[00:00:00] Hello Hello. Okay, we are talking about something really fun. We are talking about how to simplify travel. How do we make it easier, more enjoyable, less stressful to travel with our families? I. Love traveling. Love it. I am such a fan of traveling. I mean, if you somehow don’t know this, my family and I, we traveled for eight solid months with three kids, my husband, myself, our three kids, and it was incredible.

[00:01:07] One of the most incredible experiences of my lifetime. .

[00:01:10] Today I am super excited because my guest is Addie from VR Gold Blog, and Addie happens to be an Atlanta-based influencer who specializes in luxury travel. This girl travels all the time all over the place. She is a serial entrepreneur, boy, mom, and a number one bestselling author. And we are going to be talking all about travel.

[00:01:32] We are gonna talk about our own tips and tricks and hacks and how we have. Traveling with the kids, she with a toddler, me with, at this point, teenagers, how we make it all just a little less frantic, chaotic, busy, and a little more blissful. So let’s jump in.

[00:01:51] Leah: As promised today we are jumping into simplifying travel and how we can make it more accessible, more doable, more fun, less frantic, all the things. So I have Addie Meshk of Verbal Gold blog with me and she is a travel, do I call you? A travel influencer, travel blogger, all of 

[00:02:13] Ady: the things. A travel blogger.

[00:02:14] For 11 years I’ve been doing this, um, full-time. About six now, and it has been such a fun career to just, you know, 

[00:02:24] Leah: evolve with honestly, I mean, seriously, who like, Anyone who has the travel bug, right? Like, who can’t love the idea of being like, I get paid to go places and do fun things, but you also have a toddler.

[00:02:37] So one of the things I’m really excited about is like, I have teenagers, you have toddler, we both love to travel. How do we make this possible when we wanna travel with kids and when we wanna have these experiences and, and all those things. . My very first question is, what do you say to all the people who are like, you know, we’ve heard it like you better get all the travel in before you have kids.

[00:03:02] Or all the people who are like, oh, I’m gonna like, oh, I’d love to take that trip, but I’m gonna have to wait cuz I have kids. Like, what, what’s your, what’s your, what’s your answer to them? I get 

[00:03:11] Ady: it. I totally get it. It can be scary, especially if you’re, you’re on your own. It’s just the unknown, but it’s totally possible.

[00:03:19] And I like to just tell people, if kids live, If there are children in that country, you can absolutely travel to the destination with kids. It’s definitely possible. It’s doable. They’ll, they’re gonna love it. I mean, my, my kid asked me like, almost every day, honestly, uh, when are we going to the beach? When are we going on vacation?

[00:03:37] And we’ll play trucks. And he’ll be like, you know, I’m like, where, where are all your cars going? He’s like, to the beach. They’re on vacation. Like, he plays vacation now. He wa he gets excited about it. He wants to go and it’s such a great educator too. He’s. So much and it’s opened up his mind, so I promise it is so worth 

[00:03:54] Leah: it.

[00:03:55] I love it. Okay, so just, just for the sake of curiosity, I wanna know, um, what’s the longest you’ve traveled for a period of time? And, um, and I, this question is so hard for me, so I’m already gonna preface I know how hard this question is, but people always wanna know like, where’s your favorite place you’ve been?

[00:04:11] And I’m that person who’s always like, I, I have to tell you a few, right? But like, longest duration, favorite place you’ve, you’ve been to. . 

[00:04:19] Ady: Um, the longest duration would be four weeks . 

[00:04:23] Leah: Okay. Uh, we amazing, 

[00:04:26] Ady: you know, during the time that we remained at home, uh, I was getting the travel bug and I was like, I’m gonna go crazy in these four walls.

[00:04:34] But I was like, I need four walls that move. And I was like, oh my gosh. I’ve always wanted an rv ever since I was little. I don’t know why that was my goal, but I told my, I used to tell my parents, I was like, I’m gonna get us RV and we’re gonna travel all over the. , um, . So I ended up buying one. I just bought one for myself and we took off.

[00:04:53] We went out west. We did like this whole loop. Uh, Colton was probably six months, maybe a year, maybe. He was a year old, and we were gone for about four weeks. And I had to come home because I had a trip, um, planned with Mexico. But if I didn’t, I would’ve probably never come home. It was so much fun and he loved it.

[00:05:14] I have pictures of him as a toddler. On the Salt Flats in Utah and he ha we get these tiles made. Um, and we, we do like one tile for all of his trips. So now he has this collage of everywhere that we went, like his little travel blogger photos and they’re so cute. Um, and then you ask, let’s see what my favorite place was to travel with kids would be Beaches in Turk San Caicos.

[00:05:40] Honestly, it was amazing because this is a great trip for a begin. as a, it is a great beginner family trip or a first time mom trip. If you’re traveling with your kids and you don’t wanna get overwhelmed and you’re a little anxious or nervous, because not only do they have a kid’s water park and everything, there is kids friendly, they have the Sesame Street characters and they have kids club.

[00:06:03] Kids Club is like magic . Magic, magic. And they offer nannies too. They offer babysitting services and nanny services where you can have a nanny with you full-time. But if you want a vacation with your kids, it’s great. You can do that. But if you just need like a little. a little minute. You can drop them off at Kids Club.

[00:06:24] They’re highly vetted. Nannies and babysitters, they’re absolutely incredible. They do fun activities. They hang out with Sesame Street characters and a Colton was so happy there, he loved going, and then you could just pick him up anytime you want, and it’s totally included with your vacation. So I would say as the first time we were like actually going international with Colton, that was the trip where I was like, yes, this is easy.

[00:06:47] Leah: Absolutely. Okay, so. , there’s different types of vacations and, yeah, yeah. Right. Like, like let’s just break that down really quick. Yeah. There are different types of vacations. So you’ve got the, uh, fully DIY to all the way to fully all inclusive. It’s like done for you. Yeah. And you kind of have to figure out what you like.

[00:07:08] But then within that, there is also like from rv. . Yeah, my husband has wanted this forever. I have had the hardest time jumping on board, so I’m like, love getting to talk to you about 

[00:07:21] Ady: this. Now I’m a side hustle queen and 

[00:07:24] Leah: you? Yes. So I actually sent him some of your reels cuz he wants and RV so bad and I’m like, I mean I can get on board if like it’s all being paid for.

[00:07:33] So tell me a little bit about your side hustle with the rv cuz it’s freaking brilliant. . I, 

[00:07:38] Ady: it’s a side hustle in two ways because as an influencer I work. RV platforms to promote the platform. So I’ve been paid five figures on that end. But then on the other end, I was like, okay, well we got back from this incredible four week vacation.

[00:07:52] What am I gonna do with this RV in my driveway? You know? And I was like, share the love. I have no problem sharing my RV with people. It is the next step for me into owning an investment property, which is my goal right now. And I wanna just try it myself. So I, I listed it only on outdoorsy. It was the only platform I used.

[00:08:11] There are a ton, but I was like, I don’t really know. I just wanna try one. And we did, the first week I had $16,000 in. And, and then I learned the ins and outs. Like, you know, I was like, oh, I should raise my rates , I should do for summer. You know, I should do all these other things. So, uh, I started doing that and our, I think right now, uh, it’s uh, three 50 and eight for our RV that sleeps eight people.

[00:08:36] That is so crazy. Walked out like in June alone, it, it grosses $9,000. And so it’s basically just from one month is paid for, for the entire 

[00:08:47] Leah: year. Everything. Yeah. You’re not paying a penny. Right? Like one of the beautiful things about this, and so we ha we did this, but through vacation rental, through an investment property, not through the rv, right?

[00:08:58] So, Your ultimate goal is really to bring in enough bookings that you don’t pay anything. You are not paying, you know, the, the cost of, whether it’s the, the RV payment or the mortgage or whatever it is, and you’ve been able to do that with the rv. You’re not paying anything when you use it. 

[00:09:14] Ady: No, I’m not paying anything.

[00:09:15] I wrote an entire blog post breaking down the numbers to how much insurance costs the rv and then we pay to park it at a U-Haul. Like how much all that costs versus how much we make. And it’s definitely a profit. And then I am listing it to sell, cuz I’m going into the investment property world now and the RV is listed at $40,000 more than I.

[00:09:39] because of 

[00:09:41] Leah: the time, everything. Cause of everything 

[00:09:43] Ady: and inflation. All, all the things. Yeah. The, the demand is everyone wants to be in an RV right now. So I was like, okay. I had people messaging me to buy it. I was like, okay, I’ll just sell it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And if I wanted another one down the road, I can do that.

[00:09:58] Cuz I always envision taking an RV to like Colton’s, you know, sports games or something if he plays sports. Yeah. So I was like, okay, I won’t save it for that long. I’ll just get another one. 

[00:10:07] Leah: Get another one. Right. You can, you can. Absolutely. So I love this. So, so cars are 

[00:10:11] Ady: liabilities. It’s actually an asset 

[00:10:13] Leah: in this case.

[00:10:14] It is a hundred percent. Like when you are able to book it out and make it more profitable, then it’s cost. This has become an asset, which is so cool. So we have. You know, the, from the scale of like going camping to RVing, to your style of RVing, where it’s actually paying you to do it, um, to DIY vacations, right?

[00:10:35] Where you’re planning and you’re booking everything yourself, all the way to the all-inclusives, where you show up. All the food is taken care of. You literally don’t. One of my favorite, favorite things about all-inclusives with kids is that, and I’m sure you feel the same way, so, and I have teenagers and they’re complete foodies, is that they’re, they’re always thinking about where we’re gonna eat what we want to eat.

[00:10:55] When I am in an all-inclusive, I’m like, sure, get room service 10 times. Sure. Get as many of them as you want. Of course you can have more because. All included, which is so, yeah, you get to be so generous and like, not even think twice, which is 

[00:11:08] Ady: so nice. It’s so great for the kids that, that wants like chicken nuggets or spaghetti or mac and cheese or this, and you’re like, okay, this, this place has it all so you don’t have to be, you know, stuck in this one hole of food or, you know, spend all this money in a nice restaurant when you’re like, this place has, I don’t know, 15 restaurants.

[00:11:27] Yes. And you can get whatever you want. And we, so we delivered, it’s like, 

[00:11:30] Leah: take your. . Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty incredible. Okay. So, mm-hmm. , how, I think that the process of choosing where you wanna go and then packing and like planning can be, can be stressful for a lot of people. Right. So how do you choose where you wanna go?

[00:11:48] How do you plan what you wanna do? Mm-hmm. , I’m, and I’m asking too many questions. We can break this down, but, and then and then we’ll go into packing. . Yeah. 

[00:11:56] Ady: Um, really just what’s on my list. I am a beach vacation expert at this point. I like to say that is my preferred type of destination is somewhere where there’s water.

[00:12:08] It just is calming it. It helps me to be there. And it’s great for kids too, because there’s so many beach activities. You can build a sandcastle. Uh, we can walk on the beach just staring at it and hearing the ocean waves is like my vibe. Um, so I prefer that to make things easy, which is what you asked, 

[00:12:25] Leah: right?

[00:12:25] Mm-hmm. . Yep. How do we, yeah. How do we 

[00:12:27] Ady: simplify this? simplified. Okay. I like to get out a packing table and a rack, like a rolling rack. I know the normal person might not have these things, but you can use your bed if you want to, and as as a previous over packer, okay. I just got really tired of paying the baggage fees and be like, oh ma’am, your bag’s overweight.

[00:12:50] And they’d be like a hundred dollars both ways. So I was like, okay, I need to fix this. So first I started packing those little foldable nylon bags in my suit. For the yes, for the overweight. And then I was like, okay, do better. Instead, when you’re packing you, you generally just grab stuff outta your closet and throw it in the suitcase.

[00:13:07] But what I learned is that by laying it out and actually like planning the outfits essentially, and like what you can mix and match or coordinating looks with your kids, if you wanna do one of those, Family photos, having it out and then selecting and then remembering like, mm, I’m only gonna be gone for seven days.

[00:13:23] I just need seven outfits. Yes. Not 30. I packed 40 outfits for one trip one time. I was like, what? What was I thinking? I don’t know. . Um, and then you use compression bags and every compression bag belongs to a member of your family. So like Mike, my husband has his own, I have mine, and Colton has his. I’m sorry, but you cannot overfill that bra.

[00:13:43] That bag like that is, that’s it. This is your bag. And if you can fit all of your clothes in a compression bag, you can definitely pack in a carryon. And I am team carryon. And we are too. All 

[00:13:54] Leah: the way? Yes. 

[00:13:55] Ady: Okay. But the carryon matters. All carry-ons are not created equal. Your carryon has, I’ve lined, I have about, I had about 15 until I donated a lot of them, and I would line them up front and sideways.

[00:14:07] First off, I like base. Base is like my preferr. Luggage company because their carryon is the largest. Okay. Um, but still within the specs. And also they have that extender. And the extender is key because you have to be able to extend the luggage, uh, because it’s gonna be packed. It’s gonna 

[00:14:25] Leah: be packed full

[00:14:26] Yeah. Um, and then especially when you’re trying to fit it all in a carryon, believe me, every square inch really matters. And you’re looking at the different carry-on sizes, even down to, um, if, if people are thinking about their carry-on luggage. The way that the handle goes in, does it go in where it like creates a bump in the luggage and so you have these weird like divots or is it behind it and you have a full box, like you really do start to notice and pay attention.

[00:14:50] Like what is the maximum that the airline lets me have? I need it all. 

[00:14:55] Ady: I need it all. I’m crazy. Yeah. Uh, even down to like when Colton was in diapers, we’d space bag the diapers so they would remain flat and you could bring your own. And then I was like, okay, well what can I bring in my carry on? Because I know the diapers are gonna be.

[00:15:06] You know, I don’t want that like hole there. So even just down to like planting that stuff. But those two are my, are my top tips for, you know, being in line with packing and then having a go bag. So if you’re a female, you, you have all these toilet trees, all this makeup. Yes. And you know, if you have travel sizes, bless you, like go for that.

[00:15:27] But keep it in an organized, like carry on, like little carry on to go bag. Having it pre. It will save you so much time, I swear, because you, you wanna get ready the morning that you’re going to the airport, and then you don’t wanna be packing that same morning and using your same makeup that you just got ready with.

[00:15:44] So if you just have like your simple five step, five little things that you need for vacation, because remember you’re not gonna be doing like a whole full face on vacation. You know, 50, 90, 90% of the time just have it to go and carry it. Even if you like, as for me as a travel blogger, I have those, the home edit clear.

[00:16:02] Mm-hmm. , and they’re in these cabinets behind you and they’re organized like camera GoPro, you know, Insta 360, and then airplane bag. And my airplane bag has like the hand sanitizer, the headphones, everything you would need right there for the airplane. So it’s already ready to go. I just grab it. Like, if you ask me to go somewhere in an hour, I can be there.

[00:16:22] Yeah. 

[00:16:22] Leah: I’m so, I am the exact same way. And I totally agree with with you on this. So I have, uh, one of the organizers that hangs on the back of. Okay. And Right. That has all my toiletries, that’s got like four or five different sections. Mm-hmm. and over time, not all at once, but over time I bought everything as a duplicate.

[00:16:40] So I have the travel sizes of all my hair stuff. I have, you know, the travel sizes of all my face stuff. I have my makeup and then, um, you know, and then just like hair ties, q-tips, you know, all those kind of things. But it’s amazing, 

[00:16:54] Ady: like a Black Friday and start, and start getting the duplicates on Black Friday when 

[00:16:57] Leah: the sales are.

[00:16:59] Or promotions where it’s like, you know, we’re gonna give you this gift with pitch and it’s little ones, and you’re like, perfect. Those all go in there, right? So, um, and, and obviously you can, you know, make that even easier by buying little travel kits and filling it with your own shampoo and conditioners and, but the point is, it’s so powerful that’s just sitting in my closet at all times.

[00:17:18] And so, you know, we’re going somewhere at least once a month, even if it’s just an overnighter. And all I have to do is just grab. And, and that is so easy. So I agree. That is so, so powerful and so helpful to just have those things. And I waited for so long, like for so long I didn’t have that and I, you know, try to put it together and now it’s just so simple.

[00:17:42] Ady: Like, I was always getting something. I was like, yes. Can I not do this anymore? 

[00:17:46] Leah: Yes, you’re constantly get there and you. , seriously. Shoot. Mm-hmm. . Now I have to find where I can buy a razor or deodorant 

[00:17:53] Ady: or it’s in a full time. I forgot all of it, . And I was like, okay, I’m not gonna do this again. I did, I was in France.

[00:17:58] I had to buy all new makeup. I was like, oh God. Yeah. 

[00:18:01] Leah: Yeah. You’re like, Nope, that’s not, that’s not happening. So, oh, I, I so agree. Okay. So, what are your favorite time saving travel hacks?

[00:18:16] Ady: The staying packed. You don’t have to pack if you stay. Okay, so it’s, for me, my look on, uh, beach vacations is at kimono. Like this is just what I, I will stay in and my colors are red and pink. I just love them. And I also like, um, if you look on a color wheel, the blues and the greens, whatever’s opposite that, those colors are gonna look the best in a beach vacation.

[00:18:40] So I have my cow packs and my compression backs already packed with, I don’t know, 10 kimonos that are my favorite and my favorite bathing. and I have it ready to go. The same if, just like in your pantry, if you have kids, you have the like, go, go packs, like the, your, you’re already like your snacks that are ready to go, the grab and goes.

[00:19:01] Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . That’s kind of how I keep my travels. It’s a grab and go situation, so it’s already packed. And then all I need is like, oh, what do I want to wear to dinner? Do I need to dress? What shoes do I wear? But other than, The beach stuff and the makeup and the, the toiletries are already packed and ready to go in my suitcase.

[00:19:18] Leah: I love that. And you and I both kind of talked about and said how we love carry-ons, and I wanna just talk to this idea of like, if we’re talking about trying to make traveling simpler, not having the airport becomes simpler, getting on and off the airplane becomes simpler. Getting to your destination becomes simple.

[00:19:35] Literally, everything is simpler if you are not waiting at baggage. Now, sometimes it’s unavoidable, like every once in a while you’re like, we’ll, we’re going to Park City in a week and we will be checking snowboards and skis, and there’s no, there’s no way around that one. Right? But 

[00:19:51] Ady: there is no, there is.

[00:19:53] If you don’t wanna carry it through the airport. There’s an amazing company called Lulu. Have you heard of them? Uh, it’s incredible. I, this is how I send out giveaway stuff. Um, you can actually, if you want, okay, how do I say this? You can send your snowboards and all of your boards there ahead of time with LU list, and it’s a, it’s like the same or less, maybe $25 to ship, um, these items ahead of time to the hotel or wherever you’re going.

[00:20:22] Like for me, I went to San Francisco and Hawaii. and I packed two carry-ons and I was like, cuz they’re different temperatures. Yeah. And then when I was done with San Francisco, I used Lu List. I dropped it off at ups, they, they shipped it to my parents’ house, which is like, you know, relatively close to where I live.

[00:20:38] And I only took the Hawaii luggage onto Hawaii. You just, that’s amazing. It’s such a, it’s such a, like a, a time hack. It’s such a, a lifesaver for me. And when people, when I was doing all these getaways, I had all this extra luggage, I would just fill the suit. With the getaway stuff and I would just ship the suitcase with loveless.

[00:20:58] Leah: That is amazing. Okay. See, everything is possible. It’s, it’s all figureoutable. That is amazing. 

[00:21:04] Ady: The other time saving hack, I would say for people is to use, like download the flights mobile app. Yes. And check in ahead of time. If you’re going on flights, always check in ahead of time.

[00:21:14] Save your, um, your, I think they give you like the barcode now that you can. , but I think the sooner that you check in, the more, um, the, the farther up you are in line to get the, um, complimentary upgrades. Yeah. So I always try to check in right when they send that, have the app so you can see if there’s any changes or if there’s delays, they’ll text you.

[00:21:35] Having that is like, A gold mine. You don’t have to wait in line, which is why you don’t, you don’t have to check a bag because you don’t have a checked bag. Now you have a carry on and you can just zip through security. And I would also say, I don’t want this to be a promo for any other companies, but clear if you have 

[00:21:50] Leah: clear in your air.

[00:21:51] I was saying the same thing. I’m like, tsa, pre and clear. Like, oh my gosh. I was gonna say the same thing. Honestly, like if we’re talking about making travel, easier. These things make the difference. Getting through hours, hours, hours and getting through the airport is, is can be one of the most stressful parts.

[00:22:06] Mm-hmm. . So when you’re not checking bags, like you get to just, you’ve pre-checked on your phone, you walk right in, you’ve got your carry-on. So you don’t have to go, you know, up and wait in in line to get up to the counter. You’re just like going straight. to um, to, 

[00:22:21] Ady: you have TSA precheck, you have clear or Yes, if you have a credit card like American Express, the one that I have for travel, which is the Sky Mouse card, it has the global entry and the TSA precheck AS and Clear actually as credits.

[00:22:35] Leah: Same with Capital One. So I was gonna say the same thing. So check your, whatever your primary credit card is, go look. Yeah. You probably benefit money. Yeah, you probably get it refunded. So for example, when we did our tsap and we put it on our card, we didn’t even realize and all of a sudden it just got refunded right back.

[00:22:54] We didn’t have to do a thing. Not a thing. It was just refunded back. So that is amazing. You’ll get it for yourselves. As long as your kids are minors, they’ll be able to come through with you. Yeah, it’s a little different 

[00:23:09] Ady: through with me too. They’re not typically that strict, but he. , he can always come through with me, cuz, cuz I separate, I separate our boarding passes because, uh, my status, I get to bring one person with me to first class.

[00:23:23] That’s gonna be my son. I’m sorry Michael, if you’re gonna hear this later. So I have to separate our reservation out because if they see three people on the reservation, they won’t upgrade me. So as soon as I book our tickets, see you later. He’s off. I call Delta, he’s off the reservation. So we get our.

[00:23:39] and then, you know, he can still come through with the pre-check and the clear with me. 

[00:23:43] Leah: Yes, yes. Oh, this is so, so these are the things that, like, once you know them, they changed the game for travel, but you need someone to tell you. So I’m so glad that we’re talking about all these things cuz we didn’t know a lot of these things.

[00:23:55] I was just talking to someone, uh, who was telling me they were planning a trip and I was. Get your TSA pre right now. You have enough time. It is so much easier than you think it is. Like it sounds like, oh, this is gonna take so much time. It’s gonna be so complicated. It’s not. It is a very, very fast, like five minute form.

[00:24:13] Mm-hmm. , you finish it, you go into some office, give some fingerprints. It literally took us less than five minutes. Yeah. And that was it. So getting clear, getting TSA p like getting the, the global, like these different ones. 

[00:24:25] Ady: I, for security in, I think I timed it like three minutes, one. I got through and I was like, that 

[00:24:31] Leah: was, oh, I fly through and I’m not pulling out my laptop.

[00:24:34] Some airports are different, but like, I’m not taking my shoes off. I’m not trying to, like, a lot of times I don’t need my laptop on the actual plane. Mm-hmm. . So I don’t keep it in the bag that I’m gonna have that has like the book and my phone and my AirPods. Right. So if 

[00:24:49] Ady: I have to get out to like, look at what.

[00:24:51] Doing on my computer, so I don’t ever bust it out. Yeah. I don’t bring 

[00:24:54] Leah: my laptop out, so I have it in my carry-on, so I don’t wanna unzip my carry-on and try to pull out the laptop like this way. It’s literally all just flying through. That’s it’s mm-hmm. , just lovely. Okay. So we’re both, global 

[00:25:07] Ady: entry really helps if you’re flying internationally on the way home, if you’ve ever seen the customs.

[00:25:13] Yes. With a, with a kid that like doesn’t wanna sit still or wait in a line, how do you tell a kid like, Hey, no, you have to wait here for an hour or more. . Yeah. And you, you actually can’t take your kids with you through global entry if they don’t have their own. It’s a felony, apparently. . So good to know.

[00:25:32] Sign them up too. Make sure you sign them up. Um, and make sure you, your kids have passports, obviously, right when they’re born. I, I made the mistake of waiting a little bit longer than I should have on that. , but when you sign them up, the, the global entry line was maybe like three people versus 300 

[00:25:46] Leah: people.

[00:25:47] Yes. Yeah. Those lines can be absolutely crazy. I feel like one of the most common international destinations for a lot of US people is gonna be Mexico. If you have gone to Mexico mm-hmm. , you understand what those lines can be like. and why you would want to avoid that bigger, the plane 

[00:26:00] Ady: you’re on, the longer the line

[00:26:02] Leah: Yeah. Yeah. And you add multiple planes coming in at the same time and Ooh, wow. It, it can be intense. 

[00:26:08] Ady: That’s like literally nothing. I hate more than waiting in those lines because I don’t, I don’t have to wait for baggage either. So it’s too, cause I’m my carryon. I’m ready to go. Yeah, you can outta here.

[00:26:17] The Atlanta airport was like, you know, I think it would be fun if we make them run a 5K right when they land because it is so far away the gate like, what is happening? I just wanna leave the airport when I’m done on vacation. 

[00:26:30] Leah: Yes. Oh, a hundred percent. Or you want, you get to your destination and you want to start your vacation, and it’s like, not yet.

[00:26:37] Please wait. You know, through these incredible lines before the fun can actually begin. So, oh, I, I definitely, I’m loving all of this. Okay. And, and I wanted to say just to anybody who’s like, oh my gosh, how can you really do carry-ons? You know, you don’t know how many kids I have, or you don’t know all these things.

[00:26:54] I wanna just tell everyone we traveled for eight straight. When we left, we had two full, when we had our, we had how many? Four full size suitcases, plus four carry-ons, plus four backpacks. We realized real quick that that was never gonna work because on travel days, like when you’re going from country to country, there are times where we are literally taking a plane, a train, a boat, uh, is taxi.

[00:27:23] Ady: It’s the train in the boat for me, especially in Europe. The gravel roads like, do not over pack. Yes. You be 

[00:27:29] Leah: humble. So quick. Oh, oh. So quick. I mean, we’re like trying to bring ’em down, cobble stones, like yanking ’em behind us. Yeah. The kids are melting down. They’re like, we’re trying to carry, it was horrible.

[00:27:38] We got rid of all of them and we were down to. Each of us had one carry on. Mm-hmm. , each of us had one backpack and 

[00:27:46] Ady: the backpack is where it’s at. Yes. I don’t care if it’s cute or not, but you with kids, you, you’ve gotta be hands free. There’s, 

[00:27:53] Leah: there’s no, you’ve got to be available. And so we did that.

[00:27:56] Six weeks into our trip, we, a friend, uh, was, was coming, I was hosting a mastermind retreat in London, so she was coming to assist and we were like, we are, bring. All of this luggage home with you. Be prepared. We, we will pay for all of it. But you are taking this all back. Yes. And we went the rest of that travel with so, so don’t tell me it can’t be done, I promise you can.

[00:28:18] You just rewear the same clothes. You make sure everything mixes and matches and you do laundry if you have to or you use the laundry service that’s available. Like 

[00:28:26] Ady: Countries have laundry. Yes. Yes. They have children 

[00:28:29] Leah: and laundry who do? 

[00:28:30] Ady: Yes. crazy. Other people wash their flows.

[00:28:33] Leah: Isn’t. That’s so funny. Oh, I love this. Okay. So trying to think if there’s any other like, things that have, oh, I know. Okay. What about great deals? What about, you know, people are like, oh, this all sounds amazing, but how great for you two that you travel all over the world? Like they’re, they want to try to start traveling, but it does feel very expensive.

[00:28:55] So what are your best, um, your best tips for like getting great deals? 

[00:29:01] Ady: It’s hard for me because again, I, I do get paid to travel and I’m usually booked out, but, you know, looking for the holiday deals, all the resorts and the private islands that I have worked. To four always have a deal on Black Friday or they, you know, if there is a place that you want to go, like let’s say Cocoa Plum in Belize or Manta, they’re two private islands that are my top favorite places to ever to go.

[00:29:26] Ever. On Black Friday they did a $500 off discounts like that. Or you could go into Google Flights, which is what I like to use. And there’s another one that’s I think Skyscanner, you can set your destination down. Yep. We love Sky skater. , come on. You just, you’re like, you know, if you just wanna go to Europe, type Europe.

[00:29:40] And then it, it gives you like flexible dates of when the prices are, are the lowest, and then you go, then we’re pretty flexible. Like, I will go during an off season when it’s non-peak time just to save money. Um, because the flights obviously add up for families. People with, you know, after two years old, they can’t sit in your lap anymore.

[00:29:58] And I’m like, crap, you have to get your own ticket. The credit cards come in handy because you get a free companion certificate. Make sure you and your partner both have that so you get at least two free companion certificates. And then I would say playing the Russian roulette on the flights and just picking Europe as the primary destination.

[00:30:15] And, and looking at the, the other locations that are around that and seeing whichever one’s cheaper to get to 

[00:30:20] Leah: going. Yeah. And, and I was, I, so I agree with all of this and there are so many different deal sites. You gotta kind of find those, get, get clear on which ones are good, um, and then don’t be afraid to choose your location based on deals.

[00:30:34] So when we were traveling internationally, we frequently were making the decision on where we were going nest next, based on the. Flights we found, we had, uh, no intentions of going to Hong Kong or Japan. Those were not on the list, and Japan was one of my favorite places we went. I wanna go there. Oh, incredible.

[00:30:54] Like, like, okay, I’m just gonna deviate a moment. But like, they take everything that they, that they make all food and they figure out how to just make it better. So I am not even, this is not an exaggeration. The best corn dog I have ever had in my life is from the seven Elevens in Japan, like, and we’re talking about the 7-Eleven, nevermind all the other incredible restaurants that we had.

[00:31:23] They just. Take better. Yes. They, they like, they just take food and they say, how do we just make this the best? And they do. It’s like the best Indian food I’ve ever had. 

[00:31:33] Ady: I love being together countries. It’s so fresh and it’s so good. 

[00:31:36] Leah: Oh, it’s incredible. Yeah. It’s so incredible. So yeah. , , so Japan.

[00:31:41] And Hong Kong. Those were not even on our radar, but we were looking for flights. We found an incredible deal and it brought us to Hong Kong. We would be in Hong Kong, and then it brought us back home to the States through Japan. But with a 24 hour layover. So we just never got back on the plane. Yeah. 

[00:32:01] Ady: .

[00:32:01] That’s a little tip right there. Yeah. 

[00:32:02] Leah: Yeah. Look for, look for layover options that you don’t have to get back on the plane. You’re taking, I mean, it’s 24 hours you’re taking all your stuff is the best. Yes, yes. A hundred percent. So, You know, that was incredible. And yes, one of the ways is make a bucket list of all the places you want to go.

[00:32:19] Yeah. And then just look for what has a deal and say, okay, this is the one we’re going to first. Cause it’s the, how old were your kids when you did that? They were, uh, eight, 10, and 11. So we really were strategic about that timeframe. Yeah. Our thought process was they’re old enough that they can. They’re old enough that they could, for the most part wheel their own little carry on their, have their own backpack on.

[00:32:45] Um, but they’re young enough to where their friends are not the most important thing and they’re not so involved in whatever the high school activities were going to become, that they would be like, absolutely not. And I will tell you, I am so grateful if we did it because now we have, they have now grown and they’re a senior, a junior, and a.

[00:33:04] And we try to convince them all the time. So like last December, my husband and and I were like, let’s go to New Zealand for Christmas. Let’s take the, I’ll be your kid. Okay, 

[00:33:14] Ady: perfect. Perfect. We’re 

[00:33:15] Leah: like, let’s go the whole time they’re like, no, we can’t miss this, and we can’t miss that. Like, we, I didn’t even think about that.

[00:33:23] Yeah. We keep trying to, to like convince them our, our crazy ideas that we have and you know, they’re frequently like, no, no, no. We have this and this and this. They’re much. Uh, 

[00:33:33] Ady: you drop little nuggets around, it’d be like, do you know what New Zealand has this time of year, blah, blah, blah, blah. And just like drop, like waste a height them up without saying and be like, you know what?

[00:33:42] And then make them come to you and like, you know what? We should go to New Zealand. Yes. 

[00:33:45] Leah: Yeah. I’m, I’m working on it. I’m wor my youngest, he’s all four. He is like, you know, we come up with an idea him and that’s why I love your RV thing, cuz him and my. have this vision. They really wanna get an rv. They’re both huge.

[00:33:58] They love skiing, and so they wanna go from, they already take every weekend they can and fly and go to some resort. So they wanna go to like, have an rv mm-hmm. and go from resort to resort to resort over like, you know, a, a couple of weeks or something like that where they could just ski all over, you know, all those major, major mountains.

[00:34:17] So, so, yeah. So they, they love that idea. It’s just when you talk about all five of. Inside of that, and they’re all grown up bodies now because you know, they’re teenagers, they’re not little. I’m like, 

[00:34:31] Ady: well, it’s not the tow behind. You know, there’s different kinds of RVs. There’s the C class, the A class, which is like the bus, and then the smaller ones, like the tow behinds.

[00:34:39] Those are perfect for families because they have rooms where you can close the door. 

[00:34:44] Leah: Ooh, that’s a good idea. I just need to know. I like my alone time. Like I’m really a fan. Hanging out with myself, . 

[00:34:53] Ady: Our C class has a door that you can shut, which is why I got it because Colton was a baby.

[00:34:58] He needed nap time. Yes. But we still wanted to be in the front watching TV, doing whatever, so we made sure the back room had a closing door. 

[00:35:05] Leah: That is so brilliant. Yeah. We’re trying to figure out like, okay, what is this RV gonna be? But it makes it a whole lot easier when you’re like, and I will just make it pay for itself.

[00:35:14] Right. Like that’s That’s amazing. 

[00:35:17] Ady: Rent one for as long as you’re talking about going, they’re, they’re kind of expensive, but I did hear of an app, oh God, I can’t think of it right now. And you only pay a dollar to rent it because somebody needed the RV and they drove it to your city and then they didn’t wanna drive it back, so they left it there.

[00:35:35] So the companies will pay you a a dollar or you pay them a dollar to drive it. to whatever, 

[00:35:42] Leah: you know where to the destination of where it needs home base. Oh, that’s so fascinating. 

[00:35:47] Ady: You can apply and, and you’ll just be the driver and you get to go see all these new cities and states and I was like, that is a really good idea.

[00:35:53] I wanna 

[00:35:53] Leah: do that. There are some really cool things like that. I mean, that, which I hadn’t even heard of. There’s the home, um, like there was ones that we, that we saw and heard of people doing when we were full-time traveling. , they were going to other countries and staying in someone’s home to take care of their cats and dogs home.

[00:36:13] Yes. Home centers like that was, that was amazing. You create this little profile and like say why you’re qualified. Right. And then you can submit and people can pick you and then you don’t even have to pay for the location like, You’re studying. That’s literally on 

[00:36:26] Ady: my list of things to do right now because they said if you build up your portfolio of house sitters in your current location, you’ll be like the first to get the alerts in.

[00:36:34] Like Paris in New Zealand. 

[00:36:36] Leah: Yes. You know, because we were, I was looking at ’em in Australia. I was looking at them, uh, in England, Ireland, Scotland. I mean, they’re all over. And so I moving. Yeah. So, so that, I mean, so there are ways like I just want people to know if they want to see the whole. . 

[00:36:55] Ady: Yeah. You get a whole house that 

[00:36:57] Leah: way.

[00:36:57] Yeah. How amazing is that? You’re not even paying for a hotel. You have spaced for everybody. Yeah. Like you’re, you’re getting to take care of some animals, water, some plants. Like that’s, that’s amazing. So there are ways. To travel. Mm-hmm. , if this is something that Yeah. You know, somebody wants to do the first, the first thing is just gonna be to really start dreaming about it and, and decide like, I’m, I’m gonna make this happen.

[00:37:24] And then define what it looks like. You know, maybe you only have a week, a year. Okay, that’s okay. Like, when is that gonna be? How much flexibility do you have? What would you like it to look like? Maybe you have more time. Great. That’s gonna make it a little easier. Um, and. and then start figuring out what the budget is.

[00:37:41] And there is a way. There is an option totally. I truly believe for, for everyone to be able to go, go travel and experience. And it really is incredible. I mean, some of our favorite and best memories are traveling not because of the incredible things we did, which don’t get me wrong, like that is so cool.

[00:38:00] But it was because everything else gets stripped. . Mm-hmm. , all of the schedules, all of the obligations, all of the places that you would normally you’re supposed to be at, it disappears. Mm-hmm. and it just becomes your little unit together. Just being able to be fully present and mm-hmm. and, 

[00:38:22] Ady: and all these little experiences together.

[00:38:24] Yes. 

[00:38:25] Leah: It’s so powerful. 

[00:38:27] Ady: Such a great introduction to other cultures and types of people. . Um, as someone who wrote a book about body positivity and trying to end like bullying for kids, I feel like even just, you know, growing up in your bubble, you’re used to these types of people and being able to get out and see different cultures and different types of people, it just opens your eyes.

[00:38:48] And it’s like, it opens the world around you and within you. I feel like it’s just very inspiring and it’s great for kids to experience that. And you know, I, when Colton was starting to talk, we, we’d pull him outta daycare, go on these trips, bring him back, and they’d be like, he’s, he’s like five now, you know, what is, what happened?

[00:39:05] And I’m like, oh, we just traveled. You know, he gets to experience all that and it, I feel like it’s such a great educator. I can’t, I mean, I can’t say that enough that it, I will always be traveling with kids. I think it’s so. 

[00:39:17] Leah: I agree. I feel like our kids being able to be aware and recognize, um, just how small and big the world is at the same time, the connection we have with people everywhere we, yes, we really made a focus of, um, talking about the lessons we were learning from other cultures.

[00:39:36] Yeah. And really having those conversations. And in fact, we had a family over for dinner last night and we were telling them about, Um, every country we went to, we would go to church on Sunday, every single country. Oh my gosh, what a great idea. And it was amazing, right? And, and every time we would get to, you know, meet these new people in this new country, They were so generous, so kind to us.

[00:40:00] We stopped buying food for Sunday nights because in eight months, I think there were only two Sundays that someone did not offer to have us for dinner. I mean, complete strangers just showing up and they’d be like, you should like have dinner with us. Someone would reach out to us. It was so beautiful and we’ve talked about that so many times.

[00:40:20] Like this is the kind of people we wanna be. We wanna be. Look for the person who’s new. Look for the person. And we, we bring that into that Met school. We bring that into them in any situation, right? Like we have to look up from our phones. We have to look up and see who’s around us and notice who needs us.

[00:40:37] And that was one of the most beautiful examples throughout our traveling. I cannot tell you how many times. , we would be lost, unsure of what to do. We’re in a country where we do not speak the language and someone would see us and walk up and without even being able to communicate, offer to help. We were in a, in a train station in Tokyo, no idea where we were supposed to be going.

[00:40:59] Worried We’re gonna miss our train. No. The sweet woman recognizes it comes. And motions. You know, we’re just trying to talk through like our hands cuz we don’t, we don’t know how to communicate with each other. Looks at our phone, knows what we’re trying to do, motions for us to follow. Brings us all the way to our train, make sure we’re on it.

[00:41:16] We had that happen in Scotland. We had that happen in Japan. We had it happen in Hong Kong. We, I mean all over the world. Like, it’s just, there’s so many beautiful lessons that we can learn. Um, Of how to just be more generous in spirit, I believe. Like I love that in, in traveling. So that’s, that’s another plug for why I think traveling is so amazing.

[00:41:36] Yeah, 

[00:41:37] Ady: agree. And trains are tricky, especially in other country. It’s so intimidating. It’s so tricky. I’ve gone to the wrong place a thousand times. . 

[00:41:45] Leah: Yes. You’re like, oh man. Yeah, we, we had some, we had some 

[00:41:49] Ady: mess ups. It’s here, it’s not fair, you know? 

[00:41:52] Leah: Oh, oh, we, we, we are not the same when it comes to the way they do transportation in other countries versus us.

[00:41:58] It’s been shockingly different. Yeah. Yeah. I did not understand that until I actually went to other countries and was like, oh, now I get it. Okay. All right, so, so my final question for you. . Okay. If you could convince a busy mama to do just one thing for her to feel more balanced, what would it be? 

[00:42:23] Ady: I would say self-care is a big, a big, big check on that list.

[00:42:28] Taking actual time for me, I learned this from my therapist when she was like, what? What do you do? What is your mindfulness? And I was like getting my nails. and I, I go get my hair done. She was like, no. That is just at this point, like mandatory, you know? Right, right. Self, 

[00:42:43] Leah: it’s, it’s a chore. Like it’s lost the luster of, of like, 

[00:42:47] Ady: yeah.

[00:42:48] Exactly. She was like, you need to practice mindfulness, like writing in a journal, dancing to your favorite music around your kitchen. Like go outside, sit in the sun for 10 minutes, um, things like that to just bring you back and like, kind of regulate your, your hormones, um, and your nervous system. You know, practice your deep breaths.

[00:43:08] Listen to your favorite song. I’ve been listening to a podcast on this, this app called Headway. And I listen to 104 books in one year because it just gives you like a summary and you can listen to motivational books, self-help books, but it’s kind of like my me time. I make my favorite cup of coffee or in my avocado toast in the morning.

[00:43:26] And I just have like a routine and it makes me so happy. I love, I absolutely love it. And you know, I practice, I write down things in my gratitude journal and I was telling my husband about this and saying it out loud. It was so. It felt so cheesy and I was like, yeah, whatever. You know, it won’t work. It’s been a year and a half that I’ve been doing this, and it has completely changed my life.

[00:43:50] Leah: I so agree. I cannot emphasize enough the power of a gratitude practice. I have seen the most dramatic difference, and I felt the same way. I’m like, It’s hard to explain to someone. Like it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, so it doesn’t seem like it would do that much, but it has wild, so much power.

[00:44:10] So the thing just for funsies, the thing that I’ve added this year is still doing my gratitude. Okay. There’s amazing research around, I’ve done other, um, podcast episodes about this, but around like, there’s different ways you can do gratitude. They’ve shown massive power in either choosing three things and kind of writing a paragraph around them to really contemplate or just writing 10 things.

[00:44:29] You’re grateful. And choosing whatever works for you every day. But what I’ve added this year is three things I’m grateful for and three wins. I realized that I’m really, really good at noticing the blessings in my life that are, you know, because of other people. Yeah. But I wasn’t noticing my own accomplishments.

[00:44:52] Like to boost me and help me to feel more powerful in like trying new, harder, bigger things. Yeah. And so by adding the three wins, it’s like I’m looking like I did really good with the kids today in handling that situation. Or like I checked this off the list and that was gonna be hard. Or I got that workout done and like, yay me.

[00:45:10] So I’m doing that component with the gratitude to like, I love it. Try to just. Yes. Level up. Level up a little. But I agree. Gratitude journals that I 

[00:45:21] Ady: didn’t love. Um, the one that I love the most is the Five Minute Journal. Yeah, I’m sure. I think that went viral last year, honestly. But um, I think it was that one.

[00:45:30] And then there’s one that someone came out with. Those two are the best actually. Time Out have it right here. This one, uh, it’s called Notes to. This little journal. I dunno if you’ve seen this. No, I haven’t. This my intelligent chains. Oh, Chelsea. So the blogger from Hawaii, Chelsea Kauai. Okay. She came out with this journal and just the way that she does it, the prompts that are there, it is, it’s like my absolute 

[00:45:56] Leah: favorite.

[00:45:57] Oh, okay. We will link, we’ve talked about so many things, so I want people to know if they’re like, ha, there is a lot of things. I wanna know what they’re, we will link to everything in the show notes so that everyone will be able to find all of these great things that we talked. Um, Addie, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

[00:46:14] This has been so fun. I could talk to you about travel forever, like, we’re getting started. I know, I know. I’m like, I could just keep going and going and going. So thank you. Thank 

[00:46:25] Ady: you so much for having me. And hello and thank you for listening to your incredible audience and community. I’m so happy to be here and, uh, come check me out at Verbal Gold Blog on Instagram.

[00:46:34] Come say, Yes, I would love to have you guys. 

[00:46:36] Leah: Yes, absolutely. And we’ll make sure we’re linking so you can find her even easier. Okay. That’s it. Thank you.

[00:46:42] Oh man. Are you feeling as inspired as I am? I wanna grab my passport and book a trip right now. I am ready for an adventure. I am ready to go. I hope you pulled some amazing nuggets. This is definitely an episode that is worth going to the show notes because I am gonna link to the resources that we talked about so that you can get to all of them, figure out what they were and utilize them.

[00:47:07] my challenge to you and what I hope is that you will take action, even if that is just taking a few minutes right now to dream about a vacation with your family and all of the magic, the memories, the moments that be, could be created by going. I believe in action. I believe in doing the things. We can’t just talk about it.

[00:47:34] We can’t just think about it. We have to do something. And so as we’re talking about balancing busy, I’m always gonna ask you to think about. What could I take from this episode and do something with? Now, this is a really fun episode to do something with, because we talked all about travel. So how can you get started?

[00:47:53] Do you need to just start by getting your passports set up? Do you need to start by getting that TSA pre or clear? Do you need to start by picking where you wanna go next? How could you start? What would be one single step that you could take that gets you closer towards another or a new adventure with your family?

[00:48:12] These are the good old times they’re happening right now. Let’s enjoy them. Let’s make the memories. I definitely have no regrets for any of the memories that we have made. They are my most cherished possession and well, they’re not actually a possession. All I have left are, you know, maybe a few trinkets and

[00:48:33] the photos on my camera, but those are so precious. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you will think about how you can take action from it. Make sure you check out the show notes for all of the resources we talked about, and I will see you next week as we look for more opportunities to simplify so that you can do less but better.

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