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Best National Parks to Visit

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Do you plan on visiting a United States National Park? Not sure how to decide which park to visit? Well, then I have great news, you have come to the right place. There is a total of 60 National Parks in the U.S, all of which contain hikes, swims, breathtaking views, memories, and more. Each of these parks ranges from mountains, deserts, sand dunes, beaches, lakes, and more. Whichever scenery you choose to take, there is a National Park made just for you! Today, I want to show you 4 of my favorite National Parks. For this blog post, I want to focus on 5 distinct National Parks all of which are different from each other, such as Zion National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, White Sands National Park, and Yosemite National Park.

Zion National Park – Utah

The 25 miles long by 15 miles wide National Park, is widely known for its iconic hiking trails ranging from an expert to novice scale. With a total of 47 trails to choose from, this park is known to have one of the deadliest hikes, making it a challenge for several hikers and tourists who visit this National Park. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of things to do, that is why this is one of my favorite parks to visit. Although you can visit year-round, the best times to visit this park are in the months of April, May, June, October, and November for the best temperatures. One recommendation I’d give to anyone visiting Zion is to hike the Zion Narrows, a total of 2.2 miles giving you a scenic drive full of soaring walls, springs, and grottos.

Dry Tortugas National Park – Florida

From sandstone cliffs to beaches and sand, next, we have Dry Tortugas National Park. This 100-mile park is 70 miles west of Key West, Florida surrounded by a sea of water, accompanied by 7 small islands. When tourists think of National Parks, the first thought to come to mind is mountains, cliffs, lakes, glaciers, however; the U.S has all types. This park is heavily known for Fort Jefferson, coral reefs, bright blue beaches, and sea life. One of my favorite things about this park is that it is known to be the least crowded National Park in the nation because this park is only accessible by plane or boat. Sara Sekula from USA Today mentions that “With only about 70,000 annual visitors, Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 nautical miles west of Key West, happens to be one of the least-visited national parks” (Sekula, 2019). If you or your family loves a mix of history, sand, beaches, and tropical weather, this is the National Park for you.

White Sands National Park – New Mexico

While we’re keeping the sand on this next park, we are definitely not near the ocean, up next we have White Sands National Park in New Mexico. While there are two sand dune National Parks, White Sands called out my attention more than Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Why is that? White Sands is collectively known for its largest gypsum dune field around the world, from hiking to sledding on the slopes, and wildlife. This unique park does not disappoint. The best time to visit White Sands would be in late October and early November to take advantage of the nice weather!

Yosemite National Park – California

Lastly, we have one of my favorite National Parks filled with several types of scenery, known as Yosemite National Park. After watching Free Solo on Disney Plus, I could not help myself in planning a trip to one of the most visited National Parks in the nation. There are several hikes to hike, scenic drives, lodges to stay in, lakes to swim, wildlife, and more. My overall recommendation for this park is to arrive as early as you can and stay inside of the park or as near as possible. I made the mistake of staying 2 hours and spent most of the day driving, however; the park itself did not disappoint. This family-friendly park has a wide range of activities to keep you busy throughout your day, such as horseback riding, hikes, swimming, tours around the parks, biking, fishing, and if you are a lover of heights you’re in for a treat!

Ready, Set, National Parks!

Although there are 54 parks not mentioned in this post, that does not take away from their beauty. These 4 parks are all distinct in their own ways from rocky mountains to sand dunes, to beaches, and lakes each of these parks each hold their own beauty. With these National Park options, you and your family can enjoy what these parks have to offer, book your reservations to get in, plan your trip, and let the adventures begin! Hope to see you on the next hike, I mean post! Happy traveling, until next week!

References

Sekula, S. (2019, May 21). Dry Tortugas National Park: An overlooked gem in the Florida Keys. USA Today. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/national-parks/2019/05/21/dry-tortugas-national-park-florida-keys-fort-jefferson/3745617002/.

5 Steps To Booking A Cheap Flight Online

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Have you ever had to book a flight on your own? And realized you were either missing details or had to come back to it? I am here to tell you, that you are not alone. Booking a flight can be one of the most stressful parts of travel, finding the right airfares can be such a long process. From the variation of prices, best days to book travel, and booking months in advance fearing that the prices could drop. As someone who has booked travel countless times, the best time to book travel is today. Today, I want to show you five hacks to finding a cheap flight. For this article, I want to focus on sites to use, travel pages to follow, how to search flights, deals to find, and what to do after booking a flight. 

Step 1

First things first, when searching for travel I make sure that my viewing mode in my opened browser is set to “Private Mode.” If the viewing mode is not set to private it allows travel sites to know that your device is viewing their travel airfares. If that is the case when returning to the site the flight prices may increase when opening the site once again. I first noticed this when I was interested in booking a flight to Guatemala, I did not have confirmation from the additional guests that would be flying with me so I closed my web browser and opened it later that day. Within a few hours, the same travel dates and times had gone up by 100 – 200 dollars in price. When looking up the same travel dates on a different device, I received the same prices I had originally seen earlier that day.

From that day, all my flights have been booked under private mode. After extensive research, I realized that many travel blogs do not agree with incognito searches when booking flights. For example, Travel Blogger Nomadic Matt mentions that “There’s no evidence that airlines behave that way and numerous studies by booking companies have shown there is no variance in pricing when you use incognito mode. And, typically, when you abandon your cart, businesses discount prices to get you to complete your purchase not raise them higher” (Matt, 2020).

However, I found that in a more recent find, Forbes mentions that “always make sure to double-check all listed prices in incognito mode on your Google browser. Or, in layman’s terms, double-check prices on a network that isn’t linked to your location or identity. If you’re tech-savvy, VPNs work well for this too. All of these travel search engines rely on algorithms to determine the prices that they offer customers. If they know you’re based in Los Angeles, California, and were looking at flights to Japan a few weeks ago, they might raise the price for your flight” (Talty, 2021).

Step 2

Next, I go to Cheap_DFW on Instagram to see if there are any airfare sales for my destination of choice. There will be days that there will be and days that there won’t be any. For example, currently, there are sales for flights in the U.S. for as low as $63 and International flights for as low as $150. When choosing any one of these airfares it will direct you to the airline’s website; note when using these sites, airfare sales show low prices for specific months to book.

Step 3

In addition to Cheap_DFW, next, I go to Skyscanner to compare prices that I have found on Cheap_DFW sometimes searching for the same flight on different travel sites will show cheaper prices for the same flight. After viewing the comparisons of the chosen flight, it is important for the flight to be searched through the actual airline to ensure that this deal is actually being offered.

Step 4

Next, I go to my favorite travel site known as Google Flights. This well-known site gives you access to all airlines, lowest airfares depending on the date. Having access to all airlines is important when considering which flights to book, however not all travel sites display all airlines. Google flights give me the option to play around with dates, displaying the lowest airfare travel days. Giving you several airport options. “Google flights lets you view cheap airfares across the U.S. for a wide range of timeframes (e.g. a weekend trip within the next six months or a trip to any destination on a set date)” (Hurd, 2021).

Step 5

Lastly, after booking my flight. I will check back after 23 hours giving me time to check if there has been a price drop in my flight right before my 24-hour cancellation policy. When doing this, users want to make sure that they are viewing in private mode and cookies are cleared to make sure that the previous search was not saved. Given the information that I find I will either keep my flight or rebook another flight for a cheaper price.

Let the Planning Begin!

Although the process of booking a flight can be stressful, with these tips not only can your flight cost go down but also the time it goes into it can decrease as well. Be happy with your purchase, plan your trip to your liking, and make it all about you! Hope to see you on the plane, I mean post. Happy traveling, until next week!

References 

Hurd, A. (2021, July 5). The secret to traveling on the cheap: Traveling opportunistically. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/travel-rewards/the-secret-to-traveling-on-the-cheap-traveling-opportunistically/.

Talty, A. (2021, July 8). 7 ways you’re spending too much money on online travel search engines. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/7-ways-youre-spending-too-much-money-on-online-travel-search-engines/.

Amy, Adam, Nomadic Matt, Carina, Jaël, Scott, Naidoo, K., & Schildt, P. (2020, December 31). 5 myths about booking a flight that you need to ignore. Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/flight-booking-myths/.

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