221: Chickasaw Country and Oklahoma City Road Trip Travel
Vacation Mavens
Tamara has finally made it to her 50th state...Oklahoma!! She took an Oklahoma road trip to visit both Oklahoma City and Chickasaw Country in south-central Oklahoma, in partnership with Chickasaw Country and the Chickasaw Nation. Oklahoma City has a lot to offer as a stand-alone destination including the First Americans Museum and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Tamara stayed at the aLoft hotel in Bricktown, which is the entertainment district with plenty of restaurants, bars, shops, and the minor league baseball stadium and water taxis. If you are interested in learning more...
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220: African Safaris
Vacation Mavens
Tamara is hosting an all-women small group trip to Portugal this fall and she would love for you to join her! . Did you know that Kim has been on safaris in four African countries? Today she shares some great tips that will help you decide where you might want to go, understand the differences between various safari experiences, and provide some advice for planning an African safari trip. You can read more about a few of Kim's safari experiences here:
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219: German Christmas Markets Trip
Vacation Mavens
Tamara is hosting an all-women small group trip to Portugal this fall and she would love for you to join her! . In this episode, Tamara talks about her two-week German Christmas Markets road trip! If you have this magical holiday trip on your radar, make sure to give this episode a close listen and check out the following articles:
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Barge and River Cruising Through France
Vacation Mavens
Before we say goodbye to summer and pull on our flannels and break out the pumpkin spice, Tamara and Kim are back with a recap of Tamara's European summer travels including a month spent exploring France by river and barge cruise! Tamara first spent two weeks in the United Kingdom, on a road trip through both Scotland and Wales with two other travel writers. She then took the Eurostar down to France and spent one week cruising through the Canal Nivernais on the Hotel Barge Elisabeth. Next, she went to Bordeaux and her husband joined her for a weeklong river cruise with AmaWaterways. Tamara...
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217: Scottsdale and Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka)
Vacation Mavens
Well it has been a minute since we had a chance to catch up and record a podcast but in this episode Tamara shares her insights and experience from her recent family trip to Japan. Kim and Tamara also share their love for Scottsdale, Arizona and some of the things they did on a girls' trip together. Read more at: Tamara also talked about her time in Paso Robles, California. You can read her to get inspired to visit this wine region. Kim attended conferences in Walt Disney World (read her tips for using DVC points to ), Disney Land, and San Antonio. She also took a family cruise to...
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216: Ireland and Northern Ireland
Vacation Mavens
Kim took a last minute spring break trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland with her younger daughter and this week on the podcast, she tells us all about it! She flew into Dublin and then stay at a country estate hotel in Northern Ireland before visiting Belfast, the Causeway Coast, Derry/Londonderry, and Galway before looping back to Dublin. See Kim's articles on: Ireland Trip Highlights: in Northern Ireland Belfast - Titanic Belfast and city architecture - Carrick-a-Rede bridge, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle in Derry - walk the walls around the city Galway - Kim...
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215 Oceanside Disneyland California
Vacation Mavens
Spring break is almost here and on this episode Kim and Tamara share their experience on a girls' trip in Oceanside, California and then their mother-daughter trip to Disneyland with their girls. If you want some inspiration for a SoCal getaway, be sure to listen in!
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214 Northern Italy + Big Announcement
Vacation Mavens
Happy New Year! We are back and apologize for taking so long to release a new episode. Moving forward, we will strive to have one episode a month to share our travels and tips, as we continue to each put more time into our respective websites. But first, Tamara has a big announcement and that is that she is hosting a women-only small group trip to Iceland in September 2023! You can get all the information on and she really hopes that some listeners will be able to join! Note that there is a discount of 15,000 ISK if you register by January 15, 2023. Next Tamara tells us all about her...
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213: Glacier Country, Montana
Vacation Mavens
This episode is sponsored by Glacier Country Tourism. All opinions are our own. This week, Tamara shares what it is like to visit Glacier Country, Montana on a girls' trip and Kim shares her thoughts on this scenic part of Northwestern Montana. From Missoula to Whitefish, Kalispell to Glacier National Park -- if Montana is on your bucket list, give this episode a listen! Read more: Things to do in Glacier Country, Montana Glacier Country is a tourism region of Northwestern Montana that covers eight counties To get to Glacier Country you can fly into Missoula or Glacier Airport in Kalispell,...
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212: Summer Travel Catch Up
Vacation Mavens
We are back from our summer travel and packed a whole lot into a one episode recap! We apologize in advance for some audio difficulties on this one, especially after taking so long to get it live. Thanks for hanging in there with us! On this episode we cover Tamara's summer trips to: Nantucket (read her ) New Brunswick, Canada (, , and ) Prince Edward Island, Canada () Sailing on the And Kim shares about her adventures: Mediterranean cruise on Costa Cruise Lines () Gorilla trekking in Uganda Alaskan cruise on Holland America Graduation trip to Disney World and Universal Orlando ()
info_outlineIf you are starting to feel a little stir crazy at home and missing travel, plan a travel theme night. This week on the podcast we chat with Katja Gaskell from Globetotting about how her family is spending their Friday nights dressing up and cooking recipes from different countries. Kim and Tamara also share some fun ideas for family movie nights.
ON THE PODCAST
00:30 - Sponsor - Comrad Socks
01:30 - Talking with Kim and Tamara about their quarantine
08:47 - Talking with Katja Gaskell
10:40 - Themed dinners
24:03 - Keeping kids entertained
30:08 - Katja’s favorite travel gear
34:05 - Future trips for Katja and her family
ABOUT OUR SPONSOR
This episode is sponsored by Comrad Socks. Comrad compression socks are an essential no serious traveler should board a flight without — at least on LA-NY or transoceanic segments — and makes a major difference in how your legs and feet feel during the flight, upon arrival, and the next day. Their aim is to make the best, most stylish, comfortable version of what’s traditionally been a boring but useful product—and that’s why travel customers that already know and wear compression are getting excited about. Receive 20% off your first using discount code VACATIONMAVENS.
ABOUT KATJA GASKELL
Katja Gaskell is the Founder of globetotting.com, a website for adventurous family travel. She is a firm believer that you can – and should! – take your children everywhere and anywhere no matter what age they are. She currently lives in London with her husband and three children, after nearly 12 years living abroad in Australia, India and Mexico. Katja has also written across a range of titles for Lonely Planet guidebooks and tried and tested luxury hotels for the British boutique hotel guide Mr & Mrs Smith.
Follow Katja on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
TIPS FOR KEEPING TRAVEL IN YOUR QUARANTINED LIFE
- To keep the travel vibe alive even when staying home, consider planning a theme night.
- Choose a country and then cook or bring in food from that cuisine.
- You may consider dressing up or adding a family movie about or from that area to make it even more fun.
- Themes Katja and her family have done for their themed Friday dinners:
- Mexican theme with fish tacos for the meal. Her daughter dressed up in a skeleton decorated dress to be La Catrina. Who is one of the most recognizable symbols of The Day of the Dead celebrations, she is a tall female skeleton that wears a fancy hat with feathers. Her son dressed up as a lucha libre, which is a term used in Mexico for professional wrestling. If you don’t already know they wear unique masks with different colors. Katja dressed up as Frida Kahlo, who is a Mexican painter known for her portraits, with a headdress from a previous costume and a Mexican scarf. Her husband dressed up as a mariachi band member. Then their youngest dressed up as a princess, which may not be Mexican but was still fun.
- India theme with fish curry, samosas and aloo gobi, which is a dish made of potato and cauliflower. Dressing up was harder, since they didn’t already have items that went with the theme, but they decided to find some Bollywood movie posters and recreated them.
- Any theme you come up with can work. It could be based on places that you’ve been, on seasons, places you want to go, color, movies, etc. Make it something that your family will enjoy.
- If you have a family that is not into dressing up so much, you can just focus your theme around the food you have for your meal. If you have kids that are a bit older, you can make it so everyone has to make a dish for the meal.
- Take turns with control of the TV if you can. If it’s not your night and you don’t want to watch what someone else is you can go do something else that night.
- Depending on how you like to work, you can create a bit of structure for your kids by making a list or a schedule of different activities to do during the day.
- Quarantine tip for Katja: wear a pair of jeans at least once a week!
FAVORITE TRAVEL GEAR
Katja loves to be comfortable and wear jeans along with her Stan Smith Sneakers, and a long cardigan.
MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST
Frozen Dinner Theme - Stuffed Suitcase
Big Hero 6 Theme - Stuffed Suitcase
Beauty and the Beast Theme - Stuffed Suitcase
Vacation Planning for Kids - We3Travel
FOLLOW US AND SPREAD THE WORD!
If you liked this show, please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and leave us a review! Have a question or comment? Send us an email at [email protected]. You can also follow our travels on Stuffed Suitcase and We3Travel, or follow the Vacation Mavens on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for listening!