Pierron Designs Travel Scarf Review

We just spent the last three weeks in Europe for a wonderful vacation. We were able to explore parts of the world that we had never been and our eyes were opened to how other parts of the world operate.

We had been planning this trip for about 6 months and during that time I was looking into ways to travel safely. I knew we would be going to very popular places that were known for pickpocketing and I wanted to find travel accessories that would be able to carry the things we needed while helping me have piece of mind knowing that our important things (passports, money, debit cards) wouldn't get stolen.

While researching, I came across travel scarves. These are scarves with a hidden pocket in them so you can store your passports, phone, money, or cards right in your scarf without worrying about them being lifted right out of your pocket.

As I was looking into getting a travel scarf for our trip, Ben came across a company on Etsy called Pierron Designs that specializes in these scarves. We reached out to them and they gave me a scarf to use on our trip in exchange for a review of their product.

And I have to say, I am absolutely in LOVE with my scarf!

Pierron Designs is a husband and wife duo (Chad and Jessie) who love to travel and create. Jessie is behind the sewing machine and creates high quality scarves in absolutely beautiful fabrics. While Chad does amazing photography and takes care of the Internet stuff.

I received a 100% cotton travel infinity scarf in a teal watercolor print. While this fabric is not currently in their shop they still have other amazing fabrics and patterns. My wardrobe has lots of greens and blues so I knew that this scarf would go perfectly with most of the clothes I was packing for our trip.

Jessie cutting out my scarf!! (Photo from @pierrondesigns on Instagram)

This scarf was the perfect accessory. It made my boring wardrobe of only t-shirts pop with a little extra something. But more than that, it was USEFUL! I wore my scarf when we were traveling through airports both to and from Europe. It was able to perfectly hold both of our passports as well as my phone. It was super easy to pull out our passports as we were going through security and boarding our flights because they were right in front of my face; I didn't have to dig around in my backpack to find them.

While we were out and about traveling, I liked to keep my phone as well as my debit card and some cash in the pocket. It made me feel so safe to have my most important items with me right in front of my face.

Now part of the problem with a travel scarf is that while it replaces the need for a purse in a lot of situations, it isn't a purse. That being said, you can't load down the pocket with too much stuff. If you do, it will start to drag down. The only time I had that problem was when we were in the airports and I had two passports and my iPhone 6s in the pocket. But, because we were mostly just sitting at gates waiting for planes it didn't bother me too much. And after we boarded the plane, I took out the passports to put them away in my backpack and added gum and headphones to my pocket so I wouldn't have to constantly be getting in and out of my backpack while we were flying.

So if you can handle only taking the bare essentials in your scarf (phone, debit card, cash) then it works out perfectly. In additional to traveling to Europe, I used my travel scarf when I took my first graders on a field trip to the zoo. It was perfect to hold my phone, my debit card and a list of my student groups. I love how I can use this scarf all the time, not just when I'm traveling.

I love my scarf so much that I can't wait to get one of their jersey knit scarves. While I did use my scarf a lot in the airports and quite a bit while we were in Paris, once we hit the Mediterranean on our cruise, I didn't use my scarf as much because the weather was SO HOT and the fabric was a little heavy for 95 degrees with high humidity. If I had had a jersey knit scarf as well, I probably would have used it during that part of our trip.

Jessie and Chad are so wonderful to work with. They really care about their customers. And their packaging is absolutely gorgeous. It is an experience on its own opening up your scarf from them.

Now come on, isn't this the cutest packing you have ever seen! (Photo from @pierrondesigns on Instagram)

I seriously can't say enough kind words about Pierron Designs. They make beautiful, high-quality products with breathtaking packaging. They are also very kind, happy people.

To see their latest work, go check out their Etsy site here. They have some good discounts going on right now on some of their patriotic merchandise. And to stay up to date on their newest designs as well as some behind the scenes info, check out their Instagram feed.

Here are three of my favorite scarves they currently have in their shop:

Navy Polka Dot (100% Cotton)        Beige/Black Aztec (Jersey Knit)       World Map (100% Cotton)

**We received this scarf free of charge to review on our blog. All opinions are 100% my own.**

Liebster Award: Yellow Van Travels

We are so happy to announce that Yellow Van Travels is a winner of the Liebster Award! The lovely folks at Our Wanders nominated us. They are a super cute couple who love traveling the world. Like us, they still work normal jobs and spend lots of their free time traveling. Thanks Bea and Csaba for the nomination!

The Liebster Award is aimed at new bloggers who deserve recognition for their efforts in the blogosphere. By accepting the award, you write a blog post and answer some questions about yourself. Then you get to pay it forward and nominate 5-11 more blogs you think deserve the award!

Onto the Questions from Our Wanders:

Are you a planner or a spontaneous traveler?

I am a HUGE planner (as you can see here and here for example). It really stresses me out to not have a plan, especially when it comes to traveling and exploring. Ben on the other hand is much more spontaneous and would love it if I pulled off at every side road attraction. We are a good team though; I'm getting a little bit more relaxed and spontaneous and Ben is becoming slight more of a planner.

What is your favorite city?

Ben's favorite city is Venice. It is like taking a step back in time when you visit it because so many of the buildings have been in the city so long. The canals and the architecture and the history are all amazing. My favorite city is Chania (pronounced HAWN-ya). This is a coastal city located in Crete. We were there for a stop on the cruise we just went on and I absolutely loved it. It had some of the clearest waters I have ever seen. It is a small, Venetian inspired city with cute shops, buildings, beaches and water.

The Bridge of Sighs in Venice

Coastline of Chania, Crete

What are your 3 favorite beaches in the world?

Seeing as neither one of us grew up anywhere near the ocean or traveled to the ocean very much (if at all) we haven't spent tons of time at beaches. But after getting back from our Medeterrian cruise, we have a few new beaches we can add to our list. Our favorite beach was probably in Chania, Crete. The water is so clear; the sand is so soft. It is one of our favorite places. We also really liked Red Beach on the island of Santorini in Greece. And we enjoyed Mission Beach in San Diego when we were there on our honeymoon. 

Red Beach on Santorini, Greece

Do you always travel to new places or are there places where you keep going back again and again?

We like to do a mix of both :) We visit family often in Colorado, Minnesota and Arizona and we also go to St. George, Utah a lot because it is close to our home but far enough away to feel like a vacation. But we also love exploring new places as well. We just got back from Europe which was a totally new experience for us and we have plans to go to so many other places around the world!

Do you like visiting museums? Why or why not?

We LOVE visiting museums! We are both big into learning and education, especially learning through experiences. Museums offer lots of learning opportunities, even if they are teeny tiny. Usually if there's a museum where we are traveling, we will stop by and explore it. That said, we are more interested in the museums that house "stuff" or interactive exhibits. Art museums are not our thing we discovered after we went to the Louvre and Orsay museums in Paris. While it was cool to go to such famous museums, we were underwhelmed by the artwork.  

What is the ideal way for you to explore a place (guided walking tour, hop-on/hop-off bus, following a guide book, exploring randomly, etc.)?

Most of the time we like doing our own thing. Usually we do lots of planning and see what things there are to do at our destination and then go explore them. While in Europe, we did some guided walking tours from Rick Steves that we really liked. We discovered that we like having a guide of some sort whether that is a tour guide or an audio guide.  

Do you prefer traveling alone or with someone?

Traveling with each other is our favorite way to travel. We also love going places with our friends!

Have you traveled in your home country/in the country where you have grown up?

We are both from the United States and have both traveled throughout the country. I have traveled all over the country with my family and Ben has only been a few places. 

Has any place disappointed you? Why?

Thessaloniki, Greece was a stop on our cruise and we were very underwhelmed by it. Besides shopping, there are only a few other things to do. We went to the White Tower in hopes of getting history of the tower. While the museum inside the tower was cool, it was not giving us the information we hoped for. 

Is blogging a hobby or a career for you?

Blogging is just a hobby for us right now. Someday we hope it might be more than that :)

What have you found the hardest when starting your blog?

The hardest part is how time-consuming it can be. I work full-time as a first grade teacher so when I get home the last thing I want to think about is writing a blog post. But after we had been blogging for a few months we started to have a post calendar where we decide in advance what we are going to write about. I also try to use a schedule for writing my posts and editing my pictures.  These things have really helped with the time consumption.

Now that you know a little bit more about us, go check out our nominations!

Our Nominations:

Around the World in 80 Mugs

Ticket to Adventures

Mouse Chick

Amondz Travels

Frugal RV Gals

Thanks again to Our Wanders for the nomination and good luck to our new friends! Please pass on this awesome award and don't forget to answer our questions for you below. 

Our Questions: 

1. Where is your favorite place to travel?
2. Which places are at the top of your bucket list?
3. What is your favorite way to travel (plane, train, car, donkey, etc.)?
4. What's the strangest animal you have seen while traveling?
5. What are some of your essential travel items?
6. What is your favorite part of blogging?
7. What advice would you give to beginning bloggers?
8. What is your favorite social media outlet for your blog?
9. What's the weirdest thing you have eaten while traveling?
10. Besides traveling, what are your favorite things to do?
11. Why do you love to travel?

From the Road: Last Day in Venice

Since last you heard from us we have been to a lot of different places, finished an amazing cruise, and are just about to wrap up the European vacation. There has been so much going on that I couldn't possibly tell you all about it in one post, but don't worry, detailed posts will be coming over the next few months. For now I'll just give you a few highlights.

Athens:

We had a bit of rough start getting into the city, but after that we enjoyed a great day seeing the remnants of the Ancient Greek culture at the Acropolis and the Agora. Seeing where so much of our western ideas and philosophy began was pretty amazing. 

Thessaloniki:

While it is the second biggest city in Greece we can't say that this was one of our top spots. We did visit the White Tower which is the symbol of the city, but it wasn't made for tall people and we shortly headed back to the ship because Meagan's head had an unfortunate encounter with an old low ceiling.

Ephesus:

Many people including ourselves are hesitant to visit Turkey, but we had an absolutely amazing time in this beautiful country. Ephesus is an incredible historic site, and we also saw what remains of the temple of Artemis, adding a second ruined Wonder of the World to this trip.

We also enjoyed shopping in the port town of Kusadasi where any and all genuine fake goods are sold.

Santorini:

This gorgeous island blew us away with its sparkling white towns capped with blue roofs, its red beach, and its beyond ancient Minoan ruins. We also enjoyed riding the cable car and eating fantastic Greek gyros.

Dubrovnik:

This was essentially stepping into the world of my childhood dreams. We toured the walls of Dubrovnik Old Town and wandered the streets between the red roofed houses. It was an absolutely wonderful day.

Venice Round 2:

The cruise came to an end where it began in Venice. We have spent the last two days soaking up more of this singularly unique city that continues to astound and inspire us. We visited the San Marco Basilica, the Frari Church, the Doge's Palace and the San Marco Campanile in Venice. We also went to the outer islands today, Murano and Burano. We also ate a lot of pizza and gelato which is what you should always do when in Italy.

That's all for now. We have a couple days of travel ahead of us to get back to the States. Stay tuned for more exciting and helpful info and we digest everything that we've seen the last few weeks.

Delicate Arch Overlooks in Arches National Park

I'm sure I made it abundantly clear in my last post on the Delicate Arch Trail that I absolutely love this iconic and natural wonder, and I would recommend to everyone to go and see it. But what if you can't go hike to Delicate Arch because you have accessibility concerns, or you can't make the hike with your kids, or you just don't have that much time in Arches, or the weather is too bad to hike the trail? There are a lot of reasons you might not be able to make it out to the arch, or maybe you did hike it, but like me you really wanted to see it again before you leave Arches National Park for good.

This is where the Delicate Arch Overlooks come in. The Overlooks give you the chance to see Delicate Arch from a distance without the physical exertion and mobility required by the hiking trail to arch itself. That being said, if you are questioning whether you can make the hike up to Delicate Arch please read through our post on that hike and really consider it because being up inside the arch itself is not to be missed if you can possibly make it. It is not overly difficult, but not as simple as some other hikes in the park.

How to Get There:

Arches is not a difficult park to navigate since there are only a few roads to go to most of the top destinations, and the Delicate Arch Overlooks are no exception. Stay on the main road until you come to the road to turn right to the Delicate Arch Trail, take this road until it ends which will be in the overlooks parking lot. 

Once you get to the parking lot you will see that there are bathrooms and plenty of parking. You will then have the option of which overlook you want to go to, what you choose will depend on your reason for coming to the overlooks in the first place. If you came for accessibility concerns you will need to stay with Overlook 1 which is about a one minute walk from the parking lot and fully accessible as long as you don't mind pushing your wheelchair or stroller on a dirt path.

The second overlook is significantly more difficult to get to and will take you about 15 minutes. You take the left side of the fork in the path to get there, you have a short flat walk and then you begin a fairly steep assent (walking, no climbing) to take you to a high point where you can get a very clear view of Delicate Arch.

Ben on a rock at the top of the second overlook trail.

What You Will See:

From either lookout you will be able to see Delicate Arch. The view is not much different form one overlook to the other, except that you are more on a level with Delicate Arch from the second one because it is so much higher.

The view is nice and affords you more of a perspective on the area surrounding the arch then you get when you hike up to the arch itself. It is less awe-inspiring though because you can't actually get a grasp on Delicate Arch's enormity from so far away.

Outside of looking at the arch there is not much else to do here. There are some boulders along the trail that you could climb on (like I did in the picture above).

Sum Up:

If you cannot make it out to Delicate Arch then be sure to make the overlooks a stop while you are in Arches. Nobody should leave the park without having seen this truly incredible piece of nature. If you are able to do the whole hike to the arch then this isn't a must-stop, but its a nice little stop over if you just want to see Delicate Arch from the other side.

How to Get International Flights on a Budget

We have been preparing since January to go on a trip to Europe this summer with some of our friends. One of the biggest expenses was our plane tickets. After doing a TON of research, we were able to score some pretty cheap flights from the United States to Europe. Here I have compiled our best tips and tricks for scoring cheap flights around the world.

1. Use Google Flights:

I mentioned this before in our Top 5 Money Saving Travel Websites. Google Flights pulls all of the best prices from all the different airlines together in one place. They also give you calendars that show you the cheapest dates to fly. Once we put in where we wanted to go, Google Flights easily compared the airlines and we could see quickly which airlines were the best deals. 

2. Fly Out of Major Airports:

When looking for flights, we discovered that it was quite expensive to fly internationally from the Salt Lake airport (our home airport). So we looked at other major airports like JFK and LAX which were much cheaper to fly internationally from. We ultimately chose to fly from LAX because we knew we could get cheap flights from Salt Lake to LA. 

3. Look Into One-Way Flights:

For our trip, it ended up being much more cost effective to book one-way flights instead of round trip. This is especially true if you are planning on traveling around once you get to your destination. We knew we needed to get to Venice where we were going to be boarding our cruise around the Mediterranean. But when we looked into flying straight to Venice, it was too expensive for our budget. So we looked into other cities that we knew we wanted to see in Europe and Paris made the cut. We found a good deal on a flight from LAX to Paris where we spent a few days before flying to Venice. Our one-way ticket to Paris and our one-way ticket from Paris to Venice was a few hundred dollars less than flying straight to Venice. We found a good deal on a one-way flight to LAX from Venice. 

4. Have Flexible Travel Plans and Dates

This kind of goes with tip 3, but be willing to fly into different places than your final destination and be flexible within a few days for your trip. This alone saved us hundreds of dollars on our trip.

From the Road: (From the Ship)

Well it's been a while since you have seen an update from us, and it likely will be again because we are now on our 4th day of our cruise and will be on the ship for several more days. Working WIFI has proved more difficult to find in ports than we were expecting, but we will try to keep the Yellow Van Travels Instagram account as up to date as possible. 

So what have we been up to? Well we had one more day in Paris, where we saw Sainte Chapelle, the towers of Notre Dame, and the Lourve and Orsay museums. 

From Paris we flew to the Venice Marco Polo airport and then took a bus down to the actual islands of Venice. Here we were very happy to meet up with our friends who we were going on the cruise with. 

We were in Venice for an afternoon and a morning and we loved seeing this anomaly of a city. 

Then we got on the cruise ship at the Venice port. We had a night and a day at sea before coming into the Olympia, Greece area. We had a great time seeing the ruins there. We then sailed to Chania on the island of Crete where we spent today. 

It has been a fantastic trip so far :) 

Yellow Van Free 50 State Travel Map

A couple months ago we introduced a special freebie for our email subscribers, the Yellow Van 50 State Travel Map. While we are outside the states traveling in Europe I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you to this little gem, how it works, and how to get it.

What is the 50 State Travel Map?

The Yellow Van 50 State Travel Map is an awesome way for you to track your travel through the 50 States that make up the U.S.A. The map shows all the states and is color coordinated to help you see where you've been. 

The color coding lets you know whether you've never been to a state, or you drove through, stopped at an airport there, or actually visited it. I find this really helpful because when you are thinking about where you have been you don't want to say that you have never been to Georgia if you've had a layover in Atlanta, but you also don't want to just say that you've been there because that gives the wrong impression. 

This map can be helpful for reflecting on where you have traveled to or planning future trips, especially if you have a goal to hit all 50 states. 

How it Works:

You shouldn't have any trouble using the map, but just to help you get started I have some instructions.

The Yellow Van 50 States Travel Map is actually a fancy Excel Spreadsheet, so it will open in Microsoft Excel, but don't worry you don't need to know anything about Excel to use it. Special Excel code called Macros are used to make the map work, which means that when you open it up your computer will ask you for permission to run these codes. The computer may tell you that this is dangerous because you got the map from the internet, but don't worry I haven't put anything malicious in the code, you can go ahead and let it run, the map will not work otherwise. 

When you come to the map you will see the map which will all be green because you haven't put in any data yet. There is another tab called "Answers" in the bottom left corner which will show you a list with all the states on the left side.

Next to each state is a drop down menu that will let you select what the status of that state is for you.

When you first open the map you will of course need to make a selection for every state. As you travel around the country be sure to open the map back up again and change your status. After you have made all the changes that you want you can hit the yellow refresh button to see your map update to the correct colors.

How to Get the Map:

Getting the map is as simple as signing up for our email list, either at the bottom of this post or in the right hand sidebar. When you sign up you will get a confirmation to make sure you actually want to sign up, and after you confirm you will get an email with a link to a Google Drive file that is the map. You just need to download it and you are good to go.

If you sign up for the email list you can expect to get an email from us at the beginning of each month showing the highlights of Yellow Van Travels for the last month. We may occasionally send out other special emails, but for the most part just expect to get one email a month.

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Canyonlands National Park Overlooks

Canyonlands National Park is broken up into three areas or districts: Island in the Sky, Maze, and Needles. If you are also visiting Moab, you are going to want to stay in the Island in the Sky district. While this district is small, it is also the most family friendly and is the easiest district to do. Two of our favorite things to do were an easy sunrise hike at Mesa Arch and a fun hike up Whale Rock.

Even though the Island in the Sky district is pretty easy, we were still pretty tired by the afternoon after doing about 3 hikes. We still wanted to see more of Canyonlands but didn't want to do more hikes. So we stopped at a few of the outlooks in the Island in the Sky district and were not disappointed by the views.

How to Get There: 

We went to two outlook points on our trip to Canyonlands National Park. The first we went to was the Green River Overlook. From the Visitor's Center head southwest. Once you get to the fork in the road turn right. Follow the signs a short while later and take the first left. Follow that road to a nice parking lot. 

We tried going to Grand View Point Overlook, but with limited parking it wasn't going to happen. From what we have heard, it is the best overlook in the Island in the Sky district. So if you want to go there make sure that you're early. To get there just take the south fork where the three main roads converge. It is the farthest point South. 

After not being able to go to Grand View Point, we went to another overlook on the way called Orange Cliffs Overlook. This one had way less people but still offered a beautiful view.

What You Will See: 

The Green River Overlook was where I really saw why this National Park is called Canyonlands. For miles all you see is beautiful canyons. There is a nice paved path from the parking lot to the overlook. At the overlook there is a fence to keep you away from the edge of a cliff face and there are also large boulders that are fun to climb on and offer a slightly different view. There are also signs that give you different information about the canyons that are before you.

The Orange Cliffs overlook is very small but gives another beautiful view of the canyons. There is not a paved path;  you just walk out onto large rocks. We went off the main path a little bit and Ben was able to climb up a small mountain pretty easily and quickly.

Sum Up:  

Overlooks at Canyonlands are a great break from hiking the beautiful trails of the park. They offer incredible views that really show you why this place is called Canyonlands National Park. 

From the Road: Paris Days 1 & 2

Since last you heard from us in the Stockholm airport we have arrived in Paris and spent two wonderful days here. We didn't get off to such a terrific start, but since then things have gotten much better as we learned to navigate our way around a large city where we don't speak or read the language :) We are fortunate that there are nice people here willing to help out two lost Americans.

The first thing the we had to do was make it to our hotel, a goal made easier because Meagan had arranged for a shuttle car to pick us up at the airport. The trouble was we first had to call and get the shuttle car to come get us, but of course we don't have international cell reception and we could not find the Telcom phones in the airport that the instructions told us to use. We still don't know where those phones are but the man at the baggage claim counter let Meagan use his cell phone to call them.

We finally made it to our hotel where a nice man greeted us at the front desk and got us checked in. We are getting the real experience here staying in a tiny little hotel with tiny little rooms accessed by tight spiral staircases. After two days in the air we crashed in our room after making some quick plans for the next day.

Day 1

The next morning we encountered another challenge in getting our metro passes, we will chronicle this for your benefit in a later post, but let's just say that we got going about two hours behind our planned schedule and the guy manning the hotel front desk got to see a lot of us.

With metro passes finally in hand we started out for that icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. Using the app NextStopParis I had planned a route that should take us close to it. Unfortunately unknown to me or the app one of the rail lines was out of commission. When we tried to transfer to it we were greeted with locked gates and a sign in French which I used the magical Google Translate app to translate through the camera to find that due to flooding and a strike the line was shot down. There was also a second sign explaining the alternate route to Versailles where we went today. Fortunately when we were looking at that sign (through the Google Translate app) a nice lady stopped asked us if we wanted to go to Versailles and gave us her metro map where the alternate route was drawn out because she had been there the day before.

We left the metro and walked to the Eiffel Tower, a task made more difficult by the presence of the Euro 2016 Eiffel Tower Fan Zone, meaning we had to go quite a ways around. But it was well worth it once we finally made it. We had an amazing time there which we will detail in a future post. I am so glad that we went, I found the whole thing fascinating. It is quite a marvel.

From the Eiffel Tower we went to the Arc de Triumphe. There we had an amazing view and got to climb more stairs. A post on it will also be coming in the future.

Next we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was awesome. The stain glass was really amazing. We also visited the archeological crypt there that shows the ruins under the plaza.

Day 2

Today was dedicated to Versailles where we toured the palace with the help of the Rick Steves Audio Europe app, we also walked through the ginormous gardens, and the domain of Marie Antoinette.

That took almost all the day but in the late afternoon we also stopped by the tomb of Napoleon before it closed. Meagan said that by doing the tomb and Versailles made this our ostentatious day.

Well now our feet are very sore, my Pebble watch has recorded two 21,000+ step days now. We did get our first real French Crepes on our way back to our hotel however and they were awesome.

From the Road: In the Air

Today's post from the road is actually a post from the air. Today we are spending all day in airports and on planes as we get closer and closer to our final destination in Europe! Make sure to be checking out our Instagram and following #YVinEurope for updates on our travels.

We took this as a good sign that our trip was going to be amazing :)