My recent trip with an old travel friend to Crete, Greece was an amazing adventure! We spent 8 nights indulging in great food, hikes, beaches, ruins, and lots of history.
I anticipated that costs would be high for this trip right on the cusp of peak season and with inflation going up. But I managed to keep costs down while spoiling myself with a few luxuries.
The trip ended up costing me less than $1200 including all expenses (flights, car rental, accommodation, food, activities, and more). In this post I describe how much I spent so you can best estimate the costs of travel to Crete, Greece.
Hello everyone! I am writing to you very briefly from Greece. I have been here for about a week now and I cannot wait to share with you all of my adventures so far.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and there is much unrest in Eastern Europe and the rest of the world, I felt it was important to take advantage of this small window in which things are relatively stable. At least, they are stable enough for me to feel I could manage within my personal comfort zone.
But what made me travel? Where am I? Who am I traveling with? And where I am going next?
The vaccine for COVID-19 changed a lot of things in the last few months. Places all over the USA are opening up, including New York City this past weekend for Pride events. And Miami has been opened up for a while.
I didn’t feel comfortable going out fully until about one month ago when two of my friends visited. In anticipation of their arrival, I put together an itinerary of activities based on their requests. We were all eager to not only spend time together but to also go out like “normal" and explore a city—the city of Miami!
For me, I am basically still new to Miami since the pandemic hit only a few months after my arrival. So this was a really awesome 4-day adventure around Miami including a hotel stay at Miami beach, tons of great food, awesome rooftop bars, and so much more.
Our experience serves as a guide for any vaccinated visitor or staycationer in Miami!
Right before the COVID19 pandemic hit the United States I traveled to Denver, Colorado to visit my friend, Dasha. I now feel so lucky that I got to see her before the shut down. I even got to check off a bucket list item—snowshoeing!
After my first winter living in Florida, I was craving some craggy, snow-topped mountains!
I had a full 3-day weekend in February to explore the mountains with Dasha before travel restrictions went into place. We hiked Mount Falcon park and we explored Breckenridge and the surrounding area. Read and see all the glorious photos from my last major trip in this post.
I am incredibly grateful for my friend, Dasha, who visited me immediately after I moved to Miami. She flew in from Denver and, as always, was ready to explore and go on adventures with me. So of course we had to take advantage of my proximity to the Florida Keys!
I visited the Florida Keys back in the summer of 2016 when my then-New Zealand boyfriend, Jono, and I traveled there via New Orleans. We had a great time exploring the food, kayaking the mangroves, and checking out beaches in the area. Dasha and I sort of mirrored this experience with a little slice of each of these experiences.
We kayaked a new section of the mangroves, revisited a beach I wanted to spend more time at, and ate a heaping pile of seafood! We did all this in about a half-day experience after a late start to our trip. All in all, I can't believe that day-trips to the Florida Keys are part of my life now! So awesome!
When friends invite you to travel across the border for a one night adventure—you take it! My friends Chelsea and Dayle headed to Montréal, CA last summer for a friend’s wedding. They offered to bring me along for an adventure of my own.
I couldn't pass up the chance! I decided to meet up with an old friend whom I met in my travels. It was an opportunity to catch up with her and see more of Montréal after visiting in summer 2017.
I am so grateful and privileged to have friends who live all over the world. This not only grants me the opportunity to stay with these friends and minimize travel costs. I also have a built in buddy, whom I share a true bond and connection to, to spend time with and explore a new place.
Puleng, my friend from graduate school, is South African. She was generous enough to show me around her town, which also happens to be the capitol city of South Africa.
I spent two nights with Puleng in which she gave me a specialized, personalized tour. We went to her friend's book reading at African Flavour in Johannesburg. We attended a rare Ladysmith Black Mambazo concert at the South African State Theatre. And we discussed politics and learned about apartheid at the Union Buildings and Freedom Park. Read about these highlights and more in this post!
In February of 2014, I visited Maui for my best friend Erin's wedding. Three years later, I am currently traveling around Oahu! I am super excited to have the opportunity to explore another Hawaiian Island this week.
So, in anticipation of sharing my Oahu adventures on the blog, I wanted to take a look back at the experience I had in Maui. I was maid of honor at the time, so I was mostly busy helping out with the wedding. But, in between wedding plans, I had the opportunity to see a lot of the island. I drove the road to Hana, swam in a waterfall, drove up a volcano, hiked a bamboo forest, explored caves, went whale watching, attended a Hawaiian luau, and lots more.
It was during a time before I had my nicer camera, but I still took tons of photos with my Windows Phone and received some great shots from the friends I was with. Regardless, this photo-centric post will show you what Maui is like and the types of activities that can be enjoyed on a Hawaiian vacation.
There’s something incredibly meaningful when your friends and family make a special effort to stay connected to you when you’re apart. This is true for relationships you leave behind back home and in the places you visit after you move on or return home.
I lost touch with many people after traveling or while traveling because I was traveling. But there are many individuals with whom I remain very closely bonded. How did those close bonds stay close? Reciprocal gestures of loyalty—large and small—sustained those relationships.
Drawing on an example from my recent trip to Nashville, this post explores when loyalty is revealed especially as a traveler and after travel.
Once I landed back in New York, I did like all New Yorkers do: I hit the ground running. I began flitting around the city, catching up with old friends, and eating my favorite American foods. Then I shot upstate to spend time with my family and reacquaint myself with American consumer culture.
In this post, I'll give you a fast-paced run-through of my arrival back in New York. But then I'll slow it down a bit, as it wasn't until I was tucked away in upstate New York that the full impact of my travels settled in.
Inevitably, I returned with knowledge of languages, cultures, people, and foods that have all become a part of my every day thoughts. Most importantly, I have returned with the challenge of integrating lessons from my travels with my lifestyle back home. During my travels, I learned how to resist planning ahead and allow my innermost wants to guide me. Now it's time to apply these same lessons to the chapter ahead.
