8 Travel Tricks and Tips that will Change the Way you Travel

Today’s post: This post was sponsored by Trip Advisor and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.  Sharing Travel tricks and tips that will change the way you travel.  These tips will help you enjoy a trip with your family and traveling with your kids on a vacation! 

If you’ve been around our little family for any length of time you know we have the travel bug- BAD!  We are always talking about where we want to adventure and where we want to go next.   One can dream, right?

This first picture is us at the Swamp tour…where we saw lots of alligators…if you look through the pictures closely enough down towards the bottom you’ll see a HUGE gator we saw!

At the same time we have been able to do a lot of traveling together and exploring…translating that to we have learned a few tricks along the way to help us make travel a bit easier.  Every trip we improve and learn new tricks and tips to help us travel better.

8 Travel Tricks and Tips

1- Make a List

Seriously start a month ahead and make a running list of what you need to pack and tasks you need to take care of before your trip.  If you have bills to be pre-paid that will be due while you’re gone to how many outfits you’ll need while away.

2- Plan Ahead and Book Attractions

We always decide what kind of activities and attractions we want to do.  With TripAdvisor it gives the ability to book attractions, tours and experiences.  Helping us read reviews, snag tickets ahead of time and avoid long lines as well.  TripAdvisor is the world’s largest provider of tours, activities and
attractions, with more than 56,000 bookable experiences in 2,500 destinations worldwide.
TripAdvisor Attractions offers something for every kind of traveler; book everything from walking
tours, skip-the- line access and theatre tickets to hot air balloon safaris and Everest base camp treks.

Here recently our two attractions we booked via TripAdvisor was to the USS Battleship in Mobile Alabama and a swamp tour in Slidell Louisiana. Both were so fun and the perfect attraction for our time schedule while booking in advance and ensuring we had tickets to our attraction without standing in line and taking the chance that the tours were full and booked.  WIN!

3- Create a Budget and Stick to It

What is your budget for your travel and trip?  Decide ahead of time how much money you have to spend on travel, flights, trains, rental cars, hotel, attractions, food and any other misc. things you can think of.  If your travel doesn’t fit within your budget- then you just don’t go or you just don’t stay at a particular hotel, search for something in your budget.  Your bank account will appreciate this tip later.

4- Travel Light – there is always a store around

Don’t freak out if you forget something…usually there is a store around, somewhere that you can pick up what you need.  At the same time if you’ve been planning and making your list you most likely won’t need anything.  As you are laying out your items and packing ask yourself if you will REALLY need that item.  If you can do without it then do without it.  Traveling light is really a huge plus.

5- Bring Protein Snacks

Always…pack snacks that can get you through a meal if need be.  As we all know that traveling on a flight the timing is never friendly when it comes to an eating schedule…if you are traveling via a car when you are hungry that doesn’t always mean the next exit will have what you want to eat either.  Pack protein filled snacks.

6- Pack Your Clothing as a Capsule Wardrobe

Choose a color scheme and pack your clothes as a capsule. – (How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe for Traveling) This way you can mix and match and anything goes together OR as Marie Claire says – pack two tops per every pant.  Great travel tip there too!

7- Choose a Bag and Pack it all In

Choose a travel bag…whether it’s your carry on for a flight or your suitcase/bag for the car.  What fits in it goes, what doesn’t fit stays home. TRAVEL HACKS: PACK ALL YOU NEED FOR VACATION IN ONE CARRY-ON

8- Travel “Off- Season” if you can. 

If you can’t find a trip that fits in your budget consider going to a location that is in “off-season”.  Usually you can get a bit better price and still explore and have a fun adventure!

What are your favorite tips and tricks to travel with your family on vacations?  I need all the advice you can give!

Hi I’m Erin a Southern mama from South Mississippi, owner and chief editor of Sixth Bloom a blog helping mom-tographers capture their kiddos and life, talking all things home, parenting and how we navigate through life. You will find me living life to the fullest with my mister (aka husband) and our little one year old, Miss E, in our 500+ sq foot cottage as we build our dream house on our two acres!  We are blessed beyond measure, love to travel, involved in ministry at our church and in between all of that I run three successful businesses!  Follow me at: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST