This week we’re bringing some travel inspo your way! With summer travel just around the corner, we look back on some of our favorite destinations that we’ve visited. We break down our 12 recommendations, both domestic and international into beaches, mountains, and cities to visit. Enjoy!
Listen and Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts
Resources
- 30A: Our podcast episode, and blog post
- Colorado: Blog Post
- Maui: Best Beaches with Kids and Vlog
- Chicago: Blog post
- Iceland: Road trip itinerary and podcast episode
- Ireland: Road trip itinerary and podcast episode
- Thailand: Koh Yao Noi Vlog
- Australia: Airlie Beach Vlog
Transcript
Jess: Welcome to the Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast. I’m Jess. And I’m Rod. And today we’re excited to tell you our favorite summer destinations for you guys to consider.
Rod: Yeah, I know we’re probably deep in the middle of spring break season, but we’re already looking forward to the summer because we had our spring break last week and.
I think in this episode we’ve been having a lot of fun brainstorming what kind of destinations we want to highlight, and what we’ve decided upon is we’re going to give each of us six different destinations. So we’re going to go both domestic, US, and international. And within each of those, we’re going to have our recommended beach, mountain, and city.
So, Jess, are you ready?
Jess: I’m ready. It was hard to choose guys.
Rod: Yeah. We’re going to start with US destinations. And we’ll go with the beach first. You want to go first? Sure.
Jess: For beach in the US I chose 30A, which 30A, if you haven’t listened to our podcast on it, we’ll put it in the link below. You can hit a full detailed guide on it.
But 30A is the most majestic beach in Florida, and it’s between Destin and Panama City, and I think it’s the dreamiest family vacation. You have Crystal clear blue water. White sand that is the whitest sand I’ve ever seen. It looks like snow and just beautiful different beach towns of different aesthetics.
Some look like Greece, some look like Europe. Some look more just pristine, and you see families biking and enjoying life, and it’s just this gorgeous, picturesque, family friendly environment that if you haven’t been to, should be at the top of your summer list.
Rod: Yeah, I think the, the beauty of it is it’s very small-town feel, not necessarily like Destin and Panama City Beach that are right next to it, which are very commercialized.
There’s a bunch of high-rise buildings in those, these are little towns and you kind of have to drive into the area to be able to really capture the beauty of it. We’ve been going there since what, 2020 and have been going basically every year, every couple of months, just because it’s a, it’s a pretty short drive, from where we live.
So yeah, definitely recommended. It’s pretty easy to get to if you’re anywhere near, I would say maybe the eastern, Midwest portion of the US. So highly recommended. I think for mine, mine is a little more removed and it is because this is in Hawaii and these are the beaches in Maui. Maui is a place that we visited in the summer a few times now, and we absolutely love it. From the, I would say, somewhat hustle and bustle of Kihei town, to the beauty of Ka’anapali Beach to Paia Beach.
There’s Makena down south, a lot of black sand beaches, beautiful snorkeling, and just the vibe in Maui in general. I think there’s so much friendliness there. There’s so much natural beauty. And so much to do aside from the beach too, whether that’s going and taking a road trip to the east side of the island or going out and exploring, taking surfing lessons.
Super awesome destination, highly recommended.
Jess: I know Maui, to me is like a dream place. I’d love to live one day. Maybe I’d get island fever if I live there, but Maui is incredible. If you are traveling from the mainland, it is more expensive to get to, obviously than Florida. Yeah. But. It is almost like visiting another country, even though it’s part of the US.
I don’t know. Maui has a special vibe to it. It has its own island culture and. It’s incredible. Yeah. So next up guys, we have mountains. Whew. This one’s also tricky because I have my heart in several places. We love mountains, we love to hike, but domestic mountain wise, I chose Park City, Utah and the reason I chose Park City is because Park City is so close to the actual mountain range.
So you can enjoy a hustle and bustle city. Or you can just drive, you know, 20, 30 minutes and you’re in these gorgeous ski towns. There is tons of hiking and biking and beautiful things to do there in the summer. Park City has a ton of different breweries. They also have, these cool for kids’ soda pop stores so they can try different types of soda pops. They have just so many beautiful things in that region. I was blessed to be there last fall and just being there in the fall was gorgeous as well. I think it’s a year-round destination, whether you want to ski, go for the leaves, but specifically in summer, there’s still so much to do in the Park City area and it’s such a gorgeous, gorgeous area to be outdoors.
So it’s a place I would love to go with the family in.
Rod: Yeah, I’ve only been to Park City in the winter, and there’s a lot of winter activities there. Beautifully walkable town. So, we definitely do need to go all as a family one of these summers.
Jess: Yes. And if you like boutique shopping, like Instagram, boutique shopping, there’s a ton of those little stores that are based out of Utah.
So I don’t know, to me, I’d like to just grab a coffee and shop a bit.
Rod: Yeah, so time for my mountain destination in the US and this is near and dear to our hearts because we lived there. This is Colorado Springs. And Colorado Springs is a mountain town, that’s very well-known because they have the Air Force Academy there.
They also have the US Olympic Training Center and the US Olympic Committee headquarters. But the mountains there are absolutely beautiful. Garden of the Gods is a park that is really great to visit, hard to find parking , but there’s a lot of great hiking trails. These like Red Rock foundations and massive towering little hills.
Are super cool to see, but even outside of Colorado City, a quick drive away is the town of Manitou Springs. Manitou Springs is basically like a mountain town with one main street and a lot of cool activities for the family, a lot of grassy areas to go hang out, and it’s right next to the Cave of the Winds Park, which is a really exciting place to explore some caves, to ride some thrill rides like the Terror-dactyl, which basically swings you off the side of the mountain into this like Canyon Gorge, and we have a video of that. We’ll see if we can pull it up and put it on the show notes. But Colorado Springs, we lived there for about five to six years before we started full-time travel and it’s a place that we regularly return to, to visit friends.
Jess: It’s amazing. I loved it there. If you have really little, little kids, make sure you stop by the North Pole where it’s Christmas year-round. It’s the cutest little amusement park. That’s perfect I’d say for kids under five. Or is it just a lot of almost like carnival fair rides that are easy for kids to ride, but they’re there permanently.
My dad used to say never ride a carnival ride, because it moves them around and is set up too often. But these ones are there permanently and it is so cute and so fun for the kids. And even in summer they can tell Santa their wish list. So it’s cool. Yep. Okay, next up guys. We have favorite domestic city. This was another, all of these are so hard to choose, but I chose San Francisco, which I just love San Francisco.
I think it is so beautiful. I love that while in San Francisco, once again, you have variety. You know, you can go and explore this city, which take a sweater because no matter every time I’ve been, no matter what season we’re in. I’ve always been cold because the fogs and the winds. So yes, take a sweater. It’s gorgeous to walk through.
You can ride the little trolley, you can see the picturesque homes, but there’s also other things to do there. You’re right outside of Napa. So if you want to go do a wine tour, that’s incredibly easy. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge. I loved going and seeing the fog roll in and out over the bridge Rod and I got to hike Mount Tam, that is right there next to the city as well.
And some of the sunset views from there were absolutely breathtaking. Oh yeah. There’s beaches. I mean, the city has everything. It’s so expensive to live there due to that, but San Francisco to me, is just gorgeous. You can also do a day trip to Alcatraz with the kids. So I just think it’s a great city. Yeah. It’s in California.
Rod: I even considered putting the Mount Tam and Napa region in my like mountain to visit just because that Mountain, Mount Tam, it’s such a scenic drive and that viewpoint where you can watch the fog rolling across the Golden State Bridge is just. Epic and like the Golden Gate or Golden Gate. Yeah.
Golden State. Oh my goodness. Haven’t been there in years, but…
Jess: I was there again last year, but I went by myself. It was a solo trip, but I just love it. I love that whole, the Palo Alto area right outside of San Francisco is beautiful. There’s everything around there is gorgeous. That’s why it’s so expensive to live there.
Rod: Oh yeah. Well, this one’s not that much cheaper. And my city is Chicago. Chicago is a place we visited in the summer, was it either last year or the year before? But we were there for under a week and there were so many activities that were awesome for the kids. I think going through Millennium Park where they have the big egg-shaped sculpture, there’s a bunch of splash park areas, cool vendors and things to see around and take a leisurely stroll is really exit.
There’s also a bunch of architectural river boat tours that you can take along the river. You have a lot of different museums. There’s the sky deck, which is the old Sears Tower. Now it’s called, I think, Willis Tower that you can take up and get the city views. And you can see a bunch of different states from the Willis Tower.
There’s the Navy Pier that has a bunch of carousel and rides and activities. You can take a boat ride into the lake, I mean, there is just an overwhelming amount of things to do in Chicago. That is somewhere that I really do want to go back to, but it’s really hard now because now that we’re talking about all these destinations, I really want to go back to all of them.
Jess: Next up, we’re going international guys, so if you find some great flight deals and want to go a little bit further and try something new. We have some of our favorite places to go. And we’re going to start out once again with beaches. So if you are interested in checking out an international beach, we cover a lot of Mexico.
But this time I really thought about where I felt truly happy and like I was an explorer and chose Thailand. So, the region I’m talking specifically about is we love the island of Koh Yao Noi and we also love Krabi and those and Phuket, they’re all. . Same. Kind of the same area.
Rod: You flying into Phuket to get to all of these, I think.
Jess: Yeah. So you, you can choose which one of those areas, but they all have these long tail boat tours. And I’m not going to say that these beaches were the most pristine, like they’re not the 30A white sand, but the long tail boat tour takes you from any of these starting points to all these different islands in the region.
And they are just beautiful. You have these like limestone, is that what it was? Cliffs? Yeah. I think. Some of them we went to had like a monkey pack. One of them had a king monkey. It was legit a thing. Monkey Island, monkey island. Intense. It was very intense. But they have all these different islands that you can go to and experience a little bit different vibe.
Not vibe, because there’s no structures. They’re all kind of these remote, deserted islands, but they all have their own charm to them.
Rod: Yeah. You have the bat island.
Jess: And then there’s one, like the boat tour takes you into this like little lagoon area. I don’t know. I just think for me, we’ve done the longboat tour now twice. So one, the first time we stayed in Koh Yao Noi, which we loved, and the second time we went and stayed in Krabi and we did the same tour. And both times I just, it felt so magical to be on this long tail boat driving past these islands that just are popping out in the water and you just stop at each one.
And I don’t know, I think to me, It was an incredible day. Both times I left thinking like these are pinch me moments, like being here on these different islands and island hopping these beaches in Thailand.
Rod: Yeah, and speaking of pinch me moments, I think my beach had a similar feel, and this is the Whitsunday Islands in Australia.
And this is probably the hardest destination out of at least the ones on my list to get to because it’s in between Brisbane and Cairns that you have to get to. But that beach is probably still the most pristine white fine sand that I have ever seen. And we took a boat tour that took us around to go snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef.
We stopped by, by at one of the Whitsunday islands and spent the afternoon there building sandcastles. It was absolutely beautiful. We also did an airplane ride for an over the air look at the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, and it was just, I, I was in awe. I think that whole day and the time that we went there.
There’s also Airlie Beach. That’s a really cute town that’s really walkable. A lot of cool things to do, a lot of shopping. So that entire area, I think in terms of getting snorkeling, scuba diving, relaxing at the beach boat trips out there, I don’t think you can beat that with the quality of the watercolor, the sand itself.
The reef is so colorful itself too. I think that’s the most colorful reef that we’ve ever seen. So highly recommended. If you can, spend the time and the money to get all the way out to the Whitsunday islands. You definitely should.
Jess: It’s amazing if you have extra time while they’re back. Way back in college, I was 20 years old, I did a sailboat tour through the Whitsunday islands and it was like a three- or four-night tour and that was incredible as well.
Cause you get to like sleep. Ooh. Yeah. And it was really beautiful. Note that you should be careful when booking the tour. I didn’t look it up when we had our kids with us, but the one I was on was like a drunken sailboat of partying . So I definitely, looking back, would not have wanted my kids with that group.
I’m sure there are family friendly sailing options. Just be sure if it’s not a private sail. Maybe you ask what the vibe is because when I was there, there were some late-night parties where all the sailboats like kind of connected with each other. But it was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And I would love to spend another four-day sailing the islands with the kids one day.
Yep. Next up is international mountains and I’m going to, I probably stole Rod’s favorite choice. I’m going to go with Iceland because Iceland was a trip we did this past year and it was dreamy. And I realize saying Iceland as a whole is choosing an entire country and not a specific mountain region. But if I had to get specific, I would choose the Skogafoss region of Iceland because the S Southern Iceland walking tour, like the walking trail, which is when you get to the waterfall at Skogafoss, you have to go up to the viewing point and then everyone leaves and misses the most gorgeous hike that they could have in their life. So you gotta a hike and then you’ll see these canyons and the whole thing.
All of Iceland. A picturesque, scenic movie that was just happening before our eyes and oh yeah, it was incredible. And the town of Reykjavik is adorable and cute. They have the cute painted streets. One of them is painted like a racetrack, so Rod and I acted like little kids and raced each other. They have the Rainbow Street, so definitely a place for the kids.
Rod: Yeah, they had a cool church there. And even if you want to continue going and have different types of experiences, there’s the glacial lagoon they have. You can go trekking on a glacier. I mean, there is no shortage of activities. We have a podcast episode all about our trip to Iceland that will link to the show notes.
We have a blog post with the itinerary that we took and our recommendations, whether you have a couple of days and you want to see the Golden Circle or if you want to go see in our opinion, the better part and more scenic, less touristy region, which is the Southern Iceland area definitely there.
And yeah, that’s one of probably my favorite place in the world as of last year when we went. But my mountain is similar to Jess’s. I, I don’t have a specific location necessarily, but this used to be one of my favorite places before we went to Iceland, and that was Ireland and Ireland. I guess it’s more of the western coast, the, the more cliff year hilly, side of Ireland that we visited, which was primarily the Dingle area.
And there we had the amazing scenic drive around Slea Head that you’re just going through these cliffside coastal views. You get close to the water and like look at these amazing rock formations that are just jutting out of the ocean and it’s just incredibly scenic. And the grass, I mean, I’ll talk about the grass every single time that I get a chance to just because that is the greenest grass that I have ever seen, and it is all over the country.
Jess: Rod’s going to figure out it was spray painted one day, and I’m just kidding. . .
Rod: I would be so disappointed and shocked, but I, that would also be a very massive undertaking because there is so much grass there.
Jess: Next up is our favorite international cities. This one was really hard for me guys because to be honest, I am not a big city person, which is funny because Rod’s dream is to live in New York one day, but, big cities at times overwhelm me.
I usually pick smaller cities. Smaller towns is more my jam, but there is one city in particular that kind of stole my heart, and that is Rome. Rome’s a big city, but Rome has some of my favorite things, including pasta and pizza and incredible architecture. So, oh, so good. The Coliseum to the Pantheon, St. Peter’s Basilica. The Trevi Fountain. You have so many things to do and see there. Yeah, it is just gorgeous and for whatever reason, I don’t know why. The different, the way Rome is set up to me felt like different pockets of little towns, kind of as you walked through.
There definitely are areas that are really trafficking and congested and chaotic, but for whatever reason, when I walked through Rome, I didn’t feel when we were there, and maybe it was timing. That intense hustle and bustle and craziness in a lot of the different areas throughout Rome. I just found the city to be absolutely beautiful and I absolutely loved our time there. We have gone now twice. We’re Catholic . I don’t think we ever talk about religion on our Instagram, but we’ve gone now twice to see the Pope. So I think Rod went once with us for, yep, Christmas Eve, mass, and then I went a separate time and saw the Pope and so, I don’t know, I just feel like there’s a lot to do in Rome and it is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful city and it’s a great starting point to an italy vacation because from Rome, you can easily get to other destinations throughout Italy that aren’t necessarily on my number one city list. But I love, love, love all of them equally, from the Amalfi coast of Florence to Venice, I think every city in Italy. Yeah, just makes me happy.
Rod: Yeah, it’s really interesting that , in 2019, we spent, I think three to four weeks in Italy, but most of that time we decided to spend in Florence.
And after that we went to Rome and we were kind of kicking ourselves because it was like Florence was great there. The museums there are incredible, but for families and with kids, it’s not necessarily the most kid friendly. I would say city specially to spend long term in. And then that’s when we looked back and we saw that there was so much to do in Rome and we didn’t even get to see at all.
And there’s so many things for the kids to do that we were like, oh man, we should have spent more time there. So that’s why we’re recommending, Rome. Rome here. Don’t
Jess: miss Florence’s magical, but I wish we would’ve spent like five, six days in Florence in two weeks in Rome.
Rod: Yep. All right. Wrapping up here with my international city, and this is Edinburgh or Edinburgh in Scotland.
And this city just has such a unique look to it. You’ve got, you know, cobblestone streets, everything there looks very kind of old, but well kept, and it’s very walkable of a, of a city. You’ve got the Edinburgh Castle, right there that you can tour and get a history lesson and see what the culture is with all the bagpipe music and, you know, the different things that you can see while you’re walking around.
There’s a bunch of monuments you can walk to. There’s the Royal Mile that you can go and do some shopping. You can stop by at some pubs and restaurants there. And then there’s also the, the Harry Potter, I think it’s called the, the Harry Potter Trail, where you can look it up. It’s where, the author JK Rowling found inspiration for the book series.
And you can visit the cemetery there where she got some of the names, like inspired from. So it, it was really interesting. I think the kids enjoyed it because they had been exposed to, to Harry Potter back then. That city itself is somewhere we want to go back to and also go visit the Highlands. I think there’s a great scenic train ride that you can take in that area that will take you to the highlands and you can go see all kinds of wildlife, beautiful scenery.
And that’s a place that I, we have actually considered going back. Probably not happening this year, but I really want to get back there.
Jess: Yes, we would love to go spend just a lot more time in that region. In general, I felt like our time was too short. Yep. It feels like that. A lot of places we go, I find three weeks for us, which right now is really hard to do, is our sweet spot where we feel like we got to know an area decently well, but we’re ready to check out something new.
But sometimes when we only have four or five days in a city, it’s like, oof. It was too rushed and we didn’t get the true experience. We hope that this list of 12 places to check out in summertime. gives you guys some ideas and lets you guys a little insight on where we have loved as we’ve traveled the world.
Rod: Yeah. And check out the show notes because we have a bunch of content from a lot of these cities that we visited from blog posts to YouTube videos to Instagram stuff. So we’ll put that all on. You can always reach out to us, find us on Instagram at the Jet Setting family, or send us an email hello at the jet setting family.com.
So once again, thank you for listening and until next time, Happy Jetsetting!
