October may be our busiest travel month of the year, and it’s not even over yet. We started the month on the beaches in Costa Rica, sipped Margaritas with friends in Mexico, cruised down the Danube River, drove 1,600+ miles in Europe, and only slept in our bed for 5 nights in Wisconsin.
Put on a few miles in my Merrell Around Town Mid Town Lace exploring Krems, Austria.
We literally had 8 hours between our flight home from Mexico and our flight to Hungary. So we had to pack fast. Thankfully Zappos has fast free shipping we were able to order a few pairs of shoes for the trip! We needed to swap out the sandals for some more fall appropriate. I ordered Adam and I each a few pairs of shoes because Zappos has a 365-day return policy, so why not order a few styles! We each ordered a few pairs of Merrell shoes as we wanted something stylish and comfortable, as we are known to spend hours walking around cities and hiking.
Strolling through the park in my Merrell Chateau boots.
I love my Merrell Chateau boots not only are they super cute but comfortable too and I ordered the Around Town Mid Town Lace which were perfect for the day we walked 10 miles in Budapest.
We’re currently wrapping up our Romantic Road trip in Germany before boarding our 14th flight of the month home to Milwaukee. Writing this article from a Château in France. It’s been an epic month visiting 10 countries this month, here’s a recap of where October brought us.
European Road Trip
Like we mentioned above we’re currently road tripping in Europe visiting some of the best castles in Germany and checking out a few countries still on our bucket list. We rented a car in Nuremberg, Germany for a week after our Viking River Cruise. We didn’t have anything planned, no hotel reservations nothing. This gave us the freedom to go at our pace and stop when we want to stop. We visited several fairytale castles in Germany. Some of our favorites were Eltz Castle, Cochem Castle, and Liechtenstein Castle.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather, Europe in October is perfect. My Merrel boots and I hiked in some amazing scenery this month. Along the way, we visited some of the most amazing castles, saw the Swiss Alps for the first time, stayed in a Château in France surrounded by gorgeous & tasty vineyards, literally stayed in a castle, eat way too much Snitzel, and much more. We also visited 3 new countries Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxemburg.
Countries Visited: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, Luxemburg
I walked over 20,000 steps one day in Budapest in the Merrell Chateau boots!
Danube River Viking River Cruise
Our trip in Europe started in Budapest, our favorite city in Europe and the start of our Viking River Cruise. Sadly we only had 2 nights in Budapest but we made the most of it and visited some of our favorite things to do in Budapest and made sure to have a few drinks at the famous Budapest ruin bars.
Not sure what’s cute the leaves or my Merrell boots…
Our cruise down the Danube had us stopping in Vienna, Krems, Passau, Regensburg, and Nuremberg. The fall colors were in full effect, it was gorgeous seeing all the shades of autumn, and it was literally raining leaves.
Soaring high above Krems, Austria with the drone.
We spent our days off the boat exploring the cities and our nights back on the indulging in way too much great food and drinks. It’s great waking up in a different city or even country to explore.
Countries Visited: Hungary, Germany, Austria,
Mexico
Mexico is always one of our favorite places in the world and we are slightly addicted to tacos…Sadly we had only been to the Yucatan but earlier this month visited the Pacific side! We spent 4 nights in the Riviera Nayarit, which is in Nuevo Vallarta (New Vallarta). 4 days of fun in the sun on the beach with a few of our fellow travel bloggers was just what we needed in the middle of our crazy October. Riviera Nayarit had amazing sunsets, we had a great view right from the rooftop of our room.
Up early for the sunrise in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.
Costa Rica
The beginning of the month we were a few days into our one week in Costa Rica road trip. We were making our way from Arenal Volcano high up in the mountains down to Caribbean side to our favorite beach town Puerto Viejo. Before heading out of the mountains we stopped at La Fortuna waterfall which is honestly probably the most amazing waterfall we’ve ever seen, and we had it all to ourselves for about 10 minutes (seriously get there right when it opens).
Waterfall chasing success! La Fortuna waterfall in Costa Rica.
After spending 3 nights beach hopping in Puerto Viejo we headed back towards San Jose for our flight home. We stayed in La Paz about an hour from the airport. We heard amazing things about the La Paz waterfall garden and the Peace Lodge. We were not disappointed, we literally felt like we were on the set of Jurassic Park in the gardens by the La Paz waterfall. We spent the last night in the most luxurious room complete with fireplace, indoor & outdoor jacuzzi, and we even had a waterfall in our bathroom! We know we’ll be coming back.
It’s been fun October but we’re ready to head home for a few weeks!
So that is where October has brought us and thanks again to Zappos & Merrel for sending us some amazing shoes for our Europe trip. As you can tell we had no time to squeeze in shopping between our trips.