Mikey Travels

TOP 5 Pastas I had in Europe😋🤤 This was so hard to decide on😂 I miss the pasta already

FOOD REVIEW: Pelekanos, Santorini, Greece. This place was amazing, it was probably our best meal of the whole trip. The food, the atmosphere and the sunset view were incredible. For appetizer, we got saganaki which was so good although much different (and better) than the kind I’m used to in America! We also got dolmadakia (grape leaves)😋 The lemon cream sauce over top was delicious! For our mains we did a lobster linguine and a grouper linguine. The seafood was SO fresh and the portions were huge! Not sure how we had room for dessert but we did the baklava with pistachio ice cream. This is a much better option in Oia for sunset than trying to pack the street with hundreds of other people all trying to get the best sunset photo😩 Make a reservation and GO! Highly recommend!!🤤

NCL Viva Ship REVIEW: this is Norwegian’s newest running ship and it’s beautiful! I really did love this ship and it had so many great things however there was one huge negative. The biggest positives I felt were the rooms and the food. The rooms and bathrooms were very big for a mega cruise ship and the balcony with comfortable chairs was awesome. Plenty of storage and everything seemed very functional in the space. The food was also awesome😋 They have a new concept called Indulge which led to a smaller buffet but this food hall was much better than a buffet in my opinion. The food hall has several different small restaurants and you simply sit down and order from any of them off a tablet at the tables. Everything was brought to you very fast and hot. We went to two speciality dining meals, Cagney’s (steakhouse) and Food Republic (Asian fusion) and they were honestly both amazing. Pretty much all the meals we had in the main dining room were very good as well! I can’t comment much to the buffet as I did not eat there besides a few small things for breakfast but I typically don’t find the buffet food all that good. Another positive was, I felt like there was plenty of space throughout the ship for groups to gather and have a good time! The club was also super fun and big 🍻 The big negative for this ship and which really will impact my overall rating is the main pool deck is SMALL. Smallest I’ve seen by far for any mega cruise ship and although it wasn’t a big deal to us on this cruise, I would see it as a problem on cruises with more sea days. I do not understand why they put in a huge arcade and go kart track instead of a bigger main pool. Those areas are cool and they do have other pools on deck 8 but it did not seem like they were used a lot and really took away space from the main pool area. Overall I give it an 8/10. I will be on her again and I’m super excited to do more on the ship this time. There is a ton to do on here, it’s just too bad they built some of most popular areas SOO small!

Day 17 + 18: Santorini, Greece 🇬🇷 For the end of our trip we decided to be a little more relaxed. This is the perfect island for that. The views and sunset are so stunning that you really don’t have to do much more than take it in from your balcony! There’s countless options for an amazing view here, the pictures don’t even do it justice. We stayed at Absolute Bliss in the town of Imerovigli, which is in between the main, famous towns of Fira and Oia. It’s much quieter snd less busy which worked great for us. The towns of Oia and Fira were both beautiful though and have tons of cool souvenir, decor shops, food/drink options, etc. It was our favorite spot to shop. They are very busy though especially in Oia during sunset time so if you do want to go in summer keep that in mind. We had amazing food here (I will post food reviews soon) and made reservations well in advance when we went to Oia so we had a sunset view without the crowds🤩

Day 16: A little late again but we rented a car from the cruise port and visited the Dolomites before our flight from Venice to Santorini. I love renting a car after a cruise if I don’t have an early flight as you can store luggage and go do something instead of sitting at the airport! Although we ended up in a real time crunch it was worth it😂 These are probably the highest and most insane mountains I’ve ever witnessed. There’s so many cool towns (we stopped in Cortina) and things to do surrounding this massive, vast area of the Italian Alps. A much longer vacation would be awesome in this area🤩

Day 15: Slovenia 🇸🇮 A little late but this was probably the most unique thing we’ve experienced on this trip! We rented a car to Lake Bled and this place literally doesn’t even feel like it’s real. The lake is so blue surrounded by towering mountains and a castle🤩 We rented a row boat and got the explore the little island on the lake. There’s tons of watersports on the lake and hiking around the lake. It’s beautiful and for lunch we had fresh caught perch from the lake that was to die for😋 I didn’t know much about Slovenia but this country is so beautiful and clean!

Day 13+14: Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia🤩 Croatia is absolutely beautiful! We rented a car from Split to go to Krka National Park. It is stunning and very cool that they offer boat rides around the park and to an island which you get to explore and see the church. The cascading waterfalls is the highlight of the park though and is so worth seeing, it’s too bad you can’t swim in it like they allowed before! After dropping the car off we explored and ate in Split. The town is honestly so cool and lively. The views and the food were also great😋 unfortunately on Day 13 it rained most of the day in Dubrovnik so our boat ride got cancelled and we only got to walk the town which was super cool. There’s so much more I could do in Croatia so I’d definitely recommend it for a longer vacation and hope to do one myself someday!

Day 12: Corfu, Greece 🇬🇷 if you love the beach you’ll love Corfu. There’s endless amounts of beach clubs that all look beautiful. We chose Malibu Beach Club in Dassia. The beds were so comfortable and food (especially the hummus 😋) and drinks were great! Fun atmosphere and a clean, gorgeous beach 🏖️

Day 11: Mount (Momma) Etna 🌋 Typically I don’t do excursions with the cruise line but we end up needing to today and it turned out to be really fun. I recommend! They took us up to about 6,000 feet and let us hike an older crater. It was crazy to see all the roads covered in volcanic sand from the recent explosion just a couple days ago. I still wish we got to go higher up and see some more active areas though. We then went to Oro d’Etna Vineyard and they made us a Sicilian lunch including amazing pistachio pesto ravioli and cannolis😋 We also tried some really good wines they make there using the mineral rich volcanic soil 🥂

Day 10: Malta 🇲🇹 We took the ferry over to Gozo to try and get away from some of the busyness. Gozo seemed like we were in the Middle East. Very hot, very dry and deserted but the landscapes were dramatic and stunning 🤩 We rented a quad and got to explore the island, went to some beaches including a cool area with a swimming hole. We took the ferry back over to Malta and explored the capital city of Valetta. Great food and a beautiful island

Day 9: Taormina, Sicily. This was probably my favorite stop of the cruise so far🤩 It had a much more authentic feel and didn’t seem to be price gouged on everything we bought. It was beyond beautiful too with the crystal clear waters below and the active volcano of Mt Etna towering above. We took the train from Messina here and then took a bus to the city center to check out the town and then took a cable car down to the Isola Bella beach area. Highly recommend Isola Bella, it’s stunning and great for snorkeling. You can walk the shallow waters over to the island and explore it as well as it is a marine park. Food was also amazing for breakfast and lunch 😋

Day 7: Florence. We woke up late again😩so we didn’t have a ton of time in Florence besides a cooking class we did. I highly recommend this class though, it was a cool experience and the host was awesome and fun. This was booked on Viator so let me know if anyone would like the link! We got to make two kinds of fresh pasta and tiramisu which all turned out so good😋 The little we did see of Florence was beautiful even though the temperature was 104 degrees today 🥵 The views on the balcony as we sail to our next stop have been beautiful. The sea in the Mediterranean has been so calm 🤩

Day 6 we headed to cruise ship to start our 10 day cruise on the newer NCL Viva. Although the train system is easy to use and works very well in Italy, it definitely is still a process trying to travel from the Amalfi Coast. We took a taxi, train and shuttle to get to the cruise ship😂 The rooms on this ship are the biggest I’ve seen from any mega sized ship🤩 We ate at the speciality restaurant Cagneys for dinner and it was so good especially that shrimp cocktail😋 I will post more about the ship and some of the negatives I’ve noticed once I spend more time on it

Day 5: We took a ferry over to Amalfi and checked out the town and shops and had some amazing pizza at Pizzeria Donna Stella😋 We then took the bus up to Ravello and to Villa Rufolo. Very peaceful up there and the views are unmatched😍 Tried octopus for dinner which was surprisingly so good as was my lobster pasta🤌🏼 Beautiful ferry ride back to Positano during sunset. While I do think Positano is nicer, Amalfi seemed to have cheaper prices and much less stairs!

Day 3: Rome —> Postiano. We took the train from Rome to Salerno and then a beautiful ferry ride to Positano. The landscape of Positano is actually the most dramatic I’ve ever seen which I didn’t think would be possible. Pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice. They call it the Vertical City for a reason, so many stairs everywhere you go😩 We got the most beautiful air BnB though, the terrace is literally heaven😍

Day 2: we made it to Rome at about 730am! It’s now 2am in Rome and we’re still up but got to see so much. I’m not a huge history guy but man Rome is really amazing and the architecture is just insane here. Seeing and learning about some of the most important places in history was pretty cool. I also highly recommend doing a night tour of the Colosseum! Totally different experience as you’re in there with only a few other people😍

Made it to Chicago for our flight!✈️ The drive wasn’t the most fun but I always try to check nearby airports for significantly cheaper flights especially international 📝

What stop would be most exciting for you? Let me know why 😎

Just a sneak peak at some of the lodging we’ll be staying at during our Europe trip😍

Viator is my favorite spot to book activities, excursions, and transfers on my vacations! I booked several of them for my upcoming trip to Europe! They have thousands to choose from. Contact me to help you book or simply use my link below and use code ARCHER10 for an extra 10% off!😎

www.viator.com

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