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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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Cartagena to Medellin: How to Spend 2 Days in Medellin

May 16, 2017      Colombia, Destinations, South America

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 landing a flight deal to Cartagena, Colombia we decided to extend our trip and go from Cartagena to Medellin.  This was a great opportunity to see another, very different city, in Colombia. Here are the details of getting from Cartagena to Medellin and how to spend 2 days in Medellin.

How to Get from Cartagena to Medellin

Fly from Cartagena to Medellin

Flying from Cartagena to Medellin was very easy and affordable. We decided to flying Avianca Airlines. Buying a last minute flight from Cartagena to Medellin only cost us $90 round trip.

Drive from Cartagena to Medellin

Driving from Cartagena to Medellin takes an average of 15 hours. This drive has you going up and down windy mountainous roads. I would not recommend this option at all especially if driving at night.

Where to Stay in Medellin

When deciding where to stay in Medellin we found Airbnb’s to be most affordable. We rented this Airbnb in the El Poblado neighborhood. It was walking distance to a grocery store, shops and restaurants. The bathroom was a little outdated for my liking but for $50/night for a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment I can’t really complain. New to Airbnb? Sign up here and save $40 on your first stay. Nervous about staying in an Airbnb? Read my 8 Tips to Guarantee a Great Airbnb Experience.

photo of an apartment with red couch and black table

Things to do in Medellin: A Two Day Medellin Itinerary

Day One: Real City Tours in Medellin and the Metro Cable

We arrived the night before so we had a full day ahead of us. We were lucky enough to get a spot on the free walking tour provided by Real City Tours. They only offer two tours a day Monday-Friday at 9:00AM and 2:00PM and one tour on Saturday at 9:50AM. You can only reserve the tour 1.5 days in advance so Saturday’s tour would open for reservation Thursday after 6:15PM.

The tour basically goes in a rectangle with about 12 or so stops throughout where you will stop and either sit or stand while your guide gives you some history of that area. The tour shows and talks about both the good and bad of Medellin so there is discussion on prostitution, porn-trade, alcoholism and drug-addiction. My kids are so young I didn’t care about this but you may.You do stop for a quick break halfway through the tour to get a snack, drink, and to relax a bit but I recommend bringing snacks and definitely water. Strollers are allowed on the tour but a carrier is much easier as the streets are busy and you will have to tackle a few stairs. On the flip side if your child is heavy it may be very tiring to carry them for 4 hours.

After the tour we took their subway system to the Metro Cable to head to Parque Arvi. Everyone must exit the metro cable at Santo Dominigo (the last stop) and then switch to another one to go all the way to the park. We heard you can get some nice views of the city from the Santo Domingo stop so we walked around a bit since we would have to change metro cables anyway.

Unfortunately for us it started to drizzle a bit while we were exploring Santo Domingo and because it was windy the metro cables stopped running. They were unsure of when they would start back up again and after waiting 20mins we decided we would just head back to our Airbnb since we were starving. Good thing we did as about 3mins after we got in the cab it started pouring! Although we didn’t make it to Parque Arvi we got a great tour of Santo Domingo and nice view of the city from above on our ride down the mountain.

girl standing holding onto railing over looking mountain and cable car

Day Two- Guatape & Rock of El Penol Tour and flight back to Cartagena

Through TripAdvisor I found LandVenture Tours, the #2 tour company in Medellin, the 1st is Real City Tours. We did the Guatape & Rock of El Penol Tour and I could not have been happier. It was a private tour and they provided a car seat for our two year old. We did this tour on the day we were leaving Medellin. They dropped us at the airport after our tour, saving us taxi fare. We also didn’t have to worry about where we would store our luggage after checking out of our Airbnb.

The price was $59 per adult and $30 per child. While I’m not used to paying for the kids on tours of this nature with a total of $237 it was still cheaper than a lot of the same tours through other companies. Alejandro was our guide and he picked us up from our Airbnb promptly at 10AM.

We made the scenic drive to Penol and Alejandro told us all about the area on the way. They allow you to personalize the tour so if at any point you want to stop to take a closer look at something you can. We made a few stops at overlooks to admire the lakes and cities before getting to the Rock.mom holding daughter in Medellin 

We had carriers to use for both kids to make the 750 stair climb to the top. However, we did see children around the age of 3, 4 climbing up themselves with their parents. As much as Jordyn loves to climb stairs I could see her begging to be carried by the 100th stair so I decided against that. It took about 15/20mins to make the climb as we stopped twice to catch our breath and drink some water. The view from the top is absolutely breathtaking, one of the most beautiful views I have seen.

mom holding two daughter in front of a massive rock  beautiful lake with greenery all around

After the Rock we went to the town of Guatape, famous for its zocalos (a form of art in Colombia). We first had lunch before Alejandro gave us a tour of the town and taught us all about the history of the zocalos. He was very informative and the homes decorated with this artwork are so beautiful, colorful, and unique.

man showing toddler artwork on the wall

toddler girl climbing up a colorful staircase

When we were finished we headed back to Medellin proper. Alejandro was able to drop us off at the airport saving us taxi fare. Getting from Cartagena to Medellin was easy and affordable. Spending 2 days in Medellin was a nice introduction to the city but I recommend at least 3 days if possible. Did you find this article helpful? Please share it!

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.
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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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