Jeannie Ralston just endured the longest flight of her life—16 hours from Dallas to Hong Kong, before heading on to Kathmandu to start the Himalayas hike. She is adamant about drinking plenty of water on flights (it helps prevent jet lag), but that meant m any trips to the bathroom. To escape her window seat—the man in the aisle seat couldn’t get up because his CPAP was plugged in in—she ended up standing in her seat and straddling him. Then she repeated the ninja moves in reverse to get back to her seat.

“I figured it was a warmup for scrambling through the Himalayas,” she says. “But if I’d twisted my ankle, I would have been so mad at myself.”

The reward waiting for her at the end of that flight was the long-overdue, in-person meeting with Marcy Mitchell and Bren Lyon, who have worked for NextTribe for years. “After only knowing them as two-dimensional figures on Zoom, I kept pinching them to make sure they were real.”

Jeannie Edmunds is wrapping up our Day of the Dead trip with 3 groups of travelers in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. No matter how many times we do this trip, there’s always some curve ball—they change the day of the parade, the start time of the parade, etc.—but our travelers go with the flow. All of them talk about how meaningful this trip is, and how it really connects you to the beauty and magic of Mexico.

Hope you enjoy the articles this week.

And speaking of saying “yes”…here’s an article Michelle wrote for us a few years ago. Ooh la la!

Want more? Check out our library of 1,600 articles.

Safe travels—

Jeannie Ralston, CEO + Jeannie Edmunds, Chief Operating Officer

All the details here.

Our Paris guide, Ellen Williams, has spent four decades learning this city at street level. What she knows can’t be Googled. She’ll take you into the market streets where Parisians shop, the cafés where they linger, the hidden courtyards most visitors walk right past. Skip the Eiffel Tower line. Forget the Mona Lisa crowd. This is the Paris you’ve craved—even if you didn’t know it.

All the details here.

Barcelona and Andalusia move at two different speeds. Barcelona runs on ambition — Gaudí’s spires, a medieval quarter thick with stories, a food scene fiercely proud of its Catalan roots. What rarely gets told: women shaped its art, politics, and culture. This trip puts those stories front and center. Head south and the tempo drops. Seville is sun, orange trees, and courtyards wrapped in tile. Córdoba holds three civilizations in its stone and rewards travelers who slow down. Together, they’re a Spain that goes far past the postcard.

Click on a square to see our trip listing.

REMEMBER: We offer interest-free monthly payments and NOW a 7-day change-your-mind policy!!