a lifestyle, family and travel blog
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!
After typing up our Safari experience, I decided to break it into two posts because each leg is pretty unique. If you haven't already, be sure to read Honeymoon Part II: Tanzania Safari in the Serengeti before diving into this post as it provides more context on how/when we arrived in Tanzania and our first few days on Safari. We traveled with andBeyond for both legs and absolutely loved our experience in the Serengeti. For more details on our trip to Ngorongoro Crater, keep reading!
As I mentioned in my original post about Planning a Safari in East Africa, there's really not much to do since the Safari company you select organizes the entire thing [at least that was our experience]. We simply provided a rough budget, ideal travel dates, where we were coming from and where we were going after and andBeyond did the rest! It really is ideal for a honeymoon since so much planning goes into the wedding and reception. Read more about our experience on Safari here.
Another oldie but goodie from the archives! I figured I'd share because it's been exactly almost five years since my three girlfriends and I visited the island of Puerto Rico. Plus, since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory it's one of the few places open to American tourists right now. Without rereading the post first, the most memorable things from this trip include, the colorful and charming town of Old San Juan, snorkeling with sea turtles and sting rays on Culebra Island, beautiful Flamenco Beach [also on Culebra Island], the strangely good Chinese food at Tayzan and the tasty acai bowls from Bajuice Juice Bar. Read on for more details!
![Vancouver, British Columbia [Canada]](https://karavallari.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/img_2993.jpg?w=720)
Sadly, American's are still not able to cross the boarder to Canada at this time. But if you ever get the chance to visit Vancouver, it's a beautiful city filled with so many fun activities and delicious restaurants. It's been a few years since I visited but many of the staples haven't changed.
I can't believe it's been four years since I last visited Seattle. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to live in Seattle. People think I'm crazy because of how gray and rainy Seattle is said to be. Our trip was really no different but I just love the Pacific Northwest. I spot checked and most of our itinerary still seems relevant so hopefully it's useful if you ever find yourself up that way.
We just got home from the most incredible anniversary trip to Oregon! The Pacific-Northwest has long been a favorite destination of mine and Kevin has never been so it seemed like the perfect getaway to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. Of course we're also in the midst of COVID-19 so we needed to find a destination that would allow us entry without a quarantine period coming from Chicago.
September 2018 - A Wedding Celebration in Budapest! Our most recent trip to Budapest was short & sweet [again]! We flew over to celebrate the marriage of a dear friend over Labor Day Weekend in 2018 [only three weeks before our own wedding, a little crazy in hindsight]. It was an incredible four day event [...]
Finally getting around to writing up our most recent [recent = three years ago] trip to Florence. I guess that's what happens when you come away from the trip engaged and moving to California - LOL! I believe this was my third trip to Florence but also my favorite because we had the chance to explore some of Tuscany which is absolutely beautiful. I always "joke" with Kevin about wanting to retire there on an old vineyard one day. I'd say he's still warming up to the idea.
My first trip to Canada was to celebrate the wedding of our dear friends, Zrria and Jon. Although the actual wedding was in Kitchener, we extended our trip to explore Toronto, a city very similar in size and makeup as Chicago.
KARA VALLARI 