Tag: Trip Planning

South Bend, IN Overview

July 13, 2015 / Rachel / 0 Comments

The first year or so of our time in Chicago was HARD. It was challenging physically, emotionally, spiritually; we were in our first year of marriage, I had some health issues that cropped up, and Matt was learning a very demanding job. We frequently (about once a month) took short trips for quick weekend escapes. It was during this time that we felt rested and enjoyed connecting with each other as we explored new places together.

We decided on a whim on a Monday that we would go out of town the following weekend. We didn’t know where or what we would do, we just knew we needed to get away. So, I set to researching! As I started to plan our trip, I checked the forecast and saw we could be in for some snow. But, it was Monday, so I set to planning with the thought in mind that “we won’t go far”.

Looking at a map to determine what “far” meant, I saw South Bend, IN. It wasn’t huge on the map but also not so small that there wouldn’t be things to do there. So, I set to researching to see if I could set an itinerary. Yelp and TripAdvisor (otherwise known as my trip planning BFFs) listed several restaurants we could try as well as things to do. After doing some research, I shared our potential itinerary with Matt. He was initially reluctant because…well, it honestly wasn’t that exciting on paper. But, it was going to be a short trip, and really we just wanted to get away, so we decided to move forward. Matt found a hotel and I worked on getting all the other details together.

Willis Tower – A Visitor’s Guide

June 15, 2015 / Matt / 2 Comments

One of the iconic buildings of Chicago is the Willis Tower, formerly and more notably known as the Sears Tower. A trip to Chicago for any first time visitor is not complete without a visit to this architectural marvel. Like a visit to Rome is not complete until you have been to the Coliseum, the Willis Tower is one of the top tourist attractions in the city.

Facts: Located a block east of Union Station and along the river, stands the tallest building in the city and in the Western Hemisphere. The Willis Tower stands at 1,450 feet tall (1,730 feet if the twin antenna towers are included) and 110 stories tall. The tower goes 43 feet below street elevation and took three years to build. The tower features a revolutionary construction method at the time called the “bundled tube design.” It is essentially nine tubes, bound together. The docents told us to think of it like a pack of pencils with each tube rising higher than the rest. While the tower itself has more than a 100 different companies using it as an office building, visitors are only there for one maybe two reasons: mainly the Skydeck (observation deck) and possibly the restaurant.

The Skydeck is the highest public viewing area in the US and on a clear day (hope you are lucky), you can see four states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan). Back in 2009, the building added four observation pods which are affectionately known as “The Ledge.” They are these glass boxes that are made up of three layers of half-inch thick glass that has been laminated into one seamless unit.

Visiting: The Skydeck is open every day of the year to accommodate visitors. Always be sure to check the website for hours, but in general they are open from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM April through September, and 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM October through March. When planning your visit, the last entry is 30 minutes prior to close. The Skydeck does have several offerings prior to the “main event” of getting to the top. There are several different exhibits that talk about the tower and the city as well as a movie that tells the story of the building and surrounding architecture. All of this is well and good and gives you a greater appreciation for the building and all that went into making this massive structure and it will provide a fuller experience but is time consuming.
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A View of Chicago from the Adler Planetarium

Chicago Itinerary: What to Do in Chicago With Two or More Days

June 9, 2015 / Matt / 10 Comments

Traveling to a new place can be daunting, let alone to a city that has so much to offer. How do you even try to figure out what attractions to see, where to go, and which are worth skipping? This is especially important when you are going for a short trip and you want to maximize your time. Wasting your time by going to an attraction that is not worth it or worth the wait is a point of frustration for me.

My goal today is to provide a Chicago itinerary of what attractions to visit on a two or three day trip (or more). Every traveler will have different tastes/interest and likes/dislikes, so not all of these recommendations will be suited for everyone. Also, Chicago is a huge city and there is no way that every attraction, great restaurant, or event could be handled in this one post. This itinerary will focus mainly on the top attractions that we recommend visiting while in Chicago. In the future, we will revisit this great city to hopefully fill in the gaps by providing more information and reviews as far as attractions, events, restaurants, etc.

Whether you are a relaxed traveler or an active tourist, have young kids, teenagers or no kids, we all travel differently. Even at various stages in our own life, we may have times where we are not as quick as we once were. In the past, you may have been able to see six attractions in a day, now you are lucky to see four. The point is you know what will serve you best to make this or any trip the most memorable and enjoyable. We are here to help and give some recommendations from what we have found during our time in Chicago. Even if you are staying longer in Chicago, use this itinerary as a guide to know what to expect.

Itineraries-Attraction & Restaurant Planning

May 20, 2015 / Rachel / 0 Comments

So, you’ve got it in your head to take a trip. There are many factors to think about when planning…location, transportation, how far away is it from your home, what you’ll do, and time of year you’ll visit. While there are a host of things to think about as you plan, one of the main considerations is what will you do when you get there?

Taking into account your preferences for things you like to do is key. You may want to visit Prague like David and Rebekah, but you may want to sit in cafes or pubs and enjoy your reading list. For our family, we like a good mix of exploring, learning new things, trying local restaurants, and resting together.

Each new place you visit has something to offer–and typically you know ahead of time where you want to go because you’ve heard about one particular place or have a desire to visit. So you decide to visit, but what else are you going to do while you’re there? And where are you going to eat?

This is where all the fun research, daydreaming, and planning happens! I love this part of trip planning; making reservations, finding flights, etc., that’s all well and good, but the researching and figuring out what you will be doing when you visit a new place is almost as good as the trip itself. I enjoy it simply because it builds anticipation for the trip and excitement for whatever I’m about to experience. Today I’ll be sharing some of my favorite strategies for trip planning!

First, if I know someone where we are about to visit, I ask them for their favorite places to take friends and/or eat. If you know a local, that seems to be the best starting place. If I don’t know a local, I might consult friends who have visited or put a post on social media to see what suggestions others might have. Next, I use a combination of TripAdvisor, Groupon, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and the city or state websites (most of which have websites dedicated specifically to attract visitors).

We love to find unique things to do, sometimes the timeline that we are planning to go on a trip coincides perfectly with a local festival or city event. Being able to find those gems and plan them into our trip is always a highlight.

As I said, I use a combination of tools to find things to do; reading reviews on TripAdvisor or Yelp and visiting attraction websites, is a great starting point. For attractions that seem interesting, I type up all the pertinent information: days & hours of operation, cost, ticket needed, is there a tour, parking, specific highlights of the attraction, or any specific notes from reviews such as best time of day to visit, etc. Once I’ve gathered all the relevant information, I try to “organize” it into a loose itinerary.Our family likes the structure of planning what we’ll do each day but by gathering the extra information such as days & hours of operation we also have some flexibility.

I use a similar strategy, although using primarily Yelp to finding restaurants and places to eat–this includes any snacks or dessert options. Once we have a good idea of what restaurant options are available, we may plan to bring or make breakfast/lunch foods from home. Again, I try to gather relevant information such as address, days and hours of operation, as well as get an idea of the type of cuisine and cost.

Once I’ve gathered all the information about things to do and places to eat, I’ve found it most helpful to map everything. This is an extra step that I don’t always take, but have found it to be very helpful, especially if you’re trying to save on fuel and mileage on your car. For example, during our Madison trip, our hotel was on the far west side, the first night we got into Madison, we ate at a restaurant that was less than a couple miles away. It would have been a pain (and made us more hungry) to go all the way to downtown or the east side of Madison just to eat that day. So, we were purposeful in planning all of our east, central, and west side attractions and restaurant groupings.

What tools do you use to plan your trips?

Madison Trip Overview

April 13, 2015 / Rachel / 2 Comments

Matt and I have a tradition of alternating years that we plan something for our anniversary and birthdays. We’ve done everything from a weekend trip, to a basketball game, to (last year) eating at Wendy’s with our three week old. We both love this because we get the opportunity to surprise each other and not one person always has to be responsible.

For our second anniversary, we were both knee deep in work. Before I started at my full-time job, we had been taking short weekend trips about once every 6-8 weeks, but with both of us working it had become a lot harder to get away. We both desperately needed a change of scenery, even if for just a few days! We both love Wisconsin and the previous trips we had taken there, so naturally when it was my turn to plan, I chose to put together a long weekend trip where we might be able to explore a new area of the state.

Now, you’ve probably already picked up that we enjoy visiting breweries and trying new beers as well as exploring whatever new town/city we happen upon. Originally, I had the idea to drive out to a bed and breakfast that was also a brewery(!); I was SO excited about this. You can imagine my sadness when I researched and found out that it was in a super small town, where by my Google search, there wouldn’t be any restaurants and the brewery itself wouldn’t be open. I tried SO hard to tack this on to either the first night or last night of the trip, but it just did not pan out. So, back the drawing board! Thankfully I found a few great online resources to look up various breweries in southern Wisconsin and came across four different breweries within a couple hours of each other–two of which happened to be in Madison.

Once I figured out where in Wisconsin we would be going, it was easy to put the rest of the trip together. When I trip plan for us, I use TripAdvisor, Yelp, and even city websites to create a list of a handful of places that we might want to visit, this includes restaurants, breweries, museums, local events, points of interest, etc. I try to gather all the helpful information such as hours of operation, address, tickets needed, admission price, and any other helpful information. If I’m feeling really ambitious I put everything on a map so we can easily see what things we might want to do on the same day. We usually don’t set an itinerary unless we really want to see a particular museum and say it is only open on Friday afternoon, then we plan accordingly.

So, some of the things you’ll be reading about the next few days are from this southern Wisconsin and Madison trip. Because of our work schedules, we took three whole days (including travel), leaving on a Friday morning and returning Sunday late afternoon. We decided that we could have easily spent one more day in Madison because there were things we did pass up, but if you’re looking for a snapshot, I think we captured it. Here is an overview of what we’ll be covering the next few days.

Tuesday — Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern & Minhas Brewery, Monroe WI

Wednesday — New Glarus Brewing

Thursday — Hubbard Ave Diner, National Mustard Museum & Capital Brewery, Middleton WI

Monday — Wisconsin State Capitol & Madison Museum of Modern Art

Tuesday — The Old Fashioned & Marigold Kitchen

Wednesday — Ale Asylum