I wasn’t going to write this post as so many bloggers have written amazing things about travelling on this side of the world. As it stands though, our 10 week South America Itinerary and our 1 Month Australia Itinerary are some of our most popular posts. It’s also an opportunity to look back on our adventures as I can hardly believe that a whole 6 months has passed since we arrived to start our 10 weeks in Australia and New Zealand, with a bonus stop off in Fiji. Time flies when you’re having fun!
Advice & Tips, Itineraries, Travel Planning
An Epic Itinerary for 10 Weeks in Australia, New Zealand & Fiji
Adventures, Advice & Tips, Itineraries, Taiwan, Travel Planning
The Best Things To Do In Taichung… In One Day
So many people who visit Taiwan never make it out of Taipei, which I think is a huge mistake when there are so many other awesome cities to see! Despite a somewhat dodgy start, we found loads of awesome things to do in Taichung, and it turned out to be our favourite city in Taiwan. Deciding to save money by walking the 30 minutes from the station to our hostel we found ourselves walking through some pretty sketchy looking areas. Tower blocks, concrete high rises and busy roads made the whole place feel pretty bleak and soulless and we thought we may have made a bit of an error. We figured that we only had a one day in Taichung anyway so perhaps it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we had to stay in our apartment and get some work done…
Advice & Tips, Itineraries, Taiwan, Travel Planning
3 Days in Taipei: City Sights, Night Markets & Nature
Arriving in Taipei was an instant culture shock of the best kind and we loved every minute of our time in this amazing city. It’s one of the few places where my overly high expectations didn’t leave me disappointed and actually as we’ve continued our journey round Taiwan we’ve fallen more and more for the country. It’s a little crazy, very busy and intense at times but the people are so friendly and there’s so much to do that you can’t really help but love it. Do make sure that if you visit Taiwan you leave time to spend at least 3 days in Taipei exploring all the city has to offer.
I struggled to find examples of itineraries I liked when preparing for three weeks in Vietnam. There are lots out there for two weeks, and even more for four weeks due to most people opting for either the free 15 day visa or the entry level 30 day visa. Whilst some examples of three week recommendations were available, none entirely ticked our boxes so we decided we’d share ours.
Before we dive on into this itinerary post a quick disclaimer that one week in Malaysia definitely isn’t long enough to see everything that this amazing country has to offer. If like us though, you’ve found some cheap flights and decided to have an extended stop over, you can definitely see plenty of incredible places in a week. Kuala Lumpur is one of the biggest transport hubs in South East Asia and hosts Air Asia HQ meaning there are tons of cheap flights into the city from many different countries.
Laos is perhaps a less popular destination than some of its other South East Asian neighbours but we were surprised to find it such a beautiful and fascinating country to visit. As we’ve continued our journey around this part of the world we’ve been happily advising everyone who hasn’t got it planned in to their itinerary to change their trip to include it.
Adventures, Itineraries, Travel Planning, Vietnam
Visiting Vietnam War Sites on our Travels Through Vietnam
Despite having studied History to A Level and coming from a family of history graduates and enthusiasts, my knowledge of Asian history was poor to none existent prior to travelling this continent. The majority of my GCSE and A Level history experience as I remember it was, whilst enjoyable, almost entirely centred around the Tudors, the Russian Revolution and WWs 1 and 2.
Myanmar is an amazing country and we found two weeks in Myanmar was the perfect amount of time to spend exploring the main attractions. If you prefer to travel a little slower or want to venture off the beaten path, perhaps consider an extra week or so and make full use of the 30 day visa.
The best time to visit is between December and February where the weather is pretty consistently hot and dry, although it can be a little busy in some of the tourist spots at this time of year.
Adventures, Itineraries, Laos, Travel Planning
Three Days in Vang Vieng – The Most Beautiful Place in Laos
I wish I could have spent so much longer here. We already had to extend our stay to spend three days in Vang Vieng as to be honest, given the stories about it being a bit of a magnet for travellers acting like dickheads and more of a party town than anything else, we were pretty sure we’d hate it. Whilst we’re not averse to a good night out we’re not exactly major party people, and at nearly (ahem) thirty years old we didn’t fancy hanging out with a bunch of wasted 18 year olds.
I can’t quite believe I hadn’t heard of Bagan until we added Myanmar onto the itinerary for this trip and started researching. It’s the ancient capital of the first Myanmar empire and home to over 2000 pagodas of all sizes and styles with some dating all the way back to the 11th century, like the famous Ananda Temple. If you’re wondering what things there are to do in Bagan, read on!
The 3 days in Bagan we spent biking around exploring temples and watching sunrises was one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had in South East Asia, so naturally we started writing this blog the minute we left so we could share some tips!
Advice & Tips, Itineraries, Travel Planning
How to Plan the Perfect Travel Itinerary: Step by Step Guide
Everyone says you should write about what you enjoy for the best blog posts so here goes! I am a massive geek and one of my favourite parts of travelling is when I get to sit down for a couple of hours and plan the perfect itinerary for countries that we plan to visit. Exciting I know.
Advice & Tips, Australasia, Australia, Itineraries, Travel Planning
25 Free & Cheap Things to Do in Sydney
Australia’s most populous city and often mistaken as its capital, Sydney is one of the best places in the world for a city break. Whether you prefer museums and galleries, parks or architecture there’s so much to do here that a week will fly by. Best of all, there are loads of cheap things to do in Sydney that will make a stay here far more budget friendly – we stayed for new year so there was a 7 night minimum stay and we had to find plenty of ways to make our budget stretch!
Adventures, Australasia, Australia, Itineraries
How to spend 2 days in the Blue Mountains, Australia
If you’re travelling Australia and have a spare couple days around the Sydney area, visiting the Blue Mountains is an absolute must. It’s our favourite place that we visited on our month long trip down the east coast and we spent an amazing two days in the Blue Mountains exploring some of the sights.
We’ve been out of Australia for a couple of days now and I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down and write a decent blog post about our time there and what we got up to!
Itineraries, New Zealand, Travel Planning
South Island Driving Itinerary: Picton to Christchurch in 3 Weeks
This post is a follow up to the itinerary we posted for our two week road trip around New Zealand’s North Island. It was surprisingly popular so we thought we’d share our South Island driving itinerary with you as well in case it helps you to plan your travels.
We ended up spending a weekend in Miami purely because it was the cheapest way for us to get back to some main US airports from Guayaquil after our Galapagos trip. When we found out we’d be here for a stopover we figured we might as well make a weekend of it, and we’re glad we did!
Our journey through South America was pretty amazing. We moved quickly compared to many travellers as we knew there was a lot to fit in within our South America Itinerary, but the pace was by no means uncomfortable and we enjoyed every second!
Most people are only fortunate enough to visit Machu Picchu once in their lifetime and as such, it’s really important that you spend your time wisely and visit as much as you physically can.