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A weekend in Belgium: Brussels, Bruges & more
With the introduction of the new Omicron variant, it somewhat felt like this weekend was never going to be. The night we had booked our Eurotunnel crossing coincidentally coincided with France closing their borders for tourists, and it was busy! Luckily after queuing for two hours in Folkestone we arrived in Calais with time to…
48 hours in Thessaloniki, Greece
The first stop on our Big Fat Greek road trip (blog coming soon) was Thessaloniki. Macedonia has been on our travel list for a while – mostly due to Chris’ extensive knowledge of Ancient Greece and its neighbours. Turns out, Northern Greece is really quite spectacular! Read more to find out the cultural highlights, as…
2022: Simple Living
I’m sitting here with my first mulled wine of the season. An alcohol free one actually; the cheap, sickly sweet stuff from IKEA. It’s 13th December and I can’t help but feel ridiculously reflective at this time of year. It must be a natural phenomenon, although I don’t know enough to discuss it any further.…
No longer applicable: What to consider when your green list holiday turns amber
We have just finished up a two week trip to Portugal, which we booked when the country was proudly the most desirable place on the green list. One week later – as the whole of the UK knows already – it was struck from the list, without any prior warning that this would be the…
GAFFL Interview: Get to know me!
Here is my recent interview for GAFFL – the app that helps your find a travel buddy! I talk about my love for travelling, how I met my soon-to-be husband, my top travel tips & advice for people wanting to travel more.
Highlights from Eastern Sardinia
Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea is the Italian island of Sardinia. Sardinia is remarkably different to the majority of Italy however, as it has gained cultural influence from across the Mediterranean. Their native language, Sardo, is even said to vary from one village to the next depending on the roots of its…
Useful items for travelling with dogs
Lockdown puppies plus a boom in staycations means there can only be one thing coming… Lots of puppies getting their first holiday! I’ve put together this little list together to cover some of the items I have found really useful when travelling around with dogs. This can either mean travelling for a holiday, or even…
The 6 best viewpoints in Rome
Rome is one of my favourite cities, and I will visit time and time again without being bored. There’s something about Italy that I find slower paced than life in the UK, in all aspects apart from the crazy Roman road traffic! Rome can be so busy yet so relaxed in a crazily contradictory manner.…
Instagram vs. Reality: sharing your experiences of destinations across the world
Like many, the beautiful photos I see on Instagram often influence the places I visit on my trips – but do you ever reach a destination and feel frustrated that the pretty picture didn’t tell you the whole story of the experience? In this post I am sharing the stories of some of my Instagram…
Guest Blog: 7 places to visit for a winter getaway
Usually around this time of year I’ve just been (or I’m looking to go) on a cheeky winter getaway. A long weekend somewhere in Europe, to stroll around beautiful cobbled streets, sip hot chocolates and mulled wine, browse the Christmas markets, and enjoy seeing a city from a totally different perspective. Although this year I’ve…
Christmas markets I have visited – ranked worst to best
Given that this year we are all sadly missing our dose of Christmas festivities, I wanted to take a little time to reflect on all of European Christmas markets I have visited – so next year you can visit the best ones! I am yet to visit any German Christmas markets, so I have potentially…
Guest Blog: Christmas gift guide for travel lovers 2020
I know that may seem a little early for some of you. However, after the recent lockdown 2.0 that has been imposed in England, November is cancelled, and Christmas has started in my household. Whether you think that it’s too soon to be decorating or not, it’s certainly time to start thinking of gifts to…
Must see spots in Normandy
In September we spent some time exploring Normandy instead of heading straight to Paris – and boy, was it worth it! Here I share the three unmissable spots that we visited and can’t wait to get back to: Rouen, Bayeux & Mont St Michel.
Top tips for hiring a car abroad
74% of you on my Instagram recently voted that renting a car abroad is “scary af”. Therefore, Chris & I have written our top 10 tips for renting a car abroad – to help you feel more informed and think about things that maybe you wouldn’t have considered before! Hopefully this breaks down some of…
2 days in Athens
We weren’t really looking to go away for the weekend when Chris had a spontaneous browse on the British Airways website. We booked on the Thursday morning to enjoy a weekend in Athens – all at the cost of 5,000 Avois, £125 of Wizzair credit we had forgotten about and £64.50 cash each. We stayed…
The true cost of “van life” – Part 2: The operational essentials
Okay okay, I own a caravan and not a hip converted van so I don’t know if I’m allowed to use the phrase “van life”. But the principle is the same and there is a lot of content within this post series which will apply to true van-lifers, caravaners and campers alike. Since picking up…
The true cost of “van life” – Part 1: Driving home
Okay okay, I own a caravan and not a hip converted van so I don’t know if I’m allowed to use the phrase “van life”. But the principle is the same and there is a lot of content within this post series which will apply to true van-lifers, caravaners and campers alike. Since picking up…
5-day Icelandic Road-trip
Iceland holds a dear place in my heart. I first visited in February 2013 on a school trip when I was 16 and I would argue it’s been a main contributor to my “travel bug”. I visited again in December 2017 with Chris and this time we had the freedom of hiring a car and…
My top 5 favourite places in Italy – outside of the cities!
I’m always boasting about Italy being my favourite country to visit, so I often get asked where I would recommend visiting the most. The major cities of Italy – Venice, Florence, Milan, Rome etc. – can all speak for themselves so I wanted to focus this blog on the slightly less recognised places, that you…
2 nights in Budapest
Back in February, we took a very last-minute trip to Budapest for the weekend… little did we know it was going to be our last one for a while!
Lessons from a last-minute trip
You heard it here first, I’m a huge control freak who gets rather bad travel anxiety at times. I’ve always admired the thought of just turning up to and airport and seeing which flights are bookable – not knowing where I’ll spend my weekend. Chris has been asking me for the last 5.5 years to…
Oslo & Copenhagen in 1 night
Once landing at Oslo Gardermoen Airport, you can catch the “flytoget” train to the city centre which takes 19 minutes and costs £16.50. Conveniently there’s also a bunch of luggage lockers at Oslo Central Station which cost €5 for the day – so we dropped our bags off headed for some breakfast.
1 night in Romania
As you’ve probably gathered by now, we always try to squeeze our trips into weekends – and our Romanian break in November was a perfect example! For the sum of £58pp, we landed in Bucharest Airport at 1400h on a Saturday and had a flight back to the UK at 2230h the next day. When…
Vienna – Bratislava – Brno in 4 nights
We always like to make the most of the time we have out of work over Christmas, so this year we decided to tick another two countries from the list, Austria and the Czech Republic. We ended up also popping over to Slovakia for an afternoon, as it was so close that we couldn’t resist!…
How we saw (almost) everything there is to see in Italy in 13 days: Days 7-13 (Rome, Campania & Sicily)
Back in September 2015 I went on a coach trip travelling from the top to the tail of my favourite country – Italy! The architecture, the weather and the food are at the forefront of the reasons why I adore visiting Italy, and make an effort to travel there every year. And – if you…
Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina in 7 days
In September 2018 we went wedding venue searching in Italy, and Croatia had been on my wishlist for a while. I managed to find amazing flight prices meaning that all in all, the flights from London to Pisa, Rome to Dubrovnik, and Split to London, cost £280 for two people – it was a price…
7-day French & Italian road trip – with a dog!
On 21st June, my lovely partner (Chris), leaked the surprise that he had been saving for my birthday. He had organised with my boss to take me on a surprise holiday 28th June – 5th July. Not only was the trip for my birthday, but the occasion also marked our 5 years of being together,…
Madrid in 4 days
To celebrate my sister’s 21st birthday we headed over to Madrid during early August 2019 and were pleasantly surprised by what Madrid has to offer – a perfect combination of culture, food, fiestas & fun! Day 1 We had landed in Madrid by 10.30am, and needed to kill some time before we got the keys…
How we saw (almost) everything there is to see in Italy in 13 days: Days 1-6 (Veneto, Tuscany & Umbria)
Back in September 2015 I went on a coach trip travelling from the top to the tail of my favourite country – Italy! The architecture, the weather and the food are at the forefront of the reasons why I adore visiting Italy, and make an effort to travel there every year. And – if you…
5 days in Corfu as a couple!
Though we got to know each other whilst on holiday in Tenerife, my first trip abroad with my partner followed a year later in Corfu. I often hear couples disregarding Corfu as a holiday destination because the reputation it has gained with Kavos… And as predicted, we were the only people on the coach heading…
Stacey Explores 