Salam loves and welcome back to my blog!
For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may already know that a few weeks ago we went away for the weekend to New Jersey for the Mohammad Assaf concert. Ever since he won American Idol back in 2013, I had been dying to attend one of his concerts, so I was super excited when I found out my husband got us tickets for my birthday!
If you caught my 100+ clips on my IG stories (oops!), and followed me along for the weekend, you saw that we had such a great time at the concert! We were also so pumped about finally getting our fixes on the Middle Eastern foods we’d been craving like falafel, shawarma, and especially knafeh, but ended up being disappointed by the quality of the food.
The restaurants we knew and loved just weren’t as good as we remember they were. Other than that, it was a nice and much-needed weekend trip away! I actually tried vlogging for the first time during that trip on my new camera, and am hoping I will get that up on YouTube soon, iA!
Even though it was a short trip, there was still so much we needed to pack for the different portions of the weekend, like the road trip, the concert, dinner, and the shopping we were planning on doing on our last day there (you know we needed to stock up on some Nut House goodies!).
New Jersey has an area in Paterson that makes you feel like you’re in the Middle East. The streets are filled with stores and restaurants whose names are written in Arabic, people are blasting Arabic jams in their cars, and women in hijab are seen almost everywhere you go–it is so nice and comforting! Even though there isn’t much to do, we still love to make a stop there anytime we’re in the area.
But as I was saying, it can be so easy to forget things when planning any kind of trip, so this time around, I actually made a few lists of travel essentials we would need to bring with us, and it made packing so much easier! Plus, traveling in the winter and during Covid just calls for more things needing to be packed, so making lists is necessary!
I thought I would share some of the checklists I made of essential travel items that may help you when packing for your next winter vacation! I also share some products if you are in need of anything on the list, like a high-end foundation recommendation, a long sweater dress, a new makeup travel bag, or flushable wipes (which ladies–are a game changer for traveling since most places don’t have bidets!).
Check out my checklists and recommended products below, and be sure to save these so that you can reuse them in the future!
*This post contains affiliate links.
Is there anything I am missing on these lists? Let me know in the comments below!
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