Let's start with the numbers:
Days away from home: 28 (includes 2 full travel days)
Countries visited: 6
Miles flown: 14,430 over 11 legs
Miles in trains: 214 miles for Eurotunnel plus tons of tube rides in London and France
Miles driven: 380, all but ¼ mile on the left hand side of the road. 😉
Miles walked: 207
Flights of stairs climbed: 448
Steps taken: 471,514
Yes, we took nearly half a million steps over the course of our trip, all of them together. It was an amazing adventure and I can’t wait to do it again!
Now, for the long part. Here’s some other random tidbits about packing, planning, and our favorite parts. Be prepared for more information than you probably want. LOL And if we don't answer your question(s) below, feel free to ask in the comments or send Brian or I a message. We're always happy to help.
Our trip philosophy was to spend a little time in a lot of places, so for the most part we didn't stay in any one place longer than 3-4 days. We used this trip as a fishing expedition to help discover what we loved and where we wanted to visit again. We walked away with a few ideas for future trips:
- Greece – we want to see more! More of the country, more of the people and food, and we’d love to spend some time in the Greek Isles.
- Ireland and Scotland – we would love to go back for a longer road trip. These were beautiful countries and there’s a lot to see. One thing we had to cut from our Scotland road trip was the isles, especially the Isle of Skye that I was really looking forward to. We’d also like to visit northern England, where there is a Pixley church and town that Brian’s ancestors came from.
- Mediterranean Cruise. We’re not typically cruisers but we see how this could be great. Sleep on the boat, spend a day in the city, then sleep while we move to a new port.
Brian and I compiled our own lists of our favorite places on the trip and they were exactly the same! So instead of a his and hers list, you get our combined faves:
- Glen Coe in Scotland. The beauty is indescribable.
- All of Athens. Everything. I don’t think there was one thing we saw that we didn’t love. OK, maybe that meat market the walking tour took us through, but we loved everything else.
- More of Italy. We’d love to see different areas of the country, especially northern Italy and Pompeii, which we had to remove at the last minute for health and safety concerns.
- Sicily with Jimmy, Gin and the boys. I don’t think we would have enjoyed Sicily as much without them to share it with. They knew their way around (driving there is crazy, so we would have missed so much!), knew some of the great spots to visit and what foods to eat. It was so great to connect with them more and to share some of these memories with them. We miss them already and can’t wait to see them again during our travels.
Several people have asked me more details about how I planned and where we stayed, so here’s a quick rundown in case you’re interested in trying to plan your own trip. This includes flights, luggage, travel planning aids and phone apps (and phone plan) that we used the whole trip.
I started with Rick Steves books and then fell into a rabbit hole of podcasts. You can find them for just about anywhere but I really enjoyed a few in particular: Tips for Travellers (spelled the UK way) and Extra Packs of Peanuts were some of my faves but I listened to many more, focusing on the specific areas we were traveling. They were super helpful in highlighting what we were interested in visiting and what we weren’t.
Once I narrowed down some places we wanted to visit I added them to a trip I made on Trip Advisor. This way I could see a map with pinpoints of places we wanted to see. I used this to help decide which neighborhoods we should stay in when we visited each city. Our hope was to stay near the majority of locations we wanted to visit, to eliminate the need for excess travel.
Eventually I used the Trip It app and website to put the itinerary all in one place. This allowed me to choose dates for each place we were visiting (and hours too), if we had a reservation and more. You can even share your trip confirmation emails for flights and hotels and it will automatically capture those on your trip, including check-in times or flight times. Brian had the app on his phone as well so he could view our trip plans at any time. Please understand that what we put in the app was all an idea. We tried to be really flexible. If we didn’t feel like visiting something on the day it was in the app, that was fine. I also planned “light”, meaning that the most important things made the list and if we had extra time we just referred to Trip Advisor for other locations I had saved as possible visitation spots. It was a lot of work to get these all set up but I love to trip plan so it worked for me. And yes, it was stressful making all those choices and hoping that they worked out. In the end, we found out that almost everything worked out fine. Little hiccups here and there, but nothing monumental.
Other trip planning websites I used:
Accommodations, for the most part, were Air BNBs. We stayed in hotels our first few days in London, in Rome, our overnight in Inverness, Scotland and at Disneyland Paris. Other than that, we were in Air BNBs. I did a lot of looking on Air BNB, read all the reviews looked at all the pictures. I used their map function to ensure they were in the area we wanted to stay. Other than in Paris, all the Air BNB’s were great! Price is similar (or often cheaper) than hotel rooms and you have so much more space! The real reason we used AirBNBs was to have the ability to wash clothes. On Air BNB you can narrow your search results to only those that include a washer, and this was really important since we each only had a backpack of clothing. Once I had narrowed the selection down to a few units that were within our price range and available our dates, I had Brian look them over. Often he’d have a favorite (usually the one with the best view) but sometimes he would just knock out a few that looked too sketchy and let me decide. It was a good collaboration and we ended up with things like the amazing unit in Athens with the gorgeous view of the Acropolis.
Flying: We flew almost everywhere this trip. We had 11 legs total, which included 2 legs to get to Europe. We flew Portland to Seattle, then Seattle all the way to London Heathrow. For this flight we flew Delta Premium Select (they partner with Virgin Atlantic so it was a Virgin Atlantic flight but cheaper to buy the ticket through Delta). This was the class between coach and first class and we loved it! There were wider seats with extra pitch (recline) and a footrest. They came with amenities like a blanket and pillow to use while on board, free drinks (including whisky and coke for Brian and 11 mini bottles of wine for the lady in front of us), elevated meal service and the “wander wall” where you can go and get free snacks while on your flight. It was a 10 hour flight so the extra space and amenities were well worth it. Plus you get to board first, get all settled with some prosecco and just relax while everyone else is jostling for overhead storage space. It was so worth the extra couple hundred dollars over coach for a flight that long.
Once you get to Europe, flights are fairly inexpensive. For instance, to fly Aegean airlines from London to Athens (a straight flight) we paid 143€ total - for two of us. That’s a 1,500 mile flight!
We flew three airlines within Europe. For almost every flight we paid a small amount of extra money for extra legroom seats. I think for the most part this was about $15 per seat and it was so important when your husband is 6’4”. The only time we didn’t have extra legroom seats was when the flight was short (usually under an hour or so).
Aegean was used both in and out of Athens, since there weren’t a lot of choices for direct flights. It worked just fine but they weren’t my favorite. The hardest thing with Aegean is that they have a one-item-only, 17lb weight limit on carry-on bags. That was tough when you’re planning for a month! We made it work, but were so thankful we bought a luggage scale to take with us!
The other two budget airlines we used were Ryanair and EasyJet. They were comparable and no-frills. No free drinks. No food or snacks. So just come prepared for that and you’ll be fine. There were plenty of flights that were really cheap, like Ireland to Scotland which cost us $35 each. But know what you’re buying. With one of the airlines when you paid for the extra legroom seats you got to take a carry-on bag with you. Without that you couldn’t have a carry-on. So just understand what you’ll need and buy for that.
Originally our plan was to use public transportation in many of these cities, but often when we arrived we chose to get a taxi or Uber. It just made sense when you’ve got luggage to pay the extra for the car. Often it wasn’t even that much more than public transportation for two of us. It was our little splurge and we don’t regret it a bit.
One of the most expensive parts of budget airline flying is the cost for checked luggage, which we avoided (with one small exception) this trip. We did a lot of thinking and planning about luggage. Most people just have rolling suitcases that fit inside the size restrictions (which seem fairly small in Europe). We knew rolling these around cities would be a pain, especially when walking over cobblestones and walking up stairs. Instead, we decided to backpack it. We did tons of research (Brian did most of this one) and then bought a few to try. We sent all of them back except for one – the Tortuga Setout 45L (https://www.tortugabackpacks.com/collections/setout). Yes, it’s a little expensive but we knew a good pack was vitally important! We were so happy with this purchase! They fit quite a lot inside them while still keeping you in the approved carry-on size, they fit on your back with a great waist belt and chest strap to take the weight off your shoulders. When you fly you can tuck the straps in so it easily fits in the overhead compartments. To be honest, by the end we just quit doing that and put them up there, straps and all… it fit but was a little messier. All in all, these bags were amazing! We will be using these for years to come, though after I purchased they released a women’s style (the men’s was a little big for my 5’6” frame) so I may be selling one of these and purchasing the women’s style for our next trip. But we have nothing but love for our Tortuga bags. They held up amazingly through every sort of weather and locale. 5 stars!
We ordered the matching packing cubes for these packs and they were great, but we also used some cheap travel vacuum pack bags off Amazon. This became especially important as the trip wore on and we purchased souvenirs that we had to fit in our packs. This way we could roll and then vacuum seal clothing to reduce space. I also kept our winter gear (hats, gloves, thermal layers, an extra coat) in one of these since we didn’t need these at all the first half of the trip. It was a good combination to have the packing cubes and vacuum bags.
A really good selfie stick is also so important! We bought one off Amazon that doubles as a tripod with a remote. This was great for almost every situation. It’s how we were able to get the amazing picture of the Parthenon, which is probably my single favorite photo of our entire trip. Yes, it takes a little space but it’s worthwhile space.
I started with Rick Steves books and then fell into a rabbit hole of podcasts. You can find them for just about anywhere but I really enjoyed a few in particular: Tips for Travellers (spelled the UK way) and Extra Packs of Peanuts were some of my faves but I listened to many more, focusing on the specific areas we were traveling. They were super helpful in highlighting what we were interested in visiting and what we weren’t.
Once I narrowed down some places we wanted to visit I added them to a trip I made on Trip Advisor. This way I could see a map with pinpoints of places we wanted to see. I used this to help decide which neighborhoods we should stay in when we visited each city. Our hope was to stay near the majority of locations we wanted to visit, to eliminate the need for excess travel.
Eventually I used the Trip It app and website to put the itinerary all in one place. This allowed me to choose dates for each place we were visiting (and hours too), if we had a reservation and more. You can even share your trip confirmation emails for flights and hotels and it will automatically capture those on your trip, including check-in times or flight times. Brian had the app on his phone as well so he could view our trip plans at any time. Please understand that what we put in the app was all an idea. We tried to be really flexible. If we didn’t feel like visiting something on the day it was in the app, that was fine. I also planned “light”, meaning that the most important things made the list and if we had extra time we just referred to Trip Advisor for other locations I had saved as possible visitation spots. It was a lot of work to get these all set up but I love to trip plan so it worked for me. And yes, it was stressful making all those choices and hoping that they worked out. In the end, we found out that almost everything worked out fine. Little hiccups here and there, but nothing monumental.
Other trip planning websites I used:
- Rome 2 Rio – this is web based and has an app. You can tell them where you want to start and where you want to end up and they will give you all the options – whether it’s flight, train, public transportation, walking, whatever. So many times I used this to get an idea of how long flights would be or how much they might cost. I never bought any flights or tickets through them but the service of understanding your choices is awesome!
- Cheap O Air and Omio – Again, I didn’t buy things through them because I like to book directly with the airlines, but I used them to search for transportation and see what is available. Super helpful!
Apps we used while on vacation:
- Trip It (must have!)
- Trip Advisor (must have!)
- Google Translate (must have, with languages downloaded to your phone… please note that this may not help when you’re trying to translate how to make the washer/dryer work in Greece)
- Google Maps (must have, with maps downloaded to your phone)
- City Mapper (only has specific cities on this, but we liked it better than Google Maps)
- Air BNB
- Tube Map and Paris Metro apps (didn’t end up using Paris Metro since we mainly walked, but used London’s Tube Map a lot, especially the route planner function)
- Rome 2 Rio
- Rick Steves audio tours (we download some to the phone before leaving)
- Disneyland Paris, MagiPark (for ride wait times) and Lineberty (for character meet and greets) in Disneyland Paris
- Alaska, Delta, Aegean, EasyJet and Ryanair apps
- Eurostar app
- Travel Insurance app (we didn’t use our travel insurance but are glad we bought it)
Accommodations, for the most part, were Air BNBs. We stayed in hotels our first few days in London, in Rome, our overnight in Inverness, Scotland and at Disneyland Paris. Other than that, we were in Air BNBs. I did a lot of looking on Air BNB, read all the reviews looked at all the pictures. I used their map function to ensure they were in the area we wanted to stay. Other than in Paris, all the Air BNB’s were great! Price is similar (or often cheaper) than hotel rooms and you have so much more space! The real reason we used AirBNBs was to have the ability to wash clothes. On Air BNB you can narrow your search results to only those that include a washer, and this was really important since we each only had a backpack of clothing. Once I had narrowed the selection down to a few units that were within our price range and available our dates, I had Brian look them over. Often he’d have a favorite (usually the one with the best view) but sometimes he would just knock out a few that looked too sketchy and let me decide. It was a good collaboration and we ended up with things like the amazing unit in Athens with the gorgeous view of the Acropolis.
Flying: We flew almost everywhere this trip. We had 11 legs total, which included 2 legs to get to Europe. We flew Portland to Seattle, then Seattle all the way to London Heathrow. For this flight we flew Delta Premium Select (they partner with Virgin Atlantic so it was a Virgin Atlantic flight but cheaper to buy the ticket through Delta). This was the class between coach and first class and we loved it! There were wider seats with extra pitch (recline) and a footrest. They came with amenities like a blanket and pillow to use while on board, free drinks (including whisky and coke for Brian and 11 mini bottles of wine for the lady in front of us), elevated meal service and the “wander wall” where you can go and get free snacks while on your flight. It was a 10 hour flight so the extra space and amenities were well worth it. Plus you get to board first, get all settled with some prosecco and just relax while everyone else is jostling for overhead storage space. It was so worth the extra couple hundred dollars over coach for a flight that long.
Once you get to Europe, flights are fairly inexpensive. For instance, to fly Aegean airlines from London to Athens (a straight flight) we paid 143€ total - for two of us. That’s a 1,500 mile flight!
We flew three airlines within Europe. For almost every flight we paid a small amount of extra money for extra legroom seats. I think for the most part this was about $15 per seat and it was so important when your husband is 6’4”. The only time we didn’t have extra legroom seats was when the flight was short (usually under an hour or so).
Aegean was used both in and out of Athens, since there weren’t a lot of choices for direct flights. It worked just fine but they weren’t my favorite. The hardest thing with Aegean is that they have a one-item-only, 17lb weight limit on carry-on bags. That was tough when you’re planning for a month! We made it work, but were so thankful we bought a luggage scale to take with us!
The other two budget airlines we used were Ryanair and EasyJet. They were comparable and no-frills. No free drinks. No food or snacks. So just come prepared for that and you’ll be fine. There were plenty of flights that were really cheap, like Ireland to Scotland which cost us $35 each. But know what you’re buying. With one of the airlines when you paid for the extra legroom seats you got to take a carry-on bag with you. Without that you couldn’t have a carry-on. So just understand what you’ll need and buy for that.
Originally our plan was to use public transportation in many of these cities, but often when we arrived we chose to get a taxi or Uber. It just made sense when you’ve got luggage to pay the extra for the car. Often it wasn’t even that much more than public transportation for two of us. It was our little splurge and we don’t regret it a bit.
One of the most expensive parts of budget airline flying is the cost for checked luggage, which we avoided (with one small exception) this trip. We did a lot of thinking and planning about luggage. Most people just have rolling suitcases that fit inside the size restrictions (which seem fairly small in Europe). We knew rolling these around cities would be a pain, especially when walking over cobblestones and walking up stairs. Instead, we decided to backpack it. We did tons of research (Brian did most of this one) and then bought a few to try. We sent all of them back except for one – the Tortuga Setout 45L (https://www.tortugabackpacks.com/collections/setout). Yes, it’s a little expensive but we knew a good pack was vitally important! We were so happy with this purchase! They fit quite a lot inside them while still keeping you in the approved carry-on size, they fit on your back with a great waist belt and chest strap to take the weight off your shoulders. When you fly you can tuck the straps in so it easily fits in the overhead compartments. To be honest, by the end we just quit doing that and put them up there, straps and all… it fit but was a little messier. All in all, these bags were amazing! We will be using these for years to come, though after I purchased they released a women’s style (the men’s was a little big for my 5’6” frame) so I may be selling one of these and purchasing the women’s style for our next trip. But we have nothing but love for our Tortuga bags. They held up amazingly through every sort of weather and locale. 5 stars!
We ordered the matching packing cubes for these packs and they were great, but we also used some cheap travel vacuum pack bags off Amazon. This became especially important as the trip wore on and we purchased souvenirs that we had to fit in our packs. This way we could roll and then vacuum seal clothing to reduce space. I also kept our winter gear (hats, gloves, thermal layers, an extra coat) in one of these since we didn’t need these at all the first half of the trip. It was a good combination to have the packing cubes and vacuum bags.
A really good selfie stick is also so important! We bought one off Amazon that doubles as a tripod with a remote. This was great for almost every situation. It’s how we were able to get the amazing picture of the Parthenon, which is probably my single favorite photo of our entire trip. Yes, it takes a little space but it’s worthwhile space.
We also had a packable backpack we used, especially towards the end. It was great as a personal bag on flights, a pack to use when we headed out for the day, and it worked as our souvenir pack towards the end of the trip. When not in use I could put it inside one of my coat pockets until we needed it for the day.
The big question is – how did we make it for a month on one pack each? The truth is that we packed super carefully! We each packed about 3 pairs of pants (one pair water resistant for those rainy days), 5 shirts, and about half a dozen socks and underwear each. We chose neutral, mostly solid items so we could mix and match shirts and bottoms. I took two cardigans as well, since I get cold easier. Then we washed laundry. When we arrived at a location we usually put the laundry on, then did a last load before we left. There was only one time that we got really close on laundry and that was after our horrible Air BNB in Paris, where we left early and didn’t dare use any of the facilities. Then we had an extra night at Newport Bay at Disneyland Paris, so we went 5 days with no laundry. I washed a few pieces in the shower one day, but it was getting pretty close.
We each took two pairs of shoes – one more comfortable for all the walking (and believe me, they got their miles in!) and one that was waterproof for those wet and muddy spots. We are sooooo thankful for the waterproof shoes. On days like the Cliffs of Moher, where it was raining sideways with huge wind gusts and then sunny just minutes later, we were thankful to always have warm, dry feet. REI was our go-to for waterproof shoes. I have wide feet so got wide Merrill Moabs. They were worth every penny! I also took Skecher Go Walks for comfort, but found they weren’t as comfortable for cobblestones. Brian’s waterproof shoes were actually his comfiest so he ended up wearing them most of the time. They are La Sportiva Spires. We bought some shoe bags from Amazon to keep our dirty shoes off our other packed items and we loved those as well.
We packed toiletries in 100ml containers in a clear zip-up travel bag for ease at the airports. My splurge item was my hair straightener and some makeup, but I had to make everything minimal. For instance, I packed two tubes of my absolute favorite conditioners but only one of my shampoo, as I knew I could use any shampoo easily but that not all conditioners are alike. Brian made great use of his toiletries bag by leaving room for travel size bottles of whisky he found on our travels.
Our month in Europe felt short. It didn't feel like a month in the moment. We were ready to come home partly because of the Coronavirus, which seemed to be just a few steps behind us all trip. We probably won't do a month again. We talked about how three weeks was probably about right for us so in the future we'll likely aim for that for these big vacations.
I also want to mention personal attitude here. Brian and I were flexible, ready to change plans if things didn’t go our way. Sometimes things weren’t so great or things happened that could have affected our trip, but we just let them roll over us and we moved on to the next thing. No matter how much you plan, things aren’t going to be perfect. The key is flexibility and not letting those negative experiences bring down your attitude.
Last, but not least, I have to say that travelling with my husband was a joy. We support one another. We’re strong when the other needs it and know that we have the support when we’re the one down. When it gets hard, we encourage one another. When it’s so astoundingly amazing, we stop and hug and soak up those moments and memories together. He is an amazing partner in life and an amazing partner in this travel adventure. These memories together will be cherished for the rest of our lives.
