The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast Ep 105: Planning Your Retirement Travel in 2025 and 2026

 

 

Transcript:

Ben Smith (00:26):

Welcome everybody to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. My name is Ben Smith and I'm one of the co-hosts here on the show. Listeners, I hope you're doing well today. We are recording on election day, so we are, it's a very big day, so this is a good distraction for us. If you want to be a part of the show, you can always email us at benSmith@guidancepointrs.com or find us on YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Just search Retirement Success in Maine podcast. We can find some more content there at this time. Let me welcome in the cruise ship to my staycation Curtis Worcester. How are you

Curtis Worcester (01:01):

Doing, Curtis? Alright, I'm going. Well, I'm the cruise ship here. This is good. You're the cruise ship. This is good.

Ben Smith (01:06):

You're the one moving around. I'm the one staying home. Just hanging out.

Curtis Worcester (01:10):

That's right.

Ben Smith (01:11):

So obviously if you couldn't tell by that little analogy, we're talking a little bit of travel right In the course in our show, we've touched on the theme of travel a few times, and of course there's been a little evolution of travel since our last travel themed episode in episode 70.

(01:28):

So as retirees really look to make the most of their newfound freedom, especially post covid travel becomes an essential way to explore the world and discover new experiences. But as travel trends evolve, how can retirees align their adventures with meaningful goals, whether it's staying active, bonding with family, or prioritizing longevity? So in this episode, we're going to explore the biggest travel trends set to define 2025 and 26, and how they can help retirees build more enriching intentional travel experiences from new ways to combine wellness and longevity of exploration to small group interest-based trips that open doors to deeper connections. These trends offer retirees exciting opportunities to travel in ways that align with our lifestyles and values. We're also going to dive into how retirees can maximize comfort and efficiency while traveling from premium services that offer peace of mind to luxury experiences that make the journey itself just as exciting as a destination. Whether you're dreaming of a personalized luxury cruise, a journey by private train or traveling with families to create lifelong memories will cover how to approach these trends thoughtfully and avoid the overwhelm of modern travel logistics.

Curtis Worcester (02:40):

That's right, Ben. And if you haven't caught on by, I think this is what episode 105 or so, we like to bring in guests to discuss these things because Ben, you and I are not experts in travel. So our guest today is a travel advisor with Mil Travel based in Bangor, Maine, whose passion for travel is matched by a dedication to helping clients turn their travel dreams into meaningful lasting memories. Our guest brings a unique perspective to her role backed by two bachelor's degrees from the University of Maine, a bachelor of arts with a double major in political science and history. Also good timing on election day here for political science and also Bachelor of Science in registered nursing. So her background in political science and history gives her a deep understanding of world cultures, helping her provide clients with context and insight that enriches their travel experiences.

(03:34):

While her nursing degree brings an added layer of care and awareness, ensuring clients feel secure, well prepared, no matter their destination, whether she's booking all inclusive stays, creating customized itineraries for once in a lifetime adventures, or organizing specialized trips to places like Antarctica. I might need to dive into that one for a minute. Or major sporting events. She's committed to translating her client's hard earned dollars into memories and experiences that last a lifetime. So with that background, please join me in welcoming Jess Reinhart to the retirement success in Maine podcast. Jess, thank you so much for coming on our show today.

Jess Rhinehart (04:10):

Thank you. That is quite the intro. Thank you for having me.

Ben Smith (04:15):

So Jess, we actually have services on the side where we just follow you around and just do your introduction to all the people that you meet in your life. So if you want, we want to talk on the outside, you just let us know. Well, Jess, thanks for coming on our show. Thank you. Obviously, we have a lot to get to and to talk about, but of course for our show where our audience is meeting you for the first time, we want to just get to know you a little bit and just hear a little bit about your background and how you got into the career of becoming a travel agent.

Jess Rhinehart (04:45):

Wow. So I worked in the mental health field for 20 years, which if anybody else knows how difficult that field is, they understand. But on the side, I've always been a travel nerd. I literally am obsessed with traveling. And so on my Saturday, Friday nights, weekends at home, I'd always research deals for my friends and my families. How cheap can I get this for them? How amazing can I get this vacation for them? And then a couple years ago, a friend of mine here at Milton Travel, she had a spot open up in the office and I said, I'm just going to take it. I'm going to take this risk. My kids are getting older. I want to follow my heart, as cheesy as that may sound, and I did. So I took a risk in doing that. I left a very steady career in mental health at a local case management agency here and took the leap and have literally no regrets about it.

Curtis Worcester (05:37):

I love that. I love that. I know part of, or a lot of our conversation we're going to talk about going places, but the three of us are located right here in Maine. So we have to ask is kind of an intro question here to warm up to it. If you had to pick your favorite season here in Maine, and I know it's up for debate, we may have three seasons, we may have six, we never seem to know one it feels like. What would you recommend to somebody traveling to the state? What would that season be?

Jess Rhinehart (06:06):

I have an easy, quick answer for this and it's fall because to me fall is just the most beautiful time with the leaves changing. The wind is the weather is changing and the tourists and we love them, but you're not going to find overcrowding like you might along the coastal community. So it's a great time to visit, drive along the coast, drive up to the mountains, get some hiking, get outside and explore. And there's much better deals to be had in the September, october, November months here.

Ben Smith (06:35):

Wow, nice, nice.

Jess Rhinehart (06:37):

Yeah.

Ben Smith (06:37):

Well we want to, of course we're going to ask you all about what other people should be doing, right? Sure. So before we ask about what other people should do, Jess, we're going to say, all right, as a travel agent, you of course you get to help people plan their fantasy trip. We want to flip the perspective now and ask you what has been your favorite traveling journey?

Jess Rhinehart (06:56):

I get asked this a lot and my answer is pretty much always the same. And it's the most recent vacation that I've been on. So I just went to Ireland last month and was actually there the month previous to that. And anywhere I go someplace kind of new to me and find new destinations, new tours, new food, new restaurants, I hold that very dear to my heart and it always gives me such an appreciation for the work that I do and for my clients that are traveling and exploring these destinations themselves. So long story short, it's Ireland. That's why I was there last.

Curtis Worcester (07:31):

I love that. I love that. It must be

Jess Rhinehart (07:33):

Pretty good too, I'm just

Curtis Worcester (07:35):

Saying. Alright, perfect. Now I love the way you worded that though, Jess, because it is almost, you're curating these experiences for your clients and it's nice for you to experience that as well, but you can also, you're learning what to maybe to recommend to them and back and forth there. So

Jess Rhinehart (07:53):

I'm

Curtis Worcester (07:53):

Really happy you shared that with us. So we're just going to keep going here. So obviously Ben mentioned in that intro, it's been a little bit, I think a couple of years since we had a travel advisor on our show and as things would in two years things have changed, but now we're also four years out from peak COVID-19 and that travel landscape that has undoubtedly evolved since then. Can you just share with us some of the most significant changes that you've seen in the travel industry since say, let's go back just a couple years. So 2022 maybe?

Jess Rhinehart (08:28):

Yeah. And that's when tourism and travel really started taking off against after Covid, what I'm really seeing is the rise of flexibility. This is with airlines, this is with cruise ships. This is really with every kind of travel vendor you can find they want, consumers want flexibility when they travel. If plans change, they want to easily be able to cancel, rebook that flight for six months from now. And they also want sustainability. I'm seeing they know the places they're traveling to, the cruise ships they're taking are offering sustainable services and practices in what they offer.

Curtis Worcester (09:04):

Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. And you touched on it a little bit there, but maybe how have, so I know we just mentioned traveler behaviors, so the expectations, there are flexibility, if you will. I guess how else has that changed maybe from your client's perspective, whether it's their behaviors, their preferences, or just general expectations about travel?

Jess Rhinehart (09:27):

Really, since Covid, what I am seeing and actually what I've lived through personally, is that people want an advisor like myself to offer expert expertise in what they are booking, where they are going. They want to know what is this resort like, because they know that as travel advisors, we either travel there ourselves or we have clients travel there ourselves.

(09:48):

If

(09:48):

You go to an online booking platform that's trying to sell you a beautiful Cancun all-inclusive vacation, they're not going to tell you all the good things and the bad things about that resort.

(09:58):

But

(09:58):

They know that our expertise offers real world experience from the 10 people that I had traveled there last month. So they want opinions, they want somebody to guide them through their process and really watch them through that whole journey from beginning to end.

Ben Smith (10:13):

So Jess, obviously health and safety has always been something on travelers' minds, and I think the pandemic probably really emphasized that importance like never before because you were on the cruise ship and then COVID-19 broke out and then you couldn't get off the cruise ship. So I think it just all of a sudden like, oh, I never really thought about that. I'm traveling in Germany and I want to come back. And all of a sudden they have different health restrictions or United States saying coming back. So there's a lot of friction, I think, from a health perspective. So given your extensive experience, what personal advice do you give to your clients to ensure they stay healthy and safe while traveling and follow up? Are there specific cautions or best practices that you recommend, whether it's navigating busy airports, exploring new destinations, or even choosing accommodation, what would you say around that theme?

Jess Rhinehart (11:07):

Okay, so number one, always get travel insurance. And I'm not just saying this because it is an add-on expense, but it is literally crucial when you travel, especially internationally. I could literally tell some horror stories of people who have traveled in a cruise ship and got covid, and this is during the covid times, but they got secluded in Dubai and couldn't make it home, and they had to put $14,000 out of their own pocket to be secluded and be safe and then fly home. Whereas travel insurance would cover all of that for them. And it just, it's a small additional cost, but it will cover those medical expenses and those medical costs that may not be covered by your health insurance. It is crucial, especially if you're traveling internationally. And as far as destination things go, if you look on the State Department website or talk to your travel advisor, you can see what are the warnings for different countries. And some of them, I always have a conversation, are you going to go off in Jamaica and explore downtown and grill? Probably not. If you're going to stay on the resort, chances are things are going to be completely as long as you're staying on the resort. And this is very minor, but this is what I personally do is always travel with a little health kit that has ibuprofen, hand sanitizer, wet wipes for the plane and band-aids. Of course.

Curtis Worcester (12:26):

That's great. And I want to, alright, we're going to try to forecast a little bit into the future now here, right? We're asking the expert. You just told us to do it. So that's what we're doing. So in previous conversations on our show around travel, we've had our good friend, Carrie, for bringer on the show of those conversations. So one of the things we talked about with Carrie was kind of top travel destinations for retirees in 2019 and 2020, naturally, that is a few years ago now. So given the dramatic shifts in the world since then that we've just kind of discussed, we want to know kind of go back to that topic. So what are the current hotspots for retirees travel? So now as we're here in late 2024 and looking at 2025,

Jess Rhinehart (13:14):

And isn't it wild because I'm already helping retirees plan for 2026 and 2027, it's easy to think about, but this is such a fun question and I'll tell you my immediate answer is Ireland.

(13:25):

I

(13:26):

Have heard 90% of clients that walk in off the street, they want to go to Ireland. That's their bucket list trip and it's Ireland. And it's also a lot of European destinations like Italy, they've been thinking about Italy for 20 years and now they're just ready to go. Domestic wise, I'm seeing a lot of retirees want to go out west, they want to do the national parks, they want to do Sedona, they want to do the Grand Canyon. And I'm seeing people that have had these dreams for decades sometimes, and they're just ready to go and they just want to do it and let's book it. Let's make it happen.

Curtis Worcester (14:01):

No, that's incredible. So kind of follow up to that question. So I heard Ireland there, we talked about a little bit of the west coast, Europe in general. Have there been new places emerge as travel favorites? And I guess the other side of that, have there been some maybe fallout of favor here in the last few years?

Jess Rhinehart (14:21):

I am hearing a lot of people wanting to go to Portugal, specifically the Azores for that kind of different tropical feel that island life living that's not necessarily Punta Kaa or Cancun or Jamaica. They want something different with a little bit of a European flair. And I think falling out of favor, I know I may contradict myself a little bit on this, but Italy,

(14:44):

There's

(14:45):

Places in Italy that are so overcrowded, specifically Venice. Venice has a Taurus cap now. So if you're going there June, July and August, you may be shoulder to shoulder with people. And I think the retiree population, they don't want that. They don't want that overcrowd, they want to be feel free to explore on their own sometimes.

Curtis Worcester (15:07):

And I can say as a non retiree, I don't want that either. So I think that's a safety statement either.

Jess Rhinehart (15:13):

Nobody wants to be shoulder and shoulder.

Curtis Worcester (15:15):

Exactly.

Ben Smith (15:16):

Well, and Jess, I'll add one there too, is Curtis and my colleague aj, so he and his wife had this lifelong trip to go to Israel. Oh wow. So they did that I think a year and a half ago now. So they got to visit and go to Jerusalem and see all the whole experiences there. And of course right before the conflict, I was just going to say gossip, timing. So it's like you could kind of put that on the fallen out of favor list. I'm sure it's probably not anybody's list to go into a war zone as part of your travel vacation plans, I'm sure.

Jess Rhinehart (15:53):

No, no, definitely not.

Ben Smith (15:55):

So Jess, for those longtime listeners of the podcast, I think you know me too is I'm holding up a Disney Cup. Of

Jess Rhinehart (16:03):

Course I was waiting for it to come up.

Ben Smith (16:05):

I got to go with Disney. We made it a few questions we did. We got for an hour, Ben. I was buying my time getting there. But the recent news is Disney eight announced plans to add four new cruise ships to their fleet, which will be delivered between 2027 and 2031. So basically floating theme park hotels,

Jess Rhinehart (16:28):

Literally. Yeah.

Ben Smith (16:30):

So the total number of Disney branded ships are now at 13, double the size of their fleet in less than a decade. So Disney's investing in his cruise line because popular Disney fans, especially families, and because the cruise industry is growing faster than theme parks and Disney, CFO, Hugh Johnston said that cruise ship investments tend to pay back quickly and that the company's confident in the growth of the cruise line. So obviously this seems to be a trend that's happening about the expansion of the cruise ship vacation after Covid, which by the way blows my mind. I agree. Because here's people that were going, I got to get up my cruise in and then as we said, there were during Covid and they tempted it and there was some negative publicity of people being out to sea for too long, running out of food, being sick, and lots of stuff happening there. But since I think maybe pent up demand people kind of getting into it. So can you walk us through what happened during Covid with the cruise ship industry and why it's rebounded so strongly right now? What's this big demand? Obviously Disney's really banking on this right now,

Jess Rhinehart (17:34):

And he's right that the cruise demand is insane right now. I think last week I booked seven cruises, which everybody wants a cruise because they're easy. The cruise line industry has really rebounded so quick from Covid because they heard consumers and they know that consumers want flexibility. Sometimes they want shorter itineraries, they want a three day cruise to Bermuda instead of a seven day cruise to The Bahamas. They know that there's every ship for literally every family type. If you want retirees, you want adults only. That would be virgin voyages. You want that big Alaska vacation with a pre and post tour of Denali, you can do that. So I think the cruise industry has heard us, they're responding with more ships, more itineraries, more flexibility. And I will say from a family standpoint, I'm a mom of three that they're offering so much for these kids to do on board. You don't even need to leave the ship. Like you said, amusement parks. Literally Royal Caribbean has the largest waterpark at sea on one of their ships. That's amazing.

Curtis Worcester (18:36):

Yeah, yeah, no, you're exactly right there too, Jess. I'm just thinking back. So when I was a kid, cruises were always our kind of family vacation. And then I went on one as not as young as a kid, and I realized why, because my parents could just let me run around a cruise ship and just trust that I wouldn't fall off the cruise ship. And they were gifts. So it was a vacation for everybody, the arcade, the water parks. And now you're right, I see the commercial all the time for the Royal Caribbean ship. I think they have a new one icon. The icon, yeah, it's massive. It's like city blocks on water and it's crazy. But anyway, I want to keep going here with travel trends. I'm asking all the trend questions today. So travel trends have long favored pockets of interest based itineraries, right? We're saying golf trips or running trips, culinary art tours, things like that. So it looks like in 2025 and 2026, we're seeing maybe a slight narrowing of that scope with all eyes on interest space, small group trips. So can you just give us some ideas of how interest-based travel is expanding and how you're helping your clients build those itineraries?

Jess Rhinehart (19:44):

Yeah, this is such a great question. Everybody has interests in hobbies and now there's literally a vacation for anything you want to do. I learned a new one last week about social media vacations, which is traveling to all the most Instagramable hotspots. Oh my goodness.

(20:00):

To get the best backgrounds or felt, I don't know, I don't know about Instagram. I'm not the right person for that. So a fun story is just last week I had a retired couple reach out to me and their thing is exotic birds, which honestly I know nothing about, but they wanted to do, they found this cruise and wanted to do an exotic bird vacation in South Pacific. And that's really fun because they share their passion with me and I can make it happen. So we got 'em booked on a three week New Zealand self Pacific exotic bird washing cruise, and that's what they're going to do in March.

Ben Smith (20:37):

No kidding. That's awesome.

Jess Rhinehart (20:40):

Oh, go ahead Ben. I was just going to say, and I want to put in a little thing about golf. Golf vacations are huge right now. Probably the biggest ones. We do, like Scotland, everybody wants to go play golf in Scotland. They've got more golf courses than anywhere in the whole world, as well as things like the Olympics and the World Cup. Those are all vacation packages that we put together.

Ben Smith (21:01):

Oh wow. So Jess, I was going to be my question. I think you're talking to two golfers here.

Curtis Worcester (21:09):

So we're really just planning our own vacation on this podcast for us,

Ben Smith (21:12):

Right? For us, let's talk about us, right? Told Keith and let's talk about me. So I want to ask about that. So just kind of expanding on this idea of, so say you do have, you had eight golfers and you said they approached you and said, alright Jess, we want to go and we want to create a golf trip in North Carolina and it's our spring break trip. And how would you go about booking that level of a trip? Because I imagine you got, again hotels, you got to coordinate, you've got dining together, you've got rounds of golf. How do you kind of go from, hey, here's the airlines maybe from different locales, getting people to a common destination, getting them on the court. How do you do all that, I guess is my question?

Jess Rhinehart (21:58):

Well, I'm going to let you in on a little travel agent secret, and that is that I use AI a lot. Yeah, nice.

(22:04):

Alright. I

(22:04):

Use chat GBT quite a bit and I use this a lot for itinerary planning. I do have groups like that. I've got a group of six girls that are going to Italy that all they want to drink wine around the whole country. Cool. How can I develop this itinerary? And so what I did was, and I would do with those golfers is develop a day by day. And then the first thing I always like to lock in is the hotels. Because a lot of times those hotels get booked quickly, especially if it's around master's time or there's specific golfing seasons or times that you guys want to do. We need to lock those in as hotels can sell out quickly.

(22:38):

And then flights where they're coming from California or they're coming from Maine, Canada, that's easy enough to do. We can make that happen. And then we fill in the fun stuff that's reaching out. We use a vendor called Road Trips, which is great for sports specific packages. And they would help me because like I said, I'm not the expert on golf, but I am the expert on travel. So they would help me put together packages for you whether you want to tour master's courses or play on these specific courses, they would help me with that and I would pass that on to you.

Ben Smith (23:07):

Nice. Okay. Awesome. Well, I'm going to ask a big question here. So give a little you a bunch of context. Okay. So it's a big thing. Again, I think when we talk about on the show, and I think with any family, there's family dynamics. And so when you start talking about family travel, whether it be spring break or there's multi-generational trips,

Jess Rhinehart (23:33):

It's a lot of that, but

Ben Smith (23:33):

There's a lot of complex family dynamics that unfurl on the road, right? Good, bad and ugly. And especially being outside our normal environments that flexes new muscles. People especially with anxiety and it can push buttons amongst those we love, even when things are good, all of a sudden you put people in an anxious situation and it can unravel. But when planned appropriately and approach with curiosity, family travel really is the power. Not to just let us relax but also help us heal. Whether it's a mother, son or mother-daughter trip after death in the family, we've heard that a bunch or fully pulling kids out of school to approach immersive education and action grandparents and parents report that bring their littles on the road results in surprising benefits and ultimately creates more open-minded citizens of the world. And we were reading an article earlier, a TV personality and bestselling author, Amanda Klutz looked back at a trip with her son Elvis after the death of her husband, and she shared, I really want to show my son the world. So I was constantly like, come on, we're going in the beginning, her quote, this is scary to do on just my own by find. You learn so much when traveling that I never let being a single parent get in the way for the first time in years we were spending 24 hours a day together. What happened was this beautiful healing experience suggests. So how are you seeing family travel evolve around resets, especially obviously around Amanda Klutz and her situation, but family trauma and also immersive education. How are you seeing this family travel theme work?

Jess Rhinehart (25:08):

Yeah, so a couple thoughts about this in Amanda's quote, and that is just so moving. I think after family trauma trauma, I am seeing an impression from people that they're just going to do it. They're going to pull the kids out of school and they're just going to go, I know I have three kids of my own. And right now we don't hesitate to pull them out of school, don't listen to principals. I'm sorry. I feel like the whole world is an education

(25:33):

In,

(25:33):

For us, the trips, and Ben, you know this too, the trips that you take with your family, all those little ridiculous moments, you're going to be laughing about those. Last month we took our kids to Six Flags and my three teenagers and my husband and I all stayed in the same hotel room and that was a bad idea, but now we're laughing about it and it's those things, those memories, you're not going to get those on the nine to five Monday through Friday grind. Right?

(26:00):

And something else I want to add with family travel, right? We do see a lot a multi-generational family travel, and I hear a lot of families initially like, oh, we all want to share a house, or Oh, we're going to be good four to a hotel room. And I'm telling you, no, don't do that for your own mental health and really free because when you're traveling in these big experiences, big vacations, what I know from people is that they need time to decompress and they need their own space. So get your own hotel room. Don't make night rookie mistake at the best restroom with my family and my kids don't do

Curtis Worcester (26:34):

That. I love it. I love it. All right, so that's the bold note for the show notes, Ben, multiple hotel rooms with family travel. Got it.

Jess Rhinehart (26:41):

Yes

Curtis Worcester (26:43):

In. So Jess, I want to keep going on again, I keep having these trendy questions here. So things that Ben and I are hearing about and seeing out there, the idea of wellness travel and it's morphing into an exercise in longevity. So speaking to our retiree audience here, right? So long considered a leader in the wellness resort concept since opening in southern Spain in 2008, SHA wellness has only continued to refine its already progressive approach to longevity. And in 2024, so in this year, that group opened its first out outpost in North America, SHA Wellness clinic, Mexico. So again, that's where their natural therapies and groundbreaking scientific methods are now more accessible than ever to the American traveler. So guests can anticipate an integrative approach that addresses not just nutrition, but cognitive health, aesthetics and healthy aging. So I guess our question for you, Jess, what are you seeing around wellness, travel and trips to access better aging and longevity? What's out there in your world?

Jess Rhinehart (27:51):

I do see a lot of wellness travel. I see a lot of people curious about it, but not a lot booking yet. They want more information. I think sometimes the cost can be prohibitive for some of this wellness travel. Japan and Italy and Spain are all really big destinations. You can go to Japan and do a whole wellness retreat and take a forest bath and that's really fun. I am seeing people my age and older, I'm 44, want to do some domestic wellness retreats, whether it's staying at a ranch, doing those kind of spa days, girls trips. And I want to add also that Costa Rica has been a really big destination for wellness travel as well as blue, blue zone travel. They call it these countries around the world that their populations tend to live longer. So they want to know, people want to know the secret, so they want to travel there.

Ben Smith (28:44):

That's great. Nice. Well, so Jess, obviously we're in the day and age where I'm holding up my phone for those listening where our phone is,

Jess Rhinehart (28:52):

They're always listening on your phone.

Ben Smith (28:54):

Exactly. It's always with us. And we got AI listening to us all the time and recommending things. And it's advancing at lightning speed, right? It is just transforming many aspects of our lives, as you just said with chat sheet, bt how it can make our lives more efficient and you can spend more time on the things that you want, but especially I think travel, right? As I am sure travel and technology continue to morph together. So we just want to hear from your perspective, what are some of the latest technological advancements or tools that you're seeing that are making travel easier and more enjoyable for your clients? Are there particular apps, gadgets, innovations that become game changers?

Jess Rhinehart (29:33):

Sure. This is a great question, but I will say I am literally the last person to talk to about tech stuff. But I do use it, like I said, I do use chat GBTA lot. So I will say the airline and the travel industry has really, really leaned into this a lot. You see things like biometric screenings with clear, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with Clear.

(29:54):

You literally go walk up and then you walk through and the security line as well as some of the global entry touchpoint. So there's two big airports around the world that are really experimenting with this thing called eGates, which means once you've been initially screened, you don't even have to, you check in and you don't have to do anything else. You literally just walk on the plane because they're reading your biometrics by just walking through. That to me is absolutely amazing. And just for those of us who are not great with travel, I do use things like air tags. So anytime you travel, throw 'em in your suitcase, that way you can track your luggage. Yeah, and there's always apps. Apps are really the way to go. I use all the TSA, the precheck, the global entry, any of those apps as well as all the airline apps in the apps for the hotel. I'm staying in things like city Mapper when I'm in the destination specifically.

Curtis Worcester (30:52):

Yeah, no, that's great. Sorry Ben. I was just going to say from my own experience too, the air tags has been huge for me. Traveling for golf and things, I throw one in the golf bag. So again, it all goes well when I travel and nothing's happened. I'm knocking on wood for everybody

Jess Rhinehart (31:06):

Listening. It's so nice to be able

Curtis Worcester (31:08):

To see where they are. It is, it is. And to your point too, just the apps I think have come a long way too. The airline specific apps or even now integrated with the iPhone maps, when you land at an airport, it's like, welcome to DC Reagan, and here's a tour if you need help. So I think I know one Ben and I talk about too is Google translate for obviously international

Jess Rhinehart (31:31):

Travel. Yes, that's a great point.

Curtis Worcester (31:33):

So I saw a commercial and I need to go try it. So if my wife's listening, she's going to say, gotcha, we're going overseas. So I saw one, it was someone, and again, I forget the manufacturer, whether it was an Android or iPhone, whatever it was, they were wearing essentially AirPods and it was translating in real time for them playing back into their head, which, so I think that whole evolution to me just has to have made this so much easier. I just pictured myself somewhere not being able to communicate at all, and it stresses me out.

Jess Rhinehart (32:04):

That actually, that's such a great point. So I was in France last January I think, and I was struggling really hard with my French, so I was like, I just need polo polo on the menu. I need some chicken. So Google translate really, it does help. It helps so much when you're in a foreign land in a country you've never been to, you don't speak the language that can be overwhelming. Good point.

Ben Smith (32:29):

And just I'll add one more too is that it seems like, and this is, I think the good thing about Covid is that I think it sped up technological advancements, being able to do zoom with people

(32:40):

And kind of doing that is, I think video adoption or video meetings probably we're going to take another 10 years and it feels like that sped it up to three months and people had to do it. But I think similarly on hotels and just kind of our experiences with hotels, and Chris and I traveled around New England together a bunch meeting with clients, and you go to your hotel, it's like, here's the app for the Marriott or the Hilton and the keyless entry into your room. You don't have to stop into the front desk and do stuff. It's all ready to go. Just go to your room and it says your room's ready and it just bing your phone. It's so easy. Unlocks the room for you. So stuff like that I think feels so much more convenient. It just, you're tired after traveling or you've been on the plane all day and you just want to get into that room and kind get stuff unloaded that you don't have to just stand there waiting at the front desk to kind of get checked in and get keys and stuff like that. It's little right? It's so little,

Jess Rhinehart (33:38):

But it adds up. Right. And I think about that too, Ben, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but also with airline tickets, I hear this a lot from the older population. We book their flights and then they want their paper ticket. I'm like, well, we don don't do paper tickets anymore. There's no such thing. You get a little tiny vendor code and that's your code for your flight. But for us, it makes it easy.

Ben Smith (34:00):

And you see that of course when everyone's in line to get on the plane and they got the crumpled paper and it won't scan and

Curtis Worcester (34:07):

They have the wrong one because the desk prints every flight they have for the next week. And it's like, well no, it's not that one, it's this one.

Ben Smith (34:17):

Just let's get the phone and let's put that down and boom. Exactly. So yeah, there's a lot of conveniences there for sure.

Curtis Worcester (34:24):

Love it. So Jess, I have one final question for you and I'm going to warn you ahead of time. It's a pivot. So you've been sharing your expertise with us today and our listeners, and again, thank you so much for doing that. I think it was super informative. I know I learned a lot and I know our listeners enjoy these travel episodes. We do, but I can't let you go without asking you one tough question. So the name of our podcast, the Retirement Success in Main Podcast, I have to ask you, Jess, how are you going to find your own retirement success? What does that look like for you?

Jess Rhinehart (35:00):

I love this question and not a travel question. Okay, so let me think on this. So I am a planner. I'm very type A. So I started planning for my retirement literally 25 years ago. That shows my age, but it's true. I am constantly evaluating where do I want to be five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, financially, professionally, mentally, emotionally with my family. I am a very goal focused person. So if I know in five years I want my business to be here in 20 years, I want to be retired in North Carolina, that's the goal. What do I need to do to make that happen?

Curtis Worcester (35:35):

Yeah, I love that.

Jess Rhinehart (35:37):

If you have any advice, I'm always listening to the podcast.

Ben Smith (35:41):

Perfect. Okay, well, Jess, that's really awesome. And again, we're pretty excited to see you achieve those goals yourself, but also, I know obviously just getting to know you over time and just seeing your passion for travel. We want to make sure you could share that with our audience too. I think this is something where there's a lot of people that are going to get something from this today and able to influence and maybe imagine themselves during our conversation today. So I hope you all listen to achieve that. So just thanks so much for coming on our show. Would love to have you back and maybe touch on the next theme of travel when those come up. But until then, be well,

Jess Rhinehart (36:23):

Thank you. This is a great opportunity and so fun on election day even.

Ben Smith (36:26):

That's right. So good to see Jess Reinhardt today, right? Is again, get a travel advisor in, get a little update Again. I know all of us is Curtis, when you and I sit down with our clients and talk about dreams and goals and things we want to do, just discretionary, just travel's always the top of the list. So this is the necessary thing to keep coming back to you and tapping the well and just see what's going on.

Curtis Worcester (36:58):

And it's fun too. They're fun conversations and we learn, we know our listeners learn. It's stuff that everyone can relate to. So they're good, they're good conversations.

Ben Smith (37:06):

Yeah. So again, I think where Jess and Carrie Forman before just, they serve a similar clientele. So it's just kind of good to see as people want advice and they want help. And I think having two service-minded people together, you and I and them is great.

(37:28):

But we want to obviously point you to some resources if you want to go further and dig in. We're of course going to have all Jess's contact information on our blog. Obviously we will have our show notes including our transcript there, so you can kind check it out. If you want to read through a little bit more, we'll have that. But yeah, I'd love to just make sure we're, if you want to reach out to Jess that that's available to you and you can reach out to her at Milton Travel and do that. But to do that, you got to go to our website, you got to go to blog dot guidance point llc.com/ 1 0 5 for episode 1 0 5. So we're keeping rolling here. We're pretty excited to keep going into 2025 here very shortly. And again, we're having a lot of fun doing this and appreciate you all tuning in, so we will catch you next time.