Welcome to this episode of the Sunshine Travelers podcast, where we're reflecting on our adventures from this past year. Join us as we revisit the incredible destinations we've explored, and we rate them on three key factors of affordability, culture, and food. Of course, we'll also add in our own personal subjective rating as well. From savoring local flavors to immersing ourselves in unique traditions and navigating travel budgets, we'll break down what made these places stand out or fall short. Whether you're planning your next getaway or just love hearing about our new destinations, this episode is packed with tips, insights, and plenty of travel inspiration. So let's jump in.
I'm Scott. And I'm Melissa.
I'm Melissa. And we're the Sunshine Travelers.
we're the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do. For those who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first -hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth.
So welcome to this special episode of the Sunshine Travelers podcast. As we're wrapping up 2024, we're taking a look back at the highs and lows of our travel adventures this year. From unforgettable cultural experiences and mouthwatering meals to those moments that didn't quite go just as planned, we're breaking it all down. We'll be comparing the best and the worst destinations we visited, sharing our insights on affordability, culture, and food, and revealing what truly stood out and what we might skip next time. Get ready for an honest and entertaining recap of our year in travel.
Scott, it's hard to believe that this is episode 90.
Yeah, I know. That's like we're almost at the two -year point.
Yeah, we started this project almost two years ago, not knowing if anybody would listen to us talk about travel. And we've just gotten so many fun messages. You know, we've heard, you know, people tell us through other people, oh, we feel like we, you know, know them or, you know. Just messages that are like, we really appreciate all your tips on the podcast. Enjoy listening to you guys talk about travel. So that's always just really fun to get those messages and know that people are actually listening in and taking our, you know, just us sharing the tips and what we would do differently. And that's some of the things that we wanted to, you know, share here and just share some of our opinions.
So today we're going to be using the following criteria to rate our experiences in each of the locations. The first being affordability. So taking into consideration things like accommodations, transportation, activities that we did, food, and even some like hidden expenses that, you know, jump in every once in a while.
Yeah. And of course, this affordability, think about it. So it'll be based on like compared to the U .S. dollar. And also compared to, I mean, we live in Florida and we live in a place that tends to be a little bit more expensive. But I think just the U .S. in general, like most people feel like, OK, things in the U .S. out to eat, things like that have gotten more expensive. So that will base our comparison. So if you live somewhere else, then obviously it's going to be a different comparison. But it's also going to be kind of bouncing these against one another as well.
it's also going to be kind of bouncing these against one another as well.
That's true.
So then the food. You know, maybe some memorable meals that we enjoyed, local specialties, the affordability of the food. And once again, that's, you know, comparative. And then, you know, maybe if someone might think of this as a foodie adventure place.
Yeah, that's a good point. And then maybe some tips about how we kind of like how we found out about some of these places or how we really intentionally tried to seek out food. And I've got one destination in mind as I say that comment.
And then finally, culture. So authentic experiences. Is the place somewhere that is unique and distinct and has its own culture? Or could this be a destination that you could put in any city and anywhere across the world? Interactions that we've had with locals, because we try to do that when we travel. Historical and artistic highlights. that we experienced, and then any cultural surprises that we came across. As I said, we'll just kind of throw in our own personal perspective there. A little bit subjective on our side, but hey, it's our podcast and we get to do what we want, right? That's right. So Melissa, why don't you kind of outline where did we go in 2024? Our goal is every year we aim to visit at least one new country that we've never been to before. So let's talk about where we went in 2024.
Okay. So we started out February, early March -ish. We did a trip to Curacao and then Aruba. And that was in the same trip because of their close proximity. And so we did that. Those were both new for us. And then we took a trip that took our daughter and her family as well to England. And Germany and Greece. And so I guess I should say specifically London and then Germany and Greece for a couple of weeks. And then in the summer, we returned to Puerto Rico. And I think, well, I guess I should back up. So we had been to London before and Germany, but not to Crete, specifically where we visit in Greece. So that was new and gave us a really different perspective that we're going to talk about, too.
It was a new city.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have been to Greece before, but as a new city.
have been to Greece before, but as a new city.
but as a new city. Yeah, new island, new cities, but very different perspective. So I think that's what's going to like guide our conversation. And you started talking about Puerto Rico before you jumped up.
And you started talking about Puerto Rico before you jumped up. Puerto Rico, we all understand it's not a country, right? It's unique. It's not a state. It's not its own country, right? It's a U .S. territory. But it is somewhere we visited and we think that it fits into a lot of these categories. And so we wanted to make sure to include it.
Yeah. And not to mention our experience was completely different from the last time, too. And that's one of the things we want to talk about. And then this fall, kind of rounding out our travel year with Africa for the first time, which really went, we talk about like tip to tip on the eastern side. Egypt, Cairo specifically, then Kenya, and then down to Cape Town in South Africa. So lots of very completely different places to talk about.
Yeah. And so that makes five new countries for us this year. So we crushed our goal of one new country. We hit five. And Melissa, do you want to say which one of these five new countries was your favorite?
I mean, I think I would have to say Kenya for sure for lots of reasons. But I mean, I, I enjoyed so many of them. Like it's hard not to then say South Africa as well. Cause I think that would be my, I don't know. Egypt is a pretty close there too. So just for very different reasons. So we jump into that to talk about why, but.
I was going to say Kenya as well. I think Kenya has become my all time favorite country that we've visited. So far. And that's hard because previously it was in Spain.
Oh, I guess that's true because you had said Barcelona. Yeah. Yeah. And then Kenya, I think for just a lot of reasons. So we'll talk about that.
Well, then are there any places that you would skip going forward that we went to?
OK, so I would never, ever say I would have skipped something or not have done something. Right. We and I don't know if we've told this story before. that we had somebody one time who said, oh, it's not worth it to go to Stonehenge. And I would never tell anybody, don't go somewhere. Don't experience that for yourself. But I guess it's more of a question is, would you go back? Because obviously a lot of places were always like, oh, you can't do everything. And, you know, it's kind of on the list. I would definitely go back.
Get it that you wouldn't ever recommend that someone not go because they're going to have a very different experience. And we'll talk about this a little bit with one of them in a few minutes. But of the places that we visited this year, which one would you say was your least favorite?
So of the new places or just all the places?
Of all the places that we visited.
Was my least favorite. I mean, honestly, probably Aruba, which may surprise a lot of people. Just because we didn't, I mean, we're going to say the food was really good. And we had one really fun interaction, but I just wouldn't say that. Like the overall experience we had of all the places, like I would go back to all the other places. So I guess that's why I would have to.
would have to. Let's save that and we'll get into those details in just a few minutes.
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So we're going to go through this list and we're going to rate them based on their affordability, the food and the culture, as well as our own personal subjective rating that we'll throw in there as well. And we'll start out in order. So let's start with Curacao. Okay.
So affordability of Curacao. I felt like the the accommodations were very affordable. And you have to remember when we booked this, we were booking Curacao and Aruba like at the same time and going from one directly to the other. And so you're looking at the cost of like accommodations for both of them, for example. And Aruba was just like so much more expensive. You found a place that was like a boutique hotel, had a little kitchenette and everything for what like less than the cost of like. one night in Aruba cost, right?
Yeah, I agree that part of it. I thought the food was a little bit expensive in Curacao. But, you know, that's just comparatively. Just remember it is like a destination, vacation destination place. And I think food tends to be a little bit more expensive in those locations. Well,
Well, and I also think there, I don't know how much like they can produce on their own too. So a lot of the stuff. Like might have to be, you know, imported and stuff too, which is expensive. But yes, you're right. So it was just like the juxtaposition between it was very affordable to stay. And then the other thing was we didn't really spend a lot more money. Do you remember about the rental car, for example?
I remember the rental car wasn't extremely expensive, you know, and that allowed us the flexibility to go to a lot of places. that really didn't have any cost. So, you know, the places where we went snorkeling and the places that we went to the beach and went and watched the kite surfing, like all of that was free. And so there's no additional cost to do any of that.
Right. And we had read a few of the places, like there may be a little entrance fee for the beach, but it would only be a few dollars. And then some of them ended up being free. I think we only rented beach chairs like one time, if we even did. So all that, like you're right, like we didn't spend a lot of money. We went to the national park, but it was very inexpensive. I think the only like tour kind of thing that we paid for was the distillery tour cocktail class, you know, that we did. So overall, you know, like getting there and this was a case, I think, where we used like miles or something to get there. But once we were there, like you're saying, the food was the cost, but it was very inexpensive to stay. There could be places there, or there probably are. I would say there are places there that would be a lot more expensive to stay, just like anywhere, though, right? We found a very nice place that was very convenient to downtown Willemstad, you know, within walking distance that was just relatively inexpensive.
Yeah, I'd say if you're going to stay down by the port, it's going to be more expensive down in that area. But as Melissa said, we were 10, 15 minutes walking. from that area and the bridge, the floating bridge. And so, you know, easily doable. And the prices were very affordable there for accommodations. Do we want to give it a number rating or just say affordable?
we want to give it a number rating or just say affordable?
No, I just think it's affordable.
All right. So then let's move on to like the food that we experienced there.
So the food was wonderful. I would say this was the expensive part. that we, you know, we identified. But expensive compared to other locations. Not expensive in general.
I would say it probably compares to the U .S. Yeah. Very much so. Like going out to eat in the U .S. or in Florida at a beach destination, I think it would be comparable.
going out
Yeah, I definitely would say that too. The one thing that I liked about the food is that it was local. Like it wasn't American chains that had invaded the island and taken over. We had so many unique experiences that were just local restaurants.
Yeah, I think they had like driving around. I think they probably had a few like fast food, like your typical things you might see the KFC and the Burger King, that kind of thing, which we didn't stop at. But I do remember like we stopped at this one place for breakfast on the way to snorkeling and got. some of their local stuff and it was probably very inexpensive. But then like in dinners, you know, in the, in the downtown were a little bit more, but I thought overall the food, the quality of the food was very good.
Yeah. And the dinners were definitely the most expensive and we tend to have dinner over near the port. So if maybe if we had a ventured further out for dinner. We might have found, you know, better pricing.
Well, and I would say probably, though, if we thought back, our favorite place was that Marfa's Good Hangout or whatever it was called near the Willie Woodson where we saw the flamingos where they were where the people were literally standing across the street with the barbecue grill grilling. And it wasn't like cheap, but I think that was probably like for a dinner meal. That was probably our least expensive.
Yeah, and that's kind of what I had in mind because when we ate down by the port, the seafood restaurant we went to and then the Japanese fusion sushi place,
place, Japanese Peruvian fusion sushi place,
Peruvian fusion sushi place, those two tend to be more expensive, but they were also right in that port area where people get off the ship and come and eat and stuff like that. You know, get outside of that little city center area and I think you'll find some great deals on food. Definitely the food was delicious.
Yes, for sure. Yeah, I think everywhere we went. And I would just say try to ask and like try to steer away from some of the touristy places. Although the places that we ate at right there in the port came very highly recommended.
places that we ate at right there in the port came very highly recommended.
Yeah, and that sushi place was very, very good. So we will say for the details of that, go back and listen to our Curacao episodes. We'll put the links to those. They're in the 50s, 56 and 58. Listen to those to get those details if you want to know, okay, where exactly did they eat and things like that. They're all in there.
So let's talk a little bit about the culture, Curacao. The people were so friendly.
The people were very, very friendly. And I think for this, That would be like how you would get the culture is talking to the people. And so I don't know, like specifically, we went to the same coffee shop a couple of times and talking to the young man that like waited on us. And then, of course, then we had the guy at the at the tour. So I would say the best way on Curacao to get the culture or would be really to be getting to know a local and doing one of these tours or talking to someone. And so then if you went out, I would say on like a snorkel trip or a dive trip, that would be another way probably for you to like get to know a local a little bit more or some other kind of tour.
And we talked a little bit about this in the episode, but, you know, it didn't seem to be as commercialized as other places that we visited. You know, and I mentioned this earlier. some of these places you could just pick them up and put them down in any country, in any state, in whatever. And it's just a beach destination. Right. But I felt Curacao over the years has maintained some of its originality.
Yeah. And I think what's interesting too, like if you talk to the people, like learning that they speak Dutch. and Spanish and English, and then also like their local indigenous language, right? And so to me, that's a huge part of a culture is that language. And then to have so many languages, right, that you learn, that you use in different situations.
And so anything else that you would just add from, you know, we said we would add in our own personal perspective, but I... think that we kind of do that as we go along. Yeah.
Yeah. I would just say in general, Curacao is a place that we had said that we would definitely return to. And I would say of all the places that we have been like in the Caribbean so far, it would definitely be at the, at the top of the top of the list. There was just like a lot of, you know, like just natural, like you said, it wasn't developed, but yet to, you know, to an extent the way you do have. you know, the comforts and different things like that. But then just getting off the beaten path in Curacao puts, put it like pretty high on my list. Like I would, and we have recommended it to several people. Don't miss Curacao.
I guess one thing that I would add is some of our favorite snorkeling by far that we've done anywhere in the world was there in Curacao. Let's move on to Aruba. You know, I think we've, kind of danced around Aruba a little bit. You talked about it as it was probably the least favorite place that we visited this year. So let's go into Aruba and help people understand why we would say that. So from an affordability perspective, we would say that it was a really expensive place.
Aruba is expensive. Yeah. We had gotten a great deal on a place to stay. But it can be very expensive and very like and very competitive to like like hard to get reservations. Like I've heard with people like who have timeshares and that kind of thing. Like it's hard to get into, you know, it's I don't know. Like you have to book it well in advance.
Like you have to book it well in advance. It's not one of those places you just say on the spur of the moment. Oh, let's go down to Aruba.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there are things, you know, in hotel rooms and things like that you can get. I would just say in general for people who like. try to book those kinds of things. But, so yeah, I would say it was, rooms were expensive if you book them. Car, probably.
Yeah, car was roughly about the same.
As Curacao. But the food, I felt like was pretty expensive. Like everywhere we went.
Yeah. Well, and it's very commercialized, very westernized. Matter of fact, it's the one that I said you could just, it could be anywhere in Florida. Right. Any beach town in Florida, to me, it could be that could be Aruba. I mean, the fact that right outside the hotel district, you have an Olive Garden and a Longhorn Steakhouse and McDonald's and a Wendy's and all those things right there. That was just kind of a put off, I think, to me, because that's a long ways to go to just get to somewhere that looks like, you know, Florida.
Yeah. But let's talk about that if you do seek it out and get off the beaten path, then you can absolutely find some really good food.
That's true. You know, we tend to get out and go and adventure some. But the one thing that I see in Aruba is that people go with the idea of kind of planting in that hotel district, right? And they don't leave that hotel district. They're going to take a bus or a shuttle or a taxi or something like that to get them to their hotel. And then they're going to spend most of their time right there in that little area and never venture outside.
Yeah, I remember we were sitting at dinner at one of the places that I guess, unfortunately, is a very touristy place. It's the place where you can have the possibility of putting your feet in the water. But it's people come down from the hotel. to eat at that place, right? And I did hear like the group behind us saying, oh, they took the taxi down and we're going to take it back. And that was the only time they ventured out because they were like, oh, we were surprised that like there's houses here, like people live here, you know, and that kind of thing. And then almost the condition of them because it wasn't like that area was necessarily like upscale housing, right? Either. Yeah.
And so, you know, we did get out and go around. We went to some local places. And matter of fact, when we went in there, there were local people eating. And so we had that experience of, you know, being able to really see and experience some of Aruba. But I don't think most people get that because they stay right there in that hotel district.
Yeah. And then I think that like just asking one of the tours that we did, he had told us, oh, if you haven't eaten at. You know, these other places like that's where you need to go. And then after that, thankfully, and that's what kind of what we recommend, book those tours early in your trip so that then you have the opportunity to take their recommendations. He put us on to food places and snorkel places that we otherwise would have missed, even in all of our research. Don't you think? And so, again, we have those listed in our Aruba podcast episodes. specifically the ones that were recommended to us are in episode 57 and we'll link that. But yeah, I think we would have missed out on some of those places and they were just local and, and, you know, in fresh places. So,
so on one of the, or the tour that we did where we, you know, rode those little easy Raider carts and you can hear about that in the episode, but he took us to a local convenience store. And then took us in and, you know, walked us through and said, here are some things that are unique to Aruba. And so that was a really neat experience. Now, I have seen some of those things now that we've gotten back to the U .S. Like, for example, the aloe water. You know, you can, in the international section at Publix, you can actually buy the aloe water. But that was the first time that we had ever had that was we tried it there in Aruba. And, you know, it was something they said, oh, this is something that we drink regularly. Yeah. And then they also had like the ice cream that was.
And the cereals. And he pointed out a few kind of candies and, you know, things like that, that were very specific to them. But I would say overall, the food in Aruba, the places that we did end up going, were probably like, were very top notch, even though they were expensive. Even though some of them would be considered touristy places and not local or anything like that, I would say overall the food is very, very good. And it is known to be a food destination. Like they have chef's menus and tasting menus, which is what our friend had told us about when we did the episode with her before we even went.
She loves Aruba. She gave us lots of good recommendations. We took a lot of those recommendations. And so she talked about that in episode 45. But I would say the food does live up to the hype. Now, again, we didn't go to any American restaurant.
Yeah, no, we wouldn't do that. I do want to say, though, for those who want to go to the beach and just hang out there at the beach, the clear water, the white sand at the beaches, you can wade way far out there and only be up to your waist or so. I think that is the draw for Aruba.
Yeah, I think so. And so maybe because for us, it wasn't a trip where it was like we need a beach destination where we chill and do nothing. And so I think that we should clarify by saying that if you want a beach destination, clear water. Again, you can just stand out there. Beautiful, easy to get to, you know, restaurants and and just chill out because there are people who go and. And go to Aruba like every year out of the hurricane belt, consistent weather. And so that's what you're going to find there.
Yeah. Well, like you said, our friend Tammy, I think she's been there more than a dozen times now and loves it. So like Melissa said, we would never say don't go to a place. We can share with you what our experiences was like, but you should go and check it out for yourself.
And I would say as far as culture. I would say our our taste of culture there was being on the tour with the young man on the Easy Raider tour. Right. And having him share. He is in his early 20s. Right. So he talked about kind of what it was like to grow up between there and in the Netherlands. But again, to learn all the languages, you know what it was like to go to school and then also for him to share those foods. And he did take us to a little local place where they had almost little. that were filled with meats and stuff like that. So that was a local, that was a local dish that was included in that tour. And so I really appreciated that. And because our tour size was small, we got a chance to ask him lots of questions about, you know, the island and, you know, here's his recommendations. And, you know, he took us to some cool out of the way places, you know, some greenhouses where they, you know, like help different people on the island and stuff like that. So a very different view of just. seeing the beach as well. We're going to talk about,
going to talk about, I think, the next three together. How about we do that? So England, Germany, and Greece. Because we did those in one trip. This was the one that we did with our daughter and her family. Now, we've been to all of these locations before. We went to some new cities in those locations. So let's start. with England and just kind of hit that from the top down. I don't think there's a lot we need to say there. We went to London. It's not cheap.
It's not cheap. I will say one tip that we have for affordability is that this was the first time that we had ever booked like an apartment style or a flat. We did it through booking .com. Three bedrooms. It accommodated the whole family. It made what could have been very expensive having to have three hotel rooms. much more convenient, right? We could have a little kitchen. We could wash clothes. So definitely think about that when visiting the UK and just look at it as an option. We were in a neighborhood. We found a little local coffee shop we went to. I think it made that part of it a little more affordable. Food's going to be expensive. Touristic things are going to be expensive. Do it. It's one of my favorite cities in the whole world. It's a ton of culture,
a ton of culture, though. And it's got very different, unique cultures. Yeah. Right. In different pockets around London. Yeah.
Yeah.
And so and then especially if you get outside of London, it's yet a whole new world, I would say. Right.
And the food is not like people say, OK, about British food or whatever. But like you can like literally have anything you want, any time of day you want. Like we love to go get Indian food. We sought that out this time. Did not disappoint. So the food, I think, is what you make it. You, again, look for recommendations and read about stuff.
And then Germany. So this time in Germany, we went to a relatively new city for us. Well,
I'd never been to Cologne. Have you ever been to Cologne?
I think maybe we had gone there, but I don't really remember it. If we did, it was like a long time ago.
Right. I wouldn't say that like Germany is like super expensive.
No, it's, it's kind of one of those. Yeah.
Yeah. Like eating out, like comparable to the U S. Yeah. I wouldn't say like super expensive again, since we had a whole group, we had a, we had found a little apartment. I just think like we were able to find reasonable, you know, reasonable things.
But we also went to a city that's not a big destination place. I wouldn't say that a lot of people venture to Germany to go to Cologne.
That time of the year.
Yeah.
Well, I think a lot of people do Cologne along with maybe river cruises. And then they start and end our Christmas market type things or something like that. So, you know, they do have the cathedral there. But you're right. Probably not a lot of tourist things compared to other places.
to other places. Yeah. You didn't have the issue of having to pay tourist prices. you know, for the places that we went to. Now, we found ourselves there on Easter Sunday. So I was really surprised, you know, if we talk a little bit about the culture piece of it there and mix that with the food. I was afraid that on Easter Sunday, everything would be shut down and we were going to be out of luck.
Yeah. And typically, like the shops are going to be shut no matter what Sunday it is. And they were. But we found there were plenty of places, yeah, open as far as food.
Yeah. So all of the pubs were, you know, open and serving. At the time, there was a couple of soccer games on at different pubs. And so you could hear people, you know, cheering along there. So, you know, it was the city kind of kept going, I guess, a little bit, even though it was Easter Sunday. But I would say, you know, from a culture perspective, this is where you would see we saw people out and, you know, they were just going out for maybe a couple of pints of beer, hanging out, you know, visiting with one another. And we got to experience a lot of the local culture.
Yeah. And for food, like, of course, your typical schnitzel and goulash and spetzla and things like that. But here's one thing I want to say about the food in Germany that you have to experience. You have to go to a hotel and then have like their breakfast. Yes.
Well, I think just eating in hotels is something that we typically don't do, especially traveling in the U .S. You just tend to not eat at a hotel. But I think we found across a lot of Europe, eating at a hotel was actually a good. Good deal.
But in Germany, like you have your broochin and then you have all your meats and then your cheeses and then like all the other breakfast. But like they just know how to do like a breakfast. And we stayed at a flat. So we didn't have that. But you found a little place around the corner before we left town. And you were like, oh, let's just pop in here. And they let you do that. And I think that was like one of the highlight meals, not just for like for everybody. They were like, OK, this was a good a good breakfast. So don't skip out on that. If you book a hotel and they're like, do you want breakfast included? Yeah, just do that. Because I had thought, oh, we'll just grab a pastry at a coffee shop around the corner and then we needed a good breakfast. Just book that breakfast included and you're not going to be disappointed. Let me just say that. That's the tip.
Yeah, I agree with you. And we talked a little bit throughout about the affordability. I think from hotel and accommodations, we did booking .com again. And so, you know, we found some great flats in the city where we were able to all stay together for a really reasonable price. The food in the pubs is not really expensive. The beer is cheap. And so and then that breakfast, it was it was average, I think, what you would expect for breakfast in a hotel to be.
Yeah, like in a touristy hotel. But it went like super, yeah, super expensive and much better than like a breakfast in a hotel like in the U .S. for sure.
Like we talked about, we were there on Easter Sunday. So we just did a lot of walking around Cologne and saw a lot of sites. I think that would be a typical Sunday, though, in Cologne. So no matter what time of year you're there is, you know, if the weather's nice, you get out, you go for a walk, go for a stroll, take your umbrella if you need to. And because if it's a storm, it was pretty quick. You just go back to your tourist thing again.
Yeah. And we actually surprisingly sat out on the street in some tables, you know, that were outside. And to me, like that would be part of the culture is going into a downtown area. The other thing I would say about the culture is then as we were walking around, there was a person who had one of the string bubble things and all the children were. running in the streets while he was doing the bubbles. And to me, like watching the kids be able to do that, just like immerses them in the culture that's going on in the city, which is a unique experience. And so just not, sometimes just not like booking stuff up because that is part of the experience.
We're going to leave from Germany and we're going to head to Greece and we're going to have a very different experience while we're in Greece this time.
Yeah, so we went to the island of Crete, which is very large compared to the other places that we have been. So we have talked in the past about going to places like Milos and Paris and Sifnos and of course Santorini. So take a look back at those. We will do a link. So if you're planning a trip to Greece, so many places you can go. So definitely do your research about what you might enjoy. For this particular trip, we talk about it in episode 70 and 71. Crete was very different because of its size. So let's go through because we talked a little bit about that, but affordability.
So from an affordability perspective, this was very affordable transportation there. We rented a minivan and, you know, it was a weird experience because it's like renting it from someone's uncle down the street, you know, type deal where even he came to the. to the airport, picked one of us up, would only allow one person to go. And we were like, oh, my God, you know, turn on track my iPhone to see where we're going and took us to pick up this this van. You know, not a bad price for the week. You know, we had it to use. The problem with it, though, was that the streets are way too small in Crete for a minivan.
Yeah. Everybody needs their own moped. Not that we would do that, but everybody needs their own moped. So what we're going to say is next episode is going to be stories that we have never told or stories that we don't remember if we have told. But we want to share some little stories like that. We've got lots of them that have kind of come up here and there that I don't know that we have told you guys. And just to kind of share a few of those little things that that might be a lot of fun. But but Greece in general. Besides maybe Santorini, but we've talked about in this previous episode, you can do Santorini, not expensive if you don't, you know, stay in the super high.
Yeah, Santorini, Mykonos, those are the high traffic destination places. They're going to be more expensive. Yeah.
Now, and I will also say we were there in the early season. So this was now right after Easter in April. So it's, you know, off season, which we loved because it was it was definitely warm enough. I mean, the water was cold. It was definitely warm enough, but not so crowded. I mean, crowded enough for sure. Creed is a place where cruise ships do go to. We were in a couple of towns where they do go to. But in general, Greece is going to give you a big bang for your buck. We had a fantastic.
We had two fantastic apartments.
Yes. In Hania. And in Heracleion, two fantastic apartments, three bedroom kitchen, like the one of them had amazing views of the water on all sides, penthouse view with a little pool. I mean, just like it would cost you thousands of dollars in the U .S. or in lots of places in the world to rent something like that convenient, you know, walking distance convenient and stuff like that. So affordability.
affordability. Yeah, I want to say that shoulder season that we were there, that apartment cost. Maybe a little over $1 ,000 for three nights.
Yeah, just phenomenal. So if you're looking for a place that is beautiful, and if you're willing to especially get off the beaten path a little bit, Greece is going to really give you a big bang for your buck.
But let's focus on Crete. Okay. Because I think that's true. There was, you know, the food pricing. in Crete, for the most part, was really good. We were staying in a more touristic area. Now, let's paint the picture. Crete is an island that's made up of a couple of really large cities. So Henea and Heracleion are both really large populated cities. With the, you know, downtown that is very touristic. So I think the pricing there, was kind of a mixed bag. We had some places that we thought, wow, that was a really good value. And then we had other places that were like, hey, that ended up being pretty expensive.
Yeah. And I think the more in the touristy places that you go, it's going to be more expensive. Overall, though, the food is typically so good, right? Because there's so many restaurants and they have to compete with. And so they're not going to stay in business if they're not good. So typically, you know, you're going to get fresh. local food that is very good and i would say that also compared to like sit down because i think there was one night where we went out to dinner and they just grabbed like euros and like got one for each of them and could have shared like two but ended up paying like i don't know 20 bucks for the whole you know 20 euros or something like that for the whole meal so i would say in general yeah And I think we found the same thing in Santorini too, right? Is that if you're like right in the touristy places, but looking for places that are maybe often. So you guys,
So you guys, I was working, so I didn't get to do a lot of the tourist things with you, but you guys got out and you drove to several different beaches, you know, and there were different styles of beaches as well. And those really didn't cost you anything other than your gas to get there to them. Maybe a small parking fee. Yeah, one of them we had to pay a parking fee.
fee. Yeah, one of them we had to pay a parking fee. But yeah, for sure. Other than that, I mean, in the summertime, they would have, and one of them that you did go to had a few little shops and little restaurants where you could get, you know, lunch or drinks. But other than that, the little, the place that we went that had the little cave, you know, it was like, what, 50 cents or a dollar, right, to go in their little national park. whatever it was. So in general, yeah, the cost besides our lodging and food, like there just wasn't a huge cost for activities.
Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, you can walk around in those little downtown areas, do shopping, stuff like that. And it's really going to be based on how much money you spend in the shops, but it's free to look.
Okay, so let's talk about culture. I would say for us, the culture part you get of it. again, is talking to the people at the restaurants, talking to the shop owners as well. Yeah.
I felt that the culture there in Crete was not the Greece that I really love. So the little small islands that, so the little small islands, you know, where the, you might be one of the few tourists that are on that island. I felt like that had a much more distinct culture to it than Crete did because Crete and the cities where we stayed, they're just big cities. Well, Melissa, I think we better start speeding up on these just a little bit or else this is going to be a two -hour, you know, Joe Rogan -style podcast.
So let's move to Puerto Rico. So Puerto Rico, again, the U .S. territory that we had visited before. And we enjoyed it. There were lots of places that we had said, oh, we'd love to come back and explore Puerto Rico more. And we had the opportunity to do that this time. So let's start with affordability, though, because I would say Puerto Rico is not inexpensive.
No, it's not inexpensive. From accommodations to, you know, the rental car is probably about normal. But then food and stuff like that, I would say Puerto Rico is pretty expensive.
Yeah, definitely in line with U .S. prices and tourist prices. Now, I'd say maybe the further away that you go. But I don't I wouldn't say that anywhere we went, we would say is typically like cheap. But the food is so worth it.
We had that one place that we went to with the ice cream and we bought everybody an ice cream for like 20 bucks. And that was like eight people.
So that would just prove that the further you get away from a touristy place, right? Because we went on that with the tour on the way back, and it wasn't necessarily a tourist place. The guide took us there. So I think that just proves that point. But overall, I would say the food in Puerto Rico is really good.
Food was really good. A lot of fresh food that you're going to get there. A lot of local ingredients that they're going to use in their food. Really top -notch, high -end food for the most part.
And just like we have said before, do a food tour. And we highly, highly recommended that The Spoon Experience in Old San Juan. We talked about it on the episode, episode 69. But we noted, like she took us to places that we had not even noticed. And we had walked around Old San Juan a ton. And so highly recommend that. And then also we did another episode with Jay Ducote about, and he talked a lot about his experience. He actually stayed after we met him. We were in Puerto Rico and he stayed after for like a month and did the, what do they call it? The pork, the pork road.
Yeah. The pork highway. Oh, the pork highway.
Oh, the pork highway. I don't know why it's called the pork road, the pork highway. And so in that episode, so we'll link that one as well. He talked about a lot of places where you could go and have you just unique experience. So I would say overall, again, there are chain places. There are like tourist places that aren't probably necessarily so good. But I think if you seek out the local, you're going to be in for a treat.
Yeah, definitely start your trip with that food tour. San Juan, then I think the prices on food and everything else drops down. So it's probably really in that San Juan is where things are the most expensive. Yeah, and again,
it's probably
expensive. Yeah, and again, that's a cruise port and stuff like that. And then as far as culture, I think there again, in order to experience that, booking a tour or some kind of experience, I think that's where you're going to get that. You know, meet with a local and learn about the history and learn about their traditions and their cultural. And again, in that episode, we actually link a whole bunch of different people who can hook you up with just their locals. And they can hook you up with a lot of good local experiences that will be very authentic.
Well, let's move on to Egypt. So this was our first time on the continent of Africa at all. And we decided to start this trip in Egypt. and work our way down to eventually getting to South Africa. So Egypt was... I don't know that I really knew exactly what to expect from Egypt going in, but I can tell you if we look at our affordability, food, and culture, it just knocked all of those out of the park. It was a very affordable place. Now, we stayed in a more expensive hotel, but... Quite honestly, the price that we paid per night for the room that we got with the view that we got, I mean, I could imagine you paying three times that much or four times that much in other places.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're just thinking about, I mean, you have a room that you're looking at the pyramids of Giza, you know, the great pyramids. And yeah. And then the food affordability. The tour affordability, it's just like the U .S. dollar stretches a long way there.
Yeah, it does. It goes a really long way. You know, the food itself was, not only was it inexpensive, we tried a lot of new different things in Cairo when we were there this time.
We did. Pigeon, we tried for the first time, and I would have never have thought. And that's something, again, that we wouldn't have done without a tour guide. And so listen to, you know, if you have any interest at all in ever going to Egypt to see those pyramids for yourself, go check out the episode, episode 82. We'll link that. I think our hugest takeaway from Egypt is to have a guide, right? And have them take you around. She chose where we would want to go. We told her to, you know, order for us. She knew the people, they would bring out extra stuff. Like we just got to try, you know, lots of appetizers. We got to try desserts. We just got to try a lot of different things because of that. And honestly, there was one meal though, that I thought that you had paid for with your credit card. I was looking through something just recently. I thought you had paid like about a hundred dollars for that. And it was a very nice restaurant, right? With the view of the pyramids. I think you paid like, I think it was like half of what I thought it was. I was like, so I, Yeah, it was even became much more affordable than I had originally thought.
And then from a culture perspective, if you go back and listen to our episode on Cairo, we talked about, you know, we went into the area that had the oldest synagogue. It had the oldest mosque. It had the oldest Christian church right in it and in those neighborhoods and where everyone just lived together. And so from a culture perspective, I think we were just blown away by the people and the culture of Cairo.
Yeah, I think just the people like in general, from everybody who we interacted with, you know, at the hotel and our driver and our, of course, our tour guide and our other little, you know, handler guide that helped us with the airport stuff. I mean, just everybody just gracious and grateful to have you there and, you know, to show you. Also, I would say to, again, I just don't know how we can reiterate it enough. The tours and the experiences are where you're going to like meet those people, right? Because then the other, the river cruise tour that we booked. And so not only did we have that experience where they had the dancing and the music and stuff like that, but then also meeting a different tour guide and having them share just a little bit about, you know, here's what you need to see and do going to, you know, the carpet. you know, where they were making the carpets and just all those things.
Well, let's move on then to Kenya. So Kenya, I was blown away by as we even approached from there. I had in my mind, and I think leaving Cairo, which is not exactly a super clean city, you know, it's a nice city, don't get me wrong, but it's just not super clean. And then we land in Nairobi and just the opposite. It was just lush green. It was very clean. you know, kind of a larger city than I expected in Nairobi as well. And I think we were just kind of blown away from just that, even the approach into the city. Now, we do have a story that we'll tell next week from the airport. But, you know, overall, we could not have asked for a better trip.
It's one of the most amazing things that we've ever done. Matter of fact, I was looking today and someone was asking for recommendations for a safari. And they were like, I'm a photographer. I know everything. You don't need anybody to tell me how to take pictures. And I just thought to myself, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's not what that's not what they do. Like, talk to me, you know, and I was like, PM me, because let me tell you what working with the safari company in Africa. is really like, and then what you want to look for and stuff like that. But affordability, this is going to be kind of on the,
is going to be kind of on the, for our experience, more on the luxury end, right? Now, I think you could do this much more affordably if you wanted to. There's a lot more budget -friendly accommodations that you could stay at. You can do shorter trips. than what we did. We did a 10 -day safari. But I will say, I think that prices in Kenya were just a little bit more expensive than what I thought that would be.
Yeah. And even in Nairobi, you know, we went to a couple of places like, I mean, going out to eat, you know, before. And I think it's just going to be a little bit more expensive.
Now, granted, that was a tourist spot that we were eating at. So it's going to be more expensive.
we were
But we didn't have an experience where we truly just kind of immersed ourselves out into the into the Nairobi general public, I guess.
No, but I would say that that that particular place was very popular with locals, too, and events. And they had local events and things like that, too. So I would just say Kenya in general. I mean, you're there for safari. You want to have the best experience possible. Just be prepared for that. But the food.
Oh, the food was amazing. You know, we had chefs are each of the places that we went to each of the camps. And these chefs, I mean, they just held nothing back. They were constantly, you know, every day producing at just such a high quality.
And here's the thing, too, is that if if that wasn't, you know, if you didn't like anything on the menu or you were super picky. Like you could literally tell them, make me this and they would accommodate you. That was the thing. The other, the thing that surprised me the most though, is how much local, like I just, you think of Kenya for safari, but you don't think of it for, you know, the fruits and vegetables that they grow. I mean, they basically just can grow every, you know, like fresh bananas and fresh, you know, berries and like passion fruit and just watermelon. And we had cantaloupe and You know, a lot of the meat is like, oh, yeah, pineapple. A lot of the meat is local. I mean, everything is like they have it available and it's going to be local. And so that's what I loved. But just, yeah, everywhere we went like was just absolutely phenomenal. And then the culture.
Yeah, the culture, hands down. This is a culture that just wants to serve and to host and to make you have the most wonderful experience. And really, a lot of these. people that work inside of these hotels and inside of these camps and inside of the tourist operations, they all go to a tourism school, right? And so they are just all about treating their guests at the highest levels possible.
Yeah. And I think that's interesting because that's something different than you would experience like in the US, for example, right? Because like you said, they have been trained and so many of them. Like they are away from their families too when they work and they serve, you know, in these camps as well. But they like treat you like you're the only person who is there, like you're the only person who has been there. But yet they have people, you know, who are constantly rotating. But, you know, obviously some place is more memorable than others, but getting to know the people. I think that's the biggest asset for Kenya as far as the culture.
And then South Africa. So we ended the trip in South Africa and Cape Town. And we just had a great experience. I would say from an affordability perspective, the lodging was really cheap. We had looked at using Marriott points to book our lodging. And it just wasn't a good redemption of points because the pricing was very inexpensive.
Yeah, and you can stay, obviously, at very expensive places. And there is real estate there that is very expensive too. Now we, our South Africa experience is limited to Cape Town and the wine region, but surprisingly affordable. Like we booked a really nice wine tour that goodness, I mean, it wasn't like, let's say quote unquote cheap, but you would have paid five to, I don't even know how much more times that, like to do something like that in Napa. I mean, I was blown away by. like how much and then how much food and the quality of the food and that kind of thing. And, and even, you know, even the, the other winery that we stopped at for lunch and it was like eight bucks to get in, which was actually a season pass. And then we had lunch and here just coming from Kenya, like we had lunch and drinks and dessert for like 40, you know, the equivalent of like 40 us dollars. And I was like, Oh, this is like a lot more affordable than I thought it was going to be.
Yeah. And I think, Food -wise, the food was extremely affordable everywhere we went in South Africa. The accommodations, both inside of the wine region and in Cape Town, were very reasonable. And car rental, very cheap, I thought, for there. The one thing that I thought might be a little bit expensive was getting into some of the attractions and things like that. Granted, if you looked at it across the world, they weren't. But if you just compare it to the food and the accommodations and stuff like that, the attractions seem to be a little bit more expensive.
Yeah, I think the most expensive thing was probably like we did the Table Mountain tickets because we did the aerial cable way, but then we wanted the fast track. So we went like wait hours in line. And so I would say like in Cape Town, we did have a lot of like entrance fees, right? So Table Mountain, and then there were tolls on Chapman's Peak and right to get in the Penguins, there was a toll. And then we booked a couple of tours. And so you're right. So for activities, there was a cost like associated with everything. So just like keeping that, keeping that in mind. But I would say overall, like the food there was very good. And we didn't even seek out besides, you know, along with our wine pairing thing, you can do these chef's menus. And, you know, I looked at those ahead of time. And again, I think they come out to be like 100 US dollars, which. for like a chef's tasting menu somewhere else would be probably like really, really affordable. We just didn't seek out any of those, right? We were there more. I mean, we did find really good things to eat. I also felt like they just like take pride in like making it fresh and having quality ingredients. And like we did find like a, like a market, what would you call it? Like a food hall market, right? It's where everybody could pick their own thing and, you know, in a place in Simontown. you know, everything was just really well done. Like they take a lot of pride in that. And even the food down at the, at the waterfront, like in a place like that, I expect it to be like just a whole lot more expensive and the quality to be kind of like, ah, but it was actually, I felt like really, really good. So then what would you say about like the culture that we, that we experienced and how we experienced that?
Well, that's what I was going to say. It's the how. This was a place where we focused very heavily on the culture aspects of things. So we, you know, experienced nature and culture. We did have the wine region at the very beginning, but the rest of it was about the natural experiences and the cultural experiences. And, you know, even the South African guys that we were with, when we told them we were going to go into a township, they were like, I'm not sure that's a great idea. Right. But it gave us an opportunity to learn so much more about the culture and the way that things truly are and why they are the way that they are. And so, you know, and then in the one township that we went to on that tour, we went to that cultural center. And, you know, it was an area where they could take these kids and expose them to something bigger than just that township.
Art and music and yeah.
But it didn't veer away from their, their own personal culture. Like they blended that into the music. So it was the traditional drum beats and, you know, it was the traditional art and stuff like that. So I really enjoyed that and thought that was great.
Yeah. I was really glad that we did that. And then also going out to Robin Island and. getting to have the tour done by the man who had been a political prisoner, you know, on Robben Island. I think that added just a lot to the visit. And of course, there's so much that you can do, you know, in Cape Town and in South Africa. But I think, you know, just taking the opportunity to book some of those. Because again, and we mentioned that in the episode on South Africa, which we'll link, that gives you lots of details. But that is not something that we could have done on our own, right? So if you're interested in that and wanting to connect, definitely. And there were some other things, food tours that you could have done, cooking classes that you could have done. And so just with our time allotted, that was kind of how we chose to connect to the culture. So overall, what would you say about South Africa?
I really enjoyed South Africa. I think it would be good to have an opportunity to go back there again. For sure. Sometime and do the things that we didn't do. Like you said, some of those cooking classes and some of the other pieces.
Yeah. And I would, I mean, to me, like, just like a vacation to in that wine region, just like rent a place and then just go to some of them. leisure, right? Without not trying to hurry and see everything. I think that would be amazing.
I think we envision South Africa as being a place where we could take a group to. Yes. So like when we do the group safari, maybe the next week, if people wanted to continue on with this or somebody was more interested in South Africa, we could just go on down to South Africa and continue that trip.
Right. And there's so many things. Again, like, I mean, you can do, of course, safari in South Africa. There's so many things you can do on so many interest levels. And just, you know, go to the beach. They have beaches there too.
Dropped a hint about the safari group trip. So more details to come on that one. But anyhow, Melissa, which of these countries do you want to visit again?
So I would visit all of them again. Again, like we said at the very beginning, I don't think we have it. I don't think I have a need to go back to Aruba again. Would I go back if I had the time? Then yes. But I think everything else would be at the top of the list. There's so many more places. I just absolutely love Greece. That was my third trip. I would love to explore the Peloponnese and the mainland and see more of that. And there's also lots of other islands that we haven't done because of the affordability and the beaches. Definitely. And of course, we will go back to London and Germany probably this next year. And saying that Egypt, we also learned that besides Cairo, there's so many more places. We would love to do the Nile River cruise and go to Luxor in the Valley of the Kings and even up to Alexandria with Manal and, you know, have her take us there because there's so much more to explore. And then, of course, returning to Kenya for sure.
Well, if someone wanted to do three weeks with this, we just outlined three weeks in Africa that we can do again. Any bucket list trips coming up in 2025? Where do I start?
do I start? No. So I think that we're just going to do an episode on that. What do you think?
All right. Well, then you'll have to wait to hear more about 2025 and what that has in store. Do you want to say something?
About Antarctica? Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes. So Antarctica details are out. So we're giving opportunity for people who had signed up to be on the wait list to get the rooms first, because there are, you know, there are limited number of rooms. We can't obviously hold any rooms on the ship to book those first, but we're only going to do that for just a couple of days and then it'll be open up. So the easiest way to do that is to go to sunshine travelers .com slash group trip. And then there will be a link there. that will just take you straight to the Antarctica. It'll have all the details like from start to finish and then exactly the cost and, you know, what's included in the whole nine yards. So Atlas Ocean Voyages is who we're using. Smaller ship. It's limited to 198 passengers on the entire ship so that you can, so that it's smaller, so that it can get in and around and they can pick weather permitting where to go. You actually step foot on the continent. You have the Polar Plunge. You have the Zodiac Tours. You have the walking tours. There's a couple of optional things. But yeah, we're super excited. So February 26, 2026. And then we cruise out or the expedition cruise starts out the next day. So sunshinetraveless .com slash group trip. And then there will be a link there to get your stateroom booked.
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