The Unexpected Magic of a Turkish Barbershop

Travel Tales by AFAR

When it comes to relationships, often there’s the planner—and then there’s the go-with-the-flow-er. And today’s episode of Travel Tales by Afar is all about what happens when the planner hesitantly chucks the travel to-do list and lets serendipity lead the way.

Beth Santos is the planner in this particular story. She’s the founder of Wanderful, an online women’s travel community that grew out of her solo travels as a young woman, and is an incredibly prolific and passionate entrepreneur and traveler. She hosts the 85 Percent podcast (named for the fact that women still make 85 percent of the travel decisions), is working on a docu series about influential women over the decades, and recently wrote a book, Wander Woman: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World, Solo, among many other things.

She’s also married, with young children, and early on in her relationship with her husband, Marvin, it became clear that they had very different ideas about travel. Beth wanted a full itinerary that packed in all the sights. Marvin wanted a cocktail on the beach. And then on a trip to Greece, with a 24-hour layover in Istanbul, Marvin asked Beth a question that would change the trajectory of her travel life.

Her story is sweet, funny, and such a good reminder of the power of the agenda-less trip. (Fire is also involved.)

Resources

Read the transcript of the episode.

Listen to the episode on YouTube.

Buy her book, Wander Woman.

Listen to Beth’s podcast, 85 Percent.

Explore the Wanderful community.

Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Unpacked, which unpacks one tricky topic in travel each week.