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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Alex has been suggesting we visit the tide pools at Little Corona Del Mar since we moved to LA. He created some of his favorite childhood memories there, rock hopping and searching for anemones. Today we finally visited and it lived up to the hype. Seeing the tide pools through Lorenzo’s eyes was so magical! I’ve never seen him hold still for so long. We found free street parking at the intersection of Poppy and Ocean. #getglobetrottingla
First off, THANK YOU for the SF recs. I was 7 mo pregnant in this picture, so technically Lorenzo attended this event with us. As I’m neck deep sifting through IG/FB comments, guide books, and blogs, I wondered: what is my favorite thing I’ve done in San Francisco? 🎭🎤🎟 My answer would have to be going to a sing along at the Castro Theater. These events are peak San Francisco. Here’s how it works: you show up at the historic Castro theater. You are given a bag of props. Then you watch a movie (usually a musical or Disney movie) while singing your heart out with the other 50 some-odd adults and sometimes kids in the theater. I’m pretty sure the guy next to me had some sort of musical theater training because he out-sang the people on the screen. 🎭🎤🎟 The staff instructs you when and how to use your props. Their first and most popular production is The Sound of Music. We went to West Side Story and I’ve seen Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled advertised. This weekend they’re showing Moana. Someone go and sing “How Far I’ll Go!” loudly and slightly off-key for me. 🎭🎤🎟 The theater is located in The Castro District, historically known as SF’s LGBT district. This area of SF is a ton of fun and has great restaurants. The sing-along is $16 for adults and $11 for kids. That’s cheaper than a regular movie! #getglobetrottingsanfrancisco #getglobetrottingsfbayarea
It’s no secret that planning trips with kids is a ton of work. Flying by the seat of your pants while traveling is just not as fun with kids in tow! When we travel with our child, I spend hours researching and compiling information. I don’t mind it though because I’m a big nerd. Nursing research was my favorite class in college. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✈️🌎 One problem I’ve run into is that all the information I need is scattered between blogs (which can be years old and are seldom updated), guidebooks, Instagram posts from travel families I follow online, and crowdsourced recommendations from friends. That’s when I had an idea. What if I put all this info in a master list for parents to pull from while planning trips? What if I leaned on those who use it to keep it updated so I don’t show up at a closed children’s museum in New York and waste a morning where I managed to coax my toddler into wearing shoes? 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✈️🌎 That’s why I’m going to make a library of budget family travel e-books. They’ll be organized, current, and filled with tons of pictures so kids can enjoy them too! I’ll make an interactive map with all restaurant and activity recs laid out for you. I’ll also include a daily budget estimate for each city so you can estimate costs before you go. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✈️🌎 In order to do this, I need your help. When you see my requests for recommendations please share what you know! If you can’t think of anything to add, tag people who have been to/lived there so we can all benefit from their knowledge. Because these e-books will be a collaborative effort they’re always going to be free! The first e-book will be on the city I love most and know the most about... San Francisco! 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✈️🌎 What are your favorite places to eat in SF? Anyone stayed in an amazing hotel/Airbnb/ home exchange there? What are the best things to do there? Any other kid-centric tips I should include? If you contribute I’ll make sure to send you the book when it’s finished. #getglobetrottingsfbayarea #getglobetrottingsanfrancisco #getglobetrottingstory
We went to see Alex’s aunt perform cello in the Messiah tonight. I started writing about it and then realized Alex knows more about it than I do, so here he is. 🎶🎄🎻 The Messiah was originally written as an Easter Oratorio, which makes sense considering the subject matter. Over the next 50 years, it became a staple among Christmas music. The general feeling was that there was so much fine Easter music and so little great sacral music written for Christmas. 🎶🎄🎻 Handel composed the score in just 24 days, and at the end of the manuscript, he wrote the letters "SDG"—Soli Deo Gloria: "To God alone the glory." This inscription and the speed of composition has encouraged belief in the story that Handel wrote the music in a fervor of divine inspiration. He stated that as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, he saw all heaven before him. 🎶🎄🎻 One thing that Handel is known for (when compared to other composers, such as Bach) is his sense for humanity. Where Bach's oratorios exalted God, Handel was more concerned with the feelings of mortals. When you listen to the Messiah, you start to understand that Handel was writing his music to capture the human response to the divine rather than simply praising the divine. 🎶🎄🎻 The tradition to stand during the Hallelujah chorus comes from the belief that King George II stood out of reverence during the chorus. You usually don't have to look too far to find live performances of the Messiah at this time of year. Whether you believe Handel was divinely inspired to write it or not, listening to The Messiah is my favorite way to feel the joy and majesty of the Christmas season. 🎶🎄🎻 Who wants to read more from Alex in the future? 🖐 #getglobetrottinglighttheworld
The Sand Snowman Competition combined three of my favorite things: art, the beach, and being completely extra. We walked around all the sand creations and then our toddler asked to be made into a snowman, so that’s what you see here. We loved seeing all the families working together on a project! Perhaps we will submit one next year when our kid builds more and destroys less. I posted my favorite submissions to my stories. #getglobetrottingsouthbayLA
OUR STORY: My excitement to become a mother was palpable. I loved college and then working, but I couldn’t WAIT to be a mom. That’s why I was so surprised that when our first baby came along, I found staying home terribly boring. I felt trapped looking out at the homebound years stretching in front of me. We did a few trips in our baby’s first year and they were fun but expensive. I still felt trapped at home thinking about how our travel budget would shrink as our family grew. We considered following the path of some of the families we saw online, quitting our jobs and selling our home to live a nomadic life. But the reality was neither of our careers were portable and we needed an income to live. That’s when we did our first home exchange. We began seeing the world for just the cost of the plane fare. I started putting together trips filled with cheap kid-friendly activities in far-flung places. We were doing it; we were seeing the world without spending much more than what we spent at home! Suddenly I didn’t feel trapped anymore. The years of child-rearing opened up in front of me with visions of showing my kids the Louvre and strolling the night markets of Taiwan. Eventually putting together budget trips for our small family grew into crafting itineraries for our extended family and friends. And that’s how Get Globetrotting was born. If you’re a family that travels, we want to show you how to save money doing it. If you’re a family that doesn’t travel but would like to, we want to help you reach that goal. If you’re thinking about starting a family someday but are secretly worried it’ll ruin your life, we want to show you it doesn’t have to! Raising children and travel have a lot in common. Both are hard work, uncomfortable, exhausting, awe-inspiring, and overwhelming all in the span of about five minutes. Yet each are interspersed with moments that make them 100% worth it. Follow us on our journey to create a life full of purpose, travels, and children. We are choosing to share our family budget travel tips along the way in the hope that we can help other families create the lives they want too! #getglobetrottingstory
Santee Alley is an LA gem. It’s a trendsetting cheapskate’s dream nestled in the middle of LA’s fashion district. Usually when you go thrifting or bargain hunting, you are stuck with last season’s looks. I’ve noticed that many new fashions start in LA before gaining popularity elsewhere and Santee Alley reflects that. If it’s at the mall, it’s at The Alley for cheaper. They had a whole store of just $5 fanny packs!!! I know where I’m doing my Christmas shopping! 👗👠🛍 I found it very family-friendly. Each store had a toy display right at kid-level. The streets are small and car-free so I felt comfortable with my child walking along beside me instead of confining him to the stroller. The whole outing only cost us USD $18 ($7 for parking, $5 new fanny pack for me, $5 toy for him). I found $7 all day parking at 1116 Santee St, Los Angeles CA. #getglobetrottingla
Had such a peaceful afternoon yesterday getting our Christmas tree and putting up our lights. One advantage to a tiny house: it’s easy to decorate! We’ve bought an ornament as a souvenir for every trip we’ve taken together as a family. I love reminiscing on each trip as we decorate. When it was time for bed, our toddler unplugged the Christmas tree, said “night night Christmas,” then began pulling off all the ornaments. I guess we have some Christmas teaching to do. ☃️🎄🎁 Alex and I are having a ton of fun brainstorming service ideas for #lighttheworld this month. I’ll be posting them to my stories every Sunday night. Some of the ideas we came up with involve serving some of YOU so watch for that! If you can think of any easy service ideas, please comment them below and I’ll add them to the lists we have going. Also open to suggestions of holiday activities to do in the LA area! #getglobetrottinglighttheworld
Had a ton of fun participating in #internationaldayofservice with The California State Parks Foundation. We found them through @just_serve . The project was well organized with free lunch at the end. Alex dug the holes and our toddler went around and undid his work by filling them in. As an added bonus, we found out about Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. We will definitely be visiting again because it was beautiful there. #getglobetrottinglighttheworld #getglobetrottingla
The Bay Area is a special place for our family because not only is it my hometown, but it’s where Alex and I met, dated, and got married. We went on our first date to Rock City. Apparently I pretended to be a velociraptor when we got to a section labeled “The Land Before Time.” I have no memory of that so I’m pretty sure he made it up. I think I would have a little more decorum on a first date at the risk of not landing a second date, but who knows. We also took our engagement pictures here (swipe to see us as babies)! 🌳⛰🦖 Rock City is located in Mount Diablo high above the East Bay Area. My dad calls it “our own private Yosemite.” There are a ton of caves to crawl in and hiking with great views. We went here after being cooped up inside due to smoke from the California Fires for 6 days and we were so grateful for the clean air! To get here, drive past The Athenian school and wind your way up Mount Diablo until you see the signs for Rock City. The gate fee is $10 cash, so have that ready! #getglobetrottingsfbayarea
Hi travel friends! Anyone find this time of the year challenging with all the materialism pushed on us and our kids? I’m determined to make this year different by participating in the Light the World Service Campaign. I’m hoping for my child to associate Christmas with giving and to build meaningful holiday traditions as a family. ☃️🎄🎁 Here’s how it works: every week in December our family will pick one act of service to do together. These acts can be big or small, performed in the home or outside of it. We will begin with an International Day of Service this Saturday Dec 1st and so far there are over 30k signed up to serve with us around the world! We found our project on the JustServe app which shows lists of service opportunities organized by zip code. ☃️🎄🎁 This campaign is organized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. However spreading peace and goodwill does not belong to any one religion! So please join us no matter what you believe or how you celebrate. I’ll be posting simple service ideas in my stories all month to get your creativity flowing. If you’re in the LA area, DM me and maybe we can do one of the service acts together! Tag me and use and #lighttheworld for a chance to be featured.
Anyone need a place to run the kids between SF and LA? Try out Bravo Farms. It’s a pseudo-western town with slides attached to every building. They also have a sand pit with trucks which was a big hit with the toddler. I highly recommend ordering from the Tex-Mex menu. Take exit 309 from I-5 to get there. What are your best tips for surviving road trips with children? #getglobetrottingtraveltips
His grateful list: swings and the beach. Alex’s list: a healthy family, surfing, and a job he’s interested in. My list: my husband and son, my job as an ER nurse, and having a creative outlet where I get to write about family and travel. ✈️🗺🏖 As a thank you to anyone who has encouraged me in this endeavor, I will be posting links to killer Black Friday plane fares in my stories today. So far I’m focusing on deals out of SFO/OAK, LAX, and SLC. Comment your home airport and I’ll find you a deal! #getglobetrottingtraveltips
Good news! There’s a ton of rain in Northern California today, hopefully improving the air quality and raining out what’s left of the fires. We spent this welcome rainy day at The Jelly Belly Factory. We got there at 9:45 and we had no line for the FREE tour. Our toddler loved watching the machines do their work from the windows right at his level. He kept waving to the factory workers and blowing them kisses! The highlight of the excursion was attempting to eat the Bamboozled Beans samples. You may get green apple flavor or you may get fart flavor. Tutti Frutti or barf? Coconut or sour milk? Strawberry banana or dead fish? See our reactions in my story. The factory is located in Fairfield, CA east of San Francisco. It’s easiest to get there by car and parking is quite easy. I was impressed by the quality of the cafe food, especially the bean shaped pizza. #getglobetrottingsfbayarea
 
 

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