48 Hours in Edinburgh

Last month myself and Kevin spent a weekend in Edinburgh. It was our first time visiting Scotland and Edinburgh has always been on our travel bucket list.

How to Get There

We flew with Aer Lingus Regional (yes the propeller fellas!) from Cork to Edinburgh. I was a little anxious when we first sat in the plane as it's tiny but once we were settled I was fine so don't let that put you off! The flight left at about 7pm on Friday and took about an hour and a half. We got a late flight home on Sunday at around 9.30pm.

When we arrived in the airport we got the Airlink Bus to Princes St which was really cheap.

Where to Stay

After staying in an apartment in New York we decided to do the same in Edinburgh. We stayed in Fountain Court Braid on Thistle St which was a great location. It worked out around the same price as hotels for the 2 nights and it was lovely.

What to Do

We decided to do the Hop on Hop off Bus Tour to see most of the city which you can prebook online here. This was great as Edinburgh is a small enough city so we were able to see lots of sights and get off wherever we wanted.

We visited Edinburgh Zoo and loved it! Although I have to say I've never seen so many hills in my life!!!! But the views are worth it once you reach the top. The highlight for us was seeing the Pandas. They were the CUTEST! Apparently they sleep most of the day so we were SO lucky to see them playing outside and eating their bamboo. The zoo also had Koalas which were adorable and the usual animals like tigers, zebras and monkeys. It's definitely worth a trip if you're in Edinburgh.

We visited Edinburgh Castle although we didn't go into it. We climbed up the hill to it and the views are fab. I have to say though we were a little underwhelmed when we reached the top but I think that's because we had seen the views gradually as we walked up. 

We also visited The Elephant House cafe where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. We also went to Tom Riddle's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard which is where JK Rowling got the inspiration for Voldemort's character.

We did a bit of shopping on Princes St but to be honest they had most of the same shops that we had here. I did go to Superdrug and got some make up and got a few bits in Primark.

Since the weather was gorgeous while we were there, we went and got ice creams and sat in Princes St Gardens which was lovely to just chill out in whilst still being really close to the city centre.

We visited the Old Town of Edinburgh which was gorgeous. Lots of people playing the bagpipes and there was a great atmosphere around the place. We also popped into St Giles' Cathedral which was gorgeous inside.

We found the 2 days plenty in Edinburgh. We saw loads but weren't ran off our feet either. Hope you enjoyed reading this! Now it's time to start planning our next trip!

New York State of Mind

Hey guys!

It has been FOREVER since I last posted a blog post on here! I've been so busy lately and kinda lost my blogging mojo so hoping to get back into posting more regularly over the summer.

As some of you may know if you've been following my social media, myself and Kevin headed to New York back in March to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. It was our first time there and we absolutely LOVED it! I would absolutely 100% recommend it to anyone and we will most definitely go back there again. I decided to write a blog post giving you all the info on our trip - who we flew with, where we stayed, what we did etc.

How to Get There

We've been to America the past 5 years and have always flown from Dublin to clear immigration before arriving in the U.S. For this trip, we decided to fly from Cork via London Heathrow which meant we wouldn't clear immigration until we landed in JFK. Honestly, it was so much easier than travelling to Dublin. Last year in Dublin we spent almost 3 hours queueing in immigration and it was so bad that security were calling people for certain flights to skip the queue as their flight was about to leave. Doing immigration in New York was a breeeeeze! I expected long delays but we were through it and had our bags collected within half an hour. We flew with Aer Lingus to LHR and Virgin to JFK. This was our first time flying with Virgin and so far they're the best airline we've flown with - comfortable seats, friendly staff and really good food.

Where to Stay

We decided to get an apartment since we were going for a week. I wanted a serviced apartment to play it safe. These are basically apartments but with the same facilities as hotels e.g. housekeeping, reception etc. We stayed in Stay AKA Times Square and loved it. It was more expensive that other hotels but we wanted the extra space to chill out in the evenings and also since it was a special occasion we didn't mind spending a bit more. If we were to go back to New York, I would absolutely stay here again. The apartments were SO nice and just around the corner from Times Square. You can see our apartment tour vlog here. 

What to Do

We did the obvious tourist things to do while we were here since it was our first trip. We did the 9/11 and Ground Zero Tour which you can book here. We really enjoyed this tour and I'd definitely recommend taking a trip here - it's so surreal. 

The Occulus is also nearby which is definitely worth seeing - the architecture is amazing!

We also walked around the different avenues and streets of New York and visited the Rockefeller Center. We didn't do Top of the Rock but we did spend a bit of time in the area. 

We took a few trips to Central Park and managed to even get one day of snow there which was unbelievable. Central Park is huge but it's so gorgeous. We loved just strolling around there.

We decided in advance not to do Ellis Island but we did take the Staten Island ferry which is free and passes the Statue of Liberty. It takes about 25 minutes each way but is a nice way to see the Statue of Liberty without having to go to Ellis Island.

We also walked along Brooklyn Bridge which I highly recommend doing. We got the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn and then walked along the Brooklyn Bridge back towards Manhattan. The views of the skyscrapers are unreal and the bridge itself is gorgeous. 

We did lots of shopping which we hadn't exactly planned on doing! We went to Jersey Gardens shopping mall which was about half an hour on the bus from Manhattan. The mall itself was only ok but I did get a great deal on bags in Michael Kors so it was worth it for that! We went to Macys on 34th St (where Miracle on 34th St was filmed), Century 21 (similar to TK Maxx), Apple (surprise surprise) and then the usual shops we have here like Zara and H&M. 

So that's it for this post! I absolutely LOVED New York and hopefully you enjoyed reading this post! Would love to know what other type of posts you'd like to read so I can start writing some more!

Travelling to Orlando - Restaurants

Hey everyone! Following on from my previous Orlando posts, I'd thought I'd share a few restaurant ideas for when you're in Orlando.

Antojitos - Citywalk
Of course this is going to be my number one recommendation! If you've been following us on social media you'll know that we LOVED this place and we ate there so often that the staff began to recognise us (oops!). It's a Mexican restaurant in Universal's Citywalk that does the most DELICIOUS food ever! If you're into Mexican food, this place is a must! The fajitas are my fav and Kevin also loves the burritos. The salsa there is literally LIFE (I've contemplated just asking for tortilla crisps and dozens of bowls of salsa it's that good!!!).

 

Red Oven - Citywalk
Red Oven is a gorgeous pizza restaurant also in Citywalk. They have gorgeous pizzas and I'd highly recommend it. The Big Eye Pepperoni pizza is DELISH!

Aashirwad - International Drive
We found this Indian restaurant on our most recent trip to Orlando and LOVED it. It was the most delicious Indian food ever and the staff are lovely. The restaurant was recently renovated so it's very modern inside.

Shake Shack - Florida Mall / Eye of Orlando
We ate here for lunch when we were at the Florida Mall and it was actually lovely. The restaurants are really nice inside but the food is definitely more of a lunch option than a dinner option. It's not the nicest food ever but it wasn't terrible either! We both had burgers and chips and really liked them. The one at Eye of Orlando looks gorgeous inside so I'd definitely recommend that one.

Uncle Julio's - Eye of Orlando

We ate here once and I'll admit we had very high expectations that it didn't quite live up to. It's another Mexican restaurant but we personally preferred Antojitos. It's a gorgeous restaurant inside and the food wasn't bad but we just preferred Antojitos.

These are just a few restaurant recommendations in Orlando. There's obviously lots of fast food restaurants and hot dog / burger places too so I tried to give a few other places that might be nice to try out.

Travelling to Orlando - Theme Parks

Today's post in the Travelling to Orlando series is all about the theme parks - can you even go to Florida and not do the theme parks?!

I'm going to focus on tips and tricks on the following parks:

• Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure
• Volcano Bay
• Magic Kingdom
• Busch Gardens

Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure

These two parks are probably our favourite parks; mainly because I actually do most of the rides there :P As we stay in one of Universal's on-site hotels we get early park access before it opens to the public so this is a good chance to do any of the busy rides (not all are open). Staying in the on-site hotels also means there's free transport to the parks making your journey time very short.

Universal Studios is mainly made up of 4D ride simulators whereas Islands of Adventure has more thrill rides. In Universal Studios my favourite rides would be the Escape from Gringotts, The Revenge of the Mummy, Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. I only really like Spiderman and King Kong Reign of Skull Island in Islands of Adventure as they're about the only two I do :P

When going to the parks we always download the Universal app to keep an eye on wait times (there's free wifi throughout the parks).

If you're planning on doing a long day there, I'd recommend getting the refillable drinks cup. For an initial $15 you can refill your cup for free for the rest of the day. If you're returning to the park another day, you can bring the same cup with you and reactivate your free refills for only $8. You can also refill for free between these two parks and Volcano Bay.

We get a 14 day, 3 park ticket while we're here as it's the best value for us. It's one ticket that gets you entry to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay. We used always get our tickets from Attraction Tickets Direct (they post out your tickets to you) but the last two times we've gone we've actually used Travel Republic as they've been cheaper (they email you your tickets which you need to print out). I think this year they worked out at about €184 each. I think if you go to just one park for more than 2 days you get your value so it's definitely worth looking into if you're planning on doing the 3 parks or visiting them on multiple days. The multi-day tickets at the parks can be quite expensive so compare their online prices to the 2 week passes to see what's cheaper.

Volcano Bay
Volcano Bay is a water park that just opened earlier this year. We really enjoyed it when we were here however I didn't do a single slide while I was there :P a lot of the slides are tube type ones and I get really claustrophobic so opted out of those :P I did go on the lazy river (how thrilling!) and the Fearless River which Kevin had initially told me was the lazy river and I absolutely nearly died on it (as well as losing my Tapu Tapu and almost half my bikini!). After I got over the initial shock of my near death experience (yes I am 100% exaggerating), I did manage to go on it a few more times and actually enjoyed it :P

Volcano Bay also has a gorgeous wave pool with the volcano as it's backdrop which looks amazing (serious instagram ops!). There's lots of sunbeds too which is nice but we always tried to get one right at the front to avoid the sand :P

The water park has introduced a virtual queue to minimise the time standing in line waiting for rides. You're given a Tapu Tapu which looks just like a watch. You tap your Tapu Tapu on a station outside the attraction and it tells you how long you have to wait to ride. It'll vibrate when it's time for you to go to that attraction which saves you waiting in line. Kevin used it a few times but still ended up queuing for about 20/30 mins which is annoying. The Tapu Tapu also only allows you to be in one virtual queue so if it's a busy day you may not get the chance to do many of the attractions. Some of them have a rid enow option which is usually when it's quiet. This means you don't need to get in the virtual line and you can just go straight into a normal queue for the ride.

The food options for us weren't great as most of the food contained egg which Kevin is allergic to. We stayed in Cabana Bay which had it's own private entrance to Volcano Bay so it was only a 2/3 minute walk to grab some lunch there and head back to the park again afterwards (not ideal if we weren't staying in Cabana Bay!). Again we got a refillable cup here for $15. We didn't know at the time that we could have used our Universal one and re-activate it for only $8 but we figured that out soon after! Again, like Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, you can use this cup in all 3 parks on the same day for free.

Magic Kingdom
We've only been to Magic Kingdom out of all the Disney parks. We've been twice and have loved it both times. As it's a bit further out from the International Drive area, we usually do a full day trip here (which can be really long!). Both times we went we used Mears transfers which we booked through the hotel. We bought our tickets in the park (roughly about $100 each) as we were only going for one day. If you're looking for multiple days, try the above websites where we got our Universal tickets from as it'd work out cheaper.

Magic Kingdom is great for all ages. It has rides to suit everyone and the park itself is just gorgeous. The castle is amazing and it's definitely worth staying for the night show at park closing. The fireworks display is brilliant.

Both times we visited Magic Kingdom, the weather was the hottest it had been throughout our holidays! The queues for most of the rides are outdoors with no shelters or air conditioning so it does get really hot so make sure to bring lots of water and pocket fans (trust me these will be your life saver!). If you're staying for the full day bring lots of drinks and snacks (Mears collected us at about 7am and we didn't leave until after the show which was after midnight) as it's a pretty long day. We also went to Disney Springs for lunch which is nearby for a break! There's a few shops, pubs and restaurants there so it was nice to just take a break from the park for an hour or two.

Busch Gardens
This theme park / zoo is located in Tampa which is about an hour's drive from Orlando. It has mainly thrill rides so it's not the best theme park to go to if you don't really like rollercoasters! It also has a zoo so there's lots of cool animals to see too! Kevin loves this park so it's definitely worth a visit if you like rollercoasters.

Busch Gardens does free shuttle buses to Busch Gardens. They collect you from various points in Orlando depending on where you're staying. We got picked up and dropped off at Universal which was handy. We booked it through our hotel's concierge / park ticket desk.

They also have a refillable cup that can be used on the day of purchase in Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Adventure Island and Sea World, similar to Universal.

Right that's enough about theme parks! Hope this will be useful if you're contemplating going to Orlando or if you're trying to decide what park is best for you. If there's any more info you need email me or contact me on my social media.

Travelling to Orlando - Accommodation

Hey guys! Today's post is all about hotel recommendations for Orlando. I'll talk about the different hotels we've stayed in and what areas are best to stay in.

Areas to Stay in?
This will definitely depend on where you plan on basing your trip around. If you're mainly focusing on Disney then Lake Buena Vista or Celebration are probably the areas to look for a place to stay in. If you're looking to stay close to the Universal parks or SeaWorld then I'd recommend International Drive (it's big so where to specifically stay will depend on where suits you best).

Who to Book With?
I always start by searching on Trivago which is a price comparison website for hotels. It basically gives me the cheapest site to book from and I'll go with the sites that I've used before. Simple!

Enclave Suites - International Drive
This is a pretty basic hotel on International Drive. We stayed here the very first year we went as it was cheap and in a good location. It is in the middle of International Drive and about a 25 min walk to the Universal parks. The pool is really small and we never used it - we used the water park as our pool and base for during the day. The rooms are pretty basic but they did have a kitchenette and a fridge so we had the option of cooking if we wanted to which was handy. There are plenty of similar hotels on I-Drive that are really affordable and are great if you basically only want a place to sleep.

Rosen Shingle Creek - Universal Boulevard
This is a huge step up from the Enclave! We stayed here the second year we went to Orlando and it is so fab! It has it's own golf course, spa, outdoor hot tub and four pools (one is adults only). It has fifteen dining/lounging options so plenty of choice. It also has two tennis courts, a basketball court, a volleyball court and a nature/forest trail. It was so luxurious and we loved it. The only negative we had was the location wasn't great. It's fine if you're renting a car but if you're relying on public transport there's a bus that comes only during restricted hours and literally goes the opposite direction to Universal so the trip takes about an hour as opposed to about 15 minutes if you were to drive. We'd definitely go back here for a spa/chill out weekend or if we were able to drive!

Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort
We've stayed here the last three years and love it. It's one of the Universal on-site hotels. Each standard room has two queen sized beds, wardrobe, safe, bathroom with bath and a separate sink area which is handy to get ready at when someone else is in the shower! One thing you should definitely buy if you stay here is the refillable cup. I think it was about $21 each for a cup that you can refill for free for the length of your holiday so it's such good value and there's so many drink options.

It's not the fanciest hotel but we really enjoy it. It has two pools and one has an accompanying lazy river (bring tubes / rings etc. with you as you can use your own; they sell them there too but not sure of prices). They also supply towels to use by the pool so you don't need to bring loads or worry about them being dry for the following day.

Staying in any of the on-site hotels gives you Early Park Admission (EPA) meaning you can get entry to the parks (selected rides in there) one hour before it opens to the public so this is great to avail of so you can do the rides that have really long queues or make your way to them if they're not operating during EPA. There's also a free shuttle that brings you to the parks that runs about every 10/15 minutes.

Staying specifically in Cabana Bay means there is a separate walking entrance to Volcano Bay water park (room key required) and it's literally like 2 minutes from the hotel which is fab.
This hotel is roughly about $100 a night so it's not the cheapest or most expensive hotel. They have a Bayliner Diner which has a variety of food options e.g. burgers, pizza, salads, flatbread etc. and a huge seating area for you to enjoy your food in. They also have microwaves which is handy if you choose to bring your own food (there's a Walgreens shop about a 15 minute walk away).

That's a general guide on the hotels we've stayed in. If you have any questions that I didn't answer here then let me know :)

Travelling to Orlando - Flights & Transfers

Hey guys! The first post in my Travelling to Orlando series is all about flights and transfers.

Do your Research:
When it comes to booking our flights, the first place I start is Skyscanner. This is a price comparison website that basically gives you a variety of flight options to choose from. You can filter by airline company, price, flight times, layover length etc. Obviously price is a big factor but I always take into consideration layovers and how long they'll be and justify the price against the waiting times then. I also make sure to Google the type of aircraft to see if they have individual entertainment screens. We assumed all long haul flights did until one year we got caught and had no entertainment for 9 hours!

Direct or Indirect?
We've done both! Aerlingus go direct and I have to say it is definitely nice to just know the next time you're getting off is at your destination and not have to wait around in another airport for a few hours. That being said, Aer Lingus can often be way more expensive and so going indirect may be the better option. I always keep an eye on their sales! They also had really great flight times - departing Dublin at about 2pm and departing Orlando at about 8pm returning meaning you have a full day on your last day.

We've gone indirect 3 times with United, U.S. Airways and Air Canada Rouge. I'd recommend United and U.S. Airways no problem but we had a really bad experience with Air Canada Rouge and I personally wouldn't fly with them again because of that.



When we go indirect, we always make sure the stopover is somewhere in America so you can clear customs in Dublin (much quicker than in the U.S.). I also always look at the layover time - we've never had a layover of more than 3 hours; something to keep in mind as some can be 7 or 8 hours (sometimes overnight). Also be careful as some layovers make you change airport in the state you're flying into so that's worth checking too as you may not have time to collect your bags, make your way to the other airport and re-check in.

How Much?
Well obviously that depends on the time of year you fly and who you book with. We've always gone in August / September as the parks are much quieter. We paid roughly about €1300 for the return flights for the two of us with Aer Lingus. When we've travelled indirect, we've paid as little as €950.

Transfers?
We travel to Dublin airport from Cork using the Aircoach. For transfers from Orlando airport we use Mears Transportation. We pre-book this online for about $60 return. It's a shared shuttle service but they organise everyone who are staying in hotels near each other so it never takes too long.

That's pretty much all for flights and transfers; if I've forgot anything then please let me know! My next post in this series will be all about accommodation in Orlando.