Next month, J, Baby ISO, and I are headed on our first international trip of 2017 to the Puglia coast, Italy (the heel of the boot). We scored an impossibly cheap Wizz Air flight direct from Vilnius to Bari, so we jumped on the opportunity to have a bit of winter sun. We have plans to spend a week in a beautiful Airbnb in Bari, Italy with friends, and I know we are all excited for delicious food and relaxation.

BC (before child), J and I visited Milan, Venice, and Cinque Terra, and while two months pregnant and sick with horrible morning sickness, I visited Rome with my parents. I LOVE Italy and can't wait to be back wandering a completely different part of the country.

In preparation for every trip we take, I spend a few hours scouring the web so we'll have a loose idea of what to do upon arrival. On the blog, I like to share these resources that I've found helpful with trip planning in the hopes that they'll be helpful to you, too!

Our first few days will likely be spent wandering Bari, checking out the churches, and visiting the university. The seafront promenade and Basilica both look charming! Bari's old town looks like it is full of winding streets and hole-in-the-wall eateries -- just what we always look for!

Relying on Italy's great train system, we'll probably take a day trip to Monopoli to see the defensive city walls and bell tower.

A day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Alberobello is also definitely a must-do because the white houses with little domed roofs are impressive. The 1,500 trulli (the name for the white, stone homes) are so fascinating and I hope we can enter one. I also have a feeling that Alberobello won't be super crowded because we are visiting in the off-season -- gotta love off-season travel!

Perhaps what I'm most looking forward to from a trip to Puglia is some budget-friendly, amazing Italian food and wine. The Budget Traveler blog has posted a really nice guide to the food of Bari.

Want to read more about our previous visits to Italy? Check out the Italy section of my Destinations Page.


If you have any suggestions for what to do in and around Bari, let me know! I'd love to have some more tips!

This Saturday we leave for a trip to spend 10 days in The Netherlands and I cannot wait. Our trip starts off with five nights in Rotterdam, a day trip in The Hague, finishing off with four nights in Amsterdam. As usual before any trip, I like to share a bunch of resources that I've found helpful, and hopefully if you go to The Netherlands you'll find these resources helpful, too!

Amsterdam

Foodhallen, which is a newly opened food hall housed in a former electric tram warehouse. Sounds right up our alley. I'm also interested in checking out Dignita for brunch if we happen to be in the area. Thanks, Travelettes for the tip!

Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world. It is easy to guess that I'll be visiting at least once. The botanical garden has kid's activities and some green houses, and I'm sure Baby ISO will enjoy some time to run around after being trapped in museums. ;)

I love Ai Weiwei's art, so we are planning to go see his exhibition "Safe Passage" at the Foam Museum. This exhibition is on until December 7, so plan a trip soon!

Another museum I'm interested in visiting is the Anne Frank Museum. It is worth it to note that they have just revamped their ticketing system, so be prepared to purchase tickets online in advance.  --> Bummer: just sat down to purchase tickets and they are sold out. If you plan to visit the Anne Frank Museum, I'd suggest booking your tickets about one month in advance. Don't wait until one week before like I did.

The website AmsterDo is jam packed with great restaurant recommendations and neighborhood information. I plan on using the website to search for recommended restaurants and things to do around our accommodation.

This post about 14 things to do in Amsterdam from Cultural Xplorer has some really unique suggestions. I'm going to look into the cheese tasting.

J's museum of choice is the Van Gogh Museum, so surely we will be making a visit.

Albert Cuypmarkt sounds like an awesome place to search for souvenirs. 

I love, love the blog Chapter Friday, and I think their Lattes and Laptops series is brilliant. During our few days in Amsterdam, I'll absolutely be trying a couple of their recommendations.

Rotterdam

 

The number one thing J and I are excited about for Rotterdam is the Markthal. Wow, it looks absolutely amazing; J was even momentarily tempted to spend a ridiculous amount of money renting an AirBnb apartment in it.

In general, I've been reading a lot about how family friendly Rotterdam is -- this post by Travel with Bender is great -- which will be great for Baby ISO. I'm thinking we'll visit the Rotterdam Zoo since he is super into animals at the moment. The playgrounds everywhere will also be very helpful for entertaining my active toddler.

This post from Wandering Wings has some great budget suggestions for spending a day or two in Rotterdam. I'm sure we'll be using her tips!

As usual, I am in search of good, flavorful restaurants when traveling. We don't have many options for good Asian food or delicious Middle Eastern food, so that is what I'm hoping to indulge in while in The Netherlands (plus great coffee). For options so far, I've found Delibird Restaurant, which serves Thai food. De Pelgrim sounds like it serves great beers and stew.  Fenix Food Factory gets rave reviews and looks like an awesome food hall, and Bazar has Middle Eastern and North African food that looks amazing. There are some more tips on Expatica.

The Hague

A friend of ours recommended we visit The Hague and with it being only a 15 minute train ride away from Rotterdam, we jumped at the idea. This very comprehensive post about The Hague by the Travel Tester is absolutely something we will look into before our trip!


Somewhere along our trip in The Netherlands, I've got to remember to buy my mom some stroopwaffles. She loves them --> enjoy, mom!


Do you have any tips to share for our visit to The Netherlands? Anything we should be sure to do? What about local snacks we should try?
 

Poland here we come! I'm writing this post from my sofa in Vilnius less than a week before leaving for Warsaw, but as you are reading this, I'm in Warsaw (check out my Instagram @insearchofs for updates). Yeah for pre-scheduling posts so I can spend more time exploring/resting.

Before leaving for a trip, I really like spend a couple of hours pouring over websites, blog posts, and guidebooks. By writing these trip planning posts I get to do just that, and I like sharing the resources with you in case you are also planning a trip to the same destination.

Warsaw's Art District

I'm super excited about visiting Warsaw's Praga district. It sounds almost like a much larger version of Vilnius' Uzupis or up-and-coming Sto-Ho districts. In Praga, I'd like to see St. Michael's and St. Florian's Cathedral, Soho Factory, and street art (of course). This guide from Gotta Keep Movin has some great tips.

Eating and Drinking Out

Pierogies here I come! Hopefully I'll be able to sample some pierogies and other delicious foods at a milk bar. This post from That Backpacker summarizes milk bars and a ton of other cool places to eat. This student's information blog also has  information about the milk bar, Prasowy, and information about the surrounding neighborhood.

I'm also dying to eat some Ethiopian food at Abyssinia Ethiopian Cuisine. Thanks, the Mochilera Diaries for the tip!

For child-friendly cafes and shops, I'm going follow the tips in Babyccino blog and heading to Cafe Kolonia and Pompon Cafe.

Other Things I Want To See

I definitely want to spend some time in Lazienki Park. Thanks Sunny Side of This for the tip!

Warsaw University looks awesome. I'd love to take a tour of the campus, or at the very least, explore its gorgeous library.

Depending on how agreeable Baby ISO is, I'd also like to visit the Marie Curie Museum to learn more about this incredible woman and intelligent scientist. Gotta support women in science!

The Palace of Culture and Science also seems like an interesting and controversial structure to see from both near and afar.

I'm also thinking about a free walking tour around the city. This is another great guide with a ton about the city including suggestions for the free walking tour.


What else should we do in Warsaw? Any children's museums you can suggest?

With juggling childcare responsibilities and picking up more freelance proofreading work I've had little time to plan trips. Rather than spending hours and hours pouring over post after post, I've had to stremline resources to just a few. I love looking up new destinations and coming up with ideas of what to do, see, and eat, so I haven't wanted to forgo research completely; I've just needed to streamline things. If you also happen to have your attention torn between too many responsibilities (which I think tends to be the case among Millennials) and perhaps you also need to free up some time (so you can spend it side-hustling to fund your next adventure), this post is for you.

These are the resources that I've frequented when planning the past several trips that I've taken ...

1) Talking to people. This one is pretty straightforward. I seek advice from friends and family who've visited a destination.

2) Strategic blog reading. As I mentioned above, gone are the days when I could read every post showing up in my Bloglovin' feed (oh how I wish I could have an hour to read blogs each day!) and scour the web for any relevant post about where I was visiting. As much as I'd love to read every post, I just don't have the time or energy right now. So, I look at blogs whose author's happen to be living wherever I'm visiting.

My upcoming travel plans are listed on my About page ... Druskininkai, LT is next :)

3) Travel-focused websites. My go-to websites are Trip101 and Spotted By Locals. I see if Spotted By Locals has covered whatever city I'm planning on visiting, and note down any places that I think might be cool. Since I do a lot of work for Trip101, I often read and edit awesome articles on destinations that I'm visiting in the near future. It is also easy to search for articles written about a particular destination.

4) Save time booking. To get to know an area better I love to look for walking tours, food tours, or meals with BookALokal. To do this, I head directly to Google to look up walking and food tours. I also head straight to the BookALokal website to see if there is anything of interest in the city I'm visiting.

5) Social media. On Twitter I ask around for great blog posts and resources. I look for and save articles on Pinterest, and I look to Instagrammers for cool recommendations (I've found Instagram especially great for food recommendations).

Let's connect via social media if we aren't already :)

I'm curious, what resources do you use when planning a trip? On average, how long do you spend looking up information for each trip?

This week we are heading to Luxembourg, a country I've wanted to visit since Mme. Casey (my French teacher in high school and French student teacher in middle school) first introduced my middle school French class to her home country. Over the past few weeks, I've taken all of my spare moments to look up things to do on this trip. Here are the resources (all blogs this time!) that have helped me to get an idea of things to do and places to eat in Luxembourg.

This foodie post from the Wayfarer has me dreaming of delicious cakes and unique restaurants.

This delicious food guide from Heather and Her Travels highlights food markets as well as some special things to see in Luxembourg City. I'm definitely going to visit the Saturday vegetable market.

This complete city guide from the Travel Tester has a ton of information about the city. I'm interested in visiting the casemates, but I think we'll have to curb our stroller for that one!

Hand Luggage Only blog also has several posts about Luxembourg with tons of glorious photos.


Do you have any tips for our trip in Luxembourg? I've you've visited feel free to share your posts below! Also, I'll be changing my schedule to Monday and Friday posting because writing three days per week is getting difficult to keep up with!

Today we are off to soak in the Spanish sunshine in Madrid! I always like putting together these posts as it helps me to sit down, gather some resources, and make a loose plan for our upcoming trips. This is even more important now that I have limited time to spend on trip planning (the days of pouring over blog after blog are temporarily on hold). These are the resources that I've been glued to for this trip prep:

J and I loved our experience with BookALokal in Athens, and we've been wanting to try another ever since. So, after a quick perusal of their website I booked us a delicious sounding three course meal in Madrid. I'm really looking forward to it!

I've been doing a ton of work for Trip101, and have had the pleasure to review several awesome articles about Madrid. I've certainly made a couple of notes for our trip from those articles. I'm thinking many trips to Retiro Park are necessary as is z visit to see the - building. We'll also have to try - for chocolate and churros.

When we travel we usually look for cool cafes or bookstores. Naked Madrid shares a ton of cool sounding places, as well as provides extra information about great restaurants and bars. I'm sure we'll be visiting at least one of their suggestions, though the posts haven't been updated in a while, so I'll be checking to make sure places are open first.

I've also been reading every Madrid post on the blog Oh hello, Spain by Kate who is an expat living in Madrid. She has some great suggestions for where to eat and what to do in the city.


Do you have any tips for Madrid? Feel free to share your posts below; I'd love to read them!

In about a week J and I head back to Connecticut to visit our family and there is so much that we want to do and see during our short visit. Normally when visiting Connecticut we go to our favorite spots, but this trip I'm interested in finding some new favorites. This has encouraged me to essentially trip-plan for our stay! Here are the resources I've been checking for local events, restaurant reviews, and local businesses.

1) Connecticut Magazine is a great source for learning about local events and cool restaurants all around the state.

2) To get my fill of fresh fruits and vegetables I'm hoping to check out some of the farmers' markets along Connecticut's Farmers' Market Trail. Last summer I visited the Coventry Farmers' Market, which was much larger than I expected and was packed with fresh veggies and cool food trucks.

3) Food tours and cooking classes in New Haven, CT? Sign me up!

4) This webpage highlights some of the top sites in Connecticut, but also highlights others that I've not heard of before. I'm particularly interested in visiting the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, which has both a sculpture garden and indoor exhibits that are frequently changed according to a theme.

5) Last summer, while on an in search of with my Dad, we visited Indian Leap Falls in Norwich, which was an absolute surprise that was hiding right under my nose (hence the importance of local explorations!). On our drive home from Indian Leap Falls we spotted Philly's A Taste of Philadelphia, which is a small, divey-type restaurant that gets rave reviews. I think it's high time for me to try it out!


What should I see and do while back in Connecticut? I'd love to hear any tips you have! How do you make the most of local visits? And now on to the #REASONS2TRAVEL linkup!

A place for everyone to share their travels.

You don't have to be a travel blogger to want to share your favorite local spots or tips on international travel.

#REASONS2TRAVEL is a new linkup, open for the whole month where you can share, discover and explore travel! Linkup any travel related post OR picture from INSTAGRAM and join our community of TRAVEL and LIFESTYLE BLOGGERS.

SHARE YOUR POST ON TWITTER with the hashtag #REASONS2TRAVEL & you'll get a retweet from your co-hosts!

 

 

Rules:

1. Linkup your TRAVEL related posts, new and old! Or Linkup a travel related picture from Instagram with the hashtag #REASONS2TRAVEL
2. Add the badge or a link back to ANY of the co-hosts
3. Follow each co-host on at least 1 social network , we're friendly, social and generally over-sharers!
4. Tweet your link with the hashtag #REASONS2TRAVEL for a retweet!
5. Please be social and visit a post that interests you. Don't forget to use the #REASONS2TRAVEL hashtag to let people know how you found them!

Happy Travels!

REASONS TO DRESS - An Italian Lifestyle Blog About Travel, Fashion and Life in Italy

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THE CROWDED PLANET - A Nature and Adventure Travel Blog

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UNLOCKING KIKI - A Travel Blog From An American Expat in Iceland

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IN SEARCH OF - A Travel Blog From An American Expat in Vilnius, Lithuania

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A LOVELY LIFE INDEED - A Lifestyle Blog about Love, Travel & the Good Life

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CHASING THE DONKEY - Travel Croatia Like a Local, People, Places, Food and Culture

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This month's featured blogger is Kate from DIARY OF AN URBAN HOUSEWIFE. A semi-nomadic family who has lived all over the US and Canada and is currently in Amsterdam. Last month Kate linked up a beautiful post about her visit to the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens in Lisse, Netherlands. Check out her post and visit her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see real live from a fit family in the Netherlands.  

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