What if the dream trip starts feeling like a job? We sit down with traveler and author Melissa Rodway to unpack the real highs and lows of a life built on movement—starting with a wild childhood year in Western Australia, a no-guidebook leap through Europe in the 90s, and the pre-smartphone hacks that kept her safe and curious in Costa Rica.
The story turns when she quits an advertising job and heads to Southeast Asia for months of motion—Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China—where gritty bus rides collide with occasional five-star stays. Melissa shares how travel fatigue sneaks in, why purpose is the antidote, and the moment a seasoned traveler taught her the hardest lesson of the road: know when to go home. Those long rides turned into pages, and pages into The People You Meet, a witty, honest travel book about culture, food, and the human dramas that follow you across borders.
Then we switch gears to a slower kind of adventure: five winter weeks in Quebec City during her year off. Daily cross-country laps on the Plains of Abraham, ice skating under big skies, a Nordic spa two minutes from home, and the electric roar of Carnival with its ice canoe races on the St. Lawrence. We dig into the ice hotel, maple syrup snow taffy, tourtière, French schools for all levels, and why Quebec is built for outdoor lovers in every season—plus practical tips on walkability, ferries to Lévis, nearby trails, and affordable stays that make lingering easy.
If you’re craving travel that’s deeper, steadier, and more you, this conversation is your map.
You can find Melissa:
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fly_travel_media/
Her website at: https://flyrodway.com
Melissa's book: The People You Meet Book
Please download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/
View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
