It's pitch black on a back road in Cuba. The classic car has quit. Two of the smallest women on the trip are pushing it down a hill while the driver insists he must steer. Nikki is off in the weeds being sick. And the way the car eventually got fixed? Cigarette smoke blown on the engine and a tree branch.

That is the part of travel nobody puts in the brochure. And it's the part you'll be telling people about for the rest of your life.

In this post, three true stories — a broken-down Cuban Chevy, a car stuck in Moroccan mud that four men couldn't budge, and the night I crashed a Bogotá quinceañera because a stranger called me over from across the street. Plus the actual field guide: what to pack, what to trust, and how to tell the difference between danger and discomfort when you're traveling abroad.

A sustainable travel beauty routine doesn't have to mean compromising on performance or spending an hour at security. It means knowing which five products actually work, which labels to ignore, and which certifications actually mean something.

This post breaks it all down — reef safe mineral sunscreen that doubles as moisturizer, a pre-swim hair treatment that protects against saltwater and UV damage for up to eight hours, plastic-free shampoo bars that skip the TSA liquid line entirely, and a few plane skincare essentials that make long-haul travel significantly less brutal on your skin.

Everything here is inspired by a conversation with Christina Kuklinski, founder of Kook, who spent two years diving the world's most protected reef systems and built an entire brand because nothing on the market worked without harming the ocean. Shop the full sustainable travel beauty list and find out what to actually look for on the label.

We've all said it: "I'd love to travel, but I just don't have time right now." But here's what I've learned after taking hundreds of people on transformational trips: the people who think they can't afford to step away are usually the ones who need it most. Your brain needs space to work its magic—and that space doesn't happen at your desk at 10 PM grinding through emails.