The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - #75: Travel Hacks and Travel Bugs, Tips and Tricks for Travel

Episode Date: August 15, 2017

On this episode we are in the South of France talking all things travel. We get caught up with our experience during our month long stay in France. We talk travel tips and tricks. We discuss how to beat jet lag and pack properly and what to do to get the best information from the locals in any town. We also discuss travel programs and credit card programs to utilize to make travel easier.  To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn’s latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you’ll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off

The following podcast is a Bostik Media production. This episode is brought to you by the Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide. So you guys know I have a meal plan and a body guide. It's basically all my workouts and everything I like to eat on a regular basis in one place. It's kind of like an e-book. It's pretty. It's pink. It's got all my skinny hacks.

It has my favorite cocktails. It has how I micromanage the bartender. Basically every skinny secret that I have in one place that I've learned over the years of talking to fitness experts and nutritionists. The workouts are quick, easy, efficient, and you can do them while watching Real Housewives. All you have to do is go to members.theskinnyconfidential.com and type in the code him and her at checkout for 20% off. That's him and her at checkout for 20% off. Now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential. Him and her.

Hello from France. We are podcasting today from France and from bed. Enchanté. Oh my God, he thinks he's French, you guys. That's a whole different story. Bonsoir. Why don't you introduce me in French, honey? I can't. I can't right now. Okay, all right.

I'm Lauren, creator of The Skinny Confidential, which is a podcast book and blog. And I'm Michael Bostic, entrepreneur, businessman, podcaster extraordinaire. And now he thinks he's a French man. So apparently there's that. And you just cooked me pasta. So apparently there's that. And you just cooked me pasta. So I feel like you are kind of turning French. No, that was a little Italian dish, a little penne arbiata. Yeah. You're like really getting some points tonight. Well, we've been here in the South of France, as some of you know, for pretty much the entire month of August

now. What day is it? The 15th? 14th? I have no idea what day it is. I'm just going to be real. We're on French time. Yeah, we're on French time. So we've been out here and Lauren and I came. We spent the first few days alone traveling the south of France by ourselves. We're in Monte Carlo. Then we were in Cannes. We were in between.

We were in Thieb's for a while. Now we are in Saint-Tropez. Our family and some of our friends have been joining us for the last 10 days which was definitely interesting a lot of dynamics going on a lot of dynamics a lot of dynamics we uh we rented a house through a company called square break here which is similar to airbnb or vrbo what's here in in france and had a big house i think four four, four baths. Your dad told you that you got the best room because he was here and he picked out the rooms

first. And I have a surprise for you. He lied. Dad, if you're listening, that was a good move. You know, with this guy, I booked this house for everybody. I was like, here, everybody come join us. And I invited Lauren's sister, Mimi. She was out here working with us my sister Tara she's always in Europe running around as some of you know so she came and joined us my dad I said dad why don't you come out it's been a while since we've traveled together bring mom he came out my friend Alex Moose Knuckle he's been on this show if you go back last year there's an episode titled San Tropez Moose Knuckle Gene Gene he was here that Gene is Alex's alex came out here with his girlfriend jonna so we had a whole house full of people people trying to do the same thing sometimes different things at other

times but anyways next time we travel with this many people we're 100 printing up itineraries and saying if you want to come this is what we're doing and if you don't no worries yeah that i i didn't really think that through yeah but anyways my dad, my dad and Alex, Alex has a car dealership and they got two cars down here for the dealership and these guys decided they were going to pick them up in Germany and then have them shipped to the States. So in the meantime, they were going to run around Europe like madmen racing each other everywhere, which they did.

And so they did that, my dad and Alex, and they came to the house that I rented, if you assholes are listening alex dad and they showed up a day early and said oh we'll sort the rooms no problem yeah they said don't worry we'll give you guys the best room we got you covered did michael no problem you booked it you you got it it's your it's your place we'll get you the best room your dad's manipulative though yeah he is and i showed up and you know he did this whole song and dance about how he gave me the best room and this let me tell you something it wasn't the best room but i figured you know

what this guy took care of me for a while birthed me with my mother michael please you know all these things i said you know what old man you can have the room i'll pretend it's not the best room and then i went up to his room today on the last day he was here. And I said, what the fuck, Michael? He got the best room. Yeah. Anyway, so I'm sick, which is fun. Every time I travel on an airplane, it's so hard because I feel like I always get sick. I don't know why.

I need to figure it out. I need to up my vitamins when I get on the plane. But I think being around all those germs just get me sick. And for some reason, Michael is not sick. I think you're just jet lag still after 15 days. Yeah, I did use your toothbrush last night, though. So there's that. Yeah, I feel fine. I feel great, actually. I did use your toothbrush. So if you have a little tickle in the back of your throat, that's on you.

I just think you've been jet lagged this whole time. Don't know how to deal with it. I'm not the best with jet lag, guys. I'm not the best. In fact, I'm rather horrific. And we'll get into this because this episode is going to be all about travel hacks. So Michael is a professional traveler in the sense that he plans and he researches and he knows his shit. Me on the other hand uh let's just say i'm not the best packer in the world yeah it's it you might as well just take a bunch of shit and throw it into a sack and then tape it up and then just hope it gets okay that's what it looks like you have these you know those like sacks with like the sticks popping out of them and like the handkerchief at the end?

Like that's me. I just don't get like somebody who's so organized, your Instagram aesthetics are organized, your blog, everything in your life, our house. And then when it comes to packing, it's just a total nightmare. I don't, I really don't understand it. You'd think that I would be terrible.

It's organized chaos. You know what I think it is? I think it's efficiency. Yeah, I'm not the best packer. I can't decide what I want. I need a lot of options. I don't know. I want to have 20 different bras. I want a lot of different underwear. I need different color bathing suits. I want all my options laid out. Yeah. But the problem is since you don't know how to pack, you can never find any of these options and then you get frustrated and then we show up somewhere and you're pissed off about what you want. He's like,

oh, I should have brought this, but you can't find whatever you're talking about. Yeah. I maybe didn't need 10 pairs of shoes. No. Or nine pairs of sunglasses. No. Well, I have a sunglass addiction, but I feel like sunglasses are like, you know, you need a lot in the South of France. I've worn two. Okay. Well, Michael, you know, we can't all be perfect. The way you pack is just out of this world. A lot of people have questions about the way you pack. A lot of people on my Instagram

stories have been watching you pack and they have questions. They want to know what you use. If you have tips, why don't you tell us about the way you pack? Because it's rather efficient. Well, I would say efficient is the whole point in anything. I like to do things in the most efficient way possible. I don't say the easiest way possible, but efficient. I think in life, people make things a lot more difficult than they need to be. If I know I'm going across the world and I'm trying to take one suitcase and I'm here for a month and I don't really want to go shopping. Tell everyone what you really do.

I will tell what I do, but I want to say it. So I want to make sure that when I get there, I have everything I need. I don't have to stress. I know where it is. I don't have to waste time unpacking it or sending it down to get laundered or looking through it. I just want to be able to like rip open the bag and then boom, boom, boom. That's where everything is. And then I go about my day and enjoy the trip.

I am so opposite of you on this. Like I have stuff all over my suitcase. Okay. Let me play devil's advocate. This is how most girls pack. I don't want to say men because I think men are usually pretty good at packing. You did bring one too many cherry cloths though. I'm going to be a little sexist and say that men are better packers than women. Okay. Well, we're better at a lot of things than you. So that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. So tell us not many things, but tell us some tips. Cause I need a lot of tips. Like I need a lot of tips. Okay. First tip is whenever you start to pack and when you get all the stuff that you want to bring, take at least 25 to 30% of the stuff you thought you needed out of the bag. Okay. But first you write a list, right? On Microsoft word. Yeah. But, but I just want,

that's the first tip is just make sure whatever you think you need, take about 30% of it away. Cause I promise you won't need it. And I guarantee people listening, there's like, wow, I went on the trip and I brought all this stuff and I didn't wear half of it. Okay. And I think that you haven't even worn 25 like not even 75 percent of your stuff neither here nor there you've worn maybe 25 percent of what you brought well don't be judgy i'm not judging i'm just i'm being a little judgy and so what i do is i say okay before i go i say how many days am i gonna be gone let's say it's for a week trip okay for a week trip you don't need four pairs of running shoes lauren okay one pair will do will do. One pair will do. Okay. Go on. Okay.

Then I say, okay, how many days I'm going to be there and what am I going to be doing? Because usually I have a pretty good idea. There's going to be some lunches. There's going to be some meetings. There's going to be some dinners. In this particular case, we're kind of on vacation. So I knew there was going to be some beach days. There's going to be some pool days. A lot of cherry cloth moments. Yeah. I like to be comfortable. A lot of loafer moments. God forbid I'm comfortable. Okay. All right. And so I make a list. I say, okay, these are the days. This is what we need to do. These are the places we're going or an idea of where we're going. And I say, okay, now that I know where I'm going and what I'm doing to some extent, I know sometimes people

are going to be spontaneous and do other things, but you know, you're either going to, you're going to be eating at some point. You're going to be going to restaurants at some point. Right know, you're either going to, you're going to be eating at some point. You're going to be going to restaurants at some point. Right. Right. Or you're going to maybe be going to an event at something. You're going to a meeting, whatever the fuck it is. Okay. But my question to you is, do you actually write down Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and like write what you're wearing? Or do you just write a huge list? No, I don't do it like that. Well, it depends if I'm going on like a four day thing and I'm working like, okay, I got it. Oh, wow. So there's different versions. Yeah. In October, I got to go to Vegas and I got to work a trade show for jet

bed okay so I got to be there there's a convention called the nbaa anybody that's in aviation it's a great convention you can see me out there I'll be working my ass off anyways I know it during that time that I got to be in suits each day at the convention and I'm gonna have some business dinners and I'm gonna have some fun dinners so I I know I write those dates down and I say okay I need these things for these days but when it's a longer excursion, you just write a huge list. Yeah. I write a list. Okay. Let's say it's like, let's say it's a 10 day trip. So I'll go like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and on up to the hover dates and I'll write the date next to them. And I'll say, okay, for these dates, I need,

I'll write pants, shirt, whatever it is, pants, shirt, boxer, socks, whatever. And then like, I'll see, okay, at the end, I'm not going to bring, if I look for a 10 day trip and I have boxers every day, I'm not going to bring 10 pairs of boxers. That's just a ludicrous. Okay. I'm probably going to bring five. Okay. So you're going to get dirty. I'm going to get dirty. What's new. Nothing's new there. But then when you run a long trip like that, a lot of people, you know, they bring overkill, but you know, a lot of these hotels or Airbnbs or even cities, you wouldn't believe it. They have what are called laundry services. So then I go and I take care of that. I'm not, I don't bring 10 pairs. I don't need one for each day.

Same thing with jeans and pants. Women, I know a little different. You need different options and different dresses, but you don't need, there's certain things like as somebody that has some kind of, you know, style, I would like to think. Oh my God, you guys. You can, you can mix and match things, right? You don't need to like be like something. I don't love the mix and match thing. I like to have options. You can have options, but if you, if you're so uncreative that you can't make, you can't make it a couple of options with a few

things. Like if you can't bring one blazer and make it look good with a few things, then you know what you're doing. I feel like I've seen your yellow Terry cloth shirt one too many times this trip. I have some Terry cloths because they're comfortable. Okay. Okay. Okay. But yes, I make a list of what I'm doing and I, and I write it all out. And then that list i'll include things like okay i need to bring my watch i need to bring a wallet i need to bring a passport oh wow you get that deep yeah i need to bring books wait you need to bring an extra charger for lauren because she's gonna steal yours i actually always write your passport your credit card your license here's a side note people do you know lauren everts i hope you get pulled over does not carry a driver's license, a credit card, cash.

I don't think I've ever known you to ever carry cash in your entire life. I forget. Nothing. And we go to places and she just looks at me and says, Michael has it. And if I wasn't there and I didn't carry all the stuff for you, you would just. Okay, but in my defense, you guys, this is how efficient I am. I have a strategy behind this. I give him my credit card and my ID so he has to carry it.

So then I never forget it. All I need is my lip gloss and my cell phone and I'm good. You have it for me. You know? Yeah, but what happens like when you don't have it? This is why, guys, don't ever let your girlfriends or wives do this. She calls me and she says, I forgot my credit card. It works so well.

And I need you to give me your credit card because I'm at the hair salon. Yep, I have it on file there. I'm on file at more hair, nail, and whatever salons than any man on earth. I feel like I'm practicing a saving plan for 2017. Yeah. Well, the problem is, is when you don't, when you spend on my cards, you don't look at what you're spending and then like, and I don't know what you're spending. And then I get the bill at the end of the month and I go crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's a fun thing we do. It's a little dance. It's not fun for me. It's fun for me. I don't want to bore people too much with packing.

Okay. Okay. But I have more questions about the in-depth part of the packing. Like what are these shirt folders that you have? I buy folding, like, like okay I don't know what they're called to me make some of them that are good I have packing cubes and I have folding trays or folding trays or folding bag I don't know what they are but what was that tie thing that you had today no I thought I'm throwing that away I don't need a tie okay that was a little extreme don't you think yeah I don't wear ties okay very often I did wear one this trip looked great oh I don't remember I don't remember. I don't

remember that. What day was that? It's on my Instagram. Oh, okay. I'll go look. It's a nice gray tie. I don't remember. It wasn't that memorable. So no, I make the list and I plan it out and then I say, okay, well I have, I need, I'm going to 10 places and I'd have 10 shirts listed. Do I really need 10 shirts? Probably not. Do I really need 10 t-shirts? Probably not. And I scale it back and then I move things around. But the problem is most people just go, oh, I'm going this whole time and they just throw more and more and more in the bag. Okay. So we got that. But what about the packing cubes and the folding stuff? Why do we need that? Packing cubes because they save space. And when you put your t-shirts or shirts or blouses or whatever the hell girls

carry, skirts, I don't know, whatever it is, you put them in there and you fold them and then you put them in there and they hold one, they hold the form so you don't have to worry about laundering and when you get there and two, you can hold more space. So everyone thinks, oh, I'm not going to do that. That's a waste of time and that costs more money. Yeah, but then you're going to have to get to the hotel and you're going to have to iron your shit. You have to send it down to get pressed. You're going to have to waste time. I just land, pull it out, put the thing in the drawer, pull a little cube out, put it in the drawer and I'm done. I don't have to unpack. Let's talk about when I was in Cannes and I decided to open my suitcase in the middle of the room.

What about it? How did you feel about that? Well, it just looks like trash. It just looks like shit. I opened my huge suitcase in the middle of the room and it was a very small room and my stuff was everywhere. You were having, actually, that was in Baylor. You had a panic attack, I think. Well, I just don't understand how someone could be so messy. Because it's organized chaos, Michael. It's like, I know where everything is in my head and I feel like I'm so organized at home that when I travel, I like to let loose a little. I like to live on the edge. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't me that had to go rummaging through everything

and carrying everything. Well, you know, that's what you're for. What can you say? All right, well, we're talking about jet lag here. We got sidetracked on the packing stuff. Get packing cubes, get folding things. First of all, you can carry twice the amount of stuff and you can find easier

and you don't have to worry about laundry service as much. So screw me for being efficient. All right. Next jet lag. What about it? Let's hear about it. Cause I am again, not the one to talk about jet lag. I'll tell you what not to do. Yeah. Why don't you, okay. I'll tell you what I like. Why don't you tell me what you do and I'll tell you why it's completely wrong. I just did a post, as you know, on your blog that Mimi followed. Mimi came out here. She followed it to a T and admit it. She was not jet lagged one day. She was fine the whole time because she listened. Okay. Here's what I like to do. I like to get on the plane and have a little champagne. Wrong. Then when I get off the plane,

I like to sleep a little bit, but I also like to work on the plane a lot. I work like half the trip. I feel like on my computer. It depends what you're doing, but okay, go on. Then when I get off the plane, I'm a little tired and grumpy. So then I like to take a nap. Wrong again. After my nap, I like to go get a massage and I don't tell you this. I like to get a facial massage and I like to get lymphatic facial drainage on my face. That's fine. Okay, but here's a little thing I've never told you. Where you sleep during the massage?

How do you know that? I mean, I've never told you that. All right. I use the facial massage to get more sleep in because I know you're going to be bugging me and buzzing in my ear like a fly. So I think, okay, I'll go get this facial massage to drain all the swelling out and I'll sleep. So by then I've slept like an extra three hours.

Then when I'm done with that, I like to have a Campari soda. Yeah. I will see now, like it depends, like it's all depending on the time zone and what you're doing, but like there's nothing wrong're there. The problem is when you get on a flight to travel, alcohol affects you way more when you're at altitude, right? It's a lot more potent at altitude. And so when you're drinking, it messes with your sleep cycle. So while all of us would want to have that nice glass of champagne or that nice cocktail on the plane, it's not always smart when you're traveling and trying to get up or jet lag, because you think, oh, this will help me relax on the plane. Maybe it'll help me sleep.

But it also screws up your sleep rhythm and makes it more difficult to get quality sleep. So then when you actually need to get rest on the plane, you usually can't. And then you're screwed for a few days. So like for me, it's all about suffering a little bit early on so that I don't have to suffer for a long time later. Your way is don't suffer at all early on and then suffer for 10 days straight. And then we fight the whole way. We did get into a couple of fights because I get really grumpy when I don't have sleep. Sleep is my number one beauty tip. I love sleep. I think it's so important for me to be functioning at a high creative level and right. I'm all about sleep. I think it's so important for me to be functioning at a high creative level and right.

I'm all about sleep. I'm definitely not one of those people that's like, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I need my sleep. Now, I maybe don't sleep the right hours. Sometimes I go to bed at two in the morning because I'm working until that time and maybe I should work in the morning, but for me, that's what works. And you're not as mad at me anymore for going to bed at two in the morning because you read some book about how creative people sometimes get creative at odd hours. Yeah, I don't mess with when you like to sleep anymore. I don't. I think if that's when you get creative, fine. I stay out of it. The only thing that I will stay and I'm sticking to my guns on this and I've said it for a long time is if you want to sleep in the same bed as me or if you want to stay up all night, then either I have to have my noise-canceling headphones

or you have to respect and get out of the bed. The bedroom for me is for sleeping and effing. Oh, come on, Michael. That's it. Maybe a couple Netflix once in a while. I don't need to be hearing click, clack, clackety-click on the keys. And by the way,

you'd think I was dating fucking Sasquatch with the way you type. It's the loudest. I get passionate about what i'm writing yeah but it's just i mean it sounds like it sounds like bigfoot walked in the room and started slamming a computer all right well i don't know all right sidetrack again i'm going back to jet lag okay i don't want to bore everybody with a long detailed list of what i do for jet lag And I don't know how many people have to combat jet lag regularly. We travel pretty regularly. And even if it's short trips, like if it's to New York, it's across the, you know, the country and you're going three hours ahead, I still think these things apply.

So I did a post on Lauren's blog called How to Beat Jet lag recently. And I go through exactly what I do. And you know, this is for years of years of traveling and experience. And I promise if you do these things, my sister, our sister Mimi just did it and she had no problem here in France. She came, had a great time. No problem. The, what I would say is like the biggest thing is to really push through and suffer for a while in the beginning and not give in to the urge to rest when your body tells you to. And also to really utilize your internal clock to kind of prep before you leave the trip. If you know you're going to a time zone and you're nine hours ahead, maybe start going to bed a little bit earlier every day. Start getting up a little bit earlier every day. Start slowly getting your body used to it. And then, you know, this is so much work. I have to do this and make a list.

You don't have to do any of this, but then you can have the, you know, the time you've been having, which let's sidetrack a little bit. You've been having a rough time out here. I'm a little jet lagged. Yeah. Now you're sick. Okay. I'm going to put you on blast here. You got up at 4 p.m. one day when everyone was in the house. That was one day because I was so jet-lagged and I needed to sleep. And if I didn't sleep, it was going to be bad. Yeah, but then what happened?

Then I was up all night. Yes, it screwed you up. I know. So then, okay, back to it. I think I was up till 5 in the morning. Yeah, I know. And then we got up early again the next day. And I'm telling you, it just screwed you up.

You missed the workout. And then the day after I got up and worked out with you and I felt better. Yeah, but it was a half-assed workout. You could have done better. You got mad because I called you out. But yeah, when you get here then, speaking of working out, as soon as you get here, and I don't know why this works for me every time,

whenever you go across the country or anywhere, the first thing I try to do, the very first thing, is try to get into a gym. If I can't get in a gym, I try to go for a run. If I can't go for a run, I try to do something in the hotel. Maybe I should try it your way. I mean, it'd be the smart way. And just get some fitness in.

I don't know what it does. I think it shocks your body into saying, okay, this is the times when we're on. This is what we're supposed to be doing. And then I do a hot, cold shower where I go and take a steaming hot shower because I'm tired and traveling and just like exhausted. And then I switch it to freezing cold, which I know Lauren will not like. I do that all the time actually. And I wrote a blog post on that two years ago and you got that from me. It's for the lymph system. Okay. Well, I really didn't get it from you, but I mean, okay, I'll give you credit. You can have it. But yeah. And then I just go. And then at that point, depending on

if it's breakfast time, whatever meal it is, like say you land and it's morning, go have breakfast. If you land in it's evening, go have dinner, but you need to start kicking your body into whatever time zone it is immediately. And like, you have to, if you're, if you're so tired, you've got to push through, go for a push through go for a walk go for a run whatever it is i just feel like when i'm tired i'm so grumpy yeah it's like this it's like okay say you're working or you're going to a job and it's early in the morning you go well what if i like you go to your boss that's a totally different story what if i'm tired it's like get your ass up get when i'm working i'm working i'm 100 but when I'm 100%. But when I'm like... Oh, I consider this work. I consider this... Oh, really?

Yeah. Okay. I go into travel and into these airports like I go into the arena. Wow. Like I'm going, I'm fighting the hordes. Okay. I'm fighting the TSA. I'm fighting the line of people that are stuck at the baggage claim.

It's not this complicated, Michael. No, I just like to go in and get after it. We know. We know. no i just like to go in and get after it we know we know if you guys saw him on snapchat and instagram story this trip as we came here it was absurd you were whole different like octane this trip this one this this posted really well i'm looking at on your site right now people are fired up about it are they yeah the comments are blowing up okay shares are going good okay people get on there.

Let me know what you think. Oh, I got a good picture of me in a linen suit. That's looking good. Yeah. Everyone run over and check out the picture of him in the linen suit. You don't want to miss it. That's nice. You're not wearing your tie though.

No, it's too hot for a tie. It was too wrinkled because you didn't put it in your tie holder, right? That's a nice pick. It's a nice pick. Yeah. It's pretty good. So yeah, definitely head over to the Skinny Confidential and read Michael's jet lag tips. We totally broke it down. Don't listen to

anything I've said about jet lag because clearly I don't know shit about jet lag. Like shit. I think I'm the worst person in the whole entire world. And I'm not a good packer. I wish I could give you guys value on that. I could just leave you at home yeah maybe you should no then i'd miss you oh i don't know what you'd do without me i'm looking at my bags right now i have about 10 on the floor right now i got a backpack i got a huge purse i got a carry-on i had a lot going on i always end up having to sometimes ship stuff home yeah so tomorrow we're checking into a hotel everyone left actually we're in into a hotel. Everyone left. Actually, we're in this house now.

It's a great house. I don't know if any of you have seen it. It's fun. It's nice. Great location. But everyone, and I mean everyone that was sharing the house with us, left today. And it's just Lauren and I. And honestly, it got like depressing really quick.

Yeah. We're ready to go move. Well, because we're in this house that's supposed to have all these people and there's all this energy and all these different personalities and family. let me tell you there's a lot of different personalities yeah let me let me tell you let me tell you but you know everyone took off today and now we're just in this quiet house let me just like i'm in some big controversy right now with the lady that owns a house about towels somehow my dad got all riled up with her i'm in it with her now these it's going to be a whole issue tomorrow.

So basically the dynamic is Michael's dad is a huge personality. Like he goes to the store about 600 times a day. I would say right about that. He loves the store. He loves the store. Like if you need something from the store, he's your guy. I tell you, he's one of the only guys that when you know like when you go to costco you have to flash your little card he has like a separate line that's vip he doesn't have to show his car yeah he loves the store right this way sir his store has been all named because i feel like you need to tell

the audience the story of when he bought gray goose at costco for our wedding party because it's it's kind of genius well let's pretend it's not my dad. And let's just pretend it's a funny story. Because it is a funny story. Okay. So he found out that Grey Goose Vodka was on sale. Like the big, big bottles were on sale at Costco. But the rule was it was such a good sale price that you could only go in and buy one at a time.

You couldn't go in and buy multiple. So he kept going in and out multiple times. I think he went in 12 times and checked out at 12. Oh, more than 12. Yeah. He got cases of this stuff. Way more than 12. Yeah. So his whole house is stocked, but that's how crazy he is about these stores. I would have done this once. I'm like, you know what? I got to move on. All right. Well, your dad is so nuts about the store. I casually mentioned that I'd love a chocolate croissant in the morning.

And the next morning I opened the door and your dad was right in my face, smiling, telling me about the chocolate croissants he got me. He went to the store for toilet paper. He went to the store for paper towels. He made a couple runs for water. He was there for Diet Coke. We had bread, cheese. He loved the store.

So that was that dynamic. Then we have your mom, who's very clean, very clean. Who doesn't want to go to the store. Who doesn't want to go to the fucking store. I swear to God, he came down one day. I was so hungover coming out of whatever like haze I was in. And I was laying on this couch fighting for dear life, getting ready to try to like go on a run or something. And I saw saw his lips moving but it was like that thing from charlie brown where the teacher's like why do you want from the store what what what what i'm like listen man i see your lips moving but i can't understand a word you're saying right now he said the word store more than i said rosé this trip but then again everyone appreciates it because everyone's stock is nobody here is

doing anything everyone's just flopping around yeah I didn't want to go to the store. And then we had Mimi who was here. It was her first time in France, which is first time in Europe, first time in any other country besides Mexico. So that was super exciting to have her come over here and show her one of our favorite spots in the world. And she was getting froggy and having fun. She could not believe how good the bread is here. She couldn't believe it. I think her and I ate all the bread there is in France to eat. I don't think I've ever ate more bread than I have this trip. Major detox meal plan is happening the second I get home. There's a bread shortage here now because of you.

Yeah, I ate a lot of bread and pasta. And then, of course, we had Moose Knuckle and his girlfriend, which were super fun and ready to go. And then we had your little sister who was ready to party. Now, guys, I'm like kind of like a retired partier. Like I like to go to lunch. That's my idea of a party. Well, here's the dynamic. You have some people in the house that came to relax. You have some people in the house that came to party. You have some people in the house that came to relax. You have some people in the house that came to party. You have some people in the house that came to do a little bit of both. The problem is none of this was communicated ahead of time. So you have 10 or 12 strong personalities that are all over the place. One person's pissed off that everyone's partying.

The other person's pissed off that nobody's partying. The other person's pissed off that they partied on Wednesday and not Tuesday. It's this whole mess. I'm in the middle trying to please everyone. And like, we need cameras. And you know, for me, I don't party too hard anymore in the States, but some, like if I come here and like people are letting loose. You are so boring in the States. Yeah, no, it depends where I am. Like in San Diego and in LA, when I'm working and I'm just like focused, I'm boring for sure. Like I go to dinners. You like to read and lay with your chihuahuas. Yeah, dinners, chihuahuas, laying around. If I

go to New York or I'm in Vegas or running around, then I'll let loose. If I come here, I'll do a little bit of everything. You know, Lauren sometimes gets a little mad. I sometimes go a little overboard. Yeah, you went a little overboard. Sue me. One day I'm Uncle Remus and I'm boring and I'm tired and I don't do anything. The next moment it's like too much. Well, you wanted to go too hard. I just wanted to have a leisurely lunch and eat bread and drink rosé. So anyways, we're on a tangent. A lot of personalities. Great trip, but a lot of personalities.

A lot of personalities. All right, moving right along. So if you can give everyone out there that's listening a travel hack on how, I mean, I don't even know if this is the right verbiage because I'm not the best traveler. How can someone that is on a budget travel? Meaning like, how can they book a flight? Do you have tips? Get into it. Well, first, I think what everyone should do, and I've talked about this, I think on other podcasts and on your blog, is figure out wherever you're traveling, if you're traveling enough, or if you're depending on the out wherever you're traveling, if you're traveling enough, or

if you're depending on the locations that you're going, figure out which airline you usually take or which routes go there. For example, we use Delta a lot because they have routes that go from, you know, where we live in San Diego, LA to a lot of places we go to, right? We go to New York or we go over here or wherever, like Delta has a lot of these routes. So a long time ago, I realized, okay, I'm flying on Delta a lot. So you just go to delta.com and register for the frequent flyer program. Or maybe you're flying American or United. You can do all, I have flyer programs for pretty much every airline, even the international ones, because it's free to register and get a number, right? So as soon as you have a number, you're

in their system. Then you can go and you can put in all your travel information. Side tangent here. If you're TSA approved, which everyone should go and do. Oh, God. Just go to TSA, Google it. I don't know the exact website, but go get TSA. I think it's like 75 bucks a year, 100 bucks a year. But every time you go through airport security,

if you don't have this, then I don't know what to tell you. Like, it's just, it makes no sense not to have it. I didn't have it. Yeah, I know. But now it's better. I don't notice. Okay. Well, everyone that's listening will notice. I promise. Every time you get there, it's a small line. Nobody's in it. You go through airport security. I do like not having to take my shoes off. You don't have to take your shoes off. No one wants to take their shoes off at the airport. You don't have to take your belt off. You don't have to do any of that stuff. And most of the time you don't have to take your belt off. You don't have to do any of that stuff. And most of the time, you don't have to take your laptop out of the bag if you have a laptop.

Oh, wow. No, but it saves time. Everyone's just jetting through. So that's the worst part of airport travel is waiting in the long security, taking your shoes off, standing on that yellow sticky thing that everyone else stands with their gross feet. And then I see someone barefoot and I almost throw up everywhere. Oh my God. Another side tangent. If I see you barefoot in the airport, I will Snapchat your nasty feet and post them everywhere. Really? Yeah. You're that upset about it?

Kicking them up on the thing. Yeah. Don't do that. Put a sock on. For Christ's sake. I mean, we're in a public place. You're standing there with like nasty feet on the... If any of my listeners out there are doing this, this is the first time.

If I catch you, I will call you out. Do you bring an extra pair of pads in your backpack? I just don't do that. But anyways, with TSA, you don't have to do it. And also, the people on the plane, they're like, okay, now I'm on the plane and I can let loose. Nope. No, ma'am. No, sir.

Put a sock on, a plane sock, another sock. I don't care what it is. Yeah, let's not let loose on the plane. Who was telling me? Becca from the lady gang was telling me the last time she was on a flight and somebody was like oh it's becca or is it kelty becca they were telling me like this guy or was it one of them and like the guys like toes are like wrapping around the front if if i see your toe wrap around the front of my seat i will snap it off i will take my hand back and i'll break it i will go to

jail i will pay someone to sit behind us and put their toes on the back of his feet. They will land the plane. They'll say this crazy dude in the front just snapped this guy's feet off of his body because they were barefoot. You don't love a toe just like popping over? Nope. I will be, I will break it right off. Okay. What was I talking about? TSA pre? Okay. So toes. Yeah. TSA pre. Get that. Keep okay so toes toe yeah tsa pre get that keep your shoes on keep your nasty toes locked away and then you okay and then on top of that um get global entry if you travel internationally because then you know i made lauren do this recently finally i'm actually excited to go home this time because we don't have to stand in the long customs line how many times have i made you stand in line i've had global entry for over 10 years. That's actually love

though. Cause you could have gone through your own line. I could have, and I will stay with you. But anyway, it's another thing. It's an express line through customs. And honestly, like it lasts, I think for five or 10 years. So like just get it one time and then you have it. And same thing with TSA pre. And I think it's set maybe 75 bucks for TSA pre maybe a hundred, but it's, you know, for a few years, no big deal. And then same thing for global entry. But then side tangent on that, if you use American Express and you have the platinum card, I believe there's a program and their benefits that will cover all of the TSA and global entry charges. So you basically get it for free just for having that card. And can't you get miles on American Express as well?

So the cards that Lauren and I use, the cards that I use primarily have been American Express Platinum and Chase Ink cards, Chase Ink Bold. Why? And then one of my personal cards, I use a Chase British Airways card. Why? It depends. Again, with the Bold cards, you can transfer points, which were considered miles, to flying programs. So whether that's like Air France or Delta or United or American, you have to look and see which cards cover which. I fly British Airways a lot when I come to Europe. So a while back, I said, okay, I'll get the British Airways card because it makes sense for me. I can only use British Airways for that card. And then, you know, I think with American Express, you can transfer to a multiple card. But

for me and Lauren primarily, it's Delta, which is it's a great flight, not the best, but it's great because it covers the road. You do get a warm cookie at the end. So, yeah, you can do different things. You can buy economy seats, you can buy business seats, depending on how many miles you have. But another tip is if you start flying enough on a single airline, like for me, I think it's smarter to stick with one airline and use it as much as possible as opposed to flying multiple airlines for the cheaper rate. And I'll tell you why. A lot of people say, okay, maybe this time I'll go American. Maybe next time we'll go United. Maybe next time we'll do Delta because this time it's cheaper than last time. And this time it's cheaper and so forth. But here's the thing, because I fly Delta so much and I just stick with Delta, even if there's another cheaper flight,

is because I usually book an economy ticket. And because my flight status with Delta is so high now because I use it so much, I have a complimentary upgrade most of the time to business. I don't know that you do any of this. I know. I'm telling everyone now. So you get this if you... So they're like, okay, listen, you fly with us a lot. You're loyal here. And there's a setting in your Delta profile that you can say request upgrades, complimentary upgrades whenever possible. Why wouldn't everyone click that setting? Because a lot of people don't know about the setting. I'm letting them know about it now.

It's a secret setting. It's not a secret setting. Just most people don't pay attention. Like me. the setting i'm letting them know oh it's a secret setting it's not a secret setting just most people don't pay attention ah like me i click that setting every time i book it i usually i'd say probably five out of ten times i get upgraded and then sometimes if i really want to get upgraded and i'm in a panic and i'm somewhere like i'll go and make a big deal but you're always in a panic so so i usually get it and then but if not if i have miles like a lot of time you'd be surprised like you can get like round trip business class tickets for a lot cheaper than what it would cost you to actually go and spend money. So, you know, if you're, if you have a business or you're spending on your card, you might

as well get the points because you can use them towards travel. And I do that all the time. And then again, like I said, like the most important thing is to just find a couple flying programs, register on them for free, get a number. I don't know. Put it in your phone somewhere. And okay, back to what I was saying then. And once you have that number, you can take your TSA pre or your global and you put all

your information in there. So every time you book your flight, all that stuff's already in there and you don't have to keep doing it over and over and over, which takes all the pain out of booking flights. Whoa, I learned something new today. You always will if you hang out with me. I still would like you to do it for me, but I learned a lot. Did you know you have a number for almost every airline now? What does that mean?

I signed you up. I don't know what that means. I signed you up and then I used your name and then I used your identity and I used your passport number and I used my Skinny Confidential email so that I could register you. So all your information goes to my skinny. I don't get what you're talking about though. I have a number for what? For Delta, for United, for American, Air France, British Airways, for the airlines.

You're in their system, buddy. I put you in. I used all your private information. Wow. You're in there. You're obsessed. Because I got sick of booking you. So now they go, oh, do you have a travel companion?

That's another thing. If you travel with your husband or your wife and I say yes, and I put your information in, they go, oh, we have her information. Boom, done. Listen, guys, I do other things in the relationship. Yeah, and did other things last night. Travel is not my forte. I just think Michael's really good at it.

So. Another tip. When you get to the hotel. Oh, here we go. Always. And I mean always. If you pull up in a car, tip the valet. Not when you get your car later.

Right when he takes the car. Why? Multitude of reasons. One, this is going to be the guy that's out there in the front of the hotel all the time helping you get taxis, helping you get your car, telling you where to go, calling your stuff up, putting your luggage in. So take care of him right in the beginning. Two, tip the front desk person every time, right at the start, even before they give you room. I don't know, five, 10 bucks. If you're

really like in a nice place, maybe a little more. It depends here. I guess when I tell you the next part, you will be able to gauge why to do this. If you tip the front desk person, a lot of the times they'll say, oh, by the way, I have a complimentary upgrade, which would cost you hundreds of dollars more, maybe $50, whatever it is per night. Do you ask for the upgrade? No. You say, hey, anything, you give them the tip and you say, hey, really appreciate anything you can do for me. That means it's open-ended. Is it a drink? So you kind of tricked the front desk person, like you tricked me into dating you. Listen, anybody in the hotel industry knows that there's, you know, in busy places, maybe

not, but if you go somewhere and they have inventory, they got to sell the room. And if it's just going to sit there vacant all night, like it's just as easy for them to give it to you as not. Okay. So tip them. Then this is maybe the most important actually, maybe more in the room because I don't care so much about the room. Okay. Go to the concierge. Okay. So tip them. Then this is maybe the most important actually. Maybe more in the room because I don't care so much about the room. Okay.

Go to the concierge. Okay. Ask him what's going on. Ask for a map. I like to have a little map, you know. There you go. In the local area. Do you really?

Yeah, sometimes. And then you ask him to book dinners or lunch, whatever, when you first get there and tell him what you're about, what you want to do, what your vibe is. It could be anything. So what's your vibe? Walk in the park. Like what do you say your vibe is? Depends where I am. This time I said, hey, book me some romantic dinners, book me some

fun dinners, book me some crazy dinners, book me some easy ones, lunches. And then you give him a tip because he's the guy. He's the guy that's got the keys to the castle, right? He's going to make it so that you can get in places or not get in places. If you just, if you treat him like she's going to, you know, maybe they can't do this or he's not going to give you the good recommendations and you know, you need to get these guys. Okay. Because most of the time they will also tell you, okay, if you go there, especially if it's a small place like we're in Central Perry, that's a small town.

They'll say, hey, ask for this person. Meanwhile, I'm just jet lagged. If you go there and they say, ask for this person, you ask for this person, then you talk to this person, then maybe he knows another person. So like for me, it's all about making connections and meeting people and making people happy and feel good. And you know, and so I do all these things so that when we can go places, you have a good time. Good thing I married you. It's a good thing. Really good thing for you.

I'd be on some bus to Timbuktu with my old knapsack. They would say, Hey, you're not getting on this bus with that luggage, buddy. Okay. So what is your main travel hack out of everything? One thing, simple. Anyone can do it. I think my main thing is to plan while also not planning so much, if that makes sense. Oh, wow. You're used to being such a planner though. No, meaning like, okay, so I know we have to, like, I knew we had to come here, right? Right. And I had an idea of what we're doing. And so, but I booked the tickets and I'll book the areas.

But then as I go, I'll say like, listen, if the concierge or somebody gives me an interesting tip or they say, hey, take a drive over here or try this restaurant or go to this place. Or if I go to a meeting with someone to say, hey, you should try to like be a little bit spontaneous, be willing to try different things, be willing to get up and go. Don't just stick to this like little thing. And also, honestly, my biggest tip, actually, I forgot. No, this is my biggest tip. I knew you couldn't pick one. Besides being spontaneous and running around. What about bring your winning wife that has a winning personality?

Yeah. Always get a good travel companion. Honestly, if you're traveling with someone and they suck, get rid of them. Actually, another tip. Now I got a lot. Whoa. If you're in a relationship and you're with someone, go on a 10-day trip with them. Why? That will tell you if you should stay with that person. But what if the person's like me and they need to sleep the first three days? Well, if you can deal with that as I can, and you can be like, okay, I can get through this and stay with them. But I'm telling you a 10 day trip with anyone will tell you. At one time,

I took a girl to Puerto Vallarta. I'm not going to get into it and see who it was. It was a long time ago before you. I went on this trip with this person on day two. Maybe it had been day one. I was running a jet ski and going to the other side of the beach, going as far away. I lied and said the jet ski broke down. I was on the other side having margaritas. I couldn't stand her. I realized it's over. As soon as I got back, done, done deal. Side tangent. Harsh. But then i would say this is my number one travel hack and some people may not like this is don't go to the trendy places because they're trendy i totally agree lauren and mimi call me boring all the time they wanted to go to all these trendy places before you know we don't not anymore not anymore and i kind of this is a few years ago. I'm telling

you the trendy places that are pop-ups. We like classics. Yeah. The places that are just open and everyone's going to is the big thing. They always have shit service. Too loud. They have shit food. They are overpriced. Lighting's wrong. They're usually not good. And unless you really know somebody, unless you really are dialed in and you want to spend a lot of money, you're going to have a shit time with shit service. You're going to be shoved in the corner. That's not to be said like maybe you're the coolest cat in the round and they give you like really great service. But at the same time, people are just in there and they're more concerned about being seen than they are about having a good time. You want to go to the places that are the classics, the fun places.

So when you talk to the concierge or you talk to the local person, say, listen, what is the trendy place? And then they'll tell you and they'll kind of like, okay, there's a tourist and say, okay, I don't want that vibe. I want to do like what the real people from this area do, what the real people in this city do. Like that's what you want to do. And then other than that, I kind of have been giving the tips. It's like, it's, I think that to be a good traveler, you have to kind of roll with the punches, but also be prepared and have the right stuff, pack the right way, deal with jet lag the right way, be open to explore. I think travels, you know, for me, it's a lot of people put other, you know, other things, higher priorities, but for me,

exploring the world and learning new things about new cultures is definitely top three. We love experience. That's kind of where we, you know, spend our money is experience. No, listen, there's, and this is controversial. I know some people want to build the biggest business in the world and make the most money and do the biggest things. And I'm telling you, I've, I've known some really successful entrepreneurs, some really wealthy people, some, some people that have built really, really big things. And you talk to them and they just haven't, they just haven't experienced life. They haven't traveled. They're boring. They haven't done anything. So they get the, they get to the end of the road. Like, and, and, and this is sad. I've seen so many people do this. They make all

this money, big, big, all this big business, they do all these big things, so impressive, make all these partnerships, do all this crazy stuff, and then you get to the end of their life, and it's like, okay, well, have you been here? No, have you been here? No, have you experienced this? No, have you done this? Did you have fun here?

No, no, no, I just built and built and built. And for me, I think it's important to build something big, but only build something big if it's enhancing the life that you want to live. And for me, that's being able to run around the world and explore and see new things. Build something big, but only build something big if it's enhancing the life that you want to live. And for me, that's being able to run around the world and explore and see new things. If not, like for me, like, you know, obviously I want to be with Lauren and I want to build a family and do all that. But I don't see the point in building something huge to be boring.

But again, other people's idea of boring. Everyone's different. Yeah. Some people want to just build, build, build because that's their thing. Like I always say, you do you, I'll be me. Like we like experience. This is what we like to do. So that's what we'll continue to kind of put our money towards. And listen, I know like travel can get expensive, but I promise you this.

You can't take the money with you. Yeah. You can't take it. And anyone who's out in college, we've talked about this. I would, if you're in college and you're listening right now,

I highly recommend that you look into the abroad programs. I wish I went abroad. If I could go back and do that, my sister did that. You'd be abroad all four years. My biggest regret from college is that I never took advantage

of any of those programs. Yeah. So take advantage of the programs. They have financial aid and those can be really fun and you can meet a lot of different people and maybe even learn a different language while you're doing it. My sister Tara, who I want to get on this podcast, she speaks three languages now. She's 21 years old. She's lived in three countries. She knows. She went abroad at 15, right? Yeah. And you know, what's funny is everyone thought like, wow, that's so expensive. But really like a lot of these colleges and schools have these exchange programs where,

you know, a student from Paris comes over here or a student from Italy comes over here and they switch and families take them in as, you know, out of the, you know, during charity stuff and sometimes there are incentives. And so it's really not as expensive as people think if you know the programs. And honestly, if you're gonna do it at that, like if you're gonna learn something useful, for her, like I say all the time, I went to college, I learned a bunch of stuff,

but for me, if I could have gone back and lived in three different countries and learned to speak three languages fluently, like that is way more useful to me than learning some math equations or some bullshit philosophy class. And again, everyone's different. Okay.

All right. Everyone's different. Well, with that, I learned a lot from you, honey. I didn't know you did all this. I thought we just like got here. That's what's funny though. It's like, cause I'll, I guess sometimes we'll, we'll get in arguments because there's so much that goes into doing all this and getting it all organized and taken care of because think about this even on this trip we landed we have a car all of a sudden

then we're in a different place and we're having dinner in this great place and then all of a sudden we're going to another town it's in the middle of nowhere and then and i'm grumpy yeah and then we're going to this lunch place and listen i'm not saying this to brag i'm just saying do you think that i just like wow i'm just gonna like mosey on down and figure this out. I thought we figured it out as we went. I, I, like I said, I planned the routes and then the concierge and the local contacts helped me along the way. I like to screenshot places that I think look cute on Instagram and I text them to you. That's another useful thing as you go. Now Instagram has a little feature where you can save things and you can create little collections. So if you see people in cool places, you just can put it in. I have a little thing

called cool places in my Instagram and then I just check them out if I'm in the area. Oh, last tip, use Google map or Apple map or city mapper when you're in the area and look at all the stuff surrounding you. Oh my God, you're deep, man. You're deep. All right. Well, if you haven't listened to our episode with Taylor, go back and listen. Listen without kids in the car because it is hysterical. He talks about all his deepest, darkest secrets, like how he's a pre-ejaculator and he really gets into it.

Or if you want to go the other way and listen to some things that are not so quick repulsive listen to the episode with kim kelly we did all about fitness and health that was a great episode we also last week we put up a bonus episode with gary vaynerchuk for when we went on the gary v show which is great so yeah if you want to be healthy and learn about fitness or you want to learn about business or branding or if you want to learn about premature ejaculation, we've got it all covered here. We got a medley, you guys, we got a medley. With that, if you want my five favorite beauty tips straight to your inbox, just email us a review, screenshot it, email it to

asklauren at the skinnyconfidential.com. And we will send you those five tips straight to your inbox. We appreciate you guys' support. We see all your reviews. You're amazing. You're insane. We love you. And I think our next podcast will be in France too. So make sure you're following along on Instagram story and Snapchat. I hope this episode brought you value and we'll see you next Tuesday.