Cooking classes, markets, vineyards, and the kind of stories you can taste.

Are you the kind of traveler who learns a culture through markets, meals, and what locals are sipping at the next table. Then this episode is for you. Karen Cleveland sits down with Susan Reinke, Founder and Director of Global Palate Adventures, to talk about travel that revolves around food, wine, and the people behind it all.

Susan shares stories from intimate cooking experiences, from a home kitchen up five flights of stairs in Parma, to a high intensity professional kitchen in San Sebastián, and even a Barcelona cooking day that turned into a citywide adventure during a strike. Along the way, you’ll hear how her “no one dines alone” approach creates real community, why one cooking class per trip is often the perfect amount, and what’s coming up next, including Charleston, Japan, Portugal, and South Africa with wine country and safari.

Guest Bio

Susan Reinke is the Founder and Director of Global Palate Adventures, a small group travel company for food and wine lovers who want to understand culture through what people grow, cook, and share at the table. She launched Global Palate Adventures in 2015 as a natural extension of her career in foodservice and agriculture marketing through her company, Food Marketing Resources, where she works with agriculture organizations to increase their foodservice business.

Over the years, Susan has traveled extensively across the U.S. and abroad, taking cooking classes in kitchens from Spain to Thailand, wandering local markets, meeting producers, and collecting the kinds of stories that only show up when you slow down and listen. Her trips attract curious travelers, chefs, marketers, and passionate food people, plus plenty of solo travelers who quickly become part of the group. Her motto says it all. No one dines alone.

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator devoted to helping people reconnect with what matters most through meaningful travel. Her work centers on connection with animals, land, culture, and inner truth, and the quiet inner knowing that says, this is the kind of life I came here to live.

Episode Topics and Timestamps

• A question for every obsessed foodie. Markets, meals, and culture (00:00)

• Susan’s origin story. From food marketing to Global Palate Adventures (00:13)

• Kitchen adventures around the world. Parma apartments and pro kitchens (01:22)

• The market to kitchen flow. Ingredients first, then cooking together (02:20)

• Barcelona pivot story. A strike, a long walk, and bonding over fish prep (03:13)

• How the Bordeaux class worked with language barriers and translation (04:28)

• How much moving around is ideal. Fewer hotels, more depth (05:17)

• Who comes on these trips. Chefs, food people, curious travelers, and solos (06:12)

• Why South Africa. Wine country plus safari, plus penguins (07:00)

• Repeat destinations and demand. Sicily, Portugal, and why people return (08:25)

• Portugal food stories. Seafood, tinned fish, and legendary custard pastries (09:14)

• Shock foods. Crickets in Oaxaca and durian in Thailand (10:58)

• Why farmers matter. Muddy boots, real stories, and respecting the work (17:05)

• What Susan wants guests to take home. Culture, memory, and new friends (18:49)

• Upcoming trips. Charleston, Japan, Portugal waitlist, South Africa (20:54)

• Japan preview. Markets, street food, and seeing it made right in front of you (22:02)

• Where to find Susan and how to vote on future destinations (24:28)

Global Palate Adventures website

https://globalpalateadventures.com/about/

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Taking a leap of faith after 40, into an unfamiliar world.

In this episode of Travel That Touches Your Soul, Karen Cleveland sits down with award-winning travel writer, blogger, and tour operator Mariellen Ward, founder of Breathedreamgo and India for Beginners. Mariellen shares the deeply personal story of leaving her life in Canada after 40 and traveling solo through India for six months with no plan, no safety net, and no idea what awaited her.

Through yoga, pilgrimage, elephants, ashrams, cities, jungles, and sacred rivers, India became her “soul culture.” Nearly two decades later, Mariellen now helps other women travel India safely, mindfully, and with cultural respect.

This is a conversation about courage, surrender, reinvention, and what becomes possible when we stop waiting for permission and say yes to the unknown.

Guest Bio

Mariellen Ward is an award-winning Canadian travel writer, blogger, and tour operator specializing in transformative journeys to India. She is the founder of Breathedreamgo, inspired by nearly two decades of travel across India, and India for Beginners, a custom tour company designed to help women travel India safely and deeply.

Her work promotes mindful travel, cultural immersion, and solo travel for women. Mariellen has been published by BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller India, and Condé Nast Traveller India. In 2019, she received India’s National Tourism Award for Best Foreign Travel Writer.

Though Canadian by birth, Mariellen calls India her soul culture and now lives in Jaipur, where she creates insider experiences connecting travelers to artisans, history, spirituality, and everyday life

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She curates conversations with travelers, guides, and change-makers whose journeys create deep connection. Through animals, land, culture, and spiritual insight, Karen explores how travel can awaken something essential within us and invite us into a more meaningful life.

25% Discount on Jaipur Crafts, Shopping & Artisans Tour

https://indiaforbeginners.com/shopping-tours-in-jaipur-and-delhi/

Breathedreamgo Travel Blog

https://breathedreamgo.com/

India for Beginners. Custom Tours for Women

https://indiaforbeginners.com/

Follow Mariellen on Social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Breathedreamgo

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Where the Journey Continues

This is a short pause in the journey. A moment to remind you that the conversation does not end when the episode does. If something you heard on the show stirred your curiosity or touched something deeper, the website is where those threads continue to unfold. At SoulfulTravel.travel, you will find upcoming episodes you may not have heard yet, along with past conversations worth returning to. You will...

How a physician and coach turned grief and transition into awe-filled adventures that restore perspective, vitality, and connection.

In this episode, Karen Cleveland sits down with Stacey Funt, founder of LH Adventure Travel, to explore the transformative power of travel for the mind, body, and soul. Stacey shares the deeply personal story that changed everything. Becoming an empty nester. Losing her father and her husband’s father within weeks. Facing the age her mother died. Then hearing the unmistakable pull toward Nepal.

Stacey takes us into the sensory, spiritual reality of Kathmandu, a crematorium that reframed grief through the lens of life’s cycle, a Hindu place of worship that revealed pure devotion, and a five-day Annapurna trek that became a moving meditation back into aliveness. From there, her work was born. Awe-filled adventures that blend wellness, nature, culture, and community for women and couples ready to come home to what truly matters.

Guest Bio

Stacey Funt is a physician, health coach, global traveler, wife, and mother, and she believes deeply in travel’s ability to transform us. Mind, body, and soul. With training in Lifestyle Medicine, Stacey understands how daily choices shape our well-being, and she brings that wisdom into the world through Lifestyle Health Adventures, the heart of LH Adventure Travel.

Her mission is to create awe-inspiring adventures for women and couples that immerse guests in nature, support whole-person health, and foster meaningful connection. Stacey’s trips are designed with intention. Moderate movement. Nourishing whole foods. Restorative experiences like spas, yoga, and sound healing. And most importantly, a sense of community that helps travelers feel held, seen, and expanded.

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator devoted to helping people reconnect with what matters most through meaningful travel. Her work centers on connection with animals, land, culture, and inner truth, and the quiet inner shift that happens when you feel part of life again.

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Episode Topics and Timestamps

• What do physician, coach, traveler, wife, and mother have in common. Meet Stacey (00:00)

• A season of loss and transition. Empty nest, grief, and the question, is the best behind me (01:30)

• The call to Nepal. Training, preparing, and returning to life through a single decision (02:30)

• Kathmandu’s energy. Smog masks, raw beauty, and being surprised by a city you didn’t expect to love (03:20)

• The crematorium visit. A Hindu perspective on death as cycle, release, and sacred duty (03:56)

• How new beliefs can heal even when they are not yours. Perspective as medicine (04:44)

• The underground temple and holy day surprise. Experiencing devotion without language (07:22)

• The five-day Annapurna trek. 10,000 feet, steps for hours, and solitude as healing (10:00)

• Prayer flags, snow-capped peaks, and awe as a doorway back to your own life force (11:40)

• Joy in community. Dancing with locals during a New Year celebration (15:00)

• The mission behind LH Adventure Travel. Wellness plus adventure, designed for real women and real lives (17:00)

• What Stacey builds into every trip. Movement, nourishment, restoration, and sisterhood (17:55)

• Nepal and Bhutan. Why it sold out, what’s coming next, and how Stacey plans trips (19:00)

• Travel as a marker of life transitions. The deeper reason we go (21:10)

• A final video moment. Unexpected connection with a Sherpa and a love dance (22:15)

LH Adventure Travel

https://lhadventuretravel.com

Contact Stacey

info@lhadventuretravel.com

Follow Stacey

Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/stacey.funt

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Portugal’s Vicentina Coast. A river crossing. And the kind of mentoring you can only hear when you slow down and walk.

Have you ever had a mentor? Or heard about mentorship programs at work? Now imagine mentorship that happens while walking in nature, day after day, in a place powerful enough to quiet your mind and tell you the truth.

In this episode, Karen Cleveland sits down with Dana and João, the founder of Walking Mentorship, to explore a transformational travel experience on Portugal’s Vicentina Coast, along the Fisherman’s Trail. Dana, a mom, athlete, educator, philanthropist, and cancer research advocate, shares how her “say yes” approach led her into a week of walking, journaling, reflection, and community.

João explains the method behind Walking Mentorship. Slow down, reconnect, gain perspective, and take action. Then they bring it to life through the episode’s signature story. A river crossing that became both epic and harmonizing, a vivid metaphor for moving from vision into real, embodied change.

Guest Bio

Dana Smith

Dana is a mom, athlete, educator, philanthropist, advocate for cancer research, and travel enthusiast. Her current travel motto is simple and brave. Say yes to new experiences that promote self-growth, excitement, and discovery. In 2025, one of her favorite experiences was joining Walking Mentorship on Portugal’s Vicentina Coast, where a powerful river crossing became a defining moment of accomplishment, teamwork, and joy.

João Perre Viana

João is the Founder and pioneer of Walking Mentorship, an approach that combines walking in nature with individual and group mentoring to inspire personal change and strengthen organizations from within. Born in Portugal, João finished high school in the U.S. and completed his MBA in Belgium, then built a senior management career across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa.

With 15+ years of international mentoring experience, João focuses on change management, business transformation, and personal development. He launched Walking Mentorship in 2015, an innovative project decades in the making. João is also a guest lecturer and an active member of multiple mentoring and governance organizations, including the Transformational Travel Council and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator devoted to helping people reconnect with what matters most through meaningful travel. Her work centers on connection with nature, culture, and inner truth, and the quiet courage it takes to step forward when you do not know exactly how the path will unfold.

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Episode Topics and Timestamps

• What is a “walking mentorship”. And why it changes the mentoring dynamic (00:00)

• Meet Dana and João. Why Dana said yes, and why João designed this work (00:34)

• Walking Mentorship explained. Slow down, reconnect, gain perspective, take action (01:28)

• Portugal’s Fisherman’s Trail. The Vicentina Coast and the rhythm of a week-long walk (03:49)

• The river crossing story begins. Watching tides, preparing to cross, choosing courage (04:44)

• Step by step in the water. Packs overhead, steady footing, senses waking up (08:00)

• How João evaluates safety. Current, timing, and using a drone to scout conditions (10:28)

• The metaphor. Making your ideal future real, then walking into it anyway (12:00)

• Joy on the other side. Playfulness, celebration, and group energy spreading outward (16:41)

• When the walk gets hard. Injury, support, and someone carrying your backpack (26:26)

• Walking Mentorship formats. Immersive walks, corporate programs, and one-to-one journeys (20:55)

• Travel as a force for peace. The Russian and...