Guest Bio

Aiste Stanley is the founder of Trabeona Travels, an award-winning boutique travel agency specializing in meaningful, immersive, and highly personalized travel experiences. Born and raised in Lithuania, Aiste brings a global perspective to her work as a luxury travel advisor, helping clients move beyond surface-level vacations and into journeys shaped by culture, connection, learning, wellness, cuisine, history, and adventure. Through Trabeona Travels, she designs custom itineraries, small group experiences, luxury cruises, expedition travel, and corporate incentive trips that invite travelers to see the world with more curiosity, confidence, and intention.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Aiste Stanley, founder of Trabeona Travels, about what it means to create travel experiences that feel authentic, personal, and deeply connected to place.

Aiste shares the story behind the name Trabeona Travels, inspired by Abeona, the Roman goddess who watches over people as they leave home. That sense of care and guidance runs through her entire approach to travel planning. Rather than simply booking trips, Aiste focuses on understanding each traveler’s personality, comfort level, dreams, and reasons for exploring the world.

The conversation also explores Aiste’s journey from Lithuania to the United States, her perspective on culture and curiosity, and the realities of running a professional travel advisory business. She and Jason discuss the difference between transactional vacation booking and high-touch travel planning, the importance of trusted local partners, the value of small-group connection, and why meaningful travel has the power to change how people see both the world and themselves.

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Some guests support the show through paid production features, cross-promotion, referrals, or other partnerships. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Guest Bio

William “Will” Blair is the manager of Best of the Wild, a pioneering explorer, conservation-minded fly-fishing guide, and destination developer whose career has been shaped by remote rivers, wild fisheries, and a deep respect for places few travelers ever reach. Through his work with Best of the Wild and Best of Kamchatka, Will has spent decades helping anglers experience some of the world’s most extraordinary wilderness destinations, from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula to the southern Bahamas and the Amazon Basin.

Will is best known for his long history in Kamchatka, a volcanic peninsula in Russia’s Far East where unroaded wilderness, native rainbow trout, Pacific salmon, brown bears, and active volcanoes define the landscape. After first being drawn to Kamchatka through the fly-fishing world in the 1990s, he went on to help establish and manage programs on legendary waters such as the Ozernaya and Two Yurt rivers, as well as flyout programs based from Two Yurt Lake. His approach has always combined adventure with stewardship, including catch-and-release practices, careful access, and a long-term commitment to protecting fragile wild fisheries.

Will’s work eventually expanded beyond Russia to the Jumento Cays and Ragged Island chain in the southern Bahamas, where he helped create access to one of the Caribbean’s most remote flats fisheries. In Brazil, his travels and guiding connections opened another chapter among Amazonian river systems known for species such as peacock bass, arowana, and pacu. Across every destination, Will’s work is grounded in immersion, strong local partnerships, and the belief that the world’s last wild places are worth experiencing with humility, patience, and care.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Will Blair about a life spent following fish into some of the most remote corners of the planet. Will shares how a childhood shaped by boats, rivers, lakes, and curiosity eventually led him from the Midwest to Alaska, and then to the far reaches of Kamchatka, where he found a wilderness fishery unlike anything he had experienced before.

The conversation explores what makes Kamchatka so unique, from its active volcanoes and vast salmon runs to its native rainbow trout, brown bears, helicopters, hot springs, and deep sense of solitude. Will explains how travel to the region has changed over the years, why misconceptions about Russia have affected demand, and what it means to guide in a place where anglers may fish rivers that have seen little or no pressure for years.

Jason and Will also talk about the realities of building adventure travel programs in wild places, including logistics, aviation, food, cultural relationships, and the importance of earning trust with local partners. Will’s stories offer a rare look at what it takes to create meaningful wilderness experiences while honoring the people, landscapes, and fisheries that make those journeys possible.

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Some guests support the show through paid production features, cross-promotion, referrals, or other partnerships. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.