An Honest, Detailed Travel Guide to the Aeolian Islands, Sicily ..read more

Visiting the Budapest Christmas Markets in 2021 ..read more

Sicily travel kicked my ass and nearly destroyed me. I did not expect that. Italy is my zone. I go to Italy once or twice a year. I’ve visited 17 of Italy’s 20 regions. I lived in Florence for four months. I speak Italian (not as well as I used to, yet more than enough to get by). As a result, Italy is one of the countries where I’m most comfortable. I understand how things work. I know what to eat, what to wear, what to do at different times of day. I’m well versed in the passeggiatta and penalties of not validating your train ticket. I thought I knew Italy — and then I got to Sicily ..read more

With trains, planes, and buses, what’s the best way to travel around Europe?  I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around Europe — in fact, I’ve traveled to every country in Europe, from Denmark to Moldova to Azerbaijan! — and this is one of the regions in which I’m an expert traveler. The right way to travel around Europe comes down to your destinations and route. You may plan a trip to Europe that is best to do by train, but more and more often, it makes more sense to travel around Europe by plane. It also depends on the purpose of your trip. If you’re planning to explore small towns, it ..read more

How do you define an old town? For purposes of this post, I define an old town as a separate, distinct part of a modern city that is historical, beautiful, protected from further development, and often holding UNESCO World Heritage designation. London and Paris don’t have old towns, for instance, while Venice and Valletta are nothing but old town. Many old towns in Europe were destroyed during the World Wars (and some, like Warsaw, were painstakingly reconstructed); other old towns, like Vilnius and Belgrade, have their old and new towns overlap so much that it’s hard to tell which part start ..read more

One question I get asked on a daily basis is, “So, what’s your favorite place?” I’m not a fan of having to answer that question constantly, but I understand why people ask me, so I have a quick go-to response: “My favorite countries are Croatia, Italy, South Africa, Thailand, and Japan.” But that list is incomplete. It says nothing about how I feel about Finland. A few years ago, I worked with Visit Finland to cover the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. It was my first trip to the country and I was struck by how much I connected with Finland as a whole. What I love so much about Finland is that I ..read more

I feel a heaviness as I travel Armenia. It’s a tension, a sorrow, an awareness that permeates the air and drapes over the country like a blanket. The Armenian Genocide and its aftermath are never far from your thoughts. Is this the best way to encourage people to travel to Armenia, Kate? By starting with genocide?! Yeah. Honesty, I feel like it would be disingenuous to do anything else. Of course there’s so much more to Armenia than its traumatic history. So much natural beauty, so many cultural treasures, one of the coolest capital cities around. But you can’t begin to understand Ar ..read more

October is one of my favorite months of the year, and this year I got to enjoy it in three countries. I do enjoy drinking pumpkin spice lattes while draped in layers of flannel and tall boots as much as the next basic bitch, but it’s more than that. October is a time for growth — there’s something about fall that always makes me want to buckle down and work. Maybe that’s a remnant from my school days. Right now, I’m focused on getting EVERYTHING out before the end of the year. More posts on the Caucasus; more posts on Canada. Surveying my readers. Getting my annual gift guide ready for t ..read more

I’ve got my 2019 survey results in! After receiving more than 1,400 responses to the survey, I’m excited to share with you exactly who Adventurous Kate’s readers are. I thought I knew who you were. And I did…but still, there were a lot of surprises. So, what did the survey show me? You’re a homogenous bunch. More than I expected. White women age 25-44 who have at least a Bachelor’s degree and hold liberal political views constitute a whopping 50% of my readers. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, that’s literally who I am, and homogeneity is exactly what advertisers lik ..read more

Where to stay in Barcelona? You have plenty of gorgeous options! The enchanting city of Barcelona is our favorite city in Europe to explore, and we love indulging in its unique culture. We’re not alone — tourists around the globe flock to this coastal Mediterranean city year-round, seeking out beautiful beaches, a vibrant culinary scene, and lively nightlife. This post was updated in September 2019. Top image by Pixabay. Barcelona is part of the region of Catalonia in northeast Spain, and the independence flag hanging off balconies reminds us that they are Catalan, not Spanish. The Catalan ..read more