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Vacation Planning with Trip Advisor #BookOnTripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is my trusted resource for planning and booking the perfect trip every time, and I’ve teamed up with them to bring you this post. Read on to find out about their #BookToWin Trip-A-Day Giveaway. Thanks for reading!

Every summer of my life with maybe two exceptions, we have made a journey up the East Coast to Maine.

maine lake

I have family in Bangor, and we paid them a visit at least once every year while I was growing up. We would drive from Virginia, so it was quite a haul at 16-18 hours, but we never missed a year.

When I got married and moved to Philly, Maine was suddenly a lot closer. It’s still a bit of a trek at 10-12 hours, but it’s much easier than 18. We can drive to our destination near Bangor in a day, but we usually break up the trip.

We used to stay overnight with family in Massachusetts, but in recent years, we’ve started making side trips along the way so we can explore new areas.

Blue Hill Mountain

When your family has a vacation home, it’s awesome to have a familiar place to go every year, but it also means you don’t see and experience new places. Now that our kids are getting older, we’re trying to expose them to new destinations as much as possible, so we’ve started using this trek up the East Coast as an opportunity to stop and visit new places and make new memories.

One year we stopped in Boston for a Red Sox game.

fenway park

Another year we stopped in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and toured the Strawbery Banke Museum.

strawbery banke

Last year we detoured through Cooperstown, New York, so we could take my baseball-obsessed son to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

paul and david in hall of fame

We’re already thinking about where we want to stop this summer on our way to Maine. I’ve debated booking a hotel in downtown Boston and doing some of the historical sites there.

Another option is New York City. My son has never been, and my girls were only there once, and it was in the wintertime.

Front Seat in the Big Bus

If you have any suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them! We like to do things that aren’t as popular since we are traveling at such a busy time of year, and avoiding crowds is my #1 tip for enjoying a family vacation.

The one common denominator for all of these trips is the tool we use to find the best restaurants, hotels, and attractions in the area we’re going — TripAdvisor. In fact, the first thing I do when we’re planning a trip anywhere is consult TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor offers advice and opinions from millions of travelers, and I find them to be highly accurate. In fact, I use TripAdvisor for more than vacation planning. Anytime I find myself in an unfamiliar area looking for a good restaurant, I grab my phone and open the TripAdvisor mobile app. I love the “Near Me Now” feature because it allows me to discover and navigate to nearby restaurants on the spot. You can even click to open your mobile map app or call Uber right from TripAdvisor.

Just last week, I was in New York City at a media event, and we were looking for a spot to grab a bite. I consulted TripAdvisor and within minutes discovered an amazing burger joint.

burgerandbarrell - 1

One year, we were traveling up the East Coast to Maine, and we hadn’t made prior hotel arrangements because we weren’t sure where we wanted to stop for the night. I consulted TripAdvisor while my husband was driving and found a place that could accommodate our family of five that was right on our way.

It turned out to be exactly what we were looking for — nothing fancy, as we weren’t staying long, but clean and plenty spacious for our larger than average family.

There are SO many more examples like those I could share, and I can honestly say, TripAdvisor has never steered me wrong.

They even have a Travel Forum, where you can ask questions and get advice on your upcoming vacations.

TripAdvisor has recently added a new feature that is going to make it even better. Now you can research, plan, compare prices, AND book hotels right on TripAdvisor. It’s just one more feature to make the TripAdvisor experience more streamlined and helpful, especially when you’re making last minute arrangements.

book-on-tripadvisor

How nifty is that!?! I’m DEFINITELY going to be using this feature this summer.

#BookToWin Trip‐A‐Day Giveaway

To celebrate their new hotel booking feature, TripAdvisor is giving away over $60,000 worth of trip money. That’s right. Book any hotel through TripAdvisor.com in the month of March and be automatically entered to win incredible prizes!

TripAdvisor Trip‐A‐Day Giveaway

31 winners from every day in the month of March will receive $1.5k towards their next trip booked on TripAdvisor, and 1 grand prize winner will receive $15k towards a getaway of their choice, anywhere in the world, booked on TripAdvisor.

Whether you’re a luxury traveler, foodie, or thrill seeker, there is a destination for everyone, and you can find it on TripAdvisor.

Here’s how to enter the Trip‐A‐Day Giveaway:

  • Option 1: Book your hotel on TripAdvisor during the entry period and automatically be entered in the Giveaway.
  • Option 2: Find your hotel on TripAdvisor, then click from TripAdvisor to book on another site, then complete the entry form.

That’s it!! Easy peasy. Wouldn’t it be awesome if one of you won!?!

Thanks to TripAdvisor for sponsoring the post.

Join The Conversation

15 Responses

  1. I love TripAdvisor! I have their app and use them to search for restaurants all the time and I totally rely on the reviews for hotels.

    1. Me too!! Everyone always asks how we find such cool places to eat when we travel. It NEVER occurs to me to stop at a chain restaurant. I always want to find something unique to the area, and TripAdvisor is my secret weapon. 🙂

  2. We are actually planning our trip out west to San Francisco thru TripAdvisor as we speak. We are flying out of Knoxville TN into Las Vegas visiting my brother in California, making a trip to San Francisco and visiting Yosemite National Park. After visiting my brother we are driving back home to Virginia and using TripAdvisor as a tool kit for hotel and things to do as we are going to see the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Winslow AZ, stopping in Oklahoma, Arkansas and TN.

  3. Our family took a “big east coast trip” 12 years ago and one highlight was the Vermont Teddy Bear factory in, obviously, Vermont. They have a tour and it was fun for our three girls (ages 14, 14 & 11 at the time). Of course, mom, with her stuffed animal attraction still intact, didn’t enjoy it AT ALL! Ha! 🙂

  4. I always check the reviews on Trip Advisor for hotels, restaurants, activities, etc.

    We visited Boston for the first time last summer and really enjoyed touring the city. Even though we were there at the end of July/first of August, and did all the “tourist-y” things, the crowds weren’t too terrible. We’re also starting to plan our summer vacation for this year – I think the anticipation is about half the fun of the trip! 🙂

  5. We also did an East Coast Trip last summer. We spent 3 days in Boston. We visited the MIT museum (fun for techies and not very big). The same day we visited Harvard and their Natural History Museum which was very very cool. Also not huge. We walked the Freedom Trail which I would do a guided tour or a bike tour next time. Went to the Aquarium and a whale watching trip. We ate at a pub near the MIT museum, Legal Sea Food and an Italian place at the north end of the Freedom Trail, there are tons in that neighborhood. I think we did a couple of other things but don’t recall right now.

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