Yulko Polo Travel Blog

General Info

Country: Austria | Language: German | Currency: EURO (EUR) | Flag: 🇦🇹 | When visited: May 2024, July 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🗺️ Check out my new “Now and Then” travel account on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowandthenjourney

🚗 How to commute

The best and cheapest way to reach the city centre from the Airport, Central Station or even a bus station on the city outskirts, is the public transport. Public transport includes trains, subway, buses and trams, is well-developed and operates during both day and nighttime. If you plan to move around multiple times during the day, it makes sense to buy a Day pass for 1 person, or a standard ticket Gruppe for 2+ people. Both are pretty inexpensive and provide access to all public transport till 3am of the next day.

🏨 Where to stay

This time we have been staying at Bratislava, which is just in 1,5-2 hours ride by train, and has comparable accommodation prices (read about the place we've stayed in the post about Bratislava). Previous time we have stayed at Smart Apart Living complex near Vienna Central station, featuring really convenient self-service check-in/out, comfortable apartments with a small kitchen and balcony, and common areas like beautiful garden, or a room where one can buy cold/hot beverages and some snacks, and just sit and charge devices.

🍽️ What and where to eat

One can enjoy both Austrian and Hungarian traditional cuisine as well as some others like Turkish, Croatian etc. in Vienna. Of course, famous Austrian Schnitzel and Strudel are available in many cafés and restaurants, and there are so many of them everywhere! And, of course, multiple food options are available to choose from: from affordable snacks in supermarkets to traditional dishes in fancy old restaurants!

Some highlights include: -Interspar Pronto or Interspar Market Kitchen (with multiple locations) is a pretty budget place all over the city, where one can get some snacks, salads, ready to consume hot dishes, and beverages. One can also check Billa supermarkets, but there is no hot food/drinks usually, just snacks and salads.

-There are multiple Turkish pretty nice places where one can get traditional Simit bread and breakfast. Simit Sokaği (near Reumannplatz) is one of such places with multiple breakfast options, which are not expensive and super tasty.

-Both Café Landtmann and Café Central are definitely worth a visit. These both are venues with long-standing history, serving Viennese cuisine, and they are popular because so many famous people such as Freud, Trotsky, Stalin, Hitler and so on were regular guests here. Prices are a bit higher than in average across Vienna's restaurants, but food is delicious and portions are generous!

-Café Diglas is another good place with an authentic interior, and traditional tasty food. I would say that prices here are a bit lower comparing to two cafés above, and recommend asking for their “Daily Menu” (Tageskarte) to try something new.

-AIDA Café Konditorei is located close to Diglas and they are both not far from the famous Stadtpark of Vienna. Here you can get a yummy Strudel with coffee or tea, as well as many other sweet cakes and pastry.

Of course, it's just impossible to check out and recommend all good places in Vienna, because there are so many of them everywhere, including all familiar fast-food chains too. I would recommend just to Google for something you want to eat, or just to check some places while you are walking by :)

👀 What to do and what to see

• Vienna City Centre (Innere Stadt) is actually the place where we have been mostly spending our time. There are a lot of beautiful old churches, palaces, squares, houses, and small streets and passages such as St. Stephen's Cathedral, Hofburg, Vienna State Opera, Rathausplatz, Catholic Church Maria am Gestade, Jesuit Church, Imperial Crypt, St. Charles Church and so on.

• Vienna Parks surely worth a visit, not only because they are beautiful, but also because there one can find monuments devoted to famous Austrian musicians and other important historical people! Rathaus park (Statue of Duke Rudolf IV etc), Burggarten (Mozart Monument etc), Stadtpark (Strauss, Schubert monuments, and Beethoven statue near there). In the Stadtpark also, multiple fairs and events take place during the year. We were lucky to take part in the Genuss-Festival, which highlighted wine, beer, appetizers, and products from various Austrian regions.

• Other activities may include visit to multiple museums, including houses of famous musicians, visiting of various palaces (like Schönbrunn Palace, Belvedere Palace etc.), spending time at Prater Park with its Giant Ferris Wheel, and even shopping in multiple small shops selling local products of all kind.

💡 Some highlights

• From Vienna it's totally make sense to go to Bratislava (Slovakia) for a day trip by train. These days and I guess till the end of July 2024 there are some construction works, and trains are replaces with buses at the part of the road, but it's still possible to reach another country and capital just in 2 hours! One can buy single or group roundtrip ticket which will be pretty cheap.
• We were impressed with how good-looking and well-maintained are all the historical buildings in Vienna. It's obvious that this city (and country) has pretty much money! Quality of living in various living districts looks to be really high, as well as quality of food and product overall.
• If one haven't been to Hungary, Check Republic or as already mentioned Slovakia, it's pretty easy, quickly, and inexpensive to go to Budapest, Prague or Bratislava from Vienna either by train or by bus.

General Info

Country: Estonia | Language: Estonian, Russian | Currency: EURO (EUR) | Flag: 🇪🇪 | When visited: Apr. 2024, Jul. 2015, Jan. 2013, Oct. 2012

____________________________________________________________________________

🗺️ Check out my new “Now and Then” travel account on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowandthenjourney

🚗 How to commute

Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport is just 4km away from the city centre. The best and cheapest way to reach the city centre is the public transport (bus or tram, which is not operating currently). Other options include taxi, or a rental car.

🏨 Where to stay

This time we have been staying with our friends. But previous times we have been staying at “Pirita Top Spa Hotel” (now “Pirita Marina Hotel & Spa”). Even though we have been around the hotel this year, I'm not 100% sure it's working! But we have seen another lovely place to stay in the same Pirita area, which could be even a better option during the supper time due to its closeness to the Pirita Beach: “Pirita Beach Apartments & SPA”. Both these options are directly on the sea shore, feature direct access to the beautiful forest, big supermarket and bus stops with direct connection to the city centre in 5-10 minutes walk.

🍽️ What and where to eat

One can enjoy both Estonian and Russian traditional cuisine in Tallinn. From affordable snacks in supermarkets to restaurants with a seafood and sea view. Multiple options are available to choose from!

Some highlights include: -R-Kiosk (multiple locations around the city) where one can buy traditional for Baltic countries street food – hot dogs 🌭

-Maxima (X / XX / XXX) supermarkets where one can buy pastry, ready to eat salads, meat, fish, vegetable etc. The quality is great, prices are super affordable and it's tasty! Our favourites are cabbage pies 😋

-Pelm (Nautica Keskus and few more locations) cosy place with a nice interior and great affordable menu highlighting Russian cuisine dishes and desserts as well as super tasty fruit tea. They also have a friendly restaurant's network called “Repa”.

-Samsa Family Bakers (Viru Keskus and few more locations) this Uzbeki cuisine place features the best Pilaff (Plov) and Chebureks for sure.

-PAAT restaurant is located on the seashore near the Viimsi Open Air Museum and serves fresh and delicious seafood dishes.

-Karja Kelder this pub is located in the touristic old town area, but has a pretty affordable menu featuring mixed Estonian and Russian dishes and local beer.

-Armudu restaurant serves tasty Shashlik, grilled vegetables and Khachapuri.

Of course, there are all familiar fast-food chains, and some local food/coffee chains like Caffeine, Hesburger etc.

👀 What to do and what to see

• Tallinn Old Town including Viru Gates, Hellemann Tower and Town, Tallinn Town Hall and Town Hall Square, St. Nicholas' Church, Danish King's Garden, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, St. Olaf's Church, Toompea Castle and more places including beautiful small streets and passages.

• Tallinn Town Wall including Tallitorn, Maiden Tower Museum, Kiek in de Kök Museum and Bastion Tunnels and other places around.

• Freedom Square.

• Reidi tee promenaad and the whole area around Tallinn harbour, which was newly renovated and features multiple playgrounds, leisure spots and places to eat tasty food.

• Open Air Museums such as Estonian Open Air Museum and Viimsi Open Air Museum.

• Pirita area including Pirita Beach, Pirita Convent Ruins, beautiful forest (Pirita mets), adventure park and so on. Near this area, one can also visit Tallinn Botanic Garden and Tallinn TV Tower.

💡 Some highlights

• We noticed that everything, including food, got much expensive in Tallinn, and one can compare local prices with ones in western-European countries such as Germany or France etc.
• Close to Tallinn one can also enjoy a beautiful nature and find such things as waterfalls (for example Jägala or Keila waterfall), natural parks and forests.
• From Tallinn, one can easily take a day trip to Helsinki by ferry.

General Info

Country: Thailand | Language: Thai, Southern Thai | Currency: THAI BAHT (THB) | Flag: 🇹🇭 | When visited: Dec. 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🚗 How to commute

Beyond a rental car or bike, one have 2 main options to move around the Pa Thong and the whole Phuket Island: taxi or Phuket Smart Bus. The same is true for commuting from the airport to most parts of the island. The smart bus operates from 8am to 11pm minimum hourly, and has a fixed price of 100 THB per person per any trip in any direction (in cash!). We decided to go with taxi. There are plenty of options such as public taxi, Grab, inDrive or Bolt, with the latest two being the cheapest. Even though taxi is quicker than the smart bus, one should expect a long ride, as traffic jams are common in Phuket.

🏨 Where to stay

From small cheap rooms rented from locals on the hills to 5 stars hotels and resorts on the beach front, as it's usual for popular holiday destinations such as Phuket, one can find the huge variety of accommodations. I would say, that 2 important things one need to take into consideration while choosing a place to stay are hills and beach quality. Make sure that you've checked pics/videos of the nearest beach, because not all of them are having a good water quality, and as the terrain of the island is mountainous, you need to make sure you won't have to climb too high to reach your accommodation.

We have stayed at Baan Andaman Sea Surf in a two-bedroom Villa in the area of Patong beach. We loved the design, vibes, and calmness of the place, and enjoyed a lot of its premisses, with a pool featuring a small whirlpool and multiple common spaces with entertainments. The only small problem, which we were aware in advance and were fine with, was the pretty steep last ca. 20% of the path to the hotel. But the quality of the room, service and atmosphere were top for the price we have paid!

Our friends also stayed at another nice place called “Kokotel” in Naiyang beach area. It features enjoyable modern rooms and a huge rooftop pool, and is located just 3–5 minutes walk from the beach.

🍽️ What and where to eat

Of course, there are multiple cafés and restaurants, from locals as well as global chains, to choose from. Besides, one can order food for delivery via for example Grab, buy some ready to eat food in the supermarket, or go for more local options such as food market or small food-trucks of locals with quick dishes.

Some highlights in Pa Thong area include: – Big C supermarkets (multiple locations around the city with the biggest supermarket at the Jungceylon shopping mall) where one can buy vegetables, fruits, and grocery to cook something, as well as ready to eat dishes and snacks.

• Banzaan Fresh Market (located just opposite the Jungceylon shopping mall) where one can buy vegetables, fruits, and various local dishes from various vendors from deep-fried snacks to grilled fish.

• Roti Patong Tea and Coffee a small nice café, where one can eat supper delicious local traditional kind of pancakes with various filling from Nutella to ham & cheese. They also serve various drinks, including pretty good coffee.

• ZomPaul Eatery serves all the traditional Thai food, but the good thing about this place is that it's located in a small side road, where it is not that crowdy and loud.

• No.6 Restaurant a small place with a huge variety of tasty food, where is always a line and one need to expect to wait min 10-15 min. to be seated! It has long tables with many people seating around them, just like in German beer gardens, but the atmosphere is enjoyable and comfortable and food is delicious.

• Mr. Good's Seafood is also a pretty good place, where one can buy fresh fish and other seafood by kilos and enjoy it right away. Prices are not the cheapest one, but similar to other places in this busy area.

• Blue Beach is a cosy place on the beach front, where one can enjoy cocktails and live music. Piña colada in a coconut is something worth a try :)

👀 What to do and what to see

• Check out various beaches there are plenty of them and they are really different! Our favourites were:
• Kata Noi Beach (clear water, beautiful scenery around)

• Naiyang Beach (calm and close to Sirinat National Park, so one can enjoy a great nature around) as well as Mai Khao Beach (here one can see arriving and departing aeroplanes staying just under them).

• Travel around the island and check various national parks, beaches, waterfalls, temples, markets, and entertainment complexes such as “FantaSea”, “Blue Tree Phuket” etc.

• Go visit and feed Elephants at various locations around the city. We have been to a place called “Elephant Jungle Sanctuary” located almost in the middle of the island and featuring a nice café (“Elephant Jungle Cafe”).

• Go visit The Big Buddha or if you don't want, you can see him almost everywhere in Karon area.

• Eat fresh seafood at Rawai Seafood Market this is just the best place to buy some really fresh seafood that is even alive, and go to any or restaurants around, where you can choose how you want it to be cooked for you for some small payment per kilo.

• Bangla Road is a place to visit near Patong beach if you like loud music and parties, or if you are a fan of night-life entertainments.

💡 Some highlights

• As in many Asian cities, you need to expect heavy traffic, loud roads and traffic jams!
• To my taste, local Thai food turned out to be not that tasty :( But seafood especially at Rawai is super fresh and delicious!
• We were unpleasantly surprised with some not really friendly behaviour of locals, and their aggressive sales approach.
• I didn't finally get all the details, but there is some kind of conflict situation around local taxi drivers: in some areas you are allowed to on-/offboard taxis ordered via apps only in specially dedicated areas. Once our taxi driver (from InDrive) had a conflict with other drivers just because she collected us at the place, where we were waiting for her (we didn't know that this place was “reserved” for some local taxis only).
• There is a huge variety of fruits that are pretty cheap and always tasty! One also needs to try a passion fruit 100% juice, which could be bought in Big C at Jungceylon shopping mall. It's just out of this world!

General Info

Country: Indonesia | Language: Indonesian, Balinese | Currency: IDR | Flag: 🇮🇩 | When visited: Feb. & Dec. 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🚗 How to commute

If you don't have a transfer arranged by your hotel, or friends, who can meet you, you'll have to take a taxi to commute from the airport to that part of Bali, you are going to stay. We used Grab App to get a taxi (as it's cheaper than what multiple drivers directly at the airport will propose you), and at the same time there are other Apps helping to get a taxi even cheaper like Gojek or inDrive (but it's cash only). In general, there is no public transport and people are moving by car or bike around the island. It's also not that much comfortable to walk around, as side walks are not everywhere, and traffic is really heavy.

🏨 Where to stay

There are multiple options available, from cheap hotels to luxury villas. Most people want to rent a villa to live a comfortable and luxury live here, but it got more expensive recently. Anyway, we were staying at our friend's villa in Kerabokan area. It is a lovely place with a small swimming pool and a lot of space.

🍽️ What and where to eat

To my taste, the local food is not that good. Locals eat at so called “Warung”, where pretty similar to Malasian dishes with rice and chicken are sold for pennies. We haven't tried any of them, and have been to some bakeries like Conato Bakery, cafés like 25:PM Coffee, ordered a lot of food via GoJek/Grab from multiple places and even tried some snacks at Pepito To Go café at Pepito supermarket. Our favourite option to eat here is Sunday brunches, which are available at multiple hotels and beach clubs such as Kempinski, Hyatt as well as other smaller local hotels.

Some highlights include: – Brunchcation, The Apurva Kempinski Bali, Nusa Dua – amazing option not only to eat tasty food and fresh seafood, but also to spend time on the great hotel premisses featuring few swimming pools, and beach with multiple beach sport and water sport activities. It's not that cheap (around 1.000.000 IDR after taxes and service fees without alcohol), but considering the unlimited seafood such as crabs, lobsters, oysters etc. and opportunity to use the whole territory for the whole day, it's an amazing deal! We loved this place a lot, and been there multiple times!

👀 What to do and what to see

Of course, it depends on your time, budget, and preferences. In general, one can choose from multiple options, such as: * Visit various beaches and bays around the island and on the neighbour islands. It is worth to mention, that not all beaches here are that nice as you may expect and may even not be good for swimming and staying either due to the unclear water or dirty beach. Many people here prefer to go not to a beach themselves, but to beach clubs, which are located at various beaches and provide not only additional pools with an impressive view, but also various food and services such as changing rooms/WCs/Wi-Fi etc. * Visit multiple temples and enjoy the culture. Moving around the city, you will surely see multiple small temples, where you can even see traditional dances and rituals. But of course, there are few popular places, which are considered to be more culturally important, such as Pura Tanah Lot or Taman Ayun Temple and so on. Just do a quick search and find a place, that looks more interesting for you to go :) * Enjoy nature by going to rice terrace, waterfalls, forests, national parks and other beautiful places. * Do some sport or water sport. People here like to look good and there are multiple options from fitness halls, yoga classes, tennis/padel courts to surfing schools and so on. * But if you want to look better, but not to be that active, you can enjoy massage or other wellness and spa procedures. There are multiple places, few of which we tried and can recommend, include Massaji Spa Bali (in the heart of the city in Canggu) and Putri Bali Spa (in a green lovely area in Ubud).

💡 Some highlights

• There are constant traffic jams almost everywhere. Due to that, many people prefer to go by bike. If you are not ready to rent and drive one, make sure you check the situation on the road in advance.
• It's pretty hot and humid all the year around.
• Recently, Bali got pretty expensive, so don't expect a paradise for pennies here.
• Of course, it's possible to pay with Visa/MasterCard in most cases and places, but be informed that a minimum amount of 50.000 IDR will be applied in this case. You also will need to have cash sometimes (for some local shops, cafés or services like post etc.), so do exchange some money. You can do it pretty anywhere in the city, where you'll have a better exchange rate than at the airport, and it will be the same in most places.

General Info

Country: Malaysia | Language: Malay, English | Currency: MYR/RM | Flag: 🇲🇾 | When visited: Feb.-April & Nov.-Dec. 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🚗 How to commute

The cheapest option to get from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) is the bus: there are multiple operators and buses during each hour, and price will be as low as 12-15 MYR. Buses here are pretty comfortable, and arrive to the Central Station, from where one can use public transport to commute further 🚌 An alternative option is a taxi, which is more expensive and will cost 65 MYR during the daytime and a bit more during the nighttime, but make sense if you prefer comfort or travel in a group of 3-4 people. The best and cheapest way to order a taxi is to use Grab app, which one can download in advance or using the Airport Wi-Fi 🚕

🏨 Where to stay

There are multiple options available with various budgets. In general, one can find a pretty cheap, but still good place lower than 25 EUR per night.

One of popular option to stay are so-called “condo”: buildings with up to 40 floors which provide various apartments with a kitchen and basic supplies for short and long stay, as well as various amenities such as fitness hall, swimming pool, multiple common areas including small gardens, cafés, small shops, laundry services and so on.

We personally stayed multiple times in Ceylonz Suites @ Bukit Bintang which is close to Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) and features a rooftop swimming pool with incredible view over the city centre including famous Menara Kuala Lumpur and Petronas Twin Tower and is in 20 minutes walk from the very city centre.

🍽️ What and where to eat

There are multiple options such as supermarkets or small convenient stores with ready to consume food, food courts in shopping malls, street markets or sometimes single small food trays, and of course cafés and restaurants of various cuisines 😋 Also, it's possible to order food for takeaway or delivery in most places.

We love Asian food of different kind as well as seafood and fruits, so we tried many various places so far!

Some highlights include:

• Shell Out – a seafood restaurant which has multiple locations around KL and also deliver their incredibly delicious seafood sets and Ala-carte dishes! It's a place with the most budget and at the same time fresh and tasty crabs as far as we know, their Delight Sets are just incredible and are more than enough for 2 people.

• Hotpot Kitchen – a Korean pace where one can self choose various ingredients including vegetables, meat, seafood, noodles and rice, as well as decide on the level of spiciness, and they will be cooked right away in 10–15 minutes. Due to various combination of multiple ingredients, one can have each time something new, but always tasty! There are multiple locations: we've been to Hotpot Kitchen in Lot 10 and Sunway Velocity malls. It's also possible to order delivery via Grab, but there you'll have limited choices to choose from.

• FWF Hotpot @ Fahrenheit is a traditional Chinese hot pot restaurant: you choose soup(s) and ingredients which you cook yourself and enjoy the meal. Incredibly fresh, tasty and fun food! And the atmosphere in this place is also really comfortable and authentic. Location: Jln Bukit Bintang, C1213-G, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

• Gindaco – Japanese place with Takoyaki and famous fish-shape croissant Taiyaki. There are also multiple locations (we've been to Gindaco @ Pavilion) and it's also possible to order delivery via Grab.

• STREAT Thai – Thai food restaurant which we have never been to, but ordered from multiple times a week :) They provide a great variety of popular dishes such as tom yam soup, papaya or glass noodle salads, fried rice in multiple options, as well as fried or steamed fish and seafood.

• Ho Ko Hainam Kopitiam – a hainanese cafeteria with great menu for both tasty breakfast and lunch which is open till noon (14:30-15:00) and is super crowdy usually! If go here, please plan that you may wait in line up to 30 minutes before you get in and eat :) They have such a yummy Dried Chicken Curry Noodle and Curry Mee that we even couldn't make a photo and ate it right away (after 20 minutes waiting in the line)

• LOKL Coffee – a small place with international cuisine and “European” coffee, where one can have both breakfast and lunch. We used to eat here Thai Omelette with rice for breakfast and share 1 dish for 2, because it's huge and super tasty!

• Redoor Coffee Cafe one more small place for a great breakfast with tasty and inexpensive coffee. We used to eat a chicken loaf here, which is also huge, and we used to share it for 2 in the morning.

• Back factory a small bakery around the city, with fresh and yummy buns and pastry. One can both sweet as well as non-sweet buns with sausages, cheese, pandan etc. Our vafourite thing here is a Coffee-bun.

• Pavilion Food court provides a huge variety of places of various cuisine to eat for a very budget prices. The same is true for various shopping malls, which all have food streets or courts.

• Cold Storage is a supermarket where one can buy ready to eat food starting from fruit sets and ending with lunch boxes with a well-balanced food including rice / salad or vegetables / chicken or fish and many others things for a budget prices.

• FamilyMart is a cool Japanese small convenient store, where one can buy cool thing to eat starting from sweets and ice-cream to soups! We love their hokkaido cupcake, Belgium Truffle cupcake, Sofuto ice-cream of various sorts, and coffee. Triple cheese corn dog with sausage and their soups are things one need definitely try out too.

• Fruit and fresh juices shop against Timothy cafe is another favourite place of ours, where we bought the best fruits and fruit juices. Our top recommendation is Orange-Green Apple-Kedondong mixed juice, it's not just tasty, but also super healthy!

Our favourite drinks are coffee in Zus Coffee and various drinks in Happy lemon, as well as fruit juices and freshes in a small Chinese fruit shop opposite to Timothy cafe.

👀 What to do and what to see

Of course, Kuala Lumpur can provide activities and entertainment of all kinds and for different budgets. Below are just some popular and highly recommended things one can do here: * visit some popular places in the KLCC: Merdeka Square, Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque, KLCC park, Petronas Twin Tower, KL Forest Eco Park (Taman Eko-Rimba KL) with canopy walk, Menara KL, Botanical Garden KL, Batu Caves and so on. * go shopping in multiple huge malls and visit various street markets such as Petaling street Chinese market, or Jalan Alor Food street and so on. Don't go to the advertised huge tech malls, they have higher prices than “branded” tech shops in malls. * try different snacks and sweets in Donki, FamilyMart, 7 Eleven, and various small shops like KK etc. * use various services which are much cheaper here in comparison to Europe due to the cheap labour, including: – Massage (check out HealthLand especially during their weekdays Happy hours), – Haircut and scalp treatment (E3 salon near Masjid Jamek station is top, because it's an academy where young hairdressers get trained, and they pay so much attention and invest a lot of time to do a high-quality haircut with washing, massage and so on for extremely small price like 20 MYR), – beauty procedures like depilation, manicure and pedicure, facial procedures etc., * buy English books or watch movies in English for extremely low prices like 15 MYR for a book in a POPULAR bookshop and 20 MYR for a movie in TGV cinemas around the city * swim and do sport with a lovely view on the high floors in a hotel * visit other cities (such as Malacca, Cameron Highlands etc.), islands in Malaysia (such as Penang, Langkawi or Sabah) and other countries like Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. enjoying the cheap flights due to the cheap fuel :)

💡 Some highlights

• as there are people of 3 cultures living together in Malaysia: Malay, Chinese, Hindu, one can enjoy all of them in 1 city. Interesting is that there are dedicated monocultural streets and districts, so just search for what you are interested in using Google search and maps, and check it out.
• due to the colonial history and people of multiple culture living together, English language is super popular and almost every one speaks English here.
• here one can enjoy really cheap delivery services (for food and grocery), taxi, public transport and flights due to the fact that country has its own Oil production.
• one need to know that they have different to Europe sockets, and adapter might be needed (though some hotels already provide sockets with USB etc.)
• we understood that no SIM card is needed even if you stay for a long time, because actually one can easily move around, connecting to various Wi-Fi from malls, restaurants, and hotels.
• it turned out that it's much cleaner and fewer insects here than we expected, and it's great!
• they have a local Coffee (Kopi) and Tea (Teh), served with a lot of sugar and condense milk traditionally, so if you want to have a coffee you get used to in Europe, you'll need to find the right place like Zus Coffee etc. to buy it.

General Info

Country: Australia | Language: English | Currency: AUD | Flag: 🇦🇺 | When visited: Nov-Dec. 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🚗 How to commute

There are multiple ways to come from the airport to the city centre: taxi, bus, train. We used the quickest and simplest way: train, which costs the same as a bus. There is a single line called “Airport line” with a train coming every 10 minutes and arriving to the city within 25 minutes. One just needs to follow the sign to get to the train station and to buy there a ticket for zone 2-4 that costs 5,10 AUD per person. 🚆

🏨 Where to stay

If one want to have quick access to cafés, sightseeing, shops, bars etc. one should stay in one of the central districts such as West Perth, Northbridge or East Perth. There are multiple options of small and chain hotel, where 1 night will cost 200+ AUD for 2 guests. We stayed on the other bank of the river near the Victoria Perk district at the Metro Hotel, South Perth. This hotel belongs to a local Australia hotel chain, provides a bit more modest and cheaper than in the centre, though still comfortable rooms, with a lovely view over the Swan river and Perth downtown.

🍽️ What and where to eat

Oh, there are so many cool options from famous Australian Angus beef to seafood including prawns, scallops, and lobsters among other things 😋

Some highlights include: – Sushi HUB (multiple locations around the city and Western Australia (WA)) where one can eat great variety of supper fresh giant sushi and nigiri, as well as enjoy a sushi train 🍣 – Betty's Burgers having a special lobster burger that is incredibly tasty!

There are also all familiar fast-food chains, and some local food/coffee chains like Red Rooster, The Coffee Club etc., multiple restaurants with Australian and Asian cuisine, as well as ready to eat meal available in Woolworths supermarkets including grilled chicken, sandwiches, salads (especially they like Coleslaw and fruit salads) and so on.

👀 What to do and what to see

In the city * City centre and Elizabeth Quay area including Perth downtown, multiple small churches scattered between huge skyscrapers, The Bell tower, Supreme Court Gardens etc. * Heirisson Island Kangaroo Sanctuary – a small island on the Swan River just between the city centre and Victoria Park district, where one can see wild living kangaroos! :( we've been so stupid and haven't visited this place, even though we were passing by multiple times. We found that there are kangaroos living in the city only on our way back in a chat with a local girl... * Kings Park and Botanic Garden is an incredibly beautiful place featuring flora from all over Australia and multiple birds including parrots and cockatoos. Check here out the State War memorial, Giant Boab, Pioneer Women's memorial, DNA tower, beautiful view over the city and so on.

Not far from the city in WA * Fremantle a lovely port town with great markets street, old architecture and beaches. * Rottnest Island – a place where meme QUOKKAs live! This is one of the best destinations from Perth (via Fremantle). It's not only a place of living of lovely quokkas, but the island also provides a wide variety of flora and fauna, as well as salt lakes, stunning beaches with the best in the world infrastructure and place to see whales/dolphins etc. Other places we wanted to go, unfortunately didn't manage, but highly recommend to check out include Yanchep National Park (with Yanchep Koala Boardwalk), Yanchep Crystal Cave, Swan Valley etc.

💡 Some highlights

• If you are a smoker, it will be a thought trip :) Complications start with a restriction of 25 cigarettes allowed per person on arrival. Then smoking is allowed in a specially allocated areas only, which are sometimes really tricky to find. :) And finally, after your 25 cigarettes gone, you'll have to buy a pack for at least 31,95 AUD (crazy!) only on special counters in big supermarkets like Woolworths or Coles, as well as at a liquor store.
• Alcohol is either sold in bars or in dedicated liquor stores, and prices even for beer are pretty high.
• We were nicely surprised with the local weather: summer season just started and thought it was pretty hot (one day 34 C degrees). Sun is super strong there (with UV level up to 12!), but the cool thing is that around 4-5pm it gets much lighter and a fresh wind appears, so one can walk around with a great pleasure and comfort. In the 1st half of the day the fresh wind is also pretty common, but it is dangerous at this time: it makes it feel less hot, even though the sun exposure is really intensive, and one should always wear a sunscreen and a proper cloth as well as hat going outside for protection!

General Info

Country: Lithuania | Language: Lithuanian, Russian | Currency: EURO (EUR) | Flag: 🇱🇹 | When visited: Oct. 2023

____________________________________________________________________________

🚗 How to commute

The best and cheapest way to reach the city centre is by bus. The bus stop is located just opposite the main airport entrance, and there are multiple buses: #88, #1, #2 or #3G which is the quickest (ca. 15-20 minutes to the city centre) and the most frequent one. 🚌

🏨 Where to stay

We haven't been staying overnight. But if we would, we would stay at the “Grand Hotel Kempinski Vilnius”. 😀

🍽️ What and where to eat

The range of inexpensive and tasty food is huge: from ready to eat dishes in the supermarket to cafés and restaurants with local cuisine 😋

Some highlights include: – Narvesen (multiple locations around the city) where one can buy traditional for Baltic countries street food – hot dogs 🌭 – Maxima supermarkets where one can buy pastry, ready to eat salads, meat, fish, vegetable etc. The quality is great, prices are super affordable and it's tasty! 🍰

-Šnekutis (Šv. Mikolojaus g. 15, 01133 Vilnius) local pub with a great selection of the local beer and food 🍺

Of course, there are all familiar fast-food chains, and some local food/coffee chains like Vero caffee, Caif Cafe, Caffeine etc. and it is worth to notice that they have some local menu, like for example coleslaw burger in KFC or Halloween special coffee in Caffeine.

👀 What to do and what to see

• Vilnius Old Town including Town Hall Square, multiple churches and cathedrals, Gates of Dawn, Angel of Užupis, Literatų g. street and more

• Gediminas Castle Tower is worth a visit. It provides 2 amazing experiences: great viewpoint over the whole city, as well as interesting and new experience with the Funicular to the Gediminas Hill, which functions similar to an elevator! It costs just 1EUR, and one need to try it out for sure 😀

• Historical architectural ensemble, including Vilnius Cathedral, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and some monuments around.

• Baltasis tiltas bridge and area around on both river banks.

• Lukiškės Square and area around including Interactive Fountains, Church of Apostles St. Philip and St. Jacob, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius District Court, Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights and so on.

💡 Some highlights

• It turned out that #1 foreign language there is Russian, so almost all people there speak Russian (or at least understand it).
• The city provides a captivating mixture of historical epochs: one can see a lot of Soviet Union buildings, from houses till Museums, which co-exist in harmony with old buildings common for European cities.
• In general, so many things around remind about Soviet Union: from sweets in supermarkets to buildings and public transport such as old trolleybuses.
• Tasty food, pretty inexpensive products, and a lot of familiar food in supermarkets and cafés from our childhood :)