Vacation Mavens

Tamara is just back from a multi-generational trip to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. If you have ever wondered what it is like to stay at one of the popular Baha Mar Resorts, now is your chance to get the scoop and see if it is really the vacation of your dreams or not. Episode Highlights: This was a multi-generational trip with 14 people ages 17-83. There were a lot of considerations when choosing a destination including budget, activities, direct flights, and mobility issues. Tamara also considered the Hyatt in Aruba, the Hilton Zemi Beach House in Anguilla, and the Westin or Kimpton Seafire in Grand Cayman. There are three hotels within one resort at the Baha Mar and it has multiple restaurants, making it possible to stay for a week and eat somewhere different every night without taking cabs into town. The food is really expensive at the Baha Mar so you need to build that into the budget as it is inline with going out for a nice dinner in a big city, which is similar to many other island resorts. The three hotels are: Rosewood Baha Mar - luxury property SLS Baha Mar - good for couples, friends, and more of a party scene Grand Hyatt Baha Mar - good for families and more affordable There is also a "Reserve" section of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar with suites and lounge access that is a hotel within a hotel You fly into Nassau and you fill out a form on arrival and then the immigration line was quite short. They pre-arranged hotel transfers through the concierge. There are many pools within the Grand Hyatt but if you don't reserve a cabana, sunbed or premium lounge chair it could be hard to find chairs, especially if you want a larger group to be together. They rented a cabana at the Nexus Club, which has an indoor section with a couch, television, fridge, and a full bathroom. It also had a sun bed, a table and chairs with an umbrella, and use of two in-pool loungers. It was a private pool just for those renting cabanas or staying at a certain room category that included a hot tub. It also had its own bar and food service. The beach isn't deep but it is longed and it is lined with 4-6 rows of lounge chairs packed in together and the beach was quite busy even in June. There is also a waterpark that is included for guests with some big slides and a lazy river, as well as a good restaurant. You can do paddle boarding and snorkeling and there are also paid motorized water sports and there is an activities desk that arranges excursions and day trips. The Baha Mar also has a kids club with daily activities and there are flamingos that do a "parade" every morning. The food at Baha Mar was very good and even Tamara was impressed. Regatta is where they serve a huge breakfast buffet but it costs about $44 per person. Because Tamara is a preferred partner with Hyatt Prive, she was able to get the following perks and amenities: Free breakfast for 2 people per day per room $100 per room resort credit $50 per room beverage credit automatic upgrade within 24 hours of booking There are many pool bars serving food for lunch and there are also food trucks by the beach. You need to pre-book dinner reservations and they cover the gamut from Italian, Asian, Chinese, Steak, Mediterranean, and some celebrity chef restaurants like Cafe Boulud and Marcus Fish and Chop House (from Marcus Samuelson) In Tamara's opinion, the Baha Mar is better suited for families with teens or adults versus with younger kids as the casino is really the center point of the resort. Related Episodes: Where to stay in the Turks & Caicos Everything you need to know about Beaches Turks & Caicos Sonesta Maho Beach St. Maarten Caribbean cruise Where to go in the Caribbean Planning a Barbados vacation Planning a Grand Cayman vacation

Get ready for your summer vacation and future travel with these expert packing tips! From carry-on to checked bags, here are some things to keep in mind when packing for your next trip. Episode Highlights: Use a packing list! It helps you not forget critical items. Start creating your packing list early in your Notes app Kim has an outfit planner that you can sign up for on Stuffed Suitcase Pay attention to your itinerary to figure out what you need to bring for each activity Also pay attention to the weather forecast for your destination Try to minimize the number of shoes that you bring on a trip Try on your outfits while packing and take a picture of yourself so that you remember what you put together (with shoes, accessories, etc.) You can also put the picture into your notes app with notes about what day you were going to wear it to remember Packing cubes with compression can be great for saving space You can pack the cubes by destination/stop on the trip or daily outfits or just pack all your pants together, all your shirts together, etc. If you are flying on an international carrier, make sure to look up their baggage rules to understand the size and weight of carry on and personal items Even domestic carriers have different weight limits If you are buying new luggage, buy the matching packing cubes that fit perfectly Look for packing cubes that zip to a rectangle and not lumpy Gonex and Eagle Creek can be great brands to try Lay flat bags are great for toiletry bags Travelon makes a good organizer for your electronics Vodka in a spray bottle can help refresh clothes Bring a travel scale to check baggage weights Related Episodes Packing tips for family travel

It is summer road trip season so it is time to recap some of our best road trip tips from preparing, planning, packing, and more. Plus, we share some of our favorite road trips. Episode Highlights Before you head out on a road trip, make sure your car has been serviced recently and check the tires to make sure the pressure is correct. You may also want to top off your fluids and use the bug windshield washer fluid. Bring a go-to kit with wipes, sanitizer, tissues, lip balm, moisturizer, sun screen, and eye drops. Also bring a couple of extra baggies or ziploc bags. Bring a trash bag for the front and back (or for each kid) and empty the trash at each stop. Bring a small cooler and ice pack that you can refreeze each night for left overs and snacks. Have a specific spot for your snacks that can be refilled when needed. Use a car freshener or car air purifier to help keep food smells away. You may want to consider a AAA membership and bring your card with you. For longer road trips, consider bringing a carry on bag with a duffle bag instead of a larger checked bag. Use a duffle bag to transport what you need in and out each night. It is good to have one overnight bag for toiletries and pajamas for everyone that always goes in. Bring a laundry bag that you can put your dirty clothes in each day in your car or larger suitcase. Plan an overnight stay at a place that has laundry facilities. When choosing where to stay, consider staying just off the highway where you are more likely to find a chain hotel that has free breakfast and free parking (and laundry facilities). Plus it is easy to get on and off the highway. Some of the chains like Best Western have summer promotions for multiple stays. Some apps to have are Gas Buddy, Road Trippers, and of course Google or Apple Maps. Google Maps is also good at showing you how busy attractions are at different times of the day. For road trips in less-populated areas, bring a road atlas or paper maps (you can get free maps at AAA if you are a member) Maine Coast road trip - read the full post here: https://we3travel.com/boston-to-bar-harbor-a-maine-coast-road-trip-itinerary/ Florida Keys road trip - read more here: https://yourtimetofly.com/key-west-girls-trip/ Canadian Rockies road trip - read more here: https://we3travel.com/canadian-rockies-vacation-itinerary/ West Coast road trip - read more here: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/west-coast-road-trip/ Road trip packing list: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/pack-car-road-trip/ Related Episodes West Coast road trip Southwest Grand Circle road trip Oregon Coast road trip California road trip Midwest road trip Family road trip tips

Tamara recently took a travel agent FAM trip to Turks and Caicos and spent two nights at The Palms and two nights at The Shore Club. She also visited many other properties and today she shares her insights into each to help you decide where to stay in Turks and Caicos. Episode Highlights Turks and Caicos is known for its beautiful beaches and not for all-inclusives or as a party island Most of the hotels have great accommodations for families with 1, 2, 3-bedroom accommodations and up (including villa rentals) When arriving, be prepared for a long wait at passport control/immigration. Expect about an hour and longer on the weekends. When departing, leave 2-3 hours to get checked in and wait in the security line. There isn't a lot of room in the gate area but there is an area upstairs that has more space. To save time at the airport, you can pay for Fast Track access starting at $75 per person, each way. Private transfers from the airport are about $150 each way, but cabs can be $30+ per person for shared taxis. Taxis throughout the island are priced per person and are pricey. It is about a 15-20 minute drive from the PLS (Providenciales) to most of the hotels The Palms is on Grace Bay Beach (the most famous beach on the island). It is a luxury hotel with a lush, garden-like setting right on the beach. The style and decor is similar to Sandy Lane in Barbados, a colonial or plantation style. Tamara stayed in a one-bedroom suite oceanfront, which was huge with a full kitchen, living room, laundry, dining room, large balcony, bedroom with tons of closet space, and one and one-half bathrooms. They recently did a renovation at The Palms of rooms but also of the pool area and added a new pool/beach restaurant and pool bar (including a swim-up bar). The restaurants at The Palms were very good. Parallel 23 is fine dining and Sisi is modern Mexican. The Palms also has one of the best spas in the Caribbean The high season is during Festive (winter holidays) and President's Day weekend. The low season would be July-September Pricing in the Caribbean is quite high. The Shore Club is across the island on Long Bay Beach. There is a beach-to-beach package so that you can split your week vacation between the two properties. Long Bay Beach is breezy and very popular for kite surfing. The beach itself is narrow but long and The Shore Club has plenty of space to spread out. The water here is very calm and you can walk out very far, especially at low tide. Shore Club is also a luxury hotel and it has a sophisticated feel. There are villas and multi-bedroom accommodations that would be amazing for a girls' trip or multi-generational vacation. The one-bedroom oceanfront suite is huge and great for families with teens because there is a study that has a pull-out couch, full bathroom, and closets and a door that closes off from the rest of the space. There is another pull out couch in the living room. There is a sushi restaurant and a comfort food restaurant, plus pool bars and restaurants. There is a shuttle between the properties and also the four-star Sands property and guests have signing privileges for all the restaurants. The Alexandra Resort is a four-star, all-inclusive on Grace Bay next to The Palms with multi-bedroom suites and restaurants The Wymara Resort has a South Beach, sexy vibe that would be great for couples and honeymooners but the rooms are a bit smaller The Ritz-Carlton is a high-rise hotel with a smaller beach. The second tower is for Ritz-Carlton Residences and you can't use or earn points for the Residences. They are building an Andaz and St. Regis on Turks and Caicos now too. The H20 Resort on Long Bay Beach is a small boutique hotel that is good for people that are independent travelers and enjoy watersports as they have a kite surfing school and tons of rentals. Tamara is going back to Turks and Caicos in the fall for a Family Travel Association conference at Beaches Turks and Caicos (stay tuned!!) On Thursday nights there is a fish fry with food trucks, music, and artisans/souvenir vendors. The Junkanoo band performs and it is such a lot of fun. You can island hop by ferry or plane (but there is a separate terminal for domestic flights) You can also go scuba diving, snorkeling, charter a boat for fishing or island hopping, or boat out to the tiki bar off Long Bay Beach.

Kim recently took a quick trip to her happy place, Disneyland, to attend a special media preview of its 70th anniversary celebration. This yearlong celebration features new entertainment from fireworks to parades, special celebratory food items, decorations throughout the park, and fun interactive activations. There are also promotional package deals available through Kim's partner Getaway Today. Learn more here and use code 'Stuffed Suitcase" when purchasing to save an additional $10 off a 2+ night vacation package. Learn more about Disneyland's 70th celebration foods here: https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/disney-eats-disneyland-70th-celebration-foodie-guide/ See more of the special events and decorations on Kim's Insta post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJskA7ZJRKD/ Related Episodes: Girls' trip to Oceanside, California and Disneyland Disneyland and Irvine, California Disneyland Holidays Planning a trip to Disneyland Disneyland travel tips

If you like culinary or wine travel, you need to put the Chilean Winelands on your travel bucket list. Tamara just came back from a two-week trip to Chile including the Atacama Desert and the Winelands. Episode Highlights: The wine regions are south and west of Santiago It is easy to drive through these regions but it is still recommended to get a driver for days when you are doing wine tasting Two hours south of Santiago is the Colchagua Region that is known for its red wine including Malbec, Bordeaux blends, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carmenere. One hour west of Santiago is the Casablanca Region, which is closer to the coast, and is more known for its white wines like Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. She stayed at the Vibo Wine Lodge in Colchagua. This is a small boutique property on the Viu Manent Vineyards near Santa Cruz. It has individual lofts or tiny homes spread out throughout the vineyards. Another popular place to stay in this region is Clos Apalta, which is a Relais & Chateaux luxury property. Vibo Wine Lodge includes breakfast in the coffee shop on property and they also have two other restaurants, the Rayuela Restaurant and the Vibo Wine and Food Studio. On property you can hike, borrow bikes, enjoy the pool, go wine tasting or set up horseback riding. They also did a wine tour with Colchagua Wine Tours, which was only $125 for a day with a private driver (you pay for the tasting separately.) Tamara enjoyed wine tasting at Montgras Winery and Maquis Winery. They had a nice lunch at Fuego Apalta on the Montes Winery (but she didn't like the wine at Montes.) Tastings of the "icon" wines, which are the top wines, are about $40-50 per person. Clos Apalta Residence is also an excellent place to go for lunch or dinner and you can go wine tasting at the winery. In Casablance, they stayed at La Casona, which is a hacienda which has been converted to a hotel on the grounds of the Matetic Vineyards. This was all-inclusive because there isn't a lot nearby to eat. But the menu doesn't change so it gets repetitive if you are there for any length of time. The package also includes excursions and they did a biodynamic wine tour and tasting, mountain biking, and hiking. They also offer horseback riding and excursions to towns. They took a day trip to the coast and visited Pablo Neruda's house. Related Episodes: Chile's Atacama Desert Wine tasting in Northern Italy

If Hawai'i is on your bucket list, you need to listen to this episode with Hawaii travel expert Marcie Cheung. Marcie is a family travel blogger and mom of two who's been to Hawaii more than 40 times, staying everywhere from luxury resorts to budget-friendly condos. She helps parents plan unforgettable Hawaii vacations with kids by sharing expert tips, honest reviews, and stress-free itineraries. You can learn more on her website hawaiitravelwithkids.com or follow Marcie on Facebook and Instagram. You can also listen to her podcast, Hawaii Travel Made Easy. Episode Highlights: The most popular tourist islands are: Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii (The Big Island) Oahu is best if you can only visit one island and are looking for a mix of experiences and attractions from Pearl Harbor to the Dole Plantation and also city life, nightlife and beaches on the North Shore or Waikiki Maui is also popular for luxury resorts, a quieter vacation, the famous Road to Hana, and also great restaurants and activities Kauai is even more laid back The Big Island is good for those that are looking to be adventurous and take road trips, plus this is where you will find Volcanoes National Park A first time visitor coming from the U.S. should look at least one week and spend it on Oahu because it has such a range of experiences. If you have two weeks, then you can island hop from Oahu to Maui or Kauai. Be active on Oahu and then relax on Maui or Kauai. Keep in mind that when you island hop you still need to fly and deal with all of the airport security, rental car lines, etc. that eats up a lot of a day in travel. The Big Island is really large and you need at least five to seven days. It takes several hours to drive from the beach area to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Expect to spend about $12,000 or more for a family vacation to Hawaii. Airfare from the West Coast is about $500 and closer to $900 from the East Coast. You can use a Southwest Companion Pass or Alaska Companion Pass if you have them. Accommodations keep getting more and more expensive. Midrange hotels are $350-500 and luxury resorts can easily go over $1000 per night. You need to beware about vacation rentals because they are being closely regulated in Honolulu and often they will be cancelled last minute as there are a lot of illegal vacation rentals. If you go with a vacation rental, go with something reputable. Food is also expensive because so much needs to be shipped in on the islands. Plan on spending about $100 a day on food if you are able to mix up going to restaurants and buying groceries or eating at food trucks. Rental car prices are high and you need a rental car for at least a few days on each island. Keep in mind that hotel parking can be $40-60 per night. Activities are also quite pricey, at $300-500 per person. Luaus are at least $200-350 per person. Narrow down your wish list to 2-3 activities and have beach or pool days or exploring on your own for the rest of the time. Minimum stays during winter break can be 7-14 days and this is the most expensive time to visit. When planning road trips or hikes, be sure to map them out to see how far they are and how long it will take to get there. Don't overpack your itinerary. Related Episodes: Insider tips for visiting the Disney Aulani Planning a Hawaiian vacation

Kim just wrapped up round two of college tours and her daughter Mia has committed to UCLA's School of Engineering! We thought we would share some of our college search experience to help others that are just getting to this phase of parenting. Episode Highlights It is important to visit various college campuses before you begin the college application process to help your student understand the style and size of campus that they feel most comfortable in It helps to start early during their sophomore or junior year Before you look at a particular school, make sure it is a school that you can afford by researching their tuition, merit scholarship opportunities, and the financial aid calculator Join the Parent Facebook group for the schools they are interested in and this is a great source of information but make sure they are run by the school or parents and not just a data-mining company Try to find hotels that are near the college campus for campus visits because it will give you a better sense of what it would like to be on campus. Graduate Hotels is a great chain to look at as their properties are always close to college campuses and it is now part of Hilton Make sure you drive around the campus and the surrounding neighborhood and think about how they would get to campus if they are flying in from out of state If you want to tour campus, you need to make a reservation to join a group tour and these can fill up far in advance Try to time your visit to when students are on campus and not during their spring break Be prepared to ask questions about food, class size, how hard it is to get into the classes they need, dorms, and campus life You can find dorm room tours on YouTube Be sure to check out the student union and see how busy it is and what the options are. Also pay attention to whether or not it is a swipe or cash system Check out the department buildings where your kid would be taking a lot of classes, the library, and where the dorms are Visiting on the Admitted Students day will give your student a good introduction to campus and campus life and provide an opportunity to connect with other students. Admitted Students day typically takes place during April Be sure to pay the housing deposit early unless your school guarantees housing for freshmen If the school doesn't guarantee housing, look at housing costs in the area When thinking about dates, also look at booking hotels for move in, move out, and parent's weekend Make dinner and brunch reservations during move in and Parents Weekend

Tamara and her husband recently took a couple's trip to Chile and this week on the podcast she shares her impressions, experiences, and tips for Santiago and Atacama Desert. In a future episode, she will talk about her week in Chile's Winelands. Episode Highlights Tamara flew Avianca Airlines on a flight deal from Boston to Bogota and Bogota to Santiago. Avianca Airlines business class is more like premium economy and not a very impressive business class but overall the flights went smoothly. She really enjoyed her stay at the Hyatt Centric Las Condes. Las Condes is a nice area to stay in Santiago. If you are visiting Santiago or Valparaiso, be on alert of pickpockets and petty crime and don't wear jewelry and keep your phone secure. Foodies would love the chef's tasting dinner at Borago in Santiago. To get to the Atacama Desert, you fly 1.5-2 hours to Calama and then it is a 1.5 hour drive to San Pedro de Atacama, which is the central hub for the region. Tamara stayed at the Nayara Alto Atacama, which provides a transfer to and from the airport. They offer an all-inclusive rate that includes food, drink, and group excursions. Other options include the Explora and the Tierra and the Awasi offers private excursions. She wouldn't recommend self-driving because there is very little cell service and getting to some of the attractions includes driving on dirt roads. The Atacama Desert is at a higher elevation so it is good to stay at least 3 nights so that you can do the higher elevation excursions later in your stay after you have time to acclimate. Nayara Alto Atacama is part of Virtuoso and booking through Tamara you can get perks that include a $100 spa credit. They did three excursions: Sunset excursion to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) with some short hikes and finishing with a sundowner Salt Flats and Flamingo Reserve - the salt flats are not the flat white salt that you see in Bolivia or Utah, the salt is mixed with minerals and the flats looks a lot like a white lava field Rainbow Valley - not as dramatic as Rainbow Mountain in Peru but a great landscape with layers of red, white, and green rock Star gazing - the Atacama Desert is well-known for its dark skies and star gazing The food at the resort was fine but lunch was a three-course meal and if you want something more casual you can eat at the bar. The portions are small and there are only a few options per meal, but at least the menu changes every day. Make sure you get the correct adapter for electrical outlets. You need cash for small shops and some tips but you can mostly use a credit card or charge tips to your room Make sure you wear sunscreen and a hat because there is a high UV index Be sure to stay hydrated and bring lots of moisturizer and lip balm Bring plenty of layers because the desert gets cold at night Remember that it is in the Southern Hemisphere so the summer high season is December - March and winter is during our summer. Bring shoes with good traction.

A mother-daughter trip is an incredible way to bond in ways that you can't recreate in your home environment. This week, Kim and Tamara share their tips for mother-daughter trips and provide ideas for some of their favorite mother-daughter trip destinations (these can also be used for mother-son or father-daughter/son trips too.) Episode Highlights When kids are younger, it is fun to find a theme to base the trip around or pick a destination that is tied to their interests Get your kids involved in the planning or allow them to choose a destination. At a minimum, let them choose activities. Plan to do a side-by-side activity like a cooking class, surfing lesson, rock climbing, white water rafting, etc. When you learn something new or get out of your comfort zone, they see how you handle the situation. Group travel can actually be a great solution for a mother-daughter trip because you can interact with others but then your alone time is even more precious. Talk about your highs and lows for each day or part of the trip while traveling. Recognize your kids as individuals and cater to their travel styles and don't try to push your preferences or travel style on them. Also, think about taking a mother-daughter trip with your mom. These trips help kids learn how to be a traveler, how to navigate, and how to make travel decisions. Plan a hotel or two that offers room service when you are on a long road trip. Some of our favorite mother-daughter trip destinations have been: Peru, Canadian Rockies, Ireland, Iceland, Chicago, NYC, cruising, road tripping through the South, and a spa trip. Other Episodes You May Enjoy: Canadian Rockies Ireland road trip Civil Rights Trail road trip Cruising around Iceland Midwest road trip Swiftie trip to NYC

Tamara is just back from a bucket list trip to Peru with her daughter and she shares all about her lodge-to-lodge trek with Mountain Lodges of Peru and tips for visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Tamara “won” this trip as part of an auction that benefits the Adventure Travel Conservation Fundthat takes place each fall When visiting Cusco and the Sacred Valley, it is best to give yourself 3-4 days to get used to the elevation prior to hiking (Cusco is at about 11,000 feet) You can take Diamox or acetazolamide (prescription) to help prevent altitude sickness Coca tea and coca candies help you with altitude but it also has caffeine so it can disrupt your sleep Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo are at a lower altitude so ideal you would start there and work your way up Peruvian food has a lot of rice, quinoa, and potatoes. For proteins there is beef, pork, chicken, alpaca, and a specialty — guinea pig! The portions are also very large. You shouldn't drink the water (even to brush your teeth) and consider avoiding salads, veggies, and fruits that are rinsed in water Tamara and Hannah took a 5 day trek with a small group of six people and one local guide with Mountain Lodges of Peru. The trip was perfect for those that like to hike but don't want to camp. It includes a mix of cultural activities and hikes but you stay at nice lodges. Some activities included visiting an alpaca museum, a ceremony with an Incan priest, enjoying dancing and music with locals at a weaving cooperative, visiting local markets, exploring Incan ruins, and having lunch at local homes. You need to bring your own hiking poles and need to pack in a light duffel bag or backpack The rainy season is typically November – April and they typically close the Inca Trail in February. However, this year was worse than usual because of El Niño. For the most part you can use credit cards but it helps to have some Peruvian Soles (or some US Dollars) to tip guides, pay for bathrooms, and purchase from local vendors and markets. For the first two nights in Cusco, we stayed at the Andenes Hotel, which was affordable, nice, and great traditional architecture. On our return, we stayed at the Palacio del Inka, which is a part of the Marriott Luxury Collection (which we booked via points.) RELATED EPISODES: Machu Picchu with kids Galapagos with kids

On this episode, we are joined by Susan Heinrich from Midlife Globetrotter. Susan is a Canadian writer living in Denver, Colorado. She is passionate about travel and supporting women in tourism. In 2020, she created Midlife Globetrotter, a website and platform that helps women over 40 follow their travel dreams to new places, with destination guides, practical tips and stories of her own adventures. Susan is passionate about reframing midlife as an opportunity, and explores themes of reinvention and self-discovery in her work.  You can follow Susan on Instagramand Pinterest. In this episode, we talk about group tours and group tour operators, especially those that offer group trips just for women. To learn more, see Susan's blog posts about: Women's tours around the world: https://midlifeglobetrotter.com/womens-tours/ How to select a small group tour: https://midlifeglobetrotter.com/how-to-select-a-small-group-tour/ Croatia group tour with Adventure Women: https://midlifeglobetrotter.com/a-womens-sailing-trip-in-croatia/ Episode Highlights Some things to think about when choosing a group tour include: What is the pacing of the trip -- is there any free time, how often do you switch hotels? What is the group size? Small group tends to be under 14 people. Small groups have advantages in terms of the type of accommodation and the size of the tour group when exploring cities What is the activity level? Some companies like Adventure Women and Adventures in Good Company specialize in active trips and offer detailed explanations of the activity level involved in the trip If you are traveling solo, you can also look for tours that are only solo travelers When you are evaluating a group tour, be sure to read the itinerary in detail. You can also call the tour operator and see if they can give you any information on how many solo travelers there might be versus those traveling with a friend or relative. Also look at what the single supplement is. Some companies like Girls Guide to the World have private rooms by default but typically group tours are priced based on double occupancy and if you want your own room they charge a single supplement. Some companies will pair you with another solo travel as a roommate if they don't charge a single supplement. Be sure to read through the documents to understand what is included in terms of transfers and meals Understand who is guiding the trip -- is it a local or a U.S.-based guide Make sure you understand the cancellation policy and buy travel insurance If you aren't sure if a group trip is for you, opt for a private room, start with a shorter trip, feel free to opt out of activities, and maybe start with a trip in the U.S. that doesn't require a more expensive airfare. If you just want to relax or if you don't like having scheduled activities, then a group tour may not be a good fit Good tour operators for budget travelers include G Adventures (now have tours for women and certain age groups) and Intrepid Travel (who have women expeditions to places where you can meet and interact with locals in a way that you couldn't if there were men on the trip) For a luxury trip, Girls Guide to the World is a good fit and Insight Vacations is upscale and have women-only trips For nature and wildlife, Natural Habitat Adventures partner with the World Wildlife Federation and are known for wildlife trips and have women's only expeditions Adventure Women is one of the first companies to get into women only tours and typically offer four-star accommodations with active adventures Backroads is known for cycling and hiking tours and offers some just for women and they have trips that accommodate a variety of activity levels each day There are also group tour operators focused on certain destinations like Viking Women in Iceland Another themed tour is the British Book Club Tour: https://thebookclubtour.com Susan is also co-hosting an art-history based trip to Paris this spring Some women-only focused travel companies and others that have women-only trips Next Chapter Travel - small group, curated trips in Europe Next Tribe - over 45 women Gals Abroad Getaways - luxury Untethered Expeditions - adventure Adventure Women - small group adventure Adventures in Good Company - active  Girls' Guide to the World - authentic, responsible (luxury) Sisterhood Travels - over 50 Country Walkers - walking/hiking Scout Escapes - mother daughter travel and group trips for women over 40 Viking Women - Iceland Explorer Chick - hiking and adventure in National Parks and abroad Insight Vacations - upscale group trips some women only Backroads - women only hiking and cycling Road Scholar - educational, some women only, over 50 Uniworld - women's cruises

Vacation Mavens recently celebrated nine years of podcasting!! For all of you who have been with us for this journey, we thank you for your support! For those that joined us recently, welcome and we look forward to many more years of sharing our travel experiences. Tamara recently launched a new business as a travel advisor! You can learn more about her custom travel planning services here. Even if you aren't looking for full itinerary planning services, you can support Tamara's business by researching and booking hotels (and getting perks with preferred partner hotels) on this online booking platform. Episode Highlights A travel agent and a travel advisor are generally the same but a travel advisor is more apt to offer custom trip planning, versus off-the-shelf packages, and serves as more of a consultant You want to use an advisor for many reasons including: Industry knowledge Destination knowledge Preferred partners Knowledge of sales Traveler perks and amenities Save a significant amount of time in the planning process How do travel advisors make money? Some charge planning or service fees for custom trip planning. Tamara charges based on the length and complexity of the trip, starting at $500 per week and $50 a day for additional for a typical couple or family. Advisors also receive commission from booking hotels, cruises, and trip packages. So travel advisors can't help with booking using points or Airbnb or places that don't offer commission. Generally, it should be the same rate or better than booking directly with the hotel. Many independent travel advisors are part of a larger host agency, which provides buying power and knowledge to get preferred relationships with partners. How do you choose a travel advisor? There are people that focus on specific niches such as cruising, Disney, or all-inclusive resorts Tamara focuses primarily on Europe and North America but she is part of an agency with resources and also partners with in-country specialists who have vetted hotels, guides, etc. It is helpful to work with someone that has been to or is very knowledgeable about the destination Word-of-mouth is a great way to find someone If you are a luxury traveler, you can visit Virtuoso.com and search for the destination. You will then see travel agents that cover that destination in the sidebar You can also find travel advisor specialists on Instagram by searching hashtags such as #luxurytraveladvisor, #travelagentlife, etc. How does working with a travel advisor differ from booking through Amex Travel since Amex Platinum card holders receive perks for hotel bookings within the Fine Hotels and Resorts. You need to book those through Amex Travel. Many of those luxury hotels are also part of a consortium such as Virtuoso. If there is a booking through Amex Travel vs a travel advisor, the booking through the travel advisor will have priority for upgrades. Virtuoso is a consortium for luxury properties and brands that offer additional perks when booked through a Virtuoso agency. The perks include free breakfast for 2, $100 resort or F&B beverage, and upgrade based on availability, or early check in or late check out based on availability Many travel agencies also have other preferred partnerships too that can offer perks or amenities for hotels that aren't part of Virtuoso Tamara works on creating custom itineraries that include hotels, activities, private tours, transfers, etc. However, she can also help with hotel bookings, river cruise bookings, and all-inclusive resorts, often without a planning fee. Does a travel agent help when things go wrong? Yes, they can help you if something goes wrong or if you need to cancel.

On this episode, we are joined by Jessica Williams. Jessica is the author of the award-winning Dachshund educational blog, YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner.com. She's been traveling, hiking, and camping with her dogs for over 20 years. She's taken her dogs on many extended road trips, covering up to 5,000 miles, and she's flown with them many times. Her two biggest dog-focused travel aspirations are living in Switzerland for a month to hike in the Alps and spending a year road-tripping around the US with her dogs to hike and camp. You can follow Jessica on Instagram @youdidwhatwithyourweiner, Facebook, or YouTube. Episode Highlights: Most airlines have pet policies that you should review before booking To travel in the cabin, the pet needs to fit in a carrier that goes under the seat The weight limit is generally 20-25 lbs (although Spirit is higher) You need to call the airline in advance to let them know you are bringing a dog on board as there is a limit to how many can go onboard You don't need to pay for a ticket but you do need to pay a pet fee (typically around $150 each way) According to the FAA, unless you have a true service pet, the pet must stay in the carrier for the duration of the flight Some flight attendants look the other way and you can take the carrier out from under the seat so the pet can see you but technically you can't even unzip the carrier Your pet carrier counts as your personal item so it helps to have a carrier with side pockets for things you need on the plane Aisle seats don't have as much space under the seat in front of you for a carrier. The middle seat has the most space In the airport, the dogs don't always want to use the pet relief area because it smells and is unusual In the airport, dogs should be in carriers but not many people are policing that because service dogs are allowed to be out To go through security, they come out of the carrier and you can walk through the metal detector but you need to take off the collar so they need to behave to not run away and walk through if they are too big to carry Bring along a small water dish, water, and a few treats Jessica recommends layering a potty pad in the bottom of the carrier under a blanket so it is easier to clean if there is an accident Otherwise, you need to potty pad train them before travel Don't feed them right before a flight. Usually, the last meal should be 2-3 hours before travel To find pet-friendly hotels, use bringfido.com Hotels usually have a pet fee, which is typically around $20 per dog per night, but it can also be extremely high Red Roof, Motel 6, Kimpton, and Virgin Hotels generally are pet-friendly without a pet fee but they are franchises and still can charge a fee There is usually a limit of two dogs per room and a combined weight limit of about 150 lbs. Some boutique hotels allow you to bring more than two dogs For international travel, you can get a pet passport for EU countries For Canada, you can drive across the border with your pets The United States changed requirements for dogs coming into the country (even by car) that dogs need to be at least 6 months old, they have to have internationally recognized microchips, and have vaccinations up to date particularly a recent rabies vaccine and health paperwork You need to fill out a CDC import form Some destinations have strict quarantine rules (especially Hawaii and other islands) of 10-30 days Visit AdventuresCats.org to learn more about traveling with cats. Note that many hotels don't allow cats. Tamara recommends TrustedHousesitters.com for free pet and house sitting from vetted sitters. Use her referral link for 25% off a membership!

This week, we are wrapping up our Turkey trip recaps and Tamara fills us in on her visit to Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the lesser-known city of Izmir. Episode Highlights Izmir sits on the Aegean Sea and Ephesus is a popular cruise port for cruises visiting Greece and Turkey. There are also a number of religious sites that attract religious travelers and pilgrimages. One site near Ephesus you can visit what is believed to be the last house that Mary, mother of Jesus, lived in before she died. Bodrum is more of a beach resort but Izmir is a city based on the sea. You can fly into Izmir, which is about 1.25 hours from Istanbul airport and the airport is about 20 minutes outside of the city. Izmir is a good home base for exploring the region in a hub and spoke manner. You should plan to stay three to four days in this region. 1 day in Ephesus 1 day in Izmir 1 day in Urla (fishing village, small artsy town, and wine route) Ephesus is a UNESCO Heritage site that has Ancient Greek and Roman ruins. The site is immense and there is so much that isn't excavated. So much is very well preserved. The Library of Celsus is a highlight. It is worth paying extra to see the houses with mosaics and frescoes. It is recommended to visit Ephesus with a guide and you need at least two to three hours. There is a lot of walking so you need comfortable shoes and it can also get very hot so you want to go early or late and wear a hat and sunglasses. In the summer it stays open until 10 pm at night so you can visit while it is cooler. Selcuk is a cute town nearby where you can go for lunch. The Izmir Marriott is right on the waterfront and has a rooftop pool, restaurant, and nice rooms and location. In Izmir you can: Walk or bike along the promenade along the coastline Visit the Ancient Agora of Smyrna Spend an afternoon exploring the bazaar Should season is going to be better because the heat in the summer can be brutal Izmir is also known as a place to buy wedding dresses Read more about Tamara's time in Izmir and Ephesus: https://we3travel.com/izmir-turkiye-3-day-itinerary/ Related Episodes Istanbul Cappadocia

On this episode, we are joined by Nedra McDaniel from Adventure Mom, who is passionate about having attainable adventures at every stage of life. We are sharing some of our favorite places to go for Spring Break in the USA. You can follow Nedra on her blog, and on social media as @adventuremom on Instagram, Facebook, and others. Expedia recently shared some travel trends for 2024 showing that March is the most expensive month to fly, so if your spring break is in March, you may want to consider a road trip! If you are looking for a cheap airfare, use Google Flights from your airport and put "anywhere" as the destination so that you can sort by price. Spring Break Destinations Florida Keys - is not oppressively hot and humid like it is in the summer. Hawk's Cay in Duck Key is a great location for families. You can take a day trip to Key West and enjoy a wide variety of water sports. Plan a Florida Keys road trip: https://we3travel.com/florida-keys-roadtrip/ Daytona Beach / New Smyrna, Florida - "You have grown up and Daytona Beach has too", it is no longer a party spring break destination but very family friendly. You can go pedal kayaking, climb the Ponce Inlet lighthouse, eco boat tours, see manatees, Daytona racetrack tour, and you can drive on the beach. See more things to do at Daytona Beach: https://adventuremomblog.com/things-to-do-daytona-beach-and-ponce-inlet-fl/ and some of the themed attractions in Daytona: https://adventuremomblog.com/racing-themed-attractions-in-daytona-beach-fl/ Caribbean Cruises - some leave from Florida and some visit Florida ports of call. Just keep in mind that the cruise ships, especially the pools and kids clubs, will be crowded during prime spring break weeks. Read about Kim's spring break onboard Holland America last year: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/review-caribbean-cruise-on-holland-america-nieuw-statendam/ Washington D.C. - Spring break is often Cherry Blossom season and a popular time to visit. For some museums you can arrange timed-entry tickets and many of the Smithsonian Museums are free. D.C. has a great metro system so that you can stay further out to save money and use the Metro to get around. See Tamara's Washington D.C. itinerary: https://we3travel.com/washington-dc-itinerary/ Gatlinburg, TN - Smoky Mountains National Park is free and offers plenty of hiking, be sure to drive or bike Cades Cove Loop, there are also quirky adventures like zorbing, alpine slides, mountain coasters, treetop adventure courses, and Hillbilly Golf. Plus there are so many themed restaurants and shows, along with Dollywood theme park. See Nedra's suggestions for unique adventures in the Smoky Mountains: https://adventuremomblog.com/unique-adventures-try-smoky-mountains/ Phoenix / Scottsdale - spring break is also spring training for Major League Baseball and you can get great ticket prices to watch games in the Cactus League. There are also world-class spas, great brunch spots, and hiking. In the spring the desert is in bloom and beautiful. Scottsdale getaway: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/scottsdale-girls-weekend-itinerary/ Las Vegas - you can use Las Vegas as a base and then explore some of the national parks in the area. It is especially good if you can do Bryce, Zion, and the Grand Canyon midweek and explore the city on the weekends. The Pinball Museum and the Neon Sign Museum are fun and for older teens, try a food tour. See tips for hiking the Narrows: https://adventuremomblog.com/hike-the-narrows-for-an-incredible-adventure-at-zion-national-park/. See more unique adventures in Vegas: https://adventuremomblog.com/7-unique-bucket-list-adventures-in-las-vegas/. And ways to explore from Flagstaff: https://adventuremomblog.com/grand-canyon-beyond-from-the-flagstaff-koa-holiday/ Little St. Simons Island, GA - for families looking for a unique all-inclusive here in the US, Little St. Simons Island is a private island and nature reserve off the coast of Georgia and it is perfect for nature lovers. See Tamara's review: https://we3travel.com/little-st-simons-island-all-inclusive-resort/ Southern California - the weather is great and there is so much to do. Huntington Beach is great if you want to learn to surf. San Diego has the zoo and museums. Plus there are the theme parks. It is also a good season for whale and dolphin watching. See Kim's Southern California itinerary: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/one-week-southern-california-itinerary-disneyland/ Destin, Florida - you can go online and find adventure packs with moms who can consult with you on things to do. You can bike on 30A, go paddle boarding, or go indoors at the underwater-themed bowling alley. Learn more about the adventure packs: https://adventuremomblog.com/why-families-love-destin-fort-walton-beach-adventure-packs/. See more things to do in Destin: https://adventuremomblog.com/things-to-do-destin-florida/ Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama - also on the Gulf of Mexico not too far from Destin, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach has that same gorgeous white sand, blue-green water, and calm surf. There are tons of fun activities, great food, and cool, family-friendly beach bars. See more things to do in Orange Beach: https://we3travel.com/things-to-do-in-orange-beach-and-gulf-shores-alabama/   Related Episodes Kim's Holland America spring break cruise Southwest Grand Circle road trip Kim and Tamara's trip to Oceanside, California Kim and Tamara's Florida Keys trip Las Vegas with kids Kim and Tamara's trip to Scottsdale, Arizona

In November, Kim and Tamara took a trip to Turkey for a travel writer's conference. After their time in Istanbul, they jetted off to different parts of the country to see more of Turkiye. This week, Kim shares her experience in Cappadocia and offers up tips for anyone that wants to experience this magical world of fairy chimneys and sunrise hot air balloon rides. Episode Highlights Plan to stay in Cappadocia at least four days It pairs well with three to four days in Istanbul (it is about a 2 hour flight from Istanbul) Kayseri Erkilet Airport (ASR) is the main airport for the region Cappadocia is not a town but region that is made up of multiple towns Going up in a hot air balloon is a bucket list experience for many but sometimes flights are cancelled because of various weather conditions so you want to leave some extra time in case you need to reschedule Göreme is the main town and definitely a tourist town If you want something quieter, you can stay in Uçhisar Kim stayed in Ürgüp at the Avant Garde Cave Hotel The Pigeon Valley Hike goes from Uchisar through the National Park to Goreme (about 3 miles) The Valley is where all the balloons fly above Göreme also has beautiful sunsets Goreme National Park is where you will find all the fairy chimneys or hoodoos You can book a balloon ride through your hotel or online, there are many tour operators that offer balloon rides Departure time depends on the time of year, but it is usually fairly early morning The balloons are big with large baskets that hold at least 20 people, with 4-5 people in each section Make sure you have a lanyard or strap for your phone or camera The pilots take photos and then sell you the photo package if you want at the end of the ride At the end there is a light breakfast and champagne but no tables or chairs They pick you up and drop you off at your hotel Use AllTrails to find and download nearby hiking trails The Goreme Open Air Museum gives you access to some of the ancient churches You can have a hammam experience for a traditional Turkish bath Pack layers and shoes or hiking boots with a good grip Stay tuned for our next episode about some of our favorite Spring Break destinations! Related Episodes Istanbul, Turkey Favorite hotels of 2024

Airplanes are not known for their comfort or service. So if you want to have the best experience that you can while cramped inside with a bunch of strangers, here is some advice on how to choose the best seats on an airplane. We share our pros and cons of the bulkhead seats and areas of the plane to avoid. Episode Highlights Tamara doesn't like row 1 or the bulkhead row because you can't keep your personal item at your feet and often the overhead bins above that row are full you end up needing to store your valuables and even your carry on bag a few rows back. Often the first couple of rows of economy is where they store crew luggage, blankets, emergency kits, etc and the room is really limited. Also, since those rows are often "premium economy" people sitting there board early and have status and take up the overhead space. Those bulkhead rows also have fixed armrests that are a bit of a wall that can be uncomfortable. Also, this is where your tray table and tv screen is stored there so you also end up looking down if you are watching the screen. These seats also often have the very thick seatbelts with a built in airbag that can be uncomfortable. The middle section bulkhead is also where they put a bassinet and a baby. The pro is that you have leg room and you aren't going to have someone reclining in front of you On the exit row, you also sometimes have a bump out for the slide that cuts into your space in the window seat Remember to always double check your seat assignments in the days and weeks leading up to the trip, especially if there have been any changes to your flights as they may have shifted your seats if there was an equipment change Sometimes the middle section of a larger plane or international flight you can find a seat without someone next to you, especially if you are traveling solo When choosing a seat, always look at the layout and be aware of where the bathrooms are. You don't want to be either right across from the bathroom or the rows nearby if possible Also, if you are sensitive to sound, you may not want to be in the very front or back near a galley because of the noise, light, and movement The row just in front of the exit row is often used for storage in the overhead bins and space is tighter The seats in the exit row or just before/after sometimes don't recline. Also, the very back of the plane or section have seats that only recline a tiny bit Kim and Tamara both prefer the aisle for easy access to the bathroom and to not feel as claustrophobic Windows can be nice if you want to sleep and you aren't getting bumped by people walking by or the carts going up the aisle Kim likes the aisle of the middle section on international flights because sometimes there might be an open seat next to you If you see all four seats of that section booked, it is likely a family and you might want to be two rows before or after that row If you have a tight connection, try to be as far forward as you can in the plane. It is worth paying extra for a premium seat towards the front Seat Guru is not always updated but can be a good resource. Another site that gives seat reviews is Aerolopa If you have an American Express Platinum card you get a $200 airline credit each year but you need to select your airline. This doesn't go to the fare but can be used for seat upgrades or baggage fees If they change your flight schedule, you need to go in and accept or reject the changes. If the schedule changes more than a certain amount of time, they have to give you a full refund

Anyone looking for a weekend getaway from Seattle, or a small-town add-on to a trip to the Pacific Northwest, Whidbey Island is a great choice. Learn all about where to stay and things to do on Whidbey Island and hear about a fun time to visit during Mystery Weekend in February! Episode Highlights: Whidbey Island is one of the northern islands off of Seattle At the end of February each year the town of Langley hosts a Mystery Weekend You can get there via the Whidbey-Clinton ferry route or you can drive and take the bridge Learn more about Mystery Weekend: Kim's article on 5 Things to Know About Langley Mystery Weekend: https://stuffedsuitcase.com/langley-murder-mystery-weekend/ Langley Mystery Weekend: https://whidbeycamanoislands.com/event/langley-mystery-weekend/2025-02-22/ If you live locally, the winter is a great time to visit Whidbey Island because there aren't any crowds and the prices are much lower. Where to stay on Whidbey Island: Comforts of Whidbey - winery bed and breakfast Saratoga Inn - cute historic home turned into a hotel in downtown Langley The island is very dog-friendly with many hotels and restaurants that welcome dogs For the Langley Mystery Weekend you go to the tourism office and purchase a booklet and entry form to guess who did the crime. It offers discounts/coupons for local businesses and encourages you to explore and find clues at different locations. You then put all the clues together to guess and solve the crime. There are also volunteers around town who are in character as part of the story. A local resident writes the mystery every year and it changes each year so you can go every year for a different experience. You need a car to get around Whidbey Island. There is a long highway down the middle of the island and it is easy to navigate. Whidbey Island has an impressive food scene. A few to highlight include: Saltwater - offers pub-style seafood restaurant in Langley Savory - small-plates style restaurant that is perfect for sharing Langley Kitchen - good for breakfast Braeburn - good for lunch and breakfast Things to do in Whidbey Island: Take a hike or get outdoors Earth Sanctuary - $7.00 entrance fee, a space to be in nature, there is also a labyrinth Hammons Family Preserve - great walking trails State Park Beach with kite surfing Shopping Wine, cider and mead tasting rooms What to pack: a raincoat and waterproof shoes Where to take a photo: Hammons Preserve with a view of the water

Kim and Tamara recently visited Istanbul, Türkiye for the first time to attend the SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) Annual Conference. In this episode, they share their insights and tips for others planning a trip to Istanbul including where to stay, top sights to visit, safety, and other travel tips. Show Highlights: Turkish Airlines has a lot of direct flights from the USA (including Boston and Seattle) Turkish Airlines business class varies depending on what plane you are on and you need to be strategic about choosing your seat It takes about an hour to get from the airport to the city center and there is a lot of traffic in Istanbul. Tamara used Welcome Pickups and Kim used Sun Transfers for private transfers, which were both affordable and possibly cheaper than taxis. It is best to stay in the Sultanahmet neighborhood for first time visitors near the main attraction, Kim also stayed in the Galata Tower area but it is very hilly and hard to access for cabs. Tamara stayed at the Hagia Sofia Mansions Hotel (a Curio Collection by Hilton Hotel) and Kim stayed at the White House boutique hotel. They also stayed at the Conrad Hilton during the convention but wouldn't recommend that area unless you are about to get on or off a cruise. You can ask Google Maps for an accessible route to avoid hills. Kim and Tamara really enjoyed taking a small group tour of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. You can do it on your own but the guide takes care of getting the tickets and plan it so you don't need to figure out what time the mosques are open for visitors. You need to cover your hair when you enter a mosque and take off your shoes so it is helpful to wear slip off shoes and socks. In the Hagia Sofia, visitors can only go to the second level and look down at the main prayer area. You can also see the gold mosaics and Christian imagery from when it was a church. The Basilica Cistern is also nearby and it is very popular with very long lines. We would recommend that you buy skip the line tickets online in advance. Tamara took a guided tour but it was hard to stay together in the crowd and you need to use a listening device to hear the guide. The Sulimaniye Mosque, near the Spice Market, is also well worth a visit for its gorgeous architecture. It is equal or even better than the Blue Mosque. The Rustem Pasha Mosque is also beautiful, but smaller. The Spice Market, also known at the Egyptian Market, has tons of shops selling tea and spices. Just beware that they sell via the kilo and that is a huge amount so you need to request a much smaller amount unless you want to spend an arm and a leg. The sales guys are very good at upselling and aggressive about engaging you to get you into the shop. They also offer free samples. See Tamara's tips on visiting to Istanbul as a solo female traveler: https://yourtimetofly.com/istanbul-solo-female-travel/ The Grand Bazaar is largely gold jewelry and knock off designer goods with just a few more authentic shops with Turkish linens or carpets. Make sure you try simit in the morning, baklava, Turkish Delight, and Turkish coffee and tea. There are some shops or tours that include someone who "reads" your tea leaves or coffee grounds. Turkish cuisine is very beef and lamb centric. A braised beef and eggplant is a popular dish. Let the restaurant bring different types of mezze, as many of these are delicious and things you might not have tried if you picked yourself. Gozleme is a flatbread topped with cheese or cheese and spinach. Credit cards are widely used but you should bring cash (or get cash from an ATM) for taxis and you will be able to spend less if you pay in cash when you go shopping. Be prepared to tip. Make sure the taxi starts the meter and know ahead of time about how much it should cost. And if you use Uber, don't let them tell you that they don't pay via the app. The tram is an easy way to get around and there is a kiosk to purchase tickets with an English option.

Kim and her daughter Amelia went to New York City in December to experience the Big Apple for the holidays. In addition to enjoying the holiday markets, ice skating, and decorations, they went on a quest to find all the of the Taylor Swift related spots in the City. If you have a Swiftie fan, give this episode a listen! Trip Highlights: Kim stayed at the Grayson Hotel near Bryant Park, which has a good location but the rooms are very small and the rooftop bar is pretty loud and crowded They visited from Sunday - Wednesday to avoid the weekend crowds Earlier December is better because the crowds get heavier the closer it gets to Christmas and between Christmas and New Years Ice skating in Bryant Park is much cheaper than skating in Rockefeller Center and if you have your own ice skates, it is free. You need to book your time slot when it opens a week in advance. You get 20 minutes to get your skates and 50 minutes on the ice for your time slot. Kim and Mia used CityPASS New York to see many of the sights. The passes are available digitally and you can book reservations (when needed) from within the CityPASS app. They did Top of the Rock at night and then the Empire State Building during the day. During the holidays, Top of the Rock has a seasonal Christmas pop up bar. There are Christmas Markets at Columbus Circle, Bryant Park, Herald Square, and Union Square to visit. Bryant Park is one of the busiest markets. The storefronts on Fifth Avenue are decorated and Sixth Avenue has a lot of large ornaments and other holiday decorations. They didn't get to visit the lights in the neighborhood of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Taylor Swift Spots in NYC: Housing Works - where Taylor Swift filmed part of the "All too well" video House on Cornelius Street Bus Stop Cafe near Cornelius Street Walk on the Highline Chelsea Hotel See more details in Kim's Instagram post

On this episode, we recap our favorite hotel stays from 2024, with picks that are great for international and domestic travel for couples, friends, or family trips. Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht - part of Hyatt Hotels, this hotel has a fabulous location on one of the main canals in a great area. The staff was helpful and the room was stylish. The only thing to keep in mind is that it has an open bathroom concept, so it wouldn't be great for families or two friends sharing a room. This is a good option for those who travel with points. Chase is a transfer partner with Hyatt. Tamara visited this hotel in January on her weekend getaway to Amsterdam. Exeter Hotel Reykjavik - this hotel also has an open bathroom format. The location is about a 10-minute walk from the main shopping and sightseeing district. The room rate also included free breakfast and there was a passcode-locked gate for storing luggage. Kim stayed here with her daughter before their Windstar Cruise. Weston Inn Vermont - this is a nice luxury inn in Southern Vermont with top-notch service, a great restaurant, nicely appointed rooms, a spa and fitness center with fantastic yoga classes. This is a perfect romantic getaway. Read Tamara's full review. Inn at Laurel Point, Victoria - Kim talked about this hotel on a recent episode about Victoria, BC. It is located right on the waterfront just a short walk from downtown. They have spacious rooms, nice L'Occitane bath products, soaker tubs, and a fabulous cafe and full-service restaurant on site. Sandestin Hilton, Florida - located along 30A near Destin, Florida, this area has gorgeous white sand beaches and calm water. This is a great hotel for families because one of the towers has 300 rooms that have bunk beds. It is easy to have a family of five in one room and not feel cramped. Read Tamara's full Sandestin Hilton review. White House Hotel, Istanbul - had rooms with three twin beds, making it a great choice for a friend trip to Istanbul. The price was extremely reasonable and it is in the Sultanahmet neighborhood near all the main attractions. Hagia Sofia Mansions, Istanbul - this is a Curio Collection by Hilton Hotel, also in the Sultanahmet neighborhood and it was beautiful. The rooms are spread across multiple buildings and the rooms feel very luxurious. There are two restaurants and the breakfast has so much food. Park Hyatt Istanbul - Macka Palas - the hotel room was fabulous but it is located in a high-end shopping district, which may mean you spend more on cabs getting around the city. Avantgarde Refined Urgup - Cappadocia is a region of towns and this hotel is in the up-and-coming town of Urgup. This is a newly-opened, cave-style hotel with excellent service and food. Meneghetti Wine Hotel, Croatia - this is Tamara's favorite hotel of the year. They stayed in a one-bedroom residence that had a living room, 1.5 baths, loft bedroom, with a private backyard and patio. The hotel is located on a wine estate and has multiple restaurants, two pools, a beach club, spa, and more. Read about Tamara's couples trip to Croatia. Other Episodes You May Enjoy Where to go in 2025 Explore Iceland on a Windstar Cruise Weekend getaway in Victoria, BC Explore Croatia from Dubrovnik to Istria Amsterdam with kids

Tamara is just back from a festive trip to Nova Scotia, Canada where she was able to experience small town holiday celebrations, the Halifax Evergreen Festival, and the Christmas Tree Capital of the World! Her trip was sponsored by Tourism Nova Scotia. All opinions are her own. We are looking for feedback for 2025! Do you want weekly episodes? More interviews? Short episodes? Video? Drop us a line at tamara@yourtimetofly.com and kim@stuffedsuitcase.com. Mentioned on the podcast: Tamara visited Halifax, New Ross, Mahone Bay, Lunenberg, Barrington, Liverpool, and Shelburne in Nova Scotia. While Nova Scotia is popular in the summer, it has plenty to offer in the winter for the holidays Many of the small towns feel like walking into a Hallmark Christmas movie set with a great small town, community atmosphere. It is a different vibe from big city holidays or German Christmas Markets, but it is perfect for those that prefer a small town environment. The Canadian dollar is also weak against the U.S. dollar so it is a good budget, off-season destination. It is only a 1.5 hour direct from Boston, but there are also direct flights to other cities on the U.S. East Coast. Downtown Halifax has an Evergreen Festival that includes an Evergreen Bright Trail, a small Evergreen Market with shops and fire pits, and other special events like a sports area with mini curling. Glow Gardens in Halifax is a great event for families featuring indoor light displays, bouncy houses, mini golf, roller skating, a Christmas train, live entertainment, and more. 2 days in Halifax was perfect. Museums in Halifax include the Pier 21 Immigration Museum and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which has a great exhibit on shipwrecks including fragments from the Titanic. New Ross is the Christmas Tree Capital of the World, which ships its Balsam Fir trees. You can visit the Ross Farm Museum or one of the cut-your-own Christmas tree farms. There is also a trail called Ruby's Trail that you can climb through the evergreens to a small chalet, which is home to "Twig the Elf." Mahone Bay had a Christmas festival with a small craft fair and a Christmas bells concert, as well as holiday decorations throughout the shops downtown. Lunenberg hosted a huge community arts and crafts fair for the holidays. The town of Lunenberg is very pretty, with colorful architecture and plenty of restaurants and shops. In Shelburne, Tamara stayed in a huge waterfront suite at Albert's Inn. Shelburne hosted Miracle on Dock Square with a walk-through Christmas parade, visit with Santa, craft fair, and various stands throughout town. It finished with fireworks over the water. Tamara also went searching for the lobster trap and buoy Christmas trees along the coast of Nova Scotia. Tamara finished her stay at the White Point Beach Resort, which has cabins, a lodge, and glomes (glamping domes). It was warm and cozy, with a great view and very nice, even in the winter. Other Episodes You May Enjoy: Summer travel recap: New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island German Christmas Markets European Christmas Markets

Not sure where to go on vacation next year? We have all kinds of ideas from new theme parks, new attractions, new hotels, cities and destinations celebrating anniversaries, destinations that are easier to access thanks to new direct flights, and more. Plus, stick around to hear where to avoid in 2025 too! Universal Orlando is opening Epic Universe in May of 2025 and you currently need to buy a three-day ticket, with one day to be spent in the Epic Universe Park. There are also three new hotels opening in 2025 in conjunction with the new park. Walt Disney World is also reopening the Test Track attraction and getting a new parade in Magic Kingdom. Disneyland will also be celebrating its 70th anniversary all year long and adding a new Walt Disney animatronic attraction. Two new attractions will also open in the Avengers land. Mattel Adventure Park is opening in Glendale, Arizona with a Barbie Fun House and Hot Wheels roller coaster. Oklahoma City is opening an Okana Resort with a hotel and waterpark right next to the new First Americans Museum near the Bricktown entertainment district. Santa Rosa, California is celebrating the Peanuts comic strip's 75th anniversary at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. (Hear more about Kim and Tamara's trip to Santa Rosa.) Germany is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Fairy Tale Route (read more about Jade from Vagabond 3's tripwith her daughter) Southwest is now flying direct flights to Iceland from more cities (such as Nashville). Just know that you won't be able to use your Companion Pass for Iceland flights. This winter is also supposed to be another peak solar cycle to see the Northern Lights in Iceland, Alaska, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. There are also new direct flights from Atlanta and Philadelphia to Copenhagen via a KLM code-share with Delta. Copenhagen is one of the oldest theme parks in the world and the city is quite family friendly. If you are traveling to Europe next year, at some point they will introduce the ETIAS visa and the UK is now going to introduce its own visa system in January 2025. 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth and cities like Bath, England will be doing a lot to celebrate. It is a great time to plan a trip for literary fans! Fiji now has direct flights from Dallas. Fiji is an affordable and exotic destination for families, which is easier to get to and much cheaper than places like the Maldives. There will also be new direct flights from Newark, NJ to Faro in the Algarve in Portugal (hear about Kim and Tamara's trip to Portugal). United also has flights to Sao Miguel in the Azores. Turks and Caicos has opened many new luxury hotel properties and beachfront villas and offers beautiful beaches. They are also opening a second airport. Indianapolis will be a great spot for a girls' trip or a mother-daughter sports-themed trip - just get your tickets to the Indiana Fever very far in advance. Seattle is also a great sports city with a women's soccer team and WNBA team. Italy is celebrating the Jubilee year from December 2024 through Epiphany January 6, 2026. Rome is going to be extra busy next year, especially at the Vatican (and it could be closed for events.) In 2025, Tamara will be visiting both Peru and Chile in March and April 2025. Kim is meeting her daughter Mia in Paris in July and doing eight days in Switzerland.

Imagine taking a weekend getaway to another country without needing a car or getting on a plane! Kim recently took a trip to Victoria, British Columbia. Victoria is on the tip of Vancouver Island and is actually closer to the U.S. than Vancouver. You can take a high-speed ferry on the Victoria Clipper directly from Seattle. Another option is to take a seaplane from Kenmore Air or Harbour Air from Vancouver. There is also a car ferry from the Port Angeles area. You can listen to more about Kim's previous trip on Episode 139 about Victoria or read her tips for taking the Victoria Clipper. This trip was hosted by the Victoria Clipper. The high-speed ferry takes about 2.5 hours from Seattle. The ferry drops off in the main Victoria Harbor and you can walk to the Inn at Laurel Point. Kim has also stayed at the Coast Hotel during a previous stay, but that is slightly further away from the city center. The Fairmont Empress is great for a luxury stay or even just to book a high tea experience. Things to do on a weekend getaway: Butchart Gardens - which also offers high tea in the original family home. If you book a trip on the Victoria Clipper, they offer vacation packages that also include things like bus transfers to the Gardens. In the Harbour, Canada has done a place-making project to give more visibility to First Nations as it was historically a very important cultural site for many local First Nations people. There are three free daily shuttles to the Malahat Skywalk, which is owned by the Malahat Nation. You climb a ramp through an open, beehive-like structure and at the top, you can climb on a net and look out over the scenery and the water. There are also various sculptures made by locals. You can walk back down or take a slide for part of the descent. You can also go wine tasting in Victoria at Blue Grouse Estate Winery with a gorgeous tasting room, or the Venturi-Schultz Vineyard, where they also make estate balsamic vinegar and Enrico Winery. Local wines include Pinot Noir, sparkling wine, and white wines. Ritual Nordic Spa in downtown Victoria has a great Nordic spa experience with steam, a sauna, a cold plunge pool, salt room, showers, an infrared sauna, and a private patio for relaxation. Aura is the restaurant at the Inn at Laurel Point and is excellent (the coffee shop also has amazing croissants) Endive is a pescatarian restaurant with seasonal ingredients and many things are served family style.

Tamara recently took a press trip to San Antonio, Texas, hosted by Visit San Antonio, to see what there was to do in San Antonio for families. She found that San Antonio has a lot of history and culture, great food, fun theme parks, and plenty of free or affordable attractions. San Antonio could make a great winter or spring break family vacation (when the weather is cooler). The city is also ideal for a girls' trip or couples getaway weekend. Top sites include: San Antonio is the theme park capital of Texas with four theme parks within a short drive. They have the largest SeaWorld of all the parks. There is also a Six Flags, Schlitterbahn water park, and Morgan's Wonderland. Morgan's Wonderland is an ultra-accessible amusement park but built so that everyone can play. Each ride and attraction has been designed from the ground up to be accessible and conscious of those with special needs. The San Antonio CityPASS can save you money if you want to visit quite a few museums and attractions (including the San Antonio Zoo). The Riverwalk extends for 15 miles and outside of the core downtown horseshoe section, it is a quiet and lush urban park. You can even kayak on the river. The Pearl is a dining and entertainment district with residences and the Hotel Emma. The food in San Antonio is great and it is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Some highlights: Eddie's Taco Shop, Best American Daughter, Burgerteca, Stix and Stone, The Jerk Shack, and La Panaderia In addition to the Alamo, there are four other Missions that are run by the National Park Service, which offer even more to see. The Witte Museum is great for kids with plenty of interactive exhibits and play areas. The Japanese Tea Garden in Brackenridge Park is beautiful and peaceful Hemisfair Park downtown also is great for family with young kids with splash pads and climbing structures. Tamara stayed at the Intercontinental San Antonio Riverwalk on the quieter section of the Riverwalk. There are also great resort hotels in Hill Country just outside of San Antonio. See more about Tamara's trip and reasons to visit San Antonio with kids. Other Episodes You May Enjoy Girlfriend getaway to El Paso, Texas Things to do in Austin, Texas with kids

Kim recently took her two girls to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando for a mother-daughter getaway. Hear more about her trip, learn some strategies for using Lightning Lane, new rides, new theme parks coming, and comparisons between the parks. It was hot, humid, and rainy in the afternoons, but they still had a fun time exploring all the parks. Luckily, Universal Orlando has more indoor rides that help on rainy days. Updates from Walt Disney World Tron in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom - it is like riding a motorcycle but on a roller coaster track. The ride is fabulous but really short. Splash Mountain is now Tiana's Bayou Adventure - this is a two-by-two flume-like ride that has been redesigned. Disney now has Lightning Lane Multi Experience and Lightning Lane Single Experience. With the Multi Experience, it works on multiple rides and as soon as you tap into one ride, you can request the next Lightning Lane. You want to purchase and prebook your first ride in advance. Single Experience is where you can buy a Lightning Lane time slot for individual rides like Tron or Rise of the Resistance. Disney's Lightning Lane experience is better than Universal's Express Pass because they load people from that lane faster. Disney has also changed their rules around their Disability Access service and made it much harder to obtain a pass. Keep this in mind if you have children with special needs and have used that service in the past. Tip: If you want to stay at one of the Deluxe hotels on property, you can stay by renting Disney Vacation Club points. (Riviera has Skyliner access) See Kim's article on renting and using DVC points. Disney is building a new ride in the Avengers Campus and they are getting rid of the Tom Sawyer Island and Riverboat in Magic Kingdom to create Cars Land. Updates from Universal Orlando Note: Universal Orlando hosted Kim's family for this part of the trip. Kim stayed at the Loews Sapphire Falls, which is a Moderate property and does not include the Express Passes. The Sapphire Falls is within walking distance to the parks and guests get one hour early entry. Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure still has very long lines. The nice thing about the Universal Express Passes don't require you to book any times online, so it is less stressful to manage. However, many people have these passes because they are staying at the premium hotels and the lanes load slowly so sometimes you don't save a lot of time (sometimes only about 10 minutes of time savings). There is a Universal Express Unlimited Pass that lets you ride a ride in the Express pass lane as much as you would like, without limits. Universal Orlando is building a whole new theme park in 2025 called Epic Universe. It is going to be further away from CityWalk and the other parks or hotels. It will also have another portion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Ministry of Magic. There will also be two premium hotels and a How to Train Your Dragon land.   Other Episodes You May Enjoy Disney Vacation Club tips Choosing a Disney World hotel Walt Disney World tips Universal Orlando's Volcano Bay Universal Orlando insider tips

If you love Italy and Greece, you are going to love today's destination! Tamara shares her two-week trip with her husband to Croatia. They visited Dubrovnik, Korcula, Hvar, Split, Zadar, and Istria for a mix of relaxation, food, wine, history, and cultural exploration. Croatia is a lovely country to visit because it is very clean and one of the safest countries to visit in the world. Unfortunately, it is also surprisingly expensive. It isn't the "cheaper" Italy. You can see a full Croatia budget breakdown. Istria was less expensive than other parts of the country. Tamara's itinerary included: 3 nights in Dubrovnik at the Rixos Premium 1 night in Korcula at Aminess Hotel Korcula 3 nights in Hvar at the Beach Bay Hvar Hotel 1 night in Zadar at Hotel Bastion 4 nights in Istria at the Hotel Meneghetti You can find her full Croatia itinerary for couples here. It is best to fly into one city and fly out of another. For example, fly into Dubrovnik and out of Zagreb. To get around in the southern Dalmatian region and islands, you can ferry hop to different islands. To visit the northern part of the country, it is best to rent a car. Another option is to take a small ship cruise or yacht charter to explore the coast and islands that way. Other Episodes You May Enjoy Tamara's anniversary trip to Greece Couples trip to Piemonte, Italy

Tamara heads to Tucson, Arizona frequently since her daughter Hannah is now a junior at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Kim and Tamara first experienced Tucson together at a Family Travel Association Conference, but since Hannah started school Tamara has visited a number of times. While many of her activities are centered around the University of Arizona, she has taken time to explore more of the area. A few tips for visiting Tucson: Visit in the summer for lower prices but expect dry temps over 100 and it can also be monsoon season with short heavy rain storms and flooding Avoid May graduation, August move in, Parent weekend in September or October, the Mineral & Gem Show in February, and big football or basketball games to find better availability for hotels If you want a resort hotel with a pool, you are better looking at some of the hotels in the foothills versus downtown You need to rent a car if you want to stay at a resort and explore the area It is about 2-2.5 hours from Phoenix if you want to fly into there instead of Tucson or combine the two destinations Favorite hotels: Best for families: Westin Paloma See Tamara's picks for the best places to stay in Tucson Favorite for couples: Hacienda Del Sol Best near campus: Graduate Tucson Best downtown: Home2Suites by Hilton Things to do in Tucson: Saguaro National Park Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum Sunset at West Gate Pass Night sky star gazing at Mt Lemmon Windy Point or Kitt Peak Hiking in Sabino Canyon Pima Air and Space Museum Horseback riding at White Stallion Ranch / Cowboy Cookout at Tanque Verde Ranch Old Town Tucson Shopping along Fourth Avenue Enjoy Mexican food See more things to do in Tucson Great brunch spots in Tucson Other Episodes You May Enjoy Scottsdale Tempe, Arizona

Kim just came back from her third cruise of the year and her first small-ship cruise on Windstar Cruises. TL;DR, she loved Windstar and small ship cruising! In this week's episode Kim dishes on everything you need to know about small ship cruising on Windstar. Plus, hear about her pre-cruise excursions from Reykjavik including a small group Golden Circle tour with Hidden Iceland and hot springs experiences at the Sky Lagoon and Blue Lagoon. Note: Kim was hosted by Windstar Cruises for purposes of her review. All opinions are her own. Highlights of the Windstar Cruise experience: Small staff with personalized service Easier to make connections with fellow cruisers Very large cabins with a sitting area, walk in closet, and large bathroom Dining options Observatory lounge OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY ENJOY Princess Alaska Cruise Holland America Caribbean cruise Barge and river cruising through France Off-the-beaten path in West Iceland Iceland family travel tips

Are you ready to go leaf peeping in New England this fall? Tamara shares some great destinations and road trips on where to go to northern New England including Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. New England covers Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island If you are visiting in the fall, you will want to keep an eye on the fall foliage trackers and know that the further north you go, the earlier it will peak The prime time is late September through mid-October for fall travel How to plan a New England road trip: fly into Boston and then head north to Portland, Maine and then into the White Mountains of New Hampshire and then into Vermont You will need at least a week to do a road trip if you are flying in Otherwise you can easily plan a long weekend 7 Fall New England road trip options Best things to do in New England with kids The White Mountains in New Hampshire makes a great long weekend or even weeklong trip Where to go glamping in New England Where to stop on the Kancamaugus Highway in New Hampshire Vermont is great for couples with quintessential charming towns Burlington, Vermont is a fun getaway and Brattleboro is perfect for artists. One of Tamara's favorite towns is Manchester, Vermont. Tamara has done a wonderful romantic getaway at the Weston luxury inn in Vermont Plan a Vermont road trip Highwood Retreat in Vermont is an off-the-grid glamping spot great for couples Lumen Nature Retreat in Lincoln/N.Woodstock, New Hampshire Alpine Garden Glamping in the White Mountains has a great location with cabins, Hobbit Houses, and a treehouse and it is located on a winery Best lobster rolls in Maine Best vacation spots in Maine Boston to Bar Harbor Maine coast road trip Things to do in Portland, Maine in the winter Things to do in the Berkshires in the winter and summer Best family vacations in New England (for every season) Other Episodes You May Like Fall travel destinations Off-the-beaten path in Maine Tamara's New England travels Planning a girls' trip to Maine

Kim is back from her 7th Alaska cruise! This one was on Princess Cruise visiting the Inside Passage that cruises from Seattle and visits Victoria, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagaway and sails through Glacier Bay.  Note: Kim was hosted by Princess Cruises for her trip. This cruise visits Victoria very briefly at night so not a good choice if you really want to visit Victoria When evaluating cruises, you need to look closely at the time and length in port very carefully If you do want to pick a cruise that flies out of Vancouver, it may be cheaper to fly into Seattle and take either a train or bus to Vancouver The Discovery Princess ship carries up to 4300 guests so it is a large ship about the same size as the Norwegian Bliss (which we have talked about previously) It leaves from Pier 91 in Seattle, which is a bit north of the main Seattle waterfront and port area If you sail with Princess, do the onboard check in on the app at least a month or a few weeks in advance so that you can receive your Medallions in the mail The 16th floor on the Discovery Princess is the pool deck so you may need to walk outside to get the buffet and mid-ship elevators depending on where your room is. Kim's room also had an overhang covering the balcony The cabins on the Discovery Princess are a little small, with no additional seating beyond the bed (except on the balcony) The cabin had a very generous closet space but the bathroom was quite tight (look at the cabin layout in advance) Kim went in mid-June and had amazing weather but there are no guarantees The Princess Theater was quite large  The premier package level is $80 per person, per day includes WiFi for 4 devices per person, 2 specialty dining meals, and the highest level of drink package The 360 dining experience is something you need to book when you arrive and it is a seven-course meal with courses from around the world and it includes videos from makers around the world The food on board was good but fairly standard cruise fare outside of specialty dining Princess has a lot of lounges with something going on somewhere at all time You can buy a day pass to the Sanctuary pool and area Princess has a kids club and activities but there weren't a lot of families on board but it is great for multi-generational family trips In Juneau, Kim went whale watching and it was spectacular wildlife sighting In Skagway, Kim did the White Pass Scenic Railway and "Sip to Summit" excursion In Ketchikan, Kim did a fishing excursion and after you catch fish they cook it for you on a private island Not all cruise ships in Alaska goes to Glacier Bay National Park so be sure to look for this! There seem to be better views from the left side of the ship Bigger ships have to dock further away and some need to tender to port so this is something else to consider when taking an Alaskan cruise Smaller ship (like Holland) are better for walking on and off the ship   OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY ENJOY Holland America Caribbean cruise Barge and river cruising through France NYC to Bahamas cruise on Norwegian Norwegian Bliss cruise to Alaska Disney Cruise for First-timers

Summer vacation is almost here and we are getting ready for the busiest summer travel season ever! Be sure to pack your patience, your travel insurance, and these travel apps. In this episode we talk about some of our favorite travel apps that we are using lately for road trips, plane travel, and international travel. Travel Apps to Download this Summer: Flight Aware - helps you track to see where planes are and their status Airline apps - send you alerts for delays, help you rebook easily, download mobile boarding passes, can sometimes track luggage, inbound flights, or provide information on airport lounge locations and status Mobile Passport Control - for international travelers that don't have Global Entry Apple Find My Device with Apple AirTags or alternatively use Tile or similar trackers for checked bags Roadtrippers - helps you plan road trips and find things to stop at along the way GasBuddy - helps you find gas stations and the most affordable gas Welcome Pickups - arrange airport transfers or other transportation in 256 locations worldwide Daytrip - sightseeing city to city transfers with stops along the way Hotel apps - allow you to chat with the hotel, digital check in and check out, and sometimes select room, get a digital key, manage entertainment, and other services Card Pointers - helps you manage all your various credit card offers and helps you decide which card to use where and when and maximize your special offers Global Blue - helps you manage your VAT refund forms Stasher and Bounce - helps you find places to store your luggage, which is great if you are staying at an Airbnb or stopping somewhere along your way but need luggage storage Going - great for finding flight deals Other Episodes You May Enjoy What to know about airline fees Best credit cards for travel Favorite places and travel products Best hotel loyalty programs for families Tips for finding hotel deals Follow Kim at @stuffedsuitcase on Instagram Follow Tamara at @yourtimetofly on Instagram

St. Maarten is a popular destination in the Caribbean, but many people only visit as a brief cruise port destination. However, getting there is pretty easy with direct flights from the USA and there is plenty to do and see on this Dutch and French Island. Tamara recently visited St. Maarten to stay at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort as part of a press trip. This is the largest all-inclusive resort on the island and it has plenty of offer for families. Read the full review of the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort on We3Travel. It is located in Maho Beach Village, very close to the airport and the famous Maho Beach. Sonesta Maho Beach Resort fast facts: 420 rooms and suites in one tower There is an adults-only sister resort next door at the Ocean Point Resort The rooms either have a water (pool or ocean) view or island view It isn't directly on Maho Beach Large pool with water slides and swim up bar Small pool with kiddie slides near the kid's club Teen Zone offers a variety of games and entertainment There are many food options including: Mexican, Asian, Italian, pizza, cafe, tavern, and buffet restaurants Tamara also did a johnnycake cooking class and the world's steepest zipline at Rainforest Adventures. Other Episodes You May Enjoy Caribbean Cruise on Holland America Where to go in the Caribbean Planning a Barbados vacation Everything you need to know about Beaches Turks & Caicos Planning a family vacation to Grand Cayman Follow Kim at @stuffedsuitcase on Instagram Follow Tamara at @yourtimetofly on Instagram

Kim took her oldest daughter on a Caribbean Cruise for her college spring break this past March. After sailing Holland America in Alaska in the past, she was excited to try the Holland America Caribbean cruise on the Nieuw Statendam. This was a unique itinerary that left from Fort Lauderdale and visited Nassau, Bahamas, Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, and Grand Turk in Turks & Caicos, along with Half Moon Bay, which is Holland's private island in the Bahamas. This itinerary included two days at sea. Kim has cruised Norwegian, Disney, and Celebrity in the Caribbean in the past, so in this episode, she points out the differences between the different cruise lines and the highs and lows of the Holland Nieuw Statendam. Learn more at: Review: Caribbean Cruise on the Holland Nieuw Statendam Printable cruise packing list Review: Our Alaska Cruise on Holland America Follow Kim at @stuffedsuitcase on Instagram Follow Tamara at @yourtimetofly on Instagram Other Episodes You May Enjoy Barge and river cruising through France NYC to Bahamas cruise on Norwegian Norwegian Bliss cruise to Alaska Disney Cruise for First-timers

Tamara has finally made it to her 50th state...Oklahoma!! She took an Oklahoma road trip to visit both Oklahoma City and Chickasaw Country in south-central Oklahoma, in partnership with Chickasaw Country and the Chickasaw Nation. Oklahoma City has a lot to offer as a stand-alone destination including the First Americans Museum and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Tamara stayed at the aLoft hotel in Bricktown, which is the entertainment district with plenty of restaurants, bars, shops, and the minor league baseball stadium and water taxis. If you are interested in learning more about First American culture and love visiting small towns, tune in to learn more about Chickasaw Country. Some highlights include: Chickasaw Cultural Center Chickasaw National Recreation Area (see bison!) Chisholm Trail Heritage Center (learn about life as a cowboy) "Leg Lamp" sculpture in Chickasha for those that love roadside attractions Small town shopping in Sulphur Art Walk in Pauls Valley You can also read more about Tamara's Oklahoma road trip itinerary on We3Travel. Follow Kim @stuffedsuitcase Follow Tamara @yourtimetofly Other Episodes You Will Enjoy: Glacier Country, Montana Off the beaten Path in Maine West coast road trip Southwest road trip Family road trip tips

Tamara is hosting an all-women small group trip to Portugal this fall and she would love for you to join her! Find out all the details and sign up here. Did you know that Kim has been on safaris in four African countries? Today she shares some great tips that will help you decide where you might want to go, understand the differences between various safari experiences, and provide some advice for planning an African safari trip. You can read more about a few of Kim's safari experiences here: Garden Lodge, Chobe River, Botswana Chobe National Park, Botswana South Africa

Tamara is hosting an all-women small group trip to Portugal this fall and she would love for you to join her! Find out all the details and sign up here. In this episode, Tamara talks about her two-week German Christmas Markets road trip! If you have this magical holiday trip on your radar, make sure to give this episode a close listen and check out the following articles: German Christmas Market itinerary (10-day road trip) Beyond Bratwurst: 32 German Christmas Market foods and drinks to try 5 Reasons to visit the Stuttgart Christmas markets 7 Christmas Markets near Frankfurt work a day trip

Before we say goodbye to summer and pull on our flannels and break out the pumpkin spice, Tamara and Kim are back with a recap of Tamara's European summer travels including a month spent exploring France by river and barge cruise! Tamara first spent two weeks in the United Kingdom, on a road trip through both Scotland and Wales with two other travel writers. She then took the Eurostar down to France and spent one week cruising through the Canal Nivernais on the Hotel Barge Elisabeth. Next, she went to Bordeaux and her husband joined her for a weeklong river cruise with AmaWaterways. Tamara finished up her summer of cruising with another canal barge cruise with European Waterways on the Canal du Midi in Southern France. The Mavens break down the differences between river and barge cruising and what to expect on each. Mentioned on the Podcast: 2 Days in Edinburgh itinerary Wales road trip itinerary Prettiest villages in Wales Cruising through Burgundy, France on the Hotel Barge Elisabeth Barge Lady Cruises - travel agency specializing in barge cruising Things to do in Bordeaux, France AmaWaterways Guide to a Bordeaux river cruise with AmaWaterways European Waterways

Well it has been a minute since we had a chance to catch up and record a podcast but in this episode Tamara shares her insights and experience from her recent family trip to Japan. Kim and Tamara also share their love for Scottsdale, Arizona and some of the things they did on a girls' trip together. Read more at: Scottsdale girls weekend Reasons to visit Scottsdale in summer Best Scottsdale Arizona resorts for girlfriends trips Scottsdale weekend itinerary Tamara also talked about her time in Paso Robles, California. You can read her Paso Robles itinerary to get inspired to visit this wine region. Kim attended conferences in Walt Disney World (read her tips for using DVC points to save money on a Disney World vacation), Disney Land, and San Antonio. She also took a family cruise to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Bliss, which was different from her Alaska cruise on Holland America last summer. Kim also took a quick press trip to Iceland, where she was able to explore Reykjavik and visit the Sky Lagoon. We really dug into Tamara's 2-week trip to Japan which included: 5 Days in Tokyo 5 Days in Kyoto 3 Days in Osaka If you are planning a trip, be sure to read Tamara's Japan travel tips! When talking about how great Google Maps can be to figure out transportation in Japan, Kim also mentioned her post about using Google Maps to plan a trip. Tamara was also just back from a short press trip to Waterton and Glacier National Parks. We will be traveling a lot over the summer so expect to hear another episode in the late summer. Then you will hear about Tamara's trip to Scotland & Wales, her river and barge cruises in France, and Kim's amazing trip to Kenya. Full Episode Transcript [00:00:00.000] - Kim Today, we're journeying to the land of the rising sun.   [00:00:14.520] - Tamara Welcome to Vacation Mavens a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suicase and Tamara from We Three Travel.   [00:00:29.740] - Tamara Kim, I can't believe the last time I really talked to you was when we were together in Scottsdale in April.   [00:00:34.670] - Kim I know. It's been a crazy travel season for us. Good. I love that travel's back and everything, but it's also crazy because I thought we would be talking more and we've seen each other so much at the beginning of the year. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, summer is almost over.   [00:00:47.920] - Tamara Not quite. That was our intent was to have this monthly. We're struggling, guys. So if anyone is still listening and subscribe to us, which I hope that they are, we're going to do a quick little rundown of some of our recent travels. Now you'll see why we haven't been able to connect and record an episode.   [00:01:07.600] - Kim Yeah, exactly. It's been insane. The last time you guys heard from us, we were headed to Scottsdale, which was middle of April, and we both, I think, had an amazing trip there. We both published our articles, so you can always head to Wee 3 Travel and Stuff Suitcase and see the stuff that we covered. But I loved Scottsdale. It was great.   [00:01:25.720] - Tamara Yeah. I think Scottsdale just continues to be a place I want to go back to because there's so many beautiful resorts and hotels, so there's always some place new to check out. There's amazing spas. Then this time, we did a lot of really cool activities.   [00:01:41.370] - Kim I loved how it was really I think Scottsdale is a great destination a combination for being able to do outdoorsy things. We did hot air balloons, horseback riding, a few different things. But we also did wine tasting and shopping and went to some museums. Then, like you said, went to an amazing spot, the Phoenixion. Scottsdale, if you are a spa person, that's where you want to go.   [00:02:03.230] - Tamara I've been watching our friend, Colleen, that lives out in Scottsdale. She seems to be hopping around another spa every day. I'm like, Wow, I want to come be your friend right now.   [00:02:12.830] - Kim I think everyone's been saying that, I want your job.   [00:02:15.790] - Tamara I'm sure. I would definitely say romantic getaway, girlfriend get away. Scottsdale is amazing for that. There's plenty to do with the family as well because of all those outdoor activities. But definitely check out. I know I have an itinerary. You have some great suggestions on things to do in the summer and how to manage the heat out there. D efinitely check those out on our websites to see more.   [00:02:39.620] - Kim So where did you head after Scottsdale?   [00:02:41.800] - Tamara I went right from Scottsdale to T uson to see Hannah for a little bit. And then the following week, I went to Paso Robles, which I'd learned.   [00:02:51.090] - Kim I always said it was Paso Robles. Oh, it's Robles.   [00:02:52.980] - Tamara Yeah. And it's actually Robles. And I'm like, I feel silly saying Robles.   [00:02:57.270] - Kim Yeah, it sounds like Marbles.   [00:02:58.630] - Tamara But that is a wine region in central California near San Louis Biscoe. I just love it. I was there, I think it was nine or eight years ago with the family, and we were checking out some family friendly wineries there. But it has just exploded in terms of the number of wineries, but also really good food now. The downtown has expanded. I stayed in a new boutique hotel that was just I loved it, which was so cool. It has a rooftop bar. It had a wine, actually a champagne vending machine in the lobby. Oh, I saw that. I saw your story on that. Yeah. So I had a great time out there. And I definitely think anyone that's into wine, put that on your radar as a region to visit. You can easily spill a long weekend. I had a couple of really wonderful spots that I went for wine tasting, just those perfect, incredible views, great food, wonderful wine. I think where many, many years ago it was newer to the scene or it was well known for J. L oor, some of the bigger names. There's just so much going on out there.   [00:04:02.940] - Tamara Where did you go next? Because I know you were really busy right after our.   [00:04:06.130] - Kim Scottsdale trip, too. I had three trips back to back. I did go to Disney World for a conference and I got to ride the new Tron ride. I also checked out a new hotel, which was the Contemporary Hotel, which I had never been to. I loved that. I really do love the splurging on those Disney World hotels that have the monorail access and the ones we've been at Revere too with the Skyliner because, man, it's amazing how much easier it is just to get into and not have to deal with the bus system because then whenever I have to wait for a bus to one of the parks and it's like, inevitably I get there and I'm the last one, I've got to wait for 20.   [00:04:39.400] - Tamara Minutes or something. I will say that's what I liked the most about Disneyland because I've never stayed on park at Disney World. I've only stayed at partner hotels and by hotels.   [00:04:50.150] - Kim Yeah, it is a big splurge for sure. I have a great article about that, though, because we splurged and used... We rented DVC points to be able to stay, and it's still not cheap. It was for the graduation trip and stuff, and this one does a conference hotel rate. I'm definitely not saying it's cheap, affordable, but if you do want to splurge, renting DVC points, and I have a link, so if anyone wants it, or you can look up the how I saved $2,000 plus dollars at Disney World. I have how we did that in there. I actually just tried to do it for Disneyland, but they didn't have any availability because Disneyland only has one property, almost two. Anyways, I did that. But then right after that, I also went on another Alaskan cruise, which you and I have talked about a few times. I'll soon have a couple of articles updated, but this was more of just a family cruise, so I didn't actually treat it like a work trip, which was nice to.   [00:05:39.930] - Tamara Just relax. Which cruise were you on this time, though? Because I feel like was it last summer that you did celebrity?   [00:05:44.310] - Kim Holland last August, which I absolutely loved. I loved Holland. I haven't done celebrity in Alaska yet, but Holland America was awesome. This time we did Norwegian because my family has status with there, and so they like to book Norwegian. We did the bliss, which we have been on the bliss before for a little media sailing when they started it.   [00:06:02.560] - Tamara That's the one that we took.   [00:06:03.920] - Kim To Alaska. Yeah, exactly. Family trip. Yeah. Anyway, so that was that. Then I had one other conference, then back to Disneyland. I hit both the parks within about three weeks of each other, but that was a lot of fun and just...   [00:06:17.460] - Tamara You should have really had a Disney.   [00:06:19.000] - Kim Cruise in the middle. I should have. That would have been perfect. Yeah, exactly. But anyways, that was a wrap up for me. My final trip that I did was I went at the end of May and went to San Antonio for another conference. It feels like most of mine were conferences. I was just conference out. But San Antonio is a cool city. It's been a while since I've been there. I went there for one day when I went to school in Texas for a little while. It was fun checking out San Antonio. But I know you've done a lot of other travels that did not involve conferences.   [00:06:51.170] - Tamara Yeah, I'm like, Have I? I guess. You forget by now. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, I went back to T uson a week and a half later to pick up Hannah and bring her back from school. Then we were home for a week. Then we did our two week trip to Japan. Then I was home for, I don't know, two weeks. Then I just did a real quicky trip to Glacier National Park area.   [00:07:14.290] - Kim Right. I forgot you went to glacier and I went to Iceland. I forgot to mention that. Oh, yeah. I'm blanking on June. I forgot June even existed. Sorry, I was just focusing on up to May, but yeah, definitely. I didn't get to experience the Iceland you got to experience because we stuck around Reykjavik and just explored a couple of attractions that were around there. So it was a quick, quick trip. But Mia is quite the little outdoor lover and cultured lover, so I definitely want to go back to Iceland with her because I know she'll just love to do some of the exploration that you've done.   [00:07:48.850] - Tamara I was going to say, I'll meet you there. Yeah, definitely. I'm always ready to go back there. Yeah, well, I'll definitely put all of these links to articles in our show notes so you guys can read more. But I think.   [00:08:00.800] - Kim That's a good way to do it. But I think we should dive into Japan because it is a very hot destination. I'm still so sad because ours was canceled. We were supposed to be going in April 2020, so we switched off and now you got to finally live the vacation that I was dreaming about back then. I think we should give everyone just a really quick rundown because I know that you have done an amazing job of writing a whole bunch of articles that are really going to be useful for people who are planning a trip to Japan. Let's just start off and give you an idea of how many days were you there and how maybe did you break up your itinerary?   [00:08:36.480] - Tamara Yeah, absolutely. We took two weeks because especially coming from the East Coast, it's just such a long trip. Honestly, it's been on the top of our bucket list for so long, but we just haven't had two weeks where we felt comfortable to go that far knowing we're going to deal with jet lag on the way back. And then the flights are just always so expensive. But at least I was able to use points for one of our flights. So we took two weeks. I flew out on a Saturday morning. Yes, I got there on a Sunday, and then we were supposed to come back on Saturday, but we came back on Sunday because of a weather delay. But anyway, so I did five days in Tokyo, five days in Kyoto, and then three nights in Osaka. When I first started planning the trip, a lot of people told me that I would only need two or three days in Tokyo. But as I was looking at everything that we wanted to do, I was like, I really feel like I could easily spend a week here. It's just a fascinating city. There's just the ultra modern, and then there's the more traditional and each neighborhood is so huge.   [00:09:42.570] - Tamara I think what many people don't realize is just how large the cities are. It's funny, I was talking to my mom before I left, and I don't think she's kept up on modern times as much. There's no way she's listening to this podcast, so I can say it. But she was like, Oh, I showed a picture when we went. She's like, Sky scrapers? I wasn't expecting that. I'm like, What do you think? It's rural villages. But this is the biggest city in the world.   [00:10:09.310] - Kim Yeah, for sure.   [00:10:11.080] - Tamara So it's so huge. And I'm used to going to Europe where even though the cities can be really large, we always stay in that historic, more central area where you're mostly walking. You're taking the metro, but you're primarily walking around a lot. And you may pick a neighborhood, I think about Paris. You pick a neighborhood each day. But in Tokyo, to get to a certain neighborhood, it might be 45 minutes on the couple of connections with the subway and stuff. So I'm glad that we did five days. That's crazy. I could end that was within without doing the Disney stuff, which I know many people like to do when they go there.   [00:10:49.630] - Kim I do know that as a Disney person, it would be hard for me to go to Tokyo and not do Disney, at least Disney Sea, because it's considered a really unique park.   [00:11:00.330] - Tamara Yeah, that's what everyone says. It's unlike any of the others. I get it. But we're not as.   [00:11:06.430] - Kim Into the.   [00:11:06.990] - Tamara Theme parks. Glenn was like, I am not going around the world to go to theme parks.   [00:11:11.590] - Kim Exactly. When you have limited, yes, it's totally valid. I mean, it's very hard to figure out. I agree. I get what he's saying, but I also have that side of me that's like, Oh, but how can you be this close and not do it? So it's very hard to balance that. So, yeah, it sounds good. So you were saying, I know you guys... So I'm picturing Tokyo for my own planning. So you guys were in the Northwestern side of where you look at the downtown to the...   [00:11:38.990] - Tamara Right. The Shizuku neighborhood, which some people were like, oh, do you want to stay there? It's like Times Square. And the area right around the train station is lots of neon, lots of crazy, especially at night. But we were honestly within a 10 minute walk to that, but where we were was more like, business, like government buildings, things like that. So it was really quiet, peaceful. It was great. And we stayed at the Hilton, Tokyo, and it was basically on top of... You could go just down an escalator and connect to two different subway stations. Plus they had a free shuttle if you wanted to the Shinkoku train station. So it was really very accessible. It felt very convenient. And there was plenty of restaurants and things around, but it wasn't super expensive. I don't know how expensive, really, but the Ginza area is much more high end. And then the Shiboya would be nice. But it totally.   [00:12:43.620] - Kim Worked for us. We were happy with it. Nice. That's perfect. Yeah. I had looked at staying in the ginza area because of a few... I was also liked that it was closer to the Disney side, so it was a little easier to get out there. For those of you planning Genza area is basically opposite, diagonal across from where tomorrow states. I've heard the same thing from my research. You really have to allow a lot of time to transfer if you're going to different sides of what you consider the downtown center, 45 minutes to get across sometimes. Kind of crazy. Great. Well, what were some of the highlights then that you guys did when you were in Tokyo?   [00:13:17.970] - Tamara We did a sushi making workshop with True Japan, and we really enjoyed it. The ladies were just really friendly and funny and nice. And so it was fun to see what goes into making sushi. And you probably know that I'm not a sushi eater, really. And we can talk about food later because it worked out better than I expected, except for a couple of times. But it was just fun. It's such a huge part of the culture. So I enjoyed that. We didn't do a whole lot of tours and things. We did a lot of exploring on our own. But the one thing that everybody has to do, which was as amazing as you would think, was the team lab planets, which is that immersive art experience where there's water and flowers and reflections. It's just unlike anything else. And it's really cool. And we've done the traveling, like van go immersive experience. But this was turning that up times 10 or more. And Hannah really loved it. It was really cool. The thing about it is you definitely have to book your tickets well in advance because just one of those things you have a timed entry.   [00:14:30.970] - Tamara It's super popular. And honestly, when it comes to planning Japan, you really need to plan really far in advance. I mean, if you want to get restaurant reservations, some of them book up a month in advance. I think because some of them are so small that if they could take reservations, it might be for eight seats. And so they just go really quickly. And we weren't even there during cherry blossom season or golden week in early May when it's extra busy. difficult to do that. It was amazing. But I would say those are definitely highlights. I just loved exploring different areas. We did go, surprisingly, I liked this, but we went to a sumo wrestling tournament. Yeah, I wonder if I saw that. Which sometimes when people are there, they can see a practice. But there was actually a tournament going on while we were there. So that was something that I had figured out ahead of time. And when the tickets went on sale, I was able to book those the day that they were released. And it was a very cool thing. You don't want to spend hours and hours there because you don't know who the guys are.   [00:15:33.160] - Tamara But just like you could see how excited everyone was to cheer for their favorite, the local person or whatever. And it's just such a dramatic theatrical type of sport. It was interesting. Yeah, for sure. Those are some of my highlights.   [00:15:48.770] - Kim That's awesome. Because I know I saw some of the restaurant experiences you had. It seemed like sometimes you guys went simple and basic, but other times you went really over the top. Anything in Tokyo that you think somebody should splurge on or any savings tips for food or eating in Tokyo other than the restaurants making the reservations?   [00:16:08.160] - Tamara Yeah, we did mostly the casual places in Tokyo. What I was trying to do, because I'm not a sushi eater, is have a variety of foods. And in Japan, all the restaurants really specialize in one thing. They do ramen, they do tempura, they do soba noodles, different things like that. So there's so many different styles of food to try within Japanese cuisine that we just booked a different style of food each night. And honestly, in some of them, we had to line up for the first night that we got there, we went to a place where it opened up five, and we got there at 445, and there was already probably 40 people in line for a 10 seat little place. And you basically you would wait till there was enough space in line. There was people sitting at the counter eating and then people standing behind them waiting for the second that they got up to sit in.   [00:16:56.790] - Kim Their seat. Oh, my goodness.   [00:16:57.810] - Tamara Oh, wow. And you had a vending machine, which is typical. Yeah, a vending machine to order from. So it's typical in a lot of ramen shops. So there's pictures and you just hit the button of what you want. You put in the money, you get a ticket and you hand.   [00:17:11.650] - Kim The person the ticket. That's like McDonald's.   [00:17:13.780] - Tamara Yeah. I'm just kidding. Those.   [00:17:16.820] - Kim Screams in the middle. They have one at Tim Horton's as well. So of.   [00:17:20.940] - Tamara Course, I made a mistake the first time because I saw people with a broth, which I thought was a ramen, and then a bowl of noodles. And I'm like, oh, that's so I saw on the machine that they had dipping noodles and they had ramen. And then you could add extra things, but only if you could tell what the picture was because it was otherwise in Japanese. And so I ordered dipping noodles because it looked really good and ramen because I thought that that's what people had. And then when I handed the girl the ticket, she was like, for one person?   [00:17:51.710] - Kim Oh, no. And she was like, you.   [00:17:53.890] - Tamara Want small or large? Because I was like, oh, is that not what they have? And she was like, no, they have. Because the dipping noodles come with a broth, so I thought it was that they had two.   [00:18:02.980] - Kim Different things in front of them. Oh, and bologna.   [00:18:04.650] - Tamara Yeah. Okay, got you. But I'm really glad that I did it because both were delicious. So I'm happy to sample both. But then Glenn ordered on his ramen, Scallions, and it was covered. It was like a mountain of Scallions because I was like extra. But it was like, if you get extra cheese on a pizza, it's like extra.   [00:18:23.110] - Kim Extra extra. Oh, my goodness. Crazy. I mean, I love Scallions, but I don't know if I could handle the mountain of them.   [00:18:27.560] - Tamara It was crazy. So you make those little mistakes. But we did a lot of the more casual things. And the hard thing is that honestly, I kept saying this, but there's very little in between. So there are the places where you... First of all, Japanese people love to line up, which is really hard when you're visiting and you're tired and you want to be able to eat with a certain time. People wait for two hours to get into this little ramen place or whatever. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, because you're like, I'm tired. I've been running all day. We were running like 5 to 9 miles. We were doing a lot of walking every day. So I'm like, I just want to sit down. So that's why we tried to do some reservations. But there were the really casual, inexpensive, really inexpensive places. And then there's the crazy, crazy high end... Some of the Sushi places, I'm like, there's no way. Because some of them charge up to like $500.   [00:19:19.820] - Kim A person. Oh, my goodness.   [00:19:21.930] - Tamara Insane. That's crazy. So there's just not a lot of middle ground is what I found. Okay, good to know. But the low end, not low end, but the inexpensive stuff is really good.   [00:19:31.970] - Kim Yeah, of course. You just have to go on to wait for it.   [00:19:35.440] - Tamara Yeah, exactly. And honestly, one day... So we had a bit of a rough start because Glenn had a stomach bug the day before we left. So the whole flight over and everything, he basically didn't eat for a couple of days. And then I had a really bad cold the day before we left. And for two days, I was so nervous, I'm testing. I'm like, Please.   [00:19:57.490] - Kim Don't let it be.   [00:19:58.350] - Tamara And it was. And it was just a cold, but I was still super congested, so it was just hard. And in Japanese society, you can't blow.   [00:20:06.290] - Kim Your nose.   [00:20:06.970] - Tamara In public. So I'm trying to be so discreet, going outside and blowing my nose and sanitizing and tucking it into my pocket know, like very... Like trying to be really conscious of that and trying to be super sanitary. But Hannah did end up getting a cold also. One day she was just not feeling up to going out and doing a tour and stuff. So we're like, just stay here and sleep. It was going to be the day that we toured one neighborhood and then we went to the sumo wrestling, and she wasn't super into that anyway. So we're just sleep. And then she went out on her own and she found a 7 11 because just like everybody says, 7 11 has amazing convenience food. So you can buy these really good sandwiches and all that stuff. So there's definitely plenty of ways that you can eat cheap there.   [00:20:56.090] - Kim That's good to know. So then from Tokyo, you went to Kyoto? Yes. Kyoto is such a different vibe. Yeah, the bullet train, right?   [00:21:05.570] - Tamara Yeah. So a couple of things to know about the bullet train is that we had gotten the JR pass, which allows you to use all the JR trains. We got the national ones, so you could use bullet trains as well, except the super fast ones weren't included. And we had gotten one that allows us to make seat reservations. And you also, if you're bringing luggage on the train, you now need to make a reservation for the luggage. And this is for more of a checked bag size luggage, not the carry on size. But we were there for two weeks, so we had checked bags. So you can make a reservation for the last row of seats where the luggage can go behind you, or there's a couple of spots on a luggage rack, but they're really cutting down on luggage on trains. Or you can ship your bags ahead, which we ended up actually a couple of times just shipping our bags ahead. And it only costs $20 a bag. It's waiting for you in the hotel when you get there. It takes 24 hours. So you need to have a small bag with all your stuff for.   [00:22:06.140] - Kim Then one day. Yeah.   [00:22:07.320] - Tamara But we took the bullet train and that worked really well. We saw Mount Fuji because it was a nice day out. So and we ended up like, we got to Kyoto and we just put our bags in a locker and then we took a local train out to Nara, which is about a half hour away or so, maybe 45 minutes. And there's a really beautiful, huge temple out there. But also it's known for their deer park, which Glenn, years ago, because we both work for a Japanese company, so he's been to Japan many times, but 25 years ago. And so he would always tell us about the deer in Nara that bow to you to get fed. Oh, right. And the deer have changed a bit in the last few years.   [00:22:53.320] - Kim Yes. I've heard about this stuff. They have this issue at the monkey place, too.   [00:22:57.310] - Tamara They were so aggressive. That's too bad. They were grabbing my shirt and pulling on my shirt. They nipped my butt. I'm like, Whoa. I feel like all these videos of Glenn and I trying to run away from the deer and we're like, Oh, no. Let's just get away from where the food is so that the deer are calmer. But it's funny because later in the trip, we went to the island of Miyajima, and they have wild deer there also. And one of them followed me into the visitor center, went over to the desk, grabbed a brochure, and then ran out.   [00:23:29.250] - Kim Because they like to get the paper.   [00:23:31.240] - Tamara And so the person comes running out behind the desk, yelling at the deer. And then there's three people in the street trying to wrestle the paper away from the deer.   [00:23:39.390] - Kim Oh, my goodness.   [00:23:40.590] - Tamara And I'm like, You think of deer in the headlights, these gentle creatures.   [00:23:45.240] - Kim Yeah, exactly. It's sad when humanity is like, Yeah, I won't get there.   [00:23:51.560] - Tamara No, it's definitely because there's too many tourists now. They're being fed. Definitely not a great situation. But we did enjoy the day trip out there. Yeah, for sure. I love everything about Japan. It's just so clean and orderly and polite and easy to figure out. My type A personality just really appreciates the order of things. I would like that too. The fact that everybody stands in a line and waits and then you get on when you get on. I love that because in a society where everyone's pushing or whatever, I get.   [00:24:27.400] - Kim Super stressed out. Oh, my gosh, I hated it. We were on a cruise, a European cruise, and that attracts a lot of Europeans. I thought, Oh, you wait in line for your turn to go get your food that you want served. But no, people just come up from other directions and just walk right up. There's no line concept. I'm like, Oh, I like lines. What am I supposed to do? So sorry.   [00:24:49.240] - Tamara I get that. You would love Japan. I think it's such a wonderful place to visit. I think there must be challenges if you live there within the culture. I recognize that I used to work for a Japanese company. I'm aware of many of those issues, but as a visitor, it makes it so pleasant. But anyway, I was going to say that they have lockers where you can store things. Everything is just easy. The trains, everything is in Japanese and English.   [00:25:19.260] - Kim I know they did a big push with that before the Olympics were going to be there. They were trying to...   [00:25:25.180] - Tamara And all of the trains have signs that say what the next stop is. Because sometimes you're on a subway and you're trying to look and you're like, Oh, yeah. They might not answer, but you're like, What was that?   [00:25:36.320] - Kim What did they say?   [00:25:37.460] - Tamara That's Charlie Brown's.   [00:25:38.740] - Kim Teacher talking to you. Exactly. I've had that happen so many times.   [00:25:43.040] - Tamara So that part was great. And Kyoto is just very different. So it is more traditional in the architecture. They preserved a lot of the traditional architecture. There's tons of shrines and temple s o that's the thing is that you could get a little shrine and templed out, but the architecture is so beautiful. There is a downtown center city that's more city like, but it's nothing like Tokyo.   [00:26:09.310] - Kim Or Nagasaki. I remember when we were looking to stay in Kyoto, I seem to recall because we were going to go during... We were hoping for cherry blossom season, but I seem to recall there it's still pretty spread out and there's little neighborhoods in Kyoto even. It's like, okay, this one has more of this vibe and this one I can't remember where we were staying, but I was looking at the different things and getting the bamboo forest, like, oh, well, I'd have to leave here and we want to be near a train station.   [00:26:32.970] - Tamara All those plans. Yeah, you do want to be near a train station because the metro system is not as well developed there. So we took a mix of busses, GR trains, private trains that you paid for the same way you'd pay for a subway. But when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was probably about a 10 minute walk to one of the train stations, but there was a bus that stopped right outside that then went to the main Kyoto station, which is where we would get on to go to the bamboo forest. And then, yeah, so it was conveniently located, but you definitely needed to plan your travel because some of those destinations, especially many of them were taking slower local trains, and they could still take 45 minutes to.   [00:27:26.150] - Kim An hour. That was one of the things in my planning that was the hardest is recognizing that there are so many different train lines, like brands, and you might have a pass with one, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can go on every train that's coming in. So it's an interesting thing that I've never... I'm sure maybe it's in other places around the world, but it's not something we think about in the states at all.   [00:27:49.420] - Tamara The nice thing, though, is that we had our JR pass, which, by the way, I don't even know if they're going to be that useful after this fall because the price is almost doubling. It's going up. It's having some. Unless ticket prices are going up a lot also, you might just want to buy individual tickets.   [00:28:04.190] - Kim Individual.   [00:28:04.600] - Tamara Ticket, yeah. But we bought, as soon as we got, we had ordered the JR passes ahead, so we had our voucher that we had to turn in to get the actual pass. Then we went to an ATM because you needed cash for a lot of things. We have to also use cash to get an IC card. So this is the rechargeable card that you would use to get on the metro or the bus or something like that. But the nice thing is that unlike, Oh, I'm going to New York, I need a metro card. I'm going to this place, I need that card for their.   [00:28:32.660] - Kim Subway system. Yeah, like Long Island Railroad and Metro card.   [00:28:35.370] - Tamara Yeah, exactly. This card worked for all of them. And it also works for a lot of vending machines.   [00:28:41.990] - Kim Some convenient stores.   [00:28:42.850] - Tamara Yeah, the vending machine.   [00:28:43.690] - Kim I forgot. And you reload it always with cash, though? You always have to reload it only cash. You can't reload it with cash.   [00:28:48.300] - Tamara Yeah, which is so bizarre. It's like this is a digital payment system and I'm loading it with cash.   [00:28:53.590] - Kim I wonder if it's because they want to make sure that you're actually paying for it. They don't want you to just be able to dispute it and have gotten the ride for free or gotten the food for free. You know what I mean? I wonder if it's a culture thing.   [00:29:04.840] - Tamara I do know that it used to be, before COVID, a very cash based society. Now more and more places will take a credit card. And if you have, there's a lot of... Not many places take Apple Pay, but a lot of them do take a tap payment system, but more one that they have in Asia. I don't know if it's really worth signing up and trying to figure that out. Got you. I just basically used my.   [00:29:28.420] - Kim Chip credit card. The IC card and.   [00:29:30.030] - Tamara The card anytime for that. And the IC card for the metro, the bus, some vending machines, some required cash still. But yeah, it's just super convenient. So even though there are different trains, so yeah, maybe you can't use your free pass, not for you because you.   [00:29:44.710] - Kim Paid a lot for it.   [00:29:45.480] - Tamara But it's still pretty easy to get around.   [00:29:49.930] - Kim Yeah, it's good. That's great. And I do want to quickly, before we jump over to finishing up Kyoto and going to Asaka, I did want to mention something that you did that I think was brilliant because I even had looked into doing it when we were planning our trip. And that was you had someone meet you at the airport, right?   [00:30:05.450] - Tamara Yeah, I did. And don't do it. At least not for the company that I did. Okay, here we go. You and I had talked about it. I think it was about $75 to $100. It was the company that I bought the JR Pass from. I also arranged to rent a mobile hotspot, so that was taken care of ahead of time to pick up at the airport. And I arranged to have a greeter meet us after customs. And then what I was told was that that greeter would then take me to do the things I need to do at the airport, which would be pick up my mobile hotspot, exchange my JR Pass, get my IC card, find where I need to go to get my transfer.   [00:30:45.390] - Kim Get the train.   [00:30:46.220] - Tamara I figured, hey, it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.   [00:30:51.800] - Kim And especially.   [00:30:52.310] - Tamara After traveling.   [00:30:52.820] - Kim For 20 hours.   [00:30:53.250] - Tamara And I want to be jet lived. Yeah, exactly. This will be useful. It was such a waste of money because first I'm trying to talk to the guy, I'm like, okay, we need to go to an ATM, and he's not even understanding what I'm saying. I'm like, You're a greeter. I'm not coming in there with like, everyone should speak English, but his job is.   [00:31:11.680] - Kim To meet people. When you pay people. Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of times they'll have if you want to in English or if you want to in... You can specify a language, but.   [00:31:20.330] - Tamara It seems like it's... Yeah. So one person had my name up and then she called this guy over. So it's like a service they do for multiple people. They had multiple greeters there. I don't know if I just got an inexperienced person, but I went to the counter of the mobile WiFi hotspot place and that person spoke perfect English, no trouble communicating at all.   [00:31:40.320] - Kim And it was easy to find. And you were able to easily find everything.   [00:31:42.690] - Tamara Yeah. I mean, he led me there, but I could have found it on my own, no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I wanted to go to the JR ticket office to get our pass, but also see if he could help us make reservations. Yeah, exactly. Because I wanted to make the reservations as soon as I had my pass because I wanted to try to get the luggage reservations. And he was just like, Oh, no, they don't do reservations here. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's part of why I wanted to pay for this service because I wanted somebody to help me translate what my need was. And meanwhile, we were back and forth, just not understanding each other. So then I get in line at the JR ticket office. I get up there, perfect English from the person that's behind the desk, completely easy to talk to. They didn't make the reservations there. They told me where to go in the Tokyo station or Shinchu station, whatever, which I did the next day. That person also spoke really good English, was able to communicate no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I want to get an IC card.   [00:32:38.620] - Tamara And he was like, Well, you can get the one that requires a deposit or not a deposit. I'm like, I don't care? Can you just tell me where? And he didn't know where to go. Finally, the guy that was behind me in line at the JR ticket office was like, Oh, you want this line right here. And I'm like, Thank you. Then I'm like, What? Then I had arranged for an airport limo bus to take us from the airport directly to our hotel. I just thought first day, and it's really, it's inexpensive. Taxis there are very expensive, but this is inexpensive. And instead of having to drag some bags on multiple trains and subways, I thought it's easy. And so I was like, I thought all that would take us an hour and a half, maybe, from the time we arrived. So I had booked a later bus, but it was really quick to do all of it. So I was like, Oh, maybe we can get an earlier bus. So I was trying to get him to help us with that. No. So I ended up just doing it on my phone. But then he had to come down and he was like, No, I have to wait.   [00:33:42.890] - Tamara Because I was like, Okay, we're all set. Thank you. Bye. And he's like, No, I have to wait till you get on the bus. I'm like, All right, well, can you just stand over there? Because I'm like, I'm done.   [00:33:52.120] - Kim Yeah, exactly. You did not help me. Wow. Okay, well, that's good tip. Good to know.   [00:33:56.970] - Tamara What not to.   [00:33:58.150] - Kim Do, I guess. What not, yeah. No, I mean, it's good because I had considered that too because I was thinking the same thing like, Oh, my gosh, how am I going to get my pass? I was thinking all that same stuff.   [00:34:07.930] - Tamara Cool. I think a lot of things with travel, it feels so overwhelming. But once you're there, you're like, Oh, this is not as bad as I.   [00:34:13.260] - Kim Thought it was going to be. Well, especially in a country that you can't even get around with. It's like, Oh, I speak a little Spanish. I speak a little French. It's just like, None of that's going to help you. You don't want to go in being a ignorant traveler who's just like, Oh, why don't you speak my language in your country? Exactly. I can't stand people like that. But anyways, okay, good to know. Anything else about Kyoto you wanted to mention? I did think it was awesome, your little tip about the bamboo forest. It wasn't really a tip, but I was so happy that you had that experience because I heard the same thing.   [00:34:44.990] - Tamara When I was there, even, I saw some people on Instagram that seem to be there at the same time, but a couple of days before me. And they showed just this mass of people walking through. Because the word is out that for many of these things, you need to get there early. And so even if you show up at 7 AM, there's still this massive crowd of people funneling through this little area. And I don't want to do that. It was an hour away. No one's getting up at 5 AM to get to a place by 7 or whatever just to take a photo. My family doesn't roll like that. They're like, I don't really care about your photo. We just want to see it. And so we decided to sleep in a little bit. We went, we had lunch, then we went to the monkey forest. And I will say the whole Arashima area is, for a touristy area, so much nicer than I expected. It was really lovely. And there's a really pretty river that runs along that on some days you can run boats. It was really nice. Anyway, so we went to the monkey park first because Glenn loves monkeys, although it's such a steep climb up there, he was like, This better be worth it.   [00:35:53.700] - Tamara Actually, there was a fan of it that was like, This better be worth it for your monkeys. But it was cool. We saw a lot of baby monkeys. The monkeys were not aggressive at all. They just hung out as long as you followed the rules. You weren't staring at them in the eyes to challenge them or something. Then we went to a temple, then we went to the forest. So we got to the Grove, not really a forest. It's much smaller than you think it's going to be. We got there maybe like 2.30, 3 o'clock, and it was fine. There was people there, but no crush of crowd and plenty of space to have a photo. Yeah, there's people in the background, but that's fine. Honestly, we just wanted a couple of family photos. I'm not going to win an Instagram competition over it, but it was nice. And it's really beautiful. It's really pretty. But sometimes I think doing the opposite of what everyone says.   [00:36:47.700] - Kim You should do and work out. Especially when it's been around for so long, people are saying do that because it's very much like, oh, the gates open at seven. And so everyone who's built up, it's just like Disneyland. People say, oh, rope drop, rope drop. And you get there. And if you get there late, there's such a long line to get in. And then people come 30 minutes after opening and they walked right up to the turnstiles. There's something about that.   [00:37:10.900] - Tamara Yeah. And I looked at Google Maps is wonderful. It was so helpful for the travel, figuring out the trains because it would say what platform, but also what car to get on if you were transferring. And then when you were leaving the station, what exit to take because those train stations are huge. So you're like, you don't know where you are when you come out. So it was really, really helpful. And it would tell you like eight minutes, 3 stops, here's the name of your stop. This is how much it's going to cost. It was really very helpful. But you can also look for attractions, and it'll show you the busiest times, like a little graph.   [00:37:47.100] - Kim Yes, for sure.   [00:37:47.990] - Tamara I was like, Okay, it looks like 10 to 2 is super busy. Who knows how accurate it is, but let's go.   [00:37:53.690] - Kim After it. I have a good article about how I use Google Maps and you can make a custom and saver on map to help you with your planning to help see stuff for not just road trips, but also when you're planning a city vacation. But that's a good thing. I always forget about how they have that busy season section. I should add that to my post because.   [00:38:11.540] - Tamara That's a.   [00:38:12.160] - Kim Useful thing.   [00:38:13.300] - Tamara When you're trying to figure out, especially for public transportation, many times the night before, I would look like, Oh, how long is it going to take? Because we need to know what time should we be done breakfast? What time do we need to leave? I like that there's a little drop down where you can say when you're departing or when you want to arrive because it changes. Especially public transportation may not have as many trains when you're looking late at night versus when you're going in the morning.   [00:38:42.000] - Kim Totally. That's awesome. I always worry about the train, the car thing, because even in New York, sometimes I've been like... Because I'm not used to using trains often. When I first started going to New York and doing that, the Long Island Rail Railroad and stuff, they have certain cars they don't open the doors to all the time. During different hours of the day. I'm always like, Oh, how do I know what car I'm in? It's definitely one of those Charlie Brown teacher's voices. Sometimes I'm like, I have no idea where I'm at.   [00:39:10.980] - Tamara That's the other great thing. In Japan, it's like, on the avement on the platform, it has numbers. So it's like, you know exactly what car that's going to be. Oh, man. And then everyone lines up single file behind those on either side of the.   [00:39:26.830] - Kim Door for.   [00:39:27.350] - Tamara Everyone to come out and then they go on.   [00:39:29.780] - Kim It's lovely. Lovely. Nice. Okay, so then your last little stop was OSAKA. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Because I had planned that we were going to fly into Tokyo and out of OSAKA, but you ended up going back to Tokyo to go home. But what did you do in Osaka?   [00:39:45.130] - Tamara Yeah, flying out of OSAKA would be ideal, but for us, Delta doesn't do that. So we had to go back to Tokyo. So OSAKA is known as the Japan's Kitchen, so it's known for its street food. So I knew I wanted to take a food tour when we were there because it's just that's really one of the things it's well known for. So I ended up... We actually got there, we explored a little bit. We did the... You made a sky building, which actually Glenn did not do. No surprise that when we went up high, especially there's these glass enclosed elevators that go between two towers on the 39th floor. And he was like, Are you kidding me? No way am I doing that. So Hannah and I did that. And then that night we actually went to a baseball game, which was really fun because Japanese culture is really into baseball. And it was like being at a college game in a way because they were playing Hiroshima, so that's not far away. Half the stadium were Buffalo fans and half the stadium were carp fans and they all sat on the right side.   [00:40:49.140] - Tamara So it's like one half was red, one half was white. And they each had a cheering section in a band. And so you felt like you were a little bit at a college game with the marching band thing. It was a lot of fun. But then the next day we took a food tour with Arrogato Travel, and they have food tours in multiple cities. If you want to do a food tour in any of the cities, I would definitely recommend them. The guide was amazing.   [00:41:13.870] - Kim It seemed like you had a really good time.   [00:41:15.920] - Tamara Yeah, she was really wonderful. She had lived in the US for a little bit. I think she went to the University of Wisconsin. She lived somewhere else in the Midwest, too, but it's just such a funky, fun city. We toured this area called Shenzakai. It was built after World War II to attract Westerners and has more of a Coney Island vibe is what they were going for. It has carnival games and all these street food things. It's just so funky and retro. I think anywhere else I would have been like, Oh, this is cheesy. But it was actually really cool. And all throughout that area and the Dontambury area of Osaka, all of the food places, it's like Vegas for food places because they all have these three-dimensional facades with a giant octopus or a giant crab, and they're moving and lit up, and it's just so funky. There was one place where you could fish for your own fish, and then they cook it for you. It's almost hard to describe, but it is just bright lights, really funky, interesting, but lots of street food, lots of fried food on a stick, or like.   [00:42:30.660] - Kim A fair.   [00:42:31.420] - Tamara No, I'm just kidding. And the takeyaki octopus balls is like, that's where that's from. So that's like really huge. Afterwards, we went to the Don Donburi and we had Okonomiyaki. My family always laughs at me because for some reason I could never get this out. And Hannah and Glenn are like, Why can you not say this word? But Okonomiyaki, so it's like the Pancake type of thing with egg and cabbage and other things thrown in that they make on a griddle in front of you. So they have it in Kyoto and other places, but it's really known there. And in Hiroshima also, they have slightly different versions. That was just fun. So to do all the street food stuff, to have the good food tour, we really loved that. And then on our last, what was supposed to be our last day, we went to Hiroshima and we did a tour. I have a whole itinerary where it has a link to the tour company that I booked. Our guide was really sweet. He was wonderful. I highly recommend that. So we did the whole atomic bomb dome and museum, which was really heavy, obviously.   [00:43:36.130] - Tamara And you have very confused feelings.   [00:43:39.080] - Kim About it. Yeah, being.   [00:43:40.620] - Tamara A member. Our role in that. But then we went to Miyajima Island, which is just a short, like, ferry ride. And it is just beautiful. We were there, it was raining. So there was all these mist and clouds on the mountains. And it just had this magical feel to it. But it was such a... I would love to spend a night there. It wasn't overcrowded, but when the people left, have.   [00:44:07.840] - Kim It more to.   [00:44:08.650] - Tamara Yourself type of thing. But there's a really famous Tori Gate that's in the water that looks high tide like it's floating, or when we were there during low tide, so you can walk out to it. And just a shrine. It's just a really pretty lush... That's one thing that really, I don't know why it surprised me, but Japan, outside the cities, it's so lush. You're like, Oh, right. These are islands.   [00:44:34.300] - Kim Yeah.   [00:44:35.380] - Tamara And that's why I liked about Kyoto too, because it's like a city that's nestled in a valley surrounded by these lush mountains. Not like towering.   [00:44:43.150] - Kim Mountains, but these really lush. And it has a nice little river or stream or something through it too.   [00:44:47.450] - Tamara So that was how we finished. I loved that. And then unfortunately, then we got stuck in a delay on a train coming back because there was a lot of rain. And then we found out our train for the next day to get back to Tokyo in time for our plane was canceled and we were hoping it was going to be all fixed by the morning. But Glenn woke up at five and he said it wasn't. And so then we were up for a couple of hours trying to figure out, what are we going to do? Because we were like, oh, we'll fly up to Tokyo. And by then, all the planes were booked until 3 PM. But we had a 625 flight and we would have had to get our luggage, get to another terminal, recheck it. We're like, that's never going to work. If we get there at 415 or I don't know, it was 435 o'clock or something is when we would have arrived. Never would have worked. So we're like, all right, let's see if we can stay an extra night here and let's book stuff for tomorrow. And let's call Delta and see if they can switch us.   [00:45:40.700] - Tamara So then we had such a long travel day home because we flew from Osaka to Tokyo. And then we had to do Tokyo to LAX instead of Tokyo. We were booked on a Tokyo to Atlanta. So then at least the last little leg is short. Then we're in LAX for four hours.   [00:46:00.110] - Kim Then you had a six hour flight.   [00:46:02.380] - Tamara Well, and then it ended up being delayed. So we came out, we were luckily at the lounge and we actually went on the patio. The Delta Lounge in LAX has a patio, so it's loud but it was really good. It was just nice to get fresh air.   [00:46:16.400] - Kim After all.   [00:46:16.980] - Tamara That time. I actually went and I took a shower. I didn't even have any clothes. We had even checked everything, so I didn't even have any clothes to change into. But I'm like, I'm just taking a shower anyway. Yeah, for sure. And so then we came out of the lounge. We're like, Go to the gate. They're like, Oh, we're waiting on a crew member still. We're going to wait to board you. And then they started boarding us. We're like, Okay, I guess everything's all set. And then we're sitting on the plane and an hour later, they're like, Okay, the pilot's now in the parking lot.   [00:46:42.550] - Kim And we're like.   [00:46:43.320] - Tamara Oh, my gosh. Seriously? It was the pilot. They weren't even on premises when you boarded us. So we were delayed a couple hours. So we ended up... We got home at 315 in the morning. We'd been going for 30 hours, I think, or more, like 33 hours maybe.   [00:47:02.380] - Kim That one did you have? Did you have any of the upgraded seating for any of those legs?   [00:47:06.890] - Tamara Luckily, because we had booked our tickets in premium select, which if you know Delta, there's like Delta 1, which is like the nice pod lay flat thing. Then there's premium select, which has like a footrest that comes out and it reclines, but not like all the way, but it reclines some. Then there's comfort plus, which is basically like a regular seat with a little.   [00:47:26.290] - Kim More leg room. Like me coming.   [00:47:28.590] - Tamara So the reason we went through LAX is that's what we could get for premium economy. Oh, good. Okay. I mean, premium select on that, the longest leg from Tokyo to LAX. Then LAX to Boston doesn't have that. So I think we were in, I think, we were in Comfort Plus. I don't even know at that point. I was uncomfortable, that's for sure. But yeah. And then we flew into Boston, which we had flown out of Providence. So my car is still in Providence. So I had to get a car service to pick us up, bring us back. T he next day I'm like, Hannah, can you drive me down to get my car? Whatever. That's a.   [00:48:03.840] - Kim Whole long story. It worked out. It sounds like you guys had an amazing trip and it was awesome. I know, like I said already and mentioned, Tamara has quite a few blog posts and she'll link them in the show notes, but you can also just go to Wee 3 Travel. I'm sure it's pretty easy to find them, but I know she has all of her itineraries that are if you guys know Tamara, they're very in-depth with a lot of detail. So super helpful if you're thinking of planning a trip. I think it was great. I'm glad you guys had a good time and glad I got to hear about it a little more.   [00:48:31.780] - Tamara Yeah, it was definitely a bucket list trip. I think being there and being together as a family was wonderful. I think we all acknowledged, we don't know when we're going to have that opportunity again. Just know Hannah is going to be very busy the next few years. S he's going to be more than happy to take a trip with us when she can. We might just know when that will be.   [00:48:52.240] - Kim Exactly.   [00:48:52.840] - Tamara I'm glad.   [00:48:53.360] - Kim We got to do it. Yeah, that's awesome. Perfect.   [00:48:56.710] - Tamara What's next?   [00:48:58.290] - Kim I don't even know. You're like, What day is it? What month is it? Exactly. The big thing on my agenda, I'm trying to take the summer off a little bit. We do have a trip up to Canada to visit family coming right up for Canada Day. Happy Canada Day to those of you Canadians that might be listening. Then happy fourth of July to the US Americans that are listening. We are doing that. Then I have a fun trip. You'll be moving Hannah back to school, but I am going to be flying to Kenya and doing a Simara J. W. Marriott stay, which I just got a steal on points for. I'm using points to fly some nice flights as well. That's what's coming up for me. My fall is going to be crazy and booked again, but at least I have. It looks like I'm trying to keep my summer a little more calm. Although that Africa trip, I cannot wait. It's during the Wilder Beast migration. That's a pretty big trip to be. I'm really excited. It's going to be during the Wilder Beast migration, too. So hopefully we'll get some amazing pictures. I got to rent a lens, it reminds me.   [00:50:04.360] - Tamara I was telling somebody about the points deal that you got on that. Everyone just can't even believe it. What a lucky straw.   [00:50:11.400] - Kim That was. Oh, my gosh, it was amazing. I don't know if this would work always, but I'm just a little tip for you guys, if you guys are points people. If you know of any future opening hotels that haven't opened yet, that are opening in the future, just maybe keep an eye on their points rates because that's what happened. This hotel hadn't opened yet. It was opening in April, and in February or something, I saw someone mentioned, Oh, my goodness, they've got nights for 20,000, 20 ish thousand points a night. With Marriott, if you book five nights with points, you only pay for four nights. So it's like book five nights, get one free thing. I don't know how to.   [00:50:49.500] - Tamara Explain it, but you get it. And it's an all inclusive property.   [00:50:51.920] - Kim It's all inclusive property. So all the game drives are included, all the meals are included, everything. I'm paying 93,000 points total for five nights for two people.   [00:51:00.640] - Tamara That's like one night at a nice city hotel.   [00:51:04.320] - Kim Yeah, I know. I was looking at a Fairfield Inn in New York in January, and there were like 65,000 points. So it gives you a little idea there. But anyways, so that's what's up for me. But what about you?   [00:51:14.810] - Tamara As you hear this, I will probably either be in Scotland or Wales, depends on how quickly I get this out. So I leave shortly for a week with a couple of other travel writers, a week in Scotland, a week in Wales, and then I'm going to be home for a couple of weeks. And then I'm actually going to have two weeks in France, which I don't think I've even had a chance to tell you about. But I'm going to do... Glenn and I are going to go to France. We're doing the Taste of Bordeaux River cruise on Amman Waterways. Oh, nice. And then something else that came up. I was invited to do a press trip on European Waterways, which does hotel barge cruises. And I was trying to look at dates in the fall, but they didn't have any availability. But they're like, Well, how about this one on August sixth, which would have been the day I was flying back from France. I was like, Well, I will already be in France. It's to an area that I've been to before. So I was hoping to see something new, but I think it just works out for me to do this back to back, a more traditional river cruise versus a hotel barge cruise just to have these new experiences because I'm not a big ship person, but I'm definitely been wanting to try some of these other types of things.   [00:52:28.570] - Tamara And my friend Michelle is going to come join me for that one because Glenn can't stay for the two weeks.   [00:52:33.830] - Kim Take off that whole time.   [00:52:34.800] - Tamara That's awesome. And then as soon as I get back, Hannah will come back and we have one day at home and then we fly her to Arizona.   [00:52:43.570] - Kim Okie dokey. Well, thank you guys for tuning in again. If you're still with us and still listening, as you can see, we have a few trips on the agenda, so we're not quite sure when we'll make another episode. But as always, we always appreciate you guys tuning in and we'll try to share again soon.   [00:52:58.280] - Tamara Yeah, hopefully, maybe the end of the summer.   [00:53:00.250] - Kim Talk to you later.   [00:53:01.640] - Tamara All right, bye bye.

  Kim took a last minute spring break trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland with her younger daughter and this week on the podcast, she tells us all about it! She flew into Dublin and then stay at a country estate hotel in Northern Ireland before visiting Belfast, the Causeway Coast, Derry/Londonderry, and Galway before looping back to Dublin. See Kim's articles on: Ireland travel tips Ireland packing list 2 Days in Dublin Ireland Trip Highlights: Killeavy Estate in Northern Ireland Belfast - Titanic Belfast and city architecture Causeway Coast - Carrick-a-Rede bridge, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle Bishop's Gate Hotel in Derry - walk the walls around the city Galway - Kim didn't love Galway and her stay at the G Hotel because it felt more like a conference center hotel then something great for families. It was also a long walk into the center city. (see where Tamara stayed at a bed and breakfast near Galway) Kylemore Abbey in Connemara & Cliffs of Moher Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin suburbs Malahide Dublin - Trinity City Hotel and Trinity College / Book of Kells, shopping for Aran Sweaters

Spring break is almost here and on this episode Kim and Tamara share their experience on a girls' trip in Oceanside, California and then their mother-daughter trip to Disneyland with their girls.  If you want some inspiration for a SoCal getaway, be sure to listen in!

Happy New Year! We are back and apologize for taking so long to release a new episode. Moving forward, we will strive to have one episode a month to share our travels and tips, as we continue to each put more time into our respective websites. But first, Tamara has a big announcement and that is that she is hosting a women-only small group trip to Iceland in September 2023! You can get all the information on YourTimetoFly.com and she really hopes that some listeners will be able to join! Note that there is a discount of 15,000 ISK if you register by January 15, 2023. Next Tamara tells us all about her two-week trip to Northern Italy! Some highlights include: 5 Days in Piedmont full of wine tasting, truffle hunting, and great food Her stay at La Villa Hotel in Piedmont A wine tour with Piedmont Food and Wine Tours Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como 2 days in Milan (highlights walking tour with LivTours) Hired DayTrips to visit Bergamo, Brescia, Sirmione on Lake Garda, and Borgo sul Mincio 2 days in Verona (mentioned Love in the Villa and Letters to Juliet movies), ½ day walking tour with LivTours 2 days in Bologna Cooking class in Bologna with Cesarine 2 days in Parma Day trip with Food Valley Travel Return to Milan

This episode is sponsored by Glacier Country Tourism. All opinions are our own. This week, Tamara shares what it is like to visit Glacier Country, Montana on a girls' trip and Kim shares her thoughts on this scenic part of Northwestern Montana. From Missoula to Whitefish, Kalispell to Glacier National Park -- if Montana is on your bucket list, give this episode a listen! Read more: Adventurous Weekend Getaways to Western Montana- We3Travel Best Things to do in Glacier National Park - Stuffed Suitcase Things to do in Glacier Country, Montana Glacier Country is a tourism region of Northwestern Montana that covers eight counties To get to Glacier Country you can fly into Missoula or Glacier Airport in Kalispell, both of which offer many direct flights, especially from the western USA You need to rent a car to visit this region and part of the experience is the scenic drives through the countryside To visit Glacier National Park, Tamara stayed at the Homewood Suites in Kalispell, which is about 45 minutes to the western entrance of Glacier National Park To visit Glacier National Park you need a reservation to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road from when it opens in June through mid-September. Reservations open 120 days in advance and fill up in minutes.  Things in and around the park close by mid-September to early October. Kalispell and Whitefish are both good for exploring Glacier National Park if you can't get reservations in the park. Whitefish is a ski resort town that is very cute but also pricey. The road into the Many Glacier section and Two Medicine Lake are gravel and very rough road. Kim stayed in Under Canvas at Glacier National Park in West Glacier and the Isaac Walton Inn, which is an old train depot and you can stay in a train caboose. On her trip, Tamara stayed in a few different types of accommodations including: The Lodge at Trout Creek -- B&B lodge Bridge Street Cottages in Big Fork Laughing Horse Lodge Residence Inn Missoula If you want to see wildlife, drive through the Bison Range not far from Missoula Other fun outdoor adventures are: Kootenai Suspension Bridge & Kootenai Falls Ross Creek Cedars Scenic Area Llama trekking with Swan Mountain Llama Treks Soak in the hot springs at Quinn's Hot Springs Kayaking Clearwater Trail into Seely Lake Sunset boat tour on Flathead Lake Shoulder season in September was a great time to be  If you are visiting be sure to Recreate Responsibly: Leave no trace Plan ahead and make reservations Be flexible as plans may need to change because of weather, fire, road closures, etc. Be mindful of wildlife and carry bear spray when hiking (buy it there but don't bring it on the plane)  

We are back from our summer travel and packed a whole lot into a one episode recap! We apologize in advance for some audio difficulties on this one, especially after taking so long to get it live. Thanks for hanging in there with us! On this episode we cover Tamara's summer trips to: Nantucket (read her 3 days in Nantucket itinerary) New Brunswick, Canada (Road trip itinerary, places to stop on the Fundy Parkway, and tips for visiting Hopewell Rocks) Prince Edward Island, Canada (3 day PEI itinerary) Sailing on the Schooner Heritage Maine Windjammer Walking holiday on Hadrian's Wall Path And Kim shares about her adventures: Mediterranean cruise on Costa Cruise Lines (One Day in Rome Itinerary) Gorilla trekking in Uganda Alaskan cruise on Holland America Graduation trip to Disney World and Universal Orlando (How to Save Money at Disney World)

We are still catching up about our spring break trips and this time Kim shares the ups and downs from a Norwegian Cruise Lines voyage from New York City to the Bahamas with stops in "Orlando" and Norwegian's private island. Listen in and see if you are ready to set sail. In NYC, Kim stayed in the Hyatt Centric in Times Square for 2 nights before her cruise. The hotel was part of the American Express Fine Hotels Collection and she was able to get a $200 statement credits on her Amex Platinum Card. The hotel has a good location, but slow elevators and the rooftop bar is not open to minors. They flew into Newark and took the Airtrain to NJ Transit to Penn Station Kim was able to visit the Museum of Natural History, rent bikes and ride through Central Park, see a Broadway show, and explore NYC before the cruise. The cruise port terminal in NYC is very busy and it is hard to find the right spot to check in with very long lines. It took over three hours to complete check in for the cruise so if you are cruising out of NYC soon, be sure to pick an early check in time and expect to wait. Passengers has to show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test, as well as a passport, in order to board. The ship seemed to be understaffed because there was a lot of waiting in line to disembark and wait for tenders for excursions. The ship didn't seem to be at capacity but that may be because there wasn't enough staff to fully open. Kim and her family cruised on the Getaway from Norwegian Cruise Lines. Her girls like the ropes course but they have recently changed the ropes course and moved things around. If you book a package that includes specialty dining, it is usually just for the first 2 people in a cabin and if you want to add the kids you need to pay extra. In the bathrooms they provide a pump of shampoo and body wash but not lotion or conditioner. The kids club was not open during her cruise and they instead offered a voucher towards the arcade. When docked at Port Canaveral, Kim and her family went to the Kennedy Space Center but they didn't have a lot of time to explore because the boat didn't dock until 1pm and they didn't get off the boat until 2:30 and the KSC closes at 6pm. At the Norwegian private island in the Caribbean you need to take a tender boat over to the island so getting on and off takes a long time.

After a long hiatus, we are back with an update! Unfortunately Tamara and Kim both came down with COVID after returning from their respective spring break trips, which has delayed getting a new episode out. But this week Tamara fills us in on her adventures (and misadventures) on spring break and shares some of the highlights and tips from her week in Paris. Paris Trip Highlights This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. All opinions are our own. Tamara and her family stayed at Le Relais Saint Germain in the 6th Arrondissement See her full 5 days in Paris itinerary Tamara's Paris trip planning timeline and checklist You can also see Tamara's Paris travel tips One of the highlights was seeing Monet's Water Lilies at the Musee d'la Orangerie, relaxing in the Tuileries Gardens, and an amazing tour of the Louvre The tour was "Mona Lisa at her Quietest" by Take Walks / Walks of France Tamara also recommend the Ultimate Food Tour of the Marais neighborhood with Devour Tours She recommends skipping a river cruise on the Seine, or do it at night when everything is lit up Tamara and her family also didn't enjoy going up the Eiffel Tower, but if you want to do it, make sure you book tickets well in advance for a timed entry Two food highlights were the chef's tasting dinner at Ze Kitchen Galerie and lunch with Hannah at Cafe Recruitment For Paris, Tamara recommends the Bandolier phone case and lanyard as the perfect travel companion for easy access to your phone for taking pictures, directions, etc. She also liked the packable travel backpack from Travelon

Travel is roaring back and before you jet off on spring break, here are a few things you need to know about flying. Tamara and Kim break down which airlines charge fees for baggage, carry on bags, seat assignments, and more. Be prepared and know what to expect before you book your next flight! Airfares are pricey this year with increased demand and increase fuel prices When booking airfare, keep in mind that you have 24 hours to cancel from the time of booking with U.S. carriers with no change fees and for full refunds Pay attention to the type of airfare that you are buying so you know what the limitations of that fare might be (such as no changes, no carry on baggage, no seat assignment, etc) Always look at what the airlines charge for checked or carry on bags. Southwest is one of the only airlines that includes checked bags, unless you have airline status or an airline credit card For airlines that charge for checked bags, it can be hard to get your carry on bag on board if you are in a later boarding group. However, they can gate check your bag for free but often you will need to go to the baggage carousel to pick up your bag Some airlines offer a baggage guarantee that they will have your bag out within 20 minutes, which often it takes that long to get off the plane and to the baggage claim It is worth buying a luggage scale to make sure your bag is not overweight (usually 50 lbs for a checked bag but some budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier have a 40 lb maximum) When flying budget airlines, you should pay for your bags when you book the airfare because it gets increasingly more expensive later in the process Many budget airlines actually charge more for a carry on bag than a checked bag Some airlines like Easyjet let you buy additional weight for checked bags Most US airlines will include a carry on bag unless you book a restricted fare (usually labeled Basic) and all include a personal item that can fit under the seat in front of you Carry on bags do have size limits so you can't usually expand it or it won't fit in the sizer For some budget airlines, you can get a deal if you buy the ticket at the airport (in advance of the flight) Budget airlines also charge you to print a boarding pass so either use a mobile boarding pass or print it yourself at home Many airlines are charging for seat selection or at least charging for premium seating positions towards the front of the plane or aisle/window seats Especially for family travelers, if you want to sit together you should really purchase seat assignments, especially since so many flights are completely full these days and there is very limited options for switching seats You should definitely select seats at booking. If no seats are available together you can try to call the airline and see what they can do. Sometimes they reserve the back row for families You can usually upgrade to premium class seats that would have extra legroom and better location within the plane When you pay for seat assignments, that is per segment, which can really add up for a connecting flight Some airlines also offer early boarding upgrades. If you really need to get your carry on bag on board, it can be worth it to pay for early boarding. This is also usually a perk for those that have airline status or the airline credit card. Many times the premium seats (leg extra legroom seats) come with early boarding If you have a tight connection, it makes sense to pay for a seat close to the front of the plane If you don't have a carry on bag, then it makes sense to wait until the end to board, especially if you have an aisle seats Recently many airlines have gotten rid of change fees, but not all so make sure you look first before booking. Just keep in mind that they may not charge a fee for changing your flight but you do have to pay the difference between the two flights Cancelling flights usually means you are getting a credit with a certain amount of time to use it, you won't get your money back Usually you don't have to fly by the expiration date, you just need to book by that date (but double check the rules) Alaska, JetBlue, Delta, and sometimes Southwest are known for friendlier staff than United and American Many airlines offer in flight entertainment but you need to bring your own device. Some have seatback entertainment, like Jet Blue that has movies and live Direct TV, but they aren't reliable and you need to bring your own headphones, which sometimes need an adapter for the headphone jack There isn't always consistency between the in flight experience JetBlue gives a good snack selection. American only serves the Biscoff cookies. Some airlines offer snack boxes for sale Some airlines offer WiFi for a fee but it isn't reliable or strong enough for streaming and others offer free texting (like JetBlue or Southwest) Budget hotels do not provide entertainment and they also charge for all drinks or snacks, including water If you are able to achieve status on a particular airline you can get things like upgrades based on availability, lounge access or reduced charges for lounges, early seating, and free checked bags. There are usually levels that offer increased perks

Wondering how to earn more points towards travel? Trying to decide which travel credit card is the best fit for your family? This week we chat with points and miles expert Jennifer Yellin about the best travel credit cards for families. Kim and Tamara also talk about the changing travel restrictions in Europe, the Caribbean, and cruises. Note that since this podcast was recorded, Italy has also dropped its testing requirement for fully vaccinated travelers. About Jennifer Yellin Jennifer Yellin is the founder of Deals We Like, where she helps her readers travel on a deal. She writes about everything travel related, such as travel credit cards, travel rewards (points and miles) and travel destinations. Jennifer is also a freelance writer for CNN Underscored and The Points Guy where she writes on similar travel topics. Jennifer loves traveling to beach destinations and embracing ski trips with her family. How to Pick the Best Travel Credit Card for your Family For family travel, you need to book early if you are looking to use points since they are popular times to travel and you need more seats than if you are traveling solo When choosing a credit card to start using points there are some that are very easy to redeem points, like Capital One which allows you to earn points and then use the points eraser to erase the travel charge on your credit card. Others, like Chase Ultimate Rewards, you transfer your points to airline or hotel programs to use your points. You can get better value that way but it takes a little more work There are also airline or hotel specific cards that provide certain perks, like a free night certificate or free baggage, that can be valuable if you are able to fully utilize it Also look at the annual fees and make sure you are getting more value than you are paying in annual fees The Hyatt card will help you earn Globalist status, which will provide nice perks like room upgrades. See our episode about the best hotel loyalty programs Southwest is a popular card for Southwest fliers that can earn the Companion Pass (see our episode about flying families for free) The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card but wait to sign up until they have a very good sign up bonus. Points transfer easily on a one-to-one basis and you can even book through their travel portal. They have a partnership with Southwest and OneWorld Alliance members like American and British Airways If you transfer 1-to-1 to Hyatt, you will get more value out of your points then transferring to Marriott If you do decide to have multiple cards, make a note of which cards give more points for specific categories (e.g. gas, travel, supermarket) and put a piece of tape or label on each card and write on it which category to use that card for If you have a specific trip in mind, find out what hotel you want to stay at and then look at signing up for that hotel brand credit card and sign up when there is a good bonus (unless a card like Chase has a better welcome offer) You can also sign up for credit cards in you and your partner's name or a personal and business card to get multiple sign up offers if you have a specific trip in mind When you want to use points for a family, it can be hard to find enough free seats for everyone. Just keep in mind that if you book separately you may end up separated if they reshuffle the flights but you can try to get the itineraries linked to avoid this If you have status, you probably want to buy a ticket for the person with status and use points for the rest Expert Flyer is a membership website that helps you find special award availability For international airlines, it also helps to use an award booking service to help find flights to a specific destination, these usually cost about $150-200. Usually you don't pay unless you can book You can use Point.me (used to be Juicy Miles) where you put in your itinerary and the system will provide you with options that you can book and that is a less expensive service because it is automated When you transfer points, it can take 24-48 hours for the points to show up in your account and you can't book until they are available. You can Google how long it takes to transfer points between specific programs Once you transfer points from your credit card to an airline or hotel program, you can switch them back to the credit card so be sure you want to use them To earn additional points, sign up for every shopping portal available such as eBates/Rakuten (for cash back or points), some have Chrome Extensions to remind you to purchase through the portal. Most mainstream ecommerce sites will earn you points There are also a lot of sign up bonuses around big shopping weekends Cashbackholic will show you which shopping portals offer the best rates/points offers EV Rewards will also compare for you Always look at the targeted offers that are sent to you from your credit card companies to earn extra points or cash back Buy gift cards through shopping portals, put purchases on credit card and have others pay you back for group dinners, class gifts, etc. Never sign up for a credit card without a sign up offer Southwest currently has a good offer for earning a Southwest Companion Pass Make sure you can always easily meet the minimum spend requirements when signing up for a new card If you are applying for a mortgage or a loan soon, don't apply for a new credit card, but otherwise it won't hurt your credit score Cancel cards when you are no longer getting value, but you can also call and see if you can get a fee waived or reduced If you have applied for 5 or more Chase cards in 24 months, you can't get approved for a new card and Amex offers are usually once in a lifetime but you may be able to get it once they roll off your credit card in seven years or so Full Episode Transcript [00:00:00.190] - Kim Tate Stay tuned to find out how you can charge your way to free travel. [00:00:15.450] - Announcer Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We 3 Travel. [00:00:29.890] - Kim Tate Tamara. It's kind of a fun intro today because I feel like we're going to share some happy news for a change that's happening. Do you want to kick us off and start talking about some changes that are happening in the travel space lately? [00:00:41.710] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I mean, just overall, I think everyone feels a whole lot better than they did a month ago, for sure. And I know traffic to my website showing that people are more interested in international travel than they have been, for obvious reasons. But it's just so nice to be on the side of things where it's like things are getting better. [00:00:58.670] - Kim Tate We have good news. Yeah. [00:01:00.680] - Tamara Gruber But as you guys know, we're planning a spring break trip coming up very quickly, and we've been keeping everything crossed that everything goes okay. But we saw just actually, I just saw very recently, I think it was on February 12 that France has lifted their testing requirement to get into the country. So it's just like one of these hurdles that I can check. I can just cross off like, okay, the day before, how am I going to get the test that I need? And is it going to come back in time depending on how things are there or they're going to shut now that things are better, they're closing some testing centers. What's the best way to get this test that they need? So it's just like one of those hurdles that I don't have to go through now. And it's just it's such a relief. And also because Hannah had COVID in early January, I was actually going to get her tested to see if she's still testing positive. Do I need to get the doctor's note and go through that whole thing? And so as restrictions are lifted, it's just so nice to have one less thing that you have to do as you're getting out the door, and then one less thing that could kind of screw up the road. [00:02:11.860] - Tamara Gruber Obviously, you could still get sick, but hopefully you would know that versus like, oh, no, you're actually asymptomatic. Not that we want to be traveling asymptomatically, but you know what I mean? So I'm just encouraged that there are a number of European countries that are lifting their testing requirements at the same time, though, I should say that is for people that are fully vaccinated and different countries have different rules about full vaccination. Like, for example, for France, you need to also be boosted if it's been more than seven months since your second shot or your only shot if you're like me when it was Johnson, Johnson. So you need to follow still those kind of guidelines and all of the rest. But at least on the testing front, it's one thing. So, yeah, so France lifted it. The UK has lifted that, Ireland has lifted it. Spain lifted it. And I've seen that both Portugal and Greece have lifted it for the EU. And so my matter of time before they lift it for the US as well. And part of it might be like the US still has the requirement that people need to test, including US citizens, on entry into the US. [00:03:24.420] - Tamara Gruber So it might be one of those things where it's like, well, if you lift it for us, we'll have it for you kind of thing. But yeah, at least I mean, right now we're still going to have to get tested in France to go into Italy. But at least we know that that's pretty easy to do. Like, there's tons of pharmacies around and it's cheap and readily available and fast turn around. So I'm not as worried about that. And then I actually just ordered some testing kits from EMED, which is what you and I used when we were in Portugal because it's the proctored self testing that is accepted for return to the US. [00:04:00.540] - Kim Tate And it's instant. Yeah, it's really good. [00:04:02.170] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. [00:04:03.870] - Kim Tate That horrible one day window that the US enacted, which I hope they're going to reedit that now that Omicron is calming down because that one day is a big ask. [00:04:13.080] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, it's definitely and I was worried about like, oh, if we're in Italy, I know I can get tested, but will the turnaround be in time? So I just felt like bringing these along is going to be the easiest scenario. We just do that in the room and we'll be all set. So positive news on my friend. And I know you've been paying attention to some other stuff going on, so you have some positive news, too. [00:04:34.640] - Kim Tate Yeah. Well, we're headed out on a cruise for spring break, and we're getting numerous emails that keep coming in because cruises are really volatile right now with the way they're changing. A lot of them went back into even a lockdown. They canceled a lot of cruises in January. And now I think things are loosening up, and so that's kind of opening up options. And so I think that for cruising, just know that cruising is back. Cruises in general have always been, as we talked about in that episode a while back, they're pretty obsessed with cleanliness and germs because of other things like norovirus that they've had issues with. So just know that cruising is back. And so if that's an option. The other thing that I like about cruising is because we're doing a Caribbean cruise and because you come in and out of a US Port, you are waived from a lot of those testing requirements that if you were just flying directly into a Caribbean Island. So there is some benefit to that. Just know that some of the Caribbean Islands also are editing what they're requiring. And I know that, for example, I believe it's the Bahamas and maybe even Aruba, if you're vaccinated, you no longer have to submit a PCR test. [00:05:41.530] - Kim Tate You can take a rapid test. Of course, it has to be a proven rapid test. You can't just take one of the Amazon ones and take a picture of it. It has to be like the EMED ones that you're talking about. But I think for some travelers, those are way easier than, like you said, making appointments and going in through a drive through or some kind of testing site. And then that stress over. Will I get the results in time, especially if for us out here, the Sundays really throw us off because they don't run the results on Sundays and do the testing. So if you need it, you kind of have to either wait for Monday or you have to go Saturday and hope that process works. So I just know that for us, it's kind of a big thing to keep an eye on. And I do think, like you that things are relaxing, and I think everybody's ready to get back to travel. So I feel like a lot of us traveled over the past year anyways, but it's becoming more accessible for people who maybe don't want the cost or the stress of testing. [00:06:35.070] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I mean, I've talked to a couple of people recently. They were like, oh, I just paid $100 for a test, and then they dropped it the next day. The cost for a family to have to deal with that kind of testing is considerable. It's huge. [00:06:51.000] - Kim Tate Well, our in laws won't come visit us from Canada because they're a family of five and they didn't come last summer because even after the border opened, they can't pay for five test times $150 or whatever. It just was cost prohibitive. [00:07:06.880] - Tamara Gruber So, yeah, I like to be an optimist, and it's been hard for a couple of years. And I know things can change and all of that, but it is just nice to see positive news, positive things happening. And I'm excited. I'm excited for where all of our travels are going to take us this year. [00:07:26.130] - Kim Tate I definitely think that it's exciting and I think that it's people I mean, governments are seeing that the travel restrictions and the testing isn't necessarily catching it. It's still spreading like wildfire all throughout the country. I think that's a bigger thing. Like, I'm fully into watching things, but the fact that obviously Omicron moved through multiple countries, it really shows that we kind of all just need to get back to living and do our responsible parts. [00:07:54.940] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. Well, speaking of getting back to living, I think everyone has been thinking of the trips that they want to take. And so we've been trying to have some episodes that addressed some of that, like some of that inspirational dream travel and today we're going to talk to really a credit card expert, and she's going to help us figure out ways to earn our way to those dream trips using credit cards. So I'm very excited to kind of find some new strategies after talking to her today. [00:08:26.090] - Kim Tate Yeah, definitely. Jennifer is a true expert. So let's get talking to her. [00:08:38.270] - Tamara Gruber We are here this week with Jennifer Yellin. She's a travel and credit card expert, founder of travel site Deals We Like, and a freelance writer for The Points Guy and CNN Underscored. So, Jennifer, I feel a little bit odd to have such an expert here today, but welcome. [00:08:52.970] - Jennifer Yellin Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. [00:08:55.340] - Tamara Gruber Well, we get a lot of questions about credit cards and strategies. And there are always some of our favorite episodes, and people always have different advice. So it's really nice to talk to, like, people with different viewpoints and experience. But before we get into really talking about what credit cards families should be using to earn points, I was hoping you could inspire us a little bit with some of the trips or flights that you've been able to book using miles and points. Sure. [00:09:21.790] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. So this past two years, like many of you, probably has been a little bit of a pause in staying at home. But just more recently, my family was actually able to take our first trip since the Pandemic started to Aruba, and we were able to book that fully on points, utilize our JetBlue points. And with JetBlue, it's really cool that if the flight goes down in price, you can cancel now with your points and rebook it. So I was able to do that a few times and really get that price down really low. Booking with points, even during the Christmas time period, it was pretty awesome. And then we stayed at the Hyatt Regency there right on Palm Beach and used points as well. And my husband actually has global status, which is their top tier status. So we are able to apply a suite upgrade. And we're confirmed into a two bedroom suite. And my kids had their own bunkbed room, which I thought was so cool. [00:10:11.020] - Kim Tate That's amazing. That's definitely like a dream. Good job on that, because I know those suite rewards are kind of difficulties sometimes. I hear they are. [00:10:19.280] - Jennifer Yellin I mean, it wasn't available right away. I had a check online daily, maybe hourly leading up to it. And probably about two weeks before our trip. [00:10:26.930] - Kim Tate It opened up nice. [00:10:28.700] - Jennifer Yellin That was good. [00:10:29.960] - Kim Tate That definitely sounds good. I know Tamara was in Aruba, too, but I think those are the dream trips that everybody thinks about when they can do points on Airlines and hotels. So Unfortunately, I get overwhelmed at that aspect of, like, how to redeem. And so I have a whole bunch of points, but they're all just sitting in my account doing nothing for me. So I had a friend who's in the point space once say to me, what do you hate free money? Because you're not using your points. So I know that that's a good thing when you can use them. [00:10:57.520] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. Family travel, specifically points kind of early because we always are booking during the popular Christmas break, spring break time frame. And that's when everyone books early. So right now I have a bunch of trips planned for December break. Clearly, I'm not taking them all, but booking them right when the war calendar opens up has allowed like a word availability to be booked and it's easier to come by. [00:11:22.660] - Tamara Gruber That's a good tip. [00:11:23.840] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. As long as I can cancel them, I'm good. I probably have like four different trips. [00:11:28.850] - Kim Tate Yeah. It becomes you have to have a spreadsheet to manage it sometimes. [00:11:33.110] - Kim Tate Well, what do you think is some of the so let's start off by talking about what you think some of the criteria is for people to look for when they're choosing a credit card to start earning points because there are a lot of options and I know kind of what I'm thinking and what other people have said. So in your opinion, what should people look at? [00:11:50.580] - Jennifer Yellin I think it kind of depends. There's two types of credit cards out there in the points space. Forget about cash back, but there's those that allow you to easily redeem your points. Like capital One is the first one that comes to mind. You book your flight and you can kind of use your points to wipe away the charge. [00:12:10.730] - Kim Tate Like the eraser or something. [00:12:12.510] - Jennifer Yellin Exactly. Like at a very easy rate. You don't have to worry about award availability. Like you were saying that you don't want to deal with if the flight is available. The hotel is available on points. As long as you can book it with cash, you can use your points. Then there's one like the Chase Ultimate Rewards, which kind of has a few different programs, actually. But those are where you can redeem your points to various hotel and airline programs by transferring your points. But that takes kind of some motivation, I guess it takes some effort and work and you need to kind of learn the programs, but then you could actually get something of better value. So it kind of depends on what your personality is. [00:12:53.540] - Kim Tate Right. And then, of course, there's also, like specific airline credit cards, like Delta or I have an Alaska card just because it gives me some perks. But it's funny because on Alaska I still book with my Amex because Alaska pays three times, but Amex pays five times. So it's kind of funny how you have to think about that stuff. [00:13:10.330] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. Other things I look for is I try to keep my annual fees low because I have a decent amount of credit cards. But are there perks that come with a credit card, like a free night certificate? So like Hyatt offers a free night certificate. It's capped at a category four, but I always find that that helps pay for the annual fee and actually allows me to come out ahead. So are there any of those other bonuses or perks that you'll utilize? [00:13:35.210] - Tamara Gruber I used to have a Marriott card, and I felt like sometimes I ended up not always using that voucher for the free night because then you would look at it and when I wanted to book, it was only like $100, $150. And you're like, oh, I'm going to save it for something else. And then it never ended up happening with all these things you definitely have to stay on top of make sure you're using the perks and the bonuses that you get. Right. [00:13:58.270] - Jennifer Yellin Definitely. Because if not, you could be spending a good amount on just fees where you're really not worth it. [00:14:04.160] - Tamara Gruber I mean, I totally admit that we've had the Capital One venture card for years and years, and the Holy Racer thing is just super simple. [00:14:12.670] - Kim Tate Yeah. That's what Paul likes. He loves that one. Just for the ease of it. [00:14:16.910] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. And we've also been using a higher credit card. And even though we're not getting the best value every time you make a purchase, it helps us earn global status, which, as I've mentioned before, is like their top tier status. So by earning that status, because every time you spend, I think $5,000 on the card, you get two nights towards status. So that, combined with staying at hotels, allows us to use that and then kind of get these awesome perks. So you kind of got to look at the pros and cons of every car and see what works best for you. Whenever anyone asks me, my simple answer sometimes is it depends. [00:14:51.780] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. We talked to who is Ed Pizza, right. A few months ago, Kim, and he was really recommending Hyatt as a great program for families. So I'm glad that you brought that one up and like ways to kind of maximize that because their point redemption is certainly much more generous than, as I mentioned, the Marriott card. [00:15:11.380] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. Ed and I are big Hyatt people for sure. [00:15:15.100] - Tamara Gruber Well, it sounds like you gave a couple of good starter cards for someone that's interested in travel but maybe doesn't have any particular destination in mind, or they just want to be able to use it, like travel generally. I know some people are like, really into Southwest, do everything Southwest. We had somebody on that talked about that in the past. But are there any other kind of starter cards that you would recommend for someone that doesn't want to be loyal to a particular brand or a particular airline? [00:15:43.570] - Jennifer Yellin Sure. Yes. If you don't want to be loyal and you kind of want to be agnostic and have to diversify your portfolio, I guess the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card. I wouldn't say the sign up bonus is as high as it has been over the past year. So if you're not in a rush, you might want to hold off. But that is a good program where it's simple. They have really good transfer partners such as Hyatt, United, JetBlue, and then once you get more into it, you can explore some of the international airline partners as well. But it's simple. Everything transfers as one to one, and you can kind of figure out what your needs are and then transfer to the program. Or you can book through their travel portal. I think it's run by Expedia. It's the exact same process as booking as any other Expedia hotel you would or Air flight. And you can utilize your points that way, too. It's at a fixed value, so they offer a good amount of opportunities. [00:16:37.550] - Tamara Gruber And are they one that has a really broad portfolio of Airlines? I remember I used to do that a lot with Amex, and then they had gotten rid of a lot of their partners and we kind of dropped Amex for a while. Some still have limited partnerships with the one to one transfers. [00:16:55.310] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah, I think they have a broad number of transfer partners. It's on the airline front, off the top of my head. United JetBlue, British Airways, which a lot of people will book domestically. You can book their British Airways points using on American Airlines, so they're a partner. So it's really easy to travel domestically even with an international airline. And then there are some other international carriers, too, in Southwest actually is one of them as well. So I think they have a good amount. There are definitely ones that are better than others just because of not all points are pretty equal. So if you transfer one to one to Hyatt versus one to one to Marriott, Hyatt points are 20,000 Hyatt points is probably equivalent to 60,000 Marriott points. So it's slightly different when you're transferring in a one to one rate. You want to get the best value. I'd say. [00:17:45.920] - Kim Tate Yeah. I think that it's good to mention that you do have to be mindful of the transfer partners because that is where you can get into. There's a whole it's kind of like couponing, right? Where the people who are like those extreme couponers, they knew everything and they could stack stuff. And I think that people who really get into this are good at stacking stuff because it's like, oh, I know for a fact that British Airways has really high taxes. So maybe you want to fly Air Lingus into Ireland and then get to there's little things like that that you learn over time. But it is nice to have the multiple transfer partners knowing that you can kind of optimize the way the credit cards work for you. Do you have any tips? Because I know this is a big thing in the point space about deciding if you do decide to have multiple cards, how do you decide what expenses to put on each card? [00:18:29.730] - Jennifer Yellin So I have many cards, probably too many, but I kind of look at category bonuses. So some credit cards will give increased payout for gas, some will for restaurants, some for travel, supermarkets, your common purchases. And so I kind of lay it out and I actually have what's it called tape with Sharpie written on which one to use for various types of purchases. And that has helped, but that can definitely get overwhelming. I'd say if you don't want to be overwhelmed, you're probably better off with a credit card like the Capital Adventure that just offers you two points for every dollar you spent. It doesn't matter what you're purchasing. If you're buying a toy for your child, purchasing travel, going to grocery store, anything, it's the same return. So it really depends on maybe your personality and how much you want to spend on this. But if you're willing to put in the effort, you can definitely maximize every single purchase you make. But it will require a few different credit cards. [00:19:35.410] - Tamara Gruber I like that tip, though, of like putting a little note on them in some way because I have a terrible memory when it comes to numbers. And so I could see myself having a spreadsheet somewhere that says use this one for gas and this one for that. But until it becomes like routine and a habit, I would be like which 01:00 a.m. I supposed to use again. So like a little tip, right? [00:19:56.480] - Kim Tate So many people in the point space on the groups, a new quarter comes around and they change out and they have those label makers like the Dymo label makers, and they put them on their cards, which card to use? And they do it for their spouses too. That maybe aren't into it as much because sure enough, I think of that. I'm like, which one do I want to use for dining? What do I want to pay here? [00:20:24.450] - Tamara Gruber I'm thinking like when you use Apple Pay or you do online and your card saved, you can name them. Usually just name it like Amex or Visa. You could name it like grocery store, dining, gas. [00:20:36.650] - Kim Tate All the gas probably isn't needed online. [00:20:39.090] - Tamara Gruber So that kind of covers some of the general travel. I know some people have some dream trips in mind. Like say, okay, I want to go to the Maldives or I want to go to Tokyo. Like what is a good strategy to get me to a particular destination? Is that better to then look at a specific card for the airline? That might be best for that? What would your approach to that kind of scenario be? [00:21:05.080] - Kim Tate Absolutely. [00:21:05.600] - Jennifer Yellin Whenever I give anyone advice, I always actually find it's easier for me to help them when they have a specific trip in mind, because then you can have a strategy for that particular destination. So I know it was a few years back, but a friend of mine wanted to go on our honeymoon to the Maldives. Like you had mentioned, it's definitely a quite extensive adventure. So this is a prime opportunity to use your points and miles. And I said, well, the Hyatt actually has a great property there get the highest credit card. I can't remember what the actual bonus was at the time, but right off the bat, it was either two or three nights free at the Maldives. This was many years ago when before the point rates went up a little bit. But that was probably a $3,000 in savings. So I think if you know exactly where you want to stay, let's say it's the Hyatt, then look to see what the Hyatt credit card is offering at the time. Look to see what maybe the Chase Sapphire Preferred is offering at the time, since you can transfer the Hyatt and see which one is going to give you a better welcome offer for that particular destination in mind. [00:22:07.650] - Kim Tate Yeah, I know we were planning a trip to Tokyo, and Japan Airlines is a partner with Alaska, and Alaska is my airline of choice here in Seattle. And so that was easy for me because I was kind of banking those miles and I got the Alaska card because my status gives me free bags, but I was able to get free bags for my kids as well. And all that. And those points really helped in the way get us our Tokyo flights that we didn't get to use, but still there. [00:22:32.320] - Tamara Gruber You got them? [00:22:33.530] - Kim Tate Yeah. [00:22:33.910] - Jennifer Yellin I did something similar last year about probably eleven months ago. I knew I wanted to go to Hawaii over this past December break. We didn't go, therefore, we went to Aruba. But I purposely just got the Alaska credit card purely for them, based in Boston. Boston. I don't think I've actually ever flown Alaskan Airlines in my life, actually. But there was a points available I saw. So I immediately applied for the credit card and both my name and my husband's name. And actually I applied for the personal credit card and the business credit card in both of us. And I knew that immediately would give us both a one way flight there. And I already had American Airlines booked on the way home with points. So I applied for that card for that one specific destination. I now have all these Alaska airline miles, and I know that I'll just use them at another point of time to hopefully go to Hawaii again. [00:23:21.250] - Kim Tate Yeah. [00:23:22.350] - Jennifer Yellin So I did that myself, too. [00:23:24.870] - Kim Tate So let's talk about we talked about booking flights and using points because this is something that I've struggled with a lot. When you are for a family, when you are wanting to use points, do you think it's easier to just always search for four tickets? Say you're a family four. Tamara is a family, three, whatever you are, your whole family search for tickets with those points? Or do you think it's better to be willing to pay for some and get tickets for some? Because I know that I've struggled with that, especially because as a status person, I almost want to buy my ticket, which is what I did for our spring break. I bought my ticket and I use points on my family's three tickets because now I'll earn miles on that trip and they don't care about anything else. So do you have any tips about that for using points with a family? [00:24:10.340] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah, we actually do the same. We fly JetBlue a lot now. And my husband had status and actually they extended his status. So he still has his status, which actually isn't worth as much anymore. But we'll pay for his ticket and then use the points to purchase tickets for myself and my two kids. And then Jeff, who allows you if you call them and the tickets are booked within a few minutes of one another, they'll kind of link them kind of for you. So that's a strategy we use with JetBlue and Southwest. There's no capacity control. So as long as there's a paid ticket available, you can go ahead and use your points. It doesn't matter, unlike some other Airlines. But with other Airlines, sometimes I do recommend just looking at one ticket at a time, because if there's one or two tickets, you could do that. The only problem is when you're booking with multiple itineraries. And sometimes if there's schedule changes, the Airlines aren't as helpful, I guess is the right term to keep families together, necessarily if they are booked on separate itineraries. So that's just one thing to keep in mind if you're booking under multiple reservations. [00:25:15.090] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, we've actually had that happen to us a number of times. We used to travel on points much more often and we were separated. And it's one of those things that especially when you book far out in advance, they tend to reshuffle flights fairly often and equipment, and so you can easily get moved around. And it's something I'm sensitive to because I have a child who is now older, but when she was younger was also a nervous liar. So there's, like, no way I would have wanted her separated from me. I think it's a good tip to say call, tell them to link the PNR numbers on the itinerary, but it's definitely not foolproof. So if it's something that you're concerned about, definitely something to keep in mind. [00:25:59.070] - Jennifer Yellin Right. And my thought is if I'm willing to pay for two or three of the passengers and I'm probably willing to pay for all of them and then use the points at another time, I personally like to book with everything either paid or points just to keep everything clean. [00:26:15.750] - Kim Tate And I know that when you do talk about just for people who are maybe a little more intermediate or advanced well, if they're advanced they already know this. But I know that a lot of people use Expert Flyer, which is a website. You can actually pay a yearly membership fee. I think it's like $49 a year. $99 a year. I don't remember what it is. And they somehow have some magic API that looks for special award availability that's coded a certain way. And so if you are trying to play a game, I know some people set up like alerts so that if they're watching a specific flight or a specific destination, they can kind of if an award ticket becomes available, they can hurry and log in and book it. [00:26:57.950] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah, absolutely. That is one good technique. And another thing I've kind of found helpful at times is using an award booking service. I know that seems silly from someone who kind of knows as well, but specifically with international Airlines, it can be beyond overwhelming. And they have all the tools and they have the same API's. And I don't know what they do in the background, but sometimes they're able to find ways that you didn't think of to go ahead and book an award internationally using partner programs. And it can actually save you points. So if you have points on one Airlines, but then also points in a flexible program like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which awards you ultimate reward points, you actually could potentially transfer your points to a program and then book your itinerary for less points than booking with another program. So there's so many different things to know, I guess, when it comes to that. But there are services out there. [00:27:53.490] - Kim Tate Yeah. Do you have any? Because I know a friend that I kind of met once that's in the space. And at one point when we were looking at Japan and I was trying to decide if I was going to do it myself and he charged like 150 or something to do it for you. But do you know what those typically charge or what? Is there a top one or two that you know by name that you could mention? Sure. [00:28:15.120] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. That price point sounds about right. But then there are other services that have kind of come out over the past few years. So one is Point me, it used to be called Juicy Miles, and instead of them actually booking it for you, you can kind of like Expert Flyer in a sense, somewhat. You put in your itinerary and it kind of lists out all these different options for you. So it's all system process. There's no one physically doing it for you. And that's a much less expensive option. I think that you can charge a monthly fee or maybe just you can do it a one time or even a seven day trial period. I think so. Those are some good options, too, because it's less expensive. But it will give you all these international Airlines that you do in point programs that you probably didn't even know existed. And how to book. The only problem is some of them are a little bit more challenging to actually transfer to and book. But by quick Google searching, there's, like everything out there that you can figure out on how to transfer points and everything. It's time consuming. [00:29:16.410] - Jennifer Yellin It's really time consuming. And sometimes, I don't know, it might be easier. [00:29:19.740] - Kim Tate That's what I'm saying at this point. I would pay someone $250 to do it for me because I do know how time consuming. [00:29:26.970] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. And usually you don't pay unless it works. Right. [00:29:30.550] - Kim Tate Unless they get it for you. [00:29:31.880] - Jennifer Yellin Right. If you're not happy with it, no harm. [00:29:34.500] - Kim Tate Yeah, that's good tip. And I think also just a heads up for some people realize that a lot of these, like, I know Amex and Ultimate Rewards, a lot of their transfer partners take 24 to 72 hours for the points to kick into your account, which can be a big issue, especially if you're like, oh, this airfare just became available. Now I have to transfer the points, but then you're waiting there two, three days. I'm hoping that they hit your account so you can buy that award ticket. It's very stressful. I actually did that for Alaska to get our Japan tickets. I needed like 50,000 more and I had to transfer some. And I was like, oh, my gosh, please get in my account before these disappear. [00:30:09.750] - Tamara Gruber That's a really good point. [00:30:11.620] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. If you like Google also, I don't know why has it, but if you Google, like, time to transfer points from one program to another, there's so many experts out there, points people that have kind of taken all the data and put it all together. So some of them are instant. Some of them could even take seven days. But you could probably get a good inkling based on what these other people have put together. [00:30:35.190] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. Well, it's one of these spaces where there are so many experts, but trying to sort through it all on your own is definitely confusing. That idea of being able to hire someone to help you. And thinking about that, I'm such an advanced planner, you kind of want to be like, oh, well, I'm probably going to use this. I'll just switch the points over now, but then you can't switch them back. [00:30:58.030] - Jennifer Yellin That is a good tip. Once you transfer points out of, like, Capital One or City or American Express Chase, I think those are the three main ones. They're in that program of choice. They are not going back in. So once flexible, points are no longer flexible. [00:31:12.770] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. One way. [00:31:14.020] - Jennifer Yellin Yes. [00:31:15.690] - Tamara Gruber Well, we talked a little bit about some ways that you can maximize kind of your earning potential through these. But maybe we can just touch on that a little bit more deeply because I feel like it gets challenging for families that don't have someone that's like a real road warrior that's traveling a lot to kind of build up points simply from travel. So obviously you need to find other ways to earn those points. So maybe you can just touch on a few of those strategies. [00:31:41.670] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. So one major way is to sign up for every single shopping portal. Ebates is one that's always advertised and that will give you cash back, although you can now have those points go into American Express. But similar to ebay, you can sign up and receive points to American Airlines or United Alaska. All the Airlines have their own shopping portal. So all you have to do is Google Alaska Airlines shopping portal and it'll bring you up. And a lot of them even have those widgets on your computer where every time you go to a site, if you were to Gap.com, it'll pop up and say kind of give you a reminder, remember to shop through the Alaska Port. I don't know if that. [00:32:22.620] - Kim Tate Yeah, the extensions. Like the Chrome extensions. Yeah, exactly. And I think Ebates, just so everyone knows it's called Racketon. Now, if you're confused about that. No, it's okay. You're good. I still think of them as ebay. So I wanted everyone to yes. [00:32:35.800] - Jennifer Yellin Ebay was definitely a softer name. So every time you make a purchase online, there's no reason not to earn points unless it's more of a boutique store. But with your mainstream stores, even if you're only earning one point per dollar spent that's one point more than you would have earned otherwise. And sometimes if you sign up for their emails, if you spend $200, earn $1,000 bonus. They have these types of bonuses all the time, especially around the holidays, Black Friday, even randomly, the long holiday weekends, like Memorial Day, Labor Day, big shopping weekends, and just sometimes out of the blue. So there's ways to really accrue a lot of miles from home. [00:33:17.530] - Kim Tate Absolutely. [00:33:18.420] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. [00:33:18.790] - Kim Tate That's one of my favorite tips. I do that a lot and I really like it. And there's these websites now, the one I use the most is like Cashback Holic. And they'll compare. So if you're going to you're like, okay, I'm about ready to buy. I'm going to book this Marriott stay. You can type in Marriott and it'll show you like who, because I belong to Racketon and Top Cashback and I can compare those two. I try not to get into too many of them, so I mainly use those two. But I'm like, oh, Top Cashback is 6%. Racketon is only four. I'm going to go to Top Cashback so you can get really nerdy and kind of compare them also. [00:33:49.190] - Jennifer Yellin Oh, totally. Absolutely. And EV Rewards is another one that will also compare for you is great. [00:33:57.090] - Tamara Gruber I totally admit that. I completely suck at this. I don't use any of these. And every time you read about it, you're like, oh yeah, I should do that. And I just get excited if I actually learn how to use one of the bonuses on my credit card, like get $50, $50. [00:34:16.510] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah. And another thing you want to do, I mean, this is separate from the shopping portal is I remember I think it was the last time I received an email from Barclaycard. And they are the bank with JetBlue. And it was like ridiculous offer spent $2,000 on your card over three months and earn I think it was 40,000 points. It was a targeted offer. I got it. My husband didn't. I was like, all right, moving all my spent to my JetBlue card for the next few months. Right. And they're just paying attention just helps you earn these increased offers. So there's definitely ways from home without flying to earn points and miles. [00:34:55.990] - Kim Tate I've definitely been getting better about when I'm about ready to either go on a trip or go shopping with my girls or something along those lines. I log into my Chase and my Amex accounts online and I look because they have an offer section because you have to add them to your card. [00:35:09.740] - Jennifer Yellin Yes. [00:35:10.010] - Kim Tate And I don't think people always realize that. So if it's like, oh, Levi's is having a deal, I add it to my card because maybe they're going to want Levi's jeans while we're on back to school shopping or, oh, guess what? Hilton is doing this special. If you spend if you stay two nights, you get whatever the case may be. And I don't think people do that enough. But it's a good way to really I think if you want to get serious about it, you should log in often to the offers page because they reset every month. [00:35:34.850] Yeah. [00:35:35.740] - Jennifer Yellin Every day you're going to laugh. But American Express offers used to update every day at three in the morning. And I'm not joking. And so when my kids were small and I was up in the middle of the night non stop, I was like, so excited. And that was part of my daily routine. Some people have their morning coffee. I would look at my American Express offers. I'm not even kidding. That's awesome. Daily. But I will say it used to be you could add them to every single American Express credit card you have. I can't remember when, but a few years ago, it's now just one per account. So it's not as generous as it used to be. But I used to check them every single morning. And I'd saved thousands of dollars this way because it's not earning points. Well, actually, there are offers that you can earn points, but some of them are cashback. So now there's either cash back or increase point offers. So it depends on the offer and the type of card you have, because some cards might have it somewhere, but they're really great way to earn points or offset your purchases. [00:36:33.850] - Kim Tate And like you said, so many are targeted. Like Tamara got this offer for a Marriott offer at one point on her Amex and mine. I didn't have it and I'm convinced it's because I had the Amex Marriott card. [00:36:42.870] - Tamara Gruber I don't know. [00:36:44.830] - Jennifer Yellin You'll never know. And sometimes you can even I remember I can't remember the exact offer, but it was like grocery stores and I spend $500 getting $100 offer, something like that. And I wasn't going to make $500 purchase in once because sometimes it's on a single purchase. So I just bought a $500 gift card there and then just use the gift card over the course of my shopping fees. So there are ways to kind of I don't know if scheme the system is the right term, but play the game. [00:37:13.460] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I mean, I do what you do, Kim, is when I'm shopping online, I'm like, wait, that might have an offer. Let me look. But the other thing with the gift cards is just simply like gifts, right. We give gifts and I buy gift cards for people all the time. And it's just like if it's something that you're spending anyway, just find a way to use to earn points on it, right? [00:37:34.430] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. Or be the one to pay the bill at the restaurant and have everyone to Mo you buy the class gifts or anything like that. Like everyone wonders why I'm always a class mom. It's to accrue all the money and then I can put all the purchases on her credit card. [00:37:49.320] - Tamara Gruber Love it. [00:37:49.910] - Jennifer Yellin Little things like that. [00:37:51.290] - Kim Tate Well, I know another big way to maximize points is with sign up bonuses. So could you give any final tips for people that are thinking of getting a new card, anything they should know about sign up bonuses or things to watch for, and then wrap it up with any final tips that you think people need to know about credit card points? [00:38:07.580] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. So one thing you want to make sure of is when you sign up for a credit card, make sure it doesn't have to be the best offer because you might be waiting around for a year for the best offer. But make sure it's a really good offer. I know we were speaking before and you said you apply for an offer that was like half of what it typically is. So when you see an offer, make sure it's a good value and it's going to provide you with enough points that you'll be happy with that. Even if a better offer comes along in a month or two. Pay attention to best offer. Some banks, actually, if you apply within a few weeks or maybe even a month, if you call them up and say this better offer just came out, will you match it? They may or may not match it for you, but it's always worth a try. You never know. Some banks have kind of different fools and they change every so often also. But if you're looking for a credit card right now and specifically for family travel. The Southwest Credit Card actually has one of the best offers where you'll earn the Southwest Companion Pass. [00:39:05.500] - Jennifer Yellin I don't know if you guys have discussed the Southwest Companion Pass much on the podcast, but it's definitely one of my favorite travel features. And it allows someone to fly with you for free in a limited number of times. I've been a passholder for the past 13 or 14 years at this point. And it's like the most amazing thing ever. So that's one of my favorite offers right now. If you live in a Southwest hub, if you don't live near Southwest, then it's not worth it. [00:39:33.520] - Kim Tate And I'll chime in and just say that we did cover quite extensively about that Southwest offer and stuff with Lynne and that's episode 181. If anybody wants to go back and listen to that awesome. [00:39:43.960] - Jennifer Yellin Yes, she's an expert and everything's Southwest as well. So that's one thing right now, credit card offers are changing all the time. I think Marriott just came out with something last week, United as well. So it's like hard to even keep track. But sometimes even just like Googling best credit card offers from the experts. You'll get pages, but make sure it's really the best and not just them pushing you on the best when it might not be. [00:40:11.950] - Kim Tate Yeah, I definitely think that I've done that where especially if I have a big purchase, like, oh, I'm buying a new camera or we're about ready to take a big trip and I'm going to be putting a lot of charges. I kind of go and I say, okay, best credit card offers for March 2022 or whatever. And of course, it's the points guy, nerd wallet, upgraded points. [00:40:31.310] - Tamara Gruber Like all those guys. [00:40:32.280] - Kim Tate And so it's kind of good to just read through those and kind of see which ones are popping up. And they definitely, you'll know, because it's not just an offer. Like they'll write a whole article about this amazing offer is one of the best we've seen lately, that sort of stuff. [00:40:45.640] - Jennifer Yellin Right? Absolutely. And also just another tip is make sure you can meet the minimum spend requirements. Some of the credit cards are 1000 $2,000 in three months, six months. But the Capital One Venture X card right now, for example, is like, I think it's $10,000. So that might not be obtainable for most families. [00:41:04.130] - Kim Tate Exactly. [00:41:04.910] - Jennifer Yellin So it just makes it something you can do. [00:41:07.420] - Kim Tate Those business cards can sometimes have really high spends. Because I've looked at doing a business card, sometimes I'm just like, there's just no way I can spend that right now. [00:41:15.240] - Jennifer Yellin Right. [00:41:16.170] - Kim Tate Although I know that's a whole other expert level of people who do credit or gift card buy and resell to do that. So that's a whole other level. [00:41:24.990] - Jennifer Yellin Yes, it is. If you're interested in that, go to Greg at the Frequent Mile or he is crazy when it comes to this. But awesome attitude. [00:41:32.530] - Tamara Gruber One of the things that I'm thinking about. As I'm listening to you guys, I'm thinking about what I have an upcoming trip where I'm going to be spending a lot of money and some of that's already on one of my credit cards. But maybe I should look into what bonuses are up right now. But it makes me think about when you want to churn your cards. And we obviously talked about signing up, you and your husband for a card and signing up for this card in that card. And it's like, at what point are too many cards? Like too many? Like, how long do you keep it before you get rid of it? Are there considerations to think about in terms of your credit or just eligibility for future cards? That just to make people aware of? [00:42:10.930] Sure. [00:42:11.520] - Jennifer Yellin So as long as you're responsible with your credit cards, for the most part, credit cards are not going to hurt your credit. I mean, you'll see people who have 50 credit cards and they still have these awesome 800 credit scores. If you're applying for a mortgage to get a house in a few weeks, don't apply for a credit card right now. Right. So there's definitely or even any loan I wouldn't recommend applying for a credit card. Wait. And then go and get it. In regards to when you should cancel, if you're not getting value out of your credit card, cancel it's not going to hurt you or downgrade to a no annual fee. For example, if you have the Chase Sapphire preferred card and you find that the $95 annual fee is not worth it anymore, first of all, call and see if they'll do something for you. A lot of times they might say, okay, if you spend $1,000, we'll give you a $95 credit. You just never hurt. I know. Last year I think I ended up getting about $500 back from American Express amongst a lot of my credit cards. I know COVID played a hand in that. [00:43:16.470] - Jennifer Yellin But always call and see. And if not, then see if there's a car that you can downgrade it to, and then there won't be a Ding on your credit report. I mean, it also depends on what your current credit score is. And sometimes you might get a Ding, but it will go back up in a few months. So there's a few factors depending on. [00:43:34.050] - Kim Tate Yeah, it's like ten point Ding, and it does pop right back up because we've had that opening up a credit card kind of opens up. [00:43:40.310] - Jennifer Yellin Gives you more credit, which creditors like, too. [00:43:43.520] - Kim Tate So opening up credit cards is not a bad thing unless you're applying for a big mortgage. They don't like to see your capital, your accessibility too high, right? [00:43:53.510] - Jennifer Yellin Absolutely. And then Chase also has Chase and American Express have different rules in place. So I'm not sure if you've discussed Chase is 524. [00:44:01.800] - Kim Tate Yeah, we talked about that. [00:44:03.530] - Jennifer Yellin So you've applied for five or more cards. Usually they're personal cards, but sometimes they throw business cards into it, too. Chase will automatically not approve you for another credit card. I've seen some reports that that might be changing, actually. So we'll kind of see what happens over the next few months. But that's one thing to keep in mind. It's five or more cards in 24 months, I think I said. And then American Express also doesn't allow you to get the welcome offer for I believe it's like once in a lifetime, but once it falls off your credit report, they might not know. So might be like seven years. So those are things to kind of keep in mind. That's why you want to apply when the offer is the best, because if it's not and you're going to be losing out on points if a new offer comes around and then you're not able to get it and you're no longer a card holder. [00:44:48.390] - Tamara Gruber I have one more question for you, because now I'm just going to use you as my personal source for information if you want to get an additional card for someone in your family. So, for example, I have a 17 year old that we've been waiting till she turns 18 to get a credit card for her. And we've been debating like, do you get her own credit card or do we put her on one of ours? Do we get another one of the capital one cards? Any tips for if you're adding somebody in your family, maybe a first card? Is there any advantage, like kind of getting points from them versus kind of setting them up on their own? [00:45:24.660] Sure. [00:45:25.100] - Jennifer Yellin So just remember, if someone is an authorized user, you're responsible for all of their credit card habits. So if the credit card bill is not paid or if anything happens, it kind of can hit you. So just something to keep in mind with teenagers. But I actually personally don't know a lot about the high school age and what credit cards you can and cannot apply for for that age. I'm not there yet, fortunately. But setting someone up as an authorized user, I think some credit cards you can maybe do as early as 13, you can add them on. And that actually helps them as well build their own credit score. So it's always a great thing to get add on authorized users if they're not eligible to get their own credit card. And then when they are to get them, there are various student credit cards, and a lot of times those comes with $300 spend limits or very low thresholds that you might want for your child. But yeah, definitely getting them set up will only help their credit score, which can then ultimately help them in their 20s to apply for a credit card. [00:46:26.470] - Jennifer Yellin That will be useful. But there are a lot of student credit cards out there that do give you points and miles. [00:46:32.810] - Kim Tate They do come with a really high annual fee or not annual fee interest rate. Normally, that's the only bad thing. We actually added my husband and my daughter, both as authorized users with my Amex Platinum Tamara, because of the lounge access. So now, especially if they're changing it, we're going to get Mia. And that'll be my maxed on three, because with Amex Platinum, you get three authorized users for $175 total. So you pay the $175 and then they get all the lounge benefits as well. Are they changing the lounge that you can no longer guests unless you spend like $75,000 starting in January of 2023? I think you don't get anywhere. Is that right, Jennifer? I think that's right. [00:47:15.840] - Jennifer Yellin That I don't know. [00:47:17.100] - Kim Tate Okay. [00:47:17.820] - Jennifer Yellin Sorry. [00:47:18.780] - Kim Tate No, you're fine. [00:47:19.580] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah, but I will say that the expensive credit cards a lot of times you have to pay to add an authorized user, but no annual fee or low annual fee credit cards. Usually you can add a few authorized users for no fee. [00:47:33.380] - Kim Tate Great. Well, one of our questions that we ask all of our guests is what do you wear when you travel? So do you have any favorite brands that you want to tell us about when you travel? [00:47:41.020] - Jennifer Yellin Sure. I travel as comfortably as possibly. And I also wear my everyday clothes, which consists of black as leader pants, which is side pockets, like those leggings. And then you can put your cell phone or any cars. Side pockets are a necessity. Once I found them, like two years ago, I can never go back. And sneakers or flip flops, depending on the weather. Nothing fun and exciting. [00:48:05.480] - Tamara Gruber Well, you're brave wearing flip flops on the plane. [00:48:07.370] - Kim Tate My feet are always freezing. [00:48:09.230] - Jennifer Yellin Yeah, that is a good point. It depends on the length of it's. Just like an hour flight that's going to be different. But you're right. I used to travel for work every single week for many years. And I would always be traveling like those high heels and hated every second of it. I would get off the plane and go straight to the client site for the week. And now I just want to be comfortable. [00:48:28.770] - Kim Tate And everyone has those little packable ballet flats that you can just pop in and out. Yeah. [00:48:34.610] - Tamara Gruber I'm happy, though. So work travel days are behind me, too. And just like work dress in general has changed. [00:48:41.210] - Jennifer Yellin Oh, yeah. I got rid of all of my stuff, never going back. [00:48:44.640] - Kim Tate Good. [00:48:45.030] - Tamara Gruber Well, can you remind our listeners where they can find you online or learn more about points? [00:48:51.120] - Kim Tate Absolutely. [00:48:51.940] - Jennifer Yellin So you can find me at my blog Deals We Like. You can also find me on Twitter or Facebook. Everything is at Deals We Like. And then also I'm a freelance contributor at the Point Sky and CNN Underscore. So I have some great articles there as well. That where you can learn more about credit cards, family travel, anything in the points and miles world. [00:49:10.850] - Tamara Gruber Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge with us. It's always really great when we can get an expert on and just kind of brainstorm some ideas. Hopefully people will have something new that they can try to get them a little bit closer to their next kind of dream trip. [00:49:25.130] - Kim Tate Thanks for having me. It was great chatting with you. [00:49:27.320] - Announcer Thanks. [00:49:27.630] - Tamara Gruber You too. [00:49:31.850] - Kim Tate Well, as always, thanks for joining us for another week here and I have a little request. Tamara, I was looking at our podcast page the other day and I noticed that we were almost at 100 reviews. We are really close so I'm going to do a little bag from all of our lovely listeners and ask you guys if you're willing if you love our show, if you would leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast app, the one I looked on was Apple podcast. But wherever you're at or listen to us, if you'd leave us a positive review, we'd love it. We love hearing from you guys and I'd love to see that switch to 100 reviews. [00:50:05.780] - Tamara Gruber That would be great. I know we've been at this for almost six years and actually by the time it comes out it will be six years and we're just really bad about asking for reviews. We definitely appreciate it. I know some podcasts every day it's like the first thing that you hear is like leave us a review but we would appreciate it. We'll give you shout outs online. We'll read them especially if they're nice, but even if they're not nice, we will read them mindful of it but otherwise stay tuned because next episode we're going to be talking about sustainable travel and I think that is also on a lot of people's minds as we're getting back out there and how to be responsible and thinking about things in a more sustainable way. So join us next time talk to you again soon. Bye.

Family travel adventurer Karilyn Owen, from NoBackHome.com, shares her love of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California. Find out why you should look beyond Yosemite to these lesser visited National Parks. Tamara also shares a some new attractions in New York City that you should check out if you are planning a visit soon. About Karilyn Owen Karilyn, the founder of the popular family travel blog No Back Home, is a writer, photographer and influencer sharing her family's adventures at home in Southern California and around the world to inspire other families to get out and explore, even if it's just in their own city. Karilyn and her nature-obsessed 11 year old focus on hiking, backpacking, camping, hands-on learning and seeking out the world's beauty wherever they find themselves. Karilyn has traveled to 50 countries on her own and to 35 with her son. Follow Karilyn on Instagram. Read Karilyn's blog posts about: Kings Canyon Scenic Byway Camping in Kings Canyon Visiting Sequoia National Park in the winter Sequoia National Park in one day Tips for Visiting Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks Sequoia and Kings Canyon are actually two separate national parks, but they are operated together They are south of Yosemite and many people will extend a trip to Yosemite to include Sequoia and Kings Canyon, but they have enough to make for a good stand alone trip, even for multi-generational families They offer huge sequoia forests, granite canyons, and rivers If you wanted to fly out for a trip, the largest major airport would be Los Angeles (LAX) and it is about a 3-4 hour drive from there. You can also connect and fly into Fresno, CA Sequoia is good to visit any time of year and you can go snowshoeing and you can drive all the way into the park (in the summer you need to take shuttles) You need to visit Kings Canyon in the summer as the road that goes through the park closes after the first snow. Giant's Highway which connects the two parks is also closed in the winter. The roads generally open in late spring, as early as April and as late as June, depending on the snow You can drive from the Giant's Forest area of Sequoia to the main tourist area in Kings Canyon in about one hour, although it is another hour into the Canyon If you are doing just these two parks, you will want to stay three days or longer, especially if you are visiting in the summer when you are spending more time waiting for shuttles Some people will do Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia in one week The must-see places in Sequoia are: The Congress Trail - about 3 miles through the forest Morro Rock - climb up about 430 stairs to the top, sometimes people like to do this for sunrise Mt. Whitney is the highest mountain in the continental US but you need a permit to climb it as part of the John Muir Trail Big Trees Trail is great for kids because it is a boardwalk with signposts explaining the life cycle of the trees Topakah Falls - there aren't sequoias but it is a great trail that has a waterfall, you can see wildlife, and it isn't as crowded In Kings Canyon do Mist Falls trail, but not in the early season because the rivers are too high Sequoia and Kings Canyon don't currently require reservations to enter the park or permits for hikes beyond the John Muir Trail or backpacking Favorite camping sites: Camping is the best for both parks because the nearest towns are about 45 minutes away (without traffic) Sentinel Campground, open mid-May-September is best in Kings Canyon Lodge Pole in Sequoia is a good spot for families with plenty of amenities In the winter, stay in Three Rivers, near the entrance of Sequoia, and there are places to explore in town If you want to stay outside of Kings Canyon, there are Airbnbs in small towns outside of the park but the biggest large town with hotels would be Visalia, CA, about an hour - an hour and twenty minutes away If you are driving an RV or camper van, there are limitations on lengths/heights for both parks that you should check ahead of time before you go or book a rental A food truck called Gorilla Quesadilla in Three Rivers and a restaurant in Visalia that is delicious and large portions that make everyone happy Visalia is a great town because there are more restaurant options (there aren't any places inside of the parks) and you can also take an orange grove tour There have been a number of forest fires in recent years so you may want to avoid August and possibly September, and follow the National Parks on social media to get updates about smoke or park closings When you are visiting make sure to follow the Leave No Trace principles and bring in recyclable materials that you can easily pack back out because garbage is limited in the parks There are a lot bears in the park (especially Sequoia) so make sure to make a lot of noise as you are hiking, but luckily they are generally not aggressive. Make sure to store all food in bear lockers Bear spray is not allowed in the California National Parks There is not good cell service in the park so you may want to invest in a GPS tracker like a Garmin Inreach device Make sure you bring in enough water and food in case of an emergency Karilyn loves wearing wool and has been wearing a Wool And dress every day for the last year

This week we explore two regions of Portugal. One, the Algarve, is popular for its cliffs, beaches, and sea caves. The other, Alentejo, is lesser-known but serves as the breadbasket of Portugal and is a popular wine region. Our guest, Rachel Laidler, Head of Portugal for EPIC Travel, is an expert in both. About Rachel Laidler Rachel Laidler is the Head of Portugal for EPIC Travel, a custom travel agency that designs bespoke itineraries in Portugal and Morocco. EPIC focuses on luxury adventure travel and maintains close relationships with suppliers to provide clients with unique cultural experiences. You can follow EPIC Travel on Instagram at @epicbemore. Travel to Alentejo Alentejo is the largest region in Portugal, making up approximately one-third of the country. This is the region that is the "breadbasket" of Portugal. It is also a popular wine-making region. In Alentejo you can find some small fortified villages, vineyards, cork tree farms, and lots of open space. When visiting Alentejo, EPIC Travel can help match you with the best hotel or accommodations to suit your travel style. Depending on how much time you have, you can either stay in one location for 3-4 days or split your time between hotels with 2-3 days at each. Alentejo has some similarities with Tuscany in Italy, but it is more affordable and not a popular with tourists. The Alentejo is where to go to relax and enjoy nature and the products of the land. It is a good place to connect with local culture. Some of the popular towns to visit are: Evora, Monsaraz, and Estramoz A few of the activities you can enjoy in Alentejo are: cork trekking, star gazing, horseback riding, picnics, farm tours, wine tasting, hiking, and biking. Cork trekking is possible at Herdade da Maroteira A few hotels to consider include: Torre de Palma -- this hotel is family owned and run, each room is unique, you can watch the sunset from the top of the tower. Nearby you can visit Roman Ruins. On property there is one restaurant, a pool, stables for horse riding and carriage rides, and a full winery. The resort offers wine tasting, tours, classes, and blending workshops. São Lourenço do Barrocal -- this is a luxury hotel that has been in the same family for hundreds of years. While it is luxurious, it is not in your face or over the top. The people are very welcoming and friendly and the resort is laidback and comfortable, with understated style. The hotel has a farm and organic garden, as well as a winery. There are two restaurants, one is seasonal and outside under the trees. Activities include on-site pools, biking, hiking, horseback riding, star gazing, farm tours, family treasure hunts, an on-site spa, and other activities. There are cottages with two to three bedrooms that are ideal for families. Herdade da Malhadinha Nova -- this is a very large wine estate with three different styles of accommodations. One is adults-only and more contemporary, one is in the original farm house with smaller, more traditional rooms. The last is also arranged like a house with common spaces and set around a pool, but the rooms are larger and more contemporary with a minimalist style. The estate is spread out and has beautiful rolling hills and vineyards. On site you can enjoy horseback riding, wine tasting, 4x4 tours, picnics, yoga, and other daily activities. They can also arrange hot air ballooning. Travel to the Algarve The Algarve is the southern coast of the country and is famous for its cliffs, caves, and beaches. It is a very popular spot for British tourists, but there are plenty of spots to get away from the crowded tourist areas. EPIC recommends visiting the far east or far west sections of the Algarve, or visiting the surrounding mountains. Rachel recommends the towns of Lagos, Tavira, and Olhão. Some popular activities include active adventures in and out of the water like kayaking, surfing, stand up paddleboarding, biking, and hiking October is a great time to go to the Algarve because you still have the warmer weather but not the large crowds. Another great time to go in April (after Easter) through June. It is fun to cycle from one town the next and explore local towns along the way or do local activities Sagres is good for surfing Burgau is a colorful town with houses painted multi-colors. Morgado do Quintão is a great destination for families to stay away from the coast. There are villas on site with multiple bedrooms and private pools set on a vineyard. Casa Mãe in Lagos is another recommended spot in town and close to all the attractions but also offering a pool Casa Modesta is a family owned hotel that overlooks a natural park.