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TRAVEL BLOG | RECENT POSTS
Everything to Know Before Climbing Mount Rainier – Disappointment Cleaver Route
Travel With Me! Discover trips to New Zealand, Maldives, Europe and More in 2025 & 2026. Explore here Everything to Know Before Climbing Mount Rainier – Disappointment Cleaver Route Updated: May 8th, 2024 **Please note: this is an outline for climbing Mount Rainier via the Disappointment Cleaver route without a guide. Mount Rainier is not…
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How to Pack for Backpacking: Best Tips for First-Time Backpackers
How to Pack For a Backpacking Trip: Best Tips for First-Time Backpackers June 22, 2021 My mom was a 5th-grade teacher and at the end of every school year, she’d bring her students on a weekend-long backpacking trip along the shores of Lake Michigan. Every year I begged to join and when I was 8,…
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How to Travel Cheap: A Complete Guide to Saving Money While Traveling
How to Travel Cheap: A Complete Guide to Budget Travel in 2024 Updated: February 15th, 2024 If I hadn’t learned how to travel cheaply, my travel resume would be nonexistent. I never would’ve started this blog. I never would have this career. There is a fine line between not being able to afford to travel…
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Everything I Wish People Would’ve Told Me About How to Live The Van Life
Everything I Wish People Would’ve Told Me About How to Live The Van Life April 14, 2021 There are a lot of things we did right when it came to living in a van. However, there was also a lot we did wrong. The truth is, when it comes to van life, mistakes rarely happen…
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Top Things to Do in Michigan in 2021: Michigan Bucket List
Top Things to Do in Michigan in 2021: Michigan Bucket List April 6, 2021 Well, since 2020 was a major bust, we all have some extra adventuring to make up for the last 365+ days. If you’re like me, you’re not planning to let time go. Instead, you’re stocking up your summer with twice as…
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7 Things to Do Near Jaco, Costa Rica
7 Things to Do Near Jaco, Costa Rica March 10, 2021 I was 6 or 7 years old when I got a postcard from my aunt in the mail from Costa Rica. She always sent me postcards on her exotic travels. I would run the quarter-mile up the dusty dirt road to the mailbox every…
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The Best Winter Getaway in Montana
The Best Winter Getaway in Montana February 8th, 2021 There’s a lot I take into account when traveling. I love to remember the feeling a place gives me. When you leave somewhere new, you’ll feel a particular type of way. That’s how you know how much it meant to you. On certain days, long after…
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Four Unique Things to Do in Wyoming
Four Unique Things to Do in Wyoming January 14, 2021 I first visited Wyoming when I was eight on a family road trip out west. It’s a familiar story for those from the Midwest, especially in the late 90s and early 2000s. Where I was from, it was considered the trip. Pack your bags, drive westward for…
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The Best Gear For Hiking and Traveling With Cats
The Best Gear For Hiking & Traveling With Cats Published: December 6, 2020 Updated: May 1, 2022 We’ve been traveling with our two cats for nearly three years and have learned some pretty important lessons along the way. Recently we visited South Dakota, their 20th state. One of the biggest questions I receive about traveling/hiking…
Read MoreADVENTURE TRAVEL BLOG
August 8th, 2024
It’s taken years of long trips, short trips, overnight trips, and day trips to perfect my packing. And trust me, I’ve made almost every mistake along the way.
January 14, 2024
Acatengango is 13,045ft tall located about an hour's drive from Antigua. There are numerous trails to the summit, the most popular being 8.5 miles round trip and requiring 5,269 feet of elevation gain.
May 25th, 2024
Granite Peak is situated in the remote wilderness of the Beartooth Mountain Range. At 12,808, it towers above the majority of other peaks in Montana.
May 8th, 2024
The Disappointment Cleaver (or ‘DC’) route is the easiest route to the summit of Mount Rainier. It is the standard route used by all three mountaineering guides to the summit.
An Adventure Travel Blog & Female Travel Blog
MEET
SHALEE |
Somehow, being completely lost, unapologetically stubborn, and barely resourceful has landed me in this weird twilight zone of becoming a female travel blogger.
My story starts on the shores of Lake Michigan, where I'd spend my days sleeping in my car and eating ice cream for meals. I'm from a rough small town in Michigan, where travel is a foreign concept. When I started traveling, most of the people I knew had never left the state of Michigan. Eventually, my Facebook friends started asking how I could afford to travel, and I started a travel blog to write guides & hacks for traveling on a budget.
Eleven years later, I'm in awe of this little website and all the big things it's done for me. All I wanted was to help one person travel, and now I get to live a dream every day, seeing the world as my full-time job.
Thank you for being here.
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TRAVELING WITH CATS
December 2, 2021
Whether you need to move with your cat cross country or are looking to train your furry sidekick as an adventure companion, there are some important steps to take to get them acquainted for the road.
December 6, 2020
Whether you need to travel cross country with your cat or are aiming to train your new kitten as a hiking companion, here’s everything you’ll need to get them ready for the open road.
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Shalee Wanders is a female travel blog focusing on adventure travel. Midwest born and raised, she began exploring by camping in Michigan as a young adult. In 2014, she met her love and travel partner, Josh. Since their first "date" jumping off cliffs in Canada, they have lived the vanlife in America, toured Europe on $20 a day, and explored over thirty countries.
Shalee is considered an expert in the travel industry for outdoor & adventure travel destinations. Her writing and photography have been featured in numerous notable publications and online outlets, such as Forbes, USA Today, and The Huffington Post.