All posts tagged: Travel Tips

How Important Is The Accommodation For Your Vacation?

You might be forgiven for thinking that there are two different kinds of vacationers. There are those that consider themselves travelers. They can spend months at a time trying to fulfill their wanderlust. And there are those that consider themselves holidaymakers, keen to escape their mundane lives. They’re looking for something indulgent, exciting, relaxing, and different for a week. But it’s not just the duration of time away from home that identifies the kind of vacationer you might be. For some, the experiences and the exotic far outweigh any need for comfortable beds and accommodation. They want to meet people from other cultures. They want to experience the foods, the smells, the weather, and even the landscapes. Where they rest their heads at night is secondary to this. They might choose to camp in a tent, or spend the night at a kind stranger’s family home. It’s about immersing themselves into a culture they haven’t discovered yet. Others may be looking for something they can’t get at home. They want opulence, luxury, incredible weather, five-star …

Simple Packing Tips For Any Vacation

As an experienced traveler, I like to think I know a thing or two about packing. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past, believe me! But, these days, it’s almost an automatic process. Over the years, I have picked up plenty of tips and can pack for almost any kind of vacation or trip away. So, I thought I would share some of my knowledge with you today. Ready to get started? Then let’s take a look at my guide on packing for almost any trip you can think of, and make sure you can concentrate on having a fun time away. The basics One thing you should always remember about packing is the less you have; the better your experience will be. It’s a simple premise, but one that many people can’t quite get to grips with. All you need to do is have a look around at the stressed faces carrying several suitcases at the airport to understand how many people fall into the trap! So, keep clothing to a minimum, and forget …

This is How I Make Sure My Trips Go to Plan

Image by fdecomite I’ve travelled to a lot of countries, and I like to think I’m an experienced traveller by now. When you travel a lot, you start to pick up tips to help your trips go more smoothly. As a beginner, you can struggle with some things and come up against problems. But if you know what to do and how to behave, you can make sure everything goes to plan. In the event of something going wrong, you can be much more prepared to fix it. So here are my best pieces of advice for ensuring that your next trip goes off without a hitch. Look After Your Important Documents The first thing I pack when I go away is a folder of essential documents. Although, now I do prefer to have some of them on my phone instead. The number one important thing to have is obviously my passport. Before I book any trips, I check that it isn’t about to expire. If you need to renew your US passport, you can …

Travel Tips Issue No. 1

BEFORE YOU GO Book your flight far enough ahead of time for the best price deal Usually this means booking your ticket 7 weeks to 4 months ahead of time. Also keep an eye on special deals. Try to visit airline websites from time to time to check for offers. Another thing you can do is sign up for price alerts with your email, so that way when the price drops, you will be notified. Open Airline Websites in Private Browsing Mode When looking for deals online on Airline Websites directly, make sure you are doing it in Private Browsing mode. This will ensure that you get the best deal. Otherwise, every time you open the website, you will see an increased price, and the minimum increase is usually by €10, which might be £10/$10 for you. Purchase 2 or more Tickets This is probably the best way to save a lot of money. You can usually save €100 – €200 or much more just by doing your own research and booking your own separate …

Purchasing Stamps, Mailing out Postcards & Document Printing in Italy & Portugal

ITALY: STAMPS & POSTCARDS In Italy, my plan was to go to the post office, purchase some stamps and mail out some postcards. Prior to my departure for Rome, I jotted down a couple of post offices in my neighbourhood, so that I could just enter the address in my phone maps, and I would be taken to the post office. As I had only a few days in the city it had to be planned out a bit, but things didn’t quiet turn out so simple. Purchasing postcards is always the easy part. I found some beautiful ones on my street Via Della Scala. There was a sign in this little shop saying that they sell stamps there, so I went inside and asked for stamps, and they didn’t actually sell them there. Next up, I went to the post office, and both in Italy and Portugal when you arrive at the post office, you have to first pick up a customer number from this machine in the front, that puts you in queue. Finding the post office …

An incredible day in Braga

Good evening from Porto! I have just returned from my Braga daytrip a couple of hours ago. I had the most fantastic day exploring this beautiful scenic city. Braga is the third largest city of Portugal, and this beauty should most definitely be on your Portugal bucket list. Braga is absolutely stunning, beautiful and incredible! Every direction you turn in, this city will reward you with a pretty church, a castle or a monument. More posts on Braga coming soon with some beautiful photography from today’s daytrip. The weather was great here in north Portugal today! We had a full day of bright sunshine, velvety blue sky and a generous 18C degree day. It was a perfect day for sightseeing and photos and I believe I did a great job of making a use of it. I am posting a little short video for you guys of one of the areas in Braga. This area was pretty calm and quiet earlier in the day. The Church there at the starting and ending point of the video is Igreja de Santa Cruz – …

Pastel de Nata: Portuguese Custard Tart

We are having another rainy day here Porto today. It’s been raining almost all day long, but I didn’t let the rain keep me indoors. About 20 minutes after I left the apartment, I saw that my camera batteries were low. I turned back around to grab 4 AA batteries from the apt, when I noticed this cute little coffee shop on the corner of the street. I took a peak at the window display and thought that now would be a perfect time to try the famous Portuguese Custard Tart. I got it to go and had a first bite back at the apt. The Nata shares some similarities to a Profiterole, however I find the profiterole cream much lighter and subtle in taste, whereas the Nata is quiet rich in taste, has thicker consistency and is sweeter. The pastry itself is very similar to a pie. This delicious little gem of a pastry should most definitely be on your must try list when in Portugal. Pasteis de Nata is also called Pasteis de Belem …