Travel Destinations

Fast breakdowns and travel tips for countries and cities that I’ve already been to. All the good stuff, with no fluff.

Ireland – quick travel guide

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Friendly country of drinking, scenic rainy countrysides, and expensive living costs…what else?

Ireland is one of those out-of-the-way destinations that doesn’t appeal to many on paper. It’s got crap weather, worse than England (which is already considered bad)…annnd more expensive than London (again already considered bad). Ouch!

Many people don’t know much about Ireland, myself included. But upon visiting….I’ve come to notice some charms. Irish people are much nicer than the British, or at least London-ers (no offense). And they have more of a distinct culture…especially considering that they have their own language (Irish). Hahaha…I didn’t even know they had their own language until recently. I thought those funny words were old medieval English or something.

Oh and also…Ire

I think to visit Ireland and feel like you’ve seen all the main parts, 2 weeks is a good time. 1 week is enough to see the 3 main cities…Dublin, Galway, Belfast. But 2 weeks lets you do day trips to the small towns nearby. Ireland has beautiful countrysides so doing small trips out is especially rewarding.

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Galway – quick travel guide

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Ireland’s must-see scenic city destination. Beautiful countryside landscapes, limestones, and the country’s #1 tourist attraction…the Cliffs of Moher!

Everyone says a visit to Ireland must absolutely include Galway, this beautiful town on the west coast of Ireland (opposite side of Dublin). But why? I think it’s because it’s cute, compact, lively, and with beautiful tours in the area. You don’t need to look up where to go. Just enter the center of the old town and follow the noise. Restaurants, pubs and shops everywhere. So easy, so condensed. A really easy (and fun) visit.

2 days is enough to feel like you saw everything. But can add extra days for you to check out different puts and visit other nearby towns or tourist things.

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Rio de Janeiro vs Sao Paulo

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Which is better for traveling? Which is more fun, more safe, more Brazilian, or better use of your travel time?

The argument goes on forever between people with different priorities and tastes in lifestyle. So I’ll present a serious comparison full of context and firsthand details between these 2 massively different cities. It can be as simple as knowing whether you’re a beach person or a city person. But still many other nuances to consider.

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London – quick travel guide

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The posh capital of the world full extremely-British culture. Elegant, refined, fancy, and fun!

London is a big city that requires lots of time to digest and public transportation to get around. Yes, it’s walkable but you’ll need metro or buses to efficiently get between neighborhoods. I’ll help you feel at home and bite this big city down to size.

Whether you want to be Parisian-posh or Berlin-style hipster, eating fancy or partying trashy, walking at parks or crawling bars…London has a scene for you. 5-7 days is a good amount of time to see a bunch of things and live the local life a bit. I’ll definitely warn you that London is expensive!

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Napoli (Naples) – quick travel guide

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Authentic southern Italian city with its gritty vibes, compact corridors, endless history (and monuments), and best-in-the-world Napolitan pizza.

In short, Napoli is truly awesome. It’s no surprise that most travelers in western Europe don’t venture that far south into Italy as it’s more convenient to just stay up north. But they don’t know what they’re missing out.

Napoli is a mix of Rome, Florence, and Lisbon. Tons of historical monuments and architecture all in a condensed space, with a bit of hills, also you have water areas. While Napoli isn’t as romantic, elegant and fancy as Florence…it’s more local, youthful and lively, far less touristic.

You can do it in 2 days to feel like you saw the main things, or put 5 days to really see many things. It’s also no surprise to me that I saw many travelers who came here for a week and then stayed for months. If I had to stay in Italy for months, I’d also probably choose Napoli over the more touristy (overly-crowded) Italian cities in the north.

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Bari – quick travel guide

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Eastern coast Italian town. Chill or boring, depends what you like.

I came here for a dance event. Not because I heard it was amazing and wanted to check it out. Turns out it’s pretty boring and not so unique but indeed there are a few things you can do and see if you have to be here.

1 day is enough for me. Put more days if you really want to relax and do nothing.

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Dubrovnik – quick travel guide

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Beautiful waterside Croatian city with medieval castle walls, looking up to mountains or looking down to the water. (Made even more popular by Game of Thrones series.)

Dubrovnik is somewhat of a mix of Paris, Porto, Amalfi coast. You’ve got a cute old town area within the castle walls, many small streets and corridors from of bars, restaurants, shops. Plenty of steps and hills to climb for better views of the city and looking out across the water. It’s posh and touristy, but also feels like a new destination at the same time. While Dubrovnik is massively becoming more popular, going here doesn’t feel like you’ve been where everybody else has been already. (NOTE: restaurant prices in Dubrovnik are generally expensive 25-30eur per plate.)

You could see enough of it in 2 days (enough to kill your camera space). But I’d recommend 3 or more so you can try more restaurants, do some boat trips, and see more of the castle walls and museums.

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Lisbon – quick travel guide

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Sunny hilly city full of charmy architecture and small cobbled tile alleyways leading from the sea below to panoramic views above.

Long ago, not many European tourists ventured west past Barcelona but that’s long changed. Today’s travelers are tired of overly-touristy (and expensive) destinations like Paris, London, Rome, etc. And have opted to venture further out west, east, and south in Europe.

Lisbon makes a great choice due to its sunny weather, English-literate population, charmy streets, thriving nightlife and restaurant scene, all capped off by sunny beachy vibes. And yes, it’s noticeably cheaper than all else of Western Europe. It’s no wonder many Californians and other beach-lovers have relocated to Lisbon (much to the locals’ demise).

I recommend 4-5 days to see everything here and also be able to do a day-trip to nearby towns. Lisbon is small enough to see in 3 days but has enough things and adventures to fill up a week if you have the time. Many people fall in love and never leave here.

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Serbia – quick travel guide

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War-torn country with great vibes, low cost of living, and nice people.

Come see the charm of this cheap fun Slavic country. Really underrated and not a shock to see why many people chose to relocate here. Don’t worry, it seems English is spoken in enough places.

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Sydney vs Melbourne – travel destination comparison

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Just some researching I did:

  • Sydney has more tourist destinations and things to see and do. If you can only pick one or only have limited days, definitely pick Sydney. Oh and of course, Sydney is more expensive.
  • Melbourne is nicer one to live and keeps beating Sydney on the livable places list. If you’re planning to spend extended time, consider Melbourne.
  • So it depends on you and what you want. Some people prefer one, others prefer the other. I’d guess Melbourne can be seen in 3-5 days and Sydney in like 5-7.

Australia – quick travel guide

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Big land-mass continent with lots of nature, exactly a cultural mix between England and America.

What comes to mind is 1st-world new modern country with lots of nature. Clean, new, big spaces, big buildings. Culturally feels very American (New England vibe), accent is kind of like a surfer/country version of the British accent. As an American, I find Australians to be an exact mix of British and American. In how they talk, how they live, and how they party.

It’s a big country (78% the land size of America) but actually very small population (25 million compared to 330 million). So not that many big cities. Ethnically, Australia is very white…the biggest ethnic minorities are Asian at 1% (although will feel like more in Sydney and Melbourne).

Most people (especially from Europe or Latin America) who want to immigrate to Australia are for these reasons:

  • Good standing of living. Strong currency for working.
  • Clean, modern.
  • Has lots of nature and beaches. Which for Europeans is considered special, and for Latin Americans reminds them of home (many don’t want a place without a beach).
  • To learn and practice English. And also to get an education in another country.

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Belgrade – quick travel guide

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Eastern European hub with war-torn buildings, and many hidden Slavic cultural charms.

Belgrade (and probably Serbia in general) is a totally underrated city. At first glance, it seems to be a small ugly-ish city without much going on. Not only are the buildings destroyed by war, they’re also covered in a layer of dark dirt from the coal pollution (burned during winter months). Sure, Belgrade is really cheap compared the rest of Western Europe. But it also isn’t as picturesque or grand as other European cities. None of the colorful charms.

Many people say Belgrade’s true beauty lies underneath its ugly surface aesthetic. That a subtle and hidden charm exists and when found, becomes a favorite charmy little city.

So did I find Belgrade’s hidden beauty?

At first, no. I saw only its surface aesthetic of being ugly and small. Buncha flat land spreading across a plain waterfront with boringish unfinished castle wall structures. Belgrade was only intended as a stopping point to Turkey and onwards I continued to Turkey with no desire to linger in Belgrade for any longer.

However when I came by the second time. I stayed in a different neighborhood and met locals who showed me around. Then I LOVED it. Super nice vibe, unpretentious, friendly personable people (especially if you know locals). Super clean nice Saint Sava church. Weird disco light building that shines every night. Nice food and bar scene. The city is super chill but also lots of party and nightlife for whatever mood you’re in. Now that I found its beauty, I’ll do my best to convince you that it DOES exist.

Main highlights can be done in 2 days, but you could also fall in love and live here without getting bored.

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Prague – quick travel guide

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Most aesthetically beautiful eastern European city, and popular expat location.

Prague’s status has gone up so much higher than I expected since I’ve first visited here in 2009. If you haven’t stayed updated on Prague lately, I think you’re missing out. It is absolutely the scene right now. I think it’s one of the best places to live for many reasons. But also because it’s very centrally located to many other awesome towns. Great for a dynamic social lifestyle.

I consider Prague to be something like a perfect combination of Paris, Rome, Berlin, London, Budapest. It’s beautiful, posh, cultured, but also chill, hipster, small, cozy, walkable. It’s the absolute best of both worlds of big city and small city. There’s lots to do but yet cozy enough to walk and relax instead of feeling like you have to jump all over town to get anywhere. Green space, buildings, bridges, parks, cafes, clubs, bars, arts…there’s something for everyone. Many cool people I know have already lived here and/or been traveling here for events and things.

You can see the highlights in 3 days, but you seriously might want extra time to really enjoy its beauty.

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Budapest – quick travel guide

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Big yet still walkable Central Eastern European city full of authentic local life.

Budapest is unique in its culture, located towards eastern Europe but is not a Slavic country. They have their own culture, their own vibes, and unique architecture that feels eastern European yet doesn’t look like the typical eastern European stuff. Rich history and many things to do.

If you enjoyed Prague, Budapest is considered a grittier but still beautiful and very fun authentic travel destination. The city is divided into 2 parts “Buda” and “Pest” (pronounced like “pesht”) separated by the Danube river in the middle.

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Florence – quick travel guide

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Romantic Italian tourist destination…big yet still charmy.

The 3 most popular tourist cities in Italy are probably Rome, Florence, and Milan. (I didn’t check btw, just a gut feeling.) Rome is epic with its massive size and endless array of historical monuments/buildings. Milan is more like a modern metropolis, known for fashion and things of Italy today.

Florence is smaller than those 2, but packs as big of a punch and so much more charmy. Massive cathedral of beautiful styling, much more impressive to me than Milan’s duomo. The city center feels like a giant old town, with many squares and cobbled stone walkways. People everywhere and NO CARS or public transportation. It’s a walking city dazzling your sights with every step. In 10 minutes of walking, you go past bridges and water-views, historical buildings and squares, statues and monuments, gardens and museums, shops and stores, bars, cafes, and restaurants.

It’s like a really big small Italian town, if you know what I mean. Small enough to digest in a couple days, big enough to live in and find things to do. Come see why the smaller Florence brings in so many millions of tourists despite lacking the size of Rome, Paris, London.

3 days is enough to see most things and still have moments to relax and enjoy this beautiful city.

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How to Buy a Leather Jacket in Florence (Italy)

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Tips to detect quality, avoiding fakes and typical salesman tricks.

Bought my first leather jaqueta in Florence (2014) after checking out 30-50 stores. I loved his jackets the most because:  high quality, they were very nice looking (not too trendy or out-dated), reasonably priced, great customer service (without any of the annoying sales tactics listed below).

He passed my stringent test with flying colors. I’ve repasted my forum comment from TripAdvisor below:

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Poland – quick travel guide

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Well-established Slavic country with colorful Eastern block charms, and without the tourists.

As an American in Europe, I’d say Poland is probably the first truly Slavic eastern-European country you’ll reach. It’s close enough to easily arrive from western Europe (neighbors Germany/Czech), yet far enough to maintain its own vibe and doesn’t have hordes of western tourists and foreigners like those 2.

Poland is truly a gem for me. Kind people, great food, cheaper than the rest of western Europe (but not cheap). And I love that it has a different set of tourists, mostly all European and many from further east and south of Europe…it’s kind of the international hub for them. What you get here is IMO a much more authentic eastern European vibe than Czech Republic (because of its Disneyland tourist presence with bigger old town and charmier bridges/water-points).

5-10 days would easily cover 2 to 3 cities. And give you a full range of Poland’s charms.

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Rome – quick travel guide

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Huge epic city full of ancient/medieval world wonders.

Rome is a giant place full of “wow” things everywhere you look. Historic monuments, buildings, and waterfronts…with tourists clamoring everywhere to get the best photo. Even if you never paid attention in history class, you will definitely recognize many things here from movies and books throughout your life. I was drunk the very first night here and even still, I kept saying “OH CRAP, I seen this before!” on every block I walked.

Where and how do you begin to digest the magnitude of this place? I’ll help you chop it down to digestible size! What I love most about this place is that despite it’s tourist value, it’s still very much a real and liveable city with lots of locals and local places to explore.

I’d recommend at least 4 days to feel like you not only saw everything but got to enjoy the Roman vibes. Rome is also nice because even though it’s geographically in the center, the culture and mentality feels more like southern Italy. More warm, friendlier, different foods and different vibe from usual northern Italian cities (like Milan, Turin). Btw, an Italian will tell you Rome has a distinct central Italian vibe and is not exactly southern, but definitely more like the south than the north. 😉

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Cinque Terre – quick travel guide

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A row of 5 beautiful colorful Italian beach towns, each with their own unique beach landscape and waterfront play areas.

Cinque Terre is no longer the “secret” it once was 20 years ago. It’s now one of the most popular (and crowded) tourist spots for good reason. By staying at just one of the towns, you are in close proximity to easily explore the other 4. It’s fun to explore the towns, take photos of cute colorful buildings, hangout by the water, eat and drink at Italian-esque places with water views, even go hiking between the towns for amazing “wow” photos.

You could technically do it all in 2 days (dedicating one to hiking) but I’d like to put 3 to relax and enjoy the beaches and night restaurants/bars more. My first visit was in 2009, second in 2014, and third in 2022. And I think I’m never going back. I’ve seen enough and it only got worse each time…more crowded and touristy and coastal hike trail closed. I’d personally go elsewhere with those days.

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Venice – quick travel guide

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Colorful & chaotic Italian tourist city of crowded canals and narrow streets.

Venice is an absolute madness of a city full of tourists taking postcard-worthy photos from every corner. Colorful buildings, bridges, shops, walkways from every angle. Buildings, boats, waterfronts, squares, and people everywhere.

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