How to get the best out of 48 hours in Ubud

Hey All

Here is the third post about my Bali and Kuala Lumpur Trip (you can find out what we did in Kuala Lumpur here) but today it's all about Ubud, this was the first town we stayed in and our favourite, we loved everything about Ubud, the people, the feel, the food and what to do.

Travelling Croatia - Wine Tasting on the Peljesac Peninsula

Over the last few months I've been sharing the many wonderful places I visited during my adventure to Croatia. I've written about the sights and views in Split, and let's not forget What to Eat whilst .you're there, I've shared the paradise that is Plitvice Lakes and the absolute gem that was Dubrovnik and the charming Old Town. Most recently I shared a post on my island hopping and the beautiful islands I visited whilst sailing along the coast and this is the final place that I am yet to share with you.

We'd had some pretty bad weather over a few days and when we docked at our latest stop we couldn't wait to get off the boat onto steady land! We actually couldn't dock properly because the weather was so windy it took multiple attempts and we had to attach our yacht to another boat, to get off we had to leap off the side and hope for the best when landing!

Travelling Croatia - Island Hopping

Since September I've been drip feeding posts of my trip to Croatia and I can't wait to share more.

I've shared where I went in Split, and what I ate whilst I was there, plus my time in paradise aka Plitvice Lakes, and lastly wandering the walls of the old town in Dubrovnik

Today's post is all about Island Hopping! As part of my trip I sailed from Split to Dubrovnik and visited many islands on the way, so make a cup of tea and settle down to see what's on each island and why you should visit!

The Greyhound Inn, Letcombe Regis

As you know I travel with work so I stay in many hotels, and hotels can be memorable for many reasons. I've stayed in some pretty ugly ones but I try to forget those...when you stay somewhere good it makes it all the more memorable.

Cue my recent stay in The Greyhound Inn, in Letcombe Regis. I don't think I have ever written a hotel review so be nice! I just couldn't resist but share some pictures from my stay, so grab a cuppa and see why I decided to share them this time.

Travelling Croatia - Dubrovnik

Good morning!!

I have some fabulous pictures to share with you today and I'm just too excited. I've been sharing my travel tips for various places in Croatia the last few weeks and have another today, this time about Dubrovnik. I wasn't sure what to think about this city as I hadn't really had chance to look it up beforehand, I just knew it was going to be full of sea views and orange roof tops and I was not wrong!

Travelling Croatia - Plitvice Lakes

Hi all!

I'm so excited to share these pictures with you, I've been trying to do it for weeks but I wanted to get all the photos just right, so it has taken longer than planned.

I've so far written about Split and what you should eat there, and during my few days before my sailing trip started I managed to get a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park and it is STUNNING!

What to Eat in Split, Croatia

Morning! 

I recently shared my photos with you from my trip to Split, I have more photos to share from islands and other places in Croatia but had to share my food photos and recommendations too!

Travelling Croatia - Split

Hey all!

I recently went on a trip to Croatia for 2 weeks and it was AMAZING.

I've got a fair few posts lined up to show you my photos and share my travel tips, so look out for all of these. I went to Plitvice Lakes, and sailed my way along the coast to Dubrovnik stopping off at islands and sampling the food and drink of Croatia so there will most likely be a post to suit you!

Today I have some photos of Split and what I recommend doing there, I have just over 1 day so I had to see and do as much as I could in a small space of time. My flight landed at 9.30am so I made the most of the day.

Weekend Trip: Amsterdam

Good morning!

Today's post is jam packed with photos! I've just got back from a weekend trip to Amsterdam and had such a lovely time. We were only there for two days but managed to see and do so much.

Here's a few snaps from wandering around:

The canals are just beautiful, so many of them but each have their own highlights. Some have bikes chained all over, some have flower baskets, others have houses straight on the water and some have roads in between.

The buildings are beautiful, I couldn't stop staring at them especially those with huge windows and absolutely massive entrance halls. Trust me, the home decor here is outstanding!

With all the walking around (20k steps a day!) we obviously ate and drank well too!

We went to Bagels and Beans for one lunch and I have a chicken chutney filling on a sesame bagel which was amazing, with an Assam loose leaf tea. I'd definitely recommend visiting here as the food choices were great and very tasty! 

We also went to an Italian restaurant where I had a Gorgonzola pizza which was amazing, I've never had gorgonzola on a pizza before but it was very good - 100% recommended!

Our other lunch on the second day was a random cafe we stopped at whilst walking around. Here I ordered a goat's cheese and walnut sandwich, this was also amazing. I've never had a sandwich with this filling before but boy oh boy was it good! I'm sad I didn't note down where this was because it was lovely but there are so many places to stop for lunch you are spoilt for choice.

We moved on to the infamous tulip market, and this did not disappoint. It's an instagrammers heaven!

There are rows and rows of so many different types of flowers, but particularly tulips which seem to be the favourite!

The selection bags are clearly this biggest and best sellers and you can see why. With this much variety I'm not surprised, there are hundreds of them dotted around with every colour imaginable.

My favourite part in particular was the ceiling of the shops, the photos of this are below so I don't need to explain why:





I also loved the range of cacti that were available - they were so interesting looking and crazy colours. so weird!

On our final morning we went to the Van Gogh museum, this was really interesting too but it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
There were many painting from Van Gogh but also many many other artists that he was friends with, so this was a little misleading. I also disappointed that there wasn't any photography allowed in the museum....I mean I fully understand that flash photography can affect the paintings and I wouldn't use the flash in this situation but to not be allowed to take any photos at all just felt restrictive and essentially forced you to buy postcards etc from their shop.

I obviously rebelled and took some on my phone when no one was looking!

The Sunflowers painting is infamous and it was good to see it in person as well as the Irises, but this museum was a little underwhelming for me.

After this we wandered around Vondel Park before being picked up for the airport. It was a lovely walk and we spent a lot of the time dodging bikes, it's a lot like Roath Park if you're from Cardiff as there are lakes dotted through it also and its a similar size.

We also had a walk through the red light district which was interesting. We went quite early in the night (9pm ish) so there weren't many actual 'customers' around, just tourists walking through and a few girls available at the windows to view.

It wasn't as seedy as I thought it would be but was interesting none the less, the girls seemed to be happy to be in the windows so I guess that's all that matters!

All in all it was a great weekend, definitely a whirlwind trip but we packed in as much as we could, mostly by walking in a certain direction each time and seeing as much as possible on the way.

I'd definitely go back to see more as there were still a variety of things we missed, but this was a great trip for seeing the essentials associated with Amsterdam.

Have you been to Amsterdam? What did you see and do?

What did you think of the Van Gogh museum and Vondel Park?


If you have any questions about Amsterdam feel free to tweet me!


L xxx

Travel: Cosy Under Canvas Review

Hey All

I've been meaning to write this for a while as C and I absolutely loved our glamping experience and I knew I had to share it. We had decided in late Sept/ early Oct we'd go away. We'd originally planned to go somewhere abroad but dates weren't working out so we decided to look for places to stay in Geodomes as friends of ours had stayed in some in Scotland and loved it. C and I have camped quite a few times since we've been together and loved it but this was a different holiday for us and we wanted a little bit more luxury. After googling we found Cosy under Canvas and we were instantly sold. We went towards the end of the Season and the Holly Dome was the last one available to book.

Cosy under Canvas is located near to Hay-On-Wye, and is a totally off grid site. We loved this as when you arrive you lose phone signal. A short walk up to the main house there is wifi you can use if you need to contact someone but we loved being totally switched off. There are gas hobs in the kitchen area, solar powered lights, composting toilets and wood-fired showers, how amazing is that!! There are 7 domes across the site which can sleep between 4-6 people. I love that it's been kept so small as you don't feel cramped in and have some privacy. Each Dome also comes with a wood fired hot tub and it's own toilet.

On arrival we were instantly wowed, nestled in between woodlands were these amazing domes. They are impressively spacious and looked great. No domes point towards each other as the front is see through so even though it's open you feel like you have privacy. We stayed in the Holly Dome which can sleep up to six people.

How amazing is it inside. Each dome comes with a bed. futons, bean bags, sheep skin rugs, torches, candles and holders and more. Ours even had a little hammock seat. We loved how cosy it was. It was cold as we went so late in the year but the wood burner inside heated it up and little touches like hot water bottles meant it was comfortable at night. We loved the homely feel to it!

We felt so chilled out here it was amazing. Above is the kitchen with a large dining table. There is also a chalk board with what's going on in the local area. Each dome also has a storage and freezer box in the kitchen to store food in. We ended up accidentally ordering a hello fresh box (you can see my review on them here) and it ended up being great as we had everything we needed to make tasty meals easily. The wooden seating is on the decking outside the dome as there are fire pits around the dome which can be used to cook on with tripods and pots also provided. We loved how secluded it all was and getting back to nature but chopping wood for fires and to cook! 

The hot tub was something we loved. On a cold day nothing beats sitting in a lovely warm hot tub. We did have a few issues getting ours lit but Emma came down to help us and got it sorted. We loved how welcoming they were and helpful. Follow the instructions as these do heat up and stay warm. We were concerned it would cool down so left it going too long and it ended up staying way to hot one evening. We also shoved extra logs on it before bed so we could use it in the mornings!

If you need anymore convicing here is the amazing sky views from Cosy Under Canvas!! It's so peaceful at night and we were treated to amazing clear skies.

We definitely want to go back. Have you considered glamping? For more info and some current discount codes check out cosyundercanvas.co.uk.

Love M

xxx

Travel: Places to eat in Copenhagen

Hey All

Another travel post from me on my travels to Copenhagen you can see what to do here and where I stayed here. Now my favourite part....eating! I love food and on holiday it's a great excuse to gorge more than normal. We arrived on the first day at around 6-7ish so headed straight out for food. We went to a burger place but it was just ok so I won't go into that.

Our first breakfast we went for was to The Living Room, it was a really nice little cafe with small rooms so you didn't feel over crowded with amazing pastries and sandwiches! Also a great chai latte!

We'd heard a lot about the hotdogs so for lunch after we'd be to the Rundetaarn we grabbed street food from Hanegal. This was a really tasty hotdog. Amazing sausage, three different sauces, onions and gerkins!! If you're going definitely try one of these!

For Dinner that evening we headed to Mother we'd seen amazing photos of the pizza and had to try it. It was really busy so we queued a bit for a table but we were able to sit in the bar while we waited and the food was definitely worth the wait. I had prosciutto ham bruschetta to start and pizza for main. It was one of the nicest pizzas I've had outside of Italy! A must visit in my opinion!

As you stroll down the main shopping street Stroget, there are a few churros and waffle stands! They are amazing. We had churros and they were lush. Freshly cooked with chocolate sauce! Yum, you could have topped them with ice cream but it was too cold for us!

We visited a few other food places but these were our favourites. Jenson Bofhus was where C's friend in Copenhagen took us for lunch. This reminded me of beefeaters in the UK but it was reasonably priced. We also visited MAD which was an american diner type place for breakfast but I did think for an american diner portions were small but it was tasty. A bakery we loved on stroget was Lagkagehuse. We ate so many pastries over there and most shops were good but we really enjoyed these!

Have you visited Copenhagen? Would you eat in these?

Love M

xxx