Practical Wanderlust

Off-Beat Couple's Travel Blog

Hey, we're Lia and Jeremy, the couple behind the Practical Wanderlust travel blog!

MEET LIA & JEREMY

Hey there! We’re Lia & Jeremy. We created Practical Wanderlust in 2016, just before throwing all of our stuff in storage and embarking on a year-long honeymoon. The honeymoon was pretty much a disaster (read all about it) but we had a great time anyway.

On our blog you’ll find practical, down-to-earth, budget-friendly travel tips that will help you avoid making all of our terrible, terrible mistakes. We love off-the-beaten-path travel and discovering what makes a place unique (and a little weird). Our goal is to inform you & make you laugh (preferably at the same time). We want to show that travel doesn’t have to be perfect – sometimes it’s a complete disaster, and that’s OK too!

Want to know more about us? You can low key stalk us here & on our social media channels.

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Meet Lia & Jeremy

Recent Posts

  • There's a magic in freshly fallen snow. In twinkling lights strung across quiet alleys. In watching your breath rise above you in curling plumes. In old, haunted castles and cheerfully decorated Christmas trees. In food so comforting that it warms you up from the inside, like crispy fried potatoes covered in gravy and braised caribou, or savory meat pie with a soft, flaky crust. There's a magic in wandering through empty streets past midnight hand in hand with someone you love, just you and a few other brave souls whose curious feet led them outside into the crisp air instead of curling up in a cozy bed. . That same magic is also in the ancient cobblestones lining Old Quebec, in the deep, icy waters of the St. Lawrence river, and in its warm, friendly locals. It's in the maple taffy stand in front of the coffee shop. And I think we might have taken a little piece of it home with us in our suitcases, too. . Do you find those moments of pure magic when you travel, too? Tell me what about feels most magical to you in the comments! . . . #discovercanada #livelovecanada #thecanadacollective #quebeccitylife #oldquebeccity #archilovers #vieuxquebec #exploremore #travelstagram #worldingram #citylights #sidewalkerdaily #wintertravel #LovetoTravel #thefairytalebloggers #exploreqc #momentsLCF#quebeccite #quebecoriginal #MyTinyAtlas #roadtripQm #quebeccity #ilovequebecc #exploreqc #chateaufrontenac #TravelAwesome #travelstagram #PassionPassport #DarlingEscapes #AtHomeInTheWorld
  • I love snow. I love the feeling of waking up to a fresh blanket of soft, white powder outside my window, the whole world magically turned into a sparkling playground. I love the excitement of snow days: there is NOTHING more heart-warming than being told that you don't have to go to school or to work today, and instead you can spend the whole day frolicking in the snow. I love warming up with a mug of hot cocoa after a long day of playing outside in the cold. . Nostalgia and snow days are inextricably linked for me: growing up in Louisville, Kentucky meant that snow was common, but actual snow days were rare. Maybe once a year - or once every other year - we'd get a nice heaping of snow, and the whole city would shut down. It was an unexpected and rare joy. These days, living in Oakland, California the best I get is a cozy day of pouring rain. Not exactly the same. . I never really grew out of my snow love. Even though I am now almost 30 and have to travel to get my snow fix, I still turn into a little kid around snow (as anyone who watched my stories from Canada last week probably already knows). From snowball fights to building snowmen to designing elaborate snow forts to making snow angels to catching snowflakes on my tongue, there is nothing snow-related that I'm too grown to do. Yes, including literally rolling around in the snow. (Again: stories.) . But I've realized something: rolling around in the snow only gets you so far. The adult version of playing in the snow is a bit more athletic. Like, Jeremy plays in the snow on his snowboard. While I was exploring a forest on snow-shoe at Mont Saint Anne outside of Quebec City, he was flying downhill at top speed. . So I've decided I kinda want to give grown-up snow fun a try. Even though I'm the clumsiest person in the universe, even though a doctor looked at an x-ray of my knees a couple years ago and said "they're aging rapidly," even though my athletic abilities are solidly non-existent, I've decided that I want to learn how to ski in 2019. Ahhh! Wish me (and my decrepit knees) luck! . Do you play in the snow like a grown-up on skis or a snowboard, or like 5 year old (slash me)? Drop me a comment below!
  • There's a giant castle looming over adorable Quebec City, Canada. At first glance, you might assume someone royal lives there, probably along with a menagerie of fairytale characters and talking wildlife. But this is no ordinary castle: it's a Fairmont hotel. You can stay inside the castle like you, too, are a royal person! Or, if you're slightly more plebian (ahem: us), you can eat inside at one of the incredible restaurants while watching ice float by on the St. Lawrence River below. Our meal at Le Sam was one of the most romantic meals we've ever had. . We've long associated Fairmont Hotels with romance. Way back in 2014, when we'd only been dating for a few months, Jeremy and I went on a date in San Francisco. We dressed up in our fanciest clothes and proceeded to try to sneak into as many fancy, expensive places as we could. Our sneaking skills are legit, y'all: we snuck into a famous historic bar, we snuck onto a fire escape clinging to the side of a hotel tower overlooking Union Square, and we snuck into the Fairmont Hotel ... directly into a wedding. We pretended to be excited wedding guests for a few minutes and then quietly escaped to the rooftop garden..As the lights of San Francisco glimmered below us, we looked deep into one another's eyes, and ... nothing happened. I could have SWORN Jeremy was going to tell me he loved me that night for the first time, but he didn't. Later he admitted that he wanted to, but totally chickened out. . Flash forward to December 13, 2014. We snuck onto the same fire escape overlooking Union Square again. And we headed to the rooftop garden at the Fairmont Hotel, again. But this time, Jeremy didn't chicken out: he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!.Later, in 2016, we took a taxi from the redwood grove where we were married to the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco to spend our first night together as a married couple: the one and only time we've ever stayed at a Fairmont Hotel. . Although we're not quite there yet, one of our bucket list goals is to stay at some of the beautiful Fairmont hotels around the world, including the stunning Chateau Frontenac. So Quebec City, we'll be back!
  • Can we talk about pressure?😓 You'd think that being your own boss would relieve it, right? You no longer have anyone to answer to. You don't have to clock in or out at certain times. You can waltz into work in your PJs at whatever hour you please and spend the entire day looking at pug GIFs, and nobody's the wiser. And yet, that's not what being your own boss looks like. At all. . Yesterday, for instance, being my own boss looked like this: I accidentally hit "reply all" on a sensitive email and went into a panic spiral - there was no higher-up to apologize for my unprofessionalism. I spent 3 hours researching contract clauses for a fairly straightforward collaboration, because I'm my own legal department. I neglected to pay 2 overdue invoices, including for my own team members, because I'm also the payroll department (and the HR department). . I had a vent session with a friend about an irritating situation at work involving a sassy IT tech, which felt straight out of an episode of the IT Crowd. But even as I laughed and remembered my own experiences with sassy IT techs (yes, my computer is plugged in, no, I'm not an idiot) I realized with horror that if something happens to MY computer - or my printer, or my phone, or anything else that I rely on to do my work every day - nobody is coming over to help fix it. I'm the IT department, too. . I spent most of my day frantically responding to the many, many emails I've been neglecting. As I typed "so sorry for the delayed response" over and over again, my guilt and pressure rose into a giant, looming shroud above my head. . When Jeremy came home carrying a giant box of pavlova like a damn angel, I nearly cried. . The pressure I'm feeling is both real, from deadlines and sponsors, and perceived, from myself. And the deadly threat of burnout is ever present - something I have to fight constantly, tirelessly. Even as I prioritize self-care and allow myself, lovingly, to fail, pressure mounts. But venting helps release it a bit, and I'm so grateful to you for letting me get it out! . Are you feeling under pressure lately? Also, which version of Under Pressure do you like best? Cuz that's what's stuck in my head now...
  • Yesterday was my 29th birthday, and Jeremy treated me to a day at the Spa at the luxurious Claremont Fairmont hotel. But before I headed off to soak in a hot tub the size of the one in the Prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts, I sat at home on my computer, frantically typing. I wanted to publish a post before I left. What kind of person delays a spa treatment so she can get more work done?! This girl, apparently. . But this was no ordinary post. This wasn't a travel guide or a packing list. It was my 2018 reflection post. And the more I wrote, the more my heart grew warm and fuzzy, remembering how well the last year has treated me. . I described 2017 as the year that everything changed. 2018 was the year that cemented that change. It was the year of high risk, high reward. It was the year that I threw caution to the wind and took a huge chance. It was the year I threw away a career I'd spent 9 years working on just to like, do a hobby more? But it was also the year I reaped the rewards of that risk. The rewards came faster and earlier and bigger than I ever dreamed they could. . In January 2018, as I sat down at my desk to start my first day as a full-time travel blogger, I gave myself an ultimatum: 1 year. I have 1 year to see this thing through and try to make it work. If we're still scraping by and struggling after 1 year, I'd call it quits and get a "real" job again. . Well, spoilers: I don't have to get a real job again 🙃 . But some of the perks of travel blogging weren't things I ever could have imagined. Like the time it allowed me to spend with friends and family. And the new friends I've made along the way. And the insane, unimaginable fact that over 1 million individual human people visited our humble little blog in 2018 😲 Don't pinch me, because if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up! . To check out our 2018 year in review post, head to the link in our bio. Oh, and grab a coffee y'all, it's a long one! . Did you take a risk in 2018? Did it pay off? Drop us a comment below!
  • 2018 is coming to a close, and man... it's been a hell of a year. And its on the tail end of a series of epic years, too: . 🌍 In 2016, we quit our jobs, put everything we owned in storage, and set off on a year-long backpacking honeymoon. We started a little blog as a hobby to let our family and friends follow along on our adventures. Then we strapped on our packs and headed to South America. . ✈ In 2017, our honeymoon didn't exactly pan out the way we expected. We flew home unexpectedly for a family emergency and didn't make it back abroad for another 5 months. We ended our trip, moved back to the Bay Area, and struggled to re-adjust to normal life. We were flat broke and had forgotten how to do incredibly normal things, like make small talk and do the dishes (to be fair, those were never our strong suits). Lia returned to corporate life to pay our bills, and spent 3 miserable months working a full time day job AND blogging at night and on the weekends. Until... . 🎉 In 2018, Lia quit her corporate job (again) and officially became a full-time blogger, which neither of us were sure was actually a thing. She gave herself 1 year to make it work. Otherwise, she would go back to corporate life... for good this time (really). Jeremy committed himself fully to teaching, taking on night classes and a leadership role at his school.  2018 was the year of hustle and chasing down our dreams and passions, full steam ahead. . So how'd we do? Well... . 🏆In 2019, Lia is starting the year as a 6-figure earning full travel blogger... along with 4 newly onboarded team members. Jeremy is planning a trip to Colombia for his students in partnership with the amazing @take_flyte_org. Oh, and the director of Black Panther stopped by his Digital Media Arts classroom a few weeks ago to discuss filmmaking. . 2018, you were awesome. And we can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for us! . How was your 2018? We would love to hear about the challenges you faced and how you approached them (or maybe are still struggling with them). Drop us a comment below!
  • Merry Christmas from Practical Wanderlust!🎄🎁🎅 This is actually the first year since we got married 3 years ago that we're actually celebrating Christmas properly, aka with family and presents instead of on a plane or in a hostel somewhere abroad. So we figured we might as well go all out. Yep, that's right: we've officially joined the dorky matching PJ's club (it's actually horrifying how many clothes we have that match - this isn't even unusual for us). . My parents picked and chose holidays to observe and celebrate that spanned various religions and traditions, which is why I grew up celebrating both Christmas and Hannukkah. It took me years to realize that most families don't actually do that, although I was pissed when I discovered that my Jewish cousins all got presents on Hannukah when I only got them on Christmas. Well played, parents. Although to be fair, my birthday is 2 weeks after Christmas so they were already obligated to buy me double gifts anyway (which I strongly suspect that they did not). 😆 . My family is a bunch of nerds, so we always write clues on our presents and then open them one at a time, giving everyone in the room a chance to guess what's inside. Over the years, we've all honed our wordplay and pun-making abilities, which is a completely useless tool unless you happen to have a captive audience like a classroom full of youths or a couple hundred thousand monthly blog readers on whom to subject your ~~~whordplay whit~~~. Jeremy and I are so lucky 😂 . . What are some of your favorite holiday traditions? I want to know about all of them - and the weirder the better! Drop us a comment below (unless you're too busy doing awesome holiday stuff)! 🎁🌲☃️
  • Do you celebrate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (or none of the above)? 🎄🎅 I know loads of people who celebrate on Christmas Eve, but my family always celebrated on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was a quiet day to relax, wrap and finish making gifts, prep food for the Christmas meal, or just lay around in your PJ's doing nothing. Which, incidentally, is what I am currently doing along with Jeremy and my sister😄 . Our family doesn't have a whole lot of Christmas traditions, but a few have stuck over the years and we've now picked them up and adapted as adults. A lot of our traditions revolved around food, which probably explains a lot about me and why I do things like go 2 hours out of my way just to try some random food I read about deep in a TripAdvisor review from 9 years ago... 🍡 . The list of traditional Christmas foods from my childhood that have firmly embedded a deep sense of nostalgia are nothing like Jeremy's. For me, Christmas tastes like Jewish liver pate, chocolate bourbon balls (yes, even children have a taste for bourbon in Kentucky), and honey-baked ham and spicy mustard on those flaky biscuits you get from those cans that are terrifying to open but taste amazing. For Jeremy, Christmas tastes like handmade tamales, menudo, and fresh tortillas. (Surprise: my ginger-bearded, pale AF husband is half Latino!). . What does your Christmas taste like? Or if you don't celebrate, what are some special holiday foods that you love or associate with this time of the year? 🥡 Drop us a comment below! . . . . #visitcopenhagen #TravelDiary #Nyhavn #TheGlobeWanderer #living_europe #theprettycities #exploringtheglobe #københavn #voreskbh #visitdenmark #igerscopenhagen #ig_denmark #thisiscopenhagen #kings_villages #worldingram #DoYouTravel #LovetoTravel #travelstagram #Huntgram #exploretheworld #enjoyeurope #OpenMyWorld #mytinyatlas #beautifuldestinations #TravelAwesome #sidewalkerdaily #europe_vacations #topeuropephoto #europetrip #prettylittletrips

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