Do I have your attention? Looking for a good laugh today? Great, keep reading.

The Situation

There are lots of things I do for my job. Some I don’t enjoy, but others are really great. Among the latter is a student organization (Collegiate DECA, iykyk) I’m the faculty advisor for. What a great organization and group of students! One of the things they get to do is participate in a series of competitions, largely based on business cases. And as it turns out, their national competition this year is in Bourbon City (Louisville, Kentucky). Fantastic.

In years past, the competitions were far enough away that the students needed to fly to compete. That’s not really an issue, except, for reasons I’m not able to explain, they seem to always find themselves in the midst of flight delays and cancellations. That’s stressful, because if they’re delayed too long, it seriously impacts their ability to participate in their competition.

So, when they announced this year’s competition would be in Louisville, they immediately told me they were driving. Great. And the plan was for me to drive with them, until I realized I’d double-booked myself and needed to come home the day before they were. Okay, no problem, they take the cars, and I’ll take a flight.

Trouble is, our university just renegotiated our rental car agreement, so I wasn’t really sure the students would be able to pick up their cars without issue. So I was glued to my phone all morning, just waiting for someone to tell me they had a problem (fortunately, my student organization is fantastic at getting itself out of a bind, so I really had no reason to worry). Then, finally, it came: a text message from one of my co-Presidents telling me…everything was fine. They got their cars and were already headed back to campus to pick up their colleagues and head to the land of bourbon. Excellent.

A few hours later, I was off to the airport. It was a beautiful morning: cool, a few clouds, no bad weather, and the slightest hint of a breeze (read: Zara was living her best life). I even made it to the airport a little earlier than I’d expected because there was almost no traffic (the week before, when I was going to Chicago, there was some traffic as a semi pulling a load of clementines had fallen over into the shoulder…random, I know). And I got a parking space closer to the terminal. Amazing. As ours is a fairly small airport, we’re usually through security (with Pre-check, obviously) and to our gate in about 10 minutes. This was also true today. Everything is going so well.

Where it Went Wrong

And all was well, as I sat at the gate waiting for the plane to arrive. My itinerary took me to Chicago first, with a very quick 55-minute layover (I know, I know), and then from there to Louisville.

So there I was, drinking my coffee, looking out the massive window, and just waiting. And…waiting. And, waiting. Finally, we heard our plane had landed – about 10 minutes before we were supposed to take off. You’ll recall I had a 55-minute layover.

The gate agent was very calm and collected, reassuring us that they’d get the plane unloaded, cleaned, and ready to go in about 10-15 minutes, so we should take off approximately on time. We were further reassured that there was a strong tailwind that should help us get to Chicago on time, if not a little early. Cool.

Delays 1 & 2

Shortly thereafter, we assumed our positions as our boarding groups were called, dutifully lining up and heading down the jet bridge. Weirdly, everyone seemed to understand we were dancing on the precipice of being late, and so they just did what they were told, and we were on the plane in no time. Once fully boarded, the flight attendant closed the door and told the captain we were ready to go.

And then we sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Okay, fine, it was probably more like 10 minutes, but it felt like forever. Then, mercifully, the captain came on and said we were ready to go. So we did the usual taxiing thing and headed for the runway.

And then we sat. WTF, mate?

With as much as we travel, I’ve heard a lot of reasons for flight delays. But when the captain came over the intercom and told us they’d put too much fuel on the plane, I was…well, I’m not sure what the right word is. Surprised? Shocked? Confused? How does that happen? Isn’t this all measured? You know all of the variables involved in this equation: the type of plane, the distance to travel, current weather conditions, and how many people will be on the plane. I suppose they don’t know how much each person weighs, but we can use some population information to get a reasonably good guess, right? Wrong, evidently.

So, rather than take off, we had to sit close to the runway – just close enough to see it – and run the engines for 20 minutes to burn enough fuel to avoid being overweight at takeoff. We all looked around at each other, thinking the same thing: can’t they just…pump…it back out? Nope.

Delay 3

Finally, we heard the engines whine as the captain pushed the throttle and told us we were light enough for liftoff. So off we went, climbing into the sky and heading toward Chicago.

One of the unique things about Chicago’s O’Hare airport is that no matter where you land or which terminal your connecting flight departs from, you’ll inevitably taxi along the runway for what feels like the rest of your natural-born life. I keep saying I need to time this, but I always forget, likely out of frustration and pure rage every time I’m there. But honestly, am I wrong? I legitimately think we taxi for the better part of 20 minutes each time we’re there. It’s unreal.

And of course, when you’re already concerned about missing your connection, that taxi situation really does seem to take forever. Honestly, O’Hare, get it together.

Delays 4, 5, 6, and $%^&!

This part might be slightly exaggerated, but this is my story, so I’ll tell it how I like.

After touching down and finishing the taxi process, or so we thought, we came to a stop. Thinking we’d reached our gate, the plane full of people, most of whom had tight layovers, got up and started reaching for their things.

‘The captain hasn’t turned off the seatbelt sign, please stay in your seats, ‘ our friendly flight attendant said over the intercom. I was sitting in seat 1B, so literally the entire plane was behind me, but I can only imagine the looks sent toward the front. We were never told why we’d stopped (it was for about 5 minutes), but all of a sudden we started moving again. Yes! Nope. Stopped again about 20 feet later. Then moving. Yay! Nope, stopped again. This time there was another plane in our way, which is fair, because it’s not like they’re ABSOLUTELY HUGE vehicles, nor do our pilots have AN ENTIRE WINDSCREEN they’re looking out of.

It’s fine. Everything is fine. The other plane moves, then we do, too. Finally! We’ve arrived at our gate. Only, not. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL H*LL?! No ground crew at the gate. But, of course, there isn’t.

As we’re sitting there, I look at the flight attendant who seems to be anticipating my question. ‘What are my odds of making my 2.10 flight to Louisville?’ I ask. ‘What gate are you out of?’ she replies. ‘E6, just a 3-minute walk from our gate, so says the United app,’ I said. ‘Oh, you should be fine. Or well, I think you should be fine,’ she says with a slight smile. Sure. I look at my watch, and that’s about 25 minutes from now.

My Remedy

I put a lot of faith in my flight attendants knowing what they’re doing and saying, but at this point, let’s just say my faith was in serious question. As I stared at my watch, all I could think about was there being no plausible situation where I was getting on that plane.

Rather than get frustrated, I leveraged the magic that is the United app. I pulled up my itinerary, said I wanted to change my next flight, and was immediately presented with a list of flights from Chicago to Louisville the same day. The next flight was about 3 hours later, which was fine, because I’d just head to the lounge and have a beer (okay, maybe two).

A few clicks later, I was rebooked, had a new boarding pass, and instantly felt my stress disappear. All the while, my fellow passengers continued freaking out in the general direction of a flight attendant who was completely unable to move our plane to the gate, despite her best wishes.

One More Delay

We finally got to our gate roughly an hour after we were supposed to. The flight attendant asked everyone with longer connections to remain seated, as there were several folks with very tight connections. Amazingly, people actually listened, so our panicked friends could make their best attempt (some futile, of course) to make their connecting flights.

And as I got up to grab my backpack and leave the plane, I was immediately happy that I’d moved my flight. As I walked off the jetbridge, I was met by a crowd of people, the very same people with those very tight connections, who were now waiting for our valet-checked bags to get to us. Thoughts and prayers, friends.

Concluding Thoughts

Why am I writing this? What’s the point? Truthfully, I’m not sure. If you’re laughing, I assume you’ve been in a similar situation. You’re going to miss your flight despite doing everything you were supposed to do. It isn’t fair. But what is there to do? Two answers come to mind.

First, use technology to your advantage. We’ve mentioned this before, but it really does pay to use the tools the airlines make available for you. I was able to use their app to rebook my flight before I even left the plane. That meant I was less stressed because I had a good Plan B, which involved a trip to the lounge for refreshment.

Second, we’ve also mentioned this before, but be nice to your flight attendant. They’re probably stressed, too, both because they also have another flight to get to and because they’re legitimately ill-equipped to help resolve your tight connections and missed flights. Ask them for suggestions, but don’t expect them to fix the problem right then and there.

And remember, traveling is stressful for everyone, even the pros, so be nice.

P.S.

After a layover in the closest United lounge, I headed to my new gate. Once there, I glanced at my boarding pass to see which group I was in. Group 1. Weird, that’s reserved for…First Class. I hadn’t realized that when I changed my flight, it must have upgraded me to the First cabin.

Touche, Travel Gods. I see you.

The post Drat! The Travel Gods Strike. Again first appeared on The DeBode Way.

If you’ve been following the blog over the past few months, you’ll know we’re on a mission in 2026 to do more adventuring a bit closer to home. Don’t worry, we’re still making plans to hop the pond and spend some time in Europe. But we also know there’s so much to do and see around the US in general and the Midwest in particular, so let’s gooooooooooooooo!

The Dilemma

Thus far, our domestic travel agenda has taken us to Weston, Missouri, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, both of which we highly recommend. And all was going well with our goal of visiting one new place each month. And then it was suddenly the end of March, and we had no plans. Zero. Nadda. Zilch. What to do? At that point, planning a weekend away wasn’t really in the cards (no, not those cards, they’re still here…sitting on our bookcase…), and so instead we looked for something local, and that didn’t take much planning. Also, we were a bit strapped for time, because we had house things to do on Saturday and our regular agenda in Springfield and Nixa on Sunday. Sound familiar?

The Parameters

Fortunately, there’s loads of stuff to do in Springfield, even on Sundays, and even stuff that doesn’t take a ton of time. More specifically, we had about a 2- to 3-hour window late Sunday morning after the bells played in church and before Tasha had to be to another rehearsal. So, we had a day, a time window, and a general area figured out. That window of opportunity also happened to coincide with what classy folks refer to as ‘brunch.’ And there it was, our adventure for the day.

So, we started looking around for brunch places in Springfield, and it’s a short list. To be fair, Springfield’s Sunday brunch scene is becoming more robust, but many places really just serve the same breakfast options for a little longer, or the usual lunch menu a little earlier. Folks who know brunch will tell you this isn’t brunch. But we’re getting there, as more restaurants are coming up with new, more specific brunch menus.

Okay, so we started looking around, and most places were already booked (you know…last-minute planning and all). Fortunately, a familiar spot still had openings, so we booked a table at The Ozark Mill at Finley Farms. We’d been there a handful of times, but just for brunch, though we know the grounds of Finley Farms have lots of different things to explore. And now we have a local adventure.

Our Adventure

We ended up getting to the Mill about an hour before our reservation, hoping they’d be able to seat us early. No such luck. Bummer. As we headed back out the door to explore the small farm area right outside, the hostess asked if we wanted to do the tour. The tour? What tour? But also, of course we do. It turns out, the Ozark Mill is called the Ozark Mill because it’s…well, it’s in a mill. That mill has been around for more than a century, and there’s tons to learn about, so they’ve created a tour.

So, we headed to the counter to pay the $5 per-person fee, and then they pointed to a staircase leading to the lower floor. Thinking it over, one of the employees ended up taking us downstairs, showing us the way.

A Restaurant in a Restaurant

As soon as we got to the lower level, the manager pointed off to the left at what was a HUGE old molasses tank, on its side, with the ends cut off, making one of the coolest tunnels we’d ever seen. He asked if we wanted to go in. Um, of course we do, but why? What’s there? So in we go to find a restaurant and speakeasy. You guys! What?! Wild. Such a cool vibe in the restaurant (which was closed; they’re open for dinner and drinks), with rich wooden tables and leather upholstery, thick, heavy velvet curtains, and a feeling that takes you back to the days of the Wild West or something. So cool. We got a quick personal tour and saw the menu before heading back out of the molasses tank and onto the main tour. And what is this gem called? The Garrison – it’s giving me Peaky Blinders vibes. Who wants to go for dinner and drinks sometime?

A Historical Tale

The tour itself was highly interactive and told the story of the history of the mill and the importance it played in the area. There was, a while back, a competing mill that eventually ended up closing, so the Ozark Mill was the only one around, and it really was the center of life back then. The tour was really well done, with lots of videos (the kind that are motion-activated, so they start playing when you talk to each new area) and places to interact with some of the parts and equipment that used to run the mill.

We learned about some of the characters (employees, but so much more than that) who became legends, some of the struggles, and overall Ozark ingenuity that saved the mill over the years. For example, when the current owners took over the property, the foundation was crumbling, as it’s too close to the river and the river floods, as rivers do. That needed to be fixed, so they moved the building. Yep. Put it on rollers and rolled it over, replaced the foundation, then rolled it right back. We were today’s years old when we learned that a building that big could be moved like that. Neat.

The tour ended back in the general store, at the front of the restaurant. It took about 45 minutes to walk the whole thing, but we weren’t in a hurry, so it’s possible we could have sped it up if we needed to. Around that time, our table was ready, and so off we went to stuff ourselves at the brunch buffet before rolling out and onto our next thing for the day.

Adventures: Think Local

And there you have it. A new adventure, right in our backyard (okay, maybe not right in our backyard, but pretty close!) and even at a place we’ve been multiple times. Just goes to show there’s lots to do all over, but don’t overlook the places closest to you; you might be surprised by what you discover.

Get out there and have some (local) adventures and let us know what you discover!

Until next time, happy adventuring, friends.

The post Discovering Missouri: Finding the Forgotten Secrets in Your Backyard first appeared on The DeBode Way.

In our last post, we mentioned a neat gift we got for Christmas from Jason’s parents: the Missouri card deck from the Adventure Bucket List. Not wanting to let 2026 get away from us (at least not yet), right after the New Year started, we put together a plan to visit one new place each month until we run out of cards. Great plan, right? The next thing we knew, we were staring at the last weekend in January and…you guessed it…hadn’t gone anywhere.

Picking Our First Adventure

So, to the couch we went (everyone makes their serious plans from the couch, right?) to figure out our first Missouri adventure. Fortunately, the cards themselves make this pretty easy. At the bottom of each card is a series of icons, letting you know when to go, the activity level, cost, and a few other things. So, our first order of business was to narrow the cards down to the ones applicable to the Winter: 3 cards. Great. One of the cards was for November/December, which we assumed would be more Christmas-themed, and since we were already past Christmas, we took this card out. That narrowed our options to two. Tasha closed her eyes and randomly picked a card, and the next thing we knew, we were planning a quick weekend getaway to Weston, Missouri. The idea was to leave after Jason left work on Friday, drive to Weston (about 3 hours away), stay the night, and come home after our activity the next day.

Home for the Night

First order of business: find a place to stay. We’re fans of the Hilton family of hotel brands (always remember: the more you stay with a single hotel brand, the faster you accrue points and gain status), so we headed to their website and found a grand total of zero properties in Weston. Bummer. Fortunately, there were plenty of options in Leavenworth, Kansas, about a 15-minute drive from Weston. Hotel booked!

We should also say that a quick search on your favorite hotel booking website will bring up a ton of really neat-looking B&Bs and smaller hotels, many of which are in or very close to Weston. Some of those weren’t open during the winter, and because our planning was last-minute, not available, so we opted for a more familiar hotel chain instead.

Weston: Day 1

Before drawing the card, we’d never heard of Weston, Missouri, much less what there is to do there (well, Jason hadn’t anyway, due to his illness in Scotland and not participating in activities where his cousin was talking it up, and then Tasha’s cousin mentioned it too, so she investigated). But gosh, the more we looked, the more interesting the town seemed! We decided to make the most of our adventure and so kept ourselves pretty busy, but we’ll highlight our favorite stops.

We arrived in Weston around 5 pm, so our first stop was at the Pirtle Winery. This small winery is currently housed in what was a Lutheran Evangelical Church built by German immigrants in 1867. When you arrive, there’s an imposing staircase taking you from street level up to the front door. Walking into the large, open space, we were greeted by the friendly barkeep who did our wine tasting. And we tasted so many wines! From reds and whites to meads and fruit wines and even bourbon, we tasted nearly everything on the menu. We even tasted Norton-based wines. If you haven’t had Norton wine before, let’s just say it’s an acquired taste, and one we typically don’t reach for. However, after much encouragement from our wine guide, we tried a few and had to admit they were pretty…ok. Better than we remembered, anyway.

Having thoroughly explored their menu and bought our favorites to take home, we headed back out and, yes, down the same steep staircase we’d come up (seriously, why are these stairs so steep?!). But before taking off, we asked our barkeep, a Weston native, for dinner recommendations, and we are so glad we did!

Dinner that night was at Avalon Cafe. From the outside, the cafe looks slightly out of place, as if it belongs in the Deep South near a plantation somewhere. Walking up to the large front porch from the street, you’re greeted with window views of the white tablecloth-clad tables inside and tons of candlelight vibes. Walking in, you’re immediately greeted by a friendly hostess who takes you to your table. The menu looked good, but it’s always good practice to ask for recommendations, and they did not disappoint. Tasha had a mahi-mahi, and Jason had the steak (with coffee butter sauce – what!?); both were specials of the day and came with mountains of vegetables – yum! Our only regret of the night? Not getting dessert. Sigh. We were both so full from dinner, dessert was the last thing on our minds, even though they all looked amazing. Oh well, it’s a reason to go back, right?

After dinner, we did a quick drive around Weston, but as it was now dark, we couldn’t see much. So we headed off to our hotel, about 15 minutes away, to call it an early night to be fully prepared for our main adventure the next day.

Weston, Day 2

Before heading off to our main adventure, we stopped in for breakfast at The Depot in Leavenworth, a place we can’t recommend enough. Hearty breakfasts, super friendly staff, reasonable prices, and oh my gosh, the cinnamon rolls! They’re nearly as big as your head, and everything you want in a cinnamon roll: light, warm, oozing with cinnamon, and topped with cream cheese frosting that melts just the right amount. That alone is reason enough to visit the area (available Saturday and Sunday ONLY).

Fully satisfied with our breakfast, we rolled out of The Depot and back into the car, heading off for our adventure. But one more quick stop first. We poked our heads into Weston Coffee Roastery to grab a coffee to fortify Jason for this adventure. We love a local roaster!

So, what was the main event? The thing that brought us to Weston in the first place? Snow tubing! Truthfully, this isn’t something we’d have picked for ourselves, but looking back, we’re so glad we did, as it was some of the best fun we’ve had in a long, long time. The weather was about as perfect as you can ask for: cold (about 20 degrees, eventually) and sunny, albeit with a slight breeze, though that calmed down throughout the day.

Our tickets were good from 11 am – 1 pm, and we made the most of it! The slope had about 6 different tube runs, though two were closed for minor repairs. From 11 am – noon, the course was pretty packed, but around noon, most of the crowd disappeared, leaving only a few of us to enjoy the runs. And gosh, it was like being a kid again. Racing down the different runs, running over to the large conveyor belt that took us back to the top (whoever developed these is a genius), and speeding down again – so fast! Rinse and repeat…and repeat…and repeat. Our 40ish-year-old bodies might not have appreciated the abuse the next day, but it was totally worth it for the fun we had. We slept like absolute rocks that night.

Our time on the course ended at 1 pm on the nose, and after handing in our tubes, we headed for the car and home. We’re intentionally not sharing the name of the slope we visited, as this is one of the reasons to get the card deck! But, suffice it to say, we had a great time and are already looking forward to our next visit to Weston; we’re told they have lots of wineries and distilleries that are lots of fun to visit during the Spring and Summer. Noted.

Do you know what the funniest part of this whole adventure is? Snow tubing was one of the first dates we went on, way back sometime in 2006-2007 (we’re terrible about remembering actual dates)! I guess you just never know when those little glimmers are going to pop up in your life. You’ve heard it here first, folks: the couple that goes snow tubing together, stays together!

Adventure Local

And there you have it, friends: our first Missouri exploration is in the books, and we’re really looking forward to the next one. We’ve been saying for years that we need to do more exploring closer to home, and we finally have an easy way to do it. This just goes to show that, as much as we love spending time in Europe, there are plenty of adventures and (not so) hidden gems much closer to home, too.

Happy travels, friends!

The post Discovering Missouri: An Amazing Journey to Weston first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Why We Travel

As you know from following our blog, we’re big fans of traveling. For the most part, other than the handful of trips to Iowa we take, most of our traveling is international, and we love it. The thrill of exploring a new place, new people, new food, new transportation systems…all of it. We’ve said it before and will say it again: in an increasingly disconnected world, traveling is one of the major ways we meet new people, learn and experience new things, and generally get a chance to connect and grow. It’s fantastic, and we highly recommend it.

International Travel Headaches

Still, international travel isn’t without its hurdles. Trans-Atlantic (or…gasp…even Trans-Pacific?!) flights aren’t for the faint of heart. It’s true that long-haul planes (the Boeing 777, 787, or the Airbus A380, for example, though there are lots of others) have made considerable strides in fuel efficiency, noise levels, and the like. However, while they’ve also made strides in steerage class (alternatively known as economy) seats, it remains a stretch to call them comfortable. They’re also getting more expensive each time we fly, and free upgrades to premium cabins are increasingly rare (though you can read about one of our upgrade tricks here).

Of course, then there’s always the decision about whether to check your luggage or only travel with carry-on bags, as we do. Additionally, depending on the state of global economics and the US dollar’s performance against other currencies, food, souvenirs, car rentals, and tours may also become more expensive. These aren’t reasons that’ll keep us from traveling, but they do have the nasty habit of limiting how much we can travel, as do our jobs. Lame.

Travel Closer to Home!

So, what’s a person to do who wants to travel but has limited means to go abroad? This may seem obvious, but it’s something we frequently overlook: there are lots of neat things to do here. Trouble is, there are so many things to do that it can quickly get overwhelming trying to decide what to do. Fortunately, a recent Christmas present from Jason’s parents has helped make this easier.

Have you discovered the Adventure Bucket List yet? We had seen this occasionally on social media, but knew nothing about it otherwise. It turns out, the good folks at Research International Outfitters have done much of the heavy lifting for us. We’ve only just started exploring ours, but the company has a Bucket List for 48 of the 50 states (nothing for Alaska or Hawaii, at least as of now). Jason’s parents got us the Bucket List for Missouri, and our Bucket List has 50 different adventures.

Each is a scratch-off card, which adds to the adventure/surprise feel of this. To help with your selection, the bottom of each card has hints: indoor/outdoor, Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall, price, time of day, duration, active/relaxed, and meals. The general area or town is also listed at the top of each card, so you’ll know where you’re heading, just not what you’ll be doing.

Oh, the Possibilities!

We’re excited to get started with this! Despite having lived in Missouri for almost a dozen years, we’ve done very little exploring here, which is why it’s at the top of our list of 2026 resolutions. We’re also close enough to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Iowa that we might add a few more Bucket Lists to our collection.

As of now, our goal is to do at least one adventure each month. So, a single Bucket List box – which has 50 adventures – could easily last us a few years. Each Bucket List sells for $64.99, which, if the List lasts us 4+ years, is about $16.25 per year. Not too bad, and WAY less expensive than planning our trips to Europe (which are still happening, just to clarify).

Is this something you’ve seen or, even better, used? If so, let us know your thoughts.

Whatever your 2026 resolutions, and however much progress you make at achieving them, we wish you luck. Our best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous, and adventurous 2026!

The post A New Year, a New Type of Adventuring first appeared on The DeBode Way.

What we haven’t talked about very much is how to make your actual flight better. Mostly this is because we didn’t learn about it until recently, but now that we have, we wanted to share. If you’re like us, when you board the plane, you immediately head to the right, back in steerage while quietly wondering what it’s like to turn left. And, like many of you, we always assumed business-class seats were well beyond our financial reach, instead hoping – in vain – for the complimentary upgrades your friend of a friend of a friend got that one time. Or at least that’s the rumor.

Certainly, we’ve shared the products we use to help make our flight experience better, but wouldn’t it also be nice to fly in relatively more comfortable environs? Lay flat seat, anyone?

Booking for Business-Class

We can’t be the only ones who have been on an airline’s website looking for flights and, just for fun, told the engine to search for business (or higher!) class seats. And despite our most fervent wishes for one of those enigmatic ‘fluke’ fares (when the airline accidentally lists a really low price for an upper-class seat), our hopes are always dashed. You want how much for that seat?!

The thing is, when you book a flight in an upper-class cabin, like business-class, you’re booking your full itinerary in that class, or at least insofar as those cabins exist on the planes you’re flying on.

For example, when we leave from Springfield on United Airlines, we almost always head to Denver, Houston, or Chicago before jumping across the pond. That flight out of Springfield is almost always on a small, regional jet (commonly with a 1×2 seating configuration). Those planes don’t have a business-class cabin, so there’s little point in booking the full business-class ticket when some of our flights don’t have business-class seats. Especially at those prices!

We’ve also learned that we’re more interested in business-class seats on the way to Europe, but not as much on the way back. Why? Our flight to Europe is always overnight, meaning that we land first thing in the morning. That means if you don’t sleep on the plane, you’re awake for nearly 48 hours, and the older we get, the harder this is to pull off without any embarrassment. If you can sleep sitting up and your legs don’t throb after being under you for a few hours, kudos to you; it doesn’t work for either of us!

Upgrading to Business Class

If you’re following along, this means that what we’re really interested in is an upgrade to business class on our trans-Atlantic flight on the way to Europe, only. This next part is important: I *need* the airlines to understand that we’re fully prepared to accept complimentary upgrades to business- or first-class as often as they’re willing to give them to us. This conversation is only about the upgrades we must pay for.

To make this happen, we’ve found this process works best for us:

1. Book your flight at your regular ticket class. We’ve previously discussed how, especially on long-haul flights, we prefer the Premium Economy seats, so this is where we usually start when booking flights to Europe.
2. After your ticket is confirmed (usually, we wait a few days), log into your frequent flier account (if you don’t have one, you should; they’re free) and find your flight. Where these are located depends on the airline, but for United, they’re referred to as ‘Current trips’.
3. Then look for the ‘Upgrade Cabin’ option, which, again for United, is in the same area as seat changes, insurance, and ways to change or cancel your flight.
4. Click on the Upgrade Cabin button and in the new window it’ll give you the option to upgrade your flight using either money or miles. At first, we only ever looked at the Money option, which was frequently in the thousands of dollars. Nope. But then we started looking at the Miles option and things changed.

For example, on our upcoming flight to London, we can upgrade (to business-class) for $6,016 per person. This is just for the flight from Newark to London, not the flights from Springfield to Chicago or Chicago to Newark. Again, nope. OR we can upgrade using miles, in which case it’s 20,000 miles per person for our entire itinerary. There is also a fee of $425 per person, but that’s considerably more reasonable than $6,000, right?

Other Important Details

There are a few things we want to be clear about:

• First, this is our cost to upgrade from the Premium Economy to Business-class cabin. If you purchase a regular Economy ticket, the upgrade miles + fees might be different, and they won’t let you upgrade at all if you buy a Basic Economy seat.

• Keep in mind that in this scenario, it’s 20,000 miles + $425 for each side of our itinerary. In other words, we’d have to pay this on the way to Europe and the same on the way back, meaning that our total upgrade cost would be 40,000 miles and $850 per person. But again, we’re mostly focused on the upgrade to Europe and will then roll the dice and hope for some kind of complimentary upgrade on the way home. A person can dream.

• We recently learned that if you pay for the upgrade (either with Money or Miles) a while before you leave, you might get put on a Waitlist. You will still be charged, but they’ll wait to upgrade you until closer to your flight, often 24-48 hours before you leave. That’s frustrating but know that if the upgrade ends up not being available, you’ll be refunded for the upgrade charge.

We know $425 per person is still a hefty price to pay, especially when flights are getting more expensive. However, it’s much less than paying directly for the upper-level cabin, so we’re okay with it. Especially since we’ll arrive at our destination ready for a great time instead of with painful legs, desperate for some rest, and seriously jetlagged. Remember, all this time we’ve talked about ways to save money so you can either travel for less, or be more discerning about where/when you splurge; this is one place we see the value in splurging when we can.

Not sure you have enough miles? No problem. You can purchase miles, but we never go this route. Instead, if you have a credit card that accrues points and is a partner with United (check your credit card portal for details), you can transfer points from your credit card to your United account. Alternatively, if you know where to look (we always leverage help from our friends at 10X Travel), you can find great sign-up bonus deals for a new credit card. As always, if you decide to open a new card, we always advocate for knowing your spending limits and never going beyond that. In other words, when we open new cards, it’s for the bonus, and we already know how it fits into our current spending and how to offset any annual fees with the benefits the card brings. Always spend responsibly!

We hope this is as helpful for you as it has been for us. Again, we don’t do this every flight, but for the long-haul flights, those lay-flat seats and quieter cabin really do make a difference.

Whatever you do, get out there and live your best life! See you out there!

The post The Hidden Secret to United Business Class Upgrades first appeared on The DeBode Way.

I recently attended a conference in San Francisco and, not having been to this city before (which is weird, considering I spent nearly 6 years living in the state as a kid), I wanted to do a little exploring and to make sure I saw the major sites.

San Francisco Treats

The first thing I’ll say is San Francisco isn’t known for one thing. Or even for a few things. Instead, it’s known for a weirdly eclectic assortment of things.

Before I left, as with most of my travels, I did a quick TripAdvisor search to see what I should visit. As anticipated, the main results were the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, trolleys, and the wildly steep switchback streets that make up much of the city’s road system. Fortunately, much of this is in one broad area, so on my free afternoon, I hopped in an Uber and had them take me over to the famous Fisherman’s Wharf.

The Wharf is a long area that follows along the shore of the Bay, making for some excellent views. As I wandered along, there was such a variety of things to see and experience it was a bit much to take in.

The first thing I saw was what appeared to be a decommissioned battleship (SS Jeremiah O’Brien). The large ‘OPEN’ sign hanging off the back suggested it was open for tours, but I was on limited time, so kept moving. After this, I came across the Pier 39 area, which, at the time, was very busy, so I kept walking. A little further along I came across the world-famous Boudin Bakery, known for its sourdough breads. I wandered through their café and gift shop, and while the smells were amazing, the lines were out the door, so I kept wandering.

As I continued following the Wharf, I came across a small inner harbor area. Lots of brightly colored smaller boats were tied up for the day, and a few others were looking for their last few passengers to take on a cruise out to the Bridge area.

At the far end of the Wharf, you cross the street and find yourself staring at Ghirardelli Park, named for, you guessed it, Ghirardelli. Yes, the chocolate company. And, as luck would have it, there’s a Ghirardelli chocolate factory right in the center of the park. Obviously, I stopped in for a visit, looking for something exclusive to take home. Much of what I found was the same square chocolates I can find at home, so I settled for a mini sundae instead. It didn’t disappoint.

After my sugary snack, I walked around and found some of their famous vintage trolleys that continue to operate throughout the city. Turning my head, I was pleasantly surprised with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not looking to head back to my hotel just yet, I reversed my steps and headed back to the Pier 39 area. Wandering around, I found a wide variety of shops in the Pier. Lots of food stands and restaurants, plenty of souvenir shops, and some amusement-type places, too. All the typical things I usually find along an oceanside boardwalk, but mercifully without the sand.

After exploring the shops and Pier, I decided it was time to head back, so I called another Uber and headed to the hotel. On the drive back I had an interesting chat with my driver about the driver-less taxis (Waymo) I’d seen all over the Downtown part of the city. Yes, driver-less. It turns out, there have been around only for about two years, but they’re becoming popular, thought not quite to the point of disrupting the taxi/Uber industry…yet. I can see the appeal (no tired drivers in the middle of the night or early morning, as an example) but it’s still so strange to see the cars driving themselves around with no one in the driver’s seat.

In the end, I probably didn’t see everything San Francisco is known for. But then, maybe San Francisco isn’t really known for any one thing, or even a few things. Instead, maybe San Francisco is known more for its sheer variety of things to see. All cities have lots of things to see and take in, but it felt different in the Bay Area.

All that’s to say, the next time you explore a city, do your homework and make sure you see the main things you’re going to see. But also, be open to taking a walk and really exploring the area. Oh, and please don’t stare at your phone. This is both for your own safety and so you’ll see some of what others overlook.

Happy travels!

The post Appreciating the Uniqueness of San Francisco, in a Hurry first appeared on The DeBode Way.

What We Don’t Do

It might seem a little weird to start with what we don’t do, but it’s a shorter and important conversation. The biggest thing we don’t do for our clients is book their airfare between the US and wherever we’re going. Why? Well, different people like traveling in different cabins (business v. economy, for example), from different kinds of airports (small v. large), and prefer to travel with different amounts of luggage (we strongly recommend a rolling carry-on and backpack, but you do you, friend – you have to carry it ). As you might guess, each of those influences the price of your flight and potentially your itinerary. But most of all is the points! We’re big advocates of playing the credit card points game, as we’ve explained before, and if we book your flight you don’t get the miles or points (we do).

Other than your flight, we also don’t include travel insurance (though we always recommend getting it, just for your peace of mind) or schedule your activities during your free time, which we explain a little later. We do cover some of your meals, but we also leave time to try places you want, which you cover on your own.

What We Do

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the broad structure of how we build our small group trips and why we’re different. First, doing things The DeBode Way means choosing your own adventure and charting your own path, though we understand not everyone is as comfortable jumping into the unknown as others, or at least not yet. At the same time, most people we know don’t want a fully-planned itinerary that doesn’t leave time to explore at your own pace or interest. We fit in between these two extremes, building an overall structure that takes care of the major things but leaves lots of unstructured free time to create the trip of your dreams. Interested? Excellent; let’s use our most recent trip as an example.

Scotland, October 2024!

Our most recent Scottish small group trip started in Edinburgh, traveled to Oban, and then back to the outskirts of Edinburgh. Let’s talk about each part of the trip to give you a better sense of what we do.

Edinburgh, Part 1

Most folks in our small group flew from the US into Edinburgh, though a few flew into London and took the train from King’s Cross Station up to Edinburgh. Why? Flights into London are often considerably less expensive than into Edinburgh, so you can save some cash if you fly into London and take an easy 4-hour train ride with stunning scenery up to Edinburgh (don’t worry; we’ll give recommendations for how to do this). Even with first-class train tickets, you can save a bundle. For the folks who flew into Edinburgh, Jason met them at the airport and arranged cabs directly to our hotel. For those who took the train in from London, Tasha met them at the train station and walked with them a couple of blocks to the hotel. We also took care of the hotel accommodations, finding a hotel with an excellent location in the middle of the Royal Mile. This hotel included breakfast each morning, meaning one less thing our group had to worry about.

During our three days in Edinburgh, we arranged for a small group dinner and had pre-booked a two-day Hop-On/Hop-Off bus pass that included entrance to Edinburgh Castle, the Palace at Holyrood House, and the Royal Yacht Britannica – all the major attractions along the Mile. This also provided a great way to get around the city. Everything else during our stay in Edinburgh was up to our travelers. Before we left, we shared a document with tons of suggestions for things to do in Edinburgh and day trips to nearby locations. Our clients could book whatever sparked their interest (and the interests were far and wide). Some were content wandering the picturesque cobblestone streets along the Mile looking for gifts, having a cup of tea (or a dram of whisky), or people-watching. Others had done some family genealogy research, rented a car, and visited the lands of their ancestors. One group booked a private driver and headed to St. Andrews for the day and stumbled upon the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course – what luck! We opted to book a professional photographer and take the train to the stunning Scottish countryside for some photos. The options are endless and everyone got to do what they wanted!

Our group dinners were designed to introduce our group members to each other, as not everyone knew one another. These were casual meals where we got to know each other and shared our day’s adventures. These meals were often followed by a poke into a pub or fancy hotel bar on the way back to our hotel for a dram of choice – we had a good time!

Oban

After getting our fill of Edinburgh (kidding, that’s not a thing), we had arranged for train travel up to the Highlands and our next destination: Oban. No need for cabs this time, as our hotel in Oban (which we took care of) was across the street from the train station. Here, as in Edinburgh, our hotel included a fabulous breakfast and we also covered two group dinners, one that included an evening of learning traditional Scottish dance.

As we were now in the Highlands, there were new things to do and countless day trips to some of the most stunning scenery you’ve ever imagined. Here again, some couples were happy to stroll along the main street in this fishing village. Others rented cars to visit where their ancestors walked. Some even booked a sightseeing tour. We opted to rent a car and head to Ardanaiseig Hotel, one of our favorite places in the Highlands. There we had tea, caught up with some friends, and took a walk on one of the magical paths through the woods. We had given our small group a list of suggested things to do in Oban and the surrounding areas, but everyone booked what they wanted, went at their own pace, and had a fantastic time. We even had a group venture out to the islands – which we highly recommend!

Edinburgh, Part 2

As our time in the Highlands ended, we walked everyone back to the train station for the 4-hour train ride back to Edinburgh (which we’d arranged) and cabs to the oasis that was our hotel for the night (which we’d also arranged). In our free time before dinner at the hotel, some of the small group headed to the spa while others relaxed in their expansive, luxurious rooms until dinner. We took care of a three-course dinner at the hotel’s amazing restaurant for a final round of tales and goodbyes.

The next morning everyone parted ways, with some heading to the airport to go home and others heading to London via train to continue their adventures. In each case, we took care of the cabs to the airport or train station.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of what we do. Ultimately, we want you to have the trip of your dreams. Could we build a more structured itinerary? Sure. But just because we think something is a must-see doesn’t mean you do. Certainly, we’re happy to give you recommendations for things we’ve done in the past, but our goal is to take care of the things you don’t want to or might not think about, freeing you up to focus on what matters the most: making memories.

After dinner on our last night in Edinburgh, most folks called it an early night, exhausted from seeing all the things over the prior eight days. For us, that’s a victory, and we think it was for them, too.

Curious to learn more? Interested in joining us on our next group trip? Stay tuned for more details. We have more trip options coming soon!

Happy travels, friends!

The post Exclusive Small Group Travel: The DeBode Way first appeared on The DeBode Way.

In the past, we’ve talked about our hunt for silence on flights, which, as far as we know, means noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds. Truly, we never realized just how loud planes are until we started on this journey. But…gosh. So here we are. We’ve been through a few different models and wanted to pass along our two cents (assuming you’re familiar with the humble ¢).

Earbuds v. Headphones

Most people have thoughts about the earbud v. headphone discussion, goodness knows we do. Because you’re reading our blog, it seems reasonable to assume you’re curious about our opinion. So here it is: it depends, as different options have unique pros and cons. For us, it’s hard to beat the total immersion that comes with headphones. The model we have completely surrounds the ear, which, when it comes to noise-cancellation, is important. Yes, they’re bulkier. No, they aren’t easy to sleep in. Yes, they’re larger and take up more room in your luggage. Still, their ability to drown out the world around you is pretty remarkable. All of sounds…gone. That said, we’d be remiss to say earbuds aren’t worth the investment. It’s true, the noise-cancellation isn’t exactly as good as with headphones; however, they have other benefits that might sway their pro-to-con ratio. Probably most obvious, earbuds are much smaller, making it easier to sleep with them in your ears and easier to pack. Moreover, noise-cancellation technology is always improving, making them nearly as good as their over-the-ear counterparts.

Cut the Wire or No?

It’s also important to decide whether you want to spend the extra money on a wireless option or opt for an often lower-priced wired version. We’ve tried both. When it comes to wired options, we’ve stayed loyal to Bose. Our very purchase was in 2019, and, though now discontinued, they’re still great contenders. The biggest plus with a wired option is the noise-cancellation works considerably longer and when you run out of battery, they still function as regular earbuds. Keep in mind the wired connection is for the audio signal, not the noise-cancellation functionality. For example, our wireless headphones often last for 18-24 hours; after that they stop working entirely. By comparison, our wired earbuds last for well, technically ever. The noise-cancellation setting requires battery power and lasts about 8 hours, but after that they continue to work like regular earbuds. So, in our experience, the wired version has never not worked.

That said, we prefer the wireless versions. Yes, they’re a bit more expensive (but not always) and you do need to remember to recharge the battery before you head out. Yes, your flight may be longer than the battery will last. That said, not getting wrapped up in wires makes it easier to (try to) sleep. Also, if you’re plugged in, anytime someone needs to get out you have to pause what you’re watching/listening to, unplug, get up, let them out, sit back down, and reverse the process. Without the wires, all you do is get up. Beyond this, the other issue is that wireless options connect via Bluetooth to another device (e.g., your phone) which isn’t super helpful on most planes. Until recently, that meant we needed a cord to connect our wireless headphones to the plane’s entertainment system. Fortunately, we recently found a wireless transmitter device that plugs into your TV monitor and sends the audio to your wireless headphones/earbuds via a unique Bluetooth connection. Win! Of course, this means one more thing to purchase, carry, and charge. Fortunately, the device is small, about 2”x2”x1”. Also, newer planes have the ability to connect your wireless headphones/earbuds directly to your screen via Bluetooth, meaning the extra device might only be a temporary addition.

Battle of the Brands

When we first started our search for quiet on planes, our research showed one brand consistently outranked the others: Bose. So, our first purchase was Bose wired noise-cancelling earbuds, and they changed our world (made it quieter, in fact). Since then, Jason has bought a pair of their regular wireless earbuds (not noise-cancelling) and we both have their over-ear wireless noise-cancelling headphones (which Tasha thinks are glorious for focus when doing sewing calculations). More recently we’ve been curious about other brands as the technology seems to be improving and we’re always trying to pack smaller. After more research, we decided to go separate ways: Jason got the Soundcore noise-cancelling earbuds, while Tasha went with Raycon Fitness noise-cancelling earbuds to test out a Bluetooth earbud for flying. What we’ve found is there’s a reason Bose consistently tops the rankings: they’re awesome. Yes, they’re expensive, but they’re worth it. That said, the other brands were better than we expected, and because are less expensive than Bose, we think you should consider them in your search for silence.

In the following reviews, we factor in the quality of the noise-cancellation, battery life, the bulkiness of the product, the overall comfort, and the sound quality.

Bose Quiet Comfort

Bose stands out as the clear winner, at least for us. The noise-cancellation is remarkable; on the plane, both the headphones and wired earbuds drown out almost all the noise around us, from the drone of the plane engines to the crying babies a few rows back, even to the flight attendant asking for our drink order. From a comfort perspective, Bose is again our pick. Their over-ear headphones are cushions of pure bliss, encompassing your ear in soft comfort. The earbuds, as with most of the rest of their earbud options, have silicon ‘wings’ that hold their position in your ear (so they don’t spin and fall out) while still being comfortable from the time you put them in until you take them out. And because the wings maintain the earbud’s place in your ear, that creates a better seal which makes the noise-cancellation even better. The sound quality is also tops: really clear treble tones and deep, booming bases. All the stuff Bose is known for…all right in your ear. Bulkiness depends on which version you have, but in general, this is where Bose loses ground. Their headphones are similar to other brands, but their earbuds are large and stick out from your ear, which can make them more challenging to sleep in. All things considered, we’d rate our Bose models – both the earbuds (wired) and headphones (wireless) with an A. Unfortunately the wired earbuds have been discontinued, but you can still find refurbished sets on Amazon.

Raycon [Tasha’s New Earbuds]

Tasha ordered the Raycon Fitness noise-cancelling ear buds because she didn’t want to bring her bulky Bose headphones on our most recent trip. Plus we wanted to test a wireless version that wouldn’t break the bank. This meant she also ordered Bluetooth transmitters for both of us for the plane. Fortunately, the price was still reasonable with both the earbuds and transmitter.

While the noise-cancelling portion of these earbuds is definitely on par with Bose, you can still tell the difference between the Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) and regular modes. It’s just not immediately noticeable when you turn on the ANC like it is with Bose. It seems like they wait for sound to come through the earbuds from your device before they try to cancel the noise around you. Because of that, they don’t really work as earplugs when you’re trying to catch some shut-eye like our wired Bose earbuds do. She uses the Loop Switch earplugs for that now instead. The sound quality is decent. You won’t get that full base like you do with Bose, but they’re not tinny and completely acceptable. A very technical description from her.

The battery life on these is remarkable! We had FOUR flights (about 16 hours ON the plane) and between wearing them in her ears and giving them a quick recharge boost from the case during layovers, they never ran out of power. Then she continued to use them for tours and some quick video editing on her phone for 2 weeks and STILL didn’t recharge them – mostly because she forgot and they just kept going. The battery life is definitely a huge win for these. Maybe she can get the whole lawn mowed now without her headphones dying now. Woo!

The comfort level is also great. She also has a pair of Jabra Elite Active 65t earbuds that she practically lives in, but the battery life in those is only about 3-4 hours and they constantly fall out of her ears. The Raycon earbuds last at least 6 hours at a time, based on our recent overseas flight. They claim to last 12 hours on their own, plus an additional 44 hours for a total of 56 hours on one case charge. Holy smokes. The Raycons also feature a small fin at the top to hold them in your ear and come with 4 adjustable sizes to get the right fit. She keeps raving about how snug and comfortable they are.

The magnetic case is tiny, about 2”x2”x1”, and has a loop and carabiner to clip them onto your bag if you wish. The satisfying little snap when the magnet clips the earbuds into the case is a nice touch. They are also water/sweat resistant, which will be great for workouts (ha), or working outside in the sweltering Missouri heat and humidity. Plus…they came in purple. She’s happy.

Overall, we’re calling these a win. They get a B+ because the battery life and comfort are phenomenal, but the noise-cancellation and sound aren’t quite top of the game.

Soundcore [Jason’s New Earbuds]

Admittedly, this wasn’t a brand I was familiar with before doing some research, but it’s one I’m glad we found. The Soundcore Space A40 noise-cancelling earbuds are, in most ways, a winner. The case is small, measuring about 3” wide by 1” long or so. The earbuds are magnetically held in their case but are easy to remove when you’re ready for action. The earbuds come with a charging cable, but the instruction manual says the case accommodates wireless charging, though I haven’t tested this yet. The earbuds themselves are smaller than I was expecting, and much smaller than the Bose version. Because of their small stature, they fit down into my ear better than the Bose option, which makes it easier to sleep with them in (or…try to sleep). If you’re someone who prefers a lower profile to your technology, these might be the earbuds for you.

As for sound quality, these are better than expected and nearly as good as Bose. The treble sounds are clear and crisp, while the base is good; not quite as deep as with Bose, but still good enough to enjoy good sound quality in your tunes and movies. The A40’s have three sound options: a normal option (like using regular earbuds without noise-cancelling technology), a noise-cancelling option, and what I can best describe as a more focused version. The noise-cancellation is good, not quite as good as Bose, but given the lower price-point, it was much better than I was expecting. For the focused version, when I had them in and was talking to Tasha, it focused on and amplified her voice while quieting everything else. This had some trouble on the plane with the ambient noise, but could be a neat option to use in crowded places.

The battery life with these was pretty great, too, and lasted the duration of each of our recent flights to Europe. Once we touched down, I’d pop them back in their case and they were fully charged for our next flight. Plug the case in during the flight so it stays charged, and you’re good to go for the full travel day.

The one place that dropped my rating is in comfort level. At first, the A40’s were really comfortable and fit snugly into my ear canal, but after a few hours, my inner ear was sore, to the point where it felt bruised by the end of the flight. That made it a little tender when putting them in again for the next flight. It’s possible I had them pushed too far in my ear and/or had the wrong size end on them, so we need to experiment a bit more before giving a final opinion. Still, something to be mindful about.

Overall, Jason gives these a B rating, potentially a B+ if we can get the sizing sorted out.

You can find links to all the headphones and earbuds we’ve mentioned throughout the post or on the “Products We Recommend” page of our website.

The post The Hunt for the Most Elusive: Noise-Cancelling Silence first appeared on The DeBode Way.

While small businesses are a major influence on the economy, this isn’t only the case in the US: the same is true for lots of other national economies. And just like it’s important to ‘shop local’ and ‘shop small’ here in the US, it’s equally important to visit the smaller, local businesses while you’re traveling abroad. In fact, some of our most memorable experiences (all good, we promise) on our adventures have come from visiting small businesses. The thing is, small businesses often don’t have the resources to compete with their larger counterparts, at least from a pricing perspective. Because of that, we expect to pay a little more when shopping at smaller, local establishments. Just like anywhere else, a higher price point generally indicates higher quality and/or a better experience. For small businesses, this almost always includes going above and beyond when it comes to customer service. As owners of small businesses ourselves, we completely understand how important each sale and interaction is and the heartfelt thanks for choosing our small business is truly genuine.

We’ve talked about each of the below stories in prior posts (linked below, in case you missed it), but it’s worth noting that all are small businesses and this is a major reason why we had such a great experience, would definitely go back, and are happy to recommend them for you if your next adventure takes you to their neighborhood.

Stay Local

We’ve talked before about the wonder that is Ardanaiseig Hotel over in Scotland. We’ve spent a decent amount of time there, have gotten to know the staff, and even renewed our wedding vows (seriously, have you seen the pictures?! Our photographer was local too!) at this impressive 19^th century manor house. What you might not know is that we met the former manager while she oversaw a different hotel just down the loch (erm, a lake for our American friends). That hotel, Taychreggan Hotel, is a small, independently run boutique hotel that’s nothing short of impressive. We only stayed there once, but we quickly fell in love with the entire area around Loch Awe, befriended the general manager, and formed a friendship that’s lasted the better part of a decade. Oh, and that general manager? Yep, she and her partner are locals and have now managed two other hotels in the area (Brander Lodge & The Great Western Hotel) and they are always our go-to for recommendations on other, less publicized things to do in the local area and all-around Scotland as well. They too strive to only use local vendors for their hotels and restaurants, keeping that pound in the local economy. They are shop small, shop local powerhouses in our book!

We were recently in Scotland (go figure, right?) last November and added a number of locally owned and family run hotels to our list of recommendations. You can read about them in the Scotland section of the blog (someday we’ll make you a proper list). While you’re at it, check out the France and Spain section for locally owned locations as well.

Learning the Ways of the Local Spirit

Next up is one of the neater, and more happenstance, local businesses we’ve worked with in Scotland. As Jason was planning a travel program to take a group of students to Scotland, he was coordinating with Oban Distillery, one of our favorites. If you haven’t been, we can’t recommend this place highly enough: their tour is among the best we’ve done (and believe us when we say we’re nearly experts in the distillery tours of Scotland), the staff are top-notch, and their whisky is nothing short of impressive. Here’s the thing, though: they’re also pretty small, one of the smallest in Scotland actually, operating out of only two stills. By comparison, popular Glenfiddich operates 28 stills!

Because Jason’s student group was going to be larger than one tour could accommodate, the staff member helping to get things setup gave a series of suggestions for things the other students could do before their tour (we had to split the group in half). Importantly, this wasn’t something Jason asked him for: he went out of his way to anticipate the problem and offer suggestions to get past it. What a guy! And naturally, all those suggestions fit our shop small criteria.

As it happens, one of his suggestions was to visit the Wee Wine Shop just down the street. He happened to know the owners and put us in touch with them, even sending the initial e-mail to get us all connected. And because he was the one who introduced us, the owners of the Shop were very responsive and friendly and gave us a great deal. It was there we learned about orange wine, something entirely different than any wines we’d tasted before. Have you heard of it? Do a little searching when you have a minute and rest assured it’s not made from oranges. Our visit to the Shop with the students was also quite the experience. As it turned out, one of the owners is a master sommelier and was able to explain the basics of wine to a group of business students who didn’t know much about selecting, pairing, or drinking it. Super helpful for those future corporate dinners. And again, had it not been for the connections we made from a different local business, we’d have walked right past the Shop, never knowing it existed. It is quite wee after all!

When in France, do as the Francs do

We’ve talked about the champagne houses of France in a different post, and we still laugh about how we found Champagne Gardet. We stumbled upon this a little differently than many of the other small businesses we’ve visited: no recommendations but instead responded to a message on Instagram. Yikes.

This actually brings up a valuable point: because small businesses often don’t have the same extensive marketing budgets as the larger companies, they have to get creative in how they spend their limited marketing resources. Almost always that means making great use of social media platforms and building an email list. Guilty. More on this below.

In any case, we were literally in the heart of champagne country and could have gone to any of the major champagne houses known around the world (Moet, anyone?). Sure, that was an option, but when we visited Epernay, even just walking in their building was intimidating. Compare that with our visit to Champagne Gardet, a much smaller and more intimate experience in a small village where a family member sat and chatted with us while tasting their champagne. As soon as we walked in the door, our host greeted us, showed us around, and then dropped us off on the patio with the menu of champagnes to taste. He then walked us through every aspect of the process from dirt to grape to bottle, how to taste it, what to look for, and everything in between. No one knew more about his product than he did, and his passion for his work was clearly on display and made for a better experience on our end. We walked away with a newfound respect and appreciation for champagne.

Going Small Scale Organic

Along similar lines, when we were in the Tours region of France – the heart of a different kind of wine country – we wanted a unique experience. So, after a little looking around Tasha stumbled on Château Minière. This is a woman-owned, woman-operated, organic winery that is notably smaller than most of the other wineries in the area. However, most of those wineries (all of them, in fact) aren’t organic. We try to eat as organically as possible back in the US, so it made sense for us to look for an organic winery, just to see how the process was different. To say we lucked out at Château Minière is an understatement: the staff were as incredible as the wine they produce. They even gave us a private tour of the vineyards, explaining every detail of their process, when and how it differed from other wineries that didn’t transition to organic, along with their plans for the future with biodynamics, running an Air BnB, and how they’re incorporating bees. Super interesting, really tasty wine, and an overall excellent experience due in no small part to the exceptional service we received from the staff. Plus, you can stay in the chateau! What! Next time.

The Ground Rules

Because small businesses are…well…small, sometimes it takes some creativity to find them. Most of the time, you can walk down the main street of the small town you’re in and find small businesses aplenty. But, to help get the best experience possible, we usually follow a few rules.

1. Whenever possible, ask for recommendations. From who? Literally everyone. We always ask the front desk staff at the hotel or the owner of the B&B where we stay. When you go out to eat, go on a tour, or grab a coffee for that mid-afternoon pick me up, ask for recommendations and look for that hole in the wall establishment. We’ve also found that lots of people will point you to the bigger, closer, more familiar brands, and to combat this we usually ask where they go for things. We’ve yet to be disappointed.
2. As I said above, most of the smaller companies don’t have tons of money to put into their marketing budgets and so often rely on social media pretty heavily for marketing. So, jump on your social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest…yada yada…) account and search for the town you’re in to see what comes up in the search functions. Often there is a local visitor’s bureau you can connect with to ask for recommendations as well. And if you loved your experience, be sure to share it on your social media!
3. Importantly, we never recommend (okay, rarely recommend) visiting a small business you aren’t sure about, especially when you have to go on a little drive out of the way to get there, like we did with the champagne house. So, as much as possible, do your research. Just because it’s a small business doesn’t mean no one has been there before. We usually head over to TripAdvisor and Google to type in the area and small business name to see what the reviews are. There might not be a ton of reviews, but odds are there’s something you can look at if they’re trying to get the word out. If it doesn’t seem right or other folks didn’t have a great experience, move onto the next possibility.
4. Go for a walk! Seriously, if you’re staying in town, get out of your hotel and walk around, popping into businesses that seem interesting. This often means wandering down a side street, off the high street full of tourist trap shops. Or, if you’re staying out of town at a B&B or something similar, ask the owner for directions to the nearest town, find a parking spot, and then go for a walk.

To be clear, we’re not suggesting you avoid the bigger businesses. We’ve had great experiences visiting some of the more iconic brands throughout North America, the UK, and Europe. Still, it’s easy to overlook the smaller businesses that might give you just as good of an experience, usually even better. And if you can connect with someone who will give you recommendations for more great, local experiences, why not?

So, just remember: it’s important to #shoplocal and #shopsmall here in the US, but it’s just as important to do the same on your adventures.

Happy travels!

The post Shop Small, Stay Local, Even While Abroad first appeared on The DeBode Way.

FAQ 7: What do I need to pack for my trip?

This is hard to answer because it depends on when you’re going, where you’re going, what you plan to do, whether you’re packing in carry-ons or checked bags, and your personal preference. That said, we have a few rules we stick to when packing for Scotland. First, layers are your friend. Like I said above, it’s entirely possible for a brief rain shower while you’re out exploring. The same is true for temperatures: it can start off very chilly in the morning, warm up throughout the day, and then cool off again in the evenings. Because of this, it’s really helpful to have lighter-weight layers you can add/remove as you go about your day. It’s also very helpful if your outermost layer is waterproof.

Few pieces of clothing are as iconic as the thick, heavy, knit wool sweaters you see people wearing in the movies. It’s true that folks living in the UK really do wear those sweaters, too. We’ve brought a few back and absolutely love them. Do we take them back when we travel? Absolutely not. Why? Because they’re designed to hold in your body heat, and they’re very good at what they do. Unfortunately, if that’s all you’re wearing (with a t-shirt underneath), and the day starts to warm up, you’ll likely be sweating before long with no layers to remove. That can make things uncomfortable, and no one wants that. Also, one of those sweaters can easily take up half of your carry-on bag, which is a non-starter for us.

So, take thinner layers (big fans of Merino wool) and a windproof/waterproof jacket and shoes. We usually dress pretty casually during the day, but that’s because we’re usually out hiking or exploring. If we stayed in the city, we’d likely stick closer to something like smart casual, or thereabouts. For dinner, we pack something a little nicer: a dress and flats for Tasha, and chinos with a button-down shirt for Jason. Also keep in mind that because the climate is a bit cooler, unless you’re doing some really intense hiking, it’s likely that you won’t sweat much (again, everyone is different, but in general), so you can re-wear some of your clothes before needing to wash them. Except for your socks and underwear; those will always need to be washed before you wear them again. Otherwise…gross.

Since we are carry-on only packers most of the time, we like to try to pack for 4 days with plans to do laundry either at a facility or in our bathroom sink/tub whenever we’re in a location for a couple days so it has time to dry.

FAQ 8: What’s with all the castles?

Who doesn’t like a good castle? Jason raises his hand. Okay fine, yes there are lots of castles in Scotland and the UK. Some are ruins, some are in various stages of (dis)repair, and others are fully working homes (with huge maintenance bills) that allow visitors in for a fee. Some are large, some are small. Some are situated in easily defended positions, while others seem to be sitting in the middle of a field.

Why are there so many? In fairness, they’ve been building them for a long time. A really long time. By some accounts, they’ve been building stone castles in Scotland since the 11th century (wood before that), the majority of which were built for those who governed the lands. Not to be outdone, the nobles also built castles, though these were mostly referred to as tower houses rather than castles. Then, of course, came the palaces of the kings and queens of Scotland and the various nations that ruled it throughout the centuries. These are more pleasure homes for peace times than defensive structures, but very impressive as well. And of course, when a new ruler took the throne, why would they want to live in someone else’s house? Much better to build their own, and build it better/bigger. Obviously. And so, Scotland, and many other European countries are peppered with castles of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

FAQ 9: What’s the bathroom situation?

We’ll put this one to rest: yes, they have bathrooms in Scotland. However, you might get a funny look asking for the bathroom – they generally just call it what you’re after, the toilet.

Seriously though, most of the time we get this question in reference to being out and about, driving around, away from civilization. In the US, when you go on a road trip there is almost always a fast food restaurant, gas station, rest stop, or a combination of the three at the next exit. So, when nature calls, you’re rarely that far from the facilities. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case in Scotland. It’s totally common to drive for hours without seeing a single sign for a restroom. And, if you get daring and take the next exit despite there being no sign, it could be a while before you actually get to a town, and even then, there might not be a gas station with a toilet or public toilets and the pub might be closed until the next meal service.

This isn’t to suggest rest stops don’t exist in Scotland because they absolutely do. However, this is one of those situations where it’s better to take a look at your route in advance and know where you can stop. This also applies to gas stations (usually called petrol stations throughout the UK), which are nowhere near as omnipresent as they are in the US. There are also apps (Where is Public Toilet app) you can download that’ll help guide you in the right direction. Also, be advised that some public toilets aren’t free. Some require a coin to get in, while others will take a credit card, but only one that has the tap functionality. And you might want to keep a roll of TP or some tissues with you just in case – they aren’t usually overly stocked.

Basically, if you find one, take advantage! If not well…find a bush, dig a hole, and practice your best farmer’s squat…more on that here.

FAQ 10: How do you take all those great pictures? Is trespassing not a thing over there?

Yes, trespassing is absolutely a thing in Scotland. At the same time, they have what’s known as the Right to Roam as well. Let’s explain.

In 2003, Scotland passed the Land Reform Act. Section 1 of this Act says that people in Scotland have the right to be on land for recreational and educational purposes and to cross land for the same reasons. What that means is you’re literally able to roam through almost all of Scotland and it’s perfectly legal and normal.

Before we go any further, there are a few really important things to keep in mind about this. First, the Act doesn’t give everyone access to all lands. In general, if it’s private land and is close to a house, farm building, school, or something along these lines, it’s best to keep your distance. In other words, you can walk through a field, but not the yard right next to someone’s house (because…that would be weird). Second, the Act clarifies this is for the ‘responsible’ recreational use of the land. In other words, there might be sheep, cows, or other animals hanging around and it’s best to leave them alone (seriously, do you know how big a Highland Coo is?). Also, don’t leave your trash after you go. In general, a good rule to go by is ‘leave no trace’. In other words, after walking through someone’s land, they shouldn’t be able to tell you were there.

With that all said, yes, you can roam around as much as you like! When we’ve been wandering around fields, there are actually stone stairs built into the stone walls that separate one field from another. These steps are used by the folks out roaming around (and farmers moving between fields) and they help make it easier to gain access to different places. It also means you aren’t climbing on someone’s wall, and therefore helps keep things in good working order. There are also gates that help keep the animals in, but they give you access to different areas. You’re welcome to walk through them, just make sure you close the gate behind you. We’ve gotten some of our best pictures like this, but be advised: there are unlikely to be parking lots anywhere near these fields. Most often, we park a good bit away, and then start hiking in no particular direction.

FAQ 11: Tell me more about the food.

It’s amazing.

One thing we were unprepared for was that what we call fast food in the US isn’t super common in Scotland. To clarify, there are plenty of McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and Subways in the major cities, but as soon as you leave them, don’t expect to find fast food very often. And why would you even look for it? There are loads of places to eat that have fresh, hand-made food that was very likely prepared by someone’s grandmother earlier that day. Seriously, even when you go to a tourist attraction, the food at the cafe is often made from scratch, or at least it always is when we’re there. And yes, vegetables exist.

So, the food really is awesome, but just make sure you’re not expecting to find the US in every little town you visit.

FAQ 12: Is it whiskey? Whisky? Scotch? Bourbon? What’s the deal?

This is a very important cultural question, and it pays to not get it wrong as it’s kind of an insult. This is also best answered in its own post, which I’ll do later, but for now, here are the very high-level details.

Whiskey/Whisky is a more general term for a liquor made from a fermented grain mash. Very broadly speaking, there are different grains that can be used, and the spirit is typically aged in wooden casks for a certain period of time. As for the spelling, whiskey is most often used in Ireland and the US; whisky is the preferred spelling everywhere else.

Bourbon is a whiskey that, by law, must be distilled in the US, must use a grain mixture that is mostly corn, is aged in new charred oak barrels, and is bottled at 80 proof or higher. Common lore insists that bourbon must be distilled in Kentucky, but as far as we can tell, so long as it’s distilled in the US, it can legally be called bourbon.

Scotch is a whisky that, by law, must be distilled in Scotland, is at least 80 proof, includes only water, malted barley, and yeast, and is aged for a minimum of three years in oak barrels. A few things to clarify: Scotch can include other cereal grains but the malted barley still has to be there. The law only states that the spirit is aged in oak barrels, but unlike bourbon, they need not be new barrels. Interestingly, this has led to a secondary market for US bourbon barrels. After they are used in the US, they’re often shipped to Scotland, taken apart, adjusted, reformed, and charred for use in aging Scotch. Broadly, Scotch tends to come in two forms: single malt or blended. Single malt Scotch is from a single batch from a single distillery and must use only water, malted barley (no other grains can be added), and yeast. Blended Scotch, on the other hand, is, as the name suggests, a blend of different types of Scotch (i.e., malt and grain whisky); the spirits are blended to create a more consistent product.

These are painfully broad details because there are all kinds of nuances within each category. My two cents: I only drink Scotch and bourbon. I’ve tried Irish and Japanese whiskeys, and with all respect to the distilleries, they just aren’t my preference. Want something that’ll burn (in all the best ways) while you drink it? Go for bourbon. Want something smoother that’ll be pretty much the same anywhere and whenever you get it? Blended Scotch would be my recommendation. Want something a little more subtle, sometimes smokey, sometimes sweet, sometimes both? Something with more character, but one that might change from year to year? Single malt all the way. Want more specific recommendations? Great, let’s talk.

FAQ 13: How does it work with your drone?

Good question. Yes, we have a drone. Yes, we take it to Scotland every time we go. Yes, Jason is also licensed to fly it in the UK. This last part is really important.

In the US, if you want to fly your drone, you need to register it with the FAA. And so it is with every other country in the world. When we’re off to a new country, one of the first things Jason does is a little searching to see what, if any license he needs to fly the drone. Most often, it’s an operator license that’s very similar to the one he has here in the US. Read the book, take the online training, pass the quiz, pay the fee, and you’re good to go. Most countries require you to have your operator license number physically on the drone (we have a sticker with the info), and you have a physical copy of your license (we have them printed out and keep them in our drone case). Most countries are pretty similar with regard to the rules (e.g., don’t fly your drone in cities, near airports, over people, etc.), but there is some variability with regard to your flight ceiling (the highest you can take your drone) and a few other things.

Can you fly your drone without a license? Sure. Would we recommend it? No. If something goes wrong and you get to meet the local police, odds are they’ll confiscate your drone and make you pay a fee. Don’t risk it; getting the license really isn’t that big of a deal. Oh, and yes, you’ll need to do this for each country; sadly there’s no EU-wide license, at least not as of now.

The post Scotland FAQs: Secrets to Know Before You Go – Part 2 first appeared on The DeBode Way.