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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A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on May 29, 2020 at 2:21pm PDT

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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A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on Jun 27, 2020 at 4:22pm PDT

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!

My Favorite Fall Travel Packing Tips

The weather is turning and it's making me think about packing for fall travel. So if you're going on a fall/winter road trip or you're just looking ahead to when traveling is a thing again. Even when you have to pack larger pieces than for your summer trips, you can still pack light. I'm a big proponent of layering when I travel, since you never know if the weather will be unseasonably warm or colder than you expect. Don't fret though, because you can still pack light and bring everything you need for any kind of weather.

When we traveled to Edinburgh and London last year, the weather ranged from cool, crisp fall air to super cold windy days. It could have been miserable, but learning from our previous trips to the UK, the first of which all we had packed were winter clothes. The first 3-4 days were so warm out that I didn't need a coat and seriously wondered if I'd have to buy some short sleeve tops in order to not get heat stroke. Needless to say, the next trip nobody wanted a repeat of that. So, taking all my knowledge into account when packing, I chose several lightweight sweaters that I could layer other things with and went from there. 

So, if the weather tends toward cold, cold, cold, your pictures are basically all going to be you bundled up in your coat and you aren't going to see anything you've got on underneath anyway (see title photo). With this in mind, it makes even more sense to bring as little as possible. You'll just need enough to keep you from getting bored and to go between laundry - think of it an excuse to take a break and relax a few times on your trip. Watch a movie, catch up on email or play a game. I bring the same thing for one week as I do for two. Three lightweight sweaters, a cardigan, two tanks and two tees that match your sweaters. Throw in a dress, two pair of stretchy jeans or other comfortable pantsm and two pair of shoes. 

Keep in mind your travel outfit. I usually wear my favorite pair of jeans (with stretch), a tee and a cardigan, one pair of the shoes I'm planning to wear throughout my trip and keep my jacket and a scarf within easy reach. This way if it's cold, I can put more layers on, and if it's hot, I can remove my cardigan.

jeans | dress | cardigan | l/s shirt | t-shirts | tights

A pair of black jeans can double as nice pants for a night out, but a breathable dress can also work. Make sure to pack a pair of heavy tights in case it's really cold and you need some extra protection. Tights are multitaskers. When the weather is colder than expected, like a freak snowstorm, you can throw them on under your pants. I tend toward thinner skinny jeans, because the stretchy ones are comfortable, but may not be as warm as traditional jeans. For this reason, that extra layer might be necessary.

Make sure your tops all mix and match, so you don't have items that only go with some things in your bag. I like neutrals, like black and gray that I can add a pop of color to. You may end up like me and have to wear three layers at once, so if you bring three different color sweaters and three different color/patterns of tanks and tees, you're going to look like a bag lady. I like to go with solids for one layer and some patterns for the other. Above you have 3 long sleeve options and two patterned t-shirts. If you have to layer, these will all work together. The dress is also reversible (from Columbia), so you can make a total of 22 outfits with these pieces. You also have the added warmth of your cardigan and/or jacket.

yup, lots of photos of us just wearing coats and hats or scarves.

Look for shoes that will go with everything. I went to Europe with a pair of flats and tall packable boots, but I love the look of a short boot and a loafer. Make sure you have enough room for your foot to breathe in your boot and that both pair are comfortable to walk in all day long. I loved the boots I took, but they were a smidge too tight, or I overdid myself on the 478965322 stairs in Paris, because I left with a stress fracture in one of my feet. Boo. But at least I didn't notice the pain until the night before we were going back home. Maybe suck it up and wear your flats when hiking up 40 jillion steps, just in case. This last trip I took my Arcopedico booties and had plenty of room for my feet, great insteps, and my feet never hurt. This was extra great, because Edinburgh was basically all uphill cobblestone streets and 45 million stairs. At least I got a lot of exercise.

jacket | booties | wrap | ballet flats

Look at the weather before you leave, to be sure you're dressed for your destination. A pair of gloves and a hat are always good companions, because you'll be thrilled if you have them and need them, or miserable if you leave them at home and have to shell out money for them. We actually had to purchase another hat and scarf for Eric on one trip, who didn't think he would need them. We didn't make the same mistake this last time, though we didn't really need them. Unless you're hoping for a lame souvenir, throw some in for everyone traveling. It'll make your life easier.

What is your best winter packing advice?

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!

Our Halloween & Day of the Dead Celebration

This year has been unconventional, to say the least, so we didn't dress up and go around with our friend's kids for trick-or-treating, or threw a party, or even handed out candy. Instead, we watched a live stream of Rocky Horror Picture Show benefiting the Wisconsin Democrat efforts and had take-out. Here's how we, officially, celebrated Halloween.

I've been wanting to do something around the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration, called Dia de los Muertos. We didn't do traditional foods, but instead, we had a theme of skulls and then learned a bit more about the holiday and how people remember their dead. Please don't @ me telling me that these two holidays are not similar and we didn't do either of them right. 

We had this great backdrop with a skeleton mariachi band and banners that I added a traditional marigold swag. It gave a really jovial feel.

I had a cool spread that I planned and not all the things I had on my list even made it onto this platter or the other. Some of the things you'll see here:

• Skull deviled eggs - I used my own recipe, but I also want to tell you that this is not as easy to cut out faces and mine were very sad, but I tried. 
• Beet tahini dip (the pink) - I used cooked beets available in the salad section at Trader Joe's. 
• Cinnamon sugar snakes - I used Hawaiian crescent rolls for these. 
• Humbolt Fog goat cheese - this is the white cheese that has an edible layer of vegetable ash.
• Purple Moon cheese - Clearly, this is the purple coffin-shaped cheese. It gets this color by being soaked in red wine. 
• Cucumber skulls
• Salami
• Cornichon/gerkin pickles
• Pumpkin gouda (the bone-shaped and cubed cheese) - It has flecks of peppers and pumpkin seeds in it. It doesn't taste much different than regular gouda.
• Sweety drop peppers - These are hard to find, but they have them right now at New Seasons. 
• Kalamata olives
• Blackberries
• Seedless black grapes
• Avocado dip (see below)

This was my skull board with hot items. The large skulls are just pizza crust from a can filled with cheese and chili. I love this fun pan I used though.

Here's a closer pic of these two fun food items: 

• Shrunken potato heads - These are just little potatoes baked with faces cut into them. These go with the avocado dip above. 
• Bread of the dead - This flatbread features little mushroom skulls. I happened to do my own thing here by using canned pizza dough that I brushed with black food coloring and olive oil. I also didn't find any pesto gouda, so instead I used pepper gouda I found at Trader Joe's that is white, orange and green. I substituted baby bella mushrooms for white mushrooms, so they weren't as easily recognizable, but I think it came out well anyway.

Here's our whole spread with our Mexico Mayan pyramid backdrop. I also picked up these two little pumpkin dip bowls at Michaels, along with the little Catrina skull, and this sugar skull votive luminary at Target. 

You gotta toast with something, too, so I made this Spiced Cider (minus the marigold petals, because, no thanks, and I was too lazy to look for it). I pulled out some Halloween sprinkles I had and rimmed my mugs using honey as a "glue". Hint: use more honey than you expect to need. 

There's plenty more you can do to enjoy a cool Mexico Day of the Dead celebration, including creating an ofrenda to remember each of your lost family members and friends, watch Coco on Disney+, watch some things about traditional celebrations (here's my YouTube list with a bonus Halloween house in New Orleans), and a fun backdrop or two. I bought this Dia de los Muertos one and this Mayan pyramid one, which will make another appearance.

How did you spend this past weekend? Did you celebrate either Halloween or Day of the Dead? 

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!