The day came when I finally visited Tuscany! I had long longed for this dreamy destination after seeing so many movies that feature it: Under The Tuscan Sun, Life is Beautiful, Stealing Beauty, etc and just word out there about how wonderful it is.
ESSENTIALS FOR YOUR TRIP TO TUSCANY
Transport / As this is a road trip, you’ll need a car! I use DiscoverCars for all international car hires.
Connect / You’ll need mobile data while you are in Italy and particularly to guide you on Google Maps while driving, I always recommend using an eSIM (there’s absolutely no need for a physical one!) – here’s some eSIM options for Poland.
Get Insured / Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
TUSCANY ROADTRIP ITINERARY: HOW TO GET TO AND AROUND TUSCANY
The best way to get around Tuscany is with a car as there are so many small towns to visit not easily reachable with other forms of transportation, so for my visit to Tuscany I planned a roadtrip itinerary which came out just perfect. I recommend you book a car using DiscoverCars, get full insurance, and avoid Goldcar and any other brands that are ridiculously cheap and not international. I’ve heard horror stories from them. On my trip to Tuscany I got Alamo and it was perfect, you’ll be fine with any other well known brands such as Avis, Budget, Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, etc.
Krakow Bucket List: Old Town – via Joel Bitantes Palma
If you only have time to visit one city in Poland, make it Krakow. This city is rich in culture and history, it has beautiful architecture, it’s super cheap and it’s fun. Krakow also has interesting and key places to visit nearby, one of them being the hard to digest but not to be skipped, Auschwitz. Below I outline the best things to do in Krakow, as well as accommodation and transportation tips.
VISITING KRAKOW: THE ESSENTIALS
Transport / Krakow is a very walkable city, with most of the key attractions located within the compact Old Town area, making it ideal for exploring on foot. The city also has an efficient public transport system, including trams and buses, which makes getting around easy and affordable. While many visitors don’t need a car for exploring central Krakow, if you plan to visit the surrounding countryside or nearby attractions on your own like Zakopane or going to other cities in Poland, renting a car can be useful and quite cheap. I recommend DiscoverCars for great rental options. If you’re arriving at Krakow Airport, I always use WelcomePickups for convenient, reliable airport transfers directly to your accommodation.
Connect / You’ll need mobile data while you are in Poland, I always recommend using an eSIM (there’s absolutely no need for a physical one!) – here’s some eSIM options for Poland.
Get Insured / Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
KRAKOW BUCKET LIST: THINGS TO DO
Explore Krakow’s Old Town
Make this the first thing you do. As soon as I got to Krakow I did a walking tour of the Old Town. The tour guide was super knowledgeable and took us to many beautiful sites including the Main Market Square & St Mary’s church, Cloth Hall and Townhall Tower, the remains of medieval city walls with Barbican and St Florian Gate, St Francis Church, Bishop’s Palace, the Papal Window, Wawel Hill, Wawel Castle and Wawel Dragon.
I’ve visited Birmingham from London more than seven times already and lived there for a couple of weeks while I was renovating my Airbnb. When I asked in my Instagram stories I realised no one really visits Birmingham, but it’s quite an interesting city! Some of the things that make it special are that it’s actually the second largest city in the UK and also the youngest city with over 40% of the population being under 25 (fun! right?).
Also, Birmingham is home to more canal waterways than Venice and is home to the Bullring Shopping Centre which is one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe. If you ask me personally, I really like the industrial vibe of Birmingham, the mix of old and new architecture and the artsy vibe the neighbourhood of Digbeth breathes. On top of that, Birmingham boasts of fine arts, fine dining and greenery. It is the home for some of the most ground breaking music in the world (metal was born here!), Cadbury’s chocolate factory and the Peaky Blinders!
BIRMINGHAM, UK: ONE DAY ITINERARY & THINGS TO DO – Victoria Square
VISITING BIRMINGHAM: THE ESSENTIALS
Transport / Birmingham is a very walkable city, there’s great transport links to it and a great bus system in the city. Many still choose to drive there using a rental car as some attractions are a bit spready out. Book your rental using DiscoverCars, the website I recommend for all car hires. If you are not renting a car, should you require an airport transfer from Birmingham airport, I always use WelcomePickups.
Connect / You’ll need mobile data while you are in Birmingham, I always recommend using an eSIM (there’s absolutely no need for a physical one!) – here’s some eSIM options for UK.
Get Insured / Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
What do YOU think of when you think of Belfast? For me all I could think is a troubled past, Titanic and the well known natural phenomenon Giants Causeway. Other than that I had no idea what I was going to discover on my visit and my expectations were low, which is a good thing, but what’s better is that they were exceeded. Like through the roof!
As you may know, Belfast is in Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom, my current home. What I loved about visiting Belfast was that I needed to hop on a plane so it gave me the feeling I was travelling abroad when I actually wasn’t. That might be you too!
Nowadays Belfast is my second home, as I own short term accommodation properties in the city. I’m constantly advising and engaging tourist so I do dare say I know a lot. So if you are visiting do me a favour and stay in one of them… wink, wink!
GRAND OPERA HOUSE
VISITING BELFAST: THE ESSENTIALS
Transport / Belfast City is quite small and fully walkable, there’s buses of course, but frankly you don’t even need them. However, I do encourage you to get a rental car so you can independently visit the rest of Northern Ireland which is also very small so you can use Belfast as your base. Book your rental using DiscoverCars, the website I recommend for all international car hires. If you are not renting a car, should you require an airport transfer, I always use WelcomePickups.
Eat / My top recommendations for each meal: Brunch/Breakfast:Neighbourhood Coffee:Established Coffee Dinner:Jumon(yes, it’s veggie but trust me you won’t care)
Connect / You’ll need mobile data while you are in Belfast, I always recommend using an eSIM (there’s absolutely no need for a physical one!). I always use Sim Local, and you can get 5% discount with code TRAVELWITHPAU. Get it here.
Get Insured / Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
WONDERFUL THINGS TO DO IN BELFAST
Hop-on; hop-off Belfast’s main sites
A great way to start your trip is to take a hop-on; hop-off bus across all Belfast city top attractions. It’s the perfect way to get started and get an overview of the city if you are short on time and an efficient way to get around the furthest away sites. I took this one with Belfast City Tours and loved it. It stops on 19 sites (many which I feature below) and pricing wise it’s great. Book it here, or below:
