Category: travel

travel

Quick Trip To The Dominican Republic

A few weeks ago I prompted my Instagram followers with this question: is there a difference between a trip and a vacation?

The answer is 100% yes. My boyfriend and I have taken a lot of trips together. Trips that have tight time frames where we spend every day doing something and learning something.

But we just got back from a short vacation to the Dominican Republic and the difference is so clear. We did nothing and it was amazing.

We got to our hotel (VH Atmosphere) around 4 pm on Sunday, relaxed in the room, took a walk, headed to dinner and then went to bed early!

We woke up the next day without any alarms. Sat down for a coffee then some breakfast. Then we spent the entire day (getting kind of burned) by the pool. My boyfriend played in a darts tournament. And we read and talked and just relaxed. We ended the night with a great dinner.

We even made some time for the gym on Sunday after a day spent at the beach and pool.

While I know the Dominican Republic has much more to offer than the resort life – this was basically only a 2 day trip and we just used it as an excuse to relax. For once we feel good coming back from traveling and we’re happy to be home!

travel

Boston Day Trip

Yupp, I’ve never been to Boston! My boyfriend is a big Boston sports fan and has been to the city tons of times, so it was exciting to do a small day trip and explore with him!

Places we ate:

  • Pavement Coffeehouse
    Well I forgot I wasn’t in NJ anymore and got a bagel here which was a big thumbs down along with their prices and mediocre coffee
  • Union Oyster House
    YUM! Despite the fact that this place was built for ants, their food is amazingggg and well worth the trip.

Places we went:

  • Buffalo Exchange
    I’ve seen so many ads about this secondhand store lately. While I was waiting to sell my clothes, I browsed what they had and wasn’t too impressed. My boyfriend found a good shirt and jacket, but they didn’t buy anything from me.
  • Paul Revere’s House
    We didn’t go inside, but it was nice to walk the Freedom trail for a bit!
  • Quincy Market
    Cute little place to stop for a quick bite or little doodads.

I’m looking forward to doing more Boston exploring since we live so close now, but it was nice to get a little day trip under the belt! Do you have any suggestions as to what we should do the next time we’re in Boston!?

travel

My Trip To Egypt!

Egypt is unlike any place I’ve been before. Flying in, you can immediately see how much of a city it really is as it is packed with stone apartment buildings. We had to catch on to the culture pretty quick here because there’s a lot to learn and a lot to be weary of. I think there are a lot of pros and cons to visiting Egypt. The pros mostly surrounding the history and just how amazing to see things built thousands of years ago. Cons are the way tourists are treated in Egypt – they are mostly treated and seen as a way to get money. The city itself could also use a lot of love, buildings were in disrepair and it didn’t seem like there was any sort of garbage pick up.

It was a huge traveling learning experience and I’m so grateful because we got to see things some people only read about in text books and it was incredible.

Places we went:

  1.  Step pyramid in Sakkara
  2. A tomb in Sakkara
  3.  Memfis open air museum
  4.  Pyramids of Giza
  5. Sphinx
  6. Pompey’s pillar
  7. Catacombs
  8. Alexandria gardens
  9. Alexandria library
  10. Egyptian museum
  11. Bazaar

My advice:

1. Get a guide. It seems impossible to get around in Egypt without a travel guide. If you don’t have one, people will try to get money out of you any way they can and you will have a very hard time getting around or even knowing what you’re looking at when you get there.

2. Do research. I had to do a lot of research on the culture, money, and tipping. I wore long pants or skirts with shirts that covered my shoulders to be respectful. Even with the research I did, I felt very lost.

3. Be firm. Almost everyone gets a tip in Egypt and it’s important to know how much to tip them or if you should tip them at all. I followed this rule of thumb from tripadvisor.

4. Get ready to learn. While we had time to relax with some pool time or hookah time, the meat of this trip is visiting historical places and learning.

I’m still in awe that I had the chance to go to Egypt. My boyfriend and I are not great (or are really great depending on how you look at it) tourists and are easily sold on many things. We saw a lot of amazing sites that I’m not sure will even last for too long. We may have spent a bit too much, but it was truly a trip of a lifetime and I’m going to brag about my Egyptian essential oils, handmade carpet hanging, papyrus print, and Egyptian cotton pants forever. 😂

Go to Egypt now while the history lasts and the tourism is doing well – it’s more than worth it.

travel

Need Tips For Egypt!

I am headed to Egypt next week and I am SO excited.  I’ve read a few blog posts about the area and we’ll be on tours most of the time, but if anyone here has been to Egypt or can refer me to some good blog posts I will be so thankful!

I’ll be dressing modestly and will be careful of my surroundings. I also don’t think I will be riding any camels due to the overall treatment of the animals. But any other tips about the culture or just things I should really know would be great. Any restaurant suggestions, local shops, etc. I’m just open to any suggestions! 🙂 We will be in Cairo for most of the time.

Thanks in advance for any help! xoxo

sand desert blue sky egypt
Photo by David McEachan on Pexels.com
travel

Weekend in New Hampshire

On my mission to visit all 50 states, we often use long weekends to visit a new state nearby! This time we rented a cute cabin and headed up to New Hampshire.

This was our first time bringing our doggo on a trip and it went SO well. When we went to Vancouver we had a conversation every day about how fun it would be to bring Kaya along, so we made it happen!

This trip was a little less planned and packed as a result because there’s only so much you can do with a dog in tow.

We stayed at Tarry-Ho campground and our cabin came with only a bed, toilet, and shower. But it was perfect for our easy going weekend! There was also a yummy food truck across the street called 302 Grill and a little deli called Yaya’s – they were our go-to stops for food!

We hiked Franconia Notch National Park. What started as an easy 3 mile hike to see the Basin ended as a very difficult 9 mile uphill hike through empty and full river beds. My boyfriend and I run into trouble every time we hike, we are terrible at mapping out trails. As a person who hates to work out, I was less than thrilled about this long hike. It resulted in a bit of a tiff between us that resolved itself when we got to Lonesome Lake. It was too beautiful to fight or think about how much my knees hurt.

We checked out Sunday morning and stopped in Littleton, New Hampshire to check out a covered bridge. While here, I fell in love with the quirky and upbeat town. I swear I’ll live there one day.

As we got on the road back to New Jersey, we stopped at the Old Man in the Mountain which used to be a profile of an old man in the mountain, but crumbled so they set up a way for you to see what it used to look like.

Then halfway through the trip home we stopped in Hartford, CT for food and a peak at the Capitol building and Mark Twain House. Hartford just wasn’t what I thought it would be so it was an interesting learning experience for me.

I loved the trip and hope to make it back to New Hampshire soon! Have you ever been?

travel

My Trip To Vancouver

If you read my previous post about preparing for the worst when traveling, you’ll know I almost didn’t make it to Vancouver. Luckily, I did and I LOVED it!

I gauge how much I love a city based off how much I’d want to live there and we ended up seeing how much apartments cost and looking at job openings so it’s safe to say we loved it.

Things I did:

1. Capilano Suspension Bridge
Seriously sooo cool and worth the money, just a little packed!

2. Stanley Park

3. Sunset Beach Park

4. Explored Gastown

5. Vancouver Lookout
The views of Vancouver are incredible, beautiful buildings surrounded by ocean and mountains!

Places I ate:

1. Nelson the Seagull

2. Tim Horton’s
I had to, right?

3. Cactus Club Cafe

4. Perverted
Really cool looking and yummy ice cream!

5. Forage

6. Heritage Asian Eatery

I loooooved Vancouver. That was my first time to the West Coast of North America and it did not disappoint! I have a special place in my heart for Canadian cities, they are just so clean and friendly for people my age. All of the buildings are so beautifully designed and you can literally not get sick of seeing the mountains over the ocean – it’s stunning. I’d love to go back one day.

Have you ever been to Vancouver?

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