Jersey Love: Friday Favorites ~ Travel Tips & Must Haves

Happy Friday!

Today I am linking up once again with Erika & Andrea to share my Friday Favorites.

Since I am a huge lover of traveling and everything that goes with it, today I'm sharing some of my favorite travel tips, tricks and items I absolutely can not travel without!

I have been all over the country and to a few islands. When I was 11 I drove across the country with my mom dad and brother in a conversion van (Circa 1993) This was of course before i-anything, TV's in cars, phones, etc. We had to rely on good old fashioned car games, mad libs, activity books, mini travel games and all that "old school" fun stuff. My mom kept a laundry basket FULL of goodies and fun stuff between the two front seats.

She always had everything, this must be where I get it.

My brother and I spent countless hours playing the license plate game. We would name all 50 states and then name their capitols. We played very serious games of tic tac toe. You get creative and name it, we played it.

It was a lot of fun to see our beautiful country. I believe we saw 32 of the 50 states in that trip. We saw major things like Mount Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, The Old Man in the Mountain, The Gateway Arch in Missouri, Old Faithful, and so much more! I have a big photo album and scrap book from the trip, ya know in an old school peel up the clear pages and stick your actual printed out photo on that sticky page under the clear one...yeah a big book like that...this is similar to what our trip looked like...

Except we were cruising in a bad boy like this:

Anyway............

Nowadays traveling is a lot easier, I think...

Since Ted & I just got back from our honeymoon, this is still fresh in my head...

so here we go...

The most important thing to traveling is ORGANIZATION!

At least in my book. I can't go away and not have lists, containers, bags, zip locks, just EVERYTHING organized.

Therefore my first tip is this:

An amazing suitcase!

We got these as a Wedding gift. They are from Kohl's and on sale for $199.00
(grab a 30% off coupon and your out the door with $300 luggage for like, $160!

We used the 2 biggest ones for Aruba. I packed everything in both for both of us.
I always unpack once I'm in the hotel if we are staying long, so I did just that.

Then once clothes are dirty I folded them up and put them in the large suitcase.

This way that suitcase is strictly for dirty clothes and shoes when we go home and anything still fresh or anything we purchased on the trip goes in the smaller suitcase.

This always works out so well when we travel.

The next thing is something to do on the plane/car/train ride!

I like to bring options.

Southern Living's most recent magazine because even though I'm born and raised a Jersey girl, I'm a huge fan of the south.
(I could easily live in Texas, Savannah Georgia, Alabama - you name it, I could do it, my surfer ocean loving husband on the other hand, not so much)

I like to have a book to read. I believe I brought this onewith me...

I love this dog! Read this book. It's a sad story with a great ending!
(I mean really, look at that face!)

I also bring my iPad with me.

This trip Ted & I watched a movie since the flight was so long, but we both ended up falling asleep since we didn't sleep the night before...

Once we got to the hotel, phones & iPads went into the safe and we enjoyed the vacay!

(That's also a must for trips like this, DISCONNECT!!)

Another part of my some what OCD like organization is in regards to the airport.

I have a little Coach wallet/passport holder thing that I keep our passports, licenses boarding passes and luggage receipts in.

BOTH passports fit in it even though it's meant for one. It's a fabulous accessory!

This way we aren't scrambling for the 25 times you have to show all that and it's nicey nice in one place...that I hold...because I need to be in total control when we travel.

My husband knows this and accepts this.

Next up is a fabulous carry on bag with lots of pockets.

We both have Dakine skate packs.

(Hey I married a surfer/skater)

That's the one I have. There's a little cooler area in that front zip part which is fabulous for the bottle of water you get once you're past security and are waiting for 2 hours to get on the plane.

And there's a small pocket on top lined with a fleece for your sunglasses.

There's pockets for pens, iPads, phones, notebooks, laptops. Lots of stuff. It's my favorite thing to travel with and so comfy.

That's Ted's pack.

Same setup. But mine is prettier.

Airport selfie!

Alright. Sticking with the pack... I always stuff it with gum, a sweet candy, some type of chocolate and something salty like combos or pretzels. I don't care where we're going or how long it's gonna take,
I fully stock up my pack for whichever craving we may have whilst traveling.
This is totally appreciated.

Trust me.

(ps: Bottlecaps are a must)

And I don't know about ya'll but I'm a ginger ale on the plane kind of gal.

Every. Single. Time.

I'm also absolutely TERRIFIED of taking off. It's not horrible, but I'm usually pretty nervous. I squeeze the crap outta Teds hands. Yes both of them.
But once we level off I'm good to go.

Now I want to go on vacation.

I think I'm going to look up our airline miles and see where we can go!

Speaking of which, one last thing...

A few years ago we got a Southwest Visa card to accumulate flight points. Since we often go to Texas (like once a year) to see my best friend and her family...
We figured it was a good idea.

I'm not a huge fan of the annual fee, but it's a pretty decent card. And Southwest is my favorite airline to fly.

AND their planes are awesome... I mean..