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5 Reasons to Visit France

July 3, 2014

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re heading back to my favorite city in the world, Paris, in just a few months and I can’t get my mind off our upcoming trip lately! So today, we’re reveling in France just a little bit more. I loved doing my post a couple weeks ago on the 5 Reasons to Visit Morocco so I thought we’d make this more a regular occurrence and talk about reasons to visit specific places all over the world.

Today, here’s why you should book that ticket to France!
And be sure to make it to the bottom of the post for a giveaway to go with this post!

France is home to some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever laid eyes on. From the Haussmann facades of Paris to the red washed roofs of the Riviera, France is a country out of a storybook in terms of architecture. I love the different styles depending on which part of the country you’re in, but I can always count on gorgeous building-scapes no matter what part of France you visit.

The café culture in Europe is one of my favorite things about the continent, but France does it oh so well! The café is an experience, not one to be rushed through, but one to be enjoyed and the French know that you’ll feel so much better if you take the time to enjoy your café au lait and baguette, instead of rushing through. Take a seat, take your time and enjoy.

France has some of the best food in the world. From baguettes straight out of the oven, to macarons to croissants, you will never go hungry here. I’ve had some of the best meals of my life France and I get so excited for each trip because of it. Food often makes a place and while French food is truly incredible, it’s just one of the things I love about the country!

France has hands down some of the most breath-taking museums in all of Europe. From the Louvre to the Orangerie to the Museé d’Orsay in Paris, to the archives at Versailles and all the rest all over the country, you’ll never want for a display of art work quite like in France. Not only are the works of art showcased here gorgeous, but the museums themselves are breath-taking.

You really can’t complain about the lack of charm in France or any French town or city. Charm seems to ooze out of this country from cobblestone streets to colorful buildings to town squares built in checkerboard tile. France will leave you wondering if you’re in a storybook and I always leave wanting more!

Headed to France?

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5 Reasons to Visit Morocco

June 16, 2014

Morocco is such a unique destination, with so many amazing things to offer and experiences to enjoy. So here, in no particular order are 5 reasons why you should put Morocco on your travel list!

The food we enjoyed in Morocco was some of the best we’ve had while traveling. To be honest, we hardly ventured out for meals from our Riad because the food there was so amazing. Every morning, the cook would go to the markets and buy the food to make for dinner at the Riad that night, we had no choices, no menus, but at the end of the day, we never wanted to leave and the food was incredible. We did venture out for lunches though and had a chicken bastilla that we’re still thinking about to this day at a little cafe near the Koutubia Mosque. If you’ve never heard of chicken bastilla, you need to! It’s of those foods that really shouldn’t work, ground chicken inside a crisp thin dough shell mixed with nuts and other ingredients and then topped with cinnamon and sugar. It is one of the most amazing things we’ve ever tasted and in fact, we ate it for lunch that day and went back to get it again for dinner the same day, it was that good!

The Middle East is famed for its sweets and mint teas, but Morocco takes the cake on this one. The cookies (which I’m still thinking about) and the mint tea were truly out of this world. We made an effort to come back to the Riad every day during mid-afternoon just to have our tea time with Moroccan sweets.

Mint tea is also served everywhere you go. We wandered into a rug shop while out and about in the souks and immediately were offered mint tea upon walking in. It’s meant to show friendship and acceptance of guests and it’s really impolite to refuse. So take a glass and enjoy the moment!

One thing that Morocco is famous for are their Riads. These old world guest houses have been turned into bed and breakfast style inns for travelers. With gorgeous suites and home cooked meals, you just have to have this experience in Morocco. Our Riad, Riad 72, was fabulous and we felt like we were in a palace the whole time. Our room had Moroccan tile floors, wood beam ceilings and carved wooden doors. Our bathroom was all marble and Moroccan tile with a huge bathtub and Moroccan lanterns hanging at every corner. The Riad experience is fantastic and takes you back in time!

One of the famous things about Middle Eastern cultures are their souks. Morocco (while in Africa, tends to lean more Middle Eastern culturally) has a plenty of amazing souks to wander and lovely things to buy. We brought home a silver tea pot, jewelry and scarves but we still to this day wish we would have brought home some of these incredible lanterns we saw all over. Take an afternoon and just wander the souks, but be sure to have a map to be able to get back to where you started, as you’ll get disoriented and lost in the labyrinths of souks throughout the city. Bargain your way through and you’ll be sure to come home with some amazing finds.

Perhaps my favorite part of our trip through Marrakech was wandering the incredible spice markets. We brought home cinnamon and saffron. The cinnamon was so fragrant and I used it for months afterwards, offering everything such an exotic flavor. The aromas walking through these markets is pure intoxication, the smells of exotic flavors and spices is just divine and such a cool experience!

Traveling to Morocco?

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Travel Tips : How to Get Around Asia

June 12, 2014

In the post I did a month or so ago about how to get around Europe, I loved hearing from everyone about their experiences with traveling around the continent. Many of you offered other options from I talked about too, which I love as well, getting to hear from other travelers what works for them. So today, we’re back with a similar post about options to get around Asia, which is a lot different than traveling around Europe.

First off, Asia is huge and incorporates so many large and small countries. It’s much further to travel between countries than it is in Europe and also has many more language barriers and cultural differences to traveling in the West. And while I know there are so many more options than what I’m outlining below, these are just my experiences while traveling around Asia, so I can’t wait to hear about more options from all of you guys that have traveled through the continent as well and what your experiences were!

Just like Europe, Asia has budget airline options as well that can be really affordable. We flew Air Asia between Bangkok and Cambodia and back again and loved it. It’s basically Asia’s Easy Jet, with clean and new planes, good food options for purchase and a modern approach to airlines. It was pretty cheap for us to fly to Siem Reap on Air Asia from Bangkok and we really enjoyed it as a great option to travel inexpensively between countries in SE Asia.

In certain spots in Asia, it’s often logistically realistic to hire a private car and driver. We did this in India between Delhi and Agra and I’m so glad we did. Overall, it wasn’t that expensive compared to other options and it made our trip that much easier. We didn’t have to fight crowds (except major traffic in Delhi) and it was a cool, air conditioned option for the 2.5 hour journey between the landmarks.

We hired our driver through our hotel in India and it was well worth it in my opinion. It made that part of our trip comfortable and convenient in a country that can often be daunting to travel around.

One of the famous ways of transport around cities in Asia is the tuk tuk. We used this option many times on our trip through Asia in India, Cambodia and Bangkok. Each area has a different variation on the theme, but overall, it’s basically just a motorcycle pulling a carriage that you sit in. It’s an exhilarating and cheap option to get around and turned out to be one of my favorite ways to travel around Asian cities. Be sure to negotiate a price before the ride though, as you can often get ripped off by inflated prices after the fact.

Exploring Southern California in LA and Santa Monica

June 4, 2014

Our last day in LA, we wanted to spend some time seeing areas of Los Angeles that we haven’t seen in previous trips, one place of which was Santa Monica. Though I went numerous times as a child, Nick and I have not been there together and we wanted to spend some time just wandering around the beach town of the area.

We started our day with breakfast at The Farm of Beverly Hills and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a lovely spot on Beverly Drive and was a cute interior as well. We also happened to sit right next to Hilary Duff, her husband Mike Comrie and their son throughout our breakfast which made it even better to add a celebrity sighting for the weekend.

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed to The Grove, an open air shopping center nearby that I like to make a stop at whenever I’m in LA to check out Topshop and Zara, both of which have locations there. After walking around The Grove for a bit, we headed down to Santa Monica. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down the Santa Monica pier, taking in the ocean views and wandering down the 3rd street Promenade. We finished off our day with a mid afternoon lunch at La Sandia for our last dose of Mexican food before leaving California and then headed on our way to the airport.

This was one of our first trips to the LA area that I felt like we really got to see more of the city and enjoyed taking in the different neighborhoods and areas. We thoroughly enjoyed our quick weekend in Southern California and found some favorites spots we’ll for sure be returning to in the future!

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Off the Beaten Path in Asia

May 14, 2014

I really enjoyed the first post I did on places that are a bit off the beaten “tourist” path in Europe earlier this year and as I got to thinking about it, I think it’s so worthwhile to not only show off the large cities that everyone goes to all over the world but also the ones that don’t get as much attention. Asia is no different and there are so many amazing spots all over the continent that aren’t the typical places for tourists to choose to explore, but so worthwhile all the same. These are some of my favorite spots in Asia that aren’t going to be your typical suggestions when traveling.

During my trips to South Korea for work, I spent a lot of time traveling throughout the country to go to job sites at American military bases throughout. One of the spots that I got to visit and that really struck me was the city of Dongducheon in the Northern part of South Korea, about 45 minutes away from the North Korean Border. This tree lined town has a gorgeous landscape, surrounded by green mountains and filled with small side streets, offering amazing local Korean food and small shops and markets. For a real dose of local Korean culture without the crowds of Seoul, this little gem is a perfect spot.

While Siem Reap is sure to become a tourist staple within the next five years, I’m so glad we got to experience it while it’s still relatively unknown to many people. Before we went I had so many people say to me, “Where is Siem Reap and why would you go there?” To be honest, I was kind of glad to hear that thinking it wouldn’t be super crowded. And while there were definitely a large number of tourists there, the town of Siem Reap still feels authentic. A good majority of people we tell about our trip there don’t know it until we mention Tomb Raider, though I have a suspicion that Siem Reap is going to only get busier and busier as more people flock to the Angkor temples in the years to come.

While most people planning a trip to India hit the major designations like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Mumbai, there are so many amazing hidden spots within the country too that offer the uniqueness of India without the masses of people. Udaipur is one such destination and while honestly, I’d love it to stay that way for years to come and I secretly hope that people don’t really catch on to the beauty of this city, it really is a hidden gem. We fell in love with India, much credit to this gorgeous lakeside city. The magic is Rajasthan is real here and among colorful buildings, incredible landscape and grand palaces, Udaipur is one of those places you’ll want to return to as soon as you leave.

5 Reasons to Visit France

5 Reasons to Visit Morocco

Travel Tips : How to Get Around Asia

Exploring Southern California in LA and Santa Monica

Off the Beaten Path in Asia

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