Category Archives: Travel Planning

Yellowstone National Park: Rough Itinerary and Pre-trip Planning

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Our family trip to Yellowstone (and the surrounding area) is fast-approaching, and we are just finalizing our travel plans.  Now is a great time to start thinking about a summer trip in 2020 – reservations open on May 1 for next year’s summer season.  I’m so glad we booked 6 nights in Yellowstone (two nights each at the Old Faithful Inn, Roosevelt Cabins, and Canyon Lodge), even though we didn’t have time to do much research.

With just over two months to go before our trip, we decided it was time to start looking at more details. Flights in and out of Jackson Hole are limited (very few nonstop options from LA), so we will be arriving very late and leaving very early. At a minimum, this meant an extra night at either end of the Yellowstone visit.  In the end, we opted for two nights on each end of our Yellowstone stay – first in Jackson Hole and finishing up in Grand Teton National Park.

Rough itinerary:

Nights 1-2: stay in Jackson Hole at the Alpine House. It was recommended by a friend, and after a quick search, we agreed that it was a good fit for us. The rates include breakfast, there’s a small spa onsite, and an honor bar that we will definitely take advantage of.  Our full day here will mostly be spent in Grand Teton National Park, although we plan to go at a more leisurely pace, since we will be returning on the back end of our trip.

Nights 3-4: stay in YNP at the Old Faithful Inn. We made dinner reservations at the nice restaurant in the lodge for both nights, but will likely only keep one of the two (there are quicker dining options also available at the Inn, so I can see the allure, especially with a two-year-old in tow, of opting out of a fancy dinner for one night).

Nights 5-6: stay in YNP at the Roosevelt Lodge in one of the Roughrider Cabins. I’m really looking forward to this stop because apparently this is a great area for wildlife viewing! Back in January we booked a Old West Dinner Cookout Wagon Ride for our second night there (it starts relatively early at 4:45pm, so that would cover us in case we get in a bit later on the first night). The cost was about $135 total for Ryan and I (Oliver, as a lap child, was free).  They also have options for a one or two-hour horsehide prior to dinner, but kids have to be at least 8 years old.

Nights 7-8: stay in YNP at the Canyon Lodge.  We were able to make dinner reservations each night, but similar to Old Faithful Inn, there are more casual options that might be nice for one night.  Reservations can be made as early as May 1, but we were able to get a 6:45 and 7:15 reservation only two months out.  There is also a casual dining option (as well as a grab-and-go cafe), so we may swap out a nice dinner for something a little more kid-friendly.  I’m looking forward to hiking around the area, and enjoying views of the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” (pictured below, courtesy of nps.gov).

Nights 9-10:  Grand Tetons at the beautifully-situated (and extremely pricey) Jenny Lake Lodge. This is our huge splurge for the trip, at $800/night (including taxes).  The location is great and will allow us to maximize our short time in the park. The rate also includes dinner at the lodge, which is normally priced at $94/person. One thing to note is that dinner reservations should be made as early as possible; I just called to book and make reservations, and everything in the 7:00 hour was already taken.

From Jenny Lake Lodge we’ll take an early morning flight out of Jackson Hole, finishing up our 10-night stay in Wyoming.  I’m looking forward to crossing two more National Parks on my list (one of which is arguably the most beautiful), and doing so with our curious little boy!

 

 

 

 

Fall 2017 Travel Plans

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We’ve always said that having a baby wouldn’t slow us down – and we’re trying to make sure it stays true!  Of course we have slowed down a bit, but we have a busy fall planned.  We’ve completed a few successful overnighters (one weekend up in the Bay Area staying with my mom, and one down in LA at a hotel for a good friend’s wedding), and he did a great job.  So, what do we have planned?

  • Another weekend up in northern California – a couple of nights at my mom’s, and then our first real (mini) vacation as a family in Carmel.  We’ll be spending two nights there and have nothing planned other than enjoying the cooler temperatures!  We’re looking forward to a lot of walking, eating good food, wine tasting, and window shopping.
  • Oliver’s first trip to the beach in San Diego.  Mission Beach is my family’s annual vacation spot (although we kind of stopped for the past few years).  All of us are planning to go again, so Ryan and I rented a house right by the house everyone else will be staying in.  We’ll be down there for 4 nights and I’m really looking forward to morning walks on the boardwalk and relaxing afternoons on the beach.
  • Oliver’s first camping trip!  We’ve been planning to go to Yosemite since the beginning of the year and I can’t wait!  We’re staying in Yosemite Valley at Upper Pines (where we usually stay) and Oliver’s baby friends Emma and Austin will also be there.  So, it won’t be our usual camping trip with lofty hiking goals, but more of a relaxing trip.
  • Oliver’s first plane ride (notice a pattern?  A lot of firsts for Oliver!).  We’re headed to Denver for a week to visit Ryan’s family since most of them haven’t met Oliver yet!  Since we’re spending more than a long weekend there, we managed to sneak in a short trip to Aspen (I’ve never been!) with Ryan’s parents and brother and his wife.
  • And although it’s not booked yet, we’re also planning a trip to Europe with the help of international travel tips! We’re hoping for October, but we haven’t been able to get Oliver’s passport yet (we tried yesterday morning, but there were too many people so we have to go back sometime this week).  We haven’t yet decided where, but some ideas include: London, English countryside, Paris, southern France, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Bruges.  We need to book this soon since our planned departure date is in 7 weeks (!), so hopefully we can get serious about this in the next week or so.

Just writing it all out seems exhausting, but we are excited to experience old and new places with Oliver.  I am a bit nervous about some things – mostly the plane flights and dealing with feeding and naps while out and about (particularly in Europe). However, if you’re interested in becoming a travel writer, here are some helpful Tips On How To Become A Travel Writer. I’m sure we’ll survive!

 

Hawaii Here We Come (again)!

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We had an amazing time in Maui for our babymoon and, after seeing so many little kids during the trip, we decided that we wanted to make it back to Hawaii in 2018. Our original plan was to stay at one (or split time between both) of the Starwood properties on Kauai – the Sheraton or the Princeville St. Regis.  However, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse…

Thanks to my gold status with Starwood and the recent merger between Starwood and Marriott, I am now have Gold Elite status with Marriott.  I’m not exactly sure what triggered the deal for me, but I’m assuming that has a lot to do with it.  While the conversation with the salesman (and his manager) was more than 30 minutes, the short story is that I was offered another $799, 5-night deal to a nice hotel, similar to the Starwood deal we booked last October.

A few differences between this deal and the Starwood deal:

  • We had to decide on the call whether or not we would take this deal and can take suggestion from lawyers for estate planning claims to make the best decision.  Luckily sales people like to talk, and I was able to stall long enough to make sure Ryan was on board (since he was at work – I had to wait for a text back!).  This also means that I didn’t have time to google the legitimacy of the deal and had to go with my gut (which said to book it).
  • There are no blackout dates; although I’m still not sure if this means that there is unlimited availability each day.  So, we’ll have to decide on our dates soon so that we can lock them in.  Luckily we shouldn’t be as inflexible as we were for the babymoon.
  • The deal is for more than just the property in Kauai.  That’s what we’re interested, but I’ve been told that my $149 deposit can actually be used at a different property. If you need such property related information, it is best for you to get in touch with experts from https://webuyhousesinatlanta.com/woodstock/ this site and seek their valuable advice.
  • The $799 does not include a rental car, so we’ll have to pick up that tab on our own.  Since we’d have to do this with or without this deal, it doesn’t seem like an issue to rent a car on our own.
  • Both of us HAVE to attend the timeshare presentation, otherwise we risk having to pay retail price for our vacation, which is not something I’m interested in doing.  We were able to ditch out on the presentation at the Westin Villas in Maui, so I guess we won’t be as lucky this time around.

We hope to book in the next couple of months (I believe I have to book at least 60 days in advance of when we plan to travel), so hopefully there aren’t any surprises. I’m planning to go back to work at the end of January, so the current plan is to go just before I return.  One last getaway before work life begins again!

Next stop, Argentina!

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We’re headed to Argentina today (right now)!  Despite being very busy these last few weeks and feeling like we haven’t had time to do much research, we managed to line up a few fun activities for our trip.  I can’t decide which stop I’m most excited for – they’re all so different! Here’s a look at all we’ve booked so far:

Iguazu Falls 

About two months ago I read something online about a full moon walk at Iguazu Falls. It happens once a month, around the full moon (of course!), which is when we’ll be there! For 5 nights, a company takes 3 tours out to see the falls under the moonlight. We had such a great time when we did our night visit to the Alhambra, so I knew we had to take advantage of this.  We booked and got our preferred date and time, and I can’t wait! I’m just crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates.

El Calafate

I already talked about our El Calafate activities in my post here, but will mention them again (now that we’ve officially booked). We’ll be taking the mini trekking tour with Hielo y Adventura on our first full day, which includes a trek across a glacier!  Our second day will be a bit more relaxing but the views will be stunning – we’ll be on an all-day boat cruise that will allow us to get up close to the glaciers.  We ended up booking with Marpatag because the experience looks more luxurious, but there are other (cheaper) options.

El Chaltén

Nothing booked! We have two long hikes and a few short ones planned, but the days are flexible and there’s nothing to book in advance!

Buenos Aires

Not wanting to be bored (but how could we be?) with 5 days in the city, we booked a few fun and different activities.  We’re starting out with dinner at the Argentine Experience – I guess it’s not a cooking class, and honestly I don’t really understand what it is. But it comes very highly rated and one of my best friends was just there and raves about it. This was a must do! The next night we are seeing a tango show! It doesn’t include dinner (which was our preference) and is in an intimate setting.  If we like it enough, maybe we’ll visit a tango club 😉

We decided to take one day trip (as opposed to two, which just seemed like too much time away from the city) and it was between a visit to an estancia, the Tigre delta, and a day in Colonia del Sacramento (in Uruguay).  Ryan found an estancia that offers a day trip (including transportation back and forth) that sounds like a lot of fun. It starts with a tour of the town (San Antinio de Areco) and then a visit to the estancia, with either horseback riding, a carriage ride, or a swim, a barbecue picnic, and a demonstration put on by gauchos! We booked this for the middle of our time I’m Buenos Aires.

We plan to tour the Teatro Colón, but thought it would be even more special to see an opera while in town.  When we went to buy tickets, we noticed that there was also a concert, so we booked that instead! The performance is in two weeks and we just booked it this morning.  Based on what I read online, we either wanted seats in the orchestra or the balcony.  I’m not sure if this is the case with all performances, but there were almost no seats left.  Luckily between the two of us we were able to navigate through the Spanish-only website and purchase two tickets.

The last thing we have booked is a graffiti tour.  One of our friends went to Buenos Aires a few years ago and this was his favorite experience of the trip.  We booked through Graffitimundo, which has south city and north city tours. However, the tours are only offered certain days, so although we really wanted to fit it in at the beginning of our trip, we’re having to wait until the very end.

And there you have it! A quick look at most of our plans for our trip.  We have high hopes for everything we’ve booked and for the activities in between.  We can’t wait for the adventure to begin!

Asia Impromptu: Japan in a Month

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While a trip to Japan has been on our travel shortlist for some time, it has not been planned or talked about much (aside from watching an Anthony Bourdain episode or two). Keep in mind that our “shortlist” always has at least 15-20 big trips on it, so there’s no way to really plan out each one until we get a little more serious about actually taking the trip. Well, our fast-approaching Japan trip got real last Sunday, when Ryan and I were relaxing, researching plans for our Argentina trip, and reading the newspaper/doing the crossword puzzle. Ryan was looking through the travel section when he noticed cheaper than normal airfares from LA during the Labor Day holiday. Having no plans yet, he started to actually look at prices, and then verified those prices online.

The most intriguing destination was Tokyo, with fares on United (our current airline of choice, but I keep saying I want to switch my loyalty) around $700 round trip. We played around with different days for departure and return, and realized with our current remaining days off, we could only really get away for a long weekend. We spent the rest of the day researching Argentina and jokingly talking about Japan, as if it were going to happen.

Monday morning at work I started to dig through my email to learn more about unpaid time. We would only have to take 6 hours in order to add a few more days to our hypothetical Japan trip, so I wasted no time in asking my supervisor. Ryan waiting a little longer, but as soon as he got the OK on Wednesday, we booked! This was with very minimal research – although I did talk to a good friend who spent 4 days in Tokyo last year and loved it. The tickets were $799 round trip (we could have added another day for about $400 total, but since we again have two large vacations this year, I thought 7 nights in Japan would be plenty), which is much cheaper than our normal international airfare purchases.

Sashimi - from Japan Travel Guide

And now the fun begins! With less than a month to go, we haven’t booked a thing, but we do know that most or all of our time will be spent between Tokyo and Kyoto. We also know we will be staying at least one night at a ryokan, or a traditional Japanese inn. And of course we will be eating as much Japanese food as we can handle – sushi, sashimi, soba, udon, tempura – I won’t say “no” to anything!  (I’ve already spent a lot of time reading about the food on this Japan Travel Guide site – the picture above comes from the “sashimi” section.)

So now it’s time to scour the books and internet and figure out what our must-see sites are.  We toyed with a hike up Mt. Fuji, but since we only have 7 nights, neither of us are in great shape (I’m sure we’d be fine), and it requires packing special clothes and shoes, so I think we’ll have to save that for another trip.  So, our activities will likely focus on staying in town (instead of day trips away) to see as much of the two cities as we can with our short stay.  I’m looking forward to the research!