independent, intentional travel
Matt and I have been married for just over six months now, after our destination wedding in Catalunya in late August 2024. And we’ve recently been working on planning our honeymoon trip to Asia, which we’re going to take for our one-year anniversary! So I wanted to share the story of how credit card points and a little bit of strategy helped us book two round-trip tickets from Madrid to Tokyo for a total of $457. [Read more…]
Last month, we visited the United Kingdom to spend the first few days of the New Year in Cardiff, Wales. And this weekend, we’ll be heading back to the UK — to Liverpool this time — with a brand new “visa” in hand. This is the new UK ETA visa, or the Electronic Travel Authorisation visa, which just went into effect for the first time on January 8, 2025.
It sounds a little but scary, but I promise the process to apply is super simple — and I’ll walk you through all the steps so there’s no confusion. I’ll even share a trick for American passports to (hopefully) help prevent frustration. So, here’s everything you need to know about the UK ETA visa. [Read more…]
Hello again from Dublin, Ireland! Matt and I are back in Dublin for the second time since August, visiting Sarah and Kelan — I love living in Europe and being able to hop around to different countries so easily. But I’m coming at you today with a review of my brand-new CabinZero backpack, which I bought specifically for trips like this where I’m packing in only a personal item.
As you may know, flying with low-cost carriers in Europe like RyanAir or Transavia means that you typically only get a personal item/underseat bag for free. Beyond that, you’ll need to pay if you want to bring an overhead/cabin bag. While sometimes we’re willing to just suck it up and pay the extra cost — like when we take our 10-day Christmas market tour across Eastern Europe in a few weeks — it’s really not necessary for four days at our friends’ house. And while I’ve generally got the personal item packing list down, I felt like my usual everyday backpack wasn’t the most efficient for this type of trip.
A few days after our destination wedding in Catalonia, we came across a store in Barcelona selling CabinZero bags. I thought they seemed to be a great size, made efficient use of the space, and were cute, too! And after a week of thinking about it, I decided to order my very own CabinZero backpack. [Read more…]
Flighty is the best travel app for travel days | 📸 Flighty.com
I want to start off this article by sharing three truths.
First, this post is in no way, shape, or form sponsored by Flighty. When I was considering the pro membership, I was a little hesitant about the price, so I emailed them asking if I could write a post in exchange for a discount. They never responded. I also don’t get any kickbacks if anyone signs up after reading this article.
Second, Flighty is currently only available on iOS, so iPhones or iPads. I really wish they had an Android version so that I could become Flighty friends (more on that later) with my dad, but it sounds like that isn’t in the works quite yet. It’s an even bigger bummer because it sounds like another similar travel app that was available on Android, App in the Air, recently shut down. So if you stop reading here because you’re an Android user, I’m not offended. [Read more…]
Hello from Kansas City! While we are official residents of Alicante, Spain, now, we came home to KC for about seven weeks for my sister’s college graduation, a plethora of family birthdays, and to work on some wedding preparation stuff. During the first week at home, our car’s alternator died during the drive to Wichita for the aforementioned graduation, leaving us stranded on the side of the road for four hours. During the second week, our air conditioning/furnace died. As we stared down the $10,088 bill for replacement, we made a decision: to open a new credit card — specifically, the CapitalOne Venture X credit card. [Read more…]
My PacSafe bag is part of my personal item packing list
Over here in Europe, gone are the days of budget airlines giving you a free carry-on bag. When flying any of the major low-cost carriers, such as RyanAir, Vueling, and Transavia, you typically only get a personal item for free. And your personal item isn’t the one that goes in the overhead bin — no, it’s the small bag that fits under the seat in front of you.
During our trip through Europe this past fall, we had to bite the bullet and pay to bring our carry-on bags with us on every flight. Which really added up. In our defense, we were packing for two months and needed a lot more than we could fit in a small backpack. But now that we’re based in Alicante, Spain, we’ve been taking long weekend trips to other cities in Europe. And we’ve perfected our personal item packing lists so that we don’t have to pay for a carry-on. (Also, I finally upgraded my backpack to utilize my space even more efficiently with the CabinZero bag.)
Here are five tips for packing for a long weekend in a personal item bag, plus my personal item packing list. [Read more…]
Hi all! After being my travel partner for so many years now, I finally got Matt to write his first guest post for The Girl Who Goes! I’m very thankful he took the time to explore a topic that many travelers have questions about: eSim cards, and specifically, Airalo eSim cards. Let us know what you think! — Cathy
Hey everyone! Matt here. *Spits out coffee* WHAT?!? Crazy I know.
Today’s installment is going to be a little departure from the norm because Cathy asked me to write about a piece of our travels that I have much more experience with than she does.
For those of you who know us well, this might come as a shock because I am almost always the one who is just along for the ride. That usually has more to deal with the planning than anything, but once we are at our destination, I am the designated navigator. I have an innate sense of direction that has only steered us wrong once (maybe twice on a technicality) over all our trips.
With the role of being navigator comes the need to be able to look up directions, recommendations, etc., which requires fast, reliable cell service while traveling abroad. That is where my trusty friend Airalo comes in. [Read more…]
This past weekend, I got to experience one of the coolest things ever: a Pakistani wedding in Orlando, Florida! An old co-worker of ours got married, and we were SO honored to have been invited! Between the wedding lasting three days, culturally “appreciating” some traditional South Asian dress, and learning a few group dances before the big days, it was an unforgettable experience that I’m always going to cherish.
But, you know, it was Christmas weekend. And it was also Orlando. While I couldn’t have cared less about shifting my family’s Christmas celebration to a different day, finding flights around Christmas — specifically to and from Orlando — was not the world’s cheapest undertaking. Which meant that, in order to make it more affordable for us, we undertook another “first” experience: flying on Spirit Airlines. [Read more…]
After two months in Europe, we’re finally home in the U.S. — with new Spain digital nomad visas in hand! 🤩 It was certainly a very busy two months. We spent all of August in Sevilla, sweating away the 112F/44C degree days, as we worked on our visas and tried to enjoy the city as best we could. And September was a whirlwind as we traveled to five different countries and I achieved my goal of visiting my 30th country while I’m 30 years old! On top of that, we took engagement photos in Porto, Portugal, at the end of our trip.
And we did it all while only traveling with our backpacks.
Keep reading to learn my secrets for packing for long trips in just a backpack + get my packing list for this trip.
When we travel internationally — whether it’s to Europe, Central or South America, Asia, or elsewhere — we often find and book the cheapest flights from bigger cities to our destination. From Kansas City, where we live, there just aren’t as many cost-effective options. Typically, we use Southwest points we accrued in our former lives as corporate consultants to help us get from KC to our destination city.
Our favorite place to transfer is Boston (like we did for this Europe trip we’re on right now) because Boston only has one airport and we only have to change terminals, but a lot of big hub cities have multiple airports. And Southwest typically flies into the smaller airport of the two. Which means we have to plan the transfer into our travel day. Depending on the airports and cities, this can range from a minor pain to a major one.
The four cities we’ve transferred airports on a travel day are Chicago, Fort Lauderdale/Miami, New York City, and Houston. Here’s a review of what it’s like to change airports using public transportation in those four cities, ranked from best to worst, with ratings based on a few factors. [Read more…]