit severe turbulence

15:03

over Turkey, injuring 12

15:05

people. The Boeing 787 landed safely

15:08

as scheduled in Dublin, but last

15:10

week a Singapore airline's flight made

15:12

an emergency landing in Bangkok after

15:15

severe turbulence killed one passenger and

15:17

injured dozens of others. What

15:19

is that about and should I be worried about

15:22

being on a plane these days that is actually

15:24

going to have a pretty significant amount of turbulence

15:26

on it? We are absolutely

15:28

seeing more turbulence. I've talked to experts who

15:30

say turbulence is on the rise thanks to

15:32

climate change. I spoke with

15:35

a flight attendant who recently resigned. She

15:37

actually left the industry partially because of

15:39

injuries from severe turbulence. So

15:41

a lot of airline flight attendants deal with this

15:43

all the time. I will

15:45

say there is no safer way

15:47

to travel than to fly. Flying is

15:49

incredibly safe and there are so many

15:52

flights that go off without a hitch

15:54

every day, every hour, but

15:56

we are seeing more cases of severe turbulence.

15:58

So that means for travel. you're really going

16:00

to want to stay in your seat with

16:02

the seat belt buckled if you're not getting

16:04

up and going to the lavatory. You're really

16:06

trying to pay attention to what flight attendants

16:08

are saying or pilots are saying on the

16:11

overhead announcements. And... I

16:13

just, I love it when

16:15

they announce on the plane like, hey, we're

16:17

stopping beverage service because we're worried about turbulence,

16:19

and like, we'll let you know when we're

16:21

back. And like, immediately three people get up

16:24

to go to the bathroom in that moment.

16:26

And it's just like, okay, if you want

16:28

to be thrown around the inside of this

16:30

plane when you were explicitly worried

16:33

about this, like, go right ahead, sure. People

16:35

are wacky and without a doubt, somebody will

16:37

always do that. Or you'll see somebody running

16:39

back from the lavatory being like, oh no.

16:42

So just pay attention and they

16:46

are serious when they say that. But when we

16:48

do see some of those more severe accidents that

16:51

happen, it's because people don't have their seat belts

16:53

buckled or their older individuals with health issues. So

16:56

it's not something that I think everybody needs

16:58

to be getting on a plane and

17:00

being really stressed about, but turbulence will

17:02

happen. So it is important to fasten

17:04

your seat belt. After

17:11

the break, I continue my conversation with

17:13

Natalie. And we'll talk about

17:16

accommodations, hotels versus Airbnb's, and how you

17:18

can make sure to get the most

17:20

out of your stay. We'll

17:22

be right back. When

17:34

you visit a state as big and diverse

17:37

as Texas, there, are a million different trips you can take.

17:39

let's say, you've got an appetite for white

17:41

water kayaking. You can get your own. own.

17:43

So this is why they call it

17:45

Delos River! Trip to Texas. Or

17:47

maybe you have a natural appetite.

17:50

I'll take a pint of of brisket, six

17:52

ribs, three Links of sausage, and

17:54

a piece of of pecan, pie, Trip to Texas.

17:57

to Go to traveltexas.com slash get your own

17:59

for the only trip to to Texas that matters. Yours.

18:05

Travel is great, but planning for travel

18:07

can be time consuming and difficult. That's

18:09

where One Travel comes in. With One

18:11

Travel, you'll find everything you need to

18:13

book the perfect trip. Flights, hotels, cars,

18:15

transportation, it's all right there. With One

18:17

Travel, you can book online via app

18:19

or even pick up the phone and

18:21

talk to a travel advisor ready to

18:24

help you make your selections. Visit one

18:26

travel.com/music or call 855-437-2154. Plan

18:31

it, book it, live it. One Travel.

18:39

So, Natalie, now I want to

18:41

talk for a bit about the other

18:44

part of travel, the other irritating part

18:46

of travel, which can often be

18:49

where you're staying and some issues that

18:51

come up with your lodging. I know

18:53

a lot of people have a lot

18:55

of personal preferences about what kinds of

18:57

places they stay at and

18:59

kinds of places that they enjoy.

19:03

I have done a lot of Airbnbs

19:05

in my time and I will say

19:07

that I'm steering more and more away

19:11

from Airbnb life. But

19:13

tell me a little bit about what you've

19:15

been reporting on recently when it comes to

19:18

Airbnbs and hotels and some of the issues

19:20

that are coming up for people and your

19:22

advice for folks who are thinking about lodging. I

19:25

got back from my honeymoon about a month

19:27

ago. Where'd you go? Went to Paris, if

19:30

you ever heard about it. Little

19:32

known, small town. Just off the beaten path, little

19:34

spot. And

19:37

I booked, I wouldn't call

19:39

it a full dud, but there were

19:41

problems with this Airbnb that I had

19:43

not anticipated. And

19:45

that inspired the story on Airbnb red

19:47

flags that I've made mistakes booking over

19:50

my decade of travel writing. And

19:53

there are so many things that can go wrong if

19:56

you do not figuratively read the

19:58

fine print when you're booking an Airbnb. But

20:00

can you explain all this from the context of

20:02

the Airbnb? What went wrong for

20:04

you and what were the mistakes that you made

20:06

along the way? There were some mistakes and they

20:08

were my fault. So

20:12

first it was up

20:15

six flights of stairs, no elevator. I

20:18

must have read that but I was so excited

20:21

by this quintessential Parisian balcony in

20:23

the photos. It was a great

20:26

deal and so I was like,

20:28

that sounds like a lot of stairs. I didn't fully

20:30

sit down and think about what would that mean every

20:32

single day when you're going in and out of this

20:34

apartment? With luggage. Luggage with your

20:37

baguette after a long day

20:39

of wine and cheesing. But the real issue

20:41

was even though people in the

20:43

reviews had mentioned that this was in

20:45

a really busy quote unquote working class neighborhood

20:47

where life was happening, nobody

20:49

mentioned that there was an open-air

20:52

meat market downstairs from

20:54

the apartment and

20:56

lots of open-air fish markets. And

20:58

so lots of flies would come

21:00

up to my picturesque Parisian

21:03

balcony making it almost unusable for half of

21:05

the day. So I would

21:07

say that if you are looking

21:09

at Airbnb reviews, keep

21:11

that in mind. What are people saying

21:13

about the neighborhood? I had another issue

21:15

in Beirut, Lebanon, a nightlife capital. People

21:19

had mentioned there were bars in the neighborhood.

21:21

They did not mention that there was a

21:23

raging bar downstairs of this apartment and that

21:25

meant bone vibrating

21:28

music four in the morning

21:30

being like, oh, I have made a big

21:32

mistake. You're like shaking

21:34

your hands on those. There's only so much

21:36

that earplugs can do, but

21:38

one that happened twice in my Airbnb

21:40

career and once even in a hotel

21:43

that got me, if you

21:45

do not see a picture of a window in

21:48

the listing, that means there is no window

21:50

in your room. And I think, oh, that

21:52

sounds like a basic human need. One must

21:54

have access to light. No,

21:57

a place can fully not have a window. If

22:00

they're not showing you a window, that means there's

22:02

no window. And you wouldn't think to look for

22:04

that in photos, right? No. Let's just double check

22:07

that among these photos that there is, in fact,

22:09

a window or something else basic that you would

22:11

assume would be there. The same goes for beds.

22:13

I have booked a place that I didn't even

22:15

think to be like, there's a bed, right? And

22:18

there wasn't a bed. I just got there and it was

22:20

just a couch. And I realized, oh, I didn't see

22:23

a picture of a bed. If you don't see a picture of a

22:25

thing, it is not there. I

22:28

think that speaks to why I've come to

22:30

this point of being more interested

22:32

in hotels than in Airbnbs. And I think part

22:35

of that is the cost stuff, too. Because

22:38

when you book on Airbnb or

22:40

many of these other VRBO or

22:43

some of the other websites of places

22:45

that you're booking from a person who

22:47

takes care of this place, that

22:50

there's a price that's quoted initially. And

22:52

then there's the price at the end,

22:54

as you said, not dissimilar from airlines,

22:57

where there are these fees that

22:59

are tacked on and this and

23:01

that and the cleaning and the

23:03

texts and all these things that

23:05

ultimately make it twice as expensive

23:07

as it otherwise would be. Oftentimes

23:09

more expensive than a hotel room.

23:11

But also, there's the question

23:14

of just knowing

23:16

that basic stuff is going to be there in a certain

23:18

way. And I feel like with hotels,

23:21

they've gotten a bad rap of late, but that I've been

23:23

finding more and more that you go

23:25

to a hotel, you know you're getting in bed. You know

23:27

there's going to be a person who's at a desk at

23:30

any time of day or night who's going

23:32

to be able to answer a question or

23:34

if you have an issue who's at least

23:36

going to nominally be able to address it

23:39

and that that's important. Yes and

23:41

no. I feel

23:43

like hotels after the pandemic

23:45

also dealt with a lot of issues. They

23:47

had trouble staffing. They had trouble coming back

23:49

and having the same housekeeping standards that they

23:51

had in the past because they had to

23:54

let go of staff. And

23:56

then they stopped wanting to house clean it

23:58

up. There were a lot of programs.

24:00

that hotels had where it's like, we're only gonna come

24:02

in, if you tell us to come in, if you're

24:04

here for five days, we might just show up once

24:07

and otherwise, unless you really, really want us to show

24:09

up. Or I think in some cases giving rewards for

24:11

people who didn't want their room cleaned. It

24:13

was a weird time. So everything changed, right.

24:15

And even now some places haven't really returned

24:17

to that level of service that a lot

24:20

of people expect in a hotel and they're

24:22

wondering, why don't I have new towels? Why

24:24

don't I have my bed made? And so

24:26

there can be some disappointment when people are

24:28

booking hotels. There might be fewer

24:30

people at that front desk because there's now

24:32

more contactless check-in or different

24:34

things that have been used

24:36

to cut costs that make people feel more frustrated

24:39

with hotels. But like

24:41

you said, often it is more reliable

24:46

than an Airbnb that, you know, if you book a

24:48

new Airbnb that has no reviews, you have no idea

24:50

what you're getting into. One

24:52

word of warning for hotels is a lot of

24:54

people don't realize that just because something says it's

24:56

a Hilton or a Marriott, they

24:58

aren't necessarily owned and operated by Hilton or Marriott.

25:01

It's a franchise. Oh, interesting. And so what you

25:03

were expecting, because you went to one in

25:05

one city, might not be the same as in

25:07

another city. So even if you

25:09

are booking a hotel because you think this

25:11

is gonna be more reliable, it's still important

25:13

to read those reviews and look not only

25:15

at the photos on the hotel website, but

25:17

review sites like Google Maps Reviews or, you

25:20

know, some people use TripAdvisor, looking at those

25:22

user-generated photos to see, is this what I'm

25:24

expecting when I'm paying this hotel rate? That's

25:26

a really good point. I

25:29

also wanted to talk about one

25:31

other question on lodging that you've been

25:34

reporting on recently about

25:36

security cameras and the

25:38

fact that in some Airbnbs, we've

25:41

been seeing Airbnb owners or managers

25:43

like putting in cameras secretly where

25:45

people are staying and not just

25:48

like outward facing cameras, but inward

25:50

facing cameras. Talk about that

25:52

and why that's become a point

25:54

of concern. Unfortunately, we've seen this

25:56

hidden camera phenomenon in a number of destinations.

26:00

from Airbnb's to there was a

26:02

big case with an American Airlines

26:04

flight attendant who put up allegedly

26:06

a camera in the bathroom. The

26:08

former American Airlines flight attendant is

26:10

accused of secretly recording or attempting

26:12

to record a 14 year old

26:14

female passenger using the bathroom on

26:16

a plane he was working on.

26:18

The FBI says he's also alleged

26:20

to have recordings of four more

26:22

young female passengers using bathrooms on

26:24

the planes he worked on previously.

26:27

There are restaurants that have hidden cameras

26:29

discovered by patrons. So this is a

26:31

growing issue that is not just impacting

26:34

vacation rentals or hotels but we do

26:36

see this come up. Airbnb used to

26:38

allow cameras outside and in certain parts

26:40

of the house when a host

26:43

said that they were there but the problem

26:45

got so bad that they banned indoor cameras

26:47

in March. You can kind of empathize with

26:49

some of the vacation rental

26:51

owners who say I don't

26:54

trust that you know I keep having people say

26:56

I'm only going to be two people and they

26:58

bring ten people to stay at their their lodging

27:00

or I said no dogs you brought your dog

27:03

now I have proof. But we also

27:05

see a lot of bad actors and by a lot

27:07

I mean not anything a lot

27:09

compared to the number of bookings that

27:11

happen every day but we are seeing

27:13

cases of travelers catching that there is

27:15

a camera in the bathroom or there's

27:17

a camera in the bedroom. And

27:19

when this happens you should definitely call the and

27:22

report it to them. We see these cases

27:24

go to court and people held

27:26

accountable for it but it's a

27:28

very scary thing that people are

27:31

noticing you know this is happening just

27:33

the smallest smallest fraction of a time

27:35

but it is something to watch out

27:37

for if you see an obvious blinking

27:39

light in your room. Yeah what are

27:41

the signs for like knowing how to

27:43

identify something that's supposed to be this

27:45

hidden camera? If you're seeing anything

27:48

look out of the ordinary with

27:50

the way that an alarm clock

27:52

is pointed or a

27:54

fire alarm that seems to have

27:56

a weird blinking light. People have found

27:58

cameras in such devices.

28:02

There are a lot of more high tech

28:04

ways that people are saying that you can

28:06

look for cameras. They're not all foolproof.

28:08

For example, you can look on the Wi-Fi and

28:11

see which connected devices there are. Does anything

28:14

seem out of place? You know, are they

28:16

dumb enough to say camera to bedroom? Like

28:18

maybe not. But if you are

28:20

tech savvy, you might be able to do some of

28:22

these more high tech ways of

28:24

looking for cameras. We have people who say you got

28:26

to turn off the light and look for other flashing

28:29

lights that you might not have noticed. Some

28:31

people promise that apps might be able to help

28:33

you find them. But really, most

28:35

security experts are like, do a sweep. If

28:38

you see anything looks weird, anything weird pointing at

28:40

the bed, anything weird in your bathroom, check

28:42

it out. So those were all

28:45

helpful warnings. So we leave things

28:47

off on a more optimistic tone. What

28:49

are you most looking forward to when it

28:51

comes to your summer travels

28:54

and how can other people think

28:56

about making sure that they

28:58

experience joy during the sometimes

29:01

stressful but still fun travel

29:03

experience? I will

29:06

say that I am so excited for these

29:09

trips that are coming after my honeymoon. Like I

29:11

just said, I had this trip that felt like

29:13

there was some kind of pressure of this is

29:15

a very special trip that you're supposed

29:17

to have such an amazing time after your wedding. And there's

29:19

so much joy to be had

29:21

and things are wrong. The feed market, fish

29:24

smell on the fly. There are

29:26

pork hooves right on my way into my door.

29:28

And I am excited about these

29:31

trips that aren't the best

29:33

trip of my life coming up. I think

29:35

something that we miss in our summer vacation

29:37

plans and any of our travel plans, we

29:39

have these high expectations. We have to make

29:41

it Instagram worthy. We have to make it

29:43

worth this vacation time we're

29:45

taking and really vacation is such a

29:47

blessing of let's just relax, get

29:49

away from work, go to another beautiful place.

29:52

I'm going to go to my family's cabin

29:54

that my great grandpa built.

29:56

It's nothing fancy, but it's just so

29:58

nice to go and unwind. and anything

30:01

that you can do to take time and be

30:03

with family. Like, it sounds very cheesy, but I'm

30:05

just excited to have the bliss of not working

30:07

and being in a beautiful place. And

30:09

I think connected with that is

30:11

thinking about your phone and not

30:13

being on your phone sometimes. I

30:16

went to Turkey at the beginning of this year,

30:18

which was so cool. And

30:21

for a full 48 hours, I just turned my

30:23

phone completely off and I let people in my

30:25

life know, like, where I was staying and if

30:27

they needed to contact me. Like, there was a

30:29

person at a desk who could come to my

30:31

room and give me a message. But

30:33

I think, like, using travel as an opportunity

30:35

to really think about what it means to

30:37

truly unplug and just not spend your time

30:40

in this expensive other country, being

30:42

on Instagram, looking at other people's travels

30:45

is the way to go. A million percent. And I

30:47

think that goes back to having this pressure of you

30:50

have to have a perfect vacation. You have to go

30:52

to the best places that were recommended.

30:54

You have to still be tethered to your phone

30:56

looking for the right thing to

30:58

do. If you can really just unwind, talk

31:00

to local people wherever you are and get

31:03

a restaurant recommendation instead, that is going to

31:05

be its own adventure and nice thing. So

31:07

yeah, put the phone away. That's a great

31:09

tip. Natalie,

31:13

thank you so much for all of this. Thank

31:18

you. Natalie Compton

31:20

is a travel reporter for The Post.

31:26

And one other bit of relevant travel

31:29

news. If you were thinking

31:31

about going to Barcelona in the coming weeks,

31:34

you might want to reconsider. This

31:40

past weekend, almost 3,000 people

31:43

flooded the streets in Barcelona

31:45

to protest over tourism. These

31:52

protesters say that tourism has inflated

31:54

the cost of living in Barcelona

31:56

and that revenue from visitors hasn't

31:58

been fairly distributed. across the city.

32:01

They carried signs reading, tourists

32:03

go home. And

32:05

some carried squirt guns, spraying

32:07

water at people who looked

32:09

like tourists. The

32:11

organizers who led the protests also

32:14

published a manifesto. They're demanding restrictions

32:16

on tourist accommodations, fewer

32:18

cruise terminals in Barcelona's port, and

32:21

an end to using public money

32:23

to fund tourism advertisements. On

32:28

another more somber note, I've also been

32:30

following some recent news coming out of

32:32

Russia. On Tuesday, a

32:35

Russian court ordered the arrest of

32:37

Yulia Navalnya. She's the

32:39

widow of the late opposition leader, Alexei

32:41

Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison

32:43

in February. This is Navalnya

32:46

back in February, after

32:57

her husband's death, accusing Russian

32:59

President Vladimir Putin of murdering him,

33:02

which the Russian government denies. Now,

33:05

a Russian court has accused

33:07

Navalnya of participating in an

33:09

extremist group referring to

33:12

her husband's political on anti-corruption

33:14

organization. It's unlikely that

33:16

she'd be arrested, since she no longer lives

33:18

in Russia and hasn't returned to the country

33:20

since her husband died. But

33:22

this arrest order demonstrates the

33:25

Kremlin's continuing focus on Navalny,

33:28

who remains Putin's nemesis and

33:30

most formidable opponent even

33:32

months after his death. That's

33:36

it for Post Reports. Thanks so much

33:38

for listening. If you're looking for

33:40

the latest updates on the big news of the

33:42

day, check out our morning news briefing, The 7.

33:46

We bring you through the seven stories that you

33:48

need to know about every weekday morning by 7

33:50

a.m. You can listen

33:52

to it wherever you listen to podcasts. Today's

33:55

episode was produced by Sabby Robinson

33:57

and edited by Ariel Platnik. It

34:00

was mixed by Sean Carter. Thank you also

34:02

to Gabe Hyatt. I'm Martine

34:04

Powers. We'll be back tomorrow

34:06

with more stories from the Washington Post. ["The

34:10

Washington Post." ["The Washington Post."

34:18

So the King's new lemonade lineup

34:20

is here. Name and a lemonade

34:22

The Smoothie King Way try strawberry.

34:25

Guava Lemonade ask refresher over

34:27

ice a power up in

34:29

it can energize, or a

34:31

blueberry lemonade smoothie lead it

34:33

up being. Made

34:36

with real fruit. Real juice for

34:38

a real sipping good summer. Yeah

34:40

yeah, Data is no Smoothie Kings

34:42

New lemonade lineup of for a

34:45

limited time. Who. Stars Day.

34:47

thirsty?