Fun Fall Travel Ideas

Holidays are approaching, lots of families are looking for some fun and affordable things to do. That's right, travel expert Kim Orlando from SheBuysTravel.com is here with some fun fall freebies. I love that. Good morning. Good morning. Well, we need that, right? I mean, there's this travel app called Hopper that says that this is going to be the most expensive holiday travel season in 10 years. Oh, wow. But there's ways to get around it, so I brought a list of free things to do and affordable things to do. Yes. So the first one that I have is the Buellton Fall Festival. I love Buellton. Buellton's so cute, isn't it? I haven't stayed there, but I've driven through there. The Fall Fest is November 6th through the 8th. It's free. They take over Avenue of the Flags right in the middle of town. Carnival rides and food and music, lots of music. 40 bands over two stages. They change it up every night. The first night, it's 80s, 90s. The next night is country. The next night is reggae. You can pay a little extra to do a craft beer and wine tasting too, but free. So Buellton's right near Solvang, very short drive from here, a couple hours, you know, you feel like you're away from it all. So yeah, it's great to do that. The whole family can enjoy that. Dia de los Muertos. Yes, yes. That's happening in Old Town, San Diego, November, let's see, October 31st through November 1st. And then there's a procession on the 2nd. But it's where families honor their loved ones who have passed. And the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, they fill it with altars and live music and cultural activities. And families can make ofrendas, the altars themselves for their family members and leave that. But there's a lot going on. It's all free. And then there's this procession on November 2nd where it's a candlelit and they go from Old Town San Diego to El Campo Santo Cemetery. Oh, pretty. And a little closer to home in Costa Mesa. For me, yes. I was just talking about that with one of your co-workers. The Sugar Plum Arts and Crafts Festival, it's beyond just a festival. I mean, this has been going on for 48 years. It's a family-run festival, over 100 artisans. It's at the Orange County Fairgrounds. It's November 6th through the 8th free. If you do want to, if you have to get in there before 11:30, you have to pay five bucks. Okay. But there's all of these, you know, baked goods and handmade holiday decor, unique gifts for Christmas or holidays, whatever you're celebrating. And then families can also get a complimentary photo with Frosty the Snowman or Santa. Oh, fun. I like that. It's time to think of that already, right? It's been going on for 48 years. That's impressive, I think. That is impressive. Going strong. Always cool stuff going on at the Griff, the Griffith Observatory. And this month, on the 14th, they're having the Public Star Party. And they've done this every month. This is where they set out dozens of telescopes. And they bring in volunteers from the Planetary Society, the LA Astronomical Society. And the volunteers point you in the right direction, tell you what you're looking at. So it's really fun. It's from 2 p.m., so there's stuff to see in the daylight sky. There's also things to see in the night sky, of course. It goes on through the evening. And then there's a sunset walk and talk that same day, where it's a guided walk through Griffith Park. And they point out things that you're seeing in the park and things that you're seeing in the sky. So they'll provide the telescopes? Yes, yeah, dozens of telescopes. And there are a lot of people, so you definitely want to prepare for that. And parking is not free. All those details are on She Buys Travel because the parking is complicated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my favorite places is the Getty Villa. Do you love that? Yeah, I do. Have you ever done one of the workshops? I have not done a workshop. Tell me about it. Yeah, they have free workshops with an artist. So it's a mosaics workshop. So you can go check out all of the great art at the gallery and then make your own mosaic with an artist. Andres Cortez from Collage Garage leads the workshop and i like it because it's good for grandparents and teenagers and young kids it doesn't matter like all ages love to make art and then it kind of connects you to the art that you're seeing and this is free parking is not free again a little complicated but yeah i have all that a good destination okay if you want to get away into the mountains big bear is always a good option well they have oktoberfest every year i've I've been a couple of times. It's very fun. I mean, they bring in Bavarian singers and dancers and bands, and they have all the food, the sausage, the sauerkraut. And it's very lively. It is free for our heroes, like our firefighters, police, our active military and veterans on November 7th, 8th, and 14th, and a deep discount for families, their families. But they also have, like, all these contests. So my son actually won the log sawing contest. We were just watching that. Isn't that funny? What? That was my son, yeah. That was your son in the video? I was looking at that like that must be hard. I didn't see, was he by himself or he had a partner? His wife actually are sawing this log back and forth, it's hilarious. That's so funny. And I learned later that that's actually, it's called like, Some sawing or something where newlyweds, it's like a test. For newlyweds to see how well they work together. I see. So it's a good time. And then I brought this prop because this is one of the contests, too. Wow, it's a nice. You just stand. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, so if beer's not your thing, you can do some wine. You can do wine. This is not a free event, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it's annual. It's a good price. It's $85 for a ticket, but you're getting two bands, a concert. The people in the bands are from American Idol and bands that you've heard of. And they have line dancing instruction in the vines, basically, like in the vineyard. so it's line dancing you get a plate of food there's all kinds of lawn games boots and the vines isn't that cool and this is at Zaca Mesa Winery, I know that winery it's so beautiful in that area yes there you go really good wine every year they do okay i haven't been there but it's worth there's so many annual things we don't know about right this is great yeah thank you so much Kim thank you for all these and more travel tips check out shebuystravel.com we'll be right back