I travel a lot, both for pleasure and for work, and there have been months where I’ve spent more nights in a hotel than in my own home. This month alone I have trips scheduled to Fort Lauderdale, New York City, and Gatlinburg, TN! In addition to sharing my adventures, this month’s posts will feature my favorite tips for making travel less stressful, whether you’re going on a camping trip with a group or you’re traveling solo to a work event.

Some of my favorite memories are attached to a trip I took with family and friends. Recently, my BFF Ashley and I took a few days off to visit Ocean City. We had a great time parasailing, checking out the boardwalk, and dancing the night away… but the best part of our trip was going to the beach at 3am and eating a bag of chips while sitting on a lifeguard post, just talking about life and the universe. Can’t get better than that, right?

As I might have mentioned before, I love all things Disney – specifically, Disney World. I was blessed as a kid to have parents who took us there every other year to celebrate Christmas. I remember one trip where we stayed at the (now defunct) Disney Institute Resort and waking up to find that Santa had left us presents! I do have plenty of wonderful memories of family vacations to visit the Mouse, but my most memorable Disney vacation is of our honeymoon in 2011. I didn’t dream about weddings as a young girl, but I did dream about my Disney honeymoon. My favorite memory is the night we spend at the Grand Floridian – after dinner at the award-winning Victoria & Albert’s, we had champagne and dessert on our balcony while watching fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. It was incredible, romantic, and one of my sweetest memories with Alex.

My last big family vacation before I moved out on my own was to Myrtle Beach. We had such a great time playing in the sand, taking pictures of old guys in Speedos, playing seriously competitive mini golf, and generally being goofy together. When I think of this trip, the first thing that comes to mind is the night we found baby sharks washed up on the shore. I was sad for the little guys… but chances were there were some that did make it, so I refused to get back in the water for the rest of the trip.

What about you – what are your favorite vacation memories?