One of the things we were most looking forward to on our 3+ week honeymoon was hiking all five towns in Cinque Terre in one day! Both Beth and I love to hike. We are not ones to do multi-day hikes but give us any day hike and we are there. Cinque Terre has been on our list to visit for a couple years now and it did not disappoint.

After spending a couple of days exploring Rome we were looking forward to a slower pace in Monterosso where we stayed. But of course on our first full day we set out to hike all five towns in one day! We were based in Monterosso and stayed there for four nights and thoroughly enjoyed that town. As for our big hiking day we left our Airbnb at 7:00 AM and made it back at 6:00 PM taking time in each town to explore, eat, and swim. It was a near perfect day of with plenty of sunshine and maybe 80 degrees.

5 Full Days to Explore Queenstown!

Wow just wow! That was our first impressions of Queenstown as we walked off the plane and onto the tarmac. Literally everywhere we turned there were incredible mountains and crystal clear lakes. We had just spent an amazing week in Melbourne and touring the Great Ocean Road, both amazing experiences. With that being said we were caught off guard with how pretty New Zealand is.

To get to Queenstown we were able to tack on a free stopover on our award ticket to Australia. For more info on how I was able to get all the flights for free check here. In summary I got two people to both Australia and New Zealand with half of it in business class for free. Only had to pay the taxes! Hotel wise we stayed at DoubleTree Queenstown the bulk of the time and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Red River Gorge

One of my favorite places to hike that is still within driving distance to my home base in Indianapolis is Red River Gorge down in Kentucky. It has become mine and my girlfriend’s go to place to get out of town and explore nature. This was our third weekend trip to Red River and we have done different hikes every time, which is awesome! Officially it is known as the Red River Gorge Geological Area which is part of Daniel Boone National Forest.  Directly next to the area is also Kentucky’s Natural Bridge State Park which features one of the best natural bridges / arches in the area. This time we only had 1 day to hike and picked out 3 medium length trails near the west side of the area. I also had something special planned…

Overview

This is the second post about my family reunion trip to Estes Park, Colorado which will focus on all the hiking we did in Rocky Mountain National Park. Find the first part here detailing out the YMCA of the Rockies and our adventures up the Old Fall River Road that just opened up. All the hiking we did I really enjoyed but the weather was terrible. Typically for this time of year there are afternoon showers in the mountains but we were presented with nonstop rain and low clouds pretty much the whole time. It didn’t stop us and we were able to find a couple hikes that broke through the cloud cover with some spots of sunshine.

Overview

The final part of our week long adventure in Central America was to the surprisingly beautiful El Salvador! While most people don’t know anything about El Salvador and if they do it usually because of the possible dangers there… Well I have to admit I was a little apprehensive spending two nights in San Salvador but I am so glad we did as it was my favorite part of the whole trip! We enjoyed delicious pupusas and hiked up the beautiful Santa Ana Volcano (also know as Ilamatepec).

Read up on some of my other Costa Rica and El Salvador posts!

The Setup: Upcoming Trip to Costa Rica & El Salvador

Part 1: Costa Rica Ziplining & Borinquen Resort

Part 2: Costa Rica, Andaz Papagayo, & Beaches

Part 3: El Salvador & Santa Ana Volcano