Jeff Jung and his staff over at Career Break Secrets pump out fantastic tips and information for those looking to experience something amazing. If you have ever thought about taking a sabbatical, career break, or traveling long term, then you will find everything you need to know at their site. If that wasn’t enough, Career Break Secrets has recently stepped it up and introduced a new Video Travel Guide Series to complement the rest of the site.
Overview of Career Break Secrets Video Travel Guide Series
The new Career Break Video Travel Guides are a series of episodes geared towards specific countries or regions. The first season is underway now and covers Spain, New Zealand, Patagonia, and Colombia, with two bonus episodes from South Africa.
The videos are delivered digitally downloaded via ITunes and can be watched on your home computer, laptop, or any portable device for ease. Once a new episode becomes available, it is automatically downloaded to your ITunes.
According to the site, these HD videos “cover one of these three types of popular career break activities:
- Ways to pick up a new skill like learning a foreign language, sailing or cooking
- Ways to give back and volunteer whether for social or conservation causes
- Cool ways to see the country by bike, boat, foot, train or other things we can find”
Cost and How to Order
You have a few options when purchasing the video travel guide series. You can buy episodes by the country/region for a cost of $17.99US/each. This includes 4 episodes, all around 20 minutes, plus 2 bonus episodes from South Africa. Alternatively, you can purchase the season one pass for a price of $49.99US and receive all 16 episodes from all 4 countries/regions in addition to the 2 bonus South Africa episodes. You can click on any of the banners or links on this page to purchase.
Review of Video Travel Guide Series
One of the first things that struck me when watching the very first episode was how professional it was. This was not someone who just went out and shot some video on a point and shoot, threw it in Microsoft Movie Maker, added a few graphics and a song or two and called it a day. These videos are all made in the most professional way possible. From the quality of the video (all shot in HD with a cameraman who clearly knows what he’s doing) to the excellent interviews to way it’s edited and all put together, this is honestly something you would see on the Travel Channel.
While professionalism is all nice and good, it doesn’t mean much if there isn’t quality information to share. Jeff and the folks at Career Break Secrets offer tons of great information using a variety of sources. The writing for the voice overs is well thought out and goes great with the video itself, but it’s the personal interviews that really make these videos great. While Jeff followed one pilgrim on her Camino de Santiago journey in Spain, he also talked to many others along the way, including other pilgrims, albergue (hostel/hotel) owners, and even the coordinator of the pilgrim office. In the Learning a New Language episode, Jeff interviews not only students, but faculty members and the director of the school.
In addition to the great interviews, the information conveyed is very helpful. The videos are organized well with a nice, detailed recap at the end with graphics and visual aids that make it easy to jot down a few notes if using this information for an upcoming trip. Not only are the videos helpful, they are also entertaining. There’s a great mix of travel advice, history, and personal stories even if you aren’t planning a trip to any of the regions covered. The videos are great motivation that may give you a new idea for that next trip.
Again, to purchase any of the Career Break Secrets Videos, click on any of the banners on this site or links on this post. The purchase is well worth it, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Check out the trailer below that previews the first season:
Disclaimer: Jeff at Career Break Secrets offered to let me view several of the episodes at no cost. As always, my review contains my honest opinions of the series.
