This post was sponsored by Canada Dry®. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
With Spring Break nearly upon us, and with the weather getting better by the week, it’s that time of year when people are planning their vacations! Planning and prepping for a vacation can be stressful, but I have a few amazing tips on how to make any vacation more relaxing. Canada Dry is making it their mission to spread relaxation to you this year and beyond. The NEW Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade is absolutely delicious! We stocked up on supplies at Kroger before our most recent adventure, and could not be more excited to bring you along for the ride.
What is the most relaxing place you have ever been? Would it be sitting on a beach, listening to the waves? Perhaps you enjoy spending time in a spa with a gorgeous view, being pampered? Maybe it would be spending time looking at mountains, sipping a warm mug of coffee, smelling the crisp fresh air? Whatever your preference, keep reading to learn more about making any travel a little bit more relaxing.
You can win prizes in the upcoming Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade sweepstakes. Details are at the very bottom of this post. Enjoy!
When I was younger, the majority of my travel was with my mom. She loved to pack lots of fun into each day, from sunup to sundown. There was no landmark, theme park, thrift store, or local boutique we left off the list each day. We never really drove anywhere, but we always flew. I have such great memories of visiting places like Los Angeles and Chicago with her, and I believe that traveling as a kid got me a little more comfortable with travel into my adult years.
Once I met my boyfriend, Bobby, many years ago, we began to travel a ton by car. First we would travel to see live music and to go camping, then once we got into our mid- twenties, we craved finding places without any people nearby, like a secluded campground or a little boutique hotel in a small town in the middle of Utah or New Mexico. Over the past twelve years, my boyfriend and I have traveled over 250,000 miles together, adventuring around the country. We love planning the next trip, and we are so lucky to be able to continue working on photography and making projects along the way, letting the immense amount of travel inspire and nurture new ways of thinking about life along the way.
Some of my favorite travel memories include: driving to or through nearly 40 states, spending time in Kauai, Hawaii photographing gorgeous locations during every season of the year - Aspens in the Fall in Colorado are amazing as well as the snow covered mountains of Montana in late Fall are my very favorites. We have met countless amazing people on these travels, and also enjoyed some of the best, local food we could ever imagine. Just thinking back on these locations really makes my mind at ease.
Travel is full of so many opportunities to enjoy oneself, but there are also a million things that can “go wrong” that make a vacation super stressful. Even the smallest thing can be made into a much bigger deal than it should be due to being out of one’s comfort zone and being underprepared.
Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head: taking the wrong highway an hour or more in the wrong direction, missing a flight or connecting flight, booking a hotel room for the wrong night, finding out that a campground is completely full and having literally nowhere to stay for the night, having an air mattress pop when you’re over an hour from the nearest store, have your car broken into, getting into fights over where to eat or what to do for the day (so focused energy on arguing instead of just going out and exploring the location) a car battery dying THREE times in two days and being stranded on the highway after dark, and many more crazy things that would have never happened if we had just stayed home. I am sure I’m not alone in admitting that travel can be hard and overwhelming and anything but relaxing.
But, I feel that those occurrences make us stronger people and better travelers! What is life without a little bit of adventure? Many of the “travel gone wrong” scenarios happened because we were not fully prepared. I wanted to write this post in order to help you, my wonderful readers, to avoid as many situations as possible, and have more time to actually relax on vacation! Whether you’re flying, driving, or taking other forms of transportation, there are a few key tips that I am excited to share with you today.
RELAXING TRAVEL TIPS:
1.) Pack refreshments (snacks and drinks). I like to have a variety of drinks on hand, one of my newest favorites includes the NEW Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade. There’s nothing more relaxing than having an ice cold drink in hand while on the open road, on the beach, or in another beautiful location.
I also have lots of fresh water on hand, to refill my water bottle. Sometimes, I also find that two-part snacks like carrots and ranch dip or pita chips and hummus hold my interest longer than other snacks like a simple bag of chips.
2.) Dedicate one specific notebook or journal to be your Travel Journal. I prefer one with grid pages or regular lined pages, and at any moment, I can jot down more ideas on my upcoming vacation(s). I will go online and search for, “best restaurants in…”, “best vintage and thrift stores in…”, “best shopping in…”, and more. I also love using social media geolocation tags on Instagram to search for a more visual and unique point of view for each place. YouTube is also a super fun way to research locations, which I just started utilizing a year or so ago. Keep your travel journal nearby when you are doing your research and you will have a great way to prepare in advance and avoid stress.
3.) One of the best ways to save time on a trip is to find a local map prior to your arrival so you have some time to study the area you’re visiting. Mark off the places that are a must see for you. There’s nothing worse than missing out on a beautiful location because you didn’t have your location researched ahead of time. I love using my phone for maps too, but sometimes businesses are not found unless you do more extensive research. If you’re driving, we always like to have an atlas in the car, because sometime cell signal does cut out, so a good old fashioned paper map is always comforting and valuable. If you’re flying, simply print out a few smaller maps to keep in your carry on. Keep maps in your travel journal as well.
4.) Make sure everyone in your party knows the plans and has familiarized themselves with the maps and area. It’s important to get comfortable with your surroundings and general location, rather than just being on their phones the whole time (not paying attention).
5.) Treat yourself to a few relaxing items, specifically for your trip. We brought a hammock to the beach, and it was a great purchase! I loved being able to lay under the palm trees and let the breeze more me back and forth. The sound of the ocean is magical and did us wonders in feeling relaxed and stress free.
6.) Speak to locals and get suggestions of where to eat, drink, and explore. They are the best people to tell you what is worth your time, or what is not worth the time and trouble. You will save so much time if you ask locals how convenient it is to actually get to a certain location. Oftentimes, there are SO many closer than you’d even imagine.
Below, check out this cute cooler that Canada Dry sent me! They are so kind to make my beach visit a little bit cooler :)
Find NEW Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade at your local Kroger in both 12 pack cans and 2-liter bottles!
The combination of two wonderful drinks mixed together gives us a new way to relax and enjoy the day.
SWEEPSTAKES:
Enter the sweeps to win branded prizes, including: a corn hole set, a BBQ set, a bicycle, Adirondack chairs, thermoses and glassware sets.
ENTER HERE
Where are you heading this year? I would love to hear all about your travel plans and prepping tips! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, below. Happy Travels!
