A Little Escape to Lisbon

Myself and Kevin spent a weekend in Lisbon in October and we absolutely loved it.

How to Get There?

We went on the inaugural Aer Lingus flight from Cork to Lisbon. The flight left on a Friday evening and returned late on Monday so it was perfect for the bank holiday weekend and we didn't need to take any time off work for it. 

Where to Stay?

Lisbon had a few surrounding towns/suburbs that are accessible by tram. We tried to stay as close to the Avenida da Liberdade as possible as everything seemed to be in walking distance from there. We stayed in an Air BnB called the Lisbon Gloria Apartment and it was perfect. It was in an ideal location, lovely inside, reasonably priced and the hosts were great with information on Lisbon.

What to Do?

Ponte 25 de Abril

Visiting this bridge is a must!!!! It's similar to the Golden Gate bridge and it's incredible to see. The views are fab and we really enjoyed sitting down next to the water looking at it.

Torre de Belem

The Belem Tower is a must see! We got a tram to it and it was lovely! We didn't go inside but admired it from the outside :P It looked lovely with the water behind it.

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

The Monument to the Discoveries is a fab sculpture that is definitely worth seeing if you're visiting the Belem Tower as they're very near each other. We also viewed it from the top of the museum across the road which was definitely worth it - there was literally no one else there so we had all the view to ourselves!

Bairro Alto

We loved the graffiti walls of Bairro Alto and it was so close to our apartment. It had loads of insta worthy backdrops which was ideal :P the whole area has some gorgeous graffiti that I'd definitely recommend you go and see.

See the Trams

Lisbon is famous for it's little trams (especially Tram 28 which still runs). There's loads around the area as Lisbon is very hilly so it's a great way to get around though they are incredibly crowded as they're so small!

I'd definitely go back to Lisbon and maybe visit Sintra next time (I've heard it's fab). It's been great having new routes added to Cork airport!

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.

Primark SS18 Collection Preview

Hey guys!

As you've probably seen from my Instagram and Snapchat, I was invited to Dublin to view the Primark Spring / Summer 2018 collection this week. It was absolutely fab and it was so lovely to get chatting to some new bloggers as well as catching up with bloggers I've previously met.

SS18 has lots of mustard vibes which I'm loving. I've really been loving mustard these last few weeks so I'm happy it's staying. Other trends seem to be stripes, reds, denim and mules (yay!). I took a few pics of the collection and the event itself so I said I'd put them all up here. I can't wait for these to start arriving in stores from next month!

Summer Outfits - Orlando Edition

I know it's a bit late to be posting about summer outfits now but I figured it's better late than never, right?! I posted a few pictures of some of my outfits on my Instagram while I was away but I thought I'd share them here too. Some stuff is old so I'll add links where possible!

White Ruffle Top Savida for Dunnes

Jumper Penneys (old)

Bag Michael Kors (old)

Jeans €19 

Playsuit €14

Shoes Penneys

Bag Kate Spade

Shorts €14

Earrings €4

Top Boohoo (old)

Sandals, Sunglasses & Bag Penneys

Dress Boohoo (old)

Bag DKNY

Sliders River Island (got them during the summer)

Earrings €4

Top Penneys

Shorts €15

€9 (in pink)

All Penneys

Jumper Zara Kids

Shorts Dealz (what?!)

Sandals Penneys

Mustard and Grey - The Perfect Autumn Combo?

Hey guys! I know it has literally been FOREVER!!!!! I've been so bad with blogging lately :( I kinda didn't know what to write about, lost motivation and we were obviously on holidays for most of a month so I've been deep in post holiday blues since :P Since we've come back I've been mad writing some posts so I'm definitely more motivated now but would love to hear suggestions for blog posts so please message me on any of my social media accounts if you have any ideas.

I'm also in the middle of writing a blog series on Orlando. As most of you probably know, we've been to Orlando on our holidays for the last 5 years. We get asked so many of the same questions that I thought I'd finally write a few posts that'll hopefully answer them. I'm almost done so I'll start posting them soon. Anyway moving on to this post...

Last week, my sister graduated from college. I didn't know what to wear and bought this dress (currently on sale) to wear around Christmas as I thought it'd be perfect for that time of year. I had bought another dress for her graduation and the morning of the graduation I changed my mind and went for this mustard one :P It's not normally a colour I'd go for but I have to say I love it. I did go down a size in it as it was quite a big fitting. I also picked up these grey shoes on sale the day before and had no intentions of wearing them with this dress. I didn't think they'd be a great colour combo but when I tried them on together I loved it. I also had a long grey coat over it too which matched the shoes.

Escaping to Sunny Salou

A few weeks ago, myself and Kevin headed off on our third trip of the year. The last two trips, Paris and Munich, were very busy trips with lots of exploring and sightseeing so we wanted a break away in the sun where we would do nothing but relax! Searching through Ryanair and Are Lingus websites, we found relatively cheap flights that worked around a weekend to Reus. We chose to go to Salou (we actually were there about 6 years ago too) as we knew we'd be guaranteed to have a total chilled out weekend.

How to get there?
We flew with Ryanair direct from Cork. We flew out on a Friday evening at about 6.30pm and arrived back into Cork Sunday night at about 11.30pm. This was ideal for us as it meant we didn't need to book any extra time off work.

Where to Stay?
We were initially booked into one of the Port Aventura Hotels, Hotel Caribe, but Alpharooms ended up overbooking us and we were left to find a new hotel 4 days before we were due to travel. Not ideal considering 91% of the hotels in Salou were already booked out. We ended up staying in Hotel Dorada Palace which was gorgeous. It had two pools plus a rooftop pool, a bar, restaurant, games area, entertainment and was just a short walking distance to beach and local bars and restaurants. We had a gorgeous room with a huge balcony that overlooked the main pool and entertainment stage.




What to Do?
For us, this weekend was just a chance to unwind and do nothing! Of course Port Aventura was nearby and there was plenty of waterparks but doing all of those would have meant we'd be doing the opposite of what we booked the trip for which was to relax. We basically spent the whole two days lying by the pool which was total bliss! In the evenings we just strolled along the beach and by the local shops.

Where to Eat?
Breakfast in the hotel was included in our booking so we had a continental breakfast there each morning meaning I didn't eat very much there :P For lunch we chose to eat in the hotel's poolside bar just so we didn't waste some of the afternoon venturing out looking for a restaurant. For dinner, we actually ate in two restaurants that we loved when we visited there 6 years ago. The first was Robin Hood's which is a UK bar. It looks a little tacky from the outside but the food was great. We both had Tikka Masala and although it wasn't as enjoyable as we remembered it was still really good. The second night we went to Spaghetti House for some gorgeous pizza. It was absolutely amazing and I'd definitely recommend it.

Although it was a very short trip, it was so lovely to just completely relax. I honestly felt like I had been away for about a week! We vlogged the trip too so you can watch that below!