Year: 2025

Walks of Italy Florence Review – A Perfect Tuscany Day Trip

I didn’t expect to find myself going back to Tuscany in 2019, but when my family wanted to take a trip to Italy I was game to join in.

They had heard of my stories of taking a Tuscany day trip from my 2013 visit, and were eager to get out and visit some of my favorite spots- namely San Gimignano, Siena, and wineries. We opted against doing this one on our own as my driving in Tuscany experience on that trip was not the best. So instead we hopped on a tour with Walks of Italy (now Take Walks) to take the driving component out of our trip.

As I later found out, going on a Tuscany tour with a guide allowed for a more insightful visit about each destination, and, in the case of the winery, allowed for greater drinking capacity in not having to drive!

In this one, I wanted to break down some of those points from the Walks of Italy tour in greater detail. 

Note: I was a guest of Walks of Italy on this tour. All opinions are my own.

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How We Got a Refund on a Non-Refundable Plane Ticket

For the first route change of our year-and-a-half long trip, we were hit with a big one.

Just a few weeks before heading to Egypt a new batch of protests began. These protests were not like the previous ones, and I had a horrible feeling that our plans were about to change.

Within days of the protests, the US government released warnings to avoid travel to Egypt as well as a “global warning” that was mainly focused on travel to the Middle East.

After discussing it with a friend who was coming to visit us in Egypt, we decided to change our plans.

We had one problem: Angie and I had already booked $857 worth of non-refundable plane ticket from Expedia for an itinerary of Istanbul to Cairo (Egypt Air),  Cairo to Istanbul (Egypt Air), and Istanbul to Bucharest (Tarom).

Not resigning ourselves to lose that money, our quest to cancel our Expedia itinerary and get a refund began.

If you find yourself in a similar scenario, you may need to try one of the following methods to get a refund for your non-refundable plane ticket.

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Where to Stay in Kyoto – The City is Bigger Than You Think

Kyoto is one of my favorite cities in Japan. It is a must-see every time we visit the country, and is one of those places I could imagine myself living in as well- it is just that fun.

But, when it comes to planning where to stay in Kyoto, you have a very important consideration to keep in mind, namely, Kyoto is huge! This is not just in population, like most major cities in Japan, but also in area. 

So when planning your base, it is less the number of people that is a concern (although we will discuss why that is also an issue later on), but rather that Kyoto is just very, very large, and it can take quite a bit of time to travel around to see all of the highlights!

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Where to Stay in Tokyo – Strategic Subway Access is a Must

When planning a trip to Japan, odds are good you’re going to spend a fair bit of time in Tokyo.

As many consider Tokyo to be the largest city in the world by population (when including the metro area), it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is really a lot to do here. There is so much to see, in fact, that we could visit many times over and still not feel like we’re doing the city justice.

Naturally, with the population comes the urban sprawl, and Tokyo is simply massive from an area standpoint. As such, when it comes to planning where to stay in Tokyo, you really have a lot to consider as the options are nearly endless.

But one thing is certain- no matter what, staying near a subway station is a great idea. But even there, a few subway locations are better than others when it comes to getting around this massive city and is our guiding consideration when booking a hotel or apartment rental.

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