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The Amalfi coast is a 50-kilometer stretch of coastline on the Southwest of Italy, dotted with charming fishing villages and mountain towns. This is not an off-the-beaten-path destination, but it’s famous for a reason. You can spend your days hiking from village to village through towering mountains filled with lemon orchards. Or, instead, laying on a sun-bed admiring the aquamarine sea while eating fried anchovies and drinking a spritz. Or maybe chasing art in the village’s open air museums, where public staircases are adorned with colorful ceramics and impressive paintings. There is really something for everyone here.

We expected to like the area, but not as much as we did. It’s of course very impressive naturally (and this is the reason I thought we would like it), but we also found it to be authentic and not catering to tourists as much as we thought it would given its popularity. That said, we spent very little time in Amalfi and Positano, the main touristy hubs on the coast. Instead, we hiked our hearts away, ate some incredible meals, found solitude in many corners, and ended up visiting almost every single village on the coast.

So, without a further ado - and because this is supposed to be a mini guide - below are all our recommendations!

The Basics

The official Amalfi Coast is considered the area between the town of Positano and the town of Vietri sul Mare, which includes (among others) the villages of Cetara, Maiori, Minori, Ravello, Scala, Atrani, Amalfi, Agerola, Praiano, Nocelle, and Montepertuso.

On both ends of the “official” coast there are also worthy places to see as well as potential bases, such as Salerno and Sorrento. We spent two weeks in the area, but only about five full days in the Amalfi Coast itself.

Where to stay

This is an important question and the one I spent the most time trying to answer when I was planning the trip. Now that we have explored the area quite a bit we definitely have thoughts.

Our top recommendation is to stay somewhere well connected by ferry. There are plenty of little towns all over the coast as well as the mountains, but not all are easy to reach via the sea, which is by far the best way to get around because 1) views!! and 2) simple and hassle free.

The main ferry company in the area is called TravelMar and connects Salerno, Vietri Sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori, Amalfi, and Positano. Although it’s not the only ferry company, we found it to be reliable and extremely easy to use by just buying the tickets online and showing up a few minutes before departure.

We based ourselves in Salerno, and would highly recommend it as a base. It’s not officially part of the Amalfi Coast (which is one of the reasons we chose it), but it’s extremely close to it (you can literally see Vietri Sul Mare and Cetara from it), it’s an actual city, very chill, and much more affordable than anywhere on the coast. That said, if you are only visiting for a short amount of time and are trying to cram many things into just a few days, then you might want to stay in the coast itself, such as in Maiori, Minori, Cetara, or Vietri. Outside of these well connected towns, Atrani is the only other village I’d consider, given it’s walking distance from Amalfi and its port. I wouldn’t recommend staying in either Amalfi or Positano, but if you like being surrounded by tourists all the time, then you do you!

You can of course base yourself in many other cute little villages, such as Praiano, Agerola, Nocelle, Ravello, etc, but then you have to figure out another mode of transport if you are seeking to see more than just the town you are staying at. There is a bus line that connects most of these villages, called SITA, but the one and only time we tried using it it didn’t even stop as it was full (and this was in mid-June) so I probably wouldn’t recommend it to reliably get around. A car can be really useful, and we used ours a couple of times to get around - both on the mountains and the coast - but the roads did feel dangerous at times (mostly due to the big SITA buses) and parking was indeed a nightmare. So, I would not use a car as my main mode of transport, though a motorcycle might do the trick if you have experience driving them.

What NOT to Miss

There are countless things to do while on the Amalfi Coast, and you will find plenty of ideas in subsequent sections. But, I think there are some experiences you should absolutely not miss:

• Yes, go to Amalfi, Positano, and Ravello. The three most popular of all the towns on the coast and also absolutely worth seeing.

• Explore at least one other smaller coastal town. There are many and they are all so unique. We particularly liked Vietri sul Mare and Atrani.

• See the coast from the water. Hands down what I will remember the most about this piece of golden coast is admiring the colorful villages nested between mountains from the water.

• Go hiking! The famous Path of the Gods is beautiful, but it’s also not the only option. Get some ideas from the Hiking section below and take a look at AllTrails.

• Don’t forget about the mountain towns! The coast is just a piece of this area. Even if you don’t go hiking, explore beyond the coast. We loved wine tasting in Tramonti and learning how to make fior di latte in Agerola.

• Explore outside of the official Amalfi Coast! There is Paestum and its incredibly well preserved Greek ruins, and of course the authentic and unique Naples. More ideas below!

What to do

This depends on what you like to do. If you are reading this you might already know that we love to hike, eat, and swim, so that is what we did on this trip and what my recommendations are going to be about.

Hiking

The entire coast is well connected by trails (and stairs 😅) so if you are into hiking we highly recommend planning to take the ferry to a town, hike to other towns, on the way eat a leisurely lunch and have a swim, and then take the ferry back. We spent two full days doing this and saw soooo much because we did.

We found most paths in AllTrails. Be careful with Google Maps as it will many times send you through the coastal road (the one for cars), but you almost *never* have to do that. We saw so many people walking on the narrow road with cars going pass them super fast, but this is unnecessary because there are (much prettier and safer) walking paths connecting the towns. Below were two of our - very unofficial and spontaneous - routes, which I hope they might serve as inspiration ;)

Day One

• Start in Maiori, grab a sandwich (tomatoes, prosciutto, and stracciatella) from La Tramontina and start walking to Minori through the “Path of the Lemons”, an easy 2km route. Sit in a bench to have your breakfast with views of lemon orchards. Continue your hike until you hit Agricola Ruocco's, and grab a lemon granita to-go. We were stuffed by when we got to Minori but if you need a pick-me-up grab a pastry at the very famous Pasticceria Sal de Riso.

• From Minori walk up to Ravello, which is in the mountains, so not an easy stretch but also not long, around 3km. Lots and lots of stairs await, but also solitude and incredible views! We loved it. If you are not into climbing, grab the bus. In Ravello drink a celebratory beer in the plaza (you will need it after sweating like a pig going up those stairs) and visit the Villa Rufolo and maybe also Villa Cimbrone for views and pretty gardens.

• From Ravello, it’s time to go down to Atrani. Yes, that town in Netflix’s Ripley show (which is great btw). Atrani is as cute as expected! Get lost in its streets and then grab lunch watching the sea at Le Arcate - the lemon pasta was divine! Then, go for a swim and a nap at Lido de Ravello.

• Lastly, walk to Amalfi (not through the road!). If you are lucky (we were) this will be the first time in the day you will see crowds. Check out the impressive Duomo and then walk to the far right port Piazzale dei Protontini for excellent views of Amalfi.

• Grab the last ferry back to where you started from!

Day Two

This was definitely a much more adventurous route than above, and it was a long day of hiking, so use with caution.

• Start in Positano, grab a cappuccino (or spritz if you are on the mode - we had both 😂) at Angelo Cafe while overlooking at the colorful pyramid of houses that defines Positano.

• From Positano go up to Montepertuso for lovely views over the bay and some peace after the buzz of Positano. Grab a lovely lunch at Il Ritrovo, don’t miss the filled courgette flowers! You could stop your hiking here, and simply go down to Positano and chill at the beach. But, if you - like us - refuse to go down the same way you came up, then:

• Continue to Nocelle. This part was a tiny bit sketchy as the path was very overgrown - but it was short!

• In Nocelle, find the “Paths of the Gods”. This is the most popular hiking path in the area which connects several different towns. There are many ways to do the hike, but the most common is from Bomerano (Agerola) to Nocelle. We were planning to do exactly that route a few days afterwards, but then we were already in Nocelle so decided to do it backwards. And because we were desperate for a swim, we did it to Praiano instead of Bomerano (you just go down at an intersection in the middle of the hike instead of continuing). This is proper hiking (so no pavement and stairs) but also not particularly difficult or with a lot of elevation gain. That said, if you decide to go to Praiano there will be *a lot* of elevation loss. This way down was probably the harder part of the day. If we had better planned the route and were prepared to maybe not go swim (how could we?) then I think we might have continued to Bomerano and taken the bus down to the coast from there.

• In Praiano, admire all the art covering the staircases as you make your way to the ocean and take a well deserved swim at Marina di Praia. If you are hungry and not in a hurry to get to a ferry then have dinner in Kasai, which we didn’t do but wanted to. Praiano is not connected by proper ferries but you can take a water taxi to Amalfi or directly to wherever you are staying!

• Congratulate yourself on a big, challenging, and very fun day!

Swimming

Beaches in this area (and honestly in most of Europe) are small, crowded, and rocky. So, don’t expect the Caribbean. That said, the swimming is truly wonderful because the waters are extremely calm and clear, and many beaches in this area are actually sandy. Almost all beaches are divided into two, they have an area with a beach club where you can rent umbrellas and chairs, and a (usually smaller) free area where you can just lay on your towel. Here were our favorite swimming spots (including some we had on our list but weren’t able to make it):

• Rosa dei Venti or Cretallera in Vietri sul Mare. A long stretch of sandy beach!

• Spiaggia del Lannio in Cetara. Small but super cute and chill.

• Lido di Ravello in Atrani. Lovely!

• Marina di Praia in Praiano. Didn’t love it here (too rocky and too small) but it has a unique location.

• Fiordo di Furore in Furore. We weren’t able to make it here, but it was high on our list!

• Positano Spiaggia in Positano. Long and sandy! We didn’t actually stay there, but were tempted.

Other Activities in the Amalfi Coast

• Go wine tasting in Tramonti. We *loved* our visit to the Monte di Grazia winery. Complex wines, gorgeous setting, and interesting conversations with the owners in a very intimate setting. If you are looking for a more commercial experience, Tenuta San Francesco, another winery, is very close by. If you drive to Tramonti don’t miss going towards the other side of the mountain (away from the Amalfi coast), around here, for incredible views of Mt. Vesuvius (an active volcano!).

• Learn how to make fior di latte (or pasta, gnocchi, etc) in a pretty garden at La Vigna Degli Dei. A touristy experience, but still very fun.

• The villas and gardens around Ravello are worth seeing. Go to Villa Rufolo and if time allows also to Villa Cimbrone.

• Learn about lemons at the Amalfi Lemon Experience. We didn’t do this, but had it on our list.

Other Activities around the Amalfi Coast

• We based ourselves in Salerno and really loved it! Even if you don’t stay there, It’s definitely worth at least a day-trip. When there:

  • Go up to the Arechi Castle which overlooks the bay for great views! The walk up from town is nice though steep.

  • Walk the tree-lined promenade and get lost in the narrow streets of the old town.

  • Admire jacarandas in the Villa Communale gardens and the view over the town from Giardino della Minerva. This last one was close for renovations when we went, but the same views can be seen from this panoramic point a bit higher up.

  • Go to the impressive crypt in the Cathedral, visit the Church of St. George, and the ruins in San Pietro A Corte

• If you are really into cheese and have a car and some time, you can head south of the Amalfi Coast to Paestum to visit a buffalo farm (we went to Barlotti) to learn how mozzarella di bufala is made, and of course eat lots of dairy products made with buffalo milk! While in Paestum don’t miss seeing one of the best preserved Greek ruins in Europe at the Archeological Park of Paestum.

• Sorrento, on the north, is a very popular cruise destination and this will be obvious if you visit (large groups everywhere). It was our least favorite town in the entire coast, so don’t have much to recommend. We did have the best delizia al limone in La Cantinaccia del Popolo, but overall we found the town and everything in it to be a bit of a tourist trap.

• And then there is Naples, there is *so much* to say about this authentic and unique place. We spent two weeks there prior to going to the Amalfi Coast, so I plan to write a mini-guide for it :). My biggest recommendation is: don’t miss it.

Where to Eat

Here were some of our favorite meals:

• Le Arcate in Atrani for their lemon pasta!

• Il Ritrovo in Montepertuso for the best filled courgette flowers I have ever tasted.

• Ristorante Dea Mangiona in Cetara for their famous anchovy pasta!

• Angelo Cafe in Positano for a cappuccino with a view.

• Agricula Ruocco’s in the Path of Lemons for a wonderful lemon granita.

• Pizzeria Giagiu’ in Salerno for some of the best pizza we have had in Italy.

• Hostaria Il Brigante in Salerno for a very traditional meal.

• Osteria Angolo Masuccio in Salerno for their fresh tuna pasta!

Ok, that is it, the mini-guide turned out into a maxi one 😂, but nothing can be done when you have lots to say about a place! For many more visuals, check out the story highlights in our instagram: Amalfi and Around Amalfi. For a Google Map list with all the places mentioned in this blog post, DM me on IG or here.

What a special place the Amalfi Coast is, we hope to be back one day ❤️

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Not long ago, I reached out for input on what to write about next - huge thanks to everyone who responded! One of the most common request was “how do you find remote jobs?”. And, as I am, right in this very moment, signing a job offer to start my next remote gig (yay!), I thought it was a very fitting topic. So, let’s dive into this!

But, not before a disclaimer :)

My advice will be based on our personal experiences, and the truth is that the (American) tech sector is what we know well. This is also where I believe the largest opportunity for remote work is at. There might be other industries well suited for remote work, and some of my advice will be applicable to any form of job-hunting, but if you are not in tech please take my advice with a grain of salt. I have included some relevant info about our careers path at the end of this post in case you are curious.

As we all know, the pandemic changed the world in many ways, and one of those ways was showing companies that fully remote work is not only possible, but can actually be advantageous for a company. This fact dramatically increased the amount of companies willing to let its employees work remotely, and although this also increased the amount of people in search for those jobs, I think there is still plenty of supply to go around. For people like us, who don’t just want a remote job but for whom it’s an absolute requirement, I believe it’s been a positive shift.

That said, I think it’s important to keep in mind that fully remote work is not for everyone. I know plenty of people who like going into the office and although they like the flexibility of hybrid work, they are uninterested in working fully remotely. Honestly, I get it, working remotely is not all rosy. It can sometimes be isolating, frustrating, and uncomfortable, but this is not a post about the positives and negatives of working remotely - though let me know if that sounds interesting to you! - it’s a post about how to find a remote gig! So, I will assume you are already on board with the idea and are just looking for a little push.

Without further ado, here is my advice when trying to find a fully remote job (in the tech sector):

Don’t overlook your current job, even if it’s fully on-site

I started working remotely several years before the pandemic, sort of by chance. I really wanted to work at a specific company but they were based on a different city. Fortunately, they were remote-friendly, so it just happened. It didn’t take me long to realize the potential of it, and I told Alan he better find a remote job too.

At that point he was working at Google in a sort of hybrid scenario, he went into the office a few times a week and worked from home the rest of the time. So, he started to push the envelop a bit, asking for more and more time away from the office, and he got it! The truth is that once you earn the trust of a company and specifically of your manager, you are in a solid position to request more WFH time and even to eventually go fully remote.

As a manager, I can tell you that retaining top performers and making sure my team was at its best was my most important job. If that meant letting employees go fully remote, then that is what it meant. Once I realized the full potential of remote work, not only for employees - duh, flexibility - but also for me as a recruiting manager - the pool is much larger when you cast a wider net - I became a huge proponent of fully remote work, and eventually built a team of remote employees, and also advocated for those on hybrid arrangements to go remote if that is what they desired.

My point with all of this is to not overlook the potential for remote work in your current position, regardless of what your work set up is at the moment or even what the “official policies” of your company are. No one wants to loose good employees, so don’t be afraid to be assertive about your wants and needs.

Take full advantage of your network! 

I don’t mean you need to know how to be an expert networker. Although that is great, it’s not a must (we are not particularly good at it). What I mean is that utilizing your network when trying to find a job is the surest way to get noticed. Companies get many resumes for any position they post so it’s actually very hard to get noticed if you don’t have someone on the inside. As someone who spent a lot of time hiring people I can tell you that if someone I know recommends someone else then their resume goes to the top of the pile. Besides, if you know someone working in the company you are interested in, then you can also know whether the company is truly remote friendly, and all the other important details you wouldn’t get without having someone on the inside.

In my recent job search, I interviewed formally with seven companies. Four of these seven were for positions for which I was recommended by employees (people I knew) within those companies. Ultimately, I accepted an offer from a company that contacted me directly through an internal referral.

So, in practice, how do you take advantage of your network? Well, you reach out! The point is simply to connect with people that are either working for - or have worked for - companies you think would be a good fit for you, or are in an industry/role you want to learn more about. I use LinkedIn as my starting point, and I share more about this below.

Think of LinkedIn as your connector

One of the first things I did in my job search was to literally go through my entire contact list in LinkedIn and scan the companies people were working for. Anything that sounded interesting I’d look up, which you can do directly on LinkedIn to see if you have any other connections working there, learn more about the company, and even see if they have any job openings. (Note that you can’t just depend on that Linked feature as not all companies post jobs on the site, so always be sure to also check their Careers site).

If I found an open role that I liked within one of those companies, then I’d reach out to my contact and ask whether they would be willing to recommend me for it. (Don’t apply before doing this as depending on the company they might have pretty specific process for recommendations/internal referrals).

But, even if I didn’t see an open role, I’d still reach out to my contact(s) if I was very interested in the company! Managers are always on the lookout for good talent, even if they don’t have an open position just yet. If you come recommended and they know they need the skillset you can offer - now or in the future - then it can work out. I did this even with people I wasn’t directly connected to, through LinkedIn Premium InMail credits. More on this below.

Consider signing up for LinkedIn Premium

I took advantage of their “first month free” offer and, honestly, that was enough time. There are plenty of bells and whistles to it and I encourage you to research and play with it, but personally, I only found one feature particularly useful: InMail credits. Basically, it gives you the ability to message anyone in the network, regardless of if you are connected to them or not.

If I found a company or role I was very interested in but didn’t have any personal connections to, I would try to find whoever was in charge of the department I would like to work in (i.e. Customer Success) and write them. I did this a bunch and got several reply backs, and at least one (which didn’t even have an open role) led to a live chat with the department head and then to be fast tracked in the interview process when they finally opened a position.

Finding the “right” person is not complicated. Just go to the company page on LinkedIn (as an example this is the one for Microsoft), click on “People” and then search for the terms that would be associated with the department you are interested in, for example I would search for “customer” “client” “CSM” etc.

But, even if you don’t find the “right” person, go ahead and still send that message to whoever is most applicable, things can work out regardless! For the company I mentioned above that eventually led to an interview, I initially wrote to the “wrong” person but he still connected me to the the “right” one and we took it from there! Having initiative is seen and appreciated.

Get clear on your desired sub-industries and then focus your research on remote-friendly companies

Figure out the specific sub-industries you're aiming for. In my case, I had my eyes set on health-tech and anything linked to data annotation for machine learning. Plus, I made sure the companies I looked at had a social impact side to their work as this was really important to me. These are broad specifications, but deciding on them allowed me to really deep dive on specific industries, determine the major players, and decide which companies I would be interested in based on their impact and how remote-friendly they were.

Determining whether a company is remote friendly can be as easy as taking a look at their open positions. For example, if a company notes a specific city as the location for an open role then that is a bad sign. I am not saying you should completely dismiss that position, specially if you are really passionate about the company or role, but you should approach it more cautiously and be super upfront about your remote needs (which I expand on in a point below).

Fortunately, more and more companies are simply noting “Remote” in their role location, so my advice would be to focus on those.

LinkedIn has a “Jobs” section and in it you can set filters, including for “Location”, which you should of course set to “Remote”. You can then use all the other filters too based on what you are looking for and then set an Email alert so you get the newest positions straight to your inbox.

Use targeted remote job boards, and - you guessed it - LinkedIn

Sure, there are plenty of targeted job boards that you should absolutely use, but in my opinion there is truly no better tool than LinkedIn, period. Simply put, there is no website as ubiquitous as LinkedIn. Everyone and every company is on it and this can provide you with invaluable insights. As I mention above, I’d recommend spending time on their “Jobs” section and setting alerts!

But, still, also check out remote job boards and others that align with your sub-industry focus! Here are some focused on remote work: 4dayaweek , Remote.co, We Work Remotely, Power to Fly, Just Remote.

And, in case you are interested, here are some focused on impact careers: Idealist, Indeed, Impact Jobs, Impact opportunity, Net Impact, Probably Good.

Highlight your remote experience in your resume

I'm not suggesting you simply mention that you've worked remotely before - thanks to the pandemic, most of us have that experience now, right? ;) What I'm getting at is showcasing how you thrived while working remotely or even because of it. Highlight specific successes you achieved while working fully remote. If you led teams from a distance, definitely highlight that. Also, emphasize if you recruited and got new team members on board while being fully remote, or if you were onboarded remotely yourself. These are the things that make a difference!

Be honest and transparent about your remote needs from the get-go 

Once you have an interview, be upfront about your remote needs! Don’t wait until you are hired to have the conversation. Ideally, the job is already remote so you don’t have to make a case for that, but still, you should be clear about what your definition of remote is.

For example, where are you planning to work from? is it many different locations? inside or outside of the USA? would it be in a completely different timezone? You should ask yourself these questions and have clear answers before you - potentially - bring some specific and targeted questions to your potential employer. For instance, if you plan to work from outside the country but are unclear about whether the company would be open to you doing that, then it would be wise to clarify.

That said, I say “potentially bring these questions up” because you don’t have to bring up anything. As long as it’s clear the position is fully remote, the truth is that some things are better negotiated once you are on the inside. This is something you have to determine based on the context.

Also, be aware that a remote position is not the same as working for a remote-first company. This is important! It’s not the same to work for a non-remote company as one of the few remote employees than to work for a company in which everyone (or mostly everyone) is remote. In the former it might be somewhat harder to get your job done, and you might sometimes feel isolated and out of the loop. In the later, everyone is on the same boat, so people tend to be a lot better and more effective at sharing info and collaborating online. I wouldn’t discount working for a non-remote company as a remote employee, but if you have a choice then always go for the remote-first company (or at least remote-first team).

Be patient

My last piece of advice might be the hardest to follow. Being patient, specially when you want/need to find a job, is not easy. The process to find any job, let alone a remote one, can be frustrating and painful. Timing is important and if you are searching at a weird time - like I was, close to the end of year - then things might be slower than usual and it’s easy to get impatient and think you better start applying to things that do’t really excite you / are not remote, or worse yet, consider accepting the first offer you get no matter the details. Don’t do it! Stay focused, present, and just know that it can take some time to find the right thing. I wrote this when I was in the middle of that funk, in case it’s useful.

Welp, there you have it. The above is basically what I did over the two months I was actively trying to find a job. It’s all quite simple and straightforward, but harder to execute when you just want to get on with it. Thanks for reading and best of luck on your search! If you have any questions, just reach out :)

About our career paths

• Both Alan and I studied Computer Science and have more than a decade of job experience.

• I started working 100% remotely in March of 2017. At that point Alan was working in a very flexible hybrid role, and eventually landed his first fully remote gig in 2019.

• Alan has worked as a Data Scientist in the tech industry for most of his career, he is highly technical and has worked as an individual contributor as well as a manager.

• I have worked in several roles and industries, but primarily in the tech industry (plus a few years in the Global Health space) and in non-technical roles (mainly in Project Management and Customer Success). The majority of my career has been in client facing positions in social-impact companies (either non-profits or socially conscious for-profits). Half of my career has been as a manager.

Where are we now?

We are on the road again! If you recall, we ended our 15-month sabbatical in mid-September when we landed in Tulum. There, we spent about two months at home. It was really wonderful to slow down, reconnect with things and people we love, and create new routines in a place we care deeply for. But the time came to move on again so we took a ferry to Cozumel and spent the last 10 days there, visiting good friends and taking it easy. We went snorkeling, ate good food, got back to living out of an airbnb. Honestly, it was lovely. And just last night we got to MEXICO CITY!! and I am so so excited to be here. I really love this city. What is even better is that I won’t start my new gig until Jan 15th (benefits of finding work at the end of the year ;)), so I got three weeks to explore this magical city before we move on again. Stay tuned!! Oh and send recommendations if you have them <3

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As we are about to leave the warm cocoon that is our home in Tulum, along with its beautiful, wide, and comfortable kitchen, I thought I could share a bit about my cooking journey, some of my favorite recipes and general cooking methods, and ideas regarding how to cook more - in case that is something you want to be doing. Besides, I get asked quite often for recipe links so now I will have this handy post to send over :).

Just like traveling, cooking is a great passion of mine, but I didn’t discover it until my mid-twenties, when my interest picked and I started experimenting in the kitchen a lot more. I had always loved to eat, but didn’t grow up cooking or learning how to cook - although I really wish I had been smart enough to spend time learning from my maternal grandmother, who was an incredible Italian cook. My point is that you don’t need to love cooking today to end up liking it in the future, but you do have to give it a try - in earnest - to potentially fall in love with it.

Nowadays, particularly when we are home, I cook a lot, almost every day and in fact multiple times a day. When people ask me how I am able to cook so much at home my initial cheeky reply is “I don’t have kids!”, but although there is some truth to that, it’s also because I am practical and very organized.

More and more I simply ignore a recipe if it sounds complicated or has ingredients that are difficult to get. You can make an incredible meal with the most basic of ingredients, so why bother? I also always have certain staples in my pantry, and make some dishes over and over that last for a while and go well with many things, like beans and salsas. And, I am organized with my cooking, both to not waste food and to never feel like “there is nothing to make”.

But, what does this mean? Well, here is what I do:

Keep track of what you have and what you need.

To put it simply, have a list. This is what mine looks like today.

Pretty basic, but it does the job. In here I keep track of 1) ingredients I need to buy to make things I want to make and, 2) dishes I already have ingredients for that I should make. And yes, I mix my languages ;)

I am constantly updating this list, so I never feel like there is nothing to make for dinner. Some of the things in the list are basic dishes I always do (like beans) and like to keep in the fridge, but most are either favorites of ours I keep on rotation, or recipes I saw somewhere that I want to make, which leads me to the next point.

Follow accounts and blogs / Have and read cooking books

Even if you are amazing at improvising and cooking with whatever you have at hand, seeing others make recipes or reading them in a book or blog can work as inspiration for your next meal. Here is what I use / who I follow:

• NYT Cooking. Probably my most-used avenue for cooking. Easy to search for specific recipes, ideas in general, or what I have at hand (i.e. “eggplant”) and see what comes up. Simple to organize favorites inside the app and also note when you don’t like a recipe so you don’t make it again. You do need a subscription to it but we also read the NYTimes so have a subscription that includes both and this works great for us. IG: nytcooking

• Blogs / Books. There are many many many cooking writers, these are just some of my favorites.

  • Alison Roman. I follow her blog an also have her books and honestly it’s hard to find less complicated and more satisfying recipes than Alison’s. I am a big fan, like many other people :). IG: alisonroman

  • Pati Jinich. If you are in the USA and are looking to learn how to cook Mexican food then Pati is the perfect teacher. Her recipes are accessible and simple, and as a Mexican who has lived in the USA for many years she is really thoughtful about ingredients. She also has a blog and several books, all excellent. IG: patijinich

  • Melissa Clark. She writes for the NYT but also has several very solid books with many different types of recipes, great for quick weeknight dinners. IG: clarkbar

  • David Lebovitz. Amazing dessert and baking recipes. Oh, and the best ice cream! IG: davidlebovitz

• Instagram Accounts. The amount of IG accounts solely devoted to recipes is outstanding, and honestly quite useful. I save recipes I see in IG all the time, some are from accounts that I already follow but many more are just reels IG shows me because it knows I like and save recipe reels. But, here are some accounts I actually follow and have cooked from:

  • General cooking accounts: bonappetitmag, cooksillustrated, buzzfeedtasty, thekithcn,

  • Specific people accounts (some might also have blogs/books or write for NYTcooking): acozykitchen, rozetraore, ericjoonho, chetnamakan, fitgreenmind, lahbco, markbittman, cloudykitchen, thekoreanvegan

Side note: I also loveee to take cooking classes when we travel. I have learnt a lot from classes and to this day I apply a lot of those learnings to my cooking, both with specific recipes and also techniques. Highly recommend it!

Keep certain pantry basics in your house, always

Everyone has their own “pantry basics”, but the point here is to know there *are* basics you should have to make your cooking easy and effortless. Here are mine:

• Kosher salt! It really does make a difference. Also, fine salt and flaky salt.

• Extra virgin olive oil, good quality but also no need to break the bank! I cook almost everything with it, but also always have vegetable oil on hand.

• Flour, all purpose, whole wheat, almond, and in this house also harina pan (for arepas).

• Pasta, several different types, always a short and a long.

• Noodles, rice and flour.

• Beans, canned and dried. Used for different things, for example I make black beans from dried but usually have other canned beans for chili, as well as chickpeas for a bunch of different recipes (though I sometimes cook those from dried too, specially to make hummus).

• Chilis, fresh (jalapeno, serrano, thai) and dried (chipotles, ancho, pasilla).

• Rice, long white, jasmine, brown, and arborio.

• Sugar, white and brown.

• Onions (all kinds) and garlic.

• Limes and lemons.

• Milk, greek yogurt, cream, butter (unsalted for cooking and an excellent quality salted one for eating on bread, arepas, etc)

• Cheeses, any and all, but the ones that are never missing in my home are parmigiano reggiano (it’s worth the price, and don’t get it shredded) and feta (or queso fresco when in Mexico).

• Canned tomatoes and tomato paste, good quality.

• Chicken (or veggie) stock, go with “Better than Bouillon” if you can find it.

• Anchovies, capers, and olives.

• Baking stuff, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, chocolate, vanilla bean (mostly for ice cream), and vanilla extract.

• Nuts, I love them all but always have peanuts, cashews, and hazelnuts.

• Condiments: vegetable oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, rice vinegar, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, whole grain mustard, pesto, peanut butter, tahini, gochujang, harissa, curry paste, chili oil.

• Spices: at the very least red pepper flakes, cumin, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, and cinnamon. But the list can be interminable here.

Consider buying some kitchen essentials

As someone who travels a lot I can confidently say “you can cook anywhere”, but I can also confidently follow that with “not necessarily comfortably or efficiently”. Out of the many places we have stayed while traveling I can count with one hand those that had a well-equipped kitchen. Getting home to my kitchen and my “kitchen stuff” really does make my heart happy because I can finally cook comfortably. Here is what I consider kitchen essentials:

• A good quality knife. Honestly, all you need is one good knife, but you do really really need one. I used to travel with mine, which I got in the Kyoto market, has my name engraved in Japanese, and it’s always perfectly sharp (don’t ask me how), but I didn’t take it on our sabbatical and missed it with all my heart. I haven’t found any other knife that compares to it so I don’t have any good recommendations, please send over if you do!

• Skillets, pots, and dutch ovens. The perfect amount (for me) in order to be able to cook absolutely everything comfortably is:

  • Two skillets, preferably cast iron but can also be stainless steel, an 8” and a 12” (I find Lodge to be a good affordable brand).

  • Three pots, a 2-quart, a 4-quart, and a 10-quart.

  • One dutch oven, 6-quarts.

• Cutting board. You need at least one really good quality cutting board, preferably of wooden material. The truth is that I have tried dozens of them and I also don’t have a great recommendation yet in this department. If you do, please send over.

• Scale. A kitchen scale is extremely useful, specially for baking but honestly I use it for a lot of recipes.

• Mixing bowls. Probably my most-used equipment. You need *at least* a set of three in different sizes but more is better.

• Sheet Pans. A very multi-purpose item, I like the regular aluminum ones (13” x 18”) or the glass pyrex ones (9” x 13”).

• Blender, a good one! I swear by the Ninja kitchen system that has all in one.

• Pressure cooker. In my house I use it mostly for black beans, but to me it’s essential. The Instant Pot are functional and affordable.

• Toaster. You simply need one, any kind is fine.

• Tupperwares! If you are going to be cooking, they are an absolute necessity! to save leftovers, store sauces, freeze ice cream, etc.

• Other smaller items: measuring cups and spoons, set of colanders, peeler, grater, silicone spatula, tongs, wooden spoon and spatula, ice cream scoop, lemon squeezer.

There are other “non-essentials” that are really nice to haves, like:

• Air fryer. We recently got one as a gift and honestly I love it and use it a ton. I can’t remember brand or model (it’s in Park City) but it’s a pretty basic one and works great so I don’t think there is much to them.

• Pasta maker. To make incredible pasta at home, from scratch! The best lasagna I have eaten in my life we made ourselves using this pasta maker! The recipe was from a great cook book called Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

• Ice cream maker. For the best ice cream, make it at home. It’s honestly so much easier than you think, and it’s fun!

• Coffee equipment. We like expresso-based drinks and swear by our trusty ROK. To froth our milk we use this Breville beauty, and this to grind our coffee.

Orange juice squeezer. If not, what are you going to do when you want mimosas?

Lastly, use your freezer

Don’t think of your freezer only as the place to keep ice cream. Honestly, most everything freezes well, and then you have stuff there super handy. I freeze butter, cheese, bread, beans, and pretty much anything I make too much of that don’t want to eat for seven nights in a row. A couple of weeks later I can pull it out and have an incredible dinner with zero effort. Here is a quick guide on freezing food.

Now onto some of my favorite recipes! These are those that I keep making again and again. There are others that live in books and are too long to share here, but this is a pretty long list regardless. I will update it on an ongoing basis!

From Pati / Mexican!

Salsa Macha

An incredible sauce of chipotle, peanuts, and sesame. Very spicy, holds well for a while in the fridge.

Salsa Verde

Chilaquiles

Guacamole

Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa

From Mexican Today

Ingredients: 1lb tomatillos, 1 large avocado, 2 tablespoons of white onion, 1/4 cup of cilantro leaves, 1 serrano chile, 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt

Blend it all together!

Pickled Jalapeños

Such a staple to have in the fridge to accompany any meal. I generally put more carrots than anything else because it’s what I like the most!

Chicken Tinga Tostadas

A great thing to cook when hosting people.

Pickled Onions

Shrimp Enchiladas in a Rich Tomato Sauce

Big Brunch Enchiladas

Tex Mex Chili

I make it with 1lb of ground turkey instead of all the meat that it calls for and it’s delicious, specially the following day once the flavors have had time to settle into each other.

Corn Torte

For a really “wow” dinner, make this alongside the three things below: red rice, salad, rajas, and shrimp mole. One of my favorite combos to make for a fancy dinner party.

Red Rice

Watermelon & tomatillo salad

Poblano Chiles

This critical ingredient of Mexican cooking is very rarely used raw. Instead it’s charred and peeled to bring out its amazing flavor. I generally do this process for many poblanos at a time and then keep them in the fridge for daily use (I love to throw them in scramble eggs for instance). You can also freeze them!

First up, place the chiles under the broiler, on a hot comal, or directly over the flame of a gas stove/grill (this is how I prefer to do them). Then roast them, turning them every 3-4minutes for about 10min. You know they are done when their fresh is cooked and black in some areas (I like to take them there!). Then put them in a plastic or bowl and seal the bag or cover the bowl to allow the chiles to sweat for at least 10 to 20min. I always wrap the plastic bag in a kitchen towel. Lastly, remove the charred skin with your fingers, sometimes it helps to do it under a thin stream of running water. Then remove the seeds and stem and use in, for example, the below recipe.

Creamy Rajas

From Pati’s Mexican Table

Ingredients: 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups slivered white onions, 1 lb poblano chiles prepared as described above and sliced into strips, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 cup Mexican cream (or heavy cream), 1/2 cup of crumbled queso fresco, cotija, or feta.

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until melted and foamy. Add the onions and cook until soft and starting to gently brown, around 15min. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the poblano chile strips. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until the chiles have lightly browned. Reduce the heat to medium, add the cream and cheese, and cook, tossing gently, until it thickens, 5-6min.

Shrimp in Red Pipian

From Pati’s Mexican Table

I love any and all types of moles, which btw there are thousands of. But, I really like pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and sesame, so Red Pipian is one of my favorites.

Ingredients: 2 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined, shells reserved), 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 6 guajillo chiles (rinsed, stemmed, and seeded), 2 ancho chiles, 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds, 3 tbps sesame seeds, 4 whole cloves, 1 lb tomatoes, 3 garlic cloves, 1 thick slide white onion, 1/2 unsalted roasted peanuts, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of black pepper, 2 tsp dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Place the shrimp shells in a large pot, cover with water, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring to simmer. Cook for 20min and strain the broth, discarting the shells.

Heat a comal or a skillet over medium low heal until how and then lay the chiles flat in the pan and toast them for 15-20 sec per side until they become fragrant and pliable. Transfer the chiles to a pan and cover with water. Bring to summer over medium heat and cook for 10min.

Toast the pumpkin seeds in the comal until you hear popping sounds and they begin to brown lightly. Set aside. Add the sesame seeds and toast until light brown, 2 to 3min. Toast the cloves, until they turn darker and are fragrant, 30-40sec.

Char the tomatoes, garlic, and onion under the broiler, on the comal or an outdoor grill at medium heat, turning occasionally until nicely charred and softened, around 10min. When the garlic is cool to handle, peel it and place in a blender or food processor along with the tomatoes, onions, and the chiles, with 1 cup of their cooking liquid. Add the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cloves, peanuts, cinnamon, the remaining 2 teaspoons salt , pepper, brown sugar, and vinegar and puree until smooth.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the puree and 4 cups of the shrimp broth and simmer, partially covered, for about 45min, stirring often so the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom, until thickened and deepened in color.

Raise the beat to medium-high, add the shrimp, and simmer for 2-3min then turn off the heat. Let the shrimp finish cooking in the sauce, about 5 more minutes, then serve.

From Alison

Pie Crust (Galette)

The only pie crust you will ever need, trust me. I have made it dozens of times and have filled it with both savory and sweet fillings and has never ever disappointed.

Frizzled Chickpea Salad

Bolognese

Bean Stew

Pork Noodle Soup

Latkes

Clam Pasta

Crispy Cutlets

Spaghetti Carbonara

Cinnamon Rolls

Eggplant Parm

Meatballs

From NYT Cooking (you will need a subscription to access)

Lemony Shrimp Stew

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Bibimbap

Shakshuka

Waffles

Miso Pasta (Alan’s fav)

Shallot pasta (my fav)

Tiny, salty, chocolaty cookies

Baked tofu with peanut sauce

Baked feta with veggies

Baked eggs with smoked salmon

Thai Larb

Gochujang Eggplant

Cod Cakes

Cauliflower and olive gratin

The best scramble eggs

Beet rosti

Meatballs & Peaches

Ice creams!

Important note: I make every single ice cream recipe and most baking recipes with 1/3 of the sugar called for. It’s always more than enough for us.

Vanilla ice cream

Hard to beat a good (real) vanilla ice cream! It’s worth the price of those vanilla beans, promise.

Mexican chocolate ice cream

From The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, 6 tbsp unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder, 3/4 cup sugar (I use 1/4), 3 oz bittersweet chopped chocolate (I use 85%), 1 1/4 whole milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 3 tsp chile powder (I use dried ancho chile), 2 tbsp brandy (I use mezcal :))

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the hear and add the chocolate, then whisk until it is completely melted. Stir in the milk, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, chile powder, and mezcal. Pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 sec, until very smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerators, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (usually 20-30min).

Roquefort & Honey ice cream

From friends / family / other

Flourless Chocolate Cake

My favorite chocolate cake! I have never made the ganache - it doesn’t need it - but it sounds amazing.

Gochujang Pasta

Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower

Tortilla de papa

Scallops a la gallega

Venezuelan Black Beans

I don’t have a recipe for this as I make them so often, but it’s pretty basic.

Ingredients: 1 lb of black beans, 1/2 white onion whole, 1 white onion chopped, 8 garlic gloves chopped, 1 cup of olive oil, 1 cup of piloncillo (you can find this in most supermarkets in the USA, but if not, you can use dark brown sugar), 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, 1/2 tsp of black pepper

1. Cook the dried black beans in a pressure cooker along with the half onion and around 10 cups of water (until soft, usually around 30min on high pressure + 20min release).

2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a skillet and cook the onion and garlic until very very soft, around 15-20min.

3. Once the beans are done, put them and their liquid on a big pot and add around 3 to 5 cups of water, enough for all the beans to be under water.

4. Add the salt, pepper, and piloncillo and bring to a simmer for 20min

5. Add the onion and garlic sofrito, and simmer for another 10min or until the consistency thickens.

6. Let cool and put in containers. I usually freeze half of it.

I usually eat as-is (as a side for my eggs topped with cheese, inside arepas, etc) but you can also re-fried them, by putting more onion and garlic to cook in oil and then adding one or two cups of beans to the mix until it thickens.

The Best White Rice

Ingredients: 2 cups of white rice, 3 cups of water, 1/2 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Wash the rice in a colander under running water. Put rice in a heavy pot with the water, onion, garlic, salt and oil. On high heat get the mix to boil until almost out of water, around 5min. Then lower the heat to its lowest setting, cover, and cook for around 20min or until it’s soft and dry. Mix with a fork and serve.

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients: 7 cups of chicken stock (or veggie), 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 cup onion chopped, 1 lb mushrooms (any kind! mix them up), 2 garlic cloves, 2 tsp thyme, 1 1/2 cup arborio rice, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 2 tbsp fresh parsley, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp of butter

Bring stock to simmer in a saucepan and keep it simmering on the stove. Heat oil in a wide and heavy skillet (dutch oven is great here!) over medium heat and cook onions until tender, 3 to 5 min. Turn up heat and add mushrooms, cook until they being to sweat, around 3-4min, then add garlic and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and continue cooking until they are soft. Add rice and stir until it’s all covered in the mix, then add wine and cook until the wine is evaporated. Then stir just enough of the stock to cover the rice. Cook while stirring often until almost all stock is gone, and then do it again. Repeat this process for around 20min, or until the rice is tender (but still al dente). Add some more stock, stir in parsley and Parmesan, and remove from the heat. Stir the butter, season with black pepper and serve right away, with more Parmesan on top :).

Beet & Chia Arepas

Ingredients: 2 cups of Harina Pan (found in most supermarkets in the USA), 1 medium beet, 1/2 - 1 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of chia seeds

Disclaimer: for a long time I have made arepas without any measurements or exact recipe. Recently I taught a good friend how to make them and tried to pay more attention to that stuff… but, note that this is all an approximation ;). Let me know how it goes!

Turn the oven to 450 F (or highest setting). Peel the beet, cut it, and blend it with around 1/2 to 1 cup of water. You should have around 2 cups of this beet liquid. Put flour in a bowl and add chia and salt, mix. Then add the beet liquid and mix (with your hands!). The consistency should be pretty soft but it shouldn’t stick to your hands, add more water or flour as needed (understanding the right consistency is not super easy but it will be clearer once you make them a few times). Cover with a kitchen towel and let sit for a few minutes.

In the meantime put a skillet (cast iron /comal is ideal here) under medium-high heat, and add a splash of olive oil (just to coat the surface, using a paper towel helps with this). After a few minutes check the flour mixture for consistency, again it shouldn’t feel too hard (it should give when you put a finger on it) or too soft (it shouldn’t stick when you touch it), so if it does add a bit more water or flour. Then shape them! first make a circle and then flatten it while shaping the corners of the circle (again, this will come with time). Truthfully, any shape is fine! wathever makes you happen :)

Place them in the cast iron (which should be very hot by now), and flatten them a bit with your hand or a spatula. Let them be for around 5min, or until you can easily flip them without them being stuck to the skillet (sometimes they will stick regardless, just try to salvage as much as you can and flip). Let it be for another 5min. Then flip again and cook for at least 2-3min each side again, until the outside skin is cooked/charred in some areas. In theory, they are done now and you can eat them as such. But, they will be better if they spend a few minutes in a very hot oven! So, put them directly in the oven rack, around 5min per side. You will see them puff up and become crispy on the outside.

Fill them with whatever your hearts desires! I love them with butter, white cheese (fresco or feta), and fried plantains.

Fried Plantains

Note that you need a good plantain here, which is sometimes difficult to find! Let the plantain become very very mature, almost entirely black. Peel and cut it in rounds. Heat an inch of oil (I use olive oil) in a small skillet (cast iron is ideal) and fry them up!

Happy cooking!!

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Welcome to the fourth installment of the Travel Tips Series: How to Use Google Maps!

To check out the previous three, go here:

1. Where to Go

2. What to Do

3. Where to Eat

You are likely already using Google Maps, but almost certainly not to its full potential, specially for traveling. I am talking about a lot more than using it to navigate your way to a new restaurant. It can make a huge difference to use it effectively, as it can help you see more and eat better, wherever you are. But, it’s not as intuitive as you might think. Hence, this post!

The biggest takeaway from this post is: USE LISTS!

Google Maps Lists are basically a collection of different locations. You can have as many lists as you want, but the trick is to organize them effectively, and be diligent in saving stuff. You can then pull up these lists when you are in the location to decide what to do and where to eat, and also easily share them with others.

Side note: you can also create custom maps, but after using them in a variety of scenarios I actually don’t recommend them. I find them buggy and difficult to use. List are much simpler and effective.

Ok, regarding lists, here are some basic how-tos as well as examples on how I use them!

Creating Lists

The first thing to know is that Google Maps already has a few out-of-the-box lists you can use. I find these really useful because each of those lists has a unique icon (heart, star, etc). In contrast, all custom lists (created by you) will have the same icon and will look the same on the map.

To get to the lists just open your map and click on “Saved” on the bottom.

In the map below you can see three different lists being used, two out of the box (the green pins and the heart pin) and one custom (the blue pins).

To create a custom list simply go to your Google Maps app and,

1. Click on “Saved” at the bottom

2. Then click on “+New list”

1. Finally, name your list and click “Save”. For now you can keep it “Private”, this will be simple to change later if needed.

   

That is it!

Saving to Lists

Saving a location to lists is very simple, just:

1. Search and find the place you want to save in Google Maps and click on “Save”

2. Find the list you want to save to and check the bubble on the right, then click “Done”. You can also create a “New List” directly from here by clicking on “New list” on the top right.

   Adding a note to the location can be very helpful. To do this simply type it in the open text box below that will appear once you checkmark the bubble.

   

   Here are some examples of ways I use notes:

   1. For places I want to go to I usually add notes regarding where I got the place from, for example the name of the friend that recommended it, or “travel book” if it came from one, or “Netflix show”, etc.

   2. For places I have already gone and loved I add notes either to note what was particularly good about the place or to add some instructions or suggestions. For example adding “excellent coffee” or “fish tacos were the best” to a restaurant, or adding “make sure you see the rooms on the basement” to a museum or “go on Mondays for Samba music” to a bar.

Organizing Lists

I think this is the most important aspect of using lists effectively. You have to find a way to organize lists that serves you and makes your life easier.

As an example of how to organize lists, let me tell you how I do it! Please note this is by no means the only way to organize lists, but it has worked for me in the many months we have been full time traveling. I encourage you to explore and figure out what works best for you.

On the macro level I focus on two main things: what to do and where to eat. For this macro level lists I use out-of-the-box Google Maps list because the icons are distinct and this makes it easy to identify and differentiate by just glancing at a map. Then, I use custom lists to save all the places I have been to and love in a particular location (I create a list per location). This means I have the following list organization:

1. Worldwide I use two main out of the box lists: “Want to Go”, which I use to save both cities/towns/areas (like Meknes in Morocco) and specific places within a place (like museums, parks, viewpoints, etc) that I want to visit. I don’t use this list for anything food-related. Then, I use “Starred places” for any food related business I want to visit. These are places that I found or were recommended and I save them with the intention of visiting them later on.

2. I also use another out of the box list, “Favorites”, to save where we are staying in each place. I like to use the “heart” icon for this as it makes it super visible in the map. This is helpful to see what is around where you are staying and locate the place super fast. But, you could use any other list for this or a custom one.

3. For each location we visit I create one custom list: “Best Of”. This is everywhere I loved visiting while I was in that particular location, which includes restaurants, cafes, bars, museums, beaches, hikes, viewpoints, neighborhoods, nearby towns, etc. I have one “Best Of” custom list for each main place I have visited. For example I have a “Rio Best” and an “Athens Best”, and sometimes I combine certain geographies, such as “Colombian Caribbean Best” or “Southeastern Turkey Best”. This makes it super easy to share when people ask for recommendations, and also for me to pull up next time I am in that location to see what I loved.

   Important Note: When I go somewhere that I like and I want to add to a “Best Of” list, I will also take that location out of the worldwide list (“Want to Go” or “Starred Place”). You can do this at the same time you save it to the “Best of” list by just un-clicking the bubble on the right. This is in order to keep the lists clean and to make it easier for my future self when I return to the city and want to clearly see where I went and where I didn’t. If I go to a location/restaurant and I don’t like it enough to add it to the “Best Of” list, then I will keep it in the worldwide list but would add a note to it (like “mediocre food”), so next time I am in the city I know that I went and what my opinion was.

   

Using Lists

There is really not much to this except: open your Google Maps! Everything you have saved will be there.

Sometimes you might want to not see everything since your map can get super clutter the more you use lists. The good thing is you can easily hide lists! To do this go to your lists (open Maps and click on Saved at the bottom menu), click on the “…” next to the list you want to hide, and then click on “Hide on your map”.

Sharing Lists

Sharing a list is super simple, and it’s honestly one of the reasons I love to use them. Every time someone asks me about recommendations on a place I will send them the “Best of” list from that location.

1. To do this, go to your saved lists and click on the “…” on the right of the list you want to share, and then on “Share List

2. You can then choose to toggle to let others edit the list. I generally don’t do this unless I am collaborating with some friends on it, like if we are on a trip together and we all want to be adding places to it. Then, just click “Continue”

3. You can then choose your way of sharing it or just copying the link.

Ok, now you know most everything you need to about Google Lists to use them effectively on your travels! That said, there are many other ways Google Maps and Lists can be useful. Here are some ideas:

It can help you plan your travel itinerary

Once I have everything I am interested in seeing and eating saved in lists, I use Google Maps to plan the days based on geography. If we are going to a popular city we try to decide on a few places to eat before we arrive there so we can make reservations (Yes, it’s not a lie that we travel to eat :)). We also usually book some local tours in advance (walking tours, history tours, food tours), specially if we don’t have that much time in the city. Once we have those set, I will plan the rest of each day based on the location of the restaurant or tour.

Still, even if we don’t have any specific eating plans or tours, I will look at all my saved places to decide what to do in a day so we are not taking Ubers or public transit multiple times a day to the same neighborhoods or locations. Being efficient when traveling will help you have a better experience.

As an example, looking at the Medellin map below it is obvious there are at least four main areas, so when we are deciding what to do on a day we will try to combine things near each other (if possible).

It’s super useful when wanting to use public transportation

When trying to get somewhere it’s good to know the options you have for getting there. Is there a metro you can take? How long will it take with a bus? Is your only option an Uber? Will it just be faster and easier to walk?

We use this a lot when we travel to understand our public transit options before we decide how to get somewhere. Google Maps just shows you this by default when you try to get directions anywhere. Once you click on one of the options it even tells you how often the train/bus comes, if it’s crowded, etc.

It can track your travel history

This is helpful and cool. I really love the summaries Google sends me every month regarding where I have been. They even do an end-of-year one that is super neat!

Besides being cool, it’s also useful as it basically knows everywhere you have been and when. If you forgot to save a place to your favorites you can just check your timeline and find it!

In order to track your travel history, you need to enable “Location History” in your Google account. To do this, open your Google Maps app and then click on your name/initial on the top right corner, a then on “Location sharing”

Then, turn it on!

Once you have that enabled, you can view your travel history by going to “Your Timeline”. This will show you a map of all the places you have visited, including when you visited them, how you go to them, etc. Enjoy!

Remember, Google Maps can also be used offline!

This can be really useful when you are having connectivity issues or know that you are going somewhere with limited connectivity. To use a map offline,

1. First you need to download the map of the area you plan to visit. To do this Open Google Maps on your device, navigate to the area you want to download, and then type "OK Maps" in the search bar. Then select “Download”

   

2. When you have downloaded the map, you can use it offline by simply opening Google Maps while you're not connected to the internet. You can search for places, get directions, etc.

Ok, these are just some of the things that Google Maps can do to help you travel more effectively, see more of what you love, and eat better! By utilizing Google Maps Lists, you can enhance your travel experiences and make the most out of every destination.

Tell me, in what other ways do you use Google Maps to travel?

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Welcome to the third installment of the Travel Tips Series: Where to Eat! 

Check out our previous tips posts: Where to go and What to do when on vacation!

Food is an integral part of culture! Exploring local foods while traveling makes you understand a place a lot better, and connects you to it more deeply. What is eaten in a country uncovers its history. The fact that corn is eaten in Mexico, or rice in Vietnam, or tapioca in Brazil, or cheese in Georgia, or potatoes in Peru, all of it is for a reason. How ceviche is prepared, or bread is baked, or alcohol is brewed, all of it has an origin story that is tied to the present. What a country eats tells you who they are. 

But enough about why I am passionate about food and more about how to find good food, because we have all spent hours finding a place to eat to then be disappointed. This still happens to us even after years of traveling and countless hours spent doing research. But, I’d like to think we have at least become more efficient and effective at finding good places to eat. So, here is some of what we recommend:

1. Use Google Maps! both to search for places and to save them.

   1. Use it to search for where to eat. This might be obvious, but it’s definitely what we used the most to find places. This is especially useful when you are trying to find a spot in a particular location. For instance, because coffee is very important to me, the first thing I do when I land in a place is to search for “best coffee” around where we are staying and then filter for “Top Rated” and look only at anything above a 4.5 rating. Then I decide where to go based on the pictures and reviews. We also take a look at TripAdvisor, Yelp, and blog recommendations from time to time, although a lot less often than a simple Google Maps search.

   2. Save everything to Google Maps lists! I know that I sound like a broken record on this, but get in the habit of saving everything to Google Maps, even when there is no trip planned yet. For instance, if you are watching “Street Food” on Netflix and they are covering a place you are interested in visiting, then save all the restaurants they talk about to Google Maps with a note such as “Netflix show”. Once you land in that city - be it in a month or two years - you will open your map and that restaurant will be there, waiting for you to go visit. Same applies for “Top restaurants in the world” type of lists or articles, recommendations from friends, etc - just save save save.

      Note: The next tips post will be solely focused on how to use Google Maps to its full potential, because there is a lot to it, so stayed tuned :)

2. Go on a food tour! One of the first things I like to do when arriving in a place - especially one that is known for its food is to go on a food tour! These are tours in which you visit many restaurants/food spots and try a bunch of different foods. The objective is to go to places you wouldn’t know about (hyper-local) and/or eat food you wouldn’t have ordered, plus of course learn about the food and the culture. These tours are great to do not only because you will (very likely) eat well, but also because the people running them generally have plenty of other recommendations on where to eat (and also what to do) in the area. Many also have blogs with lots of local recommendations, just be sure to ask! To find a food tour, we usually rely on Airbnb Experiences or travel book recommendations. 

3. Do a cooking class! Similar to the above this is a great way to eat well and at the same time learn about the local food and culture. These are tours in which you (generally) go to a local market to buy ingredients and then prepare many different dishes that at the end you get to feast on. These tours have been some of my most memorable experiences while traveling, like the one we did on a farm in Crete (which I wrote about here) or the making of ceviche in Lima. Again, the folks running these are excellent sources of recommendations.

4. Use Social Media! The truth is that we don’t use it much for finding where to eat, but more so to check out places we have already found to see how the food looks. However, although a bit more cumbersome it’s of course possible to find great recommendations there (like the ones I post in all my reels ;)). You can search in Google “where to eat in X city instagram” and you will usually get shown a few IG accounts that focus on this which you can start following, or you can also search for hashtags like #wheretoeatinX. Once you see a post/reel with something interesting, you can save it to personal folders in IG (and to Google Maps, because lets be honest, you might never look at that IG folder again).  

5. Pay attention when you are walking around, if you see a place that is packed / has a line, search for it in Google and if it looks good, save it for later! Or just go eat there right then and there :) 

6. Check travel books! Yes, they make an appearance, again! I use them religiously, not because you will find the best restaurants there (although you might and many times we do) but because it’s an easy way to see what is in the area you are visiting and how the city/town is laid out in terms of neighborhoods and restaurants. I basically just go to the list of recommended restaurants in the book and one by one look them up in Google Maps. If they have a high rating I immediately save them in a Google Map list for that country with a note such as “travel book”. If a place looks especially impressive then I share it with Alan / save it some other way (for instance in Rio I had so many recommendations from different sources - up to 100 places - that I created a second list called “Rio Must” to add the places I didn’t want to miss out on). 

7. Cross-reference cross reference cross reference. Even if someone I know and trust recommends a place I will first look it up in Google to check out the reviews. If the rating is low and the latest reviews are poor then I won’t go to the place even if it’s recommended. Adding notes to what you save in Google is useful because it allows you to cross-reference faster as well. For instance, if I already have a restaurant saved with “Netflix show” and then I also read about that restaurant in a travel book and add “travel book” to the note, then I know there are now two sources which recommended it, which makes me more likely to visit it. That is, as long as the Google rating, reviews, and pics look solid. 

8. Lastly, ask locals (and everyone else too) for recommendations! Especially if you know someone that lives in the city or has recently visited. But also ask your hotel or Airbnb host, your guides, and even other tourists you run into. And then - you guessed it - SAVE IT.

Alright, there you go! These are just a few ideas, but I hope they are helpful! Do let me know if you do anything else that I should add to the list.

I wish you excellent food, unique experiences, and zero food disappointments in your travels. 

Happy eating!

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Welcome to the second edition of the Travel Tips Series! I will be sharing a bit of how we decide what to do when we are on vacation. Check out the previous post for how to decide where to go. Next up: where to eat and the power of Google Maps!

After you have narrowed down your decision regarding where to go, there will be two things to determine: one is where exactly to go in the country or region that you are visiting - although you might already know this - and the other is what to do in that specific place. For instance you might have decided to visit Peru but are unsure where exactly to go in Peru, or you might have decided to specifically visit Cusco but don’t know yet what to do in the city. 

If you are in the first camp - you have a country, state, or large area in mind but don’t know exactly where to go or how many days to stay in each place - I’d ask myself the same questions posted in the first tips edition. But, also: 

1. I find travel books incredibly helpful in narrowing down where specifically to go in a country or place. We use Lonely Planet books a lot because they have useful “Top 20” lists and well as different itineraries per country. For instance, we knew we wanted to see the Caribbean coast of Colombia but didn’t know exactly where to go, turns out Lonely Planet Colombia has an itinerary specifically for that, which pointed us in the right direction to start researching more. Last year we wanted to do a roadtrip through several national parks in Utah but weren’t sure which ones, until I grabbed a travel guide and learned about 3 national parks I had never heard about, so we went to those. We knew we wanted to hike in Georgia but didn’t know which area to go, and again a travel book gave us two ideas to start researching more in depth. 

   1. Tip: because we are traveling for such a long time we got a Kindle Unlimited subscription to access travel books without having to pay for each one. Not all locations are available but it has worked out. If you don’t have a subscription, always look for the previous version of the book for a cheaper deal. Also, sometimes libraries offer digital copies, always check!

2. Travel books are the beginning of the process, not the end. After we have a few ideas, we turn to Google. We search for the town or place and look at pictures, read what other blogs have to say about it, literally search for “X versus Y” if we are deciding between two locations. You don’t have to spend too much time on this, even an hour will give you plenty of information and will help you decide. 

3. We have gotten great ideas by looking at the itineraries of companies that run group tours in your location of choice. Many have them right on their websites, like Nat Geo Expeditions, but even if they don’t you can email them and they will send you a PDF. If you can afford a group tour then by all means, do it! they can be life changing. But generally, these are out of our budget and not our preferred way of traveling, so we just get ideas from them. 

4. Lastly - and this could be your first step in the process - if you have friends that are from the area you are planning to visit or know people you trust who have gone there, then ask them: where did you go? what did you do? what was your favorite place? what would you recommend we do?. People LOVE to tell you about their beautiful countries and places they have visited. No amount of book or internet research will give you the info that someone that lives in that place or has visited can give you. But, we don’t think you should base your decision fully on this opinion, do your own research as well.

If you already know where you are going and want to decide what to do in that place, then do the following: 

1. Broken record here but travel books are useful in this step as well, at least to give you the lay of the land. For example in Cusco they might point out some museums, a specific neighborhood, and also several activities to do in the surrounding area of the city. This will give you an idea of what the city has to offer and what aligns with your interest.

2. Do a walking tour as soon as you arrive at your destination. There are plenty of companies offering “free walking tours” (based on tips). A walking tour will help you understand the place better, know how to get around, and you will most likely get many recommendations from the tour guide. To find a tour I usually just google “free walking tour X city” and then look at which companies come up and their reviews. There is also GuruWalk, FreeTour, and Sandemans which are aggregators for some of the offerings.

3. Take a look at what other tours are available in the area. I usually start with Airbnb Experiences since these are generally tours run by local people and not organized tour companies. There is nothing wrong with tour companies - and we do plenty of stuff with them too - but there is something special about touring with a passionate local who just decided to start doing tours. Even if you don’t do any tours, taking a look at what is on offer will give you an idea of what’s important to do in the place. There are other global platforms, such as GetYourGuide or Viator, that you can take a look at. Travel books will also usually recommend a few local companies, and some of our best tours have come from this.

4. Don’t overbook your vacation! Leave time to wonder, and to add things based on what you hear once you are on the ground. Always ask people you meet, tour guides, and even your Uber driver and waiter what they recommend you do. 

5. Before and during your trip, save everything and anything that you get recommended to *Google Maps*. I follow a system that I will explain in a subsequent post, but in essence: just save everything to your map. Lists will get lost, you will forget about that post you saved and that message your friend sent you. But Google Maps will remember, and the moment you open your map when you arrive you will already have things to do there. That is why I always have a Google Maps list with my favorite spots in every place we go to so you can just save that to your own map (like this Tulum list). I will publish a piece with all my recent lists soon! 

These are just a few ideas to help you plan your next vacation. As always, my biggest advice is: just go! You won’t regret it. Let us know what we missed!

Stay tuned for tips on how to decide where to eat while on vacation, the next installment on the series. 

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My partner and I recently held a virtual event for The Nomadic Network about how we quit our jobs to travel the world full time for a year. In it, we spoke about how we did it, but we also shared travel tips, things like how we decide where to go, what to do, and where to eat when we travel. The event got me thinking that we should publish our travel tips as a series, so here we are :)

This is post #1 in the Travel Tips Series: Where to Go! I will share how we decide where to go on vacation!

Honestly, I don’t know if my opinion on this one will be satisfactory, but here it goes:

The truth is that we have never spent much time deciding where to go. In the past, much of our travel destinations have been based on some serendipitous situation - work takes us somewhere and we decide to explore the area, we have family or friends living in a place so we go travel there with them, we found a cheap flight somewhere, we don’t have much time so we decide to do a road trip nearby, we have a layover so we stay to explore, etc.

That said, there are things we enjoy, and that definitely plays a role when we need to pick a place.

1. We like being outdoors and active - hiking, snowboarding, kayaking, swimming

2. We like to eat - anything and everything!

3. We like history and culture - learning about the world through the history of countries, both past and present

So, in general, we like to visit places that offer these things.

Actually write down what you like! Think through what you usually enjoy when you go on vacation. What do you seek and are excited about doing? This is, to me, the most important aspect of deciding where to go. Your answer to this question will guide your decision, because you cannot find everything everywhere.

For our current sabbatical we did have to make some specific decisions, but they were not super scientific or well researched. We had three basic premises / requirements:

1. We wanted to see places we didn’t know much about, such as Central Asia, the Balkans, and the Caucasus

2. We wanted to spend time in Latin America, where we are from but we still have so much left to explore, like Ecuador and Colombia

3. We wanted to follow the sun, at least for most of the trip. We don’t like being cold unless we are on a snowboard going down a mountain :)

That is it. These requirements made figuring out our (general) route much easier.

Figuring out your requirements will help tremendously in narrowing down your options. Basically, what are your non-negotiables? is there anything you absolutely want to see or do? are there any general principles you want to follow (certain weather, type of accommodation, areas, or activities)? For example, do you want to see fall colors and visit a new continent? are you looking for familiarity or an out-of-comfort-zone experience?

For our long term trip we also knew we wanted to travel for at least a year and we also didn’t want to “rough it”, meaning for example we didn’t want to share a room and we wanted to have nice meals often. In order to travel for that length of time and under those requirements we knew we couldn’t go to what are considered “expensive” destinations, such as Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc.

Having a budget (even if rough), in combination with knowing how long you want to travel for and what your requirements are, will help you narrow your options on where to go.

It’s easier to execute on this step once you have narrowed down your options with the first two exercises. Basically, work through your budget once you are deciding between a few destinations. If you are traveling for a 1 to 2 week vacation, just focus on the three big buckets of expenses: transportation, accommodation, and meals/activities.

Research costs for flights (or whichever method of transport you are using), the type of accommodation you would like to stay in, and the typical cost for a meal (and if you have activities in mind, look at those too). It’s important to think about these three buckets holistically, versus for instance just looking at flights and deciding X destination is too expensive. The flight might be expensive, but maybe every other expense in-country will be so much more affordable that in the end it will be a better choice for your budget.

Then, of course, you will need to make a decision! BUT, being flexible and willing to change pieces of your trip is imperative for having the best experience.

Maybe you wanted to travel for 2 weeks but based on your top location you will need to shorten your trip to 10 days to do it in the way you want to. Maybe you wanted to stay in a cute B&B but that will blow half of your budget and you would rather go see whales, or learn how to surf, or go to a cooking class, or do any other activity of choice, and instead stay in a more affordable hotel. Being flexible, both during the planning phase as well as when you are traveling, will make your trip more enjoyable.

Now, tools! There aren’t too many to assist with this step of the process, but here are some ideas:

• SkyScanner lets you check flight prices to “Anywhere”, which can help narrow down your options to a few affordable places for you to get to

• Weather and precipitation averages can be very helpful if you have a specific weather requirement for your trip. We often do - we like the sun! - so we check for this. For instance, last December we wanted to go somewhere warm that would be easy to get to for both my parents (who live in Thailand) and us (we would be coming from the US). We narrowed it down to the South of Italy or Canary Islands, both areas known to be warmish even in the winter. But, after doing this type of research the Canary Islands won by a lot, and we didn’t regret it!

• Visa requirements can make or break a trip, so checking for visa requirements in different countries can be helpful in narrowing down your search. In many occasions we have decided on one destination versus another simply because the visa requirements for a certain country were too cumbersome, or because they were extremely simple or not needed for another.

Ok, that is it for this Travel Tips edition: How to choose where to go on vacation! When all fails, just throw a dart at a map. If you are open-minded and flexible, I guarantee you will find something worthy in every single corner of the world.

Next up on the series: where to stay, what to do, and where to eat when traveling!

Do you have any other advice? Please share!

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Chaos and beauty collide in Chiang Mai, where darting motorcycles while crossing the street is a feat, and the smell of roasted pork follows your every step. You can admire elaborate Wats (aka Buddhist temples) in every corner, and wander into busy colorful markets to sample unknown fruits at every turn. Lush and quiet mountains await to fulfill all your hiking desires minutes away from the city . For the less adventurous, the green of big trees is always present in the city too.

Located on the mountainous north of Thailand, Chiang Mai is a city of about 1M people, but it feels smaller and very manageable. Easy to get around and with an old center that is extremely walkable, it’s no surprise that is a popular tourist destination. There is also so much adventure to be had around the city, with multiple worthy day trips possible.

Thailand opened to the world recently after heavy Covid regulations prevented entry to most of the world. The city is back to life, but tourism numbers are much lower than on the pre-Covid era, so it’s the perfect time to visit.

I love the city and have spent quite a bit of time there, so I have compiled eight of my favorite – and unique – things to do in Chiang Mai! If you are looking for where to eat, look no further than Where to Eat in Chiang Mai blog post.

Google Map

Here is the Google Map where you can find everything mentioned below. For more visuals, take a look at IG Stories (Chiang Mai, Surroundings, Chiang Rai, Food) and IG Reels (Street Food, Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Rai Temples, Doi Inthanon National Park, Monk Chat)

How to get around

There are three main ways to get around in Chiang Mai:

1. Tuk Tuk. Little open air vehicles, can fit only 2-3 people.

2. Songthaew. Larger shared taxi, usually makes multiple stops along the way, can fit around 10 people. Just flag it on the street when you see one.

3. Grab. The local Uber. Just download the app and order as you would with Uber.

Top Unique Things To Do

1. Chat with a Monk

There are over 1,000 Wats (Buddhist temples) in Chiang Mai! You will stumble into them even if you don’t want to. Some offer “Monk Chats”, where you can sit down and talk with a novice monk. They practice their English and you get to learn about monastery life, win-win! We did this in Wat Chedi Luang, which has a table under a shady tree daily (9am-6pm) with a big sign, you won’t miss it. Other Wats you can do this at are: Wat Suan Dok (5pm-7pm Mon, Wed, Fri) and Wat Srisuphan (5:30pm-7pm daily). Look online to confirm day and times before you go, or ask around when there.

Below are some other Wats you should not miss. Note that if you are a women you must cover your shoulders and knees to go in them.

• Wat Chiang Man. My favorite. It’s in a lush setting with very impressive carvings!

  

• Wat Sri Suphan. Gorgeous silver temple, super elaborate. Go at sunset if you can. Women can’t go inside…

• Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan. Lovely! It’s a complex with several pagodas and temples. Next to Wat Prasat

• Wat Bubparam. Big white and golden temple with a pagoda

  

• Wat Mahawan. Pretty and surrounded by nice gardens

• Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang. Small, cute, right next to the Three Kings Monument

• Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The temple on top of the mountain, must go! Plan a hike on the mountain afterwards, details in number 5 below

• Others: Wat Lok Moli, Wat Muen Lan, Wat Phan On, Wat Phantao

2. Bike around the Royal Park Rajapruek

This is a very large park a bit outside of town but so worthy of the trip. Make sure to rent bikes by the entrance as it’s the best way to see it (you can also take a small tourist truck if you can’t bike). Don’t miss stopping by the orchid gardens, and have lunch at the beautiful Royal Project Kitchen.

3. Admire Kalm Village’s Architecture and Art

A gorgeous art center with a restaurant and a coffee shop. Chiang Mai is considered the art center of Thailand, and this place truly encapsulates why. It has a stunning collection of ceramics and textiles, as well as temporary fun art and crafts exhibitions. Besides, the architecture is stunning! Their coffee shop’s second floor is the perfect place to work from.

4. Stroll around Huay Kaew Arboretum

Very small but worth a stroll if you are in the area. You will pass it if going up hiking in Doi Suthep mountain, which you should definitely do! Next section covers this.

5. Hike Doi Suthep Mountain

Most people go up the mountain to visit the temple overlooking Chiang Mai, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and that is absolutely worth doing. But, a much better way in my opinion is to see the temple and *then* go for a long hike on the solitary but deeply forested/ jungle-ish mountain of Doi Suthep to reach the summit of Doi Pui. It’s 10 miles of beauty! You could do it by yourself but the trail is not super well marked so I recommend going with @chani_ka . She is a great hiking companion, and will take you for a yummy lunch on a Hmong community along the way.

6. Have a coffee at the highest point in Thailand at Doi Inthanon National Park

I loved this National Park about 60miles outside of Chiang Mai. The Wachiratan waterfalls are powerful and surrounded by so much beautiful jungle. It also boasts the highest point in Thailand and the forest up there is truly whimsical. You can also hike a trail between local communities to see waterfalls, water buffalos, and rice field views (you must do this with a local guide). We did this experience with @happy_bird_tour who also took some great professional photos of us!

7. Observe rescued elephants at the Elephant Nature Park

I really wanted to see elephants in Chiang Mai, but I also wanted to do it ethically, so I spent quite a bit of time doing research and the only place that look legit was the @elephantnaturepark . I am so glad I found them, because this place is the real deal!

The Elephant Nature Park rescues elephants from illegal logging, circuses, and riding camps. Exploitation of elephants in Thailand has been happening for decades, and it’s supported directly by tourism. Today in Thailand there are many elephant trekking camps where tourists partake in elephants riding, and watch elephants perform tricks. The truth about this form of elephant tourism is ugly, with thousands of elephants being kept in cruel, abusive conditions.

The guiding principle of the park is to let elephants live as close to how they would in the wild, so other than walking near them and observing them, there is little direct interactions with them – there is no feeding, no bathing, and absolutely no riding. The park currently has 140 rescued elephants, as well as 1,000 dogs, 1,600 cats, 80 cows, and 100 buffalos! A growing number of elephant tourism operators advertise themselves as sanctuaries, but behind scenes the elephants continue to suffer. It’s important to not support these places.

8. Visit the impressive temples of Chiang Rai

Around 130miles from Chiang Mai, this would a long day trip but it’s doable. However, if you can, stay the night as there is lots of nearby hiking as well. If you stay, have dinner at Barrab and breakfast at Good Carb. About the temples:

1. Wat Rong Khu (White Temple) is the most impressive! You should start your day here. Have lunch right onsite at ร้านแม่พิมพร ข้าวซอยแม่พิมพร (i couldn’t find the name in English, but it’s right next to the temple)

2. Wat Rong Seur Ten (Blue Temple) is the smallest one. Make sure to have coconut ice cream in the stalls next door

3. Baandam Museum (Black Temple) is large and interesting, but it was not my favorite. It’s pretty creepy, with lots of dead animal skins and some weird sexual wooden figures. It’s still worth going, but you have been warned. Here you can have the sweetest pineapple of your life.

   If you are looking for what to eat in the city, check out blog post Where to Eat in Chiang Mai for recommendations on markets, street food, restaurants, and cafes.  

   Enjoy Chiang Mai, it’s a special place!

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The smell of roasting chicken hanging in a clay oven hits us even before stepping out of the songthaew, the local transportation vehicles. Fat dripping into the sides of the oven, my mouth waters in anticipation. Once I bite in – WOW – what an explosion of flavor, like most of everything you will eat in this street food mecca. 

Thai culture is a culture of food. Food is integral to Thai life, and most of everything happens while eating. “There is a common saying”, our street food tour guide, Moui, tells us, “when we see each other we say: ‘hello, how are you? have you eaten yet?’”.  This perfectly encapsulates how important food is to Thai culture. Street food is affordable and convenient so most people don’t cook at home. The options are endless, and they are good and diverse. Besides, kitchens are generally very small, so why bother?

Northern Thai cuisine is unique and differs significantly from Thai food in other regions of the country. Northern Thailand has always been a melting pot of cultures and its food reflects that, being deeply influenced by Myanmar, Chinese, and local ethnic cuisines. The most common Thai food outside of the country – what you are likely eating in your local Thai food joint – is food from the South. 

The north of Thailand was its own kingdom for hundreds of years before joining Siam (Thailand) officially, so it developed its own cuisine independently. The region’s weather, cooler than the rest of the country, lends itself to agriculture so there has always been plenty of raw materials to cook with. Northern Thai cuisine is veggie heavy, and in fact the most popular protein now, pork, was not part of the diet until recent history. Chiang Mai is far from the ocean so seafood and coconut are not common in the cuisine (note Khao Soi is a big exception here, which uses coconut milk). Shrimp paste gets replaced with fermented bean paste, and in stark contrast to the most common Thai dishes, sugar is rarely use in Northern cuisine but herbs and flowers are heavily used.

While in Chiang Mai it’s imperative to go on a food tour. There are so many food options in the city that it will take you years to try all of them, and most will be average. If you want to maximize your time and make sure you try some of the best, then go with a local. You will also learn a lot – about the culture, the history, and the local ingredients. We did this Airbnb Experience and highly recommend it, but there is plenty to choose from. 

Google Map

During our 10+ days in Chiang Mai we also ate in plenty of other places beyond the tour. My parents have lived in Chiang Mai for 5 years, so they know what’s up. You can find all our recommendations in this google map, and below are some more details!

Street Food

I am defining this as either a street cart or a small local spot.

Chang Phueak Pork Leg Rice

Served by the “cowboy lady” (or one of her sisters) this tender pork leg over rice is mouth watering. The owner is originally from Burma and have been serving this dish for over many years. Deemed the “cowboy” lady because she used to wear a cowboy hat when serving the dish. 

Neng Earthen Jar Roast Pork

This was one of my favorite places! this low key eatery (closes early) serves roasted chicken as well as crispy pork sided with basil and two fabulous dipping sides.

Khao Soi Islam Noodles

Excellent spot, but not for their Khao Soi (you can find better, see below). However, their satay, dumplings, curry, and oxtail soup were all very very good!

San Pa Koi Khanom Chin

Inside a market. Famous for its nam ngiao, a Northern Thai noodle soup with a tangy tomato base and cubes of congealed blood. This market also has a shop that sells pastries filled with coconut cream and they are delicious!

Mango Sticky Rice @ Warorot Market

The best mango sticky rice! It is a street cart at the market.

Bualoi Cart @ Charoen Muang Street 

Didn’t know I loved this dessert until I tried it here. Little rice flour rolled into small balls, and cooked in coconut milk and sugar. It’s warm and it’s delicious!

Paa Yawd Shan food

Burmese food! Order the tea leave salad and Shan pancake (kind of like a filled pancake).

Laab Kai Mueang Pan Waen

Authentic northern Thai food in a homey setting, filled with locals. Get the larb , the pork curry, and the chicken soup!

Khao Soi Maesai

The most famous Northern Thai dish outside of Thailand, and for good reason! Khao Soi is a curry noddle soup made with coconut milk and it’s addictive. You will find it everywhere in Chiang Mai, but not all are good. This one is excellent!

Khao Soy Nimman

Another great Khao Soi! The broth here is next level!

Restaurants

A bit more upscale than the above.

Baan Landai Fine Thai Cuisine

Yummy and beautiful food in a cute spot. It’s small and it gets busy so make reservations.

B Samcook Home16

Very unique and tasty set menu.

Royal Project Kitchen

Gorgeous setting in the Royal Park and very good food. Perfect for lunch while you bike around the park.

Jia Tong Heng Restaurant One Nimman

Solid Chinese.

Kiti Panit

Set in an old grand house that is basically a museum. Well executed dishes.

Ajarn Saiyud’s Kitchen

The most beautiful food you will eat!

Markets

I love a good local market, to both eat and wander.

Mueang Mai Market

Great for fruits and vegetables.

Warorot Market

Good for food, clothes, local crafts, etc. 

Siri-wattana Market (Tha-nin Market)

All kind of ready made food. Very interesting to walk around. You can find an excellent northern thai sausage here!

Wua Lai Walking Street (Saturday Market) and Tha Phae Walking Street (Sunday Market)

Both of these markets happen just once a week. Streets are closed to traffic and tons of vendors set up. There are big food areas in both, in addition to any souvenir you might desire. 

Coffee Shops

I love a good espresso, and Chiang Mai has both the beans and the skill to produce one!

Akha Ama Coffee

Great little place for a good cup of coffee.

Kalm Village 

This art center deserve an entire morning as it’s gorgeous. Plus it has a wonderful coffee, great spot to work from!

Thor-Phan Coffee Roaster

Solid coffee, small.

Hang & Craft

Great place to get some work done while having a good cup of coffee.

Saruda Finest Pastry

Beautiful and tasty pastries.

Caffeine Shop 

This place was right by my parents apartment so it was really convenient, but also had great coffee! 

Chaing Mai is truly a paradise for foodies. ENJOY!

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Last updated: November 2023

Table of Content (yes, it’s that long!)

• Why I Love Tulum

• When to Go

  • Weather

  • Seaweed

  • Crowds

  • Best Time to Visit Overall

• What to Do

  • Cenotes

  • Sian Ka’an Natural Reserve

  • Ruins

  • Lagoons

  • Beaches

• What to Eat and Drink

  • In Tulum Town (and around)

  • Beach Road: Jungle Side

  • Beach Road: Beach Side

  • Bars & Live Music

  • Groceries

• Other Experiences

  • Workout Classes

  • Temazcal

  • Tulum Dinner Club (and others)

  • Azulik Museums

• Other Tips / Recommendations

  • Beauty Salon

  • Renting a Car

  • Google Maps List

Alan and I have been coming to Tulum for at least a decade, and since 2018 we have lived here for a big chuck of the year. We are invested in it, literally - we own property - and emotionally - we love the place. If there is any destination in which we are experts, it’s Tulum and its surroundings. Still, and even though I get asked for recommendations for Tulum at least once a month, it has taken me a long time to actually publish something about it. I guess the more you love a place the more protective you are of it, specially when it’s changing rapidly and in ways you are not particularly excited about. But, I think it’s time to share what I think is the best of Tulum.

Disclaimer: this post is not going to tell you how to party hard in Tulum. It’s also not going to discuss how Tulum is growing at what seems like an unsustainable pace. I am not here to try to convince you Tulum is the best place on earth, nor I am here to warn you about the hype. That said, we have spent years in the area and have traveled through it extensively, so I have a thing or two to say about which cenotes to visit, which tacos to eat, and which ruins are the most impressive. As should be the case when traveling anywhere, please treat it as your home and be respectful of both people and nature.

If you are looking to explore the Yucatan peninsula (it’s so worth it!) take a look at another post that deep dives on that: Yucatan Beyond Pretty Beaches

Why I Love Tulum

I really love Tulum.

I love the vibrant colors, how everywhere you look you see bright green from the abundant nature and deep blue from the expansive sky.

I love the sounds and smells, of the fresh tropical storms, of the earthy vegetation, of the salty ocean. Overwhelming the senses in all the right ways.

I love its long piece of sparkly Caribbean coast, that at its best is truly one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. With its white soft sand and waters that are sometimes peaceful, and sometimes forceful. I love the infinite shades of blue of the sea, and I even love that sometimes it’s not as blue, when sargassum currents come and engulf the sea, as it makes me value the transparent waters so much more.

I love the underground river system and the cenotes that are all over this precious peninsula. I love how sometimes the soil collapses to allow us plain humans to wonder at the crystal clear cool waters they expose, sometimes fully open to the sky, sometimes cavernous and full of stalactites and bats. They are truly something out of this world.

I love the food, from the tiny taco stand to the nested-in-the-jungle firewood restaurant. From the Italian trattoria to the fried fish by the road. From its juicy oranges to its crazy-spicy habanero sauces. I love it all.

I love the history of this small town, that went from a Mayan powerhouse, to a small fishing town sparsely populated and seldomly visited, to a yoga retreat paradise, to a tech-bro festival mecca. Well, I am not super into the last phases of town, but hey, change is the only constant and that means the town will reinvent itself again. Throughout all of its phases, Tulum has remained a special place worth visiting.

I love its diversity, how it has attracted people from all over the world and hence also their food, dance, and skills, but also how it has somehow remained true to itself and it small town spirit in many endearing ways.

I love the vibe, the Tulum aesthetic that is now common in Instagram shots, and one of the things that has made it so popular. The candle-lit spaces, the open architecture, the live music-filled bars, all of it is alluring.

I just love Tulum, with all its contradictions.

When to Go

When you go matters! The three big things to keep in mind when deciding when to go: weather, seaweed, and crowds

Weather

Tulum is a tropical destination, so for the most part the weather will cooperate throughout the year. However, you should keep it mind that it has two main seasons: rainy and dry.  The rainy season is from May to October, and the dry season is from November to April. The temperature in January and February can get “chilly” (never lower than 67 degrees F though). The summers are humid and wet, but rain in the tropics is fast and furious, so even when it rains it ends fast (except when there is a hurricane, which has happened but it’s rare). The best months in terms of weather are March, April, October, and November.

Seaweed

Over the past few years, Tulum and many other Caribbean beaches have been affected by sargassum. Basically heaps of seaweed just wash ashore, sometimes only a little and sometimes so much you literally cannot swim in the ocean. The Mexican government has implemented several measures to try to help with the situation, including barriers at sea and cleaning programs on the beach, but there are limitations to those.

The reasons for this phenomenon are heavily debated, and generally it’s hard to predict its timing and intensity, even on a day to day basis. However, Tulum is generally affected from April to October in various degrees. If you want to fully avoid it, don’t go during that time. But, if you happen to visit Tulum during this season it’s also not the end of the world. Here are some tips to deal with it:

• There is plenty to do other than go to the beach. You can visit cenotes, swim in lagoons, admire ruins, or even go for a day trip to Valladolid or a weekend trip to Bacalar! Check out Yucatan Beyond Pretty Beaches for more on this.

• If you still want beach time, you have options! The west coast of Cozumel is free of sargassum year around due to its location (it’s protected by the rest of the island). Holbox island is also spared, although that is farther away so you should plan to stay a night (or 5 :))

• Not all beaches are affected by the sargassum in the same way, it depends on the currents!. For daily information on the amount of seaweed on each different beach on the coast, visit the Facebook Group Red de Monitoreo del Sargazo de Quintana Roo

Crowds

Tulum has become an extremely popular destination for Americans, and it can get very busy! The worst time in terms of crowds is mid-December through February, when the town all but collapses from the amount of tourists looking to party. Traffic on the beach road can be horrific, and just the vibe… it’s not our thing. We avoid it at all costs. “Low season” is generally May to December.

Best Time to Visit Overall

In our opinion, the best time to visit Tulum is in the Fall: October, November, and the first part of December. The weather is very pleasant (although it can be rainy sometimes, specially in Oct), the town is not busy so it’s easy to get around, and sargassum is gone by then so the beach is at its best, which is truly spectacular. We almost always come during this time of year.

Spring (March, April) is also great due to weather (no rains) and less crowds, but sargassum season has been arriving early in the past couple of years, so it’s not guaranteed you will have a sargassum-free visit then. Summers are pretty hot, and also rainy, so not the greatest time to visit either.

But, regardless, you can have a great time any month of the year here! I mean, it’s the Caribbean!

What To Do

Cenotes!

The entire Yucatan peninsula has an extensive underground river system. This is because the soil is made of limestone and hence very porous, so water filters through it. When the limestone bedrock collapses it creates a sinkhole called a cenote. There are thousands in the peninsula and they are some of the most impressive places you will ever visit. Keep in mind cenote water is cool, at around 77 F (25 C), year round. 

Cenotes are generally in private land, so you have to pay to see them. Some you can just pay a small entrance fee and spend as much time as you want in them exploring by yourself, and some are more expensive and part of complexes that make you go with a guide (these can sometimes get more crowded, but are worth it for the diversity). If you have time, go to all, every cenote is unique.

Complexes

Tankah, Dos Ojos, Casa Tortuga

Tankah is my favorite because it has a bit of everything and it’s less crowded. You get to zip line over a cenote, go canoeing in another one, and have a wonderful Mexican lunch. Keep in mind Tankah is a bit more expensive than others and you have to reserve beforehand, but this makes it less crowded and even more special. You can book it with Agua Clara or any other tour operator (you can’t just show up)

Stand Alone

Gran Cenote, Corazón, Escondido, Crystal, Eden, Taak Bi Ha, Yax Kin, Calavera

All of these are beautiful and unique! Gran Cenote is special but very popular, Escondido and Crystal are right next to each other and close to town, Corazon is a good one to spend the day at, Taak Bi Ha and Yax Kin are a bit out of town but super pretty. There are many cenotes in other areas of the Yucatan peninsula that are very special, some of my favorites are near Valladolid, which is an easy day trip from Tulum. For recommendation on those and other Yucatan areas, check out the blog post: Yucatan Beyond Pretty Beaches

Sian Ka’an Natural Reserve

This is probably my top thing to do in the area and the place I take every single visitor to. Sian Ka’an means “origin of the sky” and this feels true when you are navigating in turquoise waters through narrow mangroves. Sian Ka’an is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes 528,148 hectares of diverse tropical forests, palm savannah, pristine wetlands, lagoons, extensive mangrove, as well as sandy beaches and dunes (120 km of coastline!). My point is: there is lots to see and lots of ways of seeing it. But, to me, there are two main things you should do in the biosphere:

Float on a Lazy River Through Mangroves

One of a kind experience. Take a boat ride through several lagoons and through narrow mangrove passages, and then jump in the fresh water and float with the current. You access this tour through the town of Muyil, not from the beach. There is also a tour from the beach side, but that one doesn’t take you floating, which is the best part! 

You can drive directly to the town of Muyil, and stop to ask and organize the tour at SianKa’an Tours, or you can use any tour operator to coordinate it. Note that there is a short and a long tour. If you have time, do the long one, if you are lucky you will see manatees! But, even just doing the short one is incredible too.

When you are done with the tour don’t miss walking the mangrove path to the Observation Tower for an expansive view of the jungle and the lagoon atop of the trees, and if you have time and energy, go visit the Muyil Ruins (more on this below) which is located a short, and very beautiful, walk away.

Ruins

There are many impressive ruins around Tulum. Below are my favorite

Muyil

These are some lovely ruins in a very lush setting, they are more unknown so way less crowded but still impressive. It makes sense to combine with floating in Sian Ka’an (above) since they are on the same area, and you can (and should) walk from the lagoon to the ruins through a beautiful jungle path through mangroves. If you have issues finding the path, just ask the boat driver where the observation tower is once you are done with the lagoon tour.

Coba

I love these ruins because you can rent a bike to see them. The complex is large so biking is the best way to explore them (and also the most fun!). You used to be able to climb the tallest pyramid, which is also one of the reasons I love it, but since covid started they haven’t allowed it any more. I am not sure if it will be possible again. Don’t forget to visit the cenotes close by, they are very unique (huge caves and jumping platforms!): Tamcach-Ha, Choo-Ha, and Multum-Ha.

Tulum Ruins

The closest ruins to Tulum and the only Mayan ruins next to the ocean, the Tulum ruins are a must-see. If you want to skip the crowds and the heat, go at sunset (starting at 4:30pm). Tickets are more expensive but the extra cost is absolutely worth it to have the ruins by yourself during golden hour. That said, please note I am not 100% sure they are still allowing this. Covid put a stop to these afternoon tours, but I have heard they are doing it again.

There are many other ruins around the Yucatan peninsula, such as the famous Chichen Itza. For recommendations on those, see Yucatan Beyond Pretty Beaches

Lagoons

These fresh water lagoons are a great place to scape when you don’t want to go to the beach, either because you have come during sargassum season, or simply because you are looking to swim in fresh water. 

Kaan Luum Lagoon

This is a lovely blue lagoon very close to town, it’s a great place to spend an afternoon. Very popular with locals. You can rent kayaks and paddle boards.

Neek Lagoon

This place opened somewhat recently and it’s all the hype right now. I actually haven’t been but have heard good things.

Punta Laguna

Another beauty of a lagoon, perfect to spend the entire day on the water. This one is farther from town so usually less crowded. It is in a Nature Reserve so you can combine the visit with a guided tour of the reserve in which you can see spider and howler monkeys!

Beaches

Ah, so many options!

Tulum Beach

This is probably why you came. Tulum beach is incredible, and also very long so there are quite a few different areas you can go to. At the highest level, the beach is divided into two, to the right and to the left of the roundabout when getting to the beach road from town (the intersection between Coba Street and Boca Paila Street).

The “public beach” is to the left, this is a shorter stretch of beach (about a mile) but easily accessible since it has several public entrances (which also means it can get very crowded). This is where I come running in the mornings, and when I wake up early enough, see the sunrise. The sea is usually calmer and warmer on this side, and you can see the ruins from here! 

They recently made this street (La Costera) a one-way so you can’t actually access it with your car through Coba Street, so instead you have to go through the Tulum Ruins which makes it harder to access. That is, unless you are biking to it, as you can still enter it that way with a bike.

The longest stretch of beach (7miles to the beginning of the Sian Ka’an reserve, and 30miles to the end of the peninsula) is to the right of the roundabout. For the most part, you can only get to this part of the beach through a beach club, but there are infinite options. In my opinion, both the beach itself and the ocean are a lot prettier on this side. You could also keep driving that road until you hit the Sian Ka’an reserve which is a lot less developed and a great place to go if you are looking for solitude (keep in mind the roads can be pretty bad there). 

If you want a beach chair and food/drinks, settle for a beach club and spend the day there. Note that many have a minimum spend per person, specially if you visit in high season. A few we like are:

Beach Clubs

To the left of the fork (public beach area) 

Cinco. A locals favorite. Has chairs by the ocean and also more protected by their restaurant. Food is not great but it’s also not terrible.

Ikal. Fancy, cute, decent cocktails and food. Note that it doesn’t have chairs right by the ocean, but it’s a great spot to work from and always have events, yoga classes, etc.

Zazil Kin. Affordable, local vibe, lots of palm trees. Just note that food is not great. A good if you just want a lounge chair under a palm tree and a beer.

To the right of the roundabout (our favorite area)

Niken. Previously called Alma and one our favorite beach club! It’s far enough to be pretty secluded but easy to get to and park. It is also affordable, and has no minimum consumption. It’s very chill and the food is decent. 

Libelula. A new favorite because it’s very secluded and the beach in this area is incredible. It’s after the National Reserve entrance but you can just tell them you have a reservation at Libelula and you don’t have to pay the fee. They have a minimum consumption amount but it’s totally worth as their food is amazing.

Others that are okay as well: La Zebra, Delek, Ahau.

Xpu-Ha 

This is a beauty of a beach, we go almost every weekend when we are in Tulum. You can park here (pay 60 pesos per person) and once you are at the beach walk left and find a spot to set up after the big hotel and the volleyball court. There are also a few beach clubs to the right, but to this beach we generally just take a cooler and do a picnic. 

Caleta Tankha

Great option for when most beaches are covered with seaweed as it has a protected area, and a couple of cenotes! It’s very close to Tulum. You have to pay 300 pesos/$15 per person and there is a single beach club which doesn’t have good food, so just plan to eat before/after!

Xcacel

This is a beach in a nature preserve and a favorite for nesting turtles. Because it’s protected you can’t take food and there are no beach clubs. It’s gorgeous and wild.

Punta Allen

We have not been here yet but I think it’s worth a mention since it’s the furthest tip of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve and it’s supposed to be beautiful. You can get there if you drive on the beach road all the way to the Sian Ka’an Reserve entrance and then many many more miles, but the road is notoriously bad so you can also get there with a boat (and it’s common to see dolphins on the way!). 

You can do most everything we recommend by yourself, but if you would like to book tours we highly recommend Agua Clara (Trip advisor), just ask for Eyal and mention Carla and Alan recommended you. They specialize in scuba diving in cenotes (!) but do lots of other tours as well. 

What To Eat and Drink

Oooooh the food!!! Tulum has great food, and a lot of diversity in restaurants, both in cuisine and in prices. In general, anything in town will be more affordable as it caters to both locals and tourists. Anything on the beach road (both jungle side and beach side) will be much more expensive, as those cater almost exclusively to tourists.

Note that there is a local delivery service called Tomato that works extremely well if you want to order something to your airbnb/hotel.

Tulum Town

The Best Tacos!

• La Hija de Aca Tacos. Best tacos sudados ever. Our favorites are the chicharrón prensado and requeson. Pair it with a fresh squeeze orange juice for a perfect breakfast. It’s a little spot right next to El Asadero.

• La Borrega Guera. Yummy birria tacos and quesadillas. Only open on Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon. Right in front of La Hija de Aca Tacos. Breakfast and lunch only.

• Taqueria Honorio. good greasy tacos for breakfast, cochinita FTW! A perfect cure for hangover.

• Tropitacos. tacos al pastor are not traditionally from this area so they are actually not easy to find (at least not good), but this place is consistently good.

• La Chiapaneca. *the* local spot to grab traditional Yucatecan fair for dinner: panuchos, salbutes, empanadas, and every other tortilla permutation from the Yucantan peninsula. Try a bit of everything.

• Sabor de Mar. Excellent hole in the wall for Mexican seafood. Order the taco de costra de queso with poblano (on a flour tortilla) and the tacos fritos with marlin tinga. There are two locations but the linked one is the original.

Negro Huitlacoxe. The most exciting discovery we had last time we were in Tulum. Truly incredible Mexican food. Don’t miss their corn, taco de birria, quesadilla de huitlacoxe, flautas, and for dessert their churro! Better yet go with a big group and order everything on the menu. Oh and don’t miss their jamaica mezcalita.

Las BBQ. I was so happy we discovered this place recently! the best BBQ I have had in years! and of course they put it in tacos which makes it even better. The brisket taco is perfection, and their ribs were excellent too, as well as their corn bread and corn.

Cetli. If you want traditional Mexican (think: mole!) in a gorgeous little Hacienda, then don’t look further that this cute place a bit outside of town. Great for dinner, but they also serve breakfast. Order the mezcal jamaica margarita, the Chile en Nogada, the cheese enchiladas with green mole, and the Chile filled with Huitlacoche and peanut mole (spicy!).

Burrito Amor. I don’t like burritos, but I *love* these ones! Our favorite is their rib eye, but we also like their pork and pineapple. Good strong margaritas too!

Tres Galeones. I really like this cute little spot. Great for a good ambience dinner than won’t break the bank. Very good cocktails and Mexican food (mostly seafood).

El Camello Jr. An institution for fresh seafood! Famous for its ceviche and fried fish, but everything is good.

Matcha Mama. good smoothies and healthy breakfast bowls. I buy all my coconut water and coconut milk from here. Three locations, beach, town, and Aldea Zama.

Tierra @ Holistika. Excellent spot for a healthy breakfast. It’s also a hotel, yoga mecca, and art center. Definitely worth visiting even if you are not eating there, make sure to walk around the grounds.

Botanica Garden Cafe. cute place for breakfast.

Acqua e Farina. very good little Italian spot.

Italdo. The best bakery in town, for both breads and pastries. I get all my bread from here (they have a beet one!) and I am obsessed with their Bombolone. They also serve breakfast.

Pizzine. Cool ambiance (and parties after dinner). Wood ovenzas.

India Ess Curry House. Very good Indian food. Have never been physically in the place (only ordered in).

Curry by Po Thai. Best Thai food in Tulum. Have never been physically in the place (only ordered in).

El Asadero. For good meat in town, this is your spot !

Palma Central. A great gathering place with lots of food carts and live music almost nightly. Tuesdays are for salsa and it gets packed! I like the Argentinian empanadas place, and the Asian Bodega Thai.

Campanella. By far the best ice cream in town. Three locations (beach, town, and Aldea Zama). I am obsessed with their hazelnut passion fruit flavor.

Pasha. great Lebanese food and cute spot, but pricey for being in town.

Spider Sushi. Very good sushi in Aldea Zama.

The street behind the main Tulum plaza has street carts every night. Don’t miss having a marquesita from there! Rolled crispy waffle filled traditionally with cheese and cajeta, yum!

Beach Road: Jungle Side

Kitchen Table. One of or favorite spots in all of Tulum. Get the huitlacoche sope or quesadilla.

Hartwood. Famous NY chef, always packed, very good, must make reservations way in advanced or go early.

Casa Banana. Excellent spot for meats. Also get the beet salad.

Arca. Beautiful place and beautiful food.

Treehouse. Great cocktails and food right next to a gorgeous pool and house. Make sure to get there before sunset and have your first cocktails at the rooftop. It often has live music and events.

Beach Road: Beach Side

Posada Margarita. Eat yummy homemade pasta by the ocean with your feet on the sand.

Habitas. Pretty place with good sharable plates (many vegetarian). It often has events, live music, movie showings, etc.

Mezzanine. Good Thai food, beautiful views of the ocean.

La Zebra. Taco Thursday has live salsa music and all you can eat tacos (you can also just buy them individually, which is what we do). Good value and a nice experience.

Several beach clubs also have good restaurants, including Ahau, Ziggy’s, and Ikal

Bars & Live Music

We love the band Los Brockolis and often just go wherever they are playing. Lately they have been playing almost every Saturday at Walicho.

La Guarida. The new “in” place. A very cool bar/restaurant with many small rooms. Always has events, check IG.

Encanto Cantina. Live music some days of the week. Check their instagram.

Batey. Live music and art almost every night of the week. Great mojitos too.

La Tulumeña. Reggae every Friday by a great band called The Most High Band, and live music other nights as well. 

Palma Central. Cool spot with lots of food carts and live music almost nightly. Tuesdays are for salsa!

Tulum Food Trucks. Karaoke on Wed and Sat! Good cocktails and they also often have live music too.

El Grifo. Beers, lots of beers!

All the above are in town, as we don’t generally go to bars at the beach ($$$), but there is plenty to choose from including: Habitas, Casa Jaguar, Azulik, Gitano, Tree House, Nomade, Ikal, etc.

Groceries

Tortillas. You will find tortillerias everywhere, but the best fresh tortillas are the ones made directly from corn and not from Maseca (the already made flour sold in supermarkets) so you have to pay attention to that. I buy mine either in Tortilleria y Molino Salmo 23 or in a little spot right next to this place.

Chedraui Selecto. If you are looking for a big supermarket where you can find mostly anything (including alcohol) then this is your spot. Lots of specialty imported produce too, like if you are looking for good parmesan cheese, tahini, tomate paste, or gochujang.

Woolis Food Market. Cute little market for some specialties. I get super fresh peanut butter here and I am obsessed with their passion fruit & habanero salsa.

Frutas y Verduras Pool. I come here for some specific fruits I can’t easily find elsewhere, such as passion fruit (the actual fruit and also the pulp), different kinds of mangos (especially when they are not in season in Tulum), guavas, starfruit, etc. They also keep a lot of the fresh produce, like spinach, mint, basil, etc, in the back so you have to ask for that.

Fruterias. There are plenty of other fruterias in town, so just stop and check them out! I like this one right here, but note that they often change spots.

Cheeses! I love a good queso fresco but it’s honestly hard to find. Luckily, I discover this amazing local producer, Mauricio, that delivers to Tulum a few times a week. Both his queso fresco and his queso Oaxaca are amazing! He also sometimes has other local and organic produce such as eggs and honey. Just write him on what’s app, his number is +52 984 233 8647 .

Fresh Seafood. You can get fresh seafood in several local stores, including right next to the restaurant El Camello Jr. but I generally get mine delivered by a local fisherman, his name is Jesus and his number is +52 984 256 9902.

Italdo. I included this bakery in the restaurants because it’s also that, but what it truly excels at is at its breads.

Other Experiences

Workout Classes

There are infinite workout studios and classes in Tulum, but here are my favorites:

Barre in the Jungle. If you want to feel in Tulum while you work out, then this is the place for you. The class is held in a palapa surrounded by jungle! Plus the teacher, Mariana, is amazing.

Holy Body Pilates. A beautiful pilates studio! Tough and very efficient classes. Highly recommend.

Qifulness Studio. I fell in love with their “Fat Chance Belly Dance” classes and the community that the teacher, Yoshabel, has created around that. But, the studio has a bunch of other dance classes as well! and it’s a spa.

Sonido del Mar. A beautiful space for yoga!

Others I have heard great things about: Studio Sol, UNITY, Los Amigos, Jungle Gym, Nada Temple, Ikal.

Temazcal

A Temazcal is a ceremony which originated with pre-Hispanic Indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. The term Temazcal comes from the Nahuatl word temazcalli or “house of heat”. It was done as part of a curative ceremony thought to purify the body after exertion such as after a battle or a ball game. It was also used for healing the sick, improving health, and for women to give birth.

A Temazcal ceremony usually lasts about 2 hours and is done in a type of sweat lodge, usually a circular dome made from volcanic rocks and cement adobe bricks. To produce steam, water is poured over heated volcanic stones in the middle of the dome. The ceremony is generally done with as many people as the dome fits (sitting shoulder to shoulder), with music, singing, in complete darkness, and with lots of steam. It’s an intense experience and not to be taken lightly. It can be deeply meaningful, beautiful and freeing.

I have only done it in Botanica hotel and highly recommend it.

Massages

There is no shortage of massage places, but when we have friends over we generally give Leo a call because he comes and sets up at your place so it’s super convenient. Him and his team are great! His number is +52 984 108 5603. Another option that came highly recommended if you want to do it outside your place is Tulum Wellness Massage.

Tulum Dinner Club

If you want to meet up with locals and visitors then the Tulum Dinner Club is a good thing to join. They hosts dinners every Thursdays in different restaurants around town and it’s a great way to meet people. They announce via what’s app, click here to join.

To review and potentially join some of the many many what’s app groups in Tulum, check this website: https://solo.to/tulum

Azulik Museums

Azulik describes itself as a place that “aims to reconnect individuals and tribes –both native and contemporary– with themselves, with one another, and with the environment”. They are mostly known for their very expensive hotel by the beach, which also has a famous rooftop bar. But, what I think is most impressive is their museums. They have one by the beach (right next to the hotel) and one next to the town of Muyil, inland in the jungle, called Uh May, which also has a restaurant. We actually haven’t been to the one in the jungle but have heard raving reviews. I recommend going to both, the architecture and style is just magical and are a true representation of “Tulum style”.

Note: it used to be completely free to visit but I heard they are charging quite a bit to enter them now.

Other Tips / Recommendations

Beauty Saloon

If you are in need of a manicure, pedicure, hair cut, eyelashes or eyebrows look no further than Maru Nails. Maru and her team are really great!

Renting A Car

Having a car in Tulum is absolutely worth it. There are plenty of things to do around town, and even to move within the town and the beach is extremely useful. That said, there are a few important things to know about renting. 

Rental companies in Mexico will force you to get insurance when you pick up the car (and this is usually not shown in the total when you book). However, if your credit card provides insurance (many do) and you book through Expedia AND with Avis, then you can avoid this! This makes it much more affordable to rent. Note that if your credit card doesn’t include insurance you can just get it through Expedia. Also note that you will need to leave an open voucher of around $1.5k in case something major happens (that said, if something does happen your insurance will cover it).

An even better option is to rent a car with Rosie’s Rides. We know Rosie personally and she is amazing and very accommodating. She also offers airport transfers!

Google Maps List

For a Google Maps list with all the locations on this blog post, just comment on it or reach out directly through Substack or IG.

Ok. that is it! All in all, go to Tulum! But as with any other trip, go informed, be intentional, and take care of the place. It’s our home.

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Oh, the Yucatan peninsula! A massive piece of land sticking out like a sore thumb in between the Caribbean and the Golf of Mexico, encompassing several Mexican states (Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo) as well as pieces of other countries (Guatemala and Belize). The place we call home but hardly know. Discovering the Yucatan hasn’t been high on our travel list, but with COVID limiting air travel we finally decided to do a bit of a roadtrip in our backyard at the end of 2020, and wow, we were so glad we did!

There is plenty to see in the peninsula, but we choose a route with a bit of everything – beach, ruins, good food, remoteness, city life, etc. Truthfully, there are several places in this list that shouldn’t be considered “off the beaten path”, specially Isla Mujeres and Merida. That is why I have also included Holbox and Bacalar, top notch destinations in the Yucatan worth a visit.

Assuming you are landing in Cancun I would follow this route: Holbox ->  El Cuyo -> Rio Lagartos -> Valladolid -> Merida -> Celestun ->  Ruta Pucc -> Campeche -> Bacalar. This also assumes you have your own car and have a ton of time! If you do this full route and find yourself in Bacalar wondering where to go next, a good way to return to Cancun would be to head to Tulum (and maybe Playa del Carmen) for a few days.

It’s worth nothing that we did this roadtrip during COVID times, so plenty of stuff was closed, and more specifically all museums, as well as some of the smaller ruins.

OK, let’s go!

Holbox

Low-key island with (almost) no cars and 100% sandy streets. Perfect to get away from it all and just chill.

How long?  At least 2 nights

Where to stay? Anywhere ocean facing, though I would choose a bit farther away from downtown to avoid crowds. There are countless hotel options for all budget types as well as airbnbs. We stayed at Posada Mwinbi once and at an airbnb another.

What do do?

• Beach time, of course. Specifically, in the morning/early afternoon (when the tide is low) be sure to walk on the sand bar all the way to the right (if looking at the ocean) to get to Punta Mosquito, where if you are lucky you can see flamingos. All the way to the other end of the island is Punta Coco, great for sunsets

• Swim with whale sharks, the largest fish on the planet! Mind blowing experience, and only possible from June to September. We did the tour with VIP Holbox (here is a quick video!)

• Take a kayaking tour through the mangroves. We did an 8km tour with El Holboxeno and highly recommend it (you gotta be in shape though!)

• Watch an unbelievable sunset from a paddle board (or the downtown dock :)). You can rent paddles or kayaks everywhere on the island

• Dance salsa on the sandy streets. People watching, and dancing, at The Hot Corner on a weekend night is a must

• Venture into the sea late at night to see the magic of bioluminescence.   

• Admire all the street art in town

Where to eat/drink?

• Luuma. Nice cocktails and tapas on a pretty garden

• Pura Vida. Good reggae music

• Casasandra. Fancy dinner place for when you are celebrating something

• Roots Pizza. Excellent wood-fire pizza, get the lobster one !

• The Hot Corner. *The* place in town at night. Salsa music and mezcal shots

• Mantarraya Beach Club. Fresh seafood, great for lunch on the beach

• Painapol. Yummy and healthy breakfast spot

• Tamashi Sky Bar.Good sushi on a pretty rooftop

El Cuyo

Sleepy beach town, long untouched beach, great kitesurfing stop

How long?  Not much to do except spending time at the beach and kitesurfing, so depends on how long you want to do that for. We stayed for 2 nights and it was perfect. Be aware that depending on the season it can be *very* windy (hence why it’s such a good place for kitesurfing).

Where to stay? We really enjoyed the incredible view from Lunarena hotel room Luna 3. You see infinite green and also the ocean. Watching the sunrise and sunset from the hammock was magical

What do do?  Beach beach beach :). Lunarena hotel has beach chairs and umbrellas for you to take to the beach. However, keep in mind this is not like Tulum, there aren’t beach clubs per se so take a little cooler for your cold beer. If you want to learn how to kite surf there are countless places.

Where to eat?

• Naia Cafe. Cute cafe to grab breakfast or lunch, food was great

• El  Chile Gordo. A total GEM of a place, incredible Mexican food in a super cute private place. It feels very out of place for a town like El Cuyo, which makes it all the more magical.

Rio Lagartos

Fishing village on a lagoon that is part of a natural reserve. It’s great for birdwatching and it’s a beautiful mangrove-lines estuary. Rio Lagartos is neither a river (rio) or filled with alligators (lagartos). It is a Ria, a long narrow inlet of the seacoast, and it has lots of crocodiles. They should have called it Ria Cocodrilos, but, the Spanish…

How long?  One night is enough. It’s a beautiful spot in terms of nature, but the town leaves a lot to be desired and the food options are very limited

Where to stay? Right next to the water (there are several hotels). We stayed at Hotel El Faro in room Cielito Lindo which truthfully has very little going for it except for the very sweet couple who run the place and the fantastic view, we saw so many birds from the balcony.

What do do?

• Go on a boat tour! they have a typical route that takes you through mangroves, if you are lucky you will see crocodiles (we saw 5!), then flamingos (also if you are lucky and it’s the right season), and you will put mud on your face :). There are plenty of operators offering their services but it’s hard to know who to trust for a good tour. We went with the owner of La Mojarrita (a restaurant) based on good reviews and we weren’t disappointed. We also heard of  Rio Lagartos Adventures tour operator.

• Wake up early and go see Flamingos. Yes, the regular boat tour takes you to see them, but the best times to see flamingos is not the best time to see crocodiles and other animals, so you kinda have to choose. We did the regular tour mid morning (best for crocodiles) and then took a boat the next morning bright and early to see flamingos (we actually spotted them from the room and ran down to grab a boat). Also keep in mind the best time for flamingos is April and May, you can still see them year round but they won’t be together in such large numbers. 

• Go on a mangrove walk. A wooden path built through mangrove forests. The one in Rio Lagartos is called Peten Mac and it is also right next to a so-so cenote. The walk is beautiful!

• Visit Las Coloradas. The year we went here (2020) was very wet (with two major hurricanes in the area) which made the water levels raise significantly and rain water mix in, which change the colors of this lagoon, so we didn’t actually go see it. When it is “normal” it’s supposed to be an impressive pink color. 

Where to eat?

• La Mojarrita. The owner is extremely attentive and the for the most part the food was good (specially the octopus). We also did the  boat tour with him and would recommend it

• El Perico Marinero. We had a decent breakfast here

• Vaselina. For fresh seafood head to San Felipe for an afternoon. You can also walk the mangrove path here, which is not as pretty as the one in Rio Lagartos but still cute

Valladolid

What a cute little town! We fell in love with it. It makes a great base for nearby gorgeous cenotes and impressive ruins and the food is excellent. If there is one place on this list you should absolutely go, it is this one.

How long?  At least two nights, we stayed three and it was the perfect amount of time to take things slow and enjoy

Where to stay? We stayed near street Calz de los Frailes and highly recommended. It’s filled with cute shops and restaurants, very walkable and close to the city center

What do do?

• Cenotes, cenotes, cenotes! You can see all of them on the same day if you want (that is what we did), but I recommend doing the order below and starting early so you beat the tour buses

  • Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman: worth going right when they open (9am) to have it all for yourself . It has a super fun jump rope and it’s just stunning , by far our favorite in the area

• X’Keken y Samula: two cenotes located on the same complex. Both underground with small openings on the roof. You are required to wear a lifejacket which is a bit annoying. Still totally worth it

  • Zaci: right smack in downtown Valladolid I was expecting it to be just ok, but was pleasantly surprised by this big open cenote surrounded by lush nature. The afternoon light is just lovely

  • Suytun: Impressive but also very popular. Instagram has made the place famous due to having a stone platform into the cenote (very picturesque) and because when the sun hits the opening of the ceiling the beam of light inside it’s impressive (however, note that this only happens during a specific window of time – I think might have been around 2pm but unsure and shifts depending on seasons). You are also required to wear a lifejacket

• Visit Ek’Balam. One of my favorite ruins (and I have been to a lot!). They are just stunning, and surrounded by lush vegetation and big tall trees. You can climb the main pyramid (which you cannot do in many other ruins) and the view from up there is beautiful. There are also several pyramids which are not maintained so still literally covered with plants (like they were when they were discovered) and I found them very fascinating

  • Cenote X’Canche. Oh, and there is a cenote next door! that you can bike to! What more can you ask for?

• Izamal. When driving to Merida don’t miss passing by Izamal, the yellow city, to walk around its yellow streets, visit the monastery, walk up the ruins in the middle of town (Kinich-Kakmo), go to the Centro Cultural y Artesanal, and eat at Kinich.

Where to eat/drink? So many options! here are some of our favorites:

• El Meson del Marques. Typical Yucatecan fair in a lovely courtyard. We loved the Sikil Pak here (a pumpkin seed dip) as well as the Pastel de Cazon (a tortilla “cake” filled with shark). Be sure to go to the rooftop of the hotel to admire the view of the church from up there

• Yerbabuena del Sisal. Yummy Mexican breakfast in a pretty garden (they also serve lunch)

• El Atrio del Mayab. Typical tourist trap, but with actually good food! I had the best Margarita Maya (with chaya which is a local spinach and bitter orange)

• La Palapita de los Tamales. Yucatecan tamales are different than the more typical tamales you find outside of the peninsula so they are worth a try. Not out of this world but yummy and cute place

• Yakunaj Cocina Mexicana. excellent Mexican breakfast, we had really good Molletes

• Idilio Folklore Cervecero. It’s a gallery/museum/bar/restaurant. Loved the interesting gallery and the place is just cute and located in a big peaceful courtyard. They have good local beer and cocktails, and although we didn’t eat here it all looked really good

• Kinich in Izamal. Yucatecan fair at its finest

• In general, be sure to at some point eat Longaniza de Valladolid (a local chorizo) as well as Marquesitas (rolled waffles filled with cheese + something sweat – we like it with cajeta), you will find them *all* over Yucatan, mostly out of little street cars in city centers and parks 

Ruta Pucc

Maya ruins off the touristy route, surrounded by dense jungle. Unfortunately, when we went many of the ruins were all closed due to COVID.

How long?  Two nights

Where to stay?  We stayed at Cabanas Pajaro Azul and we loved the setting where the cabins are, surrounded by lush vegetation. The owners are lovely and very kind. The inside of the cabins could use some love. You can stay in a traditionally Maya hut, and there is a big nice pool.

What do do?

• Ruins. The three ruins we really wanted to go (but were closed) are: Labna, Sayil, and Xlapak. Mayapan is also close by but I believe less impressive

• Uxmal is farther away but impressive and ranked among the top Maya archeological sites. Must visit

• Choco-Story. Right outside Uxmal this is a lovely museum. Learn about chocolate while walking through a beautiful garden

• Grutas de Calcehtok. Impressive cave system. There are also the Grutas de Loltun, but those were closed as well when we were there

Where to eat? Truthfully we didn’t eat anywhere we would highly recommend while here, but here are a couple of ok options: El Principe Tutul-Xio in Mani and El Mirador de Ticul

Merida

The capital of the Yucatan state, the cultural center of the peninsula, Merida is a gastronomic wonder and works as a great base to many beautiful spots nearby.

How long?  At least 3 nights

Where to stay? There are so many cute airbnbs in town! Most houses in Merida are big colonial places with beautiful courtyards, indoor pools, and high ceilings. The city is pretty walkable and we always felt safe even late at night, just try to stay somewhere within a couple miles of the city center so you can easily move around

What do do?

• Stroll Paseo Montejo. In the early 1900s Merida was the richest city in Mexico due to the Henequen industry boom (called the green gold) and the city had the largest concentration of rich people in Latin America. They all lived in this wide long avenue, lined with beautiful trees and massive houses. It is a great place to take a stroll and go into the cute stores

• See one of the original houses of that era by visiting Quinta Montes Molina

• Dine at Parque Santa Lucia. Cute plaza with many restaurants and, prior to covid times, live music and events every Thursday night

• Take a cooking class. Yucatecan food is a world on its own and worth learning about its traditional cooking techniques and ingredients. There are many options, but we decided to do an Airbnb class with Coco and loved it

• Outside of Merida but very much worth the trip:

  • Admire the many cenotes around Cuzama. The most incredible are the Three Cenotes de Cuzama, but we also went to Santa Barbara and they are worth combining (see the entire trip towards the middle of these insta stories)

  • Go to the beach of Progreso.Long and wide beach about 30min from Merida. It’s not the Caribbean, but it’s a nice break from the city. Beautiful sunsets from the pier

• Places we wanted to go but couldn’t because they were closed (basically all museums): Casa de Montejo, Museo Fernando Garcia Ponce-Macay, Museo de la Cuidad, Palacio de Gobierno, Centro Cultural Olimpo, Museo de Arte Popular de Yucatan, Gran Museo del Mundo Maya, Palacio Canton

Where to eat/drink?

• Marquesitas, marquesitas, marquesitas. Merida is the birth place of this super yummy dessert so they are *everywhere*. Basically a very crispy rolled waffle filled traditionally only with edam cheese, but now filled with countless things. Don’t miss trying a cheese + cajeta one, our favorite by far. You find little carts selling them all over the city, but our fav place was here

• Tarbush. There is a big Lebanese community in the city which means good Lebanese food. We loved this place and everything we had there, super homey

• Wayan’e. Best tacos in town

• Ku’uk. Fancy place for a nice dinner, excellent drinks and very original Yucatecan food (the duck pibil was excellent)

• Oliva Enoteca. Decent Italian if you are craving it. We thought it was a bit too expensive for what you get

• Pan & Koffee. Best bakery in town and very cute

• Rosa Sur 32. Best spot in Parque Santa Lucia

• Apoala. A good second option after Rosa Sur 32 in Parque Santa Lucia

• El Apapacho. If you are tired of Yucatecan food but still want Mexican, this is the place. Their moles are excellent and the garden is cute

• La Posheria. We loved running into this cute little store/bar specializing in Pox, a liquor made from corn, sugar cane, and wheat

• Maiz, Canela, y Cilantro. For a homey breakfast/brunch, head here

• La Chaya Maya. The most touristy place in town but it’s an experience if you are looking for Yucatecan food

• Manifesto. Legit coffee, best in town by far 

• Picheta. Rooftop bar on the main plaza. Worth for the sunset and the cocktails, food was meh

• Flamante Burgers. Excellent burger spot! They have yuca fries – YUM

• El Barrio. Yummy breakfast

• La Negrita. Excellent live music (salsa!) daily in a cute courtyard

• Dzalbay. Live jazz music on a pretty rooftop, must go

• Pola Gelato Shop. Seriously good ice cream and very original flavors, I became obsessed with their cardamom and hava flavors

• Pueblo Pibil. About a 25min drive from Merida, the restaurant is definitely an experience. They have several set menus (as well as a la cart) and specialize in traditional Yucatecan cooking techniques

• IXI’IM. About a 45min drive from Merida but totally worth it for a special occasion. Named the most beautiful restaurant in the world for good reason. The food and service is excellent, and the grounds the restaurant is in (a hotel/spa) is an old Hacienda and the trees and gardens are out of this world. Try getting there when there is still light to see it all

• Places we wanted to go but didn’t get a chance: Marmalade, Chil-a-kil, Manjar Blanco, Taqueria de la Union, La Terraza Amarilla

Celestun

*Very* sleepy beach town. Known for its many many flamingos, but there are also impressive mangrove forests. Perfect place to just relax.

How long?  Two nights

Where to stay? We loved Celestun Vida, they have three well-equipped rooms right next to the beach. They have hammocks, beach chairs, and most importantly, kayaks and paddle boards!

What do do?

• Flamingos! Most people go from Merida specifically to do the boat tour to see flamingos, and this is very likely worth doing (we choose to do a kayak tour instead). Go to the bridge to take a boat

• Go kayaking through mangroves. We love kayaking and do it everywhere we can. When I read there was a kayak tour through mangroves I knew I had to do it. It’s bright and early (7am) but totally worth it and super peaceful. Besides the beauty a of the mangrove there are also many birds to admire, and during the right season (usually January through March) you will also see flamingos flying above you. We went with Mangroves of Dzitinun company and Jose, the tour guide, was very knowledgable. We not only learned a ton about mangroves but also about the reforestation project locally.

• BEACH. Just chill by the beach :), there are many beautiful shells to admire and it’s perfect for running in the early morning or late afternoon. Virtually endless and very empty (at least when we went in January). If you stay at Celeste Vida take out the paddle boards early morning

Where to eat?

• We actually took food with us (the hotel had a good kitchenette and also a big shared kitchen) so didn’t have dinner anywhere because we knew the options would be limited in town (and they close super early).

Campeche

Its walled city center is a colorful beauty with lots of trees and nature around (in contrast to Merida) and the history of the city is super interesting. Once a Maya trading village the Spaniards tried to conquer it without success once but eventually did in 1540. Campeche became the most important port in Yucatan, and subsequently very vulnerable to pirate attacks. There were so many that eventually they decided to build a wall around the city center with several bulwarks. Only a portion of the wall still stands, but you can climb and walk a portion of it

How long?  Two nights

Where to stay? We stayed in an airbnb a bit outside of the city center and would recommend staying in the center if possible.

What do do?

• Go to all the still standing bulwarks, specially the Baluarte de San Juan, which you can climb and walk on the wall. The Baluarte de Santiago is now a very small but cute botanic garden

• Visit the Centro Cultural Casa 6 to see how the rich lived during the pre-revolutionary era

• Go for a run in El Malecon, right next to the water

• Take a day to visit Edzna, a set of impressive ruins about an hour from Campeche.

• Go to the Museo El Palacioto learn about the history of Campeche, and be sure to go to the balcony for a beautiful view of the main Cathedral

• If you have an extra day go to Isla Aguada. Not a place to detour for, but interesting nonetheless. It’s a large fishing village and you can take a tour to see dolphins and an island with lots of birds.

• Eat the famous bread of Pomuch. If you are driving to/from Merida, have the time, and are craving bread, Pomuch is known for its Pan de Pichon, a soft bread filled with cheese, ham and jalapeno. They also have nice sweet breads. We liked El Pan de Pomuch

• Places we wanted to go but couldn’t because they were closed: Museo de la Arquitectura Maya, Bazar Artesanal, Museo Arqueologico de Campeche

Where to eat? Culinarily Campeche is far from impressive in comparison to Yucatan state, but it has its gems

• La Pigua. Best food we ate in Campeche 

• Parador Gastronomico de Cocteleros. For a good seafood lunch right next to the ocean head here

• El Pastor Suizo. Good tacos de pastor and chicharron de queso

• Chocol-Ha. Super cute place to have a chocolate tamal and a spicy hot chocolate

• La Maria Cocina Peninsular. Yummy homemade food. Make reservations for the patio

Bacalar

A huge sweet-water lake of infinite shades of blue fed by underground rivers. Really magical

How long?  Two nights

Where to stay? Plenty of options around the lake, we stayed at  Rancho Encantado once and had a good time. However, please note that the north part of the lagoon (where that hotel is located) is still recuperating from heavy rains and the colors are not as impressive. So, I’d recommend staying on the south side of the lagoon. We usually stay in aibnbs with direct access to water. Just make sure that wherever you stay they have a dock you can chill at (preferably with hammocks) and have kayaks/paddles you can take out. But there are some beautiful hotels by the water (like Habitas) and if you can afford them, go!

What do do?

• Just chill by the lake and swim, please

• Take a sailboat tour with Bacalar Sailing or Veleando Ando. Mojitos and guac while chilling on crystalline waters is unbeatable

• Go on an early morning kayak/paddle (or any time of day)

• If you have time go to Cenote Azul. As far as cenotes go this one is not super impressive, but it is huge!

Where to eat?

• Waah Cocina de Origen. Very good Mexican in a super cute hotel. Excellent mezcal-based cocktails as well. You can also go and use their good looking pool

• Macario. Excellent food, cocktails, and vibe

• La Playita. Cute spot with an impressive tree. Worth going just to see the magnitude of it. Food is decent

• Nixtamal. Also very cute, usually has live music during the weekend

• Habitas Bacalar. We ate breakfast and lunch here and both were very good. It is a beautiful hotel but you can spend the day there for a minimum $ (at time of writing it was $70 pp). They have paddles and kayaks you can use as well (transparent!). Gorgeous

THAT IS IT! If you actually went to all these places in a single roadtrip, congratulations! that is amazing. Now head to Tulum for a few days

For a bonus location very close to Cancun and decidedly not off the beaten path, I present to you Isla Mujeres:

Isla Mujeres

Impressive beach, easy to get around island without a car, good food. Touristyyyy

How long?  Two nights

Where to stay?  The best beach is Playa Norte so staying around there makes sense. We stayed on the opposite end, and it was still nice. It’s a very walkable island

What do do?

• Chill in Playa Norte

• Go for a run in el Malecon and beyond

• Rent a golf car and drive around the island to visit all the noteworthy places:

  • Punta Sur

• Tortugranja

• We tried going to the Hotel Garrafon de Castilla to snorkel but it was closed. We ended up at Capital Dulche, a beach club with kayaks and good food

Where to eat?

• Chaya y Cacao. healthy breakfast spot

• Cafe Mogagua. Mexican breakfast spot

• Javi’s Cantina. Good dinner spot with excellent live music

• Olivia. Very good mediterranean

• Los Tacos de Humo. Yummy tacos

Have a blast in beautiful YUCATAN! Please reach out with any questions. And let me know if I missed some gems, I am certain there are many many more

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After almost a decade of living in this beauty of a place we have decided to leave. What better time to write a post about Seattle than now?

When I think of Seattle I think of water and nature. All around. Everywhere you look. This city nested between lakes and the ocean is a real beauty and it’s worth a visit. Specifically, in the summer, when the sun shines 12+ hr a day, the weather is warm enough to make you want to jump in the almost-never-warm-enough waters, and everyone is out and about.

Growing up in Venezuela the weather was never something we paid attention to, a topic almost never discussed in any circumstance. I was born and raised in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and there, although it’s hard to believe, the temperature is around 75F every single day of the year. You never have to think too hard about what you are going to wear, or look at your weather app, you just know it’s going to be sunny and pleasant. Of course it rains, but it’s fast and furious, and also warm, so no one cares. In fact, it’s lovely and refreshing.

Not surprisingly, I never truly realized or really appreciated this magical aspect of my city until I left it. First to Texas, where the summer heat and humidity, and the intense and unpredictable nature of the weather was utterly shocking. Then to Seattle, where I first spent a summer thinking I had found paradise and then the winter came along and slapped me in the face. Never in my life have I spent more minutes of the day talking about the weather than in Seattle. Seattleites are absolutely and utterly obsessed with the weather. And who can blame them? It really does rain a lot. But more than that, the darkness is what gets to me. During the winter you wake up and it’s dark, you finish work and it’s dark. So much so that “happy lights” are a thing here, something I didn’t even know existed until a coworker who apparently recognized early signs of depression in me recommended I get one during my early years in Seattle. You know you leave in a place with shit weather when you need a light to make you happy. But I digress…

So, for 9 long months, we wait for the summer, because indeed they are glorious, and because having spent that long hiding under covers you better believe we are going to squeeze the shit out the three months of sunshine we get. The moment summer appears to have arrived (which if we are being honest with ourselves we know it’s a fluke and it hasn’t yet but still) we put shorts on and go outside without a rain jacket. Forget about the fact that it’s only 60F.

No, but really, summers are glorious and this city is a beauty, and you must visit if you haven’t. That rain we all talk about so much? that is also the reason the city is so lush, to a startling degree. The abundance of trees  is astonishing, but also their size – how tall and big they are! Everywhere you look you will see green, different shades of green, including an almost fluorescent green that has amazed me for the entire decade I have been here. If you are plant/flower person (here here) do yourself a favor and come to the very aptly named Evergreen State. 

And then there are the mountains, the many mountain ranges and volcanos souring through the clouds. There are infinite hiking opportunities in the summer that then turn into skiing runs in the winter. And we can’t forget about Mt. Rainier, the majestic volcano visible from all parts of the city, which after all these years still takes my breath away every time I see it.

In summary, come to Seattle, you won’t be disappointed. Even this year, there’s still time to catch the sun up here and the fall in the city is a beauty. I know getting on a plane is not looking very appealing right now, but maybe a roadtrip could work. Many of the things I recommend below are still open, certainly most of the outside ones :). And if not in 2020, save these tips and come some other time!

Below are the top 20 things to do when you come visit!

1. Go kayaking in Lake Union

   • Right in the middle of the city you will find a calm lake with gorgeous views of the Seattle skyline. Rent a kayak or paddle from Northwest Outdoor Center, admire the views, and check out all the floating houses! If you are not into kayaking you can also rent a boat to take around the lake, or even go around it in a hot tub boat! 

2. Check out the best view of the water and the city from the highest building in Seattle, the Columbia Tower

   • The Sky View Observatory at the Columbia Tower has by far the best view of the city, and much better than the Space needle, in fact you can see the Space Needle from it. Go on a clear day so you can see Mt. Rainier and many other mountains. Another place to consider going for views is Smith Tower, which was the highest building 100 years ago :), they have a cute tour of the building and a nice rooftop with a bar. Kerry Park also has fantastic views of the city.

3. Watch the sunset from Golden Gardens beach and check out the Ballard Locks on your way there

   • Golden gardens is my favorite beach in Seattle. It’s just so pretty, surrounded by greenery and with views of the mountains. Make a fire, lay in the sand, and watch the sunset. But before you head there stop at the Ballard Locks, a mini Panama canal with a salmon lather, beautiful gardens, and live music on the weekends

4. Admire glass art at the Chihuly Garden & Glass Museum and see the Space Needle (from below)

   • Dale Chihuly is a world renounce artist from Tacoma Washington. His work is included in more than 200 museum collections worldwide, and this one in his home state is truly magnificent. It’s located right next to the space needle, which you can see from the gardens of the museum in between glass sculptures. In my opinion going up the Space Needle is not worth it, the views are a million times better from the highest building in Seattle (point above!) but it is the touristy thing to do :). You can also visit Chihuly’s home town museum in Tacoma, where you can watch glassmaking live at the studio.

5. Have a picnic in Gas Works Park, check out the Fremont Troll, and then go for a beer in Fremont Brewery

   • Gasworks is a special park as it’s located on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant and contains remnants of it. But, more importantly, it has a beautiful view of the city! It’s on the north shore of Lake Union so you will see it when you are kayaking on the lake. Grab a picnic basket and enjoy the sun, then walk to the cool and weird Fremont Troll, and finish off at the Fremont Brewery for a summer ale.

6. Drink coffee, lots of it! You are in Seattle, we are coffee snobs. There are infinite options, such as Elm, La Marzocco, Vivace, Storyville, Fiore, Bauhaus, Victrola, Vita. Even the Starbucks Reserve is worth a stop. 

7. Go for a run in Discovery Park (my fav) or Sculpture Park

   • I really love Discovery park. It’s far enough to feel wild and never really be crowded, but close enough to get to it easily.  The views of the Puget Sound are incredible, but my favorite part is the loop trail, perfect for running and truly stunning. Three miles of peace and quiet, with huge beautiful trees all around. I have always done it clockwise but either direction will be ok as there is minimum elevation gain. If you are not into running you can always just walk the loop. There is also a pretty lighthouse by the beach, and you can do that trail also as a loop, although it has a lot more ups and downs. If you happen to be in Seattle in July during Seafair, don’t miss attending the Indian Powwow at Discovery Park. It’s a beautiful and moving tradition that brings Native Americans of all tribes and cultures together to celebrate, and showcases traditional Indian cooking, jewelry-making, music, and especially dancing.

   • Sculpture Park is also lovely, with scattered sculptures all over it and a stunning view of the water. It’s totally flat and I recommend running it all the way to Elliot Bay Park (1.5miles one way). You can also bike it, or just walk to a spot you like and have a picnic. While you are in Sculpture park don’t miss going into the Neukom Vivarium, and exposition of a 60-foot Western hemlock (a big tree :)) that fell outside of Seattle in 1996, acting as a nurse log within a greenhouse.

8. Eat at Shiro’s

   • There is plenty of good food in Seattle and you can find many other recommendations at the end of this post. BUT, Shiro’s is truly unique and a must-go if you are into sushi. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth every penny. The fish is so fresh and tender it literally melts in your mouth. It has changed my expectations and enjoyment of sushi forever. You must sit at the sushi bar and order Omakase (leave it up to the chef!), it’s the only way to go. Make sure you get there when they open (5pm) since the sushi bar has limited seating and it’s always packed. The master sushi chef Shiro Kashiba opened the restaurant back in 1994 but it’s no longer owned by him. We have been going for years and quality hasn’t dropped at all since he moved on. The chef did open a new restaurant, Sushi Kashiba, just a few blocks away, and although excellent as well we found it a bit too pretentious, so we stick with Shiro’s. 

9. Admire (and buy) all the fresh fruits, veggies, seafood, and flowers at the Ballards Farmers Market There are plenty of farmer markets in Seattle throughout the Summer, but the best imo is the Ballards Farmers Market and it’s open all year long! Head there on Sunday morning, stroll around the market, and grab something to eat.

10. Stroll around the Pike Place Market

    • Quintessential Seattle, can’t visit Seattle and not go to the market. See salmon being thrown around, buy flowers and pasta, admire art, sample chocolates and jams. Eat a smoked salmon chowder at Pike Place Chowder or a grilled cheese at Beecher’s or a piroshki at Piroshky Piroshky, and finish it with a passion fruit yogurt from Ellenos. Don’t forget to pay a visit to the disgusting Gum Wall (yup, literally a wall covered in gum) and the newer part to the market with amazing views of Mt. Rainier

11. Check out the Museum of History & Industry and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center

    • There are plenty of museums in Seattle, but these two are my favorites. Go to the Museum of History & Industry if you want to learn about the area’s history in a fun and interesting way. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center (free) is a small but super informative museum about the foundation’s work.

12. Take a sunset sailboat around the Puget Sound to see the city from the water

    • I would have never done this weren’t for the fact that friends were visiting and we wanted to do something special with them. But wow, we loved it and highly recommend it. Get on a gorgeous sailboat, take a bottle of wine and some snacks, and watch the sunset over the city skyline. It’s truly magical. We booked with Sailing Seattle.

13. Visit the Washington Park ArboretumBy now you know I am into trees and flowers and anything green so no surprise I am recommending a place that has all of it and more. This huge arboretum is a worth a stroll. It’s beautiful throughout the year, but really magical in the fall. 

14. Go to a live music show and eat a Seattle Dog afterwards You are in Seattle after all, a city known for its music scene and birthing fantastic musicians and bands such as Kurt Cobain, Soundgarden, Hendrix, Foo Fighters, and many others. Live music is still big in the city and there are plenty of cool venues to go enjoy it at, including The Crocodile,  Tractor Tavern, Nectar Lounge (great for reggae), Chop Suey, Sunset Tavern, and Neumos. Jazz clubs are also pretty popular and the usual bands are superb, check out The Triple Door and Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley. After enjoying the show don’t forget to eat a Seattle Dog, a hot dog with a great sausage (I like the Hot Link) with cream cheese and sautéed onions, it’s a Seattle staple and you can find them everywhere there is night activity. My favorite is Monster Dogs in Capitol Hill.

15. Spend a few hours at the Central Seattle Public Library

    • This 11-story glass and steel building in downtown Seattle is a work of art and worth spending a few hours in just admiring the architecture, and of course, some books!

16. Go to a summer festival

    • Every single weekend during (a regular) summer there will be a festival (or multiple) going on in the city. Go to whichever is happening when you are around. Some of our favorites are Fremont Solstice Parade (naked painted cyclists! pic at the top), Bite of Seattle, Seafair, Bumbershoot, International Beer Fest, and Pride. There are many others outside the summer that are fantastic too, such as the Ballard Jazz Festival and Oktoberfest

17. Take the West Seattle water taxi and bike to Alki beach

    • What is not to love about a water taxi? Take it to West Seattle while admiring the view of the city, and then grab a JUMP bike on the other end (just used your Uber app to find them), or just walk, to Alki Beach, where you can spend an entire afternoon sunbathing or playing beach volleyball. Then grab dinner, coffee, or desert at any of the great restaurants on West Seattle, here are some recommended by good friends who live in that area: Buddha Ruska, Marination Mai Kai, Sound & Fog Coffee, Raccolto, Il Nido, Pizza Credo, Mashiko, La Rustica, Medzo Gelato, Heartbeet Cafe, Youngstown Coffee

18. Grab a pint at one of the many excellent breweries around town

    • As in most cities around the country microbreweries are a thing in Seattle. There are so many good ones! Some options are Holy Mountain, Urban Family, Figure Head, Rooftop, Stoup, Pike Brewing Company. If you are feeling more adventurous you can even go around town drinking beer in a cycle saloon

19. Stroll around the University of Washington Campus

    • Visiting the library at the UW campus is like entering a Harry Potter movie. It’s a gorgeous campus. The neighborhood around the campus is pretty cute too and they have a farmers market on Saturday. In the spring, the cherry blossoms on campus give a magical show for about 2 weeks.

OK. There is so much more, but that is my top 20! Now, Washington state is a mind-blowing place and worth a post just for itself, but this is not it. However, I didn’t want to leave out at least a few place to make sure you visit if you are coming all the way here.

• Don’t miss the National Parks. There are three, all incredible. Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Park. If I had to choose only one to visit I would probably go to Mt. Rainier, but Olympic National Park is like 10 parks in one and visiting the Hoh Rainforest there is like entering a fairy tail, and the blue Diablo Lake is out of this world in the North Cascades. So honestly, make it a month and go to all. State Parks are also fantastic!

• Go Hiking. So many options! You can find enormous mountains 30 minutes away from Seattle. You can go hiking in any of the above national parks, but also across the state. This is a good place to find the perfect hike for you: https://www.wta.org/

• Visit the San Juan Islands. Incredible islands, you can do a ton of stuff in them, like kayak to see orcas or kayak & camp from island to island.

• Go to a concert at The Gorge Amphitheater. Incredible location for any concern! If you are into music festivals Sasquatch is a must-go

• Go to the Boeing Factory. Visit the word’s largest building (by volume) and see how planes are made

• Drink great wine in the wineries of Eastern Washington. We are fans of Zillah, a sleepy little town with fantastic down to earth wineries owned by really fun people, but Lake Chelan or Walla Walla are also good choices. For a unique experience near Zillah stay at a cute Teepee at Cherry Wood B&B. This is also a great part of the state to scape when there is non stop rain in Seattle.

• Admire infinite rows of tulips at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Other resources on Seattle

• On point recommendations from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/travel/what-to-do-in-seattle.html

• For all events, festivals, concerts around Seattle: https://www.thestranger.com/events/

• Other ideas: https://davidspicks.wordpress.com/

• Eater: https://seattle.eater.com

Here are some of our favorite restaurants and bars, in no particular order:

• Manolin. New American/Seafood. Small plates. Go with people and order everything on the menu, including cocktails!

• Señor Moose. Authentic Mexican, they serve typical food from all over Mexico and it’s best for brunch

• Carta de Oaxaca. Authentic Mexican food from Oaxaca, best for dinner

• Tacos Chukis. Good tacos.

• Asadero. Mexican steakhouse

• Barnacle. If you are into bitter cocktails don’t miss this place. You can combine with dinner at the below spot

• The Walrus & The Carpenter. Seafood

• Taylor Shellfish. Down to earth seafood

• Essex. Excellent cocktails, burger, and wood oven veggies

• Damn the Weather. New American

• Marrakesh. Moroccan, go on Saturday night for the whole experience with belly dancers

• Annapurna. Nepalese

• Monsoon. Vietnamese (multiple locations)

• Stateside. Vietnamese

• Pestle Rock. Authentic Northern Thai, our go to for consistent food at amazing value

• Thai Tom. Popular and small Thai place

• Kin Len Thai Bites. Thai. Small plates, good cocktails

• Song Phang Kong. Authentic Thai/Cambodian

• Lionhead. Fancy Sichuanese 

• Seven Stars Pepper Szechwan Restaurant. Sichuanese 

• Rupee bar. Sri Lankan

• Revel . Korean (multiple locations)

• Kedai Makan. Malaysian

• Nue. Street food from around the world

• Danbo. Ramen

• Yoroshiku. Ramen and other yummy Japanese things

• Maneki. Japanese

• Kaname Izakaya and Shochu Bar. Japanese (Izakaya/small plates)

• Harbor City. Favorite Dim Sum spot

• Jade Garden. Dim Sum

• Serious Pie. Best pizza in town (multiple locations)

• Delancey. Very good pizza as well

• Il Corvo. Probably the best pasta in town, only open for lunch and during the week

• Spinasse. Fancy Italian

• The Pink Door. Italian, with a beautiful view of the market and sound

• Machiavelli. Classic Italian

• Columbia City Bakery. Amazing bread 

• Mkt. American

• Homer. Mediterranean

• Navy Strength. Fun tiki bar

• No Anchor.  American

• Salt & Straw. Excellent ice cream, very original flavors (multiple locations)

• Molly Moons.  A Seattle ice cream staple (multiple locations)

• Homegrown. Legit sandwhich spot (multiple locations)

• Mamnoon. Middle Eastern

• There are like 1,000 more options… the scene changes all the time, so check out Eater for the latest. There is also a Seattle Restaurant Week

Have you been to Seattle? Am I missing things on the list? Please send over my way!

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I grew up in Venezuela hearing a standard phrase about Argentinians: “Se creen la ultima Pepsicola del desierto”/”They think they are the last Pepsi in the desert”, meaning that they think they are the best, particularly better than all other Latin American countries. (side note: I don’t like soda, and even if I did if I was in the desert and thirsty I think I’d want water, not pepsi, but I digress… )

So my full expectation coming to Buenos Aires was that Argentinians were going to be full of themselves. But I was wrong. One of the things I enjoyed the most in the 6 weeks we spend there was the people, how friendly, and open, and loud they are. I love it. I feel at home, comfortable in every way, at least once a day I was pleasantly surprised by a specific interaction. And keep in mind this is after *a lot* of Venezuelan immigrants have come running to this country for shelter, and when mass migrations like that happen it is common for the local population to be bitter at them, to resent them, specially if the receiving country is in an economic recession, like Argentina is experiencing today. But that is not the case here, I felt super welcomed everywhere I went. I am sure there is some truth to the saying, but none that we could see was ingrained in the culture itself, at least at the end of 2019.

Here are a few things that surprised us about Argentina and Argentinians:

• The best food in Argentina is Italian, hands down. Better than Argentinian food itself (which we think is actually better in Mexico!)

• It’s common to see people put ice on their wine… shocking, I know… in a country with some of the best wines in the world and they put ice on it?! apparently it’s a custom from way back, when the wine was not that good.

• Many Argentinians like their meat well done! Again, shocking to me, they are known as having some of the best meat in the world and most people eat it overcooked, what they called “al punto” (to the point, equivalent to well done). Thankfully, you can also ask for it jugosa (juicy, equivalent to medium). 

• Argentinians carry “mate” everywhere they go, specially outside Buenos Aires, but also there. They carry their hot water, gourd, and straw (called bombilla) walking down the street, hiking in the mountains, riding the subway, etc. And there are many rules and customs attached to drinking mate. 

• Many people think Tango was born in the high society, but it was actually the opposite. Tango originated in the impoverished port area of Rio de la Plata (border between Argentina and Uruguay) around the 1880s, and was frequently practiced in brothels before becoming popular and spreading throughout the country 

• Coffee is bad in most places. We found good coffee in Palermo, but that was about it.

To note: take cash with you! We never take cash anywhere we go as we just take money out of ATMs (our bank has good exchange rates). But in Argentina, at least when we visited (at the end of 2019), the max amount of money you could take out of an ATM each time was pretty minimal and the fee charged to any non-Argentinian card was extremely high (basically we could only take out $60 and had to pay a fee of $10). So, take cash and exchange there.

OK, now to the meat of this.

The city is big and spread out, with distinct and contained neighborhoods. We stayed in two *very* different parts of town and highly recommend you do this too, that way you get to explore two completely different neighborhoods who have lots to offer!

We stayed in San Telmo and Palermo. There is sort of a rivalry between the two. San Telmo, as my good friend Vero would say, is more “rock and roll”, meaning older, rougher, less taken care of, but it has a really special charm. This is where you go to browse endless stores of antiques, see locals dance Tango in the middle of the plaza, and eat good meat in 100-year old parrilla restaurants. Palermo is hipper, cooler, newer, and greener. This is where you go if you want to stroll around beautiful green parks, visit nice museums, and have a nice cocktail in a posh bar. Both are charming in their own way.

San Telmo

Summary

Where to stay 

We stayed in a beautiful Airbnb right next to the San Telmo market, called Casa Bolivar, and really liked the central location (although note that it is also noisy)

What to do in San Telmo

• Mercado de San Telmo. Stroll around this pretty market to browse antiques and grab a choripan or empanada while you are at it

• Feria de San Telmo. Busy and pretty Sunday market

• Pasaje de la Defensa. Tenement house turned pretty market

• Parque Lezama. Beautiful park

• Milonga in Plaza Dorrego. Fun outdoors Milonga on Sunday night.

• Maldita Milonga Show. Tango class, live music, and milonga. What else can you ask for? Must do on Wednesday night.

What to do near San Telmo

• La Boca. Lively, artsy, and *very* colorful neighborhood, a must

• Plaza de Mayo. The center of the government and a beautiful plaza

• La Bomba del Tiempo in Centro Cultural Konnex. Every Monday night dance to the beat of drums on this amazing percussion show

• Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur. We unfortunately didn’t make it to this park, but it is super close to San Telmo and right next to the water. Seems like a good place for a run

What to eat

• Cafe San Juan (the one on Chile Street ). Excellent international cuisine in a cool atmosphere (leaning towards Italian)

• Il matterello (the one on Martin Rodriguez Street). Really good Italian, make sure you go to the original location

• Un, dos, crepes. Sweet and savory crepes in the market

• La choripaneria. Typical chorizo sandwich in the market

• Desnivel. Best meat place we went to in San Telmo

• Hierbabuena. For when you are done with meat, cute place and healthy food, and mostly vegetarian

• Caseros. Nice place and tasty dishes

• Que Churro. Excellent dulce de leche filled churros

Details

Staying in San Telmo for at least a couple nights is worth it. Apartments in this part of town are old and charming, with very high ceilings and big balconies.

The San Telmo market and the Plaza Dorrego are the natural centers of activity, there are lots of stores, restaurants, and bars around this area, so find a place to stay around there. The neighborhood comes alive on Sundays with the Feria de San Telmo, so if you can choose, make sure you are there that day.

San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires and was once the richest in the city. High society families lived in big and beautiful mansions  until a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s sent them to the suburbs in search for higher ground away from the mosquito infected waters. Those mansions then became tenement houses as they were divided up and rented to immigrants. Today most remain the same way, divided up into apartments, but some others, like the Pasaje de la Defensa, have also been converted into pretty markets and are well worth checking out.

Before getting to Buenos Aires we were really curious about Tango but didn’t really want to go to a touristy show. Well, turns out San Telmo is a great place to experience tango as a local. Milongas, basically gatherings for locals to dance Tango, happen all around town but not usually outdoors. But on Sunday night there is one in Plaza Dorrego and it is wonderful. It starts around 9pm and goes until around midnight, and includes an excellent show by professional dancers. Another super worthy Milonga is the Maldita Milonga live show on Wednesday nights, which also includes a short Tango class starting at 9pm (if you are interested), great live music, and a dance show by professionals (be sure to make reservations or get there by 9pm).

One area of slight disappointment in San Telmo was coffee and food. We tried very hard to find a good coffee place, and couldn’t. Palermo has all of them. The food is also not up to par with Palermo’s many top notch options, but there are a couple of restaurants worth the trip even if you are not staying there: Cafe San Juan on Chile Street, and Il Matterello in Martin Rodriguez.

Although not in San Telmo don’t miss going to La Boca neighborhood while you are there since it is close by.  La Boca is a *very* colorful and lively place, full of music and people, specially on Sundays. Walk el Caminito, go to Fundacion Proa for some art and views, and visit  Usina del Arte for live music in a beautiful location.

Plaza de Mayo, the oldest in the city, is where lots of government buildings are at, and also many bright Jacarandas. It is big and pretty and worth the stroll

Palermo

I could live here, without a doubt. Beautiful big trees dot most streets in Palermo, cute restaurants and cafes sit under their shade, street art is all over the place, and beautiful crafts are sold in street markets. What is not to love?

Summary

Where to Stay

Palermo is a big neighborhood, split into many sub-neighborhoods. The trendiest part is called Palermo Soho, where most of the stores, restaurants, and cafes are at. We stayed right next to the Parks, near the Botanical Garden and right next to Cafe Evita, and really liked the atmosphere and the ability to go for a quick morning jog in the beautiful parks

What to do in Palermo

• All the parks :). I think my favorite was the Jardin Botanico Carlos Thays, but Parque 3 de Febrero is also a must as it is really a lot of parks in one, with a pretty lake, a Rosedal (with so many roses!), a Japanese Garden, and an Ecoparque (with peacocks and patagonian maras just walking around). 3 de Febrero is perfect for a morning run

• Plaza Serrano. The center of activity, very busy plaza specially on weekends, with craft markets and clothing boutiques and pop ups all around

• Museum of Latin America Art (MALBA). Beautiful and (at least when we went) interactive museum

• The Brothers Club. Superb jazz on a nightly basis

• Museo Fotografico Simik. Also for jazz, but in a restaurant/museum filled with old photographic equipment, it’s cool!

• Street Art. Admire it, it’s everywhere! For something more formal go on a tour, there are several options. If you want to get off the beaten path and see some non-touristy neighborhoods with cool street art from artists from around the world, check out BA Street Art

• Microteatro. Short theater shows (in Spanish). Very informal, fun, and funny, and the bar in it (Bar 15) also has a great atmosphere and good cocktails (you can go to the bar and not go to a show)

What to do near Palermo

• Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA. A bit out of the way but a must see museum about the last civil-military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). The museum is located in the same place where the biggest clandestine center of detention, torture and extermination was during the dictatorship

  • Ateneo Grand Splendid. Gorgeous theater turned bookstore, must visit!

  • Recoleta Cemetery and Neighborhood. Impressive and interesting cemetery. It’s worth doing this with a tour since there are quite a bit of interesting people buried here and the stories are worth hearing about. There is a free one by the cemetery itself, although crowded. We went on a walking tour of many parts of the city (which included the cemetery). Even if you decide not to go to the cemetery, go walk around the Recoleta neighborhood and admire how green it is!

What to eat

• Félix Felicis & Co. Best coffee we had in Argentina

• Birkin. Good coffee and yummy breakfasts

• Proper. One of the best meals we had, super cool and trendy spot too.  Innovative small plates to share, their wood-oven is central to every dish. Perfect for a date night (gets busy and doesn’t take reservations so get there early)

• Sarkis. Superb Armenian/Lebanese food, home cooking, big but very popular place so arrive early. Don’t miss the baklava

• Gran Dabbang. Excellent and original asian fusion

• Cafe Museo Evita. The museum is absolutely not worth it, but the cafe is pretty and outdoors

• El Cuartito. Argentinian pizza, served in this spot since 1934! thick, crunchy, and cheesy

• Rapanui. Yummy ice cream in a pretty garden

• Parrilla Tour. Interesting meat-focused tour with very knowledgeable guides. Sort of basic but if you don’t know much about Argentina we recommend you do this, and very early on in your trip. If you don’t do it, you should still try the choripan at Parrilla la Cañita (special because the sausage is made with beef, not pork), the empanadas at Pizzeria La Guitarrita, and the provoleta (melted cheese with species) & meats at Las Cholas

Details

Palermo is the neighborhood you want to linger in, sit on a patio and drink an aperol spritz, browse through pretty crafts in the market, admire big trees everywhere.

A perfect day in Palermo starts with a morning run (or walk) in Parque 3 de Febrero, followed by breakfast on the sidewalk in Birkin or early lunch at Cafe Museo Evita. Go on a stroll on the Botanical Garden and then check out the MALBA museum and the Ateneo Grand Splendid. Afterwards walk to Plaza Serrano to do some shopping and admire street art along the way, don’t forget to grab an ice cream at Rapanui.

Come night Palermo is the place to be. There are so many good restaurants and things to do. A perfect evening starts with early dinner at Proper or Sarkis, both amazing and worth the wait.  Followed by cocktails and comedy at Microteatro (literally a block away from Sarkis). Finish the night listening to smooth jazz at The Brothers Club or in one of the clubs nearby.

Don’t miss checking out the Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA, this gut-wrenching and very well-organized museum is a must to understanding the recent history of the civil-military dictatorship in Argentina.

Enjoy Buenos Aires!! It’s a gem of a city.

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If you are thinking about visiting Iguazu you probably have lots of questions, is it worth it? which side should I see? what should I do there? how much time do I need?

First of all, GO, these waterfalls are seriously impressive. If you are into waterfalls and into feeling insignificant next to the force of nature, then don’t doubt it.

Here is what we recommend!

Summary

• Why go? 275+ beautiful waterfalls in the same location, how could you not?

• What side to see, Argentina or Brazil? Both!

• How long do I need on each side? 1 day for Brazil, 2 for Argentina. But note that weather can be unpredictable, so it is good to add a day as a buffer.

• Where should I stay? Base yourself in Argentina, we really liked La Cantera de la Jungla ($$$)

• What should I do in Brazil? 1/2 day in the park ($20), 1/2 day between Parque Das Aves ($10) and a 10min helicopter ride ($100)

• What should I do in Argentina? full day in the park ($15), 1/2 day boat ride ($50) to the falls and 1/2 Macuco Trail hike (free)

• Where should I eat?

  • In Brazil:  Food Truck Empanadas Argentinas Iguassu ($), Castelo Libanes ($)

  • In Argentina: La Rueda ($), De la Fonte ($) (with caveats)

Details

You should go to BOTH sides, it’s very easy to cross the border in a taxi and not expensive (around $30 and wherever you are staying can help organize), and it is really worth checking out the falls from different angles: panoramic from Brazil, very up close from Argentina.

We spent 2 nights in Brazil and 2 nights in Argentina, but honestly our recommendation is that you base yourself out of Argentina since the park on that side is much bigger, there are better accommodation options and restaurants, and you can easily see everything on the Brazilian side in one day. Plan for 2 days on the Argentina side.

If you can avoid visiting either park during the weekend then do. Lots of people come just for the weekend and so parks are much busier then. If you have to choose a park to go during the weekend then I would pick the Argentina one since it is much larger. Regardless of when you go you should expect lots of people at all times, these waterfalls are *very* accessible (not like others, such as Angel Falls) so it feels a bit like Nature Disney. BUT, even though I honestly hate the idea of Nature Disney (I feel like the point of being in nature is to disconnect, to be away from crowds), I would still 100% recommend going. Because at the end of the day the waterfalls are breathtaking, and having to do a line to take a bus or having a kid crying next to you won’t make them less so.

Brazil Park: Cataratas do Iguacu

There is only one trail on the Brazil park, so it is easy to see it in half a day. Get there before they open (at 9am). Once you enter the park you have to take a bus, the 3rd stop (The Path of the Falls) is the start of the trail. However, since there is only one platform over the water on the Brazil’s park and is at the end of the trail, it can get very busy the later you get there. So, we recommend to go to the last bus stop first (Porto Canoas Square) to walk the platform with less people and then do the rest of the trail, either by walking it backwards (depending on how many people there are this can be annoying) or taking the bus back one stop and walking back.

Inside the park we wouldn’t recommend doing anything else, they will try to sell you the boat excursion but this is better to do on the Argentina side.

Still in Brazil but outside the park the 10min helicopter ride over the waterfalls with Helisul is an incredible experience and worth the ~$100, and the Parque Das Aves is beautiful if you are into birds and conservation. These two things are right outside the park and right in front of each other, so you can do them after walking the park in the morning.

In between the falls and the helicopter ride grab a yummy homemade empanada at  the Food Truck Empanadas Argentinas Iguassu, it is right outside the park.

If you are in Brazil for dinner go to the excellent Castelo Libanes for some authentic Lebanese food.

Argentina Park: Iguazú National Park

On Argentina you will find there main trails: lower, upper, and the one that goes to the Devil’s Throat. A little train takes you around the park. The trails are way more empty early in the morning and late in the afternoon so plan around that.

To see the Devil’s Throat without hundreds of people in the small platform, get to the park when they open (at 8am) and before getting to the main train station (Estacion Central) take a right to take the Sendero Verde, a short walk that takes you to the second train stop (Estacion Cataratas). This one is much less busy and pretty much guarantees a spot on the first train of the day. Remember to buy a ticket when you get to the station.

After seeing the Devil’s Throat you can hike the Sendero Macuco , a pretty hike in the jungle where you can see lots of animals (we saw a tucán, many butterflies, a sereque, monkeys, and many different birds) and ends at a waterfall where you can swim (not officially, but everyone does it and you should too)

See the other two waterfalls trails, upper and lower, either at the end of day 1 or at the start of day 2. Don’t forget to stamp your ticket on the way out the first day so you only have to pay half on the following. Plan to also dedicate 1/2 day to the boat ride, which takes you through rapids and under waterfalls. Although Brazil also offer this boat ride it is better to do on the Argentinian side since the ride is a bit longer and you can get much closer to some of the falls since the Brazilian boats can’t cross the “border” into those.

To eat, we really liked La Rueda a very popular place where we had interesting local specialties and excellent Suribi (fresh water fish). We also ate superb meat in De la Fonte, but not everything we had was good (we had a mediocre pasta dish).

Overall, I don’t think there is a “wrong” way to do Iguazu. Just go, admire the power of nature, get wet, and leave energized.

Hope this is useful content for your trip planning!