This month was mostly spent in Prague, with everything that I love about the city — food festivals, hiking, fine dining, and beautiful views from everywhere. But then we added on six days in England to visit the cheese-rolling, explore Bristol, and amble through the Cotswolds for a few days.

Let’s take a look at what I got up to this month!

Destinations Visited

• Prague, Srbsko, and Karlštejn, Czech Republic
• Henley-on-Thames, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter, Upper Slaughter, Cirencester, Tetbury, Bristol, Gloucester, Brockworth, Shurdington, Cheltenham, and Windsor, England

Highlights

A fun trip to the UK that was very different from our usual visits. While Charlie and I visit his family in London often, we almost never spend time in other areas of the UK, so it was nice to go for six days and explore some places in England we hadn’t visited before.

We started in the Cotswolds, a region known for its beautiful stone cottages covered with ivy, beautiful hikes, and picture-perfect storybook towns.

This was just a quick dip through several towns, and some of my favorites were Bourton-on-the-water (for the beauty and waterside pubs), the Slaughters (for the quiet scenery on the hourlong return walk between them), and Cirencester (for the local feel in the middle of a touristy region).

Next up was Bristol, a city in the southwest of England that seems to fly under the radar but has lots of passionate fans. Bristol is a university city and it feels very youthful and a bit offbeat and artsy. I enjoyed it very much.

But the biggest highlight of Bristol for us was eating at Wilson’s, a Michelin-starred restaurant that was featured in the Apple TV+ series Knife Edge. Guys, I’m not kidding when I say this is one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. It was stupefyingly good. And it was absurdly good value for money (78 GBP for a seven-course tasting menu).

I wouldn’t be surprised if our future trips to London have Bristol tacked on at the beginning or end, just so we can eat at Wilson’s again!

The cheese-rolling! The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling was the main reason for our UK trip, and it was incredible getting to witness the event in person!

I wrote a full detailed post in the experience, so I won’t repeat myself here. I will say that I had a blast, was very happy to attend, but I doubt I will ever do it again. The reasons why are in the post.

Also, Charlie was very happy this month as Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years! He actually stayed in the UK an extra week so he could go to the parade!

Lots of good times in Prague. Charlie and I did two hikes this month — one to Velka Amerika, the “Czech Grand Canyon” close to Karlštejn Castle, and one in Divoka Šarka, which is within the Prague city limits, not far from the airport.

There was also a spicy and fermented foods festival in Holešovice, where we tasted and bought so many cool foods from local makers, including an extremely spicy caramel corn that blew our minds (as well as our faces off).

We also had our annual dinner at El Camino, one of my favorite Prague restaurants, which I think is one of the best special occasion restaurants in the city and always delights. They are a Spanish restaurant that pushes the limits of what you think tapas can be.

Challenges

I had a little health scare with Murray this month. He seemed sullen, he didn’t want to eat treats, he wouldn’t look up when I called to him, and he seemed to be breathing very fast, which is a scary symptom that can be very serious in cats.

So I took him to the vet — and one exam, two x-rays, two ultrasounds, and one round of bloodwork later, he was totally fine. Of course. He probably just got a bit overheated.

The good news is that this new vet is a five-minute drive away, operates 24/7, and has a full English-speaking staff. There wasn’t even a wait on a Saturday afternoon.

Until now, we’ve been using two vets: one a five-minute walk from us who only speaks Czech (so only Charlie can communicate, and even then, Charlie’s medical Czech is limited), and a team of vets a 20-30 minute drive away who are FIP experts and were the best for treating Lewis’s FIP five years ago, but who always have a long wait.

Also, the city of Gloucester, England. As someone who is a regular visitor to Gloucester, Massachusetts, I was interested to check out its namesake and see its cathedral.

Well. The cathedral is nice — the outside of it, at least (we didn’t go in because a service was going on). But we had one word for the town itself: “Woof.” It’s pretty bleak. It was a complete waste of time, and I’m salty that we devoted about 90 minutes of our lives to getting there and exploring.

Trust me — if you ever go to the cheese-rolling, skip Gloucester and go to the much nicer Cheltenham instead.

Blog Posts of the Month

How to Attend the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling — My complete guide to attending this crazy event as a spectator (or as a participant, if that’s your thing!).

What NOT to Do in Uzbekistan — I love writing “what not to do” guides, and this is a must-read before visiting Uzbekistan.

There’s So Much To Love About Madrid — Madrid is truly a city for city connoisseurs, and I really need to get back there soon!

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Solo female travel in the Muslim world — what are men like? Every time I get back from solo traveling in a Muslim country, I inevitably get asked how the men treated me. And honestly? I get treated much better by then men than I do in western countries.

For more live updates from my travels and cool videos, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

What I Watched This Month

Nothing really notable this month. I’m trying to get through the final season of Euphoria, but it’s hard when you’re rolling your eyes so much. I’m so glad Zendaya is finally free of this shitshow (but of course I need to keep watching to see what happens).

And if you’re looking for a stupid but funny comedy under 90 minutes, Charlie and I watched The Campaign on Netflix (with Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis) on a whim and laughed SO much harder than we expected to.

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I am enjoying immensely. I am loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve somehow missed my entire life until now!

In May, I listened to albums number 68-51. Holy crap, I’m 90% through this project.

Favorite Discovery: Station to Station by David Bowie. I had never listened to this album before, but “Golden Years” is one of my favorite Bowie songs, and the rest of the album has that same vibe!

I’m a big disco fan, and I feel like some of the best disco albums (like Marvin Gaye’s I Want You) don’t get characterized as disco because they’re not the more garish representation of the genre.

This album is the perfect 70s hybrid of rock and disco. The dance beats, the wild bass lines, the guitars, his undeniable vocals — I adored every bit of it. This one is going into my rotation.

Other Favorite Discoveries: Aja by Steely Dan, Hounds of Love by Kate Bush, Stankonia by Outkast, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison.

Favorite Revisited Album: Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. I was first introduced to this album in high school: the teacher of my musical theater class had a stroke, we got a long-term sub, and there were no real curriculum plans for the class, so we did the most random things. And one day we watched The Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon.

And I watched those two together many more times in college, and I really grew to love the album. By now I know it almost by heart. (In fact, one of my trivia league’s questions the other day was to name three of the ten tracks on the album!)

I love this album so much — it genuinely feels like a musical, with the same existential themes throughout, and callbacks to earlier songs.

Plus, I love songs with unusual time signatures, as well as songs with strong, unique bass lines, and “Money” is the poster child for both of those things!

Other Favorite Revisited Albums: Talking Book by Stevie Wonder.

Favorite Songs: “Stay” by David Bowie, “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, “Humble Mumble” by Outkast and Erykah Badu, “Peg” by Steely Dan, “Tuesday Heartbreak” by Stevie Wonder, “Time” by Pink Floyd, “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, “Paid in Full” by Eric B & Rakim, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” by James Brown.

Get the playlist: I’m creating a playlist of my favorite songs from the 500 albums — maximum one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.

Lowlight of the Month: I’ve said many times that I’m not a fan of compilation albums being on this list, and this month included James Brown’s Star Time: a compilation album that was four hours and 45 minutes long, making it the longest album on the list (and beating Merle Haggard’s Down Every Road at 4:15!).

It’s not like this is the only James Brown album on the list. There are three. Rolling Stone choosing to put an album that long on the list is taking the piss and making me feel annoyed while listening to it. And I say this as someone who likes James Brown! (“James, how did this all begin–” “LIVING IN AMEEEERICA!”)

Random Music Thoughts: I love when an album shows you little Easter eggs from other songs. I had never really listened to Eric B & Rakim before, but I noticed a few origins of references from 50 Cent’s songs, including the line “Check-check out my melody,” which made me exclaim, “Oh, so THAT’S 50’s favorite rapper!”

Something else worth noting: I noticed that there was a dearth of women coming up, and turns but there are no female musicians on the list between number 56 (Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville) and number 33 (Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black). That’s a big gap.

*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this list are problematic in various ways — there are even two murderers in the mix. I’m looking at their music solely from an influential perspective.

What I Read This Month

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden (2025) — Belle Burden thought she had a strong family life. She came from BIG generational wealth (Vanderbilt family), went to Harvard, became a lawyer, married a colleague named “James,” and stopped working to be a stay-at-home parent to their three children.

She emptied her trusts to buy their Manhattan apartment and their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard, and her husband was the sole earner and manager of their finances. For years, they seemed to have a lovely family life. Then out of the blue, she discovered he was having an affair and he decided to leave her (in the scary early days of the pandemic!), stop actively parenting except for the occasional dinner, and take as much of her money as he could.

Now. A lot has been said about this book: most of it about Burden’s wealth and that she was never going to be destitute after this divorce. Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the book, because who can relate to someone that wildly wealthy?

Oh, but I loved this book and I am ready to ride into battle for Belle because HER HUSBAND, WHOSE REAL NAME IS HENRY, FUCKING SUCKS. This is a memoir about how her husband financially conned her for decades. How your partner of decades can become a stranger overnight.

I think this book is so important for women to read. It’s VITAL to know every detail of your finances, even if your spouse handles the financial stuff. If someone with that money and that education can get conned, it can happen to anyone.

It was also shocking hearing how some people treated her. When she told people her multi-millionaire husband was trying to take enough money that she’d have to sell both homes, and only pay the bare minimum of child support when she had been a stay-at-home parent for nearly 20 years, men would almost always laugh and say, “Oh, he’s playing hardball.” THE FUCK?! Where is the comedy in this, sir?

Also, who chooses to opt out of parenting?! Who has as much wealth as he does (guess what, he made millions a year and she had no idea) and decides to get a two-bedroom apartment and use one of the bedrooms as an office so his kids won’t be able to sleep over? ONCE AGAIN, YOU FUCKING SUCK, HENRY.

Anyway, I loved this book. You should read it.

Coming Up in June 2026

This month, I’m heading to the States to see my family! I’ll be in Massachusetts most of the time, and will be visiting New York for a few days as well.

In the past, I’ve tended to overschedule myself on my Stateside trips, so I’m making an effort to keep things less ambitious this time around.

But June is SUCH a good month in New England, and I want to soak up the sunshine, the beaches, the lobster rolls.

I’ve been doing a lot of long walks lately here in Prague, so I want to do two VERY long walks — I want to walk the Emerald Necklace in Boston (a network of connected parks throughout the city), and I want to walk the entire length of Broadway in Manhattan.

Both of these walks are all-day undertakings, but I’m looking forward to them!

And at the end of the month, I have a ticket to see Ricky Martin in Prague. I splurged on a good seat and I can’t wait to sing my lungs out to “Nobody Wants To Be Lonely”!

What are your plans for June? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: May 2026 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

This is the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling.

“One to be ready!” calls out the master of ceremonies at the top of the hill.

“Two to be steady!”

The competitors, laser-focused on the route ahead, steel themselves for the descent. As for me, spectating on the side, my shoes are sinking into loose dirt and I’m hoping I can stay upright long enough to photograph them.

“Three for the cheese!”

At this point, the master of ceremonies throws out a seven-pound Double Gloucester cheese, wrapped in red and blue ribbons. That cheese may reach speeds of 70 miles per hour before it hits the finish line.

“Four to be off!”

And with that, the men leap off the hilltop and race down — slipping, falling, somersaulting, and getting up again before they’re taken down a second, a third, a fourth time.

Not one of them will catch the cheese. Nobody ever catches the cheese.

This blog post was published in May 2026, based on attending the cheese rolling in May 2026.

What is the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling?

The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling is an epic event that has been taking place for at least a few centuries. On the UK’s spring bank holiday (the last Monday in May), people line up to watch people hurl themselves down the steepest hill in the region, vying to chase the cheese.

Contrary to popular relief, they are not trying to catch the cheese. It’s a race to the finish line.

(And for most competitors, the finish line is where they are grabbed and tackled by a local rugby player so they don’t end up running into the crowd.)

So how did this crazy event start? Nobody knows for sure, but there are plenty of theories out there. Some speculate the tradition has pagan roots and was a celebration of the beginning of the summer.

You should know that despite its fame, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling is technically an unofficial event, due to the safety risk. Broken bones are common. In 2025, the hospital sent multiple land ambulances and one air ambulance for victims.

And because of this, there is no official organizer, as they would have to take responsibility for the injuries. Consequently, there isn’t an organized safety plan, either — just written warnings that you put yourself at risk by taking part of this race or even by being a spectator.

There are several rounds of races: four downhill races (three for men and one for women, as some people say, because men are three times more stupid than women), and three much safer uphill racers: for kids (under 11s and age 11-17) as well as mixed adults.

So what does the winner get? The first person to cross the finish line gets to keep the cheese. And, you know, the ETERNAL GLORY that comes with winning!

And the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling got a lot more famous in the last few years, when it was featured in the first episode of the Netflix documentary We Are The Champions. My husband Charlie and I loved the episode so much, we immediately decided to attend it ourselves!

How to Get to Cooper’s Hill

Cooper’s Hill is located in the town of Brockworth in Gloucestershire, England. The two closest main cities are Gloucester and Cheltenham, which are easily accessible by bus.

To get to Brockworth, you can either drive or take public transportation. For driving, street parking is strictly prohibited, but there is parking available behind the Toby Carvery, costing 10 pounds for the day. This is right across from the entrance to the public footpath leading to Cooper’s Hill.

For public transportation, there are two main bus lines that run from Cheltenham down the A46 (Painswick Road/Shurdington Road), which has a bus stop right at the public footpath leading to Cooper’s Hill. These bus lines are the 10 and 166.

Yes — there is a footpath. This is important.

If you ask Google Maps how to get to Cooper’s Hill, it will take you from the A46 up Green Street, a very steep and extremely narrow street, eventually leading you to the hill. It will get you there, but it’s a longer, steeper, and less pleasant journey.

Instead, take the Cooper’s Hill Footpath, which is about three quarters of a mile and mostly uphill. It takes around 30 minutes, but expect it to take longer on the day of the cheese rolling.

The entrance to the Cooper’s Hill Footpath is located to the right of the Shell Station in Brockworth. You can see the sign above.

This is a link to the exact spot on Google Maps.

There is only one Shell station in Brockworth, but just know it’s across from the Toby Carvery and the Subway. And the 10 and 166 buses drop you off at this intersection.

How early should you get there? We got to the footpath entrance at 9:45 AM and were on the hill by 10:20 AM. It worked out, but I think leaving 20 minutes earlier for a 10:00 AM arrival would have been optimal.

Walking the Path to Cooper’s Hill

Guess what — even if you’re only going as a spectator, you will be climbing uphill as well! Cooper’s Hill is just one hill perched on a series of hills.

Once you start on the footpath, you’ll be walking along a flat area next to farmland. Up next, there may be a bottleneck at the gate, as only one person can go through at a time. When walking through the gate, you climb over a rock.

And from there, it’s time to climb, climb, climb up the first of a few hills. The terrain is steep but mostly smooth, though once you get higher, there might be some gnarlier pathways.

(And if it’s a rainy or recently rainy day, expect there to be a lot of mud.)

There isn’t much shade along the route, though you’ll hit some trees closer to the top. This is a good spot to catch your breath.

The good news is that the scenery is absolutely stunning along the way, especially if you get a sunny day like I did.

The bad news is that this path is not accessible to wheelchair users or people with mobility difficulties.

Frankly, I’m not sure if wheelchair users can attend this event in any form, though it would probably be easier for all people with mobility difficulties to avoid the footpath and get dropped off on the road as close to the top as possible. Keep in mind that this road too is very steep.

How to Watch the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling as a Spectator

As soon as you reach the bottom of Cooper’s Hill itself, get ready for pandemonium! Everyone is clamoring for a good spot on either side of the hill.

We arrived on site at about 10:20 AM. Just before getting to the base, there were a few people selling water, ice cream, and a few food items, shouting that this was the last chance to get any food or drink. Further on, there are people selling cheese rolling merch, mostly t-shirts and hats.

We even came across a man giving away free samples of Double Gloucester cheese!

And then comes the hard part — where is the best place to watch the cheese-rolling?

From what I read beforehand, it’s better to watch closer to the bottom than the top. You get a better vantage point that way. And with my goal of getting photos and videos of the event, I decided to stay relatively close to the bottom and stand on the left side (as seen from the bottom of the hill).

Things were more complicated because it was a sunny day. The left side was in the shade, but part of the right side was right in the sun, and looked like it would be miserable standing there on such a hot day (it was a record-breaking 31 C or 88 F that day).

Now this became the toughest part of the day: climbing the side of the hill. I hadn’t realized just how difficult it would be!

The hill was covered with dry dirt, with a thick layer of leaves on top of it. It was like climbing scree on a mountain — every time I put my foot down, it would sink behind me, and I couldn’t get a good grip.

Before long, I was climbing with my hands as well as my feet, getting so much dirt under my fingernails. I reached out for trees to hold onto.

Unfortunately, I lost my sunglasses on this climb. I knew the general area where I had lost them and ordinarily I would have retraced my steps, but it was so steep and so covered with leaves that I just decided to leave them.

Charlie and I immediately sat down in a spot about 20 feet from the orange fence creating the spectator section, but I moved to the edge just before the races to photograph them.

And while Charlie and I had traction where we were sitting, there was almost no traction where I ended up by the edge. I would switch back and forth between sitting and standing, using the fence to hold myself up.

Eventually, I stood on a tiny tuft of grass, and believe me — for 90 minutes, my feet held onto that tuft for dear life!

But then came the races. And while each of them were over in seconds, it was so exhilarating being surrounded by people, cheering for the competitors, chanting, “Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!” and watching them do the most uncomfortable-looking flips and slides you’ve ever seen!

All in pursuit of cheesy glory.

This year, German YouTuber Tom Kopke won the first men’s race for the third year in a row. He beat Chris Anderson, a local legend who holds the Guinness world record: 23 wins between 2005 and 2022. Anderson actually came out of retirement to run again this year.

And Anderson’s son William was the boy winner of the Under 10s race! Ariadne won the Under 10s for the girls, while the older kids’ race winners were Xander (also part of the Anderson family) and Dotty.

The women’s race was won by Alix Heugas from France. The other men’s races were won by Niels of the Netherlands and Otto of Florida in the US (am I surprised Florida Man won a race like this? NOT ONE BIT!).

And let’s not forget the mixed adults uphill race — Jamie won for the men, and Ariel Dempsey for the women. And they’re both local.

Photographing the Cheese Rolling

The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling is one of the most difficult-to-photograph events I’ve ever experienced. More difficult than Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Songkran in Thailand, Up Helly Aa in Shetland.

You will be shooting people at breakneck speeds, so you’ll need to optimize your camera settings. Either shoot in sports mode, if your camera gives you that option, or shoot at a shutter speed of 1/1000 or faster in order for it not to be a blurry mess. Make sure your focus settings are correct, as well.

Use a good zoom lens, but you don’t need a safari-like wildlife lens. My lens went from 17-70, and I was happy with the length.

If all you have is a smartphone, you will definitely get photos, but it’s tough to get good ones — especially at a distance. It’s easy for everything to end up looking grainy and blurry.

Unfortunately, as any photographer knows, sunny weather conditions make things far more complicated. At noon on the very sunny day when the race started, half the hill was in sunlight and half was in shade.

This made it exceptionally difficult to get the light right — in most of my photos, half of the photo is blown out too bright, and the other half is way too dark.

Unfortunately, a lot of my photos were not salvageable — but I did the best I could with what I had.

One last thing — a few friends asked if I brought my Insta360 camera, which I love and use often on my travels. I didn’t use it for the Cheese Rolling because the camera is best for selfies and close-up shots with a cool background. It’s not a camera I would recommend for an event like this.

Cheese Rolling Schedule and Timing

I was glad I was sitting in my position at 10:30 AM — the fanfare began at 10:40 AM with a woman carrying a maypole, followed by a drummer and a group of dancers, each of them twirling with handkerchiefs in their hand. One of them held up the cheese, wrapped in its blue and red ribbons.

That was it for the pre-festivities. The race started at 12:00 noon sharp, and races took place every 15 minutes, alternating between the downhill and uphill races.

This is the schedule:

• 12:00 PM: Men’s Downhill Race #1
• 12:15 PM: Uphill race (age 10 and under)
• 12:30 PM: Men’s Downhill Race #2
• 12:45 PM: Uphill race (age 11-17)
• 1:00 PM: Women’s Downhill Race
• 1:15 PM: Uphill race (adults)
• 1:30 PM: Men’s Downhill Race #3

And once it’s over, everyone just leaves. Since I was standing next to the fence, I just hopped it and trotted down the hill.

What to Wear and Bring to the Cheese Rolling

The most important thing is to dress for the weather. I attended the cheese rolling in 2026, which sadly was a record-breaking day for heat in the UK in May, with temperatures hitting 31 C (88 F).

Because of that, I dressed lightly but for sun protection. I wore a light merino wool dress from Wool&, topped it with a long-sleeved light button-down I bought in Bristol, and added a baseball cap. I also wore plenty of sunscreen.

(FYI: Don’t be shocked if you see a lot of Brits dressed skimpily and turning bright red. Soaking up every bit of sun you can is a national pastime. But I urge you not to do this. It’s a good way to end up burned and miserable.)

Know that the weather is often cool and rainy, and the hills get VERY muddy. If this is the case on the day you’re attending, dress warmly and wear a hooded raincoat (much easier than climbing with an umbrella) and rain pants.

Wear good sneakers, ideally hiking sneakers. You’ll be climbing a steep hill with very uneven terrain. And once you get to the actual Cooper’s Hill, you’ll be standing on a steep hill of loose dirt if it’s a dry day, or a lot of mud if it’s a wet day.

Bring a water bottle — and perhaps a bit of food. Water is essential, especially if it’s hot out. I ate a decent-sized breakfast and didn’t feel the need for food, but you may want some. Protein bars are great for sudden hunger pangs!

Bring a waterproof picnic blanket or something to sit on. Everyone was sitting in the dirt and everyone had telltale dirt marks on their butts by the end of the day. (Except for me. Charlie told me every bit of dirt on my Wool& dress brushed right off!) If it’s a rainy or muddy day, you’ll want something waterproof.

Don’t forget wet wipes. I was constantly brushing dirt off my hands and scraping dirt out from beneath my fingernails. Wet wipes would have been heaven-sent.

A walking stick would have been helpful. Not just for climbing the hill at the beginning, but for holding yourself in place while standing on that steep hill during the competition.

A backpack is easier to carry than a purse. Keep in mind you’ll likely be climbing the hill on your hands and knees.

How to Enter the Cheese Rolling

So you actually want to enter the cheese rolling? Well, okay! Understand that you are risking grave injury and it’s not uncommon for people to break bones at this competition.

Here’s something that gets left out of the Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling coverage: not everyone who plans to race actually gets to race. There are four downhill races — three for men, one for women — and they are each capped at 25 participants.

In 2026, more than 250 people showed up wanting to race. Inevitably, it led to disappointment.

If you want to race, show up at the top of the hill and make yourself known to the organizers. I would recommend getting there by 10:00 AM at the latest.

And if you don’t get to race, you’ll be allowed to run down the hill independently at the end. Plenty of would-be entrants did that instead.

And be sure to dress for hurling yourself down a hill. Dress comfortably for athletic activity. Some of the more serious competitors wore athletic onesies, and they looked very comfortable.

You may want to wear a helmet — plenty of people wore them. Wear shoes that are tightly fastened to your feet; a bunch of racers lost shoes along the way.

And please don’t carry a camera while running. Everyone who did that looked ridiculous and really struggled. If anything, wear a GoPro with a chest strap so your hands are free.

Do people wear costumes for the cheese rolling? Only a few did. Apparently someone wears Borat’s mankini every year. This year he had shorts on over it. BRING BACK THE FULL MANKINI!

Leaving the Cheese Rolling

As soon as the final race took place, that was it — there was no ceremony or anything else, and everyone began to leave. A tiny bit anticlimactic.

Since I was standing on the edge of the hill, just behind the orange fencing, I hopped over it and headed down the hill, trotting a bit at the end. There! I technically rolled, too!

Charlie and I rejoined the hordes at the bottom of the hill and slowly made our way past the fencing, the merch sellers, and the ice cream sellers, until we began heading down the hill.

And from this angle, we really appreciated just how beautiful the view was. Gloucestershire is SO beautiful!

Once we had finished the path, we decided to hop on the bus to the Cheese Roller’s Pub, located in the town of Shurdington. Both the 166 and 10 buses were running regularly, so we hopped on the 166 bus and were there a few minutes later.

The Cheese Roller’s Pub is not the official after-party for the racers, despite its name — but lots of cheese-rolling spectators headed here after, which gave it a convivial atmosphere.

Plus, there was some cheese rolling memorabilia there, including a cheese rolling-themed beer on tap and a tribute to Chris Anderson!

As it was a beautiful day, the back garden was in full swing, with tons of picnic tables out.

At one point a little boy came in with his family, his eyes wide, clutching a ribbon-wrapped wheel of cheese. It was so cute!

By then we were quite hungry, and we immediately mauled some chicken fingers, fried mac and cheese bites, and chunky chips. After a few hours, a few ciders, and two waffle cones from the ice cream truck, we headed back to our hotel.

Where to Stay For the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling

There are plenty of hotels close to Cooper’s Hill — some within walking distance, and a great many within a short bus ride. My top recommendation is to stay in a place where you can either walk or take the bus to the Cooper’s Hill footpath so you don’t have to worry about driving.

On my trip I stayed at the Cheltenham Chase Hotel and Spa, which was SO close (just a five-minute walk from the Shell station and the start of the walking path). Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it.

The bed was extremely soft and sloped strangely, pointing up like a triangle. I’ve had soft beds before, but never sloped and pointing like that, and I was a bit uncomfortable after one night and in pain after two nights.

We showed up at 5:00 PM and housekeeping still hadn’t been done; we could finally check in at 6:00 PM and the hallway was covered with trash and dirty linens. One night we had a dinner reservation at 7:30 PM, but an hour after we were seated, our server sheepishly told us they hadn’t even started cooking yet.

For what it’s worth, the hotel did refund us 30% when I brought these issues to their attention, and the pool and spa area was nice, if basic. But I wouldn’t want to stay there again, and for that reason I can’t recommend it to you.

Here is where I would recommend staying instead:

Top-Rated Hotels near Cooper’s Hill

Premier Inn Gloucester (Little Wicombe) — This would be my first choice of where to stay. I am a big fan of Premier Inns and have stayed at many across the UK. They are affordable and simple, but consistent with decent beds (though you’ll want to spring extra for the fast wifi). This one is an 11-minute walk from the entrance to the Cooper’s Hill Footpath.

The Greenway Hotel & Spa — If you want a luxurious place to stay, this is an absolutely gorgeous manor with an indoor pool, jacuzzis, a fine dining restaurant, and beautifully appointed rooms. It’s right on the bus route to the Cooper’s Hill Footpath.

The George — If you’d rather stay in the nearby city of Cheltenham (which is lovely, especially if you want spa time or shopping time!), this chic, modern design hotel is close to the bus that takes you to Cooper’s Hill Footpath.

Beyond Cooper’s Hill: Your England Itinerary

Where else should you go near Cooper’s Hill to make it a full trip? You could stay in London the whole time if you wanted to, but I suggest you explore southwest England instead! There are SO many wonderful places to visit that can be tacked on to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling.

And while some of these places are best experienced by rental car, like the Cotswolds, and South Wales, you can also explore Bristol and Oxford perfectly well by train!

Here are a few of my suggestions:

Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are an absolutely gorgeous region a stone’s throw from Cooper’s Hill. If you’re attending the cheese rolling but also want to experience some of the most beautiful small villages in England, the Cotswolds is the place you should prioritize.

In terms of towns to visit, I love the beautiful waterside area and outdoor pubs in Bourton-on-the-water; the busier, more local feel in Cirencester (SIREN-sester); the quiet of Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter; and the quiet elegance of Moreton-on-Marsh.

The Cotswolds are best explored by a rental car. We stayed overnight at the Slaughter Country Inn in Lower Slaughter and liked the property and appreciated staying overnight somewhere nice and quiet.

On an earlier trip to the Cotswolds, I stayed at The Manor House in Moreton-on-Marsh, which was beautifully appointed and located right in town.

In terms of small-town village life, you can’t do better than the Cotswolds.

Bristol

Bristol is such a cool city — and it really flies under the radar compared to other British cities! If you’re a city person who loves dining and shopping and nightlife and exploring neighborhoods, I think you should take the time to explore Bristol!

The absolute highlight of our time in Bristol was eating at Wilson’s, a Michelin-starred restaurant featured in the Apple TV+ series Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars. Charlie and I do a decent amount of fine dining and this was one of the best meals either of us has EVER had. Every course had us saying, “Wow.” Advance reservations are essential; we booked months in advance.

In addition to Wilson’s, we enjoyed checking out the Clifton Suspension Bridge and its observatory before hiking beneath it in Leigh Woods, wandering the indie shops on Gloucester Street, enjoying some ciders on patios, and checking out the waterfront, including touring the S.S. Great Britain. We also had a great modern Indian dinner at Nutmeg Street Kitchen.

We stayed at the Novotel Bristol Centre, which was comfortable, in a decent location, and had its own parking garage.

Bristol is a place we will definitely be visiting again. If only to eat at Wilson’s!

Bath

Bath is a city located close to Bristol, and it has one major attraction: the Roman Baths! Yes, these baths have been here since Roman times!

If you want to actually bathe in Bath, be sure to visit the Thermae Bath Spa, as it’s the only place in the UK where you can bathe in naturally hot spring water. Beyond that, Bath has beautiful Georgian architecture and is a lovely place to wander around for a bit.

I personally haven’t been to Bath since I was 17 years old and on my first trip to England EVER (I’ve now had dozens if not hundreds of visits and a few stints living there too!), but I remember enjoying it quite a bit.

Bath is a popular choice for day trips from London, but you can enjoy it much more if you stay overnight. I personally enjoy staying overnight in popular day trip destinations; it really shows you a different side of the town once everyone else goes home.

Oxford

Oxford is in the perfect position — it’s right between London and Cooper’s Hill, making it a great place to check out for the day or even overnight. And it happens to be easy to get to by train.

I visited Oxford a few years ago and really enjoyed my overnight there!

Oxford is a university city, and the place has a fun youthful air and lots of cool shops, food markets, and restaurants. It’s also a filming location for many of the Harry Potter films, and if you’re a fan, you’ll recognize a lot of it! You can also tour some of the colleges of Oxford.

Don’t miss punting down the river Cherwell. You can punt yourself, or hire a driver to take you down the river.

South Wales

Now, this might be a bit unexpected — but Cooper’s Hill is actually a short drive from the south of Wales! I really love this part of Wales.

You can visit the city of Cardiff, but even closer is one of my favorite places in the UK — Hay-on-Wye, the used bookstore capital of the world! It’s a delightful town, and you will be in heaven if you’re a reader!

If you feel like going further afield, the Pembrokeshire coast is absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed the town of Tenby but would like to see much more of that region. And if you’re going further afield than the cities, it’s best to have a rental car.

You can read about my full South Wales road trip here.

Our Long Weekend Itinerary

Charlie and I planned an extra-long weekend, flying into London Heathrow on Thursday and flying out on Tuesday. We visited a lot of places at a very fast pace — faster than what I usually recommend to people — so I am going to show you what we did, with the caveat that I’d recommend most travelers go a bit slower.

Thursday: We landed at 11:00 AM, picked up our rental car, and drove to the town of Henley-on-Thames, where we got lunch at a pub overlooking the Thames. We drove to the Cotswolds next and visited Stow-on-the-Wold and Burton-on-the-water before getting to Lower Slaughter, where we stayed overnight at the Slaughter Country Inn.

Friday: After breakfast, we walked from Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter and back (about an hour), drove to the lively Cotswolds city of Cirencester, and briefly checked out the town of Tetbury before driving to Bristol and checking in at the Novotel Bristol Centre.

That evening, we ate at the Michelin-starred Wilson’s, which is one of the best meals either of us have EVER had in our life, and I recommend to any foodie.

Saturday: We spent the whole day in Bristol, checking out the Clifton Suspension Bridge and its observatory, hiking through Leigh woods, eating food, shopping, and checking out the cool shops on Gloucester Street before getting a fabulous modern Indian dinner at Nutmeg Street Kitchen.

Sunday: After a morning of exploring Bristol’s waterfront and the S.S. Great Britain, we drove to Gloucester to check out the church; in retrospect, Gloucester was bleak and we wish we had skipped it. We drove to Brockworth and checked into our hotel, the Cheltenham Chase Hotel and Spa. That evening, we drove to Cooper’s Hill to check it out and met lots of people doing the same thing.

Monday: Cheese rolling day! We headed out at about 9:30 AM and were on the hill by 10:20 AM. After the rolling, we walked down the footpath and jumped on a bus to the Cheese Roller’s Pub in Shurdington, where we spent the afternoon. That evening we swam in the hotel pool and chilled out.

Tuesday: We drove to Cheltenham for breakfast, shopping, and exploring the pretty downtown. After that, we drove to Windsor for lunch and an amble by the castle, then we headed back to the airport.

Cooper’s Hill Travel Tips

Book way ahead and prepare for crowds. Spring bank holiday weekend in the UK is the equivalent of Memorial Day Weekend in the US — tons of people are traveling, and it serves as the unofficial kickoff of the summer travel season.

You don’t necessarily have to fly into London. You can fly into Bristol or Birmingham or even Cardiff. If you’re flying into London, I recommend either Heathrow or Luton, because they are on the west of the city.

Know that there are no toilets at Cooper’s Hill. Go before you go!

Is going to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling worth it?

I am really glad that I went to the cheese-rolling, but for me I think this is a one-and-done activity. I’m very glad I did it, and I had a great time, but I don’t feel the need to do it again.

For me, the hardest part was climbing into the spectator area, and keeping myself upright while standing on the loose dry dirt on the extremely steep hill.

My advice to you is to go to the cheese-rolling, plan your trip carefully, and enjoy it to the fullest! This is truly one of the most special events you can experience in the UK.

Is the Cooper’s Hill cheese-rolling your kind of experience?

More on the UK:

• Solo Female Travel in England, Scotland, and Wales: Is it Safe?
• Scenes from the Cotswolds
• A Dream Trip Itinerary in South Wales
• Scenes from England’s Lakes District
• The Most Glorious Spirit: A Gin Trip in the UK
• Visiting Glasgow: The Gritty and the Pretty
• The Dark Side of the Scottish Highlands
• Exploring the Isle of Skye in Scotland
• Hogmanay: Celebrating New Year’s in Edinburgh
• Shetland: The Strangest Place I’ve Ever Been

The post How to Attend the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

I enjoyed my solo trip to Uzbekistan, which I paired with time in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. This was my first trip to Central Asia, and it couldn’t have gone any better!

My trip across Uzbekistan took me to four of the most popular cities — Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. I learned Persian miniature painting and suzani embroidery. I gawked at the metro stations in Tashkent and even took a day trip into Tajikistan.

And along the way, I fell in love with this incredible country. And so did many of you, my dear readers. I have never seen such a strong reader response to a trip I’ve taken before! I know many of you will be planning your own trips to Uzbekistan soon.

I love writing my What NOT to Do posts, teaching travelers what they should NOT do in different destinations. Because sometimes you need to know what not to do before you figure out what to do!

I hope this post helps you plan your own dream trip to Uzbekistan. Let’s take a look!

This post was published in May 2026.

Don’t assume Uzbekistan is an intimidating or difficult destination.

Let’s be honest — not a lot of people visit Uzbekistan before they’ve visited, say, Italy or Thailand or Mexico. It tends to be the thirtieth country people have visited, rather than the third, unless they are from Central Asia themselves.

Because of that — along with the erroneous belief that anywhere with “Stan” in its name is inherently dangerous — many people assume that Uzbekistan is best suited for expert travelers.

Here’s the truth: I was stunned at how easy Uzbekistan was to travel. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a very experienced traveler.

To start, Uzbekistan is a very safe destination where there is little violent crime and almost no street harassment. Additionally, Uzbekistan is a popular destination and has quite good infrastructure at a variety of price points.

On top of that, prices are affordable here. I spent on average $50 per night for a hotel, $2-3 for a Yandex taxi ride, and $6-8 for dinner. That makes it easier to justify staying in a nicer place or booking a higher class on a train.

The most important things for traveling Uzbekistan are researching the cities you’ll be visiting in advance, booking train tickets well ahead of time, getting an Uzbekistan eSIM, and downloading Yandex Go.

Something else I found interesting was that there were SO many large senior tour groups in Uzbekistan. And from a variety of nations, too — British, American, French, and I was surprised by how many Italian voices I heard.

Who knew the big, scary Stans would be so popular with older folks?

Overall, I have had near-breakdowns in popular travel destinations like Japan and Italy. I didn’t get anywhere close to a breakdown in Uzbekistan. My trip was just smooth, start to finish.

Don’t wait until the last minute to book train tickets.

I’m putting this near the top because it’s the most important tip on this list. Traveling by train is the best way to get around Uzbekistan — I took three different kinds of trains and found them fast, efficient, affordable, and very pleasant.

But train tickets tend to sell out extremely fast — especially the high-speed Afrosiyab trains running from Tashkent to Samarkand and Bukhara.

They often sell out the day they go on sale (!), which is 45-60 days before the trip.

Can you just take the bus instead? Of course you can — but it takes much longer. My high-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand took two hours, while the bus takes about five hours. One of my guides told me his bus took seven hours due to traffic.

You can book train tickets on your own at railway.uz, or you can have an Uzbek travel agency book them for you at a markup.

I used the agency Orex CA to buy one of my tickets, just to see what the experience was like, and it was fine, but I could have done it myself with no issues. They charged me 40 USD for a ticket that would have cost about 17 USD, so expect a decent markup.

And if your train is sold out, contact an Uzbek travel agency. I heard that many agencies hold onto tickets on the popular routes, and release them close to the date if nobody buys them. So keep looking, just in case.

If you’re a bit nervous about buying the right tickets, I recommend reaching out to an agency at least 60 days in advance and having them order them as soon as they go on sale. The extra cost might be worth the peace of mind to you.

Don’t wear revealing clothing.

Whenever I visit a predominantly Muslim country, I get women asking me if it’s necessary to wear a headscarf in public. In most Muslim countries, a headscarf is only necessary when visiting an active mosque.

But I do like to dress similarly to local women when I travel solo. Sometimes that means wearing a long tunic that buttons to my neck (Southern Lebanon), sometimes it means wearing jeans even though it’s roasting out (Cartagena, Colombia).

So how do women dress in Uzbekistan? Some women wear the hijab and dress traditionally in long, loose dresses. Some women wear the hijab and dress in more modern ways, like blazers, wide-leg jeans, and bomber jackets. Some women don’t cover their hair and dress western-style.

But I will tell you this: you do not see Uzbek women wearing short skirts, overly tight clothing, or showing their cleavage. Many women dress stylishly, but they don’t show skin.

And that made me glad that I packed a wardrobe that covered my knees, shoulders, and cleavage.

For my April trip, I mainly wore two kinds of outfits: 1) a knee-length dress over cropped or full-length leggings with a denim jacket on top, or 2) a t-shirt and jeans. I would add on a few more layers (a long-sleeved wrap top, a cardigan) if it was cold.

For a few hours on my last day in Tashkent, I did take off the denim jacket and just wore the sleeveless dress over cropped leggings. Tashkent felt modern enough that showing my shoulders didn’t feel disrespectful.

For men and mascs, if you’d like to dress similarly to Uzbek men, I’d stick to wearing long pants and avoid shorts and tank tops. And PLEASE do not go for a jog shirtless.

I did see some women tourists who were dressed revealingly. In Khiva, I saw a western woman in her sixties wearing leggings as pants with a t-shirt that didn’t cover her butt. And in Samarkand, I saw two twenty-something Russian women in short shorts and tank tops.

They stood out in a bad way. Don’t be that person.

Don’t forget to download the Yandex Go app.

If you try to summon an Uber in Uzbekistan, you’ll be out of luck — here, the app of choice is Yandex Go, a popular app in former Soviet republics. Be sure to download it before your trip, because you need a phone number to confirm it.

Yandex is vital in Uzbekistan. You can use it as a taxi app, as a food delivery app, and you can even send items to be delivered elsewhere.

And Yandex rides are shockingly cheap. Most of the time, my rides were under 5 USD for a ride across the city, usually 2-3 USD.

I had a lot of early morning departures in Uzbekistan, the earliest at 3:30 AM (yuck!), and I never had to wait longer than five minutes for a Yandex driver. That impressed me.

(There was one exception though: at train stations shortly after trains arrived. When trains arrived, there was usually around a 15-minute wait for a Yandex. And I couldn’t order them early because there usually wasn’t any phone signal until we got to the station.)

Don’t visit Uzbekistan without an eSIM.

As a travel safety educator, I never visit anywhere without an eSIM — and that’s especially important for Uzbekistan.

I used an eSIM from Holafly for my trip, and it worked very well. I ordered it before my trip, chose the specific dates for it to be active, and it started working as soon as I landed in Tashkent.

In Uzbekistan, the single most important reason to get an eSIM is being able to order Yandex taxis from anywhere. I found this helpful when it was too dark to walk back to my hotel. I also found having an eSIM very helpful for navigating my way with Google Maps, translating menus, and communicating with my guides via WhatsApp.

Free wifi is not as widespread in Uzbekistan as it is in other countries, and often wifi networks require an Uzbek phone number in order to connect. I was so glad I had unlimited data and didn’t have to deal with that.

I found that my Holafly eSIM had excellent signal in the cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, though you shouldn’t expect signal on trains in the middle of nowhere.

I also love Holafly’s benefit called Always On. Every Holafly eSIM automatically provides 1GB of emergency data per month in more than 70 destinations. If you have a delayed flight or unexpected layover, you’re covered.

You can get 5% off your Holafly Uzbekistan eSIM with the code HOLAKATE, and 10% off monthly plans.

Don’t freak out if there isn’t a working seatbelt in your car.

This is one of the stranger things I noticed in Uzbekistan — seat belts are rarely accessible. In a typical Yandex taxi, either the seat belts will be pushed deep beneath the seat cushions, or there will be a cover on top of the backseat with no holes for seat belts.

In fact, I counted up the Yandex and taxi rides I took in Uzbekistan. I took 19 rides and there was a usable backseat seatbelt FOUR TIMES. That is it.

The craziest incident was with my driver who picked me up from Khiva’s train station. I noticed there were no seatbelts in the backseat, as usual, and he beckoned me to sit in the front seat, which had a working seatbelt.

I went to put my belt on and he got angry — gesturing to me, “No, don’t do that, you don’t have to do that.” I nodded and smiled and put it on and he got angrier, shaking his head.

“No. You are good. They are bad,” I told him, giving him a thumbs up while giving a thumbs down to the other drivers. He eventually gave up and drove me to my hotel.

From talking to locals, I learned that many Uzbek drivers think it’s an insult to their driving skills if a passenger uses a seatbelt.

So how do you deal with this? If you’re traveling solo like me, sit in the front seat. The front seat usually has a working seatbelt.

If it’s important to you to have working seatbelts in the backseat on every trip, you can hire a car service. These drivers tend to be more professional than Yandex drivers, and you can confirm for certain whether they have working seatbelts.

It will cost a lot more than 2-3 USD per ride, but it will cost less than hiring a driver for the day in France or Japan or Australia.

Don’t take a “Five Stans” tour.

Many people visiting Central Asia for the first time decide to see the region by a “Five Stans” tour taking in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Why not knock them all out at once?

Honestly, I understand the urge. But these three-week tours are quite rushed and only take you to the busiest places, when the magic often happens in the quieter stops.

Instead, if you’d like to visit a few different nations, I recommend you pair Uzbekistan with one or two other countries. A Two Stan or Three Stan tour is much more reasonable.

My 17-day trip to Central Asia began with five days in Kazakhstan, which was a good amount of time for Almaty and an overnight trip to Lake Kolsay, Lake Kaindy, and Charyn Canyon.

(My original plan was to do five days in Turkmenistan beforehand, but they rejected my Letter of Invitation, likely because I’m politically outspoken with a large following and They Do Not Like That. Oh well, it was their loss and guess what — I loved Kazakhstan!)

I then did a day trip to Tajikistan from Samarkand, visiting Panjakent, the Seven Lakes, and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ruins of Sarazm.

This day trip is easy to add into any Uzbekistan trip, and Tajikistan is visa-free for many nationalities.

Resist the urge to knock out all of Central Asia at once. That’s really a two-trip endeavor.

Don’t leave your wide-angle lens at home.

Now, this one is more for the serious photographers. Uzbekistan is a fantastic destination for photography — specifically, architectural photography.

The interiors of the buildings are filled with incredible geometric details — it’s the kind of art you can look at for hours and still discover new things.

However, it’s very difficult to photograph these interiors properly unless you have a wide-angle lens. Ideally, a very wide lens.

If you’re more of a casual photographer like me and you’d rather not cart around a ton of lenses, the iPhone has a pretty great wide-angle lens these days. While the quality is not what you’d get with most big lenses, I feel like it gets the job done.

Let’s compare two shots of the ceiling of the Aksaray Mausoleum in Samarkand:

You can see what a difference it makes!

So if you’re a photographer, bring your wiiiiiiidest lens.

Don’t buy a special lens if it’s not in your budget, but perhaps consider renting or borrowing one if you’re keen on photographing the interiors of these buildings.

Or maybe just use your iPhone, like me.

Don’t just sightsee in Uzbekistan — learn a craft, too.

I learned two traditional crafts while in Uzbekistan — Persian miniature painting and suzani embroidery — and honestly, these were the BEST things I did on my trip.

Before my trip, a company called CraftnCulture Uzbekistan reached out to me, asking if I would be interested in any of their workshops. WOULD I EVER! Making things is right up my alley, and I knew it would allow me to get to know Uzbekistan even better.

Craftnculture offers workshops in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara in everything from plov-cooking and bread-making to pottery-painting and mosaic-making to knife-crafting and wood-carving.

In Bukhara, I took a Persian mini painting workshop from acclaimed artist Rafael Toshev, who guided me through painting a pomegranate tree with watercolors on silk paper. (The silk paper is a lot more finicky than it looks!)

This was SO MUCH FUN. I had forgotten how nice it is to just draw and paint and make art.

I had the best time painting my piece and getting to know Rafael. While we had a translator, Rafael and I soon realized we both spoke French, and we gabbed away the whole time. By the end of the evening, I promised I would send my father-in-law to his upcoming show in London this summer.

In Samarkand, I took a suzani embroidery workshop and learned the art of Uzbek embroidery. Artist Feruza guided me, teaching me three different methods of traditional stitching before we settled on the easiest stitch together.

I like to sew and embroider, so I wasn’t a complete beginner — but a beginner can absolutely do this. It takes some time to get the hang of the stitching, but soon you’ll go on autopilot and fall into a trance.

Feruza and I got to know one another, and she told me she teaches suzani embroidery to everyone in her family — including the boys. She even showed me pictures sewing at the table with her toddler grandkids.

Best of all, Feruza gave me enough thread that I can continue sewing my piece at home.

Finally, while in Tashkent, I met up with Craftnculture company owner Yusuf, who himself guided me on a food and metro tour, which was the perfect introduction to the country.

I got to know him and learn more about the company, and honestly, I’d love to send SO many more people his way. Craftnculture is doing things right.

(I paid for the Persian mini painting workshop myself and Craftnculture comped me my suzani embroidery workshop in Samarkand and a Chorsu Bazaar and metro station tour in Tashkent.)

Don’t expect locals to speak English.

In many parts of the world, English is the go-to second language. In Central Asia, however, locals are likelier to speak Russian as their second language, especially if they’re over 40 or from a rural area.

In fact, people in Uzbekistan often defaulted to Russian with me, saying spasibo for thank you rather than the Uzbek rahmat.

And a few times, young women spoke to me in English on behalf of their families, their mothers and aunts smiling behind them.

Knowing a bit of Russian can be very useful here, and I recommend that you learn a few Russian words. Yes, no, hello, thank you, and numbers 1-5 can make communicating in Uzbekistan a bit easier.

But you never know what might be useful. On my Tajikistan day trip, one of my fellow travelers spoke Farsi and our guide spoke Tajik back — those two languages are mutually intelligible, so they were able to understand each other!

Don’t expect to book Uzbekistan Airways with your credit card.

If you’re flying domestically within Uzbekistan, you’ll be flying with Uzbekistan Airways. You might even be flying them internationally.

But Uzbekistan Airways does not take most international cards, including my American and Czech cards. I learned this when it was time to make the purchase and nothing would go through.

So what do you do if an airline doesn’t take your credit cards? I booked the flight through Expedia.

I never book with Expedia or any other OTA (online travel agency) — it’s much smarter to book directly with the airline, in case your flight gets canceled and needs to be rescheduled. I figured a quick flight from Urgench to Tashkent would be unlikely to have any issues.

And, in fact, it was fine. So if you’re booking on Uzbekistan Airways, book via an OTA.

Don’t go anywhere without cash.

Wherever I travel, I use credit cards most of the time — it’s better for points and better for tracking expenses in my YNAB budget.

But Uzbekistan is very cash-oriented. I even had to pay a few hotel bills with cash, which is something I hadn’t done in awhile.

I wouldn’t go anywhere in Uzbekistan without a decent amount of cash, because you’ll probably need to hit up an ATM sooner or later. In fact, when I was shopping up a storm in Bukhara, I had to go to the ATM three times in one day!

Some ATMs look normal but are only for with Uzbek bank accounts. One bank that I perused often was Kapitalbank, with bright yellow ATMs that are easy to spot.

Something else to keep in mind is that you may have a ton of bills on you. At one point I had basically the equivalent of $500 in $5 bills. Just something to keep in mind!

Don’t skip Tashkent.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, doesn’t get quite as much attention as its other cities, and people often cite it as boring. But that doesn’t mean you should skip it — I think it makes the perfect landing pad for getting to know Uzbek culture.

On my first full day in Tashkent, I did a Food Tour and Metro Journey in Tashkent. This was the absolute best introduction to the city and the country.

Yusuf and I started at Chorsu Bazaar, an immense round market, where he told me about the food and produce and had me try several different items. (I often get overwhelmed when solo in markets, so I really appreciated having a guide to show me what was good.)

Next he took me on a tour of several metro stations — and they are SUPERB. Tashkent has so many cool metro stations, each of them decorated from top to bottom in different styles. It’s truly a joy taking the metro there, just getting to enjoy the art.

We finished up at a big restaurant specializing in plov, where we shared three different kinds of plov.

(Yusuf laughed at one point because the staff didn’t know who to give the pot of tea because they didn’t know which of us was older. The younger person serves the tea in Uzbekistan! Yusuf is younger, so he served me tea. You get less than half of a cup at a time, and it’s handed to you with your right hand as you hold your left hand over your heart.)

Beyond that, I got to enjoy some cool coffee shops and parks in Tashkent. I’m glad I got to spend time there.

Don’t go all in on Samarkand.

Samarkand is known as the beauty of Uzbekistan, thanks to its glorious architecture. The Registan and Shah-i-Zinda Mausoleum are two of the most spectacular works of architecture in the country. Both stopped me in my tracks multiple times.

And visiting Samarkand is absolutely a MUST; I couldn’t imagine an Uzbekistan trip without it.

That said — just because a city has wonderful things, it doesn’t mean it has an equally wonderful vibe. I personally didn’t love the vibe of Samarkand as a city, and many travelers I spoke to (though, to be fair — not all of them!) felt similarly.

Samarkand is EXTREMELY touristy — it’s basically the Florence of Central Asia. And it welcomes plenty of Uzbeks, Central Asians, and people from all over the world. Because of the crowds, it feels more than a bit theme park-y.

There was also constant traffic in Samarkand, and the energy of the city felt a bit stressful to me. At times, it felt tough even finding a restaurant. A surprising number of restaurants open for lunch were closed for dinner. This did lead me to finding a few holes in the wall, though!

I’m saying this because I often see people go Samarkand-heavy in their itineraries. You don’t have to do that.

So how much time is good for Samarkand? I spent three full days there, with one day being my Tajikistan day trip, and that was the perfect amount of time. I could have added an extra day if I had wanted to day trip to Shahrisabz, another cool city nearby.

Don’t buy souvenirs until you get to Bukhara.

Uzbekistan has some of the best souvenir shopping I have ever experienced. Some of the most famous products here are silks dyed in colorful ikat patterns, traditional suzani embroidery pieces, and gorgeous patterned pottery.

And that’s not all. There are Persian miniature paintings, bread stamps in a variety of patterns, and tiny pairs of scissors shaped like birds.

Need to buy something for men (which I always find a challenge)? They’ve got knives, too! You bet I bought my husband a cool knife.

But the absolute best shopping in Uzbekistan is in Bukhara. I found the quality of products here to be generally better than what I saw in Samarkand and Khiva, and Bukhara happens to be the home of local arts like rug-weaving and gold zarduzlik embroidery.

Bukhara is also home to three traditional trading domes through which Silk Road travelers passed through on their journey (not unlike a duty-free shop at the airport today). These domes are still active today.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy something in another city. If you find something you love, buy it! I bought a piece of suzani embroidery from Feruza, my embroidery teacher in Samarkand, and her work is exquisite.

But I recommend you save the hardcore shopping for once you hit Bukhara. Oh, and budget a LOT more than you were planning. It took all my willpower not to buy an $819 long purple ikat silk jacket.

Don’t assume Khiva is too far away.

Khiva felt so much different than everywhere else. This is a stunning walled city in the heart of the desert and it genuinely feels like an oasis on the Silk Road.

But it’s far from everything, which is why some people skip it. It’s either a six-hour train ride from Bukhara or an 80-minute flight from Tashkent.

But it’s very much worth the journey. I took a sleeper train from Bukhara that departed at 5:42 AM and arrived around 11:37 AM, and it couldn’t have been more pleasant. My three compartment-mates and I slept a bit, then I read and relaxed with my feet up as we chugged across the desert.

Of course, you need to accept Khiva for what it is. The Ichan Kala, the area within the walls, is 100% geared toward tourism, not unlike Kotor, Montenegro, or San Gimignano, Italy. If you want to experience local life, you’re going to have to go beyond the walls.

But it is so beautiful, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s so visually different to the other popular cities of Uzbekistan.

And if you want to go further west, you can head to the city of Nukus, and even camp overnight at what used to be the Aral Sea, complete with shipwrecks suspended in sand.

Don’t only eat plov.

It’s easy to get sucked into only eating plov while in Uzbekistan. It’s ubiquitous, it’s cheap, there are tons of regional variations, and best of all, it’s absolutely delicious!

Plov is a rice dish made with meat, onions, carrots (often a mix of orange and yellow carrots), and other accoutrements like raisins, chickpeas, or apricots. Plov is where the word “pilaf” comes from!

And honestly, it’s easy to end up eating it for every meal in Uzbekistan. But I recommend you get out of the plov zone every now and then.

So, what should you eat besides plov?

Shashlik — meat kabobs grilled on a skewer — are a very popular option in Uzbekistan, probably second only to plov, and they also feel like a healthy option after days of heavier cuisine. I would usually get two meats and a vegetable skewer.

Laghman is a popular dish in Central Asia, thanks to the influence of the Uyghurs of western China. These hand-pulled noodles are thick and chewy, and are usually served in a soup with meat of some kind.

Shivit Oshi is a popular dish in Khiva: dill noodles topped with beef and potatoes. Delicious!

I found that restaurants in Khiva were good about communicating local dishes from Khiva and the surrounding Khorazm region.

And if you just feel like a snack, grab a samsa — a filled pastry. They usually come filled with meat, or sometimes pumpkin or other vegetables, but my favorites were stuffed with a mix of sautéed potatoes and onions.

Don’t come in summer (unless you have to).

I visited Uzbekistan in April, and that was by design. From what I read, spring and fall are the best times of year to visit, because the summers can be very hot and the winters can be cold and bleak.

April turned out to be a perfect month for Uzbekistan and the Almaty region of Kazakhstan. I had some cold moments (in the mountains of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan), but the days were lovely for the most part.

But Khiva was HOT. Some days, the midday temperatures were as high as 90 F (32 C). In APRIL. I spent the afternoons in Khiva holed up in my hotel room — there was no reason to be out when it was that hot.

Khiva may be hotter than the other cities, due in part to its location in the desert, but it got quite hot in Tashkent around that time as well. I can’t imagine how hot it gets in the summer months.

For that reason, I recommend you avoid visiting Uzbekistan in summer if possible.

(With my eternal caveat for teachers and other people who must travel in the summer — if summer is your only option, you can make it work. Just make sure you pace yourself and stay inside in the afternoons.)

At the same time, know that this isn’t necessarily the case for other parts of Central Asia. If you’re visiting high altitude places, especially in Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan or along the Pamir Highway, summer is THE time to go. Some places might be inaccessible outside in summer.

Don’t backtrack to Tashkent…unless you want to.

When I first booked my flights to Central Asia, I decided to fly into Almaty, Kazakhstan, and out of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I would fly from Almaty to Tashkent in between. That’s what made sense at the time.

And so the Uzbekistan portion of my itinerary had me travel by train from Tashkent to Samarkand to Bukhara to Khiva, then I flew from Urgench Airport (near Khiva) back to Tashkent.

But when I was at Urgench Airport, I saw that people were boarding a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. WHAT? Who knew that was even an option?!

Turkish Airlines is very well-connected in Central Asia, and they run flights from Istanbul to Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Urgench.

Had I known that, I would have flown home from Urgench (assuming the price was decent). I didn’t really have a reason to go back to Tashkent, and because I always give myself a generous buffer with flights, I basically added on two extra days that I didn’t need.

However…I enjoyed those last two days in Tashkent.

I stayed at Lotte City Hotels Tashkent Palace, a four-star hotel in a nice neighborhood for just $117 per night. I went to the Museum of Applied Arts. I took long walks. I visited lots of coffeeshops. I hung out with my friend Megan.

And you know what? After nine days of family-run guesthouses, Uzbek food, and early mornings, it was nice to chill in a plush, anonymous hotel, order room service lasagna, and decompress a bit before flying home.

It might have added two extra days, but that was a great way to end my trip to Uzbekistan.

More on What NOT to Do:

• What NOT to Do in Prague
• What NOT to Do in Italy
• What NOT to Do in Croatia
• What NOT to Do in Iceland
• What NOT to Do in Mexico
• What NOT to Do in New York City
• What NOT to Do in Boston
• See all What NOT to Do posts here.

The post What NOT to Do in Uzbekistan appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

I am very much a city person. My favorite thing about exploring cities is getting to pretend like I’m a local for a little bit, whether it’s dropping into a local bakery, spending some time reading in a park, or jumping on the metro to check out a new neighborhood.

And Madrid is a city-lover’s city — a metropolis filled with culture and vibrance. A venerated city.

Back on my first trip to Spain many years ago, I didn’t put Madrid on my original itinerary and my readers basically staged a mutiny until I rerouted. And yes — they ABSOLUTELY made the right call.

Here’s why Madrid has stayed with me — and why you should consider it for your next trip.

This post is brought to you by Madrid Destino, including their photos.

Madrid Runs on Its Own Clock

If you’ve spent time in Spain before, you know that Spanish cities operate on a laaaate schedule. Lunch starts at 2 PM. Dinner starts at 9 PM. The streets fill up at 11 PM on a Tuesday. It’s not unusual to see kids running around on the street at midnight.

And Madrid, the cultural and geographic epicenter of Spain, is a place that takes this culture very seriously.

There’s a concept called the tardeo, essentially the late-afternoon social ritual, where people gather on terraces in neighborhoods like Salamanca for drinks before dinner. It’s a beloved tradition, and a civilized reminder that the day isn’t over yet.

And that’s just a nice pause before Madrid’s second act in the evening. If you’ve always been more of a night owl, the Spanish schedule will agree with you.

Parks and Greenery

One of my favorite places in Madrid is El Retiro Park (Parque El Retiro), a park that my readers insisted was unmissable. And once again, they were right. Retiro Park deserves to be named among the great urban parks of Europe, if not the world.

To me, Madrid feels more dense and urban than other Spanish cities — which is part of what makes it exciting to me. But the moment you step into Retiro, the contrast hits you immediately.

You go from city hum to enormous, calm greenery in about thirty seconds. There’s a rowing lake, the spectacular Crystal Palace (a 19th-century glass-and-iron greenhouse now used for contemporary art installations), and a monument to Alfonso XII that is so wonderfully theatrical.

I could have stayed here all afternoon. I’d go back with a book anytime. And that’s the highest praise I can bestow upon a park!

Art and Museums

If you’re a museum fan, Madrid is one of the great museum cities of Europe — especially when it comes to art museums.

The Reina Sofía is one of the best modern art museums I’ve been to anywhere, up there with the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the MALBA in Buenos Aires.

Picasso’s famous painting Guernica is there, showing the horrors of war. And you should prioritize seeing it — the scale alone is genuinely shocking, it fills the room in a way no photograph prepares you for.

But don’t go only for the Picasso. Wander around and find what moves you.

The painting that stopped me cold was one I’d never heard of: A World, by Spanish artist Ángeles Santos Torroella, painted in 1911. I stood in front of it for a long time. That feeling of unexpectedly discovering something that gets completely under your skin is exactly why I go to art museums.

Beyond the Reina Sofia, the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza round out what’s known as the Golden Triangle of Art. Between these three institutions, you have one of the most remarkable collections of art in the world, and serious museum-goers could spend multiple days here alone.

Culinary Wonders

I have a group of foodie friends in Prague. We come from several different countries, but we’re all obsessed with food, and we do regular trips to different European culinary regions each year, like the Basque Country or the South of France.

When we started talking about our next trip, Madrid rocketed to the top of our list. Two of my friends hadn’t been at all, and the rest of us would love to return and dive deeper into the food scene than we did on previous trips.

Mercado de San Miguel was one of my favorite stops on my one day in the city — a beautiful iron-and-glass market near Plaza Mayor with food stalls serving small portions of everything. Iberian jamón, pintxos, fresh seafood, Encurtidos y Gildas, wine. The format is perfect for grazing.

I must share that my personal highlight was meat in a cone. Like an ice cream cone, but filled with cured ham. Madrid invented this and should be celebrated for it!

Beyond the market, the city’s food story runs deep: century-old taverns in La Latina serving jamón and house wine, the city’s signature cocido madrileño (a deeply comforting slow-cooked stew of chickpeas, meat, and vegetables), and a serious fine dining scene for when you want something more ambitious.

Multiple Michelin-starred restaurants, innovative chefs, a culinary culture that takes itself seriously without being snobby about it.

And then…there are churros with hot chocolate. At any hour of the day.

Exploring Madrid Neighborhoods

I love cities that have distinct, interesting neighborhoods that feel different from each other. And Madrid is definitely one of those cities.

Malasaña is the creative indie heart of the city — street art, vintage shops, cafés that look like they were designed by someone who cares deeply about light fixtures. It’s where Madrid feels young and a little scruffy in the best way.

Chueca is vibrant and welcoming, Madrid’s LGBTQ+ hub, with great restaurants and a buzzy social energy.

Salamanca is where you go when you want to feel fancy — wide boulevards, upscale boutiques, those beautiful terraces.

La Latina is where you go on a Sunday morning to browse El Rastro, the city’s famous flea market, and reward yourself with vermut and tapas at one of the bars spilling out onto the street.

And if you like going off-map, the emerging neighborhood of Carabanchel is worth exploring — local art spaces, neighborhood bars, none of the tourist veneer.

Another option is the district of Chamberí — a very typical Madrileño neighborhood where you’re likelier to rub elbows with locals than tourists. Calle Zurbano, a street filled with boutiques, restaurants, and museums, is especially worth a stroll.

A Note on Madrid vs. Barcelona

I’ve noticed travelers tend to compare these cities, so here’s my honest take: they’re both great, but they’re different. Barcelona is lovely and photogenic and has cool architecture and beaches.

At the same time, Barcelona has been a hotspot for such a long time. Travelers are starting now to put Madrid in the same category.

If you are someone who loves the feeling of a big city — the energy, the density, the sense that real people live here and the city has a life completely independent of you — Madrid is your city. It’s less curated. It’s more itself. It operates on its own terms and prioritizes locals first.

That’s what I love about Madrid.

Planning Your Trip to Madrid

How to get to Madrid: Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) is well-connected from the US, with direct flights from major cities. The Metro runs directly from the airport into the city center — and it’s one of the most efficient metro systems I’ve experienced in any European city.

How to get around Madrid: Madrid’s city center is very walkable, and the Metro is excellent for longer distances. Staying central — neighborhoods like Malasaña, Chueca, or near the Prado — puts you within easy reach of most of what you’ll want to see.

When to go to Madrid: Madrid is a truly year-round city — you can have a great time no matter when you come.

Spring (April–May) and fall (September–October) are lovely months with comfortable temperatures and fewer crowds. If summer is your only option, that can work too: hotel prices can be lower, and the city empties out a bit as madrileños head to the coast, which means shorter lines at museums and restaurants.

And Madrid is excellent in winter as well!! Winter in Madrid brings milder temperatures than in most European cities, and there’s almost always sunshine and clear skies. That, plus lower prices and fewer crowds, makes it a great winter city break option.

How long to spend in Madrid: I recommend three full days for a minimum for exploring the city.

But if you’re interested in day trips from Madrid, five days is a good minimum. There are UNESCO World Heritage-listed day trips, including Toledo, Segovia, and the Royal Palace of Aranjuez.

For longer trips, Spain’s rail network also connects Madrid to Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia, making it a wise landing for a broader Spain itinerary.

For trip planning, Madrid’s official tourism site — esmadrid.com — is genuinely useful and well-organized.

Madrid has been quietly one of Europe’s great city destinations for a long time. I love how it’s under the radar a bit, and that’s what appeals to me about it.

And now I think it’s time to turn to the group chat and bring up a weekend in Madrid to my friends once again!

The post There’s So Much To Love About Madrid appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

It was my first time visiting this part of the world, and I had an outstanding time. In fact, this might have been one of the best solo trips I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to go back and explore more!

Let’s take a look at the month.

Destinations Visited

• Prague, Czech Republic
• Almaty, Moon Canyon, Black Canyon, Saty, Kolsay Lake, Lake Kaindy, and Charyn Canyon National Park, Kazakhstan
• Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, Uzbekistan
• Panjakent, Seven Lakes, and Durman, Tajikistan

Highlights

An incredible trip to Central Asia. It went incredibly smoothly — so smoothly that I was a bit surprised! It turns out that Central Asia is much easier to travel than you might think.

The most important thing is making sure you buy your Uzbekistan train tickets as soon as they go on sale (usually 45 or 60 days beforehand), as they can and do sell out quickly.

My trip started in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Almaty is a beloved city among my travel blogger colleagues, and I see why — it’s a wonderfully green city, super walkable, with lots of great cafes, excellent food, and views of snow-capped mountains in the distance (if you’re lucky and visit in mid-spring like me). It’s also an extremely affordable city. I could easily spend much more time there.

In Almaty I highly recommend taking a tour with Walking Almaty. The owner, Dennis, is a fascinating American guy who loves and is obsessed with Kazakh history and culture (to the point that he actually translated some Kazakh works into English for the first time).

Also, during our tour, Dennis literally helped an old lady cross the street. Like, it’s not a cliché — some people actually do that!

I also took a two-day tour to the natural wonders of the Almaty region of Kazakhstan: Moon Canyon, Black Canyon, Kolsay Lake, Lake Kaindy, and Charyn Canyon. A two-day tour is the best way to see all of these, as the one-day tours start super early, end super late, and are quite rushed.

All of these places were so cool to visit, but I especially adored Charyn Canyon, which looked like it was straight out of Utah or Arizona. You walk down the canyon as you’re surrounded by sandy rock formations.

The tour itself was big (43 people!) but fun, with great food and karaoke, and we spent the night in yurts.

Next up came Uzbekistan. I visited four cities: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva.

Bukhara was my overall favorite, with a calm, pedestrianized city center, beautiful architecture, and some of the most outstanding souvenir shopping I’ve experienced of anywhere I’ve visited in the world!

Samarkand had the best overall architecture of the trip, the kind of art that brings you to wonder — especially the turquoise tiles at Shah-i-Zinda Mausoleum. I also booked a photo shoot in costume at the Registan early one morning.

Khiva was very different — a walled city in the middle of the desert, very busy and catering 100% to tourism, but really beautiful and special and a treat for photography.

Tashkent wasn’t as cool as Almaty, but I still had fun there, including taking a food tour, visiting the Applied Arts Museum, and some cool coffee shops.

And I took a few craft workshops where I learned two Uzbek crafts — Suzani embroidery and Persian mini painting. I took a few classes with Craftnculture (they comped me the embroidery class and a food tour in Tashkent). You’ll hear more about those soon.

A cool day trip to Tajikistan. Did you know that Samarkand is only 50 minutes from the Tajik border? From Samarkand, I joined a small group tour to Tajikistan that visited the city of Panjakent and its bazaar; the Seven Lakes, perched up in the mountains; and the ruins of Sarazm, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which, frankly, wasn’t that exciting).

Oddly, for me the highlight was the bazaar. It’s not a touristy area and people were excited to meet me and the other two guys on the tour. And Tajik women dress SO beautifully — it’s not unusual to see them wearing matching outfits covered with sequins and rhinestones. I saw one sparkle-covered woman working in a garden!

I have SO much to write about Central Asia, both on the blog and in social media, and I am looking forward to getting into that!

Good times in Prague. April is the month of the cherry blossoms, and though I missed most of them this year, I got a few days of pink blossomy goodness! April is also the month of green beer (yes, here green beer is for Easter, not St. Patrick’s Day).

We went to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. This exhibition has been traveling the world with quite a few artifacts from the Titanic. Overall, I found the exhibition a bit oversold for what they offer (so many of those artifacts are little twisted pieces of metal, or dishes), but I really loved learning the stories of the passengers.

I got an Ultra membership at Revolut, which means I now get three WeWork passes per month. So I’ll be coworking more often at the Prague WeWork, or maybe even other locations when I travel. I love my home setup (with cats!), but it’s nice to have a change of scenery, and I do work well around other people.

And at the end of the month, I saw Miguel in concert at SaSaZu. I adore Miguel and his album Wildheart is one of my favorite albums of all time. I think he has one of the best voices of any living singer. He put on a great show.

Challenges

Charlie’s phone was stolen while we were out one day. We were sitting at a table at Manifesto Market and a guy came up to us with a piece of paper wrapped in a plastic folder. He held out the paper and we told him we weren’t interested.

Turns out he had been holding the paper over Charlie’s phone, and he took it while it was covered. This is a common scam.

What sucks is that this happened in a place we love, Manifesto. We actually held our night-before-the-wedding party there. And Prague is a city that feels SO safe, and pickpocketing is quite rare here compared to other popular European cities like Paris, Rome, and Barcelona. Plus, we were in an area far from the touristy center.

It just goes to show you need to be cautious everywhere.

I broke my phone screen in Samarkand. I was standing at the Registan, dropped my phone, and suddenly a white line of broken pixels appeared on the screen. I weighed my options, and realized that even though it was still functional, it would probably be a good idea to replace it in case it got worse.

A quick Google found me a repair shop next door to a boba tea spot (sweet!), and I hung out, sipped and chewed my boba, and read my Kindle until the screen was fixed, costing a painful $259. I’m just glad I specifically allocate money in my YNAB budget for unexpected business mishaps and tech repairs.

(And if you’re keeping track, you are correct, I also had to replace my screen in November after slipping in the snow and smashing it to smithereens. Not my finest few months.)

Early mornings and lack of sleep in Central Asia. I spent much of the trip sleep-deprived because there were so many early mornings. Three early tours and activities, two early trains, three early flights, and one wakeup in the yurt at 5:00 AM when one of the girls’ phones went off.

The irony is that sometimes when I fly westward, I keep an early schedule the whole trip! Up at 6:00 AM, bed at 9:30 PM. But flying eastward makes you want to go to bed late and sleep in, and that, coupled with the early wakeups, completely threw off my schedule.

I got locked out of my room in Almaty — in a hotel with no on-site staff. And the full story of that is in my reel below…

Blog Posts of the Month

How to Get Cheap Flights with Dollar Flight Club — I love what Dollar Flight Club offers — they send you alerts for when there are way-cheaper-than-usual flights from your home airport to any of your dream destinations! Plus other destinations!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kate McCulley | Travel Blogger (@adventurouskate)

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So, something crazy happened in Almaty, and I told the story on Instagram. I got locked out of my hotel room. Which has happened to me before, and usually isn’t a big deal — but this was in a hotel that rarely has on-site staff.

The only way to contact the staff is via WhatsApp. But I had locked myself out of my room, which had my phone in it. So I had to go around the hotel knocking on random doors — and hilarity ensued.

For more live updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I am enjoying immensely. I am loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve somehow missed my entire life until now!

In April, I got back to form and listened to albums number 92-69.

Favorite Discovery: Super Fly by Curtis Mayfield. I knew I was going to love this — I love funk and soul and the 70s and blaxploitation anthems and everything I’ve ever heard by Curtis Mayfield.

But this is the kind of album that I wish we had more of these days — an album by a single artist, fully crafted around a movie. There are even plot points in the songs! What the hell did Freddie do?! I need to see the movie now!

Overall, this was SUCH a fun, funky, and groovy album. An absolute pleasure.

I also really enjoyed Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield. I’d heard a few of her songs over the years, but listening to this album gave me such a deep appreciation for her gorgeous voice, which is a perfect match for the jazzy-poppy songs on this album.

Other Favorite Discoveries: Baduizm by Erykah Badu, The College Dropout by Kanye West, Back in Black by AC/DC, Hunky Dory by David Bowie.

Favorite Revisited Album: Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morrisette. This was my most-listened-to album when I was in the seventh grade, and I am pleased to share that IT HOLDS UP AMAZINGLY. How is this album so good?!

Like Billy Joel’s The Stranger or Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, this album packs in a truly shocking number of incredible, memorable, and distinctive-but-cohesive songs. (And while it’s a recent album, I would put Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into that category, too.)

And the album has such a specific musical sound and point of view, with a beautiful blend of pop and rock and the stories of a young woman who has gone through some dark times. Nobody could sing like this but Alanis.

I also want to give love to another favorite album of mine: Renaissance by Beyoncé, which happens to be my favorite Beyoncé album. This album is a celebration of the Black queer and trans artists who pioneered so many different forms of dance music and the culture around them.

What I love is that this album is so LAYERED and DETAILED. Nothing goes overlooked. There are so many dance genres represented: disco, house, funk, dancehall, techno, ballroom, that ubiquitous early 90s genre of “beautiful woman sings with scary-sounding man.” And it’s ultimately a celebration of being yourself on the dance floor.

Other Favorite Revisited Albums: Blonde by Frank Ocean.

Favorite Songs: “Cuff It” by Beyoncé, “All Falls Down” by Kanye West and Syleena Johnson, “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” by The Doors, “Back in Black” by AC/DC, “Freddie’s Dead” by Curtis Mayfield, “Just a Little Lovin'” by Dusty Springfield, “Self Control” by Frank Ocean, “You Learn” by Alanis Morrisette, “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A., “Family Affair” by Sly and the Family Stone.

Get the playlist: I’m creating a playlist of my favorite songs from the 500 albums — maximum one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.

Random Music Thoughts: I’ve written before about how angry I get when thinking about how Kanye West has gone from one of my favorite artists to an actual, Hitler-loving Nazi. In part because it’s so hard conflating his brilliant early music with his repugnant views.

This month was especially stark — The College Dropout is such a fun and goofy and trailblazing album, so different from what hip-hop was putting out at the time, and it breaks my heart that either young Kanye turned into a Nazi or young Kanye was hiding his inner Nazi-ness all along.

*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this list are problematic in various ways — there are even two murderers in the mix. I’m looking at their music solely from an influential perspective.

What I Watched This Month

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is back: For All Mankind on Apple TV+! I love this show so much that I recommend to everyone.

When Charlie and I watched the first episode last year, we loved it so much that we proceeded to watch an episode every single night, 40 nights in a row, until we had watched it all.

This show starts in the 1960s and is an alternative history about what would happen if the Soviets had landed on the moon first. Because of this, the space race never ended — the US and the Soviets continued racing each other to have a base on the moon first, to get to Mars first, etc. As a result, space exploration is so more extensive and exciting.

Each season takes place in a different decade, following the original astronauts and their families as they age and technology progresses. The of-the-time musical cues are outstanding (I’m still not over the immaculate use of DMX’s “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” in season 4), and because it’s Apple TV+, they spent a ton of money on production, and it’s looks expensive.

This month, season 5 started, which takes place in the 2010s, and season 6 will be the final season. Each episode has 10 hourlong episodes, so there’s a lot to enjoy. WATCH IT!!

Also, I saw the movie Michael in the theater. The plot is thin, but the music and dance sequences are stunning, and Jaafar Jackson (and the young Juliano Krue Valdi) did an incredible, uncanny job as Michael Jackson himself.

This movie is a reminder that Michael’s music, from the early days of the Jackson 5 through the Bad era, is some of the best pop music ever created, and I loved getting to listen to it for two hours.

What I Read This Month

I always get a lot of reading done when I’m on a long solo trip!

Yesteryear by Caro Clair Burke (2026) — Natalie Heller Mills is one of the most followed tradwives in America, raising her six children on a farm in Idaho. Of course, she has a TON of help behind the scenes, but her followers don’t know that. But then Natalie suddenly wakes up in 1855 and has to live the lifestyle she’s been pushing.

This is one of the buzziest books of the moment, and I really enjoyed it. The subject matter is tantalizing and I genuinely had no idea what direction the book went in, leading to a surprising ending.

That said, I feel like this book was rushed. It felt like it could have done with more robust editing, though I understand that the publisher wanted the book out FAST. There were a handful of odd issues I think could have been written differently (her Harvard experience felt more like a big nondescript university, and really, her father-in-law is the popular Republican Senator from California?).

And unfortunately, it only touched the deeper issues of feminism and performance in the lightest way. If it the book had chosen to reckon with these issues more deeply, it could have been one of the best novels of the decade. So I do feel a bit bad that this is the final version of it.

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley (2025) — Adela Woods is a 16-year-old competitive swimmer who becomes pregnant and is banished to her grandmother’s small town in the Florida panhandle. While there, she meets the Girls — a group of outcast women and girls who were teenage moms and raise their children together.

The book changes perspective between Adela; Simone, the oldest of the group, who has four-year-old twins and finds herself pregnant again; and Emory, who brings her newborn to high school and is determined to graduate against the odds.

I really enjoyed the characters and the setting of this book, and especially getting into the perspectives of teen moms who are seen as outcasts within their community. While it didn’t quite blow me away, this was a great read.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) — Sybil Van Antwerp is a woman in her 70s who has written letters her whole life — to her brother, to her best friend, to writers like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry, to her former colleague’s teenage child, to the dean at the university where she wants to audit classes.

This epistolary novel is a collection of letters to and from Sybil over the course of several years, as she struggles with relationships with her kids, is courted by two different men, and deals with the onset of a disability.

This book has been an unexpected breakout hit, and I see why! The letter-writing is an excellent device, showing you only what Sybil wants people to know and letting the truth seep in little by little in the other letters. Sybil is not a lovable narrator. She’s complicated, she’s gruff, she keeps people at a distance, and I love when women characters are allowed to have an edge like this.

One warning: there is an animal death in this book that really upset me, and to be frank, was handled in a cruel way and kind of ruined the reading experience for me. They’re making a movie of the book, starring Jane Fonda (who will be FABULOUS, as she always is), and I hope they cut the animal death altogether.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2022) — Carrie Soto is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, with a record of 20 Grand Slam wins. But in 1994, five years past retirement, a new young player named Nikki Chan is about to break her record. Carrie decides to come out of retirement at age 37 to be coached by her beloved father, battle Chan, and keep her record once and for all.

I love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, which are always told by strong, successful, and complicated women characters. The core of this book is a woman reckoning with who she is if she doesn’t have the one thing that she’s worked for all her life, and rebuilding a relationship between father and daughter.

That said, while an enjoyable read, I think Carrie Soto is Back is one of Reid’s weaker books (and Atmosphere is her best). Carrie’s father is from Argentina and they speak a lot of Spanish mixed with English, but honestly, the Spanish just seemed so cringeworthy to me, with no hint of Argentina, and it was painfully obvious that Reid doesn’t speak Spanish herself.

Orbital: A Novel by Samantha Harvey (2024) — This novel shares the thoughts of six astronauts and cosmonauts from different countries who have been orbiting the Earth together for the last nine months. Each of them ponder their existence and the beauty of our planet as they prepare to return to it.

This is a beautiful elegy, and well deserving of all the awards it has received. While it tends to hold each of the characters at arm’s length, you soon learn that the wonder of it is how beautifully they each care for our planet.

Audition: A Novel by Katie Kitamura (2025) — A Broadway actress is approached by a young man who believes he may be her son. From there, two different narratives spill outward, and the relationship between the two of them veers in some truly wild and confounding directions.

I really loved Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, about an interpreter working at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but this novel didn’t do much for me. I appreciate it for being well-written and for taking some big risks, but it overall left an unpleasant aftertaste.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (2016) — I listened to this audiobook a few years ago and wanted to read it and actually take notes this time, because it’s really helpful.

This book is all about how to negotiate and get what you want. And while I do think it’s a bit overly tailored to men in general, and straight white men in particular, there are lots of excellent tips here that I would love to put to use.

Coming Up in May 2026

This month will mostly be spent in Prague, but Charlie and I do have a trip at the end of the month. We’re heading to England — and while we visit London frequently to see his family, this trip is about exploring new parts of his country.

We are going to Cooper’s Hill for the annual cheese-rolling! After watching the We are the Champions docuseries on Netflix, which profiles a strange and unusual competition in each episode, we knew right away we had to witness the cheese-rolling for ourselves. We actually booked our hotel more than a year in advance.

It’s not as fun and cutesy as it sounds. The hill is STEEP and it’s not uncommon for people to flip over themselves violently and break bones. In fact, it’s not an official event because of the injury risk.

No, we are not taking part in the cheese rolling. We are here strictly as spectators for the event, and pub-goers afterwards.

We’re padding out the trip with some time in the Cotswolds (which I visited in 2015 and really enjoyed), and the city of Bristol. In Bristol, we have a reservation at Wilson’s, a new Michelin star-holder featured in Apple TV+’s docuseries Knife Edge! It looks like a wonderful, sustainable restaurant and we’re really looking forward to eating there.

We’re also visiting Cheddar Gorge, which feels like a pilgrimage to me, as this is where cheddar cheese originated! CHEESE TRIP! (Man, I should take Murray the cat here someday. He loves cheddar, too.)

We are missing three of our favorite food festivals in Prague for this trip (Pivo a Burger, Korso Krymská, and The Italians’ catalogue party), so it better be good!!

What are your plans for May? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: April 2026 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

2026 is an unusual year for flights. With volatile oil pricing and last-minute schedule changes, some flight routes are looking much more expensive than usual.

But that’s not the only thing that’s happening. Some flight routes are dropping — even as much as 35%.

But of course, it’s often hard to know which flights are dropping because no human has the bandwidth to monitor every cool route and check it each day.

But there’s a tool that can help — and can be fully customized to your needs. Let’s take a look at Dollar Flight Club, which has recently been updated and is better than ever.

This post is brought to you by Dollar Flight Club, who provided compensation and a Premium membership.

Why get Dollar Flight Club?

Dollar Flight Club is a flight deal platform that works to get its members better flight pricing by monitoring deals.

The premise is simple — they monitor airfare around the clock, compare it against historical pricing, flag the actual deals that are much lower than usual (not just what the airlines call a “sale”), and send you alerts.

So is it actually saving people money? Indeed, it has. Dollar Flight Club has 3.5 million members, and they’ve already saved an estimated $5 million on airfare in 2026 alone. (Let me add: IT’S ONLY APRIL.)

The company is on pace to save members $20 million by year’s end. Deals routinely run up to 90% off!

Founder Jesse Neugarten describes Dollar Flight Club as “less of a search engine and more of a personal travel scout,” and that framing captures what makes it different.

Google Flights and Momondo work if you already know exactly where and when you want to go. Dollar Flight Club works for people who just want to go somewhere cool, and would love to pay less money than usual.

When you sign up, you choose your departure airport (up to four) and your dream destinations (up to 10). Dollar Flight Club monitors the routes and sends you alerts when something pops up — including alerts for destinations you might not have considered.

You can get Dollar Flight Club for free, as there’s a free tier, but there is also a paid Premium tier with more deals and perks.

My Experience with Dollar Flight Club

First off, I’m so glad that Dollar Flight Club works around the world. So many travel tools are US-centric, maybe with Canada included if you’re lucky, and it’s good to know that those of us who live in different countries can use this, too.

I started by putting Prague in as my departure airport (maybe I’ll add Vienna in the future, it’s a 4.5-hour bus ride away), and for my dream destinations, I selected a mix.

For my actual dream destinations of Peru, Brazil, the Maldives, and New Zealand, I added Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Malé, and Auckland. I also added Johannesburg and Nairobi, as they are good hubs for flying to more random spots in Africa, and I tacked on Boston and New York, as I visit my family there a few times a year and would love to do so for cheaper.

Since I added my Dollar Flight Club profile this week, no spur-of-the-moment deals have shown up. But it shows me what HAS shown up in the last few months for Prague:

Newark for $496. Nairobi for $564. But there’s also Marrakech for $141, Hurghada for $173, San Francisco for $529, and Seoul for $524. I would hop on Marrakech or Seoul at those prices for sure!

And then I added Boston, New York, and London, as I fly through those airports pretty often. And JFK has some good deals — Guayaquil, Ecuador for $329! Maui for $473! Paris for $548!

This works for travelers like us.

I think Dollar Flight Club is especially worth it for people like Adventurous Kate readers: experienced travelers who have been to many places, have a long list of dream destinations, are flexible and adaptable, and are happy to spend a little bit more to get better travel experiences.

If you’re the kind of person who sees a $300 deal for Ecuador and your heart starts to beat faster in excitement, even though you haven’t thought THAT much about Ecuador, Dollar Flight Club could be an excellent investment for you.

If you have less flexibility — like looking for specific destinations on exact dates — or if you have to schedule your time off from work months in advance, it might not work as well for you.

And you never know — maybe you’ll have the trip of a lifetime to a destination you hadn’t even considered before.

New Updates on April 20

On April 20th, Dollar Flight Club introduced lots of new features, leading to a much stronger member experience. Three things launched:

Powerful new filters and search. You can now narrow deals by departure airport, price range, airline, destination, flight class, deal type, and deal status, all at once. Whether you’re hunting for a sub-$300 business class seat or a nonstop economy flight to Europe, the filters make it easy to get what you actually want.

An interactive map view. Every active deal is plotted as a price pin on a global map. Zoom into a region, see what’s cheap from your home airport, and click straight through to book. Instead of “wait and hope Lisbon goes on sale,” you can say: “I want to go somewhere in July — show me everywhere under $500.”

Enhanced destination recommendations. Each deal now includes best times to visit, local activities, neighborhood insights, an affordability rating, and partner perks like exclusive Viator discounts on tours and experiences. It’s all about making your travel experiences even better.

Overall, these features make Dollar Flight Club feel less like a typical aggregator and more like a travel scout.

How to Find Deals Right Now

Airfare volatility cuts both ways, so a few things worth knowing:

1. Start from the deal, not the destination. Open the map first and browse around. The list of places you’d love to go is probably longer than you realize.
2. Keep your travel window loose. With fares swinging 35%+ on some routes, flexibility is where the real savings happen.
3. Book fast on mistake fares. If you take anything from this post, remember this: mistake fares tend to be caught within a few hours. If a deal looks too good, be sure to verify it first. Keep in mind US-based flights have a 24-hour cancellation window.
4. Consider Premium for international. The free tier is genuinely useful, but the bigger international savings — plus perks like TSA PreCheck discounts and airport lounge access — live in the premium alerts.

The Takeaway

If you’re the kind of person who checks flight prices for fun, keeps a running list of “someday” destinations, and is happy to say yes when a surprise deal shows up, Dollar Flight Club is built for you.

Especially now that the new map, filters, and destination pages turn browsing into something closer to daydreaming with a budget.

You can try Dollar Flight Club here. The free tier costs nothing to sign up for, and you can always upgrade to premium if you’d like more.

Good luck, and let me know what crazy flight deals you get!

The post How to Get Cheap Flights with Dollar Flight Club appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

A bit of sunshine. A bit of warmth. And a bit of time in the South of France.

Here’s what I got up to in March 2026!

Destinations Visited

• Prague, Czech Republic
• Toulouse, Narbonne, Montpellier, and Marseille, France

Highlights

A fun and foodie trip to southern France. Charlie and I take each other on trips for our birthdays, and as soon as we found out that Les Grands Buffets existed, that’s what he wanted to do for his!

And with three of our friends in tow, we flew to Toulouse, had a decadent night at the buffet in Narbonne, spent a few pleasant days in Montpellier, and finished up in Marseille.

Toulouse was a revelation — and it quickly became one of my favorite cities in France! Toulouse is about the size of Prague, with just over one million residents. But it feels so chilled out by comparison.

Toulouse looks different from every other city in France, thanks to the pinky-red bricks of the buildings in the city. There are tons of cute little restaurants and boutiques everywhere, and I would genuinely come back here just to shop and eat. The city has a great vibe, too. I can see why people want to live here.

The buffet experience at Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne was incredible — one of my top foodie experiences, ever, and we already want to return in the future.

I’ve already written a full post about the buffet experience, so I won’t repeat myself here.

I will only share that we ate SO much delicious food, and for 65.90 euros per person, we got fantastic value, at least double or even triple the value of what we would have paid for that much food in a regular restaurant. If you’re a foodie traveler or a French food enthusiast — or especially a cheese freak — you should make an effort to go once in your life.

Next up was Montpellier. Montpellier is a small university city in the south, and it felt a bit like a baby Paris on the Mediterranean, thanks to its Haussmann architecture with a few palm trees poking out here and there.

We ate great food in Montpellier, especially after hitting up the markets and bakeries. The eclairs at Maison Bonnaire were especially memorable. Overall, I think this would be a great city to spend a week in when you need to recharge. Just go for strolls, visit the beach, eat good food, and repeat.

And we finished our trip in Marseille…and I’ll put that in the “Challenges” section. You’ll soon see why.

A nice and productive trip to Berlin. Charlie and I went to Berlin to attend ITB Berlin, the largest travel trade show in the world. Oddly, this was the first year we both went.

The show was successful for us both, with lots of good meetings. And we got to spend time with lots of our blogger friends, including some I hadn’t seen in many years.

On our final night in Berlin, we went to see Belle & Sebastian with our friends Daryl and Mindi. They played their first album, Tigermilk, and sounded just as good as they did 30 years ago. The venue, Metropol, was really cool — it kind of felt like a freaky church.

I’m happy to add that this was the first concert I’ve been to of an artist I discovered in my Rolling Stone 500 albums challenge. How awesome is that?

Charlie and I joined a trivia team in Prague! I always feel like I can’t join a team or any kind of regular activity because of my travel schedule, but our friend Jamie invited us to join, and this is the perfect solution — you simply volunteer to join on the days you can make it. There’s no pressure to show up every week.

Our team plays the same pub quiz each week on Monday nights — Prague’s toughest quiz, in fact. Some of the questions will genuinely stump you, especially the cryptic questions.

But it’s been going well. I’m loving working together with a team of new friends. And the first week we joined, we actually won!

And in case you’re wondering, Lewis the cat is STILL being very snuggly with me. Last month, Lewis started climbing into my lap almost every day. I’m happy to report that he’s still doing it. Sometimes Charlie and I will sit on either side of the couch and battle for Lewis’s affections.

Challenges

Marseille was a bit of a bust. We knew we would only have an afternoon and evening there, and since it was a Sunday, we had to take a 2.5-hour bus from Montpellier to Marseille, rather than the train that runs the other six days of the week.

And once we got there, it was raining — a cold, intense rain that came down in sheets. And if you’ve been to the Mediterranean in the off-season, you know that they have no clue how to heat anything properly. People were eating outside in tents, shivering in their heavy coats.

But we made the best of it! We found a cafe with the heater blasting next to the open front door, then we grabbed a table at Les Grandes Halles du Vieux-Port, an indoor food hall with a lot of great restaurants. We spent the afternoon eating seafood and drinking rosé before picking up some Savon de Marseille (the city’s famous soap) and heading to our hotel.

I definitely want to return to Marseille and experience the city properly. There are direct flights from Prague, so maybe a long weekend in late spring or early fall sometime…

And then I got food poisoning. It hit once I was home, about 24 hours after we had our seafood extravaganza in Marseille. (Charlie and Nick were fine, so I’m thinking it might have been a bad oyster.) Thankfully it wasn’t a violent kind of food poisoning — just nausea and stomach cramps for three days.

Finally, Les Grands Buffets is NOT an easy place to make content. I kind of had that feeling going in, so I stuck to just doing quick phone photos and videos rather than bringing out the good camera or video camera.

But if you want to make Actually Decent Content at Les Grands Buffets, I recommend you book multiple seatings, because the night goes by FAST and you probably can’t eat what you want to eat *AND* make content about it.

On top of that, the lighting is dim, and it’s loud and crowded. So just know that. I thought I would share that as a head’s up for other content creators.

Blog Posts of the Month

What’s It Really Like to Travel to Madagascar? — A huge, detailed recap about why this country, while so challenging at times, is absolutely worth it.

Les Grands Buffets — Worth It or Not? A Detailed Review — Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne, France, is an epic French buffet and one of my favorite food experiences I’ve ever had. But would it be worth it for you?

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Madagascar is not for everyone. My first video from Madagascar! I posted this video on Instagram and on TikTok.

While Madagascar is an incredible destination and I loved my time there, it is absolutely not a destination for everyone. Or even most travelers. You need to ask yourself a number of questions.

What I Watched This Month

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Netflix. This documentary examines the legacy and harm of America’s Next Top Model, and interviews many of the people involved.

I only watched Top Model occasionally back in the day, but I did see some of the more memorable episodes (like the one where they made them up to be different races!). And through a 2026 lens, WOW. This show was MESSED UP and they did some truly horrific things.

The worst was getting the models and a group of local men extremely drunk, then one girl who was blackout drunk ended up hooking up with one of the men. She has no memory of it. This was all filmed. And the next day, and for years after (!), the show shamed her for cheating on her boyfriend — when she was a victim of sexual assault who couldn’t possibly consent!

It also made me think of Below Deck: Down Under Season One, when one member of the crew attempted to sexually assault another crew member, a woman who was blackout drunk, and 1) the film crew stopped it and 2) the assaulter was kicked off the boat immediately and fired the next morning. I’m glad times have changed and we are able to see an assault for what it is.

I also watched a lot of Season 2 of Paradise this month. I absolutely loved Season One of Paradise, but I’m not sure I’m loving it as much this season. I think it might be the influence of The Pitt — I love the hyper-realism of that show.

And Paradise, as with the show runner’s last show This is Us, there are a lot of overwritten monologues, strange coincidences, and manipulative emotional moments. Not sure I’m into that anymore. Make more shows like The Pitt!

Finally, I saw Project Hail Mary in IMAX, and it might be my favorite IMAX experience I’ve ever had. The movie is fantastic and flies by, and it’s beautifully filmed and so faithful to the book. An absolute joy, and so uplifting. One that is very much worth seeing in the theater.

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I am enjoying immensely. I am loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve somehow missed my entire life until now!

In March, I listened to albums number 112-93. Not a big month for listening.

Favorite Discovery: Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott. WHAT A GREAT HIP-HOP ALBUM. What I love about Missy’s music is that it feels so timeless. She always makes futuristic-sounding music without any of the cheesiness that weighs down other rappers. You could have made this album today and it wouldn’t have sounded dated at all.

This is an incredible album for dancing, grooving, driving, and just vibing. Everything on the album has a specific point of view, but the songs are diverse and each have a different sound.

Missy and Timbaland were a match made in heaven (and still are) — but I think she deserves more respect on her own, both as a rapper, a singer, and a producer.

Other Favorite Discoveries: When the Pawn… by Fiona Apple, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, Automatic For the People by R.E.M., Take Care by Drake, Control by Janet Jackson, Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell.

Favorite Revisited Album: Nothing revisited! Everything was new to me this month. I think I listened to When the Pawn… once or twice as a teenager.

Favorite Songs: “Limp” by Fiona Apple, “You Don’t Wanna Fuck With Me” by Missy Elliott, “When I Think of You” by Janet Jackson, “Me Myself and I” by De La Soul, “The Ballad of Danny Boyle” by Elton John, “Car on a Hill” by Joni Mitchell, “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones, “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight” by R.E.M., “Asking For It” by Hole.

Get the playlist: I’m creating a playlist of my favorite songs from the 500 albums — maximum one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.

Random Music Thoughts: As the list ticks down, there are fewer and fewer artists introduced for the first time. The only newcomers this month were Television, Hole, The Allman Brothers Band, Drake, and Missy Elliott.

*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this list are problematic in various ways — there’s even a murderer in the mix. I’m looking at their music solely from an influential perspective.

What I Read This Month

Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane by Lindy West (2026) — Lindy West’s husband Aham told her he was going to be polygamous and she had to either accept it or end their relationship. She didn’t want it. Aham had not one but two secret girlfriends. So she decided to go on a solo trip across the US to see if she could handle being alone. At the end of the book, she decided to start dating Aham’s girlfriend. And now they’ve been in a triad for years.

I am a big Lindy fan, and the book itself is really good in a lot of ways. I love her voice and her humor, and the parts about travel were the strongest parts of all, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her on a lot of things. I loved how she wrote about Florida, of all places, specifically the Forgotten Coast and that whole lesser-known region of Florida.

But there are a lot of alarming things about her relationships in both this book, and its aftermath.

I wrote a lot about this in my newsletter last week, and I’m not going to repeat myself. But I will say this: since this book came out, it is clear to me that Aham has been publicly humiliating Lindy for a long time now, and has been emotionally abusive not only to her, but random women (including writer Scaachi Koul, who wrote a piece on the book).

I want her to get away from Aham, because she deserves much, much better. But I have the feeling that all this discourse is going to make Lindy double down.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) — Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma on a space shuttle and can’t remember why he’s there. Soon, he remembers that the sun is dying, and that scientists on Earth have sent him there to find a solution. But soon after arrival, he discovers another ship, an unusual ship the likes of which he’s never seen — and realizes that he’s not alone.

It was my top priority to read Project Hail Mary before seeing the movie, in part because I thought Weir’s first novel, The Martian, was a much better book than a movie. I devoured it in 48 hours! I adored this story and how it turned into a buddy comedy. It almost follows the plot of a typical romantic comedy, only it’s platonic. More uplifting sci-fi!

I’ve heard the audiobook is great, too, but I chose to read it because I figured I’d zone out at the more science-y parts. You couldn’t go wrong with either.

Coming Up in April 2026

This month I have a big adventure planned — I’m traveling solo to Central Asia! This is a new region for me and one I’ve wanted to cover from the perspective of a solo female traveler.

I’ll be visiting Kazakhstan first, mostly basing in Almaty, with an overnight trip to Charyn Canyon, Black Canyon, Moon Canyon, Lake Kaindy, and Kolsai Lake. Next I’ll fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and travel by train to Samarkand, then Bukhara, then Khiva, before flying back to Tashkent. While in Samarkand, I’ll be doing a day trip to the Seven Lakes of Tajikistan.

If all goes according to plan, these will be countries number 97, 98, and 99 for me.

In Uzbekistan, I’ll be trying out lots of crafty activities and diving into their textiles. They have some of the best silks in the world, and gorgeous traditions when it comes to embroidery, pottery, and wood carving. I also have a photo shoot planned in Samarkand.

I know a lot of people are apprehensive about traveling at the moment, so I want to share why I’m comfortable traveling here at this time. First off, these countries in Central Asia are extremely safe for travelers in general, and solo female travelers specifically. I’ve done lots of research and talked to friends who travel here often.

Secondly, these countries are never involved whenever violence or war kicks off in the Middle East. Life has been continuing as usual in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

And finally, I’m not flying through the Gulf. I’m flying Prague-Frankfurt-Almaty on the way there and Tashkent-Istanbul-Prague on the way back, which is an itinerary that allows me to avoid flight disruptions.

I’m really excited to share Central Asia with you.

Any plans for April? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: March 2026 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

This incredible restaurant in Southern France is one of the most famous restaurants in the entire country, featuring all-you-can-eat classic French dishes for a shockingly reasonable price.

When my husband Charlie and I learned about Les Grands Buffets, we decided within about 30 seconds that we would go there for his birthday. As luck would have it, three of our friends wanted to come along — Klara, Petr, and Nick!

Was this restaurant worth it? It was SO worth it. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, but much of why we had a great time was because we researched and planned our trip well.

Here’s a detailed report about what Les Grands Buffets is like, what we ate, and what you need to know before planning your own trip here!

This post was published in March 2026, based on my visit to the buffet in March 2026.

What is Les Grands Buffets?

Les Grands Buffets is a decadent buffet restaurant located in Narbonne, France. It also happens to be one of the most famous restaurants in the country, frequently featured in international press, and a bucket list item for foodies from around the world.

Restaurateur and Narbonne native Louis Privat, along with his wife Jane Privat, opened Les Grands Buffets in 1989. The restaurant was originally supposed to be the cafeteria for a local sports complex.

Privat loved the classic French cuisine of Chef Auguste Escoffier, the culinary legend who modernized French cuisine in his 1903 cookbook, Le Guide Culinaire, and revolutionized how the restaurant industry works today. Privat also feared that French bistro cuisine was disappearing — dishes like frog legs, tripe, snails.

And so he created France’s first all-you-can-eat buffet, featuring exclusively traditional French dishes, all for a reasonable price (more on that below). And it was an immediate hit.

Today, Les Grands Buffets welcomes around 400,000 guests per year, most of them French. The restaurant serves both lunch and dinner 365 days per year.

You can see my full video about the experience here:

Les Grands Buffets Cost

Most notably, this all-you-can-eat buffet has a flat rate of 65.90 EUR* per person (2026 rate). That is the full price for all food and service, for either lunch or dinner — including all the lobster, crab legs, caviar, truffles, and foie gras you can eat.

*NOTE: The price goes up every year. I’ll try to keep this post updated with the current price, but double-check Les Grands Buffets’ website to confirm what the price is now.

You often hear about people at buffets filling their plates with lobster and crab legs, trying to get the best value for money. (Indeed, one guy in my city was banned from a hotel buffet for going every week and eating all the lobster. They had to post his picture because he kept making reservations under different names.)

But at Les Grands Buffets, you don’t have to front-load the expensive stuff for it to be worth it. Almost any kind of meal you could create here would cost far more at a regular French restaurant than what you’d pay at the buffet.

Wine and beverages are an additional fee, but prices are quite reasonable — they’re not far off from what you’d pay at a winery. In fact, if you like the wine, you can order it to take home at the producer’s price (takeaway only, for a minimum of six bottles).

We spent 178 EUR for six bottles of wine: four bottles of Champagne Monopole at 25 EUR each, and two bottles of red recommended by our server at 39 EUR each.

In total, each of us paid 106.50 EUR altogether — 65.90 EUR for the food and service, 5 EUR for the reservation insurance, and 35.60 EUR for wine.

For a four-hour meal of outstanding dishes, luxury items like lobster and truffles, and several glasses of wine each, I think that’s outstanding value for money. Perhaps one of the best value for money meals I’ve ever had.

Is Les Grands Buffets right for you?

I knew right away that Les Grands Buffets was perfect for me and my extremely foodie group of friends. We’re always going out to different restaurants at home in Prague, and we love traveling to eat different things.

But if you’re not sure if the restaurant is quite right for you, this will help you narrow it down:

Les Grands Buffets is for:

French food fanatics. If you’re a big fan of French cuisine, this place should be on your bucket list to visit once in your life.

Culinary travelers. If you’re not necessarily into French food, but love eating at interesting places, you should definitely come here.

Cheese lovers. I mean, this place holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cheese selection in the world. If that doesn’t bring you in, I don’t know what will!

Les Grands Buffets is NOT for:

Young children. While Les Grands Buffets doesn’t explicitly ban children, the restaurant makes it clear that children are charged the full adult price, they do not offer kids’ meals, and to please consider whether your child can handle a three-hour meal. Children are not allowed to walk around the restaurant alone, and they don’t offer storage space for strollers. (My advice? Take the extremely strong hint and don’t bring your kids.)

Picky eaters. While buffets can often be a good choice for picky eaters, this particular buffet is full of decadent, rich recipes and few simple dishes.

Vegans. While vegetarians, though limited, can get by and enjoy themselves, the selection of fully plant-based items is extremely limited.

People sensitive to noise and crowds. While not as chaotic as a Vegas buffet, keep in mind that it can be loud and boisterous here.

Last-minute travelers. If you don’t book your reservation early, you’re unlikely to get a reservation at all. You may find an opening if you’re lucky.

How to Get Reservations for Les Grands Buffets

We literally planned our entire south of France trip around when we could get a reservation for Les Grands Buffets — and you should do the same, as it’s not easy!

My friend Klara took charge of getting a reservation. At the time we began looking (December 2025), no reservations had been released for March 2026, so she signed up for the email list on their website. In mid-December, she got an email from the restaurant saying that further reservations had opened up.

When the reservations opened, she went to reserve and learned you reserve a spot in a specific room: the Salle à Manger Max le Verrier and Salle à Manger Ann Carrington (two regular indoor dining rooms in dark wood), Jardin Hervé di Rosa (the outdoor garden terrace, where reservations may be cancelled in the event of bad weather), Tente d’Apparat Jean Baptiste Nolin (an indoor room with an elegant curtain), or Salon Doré Jean de la Fontaine (an ornate gold and white Baroque salon).

We got the Salon Doré, which the staff call the Gold Room in English.

The reservation must be held with a credit card, and the deadline to pay is 30 days ahead. If booked 37 days in advance, you can pay a 5 EUR “cancellation guarantee” per person, which allows a free cancellation up to 11 days before the reservation. (We took this option.) You can also make a 20 EUR nonrefundable deposit in advance, which will be deducted from your final bill.

Reservations cannot be changed; they must be cancelled and rebooked. If you have a reservation in the outdoor garden and the weather is bad, you can cancel without being charged.

No-shows are charged 50 EUR per person.

For reservations, I recommend that you book as early as possible. While we were able to get reservations three months out, that’s because we got them the day they were released.

Right now I’m looking at six months in the future, out of curiosity, and there are just a few reservations left for dinner. So if you can book six months in advance or even longer, that’s even better.

Our server told us that it’s much easier getting a reservation midweek than on the weekend. Klara confirmed that there was zero availability on Friday or Saturday when she looked. I encourage you to aim for a midweek reservation for that reason.

While the reservation process at Les Grands Buffets is fairly intense, honestly, that’s the hardest part. Once you have a reservation, you can kick back and look forward to your trip.

My Personal Experience at Les Grands Buffets

The first thing you should know is that Les Grands Buffets is in a strange location — inside what looks like a mall with a glass pyramid in front of it (no, not quite the Louvre). It’s actually a sports center called the Espace Liberté, home to a skating rink, swimming pool, and bowling alley.

Klara, Petr, and Nick decided to go to the buffet two nights in a row, while Charlie and I decided to spend a night in Toulouse and join them at the buffet on the second night. This was great, because it gave them a chance to learn the ropes and tell us what to do!

If you have time, I recommend heading to the bowling alley’s pub for an aperitif. It’s a bit of an odd choice, but the bar is cozy, with lots of dark wood and brass, and an espresso martini is just what you need to keep up your energy.

Our reservation time was at 7:30 PM, and we arrived promptly and were directed to a waiting area behind a partition. Klara showed the reservation on her phone. As the host read her name, we were invited to walk through a sanitizing doorway and enter the restaurant.

The first thing we saw was an old-fashioned scale — yes, people can and do weigh themselves before and after! Just know that it will tell you you’re about 15 kilos lighter. What a delightful scale.

We were escorted to our table in the Gold Room — a Baroque extravaganza of white columns, gold trim, and red velvet curtains. Enormous chandeliers hung overhead, casting patterns of shadows across the curved white ceiling.

Soon Klara, Petr, and Nick were telling us about their experience the night before. Just then, a server brought a giant (fake) cake out for Charlie’s birthday, and played André Claveau’s “Happy Birthday” on a vintage gramophone!

Our server Frédérique introduced herself and we ordered the first of several bottles of Monopole Champagne. Fun fact — this is the same champagne that was served on the Titanic! How cool is that?!

And with that, it was time to explore the buffet itself.

Food Stations at Les Grands Buffets

And now what you’re waiting for — THE FOOD! Let’s take a look at what the buffet actually offers.

I was surprised that the actual buffet was smaller than I expected. Definitely much smaller than a Vegas buffet. Even so, they use their space well, and it’s not overcrowded.

Amuse-bouche buffet. This section has deviled eggs topped with black truffle, piperade basquaise, tartelette pissaladière, and aspic studded with ham and hard-boiled eggs.

Seafood buffet. The piece de resistance of this area is the lobster tower. In addition to cold and warm lobster, you can enjoy Étang de Thau oysters, snow crab legs, seafood soup, smoked salmon, herring, mackerel, and anchovies.

Foie gras buffet. This was the most impressive section of all — considering how much foie gras costs ordinarily, it’s wild that you can get unlimited foie here! A server builds you a platter with several kinds of foie, including foie brûlée (THE BEST!), duck foie gras with Armagnac, truffle foie gras, and more.

Pâté en croûte buffet. Several kinds of pâtés baked in crust, from Guinea fowl pâté en croûte to Rouen duck pâté en croûte to the beautiful Aurora’s pillow.

Cooked meat and terrine buffet. If you’re a charcuterie fan, this is your zone. 10 kinds of saucisson, pig’s ear preserved in jelly, nine hams you can carve yourself, head cheese, duck and pork rillettes with cornichons, plus the biggest lump of nduja I’ve ever seen.

Hot dishes and rotisserie. Some of the hot dishes are served in trays, but special entrees you order at the rotisserie section (limit one per person each time you wait in line). Gratinated mussels, escargots, coquilles St. Jacques, frog legs, sweetbreads vol au vent, roasted lamb, hare à la Royale, and SO much more.

Canard au sang. There is a small station just for the pressed duck (canard à la presse). A few times throughout the night, there is a full-on ceremony where a whole-roasted duck is carved and the carcasse is pressed to create a blood sauce, then flambéed. Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” plays throughout.

The silver duck press is special — it was originally used at the legendary restaurant La Tour d’Argent and was purchased at auction in 2016 for 40,000 EUR. Today, Les Grands Buffets is the only restaurant in France that serves canard à la presse at every lunch and dinner service.

Carving station. Next to the canard au sang is a small carving station where a chef will serve you prime rib, suckling lamb, and suckling pig.

Cheese buffet. There are 111 cheeses here — the Guinness World Record holder for the largest cheese selection in a restaurant — so go nuts! There are hard cheese, soft cheeses, blue cheeses, truffle-studded cheeses, and my two favorites — a sumptuous, melty Brie full of black truffles, and the tête de moine cheese from Switzerland that comes off in a spiral!

Cakes. All kinds of baked desserts, like feuilletine chocolate royal cake, Paris-Brest with praline cake, and Black Forest gateau, plus crème caramel, crème brûlée, floating islands, poached pears, caramelized baked apples, and much more.

Blazed desserts. If you’re in the mood to light your dessert on fire — and who isn’t? — you can get crepes suzette, blazed rum bananas, and Baked Alaska.

Frozen desserts. Yes, they have ice cream, and plenty more! You can get sorbet-stuffed lemons, oranges, and coconuts; chocolate profiteroles; and many kinds of sundaes.

Chocolate fountain. And there’s a chocolate fountain on the scene, with melted dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate, served with meringues, palmiers, and macaroons.

The Dining Experience

As soon as we were ready to hit the buffet, we headed straight to the seafood section, laser-focused on that lobster fountain! I filled my plate with lobster, oysters, crab legs, and a spoonful of caviar — why not?

One nice thing about the service is that your server keeps an eye on you at the buffet and brings you anything you might need. When I came back to my table with crab legs, she brought me a cracker, a pick, and some wet naps.

(That said, the service wasn’t always speedy, and a few times we had a table covered with empty dishes as our server chatted with other guests. Klara, Petr, and Nick said they had perfect service the night before, so perhaps this is something that can vary.)

From that point on, we were up and down constantly. After perusing their extensive wine list, we ordered a bottle of red to go with all our champagne.

And the nice thing about going to the buffet in a group of five is that you can tag-team the buffet and each get different things. I never would have ordered a quenelle (a creamy fish dumpling) or crepes suzette, but I definitely tried them both!

Throughout the evening, I kept an eye on the time. The starters would close at 10:30 PM, the rotisserie section at 11:00 PM, and the desserts and cheeses at 11:30 PM. I would not miss out on one last oyster.

And before we knew it, I was feasting on my final cheese plate, it was 11:35 PM, and the dining room lights flashed — the universal signal for yes, you’ve enjoyed yourself, now please leave the restaurant so we can clean up and get home at a reasonable hour.

The Best and Worst Things We Ate at Les Grands Buffets

First off, the quality of the food at Les Grands Buffets is almost universally quite good. While it’s not super-fancy, gorgeously plated Michelin food, the food here is better than what you’d get in almost any French restaurant.

The Best Things on the Menu

Foie brûlée. My friends and I all agreed that this was the BEST thing we ate at Les Grands Buffets. It’s like a foie gras and a creme brûlée had a baby — rich, sweet, and topped with a sugary crust. I’m not a foie person in general, but this took my breath away (and everyone else’s, too).

Snow crab legs. Cold, soft, and naturally buttery. And the shells were pretty easy to crack, too, which isn’t always the case! I could have eaten far more of them.

Foie and truffle soup. Who would put foie gras and truffle in a soup, together, and top it with a pastry crust? Les Grands Buffets! I tried this on a whim and it was so good.

Truffled scrambled egg. At the rotisserie section, Nick ordered a scrambled egg with generous amounts of truffles. We all shared and enjoyed that one.

Coquilles St. Jacques. Charlie and I enjoyed scallops cooked in their shells with vegetables in a creamy sauce. Full of flavor and beautiful to look at, too.

Turbot in beurre blanc. A delicious and light fish that we shared between the five of us and probably could have enjoyed for a second round.

Brie with truffles. This cheese is made locally and it’s so rich, oozy, melty, and creamy — but then you get to the black truffles and it reaches new levels of decadence. Klara and I especially loved this one.

Truffle deviled egg. There was a tiny hard-boiled egg half (perhaps a quail egg?) topped with a truffle in the amuse-bouche section that was DIVINE.

The Most Disappointing Things on the Menu

I want to be clear — nothing we ate at Les Grands Buffets was BAD, so to speak. There were simply some dishes that didn’t measure up to the standards of the others.

Charcuterie. The charcuterie wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t interesting or different. The five of us visit Italy often and try different cured sausages, and these paled in comparison. As for the carvable hams, Klara said, “If it’s not Iberico, what’s the point?” Truth.

Caneles. I love canele pastries, but I found the caneles at Les Grands Buffets to be stiff and nearly stale.

Cold lobster. Charlie thought that the cold lobster, while pretty good, paled in comparison to the warm lobster.

Escargots. My friends tried these the first night and didn’t think they were that great as far as escargots go.

Pig’s ear in jelly. Well, that item is a hard sell, period. I tried it out of curiosity. Not my thing.

Asparagus. My friends tried some and found it stringy and overcooked.

Sweetbreads vol-au-vent. Klara, Petr, and Nick will jump at the chance to eat strange things, but none of them were a fan of this.

Orange cream with Tonka beans. I expected it to be sweet and citrusy; it had more of a bitter taste.

Paris-Brest cake. This cake is like a cream puff with pecan cream inside. Nick astutely pointed out that Klara barely touched hers the first night and I barely touched mine the second night. Draw your own conclusions.

There were also a few items that we didn’t agree on. I thought the canard au sang, the famous pressed duck, was pretty good, but Klara didn’t like it at all.

Les Grands Buffets Tips

As you plan your trip to Les Grands Buffets, here are some of my top recommendations to have a good time:

Book your reservation as early as you can. This is the most important thing. As soon as you have an idea of when you’d like to go to Les Grands Buffets, get on the website and start planning! Aim for mid-week if you can.

Study the menu in advance and prioritize what you’d like to eat ahead of time. We were at the restaurant for four hours and the time FLEW by. I felt like I moved lightning-fast, had a course of everything, and still didn’t get to try the chocolate fountain. You can see the menu on their website.

If you have dietary restrictions, the restaurant asks that you contact them in advance. They offer vegetarian and gluten-free dishes, but not halal dishes. Speaking personally, I don’t think there are enough plant-based dishes to make the restaurant worth it for vegans.

Dress appropriately. The dress code at Les Grands Buffets calls for no sportswear, shorts (excluding dress Bermuda shorts, but NOT CASUAL BERMUDA SHORTS!), swimwear, board shorts, tank tops, sports jerseys, flip-flops, or hats.

Don’t bring anything bulky. Les Grands Buffets doesn’t offer storage for luggage, strollers, or any large items.

Pace yourself and don’t overload your plate. This isn’t a race to eat all the crab legs. Try a bit of everything, but don’t feel the need to “make it worth it.” It will be worth it no matter how much you eat.

Cleanse your palate. We discovered a coconut cream with passion fruit in the dessert section — “blanc manger au lait de coco coulis de passion” — that was a perfect light treat between savory courses. Sorbet would also work well.

Keep an eye on the time. The appetizer buffet closes at 3:00 PM/10:30 PM for lunch/dinner; the rotisserie and hot buffets close at 3:30 PM/11:00 PM; and the cheese and dessert buffets close at 4:00 PM/11:30 PM.

Plan a relaxing day afterward. The next day, we didn’t feel like doing much. Charlie, Nick, and I took a quick train ride to Montpellier, checked into our apartment, chilled out, and got some Lebanese takeout that night.

How to Get to Narbonne, France

You may not have heard of Narbonne, a city in southern France, but don’t worry — it’s surprisingly easy to get here. Narbonne is located in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, and it’s conveniently located on several train lines connected to major cities with airports.

This is how long it takes to get to Narbonne by direct train:

• Toulouse, France: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Girona, Spain: 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Barcelona, Spain: 2 hours and 10 minutes
• Marseille, France: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Another option is renting a car — and this area is perfect for a road trip! The roads in these parts of France and Spain are in great shape and easy to drive.

If you’re flying in from another continent, you’ll have the greatest selection of flights to Barcelona.

But if you’re already in Europe, play around with different locations and see what you can get! Budget airlines fly a LOT of weird routes that you might not know exist. In addition to Barcelona’s large airport, there are small airports in Girona, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Marseille. Any combination of these cities would be lovely.

Toulouse and Girona might not be the most famous cities to visit in Europe, but I happen to love them both, and they are each worth at least two days of your time. (Not to mention they’ll have far fewer crowds than Barcelona.)

Either way, Narbonne makes an easy and lovely stop in the middle of your trip.

Where to Stay in Narbonne, France

If you’re coming to Narbonne by train, I recommend securing accommodation between the train station and Les Grands Buffets, which are about a 30-minute walk apart. If you’re coming by car or staying longer to explore the town, you have more leeway.

We stayed at Maison du Cloitre Couvent des Carmes, a beautiful property in a former convent which is about a 10-minute walk from the train station and a 20-minute walk from Les Grands Buffets. We walked all the distances, but Uber exists here if you need it.

Top-Rated Places to Stay in Narbonne

Here are some places to stay within a short walk of Les Grands Buffets:

• Top-Rated Luxury Hotel in Narbonne: Le Mosaïque — Absolutely gorgeous design hotel in the heart of Narbonne’s city center.
• Top-Rated Mid-Range Hotel in Narbonne: Maison du Cloitre Couvent des Carmes — Where I stayed! Comfortable apartment-style accommodation in a quiet neighborhood.
• Top-Rated Budget Hotel in Narbonne: Hotel Le Puech — Affordable, clean, and very close to Les Grands Buffets.
• Top-Rated One-Bedroom Apartment near Les Grands Buffets: Marina — A nice apartment tucked away in a residential neighborhood close to Les Grands Buffets.
• Top-Rated Two-Bedroom Apartment near Les Grands Buffets: Kalipay — This two-bedroom apartment is a seven-minute walk from Les Grands Buffets.

Find deals on places to stay in Narbonne here.

Best eSIM for France: Holafly

I never travel without an eSIM — both for safety and peace of mind — and Holafly is my top eSIM recommendation for trips to France.

Gone are the days of hunting down a phone shop, passport in hand. With eSIMs, you install your plan in about 2 minutes at home via QR code — and it activates the moment you land.

In France, an eSIM is essential for planning a metro journey in Paris, translating a menu in Bordeaux, summoning an Uber in Nice, and booking train tickets on the fly.

Unlike most eSIMs, Holafly offers unlimited data and connects through France’s major carriers, giving you strong LTE and 5G speeds. You buy a plan for the specific number of days you’re visiting.

And one feature I especially appreciate from Holafly is Always On. Even if your data plan runs out, every Holafly eSIM automatically provides 1GB of emergency data per month in 70+ destinations. It’s a great safety net in case of delayed flights, unexpected layovers, or any moment when you desperately need to get online.

Use code HOLAKATE for 5% off your Holafly eSIM or 10% off monthly plans.

Get your Holafly France eSIM here. Visiting multiple European countries? Holafly’s Europe eSIM covers 30+ countries on a single plan.

Planning a trip around Les Grands Buffets

Charlie and I were traveling with three friends, and the five of us had slightly different itineraries overall. But here’s what Charlie and I ended up doing:

• Day One: Morning flight to Toulouse, night in Toulouse.
• Day Two: Afternoon train to Narbonne, dinner at Les Grands Buffets, night in Narbonne.
• Day Three: Morning train to Montpellier, night in Montpellier.
• Day Four: Full day and night in Montpellier.
• Day Five: Morning bus to Marseille (would have been a train if it hadn’t been a Sunday), night in Marseille.
• Day Six: Early flight home to Prague.

My friends and I planned our trip around the days of direct flights to Prague, and we were primarily interested in culinary experiences. But if you have more time and flexibility, you can turn this into a longer, more detailed itinerary.

Is there anything I would change? I would add in a visit to Carcassonne, a small town on the train line from Toulouse to Narbonne that is home to a gorgeous castle. We passed it on the train and it was so beautiful — I’d love to go see it for real!

Toulouse and Montpellier are two wonderful (and very different) cities that are excellent places to spend your time. We could easily have spent an extra day in each place.

If you want to add in more destinations, the towns of Nîmes and Arles are right between Montpellier and Marseille, and both are well worth exploring.

More time in Marseille would have been nice, especially since it was cold and rainy on our one afternoon there. Marseille is also an excellent base for day trips to places like Aix-en-Provence, Cassis, and the Calanques.

What about the Spanish route? If you land in Barcelona, you can easily explore the Costa Brava, one of my favorite regions in Spain, on the way to Narbonne.

Some places worth visiting are the city of Girona; the beach towns of Tossa de Mar and Cadaques; the cultural hub of Figueres; and you can even do a bit of hiking in the Pyrenees if you’d like.

Is Les Grands Buffets Worth It?

YES, Les Grands Buffets is worth it! Les Grands Buffets may be one of the MOST worth it experiences I’ve ever had. Literally, as I type this, my friends and I are texting each other that we need to go back someday.

I am still blown away by the extraordinary value we experienced, and all the diverse French dishes we got to try, all for just 106.50 EUR per person: 65.90 for food, 5 EUR for reservation insurance, and 35.60 EUR for wine.

I definitely want to return to Les Grands Buffets someday. And when I go back, I might just eat oysters, crab legs, foie gras, desserts, and cheeses.

To me, that would be time and money well spent.

More on Christmas Markets in France:

• Solo Female Travel in Paris: Is it Safe?
• Best Area to Stay in Paris: Neighborhoods, Hotels, and More
• The Truth About Visiting Paris in Winter
• 33 Most Famous Streets in Paris
• How to Plan a Day Trip to Paris from London
• How to Spend a Layover in Paris
• 100 Travel Tips for Paris
• The Art of the Chilled Out Trip to Paris
• A Taste of Alsace in Strasbourg and Colmar
• The Problem with Alsace Christmas Markets
• Ribeauvillé Christmas Market: France’s Best Christmas Market

Is Les Grands Buffets your kind of destination? Share away!

The post Les Grands Buffets: Worth It Or Not? A Detailed Review appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

But then the best thing happened — Lewis the cat started crawling into my lap. And it was SO good.

Destinations Visited

• Prague and Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Highlights

A major breakthrough with Lewis. After five years of living with us, Lewis has started climbing into my lap. And I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have him show me so much love.

I sit on the couch and Lewis climbs on the shelf behind it, then starts climbing down my chest. He sticks his butt in my face (that part is not as fun) and kneads my legs for awhile, then he turns around, sits on my lap, and kneads my belly. Then sometimes he just stays, putting his paws on me and looking deep into my eyes.

This is so wild and unusual, especially since Lewis has always loved Charlie the most and he often shrinks away when I try to pet him. But now he loves me.

Best of all? He’s been doing this almost every day. All I have to do is sit on the sofa and he’ll be climbing on me in no time.

My first zabijačka! A zabijačka is a Czech pork roast that takes place in February. They butcher whole animals and serve every part of it, nose-to-tail, which is super sustainable but makes for some adventurous eating! (I had some bread topped with pig brain and scrambled eggs. It was good.)

I feel like many of you would be put off by a zabijačka, in part because they usually hang the pig carcass or head outside the event, but this is a very Czech event that teaches you so much about the culture here.

All the nonalcoholic beers! Charlie and I are on a 75-day sober period from January 1-March 16. Before Valentine’s Day this year, I had never tried a nonalcoholic beer in my life — I usually just get a sparkling water. But I tried a nonalcoholic beer at the zabijačka, and I was shocked what a difference it made.

Nonalcoholic beers makes it feel like I’m actively participating, not being the token sober person — and they don’t alter my mind at all. What an achievement. In the last few weeks, I’ve now tried six different nonalcoholic beers, from options at microbreweries to Guinness 0.0, and I’m thrilled at how good they are!

A day trip to Hradec Králové. Charlie and I were in the mood for a day trip, and people always say good things about Hradec Králové, a town just over an hour’s drive away.

It’s a nice little town! You can climb to the top of the bell tower, stroll along the river, enjoy some parks, and eat at a variety of restaurants. I had the impression that Hradec Králové values taking good care of its town. A lot of what we saw felt new and refreshed, and there was even a covered staircase that pumped in classical music!

I wouldn’t name Hradec one of the best day trips from Prague, but it’s definitely a pleasant day trip if you’ve been living here for awhile.

Our first outdoor coffee of the year. The weather warmed up JUST enough to get a few coffees while sitting outdoors — and what a pleasure it is, after the coldest winter I’ve ever experienced here.

Good times in Prague. I visited the Museum of Communism for the first time (SO MANY PARALLELS TO THE US GOVERNMENT TODAY); we saw a wonderful performance of Our Town by the Prague Shakespeare Company; we found a new restaurant we love (Sensa). I still love living here.

And I bought a sewing machine! I’m excited to start some new projects.

Challenges

There was a scary incident with Murray this month. I had bought some skincare products at the new Korean skincare shop at the Palladium Mall, and after bringing them home, I put them in my cabinet.

Except for a free sampler packet of a serum. Which I didn’t discover until I found Murray chewing the packet, the serum leaking out of the holes his teeth had punctured. (Of COURSE he was chewing it — it was shaped like a Churu.)

I immediately freaked out, especially once I googled and found out some ingredients in that serum are toxic to cats. But because it was such a small amount and he was acting normally, I decided to just keep a close eye on him.

And he was fine. I was told to wash the area around his mouth, give him water and food, and watch for drooling, vomiting, and weakness in his back legs. Well, Murray got a lot of Churu that night, served up high so he would always stand on his back legs.

Overall, Murray showed zero symptoms, and while I’m incredibly grateful, I’m also devastated that I could have seriously harmed my beloved cat. Especially when I’m so careful about keeping toxic items out of their reach.

My advice to pet owners is to put those free samples somewhere your animals can’t reach as soon as you get home. Honestly, I don’t even LIKE the free samplers, but they always give them to you, and it feels like a waste to throw them away…

Posts of the Month

• What’s it really like to travel to Madagascar?
• A Typical Day on a Star Clippers Caribbean Cruise
• Star Clippers Grenadines Review: A Royal Clipper Adventure

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I visited 13 Caribbean islands this winter. Which ones were the best? — I needed to do a post about the whole trip that fit together! I really enjoyed my time in the Caribbean, and feel like I know so much more about the region now.

What I Watched This Month

The Pitt. Are you as obsessed with The Pitt as I am? Is this the most addicting show ever?!

Anyway. Season two has arrived, less than a year after season one ended (please do more of that, TV executives!), and it dives even deeper into the awful conditions caused by the US healthcare system, and the impossible choices that healthcare workers are forced to make each day. It’s SO good.

In other news, I finished watching Better Call Saul this month, many years after the series concluded. I’ll just say one non-spoiler thing: it was SO REFRESHING to watch a show about a middle-aged man who respects his partner SO much.

He doesn’t say one bad word about her behind her back, ever. He doesn’t denigrate her publicly or privately. He doesn’t let the chores piles up for her. He respects her brilliance and sees her as an equal. And he even keeps that up as he’s pulled deeper into the criminal world.

That is so rare. And it shouldn’t be.

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I am enjoying immensely. I am loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve somehow missed my entire life until now!

In February, I listened to albums number 135-113. 

Favorite Discovery: This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello. I’ve never really listened to Elvis Costello before, but I really enjoyed this album, which sounds like a rock & roll throwback even for when it was released, in the late 70s. A fun album and a great listen for walking or driving.

Other Favorite Discoveries: Hejira by Joni Mitchell, Disintegration by The Cure.

Favorite Revisited Album: good kid, m.A.A.d. city by Kendrick Lamar. This is Kendrick’s first major label album, and it announced him as the unparalleled new artist.

good kid is a concept album — it tells the story of a teenage boy living in Compton, a good kid who nonetheless feels himself being pulled into crime. It takes place in a single afternoon and is told in a nonlinear way.

Kendrick grabs his mom’s van. He and his friends rob a house. His friend is killed. And he realizes he needs to break away from the cycle of violence and create a better life for himself.

This album contains what I consider the saddest hip-hop song ever written, which always brings tears to my eyes — “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.” It’s told by Kendrick’s peers, who know instinctively that they’re going to die young, but they want him to sing about them when they’re gone.

Other Favorite Revisited Albums: Late Registration by Kanye West, The Joshua Tree by U2.

Favorite Songs: “Money Trees” by Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock, “Little Red Corvette” by Prince, “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello, “We Major” by Kanye West, Nas, and Really Doe, “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2, “Fu-Gee-La” by the Fugees, “Amelia” by Joni Mitchell, “I’m the Only Woman” by Mary J. Blige, “Lovesong” by The Cure, “B-Boy Bouillabaisse: A Year and a Day” by the Beastie Boys.

Get the playlist: I’m creating a playlist of my favorite songs from the 500 albums — maximum one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.

Random Music Thoughts: As we get down into the final 100 albums, I am SO glad that I decided to do this challenge. I can’t tell you how much of a positive impact this project has had on my life. At this point, it looks like I’ll finish in June or July of this year.

*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this list are problematic in various ways — there’s even a murderer in the mix. I’m looking at their music solely from an influential perspective.

What I Read This Month

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (2024) — Forty years ago, Carl Fletcher, the patriarch of a wealthy Jewish family in Long Island, was kidnapped and held for ransom. While he was released mostly unharmed five years later, the family’s inability to deal with the trauma has had a debilitating effect on all three of his children.

One of his sons attempted to replicate his family’s life and lives with paralyzing anxiety. Another son, a failed screenwriter, is careening through sex and drug addiction. His daughter, a contrarian disgusted by her family’s wealth, has thrown herself into union organizing. And then a major change happens to their lives and things intensify.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. It’s one of my favorite novels I’ve read in quite some time, and I can’t recommend it more highly. I really love deep dives into dysfunctional families, and this one is just so rich with so many well-drawn, specific characters.

There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (2025) — This book reveals what it’s like for the working homeless people of America. We have images in our minds of homeless people being in that position due to mental illness or addiction, but the truth is so much more bleak than that.

The actual number of homeless people in America is about six times higher than the official reported numbers. Why? They don’t count people who are temporarily crashing with family, or staying at an extended-stay motel. But a lot of people end up in these situations because there is literally no housing that they can afford or that will accept them.

This book focuses on five families living in Atlanta. They adults all work. But between bad credit, evictions on record, and the fact that Atlanta is gentrifying at a lightning-fast rate, so few landlords accept Section 8 vouchers, and there are so few housing protections in the mostly red state of Georgia, people fall through the cracks fast.

This book is the spiritual sibling of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, a book that hits many of the same themes (and was one of my favorite books of the year when it came out). I recommend you all give it a read.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quilting by Laura Erlich (1998) — I’m learning a bit about quilting, and though this book is pretty old-fashioned, it was nice to get all the steps laid out in order in a way that complements the modern resources I’m finding online.

Coming Up in March 2026

The month began with a three-day visit to Berlin for the ITB travel show. I go to this event every now and then, but this might have been the best year yet, with lots of great networking and fun times with my blogger buds.

Up next is Charlie’s birthday trip! We’re going to southwest France with a few of our friends!

The main event of the trip is eating at Les Grands Buffets, an incredible buffet of fine French food that is somehow ridiculously good value for money. (Just look it up on Instagram or YouTube and you’ll see why people are nuts about this place.)

We are starting our trip with a day and a night in Toulouse, followed by Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne, then two nights in Montpellier, then flying home from Marseille.

While I’ve been to France more often than almost any other country (except Italy and the UK), I have never been to France’s southwest, and I’m excited to explore a new region in a country I love. I’m also excited to Eat All Of The Things.

What are your plans for March? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: February 2026 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

If you want to see some of the most unusual landscapes and wildlife you’ve ever seen, meet warm and welcoming people, and experience a land only barely touched by tourism, Madagascar is the place for you.

Madagascar has been a travel priority of mine for quite some time, and while I love traveling solo, I always knew I wanted to go with a tour. Madagascar is a gnarly destination, with some of the worst roads in the world, and I knew it would be much easier letting a tour handle the logistics.

I had been looking for the right Madagascar tour for years, but it was tough finding one that included all the places I wanted to visit: the Grand Tsingy, the Avenue of the Baobabs, and Nosy Be and its surrounding islands.

Then I came across the Madagascar tour from Rock My Adventure, which included all these places, and much more — and I was sold!

Rock My Adventure is a small tour company run by Helen Davies, an Africa specialist and travel blogger. Although Helen and I have a ton of mutual friends, we had never met — but after looking through her site and reading her testimonials, I knew I would love this trip.

So how did it go? I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE IN MADAGASCAR, though there were definitely some big challenges along the way!

This is a big post. Go make yourself a cup of tea, sit back, and let me tell you about what it’s like to travel to Madagascar!

This post was published in March 2026, based on a trip taken in September 2025.

Madagascar is not for everyone. Or most travelers.

What makes you want to travel to Madagascar? Do you want to see lemurs and other cool wildlife? Do you want to swim in turquoise waters? Do you want to hike in a stone forest and see giant baobab trees?

Do you want to meet wonderful, friendly people, the most adorable kids, and experience a destination that doesn’t have a shred of overtourism?

I mean, those are easy questions. Who wouldn’t want to do those things?

Now I should probably ask some harder questions.

Are you willing to travel on the roughest roads you’ve ever experienced in your life, for the better part of a day?

Are you okay with high temperatures and zero air conditioning?

How do you feel about not having access to a real toilet for several days, and just squatting behind trees?

Are you okay with getting piggy-backed into canoes when water levels are high?

Are you emotionally prepared to see devastating poverty first-hand?

Are you okay with the fact that in the event of an emergency, medical care will be extremely limited?

And maybe you can handle all this, but would it be enjoyable for you?

Overall, I think Madagascar is a destination best suited for very seasoned travelers who have experience traveling in developing countries. It’s also essential to be flexible, easygoing, and able to deal with setbacks along the way.

And if you relish the tough, dirty, fun days of travel, you’re going to love your time in Madagascar!

Conversely, I will gently say that Madagascar is not the place for you if you need air conditioning, if you don’t do well on bumpy roads, if you value a good level of comfort, or if you like organization and predictability.

And I will say that I had so much fun on this trip because it was a group trip. When you go through tough travel moments, you can laugh together and commiserate together. It makes setbacks much easier — and even fun, on occasion.

Had I been doing this trip solo, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much. That’s the truth.

Places to Visit in Madagascar

What struck me first about Madagascar was how different it felt from mainland Africa. In fact, it reminded me more of Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia, from the pousse-pousse rickshaws to the street food stalls.

In certain parts of Madagascar, I noticed that many people have Asian facial features, especially in the capital and the central highlands.

That’s not a coincidence. The Malagasy people are descended from Austronesian seafarers of Southeast Asia, who arrived about 1000 years ago, and the Bantu peoples of East Africa. You see this Asian influence in everything from agriculture to cooking.

Here are some of the places that I visited on my Madagascar trip — though keep in mind that Madagascar is enormous, and this represents just a small part of what the island has to offer!

Antananarivo

Unfortunately I can’t speak much about the capital of Antananarivo, because there were protests that shut down the city at the time of my visit. I’ll get more into that later in this post.

Antananarivo — or Tana, as the locals call it — has some cool sights to see, including markets like Analakely Market and the Route Digue Handicraft Market, as well as Lemurs’ Park and the Queen’s Palace Viewpoint.

Outside the city is Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important cultural landmarks in the country.

While I didn’t get to explore the city much, I can tell you that Hotel Sakamanga is lovely, feels like a museum, and has a great restaurant. If you stay there, please give Manga the kitten a cuddle for me!

Antsirabe and Lake Tritiva

The city of Antsirabe is a popular destination for travelers en route from Antananarivo to destinations further south. In this city, you can enjoy beautiful French architecture and take a ride on a pousse-pousse (Madagascar’s answer to the rickshaw).

While we didn’t have much time in Antsirabe, we did get to spend time at Lake Tritiva, which is about an hour’s drive west of the city. This lake is the most enchanting shade of teal and surrounded by tall stone walls.

You can hike around the whole lake, if you’d like, or just hike down to the water’s edge. We hiked down to the edge, got plenty of photos, then made our way up again.

In Antsirabe we stayed at Couleur Café, which was a beautiful property with little cottages and had the coziest, warmest bedding (which was important as this was one of our cooler temperature destinations!).

Tsiribihina Boat Trip

Of all my experiences in Madagascar, the most special and unique one was the three-day boat trip down the Tsiribihina River.

Our boat was incredibly basic. There wasn’t even a toilet on board; we would simply pull over to shore and squat behind trees and bushes. At night, the crew put up tents and built us a simple bush toilet.

During the day, we chilled out, watched the landscape go by, visited small villages, and went swimming in a gorgeous swimming hole as lemurs leaped through the trees.

Our chefs prepared us delicious food (some of the best of our trip!), and at night, our crew sang and played music for us by the fire. Far from any light pollution, we enjoyed a sky full of brilliant stars.

This part of the trip deserves its own blog post, and I want to write more about it soon! But most of all, I feel like this was where we got to know Madagascar on a deep, intimate level. Most travelers don’t experience that.

Before our trip, we spent a night at Princesse Tsiribihina, a nice little hotel in the town of Miandrivazo, close to the start of the river journey.

Tsingy de Bemeraha National Park

If you’re interested in the landscapes of Madagascar, Tisngy de Bemeraha National Park is likely at the top of your list. This stone forest located in western Madagascar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It’s also quite an adventure to get here. The gateway town to the Tsingy is Bekopaka, which is a drive of several hours on Madagascar’s extremely rough B-roads (more on those below).

Hiking the Grand Tsingy is the big adventure here. I absolutely loved this technical hike, which requires clipping yourself in, Via Ferrata-style, and climbing onto tiny footholds. It can be a LOT if you have issues with heights, especially since you must cross a rickety bridge over a canyon near the end.

But you’re not up for that hike, there are other options. You can take a boat through the canyon and admire the scenery, and you can do a much smaller, less-intense hike in the small Tsingy. Two of the girls on our tour skipped the big hike for the boat ride and small hike and had a great time.

In Bekopaka we stayed at Le Soleil des Tsingy, which has a luxury feel and an incredible infinity pool that is THE ABSOLUTE BEST after a hot, sweaty day in the Tsingy. Just know that there’s no AC and the nights here were hotter more than anywhere else in Madagascar.

Kirindy

Kirindy Forest is a dry deciduous forest located in the west of Madagascar and makes a good stop between the Tsingy and Morondava. This is a great place to see Madagascar’s unique wildlife in their natural habitat.

I recommend spending one night and going on guided forest walks both at night and in the morning, because you’ll see different kinds of wildlife at different times of day.

At night, you might spot dwarf lemurs and mouse lemurs. The mouse lemurs are super tiny and love to poke their heads out of holes on trees!

By day, there are several kinds of lemurs you might spot, as well as cool geckos and lizards.

And if you’re lucky, you’ll spot a fossa! The fossa is a lemur-hunting predator, and it has the body of a cat and the face of a rat — it sounds strange, but I swear it’s a very cool animal. We were lucky to see a fossa during our visit.

In Kirindy we stayed at Relais du Kirindy, which had simple ensuite cabins, as well as a swimming pool. I’ve heard it’s a bit nicer than the accommodation they offer directly in the park.

Morondava

Morondava is a seaside city in western Madagascar, and it’s one of the most popular places to visit in the country. I really loved the vibe in Morondava; it felt casual, beachy, and full of life!

In town I recommend taking a pousse-pousse ride to get a feel for the place, and check out stores and markets. You can spend time on the beach (though don’t wear skimpy swimwear in public here). And there are a few fun bars if you’re in the mood for nightlife!

Morondava is about a 45-minute drive from the Avenue of the Baobabs (Allée des Baobabs), which is one of the symbols of the country. Here you can photograph the baobabs at sunset (or, with fewer crowds, at sunrise), or plant your own baobab trees. Keep in mind that this place gets crowded!

The coastline from Morondava south to Toliara is home to the Vezo people — nomadic or semi-nomadic fishers who rely on the sea for survival. Two of the girls and I took a canoe to the village of Betania, where we got to know some of the local kids and women, and had our faces painted in the Vezo style.

In Morondava I stayed at Chez Maggie Hotel & Restaurant, which might not have been the fanciest place we stayed in, but it was one of my favorites. So cozy and welcoming with friendly staff, in a nice beachside neighborhood, with air conditioning and great food.

Nosy Be

Nosy Be, an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, is the most touristy spot in the country. Some people fly to Madagascar and only visit Nosy Be, which blows my mind! You can even find direct flights to places like Milan and Verona.

Nosy Be is a great base for diving or snorkeling, if you’re into that, or just chilling out. There is a decent nightlife scene here. And if you’re up for a massage on the beach, you’ve got plenty of options, for a fraction of what you’d pay elsewhere.

Nosy Be is surrounded by smaller islands, and these islands are popular spots for day trips. Nosy Sakatia is popular for swimming with whale sharks or giant turtles; Nosy Tanikely is a small marine national park; Nosy Komba is home to a lemur sanctuary.

Overall, I think Nosy Be is a fantastic place to end your trip to Madagascar. A few days on the beach are the perfect balm after long, rough travel days — especially if you splurge on a more upscale hotel like Maison Ylang, which I absolutely adored.

Plus, it might be easier for you to fly onward without having to fly back to Antananarivo. (I would recommend doing so if possible.)

But I don’t think Nosy Be is special enough to warrant a trip without going elsewhere in Madagascar. If you want to go to a tropical island in an affordable country, I’ll always advocate Koh Lanta in Thailand. Come to Nosy Be when you have time to explore more of Madagascar.

Now that we’ve talked a bit about the destinations, let’s get into what it’s really like to travel to Madagascar!

Get ready for the worst roads of your life.

I’m sure you’ve driven on some rough roads before. But I don’t think you’ve experienced anything as bad as the B-roads of Madagascar.

B-roads are Madagascar’s secondary roads. They are unpaved, poorly maintained, and absolutely require a 4×4 vehicle. They can be quite dangerous, especially when they become muddy and often impassable during rainy season (January to March).

You might be reading this blog post thinking that you’re a good driver, that you can handle the roads. I beg you to reconsider. If anything goes wrong, nobody is coming to help you. Our expert drivers know these roads like the back of their hand, and even they had a few popped tires along the way.

(At one point, we drove past a tourist driving down the road to Bekopaka with a terrified look on his face. “Is he crazy?” I burst out. “Yes, he’s crazy,” our driver replied with a laugh.)

B-roads make up most of the journey from Morondava to Bekopaka and the Tsingy de Bemeraha, so if you want to see the Tsingy, you’re getting there by B-roads. (There is a tiny airport in Bekopaka for private or charter flights only.)

And even the paved roads can try your patience. When traveling from Antananarivo to Antsirabe, we had to turn around and take a longer, circuitous route because the road was blocked.

And when you come to a river, the fun REALLY begins.

Surely there would be bridges along popular routes? Nope, not in Madagascar!

Instead, drivers carefully maneuver their SUVs onto a wooden raft perched on top of a few canoes. You walk onto the raft behind them. Then the raft operator fires up the loudest motor you’ve ever heard, black smoke billowing everywhere, and the raft chugs its way to the other side.

You walk off. The SUVs drive off. And you keep going until you hit the next river.

Madagascar is so much more beautiful than I expected.

Of course, I knew Madagascar was going to be beautiful in some places! But the sheer beauty of our surroundings But I didn’t think I would be stunned as soon as we left Antananarivo. Just the surrounding rice paddies were gorgeous against the mountains!

Here are some of the landscapes you can experience in Madagascar:

Spiky gray stone forests in Tsingy de Bemeraha National Park.

Idyllic tropical beaches with palm trees and turquoise water in Nosy Tanikely.

Pink sunsets behind wild fields and rice paddies in Miandrivazo.

A rocky waterfall and swimming hole in the middle of nowhere, just off the Tsiribihina River.

And of course, Madagascar’s iconic baobab trees are one of the symbols of the country. This is their most famous spot, Avenue des Baobabs near Morondava.

And the wild thing was that we only saw a tiny fraction of Madagascar! Madagascar is massive — the world’s fourth largest island — and the long drives make you feel like you’re driving it from end to end. Not so.

The people are the true highlight of Madagascar.

When I think back to my time in Madagascar, I think of the incredible people I met. The two young guys we met in a bar in Morondava after midnight, where we joined them in a dance party.

The teenagers I excitedly talked to about 2Pac, as they were wearing 2Pac t-shirts, before I realized that people all over Madagascar wear 2Pac t-shirts but have no idea who he is.

The couple at the hotel in Belo Tsiribihina, who helped when I sheepishly asked if they could help me kill a cockroach on the curtain. The woman crushed it with her fingertips. I shrieked, “Avec les mains?! Avec les mains!!” (with the hands!) and the three of us laughed hysterically, even breaking into giggles when we saw each other the next morning.

Our incredible boat crew. Brilliant, hardworking, and absolutely gifted musicians.

And the children of Madagascar are truly wonderful. When we stopped in remote villages, the kids wanted to hold our hands. Even the teenagers. We would be walking as a group and some of us would have two kids holding onto each hand!

The kids would come running when we pulled over in our bus or boat, and they would stick to us like velcro.

However, travelers have not always treated Malagasy children well, so I have some advice to share.

Do not give the kids money. Do not give the kids candy, no matter how much they say, “Bon-bon? Bon-bon?”

(Side note: when we were in the Tsingy, one of the girls offered key lime candies to everyone in our group, including our thirty-something guide Julien. He exclaimed, “Oh! A bon-bon?” and it was like he became a kid again!)

Instead, Helen got stickers for the kids — individual stickers on paper. They would hand out one sticker to each kid, only when we had enough for everyone. That’s a nice treat for kids that doesn’t rot their teeth or create a culture of begging.

Additionally, please think carefully about the photos you choose to share. I personally choose not to share clear photos of children’s faces on the internet. That’s why I shoot so often from behind.

Do I have photos of kids’ faces on my phone? Tons! Including selfies with us all squished together! Those photos are precious to me, but children deserve privacy, so I don’t share them publicly.

Speaking French will help you enormously.

If you studied French in high school and you’ve been jealous of your Spanish-speaking friends navigating through Mexico with aplomb, I promise you, in Madagascar your day has come! This is one place where you can speak French constantly!

Malagasy people speak Malagasy as their first language, and there are local dialects and regional variations, but French is the second language children are taught in school. French is often the primary language for official government or business matters in Madagascar.

While some people who work in tourism speak English, it’s nowhere near as widespread as French.

I speak French, and I found that this opened my world in Madagascar SO much. I was able to have real conversations and connect with people, and I even made local friends. The picture above was taken in the village of Maromandray, along the road to Miandrivazo, and this older gentleman wanted to tell me all about farming haricots verts.

While of course our local Malagasy guide, Stella, spoke French, I was the only other person on our tour who spoke it. That meant I was often helping my friends communicate when Stella was busy handling logistics, which made the journey smoother for all of us.

And if you don’t speak any French, it helps to learn a little bit. Of course, “bonjour” and “merci” are important. “Comment t’appelles-tu?” (though I tended to hear “Comment tu t’appelles?” more often) and “Je m’appelle” can be helpful when introducing yourself to kids.

The poverty will rip your heart out.

If you’ve traveled in the developing world, you’ve probably witnessed a good amount of poverty. I’ve seen devastating scenes in South Africa, Cambodia, Greenland, and the United States that I’ll never get out of my head.

But Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, and you should be prepared for that.

A lot of villages don’t have any kind of plumbing at all. Some have basic latrines, but many people just crouch behind trees.

A lot of people, especially children, wear torn clothing and no shoes. Schools are ultra-basic, with almost no supplies and far too many kids sitting on a dirt floor.

I noticed that nobody in Madagascar wears sunglasses on bright sunny days. Then I realized that nobody wears eyeglasses. How many people are walking around with blurry vision?

At one point on the road to Bekopaka, we stopped in a village when another vehicle in our convoy got a flat tire. This village doesn’t get foreign visitors often, and they actually introduced us to a baby girl that had been born that very morning. I am still flabbergasted that we got to experience a moment this special.

The baby girl looked like a doll, with tiny black eyelashes and perfect cupid-bow lips. I whispered that I wished her a wonderful life. But what kind of life could she expect to have?

So what can you do as a visitor to Madagascar? Don’t give money (or candy) to individuals. Instead, spend your money as close to the ground as you can.

It’s good to hire local guides and drivers. Spend money in locally owned guesthouses and restaurants. Buy souvenirs directly from locals. Tip generously. Consider giving money directly to a schoolteacher, because you don’t know what supplies they need most.

Another thing? In most countries, the idea of leaving behind your used, worn-out clothes and shoes while traveling would be seen as extremely rude. But in Madagascar, they’re often received with deep gratitude. If you’re planning on replacing your sneakers soon, consider leaving your old pair behind.

Madagascar wildlife is incredible.

If you’re looking for a country with unique wildlife, you can’t do much better than Madagascar. Madagascar separated from the African mainland about 160 million years ago, then separated from the Indian subcontinent about 90 million years ago.

Because of that, the wildlife has had quite a long time to evolve. Combine that with a variety of diverse ecosystems, and you have some of the most interesting wildlife spotting in the world.

Lemurs, of course, are the main attraction (and the one every kid has heard of!). And while lemurs are adorable, there are plenty of other cool animals you can see in Madagascar.

Going on a night safari in the Kirindy Forest, we were able to spot dwarf lemurs. They are so cute and cuddly with big bellies.

We were extremely lucky to see a fossa, an animal with a body shaped like a cat and a face shaped like a rat! They very occasionally come out at Kirindy, and this one came out when we were there!

The chameleons were probably the coolest reptile we saw. I love how their tails curl up into a spiral — and how they give the most fantastic side-eye!

It was amazing seeing the baby lemurs! The babies cling onto the front of their mother for three weeks, then the back of their mother until they’re three months old. This tiny, skinny baby was brand new.

And my favorite wildlife sighting of the trip was a cuddle puddle of lemurs, cuddling together on a tree branch on the way back from the Grand Tsingy! Look how much they love each other!!

In Nosy Sakatia, you can swim with giant sea turtles. These are the biggest sea turtles I’ve ever seen — about a meter from nose to tail.

I love an interspecies friendship, and on Nosy Komba, I found out that the lemurs and tortoises get along pretty well!

There are three tortoises living at the sanctuary on Nosy Komba. “Those two are named Pablo Escobar and George Bush,” our guide told us.

“Pablo Escobar and George Bush?!” I exclaimed. “What’s the third one named, Saddam Hussein?”

“Caroline.”

“Caroline…is that a reference?”

“No, we just like the name.”

Food in Madagascar

How is the food in Madagascar? I ate a lot of tasty food, but I wouldn’t characterize Madagascar as a foodie destination by any stretch.

Local meals are simple — a bit of fish or meat with rice, and sometimes some vegetables. While some people talk about the French influence in Madagascar, I personally didn’t notice much Frenchness in the local food.

Zebu is the local cattle in Madagascar, and when you’re eating beef in Madagascar, you’re eating zebu! We ate zebu steaks, zebu burgers, zebu and chips.

Romazava is one local dish I recommend you try. It’s basically the Malagasy version of beef stew, served over rice.

There are three restaurants I especially recommend in Madagascar. The best of the three is Mad Zebu, which is in such a random place — the town of Belo Tsiribihina, which is a stop en route from Morondava to Bekopaka.

The food at Mad Zebu is sumptuous, elegant, and beautifully plated. Despite its name, our group loved the fish and vegetarian dishes the most! The restaurant is extremely popular with tour groups passing through, and you must reserve in advance.

Another restaurant I enjoyed was Nosy Tagada in Nosy Be, around the corner from our hotel, Maison Ylang. This restaurant serves a mix of French and international fare. I loved their sesame-crusted tuna steak and their savory galettes.

And if you’re in Antananarivo, the restaurant at Hotel Sakamanga serves great food as well, in a cozy atmosphere.

Can you travel to Madagascar in luxury?

This may seem like a strange thing to talk about, but I know people who talk about India or Ecuador or Cambodia and say, “Yeah, I’d go, but I’d do it in luxury.” Can you isolate yourself from the challenges of Madagascar travel if you “do it in luxury?”

In a word, no.

We stayed at some luxury properties in Madagascar, including Soleil des Tsingy in Bekopaka. And as a longtime travel industry veteran, my impression is that Madagascar is learning, but it’s not ready for luxury travel yet.

Imagine staying at a stunning luxury property, the kind of place that gives you a towel and a welcome cocktails when you arrive. And at dinner, the server brings your main dish first and your appetizer second because the kitchen wanted to make the main dishes first.

Or you’re staying in a beautifully decorated room, but it’s oppressively hot all night long with no AC or air flow.

Or the advertised wifi only works when a maximum of two people are trying to use it at the same time.

Or you bring your laundry to be washed, the receptionist says just to leave it on the front desk, you say no, that you’re not leaving a pile of dirty underwear there, he offers to throw it in a basket, you agree, and after coming back, he politely asks if you’re single.

None of this is meant to insult the hardworking Malagasy people. I just say this to illustrate that there is more to luxury than aesthetics, and creating a luxury experience requires extensive training and investment. Madagascar will get there eventually. It’s just not there yet.

Beyond hotels, can you skip the B-roads and river crossings and just fly to Bekopaka? Only if you have the funds to charter a private flight.

Can you experience fine dining? In the capital, sure, and at Mad Zebu, but not so much otherwise.

Can you book a nicer boat on the Tsiribihina River with a toilet on board? LOL, don’t ask.

If you DO want a luxury experience in Africa, you could go almost anywhere in Southern or Eastern Africa. Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia…those countries are full of luxury travel experiences that will blow you away. Just don’t expect that in Madagascar.

Is Madagascar Safe?

Is Madagascar safe to visit? This is always a tough question to answer, because most destinations are genuinely quite safe, but occasionally bad things do happen.

Overall, for the most part, Madagascar isn’t enormously dangerous for travelers.

Criminals do not target tourists in Madagascar beyond a bit of petty crime. In Antananarivo and other cities, it’s smart to keep your belongings in a secure handbag that zips, to not flash any valuables, and to only take official taxis.

Instead, safety concerns in Madagascar tend to be more about infrastructure than crime. Your biggest risks will be roads in poor condition, long overland journeys, and limited medical care.

You should plan your trip assuming that you’ll always be a long, difficult journey from a clinic or even a pharmacy. I got some prescriptions from my doctor in advance, which I talk about further down in this post.

What about traveling solo? Again, I always knew that I wanted to travel Madagascar as part of a group, not solo, and that’s why I chose Rock My Adventure’s Madagascar tour.

The only time I faced any negative male attention was the one time that I briefly walked alone at night in Morondava, on a busy street with lots of hotels and restaurants. Some young men in a group stared at me and catcalled.

It wasn’t threatening, but it was uncomfortable, and I wouldn’t walk alone at night in a desolate area in Madagascar.

Overall, most travelers will enjoy Madagascar without incident. However, I happened to be in Madagascar during an exceptional time: a period of unrest that resulted in a military coup. I’ll share more about that in the next section.

My Unusual Experience: Protests in Antananarivo

There’s one very big thing that happened during my time in Madagascar: there were country-wide protests in late September and early October 2025. Our group flew from Morondava to Antananarivo on September 25, and our hotel happened to be in the epicenter of the protests.

Young adults in Madagascar were protesting the power cuts, water shortages, and a corrupt government. I agree fully with the protestors; Malagasy people have so little and deserve better.

The protests turned violent. As we pulled up to our hotel, people were running everywhere and pushing a dumpster toward us in the street. The hotel staff grabbed us and rushed us inside.

We went into the courtyard and Helen made the decision that we would eat at the hotel that night instead of going out.

An hour or so later, the police began tear gassing the neighborhood, which wafted into our area and was painful to our eyes and throat. The hotel staff handed out face masks and we headed inside, sealing ourselves away.

We were supposed to fly to Nosy Be the next day, but the flight was cancelled, so we headed out of town to a small local guesthouse in a safe location in a gated community. The family that ran the guesthouse treated us with SUCH kindness.

By then, there was a curfew in Antananarivo and in other cities in Madagascar. Supermarkets and attractions were closed; we sneaked into a convenience store that kept its back door open to buy some provisions. There was pretty much nothing to do other than hang out and wait.

Around this time, the US government updated Madagascar’s travel advisory to “Level 3: Reconsider Travel,” and the UK and several other countries made similar updates.

Then our flight the NEXT day was cancelled, too. The airport was canceling pretty much every domestic flight after 1 PM.

Eventually, thanks to Helen’s tenacity at the airport counter, she got us on another flight to Nosy Be after two extra days in Antananarivo. Unfortunately, a few of our tour members chose not to continue with us, lest they miss their flights home.

I want to be clear — this was not a massive hardship. At times it was scary, and annoying, but ultimately, it was an inconvenience.

And it didn’t last forever. Shortly after we got to Nosy Be, the president of Madagascar was evacuated from the country and the military took over leadership. Yes, this was a coup. My Malagasy friends have been pleased with this result.

After reorganizing some flights, I was able to fly direct to Réunion and back to Europe from there. Madagascar is now back to normal, and is just as safe for travelers as it was at the beginning of our trip.

Overall, situations like these are rare, but a risk you take when traveling in developing countries with limited infrastructure like Madagascar. It’s a risk I was willing to take in exchange for experiencing a magical place.

I want to emphasize that the trip was absolutely brilliant otherwise and I’m so glad we had Helen to navigate us through a complicated and unpredictable situation.

One last thing is that I recommend registering with STEP — the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program — if you’re an American, or your country’s program that notifies the embassy that you’re there. They will email you updates about the situation if anything like this happens during your trip.

Theoretically, STEP is also supposed to help you get evacuated if necessary. But as we saw after the US and Israel started bombing Iran in February 2026, trapping Americans in the Middle East with no way to escape, this may not happen at all.

You need to book Madagascar Airlines flights early.

When traveling long distances in Madagascar, it’s best to travel by flight. Even if you’re the kind of traveler who likes the rhythms of overland travel and getting to see the landscapes, I promise you, you will want to fly.

Take the journey from Antananarivo to Morondava. It doesn’t look very far on the map, but the fastest bus journey takes about 12.5 hours. (One of my Malagasy friends told me he regularly takes the 24-hour bus. YIKES.) You could avoid that by taking a 90-minute flight.

The problem is that internal flights are limited and they book out EXTREMELY early. Helen had us book our flights early for this reason. Our trip was in September, and she notified us in January that the flights had been released.

A few months ago in a Facebook group, I heard someone lamenting about the lack of flights available last-minute and whether it would be worth it to just go to Nosy Be and nowhere else in Madagascar. Well, you already know how I feel about that!

My advice to you: start planning your Madagascar trip at least a few months in advance and book your internal flights right away. This is not a destination that you can wing at the last minute.

I would not bring kids to Madagascar.

Now, this might be one of the more controversial things about this post — especially considering that two of my travel blogger colleagues each brought their kids to Madagascar within a month of my visit.

I’m not a parent, but I enthusiastically advocate for taking your children to unusual, nontraditional destinations.

However, when you travel anywhere, I think it’s wise to hope for the best-case scenario but plan for the worst-case scenario. That includes planning for illness and injury.

Getting sick or injured in Madagascar means traveling to a poor quality medical clinic, especially if you’re in a rural area. It could mean a very long overland journey over B-roads while dealing with that illness or injury. Medevac helicopters are not common in Madagascar.

Would I accept that risk for me, as an adult? Of course. That’s a risk you take when you travel to remote places.

But would I want to subject a child to that risk? No, I would not be comfortable with that.

And let me be clear — I think Africa is a great place to travel with kids. But I would personally choose an African country with better infrastructure and healthcare facilities, like South Africa, Kenya, or Botswana.

Of course, the chances that you’ll actually have an emergency are slim, but when kids are involved, it’s just as important to plan for the worst as it is to hope for the best.

Traveling Madagascar with Rock My Adventure

I am SO glad that I traveled to Madagascar with Rock My Adventure! This Madagascar trip is one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.

What I loved about this trip was that it was a mix of adventurous days with nice, comfy accommodation, excluding the days we spent camping (and every hotel where we stayed had hot water!).

Our itinerary included a lot of activities, but wasn’t too fast and exhausting, like many tours can be. Every Malagasy guide and driver we had was wonderful, especially Stella, who traveled with us for most of the trip.

Our group was mostly women, from 30-somethings through 60-somethings, from the US, Canada, and the UK.

Rock My Adventure is a small travel company run by one person, Helen Davies. She has deep relationships with local fixers and people on the ground, putting money into local pockets, which is why the trips are so good.

For that reason, there aren’t tons and tons of trip departures like the big companies. The Rock My Adventure Madagascar trip is run once per year.

Would I do more Rock My Adventure trips? Hell yeah! In fact, I’ve already signed up for my next Rock My Adventure trip — Botswana and Victoria Falls, and I’m bringing my husband this time!

And don’t forget, you can get £100 off any Rock My Adventure tour with the code KATE100!

Best Time to Visit Madagascar

When is the best time of year to visit Madagascar? It’s important that you time your trip for the dry season, which is approximately from May to October.

Some destinations can be worth it in the shoulder season, or even off-season. I happen to love Paris in the winter, which is very much low season. I love Koh Lanta in November, the shoulder season, when the quick rainshowers lead to stunning sunsets.

But Madagascar is not like either of those. If you travel in rainy season, or even shoulder season, the B-roads could turn into mud and might not be passable.

Considering the rough experience you’ll have on the B-roads during the dry season, trust me, you don’t want to risk it being any worse.

A trip to Madagascar is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Give yourself the best chance by planning it during the high season. I promise it won’t be that touristy.

Best eSIM for Madagascar: Holafly

I never travel without an eSIM — both for safety and peace of mind — and Holafly is my top eSIM recommendation for trips to Madagascar.

Gone are the days of hunting down a phone shop, passport in hand. With eSIMs, you install your plan in about 2 minutes at home via QR code — and it activates the moment you land.

In Madagascar, an eSIM is essential for calling a taxi in Antananarivo, translating a menu in Morondava, finding a money change office in Nosy Be, and booking flights on the fly.

Unlike most eSIMs, Holafly offers unlimited data and connects through Madagascar’s major carriers, giving you strong LTE and 5G speeds. You buy a plan for the specific number of days you’re visiting.

And one feature I especially appreciate from Holafly is Always On. Even if your data plan runs out, every Holafly eSIM automatically provides 1GB of emergency data per month in 70+ destinations. It’s a great safety net in case of delayed flights, unexpected layovers, or any moment when you desperately need to get online.

Use code HOLAKATE for 5% off your Holafly eSIM or 10% off monthly plans.

Get your Holafly Madagascar eSIM here. Visiting multiple African countries? Holafly’s Africa eSIM covers 25+ countries on a single plan.

Be sure to visit a travel doctor before you travel to Madagascar.

Visiting a travel doctor is a good idea before traveling to a developing country or a country where malaria is present. Madagascar falls into both categories.

Your regular doctor does not have the experience for this. A travel doctor has detailed up-to-date information on every country in the world and how to protect yourself.

I visited the travel doctor in Prague, and after a discussion, we decided that I would get vaccinated for dengue fever, rabies, typhoid, and hepatitis A. I currently have active vaccines for yellow fever and hepatitis B (good for life) and tetanus (good for 10 years).

Dengue fever is a fairly new vaccine, and it’s only available in the EU, UK, and a few countries in Latin America and Asia at this time.

We also decided that I would take antimalarials, and he prescribed me malarone. (Doxycycline is another antimalarial, but it makes you super sensitive to sun. I burn terribly when I take it.)

On top of that, we talked about how to prevent mosquito bites: using a mosquito repellent with 50% DEET, and covering up at dawn and dusk.

Separately from the travel doctor, I contacted my GP, told her I would be traveling in very remote areas with no healthcare facilities, and asked for prescription medication in case I got a UTI or severe food poisoning. She prescribed me both.

What to Pack for Madagascar

Pocket-sized wet wipes. Yes, you’ll be peeing behind trees, and perhaps pooping, too. Wipes are essential. I found the pocket-sized versions to be best, as you can carry them discreetly in your pocket rather than lugging a giant package. Keep in mind that no wipes are flushable, even if they say they are.

Pocket-sized hand sanitizer. Village kids love to hold your hands, but I think we all know that kids are constantly sick! Use the sanitizer afterward.

Mosquito repellent with 50% DEET. Extra-strong mosquito repellent is beyond essential for Madagascar, and a critical part of keeping yourself safe from malaria. Never go out without it.

Electrical tape. This is the one thing I didn’t bring that I wish I had. Electrical tape can fix anything, and it would have been very useful when my mosquito net in Kirindy didn’t close all the way.

Head lamp. I found my head lamp extremely useful when doing a night walk in the Kirindy Forest, but they’re also useful if there’s a power outage.

Water bottle. The water is not safe to drink in Madagascar, but it makes more sense to buy a big bottle of water and just refill your personal water bottle when you need it. Alternatively, you can use a LifeStraw to purify local water before you drink it.

Sun protection. The sun is quite strong in Madagascar, and in addition to reef-safe sunscreen (important for Nosy Be and anywhere you might swim), be sure to bring a wide-brimmed hat and a light long-sleeved shirt. There isn’t much shade at the Tsingy, so you’ll need these.

Sarong. A sarong has a million uses, but in Madagascar, it can be a way to connect with others. A lot of women wear sarongs tied around their middle, and if you tie your sarong like them, they’ll like that.

Extra prescription medication for emergencies. Parts of Madagascar are so rural, you won’t be able to reach a clinic or even a pharmacy. I had my doctor prescribe medication for a UTI and medication for food poisoning, just in case. I didn’t need either, but I was glad I had them!

Pepto-bismol tablets. Easy to travel with, and ideal for settling upset stomachs. I brought around 20 tablets and wish I had brought more, in part because I shared them with friends who weren’t feeling well.

Laundry detergent sheets. While many hotels provide laundry service, I find it helpful to wash undies in the sink every now and then. I also brought a sink stopper, which is helpful when doing a full sinkful of laundry but not necessary if you’re only washing a few small things.

Do you need to pack a mosquito net for Madagascar? Not for most trips. Mosquito nets are part of life in Madagascar and they’re on every bed. However, one of the girls on our tour brought a pop-up mosquito net for our two nights of wild camping, and it was much cooler for her than it was for us in the regular tents.

Consider adding on Réunion or Mauritius.

Madagascar is so far from everywhere! If you’re traveling this far, why not add on a little side excursion?

Réunion and Mauritius are two islands, each around the size of Rhode Island, and located within a two-hour flight of Madagascar. I decided to add a week of solo travel split between the two islands.

Personally, Mauritius didn’t do much for me, though I see why some people like it. I did appreciate seeing the Hindu temples, a few waterfalls, and the big market in Port Louis, Mauritius’s capital. If you’re looking for a beach resort experience, though, Mauritius is the island for you!

But Réunion blew my mind. Such a gorgeous and idyllic island, located in the middle of nowhere, with stunning volcanic scenery, delicious food, and perhaps the most enjoyable driving of my life. Come here if you love adventure, flowers, and wild landscapes (and it helps enormously if you speak French).

I’ve been talking up Réunion ever since, and I would love to come back for longer.

Both islands have direct flights to Madagascar, and onward to Europe, which makes them a good stopover in either direction.

Is Madagascar worth it?

Madagascar thrilled me, challenged me, brought me back to my roots, and made me appreciate the life I have. I absolutely loved my time in Madagascar — excluding the worrisome moments during the unrest — and I am so glad I visited.

Madagascar is not the place to go for a casual travel experience. Go in knowing that it’s going to test you physically, mentally, and emotionally.

But if you’re okay with a bit of discomfort, Madagascar will reward you with magnificent natural beauty, heartwarming kindness, and a glimpse of a world far from anything you’ve ever experienced.

If you’ve read this post and think Madagascar might be for you, you should go. It’s worth it.

More on Africa:

• Solo Female Travel in South Africa: Is it Safe?
• The Ultimate South Africa Road Trip Itinerary
• Best Offbeat Things to Do in Cape Town
• Guide to Stellenbosch, South Africa’s Best Wine Town
• How to Rock a Trip to Johannesburg
• Visiting South Africa in the Winter: Worth It or Not?
• This Is Why They Call It Magical Kenya

More on what it’s like to travel here:

• What’s it like to travel to Greenland?
• What’s it like to travel to Curaçao?
• What’s it like to travel to Albania?
• What’s it like to travel to Antarctica?
• What’s it like to travel to Armenia?
• What’s it like to travel to Guyana?
• What’s it like to travel to Lebanon?
• What’s it like to travel to Japan?
• What’s it like to travel to Antigua and Barbuda?

Have you been to Madagascar? Share away!

The post What’s it really like to travel to Madagascar? appeared first on Adventurous Kate.