Pet-Friendly Vacations: 10 Tips for Traveling with Dogs

Henry and Charlie in New York City.

For some of us, our pets are like our family and we don’t like to be separated from them for too long.  When we travel, the only thing that really makes us want to come home is being able to see our two tiny dogs again.  So, while we don’t always travel with our pets, we are always looking for travel opportunities like weekend getaways where we can bring our dogs along.  However, traveling with pets is no walk in the park.  Here are our 10 tips for traveling with dogs to make your pet-friendly vacations as stress-free and enjoyable as possible.

10 Tips for Jet Lag Prevention for International Travelers

Jet lag.  Jet lag is the enemy of all travelers, especially those who, like us, work full-time and only have a week or two to get the most out of their vacation.  We’ve been traveling for almost 15 years together and fighting jet lag for the same amount of time.  I’ve always been a little better at preventing jet lag than Romeo, mostly because he really enjoys a good nap on vacation.  Over the years, we have learned the hard way how to prevent jet lag so we can hit the ground running.

Packing Tips and Travel Style: PACK Gear

There are lots of different travel packing styles.  Some travelers roll their clothes.  Some use packing cubes.  Some fold their clothes in an intricate overlapping fashion which could rival origami.  Some just throw everything into a suitcase and sit on it until it zips shut.  We recently tried out a new style of organized packing with PACK Gear to see what kind of difference it could make in our travel packing style.

Winter Travel Packing List: What to Pack for Outdoor Activities

The thing about travel is it’s constantly taking you out of your comfort zone.  Which is awesome.  But it also means that sometimes you have no idea how to best prepare for a situation.  For us, that moment came when we were preparing for our trip to Swedish Lapland.  We live in San Diego, home of some of the most beautiful and temperate weather in the United States. What did we know about winter travel to the Arctic Circle?  Not much.  We were not only planning travel to freezing temperatures, but we were also planning to spend much of our time outside enjoying winter outdoor activities.  What to wear?  It was important to get it right so we weren’t miserable.  We put together a winter travel packing list that served us well for enjoying our winter outdoor activities.

Travel Tip: Offsite Airport Parking

Our home airport, San Diego (SAN).

Three things most of us dread being asked by friends and family are to borrow money, help move, and drop off and pick up at the airport.  We can’t help you get out of all three of those dreaded requests, but we can help with one of them.  The next time you need to get to the airport, instead of asking your loved ones to wake up before the crack of dawn to get you to the airport in time for your 6:00 a.m. flight, consider reserving an offsite airport parking spot through Global Airport Parking.

Packing Tips and Travel Style: The Ultimate Duffel Bag

My new Incase EO Duffel making its debut at Denver's the ART hotel.

We learned the hard way that while traveling, a rolling checked bag and a rolling carry-on bag are just not the way to go.  You can get away with it if you have a rental car or will be traveling from the airport to your hotel's front door without relying on public transportation.  However, that rarely happens and those rolling pieces of luggage become more of a hindrance than a luxury.  This lesson changed our travel style and we now travel with a rolling checked bag and a carry-on duffel bag which we can strap over our shoulders or rest on top of our rolling bag.

We’re Covered?! Travel Insurance You Might Not Know You Have

When you travel, do you always buy travel insurance?  I’ll be honest, we travel frequently and yet we rarely purchase travel insurance.  Now I am not in any way suggesting you should forego buying trip insurance.  Travel insurance can be a good idea.  (When we do buy travel insurance, we purchase ours through World Nomads.)  However, if you are like us and occasionally travel without insurance, you should know if something happens you may still have protection, which is why I’m sharing with you the time we had to cancel our international travel plans for medical reasons and learned we were unknowingly covered by trip cancellation and trip interruption protection through our Chase credit card.

Travel Tips and Inspiration from the San Diego Travel & Adventure Show

The Travel & Adventure Show is a series of travel shows in seven cities across the United States, with San Diego being the newest addition. We attended the inaugural San Diego Travel & Adventure Show and got to listen to some inspirational travel speakers including Samantha Brown, Patricia Schultz, and Jorge Meraz. There were also a number of booths with representatives from tourism boards and tour companies, plus some fun activities like a rock climbing wall and a Segway course.

Samantha Brown’s “How to Travel Better”

My favorite speaker of the weekend was Samantha Brown, the girl with the best job in the world.  I was very excited to learn that she will be coming back to the Travel Channel with a new travel show.  Samantha Brown shared her tips on how to make travel count.

Is The Guidebook Dead? An Evening of Travel Tips with Pauline Frommer

Is the guidebook dead?  Pauline Frommer certainly doesn’t think so.  But the travel guidebook is evolving and the Frommers are working hard to make sure guidebooks are still relevant for the new generation of travel.  I was fortunate enough to attend a travel presentation and book signing featuring Pauline Frommer recently.  The travel presentation wasn’t a pitch for the guidebooks, but rather an evening of Ms. Frommer providing some really good travel tips, her pick for top 2014 travel destinations, and inspirational travel stories.