I often find myself missing things about places we’ve traveled to, whether it’s Cambodian BBQ which we crave all the time or the feeling of wandering the streets of London, it’s easy to get a sort of reverse homesick for a place.  Lately I’ve been craving France.  It’s a common thing for me to miss my favorite country, but lately I got to thinking about how we can cure that craving for a place even when at home.  We’ll be wandering French streets in just a couple months, but in the meantime, I often need some comforts to remember my beloved France.  So if you’re missing a place you love, here’s a few ways on what to do when you miss a place!

Find a local authentic restaurant.

One of my absolute favorite ways to comfort myself when I’m missing a place I love, find an authentic restaurant.  We’re lucky in Portland in that we have amazing ethnic restaurants, so find a place that serves food from that country you’re missing and indulge in culinary comforts!

Look at photos from past trips.

I love going back through old trips and looking at photos of Nick and I in our favorite places.  So if you’ve been to your favorite destination in the past, take a look back down memory lane!

Read old posts or journal entries you wrote while there.

One of my favorite things about having a blog is that it’s like a diary of my travels.  So when I’m missing a particular place or memory, I’ll go back through my archives and re-read my thoughts and memories, as well as looking at all the photos.  It’s a great way to cure reverse home-sickness!

Book a trip back!

The best cure for missing a place?  Book a trip back!  There is nothing like that feeling of returning to a place you fell in love with the first time and reliving it all again!

One of the most common questions I get from people who want to travel is how to save money on travel so that it’s more affordable.  So in this week-long series, we’ll be covering all parts of travel and how to save money so that you can travel more and spend less!

On top of hotels and flights, activities while traveling can often really add up in price.  After all, you’re in that destination to see it and enjoy it, so you want to make the most of it and experience things while there.  But there are a few different ways out there to really cut cost in this area of travel.

Groupon

Seriously, what did we do before Groupon?  While most people just use it for around their homes, it’s actually really valuable for travel too.  I see things come across on Groupon all the time for places we’ve been to cut cost on activities.  So subscribe to all their email chains and keep an eye out for anything related to your destination.

Research

Probably the biggest way you’ll save money.  Do your research.  Don’t just book the first thing you see.  A lot of times people will look up an activity at their destination and just book the first thing they see instead of looking at all the options available.  If you do your research and look further, it’s very likely that you’ll find a better deal.

Instagram/Recommendations 

One of the best ways to save money on activities at a destination is to get recommendations from people who have been there.  Often they will have options that will save you money or things not to do in a place.  I like to watch on Instagram and as people I follow go to a certain place, I’ll screenshot their locations or recommendations.  This a great way to find local food with a lower price tag in a place too!

Car rentals & Transportation

Sometimes a big expense on a trip can be car rentals or transportation while in a destination but I hardly ever pay for car rental anymore on trips!  Using points for car rentals is a great way to cut a lot of cost and because they generally don’t take a ton of points, it’s easier to use for things like this than flights which take a lot of points.

For transportation around when not renting a car, look at all the times and see if you can do an early or a night train or private driver, often in the off hours things will be cheaper!