Sarah Murdoch: Global Travel Tales Interview

Professional tour guide, travel writer, artist and occasional architect

In this episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel, we’re excited to feature Sarah Murdock, a renowned figure in the world of travel. Known to some as Sarah O’Hare, her maiden name, Sarah O'Hare Murdoch has established herself as a professional tour guide, travel writer, artist, and sometimes an architect. Her life is a captivating blend of adventure, culture, and artistic expression. Each journey she embarks on is more than just a visit to a new place; it’s a deep exploration of different cultures, an experience she passionately shares through her diverse talents.

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Sarah's Early Love for Travel

Sarah's journey into the world of travel began in her childhood. Her early experiences with travel sparked a deep-seated love for exploring new places. This passion was significantly amplified during her time studying in Italy in 1995. That year marked a turning point, transforming her from a curious traveler into a dedicated explorer. It was in the historic streets and vibrant cultures of Italy that Sarah's lifelong love affair with travel truly began. Her stories from these early travels are not just about the places she visited, but about the people she met and the cultures she experienced.

From Architecture to the World of Travel

Sarah's academic background is as intriguing as her career. She holds a BA in Architecture from the University of Washington. Initially, she embarked on a career in architecture, bringing designs and structures to life. However, the allure of the wider world proved too strong to resist. Sarah made a bold decision to transition from the drafting table to globetrotting. This shift from architecture to travel highlights her multifaceted personality, combining a keen eye for design with a zest for cultural experiences. Her architectural background gives her a unique perspective on the places she visits, often bringing insights into the history and design of the landmarks she explores with her groups.

The Guide Collective: A Virtual Travel Community

In April 2020, Sarah launched The Guide Collective. This platform is far more than a simple travel magazine. It's a vibrant community for travel enthusiasts, offering virtual tours and insightful articles. The Guide Collective is a reflection of Sarah's commitment to keeping the spirit of travel alive, even in challenging times. It's a space where the love for exploration can flourish, supported by the insights and experiences of a community of like-minded individuals. The platform has grown to include contributions from other travel experts, expanding its reach and diversity of content.

Adventures with Sarah: Unique Travel Experiences

Through her initiative, Adventures with Sarah, she offers something truly special. Here, Sarah organizes small group tours, with a particular focus on Italy, a country that holds a special place in her heart. These tours are crafted to offer an intimate, immersive experience. They steer clear of the well-trodden tourist trails, instead delving into the heart and soul of the destinations. Sarah's tours are characterized by her personal touch, her extensive knowledge, and her passion for sharing the lesser-known facets of the places she loves. Her clients often rave about the unique experiences they have on her tours, from private cooking classes with local chefs to exclusive visits to hidden historical sites.

Sarah's Travel-Filled Life

Annually, Sarah dedicates approximately four months to travel. This commitment is a testament to her passion. Her work involves not just guiding tours but also contributing to guidebooks and indulging in her love for fine wine. This lifestyle, a blend of professional dedication and personal passion, is a dream for many. For Sarah, it's a reality she's crafted out of her love for exploration and cultural engagement. Her insights into the world of wine, in particular, add an extra layer of enjoyment to her tours, as she often includes visits to vineyards and wine tastings.

Balancing Travel and Family

Despite her extensive travels, Sarah's roots remain firmly planted in Seattle, the United States, where she resides. Here, she plays the role of a mother to Lucca and Nicola, her favorite travel companions. This aspect of her life adds a relatable dimension to her persona, showcasing her ability to balance her professional wanderlust with her responsibilities as a parent. It's a juggling act that many can relate to, making her experiences and advice even more valuable. Her stories of traveling with her children offer a unique perspective on family travel, showing that adventure and exploration can be a part of life at any age.

Sarah as a Cultural Connector

Sarah firmly believes that travel is more than just seeing new places; it's about creating and nurturing connections between different cultures. Her experiences as a tour guide and travel writer have positioned her as a sort of cultural ambassador. Through her work, she bridges gaps and fosters understanding, making the world a little smaller and more connected with each journey. Her approach to travel emphasizes respectful and sustainable tourism, encouraging her clients to engage with local communities in a way that is mindful of their traditions and environment.

Looking Ahead: Sarah's Ongoing Passion for Travel

Sarah's enthusiasm for travel remains undiminished. Her future plans involve continuing to explore new destinations, sharing her experiences through her writing and tours, and inspiring others to embark on their own journeys of discovery. Her story is a beacon for both novice and seasoned travelers, demonstrating that the world of travel is an ever-evolving, endlessly fascinating place. She often speaks about her desire to visit less-traveled destinations and bring back stories and insights from these places, further enriching the tapestry of her travel experiences.

Conclusion: A Life of Exploration

In conclusion, Sarah Murdoch, also known as Sarah O'Hare Murdoch, is a figure who embodies the spirit of adventure, culture, and art. Her journey is a source of inspiration for anyone with a love for travel. Whether you're just starting out or you've been traveling for years, Sarah's experiences and insights offer something valuable. Join us on Ira’s Everything Bagel as we explore the exciting world of Sarah Murdoch, a true enthusiast and expert in the realm of travel and cultural exploration.

FAQs About Author Sarah Murdoch

Who is Sarah Murdoch?

Sarah Murdoch, née Sarah O'Hare, is a British-Australian model, actress, and television presenter. She gained fame in the 1990s as a successful international model, working with major brands like L'Oréal, Revlon, and Ralph Lauren. She is also known for her work as a television host, including hosting "Australia's Next Top Model" from 2009 to 2011. Sarah is married to Lachlan Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Who is Sarah O'Hare Murdoch?

Sarah O'Hare Murdoch is the same person as Sarah Murdoch. Born Sarah O'Hare, she adopted the Murdoch surname after marrying Lachlan Murdoch. She is recognized for her successful modeling career and her roles in television and media.

How old is Sarah Murdoch?

Sarah Murdoch was born on May 31, 1972, making her 52 years old as of 2024.

How tall is Sarah Murdoch?

Sarah Murdoch is approximately 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) tall.

What is "Adventures with Sarah Murdoch"?

"Adventures with Sarah Murdoch" refers to the travel ventures of a different Sarah Murdoch, who is a professional tour guide, travel writer, and founder of a boutique travel company called Adventures with Sarah. This Sarah Murdoch leads guided tours around the world, writes travel guides, and offers travel advice and inspiration through her blog and social media channels.

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Sarah Murdoch Podcast Epsiode Full Transcript

Ira Sternberg: Welcome to Ira's Everything Bagel, where I talk with intriguing people about everything—their passions, pursuits, and points of view. My guest today is Sarah Murdoch, professional tour guide, travel writer, artist, and occasional architect who has traveled the world and yet keeps her feet on the ground. Her popular packing lecture, Packing Light and Right, has helped thousands of travelers. For everything about Sarah Murdoch—that’s S-A-R-A-H—go to adventureswithsarah.net, and you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And Sarah, welcome to the show.
Sarah Murdoch: Thank you for having me.
Ira: So, what got you into the world of travel? I know it was at a young age.
Sarah: I actually started traveling with my family. My dad is from Ireland, so we went to visit my family in Ireland when I was about 10 years old. I just really enjoyed it, and I loved the differences between American culture and European culture. So, I really got it into my head—because I love to paint and draw—that I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. Starting at about 18 years old, I saved up money to go back to Europe because we didn’t go to Italy at that time. So, I saved up and went back to Italy when I was about 20 years old and loved it so much that I decided to study architecture and study in Rome. I studied in Rome in the mid-90s, and even once I got my job as an architect, I just kept wanting to go back. Someone asked me, “If you could do anything, what would you do?” and I said, “Oh, I don’t know, maybe be a travel writer.” So, I applied and got a job with Rick Steves in 2000 as a travel writer and tour guide, and I’ve sort of been on the road ever since.
Ira: I think everybody in the world of travel knows the name Rick Steves—he’s been around for a long time, and you’ve been working for him for a while too. There’s this classic presentation that you made—I think it was on a cruise ship, if I remember correctly—where you did a packing tutorial. You’ve done several since then. Did you come up with the idea that packing was what most people needed to know so they could enjoy the trip rather than lugging 80 pounds of luggage and taking everything including the kitchen sink with them to Europe and beyond?
Sarah: It was a funny thing, actually, how I started into the packing piece of my business and what I do. When I worked for Rick Steves, somebody came up to me one day and said, “Hey, we need somebody to do a packing talk.” They did these regularly, and the person who was supposed to do it that particular Saturday was unavailable, and nobody else who did lectures regularly was available. So they called and said, “Could you do this?” I said, “Well, I just got back—I don’t even know how to do a packing talk,” and they said, “We know you can figure it out—just have fun with it.” So, I showed up with my bag full of dirty laundry—I had literally walked in the door two days before. I travel with a backpack because I really prefer it—it makes you more agile. You can get from your plane to your train to your bus without having to worry about lugging something behind you. I’ve always traveled with a backpack, and I’ve learned tricks over the years—my own tricks. So, I showed up with this backpack full of stinky laundry at a theater with 300 people in it. I walked up there and said, “Well, you’re going to get the completely unbiased, unfiltered look at what a tour guide takes with them when they travel in Europe for two months. Please hold your noses because I haven’t washed anything.” I literally emptied my backpack out on the table and showed everybody what I had, why I put those things in my bag, and what was really funny is that everybody loved it. I’d never thought to teach packing or tell people how I went about it because people would joke that I was Mary Poppins, that I could pull many things out of my bag. My basic philosophy and the main point I try to teach people is to not think about how many things you bring—don’t think about that at all. You have to change the way you approach things, and this comes very much from my background as an architect. It’s like Tetris, right? You need to maximize the number of things that you bring with you in your bag based on the maximum amount of weight you want to bring. By weighing all the things that you want to bring with you, you can kind of hack packing in that way. Instead of saying, “Oh, you should bring six pairs of pants and three pairs of shirts and two t-shirts,” I don’t say that. What I say is, you need to look at what your airline says is the maximum carry-on weight and what you physically can carry—what is that number? It might be 15 pounds, it might be 10 pounds, and then you need to pack to that weight. It’s just an interesting thing that I’ve always done with my own packing, and I never thought to explain it to somebody else. But when I started doing it, people loved it. It really kind of took off—this strange side tangent in a completely different direction.
Ira: And we’re going to talk about your other tangents as well, but the thing about packing that always amazed me was, in general, people not just think about taking everything they want to bring—they want to bring their home with them. A lot of people do that—not everybody—but even those who pack light, I’ve watched videos on YouTube where they say, “Yes, we’re going to pack light now for this 10-day trip. I’m taking five shirts and five pairs of pants and 20 socks.” I’m thinking, well, that’s not light! Somehow they get it all into the suitcase or the backpack. It would seem to me that the best way to approach this—what I’ve heard—is that, let’s say you’re traveling for a month, but you just pack for a week and prepare to do laundry for the rest of the time. It’s not that hard to do laundry, and that way, you keep it light, and you can, as you say, put it in a backpack and make it work.
Sarah: Yeah, that’s another approach. I mean, you don’t need to bring everything in the world—you just need to bring things that fit the particular activities you’re doing. You’re going to bring something very different to Iceland than you would bring to Sicily, for example. So, you need to think through what it is that you need and only bring just what you need, and assume you can wash clothes along the way somewhere. Although, sometimes you can’t—sometimes it’s hard. So, what I do is, I bring things that can be washed—that’s underwear, you have to wash. The important thing is to decide on what it is you have to wash, because you don’t always get a chance to do a whole laundry for a week. Here’s the magic trick—you take those particular things with yourself. So, I wash my underclothes when I’m shampooing my hair. Just little tricks like that—that’s the way that you can keep up with your laundry throughout a trip. And yeah, you’re right—you can bring just a week’s worth of laundry, even for a six- or seven-week trip.
Ira: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Is your family used to your wanderlust in that it started at an early age and now you’re in adulthood, obviously? Are any members of your family still amazed that you do this, or are they all supportive?
Sarah: Oh, they’re all supportive. My kids are part of the act now—they come along with me, they’re in a lot of my videos, and they travel with me for part of the year. My dad is going to come with me—he’s going to be a co-guide on a tour I’m doing of Ireland this next year. So, yeah, they love it—they love what I do. It’s just a part of my life, and everybody is kind of okay with that.
Ira: One of the things that I mentioned in the opening is that a lot of your advice that you give to people is down-to-earth advice. You get real in terms of what to pack, what to bring, how to deal with certain situations, and you don’t necessarily see that a lot of times with people who are in that world. Have you always done that—just been down-to-earth and practical and said, “Look, you have to deal with this, so this is how you do it,” or “Here are two ways to deal with it, and things happen—you’re human”?
Sarah: I think that comes very much from my background as a tour guide. I’ve been a tour guide for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen people break all kinds of bones; I’ve had medical emergencies—I’ve seen everything. Because of that experience, I know what works and what doesn’t. My job looks super exotic and glamorous, but the reality is you’re going to be miserable if you don’t bring the right underwear. You’re going to be miserable if your shoes don’t fit. That’s the thing—I want people to have great trips and great experiences. If you are thoughtful about the way you pack, it’s not a glamorous topic, but it’s so important. Plain speaking is important—telling people the nitty-gritty. That’s the difference, I think, between me and other travel writers. I don’t talk about cliff diving in Curaçao or whatever—what I talk about is how many pairs of underwear you should bring with you.
Ira: Makes perfect sense. What’s your best piece of advice for people along those lines? It doesn’t have to be underwear, but just your best number one piece of advice for a first-time traveler and then a long-term traveler that may not know that piece of advice.
Sarah: For a first-time traveler, keep in mind that nobody ever got home and said, "I wish I’d packed more." There’s nobody in history that’s ever said, "I wish I had packed more." You can always buy anything that you’re missing in any country. It doesn’t matter—I go to Asia, I go to all kinds of places that are very exotic, and every single place on Earth has a toothbrush and toothpaste. So many people get on planes feeling nervous because they overpack, worried they’re going to miss something. The reality is you can buy basically everything almost anywhere in the world, even in really remote places. You need to kind of take that fear away.
For people who are very experienced travelers, my challenge to them is, how little can you bring? Can you bring just a light bag that’s under 10 or 15 pounds? You should challenge yourself because you’ll find that if you do that, your life as a traveler will exponentially improve. You can be so light on your feet—you can jump on and off public transportation without worrying about your luggage. You don’t have to stress about lost luggage or airlines mishandling your bags if you’re a carry-on traveler. Traveling light really enhances the overall experience. And you know, this philosophy isn’t just for travel—you can bring it into your life at home. You might start questioning why you own so many things if you can live out of a backpack for eight weeks. It can lead to a minimalist mindset in other aspects of life.
Ira: That minimalist mindset makes perfect sense. Really, the essential thing you have to take with you—because as you said, you can get anything anywhere—is probably your medication, right? That’s the number one thing to make sure you have with you?
Sarah: Yes, medication is important. But even with that, you can bring your prescriptions with you. If you have a really critical medication, bring your doctor’s prescription with you. But here’s a little trick—a lot of people don’t know that pharmacies abroad will often sell you things that you might have difficulty getting at home. For example, there are certain medications I take that I can get over the counter without a prescription when I’m traveling in places like Thailand. Don’t get too wrapped up in that stuff—bring your prescription, but also know that in most countries, you can find medications, and some of them might even be cheaper than what you find in the United States.
Ira: You referenced the airlines earlier, and I think stress comes from just getting on a plane. Do you have a couple of tips for people in terms of minimizing that stress of going through security, settling down in your seat, and just enjoying the ride?
Sarah: I think it’s all about your state of mind. I’m a mom—I have two teenagers, I’m a single mom, I run my own business, and I have ten guides who work for me. So for me, I see the airplane as my haven—I see it as my capsule, the place where nobody can call me. I don’t log on to the internet—though I know a lot of people like connecting to the internet on the plane. What I like to do is put on my headphones with some music, play solitaire, have someone make me a cocktail—I mean, I’m a mom, so nobody makes me dinner at home. I love sitting down and having someone bring me dinner on a plane.
The top tip for comfort on a plane for everyone is to consider buying compression socks. It sounds really strange, but if you wear these knee socks that give you compression, they actually make you feel more comfortable in your seat. They’re great if you have restless legs, and they’ve also been shown to reduce jet lag. It’s something about the circulation—it really does help your mood and attitude. Some people do better if they take a few gummies from the cannabis store—I’m not one of them, but some people do. For me, just a gin and tonic is good. But yeah, it’s all about how you look at it. I look at it as my time when nobody can disturb me—I can read, I can write, I can watch a movie. When you have that kind of mental positivity, it makes the trip a lot easier.
Ira: Does it make sense when you’re a tour guide—and you’re also doing so many other things—to always have that little amplifier and microphone with you? I imagine you could probably lose any luggage you check in, but that’s the one thing you must have with you all the time so that when you’re giving a tour, people can hear you.
Sarah: Yes, that’s the one thing I hate because I can’t fully live my own advice as much as I’d like. I have these things called whisper systems—they’re a broadcasting system. I wear a little box with a microphone, and when I talk, all of my individual tour members can hear me through little radios they carry. So, I have to bring 20 radios with me.
Ira: I’m old school—I thought it was just a little microphone with a speaker amplifier.
Sarah: No, we’re not allowed to use those anymore because they’re kind of noisy. So instead, we have these systems where people plug in their headphones and can hear me. They’re like old school Walkmans. That’s a bit of a drag because the system weighs about four pounds, and if I can only bring 15 pounds with me, that takes up a lot of weight. But it really does help with the quality of life for my guests, so I just suck it up and carry it.
Ira: I would imagine, too, that because you lead so many tours, it can feel like herding cats sometimes. You’re going from point A to point B, and suddenly one of the group is busy looking at something else or talking to somebody and not hearing what you’re saying. So, part of your job is to herd them and get them going to the next spot.
Sarah: It is part of my job, but I also look at it a bit differently. My tours are a little bit different than mainstream tours or even a Rick Steves tour. I have smaller groups—we usually have only about 12 people on most tours, with a maximum of 15 or 16. Smaller groups help, but I also tell people, "I’m not your mom—I’m here to help you tailor your vacation to yourself." So, if we’re doing an activity that doesn’t appeal to you, just let me know where I can meet you later. One of the things that’s really changed for me in tour guiding is that I’ve changed my point of view. Instead of worrying about my guests and where they are, we have a WhatsApp group. I send messages out to everyone in my group and tell them the strategic points of the day, and if someone wants to peel off, it’s okay—they can just meet me later. I try to keep my groups a little more informal and family-style, so I don’t get too wrapped up in worrying about where people are and herding cats.
Ira: What happens when you have a group of people who aren’t that into technology? Are you still able to use WhatsApp and all the other technology that they have to deal with?
Sarah: It’s usually not a problem—most people these days do have a cell phone, even if they don’t know how to use it. I’m happy to sit down the first night and help anyone who might need it to get WhatsApp uploaded or any other kind of technology sorted out. But for the most part, that’s an interesting question because I would say ten years ago, I couldn’t have done something like that. But I’d say the majority of travelers these days do have cell phones that function in other countries, so it’s not the problem it used to be.
Ira: Great. I’m a gadget guy, so I have a lot of gadgets when I travel. My wife looks at me very strangely because I seem to have more gadgets than clothes when we travel. But I like them—it’s just what it is. I’ve pared down, so I’m becoming more like you in a minimalist way. If I were to throw it to you and say, “Okay, Sarah, is there one travel gadget that you absolutely must have with you when you travel?”—and I know it’s personal to everybody—but what would yours be, and what would you recommend to other people? The one, or maybe two?
Sarah: Oh gosh, okay. So, you’re talking about electronics or gadgets in general?
Ira: It could be anything. I have one of those things that allow you to sleep sitting up—I don’t even know if it’s on the market anymore. I think it was called a Travel Halo, and other people use pillows. I’ve used that, and it seems to help. I don’t like the pillows. But yeah, it could be electronics, some sort of clothing that you absolutely must have to take with you. I’m going to expand the term “gadget” in that sense.
Sarah: Well, I would say for sure compression socks for planes—that’s a really good one. The other thing I kind of can’t live without is the very earphones or headphones I’m wearing right now. They’re Bose noise-canceling headphones—they make my life so much better because I don’t think we realize how much ambient noise there is on an airplane. The other thing that’s lovely about these is if you’re staying in a hotel that’s really noisy, you can put them on and sleep with them on. I really love my headphones—those are probably one of my favorite gadgets. But I would also say just a really good day bag—I would put it in the gadget category. In fact, I use a bag maker called Tom Bihn, and they have wonderful bags that have all these little clip-on pouches and things like that, so it’s almost like a Swiss Army knife of bags in a sense. I think if you have really good quality gear, that makes your trip so much easier.
Ira: Yes, I have a Synapse, and I’ve used that forever, and I have a Tri-Star, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Sarah: Exactly, yeah, those are the bags I use.
Ira: I even visited the factory when we were in Seattle because I wanted to check it out. I ended up buying a combination packing cube daypack, so there’s a free shout-out to Tom Bihn.
Sarah: Since you mentioned that, I would say the best travel gadget is the packing cube—that is the best invention in the history of travel. I’ve been using them for more than 20 years. It was Eagle Creek that actually started making those, and they were fantastic. I still have my Eagle Creek set from years ago. I use packing cubes for everything—you put your underwear in one, your shirts in another, your pants in another, and I can tear apart my bag and put it back together in a minute because I know where everything is. I color code them, so each bag is different, and I know exactly what it is. I just grab the packing cube and pull out what I need—it’s like Tetris.
Ira: Makes perfect sense. Is there any issue you’ve ever encountered while traveling that stumped you for a while, and then you solved it? Something that might be applicable to others?
Sarah: Oh man, there are probably too many to count. I run a tour company, so let me tell you, I feel like every day there’s a challenge. But this is what I love about my profession—I think of it as disaster management. It’s controlling chaos, especially because my forte is Sicily and Southern Italy, where there’s always chaos. There have been many experiences where things have just gone completely sideways, but you figure out how to handle it. I’ve arrived at restaurants where they forgot we had a reservation; I’ve had hotels that didn’t have enough rooms for all of us. One of my favorites was a local guide I hired to do the Uffizi Gallery, who forgot or something happened and didn’t show up. So, I’m standing with 28 people in front of the Uffizi with no local guide, and I thought, “Alrighty, I’m doing the tour!” I just put on the microphone and walked in. She caught up with us about halfway through and was able to finish the tour, but you’ve got to roll with the punches in this job.
Ira: I think you almost have to have the mindset that something will go wrong and maybe think of what the backup plan would be ahead of time.
Sarah: Absolutely. What’s very funny is that when I meet with my colleagues, we all compare notes, and it’s interesting. If somebody has a problem and you have a group of tour guides together, we can come up with 25 solutions in five minutes or less—this is what we do. I love it because it’s creative—the kind of things that get thrown at you. I love it because every tour is different; we have people with physical ailments who might need to go to the hospital or have problems and need to go home early. It’s always something different, and it keeps things interesting.
Ira: I mentioned in the beginning about passion. Are you still as passionate as you were when you first started traveling and saw the Sistine Chapel, or is it a different kind of passion now as an adult and professional?
Sarah: I would say I’m 100% more passionate about travel than I was back then because I’ve seen that travel does so much good for the world. It teaches people from small towns in the U.S. that there’s a bigger world out there, and they need to learn compassion for other cultures. Travel is a two-way street—it improves both the person who is traveling and the people who are on the other side who are meeting you in those countries. It broadens people’s understanding of other cultures, which is so important in these connected days. It can also have an economic positive impact on cultures that maybe don’t have another way to make good money. There is a kind of tourism that can be destructive, but I think for some places, especially when it’s done sensitively, it’s a great benefit for locals, especially in third-world countries. Travel creates connection among different cultures, and that’s really important.
Ira: Before I let you go, let’s talk about your art. You’re not just traveling—you also have art, and you have art on Etsy. Tell us a little bit about your art.
Sarah: I’ve been painting and drawing since I was a kid, and I was an architect as well, so I love to draw and look at the things around me. What I have a lot of fun doing is linoleum cut prints—they’re blocks that you carve into, and I make prints that are kind of like postcards. I’ve been working on a series of A to Z prints for all the different cities I travel to. I figured people used to buy postcards, but we don’t do that as much anymore, so these are like artistic postcards to remind people of places they’ve been before. It’s a fun way to revive the postcard idea.
Ira: You’re my first guest, I think, that’s on Pinterest because most guests are on some of the other social media channels but not necessarily on Pinterest. So that’s an interesting little part of your life as well. Future plans—are you going to stay doing exactly what you’ve been doing, incorporating more of your family into your travels, or are you expanding into a whole other world at some point?
Sarah: I think we’re going to keep building the Adventures with Sarah tours. I have my business partner, Andrew Valone, and we do all kinds of tours in Europe. I also have another business partner through a tour company called Imprint Tours, where we do really exotic trips. We’re going to continue to listen to our followers and fans and find out where they want to go. I actually take requests—I think the new sector we’re going to open up in our business is custom tours. We’ll be doing small group custom tours for groups of between four and ten people who want to do something completely different, so we can tailor-make tours for them. We keep getting requests—I haven’t even put it out there that we do that, but we do. That’s been a whole new thing.
The next generation, of course, is going to be my kids for sure. My older son wants to participate in the business in the future, so it’s fun to have this business that we’re slowly growing, adding new destinations around the world, and being able to bring my kids in to do it. The other thing I love doing is the travel writing and producing videos for YouTube. That’s something I’ll focus on more—travelogues and things like that. I just love sharing the world with people, whether that’s in person or through my work, writing, or producing videos.
Ira: You’re also doing virtual tours and slideshows as well?
Sarah: Yes, I have a Patreon, and the people who follow me on Patreon, who subscribe, we do meetings once a quarter where I do a slideshow and virtual travel. I show them where I’ve been, and sometimes I’ll have special guests on who will take us on live walks through the pyramids in Egypt, for example. It’s a fun way of creating community as well. We also just have happy hours on Patreon, where we all sit around and chat and talk about our love of travel. For me, the most beautiful part of all of this is the community—the Adventures with Sarah travel community that has kind of emerged from it all. We love doing virtual travel, so even people who can’t travel are able to participate. They can watch my slideshows, my virtual tours on YouTube—all of these things. It’s a great way to involve everybody.
Ira: Well, that’s a great way to leave it. My guest has been Sarah Murdoch, professional tour guide, travel writer, artist, and occasional architect. For everything about Sarah Murdoch, go to adventureswithsarah.net, and you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Sarah, thanks for being on the show.
Sarah: Thanks for having me.
Ira: And join us every Thursday for a new schmear on Ira's Everything Bagel.

Noshing With Sarah Murdoch – September 8, 2022