When the husband and I got married, we made a pack to visit one new city every year. We're two years in and so far, so good. We've been fortunate enough to visit New York City (twice!), San Francisco and Washington DC and I'm excited to share that we will be heading to Paris & Barcelona (recommendations welcome!!) in July!
I am a total eager-beaver when it comes to travel, so much so that months before we are even thinking about booking a trip I am scouring for flights, places to stay and things to do. So I thought it would be fun to share my top 5 go-to travel resources.
- Airbnb - I know I've talked about it before, but I can't recommend Airbnb enough. We use Airbnb for almost all of our travel as it's the best way to stay in the exact location we want without overpaying for a hotel. Personally, I like to look for a place that it is operated like a hotel (i.e. someone doesn't permanently live there, it's used only for Airbnb renters) which you can usually get a feel for after scrolling for a few minutes. Still not convinced? Check out a few places I've saved to my wish list: Rome, Barcelona, Madrid & San Francisco.
- Jetsetter - If you can't quite get on board with Airbnb, my recommendation would be to check out Jetsetter. An extension of the designer discount site Gilt, Jetsetter only features boutique hotels that have all been personally reviewed by Jetstetter staff. The best part is, similar to their sister-site, Jetsetter features flash sales on featured hotels. I used this site when I traveled to Portland last Thanksgiving (stayed here) and wasn't disappointed.
- Hopstop - If possible, I prefer to not rent a car when traveling but instead take public transportation, so that I can see more of the city and get a more local experience. Most of the time walking from one destination to the next has led us to discover a hidden gem that we never would have noticed otherwise. My favorite app to help me navigate through public transportation is Hopstop. It is extremely user friendly and makes me feel less like tourist when visiting places like New York City.
- ITA - I'm weirdly obsessed with looking up flights long before it would ever make sense to actually book something, and the ITA app allows me to indulge in my crazy. My favorite feature is that the app allows you to search a range of dates and returns flight prices by day in a graph-like form that is easy to read.
- Refinery 29 - Perhaps unexpected, but Refinery 29's travel section is on point. While I usually take care of the up-front planning, the husband runs the show once we are actually on vacation, coordinating all of our daily plans. More then once he has told me that the restaurant we are eating at or site we are seeing is a Refinery 29 recommendation. Case in point, I just pinned this article.
What are your go-to travel resources, I'd love to know!
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