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What to Do in Captivating Croatia

Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, said: “Those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik.” We completely agree.

Croatia was a dream come true. The coast line, the history, the people – simply amazing. It’s not a far stretch to say we would move there. So glad that our friend, Greg, was able to meet us there and experience with us. Here are our favorite things we did and recommend to anyone visiting.

Dubrovnik

Old Town is where we spent most of our time. Our favorite restaurants were Bota Sushi, Klarisa, and Komarda (this place offers traditional Croatian cuisine and is to die for). We had the most fun at the Gaffe Irish Pub – because any Irish pub always bring the party.

Revelin night club is a must do if you’re into to going out and doing a little drinking and dancing. It’s literally hidden in the walls of Old Town. It almost feels like you’re not supposed to be there, which adds an element to your night out that’s indescribable.

Take a boat ride from the dock. For a one hour tour, around the island with a guide, it’s only 75 Kuna (about $12 US).

The Dubrovnik Cable Car ride costs 140 Kuna and offers the most stunning views of the coast. The Utvrda Imperial fort is at the top, along with the Križ landmark which is huge stone cross. Do it for the gram.

You can walk the Old Town walls all the way around for 150 Kuna. It offers a different perspective and you can climb into some of the towers on the corners.

Banje Beach is just outside Old Town. It’s crystal clear water and great place for another IG photo op.

Old Town is super awesome for live music as well. There was someone playing each day. Not to mention the NYE fireworks display over the packed streets, which was incredible.

Zagreb and Split

We also spent a day in Zagreb and Split. We would love to go back to Split during the summer. It’s a gorgeous coast town that’s a hot spot for yacht week!

The observation deck in Zagreb gives you a 360 view of the whole town. It’s especially magical in the winter at Christmas time. There’s delicious charcuterie and beverages to enjoy with the view. If you’re there in the winter you can enjoy some outdoor ice skating in the middle of town. Don’t forget to walk around the underground halls and pathways. They are decorated incredibly at Christmas time too FYI.

Our short time in Split was spent walking around old town and eating. Pizzeria Bokamorra is on the water and is delicious. Terminal F has the best, outrageous milkshakes to go with their live music and outdoor fire pits.

Montenegro

Do yourself a final favor and take a day trip to Montenegro. Our guide drove us to Pesart, where we took a boat ride to Our Lady of the Rock, which is an island made out of ship wreckage because locals found a painting of Virgin Mary on a rock in the water there in the 14th century. Ships give gifts to the church on that island in return for protection while at sea. From there we went to Kotor and hiked up the old ruins. We ended the day trip with a delicious dinner at Budva Jardan on the beach and a walk around town. On the way back to Dubrovnik we took ferry across the bay at sunset. Truly underrated and undiscovered, but that won’t last long. Go before word gets out!

Croatia is on our top 5 list of places to visit. Take the trip and enjoy the ride!

Justin and Lindsay

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Top Things to Do in Singapore

Singapore has our hearts in more ways than we thought possible. Spending 12 days there was amazing and we got to see and do so many fun things. Here’s our top things to do in each area!

  1. The Bay
    • There’s so many fun and interesting things to do around the Bay. Here are some of our favorites.
      • Merlion Park houses the famous Merlion Fountain. The body symbolizes Singapore’s humble beginnings as a fishing village and its head represents Singapore’s original name, Singapura, or ‘lion city’.
      • LeVel 33 Brewery is the highest urban brewery, located on the 33rd floor of what looks like an office skyscraper. Unexpected, but delicious beer and food, with the best view of the Bay that you can find. Ask to sit outside.
      • Mankansutra was one of the top street food recommendations we received from a local. The satay skewers did not disappoint.
      • Mischief is a fun open air bar with games like shuffleboard and beer pong.
      • Marina square and Esplanade for shopping and buying souvenirs.
      • Not to mention the free light and fountain show every night and free live music at the amphitheater most nights of the week.
  2. Marina Bay Sands
    • The infinity pool on the 57th floor is incredible. Floating high above the bay is a site you need to see. You do have to be a guest in order to swim, but you can visit the rooftop observation deck any time.
    • Spago is part of Wolfgang Puck’s dynasty and they have a great happy hour from 4-7pm Monday thru Thursday. Drinks are inventive, food is yummy, and their staff is the best we’ve encountered, friendly, helpful, and FUN! Shout out to Earl, Christian, JV, Hermes, and Glynn!
    • Gardens by the Bay has got to be on your bucket list. The outdoor gardens are free, along with the light show on the famous Supertrees. The two domes have a small fee, but are totally worth it. So many beautiful flowers, sculptures, and experiences.
  3. Chinatown
    • Ba Dao Guan is in the heart of Chinatown. Make sure to swing in and get the black pepper crab
    • Check out the Thian Hock Keng temple while you’re there too. Love seeing traditional architecture in the middle of a modern city. 
  4. Boat Quay (pronounced “key”)
    • Hans Im Glück has amazing drinks on the water in an unusual setting, Their entire patio is like sitting in an aspen tree forest.
    • Izakaya Shindi sushi is fresh, delicious, and has a great view of the river and skyline.
    • Aburiya is known for their Japanese wagyu beef. We also recommend getting sake because they let you pick your own sake glass. A nice bonus.
    • Free fitness classes are provided by Team Axis and the government, with multiple locations across the city. We stumbled upon the Zumba class in Boat Quay.
  5. Clarke Quay
    • Popular for its night life, with lots of variety and choices of things to do. We opted for Jumbo, which serves fresh seafood dishes and a river boat cruise.
  6. Bugis Street Food and Market
    • A bargain shoppers dream, lined with shops, food, tradition, and fun! Get some fresh juice for only $1 and a traditional crispy pancake – we really enjoyed the banana and peanut.
    • There are two temples you can visit as well. The architecture is massively impressive.
  7. Sentosa Island
    • Take the cable cars over the water to the island. Round trip tickets are extremely affordable and you can get around the whole island that way.
    • Mega Adventure Park is where thrill seekers collide. We went with our new friends (Jo and Ben – shout out to the UK) to zip line at over 35mph onto a beach and jump off of a 4-story platform.
  8. Singapore Zoo and the world’s only Night Safari
    • Must dos if you want to get up close and personal with some wild creatures. They let the orangutans swing free over your head, the foot tall bats are within an arms length, and the deer will cross your path, so look both ways before crossing the road.
  9. Windsor Nature Park
    • Free fun here that includes a 3 mile hike through the jungle with monkeys, monitor lizards, and roosters leading to a tree top walk on a suspension bridge.
  10. Little India
    • Blue Jaz on Haji Ln. for a delicious dinner and live music everywhere. Also has some great shopping!
  11. Changi
    • A lively neighborhood by the airport where we found Little Island Brewing Company. Get a prepaid booze card and have fun sampling their in house craft beers. Fun island atmosphere with knowledgeable brew staff.

We also loved each hotel we stayed in. Village Hotel At Changi, Marina Mandarin, and the Park Royal which has an amazing spa – the St. Gregory – Balinese and Indian massages and Skyline fitness classes with a view of the bay. We tried the aqua yoga and had a blast!  All hotels can be booked on our website – www.EndlessTravel365.com.

As an added bonus, the Star Island show for NYE was one of the most incredible things we’ve ever seen. Fireworks for over an hour and a half, lights, music, and fun! Cheers to 2019!

Enjoy the Ride,

Justin and Lindsay

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A Week in Little Lenggries

When deciding what to do after our Italian tour, we remembered that our friend from Colorado moved to Lenggries, Germany (about an hour south of Munich) with his family. They generously offered their home to us, so we decided to have ourselves a small town, German experience. Here’s a glimpse of our week there!
Day 1 – German Sport Class. On average, 12 kiddos and their parents attend what we think of as PE on steroids, once a week. After a casual warm-up of running sprints, we played a very interesting form of dodgeball mixed with basketball. You try to throw a stability ball into a box to score a point while the other team tries to throw medicine balls at the stability ball to keep it from getting in the box. Now, one might think this sounds fun, but Lindsay’s eyes were wide the whole time waiting for an injury – her background is in recreation and this is nothing like the games that are allowed in the US. It was organized chaos at it’s finest.
Day 2 – We took a walk around the town. Our friend pointed out some great shops, bakeries, and restaurants and even taught us how to order a few things in German since no one really speaks English in Lenggries. From there, we headed to the kids school where we helped teach English. We told the story of the Christmas tree and had the students answer questions in English. When the kids got home from school, they proceeded to make us puzzles out of paper and they put on a play for us as well! So fun!
Day 3 – We drove up to the Bad Tölz Christmas market, a German tradition! We loved seeing a smaller, less touristy version of the Christmas markets. So charming and fun!
Day 4 – Our friends left Germany to go back to Colorado for Christmas. We borrowed their bikes and rode around town until we found a snow covered bike path the on Isar river. Not easy to maneuver without snow tires. We made the best of it and found a beautiful spot by the river and set up our Madera hammock for some R&R.
Day 5 – We spent Christmas day inside cooking, relaxing, and working. In the evening, Lenggries had a fire pit and Glühwein for the town, so we decided to check it out. It’s not a German Christmas without the Glühwein!
Day 6 – We took the train up to Munich for the day to explore. We found the big Munich Christmas market, which is definitely a site to see! After the market, we hopped over to the ice skating rink and had a delicious bratwurst and bier! After that, the rain came, so we decided to see the new Star Wars movie at Mathäser, which luckily had the English version! *Note – the Munich train station has inexpensive luggage lockers, so you don’t have to lug bags around in between trains.
*A final note – the train to Lenggries from Munich splits into two separate trains. Make sure you get on the right one, otherwise you’ll be headed to several other small towns that don’t speak English. If you speak German, you’ll be fine. We, however, do not speak German, so this gave us slight anxiety on our way. Thankfully, we picked the right train car!
Germany is magical this time of year and full of yummy food! We hope you get to visit one day! We can’t wait to go back and see more! Prost!
Enjoy the ride,
Justin and Lindsay
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beyondBeanie

AWESOME NEWS!

We have teamed up with beyondBeanie – a social fashion brand that combines fashion with solidarity to help change lives. Every time you purchase an item from us, you are empowering an artisan and helping a child in need.

You are also supporting the work of a talented artisan in Bolivia who proudly hand-signs her creation and whom you can meet and greet through our website or even in person if you ever travel to Bolivia.

At the present time, beyondBeanie is collaborating with 23 artisans from El Alto, La Paz and Cochabamba, who have the privilege of working from home which allows them to earn a living without having to disattend their children and families.

CLICK HERE to start shopping and helping out kiddos in need!

Enjoy the Ride,

Justin and Lindsay

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3 Days in Venice

Venice, or Venezia, is one of the most unique and charming places we visited in Italy. We also think we got lucky going in the winter when it’s not tourist season. Here is our 3 day itinerary for this floating city!

Day 1

First off, our hotel was incredible. Hotel Casa Nicolò Priuli is a 4-star place that we got 60% off thanks to our travel membership. We actually saved more than we paid for the entire stay.

Do yourself a favor and take a boat tour with Alilaguna to Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Murano is famous for glass – and we aren’t talking windows or mirrors. We are talking true art masterpieces.  We were able to witness an expert glass blower make a beautiful blue and silver horse. Truly a mesmerizing art. Burano is famous for lace and these amazing, colorful houses. Perfect spot to take photos for the Gram. Torcello is a tiny island with old ruins, quaint little shops, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get to hear the church choir singing.

Day 2

We roamed through the alley ways until we found Piazza San Marco or St. Mark’s Square. You’ll find one of Italy’s most beautiful churches (it’s on most top lists) and a hell of a lot of pigeons. Justin loved playing with them, Lindsay was not impressed.

From the Square, we wandered over to Dal Maro. This is literally the best pasta, aside from the homemade meal we had in Imperia with Lindsay’s family. Dal Maro is literally just a kitchen and a counter top, where maybe 10 people can stand inside. The line in usually down the block, which is how you know you’re in the right place. All the pasta comes in Chinese take out boxes. It’s so fresh, so delicious, and so necessary when in Venice.

Obviously, the major thing people do is take a gondola ride. While we find the attraction overpriced (about $80 per person), it’s a Venice staple. And if you get a good guide, you might learn some things about the city as well. We learned that Venice has 118 islands, 400 bridges, and 150 canals and our guide floated us past Marco Polo and Casanova’s houses. If you’re on the trip with a significant other, it’s good luck to smooch under any of the bridges.

We love live music, so we were delighted when we found Bàcaro jazz bar that has a killer happy hour from 4-6pm. BOGO on drinks! The Venice jazz club was also an amazing find. As if we didn’t have enough pasta this day, 30 Euros each gets you a pasta dinner, bottle of wine, and live jazz music. Totally worth it, if you can find it. The club isn’t well marked and we walked past it about 3 times before realizing it!

Day 3

We visited the Da Vinci Museum for only about $9 US. This interactive museum houses several of Da Vinci’s creations that you can physically play with. We tried our hand at building a bridge using one of his architectural techniques with much success!

From there, we set out to find the famous giant hands sculpture called “Support”, created by artist Lorenzo Quinn. The human hands appear to prop up a historic hotel from falling into the water, symbolizing the threat that climate change has on history, but also the power that mankind has to stop it.

Someone we met the first day on our day trip, told us about a FREE rooftop terrace to view the sunset. Fondaco dei Tedeschi was built in 1228 and combined the functions of a palace, warehouse, market and restricted living quarters. It’s one of Venice’s most recognizable buildings, right next to the famous Rialto Bridge, which is also a must see and great for the Gram. The rooftop of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi offers 360 degree views of Venice, with the most spectacular sunsets reflecting off the water.

Venice is beautiful and we recommend visiting at least once, just don’t forget the wine!

Enjoy the Ride,

Justin and Lindsay

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P.P.S. Our thoughts go out to Venice, as they are currently inundated with flood waters.

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A Forever Love in Verona

Verona is a dream come true. One of the most romantic cities we’ve ever been in, you can really feel the passion of the people.

We highly recommend Maria Pia Tours for this vibrant city. We took two tours with her and it was incredible. She is so knowledgeable and entertaining. A lovely Italian sprite. Our first tour was the story of Romeo and Juliet (or Giulietta if you will). We stopped by their houses, the place where they supposedly met, stood on Juliet’s balcony, regaled in the dreams of the most romantic story ever heard, and even got to drop a love lock off at Juliet’s house. There’s a statue of Juliet outside the house and if you touch her right breast, it’s supposed to be good luck. The locks are on panels and once they are full they are taken down only to be put in a museum. If you keep track of your panel number you’ll be able to go see the exhibit and find your lock once it’s completed in about 5-10 years from now. Glad we took a photo of our panel number, otherwise we would searching for a long time at the exhibit.

Our second tour with Maria Pia was a night walking tour. She takes you on a journey with stories of architecture, pointing out how takes pride in making  new buildings around old ones. You can see old ruins in walls, on walkways, below the street, fossils in walkways. Our favorite part of this tour was when Maria told us we were going shopping and took us into this clothing store. We both looked at each other like, what the heck are we doing, this is supposed to be a history tour. We weren’t sure what she was talking about until we went downstairs. The entire bottom floor of the store is built around old ruins. So cool!

Our next stop was a walk through Castelvecchio, a most spectacular medieval edifice in Verona, telling stories from centuries ago. Castelvecchio was constructed on the banks of the Adige by Cangrande II della Scala in 1354 in order to defend Verona’s people and also to have a possible escape-route northwards where his Austrian relatives lived. The Scala family ruled Verona during the time of Romeo and Juliet and it is rumored that the two met at a Scala party.

Maria Pia is a true gem of a tour guide. And hilarious. She left us with her number and said if you ever need anything you have a friend in Verona. Our hearts were so full after spending the day with her.

The next day we took a tour of the Arena di Verona! This is a site to see. It’s older than the Coliseum in Rome by 50 years! It used to be twice the size until an earthquake destroyed half of it in 1117. The Arena is still in use today for concerts, operas, plays, and tours. It is our intention to come back and see a show here. We spent hours walking around, taking photos, and putting on a boomerang clinic in the center of the Arena – see our Instagram for that mess. We also walked around their market outside of the Arena and took in some glorious people watching around the square.

We then, took a trip over to Juliet’s tomb. This is where Friar Laurence’s church was where she sought advice and refuge during the tumultuous family rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets. The tomb is where she was said to have killed herself after thinking that Romeo had died. This story is truly powerful and you can feel the energy at this location.

We can’t wait to visit Verona again. One of our favorite stops on our two month tour of Europe!

 

Enjoy the Ride,

Justin and Lindsay

 

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P.P.S.S. One thing we learned was that it costs an extra €1.50 to call a taxi from your hotel instead of hailing it off the street. Just a little nugget for you.

P.P.S.S. You can book your own discounted travel on our website – www.EndlessTravel365.com!