europe – Bucket List In A Bikini

Greece: Land Of Party Time, Views, And Rich History…Opa!

Greece has always been at the top of my bucket list. It was #2 on my list to be exact. I assure you that I can not accurately describe in words how over the moon excited I was to take this trip! I will say this right off the bat..this certainly was not the cheapest vacation I have ever taken. I started out with a budget, and went way over. I had to take side job after side job to cover this dream of mine, but it was worth every penny.

Greece has so many islands, all which are very spread apart. Unless you are taking a cruise or traveling for a long period of time, you need to plan what islands you want to see. It isn’t one of those places that you can island hop day by day and see all there is to see, like my trip to the British Virgin Islands or Croatia (which is next up on my list to do a barbeboating trip). I had two weeks in Greece so I chose the Cyclades Islands . I decided on three stops: Mykonos, Santorini, and Athens. I was so happy with these choices! Each stop was so polar different from the other, and it really mixed things up. Mykonos was party time, Santorini was relaxing time, and Athens was a beautiful city.

route map — My route for my trip to Greece. Mykonos, Santorini, and Athens.

MYKONOS:

My stay in Ornos Beach

San Francisco to Mykonos is quite the journey. Long travel days are not ideal, but if that’s what I have to do to get to places like this, then that’s what I have to do. I will never skip a place to see in the world because the flight is too long. After a long day and night of travel, I arrived at my Ornos Suites Airbnb in Ornos Beach, Mykonos at about 2:00am. I was about 90 feet from the sand, which is why I chose Ornos Beach. It was really difficult to find Airbnb properties that were oceanfront on Mykonos. I was excited to check out my surroundings, anxious for my first Greek cocktail, and feeling a little hungry. I assumed I would have zero options at that hour. Wrong!!! All the bars and restaurants stay open super late, and are straight up crack-a-lackin all night long. Ornos Beach was beautiful and actually ended up being my favorite after I had explored the entire island. Mykonos beaches are filled with beach clubs that thump music played by world renown DJs from the day to the night to the morning. It doesn’t stop. I wouldn’t call this island the most relaxing. It was party time….all the time. Ornos Beach was just the right amount of party mixed with the ability to unwind and relax. I would say it is one of the more quiet beaches on Mykonos. It is a beach cove lined with amazing restaurants in the sand. The bars play music here, but they don’t have that beach club vibe that most of the other beaches had in Mykonos.

Scorpios

Being that I enjoyed my first meal and cocktail at 3:00am it was safe to say that I was sleeping in the next morning. A bit of an understatement as I woke up at 4:00pm panicking that I would miss my sunset table reservation at Scorpios Sunset Party. Scorpios is said to be one of the best beach clubs in Europe, and I can see why. This is by far my favorite beach club I have ever been to in my life! And it is the ONLY place to be on a Sunday. They throw their weekly sunset party on Sundays, and honestly it is a “must see” when visiting Mykonos. The music and vibe at this club were so good! Dress to impress in your sexy beach wear and get ready to see a very beautiful crowd of people. I danced the night away, which turned into dancing the morning away back at one of the bars in Ornos Beach, and then lead to watching one of the most beautiful sunrises I have seen. I’m not much of a morning person so this was a huge perk of not being adjusted to the time difference just yet.

greece2 — Perfect seats to say goodbye to the sun before Scorpios turned into a full blown raging dance party.

Lohan Beach House

On day two I slept half the day away, and I rented an ATV to explore the island. I landed at Lohan Beach House. Lindsay Lohan went from Hollywood star to Beach Club Owner in Greece. Talk about reinventing yourself! This beach club has a sexy boho chic vibe with a great DJ on a beautiful beach. I want to copy her decorating style and make my home look exactly like her club. It was beautiful…you go girl!!

Mykonos Town

Mykonos Town is filled with all the classic white and blue traditional Greek homes. Wandering around here truly makes you fall in love with Greece. It also has tons of shopping, and lots of bars and restaurants. I visited Mykonos Town once in the day and once in the night. Just exploring the streets of Mykonos Town is worth the trip to Greece alone! While here, you can also check out the Windmills and Little Venice. The entire area is pretty small and walkable. At night you can choose from an array of amazing restaurants (OMG the food in Greece is so good) and do…what else…shake your booty all night long at any one of the fun bars that are everywhere. I chose to eat a seafood dinner at Nice and Easy Restaurant . It’s right on the water and the seafood was to die for!!

More beaches to see exploring on a quad.

We wanted to see every square inch of Mykonos, so we rented a quad to do more exploring. Honestly, this is a “must do” recommendation of mine. Riding a scooter or quad in Mykonos is extremely common, and it is how most tourists get around on their own. Of course you can rent a car, take the bus, or call an uber, but I really encourage you to explore on a quad at least for one day, if you are experienced enough to drive one of course. Most people don’t wear helmets, and although this was a bit scary to me, I went with it. Not only did I go with it, but I ended up getting comfortable enough to cruise around in a bikini. LOL. Driving through the mountains and seeing the most beautiful views of Greece would have been enough of an adventure, but we beach hopped the day away.

Cruising through the middle of the island on the mountain tops.

greece 7 — Typical parking lot at Mykonos beach clubs.

Elia Beach: This is the most beautiful beach on Mykonos (IMO). It was also the most relaxing on the island. Definitely the most family friendly as well. The water was crystal clear! It was absolute paradise. There is a restaurant and bar here, so you can post up for the whole day in total relaxation mode.

greece 5 — Floating in the most beautiful ocean water at Elia Beach.

Psarou Beach: This beach is where the world famous beach club Nammos is located. We had planned on spending an entire day here, but the locals talked us out of it. Although it is the most famous club in Mykonos, it is also crazy expensive. We were told to expect to spend $1,000 in our afternoon there. Although an experience to dance on tables, spray champagne on each other, and stare at multi-million dollar yachts sounded amazing, we opted to save our duckets.

Paradise Beach and Super Paradise Beach: These beaches are right next to each other but are separated. Seriously, these places were wild. They had world famous DJ’s thumping the beach while everyone, and I mean everyone, danced their butts off. I’m sure it has become clear through this blog by now that coming to Mykonos means sleep when your dead!!

greece 6 — Always a dance party. Sleep when your dead!!

ON TO THE SECOND LEG TO THE ISLAND OF SANTORINI

We took the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini, which took close to three hours. The ferry was really nice, and fast. That baby was cookin’, and it was so beautiful to see all the little Greek Islands along the way.

greece 8 — Catching a ride to the next island, Santorini.

I can’t even put into words (again) how magnificent the views on this island are. This island is straight up and straight down, but truly the most beautiful views I have ever seen. Santorini was so different from Mykonos! It is so incredibly romantic, scenic, and relaxing. I was ready for this after all that hooting and hollering in Mykonos.

My Stay in Oia

I chose to stay in a traditional cave Airbnb property in Oia. It is called Armenaki. It was awesome! It was a true cave room that had the most postcard worthy view of any other place I have ever stayed in. A cave room is exactly what it sounds like…a room that’s a cave. It was sort of a studio tube in the mountain with a bedroom, full kitchen, bathroom, and breathtaking porch. It was perfect for a couple. I love staying in hotels, but this Airbnb property was a genuine Greek experience. Let me just say that this is one of those vacations that I am so thankful I took while I am able, and in shape. The hike up/down from our cave room to town was no joke, and would never work for anyone with any sort of disability, elderly, young children, or someone who isn’t in decent shape. If you fall into any of these categories, I would suggest staying away from the mountainside properties in Oia, and recommend going to a hotel.

greece 10 — Eating breakfast on my beautiful porch in Oia, Santorini. Pinch me!

greece 25 — Making some coffee in our cave in Oia, Santorini.

Hike Oia to Fira

The hike from Oia to Fira is a must! You need to be in good shape, but it is just breathtaking! The hike is around 8 miles (one way). It is much more challenging from Oia to Fira, as it’s all uphill. If you were going Fira to Oia, you can count on a pretty easy walk downhill. I can officially say I sweat out all of those Mykonos toxins on this day. Haha! But you don’t do this hike for the work out, you do it for the views. These words come to mind: grandiose, magnificent, stunning, unbelievable, and scary. Again, just the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life. Fira is much more laid back than Oia. Oia is filled with romantic restaurants, art galleries, and very high end hotels. Fira is the Capital of Santorini and has bars, cheaper eats, great souvenir shopping, and cheaper stays. It is a really great place to stay if you don’t want to pay the Oia prices, but still want to be close by.

greece 24 — The most magnificent views on the hike from Oia to Fira.

Exploring Santorini by road.

Next up was exploring the other side of the island. We rented an ATV and ventured out to explore. I wore a helmet everywhere in Santorini. The roads were nothing like the back road feel of Mykonos, and felt much more like highways. Although a lot of people went without helmets, I did not feel safe. You’re welcome mom! 😉

greece 31 — Exploring the other side of Santorini.

Astarte Suites: I was invited to stop at the Astarte Suites to have a drink and enjoy the beautiful hotel. Huge perk to writing a Travel Blog! I initially wanted to stay at this hotel for my Santorini leg, because it simply looked like the most beautiful hotel on the island from the internet. I decided to go Airbnb, but if I had chosen a hotel, this would have been my dream place to call home for my time on the island. It was everything I imagined!!! It starts off with a stairway to heaven. It’s true! These steps have become pretty Instagram famous, and I see the stairway entrance to this hotel everywhere on the internet. Astarte Suites had a very boutique feel, yet so luxurious and high end. It was relaxing, while still playing great music that was loud enough to create a vibe, but not too loud to disrupt the peacefulness of the property. The best part was the most beautiful infinity pool overlooking the ocean. This is the definition of pool goals! And of course, the cherry on top was the swan floatie. You can never go wrong with a swan floatie!

You had me at swan floatie! Pool goals at Astarte Suites.

Red Beach: The road to Red Beach feels like you are headed to no where. If you feel like you are lost the entire time, you are on the right path to Red Beach. After questioning our directions for quite a while, we decided to ask Siri for help. Believe it or not, she got us there. This is an absolutely beautiful beach with red rock and sand. It has a restaurant and bar too, so you can post up.

Surprisingly on the right path to Red Beach.

Parissa Beach: This is a very laid back beach lined with restaurants. Most of the restaurants own umbrellas on the beach in front of their places. After a meal, they will set you up with an umbrella and chairs, and serve you drinks in the sand.

Exploring Santorini by sea

OOOOMMMMGGGG!! Exploring Santorini by sea was my favorite day of the entire Greece trip! It was the one thing I wanted to do that was somewhat of an “excursion”. The problem (which is always the problem) was that my husband hates group activities. So that leaves us always having to do days like this privately, which is usually four times the cost. We knew we wanted to rent a boat without a captain. A boat in Santorini without a captain is so over the top expensive. So I found the absolute cheapest option possible. I kid you not, this boat looked like a big dingy with a motor. It was a total piece of crap. Piece of crap that cost $400 for the day! But it didn’t matter. It was all ours for the entire day to explore the beautiful ocean around Santorini. Old Betsy did the job, and we had the most amazing day! Having the freedom to explore at our own pace was the best. We swam in caves, bobbed in the water at the volcano eating cheese and drinking wine, went to lunch at a private beach club that you can only get to by boat, and watched the sunset before heading back to the marina. It was a full day at sea, and we swam in the ocean all day long.

santorini-2 — Looking for our cave room from below.

santorini1-2 — I swam in the warm waters ALL DAY LONG. Paradise!

THIRD LEG IN ATHENS

The ferry ride from Santorini to Athens is about 5 hours. We opted for first class, which is not much more, but it was very nice to have a bit more plush of a ride for that length of time. As we arrived at our Airbnb by cab we unloaded our bags to the sidewalk. We couldn’t locate the apartment right away, and apparently weren’t paying enough attention, because bam….we got robbed. Our backpack was plucked within minutes out of our pile of stuff sitting right next to us. This bag had our computer, Ipad, credit cards, batteries, money, and worst of all, our passports. What do you do when you lose your passports and you are out of the country?

Step 1 – Call your parents for advice. LOL.

Step 2 – File a police report so that you have proof of your loss, and you can hopefully make a claim through your insurance back at home.

Step 3 – Head down to the US Embassy to have emergency passports issued.

greece 15 — Anything for a photo shoot! LOL. New Passport photos!

greece 16 — Proud to be an American in a sticky situation. The Embassy treated us like gold!

We only had three days in Athens and one of them was now designated to spending it at the Embassy. I was really thankful this happened at the end of our trip! This was completely our fault, and we know better! We consider ourselves to be very aware travelers but this goes to show you, anything can happen. Lesson learned…never again! On a more positive note, the US Embassy treated us like gold. I have to say, in a bad situation such as this, it felt pretty good to be an American.

Enjoying our final days in Greece

Athens is an absolutely beautiful city! Our Airbnb property was a penthouse apartment with a view of the Acropolis. This was the cheapest leg of the trip, and I got this penthouse for just over $100 per night. So cool to sit out on our patio enjoying some wine while staring at this beautiful site. Right below our apartment, the streets were lined with little alleyways of great bars, coffee shops, and shopping. We loved roaming around this area and getting lost in these alleys. Besides getting our bag stolen upon arrival, I never felt unsafe here. We roamed around into the wee hours of the night, and I never felt threatened.

greece 12 — Drinking wine on my patio. What a beautiful front row seat to the Acropolis!

With one day left to spare, we decided to head up to the Mont Parnes Casino on the recommendation of my aunt. I had planned to spend an entire day at the Acropolis, but we decided to sacrifice that day for the day spent at the Embassy, since we were able to stare at the Acropolis from our balcony. So we headed to the Casino to see if we could get a stroke of good luck. The gondola ride up to this casino was a bit scary, but wow what a view! Athens is huge, and we got a bird’s eye view of just how big the city really is. Once up there, we didn’t hit it big, but we ended up winning a couple hundred bucks to pay for our day of fun. It felt good! We finished our trip off with a huge shared plate of seafood spaghetti at the harbor in Athens. We cheersed a lot to how every moment of this trip was different. Opa! As always, I was feeling like I wanted a couple more days to spend here. This truly was the trip of a lifetime. Check off number two on the bucket list for Jessica Lynn!!

greece 14 — Gondola ride up to the Mont Parnes Casino in Athens.

Enjoying a huge shared plate of seafood spaghetti at the Athens harbor. Final meal in Greece!

7 Weeks In Hawaii: Vacation Like A Local, Not A Tourist.

You really can’t go wrong with Hawaii! I have visited Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and “The Big Island” of Hawaii, and each island is amazing in its own special way. Each island has a different “vibe” unique to itself. I was extremely lucky as a child, as I had family that lived in Hawaii, and I was able to spend extended periods of time there each year. Staying with family, I got to feel as though I was living there while on these trips. I did keiki deep sea fishing tournaments, and spent so much time trolling in the ocean on my family’s boat in hunt of the big kahuna marlin. This is most definitely where my passion for deep sea fishing began!

Little Jessica in the keiki (child) deep sea fishing tournament. Kona, Hawaii

Since my childhood, I have been visiting Hawaii in a much more touristy fashion. Staying in hotels, and doing as much touristy stuff as I could fit into my vacation has been the norm for me over the years. Although each and every trip has been absolutely amazing, I wanted to plan a trip that reminded me of the time I spent in Hawaii as a child. I wanted to experience feeling like I was living there as a local. To achieve this feeling, it had to be as long of a trip as I could make it. I decided on 7 weeks in summer while the kiddos were out of school. Now, which island to choose? I am most partial to Kauai (North Shore) for how lush the landscape is. But for this long of a trip, I chose the island Maui. Maui has beautiful landscape, but it also has a bit of a livelier vibe compared to Kauai. I thought it would be a good mix of beauty and things to do. Let the planning begin!!

I get a lot of questions about how I’m able to take extended trips like this. My husband and I work from home, and can really work from anywhere in the world. These extended trips are obviously working vacations which add to the feeling of actually living there instead of vacationing.

Accommodations

To stay 7 weeks, I wasn’t trying to stay at the super high end places in town. I needed something reasonable, but also large enough to accommodate my family of six, and a home office set up. I landed at the Sands of Kahana. What a perfect choice! We had a huge three bedroom condo on the beach with a pool, kids pool, mini golf, gym, community beach bbq’s, and a restaurant on the property in case we were feeling too lazy to cook. We also had so many walk-able dining options in the village of Kahana.

Hawaii02 — Our view for the next 7 weeks. Sands of Kahana was reasonable and a perfect fit!

This little village of Kahana sits right in between Kaanapali and Kapalua. It is so much more reasonably priced than its neighbors, but still right in the heart of all the action. I highly recommend this area if you are on a budget. For the nights when you would like to put a huge dent in your bank account, you can just hop on over to your neighboring towns to get some fine dining, or an expensive round of golf. You are also just a short drive to Lahaina, where most of the island nightlife resides.

hawaii32 — Downtown Lahaina for 4th of July celebrations.

Rental Car

Next, I needed to get a rental car. Getting a rental car for seven weeks isn’t cheap. I found Kimo’s Rent A Car online. They have vehicles of all price points but the one I rented was basically less than a basic vehicle. They gave a great rate on monthly rentals and I spent around $1,000 for the entire 7 weeks. It really was exactly what we needed, and the price was right. I have spent $700 on a car for one week in Hawaii, so I was pretty excited about this deal.

Ok, so now what did we really do on this trip to make us feel less like tourists and more like locals? First off, I hit Costco and stocked up. We bbq’d and ate dinner on the beach about 70% of the time. There was no rush to do anything, and we snorkeled until the sunlight was gone while bbqing on the beach…..that was our evening schedule. I found a bunch of beach equipment on Craigslist for us. I bought boogie boards, ice chest, chairs, an umbrella, beach toys, and I paid $35 for everything. This is a great tip to check there for your stuff because buying these items brand new will be hundreds. When we didn’t feel like bbqing, we would get seafood off the food trucks. We would take our food and paper plate it to watch the sun go down, hike, or chill at a park.

hawaii34 — Costco run for the essentials. LOL! For the record, this was not completely all for us. Haha!

Hawaii17 — Too lazy to cook so snagged some food off the food truck and watched the sun go down at the beach.

Road to Hana

What did we do with our time outside of being beach bum bqqers? My favorite adventure as a temporary local was going camping for the weekend in Hana. The Road to Hana is so beautiful!! It has waterfalls around every twist and turn, and is the epitome of the “it isn’t about the destination, it’s the journey” quote. I have driven the Road to Hana many times, and have even driven around the entire island in one day. I LOVE IT….but it’s not for everyone. You are truly in the car all day, and the road is very curvy. People with weak stomachs may call it the road to hell. I have definitely learned over the years (having a large family of six) that not everyone likes what I like. And although I can explore and drive from sun up to sun down, my family would be miserable. However, there was no way I was going to Maui for 7 weeks and not driving the Road to Hana. So I checked into camping. What an amazing experience! I rented all of our gear from Camp Maui which we picked up on the way out of town to Hana. Camp Maui stocked us. We had everything….tent, pads, pillows, sleeping bags (which weren’t necessary), stove, flashlights, propane, etc. It was so reasonable and I didn’t need to pack anything from home other than clothes. We camped at Waianapanapa State Park with hiking, black sand beaches, and water caves. You need to get a permit in advance to camp here so plan ahead. This place gets crazy busy during the day with tourists coming in by the bus loads. We were able to go explore the ins and outs of this park early in the morning and late at night, completely skipping all the crowds.

hawaii21 — Camp is all set up at Waianapanapa State Park.

Hawaii20 — Getting up at 5:00AM to feed my baby has its perks. Good morning Hana!

hawaii22 — Exploring the black sand beach that was right below our camp. Just walked down a little path and here we were.

The best part about this camping trip? We got to explore Seven Sacred Pools for the entire day. This place is gorgeous, and could be my favorite place on all of Maui. It is so far to get here if you are driving in for the day, so most tourists only get a short visit as they have to get back on the road for the very long drive home. Not us! We stayed all day swimming and rock jumping and then drove 15 mins back to our camp for a bbq. This mini vacay was beyond amazing and pretty eye opening for me. I was so happy that my family didn’t want to drive to Hana for the day because it forced me to find a way to achieve exploring this side of the island along with keeping everyone happy. There is more than one way to skin a cat! Ps- I really hate that saying…who came up with that anyway?? Skinning a cat is just wrong. Plus, I love cats.

hawaii24 — Beautiful Seven Sacred Pools. Absolute paradise!

Our oldest being brave and rock jumping. I love the boy all prepared to jump from the shorter rock looking up at her. Girl power!

Hawaii25 — When you are 3 months old and in paradise, swimsuits are optional.

Making Friends

Back at home in our little village of Kahana we began to make friends with a lot of locals who lived there. I think Kahana is popular with the locals because its cheaper but still so central. When you eat and drink at the same places quite often you begin to run into the same people. We met a local who took us all surfing for a private lesson for next to nothing. No waivers or contracts…just a local teaching us how to ride the waves. This local became our friend, and he spent an entire second day with us taking us to a private property to go fishing.

Hawaii11 — Surfs up! Private lesson from our local friend.

Hawaii15 — My hubs really makes friends everywhere we vacation. This guy really showed us a great time on the island.

hawaii27 — Fishing on private property. No one around but us.

Best Date Nights/Days

Before arriving on this trip, I found a babysitter to come on a schedule to give my husband and I some adult time. With the grandmas back on the main land, this was an absolute must. I hired a nursing student who was training in Labor and Delivery at the Maui General Hospital. Can you get a better resume for a sitter? She also had nursing student friends to replace her when she was busy.

For most of our dates, we would pack an ice chest, and hang out at the beach all night. But my favorite date night was attending a Reggae Concert at the Maui Tropical Plantation. Maxi Priest and Big Mountain were the big headliners, and it was probably one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Super fun, and definitely something I wouldn’t have squeezed in on a one week vacation. We also spent several nights partying in downtown Lahaina. Fleetwoods was my favorite place to get a drink and listen to live music.

Date Night = $6 raft, a homemade margarita, and watching the sun go down in the ocean with my sweetheart.

hawaii29 — Reggae concert with Big Mountain and Maxi Priest at the plantation. SO MUCH FUN!

Hawaii7 — Date night at Fleetwoods in Downtown Lahaina

My favorite Day Date was snorkeling at Honolua Bay. It is untapped serenity…so beautiful, and so peaceful. We loved it so much that we planned a second day here to bring back the kids to enjoy with them.

Hawaii3 — Day Date snorkeling at Honolua Bay.

hawaii38 — Had to bring the kids back to Honolua Bay to snorkel with them. Too beautiful not to share.

Favorite Touristy Things to do

We didn’t book many tours on this trip, but one that we did do was a snorkeling cruise to Molokini Crater. The snorkeling there is awesome! We saw dolphins along the way and snorkeled with a ton of beautiful fish. The kids loved this cruise! One of them actually started crying when we had to leave the crater. LOL.

hawaii40 — Snorkeling at Molokini Crater.

One of the seven weeks we had Grandma and Grandpa visit, and we did zip lining and parasailing. I mean you have to get high at least once in Hawaii, right? The kids absolutely loved both these days. This was definitely the one week where we packed in a lot of touristy adventures. After parasailing off of Kaanapali Beach, we ended our day at my favorite happy hour spot on the beach….Hula Grill. You can sip Mai Tais with your feet in the sand while listening to live music. Heaven!

hawaii8 — How many Grandmas are up for this stuff? Grandma and baby girl ziplining.

Hawaii28 — Crazy Grandma having fun parasailing with her grandkids.

Hawaii5 — Just finished parasailing, and having happy hour at Hula Grill with Grandma and Grandpa.

To finish up our one “touristy” packed week we ended it with a traditional Luau. There are so many great Luaus on Maui. They are no doubt pricey! I chose Royal Lahaina Luau for the simple reason that for every paying adult, you get one child for free. It worked out pretty well with four adults and four kids. This was a perfect way to end our week spent with my parents!

Hawaii05 — Royal Lahaina Luau. Great way to end our action packed week with my parents

Best Beaches

You can stay anywhere on Maui and will be happy with your choice, but the majority of people choose the west or south shore. I’m more partial to the west shore since it is so close to Lahaina, and is a bit more lush. But the south side is beautiful too. So beautiful it is in fact my favorite beach on Maui…Makena Beach. Makena Beach is split into Big Beach and Little Beach with Little Beach being bathing suit optional. From our village in Kahana, it was about a 45 minute drive to get there but so worth it. Stay the entire day!

Hawaii14 — Sharing beautiful Makena Beach with my beautiful daughter.

My favorite beaches on our side of the island were Napili Bay Beach and Kaanapali Beach. Napili Bay Beach is literally the most fun beach I have ever been to with kids. The rolling waves are like an ongoing roller coaster and you can hear the screams of excitement and laughter from the road as you park your car. Boogie boards and floaties make this day an absolute blast. Be careful of the waves wiping out your entire beach set up. It happened to us! Try to sit as far back as possible on the beach away from the water.

hawaii35 — Napili Bay Beach. Home to the never ending roller coaster waves.

Kannapali Beach is home to the famous Black Rock. It is a very popular beach. The snorkeling is awesome and you can jump of the rocks at Black Rock. Super fun!

hawaii37 — Black Rock at Kaanapali Beach. My face is so swollen from my snorkel mask! Haha.

Favorite Land Activity

You really can’t go to Maui without being blasted with marketing materials everywhere in your face about bike riding down the Haleakala Crater. I have done this ride several times but unfortunately it wasn’t in the cards for us on this trip as our littlest kids weren’t big enough for a ride like this. I have to include a little write up though because it is truly such an experience. You need to get up early for this at 3:00am and take the two hour drive up the crater. It’s cold when you get up there so bundle up! You watch what is hopefully the most beautiful sunrise you have ever seen in your life. Once the sun is up, you begin the bike ride down the crater. There are a million tours going down where you all follow each other in one line all the way down the crater. Not for me!! I’m not big on group activities with strangers. I have always found a company who drove me to the top of the crater, handed me my bike to ride down alone and at my own pace, and then met me at the end of the day to pick me up. Most tours end at the bottom of the crater but I like to continue the bike ride to the Maui Pineapple Winery. The extra ride is rolling hills closer and closer to the coast. It is a beautiful ride! The bonus is you get to end the 18 mile ride with some wine tasting and a picnic.

hawaii0 — The sunrise at Haleakala Crater is truly the most beautiful I have ever seen.

A few trips back on the top of the crater freezing my buns off. Hence the bright red nose. How cool is the moon behind me as I’m watching the sunrise in front of me??

Biking all the way to the Pineapple Winery. I have no idea what year this was but by looks of the photo quality, it was a while ago.

What To Do When It Rains

Maui isn’t as beautiful as it is without getting rain. My favorite “ohana” day spent during the rain was the aquarium. The Maui Ocean Center is one of the coolest aquariums that I have ever been to. We learned so much and got to see so many fish that are in the Hawaiian ocean waters.

Favorite Family Friendly Hike

As I said, this was a working vacation. I had to keep the kids busy on many days when my husband was holed up in the condo working. My favorite day I spent with them was a very moderate but beautiful hike to the Iao Needle. It was really pretty, and we learned so much history on the battles fought in this area back in the old days.

Hawaii9 — Mama bear and her cubs hiking to the Iao Needle while daddy is home working

Favorite Restaurant

Well it wouldn’t be a good blog if I didn’t write a bit about food. There are endless amazing dining options on Maui. My all time favorite is Mama’s Fish House. Bring your camera because the location is right on the beach and is quite the photo op. This is definitely an expensive dinner but worth the splurge! And you simply can not visit the island of Maui without going to the famous Cheeseburgers In Paradise. The cheeseburgers are delicious, the cocktails are tasty, the view of the ocean is to die for, the live music is a blast, and the location in downtown Lahaina makes it easy to bar hop around after dinner. Lastly my favorite “cheap eat” on Maui is Ohana Tacos. Seriously…if I didn’t watch my weight, I would live a fulfilled life having Ohana Tacos for every meal! It is the bomb.com! It’s pretty much fast food so perfect to take on the go while adventuring.

Island Fever?

So after spending six weeks on Maui we started to get panicky that we only had one week left. We had zero island fever. We really didn’t want to go home. Our time here really allowed us to enjoy everything at our own pace and we truly felt like we were living there. Mission accomplished!!

In our last week we had two back-to-back hurricanes hit. If this had been our only week of vacation, it would have been a huge disappointment! But we felt really lucky to experience it. It was very cool to watch Mother Nature do her thing and once they passed we were left with the calmest ocean and most beautiful sunset of the entire trip. It was quite a farewell.

This child was born to live on the beach.

Hawaii6 — After 7 weeks in Maui, it’s time to go back to the main land. We didn’t want to leave!

How to vacation more like a local and not like a tourist in a short vacation

My all time favorite read prior to visiting Hawaii is the Maui Revealed book. The authors have a book for every island and I have purchased the newest edition for every single trip I have taken to the Hawaiian Islands. It gives you hidden secrets that you would never find without it. I’m talking directions like “Hit the 42 mile marker, hike a quarter mile to the left, enter the broken chain link fence, go through the bamboo forest, hike a quarter more mile through the dirt steps and you will find a huge lagoon with a rope swing to spend the day at”. Haha. I have led the way with directions from this book on so many adventures with people I am on vacation with. Believe me I have gotten the stink eye from people traveling with me as they follow me to these secret places. But once there, everyone has always thanked me for such a special experience. Buy the book before going! It is truly the best vacation guide I have ever read!!

Italy For A Month: How To Plan From Scratch.

So, let’s start from the very beginning…straight-up from scratch. Probably the most common question that I am asked is how I plan my trips on my own. Where do I start? Well it usually involves me staring at the computer scratching my head with a glass (ok a bottle) of vino in hand. And little by little my trips take form. I hope to write multiple blogs from this 30 day trip to Italy but for this blog, I’m going start with how to plan it. I did all of this planning on my own and felt so overwhelmed when I started. This is my story of how my Italy trip came to life.

I rarely take big trips in the summer. I always get my big break right after Christmas. I’m running out of new places on my bucket list to explore in a bikini at Christmas, so this year I opted for a summer vacation. I chose Italy. I didn’t know where the heck to start as I really had never vacationed there. I went about 20 years ago but I just drove across the border and ate lunch. Doesn’t count. As always, I was on a budget for this trip, and I knew one month in Italy isn’t cheap. Hotels were out! I went VRBO and Airbnb all the way through, and kept my budget at $200 per night. If you haven’t traveled through these two sites, you are missing out. Click on this link to join for free and get a credit for your first reservation: Airbnb They are awesome!

I was traveling with my husband and two children (ages 8 and 3). I knew it would be nice (and less expensive) for us to have a kitchen and cook at our rental vs. being in a hotel. Having to order room service for every meal gets pricey. When I’m vacationing, I’m usually planning my next trip so the more I save from one trip is more I bank for the next. Also, hotels in Italy don’t work like they do in the USA. In the states you can get a “double” room and have two double/queen beds. It is easy to stay with two small children in one room with that bed setup. In Italy, a “double” room means two twin beds. If you have four people, you need to upgrade to a suite, and I quickly found that my budget of $200 per night in the areas I wanted was simply not going to fly. VRBO and Airbnb was the answer for me!

Step 1: Plan your route. When you think of Italy, what do YOU want to see? Me personally… Venice, Rome, and Positano were at the top of my list. Then I thought, I’m going to fly all that way and when will I get to Italy again? Maybe I can do one extra week and see more? I decided on 30 days to explore but you can do this in three weeks if you are ambitious or just choose a few places and go for two weeks. There is SO much to see in Italy. So much history that you feel guilty sleeping in. You have to go, go, go, so you don’t miss a thing. I booked a longer trip to really work in relaxing too. I wanted one day to explore for every one day of relaxing.

When traveling through Italy it is best to go top to bottom or bottom to top.

I decided to go top to bottom because I knew this would be a busy trip, and I wanted to finish it off on the beach relaxing on the Amalfi Coast.

Step 2: Once you have an idea of your route, you have to check flights to make sure they will work with your itinerary. At the time of my planning, AirBerlin was the cheapest ticket from San Francisco to Italy. They were actually $500 cheaper per ticket which is a lot when traveling with four people. I later found we paid the price for that cheap ticket but we will get into that later. AirBerlin flew into Milan (top of map) and they flew out of Naples (bottom of the map). The flight out of Naples only went on one day per week so I had to plan for that. Once I figured out what my flights were, I broke the trip apart leg by leg. I decided on this route:

Lake Como: 5 nights/ Venice: 4 nights/ Florence: 5 nights/ Cinque Terre: 6 nights/ Rome: 4 nights/ Amalfi Coast: 6 nights. One month in Italy!!

Step 3: Find the VRBO/Airbnb to stay at sticking to my budget of $200 per night. This was the fun part to me. How did I choose which places to stay? I read review after review on the VRBO/Airbnb sites….like hundreds of reviews. I hate the reviews that say “it was a nice place…I highly recommend!”. Ok well thanks for those riveting details, but you didn’t say crap about the property. I want to know things. How far to restaurants and bars? Do you need a car? How does “this” area compare to “that” area? I want details people! If I can’t find exact answers to my questions through the reviews on VRBO/Airbnb, I usually Google the exact question I have with the word “Tripadvisor” after the question. If I’m between two areas to stay, I will Google “Positano vs Amalfi, which is better? Tripadvisor” Most of the answers to my questions come right up on Tripadvisor which is where I read hundreds more reviews. Tripadvisor, Oh How I love Thee! None of my trips would come to life without the reviews on this site.

Step 4: Plan transportation. I did not want to rent a car in Italy. Many people do and give reviews about their days explored with the freedom of their own schedule in their own car. Not for me. First off, the roads are pretty wicked in Italy. I consider myself to be a very bad driver on the safe roads in California. We are talking about a girl that totaled her car 3 times during her 16th year of life! Oopsie! So, driving on these winding roads that seem like they have one lane, honking as you approach a sharp turn to warn oncoming traffic that you can’t see. Hmmm, yes I don’t think this blog would have ever come to life because I probably would have died attempting to drive these roads. Another reason? When I travel, I tend to eat and drink my way through for most of my entertainment. I wanted the freedom to indulge in lots of great food accompanied but lots of great vino.

I chose all accommodations to be in the heart of the action in each destination so that I could walk everywhere or take a cheap cab ride. To get through the country we rode the Trentitalia train. One month of traveling through Italy on this train cost me less than the cabs to/from the airport. The train system is so easy, so affordable, so comfortable, so reliable, and such a nice way to travel! You get to see the country as you travel through, which was just lovely. Each ride was only about two hours with the exception of one four hour train ride. Tip: Get to the station early to buy some snacks and wine. More important tip: Have all the electronics charged for the littles so that you can enjoy those snacks and wine while riding in style.

train — Training to Cinque Terre. Sipping on vino while the kiddos play electronics.

I sprung for three long and pricey cab rides (transfers). One from the Milan airport to our first property in Lake Como. After flying for 13 hours with two small children, we just wanted to get there. The train from Milan to Lake Como isn’t as convenient as the other legs as the train we needed only left every three hours. Just didn’t want to hassle with that after a long flight. The second transfer was taking us to our last leg of the trip, Naples to Positano. When heading south to the Amalfi Coast, the train won’t take you any further than Naples which is about an hour from Positano/Amalfi (see map). We got off the train in Naples and took a private transfer (cab) to Positano. Not very cheap at $130 Euro but it beat getting off the train and walking to the nearest bus stop which was reported to be incredibly crowded. You may have to stand the entire hour plus ride on the bus and deal with pickpocketers. It was so worth the private transfer! Last high priced ride was Positano to the Naples airport. This flight left once per week, so we could not have anything go wrong and risk missing the flight. We also had to leave at 4:30AM, so the transfer allowed us to sleep the entire ride to the airport. And that’s a wrap on transportation! It was right around $700 for four people to travel through Italy for 30 days. You certainly can’t rent a car for that.

Step 5: Plan to pack. Please someone tell me how in the heck I am supposed to pack light traveling to Italy with a toddler and 8 year old for one month? There are things you need when traveling with kids…car seat, stroller, toys, electronics, etc. I have to share with you the biggest find for packing light if you have a toddler. It is Care’s Fly Safe safety restraint system. Cares Kids Fly Safe Airplane Safety Harness. This gem is FDA approved and buckles your toddler into the airplane seat just like a car seat except it’s a just a belt. Not only does it keep your little one safe but it also keeps them from running all over the plane, all while packing up into a small little carrying bag that fits in your purse.

seat belt — Little guy all comfy for his 13 hours of traveling, and I didn’t hit 20 people in the head carrying a huge car seat onto the plane. Winning!

I then purchased an airplane stroller that is specific to traveling and folding up small for planes and trains. I bought it off my Facebook for $10! Tip: I made $2,700 selling things out of my garage on Facebook that went directly to paying for this trip. I also allowed my kids to pack a scooter each. With as much walking as we planned to do in each location, I knew they would get so worn out and our days would be shortened due to exhausted kids. Instead of walking everywhere, they scooted the days away and we were able to explore as much as we wanted.

Lastly, I got three pieces of luggage that were the largest we could go without going overweight, and incurring fees on the airline. There is soooo much debate online about how big of a bag is too big of a bag to travel through Europe with. It’s really a simple answer…you can pack as large of a bag that YOU can handle. There is no one to help you up the many many stairs in between changing trains. There is no one to help you load your bag onto the train. No one to help you load the bag on ferries or cabs. And if you plan on walking after getting off the train vs. taking a cab, you will be the one lugging that bag through town. You get the point. Luckily, I married a man with big muscles. My bag was a big one, and I got to pack as many bikinis as I wanted. I don’t recommend this for everyone but it worked ok for us.

This brings me to my final plug of the trip. Remember that great deal I got on my airline tickets that was $500 cheaper per ticket than all the other airlines? Well, you get what you pay for. The airline ended up losing our son’s bag on the way there. Thank goodness it wasn’t mine! Ha ha. I can’t tell you how crazy it was to see how long the lost luggage line was at the airport in Milan. It took us about 30 mins to get through the process of reporting our lost bag and we were 2nd in line. Can you imagine how long it took the 20th person in line to get through this process? What a terrible way to kick off your trip! We were very hopeful that our bag would arrive any day on our trip, but in fact…it never came. My kids went all the way through a 30 day trip in Italy with nothing but the clothes on their back. This lost bag also had all of our liquids, including all of my beauty products. Of course we bought things along the way but it was such a pain in the butt! I later heard that this is actually a common problem when traveling to Europe (explains the super long lost luggage line) and in actuality, your bag is just sitting in the airport waiting to be delivered. Due to under staffing, there is just no one attending to these lost bags. In fact, no one even answers the phone in that area of the airport. Trust me I called a million times. Horrible! How will I make sure that this never happens again?? GPS in my luggage…DUH!

LugLoc Luggage Tracker – The Worldwide Smart Lost Baggage GSM Locator – Track The Exact Location Of Your Bag Globally (not just bluetooth like others) – Rechargeable battery that lasts 15 days

OMG, what a genius idea! You never lose track of your bag and you know where it is at all times, even if the airline claims that it is lost. I will never travel without one again! My kid’s bag was found and delivered to us two days after we arrived home in California…32 days after it was lost.

Losing the bag was devastating at first but in the end, we had so many laughs about my son going all the way through Italy with one pair of underwear and them wearing the same outfits in all our family photos.