8 Packing Tips For A City Break

Hi, I've booked me and the boyfriend a night away in York I wanted to share with you my packing tips. We will be heading to York via public transport so we will have to carry our luggage most of the time until we finally arrive at our hotel. I plan on taking a small rucksack which I will be using over the weekend because they're so spacious and more comfortable to wear.

Packing Tips For A City Break

Make a list
I always start packing by making a list of everything I need to pack. This allows for planning and eliminates the chance of forgetting anything important. I always pack things like train tickets first.

Check out the weather
Pack for the weather and climate of the place you are traveling to not where you are leaving.

Be Strict
I'm the worst at packing for wearing clothing in the future, I never know what I'll want to wear and then I want to pack everything. If like me you pack too much you'll regret the weight later. Work out exactly how much you need and then plan your outfits.

Choose the Best Bag For the Job
I'm taking a rucksack on this journey but depending on how you're traveling or how long you're traveling for a bigger or more mobile bag might be a better option. 

Day to Night
A good tip for space saving is to try and wear outfits that are transitional between day and night with only a few changes like jewellery or footwear. 

Wear Comfy Footwear
Generally when I'm traveling or know I'm going to be carrying extra weight I think it's really important to protect my feet by wearing comfy footwear. I personally live in Dr Martens which are so supportive to feet when worn for a long time, plus really fashionable.

Pack Light Items
You'll be lugging all this stuff around so pack as light as possible. I think dresses are a great option because it's a one piece outfit.

Take Travel Sized
Another way to reduce the weight of your bag is to take travel sized cosmetics or if you're only staying one night forgo them as much as possible and take advantage of what's available at your hotel.

I hope these tips are helpful as starting points for when you're trying to pack. I think these tips become more helpful when you are traveling for a longer time and a further distance but are still really relevant.

Have a great day!

Sam

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Summer Travel Diary | York, Barcelona and London

Hi, If you read my summer travel plans post back in June you’ll know that I’ve been missing from the blog for a little while and I’m finally back to tell you what I got up to. I basically visited three different cities in three consecutive weekends, which is hard work.

York

Home away from home - It's so spacious

I went camping in York which was so relaxed and the cheapest of all my travelling because we camped in a tent. We don’t really do much in York other than enjoy a change of scenery within the historic city, drink cocktails and play lots of pool. We made a trip to the Kings Arms by the river for a quick drink and to watch the wildlife. In hindsight this is the holiday we should have ended with because it was the most chilled out.

View of the Kings Arms Pub on the river bank

We normally (weather depending) go to the market and stock up on BBQ goodies and eat alfresco,
which luckily this year we did a lot. Apart from the last night when we had a thunder storm the weather was perfect, just warm enough without turning the tent into a sauna. I got some reading done and finished The Wolves of Mercy Falls series in just a few days.

Barcelona

Barcelona from the air

Four nights in this brilliant city was nowhere near enough. There’s so much to see and do, planning ahead or having a general idea of the places you want to see is a great idea to make the most of your visit. We flew out Thursday morning and returned on Monday evening rather later than hoped after a delay. The weather in Barcelona couldn’t have been better at just over 30 degrees and warm right into the evening. I’m going to do a photo diary type post to share more about what we got up too.

The magic fountain

This was the first time I've flown in years and I was a little apprehensive, I'd forgotten how weird it feels. It was totally worth jumping back on a plane for the sunshine and culture, I'd love to visit Japan one day so I better get saving.

London

Visiting Camden

Finally we headed down to London on the train, we stayed two nights at the new Premier Inn Hub hotel on Brick Lane which was super lovely. We had a little trouble checking in but the staff where super helpful and got us sorted really quickly.

On our first evening we headed over to Camden Town as the boyfriend hasn’t been before and had a few drinks and soaked up the atmosphere. The point of our trip was to visit Hyper Japan which we visited the following day. Depending on what you’re looking for it was a great day out but I think we missed the best stuff later in the day as we left because it just got too hot. There was a mixture of official merchandise, artists work, craft workshops, live music and food stalls.

Hyper Japan Festival

Our final day we headed up to Oxford street so I could finally visit the holy grail that is the Lush Oxford Street Store and it did not disappoint. I went with the intent of picking up some of the exclusive lines for me and my sister. I’ll share what I got in a future post if you’re interested. We then walked down to Covent Garden where we found a nice little pub and chilled out until we needed to head for our train. Again I was delayed on my return journey but we’ve had a confirmation of a 50% refund on our journey so can’t complain.

I had such a crazy month that I’m finding it hard getting back into my normal routine and my blogging has suffered, it’s taken me ages to sit down and actually write this post, hope it was worth the wait. Where are you going on holiday?

Sam

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Monthly Mini Goals - July

Hi, It's holiday time! I should already be traveling on my way to York as this post goes live. Hopefully the sun is shining and if it really must rain it will wait until we have pitched the tent (please!). So after last month not being so great I'm all inspired by my travel plans and just the general freedom from my working life (love it but nothing beats a holiday).

Mini goals for July

• Eat an Instagram worthy ice cream
• Find a new cruelty free favourite
• Document my travels
• Read at least 5 books
• Buy a new board game
• Successfully pack hand luggage
• Plan lots of blog ideas
• Find a happy balance
• Have a cocktail
• Eat Sushi

So I couldn't help but have very summer holiday based goals and I was having to reference my 25 summer goals post so I didn't have duplicates because that's just silly. I would love to make a photo diary of my travels but that involves taking photos and I'm just the worst at that because I forget, (traveling is blog post gold right?) I must try really hard or I'll be annoyed with myself.

Time off work means more time for things I really want to do like reading, I need to get ahead with my Goodreads challenge and now's the perfect time. I also want to use my digital detox to inspire me with blog post ideas I'm excited to write. I'm starting to run out of products so I need to find cruelty free alternatives, I plan on checking out what's available in Superdrug.

It's summer so I obviously want ice cream and weirdly I really fancy a trip to Yo!Sushi. There's a really great comic book store in York which sells board games so I want to go check them out and hopefully find something to add to our growing collection.

Do you have anything planed for the summer?

Sam

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Summer Travel Plans | York, London And Barcelona

Hi, I wanted to share my holiday plans with you, I’m not much of a traveler but it seems that's going to change over the next three weeks. It feels like forever since I had some proper time off work and it's years since I last went abroad so I'm going to make the most of it.

Summer Travel Plans

First I’m off camping on the edge of lovely city of York for four nights. This has become a bit of an annual trip and one that I look forward too as York is such an amazing place to visit. If you haven’t been you really should, you can see what I got up to last year in this post.

July is a month full of birthdays, it's a big birthday for my mum this year so the family decided to jump on a plane and celebrate in a warmer climate. We're going to Barcelona for a four night stay. We've pre-booked some really exciting things to do so I’m super looking forward to all the fun to come but a little worried about getting on a plane again, it’s been years.

After I get back from Barcelona I’ve got a few days back at work before I pack my bags yet again for a long weekend down in London to take in the sights at Hyper Japan. I’ve had it booked for so long now, I can’t wait. While in London I plan to make a trip to the Oxford Lush store and any other London treats that haven’t quite made their way north of the UK.

So there you have it three weeks of almost nonstop holidaying, I want to apologise now because there is going to be a lack of posts during this time but I hope on my return I will have some extra special posts to share with you.

Are you going anywhere nice on holiday?

Sam

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A Catch Up | York Highlights

Hi, I've been back from my camping trip a week now. York was a nice break away from it all, I don't think I took many photo but that's nothing new for me, it's something I really need to work on. Oh well I'll just have to tell you what I did instead, which honestly wasn't all that much other than eat at a few nice places and read continuously for 4 days, bliss.

- York Minster and a map of York -

Sunday
We arrived about midday, after a short drive of about an hour, to a very busy campsite which had only been open for three days. We managed to pitch the tent in a grand total of 15 minuets which I think is a record. After that we went for a little supermarket shop for the essentials (Cider mainly) and then sat in the sun for the afternoon reading. We had some BBQ chicken skewers for tea which were super yummy. This was the night of the storm, proper fork lightening and very heavy rain, a little worrying when you're only in a tent.

Monday
With camping the sunlight wakes you up at the crack of dawn. So reading time pretty much starts then if you can't get back to sleep. Later in the day we headed to the Evil Eye bar and had a drink or two and then headed to the Sam Smith pub The Kings Arms. We opted to eat at Yo!Sushi taking advantage of the blue Monday menu. I tried the salmon and avacardo hand roll, it was so delicious. We had loads to eat and the bill came to just under £30, which for two is a bargain.

- Playing Pool and Beers at Evil Eye -

Tuesday
This was the day that it rained and rained and rained, until about four in the afternoon when we headed out to find some food. We started at the Evil Eye for a drink and then ended up at the Wetherspoons named the punch bowl, where I got the Mexican burger which was really nice. We then tracked down a little pub called the priory which had a pool table so we could have a few games before returning to the tent for the night.

- Pints at the Kings Arms and Cosmo Restaurant -

Wednesday
Another wet day, we headed to Cosmo for tea. It's an all you can eat which servers food from all over the world. You can have Pizza, Carvery, Sushi and curry all under one roof. This was a place we found on our last visit and have been really looking forward to going back. The heavens opened as we left the restaurant so we had to walk back in the very heavy rain. It's not the shortest of walks so we where quite wet but hiding under trees was fun.

Thursday
This was by far the nicest day of the week. We headed into town purely to get some stuff to have a BBQ. We opted to buy from the market as you can buy smaller amounts, we got burgers (I had lamb) and mackerel. I was really happy to have finally been able to have a proper BBQ, the appearance of the sun was also welcome to dry the tent off before our departure and it stayed really warm until late.

Friday
Home time! had a very lazy morning, breakfast and then started to pack up. Again we managed to put the tent down in record time. Packed up everything into the tiny Metro car, I still don't understand how it all fit.

I had a lovely week off and it feels super weird to be back at work but I'm sure that won't last that long. I finished two books and got more than half way through a third, so a pretty productive reading session. I have slight holiday blues now and really want to organize my next trip away for something to look forward too. If you made it this far congratulations and thanks for reading.

Do you have any travel plans?

Sam

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