Travel Budget: a long weekend in Portugal

After spending just over a week in Morocco, we took advantage of a long layover in Lisbon on our way back home to the States. We only had 3 days/3 nights in Portugal, yet were still able to visit two major cities. It's a lot to cram into a short period of time and was quite the whirlwind, but we loved every minute of it. 

Whenever, we have the opportunity to do a long layover in a new place, we take it. And this proved to be the perfect way to visit the country of Portugal on a Budget because we didn't have to worry about the most expensive travel cost...the flights. Here's a breakdown of our real life budget for a weekend in Portugal below...

day trip diaries: Sintra Portugal

 Whether at home or far away, I love a good day trip because it's the perfect way to explore. While doing a long layover in Lisbon, we decided to take a day trip out to Sintra-the city of fairytale castles. You could easily spend a week in Sintra and not have enough time to tour all the palaces. 

It definitely took a bit of effort to make it to Sintra using public transport. We walked from our hostel to the train station, did an hour long train ride, and then shared a 30 minute taxi before finally arriving at the famed colorful Instagram worthy Pena Palace.

a long layover in Lisbon

With traveling to Morocco in Africa, we had to take several flights from the states. On the way home, we were passing though Lisbon Portugal-a place that has always been on the top of my bucket list because who could resist this colorful city? So I decided to have us stop here on a long layover. 

Not only did stopping in Lisbon give us a chance to experience a new country together, it also broke things up so that we didn't have a crazy 24hour+ travel day. It was an easy decision and the best choice to make. Here's what we did with one day in Lisbon...

Like most major cities, Lisbon is broken down in several major neighbors. We split our day between the most picturesque of them all...Amalfa, the Barrio Alto, and our unexpected favorite...Belem.

We started our morning in Belem, stopping into Pasteis de Belem to pick up the classic pasties de nata that Lisbon in famous for. We also grabbed some Starbucks and just had the most relaxing morning stroll through the park eating our pastries and sipping on lattes. 

europe by the numbers

I wanted to do one last share from my Europe trip with my little sister because I found myself making lots of lists during long flights and train rides with no internet and a sleeping sister. I thought it would be fun to list off some of the things I kept track of to help pass the time. 

hola barcelona

The last stop on my Europe trip with my little sister was Spain. This county was a first for us both and we ended up ringing in the new year here. I couldn't have asked for a better place or a better way to kick off 2017. 

We visited the famed Park Guell, which was designed by Gaudi to be an outdoor utopian city. Spain is covered with the unique architecture of Gaudi, which was so fun to spot and visit, especially La Sagrada Familia, a church that is taken 100 years to build (it's still not finished).

 Starting the day at Park Guell with the sunrise, my favorite time of of day

why we skipped the resort stay in Mexico?

When we started telling friends and family that we were headed to Mexico, so many people asked us what resort are you staying at. Everyone seems to fly into Cancun and stay at a resort, so people naturally assumed that we were doing the same. And then I would promptly inform them that no we aren’t staying in a resort, we’re road tripping around Mexico and figuring it out from there. And while we got lots of crazy eyebrow raises, I know that this was the best way for us to travel through Mexico. 

We travel to step outside our comfort zones, to challenge ourselves, and to see a world beyond our own.

And a resort would have been the death of all that. It was definitely nerve-racking and scary to take this on, but it was perfect and wonderful and I don’t regret a thing. So I felt like I had to share our reasoning for why we chose to skip the resort stay in Mexico.

Vibrant Valladolid

While visiting the Yucatan in Mexico, we spent the majority of our time along the coast soaking in those crystal blue waters. But we also took the time to go more inland in order to visit some of the larger Maya Ruins. And while we were there, we made the cute city of Valladolid our home base.

This city surprised us and turned out to be a total show stopper. We had initially planned it just to be a place to rest our heads at night, but each day we found ourselves making excuses to spend as much time as possible exploring this city.

Climbing Coba

Yep, we climbed this! 
Still can't believe we followed in the path of thousands before us by climbing the tallest Maya pyramid in the Yucatan of Mexico. 

Figured that it was a good time to warm things up around this little space by sharing more on our time in Mexico. It was the quickest trip, but we managed to explore several sets of Maya Ruins. While Coba is the least popular of all the ruins we visitied, it was also a favorite of ours, so I thought I'd start the recaps here. 

Coba truly was a city and the paths we walk there today are the original scabe (white roads) that the Maya people followed. Most of the complex has yet to be excavated, which adds to the wonder of this gorgeous place. Because what you can see there just scratches the surface of the world that was once here. 

the best gift ever!

Wanderlust Wednesday 

If you're following along on instagram then you already know that I'm in Europe right now. And I will forever be grateful to my parents, for giving me the best gift ever. The gift of travel is one of the greatest things you can give in my opinion. But even better than that is the gift of quality time because I’m travelling with my little sister.

My sister and I are more than a decade apart in age so I have been there from the day she was born. I remember changing her diapers and making her bottles and babysitting. I was there for bath-time and her first steps. And as she got older, I taught her to read and helped her practice writing her letters. I even took her trick or treating every year (no parents allowed) Ha!

But with me moving away for college + grad school and her getting older, it’s harder to maintain that closeness. There will always be a bond between us that I can’t quite explain. But this trip together will give us a chance to expand our relationship in a different way. With her being a little older now, I don't want to just be her big sister anymore, I hope to be a true friend.

And traveling with someone will forever change your relationship with them for the better. I promise you that. So, you can see now why this trip really is the best gift ever. We’re headed for 9 days split between Italy, France, and Spain. There will be lots of adventures, lots of exploring, lots of girl talk, and lots of gelato ;)

merry in mexico

I will forever be in love with our holiday tradition of gifting each other an adventure for Christmas. We started doing this years ago right after we got married. While I love giving and receiving all the things at Christmastime, nothing beats creating memories and once in a lifetime experiences that we will have forever. 

Thanksgiving in Tulum

I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving 2016 is one for the record books! Our Christmas gift to each other this year is a road trip through Mexico. But with December already being so booked up, the timing just worked out better to go over Thanksgiving.

In case you're wondering where Tulum is, it's along the Yucatan Peninsula, an hour and a half South of Cancun. It has the same gorgeous beaches and year round perfect weather that you'll find in places like Cancun or Playa del Carmen. But there are a whole lot less tourists and big resorts. It's definitely got more of a local feel, which is why we fell in love.