Trails 2 Travel

Iceland 9 Day Itinerary  I'm writing this post for planners and non-planners alike! Since it took Katie and I months to fully develop our Iceland itenerary, I'll offer you the short cut of all the things you can do with a 9 day road trip of the ring road in Iceland including how much you can expect to spend, how long some activities will take you, and a map for each day. Let this blog post be your guide and enjoy one fabulous trip to one of the most beautiful and epic countries I've had the pleasure of visiting.

52 Hike Challenge What is it? 52 HIKE CHALLENGE IS A GLOBAL MOVEMENT EMPOWERING YOU TO TAKE A PERSONAL JOURNEY TO DISCOVER THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND SPIRITUAL BENEFITS GAINED THROUGH HIKING ONCE A WEEK FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL AROUND THE WORLD ARE TAKING THE CHALLENGE TO HELP CHANGE THEIR LIVES IN A POSITIVE WAY, ONE STEP AT A TIME.

How to visit Paris in 3 days Tips: 1. Get a Museum Pass - This will save you money and most importantly TIME standing in lines at places such as the Louvre, Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, and Sainte chapelle. 2. Unless you hate walking, you don't need a metro pass. We were there for 3 days and besides taking the train to Versailles and from the airport, we took the metro/buses 7 times (approx $14 over 3 days) 3. Bakeries are literally the budget way to eat. You can get sandwiches, pizza slices, etc for lunch and dinner, plus need I say anything about breakfast? and literally eat for less that $10/pp/day. 4. Did I mention prepare to walk yet? Bring your serious best walking shoes since this city is SO BEAUTIFUL, you will do a lot of walking. 5. Explore all you options for night stays. I was mostly looking into Airbnb until I realized hotels were cheaper. (This has been the case in other cities like NYC and Venice for me as well) Unless you like hostels, don't forget t...

Day 9: Last day of our trip! so we had to make it EPIC. Thankfully the weather held out for us today as well so we got to do an actual legit hike to Iceland's tallest waterfall GLYMUR

Day 8: Our journey to the center of the Earth  Just kidding, but also not really because those of you who know your Jules Verne, know that one of the supposed lava tubes that gain access to the center of the Earth is actually located in a volcano on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula.   So that is what today is about! Discovering waterfalls (surprised?) volcanoes!, oh and some incredible fjords along out drive! 

Day 7: Again breakfast was excellent and included and we had quite the day planned (one where maybe, just maybe- we would get a glimmer of sunshine on the activities of the day including Godafoss waterfall, Akureyri, Galumber farm, and ending at the beautiful Gauksymri lodge on the coast.  We just had a short 20 minute drive to our first stop: Goðafoss

Welcome to the North! Day 6 started out strong with our first included breakfast of the trip. (So long yogurts that have been riding around in the trunk for a day or 2...) HELLOOOO Smörgåsbord! There were some fruits, various breads, crackers, cold meats and cheeses, yogurts (skyr) with cereal toppings, juices, teas, coffees, and the truly interesting breakfast option of SMOKED TROUT. (good but for me... just not a breakfast food)

Day 5: Our longest and SCARIEST drive of the trip: Höfn to Mývatn. We knew the weather was going to be crummy... but we didn't realize just HOW crummy it would be. We headed N following the ring road around some of the Eastern fjords where the waterfalls continued to be a plenty but the road was beginning to wash out. A couple times the drain from the falls on the inland side of the road was overflowing the road and on the right was a drop off into the ocean.

Day 4: Vik to Höfn and everywhere in between Starting with  Fjaðrárgljúfur (Troll land) Try pronouncing that one Fjaðrárgljúfur is a short canyon about 2 km long and 100 m deep but stunning all around. There are 3 viewing areas with the last being the largest and also the BEST as you can see this near waterfall and have the "iconic" shot of the canyon.

Day 3: The epicness that is Southern Iceland: 2 spectacular and unique waterfalls, an old hot pool in the mountains, rugged cliffs, basalt columns, and black sand. This drive is a MUST when visiting Iceland. First stop: Seljalandsfoss .  Best known as the waterfall you can walk behind.

Day 2: Waterfalls and rainbows as we drove the famous Golden Circle .  Up and early we had breakfast and were out by 8 with our first stop: Þingvellir (Thingvellir in English) National Park, just a short drive away.

Ok so here we go with Iceland blog posts! One trip directly to another, but I promise I will do a few summary posts from previous trips one of these days so the actual itinerary is easier to see. But for now, I can't wait to share our amazing experience in Iceland! We met up with our 2 friends Katie and Thatcher at a bright and early 6:45 AM (12:45 our time) and hit the ground running exploring Iceland's capital city Reykjavik.  First stop: The Harpa Concert Hall.

  OK the moment any one of my family members or most of my friends have been waiting for... The Disneyland Paris post (and photos) On our last day I had originally planned to see more of the Loire and slowly make our way back to Paris... but we'd already seen all the chateaux we wanted to see and since our hotel for the night was by the airport... we didn't really feel like going back into the city. So what to do? Solution: Disneyland

As promised, photos from our 2 night stay in the Troglodyte (cave dwelling) which was maybe my favorite part of our Loire Valley trip. We had to walk up a short path to the entrance so we looked out over the rooftops of the town, Nazelles-Negron, which is just across the bridge from Amboise.

What better way to start a trip to the Loire Valley than staying IN a chateau yourself? We booked a room in the historic Chateau Bouvet-Ladubay which has 5 rooms/ suites in total and couldn't have been happier!

Next up on the tour of Normandy: Mont St. Michel! (Basically fairytale land in Amanda's head) I'm going to be super real here, as we drove the night before past this area to where we spent the night in the neighboring town, I saw this from pretty far off (It's the tallest thing around) and seriously cried... It had been an emotional day already I admit (understandably so at memorials), but there was something pretty unreal as far as dreams coming true when I saw Mont St. Michel in the distance. Like... this IS the place in France that I had dreamed of seeing since I saw a poster of it surrounded by water lit up at night when I first started taking French... in 7th grade. So while the previous night passed pretty uneventful at the B&B, we were up and out to check out this MUST-SEE of Normandy.

Day 5: Normandy Beaches Utah, Omaha, and Gold Starting with stop 1 near Utah Beach: One of the most notable towns from WWII history:  Sainte-Mère-Église We slept in accidentally until about 10 but fortunately that turned out for the best as it was DUMPING rain as we started out but as we headed for Utah beach, the furthest from Caen, it slowed to a slight drizzle. It took a little over an hour to reach Sainte-Mère-Église which was by afternoon already pretty busy. But luck turned out again in the opening of a parking spot just as we got there so we swooped in and headed out to explore this quaint little town in the light drizzle.  Note: Exploring the town is obviously free but all the parking was paid parking spots.

Day 4 continued: So after we left the general vicinity of Paris it became farmland and some of the prettiest farmland I've seen. For our entire first day, google maps took us on back country highways! Not one toll road in site which was a plus but the downside was there was an astonishing lack of gas stations! Which is how we came to the photo above. We both needed a snack and I needed a toilet so we stopped in a little town at a market where I was informed the public W.C. was right across the road. Awesome! That was it guys. haha Just little stalls with a hole in the ground that neither had toilet paper nor flushing capabilities and the urinals were open air even more so. Quite exciting let me tell you. (needless to say napkins were also purchased at said market haha)

Day 4 Itinerary: Royal Abbey Chaalis, Chateau de Chantilly, small city of Fecamps, Etretat, Caen   Ok I'm again splitting day 4 up into 2 posts. The first 2 stops are less than 30 minutes outside of Paris so consequently totally doable if you are staying in Paris. The other places were along the coast of Normandy and let's be honest I took a million pics in Etretat so it needed its own post.  So to start with, another early morning at 6:30 AM to catch a shuttle organized through the hotel (wasn't attempting the train again) to the airport to pick up our rental car. We grabbed a quick mcdonalds breakfast at the airport and our rental car then were on our way out of the city around 8:45. First stop: The Royal Abbeye Chaalis which I mistakenly thought opened at 9... ya it opens at 10 so we had like 30 minutes to kill when we got there.

Day 3 continued: So we got back to our hotel around 2:30 and decided (after 2 nights of passing out by 8 PM) that a little mid-day rest may be in order. After that (roughly around 4) we headed out to the Musee D'Orsay for a quick adventure before our tour of the catacombs. (at 6) We walked since it was only about 10 minutes and came across this sign on our way. It may not quite be LillIe but it's close ;) so I took it as my name anyways.

Day 3: Versailles, Musee D'Orsay, the Catacombs, and Paris lights  Although for post length's sake, I've split our last day up so this post will only cover Versailles But first a few photos of our addorable and eclectic hotel room we had for 3 nights in Paris! We stayed right around the block from the Musee de l'armee and only a 10 minute walk (or less) to the Eiffel Tower. All in all I thought it was pretty well situated and the cost really couldn't be beat. The hotel is called Hotel Le Pavillon and is considered a "boutique hotel" due to only having 15 rooms, each of which is unique, and in such a great neighborhood!

Oh boy, here we go. Easily the longest and most extreme day of site-seeing I've done in a while. We went ALL over Paris. Day 2 Itinerary: Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Sainte Chapelle and Conciergerie, Notre Dame, Palais Garnier, and Montmartre. Starting at a wonderful 6:30 in the morning we hit up a bakery on our way to the Tour Eiffel Park. We started out this early with one goal in mind: Paris photoshoot. We came armed with my Canon Rebel t6 and a 70 in. max height tripod. From various discussions with Paris photographers, I discerned the one thing in common (besides how expensive they are) and that is to shoot early in the morning. The lighting is pretty (albeit difficult to work with) and the crowds are almost non-existent.

 I've been trying to devise the best way to present my France material. Do I try to slim down my stories or do I basically word vomit information to you. Unfortunately for you (or maybe fortunately if you actually read these things) I'm going with the latter. If you prefer to wait till the end, I'll probably create some sort of itinerary post with just the basics. but WHAT FUN WOULD THAT BE. So Day 1 Itenerary: Musee de L'Armee, Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées Our flight got us in around 11 in the morning and after little to no sleep on the plane, we were ready to hit the ground running. I'd previously google maps'd how to get from the airport to our hotel to leave our luggage and it looked REALLY easy. I'm talking 2 train lines. 1 transfer. less than 5 minutes of walking. Boom. Want to know what really happened? We got there and B-lined for the train. Bought out tickets to Paris city center using the ticket kiosk. Cool. Get on the RER C as expecte...

Alright saddle up now for the Universal Orlando Post! Probs won't be as long as the DisneyWorld post in light of there only being 2 parks... but still plenty to come. And NOTE: This was my FIRST time ever to a universal park! So there's probably other ways to go about it but I wanted my virgin experience to be perfect, and I can honestly say... it was pretty dang close. So to start: We paid the mucho money to stay ON property. With attempting to do 2 complete parks in a day, we wanted the extra "magic?" hour that universal does for Harry Potter world starting at 8 AM.  We stayed at the fabulous Royal Pacific which was a 5-10 min walk to the entrance of Islands of Adventure. Destination: Hogwarts. 

OK HERE comes my MEGA everything Disney! If you don't want to tediously read all my disney stories and favorite ride stuff just skip to the end for my budget and top tips. Starting off how we started off with Downtown Disney   Disney Springs. We got in and met up with my family at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside where we parked our car and took the resort bus down to Disney Springs for dinner. Heads up: There's no McDonalds so we were in for something pricey but settled on The COOKS OF DUBLIN for tasty fish and chips at lower cost for money but paid the price with wet seats as their limited seating was filled inside so we were left to sit OUTSIDE in the light sprinkle. HOWEVER have to say their service was awesome and one of the manager's so kindly gave us 2 (huge) cookies from their dessert menu as a "sorry" for not having enough seating. NOT necessary but totally awesome!

 Ok so this is the everything  BUT amusement parks post for Orlando, Florida. First up was our least successful Family Reunion day. We all got up to leave our house in Kissimme (just south of Orlando) in order to get to the natrual springs water park Weeki Wachee. We had 5 cars headed out there spaced out anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Only the first TWO cars got in and they closed the parking lot and entrance so no other visitors would be allowed entry.... At this point we'd driven about 2 hours and were in unfamiliar territory. WHAT DO WE DO?

Alright time to wrap up this New England trip with my memorial day excursion to Newport, RI! Before we go into the fun times that were had we should discuss the events leading up to them. First the weather striking again with quite the rain on Block Island... so we determined we would take the 11 ferry off and get back a little earlier.

As my previous pointed out we had a 7 PM ferry to block Island to catch so in that 1 day we went from NYC subways, taxi cabs, and trains, to ferrying on over to Block Island from Rhode Island. It was a chilly ride with light sprinkling and some serious heaving and surging forward and back. Like if you stood on the bow, you may have been doused a time of 2. Luckily it's just an hour ride over.

NYC Day 2: Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Central Park Despite the late night Broadway show before, we were up early and determined to hit the rest of the list. So first up was Brooklyn. It took about 40 min to get to the Bagel Store on Bedford Ave between 2 subway lines and less than mile of walking. Rainbow bagel with funfetti smear: perfection.

NYC Day 1: Bright and early caught the train from Old Saybrook Connecticut ( free parking and closer to Stonington so less traffic concerns) to New Haven Union Station where we then transferred to go  on to Grand Central. (Above: a horrible lighting selfie in Grand Central... you're welcome)  Shoreline East train from O.S. to New Haven: $7.25 Metro North train from New Haven to Grand Central: 17.50

ok time for my last Connecticut post... the less historical visited sites and things to do. Starting with Mystic. As the weather decided to rain on my parade a large majority of the time, we decided to kill one evening by "happy hour hopping" in Mystic (one town over from Stonington) so first stop was:  1. The Oyster Club where they had oysters for 1/$1. Consequently I tried my 1st and last raw oyster. It was terrible but the cocktail sauce helped.  2. Pizzete were they have $1 slices of cheese or pepperoni pizza. You can go here if you're on a budget but still want some "Mystic pizza" haha 3. The last place we were able to squeeze in before 5:00, the Engine Room. Pretty delicious cheeseburgers for $5 and a very cool vibe. Probably my favorite of the 3 we went to. And of course happy hour being what it is, there were select beverages available for decent prices at each place also if you're looking for that. 

OK Time for the ULTIMATE CONNECTICUT HISTORY SITE TOUR! First stop: The Nautilus Submarine Museum in Groton, Connecticut. I kid you not, this is one of the coolest museums out there. (AND IT IS FREE!!!!) Hours of operation: everyday 9-5, closed Tuesdays. They WILL kick you off the property by 5:15. haha As the sub part of the museum closes a bit earlier than the museum, we hit that up first.

After the craziness of flying multiple times within less than a week and seeing SO many sites, a couple days of R&R at my gal pal Katie's house was definitely due. She lives in the cutest little New England town called Stonington Borough. Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday I spent the majority of my days sitting on the couch like a bum  blogging and trip planning but I did make it out on the town when it wasn't raining.

Onto the next trip! New England. After a short visit home to work a few hours and see my boys, I was on a flight back to Boston to spend a week with my friend Katie. We met when she lived in Utah for a couple years and moved back east a year ago. I haven't been to New England in recent memory so a trip out for a visit seemed a solid plan.

 Greece Day 6: Bus day. Started off with more yogurt and some bread from previous day's market shopping then hopped on a bus. Due to some not very clear directions on the part of our hostel, we hopped on the wrong bus as we'd meant to go straight to Red beach and the Akrotiri light house but instead ended up in Kamari. No matter, wanted to see black beaches as well so easy place to start. In the first 2 photos that huge high point is where the ancient ruins of Thira are found.

Greece Day 5: Boating day We booked a super ridiculously long 10 hour tour with King Thira boat tours through our hostel for $45 to take us to the Volcano, Hot springs, Thirassia, and Oia. They weren't picking us up until 10 so we got up early to head to the market for some food for the day. I ended up with sandwich making materials, chips, water, 1 soda, and yogurt for breakfast for around 11 euros.

Greece Day 4: Santorini. As our flight didn't get us in until well after midnight and we still had to get settled, we slept well into the next day only leaving our hotel, Villa Manos to walk into the main town Thira around 1. The walk was about 20 minutes (with 10 minutes on a narrow road with no sidewalk and almost no shoulder) but we did stop by a market and pick up cheap waters (1.5 liters for 35 cents!!! WHAT!?)

Greece Day 3: One of my most highly anticipated days of the trip!!!! METEORA Not even kidding guys, I have been wanting to experience Meteora FOREVER. It'a short and steep climb ( on a bus! hehe) from the town to the first monastery St. Stephens which is.. by far the most accessible as there are NO STAIRS to reach this one, only a narrow foot bridge.

Greece Day 2: For the 2nd and 3rd days of Greece we booked a tour through Astoria Travels/ G.O. Tours. It would take us to Delphi and Meteora with a few stops along the way! The tour picked us up around 8 AM and we were off with a few rest stops and got to Delphi around 10:30/11. To the left: The Mountain of the Muses (as seen/ photographer from a moving bus. sorry for the terrible quality) The bus ride to Delphi took us through so many gorgeous mountain passes! One of the most scenic bus rides you can take.

Greece- As many of my friends and family know I've booked A LOT of trips this year! And I'm so stoked for all of them! But many people have wondered A. how the crap can you take so much time off? and B. how do you afford them? So I'll try to include my budgets/ spending habits for my trips starting this year! (I do have... a tad of back posting to do: Havasupai from last year, Zion National Park/ Kolob Canyon/ Las Vegas from this year, and also a 2nd road trip to Bryce Canyon & Capitol Reef National Parks to post about. I Will get to those but first... I'm too excited to post about my Greece trip so doing that first.