a lifestyle, family and travel blog
We're back from Turks and Caicos and I'm not kidding when I say it was the most relaxed we've been in almost four years! Between COVID times and "family trips" [not vacations, as the saying goes], it's been difficult to sneak away just the two of us and really disconnect so this time together was much needed and quite special.
We arrived in Paris mid-afternoon via train from Amsterdam Centraal to Paris Gare du Nord [almost 3 hours]. By some miracle, the girls had their best train ride of the entire trip. They played quietly with their toys and then Isla fell asleep without fuss for the entire second half. We also had an almost private car literally next to the baby changing station - win win. The rest of our travels were not nearly this smooth. From the train station, we caught a taxi right out front to take us to our hotel in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris. There we quickly dropped our bags, freshened up and set out to explore Paris.
We are back from what we hope will become an annual family trip to Harbour Island in the Bahamas! This is our second trip to Harbour Island - we were last there in 2019 for our baby moon when I was pregnant with Palmer - and while I'm typically all in favor of exploring new destinations, we purposely chose to go back knowing we were traveling with the girls.
This year we spent Thanksgiving in Sonoma with our families. It was equal parts incredible and difficult. On the one hand, we love wine country, it's our happy place, and we'll take pretty much any excuse to visit but traveling with kids brings a whole new set of challenges - especially in Napa/Sonoma - which is NOT the most kid/baby friendly destination. But we powered through and really had a lovely time creating memories with our family.
We just returned from our first vacation as a family of four and honestly, I'm exhausted - LOL! Trips with kids really aren't all that relaxing but they're rewarding in their own way and it was nice to get out of the city, leave the craziness of selling the condo/buying the house behind and just spend time together before I head back to work. Click here to read our full Cape Cod Itinerary!
We booked this trip last minute, in true Kara fashion, when we realized this may be our only opportunity to get away before the baby arrives. It was a baby moon, family vacation, spring break and a celebration of me going back to work all wrapped up into one trip. We traveled with Palmer and Kevin was working remotely Monday - Wednesday so it wasn't a super relaxing vacation by any stretch but it was a nice change of scenery and a chance to see some sunshine. Click here to find out where we stayed, what we did and our favorite restaurants in Rosemary Beach!
Apparently it's a thing! We just returned from our family trip down to Rosemary Beach and I'm a bit obsessed with this area. I'm planning to share our full itinerary soon but first I want to cover the 30A area of Florida because I had never previously heard of it. Technically, 30A [aka County Road 30A] is about a 20-mile stretch in the Florida panhandle between Destin and Panama City.
This post really highlights how much you can pack into just one day! I'm excited to FINALLY be getting our Rome itinerary down on paper and to be able to share it with you all. To be completely transparent, it's been a few years since we visited Rome and obviously a lot has changed since then but we visited some of the main attractions which are staples in any Rome Itinerary. While visiting them may look a little different these days, they've lasted the test of time and will come through this pandemic, like they have so many others in the past. Continue reading to see our full itinerary!
I'm starting a series I've been wanting to do forever focused on visiting Chicago during the four different seasons. My plan is to highlight different things to do and places to eat that are fitting for that particular season. I've formatted this post like an itinerary and tried my best to remain geographically and logistically conscious since Chicago and it's charming neighborhoods can be challenging to navigate if you aren't familiar with the city. I want these itineraries to represent the best of Chicago and therefore will not being taking COVID restrictions into consideration. Click in to continue reading!
I apologize in advance as this post is super old! I'm preparing to delete my old blog and wanted to migrate all my old travel posts over to ensure I didn't lose any content. For what it's worth, all of the landmarks and restaurants that we visited on our trip are still in operation today. If you ever find yourself in Helsinki or with an extended layover there like us, I standby our itinerary from 2016. Cheers!
KARA VALLARI 