In the Spring of 2011, I spent my last semester of my undergraduate years studying abroad at Harlaxton College outside of Grantham, England.  It was a defining experience for me, as I traveled the globe with two of my best friends prior to each of us pursuing a graduate education.  But for me, the connection …

London is a vibrant, modern city with loads of history and tradition around every busy corner.  It’s no wonder, then, that we chose to spend almost an entire week in the city that Emily chose to visit for her 32nd birthday week.  Our visit to the city was divided into two parts, separated by a …

Planning your own international getaway is possible if you start by following these simple steps.

Hillside Beach Club Hillside Beach Club is a highly acclaimed beach resort located on the Aegean coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Fethiye, Turkey.  The resort is quite popular with European tourists looking for an all-inclusive stay, but we never encountered another American during our stay.  In fact, most of the Club’s employees were both …

Finally, after touring through Turkey for ten days, we made it to the city that inspired the whole trip: where East meets West, Istanbul.  Emily had been begging to visit Istanbul for years, so with several successful international trips now under our belts, we were ready to tackle this busy city of enormous historical and …

The fourth leg of our two week adventure in Turkey (aka “Turkey Leg”) was the part that I’d most looked forward to, Cappadocia.  Meaning “The Land of Beautiful Horses”, Cappadocia is a mystical and historical region of the country, where the landscape is as other-worldly as it gets and the culture is unique to the …

We left Pamukkale around midday after a morning exploring Hierapolis and began our drive west to the Aegean port town of Kuşadasi.  If you missed the details of our previous stop, check out my page “Road Trip to Pamukkale and Hierapolis”. The drive from Pamukkale to Kuşadasi is another 3-hour journey, mainly on highways of various …

After several amazing days of nonstop Mediterranean sun at Hillside Beach Club, we were ready to see what else Turkey has to offer.  Our next stop, Pamukkale, was only a short, 3 hour road trip away from the resort in Fethiye.  Due to some cloudy weather forecasted to arrive on our only full day at Pamukkale, we …

First thing Monday morning we were picked up for our four day minibus tour of the South coast of Iceland.  To read all about our time in Reykjavik prior to and after these four days, click here. Troll Expeditions Tour Like many tourist destinations around the world, Iceland has many tour companies to choose from, …

When a well-planed pre-Christmas trip to Germany and Austria had to be cancelled due to COVID-19, we had to quickly pivot and change our plans.  Fastforward several weeks, and we were landing in Iceland!  A direct flight from Chicago to Reykjavik made this an easy international getaway.  Most of our preparation revolved around packing the …