Now that we are approaching our 1-year mark in London, I (finally) feel like I can share a comprehensive guide to what to eat, drink, see, and do in one of the largest and most iconic cities in the world. Sharing recommendations for London is challenging not just because there is SO much history and culture to explore, but also because the city is geographically very spread out. This can make it a bit harder to see everything, so I also have a few tips for getting around.
After hosting our first visitor of the year in London, the three of us headed to Prague for the long weekend over the Easter holidays. Prague had been on our shortlist for a while and we had a fantastic weekend exploring the rich history of the city and its beautiful architecture -- and drinking plenty of Czech beer. The city is also famous for its Easter markets, which made the whole city feel like a celebration.
One of the most exciting parts about moving to London is getting first-time visitors and at the end of March, I finally got to experience my mom's first trip to Europe. We spent a few days in London and Paris before making our way to the real reason we were in France -- the Burgundy wine region. We stayed in Beaune, which is about 25 miles south of Dijon along the famous Route de Grande Crus, and it couldn't have been lovelier.
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.
We spent the last weekend of January in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, which is a resort area at the base of Mont Blanc (the highest peak in the Alps) in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France and just across the borders of Switzerland and Italy. Despite Chamonix being a pretty challenging ski area for a second-time skier like me, we had an absolutely fantastic trip.
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.
A variety of factors suddenly left us with several weekends in a row with nothing planned. We rectified the situation by booking a last-minute trip to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, which is only ~2.5 hours away from London by train. I knew almost nothing about Cardiff (or Wales, for that matter), but some light research suggested that it was a nice place to visit at Christmastime.
For Andy's 30th birthday, we met one of his childhood best friends in Amsterdam for a fantastic three-day weekend of celebrations. Despite The Netherlands suddenly announcing a partial lockdown (basically just bars/restaurants shutting down at 8 PM) the week before our trip, we still had so much fun celebrating Andy's birthday and exploring a new city with an old friend.
One of my travel-related goals while we are living in the UK is to try to visit smaller cities and other places that would be challenging and/or less of a priority to visit from the United States. This well-intentioned mindset is how we ended up spending a weekend in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and a place I had barely even heard of, last November.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love champagne. When I started thinking about my 30th birthday, celebrating in the Champagne region of France seemed about as perfect (and on-brand) as it could get. We spent a fabulous three-day weekend touring the champagne houses, eating fantastic French food, and drinking as much top-notch bubby as we could handle.
Lindsey in London 