Last month I had the privilege to visit one the of most beautiful places on earth, Honolulu, Hawaii. Before visiting, I'd always thought about Hawaii in terms of postcard-like scenery and luau celebrations. What I was surprised by was the obsession that Hawaiians have with President Obama, street art, and all things SPAM!

How many times have you come home from a trip and felt as if you never went on vacation to begin with? Times where the trip itself was amazing but all of the travel, airports, climate changes and time zones left you SPENT? These are the times that I go into “vacation recovery”.

Even before I dubbed myself "The Urban Carrie", I had long dreamt of the day that I would visit Paris, France. It has been on my bucket list for forever so when my friend Chase invited me, I could not turn him down. Chase had friends living in the city so I got more of a local experience and had a blast! Something I noticed immediately  when arriving at CDG airport, was the number of black people.

Let me start by saying, these tips have worked for me in the past. Nothing is full proof but I hope this helps someone.  Enjoy!

I had been wanting to visit PR for some time, so I booked the flight as well as an AirBnB and didn't tell anyone that I was going except my best friends.