Thursday, October 31, 2024
31 Days of Halloween 2024
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Save Money for Travel While Booking Travel
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Stores you can shop at: Rakuten has, literally, hundreds of online merchants you can choose from, including a long list of travel merchants. Just a sampling of those include: TravelSmith, Holiday Inn, Avis, Alaska Airlines, Camping World, Orbitz, Air France, Delta Airlines, HomeAway and even SkyMall! Keep your eyes out for the Daily Double. Each day one awesome merchant offers double cash back on your purchases for the day.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Doing All the Fall Things
It's pumpkin spice season! Okay, I know a lot of us don't gauge the year in seasonal coffee drinks. It's fall, when the leaves turn, and the weather turns crisp, and we wear a jacket in the morning, and bring out our boots. If you're an autumn traveler like we are, it's a great time to do all the fun fall things before Halloween comes and some of these things go away.
Not only is it cheaper to travel in the fall, but there are fewer tourists everywhere and the shorter hours is actually made up for with shorter lines. This means you can sleep in a bit and also have early evenings if you want. Want to make the most out of your fall? Then here are some fun ways to celebrate the season and Halloween.
Corn maze
Pumpkin harvest
Farmers' market
Wine and beer festivals
Head Underground
And if you're looking for something interesting, but not scary (unless possibly seeing a rat or a bug scares you), the Paris Sewer Museum is a cool underground self-guided tour that's only 9 euros, and I promise there are no skeletons.
Go to a theme park
Most theme parks have a Halloween celebration of some sort. Here are the top ones, including how to save on admission if there's a way to:- Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Many park days at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland in Sept-Nov are cut short for this party that requires a special ticket to get in. From 7pm to midnight, many of the park guests come dressed in costume to enjoy 5 hours of trick-or-treating, dancing, nighttime thrill rides (only specific rides will be open during that time, not the whole park), Hall-o-wishes fireworks display, an all-villain musical show in front of the castle, villain meet and greets, amazing park decorations and, best of all, a special parade opened with the Headless Horseman on horseback. It’s all totally Disney and so out of their normal festivities that it’s worth putting off your vacation until that time of year.
- Knott's presents Knott's Scary Farm. Save significantly on your tickets by buying them online instead of at the gate.
- Universal puts on Halloween Horror Nights. While ticket prices don't waver, you're sure to get your money's worth while riding select rides and being scared out of your wits with roaming creeps, themed haunted houses and scare zones. It's like being in your very own horror movie.
- Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg offer up Howl-o-Scream. Much like Universal, they have scare zones, haunted houses and themed entertainment. You can't get cheaper tickets for this event either, but it'll scare your pants off, which you maybe can't put a price on.
- Legoland has spooky fun for the little ones with Brick-or-Treat. It includes trick or treating and the opportunity to dress-up and enjoy the park after it closes for the regular day. Tickets are separate from the main park admission, but totally fun!
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Easy To Pack Halloween Costumes
When you travel over Halloween, you might also be doing holiday activities where you'll need a costume. We have often gone to a Disney park during Halloween season and have packed costumes, but still only took a carry-on.
Here are 10 easy, but fun, costumes to bring with you, that will still enable you to pack light.
A game show contestant
You basically only need a plain colored shirt for this, and then a name tag and points card (or dollar guess), both of which are flat and easy to pack.
Salt & Pepper (or other spices, if there's a group of you)
I love this. Everyone has a black or white t-shirt in their closet. You can do an iron-on S and P, or make large decals that you can stick on for your event and then remove when it's over. That way you can wear it during the whole trip, instead of just the one time.
An Olympic breakdancer
Can you breakdance? Don't worry. There's speculation that that one Australian Olympian couldn't either. While a bit more elaborate of an outfit, you could easily wear parts of this as loungewear on your trip.
Tennis or Pickleball player
You're probably already packing some of this outfit. You may just need to add a tennis skirt/short and a visor. Maybe you travel with your own pickleball racket, which would make this incredibly easy.
Nepo Baby
I kind of love the simplicity of this one that's still creative. Pair some jeans with a plain tee that says Nepo Baby, get yourself a fake award to carry around, and prepare your acceptance speech.
A milkshake (and soda jerk)
Perfect solo costume. Perfect couple's costumes. Perfect group costume. If these headbands are too big for you to travel with, consider doing a cardboard cutout version that you color and attach to a headband yourself or purchase these smaller versions. Here's an outfit for the soda jerk.
Pantone colors
Wear monochromatic outfits and attach a white Pantone label or border. Bonus points if you can find, and add, the exact color and number code.
Life handing out lemons
Looking for a funny costume that makes people think? Wear a yellow shirt or dress, put a nametag on that says Life and pick up some lemons from the local grocery store that you can carry around in a string bag and hand out to people, or at least let people see them.
A Bachelor contestant
Wear whatever dress you bring with you and dress it up with some jewelry, make a chyron board with your stats and carry a rose. Boom! Go one step further and mess up your makeup and be a booted contestant from the show.
Witch
This is always an easy and classic costume. You just need a black outfit and a hat. It can be as simple as you want. Add some accessories that are easy to pack and brew up some magic.