Hi Reader,
You may have noticed that it's been a while since you've heard from us, and that's because we've decided to switch to a monthly newsletter!
Between planning 2 group trips, writing blog posts, creating social media content for ourselves and other businesses, and personal life, we're hoping this shift will free up a little bit of our time and make our newsletters more helpful (and entertaining, because we honestly can't help ourselves).
HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT BELOW
📝 5 tips for building your trip itineraries
🇪🇬 We've got a few spots left on our Egypt girls group trip in September
🇻🇳 There are only 2 early bird spots left for our Vietnam girls group trip
😅 We've made appointments to get tattoos together in Cairo
👟 Amanda lost a shoe climbing a skate ramp at a museum in Missouri
🫘 Kayla popped out of a giant can of beans in Tennessee
📝 5 TIPS YOUR BUILDING YOUR TRIP ITINERARIES
- Determine if you have a specific destination you want to visit or if you're open to whatever is cheapest. Don't know where to go? Go to Google Flights, put in your travel dates, leave the destination blank, and see what flights from your home airport align with your budget.
- Use Google Maps to save everything for your trip in one place. Create a saved list in Google Maps so you can start saving every restaurant, museum, and landmark you want to see. As you save, use the tagging feature to categorize places (ie coffee emoji for coffee shops!) & begin prioritizing what is a must do and what would be nice to do if you have the time.
- After you've built your map, determine where you should stay based on where your pins are clustered. Visually seeing where all your activities are makes a HUGE difference in deciding where you should stay. You can use Google.com/hotels to look up hotels in the areas where you have the most pins. Then toggle on their walkability feature to double check that you're comfortable with the walking distance to your must do attractions.
- When building your itinerary, choose 1 anchor activity per day and then build your day around it geographically. You don't want to be bouncing all over creation due to poor planning. Choose a must do activity on your map. Then look at the extra activities, restaurants, and shops that you've pinned around that activity to strategically plan out your day. Yes, it's a lot of info. But if you break it up so that you're focusing on one subtopic every couple of days, it will keep you from feeling overwhelmed.
Want to see these tips in action? Amanda breaks it all down with examples in this video.
GROUP TRIPS
🇪🇬 Egypt: We've got a few spots left on our girls group trip to Egypt in September! We have a mix of solo travelers and a mother-daughter duo who have joined so far.
Our itinerary includes Cairo, Alexandria, and a couple of days soaking up the sun at the Red Sea. If you've been thinking about going, COME JOIN US. It will be a while before we do another girls trip to Egypt, so don't miss out!
🇻🇳 Vietnam: There are only TWO early bird spots left for Vietnam! We've had 2 sisters, an engaged couple, and 2 solo travelers sign up so far, and we're looking for more ladies to join us!
We're completely obsessed with this itinerary. It's got food tours, sampan boat rides through UNESCO sites and caves, a bicycle ride past ancient temples, a hike up a mountain that is dotted with stone dragons, a cruise in Halong Bay, and so much more. It's going to be un-pho-gettable.
👯 WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO
We got to spend some time together last month which is what our souls needed. Amanda flew to Atlanta, and we attended the Women in Travel Summit together in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We also worked with the state of Tennessee tourism board for the first time which was super cool!
Amanda's flight was overbooked on the way back, so she got a $400 Delta voucher + we got to spend an extra day together!
And we've booked tattoo appointments in Cairo! We got matching permanent anklets a few years back in Amsterdam, and now we're getting celestial themed tattoos together in a place we've truly fallen in love with. Don't worry, we'll be documenting the entire experience to share with you in September!
Kayla
I just got back from a trip with my daughter, parents, and niece to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (or as I like to call it - Redneck Mecca). We swam at the hotel pool every day, played a lot of putt putt, and ate some delicious food.
But the highlight? Going to Bush's Beans Visitor Center! This is a super well done museum + cafe. I loved all the bean-tastic photo ops, and the chocolate pinto bean pecan pie was amazing.
I'm LOVING the Summerween trend going on right now and have been celebrating by reading spooky books and watching How To Get To Heaven From Belfast on Netflix. You can check out my Summerween book recs HERE (and reply to this email with yours if you have any!).
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Amanda
I’ve been in St Louis for 7 months now (which is kinda wild) & only have about 3 months left before I move on to the next place. So I’ve been hyper focused on trying to explore as much of St Louis as I can lately!
I went to the most random, weird & wacky place I’ver ever been (click the link to watch me lose my shoe!), celebrated Chinese Culture at the Missouri Botanical Garden, had the best Indian food at the Soulard’s farmers market, said hi to the Arch, saw a polar bear for the first time at the zoo & have tried as many restaurants as I can.
Reply to this email with your STL recs & I’ll try to fit them all in before I move again!
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❤️ HELPFUL RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS
🏴 We have a 58 page Edinburgh Guidebook and map companion that has everything you need to plan your dream trip to Edinburgh!
✈️ Want to be in the know on the best flight deals from your home airport? Going.com has free and paid membership options. We love that you still book directly through the airline. Going just tells you the deals and when to book (plus you can set flight alerts!).
🛡️ Faye is our fav travel insurance. Full transparency, it's not the cheapest option on the market. But they offer protection for trip interruption, damages, and injury / illness. And they have quick turnaround times on claims + excellent communication. You get what you pay for, and this is one service we recommend all travelers pay for.
🛍️ Wanna see what items we're using in our own travels? Check out our Amazon Storefront and ShopMy collections. We only recommend the products we actually use and love - because that's what besties do.
🫶 Don't forget we have a whole travel blog dedicated to helping YOU plan your trips! If you've got an upcoming trip planned, check to see if we've written a blog post about it.
From our suitcase to yours,
Kayla & Amanda
The Stickered Suitcase
