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Travel that Touches Your Soul

Travel that Touches Your Soul

By: Karen Cleveland
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The top leaders in meaningful and transformational travel tell the stories behind the journeys. Travel That Touches Your Soul explores global experiences that help people feel alive and connected with life. Hosted by Karen Cleveland in conversations with thoughtful travel leaders, guides, and change makers from around the world, each sharing profound moments they or their guests have experienced while inviting you in to share the experience. Conversations of Connection. Connection with animals. Connection with people and cultures. Connection with land. And ultimately, connection with ourselves. These are not surface level travel stories. They are conversations about why certain places call to us, how encounters with wildlife or unfamiliar cultures can soften us, strengthen us, or redirect our lives. Many guests lead meaningful journeys themselves. Others have been transformed by travel in ways they never expected. Karen brings a unique perspective as a safari host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator. Her work centers on listening. To animals. To landscapes. To the quiet inner voice that often gets drowned out by daily life. This lens shapes every conversation and creates space for reflection rather than performance. Karen hopes you come away inspired to make that trip you've always dreamed of, and to let it be easy. We all deserve to fulfill our heart's desires and one of the goals of the podcast is to provide the resources you need to finally make it happen. These are more than sightseeing buses and tourist markets, so if you feel drawn to experiences that honor animals, cultures, and the land, if your soul is asking for something more meaningful than another itinerary, then this podcast is for you. Travel That Touches Your Soul is an invitation to listen more deeply. To travel more consciously. And to remember who you are when you feel most alive.Copyright 2026 Karen Cleveland Social Sciences Spirituality Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • From the Mat to the World: Soul Nourishing Adventure Travel with The Travel Yogi

    From the Mat to the World: Soul Nourishing Adventure Travel with The Travel Yogi
    Mar 17 2026
    What if your next trip left you feeling more energized than when you left home — nourished instead of depleted, present instead of checked out? That's not a fantasy. That's exactly what today's guest designs for travelers all over the world.Kilty is a yoga educator from Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi who traded a career in civil and environmental engineering for a life on the mat — and eventually, a life on the road. She now works with The Travel Yogi, the original yoga adventure travel company, helping design and lead immersive small-group journeys that weave together movement, culture, nature, and meaningful human connection. Whether she's guiding a group through Sri Lanka, Iceland, or the remote glaciers of Greenland, Kilty's approach is the same: the adventure comes first, and the yoga holds it all together.Guest BioKilty Inafuku is a yoga educator from Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi who believes that what happens on the mat is practice for how we show up in everyday life. She studied Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA before leaving the engineering world to pursue yoga as a career and lifestyle, training with Jay Co and Jason Crandell. Kilty teaches vinyasa-based yoga and works with The Travel Yogi, helping scout new destinations, build itineraries, and lead transformational small-group travel experiences around the world. In 2025 she added Greenland to her growing list of extraordinary destinations — and calls it one of the most profound places she's ever been.Host BioKaren 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 TimestampsTravel that energizes instead of depletes — and the company making it happen (00:00)Welcome and introduction — Karen introduces Kilty Inafuku and The Travel Yogi (00:18)From engineering to the mat — how Kilty left UCLA and never looked back (01:00)How yoga on the road differs from yoga at home — and why self-reflection is the common thread (04:00)The Travel Yogi difference: adventure first, yoga as the grounding thread (05:31)All levels welcome — what vinyasa means and how teachers adapt for every body (07:17)Small groups, local guides, and why it feels like a friend showing you their home (09:27)The personalized trip app — packing lists, gratuity guides, fun phrases, and more (13:00)Upcoming trips: Sri Lanka in March and Iceland in October (08:20)Greenland — glaciers, silence, and a native culture that reminded Kilty of home in Hawaiʻi (14:40)Galapagos — where the animals walk right up to you (17:27)How each destination shapes the itinerary: slow food in Italy, perfume-making in France, rafting in Patagonia (18:37)Traveling responsibly — local guides, boutique hotels, and doing good where they can (20:37)Where to find The Travel Yogi and upcoming trips (21:21)The Travel Yogi https://www.thetravelyogi.comInstagram & Facebook: @thetravelyogiJoin our email community to receive notice of upcoming trips, new podcasts, and find out the "Top Travels of 2026 to Soothe Your Soul" https://mailchi.mp/soulful/travels or https://soulful.travelBe sure to Subscribe and review the podcast!Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-that-touches-your-soul/id1865822112 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IMDYh43NAVhKXXfoUUNlsiHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-travel-that-touches-your-315490361/Facebook: Karen https://www.facebook.com/karentclevelandTravel that Touches Your Soul https://www.facebook.com/RevKarenCleveland/Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/safarisandsacredjourneys/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulfultravelchannel
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    22 mins
  • Pickleball, Purpose & Travel With Heart: How Melinda Alcosser Is Changing Lives Around the World

    Pickleball, Purpose & Travel With Heart: How Melinda Alcosser Is Changing Lives Around the World
    Mar 15 2026
    What happens when you combine one of the fastest-growing sports in the world with a deep commitment to community, connection, and conscious travel? You get something unlike anything you've seen before. Today's guest has taken pickleball far beyond the court — into schools in the Dominican Republic and headed all around the world.Melinda helps heart-centered people and communities design travel experiences that support their journey of connecting, honoring, caring for self, one another, and this sacred home we call Earth. From pickleball adventures and women's retreats to regenerative family travel and youth-focused journeys, everything Melinda creates is infused with what she calls "with heart" — the belief that travel, at its best, is an act of love.Guest BioMelinda Alcosser is a travel designer, educator, and the founder of With Heart Travel and the Carpe Dinkum pickleball travel series. With a background spanning 14 years running an experientially-based middle school, humanitarian work, and travel coaching, Melinda brings a rare depth of purpose to everything she creates. She designs immersive group experiences for women, families, and pickleball players of all levels — weaving community giveback, personal growth, and genuine cultural connection into every itinerary. She is also a certified experience designer through the Transformational Travel Council and is building With Heart Incorporated, a nonprofit arm dedicated to making travel accessible to all. When she's not on the road, she's dreaming up the next way pickleball can change a life.Host BioKaren Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari and wildlife tour 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 TimestampsPickleball travel with a purpose — and the photo that says it all (00:00)Welcome and introduction — Karen introduces Melinda Alcosser (00:10)The "with heart" experience — visiting a Dominican Republic school and why it became the trip highlight (01:12)How Melinda's pickleball trips work — all levels welcome, coaches included (07:36)The Dream Team Pickleball Academy in Uganda and the Carpe Dinkum Giving Club (09:00)The origins of pickleball — and why Melinda's husband may have been there at the very beginning (12:00)Three buckets: pickleball travel, women's retreats, and youth & family journeys (18:04)The Transformational Travel Council and why regenerative travel changes everything (19:00)Awaken Your Spirit at Sea — January 2026 aboard the Royal Clipper in the Grenadines (22:00)With Heart Incorporated — Melinda's vision to make travel accessible for everyone (24:04)Where to find Melinda and upcoming trips (24:47)Upcoming Trips🏓 Carpe Dink’em Pickleball in Cancún — December 3–8, 2026 https://all-travel.com/pickelball-cancun-dec-2026/⛵ Awaken Your Spirit at Sea aboard Royal Clipper — January 9–16, 2026 https://app.tern.travel/trips/2559333/landing_page/editWith Heart Travel https://www.withhearttravel.comTravel and Pickleball https://www.travelandpickleball.comJoin our email community to receive notice of upcoming trips, new podcasts, and find out the "Top Travels of 2026 to Soothe Your Soul" https://mailchi.mp/soulful/travels or https://soulful.travelBe sure to Subscribe and review the podcast!Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-that-touches-your-soul/id1865822112Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IMDYh43NAVhKXXfoUUNls iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-travel-that-touches-your-315490361/Facebook: Karen https://www.facebook.com/karentclevelandTravel that Touches Your Soul https://www.facebook.com/RevKarenCleveland/Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/safarisandsacredjourneys/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulfultravelchannel
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    23 mins
  • How to Find the Real Italy: Small Villages, Big Connections with Elizabeth Heath of Villaggio Tours

    How to Find the Real Italy: Small Villages, Big Connections with Elizabeth Heath of Villaggio Tours
    Mar 14 2026
    Have you ever seen photos or videos of tiny Italian villages — the laughter, the food, the friendship — and wondered how to find that for yourself? Today's guest did exactly that, and she now lives it every day. Elizabeth Heath moved from Florida to a hilltop village of 200 people in Umbria, Italy, and after 15 years immersed in the culture, she created Villaggio Tours — small-group immersive experiences where strangers become friends, grandmothers teach you to make pasta, and going-away dinners end in happy tears.Welcome to Travel That Touches Your Soul podcast and video channel, where I bring you the people and places around the world to help you connect with something greater than yourself and fulfill your heart's desires. I'm Karen Cleveland, and today's guest is Elizabeth Heath.Elizabeth founded Villaggio Tours with a mission to connect travelers with the authentic rhythms of rural Italian life — the harvests, the feasts, the folklore, and the families. She lives in Allerona, Umbria with her husband Paolo, a traditional stone mason, in a restored 13th-century home that now serves as Six Keys Guest House, the home base for all her tours.Guest BioElizabeth Heath is the founder of Villaggio Tours and co-owner of Six Keys Guest House in Allerona, a medieval hill town of roughly 200 residents in Umbria, Italy. Originally from Florida, Elizabeth came to Italy to pursue a PhD in anthropology and archeology, fell in love with the land and the people — including her husband Paolo, born and raised in Allerona — and never left. After 15+ years immersed in rural Italian life, she now leads intimate small-group tours that weave together food, harvest traditions, history, and genuine human connection. Her tours include cooking classes in a real Italian grandmother's kitchen, truffle hunts on private reserves, olive and grape harvests, visits to a 17th-century noble family's palazzo, and day trips to some of Umbria's most dramatic and lesser-known sites. When guests leave crying, she knows she's done her job.Host BioKaren 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 TimestampsThose Italian village photos — and how to actually live that experience (00:00)Welcome and introduction — Karen introduces Elizabeth Heath and Villaggio Tours (00:43)From Florida to Umbria — archeological digs, a summer in Orvieto, and meeting Paolo (01:32)Life in Allerona — a medieval hill town of 200 inside a curtain wall from the 1100s (02:27)Why field archeology is a young person's game — and how Elizabeth still shares her passion (03:20)The going-away dinner — family, friends, food, and why guests cry when they leave (04:00)Paolo, the family, and the difference between performing Italian culture and living it (05:23)Harvesting grapes with a friend — and how everything begins and ends with food (07:11)Olive oil from tree to mill to table — and what an olive oil tasting actually teaches you (08:00)The first Villaggio Tours group — launched with one Facebook post in 2023 (09:00)Truffle hunting on a private reserve with trained dogs at dawn (09:51)The cooking class — fresh pasta, ravioli, and lunch with wine in a grandmother's kitchen (10:59)Six Keys Guest House — the 13th-century home Paolo restored stone by stone (11:41)Dining in a nobleman's palazzo that's been in the same family since the 1600s (13:21)The ethnobotanical hike — edible plants, abandoned farmhouses, and ruins on a Vatican map (15:57)Civita di Bagnoregio — the dying city with a population of five (18:25)One-day cooking class options for travelers already in the Orvieto area (20:12)Upcoming tours — April springtime, May folk festival, September island + countryside, fall harvest, Venice (23:31)Where to find Villaggio Tours and Six Keys Guest House (26:00)Villaggio Tours https://www.villaggiotours.comSix Keys Guest House https://www.sixkeysumbria.comJoin our email community to receive notice of upcoming trips, new podcasts, and find out the "Top Travels of 2026 to Soothe Your Soul" https://mailchi.mp/soulful/travels or https://soulful.travelBe sure to Subscribe and review the podcast!Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-that-touches-your-soul/id1865822112 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IMDYh43NAVhKXXfoUUNls iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-travel-that-touches-your-315490361/Facebook: Karen https://www.facebook.com/karentcleveland Travel that Touches Your Soul https://www.facebook.com/RevKarenCleveland/ Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/safarisandsacredjourneys/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulfultravelchannel
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    27 mins
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