Wander Lust Fam

12/19/2023

Air sale alert! Frontier has dropped their prices for a $39 sale. Grab those warm weather get aways : )

12/19/2023

Travel deal alert! We went to Fiji last year and it was ahhmazing.

$999 out of LAX for 8 nights. Includes air!

Gate 1 Travel has provided quality, affordable escorted tours, river cruises and vacation packages for 40 years. We look forward to showing you More of the World for Less on your next vacation.

12/07/2023

I LOVE to travel. You don't have to spend a ton of $ to travel.

A friend just reached out looking for tips on how I find good prices on airfare. Here are a few of my tips (which I just used to book a Spring Break trip to South America out of Madison for $450 per person)

If I have a destination and dates in mind, I use the Hopper app (they send alerts when prices drop). For more frequent updates or if I'm flexible with destinations, Google Flight Explorer is my go to.

I always monitor departure airports that I'm willing to drive to (for me that's Madison, Chicago and Milwaukee).

Finally, I always use a travel specific card. If I have a really big trip, I will consider opening a new card that gives a significant amount of bonus miles.

Nerd Wallet and The Points Guy are good for this.

If you're going to be booking a trip on United or a Star Alliance Partner and are interested in a United card, you can use the below link (its a friend's referral link) for an extra 10k in bonus miles.

Happy Travels!

Click to learn more.

02/27/2023

Mexican Yucatan Road Trip

Bacalar, Los Rapids

We spent the day at Los Rapidos.

You can be super budget savvy here, or spend a bit more

Entry: $8/pp
Locker rental: $3

Required spend if you get a table by the water: $16/pp

This is a naturally formed lazy river with the same crystal clear waters as the Lagoon.

There are unique rock formations covered in living organisms, , that you need to be quite careful of not to damage.

There was live music. We enjoyed our day and would recommend. Come early (especially if you're coming on the weekend) and want a spot on the water.

02/27/2023

Mexico Yucatan- Road Trip on a Budget

Tulum to Bacalar and Sailing on the Balacar Lagoon

Onward!

We hopped back in the car for an easy 2.5 hour drive to Bacalar.

Bacalar Lagoon is known as the Lagoon of 7 Colors for its crystal clear freshwaters.

We splurged on a private sunset sail that took us around the lagoon: Cenote Negra, Bird Island and Pirate Cove.

The Lagoon is getting a bit overpopulated with tourists, which has the potential to put this fragile ecosystem at risk

If you travel to Bacalar, I'd recommend booking a sail instead of a motor boat tour (the exhaust contaminates the lagoon) and to book a stay that is nestled in trees (there is a lot of clear cutting of mangroves to make way for new properties, which, is not good for the lagoon.

We stayed at Zensus, a small boutique property that had really yummy breakfasts and ran ~$100/nt

02/27/2023

Mexican Yucatan Trip Report

Coba!

Our initial plan was to go to the Sian Na'an Biosphere Reserve.

But, it was too windy.

We decided on Coba with a tentative plan to go to a cenote after.

Coba was an hour drive from Tulum

Bring Mexican Pesos as cash is needed to pay for parking, entrance and to rent bikes.

Entrance: $5/person
Parking: $4
Bike Rental: $3/person

Coba is unique in that it is very spread out and you can rent bikes to get from site to site (there are 3 main areas).

We enjoyed the combo of biking/site visits.

We didn't hire a guide, so likely lost a lot of the context of the site. Guides we're available to hire at the entrance for 1,500 pesos (cash) or less than $10

02/25/2023

Mexican Yucatan on a Budget

Trip Report- Tulum

Where to Stay:
This was our first trip to Tulum. There are two main areas to stay.
1) Along the beach in the Hotel Zone.
2) Properties by Ave. 7


We stayed by Ave 7 and paid ~$100. ()

Parking was easy, we could walk to restaurants and landed in the right part of Tulum for us.

The manager of our hotel was helping with restaurant and "things to do" recommendations.

The hotel zone had more of a Vegas vibe, with fancy restaurants and clubs.

02/25/2023

Mexican Yucatan on a Budget

Trip Report #3

Renting a car in Mexico

We wanted to get of the All Inclusive hotel zones for this trip (we've been to Mexico over a dozen times, but typically we are on a resort the whole time, we wanted to experience the Mexican culture and get a bit more local)

Car rental it was!

We rented from Avis Car Rental at the Cancun airport and it was SO easy.

So many times it feels like it takes forever to get your car, listen to a sales pitch in upgrades and get going. This was not our experience with Avis.

I speak Spanish and booked on their Mexican site. All the cars include Liability insurance on the.mx site and our credit card provides additional coverage.

All told, we paid $150 for a 6 day rental (a very small economy, manual car)

We still need to return the car, so more later.

02/25/2023

Mexican Yucatan on a budget; Trip Report 2

Did I mention we scored a FREE airfare deal on Frontier from Chicago to Cancun?

What is the catch?

Frontier Airlines is the catch.

The seats are tiny.

You pay for EVERYTHING

Since this trip wasn't in our annual budget, we went as cheep as we could.

This means NO bags, just a "personal item"

But; you may be surprised at how much you can fit into an 18"x8" bag.

I brought:
*Packable down jacket
* Lightweight cardigan
* 4 tank tops
* 3 T-shirts
*1 joggers
*1 pajama pants
*1 shorts
*1 skirt
*1 swimsuit
*1cover-up
*Hat
*Chocos
*Toiletries
*Laptop (I still needed to do some work)
*Kindle

I did wear some of this on the plane; but the key is packing cubes!

I using a Lululemon tote bag, my hubs has a travel backpack and that is the way to go. (Getting that weight onto two shoulders vs one is so much better for your back)

02/25/2023

Trip Report!

When Frontier Airlines hit my in box with a "Free Air fair" (meaning you only had to pay the required taxes and fees) offer, I scooped it up, not knowing if we were going to be able to figure out if we could get away or not. Worst case, we were out ~$120/ticket. Best case, we get out of the Wisconsin winter and enjoy the Mexican sun.

With a partner who is a firefighter, being my own boss and grandparents who are willing to set in, we are lucky that we can make trips like this happen!

We fled the winter storm warning, and headed to soak up the sun.

Budget travel tip- if you're willing to fly the budget carriers, sign up for their email lists. Deals like the one we got aren't available for long and are released to their email lists

12/13/2022

Travel Alert! How COOL would it be to take your kids to Ecuador?

Explore the Amazon Rain Forest?
See the very center of the world?

I studied abroad in Ecuador and it is an incredible place. Learn about indigenous cultures, experience one of the most biodiverse places in our beautiful globe.

All for $1,099 (including air!)
Check it out:
https://www.gate1travel.com/thedeal/221212/ecuador.aspx...
And no, I'm not affiliated with Gate1 in any way, other than having traveled with them in the past.