Travel In Your Pocket

Ep. 11 - Dracula’s Whitby & haunted tourist spots

It's a scream! We start our spine-tinglingly special Halloween episode with a warning that Andrea plays a prank on Heidi during our Where in the World game and Heidi (literally) jumps out of her chair. If you don't like screams fast-forward but it is very, very funny.   Then we make our way to Whitby - the isolated harbour town on England's north east coast that was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. While the ruins of the 7th century Whitby Abbey loom large over the town, Whitby is also famous for fish & chips; a Captain Cook museum; a fascinating Victorian library and ghoulish ghost and vampire walking tours. Andrea gives the low down on her recent trip there her stay at the fabulously kitsch and antique-filled La Rosa hotel.  We round off the episode with the Top 5 Lesser Known Haunted Places Around the World according to Lonely Planet. A magnetic hill though - really guys? Here's the full list - Magnetic Hill, Moldova; Daksa island, Croatia; Ross Castle, Co. Meath, Ireland; LaLaurie Mansion, New Orleans and Fort Garry, Winnipeg.  SUBSCRIBE to our podcast - it would absolutely make our day!  And please do follow us here: Instagram Twitter  Facebook Thanks, as always, to our good friends from the band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. If we plug them enough, we hope that one day they'll get into the charts and buy us a pint.  Thanks for listening!     

Ep. 10 - Pittsburgh - steel, sports, space & Ulster-Scots

Go Yinzers! We devote this episode to Pittsburgh, PA, a.k.a. Steel City Pennsylvania. 
After Andrea's fab visit there in Spring 2022 we knew we had to deep dive into this fantastic place, with our usual Where In The World brain-teaser (clue: the answer is not Pittsburgh) and a departure lounge chat with the fact- and fun-filled Corrie from Walk The Burgh Tours. 
Our Top 5 this episode is devoted to Only in Pittsburgh attractions - its 446 bridges; the Moonshot Museum; Wigle Whisky; the Andy Warhol Museum and the famous Primanti Bros. sandwiches. And we do all this while sipping on two of the city's famous libations, Engine House 25 wine and the aforementioned Wigle Whisky, because, well, who wouldn't? 
We learn that Andrew Carnegie seems to have named many of Pittsburgh's attractions after himself (well, he did pay for them, after all) and we discover the fascinating Ulster-Scots / Scots-Irish history and language of the city, and wider Pennsylvania area in general.  
Andrea also keeps up the TIYP podcast tradition of totally mis-pronouncing proper nouns and so, apologies the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers! 
Thank you to everyone at Visit Pittsburgh - do visit them online to find out exactly why your next trip should be there: www.visitpittsburgh.com. And finally, thank you to all the Yinzers Andrea met on her trip - you are the friendliest, most helpful and fun bunch of people!  
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Thanks, as always, to our good friends from the band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. If we plug them enough, we hope that one day they'll get into the charts and buy us a pint. 
Thanks for listening! 
 
 
 

Ep 8 - Titanic - the ill-fated liner for tourists

We mark the 110th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic with a tour of Titanic Belfast, the £multi-million visitor attraction built on the launch site of the ill-fated ship. The maritime theme continues with our ever-present segments designed to test even the hardiest of Titanoraks. Can Andrea guess Heidi's particularly abstract Where In The World destination? And which of the other Top Five Titanic-linked locations has Andrea explored? We discuss The Titanic Graveyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the Titanic Museum, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Titanic – the Artefact Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada; our very own Titanic Belfast and the Sea City Museum in Southampton, England.    SUBSCRIBE to our podcast for lots more travel insights and musings:  Instagram - @travelinyourpocketpodcast Twitter - @Travel_IYP Facebook - @TravelInYourPocketPodcast    Near, far, whereeeeever they are, our hearts will go on for our good friends at Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune.   Thanks for listening and see you next month! 

Ep. 7 - Castles, musical holidays & Krakow, Poland (from an insider!)

In episode 7, the queens of travel chat castles. The ones we've been to and the ones we want to visit. We also ponder what exactly makes a castle anyway (it may be something to do with turrets). We  take in everywhere from Glenapp Castle in Scotland and Portmerion's Castell Deudraeth in Wales, along with Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, the inspiration for Disney's classic castle and Bran Castle in Romania, famous for both Dracula and Vlad The Impaler. 
Then we discuss the Top 5 musical must-sees according to Trips to Discover - Ireland (all of it), Havana, Berlin, Liverpool and Seattle. But no J-pop or K-pop, and Andrea spots something that might be a bit wrong about Heidi's choice of list.
Our fantasy VIP departure lounge interview this episode is with Garrett Van Reed, Editor in Chief of Poland In Your Pocket. He gives is the insider guide to his how city, Krakow, where he's lived for 16 years and publishes, among other Poland city guides, Krakow In Your Pocket. He tells us all about the city's medieval centre and Jewish quarter, its old town – ringed by Planty Park and the remnants of the city’s medieval walls, expansive Rynek Glówny (market square), the Cloth Hall, a Renaissance-era trading outpost, and St. Mary’s Basilica, a 14th-century Gothic church.
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Find Krakow In Your Pocket online here. For more tourist info on Poland, click here.
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune.
Thanks for listening and see you next month! 

Ep 6 - George Best’s Belfast & the world’s top football stadiums

Football special! We celebrate the Beautiful Game in this episode with a tour of George Best's childhood home, now open as a short-term holiday let in Belfast. Tour guide Peter McCabe tells us about the house where George kicked his first ball before we settle down for the night in the boyhood bedroom of the World's Greatest Footballer.* We thoroughly recommend this unique visitor attraction for both tours and overnight stays (details of how to book it, below). 
Then we discuss the world's top 5 football stadiums to visit before you die, from the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia (which also hosts football matches, fact fans) via the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City; Wembley in London and Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. 
Tell us about your favourite footie trips, tours and recommendations in the comments of our social media pages.
 
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Follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP, on Facebook at @TravelInYourPocketPodcast or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com
 
Special thanks to EastSide Partnership for our overnight stay and tour of the George Best house - www.eastsidepartnership.com. You can find out more about booking the George Best house for yourself here: www.georgebesthouse.com.  
 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. They also do football songs - check out We're Going to the Euros; Jackie Fullerton Says (I'm in Heaven When We Score) and the frankly brilliantly bonkers, My Name is Brian Clough. Listen at https://soundcloud.com/3d-shark. 
 
Our 7th episode will be out towards the end of next month.  See you then, wherever you are in the world! 
 

Ep 4 - World’s rudest place names & we drink our Top 5 global cocktails (and get quite drunk!)

Listeners of a delicate disposition, cover your ears now, because in our final episode of 2021, we discuss the world's rudest, funniest place names, including the village of Muff in Donegal, Ireland and Twatt in the Scottish Orkney islands. Inspired by the Rude Road Trip around the UK, undertaken by brothers Andy and Magnus Tait in 2019, we chat about naughty nomenclature, including Sandy Balls holiday resort in England, Pig Turd Alley in Sacramento, USA and Shag Point, South Australia, among others. 
In our Top 5 we drink 5 famous cocktails named after, or invented in, different global destinations, and rank them in order. As you'd image, we get increasingly tipsy as we drink our way through the list. What would be your favourite - a Bellini from Harry's Bar, Venice; a Pisco Sour from Peru or Chile; A Singapore Sling from the Long Bar in Raffles, Singapore; a Mojito from Cuba or an Irish coffee? We try them all so you don't have to. 
We finish the episode with the answer to the Where In The World clues Heidi gave Andrea at the start of the show. 
There's no interview this episode (because, alcohol) but we'll be back in January with more chats, another Where in the World, a top 5 and an interview with an influential travel expert.
SUBSCRIBE to our podcast, and follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com
 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. 
Our 5th episode will be out towards the end of January. See you then, wherever you are in the world! 
 
 
 
  
 

Ep 3 - Ireland, top 5 beaches & Johannesburg (from an expert)

Welcome to Episode 3. We play another Where In The World guessing game - answer at the end of the episode - and this time Heidi doesn't cheat (that we know of!) We chat about Andrea's jaunt to the most northerly place in Ireland, Malin Head - which, in Irish geo-political terms, despite being the most northerly place in Ireland, is officially in the South. Of course, she had the most northerly pint in Ireland while there! Fun fact - scenes from Star Wars The Last Jedi were filmed in Malin Head.  Listen up beaches! We chat about money.co.uk's list of the top 5 most Instagrammed beaches in the world. What do our intrepid adventurers Heidi & Andrea think of the list? Do they agree?  In our fantasy departure lounge, we chat with Laurice Taitz, publisher of Johannesburg In Your Pocket, about how the city has evolved over the decades to become one of the most vibrant and interesting African cities. She's got the low-down on where to go and when, so if you're interested in a trip to South Africa, don't miss this interview.    As always, you can get follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com   We bet you're wondering where our fab intro music comes from, right? Wonder no longer, it's by our very good friends, Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, and you can find their top tuneage on YouTube.  Our 4th episode will be out towards the end of December (in the meantime, you can get in touch with us by email or on social media). Till the next time...