European Vacation; How I Planned for 2 Weeks in Europe

Now that I’ve shared with everyone that I will be going back to Europe I wanted to also share how that decision came about and let you in on a bit of the planning process.

If you know me at all or have read my blog for any amount of time you should be well aware of my obsession with Europe and the strong desire I’ve had to return. I went for the first time in September 2012 and came back in January 2013. I’ve been itching for a new adventure ever since.

As you will know, Ryan and I are going to Nova Scotia for 2 weeks in July as part of my 6 weeks off work. We had planned to road trip through BC as well but with limited time off for Ryan that wasn’t going to happen, and that is when my mind started to wander. What else could I do with my time off? Where else could I go?

It took literally no time at all for my mind to reach for Europe. I had to assume it would be less expensive to fly from Halifax than it would be from Edmonton; I wasn’t wrong. I also quickly realized that leaving from Nova Scotia whose time I would already be adjusted to would mean I only have 4 more hours of time change to get used to instead of the 7 hours if I flew direct from home. Those 2 factors alone were enough to get me searching for my ticket.

If we’re being honest I bought my ticket to London without any prior planning of what to do or where to go once I arrived. My flight is on the same day that Ryan flies home and for $290 there was no way I wasn’t going, regardless of if I had pre-planned.

From the day I booked my obsession went into overdrive. No matter what I was doing my mind was on trip planning. I suppose I should mention as well that I only booked one way, not because I planned to stay for an open-ended amount of time (as lovely as that sounds) but because I considered flying home from another city and wanted to wait for a good price.

Without an end date I went a little wild trying to cram in as many places as possible into my estimated 2-3 weeks abroad. I started by thinking I would be sticking to 2-3 countries. Croatia and Bosnia? Spain and Portugal? Ireland and the UK? France and Italy? The key was to visit new places I hadn’t been to on my last trip and it was thinking back on that trip that caused me to go wild. I did 11 countries in 5 weeks so why couldn’t I do more than 2 in 2 weeks? My list grew to a point that it simply wasn’t do-able and would be a waste since I wouldn’t really experience anything properly. London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon, Sintra, Positano, Capri and Florence; 10 cities in 5 countries over 2 weeks.

After a day or 2 of my plans trying to work themselves out, constantly looking at maps, looking up planes and trains, researching cities and trying to find the cheapest city to fly home from I finally settled on a trip that felt really good.

I’ve settled on 7 cities in 6 countries over 17 days. 1 day in London, 1 in Paris, 3 in Barcelona, 3 in Lisbon (with a day trip to Sintra,) 4 on the Amalfi Coast in Italy (2-4 cities depending how I’m feeling,) and ending with 4 days in Dublin before flying home from there. This itinerary is still fairly ambitious but something I’m comfortable with.

Over the weeks since deciding where I would go, I have researched the best route from one city to the next, decided on and booked hostels and found the best way to get from the airport/train station to my chosen hostel. I don’t mind being lost while I’m not looking for anything, but when I’m carrying my life on my back I’d prefer to get to my accommodations as quickly and easily as possible.

Beyond the when and where I’m hoping to have a pretty accurate idea of some of the costs before I arrive. If I decide that I absolutely must go to the top of the Eiffel tower again I’ll be looking for an exact price, opening and closing times, location and maybe even pre-buying tickets to avoid some lines at the really busy places. That being said, I do want to enjoy the excitement of wandering through a new city so nothing will be overly planned.

Other than which cities I would visit and in what order I made almost no detailed pre-plans at all on my previous trip and once in a while it bit me in the ass. I think considering how difficult I found it to be alone on that trip, knowing some details will help me be a better solo traveler this time.

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Read my First Time Solo Travelling post HERE.

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Keep following along for more plans and updates about my summer travels, I’ve got tons of posts already on the go and I’m excited to capture everything as it happens!

Summertime Travel Update

If you remember a while back I told you all about how I’ve taken the summer off and was starting to make some plans, well now I've managed to find some great seat sales and turn those plans into a solid reality!

Originally I planned to visit Nova Scotia, go to Jasper for scuba diving and then do a road trip to Vancouver Island. Things have since changed and I will unfortunately not be seeing British Columbia again this year, instead I will be going back to EUROPE!!

Being able to say that and knowing that it isn’t just a hopeful plan makes me ecstatic and the entire summer is looking even more awesome! I won't pretend I'm not a little disappointed about missing BC again though.

I’ve now booked all my major flights and am starting to figure out the other details. Ryan and I fly to Halifax on July 12^th and stay until the 26^th. From there I will fly to London alone and Ryan will fly back to Edmonton since he doesn’t get the same time off as me. I do wish he was coming with me but I’m also very excited about the challenge of going alone. I’ll spend 2 weeks visiting 6 countries and then fly home to Edmonton on August 12^th.

Here is what the Euro trip is looking like so far:

I fly from Halifax to St John’s, Newfoundland and have an 11 hour layover. I know layovers, especially long ones, are not something most people enjoy but I have to say I’m very excited about this one! I have been wanting to visit Newfoundland for a long time and getting to spend a day exploring the capital city seems like a great little vacation inside of my other trips! And to make it even better it’s a layover and therefore at no extra cost to me. I’m still deciding what all I can fit into my 11 hours but you will hear all about it when the time comes!

From St John’s I fly to London, Midnight to 8:30am. Fingers crossed I can exhaust myself on the layover, sleep like a baby on the plane and arrive in London with no jetlag and feeling ready for an adventure!

I don’t want to immediately hop on another plane or train so I will be spending my first day and night in London. No plans yet on how I will fill that day.

Early in the morning on day 2 I’m planning to take the Eurostar train to Paris where I will spend one more day and night. Notre Dame and the Catacombs are the top of my list for visiting.

In case you're wondering, I’ve been to London and Paris already so I don’t want to give much of my trip to these cities. That being said I also know they will give me a bit of comfort having already been there and therefore help ease me into the trip without too much shock.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve chosen to visit a lot of cities that aren’t that close to one another so I’ll be doing a lot of flying and very little train-taking.

Day 3, 4 and 5 will be spent in Barcelona! I had hoped to visit Spain, Portugal and Ireland on my previous trip but time wouldn’t allow since they are all a bit more out of the way. I’m not sure what I want to see in Barcelona yet but I’m sure I’ll find plenty.

6, 7 and 8 will take me around Lisbon and Sintra. For quite some time now I’ve unknowingly been fascinated with an image I saw on Pinterest and it turns out to be in Sintra, I’m super excited to see it in person.

 

Photo: Pinterest

The Amalfi Coast in Italy will take me from day 9-12 and I’m hoping to cover a lot of ground; Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano and Capri. Maybe even back to Pompeii if I have time. I'm also considering hiking up Mount Vesuvius.

Photo: Pinterest

And finally, 4 days in Dublin, Ireland. Though I’m really looking forward to everywhere I’ll be visiting, I’m especially excited for Ireland. Outside Dublin I’m planning to do a day tour to the Giants Causeway and hopefully find my way to the Cliffs of Moher as well.

Photo: Pinterest

When the adventure ends I’ll be flying from Dublin back to St John’s for a 4 hour layover, Halifax for a 3 hour layover and then finally home to Edmonton.

Once I get back home my only other plans are to spend a few days in Jasper getting my open water scuba diving certification. But now that I’ve been thinking about it I may also complete my theory training sooner and do my open water dives on one of the trips. I imagine diving in Portugal would be pretty amazing.

And that’s it! I’ve planned a super jam packed summer and I can’t wait for it to start! If anyone has suggestions for any of the places I’ll be visiting, please let me know!

Seven Sacred Pools and Pipiwai Trail

The two things I heard the most about before going to Maui were the Highway to Hana and the Seven Sacred Pools/Pipiwai trail hike. Of course, we did both. They are “must see” attractions after all.

You can read about our experience on the Highway to Hana HERE.

The Pipiwai hiking trail is one of the main attractions on that side of the island. Every blog post you read will tell you how crazy busy it is and that you must get there early to avoid a crowd. Since we camped overnight in Haleakala National Park and could drive to the trail head in about 2 minutes this was no problem for us. We started the hike at 6:40 am and no surprise we were the only ones around. 

The path forks almost immediately, one way leading to the Seven Sacred Pools and the other to the Pipiwai Trail and waterfall.

We did the Seven Sacred Pools in about 10 minutes the previous night and I have to tell you that they were very lack lustre, especially considering how hyped up they are. There wasn’t a lot of flowing water, everything looked a bit stagnant and due to safety issues the area is only able to be viewed from occasional openings in the path.

On the other hand, the Pipiwai trail was quite lovely. The trail is about 7 kilometres roundtrip and takes you through plenty of different terrains.

It starts as a regular treed walking path and morphs the deeper you get. Rocks and tree roots act as stairs, crossing bridges allows a glimpse of the sun on an otherwise shaded trail and boardwalks keep the walk comfortable.

We found a very large Banyan tree whose cover may as well have been a constructed roof, walked through bamboo so thick we could barely see the sky and eventually emerged with a view of the 200 foot waterfall.

Having never seen anything like it I gasped out loud while taking in my first glimpse of the fall. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get anywhere near the base of the fall because the surrounding area is apparently unstable and therefore unsafe.

Since we couldn’t do anything other than stand and look, we didn’t stay too long before deciding to start the walk back. I hadn’t realized before but a lot of the walk on the way to the fall was uphill and so going back took about half as long. By 8:20 we were back at the car and had only seen two other couples the entire time, both on our way back out.

Considering it costs $20.00 to get into the national park I’m not sure these hikes are worth the money or 2.5 hours (one-way) of driving. If this was the only reason we did the drive I would be pretty disappointed. Fortunately for us our camping was also included in the $20 and we were able to separate the drive into 2 days.

Ups and Downs of Hawaii

Although I would generally consider Hawaii to be paradise, I have to admit that there are some ups and downs of travelling to the islands.

Let’s start with, well, travelling to the islands. If you are someone like me who doesn’t mind air travel, has no fear of being 30,000 feet up and can keep your sanity inside a tube for 7 hours then good for you! It certainly makes for a better journey under those circumstances. On the other hand, if you dislike or are afraid of air travel then this might not be the place for you.  Of all the flights I have ever been on, the ones going to and from Hawaii are the only to have ever had turbulence, and let’s be real, no one likes turbulence.

Also to do with getting there, it tends to be a long travel day. Coming from Edmonton means we’re taking an international flight and therefore need to be at the airport 3 hours early. For us that meant leaving home at 5am. 3 hours in the airport, 7 hours in the air, an hour to get off the plane, collect luggage and find the rental car. Now consider the 4 hour time change and it’s still only just after Noon. Over-tired and driving aimlessly in a new city because we couldn’t use data/maps on our phones to find the hotel. I think this could normally be considered an adventure dependent on your state of mind.

A significant up point that can also be a significant down point is the weather. Other than its incredible beauty I think most people come to Hawaii for the weather. It’s the perfect place to escape the harsh Canadian winter; warm, sunny and very little rain depending on the time of the year. On the other hand, Ryan and I experienced +38 degrees Celsius on almost every day of the trip which can be a little much. Also, we had some really windy days and if you know me well you should know that the weather related things I dislike most are wind and ice. With that being said, +38 is heaven for some people, I guess it just depends on the person.

Beyond those few things I think we can all agree that Hawaii is an incredible place and I think everyone should visit at least one island. In my experiences on Oahu and Maui I can say that it is one of the most naturally beautiful places and offers some truly amazing experiences.

Snorkelling with Green Sea Turtles was one of the best experiences of my life, I very much looking forward to a day in the future when I can have a similar experience with scuba diving. Walking along beaches of varying colors, sitting under the palm trees, eating shave ice in the middle of the day; all beautiful experiences.

Hiking 3.5km before 7am to find a 400 foot waterfall is a priceless experience, but don’t forget, paradise wants to kill you. There are signs everywhere that warn about the dangers of flash flooding, unstable edges, far falls and dangerous waters.  Those signs are also usually accompanied by a fatality count; I assume this is included to help scare people out of doing stupid things.

The point I’m trying to make is that everyone should go to Hawaii. Know what to expect, be prepared, read the signs and wear sunscreen, but go. Go to one island or go to all the islands, or maybe live there?

Views along the way; Maui

While visiting Maui it's an undeniable fact that you will experience some truly beautiful views. Having driven around nearly the whole island we saw plenty; some while hiking or walking, others while driving. Here are some of my favourites, and the ones I actually managed to capture.

One of the very first views and one I’ve shared with you already was the sunflower field. Living where I do I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that.

The beach at Camp Olowalu has a little something for everyone; mountains, trees, ocean, waves, sand and seaglass. I’m not sure what more you could hope for in a single view.

As gorgeous as Maui is and for as many incredible and varied sights that it offers, my very favorite view was the one I experience in the ocean with my goggles on. After dreaming about it for years this was my first true visual of life under the ocean and it was even more amazing than I could have imagined.

Driving the Highway to Hana was like nothing else I’ve ever done. Surrounded by jungle, the Pacific Ocean on one side and a waterfall on the other. It was a real treat for the senses. Some of the best views however were at the end of the highway.

The Black Sand Beach offered a stark visual contrast at all times; bright blue water, vibrant green trees and bold black sand. We didn’t spend a ton of time here but I was pretty taken with what I saw during our short visit.

While exploring the area near our campground at Haleakala National Park we stumbled on more of the contrasting colors but with more focus on the crashing waves, tiny tide pools and crabs.

Next to the campground is a hike that leads to a 400ft waterfall, and how could I not include that on this list?!

Most people choose not to drive on the “Upcountry” roads, mainly because it apparently isn’t covered if you take a rental vehicle there, but that is a mistake in my opinion. This area is nothing like the rest of the island. The whole area is barren and windswept and allows for a lovely and very different drive.

As the driver I couldn’t capture everything, and really I would have to keep my camera clicking non-stop to capture it all. Just trust me when I say that if beautiful, natural scenery is something you enjoy then Maui is the place for you.