I have always loved traveling since I can remember. One of my favorite things to share with you is all of our traveling adventure with you and share all my favorite things we did, where we stayed and what we ate. I realized as we plan our trip for this summer that I have so many travel guides that I wanted to put them all in one quick and easy place for you to find exactly what you are looking for!
Today I am sharing all things Europe from all our past trips. You can click on each city name to see a full city guide for each destination. I hope these help you when planning your upcoming travel to Europe!
As far as the planning goes, you all know that I get really into planning our trips and will spend hours upon hours researching hotels and activities. Here you can find a full rundown of how I planned our trips to Europe!
EUROTRIP: LUGGAGE, CARRY ON, & WHAT I PACKED
Since most of you know that I am a horrible packer, I am always looking for new luggage systems to keep me organized. I kept hearing about these AWAY bags and how they are unbreakable and can hold a lot, so I decided to bite the bullet and order the large suitcase and the carry on bag. I checked the large suitcase, obviously, and used the carry on bag for my in-flight essentials like food, snacks, pajamas to change into, laptop, iPad, meds, etc. I kept my large Goyard St Louis GM tote for all of my little bags that I didn’t want to pack in my checked luggage and then some jewelry and scarves.
City Guides:
COTSWOLDS, BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, ENGLAND
The Cotswolds is a rural area of south central England covering parts of 6 counties, notably Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Its rolling hills and grassland thatched medieval villages, churches and stately homes built of distinctive local yellow limestone. If you’ve see The Holiday with Cameron Diaz, that is where she stays in the cottage.
I would say that the top places you need to visit when you go to Edinburgh are definitely the Edinburgh Castle, walk around Old Town and get some authentic Scottish souvenirs, and do a Lochness and Glencoe tour if you have time. Looming over the city is Edinburgh Castle, home to Scotland’s crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish rulers.
I absolutely LOVED London and I am dying to go back and stay for longer during the warmer months. We were only there for 4 days (and one of those we slept half the day), so I definitely feel like there is so much that we didn’t get to see. There were so many museums that we didn’t get to tour and areas of town that we didn’t get to see. I really loved the vibe of the city and everyone that we encountered was super friendly and helpful. I also loved the shopping and if I would have been left alone for too long I think I could have gotten into some serious trouble. I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland as well, so I think when I make that trip happen I will just tack on London and go again since they are so close.
I actually find myself googling “how to live in Europe as an American” at least once a week and surprisingly, Germany always pops up as one of the best places for Americans to live in Europe. It’s hard to put into words why I liked Munich so much, but it had a lot to do with the spirit of the people there. Everyone was so jolly and friendly and they love to eat! I was kind of intimidated by the language barrier at first, but I was pleasantly surprised that nearly everyone we encountered spoke perfect English
I had heard of people going to Budapest and always thought it seemed interesting, but honestly never thought I would be able to visit. When I was looking for easy cities to get to by train from Prague, there was Budapest! For those of you who don’t know, Hungary is located in Eastern Europe bordering countries like Slovakia and Romania. I could immediately tell a difference in the culture and vibe from previous European cities that we have visited. It’s hard to explain, but the people just seemed different, but not in a bad way, just a different way. People were very friendly and we LOVED how the US Dollar can go a long way in Hungary. The Hungarian Forint is very weak against the US Dollar, so you get way more for your money.
We only had about 48 hours in Milan, so we tried to hit the hotspots in as little time as possible. Milan happened to be at the end of our two week trip and by then we were utterly exhausted, so it was hard to muster up energy to do anything really. We rallied though and tried to sightsee as much as we could in our short day and a half there.
There was so much to do in Prague, but one of my favorite activities was to just walk around and people watch. My favorite place to go each day was the iconic 14th-century Charles Bridge where local artists would set up their paintings and some would even do live paintings. There were several street musicians playing instruments and people taking pictures.
DAY TRIP FROM MUNICH TO NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE, OBERAMMERGAU, & LINDERHOF PALACE
One of our favorite adventures that we took while we were in Europe was the day trip to Neuschiewenstein Castle, Oberammergau, and Linderhof Palace from Munich. This trip took us through the German Alps to see the famous Neuschiewenstein Castle of Bavarian King Ludwig II. This castle is said to have been inspiration for the Disney Castle as crowds of thousands flock there every day to get a picture of the castle in the mountains.
