Travel Tips – The Girl Who Goes

Last Updated on June 4, 2025

Why We Decided To Open the CapitalOne Venture X Credit Card

Hello from Kansas City! While we are official residents of Alicante, Spain, now, we came home to KC for about seven weeks for my sister’s college graduation, a plethora of family birthdays, and to work on some wedding preparation stuff. During the first week at home, our car’s alternator died during the drive to Wichita for the aforementioned graduation, leaving us stranded on the side of the road for four hours. During the second week, our air conditioning/furnace died. As we stared down the $10,088 bill for replacement, we made a decision: to open a new credit card — specifically, the CapitalOne Venture X credit card. [Read more…]

Last Updated on October 29, 2025

Personal Item Packing List: How To Pack Without Paying for a Carry-On

personal item packing list - cover photo

My PacSafe bag is part of my personal item packing list

Over here in Europe, gone are the days of budget airlines giving you a free carry-on bag. When flying any of the major low-cost carriers, such as RyanAir, Vueling, and Transavia, you typically only get a personal item for free. And your personal item isn’t the one that goes in the overhead bin — no, it’s the small bag that fits under the seat in front of you.

During our trip through Europe this past fall, we had to bite the bullet and pay to bring our carry-on bags with us on every flight. Which really added up. In our defense, we were packing for two months and needed a lot more than we could fit in a small backpack. But now that we’re based in Alicante, Spain, we’ve been taking long weekend trips to other cities in Europe. And we’ve perfected our personal item packing lists so that we don’t have to pay for a carry-on. (Also, I finally upgraded my backpack to utilize my space even more efficiently with the CabinZero bag.)

Here are five tips for packing for a long weekend in a personal item bag, plus my personal item packing list. [Read more…]

Last Updated on February 17, 2024

How To Use Airalo eSim Card When Traveling Abroad

Hi all! After being my travel partner for so many years now, I finally got Matt to write his first guest post for The Girl Who Goes! I’m very thankful he took the time to explore a topic that many travelers have questions about: eSim cards, and specifically, Airalo eSim cards. Let us know what you think! — Cathy

Hey everyone! Matt here. *Spits out coffee* WHAT?!? Crazy I know.

Today’s installment is going to be a little departure from the norm because Cathy asked me to write about a piece of our travels that I have much more experience with than she does.

For those of you who know us well, this might come as a shock because I am almost always the one who is just along for the ride. That usually has more to deal with the planning than anything, but once we are at our destination, I am the designated navigator. I have an innate sense of direction that has only steered us wrong once (maybe twice on a technicality) over all our trips.

With the role of being navigator comes the need to be able to look up directions, recommendations, etc., which requires fast, reliable cell service while traveling abroad. That is where my trusty friend Airalo comes in. [Read more…]

Last Updated on December 3, 2025

Spirit Airlines vs. RyanAir: How Do They Compare?

Originally Published on December 26, 2023

This past weekend, I got to experience one of the coolest things ever: a Pakistani wedding in Orlando, Florida! An old co-worker of ours got married, and we were SO honored to have been invited! Between the wedding lasting three days, culturally “appreciating” some traditional South Asian dress, and learning a few group dances before the big days, it was an unforgettable experience that I’m always going to cherish.

But, you know, it was Christmas weekend. And it was also Orlando. While I couldn’t have cared less about shifting my family’s Christmas celebration to a different day, finding flights around Christmas — specifically to and from Orlando — was not the world’s cheapest undertaking. Which meant that, in order to make it more affordable for us, we undertook another “first” experience: flying on Spirit Airlines. [Read more…]

Last Updated on November 22, 2025

How To Pack for Long Trips in a Backpack + My 2-Month Packing List

This is how my REI 40L bag looked for two months. 😉

We recently spent two months traveling around Europe while applying for our Spain digital nomad visas… and it was certainly a very busy two months! We spent all of August in Sevilla, sweating away the 112F/44C degree days, as we worked on our visas and tried to enjoy the city as best we could. And September was a whirlwind as we traveled to five different countries and I achieved my goal of visiting my 30th country while I’m 30 years old! On top of that, we took engagement photos in Porto, Portugal, at the end of our trip.

And we did it all while only traveling with our backpacks.

Keep reading to learn my secrets for packing for long trips in a backpack + get my packing list for this trip.

[Read more…]

Last Updated on December 10, 2025

The Best & Worst Cities To Change Airports for Cheaper Flights

When we lived in the U.S. and would travel internationally — whether to Europe, Central or South America, Asia, or elsewhere — we would often find and book the cheapest flights from bigger cities to our destination. From Kansas City, where we’re from, there just aren’t as many cost-effective options. Typically, we used Southwest points we accrued in our former lives as corporate consultants to help us get from KC to our destination city.

Our favorite place to transfer is Boston, because Boston only has one airport and we only have to change terminals, but a lot of big hub cities have multiple airports. And Southwest typically flies into the smaller airport of the two. Which means having to plan the transfer into our travel day. Depending on the airports and cities, this can range from a minor pain to a major one.

The four cities we’ve transferred airports on a travel day are Chicago, Fort Lauderdale/Miami, New York City, and Houston. Here’s a review of what it’s like to change airports using public transportation in those four cities, ranked from best to worst, with ratings based on a few factors. [Read more…]

Last Updated on November 10, 2025

How To Transfer from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) to Miami Airport (MIA)

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The Tri-Rail Train helps you transfer from Fort Lauderdale to Miami airport.

Somehow, more than five years after quitting my corporate job that helped me rack up hundreds of thousands of Southwest Airlines points, I still had points left. And I kept using them to my advantage as long as I could. Our typical strategy was to use the Southwest points to fly for free from Kansas City to a bigger cities with better direct flights. So when we went to Costa Rica, we flew from Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale for free, and then booked our actual flight to San José from Miami.

But we did have to transfer airports: from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. With more airlines offering layovers at different airports in the same city/region these days, it’s important to know how to get from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, or vice versa, most efficiently.

So here’s what you need to know about transferring airports between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. [Read more…]

Last Updated on March 19, 2025

How To Plan Your Own European Road Trip

If you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of road trips. Whether it was my family’s annual road trip across the U.S. that took us thousands of miles in two weeks, my road trip through Alaska with a friend when we were 24, or the most recent European road trip Matt and I took through Spain, France, and Andorra this past winter… there’s something special about traveling “slow.” Seeing the world around you rather than flying from point A to point B.

Our European road trip in January was actually my first “proper” road trip in Europe — meaning I rented a car for more than just a day. Over two weeks, we visited seven cities in three countries. And while it was more expensive than flying or taking the train/bus between cities, we enjoyed the freedom the rental car afforded us.

Of course, planning a road trip can be overwhelming, no matter whether you’re close to home or on the other side of the world. So if you’re thinking about your very own European road trip, here are my tips to help make it easier. [Read more…]

Last Updated on December 11, 2025

Europe Road Trip Pros and Cons: Is a European Road Trip Worth It?

A few years ago, Matt and I rented a car in Barcelona and began our two-week road trip through parts of Spain, France, and Andorra. While I’d rented cars for shorter day trips before — like Munich to Neuschwanstein, and Dublin to Giant’s Causeway — this was my first time taking a real European road trip.

It’s always cool to try something new, and we had an amazing time visiting three countries and seven cities. And of course, when you try something new, you learn a lot. (Here’s what we learned about taking a road trip in Europe.)

If you’re thinking about taking a European road trip of your own, there are lots of things to think about before you make the decision. And now that I’ve done it, I’ve got a list of things for you to consider.

Here are the pros and cons of taking a Europe road trip. [Read more…]

Last Updated on November 17, 2025

5 Travel Essentials I Can’t Live Without: Travel Electronics

Hi all! I’m getting close to being finished with all my location-specific posts about our European road trip, but I thought it could be nice to take a break and write about something a little different for my next post. You may have seen the article I wrote over the summer — 5 Travel Essentials I Can’t Live Without — and after a few more long trips, I realized there are some other things I never travel without.

So here’s another list of my travel essentials… this time, with a focus on essential travel electronics. [Read more…]