Where Travel and Life Intersect

The Joy of Talking to Strangers

When We Travel

When friends ask about a trip, I start with one of two things: what we ate or who we talked to.

I’m not alone. People who love to travel often share another important characteristic: they enjoy, maybe even thrive on, talking with strangers. The conversations happen on the train, in towns, at a coffee counter. Some go three minutes. Some go an hour. The level doesn’t matter as much as you’d think. Either way, you come away with something. You learn what the place values and how locals see the world. Sometimes, you learn how they see you.

What my wife, Diane, and I always come home with from a trip is the conversations. We don’t always agree on the highlights of the food or the lodging. We agree about who we talked with. The moments of real connection are the moments we keep remembering. Someone in a similar life phase, or traveling for the same reason, or with a worldview that lines up with ours just enough that a conversation can go somewhere.

Why we don’t

Some of you may know that, in addition to leading Nomadic Spirit, I am the host of Big Brains, the University of Chicago’s flagship video podcast. Every other week, we feature an interview with leading scientists, researchers, and academics whose thinking and discoveries are shaping our world. I recently interviewed Nicholas Epley, a behavioral scientist at UChicago’s Booth School of Business, who has spent twenty years studying why we don’t talk to strangers, and what we miss when we don’t. His findings will not surprise any experienced traveler. We’re wired for this. The hesitation is in our heads, and other people respond more positively than we expect.

What surprised me about his research was the size of the gap. Most of us assume other people aren’t interested in talking with us. The data show we are wrong about that, and we are wrong by a lot. Strangers we hesitate to approach are more open than we think. Epley has also begun to find evidence that strangers may be more willing to open up to us than the people who know us best.

That last part is worth sitting with. Travel puts you among strangers all the time. It also makes you a stranger to almost everyone you meet. Epley’s work suggests this is not an obstacle. It might be the whole point.

Over to you

I bet you’ve had a similar experience. Briefly, tell us about a conversation from a trip you still think about. Write to [email protected]. We’ll publish some of the best in a future issue.

Watch the full conversation with Epley in this issue’s Conversation section below.

Destinations worth traveling for—and understanding once you arrive

Dingle, Ireland

My older son loves going to Ireland. When I ask him why, he gives me the same answer every time: the people there are always happy to talk with me. Interesting perspective from an introvert.

His observation fits all of Ireland. The country runs on conversation. The pub is the community living room. The bardic tradition goes back more than a thousand years, and the word for storyteller, seanchaí, is still in use.

Why Dingle

Rick Steves has been calling Dingle his favorite town in Ireland for thirty years. “Colorful little Dingle,” he writes, “perches on Ireland’s westernmost point.” Dingle has fewer than two thousand residents and, by local count, more pubs per capita than any town in Ireland. The traditional Irish music scene in those pubs ranks among Ireland’s best. The harbor still launches fishing boats. The town is a Gaeltacht, one of Ireland’s officially Irish-speaking districts, where the language remains in daily use. The peninsula around it is dense with prehistoric and early Christian sites. You’ll see Iron Age beehive huts, ring forts, early Christian oratories, and standing stones older than the pyramids. The land at the end of the road is the westernmost point of Europe.

 Use Dingle as the anchor for the southwest leg of an Ireland trip. First-time visitors pair Dublin (2 nights) with a west coast loop of 4 to 6 nights, including 2 to 3 nights in Dingle and a stop at the Ring of Kerry or the Burren. Music-focused travelers pair Dingle with Doolin in County Clare. Fly into Dublin, Shannon, or Kerry Airport (Farranfore). The drive from Dublin is about four hours, from Shannon two and a half, from Kerry forty-five minutes. Rent a car. You’ll want it for Slea Head Drive, the thirty-mile loop around the peninsula.

 Eat at Out of the Blue, where the chalkboard menu changes daily with the catch. Walk Inch Beach at low tide. Tour the Dingle Distillery if you like whiskey. Hear a music session most nights at An Droichead Beag, Foxy John’s, or O’Sullivan’s Courthouse.

Inside the pub

Irish pubs are built for this. Foxy John’s is a hardware store by day and a pub by night. Rick Steves recommends never sitting at a table. “Stand or sit at the bar,” he writes, “and you’ll be engulfed in conversation with new friends.” Buying a round means asking everyone what they’re drinking. That’s how you learn names. Everyone faces the music when it starts. Between sets, people talk. By the third night, the bartender knows yours. The Irish say that in a pub, you’re a guest on your first night, and a regular after that.

For an introvert, the relief is not having to start the conversation. In Ireland, someone else often does.

Voices on the art of intentional travel

The Dish. The Place. The Reason to Go.

If you have one you’d like to share, please write to [email protected]

Bajareque Coffee House, Casco Antiguo, Panama City

Best Cup of Coffee in the World, So Far

by Ron Culp

I have been addicted to coffee since my midnight study breaks in college.

But it wasn't until my first vacations to Italy and France that I discovered truly great-tasting coffee. Ever since those European caffeinated discoveries, I have been searching for the best cup of coffee in the world. I think I found it by accident while on a walking tour of the historic Casco Viejo district of Panama City.

As he led a straggling group of some 20 tourists along the 15th-century cobblestone streets, our tour guide made a passing reference to the oldest coffee store in the city, noting that it allegedly serves the best and most expensive coffee in the world. He and the group kept walking as I came to a dead stop. “Wait a minute, gang,” I shouted ahead. “I absolutely positively must see this potential shrine.”

The group begrudgingly followed me into the tiny store even though I was the only one to order a cup of this highly touted brew, Geisha.

As I happily waited for the meticulously prepared pour-over, the barista told me the Geisha beans are primarily grown in high-altitude volcanic regions like Boquete. She was also proud to note that the very best Geisha beans were once sold for a record-breaking price at auction, more than $30,000 US per kilogram. She warned me in advance that my cup would cost $15. I told my patient fellow travelers who were anxiously awaiting my verdict that the price was worth every penny. And I brought home a pound of beans to share with a few fellow coffee lovers.

Upon returning to Chicago, I researched Geisha beans and have to keep telling coffee friends that they’re from Panama, not Japan.

I also learned that Geisha’s beans often have slightly lower caffeine compared to some lower-altitude Robusta varieties; it is still an Arabica coffee and generally falls within the standard, moderate range of 1.2% to 1.5% caffeine by weight. However, its value is derived entirely from flavor, not caffeine content.

True coffee aficionados describe Geisha as a delicate tea-like body, and distinct floral/fruit notes like jasmine and mandarin. I simply describe it as the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had. And I’m still looking for something that tops it. 9.8 out of 10 stars.

Reading worth your time. 

Secret spots for wild swimming in Co Kerry

The Irish Times, May 4, 2026

A father and son trace Ireland’s wildest swims along the Dingle Peninsula. The writer is a longtime Dingle visitor who spent the winter poring over maps to find lakes and coves he had missed. Pairs with this issue’s Chosen Place.

Read more

 The Hidden Power of Talking to Strangers

Greater Good Magazine, April 7, 2026

A review of Gillian Sandstrom’s new book on the science of talking to strangers. If you find Nicholas Epley’s research worth thinking about, Sandstrom is the next stop.

Read more

Scientists say travel could slow aging and boost your health

ScienceDaily, May 4, 2026

A new study in the Journal of Travel Research applies entropy theory to tourism and identifies four ways travel may support healthier aging. Social connection is one of them.

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A €1.50 Metro ticket to Ancient Rome

BBC Travel, April 9, 2026

Rome’s Metro C now operates two “archaeo-stations” that double as museums. The line uncovered 3,000 years of Roman ruins during construction, and the finds are displayed at platform level for the price of a regular fare.

Read more

7 of the best European sleeper trains for 2026

National Geographic Traveller (UK), March 2026

A practical guide to Europe’s night train revival, including newer routes from European Sleeper and the long-running Belmond Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Worth bookmarking if rail travel is on your list.

Read more