I’m stoked to join my fellow FlipKey travel experts for a Summer Twitter Chat today! I’ll be sharing more about all my favorite New England summer escapes & we’ll also be chatting about favorite summer travel destinations all around the world. Join us on Twitter today (6/30/15) from 3 to 3:30 p.m. EST and follow the hashtag #FKSummer to add your best tips to the mix & ask your pressing budget travel questions!
I’m so thrilled to announce that I’m dusting off my passport, gassing up the car for road trips, and sanding the rust off my travel writing lockbox as a newly minted travel expert for Flipkey and TripAdvisor, sharing my secret spots in Boston and Austin - and also mean many, many more travel stories, new adventures, and past sojourns revisited, here on Shoestring soon.
Austin Passbook is like 12 of my favorite things in one: buy one, get one free (BOGO) deals to get out & explore ATX with a friend, whether you live here or just want to have one hell of a vacation, at primarily local, independently owned businesses, AND for each sale, Austin Passbook gives 5% back to HAAM — health insurance for local musicians, who keep Austin a vibrant creative hub and make it such a cool place to be. Find out where to get & use yours this summer!
That’s right: Pendleton has a factory outlet. And you can go on a tour of the mill itself, right where Western dreams have been made, right here in the U.S., for over 150 years. Especially after the series finale of Mad Men last night, I find myself daydreaming about going back and needed to finally share my experience.
One of our biggest New Year’s Resolutions is to finally budget time and money for travel, often, and finally take that beachy, romantic vacation of a honeymoon we never got, and SOON. I found this Honeymoon Fund jar at Austin Goodwill for a few bucks and immediately scooped it up, and every time I spot it on the windowsill in the kitchen, I throw in whatever cash I have on hand in my wallet (usually between $5 and $20), and have been re-reading the top tips for saving for a dream vacation I shared with SmarterTravel earlier last spring — trying my best to take my own advice.
A deeper dive into the best thrifting & vintage shopping in the City of Light – including the top places to refuel on famed culinary treats! – this list of tips for thrifting like a French chick will have you searching for cheap flights & Airbnbs, stat.
I’m always happiest when I’m at the beach. I was born on the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi, where my parents met while stationed as officers in the Air Force. Then we moved back to Boston (my dad’s hometown) when I was still a toddler, and for the next 16 years I never lived more than 10 miles from Boston Harbor.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned living in Austin, it’s that there’s never a shortage of visitors in from out of town — and they all want to find cowboy boots on a budget. (At least, all my friends & family members have!)
Oh man, this winter, amiright? I have no business complaining, since Ginger and I picked the absolute best year to move to Austin, and we’ve been grateful to be able to play host to all our friends who suffered repeated beatings from the Polar Vortex by inviting them down for an affordable weekend getaway in the Texas sunshine.
I’m officially saying goodbye to all our CDs this weekend, and though it feels like the end of an era, the ease and portability of music without the clutter — and the ability to have playlists for parties or road trips readily on hand wherever I may roam — is well worth the $10/month.