SMALL-TOWN GIRLS, MIDNIGHT TRAINS

— travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams —

travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams

Paris. Is. Possible.

On the third anniversary of my first ever European trip, I thought I’d go back to the basic, underlying message of this blog: you can do it too. And what better place to feature than Paris, where this love affair with travel (and writing about it) all began. It was exactly three years ago that […]

The Paris river bus

Paris is beautiful from a boat. Well, it would be beautiful from anywhere, I suppose, but a boat is a good way to see the sights along the Seine river in relative comfort. There are various boat companies running sightseeing tours. A 1-hour cruise on Vedettes de Paris — the boat pictured passing under the gorgeous Pont […]

The Road to Chateau d’If

_ While waiting for a boat to take us from the Chateau d’If to the rest of the Frioul islands, my sister and I fell into conversation with a Taiwanese lady named Sophie, who was in the south of France to select wines for her F&B company. When she learned we were from the Philippines, […]

7 days in Paris for PHP 50,000

Over a year ago, I wrote How Much Does A European Trip Cost, where I advised people to budget PHP 10,000/day of their trip. That estimate was largely based on a 10-day trip my sister and I took a few years ago and included everything from: Airfare (Cebu-Manila-KL-Paris-KL-Manila-Cebu) Hotels (all double/twin en suites in central […]

The Moment

– There is that moment while traveling when you look upon a scene and suddenly comprehend why it’s been described as breathtaking, because literally you’ve sucked in a sharp breath and forgotten to exhale, transfixed by what you see. One of those moments for me occurred in Nice. My sister and I had planned to […]

Where to Stay in Paris: Hotel Terminus Lyon

It was a last-minute decision to stay at the Hotel Terminus Lyon (and by “last-minute” I mean that the decision was made a few days before we filed our visa application, 2 months before our trip). We had planned to take a sleeper train from Nice to Paris, to save on time and accommodations, but […]