Europe: Third Times A Charm

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It seems like we’ve been making a lot of announcements recently–visiting Ohio and On The Beach contest winners–and yet we have another one!

We are off to Europe today for two months! Wow!

I can’t believe we are lucky enough to return to Europe for the third year in a row. To be honest, we keep trying to get to Southeast Asia for the fall but during the past two years we’ve gotten a number of opportunities to partner with some great brands who showed us another side of Europe–Roomorama, HostelBookers, Low Cost Holidays, WWOOF Serbia and Eurail.com–that we couldn’t resist the urge to return when we got news that the Travel Blogger Exchange (TBEX) was being held in Girona, Spain this September.

Randy and I are going to try and keep this trip fairly mellow so we can catch up on photos and stories, but we do have some fun things lined up.

1) First off, as I mentioned earlier, we are going to TBEX! This will be our first time attending the travel blogger conference and we can’t wait. It’s going to be so fun meeting our fellow travel blogging friends most of whom we’ve only known online. We are also really looking forward to the presentations and the speed dating sessions in which we’ll get to meet representations from travel companies, PR firms and visitor’s bureaus. Finger’s crossed we’ll hit it off with a few of the companies and walk away with some new projects for 2013. In any case, it’s going to be fun, fun, fun! If you are going to TBEX, let us know and the comments because we’d love to meet you there. 🙂

2) Following TBEX, Randy and I are going to be participating in a short but oh so sweet press trip visiting Costa Brava with the region’s tourism board. For three days, we’ll be checking out the surf and sun with an adventure that includes snorkeling, wine tasting and a good old fashion Segway tour among other things. Then, it’s on to a week stay at the Hotel and Spa Terraza, a four star resort in Roses Bay in northern Costa Brava, who as part of a sponsorship with TBEX generously offered to host us for an entire week. We are really about this because it will give us an opportunity to explore a new region and resort. I’m really hoping that we are able to get some swimming time in too, because I really want to frolic in the Mediterranean!

3) Our stay at the Hotel Terraza will take us up to the first week of October and then we are off on our own for the next month. We’ve partnered up with some of our favorite travel companies again–Roomorama, Eurail.com and Tom Bihn–and will be picking a country in the next few days to spend our month in to explore and get caught up on work. Currently, we are leaning towards Portugal but the Czech Republic is also tugging at our hear too.

4) After our month of catching up and relaxing, Randy and I will be traveling to London for the World Travel Market. We’ll actually be presenting awards at the HostelBookers party so if you’re going to WTM, let’s plan on meeting up. Then it’s time to make our way to Vienna via Paris or Venice for the last and quite possibly the most interesting part of our journey–a cruise on the Danube River.

5) On November 15, Randy and I will embark on our first European Cruise–Austria to Germany–with Gate 1 Travel and Viking Cruise Lines, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic. One of my bucket list items has always been to take a European river cruise and I can’t believe I’m finally getting that opportunity! Europe is so magical that I just think it will be an incredible experience to see, aside from Vienna, a new set a cities from the viewpoint of the Danube. It’s going to be amazing to see the countries from a different perspective, especially one as historic as the Danube River, and we’ll be sure to write another story before we embark filling you in on more of the details from the cruise.

Other than our first week at Hotel Terraza, our plans are wide open. So if you have any can’t miss locations or lodging suggestions, please let us know in the comments. We are all ears!

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*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website, Nariko’ s Nest Weddings & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!