My top 4 favourite travel destinations

I love planning my next holiday, but there are so many countries out there to choose from that it can get quite hard to pick! I’ve decided to write a blog post about my favourite holiday destinations and why.

Rome // city break

Time there: 7 days
Stayed: Hotel Navona
Overview: Brilliant for history nuts, lovers of manmade beauty, must be happy to walk a lot, you will be busy constantly with things to see and do!

This holiday was superb, it was busy and jam packed with seeing everything that Rome had to offer, we certainly left feeling knackered, but fulfilled. I wrote a blog post about my time there, but the reason it’s made my top four, is because every day I had a smile on my face. It felt like at every turn there was another beautiful wonder to gaze upon, every Church was stunning, every ruin had a story.

If you love history, art and beauty, this is the place to go. From the ruined markets, to the street artists, there truly was something for everyone here. Whilst we were in Rome we visited the Colosseum, The Vatican, The Roman Forum, The Pantheon and so many there amazing sites. As well as trying various different Italian foods, I think my favourite was the fresh spaghetti dishes, but I also LOVED the gelato – there was so many different flavours to choose from, my favourite was Kinda Bueno. Of course the pizza was superb too, this was a trip of a lot of eating! But you find you walk a lot in this city, so you can kind of balance it out.

Rome was constantly busy, no matter the hour. We found ourselves having to readapt our body clocks as we went out for dinner later in the evening and explored the city at night too. Seeing St Peter’s Basilica lit up in the evening sky was a stunning view that I will never forget. They also liked to wake up early and empty the glass recycling at about 6:30 EVERY DAY, but it did make sure we were up and ready for the day!

Amsterdam // city break

Time there: 4 days
Stayed: Hotel V
Overview: A busy break for anyone who loves art galleries and museums, there is a lot of history here, this city is so relaxed and makes you feel at home.

This was a quick trip around a busy city and it was hard to pack in everything we wanted do, but I think we managed it. We were there over my birthday and made a point of heading to the Van Gogh museum on my 21st, which was amazing and I loved seeing the paintings I had always just seen photos of.

One thing I would advise when you visit Amsterdam, is to book everything you can in advance. This trip was an expensive one, from going to the museums and eating out to renting bikes for the day (which is a must I have to say). This was a break to experience culture, to learn about hardships and about the beauty of art and the intricate nature of this city.

We saw Anne Frank’s house, which was an eye-opening experience of the love and loss that was contained within the tightly crammed walls. We also discovered interesting nooks of the city when we rented backwards breaking bikes for the day (yikes that was an odd experience!). I found our visit to the Red Light District very interesting, seeing how forward everyone is there about sex and the way women are displayed in windows. Several times we were invited to watch a live sex show just because we walked past a building on the street. This shift in culture as soon as you walked into this area of the city was definitely noticeable and I really enjoyed being in somewhere that felt so free and open.

I left Amsterdam feeling like I wanted to go back and spend time living there. It was a calm city, one without beeping car horns and arguing people on the side of the street. It felt kind and careful, there was so much beauty and I really enjoyed my visit.

Canada // site seeing break

Time there: 14 days
Stayed: Air B&B
Overview: A true city experience, mixed with also being able to see wonders I have never experienced before, this was as close to American culture as I have come.

I visited both Toronto and Ottawa during my trip to Canada, both big cities and very different to London! I’ll be honest, I was mainly excited to visit the bookshops and see the American editions of books I’d seen online. This was my true fangirling moment as I walked into a Chapters shop and basically used all of my spending money.

We have family who live in Canada so when we weren’t in Toronto at our Air B&B, we had gone to stay with them. I think my favourite feature of this trip was seeing Niagara Falls, that was my moment of WOW. I am stood in front of this huge waterfall, I am tiny, I am a spec of a human against this and this is what our Earth produced. It was beautiful and I will never forget it.

I really enjoyed experiencing different cities in Canada, I think Toronto was my favourite, it was just huge. The buildings were giant and again I felt so tiny, we went to awesome aquarium over there, as well as a couple of awesome places for food. We stayed in the city for four days before we had a very long train journey to Ottawa. This was also a brilliant city to visit, we went to the Mint, local markets, more bookshops and a late night ghost tour (which was more of just a city tour with a bit of history weaved in).

Kefalonia // sun break

Time there: 7 days
Stayed: Apostolata Island Resort and Spa
Overview: A beautiful and relaxing break in the sun with everything you need at your hotel, the island is small and you need a car or a coach to go anywhere, but you can do all of your site seeing in a day or two.

This was the relaxing break I needed, an all inclusive trip to a hotel in the middle of nowhere with a lot of sun and a good temperature to sit by the cool pool. Here’s the blog post I wrote about it at the time. I had a book with me constantly and mostly an ice cream as well. This was my first stay at an all inclusive hotel and I will definitely be doing it again, we had food and drink whenever we wanted it, it was amazing! This hotel was one of the best ones we could have chosen, very secluded, but also offered excursions so we could explore the island if we wanted to.

Whilst the food wasn’t the most amazing I’ve ever experienced, to have an unlimited supply of it and be able to choose from a real range, was quite good fun. I can also confirm that all inclusive breaks put A LOT of alcohol in their drinks, which I wasn’t a fan off. But the evenings were a really good way to meet new people, loads of the guests were sat drinking in the bar, so we went down every night and socialised. We made friends with a couple on their honeymoon and ended up exploring the capital, Argostoli, with them for a day!

In terms of things to do apart from being in the hotel, there wasn’t a huge amount on this island, but we were okay with that. We explored the local towns, went looking turtles (but failed to find any), discovered a castle ruin and saw the most photographed beach in Europe.

I loved this holiday because it offered me a chance to have the week with my boyfriend, relax and just enjoy each other’s company… and that of my books.