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Discovering Hidden Gems

We’re a married, age-gap couple with a passion for exploring the U.S., one road trip at a time! Our travels focus on national parks, scenic drives, and hidden gems, with detailed itineraries to help you plan your own adventures. While we cover destinations across the country, we have a special love for Southern California, Las Vegas, Florida, and our current home base—Dayton, Ohio.With a background in hospitality and tourism management (B.A. & M.S.) and experience in hotels, theme parks, guided vacation sales, and special events, we bring both industry expertise and firsthand travel experience to our content.Follow along as we uncover the best weekend getaways, off-the-beaten-path spots, and foodie finds across the U.S.!

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Discount Travel Secret: Happy America 250!

Discount Travel Secrets: Happy America 250! Hi Reader, We're taking time off this holiday weekend, so today's newsletter will be short and sweet! Happy America 250 🇺🇸 🎆 We put together a playlist on our Youtube channel of the best destinations to visit to celebrate America 250 including places like Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Williamsburg, and more, so check it out if you have time this weekend! See you next week, Eva and JP 💎 P.S. Ready to plan your next trip? Find some of our...

Discount Travel Secrets: Check up on your reservations Hi Reader, The other night I was watching the World Cup games and decided to check up on my reservations for my 2 trips this summer to see if there were any changes to make or update. I decided to just see what the current hotel rates were to see if it helped me to book in advance or if last minute availability would be the better deal. Spoiler alert: it was about 50/50 I have a total of 6 hotel reservations for this summer and for 3 of...

Discount Travel Secrets: Summer Travel Hacks Hi Reader, This week I was featured in an article in Woman's World magazine about how to save money on travel, so I thought that would be the perfect thing to share this week. The article will be in the print version of the magazine at the end of the month! It's titled: How To Save Money on Travel: Yes, Free Flights Are Real With These Easy Hacks! Click below to read the article: Woman's World Article See you next week, Eva and JP 💎 P.S. Ready to...

Discount Travel Secrets: Summer Travel Hacks Hi Reader, Last week I shared about how I'm visiting DC this summer on a budget of $575 (and I'll make sure to share the update after the trip). This week, I'll be sharing how I'm taking a week-long road trip through New York on a budget of $1500.New York Road Trip Transportation: $345 in gas & tolls We'll be driving our own car, so there's no added rental car fee. There is a toll road that costs about $35-$45 roundtrip and I looked at the...

Discount Travel Secrets: Summer Travel Hacks Hi Reader, This summer I have 2 trips planned: a weekend road trip to DC and a week-long road trip around New York. One is expected to cost about $575 and the other is expected to cost about $1500. Both are more expensive than what I would typically spend, so I'd thought I'd share the breakdown of how I made them as cheap as possible while still having standards 😂DC Weekend Trip Transportation We'll be driving our own car, so there's no added...

Discount Travel Secrets: Self Guided Audio Driving Tours Hi Reader, One of my favorite things to book for road trips lately has been self guided audio driving tours. Not regular tours where you have to show up at a certain time and follow a giant group around. These are the kind you download on your phone and do completely at your own pace while driving. They make road trips SO much more interesting. We first started using them in Maui because there’s so many stops along the Road to Hana, the...

Discount Travel Secrets: Save On A Florida Vacation Hi Reader, I just spent 2 weeks in Florida and my grand total of spending was $389.78! Here's the breakdown by sector of the tourism industry: Transportation = $190.42 I drove my own car, so no rental costs or airfare costs I spent $190.42 on gas and drove about 2,500 miles round trip Toll expenses are still TBD I did get an oil change before the trip, which was like $70, but that's something I would have had to regardless, so I don't...

Discount Travel Secret: New and Updated Blog Posts! Hi Reader, I have been VERY busy overhauling our website this year, so this week I wanted to share our blog posts that got major overhauls since I last sent an update at the end of March! For the future, I'm thinking of sending updates every 6-8 weeks or so in larger batches like this to share these posts, so we can stick to the traditional Discount Travel Secrets structure more frequently. So to start off, here are 2 BRAND NEW blog posts...

Discount Travel Secrets: My Practically Free Trip To North Carolina Hi Reader, As I mentioned last week, I am currently out on the road again! I just spent a couple days in the small mountain town of Sapphire, North Carolina before continuing my road trip down to Florida. It's kind of like going to Pigeon Forge, except it's on the back side of the Smoky Mountains, and the town is MUCH smaller. Sapphire is more of a place to unplug, enjoy the outdoors, and maybe try some golf or ziplining or...

Discount Travel Secrets: We're Heading Back Out On The Road! Hi Reader, This week I will be off on my next road tripping adventure! The idea started out as a quick trip to pick up my Grammy in Florida and drive her up to Ohio for Memorial Day weekend. But then, my youngest sister said that my trip wasn't that far off from her birthday and she didn't have any plans yet *hint hint*. So then I expanded the trip. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to use up last year's timeshare...