ADVENTURE ON A BUDGET | TRAVEL BLOG
In Summary... We didn’t really plan on going to Switzerland after our time in Thonon-Les-Bains. But when we scored a one-week housesit in Zurich, which made little neighboring Liechtenstein feasible, we figured we’d take it for a ride again. This was our first time in the country together, though we had both visited on separate trips in our twenties. It’s a…
Arriving to Zurich from Evian-Les-Bains After our grab-and-go dash of Evian-Les-Bains to fill our water bottles with the swanky stuff, we hopped a stupidly expensive ferry across Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) to Switzerland. This is a country both of us had previously been to independently but never together. I went in 2008 on a ski trip with some girlfriends to Geneva/Chamonix,…
It’s no secret that France is the most visited country in the world. And, like many dreamy teenagers, it positively beckoned me. That shimmering iconic tower…that sexy intonation…Audrey Hepburn’s influence and of course….the possibility of amour. All this is pretty much why I naively decided to take French in high school. (A decision I sometimes regret!) But it certainly wasn’t my first…
In Summary…. This was my second time and Greg’s third visit to Spain and although we definitely found more redeeming qualities, budget saving measures, and I had the huge asset of being able to walk this time, (yay!) we’ve still concluded, it’s not a top country for us. At least it’s not in the winter or summer, and there are…
Exploring the Town of Rota For the holiday season, we took a housesit somewhere we’ve never been together…the sparkling southern coast of Spain. Other than being home to a bizarrely familiar community, thanks to the US/Spanish Naval Base, Rota is a charming seaside destination with a quaint and quiet old town, whitewashed Andalusian houses, narrow streets and squares, and long,…
In Summary... This was our second time to this Portuguese gem of a city…this time in much different circumstances. The first in May 2022 was a brief four days, warm, already congested and crowded, and I (Mandy) was on excruciatingly limiting crutches. The second, due to a 2.5 week housesit, was cool and rainy, easy to bypass any crowds, and I…
To Porto (from Baku, Azerbaijan) Our 38-hour westward odyssey from Baku to Porto...consisted of a series of unsatisfying siestas in stupendously contorted positions…three budget airplanes featuring a zero degree pitch on their seat back tilt…a hate/hate, literal on/off relationship with my now compulsory compression socks …and our saving grace thanks to our Venture X credit card, a stream of Shangri-La-ounges…
Two cats, Some Rest, and a Helluva View During our time volunteering in Beaumont, a six-day pop-up catsit in Wanaka delightfully showed itself on Trusted Housesitters…and we got it!! Wanaka is a stunning lakeside town one hour north of Queenstown, folded delicately in the Southern Alps. It’s popular with tourists for its activities and dynamic views. And the house we were…