Crafts, gifts and a whole lot of love
I know I have been quiet for a while. I blame life. Lol! Sometimes things get so crazy all your best laid plans take a hike and before you know it a week (or several) go by. One blessing that came out of all this […]
Welcome back! Today I am going to wrap up my world travel bucket list with a couple of gems that, until I did some out-of-the-box thinking I had completely overlooked. My list of places I would love to see is really pretty much endless, but […]
Welcome back fellow travelers! I’m going to share two new someday destinations with you today. Both of them are on my list because they offer stunning views, out-of-of-the-way appeal and charm to spare.
First on the list is…
Just look at that view. Now tell me you wouldn’t want to go there! LOL! Lugano is touted as the “Monte Carlo of Switzerland” and is graced by soaring mountains, turquoise blue lakes, charming Medieval squares, arcades and restaurants . Somehow, it’s also cited as being “traffic free”. How they manage that I have no idea, but I am certainly game to find out. As an added bonus, the climate is near perfect year round for travelers with temps ranging from the 40s to the high 70s. For a Minnesota girl, that’s ideal!
It dawned on me that it might be helpful to share the sites that I am finding all this travel info on, so I’ll go back and add that info into the previous posts. Duh! So, if you are curious about this fantastic destination, Thrillophilia.com offers lots of info about lovely Lugano.
Giethoorn, Netherlands
My second pick is north of Belgium and East of Germany in the Netherlands. What can I say, between the lure of tulips that Amsterdam and the Netherlands are famous for and adorable destinations like Giethoorn, this place is on my short list. Nicknamed the “Venice of the Netherlands” you can hop on a boat and wind through beautiful canals for a view of pretty cottages and farms or rent a bike and traverse the network of paths throughout town.
As is true of nearly any travel destination, Giethoorn isn’t totally off the radar for tourists, but since we typically travel during the “shoulder season” (April-May or Sept-Oct) our chances of avoiding crowds is better. It’s also only 90 minutes from Amsterdam so it works as a day trip too if Amsterdam is your true destination.
tassiedevilabroad.com also has some great information to share about what to do, where to go, where to stay and how to get there that I found to be helpful. I’ll be bookmarking her site for sure! Nothing beats a seasoned traveler who has actually been there.
My next installment in this series will bring us closer to home. Well, if you live in the US anyway. I promised a post about our upcoming trip to Charleston, SC and I’ll be pairing that with a suggestion for Vermont and one more a bit further north in Canada.
I’ll wrap things up today with another reminder to be sure and sign up for my newsletter. I’ll be offering some exclusive deals for newsletter subscribers just ahead of the holidays that you won’t want to miss out on. Tell your friends! I’d love to add them to the Love from the Heartland family!
Welcome back to part two of my bucket list of places to go in the world. My list is long and I can only hope to live long enough to visit them all but it’s good to dream, right?
A few years ago, we took a trip to Ireland and spent eight days exploring the Southern and Western edges of the green isle. I wrote about this earlier this year in this post. What I didn’t say at the time is that I was […]
Back in May of 2015, my husband and I along with our youngest son, embarked on an 8 day trip to Ireland. I’d been dreaming of this travel destination for years and we finally had the necessary funding and time to make it happen.
I enlisted the help of Authentic Ireland Travel now, Authentic Vacations to get the general outline of our trip figured out and I used them to coordinate all of our accommodations. Our travel advisor gave us several ideas for things to see and do while we explored the faire isle and I took it from there. By that, I mean I spent months pouring over maps, guidebooks, websites and travel brochures to plan the vacation I had dreamed of. Since I am a perpetual planner, I was in my happy place. We had a wonderful time and I honestly did not want to come home, but I learned a few things about international travel that I wanted to share with you. Ireland is now opening up again for non-essential travel (if last week’s news reports are to be believed) and it is a gorgeous travel destination. I would go back in a heartbeat.
Ireland Travel tip #1: Choose where you really want to explore and settle in for a while. Ireland as a whole is roughly the same size as Indiana. Knowing this, I figured we could see a LOT in eight days, especially since we were limiting the area of our travels to the South West. Piece of cake right?!? Yeah. Not. As we quickly learned, it takes a lot longer than you think to get from point A to point B when you really don’t know where you are going and you’re driving on narrow roads. Let’s just say that I got really good at snapping photos while we were driving. In hindsight, I wish we had stayed in fewer places so we could really explore where we were staying. Killarney was my favorite and was where we stayed the longest, but there’s so much to see and do in that area, I wish we’d had even one more day. County Clare, home to the famous Cliffs of Moher is beautiful as well, as is the little peninsula town of Dingle. Honestly, I dare you to find an area of Ireland that isn’t stunning.
Ireland Travel tip #2: Pay for two drivers. In hindsight, I definitely over planned as far as how much we could squeeze into 8 days. I should have dialed back my enthusiasm a tad and planned more time in fewer locations. We loved everywhere we went but we also drove. A LOT. Not a fan of tour buses, we’d decided we wanted to be on our own timetable and so we rented a car. My husband quickly learned how to navigate narrow roads while driving on the opposite side of the road from what we know to be the passenger side of the car. It was a steep learning curve, and he did a great job. Unfortunately when only one person is driving, they don’t get to enjoy the scenery or relax.
Ireland Travel tip #3: Spend time talking to the locals. When you are out exploring, be sure to spend some time chatting with the locals. They’ll happily point you toward the best pubs where you can find not only the requisite pint, but also pub fare that is satisfying and reasonably priced, not to mention an incredible array of live music. We had dinner and a show every night we were there, and sometimes while we were out and about during the day. Who turns down free music? Not me!
Ireland Travel tip #4: Stay in at least one castle and B&B This sort of goes hand in hand with tip #3. Especially if you choose to stay in one or more B&Bs. They’re typically owned and run by locals and are charming in every possible way. Not to mention, they’re really reasonably priced.
You might even learn something! For example, I was summarily schooled on what does and does not go on toast at breakfast (hint; the toast that’s served UNDER your scrambled eggs is NOT to be eaten with jam, no matter how good the jam might be) Yes, we are still laughing about that! I’m sure our hostess is still shaking her head at the American tourist who didn’t know better, but oh well! That jam was home made! How was I supposed to pass that up?!
As for staying in a castle? Well, it’s a CASTLE! Need I say more???
I’ll close with one final thought. Wherever you go, wherever you travel. Be sure to take time to relax and enjoy the journey. Make a point of really exploring, especially if your dream destination is far away, and I hope, if you enjoy it as much as you’d hoped, that you get to return some day. Ireland is still on my return-to-someday list. We’ll just take it a little slower next time. Happy travels wherever you may go!