Colors of Cartagena

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Our time was short in Cartagena, but it was incredibly memorable. We started the morning with what many say is a must-do while visiting this gorgeous city riding in a Chiva Bus. A Chiva bus cam only be described as a party on wheels. Upon arrival to the bus we were handed a bucket of ice, local rum and coke. The entertainment on board was a 3-man band located in the middle rows of the bus; which truly bring the party to life. While some shy away from 8am cocktails, we embraced the experience like a local. When in Rome, right?  

 

 

 

We took a short site seeing tour stopping to take photos at San Felipe Castle and Las Bóvedas. Las Bóvedas at one time was the cities dungeon and now turned into a tourist hub for souvenirs. Outside the shops was an authentic Colombia coffee kiosk made out of an old Willys jeep. From Las Bóvedas you can capture views of the ocean or even start a bike ride along the city walls. 

We headed back through the city on our party bus and were dropped off at the clock tower to finish the city highlights. Beyond those walls were some of the most colorful buildings I had ever seen. The balconies, flowers and colorfully dressed ladies carrying baskets of fruit on their heads were along every street. We strolled for hours just taking in each and every square block of this fantastic city. We even stopped into the famous Juan Valdez. 

Cartagena sparked our curiosity for Colombia and we cannot wait to go back to see more. 

Happy Traveling, 

Katrina

Dordogne Valley – Best villages for a weekend getaway

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Dordogne Valley – Land of Fairytales

La Roque-Gageac - Upper Village

There are no words to describe the beauty of this region. Dare I say it; it has the most beautiful villages I have ever seen. Perfectly placed flower boxes in each window with honey-toned buildings overlooking the winding Dordogne River.

La Roque-Gageac Promenade

The region covers a vast area between Bergerac and Brive, but we picked a small area that was far less populated. We chose to stay at the Domaine du Château de Monrecour, which was just one village over from Beynac-et-Cazenac, where we spent time strolling the quiet cobblestone streets at dusk.

The local hot air balloons launch from the castle grounds, which was quite the site to see at sunset. The hotel offered two heated pools and an incredible backdrop to the gorgeous area.

In my opinion the three best villages to visit in no apparent order are:

Domme, Beynac-et-Cazenac and La Roque-Gageac.

La Roque-Gageac:

We started the first day off roaming around the bustling La Roque-Gageac. This town truly had a lot to offer, there are many viewpoints from all over the village.  There are caves high above the town, but at the time of writing they were under renovation.  There were more activities and restaurants here than in the other villages we visited later in our trip. You had the choice to take a riverboat, which takes you up stream for a one hour ride with a guided tour.  Alternatively, you can also rent a canoe from various vendors along the water and make your way down the river yourself. Some of the streets felt like quiet alleys tucked away in a fairytale. 

 

Beynac-et-Cazenac:

We set off to Beynac-et-Cazenac right as the shops were closing, which no doubt made the experience in the village that much more exciting. We strolled around for nearly an hour getting lost in the streets without a soul in sight. We hiked up towards the Chateau to get some of the views of the hot air balloons launching from our hotel. It was down right magical. The photos alone do this village no justice. You could see numerous Chateaus’ in the distance from the viewpoints in the village.

We finished the evening with one of the best meals I have had in a long time at Hotel-Restaurant du Château. You must try the Foie gras while here; it’s a local favorite and can be found at most restaurants. This village took my breath away, I truly felt as though we were on the set of Beauty and the Beast.

 

Domme:

We started the morning off on the east end of the Dordogne River into the village of Domme. Domme is set up high on a hill overlooking the winding valley below. The village is well known for its caves “Grotte de Domme”. We opted for ice cream and a stroll along the city’s still remaining fortification walls. Each street offered such breathtaking views. The colors of the doors and shutters in this town by far were the most picturesque. 

 

Happy Traveling, 

 

Katrina

Romania – Transylvania

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Transylvania in a long weekend

Romania was on my husbands bucket list as he has been talking about visiting Bran Castle for years. We only spent 3 full days in Romania, but we made the most of it and headed straight to Transylvania. We flew directly into Bucharest as it offered the best route to get up into the mountains. We visited in April so the snow was melting in most places, but there was still visible snow on the top. We stayed the whole three days in Bran, but if we went again I would have stayed in other places to break up the driving to the locations. We stayed in this amazing house right near the castle called Conacul Bratescu. The owner greeted us with drinks and allowed us to pick the room of our choice with a mountain view. The house had a game room with foosball and Ping-Pong tables that we were able to use till 9pm.

Our first day we headed into Sinaia to see Peles Castle. If you follow the signs in Sinaia for the castle there is parking about half a mile up the hill from the castle grounds. It was about 2 euros to park for the whole day. There are two castles on the grounds Pelișor Castle and Peles Castle. Peles is more exquisite in design and architecture. You can join in on a tour, which is a large group of about 30 people, or do your own tour with audio guide in a small group. We chose the small group, as I hate being shuffled through rooms in a hurry. The rooms were filled with marble, glass and antiques galore. This was my favorite castle we visited on our trip. If you have time I highly recommend stopping by the Sinaia Monastery for a quick tour of one of the oldest churches in Romania. The area of Sinaia is a large ski resort town so when we were there in April it was pretty empty as the snow has nearly all melted. Walking from the Monastery down to old town was absolutely wonderful. All the carved homes along the road were a true depiction of Transylvania.

We decided to visit Bran the second day as the weather looked like it was finally letting up. The weather was hit and miss as you are deep in the mountains in the region. Bran castle, although the most famous was not as spectacular as Pele’s or Pelișor Castles.  The castles many rooms show the history of the castle and info about Vlad the Impaler. There were many pieces in the castle from the actual movie depicting Bran’s Castle. The best photo opportunity of the castle is just north of Bran before entering the hospital parking lot.

We spent our last day in the city of Brasov. It was just small enough to be walk-able on a rainy afternoon. We stopped over to the Black Church, Town Hall and the main square. I would highly recommend once heading back to Bran to stop over in the village of Rasnov. There is a fortress up on the hill, which was affordable to go have a look around. The views from the top were well worth the trip up. You can take the tractor train for about $2 to the top. There is also a Dino Land up near the entrance to the fortress if you are looking for something fun to do with the kids after walking around the towns and castles.  All in all we had a great holiday in Transylvania. 

Happy Traveling, 

Katrina

Dublin in a Day - 12 hours in Dublin

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Dublin in a Day- Tackle Dublin in 12 hours

I am always saying how close so many countries are to the UK. Flights to most places are just under 45 minutes. Yep, you can hop to another country just for the day. What I find great is that the low cost airlines like Ryan Air and Easy Jet promote this and you can find flights to meet that tight schedule.

Flights make it happen

So I am sure you are wondering how do you make this work, right? I have done this about 3 times now so it’s totally tried and tested. Each time I try to see something I didn’t see before and its possible. 

Well on our recent stop over to Dublin we grabbed the 6am flight out of Stansted and the 8pm flight back. It makes for a long day so if you have kids you and be assured that will be sleeping in route back to the UK. We have done this with my daughter when she was just 2 years old, and then again when she was 9.

Before you go I highly recommend picking up a Freedom Pass, this enables you airport transport, Hop On and Hop Off Tour, and free bus transport while in Dublin. Once booked online you print off your voucher and collect right in the terminal building. On arrival you will pick up you pass or chose to head straight out the main doors to the bus stop. You will see signs for AirLink buses. There is a machine at the bus stop to pick up your ticket if you decided not to go with the Freedom Pass Ticket. The cost of the ticket is around €6 each way at the time of my trip. From there I recommend getting off at the College Green and Temple Bar and taking a stroll through the Temple Bar district before headed onto the Hop On and Hop Off bus. If the Guinness Storehouse is top on your list I would highly recommend heading there on the bus first as the lines by midday can get long. The Guinness Storehouse was family friendly and offered apple juice or orange juice for the kids.

From here we headed to Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and then to Kilmainham Gaol. We headed back into town to grab a warm lunch at the Queen of Tarts. It was a quick pub lunch and offer breakfast for the better part of the day. After a quick bite to eat we headed to Christ Church Cathedral to jump on the afternoon tour of the church for a history lesson. This is great as they have traditional bell ringers in the church and you could have a chance to ring the bells if you catch it in time.

Relaxing Afternoon

At this point we had spent the better part of the morning touring and decided to head over for a Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour. This was kid friendly as well as they were talking about the science involved in the making and really tried hard to provide some educational learning for the kids. It was about 5pm now so we headed back into town to walk down through the Temple Bar area. We decided to have a relaxing sit down dinner at the The Oldstorehouse based on a friend’s recommendation to try the Guinness stew and she sure was right. We popped into a few tourist shops to pick up some fun gifts and headed to the airport on the AirLink.

We packed a lot in, but it is totally doable if you utilize the bus tour to get around. If you have family visiting it’s a great stop over and its far less crowded than a trip to London.

Good Tips:

Wear good walking shoes

Pre-book as much as possible to maximize you day

Don’t be afraid to ask directions. Dubliners are the friendliest people around.

Happy Traveling,

Katrina

 

Essential Websites for Things to do in the UK

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Well, there's no exuse for staying home and being bored. Get out and explore the UK. A lot of these sites have current things to do if you check back regularly.


Travel - All of UK:

Days out in the UK (mainly London area) - http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk

Day out with KIDS - http://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk

With DOGS - http://www.dogfriendlybritain.co.uk/

Beaches - http://www.goodbeachguide.co.uk

Best 50 Beaches - http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/the-50-best-uk-beaches-125-480372.html

Plan a pub crawl - http://barcrawl.co.uk

Castles - http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk

Castles - http://www.castleuk.net/list.htm

Free things to do - http://www.frommers.com/slideshow/index.cfm?group=315&cat_cd=ARTCULTURE&p=1#slide

UK Travel - http://www.picturetheuk.com

Holidays in the UK (mainly outdoorsy) - http://www.holidayuk.co.uk

National Trust (England and Wales) - www.nationaltrust.org.uk


Travel - England:

Quite things in London - http://www.timeout.com/london/features/1607/The_A-Z_of_Quiet_London.html

London - http://www.frommers.com/destinations/london

The Lake District - http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk

Tour Norfolk - http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/index.html

Norfolk Broads Cycling - http://www.norfolkbroadscycling.co.uk

Great Yarmouth - www.great-yarmouth.co.uk

Hunstanton - http://www.norfolk-on-line.co.uk/hunstanton/pages/index.php

Cambridgeshire - http://www.familiesincambridgeshire.co.uk

Cambridge - http://www.visitcambridge.org

Cambridge - http://www.cambridge.co.uk

East Anglia - http://www.eastanglia24.co.uk/wp

Ipswich - http://www.visit-ipswich.com

The Midlands - http://www.visitheartofengland.com

Northeast England - http://www.visitnortheastengland.com

Suffolk - http://www.suffolktouristguide.com

English Heritage - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk


Travel - Wales:

Wales - http://www.visitwales.co.uk

Cardiff - http://www.visitcardiff.com


Travel - Scotland:

Scotland - http://www.visitscotland.com

Scotland - http://www.welcometoscotland.com

Scotland top 10 - http://scotland.costasur.com/en/ten-must-see.html

Edinburgh - http://www.timeout.com/edinburgh/features/220/20-great-things-to-do-in-edinburgh

Edinburgh - http://www.edinburgh.org

Physical Activities/Sports (all of UK unless otherwise noted):

Walking/Cycling/Horse riding - http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk

Hiking guides - http://www.contours.co.uk

Walking and hiking guides - http://www.walkingandhiking.co.uk

Biking - http://www.cycle-route.com

Mtn biking trails - http://www.moredirt.co.uk

SEASONAL

Christmas:

UK Christmas Markets - http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK.html

Bury St. Edmunds Christmas market - http://www.burystedmundschristmasfayre.co.uk

Other:

Pick your own - http://www.pickyourownfarms.org.uk

Pick your own - http://www.localfoods.org.uk