Yulko Polo Travel Blog

General Info

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

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🚗 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

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🚗 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 :)