For all intents and purposes, this is a luxury travel blog. My husband and I are both professionals who skip out on “everyday luxuries” in favor of travel. When traveling, I favor my “creature comforts” to ensure that I am able to recharge & so that we hit the ground running the next day. My husband values location over cost in order to maximize our experiences from arrival until departure. Meticulous planning and strategic use of points & miles allows us to enjoy outsized value and comfortable trips.
If you don’t have time to plan (or don’t enjoy planning), this space may help inspire you. If you’re not sure that we’re your type of traveler, read more about me.
If it does sound like you and you aren’t sure where to start, just jump into your preferred destination. You’re sure to find tips and trips to create the perfect itinerary that will have you counting the days until departure.
Destination and Travel Planning
We tend to read as many books, magazines, and articles as possible to formulate a list of MUST DO, Could Do, and Will Not Do lists… all of which are always longer than we could ever fit into one itinerary. No matter how often we visit a city, we are not tour adverse travelers. We love to get a flavor of what is important to a city – whether it’s museums, history, monuments or culinary experiences. There is always something to learn, no matter how many times we visit a place. Repeat destinations are absolutely a thing.
Within this blog, you’ll find a number of posts to help create your perfect itinerary. You’ll find a couple of categories within each destination: Stay, Play & Gourmet.
Stay
These are hotel recommendations. I am not an AirBnB traveler, much to my husband’s chagrin. The rise of AirBnB rentals is driving locals out of affordable housing in some of my favorite places. I know people who have served as AirBnB hosts and when things got bad with their tenants, the company did not do well by them. For those reasons, it is just not for me.
Play
This is where you’ll find tours, museums, cooking classes, and all the other local experiences that encompass a great trip. In some cases, sitting on a piazza and watching the world go by can be a perfect afternoon or evening. I don’t believe that you always have to be “doing” something to enjoy a vacation, but I do believe that you do need to get out of your hotel room and experience life.
Gourmet
This isn’t as fancy as it sounds, but it rhymes with the others. You’ll find plenty of food recommendations on this blog. It will always be a mix of price points. Expensive food isn’t always better food. And, it will almost always include shopping at the local stores and markets for snacks and provisions between meals. Market and food tours are one of my favorite ways to get to know a new place!
Travel from Home
Have you ever purchased perfume because it reminds you of a certain place or time? Maybe you hauled a vase from Venice to your home because it was too beautiful to pass up. And perhaps, like us, you miss your favorite restaurants and have sought out ways to recreate the experiences at home while you wait until your next departure.
Travel from home is exactly that. It is everything from sweet souvenirs, delicious recipes, and gift ideas that will help you to recreate your favorite travel experiences from home.
