Charleston Recap + Everything You Need to Know About Visiting Charleston

Ok so I just had an amaazzzing weekend celebrating an old college BFF's bachelorette party in Charleston. I hadn't been to Charleston since another bachelorette party five years ago (5? 4? 6?). Despite being around college friends and attempting to party like I was in college, I did survive and I did have an amazing time. So here's the scoop on Charleston (one of my BFFs lives there so she told me about the places we didn't go).

Beaches:

Isle of Palms: This was a nice quiet beach with a few restaurants and bars but definitely not party city. Fortunately we brought our own party so this was no prob. Saturday we took a shuttle 30 minutes into downtown Charleston that cost $5/person so def not bad.
Sullivan's Island: Closer to Charleston, location of Charleston's University of Georgia bar so obvi I went there.
Folley Beach: This party beach was our college fav. Lots of people, lots of boozing, kind of like a college party.

All very bachelorette friendly as you can see.

Bars:

Husk Bar: This place is well-known for its restaurant but my friend (a real live local!) swears by the bar scene at night.
Midtown: This was very bachelorette-party appropriate. Live southern rock band, lots of college kids, shots all around. My friend lost her phone here and at the end of the night left her name and phone number for the bartender to call her if he found her phone if that tells you anything about how the night ended there.
Republic: This place was pretty sweet because it had table service with flaming bottles and a dance-y dj playing inside but a live band playing outside.
Market Street Saloon: We fortunately didn't make it to this one but everyone said it is THE bachelorette spot. A Coyote Ugly bar (aka dancing on the bars) that forces the bachelorette to dance on the bar.
*Sidenotes about the bars: If you want to hear live music, Charleston's noise ordinance forces it to cut off by 11pm. Also taxis are maaaddd expensive BUT this weekend was their first weekend with UberX so I definitely recommend using that. Or booking a shuttle ahead of time for a big group. Just be ready for that major expense.

BACON FRIES THIS IS REAL

Restaurants:

Fish ($$$): Thai-French-Seafood fusion. Sounds weird, tastes amazing. We ate here on Saturday, it's definitely on the fancier side but not SUPER fancy.
Xiao Bao Biscuit ($$): Asian soulfood. SAY WHAT? My friend swears everyone has to eat here.
The Grocery ($$$): Farm-to-table, all local, all goodness. BFF says this is where they go when they're in the mood for something fancy. I am dying to try it, also dying to go back to Charleston asap so we'll see how that goes.
Rarebit ($$): Could eat literally everything on this menu. Also could drink every drink on the menu. Yeah yall.

See: Ghost Tours. This is Philadelphia Alley which caught on fire forever ago but apparently you can hear people's screams at night. EEEEk

Things to do:

Beaches (above)
The Market: They have a big market place full of fun things to check out.
Carriage tour: This was totally unnecessary for me because my friend took me around town and explained everything to me but I really recommend this if you don't have someone showing you around. Charleston is so rich with interesting history.
Ghost Tour: A place this full of history has got to be haunted right?

Ok now for my photo dump of amazingness.

Woke up to this view every morning:

Hey franz!

The girls on the beach. The MOH brought us all tank tops that said "that's what she said" and the bride's said " yes". Funny.

The 3 of us met in the dorms freshman year and lived together 3 years of college. Now we are all getting married within 9 months of each other. Weird right?

The above mentioned bacon fries with the lobster roll from Fish. Yes please.

I was seriously impressed by all the greenery in IOP.

Squinty eyes = Lindsay trying to drink like she's in college

With my tour guide Steph! On the battery.

Steph told me this color is Charleston's pink and that is why so many buildings are painted pink in the city. Look for it when you're there!

Hi cute tiny streets!!

Obligatory dog pic of my friends' dog Merlot. HI!!!

Happy Friday from CHARLESTON!

Happy Friday! I'm in Charleston for one of my best college friend's bachelorette parties woooo!!

This is my view, don't be jealous or anything:

JK JK I'm jealous of myself right now! Long weekend at the beach!

And now I'm just praying that I can remember that just because I am with college friends does NOT in fact mean my body is back in college condition

Or else I'll spend the whole weekend like this:

Anyone else have this problem of being around college friends and thinking you're in college again?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! I'm taking an extended weekend so I'll be back Tuesday with Charleston travel tips and a zillion pictures. For now follow the fun on Instagram!

And I leave you with this amazing solution to stop wasting the skins of our summer fruits, thank you buzzfeed for this tutorial:

Budget Friendly DC Vacation Tips

As I mentioned last week, my brain is all over the place so blog schedule is out the window again this week. Maybe next week?

I have gotten some emails from people asking what a broke and bougie person should do on a vacation in DC, and I figure a lot of people venture to our nation's capitol for America's birthday and just wanted to share some tips on doing DC on a budget since I live here on a budget and all. So let's start off with the greatest things to do on a shoestring budget vacay in this wonderful city:

1. Tour the monuments AT NIGHT: Trust me on this one. Less people, monuments and memorials all lit up, fountains lit up, peace, quiet, it's just beautiful and a completely different experience. 

2. Museums: Let me tell you something fabulous about my city- our museums are FREE (well almost all of the museums are free). I highly recommend the Holocaust Museum (if you're going between March and August you need to get a pass), the Smithsonians, and the Newseum. The Newseum costs $20, I think it is worth every penny but Harrison says he would never go again soo...

3. Outdoor Movies: Ok I know every city has cool outdoor movie stuff, but doing it on the National Mall kicks it up a notch. Click here for a listing of showings and times. Again this is free.

via

4. See the Sites by Sea: Seeing the sites on foot is cool but seeing them all from a kayak/canoe/standup paddleboard is way cooler. Here is a list of boathouses in DC- prices are about $10/person/hour and so so great. I usually do the Key Bridge Boathouse option from the Georgetown waterfront- you can see Watergate, Georgetown, and parts of the mall.

5. See the Sites by Sea with Booze: 2 words- booze cruise. Yeah we have that. I recommend browsing Groupon, LivingSocial, and Capitol Deal  for deals on happy hour cruises- you can usually find one for $15 which is a 2 hour river boat cruise through Georgetown, the monuments and the memorials. My favorite boating group is Boomerang- they always have a DJ and you can take shots off a SKI plus the occasional pirate ship. This is all real.

6. Bottomless Brunch: DC has this wonderful thing called Bottomless mimosas and bottomless bloody marys. Almost every restaurant offers it with brunch and $25 can generally get you all you can drink + an entree. My favorites are Front Page DC, Chadwick's, and Station 4. Chadwick's is best followed up with galavanting on the Georgetown waterfront, Station 4 should always be followed with galavanting around the other waterfront.

7. Happy Hours with Views: We love our rooftop happy hours in this city. POV at the W is probably the most popular because it has the most incredible views. It's pricier and the attire is "smart" or something like that which means dress nice. 

via

And of course, tips for traveling in DC: 

1. Get a Smartrip: This will save you money and make getting around DC way faster. Unlike most major cities, we don't have a fixed price to ride the metro. The price of your ride depends on how far you go and what time of day it is, the Smartrip makes it easier and saves $.50/ride and allows you to get on any bus.

2. Use Googlemaps Public Transit Option: It tells you the best way to get where you're going via public transit- what train line you should get on, what time it comes, where to transfer, how to get to the station, everything.

3. STAND TO THE RIGHT, WALK ON THE LEFT: This rule is for ALL ESCALATORS IN DC. I will personally choke you if you are standing on the left side of the escalators.

4. Keep Your Phone Somewhere Safe: Even though this is the nation's capital, it's still dangerous and phones get swiped left and right. Know where you're going and how to get there so you don't have to whip out your phone on a busy street or on the metro platform. Focused on your iphone = easiest possible robbery target.

5. Use Common Sense: Here's a list of things tourists do in front of me that seem to defy common sense: block doorways/exits/entrances with their whole crowd with maps unfolded so no one can get by, stop in the middle of a busy sidewalk and lay on the ground to take a picture, ride up the escalator standing on the left (see #3) with their phones out (hi I'm a tourist and not paying attention), the list goes on.

6. Book Your Stay Through AirBnB: A hotel in the middle of DC can cost around $300/night- nobody got time for that. AirBnB offers entire apartments in some of DC's coolest neighborhoods for under $100! You can score a place a little outside DC but near a metro station for $30-$100. Liiiike yes please.

Friday Favs: GUEST POST-A Week in Paris for a Few Bucks

While I'm gearing up for Lindsay de Mayo (aka my birthday aka Saturday aka the fun starts today), Cam from The Things I Am Crazy For is taking over! Her blog rocks, she travels around on a tiny budget- her life is really freaking cool and I want her to take me around the world with her! check her out!

Hi! When I saw that Lindsay was looking for guest posters, I quickly took the chance to email her about it. As a fellow girl on a budget, I really like her blog and am very happy to be contributing today (ed note: I LOVE YOUR BLOG TOO!)

So since my blog focuses more on travel and expat life, I thought I would do a post about travelling on a budget, and more specifically how to enjoy Paris on a few bucks. If you live in North America, it might be a bit hard to respect a tight budget for Europe travels as a 500-1000$ plane ticket usually involves a lot of savings, so I am sorry for that! However, if you are ever in Europe I recommend adding Paris to your list of places to visit.

I like to go off the beaten path but when a girlfriend from college came to France and asked me to join her in Paris, I jumped at the chance. Paris has this aura that I could spend this entire post trying to explain to you but could never achieve, but just trust an ex-non-believer when I tell you that Paris is worth it! The first time I saw the Paris skyline I was breathless. I felt like I had just entered one of my favorite movies like Paris, Je T’aime, or Midnight in Paris.

The only downside to this story was that I had just finished a degree in Scotland. It happens that international tuition fees are expensive (who knew!) and that my budget was much smaller than I expected. I was scared I wouldn’t get to experience Paris to its fullest. It ends up I was wrong. It is feasible to see a lot of what Paris has to offer on a tight budget! Here are advices and tips on how I managed a week in Paris for a few bucks…

Tips & Advices: 

• Instead of going for a hotel, try to rent a flat/studio. My friend had booked a little studio flat in St-Michel. It gives autonomy and you can almost feel how it is to live in that city. The other cool thing about having a flat is that you can store food from the market and heat it up instead of eating out all the time (see next point).
• Avoid eating out too much. If you go to a foreign place it’s always fun to taste the food, so you should go out and experience that, but if you buy food in a grocery store and make lunches if will save you lots of money. My friend and I bought a few baguettes for a few cents and some cheese.  Some juice, small yogurts and the occasional chocolate/candy and it made for great affordable lunches. Insider’s tip: you can buy 6 pain au chocolat at the store for the price of two of them in a café. 
• Walk as much as you can. If you stay in a convenient location it is possible to get almost everywhere by walking. My legs were actually hurting by the end of the week, but we got to save money and we got to see so much more of Paris than we would have if we had taken the metro everywhere. 
• Flash your student ID as much as you can (if you’re a student or if your student ID is still valid).  That is of course for most things in life. Being a student gets you discounts and it’s good to take advantage of that. When I arrived at Musee D’Orsay (which I highly recommend! I believe that everyone, like me, is a fan of Monet and therefore wants to see his work…), I showed my student ID thinking that instead of 11€ they would charge me 8.50€, but no! My European student ID got me in for free! It proves that you never know what great deals you can get!
• If you want to dish out the money, I would say to choose only one museum to go visit (although this might depend on your priorities when you travel). A museum can take you up to an entire day to visit (or a whole month for the Louvre…). If you spend a week in Paris you might not want to stay two days inside. I love art but Paris has so many different things to offer! We chose Orsay and were not disappointed! 
• It goes without saying but try to avoid being hassled. Be aware that some artists/performers will ask you to give money if you take a picture of them. Or they might try to convince you to buy their work. Some other people will try to sell you junk. Same goes with souvenirs! It usually is overpriced crap that someone will want to make you buy because you are (read: you look like) a tourist. Be careful.

There are also loads of things to do for free in Paris. Here are a few suggestions:

• Go check out the Pont des Arts where lovers tie locks to the bridge and throw the key away to symbolize their eternal love. 
• Cimetiere Pere-Lachaise is where tons of famous people were buried including writers Gertrude Stein and Oscar Wilde and musician Jim Morrison, to only name a few. It is worth the visit and you could easily get lost in the sinuous roads of the cemetery for hours!
• Another cemetery. I swear they are not that creepy! Cimetiere du Montparnasse is the other place where famous people have been buried; it includes writers and philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (which, for nerds like me, is a total must!).
• Go walk around the Jardin des Tuileries. It is situated between the museums and the Champs-Elysees. It is a great path to take to get from one place to the other.
• Jardin du Luxembourg is another one of those lovely places to go for a walk on a sunny afternoon. It is full of sculptures and beautiful floral arrangements. 
• Go explore Montmartre. The streets around the metro are a bit sketchy but if you go up the hill a bit the landscape really transforms into quaint apartment buildings, little local shops and cute parks.  
• Go walk along the Champs-Elysees. It’s the high street of Paris and is full of luxury stores. It is also apparently one of the most beautiful streets of the French capital (according to Wikipedia ;) ). It is indeed a fun walk and it leads to the Arc de Triomphe. 
• Visit the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris. I didn’t have time to go visit it sadly, but it is absolutely magnificent from the outside. Entry is free however and my friend (who had time to go look around before my arrival in Paris) really recommends it! 
• Go check out the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t on our priority list but we went and enjoyed it. You don’t have to go up (it saves both time and money on that one). You can enjoy the stature of the monument by walking in the surrounding areas. 

Hope this helps plan a visit to Paris on a little budget. The thing to remember is that Paris is like an open-air museum, so you could literally visit nothing and yet see so much! Enjoy!

Vacation on a Budget (Jamaica Recap)

one of the rainless days. so beautiful.

Soooo I pretty much had the best week ever. Jamaica was beeauuttiffull (despite record-breaking rainfall), our friends' wedding was a blast (despite being outdoors during record breaking rainfall), spending a week with friends in paradise is straight up good for the soul (despite record breaking rainfall), annndddd I got engaged! So I guess I'll start posting about planning a Broke but Bougie wedding soon? Anyway I don't like the sound of the word "fiance" but I do love the sound of "biance" (just say it out loud). And one note about the engagement: I think my biance may have a career as a jewelry designer- check out the sapphire ring at the bottom!

Anyway, in honor of an incredibly broke & bougie vacation, I want to spread the lessons I learned on planning a paradise vacation on a super tight budget.

Flights: Kayak Alerts are your best friend! Tell them where you're going and when, and they e-mail you a daily roundup of the best airline prices of the day (or week, or you can get push notifications on the phone). It's essentially extreme airline bargain shopping, but they do the work for you.
OH and don't forget to sign up for those frequent flier miles- they rack up fast (especially during wedding season) and you could end up with a free flight by the end of the year!

Lodging: The destination wedding was clutch when it came to lodging. We stayed at a resort that is usually $600/night for $175/night. I got a lot of recommendations for Riu as a more affordable all-inclusive option, and everyone and their mothers says Secrets and Sandals are the most amazing experiences for 24 hour room service, top shelf drinks, and 100% all inclusiveness.

Food and Booze: My brother used to sell timeshares in Cabo and I'm going to let you in on a little secret he once told me: you are almost never saving money doing all-inclusive. There are definitely times that all-inclusives are worth it and you are saving money, but we skipped that this time around, got a cab to the grocery store, loaded up on lunch meat, bagels (I know I fell off the clean wagon), bread, snack bars, beer and liquor. For $150 we had lunch, breakfast, snacks and a few suppers covered. We could also bop down the street to the famous Scotchies for jerk chicken, and eat at the hotel bar for $10. Again, the wedding was clutch as we had 3 meals paid for while we were there. All week we walked around with our own mixed drinks and beers at the beach and it was not a problem (and we weren't paying $10/drink either!)

Entertainment: This is where having a large group was crucial, and also traveling with a promoter didn't hurt either. We didn't need to go out that much as it was so fun to stay in and hang out with everyone and drink. We went out two nights to touristy dance clubs (Margaritaville and Pier 1) in shuttle buses coordinated by one of the guys in our group. We had a great time and drinks didn't cost that much at the clubs compared to DC. The bride also organized a catamaran tour for us one of the days which was great with such a big group. Couldn't recommend doing Jamaica with a group more for the entertainment factor.

Take advantage of deals: Some definitely seem too good to be true but Groupon Getaways and LivingSocial Escapes offer tons of awesome vacation deals. One of my friends just got back from a 7 day trip to Ireland where the $1200 Groupon she bought paid for round-trip airfare, activities, rental car, and 6 nights stay in the Ritz. And my mom did Jamaica last year on a Groupon Getaway. Just make sure to read on-line reviews of the companies offering the deals. Expedia and Priceline also offer last-minute deals for great prices. For cruises subscribe to cruiseline newsletters- Carnival sends weekly discount especially during off-season. Sidenote: we went on a ridiculously cheap carnival cruise last year because we booked two days after the infamous poop cruise incident. Timing is everything, people!

Annnnd for a look into our incredible vacay:

gotta do the catamaran! rain or shine this is such a fun way to spend the day in Jamaica

I know. How beautiful is this? Almost want to have my own destination wedding!

I KNOW RIGHT?