weekly travel challenge – Eat, Play, Live

Week 21: Not Quite the End

Week 21: Your challenge post highlights and what you’ve learned during this challenge

The Travel Challenge ends here but Travel Tuesday will still live on though. I have plenty of other posts I can fill on Tuesdays with such as:

Mocha’s Travelling Photos
More travel stories. Based on a lot of my posts I can certainly branch out.

Interview stories featuring other bloggers who work full-time jobs not related to blogging. It’s one of my favorite posts to put together because I get to interview different bloggers from all over the world. I’ve lived in Southern California for most of my life and I meet a lot of transplants who move to SoCal for greener pastures. I like to ask “how’s it like living in [fill in the blank]?” I get these perplexed look to why I am so curious. I’ve been posting these interviews on Mondays for Motivation Monday, but I think it is fitting Travel Tuesday.

During this Travel Blogging Challenge I was surprised to learn I’ve traveled more than I thought. It was nice to pull some old pictures from the vault and give them some life.

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

I learned through this travel challenge…and even through my travelling to not rush and see every country in the world. When I was in my 20s, I thought I got to go to this place, this place, and this place. But then I thought, if I really went to the places I wanted to go in my 20s, what is there left for me to do?

I drafted overly ambitious itineraries where there would goign through multiple cities and countries over the course of 2 days each. Then I revised it to something more realistic and we’d go on vacation and I’d wish we spend a few days more per stop.

“Rest and be thankful.”

Through this challenge, I’ve been an aggressive champion of taking breaks from work — whether it is taking a 15 minute break after every 90 minutes of work, a few hours of mental health breaks, or a few days off for vacation because you deserve it. The younger generation vacation shames because they praise work martyrdom to impress the upper management. Last Friday was my recent hit of vacation-shaming by a younger co-worker when she found out I was going on a week-long vacation. She goes “wow that’s a long time you may not have access to your work e-mail when you’re away.” First of all, it’s just one week (I wish it was two weeks) and second, it’s likely I won’t have access to my e-mail.

This same co-worker is going to Seattle to visit a friend on Friday and asked if she could remote in for work. Sure technology is great to be more connected to your job, but at this point we’re going too far. I was in Seattle for VACATION in May and did not remote in for a single meeting because it’s my vacation. Please cut the work addiction and take your PTO. When people are taking their time off, please respect it and face the fact they’re likely NOT going to respond.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foods
Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos
Week 7: Inspiration for traveling
Week 8: 5 Favorite Blogs
Week 9: Gross/disgusting travel stories
Week 10: Best adventures while traveling
Week 11: What’s in my backpack?
Week 12: Happy and Sad Travel Stories
Week 13: Unique Cultures Encountered
Week 14: Top 3 Travel Destinations
Week 15: Travel Regrets
Week 16: Scary and Cool Travel Stories
Week 17: Things to Purge
Week 18: Humbling things learned from traveling
Week 19: Travel Confessions
Week 20: Travel bucket list (countries/activities)

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
Simply Emily – Emily
Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Week 20: Travel bucket list (countries/activities)

First I want to say, this has been an awesome stomach-churning World Series between the Dodgers and the Astros. I did hope for a long series and they are certainly delivering. The games are running past my bedtime throwing off my daily schedule, but it’s been so exciting!

Ahh yes, my travel series is almost over. This week’s theme is “My Travel Bucket List.” I apologize for my post pre-maturely published earlier today, I was not quite done yet. Yikes! It was a brain dump! Plus I’ve been distracted watching the World Series.

Here is my bucket list of travel activities:

Go on an African Safari
Go to a country on the otherside of the equator — ahh so many choices!
Go to the 24 Hour Le Mans race (my husband’s idea)
Go to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. My husband said there’s also a car race too.
Go to a Christmas Market in Europe
Camp out in a foreign country
Go to Greece — because it has been on my lifelong thing to do since high school
Another lifelong dream is to see the Northern Lights. I hope we get to see some in November.
Go to all 50 states — so far I’ve been to 23.
Take a trip on the Trans-Siberian railway
…and finally, create a scrapbook of all my travel experiences and tips. Of course it will be volume 1 followed by volume 2 and so on. As of now, a lot of my experiences are floating around different notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. One day, I’d like to set some time to compile them all in one place.

What is your on your travel bucketlist?

Tahoe, 2014

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
Simply Emily – Emily
Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 19: Travel Confessions

Week 19: Confessions

For this post, I’ll list out a few travel confessions I am guilty of.

Sometimes I check my work e-mail during my vacation – Despite before my vacation I create an out-of-office reply, I check my e-mail and sometimes I *shudders* reply. When I was in Seattle in May, I kept checking e-mail on my phone until I was locked out. I took it as a sign I should stop looking at my work phone and enjoy my vacation, and going forward all my vacations. The last day of PTO was last week and I kept getting e-mails on a whereabouts for a projector during my day off. Gladly, I saw that e-mail when I came back to the office. It was a complete non-emergency — other departments have projectors available for loan.
I bring along a teddy bear for my travels – Yup, I bring a teddy bear around my travels. You’ll find more about Mocha, the travelling bear, for week 6 in the travel challenge. When we have kids, I hope they’ll find Mocha a wonderful gift. Psst…Vikki from Journey Through the Trees hosted Mocha in Montenegro for a week!
I’ve been pickpocketed once – I’ve been pickpocketed in Cinque Terre. It was one of the most embarassing things that has happened to me.
If we could, we would love to bring our dogs to our travels – I mean, just look at them! They’re a lot of fun!
We are not too old to travel – Blah, blah, blah… I always get the question, when are you having kids. We’ll have kids eventually and when we do, we’ll be sure…
Our kids travel will too – How are we going to afford that? Great question. We’re ok if we have to eat eggs, bread, and apples for a while. They’re not going to know the difference. I hope they learn to appreciate what a big world this is.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
Simply Emily – Emily
Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 18: Learn a Language

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

– Nelson Mandela

Week 18: Humbling things learned from traveling

When I go outside of a (non-English speaking) country, I am impressed to the locals who can speak English and speak English well. Also I feel guilty and embarassed on the behalf of America. If you go to America, you’ll find people speak English and nothing else. I wish in America we invested more in foreign language learning and culture immersion.

In America, majority of students learn foreign language in high school. The minimum requirement to study a foreign language is 2 years and majority do not retain it. I have a coworker who had two kids take Spanish classes since they were in kindergarten to their senior year of high school. They went on a trip to Mexico and their kids forgot all their Spanish. I was surprised because I would think if you took so many years of formal study you’d be able to speak Spanish professionally at the work place.

When I was at high school, I took four years of French and I chose to retain it. I worked hard to retain it; I continue to read in French, write even though I have no one to write to, listen to French movies and music, and if I come across someone who is native of France or other Franchophone nations, I make conversation. It’s been my gateway for the love of language.

Whenever I plan a trip to a foreign country, I study the language enough to get myself by — I learn numbers, asking for things I want, food, directions, salutations, where’s the bathroom, etc. I know there is a highly likely chance the locals will interact with in English. Languages I learned were Khmer, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian, German, and…currently Spanish and Icelandic. Spanish because naturally, I live in Los Angeles. It would certainly help me professionally as long as I work in human services field. My goal with Spanish is to be as proficient as French. I am learning Icelandic because we’re going to Iceland.

And people ask me why am I making this effort. When I was in university, I met a lot of international students who studied in America learning American university, culture, and you guessed it…English. Doesn’t it make sense the other way around?

For examples, you go to Paris because love the Eiffel tower, macarons, the food, buildings, culture, etc. but it’s surprising that those who go to Paris don’t dare learn the language. Also think about other places in the world. If you don’t make any effort to learn a bit of the language — isn’t that a dick move to show you don’t care and you’re a lingo-centric jackhole?

Also don’t make excuses that the [fill in the blank] language is hard. English is hard and so many internationals make an effort to learn English to make their foot in America because it’s the language of opportunity and money. When I interview international students for internship position, I think it’s brave of them to go through an interview in English, their second (third, or fourth) language.

Also you can say I am an aspiring polyglot. I think it is badass to have learned and applied so many languages over the years. I get to open up and speak to more people.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2012)

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
Simply Emily – Emily
Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 17: Leaving books behind

This week’s topic for the Weekly Travel Challenge is “Things to Purge.”

When I travel for work, I like to bring a couple of books with me to read to keep myself entertained during my train ride or flight. I like to give my eyes a break from looking at screens all day. I cherish those moments because it gives me time to breathe after running around at work all day.

Whenever I finish a book during my travel, I like to leave them around at public spaces hoping it would be picked up by the next person. The last book I left was on Thursday, I was taking a train to Irvine for a work-related conference. I finished The Wangs vs. The World by Jade Chang during my train ride and decided leave the book on the train.

Why do I let go of my books?

The obvious answer is I have less stuff to carry around, but importantly, I believe in sharing my books to the world.

Maybe I just have this romantic idea that whoever picks up the book, would find it a nice surprise.

I hope they may find inspiration and open up their mind. In this case, with The Wangs vs. the World, they would be inspired to take a cross-country road. Or learn not all Asians are good in math or science.

…or maybe whoever picks it up, they donate it to the library and it’s borrowed by someone else.

…or it ends up in the lost-and-found bin.

…or it ends up in the trash. Maybe someone dumpster dives?

That’s the book’s journey.

I left a few books this year in cafes, little free libraries, train stations, and other public spaces wondering who will read it next.

What do you let go?

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
Simply Emily – Emily
Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 15: Focus on the present and what is good

Week 15: Travel Regrets

My travel regret is to have never done a study abroad whether it was a yearlong or even a week. This is a MAJOR thing I wished I changed in my twenties. At the time I was working as a waitress to pay for the school items, rent, entertainment, clothes, and whatever my financial aid could not cover. If I could afford to take an (unpaid) internship even if it’s 8 hours per week, I would.

And ugh…the biggest one was…at the time I was in an on-and-off relationship that should have ended 2 months in my sophomore year but lasted for an awful, tumultuous 2 years. That was a waste of time. Once I broke free, I enjoyed the remainder of what was left of my university years. All the things I did before dating that guy were on hiatus. Before that guy, I went to France, Japan, Canada, and 24 of the states in the U.S. and wanted to go to more.

If I were to turn back the clock to my freshmen year, I would not mind being single and NOT dating anybody all four years. I’d be happier and I would not have to “stay put” to fix anything. Maybe I would have traveled abroad during my college years even if it means my diet would consist of only ramen noodles, spinach, and apples.

Instead wistfully thinking of all the things I could have done right during my university years, I am going to focus on the present and what is good.

After university, I was lucky I found a full-time professional job two weeks after graduation. It was 2009 and we were still in the recession. There were not a lot of entry level professional jobs at the time. It looks like my superpower was that I knew people and these people I worked well. I knew people who boasted extensive resume of internships during their university years who still could not find a job for a year after graduation.

Also of course through my 20s I traveled a fair amount. I went to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, New York, Italy, Costa Rica, and in November I’m going to Iceland. I’ve revisited a lot of national parks, camped out a few nights, revisited San Francisco and Seattle many times over, and oh yeah…we went to Portland.

I may have not had that dream university experience but that is ok. After college, I worked really hard to get that life I wanted and it was more than I ever ask for. Maybe that is why I am ambivalent about grad school. I am simply enjoying life.

Status on grad school? About that, I applied and they asked for letters of recommendations and I could start in spring. For me, it gave me some time to incubate my thoughts. Between July to now, I was so exhausted with my work travel and the feel of being pulled in so many directions. I barely gave it any thought. In fact, I realized with my work load at that time, how would I dedicate my time to school if I am feeling so burnt out all the time? I plan to continue to work full-time while doing my Master’s, but my concern is what if I’m not too putting in my all because I’m tired all the time.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 11: Packing for my trip

Week 11: What’s in my backpack?

My trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon is happening in a couple of weeks. This post could not happen in a more timely manner because I need to get organized and start packing!

The last time I went to Sequoia was back in 2012 with a few friends. We backpacked 4 miles up a mountain and made camp by this lake. It was beautiful to have this crystal clear lake as our front yard for a few days.

What am I packing in my backpack?

Backpack: Osprey from REI

There’s another backpack I’ll pack: this little daypack for our day trips from Outdoor Products. It’s been my standby for my 52 Hike Challenge since the beginning of the year. As you can see, Teddy is sniffing through my daypack because I have…

…loads and loads of snacks! These are not for you, Teddy — and for any dog!

I love RXBars! I always carry these on my hiking trips because they’re delicious. I can’t wait to share these with my friends!

Then there’s trail mix and dried fruits — more staple snacks for my hikes.

Teddy insists to be in the photoshoot. I mean comes he back again. This is good. Teddy clearly markets to me (and to the blog) that modeling is one of his skills.

Of course in my backpack, I pack dog treats during the hikes. It keeps them motivated

Notes to self: I need to buy another bag of dental chews. Not pictured is their dog food and Teddy’s camera bashful brother, Koda.

Beauty products — as you can see I use them. Starting with the Garden Godess Suncreen and clockwise:

Garden Goddess Sunscreen – It’s a physical sunscreen and I warn you, you need to scrub hard to remove it. Otherwise it’s great for the outdoors.
Trader Joe’s Green Tea Soap
Lush Seanik Solid Shampoo – This has been wonderful for travel. No more bulky bottles!
Sappo Hill Bar Soap in Oatmeal – I use this to wash my face.
Heritage Store Rosewater and Glycerin water – Great as a toner!
Odacite facial oil in Blueberry and Jasmine – Odacite is one of my favorite skin care brands because it’s so effective. This one is one of my favorites because it smells nice.
Aura Cacia Nightime Baobab oil – My night time oil
Alba Botanica Senstive Mineral Sunscreen – I use this for my face daily before makeup
Target brand contact lense solution

More beauty products to pack:

Nourish Organics Eye Treatment Cream – I love how this feels around my eyes!
One Love Organics Dry Shampoo – I won’t be surprise if I use this for most days.
Evanhealy Lemongrass Face Polish – I like to use this in the morning or at night. It smells nice!
Schmihdt’s Deodorant in Lavender and Sage – My favorite deodorant so far!

For entertainment, I will pack the Exploding Kittens Card game. It’s been a hit in parties and it’s easy to pack.

I will also pack a bullet journal to record any inspiration and collect stickers and other memorabilla. I picked up this paperback book at a used bookstore a couple of days ago. I got this because I like Kashuo Ishiguro and it’s paperback so it’s easy to travel with.

This is clearly not everything for the camping trip. After reviewing the photos, I did not picture my lavender oil — which is effective in getting rid of bug bites, bug spray, sleeping bag, tent, and food.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 10: Some of my many favorite adventures

Week 10: Best adventures while traveling

I am going to begin this post but going off-topic. My friend who I’ve known since my college years inquired about starting a blog. We met in LA and it’s funny how we kept in touch after all these years. I moved to San Diego, she moved to Monterey Bay. I moved back to LA, and she moved back to El Salvador. I think she should go for it :-).

It’s Travel Tuesday and I am halfway through the challenge. So far it’s been fun writing all about my adventures and an excuse to pull out some old photos. I am not sure how to organize this post, so why not just list down my many favorite adventures!

Monteverde Cloud Forest Tour – This was from my Costa Rica trip last year. I loved how everything was so green and the fauna was so diverse!

Ziplining – When you are in Costa Rica, you got to go zip-lining. It’s quite a unique 360 experience of the absorbing the rainforest around you.

Going on a boat –– really any activity on a boat is fun. Unless you get seasick.

Me on a boat from Amalfi to Capri

Taking public transit – I enjoy taking the train whether it’s Amtrak at home, the Trenitalia in Italy, or the subway in Paris.

Hiking the Amalfi Coast, National Parks, cities — hike anywhere really… Just go outside!

Mt. Tre Cali at Amalfi Coast

Yosemite, CA

Sequoia, Kings Canyon, CA

Me wandering around Florence, Italy

A lot of times, my adventures are local. I like going to quirky events like the Lego exhibit in Glendale, driving all the way down to San Pedro after work to see the large rubber duck, or taking the subway to downtown LA to see large inflatable bunnies.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 9: Gross/disgusting travel stories

Thankfully I do not have the photo of the aftermath of this action but I do have a photo of the mall in Bangkok where it happened. Look Mocha even makes a cameo.

If anyone has been to Southeast Asia, you get the advisory everywhere you go to not drink the tap water. Even if you are rinsing your mouth with water, use bottled water not the water from your hotel sink — I just did not want to try it out.

I was wandering around a mall in Thailand and there was a man in front of me who appeared to be a tourist, he stopped walking and threw up. I concluded maybe he drank the water… or maybe he had spoiled fruit. That was enough for me to NOT entertain the idea of drinking the water for the remainder of my trip.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 7: Sometimes you just have to go somewhere…

Week 7: Inspiration for traveling

Alaska road trip, 2004

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

What inspires me to travel? Good question. I wasn’t sure how to present this prompt because what is that bug that makes me want to go? There are a couple different stories that tie in to what inspires me to travel. One part, I talk about my childhood and how my family traveled a lot so it was…natural. The second part in this post, I talk about adulthood and how sometimes you just need to get away.

I’ve traveled for as long as I remembered. If you go back even further, my parents have always traveled. My parents are Filipinos who emigrated from the Philipines to live in…you guessed it…the Middle East — Iraq to be exact in the 80s. Following a few years later, they moved to…you’re right again…to Germany! Following that they moved to the United States and I was born and we stayed here since.

The life my parents led before they settled in the United States, their travel bug was intrinsic because they were looking for wherever they could find work. All those countries they lived in, including the United States are all far different from each other across all levels from the geography, topography, language, culture, religion, way of life, architecture etc. I would like to think they passed this travel bug to me and I just did not know it for a long time.

Alaska road trip, 2004

Growing up we did some air travel, but we did a whole lot of road trips across America in the summer time. The car rides were long so I did my summer assignments in the car from English literature, chemistry, physics, . From child to teenager, I did not really appreciate them until I was older because to me I saw them as extremely long car rides. I’m sure your child’s angst and restlessness was also hard on my parents.

As an adult, in retrospect, I do appreciate those experiences more because I can share those stories everywhere I go.

In college, I wanted to do a study or volunteer abroad program but I never got round to doing it because I cold not afford it. That was a my biggest travel regret.

Alaska road trip, 2004

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

After college, I started working full time. In my first year of working professionally, I did not take a single day of vacation. I felt I was in that rat race paying my student loans, debt, and bills and worrying about having enough money to pay for rent. I also lived with roommates but it did not alleviate my financial situation.

In retrospect, forgoing paid time (PTO) off is silly because as part of my benefits, I get 2 weeks of paid time off each year and I chose not to use it. If you think about, for not using my PTO, I was letting myself work for free for 2 weeks each year. Like many Americans, I felt being a work martyr was easier.

Last year, my supervisor told me I accrued 230+ hours and I was about to reach my ceiling where I would stop accruing PTO. I had a choice to either take more PTO going forward or I can cash it out. Cashing it out was tempting, but those checks would be taxed and I would no longer have the much-needed days off. Between the two, I chose the former. Because I don’t want to stop earning hours, I take days off and that has been my kick since then. Each month I take one day off a month to take a “mental health day”. One day won’t give me a trip to Costa Rica, but I can drive across town and hike somewhere I haven’t been before.

Some months I’ll take multiple days off and I tell my husband “let’s go somewhere” — it doesn’t have to be far. It does not have to be fancy nor in the top of our bucket lists either. Because we are trying to save money to remodel the house, we choose a destination because it’s cheap or we found a really good deal. Tentative for Thanksgiving weekend, we are planning a trip to the Bay Area to visit friends. Tentative for the week of Christmas and New Years, a few days in Vancouver.

Alaska road trip, 2004

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foods
Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 5: Bangkok, Los Angeles, Naples

Week 4 of the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge: Top 3 Cultural Foods

“Travel Tuesday” is a back and I am so excited to post this set because my favorite thing about travel is the food. Here are my Top 3 Cities with the best food.

Bangkok, Thailand

I was in Southeast Asia back in 2012 exploring Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam…and I had a brief, less-than-24-hour stint in Hong Kong. I have to say, Bangkok has AMAZING food or my friend who lives in Bangkok took me to all these great places. Maybe because I was young, I loved how places opened late and there were still people around. It reminded me of living Los Angeles when I was in college. At the time, I lived in sleepy San Diego for about 3 years and being in Bangkok made me miss the liveliness of living in the city.

I have to say, fruit in the food stands in Thailand was good. Keeping the fruit under the shade makes all the difference. It was a contrast in buying fruit laying out in the sun from a stand in Cambodia.

Naples, Italy

This was from our long overdue honeymoon in Italy. We went to Italy in September 2015 — our wedding was in October 2014. See, overdue. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast. Out of all the cities, Naples had the best food and the most diverse. Naples had the best pizza — after all, that is where pizza was invented. My favorite snack (from this whole trip!) was this fried seafood medley.

Los Angeles, CA

I know, I live in Los Angeles, but I feel no matter what your budget is you can find really, good food. Sometimes the saying “you get what you pay for” does not apply in food in Los Angeles.

I love how I can always somehow find food reminiscent of my travels somewhere in LA. If I want Neapolitan style pizza, I can go to Midici’s down the street from my house. If I want kanom krok, I can find it in a Thai stand in Grand Central Market.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures

Who else is doing the challenge?

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 2: Little known travel tips

On this week’s Travel Blogging Challenge, I’ll be sharing a few travel tips I have come up with on my own based on my own experiences so here is what I’ve learned so far.

Tip 1. When packing, roll up your clothes. It takes up less space

Tip 2. On on the days when I am flying, I dress lightly for airport security. The term “dressing lightly” can mean different things to different people.

For me, my definition of dressing lightly is wearig things like workout clothes or lounge wear — especially if it’s an overnight flight. I want to be comfortable and sleep during these long flights.

I also dress “lightly” even if I am going somewhere on a one-day work trip. I want to keep my attire simple and avoid changing when I arrive. I always think slacks, blouse, and flats (or maybe a little a heel). Depending on the weather, I wear either a cardigan or a sports coat.

Tip 3. It is preferable get to the airport earlier when you can.

I hate coming the airport frazzled. I’m getting older, I’m not as nimble as I use to be. I want to enjoy that time to find some food (Peet’s Tea and Coffee is my go-to) and read a good book to rewind.

Tip 4. When planning for your trip, write your wishlist. It helps you plan better — especially when you are planning trips to countries because “the tickets were cheap.”

For examples, last year we went to Costa Rica because Southwest was having a sale and they were starting to do international flights. I was having that itch to go somewhere out of the U.S. so I bought tickets to fly to Costa Rica. At the time of planning I never really looked into Costa Rica but I heard nothing but good things from friends who went. So based on my “research” of asking around and going through Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences, I decided activities like ziplining and going to the cloud forest needed to be on the itinerary.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Costa Rica, 2015

Tip 5. I think this is applicable to city centers but when exploring the take public transit, go by foot — it forces you to be closer to the ground. It makes you explore things you otherwise won’t see when driving around in a car.

What are your own travel tips?

Follow the rest of the my Travel Blogging challenge posts:

Week 1: Your favorite travel photo of you and intro

Who else is doing the challenge?

Journey Through the Trees – Victoria

Wandering Outside the Box – Winta

Interested in participating? Feel free to make your own!

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

“Rest and be thankful.”

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If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

– Nelson Mandela

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What do you let go?

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What am I packing in my backpack?

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