Heart UK

Chance Encounters

The unexpected connections you make while traveling can change your life: from romance that sparks at 30,000 feet to unlikely friendships that begin on the road. Chance Encounters, the podcast companion to the hit column on CNN.com from Francesca Street, chronicles incredible real-life stories of unforgettable travel connections. 

CNN Podcasts

When a Russian-born American citizen named Ilya Beloozerov is gunned down by the FBI in 2024, the authorities refuse to say why they’d killed him. CNN’s Isabelle Chapman embarks on a sprawling investigation that takes her from the Mississippi parking lot where he died to Washington, D.C. to unravel the mystery: Why did Ilya abruptly leave his family and his job and head for the border with laptops and cash? Why is there still no official explanation of his death? And maybe most importantly: Was Ilya a spy? 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Special Bonus - Introducing: Civilian or Spy

Great Escapes is a series about how sometimes travel doesn't go as planned, and how those moments often lead to the best stories. From a daring rescue atop the highest mountain in the Alps, to the moment two American tourists realized they were trapped inside a centuries-old Scottish castle.

Read along with the third episode at cnn.com/travel.

We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Let us know what you think by contacting CNN Travel via the contact form embedded in our articles.

Writer & Narrator: Francesca Street

Producer: Dan Bloom

Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig

Editor: David Allan

Global Editor, CNN Travel: Barry Neild

VP, Digital Franchises: Robert Boyle
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Great Escapes: The Sisters Who Got Stuck in a Scottish Castle

Great Escapes is a series about how sometimes travel doesn't go as planned, and how those moments often lead to the best stories. From a daring rescue atop the highest mountain in the Alps, to the moment two American tourists realized they were trapped inside a centuries-old Scottish castle.

Read along with the second episode at cnn.com/travel.

We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Let us know what you think by contacting CNN Travel via the contact form embedded in our articles.

Writer & Narrator: Francesca Street

Producer: Dan Bloom

Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig

Editor: David Allan

Global Editor, CNN Travel: Barry Neild

VP, Digital Franchises: Robert Boyle
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Great Escapes: She Was a Broke Teenager Stranded in a Strange Town. Then Two Nuns Saved the Day

Great Escapes is a series about how sometimes travel doesn't go as planned, and how those moments often lead to the best stories.  From a daring rescue atop the highest mountain in the Alps, to the moment two American tourists realized they were trapped inside a centuries-old Scottish castle.

Read along with the first episode here.

You can find the series in written audio and video formats by visiting cnn.com/travel. We'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Let us know what you think by contacting CNN Travel via the contact form embedded in our articles.

Writer & Narrator: Francesca Street

Producer: Dan Bloom

Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig

Editor: David Allan

Global Editor, CNN Travel: Barry Neild

VP, Digital Franchises: Robert Boyle
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Great Escapes: The Man Who Saved Two Strangers’ Lives on a Mountain

American Kerri Cunningham fell for Brit Dirk Stevens when they met as teenagers on vacation. They were each other’s first love but lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Then almost three decades later, they unexpectedly reunited.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN

Episode photo: iStock/Getty Images
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

English Channel: The Summer Spark That Never Ended

Hunter Smith was working the gate, John Lihas was working the flight. The two had a five-minute conversation that set in motion an unexpected travel love story that’s still going strong today.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN



Episode photo:  iStock/Getty Images
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pittsburgh: Our Five-Minute Airplane Chat Led to Lasting Love

American Southerner Vickie Moretz didn’t know what “standby” meant when she booked a cheap flight to London in 1982. Just before takeoff, she was rushed onboard and seated beside Graham Kidner—a 22-year-old Brit. That last-minute seat sparked a connection that’s lasted over 40 years.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN



Episode photo credit:  Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

London: Standby Airplane Tickets Changed Our Lives

Bob Parsons was an American yacht captain. Beverly Carriveau was a Canadian librarian. One summer in Mazatlán, Mexico, a “thunderbolt" passed between them, and their lives were never the same again.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mazatlán: The Summer I Ran Away with a Yacht Captain

American hiker Andrew McGowan and Taiwanese student Shallen Yu spent one glorious day together eating ice cream, stargazing and bonding over peach cobbler in Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2013. They were determined to be together against the odds.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN



Episode photo:  Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yellowstone: We Bonded Over Ice Cream, Then Eloped

American Catherine Tondelli won a trip to Rome, Italy in the summer of 1999. On her first night, she threw three coins in the city's Trevi Fountain and came to face-to-face with her future husband, Italian local Fausto Mezzana. Here’s how a vacation romance turned into a love story spanning 25 years and counting.

Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street

Share your Chance Encounter with CNN



Episode Photo: Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rome: We Fell in Love at the Trevi Fountain

When Rachel Décoste traveled to West Africa’s Republic of Benin in 2018, she was anticipating a life-changing trip. Then she jumped on the back of Benin local Honoré Orogbo's motorbike and the trip changed her life in more ways than she ever could have imagined.

Read Rachel & Honoré's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"I'll take a chance, hop on the back of his motorcycle."

Adopted from South Korea to the US as a baby, Linsay DeBates returned to her birth country for the first time in 2000, aged 19. By chance, she met fellow American Doug Gist during the trip and a friendship began that continues 25 years later.

Read Linsay & Doug's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“After that night we were instantly like best friends.”

Trish Salazar and Aaron Toro connected instantly while trekking in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park. Within days, they were committed to a long-distance relationship and planning a future together. Then life took another unexpected turn.

Read Trish & Aaron's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“I found the guy I'm going to marry on a trail.”

Canadian student Bianca Gignac only had a few days left in Italy when she crossed paths with Italian local Alessandro Morelli in the beautiful Cinque Terre region. Here's what happened when she decided to stay longer.

Read Bianca & Alessandro's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"We went out skinny-dipping that night."

Frenchwoman Marie-Claire Martineau and American traveler Elaine Comerford were thrown together by fate on board the Trans-Siberian Railway in the summer of 1991. Here's how that serendipitous railway journey turned into a decades-spanning romance.

Read Marie-Claire & Elaine's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

" We started flirting in Mongolia. We kissed in Siberia, somewhere on the train."

Italian traveler Cristina Farina arrived in London in the summer of 1984, only to be stood up by a man she met on an airplane. But then Cristina started chatting with American stranger Matt Reineke in London’s Trafalgar Square, changing the course of their lives forever.

Read Cristina & Matt's story on CNN.com
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
Share your Chance Encounter with CNN
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Just a brief second can change things in a wonderful way in life."

The unexpected connections you make while traveling can change your life: from romance that sparks at 30,000 feet to unlikely friendships that begin on the road. Chance Encounters - the hit column on CNN.com from Francesca Street - chronicling incredible real-life stories of unforgettable travel connections makes its podcast debut with CNN Audio just in time for Valentine’s Day 2025. Each week, Francesca brings us incredible stories of travel connections. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices