Just pick a place. You don’t need a ton of time, or any profound reason, to pick a place and just go! You know what you like to do with your time and will find things to fill each day, I promise. 

Generally, unless there's a boat ride or train ride that determines the route, we like to start at the most 'remote' or farthest place and work our way back to the main city or capital. It's nice to not have a huge travel day at the end before getting on the plane and by putting the out-of-our-comfort-zone things first: we have excitement to keep us going! Consider flying into one city and out of another to maximize your time.

If you’re really having trouble picking a destination–or if you’re like us, you just want to see everything with equal veracity–make a bucket list of your top must-sees. If even that seems hard to do, may I humbly offer this specific list of seven places?

There is no wrong time to go someplace. There is only a wrong time for YOU to go someplace.

Take me, for example, I dislike crowds. So I'm never ever going back to Versailles in the summer. Or—ohmygosh—have you SEEN the photos of Santorini this summer? The crowds are UNREAL. That's not for me. But maybe you love the buzzy feeling of being at the hit spot—go forth and enjoy!

It is completely ok to start planning and suddenly realize that you just really want to wait to visit Japan when the cherry blossoms are blooming. Tuck that itinerary away for another time. Enjoy the feeling that you almost booked a ticket.

I prefer a combination of guidebook and online research. Look up the weather. Look for any holidays/festivals you want to experience (Diwali in India would be amazing!) or avoid (Ramadan, the religious fasting month, means many restaurants are closed in Muslim countries). Do you want to visit Venice or do you want to visit Venice during the Regata Storica?

The more you study about your dream destinations, the more knowledge you will have when the time is right and the dates line up to visit! This also makes you ready for a spontaneous adventure when you find a last-minute deal. 💪🏼♥️ Even those of us who have rigid work schedules can have spontaneous adventure… it’s called procrastination. 😂 Block out time on your calendar and I promise the right trip will find you if you keep researching.

If there’s a place you really want to visit: just go! It will be the right time for you to be there.

Not to discourage you, but as someone who is often asked this question, it may help to know: there aren’t “secret” deals out there to find. 🤫

You CAN get a GREAT rate on a flight if you’re flexible on dates, flexible on destination, or ideally both! A deal on a first class or business fare is a rare thing if you don’t have status and/or points. You can sign up for a service like Fare Drop that will alert you to cheap flights, but it probably won’t alert you to exactly where you want to go on the exact date you want to leave. (<— if you’re go-with-the-flow then Fare Drop may be perfect for you!)

Best way to start would be to set a price alert as soon as possible so you know how the price is trending. Consider snagging an economy seat and watching to see how much it costs to upgrade as it gets closer to your trip (no guarantee, but you could be surprised). Start saving money where you can or take out a new travel credit card for the sign up bonus and spend the points on an upgrade (only if you will use the card responsibly and pay it off each month!!).

I like Kayak, Skyscanner, and Google Flights to search, but always book directly with the airline. Remember some regional airlines (like Southwest) aren't indexed in the searches so you have to look directly on their site or app. Watch out for "hacker fare" (different airlines with a layover in between) because if there's a delay and you miss your second flight they have no responsibility to get you to your destination—I've booked hacker fare with triumphant success and with tearful failure so it's a 50/50 shot.

Pack light and save money on baggage. ALWAYS use incognito mode when searching for flights. If there was a magic site out there, trust me, I would know about it and I would tell you! Those of us who book good deals have invested time in research.

Best of luck!!! 🍀✈️
You got this. 💪🏼♥️

Yes, you can do all your research online, but try Googling ‘Argentina’. What comes up is a bunch of random information that is not all applicable to travelers. The real information online about Argentina won’t be in English. Think about it: the best hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Argentina is not going to have a website and if it does, it will be in Spanish. Yes, you can find those sites and use Google translate, etc. but ThriftBooks.com has a used copy of Lonely Planet Argentina from 2016 for $4.59 and has all the information you need right there in English. Money well-spent.

Lonely Planet publishes my favorite guide books—when I lived in Costa Rica, my fellow students called it The Bible—I like to buy used editions to save money. Generally the best places have been around long enough that Lonely Planet doesn’t have to change their recommendations with each guidebook. Buying used means we can grow our collection so we can pick up a book when inspiration strikes! Sometimes we splurge and buy on Amazon if there's a brand new edition or when we’re actively planning a trip somewhere and they have a post-pandemic version.

I typically bring at least one guidebook with me on the journey, perhaps as a safety blanket in case we find ourselves without technology (which has yet to happen🤞🏼). Lots of travel experts, for example Rick Steves, recommend surgically extracting sections of the book that are applicable to your journey. We, as lifelong book lovers, have not been successful in attempting this brutal method yet. For countries with enormous guides, we opt for a pocket edition or individual city editions but if you can stomach it, feel free to rip apart the big book.

It’s counterintuitive, but the more money you spend on traveling the better you will be at traveling cheaply. You learn so many new things with each trip. It’s okay to make a few mistakes along the way (I did!). Stay loyal to a hotel brand and the first time you book a night in a hotel using only points will happen before you know it.

One of the unorthodox methods I love to use to save money when traveling is by booking overnight transportation. This would include night trains, overnight ferries, anything with a comfortable bed that moves you to your next destination. They are often half the price of a hotel and you wake up ready to explore the next city with no time wasted. Book these kind of things in advance if you can. 🚂⛴️

First off, I would consider myself an avid traveler for 10+ years and I’m STILL trying to figure out all these reward programs. For 3 years in my 20s I flew to see my boyfriend once a month, always loyal to the same airline… and I got no miles, points, or status to show for it (I mean, except a marriage proposal & a great husband 😆). So if you feel like you will never figure this out, you are not alone! It takes a good amount of research and time. 100% worth it for some of us, but maybe not for everyone.

Any time you travel, say, for a wedding or whatnot, if you stay loyal to a brand (Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt are the big 3), the nights & points will slowly build. Hilton is lauded by many travel hackers as having a better overall rewards program, but Marriott has better international properties (in our opinion).

Another tip is to consider the American Express Platinum card or comparable travel credit card. Some of them have an annual fee, but for us it has been completely worth it. Included are perks such as: access to airport lounges with Priority Pass (life changing!! we look forward to layovers when there are free drinks, magazines, showers, delicious food, and so much more), Uber credit ($15/month statement credit), TSA preCheck plus Global Entry and Clear credit (means you skip all the lines you get a statement credit for the cost of signing up), plus it gives you automatic Gold Status with most hotel chains and rental car companies (which means free upgrades). Use this free calculator to see if the annual fee would be worth it for you using your own value for each perk. 🧮

The points/rewards side of travel can be confusing, but it does pay off. Save learning this for later if it seems overwhelming. The best tip here would be to join a few Facebook groups to get pointers.

If this is getting you excited read this super long blog post called Travel Hacking 101 and subscribe to the Daily Drop (a free weekday email giving you tips, tricks, and news about travel hacking) or take us out to dinner and we will talk your ear off about it! Disclaimer: you need a good credit rating to be approved for a high-perks card and it’s completely NOT worth it if you don’t trust yourself to use it responsibly and pay off the total statement each month. 😊

First off, we’re not talking credit cards here, in the context of international travel, a Visa is an official document issued by your destination country's government that allows you to enter, stay, or transit through their territory for a specific purpose & duration.

This app/website might help you in the early stages to know if you need a Visa or not, but ALWAYS double-check their information against official government websites.

Wherever you’re going, just do the research before buying the ticket because they’re all so different. The easiest way to know what is required for entry is the nation’s US Embassy website and the US Department of State. You might find that many of the places you want to visit have visa-on-arrival and so you can literally just show up.

This all sounds like a huge pain, but there're so many countries that most of the world is simply not allowed to visit, so these hoops are completely worth it. ♥️

Packing in a carry-on is a game changer. I know this one is a toughie. I feel like everyone has to learn this one the hard way.

Rather than say all the reasons why I love carry-on luggage, you can Google and see the great debate that's out there for all the pros/cons. It was completely freeing the first time we packed for a 2 week trip in a carry-on and now we just can’t go back.

Wool clothes (they make them lightweight nowadays) are antimicrobial and basically never need to be washed. I like Wool&. Tide makes little packets for doing laundry in the sink–or frankly, just use the shampoo provided–and hang dry. Pack a universal drain stopper. Rick Steves' Packing List is the only packing list you need. There’s even a dozen items on there that we don’t find necessary. If it’s irreplaceable, leave it at home.

The very last thing before leaving the house go through the physically-touch-it list. It is not good enough to say, “yeah, it’s in my backpack.” No, get it out and touch the important stuff.

Touch List
🪪 Passport
📱 Phone
💳 Cash/Credit Card
💊 Medications
😌 Remind yourself: “They have stores in [destination].”

For inspiration we like travel shows, but the Travel Channel is mostly just attempts to ‘eat a 15 lb. burger in 15 minutes’ and ghost hunting.

So until Dantan gets his own travel show (seriously, someone give him a history travel show!), check out Kara & Nate on YouTube and try not to get addicted—look for pre-2020 episodes or very recent ones. They are a married couple from Tennessee and have been full-time traveling for 8 years visiting 100+ countries, did the camper-van thing during the pandemic, and now they’re back on the road. They’ve covered a lot of destinations.

Anthony Bourdain’s shows and Rick Steves' Europe are also classic travel shows to dream about destinations and help you find the best places to visit. Bourdain is unequivocally our favorite and his shows are: A Cook's Tour, No Reservations, The Layover, Parts Unknown (in order from earliest to most recent). Some others worth checking out include: The Amazing Race (all seasons on Paramount+), The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan (BBC), Drew Binsky (YouTube), Basic Versus Baller: Travel at Any Cost (Hulu), and Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix). Search for your destination plus the name of some of these shows.