Author Archives: Shelli

About Shelli

Shelli Stein is a health and fitness entrepreneur who travels the world in search of culture, food, and fun! Besides contributing to Travel with Grant, you can find her at Joy in Movement.

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Fun in America’s Finest City… Any Time of Year!

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The change of seasons is certainly one way to mark time. Many would say here in America’s Finest City AKA San Diego, the seasons are subtle and there isn’t much change of seasons. I’ve heard people label the seasons in funny ways such as “it’s either drink beer indoors or drink beer at the beach season”. We do get our June gloom, and in the summer when the AriZonies escape the heat, tourism does seem to pick up. In the month of January I’ve had people ask me, “Is the weather like this all the time?” And recently when some friends from Buenos Aires were in town and I was showing them around, they couldn’t get enough of the fresh air and sunshine. Continue reading →

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The Versatile World of the Packing Cube

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Strangely enough, at least strangely to me, is that not everyone uses or is a fan of packing cubes. And I think more often than not most of us would say we love traveling but packing……..not so much. People seem to either pack in a rush close in to departure, or they pack a little at a time perhaps over the course of a few days.

I’m a devoted diehard packing cube user. When like me you’re a packing cube fan and you travel with people who don’t use them, a lot of interesting conversations develop. Mostly the conversations focus on why they don’t use them, why they can’t find what they’re looking for, and how on earth are we going to get that suitcase closed with the messiness and overflow of items. My favorite way to approach this is to make a joke and tell them they are “lacking cubes” when they need packing cubes! Continue reading →

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Save Animals: Shop at Beyond the Backpack

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You might be surprised by how many emails we get each day from people with products and businesses they’d like me to review. I glance at each email, but most of them don’t interest me enough to contact the businesses. A while ago, Micah from Beyond the Backpack contacted me and when looking at his website and products, I liked what I read and saw. He sent me a few samples of both shirts and bracelets, so I wanted to let you know about them.

Here’s what Beyond the Backpack says about its mission:

“Beyond the Backpack’s sole purpose is to help save animals. The effects humanity is having on the ecosystem is leaving many animals in serious peril. Currently 100% of the profits from every sale are donated to animal conservation and the fight to save endangered wildlife. Ethical clothing and sustainable fashion driving our mission. By sourcing fair trade clothing it’s a full process of giving back. We’re serious about making a difference. It’s not an advertising strategy, or marketing ploy. It’s the whole point. And that’s why we’ve committed to giving.”

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Purchase Hilton Honors Points – 100% Bonus (Expires June 7)

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What’s the best way to earn hotel loyalty points? There are as many answers to that question as there are hotel chains! So when people ask me that question, here’s how I answer. The four most popular answers would likely be: stay at a hotel, spend on a credit card that’s affiliated with the hotel chain, get a credit card with an oversized bonus of hotel points when you meet the minimum spend, and if and when the need arises, buy hotel points on sale and use them to get super value from an award night stay.

Maybe because summertime is around the corner and the high travel season is upon us, it seems like right now Hilton Honors is upping their game both in credit card increased bonuses, and by putting their Hilton Honors points on sale. Continue reading →

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Which American Express Hilton Credit Card is Right for You?

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Back in January, Hilton began teaming up with American Express to offer co-branded credit cards. This replaced Hilton’s card agreement with Citibank. The Citi Hilton cards converted to American Express cards. I’m sure by now we’ve all updated our information with any merchants we use for recurring automatic payments. And I’ve mentioned before that now these cards feature no foreign transaction fees.

Many Hilton loyalists were excited by this transition from Citibank to American Express because it increased the Hilton co-branded offerings, which equated to more opportunities to earn Hilton points.
Change, even good change, can lead to confusion, and recently a reader asked me what the different benefits were on the four co-branded Hilton American Express cards. Good question! Continue reading →