Some people take trips. Evlyn Mondo built an entirely new life through travel.

Her journey from science labs and academic classrooms in Quebec to leading a luxury villa in Barbados is a story of reinvention guided by courage, intuition, and heart. As CEO and Managing Director of Villa Casablanca at Sandy Lane, Evlyn is redefining what luxury truly means by shifting the focus from opulence to connection, sustainability, and experiences that stay with people long after they return home.

Drawing from her perspective as both traveler and host, Evlyn curates stays that feel deeply personal and emotionally meaningful. She shares how thoughtful details, cultural immersion, private chef experiences, and eco-conscious practices come together to create space for guests to slow down, celebrate life’s milestones, and reconnect with themselves and each other.

“Luxury isn’t about excess,” Evlyn says. “It’s about presence and creating space for people to reconnect with themselves, with each other, and with the place they’re in.”

Her story goes beyond hospitality. Evlyn shares stories about identity, bravery, leadership, and the choice to design a life aligned with purpose. She reminds us that reinvention isn’t about losing who we were, but expanding into who we’re meant to become.

A must listen! Only on Speaking of Travel.

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

We often think of travel as moving across maps with new cities, new landscapes, new horizons. But the most profound journeys happen in ways you cannot trace on a globe. They happen through music. Through sound. Through the stories hidden in every note.

Pianist Terry Eder lives life and art emboding this idea. Her performances have taken her from Carnegie Hall to Alice Tully Hall and beyond, but she doesn’t just play music, she inhabits it. Every piece she touches carries history, culture, memory, and emotion. Her devotion to Hungarian twentieth-century composers even led her to live in Hungary behind the Iron Curtain, immersing herself in a world that shaped the very music she performs today.

“To truly play the music you must understand the people who lived it.”

In this conversation on Speaking of Travel, Terry shares what it means to select a program like a journey, how music can bridge cultures, and why a piano recital is storytelling, connection, and remembrance. We explore vulnerability, identity, memory, and how audiences often feel the depth of a piece even without knowing its history.

We also trace Terry’s beginnings in Detroit, the moment she realized music was her calling, and the ways her life practicing law and performing music intertwined to deepen her artistry.

Through teaching, curating, and founding the Key Pianists series, she continues to guide new listeners and seasoned audiences alike toward a deeper understanding of sound, culture, and human emotion.

This episode is about music as a journey, sound as story, and the way one life devoted to music can illuminate places, histories, and hearts far beyond the stage. Terry guides and shares the spaces where memory, culture, and melody meet the light between the notes.

A must listen!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

The Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) is more than a place to catch a flight. This airport is a special part of our community, our economy, and our lives. Every day, neighbors, friends, and family work behind the scenes to keep the airport running smoothly, connecting Western North Carolina to the world while staying grounded in the values of the people who call this place home.

AVL knows that being part of the community is essential to its future. Innovation, intentional design, and human connection aren’t just buzzwords here. They’re how the airport ensures its neighbors, coworkers, and travelers are cared for, respected, and valued.

On this episode of Speaking of Travel, Angi Daus, Vice President of Air Service and Corporate Communications, shares how AVL builds service from the inside out:

“Every decision we make is about creating an experience that feels authentically Western North Carolina by being efficient, welcoming, and deeply human."

At AVL, passengers are never just numbers. By prioritizing people, cultivating a culture of care, and making every decision with the community in mind, AVL delivers service that stays strong under pressure, earns the trust of travelers, and stands the test of time.

This is an airport that uplifts a region. It demonstrates how purpose-driven leadership, community alignment, and operational excellence can reinforce each other to shape a future that benefits everyone.

This episode of Speaking of Travel shows that AVL is more than just an airport. For Western North Carolina, it belongs to all of us. Discover how it works, why it is one of the best airports around, and why anyone who travels through an airport should hear this story.

Only on Speaking of Travel!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.