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HOW TO TRAVEL FREQUENTLY W/A FULL TIME JOB & SCHOO

HOW TO TRAVEL FREQUENTLY W/A FULL TIME JOB & SCHOOL AGED KIDS (save this post): Jordyn & I just spent our annual mommy & me trip in @waterparkcapital. So how do I travel w/her so much when she attends public school?

1. Use holidays to your advantage: Our trip was over MLK weekend, we left Friday & came back Monday w/out her missing school. Same goes for those working!

2. Extend a work trip! If you travel for work your job is already paying for your flight! Ask to fly in a few days before or stay after to explore the destination. Most jobs are ok w/this as long as changing dates doesn’t make a significantly increase the flight cost. All you’ll need to do is cover your extra hotel days!

3. Buy Extra Vacation Days: My job never had this perk but I know plenty of people who have this option! Basically the company just takes a set amount from each paycheck to cover your extra vacation days so you’ll get paid during that time as well.

4. Negotiate a 4/10 schedule and/or more vacation days: You can negotiate more than your salary. When I worked in HR people rarely did this but when they did it was often granted. After having Jordyn I moved to a 4/10 schedule having every Friday off, always giving me a 3 day weekend.

Wisconsin Dells, WI was the perfect 3 day weekend destination. Here’s my criteria on picking a destination for a short trip.

1. Final destination is no more than 1 hour from the airport. On a short trip you don’t want to waste your precious time driving far once you’ve landed.

2. Everything to do at your destination is close to your accommodations. On short trips I don’t want to have to take long day trips, rather have everything there is to do near to maximize my time. The furthest thing we did in Wisconsin Dells was 25 minutes away!

3. Evening departure times on my final day: On a short 3 day weekend a destination that only offers 8am-12pm flights home is a no for me. Our 5pm flight gave us the whole day to enjoy Wisconsin Dells before going home!

Click the link in bio for more tips on traveling frequently w/a full-time job. Share any you have below to help others!
P.S. Our matching onesies are from the kids sections in Target. I’m wearing a XL

MANIFEST YOUR TRAVEL GOALS! I’m so excited to an

MANIFEST YOUR TRAVEL GOALS! I’m so excited to announce our 2020 partnership with @trover #TroverPartner. Trover is a photo sharing app where each beautiful picture comes with a mini travel guide, giving you detailed information on the location.

You can also create wishlists from other people’s photos to manifest your travel goals into reality! I’m all about manifesting and believe when you create your goals with intention and work towards them they come true.

We’ve put together our 2020 travel wishlist on Trover and you can click the link in bio to view it. I encourage you to download Trover and create your own as well, it’s easier to work towards something when you’ve taken the thought out of your mind and put it somewhere you can view daily.

What’s on your 2020 Travel Wish List? Do you believe in manifesting? Why or why not?

ANSWERING SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (save th

ANSWERING SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (save this post): I hope everyone’s year is off to a great start! I just wanted to answer questions we’re asked a lot.

1. How old were the girls when we first started traveling with them? Jordyn took her first flight at 6 weeks NYC to FLL. Her first international flight was at 8 months to Jamaica. Kennedy’s first flight was technically at 11 days old because we were moving from NYC to Florida & I just wasn’t about that 16hr+ drive w/a newborn. Her first real trip was to Cartagena, Colombia at 10 weeks old.

2. Do you homeschool? No we don’t, Jordyn is in kindergarten at a public school & Kennedy stays home with me for now (she’s 3). We’re ok w/Jordyn missing up to two weeks of school to travel & discussed w/her teachers at the start of the year.

3. Is such & such kid friendly? Our motto is if kids live there kids can visit, you’ll see us anywhere there isn’t an active war. Thailand & Morocco have been two of the most “kid-friendly” places we’ve been to.

4. Did you get vaccines to go ____? We’ve never got any additional vaccines besides routine ones for any of our trips.

5. What is your favorite destination? Top 5 are Brazil, Kenya, Costa Rica, our Southwest RV trip, and Morocco. Jamaica is home and always a good idea so that will technically always be my favorite.

6. How do you afford to travel so much? Sacrifice! We don’t have cable, I stopped my bi-weekly nail appointments, bring lunch to work, Kennedy wears all of Jordyn’s hand me downs minus a few new outfits/shoes. We only buy flight deals & let them dictate our destinations & use Groupons/TravelZoo for activities. Now as The Traveling Child has grown we do work with brands/destinations who sponsor some our trips but unless you see hashtag sponsored we paid for the trip in full.

7. Do you have tips for (insert destination)? On our website www.thetravelingchild.co I give all the itineraries for every trip we’ve taken.

8. What products do you use in the girls hair? CANTU (kids line), As I Am Curling Jelly & a Denman brush!

Now questions for you guys! Where are you from? Do you have kids? If so, what are there ages? Anything else you’d like to know?

KIDS SAIL FREE CRUISE SALE GOING ON NOW! (save and

KIDS SAIL FREE CRUISE SALE GOING ON NOW! (save and share this post) Happy New Year! I know we're kind of late but we spent the past week mostly offline just enjoying each other's company while Jordyn was on winter break. We did however take a weekend cruise onboard Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas. The girls loved Jordyn's birthday cruise on this ship back in May and had been begging to go back. Since my husband couldn't join us the last time we booked it for winter break.

Royal is actually having a kids sail free promo (just pay taxes and gratuities for kids 12 and under). It’s one of their best sales of the year!

We didn't take any family pictures this time so here's a photo of the girls from our last sail. Navigator of the Seas does 3 and 4 night cruises (F-M and M-Th) to Nassau and Royal’s private Bahamaian Island, CocoCay.

Swipe left to see all the amazing fun that can be had at The Perfect Day at CocoCay. The video is from our previous visit to CocoCay as we did a no phone trip but the island is exactly the same now. ————————————————————————
Click the link in bio for our full review of Navigator of the Seas. Have you been on a cruise before? What's your favorite cruise line and favorite ship? If you haven't been on a cruise why not?

[AD] THINGS TO DO IN PUERTO RICO (save this post):

[AD] THINGS TO DO IN PUERTO RICO (save this post): Thanks to the $644 cash back I earned this year using the @doshapp #DoshPartner I had an amazing time on my solo trip in Puerto Rico. Here are things to do:

1. Take a salsa lesson! I found one on Airbnb Experiences where after our lesson the instructor took us to the best salsa clubs for us to practice what we learned. It was $49 and lasted 3 hours.

2. Take surf lessons on Isla Verde beach for $63. I also found this on Airbnb Experiences and the lesson was 90 minutes.

3. Take a tour of the town of Loiza, the Afro-Caribbean community 15 minutes from San Juan. My guide Derek whom I also found via Airbnb Experiences drove me all around for 3 hours going over the history of the town and stopping at key places where I mingled with the locals and learned about their culture and crafts. This was $68.

4. Go scuba diving or snorkeling off the coast of Farjado with @aquaadventurepr. Tours start at $69 for snorkelers and $110 for divers. There’s plenty of colorful fish to see!

5. Hit the spa! I got myself an 80 minute treatment for $150 at my hotel.

6. Capture your memories. Most of my pictures include a kid or 2 so I wanted some pictures of just myself without any work on my end. I booked a session with @rolophotopr for $90 and got myself 32 edited photos without having to set up my tripod.

7. Relax on the beach! I love reading and laid out for hours buried in The Children of Virtue and Vengeance. This was free!

All in all, everything I did in Puerto Rico cost me $530! While my hotel stay, meals and conference ticket put me over the $644 cash back I got from the @doshapp it was still a big savings and afforded me a stress free trip focused on me, myself and I! Plus I earned more cash back while on the trip from booking my hotel via the app to go towards my next solo trip.

Just imagine all you could do with the cash back you earn from your everyday shopping at Sephora, Apple Music, Sam’s Club and more. Click the link in my bio to download the @doshapp now and use referral code HAMBRICK for a special sign up bonus.

What’s your dream destination for 2020 and what steps are you taking to make it a reality?

[AD] INVEST IN AND TREAT YOURSELF! This month I we

[AD] INVEST IN AND TREAT YOURSELF! This month I went on my second annual solo trip! Last year I went to Tulum, Mexico and this year San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The destination for this year was based on a conference I attended for women entrepreneurs. It’s so important for us as women and especially as moms to invest in ourselves. We’re always doing everything for everyone else and there’s no need to feel guilty about taking time for ourselves. I promise you, your kids, spouse, friends will still love you the same when you get back.

Investing in yourself does come with a cost though, conferences are not cheap. Thankfully the $643 cash back I’ve earned this year via @doshapp from my everyday shopping and by booking my hotels through the app was more than enough to cover my accommodations, the cost of the conference and a little extra to explore Puerto Rico on my own after the conference was over.

I stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Condado booked via Dosh and earned $12.53 cash back on each night of my stay. The price booking by Dosh was the same price on Hilton’s website and I just added my Hilton Honors number during check-in and still got my free breakfast as a Gold Member. Swipe left for a room tour.

If you had an extra $643 just from shopping like you normally do and by booking your hotels via @doshapp what would you spend it on? ————————————————————————
The app is 100% free so there’s no reason to not give it a try. Click the link in bio to download or just go to the App Store and search for Dosh. If you use referral code HAMBRICK you’ll get a special sign up bonus. #DoshPartner #SanJuan #PuertoRico #SanJuanPuertoRico

5 WAYS TO MAKE TRAVEL MORE ATTAINABLE [AD](save th

5 WAYS TO MAKE TRAVEL MORE ATTAINABLE [AD](save this post): If one of your 2020 goals is to travel more here are 5 things we do to make that happen.

1. This year we learned about @doshapp & it changed the game #DoshPartner. Since May we’ve earned $643.44 cash back from booking our hotels through the app & everyday purchases at OshKosh, Domino’s, Sam’s Club, Dunkin Donuts, Forever 21 & hundreds of other stores. Just link your cards to the app & anytime you shop at a participating store or book a hotel via the app you’ll get cash back. You’ll still earn miles/points directly from your credit card & hotel so it’s a double win. Download the free @doshapp now and use referral code HAMBRICK for a special sign up bonus.

2. Stop saying where you want to go & let the deals dictate your destination. Our travel is based on flight deals & YES there are deals during school breaks. For Jordyn’s spring break we went to Brazil for $340RT, Denver for $99RT for Presidents Day weekend, & for Thanksgiving Break to Morocco for $408RT. Next year we booked Milan & Egypt for Spring break for a 2in1 price of $570RT & Japan for summer for $420RT. See our stories for a post on the best websites to find flight deals. Also consider driving to a nearby cheaper airport to fly from & even flying into a nearby country & then getting a cheap flight to your final destination. When we went to Thailand we got a cheap flight to Singapore & then paid $36 to get to Phuket! Had we flown straight to Thailand the flights were double the price.

3. Link your Lyft app to your Delta Skymiles or Hilton Honors & earn miles/points from rides towards free flights & hotel stays. Make sure everyone in your family has frequent flier accounts, even your kids!

4. Cut your expenses by using sites like Travelzoo or Groupon to get deals on restaurants, activities, & spa services when you’re traveling or even at home!

5. Determine 3 things you can live without to cut your expenses & move that money to your dedicated travel fund. For us it was cable, buying lunch at work, me getting regular manis/pedis & my husband’s shopping.

What are ways you make travel more affordable? Share in the comments to help others!

The Traveling Child

Affording Travel
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The Bahamas

Navigator of the Seas Review: A Royal Caribbean Ship

Navigator of the Seas Review: A Royal Caribbean Ship

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Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day at CocoCay with Kids (or without them)

We Took The Bimini Ferry and Experienced Bimini Bliss

We Took The Bimini Ferry and Experienced Bimini Bliss

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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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