San Marino

October 31, 2025October 28, 20251 Comment

CITY: SAN MARINO

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

My mom & I stayed at a cute, small hotel (Hotel Rosa) right in the middle of Old San Mario, which is perched way on top of a mountain. The room was small, but perfectly comfortable. I’d recommend getting one with a view (ours did not sadly). The 10 euro breakfast was great – and honestly I didn’t see many great breakfast options in town (which is what I usually prefer) so would recommend doing the hotel breakfast.

WHERE TO EAT:

Two places we loved in San Marino:

Caffè Titano – Great little cozy spot for a casual lunch or coffee.
La Terrazza – AMAZING dinner spot – this is a must do while in San Marino. It’s higher end but so worth it. Views were awesome & service was top notch. We both said this was out favorite meal of the trip! I had a delicious truffle & rabbit stuffed pasta while my mom had a seafood pasta that she raved about.

WHAT TO DO:

Here were the highlights of our San Marino visit:

Most importantly visit all the towers. Start with the Guaita Tower before walking over to the second tower (Falesia Tower). Both offer fabulous views over the whole of San Marino & on to Italy.
Check out the Basilicia of Saint Marinus
Just walk around the tiny old town (probably takes about 20 min in total haha)
Ride the Funivia up & down (a gondola offering pretty views of the surrounding areas)

We also spent one day visiting Rimini, which was fun because neither of us had been to the East Coast of Italy. However, I think both of us preferred San Marino. I think Rimini is better in the summer when beach activities are in full swing.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

San Marino was so dang delightful & special. We couldn’t get over how cool this little city/country is. It is literally perched on top of this huge mountain and is built into the cliffs. We loved our time here and can’t believe more people we know haven’t visited.

Nice + Monaco

October 28, 20252 Comments

CITY: NICE (+ DAY TRIP TO MONACO)

HOW LONG: 2 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

My mom joined me for this little adventure so we stayed a cute, small airbnb right near old town. It had a loft with a queen bed + a pullout couch in the living room. It also had a washing machine which was awesome. It was very walkable to all the important parts of Nice & the main train station. Highly recommend!

WHERE TO EAT:

Nice – Try Casa Leya for dinner. Food was delicious and ambiance was lively. We also wanted to check out Comptoir du Marche but it was too busy when we showed up.

Monaco – We had lunch at Graziella. It’s tucked away in the Fontvieille neighborhood and it delivered. Delicious spinach salad & caprese salad! Not touristy at all, which was exactly what we were looking for.

WHAT TO DO:

So the main reason we went to Nice was to spend a day in Monaco. I am currently trying to visit the final few countries in Europe that I haven’t been to (like Monaco)! With our one full day here we got up and headed to Nice-Ville to catch a train to Monaco. We bought tickets day-of so no need to plan ahead. Trains run every 15 min or so.

Here were the highlights of our whirlwind visit to Monaco:

Fontvieille neighboord to check out the Princess Grace Rose Garden + quiet waterfront.
Walk up to the Prince’s Palace – the views from here are incredible!! The palace isn’t open year round, but just coming up to the top of this cliff/mountain for the views & charming streets is absolutely worth it. This was my favorite stop in Monaco.
You can’t come to Monaco without visiting the casinos! Step into the Casino de Monte-Carlo to see what all the hype is about.
Walk along the waterfront & stop for a drink at Plage du Larvotto.

We also spent two evenings walking around the old town in Nice & the waterfront!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Nice was a really pleasant city to visit! I can’t imagine how packed it is in the summer time, but in October the weather was still warm, but the streets weren’t overly full. Also Monaco for the day was great! The weather was perfect for walking around without breaking a sweat. Tons of beautiful views and buildings. Definitely a fun adventure!

Malta

October 15, 2025October 13, 20251 Comment

PRO TIPS:

Malta is part of the Schengen Zone so no visa needed for US Citizens but just watch your 90 day count if you are visiting here on a longer trip around Europe
They use euros here so currency is easy 🙂
Uber & Bolt both work for getting around the island
Avoid coming in August as I can only imagine how packed it would be
Bring a friend or partner as I think this would’ve been a lonely place to visit solo
Decide if you want to stay the entire time on Malta or if you want to spend some time in Gozo. Gozo is pretty tiny so would be pretty quiet, but if that’s your thing, could be fun for a night or two

CITY: VALLETTA

HOW LONG: 4 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

Because my best friend Haley joined me in Malta, this was more of a vacation vibe than a backpacker vibe so these places were $200+ per night (good thing I’m staying with friends for most of the rest of the trip 😝) #balance

For our 4 nights in Valletta, we stayed at the Grand Excelsior. Theoretically it’s a five star hotel but was a little tired & dated. The room was very spacious as was the bathroom! We had a little balcony which is always nice. The hotel has a big outdoor pool & indoor pool as well as a little beachfront area where you can jump in the sea. We didn’t eat at the hotel but there were a few options.

WHERE TO EAT:

My favorite restaurant for breakfast was Elephant Shoe. Such yummy breakfast options and felt like a classic brunch spot from home. A real treat since I haven’t had a good brunch in a while! Also the service was top notch, which isn’t always the case in Europe haha.

We also had breakfast at Manouche Craft Bakery which had a nice menu + lovely outdoor patio.

For dinner, check out Papannis. Right in the center of Valletta, it’s a cute, upscale restaurant with great locale cuisine menu options. Haley tried the rabbit here!

WHAT TO DO:

Three main things I’d recommend:

Day trip to Comino & Gozo – We signed up for this one through Viator. You sail from the North part of the island to Comino to visit/swim in the Blue Lagoon, then have a few hours to explore the island of Gozo. This is a must!! If you don’t care about visiting Gozo, there’s also an option to stay at the Blue Lagoon for a few extra hours (while the others visit Gozo).

Walking around Valletta – the streets & views are so charming!

Taking a water taxi to the “three cities” across from Valletta – check out Senglea & Birgu. The water taxi was a fun experience in and of itself and only costs 3 euros per person. Walking around the small fortified cities was a great way to spend a half day.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Valletta was fabulous! Charming, medieval, & highly walkable. It was a great first stop back in Europe after 2 years away! Haley & I had a blast meandering & catching up during out time in Valletta.

CITY: MDINA

HOW LONG: 2 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

We stayed at Palazzo Bifora in Mdina. Obviously Mdina is TINY, but it was fun to stay in the middle of it. This hotel is quite small but it felt really nice. The room is quite small (but that what’s available in a quaint, small medieval walled in city 😅). Breakfast was included! Would highly recommend at this hotel if you plan to stay here! Also, Haley told them we were celebrating our friendship anniversary so we arrived to this gorgeous room haha

WHERE TO EAT:

I wouldn’t say we were overly impressed with any of the restaurants, except the restaurant at our hotel. Definitely worth the splurge!

We also obviously found some sweet treats to try around town! Try Fior di Latte for an afternoon gelato.

WHAT TO DO:

It doesn’t take long to explore all of Mdina, it’s so so so small, but we enjoyed strolling through all the quiet alleys and taking lots of pictures 🙂

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I’m glad we stayed in Mdina for 2 nights even though there’s not much to do. We loved the slow pace, especially at night when it really emptied out (since most people just come visit a a day trip). We even said we could’ve spent another night here, but I think Haley & I would be happy to spend time anywhere together haha.

BUDGET FOR 6 DAYS IN MALTA:

Accommodation: $766 ($110 per night)
Food: $200
Activities: $45
Local Transportation: $71
Miscellaneous: $10

Total: $1092 (Daily average: $182)

Transportation to next destination: $100 (Flight to Marseille + train to Nice)

Cyprus

September 5, 2023September 30, 2024Leave a comment

CITY: Larnaca

HOW LONG: 4 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

After an exhausting, but incredible, time in Egypt, Stephen and I knew we would want to have a few days to completely relax & recuperate. Sentido Sandy Beach was the perfect spot to do so! It was such a treat to have no agenda other than to enjoy a resort stay 🙂 We opted for the half board meal plan, which meant food was taken care of. There was a gym we took advantage of. The pool had plenty of spots to find a chair in the shade, and the beach was only a few steps away. I will say it was very, very hot, so we also enjoyed lounging inside the main area of the hotel, which had incredibly comfy couches to read, play cards, and catch up on the blog! Lastly, our favorite thing about the hotel was the free Lemon Water, Sparkling Lemonade, & Pink Lemonade. 10/10 would highly recommend this hotel if you find yourself in Cyprus.

Where to eat:

We mostly ate at the hotel, but we had one INCREDIBLE meal outside the hotel. The reception recommended Lysia Meat Tavern for some local food, and holy moly it did not disappoint. The chicken was cooked to perfection! Stephen raved about his pork as well.

Also, despite being a buffet, the hotel’s restaurants did an excellent job with the food. I felt like everything was delicious!

What to do:

If I haven’t made it clear thus far, we really didn’t do much while here because the main goal was to CHILL (which I am not very good at, but I very much needed at this point in the trip). Our days looked like this:

Sleep in
Workout
Breakfast
Read by the pool
Play cards inside to beat the heat
Eat dinner
Watch a movie in bed

We did manage to get a few games in at the local bowling alley which was quite fun! We were the only ones in there so she let me play my music (obviously I put on Cian Ducrot’s new album). Not your typical fun bowling music, but Stephen humored me. He also managed to beat me in all three games unfortunately. Luckily I schooled him in our running game of rummy over the course of the two weeks so it all evened out 🙂

Lastly, we spent one afternoon exploring the city of Larnaca. We walked by the castle, the beach front & the church, as well as trying some Loukoumades (Greek donuts) since Stephen hadn’t had them before. They were yummy, but nothing beats an American donut hehe.

Overall Thoughts:

I am not sure I can really speak to Cyprus or even Larnaca as a whole, but we really, really enjoyed our stay at Sentido Sandy Beach. We felt like our room had the best view in the entire hotel, and we just fully were able to relax, knowing there was nothing we “needed” to do while here. The only to do was enjoy ourselves. I continue to appreciate seeing some nooks & crannies of the world that a lot of Americans don’t ever get to see in their lifetimes 🙂

Budget for 4 days in Cyprus:

Accommodation: $483 ($121 per night)

Food: $18.35 (because we had half board at the hotel)

Activities: $19.50

Local Transportation: $19.50

Transportation to next destination: $132 (Flight to Bulgaria)

Total: $672 (Daily average: $168)

Comments: This was very much a vacation amidst my trip, but despite this being more expensive than more normal budget, for the experience we had, it felt very reasonable!

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

July 22, 2017July 28, 2017Leave a comment

My time in Mostar 🙂

The famous bridge in Mostar

Walking around Mostar

City: Mostar

How Long: 3 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at Hostel Miran and it was incredible!! The host, Miran, was an incredibly nice man who was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the region, as he had grown up there and actually lived through and fought in the Bosnian War. I learned so much from him. The hostel had small lockers in each room to store valuables but not big enough to store your whole bag, but I found everyone at the hostel to be very friendly and nice so I wasn’t worried about anyone stealing stuff from my bag. There was free breakfast and often at night Miran would BBQ so there was a free dinner sometimes. They also offered a great tour of the region. Highly recommend this place!!

Where to eat:

This place had free breakfast and sometimes free dinner so I mostly utilized that, BUT the hostel did recommend Hindin Han and I ended up going twice! Once just with Sam, and then once with Sam and three Germans we met on Miran’s tour (more on that in the next section!). Hindin Han was in the middle of the city center overlooking a small stream and was very cheap! Awesome food and alcohol selection.

Accidentally ordered Rakia, which is a rum made in the Balkans. Ranges from 40% alcohol to 90% alcohol. It was quite strong!

SO MUCH FOOD

What to do:

Number one thing you should do is go on Miran’s tour! (even if you don’t stay at his hostel I’m pretty sure you can still go on it!) Miran lived through and fought during the Bosnian War and had some incredible stories for us. The tour took us to an abandoned aircraft hanger utilized during communist occupation in Bosnia, two quaint cities (Blagaj & Pochitelj) and lastly, Kravice waterfalls. Each was uniquely beautiful, but the waterfalls were my favorite because we got to swim!! As we made our way back to Mostar, we were told many stories about the realities of living in Mostar during the Bosnian War. The damage from the war is still very visible in Mostar today.

Entering the abandoned airport hangar

From the inside

Blagaj

Blagaj

Drinking the fresh water

Where two rivers meet

View from the fort of Pochitelj

Up in the old fort

Pochitelj

Kravica Waterfalls

Our new German friend smoked his pipe and read while the rest of us swam in the water 🙂

The aftermath of the Bosnian War

Buildings still in disarray

The other thing that is fun to see while in Mostar is someone jump off the famous Stari Most bridge which is 24 meters (~78 feet) tall! The professional divers will jump once they have collected enough money from tourists 🙂 If you are a tourist, you pay around 20 euros for an hour-long lesson from the professionals and then you can jump! Only around 2,300 people have done it and Miran said they were mostly Aussie or Kiwi.

Someone about to jump!

Overall thoughts:

Mostar was such a pleasant surprise. I honestly had such little knowledge about this region and was thrilled to learn all that I did. Highly recommend visiting this richly historic, beautiful city.

Nighttime views of the bridge

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Vienna (+ Bratislava)

July 22, 20171 Comment

City: Vienna

How Long: 4 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at Hostel Ruthensteiner Vienna while I was here. The hostel itself is great. Tons of fun people, and there’s a bar within the hostel. There’s a guest kitchen and a 4.5 euro breakfast option. Good security lockers in the room and comfy beds. However, unfortunately it is fairly far from the city center so it takes 40 minutes to get anywhere (walking). I just find that I prefer to be able to walk right from the hostel to where I want to go without using public transit.

Where to Eat:

I ate a delicious traditional Polish dish at a restaurant called Mozart’s Restaurant. It was almost like pasta/dumpling combo with scrambled eggs. Sounds weird, but it was awesome. Otherwise, I chose to buy groceries and cook in the community kitchen with some friends I made.

While I didn’t eat here, Mozart + Beethoven did! In fact, Mozart’s last performance was here. This place has been opened for over 200 years. Pretty incredible.

What to do:

I visited the Easter markets here as well, but they weren’t as fun as the ones in Krakow I found. I also did a free walking tour with some friends, where we saw some of the old government buildings and some cool churches. I also met two other Americans staying at my hostel and ended up going out on a pub crawl with them which was fun!

Painted eggs at the Easter Markets!

Unfortunately the next day it rained and even hailed a bit. I chose to spend the day inside and catch up on reading, writing, and editing some videos. While it was nice to have a relaxing day, it meant that I did not get to see the palace or the gardens which I have heard are amazing.

On my last day in Vienna I did a day trip to Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia. I took a 5 euro bus ride there in the morning, early enough to catch the free walking tour. I really enjoyed learning about this tiny country that most American’s probably don’t know much about if they have even heard of it. Bratislava looks like it was torn out of the pages of a fairytale. In fact, the famous fairytale writer from Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen, spent time here. He famously said to the citizens of Bratislava, “If you want a fairy tale, look at your city.”

View of Bratislava from the Castle

We walked around most of the city in about 2.5 hours, as the city is fairly small. We saw the grand castle (although technically a fortress), a blue Church, and adorable cobblestone streets. I learned that Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capitals in all of Europe, at just 34 miles apart. After spending just 5 hours in this city, I wish I had spent a few days here instead of staying in Vienna. Definitely don’t skip visiting Bratislava, even if it just for a day from Vienna or Budapest.

Main square in Bratislava

The Blue Church!

Bratislava Castle

Overall Thoughts:

Vienna did not wow me. I am not exactly sure why, but overall it was not my favorite. The city is huge and I have learned that I tend to prefer more manageable cities. It’s also more expensive than some of the other cities I am visiting right now. I wish I had stayed in Bratislava and done a day trip to Vienna, instead of the other way around. I can certainly see why so many people love Vienna (amazing food, beautiful architecture, top-notch museums) but I just don’t think it’s for me.

Western Europe

July 14, 2017May 29, 2024Leave a comment

Amsterdam (+Latvia)

Berlin

Stuttgart + Paris

Vienna (+ Bratislava)

Walking Retreat + Bordeaux

Liechtenstein + Switzerland

UK + Ireland

July 14, 2017May 29, 2024Leave a comment

London + Cambridge

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Bath + London

Edinburgh + Southend on Sea

Ireland

Worcester + Cardiff

Stonehenge + London

Sheffield + London

Northern Ireland

London + Cambridge

June 6, 2017July 19, 20171 Comment

Sadly, this is my last stop on my trip! BUT I made the most of it with a final visit with my favorite British people. (You may remember them because I stayed with them all the way back in June 2016 and then again in February 2017.) Originally I had met them at a hostel in Barcelona in May 2015 and have visited them 4 or 5 times since then. So without further adieu…

CITY: london

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

I stayed at Astor Hyde Park while in London for the final time. I booked super late so there weren’t many options left, but I ended up getting one of the last beds at this hostel. This place had large under the bed lockers and an en suite bathroom. There’s a large guest kitchen and two great common areas for socializing. Also the hostel is right next to Hyde Park!! Definitely recommend a stay here.

WHERE TO EAT:

The main thing I did while in England was go to Cambridge for the day with my British friends! To start off the adventure we went to Copper Kettle for a full English breakfast. This was the first time I had one, and while I can’t get on board with beans for breakfast, the rest was delicious!

Enjoying brunch

Full English

After a full day of exploring Cambridge, we all went to Bill’s for dinner + drinks. It had a good vibe and could seat all 6 of us. I got a tomato soup because I wasn’t super hungry, but AJ and his gf, Chloe, split a halloumi burger and it looked great!

I went to Nandos, a staple in the UK, for the first time on my last night in Europe. I met Henry and one of his high school friends for dinner. It’s a Portuguese chicken chain and it’s pretty good, although I was surprised by how spicy it was! There are tons of different menu options. Definitely recommend a visit here if you have the time.

The most perfect hot chocolate I got while Henry and I were waiting for the rest of the crew to show up

WHAT TO DO:

As I mentioned, the main activity of my visit to London was a day trip to Cambridge. Henry and I met up at the train station in London and headed to Cambridge, while AJ & Chloe and Tony met us there as they drove. After getting brunch, we walked around the town before finding a grassy spot to enjoy the sun. Around 2pm we loaded into a boat to go punting, which is very popular in Cambridge.

Meeting Henry at the train station on our way to Cambridge

Cambridge

Enjoying the sun!

The crew

Busy day for punting

Aj, Chloe, Tony, & Henry

We made it on the boat

The bridge of sighs

On the boat!

After punting we again found a grassy spot and just enjoyed the rare sunny day.

Sitting in a park

Henry planting a garden on AJ

My fav’s

The most exquisite roses I have ever seen

Other than Cambridge, I did spend a day at Hyde Park reading my book. A wonderfully relaxing day.

Hyde Park

My last day on this wonderful trip I spent hanging at my hostel, meeting some people, and working on my blog 🙂 That night I grabbed dinner with Henry and his friend and we were some of the last people to leave the restaurant.

It was really, really hard to say goodbye to my friends because they ended up being such a big part of this trip!! Each time I visited before, we knew there would be at least one more visit ahead. This time, we knew it would be an indefinite goodbye. HOWEVER, I am trying my hardest to convince them to come to CA to visit me sometime in the future.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in England, and it is has furthered cemented my dream of moving here. I hope to eventually find a path to living in London, even if it’s just for a few years.

See ya soon California! While I will miss Europe with all my heart, I am excited to go home and sleep in my own bed for the first time in a while 🙂

Greece

May 30, 2017July 22, 2017

After 6 weeks of solo travel, I am ending my trip with about 8 days with Adam, one of my best friends from high school! Also our friend Matt joined us for Santorini. It was so much fun to see a familiar face and travel with a friend!

CITY: Mykonos

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

We stayed Orpheas Rooms hotel and it was GREAT. It was reasonably priced and we had two separate bedrooms. The location was perfect and close to everything. The shower was AMAZING, we both had never seen anything like it. It had like 4 different water spouts and was piping hot. We also had a little patio with a table and chairs where we spent hours playing cards and drinking wine. Definitely recommend a stay here!

Our little patio

The coolest door that was next to our place

WHERE TO EAT:

After settling into our place, we wandered out to find some food. We eventually found Kavos Cafe Bar Restaurant, which is right on the water. I am trying to try new foods in each place I go and thus ordered my first ever plate of gyros– and I think I fell in love. They were delicious! Plus they come with tzatziki and french fries so I was in heaven.

After renting ATV’s and exploring some beaches, we wanted to find a restaurant outside of the more touristy downtown and we were in for a treat when we found Myconian Plate. It felt homey and local. The food was delicious and the waiters were very attentive. We had such a great experience at this place!

Lunch at Mykonian Plate

Mykonian Plate

After laying out in the sun the next day we found a lovely restaurant right on the beach on the other side of the island called Yialo yialo. The staff were super friendly and the food was good. The best part was that after we ate we were allowed to use their chaise lounges on the beach.

Our last meal on Mykonos was at Marco Polo. It’s a family run restaurant in the middle of Mykonos Town that had a nice ambiance. I ordered a delicious plate of Greek meatballs and Adam and I shared a bottle of wine. It was a nice end to our food experience in Mykonos.

Dinner at Marco Polo

our dessert

WHAT TO DO:

Other than walking around Mykonos Town, which is quite cute, the main thing to do on the island is rent ATV’s and go to the cool beaches— So that’s what we did. It was so much fun zipping around the tiny island on them. We used them to beach-hop all day. As you can imagine, we played cards, read our books, napped, and swam all day long. Overall, super fun and relaxing!

The famous windmills

Beach day

“Try and look like you are not freezing!”

All the chaise lounges

Adam being inventive

However, as we were here in May, it was a little too early for all the famous partying and clubs to even be open. I think Adam and I were actually pretty happy about that because neither of us are super into that scene. We did end up going out to a bar/club in Mykonos Town and had a blast! They played super fun danceable music and we made some Australian friends.

The “crazy” famous beach clubs that weren’t so happen’ while we were there

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I really enjoyed Mykonos and am not sad about being here in the shoulder season. The beaches were beautiful, although a bit windy. I also really liked Mykonos Town, as it was quite cute and trendy.

Our ferry to Santorini

CITY: Santorini

HOW LONG: 4 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

We stayed at an airbnb that was literally carved into the cliffs. It was accurately described as a cocoon. It was on the small side but had everything you needed. The best part of the airbnb was the incredible patio that offered chaise lounges to view the incredible sunsets every night. The bathroom was spacious and there was a tiny kitchenette. The bed was comfy and there was also a table with two chairs. Really enjoyed this special airbnb.

Our patio

WHERE TO EAT:

Our favorite place ended up being a cafe right near our airbnb called Cafe Galini. I think we ended up eating here about 5 times during our stay in Santorini. We had amazing greek yogurt bowls with fresh fruit + honey. Also the club sandwich was our go-to for lunch. I often enjoyed some hot milk + honey in the mornings because I was feeling a little under the weather while here.

Greek yogurt + fresh berries + honey 🙂

Our other favorite spot was Zafora. We ended up here twice, once for a late dinner, and once for an entire afternoon of playing cards and snacking until the sun had set. We really enjoyed the food, customer service, and most importantly, the view. One night I had a yummy crepe, and the other I had a yummier gyros plate.

Zafora!

Sunset from Zafora

One night we cooked our own meal with some pasta, prosciutto, garlic, and onions and ate on Matt’s balcony.

Dinner on Matt’s balcony

The sunset the next day from the same spot

Drinks to celebrate our birthdays

WHAT TO DO:

Santorini has plenty to offer in forms of things to do. First up was a walk through Fira. Settled at the top of some cliffs, you are offered some incredible views as you stroll through the town. There were plenty of restaurants and stores to wander through. What we came to realize in our time in Santorini was that given how the town is etched into the cliffs, almost everywhere you go has an incredible view over the water.

Views

Near our airbnb

Santorini at sunset

My favorite wall

The next day, along with Matt, we rented ATV’s and headed over to some black sand beaches. I have never been on ATV’s before Greece and really, really enjoyed riding around in the open air on these things. It’s the best way to explore the Greek islands. After the beaches, we rode 45 minutes over to Oía, the other main city on the island. We walked around the famous city streets and eventually headed down to the water so Matt and Adam could go cliff-jumping. After, we found a nice lunch spot.

Black sand beach

Snack break

Oía

Matt + Adam jumping off the cliff!

Another highlight was a boat tour to an active volcanic island and to some hot springs. We got to walk around the island, even seeing some smoking craters. Next up we boated to the island next door and jumped into the fairly cold water to swim towards the hot springs. Pretty quickly we realized a more accurate description would be “lukewarm springs” but we still had a good time spreading the “healing” mud all over our bodies!

Exploring the volcanic island

Santorini in the background

Where the hot springs are

Adam and I enjoyed a nice afternoon at Galini cafe playing cards and reading our books after a couple of action-filled days. We had said bye to Matt, who was supposed to fly to Rome that day BUT he got bumped from his flight and got “stuck” in Santorini one more night. Lucky for us he got put up in a super nice hotel on the other side of the island where all the beaches are. SO the next day (and our last day) Adam and I lugged our luggage over to his hotel to hang pool and beach side until our midnight flight to Athens. We really lucked out because this place was super nice and we were just able to relax all day.

Sunscreen is important!

Attempting to skip rocks

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Santorini is awesome! Incredible views, incredible people, incredible sunsets. Such a picturesque place. It’s definitely not the cheapest place I went, but we had such a fun time exploring the island.

CITY: Athens

HOW LONG: 2 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

We stayed at Athens Backpackers and it was the perfect location. Adam and I were only here for one full day so it was critical to be centrally located. This place also had a guest kitchen and common room. The beds were comfy and there were lockers. They were connected to a bar, restaurant and a laundry facility so there were options to explore beyond just the common room. Definitely would stay here again.

WHERE TO EAT:

We only had the one day but we had 2 great finds. First off, to warn everyone, Athens restaurants were SO AGGRESSIVE at trying to lure in the tourists. Adam and I were harassed almost every where we went. It was overwhelming. But eventually we picked a restaurant and we ended up having a great meal with the first round of drinks on them 🙂

The more important find was a dessert place called Lukumades. They had these fresh, homemade donuts and they you could add ice cream + the donuts in a bowl. WOWOWOW it was good. We got two combos to split.

Lukumades

Apple filled with honey + cinnamon on top

Chocolate on Chocolate on Chocolate

WHAT TO DO:

We started the day with a visit to the Acropolis. Pretty spectacular what the Greeks were able to build all those years ago. After walking around that site, we meandered through all the pedestrian friendly shopping streets before popping into the National Garden to soak up the sun and play some cards. The gardens had some interesting combos of animals in the park. One tiny pond had probably more than 50 turtles. There were goats and rabbits in the same pen. They had all sorts of birds. It was a crazy place haha.

The Parthenon

Exploring the Acropolis

Ancient ruins feat. Adam

National Gardens

Adam checking out the sun dial

approx. 1,000,000 turtles

Walking through the park

Beautiful purple trees

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I went in with low expectations of Athens, and was quite pleasantly surprised! Adam and I had fun exploring Athens by foot and enjoyed everything except the harassment from the restaurants. I wouldn’t necessarily rush back to spend a ton more time in Athens, as there are other places I would rather go back to and obviously there even more places that I want to go that I haven’t been to! BUT I really liked my time in Athens.