Six Experiences You Must Have in Costa Rica
I traveled to Costa Rica in May of 2014 and it still remains one of my favorite vacations. Costa Rica is currently in that sweet spot of tourism and development where it is developed enough to be safe and have plenty of established activities without being overrun with tourist like Cancun. You can read my full trip report about Costa…
Portugal: Tips & Tricks
If you have not already please read about our four day trip to Lisbon, Sintra and Porto here. Here are some things we learned in Portugal that may help you plan your trip: Everyone spoke some English Uber is the best way to get around. All the local taxis we took overcharged, even the ones which the hotel arranged for…
Portugal Trip – Day 4 – Porto PM
Read Part 1 After a morning of uphill biking we were ready for lunch. The hotel reception had recommended a place which we decided to check out. Unfortunately, We kept getting lost trying to find it and had to keep walking up steep hills. After many attempts we finally found it only to learn it was closed! Lots of the…
Portugal Trip – Day 4 – Porto
On Monday we had pre-booked a bicycle tour with Sportours. We were quite tired from all of our uphill travels and I certainly considered calling it off and staying in bed an extra hour or two. However Filipe had been so helpful planning our trip over email that I did not want to be rude and cancel. While I am…
Portugal Trip – Day 3 – Porto PM
Read Part 1 After lunch in Porto we had planned to tour the Taylor Wine Caves. When we checked into the hotel in the morning we had asked the receptionist if he thought this was a good plan. He said it was good but warned us about the hills - uh Here we went again walking up cobble stone streets…
Portugal Trip – Day 3 – Porto AM
On Sunday we left Lisbon for Porto where we would spend the rest of our time in Portugal. We packed up the room and headed down to breakfast. The breakfast buffet was included with the room and was fairly average. The fruits were canned and there were lots of pastries and breads. The hotel called us a taxi (who charged…
Portugal Trip – Day 2 PM
Read part 1 The train ride back to Lisbon from Sintra was relatively uneventful and we appreciated the 45 minutes to rest our weary feet after all the mountain climbing we had done that day. The sun was just setting as we got back to Rossio Square and our hotel was a half mile uphill. As we pondered the best…
Portugal Trip – Day 2 AM – Sintra
Saturday was planned to be a rest day. So we decided to walk up hill for four We had not originally planned to visit Sintra but we heard multiple poeople speak highly of it so at the last minute we decided to check it out. We opted to travel by train and make our own way instead of going by…
Portugal Trip – Day 1 PM – Lisbon
Read Part 1 After lunch we rushed to catch our pre-booked a Segway tour. Everyone at Lisbon Segway Tours was friendly especially our guide Gonçalo. He took us outside and we spent about 20 minutes practicing riding the segways in the side alley. When it was time to leave we manuevered the segways through the crowds on the narrow cobblestone…
Portugal Trip – Day 1 AM – Lisbon
Little Star and I had been planning a European vacation for the summer of 2015 and as other plans worked out it ended being that November would be our best time to travel. Comparing the map of Europe to our travel bucket list we quickly realized that Portugal was one of the few destinations that would still have warm weather…