Blog

You’ve tried all the diets, you’ve done all the Richard Simmons workout videos, and still you can’t seem to tighten your backpack’s waistband (err straps?) … well fret no longer! We know how easy it is to lose control of your backpack’s appetite when you lead such a hectic life of travel, and we’re here to help. No gimmicks, no tricks, just the facts! First, before you can move forward with your weight loss goals, Read More

Wandering through the streets of Florence stomach full of pasta, lips stained with Florence’s favorite shade of red (Chianti) is the best way to take in what the city has to offer: having the perfect afternoon of intoxicating yourself on the beauty of the city (& the wine) while losing yourself in the streets. But how does one experience this moment? Well, it’s actually quite simple. We’ve laid out a simple step-by-step guide of how Read More

Lauren’s take: What’s it like to date someone while living abroad? In a word: challenging. Like any relationship, it takes work, but living on a different continent halfway across the world adds a layer of complexity that could rock any relationship. Looking back at the past several months, there are things that we did really well and there are pitfalls that we definitely learned from, so I wanted to share my experience of what it’s Read More

We were approaching the end of our first full week in Bali, and spirits were high. From the moment we landed on the Island of the Gods, it felt like home. The jetlag was wearing off, the sun was high in the sky, and the wind was blowing our hair back as we were just starting to get into the groove of our motorbike (which is no small feat when it comes to the Balinese’ Read More

Don’t worry, this isn’t your high school yearbook (phew!). Even though we still have a few more posts from our time in Italy to churn out, our sojourn in Europe has officially come to a close. As we’re writing this in a coffee shop in downtown Ubud, Bali, we’ve had a couple weeks to gather our thoughts and we thought we’d share some of our highlights. The best things we ate: Döner Kebab Ristorante Marina Read More

Scattered along the north-western coastline of the Italian Riviera are five ancient fishing villages whose colorfully painted cottages are built right up to the cliffs’ edge, melding with the rugged cliffs and steep hillsides to form a staggeringly picturesque landscape. Cinque Terre (cheengkwe terre, dusting off the cobwebs of Rachel’s Italian diction courses…), literally meaning “five lands,” is a series of five towns linked by trails making it a hiker’s paradise.  The villages, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Read More

Why Tuscany? At the risk of being compared to "Eat Pray Love" during our travels (although Lauren does have something of young Julia Robertsness about her), we both admittedly had an affinity to spend an extended period of time in Italy, specifically Tuscany. Maybe we’ve watched “Under the Tuscan Sun” too many times (too often we passed abandoned villas and “joked” about restoring them in hopes of a pregnant Sandra Oh showing up), but the Read More

Seceda The Dolomites in Italy have long been one of our dream travel destinations, so it should come as no surprise that when we were outlining the beginnings of our would-be itinerary on a diner napkin, hiking in the Dolomites was at the top of our list. It did not take long after plunging into the nitty gritty details to learn that the task of planning this leg of our trip would be overwhelming. Not Read More

Arriving at Oktoberfest is akin to seeing Disneyland for the first time, except instead of your favorite characters in costumes and “It’s a Small World” playing in the distance, you see floods of drunk men in lederhosen and the faint sound of ‘oompah bands.’ Like Disney, there are still plenty of rides, amazing food, and a sense of magic and discovery lingering in the air. As you walk down the streets, you’ll see both sides Read More

Night to day at Tierser Alpl The sun was nearing the horizon, and as the daylight was waning so was our morale. We were four miles into a hike that would eventually lead to a mountain refuge that promised to be our shelter for the night. We followed trail markers leading us to Tierser Alpl, a “rifugio” nestled on the saddle of the same name. We had found ourselves racing daylight in the middle of Read More