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#EddieBauerPartner Can’t go on an outdoor advent #EddieBauerPartner Can’t go on an outdoor adventure without packing some of @eddiebauer’s warm weather apparel. It has been perfect for our spring and summer outdoor adventures from hiking to kayaking and all the other ways we’ve been sending time outside. Where will you #LiveYourAdventure? 

#EBContributor
Since IG hates on photos gotta get them in how I c Since IG hates on photos gotta get them in how I can! Honestly sunset in the lavender fields is everything, probably one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever witnessed. I don’t have much information to give today I really just wanted to share these photos 😬.

Check out my last 3 reels with @oneikatraveller for information on experiencing lavender season in Provence, France. These photos are from a lavender field in Valensole.

P.S. the skirt is from Amazon and they have multiple colors!

#valensole #valensoleprovence #lavenderfields
Things to do in Provence, France 🇫🇷 besides Things to do in Provence, France 🇫🇷 besides the lavender fields (save + share this post):

🇫🇷Go village hopping and take in the small towns. The first clip of this video was shot in the village of Roussillon and we also visited nearby Gordes.
🇫🇷Explore the ancient town of Saint Paul de Vence
🇫🇷Hike the beautiful Calanques de Cassis
🇫🇷Relax at the beaches of Grande Plage of La Ciotat and the Grande Mer beach of Cassis
🇫🇷Visit Gorges du Verdon, a gorgeous must see lake
🇫🇷Go wine tasting at one of the vineyards like Les Vignerons du Mont Saint-Victoire. Provence is known for their Rosé but you can also taste sweet and spicy wines.
🇫🇷Explore a multitude of ancient ruins, including Roman amphitheaters.
🇫🇷Take a tour of one of traditional perfume factories, Parfumerie Fragonard, Molinard or Parfumerie Galimard and do a workshop where you make your own perfume
🇫🇷Visit the Pope's Palace in Avignon
🇫🇷As you’ll most likely fly into Marseille don’t forget to leave time to explore this city as well, especially the port.

Have you been to Provence? What did you enjoy about the region?

Follow @thetravelingchild and @oneikatraveller for more tips.

#provence #blacktravelfeed
Everything you need to know about visiting the Lav Everything you need to know about visiting the Lavender fields in Provence, France (save + share this post):

Lavender season varies each year but falls between June and August.

Provence is the region but there are various cities with fields. Valensole is the most popular and where the fields we visited were located but there are also fields in Sault, Manosque and Luberon. The time frame that the lavender blooms is different in each city. Our visit was July 3-5th but the bloom and harvest time could change next year.

The best airport to fly into is Marseille. Airlines that fly to Marseille from the US are Air France, British Airways, Swiss, Royal Air Maroc, Iberia, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Lufthansa and TAP Portugal. If you’re already in Europe you can also fly Pegasus, Ryanair, Tunisair, Aeroflot, Ethiopian, Easyjet, Vueling, Eurowings and Air Algerie. 

If you’re visiting from Paris you can take the train to Marseille! 

From Marsielle you will need to take the train or bus to Valensole or Manosque as your home base. As you’ll 100% need a car to get around to all the Lavender fields you can also rent a car from Marseille and drive as finding a rental car in the smaller towns is more difficult. 

What questions do you have about the lavender fields or Provence?

Follow @oneikatraveller and @thetravelingchild for more travel tips.

#provencefrance #lavenderfields #girlstrips
My top 5 favorite international destinations I’v My top 5 favorite international destinations I’ve visited!

1. Botswana- I did an exchange program here where I lived with a family in the village of Oodi right outside Gaborone one summer in high school. It completely changed the way I view travel. Besides getting to learn so much of the countries culture from my host family to learning a bit of Setswana to camping in the Okavango Delta it will always be one of my favorite trips.

2. Turkey- from the people to the food to the landscape to the sea it was everything. I visited Istanbul, Cappadocia, Antalya and Izmir and the country has so much to offer with varying landscapes. 

3. Rio de Janeiro- We loved our family trip to Brazil, the food, the people, the vibrance of Rio was everything. So many beautiful hikes, learning how to dance Samba, learning how to make Moqueca, going to a futbol match in Maracana Stadium, wow the energy!! Oh and the nightlife was 🔥. Can’t wait to return and explore more of the country.

4. Kenya- This country has so much to offer. We visited Amboseli National Park, got to do a walking safari amongst zebras and giraffes in Lake Naivasha and even ran into a hippo 😅. We visited a Maasai Tribe who gave us such a warm welcome inviting us into their homes, teaching the girls how to make fire from scratch and we even say 5 cheetah take down a topi, seeing a live kill was insane! Ended the trip relaxing on Diani Beach swimming in the stunning Indian Ocean.

5. Madeira, Portugal- the landscape on this island is insane. Exploring I often felt like I was in 20 different places, like how is all in one island? Loved the hikes here, being above the clouds, seeing all the waterfalls, spotting dolphins in the ocean, and the food was so good! I also enjoyed Lisbon but Madeira was everything!

What have been your favorite international trips? What country is highest on your bucket list (doesn’t have to be from my list)?

Should I make a list for my favorite US destinations (they’ll probably surprise you).

#madeiraportugal #travelreels
Answering the most asked question on my vacuum sea Answering the most asked question on my vacuum sealed carry-on only reel (save + share this post). This is how my clothes look once I take them out of the bag. Do you think these are really wrinkled? They were vacuum sealed for roughly 22 hours.

If you’re going to visit more than one city the best way to pack these is to pack each bag per city. Then all your clothes for that one city are all together and you only have to open one bag at a time. Then reseal that one bag with all your dirty clothes before going to the next city and don’t worry about the other ones getting dirty or smelling! You can label each bag with a sticky note or tape with a marker to know what bag has what clothes.

The link to purchase the bags and hand pump is my bio.

#packingtips #packinghacks #traveltipsandtricks
#WBPartner The girls are so excited to watch the n #WBPartner The girls are so excited to watch the new @wbpictures DC League of Super Pets. To prepare for our trip to the theater to see it we did a fun activity of making our own super hero costumes for us and our very own super pets. 

Jordyn turns villains into ice cream and eats them, James turns villains into money and spends them and Kennedy shoots lighting with her eyeballs. 

If you or your child could have super powers what would you pick? @dcleagueofsuperpets #DCSuperPets

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5 Reasons to Move Your Travel-Loving Family Abroad

November 14, 2018      Destinations, Lifestyle, Travel Tips

This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more information. All opinions are my own.

Guest Post Written By: Chantal Blake

Earlier this year, my family and I spent a week in Kenya for an amazing three-destination tour of the country. We witnessed the majestic strut of endangered giraffes, the playful antics of orphaned elephants, and the peaceful slumber of a pride of lions in Nairobi. In Mombasa, we reunited with old friends and felt the hustle of city life–East African style. At the UNESCO
Heritage town of Lamu, we walked the narrow pathways of one of the world’s oldest Swahili settlements and witnessed firsthand the festive fusion of African, Indian, and Arab cultures. For some, this kind of trip sounds like a once in a lifetime adventure that requires months of planning and saving but for us, hopping to Kenya was only $250 per ticket and 5 hours away. Why? Because we already made the decision to live abroad and have found that the rest of the world is much more accessible once you’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Safety

My husband and I have lived abroad for nearly ten years now. Aside from excitement and adventure, we consistently experience greater levels of security and acceptance outside of the Western world. Though many Americans may find this reality shocking, recent events consistently remind us that black and brown bodies unjustly experience discrimination, profiling, and violence on a regular basis in the United States. Some may call it ‘escapism’ to run from our homeland, but we call it global citizenship for our brown children who consider themselves members of the larger human race, as opposed to a minority in America.

Finances

Many can’t imagine leaving their beloved hometown or country but fail to realize the financial savings to be realized abroad. Employers know all too well that recruiting from an international market means offering incentives that make the trek worthwhile. What kind of incentives? Furnished housing, annual flight tickets, education and transportation allowances, health insurance, etc. Even when a given job salary didn’t seem impressive for our one-income family, we realized that the added benefits amounted to us saving way more than we were ever able to save as a two-income household living in the United States.

Quality of Life

You probably have heard of the ‘slower pace of life’ that people experience in other countries. But when it translates to less stress, more time off from work, and more family time, you can understand why people in some countries look and live much happier than your family and friends back home.

Yes, it’s true that money can’t buy happiness, but common sense and evidence prove that life is more pleasantly experienced when people feel financially and physically secure in their environs. The cut-throat competition of capitalism can prioritize the bottom line over health, family, and sanity. However, life abroad can show a path for achieving success with enough wellness and vitality to enjoy it. With lengthy holiday breaks, two-month summer vacations, and shorter work schedules, we have bonded and grown together as a family. Just the thought of trying to see all of our scattered family members in only two weeks of paid annual leave makes my heart start to race.

Exploration

With so many new countries suddenly within reach, a long holiday or week-long break can affordably allow us to experience an entirely new region and culture. Language immersion takes on a whole new meaning when the sights and sounds of a foreign tongue become familiar and eventually, your own. By establishing a base for ourselves abroad, places that seemed so remote and far are now right on our doorstep. From where we live in Oman, we’ve been able to visit East Africa, Southeast Asia, and other parts of Arabia within just a few hours of flight time. Also, in many countries, we feel much safer taking long road trips and exploring off-the-beaten- path destinations than we ever would in some parts of rural America.

Reasons to Move Abroad

Connection

Growing up in New York City, my elementary school was like the United Nations. I was constantly surrounded by various cultures and ethnicities, but they were out of context. All of us as first generation Americans had to evolve and adapt our cultural heritage in a new urban context. So all of us–my Jamaican-American self included–were like a remix of our national identity. We were all struggling to blend in, fit in, and, at times, compete in the melting pot.

Now that I’ve actually met people in their own country or as recent travelers and expats from their homeland, not only do I see more nuance in the cultures I grew up with but also the common threads of humanity painted and woven in so many different shades and textures. I’m grateful that my children can hear people articulate their language, identity, and culture for themselves, as opposed to relying on textbooks, documentaries, or third parties to do the translating for them. And best of all, the more connections we create in our travels, the more friendships we develop all over the globe.

To be crystal clear, I am in no way making the argument that any place is better than home. Every nation and region’s situation is as distinct as its topography. But based on my experiences, I can unequivocally conclude that life abroad has proven itself to be the best place for my family to thrive and flourish at this point in time. Am I turning in my blue passport? No way! But, I have no commitment to staying any place where I feel unwelcomed, even if it happens to be the first place I ever called ‘home’.

About the Author

Chantal Blake is a travel writer and plant-based consultant from New York City. She currently lives with her unschooling, vegan family in Muscat, Oman. Her published work can be found at Wayfaring Green Soul.

The Traveling Child is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

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Hey, I’m Monet!

Hey, I’m Monet!

A full time working woman, wife and mama of two. I use every last one of my vacation days traveling with my kids, hubby, friends or solo. Join me as I share my travel experiences and tips to make travel affordable and easier with the little ones. You can read more about me here.

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