About Me

Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope you're able to find some useful tips for your upcoming travels. I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is Tamara and I live in Minnesota with my husband and two dogs. I'm an obsessive traveler and get a thrill out of scoring an amazing deal. Promo code option at check out? Challenge accepted. Any way that I can save some money while also exploring the world? Count me in!

​

I love to throw my ideas, plans, budget... everything - on an excel spreadsheet. That was the inspiration for my blog name - Excel-lent Traveler. Dorky and nerdy, but oh so practical. My goal is to be able to share useful tips on how I research and plan my trips, while staying within a budget. I'll also share how I find deals and use travel hacks to make traveling more affordable.

​

If budgets and spreadsheets aren't your thing - well then, you're actually in the perfect spot. I realize that most people don't get the same joy that I do from creating a spreadsheet. That's why I'll be sharing my templates (and itinerary) from each trip. This way you can focus on the fun part - planning and customizing the trip to fit what you want. But if you're like me and love planning trips out with columns, rows, and formulas, then we're going to have a lot of fun together. I'll explain the method to my madness and share the tips that I use to kick everything off, so you can make it your own.

​

Everyone knows that taking a vacation brings happiness. It's hard not to be happy when you wake up to the sound of waves, away from work and the stress from your day to day life. But did you know that the act of planning a vacation is also proven to boost your mood, lower stress, and increase happiness? There have been several studies around vacation anticipation - and it's a great benefit of traveling. I'm constantly thriving on vacation anticipation. Even if the trip is a ways out, or just a sitting in a "someday" state. I love putting it down on a spreadsheet and adding activities, restaurants, and AirBnB's - watching it the dream turn into reality. And my hope is that I can share some of that joy with you... while excel-ling at travel planning together :)