Are you going on a last minute end of summer trip?

Can y’all believe it is August already?! I don’t know about y’all, but we are squeezing in our last “summer” vacation (really just our last vacation of the year that does not involve work directly… sort of anyway!) next week and I wanted to share some travel planning/packing tips that have come in super helpful in the days before a trip, especially one where you will be gone for longer than 4-5 days.

Our trip involves a plane, ship, and 2 countries! We are flying to Seattle and going on a 7 day cruise to Alaska and Canada with a group of friends (that happen to work with us so we probably will bring some work with us!) and we are going early and staying after a few days in Seattle. Now, back in the days of being single, I would have been organized and packed by July 1st. Ha!

Fully honest here… I. have. not. packed. one. single. item.

However, once I finish writing this blog today that is exactly what I am going to do! Getting ready for a trip does not have to be stressful or hectic last minute packing. Let me share my top tips for packing, traveling, staying healthy, and just having fun on your trip to where ever!

1 – Do a little research and know a little of what you are doing.

Don’t get me wrong, being spontaneous on your vacation is totally awesome! But a little planning goes a long way in getting the most out of your trip! For me, This means checking the weather for our trip, planning a couple excursions while in port on our cruise or knowing mostly what we are doing, having a plan for avoiding the midnight buffet and overeating in general, and setting a budget for “other” things on the trip.

Checking the weather is important. Your Vacation spot may be known for the cold and snow, yet they are in the middle of a heat wave. The last time I went to Alaska, we had friends that went like 2 weeks before us and they told us how hot it was… so I brought shorts and t-shirts. Which is not fun to wear when it is snowing by the way. So word to the wise, if you go to Alaska, pack layers! It can be warm, or snowing, or both!

Planning out our excursions (we don’t usually pre-purchase them ahead of time, we wait till on board) gives us an idea if what to pack as well. Going on a train trip up a mountain means bringing my Nikon camera and comfy warm clothes, versus salmon fishing which means bringing the GoPro camera and a rain jacket.

Eating Plan. If you have read any of my previous posts, y’all know that me and my husband are pretty strict eating plan followers. We both have goals that we want to achieve for our health and our bodies, so we want to avoid the typical “Vacation bloat”. For us, this means making sure we pack workout clothes to take advantage of the gym on board the ship and at our hotel, entering our food in our macro trackers to monitor our intake, and having healthy snacks with us when on our flight, at the hotel, or wandering around. This does not mean that we wont enjoy a good meal or even indulge in a gelato or crab legs or bread and desserts. We will, but we will do it in moderation, and make better choices. It is all up to you and how motivated you are to reach your goals.

Setting a budget. What I mean by that is we both agree that we will spend X amount on “other” things on our vacation, not counting food or our planned excursions, like a spa treatment, souvenirs, extra unplanned excursion, etc. That way we both have that number in our head and we don’t go crazy and end up with a vacation that cost double what we had planned.

2) Pack your supplements!

Too many times I hear people say they will get back on their health routine when they are back from vacation… Personally I don’t want to get sick while on vacation and want to stay in my peak performance. I use small plastic bags with labels to sort out the supplements we will need on our trip, and taking a few extra just in case we mis-counted.

We always travel with our Ningxia Red (in packets), Nitro, Co-Q-10, liquid Vitamin C in travel packets, and our YL Supplements.Once they are all packed up, I will put them in large gallon zip bags just incase something leaks. Of course we also travel with about 30 different oils too, DiGize, Lavender, Breathe Again, and Deep Relief are must haves.

3) Packing snacks

For this trip, since we will have easy access to good food on the ship, I am only bringing a limited amount of snacks, mostly for the plane trips. Larabars and beef jerky for Josh, almonds, olive packets, and almond butter packets and instant coffee for myself. If we were on a typical trip in a normal hotel room, I would google to see if there was a grocery store near our hotel and ask for a mini-fridge (or better yet look for a hotel with a mini kitchen!) and we would bring our VitaMix blender, protein powder, and make a run to the grocery store once we arrived.

4) Packing your bags!

I will start setting aside our clothes for the trip and packing up our toiletries. So the clothes stay nice a fresh, I wont “Pack” them in the suitcase till the night before. There are loads of how to pack your clothes on YouTube, and most of them are pretty awesome! We always try to go on a trip “Carry-on Only” Meaning that we do not check a bag. This trip though with the colder weather gear we will have I am not sure yet if we will make it happen. We will share pictures though if we do!

Do you have a pre-vacation tip or packing tip to share? We would love to hear them! Now I am off to pack!