Travel Tips: My Top Five Mountain Destinations

In this Travel Tips series, I've already written about my favourite cities, nature destinations and beaches, among other topics. And today I'm going to be writing about another of my favourite types of travel destinations: mountains. I really enjoy trekking in the mountains and enjoying dramatic panoramic views - perhaps that comes from having previously lived in both the Alps and the Andes. In any case, spending time in mountainous places definitely makes a nice change from my current, relatively-flat base in the south of England.

Here are five of my favourite mountain ranges I've been to so far!

The Andes

The Andes are a vast mountain range that cover the entire length of the western side of South America, passing through Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. I spent several months surrounded by these amazing peaks when I lived in Chile in 2018, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again when I move back there in the coming weeks! The most memorable Andean destinations that I've visited so far in Chile include Cerro Manquehue, Cajón del Maipo, the Maule region (pictured above), and the Altiplano. I also saw some incredible views in the Mendoza province of Argentina.

Read more here and here!

The Alps

The Alps are the most famous mountain range in Europe, and can be found in eight countries: France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Monaco. Many tourists visit the region every year to hike, ski and relax next to its many picturesque lakes, such as the Wolfgangsee (pictured above). I lived in the Alps from 2017-2018, when I worked at two schools in the south of Austria, and I really enjoyed seeing different Alpine towns, cities and villages around the local area and beyond.

Read more here and here!

The Dinaric Alps

Image by Luciann Photography from pexels.com

One of my favourite family holidays was when we stayed in Slano in Croatia in 2012, and visited Dubrovnik (pictured above), and also Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. All three of these destinations are located in the Dinaric Alps, or Dinarides, a mountain range that spreads across southeastern Europe. It's a very beautiful part of the world, and I have great memories of swimming at the beach next to the hotel, which was located in a bay surrounded by mountains.

The Tatra Mountains

I had a very memorable time teaching English at a hotel in Poland in the summer of 2019, when I participated in the Angloville volunteer programme. The hotel wasn't exactly the four-star luxury that had been promised to us volunteers, but the surrounding scenery of the Tatra Mountains (part of the Carpathian mountain range of Eastern Europe) was stunning to look at. It's an area I'd be interested in exploring more of in the future.

Read more here!

The Cumbrian Mountains

The mountains found in the Lake District are the highest in England, and while they're small compared to the other mountains in this list, they're a great place to enjoy amazing natural landscapes, especially at times like this when it's difficult to travel abroad. I visited the area with my parents in 2020, and was surprised to find that it was a little reminiscent of the south of Chile, with lots of mountains, forests, lakes and waterfalls to discover.

Read more here!

I'm glad to say that I'll be back in the mountains again soon, as I've got my visa interview for my job in Chile next week, and after that, I'll just have to wait for it to be approved before I can finally go! The interview also means that I'll be spending a day in London, which will be my first little bit of travelling of the year. I plan to explore a new place or two in the city, and I'll be writing about it here next weekend!

Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Country Guide: Slovakia

Name: Slovakia (in Slovak: Slovensko)

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Bratislava

Language: Slovak

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type E

Description: Slovakia is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It was formerly part of Czechoslovakia, before splitting from the Czech Republic (now known as Czechia) in 1993. It's not the best-known tourist destination in Europe, but there are plenty of reasons to visit...

Why You Should Visit: The main reasons people visit Slovakia are its mountains, which are great for hiking and skiing, and its castles, which can be found all over the country. Personally, I've only been to Bratislava so far, but I really enjoyed my day exploring the city, and especially loved the castle, which looks straight out of a fairytale.

Fun Fact: Slovakia holds the title of the country with the highest number of castles per capita!

My Blogposts About Slovakia

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- Vienna and Bratislava

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Bratislava Castle)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Bratislava)

Clockwise starting from top left: Capuchin Church, Bratislava Castle, View of St Martin's Cathedral and the city of Bratislava, Slovak National Theatre, Most SNP or UFO Bridge (all located in Bratislava) 

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Here's to a More Adventurous 2022

There's no way of denying it; 2021 has been a very disappointing year for me. When I said goodbye to my boyfriend Claudio at Heathrow Airport on the 3rd January, we both thought it would only be a few months before I would be able to get my visa for my job in Santiago, and move out there to be with him. But unfortunately, the Chilean border and consulate didn't open until October, so I couldn't even start my visa application until then, and completing it has been a very long and slow process. Therefore, I'm still living in England with my parents, and I haven't seen Claudio in nearly a whole year.

It's also been a rubbish year in terms of travel, as I haven't been abroad at all (a first for me since 2009). Obviously I love exploring new places (hence why I write this travel blog!), and I try to visit at least one new country every year (something I did from 2014-2020). But of course, now that streak has been broken, and I'm really really missing foreign travel. 

So, all in all, this year has been tough, a lot tougher than 2020. But I want to end it on a positive note, by reflecting on some of the good things that have happened to me over the past twelve months...

1) I built up a more steady base of students in my job as an online English teacher, completing over 1000 teaching hours, and also qualifying as an IELTS teacher. I continue to really enjoy my work, and it's helped keep me sane over the last couple of years!

2) I successfully underwent laser vision correction surgery, which is something I'd wanted to do for a long time. It's great to be free from glasses and contact lenses, and it will definitely make my future travels a lot easier.

3) My parents and I completed the local travel "bucket list" that I'd created in 2020. We visited lots of interesting nearby places between April and August this year, my favourites being Westbury Court Garden (a Dutch water garden), Batsford Arboretum (a Japanese-style arboretum), and Sezincote (an Indian-style palace). These places really gave me the sense of being in a different part of the world for a little while, and they inspired me to write a post about my favourite UK alternatives to foreign destinations. We also managed to squeeze in a short sunny beach break this summer, which I very much appreciated!

4) This year I achieved a flight-free year for the first time since 2009! Obviously this was unintentional, as I'd planned to travel to Chile this year, and my mum and I were also going to take a trip to the south of France, which had to be cancelled. But I still think it's something to celebrate. Between 2017 and 2020, I was taking 6-9 individual flights every year, and I did feel a bit guilty about that, because I care a lot about the environment. So this year was a little way of making up for it. And although I won't be doing a flight-free year in 2022, I'll always try to find alternatives to flying whenever possible.

5) Blogging here has been a form of escapism during this rather monotonous year. Even though I haven't been able to travel abroad, I've tried to keep this blog as international as possible, through my Travel Tips and Country Guides series. It's been a nice way to reminisce about past travels and also to dream about the amazing places I want to visit in the future.

6) This month I've had a couple of little successes with my travel content. A piece of writing I did about my travel wishes for 2022 was included in an issue of Jack's Flight Club: The Detour, and two of my photos have been featured on the photography website Pexels. 

So it definitely hasn't been all bad! But of course I'm hoping that next year will be much better, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it will be. I was finally able to apply for my visa at the start of December, and I should be offered an appointment to collect it any day now. Which means that I will hopefully be able to go to Santiago in January! 

Once I'm there, Claudio and I plan to travel a lot. I've made a list of places for us to visit all over Chile, and we also want to go to Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. So I'll hopefully have lots of exciting things to write about here on this blog!

Finally, I would like to say thank you to everyone who's read Charlotte's Travel Adventures over the last year. I wish you a Happy New Year and many happy travels ahead!

Image by Djordje Vezilic from pexels.com

Pexels

As you may have noticed, I sometimes use photos from the website pexels.com when I want to illustrate posts which are about more general topics rather than specific destinations, and also to depict destinations I haven't been to yet, or that I went to before I had a phone with a camera. It's a really good website for finding stock photos that you can use for free.

You can also upload your own photography onto the website for other users to download, which is something I've been doing over the last few months. Pexels also regularly run challenges based on a particular theme, offering cash prizes for the best photos! Recent challenges that I've entered are the Passport to the United Kingdom challenge and the Year in Review: Your Passport challenge (in fact, I was able to submit some photos in both categories, given that I haven't been able to leave the country this year!). 

Uploading my photography was something I was just doing for fun, but I was very happy to receive an email this week telling me that one of my pictures has been featured on the website! 

By the way, it's this one I took of the Neptune Fountain in Cheltenham.

Photography is a hobby I've grown more and more interested in since I first started travel blogging back in 2017 with very few camera skills whatsoever. I've always just used my smartphone to take my photos for this blog, as it's the easiest option when travelling around, but I'd like to learn how to use a proper camera, and would definitely consider taking some photography lessons in the future.

It was a nice surprise to be featured by Pexels, especially just a week after being featured in Jack's Flight Club: The Detour. This year been quite disappointing for me overall, both in terms of travelling and life in general, but these two little achievements are something positive that I can take away from 2021. ☺

Finally, if you're interested, you can check out my Pexels profile here!

Update: 30/12/2021

I'm very happy to say that I've now had a second picture featured on Pexels! It's this one I took of Parroquia San Francisco de Asís in Montevideo, Uruguay.

I'll continue to update if more of my photos are featured in the future!

Update: 20/01/2022

Now I've had a third photo featured! It's this summery one of a palm tree in Colonia del Sacramento, also in Uruguay.

I hope to update again soon!

Update: 28/01/2022

I've just had a fourth photo featured, and it's this one I took of Laguna Tebinquinche in the Atacama Desert!

I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll with these photos now, and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some more photography on my travels this year!

Update: 02/04/2022

The fifth photo I've had featured on Pexels is this one that I took in La Laguna, during me and Claudio's recent trip to the beach.

I hope to be featured again soon!

Update: 14/05/2022

Sixth photo featured! It's this one I took in Iquique. 

Iquique was a really great destination for photography. I'm looking forward to visiting some other exciting places soon, and taking more photos!

Update: 17/11/2022

It had been a long time since I'd had a photo featured on Pexels, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my touch! But then today I found out that one of my recent photos has been featured: it's this one of Machu Picchu in Peru.

I'm really happy to have had a photo featured from this trip of a lifetime!

Update: 05/04/2023

My latest featured photo is this one of Paseo La Villa, here in Santiago.

This picturesque little area is a great place for taking photos!

Update: 06/04/2023

I certainly didn't expect to have two photos featured in two days, but that's exactly what's just happened! I'm very happy that this photo from our recent trip to Valparaíso has now been featured too.

 

Let's see how long it takes for me to get another one featured!

Movie Travels

This weekend's post is something a little different! As the title suggests, I'm going to be writing about a few places I've visited that were used as settings in famous films. Although I've visited plenty of filming locations (being based near the Cotswolds makes that an inevitability!), this post will specifically focus on locations that were also the setting of the films in question.

The following three films all have a strong sense of place, and actually inspired my travels in the places where they're set. And as a bonus, they're also great movies which I would highly recommend watching!

Movie: The Sound of Music

Setting: Salzburg, Austria

Clockwise starting from top: Mirabell Palace, Hellbrunner Allee and Schloss Leopoldskron (all located in Salzburg)

When it comes to films set in Austria, the Sound of Music is definitely the first one that comes to mind for most people. This classic musical is well-loved, not just for its memorable songs, but also for its scenes featuring beautiful mountain landscapes and architecture in and around the city of Salzburg. 

I spent a couple of days in Salzburg at the start of the Austrian part of my Year Abroad, and as I've always been a big fan of musicals, I took the opportunity to go on the Sound of Music bus tour! This was a really fun trip around all the filming locations in the city, as well as in the nearby town of Mondsee. During the tour, we learnt about the real story of the Von Trapp family (which, unsurprisingly, isn't exactly as it's depicted in the film!) and also sang some karaoke!

Read more about Salzburg and Mondsee here!

Movie: The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta)

Setting: South America

Clockwise starting from top left: Valparaíso, Chile; the south of Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the Atacama Desert, Chile

The Motorcycle Diaries follows the journey that a young Che Guevara took with his friend Alberto Granado across South America, during which he forms the political views that he became known for. The film mostly takes place in Argentina, Chile and Peru, though there are a couple of short scenes in Colombia and Venezuela at the end. Che and Alberto's journey starts in their home city of Buenos Aires, and they then travel down through Argentina and cross over the border into the south of Chile. They make their way up the country, passing through Valparaíso and the Atacama Desert, before crossing into Peru and visiting Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima and the Amazon.

I first saw this film as part of a module I studied in my second year at university. At the time, I was planning my Year Abroad, and was still a bit undecided about the Spanish part of the year. But seeing all of the amazing places featured in the Motorcycle Diaries inspired me to want to travel to South America, and definitely influenced my choice to spend a semester studying in Chile, which was probably the best decision I've ever made! During the semester, I ended up visiting two of the destinations in the film (Valparaíso and the south of Chile), and on subsequent trips to South America, I visited the Atacama Desert and Buenos Aires. When I'm back living in Chile again (which should be very soon), I hope to go on a trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu to complete my Motorcycle Diaries bucket list!

Read more about Buenos Aires here!

Read more about the south of Chile here!

Read more about Valparaíso here!

Read more about the Atacama Desert here!

Update: 12th November 2022

It's been 11 months since I published this post, and I'm very happy to update it by saying that I have completed my Motorcycle Diaries bucket list, by visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu! Cusco is a beautiful city, and it was a dream come true to finally visit the incredible Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.

But, to be honest, my trip to this part of Peru gave me even more Wanderlust to explore the country, and now I'd also like to visit the other two Peruvian places in the film: Lima and the Amazon!

Read more about Cusco here!

Read more about Machu Picchu here!

Movie: Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)

Setting: Paris, France

Clockwise starting from top left: Notre-Dame de Paris, Sacré Cœur, Café des 2 Moulins, and a view of Montmartre (all located in Paris)

Paris is one of my favourite cities in the world, and it's also the setting of many great films, including the Aristocats, Ratatouille, Anastasia, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Les Misérables, and Moulin Rouge, as well as the polarising but fun TV series Emily in Paris. But my favourite of all of the films set in Paris has to be Amélie, or Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, as it's known in French. It's such a funny and magical tale that really draws you into its little world, and I'd say it's probably my favourite film of all time. I've even been to the theatre to see a musical version of it!

When I was in France for the final part of my Year Abroad, I spent a short amount of time in Paris, and used that time to visit some of the locations from the film. Most of the action takes place in the pretty neighbourhood of Montmartre, where you can find the beautiful Sacré-Cœur basilica and Café des 2 Moulins, the café where Amélie works. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the film, but it has lots of memorabilia inside, which is very cool!

Read more about Paris here!

Travelling to movie locations is a lot of fun, because it's so interesting to experience the places we've seen on screen in real life. These three movie destinations are the ones that have been the most memorable for me so far, but I'm sure I'll discover some more in the future!

Jack's Flight Club: The Detour Newsletter

I'm just writing a quick post today to share some exciting news!

I've been a member of Jack's Flight Club (a mailing list which sends out lists of cheap flight deals) for a couple of years now. Unfortunately, because everything has been so uncertain over the last two years, I haven't yet taken advantage of any of the deals, but I'm sure I will in the future!

The club, which has over one million members, also sends out a weekly newsletter called the Detour, which is filled with travel stories and tips. Recently, they asked readers to send in their travel wishes for 2022, and so I wrote a little bit about my South American travel plans. And then yesterday morning I received an email telling me that it had been chosen for publication! Later in the day, the newsletter was sent out with my little piece included, along with some great travel tips about Ecuador and Colombia, which should definitely come in useful! In addition to the travel wishes, there's some useful Covid-related info in the newsletter, as well as some travel inspiration, and links to interesting travel-related stories, so it's a great read. 

Here's the link, if you'd like to check it out!

Image by Monstera from pexels.com

Country Guide: Portugal

Name: Portugal

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Lisbon (in Portuguese: Lisboa)

Language: Portuguese

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Western European Standard Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type F

Description: Portugal is located on the Iberian peninsula in the southwest of Europe, bordering Spain and the Atlantic Ocean. It's a popular tourist destination amongst Brits and other Europeans, thanks to its warm weather and many sandy beaches. And it's also famous for port wine, Fado music, and for being successful in football.

Why You Should Visit: In addition to Portugal's beaches, there are various interesting cities to visit, most famously Lisbon and Porto. I have only visited Lisbon so far, but my trip there really stayed in my mind, because of its beautiful architecture and cultural attractions. I would definitely go back there and to other Portuguese destinations in the future.

Fun Fact: Portugal is the oldest country in Europe, having existed since 1139!

My Blogposts About Portugal

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- The Night Train From Madrid to Lisbon

- Lisbon

- The Belém and Ajuda Neighbourhoods (Lisbon)

- Castelo de São Jorge (Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Cities (Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Castelo de São Jorge, Lisbon)

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Colourful Cities (Lisbon)

- Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Lisbon)

Clockwise starting from top left: Belém Tower, Sala Thai Pagoda, panoramic view from Castelo de São Jorge, Igreja de São Domingos, Tram 28 (all located in Lisbon)

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!