Summer Family Travel For Any Budget | Episode 1 | Did You Pack Snacks?
hey folks welcome to digipack snacks my name is Colin and I'm Meg this is a family travel podcast where we talk all things high low and all the long mouths in between of traveling with kids and surprise this is episode one we're so happy that you're here this is something that we've wanted to do for a long time long long time and we just love that a podcast we can talk a lot more things than just a Instagram caption or like a YouTube video where we actually get to I don't know we want you to feel like you're in the room with us even though you're driving to work or you're cleaning the house this is our time to hang and we're going to talk about a lot of different things we're going to talk about maybe some deep Dives on countries that we've been to we're going to share some travel ideas something that this isn't though is this is not us speaking from a place of that we're experts because we're not we're not experts good joke if you're new here we share our travels with our kids on Instagram on YouTube on all the socials and we started doing that really just because we love to travel and when you love something so much you naturally share it with your kids so that's our why yeah we love it so much and I think and then we did take it the next level though okay because we said all right we've been doing this for two years let's spice it up and let's have an arbitrary goal right and so we said we said let's let's try visiting 50 countries with our kids and will we ever make it I'm not sure no we're gonna make it and the 50 countries wasn't just to check countries off the list yeah it was really just to allow us to think about traveling more creatively yeah instead of going back to the most popular places that we love or maybe other people love we get to kind of look at the world and say wait we've never thought about going there and it kind of just gets us out of our box a little bit yeah now let's talk about this name of the podcast okay because it's called did you pack snacks and I want a huge disclaimer right at the top it's not a food show it's not a food show not a snack show no uh snacks involved snacks are involved snacks are loved and welcomed uh but we're trying to think of a name for the podcast and it was like family travel show travel talk and all those names were taken which congratulations if that's your podcast way to go you won SEO yeah uh okay so one night you had the idea you're like what about did you pack snacks and I just have to take a moment because I was scared happy joyful all the same time right because when that question when you travel with kids question comes up and you feel frightened because you realize you opened your carry-on and there aren't enough snacks and you're stuck on a plane and your kid's gonna be hungry or you are the champion that has things ready in a Ziploc bag and you throw it back in the van and we don't even have a van but I just feel like it's really family like to have a van yeah um and you're like I did it it's going to be a great trip we are on the right foot let's go yeah so really we just felt like that title kind of was all encompassing to what it feels like to travel with kids whether it's a good moment or a hard moment so yeah we decided to people's hunger levels is the make or break right like you can have a lot more fun if everyone's happy right yeah so that's why we decided to name the podcast that we are totally in it with you like we said we have two girls Charlotte is six um and Liv is four and we've been traveling internationally with the girls since Char was only nine months old so we've had some good moments and some hard ones oh yes but we're sticking it out yeah so what are some things that people can expect from this podcast Colin oh okay Megan I shall answer that question um so in this podcast we'll talk all things travel uh whether it's like um to fulfill that Wanderlust uh and we talk about dream destinations we want to go to we highlight countries uh or places not to go places to go um all kinds of budget options we're gonna talk stories we're gonna talk experiences we're gonna deep dive some countries we've got a long list of things that we're going to talk about so stick around plenty of episodes to come but today we are going to talk all things summer travel right we're going to go from low budget to medium budget to dream budget yeah uh because Summer is upon us it's currently 86 outside we're in South Carolina um and yes everyone's either if you see someone if you meet a friend the question that you're asking them is what are y'all doing this summer right where are you going do do I want to do that too but before we get into that this is our first segment we're going to do segments here guys because they just make things more fun this is a real show this is a real show we've had segments so our first one is we're calling it ask the people and basically on Instagram if you're not following us there it's at Colin and Meg we're going to share some questions maybe ask for some stories and all of the responses will be shared anonymously uh but it's really just a way to learn from other people's experiences or to have fun yep so my first ask the people question was if you could pick one celebrity take them alive or not take them somewhere on vacation and do an activity with them who would you go with and why and we got all kinds of responses I got my responses too but go ahead no well please share okay well mine is Jimmy Fallon okay why immediately when you because this is fun yeah and I want to take Jimmy or Jimmy's gonna take me because he's paying for it right um so Jimmy and I are gonna go to Walt Disney World we're gonna hit up all the roller coasters we're gonna get there early actually do the early Park magic hours him and I strolling down Main Street we're gonna grab a turkey leg we're gonna do brunch we're gonna eat at the Japanese restaurant in Epcot wow and the day with fireworks that's what I'm doing I'm gonna get matching t-shirts or matching ears nope hoodies only hoodies even if it's the middle of the summer yeah maybe not okay okay we had some great answers come in too some were surprising and I think you're gonna like them okay so our first one which he's like the OG of travel experiences he I think he taught all of us Rick Steves Anthony Bourdain oh better and anywhere he recommends for delicious street food that's what they said so I'm gonna go ahead and say head to Southeast Asia yeah that feels like you're gonna have a great time well yeah street food is anonymous anonymous unanimous synonymous synonymous with southeast Asia I think that's right moving on so yes Anthony Bourdain southeast Asia street food just eat until you drop don't stop that's that sounds great eat until you drop all right another one David from schitt's Creek which if you haven't seen that show you're missing out yep not the actor but the actual character David um did they say did they say where no they didn't say where where would you go uh Paris why um I don't know David fashion bougie hand creams eye masks we would be in Paris sipping on something at something I can't even pronounce and yeah he would just be complaining about something but it would be a great time love it okay this one's gonna surprise you someone we know said that they'd hang with Ben Franklin they're throwing it way back okay why because he's there a great time Seven Grandfather wow seven grandpas wow wow that is insane that's insane so we're like two degrees removed from Ben Franklin now right or maybe we have been for a while but now we know but also the pressure on the whole family to like have an A in U.S history like you don't tell that to your history teacher if you don't get a d right seriously yeah okay but she said that she'd hang with Ben Franklin because they're related they'd sit Mojitos and swap family secrets Ben Franklin sipping Mojitos you'd have some family secrets to share though lots of them that have changed the entire course of our country that's fun we've oh Tom Hanks okay he direct and film my Survivor audition tape on Castaway Island am I allowed to know who this is um no no that's Anonymous okay because I want to audition for Survivor two so I thought you know right this is new news well it's new if to you if this is the first time you're hanging out with us um but Collins a citizen of Malaysia we've been married for nine almost nine years eight and a half okay okay um and we decided this year to pursue citizenship for Colin well it's just not not as a spur of the moment idea right it's kind of always been like so you should do that and then we don't right it's taken a long time to even be able to right you know there's time involved and previous visas he's had a green card for a while anyway anyway we're also big fans of the show Survivor or have been since the time that the world shut down I don't know why I feel like it's a bad word to say but anyway we've started watching Survivor then season 40. yeah it's like four seasons since then and we love it if you haven't watched Survivor since like back in the day give it another try because they've really upped the game the production well and not just that I feel like they have adapted to the current social climate right right you know back in the day reality TV back in the day was all about like oh who's gonna date who now it's like a game it's a game it's a good game with a diverse cast and people from all walks of life and it's just great and these things tie together because Colin wants to apply but you can't apply unless you're an American citizen so we're thinking that later this year yeah after he passes the citizenship test he's going to send in it we've been practicing on my U.S citizen app there's an app um average of 95. pretty good proud of you that he's going to apply and so if all of a sudden you know next summer on the podcast I'm like hey guys it's just gonna be me for a while and I'm gonna interview guests you know that you you know like wink wink I'm gone Collins on the island I'm in Fiji baby so just know you heard it here first all right but Tom Hanks though that would be fun that would be fun that would be fine just yelling at me and telling me what to do and we know that he can survive on an island yep we've seen him do it me Tom and Wilson okay who's next all right this is the last one that I'll read from here but I actually think I'm gonna copy and paste it to my own okay answer this is your response well it's not but I'm stealing I'm sure I'm stealing it okay they would would choose Oprah okay fly to Hawaii on a private jet because she's paying it's getting better free stay in Maui okay Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world Maui is you're actually wearing your Maui t-shirt this morning I was and then you guys I know right um and she's friends with the Obama so they'd hang they'd all hang so this is like she picked one celebrity but she worked three into her answer and I just appreciate an overachiever but this also sounds like my dream I I love all of those people and the place the place yeah you can't beat it I mean go to Hawaii I'd go to Hawaii with you yeah oh really no no you don't want to go with me I don't have that much money it's okay I still enjoyed when we went I would I love I have a television show well you know when she had her talk show so did I and I think that's why we used to fell in love with each other maybe we've never talked about it before no but I would whenever I come home from school three o'clock in the afternoon that's what I would do that's what you would watch I used to give away weddings and I gave away lots of things I know I know but I used to be like so determined that I would win one of her weddings and you know I didn't but I still biker and we got married in a barn which was still amazing it was still cute yeah but anyway yeah so that's it that's our first segment what do you think way to go people way to go thanks for your responses and and if you see me ask a random question now that the podcast is like out in the world and people know that we're doing it I'll make sure to say that that this is for the show and we'd love you to send in your responses yes please when we ask please respond okay so now let's get back to what we're here to talk about which is all things summer travel and boy have I prepared a show for you because I don't know about y'all but uh I'm always attracted to like low budget things maybe that's because where we are in life yeah but um we'll be sharing a big range of things that we're gonna do today um and summer is one of the best and worst times to travel right um because everyone is available to travel kids are out of school and but then all the hotels and airlines that go oh you want to travel do you and so it's good and bad because it's expensive that right that's what can lend itself to be challenging but that is why we are coming out with this episode in time just in time for the summer um and some of you might already have your summer plans uh planned and that's good for you I'm speaking to all to all you late planners out there that are just like us and you're maybe you're getting a little fomo because you're hearing what other people are doing yeah and originally you were like hey guys you know telling the kids telling your spouse we're just gonna lay low this summer and we're happy about it but then once you hear all the Whispers of things that people are doing you're ready to book a trip yeah so hopefully these ideas will help you make something happen right because this first episode is is launching June 7th and so if you're in June and you don't have plans yet get on man get on it we're gonna help you we're going to help you all right here we go these are some ideas if you are traveling this summer on a low budget don't worry um we're doing the same thing we are we are exploding at the end we're going to talk about all the high the high low concept later but for all you uh people that are looking for a cheaper summer you just want to lay low um these are the three things I got for you and then we can expound on those okay tell us you can either go camping camping you can either go to a beach beach you can go to a City camping Beach City got it um so wherever you are those three things should be available you know yeah there's always a state park or a national park near you and one thing that I've Loved looking into and maybe hard for this summer but if you plan for next summer a lot of this stay in National Parks have actual like cabins on their property that they rent out and a really great price point yeah usually because of that they're booked in advance but if you can get on your A game for next summer that would be a great way to see a beautiful place on a budget right and and yeah so for those of you who love nature like we love nature I feel like um I don't know I was again I was born in Malaysia if I drove 10 minutes One Direction that would be wild monkeys yeah and trees trees that are taller than three-story houses and an occasional pygmy elephant sighting no seriously my cousin posted a picture the other day she was like on the way to work and there's an elephant uh but I feel like Nature has always been I have so many memories of just playing in the river going on Hikes and those are just like core memories for me that I want to pass on to our kids and there's just something special about nature it's such a gift for families so if you want to take advantage of that go camping if you don't like camping like Megan said there are cabins in the state parks national parks also try Airbnb or hip camp sometimes you can find a good campsite that's true or uh or a tiny house or something like that and just to make it fun and be out in nature leave your phones in the car so that you still have GPS but yeah unplug do that plug and and we've made a lot of really great memories camping yeah um you know gotten to see national parks gotten to do different road trips and we just started camping with our girls this year uh we've taken them one time so far and we just stayed close to home at a state park and so it doesn't have to be some Adventure or vacation that involves air travel and you literally can pick somewhere beautiful within a few hours of where you live and tent camp stay in a cabin stay in an affordable Airbnb those are all ways that you can make great memories on a low budget yeah number two we're gonna talk about Beach getaways okay and this is something that we are doing this summer right we are going to 2B beaches one with Megan's family one with friends these are long time traditions and you might have those too but we're going to Oak Island North Carolina recently featured in travel in Leisure yeah and this whole time I've been kind of like having this love-hate relationship with it but then travel Leisure was like you need to go here and I was like yeah I love Oak Island Oak Island is so cute yeah it's so Charming it's about 15-20 minutes away from a small town called Southport yeah you can take a ferry over to Bald Head Island there's an aquarium there some more beaches and then Oak Island itself is just like what you would imagine a summer Beach town to be like it's got the ice cream shops shout out to Sweet Treats yep get their banana pudding ice cream and the Honey lavender um they've got a bunch of restaurants yeah you know we love you got your bagel shop your coffee shop everything and there's no like high rises or condos right uh it's mostly residential and so and they're also well and I have to interrupt oh okay because it's also known for turtles yeah they have so many turtles that nest and then these baby turtles hatch probably in August I would say um so if you head there at the end of the summer at the beginning you can maybe catch a turtle hopping up on the beach to lay eggs and then at the end of the summer you may be able to catch a turtle sighting weeded ones and it was really cool on accident on accident we like stumbled upon it the volunteers were leaving because it's a whole operation they have volunteers that basically do everything they can to get all the turtles into the ocean yeah Khan and I stumbled upon this Nest as the volunteers were leaving they didn't expect that it would hatch that night right no I looked down all of a sudden there's like why are there black dots coming out of the sand yeah and immediately the volunteer says Colin go to the ocean right now jump in the waves turn your cell phone light on be the moon I will be the moon I will guide these babies to the ocean and then she told me start counting and at first I was like oh no big deal but then once it got past like 200 I was like there's a lot but it was awesome it was a cool experience for some reason my brain's telling me that there was 267. let's go with that let's go with that today we met 267 Turtles okay so the next place we're going this summer is 30A woohoo 30A is crazy popular it's really busy how was it a bar in Bangkok one time the front door had a 38 sticker on everybody's gone everybody knows it's basically the stretch of highway from Panama City to Destin and along the highway there are these cute little towns like Santa Rosa Seaside Rosemary Alice Beach I'm sure I'm forgetting one but they're so cute but why do we go Colin we go for the quality of the beach yeah it feels like the Caribbean like the water is Crystal Clear you can see your toes at the bottom you can see a shark from many miles away yes or feet the sand is like white and soft powdery if it feels like you're in the Caribbean we already said that great so that's why we go there's a lot of restaurants that we love to visit while we're there like we said we go with some friends um and really we just have decided to go back to the gulf because it feels like the best beach in the U.S there I said it whoa whoa I'm sure I agree with you I'm sure there are a lot of other beaches
on the gulf that are just as popular so if you head to one let us know because maybe we'll switch it up one summer I still want to stay in that area right um but yeah I love I love that trip every year yeah it's the best let us know what your Beach getaways are like I want to know if there are are better spots right why did I say better better better spots let's switch it up but it's also been tradition though so maybe we don't want to switch it up maybe maybe we'll add a third trip to a different Beach um we should we'll which will go against our low budget but the reason why I will say though 30A is not cheap right but that's just what we're doing um but I am paying for it using my Capital One miles which I'm not that's a whole other episode for another day uh but that's how we afford going to 30A okay so let's get into the medium Budget locations so if somebody's like I've got some money to spend it's not going to be my full out year but I've got some money what would what would be some ideas you'd have for that family okay I'm gonna list all the ideas okay and then maybe we can like talk more about it but I mentioned glamping and this is different from finding a campsite or a campground when I say glamping this is my dream spot okay and I've been wanting to book this for years and it feels like I just can't it's Out Of Reach but maybe you can I don't do it for calling I don't know but when I think glamping I've always wanted to stay in Governor's Island right uh right in New York and you can take a ferry there and it is just luxury you are in your own tent there's like Gourmet s'mores I don't I don't know how you can make s'mores better but there's Gourmet s'mores and isn't public kicked off the island at a certain time so you kind of end up being the only people allowed there overnight I feel like that's true yeah yeah it's the only place you can sleep there right unless you sneak in which I might just have to do but that's what I think of when I think of glamping or these like luxury Retreats that you see um in like the Grand Canyon Utah all these places which that is another suggestion if you have a medium budget like head out to Utah Utah is filled with some of the most beautiful national parks they have a lot of glamping opportunities a lot of I mean just stays in general whether you're renting a house or staying in a hotel but you could make a really incredible road trip and see so many things with minimal driving you've got Zion arches the Grand Canyon Bryce so many like right there I remember when we went we were blown away by like that's only three hours from here let's go right so that would be a really epic road trip to go on if you if you wanted to go on a road trip summer I will say that was our baby moon so like we haven't done it with kids oh that's true to be fair disclaimer um yeah so we'll see maybe we can do that again one day that would be fun and we can do that yeah some International thoughts though International thoughts and this is my country of recommendation okay uh I got two okay I don't I wrote down Puerto Rico we haven't been we haven't been but I've been getting flight deals to Puerto Rico you know often yeah and and the cool thing about Puerto Rico is that a lot of these cheap flights are flying out of Orlando so if you are by any chance going to Disney or Orlando for any reason you can make that a combo deal and once you get there we have a lot of friends that say you can share an Airbnb or like the bioluminescent base amazing beaches amazing street food oh my gosh yeah maybe we do need to go we might have to go next year uh because our plans for this year is packed we'll tell you all more about that later but yeah I wrote Puerto Rico yeah and then another one if you're on the East Coast like us and you're like I want to go to Europe so bad go to Portugal go to Lisbon uh you may not be able to afford London or Paris but Lisbon is amazing it's amazing and there's a lot of flight deals that fly out to Lisbon and cool thing is with kids you can you could for two or three days then rent a car and drive down south to the Algarve the highways are great easy to navigate you can totally do it and then you've got beaches those like gorgeous Cliffs that meet the beach and you're in the sun like that just sounds like a dream summer vacation right and it's very affordable especially if you're able to snag a deal to fly there or use credit card points yeah well and when we say deal we're talking in the low 300s right per person right I'm not sure from the west but Lisbon we've been there we spent a month there and our Airbnb cost for the month was I think Shy of two thousand dollars yeah for 30 days for 30 days in one of the most incredible neighborhoods in Lisbon overlooking all of Lisbon so it's a good place to go so there we have it we got glamping Utah Lisbon Puerto Rico and I kind of wanted to throw Montana in there because it's my favorite National Park yeah I would say it's a moderate to high budget though you may be creeping into high because it's kind of in the middle of nowhere we're referencing Glacier National Park it's it's not very easy to get to no but once you're there you are you feel like you're truly like you're escaping the world it feels like okay High budget slash dream budget we're gonna do this like let's just have fun with this because it could be anything right so I'll just ask you one you asked me one Megan what would your dream summer be um I would do a two-in-one deal and we would fly to Morocco we'd spend like seven days there we'd do Marrakesh and then we're gonna take the girls out to the Sahara and glamp in the middle of the desert I like that happen I like that then we'll come back and you know maybe we're a little bit peopleed out we gotta head to Nature so we're gonna hop a quick flight over to the dolomites okay because I've always wanted to see those mountains in this summer wow I just feel like that would be a dream so that's my can't wait for you to take me on that trip babe for actually now that you mention it I did buy I'm just kidding um that's not bad thanks not bad um I will man I did not think about this ahead of time Megan okay Montana okay like we'll just keep Montana we'll just keep Montana I will fly to Montana get a rental car rent some e-bikes yes I'm gonna e-bike uh Glacier National Park I'm gonna stay at the many Glacier Hotel it goes for like four or 500 bucks a night and there's barely anything in their rooms but it's so rustic and it's so historic like when you're walking in the lobby like this carpet has been here for 80 years and isn't that the one with like the lake right out on the back side yes we saw like moose yes and they're bathing right you can do horseback riding there and you can hike to a glacier so there's this hike it's called the Grinnell Glacier hike where you have to jump on two boats yes you hike for a mile get on a boat hike for another mile get on a boat all the way up to a glacier I mean come on sounds like a dream that's my dream summer right there okay but should we tell them how we're ending this summer let's let's do it so and we want you to be part of this be part of this well you can follow along on all the things like we said we share videos on YouTube on Instagram we're travel creators and we often get to partner with businesses tourism boards and we're so excited to be partnering with the tourism board and the Pharaoh Islands which if you've never heard of that there are islands off the coast of Iceland they're gorgeous like so beautiful and we're so excited to explore that part of the world with our kids and then we're kind of packaging it with Iceland because do you remember that was the first place that we ever took Char that's our like destination number one she was nine months old and it's just been this nostalgic trip for us yeah and Liv gets kind of jealous every time we talk about a place that shars Ben and she hasn't yeah so she's really excited so we're gonna visit the Pharaoh we're gonna work there and then we're going to head to Iceland yeah and that's how we're going to end our summer it's gonna be awesome yeah I'm really excited and yeah so we'll be releasing videos posts stories reels all about Fair Islands in Iceland so hopefully that's one place that you want to take your family to in the future yeah um but Meg I think our time is up I think our time thanks for listening guys and and really I I haven't said this so I will just drop a little plug if you enjoyed listening we'd love for you to leave a review and you know hit subscribe and follow along we're excited to share more on this platform we're excited for you guys to be here we appreciate it so much so yeah we'd appreciate a review and come back for episode two so folks have a great summer and do not forget to pack snacks bye bye
2023-06-16 04:03
