Making travel more affordable is one of our top goals, but it requires the development of habits and muscles to really start saving money. There are also layers of understanding that will come as you see how those saving decisions fit with the travel life you want.

AirFly to the rescue! The AirFly device plugs into any aux. port and acts as a Bluetooth bridge so you can enjoy your travel entertainment with only your wireless headphones.

We are always refining our travel ‘kit’ and have tried a lot of different products, but are always trying to overcome some travel inconvenience, or comfort issue.

This list of See Love Fly’s 2023 Travel Essentials includes some old favorites, and some new surprises tried out on a recent trip to Scandinavia.  

It’s hard to choose poorly in the Cotswold’s – the whole area is completely charming and each little town offers something remarkable.

Some towns to look at: Asthall, Snowshill, Broadway, Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter, Upper Slaughter, Painswick, Burford, Castle Combe and Stow-on-the-Wold are all great choices for lodging and basecamp.

Kids are unique, and the way they preserve their memories of travel is unique also, including not preserving them at all. Let them discover the way that works for them.

“Customs” is short hand for process of legally allowing you entry into another country. If you need a passport to visit the country, you will be going through Customs. This is usually another check point in the airport/cruise ship/border crossing station process. If you’ve gone through a TSA security check point as part of air travel in the US, the Customs process it will be very similar.

The largest bronze buddha was housed in one of the world’s largest wood structures. I thought it would be big, but it was mind boggling big.

As I began to travel more and found myself looking for products to make certain parts of the travel process more comfortable, I kept stumbling across Travel pants. I furrowed my brow a bit and thought, “These look like just pants, what makes them so special?”

We’ve never been to Japan and are excited to dive into a completely different culture. I’ve been reading the Fodors Guide to Japan all month and as I flipped through the bible paper thin pages of microscopic text I realized that just about everything I know about Japan has come from movies and TV.

Our 16-year-old teen daughter learned a lot – not just about the places and the people we visited, but little things that make life more functional like how to navigate putting your passport somewhere you can reach it quickly, or paying attention to addresses and train numbers so you know what’s happening and can get around.

We drove out to Sudeley Castle via a series of small roads that wound us through dozens of small villages and rolling farm lands bordered by stone fences and hedgerows. It was incredibly picturesque! At every turn we expected to see Emma and Mr. Knightly walking across the pastures.

As I was standing in the Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral with my mouth hanging open, another visitor popped out of a side entrance and paused – his mouth hanging open just as wide as mine. He met my eye, grinned and said, “Well, my gob has totally been smacked!”

She was really struck with one piece that was a tower of audio devices that started with a base of old radios and ended a the top with bluetooth speakers. As she walked away she said, “..it kind of freaks me out when I look at it, but I like it.”

Urged forward by a bitingly cold wind, we arrived just in the nick of time at the Globe where our gregarious actor/tour guide was laying the scene of London in the 1500’s. Seeing the Globe was fabulous, and our guide was funny, informative, and deeply invested. 

Room after room blew me away. Huge artifacts filled huge, seemingly endless, spaces. After many surprises startling me in ever room I started wondering if the next room would contain the Lost Tribe of Isreal, the UFO from the Roswell crash site, and maybe Napoleon’s mummified remains.

The ruins were in phenomenal shape. Dating from 60 AD and in use for 400 years – the extensive complex of pools fed from one of England’s only consistent hot springs.

There was a track that lead up the hill to a 5000 year old tomb that had contained 36 bodies. At some point up the track our teenaged daughter asked in a slightly sarcastic and dry tone, “Why are we walking up this hill to see a mound of dirt?”

If you stood in the midst of the boulevard of stones on the crest overlooking the approach to the great nested circles of stones sitting in a huge earthworks henge and looked north you’d spot the enormous Uffington White Horse decorating the distant hillside. If you looked to the south you’d see the Silbury Hill – one of the tallest man-made hills.

We got back to the village just in time for the pub to fire up the kitchen and the hearth. The fish and chips came with the ever notorious minted mashed peas. I kind of enjoyed it. Kinda.

The drive into The Cotswolds, through little tiny villages such as Birdlip, the Slough, and Stow were stunning! Perfect forests, old rustic stone buildings, handmade fences, and beautiful gardens were everywhere!