China has never been a place that was high up on my bucket list, or was somewhere I gave too much thought to. Earlier this year, my niece moved to Shanghai to complete a semester at Fudan University so I started looking at potentially going to visit. Irish citizens also have 30 days free travel … Continue reading China
Hangzhou was the capital of the southern Song Dynasty between 1138 and 1276, and was also noted by Marco Polo as being the most magnificent and prosperous city he had ever encountered, far surpassing anything in Europe at the time. Hangzhou is home to a couple of Unesco World Heritage Sights, most notably The West … Continue reading Hangzhou
Suzhou is an historic city about 30 mins on the train from Shanghai, known as the "Venice of the East" for its ancient canals and waterways in the city. It was founded over 2,500 years ago and is famous for being a UNESCO World Heritage site and also for it's traditional silk production. There are … Continue reading Suzhou
I'm a big fan of Chinese food, but this will be a mixed bag of a review - mainly because I didn't try too much local food while I was in Shanghai - it was either fried chicken feet or exceptionally greasy. I also feel like I didn't actually eat that much as I was … Continue reading Shanghai Food
I had the day to myself to explore Shanghai as Lucy was in Uni, so I rented a bike using the AliPay app and spent the day cycling through the city. This is the route I took on the Monday. On Tuesday, I got a bike and cycled to sights north of the city (1933 … Continue reading Shanghai
As with any new location I go to, I tend to research some great cocktail bars that I want to check out. I made note of a couple of bars that I wanted to see while in Shanghai, but I hadn't expected to visit as many as I did.. oops! Bar Eirekey Back in February, … Continue reading Must-Visit Cocktail Bars in Shanghai.
We had a week off in mid June so decided to booked a 'camping' holiday in France. This was initially due to be our first holiday in Europe with Eoin so we thought going camping would be a good week away for him (and us). Logistics We looked at airports that had a relatively short … Continue reading Sérignan, France
The last couple of years have been a bit quiet travel wise thanks to both covid and two kids! Due to a very last minute booking (4 days before leaving!) we decided to attempt our first flight with two kids (4.5 and 1.5). We got good flights with Ryanair for Sunday - Thursday, so decided … Continue reading Ibiza
While traveling to the US for work, I decided to spend a couple of days exploring San Francisco as I had never been before. After 2 days of seeing the city, I got the train down to Menlo Park to check out Silicon Valley. Axiom Trying to find a hotel in SF was a bit … Continue reading San Francisco
Our first main destination on our road trip was Nashville, and we were all very excited to visit here and check out some music! Hotel Edge Midtown Apartment It was a bit of an ordeal getting into this building. You needed to arrive, call a number on the door, which apparently rings a cell phone … Continue reading Nashville
The Cocktail Tourist 