My name is Crystal and if there is one thing I am truly passionate about, it is traveling. I love seeing new places, meeting new people, tasting new cuisine, and just generally absorbing other cultures. I have been blessed to have already done a good amount of traveling in my life (36 states in the USA and 40 countries on 6 continents), but it’s just never enough. The more I travel, the more places I want to go! Fortunately for me, my husband shares the same passion and priority. I specify priority because we have made a pact that traveling will always be our #1 source of diversion. When we got married, we made a “Bucket List Journal” and we are constantly adding to it!

In the last few years, our family has grown from two to five! We love to travel with our kids. Even though it can be a challenge to travel with little ones, it is worth it. Of course, we still like to travel on our own when we have the opportunity, thanks to our wonderful parents!

Currently, I am employed as a government attorney for my “day job,” but my dream job is to be a travel show host or travel writer. I spend every single one of my vacation hours (of which I fortunately have many) to travel around the world. Since I live on a government salary, I do so on a budget. My family and I save on big ticket items like hotel and flights by taking advantage of fare sales and using credit card points so that we can spend our money on activities and meals.

Since I am unfortunately not a full-time traveler (at least not yet), I tend to pack a lot into my trips while still leaving time for relaxing. I typically like to include a little bit of each of the following things on any given trip: culture, hot destinations, adventure, hiking, history, and local food. Experiencing local cuisine is one of my favorite parts of travel, so you’ll see a lot of restaurant recommendations on Candie Travels.

I initially created Candie Travels as a personal log of my travels and a simple way to share recommendations with friends. But in the time since I’ve started this blog, it’s grown into a way to share my specific recommendations and general tips with anyone looking to travel and more recently, tips on traveling with babies and children. The blog does not feature every place I’ve traveled in my life, so if you are going somewhere in particular, feel free to email me at candietravels@gmail.com and I will help you out or point you in the direction of someone who can.

On the flip side, if you see that I am going somewhere that you have been, I would love to hear your suggestions for my travels, especially restaurants, nightlife, and unique daytime activities.

I love hearing from you all, so please leave comments on my blog. For freelance writing or consulting opportunities or if you would like to contact me directly with questions, I can be reached at candietravels@gmail.com. Thank you for reading and if you like my blog, please share it with your friends!