APRIL 2025

Adventures With Carli

A monthly round of tips, travels, adventures and what's next

Hello adventurers!

It's been a quiet travel month since returning from Antarctica and Minnesota, but that's changing quickly. I've just returned from a work trip with 2 more coming up in the next 6 weeks, plus a few other personal trips. It will be a busy spring!

Where in the world is Carli San Diego?

I spent the week in Spokane, Washington for work. I visit here about 2 times a year to meet with clients. It's a pretty quiet city, but there are some pockets of great bars and restaurants. Kendall Yards across the river from downtown has a row of restaurants and shops worth checking out. While in town, my college friend and Spokane local Justin, introduced me to Perry Street which is a very cute local neighborhood spot. Stop by Pacific to Palouse for a glass of wine on the patio, then pop over to South Perry Pizza for dinner.

See the CANT MISS attraction in Spokane

I also decided to take a quick stopover in Leavenworth, WA to break up my long drive back to Seattle. Leavenworth is a Bavarian style village located just east of the Cascade Mountains. It's a quaint little town that has cute shops, tons of wine bars, and is great for outdoor adventures. In the summer you can go white water rafting on the Wenatchee River.

Travel Lessons Learned

I've got a confession to make, I'm a bad packer. Let me rephrase, I'm great at physically packing a ton of stuff into a small space. I'm bad a packing in advance. Most of the I'm packing at 10pm the night before I leave hoping I figure it out with enough time to sleep. The good news is I travel a lot, so I have the basics down. The bad news is, I travel a lot so I'm not always double checking.

Enter this last week on road, I not only forgot my toothbrush (the electric one, I keep a regular one in my bag) but also my moisturizer. Because I travel so much I pretty much have duplicates, or travel sizes, of all my toiletries, but somehow the moisturizer got left out of the bag following my last trip. whomp whomp.

Travel Tip: Always double check any important toiletry items, plug ins / converters, passports and credit cards while you're packing and before you leave the house.

I won a trip (back) to THAILAND 🇹🇭🥳

Earlier this year I joined World Via Travel Network, a Travel Leaders Network Associate, to become an independent agent. With this, there are also opportunities to go to local "roadshows" hosted by tourism boards, like Travel Authority of Thailand. While there I was one of 5 people to win a weeklong stay at different hotels around Thailand. This will be my second time visiting the country, and I'm excited to get a do-over in Phuket, where I didn't have the best experience. If you have Thailand in your future, I can help assist with booking an amazing trip.

Have a trip coming up?

I have access to hundreds of travel suppliers from airlines to hotels, cruises to tours, transfers to rentals. I can assist you with booking and planning any portion of your next travel adventure.

Need help with your next trip? Fill out my intake form

How can I afford to travel so much?

The best way to travel for (almost) free is by using credit card points or airline miles. Last year alone I booked 15 flights using points and miles. This included my flights to and from Australia for the holidays, as well as round trip flights for myself and my mom to fly to Ireland last September (daughter of the year!). Those two trips alone saved around $4,000 on flights.

The fastest and easiest way to earn points and miles for travel is to open a (new) travel credit card and hit the minimum spend to get the spending bonus. Some people think that this will hurt your credit. This is only true if you are spending outside of your means.

Right now, my favorite starter credit card has an unprecedented 100,000 point welcome bonus after you spend $5k in 3 months. These points can be used to transfer to a number of major airlines and Hyatt, which has the best hotel redemption program around. At $95 a year with a $50 annual hotel credit (when booked through their travel portal), you will more than get your value back every year. This increased offer is only available for a limited time, then will be back at 60K.

Earn miles without opening a credit card

If you are uncomfortable with opening new cards, there are many ways to link your existing cards and airline programs to earn rewards.

For example, Uber and Lyft both have options to link to different airline and hotel programs for free. So you can earn points every time you use the app. If you love Starbucks, make sure you link your Delta account to get bonus miles. Just about every US airline has a program to link your cards to earn points while dining.

Learn which programs are available

Blog Posts

Here are a few of my blog posts for your reading enjoyment

The Best of Spring: The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Washington is home to the largest tulip festival in the United States. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a favorite spring event as a quick weekend adventure from Seattle, Bellingham or Vancouver, BC.

Read Article

The Best of Krabi, Thailand: Hong Islands Tour

There are many different island tours available in Krabi, but the Hong Islands tour is a can’t miss during your stay in Krabi Thailand.

Read Article

5 Melbourne Cocktail Bars you need to visit

Melbourne is a city with a very active cocktail and bar scene, with great bars large and small. This list has some of the must visit Melbourne cocktail bars.

Read Article

Travel Must Haves

Travel Pillow

Let's be real, the worst part of traveling is a long haul flight, and you're probably not flying in business class. I love this travel pillow! It's foam so it won't get holes in it, and it has different configurations.

Shop Here