TRAVEL DIARY: BARCELONA

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Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city, with activities that really allow you to see both it's old and new faces. Most notably, the food in Barcelona is to die for. They take so much pride in their restaurant culture, and it shows. The restaurants never seems to be catering to tourists or basics, so we never really felt like we wandered into a tourist trap--something that can happen more often than not in large European cities like Rome, for example. Bourdain has said that Spain has surpassed Italy and France in the food scene, and I may have to agree (despite my father being Italian and French being my favorite cuisine).

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TRAVEL DIARY: AMALFI COAST

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If the Amalfi Coast is anything, it's photogenic. Driving on the cliffs may be a little bit terrifying, but each turn leads you to another view even more beautiful than the one before. In Positano, take a tiny boat to one of the isolated beaches along the shore, and end your night at Music on the Rocks. For a day trip we took the ferry to Capri, where a little boat took us on a beautiful private tour around the island.

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TRAVEL DIARY: ISTANBUL

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Istanbul is a beautiful crossroads in many different ways--east meets west, old meets new, classic meets modern. We were lucky enough to visit with one of my closest friends, Ferrah, who happens to be Turkish. Her family gave us some great pointers on where to stay and what to do beforehand, and once we arrived they welcomed us with open arms and plenty of advice to guide us. It was so nice to have a local's perspective on such a big city.

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TRAVEL DIARY: GREECE

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Greece is one of those places on everyone's bucket list, and it actually lives up to the hype. For our first time visiting Greece, we did the common loop of Santorini, Mykonos and Athens. You can take a ferry to and from each of these places, however, I thought both the slow boat (too slow) and fast boat (too cramped and nauseating) were pretty awful. Had I known how easy it is to fly between Athens and the islands, I would have chosen to do that instead--Aegean Air has a ton of flight options. Santorini is one of the most extraordinary, gorgeous places ever. 

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TRAVEL DIARY: CROATIA

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Croatia achieves the incredible feat of weaving it's history and architecture into the landscape of daily life, and it does so beautifully. It is a majestic-feeling country that really blew me away--there were so many places to see and things to do, all within a relatively small area. We did a bit of a grand tour of the country, visiting Dubrovnik, Hvar, Split and the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Both Dubrovnik and Split are ancient, stunning cities built within the confines of enormous walls. Hvar was my absolute favorite--it is an island close to Split, where you can board a ferry to get to the island. Summer is peak season in Hvar, which is a bit like the Hamptons of Croatia.

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TRAVEL DIARY: PARIS

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Bold statement: Paris is potentially the only city I could live in aside from New York. It seems as if the whole world (and frankly, quite a few Parisians themselves) are overly obsessed with the idea of "being Parisian." How many damn articles can there be on dressing like a Parisian girl? But I have to give the city credit--nowhere feels as effortlessly chic as Paris. Befriend a local and ask where they like to eat and go out (ask "parlez-vous anglais?" first, s'il vous plaît). In an old, established city such as this it's easy to get caught up in the endless list of touristy "must-sees." But in Paris, history is all around you--there is no need to constantly seek it out.

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TRAVEL DIARY: PANAMA

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Panama has so much to offer. In Panama City, the five star hotels are beautiful and very reasonably priced, and I could have spent hours wandering into boutiques and grazing at the restaurants in the trendy/elegant Casco Viejo neighborhood (not quite in the same area as those mega-hotels). The city is such a fascinating contrast of new luxury and hip development, right beside the numerous slumlike apartments and gray, industrial shipping ports. 

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TRAVEL DIARY: BARBADOS

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Barbados is a stunning island, and unlike many other islands in the Caribbean, the food is really fantastic--a huge plus for me. I much preferred the quiet, rustic eastern side of the island to the very developed west side. However, the beautiful isolation of the east is less convenient from the airport, and the roads are not well paved. Whichever you decide, just don't go with your husband during football season, lest he make you sweat through an entire non-airconditioned Sunday in the only bar that plays American football.

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TRAVEL DIARY: PATAGONIA

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The photos speak for themselves. No one would argue that I am a tree-hugging hiking type of gal, but the landscape here is absolutely worth getting a little down and dirty for (for the most part--note my feelings in the photos below). If you want to visit when the area is on the warmer side, plan your trip from November to March. We visited in March and the temperatures were in the 60s. Patagonia spans the southern tip of both Chile and Argentina. We rented a car at the airport in Argentina, drove the few hours across the border to Chile, then back over to Argentina. Please note: this was completely insane. GPS and cell phones do not work in the area, the signage is nearly nonexistant, the gas stations are hundreds of miles apart from eachother, and many of the roads are little more than dirt or gravel. We had to follow a paper map like in the 1700s. Most hotels should be able arrange this trip for you via bus or van.

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