TrekSimple

13/03/2024

Ever see people out taking EPIC hikes and wonder how they built that skill? Is long(er) distance hiking just for mountain goats and travel influencers? The answer is a resounding NO! Two phenomenal women, Rachel of Perfectly Practical College Degree Planning and Jess of The Fioneers share their hiking journeys with us.

The more I travel, the more I want to see cool things in nature, and in particular explore national parks and similar sites around the world. Hand in hand with this, I aspire to level up my hiking …

28/09/2023

2023 Bucket List travels, part 2!

If you haven’t already read Part I of this post, go check it out, and come back here. In April, I had some family come to visit and we had a little staycation at a favorite place of mine in Fort La…

08/07/2023

New post! 🪣🗒️

Holy moly, I’ve officially become one of those bloggers who goes months at a time without a post. Well, I have good reason – I’ve been busy packing about three years’ worth of “bucket list” activit…

27/05/2023

Let's talk about backpacking and packing light. We've touched on these topics before (see list of articles at the end), but it's useful to have a comprehensive visual. Note that when I say backpacking, I don't mean hiking and camping, Hobbit-style under hedgerows. I simply mean traveling for more than a week out of a backpack, which is totally doable in Spring and Summer....

Let’s talk about backpacking and packing light. We’ve touched on these topics before (see list of articles at the end), but it’s useful to have a comprehensive visual. Note that w…

02/11/2022

What are your favorite travel foods? New post is up on a few of mine. 🍪🍰🍣

Have you ever visited an area and became so enamored with a particular food or drink that your new mission was to find it everywhere you go in that place, and again when you get home? Food has an i…

22/10/2022

By popular demand, here's what we did to see the Northern Lights in Norway!

When you ask people what’s on their travel bucket list, many say they’d like to see the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, a natural “light show” caused by disturbances on the sun …

04/06/2022

Maggie has been working on this one for a while. A long, weekend read about the time in 2016 she went to Cuba - and Fidel Castro died.

Travel enough and you’ll experience some interesting things, but for me one event trumps all others, considering I’ve lived in South Florida now longer than anywhere else.  I was in Havana, Cu…

03/05/2022

A huge thank you to The Fat & Broke Podcast for having Maggie and Caren on to discuss our philosophy, plus tips and tricks on all things travel! Check it out on your favorite podcast platform.

Show Summary: Have you noticed that everyone else's vacations seem way better than yours? Is your social media feed filled with perfectly posed sunset h…

10/04/2022

08/04/2022

Though the intensity may differ from person to person, you can be sure that everyone you meet is driven by two primal urges: the need to feel safe and secure, and the need to feel in control. If you satisfy those drives, you’re in the door. Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It…...

http://treksimple.com/2022/04/08/negotiating-your-vacation-rental-property-price/

Though the intensity may differ from person to person, you can be sure that everyone you meet is driven by two primal urges: the need to feel safe and secure, and the need to feel in control. If yo…

05/04/2022

Tulips are in bloom in NC! 💐 An early morning trip to the Duke Gardens did not disappoint. One of the best things about these gardens is that they are FREE, aside from a $2 per hour parking fee. Go early to beat the crowds and score a close parking spot, and for 4 bucks you can see most of the highlights of the gardens if you're a quick walker. For those with accessibility needs, it looks like they're resuming golf cart "trolley" tours this spring.

Duke Gardens includes 55 acres of specialty gardens: butterfly garden, carnivorous plant bog, moss garden, Asiatic arboretum, a discovery garden for kids, native plants, fish pools, waterfalls, rose garden, meadows for picnicking, and more. Operating hours are 8am to dusk, 365 days a year. Dogs are allowed before 10am and after 5pm.

From the southwestern edge of the gardens, a short, 5-minute walk will take you to the center of the Duke University campus, where the chapel and surrounding buildings are very Hogwarts-y. We'll show you around in another post!

16/02/2022

Holy moly, we made it to Joe's Mom's Basement and were featured on the Greatest Money Show on Earth, the Stacking Benjamins podcast! Maggie's interview about recent National Park Service travel is at the 36 minute mark.

Yosemite National Park Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Dry Tortugas National Park

What are your biggest goals for this year? What do you want to accomplish? Today we’re giving you some inspiration from other Stackers in our community. It’s our potpourri episode where we get to hear from YOU and the great things you all are working on. We have three great guests for you today:...

15/03/2021

Good morning! ☀️ Anyone else hate adjusting to time changes as much as I do?

Most areas of the U.S. are subjected to involuntary time changes, like the one that may be hitting you hard today, good old “Spring Forward” into Daylight Savings Time, where we lose an hour of our…

27/02/2021

The more I thought about it, the better a solo trip seemed.

I celebrated my 40th birthday with a solo trip earlier this month to the Big Island of Hawaii. It was fantastic and the best thing I could have done. Here’s how that decision-making process took pl…