We all know Cancun, and maybe even the Riviera Maya, Tulum, or Playa del Carmen...but did you know there is so much more to the Yucatan Peninsula? This week we chat with Rossana Wyatt from Life is Full of Adventures to learn more about the Yucatan state of Mexico, Mérida, Mayan ruins, and other things to see on the Yucatan peninsula.
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Rossana is a gluten-free lifestyle & travel writer specializing in family & solo travel, she loves discovering new foods & adventures on her journeys as she explores. Rossana tells the stories of the destinations she has visited, sharing her love of travel, her wanderlust and enticing her readers to explore these places on their own.
When she is not traveling, Rossana works as a social media strategist in the tourism industry. She brings people and brands together, creating campaigns that build awareness and community, while building influencer relationships.
Dive into Mayan culture this week as we talk about the Yucatan Peninsula.
Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel.
This week's episode is again brought to us by Room Steals. Our listeners may remember that Room Steals talked to us in Episode 185, and it's all about using a Chrome browser called Room Steals that works alongside booking sites to make sure that you're getting a wholesale price for that room. And what you do is you install the extension and then you shop for a hotel like you normally would on your favorite booking site, whether that's something like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, or even Google.
And then once you've done your search and pick your hotel, Room Steals will show you a pop up to see if that room is available for a cheaper wholesale rate. When you click on that pop up, then you can book the room directly through Room Steals. Downloading and using Room Steals is totally free. You can just install the browser and be able to see if they can get you a better deal. If you want to book the discounted rate, you're going to have to pay an annual membership fee, and our listeners are going to be given 20% off their fee with the code Vacation Mavens Again, Vacation Mavens.
So if you travel more multiple times a year or even if you're shopping around, the nice thing is that you get to test it out before you pay. And it's possible that you'll make up the annual membership fee in savings with just one trip. So go ahead and check out Room Steals again. It's an extension. And then if you use the code Vacation Mavens, you'll save 20% off your membership, and we thank them for their support.
And if any of you guys have already signed up for Rooms Steams and had some savings, please let us know. We'd love to share what you've saved and what your experience has been. So, Kim, it sounds like you had some good news recently with the Canadian border opening and maybe you get a chance to go see Paul's family.
Yeah, we're really excited. I'm still crossing my fingers that it all works out, but we are planning to finally get to go see Paul's family. It'll be the first time we've seen them in two years since we haven't been able to travel either way. And so we're really looking forward to it. And Canada did come out and say that they would welcome vaccinated Americans and our family of four all qualifies as that. So we're excited to hopefully head up there and visit his family.
Finally.
Yeah. It's still a little complicated. From what I understand, but I know that you've dug into it a lot deeper, obviously, because you are going to have some Canadian family come stay with you. And now you're going to go stay with them. And so can you kind of walk our listeners through what are the things that people need to be aware of if they want to go visit Canada right now from the US?
Yeah, definitely. So I think that's the first thing to mention is that this is Canada has said that they will allow vaccinated US citizens to come up into Canada. There are testing protocols, which I'll talk about later, but the US recently said they are still keeping the borders closed to Canadians. So that was a big for non essential travel. So that was a big hindrance. So our family can't come see us, however we are able to go up to them. But like I said, there are a few things that have to be done in order to make that happen.
And I just want to specify right now the information is still very unknown a little bit. It's a little up in the air. And there's also how it's being handled if you're flying into Canada versus if you're driving across the border, it's a little unknown about how exactly things will be handled with that. But right now, the policies that I know of and that is currently being released is that in order to cross the border into Canada, you have to be vaccinated. And they have one of those apps.
It's called I think it's called ArriveCan. And you use that app to help upload and share your vaccination information on that app, as well as you have to have a PCR test done within 72 hours. Now, this is a tricky one where Canada has actually said they have not mentioned that they will allow those Binax that the US is allowing. They actually want it to be done at a laboratory type facility. So whether that will adjust and they'll start allowing those tests, I'm not sure.
So right now you would have to go get a test done at a lab. And so we'll be scheduling that. And again, it has to be 72 hours before your travel day and those results that are uploaded in your app as well, then you're allowed to cross the border. And when you cross the border, there are, this is where I say you have to keep checking because it's a little unsure of whether they will require you to test. Again. I think this might be a thing where they'll do spot checking if you're flying into an airport and maybe as well, if you're crossing at a land border, they might spot check and say, okay, you need to pull over and get tested.
Again. I'm not sure how that's going to actually work out once it opens on August 9. So that's how you're covered there, and you can get into Canada, and that basically you're exempt then from the quarantine, which being vaccinated to exempt you from that. So right now, Canada had been saying that you could come into Canada with all these tests, but then you would also have to quarantine for 14 days, and their quarantine was pretty strict. You had to have separate facility like you couldn't just go stay with your family.
You had to have completely separate facilities, which which was not doable for most Americans or US citizens wanting to visit into Canada.
Right. I don't really want to sit in a hotel room for not much to pay for a hotel.
Yeah. Exactly. So that's where that all comes down to. And then the other part of that, then is the US is still requiring Americans who are traveling back internationally to be tested 72 hours before they cross the border. And so what we're actually going to do is have those rapid test and take them up to Canada with us. And hopefully that will take care of it, because the tricky thing is, and this was part of the thing when we originally thought Canada was just going to require tests.
Our Canadian family was trying to figure out how they would get tested in the States without having to pay $150 per person. And there wasn't a good option at that time. Whereas, you know, for most US citizens, we can go and testing and vaccines are covered by the US government right now for easy to go. Yeah. But for a Canadian who doesn't have US insurance to be able to prove they would have to pay out of pocket. So that's one of the other. I think over time, as things work out, it'll maybe become a little more easier to navigate.
But then when the United States came out and said no, they're going to continue to extend the closures, it became an on issue because it was two whammies. They couldn't get around either.
So that's kind of the situation
and a couple of things that come to mind when I'm listening to you talk about that. Like, number one is I've noticed because every time I get basically anything, I go get tested if I feel like a little bit rundown. So I've noticed that a lot of the testing sites around me are closing end of July, something like that. So I think we've gotten used to as Americans having a lot of access to testing, thankfully. And I think that it's not that it's going to be more limited, but there's going to be fewer testing centers.
So you might have to plan a little bit more in advance. And to understand, you might have to drive a little further. Or you might have to book your appointment a little bit earlier to make sure you get the time slots that you want things like that to keep aware of. And then on the way back, I know we mentioned when we were talking in the episode we talked about in Greece, but the next text that you can buy, like a CVS aren't the ones that are valid for travel back to the US.
So just make sure for people that are considering it, to get the ones that are qualified for that.
And you have to buy those. I did some reading and research. I had an article which we can link to in the show notes, but I think it's through. I think it's Emed. It's kind of a random website where you can buy them and you buy them as a six pack for $150. And the other tip that they recommend is that they recommend, actually, if you're really relying on traveling, that you buy each person should have two, just in case there's an inconclusive or if there's any issues in administration, I don't think we're going to travel with eight.
I think we'll have the the six pack and hope that the two extras will cover our family of four if we have an inconclusive or if we need to redo one. But just a mind just for everyone to be mindful of. It's something to keep in mind.
We were debating that because we're planning on going to Aruba in November and who knows what the situation will be and if the world will change, whatever. But just thinking ahead, we're like, oh, if testing isn't available down there, maybe we would buy one six pack for the three of us. I'm like, I don't know. Maybe we should at least get two. Yeah. So it's definitely something to think about. I wonder you don't want to be stuck without anything?
Well, the Caribbean and Mexico have been so great about at least the tourist resorts. All inclusive resorts are really going out of their way to make sure that US citizens have access to testing. So that is kind of one benefit. And I'm sure I guarantee you, in Canada, it's probably not too hard to figure out a way. And once we were up there, I could be able to figure out a way to go get tested. And it would probably literally cost us $23 out of pocket or something knowing how they handle their medical right there.
But just we didn't want to risk that.
I'm actually heading to Buffalo, New York, and I will be up there right after the border opens. And part of me was like, oh, maybe it's really close to Niagara Falls. Maybe I should just swing by. I've been to Niagara Falls before, but just for kicks, when you're so close, you feel like you should just go. And I'm like, oh, and I can just walk across the border then. I'm like, yeah, but how am I going to get the get tested to think about usually something like that.
You could literally just walk across the border on the bridge, walk back an hour later, but more things to think about.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm glad I'm happy for you that this is finally happening. I was very excited. Glad you'll get to see family. And hopefully this will be a positive sign for things moving forward. I know there's been movement in terms of visiting the UK as well, and we'll just see, obviously everything is constantly changing, so definitely everyone needs to stay vigilant and keep up with the news. But I guess it's a positive sign for now. Right.
Yeah. We're going to take it as that. And we also talked about just trying to be more mindful of watching our own exposure during the time we're up there. And then also leading up to the week two weeks before we leave because we don't want to make all these plans and then have everything fall through because one of us test positive. And so that's the other thing is you really don't want to test positive. If you're doing all these tests, what will happen if someone test positive?
So make sure that you guys are all thinking ahead of what is the worst case scenario. What do we do if that happens? Yeah.
We are about to talk to a Canadian and we're going to talk to her about our neighbor to the south. Yeah.
We're covering all of North America.
To stay tuned, we're going to talk about the Yucatan.
So this week we're here with Rosanna Wyatt. And she is a gluten free lifestyle and travel writer specializing in family and solo travel. She loves discovering new foods and adventures on her journeys. As she explores, Rosanna tells the stories of the destination she has visited, sharing her love of travel, her wander last and enticing her readers to explore these places on their own. When she's not traveling, Rosanna works as a social media strategist in the tourism industry.
She brings people and brands together, creating campaigns that build awareness and community while building influence to relationships. So welcome to the Vacation Mavens.
Thank you. So nice to be here.
And I guess we should specify that you're in Canada.
I'm located just west of Toronto. We are in across the border.
Across the border that by the time this comes out be open once again.
Yeah, it will.
At least one way I was going to say which way it'll be open.
That's true.
A and then all that depends on what's happening with the variants as well.
Yeah, of course. Right. But we're hopeful. So before we dive into our topic, today is going to be about places in the Yucatan. And before we talk about that, I just figured as we're talking about changing guidelines and rules and all that kind of stuff, I know people are already thinking about winter break and spring break even. Do you have any insight that you can share for right now? Obviously, we know the situation is always changing, but for people that do want to visit Mexico from the North America, either the US or Canada.
Well, I at the moment, there really aren't any rules about quarantine. They do like you to have tests, but then again, they're not strict about it. They do have protocols in some areas are more strict than others. So depending on where you're going to be heading, of course, all hotels will have access to the testing information for when you're coming back, because there are going to be different expectations where you're coming back across the border and restrictions. But there are going to be specific protocols according to where you are going to be going.
But all hotels, most public places will have specific, I guess, disinfection and cleaning protocols in place, and many places will still have masking going on. But Mexico is just starting to ramp up on their vaccination schedule. So there are people that I know that won't be getting their vaccines until sometime in October. And that's the first one, whether it's Canadians, Americans when we're going over. And even though we're vaxxed, we still have to remember that we may have protection for ourselves, but we can be carrying that symptomatically, and we have to be careful where we're going and making sure that we're being safe for everyone else as well.
Yeah.
That's a great, great insight. And I think people don't always see that that it's not just like you're safe. It's also about doing your part as a world citizen and making sure that you're keeping the communities that you're visiting, keeping those people safe as well. Exactly.
And when you're heading into different areas that don't have the vaccination rates that we have here, we have to be extra careful because we can be annoyingly spreading it further. So although we keep ourselves safe, like you said, we need to make sure everyone is safe.
Yeah. And I think it's also just important that we all know how this has been such a fluid and quick changing time. And so the best thing to do is when you're researching whether you want to travel, is researching exactly where you're going and what the rules and regulations are for that there'll be rules. Like you said, the United States or Canada will have their own set of rules on getting back into the country. And then, of course, Mexico, depending on which state you go into, will have their own protocols depending on when you're visiting.
The best thing to do is to research that probably at that time.
Yeah. And then, as I said, they do have most of the towns and cities within the States themselves will have different areas where you can have access to testing so that you can get it before you come back to your own home state or home province.
So I know a lot of all inclusives were doing that to try and get their tourists back because they will make it as easy as possible.
Which makes it very nice because then you don't have to go finding right. Right there. Yeah.
Well, we will jump right in then. And obviously, Cancun is what most people think about when people start thinking about the Yucatan Peninsula, and it's considered popular, affordable destination, popular with families. But it's nice to know what else there is to do beyond that hotel strip and all inclusive and everything that so many people are used to. And so can you help maybe talk about some other areas of the Yucatan Peninsula that you're going to be talking about today and focusing on?
Absolutely. Yes. And as you said, most people know about Cancun and the different areas around there. But there is so much more to the Yucatan peninsula itself it encompasses both UK and Quintana Roo. As you said, most people know Cancun is the beach destination, and it is a big hub that people fly into. But the Yucatan itself has so much history and so many areas to explore. The Mayans are there's so much culture in history in the Mayan civilization, and most of that was centered around the Yucatan itself, which is right next to Quintana Roo, where Cancun is located.
The history, the beaches, the ancient ruins there are so many cenotes as well, I'll bet, are located all over the state. They are also located in Quintana Roo, but you'll find many more within Yucatan itself. But there are historic cities and haciendas to visit. So there's always so much more to explore. And the food is actually kind of cool because what they do is they do use a lot of their cultural and bring that back the history into the food. So you see them cooking with fire in pits in the ground as well, which is actually quite neat.
And they have their special little spices that they use. So there's so much in the Yucatan area itself to explore.
It sounds like what you're describing also is just a much more culturally aware visit than just an all inclusive on the beach. It's nice that if people are actually wanting to understand a little bit about the history and the culture, it sounds like this is the kind of vacation that you might want to plan.
Yes. Absolutely. And it's so great, especially if you have kids. There is so much history there. And it's really cool to see that be able to actually see the physical most of the pyramids within Yucatan. You can't climb because they want to make sure that they don't get ruined because they've been around for so many years. But there are a couple that they still allow the kids to climb on and to explore and to sort of climb into. And it's neat for them to even see they sort of step into history, because that's what you're doing.
You're stepping into those historical sites and you're stepping into that history, which is really amazing. And then when you have some of the Mayan gods go through and they're telling you the retelling that whole history and what they're doing and what things were for, what buildings were used for. It's really quite cool.
Well, I remember my very first time that I flew. My very first time that I went out of the country was with a Spanish trip from high school. I think I was 16 and we flew to Mexico City and then to Merida. And can you maybe help our listeners understand if you wanted to visit Yucatan, the state of Yucatan, and see some of these ruins and things like that, where would you fly into? Where would you base yourself? And then maybe if you moved around a bit like, where are some of the top places that they should look at staying?
Well, actually, you did it perfectly because you go into Mexico City and you can fly into Merida from there and then you can base into Media. Then everything is located fairly close to there, Chichen Itza, which is one of the main ruin sites, is about two and a half hours from Merida. You have the beach, which is like 30 minutes from Merida. Then you have La Coloradas, which are about, I believe, an hour and a half from Merida. But then there are smaller ruins as well.
Within an hour drive an hour and a half drive from Merida. So everything is pretty central to Merida, so that's probably one of the better places to fly into. If you were to go to fly into Cancun, it can be a little bit more difficult to get to that area if you're not driving.
So it's not as easy to get a connecting flight there.
No, not from Cancun. But Mexico City has many flights into Media throughout the day so that it is easier to do that. But if you wanted to to drive, you could fly into Cancun and then drive into it's about 3 hours. If you're going from Cancun to Merida it is about a three hour drive.
So are you recommending then would you say people should rent a car and have their own car? Or do you think it's better done as kind of like tour group or day trips or hiring a driver? What would you say is the best way to if you are basing yourself out of Merida.
if you're basing yourself in merida, tour groups are probably one of the better ways to go unless you can speak the language and you can hire a driver. So that would probably be the other option is to do some of the the tour. They have many tour groups that will go out to different destinations or you can hire to me honestly, if you don't know the area and you don't speak the language quite well, I think it's probably best that you stay with a tour group itself that will go out that has different time schedules and things that will be going out through the day as I said many of these things can be done on day trips.
And do you find would it be good to rent a Hacienda if you are a family or better to stay at a hotel? Do you have any places that you would recommend?
There are some incredible haciendas within some of the cities. The Hacienda themselves are absolutely beautiful. Sometimes they have their own little pool and some of them have some rooftop patio that you can take a look at and see the rest of the city. And they're really well taken care of. But they're also the one hotel that we stayed at a a beautiful and closed courtyard with a pool. So some of the buildings are they're all a colonial architecture and they're just absolutely stunning. And they take all that in and work it in with upgrading some of the interior of the buildings.
But I would stay in a smaller boutique hotel, which they've sort of taken some of the Asian doesn't turn them into these but hotels. Or if you wanted to go out of town for a little bit and rent Hacienda itself, that would be another option, depending on the size of your but I think one of the smaller boutique hotels within the city is probably a great place to start.
So I have a quick question. I say family is going to spend a week down there. How do you recommend maybe like what are some of the beaches or cities or something they should check out? Or do you recommend they split their trip between two destinations? So how would you recommend, like what are the must see kind of in that region? If they had one week? And how would you time that?
Well, Progresso. Like I said, Progresso is only a 30 minutes drive from Merida, the beach there. So you could certainly either if you wanted to base in progress or you could even do that and then stay away from some of the business of the city. Not that it is that busy compared to some, but Progresso would help get the feel of the beach area. And you could relax, have a few days relaxing there, and then also go into the city when you wanted to be able to do that.
But then again, you probably they do have a great transportation as well, so that you could go back and forth. But the cenotes is probably a fun sort of thing for would be a fun thing for the kids, because they're the ancient sink holes that the Mayans used to use for a groundwater and depending on some of the rituals and things like that, and also they're great for swimming for the kids because it's a different experience and they're absolutely stunning. The no two sites are like either, and some of them are quite small and some of them are quite open.
They would be fun for kids to explore. But the other thing is you have to make sure that when you're swimming in the cenotes that you shower, most areas will have shower facilities before because they don't want you going in with any kind of creams or anything on you, because that can hurt whatever plant life is within the site itself.
Is it like the one in Riviera Maya, where there's some organized where you to tube through, or is it more like go on your own?
Well, they do have some where you can go, but you don't tube through any of them. Some of them you can go down through stairs. They're actually just like a hole. You go to specific areas you drive up, and there's like a little area where you shower and stuff. And then there's a staircase that's taken down, and some of them are not that deep, but they are not in the same they're not the same as you see the ones that they show through Cancun with that you're going through in these different little boats to different little caves and things like that.
But they're not like that at all.
The water still very cold.
It is it is, but it's just they have this I had this huge way of sunlight coming in, and it's just absolutely spectacular. It's so magical just to see it. And as I said, no two are alike because they're different sizes. There's different vegetation growing. They're different depths. But it's a cool experience for kids to sort of be able to jump in. And some of them, they have these ropes that you just sort of swing and you jump in and others you can sort of walk in, but not all of them.
So they're all different.
So you never get going to get the same feeling from are there certain ones that are more famous or ones that you would really recommend? Or is it really just you kind of ask the hotel where to go?
Yeah. And then actually, one of the cities has a note in the middle of the city, but you just kind of have to go with the tour group that will take you there because you can just rent a car with a driver and they'll take you out there and you can go out for the day or even take a side trip out there's. Also, aside from the Cenotes themselves, just some of the cities as wonderful historic city. Izamal is known as the Yellow City, and it was named Pueblos Magicos in 2002 by the Mexican government.
They're basically towns are recognized for the quote, their magical qualities, whether it's their incredible beauty, the rich history, or some extraordinary Legends that they're known for. But this city is when you look at all the yellow, it's this beautiful, rich goldish yellow. And it truly is magical seeing it everywhere with the colonial architecture and this hue of yellow. But it gives the city kind of an energy. And this city is actually built upon ancient Mayan city and you can see some of the ancient Mayan ruins here and there.
And the convent of San Antonio de Padua is one of the most well known buildings in the area. And apparently it is the second largest, quote atrium after St Peter's, the square in the Vatican. And it's a big cultural significance as part of the homage for Catholics as well. So that's another big draw for many people. It's a very small town. And as I said, you can actually hear the Mayan language spoken because it's still spoken a lot of the homes there so that they retain a lot of their cultural qualities.
And it's a beautiful city. Like I said, the energy and the light just seen that all the Arc protector just in viewed with this incredible color.
Is that one that you would maybe stay out overnight or still just visit on a day trip?
I would stay overnight only because actually there are a couple of different little areas there, and they have a lot of, I guess, what you would call sandos, but they're all little homes that you can rent, and they have their own little sort of courtyard, and they're just absolutely stunning. The city itself just walking around. And the people are so warm. It's really quite beautiful. And of course, they have many wonderful restaurants as well. And with the food. So it's always nice to be able to integrate that because that's part of their culture.
So I know you mentioned some of the cenotes and you said Progresso is a great beach to go to. And then, of course, you just talked about a Izamal that sounds like a wonderful little town. What are some of the other highlights that you think if people are spending time in that region, where are some other places they should check out or plan to visit?
Well, Valladolid is another city. It's a very colonial town. It has a lot of historic buildings and plazas. And this one also has the Cenote in the middle of the town, the one that I mentioned. But along with Chichen Itza, there is another one about an hour and a half from Merida Uxmal U-X-M-A-L, and this is the one that I was mentioning that they let people sort of climb all over and actually go through. And it is larger or an area in ground area, then Chichen Itza is, even though Chichen Itza is more well known to people.
So there is also a driving route if you wanted to take hire a car. And it explores different Mayan ruins near Merida itself. It's called Ruta Puuc. And it goes across the hilly forest and train, and it passes up three different Mayan ruins. They are the Tie Pac and Lana, which I know that you probably didn't get all of it, but I can install them out if you want.
If you can give them to us, we can put it in the show notes. So anyone can look it up there.
And they lead all those if you're following that route along, they will actually lead to their Mayan ruins at Kabah. So there's that. And there's also outside of Merida itself, there are lots of haciendas that are known. The people in Yucatan know as Hacienda are these big plantations very similar to the plantations in the US. So they were big, sprawling manufacturing and farming States at the time, especially around the turn of the century, when they did a lot of the crop is the Hannekin or Sisal. So they were very popular back then.
And then once all the synthetic fibers came to be, they sort of started to fall back and unfortunately lost a lot of the work because of the synthetic fibers. So right now, a lot of those haciendas are being restored and they're being used as big event venues. But there are also some of them also have a lot of the manufactured area sort of still there. And so they do some of the tours through some of those areas. So many are turned into luxury accommodations, but they still retain a lot of those production areas.
So you can actually tour them and learn what the unique history and the Hannekin production itself, because it was huge. The production from the Yucatan was sent out all over the world, and these cases became quite wealthy until, as I said, the synthetic fibers came to be small.
Uxmal, If I'm pronouncing it correctly, that was the first place that I went on my little trip with my Spanish class, and I have a picture of me climbing the pyramids so that you can still do that, although I remember being very steep and very little scary coming back down.
Yeah. Ok. Uxmal, unfortunately, because of the erosion and everything else, they really want to try and keep as much as many people off of it as possible. Yeah. The one thing I have to say is the fact that we can to have an evening light show, which is really quite cool because they go through a lot of the history and they explore why they moved to certain areas and how they did certain things and stuff. But then we also did the sunrise tour, where we were the only group out there.
And you could just watch the sunrise over the ruins, which are still just incredible. And you could see how they would see it first thing in the morning. And it was really quite spectacular. So I would recommend that if they can.
There's so much emphasis on early mythology and things that I always go back to the Rick Riordan books that brought so much interest to Percy Jackson, the Greek and the Romans, and then they be Egyptian. But my daughter has always been very fascinated by Mayan culture. And also it's just absolutely amazing when you are there and you realize the knowledge and how much was learned. I remember I think it was Chichen Itza where it's like on the Solstice, it looks like the way that the light hits, it almost looks like a giant snake is coming down the side.
It's mind blowing. And so I think for kids that are interested in some of these, like, I don't want to say just mythology, because these are ancient cultures, but the beliefs of ancient civilizations and things, it really is a great place to absolutely.
And the best thing is when you're talking to one of the guides, the Mayan guys, they had it handed down to them. And there are really only a handful that know the actual cultural aspects of the historical aspects, because even though some of the languages carried on, not everything is passed along. So it's neat to hear how everything, how it's been down and so much of the history itself. But yeah, it's absolutely incredible. And it really boggles your mind how much they knew and how much what word I'm looking for, how progressive they were, I guess, because of everything they knew, they were such they were so lightened for the time that they were in.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
Until you talk about the sacrificial well.
I wasn't talking to it. Yes. Absolutely. Yes.
I know exactly what you mean. Well, I know one of the concerns that people have when traveling in Mexico, especially in a region that is not dominated by resorts and all inclusive and things is just around safety. It sounds like you're mostly talking about doing some guided tours, which obviously you don't have to worry about wandering off on your own there. But do you have any thoughts just about safety in this particular area?
Well, actually, I found it very safe because even though I was part of the group itself, I was staying somewhere separate from them. So I would walk back and forth on my own. And then I actually had some time on my own. So I went to explore in and around Merida on my own so that I had no worries about trying to explain that area. Izamal was the same because I ended up walking back and forth from where the others were staying. And like I said, it was just walking in another.
I felt just a safer than walking here in my area here because people they were just regular people from the town. And I didn't have to worry about anything. And even in Merida, which is much larger and they're much more people, I had no worries about safety. Obviously, you don't want to be going and doing something silly and standing out like a sore thumb. But my daughter says that I look over that could fit into the different crowds and stuff. So I don't know it's with anything else.
Don't do anything that you wouldn't do at home and don't stick out like a sore thumb.
Well, and I think it's important to you here in the US, at least. I'm sure Canada has something similar. But you can look up safety warnings and things about places that you're going to visit. And I think it is important to dig down into the particular state or city that you're visiting and not just look at kind of country level or something.
Yeah. And every state is going to be different. There are some States within Mexico that have a little bit more crime, and what you do is you stay away from them. Even areas within Quintana Roo that people don't know about, they're more well known are the ones that people know about the crime that are going on because Quintana Roo more popular areas. So crime there is more well known, I guess, in a sense. And people tend to just sort of stick to their resort areas. But within the Yucatan itself, you can certainly go out and go on to different tours and not really worry about them so much.
So because it is one of the safer areas in Mexico.
It's good to know and have your insight on that. So do you have any final tips to wrap up about traveling to the Yucatan that you think people should keep in mind those trusty travel tips, somebody who's been there?
Well, the water is purified most within the Merida, the city is getting most of the purification done. But the thing that you had to remember some of the tanks because a lot of those buildings have big tanks that they used to hold. This is cisterns where they used to hold the water. And because they have been all upgraded, even though the water itself may be purified, it isn't always what comes out. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it is always good to make sure that you're wary of that.
So you're either drinking bottled water or you have something that may help disinfect your water itself. Like I have one of those water bottles that actually it's called the crazy cap that actually purifies water itself. And that helps a lot because it just sort of cleans the water. I can put in water from wherever it'll purify it and clean it. And that way I have water on demand all the time. I but the other thing is maybe carrying cash is best instead of credit, because not every place if you go, especially if you're going into a small town, everyone has the credit capability.
You'll also be able to barter a little bit more when you're carrying cash and don't carry large amounts. And as always, just be weary because I mean, they're pick pockets everywhere and people the flight bump you never know in carrying in different spots. But the same thing with pretty much anywhere you go, don't carry a lot of cash. If you do carry can make sure you carry it in different places. And you'll also find that if you're looking, especially with families, because you tend to eat at a certain time.
You also have to remember that in certain villages you won't find or towns cities you won't always find everything open. So you kind of have to accommodate meal times to according to when they're going to be open. Restaurants and cafes will be open. I think that's it for one, but always wear sunscreen as always, because it's very hot. It is very hot there and try and dress cool because it can get quite humid and the heat you don't always depending on where you're from in certain areas, but you feel heat a lot more.
What about when it comes to when to travel? Is there a rainy season? Is it often hit by Hurricanes or the times to avoid or better times to go?
Well, Hurricane seasons are always the early fall is usually more of a Hurricane season, but I think I've been in October and it was fine. But with anything, things change really quickly, so it's just a matter of just keeping an eye out when things are going to be happening. It gets very hot in the summer months down there. So spring is probably a good time to go and really fall.
Perfect. So we will wrap up with our question that we ask all of our guests and that is what do you wear when you travel? Do you have any favorite go to that you like?
I don't have any favorite. It goes. I prefer wearing dresses because they tend to keep me cooler on scores when I can't when you're hiking or whatever. But I guess more than anything is just sandals and shoes that give me extra support, like Keens and Clarks. I tend to go to those more than anything else because then I can have a pair of shoes that doesn't look so horrible and I can wear them with a dress. And then I can also wear them hiking and they keep my feet cool and support it.
Well, before we close out, if you can remind our guest where they can find you online and sell your travels once Canadians can start traveling again.
Well, I'm Rosanna Wyatt on all social platforms at Ross A-N-A-W-Y-A-T-T, pretty much most of those social platforms. And then you can also check out my rating and life is full of adventures com, but those are mainly the places that you can find me.
Great. Thanks so much for for joining us and giving us this insight into the area beyond Cancun. We appreciate your time. I look forward to sharing more about this area.
Well, thank you very much for having me and for allowing me to share. As I said, the area around Yucatan is just amazing. We can certainly learn so much more about the Mayan culture and there is more to that Peninsula then just at the Cancun and the Riviera Maya and Playa Del Carmen. .
Sounds good.
Thank you. Bye.
Well, that wraps up another week on Vacation Mavens, and we think Room Steals for their support. Please go check out their Chrome browser extension and see what kind of money you can save on your upcoming travels. And I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer. Next time we'll talk to you. I guess we'll be in that whole back to school time.
Yeah, thanks for joining you guys. Talk to you later. Bye.
Tamara is hosting an all-women small group trip to Portugal this fall and she would love for you to join her! Find out all the details and sign up here.
In this episode, Tamara talks about her two-week German Christmas Markets road trip! If you have this magical holiday trip on your radar, make sure to give this episode a close listen and check out the following articles:
Before we say goodbye to summer and pull on our flannels and break out the pumpkin spice, Tamara and Kim are back with a recap of Tamara's European summer travels including a month spent exploring France by river and barge cruise!
Tamara first spent two weeks in the United Kingdom, on a road trip through both Scotland and Wales with two other travel writers. She then took the Eurostar down to France and spent one week cruising through the Canal Nivernais on the Hotel Barge Elisabeth. Next, she went to Bordeaux and her husband joined her for a weeklong river cruise with AmaWaterways. Tamara finished up her summer of cruising with another canal barge cruise with European Waterways on the Canal du Midi in Southern France.
The Mavens break down the differences between river and barge cruising and what to expect on each.
Mentioned on the Podcast:
Well it has been a minute since we had a chance to catch up and record a podcast but in this episode Tamara shares her insights and experience from her recent family trip to Japan.
Kim and Tamara also share their love for Scottsdale, Arizona and some of the things they did on a girls' trip together. Read more at:
Tamara also talked about her time in Paso Robles, California. You can read her Paso Robles itinerary to get inspired to visit this wine region.
Kim attended conferences in Walt Disney World (read her tips for using DVC points to save money on a Disney World vacation), Disney Land, and San Antonio. She also took a family cruise to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Bliss, which was different from her Alaska cruise on Holland America last summer.
Kim also took a quick press trip to Iceland, where she was able to explore Reykjavik and visit the Sky Lagoon.
We really dug into Tamara's 2-week trip to Japan which included:
If you are planning a trip, be sure to read Tamara's Japan travel tips!
When talking about how great Google Maps can be to figure out transportation in Japan, Kim also mentioned her post about using Google Maps to plan a trip.
Tamara was also just back from a short press trip to Waterton and Glacier National Parks.
We will be traveling a lot over the summer so expect to hear another episode in the late summer. Then you will hear about Tamara's trip to Scotland & Wales, her river and barge cruises in France, and Kim's amazing trip to Kenya.
[00:00:00.000] - Kim
Today, we're journeying to the land of the rising sun.
[00:00:14.520] - Tamara
Welcome to Vacation Mavens a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suicase and Tamara from We Three Travel.
[00:00:29.740] - Tamara
Kim, I can't believe the last time I really talked to you was when we were together in Scottsdale in April.
[00:00:34.670] - Kim
I know. It's been a crazy travel season for us. Good. I love that travel's back and everything, but it's also crazy because I thought we would be talking more and we've seen each other so much at the beginning of the year. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, summer is almost over.
[00:00:47.920] - Tamara
Not quite. That was our intent was to have this monthly. We're struggling, guys. So if anyone is still listening and subscribe to us, which I hope that they are, we're going to do a quick little rundown of some of our recent travels. Now you'll see why we haven't been able to connect and record an episode.
[00:01:07.600] - Kim
Yeah, exactly. It's been insane. The last time you guys heard from us, we were headed to Scottsdale, which was middle of April, and we both, I think, had an amazing trip there. We both published our articles, so you can always head to Wee 3 Travel and Stuff Suitcase and see the stuff that we covered. But I loved Scottsdale. It was great.
[00:01:25.720] - Tamara
Yeah. I think Scottsdale just continues to be a place I want to go back to because there's so many beautiful resorts and hotels, so there's always some place new to check out. There's amazing spas. Then this time, we did a lot of really cool activities.
[00:01:41.370] - Kim
I loved how it was really I think Scottsdale is a great destination a combination for being able to do outdoorsy things. We did hot air balloons, horseback riding, a few different things. But we also did wine tasting and shopping and went to some museums. Then, like you said, went to an amazing spot, the Phoenixion. Scottsdale, if you are a spa person, that's where you want to go.
[00:02:03.230] - Tamara
I've been watching our friend, Colleen, that lives out in Scottsdale. She seems to be hopping around another spa every day. I'm like, Wow, I want to come be your friend right now.
[00:02:12.830] - Kim
I think everyone's been saying that, I want your job.
[00:02:15.790] - Tamara
I'm sure. I would definitely say romantic getaway, girlfriend get away. Scottsdale is amazing for that. There's plenty to do with the family as well because of all those outdoor activities. But definitely check out. I know I have an itinerary. You have some great suggestions on things to do in the summer and how to manage the heat out there. D efinitely check those out on our websites to see more.
[00:02:39.620] - Kim
So where did you head after Scottsdale?
[00:02:41.800] - Tamara
I went right from Scottsdale to T uson to see Hannah for a little bit. And then the following week, I went to Paso Robles, which I'd learned.
[00:02:51.090] - Kim
I always said it was Paso Robles. Oh, it's Robles.
[00:02:52.980] - Tamara
Yeah. And it's actually Robles. And I'm like, I feel silly saying Robles.
[00:02:57.270] - Kim
Yeah, it sounds like Marbles.
[00:02:58.630] - Tamara
But that is a wine region in central California near San Louis Biscoe. I just love it. I was there, I think it was nine or eight years ago with the family, and we were checking out some family friendly wineries there. But it has just exploded in terms of the number of wineries, but also really good food now. The downtown has expanded. I stayed in a new boutique hotel that was just I loved it, which was so cool. It has a rooftop bar. It had a wine, actually a champagne vending machine in the lobby. Oh, I saw that. I saw your story on that. Yeah. So I had a great time out there. And I definitely think anyone that's into wine, put that on your radar as a region to visit. You can easily spill a long weekend. I had a couple of really wonderful spots that I went for wine tasting, just those perfect, incredible views, great food, wonderful wine. I think where many, many years ago it was newer to the scene or it was well known for J. L oor, some of the bigger names. There's just so much going on out there.
[00:04:02.940] - Tamara
Where did you go next? Because I know you were really busy right after our.
[00:04:06.130] - Kim
Scottsdale trip, too. I had three trips back to back. I did go to Disney World for a conference and I got to ride the new Tron ride. I also checked out a new hotel, which was the Contemporary Hotel, which I had never been to. I loved that. I really do love the splurging on those Disney World hotels that have the monorail access and the ones we've been at Revere too with the Skyliner because, man, it's amazing how much easier it is just to get into and not have to deal with the bus system because then whenever I have to wait for a bus to one of the parks and it's like, inevitably I get there and I'm the last one, I've got to wait for 20.
[00:04:39.400] - Tamara
Minutes or something. I will say that's what I liked the most about Disneyland because I've never stayed on park at Disney World. I've only stayed at partner hotels and by hotels.
[00:04:50.150] - Kim
Yeah, it is a big splurge for sure. I have a great article about that, though, because we splurged and used... We rented DVC points to be able to stay, and it's still not cheap. It was for the graduation trip and stuff, and this one does a conference hotel rate. I'm definitely not saying it's cheap, affordable, but if you do want to splurge, renting DVC points, and I have a link, so if anyone wants it, or you can look up the how I saved $2,000 plus dollars at Disney World. I have how we did that in there. I actually just tried to do it for Disneyland, but they didn't have any availability because Disneyland only has one property, almost two. Anyways, I did that. But then right after that, I also went on another Alaskan cruise, which you and I have talked about a few times. I'll soon have a couple of articles updated, but this was more of just a family cruise, so I didn't actually treat it like a work trip, which was nice to.
[00:05:39.930] - Tamara
Just relax. Which cruise were you on this time, though? Because I feel like was it last summer that you did celebrity?
[00:05:44.310] - Kim
Holland last August, which I absolutely loved. I loved Holland. I haven't done celebrity in Alaska yet, but Holland America was awesome. This time we did Norwegian because my family has status with there, and so they like to book Norwegian. We did the bliss, which we have been on the bliss before for a little media sailing when they started it.
[00:06:02.560] - Tamara
That's the one that we took.
[00:06:03.920] - Kim
To Alaska. Yeah, exactly. Family trip. Yeah. Anyway, so that was that. Then I had one other conference, then back to Disneyland. I hit both the parks within about three weeks of each other, but that was a lot of fun and just...
[00:06:17.460] - Tamara
You should have really had a Disney.
[00:06:19.000] - Kim
Cruise in the middle. I should have. That would have been perfect. Yeah, exactly. But anyways, that was a wrap up for me. My final trip that I did was I went at the end of May and went to San Antonio for another conference. It feels like most of mine were conferences. I was just conference out. But San Antonio is a cool city. It's been a while since I've been there. I went there for one day when I went to school in Texas for a little while. It was fun checking out San Antonio. But I know you've done a lot of other travels that did not involve conferences.
[00:06:51.170] - Tamara
Yeah, I'm like, Have I? I guess. You forget by now. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, I went back to T uson a week and a half later to pick up Hannah and bring her back from school. Then we were home for a week. Then we did our two week trip to Japan. Then I was home for, I don't know, two weeks. Then I just did a real quicky trip to Glacier National Park area.
[00:07:14.290] - Kim
Right. I forgot you went to glacier and I went to Iceland. I forgot to mention that. Oh, yeah. I'm blanking on June. I forgot June even existed. Sorry, I was just focusing on up to May, but yeah, definitely. I didn't get to experience the Iceland you got to experience because we stuck around Reykjavik and just explored a couple of attractions that were around there. So it was a quick, quick trip. But Mia is quite the little outdoor lover and cultured lover, so I definitely want to go back to Iceland with her because I know she'll just love to do some of the exploration that you've done.
[00:07:48.850] - Tamara
I was going to say, I'll meet you there. Yeah, definitely. I'm always ready to go back there. Yeah, well, I'll definitely put all of these links to articles in our show notes so you guys can read more. But I think.
[00:08:00.800] - Kim
That's a good way to do it. But I think we should dive into Japan because it is a very hot destination. I'm still so sad because ours was canceled. We were supposed to be going in April 2020, so we switched off and now you got to finally live the vacation that I was dreaming about back then. I think we should give everyone just a really quick rundown because I know that you have done an amazing job of writing a whole bunch of articles that are really going to be useful for people who are planning a trip to Japan. Let's just start off and give you an idea of how many days were you there and how maybe did you break up your itinerary?
[00:08:36.480] - Tamara
Yeah, absolutely. We took two weeks because especially coming from the East Coast, it's just such a long trip. Honestly, it's been on the top of our bucket list for so long, but we just haven't had two weeks where we felt comfortable to go that far knowing we're going to deal with jet lag on the way back. And then the flights are just always so expensive. But at least I was able to use points for one of our flights. So we took two weeks. I flew out on a Saturday morning. Yes, I got there on a Sunday, and then we were supposed to come back on Saturday, but we came back on Sunday because of a weather delay. But anyway, so I did five days in Tokyo, five days in Kyoto, and then three nights in Osaka. When I first started planning the trip, a lot of people told me that I would only need two or three days in Tokyo. But as I was looking at everything that we wanted to do, I was like, I really feel like I could easily spend a week here. It's just a fascinating city. There's just the ultra modern, and then there's the more traditional and each neighborhood is so huge.
[00:09:42.570] - Tamara
I think what many people don't realize is just how large the cities are. It's funny, I was talking to my mom before I left, and I don't think she's kept up on modern times as much. There's no way she's listening to this podcast, so I can say it. But she was like, Oh, I showed a picture when we went. She's like, Sky scrapers? I wasn't expecting that. I'm like, What do you think? It's rural villages. But this is the biggest city in the world.
[00:10:09.310] - Kim
Yeah, for sure.
[00:10:11.080] - Tamara
So it's so huge. And I'm used to going to Europe where even though the cities can be really large, we always stay in that historic, more central area where you're mostly walking. You're taking the metro, but you're primarily walking around a lot. And you may pick a neighborhood, I think about Paris. You pick a neighborhood each day. But in Tokyo, to get to a certain neighborhood, it might be 45 minutes on the couple of connections with the subway and stuff. So I'm glad that we did five days. That's crazy. I could end that was within without doing the Disney stuff, which I know many people like to do when they go there.
[00:10:49.630] - Kim
I do know that as a Disney person, it would be hard for me to go to Tokyo and not do Disney, at least Disney Sea, because it's considered a really unique park.
[00:11:00.330] - Tamara
Yeah, that's what everyone says. It's unlike any of the others. I get it. But we're not as.
[00:11:06.430] - Kim
Into the.
[00:11:06.990] - Tamara
Theme parks. Glenn was like, I am not going around the world to go to theme parks.
[00:11:11.590] - Kim
Exactly. When you have limited, yes, it's totally valid. I mean, it's very hard to figure out. I agree. I get what he's saying, but I also have that side of me that's like, Oh, but how can you be this close and not do it? So it's very hard to balance that. So, yeah, it sounds good. So you were saying, I know you guys... So I'm picturing Tokyo for my own planning. So you guys were in the Northwestern side of where you look at the downtown to the...
[00:11:38.990] - Tamara
Right. The Shizuku neighborhood, which some people were like, oh, do you want to stay there? It's like Times Square. And the area right around the train station is lots of neon, lots of crazy, especially at night. But we were honestly within a 10 minute walk to that, but where we were was more like, business, like government buildings, things like that. So it was really quiet, peaceful. It was great. And we stayed at the Hilton, Tokyo, and it was basically on top of... You could go just down an escalator and connect to two different subway stations. Plus they had a free shuttle if you wanted to the Shinkoku train station. So it was really very accessible. It felt very convenient. And there was plenty of restaurants and things around, but it wasn't super expensive. I don't know how expensive, really, but the Ginza area is much more high end. And then the Shiboya would be nice. But it totally.
[00:12:43.620] - Kim
Worked for us. We were happy with it. Nice. That's perfect. Yeah. I had looked at staying in the ginza area because of a few... I was also liked that it was closer to the Disney side, so it was a little easier to get out there. For those of you planning Genza area is basically opposite, diagonal across from where tomorrow states. I've heard the same thing from my research. You really have to allow a lot of time to transfer if you're going to different sides of what you consider the downtown center, 45 minutes to get across sometimes. Kind of crazy. Great. Well, what were some of the highlights then that you guys did when you were in Tokyo?
[00:13:17.970] - Tamara
We did a sushi making workshop with True Japan, and we really enjoyed it. The ladies were just really friendly and funny and nice. And so it was fun to see what goes into making sushi. And you probably know that I'm not a sushi eater, really. And we can talk about food later because it worked out better than I expected, except for a couple of times. But it was just fun. It's such a huge part of the culture. So I enjoyed that. We didn't do a whole lot of tours and things. We did a lot of exploring on our own. But the one thing that everybody has to do, which was as amazing as you would think, was the team lab planets, which is that immersive art experience where there's water and flowers and reflections. It's just unlike anything else. And it's really cool. And we've done the traveling, like van go immersive experience. But this was turning that up times 10 or more. And Hannah really loved it. It was really cool. The thing about it is you definitely have to book your tickets well in advance because just one of those things you have a timed entry.
[00:14:30.970] - Tamara
It's super popular. And honestly, when it comes to planning Japan, you really need to plan really far in advance. I mean, if you want to get restaurant reservations, some of them book up a month in advance. I think because some of them are so small that if they could take reservations, it might be for eight seats. And so they just go really quickly. And we weren't even there during cherry blossom season or golden week in early May when it's extra busy. difficult to do that. It was amazing. But I would say those are definitely highlights. I just loved exploring different areas. We did go, surprisingly, I liked this, but we went to a sumo wrestling tournament. Yeah, I wonder if I saw that. Which sometimes when people are there, they can see a practice. But there was actually a tournament going on while we were there. So that was something that I had figured out ahead of time. And when the tickets went on sale, I was able to book those the day that they were released. And it was a very cool thing. You don't want to spend hours and hours there because you don't know who the guys are.
[00:15:33.160] - Tamara
But just like you could see how excited everyone was to cheer for their favorite, the local person or whatever. And it's just such a dramatic theatrical type of sport. It was interesting. Yeah, for sure. Those are some of my highlights.
[00:15:48.770] - Kim
That's awesome. Because I know I saw some of the restaurant experiences you had. It seemed like sometimes you guys went simple and basic, but other times you went really over the top. Anything in Tokyo that you think somebody should splurge on or any savings tips for food or eating in Tokyo other than the restaurants making the reservations?
[00:16:08.160] - Tamara
Yeah, we did mostly the casual places in Tokyo. What I was trying to do, because I'm not a sushi eater, is have a variety of foods. And in Japan, all the restaurants really specialize in one thing. They do ramen, they do tempura, they do soba noodles, different things like that. So there's so many different styles of food to try within Japanese cuisine that we just booked a different style of food each night. And honestly, in some of them, we had to line up for the first night that we got there, we went to a place where it opened up five, and we got there at 445, and there was already probably 40 people in line for a 10 seat little place. And you basically you would wait till there was enough space in line. There was people sitting at the counter eating and then people standing behind them waiting for the second that they got up to sit in.
[00:16:56.790] - Kim
Their seat. Oh, my goodness.
[00:16:57.810] - Tamara
Oh, wow. And you had a vending machine, which is typical. Yeah, a vending machine to order from. So it's typical in a lot of ramen shops. So there's pictures and you just hit the button of what you want. You put in the money, you get a ticket and you hand.
[00:17:11.650] - Kim
The person the ticket. That's like McDonald's.
[00:17:13.780] - Tamara
Yeah. I'm just kidding. Those.
[00:17:16.820] - Kim
Screams in the middle. They have one at Tim Horton's as well. So of.
[00:17:20.940] - Tamara
Course, I made a mistake the first time because I saw people with a broth, which I thought was a ramen, and then a bowl of noodles. And I'm like, oh, that's so I saw on the machine that they had dipping noodles and they had ramen. And then you could add extra things, but only if you could tell what the picture was because it was otherwise in Japanese. And so I ordered dipping noodles because it looked really good and ramen because I thought that that's what people had. And then when I handed the girl the ticket, she was like, for one person?
[00:17:51.710] - Kim
Oh, no. And she was like, you.
[00:17:53.890] - Tamara
Want small or large? Because I was like, oh, is that not what they have? And she was like, no, they have. Because the dipping noodles come with a broth, so I thought it was that they had two.
[00:18:02.980] - Kim
Different things in front of them. Oh, and bologna.
[00:18:04.650] - Tamara
Yeah. Okay, got you. But I'm really glad that I did it because both were delicious. So I'm happy to sample both. But then Glenn ordered on his ramen, Scallions, and it was covered. It was like a mountain of Scallions because I was like extra. But it was like, if you get extra cheese on a pizza, it's like extra.
[00:18:23.110] - Kim
Extra extra. Oh, my goodness. Crazy. I mean, I love Scallions, but I don't know if I could handle the mountain of them.
[00:18:27.560] - Tamara
It was crazy. So you make those little mistakes. But we did a lot of the more casual things. And the hard thing is that honestly, I kept saying this, but there's very little in between. So there are the places where you... First of all, Japanese people love to line up, which is really hard when you're visiting and you're tired and you want to be able to eat with a certain time. People wait for two hours to get into this little ramen place or whatever. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, because you're like, I'm tired. I've been running all day. We were running like 5 to 9 miles. We were doing a lot of walking every day. So I'm like, I just want to sit down. So that's why we tried to do some reservations. But there were the really casual, inexpensive, really inexpensive places. And then there's the crazy, crazy high end... Some of the Sushi places, I'm like, there's no way. Because some of them charge up to like $500.
[00:19:19.820] - Kim
A person. Oh, my goodness.
[00:19:21.930] - Tamara
Insane. That's crazy. So there's just not a lot of middle ground is what I found. Okay, good to know. But the low end, not low end, but the inexpensive stuff is really good.
[00:19:31.970] - Kim
Yeah, of course. You just have to go on to wait for it.
[00:19:35.440] - Tamara
Yeah, exactly. And honestly, one day... So we had a bit of a rough start because Glenn had a stomach bug the day before we left. So the whole flight over and everything, he basically didn't eat for a couple of days. And then I had a really bad cold the day before we left. And for two days, I was so nervous, I'm testing. I'm like, Please.
[00:19:57.490] - Kim
Don't let it be.
[00:19:58.350] - Tamara
And it was. And it was just a cold, but I was still super congested, so it was just hard. And in Japanese society, you can't blow.
[00:20:06.290] - Kim
Your nose.
[00:20:06.970] - Tamara
In public. So I'm trying to be so discreet, going outside and blowing my nose and sanitizing and tucking it into my pocket know, like very... Like trying to be really conscious of that and trying to be super sanitary. But Hannah did end up getting a cold also. One day she was just not feeling up to going out and doing a tour and stuff. So we're like, just stay here and sleep. It was going to be the day that we toured one neighborhood and then we went to the sumo wrestling, and she wasn't super into that anyway. So we're just sleep. And then she went out on her own and she found a 7 11 because just like everybody says, 7 11 has amazing convenience food. So you can buy these really good sandwiches and all that stuff. So there's definitely plenty of ways that you can eat cheap there.
[00:20:56.090] - Kim
That's good to know. So then from Tokyo, you went to Kyoto? Yes. Kyoto is such a different vibe. Yeah, the bullet train, right?
[00:21:05.570] - Tamara
Yeah. So a couple of things to know about the bullet train is that we had gotten the JR pass, which allows you to use all the JR trains. We got the national ones, so you could use bullet trains as well, except the super fast ones weren't included. And we had gotten one that allows us to make seat reservations. And you also, if you're bringing luggage on the train, you now need to make a reservation for the luggage. And this is for more of a checked bag size luggage, not the carry on size. But we were there for two weeks, so we had checked bags. So you can make a reservation for the last row of seats where the luggage can go behind you, or there's a couple of spots on a luggage rack, but they're really cutting down on luggage on trains. Or you can ship your bags ahead, which we ended up actually a couple of times just shipping our bags ahead. And it only costs $20 a bag. It's waiting for you in the hotel when you get there. It takes 24 hours. So you need to have a small bag with all your stuff for.
[00:22:06.140] - Kim
Then one day. Yeah.
[00:22:07.320] - Tamara
But we took the bullet train and that worked really well. We saw Mount Fuji because it was a nice day out. So and we ended up like, we got to Kyoto and we just put our bags in a locker and then we took a local train out to Nara, which is about a half hour away or so, maybe 45 minutes. And there's a really beautiful, huge temple out there. But also it's known for their deer park, which Glenn, years ago, because we both work for a Japanese company, so he's been to Japan many times, but 25 years ago. And so he would always tell us about the deer in Nara that bow to you to get fed. Oh, right. And the deer have changed a bit in the last few years.
[00:22:53.320] - Kim
Yes. I've heard about this stuff. They have this issue at the monkey place, too.
[00:22:57.310] - Tamara
They were so aggressive. That's too bad. They were grabbing my shirt and pulling on my shirt. They nipped my butt. I'm like, Whoa. I feel like all these videos of Glenn and I trying to run away from the deer and we're like, Oh, no. Let's just get away from where the food is so that the deer are calmer. But it's funny because later in the trip, we went to the island of Miyajima, and they have wild deer there also. And one of them followed me into the visitor center, went over to the desk, grabbed a brochure, and then ran out.
[00:23:29.250] - Kim
Because they like to get the paper.
[00:23:31.240] - Tamara
And so the person comes running out behind the desk, yelling at the deer. And then there's three people in the street trying to wrestle the paper away from the deer.
[00:23:39.390] - Kim
Oh, my goodness.
[00:23:40.590] - Tamara
And I'm like, You think of deer in the headlights, these gentle creatures.
[00:23:45.240] - Kim
Yeah, exactly. It's sad when humanity is like, Yeah, I won't get there.
[00:23:51.560] - Tamara
No, it's definitely because there's too many tourists now. They're being fed. Definitely not a great situation. But we did enjoy the day trip out there. Yeah, for sure. I love everything about Japan. It's just so clean and orderly and polite and easy to figure out. My type A personality just really appreciates the order of things. I would like that too. The fact that everybody stands in a line and waits and then you get on when you get on. I love that because in a society where everyone's pushing or whatever, I get.
[00:24:27.400] - Kim
Super stressed out. Oh, my gosh, I hated it. We were on a cruise, a European cruise, and that attracts a lot of Europeans. I thought, Oh, you wait in line for your turn to go get your food that you want served. But no, people just come up from other directions and just walk right up. There's no line concept. I'm like, Oh, I like lines. What am I supposed to do? So sorry.
[00:24:49.240] - Tamara
I get that. You would love Japan. I think it's such a wonderful place to visit. I think there must be challenges if you live there within the culture. I recognize that I used to work for a Japanese company. I'm aware of many of those issues, but as a visitor, it makes it so pleasant. But anyway, I was going to say that they have lockers where you can store things. Everything is just easy. The trains, everything is in Japanese and English.
[00:25:19.260] - Kim
I know they did a big push with that before the Olympics were going to be there. They were trying to...
[00:25:25.180] - Tamara
And all of the trains have signs that say what the next stop is. Because sometimes you're on a subway and you're trying to look and you're like, Oh, yeah. They might not answer, but you're like, What was that?
[00:25:36.320] - Kim
What did they say?
[00:25:37.460] - Tamara
That's Charlie Brown's.
[00:25:38.740] - Kim
Teacher talking to you. Exactly. I've had that happen so many times.
[00:25:43.040] - Tamara
So that part was great. And Kyoto is just very different. So it is more traditional in the architecture. They preserved a lot of the traditional architecture. There's tons of shrines and temple s o that's the thing is that you could get a little shrine and templed out, but the architecture is so beautiful. There is a downtown center city that's more city like, but it's nothing like Tokyo.
[00:26:09.310] - Kim
Or Nagasaki. I remember when we were looking to stay in Kyoto, I seem to recall because we were going to go during... We were hoping for cherry blossom season, but I seem to recall there it's still pretty spread out and there's little neighborhoods in Kyoto even. It's like, okay, this one has more of this vibe and this one I can't remember where we were staying, but I was looking at the different things and getting the bamboo forest, like, oh, well, I'd have to leave here and we want to be near a train station.
[00:26:32.970] - Tamara
All those plans. Yeah, you do want to be near a train station because the metro system is not as well developed there. So we took a mix of busses, GR trains, private trains that you paid for the same way you'd pay for a subway. But when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was probably about a 10 minute walk to one of the train stations, but there was a bus that stopped right outside that then went to the main Kyoto station, which is where we would get on to go to the bamboo forest. And then, yeah, so it was conveniently located, but you definitely needed to plan your travel because some of those destinations, especially many of them were taking slower local trains, and they could still take 45 minutes to.
[00:27:26.150] - Kim
An hour. That was one of the things in my planning that was the hardest is recognizing that there are so many different train lines, like brands, and you might have a pass with one, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can go on every train that's coming in. So it's an interesting thing that I've never... I'm sure maybe it's in other places around the world, but it's not something we think about in the states at all.
[00:27:49.420] - Tamara
The nice thing, though, is that we had our JR pass, which, by the way, I don't even know if they're going to be that useful after this fall because the price is almost doubling. It's going up. It's having some. Unless ticket prices are going up a lot also, you might just want to buy individual tickets.
[00:28:04.190] - Kim
Individual.
[00:28:04.600] - Tamara
Ticket, yeah. But we bought, as soon as we got, we had ordered the JR passes ahead, so we had our voucher that we had to turn in to get the actual pass. Then we went to an ATM because you needed cash for a lot of things. We have to also use cash to get an IC card. So this is the rechargeable card that you would use to get on the metro or the bus or something like that. But the nice thing is that unlike, Oh, I'm going to New York, I need a metro card. I'm going to this place, I need that card for their.
[00:28:32.660] - Kim
Subway system. Yeah, like Long Island Railroad and Metro card.
[00:28:35.370] - Tamara
Yeah, exactly. This card worked for all of them. And it also works for a lot of vending machines.
[00:28:41.990] - Kim
Some convenient stores.
[00:28:42.850] - Tamara
Yeah, the vending machine.
[00:28:43.690] - Kim
I forgot. And you reload it always with cash, though? You always have to reload it only cash. You can't reload it with cash.
[00:28:48.300] - Tamara
Yeah, which is so bizarre. It's like this is a digital payment system and I'm loading it with cash.
[00:28:53.590] - Kim
I wonder if it's because they want to make sure that you're actually paying for it. They don't want you to just be able to dispute it and have gotten the ride for free or gotten the food for free. You know what I mean? I wonder if it's a culture thing.
[00:29:04.840] - Tamara
I do know that it used to be, before COVID, a very cash based society. Now more and more places will take a credit card. And if you have, there's a lot of... Not many places take Apple Pay, but a lot of them do take a tap payment system, but more one that they have in Asia. I don't know if it's really worth signing up and trying to figure that out. Got you. I just basically used my.
[00:29:28.420] - Kim
Chip credit card. The IC card and.
[00:29:30.030] - Tamara
The card anytime for that. And the IC card for the metro, the bus, some vending machines, some required cash still. But yeah, it's just super convenient. So even though there are different trains, so yeah, maybe you can't use your free pass, not for you because you.
[00:29:44.710] - Kim
Paid a lot for it.
[00:29:45.480] - Tamara
But it's still pretty easy to get around.
[00:29:49.930] - Kim
Yeah, it's good. That's great. And I do want to quickly, before we jump over to finishing up Kyoto and going to Asaka, I did want to mention something that you did that I think was brilliant because I even had looked into doing it when we were planning our trip. And that was you had someone meet you at the airport, right?
[00:30:05.450] - Tamara
Yeah, I did. And don't do it. At least not for the company that I did. Okay, here we go. You and I had talked about it. I think it was about $75 to $100. It was the company that I bought the JR Pass from. I also arranged to rent a mobile hotspot, so that was taken care of ahead of time to pick up at the airport. And I arranged to have a greeter meet us after customs. And then what I was told was that that greeter would then take me to do the things I need to do at the airport, which would be pick up my mobile hotspot, exchange my JR Pass, get my IC card, find where I need to go to get my transfer.
[00:30:45.390] - Kim
Get the train.
[00:30:46.220] - Tamara
I figured, hey, it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
[00:30:51.800] - Kim
And especially.
[00:30:52.310] - Tamara
After traveling.
[00:30:52.820] - Kim
For 20 hours.
[00:30:53.250] - Tamara
And I want to be jet lived. Yeah, exactly. This will be useful. It was such a waste of money because first I'm trying to talk to the guy, I'm like, okay, we need to go to an ATM, and he's not even understanding what I'm saying. I'm like, You're a greeter. I'm not coming in there with like, everyone should speak English, but his job is.
[00:31:11.680] - Kim
To meet people. When you pay people. Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of times they'll have if you want to in English or if you want to in... You can specify a language, but.
[00:31:20.330] - Tamara
It seems like it's... Yeah. So one person had my name up and then she called this guy over. So it's like a service they do for multiple people. They had multiple greeters there. I don't know if I just got an inexperienced person, but I went to the counter of the mobile WiFi hotspot place and that person spoke perfect English, no trouble communicating at all.
[00:31:40.320] - Kim
And it was easy to find. And you were able to easily find everything.
[00:31:42.690] - Tamara
Yeah. I mean, he led me there, but I could have found it on my own, no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I wanted to go to the JR ticket office to get our pass, but also see if he could help us make reservations. Yeah, exactly. Because I wanted to make the reservations as soon as I had my pass because I wanted to try to get the luggage reservations. And he was just like, Oh, no, they don't do reservations here. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's part of why I wanted to pay for this service because I wanted somebody to help me translate what my need was. And meanwhile, we were back and forth, just not understanding each other. So then I get in line at the JR ticket office. I get up there, perfect English from the person that's behind the desk, completely easy to talk to. They didn't make the reservations there. They told me where to go in the Tokyo station or Shinchu station, whatever, which I did the next day. That person also spoke really good English, was able to communicate no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I want to get an IC card.
[00:32:38.620] - Tamara
And he was like, Well, you can get the one that requires a deposit or not a deposit. I'm like, I don't care? Can you just tell me where? And he didn't know where to go. Finally, the guy that was behind me in line at the JR ticket office was like, Oh, you want this line right here. And I'm like, Thank you. Then I'm like, What? Then I had arranged for an airport limo bus to take us from the airport directly to our hotel. I just thought first day, and it's really, it's inexpensive. Taxis there are very expensive, but this is inexpensive. And instead of having to drag some bags on multiple trains and subways, I thought it's easy. And so I was like, I thought all that would take us an hour and a half, maybe, from the time we arrived. So I had booked a later bus, but it was really quick to do all of it. So I was like, Oh, maybe we can get an earlier bus. So I was trying to get him to help us with that. No. So I ended up just doing it on my phone. But then he had to come down and he was like, No, I have to wait.
[00:33:42.890] - Tamara
Because I was like, Okay, we're all set. Thank you. Bye. And he's like, No, I have to wait till you get on the bus. I'm like, All right, well, can you just stand over there? Because I'm like, I'm done.
[00:33:52.120] - Kim
Yeah, exactly. You did not help me. Wow. Okay, well, that's good tip. Good to know.
[00:33:56.970] - Tamara
What not to.
[00:33:58.150] - Kim
Do, I guess. What not, yeah. No, I mean, it's good because I had considered that too because I was thinking the same thing like, Oh, my gosh, how am I going to get my pass? I was thinking all that same stuff.
[00:34:07.930] - Tamara
Cool. I think a lot of things with travel, it feels so overwhelming. But once you're there, you're like, Oh, this is not as bad as I.
[00:34:13.260] - Kim
Thought it was going to be. Well, especially in a country that you can't even get around with. It's like, Oh, I speak a little Spanish. I speak a little French. It's just like, None of that's going to help you. You don't want to go in being a ignorant traveler who's just like, Oh, why don't you speak my language in your country? Exactly. I can't stand people like that. But anyways, okay, good to know. Anything else about Kyoto you wanted to mention? I did think it was awesome, your little tip about the bamboo forest. It wasn't really a tip, but I was so happy that you had that experience because I heard the same thing.
[00:34:44.990] - Tamara
When I was there, even, I saw some people on Instagram that seem to be there at the same time, but a couple of days before me. And they showed just this mass of people walking through. Because the word is out that for many of these things, you need to get there early. And so even if you show up at 7 AM, there's still this massive crowd of people funneling through this little area. And I don't want to do that. It was an hour away. No one's getting up at 5 AM to get to a place by 7 or whatever just to take a photo. My family doesn't roll like that. They're like, I don't really care about your photo. We just want to see it. And so we decided to sleep in a little bit. We went, we had lunch, then we went to the monkey forest. And I will say the whole Arashima area is, for a touristy area, so much nicer than I expected. It was really lovely. And there's a really pretty river that runs along that on some days you can run boats. It was really nice. Anyway, so we went to the monkey park first because Glenn loves monkeys, although it's such a steep climb up there, he was like, This better be worth it.
[00:35:53.700] - Tamara
Actually, there was a fan of it that was like, This better be worth it for your monkeys. But it was cool. We saw a lot of baby monkeys. The monkeys were not aggressive at all. They just hung out as long as you followed the rules. You weren't staring at them in the eyes to challenge them or something. Then we went to a temple, then we went to the forest. So we got to the Grove, not really a forest. It's much smaller than you think it's going to be. We got there maybe like 2.30, 3 o'clock, and it was fine. There was people there, but no crush of crowd and plenty of space to have a photo. Yeah, there's people in the background, but that's fine. Honestly, we just wanted a couple of family photos. I'm not going to win an Instagram competition over it, but it was nice. And it's really beautiful. It's really pretty. But sometimes I think doing the opposite of what everyone says.
[00:36:47.700] - Kim
You should do and work out. Especially when it's been around for so long, people are saying do that because it's very much like, oh, the gates open at seven. And so everyone who's built up, it's just like Disneyland. People say, oh, rope drop, rope drop. And you get there. And if you get there late, there's such a long line to get in. And then people come 30 minutes after opening and they walked right up to the turnstiles. There's something about that.
[00:37:10.900] - Tamara
Yeah. And I looked at Google Maps is wonderful. It was so helpful for the travel, figuring out the trains because it would say what platform, but also what car to get on if you were transferring. And then when you were leaving the station, what exit to take because those train stations are huge. So you're like, you don't know where you are when you come out. So it was really, really helpful. And it would tell you like eight minutes, 3 stops, here's the name of your stop. This is how much it's going to cost. It was really very helpful. But you can also look for attractions, and it'll show you the busiest times, like a little graph.
[00:37:47.100] - Kim
Yes, for sure.
[00:37:47.990] - Tamara
I was like, Okay, it looks like 10 to 2 is super busy. Who knows how accurate it is, but let's go.
[00:37:53.690] - Kim
After it. I have a good article about how I use Google Maps and you can make a custom and saver on map to help you with your planning to help see stuff for not just road trips, but also when you're planning a city vacation. But that's a good thing. I always forget about how they have that busy season section. I should add that to my post because.
[00:38:11.540] - Tamara
That's a.
[00:38:12.160] - Kim
Useful thing.
[00:38:13.300] - Tamara
When you're trying to figure out, especially for public transportation, many times the night before, I would look like, Oh, how long is it going to take? Because we need to know what time should we be done breakfast? What time do we need to leave? I like that there's a little drop down where you can say when you're departing or when you want to arrive because it changes. Especially public transportation may not have as many trains when you're looking late at night versus when you're going in the morning.
[00:38:42.000] - Kim
Totally. That's awesome. I always worry about the train, the car thing, because even in New York, sometimes I've been like... Because I'm not used to using trains often. When I first started going to New York and doing that, the Long Island Rail Railroad and stuff, they have certain cars they don't open the doors to all the time. During different hours of the day. I'm always like, Oh, how do I know what car I'm in? It's definitely one of those Charlie Brown teacher's voices. Sometimes I'm like, I have no idea where I'm at.
[00:39:10.980] - Tamara
That's the other great thing. In Japan, it's like, on the avement on the platform, it has numbers. So it's like, you know exactly what car that's going to be. Oh, man. And then everyone lines up single file behind those on either side of the.
[00:39:26.830] - Kim
Door for.
[00:39:27.350] - Tamara
Everyone to come out and then they go on.
[00:39:29.780] - Kim
It's lovely. Lovely. Nice. Okay, so then your last little stop was OSAKA. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Because I had planned that we were going to fly into Tokyo and out of OSAKA, but you ended up going back to Tokyo to go home. But what did you do in Osaka?
[00:39:45.130] - Tamara
Yeah, flying out of OSAKA would be ideal, but for us, Delta doesn't do that. So we had to go back to Tokyo. So OSAKA is known as the Japan's Kitchen, so it's known for its street food. So I knew I wanted to take a food tour when we were there because it's just that's really one of the things it's well known for. So I ended up... We actually got there, we explored a little bit. We did the... You made a sky building, which actually Glenn did not do. No surprise that when we went up high, especially there's these glass enclosed elevators that go between two towers on the 39th floor. And he was like, Are you kidding me? No way am I doing that. So Hannah and I did that. And then that night we actually went to a baseball game, which was really fun because Japanese culture is really into baseball. And it was like being at a college game in a way because they were playing Hiroshima, so that's not far away. Half the stadium were Buffalo fans and half the stadium were carp fans and they all sat on the right side.
[00:40:49.140] - Tamara
So it's like one half was red, one half was white. And they each had a cheering section in a band. And so you felt like you were a little bit at a college game with the marching band thing. It was a lot of fun. But then the next day we took a food tour with Arrogato Travel, and they have food tours in multiple cities. If you want to do a food tour in any of the cities, I would definitely recommend them. The guide was amazing.
[00:41:13.870] - Kim
It seemed like you had a really good time.
[00:41:15.920] - Tamara
Yeah, she was really wonderful. She had lived in the US for a little bit. I think she went to the University of Wisconsin. She lived somewhere else in the Midwest, too, but it's just such a funky, fun city. We toured this area called Shenzakai. It was built after World War II to attract Westerners and has more of a Coney Island vibe is what they were going for. It has carnival games and all these street food things. It's just so funky and retro. I think anywhere else I would have been like, Oh, this is cheesy. But it was actually really cool. And all throughout that area and the Dontambury area of Osaka, all of the food places, it's like Vegas for food places because they all have these three-dimensional facades with a giant octopus or a giant crab, and they're moving and lit up, and it's just so funky. There was one place where you could fish for your own fish, and then they cook it for you. It's almost hard to describe, but it is just bright lights, really funky, interesting, but lots of street food, lots of fried food on a stick, or like.
[00:42:30.660] - Kim
A fair.
[00:42:31.420] - Tamara
No, I'm just kidding. And the takeyaki octopus balls is like, that's where that's from. So that's like really huge. Afterwards, we went to the Don Donburi and we had Okonomiyaki. My family always laughs at me because for some reason I could never get this out. And Hannah and Glenn are like, Why can you not say this word? But Okonomiyaki, so it's like the Pancake type of thing with egg and cabbage and other things thrown in that they make on a griddle in front of you. So they have it in Kyoto and other places, but it's really known there. And in Hiroshima also, they have slightly different versions. That was just fun. So to do all the street food stuff, to have the good food tour, we really loved that. And then on our last, what was supposed to be our last day, we went to Hiroshima and we did a tour. I have a whole itinerary where it has a link to the tour company that I booked. Our guide was really sweet. He was wonderful. I highly recommend that. So we did the whole atomic bomb dome and museum, which was really heavy, obviously.
[00:43:36.130] - Tamara
And you have very confused feelings.
[00:43:39.080] - Kim
About it. Yeah, being.
[00:43:40.620] - Tamara
A member. Our role in that. But then we went to Miyajima Island, which is just a short, like, ferry ride. And it is just beautiful. We were there, it was raining. So there was all these mist and clouds on the mountains. And it just had this magical feel to it. But it was such a... I would love to spend a night there. It wasn't overcrowded, but when the people left, have.
[00:44:07.840] - Kim
It more to.
[00:44:08.650] - Tamara
Yourself type of thing. But there's a really famous Tori Gate that's in the water that looks high tide like it's floating, or when we were there during low tide, so you can walk out to it. And just a shrine. It's just a really pretty lush... That's one thing that really, I don't know why it surprised me, but Japan, outside the cities, it's so lush. You're like, Oh, right. These are islands.
[00:44:34.300] - Kim
Yeah.
[00:44:35.380] - Tamara
And that's why I liked about Kyoto too, because it's like a city that's nestled in a valley surrounded by these lush mountains. Not like towering.
[00:44:43.150] - Kim
Mountains, but these really lush. And it has a nice little river or stream or something through it too.
[00:44:47.450] - Tamara
So that was how we finished. I loved that. And then unfortunately, then we got stuck in a delay on a train coming back because there was a lot of rain. And then we found out our train for the next day to get back to Tokyo in time for our plane was canceled and we were hoping it was going to be all fixed by the morning. But Glenn woke up at five and he said it wasn't. And so then we were up for a couple of hours trying to figure out, what are we going to do? Because we were like, oh, we'll fly up to Tokyo. And by then, all the planes were booked until 3 PM. But we had a 625 flight and we would have had to get our luggage, get to another terminal, recheck it. We're like, that's never going to work. If we get there at 415 or I don't know, it was 435 o'clock or something is when we would have arrived. Never would have worked. So we're like, all right, let's see if we can stay an extra night here and let's book stuff for tomorrow. And let's call Delta and see if they can switch us.
[00:45:40.700] - Tamara
So then we had such a long travel day home because we flew from Osaka to Tokyo. And then we had to do Tokyo to LAX instead of Tokyo. We were booked on a Tokyo to Atlanta. So then at least the last little leg is short. Then we're in LAX for four hours.
[00:46:00.110] - Kim
Then you had a six hour flight.
[00:46:02.380] - Tamara
Well, and then it ended up being delayed. So we came out, we were luckily at the lounge and we actually went on the patio. The Delta Lounge in LAX has a patio, so it's loud but it was really good. It was just nice to get fresh air.
[00:46:16.400] - Kim
After all.
[00:46:16.980] - Tamara
That time. I actually went and I took a shower. I didn't even have any clothes. We had even checked everything, so I didn't even have any clothes to change into. But I'm like, I'm just taking a shower anyway. Yeah, for sure. And so then we came out of the lounge. We're like, Go to the gate. They're like, Oh, we're waiting on a crew member still. We're going to wait to board you. And then they started boarding us. We're like, Okay, I guess everything's all set. And then we're sitting on the plane and an hour later, they're like, Okay, the pilot's now in the parking lot.
[00:46:42.550] - Kim
And we're like.
[00:46:43.320] - Tamara
Oh, my gosh. Seriously? It was the pilot. They weren't even on premises when you boarded us. So we were delayed a couple hours. So we ended up... We got home at 315 in the morning. We'd been going for 30 hours, I think, or more, like 33 hours maybe.
[00:47:02.380] - Kim
That one did you have? Did you have any of the upgraded seating for any of those legs?
[00:47:06.890] - Tamara
Luckily, because we had booked our tickets in premium select, which if you know Delta, there's like Delta 1, which is like the nice pod lay flat thing. Then there's premium select, which has like a footrest that comes out and it reclines, but not like all the way, but it reclines some. Then there's comfort plus, which is basically like a regular seat with a little.
[00:47:26.290] - Kim
More leg room. Like me coming.
[00:47:28.590] - Tamara
So the reason we went through LAX is that's what we could get for premium economy. Oh, good. Okay. I mean, premium select on that, the longest leg from Tokyo to LAX. Then LAX to Boston doesn't have that. So I think we were in, I think, we were in Comfort Plus. I don't even know at that point. I was uncomfortable, that's for sure. But yeah. And then we flew into Boston, which we had flown out of Providence. So my car is still in Providence. So I had to get a car service to pick us up, bring us back. T he next day I'm like, Hannah, can you drive me down to get my car? Whatever. That's a.
[00:48:03.840] - Kim
Whole long story. It worked out. It sounds like you guys had an amazing trip and it was awesome. I know, like I said already and mentioned, Tamara has quite a few blog posts and she'll link them in the show notes, but you can also just go to Wee 3 Travel. I'm sure it's pretty easy to find them, but I know she has all of her itineraries that are if you guys know Tamara, they're very in-depth with a lot of detail. So super helpful if you're thinking of planning a trip. I think it was great. I'm glad you guys had a good time and glad I got to hear about it a little more.
[00:48:31.780] - Tamara
Yeah, it was definitely a bucket list trip. I think being there and being together as a family was wonderful. I think we all acknowledged, we don't know when we're going to have that opportunity again. Just know Hannah is going to be very busy the next few years. S he's going to be more than happy to take a trip with us when she can. We might just know when that will be.
[00:48:52.240] - Kim
Exactly.
[00:48:52.840] - Tamara
I'm glad.
[00:48:53.360] - Kim
We got to do it. Yeah, that's awesome. Perfect.
[00:48:56.710] - Tamara
What's next?
[00:48:58.290] - Kim
I don't even know. You're like, What day is it? What month is it? Exactly. The big thing on my agenda, I'm trying to take the summer off a little bit. We do have a trip up to Canada to visit family coming right up for Canada Day. Happy Canada Day to those of you Canadians that might be listening. Then happy fourth of July to the US Americans that are listening. We are doing that. Then I have a fun trip. You'll be moving Hannah back to school, but I am going to be flying to Kenya and doing a Simara J. W. Marriott stay, which I just got a steal on points for. I'm using points to fly some nice flights as well. That's what's coming up for me. My fall is going to be crazy and booked again, but at least I have. It looks like I'm trying to keep my summer a little more calm. Although that Africa trip, I cannot wait. It's during the Wilder Beast migration. That's a pretty big trip to be. I'm really excited. It's going to be during the Wilder Beast migration, too. So hopefully we'll get some amazing pictures. I got to rent a lens, it reminds me.
[00:50:04.360] - Tamara
I was telling somebody about the points deal that you got on that. Everyone just can't even believe it. What a lucky straw.
[00:50:11.400] - Kim
That was. Oh, my gosh, it was amazing. I don't know if this would work always, but I'm just a little tip for you guys, if you guys are points people. If you know of any future opening hotels that haven't opened yet, that are opening in the future, just maybe keep an eye on their points rates because that's what happened. This hotel hadn't opened yet. It was opening in April, and in February or something, I saw someone mentioned, Oh, my goodness, they've got nights for 20,000, 20 ish thousand points a night. With Marriott, if you book five nights with points, you only pay for four nights. So it's like book five nights, get one free thing. I don't know how to.
[00:50:49.500] - Tamara
Explain it, but you get it. And it's an all inclusive property.
[00:50:51.920] - Kim
It's all inclusive property. So all the game drives are included, all the meals are included, everything. I'm paying 93,000 points total for five nights for two people.
[00:51:00.640] - Tamara
That's like one night at a nice city hotel.
[00:51:04.320] - Kim
Yeah, I know. I was looking at a Fairfield Inn in New York in January, and there were like 65,000 points. So it gives you a little idea there. But anyways, so that's what's up for me. But what about you?
[00:51:14.810] - Tamara
As you hear this, I will probably either be in Scotland or Wales, depends on how quickly I get this out. So I leave shortly for a week with a couple of other travel writers, a week in Scotland, a week in Wales, and then I'm going to be home for a couple of weeks. And then I'm actually going to have two weeks in France, which I don't think I've even had a chance to tell you about. But I'm going to do... Glenn and I are going to go to France. We're doing the Taste of Bordeaux River cruise on Amman Waterways. Oh, nice. And then something else that came up. I was invited to do a press trip on European Waterways, which does hotel barge cruises. And I was trying to look at dates in the fall, but they didn't have any availability. But they're like, Well, how about this one on August sixth, which would have been the day I was flying back from France. I was like, Well, I will already be in France. It's to an area that I've been to before. So I was hoping to see something new, but I think it just works out for me to do this back to back, a more traditional river cruise versus a hotel barge cruise just to have these new experiences because I'm not a big ship person, but I'm definitely been wanting to try some of these other types of things.
[00:52:28.570] - Tamara
And my friend Michelle is going to come join me for that one because Glenn can't stay for the two weeks.
[00:52:33.830] - Kim
Take off that whole time.
[00:52:34.800] - Tamara
That's awesome. And then as soon as I get back, Hannah will come back and we have one day at home and then we fly her to Arizona.
[00:52:43.570] - Kim
Okie dokey. Well, thank you guys for tuning in again. If you're still with us and still listening, as you can see, we have a few trips on the agenda, so we're not quite sure when we'll make another episode. But as always, we always appreciate you guys tuning in and we'll try to share again soon.
[00:52:58.280] - Tamara
Yeah, hopefully, maybe the end of the summer.
[00:53:00.250] - Kim
Talk to you later.
[00:53:01.640] - Tamara
All right, bye bye.
Kim took a last minute spring break trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland with her younger daughter and this week on the podcast, she tells us all about it!
She flew into Dublin and then stay at a country estate hotel in Northern Ireland before visiting Belfast, the Causeway Coast, Derry/Londonderry, and Galway before looping back to Dublin.
See Kim's articles on:
Spring break is almost here and on this episode Kim and Tamara share their experience on a girls' trip in Oceanside, California and then their mother-daughter trip to Disneyland with their girls.
If you want some inspiration for a SoCal getaway, be sure to listen in!
Happy New Year! We are back and apologize for taking so long to release a new episode. Moving forward, we will strive to have one episode a month to share our travels and tips, as we continue to each put more time into our respective websites.
But first, Tamara has a big announcement and that is that she is hosting a women-only small group trip to Iceland in September 2023! You can get all the information on YourTimetoFly.com and she really hopes that some listeners will be able to join! Note that there is a discount of 15,000 ISK if you register by January 15, 2023.
Next Tamara tells us all about her two-week trip to Northern Italy! Some highlights include:
This episode is sponsored by Glacier Country Tourism. All opinions are our own.
This week, Tamara shares what it is like to visit Glacier Country, Montana on a girls' trip and Kim shares her thoughts on this scenic part of Northwestern Montana. From Missoula to Whitefish, Kalispell to Glacier National Park -- if Montana is on your bucket list, give this episode a listen!
Read more:
Adventurous Weekend Getaways to Western Montana- We3Travel
Best Things to do in Glacier National Park - Stuffed Suitcase
Things to do in Glacier Country, Montana
We are back from our summer travel and packed a whole lot into a one episode recap! We apologize in advance for some audio difficulties on this one, especially after taking so long to get it live. Thanks for hanging in there with us!
On this episode we cover Tamara's summer trips to:
And Kim shares about her adventures:
We are still catching up about our spring break trips and this time Kim shares the ups and downs from a Norwegian Cruise Lines voyage from New York City to the Bahamas with stops in "Orlando" and Norwegian's private island. Listen in and see if you are ready to set sail.
After a long hiatus, we are back with an update! Unfortunately Tamara and Kim both came down with COVID after returning from their respective spring break trips, which has delayed getting a new episode out. But this week Tamara fills us in on her adventures (and misadventures) on spring break and shares some of the highlights and tips from her week in Paris.
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