Latest / The Red Solo Traveler Podcast / How Elites and "The Odyssey" Are Shaping Travel

Transcript

How Elites and "The Odyssey" Are Shaping Travel · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Red Solo Traveler podcast. This episode
0:10
is set for Wednesday, August twelfth, twenty twenty six. I'm
0:14
your host, Lewis. Welcome to the show, and I am
0:17
the author of Redsolo Traveler dot com. I author all
0:20
the articles, I do all the work, all the behind
0:23
the scenes stuff, and I do this very podcast, so
0:27
that's what I sound like. So welcome and thank you
0:29
for listening. Thank you for subscribing as well. If you
0:32
haven't already done so, please go to the Red Soolo
0:34
Traveler dot com and you can click on the podcast
0:39
and there's a link to the podcast. If you want
0:40
to just listen to the show, you can do that,
0:42
or just go on your regular podcast app, whether it's
0:44
Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Wherever you hit your podcast, hit that
0:48
subscribe button. You get your next edition delivered to your
0:52
podcast app. And if you're so inclined, also go to
0:55
Redsolo Traveler dot com and get the newsletter and that
0:59
is at at Solo Traveler dot com. R E D
1:02
S O L O t R A V E L
1:05
E R dot com. And yeah, just subscribe there you'll
1:10
get all the you'll get the latest addition delivered to
1:13
your inbox. We're kind of in a Hall of Fame
1:16
run right now, so a lot of Hall of Fame
1:18
stuff is what I'm doing, at least for the for
1:21
the summer anyway. For so all my new editions have
1:23
been Hall of Fame related. So I at the Baseball
1:25
Hall of Fame up, did the National Racing Hall of Fame. Recently,
1:29
just did an article up on the Rock and Roll
1:31
Hall of Fame, which is really awesome and as polarizing
1:35
as as the debates are on the Rock and Roll
1:37
Hall of Fame, it's really cool place. So that's the
1:40
most recent edition. Check that out. There also some cool
1:43
video of some some of the guests you know, doing
1:47
a version of carpool karaoke. It's pretty cool. So there's
1:50
that that articles up there as well. I've got other
1:53
other articles coming on some other hall of fames, So
1:56
check it out. Read Solo Traveler dot com and just
1:58
click on news letter and you'll get the newsletter the
2:02
next edition delivered to your inbox, your email, or just
2:05
on the breads or on the I'm sorry. The substack
2:07
app is where you can get the actual information, so
2:11
check it out. It's free. I don't sell your information,
2:14
and I think you'll enjoy it. It's really really, really cool.
2:18
All right. So we got a couple a couple of
2:20
articles I want to go through this week, some really
2:23
interesting stuff, and I think both of them kind of
2:25
tie together. One is related to the travel trends. And
2:30
these articles come up every i'd say every six months,
2:33
every six months, every year. You know, these publications, all
2:37
of them, whether it's La Times, Travel and Leisure, they
2:41
all like to talk about the travel trends. You know, what,
2:44
where where is everybody traveling to? And I think what
2:47
it does is it kind of it's like, hey, it's
2:51
not crowded here, so let's send the crowd here. And
2:55
I don't know why they do this, but it's still
2:58
interesting stuff and I guess it gives a topic for
3:01
this show. And also later on I'm going to talk
3:03
about the Odyssey. I'm not going to talk about the movie.
3:06
I've not seen the movie. I don't plan to see
3:08
the movie. However, it is inspiring surging travel interest at
3:12
real world locations, so I think it's pretty cool. It's
3:16
always cool when the movie has an effect like that
3:18
on people, and you don't see that anymore you just
3:22
don't see that kind of effect on pop culture anymore,
3:25
you know, where it's it's mostly sports related now, and
3:28
we just don't have those collective experiences that we once had.
3:31
You know, it's sad, and I think I would hope that,
3:36
you know, when you find something that gives that collective experience,
3:40
you just have to kind of, you know, look for
3:42
it and run with it. So let's start with the
3:44
article here in the La Times. This came out back
3:46
in July July tenth of twenty twenty six. It's by
3:49
Kevin Spencer. The article is entitled twenty twenty six travel
3:53
trends Why the world's most elite travelers are trading crowded
3:56
landmarks for unknown frontiers. So travel has never been easier
4:01
to research and execute. Between Google searches, news alerts, and
4:05
whatever algorithm has been quietly cagaloging your saved lists, travelers
4:09
now now have a constant feet of the coolest, most remote,
4:13
and most exclusive destinations and properties on the planet. For
4:17
anyone with the means and the will, almost nothing feels
4:20
off limits. The options are effectively limitless. And yet despite
4:24
all that access, the luxury travel advisors in my orbit
4:28
this is from Kevin Spencer. Are seeing some very specific
4:32
travel trends take shape so far in twenty twenty six.
4:35
Travel trends at the moment are less about generic quote
4:38
unquote bucket list destinations and more about what people want
4:42
to feel, or do or avoid once they get there.
4:46
Trips are increasingly, I'm sorry, trips are increasingly being planned
4:51
around a mood, a hobby, or a wellness goal, or
4:54
even the desire to be absolutely unreachable and off the
4:57
grid for a few days. So they're going to provide
5:01
some luxury travel trends that are tracking in twenty twenty six.
5:04
So the first one is dusking. Dusking is the latest
5:07
travel term that's both catchy and literal. It's about building
5:11
a trip or part of a trip, around dusk itself,
5:14
so basically it's like a sunset trip almost And apparently
5:19
this is what the article says. The trend is less
5:21
about chasing one's perfect sunset photo and more about intentionally
5:25
slowing down to watch and feel the day turn into night,
5:29
ideally without a phone in hand. Yeah, don't I find
5:32
that hard to believe. Recent travel coverage describes the wellness
5:35
adjacent habit rooted in presence, stillness and the appeal of cooler,
5:39
quieter evening hours, especially as heat and over tourism push
5:43
travelers away from the middle of the day. So on
5:46
this one here for Dusking, I think there's some truth
5:51
to it, you know. I mean, I think if you're
5:53
traveling to a specific destination just to get that great sunset,
5:57
chances are you're going to have your phone near you.
6:00
Really fine. I find the part of you don't want
6:02
to phone your hand to be a little you know,
6:05
I don't really find that to be true. I think
6:09
if you, you know, especially if you have a great
6:11
sunset in front of you, wouldn't you want to preserve that,
6:14
preserve that image. So maybe you don't, maybe you don't
6:16
have your phone on with you, but maybe you have
6:18
a camera with you, you know, maybe you're maybe you're
6:20
one of those people that has that. You know, Hey,
6:22
I got that photography bug, and I'm going to take it,
6:24
take the most perfect picture. And I think with Dusking, yeah,
6:28
I think if you go to a certain place, you know,
6:31
especially a mountain retreat, maybe you know, maybe you go
6:34
to you maybe go to the mountains, maybe you go
6:35
to the desert. You know there is some element to
6:40
that where you want a place where you you can
6:42
get a great sunset, great dusk. You know, it's that
6:47
the quiet feel of that, Okay, the night or the
6:50
day is turning into night. I'll give you an example
6:53
of something I guess I had recently where you know
6:57
you experienced this, and I went went on a trip
6:59
to Lake Placid. I have a have an article on
7:01
Lake Placid coming up in the next few months. I
7:03
am working on that right now, and it was one
7:07
of my favorite trips I've overtaken. And part of it
7:10
is because I stated a great hotel. I stayed at
7:12
the Voco Saraenac Lake, a terrific hotel right on one
7:17
of the lakes in Saraenac Lake. It's literally situated right
7:22
on the lake and it's a terrific hotel. I do
7:26
recommend that. But again, I will have the article up
7:29
in the next few months, So subscribe to newsletter you'll
7:32
get it in your inbox. Shameless plug. But anyway, what
7:38
was great about this hotel was that all the rooms
7:41
face the lake. But whether you go up, and I
7:45
think I think going up in early summer is the
7:47
best time to go because all the trees are fully bloomed.
7:51
You know, you've got that great look of you know,
7:53
you still have a good amount of daylight, but it's
7:56
not like a full, full blown fifteen hour day. Yet
8:00
You're you're getting there, but you're not there yet. I
8:02
went in early June and the you know, the trees
8:06
are fully bloomed, but the weather was still relatively cool.
8:10
It was nice out and for the most part, I
8:14
had such a beautiful I mean I had a room
8:17
that was on on the top level, was facing the lake,
8:20
and I mean I just had this beautiful sunset in
8:24
the evening. Now with Dusking, here's the problem. The weather's
8:29
got to be good. Weather has to cooperate. You know,
8:31
you're not always going to have sunny days. So they
8:34
were saying in this article that coastal clips, desert, landscapes,
8:38
city rooftops, you know you want stunning views and good light.
8:42
Well again, weather is going to play a role. So
8:45
if you're going to do Dusking, if you're going to
8:48
do a trip based on Dusking, got to pay attention
8:50
to the leather. So that's number one. But the just
8:54
finished my thought on the on the Sarahic Lake just
8:58
just a beautiful area. Lake Placids, Sarah Lake, just a
9:00
beautiful area if you want to see a great sunset.
9:04
I highly recommend it. Anyway, Moving on number two was
9:08
jets I'm sorry. Number two was set jetting. I really
9:11
twisted that one. Set jetting is travel inspired by the
9:16
locations where big name movies and TV shows were filmed.
9:19
That's interesting. It's a style of travel that's not necessarily new.
9:23
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are two that
9:25
have brought tourists to Tunisia and New England I'm sorry,
9:28
New Zealand for decades, but it has evolved well beyond
9:31
fans simply taking a photo where the scene was filmed.
9:35
Expedia says the trend continues to shape demand, with accommodation
9:38
searches rising around specific releases and projected multi billion dollar
9:42
impact on the US alone. This might be something we'll
9:45
talk about with the with the Odyssey article that I
9:48
have coming up. What makes it hot now is travelers
9:52
are not just visiting a specific filming location, whe they're
9:55
trying to step in the mood of the show or
9:57
film as part of the extended trip. So it could
10:00
be a hotel, could be a landscape could be a
10:02
rural village with cinematic charm. So there's all kinds of
10:06
reasons to go to this specific place, you know. I mean,
10:10
how many times do you see in a movie a town,
10:14
a just a idyllic town is captured, you know, go
10:18
back to it's a wonderful life, you know. I mean,
10:20
it's a classic Christmas movie, the movie we all watch
10:23
watch a Christmas time, you know, Bedford Falls. I mean,
10:27
at least the town that you know that the Jimmy
10:31
Stewart character finds himself in at the end. You know,
10:33
it's not perfect, it has its problems, but it's this
10:37
idyllic town. You know, Americana, you know, New England has
10:42
these wonderful towns all over the place where like it's
10:47
like a Norman Rockwell painting, you know. I mean I
10:49
went to the Norman Rockwell Museum and they have these
10:52
They have one painting of a town that I think
10:55
it's is Southbridge, Massachusetts, where it's Christmas. It's picture of
11:00
Christmas in that town. It's just what you would think
11:02
of with all these shops and main street and you know,
11:06
cars parked in parallel parking spots and you know all
11:10
this stuff, and sometimes that's what people want. And then
11:14
there's other things where it's like, oh I saw this
11:17
in this movie and movie inspired terrorism. I think it's
11:21
I think it's a bigger deal than most people realize,
11:23
so very interesting stuff they are set jetting. Number three
11:27
was dark Sky Travel, and a Dark Sky travel sits
11:30
at the intersection of nature, wellness, and a growing desire
11:33
to escape overstimulating destinations. Booking dot COM's travel predictions identified
11:39
nocturism as a rising force, with more than sixty percent
11:42
of survey travelers saying they would be considering destinations with
11:46
limited light pollution. Dark Dark Sky International now lists more
11:50
than two hundred certified dark sky places globally for this
11:53
type of travel. It's partially about stargazing, but it's also
11:57
about cooler evenings, slow itineraries, and the peel of places
12:00
where darkness itself is the true prices luxury. I would argue,
12:06
look at camping is really is one of those things
12:10
that I think is coming back into style and not
12:12
just camping lamping. You know, look, I'm I'll be honest
12:16
with you. I am not a camper. I did grow
12:18
up as a boy scout, but we had. You know,
12:21
we had air conditioning wherever we could. You know, we're
12:24
all city boys, can I tell you. But you know,
12:29
I was talking. I was actually chatting about this with
12:31
somebody over the weekend. I said, you know, glamping is
12:34
my thing. If I were to do camping, I want
12:37
it to be I'm cool with it being in the
12:39
middle of the woods, that's fine with me. But I
12:41
want it to be in a air conditioning. I want
12:45
air conditioning, and I or I want at least a
12:48
fan running in there. I mean, if it's if it's
12:50
the fall, Okay, I don't need air conditioning, but I
12:54
want at least have that option. And I don't want
12:57
bugs in my area. And I'm most of the most
12:59
of all I don't want. I don't want the bears
13:01
or wolves or mountain lions in my tent either. So
13:05
if you got a tent where can close and keep
13:07
all that stuff out, that's fine. Nature should be outside.
13:10
I'm good to nature being outside. So those are those
13:13
little things there, and a lot of hotel chains, you know,
13:16
Hyatt Marriott. They've been buying these lamping companies left and right,
13:22
and and again. That's a lot of people, a lot
13:25
of wealthy people elites in this article mentions it are
13:28
going to those places. They they want to escape that
13:32
city life, and they want to escape that life in
13:34
the city where everything's right in front of them, you know.
13:36
And I don't think it's a bad thing, you know.
13:38
I mean, people laugh at that, but I actually think
13:41
it's pretty cool. You know. I'll throw in I'll throw
13:44
in something out there too to add to this. You know,
13:47
one of the things I've always wanted to do was
13:48
go to Alaska. And I've always wanted to And I
13:50
know this is a little different than dark sky travel,
13:53
but I've always wanted to visit Fairbanks, Alaska, the Midnight
13:57
Sun Festival. I know it's different than dark travel, but
14:01
I think it'd be pretty cool to see, you know,
14:03
sunlight at midnight. I don't know, just one of those
14:05
things I would love to do someday. Dead zoning is
14:10
number four. Dead zoning is the harder edged cousin of
14:13
the digital detox price lines twenty twenty six. Trend reports
14:17
that using the term for trips built around being genuinely unreachable,
14:21
so off the grid, often in remote destinations where weak
14:25
signal is part of the appeal not an inconvenience. The
14:27
idea is not just to use your phone less. It's
14:32
to choose a place that makes work, calls, notifications, and
14:34
compulsive compulsive checking of apps feel impossible or at least
14:38
deeply inconvenient, so dead zoning, you know. Look again, camping
14:45
kind of plays a role in that a lot of
14:47
camp sites are pretty far away from cell phone towers
14:50
and by design, you know, I mean, and the cell
14:53
phone towers just don't reach those areas. I mean, there
14:57
are wide swaths of America, whether it's upstate New York,
15:00
whether it's the Rocky Mountains, and just good portions of
15:05
the country where you can't get a cell signal. And
15:08
in fact, the only way you can get a cell
15:11
signal is if you have satellite you know, some kind
15:13
of satellite reach. You know. Again, go back to my
15:16
example of Lake Placid. I was driving through Lake Placid,
15:20
and I saw so many people with satellites in their
15:23
yards because there's no cable TV. They still don't have
15:27
cable TV in twenty twenty five or twenty twenty six.
15:30
I mean, they still don't have it up there. I
15:32
mean in some parts and understandable, you know, I mean
15:35
it's just you're in You're kind of in a remote area.
15:38
So these people have satellite TV, you know where they
15:41
you know, they barely have internet or they have what
15:45
do you call it starlink for satellite They have satellite
15:48
internet Internet. I mean that's the only way for them
15:51
to get internet. I mean my cell phone. I can't
15:54
tell you the number of times I lost service when
15:56
I was up there, and I loved it. I thought
15:58
it was cool. I didn't want to be that way for
16:01
a couple of days. I was on my own, I
16:02
was driving on my own, so I didn't want to
16:05
I didn't want that to be that way for a
16:07
long period of time. I would like to be able
16:09
to reach my friends and family and still be able
16:13
to talk to them and everything well a while I'm
16:14
on my trip. But I get people like this who say, hey,
16:18
I want a dead zone. I don't want to do
16:20
any of this at all. And then there's wellness travel
16:24
that's number five in the list. Here. Wellness travel is
16:27
no longer limited to yoga retreats and green juices on
16:29
hotel menus, although green juices are pretty good, but they
16:33
are pointing to this. Booking dot COM's twenty twenty six
16:36
predictions pointing to rising interest in longevity focused trips, including
16:41
experiences centered on physical and mental well being. While McKenzie's
16:45
Wellness survey found younger generations are especially likely to travel
16:48
for wellness retreats, what's changed in recent years is the
16:52
sheer breadth of the category. It can mean a sleep
16:55
focus resort, a spat on hiking reset, a women's or
16:58
men's mental health retreat, thermal bathing, meditation, or simply a
17:02
trip chosen because it supports how someone wants to feel
17:05
when they come home. Yeah, you know, I've you know,
17:10
a long time ago. It was part of a travel
17:14
blocker group and we would kind of comment on each
17:16
other's articles because it helped with Google algorithm and whatnot.
17:20
I didn't really know this it myself, but that's just me.
17:24
But there was one article and I forget who wrote
17:27
it and I and if they're listening, I do apologize
17:30
if if I don't remember you. But there was one
17:33
article and it was about this remote retreat and I
17:38
don't know if it was in Europe or if it's
17:40
in the US. And I'm sure there's a million of
17:42
these kind of places, so I'm probably not singling out
17:45
anybody here, but the it was it really struck me
17:49
because it was like this place where it was you
17:52
really just go to literally to retreat, like you're there
17:57
to just walk around the grounds and you know, maybe
18:01
bathe in the pool or go to the spa or
18:04
go to the sauna, and everything's included in the price.
18:06
You know, it's all included in the price. I mean,
18:09
and I mean I don't think it's a bad thing.
18:11
Now again, these are all very similar. These all tie
18:15
in together in a way, like the Dead zoning, the
18:18
Wellness travel, the Dark Sky retreat, all these things are
18:22
all tied into and I think elites are they're just
18:27
they just pave the way for everybody else half the time,
18:29
I mean, and in some cases they like having things themselves.
18:34
You know. I'm not an elite myself, but I think
18:37
in some ways they kind of pave the way for
18:39
everyone else to do the same thing, but in a
18:41
different way. You know. I mean, am I gonna go
18:43
in a Willnes Street retreat? Probably not. But I also
18:46
don't think it's a bad thing for uh, for these
18:48
experiences to exist for people, especially if you're in a
18:51
very busy city. Very busy life, you know, I mean,
18:55
having that option is is pretty good. And finally, purpose
18:58
driven travel to be the broadest trend in the list,
19:01
but it's also the most popular across age groups and
19:03
traveler demographics. More travelers are starting their plan with the
19:07
experience they want, seeing the Northern Lights, taking a cooking course,
19:10
soaking in thermal waters, a multi day cycling trip, attending
19:14
a festival, and then and then only then asking where
19:18
the experience can best be had. A trend describes and
19:21
move towards more individual, passion led trips, with a growing
19:24
focus on meeting and purpose and travel. In short, the
19:26
destination is no longer the headline. Often it just happens
19:29
to be the setting for a very specific desire. And
19:34
I think that's true. I think that's I think it's
19:37
always been true with travel. You know, I'll be honest
19:40
with you. You know, when I travel a certain place, I
19:43
go because they have something that I can't get at home.
19:46
So whether it's a presidential library, whether it's mansions, whether
19:50
it's a certain museum, whether it's you know, sports team,
19:56
you know, whatever, it might be a food experience, you know,
19:59
I mean, I love the idea of taking a cooking course,
20:03
you know, I mean I love that idea. I think
20:04
it's really cool, like learning how to you know, maybe
20:08
you learn from like this, you know, French chef or
20:10
something like that. You're in Europe and year you're in France,
20:13
I mean, you know, whatever it might be. Or you're
20:15
in Belgium and you want to learn how to make chocolates,
20:17
like that is the coolest thing. I think it's awesome. Hell,
20:22
maybe you're in like another area you want to make beer,
20:25
you know, or distilled spirits, I mean something. I mean,
20:28
you know, I don't think that's I think it's awesome things.
20:31
That's an interactive experience and it's something that you never forget,
20:35
you know. I think there's this idea with travel where
20:39
everyone wants to get away from the I think a
20:41
lot of people want to get away from the Instagram moment, right.
20:44
We see this all the time in our Instagram feeds.
20:47
You know, it's all these people with oh hey, look
20:49
at me. I'm traveling at this place, and I'm seeing
20:52
less and less of that because I think people are
20:54
realizing that they're not remembering anything they're doing. You know,
20:58
you're just going there to get the shot for social media.
21:02
That's not gonna work and you're not gonna remember it.
21:05
And in fact, when you look at your social media feed,
21:07
I guarantee you you surge right past that because you
21:10
have no memory of it, or if you look at it,
21:13
you're saying, I can't connect to this at all. And
21:16
I think that's why I say, with slow travel and
21:18
all these things, slow down your experience. You know you're
21:23
there to savor the time. You've got four, four or
21:25
five days. Don't jam back so much crap in those
21:28
four or five days. Do two two, I would say,
21:31
do an experience, if not two per day tops, because
21:35
you're not gonna remember anything past that. I mean, I
21:38
remember going to Chicago, I'm gonna say, back in twenty eighteen,
21:42
I can't remember. I can't remember even a third of
21:45
what I did there. And I look at pictures and
21:47
I'm like, kind of remember being here. That's because I
21:50
jam packed so much stuff in one day, and I
21:54
swore to myself at that after that trip, I said,
21:56
I'm never doing that again. I am never jam packing
21:59
all this stuff and one day ever again, because I
22:01
didn't remember any even so, speaking of being inspired by travel,
22:07
the movie the Odyssey has inspired surging travel interest in
22:12
real world locations behind the blockbuster this According to Fox News,
22:16
this blockbuster film includes real world scenes in Greece, Italy,
22:19
Scotland and more. I have not seen the movie. I'm
22:23
just gonna be honest. I have not seen the movie,
22:24
so I can't comment on whether the movie, you know,
22:27
has these scenes or not. I just know that it's
22:32
a massive phenomenon. It's doing amazingly well. The box office
22:35
is just incredible holds, especially against Spider Man. You know,
22:39
you got Spider Man Brand New Day and the honesty
22:41
basically literally controlling the North American box office right now.
22:46
It's crazy. I mean, I go to a movie theater
22:48
right now. I went to a movie theater to see
22:49
Spider Man Brand New Day last week, and I talked
22:51
about it on last show. And I go to the
22:55
movie theater, and I mean the movie theater that I
22:58
live near is has a huge parking lot. It's almost
23:01
it's literally like half full all the time. And I
23:03
went early in the day. I went like on a Sunday,
23:05
and I went like at noon, you know, and packed
23:09
completely packed, I mean, and then you kind of realize, oh,
23:13
that's why they haven't built anything else on this a
23:15
lot and they could probably subdivide it. But now, I mean,
23:19
it's just it's it's amazing, and it's just those two
23:21
movies are are really kind of fueling the movie theater
23:24
going experience right now. And you know, maybe Rising Tide
23:28
lips all boats of some of the other movies that
23:29
are playing, but studios aren't taking advantage, which is really
23:32
dumb on their part. But anyway, this is how again,
23:35
this is how I weave pop culture into a travel
23:38
talk show because hey, listen, we all have different interests.
23:42
So anyway, let's get into the article here with Fox News.
23:46
This isn't again. Entitled The Odyssey Inspires surging travel interest
23:50
in real road locations behind the Blockbusters by Andrew Margolis,
23:55
is published on August ninth, twenty twenty six. Christopher Nolan's
23:58
blockbuster filmed The Odyssey moviegoers on an epic journey throughout
24:02
the ancient world, with many of the scene shot and
24:04
notable locations all over the world. Filming took place at
24:09
spectacular spots in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Scotland and Iceland, continuing
24:14
Nolan's longtime preference for practical filmmaking, and then camera effects.
24:19
The film, after just four weekends, has become Nolan's highest
24:22
grossing movie ever at the global box office, with one
24:25
point one billion pulled in. According to Deadline, The Odyssey
24:28
is also the highest grossing R rated movie of twenty
24:31
twenty six, both in North America and around the world.
24:34
The locations were transformed into a variety of settings, including
24:37
ancient Troy, Audius's homeland of Ithaca, and the cave in
24:42
which the hero encounters the Cyclops. Travelers have shown a
24:46
strong interest in taking some of these locations for themselves.
24:50
Recent analysis from Nimble, a learning app, found that Google
24:53
search interest in traveling to Troy jumped three twenty three thousand,
24:58
four hundred and twenty one percent after the movie's mid
25:01
July release, while searches for flights to Troy increased nine
25:04
hundred and sixty six percent. As Travel and Leisure reported
25:08
sources about whether real source I'm sorry, searches about whether
25:13
Troy is a real place or not also searched the
25:15
same source noted suggesting that many viewers left the theater
25:20
wondering whether Homer's legendary city is somewhere they can actually visit,
25:23
according to Travel and Leisure. So there's five locations in
25:27
the movie, and they'll point it out. They point it
25:29
out in the article. I'm gonna just gonna try to
25:31
pronounce this myself. VOI di Gill Beach, Greece. I'm sorry
25:37
if I'm mispronouncing that. It's located in Messenia, in the
25:40
southwestern Peloponnese region of Greece. The Uniquely Shaped Beach looks
25:46
like a big circle in the article. And I'll link
25:49
to the article in there say if you want to
25:51
pull it up and read for yourself, you can. Uniquely
25:54
Shaped Beach, which served as one of the film's Greek
25:56
filming locations, is about ten miles from the coastal town
25:59
of pilos Uh And I mean it looks beautiful. It's
26:03
like a it almost like a horseship shape, almost like
26:06
a circular shape, but has like a little opening to it.
26:10
It's beautiful. It has blue water, you know, just looks
26:13
really peaceful. There's Nestro's Cave in Greece. It sits right
26:17
above Void Beach. Again, I can't pronounce it. I'm sorry.
26:22
I drew my best here. The cave was used to
26:26
film scenes with Polyphemus, the cyclops who traps Odysseus and
26:31
his crew in his cave before devouring several of the men.
26:34
That sounds appealing. Vists can reach Nestro's cave on foot
26:38
via hiking trail above the beach, although the climb is
26:41
rocky and steep. Yeah it looks that way in the
26:43
picture here. There's also Faviana, Sicily, the largest of Sicily's
26:49
Igaddy islands. Favea Famignana was used to represent Ithaca in
26:56
the Odyssey. Can you tell I preread this article? I totally.
27:00
It also known as the Agadian Islands. That's so terrible
27:07
at this The Archipelagio I could pronounce that consists of
27:13
three main islands known for their crystal clear waters. It's
27:16
about a thirty minute ferry ride from Trapani on Sicily's
27:19
western coast. The water surrounding the Ygatti Islands have yielded
27:23
remarkable archaeological finds. Archaeological finds uh They announced well prawns,
27:30
well preserved bronze helmlet in near the site of one
27:35
of the battles, the Battle of the Gates, along with weapons.
27:38
So amazing stuff you can find there. There's a location
27:42
in Morocco. It's a fortified settlement I Banadu, Morocco. And
27:49
this this, this is the part where you can just
27:51
sit there and laugh at how I'm badly pronouncing these places.
27:54
So who says I who says I'm not funny? I mean,
27:57
let's let's be honest here in the Odyssey. This serves
28:01
as part of ancient Troy at the end of the
28:03
Trojan War. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and remains
28:07
open to visitors roughly thirty minutes from over us a day. Again,
28:13
my apologies if I'm butchering these names. Mara Ketch is
28:18
a propular tourist destination about one hundred and ten miles
28:20
from this location. As for the beach where the Trojan
28:23
Horse is found and brought ashore, and that took place
28:27
on the beaches of Assuria or sore Asaura, Morocco. Again,
28:34
I'm gonna just quit here while I'm the head and
28:38
find later. Castle in Scotland is where some of the
28:41
scenes were shot as well. Last summer. Overlooks Moray Firth,
28:46
a large inlet of the Northern Sea of the North Sea.
28:49
Visitors can explore the castle, which features ruins dating back
28:52
to the fourteenth century, but they first documented fortification of
28:56
the site dates to twelve forty six. There's quite a
29:00
few different places. There's ancient ruins all over you know,
29:03
essentially all over Europe and Africa and all these different
29:07
places in Greece. So at least, you know, and I
29:11
know the movie has been controversial because of the casting
29:14
of certain actors in certain roles and how I don't
29:18
think there's any one Greek actor that was cast in
29:20
that movie. But it hasn't stopped the box office. People
29:24
are seeing the movie, you know, people are going to
29:25
see the movie. So and again, I think with this
29:29
movie too, I think a lot of movies do this.
29:31
You know, it's you see a certain movie, you're like, man,
29:34
I want to go to that place. I mean, you know,
29:36
I mean, you know, the John Hughes movies were famous
29:39
for showing Chicago. You know, one of my outtime favorite
29:43
movies as far as Viewer's Day Off. And there were
29:46
so many great shots of Chicago that it kind of
29:50
makes you want to go there, you know, the parade
29:52
scene in the middle. I mean, if you've ever seen
29:54
that movie, I mean, movies forty years old, if you
29:55
haven't seen it. My goodness, what are you doing? But
29:59
there's a the parade scene where Twist and Shout was
30:02
playing and Ferris Bueller, you know, basically takes over. You know.
30:07
It's it's a great scene, and it's like, it's like, man,
30:10
I want to go to that parade. You know, there's
30:12
just there's all kinds of stuff there. So movies have
30:16
that effect, you know, I mean, they take you the
30:18
different places. And that's why, you know, when I brought
30:21
up pop culture. This is kind of one of the
30:22
things I'm going to talk about here, is that pop culture,
30:26
you know, kind of unites us all and kind of
30:28
brings us to a different place sometimes. And movies do that.
30:31
TV shows do that too. I mean, you know how
30:34
many times you know. I love the show Landman, one
30:37
of my one of my favorite shows currently, very salty show,
30:40
so not for the kids, but great show. And it's
30:44
set in Midland, Texas. And even though it's kind of
30:48
the middle, it looks like the middle of nowhere, it's
30:50
it's the desert, still looks like a pretty beautiful place
30:53
where I think it's set. I think it's set in Midland, Texas.
30:55
I if I'm not mistaken, or maybe even Fort Worth,
30:58
But I mean, it's two different places in Texas and
31:01
there couldn't be close. They couldn't be further away from
31:03
each other if you put them on a map. But still,
31:07
I mean beautiful scenery. Yellowstone. I'll give you another great example,
31:10
the TV series Yellowstone. One of the reasons I stayed
31:13
on watch that show for as long as I did because,
31:16
let me tell you, first three seasons are great. The
31:18
last two are terrible. I know, I'm sorry. The first
31:21
half of season four is good, then it really goes
31:24
off the rails, and then the fifth season is just awful,
31:27
just an awful season, but it is worth it for
31:30
the sheer scenery. You get a loan of the Dutton
31:35
Ranch and just of Montana in general. Just such a
31:39
beautiful place. So TV shows and movies may not, you know,
31:44
they at least visually transport you to a different place sometimes.
31:49
So I can see why this movie would do that.
31:51
I can really and again I have not seen this movie,
31:53
but I can see why this movie would do that.
31:55
So really cool stuff. All Right, that's gonna do it
31:59
for me for this week. Thank you for listening. I know,
32:01
trying to keep your shows between thirty and forty minutes
32:03
because you get a lot of other stuff to listen to,
32:06
and I want to respect your time, and I really
32:07
appreciate you giving your time to listen to me, so
32:10
I want to make it worthwhile for you. So again,
32:13
thank you for listening. Follow me on social media. I'm
32:16
at Red Solo Traveler on x Pinterest, on Instagram, Official
32:20
Red Solo Traveler on Facebook. I'm not on TikTok, I'm
32:23
not in any other place. I'm also on YouTube at
32:27
Red Solo Traveler. Got some explainer videos up and these
32:30
explainer videos are based on the articles that you read
32:33
on Red Solo Travelers. So if you don't have time
32:36
to read the articles, you want to watch a little
32:37
video recap of it. Thought, so these explainer videos are
32:41
for and got a bunch of them coming. They're kind
32:44
of time the same way I have the deep dives.
32:47
So in this podcast feed again, same thing, same principle.
32:52
If you don't have time to read the articles, at
32:54
least listen to a little bit of a debate or
32:55
discussion on them. And that's a AI generated, completely aijen
33:00
rated audio and it is set to it's what's called
33:04
the deep dive I have a little bit different music
33:06
I use as a intro and outro to it. But
33:10
essentially it's two hosts kind of going back and forth,
33:14
male and female. AI voice is completely AI and they
33:18
debate and discuss the article that I've placed in front
33:22
of them, so to speak, virtually. And the articles have
33:27
been mostly Atlanta focused the last a few shows, and
33:31
then now it's kind of pivoting to Connecticut shoreline. So
33:34
some good stuff. I have an article that I have
33:36
the review called there was one on Essex steam Train,
33:40
and there was another one that we just did Fimble Islands.
33:44
So it's in the podcast feed if you're subscribed to it.
33:48
Just listen to that, and they're about twenty minutes. Try
33:50
to keep them around twenty minutes and try to have
33:53
them up twice a week for you so that again,
33:56
you got something good to listen to. So maybe you're
33:59
heading to that, maybe you're you're thinking about it, maybe
34:02
you're maybe you just want to mow the lawn. You
34:04
want something good to listen to. Hey, that's what I'm
34:06
here for. All right, that's gonna do it for me
34:08
for this week. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening.
34:10
As always, m m mm hmm.