This travel blog is geared toward those that enjoy quality food and accommodation, love visiting historical and cultural attractions, and enjoy beautiful landscapes, photography, unique locations and a bit of quality rock n’ roll, Blues and Country. Our goal is to inspire you to visit some of the great destinations listed here. The focus is on Europe and North America. We describe key attractions, live music bars if possible, where to stay and where to eat, along with photos & video. We thoroughly research our trips to find quality 3 to 5 star hotels or B&Bs at reasonable prices (typically $200-300 USD per night range) and restaurants that use farm fresh products. We are not sponsored by the places we endorse.
The reason I decided to create this blog is because I found it was extremely time consuming to find everything I needed to know about a destination. There are many travel blogs, but I did not find one that had foodie level restaurant recommendations, quality hotels and information about cultural attractions in one spot. And most are lacking in visuals. I think it is important that people see the destination without having to read a long story, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. My goal is to provide key information with a lot of photos and video whenever possible.
Good restaurants can be very difficult to find because the end user star rating system often does not accurately reflect the quality of the restaurant. I’m sorry to say, but I don’t have a lot of faith in what some consider good food. I look for “foodie” top 10 lists (and cross check which restaurants are on several lists), I check the restaurant website for info on the food source, I review other trusted bloggers, and obtain recommendations from local “foodies” if possible. The main criteria is that restaurants use farm fresh local products, the prices are not insane, and the dinning area is visually appealing.
For accommodations I check multiple reviews, look at visitor photos, and I look at the hotel web site for photos of the rooms and bathrooms. It has to be nice. I am not of the mind set that “you are only sleeping there so it doesn’t have to be great”. No, it has to be as luxurious as possible for the price. On site I check for cleanliness, good room design and ambiance. The criteria:
- Must be visually appealing (we prefer old world style or mid century modern)
- Must have good ratings overall (I check individual low ratings to see the issues noted)
- Minimum 3 star
- Free wi-fi
- No ridiculous fees – like resort fees (I refuse to pay resort fees)
- It should be close to good restaurants and key attractions
- Reasonable price point
- Quality beds, linen & duvets
- Good-sized room ideally with a view (I think it’s worth it to pay for a view and balcony)
- Generous bathroom with enough room to put lots of toiletries
- Decent sized shower
- An area with good lighting to put on makeup (in main room or bathroom)
- Flat screen TV
- Nice to have, but not mandatory: Breakfast included, restaurant / food on premises, roof top sitting area, balcony or patio
Our blogs will save you time, because we do the research for you. I do not provide a cost per trip because it depends on where you eat, how much you drink and what attractions you visit. Your biggest expense, apart from airfare, is usually the hotel, so use that and factor in your plans for food and entertainment.
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