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“You feel like a superhero”
Tori and Katy open the discussion reminiscing about early travel and how it felt to be young women experiencing traveling alone for the first time — Katy on a solo trip overseas and Tori as a student abroad. The feelings of nervousness and anxiety quickly turned into feelings of self-trust and reliance.
“I think for women especially…it’s important if you can take one solo trip in your life just to experience it all. It’s magic.”
But is it safe?
Tori dives into a topic that might be top of mind for women traveling alone — safety. When asked about her own experiences as a woman traveling alone, Katy shared her thoughts and what to look out for. “I think as a woman, you shouldn’t be scared to go places, but you should be highly aware of where you’re going, what you’re doing.” She stresses the importance of not only researching destinations but she shares how and where to research.
Travel deals, steals, and myths
I’m sure at some point, we’ve all heard some well-meaning travel guru share their “hacks” for scoring travel deals–from telling us to book travel on certain days to only searching for airfare in an incognito window. So what’s the deal? Are these actual hacks or are they myths? Katy breaks down which tips you should keep and which ones to throw away. Hint — the ones just mentioned? Yeah, throw those away.
“They’re incorrect. I’m sorry to say the airlines are not watching you or your search histories. That’s not how it happens.”
Instead, Katy shares her tried and true methods for saving money on everything from airfare to hotel stays, including the best times to travel to take advantage of off-season deals.
Katy’s Top Travel Tips
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Carry on, don’t check
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Consider extended stays
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Be mindful of spending habits
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Employ ethical tourism
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Embrace second cities
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Seek work-friendly destinations
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Travel with an open mind
Katy and Tori talk in more depth about traveling on a budget, ethical traveling, and ways to save money while traveling on this week’s episode of Financial Feminist.
Katy’s Links:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Meet Katy
Katy started her career in digital media after attending Boston College. An early stint at The Boston Globe helped expose her to the many facets of the publishing industry, until ultimately leaving to explore being a freelance writer and on-camera host. Combining media pursuits (writing, video) with her love for travel & sport, Katy was able to work on large-scale sporting events like the 36th America’s Cup, Formula E, and SailGP. Through event work and freelancing, Katy was able to hit 30 countries before turning 30, and work with brands internationally like the US Sailing Olympic Team, Sperry Topsider, LATAM Airlines, Red Bull, and more.
Travel has always been a huge part of Katy’s life and so it was a match made in heaven when Going hired her to be their spokesperson and travel expert back in November. Since then Katy has appeared on dozens of networks including NBC, CNN, Good Morning America, and CBS. Katy has represented Going in outlets such as Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast, AFAR, Real Simple, and more. Constantly keeping up with travel industry news, and always thinking about her next country to tick off 50 before 40, she’s pumped to be chatting on the Financial Feminist to get more people traveling (and for as affordably as possible!)
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over one million women negotiate salary, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of almost 250,000 on Instagram and more than 1.6 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
