Travel Talkers Toastmasters

Share your stories, travel tips, great adventures. We love to travel and share our trips with others.

  • SHARE YOUR STORIES

Welcome to Travel Talkers Toastmasters!

Join Travel Talkers Toastmasters on Thursday, October 8, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific (-7 UTC). The meeting theme is “Wine Country Trips.” Let’s travel to the world’s most beautiful wine regions. Share your adventures at our meeting.

Toastmasters offers members opportunities to improve their public speaking and leadership skills. And at Travel Talkers Toastmasters, we also learn about new destinations and share our travel adventures.

Our meetings are for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members to share your joy of travel. Build your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive, Toastmasters-style environment. Let’s hit the road, share stories, and inspire each other to embark on new adventures. Mark your calendars for an unforgettable evening with the Travel Talkers community!

You are invited to join us and bring a friend. Thursday, October 8, 6:30-7:30 pm Pacific (-7 UTC).
Register for the meeting link: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Join the Travel Talkers Toastmasters for a fun evening sharing your travel plans and trips.

We meet on Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30pm Pacific Time (-7 UTC). Use the link below to register for our Zoom meetings.

Guests are always welcome at our meetings! We look forward to meeting you and hearing your travel stories.

Travel Talkers Toastmasters, club number 04670726, District 101, Division A, Santa Clara, California. We are an online club with members from all over the world.

Why Toastmasters?

https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink
https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/04670726-travel-talkers-toastmasters

Meetings 2026

Travel Talkers Meetings

Club Officers

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters—Museums and Cultural Destinations

    Meeting highlights

    The July 30 Travel Talkers Toastmasters Club meeting theme was Museums and Cultural Destinations, and the meeting also featured the installation of new officers led by Area A4 Director Scott Bradley. The club welcomed several guests, including Elizabeth Garcia from Arizona, Shalini Suravarjjala from Santa Clara, and Mandi Judy from Jamaica. Meghan Burns, as the Destination Master, conducted a guessing game about a U.S. city with many art museums. Lisa Hamil delivered a prepared speech titled “Star Power” about cultural experiences including meeting Elizabeth Taylor at a hotel in Florence, Italy. The club also conducted travel-themed table topics where members discussed museum preferences and cultural attractions. The meeting also included evaluations of timing, grammar, and overall performance, with Elizabeth winning the travel topics contest for her response about wanting to speak with the Mona Lisa to discover why she’s smiling.

    Club Officer Installation

    Scott Bradley, the new Area A4 Director from Santa Cruz, California, conducted the officer installation ceremony for the Travel Talkers Toastmasters club. The new officers officially installed are: Helen Josephine, President; Jacqueline Maynard-Campbell, Vice President Education; Lisa Hamil, Vice President Membership; Helen Josephine, Vice President Public Relations; Avis Russell, Secretary and Treasurer; Jessica Rolle, Sergeant at Arms. Each officer agreed to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. The meeting included introductions from several guests, including Elizabeth Garcia from Arizona, who is spending a month in Irvine, California; Shalini Suravarjjala, a guest invited by Lisa Hamil; and Mandi Judy from Jamaica, who all found the club through different means, including the new directory of online Toastmasters clubs and ChatGPT. Helen Josephine took on the role of Toastmasters for the meeting since Jessica was unable to attend due to a power outage.

    Destination Master

    Meghan Burns introduced the Destination Master activity, providing clues about a U.S. city with a high concentration of art museums and inviting participants to guess the location via chat.

    • This US city has one of the highest concentrations of art museums in the world, with nearly 100 museums
    • Served as the capital of the United States until 1790
    • Home to many famous artists, including Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Georgia O’Keeffe
    • The homes and art collections of famous historic residents of this city served as the foundation of many of the art museums you can visit today

    If you guessed New York City as the location, you are correct.

    Cultural Experiences and Travel Topics

    Lisa Hamil delivered a prepared speech titled “Star Power” about her cultural experiences. She shared cultural events and celebrities, including attending and singing in a Pavarotti concert in Verona and meeting Elizabeth Taylor at a dinner in Florence during an HIV conference. She described how these cultural experiences provided relief from academic stress, particularly during a challenging statistics class.

    Museum Travel Topics

    Helen led the Travel Topics session where members shared their responses to museum-related questions. Scott proposed opening an outdoor museum featuring petroglyphs and Native American artifacts, while Elizabeth expressed interest in speaking with the Mona Lisa to discover her secrets. Avis preferred guided museum tours over exploring alone, and Mandi highlighted how museums provide deeper historical context about a country beyond just experiencing its food or beaches. Meghan shared a bizarre museum artifact involving a Civil War bullet with unusual claims about its romantic history, and Judith imagined a future AI museum where paintings could come alive and interact with visitors.

    Next Meeting

    The theme of our August 6 meeting is “Dinosaur Adventures.” Join the Travel Talkers Toastmasters Club for a fun evening sharing your adventures. Engage with fellow members as we share our stories about traveling. This is your opportunity to focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, August 6th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your favorite Dinosaur adventure.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Forgotten Destinations

    Abandoned hotels, ghost towns and empty school buildings are interesting and sometimes very popular travel destinations. We explored the topic of Forgotten Destinations at our May 30 meeting.

    Our Travel Topics Master, Judith Ferber, asked us questions about forgotten monuments, grand hotels, and other historical places that have been abandoned. Meghan shared that in Rome there is a church, The Basilica of San Clemente, with three layers of history, a wealthy house and two basilicas, all built one on top of the other. Tym talked about his adventures visiting airplane graveyards in Arizona and Southern California. Helen talked about how nature will reclaim abandoned buildings and monuments as it did at Chernobyl, the site of the devastating nuclear reactor incident in 1986.

    Airplane Graveyard
    Chernobyl
    Abandoned school
    The lower level of the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome

    Our impromptu Destination Master, Kit, gave us these clues about a country:

    • This country has elephants and monkeys.
    • Both gold and diamonds were discovered in this country.
    • This is the southern-most country on the continent.
    • A famous landmark of ths country is on the southern tip.

    if you guessed South Africa, you are correct!

    Kit Myers presented her Presentation Mastery, Level 2 project speech on Communication Styles. She used stories from her life to illustrate how she learned to communicate in different languages to different audiences. Her personal copy of The Little Prince in French helped her to communicate with visitors from another country. She learned basic Dutch slang words from beer card descriptions and conversations at a local ale house in Belgium when she was a High School foreign exchange student. In her conclusion she recommended that a good technique is just to “throw it out there” if you are not sure of the word or the pronunciation. Your companions will help you.

    At our June 6th meeting, the theme is “Forgettable Flights.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your stories of destinations and airplane flights. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about exotic vacations, scenic locations, and travel challenges. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 6th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

    Helen Josephine,

    Travel Talkers Toastmasters

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Cinema Scenery

    The beautiful vistas, thriving cities, and iconic monuments that are used as backdrops for movies was the theme of the Travel Talkers meeting on May 23rd. The Travel Topics Master at our meeting, Tym Myers, presented pictures of scenes from famous movies and asked us if we had ever traveled to those locations. Helen talked about her trip to Seattle to see the sites included in the movie, “Sleepless in Seattle.” Dora wanted to go to Paris to see the iconic Eiffel tower included in “Midnight in Paris” and enjoy the many restaurants in Paris. Jacqueline still has San Francisco on her bucket list of places to visit. She wants to take the cable car up the hills and visit the Golden Gate bridge, two symbols of San Francisco that are included in many movies.

    Our Destination Master for the meeting was Jacqueline. She provided these clues for the mystery destination:

    • This Island is part of an archipelago of three islands in the Western Caribbean.
    • This island is part of a country that is a self-governing British Overseas Territory.
    • Famous attractions on this island include the 7-Mile Beach and turtle farms.
    • The Botanical Garden on this island is named for Queen Elizabeth II.

    If you guessed Grand Cayman Island of the Cayman Islands, you are correct!

    The featured speaker at our meeting was Samantha Jamwal. Her speech, “Adopting a Culture,” was a Level 5 speech for the Engaging Humor Pathway. Samatha shared her experiences growing up in Utah and attending Catholic Schools. She felt that she grew up in a “bubble” not knowing very much about other cultures. Before she traveled to India to meet her husband’s family, she learned about their culture, language and customs. She continues to expand her word-view by learning about the music and movies of India. She feels that her efforts to experience other cultures and customs has helped her to recognize her own biases. Making the effort to adopt a new culture has made her more compassionate and understanding of different perspectives. We enjoyed Samantha’s speech and congratulated her on her dedication to immerse herself in different cultures and customs.

    At our May 30th, the meeting theme is “Forgotten Destinations.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your stories of destinations you have visited. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about exotic vacations, scenic locations, and places that time has forgotten. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, May 30th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

    Helen Josephine,

    Travel Talkers Toastmasters

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Rocky Road Trips

    The members of Travel Talkers Toastmasters love taking road trips to explore back roads, scenic highways and National Parks. However, sometimes those road trips can turn into “rocky road” trips when unexpected events happen. We used the theme of the May 16th meeting to share our stories about road trips–unexpected, interesting and challenging.

    Our Travel Topics Master, Avis Russell, asked club members and guests to talk about interesting road trips. Max talked about an impromptu trip from Phoenix, Arizona to Sedona. He found a meditation retreat on this road trip and enjoyed the unexpected opportunity to disconnect from social media and the internet for the weekend. Helen talked about a trip to the Redwoods in Northern California on the Avenue of the Giants with her husband and three small children. Unfortunately, the Chevrolet Suburban they were traveling in for the camping trip had engine trouble and leaked oil onto the highway. Helen and her children stayed at a motel for a few days while the Suburban was being fixed. From the window of their motel room, they noticed the stop sign swaying back and forth. Earthquake! This was a rocky rocking road trip!

    The Destination Master, Tym Myers, asked us to name the city where the famous Rocky Road Ice Cream was invented in 1929. He gave us these clues:

    • The city is in California.
    • The city includes an 140 acre salt-water lake.
    • Famous residents of this city include Jack London, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Bruce Lee, and Zendaya.

    If you guessed Oakland, California you are correct! Rocky Road Ice Cream was invented by William Dreyer and Joseph Edy in Oakland California.

    Meghan Burns was the featured speaker at our meeting. She presented her Presentation Mastery, Level 1, Evaluation and Feedback speech. She chose a travel theme for her speech, “It’s the Journey and the Destination.” Meghan has traveled to almost all of the continents (except Antarctica). She is a savvy traveler and she shared travel tips about airport terminal amenities in her speech. Tip number one is to use your time between flights to exercise by walking around the terminal from gate to gate exploring every hallway. Her second tip is to find a window seat to watch the planes arrive and depart. She suggested that you can also use an app to tune-in the tower radio frequency to listen in on the pilots’ final instructions before take-off. The third tip is to find somewhere quiet, perhaps an airline lounge or a small restaurant, to recover and relax between flights. At some airports you can even get a massage or go to a foot spa. Her final tip, for those long flights with many airplane and time zone changes, is to pack a second set of underwear in your carry on bag. You can make a quick change between flights and feel somewhat refreshed. She cautioned us to also pack a ziplock bag to stow the used undies for the remainder of our trip. In her humorous and engaging speech, Meghan provided great tips to help us navigate airports and long airline trips.

    At our meeting on May 23rd, the meeting theme is “Cinema Scenery.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your stories of visiting the cities and locations featured in movies. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as we share our stories about exotic vacations and scenic locations from favorite movies. The meeting is on Thursday, May 23rd from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

    Helen Josephine,

    Travel Talkers Toastmasters

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Memorable Trips I’d Take Again

    We shared the memorable trips we would take again during our meeting on May 9th. The speaker at our meeting, Jacqueline Maynard-Campbell, presented her speech, “One More Time Israel!” Jacqueline provided photos and details about her trip to Israel in 2014. She traveled with an international group led by Dr. Miles Monroe. She enjoyed visiting the ancient ruins, the holy sites, the city of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and the ancient fortress of Masada. It was so memorable that she is planning a return trip for next year.

    Our Destination Master, Avis Russell, gave us these clues for a theme park in Asia. She asked us to guess the country.

    • This is the largest theme park in this country.
    • The theme park is about the size of Monaco.
    • The theme park is designed to look like a traditional Dutch town, with full-size replicas of buildings and plantings of million of tulips that flower in the Spring.
    • The theme park is illuminated for the Winter Festival and offers Fireworks Shows in the Summer.

    If you guessed Japan you are correct! The park is Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki, Japan.

    Our Travel Topics Master, Vernitta Brown, asked us to share our memorable trips. Judith talked about her trip to Israel a a teenager to meet her Father. Helen reminisced about her trip to Paris in 2015 where she found enjoyment in both music and art. Our guest Dora told us about a trip to China to visit family and the wonderful fireworks celebration she experienced. Natasha remembered a Caribbean Cruise with her family. All trips we hope to take again soon.

    At our next meeting on May 16th, the meeting theme is “Rocky Road Trips.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your stories of Road Trips gone wrong. Join the meeting to share your stories about rocky road trips, flat tires, running out of gas, and getting lost. The meeting is on Thursday, May 16th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

    Helen Josephine,

    Travel Talkers Toastmasters

  • Travel Talkers Toastmasters–The Long and Winding Road

    The theme for our April 25th meeting was about traveling the long and winding road. Our Table Topics Master, Meghan Burns, asked us about our favorite road trips and what was more important, the journey or the destination. She also asked us to comment on any games or music we enjoyed on our road trips and if we preferred to be the passenger or the driver. We enjoyed sharing our stories and memories of road trips.

    Our Destination Master, Judith Ferber, chose a location that aligned with the theme of the long and winding road. She provided these clues for a road in an Asian country:

    • This curvy road has exactly 48 sharp bends because it it based on this country’s alphabet of 48 syllables.
    • Each syllable is represented in each curve of the road.
    • If you are going down you will take one road and if you are ascending, you’ll take another, which is a good way to reduce collisions.
    • Tourist flock to this area to travel the road during the autum foliage season.

    If you guessed Japan you are correct! The Irohazaka Slope is an expressway linking the city of Nikko to the Okunikko region in Japan.

    Vernitta Brown gave a speech on mentoring as part of her Level 2 Prepare to Mentor project. Vernitta thanked all of the mentors in Toastmasters who helped her prepare speeches and guided her to be an effective communicator. She concluded her speech with a challenge for all of us to be mentors to others in Toastmasters. We can all learn by mentoring others.


    At our next meeting on May 9th, the meeting theme is “Memorable Trips.” What is your favorite trip that you would like to take again? What made that trip so memorable? Join us to share your adventures on Thursday, May 9th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

    Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

    Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

    RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

    We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

    Helen Josephine,

    Travel Talkers Toastmasters

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Telling a great travel story is my passion, sharing that passion with others is fun.

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