The Dolomites, a commonly overlooked region of Italy for Americans when it comes to planning a vacation, is by far our favorite place in this amazing country. We spent four days driving incredibly winding roads, up and down through mountainous territory, enjoying some of Italy’s best views. Our first hike, the Lagazuoi Tunnels, really showed us just how beautiful this …
We spent five days in Tuscany, staying in the town of Siena. We picked Siena as our home base because it is well connected by bus to the other hill towns in Tuscany and easy to get to from Florence. It was a good pick because we loved it here. We stayed in an apartment in the heart of Siena, …
The Cinque Terre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a group of five towns perched on the dramatic coastline of Italy, just north of Pisa. The towns are easily recognizable, with their pastel buildings stacked on top of one another, overlooking the harbors below. Each town offers something a little bit different than the others, and part of the fun …
Tuscany, Italy is known for its wine and splendid scenery, and we loved the time we spent here. The hill towns of Tuscany are small, walled, medieval towns perched on hilltops overlooking the countryside. Their views are stunning, their streets are a joy to stroll through, and the wine tastings are phenomenal. We visited several hill towns, and the very …
One of the “must do” activities while visiting southern Italy is to visit the Amalfi Coast. This was something we were all looking forward to, a winding, white-knuckle ride along one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the world. Positano, as would turn out, would be our favorite town on the Amalfi Coast. We toured the Amalfi Coast …
During our tour of Italy we had three days to spend in Sorrento. Sorrento is a great home base for exploring this part of Italy, as it is well connected to the island of Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and the historic ruins of Pompeii. Day 1: Pompeii We spent our first day visiting Pompeii. We had a late start to the …
While in Italy, we spent three days in Sorrento and devoted one of these days to visiting the island of Capri. Tim and I couldn’t help but wonder is the Blue Grotto worth seeing? The Blue Grotto is the island of Capri’s biggest tourist attraction. It is not a cheap excursion and just paying for transportation from Sorrento to Capri …
Napoli, Italy is world famous for its pizza. And yes, we traveled to Napoli just to sample what some people claim to be the best pizza in the world. About Our Experience Our around the world trip began in Rome. On the day that we traveled from Rome to Sorrento, we made a brief pitstop in Napoli (Naples). Making the …
Our one year around the world trip began in Rome on June 30, 2014. We had three days to spend here, just enough time to see all of the major sites. Rome is packed with history, many of it centuries, even millennia, older than what we have in the US. Since we were visiting during the summertime, we knew to …
After spending two solid days touring Rome’s must see sights, we chose to go off the beaten path and bike the Appian Way. The Appian Way is one of Rome’s ancient roads, connecting Rome to the Adriatic Port of Brindisi. This road was a marvel of Roman engineering at the time it was constructed, 2000 years ago. Today it is …
Our around the world journey began with a flight from New York City to Copenhagen, Denmark. We had a six hour layover here until a later flight would take us to Rome, Italy. Six hours is a long time to spend hanging out in an airport so we decided to make the most of our layover in Copenhagen. Layover in Copenhagen …
Once people get past the shock of hearing our crazy idea and then getting the rundown on the places we plan on visiting, the next question we usually get asked is “how are you doing this?” It took us one year, from the time we decided to go on our around the world journey, to taking that first flight out …
In 2013, on our first trip to Norway, we spent twelve days touring the country, visiting Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, and Alesund. Hiking was our favorite activity here. Norway is an amazing (and very expensive!!) country to visit, and the perfect place to rent a car for sightseeing. Our tour of Norway started in Stavanger. We stayed here for several nights …
The Romsdalseggen hike is a point to point hike that traverses the Romsdalseggen Ridge, with views over the fjords, the town of Åndalsnes, and even out to the western coastline of Norway to the Atlantic Ocean. On our first trip to Norway, this was the hike that I was looking forward to the most. The photos and videos I saw …
Trolltunga is one of Norway’s most popular hikes for good reason. It is an incredibly scenic hike, ending at the Troll’s tongue, a thin sliver of rock perfect for creative photographs. This is definitely a hike to add to your bucket list. For us, the hike to Trolltunga was our third of four hikes in Norway. Kjeragbolten was our favorite, but …
When Tim and I first researched Norway as a travel destination, we repeatedly saw photos of what looked to be crazy people standing on a boulder with 3000 feet of empty space underneath of it. Who does this? As we learned more about the hike, Tim and I decided we wanted to join the club. We added Kjeragbolten to our …
The hike to Pulpit Rock is one of the most popular hikes in Norway. With great views, a relatively easy hiking trail, and convenient accessibility from the town of Stavanger, this hike has a big appeal for many visitors to Norway. With that being said, you should expect big crowds in the summer months. Unless you start your day early …
There are 30,000 islands that make up the archipelago of Stockholm. These small islands dot the shoreline of Sweden, separating the city of Stockholm from the Baltic Sea. About 150 of these islands are inhabited year round, and several make a great day trip from Stockholm. The most popular islands to visit are Grinda, Vaxholm, Svartso, and Sandhamn. These islands …
It has been said that Copenhagen is the happiest city in the world. Denmark is a country with a high GDP per capita and a national health care system. In Copenhagen fifty percent of people ride a bike to work. These happy, healthy people volunteer regularly and have the highest percentage of voters during elections compared to any other democratic …
Our trip to London and Paris was our kids’ very first experience in Europe. They were only 8 and 9 years old at the time, so we wanted to pick two cities that had recognizable landmarks, good food, and fun things to do with kids. During our four days in Paris we toured most of the major sites, ate lots …
