Lyd's Travels Newsletter - July 2024 Issue

Welcome to the July 2024 Issue My Quarterly Travel Newsletter! where I share the personal stories & views from my travels, along with my favorite travel tricks & intentional travel spending tips from this season!

In this season’s newsletter you’ll find:

• Recent Travels 📍 Pittsburgh, PA (My Home City)

  • Visiting Home After Seeing the World

• How-To Travels Post ✈️ Travel In-Case of Emergency Kit

• Travel Money Chat 💵 How I have been spending on my trips and my top 3 ways I could have saved money on my recent travels.

• Travel Thoughts 🌎 What Really Stops Us From Traveling

• Travel Inspiration Location 🗺️ Fall Road Trip Loading!

• New News🎉 Meet Bear!

• Additional Resources and ✨Travel Handbook Giveaway✨

Recent Travels

Coming Back Home After Seeing the World

If you know my travel background, you know I didn’t grow up seeing travel in my community and it was even discouraged by close members in my family. Once I left home, I was able to exercise my freedom and explore the world. Then fast forward through a few years of living by myself, I was finally able to look around and decide what cultures and perspectives that I wanted in my space. I found that Pittsburgh no longer fit my needs and shipped myself to Tampa, Florida, continuing to test my perspectives and the realities of my environment.

On this trip back home, I relived those 2 huge jumps in my life, moving an hour away from my small river town into Pittsburgh, then moving a further 16 hours south to the larger (and more diverse) city of Tampa, Florida.

Going back to my small hometown allowed me to loosely reconstruct and view the bubble I grew up in. In peoples passing limitations, unrealized racial comments and the “everybody-knows-everybody”, showed me that nothing has really changed there and that’s how most of the people there prefer it. Now, was I able to reconnect with some of the pillars of support from my childhood, and even see a new side to them as they plan of seeing new places. Yes, but they were rare, and this made them even more special to me as true life-long friends family.

Going back to Pittsburgh made me more comfortable with outgrowing something, less ashamed of the concept. Enjoying my favorites and then also remembering the many wonderful things I’ve seen (and eaten) around the world, finally reconciled, now allowed to occupy the same space and not compete. I can want and like both, because I did on this trip. Then even more, I saw the reminders of why I left but still felt excited to visit again. More reconciled feelings now packed neatly together, coexisting.

Being home really reminded me of the reasons I left and all of the things I vowed to “fix” about myself and leave behind. Not being attached to physical items (being overwhelmed with physical items terrifies me), Humbling myself to respect people’s stories even if I don’t understand them (battling the attitude of assumptions), and even taking better care of myself mentally and physically (after seeing the reactive health measures my family struggled through). Going home made me wonder if I’ve made enough progress in these things I promised myself, have I left enough behind and replaced them with better things.

I left my hometown with this question but also very content that I would never live there but would definitely visit again. I have found better environments for myself through traveling, The bubble was broken and that was ok.

A Weekend Visit to Philidelphia

This season I also traveled to Philidelphia (also in Pennsylvania) for a wedding. I’d been there a few times before and loved the explosion of history and culture the city had to offer. Yes, it is also chaotic and packed, but I feel it is just as much as any other city of its size.

In Philidelphia we made a point to stay outside the city and focus on the parks in the area. Breaking this pattern of staying in the city can remind us that the places we travel to are communities, real places where people live and work, not just the top 10 things a place is known for. I wanted some history too, so we visited Valley Forge! The lush spring green trees and topography of the park were so refreshing, compared to Florida. Seeing people horseback riding through the pastures and enjoy the miles of trails was the refresh I needed.

Coming to Philidelphia really made me miss living in the NorthEast, the city vibes, access to public transportation up the coast and of course the history that has brought so many amazing cultures to the area. I left knowing I’d be back soon.

You can read my Pittsburgh & Philidelphia travel blog posts below to steal my itinerary, see more on what I did and spent on those trips!

“How-To” Travel Blog Post

My favorite travel how-to post this season is - Travel In-Case of Emergency Kit!

With hurricane season upon us, it brings us closer to frequent travel delays from tropical storms! In this post I equip my carry-on bag emergency kit so I can be prepared with documentation, tracking and backup funds if a travel disaster strikes!

You Can Read this Post Here on My Blog

Travel Money Chat

It’s time for a travel finance review! Here is how much I have spent on my recent travels! I like to compare my cost to visit a place with a “cost per person per day” view to see how “pricey” a location was vs another destination.

Blow is a summary of what I’ve spent on travel for #traveltransparency and don’t forget you can check out each of my travel blog posts for a full itemized list of everything I’ve spent on my trips!

This season I did a 6-part Blog Post Series on Spending Intentionally on Travel, from picking a travel bank account to saving money on hotel and snagging cheaper presale tickets for activities - Read It Here

Here are the top 3 ways I could have (or did or horribly failed at) saving money on my travels.

1. Let’s get it over with ……THIS WAS MY BIGGEST (most expensive) TRAVEL MISTAKE IN MY LIFE. Now back to the * On my trip to Philidelphia. I missed my 5am flight, my first missed flight ever! I panicked and cancelled it not knowing that many airlines rebook you for free if you miss your flight and you can still use your return flight! an additional* spend of $800s later.. now we know better.

2. This season I’ve been super focused on researching ways to earn travel reward program Hilton points to save money on hotels. I’ve signed up for the Hilton Dining Program, transferred over my Amtrak points to Hilton and funneled all of my spending through my Hilton Credit Card, even family purchases. These really pay off, my points have gotten me ½ off on many of my hotels from this year. I’ve even earned a free Hilton Night (using it for my b-day in August) from my 2023 spending and I’m on track to earn another this year!

3. Do you have any program benefits that you’re ignoring? We’re all signed up for different secondary programs and benefits from credit cards, memberships or work programs that we know nothing about. I found that part of my work benefits includes significant car rental discounts, like $300 for a week rental (easily $600-$800). So poke around in those benefits you’re paying for but not using.

This season I did a 6-part Blog Post Series on Spending Intentionally on Traveling, this will get you started with a travel bank account and spending intentionally on travel activities! - Read It Here

Traveling takes time and money! So, let’s spend them both wisely!

Travel Thoughts

As I traveled a little less this season than normal (only 2 trips so far this summer vs 5 this spring) I found myself really feeling stuck and stressed, without being able to “pause” work/home life and explore a new place.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about “what stops me from traveling? sneaking a quick road trip in?” and that question led me to even define “what does traveling mean to me?”

My analytic mind has me starting with defining “traveling”, and even why I love travel. I love the separation that “traveling” gives me from the everyday stressors, the escape of OOO, the “I don’t have to worry about that right now” really hits hard for me.

Traveling cares for my soul, it feeds my needs for trying new foods, experiencing new cultures and finding new histories. Learning about literally anything has always recharged me, feeding my mind and soul.

Now, what’s stopping me from experiencing these things. I’m a firm believer that you don’t need a plane ticket to explore a new place or culture. And our cities are packed with museums, restaurants and even free places for us to explore. So what’s still stopping me from “traveling”?

It’s my willingness to set the day aside and plan something, my fear of dropping a ball that may not even be important in the first place. It’s the pressure to do and be everything at once, without intent.

My goal for this season is to challenge these feelings and make more space for my very needed selfcare of “traveling”. Here’s to encouraging us all to travel a little more, in our own special ways, even at home.

Inspiration Location

In this super-hot summer weather, I am dreaming of Fall! A 2 week-long fall road trip to be exact!

Growing up in the NorthEastern US, I loved this season for apple butter, crisp walks, pumpkin cookies and slow drives through winding forests of gold, amber and toasty brown leaves. I can’t wait to share all of these things with my Ecuadorian boyfriend and see his face the first time he tries apple butter and an apple cider donut, hopefully together, which is my favorite!

Traveling back home to Pittsburgh and even Philidelphia this season, really made me realize how much I miss the lush foliage and topography of the NorthEast, so I’m so excited to soak it up this fall!

So far were planning to hit my home area of the Laural Highlands, PA, Niagara Falls, NY, Burlington, VT, Long Island, NY and Tennessee, Enjoying the hidden gems along the way!

Meet Bear!

We’ve gone from 12 paws to 16! We now have 3 cats and a dog, Meet our new German Shepard, Bear (aka Boo Bear). Since I work from home, he’s so used to being with us, so we’ve decided to train him to travel with us! Look out for tips and posts from traveling with Bear so you can travel with your pet more too!

Thanks for Reading! I’m Wishing you a full and peaceful summer season! Feel free to reply to this email to contact me or request any blog topics!

Keep Traveling & Pouring into Yourself - XOXO - Lydia

Additional Travel Resources

Here is my main blog page, LydsLifeSkills.com, full of all of my blog posts! Use the tabs in the headers to find the blog post subjects that you love like travel, career and finance.

I love being organized when I travel so I’ve decided to share my FREE Travel Planning Template via GoogeSheets! This template has an itinerary that automagically creates a spend review for your trip! it also includes travel packing and to-do lists. Upon opening, select “make a copy” to save it to your google account. Each newsletter will have link to get your copy, so lookout for updates!

You can also follow me on Google Reviews and Trip Advisor to see my reviews of the attractions, hotels and restaurants along my travels and at home in Tampa, Florida.

Travel Planning Handbook & Giveaway

I had a hard time learning the basics of travel, so I’m committed to helping others gain the skills and resources to travel. In 2023, I published my Travel Planning Handbook, “An Introduction To Traveling: The First Step of Many Around the World”. I wrote this Travel Handbook to inspire people, especially people of color, to travel and learn the travel skills needed to become a confident traveler! In it, I cover essential travel planning guides, travel processes and tips on how to travel!

Thank You For Subscribing to My Newsletter! As a Subscriber, You are entered into a Quarterly Giveaway for my Travel Planning Handbook! The winner will be selected 2-weeks after this newsletters release.

You Can Also Buy Your Copy Today! Thank you for Supporting my Blog & Newsletter by Grabbing a Copy!