Greece Girl's Trip: The Packing List

We're going on vacation! Yes, yes, I know it's not exactly unusual for someone who writes a travel blog to be going on a trip. But. This is a girls' vacation, and I am thrilled. There are a couple of us going who don't travel regularly, so a few weeks ago, they asked me what I would be packing.

 For this trip, swimsuits and a sun hat are a must! (I don't typically bring a hat like this with me unless I'm going to be beaching. Also, I'm bringing two swim suits, because I've been to humid climates where suits don't dry overnight, and there's very little more annoying than putting on a wet bathing suit!)

Now, that's sort of a loaded question. I'm a firm believer that what you pack is pretty personal and varied, so this list is what I would bring with me. In addition to that, what you pack is also pretty dependent on where you're going, and when. Perfect case in point: I'm packing for a spring trip to the Greek Islands. If I were packing for a fall trip to London, my bag would be drastically different! My best advice is to take your itinerary (even if it's rough!) and try to figure out what you'd be comfortable in for each day/adventure.

London to Brussels: The Chunnel Train

The Chunnel train is something that both Hubby and I were super excited to go on. We both love public transportation, and trains, and it seemed like the ultimate one - a train that goes under a channel!

 Inside the "standard" class car on the Eurostar train.

TRAVEL TIP: Buying train tickets in Europe for "long" trips (1.5 hours +) is almost always cheaper if you buy in advance online. Also - if you don't have a credit card with a chip (a lot of US banks are now issuing them), leave time to go into the ticket booth, as the ticket kiosks usually only take chip cards. When we were in Belgium, we missed two trains from Brussels to Bruges because we had to hunt down the ticket office and then stand in line!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Tower Bridge, London

Tower Bridge, London

It seems as if I've been on a bit of a London kick lately! We had a really nice time in London last October, I think when you have good friends in a place it makes that place 8x better for you. Anyway, Tower bridge is one of my favorite places in London - there's just something about it that I love so much! I took this shot from a boat back to London from Greenwich - something I highly recommend!

Travel Photo Tuesday: London Eye

The London Eye & Big Ben

Walking along the river in London is one of my absolute favorite things to do there. I don't know what it is - there's just a lot of life and bustle and so many things to see! Stop off for a cup of coffee or tea, a beer or cider, a bite to eat, or to just sit for a few minutes and people watch... so many options!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Brooklyn Bridge

One of my absolute favorite places in New York is the Brooklyn Bridge. There's just something about it - the light posts, the wooden planks, it's just really neat. I took the train from Manhattan to Brooklyn, then walked back to Manhattan. The skyline views were awesome, and you could even see the Statue of Liberty in the distance!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Bruges

Bruges was a super cute, VERY touristy town. We enjoyed our time there, but would likely not stay for more than a night if we were to visit again. Also, it's pretty pricey there! We ordered mussel frites one night and paid about €20, while in Cannes later in the trip, we paid €12 for more mussels!

Greece: A Girls' Trip Itinerary!

Shorty has a big birthday coming up, and she's been dreaming of a trip to Greece for years now, so she decided to make it happen and just go!

She put together the itinerary she wanted to do, the things that were the most important to see on her first trip to Greece, and then she sent it to a bunch of us, and we all picked the parts that we're able to make it to. It ended up working really well that way, because everyone had different dates, responsibilities, budgets, and this way there was no pressure on it!

London: Getting Around

Let me first say this: London is crazy. It's a very cool, vibrant, amazing city, and it was so incredible to see our friends, our first trip there in 2012 was NOT a relaxing trip! We got better with the additional visits, and now I feel like we're pros!

 The Piccadilly line on a map of London

GETTING AROUND
When I was thinking about what I wanted to express about our trips to London, one of the biggest things ended up being something I really wasn't expecting - getting around the city.

London: The City and Sights

London is a very interesting place. 

It's beautiful, with a mix of old and modern, clean and dodgy, quiet and crazy.

When we returned from our first trip in 2012, there was a lot about London that we hadn't liked. The rush. The rude people. The occasional feel of being in "just any" big city.

Travel Photo Tuesday: Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Today's Travel Photo Tuesday is from Titikaveka beach in Rarotonga, Cook Islands! Hubby and I spent 8 nights in the Cook Islands for our honeymoon, and it was the most relaxing and near perfect vacation I've ever been on! This afternoon was warm, peaceful, and a little windy - and was towards the end of our trip. We spent it wandering around, snorkeling, and relaxing!

Someday, I'll catch up.

Wow. So things have been absolutely insane over the last few years. We've been doing our fair share of traveling, and I've been very neglectful of writing about it!

What have we been up to the last couple years?

2013:
I made a New Year's resolution to do at minimum a small trip every month, and I did pretty well! Not only did we do some really fun weekend trips, including a road trip to Arizona, and a quick overnight trip to Savannah while I was in Atlanta for work, but we also snuck Europe in there in October when I went to a business conference in Cannes. Hubby and I tacked on London, Bruges, and Paris to Cannes, and it was really fun.

Bruges, Belguim, October 2013

London: Tea Time

Finally getting back to some posts about our 2012 trip to London to see SD and Sis! To kick it off, one of my favorite afternoons of the trip - Afternoon TEA!

All ready for tea!

One of the my favorite activities on our 2012 London trip was having an afternoon tea with my two girlfriends. It's a definite "must do" while in London in my book - especially if you're like me and LOVE tea.

London 2012

I blinked, and then all of a sudden it was almost two years after Hubby's and my trip to London in 2012. We decided we wanted to visit our good friend SD, as well as my honorary sister-from-another-mister, Sis. Both were living in London at the time (Sis has since moved back home to Vienna), and we wanted to get away to somewhere that wasn't hot and sweltering Los Angeles.

Travel blog fail.

Well, it seems that I've done an absolutely terrible job in the last year and a half with blogging about my travels!

It started with a sort of lackluster trip to London in October 2012, and then I just, well, I don't know, I guess we just got busy with life. In addition to being crazy busy at work, I also got engaged and married! Meaning that from here on, "BF" will now be called "Hubby... :-) 

But! I'm back to make a renewed effort to bring this travel blog up to date.

Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to in the last 20 months or so:

October 2012: Trip to London

February 2013: Monterey weekend
March 2013: Long weekend in New York
April 2013: Work trip to Las Vegas
June 2013: Road trip to Arizona
September 2013: Work trip to Atlanta, paired with an overnight in Savannah thrown in
October 2013: Work trip to Cannes, paired with a week in London, Bruges and Paris

February 2014: Work trip to New York
March 2014: Bachelorette weekend in Palm Springs
April 2014: Work trip to Las Vegas
May 2014: HONEYMOON in the Cook Islands
June 2014: Work trip to Miami, then a quick weekend in Arizona
July 2014: Work trip to New York

Whew! Seems like I've been up to much more travel than I thought! I also have a couple of additional trips coming up this year, which I'm pretty excited about.

August 2014: Quick two night trip to Portland for a baby shower, plus an additional work trip to New York
October 2014: Work trip to Cannes with a few nights in London on the way over
November 2014: Work trip to Atlanta

I'll come back to this post and link some things once I've blogged about them! Here's hoping I can get up to speed soon....

Monterey getaway!

BF's birthday is coming up, and I knew back in December that I wanted to do a quick but awesome getaway with him for it. It's been a while since we've been to Monterey, CA, so I thought that'd be the perfect place! 

*Image from Google Maps*

And now the trip is coming up later this month, and I've finally booked a hotel! We'll be staying at the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Monterey. (Yeah. It's quite the mouthful, right?) A friend of mine stayed there with her hubby and pup over the holidays, and she said it was great. And since it's a Best Western, the prices are some of the most reasonable I've ever seen in the area. It's a little outside of Monterey, but I think we'll survive. I mean, we'll be ON THE BEACH! AND it's dog friendly? I may have found my new favorite hotel! 

I'll be back towards the end of the month with a review of it, but to say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. Now, to find some dog parks we can stop at on the drive up...

What weekend getaways are you planning for this year?