Hey Travel Bugs! How was your last full week of June? Did you get any day trips, staycations, or vacations in? Are you planning a trip right now?
Travel Planning:
This week I applied for my passport. 2025 is going to be the year of international travel. Right now I’m leaning toward Edinburgh, Scotland but I’ve also been obsessed with all things Tudor era this year and might choose England instead. Either way, the passport is the first step and I’m so excited to get it!
Exploring:
This week I visited two state parks and went hiking. Despite rainy conditions last weekend and earlier in the week I had a great time!
Hartman Creek State Park, Waupaca, Wisconsin
First up was Hartman Creek State Park, just outside Waupaca, Wisconsin. I hiked the Allen Lake Loop, about a mile total. It was a gorgeous, sunny day – although I did have to climb around a fallen tree.
High Cliff State Park, Sherwood, Wisconsin
Next up I went back to High Cliff State Park outside Sherwood, Wisconsin and hiked part of the Lime Kiln Trail. I hiked roughly two miles, checked out these amazing ruins, and admired the view. It was another gorgeous, sunny day and I didn’t even need any bug spray!
Next Up:
Weather permitting, next weekend I’m off for a day trip to Northern Michigan and a day of hiking at Rib Mountain State Park near Wausau, Wisconsin.
I have most of my travel planning done for my fall trip to New England but I’ll talk about it a little more next week!
Thank you for taking this journey with me! Safe travels!
Hey travel bugs! Long time no talk! It’s been a busy year of work, travel, working on my upcoming novel, and a medical procedure that gave me some time to rest and think about priorities.
Last year I got my driver’s license and this summer I’m determined to make the most of my days off by exploring places I haven’t been before and places I’ve been to in the past but haven’t been able to get to for one reason or another. I made myself a list for the “Summer of Exploration,” but my list really stretches far into the fall. Some of these I’ve already checked off, some are fun activities / movies and some are parks I’m planning to return to as I’ve also made exercise a priority…
1. High Cliff State Park, Sherwood, Wisconsin
High Cliff State Park
2. Iverson Park and Bound to Happen Books, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Iverson Park
3. Firebrand (movie) – June 14, 2024
4. Mosquito Hill Nature Center, New London, Wisconsin
Mosquito Hill
5. Hayman Falls County Park, Shawano County, Wisconsin
Hayman Falls
6. Hartman Creek State Park, Waupaca, Wisconsin
7. Cherney Maribel Caves County Park (Manitowoc County, Wisconsin), Greenhouse Coffee Shop (Kohler, Wisconsin), Lottie Cooper Shipwreck (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)
8. Escanaba/Gladstone, Michigan
9. Navarino Nature Center, Navarino, Wisconsin
10. Devil’s Lake State Park, Baraboo, Wisconsin
11. Door County, Wisconsin (a favorite destination!)
12. Symco Weekender (Event), Symco, Wisconsin
13. Wiowash State Trail, Outagamie County, Wisconsin
14. Rib Mountain State Park, Wausau, Wisconsin
15. Fully Stocked Wine Bar, Shawano, Wisconsin
16. It Rose From the Ashes (my new book!) Releases September 13, 2024!
17. Two Lakes Supper Club, Almond, Wisconsin
18. Fall Trip: Portland Maine, Portsmouth New Hampshire, Salem Massachusetts, Providence Rhode Island, Mystic Connecticut
I’ll be sure to keep you updated on each adventure and catch you up on my spring trip to Charleston, South Carolina in April, a Door County weekend in May, and my travel planning for this fall and beyond! Thank you for taking this journey with me! Safe travels!
Ah the holiday shopping season, almost upon us again. How did that happen? I swear it was just February about 2 minutes ago. 😆 So you love a traveler, or you’re a traveler and your family is asking what to get you for the holidays. Sure travel tickets would be fantastic, but a little pricey for your average family. Instead may I recommend something to remember your travels with?
The Wander Club is a company that makes little travel “tokens” that show off cities, countries, national parks, landmarks, military bases, and even baseball and football stadiums to remember the places you’ve been. You can put them on one of their keychains (called a Wanderchain), wear it on a necklace, or put it on your own key ring!
You can add the dates of your travel to the back of the token. Have your initials monogrammed into the wanderchain, and even have custom tokens made for places other than the ones they have listed or whatever you want it to say!
I stumbled upon The Wander Club last year as a Christmas gift for my mother who has cancer and who I was hitting a brick wall on gift ideas for. I ordered a wanderchain and tokens for both of us with trips we’ve taken together and apart. The CEO of the company emailed me after I put in my order to thank me for my order and ask a little about why I was ordering. I explained about my mother and when I received my order they had included a sweet note sending their thoughts to my mom and our family. I have never had a company go so above and beyond as this! I would recommend them to anyone who wants a unique gift for someone who loves to travel!
Hey Wanderlusters! It’s been a minute. I can’t believe I haven’t even posted about my April trip to Charleston yet. I had an amazing time… but that’s a story for another day. Today I’m outlining my travel plans for the rest of 2023 and 2024.
Fall 2023
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah has been on my list of places to visit for a while and I love the similarities to Charleston, which makes me feel at ease being somewhere somewhat familiar traveling solo. I have some vacation days coming up in September so I’m just starting to get things planned for my trip.
The Rest of 2023:
I have a few more days coming to me for vacation for the rest of the year but with my birthday coming up in August, a festival my family always volunteers at/goes to the week after my birthday, and my favorite holiday (Halloween) coming up in the second half of the year I’m mainly going to be sticking around Wisconsin. I’ll maybe take a beach day up to Michigan or spend a few days in Milwaukee visiting family in the fall but nothing too far reaching.
Spring 2024:
Asheville, North Carolina
Another place I’ve always wanted to see is The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I debated about a fall trip this year instead of Savannah (then doing Savannah in the spring) but Asheville seems like an area I’ll probably want to rent a car – and I’m trying to talk my mom into going with me – so I want to take some time to get my confidence in driving on my own this summer, fall, and winter once I (hopefully) pass my road test in July.
I don’t have any firm dates for this one but probably April or May 2024.
Fall 2024:
Burlington, Vermont
As much as I love the south (and I do, I really, really do) I’d love to go somewhere in the fall where I can see some gorgeous fall leaves like I see in the autumn lovers groups I belong to on Facebook. I always dreamed of going to Salem, MA but I’ve heard some not great things about how they view tourists in the past year so I’ve sort of scratched them off my list. Alternately, Burlington, Vermont peaked my interest while doing some research for a book I’m writing and quickly made it to the top of my list of New England cities to check out.
Like Asheville, I have no outlined dates for this one but my trips are usually falling in April and in September so mid-to-late September 2024 is likely.
Where in the world does this post find you? What are your upcoming travel plans? Tell me all about them and if you’ve ever been to any of these locations!
So your wanderlust finally got to you. Maybe you’re overdue for a vacation. Maybe you’ve just gone through a break-up and you want time away to regroup. Maybe you’re finally emerging and taking a chance on traveling now that pandemic restrictions are letting up. What’s the first thing you need to decide when planning your first solo trip? Where are you going and when?!
If you’re like me, you probably have a list of places you want to go, either physically written down or just in the back of your mind. Are some of these places somewhere you’d like to visit during a specific season? How soon do you want to go? Once you decide where you want to go and when, it’s time to set a budget!
Money. Budgeting. We don’t like to talk about it, but if you’re going to take a trip, you’re going to need to crunch numbers and figure out what you’re going to spend. Traveling more is a big goal for me, so the first thing I do is set aside my tax refund for vacations. I also, when able, put a little money into my savings account from each paycheck.
You’ll need to figure out how you’re planning to travel (flying, driving, train, etc.) and factor in things like airfare and gas costs. You can use Google Flights and this Fuel Economy Trip Calculator to estimate how much those costs might be. You’ll also need to decide where you’ll be staying (AirBnB, Hotel, Motel, Bed & Breakfast, etc.) and estimate those costs. You can compare rates on multiple travel websites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Booking.com, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. What else do you need to budget? Meals, transportation once you get where you’re going (Uber, Lyft, Rental Cars), and Attractions as well as miscellaneous spending/souvenir money. It doesn’t have to be an exact amount, just estimate. It’s always better to budget higher than what you could possibly spend.
Now the Good Stuff…
You’ve picked your destination, you know how you’re going to travel, and you’ve set a budget. What’s next? The fun part! Actually setting the details…
What do you do first? Schedule your flight? Book your hotel or AirBnB? It’s probably a good idea to have an idea of what hotel/motel/AirBnb you would like to stay in ahead of time. Using a travel website to see what hotels are available on your chosen dates, their price range, and reviews and saving the ones you like ahead of time is a good idea. The same goes with AirBnb. You can save any AirBnbs that you like to your wishlist for when you’re ready to start planning.
Then, when you’re ready to get started, you can work on booking your flight and your accommodations together. Some travel websites allow you to book flights and hotels together to save you money. If you have a credit card, like Capital One, you can also book with their website. I think you can even use points if you have a rewards credit card.
The important thing here, will be making sure you’re flights and your accommodations can be booked for the same dates you need them!
Another important thing to note when booking is to be mindful of cancellation policies and traveler’s insurance. Most lodging allows cancellations up until a certain point (usually 72 hours or less before your scheduled check-in). For airfare, I would definitely selected an option that was fully refundable and purchase traveler’s insurance. That way in the event that you would get sick or some unforeseeable wrinkle would come up, you would get either a refund or more likely a credit on your airfare (which usually has to be used up in a year) and your payment option would not be charged for your lodging unless you waited to late to cancel.
Moving on to the Planning Part:
Alright travelers, you still with me? The big part, hotel and transportation is booked. Now what? I’m an obsessive planner. I find that loosely jotting down ideas of places you want to visit and eat and more helps you get even more excited for your trip.
One thing I like to do is request a visitor’s guide my destination. Some still will send you a paper visitor’s guide while other cities have moved into downloadable digital visitor’s guide. Check the tourism website for your destination or check them out on social media to see how you could request or access one. Sometimes they even come with coupons for certain attractions! 
The best visitor’s guide I’ve seen is for Charleston, South Carolina. That’s a city that really puts a lot of effort into attracting tourists! They have a huge section on where to stay, where to eat, and attractions sectioned by the different areas and parts of the city. While not all visitor guides are this detailed, you should learn about places to visit and dining and lodging suggestions. What is the city/state/province/country you’re visiting known for? The visitor’s guide will probably showcase all the best attractions. Nashville, Tennessee’s visitor’s guide goes extensively into the country music scene and history while South Dakota’s shows off the rugged beauty of the western part of the state, famous landmarks, and a peak into the state’s past.
Once you get your visitor’s guide spend as much time as you like pouring over it, marking it up, bookmarking things, etc. Like I said, this is the exciting part. These don’t have to be set in stone places you have to visit when you go, we’re just gathering ideas. I like to bullet journal while I plan my trip and keep track of places I want to go…
Other great ways to find inspiration for places to visit, sometimes more off the beaten path ideas as well, is to look on Pinterest and create a board to keep all of your ideas as well as following your destination’s tourism page on social media – that way you even learn about events going on at your destination that you may want to check out!
I do recommend checking out certain attractions and restaurants you’re interested in online to see if the restaurants need reservations ahead of time (especially if you’re traveling during their busy tourism season) or if you need to buy tickets to the attractions online. You may even get a price break if you buy tickets to the attractions online ahead of time. I would recommend doing this a week or two ahead of time.
Let’s Go!
Alright, everything is booked, planned, and you’ve impatiently waited for the time to arrive… now you’re ready to take off on your adventure!
Wait… have you packed everything you need? Weather appropriate clothes, comfy shoes, sunblock? Do you have your passport (if needed)? Your wallet? Any needed medications? Are your toiletries in TSA approved size bottles? Good! If not, I definitely suggest making a list ahead of time and checking things off as you pack.
Whew… now that is out of the way, you’re ready to go! Really, go on now. Don’t be shy. Get out there, have some fun, absorb the culture of new places, mingle with the locals, and prepare to awaken a passion for travel that will never die.
I’m still at the beginning of my traveling journey yet. There are so many places I want to go and things I want to see. Today I’m listing 10 Places I Want to Visit Domestically and 10 Places I Want to Visit Internationally.
Domestic:
1. Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is at the top of my list, and actually one of my picks for where I might want to go this fall. It’s competing against a return trip to Charleston, South Carolina though, which I absolutely love so I might have to make it a day trip from Charleston.
2. Salem, Massachusetts
I’ve been dying to go to Salem for years now. I’d love to go in October one year; both for the changing leaves and the seasonal events.
3. Vermont (Possibly Burlington)
Vermont is on my list of New England places I’d love to go. Last year when I was trying to decide where I want to go for my first solo trip, I considered Burlington which looks like an interesting city.
4. The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado
As a huge horror novel/movie fan and paranormal enthusiast, I would love to visit the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining!
5. Maine
From the various tv shows and books I’ve watched and read set in Maine (minus Stephen King’s books 😂) I always thought Maine would be a gorgeous place to visit someday.
6. Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville was on the list of places I was considering for this year’s trip, and even when my mom and I were thinking of driving down it was on our route from Tail of the Dragon to Savannah. I’d love to see and take pictures of the Biltmore Estate.
7. New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is more on my hit or miss list. I’ve always wanted to go there but traveling by myself as a single woman with their crime rate gives me pause. I’d still enjoy the architecture, food, and history though.
8. Las Vegas, Nevada
This is a curiosity for me. I’m not into gambling, so I wouldn’t visit for that reason, but I’d love to see some of the museums and the sights of the surrounding area. I think it would be great for a weekend trip, maybe with my mom.
9. Denver, Colorado
This, backtracking to The Stanley Hotel, would be a great combined trip as The Stanley Hotel is only about 66 miles northwest of Denver. I’ve read a few books set in Denver, and actually when I was a kid our satellite dish would only pick up an ABC channel from Denver instead of our local Green Bay, Wisconsin station and the area always interested me.
10. Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville being on this list is less about me wanting to visit to see Nashville and more because I have friends as well as a half-sister that currently live there that I would love to visit.
Internationally:
I’m still a new flyer so I need to work on traveling domestically for a while before I attempt flying overseas. Some of these are general countries I’d love to visit and others are more specific to things I want to see.
1. Ireland
Traveling to Ireland is higher on my dream list than some of the US locations listed above. It’s so gorgeous and green in photos and I’d love to visit. Plus I can trace my Irish ancestry to the West Beara Peninsula in Ireland and it would be fun to see where some of my ancestors came from.
2. Paris, France
I know it’s cliche. But come on, the food, the fashion, the culture. Paris is a must visit for me.
3. England
I’d love to visit London but I’d also like to see wherever they film my favorite show, Midsomer Murders!
4. Egypt
Someone tell me I’m not the only millennial that was obsessed with ancient Egypt as a kid, especially after The Mummy came out in 1999. I’d love to see the pyramids someday.
5. Iceland
I’ve seen some gorgeous pictures from other travel bloggers of Iceland recently and I think it’s such a photogenic country. Other than what I’ve seen, I don’t honestly know much about Iceland, so I’d have to do some research but it looks like an amazing place to visit.
6. Bran Castle, Romania
Also known as Dracula’s Castle. I fell in love with photos of the castle when I read Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco several years ago and saw pictures in the book. You’ll notice, a lot of the places I want to visit are history based. I find history fascinating, especially dark, bloody history like that of Bran Castle.
7. Madeira, Portugal
I first learned about Madeira while doing research for one of my novels and immediately fell in love with the gorgeous scenery.
8. Santorini, Greece
Show me a girl who was a teenager in the early-mid 2000s who didn’t fall in love with Santorini and it’s blue-domed, white-stone houses after watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and I’ll call her a liar.
9. Italy
There’s so much to see and delight in Italy, including fabulous food.
10. Quebec, Canada
I can trace my French ancestors settling into the Trois-Rivières area of Quebec in the early 1700s. I think traveling to Quebec would not only be beautiful, but be a great first dip into international travel before making a bigger jump into traveling overseas. (I have traveled to Ontario as a child, but Ontario didn’t seem all that different than the US, although we only went as far as Sault Ste. Marie.)
What are some of the places you want to visit someday? Have you been to any of the places I’ve mentioned?
I’m Taylor Fenner. I’ve worn a lot of hats. Author. Book Blogger. Caregiver. Police Dispatcher. After a recent bout of frustration at work at the latter, I began to think about what I really want to do with my life. What is my dream. What makes me happy. The answer was simple. Traveling makes me happy. Seeing new places and experiencing new things makes me happy.
So while I’m not going to give up my day job, I am going to start blogging about my travels, past and present; the gorgeous pictures I’ve taken, my experiences, places I want to go to, and more so that maybe someday, I can make it a full-time thing.
This is Taylor Sees the World. Follow along on my journey. ❤️
Taylor Sees the World 