It’s hard not to love San Diego’s dreamy, near-perfect-year-round weather, laid-back beach lifestyle, and coastal charm. When my husband and I decided to ‘settle down’ (read: stop living out of our suitcases, which yes, we did, glamorously and recklessly for 3 years!), we were eye-ing two potential places to call our forever home: San Diego and Charleston. I was this close to picking SD! but we ultimately decided to plant our family roots in Charleston, and continue to vacation in San Diego :)

And while we mostly think we made the right choice, the Mexican food scene in SD is enough to make us question our decision every once in awhile.

We just got back from a wonderful week in Del Mar & La Jolla, and had the best time visiting with family, seeing the seals every morning, boogie boarding, surfing, going to the world famous San Diego Zoo, eating MANY carne asada burritos, and watching the sunset each night. It was a California dream!

I think San Diego is a perfect vacation for families with kids of any age - there is so much to do! and it’s so laid-back and wonderful. But one thing that is difficult to navigate is where to stay! There are (strangely) not a lot of luxury hotel options in the area. So you’re stuck deciding between a more five star option that’s inland, or a more four star option on the beach. I have a gem that fits that perfect right-in-between that a lot of people don’t know about… and we’ve been going there for years.

So let’s talk about where we stayed!

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I’m my best, most soul-aligned, self when I’m traveling.

My husband and I both are travelers at heart. It’s one of the first things we bonded over. And, the more I travel, talk to people about travel, write about travel, and work in travel, the more I realize how many people just aren’t natural travelers (and that’s ok!!!).

Some of you out there might spend a small fortune on a trip, and come back feeling like it just wasn’t worth it. You missed the comforts of home, you missed your routine, you didn’t fully enjoy being away as much as you thought you would (or as much as we’re told we should??) and that is COMPLETELY OK!!!! we are not all meant to travel the world far and wide. For some of us, that’s actually not what brings us the most joy.

And for others of us, like me. It’s precisely what brings the most joy. I’d gladly spend every hard-earned cent I make on travel, and experiences, because the happiness I get from those experiences far outweighs the happiness I get from anything else money can buy.

And yet, travel is changing, fast. Before ever stepping foot in a place, the customer has seen it blasted all over their social media feeds for months, even years, before they finally experience it for themselves. And it’s not even necessarily the reality of a place that they see - it’s the filtered, perfected, saturated, crowd-less version. I think it’s hard for destinations these days to keep up with peoples’ expectations.

It’s hard to go and enjoy a place without an assumed outcome. It’s hard to find a destination that actually lives up to the hype. It looks perfect on instagram, so it must be perfect, right?

But…. isn’t the beauty in the imperfection? If everywhere was like everywhere else, what’s the fun in that?

I’ve found all too often that people will be disappointed when Sardinia doesn’t have the walkability of Capri, or when Cabo doesn’t have the beaches of Grand Cayman.

It’s like we want everywhere to be everything. Instead of experiencing each place fully as it is, and letting it shape us in its own unique way.

What happened to the art of traveling?

Travel is being shaped in colossal ways by social media.

It’s hard not to see that some people are traveling more for their feeds and their content than to actually discover new places, and when they do travel, are just copying each other’s itineraries and photo spots, vs experiencing new places for themselves. It’s starting to feel less like an experience, and more like a performance.

And I know, I know!!! I'm saying all of this as literally someone who has built a career on social media & travel. I post the pretty hotel photos. I make the reel about the place that I really do want you guys to try. Trust me, the irony is not lost on me! But that’s why I want to talk about it.

We’ve never had so much information available to us (forced on us??) when it comes to researching travel. Which is funny because we get decision paralysis from too many places to go, too many options. Every reel that pops up (because the algorithm will KNOW we’re planning a trip somewhere even before we do), shows us the “BEST” way to experience a place, the restaurants that we must go to, the itineraries that we must follow, the tips that we must abide by in order to have the BEST version of a place. Have we completely lost the travel plot??? it kind of feels like we’re sheep being herded???

It's not just a feeling. It’s science-backed “social media-induced travel anxiety”. All that perfectly curated, idealized imagery we scroll past stresses us out, gives us FOMO, and makes us feel behind. The thing that's supposed to fuel our wanderlust is quietly draining it instead.

Travel isn’t supposed to be so planned. It’s not supposed to be so “perfect”. So rigid. It’s supposed to be relaxing!! freeing. simple.

And don’t get me wrong, some of it is helpful! Social media is our era’s Rick Steeves. The problem is, not everyone on social media is an expert, and most of them don’t even have the same tastes as you or I do. I learned very quickly that you can’t trust a tiktok recommendation (everyone wants to go viral so everything is painted as the very BEST, the hidden secret, the thing you MUST do!!!!), and unfortunately you can’t trust everyone’s taste and opinions. But it’s hard to ignore the algorithms that take over our feeds and our lives, so we inevitably start to make lists and bucket lists so deep that even the mere “where should we travel this year” question gives us anxiety.

There are too many options. Too many places. And even if we pick one, there are too many decisions to make, too much planning. too much hassle. Is it even worth it?

And then when we actually get there, all to often we’re still wound up, connected, and on our phones. The stress of trying to get one decent family photo. Choosing photos to post on instagram. Texting, emailing, trying to be present…. but also eternally tethered to life back home, and work, as well.

Whether we’re traveling or at home, I just can’t help but feel lately that it’s just not natural for us to feel so ON, so connected, all the time. We’re not meant to be answering emails in the doctors office, while we order groceries online, while we amazon that night light our toddler asked us for, while we answer a phone call from a colleague, while we scroll strangers highlight reels, while we buy yet another thing we don’t need from tiktok shop, while our text messages pile up with 50 retail brands reeling us in with the biggest sale ever, and our actual friends cancel plans because they’re overwhelmed right now, and we all are, and cant we just take a break, maybe we should plan a vacation, but where should we vacation, now i’m stressed again, theres too much going on to decide, and look up flights, and compare deals, and dont i have credit card points can i use those, but wait i dont have enough, maybe i should buy a few miles, is that worth it, maybe chatgpt knows, ugh who has time for all of this

I think travel, when done right, is how we get back to the version of ourselves that existed before we were reachable 24/7.

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I’m Craving a 90’s Vacation

10 years ago, in 2016, a friend of ours, Nick, decided to fly half way across the world and visit my husband Kenny (who was living in Bali) without his cell phone. While we all thought he was absolutely crazy at the time, I’ve never understood his decision to go phoneless for 2 weeks more than I do today. I am deeply craving a complete-disconnect trip. A 90’s vacation.

One where we have no work emails dinging at us, no texts, no instagram…. absolutely nothing to focus on but each other. The type of trip where we forget what day it is. The kind where we spend our days with no plans. Walking around and getting lost, ending up in some cute village, swimming in a hidden cove, dining at a cute local bistro, a kind stranger’s recommendation.

I think I’m actually going to do it this fall. That doesn’t mean I won’t plan leading up to the trip, I will of course (I plan trips for a living, after all!). And I’m going to pick an incredible hotel to stay in so that I don’t have to worry about a thing, and I’m thinking I’ll set aside time each day to check my computer quickly for pressing work things, but besides that, I plan to leave my phone, off, in the room. Yes, really!!!!! I will take photos (I love taking pictures on vacation - and I seriously do it for nobody else but me!!! capturing memories >> manufacturing content) so I think I’ll bring my actual camera out with me but nothing else.

I want to try to do it for a week, and I feel like it’s going to completely reset my entire body.

I can’t be the only one craving this kind of slow, meaningful, thoughtful travel?

I started my travel agency because I want to give people the art of traveling back. Someone to handle the noise and the decisions and the planning properly so you can just show up and actually be there, fully experiencing a place, as it is, with your loved ones, and letting travel light up your soul like only traveling can.

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And if you’re not already, shoot me a follow @jetsetchristina, where I share all my favorite travels & behind-the-scenes of life as a mom of two balancing motherhood, business, traveling, and life.

If you need help making travel planning easy again, shoot me an email at Concierge@JetsetChristina.com and let me plan your next trip! My luxury travel agency takes it off your hands and secures you VIP Perks like Free Daily Breakfast, $100 Resort Credits, Complimentary Room Upgrades and more… all at zero cost to you!

With only one month’s notice, we finally decided on a Spanish island that has loooong piqued our interest, but that neither my husband nor I had ever been:

MALLORCA!

I’ve wanted to go to Mallorca, Spain for a few years now, but the timing never quite felt right. It seemed (at least to me as an outsider) like a more adventurous trip vs. a relaxing trip with little ones - the beaches and calas (or coves) that Mallorca is known for looked a little hard to navigate with babies (they are, for the most part, but I’ll get into how we made it work with toddlers), and I felt like when we had LITTLE babies, we were really craving pure relaxing, do-nothing type of vacation spots vs an adventure, (when you have little babies, sometimes all you want is a fly-and-flop) thus I felt like I wanted to save Mallorca for when I could combine a little adventure with a lot of relaxation. Which it gave us in spades this year (with our 4 and 2 year old in tow!)

After the two past summers in a row in Italy (which, do not get me wrong, I cannot get enough of!), Mallorca was our first dose of Spanish Summer in a long time. And wowwwwwww did we need it.

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Spain knows how to summer

Spanish Summer, contrary to Italian Summer, or French Summer, is a lot more low-key. Slow. Salty. Relaxed. Effortless.

The type of summer you spend long lunches overlooking the most beautiful cove you’ve ever seen, diving in the sea mid-meal whenever you start to sweat.

You drink rosé like it’s water, and plenty of cava.

You get impossibly-golden-tan as you walk villages that feel a little too perfect to be real.

You boat in glassy waters, and swim in crystal-clear caves.

The sun doesn’t set until 9pm, as the days laze by in a happy, buoyant daze.

Spanish Summer is not trying too hard to be anything, it just is.

Where we stayed: Belmond La Residencia & Four Seasons Mallorca

We checked into Belmond La Residencia for 3 nights first, then drove our rental car to the Four Seasons Formentor for our last 2 nights. I would have stayed longer if we could have!!!! I think one week is a perfect amount of time in Mallorca.

5 nights was definitely doable, and amazing, but once we were there we wanted more!! We then flew from Mallorca to Barcelona for a few nights, then home!

Checking in to Belmond La Residencia

This hotel is just as dreamy as it looks. It’s like staying in a Spanish countryside storybook. It’s unreal!!!The service, the food, the pool, the location, the old-world design. If you stay in one hotel in Mallorca, it should be this one, hands down.

That’s because this hotel to me just feels SO Mallorca. Mallorca at its best. La Residencia isn’t beachfront, but it didn’t bother me at all. It's up in the mountains, but there is a nearby cove called Cala Deià down the hill, which the hotel provides a shuttle to (we took our own rental car down there).

La Residencia is located in Deià, a honey-stone Mallorcan village folded into the Tramuntana mountains on the northwest coast, and the hotel is built from a pair of old Mallorcan estates surrounded by olive and citrus groves. It’s calm, and quiet, with views at every corner that seem to immediately steady your entire nervous system.

Dinner at El Olivo, the incredible michelin-starred restaurant on property, is the type of candlelit dinner you plan an entire trip around. It was a huge highlight of ours, and the dinner I’ll never stop dreaming about. It’s also one of the hardest reservations to get in Mallorca (but don’t worry I can help you with all the best tables here and at my other favorite spots if you book your trip through me!)

We could have spent a week without leaving the hotel, seriously. It’s that good. Between the amazing pool (my kids were obsessed), the kids club (not huge, but they have great activities and it was perfect for our aged children! they also have donkeys on property that my kiddos loved), the spa (we loved the ice bath and sauna!), the amazing food and drinks on property, and the village steps away, you don’t really have to go anywhere!

But that being said, you should definitely explore a little!

We loved Sa Foradada for lunch (either go by boat from Port de Soller, or hike - but not with the kids!) We loved the hike (and left our kiddos with our nanny this day), it was about an hour each way and a long, dreamy lunch inbetween.

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We also loved Ca’s Patro March for lunch at Cala Deia (the nearest cala to the hotel!) You need a reservation and they’re super hard to get (I can help if you book with me), but if you don’t have one, I’d recommend trying to show up by 12:15PM and you can usually get a table with a long wait if you’re okay waiting at the beautiful cove.

We did this lunch with the whole family and it was so lovely. A must-do in Mallorca!!!!!! The food is casual and good. Sa Foradada was a bit more upscale than Ca’s Patro March, and I loved them both.

Checking in to Four Seasons Formentor

After extending our late check out until nearly 5pm at La Residencia (no joke, they almost had to kick us out it was so hard to leave the hotel!!!!), we drove the 1.5 hours up the Mallorcan coast to Four Seasons Formentor. This was like being in a completely new country!!!!!!!!!

Formentor, which is right by Port de Pollença (adorable seaside town, by the way, worth a stop!!!), is a completely different topography and vibe than Southern Mallorca. We took a very windy road (not for the weary driver, but it’s only about 15 mins! Kenny handled it like a champ! and suddenly we were in another world. It couldn’t feel more different to La Residencia, which is why I LOVED coupling these two hotels together.

Four Seasons Formentor is a brand new (1 year old) hotel that took over an existing hotel in this stunning region of Mallorca. It feels like it’s part of the foresty-landscape there, and there’s something about the pine-backed vibe that reminded me of Lake Tahoe, I don’t know why! It is the ocean here, but the atmosphere, trees, etc. were giving lake!

The rooms here were much smaller than La Residencia, which took a little getting used to I’m not going to lie (when you’re a family of four, it feels tight quickly!) but the view made up for it….

This is from our room!!!!

The main benefit of Four Season Mallorca is that it is on a (beautiful!) beach which is extremely rare in Mallorca! Most hotels are not on the beach, so if you’re looking for easy beach access, this is your spot. It is also the most ‘resortey’ luxury hotel experience on the island. Belmond feels more boutique, and FS feels more full service resort, perfect for families (but there are fantastic adults only areas too!).

It’s a 1,200-acre estate with a working vineyard you can tour and taste your way through, a spa, and four separate pools sorted by mood: one for families, one for kids, one for adults, one for the spa. There’s a big kids’ club and a teen hangout that runs morning to night. The rooms all face the sea, some with plunge pools on the terrace. On the food side you have the beach restaurant for Mediterranean, the more casual Quiosc, a japanese restaurant Shima, and Cercle, the bar at the center of it all.

One of the if not THE highlight of the entire trip was our boat day here, which took off right from the hotel and couldn’t be easier or a better day (if I plan your trip, I’ll make sure you do the exact itinerary and boat!). The boat took us along the impossibly-glassy coast, snorkeling in caves, ducking into incredible calas, and even a little cliff jumping for my husband. It felt like we had the whole coast to ourselves, and the water was unbelievably blue and beautiful.

We had the best day!!!!!! The water and the coastline in this part of the island is next-level.

FS Mallorca feels like a Four Seasons should feel: seamless, polished, everything handled. Less bohemian secret, more effortless big-resort ease. There’s also a boat-shuttle service to the nearby port town you can (and should!) take for dinner in town! It’s so easy and nice and only 25 euro - you have to book ahead with the concierge.

Best for: families, multigenerational trips, and anyone who wants the beach out front of their hotel

The Best Times to Travel to Mallorca

Now, having been there I would genuinely be excited to go back any time of year. I think it has a California-like climate where it never gets TOO too cold. That being said, I think the best times are May, June, September, and very early October. July and August have wonderful heat but bring all the crowds - making room rates much higher and availability dwindles as well!

Is Mallorca family-friendly?

Yes!!!! Especially when you’re staying in places like these. It’s extremely family friendly. The calas and hikes, less so for young kids, but there are ways to have an amazing trip at any age.

How to Book Either Hotel with Free Jetset Perks

Booking either of these hotels through me comes with the best available rate PLUS all the free perks I can pass along as a luxury travel advisor: complimentary breakfast, resort credits ($100, $200 for suites), complimentary room upgrades when they’re available, VIP recognition on property, and early or late checkout when the hotel can swing it. Same room, same (or better) rate, and always a better stay.

Fill out this inquiry form here and I’ll help you plan your trip, or you can go directly to my travel portal and see my exclusive travel advisor rates and book yourself with all of my perks included! The password is always JETSETTERS (save this page to your bookmarks for future trips!)

Want to read more about all of our Mallorca tips, including where to eat, other hotel recs, etc? Check out my blog post: The Ultimate Guide to Mallorca and check out everything I packed and wore for our Mallorca trip here.

Xx,

Christina

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For more like this, follow me on Substack, on Instagram, or check out my blog, Jetset Christina

It took me 13 years and a whole lot of back-end blood, sweat and tears to get here.

The many, many days I have spent behind the computer grueling away at my business aren’t always the part you imagine when you’re following along on instagram, but trust me, when we’re not traveling, I’m in my office, writing away, and working day and night on the back-end of the biz. And while it may not be glamorous, I really love it. I’ve always been a writer, and a natural sharer, at heart. A journalism major (did you know that?), and I love nothing more than talking travel to my friends (all 120K of you now!)

But THIIIIIS step!? this is a big one, you guys.

We now have a Jetset Christina Travel Booking Portal.

A website you can book hotels with preferred rates, offers, and perks, anytime you want, (at midnight when you’re planning trips after one too many margaritas, or on sunday morning when you’re booking before breakfast). You don’t need to talk to anyone, you just get all the access I get as a travel advisor, in the palm of your own hands!

( The password is JETSETTERS )

What happens when you book through the portal

When you book a luxury hotel through my portal, you book as my client. That means you get the VIP perks I’ve spent years building relationships to be able to offer you. Depending on the property, that usually looks like:

• Complimentary daily breakfast for two. The single most-loved perk, every single time.

• A hotel credit, often $100, to put toward the spa, dinner, or poolside piñas.

• A room upgrade at check-in when one is available. Hotels love travel advisors - and they want to impress us (so we keep sending our clients to their hotels!) so they’ll always pull out all the stops they can for our clients when they can!

• Early check-in and late checkout when available, which is worth its weight in gold on travel days. and when you’re splurging on a nice hotel.

• VIP recognition on property, so you’re flagged as a special guest before you ever walk through the door.

For example, a client of mine just stayed 4 nights at the Four Seasons Maui,

For the same nightly rate she would have paid on the hotel’s own website, but she checked in (early!) to a suite upgrade, complimentary breakfast for two every morning (which at FS Maui saves about $150 every day!), a $100 credit she spent on poolside cocktails, AND a bonus $125 per day credit that FS was offering my clients for her dates. Over $1500 in extras, not including what her upgrade would have cost, just for booking through me instead of direct.

Which hotels and brands are in the portal

A lot of them!!! The portal pulls from alllll of the luxury travel advisor programs I’m a part of, so you’ll find the big names and the under-the-radar gems, including:

• Four Seasons (Preferred Partner)

• Rosewood (Rosewood Elite)

• Belmond (Bellini Club)

• Hyatt luxury collection (Privé)

• Marriott luxury brands like Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and EDITION (STARS & Luminous)

• Hilton luxury brands like Waldorf Astoria and Conrad

• Virtuoso properties and boutique gems all over the world

• and so many more

My most booked this month? The Cooper Charleston, Four Seasons Maui, Belmond La Residencia, Hotel Santa Caterina Amalfi, Grand Hotel Tremezzo Lake Como

How easily it works

1. Head to the portal.

2. Enter the password: JETSETTERS. Bookmark the page ( you’ll be back! )

3. Search your hotel, destination, and dates.

4. Book. The perks are already attached to your reservation. And you’ll receive a confirmation right away.

no waiting on an emails back from anyone, no extra steps necessary, just 24/7 access to the BEST rates + perks.

When you should still come to me

The portal is perfect for a straightforward luxury hotel stay. But some trips you want a little more help - a full itinerary! Those are the ones we should work together on.

The honeymoon with four hotels in three countries, where you need flights, activities, transfers, the whole shebang. The big family trip where the villa, the cribs, the car seats, and the dinners all have to line up. The special event you want VIP access to (yes I book events, sports, etc as well!)

On trips like those, having a real advisor who is watching every detail is the difference between a hectic trip and a relaxing vacation.

That’s still very much a big part of our agency, and I’d love to help take your next trip’s planning & logistics off your plate!

So: portal for the quick, beautiful hotel stay with perks! Me for the full trip itinerary and planning.

Also, if you’re on the portal and you need help deciding between hotels, shoot me a message!!! I am always here to help.

A quick FAQ

Is it really the same price as booking direct? Yes, at LEAST! sometimes lower! The perks are free on top.

Do I get the perks at every hotel? The specific perks vary by property and program, but you’ll always see what’s included before you book. Breakfast and a $100 credit and a room upgrade are the most common.

What if the hotel I want isn’t in the portal? Reach out to me directly and I’ll check what I can do. My access goes beyond what’s loaded into the portal!!! I can always help you book a hotel.

Can I book flights and villas in there too? The portal is built around hotels right now, with more being added. For villas, flights, and complex itineraries, come straight to me. I can help!! I looove booking villas for groups and families.

I usually book through Amex FHR or my credit card’s travel portal - how is this different?

It’s similar! But we get you higher priority on the upgrade list than Amex or other credit card portals! And much more personalized service - I have personal relationships with the hotels, meaning you as my client are treated like family. We also use your CC to book, so you’ll always get the points and coverage of using your credit card.

Can I still get my loyalty points for the hotel?

YES! Always. Our perks stack on top of your loyalty points and perks. there is a place to put your hotel loyalty number when booking on the portal.

Is the password always the same? Always JETSETTERS. Bookmark the page, have your browser save the pw, so you never have to dig for it.

Let’s get you there.

If you want me to handle your next trip personally and give you the best tried-and-true travel recommendations while securing those VIP perks, complimentary breakfast, $100 resort credits, complimentary room upgrades when available, VIP recognition on property, and early or late checkout when available,

Fill out this inquiry form here and I’ll help you plan your trip, or you can go directly to my travel portal and see my exclusive travel advisor rates and book yourself with all of my perks included! The password is always JETSETTERS (save this page to your bookmarks for future trips!)

If you enjoyed this post, please click the like button at the bottom - it helps other people discover my content!

And consider sharing with a friend. You could also screenshot a favorite part and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag me, @jetsetchristina.

For more like this, follow me on Substack, on Instagram, or check out my blog, Jetset Christina

Sending you sunshine until next check in,

Christina

I love nothing more than being able to help my audience (and now travel agency clients) find the very best hotels for them, and their unique travel tastes. Because being a travel advisor is really like being a matchmaker - there are certain hotels for certain people, and sometimes the same incredible hotel won’t wow both people in the same way.

And let’s talk about that for a second. WOWing. Because THAT is what luxury travel is all about. The Wow factor.

These days, we are spending a LOT of money to travel, and we don’t want any part of the experience to feel standard, boring, or forgettable.

The hotels that wow you are the ones that stay with you. The ones you keep dreaming about, and the trips you can’t stop thinking about.

There are so many ways a hotel can wow you. The room… the lobby… the vibe… the view, of course. The welcome ritual (I love a good welcome drink!!!)… the service… (butler on text? yes please)… the personal touches!!! (One&Only Reethi Rah once sneakily found out the name of my baby’s stuffed animal he brought with him on the trip, and the next day monogrammed a tiny pillow with the stuffed animal’s name for the animal in my son’s crib… like are you kidding me?!).

The Rosewood Mayakoba carved HARRISON’S BEACH HOUSE huge into the sand for my son, Harrison, outside of our beachfront room.

The Ritz Paris always monograms your pillow with your initials, and if you ask what they do with the personalized pillowcases after your stay they’ll say “we save them for your next stay, Madame.”

A great hotel will always have a wow factor.

And one of the most important luxury hotel wow factors to me is something seemingly simple, but surprisingly rare. A full ice bucket.

To me, the ice bucket in my room is a symbol of the level of service I can expect to receive at a hotel.

Will it be the kind of hotel I have to wander down a hallway to get ice, filling up a too-tiny plastic bag like I’m at a Best Western?

Or will it be the type of hotel that I have to call down to the front desk to get ice, wait 45 minutes, and finally receive it?

Or will it be the elite, elusive, positively fantastic ultra-luxury hotel. The one that has the ice bucket filled prior to your arrival. A big, beautiful bucket of frozen ice waiting for you in the room, that they refill at every cleaning or turn down for you, without asking.

That’s the ice bucket check™.

It’s not expected, and it’s RARE!!! I will be honest with you that most hotels don’t do it. Yes even luxury hotels! (so don’t get your hopes up!)

But that’s what makes it so exciting when it happens.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. What do you even use the ice for?

For me, it’s usually used to chill a bottle of wine I either brought with me or got at the hotel. I love a sunset-toast-on-the-balcony moment while traveling, and need my wine so-ice-cold-it’s-crisp. Especially in a tropical spot!

We also may use it for water, ice cubes for soda, anything really.

But that’s the thing - it’s not really about what you use the ice for, or even that it’s used at all.

A full ice bucket is not a need to have, it’s a nice to have. And that’s exactly why the ice bucket being filled is a sign that you are in an elite hotel. Somewhere where service is not about the necessities, it’s about the extras.

I’m curious what your guys’ first things you look for in a hotel are! Comment them & let’s discuss!

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If you enjoyed this post, please click the like button at the bottom - it helps other people discover my content!

Or please consider sharing with a friend! You could also screenshot a favorite part and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag me, @jetsetchristina!

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Cheers!! xx, Christina

And, as alluring as all of the above was, there was something about St. Barths that just seemed… unapproachable.

While I HAVE been ranked on Substack’s top rising travel writers (twice), I am no Alix Earle. And while I do love champagne, AND caviar, I do not have a private jet, and do not want to spend $20K at lunch. Alas, St. Barths took a back seat on my travel bucket list, filed away as the type of place billionaires go, somewhere maybe one day I’d end up on a yacht.

Then, I visited.

And realized I was completely wrong about this island all along.

Isn’t that the beauty of travel? We can have an idea of a place in our mind. Maybe we’ve seen it on instagram a thousand times, a friend has told us her stories, or we’ve watched it on TV or in a movie. And we assume through all of these outside sources we know what a place is like, and yet, we don’t know it at all. Until we go.

Until we feel it for ourselves.

Notice how I didn’t say see it? A trip to me isn’t about where I go, it’s about how I feel when I’m there.

So, let me describe to you how St. Barth feels when you’re there.

It feels chic! but chill.

It feels upscale. But beautifully, elegantly understated.

It feels like you’re in on a secret. You know the gem that is St. Barths. You got here, to this little luxurious island in the middle of the Caribbean that you have to either yacht or take a teeny tiny plane to. It’s not easy to get there. and that’s exactly how people like it.

It feels French. And Caribbean. All at once.

Think: the beauty and glam of a European beach club, mixed with the chill reggae vibe of a Caribbean beach bar.

It feels charming. Quaint.

It feels expensive. But not exaggeratingly so.

It feels surprisingly family friendly.

It feels lowkey and luxe.

And special. Really, really special.

We started our trip in St. Barths in a villa, and spent the second half of the week in the Rosewood Le Guanahani. Throughout the week, we also checked out a ton of the other hotels on the island (there are a lot of beautiful ones, but they are all boutique and small! The largest is the Rosewood at 66 rooms! Crazy!) and I’m excited to share all of our thoughts with you.

Sometimes, with check-in’s like these, I like to keep it to paid subscribers only so I can get really honest and unfiltered with you guys, so let’s get into it!!!!!

WHERE WE STAYED IN ST. BARTHS (and what we thought!)

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Why is that?

I think it’s because travel has become simultaneously more accessible than ever, more expensive than ever, and harder to navigate than ever (hello, information overload!!!! (see my substack on how travel has gotten harder than ever to plan - and what to do about it).

So, while we all know the value of traveling, with our partners, with our loved ones, and with our families (seriously, I’m not myself when I don’t have our next trip booked!), is it just me or is there is kind of an unprecedented amount of pressure on traveling now?

I mean, when you’re spending what we all spend on travel, there is so much expectation for it to be absolutely incredible, in every way. It has to be 12/10.

So, you don’t want to pick the wrong destination, the wrong hotel, the wrong room category. You don’t want to mis-step.

It’s kind of like when I don’t want to start a TV show unless I know I’m going to love it… because otherwise it feels like a waste of time. So I spend forever deciding what to watch — only to end up putting on Friends again because I can’t decide.

It’s a little like that… if my HBOMax subscription cost me $20K.

My point is that you’re not alone in feeling like, I just want to go SOMEWHERE, but I don’t know where!!!

The world is our oyster, for better or for worse! There are TOO many beautiful places to go — that would all be absolutely wonderful for this summer, but it’s just too many decisions to make.

So that’s where I come in. Let’s simplify.

Here are 10 summer itineraries I’ve booked recently for my luxury-travel-loving clients, many who are young families with little ones in tow, and some honeymoons & anniversary getaways as well!

If you want to book any of the below, send me an email to Concierge@JetsetChristina.com with the dates and trip you have in mind!

I book hotels for my clients for FREE and get you VIP Jetset Perks at the best hotels around the world, including preferred rates, complimentary breakfasts daily, $100 resort credits, early check-ins/late check outs and priority room upgrades!! (upon availability!) I also offer optional full itinerary planning to take all of the planning + logistics off your plate! Shoot me an email and we can chat more.

WHERE TO TRAVEL IN EUROPE THIS SUMMER:

LAKE COMO + VENICE (optional: add in the Dolomites!)

If you’ve always dreamed of a summer in Lake Como, this is the year to do it. There is something about this place that gets into your soul and never fully leaves.

The crown jewel of the Lago di Como is Passalacqua - which is an absolute dream and honestly one of the best hotels in the world. Other favorites are Grand Hotel Tremezzo and Villa d’Este, both iconic, both stunning, both expensive, but a next-level hotel experience you’ll remember forever.

In Venice, there is a new Four Seasons that took over the Danieli hotel (where, fun fact, my grandmother celebrated her 21st birthday - travel has been in my blood forever!), there’s a to-die-for, there’s the Belmond Gritti Palace, an Aman Venice, and there are cute boutique options as well to save on budget.

In the Dolomites, COMO Alpina Dolomites, Forestis, or Aman Rosa Alpina is the move

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$20K+ for one week

MALLORCA

If you’re looking for that perfect blend of sunshine, stunning scenery, and a hotel that genuinely works for the whole family - Mallorca is your answer. My favorite property here is Belmond La Residencia in Deià, a gorgeous hillside village that feels like a world of its own. This is one of those rare hotels that’s equally magical for adults and kids of literally any age. The setting is breathtaking, the service is exceptional, and it just has this effortless, unhurried energy that makes you feel like you’ve completely escaped.

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$13K+ for one week

SOUTH OF FRANCE

Airelles St. Tropez is the hottest hotel in Europe right now (esp since it’s going to be the new season of White Lotus) and the room rates are astronomical at the Chateau, a 19th century castle that is absolutely stunning. But want to know my hack?

Airelles has a sister property, Pan Dei Palais, also in St. Tropez, more in town, where you get access to everything at the Chateau ! including their absolutely unreal Kids Club, but at a slightly lower price point. Same magic and 5-star service, but a little less per night than the chateau.

Booking with me includes these perks:

• Gourmet breakfast

• Sweet and savoury minibar

• Packing and unpacking service

• Laundry service for selected items, up to 10 items per day

• Access to the Château de la Messardière Spa, Pools & Kids Club

• Sun lounger and parasol reservation at the Jardin Tropezina beach club

• A selection of poolside refreshments (non-alcoholic)

• Electric bikes

• Parking, valet service & shuttle to the Chateau

• Mini Moke for exploring the village and private beach, Jardin Tropezina

Four Seasons Cap Ferrat - The Hamptons of France

If the South of France had a best-kept secret, it would be Cap Ferrat - a gorgeous, exclusive peninsula tucked between Nice and Monaco that feels relaxed, yet glamorous in a very low-key way. It’s where the in-the-know go when they want the effortlessly chic, not flashy, version of Côte d’Azur.

I just planned a beautiful family trip for a client to the Four Seasons Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat and it’s the type of trip where the kids are happy AND the parents are relaxed. The pools are stunning, the beach club is perfection, and the service is that effortless Four Seasons level that just makes everything feel easy.

It’s expensive, for sure, but it’s also one of those hotels that you check into and immediately understand why. Some places just justify themselves the moment you arrive, and this is one of them.

Booking with me gets you:

• Daily breakfast for two
  (and at Four Seasons, this often includes in-room dining breakfast - yes please)

• $100 hotel credit
  (or ~$200 for suites - can typically be used flexibly across spa, dining, etc.)

• Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
  (we get you top priority for upgrades vs Amex Fine Hotels or other booking channels)

• VIP status + personalized welcome amenity

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$25K+ for one week

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AMALFI COAST — for the honeymoon or anni trip, but also for families!

Few places on earth set the scene for a honeymoon quite like the Amalfi Coast. The cliffside villages, the azure blue water, the fresh pasta and local wines - it’s almost too good to be true. Stay in a dreamy hotel perched above Amalfi, take a private boat out for the day, and lean into “La Dolce Vita”. You’ll come back a changed person.

Where I’d Stay: Hotel Santa Caterina in Amalfi, Hotel San Pietro in Positano, Belmond Caruso in Ravello, or off-the-beaten-path in Ischia for families! (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$10-30K+ for one week, depending on level of hotels

GREECE

Paros is the most family-friendly of the Greek islands - and genuinely one of the best. Santorini is absolutely bucket list, but it’s not where I’d head with toddlers or younger families.

I recently put together the most incredible mother-daughter trip itinerary (the daughter just turned 22 and graduated college) hitting Athens, Santorini, and Paros. An absolute dream of a summer itinerary for anyone ready for a proper bucket list moment.

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$15K+ for one week

AMALFI COAST + FLORENCE (or ROME) + TUSCANY COUNTRYSIDE

The Italian Dream Itinerary

Can’t choose between the coast and the countryside? Don’t. This is the itinerary I’ve been putting together for clients who want the full Italian summer experience and it is chef’s kiss from start to finish.

Start on the Amalfi Coast, we can work together to decide where is best for you, from Ravello to Amalfi to Positano to Ischia (the lesser-known, more laid-back island just off the coast that locals have been quietly keeping to themselves for years!) Then train up to Florence for a night or two for a city moment, and finish in Tuscany at a dreamy, intimate estate in the rolling hills that feels like you’ve been invited to stay at the most beautiful private home in Italy. Think: rolling vineyards, farm-to-table dining, slow travel.

This is the itinerary that ruins all other trips. You’ve been warned!!

Where I’d Stay: Hotel Santa Caterina in Amalfi, Hotel San Pietro in Positano, Belmond Caruso in Ravello, Mezzatore or San Montano in Ischia! Borgo Pignano in Tuscany or Hotel Il Pelicano (adults only) (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$25K+ for 10-12 days

PORTOFINO

Luxe, Exclusive, and Off-the-Beaten-Track Perfect as a couple, or with a baby

Portofino is a tiny, impossibly charming Italian fishing village that somehow became one of the most exclusive destinations in the world. No big resort strips, no tourist chaos! just colorful harbor-front buildings, crystal clear water, world-class dining, and a sense that you’ve stumbled onto something most people don’t know about. Which is exactly the point.

The hotel here is Belmond Splendido and there is simply nothing else like it. Perched above the harbor with views that will genuinely stop you in your tracks, it’s the kind of place that feels like a movie set, except it’s real and you get to live in it for a few days. As a couple, it’s pure romance. Slow mornings, private boat days, sunset aperitivo with that view. It doesn’t get better than this.

And if you happen to be traveling with a baby? Hear me out - this place is a pro move. The service is so attentive and the setting so serene that somehow, it all comes together even on four hours of sleep. Treat yourself ! you’re keeping a tiny human alive. You deserve this place.

Budget for luxury hotels in Portofino: ~$20K+ for one week (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

CAPRI

for couples

Capri is an absolute dream. It’s the kind of place that feels like it was invented for people who love beautiful things. The beach clubs, the boat days, the piazzas, the gelato, the designer boutiques along the Via Camerelle, the fresh lemon everything, the views from the top of Monte Solaro. There’s nowhere quite like it. Go for a few nights as part of a larger Italy itinerary or make it the whole trip! Either way, Capri is incredible.

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$15K-20K+ for one week (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

PORTUGAL

Portugal is having a major moment - and for good reason. It’s stunning, incredibly livable, and still feels a little under the radar (and less expensive) compared to its Mediterranean neighbors. Porto is endlessly charming, Comporta is low-key and relaxed, the Algarve Coast is pure beauty, and the Douro Valley is one of the most scenic wine countries in the world.

Where I’d stay: Six Senses Douro Valley, Hotel Bela Vista in the Algarve, Sublime Comporta (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$10K+ for one week

READ MORE: THE JETSET GUIDE TO PORTUGAL

SARDINIA

Sardinia is one of my absolute favorite places in the world! I went on my own honeymoon and loved it so much I went back with family last summer - it was a dream both times. It's one of those destinations that is really hard to describe until you've been. It’s low-key. It’s warm. It’s effortlessly luxe. The water is genuinely Caribbean-level turquoise but with this wild, dramatic Italian coastline and all the pasta and wine to go with it 😍 The Costa Smeralda is where the European jet-set comes back to every summer, and for good reason. But what I love most is that it's actually not glitzy or showy at all. People don't come here to be seen, they come here to get away and have the most incredible time with the people they love. It's naturally beautiful, understated, and totally magical. July is absolutely peak season there for a reason, and the hotels have gotten VERY expensive (mainly because there are not many that are beachfront) but the weather is perfection, the sea is warm, and the long golden days feel endless.

Where to stay: Ultimate splurge is the Belmond Romazzino, or Aethos for low-key luxe (not on the beach, but still wonderful, and in really quaint town with walkable restaurants. Great to stay here if you spend your days on the water or beach-hopping). Also Abi d’Oru is on the beach and a more budget-friendly alternative to Romazzino! (reach out before you book any of these since I can get you perks!)

PARIS + SOUTH OF FRANCE

This is the classic European summer itinerary for a reason — and it never, ever gets old. Start in Paris for a few days of culture, art, markets, impossibly good pastries, and walking until your legs hurt. Then head south to the French Riviera for sunshine, rosé, and Mediterranean magic. Sophisticated, romantic, works for families and couples alike. France is the kind of trip that reminds you why you love to travel in the first place.

Where I’d stay in Paris: Ritz Paris, George V, Le Bristol, Cheval Blanc
Where I’d stay in the Riviera: Airelles, FS Cap Ferrat, Cheval Blanc, La Réserve Ramatuelle (Reach out to me before booking - I get the best rate + free VIP perks at all of the above!)

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$20K+ for one week

THE NEW FOUR SEASONS YACHT ITINERARIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Because why choose one destination when you can have them all?

Okay, this one is one of the most exciting things happening in luxury travel right now and I am so excited about it.

Four Seasons I is the brand new, just-launched yacht and it is exactly what you’d expect from the FS brand, only 95 all-suite staterooms on a mega, ultra-chic yacht, a 1:1 guest-to-staff ratio, 11 restaurants and lounges, etc!

It’s a floating Four Seasons!

For the Med this summer, itineraries include ports like Saint-Tropez, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Capri, Positano, and Palma de Mallorca, as well as lesser-known gems that most travelers never get to see. You can do the Greek Isles, Croatia, the Italian coast, the French Riviera, or a Grand Mediterranean itinerary that hits multiple regions in one trip.

And the best part? (for moms like me)! kids of all ages are welcome on board.

If this is on your radar, reach out to me sooner rather than later (I get preferred perks and rates). There is a lot of demand and availability is already limited - but there are still some amazing options avail for summer!

Budget: ~$28K+ and up per suite for one week

also, I’m going to throw ONE last (non-Europe) option in here to consider for this Summer, because we LOVED it when we went as a family last summer….

BERMUDA

The Hawaii of the East Coast (and so much closer!)

Here’s the thing about Bermuda that most people don’t realize: it is not the Caribbean. It’s actually in the Atlantic Ocean, just about 650 miles off the coast of North Carolina — which means it’s a two-hour flight from the East Coast, has far less humidity than most Caribbean (or my home in Charleston!), making it a perfect summer Atlantic island destination.

Pink sand beaches, turquoise water, British colonial charm, incredible resorts, world-class snorkeling, pastel villages, Bermuda genuinely feels like another world.

My top hotel pick is Rosewood Bermuda - traditional, luxurious, and the beach club is everything.

Best time to go: May through October for beach days and sunshine.

Budget for luxury hotels: ~$10K+ for one week

Still can’t decide on where to go this summer? Comment your thoughts below and our very well-traveled community of Jetsetters might be able to help! Or send me a message!!

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I’m not going to lie, living here is like having a cheat code for life. It’s one of those cities that truly has it all. The beach vibes, the downtown city vibes. The character everywhere you look. It’s elegant without being stuffy, deeply food-obsessed, and somehow both slow and buzzy at the same time. Living here is like living on a permanent vacation in many ways. And visiting here is just as fun.

This guide pulls straight from all of the locals I trust the most, so consider it your holy grail for the BEST of the BEST Charleston recs! What you can’t miss (and what’s overrated!)

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We traveled there with our two toddlers (3 1/2 years old and 1 1/2 years old - which, BTW, I would argue is THE hardest age to travel) She was in my lap. He was in his own seat. My husband and I questioned all of our life choices about seven times on the way there.

And when we arrived, we expected to feel a calm zen of relief,

instead, we felt….. jet lag.

Like, extreeeeeme jet lag (worse than we’ve ever been).

We traveled 12 time zones away, which meant that all of our bodies thought it was the exact opposite time of day (4AM was 4PM, you get the picture).

So when everyone was wide awake for the day at 1am the first night, my husband Kenny and I looked at each other like, ‘why do we do this to ourselves?’

Staying home would have been easier. Keeping our two toddlers in their routine would have been easier.

But then, early that first morning, somewhere on the other side of the world, we saw this insane sun rise together over these majestic, otherworldly Thai rock formations that you seriously have to see to believe.

and I was overcome with gratitude. How lucky are we to be able to see the world - together!? It was like a little sign from the universe that *this* is why we do this.

Not because it’s easy, because it’s worth it.

Slowly but surely, our bodies relaxed and surrendered to this new, foreign world as the jet lag faded, and that familiar, buzzing, revitalizing electricity that travel always seems to have a way of gifting us came rushing back, like straight dopamine to my soul.

We spent 10 days making incredible memories that I couldn’t have even dreamed up, twelve time zones away from home.

It was not easy.

But we don’t travel because it’s easy. We travel because we only get one life…

one chance.

Someday, they won’t be small enough to cuddle on an airplane seat with me.

They won’t fall asleep jet-lagged in my arms.

Someday they won’t teach locals their favorite dinosaurs, order piña coladas at breakfast, or look at the world with big eyes, like it’s all brand new.

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Someday, it will be easier. But today, it’s magic.

And I loved every second of our trip. Even the travel days.

I don’t think that it’s crazy to want to see the world with your little ones.

I do think it’s crazy that so many people are scared to.

Like, we have this whole WORLD at our fingertips. More than ever before. Flights, travel, all of it has all never been easier. Destinations and hotels are more family-friendly than they’ve ever been. Baby and childrens’ brands are creating more and more gadgets and gear to make travel easier and more smooth for families. You could hop on a flight to Italy, Hawaii, Thailand, Japan, Bora Bora tomorrow if you wanted to, and, trust me, you’d have a great time.

But we don’t.

We freeze. We stall. We tell ourselves “that’s not realistic”. and then we go pick up 50 toys off the floor and unload the dishwasher again.

We tell ourselves “maybe in a few years”, and “maybe when they’re older”

But we’re gambling with a future that isn’t promised, a timeline that keeps getting blurrier, and children that keep getting bigger… faster than any parent can keep up with.

And here’s what I’ve learned:

There is no magical age when travel suddenly becomes simple.

In fact, it gets more and more complicated. (in a few years, they’ll have nonstop school, sports, activities, & will be begging to spend time with friends, not family)

There is no season of life that will feel quiet enough, when work will feel slow enough, when the house will feel finished. The schedule will always be packed, and money will always feel tight.

But go anyway.

Go because this world is a gift. Your family is a gift. This precious moment in time together is a gift.

And while yes, we can make memories together at home, too. We all know it’s not the same.

Travel has a way of making you come alive. It stretches you. It challenges you. It bonds you as a family in ways that routine never will.`

If you wait for “easy,” you will wait forever.

So, go.

Not because it’s easy.

But because it’s worth it.

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If you’re new here, hi! I’m Christina, @JetsetChristina on instagram, I’m a luxury travel advisor and blogger and I help families see the world beautifully, confidently, and without waiting for “someday.” For tips on traveling with toddlers, follow me on instagram and check out the blog! And for tips on managing time zones and sleep on vacation with toddlers, this post is your go-to.

If you enjoyed this post, please click the like button at the bottom - it helps other people discover my content!

For more like this, follow me on Substack, on Instagram, or check out my blog, Jetset Christina

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It’s not that I ever disliked being home, I loved that, too, but vacation…. vacation was where I came ALIVE. Even as a kid. And still to this day.

I know not everyone feels this .- some of us are bitten by the travel bug, and some of us just aren’t. But I also feel that somewhere along the way, we’re taught to wait. For more time. More money. More certainty. But travel taught me young that the world doesn’t open itself up to the people who wait. And you don’t grow inside of your comfort zone.

In college, while most of my friends could never imagine spending a semester away from campus, I boarded Semester at Sea, joining 500 students I didn’t know on an adventure around the globe. We attended classes while on board, and while in port, we had around 8 days to explore a new country. During those days, we wouldn’t have classes, but would instead be tasked with learning from the greatest teacher there is - the world.

There was something about leaving the familiar that woke something up in me. And honestly shaped my entire life (after all, I started my very first blog on that ship, a very very 2000’s feeling little blog called “Christina Seas the World” - with HTML I coded myself in 2010 - way before there was Substack!) and went on to turn travel blogging into my entire career, something I’m still doing, and loving, 15 years later!)

At the end of the semester, I wrote down lessons I learned from the experience, so I wouldn’t forget the feelings that I had at that moment.

I found that journal again recently and couldn’t believe how many of those lessons still ring true after sixteen years and more trips than I can count. So today, I’m sharing them with you all! The things travel has taught me, and continues to teach me, and the lessons I hope to gift my children through our adventures around the world.

1. Never let your age get larger than the number of countries you’ve seen.

One of my professors on Semester at Sea lived by this motto as a reminder to keep exploring throughout your life. To stay curious. There is always another place waiting to surprise you. How many are you guys at?

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2. Meet people wherever you go. Be a traveler, not a tourist.

Talk to the woman behind the counter. Ask the taxi driver where he eats. (Instead of relying on ChatGPT’s horrendous travel itineraries). Sit next to the couple speaking another language and chat with them. These small, friendly interactions can completely shape our experience of a new place, and of new people.
The world opens up when you do.

I think we can take this lesson to our lives at home, as well. I heard in a podcast recently that small talk interactions with neighbors, checkout people, salespeople, etc makes us happier! There’s research behind this, but honestly, you feel it without needing the data. Brief, ordinary interactions - the kind we’re all too often tempted to rush past - are linked to greater happiness and a deeper sense of social belonging. Exchanging a few words with a stranger can quietly shift the way a day feels to us, and adds so much to our lives.

3. Trust the good in people.

Even in places that might intimidate you, you’ll be shocked by the kindness of strangers. Some of the best memories of my life came from moments when someone helped me in a way they didn’t have to. I’m still reminded of this lesson every day when I’m not traveling- to assume the good in others, other cultures, and other worlds we know nothing about, and not think of the world as a scary place.

4. Spend your money when you’re traveling. Really.

When you’re on vacation, buy everything you want to, eat everything you want to, drink (almost) everything you want to! This may be your only chance to get everything you possibly can from this new place, so make the most of it! I’ve never regretted buying something on vacation, or splurging for the nicer hotel, or for a memorable meal. But I do regret not buying more art and little things for our home on trips we’ve been on! I always feel like my bags are already too packed, but I treasure the art and souvenirs that I have decorated our house with, they remind me of each trip and make our home feel like us!

5. Learn the language (even a little)

A simple “hello,” “thank you,” or “this is delicious!” in the native language can change everything. It breaks the ice, opens doors, and shows respect for the locals.
Even if your accent is terrible, people will love your effort!

6. Get lost. And love it.

The best stories don’t come from following the itinerary to a T. The most amazing times traveling come from when you have no idea where you’re going and you fully step outside of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to get lost!!!!

7. Do things even when you’re tired - you won’t get another chance.

Travel teaches us to be a yes person. A lot of times, “no” people will question themselves when faced with opportunities while traveling (‘what if I don’t like it?’, ‘what if I’m not good at it?’, ‘I’ve never done that before, that’s scary!’), as opposed to opening themselves up to incredible opportunities, be it meeting a new friend, trying a new food, taking advantage of a local’s offer to host them for dinner, or experiencing something new.

When we say yes, both in traveling, and in life, we open ourselves up to possibilities we can’t even imagine.

And isn’t that what traveling is all about?

8. Travel with great friends, or someone you love

Who you travel with matters as much as where you go.
Choose your travel partners wisely! the people who make you laugh, the people who make it easy, and who make even the travel delays feel fun and just another part of the story.

Over the years, I’ve traveled with friends, with my husband, and with other couples and other families with us as well!!! I love finding travel partners who are relaxed, and game. Like they’re game for a chill day, or their game for a wild and adventurous one, they’re just GAME. for whatever adventures the trip brings. or they’re also happy to just sit back with a few margaritas and relax. I think people who naturally go with the flow make the best travel companions, because that’s how we are. I think you need to find travel companions who match with your travel style - and when you do, traveling with others makes it all even more special and memorable.

9. Keep your feet on the ground. Literally.

While it’s tempting to hop in an uber as soon as you get to a new destination, my Semester at Sea professors always inspired us to “keep your feet on the ground”. Walk the city, jog through the streets in the morning, stroll until you find that perfect coffee shop, go out of your way to explore things off the beaten track. I promise you that you’ll see so much more than you would in a car or a taxi.

10. Smile. Always. It’s universal.

A smile is the same in every language.
Plus when you’re traveling, what is there not to smile about?

11. Be grateful. Deeply, humbly grateful.

Travel is a privilege. The world is a vast, vibrant, and oh-so-breathtakingly beautiful, but not everyone gets the chance to see it.

Traveling is expensive, you have to have the ability take time away from work, school, the realities of everyday life, and it’s just not always possible. When you spend time abroad, this gratitude comes at you like a ton of bricks, and it’s hard not to feel a little bit guilty for the luxury that is experiencing the world when most people in Southeast Asia have never seen the snow, and many people in Africa have never even seen the beach. Whether you’re able to travel somewhere fun for just the weekend, or take time off to travel internationally, it’s important to be incredibly grateful for every chance we have to see this beautiful world.

And a few more that I’d add now, as a mother, that I hope my children learn through our travels

Your comfort zone is wildly overrated.

Growth doesn’t come from easy. Extraordinary doesn’t come from ordinary.
Travel nudges you into situations that feel new, strange, exhilarating, fun, and those become the stories you will tell forever.

Travel isn’t about escaping - it’s about connecting with yourself (and with your loved ones)

You don’t travel to run away from ‘real life’. You travel to run towards curiosity, connection, and the best version of yourself, so that you can show up to your ‘real life’ a more whole person. Travel reminds you how to live intentionally. Fully.

Flexibility is your superpower.

Traveling with kids teaches you - and your children - loooots of flexibility, and the ability to adapt to bumps in the road. I think this is one of the most powerful superpowers in life, and something I hope they carry with them forever.

At the end of the day, travel doesn’t teach us how to go places, it teaches us how to live. I don’t think we travel to escape real life. I think we travel to return to it better. More whole. More present. More alive. More us.

My hope is that we all keep traveling, and keep choosing that awake version of life, even when it feels hard or uncomfortable or new.

Did any of these lessons resonate with you? I’d love to hear which one!

Leave a comment

Until next Check-in,

Christina

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We’ve been hosting dinner parties like this a few times a year - intimate, with a few couples and their kids - and as the littles were roaming around the house with their noisemakers and the adults were lingering cozily long after dinner at the dining room table over cookies and wine, I found myself thinking: I need to host more in 2026.

As a kid, I remember New Years dinner parties my parents would take us to and it was always so much fun. The little noisemakers! The headbands that say the year, the balloons! It’s a kid dream! As a child, being invited to our parents friends dinner parties or our own house parties always felt like being invited into something special. Whether it was a holiday or just a Saturday night.

Getting to recreate that feeling for my own kids, with friends we love, is so fun. And the cutest part? My 3 and a half year old now LOVES to throw a party. He literally gets SO excited every time we host, wants to know who is coming over, the whole plan, and he ruuuuuns around the house with the zoomies before they walk through the door.

Every time we host people at our house, I feel like it feeds my soul. There’s something so nice about gathering together in each others’ homes, connecting beyond the surface level, while our kids run wild underfoot.

And, honestly, I think we’ve lost some of that magic as a society.

Hosting has started to feel intimidating. Like our houses have to be perfect. Big. Pinterest-worthy. Like our kids have to behave flawlessly. And I think that pressure for perfection has quietly stopped a lot of people from inviting anyone over at all.

But here’s the truth: no one cares if your house is perfect.

I personally love a lived-in home that you can feel the LOVE and the warmth of from the moment you walk in. My house is not big, usually a mess, with 2 toddlers wreaking havoc everywhere. Our living room has turned into their playroom and their toys are everywhere. Chaos, constantly. And you know what? It’s magical.

Last night there were six kids running around, playing with everything, jumping into the ball pit, while we parents clinked champagne glasses, ate good food, and talked about real things. The house felt alive!!

There’s been a lot written lately about how isolated we’ve become as a society.

The Atlantic wrote in an article last January aptly titled Americans Need to Party More, that “Many Americans are alone, friendless, isolated, undersexed, sick of online dating, glued to their couches, and transfixed by their phones, their mouths starting to close over from lack of use. Our national loneliness is an “urgent public health issue,” according to the surgeon general. The time we spend socializing in person has plummeted in the past decade, and anxiety and hopelessness have increased.”

Inc recently reported that the time Americans spend at parties is down 50 percent, and young people, who are even more averse to in-person gathering, are spending 70 percent less time at parties than they did just two decades ago. This is terrible for our happiness, health, relationships and careers.

At Christmas dinner last week I was chatting with my cousin, who is in high school. I asked her about what she does for fun with her friends, expecting her to tell me about hanging out at friends house parties and in their basements, driving around in their cars with the sun roofs down, and roaming around the town together like we used to do. The picture she painted was so different than the age of adolescence I nostalgically remember. They don’t do much. They share videos. They play on their phones. They’re around each other, but they’re not connecting with each other.

I asked about school dances. My sister-in-law, who’s a high school teacher, chimed in and said they barely exist anymore. No themed dances. No fun excuses to get dressed up and mingle with friends. Just two a year - homecoming and prom, and even those are more like a carnival than a dance.

That broke my heart a little! Because what are we modeling for our kids if we don’t host and gather together more? If we don’t invite people in to our homes and, thus, our lives? If connection only happens through screens? If we’re spending more time consuming other people’s lives we’ve never met online than we are showing up for the people in our own, real, everyday worlds?

Anyway, back to adults, who, in my opinion have a responsibility to model socialization for our children (as well as our own well being).

There’s a poem, If I Had My Life To Live Over, by Erma Bombeck, where she writes “I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, the sofa faded.”

A great party is not about the size of your house, or even about the food you serve! The most important part of any dinner party is the energy and connection around the table. And when we host that energy generously in our homes, we bring ourselves closer together with our friends and family, and we model those wonderful relationships for our children, who are watching as well.

So what should we do?

Have a party!!!!! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be big. Your house CERTAINLY does not have to be perfect, and you can order takeout if you don’t want to cook. Open a good bottle of wine (yes, that one you’ve been saving for a “special occasion” because life is a special occasion). Let the kids be kids. Let the house get messy. Let time together be the focus. Invite people into your space, new friends and old, and in doing so, open up your world up to more people, more connections, and more fun!!!

Here are some fun ideas I have for the New Year (that you can steal)

Wine Club - I’m going to start a monthly ‘wine club’ with my girlfriends where we wine taste a different region of wine and learn about the wine each month! We’ll switch off hosting at each others houses, and of course, catch up on everything. I personally like this idea better than a book club, simply because it’s no pressure and right now I do not have time to read a a book a month with 2 toddlers, but mama could definitely use a girls night with friends!

Book Club - However, if you do love books, start a book club!! Ask a few friends if they’d be interested, and just get it started!!!!

Supper Club - I love the idea of hosting a ‘supper club’ with a few couples that you get along really well with, and make it a monthly date (or bi-monthly, or quarterly) and switch off hosting at each others houses. Every time you do it, one couple invites another couple outside of the core ‘group’ and that way it’s a fun way to meet new people!

Game night - I have been wanting to host a game night for awhile now!! and of course, life keeps getting in the way! But there’s something so fun about a game night - getting friends in their competitive spirits, just good old-fashioned-fun!!! Game ideas you could do: Charades (classic for a reason), Codenames, Mahjong, Poker, Heads Up, Liars Dice (a favorite of ours!)

Cookbook club - Get together a group of girlfriends and all go in on trying new cookbook recipes every gathering. Share the recipes, and have fun with it!

None of this has to be big. Or perfect. Or Instagrammable.

It just has to be fun!!!!

So maybe this year, instead of waiting for the right moment, the bigger house, the right time of life, we just start. We invite people over even when the house is messy and the kids are wild and the menu is simple. We let connection matter more than perfection.

Let’s push the kids bedtimes. Let’s stain the tablecloths with red wine, let’s break a few glasses, let’s accidentally burn the dinner because we were too busy chatting. And let’s laugh about it all. Because hosting is not about putting on a performance for your friends, it’s about having fun with them!

And the nights we all will remember the most when we look back at this beautiful era of life aren’t the routine ones, or the perfectly polished ones. They’re the ones where our house was full, the laughter was loud, and everyone was beaming with good energy. So here’s to more of THAT this year!!

xx,

Christina

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My children are 3 and 1, it was not an easy year at all for us. It was a busy, stressful, challenging, all-hands-on-deck kind of year. Chasing dreams, chasing toddlers. You know the drill. My oldest starting school for the first time. Birthday parties every weekend. New social circles. Business ups and downs. It was a year spent trying to swim towards the future, dive deeply into the present, and stay afloat all at once. It was a lot.

And yet, it was so beautiful. We had so many incredible moments, at home, and around the world. We traveled — with toddlers bouncing around in their wild ages of 1 and 3 — which, yes, was crazy. But is SO worth it. Travel is always is my highlight of each year. When we travel, it’s our time out of our everyday normal routines, our time to focus on each other, to really be present in the moment. And our memories traveling are always the memories I always hold onto the dearest.

So let’s chat about the places we went this year, and maybe it will help inspire your own trips for 2026!

The British Virgin Islands

We kicked off 2025 in the BVI’s last January and WOW was it a trip to remember. I want to go back to the British Virgin Islands every year - I think they’re my happy place. We started in a hotel, celebrating 10 years of Kenny Flowers with 30 of our top customers (turned friends!), and it was like a destination wedding for our business - it was a BLAST. We then went on a sailboat with our family, my parents and 2 of our best friends who came without their kids to join the charter. It was MAGICAL. Every day on that boat was like waking up in a dream. We had an incredible chef and captain staff hopping us from island to island and we even got to swim with dolphins in the WILD which has been a dream of mine my entire life.

It was my second time sailing the BVI’s and I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you want to read more about our trip here’s my post all about it, the boat we were on, etc!

If you’re hesitant to be on a boat, but still want the full BVI’s experience, there are some amaaaazing hotels as well to choose from like Rosewood Little Dix Bay. shoot me an email to Concierge@jetsetchristina.com and I can help book you with free VIP perks (like room upgrades, free breakfast, $100 resort credit, late check out etc!)

Anguilla

Our next trip down to the Caribbean was back to an island we have fallen in LOVE with - Anguilla. Anguilla perfects that ideal island mix of exclusive and serene, with beauuuutiful luxury resorts, incredible food, and a vibe that’s equal parts luxe and family-friendly, too! We love it here. We stayed at Malliouhana and Belmond Cap Juluca (I love both for different reasons, and compare and rank them with FS Anguilla in this post here) and had the BEST time!!!

San Diego

We spent a week in San Diego this year visiting family (both Kenny’s mom and my mom grew up in San Diego so we both have grandparents and family there still and we get try to get back a lot! We LOVED spending the week here working a bit from San Diego, visiting family, and doing lots of toddler-friendly activities. We based half in La Jolla, half in Del Mar, and we went to the zoo, the wild animal safari park, visited the seals in La Jolla, walked the towns, and had such a great time.

Bermuda

When both my husband and I look back on our year, we both think Bermuda was our favorite trip. It wasn’t the furthest, or the most exotic, it was just the easiest. And therefore the most relaxed. There is a new 2 hour direct flight from Charleston to Bermuda, and the idea that we could take a direct flight 2 hours with our toddlers to get to a GORGEOUS beach destination, was incredible to us. We’re used to long travel days and multiple stops on flights, not an easy 2 hour direct!!!!

We planned this trip with almost no notice. We were just craving a sunny getaway and decided to go for it. (Highly recommend a spontaneous sunny getaway!!!!!) We were even able to bring our nanny along for half of this trip, which made it even easier on us and more relaxing, too.

We were SO impressed by the whole island, from the hotels to the food to the BEACHES!!!!!! And can’t recommend this destination highly enough. Just look to book between May-September, because it’s an Atlantic destination, not a Caribbean destination, meaning it gets cold when the east coast gets cold! But it’s a perfect summer getaway from the East Coast, since their heat is sunny and dry and not humid like the Southeast where we live (where summers can be brutal!)

For my Bermuda guide, and where we stayed, check out this post here

Sardinia

This was another one of my favorite trips of 2025. Sardinia is just perfect to me.

Crystal-clear azure blue water. Boat days spent beach hopping around islands and eating fresh pasta at sea. Luxury resorts that take your breath away. Wine tasting at local wineries. A warm, countryside coastal vibe that makes you feel at home.
Sardinia is my heaven!!!!!!

for my guide to Sardinia and all my best recommendations, head to this post here

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Lake Maggiore

After Sardinia, we headed to the Italian lakes and checked out a new destination for us - Lake Maggiore. Friends of ours were renting a house here so we decided to come meet them. Lake Maggiore combines the old-world charm of Lake Como with fewer crowds, historic villas, botanical gardens, and laid-back luxury. It’s unfussy, and feels like you’re in on a little secret. We spent our days boating to the Borromean Islands, exploring cobblestone villages, jumping in the lake, and soaking up long aperitivo hours with mountain views. We stayed at a DREAMY hotel that was straight out of old world Italy.

Bali

We returned to one of our home away from homes, Bali, this year, for the first time with two children and it was a very special trip!!! We bopped around the island from a villa in Ubud, to the Ritz-Carlton Mandapa (insanely amazing hotel!!!!) to Uluwatu for some beach time. We worked, we played, and we even had our chakras balanced by a Balinese healer. It was a wonderful trip, and Harrison (my 3 year old)’s favorite part was the motorbikes - he couldn’t get over them all!!! Southeast Asia was mind-blowing to my kiddos, in the best way. (His second favorite was all the monkeys!!)

Kenny and I manufacture Kenny Flowers in Bali so we actually based here for 3 years in our twenties. Now, we love to return ‘home’ with our family and explore more of the island each time!!!

You can read about doing Bali with kids and all my best recs on my post here

Cabo

We spent 5 nights in Cabo this fall and it was incredible as always. We tend to get back once a year to Cabo (it’s our favorite). I have all my favorite Cabo hotels ranked on this Substack post here. and all of my Cabo tips here!

If you’re planning a trip to Cabo (or anywhere!), reach out to me at Concierge@jetsetchristina.com - I can help book your hotels with free VIP perks (like free breakfast for 2, room upgrades, $100 resort credits and more)

Tulum

We went to Tulum for a friend’s wedding and both agreed it was one of the VERY best weddings we’ve been to yet. It was a FIESTAAAA in a cenote. We had so much fun. I love the Riviera Maya of Mexico too!!!! Cabo has my heart, I think, but I do love both sides of Mexico for different reasons!!!

Palm Beach

We did a quick family getaway down to Palm Beach and checked out a new hotel for us - the White Elephant Palm Beach! We loved it, and loved being in the center of all the action of PB. We were working from here (and got The Breakers hotel to carry Kenny Flowers in their kids store!!!! yay!!!) and we were also in town doing a little TV interview about our business on NBC. We love a work-cation, and PB was a perfect place for it.

for my Palm Beach travel guide, head here!

Disney World

We couldn’t go to Florida without getting the kiddos to Disney, so we went from PB to Orlando for a couple of nights at Disney World. We love staying at the Four Seasons Orlando (they make it SO easy to do Disney!!! I’m talking a private chauffeur to the parks easy!!) and the hotel itself is built beautifully for families. The hotel is just as fun as the parks for our kiddos, seriously!!!! For my guide to doing Disney World Luxe and Stress-free, read this!

Colorado & California for the Holidays

We went home for both holidays this year (Colorado, where Kenny is from and his parents live) and California (where my parents live and where I grew up) and both trips were so amazing to be with family and friends and our west coast people!!!! It’s not easy living apart from our families, but we love Charleston and our little life we’re living here so much that we make it work! This year, that meant traveling for the holidays to see everyone and spend time with both of our families. The kids loved these trips, and were right at home with their cousins and at their grandparents houses!

That’s a wrap!! Those were the trips we took in 2025!!! Where was your favorite place you went? or where do you have on your bucket list?

I’m busy dreaming up where we’ll go this year (spoiler alert: we’re headed halfway across the world to a NEW destination for all of us in a few weeks - eeeeek!!!!!) and we’re trying to figure out everything else from there. I’d love to get back to Bermuda this summer, and to Europe in the summertime (but where!?)! What about you guys?

xx and happy new year!!!!

Christina

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Beyond the iconic characters, the writing, and the gorgeous 60s fashion (I’m obsessed), naturally, as an advertising major in college, one of my favorite parts of the show is the advertising itself. Mad Men centers around Madison Avenue of New York in the 1960s, which was the epicenter of what people call ‘the Golden Age of Advertising’.

Advertising agencies in the 60’s were famously pushing the limits, creating campaigns that were entertaining, emotional, memorable, and unlike anything the world had ever seen before. Many of the iconic ad campaigns you still know to this day were born then, and marketing strategies developed during this era are still around today. They discovered quickly back then that the best ads weren’t simply informative; they made you feel something. And they worked.

And that’s the real lesson for marketers, isn’t it? The most compelling storytelling has always been rooted in creativity. A compelling headline, a strong point of view, an unexpected angle or creative copy, that’s what has the ability to stop people in their tracks. This still rings true today in determining what actually stops our thumbs from scrolling the constant content we consume.

But, let’s be honest: these days, it feels like less and less is actually stopping us in our tracks. Especially ads.

I think this is because at some point between the Mad Men days and now, marketing stopped rewarding creativity and started rewarding conformity.

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There are two sides of marketing - creative, and data. On one side, you have the creatives - driven by instinct, emotion, gut feeling. On the other, the data-crunchers - driven by metrics, performance, spreadsheets. All too often, creatives and their ideas are hit by a wall built by the data-crunchers. This perspective usually comes from the client, the higher ups, the CEOs. Even in the 1960s, advertising felt the friction of this push-pull battle that we still feel today.

I feel this tension constantly running my brand. Every creative instinct I have is met with a spreadsheet asking me to justify it. How will this perform? Are you sure you want to invest in that? Will it scale?

It feels sometimes like an endless stream of metrics is replacing the creative soul of marketing.

But it’s not just marketing. It’s hitting us as individuals, and as creators, as well. When is the last time your friends posted on Instagram? If you’re a millennial like me, maybe a year or two ago? My feed is flooded with influencers and brands trying to sell me something, instead of with the emotional connections that made Instagram the social platform it was in the first place.

And I know - I’m writing this as literally a creator AND a brand owner, and someone who has always loved and appreciated advertising and marketing. But this formulaic, soulless, used-car-salesman direction things are heading doesn’t sit right with me.

Yes, we are buying from instagram. It’s working. But we’re also hating it. We’re hating feeling like we’re being sold to all day, every day. There is no more emotional connection just LINK LINK LINK. And the same thing happens when we go shopping. What used to be a pleasurable experience, walking into a store, browsing, trying on, carrying shopping bags around our shoulders as we strolled avenues, is now an overwhelming, exhausting online escapade of battling ad after ad after ad that is trying to crash into us on our wave of internet surfing.

At the end of the day, this shift has happened because all anyone in marketing really wants is to be able to prove ROI (Return on Investment). And guess what is the hardest thing to prove? Marketing ROI.

That’s because, contrary to what Meta and Google Ads would like us to believe, your purchases aren’t driven by just one thing. It’s never that simple — which makes brand marketing notoriously hard to measure.

According to Forrester Research, 85% of marketing attribution models fail to capture the full customer journey today.

This is because of a basic marketing principle that it takes seven “touches” before someone will internalize or act on your call to action (like buying your product).

A “touch” is any meaningful interaction someone has with your brand.

Not seven ads in a row.
Not seven identical messages.
Seven distinct, reinforcing moments that build familiarity, trust, and desire for your brand.

Those touches can take on many forms:

• A physical interaction with your brand, like trying a product on in-store or meeting someone at an event

• Seeing an ad, physical or online

• Noticing your brand or your logo somewhere - like on a friend’s bag, sweatshirt, or water bottle

• Seeing your social posts, or someone else’s viral Reel or TikTok featuring your brand

• Receiving an email from your brand

• Hearing a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend

• Seeing your product again when they’re finally ready to buy

Ideally, these will happen in a variety of channels, over a period of time. Some marketing experts say that the number is closer to 13 touches given how inundated we are with ads every day.

But you know what’s not sexy to a CEO? (I know, because I’m married to a sexy CEO)

The idea of throwing money out into the ether and hoping it comes back to you 13 touchpoints later.

You know what IS sexy to a CEO?

The instant gratification of Facebook and Instagram and Google ads.

The data. The ads that convert - instantaneously.

Now that’s sexy.

But in this era driven by instant gratification - both by customers and by brands, it’s hard not to pine for the nostalgia of a deeper, more meaningful world of marketing. (and of existence?)

Customer engagement in the 1960s, much like the Mad Men show itself, was a slower burn, with a purchase decision often happening weeks or even months after seeing an ad. The goal wasn’t immediate sales, it was about building long-term brand loyalty and awareness, leading to the customer remembering the brand when they eventually went to a physical store. Modern digital ads, on the other hand, are engineered for immediate action and measurable results, something marketers have pined for for generations, but something that absolutely would have sent Don Draper into a tailspin.

Because yes, Facebook ads work. But it’s when businesses become reliant on them, that we lose our creativity. Not just in our ads, but in our world.

One ad gets hot for a single dress, and suddenly every brand everywhere is copying the same exact silhouette. First Zara, then Amazon, you know the drill. All of the sudden, everyone is dressing the exact same.

One brand (or influencer) does something that gets them attention. Everyone copies them, calling it a ‘trend’. We’ve learned to accept dupe culture, in our content, in our fashion, in our social media feeds, everywhere.

People are dressing alike, not because they want to fit into some monotone community of clones, but because they’re not even finding any other options.

Brands aren’t investing in creative fashion, because why would they when they can have one viral ad sell the same cheap look 100,000 times?

And why would an influencer wear a more creative outfit that they can’t link when they can sell the outfit on their LTK or Shopmy that they’ve already seen convert 50 times. Our algorithms are literally killing creativity. both in ourselves and in the brands we buy.

Has anyone else had the feeling recently of trying to shop for something specific and you can’t find what you want because everything just feels like more of the same?

It happened to me recently with jewelry. I spent months looking for something special, and everywhere I looked, it felt like the same few styles on repeat. It was all so boring. And cheaply made! Why do we all need the same tennis bracelets and necklaces that all of our friends have? Isn’t there anything more exciting out there?! Everything just feels so… mass produced.

It happened to me again looking for a nice coat for winter for myself and my kids, and again searching online for a blazer for my husband. Shopping is becoming so exhausting, because at the same time as having literally every option in the world at our fingertips, it feels like it’s just…. all…. the same?

We’ve done the exact opposite of what Apple once told us to do. We don’t “Think Different” at all.

We’ve become followers. Not trendsetters.

One thing I’ve learned in the clothing industry is that originality is expensive. It takes time. It takes risk. And it often takes a lot longer to pay off. When you’re staring at rising costs of fabrics, tariffs, payroll, shipping, it’s easy to understand why so many brands choose the easy route of copy-paste-culture. With their ads, with their products, with their silhouettes, with everything.

But what happened to the art of it all?

Art has always been subjective. That’s the whole point. But social media flattens it into something measurable: likes, views, saves, shares. When everything we put out has a very-visual scoreboard, self-doubt creeps in. Not just for brands, but for all of us. The more we hesitate, the less we create.

And before long, it’s been months, sometimes years, since we’ve posted on Instagram. Written on Substack.
Filmed a vlog.
Started a new hobby.
Painted a painting.
Baked a cake.

Social media has made even the most creative among us paralyzed. Because, as creative souls, we’re not creating for joy anymore, we’re creating for likes, for measurement. And, if we’re running a business (which let’s be honest most of us are on IG these days), we’re creating for sales.

We get paralyzed in the pursuit of perfection. We’re afraid to create.

So what should we do?

Create anyway.

Because in a world of AI and sameness, creativity is one of the only surefire ways to stand out.

And it will pay off. Because humans want to feel something again. They’re craving art, writing, messiness, imperfection, raw beauty, the human touch.

As marketers, and as creators, we need to meet our customers on a human level, finding a middle ground between learning the data, and holding space for creativity. Because as much as we try to minimize humans to computers who will do what we tell them to do and buy what we tell them to buy, humans are so much more complex than that. They respond to feeling, emotion, and long-term brand building more than we give them credit for when we’re treating them like lines in our spreadsheets and Meta dashboards.

And they’re bored!!!

Because the brands we remember, the ones we fall in love with, the ones we come back to again and again, were never built by chasing what worked for somebody else. They were built by people willing to take a risk on something new.

In a world optimized for sameness, creativity is what makes you, and your customer, feel alive. And I’ll chase that feeling every time.

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If you enjoyed this post, please click the like button at the bottom - it helps other people discover my content! (And gives me the hit of dopamine we’ve just discussed that every creator lives for!)

And consider sharing with a friend. You could also screenshot a favorite part and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag me, @jetsetchristina.

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Then I came along and knew I wanted the ladies to have the same feeling, which is how we got where we are today: expanding into swimwear, dresses, resort wear, women’s, golf, and full family matching looks, too! Little pieces of paradise in your closet.

When I say owning a small business is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I don’t say it lightly.

If you own a business or have chased a dream, you may know the deep, almost masochistic ache that comes with owning a small business. There are highs, so many highs. They make your heart race and you vision sharp.

These are the moments that make you feel like you’re on top of a mountain.

And there are lows, too many lows. They knock the wind out of you. And send you tumbling down that mountain you worked so hard to climb.

These are the moments you question everything.

Moments when you think there is no possible way out of this maze. But then…. you catch a glimmer of light that shows you a way.

Not a way out. Just a path forward.

And that’s the thing about small businesses. We don’t need a way out - we just want to keep going. Because we genuinely, wholeheartedly, foolishly love what we’re creating. We love the maze.

even when we’re lost in it. even when we don’t sleep because of it. even when we can’t help but feel defeated by it. even when it breaks us down, we keep building it up. day after day.

I’ll be honest: it hasn’t been an easy year. For any of us in retail. Especially those of us in retail that are fighting hard for quality, who choose to not be made cheaply in China, and who choose beautiful, handmade artistry over mass-produced sameness. I’m beyond proud of Kenny Flowers and where we’ve been able to build this dream to be today, but we’ve had to make tough calls this year, re-organizing our team, cutting entire collections we worked so hard on, pausing projects we loved, and stretching ourselves thin in ways that don’t always make it to Instagram.

And this is where you come in.

When you support any small business like ours with your likes, your shares, your comments, your orders, you’re supporting more Kenny and I, and more than the people you may see. You’re supporting the families of our employees, both locally, here in the US, and the families behind every stitch in our beautiful boutique, family-owned clothing factories in Bali, Colombia, and Peru.

Our Colombia factory, who is the amor behind every single piece of our Kenny Flowers swimwear, is run by mothers. Mothers who are the breadwinners of their household. Mothers who otherwise wouldn’t have work. One of these beautiful souls is able to care for her special-needs child because she is able to work from home attaching our hang tags. She’d otherwise have no way to support her family. There are countless stories and people like this woven into every thread of each piece we make. The people you may not know when you hit ‘add to cart’ but people whose lives you are changing nonetheless.

And isn’t that the beauty of supporting small businesses?

There’s something so cool about shopping small: it feels good. Like, physically good. You know you’re putting something positive into the universe. It’s a moment of alignment.

You’re also actively advocating for the kind of world you want to live in. One where quality still matters. A world where creativity is championed, not swallowed (and stolen) by the fast-fashion behemoths. A world where someone’s dream of creating something amazing for others, creating joy for others, gets another day to live and grow.

Your choice to support small businesses sends light out into the world, and call me woowoo, but when you do that…. that energy comes back to you tenfold.

So can I ask you a favor today? Will you share this post, or my Instagram post, or a simple link to shop KennyFlowers.com today? Maybe share a favorite product or an instagram story or a simple link to this post, or any of our IG posts. Your amplification of our small business to your community this holiday season helps us more than you know. I would be forever grateful.

Today or any day, if you ever feel called to shop or share our small business… you can always find paradise at KennyFlowers.com.

and on behalf of our family and our team,
thank you for being part of our maze.

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Someone asked me in a Q&A how motherhood has shifted my career.
And the truth is... I think about it all the time

What doesn’t shift when you have kids?

Everything shifts when you become a mom.

Two people are born the day your child is born: a baby, and a mother. It suddenly feels like an actual part of your heart is out there walking around outside of your body. And it aches, in the best and most confusing way, as that little human eclipses your whole entire world.

I feel like there’s no such thing as ‘focus’ anymore, at least not really. It’s more like everything is all over the place, all the time. You instinctively know where those little walking hearts are, at all times. And you know what they need. You try to focus on other things, but you can’t do so until you know they’re okay, their needs are met, they’re happy, they’re safe. And even when you know that, you’re still spinning all the time with thoughts like

what am I going to make for dinner tonight did I remember to drop off that form at school and the other form for the neighborhood fundraiser shoot I’m in charge of the preschool class thanksgiving party when am I going to get to the grocery store what are we doing this weekend should we get a tree what time is that birthday party oh no i need a gift what was that store again that suzie said she shops at for birthday gifts let me text her oh the baby’s crying ugh weaning is so hard my boobs hurt and she won’t drink cows milk MILK shit we’re out of milk my toddler who will 10000% have a meltdown if i dont get some by dinnertime are these 3 year old meltdowns normal maybe i should chatgpt it just in case

A mother’s brain is like having 1000 tabs open all at once on a computer that’s overheating and spinning out of control. But she keeps going, one tab at a time. Sometimes ten tabs at a time. it’s just what moms do.

And maybe that’s why women are so damn good at work. Did you know there are strong studies showing that working moms are often more motivated, more productive, and successful than their peers? (KPMG)

(Also of note, a Harvard Business School study recently showed that daughters of working mothers are more likely to hold supervisory roles and earn more in their careers)

Moms’ brains are wired differently. And it makes them better, not worse, at (all of) their jobs.

The stats aren’t surprising when you think of how moms inherently know how to manage chaos, make quick decisions, prioritize, multitask. It makes mothers absolute powerhouses in the workplace.

My career has always remained a priority of mine even as I’ve had my kids - for my kids.

I grew up with a boss-of-a-mom who made her way very high up on the corporate ladder. I never, ever felt that she wasn’t around for us. She was always incredibly present my entire childhood. (I guess just not from 9-5, but I didn’t even notice, I was busy with school or friends the wonderful au pairs I grew up with who I loved). And while I loved my caretakers, no one compared to the way I felt about my mom. She was the sun and the center of my world. I know she felt some *mom guilt* about working when I was young (she has since told me that) but she shouldn’t feel guilty at all. Her dual commitment to work and family was something that I not only always admired about her, but knew I wanted to emulate for my own children.

Each one of us finds fulfillment in different ways, but, for me, I feel my soul LIGHT up when my work touches others. In small and big ways. My writing reaching someone that needed to hear it that day. My travels inspiring yours, and helping you make memories with your loved ones. My business inspiring someone to start their own one day. Our clothes being worn by customers making memories in all over the world. My team hustling hard and seeing their work come to life to make an impact on others’ lives. It all lights me up in a way I can’t describe.

My time with my kids also lights me up too!!!! In a completely different, soul-filling, tender, primal way. It’s what grounds me, fuels me, and I wouldn’t trade a second of it for the world.

So why should we as moms have to choose one of these euphorias over the other?

I don’t want to just give my children “a good life” - I want my children to watch what it looks like for their parents to MAKE both of their dreams come true. I don’t want them to ever feel like this life was given to us, or to them… I want to show them how it is earned, every step of the way. And I want my kids to understand and appreciate (one day) how their parents balanced work and life beautifully. I want them to know what that looks like - and that it isn’t always easy to do.

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They will know, without a doubt in their mind, that they were always, always our number one priority, but they’ll also understand that work was an important part of our lives too. And one that benefits them greatly. Then one day, they’ll be able to emulate that balance, and that drive, for their own families.

Alongside my travel company Jetset Christina, we run our family business, Kenny Flowers. We are building and hustling every day, and my kids are a part of it! They have been modeling Kenny Flowers since they were born, on set at photoshoots around the world. I remember nursing my son on the bare floor of our first KF store the night before opening, when we didn’t have any furniture. These kids will grow up seeing, and being a part of, every aspect of our business. And how cool is that!?! One day, they might want to start their own business, and they’ll have such a wild advantage of knowledge and experience if they do.

On the Jetset Christina work side, having kids has expanded my brand and my mission in a big way. Having kids has inspired me, challenged me, and honestly made my content so much better : more heartfelt, more useful, more connected to you guys. My work and our travels have become harder, and happen not quite as often as they used to, for sure, but also better, because we get to do it all with our two adorable kiddos in tow! And I get to share it with you guys in a deeper, more meaningful way. Because, now, I’m not just inspiring people to travel, I’m helping them share the world with their children, and inspire a whole new generation of travelers. I also hope I’m showing parents that you can build a life you love and bring your kids along for the ride.

You can be ambitious, you can be present, you can run businesses, you can TRAVEL!!! You can chase big dreams, and still soak in alllllllll the bedtime snuggles. No one is able to ‘do it all’, but you can have it all. We can have it all.

Even if it means we can’t always have it all at the same time.

Even if it means we’re having it all with a lot less sleep.

Even if it means every “yes” to new opportunities comes with a new layer of family logistics.

Even if it means sometimes pausing the momentum to be fully present with our kids.

Even if it means we constantly question if we’re giving enough, in either role.

But we’re still finding a way. Even when the days are hard. Especially when they’re hard. Because THAT is the women we are. And that is the woman we want our daughters to be.

If you have the financial or career flexibility to take time off of work to be fully with your children while they are little, and that’s what brings you the most joy, that’s incredible and I am so, so happy for you. But if, like my and most families, you are simply reliant on two incomes to build the lifestyle and future that you want for your children, and/or you love your career, I want you to know that you don’t need to feel guilty for needing, or wanting, to work.

I know this is a long-winded answer but I wanted to share my full thoughts on this, because it’s something I think about a lot, and I think it’s important to talk about - especially as I see so many of my brilliant mom friends reluctantly leaving the workforce. It just feels like our society isn’t meeting moms where they need to be met when it comes to finding a work/life balance. They can’t see a world where they find the flexibility they need to succeed and feel happy.

Call me an optimist but I believe there can be one. Sometimes, we have to try a few different things, or pave our own path to find it. But there can be a world where we feel incredibly fulfilled and purpose-driven in both our career and at home.

So, if you feel like I’m speaking to you, please, don’t stop trying.
I don’t have all the answers. None of us do.
But I do know this: our children are watching.
And one day, they’ll look back and see a mother who didn’t give up on her dreams, or theirs. They’ll see someone who tried. And kept trying, to have it all. Even when the world told her it wasn’t possible.

And I know they’ll be proud.

If you enjoyed this post, please click the like button at the bottom or leave a comment - it helps other people discover my content and I’m always excited to hear your thoughts.

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The holiday season is upon us, and it’s a balancing act between endless parties, school functions, and of course, travel. The holidays with kids is equal parts magic and absolute mayhem! It can all feel like a lot. But I’m determined to not let the chaos overtake the magic this year.

I’ve been thinking lately that one of the most freeing realizations — and the secret to traveling with little ones — (and to life, really) is achieving a blissful level of a little detachment. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean ‘checked out’ in the least - I just mean a calm and confident understanding of prioritizing what actually matters when things may be less than ideal. Spilled your coffee this morning? oh well, let’s clean it up. Your pinterest-perfect holiday treat for your kid's class turn out a mess? Who cares! Bring ‘em anyway, or throw them away and grab some from the store on the way. Toddler meltdown over the perfect Christmas dress you ordered? Oh well, just let her wear her halloween costume if she really wants to. Travel plans go awry? Annoying, sure, but you’ll get there, you always do.

There’s power in not caring about (and even learning to embrace) the silly things, the negative things, the ones that could, in another world, bring you down. ESPECIALLY in times like the holidays, when there are so many wonderful things to focus on instead. By embracing the chaos, and surrendering to it, we unlock something within us -

calm.

And here’s the thing: traveling with little ones CAN be calm. It doesn’t have to be chaos. In fact, with the right mindset (and the right gear), it can actually be so much fun, whether you’re visiting nana’s house or heading on vacation to Hawaii or the Caribbean (I’m so jealous if so!!!!)

We’ve been on over 150 flights with our 3 year old, and our 1.5 year old is catching up fast. This year, we’re traveling for the holidays to visit family with our two very BUSY toddlers in tow, so I wanted to put a few tips together for how to get your family from Point A to Point B without losing your holiday spirit… or your sanity!

First of all, let’s reframe travel days

With all the headlines swirling around - delays, government shutdowns, flight cancellations - it’s easy to feel anxious about upcoming trips. And yes, while I hope every single one of us has the smoothest travel day ever, it’s also helpful to mentally prepare for the moments that might not go according to plan. and to prepare to roll with it when that happens.

Here’s the reframe that’s changed everything for me:

To our kids, a delay or a long travel day doesn’t mean anything - it’s just more time that they get to spend with you, doing something fun (spending quality time with mom and dad, traveling on a flying rocketship through the sky! and ending up in a new place surrounded by people they love! how much better could life be)

So I say let’s reframe travel days as family days, and have fun with it!!!

The travel gear we use and love

Here are a few things I never travel without:

• A great travel stroller you can collapse in seconds
We have lately been traveling with this jogging stroller - it is super compact for a jogger, but is nice and sturdy and good for all terrain (so if you’re going somewhere snowy, it’s great! also you can use JETSET for a discount), or we also love this travel stroller which fits in the airport bin!! (we gate check the other).

• Baby carrier
It frees up your hands, calms the baby, and keeps things moving on busy travel days. I always wear the baby through security, boarding, and deplaning. It also helps minimize germs. And even though she’s 15 months she still loves the carrier!

• An ‘everything’ carry on tote
We’ve been using this one and I like it a lot. (you can use JETSET25 for 25% off) Easy to clean, fits a ton, has a bunch of compartments. In here, I’ll have all of our snacks, toys, books, wipes, diapers, changes of clothes etc etc etc. ALL THE THINGS! I like to organize them in pouches like this.

• A separate pouch for health essentials / emergency kit
Infant Tylenol (we use this brand that’s dye free and clean), saline spray, bandaids, sanitizer, wipes because holiday travel means lots of germs, and we do not want anyone getting sick!!! But we’ll be prepared just in case they do.

Also, think about what gear you’ll need once you get to your destination and consider shipping it there instead of lugging it all!!! Things like a travel high chair are super helpful, and I’ve shipped an extra $75 amazon travel car seat to my in-laws instead of lugging it all the way. We’ve also amazon’ed diapers and wipes, etc. any essentials you don’t have to bring, don’t! Make it as easy as possible on your packing.

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Snacks for travel days

Toddler travel snacks that we love for flights or car rides:
• Bars
• Pouches
• Healthy mini muffins (I do a banana + oatmeal + shredded coconut muffin that my kids love)
• Apples, bananas
• Almond Butter & Jelly sandwiches
• Yogis (my kids are OBSESSED, these are our ‘treat’ that they get super excited about and can’t get enough of)

Never reveal all your snacks at once. The element of surprise is powerful with toddlers.

Entertainment

If your kid does some screen time while traveling, download holiday movies / episodes!
“Frozen,” “The Grinch,” “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas”!

If your children don’t do screen time, we LOVE this thing for screen-free entertainment while traveling. It works better with older toddlers but it’s basically stories they can listen to!

Stickers !!!! Stickers are your best friend for flights.
I like reusable stickers so that you dont have to be peeling them off of everything (like the airplane window) Holiday-themed ones like these ones!

Wrap a few tiny toys in your carry on (here are all our favorite toddler travel toys!)
Yes, actually wrap them! Toddlers LOVE opening things, adds a little extra fun (and time) for them!

Airport tips

Never ever board a flight without getting your kids’ energy out first!
We walk, we explore, we run, we look at airplanes, we do jumping jacks, anything and everything to get energy out ahead of the flight. I do not let my older one sit in the stroller in the airport unless we absolutely have to ( like a tight connection), because it’s better for them to walk and run and get their energy out! So we’ll use the stroller for our bags haha (it still comes in handy!!)

Be the last to board!

While family boarding is great for getting your seats and making sure you get your stroller checked and bags put away, it’s not necessarily the best for making sure your baby or toddler doesn’t go too stir crazy on a long flight. By pre-boarding, you’re sometimes adding 45 whole minutes onto your flying time – and it’s a stressful time for toddlers, with everyone walking past them, bumping bags onto the aisles, etc. We board last (and if you’re worried about bin space, you could always have one parent board with some bags and the other come later!)

Give your kids “jobs” and responsibility! And TALK to them allll about the travel day!!!! (positively)
Something we always do with our kids is let them be a huge part of the travel day, from packing beforehand, to letting them hand the boarding passes to the gate agent, push the elevator buttons, etc etc. Kids feel important and a part of it all!

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER:

Your kids feed off of your energy!!

So when you’re talking to them about the travel day, be sure to focus on how exciting it is!! Don’t rain on their parade. They are having fun!!!!! Even when you are a little stressed or annoyed at having to be in an airport. instead of letting them feel that, talk to them about how cool the airport is! WOW there’s an airplane! how big is that airplane? What color is it? Are we going through security next? We’re going to see grandma and grandpa!! This is so fun!!! etc etc etc just HYPING them up for the whole trip and day and the exciting new world of travel.

My son loooves the airport and the whole travel process!!! he likes to talk to us about it and walk us through the ‘steps’ of the travel day, from security, to take off to landing and ‘taxiing’ (he always says “we’re in a taxi!” after we land hahah and I can’t correct him it’s too cute).

Harrison’s suitcase is a great Amazon find here! It’s held up sooo well, and he loves it.

How to Manage Naps on an Airplane

Yes, toddlers can nap on a plane! here’s what has worked for us:

Invest in this cool contraption that turns the airplane seat into a toddler bed!

It works by basically extending the foot area and the seat together, it’s a great idea for helping them have a good area to nap on a plane! We’ve had great success using it!! Also, as a bonus, it fits toys and books in it as well as their ‘suitcase’, which makes them feel so grown up to use and pull around! I like this for kids 1-3, after 3 they are a bit big for it to really work well.

and, if they’re small enough, use the carrier

If your baby or toddler will sleep on you in the carrier, you’re golden!

If they’re bigger, you can try laying them sideways across your lap (this is usually what works well for us)

Don’t stress about the nap being perfect on a travel day

Some naps go perfectly to plan while traveling, other times, they’re much shorter (or nonexistent). all of it is normal. don’t put too much pressure on yourselves (or on your kiddo), it will work out!!

Dress the Kids (and Yourself) in Layers

Holiday travel = lots of different temps. Just like you may freeze on the airplane, they might get cold too! and a chilly fussy toddler is not what anyone wants. So pack layers.

Also, don’t forget multiple changes of clothes in case of spills, accidents, etc (and a pull up if your toddler is napping on the plane! we forgot a pull up the last flight we went on and it resulted in an accident and I didn’t have extra clothes for him which resulted in me having to give him mine, it’s a long story LOL.

Bring Your Sleep Rituals with You

A few things that make sleep easier in transit or at Nana’s house:

• Portable sound machine
• Their fav sleep sack (we love these ones)
• Their lovey
• A Pack ’n Play they sleep well in - and a SLUMBERPOD!!! we don’t travel without this for blackout shades for the kids.

Recreate “home” wherever you are!

Divide and Conquer as a Team

Moms. please don’t try to do everything. Have a system that works for you and your partner! In our family, Kenny handles:

• Boarding passes/ ID’s/Passports etc

• Stroller

• Carrying all the bags

• Checking bags

• Gate check

• Boarding logistics

I handle:

• Packing

• Kids’ bags

• Kids entertainment, toys, etc

• Food

• Airplane nap snuggles (for the most part, sometimes they’re on dada too!)

Divide and conquer! Holiday travel is a team sport!

How to Pack Holiday Gifts While Traveling

If you’re flying somewhere for the holidays, don’t feel like you need to bring your entire Christmas morning. I’m planning on shipping some gifts ahead of time, bringing some in my suitcase, and opening some at home for a special ‘just us Christmas’ celebration ahead of the travel (cough cough, all the cute holiday outfits I got them)

Presence, not perfection

I know you’ve heard it a million times but this season of life (and of the year) is chaotic and beautiful and fleeting. Singing Christmas songs together, the baby sleeping on you in front of the tree, the cookie sprinkles in your toddler’s hair, the fights over who gets to put on the tree topper, the drives to see Christmas lights… This is the good stuff.

You don’t have to do everything. Choose the things that bring you the most joy about the season. Your kids just want a happy, present parent.

Remember that the holidays are about presence, not perfection.

Happy holiday season, friends!! I’m grateful for you all and hope you have smooth travels & lots of amazing memories with your loved ones wherever you head this holiday season!

xx,

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So, how do you choose between the Rosewood, the One&Only, the Ritz-Carlton, the Waldorf Astoria, the Montage, the Hilton, the Auberge (there are two), the Four Seasons, the Viceroy, the Nobu? not to mention other boutique and all-inclusive options (which aren’t my personal choice in Cabo when the food and drink scene is soooo freaking good, but some people love them!)

That’s what I’m here for. After 40+ trips to Cabo, and usually going back more than once a year, I have a lot of knowledge (and opinions) on what’s the best in the area, and what you’re going to love the most.

So let’s get into it.

Before we dive in : the rest of this content is for paid subscribers. If that’s you, thank you so much for being here! You make it possible for me to share my most honest, unfiltered thoughts with our beautiful corner of the internet!

If you’ve been thinking about joining, this is where you’ll find the content I don’t publish anywhere else : my real rankings, opinions, and travel insights & stories I’d only tell a friend. For the price of a latte, think of it like we’re having a coffee together and chatting travel and where you should go next!

Okay let’s get into it: here are my top 5 resorts in Cabo, starting with number 5 …

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We were on our way back from Mexico and had booked our tickets together as a family on the same reservation, which, obviously should mean the airline puts our seats together, right? No, of course not.

Somehow the airline had my three-year-old in an aisle seat, me with our lap baby in another aisle, and my husband next to me. So, I kindly asked the woman in our row (who was sitting by herself by the window) if she wanted the window seat or if she would be willing to switch to the aisle. She said she preferred the window which I completely understood, as I know some cultures prefer window seats (She was Mexican, and I’ve noticed on other flights we’ve been on in Latin America that this is a cultural preference, they feel safer at the window), so I said no problem at all, and I instead tried the American couple in the row that we had the aisle seat of (where my daughter would be sitting on my lap next to them).

I explained that we had the two seats together right across the aisle if they wanted to switch, and they wouldn’t need to share the row with a squirmy 18 month old on my lap, but I said it was completely up to them, only if they preferred. They were a little bit quiet about it, but they went ahead and switched so I assumed all was good and that’s what they wanted.

We went about our flight as normal, trying to get my 3-year-old to nap across my husband and my laps while also entertaining my 18-month-old and trying to stop her from waking him every time he dozed off (between this, diaper changes, an accident that resulted in me having to give my son the shirt off my back because he peed all over his, etc etc etc, it was all hands on deck). But, even with the chaos, the flight honestly went fine. The kids were good and having a good time (and my son napped pretty much the whole time). We were traveling with our nanny for this trip as we had been to a friend’s wedding — and needed the trusted coverage to be able to attend the celebrations — but we were giving her a break during the flight to relax, so she was sitting elsewhere.

Towards the end of the 3-hour flight, my husband was chatting with a nice older woman near us about the trip, and he mentioned that we had our nanny with us for the wedding which helped make it possible to attend with two young toddlers. I think the original lady who had switched seats with us must have overheard this, and it struck some sort of chord, because as we were getting up to leave the plane, my husband kindly said “thanks again for switching seats, you guys”, and the woman, instead of responding to him, looked straight (and only) at me seething, and said “You know - people pay extra for those seats, and now that I know you’re traveling with a nanny, it makes me furious that we switched for you.” My mouth was agape, absolutely speechless. The disdain in the way she said ‘traveling with a nanny’ was palpable — so judgmental, so unkind.

I was (and am) confused. What had I done to this woman to earn that comment? Why was she so judgmental that we were traveling with help? Also, their seats were not any better than ours, they were the same, just across the aisle! And doesn’t she have free will? Why huff and puff if I gave her plenty of opportunity to decline the switch? We were trying to help them by sitting together as a family, where we could easily manage the two children, vs. be up in their space. My children had behaved wonderfully during the flight, because we were able to help them throughout it.

My husband was trying to compute her confusingly snappy comments and simply said “have a great day!” as she huffed off.

I was speechless, (especially at the fact this was ONLY directed at me — no stranger negativity is ever directed at the hero father, just the mother, right?) and I looked around aghast, meeting eyes with a mom of a nine or ten year old boy in the row behind us, (she probably had watched as we managed our two littles the whole flight, accidents, naps, meals, clean ups, changes of all of our clothes and all), and she kindly said “Gotta just let that one roll off your back", rolling her eyes.

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But do I? the way a stranger made a snap judgment about me and my family, not knowing anything we had been through that flight - or in general - as parents of two little ones traveling, trying to be present for our friends, working our butts off during vacation for our small business, attempting (desperately and exhaustedly at most times) to make it all work. The last thing I need is a stranger taking the wind out of my sails that I spend every ounce of my energy trying to keep up.

I thought to myself that there was no way that the woman who snapped at me was a mother herself. Moms understand. They don’t judge, they help. But, just because I know this one off-kilter woman and her misled snap-judgment were wrong about me, doesn’t mean it didn’t sting.

Living life on instagram, I’m no stranger to fielding judgement from strangers. It’s one of the hardest things about what I do choosing to share my life online. I consider myself thick-skinned, and I try to let the very small percentage of negative people online not get to me. But they still do. It’s like a weight on me every time I share something, wondering ‘what if people take this the wrong way?" “what if I didn’t make myself clear enough?” “do I need to put a disclaimer here?”

The more I share, the more I realize how vulnerable it is to let people interpret your life. You start to see how easily people fill in the blanks about you with their own (untrue) assumptions, and how little control you have over that.

Should I have had to explain myself to this woman in person (or to a stranger online)? Or should we as humans assume the best in one another, instead of the worst? Should we help each other, willingly and proactively, instead of seethe at one another and project our own frustrations of life onto others.

I’m a feeler. I feel energy deeply, intuitively. I can sense the energy in a room quickly, and to a fault. If someone is in a bad mood, I feel it, as if it’s my own. If someone is in a good mood, I feel it, as if it’s my own. I was born this way, and I’ve learned that being an energy reader is both a blessing and a curse.

And in that moment, this woman’s negative energy sucked the energy out of the room, and deflated me like a balloon. I hated that.

I read this recently in Unreasonable Hospitality (great book) and I have had it on my mind ever since: “Let your energy impact the people you’re talking to, as opposed to the other way around.”

When we enter interactions with strangers and friends and family with good energy, we put that good energy into the world, as opposed to wait for the world to impart its (all-too-often) negative energy unto us.

This shifts things.

By being sunny and optimistic, we don’t allow for others’ energy to impact us, and, on the contrary, we might end up impacting them in a positive way.

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Airports and airplanes are some of the easiest places to let everyone else’s energy dictate ours — the delays, the mishaps, the tantrums, the side-eyes. Which also makes it the perfect place to practice letting our energy set the tone for others’, not the other way around.

If travel teaches us anything, it’s that everyone is carrying something, whether it’s a baby, a fear of flying, an emotional goodbye, a language barrier, or a bad day. A little grace and empathy for others while traveling goes a long way.

Which is why interactions like this don’t sit right with me. I consider it my job these days to help parents not be afraid of traveling with little ones. After all, traveling as a family is the best thing you can do for your children, and yourselves (here are all the reasons why!). And I unfortunately know that people like this woman are often one of the biggest fears of moms traveling with kids. They worry “What will the people around me think of me?”

So I want to remind you guys that 99.5% of people you’ll meet traveling with kids are kind, patient, and even eager to help. Don’t let the small, bitter few scare you out of seeing the world. They might prefer a child-free life — but they are not entitled to a child-free world.

And honestly? My toddler had better manners, and better emotional control, than that grown woman. Probably because of how much he’s traveled.

What do you guys think about switching seats on a plane so that a family can sit together? Have you done it? Have you asked others to do it? Let’s discuss in the comments!

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Slumberpod - we don’t travel without it! It’s basically a tent that goes over your child’s crib that makes it blackout dark so if you’re staying in the same room you can have lights on, etc during your kid’s sleep time and not worry. Helps with jet lag / schedule adjusting, too! It plops right over the hotel crib or pack n’ play and is easy to set up (I say even though Kenny sets it up every time haha)

A great stroller - I have 2 favorite strollers for travel that are in my rotation right now:

• 1) This one - it’s actually a jogging stroller but is surprisingly compact and convenient for travel! We find ourselves continuing to gravitate towards this one. It’s sturdy- and great for if you’re going to be on different terrains (cobblestones, beach, snow, etc). Plus it’s great if you want to do any jogging too! Use JETSET for a discount code.

• 2) This one - ULTRA-compact, fits in the overhead compartment and is super sleek and chic. This is my favorite traditional ‘travel stroller’ right now (it recently came out this summer!)

Baby sunscreen - we use this brand and love it

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SPF for myself - I’m obsessed with this tinted spf - especially on vacation because it makes my skin so glowy, protected from the sun, and I dont even use any foundation because it has juuuust enough coverage while feeling like it’s barely anything (except a good moisturizer) on my face. Dermatologist-founded and packed with good-for-your-skin ingredients, it’s the perfect everyday spf.

Outfits!!! I of course packed too many bikinis (the new Africa bikini is a current favorite), so many cute dresses, some sun hats, beach cover ups (I live in chic but comfy matching sets like this , and this on vacation), two welcome party outfits, and two wedding guest dresses.

BTW why is it SO hard to shop for wedding guest dresses, you guys!! I feel like everything is either too cheap looking (and still $3-400 bucks) or literally $800 or above. Which is crazy?!?!? Is anyone else experiencing this?? I looked EVERYWHERE and struggled so much. I even looked on rent the runway and was very disappointed in the options there, too. Why is no one making cute formal dresses that aren’t a total rip off ?? I ended up with one I bought on sale from an Australian brand over the summer. It’s sold out now but they have other nice ones here for anyone else with weddings coming up!!

For the second wedding, I shopped my own closet and picked one of my favorite old dresses from this brand. The one I’m wearing is sold out now (I’ve had it for years) but I’m excited to re-wear it! I’m a big fan of rewearing your favorite dresses (especially wedding guest dresses) if you feel great in it, definitely wear it again!!!! It’s not YOUR wedding, you can definitely re-wear favorites over the years!

I finally retired my trusty heels that have danced through almost every wedding for the past five years (they served me well!!!), and replaced them with some high quality heels I found at a local boutique called Clorinda Antinori - if you’re visiting or local to Charleston they make the dreamiest Italian shoes!! I’m obsessed. I’m a big fan of a chunky heel for weddings because it makes a huge difference in comfort and I do NOT want to be worried about my feet hurting at a wedding - I want to be dancing all night long!

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Travel Day Essentials ✈️

• Noise-cancelling headphones plus this handy thing that connects your bluetooth headphones to the airplane tv!!!

• Refillable water bottle + electrolytes (I like this brand)

• Baby/Toddler First Aid Kit - always in my carry-on just in case, including Genexa brand of infant tylenol (because Genexa doesn’t have all the dyes, etc that Tylenol does — it’s “clean acetaminophen”!)

• Compression socks (!!!! This brand is the best, I love their socks so much, even their everyday ankle ones are compression and I like them sooo much more than Bombas - can’t recommend enough)

• Toddler travel essentials - I have a huge amazon list here of all of our toddler travel essentials / toys we like, etc! I keep them organized in these Becco Bags that we love.

  

• A silk eyemask, always (juuuust in case the kids let me sleep on a plane ever, hah!) + a cozy sweater or sweatshirt, or chic plane set like this one

• In-flight lip peptides (it’s sooo dry on the plane) + this moisturizing, refreshing face spray in travel size

The littles’ vacation outfits

Obviously, a ton of Kiddy Flowers was packed. And a few other cutie outfits I’ve been shopping for them lately (I try to keep Harrison’s Closet and Hadley’s Closet updated on Shopmy here with fun finds I find for them, like this adorable $15 Sofia Richie x Amazon cotton bubble that I love on Hadley!

Shoe-wise, these are the sandals Harrison loves to wear around the beach and pool, and these are his go-to sneakers. Hadley loooves these sneakers, and these little sandals.

I’m obsessed with this kid packing organizer, you guys! Seriously life-changing. Makes organizing all of their stuff so much easier!!!!

Ok that’s all off the top of my head!!! I have to go run around the house looking for things I might be forgetting and then frantically over-packing them into my already overweight suitcase! Wish me luck!!!!

xoxo

Christina

Do you have questions on what else we bring with us or any other tips or opinions you need? Comment below!

PS please click the like button at the bottom - it helps other people discover my content!

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For more of this, follow me on Instagram, or check out my blog, Jetset Christina

My husband and I own Kenny Flowers together - he’s Kenny, and started the brand as a twenty-something ex-IBM consultant looking to create a modern spin on his dad’s classic Hawaiian shirt. In the process, he traded his life in a business suit for life in a swimsuit, and his corporate 9-5 for a one-way ticket to Bali - an experience of a lifetime perfecting the art of designing high-quality men’s shirts, and ending up with a duffel bag of beautiful button-downs he’d sell to his friends in exchange for venmos when he was back in the states.

At the same time, I was starting Jetset Christina, my travel blog, traveling all around the world writing. As a journalism major and lifelong travel lover, I thought I was living my dream - but I couldn’t help but crave more. The blessing/curse of an entrepreneurial soul, right?

Writing was always a creative outlet for me (still is!) but, more than anything, I absolutely love *creating*. Creating something from idea to fruition lights up my soul like nothing else. I knew as I grew my blog that deep down that alongside writing, one day I would create a product, something tangible, that could bring joy to others - I just didn’t know what that would look like yet.

If I could give my twenty-something self advice now, I’d say to keep chasing your dream, even when you don’t know what it looks like yet. Because I didn’t know what my dream was going to look like, but I kept hustling towards it anyway.

I hoped that somehow a future product line would tie into Jetset Christina, but I didn’t ask the universe for answers, I just kept following the sunshine, and what made me happy. Which led to Kenny.

Kenny was starting Kenny Flowers in Bali in 2015. Kenny and I were friends at that time, having had a ‘thing’ in college at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and forever feeling magnetized to each other — even across the world.

Kenny was — and still is — someone who stops you in your tracks. He does things differently. He sees the world differently. He’s calm, steady, and unwaveringly driven. And he loves a good time. Kenny had a full scholarship on academics to UNC, and a 4.0 GPA, which he’d never tell you. What he will tell you is he had a great time, played ice hockey, and threw great retro Hawaiian shirt parties.

There’s always been something about Kenny that makes you think ‘I want what he’s having’. He knows how to live life : relaxed, 3 buttons down, and a piña colada in hand. And he makes you want to live that way too.

So, needless to say, like many, I was always drawn to him.

I visited him with friends in Bali in 2016, and, somewhere between the bintangs and the beaches, we fell in love. It was illogical, on all accounts. He was an entrepreneur living in a villa deep in the jungles of Bali. I was a brand marketer navigating the concrete jungles of San Francisco. Our worlds were quite literally on the opposite ends of the earth. And yet, we fell in love anyway.

I’ve always been a big believer in gut feelings. I think our ‘gut’ or whatever you want to call it is our internal compass that steers us towards our destiny, while also steering us away from what is wrong for us. When we learn to tune into these gut instincts, the world opens up to us. Things flow. Opportunities we never dreamt of come knocking. It’s as if there’s a version of us in the future sending a message to our current selves telling us that our wildest dreams are not only possible - but that our future self is actually living them.

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So even though logic told me that Kenny and I were never going to be, my gut said the opposite. I went back to San Francisco after that trip to Bali completely changed. We were long distance at first, but over those following months, I saved enough money to quit my job, and came up with a plan pursue Jetset Christina full time — moving across the world, and completely out of my comfort zone.

Jetset Christina took off. By giving it my full energy, my blog amassed more readers than ever before, and I started to get more and more sponsorship opportunities from hotels, tourism boards, and brands to make it an actual business. It was crazy!!! But there was something in me that still wanted more. I wanted to create something. ESPECIALLY seeing Kenny creating Kenny Flowers, I was bitten by the fashion bug.

That was when I looked at him one day and told Kenny, “I’m going to start a swimwear line”. So I did. He had the connections to a swimwear factory he had recently started using on the men’s side of KF, so I took over the new women’s side, and designed our very first women’s line for Kenny Flowers — swimwear (a category literally everyone warned me against, but one that felt true to my self and what I knew best).

It was an instant hit, and I think so much of that was because, like everything we’ve ever made, I came into it from a consumer perspective - zealously committed to creating what I wanted in a swimsuit that I couldn’t find in the market. Even when everyone told me that what I wanted wasn’t possible, I wanted to create something better, and better quality than anyone had ever made before - and we did!

That was seven years ago now, and, since then, we’ve grown so much, and have so many incredible products beyond our swimwear, including our women’s dresses, shorts, pants, and even chic tennis and golf-wear too. I’m addicted to creating products - finding gaps in the market, designing new silhouettes for dresses that I - and my girls - can’t wait to wear, making a bikini that makes my postpartum mama body feel AMAZING, designing prints that make me happy - that feel like sunshine.

I can’t get enough of the dopamine that is this world of Kenny Flowers.

And the best part is that it ties directly into what I do with Jetset Christina so well. Because half of the fun of planning a vacation is planning the PERFECT outfits to wear. And I get to help you with both. What a dream.

But one product that has always been on my mind, from the beginning (!!!!!!!) …. something I’ve always dreamt of creating — that I’m finally bringing to life — is

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