Booking Budget Travel Online

For some, traveling may be frequent and easy because of good salaries and free time. For others, traveling is all about just waiting for some vacation time and nickel and diming yourself until the day arrives to book everything and head off.

Luckily, for those of us who need to/like to budget (nothing against those lucky people who don't need to/like to, I'm not-so-secretly jealous), the Internet makes it so easy and convenient to find good deals so that traveling can be much more affordable. Today, I thought that it might be helpful, to share my savings advice and what sites and tactics I use to get better deals. Why spend more if you don't have to, right?

(google search)

xo Jessica

Packing Lists for Winter Weather

Hey everyone!

Having packed dozens (maybe even hundreds) of times and with a lot of traveling coming up beginning in 9 days, we thought it would be a great idea to share some of our basic packing guidelines for women and men. We hope that you find it helpful for any winter travel plans you may have!

xo Jessica

New York City for the everyday Gossip Girl

Hello everyone!

I have finally finished Gossip Girl (I actually binge watched it on Nextflix) and I have to say that seeing all of the amazing shooting locations in New York City is getting me even more excited to go. In honor of this, I thought that I would make a post about some of the main attractions featured in Gossip Girl that anyone in New York City can enjoy.

(Taken from Central Park website)

xo Jessica

Merry Christmas everyone!

(Taken from Google Search- Rio de Janeiro's floating Christmas tree)

Winter 2014 Travel Plans!

Hello everyone!

I am very excited to announce that I will be heading back to the USA on January 6th and will be traveling while I'm there. Thus far the only booked trip that I have so far is to New York City for 4 days and I couldn't be more excited. In honor of that, during my planning process I'm going to be posting about what there is to do in NYC, cool places to eat, the museums, and some packing ideas (since it will be in the dead of winter). Although I have been to NYC once, it was only for 20 hours and was a whirlwind of a trip so I am very much looking forward to January!

Other trips are currently being looked into so I will update if/when I have more information on those. Hopefully I will be adding Chicago and Las Vegas to the list so keep checking back!

xo Jessica

*Unfortunately these trips will be without Luiz since he can't get time off of work :(

San Diego Zoo

One of the biggest zoological associations in the world, the San Diego Zoo is not just your average zoo. Filled with more than 3,700 species roaming about in habitats specifically made to be more natural and provide a better living for the animals, the San Diego Zoo will not have you leaving disappointed and feeling sorry for the cooped up wildlife.

Facebook!

Hello everyone!

We're on facebook! We thought that, that would be a cool thing to do so that people could talk with us, make recommendations, see what we're up to during the time that we're not traveling, and so that it's easier to see when there are new posts!

If you're interested in liking us on facebook click here!

xo Jessica

Thanksgiving Outside of the USA

For any of you who find yourself living outside of the USA during the holiday season you aren't alone. Many Americans head into November looking forward to Thanksgiving, a time to give thanks for what you have and gather those that you are thankful for around you to eat and enjoy the company. If you're like me the thought of being far away from family makes these holidays harder to handle but there is a way to bring the holiday joy to where ever you are.

Last year I was still in my first 6 months of living in Brazil and it was the first time in my life that I had not been with family for Thanksgiving. So what did I do to shake the Thanksgiving blues? I brought Thanksgiving to Brazil. It wasn't easy and it took a lot of preparation and planning but now that I have already held a Thanksgiving dinner successfully here once, I plan on trying again this year! This got me thinking that I should share what I learned on here to anyone else that might be struggling with the question of what to do for Thanksgiving outside of the USA. Although it can be extremely difficult to pull off a good old American style Thanksgiving dinner with all of the foods that we've grown accustomed to, I am here to tell you that it can be done no matter where you are as long as there is a grocery store!

In 1 short week I'm planning on hosting my 2nd annual American style Thanksgiving dinner here in Brazil and my friends are already looking forward to it. I hope that what I learned last year will help any of you out there in the same situation.

(Taken from google search)

xo Jessica

Transamerica International Prime Hotel São Paulo

Over this past holiday weekend (November 15-17), Luiz finally got to enjoy his first 3 day weekend without work since May. In honor of this, and hitting the milestone of 2.5 years in our relationship, we headed to São Paulo to enjoy the city and get away for the weekend.

Westin LAX

The Westin LAX, located just down the street from California's busiest International Airport, is an ideal stopping point for anyone with a long layover or looking to get a good nights sleep before heading out to the local beaches or other points of interest. Featuring 700 rooms, a full service spa, workout facilities, pool and free transfer shuttle to and from the airport, the Westin LAX is perfect for a night or day of relaxation before or after your travels.

Hotel Mercedes

In honor of "throw back Thursday" we wanted to post our review and some information about one of our favorite hotels with maybe more throwback Thursday posts to come in the following weeks to highlight some more hotel or excursion reviews from past trips.

Today we want to highlight the Hotel Mercedes in Ilhabela, Brazil.

(Taken with iPhone 5 in the rain)

xo Jessica

Los Angeles Updates

Wow! Today has been a very busy day of trying to get more content on here! Going through old pictures and trying to figure out what to write about has been fun and challenging but worth it. I hope that you enjoy some of the small updates that we have made to our Los Angeles page! There are some more posts about San Diego to come and hopefully we will be traveling this weekend (since it is a holiday weekend here in Brazil) and that will give us a new place to tell you all about! Stay tuned for more soon!

xo Jessica

Click here to read all of our updates for LA and Santa Monica including some information on Hollywood!

Torrey Pines California State Reserve

I wanted to share with you an amazing excursion situated right within San Diego's city limits that will have you thinking you were transported to an entirely different city. Torrey Pines is a large California State Reserve that is every urban-living outdoors person's dream. Located just a short drive away from San Diego's central area, Torrey Pines State Reserve offers everything from hiking to biking to just relaxing by the pristine and peaceful ocean without all of the crowds.

I hope you enjoy reading about this wonderful place as much as I enjoyed visiting! It was definitely one of my favorite places that I've yet to explore in San Diego! If you wish to donate to help keep Torrey Pines in great condition for future visitors, they accept donations through paypal on their website which can be found here (this is completely optional but always appreciated by those who take care of the reserve!).

xo Jessica

Old Town San Diego

Old Town San Diego is one of San Diego's historic areas. Often considered the birthplace of California, Old Town San Diego is the site of the very first permanent Spanish settlement in California. With buildings dating back to the 1800s and an abundance of Spanish cuisine and architecture Old Town San Diego is a spot often overlooked when compared to the gorgeous beaches and luxurious streets of downtown.

Although this past trip marked my first visit to Old Town, I can proudly say that I will be going back again during future visits.

Washington DC

Here I am again!

Washington DC is now also up and ready! Still a lot more to add about the different monuments, memorials, museums, and my personal travel tips but for now I thought I would publish it if you wanted to check it out as a work in progress!

Thanks as always!
xo Jessica

Chicago

Hey guys!

It has been a crazy past two weeks with all of the protests going on at my university and getting ready to head back for a short vacation in the USA here in 1 week! Today I had the day off (because of all of the protests) so I decided that it was time to play catch up on here.

With that being said, here's the bare basics of the windy city, Chicago!

xo Jessica

Amazon Rainforest

Hello everyone!

The Amazon Rainforest post is up! Although not completely done yet since I have to go run some errands, I will be finishing it hopefully sometime tonight or tomorrow! I definitely will be adding some important travel tips to that one later.
Looking through all of these pictures to decide which ones to post make me really miss that trip and want to go back!

xo Jessica

Museu do Futebol-São Paulo

Hello World!

Last week I went to the Museu do Futebol with some of my friends from school after class (Luiz was working, unfortunately) and it was really cool so I thought I would share a bit about it here.

xo Jessica

Ilhabela and Paraty

Hello World!

Ilhabela and Paraty are now up! Next to be posted will be the Amazon Rainforest (which was a solo trip for me since Luiz was working) and some more places in the USA!
It is so exciting to log on everyday and see more and more people checking out our blog so thank you all so much!

xo Jessica

Pictures!

Hey internet!

Some of our pictures are up for California and Michigan! Although there is still so much more to write about everywhere we've been so far we're currently working on getting just the basics down for each location before getting into more details! To all of you reading this, thanks! We get so excited logging on everyday and seeing all of the page views and where everyone is from!

xo Jessica

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP 2013

Hello internet!

 This will be my first post on our blog so I decide to start with the "right feet" as we say here in Brazil. Starting with the right feet means that we start something right, start something in a good way, so nothing better than starting with the day we went to watch the 6 hours of São Paulo endurance race. Well yeah, for those who don`t know yet I`m a huge car enthusiast and have been ever since I can remember, so that day was without questioning special for me!

California

The initial information for California has been posted! There is still much more to come but for now you should all go check it out! There's already some great information on places to eat in San Diego and Santa Monica! http://inthelandofbeauty.blogspot.com.br/p/san-diego.html

xo Jessica

Instagram

For anyone that is interested in seeing pictures from our day to day lives, we're on Instagram!

Jessica @jesshazzy
Luiz @luiz1994

xo Jessica

São Paulo

Hello all! We just updated our São Paulo page to give you all some basic information for now but we will definitely be adding more content and details (including pictures and links) over the next week! For now, here are some of our favorite places and a basic description of each. To keep up with all of the additions, keep checking out our São Paulo page! http://inthelandofbeauty.blogspot.com.br/p/destinations_22.html

xo Jessica

Us

Hello World!

We decided to start this blog after seeing all of the other travel blogs out there for couples. We love to travel and are currently living in Brazil!

Here's a little bit about us...

Jessica: American. 20 years old. Student. San Diego State University. Linguistics and Anthropology. Portuguese. Universidade de São Paulo. Born in Plymouth, MI, USA. Living in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil with Luiz. Loves Photography. Loves to Travel.

Luiz: Brazilian. 19 years old. Student. International Relations. Hard worker at Hamburg Sud. Born in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. Living in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. Lived in Canton, MI, USA for 1 year (did High School foreign exchange). Loves to Travel. Loves cars.

Our Story:
We met when Luiz was in the second half of his foreign exchange program in Michigan through a mutual friend whom he asked to prom. Within days we were best friends and felt like we had known each other forever. We started hanging out every single day after school and were talking nonstop. About a month before Luiz was going to be heading back to Brazil we started dating. Since he was going to be leaving so soon and we were still in the beginning of our relationship I decided that I had to find a way to go to Brazil with him. After a crazy two weeks I had done the impossible and I was on my first international flight heading to São Paulo, Brazil. As that amazing summer spent in Brazil came to a close I had to go back to the USA to start college at San Diego State University and unfortunately that left us in a long distance relationship for over a year. In June 2012, after my first year of college was over, I was hopping back on a plane to Brazil to start a one year (which has now turned in to two years) study abroad program in Brazil as well as many adventures with Luiz.

Our plans for the future are to travel the world together and see as much as possible since it is a passion that we share.

xo-Jessica