We were pretty psyched to head to Dubrovnik, the city that King’s Landing from Game of Thrones is based on. We weren’t disappointed. Dubrovnik is a beautiful city surrounded by beautiful water and mountains. Dubrovnik is located in a part of Croatia that is separated from the rest of Croatia by Bosnia and Herzegovina. We opted to take a bus down there, and we ended up getting to stop in B&H for ten minutes (cool!). After our four and a…
There’s not a ton of touristy stuff to do in Split during the winter, which is all the more reason to slow down and enjoy the place for what it is. We’d been looking forward to our stay at Le Meridien ever since my co-worker Dave recommended it last summer before our trip even began. Once we arrived into Croatia on the early morning ferry from Italy, we headed straight to the hotel and quickly made ourselves at home. Since…
We had been recommended to visit Puglia while in Italy, which is the region that is the “heel of the boot”. We had two nights after leaving Sicily before we needed to be in Ancona for our ferry to Croatia, so we decided we’d visit Bari. Bari is on the coast and houses the bones of Saint Nicholas. We made the long drive from Sicily (it took us about 8 hours with stops) and settled into our apartment in the…
We’ve had a chance to experience the Italian driver on our road trip. Drivers here go way too fast, they text while driving (which you’ll know because they go about half their normal speed when composing a message), they don’t stay in their lanes, they forget to switch off turn signals, they tailgate… I could go on. So after braving the overly narrow roads of the Amalfi Coast (and witnessing a pretty bad accident in our rear view mirror), we…
After our time in Roma, we picked up our sporty little rental car and headed down to Sorrento. Sorrento is known for limoncello, but also being in proximity to Naples, has very good pizza. We spent two nights there and enjoyed the food and the sights. The pizza was fantastic (we recommend Franco), the pasta was tasty, and we were introduced to the second best pastry in the world (next to cannoli, of course): sfogliatelle (“svoy-a-tella”), which has layers and…
It turns out flying to Europe from Australia takes a long time. In our case, 2 red-eye flights with a layover in Abu Dhabi, and 24 hours later we were in Rome. The good thing about travelling west, though, is that you become an early riser instantly due to the jetlag. Landing early in the morning, and seeing as we were in the neighborhood, we swung by good old Trevi Fountain on the way to our guesthouse. Normally the attraction is swarmed…
Before we even flew to New Zealand, we were required to have an outbound flight due to visa rules. We ended up having to do this at 4:30am before our flight to Auckland, so made a quick decision that we’d come back to Australia after our time in NZ and explore Sydney since Shawn’s never been. We arrived midday and checked into our Airbnb with our lovely hosts, Jessica & Ben and their amazing dog, Zoey, in the super hip neighborhood…
After an overnight at what turned out to be our favorite holiday park, Flat Hills Cafe and Tourist Park, we headed south to Wellington where we would catch the Interislander ferry the next morning. With a day to explore the city, we were all in agreement that Wellington has some good vibes: great street art all around, funky architecture, yummy local beer, and solid restaurants. On the recommendation of Morgan’s friend, we stopped in at Garage Project‘s Cellar Door for…
Equipped with our Jucy Condo campervan, we left Auckland (after an incredible Women’s March) and had a brief stay in Rotorua to soak in the hot springs and hike in the hills before heading to Hobbiton. Most of the bigger thermal features cost money to see, so we stuck to the ones at our holiday park and those we could see from afar. Here are a few highlights, before diving into the Hobbity stuff. So Hobbiton. Sure, it’s man-made, touristy,…
After 3 weeks of housesitting in our beautiful Melbourne home, we said goodbye to the kitties, extra space, functional kitchen, laundry (you get the idea), and hopped on a quick flight to Tasmania. Before I go any further… Seriously! Come to Tasmania. It is awesome. When we arrived, we picked up a rental car in Launceston and headed west to Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. It took mere minutes once we got up the mountain before spotting some amazing wildlife…