Ile de Re France what to see and do

ILE DE RE, France | Atlantic coast holidays on an island close to La Rochelle

Katja FAMILY HOLIDAYS, FAMILY TRAVELS, FRANCE 10 Comments

Have you ever heard of the French island of Ile de Re? No? I haven’t for a long time either. Until 2016, the only thing I knew about France was Paris, which I had visited many times, and several ski resorts in the French Alps, where we went on skiing trips with my family for ten years in a row. I admit, for a long time I didn’t even know that France had so many islands. Until Charlie, who is originally from the island of Ile de Re, came into my life (again). The fact that he was living on an island sounded terribly attractive to me already when I first met him back in 2007. Many years later it was love at first sight with this small, 30 km long and only 5 km wide island with plenty sandy beaches and houses with white facades and pastel shutters, where many wealthy Parisians have weekend residences, where there is no shortage of sun and fragrant pine trees, where we stuff ourselves with delicious oysters, breathe in the fresh sea air and where donkeys walk around in pajamas. I kid you not. It is truly a unique place. And after all the visits over the past seven years, the love still lasts. So in this blog post, I am presenting you this French gem as good as I can and give you an insight of our life during visits to our second home.

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TBILISI, Georgia | what to see and do in 2 days

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY CITY TRIPS, FAMILY TRAVELS, GEORGIA Leave a Comment

We had been wandering around Georgia for a good week before arriving in Tbilisi. We drove to Georgia from our home town of Kranjska Gora in our LR Defender converted into a camper. First, we stopped in Batumi, then spent a couple of days exploring the beautiful surroundings of Mestia and Ushguli in the Svaneti region, drove past the Martvili Canyon later on and passed the city of Kutaisi before arriving to the old city center of the Georgian capital. We honestly didn’t expect much from Tbilisi. Partly because we didn’t have time to intensively read about what the city had to offer before arriving, and partly because we are always drawn more to nature than to cities on such overland trips. Nevertheless, the stopover offered itself, as the road to the mountainous area of Kazbegi took us past here anyway. And guess what? Tbilisi blew us away with its architecture, colorful facades, interweaving of different styles, excellent restaurants and bars, and above all with its special relaxed summer atmosphere. We stayed two nights, in a beautiful apartment in a house 300+ years old house, and enjoyed a lot of beautiful things in the three days we spent there. We made an unplanned stop in Tbilisi again about a week later, when we were on our way to Armenia and were looking for a particular car part, albeit in vain. Despite the unsuccessful mission, we did see other parts of the city and visited some more technical shops, which was also an interesting experience. So, in this article, I am taking you to Tbilisi in words and pictures!

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THE BLACK COAST SEA, Turkey | wild camping overland family trip

Katja FAMILY TRAVELS, TURKEY Leave a Comment

We had something special planned for the second half of this year’s summer. A 5-6 week road trip to Georgia and Armenia and back to Slovenia. With our Defender converted into a camper, with 3-year-old Mila and then 6-month-old Leo. A nightmare for some, but an unforgettable adventure for us. From Slovenia, the route led us through Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria to Turkey, where we finally slowed down a bit. We arrived in Georgian Batumi on the 11th day since we started from Kranjska Gora. This part of Turkey impressed us with its wild, unfortunately often dirty, beaches and crazy hilly landscape, where we also found completely non-touristy plateaus, isolated forests and unique scenic mountain roads. We loved it. A lot. And the Black Sea is actually not as black as it sounds. Far from it. The Black Sea has very attractive turquoise shades, it is ideal for summer swimming, the towns along the coast are interesting and mostly quite charming. Although we didn’t manage to see everything, I will still mention other interesting locations in this post besides the places we visited. This way you get a truly comprehensive article about the Turkish Black Sea coast with its hinterland.

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Augsburg, Germany | family weekend trip to Bavaria

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

Last year at this time of the year we were discovering Bavarian Regensburg with my huge pregnancy belly, and for this year’s traditional family trip to Germany we chose the oldest and third largest Bavarian city, Augsburg. Charlie and me ha’ve been here once before, just before Christmas time when we drove the famous German Romantic Road, but now we wanted to experience the city in autumn colors and with our children too. Besides Mila and Leo, Lu was also with us, on the last day of our trip he took the train back home towards northern Germany from Munich because his school holidays were ending. We spent five days on this trip, including a five-hour drive from Kranjska Gora, and this allowed us to really explore at a slower pace. Augsburg offers a lot of interesting things, and after a long time we really wanted to enjoy one of the biggest German cities like this. Also, Augsburg is in an excellent location – just under an hour away from central Munich and half an hour from Legoland, and there are also many charming smaller places in the nearby area, so you can conveniently combine your stay with a visit to another destination or include the city in a stop on a road trip through southern Germany. In this article, we are going to Augsburg, Germany!

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CAUCASUS OVERLAND TRIP | 3,2,1, let’s go east!

Katja ARMENIA, BULGARIA, GEORGIA, SERBIA, TURKEY Leave a Comment

3,2,1 let’s go. Finally, our first real road trip with Mila and baby Leo. Somewhere far away. And for as many as 5 weeks. Even though I am on maternity leave, which lasts one whole year in Slovenia, it wasn’t easy to get these 5 weeks off. When you are renovating a house, there is always something, and we are limited by the return date. Therefore, we had no other choice but to set off at the beginning of August, in the midst of the greatest crowds and heat. But we hope the climate at the destination will be a little nicer and places a little less crowded than elsewhere in Europe. So where are we actually going? And why there? I was keeping it a secret for a long time, some of you guessed it right but most of you couldn’t be more wrong.

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REGENSBURG, Germany | weekend trip to Bavaria

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY CITY TRIPS, FAMILY HOLIDAYS, FAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

Last October, we were in Germany twice again, on the first visit we spent the night in Munich, and on the second we finally got to explore the famous city of Regensburg for the very first time. I have lived in Germany for almost 11 years, but I have never been able to visit it, so I was especially looking forward to this trip. The fourth largest city in Bavaria impressed us with its rich medieval history, mighty Danube river, interesting old town center full of vibrant bars, restaurants and shops, beautiful architecture and lively Saturday atmosphere. Read more about what why you should visit and what to see and do in Regensburg down below.

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Welcome, Leo!

Katja Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Weeks go by, months go by, and I still didn’t manage to finish publishing any new posts over here. I promise there will be more content here on the blog as well, but at least I have a good excuse for the current silence. Just over a month ago, I became a mom for the third time! This has always been a (family) travel blog in the first place and I have never exposed myself, my loved ones and our personal life too much publicly but as I approach the 9th anniversary of blogging, I figured there are so many of you who follow my adventures for a long time now and so here’s a little life update for all of you and everyone who joined recently as well.

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DOHA, Qatar | what to see and do in 6 days

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY CITY TRIPS, FAMILY TRAVELS, QATAR 1 Comment

For our last plane trip before Mila turned 2, we spontaneously chose a 6-day vacation in Doha, Qatar. So, for the last time, we paid full price for just two plane tickets and treated ourselves to a few days of exploring and enjoying ourselves in a slightly more expensive hotel with a pool and a private beach. Fun fact: unknowingly, our future family member whom we will meet in January was with us too. We chose Doha mainly because we found affordable flights, we had guaranteed sunny warm weather and there was not much time difference compared to home. We booked everything just a little over a week ahead so really last minute. This year’s spring was extremely rainy and cold back home, and Doha awaited us with over 40 degrees – luckily, the dry heat there is much easier to bear than our humid hot summers, so we didn’t think it was too bad. Besides relaxing in the sun we also visited the most famous areas and sights of the city, and you can read more about our time in Qatar in this post.

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TOURISTANBUL | free guided tour from the airport to Istanbul city

Katja CITY BREAKS, TURKEY 2 Comments

Have you heard of Touristanbul? Such a great option for everyone who travels via Istanbul Airport and has a longer layover between two flights. Exactly one week ago, we were returning home from Doha, Qatar via Istanbul, and since we were flying with Turkish Airlines and had a longer stopover before our flight to Ljubljana, we happily joined this free guided tour of the city. We initially wanted a morning connection to Ljubljana, but the flight was already fully booked, so we had no choice but to book an evening flight. Read more about who is entitled to these Touristanbul trips, how to book them, which one to chose and what our experience was like in this post.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | what to see and do in 7 days with kids

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY CITY TRIPS, FAMILY HOLIDAYS, FAMILY TRAVELS, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, WITH KIDS Leave a Comment

Dubai. A city that has been created practically from nothing in the last couple of decades. Where there was once a desert, modern high buildings stand today, among them currently the tallest in the world. A city that somehow never attracted me, a city that always seemed too artificial, too instant, too modern, too impersonal, not enough cute or somehow without a soul. A city I successfully avoided visiting all these years because its story or concept simply did not convince me. Until now. This March I decided to finally fly to Dubai for our first mother & daughter trip with now 1 year old Mila. Because it is safe, developed, not too far away, the temperatures are pleasant in March, we can swim in the sea as well as in the pool, there is loads of interesting things for children as well as for parents. This very same place I was avoiding for so many years ended up surprising me in the best possible way! My expectations were low I admit, but still. Today I can only say, I’m sorry Dubai, I did you wrong. In fact, I find Dubai one of the best or at least one of the most special places in the world and I am really grateful for this week in which we quite successfully combined lazing on the beach and exploring the city. Quite unexpectedly, in the best possible company, as my friend decided to join us with her little girl, who is only four months older than Mila. Read all about why and how to go to Dubai (with children), what to see in a week, where to choose a hotel, how expensive it is, what we liked the most (and what we didn’t like) and more in this post.

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