This summer we went to London, Paris, Venice, Rome, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Dublin, and had a layover in Reykjavik. We used airbnbs for lodging. The whole 2 week trip total; planes, trains, car, food, lodging was right at $4k for 2 people. So you don't have to break the bank to travel the world.We flew Wow airlines, and as far as budget airlines go they we're awesome. I was expecting crappy Spirit service, but it was much much better than that.
My favorite place was probably Paris or Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is beautiful (its those colorful seaside towns you see built into the cliffs on the Italian Riviera)! We hiked up the mountains and threw vineyards on the cliffsides. It was very tough but I'll always remember the amazing views. Kind of sad that all the residents moved out and it's a tourist town now, but I still think it's a must see.
Paris was amazing too. Rich with history, excellent food and beautiful architecture. The Parisians we're actually very nice, and most spoke good English. Even those that didn't tried their best to help us when we were lost on the metro. The best thing about Paris is that if you're hungry you literally just walk down the block and you will find an amazing bakery or restaurant.l, I kid you not. The food at the local shops blows away almost any restaurants in the US.
Rome was ok. I didn't care for it much, although that could have been because it was the eighth day and I was tired and grumpy amd got bed bug bites. But it's really dirty and, for lack of a better term rustic. Like it's stuck in the 1930s or maybe 50s. We had our worst and best meals of the whole trip here though. I also drove in Rome, which was hella fun in a stick shift Fiat. Traffic is crazy there. I have no idea how people get pulled over though. They drive like mad men. We drove our way through Tuscany to Pisa. We stopped in Florence and ate dinner which was neat.
Venice I actually liked. You need to get out of the main lagoon and travel to Murano and Burano. They are beautiful towns famous for glass blowing and lace. It's also fun to try and get lost their.
Pisa is literally just the leaning tower. We used it as a home base when we trained to Cinque Terre. It's basically a college town of about 100k people.
Dublin was very cool and had a great mix of old and modern architecture. If you can only tour Guinness or Jameson, do Jameson (very cool tour), but try to see both.
London was cool too. Just your modern big city mixed with old English heritage. Seems like a great place to be if you're young and love night life.
We stayed in Reykjavik for few hours. It's neat, but super expensive. Things there cost 3 or 4 times as much as they do in the rest of the world.
All in all I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
