Travel Q & A
1. What’s the most memorable trip you’ve ever taken and why?
As of right now, Switzerland was unbeatable. Japan was incredible, but the company for Switzerland was top tier (haha), plus we got engaged!
2. Have you ever had a trip go completely wrong? How did you handle it?
The worst thing that I have had happen on a trip was the first time me and Austin flew to Boston. We got to the airport around 5am and the power was out. Planes were delayed until it was restored around noon, and we were told that if your plane was at the gate from the early AM flights, then you would still fly out. Except one of the flights. Ours. I was already annoyed at the convenience of the power being out and then to find out one flight out of the group that was already at the airport early that morning was ours and it was canceled. First world problems. We just booked a later flight to NYC (there was nothing going to Boston for the day) where we ended up renting a car and driving to Boston! it’s now one of those funny stories, but at the time, I was definitely put out. Compared to other peoples horror stories, this was absolutely nothing.
3. What’s your go-to travel hack that everyone should know?
I feel like I really don’t have one? If I had to suggest something that has made my packing easier, it’s definitely making a list of items I know I want to pack leading up to the trip, so that I spend slightly less time packing.
4. Do you prefer solo travel, group trips, or traveling with a partner? Why?
100% with a partner. I have never traveled solo, so I can’t speak to that. But traveling with just Austin is the best. He is down for whatever and I never have to worry about doing something he doesn't want to do for that reason. If he doesn’t want to do something, or I think he might not like it, we communicate about it. He even does his own research and will let me know things that interest him. It just works so smoothly.
5. What’s your favorite underrated travel destination?
At the time that I visited Japan, it definitely felt underrated. And now look it! The amount of people that realize that Japan is phenomenal has definitely increased in the last 10 years.
6. Which city has the best food scene in your opinion?
Tokyo.
7. Have you ever experienced culture shock? How did you adapt?
Japan was a huge culture shock and surprisingly easy for me to adapt to. They are extremely clean and organized, which is not something I’m unfamiliar with (haha). They’re much more reserved, much kinder and considerate of those around them. My best advice ALWAYS before a trip, especially an international one, is to do a little research - other than things to do and things to eat - on the people and the culture to familiarize yourself with beforehand. It’ll help you not be a typical American tourist (lol).
8. Is there a bucket list experience you’ve checked off recently?
My most recently experiences to check off my lengthy bucket list was our recent “New England road trip during the fall” and attending a “Boston Celtics Playoff Game” + “the NBA Finals” (which we were at Game 5, that they won - unforgettable).
9. What’s your ultimate dream travel destination?
Currently, the Italy trip we are about to do in October. Can not wait!
10. What’s your favorite way to document your travels — journaling, photography, or vlogging?
Photography AND journaling! I wish I liked being in front of the camera for vlogging, but I just personally prefer being the one taking the photos or videos vs being IN them.
That’s a wrap for this weeks Q & A. Let me know what else you would like to see!
So, where to (next), Meg?
February Favorites
Goodbye February…hello March. Hello warmer weather and flowers in bloom. While I love spring, I am not ready for it to become sweltering hot prematurely as it does here in Louisiana.
February was a chill month, but here’s some of my favorites from the month:
Taking my co-workers photos of her and her boyfriend.
Celebrating my best friend’s birthday!
Acquiring tickets to The Weeknd in August. This will be my very first concert; I did say that he would be my first concert, so here we are!
Not going to lie that I can’t stop thinking of Kendrick’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl. Iconic.
Alex Bregman to the Red Sox!
I’ve been in a documentary/docu-series mood lately, so I finally started the F1 Drive to Survive series, as well as finishing the doc-series about the Beckham’s and FINALLY The Last Dance!
Favorite book of the month: Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Blogging has definitely taken a backseat lately, as I haven’t had anything particularly riveting to share. And I could always share honeymoon planning details, but I want to save that for either during our trip and afterwards.
Where to (next), Meg?
January Favorites
Hello February! Already in the second month of 2025…no big deal. One month closer to our elopement + honeymoon!
January was busy, especially the last week and a half. Here are some exciting things from the longest feeling month of the year:
Flights for our elopement/honeymoon have been acquired! Hello, Delta One.
Wedding dress = check!! It will be coming in about six months from now, and hopefully I won’t need much alterations.
Colored my hair for the first time in practically 10 years. Since I’m already getting gray hairs, I was not about to embrace them at the age of 30 (in two-ish months!) and I’m now a very dark brunette. No more natural hair color!
The Weeknd dropped his last album (as The Weeknd), so here is a fun fact about me: he is my favorite artist. On top of that, the tickets for his tour went live for presale today. So those have been acquired now too. Happy early birthday to me!
We had an actual snow day here in southern Louisiana! Talk about beautiful. It was hilarious to see how my two dogs reacted so differently to it; the older, Louis, wasn’t having it, while Remy, who is just aa few months over a year old (and from Canada), was absolutely loving it!
Onyx Storm, the third book in the Empyrean series (or Fourth Wing series), released perfectly over the snow day, so I quickly devoured it as fast as possible. I need the next book pronto! This was for sure my favorite read out of the 10 books I read in January.
And of course Lunar New Year, which I get to celebrate with Austin and hi family since they’re Vietnamese.
That’s a wrap for January!
What am I looking forward to in February? Honestly, there currently isn’t much going on for it. I do need to start looking for Austin’s tux for the wedding. We have to get our wedding bands and shoes too, but those aren’t quite as pressing.
So, where to (next), Meg? Definitely Dallas in August for The Weeknd. Ha!
See you next week!
January + 2025 Goals
Remember last month, when I said that my goal was to renew my passport? Well, check that off! And it already arrived maybe a week ago now. Even my old passport was sent back to me, which was a pleasant surprise.
Now let’s hear it for those 2025 Goals:
read 100 books
I’m not specifically on a book buying ban again, like I was last year, but my physical TBR pile is basically the same as it was at the start of 2024. Maybe even slightly bigger… So I really should BUY LESS BOOKS. Seriously. The exception will be for new releases that I’m highly anticipating that I also already have a list written down for…
write for at least one hour a day. got to get this book written, you know!
eat healthier! (less restaurants, fast food, alcohol, junk food, less hot fries!)
start doing cardio again
Of course, we still have our elopement/honeymoon to look forward to in October. Flights? Just checked those off the list. Hello Delta One. The only hotel we have left to book is Forestis and then our Milan stay for one night. Venue? Done. Photographer? 85% done.
My specific goals for January:
Book hair appointment
Buy plane tickets for elopement/honeymoon
Dress appointment
All of these are done. My hair and dress appointment are at the end of the month, but they’re essentially a done deal. Got to hide these gray hairs that want to make appearances before my 30th year.
Who am I kidding? They’ve been here for a few years already…
Stay tuned for next month and what wedding planning goals we may have for February!
2024 Recap
After some holiday time off from the blog, I’m back! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday time.
And now, for my highlights of 2024:
Travel + Leisure reaching out to use one of my photos in their magazine (an iPhone photo at that!). And of course, in June, when the issue finally came out!
Getting our second dog, Remy
Made the first deposits on our elopement venue and photographer
Shipping up to Boston to see the Celtics win the NBA Finals. This was my #1 moment of the year.
I read 122/75 books.
Our New England fall road trip, where we ended up seeing the Northern Lights while in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Started booking hotels for our honeymoon
Visited Broken Bow with my girl friends!
Working more on my book
Now for my favorite books of 2024:
Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Funny Story by Emily Henry
The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson
City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck
Haunting Adeline by H. D. Carlton
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
2024 was great but I’m certain 2025 will be even better!
Where to (next), Meg?
November Recap & December Goals
How is it already the last month of the year?! This year has truly flown by and that just reiterates the fact that my honeymoon in October will be here before we know it! But I won’t get into a 2024 recap just yet, instead focusing on saying goodbye to November:
Wicked finally hit theaters. Me and Austin gave each other our Christmas gifts immediately after they were delivered. The delicious southwest soup is back at Chick-fil-a. Renaissance Festival. Broken Bow girls trip. Meeting my best friends baby! Two birthday dinners for friends. Booking some of our honeymoon hotels. Outlander returns! Thanksgiving. And lots and lots of reading.
Now my goal(s) for December: Freaking renew my passport!!!
I also need to get our Christmas tree, finish Christmas shopping and to book a wedding dress appointment for January-February.
November was great. So here’s to December!
Where to…Next Year?
As of yesterday, I have officially booked our first spot for our elopement/honeymoon in Italy! This is just the first place that I’ve booked and not the actual first two days, which will be spent in Milan.
Where, you ask? At the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como. It’s actually very close to our venue that we will be eloping at, which played a big part in my selection of this hotel, although there were a couple others I was very strongly considering.
Another thing I loved about it besides its proximity to the venue: it’s Wes Anderson inspired vibe.
I also booked our stay in Florence, the Tuscan countryside and our Positano hotel. That’s not all yet, but the only ones I have reserved for the time being. Hopefully we will book our flights within the next month or so!
I would start counting down the days if there weren’t so many! At least it’s under a year now!
Getaway Cabin
Well, they’re called Postcard Cabins now.
A month ago (literally), when we checked out of ours in Blake Brook, New Hampshire, they were still branded as Getaway. I’m still very curious about the name change.
Anyways, here is what we thought of our first Getaway/Postcard cabin experience:
Don’t book it if you’re hardly going to be there, if you bring two dogs and too much stuff, and if you’re staying a week.
Now don’t get me wrong, we still enjoyed the place, but we were always leaving around 8am every day to chase the fall foliage around New England and returning well after dark. There was not a single day where we just stayed in the cabins, doing absolutely nothing. And we certainly didn't unplug; I was constantly editing photos, shifting through them and then posting on Instagram before bed. Of course it’s not a requirement to unplug, but a lot of the advertising behind these cabins certainly promotes it. We just aren’t that type. I didn’t even read a single page the whole trip (including the car ride!), even though I brought three books! We are the type of travelers that are always on the move, so I really should have figured out beforehand how little we would actually be spending at the cabin itself.
As for bringing two dogs…the boys are both medium-sized dogs; Remy is still small and considered a puppy since he is only a year old now. But with the limited space (and how much we had stupidly packed), having two rambunctious dogs hopping around made everything an obstacle course. The fridge was also too small (not their fault) for a weeks worth of our dogs fresh food; thank goodness we had brought an ice chest. We truly enjoyed having them there with us, but next time, I could either see us going without them compltetely or maybe actually packing less for once…
Staying a whole week, while inexpensive to other options we could have chosen, wasn’t the best idea for us having as much stuff as we did - although unpacking and repacking the car every time we switched hotels would have been another beast entirely. This was our home base for the week we were in New England and since we don’t mind being on the road, even if it includes lots of driving, we didn’t mind staying in a somewhat centrally located area to places we wanted to visit. Minus Bar Harbor…
On the plus side (since all of the above were objective complaints), it was still a very cute and cozy space despite everything. My only wish was for stronger water pressure but that was still understandable in a tiny cabin like that and we made it work; at least we never ran out of hot water!
Our lessons learned for next time: we won’t be bringing the boys, excess stuff OR staying for a full week. We actually want to enjoy it the way it was supposed to be enjoyed! Just a couple days of actually unplugging, doing some reading and writing, maybe watch movies or shows. You get it. But the funny question is can we actually do it? HA
So where to (next), Meg?
November Update
Hello!
I took a couple weeks off post-New England road trip, not having anything travel related that I specifically wanted to share.
You may be wondering, “Where to next, Meg?”, but honestly we don’t have anything planned until our honeymoon next October - and as of right now, we can’t even book the flights for it. The only thing that is set in stone so far is the venue and photographer; we will probably start booking flights and hotels around February.
I am going on a small girls trip with my best friends over Thanksgiving, where we plan on reading, reading and more reading.
Other than that, literally there are zero travel plans until next October!
So, where to (next), Meg?
New England Fall Road Trip
We went back and forth with our decision a lot in the beginning.
And then we were like…
Fuck it. Money comes and goes, but your time won’t.
So we started planning (finally!) our New England road trip to see the fall foliage.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Loaded up the car and left the house at exactly 6am. A tad bit later than we had initially planned, but even with a 25 hour drive ahead of us, we were still leaving the early for our 3pm check-in for Sunday.
Sunday, October 6
Surprisingly didn’t read a single moment of the 34 hours we spent on the road - but we made it, a little after 4pm, which was just an hour after our check-in time. The colors on the drive in….when the sun started rising again, we were driving across New York State, but the colors were much more vibrant once we got into Vermont and New Hampshire.
The boys did SO GOOD the whole ride, staying cozied up in their little enclosed car seat. Every time we stopped for gas, we would take them out to potty and get water.
We can not wait to explore New England in the fall!
Monday, October 7
Day one! We slept in since it was raining - and we really needed the sleep, then it was on the road again!
First things first, fresh apple cider donuts and apple cider, before driving up to Conway to start the famous Kancamagus Highway. The moods though, since it was a rainy day! It was cold and super cloudy, making for great photo conditions.
We got pizza for dinner at Vinnie’s in Concord, bringing it back to our cabin to eat there since we have the dogs.
Tuesday, October 8
Day two! Once again, we drove the Kancamagus Highway, since the weather was beautiful and clear, then headed for Artist’s Bluff for a hike! Dixville Notch was also on my list of things to do, but by the time that we completed the hike, we weren’t going to have time to drive the remainder of the way and do that hike as well before the sun-dropped.
Wednesday, October 9
Vermont day!! I was highly excited for this day in particular, because we would be visiting the quaint town of Woodstock for the first time - as well as returning to the little northern town of Stowe. The weather was spectacular once again, after that first rainy day. Leaves were falling everywhere and it was a chilly 50 degrees.
Every day we tried to start as early as possible, hitting the road from our Getaway cabin right before 8am. The drive to Woodstock was supposed to be about an hour and a half.
We found street parking easily, getting the boys out and into their stroller, and walking around the quintessential fall town.
We visited the covered bridge in the middle of town, did a bit of light shopping at the book store and then got a late breakfast at Mon Vert Cafe, which was so busy! Luckily we were able to grab outside seating with the boys.
On our way out of town, we stopped at a farmers market on the outskirts, where Austin picked up a few different pumpkins and a local craft beer for me to try later on.
After taking mostly beautiful backroads up to Stowe, we first stopped at the famous Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Their cider? Absolutely delicious. But their apple cider donuts were mid; plain instead of coated in the usual sugar. We loved the cider so much though, that we stopped by again on the way back home from driving around Stowe and then up to Smuggler’s Notch.
We couldn’t get over the colors from this particular day!
Thursday, October 10
Maine bound! I packed us an overnight bag because our plan was to stay the night in Bar Harbor to give us plenty of time driving up the coast of Maine.
Our first stop was in York, to visit the Nubble Lighthouse and get our first lobster rolls of the trip from Fox’s Lobster House which is literally in the parking lot right in front of the lighthouse. We walked the boys around, ate our lobster rolls with a view and then it was back on the road.
We drove through a very busy Kennebunkport, before stopping at the Portland Head Light, our favorite lighthouse that we had visited almost exactly five years ago to the day. It was much busier this time around, since the first time that we had visited was close to 8am. The wind and waves were much calmer on this visit as well.
Then it was on to Bar Harbor, another three hours in the car, but so worth it; we always have the best conversations on the road and love getting to sightsee together.
As we finally drove on to Bar Harbor island, we noticed a bunch of people pulling over on the side of the road and looking up. Austin looked up from the drivers seat, saying that the sky looked pink.
I gasped and immediately had him pull over as well. Scrambling to my small camera bag at my feet, I began hastily removing my smaller prime lens, replacing it with my “big boy” lens, a 70-300mm lens, my 1.4x teleconverter connected to it. I was in such a hurry it capture them before they disappeared, that I didn’t have the right settings on my camera to capture them at their best, so instead I whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone 16 pro max, which captured them beautifully. How the heck?!
I still can not believe that we managed to see them! Nonetheless that my iPhone was capable of capturing them so effortlessly.
After we decided to get back on the way, we checked into the West Street Hotel, ordering lobster rolls and a lobster grilled cheese to go from a nearby restaurant called Testa’s, eating it in the hotel room with the boys. Such is the life of bringing your dogs with you on vacation!
Friday, October 11
Our 7 Year Anniversary! Seven years of dating, two engaged, and one more year remaining until we get married. We always make a big deal of our anniversary, and why not?! We love love and our love for each other will always come first.
We started our morning at Otter Cliff not too long after sunrise, soaking in the beautiful view of the
Atlantic stretching out before us. We checked out of our hotel, walking around the town of Bar Harbor and along the Shore Path, before we headed to the Bass Head Light.
Afterwards, it was our mission to get to Red’s Eats in Wiscasset for our next lobster roll. We got in the lengthy line at 3pm, waiting two hours and 20 minutes for a very much worth it gigantic lobster roll. They are supposedly the best lobster roll in Maine! We definitely loved it, that is for sure.
Maine is a state that we know for a fact we will certainly return to, so anything we didn't get to do, we will be back to do it!
Saturday, October 12
I made the mistake of choosing this day for us to visit Salem. We had been before — on that trip from five years ago, actually visiting on a rainy Halloween. It was utterly packed, the traffic awful even long before we made it into town. So never again! Although I was glad that this wasn't our first experience.
But ending the day at Orchard House in Concord, was the redeeming point of the day. Little Women is one of my top five favorite books (and I absolutely adore the movies). This was the house where Louisa May Alcott wrote the famous novel and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to finally visit.
Sunday, October 13
We packed up the car and checked out of our Getaway cabin, heading straight to Boston for a nice chunk of the day. From 10am-5pm, we walked around the park, Newbury Street, and Beacon Hill with the boys, soaking up the time walking them in the Public Garden, which has always been our dream! We would have loved to visit Contessa, but having the boys made that impossible; we instead got our favorite place for lobster rolls in the city: Lobstah On A Roll. Stopping in Boston was the perfect ending to the road trip, although I wish we would have been able to stay longer.
I hope you enjoyed my journal-style brief retelling of our trip. I tried to keep it up-to-date daily — and still have so many photos to edit from the trip. We weren't even supposed to go on this road trip this year, but decided almost last minute that we couldn’t possibly wait at least two years before getting the opportunity again. Next October we will be out of the country on our honeymoon, so it certainly couldn’t be then.
So, where to (next), Meg? Most likely nowhere until our honeymoon, but who knows!
Where to Switzerland - Day 13 + Day 14
Our last two days in the beautiful country of Switzerland.
Of course, we woke up in Italy at Forestis, but it was our check-out day. After one last amazing breakfast downstairs in the dining area and in our beloved booth, we made sure we had everything packed and check-out of an unforgettable stay.
We hadn't been in Zurich since the day we landed in Switzerland, immediately picking up our rental car and driving on to Lucerne and Iseltwald. Now, we were going to have a short day-and-a-half there - which I know is not nearly enough.
It was about a five hour drive from Forestis to Zurich. We reached our AirBnb along Niederdorfstrasse around 3pm, leaving us plenty of time to drop off our bags and explore a little of the city. We window-shopped along Niederdorfstrasse and then the famous Bahnhofstrasse.
I found a sushi restaurant, called Nooch, that had swings for the seats, so that is where I directed us for dinner.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to have a full last day. There was a lot on our list but we decided to take it slow, doing a lot of walking and sightseeing. My main objective was to visit the Oktoberfest festivities happening nearby and get a pint of German beer in celebration, which we succeeded in checking off.
We also did a little shopping, then found a pho place for a late lunch. The weather was beautiful, so it made for a perfect day to people watch while strolling around the city. My favorite spot was along the Limmat, where we could sit and bask in both the view of the Grossmunster church and the Fraumunster church across the river. At the end of the day, that is where we watched the sunset, reminiscing on such an unforgettable trip.
Where to (next), Meg?
Where to Switzerland - Day 11 & Day 12
Even though we were in Italy for about three days, whenever I reference this trip, I always say “Our trip to Switzerland.”
On the morning of Day 11, we had breakfast ordered to our room. What a great way to enjoy the view from our balcony than with a splendid breakfast spread.
After, we drove to the picturesque church of San Giovanni. It was only 35 minutes away, but due to the mountain roads, signal was just about nonexistent. Luckily, getting us back to the hotel wasn’t too difficult as it was a pretty straightforward route and thankfully I had been sightseeing out of the car window, so was anklet recognize certain buildings to help us along. Note for future mountain trips: Write down or screenshot the directions. Don’t let this happen again!
Upon returning to the hotel, we had lunch and drinks on the downstairs terrace.
We had a couples spa appointment that we spontaneously scheduled at 5PM, the most blissful experience we have ever had, with time enough make it to another delicious dinner afterwards!
For dinner: carrot salad, grilled veggies with mediterranean smoked swordfish, cream soup with wild herbs, potato dumplings with mussels, local salmon trout with courgettes, a cappuccino and brioche with dark chocolate and olive oil for dessert!
Day 12
We had slept on the bed on the balcony the night before, waking up to the cool autumn air and a gorgeous sunrise over the mountains.
For our last full day in the Dolomites, at first we were planning to go to Lago di Braies (much further away than San Giovanni), but after the previous days navigation near mishap, we opted to stay at the hotel to enjoy the amenities for the last full day there.
Starting off with breakfast down in the dining room where dinner is held, but help buffet style. The whole time of your stay, you have an assigned seat in the dining room for dinner and breakfast, so we cozied up in our normal spot with cappuccinos and our breakfast.
We ordered lunch up to the room. More caviar and the tagliolini again (that makes me think of spaghetti because of the color and the long noodles).
A lot of lounging in the room, consisting of me editing photos, before we decided to hit up the saunas again. Our favorite was the outdoor Pine sauna; it smelled divine, plus getting to walk outside for the few feet that it is from the main building was a glorious shock to the senses after the heat of the sauna.
Then it was finally time to get ready for our last dinner: potato mille feuille with South Tyrolean farmhouse bacon, poultry broth with herbal roulade, creamy risotto with organic suckling pig and rosemary, roasted veal saddle with parsley and wild thyme, and for dessert, ice cream with wildflower honey.
After that decadent stay…. where to (next), Meg?
Where to Switzerland - Day 10
The day we left Appenzell and drive to Italy for the next three nights! So technically, isn’t it now “Where to Italy”? This particular post will only cover the first night.
After breakfast at the guesthouse, we hit the road for Italy, stopping once over the border into Austria, which is surprisingly close to Appenzell, to purchase a particular toll-tag that we had read about for our upcoming journey. Does this mean I can officially cross Austria off the list?
We also stopped at a CoOp grocery store down the street to grab some snacks, including fresh pretzels, Starbucks Discoveries to-go coffee and special edition Red Bull’s that I have never seen in the States.
It was four and a half hours on the road before we arrived (around 2:30pm) at our stay for the next three nights: the dreamy Forestis, a boutique wellness hotel in Brixen. Since staying here, they have actually received two Michelin-keys, a new rating by Michelin specifically for hotels.
We checked in, receiving complimentary drinks while our luggage was brought upstairs. Once given our key, we headed straight up to the room, soaking in the breathtaking views of the Dolomites.
We toured our room, then we decided to wander around the beautiful property. After seeing the majority of it, we returned to our room to switch into swimsuits to enjoy the pool and many different saunas. The pool was mostly indoor but with a sliding door to reach the outdoor portion. We couldn’t get over the views!
Back in our room before dinner, we fixed cups of tea from the beverage station, went out onto our balcony and lounged on the chaise (that we ended up sleeping on one night!), drinking our tea with the sunning view as the sun started to set.
Dinner was spectacular. They switch the menu daily and use fresh ingredients from the region. This is something we constantly daydream about to this day, that’s how great it was and we are so glad the we chose the half-board option when booking our stay, which meant our dinners were included in the price, anything we added on at dinner would just be additional.
We had alpine beef tartare, a cream soup with Jerusalem artichokes, risotto with mountain pine and mountain trout, a homemade potato ravioli, deer saddle with black cabbage and Kaiser pear, a filet of alpine beef, and South Tyrolean apple with soya yogurt, stone pine and rosemary for dessert. It was the best dinner I think we had ever had.
After dinner, perhaps a bit buzzed off the bottle of Dom we ordered, I sat down to edit some photos while Austin passed out in the plush bed.
Everything about this place was a dream. And we thought the Backstage Apartment in Zermatt was our favorite! We have been dreaming about our return ever since. And this was only the start of day one!
Where to Switzerland - Day Nine
Our full day in the Appenzell region.
People on Reddit, when I had shared my itinerary for the full trip for advice, said we could’t do it, but we managed to see the Aescher AND hike Saxer Lucke in the same day.
We started with the closer of the two, taking the steep gondola up with only a short hike from the gondola station to the famous Aescher restaurant. This hike can be much longer , but for the sake of doing both of the hikes in one day, we only hiked to and from the restaurant. Next time, we vow to eat there.
After taking the gondola back down, we spontaneously grabbed ice cream at a nearby stall and then we hopped in the car for the 40 minute drive to the station in Sennwald, to go up to the start of the Saxer Lucke trail.
At the top of the gondola ride was the Staubern guesthouse, complete with a restaurant. We decided to grab lunch (and more coffee) before beginning our hike.
This hike was much longer than the previous one - and slightly more precarious. We had long since chosen to hike the 6km route (2.5 hours there and back) instead of the much longer 17km full loop (that I am assuming the people on reddit thought I was planning to do, although I had specified).
Not going to lie, when we got back down from our hike and my post-hike beer, we were not looking forward to the cuisine served for dinner at the guesthouse we were staying at. Instead, we looked up the nearest McDonalds!
Where to Switzerland - Day Eight
Leaving Zermatt was bittersweet. We listened to the town church bells ringing as we finished packing and I had my last coffee. It was just so charming of a town, but we were still excited for the next stop on our trip.
Goodbye to the gorgeous view of the Matterhorn. Back on the train we went, down from Zermatt and back to Tasch, where our rental car was waiting in the parking garage.
It was about a five and a half hour drive to our next destination, but we did have two very exciting stops along the way that I specifically made the route for so that we could visit them.
Only two hours from Tasch, we stopped at the Gelmerbahn, a mountain cable car with quite a steep incline. A lot of videos on instagram present it as this super fast rollercoaster, but it actually is SO SLOW!
After riding the Gelmerbahn up and then back down again, as is the usual, we got back in the car again to head to my favorite part of the day, driving the famous Furka Pass. We actually had to drive on the Grimselpass to get to the Gelmerbahn, so we back-tracked to get back on the main route and get to the Furka Pass, which only took about 30 minutes.
The Furka Pass is a winding, hairpin-turn mountain pass at nearly 8,000ft that you may recognize from Goldfinger, another James Bond spot! There is also the abandoned and picturesque Hotel Belvedere near the western summit of the pass that is very known in the photography and Wes Anderson-fan world. We were lucky to get to visit before the road closed for the winter season.
From the Furka Pass to our stay was another three and a half hours of driving, not including the traffic we got stuck in. There was lots of driving this day but we live for it! Plus, Switzerland is unreal; the time in the car seemed to fly by with all the sightseeing we were doing along the way.
Finally, just before darkness completely fell, we arrived at our cute little hotel/inn in the gorgeous hilly countryside of Appenzell. I wish that my German was better, even though I hadn't been practicing Swiss German specifically. We had a traditional Swiss German dinner in the hotels restaurant, before heading up to bed with a long day of hiking ahead!
It was crazy to think that we had already been there for a week at this point!
Where to (next), Meg?
Where to Switzerland - Day Six and Seven
Two full days in Zermatt.
On the first full day in Zermatt (Day Six of the trip), we took the Gornergrat train up to the summit and observatory, a total of 5,264ft above sea level. Up there, it was obviously much colder, with everything covered in snow. We were really lucky with such clear weather conditions.
On the way back down, we stopped at Riffelsee, a famous lake that tends to create a legendary mirror-image of the Matterhorn on its surface. Clouds started rolling in at this point, so I couldn’t quite recreate the desired image, but enjoyed the beautiful view and chilly air nonetheless.
We went grocery shopping back in town, spending so much time simply wandering the aisles. We also picked up chocolate from the famous chocolatier, Laderach - as well as dinner from McDonalds of all places… I used to never eat McDonalds on international trips, but when you’re absolutely sick of cheese dishes a week in…you switch it up. Especially considering McDonalds nowadays tends to offer different menu items in different countries - AND taste better, like here in Switzerland. So we brought back our groceries, chocolate and McDonalds, and ate on our balcony.
After eating, we decided we wanted to check out the apartments communal hot tub and sauna. Austin even took a cold-plunge in the pool. When it got too dark to see the view any longer, we headed back up to our apartment and popped open a bottle of champagne we bought at the grocery store.
The next day, we ordered quite the breakfast spread up to our room.
Then we rented e-bikes, taking the trail up to Sunnegga. The plan was to bike around the Seven Lakes hiking trail, but some of those inclines/declines with those bikes… we were struggling, so we rode them back down, returned them, them took the gondola back up the mountain so we wouldn’t miss our lunch reservation. Personally, we enjoyed the e-bikes the best along the streets of town and on the main trail up. Once we tried to veer off, it was chaos.
Back to those lunch reservations. We had lunch at Chez Vrony, a Michelin star restaurant with a spectacular view of the Matterhorn.
After lunch, we hiked downhill to see the Valais black-nosed sheep I had been searching for since arrival. I was living my Disney princess life.
We got gelato back in town and then hit up the hot tub and sauna again at the apartment. Our legs were already feeling that e-bike ride, plus the amount of hiking we had ended up doing.
I was super sad to leave our place in Zermatt, but I know for sure that we will be back. Hopefully for Christmas some year in the future?! We were of course looking forward to what else lay ahead.
Where to (next), Meg?
Where to Switzerland - Day Five
I woke up before sunrise so that I could watch it rise over the French Alps and Lake Geneva with my coffee in hand. When I say that I could have stayed there forever, I mean it! I would absolutely love a little house that size with that kind of view to stare at in awe daily. Unfortunately, it was nearly time to go, so we finished packing up what we had pulled out the night before, and hit the road. Thank goodness we had rented a car, because it truly made having all our luggage so much easier than packing it onto a train. Even the trains can’t get everywhere, so we still would have needed to transfer to a car to get to our AirBnB. Renting a car for this trip was a great decision that we have zero regrets about.
So we left our beautiful AirBnB in Puidoux and started driving toward Zermatt, first stopping very shortly down the road at a French bakery Austin had found the night before. We had a 3-hour drive ahead of us, so needed to fuel up our bellies. We didn’t stop again until about half way when we finally needed to fuel up the car - the first time so far of the trip for us to do so. And the cool thing about the CoOp “gas” (most cars are actually diesel here) station we stopped at, was the connected CoOp supermarket and a whole shopping center. Of course we took the opportunity to explore and grab some snacks, something we couldn’t have done with a rental car. We grabbed some snacks and Swiss chocolate, as well as coffee and a Monster Mule energy drink, a flavor we had never seen in the States.
You may or may not know, but Zermatt is a car-free town. In order to get to Zermatt, in our case, we had to park in a parking garage at the train station in Tasch before taking the train up. For the next three nights, we would be staying in the quaint little village with the Matterhorn looking over us.
We had decided it wouldn’t be necessary to bring all of our luggage up (we literally brought one large checked luggage, two carry-on sized luggages, plus a backpack for Austin and one for me total for the trip), so before getting out of the vehicle, we packed the things we knew we would need for the next 3 nights into less and then of course, we brought our ever growing snack bag.
The Matterhorn greeted us, as well as someone from our hotel, waiting for us at the train station to shuttle us to our stay in an adorable little electric mini truck, these being the only type of vehicle allowed in Zermatt besides mini construction vehicles. Where we were staying? The Backstage Vernissage apartments, specifically the blue apartment, with a bit more room than we needed just the two of us but also with a jaw-dropping view of the Matterhorn. After setting our things down and settling into the apartment, we decided to go our to explore the village before our dinner reservation.
Our dinner was at the main Backstage Hotel building, closer to the train station and center of the village than our apartment. We had caviar, bone marrow, ceviche and salmon, to name a few delicious dishes; it was quite the fine-dining experience and a nice change from the traditional cheese dishes of Switzerland.
Where to (next), Meg?
Where To Switzerland - Day Four
We woke up one last time in our Lauterbrunnen AirBnB, packing up the last few items before setting out for our next location: Lausanne and Lavaux.
Part of the fun is all the sightseeing we get to do simply from the car. We started passing watch manufacturer’s the closer we got to Lausanne, passing by Rolex and Cartier.
We stopped in Lausanne to visit a restaurant owned by someone related to Austin’s cousin. Unfortunately, they were closed, but there was a pho restaurant nearby that we went to instead. It was a nice change in cuisine, because yes, we were already getting tired of all of the cheese dishes! At first, Austin was nervous because the menu was in French (we were now in the French-speaking part of Switzerland) and Vietnamese - which he can’t read. Luckily, I reminded him he could still speak to our waitress in Vietnamese and then all was well.
After lunch, we carried on to our wine tour in Lavaux. We definitely want to return to Lausanne to spend more time there in the future, but my priority for this trip was a wine tour. I must say it was overwhelming planning this part, but after a lot of research, I choose the Lavaux Vinorama tour. It was a walking tour that took us up-hill through the nearby vineyards overlooking Lake Geneva - or Lac Leman. We stopped in the little historical village of Rivaz where we sat around a table with our tour guide and one other couple, tasting a few different wines. Wine is not Austin’s thing, so I ended up drinking his share.
We had even more wine once we got back too the main building, but this time with a tray of cheeses to go along with our drinks. I’ve lost count of the Swiss wine already.
Luckily our AirBnb was surprisingly close by! I’m still in love with the thought of it. The view! It lives rent-free in my mind always. It overlooks the vineyards and the vast, crescent-shaped Lac Leman, the mountains of the French alps just on the other side.
Where to Switzerland - Day Three
We woke up early on our first morning in Lauterbrunnen. Truly this was our only full day in the quaint little town. The reason for waking before sunrise? We were going to be taking the nearby gondola up to the Schilthorn PizGloria viewpoint - and the James Bond restaurant and experience that it includes. I am a James Bond fan, so I really wanted to see and visit the spots in Switzerland that were in some of the movies. This one just happened to be at 10,000ft with a spinning seating area that allows you to take in 360-degree views of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. We lucked up with quite a clear morning.
After we had breakfast and explored a little bit, we took the gondola back down, stopping in Murren. All of these towns accessed by gondola are typically car-free, like Murren and Wenger that we will visit later in the day. We walked around Murren, soaking in the beautiful fall colors.
Back down in Lauterbrunnen, we dropped off what we had carried with us that morning and headed for the train in the center of town that takes you up to Wengen. From there, our plan was to hike back down. We had contemplated renting bikes, but biking UP to Wengen would have been a bit advanced for us. This was another breathtaking, car-free town, bathed in autumn colors. There was a specific shot of the Lauterbrunnen valley that I wanted to capture from this hike down, but I will also plan to stay in a hotel in Wengen on our next visit, it was just so stunning.
Tip: I have had my Doc Martens that I wore for this day for so long (since autumn 2019) and either they still aren’t broken in, or they just aren’t a shoe you want to be constantly walking downhill in… Even though I had actually brought my hiking boots on this trip!
Once we got back down into Lauterbrunnen, we both had to rest our feet before dinner. We did make a trip to the town CoOp before settling on the couch of our AirBnB for an hour.
For dinner, we headed to the Silberhorn restaurant for the best pizza in town, recommended to us by our AirBnB host, Angie. It really was the best. I also had my first Aperol Spritz, even though we weren’t in Italy… And the best part, besides the lovely view from our seats of the Staubbach waterfall, was us getting engaged by the end of the night!
Where to (next), Meg?
Where to Switzerland - Day Two
We woke up not long after sunrise at our adorable chalet in Iseltwald. It was a foggy, overcast morning, so the moods were a dream for photography.
We went down to have our first breakfast here in Switzerland — think lots of charcuterie type offerings, although there was cereal as well among some other typical western breakfast offerings — choosing a table right by the window so that I could constantly look out at the Seeburg Castle as the sky somewhat lightened. Then we walked along the lake for about 20 minutes before heading back in to pack, check out and get on with our day.
After checking out of our hotel, we visited the nearby dock in town where one of the famous scenes from Crash Landing on You was filmed. Then we drove to Grindelwald!
From Iseltwald to Grindelwald, it was only about a 40 minute drive. Honestly, it was difficult to help Austin navigate because we were constantly sight-seeing, our mouths on the floor of the car. Upon arriving in Grindelwald, we parked in a parking garage near a CoOp supermarket, which we entered to pick up water, snacks and a Red Bull (our first time seeing the Fig Apple Winter flavor) for the hike. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to browse their grocery stores to see the unique offerings and the way they organize, etc. Austin fell in love with this too, this being his first international trip.
Finally, we headed to the gondola station to head up to Grindelwald First and start today’s activity - hiking up to Bachalpsee. At least the views from the gondola were so breathtaking that it distracted me from my fear of heights. Although Austin found enjoyment at shaking the gondola…
The hike took us about 3.5 hours total. There was a part of me that was slightly bummed by all the fog on the hike, (you should see the pictures out there when it’s clear: it’s unbelievably breathtaking), but the other half of me was obsessed with the moody shots and vibes that the fog offered. It cleared up slightly at the Bachalpsee lake enough for me to get some cloud shrouded photos of the mountains. We had stayed for a while, having lunch while waiting for the clouds to clear enough, before heading back.
We were going to take the First Flyer (a zipline!) back down the mountain, instead of the gondola, but 1) the line was SO LONG, 2) it then started raining, which helped with the line until they closed down the zipline… So we took the Trottie bikes down instead, which we have zero regrets about. They were FAST! More than occasionally, I stopped to take pictures of the beautiful scenery as we decended, especially when I saw cows!
Back in town, we choose a random restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner to have our first fondue (cheese AND chocolate) in Switzerland. We had bratwurst again, but I also tried something new and known for in Switzerland: raclette. So much cheese!
After, we found our car and drove to Lauterbrunnen, where we would be staying in an AirBnB for the next two nights. We explored the village a little bit before sunset after checking in, visiting the “famous picture spot” that everyone thinks of when they think of Lauterbrunnen. Okay, maybe not everybody… After we got a few shots there, I noticed a small group of photographers set up on the edge of the nearby train bridge, so we joined them! They were waiting for the growing darkness to capture the illuminating Staubbach Falls.
What a magical first night.
Swiss wine count total: 3
Where to (next), Meg?