Gap Year Plans

I have now finished University and I've decided the best idea is to take a Gap Year before I start teacher training in June 2015. After working for a few months in order to earn money I am now going to be taking three months out to go travelling. I am travelling with my cousin, it worked out perfectly that we wanted to both go away at the same time to similar places. 

Our trip began on January 7th and we will be flying back to the UK on 1st April. 

Our plan is...

Melbourne 

Cairns 

East Coast - Greyhound Bus Hop On Hop Off 

Sydney

Cambodia

Vietnam

Laos

Thailand

Paris 2014 | 48 hours in the city

My friend and myself decided to have a couple of days in Paris as she needed to do some research for her final year project. We booked quite last minute (flights from BA and hotel from anoma via Trivago) and managed to get quite a good deal considering. We only stayed for one night, and therefore had literally less than 48 hours in the city, but we managed to fit a lot in.

We found that being from the EU and being under 26 we managed to get free entry to many places just by showing our passports.

Day One
- Arrived into Paris in the morning, took RERB to hotel and left bags (Timhotel Le Louvre)
- Visited the Louvre (walking distance from hotel)
- Crossed over the love lock bridge (walking distance)
- Headed to Notre Dame to have a look inside (walked)
- Walked to the Pompidou Centre and looked round surrounding area (around 10 min walk)
- After a busy day we headed out for dinner, we found a lovely restaurant and managed to get a great deal on a steak dinner with dessert and wine (18 Euro each)
- To end the day we took an evening walk down by the Seine

Day Two
- We decided to get up nice and early for our free hotel breakfast which was great and really filling as there was so much variety.
- We popped into a patisserie around the corner from our hotel to grab some quiche to carry around ready for lunch. 
- Headed straight for the Musee Orsay (10 minute walk from our hotel with a walk through Jardin des Tuileries on the way). This was actually my favourite of the galleries we visited. 
- We boarded the metro and went to the Eiffel Tower
- Stopped for our lunch after the Eiffel Tower then walked to the Arc de Triomphe
- Metro from Arc de Triomphe to Moulin Rouge 
- From Moulin Rouge we walked to the Sacre Coeur (under 20 minutes)
- Looked round the Sacre Coeur then around Montmarte
- There was lots to see around Montmarte and we found the guide book very useful for discovering this area.
- We got the metro back to Charles De Gaulle and headed home on an evening flight

We had a really lovely time, there was so much to see in such a short space of time, but it was a great trip. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't already have been to Paris just because we were trying to squeeze in seeing everything! But the itinerary worked well. 

Having a guide book with us was also a great help, we got to see and understand so many more exciting things as we were able to read as we went along. I would definitely recommend our hotel, the Timhotel Le Louvre. It was so close to the Louvre and a very reasonable price for a nice, clean (but small!) room and breakfast was also included. We tended to walk many places as we decided we would get to see much more on foot, but we did purchase a ParisVisite Pass for our metro journeys on day two and found it to be reasonably priced. Overall we had a brilliant couple of days away. 

Dubai 2014 | The Atlantis Hotel

We arrived on the Palm in the morning and had two nights booked in the hotel. It was the most amazing sight, a really beautiful hotel, almost a landmark in Dubai, set at the top of the Palm. We dropped our bags and headed for a walk around the grounds of the hotel. There is so much to see on site, including lots of shops, restaurants, swimming pools, a water park and an aquarium, and every is very grand! Trolleys take you round the resort as it can feel very far walking in the heat. We went to the water park first to grab our writsbands (the waterpark is included in the price for hotel guests) and then headed to the aquarium for a walk round and afterwards to the waterpark for a couple of hours. 

That night we decided to have dinner at the buffet restaurant, Kaleidoscope. There was quite a large queue but the food was delicious and there was so much choice. We walked around the hotel a little more as there was so much to see then went off to bed.

The following day we got up early to visit the Waterpark, we spent the whole day there and went on lots of different rides. The park is huge and has a massive 'lazy' river, which isn't so relaxing, running round the outside. I would definitely recommend a visit to the waterpark. This evening, we went to La Brasserie for dinner where we had the most amazing steak meal. 

The next morning meant heading out of the hotel early to catch our flight, it was a lovely stay at the Atlantis. I really enjoyed the amount of facilities and how grand it was, however I don't think that in comparison to other hotels, and for the cost, that it had the best service. The Hilton we stayed at first was definitely preferable in terms of service, but the Atlantis was great for an experience!

Dubai 2014 | Beach times and Riverside Food

Lots of the time we spent in Dubai was spent around the pool and at the beach. The heat meant that porters from the hotel would come round every hour or so with cool flannels to help us cool down which was very much welcomed! Often there would be camels taken for walk along the beach, trying to get visitors to take ride. 

On our last evening at JBR we headed to the Dubai Marina for dinner. We had been recommended a restaurant called Fume which did not disappoint. It suggests it is 'no frills' service yet delicious sharing food and it was great. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was quite modern and quirky. We all had a great meal where we shared most of the food such as mac and cheese, duck noodles, ribs etc, they have a really wide variety and the aim of the concept is that everything is shared and it is only brought out when it is ready so dishes were arriving at different times. I would highly recommend this restaurant (http://www.fume-eatery.com/).

After a brilliant dinner we had a little walk around the Marina and headed back to the hotel to pack ready for a few nights in the Atlantis. 

Dubai 2014 | Desert Safari and the World's Largest Shopping Mall

In our next few days in Dubai we booked a desert safari. We booked through Planet Tours and found it amazing (our driver was Mr Abbas-he was so great and really made the tour special for us). It was such a different experience to everything I have ever done before. We got picked up at our hotel, and luckily we were able to have a 4x4 by ourselves as we were a family of 5 (in a smaller group you may be sharing). We headed out to the desert, and as soon as we got to the edge the tyres were taken down on the car, we then went straight into dune bashing, which is basically a roller coaster on sand. They then found us a great place to take some beautiful sunset desert pictures.

After a little more dune bashing we arrived at a camp in the middle of the desert, where we rode camels and my brother and dad went off on quad bikes around the desert dunes. At the camp we had henna tattoos, ate a BBQ dinner and watched a traditional Arabian dance as well as a belly dancer. I definitely think this is an experience not to be missed if travelling to Dubai. We had read some really negative reviews about the experience with some people talking about how crowded it was, but visiting at this time of year worked really well as there was lots of space and a very chilled atmosphere. 

The next day we headed out to the Dubai Mall in the evening. This was AS level results day so we went to Rainforest Cafe to celebrate my sister's results! We looked round a couple of shops, and walked around to look at the aquarium which is in the middle of the building, and the indoor theme park. At the end of the evening we went to the fountains to see the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world, right at the side of the Dubai Mall) and to watch the fountain show. It was such a crazy experience as it is literally massive, but definitely worth seeing, even though we didn't do any shopping!

Dubai 2014 | Off to UEA

Dubai is a place I have wanted to visit for such a long time so I was very excited when my family decided to book a week there in August. I've never been to the Middle East before so I was really looking forward to a very different kind of holiday (we have spent the last few summers in USA).

We had been given advice to stay at Jumeriah Beach Resort (JBR) area, and we chose apartments at Hilton the Walk. This was a great choice as we were able to have our own space but could still have the facilties at the hotel available. The Hilton apartments were great and we were lucky enough to be upgraded which was amazing. The first evening we settled into our apartment and ordered pizza to the room.

The next morning we headed out to the beach and pool. A lot of resorts have their own beach, so if you are booking a hotel it is a good idea to understand whether it has part of the beach, as using the beach at other hotels can incur a charge. I had been warned how hot Dubai would be, but I literally couldn't believe the heat! It was over 40 degrees everyday, and the sea was over 30 degrees, so like getting in a warm bath! We ate lunch at Wavebreaker, one of the hotels' restaurants, which was really nice but quite expensive. After a morning outside we went for a walk around the shops on The Walk, many of these were not yet open, many are under construction and are opening in September 2014. After our walk we went out for dinner at Frankie's which is Frankie Dettori's restaurant and it has such good food. They were so welcoming and made sure we had a really lovely time.  

Barcelona 2014 | Park Guell and Sunshine

On the third day of our holiday we got up early and headed to Park Guell. This was one of my favourite places we went to over the holiday! It was so lovely. On the way we stopped for pastries for breakfast. We found that food at the hotel was expensive so it was nice to be able to get some breakfast cheap locally (the massive croissants were 1 euro!) 

We got the metro to the Park Guell stop, and then the walk was about 20 minutes, which was all up hill, they even have escalators in the middle of the road as some parts of the hill were so steep to climb up! We walked round the top of the Park and got some amazing views, and then decided to go and buy tickets to enter the main part of the park. Using the tickets from the previous day (the museum tickets) we managed to get cheaper entry which was useful! 

Looking round the actual park was amazing, there was so much to see, I really enjoyed it, I think it is definitely something that should be seen and getting the metro there was easy enough. We went for a late lunch in town and I had the nicest vegetarian paella. 

For the rest of the afternoon we lay by the pool enjoying the last bit of the sun, that evening we headed out for tapas and tried lots of different dishes. It was an amazing (but very short) holiday and we found that we could definitely do Barcelona in a short amount of time for not too much money! Before we went we had been warned about the crime level in the city but I found as long as you were very aware, and kept hold of your bag, then it was quite easy to stay safe. There was definitely more that we could have seen, but Barcelona on a budget worked really well!