Romantic Travel Expert

Italy, Croatia, Greece and Paris...here we come!!!

Celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary in Europe! We decided during COVID that we wanted to do something exciting, adventurous and memorable. I booked our 1st European cruise with Royal Caribbean! 

Booked flights, hotels, Eurorail tickets and snacks... Off to Europe we go!

We flew non-stop from NY-JFK to Venice, Italy.

Landed in Venice found the best taxi driver Mario, the nicest guy. He took us to our hotel in Mestre City.  He recommended Da Michele restaurant, train stations, wine and walking tours all while driving to the hotel. We had the best stay at the Best Western Bologna for 2 days prior to our cruise. Oh what fun we had in Mestre.

Next up Eurorail to Ravenna (3 hour ride to cruise port) the most beautiful scenery of vineyards, barns, and Cypress trees. Get to Ravenna station wait for the RCCL bus shuttle to cruise ship. COVID screenings checked done now we're on board the Brilliance of the Seas. Welcome back is what we heard from all the crew members. Cabins ready time to relax unpack for our voyage.

• 1st stop:Dubrovnik, Croatia - We took the local bus from the cruise port. The locals were pleasant and gave great suggestions for places to see and to eat. We also learned Dubrovnik was home of GAME OF THRONES,which was all the rage. Dubrovnik served as the main filming location for King’s Landing, and you can’t walk around without running into groups of various Game of Thrones tours while visiting. Everyone comes to the fort to see where it's filmed or to dress up in costumes. So much history and castles surrounding the bluest water as far as the eye can see. I was surprised how hot it was in October but; the gelato in Pile gate kept us cool while walking the cobble stoned streets. We also ate amazing calamari salad at Kavana Dubravka.
• 2nd stop:Santorini, Greece; we had to tender from the ship to the island Once you get here you can take the cable car or the ferry ride to Oia. The cable car line was 2 hours long so we purchased tickets to a ferry/taxi tour to Oia - Once we got to Oia and walked through the town and shops ....my dreams came true seeing Blue Domes in Oia & Fira. Then we shopped at BeLoose linens the clothes simply beautiful. I wanted to buy everything. The softest linen handspun. I left with a few things. The owner recommended us to her favorite place, Pito's for real Gyro (Yeero).After hours of eating, sightseeing and shopping and eating again.It's time to head back to the island for our tender. Cable car line is even longer now so we opted for the walk through Fira.We ended up getting gelato and taking the Karavolades steps down and walking along the donkeys (AKA Donkey Steps). The donkey handlers thanked us for visiting recommended we take the donkey ride on our next visit. Santorini is such a lively and amazing place. Back on the ship we met some new people got pizza , tea before saying good night.
• Next day Our Captain announce that Mykonos was cancelled due to the high tide and not safe to tender over to island. Our new friends said we've never been here let's hang and discover it together.
• 3rd & 4th stop Corfu, Greece - Our Captain announced we would be visiting and staying for 48 hours in Corfu. Lots of people were upset but we've never been to either place so we figure make the most of it. Corfu, Greece was magical .it felt like the upper west side of NYC. We spent 2 days here and had the time of our lives.sightseeing, shopping, eating & drinking with the locals in Kerkyra. I could see why the crew was so happy to stay here in Corfu (LOL). We ran into the crew from the ship excited to stay out all night. As we passed them they would say "see you at breakfast".They we so happy to feel the magic of Corfu; especially at night I fun vibes. Music playing, people at small tables filled with wine, cheese and grapes. We headed back to the ship after midnight to get some rest.
• Next day off to the beach is 85 degrees in October.The beach is calling. We grabbed a taxi and the driver took us to his local beach that he and his family visit Kontogialos Beach. We ate lunch them he came back to pick us up so we can tour the town before heading back to the ship.
• 5th stop: Split, Croatia - a yachting/boating town surrounded by castles, forts, jazz music, plenty of history & amazingly good food
• 6th: SEA DAY. Rest Relax Enjoy the ship's activities. A farewell dinner with our new friends before getting off the ship .
• We all took the RCCL shuttle bus to the Ravenna.We say farewell to our friends then a train ride back to Mestre City; we stayed at our same hotel Best Western Bologna. We took the train to Venice to sight see. We were able to catch the sunset on our Gondola ride and had an awesome dinner Ristorante Ai Scalzi. It was so romantic, great way to cap off this part of our adventure.
• FLY to Paris (a 14 hour layover). Book airport hotel an UBER and off to the Eifel Tower we go..we grab a hot chocolate & crepes from the local food truck & basked in the beauty of the tower.
• FLY back home NYC! 

• Where to next!