Shereen Travels Cheap Turns 11

Yesterday marked this blog's foray into a second decade. Oddly this last year has not had much actual travel, but that doesn't mean travel is dead forever. In fact, it's far from it. Usually, I go back over my past accomplishments of the year, but I think I'd like to change it up again and talk about some of the things we've been doing that we will continue doing, even after the pandemic is over.

Even though we only took one road trip this year, we still did quite a bit. We explored more of the Portland area than we ever have and we took a ton of staycations, where we "visited" so many places we haven't been. We're coming up on September again, where I will have to decide if I want to celebrate Oktoberfest again. 

I've loved doing our Destination Date Nights and I'm sure even when we can travel freely again, we'll be continuing to do them, even if we cut back to once a month or so. Some of my favorites have been Amsterdam, Egypt, Venice, and Japan. We've found new destinations to add to our list as we were pushing off planned travel. 

We've discovered new favorite foods and restaurants. We've learned that even when forced to be together, we still enjoy each other's company. We've changed routines and haven't been sad about most of those changes. We've become more creative about what we do and stay in touch with others. We've found new podcasts and shows that we love.

Next month we'll head out on a road trip to Las Vegas, because we need to get out of the house. We've decided t hat we can only control ourselves and how we behave, so we feel like this is the most responsible travel that we can do: We'll be staying in our timeshare in Vegas, off The Strip, we'll be masking up everywhere, we'll be eating outside, and we'll be doing outside things like enjoying street art. The few things I have planned inside are things in places I know are doing the most for public health, require masks, and have rigorous cleaning routines. We'll be going first thing in the morning, to avoid as many people as possible, and know that everything has just been deep cleaned. Meow Wolf's OmegaMart will be one of those things, and the Museum of Dream Space is another. 

In Reno, a stroll along downtown's Riverwalk District is on the itinerary. It's lined with wall murals and sculptures. Outside of Las Vegas, Goldfield's International Car Forest and Pioneer Cemetery are on my list. Nearby's Rholite is a ghost town that is also a filming location, and Goldmine is a must with an open-air sculpture museum and an awesome bottle house (that's a house made from bottles). 

This might be the trip we visit the Clown Motel's cemetery, check out the Sierra Nevada Zoological Park and even the Nevada Museum of Art. Though we've been to Virginia City before, I'd love to go again. It's about a 30-minute drive from Reno, but up the mountain and totally worth the drive.  

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What's coming up after this road trip? 

If all goes well, in February I'll be back in Vegas for the Travel Goods Show, and this will hopefully see the return of our regular travel. A trip to Disneyland/Los Angeles could be on the docket, since our trip to Walt Disney World was postponed twice and then indefinitely now with the horror that is Covid in Florida. 

We are hoping to visit Chicago at some point, though I don't know if that will happen in 2022. I do know that we will be doing more Destination Date Nights to fill in the gaps between traveling. Destinations ahead so far are Reykjavik, Sydney (Australia), Edinburgh/Glasgow, Dublin, Toronto, New York City, India, and Turkey.

I hope you all are doing well. I'll continue to post travel things for you to plan those awesome trips for the future. I'll also be doing plenty of posts from my home entertainment and things around Portland on my Instagram. Stay safe, stay healthy, wear a mask, and be kind. These are the least we can do and hope for in these trying times. 

Are you starting to travel again? What postponed destinations are you most looking forward to?

2023 Travel Resoutions

Somehow, 2022 has been both back to normal and not at all normal, but we were able to get out and travel more than the last two years combined, so I won't complain. We went to Arizona in January, Vegas in both February and July, and made it to Paris and Disneyland Paris in September. All in all, it was a pretty good year. 

We're sort of back to in-person brunches, though they are further between than they were pre-pandemic, because a lot of the restaurants that were are old stand-bys have closed or are no longer taking large reservations. Many other restaurants stopped doing breakfast altogether, so we have fewer options, but we're trying, and supplementing with other meet-ups, like going to art pop-ups and walking neighborhoods.

We are also back to doing small gatherings for celebrations, like our annual Harry Potter party and birthdays, and our non-profit has, officially, kicked off our return to big fundraisers, which is fantastic, because we're doing good, getting to see people again, and we're doing our best to be safe about it. 

This coming year is going to be interesting and busier than the last three. We don't have a ton planned, but I know more is coming to our calendar:

• January sees us in Palm Springs for a week.
• March may have us heading to Los Angeles for a few days.
• If my mom goes back to Tennessee this year, I may tag along and make her do some Nashville sightseeing before coming back home.
• Las Vegas is a tentative for July.
• Late September/early October will have us heading to Toronto and Niagara Falls. I'll keep working on my French for this, in case it comes in handy.
• I will try to do more Destination Date Nights, like I wanted to do this year, but ended up with too full of a calendar to do very many. 
• We may try to get back to doing Destination Potlucks, too, since we only did the one and then the world shut down. We'll see how interested my friends are in reviving these and we might intersperse these with Date Nights.

The Travel Goods Show has made a permanent move to Chicago and I'm not sure I'm able to get over there this year, which is disappointing, but not unexpected. I've wanted to visit the Travelon headquarters for years. I guess I'll have to see it in 2024.

In 2024, we're also talking about going to The Island of Hawaii in January and Eric also mentioned perhaps going to Peru, so he could brush up on his Spanish, and probably see cool stuff like Machu Picchu. 

All in all, 2023 is shaping up to be a great year. I can't wait to visit new places, make new friends, eat great food, and plan some awesome parties. 

What are you looking forward to for this next year?

Malta at Home

It's been a minute, but I've had a really busy month, and I'm finally getting back to my Destination Date Nights. Our last one was to Malta, because I knew that summer deserved some actual summer destinations. As you may know, Malta has been a destination on my wish list for quite some time, and we'll be heading there in the future, if we ever get out of this pandemic.

Things look to be doing better and then everything goes to hell again, so I don't expect regular leisure travel to really be back until probably mid-2022. What does that mean? More staycations for you and probably more time to plan a big, awesome trip when we finally come out of this. I'll still be doing some travel in the next year, though probably not as much as I hoped for, because it will have to be careful and safe and responsible. For now, let's look at how we traveled to Malta while staying at home.

Because of where it's located, Malta is influenced by Greece and Italy and northern Africa. This is shown in the architecture and foods. Malta doesn't have much that seems uniquely Malta, but the combination of other countries makes it interesting and a clash of cultures makes for a feeling of being in many places at once. 

We made this a simple Destination Date Night. We had dinner, we listened to some Maltese music and we just enjoyed each other's company. I used the look and island vibes to set my table. Malta is a beautiful, breezy, fishing destination, so I used my striped tablecloth and added a fish vase with poppies (a flower is grown in the area), and topped it off with one of the Knights of Malta. 

Because Malta is such a niche country, there aren't any Maltese restaurants around here, so, like I did with Mongolia, I found a restaurant that had items that were close to what is popular in Malta and then filled in with other foods. I found that the place I wanted to order from actually charged LESS if you purchased a meal kit and assembled/finished the food at home, so I ordered and picked up a seafood stew and a beet salad. I felt that the stew was close enough to Aljotta, a Mediterranean fish soup. Cod is a native fish there, so I chose a stew that also included cod (and also shrimp and clams). 

Everyone has salad, and it was an easy thing to include and put together from the restaurant. I always like to have some sort of vegetables with dinner, and this was a perfect fit. It was beets, gorgonzola, and pistachio brittle with a champagne vinaigrette. Malta has a bread that is similar to focaccia - Ħobż - which I thought would go really well with both the salad and the stew, and I was right. 

While we did some sightseeing via our backdrop ("That lady down there is taking a photo of those people with an iPad!") and chatted about the food and what we would do in Malta, we listened to some Maltese pop music. Then we busted out the dessert.

I wasn't sure I would be able to find cannoli in our local bakeries (it's not really that popular), so I decided to fake a Maltese dessert called imqaret. They are sort of like fig newtons, but flaky, so I baked fig paste in croissant dough. Then I did find cannoli at the bakery down the street, so we had both. Cannoli is an Italian dessert, but it's frequently served in Malta as well. Both were delicious, so I guess I'd be into visiting some bakeries while in Malta. 

Malta is a very interesting and beautiful country that I can't wait to actually travel to. I admired the scenery while watching an annual World's Strongest Man competition and have been thinking about it ever since.  Here are some ways to recreate Malta at home:

•  A Malta backdrop
• Here's my seaside one
• And here's the colorful door I purchased as a second viewpoint
• A simple striped tablecloth or a fish motif
• A fish vase (also comes in clear and blue)
• Poppies for your vase
• A Knight of Malta
• Malta flag
• Find a good travel tour video or one on the Malta catacombs
• Get your kids to play some old Malta street games
• Cook your own food with a Maltese cookbook
• Watch a food tour or learn about Malta's culinary culture
• Plan a trip with the help of a local

There are plenty of other ways to make this a fantastic staycation and to immerse yourself in the culture as much as possible when still at home. Take a stroll through a museum, learn a new language, find out about famous Maltins and how they contributed to the world and Malta itself. 

Unfortunately, between being so busy and our heatwaves, it's been hard to plan another one, but I have a new one coming up. You'll be seeing us visit Chicago soon, and hopefully, also Reykjavik. We'll also be actually traveling to Reno and Vegas on a road trip soon-ish. You can see photos of all of these as they happen on my Instagram. Cheers to more staycations while we're waiting to safely get back out in the world.

Have you done any fun staycations over the last year and a half? Tell us about them in the comments!

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I may be compensated should you choose to make any purchases through them. This allows me to keep this blog running for you. Thanks in advance!

5 Tips for An Awesome Summer Staycation

After all we've been through the last couple of years, travel is still unattainable for many, because gas prices are stupid high and so is airfare. Plane routes are being cut still, as Covid cases are still prevalent in many industries, and there just aren't enough pilots, flight attendants, aircraft crew to ramp up flights even a little. If you are looking at another summer at home, a staycation might be the best answer right now.

Yes, we've been staycationing for 2+ years now, but there are plenty of ways to still make it special. Here are 5 of my favorite creative ways to do it:

 

1. Create a spread (or get takeaway from your favorite food truck(s) if you’re feeling lazy)

Take a blanket from home, and picnic in your favorite park…or one you’ve never visited before. This is a great way to get outside to enjoy the fresh air and sun. You can see people safely, from a distance. After you eat, you can lounge or take a stroll. Maybe bring a game or two and make it a fun outing.

 

2. Have a romantic travel date

Just because you can’t travel, doesn’t mean you can’t travel. Huh? We have done theme date nights. One week we ordered a whole afternoon tea spread and set it all up in the living room and ate it while we watched a West End play on YouTube. You can now pay to watch Broadway Shows and also productions from The Globe.

 

You can decorate in your theme, you can use Window Swap or Earth Cam for live atmosphere, you can get a backdrop for cheap and set it up to “be” at your destination. Cook food from your chosen travel destination or order delivery. Make it special. (I have lots of examples. Just search Destination Date Night on the right and you'll find a whole list.)

 

3. Go on a scavenger hunt

This is a perfect activity for social distancing. You and your significant other or group of friends sign up for a city scavenger hunt (you can be in more than one team if you want). You solve clues to get to different interesting things in your city and learn things along the way. You never have to go inside anywhere and it helps you work together. Try Stray Boots or Urban Adventure Quest.

 

4. See free art

Just because museums aren’t open doesn’t mean you don’t have access to awesome art in your city. Many downtown, and even suburban, areas have a city art project that works with local artists to create amazing sculptures and murals. Look up info on where to start, map out a course, then go take pictures, talk about the pieces, find street artists on Instagram. It’s a fantastic way to see your city, enjoy art from your community, and celebrate how great it is that art is so accessible. Post pictures with artist links on your social media pages and help other people discover it, too!

 

5. Take a walking tour

I love my city of Portland, Oregon. It’s beautiful. There’s something new around every corner. I haven’t seen it all yet! If you want to see more of your own city – highly recommended – then look for free self-guided walking tours, or just get out there and wander. There’s no wrong way to do it. Bring your phone to take pictures. Wear a fun outfit. Pretend you’re a tourist. Need somewhere to start? Try GPS My City.

I hope you've found a new idea for your summer, because we're all disappointed in a lot of things right now. What is your favorite thing to do on a staycation?

Happy New Year 2023

Happy New Year! 2022 felt both super long and super short for some reason, but we made it. This time of the year I choose to spend traveling and reconnecting with my husband, so you'll get a new full post on Saturday.

I don't generally make resolutions, but I do try to make some goals for myself in order to make my life feel more full. Here are goals I I've made for 2023:

• Be Kind (this is a constant goal, because I feel like the world can use more kindness)
• Go somewhere new - I already have two new places on the calendar, but I'm also making a point to do things in Portland again. 
• Try new things - It's been difficult trying to do things that are outside of my normal routine, because we don't really go that many places, but we're going to start getting out again and exploring our city and surrounding areas again.
• Keep masking in crowded areas - Yes, maybe you're all sick of masking, but with so many sicknesses going around right now, I just think it makes sense, plus it's just a simple thing to do to prevent ourselves from getting ill.
• Encourage people to go to new places - I want people to realize that they can travel further and to different destinations than they normally do, but probably on the same budget.
• Revive Destination Potlucks - This is where I invite a group of friends over for a potluck themed for a destination. Everyone brings one or two dishes that are specific to that city/country/region, and we all eat new foods and learn about the destination. It's like Destination Date Nights, but food is homemade and more people get to participate.

I hope you're all having a great start to the year and the rest is just as good. Hit me with your own resolutions or goals - travel or otherwise - in the comments.

Visiting Oktoberfest from Home

I've got another destination date night for you! It's September, which means it's official Oktoberfest time. Well, we all know all the actual celebrations are cancelled due to the pandemic, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out. We sure didn't. We had a wonderful date night over the weekend that featured a quaint German street, a Biergarten, and a rowdy crowd of Oktoberfest-goers. 

We did this all without leaving our house, literally, because the air outside is toxic. The whole west coast is on fire right now. We tried to have our date night on Friday, and were willing to brave the bad air, but then I was outside for 2 minutes and changed my mind. 

I set up Germany in the living room instead, then the restaurant I had my heart set on was closed due to smoke getting into their HVAC, so we picked up cheeseburgers on pretzel buns and bacon fries. 

On Saturday, we moved some furniture to create a little dining area, and I set up the table and my YouTube playlist while Eric picked up food I ordered earlier. Aside from creating my romantic table, using a card table, I set up a beer tasting flight for myself, because you can't have Oktoberfest without some drinks - regardless of what kind. 

I picked up 3 interesting bottles of beer from the store, making sure one was a German-style dark beer. The first beer is a stout from Seattle brewery Elysian. This was a pumpkin coffee ale called Punkaccino. The second was a Bavarian dark from Ayinger (also from Seattle) called Altbairisch Dunkel. I actually really loved this one and drank the whole bottle. The third beer was just for fun variety. A third Seattle beer. This one was called Lindemans Framboise and was a raspberry lambic beer in Belgian style. It smelled like raspberry jam, and was much more sweet tasting than that. It might be a great dessert beer, but it was not for me.

As with any German dining experience, we started with a great fondue with bread dippers. I realized I had these adorable little fondue forks, which worked perfectly, since we weren't reaching across the table to get to it. You could totally do fondue with a giant pretzel (or pretzel bites) or even bratwurst. If you have a fondue set, make your own!

As you know, I love food, so I like to try as many things as possible. I usually order two entrees so we can split them. I chose the chicken jaeger schnitzel, one of our favorites. It's pounded flat chicken, breaded, fried, and then served with a mushroom cream sauce. This one came with spaetzel. It's not my favorite, but Eric enjoys it. 

The second entree I chose was a special. It was boar bratwurst that came with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. I enjoy an interesting exotic meat and boar is one of those that I find particularly tasty. This one had fruits mixed into it, so it was slightly sweet, and came with a dark spicy mustard. We had this much on our plates and still had leftovers. 

After all that food, we took a few minutes to enjoy some people watching at Oktoberfest.

This was a perfect time to hang out in the "Biergarten" (beer garden). We saw an oompah band and tried to pick out which festival-goers we thought were Americans. Outside the festival building was a carnival that played mostly American music and served up huge helpings of delicious fair foods in between carnival rides that look like they might be a bad idea after drinking and eating a bunch. 

No vacation is complete without dessert out, so we also ended our meal with a traditional apple strudel. Usually, I avoid these like the plague because they claim to have raisins and I always think they're going to be whole raisins. I was wrong though, because this was delicious. A perfect end to a great evening.

Germany and Oktoberfest was pretty easy to plan and put together. The food is readily available in most places and has something that can appeal to everyone if you are doing this with your family.

Here are a few things you can use to make an amazing trip wherever you want to set up your destination:

• Bavarian village backdrop
• Hedge backdrop
• Oktoberfest pennants
• Bavarian hats (2)
• Oktoberfest cookbook
• Oktoberfest banner + tablecloth
• Beer steins
• Beer tasting glasses
• YouTube videos of Oktoberfest. This was my favorite.
• This one has great music
• This one follows some vloggers who take you through the traditional dress and fair foods
• Fondue pot
• Here's a small one for a couple
• Here's a larger one for a group
• Pretzel & mustard party pack
• Sweet Bavarian mustard
• Photo backdrop stand (since I use this every single time and have not recommended yet. It's super simple to set up and take down.)
• Check out Airbnb online experiences

What do I like most about these "trips"? Aside from being on them, planning them is fun and the unpacking is much easier and not at all stressful. Depending on how elaborate you want to go with your destination staycation, it can be a quick set up, too. This was, by far, our most expensive date night. I spent around $110, but we've been saving so much by not going out to eat, and getting takeout only two days a week, so it gives us a way to mix things up. 

Don't forget to "stamp" your passport

Get your family in on destination nights. Give everyone a part of the trip to plan: food, destination, activities, etc. This is a great time to learn more about different cultures and plan a future trip. Just know that our next trips may not be happening until we get a vaccine, so we're looking at late next year, because we also have to wait for Covid cases to drop drastically and for other countries to reopen their borders to us. 

If you want to follow along or see more pics/vids of my "trips", follow me on Instagram.

Are you trying to jazz up your quarantine time? What are you doing to keep sane?

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I may be compensated should you choose to make any purchases through them. This allows me to keep this blog running for you. 

5 Ways to Keep Travel In Mind Right Now

I know people like me right now who aren't going anywhere except the necessary places. They are getting groceries delivered or do pick-up. I also know people who have gone on vacation during this pandemic, but I really just don't trust any of it right now. With as badly as some people are coping and staying home as much as possible, I can't trust that most people are doing the right thing, and that means traveling just isn't in the cards for us right now.

If you're also feeling lost without being able to travel, then I've come up with several things you can do to have a little bit of travel in your life while still staying safe and at home. You've been seeing my Destination Date Night posts, then you already know one big way I'm coping right now, especially when everything is stressful right now. Here are 5 other ways:

Re-Write Your Travel Wish List

This is the time I've been talking to my husband about places we really want to go when we are allowed to leave the country again. We've been saving money by not eating out that much or going to the movies or traveling at the moment, so when we get to go again, we're ready with a brand new list and ideas. It helps that our date nights give us a little taste of a destination, making us want to learn more and see these things in person. 

Some people refer to this as a bucket list, but I like my lists to be a bit more optimistic. Yeah, we're going to die someday, but that doesn't mean it's going to be any time soon. We want to have fun and enjoy travel, not just check things off as we go along. Some places we've added during this are:

• Cairo, Egypt and surrounding areas like Edfu, Luxor, and Aswan.
• Mexico City and/or Oaxaca during the Day of the Dead festival.
• Athens, Greece to see the ruins.
• Tokyo and Osaka were already on my list, but now I'm even more into it.
• Morocco for all the gorgeous colors, landscapes, and markets. 
• Austin, Texas has been on my backburner list, but I'd love to do a short break there to take in the food scene, street art, and history.
• Chicago for the excellent buildings, haunted history, and cool city sculptures. 

Aside from those, I'd love to get back to Washington, DC, Colonial Williamsburg, Los Angeles, Nassau, and Vancouver, BC. We're talking about a road trip to Anaheim in the coming months. We'll see if we actually do that.

Learn a New Language

I keep thinking I want to do this, or at least continue on my French courses. Eventually, we'll go back to France and travel outside of Paris to see the rest of the country. If there's a place high on your travel list and they speak another language, that's a good place to start. Check out Pimsleur courses. I have French CDs that I used to listen to in my car. You can also get them as an audio book. Eric did much better at his French than I did. I've also used the My Spanish Coach for my Nintendo DS. It makes learning languages and putting sentences together fun by using a game setting. They also have French and Japanese. 

If you need more personalized help, check out Babbel (don't forget to use Rakuten to get cash back) or DuoLingo (which is free). 

Binge Travel Shows

This is the perfect time to figure out where you want to go next or learn about other places through other travelers with some amazing travel shows. Here are some of my favorites:

• Netflix
• Jack Whitehall Travels with My Father
• Somebody Feed Phil
• Down To Earth with Zac Efron
• Conan Without Borders
• Hulu
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
• Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations
• Expedition Unknown
• Amazon Prime
• Uncharted with Gordon Ramsay
• An Idiot Abroad
• The Grand Tour

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Explore Destinations with a Virtual Tour

We've been doing this for months, even if it's just a 20-minute video on YouTube, but you can find walking tours, destination live feeds, and even use Google Earth to explore places. I actually did that when I was missing EPCOT and "walked" around the park. 

Recently, we've been paying to take virtual walking tours from actual tour guides. We took a haunted walking tour of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and then took another tour from the same guide for Halloween, which was a haunted boat tour. We took a virtual Hamilton walking tour, which took us around New York and gave history that inspired Hamilton and then also behind-the-scenes of the actual show, including how the stage was conceived and what the show might have looked like. 

I'd suggest looking at Goldstar for tickets to these sorts of things. Since you aren't bound by proximity, you can go anywhere! Your local tour companies might also be running virtual tours right now. 

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Got a new road trip buddy today! 🚗🚗🚗 Anyone else taking any trips this summer? 🌞🌞🌞 . . . #jetsetter #jetset #ilovetravel #tourist #tourism #tblogger #tbloggers #travelblog #travel #travelblogger #travelgirl #travelgram #instatravel #traveler #traveller #budgettravel #budgettraveler #ftblogger #ftb #vacationmode #travelgoals #womenwhotravel #traveladvice #traveltips #wanderlust #vacayallday #whereintheworld #roadtripready #kiasoul

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Take a Drive

Pack a lunch and some cool tunes and take a drive around your city, out to a nearby National Park, a scenic overlook, or an outdoor landmark. If you look well enough, you can make a day of it and find places you've never heard of before or go see things you haven't had time to see until now. You should check out some local restaurants or cafes that offer take-away, so you can eat safely and also support a small business with your dollars. I know many places here that offer curbside pick-up. Don't forget to charge your phone for pictures and keep masks and hand in your car if you don't already have both in there.

You can totally travel in small ways right now and keep the spirit alive. As much as I have moments where I miss travel harder than I ever have, I feel like what I do to fill the void is actually helping me quite a bit in the long run, because we are doing them every week or every other week instead of waiting for that one- or two-week vacation coming up. In fact, now we have other ways to fulfill our wanderlust between vacations when we get back to whatever normal is.

Explore fun things to do closer to home. Jumping on a plane might not be possible for everyone at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun. With restrictions still in place on international travel, there are fabulous opportunities to explore days out, weekends away or road trips closer to home. From museums, galleries and historic sites to theme parks, family-friendly locations like Silver Dollar City and adventures in the great outdoors, you can visit beaches, ranches, cities or national parks to indulge your love of travel, enjoy new experiences and create more memories.

How are you keeping the travel bug from overwhelming you right now?

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I may be compensated should you choose to make any purchases through them. This allows me to keep this blog running for you. Thanks in advance!