In May, I received an invitation to attend an advocacy meeting in Barcelona, which meant that my airfare would be covered as well as the hotel stay in Barcelona.
I told Brennan that we should really try to make this happen for both of us to go, and to have an adventure while in Europe. Thanks to my parents, who were willing to fly out to care for the boys, we made it happen.
This was not the most efficient itinerary but that was out of our control due to my parents’ availability, Brennan’s vacation time, and the dates of the work events. But we made it work and it honestly worked out really well. We didn’t over-schedule ourselves and allowed plenty of downtime in between flights and tours.
Travel stats:
- Six flights
- Four trains
- One boat
- Too many taxis to count
Here are all the details in case it is helpful to you!
Where we stayed:
It was important to us to find unique, non-chain places to stay as much as possible, and we succeeded. Because this was the “off-season” these were all very affordable!
We recommend ALL of these!
Lesa: Villa Preziosa Lago Maggiore
Florence: The Artist’s Palace
Barcelona: Olivia Balmes (where the advocacy meeting was)
Barcelona: Salles Ciutat de Prat (close to the airport and free shuttle)
Naples: Hotel San Francesco al Monte
This 500-year-old building is a former monastery with stunning views of Naples, Mt. Vesuvius, and the bay. We LOVED it! There’s a CAVE inside the hotel!
How we packed in just carry-ons:
Packing was a slight challenge because each of the European budget airlines had different size requirements for both the carry-on and the personal item. I searched and found this suitcase and this bag that met the requirements of all three airlines. This saved us money by not needing to check a bag. It also saved time in customs.
We each packed just enough clothing to get by and knew that we could do laundry in Barcelona mid-trip if necessary. Thankfully the weather was excellent and consistent, making it easy to pack lightly.
One mistake we made was not bringing more than one converter to charge devices. Because we chose to stay in historic hotels, they didn’t have USB charging ports. We only brought one converter for two iPhones and two Apple Watches because we assumed we would have USB port access. That didn’t pan out the way we expected. We made it work, but plan to bring two converters when you travel.
Compression cubes helped with condensing our clothing.
These suitcases were perfect and met the necessary requirements. A little pricey for our taste, but I had spent two hours scouring the internet before I finally found these.
WiFi/data: we chose to forego an international plan and left our phones on airplane mode unless we were on WiFi. This was great not only because of the cost savings, but it was nice to be disconnected. We did have to turn on roaming a few times to get information but the total spent was less than $15 because we were careful.
What we saw:
To read more about each location, here are the individual posts:
Guided tours:
Because we had such limited time, we opted to pay for guided tours that included transportation and lunch in many cases. Of course, there weren’t any guided tours of Lesa, but we figured it out (it was small).
We are so glad we took guided tours!
We learned so much and this reduced our mental load of having to figure out what to see, how to get there, etc. They picked us up for both of the Naples-area tours, which was fabulous.
The apps Get Your Guide and Viator were extremely helpful. All of our guides were locals who not only did their job very well, but also taught us things only locals could. The pride they had for their area was obvious.
Links for each tour are below (hover over the name to click on the link).
Florence (three-hour walking tour)
La Sagrada Familia
You MUST go inside if you get the chance.
Park Guell
Pompeii/Herculaneum (tour included lunch)
Sorrento/Positano/Amalfi (tour included lunch and we added on a boat ride for $15 each):
How I stayed organized:
Given the complicated logistics of this trip, I wanted to make it as easy as possible to know what was happening, where we were staying, and how we were getting from place to place, without WiFi when necessary.
So I created a Google Doc with all of the details, including links. And I’m so glad I did! It made our trip stress-free, and it allowed my parents to know where we were at all times in case of an emergency since we couldn’t communicate often.
I booked private transfers ahead of time for the times I knew we’d need them. We used taxis in Barcelona and Naples as they were abundant.
How we traveled from place to place:
Because of my parents’ availability and the timing of the advocacy meeting, we chose to go back and forth from Barcelona to Italy since (1) it’s inexpensive and (2) it’s only a 1.5-hour flight.
Barcelona to Milan: EasyJet
Milan to Lesa: private transfer (car, booked through Booking.com)
Lesa to Florence: Italia Rail
Florence to Barcelona: Vueling
Barcelona to Naples (and back): RyanAir
How we beat jet lag:
We had an overnight flight, so we made ourselves stay awake as long as possible the first day (we made it until about 6:30pm) to help adjust to the six-hour time difference.
We also made a point to do a lot of walking around Lesa and Lago Maggiore that afternoon to help wear us out even more.
Going home, since it was a daytime flight, we stayed awake the entire flight and that helped us adjust when we landed that afternoon. We went to bed at a fairly normal time and got up as usual the following morning.
We are so grateful for this opportunity to travel – something that gives me life and energy – and to experience all of this together. And, I added my fourth continent and tenth and eleventh countries to my list, making this even more exciting for me.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Even So, Joy 