Apps for Fantastic Holiday Travel

We all know that holidays can be totally stressful, especially when you add traveling to the mix. As much as I love to travel, when the airport is just a crush of people and you are looking at a security line so long you can't even see the front it just doesn't seem all that enticing. Usually I enjoy the trip to the airport – yes, I know that makes me a crazy weirdo – because I love the excitement of being there, knowing I'm going to be jetting off to a cool place, eating at places I only get to visit a few times a year or shopping/browsing the unique stores and watching the planes take off and land before it's my turn. When the holidays come around, it seems like everyone is on edge and there's hardly anyone having a good time waiting to get on the plane. 

If you want your holiday trips to be less stressful, or you just want to make your general travel more fun, I've rounded up some great apps and sites that will make you wish you'd known about them sooner. 

Get Away from Everyone

Can't fathom spending your whole stay with family? Get a vacation rental where you can retreat after you've had enough of the hundred people at the family host's house. I always love using Airbnb, but now you can also find rentals to fit your budget with Tripping, which compiles all the available rentals from sites like HomeAway, FlipKey and Roomorama, and Dwellable Vacation Rentals, which has over 250,000 listings in the U.S., Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean.

Make New Friends

If you aren't visiting family or friends, but want to make some and/or immerse yourself in a new culture, check out both BeWelcome and MealSharing. BeWelcome pairs you up with a host at your destination that will play tour guide for you, show you how they live and will also allow you to stay in their house. This is the perfect way to make international (and domestic) friends and fantastic for those that might like to travel solo, but don't want to "travel solo". 

MealSharing is an awesome site that matches travelers up with meal hosts. Maybe you'd like to have dinner with new friends or you'd like to invite others to your home when you aren't traveling. And, this year they are promoting their second annual ThanksSharing event, where they encourage others to spend Thanksgiving with others. Maybe you're traveling somewhere over the holiday and can't make your own feast. Why not find someone else you can celebrate with?

Do Something Completely Different

Want to see something other than the same boring tourist attractions? (I'm not knocking tourist sites, because I love them, but maybe you've already done them.) Let others give you cool new suggestions with the HeyLets app. The app is especially geared toward families with kids who enjoy doing something a bit different. Add your family's travel style to the app to get personalized tips on what to see and do. App users can add their own inspired activities to make the app even better and help other families travel better, too.

Where the Heck are the mashed potatoes?

Whether you're traveling to see family or they're coming to you, invite your family to join Cabin, where you can skip the multi-texts and phone calls while trying to organize everyone for the big day (or a vacation). With Cabin, you can send messages to all or individuals to make sure everyone knows when and where to show up, what to bring and more. Is Aunt Cindy not there with her famous green bean casserole yet? Cabin tracks where everyone is, so you can find out if she's on her way or just around the corner without having to call her every five minutes asking if she's lost or not. Imagine how easy this will make planning other family gatherings, too. 

Keep All Your Travel Plans in One Place

Not all great apps are about connecting with others. One of my favorites is TripIt. I use it online and as an app on my phone to keep all my reservations, confirmation numbers, important addresses and itineraries at my fingertips. If you are like me and hate to print out a ton of unnecessary paper, TripIt is the ideal travel app. Only print out the things you need to and everything else can live solely on the app for you to call up on your phone or computer when needed. it has saved us several times when we've needed an address for a cab driver or to get to on public transportation or to find the phone number to call and get directions or change a reservation.

Have you ever used any of the above apps/sites or do you have a favorite app or website that helps you travel or live better?

My Portland Coffee Tour - Part 9

The cold weather has returned in full force in Portland, which means everyone's cramming into cozy coffee houses to get warmed up and catch up with friends or get some work done. This month has been pretty busy, but I've also had the chance to get to bunch of coffee shops, which you'd know if you followed me on Instagram. Even if you do, you may be excited to know more about the shops I visited and see more scrumptious pics.

This month I've kind of lucked into hitting up new shops, because I found myself in a few new (for me) parts of town, which means more exploring and more cups of caffeine.

Blend Coffee

While working on Swan Island some days this past month for a project, my coworkers and I found ourselves heading home in the middle of the day and taking a lunch break at a very Portland coffee shop in the middle of a lovely neighborhood. Blend is all warm woods and full of bundled up Portlanders. They have a great list of drinks, but three signatures that all sounded fantastic, so you know I had to try one.

I got a toasted bagel with cream cheese to eat on our way back home. They are sourced from Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels and it was absolutely one of the best bagels I've had...and it was a plain one. Sorry, I have no pic of it, as I snarfed it in the car. It was so worth the $2.75 I paid for it.

Let's get to my drink though, shall we? Blend serves Coava and Stumptown coffees, but I found that my drink here was much better than the ones I got at each of those roasters. There are four signature drinks here: The Honey Badger - an espresso with locally-sourced honey and cinnamon, The Harvest Moon - an espresso with milk and Dragonfly chai, the Inspired by Horchata - a cold-pressed coffee with milk, hazelnut and cinnamon, and the Espresso Fizz - an espresso with Q Tonic and orange bitters. 

I have a hard time passing by any chai drink, so I went with the Harvest Moon and I was not disappointed. It had the smoothness of a fantastic espresso, with just the right amount of sweet and spicy from the chai. I was sad I didn't order a larger size. A 12oz set me back $5, but it was a great cup of coffee. Next time I'm in the neighborhood, I'll be hitting up this shop again to try their other three signature drinks.

Haven Coffee

This shop used to be called Poppa's Haven, but has since

 rebranded and is in the middle of remodeling, so you won't see a wide shot. The one wall is covered in coffee sacks like wallpaper and the rest is a mish mash of random tables and chairs. This is where people go to meet up with friends and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. The shop is very nice and comfortable, full of regulars, but can be difficult to get to if you don't know exactly where it is and you're driving. The neighborhood doesn't really allow left-hand turns, so you'll have to go up and turn around and then take a u-turn. (Ask me how I know.)

I went in asking for a suggestion and they had just started serving a pumpkin chai latte for the season ($4.50), which I was all into. I also got it topped with homemade pumpkin whipped cream. The pumpkin and the chai were both subtle enough to not overpower each other, but flavorful enough to be a favorite. I complemented my drink with a lemon poppyseed quick bread ($2.75). I could have eaten this thing every day, and I'd probably put on 50 lbs, but at least I'd be happy. 

This place is remarkably Portland, with Kombucha on tap, free WiFi, and doing a Kickstarter to help with their cafe remodel. I liked it and I'll be interested to see how their remodel turns out when I return.

Java Lounge Coffee

So, this place is probably two blocks away from Haven, which I wasn't expecting. I also wasn't expecting to have, basically, a second breakfast when I showed up, but his place is just so inviting, it was hard to say no, so I didn't. Located in a beautiful home, Java Lounge feels like a getaway from real life. The whole bottom floor has been cleared out and and tables and chairs have been added for a little European cafe feel.

Look at this picture perfect breakfast. It was almost too pretty to eat...almost 🤤🤤🤤 . . . #butfirstcofee #breakfast #coffeetime #portlandcoffee #jetsetter #jetset #ilovetravel #tourist #tourism #tblogger #tbloggers #travelblog #travel #travelblogger #travelgirl #travelgram #instatravel #traveler #traveller #budgettravel #budgettraveler #budgettraveller

A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on Nov 20, 2017 at 12:23pm PST

I went in and immediately spotted something called a Million Dollar Latte ($4.75). This is their signature drink, made with cold brewed espresso that takes two days to make until it mellows out and it's much less acidic. Now, you all know my feelings on cold brew coffee. I hate it. I took a chance though, and it totally paid off. This drink tastes much closer to a cafe au lait, which I'm a fan of.

Not only that, but I decided to try a fresh made breakfast sandwich. They charge $5 for a meat, egg and cheese sandwich on a bagel or English muffin, but for an extra $1, you can get a croissant made by La Provence, which is one of my favorite French bistros. I opted for that and my sandwich was as big as my head. It had spinach, onions and tomatoes on it and was awesome. I had to take half of it home though, because I totally couldn't finish it after the two huge coffees I'd had. And to top it all off, there was an adorable and friendly pup making the rounds.

I've got even more shops that won't fit in this post, but you can look forward to them in the coming months. If you want to follow along on my tour, as well as other Portland fun and travels afar, follow me on Instagram.

Huge Cash Back deals during the Swagbucks Cyber Monday Sale!

You can earn money while saving it on all your big Cyber Monday purchases. The Cashback Shopping site Swagbucks is offering big cash back - 3x or more - at over 120 different stores today only. They're also offering big payouts on a varieties of different deals and offers from companies that would make great gift ideas. Get great deals without waiting in lines or even leaving your home!

If you're not familiar with Swagbucks, they offer cash back in the form of points when you shop. Then you can turn those points into gift cards to places like Amazon, Starbucks, Target, or PayPal cash. You can also earn points for discovering deals, watching videos, answering surveys and more! 

Click here to take advantage of the cash back, just create your Swagbucks account when prompted (it takes less than 30 seconds) and then you're all set! 

As a special bonus, if you sign up through me you get a 300 SB ($3) bonus when you earn your first 300 SB before December 1st! This site's a great way to extend your shopping budget, especially around the holidays! 

It also helps to earn cash back that you can use for gift cards toward future travel. I use them for restaurants, Paypal and more to make my trips more affordable.