Let the planning begin! Here's how we plan our adventures in new cities.
When it comes to planning where to stay, what to do and where to explore on our Cookie trips, that is where I come in! Long story short, (long story to be featured later) Leanne picked an AirBnB in Denver and will never be tasked with choosing a place to stay again. 😂😂😂
After we have settled on a city, I always start looking at different areas to decide what type of trip we want to make it. For Houston, we decided to stay in the heart of downtown so we could easily walk or take a quick Uber to where we wanted to go. I personally feel that if you are headed to a new city, staying in the downtown area will let you enjoy the city to its fullest potential. You might be walking to a brewery or restaurant and find a cute boutique on the way, stop in only to find the cutest shirt! You might even change your plans all together and head to a different bar or restaurant because something caught your eye. Downtown gives you lots of opportunities to naturally come across city gems that you wouldn’t necessarily learn about online.
Now it’s time for hotels. When it comes to hotels, everyone has their own budget, style and hotel quality that they prefer. With Leanne and I, we will typically pay a little extra if it means better location, newer or recently updated rooms with specific amenities we love. One tip we will give you is, no matter the type of hotel you prefer to stay at, always do your research. Don’t just pick the first one you find. Search around, read reviews, and look into the area the hotel is in! It’s important that where you stay is conducive to the type of trip you’re looking to have.
For this trip we decided that Hotel Alessandra was the perfect location in combination with its style and ambiance was just what we wanted. It has an amazing rooftop pool, along with a cocktail bar and a restaurant right in the hotel if you don’t want to adventure out one night. They also offer room service for late night eats, which we took advantage of and ordered mini corn dogs with fries and a side of mac n cheese! This was also the night I taught Leanne about “fancy sauce”! Last but certainly not least, they offer a complimentary Maserati that they will give you a ride in within a 5 minute radius of the hotel.
This trip was to celebrate Leanne’s birthday so I called the hotel a few days before we arrived and was able to arrange for a bottle of prosecco to be in our room when we checked in. #bubblesforthewin We also were treated to 3 bottles of local beers on ice when we arrived in our room. Our room overlooked the rooftop pool and had a great view of the city.
Next on the planning list is the most important part of vacation: food and drink! I rely heavily on Instagram and some simple Google searches to help find options. When it comes to using Instagram, I typically will use it to find restaurants and bars. There are so many local food bloggers, so use that to your advantage. They are out trying new restaurants, posting photos and even doing stories of their favorites. I find it best to just search in Instagram the city you are going to and scroll through the results. More than likely you will find foodie accounts, so check out them out and see what you think. Make sure not to pass up their highlights because most will have their favorites saved there. We like to have a few options of where we can go to eat and drink but don’t really make set plans until the day comes. Even then we typically wing it unless there is somewhere we know we definitely want to go and then we make a reservation.
We are both Wisconsin girls, so you know we have to check out local craft breweries. I just did a quick Google search of downtown Houston breweries and a bunch popped up. I thought it would be fun to do a day adventure of brewery tours curated by yours truly. I again relied on Google maps to figure out what would be the best route and how we could squeeze in 4 breweries along with lunch and have enough time to head back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We will be doing a post dedicated to just our brewery tour to share with everyone as well, so stay tuned!
While doing any research for our trips, I always create a saved/bookmarked folder in Instagram labeled for each city, to refer back to all of the things I find. This way it is super easy to go back and make a plan based off of places you researched and found interesting.
We had the best time exploring and experiencing Houston. We would highly recommend checking it out if you have never been before. Everyone is super friendly and there are so many fun bars and restaurants to enjoy while you are there!
Now onto planning our next adventure!!
Calla
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