Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: tours

36-ish Hours in Dubai

When I was selecting flights to the Maldives, the best itinerary for our schedule included a 12-hour layover in Dubai. I pitched the idea to Chris that we could use that half-day to do a quick desert tour outside of Dubai, but once we started looking into it, we realized we’d also like to see more of the city so we decided to stay overnight. With a visit to the Burj Khalifa, the Gold Souk, and a desert tour, we were able to fit a sampler of city life, culture, and nature into our 36-ish hours in Dubai.

Desert Tour

If you only have time for one activity on a layover in Dubai, I can easily recommend doing a desert safari. We booked the Platinum Conservation Drive with Platinum Heritage and had a fantastic time despite the overcast skies and occasional (super rare!) rain. Our guide, Tiago, picked us up at our hotel and drove us (along with two other people) to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve for an informative overview of the reserve’s history, culture, and ecology.

On the way to the desert, we stopped by the Dubai Camel Racing Club along the way for the chance to see these athletes up close.

Once inside the reserve, we first stopped by a recreation of a traditional Bedouin campsite, which was sort of like an outdoor museum. It’s very nicely done. The site is also used for belly dance demonstrations and meals included in other tours. Tiago helped us to don a Bedouin headscarf to protect our faces from the elements. And to look cool, obviously.

Just outside of the campsite we met these camels who were prepared to give us a ride around the desert even though it wasn’t part of our package, but we passed on it – they looked so happy and relaxed, we didn’t want to disturb them. (Well, besides taking photos.)

While driving around the dunes we were able to spot tons of wildlife, including a heard of oryx. We didn’t do any dune-bashing though, and that’s one of the reasons I selected this tour specifically since dune-bashing is harmful to the ecosystem.

After exploring the desert, we stopped by the Al Maha Resort for a gorgeous breakfast spread that regretfully I didn’t photograph. We also had the opportunity to try freshly brewed Qahwa (or gahwah), traditional Arabic coffee served with sweet dates.

Old Dubai

I can’t pass up an opportunity to visit the old town part of any city for a glance back in time. Chris and I stayed in Old Dubai for the proximity to the old souks and a view of the water. We wandered up and down the Dubai Creek, and eventually made our way to the gold souk.

Walking through the souk is one of the most overwhelming shopping experiences I’ve ever had – we were practically pulled in twelve different directions by various vendors as soon as we entered, and I’ve never felt more popular. I ended up buying a pashmina (which I had planned on buying) and some cumin (which I had not planned on buying). Their sweet and persuasive tactics are hard to resist.

We originally thought we’d hit the gold souk, then the spice souk, followed by the old souk, but the gold souk wore us out! Thankfully we saw a bit of everything at the one souk.

Dubai Mall & Burj Khalifa

Ordinarily I would rather avoid a shopping mall at all costs especially while traveling, but I admit to being curious about the famous Dubai Mall and we needed to go there anyway to enter the Burj Khalifa. And I found out they had a Magnolia Bakery. And we couldn’t imagine the sheer size of a place that housed so many stores, restaurants, an aquarium and an ice skating rink, so we had to see for ourselves. Verdict: it’s impressive. And our cupcakes were delicious.

Also impressive: the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. But ugh, the crowd was unbearable. We purchased tickets in advance for nighttime to try to avoid the biggest surge of people (typically before and during sunset), but the amount of people on the observation deck still made this sort of an unpleasant experience. I’m glad we went up and saw the view, but we didn’t stay more than ten minutes which made this just sort of a check-the-box kind of experience. The performing fountain outside was pretty cool though.

And that was Dubai for us! I’m not going to do a snapshot post for Dubai since we didn’t even stay for two full days, but I’m so happy we were able to get a taste of this fascinating city.

June 23, 2017
Eating Prague’s Brews and Views Tour

Chris and I certainly had our priorities straight when we arrived in Prague, the last stop on our Central Europe trip – I had signed us up for Eating Prague’s newest tour, Brews and Views, on our first full day in the capital city. I figured it would be the best way to get introduced to the lay of the land and the best of the beers, and I was right! Brews and views abound, we worked our way through Prague drinking Czech beers, learning about Czech beer culture, snacking on delicious food pairings, and taking in some of the most gorgeous views across the city.

We started out with a beautiful walk across the river and up to Letna Park which overlooks the Old Town side of Prague. We met our awesome and super knowledgeable guide, Jan, and the rest of our group for a Gambrinus in the park. It doesn’t get better than beer and fresh air in a park overlooking one of the most stunning city views.

(Hey America, please take note – drinking a beer outside in a setting as lovely as Letna Park is a truly wonderful thing. Let’s adopt this drinking outdoors policy!)

I don’t want to give away all the tour’s secrets and actually I couldn’t even if I wanted to – each of the stops is depending on the availability and the schedule for the day – but Jan showed us an amazing array of hidden gems off the beaten path. We hit up several bars, restaurants, pubs, and nooks that we probably wouldn’t have discovered on our own.

As for the star of the show, the beer, we tasted everything from light beers, reds, IPAs, dark stouts, and pilsners. Chris and I tend to get a little nerdy with our beer tasting and we typically take notes and rate them via the Untapped app, but on this tour we sat back and let Jan tell us about each beer and we simply enjoyed the drinks and the company.

Off the top of my head, I remember the Gambrinus, the Bernard red lager, and a citrusy IPA at T-Anker to name a few. There were about eight or so additional tastings after that, and a lot of these were full glasses, so I hope you’ll forgive me for not remembering the name of every single beer. You’ll just have to go on the tour for yourself!

Not only did we sample so many of Prague’s finest beers, we also learned about beer-food pairings. I definitely recommend coming on this tour with an appetite! We expected a snack here and there as indicated in the description, but we didn’t expect being able to skip dinner that evening because we were full and happy from all the tasty food on the tour. Not pictured: the bun-wrapped sausage that was so delicious Chris and I went back the next day to get another one.

In addition to the beer, the food, and a fantastic guide, part of what made the tour was the company. You automatically have something very specific in common with the other members of the tour, a love for beer, so it’s easy to bond over the course of the 3.5 hours (or in our case, 6 hours, since a bunch of us hung around together after the tour ended).

This was hands-down one of the best tours we’ve ever been on, and I can’t recommend it enough. Tickets were 65 euros each and that included all of the generous pours and a copious amount of snacks throughout the afternoon. (Seriously, don’t eat a big meal right before you show up for this tour!) Tours run Tuesday through Saturday at 2:30pm. We ended up walking approximately 2 miles/3.2 km or so, and it was at a leisurely pace. Sometimes we even got to walk around with a beer.

Up next, we dedicated a day to the Old Town side of Prague and then a day to the Mala Strana side. Stay tuned for those two posts!

November 10, 2016
Bratislava Day-Tripping

Admittedly Slovakia wasn’t exactly on my radar until I started planning our time in Vienna, Austria, which ended up being the first two days of our two-week Central Europe trip. Once I realized how quickly and easily we could experience an additional capital city on this trip, I decided to give up one of our Vienna days in order to take a day trip over to Bratislava.

We originally planned to take an organized tour (round-trip transportation plus walking tour) to cross the border for simplicity’s sake, but when I discovered the start time would require us to be out the door about an hour or so before I’m functional in the morning, I decided to DIY the whole thing. And it couldn’t have been easier.

Before we left for the trip, I booked bus tickets online through FlixBus, traveling from Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Novy Most. The morning of our day trip we simply took the U-Bahn (underground subway) from our Vienna hotel to the Erdberg bus stop, hopped on the big green bus, and enjoyed the comfy one-hour ride straight to Bratislava. The Novy Most bus stop put us right next to the main old town area. Easy breezy, and much cheaper than an organized tour!

We wandered the cozy pedestrian streets of Old Town on our own, discovering quirky statues, a mixture between tattered structures and cheerful buildings, and ample people-watching opportunities.

If there’s one thing we noticed around Old Town, it was all of the quirky, fun-loving statues. This one popping out of the sewer garnered a lot of attention from fellow tourists, and where else can you have the perfect opportunity to sidle up to Napoleon hovering behind a park bench?

For an easy way to get up to the castle, we took the one-hour Up to the Castle tour on the cutest little open-air bus, the Presporacik-Oldtimer. It meets its passengers right near the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre.

At 20 euro per person, this ended up being kind of a pricey spin around the town while listening to a pre-recorded audio guide, but in the interest of time it worked out well. I don’t think we would have made it back to the FlixBus in time for our return trip if we had trekked up to the castle and back on foot. Plus it took us away from the historic center and showed us a bit more of the surrounding Slovak socialist architecture. Random fun-fact: we learned from the audio guide that the tallest building in Bratislava, the Bratislava National Bank, has twenty-three elevators. If that ever comes up on Jeopardy, I’m ready.

It’s worth noting though that if you actually want to stay and tour the castle and don’t want to hoof it back down afterward, this isn’t an effective mode of transportation since the Oldtimer only stops at the castle for fifteen minutes.

After exploring the city center and cruising around in the Oldtimer, we walked across the Novy Most bridge to the UFO Tower where we took a speedy elevator up to the observation deck for an amazing view of the city. The entrance fee cost 7,40 euro each, but I’m a sucker for a good view and photo op. Here is where you can get a better idea of how the more opulent and medieval historic center is nestled in among modern structures.

We enjoyed drinks at the bar right below the observation deck before heading back to the bus stop to catch our bus back to Vienna. Look how much ice they gave me at the bar to go with my Coke Light! If you are an American traveling in Europe, you know this is a big deal. (Not pictured, Chris’s local Slovak beer. And the amazingly refreshing lemonade was from a stop earlier in the day at a cafe called Moods.)

Somehow we totally missed seeing St. Elizabeth, the Blue Church. It’s on the outskirts of Old Town, and didn’t know about it until we got back from the trip! I’m kind of bummed about that because it looks like a really beautiful church. I don’t think we rode past it on the Oldtimer. I’ll simply have to put it on the list for the next time I happen to be in Bratislava!

I’m so glad we added this charming city to our itinerary, if nothing else but to dispel the only (wildly inaccurate) image of Bratislava in my head courtesy of the movie EuroTrip. It’s well worth visiting, especially if you’re right next door in Vienna. Up next, Chris and I hop on a train toward Salzburg, but first we make a stop in Melk!

October 17, 2016
Vienna, Austria: A Very Good Place To Start

Chris and I returned from Europe three weeks ago and I have yet to post anything from the trip here! I finally found a moment this weekend to start to catch up on things, and I’m starting with the very beginning (sing it with me: “…a very good place to staaart“) of our two week European trip with Vienna, Austria.

This whole trip all started with Chris’s inkling of attending Oktoberfest, and before I knew it, I had added three other countries to a two-week itinerary. I wonder how many European trips get planned like that? With everything in such close proximity it’s so easy to say, “Well, if we’re in Munich, we’re so close to Austria…and ooo, Prague isn’t far away either. It’s a direct flight to Vienna, so we we might as well sneak over to Slovakia…” and so on.

We arrived in Vienna just about as jet-lagged as we have ever been, but thankfully we found that our hotel was situated right across the street from one of the most famous cafés in the city, Café Central. Sure it’s a little touristy, but a traditional Viennese iced coffee was the perfect introduction to Austria in my opinion! (And thus began our two-week long affair with the café life.)

Despite my love for music and baroque architecture, I confess I didn’t fall head-over-heels for Vienna the way I did with a few other cities on our two-week European trek. Maybe it’s because we picked Vienna simply for the direct flight from Washington-Dulles, or maybe it has to do with our jet-lagged state in which we wandered the streets. We still had a wonderful time exploring the capital though, and if I’m able to return for a longer period of time someday, perhaps Vienna will end up wooing me after all.

I did love all of the statues and ornate details on nearly every corner. And we had gorgeous albeit hot weather.

Knowing full well we would be completely exhausted and all too tempted to curl up for a nap in our hotel, I scheduled a walking tour for the first day as the perfect way to beat our jet lag. And what better tour to book for two photographers than a Polaroid Photo Tour where we see the sights with instant cameras in-hand.

Formerly known as the PolaWalk, the tour gave us an instant (pun intended!) feel for the city by introducing us to major sites such as Karlskirche, Staatsoper, Hofburg and Heldenplatz, and also a few nooks and crannies we might not have noticed on our own.

For 55 euro, I wandered around with a vintage Polaroid instant camera and a pack of The Impossible Project instant film, taking in the scenery and composing instant memories. Chris opted for the no-camera ticket (25 euro) so that he could document Vienna with his own SLR. It’s a nice option for anyone who simply wants to join the tour sans Polaroid.

I actually ended up using my SLR, my point-and-shoot, and my iPhone in addition to the Polaroid camera like a crazy person. I’m ~~sort of~~ a documentation nut, but I’m just mentioning this to point out you are welcome to use cameras on the tour other than the Polaroid.

Another confession: we didn’t make it to the end of the tour! I didn’t even shoot all eight of my instant films. Not only were we still on Virginia time, it was over 90-degrees that day and it was too hard to stay hydrated. Chris and I hung in there for a good two hours, but the tour ran a bit longer than that and we simply couldn’t hang. But we thoroughly enjoyed our time with our sweet guide, Teresa, and the rest of the group, and I love my little collection of Polaroid snaps (which I lazily photographed for you with my iPhone, above).

We ended our day with nothing other than wienerschnitzel, local beers, and apple strudel at Augustiner Keller before crashing into our hotel bed at about 8pm.

And that was Vienna! We stayed two nights, but we dedicated the next day to seeing Bratislava, Slovakia (up next on the blog). Before leaving Vienna though, I couldn’t say no to another visit to Café Central to try Sacher Torte for the first time. Verdict: amazing.

Stay tuned for a barrage of posts as I cover our foray into Slovakia, more of Austria, then Germany, and finally Czech Republic!

October 16, 2016
The Great Beer-Off of 2016: Round 1 Belgium

Somewhat unintentionally, Chris and I ended up making the bulk of our 2016 travel plans with a bit of a theme: beer. We scheduled a trip to Belgium after Chris read a magazine article about touring Belgium’s breweries and bars on a bicycle. Chris has also always wanted to go to Oktoberfest, so Germany was added to the itinerary for this year. And since Prague isn’t far at all from Munich, I tacked it onto our Oktoberfest trip, giving us a well-rounded sample of Europe’s very best beers: Belgian, German, and Czech.

And that gave me the idea of pitting the countries against each other in The Great Beer-Off of 2016: Belgium vs. Germany vs. Czech Republic. (Insert dramatic music here.) So I present to you Round 1 of the Great Beer-Off: Belgium! (More dramatic music? Or perhaps a drumroll was needed.)

Chris and I kicked off our Belgian beer experience learning about Henri Maes and the last working brewery in Bruges, De Halve Maan Brouwerij. We took the 90-minute XL tour at 2pm, where our impressive guide led us through the brewery and a private beer tasting in three languages. We tasted three different beers (four, actually, since our last taste was a choice and we each picked a different beer) during a leisurely guided tasting for 19 euros per person.

The tour was the perfect length to be informative and captivating, and our guide injected plenty of wit into the history and facts. As a bonus, the brewery has a fantastic rooftop view of Bruges. We both loved the Brugse Zot as our favorite from the tasting.

In addition to taking the brewery tour and drinking several beers at various restaurants, Chris and I also visited The Bottle Shop on Wollestraat to choose a few bottles from their incredibly extensive collection. A friendly local helped us pick out a selection of four different Belgian beers which we brought back to the hotel to sample throughout our stay. Chris especially enjoyed Delirium Tremens which thankfully we can purchase back home.

I’m just recently beginning my foray into the world of beer so I may still be developing my palate, but I found most Belgian beers a little difficult to drink other than the Brugse Zot. I think it was the combination of new and different spices that I’m not used to, but I did have fun trying them all.

Up next, Germany and a little festival called Oktoberfest (you may have heard of it?) will throw down in Round 2 of the Great Beer-Off of 2016!

September 27, 2016