In short
UK and Europe road trips—routes, packing/boot essentials, playlists/style tips—framed around Volkswagen’s all-electric ID range (ID3, ID4, ID7), emphasizing quiet, smooth driving and “discoverability” over rigid planning.
Guests
Harriet Stewart, stylist and creative consultant; Melinda Stevens, founder of creative agency Salt Lick and former editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveller.
Key claims
Electric cars make journeys calmer and more enjoyable; planning helps (especially restaurants), but spontaneity enables serendipitous finds; road trips strengthen conversation (less face-to-face confrontation); spacious boots (ID4/ID7) are crucial for families’ gear/snacks.
Notable examples
Harriet’s France trips (west coast), UK stops like Cornwall (Carbis Bay, Penzance, Sennen Cove, Gwyneva) and Pembrokeshire (turquoise beaches, crab linguine by campfire); Melinda’s America road trip across Washington to Santa Fe via Montana/Wyoming/Arizona/Utah; a chaotic last-minute France trip ending at Four Seasons Provence; a Sussex detour to The Star in Alveston for “delicious pint and pie.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOGuest Introductions and Style Tips
0:45 to 2:44
Hosts introduce guests and discuss their style choices.
“Very stylish women, but also travel aficionados.”
Travel Anecdotes: Harriet's Favorite Road Trip
2:44 to 4:43
Harriet shares her favorite road trip experiences, primarily in France.
“Are you both quite spontaneous when it comes to road tripping or a planner?”
Melinda's Memorable American Road Trip
4:43 to 6:51
Melinda recounts her road trips across America and the landscapes she encountered.
“And so our final flourish was checking into a really smart hotel at the end to try and kind of be a bomb for the soul.”
Planning vs. Spontaneity in Travel
6:51 to 8:38
Discussion on whether the guests prefer planning or spontaneity in their road trips.
“I'm relatively new to electric car driving, but I'm a fan so far.”
Spontaneous Travel Stories
8:38 to 10:43
Melinda and Harriet share their experiences with spontaneous travel and road trips.
“you've got 48 hours and no work emails, where are you heading?”
Upcoming Road Trip with Volkswagen
10:43 to 12:44
Hosts discuss their upcoming road trip with Volkswagen's electric ID range.
“And kind of because it makes you work a little bit harder to get there, the reward is so great.”
Dream Destinations for Road Trips
12:44 to 14:00
Guests share their dream destinations for a perfect road trip.
The Joy of Quiet Car Rides
14:00 to 15:01
Explore the peace and self-care benefits of driving in silence.
“And yeah, so I love the quietness of that.”
Dream Carpool Companions
15:01 to 16:58
Discuss ideal companions for a road trip and their storytelling potential.
“And I went, oh, gosh, that's going to be like, everyone's going to be like talking too much.”
Packing for Comfort and Style
16:58 to 19:33
Tips on choosing comfortable yet stylish outfits for road trips.
“You definitely need entertainment, don't you?”
Show all 16 chapters
Finding Joy in the Journey
19:33 to 22:00
Reflect on the excitement of discovering new places during road trips.
Conversations on the Road
22:00 to 26:05
The dynamics of conversation and connection during long car journeys.
“And yet at the core of what we love about traveling and what makes your heart sing is when you come across something that you just didn't know that was there.”
Quickfire Road Trip Questions
26:05 to 28:00
Engage in fun quickfire questions about road trip essentials and preferences.
“Like my fiance's always like, why have you got five pairs of trainers for one weekend?”
Favorite Service Stations and Souvenirs
28:00 to 29:49
Discover the hosts' favorite service stations and unique souvenirs from their travels.
“service stations but that sounds no definitely just because it feels like you're on holidays now yeah it does a bit um linda do you have a favorite i think there's a more than one or two of them called Cobbs Farm Shop.”
Bucket List Road Trips
29:50 to 31:05
Hear about exciting road trip destinations and the joys of traveling by car.
“I know it's going to take a few days, and I think the crucial thing will be not have too much of a gender around it.”
The Meaning of Going the Distance
31:06 to 32:29
Explore the metaphor of road trips as a representation of life's journey and persistence.
“And one final question what does going the distance mean to you personally?”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Harriet Stewart:Welcome to today's episode brought to you in partnership with Volkswagen. We're talking about travel, spontaneity and the joy of the open road all through the lens of Volkswagen's all electric ID range. The idea is same spirit, different energy, cars that feel just like the Volkswagens you know and love, but powered by electric. Simple, stylish and built to make everyday adventures that bit easier. So I'm joined today by two brilliant guests, Harriet Stewart, stylist and creative consultant, and Melinda Stevens, founder of creative agency Salt Lick and former editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveller.
0:33Harriet Stewart:Welcome both. It's lovely to have you here. Together we will be swapping road trip stories, style tips and looking at how the quiet, smooth drive of an all-electric car makes the journey just as special as the destination.
0:52Harriet Stewart:Ladies, it's so nice to have you here. Thanks for having me. Very stylish women, but also travel aficionados. So I'm very excited to get stuck into some of your travel anecdotes. But before we do, let's just talk about what we're wearing. Harriet?
1:04Melinda Stevens:I am doing a bit of a double denim, but a sort of take on that, I suppose, because it's brown denim, which feels very autumnal, big silver belt and lots of jewellery, as always. Clinking away.
1:15Harriet Stewart:Melinda? I am wearing some secondhand trainers that are way too small for me, but I love them so much I've stuffed my toes in.
1:22Polly Sayer:This lovely skirt is from a Glaswegian label.
1:26Harriet Stewart:And this coat, which I love and adore, which is more of a cape, actually.
1:30Polly Sayer:So, yes, leaning into autumn whilst also having the capacity to unpeel when necessary.
1:35Harriet Stewart:Yeah, it's a tricky time of year, isn't it?
1:37Polly Sayer:It's kind of hot and cold.
1:38Harriet Stewart:I'm wearing a leather jacket with a sort of aviator collar, a grey T-shirt, white tailored trousers and some deck shoes.
1:46Melinda Stevens:I am really excited to hear from both of you about some travel bits and bobs.
1:50Harriet Stewart:Harriet you love a road trip so I am really excited to hear about what is your most favourite trip you've ever been on something that's been really memorable where was it and why we tend to
2:01Melinda Stevens:do France a lot because me and my husband can normally only take sort of a maximum two weeks off work and actually you can't get that much further than France you know it's right on our doorstep and also it's amazing like we love the west coast of France so we do that a lot there's some amazing places down there but we've also done like northern Spain Galicia my parents who
2:18Harriet Stewart:are retired now they've been a lot further afield so they've done like Scandinavia and Italy and
2:22Melinda Stevens:like Croatia and all sorts but we we never really get that far but yeah sort of closer in Europe and the UK as well I mean we always do like Cornwall we've done Wales we've done Norfolk
2:31Harriet Stewart:all sorts really yeah well we'll touch on a bit more of our kind of UK hotspots later um but Melinda same question to you has there been a road trip that you've ever been on that's been
2:40Polly Sayer:particularly memorable I think again with my kids you know when they're small they're really adaptable and they're really agile and they're very up for everything and very open to everything and I've done a couple of road trips in America for several reasons one I think that geologically America is just an astonishing country and as you move through it the landscape changes in the most phenomenal way from you know north Washington down to Santa Fe through Montana and Wyoming and and all through those beautiful kind of Arizona, Utah states where it becomes almost desert, but almost kind of melted and wondrous.
3:18Polly Sayer:I think America is an incredible place.
3:22Harriet Stewart:Are you both quite spontaneous when it comes to road tripping or a planner?
3:26Melinda Stevens:I do like planning the bigger trips. I do like planning, you know, we like, we put quite a lot of thought into the restaurants we're going to do. I say we, I mean, my husband's quite good at that side of things. He does a lot of the planning and we'll like book restaurants in advance and that will often like dictate our route quite a lot like places that we want to eat or we'll kind of plan it in like a couple of days blocks at a time but we do also often just decide that you know if the weather's really nice we'll pop down to the south coast for a long weekend and we'll pick my boys up from school and we'll head down you know for a couple of days um and sort of you know having the freedom to do that is amazing have you been anywhere recently that was quite spontaneous i actually just did yeah we just did a long weekend in the south of france I took my husband for his birthday yeah we drove down the French Riviera we had a couple of hotel bookings that I'd been long-standing bookings I'd had them for a while then actually last minute we decided to rent a car and we did it we did like a lovely little drive all down the coast which was so nice yeah yeah it was beautiful it was like one last little bit of summer before we hit autumn
4:23Harriet Stewart:oh yeah and the last slice yeah exactly Melinda how about you are you a spontaneous traveler yes
4:28Polly Sayer:I am but again it doesn't go down terribly well I remember um actually in in France as well I decided to go right at the very last minute this is only when we had one daughter and we set off on a road trip but I we hadn't really booked anything so most nights we were kind of you know camping in the back end of beyond because you have a kind of an idyllic image of where you're going to set your pitch your tent it doesn't always work out that way and also it was a question about routes so you know if you're looking at a map and you're trying to look at ways and you're just looking at and sometimes that was not always going according to plan so there was a lot of swearing and making way too much noise in the car and huge amounts of arguments and kind of hideousness.
5:11Polly Sayer:And so our final flourish was checking into a really smart hotel at the end to try and kind of be a bomb for the soul. And this was at the Four Seasons in Provence. And my daughter, who was really small, who'd been tucked in at the back in her little car seat. Bless her. And at the time, she could only really say two words, which was like kind of mama and dada. But when we were sitting down with the general manager to have lunch, she dropped a little bit of her food from her high chair and then she swore profusely and I realized that having sat in the back of that car and absorbed her father's and her mother's language over this previous month had had left her with a new delicious word that was less
5:53Harriet Stewart:appropriate well I mean it happens to the best of us doesn't it sure it was kind of funny at least
5:59Polly Sayer:it was super cute in one way although it's really hideous the first time you hear your child say say you know a particular swear word it was really shocking and the general manager was this extremely um elegant and wonderful french man and he was very charming about it he said i know what that word means little girl and we all go forward both of you have kind of convinced me that you know
6:22Harriet Stewart:kids are pretty adaptable aren't they whatever you so you can chuck them in the back of whatever for a road trip and yeah i think they kind of enjoy the adventure even if your parents are
6:31Melinda Stevens:swearing at each other yeah so road trips always quite conducive to a fair few arguments yeah
6:37Harriet Stewart:there's always like a few stressful moments yeah well very excitingly uh some of my colleagues and i are heading off on a little road trip of our own very soon we are going to be trying out volkswagen's electric id range and we're going to bunk in head somewhere fun stay tuned if you'd like to see how we get on i'm sure like we said there might be some arguments i hope we all get on I think I'm driving which is you know a bit of a concern Hodge is in my car and she's just said I I can drive darling but I like not to so I think the passengers then also got lots because I'm
7:11Melinda Stevens:normally the passenger on the road trips I actually love driving myself I really do but I've somehow just you know found my role in the passenger seat on our on our family road trips but I feel like sometimes especially with children I don't know if you remember some of your trips the passenger often has a lot more to do because I'm the one right deal with the children and make snacks and they've dropped something they want something oh what's the directions can you put a playlist on and meanwhile the driver oh fair enough obviously just needs to concentrate on the road but i do think sometimes the passenger is is the short straw my my fiancee is terrible for this so i would much
7:44Harriet Stewart:prefer to drive so i just can concentrate on that but he sits in the driver's seat and then he's like can i give you a job why don't you do this go on your phone i'm just trying to have a nice
7:55Melinda Stevens:time yeah i'm just busy i'm just busy scrolling or listening to a podcast or something but he's
8:00Harriet Stewart:like oh can you go and pay for that parking ticket that i just got somewhere else i was like that's not my responsibility so we'll be trying three cars from the all electric id range and they've all got their own sort of usps the id3 is a sort of fun compact size great for weekends the id4 is quite a spacious great for families and the id7 is a really nice long range comfortable drive so So really looking forward to giving them a go. I'm relatively new to electric car driving, but I'm a fan so far. So I'm looking forward to seeing how they compare. And speaking of, if you've got an electric car fully charged, you've got 48 hours and no work emails, where are you heading?
8:43Harriet Stewart:Melinda?
8:43Polly Sayer:I think I'd be ambitious and go to Jura, which is an island in the inner Hebrides. I love that drive up to Scotland. It's incredible. and then there's a little ferry that you can pop the car onto and then Jura is this wild and wonderful place where George Orwell wrote 1984 actually it's just a lovely place to go fishing and walk for hours and very special to wake up there in the morning and you'll see all the stags and the deers come down to the beach and start wading in the seawater it's rather unusual so it's very wild again when we went to Jura we would pad around on the beaches and for mussels and things like that but also we all ended up going kind of feral and covering ourselves in mud from
9:33Harriet Stewart:the from the sea and it was just heaven yeah that sounds absolutely stunning and Hebrides are like high high on my list everyone has spoken about them beyond and there are beautiful bothies there as
9:42Polly Sayer:well which um you can stay in overnight with a little fire yeah and just totally off grid and
9:48Melinda Stevens:it's very special harriet how about you i would probably head to pembrokeshire the beaches there are absolutely stunning i don't know if you guys have done that but they are just unbelievable obviously we've got amazing amazing beaches it has to be coastal for me because i just love i love a uk coastal stay k and we've got amazing beaches but there's something really special about pembrokeshire because it feels a little bit a little bit more undiscovered it's not like the beaches of cornwall or devon that obviously you get a lot of crowds um they are stunning like turquoise waters that amazing cliff views lots of great walks we've done a trip there before road trip around there before and it was amazing sort of picking up local seafood and making like incredible like little campfires and yeah crab linguine around the fire in the evenings like it was really special so that was yeah that was a few years ago I'd probably go back there well Harriet
10:34Harriet Stewart:you could easily get to Pembrokeshire in Volkswagen's all electric ID range so good to know you've got that confidence of getting there in one trip so you might be able to go further than you think like you I'd make it a sort of coastal trip I actually just got back from Cornwall this weekend and where did you go well we were staying in Carbis Bay sort of area but my fiance's from Cornwall and on our final day he's like right we're going out on a little drive today and we're just going to go see some places that we have not been to together and he took me down sort of towards Penzance and then also to Senan oh Senan Cove is so oh my god I can't believe I hadn't been to Senna and Gwyneva as well.
11:14Harriet Stewart:I just thought they were so beautiful. And kind of because it makes you work a little bit harder to get there, the reward is so great. The roads are so windy down that end, aren't they? And it feels like old Cornwall. But it was, I don't know, maybe it's because it was a Monday and it's out of season, but we had beautiful weather. It felt so peaceful in a way that a lot of UK beaches aren't always. Yes, certainly in the middle of summer.
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11:36Melinda Stevens:Yeah.
11:37Polly Sayer:Also, I think doing road trips out of season are a clever thing to do anyway, because it means you don't have to necessarily book 35 restaurants in advance you might just get lucky and there's something really serendipitous about that which adds to that sense of adventure
11:50Harriet Stewart:yeah definitely what sort of thing are you always putting in the boot i've seen the volkswagen all electric id range and the boots are super roomy i suppose with kids it's a whole like different ball game isn't it lots of snacks things for all eventualities we travel with quite a lot of kids
12:08Melinda Stevens:essentials I mean we're often doing coastal things so we've always got like my boys are getting into surfing so we've always got the surfboards on the roof wetsuits raincoats if you're in the UK yeah all of the wet weather gear um and lots of yeah lots of snacks for them for me essentials when we're camping I do like to have my creature comfort so I you know I've always got my like little box all my skincare things which makes it you know feel like home I think that is the
12:33Harriet Stewart:beauty of having a spacious boot like the id4 the id7 it's you know it's a boring thing to say but having that much space is so so valuable can really just chuck in as much as you like especially with a family it's a kind of a godsend in my mind i'm kind of imagining you know like on a safari when they stop mid-morning and then they get the like little coffee station open a little latch yeah that's yeah something to aspire to isn't it have you got any guilty pleasure playlists or any podcasts you like to listen to while you're driving podcasts for me would be
13:07Polly Sayer:tortoise ones I love them hoaxed um and etc they're always quite focused on kind of delusion
13:14Harriet Stewart:you know strange con men they're really gripping Harriet any musical podcasts that you have well I
13:21Melinda Stevens:find it quite challenging sometimes listening to podcasts on our family road trips because the noise of like the vehicle but also the noise of children I find it quite distracting as well we tend to do playlists more than podcasts because I feel like I need to be able to like lock into a podcast more like in my headphones um so yeah we listen to quite a lot of reggae when we're on our road trips just because it feels like that's really like summer vibes like always on holiday you know playing playing that kind of thing feels yeah makes me feel like I'm
13:48Harriet Stewart:on holiday to your point about the the noise of your vehicle I get it but my experience of electric vehicles they are so much quieter and more sort of peaceful maybe I need an electric vehicle so yeah perhaps that's the solution but they are they are just kind of smoother and remarkably quiet so obviously I can't control the sound of the children but if only you could yeah
14:10Polly Sayer:my girls will always listen to music in the car and that's great because they have a really wide range of it but I have to say electric is is better for me because it's much quieter and they think I'm psychotic but when I'm on my own in the car I don't listen to anything at all because I think there's that thing of being quite silent, but also in kind of forward motion, which I think always, you know, allows kind of good ideas and fruitful thoughts. It feels more progressive. And yeah, so I love the quietness of that.
14:45Harriet Stewart:Yeah, it's a little sort of partly a sort of self-care moment, isn't it? If you've got that time to yourself and the car's quiet. And I love driving for that reason. I love driving on my own.
14:55Melinda Stevens:because I'm so usually with children in a car a long car journey on my own is like my idea of heaven if I'm saying see a friend you know I'm going to visit a friend and they're like oh
15:03Polly Sayer:you know we can meet halfway I'm like no no no I'll come to you I will sit in the car on my own
15:08Melinda Stevens:for an hour and a half and happily go anywhere I mean that is like meditative it's quite meditative as well isn't it driving it is yeah especially if you've got a car that's really comfortable
15:16Harriet Stewart:and easy to drive and smooth and quiet and like it actually is a little little joy it's not just about the destination is yes exactly especially if you can pull over and get a nice little takeaway coffee as well it's like living yeah yeah you've got to stock up on all those things and make make it part of the day not just uh the getting there so my next question to you is your dream car guest if you were you know carpool karaoke style interviewing someone or just a companion who
15:45Polly Sayer:would it be alive or dead my answer kept on being lots of female authors and then i got the giggles because then I thought, oh, let's put all the female authors in the car together. And I went, oh, gosh, that's going to be like, everyone's going to be like talking too much. And will we be able to concentrate? And then I just read, as lots of people did this summer, Miranda July's awful. And I just thought, she has a hilarious story of her road trip. She's supposed to go on a massive road trip across America. And actually, she goes 45 minutes down the road and checks into a motel and doesn't leave.
16:14Polly Sayer:And then beginneth an extraordinary story, which is amazing if you don't know it. And another female author I'm obsessed with is the extraordinary Madeline Miller. She's a young American woman, but she writes about the ancient world in a really amazing way. She wrote Circe and she wrote The Song of Apollo. And she writes about gods as if they're humans and humans as if they're gods. They're incredibly evocative. I would love to scratch the surface more of her. she has a remarkable understanding of human nature and godly nature and um would be a
16:50Harriet Stewart:wonderment i'm sure yeah well hopefully that trip up to the hebrides will give you a good few hours
16:56Polly Sayer:yes yeah answers from i i did once this is slightly embarrassing i felt as a teenager i fell in love with the writing of men and kandera who was i don't know it's just i thought we'd fall in love and get married and so i did get in the car um and then try and work out where he was and I think he was like in Hungary or Czechoslovakia and I thought I have this awful feeling that I'm going to lose my momentum halfway across Europe and so I bid a hasty retreat and Milan and I are not together.
17:26Melinda Stevens:The end.
17:29Harriet Stewart:I was having a think about mine and I think ultimately on a car journey I'd like to be sort of entertained, someone who can make me laugh but also might have some good stories and I just think Miriam Margulies would be quite fun.
17:43Polly Sayer:Oh, the best.
17:43Harriet Stewart:Yeah. She's got a lot of good anecdotes. You definitely need entertainment, don't you? And she would make you laugh. And I'm sure, you know, the last bit of the journey is really dragging. I'm sure she would keep that up.
17:53Polly Sayer:Also, she's naughty and also she has the most amazing voice in itself. So I think that would be a pleasure.
18:01Harriet Stewart:Yeah. Right. Both of you are very stylish ladies. So have you got any tips for me about road trip style? and what's a comfy but cool outfit to wear on a long road trip?
18:14Polly Sayer:Sounds bad, but it's actually a pajama. But the pajama, I have a Brazilian cousin and she has a lovely collective of people who make pajamas because apparently in Brazil they're really popular because you can pair them down on the beach during the day and wear them over your bikini and then also wear them straight out to a party. so she has a label called Mapa her friend has a label called Parioca and so I have a lot of matching pajamas because I'm either very very late for stuff or very very early so sometimes it's quite helpful to be wearing something that you can wear either that's going to be very comfortable in the car but that can also be smart enough so if you don't have time to change and you get there you're done
19:02Harriet Stewart:our editor-in-chief Charlotte is such a champion of a smart pajama set and how it can yeah work day to night so yeah yeah you've
19:13Melinda Stevens:got to have something comfortable on the bottom I'm always like a silk like a silk trouser or something with an elasticated waist like you say something that's especially when we're on our longer trips and we're camping it needs to be something that is quite multifunctional that doesn't crease as well yes because getting like pushed in and out of cupboards and you know stuffed into corners and things so yeah like a silk pajama pant is a good shout I'm always quite often rocking like some sort of headband large glasses situation mainly just mainly just to sort of i mean i've got a fringe as you can see it's quite high maintenance so a headscarf is my savior on those longer trips because you can just kind of hide the multitude multitude of sins um i think i've seen that on your instagram yeah i do quite i do quite a lot of headscarfs mainly just because it can save you from having to blow dry your hair every few days yeah a good
19:55Harriet Stewart:life hack i just bought an amazing matching tracksuit which was pretty affordable i think because the trouser shape is not cuffed at the bottom it's like a sort of a wide leg and i think because it's matching you can dress that up a little bit with some yeah it feels a bit more pulled together when you've got a bit of a matching set and you know with some kind of you know a jacket like this or a sort of canvas barn jacket a big earring that was my my vibe in cornwall over the weekend comfort is there anyone that inspires your travel style my headscarf sort
20:28Melinda Stevens:with big glasses is a very kind of Jackie O look yeah yeah she always did it quite well didn't she in the open top car with the wind well not in her hair but that's probably why she's wearing them so
20:36Polly Sayer:yeah practical and chic yeah but I think you all slightly dresses him today and I mean that in the most complimentary way but Steve McQueen because he has a you know that kind of Steve McQueen in The Great Escape yeah he had those kind of um it was like a loose army trouser and that kind of grey is it mull yeah a kind of sweatshirt that was slightly cut off here and I think he started at some point a leather jacket and then as he's as he leaps you know as they all chase each other
21:06Harriet Stewart:around I just always thought he looked so dashing yeah so we've touched upon the fact that you know the journey is part of the fun right so what is it about being on the road that makes you feel so excited what inspires you about it there's something really nice about your your holiday
21:24Melinda Stevens:your trip starting right there in that moment like the minute we leave the house we're all you know excited for a holiday you can obviously just jump on a plane and you know that's obviously also an easy way of traveling but there's something really special about making the journey just really part of the trip yeah um you know we love when we're driving through europe you know finding like really cute little french towns and places that we wouldn't necessarily have ever found ourselves driving through otherwise you know you wouldn't have gone to those they're not the destination they're not where you're heading but actually you discover so many places that you wouldn't yeah that we wouldn't otherwise have visited and we love stopping off and having like a little lunch or finding like a river to have a swim in and those are the those are the memories that stick with me from those trips really it's not necessarily just the place we're going it's actually all those little undiscovered places that we found along the way yeah and and
22:10Harriet Stewart:what is so good about the all electric id range is because it's so reliable and easy and convenient and comfortable you can just concentrate on on those things and making it fun as fun as you possibly can because that's what it should be all about right it's the experiences and the little places you stop and discover along the way and not having to worry about you know how they can definitely be more spontaneous for sure yeah absolutely melinda would you echo those sentiments
22:37Polly Sayer:I think discoverability is actually, which sounds like I'm being really pretentious, but I think it's one of those things that are under threat in travel because everything has been so well plotted and charted. And yet at the core of what we love about traveling and what makes your heart sing is when you come across something that you just didn't know that was there. And I was traveling around Sussex recently, which has become a new area for me. And I managed to stop in this village. I literally kind of looked at it on a map and I thought that looks tiny and I can guarantee this hotel is going to be hideous, but I'm going to do it anyway and that's fine.
23:14Polly Sayer:It's just for the night and then I'm just going to carry on my journey. And I came across this place called The Star in Alfroston, which is so pretty and so gorgeous and the village itself is so picture perfect that I was quite taken by surprise. And then, of course, it turns out that everyone knows The Star in Alfroston And Alveston is famously pretty. But you didn't know that. So I felt a fool. But for me, my sense of extraordinary pride and joy as I had the most delicious pint and the most delicious pie. And everyone looked after me so beautifully. I thought, gosh, this is a result. And again, that can only come from the kind of trip where you haven't mapped everything to the nth.
23:57Polly Sayer:And the other thing that I was going to say, there's something about road trips when you're, um you know back with with with teenage kids which i now have three teenager kids is apparently there is that that quite that there's that quite notorious thing about traveling in a car when you're not looking at each other face to face so that if you're traveling next to somebody but you're in a forward movement it does allow for really really good conversation because it's less it's less confrontational somehow and and yet the movement again leads to a certain flow so definitely I I now fight to take my kids on long journeys just me and one of them um because I find that we often end up having our best conversations in those times I never knew that actually that's
24:44Melinda Stevens:something that I really love like with my husband my children a bit younger but like with my husband I love road trips for that very reason because we're just sat there we often have a really long time if we're going you know through France or something you've got a long time and we just cover all sorts of topics and I feel like we get through a lot of conversation like really nice conversation but also sometimes it's just the admin it's like right we've got some time so let's get through these things and actually it's just really lovely time where no one's no one's on their phone or no one's working or no one's trying to put the laundry on or clean the kitchen or do whatever it is that you're always doing in our busy lives it is just sort of enforced conversation and you're sitting still but I love that bit about the motion yeah and that being like a proven and non-confrontational yeah I never knew that you're not eyeballing each other yeah because
25:25Harriet Stewart:it can feel like that especially if you've got sort of any kind of it's not always grievances is it but just if you've got something that perhaps you're a bit hesitant to bring to the table normally but sort of not looking at each other yeah me and my fiance have very deep and some of our best conversations in the car because we're just yeah it's you've got time and you're not distracted by other things and also with the electric id range because it's so quiet it feels very peaceful and a really great sort of calming space calming start point to have those conversations whether they're super deep or a bit emotional um i just yeah i actually think it's a really good yeah have a deep chat in the car a bit of a dmc yeah we love a dmc right just to finish things off let's do some quick fire questions first up what is your i'm officially on holiday song Melinda Sweet disposition
26:21Polly Sayer:That's a great choice I know I just have to say it for my yes to feel uplifted
26:27Harriet Stewart:Love that
26:27Melinda Stevens:Harriet Yeah reggae playlist every time
26:29Harriet Stewart:Yeah anything reggae One item you always overpack no matter how hard you try not to
26:35Melinda Stevens:Jumpers I always take loads I'm always terrified of being cold
26:38Harriet Stewart:Yeah no one wants to be cold Especially out on a road trip
26:42Polly Sayer:Melinda Opposite swimming costumes bikinis Thousands of bikinis Bikinis that don't fit anymore or swimming costumes that aren't the right thing and then they come back in exactly the same state. Yeah, way too many.
26:56Harriet Stewart:Yeah. Mine's like jackets or shoes. Like my fiance's always like, why have you got five pairs of trainers for one weekend?
27:03Polly Sayer:I'm just like, it's nice to have variety.
27:05Melinda Stevens:Well, the boots as well. Shoes, like there's so many different occasions where you need different types of shoes for. Thank you. Yeah, that's what I try and say to him.
27:12Harriet Stewart:Favourite snack combo in the car?
27:14Polly Sayer:cheese and onion with a really crap cup of coffee I'm quite drawn to slightly disgusting coffee I don't know why why I'm the opposite
27:24Melinda Stevens:I will drive like way off route to get a good coffee yeah
27:27Polly Sayer:I totally understand it but there's just some points when you just need to go yeah
27:32Melinda Stevens:good coffee and an almond croissant oh my gosh
27:35Harriet Stewart:yeah great combo Harry popped into a service station at the weekend and picked up some like
27:41Polly Sayer:chocolate covered pretzels have they got a blue
27:43Harriet Stewart:package yes oh favorite service station stop and why just any of the french service stations i love
27:51Melinda Stevens:them they've got so much on offer they've got kids playgrounds they are another level to the english ones yeah they're really good sounds quite elite because they can be quite depressing places
28:00Harriet Stewart:service stations but that sounds no definitely just because it feels like you're on holidays now
28:05Polly Sayer:yeah it does a bit um linda do you have a favorite i think there's a more than one or two of them called Cobbs Farm Shop.
28:11Melinda Stevens:It's one just as you went to Cornwall.
28:13Polly Sayer:Did not know that one. Maybe it's not Cobbs,
28:15Melinda Stevens:but there is one that's like a farm shop. C-O-B-B-S.
28:19Polly Sayer:They have a really, you know, they have like a proper cheese store. They have a proper butcher's. Pick your own, you know, seasonally, which is always really adorable. And we still go and do the thing where you pick the pumpkins and take them home and stick pins in them. But they just, they source really well and they're really clever. Quite expensive, I'm just going to say it. and yet still worth it. And then when I was coming down from Glasgow recently, I came across Ken Lodge service station and part of my heart is still there. It was like the best farm shop you've ever been to in the middle of nowhere.
28:53Polly Sayer:But apparently it's kind of, you know, now I'm talking about it, people know about it. It's slightly like another brand, I'm not going to say, with the most wonderful vegetables, the most wonderful meat, but all Scottish producers. And it was sensational.
29:07Harriet Stewart:I feel like I go to quite different types of service stations like everyone tells me I need to try Gloucester services because it's like farm shop vibes but I've got to give a shout out to Fleet Services man it just you know well it takes every part for me it's a solid yeah it's a safe bet it's got two sides it's got you know some healthy stuff some not so healthy stuff so depending on your mood it's got it all best souvenir you've ever brought home I'm gonna
29:31Polly Sayer:say woolly jumpers funny enough you were talking about jumpers but wherever I go I seem to come but with the woolly jumper it's not necessary and then I was just in in keto actually and we were you know zooming around there and um again I fell for like a kind of tomato orange thick delicious
29:48Melinda Stevens:thing nice I bought some beautiful um ceramics and bayorets last year and a set of 12 plates and they actually miraculously all made it back in one piece I had them wrap them in so much bubble wrap all individually and yeah they all made it back which I wasn't I was not expecting to get
30:05Harriet Stewart:more home safe and sound but something about buying ceramics i know especially in yeah in spain and france beautiful and actually taking them in the car rather than on a plane it's probably a better chance of them getting back from police i would say yeah so okay one route
30:20Melinda Stevens:you still have on your bucket list i really want to do the north 500 which is scotland yes obviously melinda's yeah really want to do that that's that's next on our list actually good one melinda
30:33Polly Sayer:I think I want to drive to Greece. I know it's going to take a few days, and I think the crucial thing will be not have too much of a gender around it. Yes, but that appeals to my romantic soul.
30:46Harriet Stewart:We are actually very seriously considering moving to Lisbon for a couple of months,
30:52Polly Sayer:January, February, and we're going to drive.
30:55Harriet Stewart:Yeah, so that's my next big road trip. I'm excited about it. And again, we're going to stop off in a few spots and make that part of the trip.
31:03Melinda Stevens:you know i've done galicia which is sort of the northern corner of spain which i imagine you might go through before you get down to portugal so i can give you lots of tips please i would love to get those thank you amazing food incredible seafood yeah all right also i think there's
31:16Polly Sayer:something different about arriving somewhere by road that's very difficult different from flying in by plane you know what i mean it feels like there's a proper more meaningful approach
31:28Melinda Stevens:and less abrupt I think. And you've earned it as well. Yeah you've got there. It feels like you know
31:31Harriet Stewart:a real gradual entry and you feel like you really deserve to be there because you've gone that way and I sometimes find you know coming off a plane it's a bit like
31:39Melinda Stevens:oh god like you know we've got everything it's all a bit stressful but when you're in your own vehicle
31:44Harriet Stewart:it feels a lot more like home. So yeah
31:47Melinda Stevens:I'm excited for that.
31:48Harriet Stewart:And one final question what does going the distance mean to you personally?
31:54Polly Sayer:I was going to say it sounds like I'm making a pun on a kind of road trip thing but it's like you know hang tight because there's something remarkable always around the corner and you know there's so many different ways of saying that isn't it one door closes and you know window opens but I think a road trip is not a bad way of of a literal mapping of how possibly the trajectory of your life will go it's going to keep on shifting and keep on changing and so just sit through and hang tight yeah I think for me it's about it is about
32:23Melinda Stevens:that journey and it's like you put in that sort of that effort to get there and then you are really rewarded with like this amazing destination at the end but at all you know same part of the same adventure.
32:33Harriet Stewart:I love that ladies that is it for today's episode a big thank you to Harriet Stewart and Melinda Stevens for joining me and to Volkswagen for inspiring the conversation. The ID range is all about same spirit different energy cars that are stylish reliable and every bit a Volkswagen just powered by electric. They make everyday travel simple spontaneous and confidence boosting. If you'd like to find out more or even book a test drive, head to volkswagen.co.uk and don't forget we'll be exploring the all-electric ID range in a new road trip series next month so make sure you tune in. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on the road.
From the publisher
In this episode of the SheerLuxe podcast, Polly Sayer is joined by two incredibly stylish and travel-savvy guests: Harriet Stewart, a stylist and creative consultant, and Melinda Stevens, founder of the creative agency Saltlick and former editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveller. Together, they discuss the joys of road trips, spontaneity, and the unique experiences that come with travelling and how Volkswagen's all-electric ID range can play a part in this. Harriet shares her love for road trips, particularly in France, while Melinda reminisces about her memorable journeys across the diverse landscapes of America, and the three chat about finding the balance between planning and spontaneity in travel. They also discuss the dynamics of travelling with children, mentioning the adaptability of kids and the often humorous challenges that arise during road trips, as well as the importance of enjoying the journey itself, from discovering hidden gems along the way to the deeper conversations that can happen in the car. Polly chats about the upcoming SheerLuxe road trip in Volkswagen's electric ID range, and the trio wrap up the episode with quickfire questions about their travel habits, from their favourite snacks to their dream road trip companions...
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