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Every Thursday on Unpacked by Afar, we tackle a new tricky topic in travel. Because the travel world is complicated. We’re here to help you unpack it.
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Episodes
On this episode of Unpacked, host Katherine LaGrave talks with Emma John about road-tripping through Victoria, Australia’s best spa towns, from thermal springs to a 130-year-old bathhouse.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene talks with Kathryn Romeyn about Thailand off the beaten path, from Nan Province’s night markets to Khao Sok’s rainforest lakes.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene talks with Diaspora Co. founder Sana Javeri Kadri about what it takes to trace a turmeric root back to the farmer who grew it.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene skips the crowds of the Great Migration for a walking and boat safari on Tanzania’s Southern Circuit.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Katherine LaGrave talks with Ryan Knighton about walking Japan’s earthquake-scarred Noto Peninsula one year after the quake.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene talks with Lavinia Spalding about building an anthology of women’s travel writing out of thousands of submissions a year—and how her own idea of adventure has changed since she was 25.
Buffalo’s architecture is among the most important in America. On this episode of Unpacked, we explore Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and the grain silos that inspired modernism.
On this episode of Unpacked, journalist Sophia Smith Galer shares how she traveled from Oman to California tracking endangered languages—and what travelers can actually do to help save them.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene walks Buffalo’s Michigan Street to uncover 185 years of Black history, from the Underground Railroad to jazz.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene hikes the waterfalls and ancient peaks that make the mountains around Asheville impossible to leave.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene tours Asheville’s restaurants to taste how farm-to-table cooking and Appalachian tradition feed the city.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene heads to Black Mountain to trace how one experimental college still shapes Asheville’s art and music scene.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene visits the salt caves and sound baths that carry on Asheville’s century-old tradition of wellness tourism.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene uncovers how the Cherokee, the Vanderbilts, and generations of Black Asheville built the city we see today.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene traces how waves of immigrants, from Polish settlers to refugees today, built Buffalo’s neighborly reputation.
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene speaks with Buffalo locals about the true origins of wings, beef on weck, and the city’s food pride.
On this episode of Unpacked: Five Questions, host Katherine LaGrave talks with Afar columnist Latria Graham about spending 7 weeks and 5,000 miles on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail—and why the story of York, the enslaved man who walked every step of it, has been missing from the American story for 225 years.
On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene talks with Lindsey Danis, author of (Out) on the Road, about why LGBTQ+ Americans are twice as likely to hold a passport—and how queer travelers can move through the world with more research, more power, and a lot more joy.
On this season finale of Unpacked: Travel to Listen, host Tim Chester visits Detroit’s Hitsville U.S.A. to find out why the music Berry Gordy built in 1959 still sounds like nothing else—and how Robin Terry is turning the Motown Museum into something even bigger.
On this Feel-Good Friday episode of Unpacked by Afar, Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland raise a glass to Lost Lantern’s semiquincentennial bourbon, make the case for dude ranch vacations, and talk about why America’s 250th birthday is worth celebrating.
On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, hosts Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland pack the car and drive Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where they find shipwrecks beneath crystal-clear lakes, a car-free island frozen in 1900, and a sparkling wine made on the 45th parallel.
On this Feel Good Friday episode of Unpacked by Afar, Aislyn Greene, Nikki Galteland, and Afar senior editor Lucy share good news about a wave of global museum openings, the world’s largest ocean reserve, and the enduring magic of Roald Dahl’s storytelling.
On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, Billie Cohen and Afar hotel expert Jennifer Flowers walk through the 40 properties on Afar’s Best New Hotels of 2026 list—and make the case that the best new hotel in the world might be a 1926 building in Charleston or a meadow in the Berkshires.
On this episode of Unpacked: Travel to Listen, host Tim Chester discovers why the Mojave Desert around Joshua Tree has been producing some of rock’s most original music for decades—and why once the desert gets under your skin, it never really lets go.
On this Feel Good Friday episode of Unpacked by Afar, the team shares good news about Australia’s plastic reduction, a Polish climber who skied down Everest alone, and the female guides redefining safari in Botswana.
On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene travels to the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park to spend time with the women breaking into one of Africa’s most male-dominated professions—and discover why having a female guide changes everything about being in the bush.
On this Feel-Good Friday episode of Unpacked by Afar, Aislyn Greene, Nikki Galteland, and Katherine LaGrave make the case that the path to happiness runs straight through a dance floor, a dog-friendly lobby, and a conversation with a stranger on a plane.
On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene talks with photographer and adventurer Brad Ryan about the road trip of a lifetime—visiting every U.S. national park with his grandmother—and what he learned about age, connection, and what travel is really for.
On this episode of Unpacked: Travel to Listen, host Tim Chester discovers how Minneapolis became one of America’s most original music cities—and why, a decade after Prince’s passing, the sound he created has never been more alive.
On this “Feel-Good Friday” road trip episode of Unpacked by Afar, Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland debate the one song that defined the millennial generation—and make a strong case for SPF.