I’ve spent the last few days scrambling to get work done and this post (and this news!) got pushed off until the end.
We’re heading to Europe!
We started to talk about doing a summer trip with Kevin’s cousin and her family last year. We finally put it on the calendar and booked tickets this past February when we all met up again at a family reunion. We were looking to go somewhere none of us had ever been, and get some beach time–because her kids are going back to school as soon as we get back. So we settled on meeting up in Croatia for a week and then doing other things on our own at the beginning and end of the trip.
I’m really excited about this opportunity. Kevin had been out of touch with this cousin for many years, and only reconnected last year in a meeting triggered by an important loss. I’m looking forward to spending more time with all of this new-found family next week.
London, England
Our flight to Europe lands in London so we’ll be stopping there for a few days first. We booked an Airbnb on the east side and we’ll be using the time to get settled, and explore the city a bit deeper than we have on previous trips. We booked a London history tour using the company Context Travel. I’ve been wanting to check out one of their in-depth walking tours before, all their experienced docents have either Master’s degrees or Ph.D.s in an academic subject relevent to the tour. I’m really excited to learn more about the city and British history.
Dubrovnik, Croatia:
Flickr/marcussaul
After London, next stop is a small coastal town outside of Dubruvnik, Croatia. Kevin’s cousin rented a gorgeous house for the week and we’re looking forward to spending time there and exploring Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast. We’re also considering day trips into nearby Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, so if you have any tips for those off-the-radar destinations, please let me know!
Budapest, Hungary:
Flickr/theodevil
After leaving the family, we’ll have a few days on our own and I’m not sure what we’ll do with them. Perhaps head inland Croatia–I’ve seen many beautiful photos of Plitvice Lakes National Park on Pinterest, so we may plan a visit there.
After that, we will make our way to Budapest for the final few days of our trip eating our way around, what I’ve heard, is a beautiful city.
I’ll be sharing updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram throughout the trip, testing out a new prepaid mobile wifi hotspot made by an SF Bay Area-based company called Skyroam. It should work when we land in London–stay tuned!
Have you been to London, Croatia, or Hungary? What should we see/do/eat?
Sounds like a fantastic trip! If you can, try to take a day trip to Mostar. BiH is absolutely one of my favorite countries ever – stunningly beautiful, great food (I crave cevapi and burek all the time), and friendly people. Mostar has all of that, plus a lot of history.
Near Mostar is the pilgrimage town of Medjugorje. Not a must, but it is a really interesting place to visit – would be worth it if you could tie it in with Mostar.
I’m just now reading comments (after arriving home) but we did indeed go to Mostar for one night! Beautiful town and interesting to see the long-lingering effects of the war. Didn’t make it to Medjugorje, but a woman on our bus said she was going because the place “changed her best friend’s life!”–she wouldn’t elaborate on exactly what that meant, but she seemed to have some kind of spiritual moment there.
Curious to learn more about Skyroam, as I’m headed to Germany in early December and I’m based in San Francisco. Always good to tap into Bay Area companies. Enjoy!
It works in Germany! I’ll be sharing my review of it soon. Cyndie goes to SF Travel Massive events, if you are going up to any in the city this fall? You should meet!
Sounds like an awesome trip! Such diversity in your trip. And yes, I hear too from people that have been, that Budapest is an absolutely beautiful city! Do enjoy all the local sweets to each city/country 😀
Thanks Janice! It is and it was! I tried a handful of lovely local sweets but I can’t remember what they were called–I’ll look them up before my blog post 🙂
I would definitely recommend a day trip to Mostar but instead of Medjugorje I would go via the Kravice waterfalls which are beautiful and which you can swim in. The Bay of Kotor in Montenegro is beautiful and many don’t know but James Bond (Casino Royale was filmed around here). Even the Idlands of Lopad and Korcula (birthplace of Marco Polo)are close to Dubrovnik and worth a visit.
If you drive to Plitvice and want to stay the night nearby a place called Rastoke is charming– a town on waterfalls. . If you drive to Budapest , the old capital of Croatia called Varazdin is also a beautiful city. I love Croatia and have visited three times from Australia in recent years
Hi Cassie! I am Angelie from the Philippines. I was just researching for our trip this June to Italy and Croatia when I stumbled upon your blog. May I ask, how was your experience in BiH? Did you visit Kotor as well? Thank you!
Hi Angelie! I’m sorry I missed this until just now, you’ve probably already gone on your trip! But if not, I did love our very short visit to BiH. We just went to Mostar for one night on the bus and then came back to Dubruvnik the next evening. It was a beautiful town and I liked seeing it at sunset and walking around on the bridge at night. We also did a day trip from Dubruvnik to Budva and Kotor, in Montenegro. That was nice, but I wish I had spent more time.
Let me know if you get this and have any questions and, if I missed you, let me know how your trip goes!