Guest Blog From Kirsty Burrows
If you are planning a trip around Europe, hopefully this will offer you some top tips and advice.
Here is the route that my sister and I took. We went for 2 weeks and spent roughly 2 nights in each location. We definitely could have stayed a lot longer.
Munich – Pleasantly Surprised
If you ever find yourself in Munich, I recommend taking yourself to St Peters Church and climbing the many, many stairs to the viewpoint for 5pm to watch the clock performance on the Marienplatz Plaza. After what will feel like a trek of Mount Everest, take yourself for a well-deserved drink and pretzel in Hofbräuhaus beer hall – the orchestra isn’t too bad either.
Prague – AMAZING! Highly recommend
My favourite part of Prague was most definitely the variation of buildings and cobble roads throughout the city. These were amazing to see both in daylight as well as lit up at night-time. The food was also top notch and fairly cheap and by far the best kept city we visited.
Vienna – Nice but a lot of walking, would have been my least favourite of all
Budapest – Unreal sights although the streets were slightly filthy
Budapest was also a lovely city in terms of buildings. My favourites would have to be The Hungarian Parliament Building and Fisherman’s Bastion. Whilst here, Szechenyi Thermal Bath is a must. However, an obvious yet overlooked factor, Thermal = heat. I was greatly surprised whilst sitting in 28-degree heat, thinking I was going to the baths to cool off when in fact I was actually sitting baking in water warmer the current temperature.
Zagreb – Again pleasantly surprised, compact city and plenty to see
Split – Your typical costal town with the cleanest water
Hvar Island – A knock-off Split but much quieter (less tourists), definitely my preferred location of the two.
If you are looking for friendly locals, get yourself to Croatia. By far the cleanest most blue water I have seen, however the beaches consisted of small stones as opposed to sand (bit of advice, bring your Modulus beach towel which is thick enough to absorb the rough stones poking into your back).
My Top Tips
- Bum bag’s are COOL. This is an essential piece of apparatus that will make travelling run smoothly. Passport, money, plasters, cable ties (don’t ask) all handy.
- The distance between countries may seem a skip and jump away. Spoiler alert….they aren’t! Bring snacks. Many, many snacks. – Bonus tip: don’t eat them all within the first hour, it’s a long journey.
- Take multiple pairs of shoes (within reason)! These backup shoes are for when your blisters blister. You will have to resort to walking on parts of your feet that you didn’t know existed. My rotating trio consisted of flip flops, sandals and trainers.
- Stay in hostels!! I cannot recommend doing this enough. This is a hot spot for meeting new people from all over the world and hearing their travel experiences.
- When taking money out of cash machines, make sure you take 2 minutes to run the exchange rate through your phone. Instead of withdrawing £40 (19,000 Hungarian Forint) I managed to lift out 200,000 HUF which came to the larger than expected sum of £400 (if anyone needs a list of cash exchange shops throughout Croatia, I have a list).
Well, that is all from me folks, I hope this small insight has been helpful.
If you have a holiday in mind then my advice is to get it booked, take your towel and send us a post card.