This February Justin and I took a short trip to Spain and Portugal after scoring an absolute steal on tickets from a travel site we follow. I spent a lot of time researching where we should stay in Lisbon and finally booked at Rossio Prime Suites where we ended up having an exceptional stay. As such, I wanted to write a review for those of you who are like me and have a hard time picking lodging. Sometimes reading a review that's not from, say, TripAdvisor is what you need to make a final decision.
Read moreLately, it seems like the authenticity of #vanlife has been called into question and lambasted by many as a ploy to sell a falsely beautiful and carefree lifestyle in which people pull their vans onto beaches to enjoy campfires and lay in bed naked gazing out their back doors at magnificent mountain vistas. After living in our van for a year I'm going to give you the scoop on what (our) life in a van is really like.
Read moreThe more Justin and I travel internationally the more we've realized how liberating it is to travel with just carry-on luggage. My parents have always been amazing packers and really know the art of traveling light. I've got all these memories of our family packing for stuff and my parents getting everything to fit just right in the smallest space possible. My dad would say things like, "Okay, I need something small and squishable for this spot. Maybe a pair of socks?" or "I need something thin to wedge in along the side of this suitcase. Grab me those books!" and in the end, everything would fit and you could hardly believe it.
Read moreIt's kind of hard to believe that we've been living in our van for eight months. In some ways, it seems like we just moved in and in other ways, it feels like we've been living in it forever. I'm not going to pretend that I have loads of exciting stories to tell you, but I thought I'd share a few anyway.
Read moreThe San Juan Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Washington state, are the perfect place to get your Pacific Northwest fix. The lush forested islands and surrounding ocean are the perfect place to cycle, kayak, hike, nature watch, camp, or chill in a cabin. A few weeks ago Justin and I met some friends on Shaw Island and engaged in all of the above activities. If you end up taking a trip to the San Juan Islands, here are our top five picks of things to do.
Read moreFive things we've learned whilst living in our van that will make your life easier if you too decide to move into a van.
Read moreA second van life interview that answers questions like what we do when we have to pee during the night and how we manage to live in a hospital parking lot.
Read moreSintra served as a mountain retreat for Portugal's royals and elites for hundreds of years and as such, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of castles, palaces, forts, and mansions. Our second day in Lisbon, we decided to take my co-worker's advice and hop the train to Sintra. There's way too much to see in Sintra on just a day trip though, and we quickly became overwhelmed trying to figure out which sites to visit. However, we kept seeing a place called Quinta da Regaleira and it had the best reviews out of everything in Sintra (five stars from 9,829 reviews on TripAdvisor) so we were like obviously we have to go there!
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