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Fair warning to readers, this post may be tailored to Game of Thrones fans.
When we chose Dubrovnik, Croatia as a destination for our Euro-trip, we definitely were living out our Game of Thrones dreams. We wanted to see King's Landing, touch Blackwater Bay, and visit the House of the Undying. And we accomplished all of those and much more.
For those interested, check out my video at the end of this post. But if you're reading these travel blogs on your lunch break, like I frequently do, here's a reader-friendly version:
1) Looking over the city roofs
Highly recommended - walk the city walls. Cost: 10-15 Euros and totally worth it.
Seen in: almost every episode taking place in King's Landing
Following the route gives you a few different length options, we opted for the longest, at 2km.
2) Mineceta Tower - "House of the Undying"
cost: free
The tower is the site of the filming location for the House of the Undying, seen in Season 2, Episode 10.
3) St. Dominika Street - "Flea Bottom"
cost: free
Although there are many filming locations for Flea Bottom, this particular street and it's picturesque steps is the location for a scene in Episode 5 of Season 2.
*See Video*
4) Pile Gate - "Mud Gate"
cost: free
Walking into historic Old Town Dubrovnik, you step right through Pile Gate, known in the show as Mud Gate. You'll recognize it as the mob scene that tries to attack Joffrey and his buddies.
5) West Harbour - "Blackwater Bay"
cost: free
My favorite location to visit, right up there with House of the Undying (for my Dany fans), was Blackwater Bay. Many scenes were filmed here, including this epic one from Season 3, Episode 1.
6) Lovrijenac Fort - "The Red Keep" locations
cost: 4 Euros
The Fortress is used for several scenes, including Joffrey's name day as well as a critical conversation between Cersei and Littlefinger both from Episode 1 of Season 2.
7) Gradac Park - "Purple Wedding"
cost: free
A little off the beaten path (though only a 10 minute walk from old town), you will find the location of the Purple Wedding from Season 4, Episode 2.
*See Video*
8) Lokrum Island - "Qarth"
cost: 10 Euro/person for ticket to and from island
*See Video*
On the island, we found a small building housing a miniature Game of Thrones museum. Shocked and excited, we watched all the behind the scenes videos and of course posed in the Iron Throne.
If you'd like further explanation and maps of these locations, check out my video!
The highlight of Italy finally arrived in a 100 degree package... Let's just say I may have sweat more in one day than my entire life. And I was standing still.
I think we made a smart choice not going in July and August (although it was still hot) because we didn't have to fight through crowds! The lines existed, but weren't ridiculously long. We were happy tourists!
Day 1
After arriving in the afternoon, we planned the evening to be spent in Vatican City. Just make sure you get there before buildings close (check the times online). So as long as you get there before close, late afternoon has far less tourists and much shorter lines.
Those dressing for hot weather, be warned: to get into St. Peter's and other religious buildings, you have to abide by a dress code:
All pants, skirts, shorts, and other bottoms need to be knee length or longer. However, I did see most guys wearing shorts that hit just above the knee get in - maybe the guards took pity due to the heat.
Shoulders must be covered (no tanks) and obviously nothing cut too low. I saw some girls using scarfs to cover their shoulders instead of changing out of their tanks.
Day 2
Sight seeing day - bring your walking shoes.
It is possible to see all the main sights in one day, with the cost of your feet. If you have more than 2 days in the city, spread out the sites.
We managed to see The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Trevi Fountain (under construction and thus no water...), the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps.
It was amazing to be in a city where monuments were thousands of years old!
Day 3 the boys spent exploring some local areas, a couple more churches, and finishing the laundry. I spend day 3 in bed with some 24-hour bug! Thankfully we were all freshly laundered and healed by the next morning to depart for:
Our stay in Italy would be shorter than France, so we pre-planned a bit more than we did for France. 2 full sight seeing days before we reached Rome were spent in Cinque Terre and a Pisa/Florence combo.
Cinque Terre
I first found out about Cinque Terre on pinterest (surprise, surprise) and fell in love with the photos. I knew I had to go there too. We stayed at a private home we found on airbnb that was about a 30-40 minute drive away. This saved us money and earned us more space in the home.
We drove to the second of the five towns, Vernazza, and parked our car. There's no way to drive into the towns, so accept the parking costs (which actually aren't that bad) and enjoy your day by walking and trains. The trains come and go in each town many times each day and for a low price take you from one town to the next.
For a Tuesday in mid-September, the towns were extremely crowded. I'm not sure what the formula is for avoiding crowds, but be warned...if the ferries aren't operating due to rough waters, the trains will be packed. And I mean shoulder to shoulder to shoulder packed.
Despite the trains, we enjoyed the day in the beautifully colored towns!
While here, I recommend shopping, eating pizza and gelato, and taking in the scenery. You can find hiking trails as well that go between the towns if you're interested in a more athletic day.
Our favorite town was Manorola, where we climbed to the top where a cliff-side restaurant served us afternoon cappuccinos. Can you believe this was our view?
Pisa
The next day, we headed out early for a trip to Florence with a pit-stop in Pisa. Thankfully I was traveling with seasoned Europeans, because they were able to suggest only spending lunch and some photo-opp time in Pisa. Some travelers may disagree, but the crown jewel of Pisa, the Leaning Tower, only takes a short amount of time to see.
It was a nice pit-stop with amazing pizza!
Did we do the standard holding-up-the-tower pic? No...but we had fun people watching those who did!
Florence
A quick drive later, and we were in Florence! Apparently, t-bone steak is a specialty in Florence (who would've known?). We'd had our fair share of baguettes and cheese and were ready for some meat. Ask your host or reception at your hotel where they recommend. Ours suggested a nice local stop that offered a bit lower prices. Our waitress taught us a good rule of thumb is to order 250g per person or split one steak (which is what we did).
After dinner, we walked to the center of town and did some night time sight seeing! We grabbed some gelato and listened to a local musician for a magical evening.
Though we probably could've spent the morning doing some more sightseeing, we needed to take off for our next stop...Rome!
The highlight of our trip was the decision to go to Gorge du Verdon, in a large national park in the South of France.
We had only seen pictures and a few videos before making the choice to drive there, and we can certainly say they do not do the nature and views justice.
We stayed at a B&B just outside of Bauden, France.
The view from our room was incredible and we spent the majority of time on our balcony. (Though we could've done without the tall grass right in the middle of our view...)
On our one full day in the area, we headed to the Gorge to rent a kayak and swim. Unfortunately, the storms in the forecast (which, may I say, never occurred) prevented the kayak rental shop from opening, but that didn't keep us out of the water.
We jumped off the cliffs and swam in the bluest freshwater I've ever seen in my life. It was magical.
Thoroughly exhausted, we took our car up the road to Moustiers Sainte-Marie, an adorable little French town carved into the mountain side. I finally found my french scarf souvenir and some delicious coffee to boot - so I would consider the stop in the town successful! Of course, we weren't tired enough from the morning swim, so we hiked up the mountainside.
The paths were friendly for the not-so-experienced hiker, but be warned...it was almost pure uphill paths. At the top, a medieval church greeted us and offered a bit of refuge from the climb.
Home from our trip now, we talk all the time about our highlights, where we would go again, where we wouldn't bother stopping at, etc.... And Gorge du Verdon always wins the competition. We will definitely be taking the entire family back someday!
Pictures don't do the beauty justice, so check out the travel vlog we shot! Scroll up and click play!
Next stop: Driving the perilous road (not for the faint of heart) to Nice to catch a bus to Italy!
After hopping on a bus in Barcelona, Spain, we arrived in Perpignan France 2.5 hours later. We followed the little conspicuous signs (that we later decided was a French-thing) and found our Europcar rental. An insider tip: our German friends we were traveling with would of had to pay double for the same booking. We're not sure why (and we didn't want to ask!) but booking from the US saved us 150 euros.
From there we decided to "wing it". We had a few checkpoints in mind, such as Montpellier, Marseille, and Nice (where we were scheduled to drop the car to), but other than that, we spent each night setting a game plan for the next day!
Day 1
From Perpignan, we drove to the coast and followed it until we saw something of interest.
Not too much longer, we stumbled across Beziers. We found parking, took our own tour of the city on the hill, and bought picnic supplies.
Banquette, cheese, meat, and wine. After a fisherman helped us open our bottle of wine, we shared our splendors and became friends with no common language. We watched him fish and soaked in the afternoon sun.
By nightfall, we realized no wifi meant no place to sleep...
We fled to our "oasis", as we joked, of McDonald's for a coffee and free wifi.
The accommodation we found, Le Gambetta in Vias, France, was wonderful. The B&B owner greeted us warmly after the reception hours had closed. Our only complaint was the 100 Euro/night cost on our traveler's budget. However, that may have been our own fault for waiting two hours before we needed a room to book one.
Day 2
After a lovely croissant breakfast on the terrace, we departed for Sete, France. A bustling fisherman's village flowed with tourists. We did a little (chocolate) shopping and enjoyed the scenery for an hour or so before departing again.
A short while later, we arrived in Montpellier, France. The afternoon hours were spent walking the city. We found some pasta and made a picnic on a set of stairs and settled in to people-watch.
Back in the car, we kept our journey moving. After an unsuccessful time in finding a beach, we decided to head to Arles, France for the final stop for the evening.
Arles was a beautiful small town I wish we would have had more time in. It seemed shops all closed (even though it was maybe 5:30/6pm) so we settled for finding dinner and drinks instead.
A delicious Le Burger, a drink at a 3-story Irish Pub (which, sadly, I'm blanking on the name), and we found our way back to our hotel.
Day 3
And we're off to Marseille!
Traffic: Terrible.
Parking: Terrible.
City: Beautiful.
We spent all day and evening in Marseille, which I believe was a good choice. By just walking around, we visited a few monuments and churches. Marseille also has a pretty beach, although a little chilly on the day we were there. The beach is certainly not able to walk to...Thankfully we had our rental car.
At night, we decided to walk and see where the roads led us. We ended up in another Irish place (go figure), but this time, with karaoke!
The start to our Euro-tour took off from Chicago with a 9 hour flight to Berlin. We met up with some old friends, and boarded a plain to Barcelona!
Getting Around
Once we were in the airport, we quickly found the signs for the train and took it to the station closest to our apartment.
A local gave us a tip: buy the T10 ticket (10 Euros = 10 uses) which can be shared among your group...saved us some money in the end!
Aside from taking the metro to different areas in the city, we just walked. Barcelona is easier to navigate than you may imagine, so unless you are completely lost, don't bother with a taxi!
Accommodation
For Barcelona, we used Airbnb.com to find somebody's apartment for rent. Airbnb is a great website if you are looking for more bang for your buck. For a full apartment (2 rooms, kitchen, living room, and bathroom) we paid 60 Euros a night.
Tip: Airbnb is better if you plan ahead of time as the host often has to accept your request before it's certain. So if you have short notice or limited phone/wifi use, maybe use an instant booking website (like booking.com)
Sights
You can check out all the sights we chose with our limited time in the video above!
My recommendation if you also have limited time is to choose more of the free sights (the Gaudi museum and Sagrada church are ones we chose to walk and take pictures of in place of paying 15 euro a person to get in)
If you're a beach goer, Barcelona is the place for you. The water is incredible (even in September) and the sun is always shining. We spent only a couple hours here, but if you have more than 2 or 3 days in Barcelona, make the beach a destination.
Tip: There are many hustlers on the beach selling water, beer, mojitos, sunglasses, etc. Don't be afraid to haggle with them. The mojito man asked for 5 Euros a cup, and we got it for 2 Euros. If they say no, 1: they will most likely give in and sell it to you, and 2: another mojito man will walk by willing to take your deal.
Food
Tapas! Tapas! Tapas!
....When in Rome...or I suppose, Barcelona!
Find a restaurant with 2/3 Euro tapas and order a few for yourself. You can share with the table (and most restaurants will offer a larger portion for a couple more euros) and order more if you are still hungry.
