As soon as we started thinking about moving back to Atlanta, I began frantically narrowing down our list of "must-visit" places. One of my more creative solutions for maximizing our travel opportunities was coming up with an itinerary that allowed us to visit several completely unrelated places on the same vacation.
I had always been intrigued by the unique history and cultural identity of Malta, but a visit to the 'sunniest place in Europe' became an even higher priority during this year's particularly cold and rainy spring. Known for having more than 300 days of sunshine per year, a long weekend in Malta seemed like the perfect way to escape the seemingly endless rain in London and check another country off of our lists.
In mid-April, my best friend Susan and I headed to Donostia / San Sebastián in the Basque country, the historic region spanning an area across western France and northern Spain along the Bay of Biscay. We also fit in excellent day trips to Rioja, one of Spain's most celebrated wine regions, and the seaside town of Biarritz on the French side of the border.
I had been trying to get my father to come visit me and Andy from the moment we knew we were moving and I started planning out what we wanted to do with him as soon as he booked a trip. It was Dad's first time in Europe and naturally I wanted to take him to a place I knew he would absolutely love: Tuscany. Andy and I actually hadn't visited Tuscany together since our two-week trip in 2019, so we were equally as excited to simply be back in one of our favorite places.
I had to make some tough decisions when planning our 10-day trip to Spain last year, but the hardest by far was deciding we didn't have enough time to squeeze in Barcelona. Thankfully, it worked out perfectly for us to plan a trip to this beautiful city on the coast of northeastern Spain over the last weekend in February,
After a busy couple of weeks in London and the U.S., we were more than ready to get out of town for a quick weekend getaway to Dubrovnik, a city that had been high on our list for years. It was our first time visiting Croatia and it couldn't have been a more relaxing and charming experience. We had such a nice weekend eating seafood, sampling Croatian wines, and exploring the stunning Old Town.
I had been dying to visit Lake Bled for years, even though we really knew next to nothing about Slovenia before our trip. We were pleasantly surprised by (and now are kind of obsessed with) this tiny, mountainous, and incredibly green country surrounded by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and the Adriatic Sea. I truly don't have anything but wonderful things to say about our experience in Slovenia.
Spain had been on the top of our travel list since we moved to London, but there were SO many Spanish cities and towns we wanted to visit that we could never seem to make a decision on where to start. Our one-year anniversary felt like the perfect opportunity to take enough time off to go to multiple cities on the same trip. We spent a few days in Madrid at the beginning and end of our trip and then spent the rest of our time in Andalusia. We absolutely loved every place we visited and could have spent much more time in each city.
As part of my commitment to truly learn how to ski, I booked a late-season trip to Cortina d'Ampezzo, a popular resort area in the Dolomites. Andy and I were both really excited about exploring a new region of Italy and I was feeling much more confident about skiing after our lovely trip to Chamonix in January, but the experience ended up being a bit of a letdown.
Portugal's second city is brimming with cobblestone streets, flower-potted balconies, and buildings covered in azuelos, the typically blue-and-white-painted ceramic tilework for which Portugal is famous. The atmosphere is extremely laid-back, the residents couldn't have been friendlier, and it was almost absurdly affordable -- we truly couldn't find anything to not love about Porto.
Lindsey in London 