Creating world travelers, one family at a time.

Get Globetrotting is a travel planning company focused on finding families trips that fit their budget without sacrificing comfort.

 
 
 

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Gimmelwald was the final stop on our Schilthorn journey and the one I was most excited about. Most of towns in the Swiss Alps are chock-full of tourists and the businesses that cater to them. Gimmelwald is different. Some wise resident saved the town from being turned into a ski resort by convincing developers it was an avalanche zone (it’s not). Now it’s a peaceful traffic-free town populated by cows and their farmers. We followed Rick Steve’s guided walking tour up and down the tiny main drag. 🏔🎶🇨🇭 Our first stop was this amazing playground adjacent to the gondola stop. Our child refused to try the slide, but Alex and I both went rocketing out the end and nearly injured ourselves. Worth it. After tending to our wounds, we admired the charming flower-laden Swiss cottages and their associated cows. We perused deserted cheese shops operating on the honor system by encouraging us to leave our Swiss francs on the counter. And then we plotted how we could bring the simplicity and peace of this way of life back to LA. #getglobetrottingswitzerland #getglobetrottingschilthorn
Murren was the next stop on our slow journey down the Schilthorn. A fellow traveler tipped us off on a nearby playground that was not to be missed. We were feeling pooped from our hike so we took the CHF 9 funicular up to The Flower Park. This playground was so beautiful that it was half kids actually playing and half kid-free adults staging Instagram photoshoots. We played here for a while, ate our packed lunches, and then hiked the 1.5 mi back down to the gondola. This hike couldn’t have been more different than the previous hike. It was all lush countryside and cows and had us both (alright mostly me) belting The Sound of Music at every vista. #getglobetrottingswitzerland #getglobetrottingschilthorn
On our trips, I am the activity-finder and Alex is the navigator. It’s rare that he finds something he REALLY wants to do. When we got to the top of the Schilthorn, Alex spied a crazy steep hike down to the next stop. He begged me to do it with him instead of taking the gondola. I waffled a bit, but eventually trusted him because he rarely leads us astray. And that’s how we began descending a cliff of sliding shale. I complained a bit (ok a lot) and we didn’t dare let our child out of his hiking backpack, but it was one of the most amazing places we’ve ever hiked. 🏔🎶🇨🇭 The trail was free of vegetation except edelweiss because we were high above the tree line. We had to scoot down some portions on our backsides but eventually we made it to the next stop, Birg. Birg has a free Thrill Walk perched over the edge of a massive cliff. I refused to let my toddler near it, but it would be cool for adults and older kids! Hike was 2.2 km (40 min without kids) and is free with your lift ticket. Wear good shoes. I wouldn’t recommend taking children on this unless they are confined to a backpack or very obedient. #getglobetrottingswitzerland #getglobetrottingschilthorn
I am all about cheap travel. However there are some attractions you MUST see if you make it all the way to a certain location. We did this on our Schilthorn Day in Switzerland! Most people go up the lift, see the top, and then go back down devoting about 2 hours to the expensive excursion. When we book something pricey, we do our best to milk the attraction so that our money stretches further. We planned a full day of adventuring on our way down the mountain and it was the most memorable day of our 3-week trip. We were exhausted by the end but mentally rejuvenated. We will look back on this day as one of those magical travel days that we can reminisce on during more mundane days of parenting. 🏔🎶🇨🇭 We began our day by getting to the lift early (not early enough to score the before 8:55 AM 11 CHF discount thanks to toddler tantrums) and buying our passes. We added breakfast to our ticket from the ticket booth because it’s cheaper to buy it at the base of the mountain than the top. We then ascended 4 different lifts with spectacular mountain scenery. We alighted at the top and were greeted with panoramic snowy mountain views in the middle of summer. We then turned to an even more glorious view: an overladen breakfast buffet. We feasted on Swiss cheese, European pastries, various meats, fruits, and eggs in a glass rotating restaurant allowing us to eat and view simultaneously. The James Bond franchise used this lift as their filming location for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, so the entire place is Bond themed down to the bathrooms. According to Alex, the urinals encourage you to “aim like James!” Once we had eaten our fill, we perused the interactive Bond museum and danced a bit to the live Alpine band. 🏔🎶🇨🇭 Prices: RT base of the mountain to the top (3 gondolas) CHF 105 for 16+. CHF 8 to add brunch at the base of the mountain, CHF 20 to add it at the top. Ages 5-16 are CHF 52.5, under 6 free! We treated these tickets as a Swiss Mountain theme park ticket. This was the only money we spent all day on food or anything else; see my next few posts to find out how! #getglobetrottingschilthorn #getglobetrottingswitzerland
Braved Disney with two toddlers and no other adults. We hit my favorite toddler-friendly attractions, ate snacks, and made it home in time for naps. I only had one panic moment when I stupidly set them free in Toontown and each kid bolted for a different car. Luckily another mom had my back and I left with the same number of children I came with. 🏰💫🌹 Here are the best attractions for active toddlers in Disneyland: Casey Jr. Train, King Arthur’s Carousel, Small World, Mickey/Minnie’s Houses, Mad Tea Party, The Tiki Room, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Goofy’s Playground in Toontown. All the rest either too scary (honestly Mr. Toad freaks me out a bit too) or my kid tries to escape over the low walls (I’m looking at YOU Storybook Cruise). #getglobetrottingdisney
Voting day in the US of A! I love to see other countries, but I also love my own country. Here’s a place for you to take your kids: the polls on Election Day. I always watched my mom and sisters take their kids to the polling place wearing patriotic clothes. Today I got to do it too, although my kid had a major meltdown while I was filling out my ballot. I had to have Alex come bail me out. There’s still plenty of time for him to develop some patriotism. In the meantime, maybe we will vote by mail.
My purpose in creating this Instagram account and associated business is to challenge the idea that your life is over after you have kids. If I have one soapbox as a mom, this is it! You still get to be you as a parent. If traveling is a priority to you I want to help you make it happen. As parents we let our own happiness take a backseat to the happiness of our kids. This is a natural and normal part of having children. However, I would argue that some parents remove too much of what makes them happy from their lives. That’s why I created Get Globetrotting. I saw families who wanted to travel but didn’t understand how to do it without spending exorbitant amounts of money. 👶✈️🌎 We enhance our parenting by spending our time and money on things that make us happy in turn allowing us to be better parents. We show our priorities by where we spend our time and money. After you have children, you have less time and less money, so it’s more important where you decide to spend both. Our priorities are four: our small family, church, our extended family, and our personal development. Every expense is to improve one of those four things. When we look at our budget this way, travel has to stay in it. What better way to show our priorities than to pay for experiences together as a family? Traveling with a child required adjustment and flexibility, but overall our child has bettered our life and our travels. 👶✈️🌎 Because I believe in my mission, most of my effort goes into posting free budget travel ideas for this account. I am always open to answering travel questions in the comments. If you’d like a little more assistance I offer Budget, Standard, and Premium levels of service. I price them based on the amount of time I devote to each. All levels include a list of things to book in advance to avoid lines/sold out attractions, a personalized itinerary based on your kid’s ages/interests, an interactive map, and a budget snapshot so you know exactly how much you’ll be spending. Budget Service starts at just $25/trip. For more info and pricing on Standard/Premium Trip Planning Services check out my website (link in bio). #getglobetrottingsundaysunsets
I chose a lot of succulents for our yard because they are hard to kill and I love their funky shapes. While my mom and I were visiting various nurseries, I learned that my Grandma Fae kept an illegal succulent garden! In the 1950’s succulents weren’t trendy or even readily available at nurseries. During their frequent road trips to visit family in Utah, my Grandpa Karl would pull over in the middle of the desert and work on teaching his three boys how to shoot guns. Fae used this time to search for interesting plant specimens. She dug up the best ones up and carefully replanted them in her desert garden. For a less illegal succulent experience, visit Moorten Botanical Gardens in Palm Springs. Every plant is carefully labeled and the variety is unreal! Don’t miss the Cactarium which houses all the rarest desert plants. It’s $5/adult, $2/kids under 15, and free for kids under 5. #getglobetrottingpalmsprings
Here’s a haunted Halloween tale. Tahquitz Canyon near Palm Springs is named for the banished shaman Tahquitz. According to ancient Cahuilla Indian tribal legends, Tahquitz was a powerful healing shaman and advisor to Chief Algoot. Tahquitz had a nasty sense of humor and enjoyed dressing up and jumping out at children to scare them. Eventually his tricks turned sinister. He began killing and eating fellow tribesmen. Chief Algoot had no choice but to banish him to the canyon which now bears his name. ⛰💫💀 Because Tahquitz was his friend, Algoot continued to send food to him up in the canyon. Tahquitz ate the food and each messenger Algoot sent. When Algoot sent his bravest warriors including his own son to reason with Tahquitz, Tahquitz killed and ate them too. Overwhelmed with grief for his son Chief Algoot trained for a year and then went to battle with the evil shaman. With the strength of his ancestors behind him, Algoot defeated Tahquitz. As the tribe burned Tahquitz’s body, the crowd witnessed his dark spirit release and flee back into the canyon. Chief Algoot warned his tribe not to enter the canyon or Tahquitz would make sure they never returned. Per the legend Tahquitz can manifest himself as an earthquake, a green meteor streaking across the sky, lightening, or an old man. ⛰💫💀 In the summer of 1969 a large group of hippies populated the canyon for three days, frolicking in the springs and camping under the stars. The city of Palm Springs responded by slapping a “closed” sign on the canyon for 30 years. The sign failed to keep transients and partiers out; they littered the canyon with trash and vandalized ancient Cahuilla Indian artwork. In 1997, the Cahuilla Indian tribe began to clean up the canyon and in 2001 they opened it to the public for the first time. The self-guided hike costs USD $12.50, is 2 mi round trip, and ends in a snow-fed waterfall. Don’t miss the short Legend of Tahquitz video in the visitor’s center. #getglobetrottingpalmsprings
Ever since we watched the Space X Falcon Heavy launch a few weeks ago, our child can’t stop talking about rockets. So we decided on an intergalactic family as our Halloween costume! We stayed up way too late constructing Alex’s costume out of poster board and tape, but it was all worth it to see the excitement on our little astronaut’s face. Also shoutout to Alex for his commitment to his costume and subsequent slow shuffle around the zoo. #getglobetrottinghalloween #getglobetrottingLA
Here’s how to tour multiple mid-century modern homes for free. A few days before your visit to Palm Springs, download @zillow @redfinrealestate or whichever real estate app is your favorite. Go to the filters section of the search feature and plug in “built between 1940 and 1960” and “Open House.” Pull up all the homes and favorite the most interesting ones. Then go tour them for free! This works best on a Saturday or Sunday. The realtors were friendly and not at all bothered by us having a look. Some were even dressed to match the homes. We interspersed our tour list with drive-bys of other famous homes including the Wexler Steel Homes. If you’re stumped by the apps and would like me to create an interactive Palm Springs open house/drive-by map specifically for your dates of travel, my current rate is $10 for a half-day of activities. DM me to submit an inquiry. #getglobetrottingpalmsprings
The House of the Future is a modernism icon and especially interesting if you’re an Elvis fan. Also called The Elvis’s Honeymoon Hideaway, the home is open for scheduled tours (USD $35/person). We actually didn’t tour the house because after perusing pictures, I found the facade more interesting than the interior. Also we didn’t care to spend $35 on touring one house and instead toured 4 midcentury modern homes for free! More on how to do that in tomorrow’s post. 🕺🏻💔🎶 Elvis and Priscilla Presleys’ relationship was turbulent and ideal celeb tabloid fodder. Elvis met Priscilla in 1959 during his army service. She was 14 and he was 24 and already a huge star. They were struck by each other, especially Elvis by Priscilla. They kept in touch after Elvis finished his army service, their relationship hindered by Priscilla’s protective parents. Eventually, when Priscilla was 18 her parents allowed her to move to Memphis on three conditions: she was to live with Elvis parents instead of at Graceland, she was to enroll in a catholic school to finish high school, and Elvis would need to eventually marry her. That didn’t go well. Priscilla moved into Graceland a few months later and she began doing amphetamines and taking sleeping pills to keep up with Elvis lifestyle. Elvis began a series of affairs with his co-stars, but Priscilla’s dad threatened to have Elvis charged under Mann Act (bringing a minor across state lines for sexual purposes) if he reneged on his marriage promise. So in 1966 they got married and honeymooned in Palm Springs in the “House of the Future.” The marriage was happy for a short time. They had one child together, Lisa-Marie Presley. Both admit to several affairs in their biographies and the two eventually split, though remained on good terms until Elvis’s death in 1977. They left the courthouse after their divorce hearing holding hands. #getglobetrottingpalmsprings
We chose Palm Springs to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary because it‘s only 2 hrs from LA. Palm Springs has a large retired population yet also draws a younger crowd because of its many nearby music festivals (Coachella and Stagecoach are the most well-known). The city is famous for its Midcentury architecture, its progressive culture (it has one of the highest percentages of LGBT residents in the US), its word-class vintage shopping, and its resort-town atmosphere that has drawn LA celebrities since the 1930s. 🌴🌞🌵 I arranged a free home exchange using points on @guesttoguest . I didn’t realize it when I was setting up the exchange, but our home was located in a 55+ retirement community on a golf course! At first we thought it wouldn’t be a romantic setting for our first trip sans baby. After a ride to the pool in the included golf cart, we decided retirement seems very romantic indeed. #getglobetrottingpalmsprings #getglobetrottinghomeexchange
Excited to announce that the winners of the giveaway are..... @regancbusi and @mattbusi I am looking forward to planning your European vacation! Thanks to everyone who entered and look out for more trip planning giveaways on this account! In the meantime, I will get back to posting cheap or free activity ideas. This week I will be publishing a guide to Palm Springs! ✈️🗺🏖 Here are the services that Get Globetrotting currently offers: Full-Service Trip Planning: Includes finding airfare, accommodations, country connections, and activities. We work together to find the perfect vacation itinerary for you and your family. $150 for the first week, $100 subsequent weeks. 🗺✈️🏖 Weekend Getaway: Full-service planning for any trip lasting 4 days or less. Includes activities, airfare, hotel, and restaurant recommendations. Perfect for those curious about what Get Globetrotting can do for you and your vacation. $60/weekend. ✈️🗺🏖 Personalized Itinerary: Got your airfare and hotel booked but at a loss as to what to do once you're there? Get a day-by-day customized schedule to maximize your travel investment.  Includes information on opening times and tips to avoid crowds at popular destinations specifically for your dates of travel. $20/day. ✈️🗺🏖 Must-see List (New!): Activities for the not-so-schedule inclined. This is a personalized descriptive list of can't-miss points of interest at your destination. Includes line-beating tips and a list of which activities are necessary to book in advance. $40/location. ✈️🗺🏖 If you have any more questions, please message me or refer to the FAQ section of Get Globetrotting's website (link in bio). Happy travels! #getglobetrottingpalmsprings
 
 

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