Wander Woman: A Travel Podcast

I went to Zambia looking for wildlife. My five-year-old son went looking for marshmallows. Somewhere along the way, we both found rather more than we bargained for. On safari in Kafue National Park and the Lower Zambezi, I discover that travelling with a small child changes the rules. Forget chasing the perfect photograph or ticking off the Big Five. Sometimes the most memorable moments happen from a lodge balcony in ways you would never expect.

Also coming up:

• Travel author Peter John Watson on what a season spent on a tiny island in Antarctica taught him about life
• Travel Hack: How to photograph wildlife on safari
• From Africa to Asia, South America and... England 10 incredible family-friendly safari destinations
• Hidden Hero is Shivam Rai from Wildlife SOS in India who is educating the next generation that elephant tourism is animal slavery and must end
• Gear chat: what to pack to beat Africa's dreaded tsetse files
• The Dahomey Mino are our Wander Women of the Month

If you care about wildlife encounters, ethical travel, and how to make family adventures actually work, please hit subscribe, share the episode with a fellow traveller, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

You know a place is special when it can serve you a 10,000-year-old “popsicle”, make you laugh with a single turn of phrase, and still hit you with history that rewrites the map. Join Wander Woman Phoebe Smith on a journey through Western Newfoundland, chasing icebergs along Iceberg Alley, listening to foghorns roll in off the Atlantic, and learning how a coastline built on cod had to reinvent itself after the fishery closed.
We take on big timelines and even bigger landscapes, from Viking footsteps at L’Anse Aux Meadows to the deeper indigenous story that makes this peninsula a true meeting point of worlds. In Gros Morne National Park, we kayak beneath cliffs lifted by glaciers and talk through the Tablelands, one of the rare places you can walk on Earth’s mantle without a mountaineering expedition.

Also coming up:

• TV presenter and expert fly fisher Kastine Coleman
• Travel Hack: How to become an honaray Newfoundlander (that doesn't involve being screeched in...)
• Tablelands, lighthouses, fossils Western Newfoundland's 10 best hikes
• Meet grandson of Lauchie "Lockie" McDougall aka the human wind gauge, who saved countless lives through his ability to predict the wind
• Gear chat: what to pack to go in search of icebergs
• Minnie White – the First Lady of the Accordian – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If you enjoy smart travel stories, wilderness destinations, and unsung heroes, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Hello fellow Wanderers! It’s Phoebe here, I hope you’ve had an amazing summer. I’ve just finished writing my new book - Wild Nights Out, which is coming out in May 2027 with Bloomsbury. I’ve also just returned from an epic adventure in Zambia, Southern Africa collecting amazing stories for an upcoming episode of Wander Woman.

As such I’ve no new episode this month but I’ll be back September 30th with tales from Canada’s Newfoundland.

See you then, Wander Woman out...

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

A splash of wine hits the dust beneath the table, offered first to Pachamama - aka Mother Earth, and suddenly northern Argentina feels more family member than nameless destination. Follow Phoebe's Wander Woman correspondent Daniel Neilson as he journeys to Jujuy and Salta following ancient Andean trade routes, reading a 4,000-year timeline etched into rock, and asking one deceptively simple question: how did life and culture move across mountains that seem designed to keep people apart? The answer, it seems, is llama-shaped.

Also coming up:

• Author Michael Pugh - on Riding through War and Peace on a horse from Russia to Transylvania
• Travel Hack: How to (and how not to) travel with a teenager
• Whales, sloths and cabybaras... Latin America's best 10 wildlife encounters
• Meet Katie Carr, the woman who not only finished her late brother's book but went on to honour his memory by completing his kayaking adventure
• Gear chat: what to pack to travel by horseback
• Juana Manual Gorriti – the greatest Argentine author you've never heard of – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If you enjoyed the stories, subscribe, share the episode with a fellow traveller, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Journey to Canada's most underrated province - Saskatchewan - where the simple act of hiking feels like time travel. From Badlands replete with fossils, to miles of Prairie grassland teeming with wildlife where bison roam, join adventurer Phoebe Smith as she explores the National Park you've never heard of - but definitely should add to your to do list.

Practical travel help is baked in too. I share my no-nonsense travel hack for avoiding ticks and removing them safely, plus we chat with Jenna Carr, aka The Travel Mum, about why family travel is chaotic, slower, and still absolutely worth it. We round things out with fast Saskatchewan facts, stargazing gear for a dark sky preserve, and a Hidden Hero conversation with a species at risk scientist working behind the scenes to protect the “little guys” we too often overlook.

Also coming up:

• The Travel Mum - Jenna Carr on why you can travel with kids
• Travel Hack: How to avoid and remove a tick
• A Canadian Dead Sea, the biggest T-Rex fossil on the planet? 10 Saskatchewan Facts that will have you headed straight for Regina
• Meet the woman who works to protect endangered species in Grasslands National Park
• Gear chat: what to pack to go stargazing
• Geraldine Moodie – pioneering photographer and owner of the first studio opened by a woman – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If you love wildlife encounters, Canadian road trips, and prairie dogs, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who needs fresh travel inspiration, and leave a review so more people can find us.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

A manta ray glides through water as though it owns the ocean, then you remember the uncomfortable truth: many shark and ray species are sliding towards extinction, and we still do not have enough data to protect them properly. From Ishigaki in Okinawa, join adventurer Phoebe Smith as she becomes one of the first people in the world to complete the PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) Shark and Ray Conservation speciality and uploads her sightings to the Global Shark and Ray Census, showing how everyday divers can turn a camera and curiosity into citizen science that actually makes a difference.

Also coming up:

• Detectorists and authors Roman Found (aka Eleanor Bruce and Lucilla Gray) talk treasure hunting and Thing We Found in the Ground
• Travel Hack: How to thrive on your first scuba dive
• 10 lesser known destinations in Japan
• Meet the man who - following the devastating Tsunami at Fukushima in 2011 began an underwater clean-up efforts that would unite the entire community.
• Gear chat: what to pack in the tropics
• Lady Sarashina – said to be one of the world's first travel writers – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If you care about responsible travel, scuba diving, marine conservation, Japan and hidden histories, press play. Subscribe, share the podcast and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Pooh Sticks looks like a simple game, until you’re standing on the real bridge where it all started, in Ashdown Forest watching your stick float on the water underneath the slats and realising Winnie the Pooh began right here in a living landscape. Join Adventurer Phoebe Smith as she travels to East Sussex to find the real Hundred Acre Wood behind the 100 year old Winnie-the-Pooh story. Along the way she meets the people who protect it today and learns why the open heathland – rarer than tropical rainforest – needs our help.

Also coming up:

• Author and dog-friendly travel specialist Lottie Gross on the best and worst countries in Europe for taking your canine companion to
• Travel Hack: How to travel like Pooh Bear
• 10 literary destinations lifted straight out of your favourite children's books
• Meet the woman who has dedicated her life to helping stray dogs and the volunteers who look after them in Greece through the charity Starlight Barking
• Gear chat: what to pack in destinations with a large stray dog packs
• Simona Kossak – who lived in a hut in Poland's Białowieża Forest with a lynx, boar and crow – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If Pooh's wisdom and legacy helps you plan your next trip do subscribe, share with a friend who needs some inspiration, and leave a quick review to help more travellers find us. Now pull on your big boots and get ready for your next adventure to happen...

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

A ferry announcement about whales comes over the tannoy and suddenly the cafeteria empties, the crew step away from their tasks, and everyone presses to the windows. That shared pause is the heartbeat of slow travel, and it’s why Adventurer Phoebe Smith takes you onboard BC Ferries’ “Milk Run” from Vancouver Island up through Canada’s Inside Passage. This isn’t a floating resort. It’s a working supply route that carries food, freight and locals between remote Indigenous coastal communities and, for travellers, it’s one of the most affordable ways to see humpbacks, orcas, sea lions and wild, rain-soaked shorelines.

Also coming up:

• Author of All My Wild Mothers and new book The Apothecary by the Sea: A Year in an Orkney Garden and self-confessed wild woman Victoria 'Vik' Bennett
• Travel Hack: how to travel on a budget without being a backpacker
• Top 10 of the best ferry rides in the world
• Meet the woman who's been making an audio record of women adventurers – of all ages, shapes and sizes – with her Tough Girl Podcast for the past 10 years, Sarah Williams
• Gear chat: what to pack for a scenic ferry ride
• Isobel Gunn – who in 1806 passed herself off as a man and inadvertantly becoming the first European woman to travel to Rupert's Land, now part of Western Canada – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If you enjoy travel stories with substance, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

What if we stopped saving our dream journey for “one day” and booked it now? Wander Woman Phoebe Smith hits pause on the grind and takes a micro‑retirement across North India by rail—soaking in Kolkata’s dawn ferry music, the riot of colour at the flower market, and the earthy taste of chai, before tracing slower paths to Bodh Gaya, Varanasi and Agra. The result is an immersion into India that her late mother always wanted but whose death age 50 meant she never got to experience.

Also coming up:

• Author and travel writer Shafik Meghji on South America's links with Britain and the perfect trip for first time visitors
• Travel Hack: Survive your first night on an Indian Sleeper Train
• Top 10 North Indian dishes you have to try... now!
• Meet the acid attack survivors at Sheroes Hangout Cafe - who turn tragedy into triumph over coffee every day
• Gear chat: what to pack for a trip to India in winter and summer
• Ida Pfeiffer – the midlife pioneer who circled the globe on grit, curiosity, and a shoestring – is our Wander Woman of the Month.

If this journey nudges your own “someday” list, make it sooner. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a push, and leave a quick review to help more travellers find us. Where would your micro‑retirement take you?

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

A rewilded valley, a returning herd, and a community finding new roots—come with Wander Woman Phoebe Smith to Portugal’s Côa Valley where tauros and sorraia horses are reshaping the land and jumpstarting local livelihoods. Join her as she learns how large herbivores create healthier mosaic habitats that reduce wildfire risk, boost biodiversity, and draw back predators like wolves, and listen in as she meets the people turning these ecological wins into sustainable nature-based tourism.

Also coming up:

• Right to Roam campaigner Guy Shrubsole on access rights and Britain's Rainforests
• Travel Hack: How to find a legit re-wilding project
• Top 10 Rewilding projects around the world and where to visit them
• Meet travel writers and authors Rhona Carrier and Tracey Davies as they discuss their memoir Wayward Women - and how mid-life women are a force to be reckoned with
• Gear chat: what to pack for a responsible wild camp
• Florence Merriam Bailey - a birdwatcher who had to persuade others to look but don't shoot (yes, really) is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

The sky is stirring over Canada's Northwest Territories, and we wanted to know what it really means when the norhtern lights dance. So Wander Woman Phoebe Smith sent her editor and correspondent Daniel Neilson to travel to Yellowknife to sit with Dene guides who treat the aurora as memory and medicine, not a bucket list stunt. Join us for stories that bring light to the darkness and stir the sky - and the soul.

Also coming up:

• Celebrity Chef Rick Stein on his new series about Australia airing on the BBC
• Travel Hack: How to photograph the aurora borealis
• Top 10 winter festivities around the world that aren't Christmas - from Up Helly Aa to Diwali and moew
• Meet the man behind the former hunting farm that became a stronghold in Namibia for protecting endangered species - and ensuring local people benefitted too
• Gear chat: what to wear when stood watching for the Northern Lights
• Shaaw Tláa - a pioneering prospector and proud member of the Tagish community is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Cold breath on the air, pancakes at dawn, and the hush before a bear appears at the treeline – join Wander Woman Phoebe Smith as she journeys from Finland’s close‑to‑Helsinki wilds with a foraging guide to paddle a quiet nine kilometres to a lean‑to where two dogs double as companions and hot‑water bottles. The theme is deliberate slowness: built in boredom, and the forest fills the space. Before a finale at dusk with an elusive sighting of the European 'Spirit Bear' on the Finland-Russia border.

Also coming up:

• BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour presenter Anita Rani on what drew her to Race Across the World...
• Travel Hack: How to keep warm in cold climates
• Top 10 species of bears to spot around the world - from polar to grizzly and all those in between
• Meet the tour company in Jasper National Park Canada who is embracing the change caused by the 2024 wildfires to teach travellers about ancient indigenious practises
• Gear chat: what to pack for a night out in an unheated hut (or bear hide)
• Mina Benson Hubbard - a pioneering Canadian explorer is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

A simple walk can change a life and a place. Join Wander Woman Phoebe Smith as she head's to Umbria to undertake part of Italy’s lesser-known pilgrim path - the St Francis Way - and see how it is bringing life back into the region. In association with this episode's podcast partnerSloways. From truffle hunts on the village edges to choirs echoing through convents, to ridge walks above Assisi and stamps in a well-worn pilgrim passport, this journey shows how slow travel creates real ties between people and landscape.

Also coming up:

• Co-founder of the British Pilgrimage Trust Guy Hayward about his mission to change the path of walks with purpose to enable everyone to bring their own beliefs...
• Travel Hack: How to have a meaningful pilgrimage
• Top 10 non-religious pilgrimages around the world
• Meet Andrea Devicenzi – the Italian Paralympic cyclist who is using pilgrimages to change people's perceptions about disability
• Gear chat: what to pack when doing activities in very hot weather
• Margery Kempe - pilgrim and author of the first memoir in history is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

With the rise of the Far Right across the globe, things have never been so tough for refugees and asylum seekers. So I head out with a new social enterprise that’s training immigrant women to become tour guides across Britain so they can celebrate their culture whilst earning their own income and teach us all a thing or too about our most well-known cities. Join Phoebe on an exploration of Syrian-Palestinian culture right here in London.

Also coming up:

• Award-winning chef Ahu Hettema - who spent a decade stuck in the US immigration system - shares how she managed to cook her way out of depression…
• Travel Hack: How to travel everywhere without going anywhere
• Top 10 ethnic enclaves in unexpected places around the world
• Meet Beki Henderson the adventure producer/director behind some of TVs most popular male-fronted shows – from Will Smith to Levison Wood and more
• Gear chat: what to pack for a walking city tour
• Mabel Barker – the Lakeland teacher, inventor of the microadventure and fearless climber is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Think you have to travel far to feel like you've had a proper expedition? Think again. In an effort to prove that you don’t need to travel to far flung lands – or spend very much money at all to have a proper expedition, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith attempts a timed walking challenge with the Long Distance Walkers Association across two counties, to discover the joys (and pain) of walking 50 miles in a single day. Along the way expect epic sunsets, camaraderie and Jelly Baby fuelled hallucinations as she attempts to answer the question – why on earth would anyone do it?

Also coming up:

• TV naturalist Mike Dilger shares his journey from being an awkward kid who hid in bushes to a wildlife expert
• Travel Hack: How undertaking an endurance event can help prepare you for your next big trip
• Top 10 short walks with BIG views around the world
• Meet Roberto Battista the man breathing new life into near-abandoned Italian mountain towns - through the power of adventure
• Gear chat: what to pack for an endurance challenge
• Florence Dixie - Victorian Patagonia explorer and women's rights activist is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

With scenes of protest erupting in some of the most visited cities and countries in the world – telling tourists to go home – Wander Woman, Phoebe Smith, shows how merely travelling a little north of the Croatian honeypot of Dubrovnik to explore the region of Zadar the rewards can be great - for travellers and locals. From discovering the 3,000-year-old Old Town and dancing to the sustainable (and free) Sea Organ, to birdwatching and kayaking in Vrana Lake Nature Park, paddling and eating local on the islands of Ugljan & Pašman and tasting the delights of Pag, there's a whole family-friendly area to enjoy - minus the crowds. Come wander with her…

Also coming up:

• 10 alternative destinations to the overtouristed locations (including scintillating swaps for Barcelona, Tuscany, Iceland and more)
• Travel Hack: How to be a more responsible traveller in the overcrowded locations
• Meet "Guerrilla Geographer" Daniel Raven-Ellison who is creating a national walking network connecting every single town and city in Britain
• Pack the kit you need for scorching hot temperatures
• Meet the 20-year-old female guide in Benin who is breaking gender barriers in West Africa's tourism industry
• Dervla Murphy - the ultimate responsible traveller - is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Would you ever walk the 'Backbone of Britain'? 2025 marks 60 years since the UK got it’s first official long distance pathway - the Pennine Way. As political as it was pioneering, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith delves into the history of this hard-fought-for trail - one that is integral to all the rights walkers enjoy today, discovering a kick-ass, bell bottomed jeans wearing hiker in the 1960s, before heading out with her friend Cerys Matthews to walk a prime 3-day section in the present day, to meet other walkers, accommodation owners and bar workers, and discover what has changed here in the six decades since it opened. Come wander with her…

Also coming up:

• Adventurer and presenter Pelumi Nubi explains why she went from being a scientist to driving from London to Lagos (Nigeria), solo, in a Peugeot 107
• Travel Hack: How to share close quarters with a friend on a trip – and still be talking at the end
• 10 best road trips you can do by electric vehicle
• Meet conservationist Laurie Marker who has single-handedly shaped cheetah conservation in Namibia whilst improving the lives of the country’s human residents
• Pack the kit you need for the ultimate road trip
• Hannah Hauxwell, hardy Pennine hill farmer and female Palin of the 70s-90s, is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

Can walking a coastal path really heal a broken heart? As bestselling book The Salt Path becomes a major film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Issacs, Wander Woman Phoebe Smith heads to author Raynor Winn's favourite 2-day section of the South West Coast Path in Cornwall - walking from Zennor to Minnack. Along the way she meets other hikers and discovers the power of simply placing one foot in front of the other.

Also coming up:

• Raynor Winn shares who she really thought would play her in a movie and explains why the path will always be her home
• Travel Hack: Prepare for your first long distance path
• 10 best coastal paths arounds the world
• Meet BBC presenter and disability advocate Lucy Edwards about traveling while blind – including on safari
• Pack the kit you really need for walking the South West Coast Path
• Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, who walked nearly 300 miles to process her divorce in 1822, is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

What if everything you thought you knew about voodoo was completely wrong? This episode Wander Woman Phoebe Smith heads to Togo and Benin in West Africa - the birthplace of the religion, with Explore, to seek out the real voodoo beyond the sensationalist Hollywood portrayals of evil dolls and sinister spells. Journeying to the rural north of both countries she invites you to experience with her the rituals, practises, dances and truth behind perhaps the most maligned belief system in the world. Come wander with her...

Also coming up:

• Woman with Altitude Elise Wortley on why she travels with world wearing a bonnet and Victorian bras
• Travel Hack: Make the most of your tour leader
• 10 incredible cultural experiences around the world
• Meet Namgyal Doma Sherpa a massage therapist on the Everest Basecamp trek with Lehara, helping heal hikers AND give jobs and money to remote communities
• Pack the kit you really need for visiting West Africa
• Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is our Wander Woman of the Month

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith

All across Britain, in some of the wildest places you can find, is a network of mountain huts - called bothies. But unlike shelters found in the rest of the world, these were never built for walkers. Former schoolhouses, farmsteads, gamekeepers lodges, coastguards lookouts and miners bunkhouses, there are around 100 buildings (across Scotland, England and Wales) left open for walkers and climbers to use - free of charge. For the last 60 years they have been in the care of the Mountain Bothies Association - an organisation who maintain and look after them and are funded by donation and run by volunteers. To celebrate their diamond anniversary, adventurer Phoebe Smith (who wrote the first ever guidebook to bothies 10 years ago) takes her mum friend Ellie to stay in her first one and speaks to the MBA's chair Simon Birch about what changes have occurred over the last 60 years.

Also coming up:

• Octogenarian publisher Hilary Bradt discusses how travel has changed since her first adventures in 1969
• Travel Hack: How to make friends on the road - safely
• Top 10 places to escape the crowds around the world
• Meet Katie Wignall, the guide telling the stories of forgotten women in London
• All the kit you need for wild swimming
• Nan Shepherd, author of The Living Mountain is our Wander Woman of the Month

SPECIAL OFFER: Use code WanderWoman at the checkout on the Cicerone website to get 15% off the Book of the Bothy and all of their guidebooks.

Contact Wander Woman

www.Phoebe-Smith.com; @PhoebeRSmith