It was my mother's first trip to France, and as a big World War II buff, we knew she would want to see the D-Day Beaches in Normandy. Bayeux is an ideal base to explore Normandy, and survived much of the war relatively unscathed, meaning it has a well-preserved medieval center. A good place to stay to explore further, and a place to visit in its own right!
Mont St-Michel.Walking the streets of Bayeux.Exploring the adorable harbor town of Honfleur.
My husband, daughter & I arrived in France. We met my mother and sister at the train station in Paris and rented a car, which we drove north to Bayeux. Upon arrival, we checked into this amazing, old Airbnb right in the center of Bayeux. We got settled in, and took a quick walk around Bayeux.
We wanted to visit the coast of Italy, near the Cinque Terre but not IN the Cinque Terre, to avoid the crowds and high prices. We happened to find an amazing apartment in Portovenere (sometimes known as the sixth Cinque Terre town) and decided to make that our home base.
We were living in Budapest and needed to leave for visa reasons. We'd heard such amazing things about Romania, and decided to road trip through Transylvania!
Because Italy, of course! My parents were meeting my family (me, my husband, and our two small children) in Europe after a business trip, and since they don't make it overseas very often, we needed somewhere epic. Also, we found good deals on flights to Milan! So, Italy was a no-brainer. We decided to rent a car, and therefore decided we just wanted to stay in the Northern part of Italy, to avoid long car trips with two kids.
This was a special celebration for my father-in-law's 80th birthday, to see his ancestral village of Itri with three generations of our family!
A dream getaway with my husband for a first-time trip to the city of lights!
I chose a weekend getaway in these three locations because Portugal is in close proximity to Spain, and my best friend and I wanted to do a little trip together. We chose to see Lisbon as it is a city destination where we know a few other students studying abroad, and I recommended Sintra as I went there a few years back and absolutely adored it. Nazaré is a bucket list place that I've always wanted to visit to see the world-famous surfing waves and picturesque cliffs. Portugal isn't too big so we could hop around from place to place.
