Travel Tips

Almost finished unpacking from our six weeks plus on the road July 29 - September 12.  While unpacking and thinking over this trip, I have gathered a few more tips on travelling to share with you.  

One tip I actually learned last year and applied this year:  Eat the "free" breakfast at the hotel, fill up on it...you paid for it.  For lunch, eat granola bars, nuts, raisins, dried or fresh fruit (we usually take a banana or apple with us from the breakfast bar).  For your dinner, figure out ahead of time what kind of food and where you want to eat. TripAdvisor is a good website for seeing what other travelers think is the best place in town.  This saves 30 minutes or so debating about where to go. Worked well this year!  Plus you're not over-eating by stopping for lunch.

Here's my other tips I gathered from this year's travels.

1. Bring one or two pairs of earrings; leave the rest of the jewelry at home you probably won't wear it!   This gives you option to buy some jewelry locally made....my favorite trip souvenir.

2. Bring plenty of moisturizer and lotion; leave the makeup at home.

3.  Bring the camera, battery charger and plenty of memory chips (in fact buy a 16 and you'll probably have enough room for all photos); leave the tripod at home.

4.  Bring plenty of kleenex, you always need more than you think.

5.  Bring 10 plus days of underwear; leave nothing at home.  Saves on how often you have to wash clothes.

6.  Bring comfortable and favorite clothes; leave the too-tight or have-to-be-ironed items at home.  You will never wear the stuff you don't like or feel very comfortable wearing, believe me.

7.  Bring two (possibly three) pairs of shoes/sandals; leave the dressy ones at home.  They will take up space in your vehicle that's needed for the wine you bought at the vineyards.  

8.  Bring a good emery board; leave the nail polish at home.  Somehow with traveling and with the differences in humidity, your nails may take a beating (chipped polish and broken nails) and a good emery board can make all things feel normal again.   

9.  Bring a heavy jacket/sweater and raincoat.  You may not need it, but will certainly regret it if you leave it at home.

10.  Buy a plug-in cooler for the car and a case of water bottles.  It saves on money and stops for refreshments.  Water is the best hydration anyway.  Bring 3-4 bottles into the motel room each night to cool in the refrigerator and then the cooler will keep them cool all the next day.

11.  Bring a family-sized package (24 ounces) of Twizzlers!  Somehow, we had one Twizzler left when we got home yesterday.  That's a miracle and/or a sign of good planning.  Ha-Ha!  

Happy Trails to you, until we meet again!