In 2016, I was fortunate to take a tour with Contiki to the Balkans. I learned so much about this area of the world in the short period of two weeks. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a fun new adventure. Below you can find the breakdown of my trip: Day One Trogir, Croatia Day Two Split to Dubrovnik, Croatia Day Three Dubrovnik Croatia Day Four Kotor and Budva, Montenegro Day Five Budva Montenegro Day Six Mostar a [...]

Happy Birthday to me! It’s our last full day on tour and its my birthday, since who doesn’t want to be on vacation on their birthday. Andrew was really sweet and got me a present while I was still in bed. I had to laugh because he had gotten me what he through was a card from one of the really cool shops in Slovenia. Only it was a post card, which was almost better since it was hilarious! From there we had buffet breakfast at the hotel. The hotel breakfast was better then some that we ha [...]

This was an early day today, but I was so sad that we were leaving Slovenia that I woke up extra early so I could go find a cafe and a real coffee. That is one of the things that this trip did not have. A lot of real Americano coffee. So we headed out to see what we could find. Low and behold, we went to the cutest hipster cafe. They were bright yellow and had homemade chocolate croissants and real coffee. I wanted to cry! They were a tiny hole in the wall place. But the funnest thing abou [...]

Day twelve. With this day we lost 8 of our tour mates and gained 6 new ones. It was bitter sweet, since we had really bonded as a group. And we were skeptical of the new additions to our group. We tried to get to know them, since thats what nice people do, but its hard. Today’s lunch break was again at a gas station. This one had a really nice outside patio. Me and Andrew tried to sit with some of the new people to welcome them, and try to see what they were all about. The best part of thi [...]

Today we had a full day in Budapest. This was one of those places that I wish I had taken the time to read a few more blogs about when in Budapest, this is where you should go. Since this city is huge and there are so many places that you could visit. We started off the day as a group on a walking tour with a local guide. And I have to say the weather was perfect. It was my favourite time of spring, when its warm and the flowers are coming out and there is a slight breeze. Which made the d [...]

Our time in Romania was really short, we headed out first thing in the morning.  It was a full day on the bus, driving from Romania to Hungry.  We stopped at a gas station for lunch, which was fine, most of the gas stations out this way had attached restaurants. It was around this time that we realized that some of the people on our trip would be getting off our trip in Hungary. So the trip starts to have a remorseful feeling. We realized that a good chunk of the boys on our trip would be le [...]

Ekkk! This trip was going by so fast! But we woke up today in our beautiful hotel room, and went to the top floor (8th Floor). For breakfast. The main problem of this hotel is that there is only one elevator for all floors, but there were stairs, so that was great. We were on the sixth floor, so getting breakfast was easy. Breakfast was the usual buffet with cereal and fruit and buns and meats with cheeses. After that we packed up and went to the lobby to catch our bus. The only real pr [...]

Our trip is half way through. It is hard to believe it. But it is. So on we go. Today we were told to dress conservative as we would be going to a grave site today. So covering up legs and shoulders everywhere we go. We made the mistake of getting on the bus last so we got booted to the back of the bus. That was ok, Elle got booted to the back of the bus too, so we shared the seats together. So during the civil war in Bosinia, the Serbians were rounding up the muslim men and boys and were [...]

Waking up today and going down to breakfast was a large wakeup call. Actually there were two wake up calls. First of all, our across the hall mates, had a fight. It must have been really big, because the girl decided to leave the tour. Secondly we found out our hotel was very muslim, and there were few girls showing their shoulders. It was defiantly the push I needed to go back to my room and change before we went out for the rest of the day. I changed to a dress that covered my shoulders in [...]

Today we headed out for a long drive to Bosnia. Today’s movie of choice was Meet the Millers. I mention this, because this movie has a classic character in it. Scottie P. He has a catch phrase that became our running joke all through the movie. “You know what I’m saying?” He says it after everything he says. Also he has a tattoo that says No RAGRETS. “What’s the one right there?” “Oh this? This is my credo, No Regrets” “How about that. You have no regrets?” “Nope” “Like, not even a sin [...]

Today was our free day in Budva, and for a rainy day we tried to make the most of it. First off we slept in. I think we didn’t got out of bed until 11am. Which for anyone who knows me, is not usually a thing I can do. But it was nice to have a slow start to the day and spend some time catching up with family and reading. We did manage to get our buffet breakfast right before they closed to prep for lunch. I think I had toast. When we finally got dressed, we decided to brave the weather and [...]

Day four of Best of the Balkans. Breakfast was another buffet. I had cereal. We all piled into the Contiki bus to drive to Montenegro. All of us were sad to see Dubrovnik go. It was such a magical city. However the drive out of Dubrovnik was almost as magical. To leave Dubrovnik to go towards Montenegro, you need to zig-zag all the way up the mountain. Which basically meant we had gorgeous views of Dubrovnik the whole way up. Our driver Marco, was awesome an found a photo spot for us all t [...]

Day Three of our Best of Balkans tour. I started the day off with a run around the harbour. I loved the fact that I could see the harbour in the early morning light with only the locals around. It was really quite, other then the fish market down the street. The downside of this run was that there was only so far you could go before the streets started going up hill. So I ran so a bit then gave up when I was in a residential area and wanted to make sure I could remember the twists and tur [...]

Day Two of our Best of Balkans tour. Today we started off with free time in Split. Our guide walked us to the old town of Split and gave us a few options of what to do. So quick background on Split. Split is the second largest city in Croatia. According to our travel guide Carly, an old Roman Emperor called Diocletian thought Split to be the most beautiful spot in Croatia.  So he decided to build his retirement house there. (A note – online sources seem to think he choose the spot inste [...]

It’s the First Day of the Best of the Balkans Contiki tour. I took this trip with my husband Andrew. We were one of two married couples on this tour. The rest of the trip was a group of 35 people with the majority between the ages of 25-35. We had flown into Split, Croatia the night before, so that we could get a good night sleep and be awake when we met the group at 6pm for dinner and drinks. Or Contiki set up a meet up group so we knew that two other girls on our trip did the same thing [...]