We're Off To: Barcelona!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We're flying out to Barcelona this afternoon to enjoy 3 days of tapas (so many tapas!), cava and Christmas markets. Exploring a new country is kind of our Thanksgiving tradition?

We're looking forward to seeing all things Gaudi, going on a food tour (of course!), looking at the local crafts at the Christmas Markets and taking advantage of our club lounge at the hotel. I've also added a feed to my instagram pictures at the bottom of this page if you'd like to follow along in real time.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving - full of family, relaxation, and amazing food. 

We're Off To: England & Austria!

Today we're starting our vacation to England & Austria. This trip has been in the books since last fall because we booked with credit card points. I'm so excited to explore both countries again but ALSO to fly Business Class for the first time!

We'll start with a leisurely exploration of the Cotswolds, moving south through Stonehenge to Dorset, around Cornwall and into London for a few days. We'll then jump on a flight to Innsbruck, Austria thanks to United's Excursionist Perk (for international travel, you get a free stopover in a city of your choosing!).

I'll post plenty about our trip when we return. So looking forward to our OVER two week trip - it is much needed. Wow, we haven't taken a trip this long in ages. See you guys in a few weeks!

We're Off To: Hong Kong!

We jumped on a pretty crazy airline fare back in December and booked a trip to Hong Kong for 9 days. We will be sampling a ton of food, hiking, swimming at some amazing beaches, and taking a day trip to Macau.

We're also hoping to get a fair bit of relaxation time in as we haven't had a longer vacation in about a year. We're definitely hoping to recharge on this trip!

If anyone has any recommendations, we're love to hear them! You can always follow along on instagram, but we will absolutely be posting recaps when we return.

We're Off To: London!

Jason and I decided to do what we said we wouldn't - take another long-weekend trip to Europe over Thanksgiving. But it's for a very good reason! London is one of those places that I can't believe neither Jason nor I have visited yet. We've been obsessed with all things England for a long time. This alone was enough to propel us to go, but add in the weak pound and we were sold!

We're going to try and hit some of the big highlights (London Eye, British Museum, Christmas Markets, Borough Market, Baker Street) in the 4 days we have there. We absolutely can't wait! Look for our recaps when we return and have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

We're Off To: Ireland!

Jason acquired some positive space tickets for Aer Lingus, so we're off to Ireland before they expire (2 days after we get back - cutting it a bit close!). 

We'll spend 9 days exploring the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, the Beara Peninsula, Kinsale, Cork and finally - Dublin! We have a few days in Boston on either end as well.

Follow along on instagram for pictures of our road-trip around the Emerald Isle!

We're Off To: Bali!

Today we're heading to Bali to celebrate my 30th birthday! We'll be spending 5 days in Ubud, where we will experience the cultural center of Bali, attend a cooking class, hike on the rice paddies, explore a monkey forest and get LOTS of massages. We will also spend 4 days in Legian where we will relax at the beach, visit temples, eat lots of seafood and take in some pretty amazing sunsets!

Wish us luck on our crazy long flight and follow along on my instagram for updates while we travel.

(Obviously not my pictures - we haven't been there yet! All from Google!)

We're Off To: Italy!

We've definitely changed our minds a lot about our big trip this year. Iceland to Scotland to Greece...in the midst of it all, Jason had a brilliant idea - "Why don't we go to Italy?" And so it was settled! It wouldn't be the all-encompassing return trip I had dreamed of since my study abroad days, but it will hit the highlights and leave plenty to explore on future trips.

We'll be starting in Tuscany, sun-bathing along the Amalfi Coast and ending in Rome. We are beyond excited and we are prepared to eat our weight in pasta, pizza & gelato and drink plenty of wine and Aperol spritzes. 

Look for all of the recaps when we return - Ciao!

We're Off To: Maui, Hawaii

Jason's birthday is approaching, and in order to celebrate his move to a new decade (eek!), we've decided to start it with a trip to his favorite place in the world - Hawaii! 

We went to Maui for our honeymoon and fell in love with the amazing scenery and the aloha spirit, so we're super excited to be going back. Here are some pictures from our trip 5 years ago to give you a taste of what we'll be doing and seeing in Maui.

We'll be spending half our time in Lahaina and the other half in Wailea. We're excited to go revisit some of our favorites (Pineapple Winery - Road to Hana - Makena Beach) and we're ready to explore plenty of new places as well.

If you want to see way too many pictures of sunsets and yummy cocktails while we're gone, follow me on instagram! 

We're Off To: Japan

Konnichiwa! 

We just got confirmed on our standby tickets to Japan. We'll be visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, so temples & shrines, bullet trains, crazy robot restaurants and amazing food are in our future.

(all images via google)

It's a wonderful nonstop from Houston and we should be arriving tomorrow afternoon. Look forward to our trip recap when we return and keep up with us on instagram in the meantime.

We're Off To: Belize & Guatemala

It's been quite a while since we've had a long vacation (over a year since SE Asia!) and we are crazy excited! We broke our own rule on this trip and booked hotels ahead of time, so we're really grateful to have confirmed seats now! 

We are flying into Belize City today and taking a quick flight over to Ambergris Caye. We'll be spending 4 days on an island paradise kayaking, snorkeling, stand-up paddling boarding, etc...

Mid-week, we're hopping on another quick flight to San Ignacio. This city is on the west side of Belize in the Cayo District. It has a completely different feel from the caye as it's in the heart of the jungle! We'll be staying here 4 days as well. It's a great jumping off city for day trips to Tikal, Guatemala and cave tours in the area.

Look for our posts when we return and follow along on instagram while we're away. I'll be posting when I can!

We're Off To: Amsterdam

'Hallo' and Happy (early) Thanksgiving! We are so thankful to Southwest to be doing what we love best - spending time together and traveling.

We are currently enroute to Amsterdam and will arrive bright and early on Thanksgiving morning. We will be meeting up with the Linebergers and have even rented out an adorable canal house for our stay. I'm especially looking forward to catching up with them and exploring the Christmas markets.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Look for our recap when we get back and tot ziens!

- Christy & Jason

We're Off To: Southeast Asia

Hello all. I know we've been a little back and forth on our one "big" trip. We toyed around with the idea of the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Australia/New Zealand. After much research and many conversations including the phrases "oh my gosh, we can go there for HOW little?" and "let's just make a decision already", we have once again come back to the original plan of Southeast Asia! What it really came down to was that this was our first choice. All of those other options are still definitely on our constantly increasing wishlist.

Hotels have been booked (refundable, of course), visas obtained, and air travel is standby.

Our itinerary:

3 days in Bangkok, Thailand

4 days relaxing in paradise aka Koh Samui, Thailand

2 days in Hanoi, Vietnam

2 days cruising in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

3 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia

2 days of travel (really 3 due to time differences)

= 16 days in SE Asia!

People who are used to traveling in Europe and the Caribbean, beware! Visas are a pretty common thing for most other countries. The application process to obtain a visa for Vietnam is crazy. Either you go to a city with a consulate (Houston has one) between 9am-12pm Monday - Friday (so that's out), mail your passports, money order, and form to the consulate (I've heard horror stories of passports getting lost), or get your hotel to provide you with a Visa on Arrival for the "small" fee of $25/person. That doesn't include the stamping fee of $45/person. The whole ordeal probably took about 3 weeks to obtain.

By contrast, Cambodia's application is online and costs $23/person. We got our visas in 2 days. Thailand doesn't require a visa for tourist travel less than 30 days. Call me goofy, but I always ALWAYS check country information (http://travel.state.gov/) before traveling anywhere outside of the US. We might have been in big trouble otherwise!

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the planning process. We're even getting to knock off 2 items from our bucket list. We're in San Francisco right now, hoping to catch an early morning flight. On one hand, I'm getting crazy excited...on the other, I'm preparing myself for the realistic possibility that we might get there a day or two late. I don't think I will really allow myself to get excited until we're on that second flight to Bangkok.

Well, wish us luck, and hopefully we'll see you in 2 1/2 weeks USA!