Oh, but don't worry, the park rangers provide a 7-minute "Bear Education" class before you can start exploring on your own. What could go wrong? 

There’s something about smells. Of all of our senses it may be the most primal and deeply ingrained. Smell is the only sense you can’t recall from memory, but it is so very connected to memory. A simple smell can evoke a wide range of emotions and take you deep into the memory vault for things you never even realized you saved.

Does anyone else miss traveling? We sure do… but more than that, we miss planning Mystery Trips for our clients! And we miss the reactions, the pictures, and the stories our adventurers share when they get back from a Mystery Trip.

Our band of spirited, albeit naive, backpackers are about 4 hours from the nearest other group of people on the planet and about 12 hours away from the nearest thing resembling a town. We are at the base of Paramillo del Quindio – a 15,000+ foot Andean peak in the middle of a Los Nevados National Natural Park outside of Salento, Colombia.

I’m sitting in a tiny chair in the police station, trying to pull my gangly limbs in close while staring frightfully into the eyes of a rather large, intimidating Spanish police officer. (Who is this tiny chair supposed to hold anyway?!) It’s taking all of my concentration to understand what he is saying and to string together some embarrassingly bad Spanish in response. I’m filing a police report and trying to remember all those adjectives from Spanish class to describe the perpetrator of my mugging. Okay, okay maybe “mugging” is a strong word. Pick pocketing. Honestly, even “pick pocketing” is pretty strong. But we’ll get back to that.

We opened our Pale Blue Mystery Trip destination card and learned we were headed on a road trip in West Texas – driving from El Paso through sparsely populated ranch land and small towns, each with a story to tell, taking us to Big Bend National Park. The National Park was a bucket list destination, but one thing I wasn’t quite ready for was how beautiful the journey to get there would be.

I had been wanting to treat myself for my birthday and go on a vacation, but my usual travel buddies were all busy so I decided “What the heck, I’ll just go by myself!” That’s when Pale Blue came to mind; I thought this would be the perfect occasion to try out a Mystery Trip!

My solo traveling experience ended up being great, in part because I was sent to an amazing city: Austin, Texas! Check out my guide for how to spend four perfect days in Austin. . .

When you plan your own wedding, the last thing you want to do is to also plan your honeymoon! My now husband Tim and I were in this exact situation when we talked to Erin at Pale Blue about planning a trip for us. We knew we wanted to go somewhere for just a few days (a mini moon if you will) after the wedding but we weren’t sure where, and when Erin suggested a mystery trip, we were sold! We knew that this option would allow us to relax and enjoy our wedding without having to worry about the honeymoon.

Husband: “Maybe we should just book a mystery trip for our summer vacation this year.”

Me: Ummmmm how ’bout no… *cue stress induced panic attack*