Travel Hacks: Three things to pack when traveling!

I meant to write this after we got back from Europe in February but I didn’t have a chance so I decided to finally get something written now, right after we got back from Florida. Here are three things we’ve discovered over our last few trips.If you’re driving in a new city or area bring a dash mount for your phone GPS. This is a lifesaver when traveling in an unfamiliar area. Target has them for $5 in their dollar spot so there is pretty much no reason why  you wouldn’t have one when traveling. If you’re walking rather than driving in a new area I would suggest downloading maps of the areas you’ll be walking in.Bring several extra ziplock baggies in multiple sizes. You never know when you’ll need a ziplock so a wise idea is to travel with them at all times! We actually forgot to bring extras when we went to Florida and we ended up  purchasing a box while we were down there. When we were in Europe we used all of the extra ziplocks we brought with. We used them to store dirty clothes/wet clothes when we traveled. We used small snack sized ziplocks to store snacks for our daily outings and we used the quart sized ziplocks to store multiple items. I wouldn’t travel without these ever again!Bring a reusable shopping bag. Unless you’re at an all-inclusive resort this is an item you don’t want to leave at home. When we were in Europe I saw the usefulness of traveling with one of these when we picked a bag up while traveling. I forgot to pack one when we went to Florida and I certainly regretted it!  It is very useful if you need to carry a lot of items around. I would have really loved to have one on hand for when we went grocery shopping or to the beach.  When we were in Europe it was really handy to have a larger bag to hold our lunch or foodstuff during the day.

Air B&B: A Review

 I thought I would give you guys a little review about our experience with Air B&B. Don't worry, there will be more in-depth posts later this month about our entire trip complete with photos!If you’re not familiar with Air B&B it is a way to book rooms or houses when you are traveling. It is an alternative to hotels and hostels. It is almost like couch surfing, but you get your own private room or home and there are typically excellent reviews on the website that help you decide where to stay. Most hosts will also include breakfast in the price of your stay too.We stayed in three different Air B&B’s when we were in Europe.LondonEdinburghAran Island, IrelandWe had an absolutely excellent time at each and every one of these Air B&B’s. If you are looking to stay in one of these places both Alex and I would absolutely recommend any of the hosts we stayed with. They each had excellent suggestions on places to visit around where they lived and they were all more than willing to talk with us.One tip I received before we booked any of these was to check out the reviews on people and only go with people who have a lot of positive reviews. I believe this helped us have an excellent experience with Air B&B since each of our locations was well reviewed.And really, just admire this view from our window on the Aran Islands: