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It’s officially Fall! It definitely doesn’t fe It’s officially Fall! It definitely doesn’t feel like it in Miami, it really never does but that just gives us a reason to explore other states. West Virginia is one of them, fun fact I actually lived here between undergrad and grad school! Here are Things to do in West Virginia (SAVE + SHARE): 

1. Enjoy New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, or visit any of the states 35 state parks as West Virginia has 1.5 million acres of parks and public land. We personally walked the Shavers Lake Trail and canoed on the lake. 

2. Enjoy some serious adventures! We’re always trying something new and West Virginia offers a lot of options from whitewater rafting, to 1,000+ miles of off-road ATV trails, to rock climbing, caving and mountain biking . 

3. Take a train ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad which stops at the Whittaker Camp where those who worked in the lumber and coal industry lived during the work season. 

4. Explore Cranberry Glades Botanical Area where you might just get to see some black bears! 

5. Walk the Falls of Hills Creak trail to get up close to some gorgeous waterfalls! 

This week I’ll be sharing various cities and states you can experience a beautiful Fall getaway. What are some of your favorite places to enjoy autumn?

Tap the link in my bio for my West Virginia blog post and a blog post of the best places to experience Fall in the US!
Still not over our day exploring the waters of For Still not over our day exploring the waters of Fort Pierce. We danced, snorkeled, fished and went tubing. Definitely want more days like this and still pinch myself that this is what a day of work looks like for me sometimes. Thank you @seadoo for the opportunity.
If you know my husband you know water activities a If you know my husband you know water activities are his favorite! Fishing, jet skiing, just being on a boat on the ocean relaxing, name it, he’s there. So we couldn’t be more excited than to not only get the chance to test out the new @seadoo Switch but be the stars of a whole commercial for it. We had entirely too much fun filming this. Of course now he wants to buy one!

Do you like getting out on the water? Favorite activity?
Our 3 Day London Itinerary (SAVE + SHARE): 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 1: Walked across the Tower Bridge (you can take a tour of London of Tower as well), walked along the River Thames and took a make a fascination hat class with @create_your_own_hat! 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 2: Harry Potter walking tour, checked out Borough Market and went on a night ghost bus tour. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 3: Morning Tea at Peggy Porschen, Buckingham Palace for Changing of the Guards, and explore Westminster for the infamous red telephone booths, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

If you have more time on previous visits to London we have taken a day trip to check out Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle, rode the London Eye, took a ferry ride down the Thames River, checked out Warner Brother Studios, and did a graffiti/street art tour.

Is London on your list? If you’ve been what did you do that you think is a must for visitors?

Things to do in London, London with kids, family travel
Then vs Now (swipe left)!🥹🥰 My babies are no Then vs Now (swipe left)!🥹🥰 My babies are not babies anymore. Where has the time gone? Excuse me while I go cry in the corner 😭😭😭😭. 

Too in my feelings to provide an informational post, I’ll be back tomorrow.
Why is this man always trying to stop my fun? List Why is this man always trying to stop my fun? Listen replace husband with whoever you need to but why these ppl keep acting like we can take our money when we’re gone?!? Y’all feel me or nah? 😅😬😩
Morning Tea in London! Afternoon or High Tea is us Morning Tea in London! Afternoon or High Tea is usually on everyone’s things to do in London list but since the girls and I don’t eat beef or pork the menus for most places didn’t make sense for us as they are filled with ham sandwiches and other things we don’t eat. I ended up finding Morning Tea at Peggy Porschen instead which offers a tea menu with breakfast items, while not traditional it worked best for us! It cost £35 pp.

For a traditional Afternoon or High Tea Try:

🫖Palm Court at The Ritz
🫖The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum & Mason
🫖Theatre Royal Drury Lane
🫖The Grill Room Hotel Cafe Royal (has vegetarian an vegan options)
🫖Coronation Afternoon Tea at Cellarium, Westminster Abbey
🫖The Rosebery Coronation Afternoon Tea at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
🫖The Goring Hotel

Afternoon Teas Geared Towards Families:

☕️Peter Pan Afternoon Tea at Aqua at The Shard
☕️Jurassic Afternoon Tea at the Ampersand Hotel
☕️Jungle Book Afternoon Tea at Brown’s Hotel
☕️Secret Garden Afternoon Tea at Taj 51
☕️The Buzzy Bees Afternoon Tea at St. Ermin’s Hotel
☕️Grover’s Children’s Tea at Grosvenor House Hotel
☕️The Peppa Pig Afternoon Tea Bus Tour
☕️Sherlock Holmes Inspired Afternoon Tea at the Mind Palace
☕️Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tea at One Aldwych
☕️Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea at The Sanderson
☕️Wizard of Oz Afternoon Tea at The Soho Hotel

Have you done a proper Afternoon or High Tea in London before? Was the one you did on this list, if so what did you think of it? If you have additional recommendations please do leave a comment!

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5 Reasons to Plan a Flexcation

October 12, 2020      Lifestyle, Trip Planning 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.

After months of quarantining my family decided it was time to hit the road. With our daughters school district implementing virtual school for the semester it was the perfect opportunity to take a flexcation, or schoolcation as some people call it. We had the most amazing time and think everyone should take one. We’re already planning our second school + vacation trip thanks to these 5 flexcation benefits we discovered.

Flexcations Can Save You Money

Flexcations can offer great savings by allowing you to travel in the off season. For example, in many places, the end of August through October can save you upwards of 20% off on flights, hotels and vacation homes. This is because school has started and the summer vacation rush has ended. We took our first flexcation mid September and were able to get a great deal on our Vrbo vacation home in comparison to their prices in busier months. Check out the vacation home we had the pleasure of staying in here, the home had 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a huge den, and the most beautiful backyard.

On typical vacations lots of people eat out for every meal which can add up. However, we had a fully stocked kitchen at our Vrbo. This allowed us to save lots of money by cooking meals.

One downfall of having a big family vacation is even when you do want to eat out, getting a table more than four people can mean a long wait. When we didn’t feel like cooking we were able to order in and have a huge dinning room to fit us all.

Flexcations Allow You to Stay Longer without Missing School or Work

Sometimes it’s hard to justify going to a destination when you only have the weekend. You feel rushed to cross off every item on your bucket list and you often leave your vacation needing a vacation! However, with a flexcation you can stay longer mixing work and school with play if you work from home or have virtual school. Our Vrbo had plenty of space for us to spread out in different rooms so as not to disturb one another including a dedicated home office.

While certain hours during the week were dedicated to classes and work meetings as soon as school and work were finished we were able to enjoy our free time. We don’t have a pool at home so our kids especially loved being able to jump into our own private pool as soon as class was over. 

Staying longer can also save you money as many vacation homes offer weekly and monthly discounts.

Flexcations Allow for Multiple Generations or Groups of Friends to Come Together

It is usually extremely hard to plan trips with other people outside of your immediate family. This is because everyone’s schedule is so different. Between school and work it can seem impossible. However, a flexcation solves that since everyone can work and attend classes on your trip. Even if someone has to miss an activity here or there they’ll still get valuable time with friends and family.

Renting a Vrbo vacation home for our flexcation meant my parents, brother and sister in law could join us all in the same home. We had plenty of game and movie nights, enjoying each other’s company. It’s usually hard for us all to get together especially since we don’t live in the same city so a flexcation in a vacation home was perfect, we could even retreat to our own rooms before we started to get on each others nerves!

Flexcations Allow You to Avoid Crowds

We’re taking our second flexcation late October, heading to the Great Smoky Mountains for some fall foliage adventures. October and November are the areas busiest time with vacation rentals for weekend dates booking up a year in advance. However, since we’re combining school, work and play we’re able to travel during the week when the crowds are minimal in comparison to the weekends. Oftentimes it’s hard to travel during the shoulder season with school aged kids but a flexcation makes it possible.

Flexcations may be the latest travel trend but I hope they’re here to stay. Did you find this article helpful? Please share it!

Disclaimer: This article was sponsored by Vrbo. Like always these opinions are 100% mine and true.

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Comments

  1. Natasha Dillinger says

    October 14, 2020 at 2:38 am

    How do you typically split planning and cooking duties in a multi-gen trip like this? It sounds so appealing (we actually had one planned in May, but cancelled due to COVID), but on similar trips I have always been the one planning and cooking everything and it’s exhausting!

    • Monet says

      October 16, 2020 at 2:09 pm

      So I am the planner and kind of a control freak lol, so I always handle the planning but my mom usually helps or at least offers her opinion. In respect to the cooking my dad helps a lot with breakfast because no one trusts him to make anything else haha and my mom, hubby, brother and I will split everything else. We usually do a simple lunch or someone might buy something, like one day my brother just ordered pizza for lunch. For dinners we usually were each responsible for one part of the meal, my brother made the meet, hubby and mom each made a side and myself and the girls made dessert. Hope this helps!

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Hi! We’re The Hambricks

Hi! We’re The Hambricks

If kids live there, kids can visit! That's our motto and you'll often find us exploring destinations most don't find "kid friendly". We've traveled to 35 countries on 6 continents with our children since they were 10 weeks old and share tips to make it easier and affordable. But mom and dad are people too so we also write about solo travel, baecations and girlfriend getaways.

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