Acanela customer Gillian Salerno-Rebic sits down with us and shares her top travel memories, what she loves about Acanela expeditions, her experience on a Morocco tour, and more! Listen to hear her Acanela Expeditions review!

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Gillian has learned from traveling solo (1:26)

• What has been Gillian’s most memorable experience (4:41)

• Gillian tells about the Morocco Girlboss trip (6:32)

• Gillian’s favorite thing about Morocco (9:31)

• What trips is Gillian looking forward to (10:41)

• Gillian’s next adventure (11:32)

Gillian’s Background

Dakota: Hi everybody. Welcome back. This is Dakota and today we're sitting down with Gillian, one of our ambassadors. Thank you, Gillian, for being here today.

Gillian: Hey Dakota. Glad to be here.

Dakota: Gillian traveled with us on our Girlboss trip to Morocco. Today we're excited to talk about her experiences and where she's off to next. Gillian, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Gillian: Yeah, absolutely. I'm from Dallas, Texas and I am a consultant by day and I do some travel blogging for Acanela by night and weekend. I'm super into yoga and cooking so whenever I travel I look for experiences that mix in a lot of activities, physical fitness, as well as some really intense foodie experiences.

Lessons Learned from Solo Travel

Dakota: Nice. And going back to your past travel experiences, what have you learned from traveling solo?

Gillian: So much. I don't know where to start. Let's start with packing actually. All of that pre-trip prep, I've gotten really, really good at condensing down what I bring with me and really good at layering clothing. I would say Morocco was a particular challenge just because we're going from desert to mountain climates, so I had to be prepared for almost anything. We had some pretty beautiful days. We had some days that got seriously cold, so it was a fun challenge to fit that into one duffel and one backpack. But I did it.

And I'd say the next thing I learned as far as being in a location and getting somewhere, it's actually a new revelation for me. I actually do not like to arrive somewhere after the sun has set and it's not really a safety thing for me. It's more just when you arrive to a new place and you're by yourself, you want to feel welcomed and for some reason sunshine for me is welcoming and night is not welcoming. Had a couple stops, I was in Italy before I went to Morocco. Had a couple of stops there where I got there after dark and just could not wait for the morning to come.

Dakota: Even if it's not safety, I feel like sun being out in the day is super welcoming.

Gillian: Yeah. Yeah. It's much easier to make friends during the daytime I think. That's also something else. Just kind of always be ready to talk to a stranger. I've had some instances where my phone has not been picking up a signal when I travel and so I have to ask someone for their kindness and their phone for about five minutes to get my bearings. But yeah, I feel like daytime is pretty welcoming in any city wherever you are in the world.

Dakota: Yeah, for sure. It might be a little weird to ask for a stranger's phone when it's dark, especially late.

Gillian: Yeah. Nobody's going to really acquiesce on that one. Definitely have really kind of gone all out I think in my experiences in the last year and it's been great to really try new foods and seek out things that are even more authentic. I've traveled to Italy several times. I studied there in college and was pretty fluent at the time. I'm a little less fluent these days, but I'm still was able to kind of make my way through the cities I was going to.

And honestly more than anything, I just wanted to make sure that when I was in that city, I was eating what was actually super native to that town. For Cinque Terre, it was making sure I got some pesto because basil is native and very almost salty because it's grown right by the ocean there. And so their pesto was really fantastic and world-renowned. When I was in Milan, it was making sure I got some wild animal charcuterie. I had some wild boar salami, which was out of this world. And just making sure that when I hit a city that I'm getting the best of what that city has to offer. I'm not just, oh, it's Italy, pizza sign.

Gillian’s Favorite Travel Experience

Dakota: Those are all really good points. And I've traveled before solo and I feel like if you follow that, you're going to be set. We're going to talk about your Morocco trip in a little bit, but what has been your most memorable experience traveling so far?

Gillian: Oh gosh. It's so hard to say. There's so many. I'm actually going to kind of default to Italy again. I had a really special time there this past October as well. It was 10 years since I'd first been there and I got to hike in Cinque Terre by myself solo. I woke up the morning after I'd arrived and knew that I was going to go on a long hike. What I didn't know was that the main hiking trail had been blown out by mud and rain so I had to kind of reorient myself and find a hiking path to get me from one town to another if I couldn't get to all five in a day. I went to the train station just where the maps are, and the guides. Checked in with the guide in my Italian and asked him if this trail was okay and about how long it was going to be.

And he said, "Oh, it's perfect. It's a beautiful hike. Three and a half hours. You can do it." I was like, "Great." And off I went. About 20 minutes up into my hike, I realized I had forgotten my sunscreen, but fortunately had a scarf so I kind of Assassin's Creeded it and kept walking up the mountain. And at the end of those three and a half hours, I think I got lost once. But really it was I just missed the turn by 50 feet. That's not a huge backtrack. And made it 10 kilometers and treated myself to lobster spaghetti on the ocean after that.

Gillian’s Experience on a Morocco Tour

Dakota: Awesome. Shifting gears to your trip with us, Acanela, last year you went on the Morocco Girlboss trip with a Kylie, our CEO. Can you tell us about that trip?

Gillian: Oh my gosh. I did not know what to expect from Morocco. First off, it was just a year in the making. I did writing articles for you all and promoting content and developing relationships with Kylie and the other ambassadors over the course of the year and to finally get to Morocco just blew my mind. It felt completely surreal for the first 24 hours. And so when we arrived, I was just kind of going to take it all in and see what the country had to offer and I could not have been more impressed with the experience that we had. Every city was just completely unique and full of very inviting hosts and super engaging tours.

Gillian: Everyone that we traveled with, we literally became sisters in an instant and I've actually seen several people I traveled within the last couple of months since going to Morocco. I've seen about four or five of them in different cities in the US. And honestly, I wasn't expecting to have forged a bond with people on a tour so quickly. But I think something about Morocco kind of necessitates this kind of familial environment just because it's so old and it's so just kind of rustic and there's a lot of authenticity in every city.

Dakota: How many people were on that trip with you?

Gillian: There was 10 of us and it was great because our age ranges were 23 to 42 and I fall right in the middle of that. And you wouldn't have known that there was a gap in anybody's age. We all just clicked instantly and laughed a lot and we're very conscientious of each other. Making sure that everyone had what they needed at any point in time. Could not have been a more delightful group to travel with.

Girl Boss Experience & Favorite Thing About Morocco

Dakota: Awesome. And do you have any plans, I guess, see those people or travel with them again in the future?

Gillian: Yeah, absolutely. I was in Austin with four of them last weekend for one of their birthdays, which is super fun and I know that a couple of them are coming on some trips with me later this year. Yeah, we definitely all want to see each other again soon and know that we could travel well together again.

Gillian: I think honestly that my favorite part about Morocco was in Fez. I bought a rug at the rug shop that we were there visiting and so we're all there standing around and waiting for my rug to get wrapped up and we're going to head out and go to the next place and the heads of the shop say, "Oh, come over here and take a picture with the staff. It's custom. It's a good experience. We want you to remember this moment and it's so special." And before I knew it, they had tossed me into a rug, lifted me up into the air and everyone is standing around me in a circle and they are swinging me back and forth, singing in Arabic and everyone on the team and on our group was just dying laughing. And it was a moment I'm never going to forget.

Dakota: Yeah. Well, that was great. That was my next question, what was your favorite thing? I think you covered it.

Gillian: Yeah, it was the magic carpet ride in Fez.

Gillian’s Advice On Traveling to Morocco

Dakota: Yeah. Any advice for someone going to Morocco?

Gillian: Yeah, I think just kind of expect magic. It's such an old country. Every city is just full of delightful people and a lot of charm. Take the time to look around. Make sure that you are having a local guide with you in each city that you go to. That's one of the rules there in the countries that they have to be a certified tour guide. Otherwise, they'll get in trouble, you'll get in trouble. But having those local guides was an incredible resource. Don't try and do it yourself, pay for the local authentic experience and you will not regret it.

Dakota: Awesome. I like where you expect magic. I like that phrase.

Gillian: Yeah, absolutely. And there's really no other way to put it, it's just, it's so, so different than anything I've ever experienced before, just because of the age. I've been to Rome and all of that, but there's something about, it almost feels untouched.

Gillian’s Bucketlist Locations

Dakota: Awesome. Looking forward I guess, what places are on your bucket list to travel to?

Gillian: Oh, I've got a few coming up. I'm going to Svalbard with Acanela later this summer in June. We'll be there for the summer solstice so it's going to be 24 hours of sunlight up in the Arctic Circle. We're going to see some polar bears and some whales, and for me, polar bears, seeing them in their natural habitat, it's going to be a dream come true. I'm just excited. I actually bought a super eight film camera over Christmas to start recording all of my vacations that I go on to get that kind of really edgy, grainy film in a modern setting.

Dakota: Awesome. And any other adventures coming up this year?

Gillian: Oh yeah. I'm actually tackling an awesome adventure onto Svalbard. When we finish up there, I'm actually going to go to Amsterdam for a long weekend and meet up with some friends and then take a 16 day Scottish Highland tour and get to nerd out a little bit with some Harry Potter stuff in Scotland and find some more magic with the faeries there. And then, yeah, I'm hoping to join you all again in Cuba in the fall. And looking forward to March of 2021 when I go to Antarctica.

Dakota: Yeah, that's exciting. That's over a year away though.

Gillian: It is over a year away. But it's going to, when it comes down to it, I'll be able to say that I've hit both poles in under a year and taken a polar plunge in the Arctic and the Antarctic. I'm super excited for.

Dakota: Yeah. What number continent will that be for you?

Gillian: Well, because we're going to hit South America before we get to Antarctica. That'll be number six for me and I'll just have Australia left.

Dakota: Wow. Yeah, that's pretty exciting. Well, is there anything else you want to add? Anything that we missed or that you want to talk about?

Gillian: I'd say always leave room for souvenirs, but you can also just ship them back. Honestly, I was very impressed with how everything was packed up and shipped from Morocco to the US. DHL does a great job shipping pottery and whatnot. Yeah. And I think just don't be afraid to go somewhere by yourself, even if you don't speak the language. There are so many ways to kind of workaround that, whether it's through guides or Airbnb experiences or a tour group. Ultimately when you travel by yourself, you're going to end up making friends. You can either do it on a tour, you can do it by yourself. And both ways are fantastic.

Dakota: Great comments for sure. And I feel like going solo or going in a group, it's just what you make of it, right?

Gillian: Absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, just kind of waiting to say yes to any experience that comes your way. I knew when Kylie mentioned Svalbard, I had already kind of had my year mapped out in my mind of where I wanted to travel and it was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. And I'm really looking forward to it.

Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions

Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle