Greetings, Travel Tip-Seekers!

Don’t be shy. We know you’ve got some great photos on your phone!

It’s not too late for you and your friends to enter our travel photo contest be eligible to win a big fat prize! We’re looking for travel photos that capture a sense of wonder.

Check out all the details here.

Your entry fee for each photo will help us pay an honorarium to our professional judges.

First prize: $1,000 cash or $2,000 off a future NextTribe Trip!

No AI images will be accepted. Our judges have ways of checking for that.

Deadline to submit is May 15.

Now, in other news…

Here are this week’s tips curated for you from our reliable sources in the travel industry and from general interest newsletters, websites, and publications.

Why, why, why do we need so many apps to travel these days? Well, it turns out you don’t. Unless you need some realtime flight info (which you can get from your airline app or from Flighty (I use both for different reasons) you can use your ai app for just about anything. Yesterday at the airport in Charlotte I used GPT to help me figure out how long it would take me to walk to the club after I cleared security, and how long I might have to wait to get in, based on their busiest times of day. I’ve also used it to find the highest rated restaurant in my concourse in an airport. BTW Sunday night in Asheville I saw the new documentary about artificial intelligence. Now I consider myself “apocaloptimist” too. You can watch the trailer here.

I’m one of Jeannie Ralston’s best customers in her online store. I bought the Away bag, a linen dress, a CozyBand, and a bunch of other items there. But I found this item recommended in a Reddit thread and after this weekend I’m never traveling without it. It’s a daypack that folds itself into a pouch about the size of a large omelette. Straps are wide and comfortable, and it’s surprisingly roomy. I can’t wait to use it next week in Japan!

Last weekend a few members of our Vietnam “Class of ‘25” (our 2025 trip) had a mini-reunion in Austin, and they may have seen this when they went to Jo’s coffee. I only live a few blocks away and I didn’t even know it was there, but I’m glad I know about it now. As the mother of a “starving artist” I’m glad there are creative people coming up with ways to support other creative people who make my (adopted) home city so memorable!

Turns out I didn’t need to show up at the airport last Friday at 3AM right when TSA opened. There was a 30-minute line at PreCheck, though it got longer in the next hour. But as you can see from the photo above, I could have used the extra couple of hours of sleep! IAH in Houston was so bad, people drove to Austin to take flights to the East Coast. But my experiences at Charlotte airport and Austin last weekend weren’t as bad as I had expected at the end of Spring Break. How have your travels been lately? How is the shutdown (and world events) affecting your travel plans? Please reply to this email and let me know.

My mother, who never left the US before she was 50, traveled to 74 countries. She never checked a bag, but she always carried a Ziplock baggie full of tiny toy animals. She’d offer them to children wherever they traveled, and I’ve enjoyed carrying on the tradition. It’s a great way to make a connection with local moms, even if it only lasts a minute. It’s an easy way to share a smile and make a brief impression as a friendly traveler.

Spread the love, people. That’s my travel motto.

Thanks for reading. Happy trails!

Jeannie Edmunds

Chief Operating Officer

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