Travel Tips for Real Life

(Busy moms. Nurses. Kids in tow. Limited PTO. Real budgets.)

Travel doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or something you “do one day.”
I share practical, real-life travel tips for working moms — especially nurses — who want experiences over things and memories over burnout.

No luxury hype. No unrealistic schedules. Just smart planning, flexibility, and tips that actually work in real life.

✈️ Traveling With Kids (Without Losing Your Mind)

• Get the wiggles out – let them run around before a flight. If it’s a long flight, connections are not a bad thing – it gives them a break from sitting still for a long time and get their energy out. Try to avoid flights that are early morning or late evening when you know they’ll be cranky. They’re kids, you know they don’t sit still for long! Also, don’t be in a hurry to board the plane. Board with the last group – that’s extra time for them to run around, less time fighting them to sit still.
• SNACKS – pack ALL the snacks. You’re allowed to bring pre-packaged snacks on airplanes and cruise ships. Snacks keep the little ones busy and happy!
• Carseats – most airlines allow you to check a carseat/booster seat for free so you’ll have it wherever you go. I have a special bag for ours that keeps it protected.

💳 How to Earn Air Miles Without Flying

• American Airlines Mastercard – I use this card for all of our purchases throughout the month and pay it off each month. We earn extra miles if we use it for gas, restaurants, and any travel. There is also a shopping portal – I do my Christmas shopping through there and earn extra miles just by going through the portal. My favorite perk of the card – I get a free checked bag for me and up to 4 people on my reservation just for having the card! That saves us so much in baggage fees! Most airlines have a card like this, AA is just the one I have and know the most about.
• Capital One Venture card – you earn miles by spending, and use their portal to book travel. You can use the miles for any flight, hotel, or rental car. Miles can also be used to reimburse travel up to 90 days after.

🔎 How to Find the Best Travel Deals

• Flights – I almost always use our AA miles for flights. However, there are a couple budget airlines that are sometimes the better deal. We’ve personally had great experiences with Allegiant! We have found super cheap flights from our local airport to Florida.
• Google Flights – Use google flights to search the best deals on flights (this goes for hotels and rental cars as well). You can set it to receive notifications when a flight changes price, and it will advise you best time to purchase.
• Hotels – I always search in the AA portal first because I can earn additional miles with certain hotel stays. Sometimes it’s cheaper to book directly through a hotel. I don’t always trust third party sites like Hotels.com, Expedia, etc – I had a bad experience once. A hotel overbooked and they turned away everyone with a third party booking and I was left without a hotel.
• Rental cars – Budget, Enterprise, and Hertz are my favorites. Budget is great for one-way, although I’ve also had a good experience with Enterprise one-way. Being a AAdvantage member, i get a discount through Budget. Utilize all available discounts!
• Cruises – the further out you book, the more options for rooms, and cheaper the prices will be. You also earn cheaper deals through loyalty. I’ve only ever cruised with Carnival, and we’ve been very happy with every cruise we have been on. We constantly get deals for our loyalty. When you book further out, it gives you more time to pay it off, then it doesn’t seem so expensive.