 I was recently preparing for my adventure in Costa Rica and realized I was quickly running out of time to get everything done. I got super busy a couple weeks before, between life and work and I procrastinated more than usual, making my week before a fun vacation, much more stressful than it needed to be.
Because of my experience, I wanted to check in and have you ask yourself, "Are you prepared for your next trip?" Unfortunately, for many people (including myself), the answer is no. Why? Because it’s more than just packing a bag, and taking off. It’s okay though, I have you covered! Below are a few things you simply cannot forget to do before you travel. Hopefully, it will inspire you to create a to-do list before your next trip, so you can relax knowing everything has been taken care of...
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 I am currently on an adventure in Europe... and I always get so excited to explore foreign lands, as I love learning about other cultures and our history!! It gets me thinking how powerful travel can be when it comes to meeting new people and discovering new experiences. Does travel create better humans? That's the exact question that a study by Contiki tours recently posed. The company believes that “life's greatest lessons are learned through travel.” Therefore, it's no surprise that this company decided to do this study to prove what they believe. Below you'll find some of the results of their research, and it may just inspire you to take your children on a trip abroad sometime this year! What Contiki Concluded From Their Study:
People who travel tend to have higher self-esteem, and are more willing to think outside of the box when it comes to how to solve problems. Those who travel also have better satisfaction in their relationships. They’re more likely to seek out new friendships, and tend to donate more time and money to their communities than non-travelers. Bottom line: Travel helps make for more well-rounded individuals. And, when you start traveling from a young age, you are better able to cement these positive traits within yourself. However, you don’t have to take our word, or Contiki’s word for it. You can test out these positive conclusions for yourself simply by adding more travel to your life. Call Destinations HD at (913) 244-9195 today. We’ll help you design the perfect trip to expand your mind, and open you up to the positive power of travel! Experiences Await...
 We are under way into the new year already, but there is still time to act on your resolutions, or even if you're just looking to improve your 2018. If you’re like most people, one of your annual desires is to travel more. Let 2018 be the year that you act on this goal! Set the intention to go on new journeys, break out of routines, and finally explore more of all this world has to offer. Learn why it's so important to travel (even if it's just a local trip, away from your daily routine)... As the Huffington Post reported, traveling can make you happier, give you a boost to your self-confidence, lets you make new friends, and actually helps you appreciate your family and home a lot more. In our daily lives, we have so many responsibilities. When we’re traveling though, it’s all about relaxing and enjoying every moment. We can press pause, and tune into what we really need and want. Have you ever noticed how when you’re on vacation, you seem to have extra energy? You wake up early, you eat when you’re hungry, and you do what feels good. It’s because you don’t have anything pressing on your mind. All you are required to do is have fun, see some interesting things, and take it all in on your schedule. You also get introduced to new cultures and experiences. One of the reasons you get such a boost in self-confidence from traveling is because of those new things. You see that you can handle more than you may have originally thought. You will also witness first hand that no matter where you go in the world, everyone is struggling with something. We’re all just trying to live our best lives and have as much fun as possible along the way. Breaking out of your routine and traveling more can give you so many revelations, understanding and patience! What is it about travel that makes you appreciate family and home more?! Well, that one’s easy. Absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say. In some cases you’ll realize how good you have it, and see others spending time with their families which will prompt you to want more intimate time with your own. Think about it - doesn’t your bed feel extra comfortable when you get home from a trip? There are so many amazing reasons that people should make travel more of a priority in their lives. Are you ready to make it more of a priority for you? You deserve some new journeys, and we can help you have them! Call Destinations HD at (913) 244-9195 today, and we’ll put you on the path of finally crossing some of those dream destinations off of your bucket list! Experiences Await...
 ow that it's almost February and the busy holidays are well and truly over, I thought we'd talk about how to transition back into the daily work routine. If you are anything like me, when you get back from vacation, it's hard to get right back into work. You are swamped with projects and e-mails that piled up while you were gone, and all you want to do is get back to the destination you just left. So, how do you get out of vacation mode after taking a week, two weeks, or even longer off of work? 1. Prioritize: Think first about your top priorities. Sometimes just thinking about your priorities, and the consequences of letting them slip is all it takes to get your head back in the game. Consider what dropping the ball will mean for you. If you don't snap back into work mode, will you...
Some people come back from vacation and simply feel like they don't want to be at work. As a result, they start acting like it, and using vocabulary like "overwhelmed" and "stress." These words become self-fulfilling prophecies, and are not going to help you do what you need to get done. Instead, change your vocabulary to words like, “I choose to,” or “I want to” do whatever your tasks are. Even if you're lying to yourself, saying it out loud will trick your brain into being in a more positive state making your tasks ahead easier to undertake. 3. Get organized, and start over: If the first hour or even the entire first day back to work didn't turn out as productive as you would have liked, get organized and try again. Take out a piece of paper, and write down everything you know you need to do. Then, organize the list of items in the order of importance and try again. Having a starting point is often all one really needs to get things rolling again. 4. Think about your last vacation, and use it as a motivator for the next one! Now, just because you have to get back into work mode right now, doesn't mean you can't relish in the memories of the vacation you were just on. Give yourself five minutes here and there to zone out, and go back mentally to the destination you left. Then, think about how much fun your next one will be, and use the momentum from that excitement to give you the energy to get your work tasks done. In fact, you should go on a mental vacation a few times a day. Force yourself to do an hour of uninterrupted work, then give yourself five-minute breaks before you start the next task. Before you know it, you'll be laser focused, knocking out your list, and getting ready for another vacation. We hope this helps you get out of vacation mode and back to work! Then, when you're ready for your next getaway, call Destinations HD at (913) 244-9195. We look forward to helping you plan another escape! Experiences Await...   I'm in Jamaica right now doing resort site inspections and about to return home tomorrow. I'm realizing I really need to plan an actual vacation for myself :) Follow me on Instagram or Facebook to get some inspiration for your upcoming vacation plans - I've seen some amazing resorts this trip! As I enjoy the 85 degrees on my last day in paradise, not wanting to go home, it inspired me to write about a common question I receive when planning vacations: How many days should you vacation? Believe it or not, the number of days might be longer than you expect. There's been a considerable amount of argument over the years, but thanks to a scientific study out of Finland, we have a science based answer to this age-old question. Spoiler alert: It's 8-days! The study, as reported in Inc.com, stated that a Finnish university followed people on vacation throughout the entirety of their getaways. They measured “highs and lows of their happiness and satisfaction as their vacations progressed. The researchers discovered that vacation-related joy didn't climb ever upward as tourists' tans deepened and work receded to a distant memory. In contrast, happiness peaked after eight days away.” The article went onto say that “The idea that a little more than a week is the perfect vacation length sits well with other seasoned vacationers.” Consider this – the first day of a vacation never truly feels like an actual vacation. Why? Because it's mostly filled with transportation. This is especially true if you're going overseas where there are not only time-zone changes, but also changes in altitude, multiple hours (if not days) of flying, and potential culture shock on arrival. The last day presents the same challenges – it's at least another full day of travel. So, before you have even actually started your trip, you're deducting two days from your actual time on your vacation. This is why three and four day vacations may seem like a decent idea in theory for a long weekend or a short getaway, but won't actually provide you with any real time at most destinations. It permits you merely enough time to leave work and come back without really enjoying the place you traveled too. Sadly, this leaves many vacationers feeling duped, or like they didn't get to see enough of or do enough in their dream destination. Conde Nast Traveler recommends that you add even more time to your vacation days if you will be jumping multiple time zones. How much more time? They recommend an extra day for every time zone you travel through. While this is impractical for most people, it is a good idea to still consider that your body will need time to adjust to a massive time change. It's kind of like how many of us feel off the week after daylight savings time ends or begins – the body has to get used to the change. By the eight-day Finnish study logic, you should still be able to see at least some of the city you're traveling to, and enjoy yourself while you're at it. Are you ready to plan your eight day (or longer) getaway?! We'd love to help you create the perfect trip, so you can truly rejuvenate and enjoy yourself, just give me a call at (913) 244-9195. Experiences Await...
 Fall is my favorite time of year with October being my most favorite - mostly because Halloween is near (and many of you know how excited I get for this holiday!!) Not only is it getting busy planning for the upcoming holidays (whether you are traveling, hosting or both), but travel planning can become overwhelming as you try to coordinate all the holiday events and kid's schedules, in addition to organizing your holiday or winter vacation(s). Think about the last time you went on a vacation. Did you really escape? When you returned home were you just as exhausted before you left? If you're like a lot of people, you took off, and got back just as stressed as you were prior to your departure. The number one cause of not full enjoying a vacation? It's a tie between dealing with stressful situations that came up on your trip, and not leaving the stress of life back home at home. With that in mind, here are some simple tips for taking the stress out of travel. Create a plan to execute, but be okay with ditching the plan. Make a list of everything you need to bring with you on your trip, and then pack. Just this trick alone can save you loads of stress. Rather than worrying if you forgot something, you'll have peace of mind because you took time to think about what you needed instead of going about packing haphazardly. Make a list of the places you want to see and visit on your trip. This is where being willing to ditch the plan comes in. Too many people create an itinerary, and then feel they have to commit to it causing them to do and see things that didn't keep the fun going. If you get to a museum and suddenly realize they bore you to tears, you don't have to go to any other museums if you don't want to! Consider this your permission slip. Get everywhere early. Flights, dinner reservations, shows and games – what do they all have in common? They generally have a time attached to them. Give yourself plenty of buffer time to arrive everywhere you need to be. Nothing ruins a vacation faster than missed flights and late arrivals to important events. Intend to be on vacation. Okay, this one might sound silly, but you need to have the mindset to be on vacation. This means not checking in at work, or working at all while on the vacation. Going into a vacation with the intention of letting everything at home stay at home can work wonders for your stress levels. Your body and mind needs this escape, so allow yourself to actually get away completely! Go to sleep, and sleep at least 8 hours every night. This tip may shock you, but one of the reasons travelers come home even more exhausted and stressed, is they try to pack too much into their schedule while away, and they barely sleep. Yes, a getaway is exciting, but you'll enjoy it more with a good night's sleep each night. The final tip is to hire a travel agent. When you work with a travel agent to coordinate and schedule your travel accommodations and transportation, you're allowing them to take some of the work off your plate for you. If anything goes wrong or need changes - you have someone to call that works for you, so you can get back to enjoying your trip. For your next trip, call Destinations HD at (913) 244-9195. You don't have to spend countless hours creating your perfect trip – that's our job! Let us handle the heavy lifting for you, so that all you have to do is show up.
 I just returned from an amazing Alaska and Vancouver experience and can't wait to upload my photos to our Facebook photo albums to share. If you haven't done this trip yet, call me so we can get you there next season. It was incredible!! Since we cruised after the kids are back in school, it was more of an adult experience which started a group discussion about traveling with kids; and is an easy leeway to our topic... The decision of whether or not to bring your children on your next vacation can be a difficult one. How can you decide if it should be an adult only trip, or a family getaway? Although the decision will ultimately be a personal one that is up to you, here are a few things you may want to consider when planning your next trip:
 As you start thinking about the upcoming school year and scheduling all the vaccines and upcoming flu shots to help protect against illness - many don't realize that taking vacation time can also improve your health. Here's a sobering statistic – more than half of Americans likely didn't take all of their vacation days in 2016 according to CNN. That makes this fact a little more understandable unfortunately – in countless studies it has been found that a majority of Americans say they're stressed at work. We all know that stress can lead to illness and other health issues. Traveling and taking all of our vacation days is critical for reducing stress and maintaining better health overall. Let's explore why travel is good for your health... The body and mind need a break and travel is the only thing that helps you truly get away. When you get up, go to work, work hard, stay late, barely eat, then come home – you're usually exhausted. And, your day is probably not over yet. Then there's the kids' extracurricular activities, cooking dinner, doing the chores – on and on it goes, leaving you desperate for a break. However, the trouble with simply taking a day off from work, is that most people don't take their vacation days to relax. They fill them up with other responsibilities – doctor's appointments, renewing licenses, stops to the post office, etc… Traveling allows you the chance to stop worrying about all of that other stuff. Getting away from it all is the only way to, well, get away from it all. When you're in another city, or country you can't do all those errands. You have to focus on the one thing you've been craving all along – relaxation! Relaxing replenishes your batteries inside and out. You'll give your mood a boost. Travel improves our emotional state too. When our emotions are elevated, our cells regenerate faster, and we become healthier as a result. If the mind and body are in a constant state of fight or flight, it will become fatigued, breaking down our immune systems and our willpower to find the positive side to things. The best part of traveling to take that critical break? There's a residual effect – long after you return, you'll still be feeling happy about your trip. Why? You'll likely have pictures of the escape, and that will transport your mind back to the happy place, and hence your happy state. Many aspects of your health will improve thanks to traveling. Forbes Magazine reported that “Active travel is proven to lower health risks such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, depression levels and more, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee.” Travel improves the health of your relationships too. As Passport Health says, “It’s common knowledge that travel helps to bring people together by building lifelong memories. Couples are strongly and positively affected by trips taken together. More than 75 percent of adults credit travel with improving their interpersonal relationships. Studies show family travel can also significantly reduce behavioral problems and illness in children.” Bottom line – Travel improves your mental, physical and emotional health simply by allowing you to take a break from the daily stresses of life. So, what are you waiting for? Isn't it about time you planned a getaway for the sake of your health? We think so! When you do, we hope you'll think of Destinations HD. Call us at (913) 244-9195 today, and let us help you create the vacation of your dreams!
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 For many travelers, health is the last thing on their minds when traveling. However, it's important to consider how your actions while traveling can affect you upon returning home. The last thing you, or your boss for that matter, wants is for you to return worse off than when you left only to request sick days after your vacation. Below you will find some tips for staying healthy when traveling, and the best part is it may help you enjoy your trip even more! Watch What You Eat I know, I know! You're on vacation. I'm not saying don't indulge, but I am saying don't over indulge. Sure, have some carbs. And of course, have that second glass of wine. Just be mindful of the fact that if you go too overboard with the indulgence you could pay the price that day, the next day, or worse – the entire trip. There are few things as depressing as having a hangover while you're away, and missing out on the fun. Plus, when we are used to eating and drinking a certain way, our bodies can react negatively to overdoing it with the heavier and more sugary food and drinks than it's used to. It might not be food poisoning, it could just be your body rejecting the junk it's not used to. TIP: Pineapple is a natural diuretic, so enjoy those Piña colada's in moderation. Move Your Body When you're traveling, it's important to get in a little exercise. The good news is, you will probably be walking a lot more than you would at home. However, if you have been too sedentary for a while, i.e. flights that last 14 hours going overseas, get the blood flowing as soon as possible. Some experts even suggest taking a walk on the plane if you will be flying for more than a few hours. Get Sleep – Seven to Eight Hours Minimum Do yourself a favor and don't stay up late and get up early everyday of your trip. Yes, there may be a lot you want to see and do on your trip, but not getting enough sleep wreaks havoc on your immune system. Sleep recharges your batteries, allows healthy cell regeneration, and allows you to be more present during your waking hours. Drink More Water Water is the best thing you can be drinking when traveling (and when you're at home). It flushes toxins, re-hydrates your body, aids in digestion, boosts your mood, keeps you more awake than coffee – just trust me, water is awesome! Drink plenty of it. If you will be walking a lot, or will be in warmer climates, you'll need to drink more to stay hydrated enough as well. De-hydration is the number one cause of jetlag, and water is the best way to flight back on long flights. Sanitize Don't forget to bring hand sanitizer and wipes with you. I like to wipe down my seat area on the plane - you never know what happened there before you (I have seen some very unpleasant things). I also keep my hand sanitizer close after touching all the germy luggage, doors, bathroom stalls, etc... This is far from an exhaustive list of ways to stay healthy while traveling. Hopefully, it's got you thinking about some ways you can help yourself though. May your vacations be long, your transits hassle free, and your bodies be healthy. Experiences Await...
 Not to get morbid on you, but let's talk about dying for just a moment. Recently, a few acquaintances have gone through unexpected deaths in their life, which got us all thinking about how we need to live and enjoy our life now. One of the most common regrets among people when they fall ill is that they didn't travel more. For just a moment, I want you to really think about this question: How many times have you said to yourself “I want to travel to (fill in the blank)” only to follow it up with “I can't afford it” or “Maybe someday”? What if someday never comes? There is a saying going around social media right now that goes something like this “It is better to have a lifetime of memories, than one filled with regrets.” Going on frequent vacations may strike you as a self-indulgence, but the truth is by not traveling you are doing yourself a disservice. People who travel have a better overall sense of well-being, are more productive at work, enjoy better relationships, have less stress and are more satisfied with their lives than those who don't travel. It may feel like too expensive of an investment, but this is also a gross inaccuracy that has kept far too many individuals from traveling. Yes, when American Express released the statistic that the average vacation for a family of four costs just over $4,600 that was a true statement, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, there are several vacations you can take for far less than that. Even for trips further away that cost higher, there are ways to make your vacation more affordable. Here are just two:
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