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Pack Your Bags playlist
Tunes to lift your mood, fuel your journey, and set the vibe for your next adventure — Sister-style.
Shiane Salabie
We know you don’t need an excuse to use or lose those paid time off days, Sis, but here’s some extra incentive to skip town.
Research shows that travel is good for your mental health. According to WebMD, exploring new environments and learning about different cultures can be mentally stimulating, and some people can feel the positive effects of their vacation for up to five weeks after their return.
Are you ready to pack your bags and get “On the Road Again”? To help set the mood for your next adventure, whether you’re on a girlfriend getaway, an intergenerational family vacation, a romantic escapade, or taking a solo trip, this playlist is packed with 32 diverse, travel-inspired songs that we hope strike the right carry-on chord.
Speaking of solo excursions, with her well-received Roku series, Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, the free-spirited actress reminds you that you don’t need a travel buddy to have a good time. In the show’s first season, viewers vicariously explore Morocco, Mexico and Spain with Ellis Ross. And it was inspiring to watch her navigate dining alone, mingling with strangers, and enjoying her own company.
The sensorial scenery made us want to pack our bags (cue Toni Braxton’s “Spanish Guitar”); however, a low-key highlight was watching Ellis Ross eat French fries in her Marrakech bungalow while unraveling her braid extensions.
Whatever fab destination or landscape you have in mind – foreign or domestic, beach or mountains, countryside or urban – we have tunes that may suit your travel vibe.
In case it’s palm trees and an ocean breeze calling your name, we kick things off with Sade’s “Paradise,” which opens lyrically with “I’d wash the sand off the shore. Give you the world if it was mine.” Since you deserve the world, this playlist gives you permission to play and to see more of it. So it’s fitting that Janet Jackson invites you to leave your worries behind on “Escapade,” and Earth, Wind & Fire beckons you to “leave this troubled land” on “Getaway.”
Meanwhile, Dua Lupa’s “Levitating” and Jamiroquai’s “Cosmic Girl” are the perfect airport and in-flight pick-me-ups; “Boots on the Ground” by South Carolina rapper 803Fresh might inspire a trek below the Mason-Dixon line for some barbecue and two-stepping; Toots & The Maytails put a reggae, West Jamaica spin on “Take Me Home, Country Roads”; Amy Winehouse’s swaggy rendition of “The Girl From Ipanema” and Duran Duran’s new wave classic “Rio” conjure carnival in Brazil; Mary J. Blige shifts our thoughts to girls’ trip shenanigans on “Vegas Nights”; and The Jones Girls set our sights on an exotic locale with “Nights Over Egypt.”
Wherever your wanderlust takes you and whoever you plan to take the journey with – be it a booed-up escape as Prince requests on “Take Me With U” or a self-reflective sojourn as Minnie Riperton and Stevie Wonder beckon on “Take a Little Trip” – be sure to bring this “Pack Your Bags” playlist with you.
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