Trails 2 Travel

Hiking to Machu Picchu Mountain Tips for visiting Purchase your entrance tickets at least a month in advance, 3 months if you want to hike Huayna Picchu during the high season. You can purchase them here for the best rate. (use Google translate if needed) Purchase your entrance tickets for a 6AM start so you can be among the first into the site. Purchase your BUS tickets for the ride up the night before your visit so that you can get in line at 4:30 AM the day of and be ready to go. Don’t hike up (unless you really want to) It is a very steep trail with BIG steps up and traverses the same path the bus takes (so you don’t get any different perspective) Even the most fit people in our group got to the top very out of breath and sweating.  DO get a mountain hike ticket! This ticket gets you 1 re-entrance (the normal MP ticket only gets you 1 so if you get hungry or need to pee… you’re outta luck)  Dress in layers. It is COLD in the morning but gets very hot...

Cusco Day 3- The Museums   Following our EPIC riding tour in the morning, we still had an afternoon to play in Cusco and plenty still to see. What better way to polish our time off than with a trip to the Inka Museum and Qorikancha ruins.

Horseback Riding to forgotten Incan Temples While our first 2 days in Cusco were enjoyable, this day really BROUGHT it. It was one of the first tours I landed upon when searching things to do in Cusco for a half day and for only $65 riding, it really intrigued me. So far the only other country I’ve ridden in was Iceland, so I was definitely interested to see what tours were like in other countries. Luckily my friends were also game for a little riding adventure so we booked it, made sure to wear pants, loaded up on sunscreen, and got ready for out tour.  We did NOT know what we were getting into, in the best way possible. This was hands down the BEST riding tour I could imagine , and possibly one of the best tours I’ve ever taken. 

CUSCOOOOOOO I literally can’t read Cusco without singing it in my head exactly as it is sung in the Emperor’s New Groove. ( In fact I quotes/ sung a lot of parts from that movie throughout this trip)  Peru has been on my bucketlist for quite some time- specifically to do the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, but due to cost of flights and time off needed, this was the first year I was able to make this trip happen! And it all started when a coworker told me how he and his wife booked the Salkantay Trek. - Obviously I couldn't let them have all the fun. So after researching a bit more, I found a SUPER reasonable tour and decided the flight prices were good enough to go ahead and book it. And here we are. 

Historic San Juan in a day Walking Tour Whether you have an extended stay in Puerto Rico, or less than a day from a cruise stop over, here’s my walkable itinerary for seeing the best of San Juan.Puerto Rico in one day! Experience history, art, shopping, and admire tons of cool city architecture. 

Day 9… our last day (and not even a full day at that) ended as any busy trip should- with a lazy Sunday morning stroll through a park. Not just any park though. Jingshan park.. which I hadn’t even known was a thing until we arrived in Beijing and our first tour guide mentioned it to us. Luckily our hotel was an easy 5 minute walk from the East gate of the park.

Our day started on a train and similar to our last sleeper train experience, I was up at the crack of dawn unable to fall back asleep… starting what would be a fairly long day. Luckily we didn’t have to worry too much about organizing our trip as this day was our 2nd tour and was organized for us.  About the Tour : I didn’t book this tour through a website or by happening upon someone’s page but instead was referred to the tour guide Lisa from a friend who had previously visited Beijing. The cost was the most affordable I saw comparing to online prices for a private tour and the biggest benefit was since we had a private car for the day, we didn’t have to worry about what to do with our luggage while we explored the city. While we didn’t get to meet Lisa personally (she had a family emergency) we did have a great tour with one of her associates. Our stops would be the Summer Palace and Forbidden City and would only end up taking about half a day. If you are wanting to bo...

Day 6- Exploring Shanghair from ancient water towns to modern skyscrapers: We wanted to see all we could in a day of what the Shanghai area had to offer. 

My last Carbon County post: last but not least as the little town of Helper is up there on one of my favorite parts of the area. If you like small towns with artsy vibes, historic buildings, amazing locals, and delicious food, this town is for you! 

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.

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 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.