Planning Your Summer Travels

It's that time again. Time to start planning your summer travels, if you're going somewhere. Don’t wait until the last minute, because that’s when you’ll pay the most. Airfare alone can jump as much as 40% during the summer months, so here are some tips to help keep you in the black this year and have an amazing time:

Shop for airfare on Tuesday and Wednesday and look for flights that depart on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday for the lowest fares. New fares are posted every Tuesday and Wednesday are the perfect time to get the best deals, and when you fly on less popular days, you can pay less and have a better chance of not getting bumped off your flight due to overbooking. One thing that'll make you happy is that this summer, flights will be the cheapest they’ve been in seven years. Of course, that doesn't mean you should slack and leave booking until later. You still need to get on that ASAP.

Go early

 If your kids get out of school sooner the rest of the country, take advantage of your good fortune and vacation before the second week in June. Many schools have release dates in May, so if you can take time off before Memorial Day weekend, you can save a ton. The middle of June through the middle of August is going to be the most expensive time to travel almost anywhere, and the most crowded.

Go somewhere different 

Your kids are always going to want to go to theme parks or the beach during the summer, but by changing up your destination, you can actually save a little or a lot of money. If they insist on going to the beach, look for lakeside resorts near where you live. Most still have a beach and everything that goes along with it, unless surfing is on the agenda. Other ideas are to visit cold-weather destinations or South America. The Southern Hemisphere experiences winter during our summer, making it a less desirable place to vacation. Less desirable equals more affordable. South America is close, but there are so many different places to choose from that are amazing, tropical and super budget-friendly.

Drive 

Airfare can become a costly burden if there are many of you traveling. If you can spare the extra travel time, take a good old fashioned road trip to get to your destination. Make sure to plan fun stops along the way, like to see the world’s biggest ball of yarn, ghost towns or museums. It makes the whole trip seem like an adventure if you don’t just drive straight through. 

A pic from our boat tour of Portland

Plan a staycation 

If everything just seems too far out of budget this time of year, opt to do things around your own town and take your vacation over holiday break. Prices will be lower, most destinations will be less crowded and you will be able to see and do more than in the summer. Need some ideas for your planning? See my staycation post and check out my staycation board on Pinterest.

Don’t forget your cash back! 

Help keep a little money in your pocket or stretch the dollars you have by using Rakuten to book your flights, hotel rooms and rental cars. You can even get cash back for buying essentials like sunscreen and shorts! It's totally free to join and it's super easy. In fact, they give you a gift just for making your first purchase. How can you beat that?

Plan ahead

Start planning for a cheap summer trip next year by picking up my Secrets to Summer Savings ebook. I give you all my travel saving tips to make summer travel cheaper and packed with more fun.

Don't forget that traveling light can save you a lot of money in the long run, too. At the very least, you'll save $70 by not checking a bag on your roundtrip flight. More if you're an overpacker. Here's how I packed for a whole week in a backpack and here's how I pack my toiletry bag.

Where will you be going for your Summer vacation?

Packing Light: Tips for Your Toiletry Bag

After posting about how I packed a week's worth of clothes in a backpack, I promised you a post on how to pare down your toiletries. I have been working on bringing fewer or smaller things on my trips when I travel, which might be difficult for those who want to take their whole routine on vacation with them. Even when I do more than usual, I still don't use too many products.

I find that doing things more simply when I'm away from home both gives my skin a break when I'm also getting more exercise, so I am not dealing with extra breakouts, and I don't have to keep track of so many things that I'm scrambling to fit it all back in a bag when I have to pack up to go home. That bag won't be so big that I need a larger carry-on or suitcase to fit everything I need, so fewer, smaller things helps me pack lighter overall, which in turn saves me time and money.

I rounded up all the things I normally use at home. These are all full sizes and I chose the three eyeshadow palettes I use most often, sometimes I mix and match. Even one of those palettes would take a lot of space in my toiletry bag, so I tend to go with smaller ones when I travel, though they don't usually have as fun colors and I'm more than likely will use neutral colors most of the time I'm away. 

I've also included what I use for my hair and my eyecare. I didn't include my shampoo and conditioner, but I replace those with solid bars when I travel. I've got some favorites from Lush, and I will chop them in half or thirds, so they take up less room, but I will also keep them in a metal tin, and that doesn't have to fit in my toiletry bag, because it's spill- and waterproof. 

Deodorant is easy to downsize. Every brand has a smaller, travel option usually. I bounce between several brands, so I'm not super picky when I buy a new small one for my travel bag. If you are, then check out alltravelsizes or Minimus for your favorites if you can't find them at the store.

Contact solution goes a long way. I've been on the very last squeeze for three days, so I know the smaller one is going to last me a week or more, even with two of us sharing. I'm not opposed to buying this when I get to my destination, but I'm cheap and it's harder to find solution some places, like Europe. When we accidentally left a bag of bathroom stuff behind going to Paris from London, we had to go to an optometrist in Paris to buy contact solution. And if you're beholden to the 3-1-1 bag rule, you definitely can't bring a full size bottle on the plane.

I'll compromise on a lot of things, but I refuse to use bar soap...anywhere. I hate it. So, I find a fun body wash and use that on trips until it's empty and then I find a new one, or I put a favorite one in a GoToob, and then I can refill it over and over, and it doesn't leak. I have upgraded my travel bag to include a small pump soap dispenser that I fill with foaming hand soap and it has changed my whole travel experience. It's a small thing, but doesn't make me hate washing my hands in my room anymore.

Before I got TSA PreCheck, I was tired of having half a tube of mini toothpaste with me when I got home and not wanting to take two with me on the next trip, so I wasn't wasting that half tube, so I started using toothpaste tabs. I've tried multiple brands, but I really like Bite, because they work much better than others, taste better, and come in glass bottles that can be recycled or reused. I bite one in half, so I get two brushes out of one, because they are so efficient and foam up really well.

I have brought along a folding toothbrush for a long time, but I highly recommend these by Dr. Plotka's. They use silver to eliminate bacteria, viruses, and fungi, so you don't have to worry about replacing it after you used it for 2 weeks and then didn't travel again for 3 months and left it in your bag...or what might be on the hotel bathroom counter. It closes, too, so it's easy to not have your wet brush head touching other things in your bag.

My hair is really thick and frizzes in the slightest humidity, so I use a hair honey on it that is made for Black hair. It smells nice and it doesn't take much to get my hair to cooperate and look like I'm a person. This big jar lasts forever, so I always have about half a tablespoon in one of these small GoTubbs. 

I also find that a good setting spray for my makeup gets it to last all day long, with minimal touch-ups. You want to look good in pics. This is another product I keep trying new ones for at home, but the Urban Decay is tried and true, so that's the one that goes on trips with me. I don't want to find that all my makeup melted off halfway through a 12-hour bout of sightseeing where I'm taking public transport.

My skin is sensitive, but I'm also over 40, so I need some extra skincare when traveling. I use a tinted moisturizer with priming in it, but also a separate hydrating primer on certain areas, like under my eyes. My skin is combination, but the dry areas are super dry, and I find that hyaluronic acid is helpful under all my makeup. I don't need a lot of any of these things, but I still need them. I decant moisturizer into another small GoTubb and the other ones that I need even less of into a contact lens case. These are perfect for small amounts of liquids, because you know they aren't going to accidentally leak and they take up hardly any room.

I am much more particular about my foundation and when I find a good one, I stick with it forever. Luckily, this one comes in a travel size, but if it didn't, I'd probably use a GoTubb for that, too. I really like Ulta for travel sizes for my toiletry bag, because they have a lot of things in smaller sizes and often have sales. I'm less particular about my mascara, but I usually try to choose one for travel that lasts all day and is waterproof. You never know when you're going to get caught in a downpour. Waterproof ones are better for staying on all day long.

I have a ton of different blushes and eyeshadows, but I'm not taking all of them with me on a one-week trip, where I probably won't use 98% of them. I've upgraded to this face palette, which has a bronzer, highlighter, and two cheek colors, but I will mix and match to use them as eyeshadow, highlighter, and blush. This is the only way you can usually get a good brown and complimentary pinks, and those are the colors I like to blend on my eyes. Between a primer and a setting spray, these work pretty good wherever you want to use them. I always bring a kabuki style brush for blush, and I have two generic brushes for eyeshadow that barely take up any room. I shove them in the bottom of my toiletry bag with one or two eyeliners.

More often than not, I have a bag full of lip colors that I choose from each morning, but they don't last all day. I hate thinking about reapplying when I'm busy doing things, so now I just bring my favorite color of Covergirl Outlast All-Day Lip Color. It actually does last all day long and I only need to have whatever lip balm I'm into with me, because sometimes my lips get dry, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with this lip color.

So, I went from all that stuff up on top to just these pieces now. A few are the same things, like the charcoal scrub, my compact (though sometimes I just take the one that's normally in my purse), and eye drops. 

In addition to these things, I bring along a travel hair straightener and I feel organized and like I can keep track of everything. Another plus: if I accidentally leave any of these things behind and they don't make it home with me, I haven't left a $20-40 item, because I never brought a full-size container in the first place. At most, I'm out a small portion of product, and that can easily be replaced.

I hope this helps you pack a little more thoughtfully and smaller when you travel, so you don't have to check a bag just to accommodate your toiletry bag.

What's your biggest struggle when trying to pare down on your toiletries?

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Review: Pursesuitz Pocketwear Tank

I don't know about all the other ladies out there, but I'm so tired of pockets in women's clothing either being super shallow or non-existent. Sometimes, you just don't want to carry a purse or other bag, or you aren't allowed to bring one into a venue, but your pockets are insufficient for keeping things inside or secure. 

More than once I've put something in the pocket of my jeans only to sit down and for it to fall right out. Cool. The only useful pocket is a back pocket where I put my phone, but I'm 100% not putting anything else in there, not just because my phone is already in there. So, what's a girl to do? Well, we get a Pursesuitz Pocketwear Tank, of course. 

One of the new companies I met at the Travel Goods Show was Pursesuitz, founded by Barbara Zabawa. Barbara was also tired of never having sufficient pockets, so she did something about it and created a high-quality tank that has two large kangaroo pockets. They stretch across the whole bottom portion of the tank. She sent me home with a tank and I wore it on the way home and have worn it several times since. 

The tank has a compression feel and makes a really good base layer. This enables it to sit closer to your body and not look bulky under anything you're wearing over it. The hem also has these elastic rows in order to keep it from rolling up or flopping around. I love it, because it helps keep you covered and doesn't scrunch up around your waist. Today, I just wore it under my favorite hoodie, like a regular tank top. 

How big are these pockets? And how do they keep your stuff inside? Well, they're pretty large. You can put your passport in there if you want. Your big phone will too. Honestly, I don't know how they keep your belongings in. I'm obsessed with the pocket technology, honestly, because they somehow just suction closed like Velcro, but are super soft and make a really satisfying little "shoop" sound that's super quiet. 

I turned up the volume as high as I could and still couldn't hear it on my video above, so nobody around you is going to hear it, and possibly not even you. I DID make everyone I know feel the inside of the pockets, because the closing technology is so cool.

I wanted to prove how awesome this tank is. I'm wearing a small and you can definitely size up if you like a little more room, but know that it's not going to sit as close to your body with all your stuff. Notice how the stuff in the pockets don't even move, even while jumping around. 

Even with the tank not on my body, nothing falls out, such is the amazing pocket technology. Please ignore my intense facial expressions in these videos. Nobody told my face it was on camera. LOL!

If you're on one of those budget airlines and have to limit yourself to a personal item size, this tank can help you hold more things on your person when a purse or belt bag would count as a second bag and cost you extra money.

Gotta keep hand sanitizer handy on the plane

Other cool things about this tank top: 

• It's made of recycled polyester/spandex
• It's machine washable
• It's moisture-wicking
• It's wrinkle-free
• It comes in two colors so far - black and gray
• It comes in sizes Small to 3X, so people of all sizes can wear it

you can't even tell I'm wearing a tank with things in the pockets

It's not just perfect for travel, where you don't want to carry a purse through the airport or on the plane, but you can wear this for all these other activities:

• A sporting event or concert where no bags or only stadium bags are allowed
• A festival, where having a purse is annoying
• Taking your dog for a walk
• Going for a run or to the gym
• Sightseeing in crowded areas where pickpockets are prevalent
• When on public transportation

Stop carrying items around in your bra and keep them in convenient pockets instead. There's so many reasons you'll want to have one or more of these comfy tanks in your closet. I'll definitely be keeping one in my travel bag. It's a perfect layering piece, so can be worn in a variety of situations, too. 

Get yours now and support a great woman-owned travel brand, while adding a valuable piece to your travel (and everyday) wardrobe.

How would you wear this awesome tank?

Show Barbara and Pursesuitz some love. Follow them online and check out the other levels of compression tanks on her website. 

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Disclaimer: I was given the Pursesuitz Pocketwear Tank for the purposes of this review, but all opinions are 100% my own.