In the Fall of 2025, we will kicked off our retirement travels with a 6-week European adventure!
As we started brainstorming in 2024 for our 2025 retirement trip, we worked through all of our travel dreams, destinations and wish-lists and ended up with this itinerary. Croatia had been on our list since we ran into a young Australian couple at the tiny Milos, Greece airport and heard about their adventures. And after some quick research on Croatia we learned about Montenegro and found this amazing hike with incredible views, along with a stunning coastline - it seemed like a perfect fit to kick off our world adventures along the Dalmatian coast. Through some flight research, using the flightsfrom.com website, we found that 2 of our favorites (Italy and Greece) would be easy to add to this itinerary and would make an epic trip, sticking with quick direct flights. With our retirement trip planned, we decided to see if our sons' and their wives wanted to join us along the way in Greece, so we could share a place we had loved with them. And of course, they said yes but because of their schedules we had to extend our trip two more days, changing our departure to a Saturday, Because Saturdays are more expensive to fly back to the USA and we weren't on a schedule, we started researching destinations that would extend our trip a few days with a less expensive fare back to the USA. After checking out many options, we found that Istanbul was an easy add-on and it was less expensive to add 5 days in Istanbul, complete with flights & hotel than it was to fly home from Athens on a Saturday. Istanbul was not originally on our wish-list of destinations but we knew its history and had heard great things about it, so, we added it on to the trip, and then the airline changed our flight to leave a day later, so we had even more time!
And that is how we planned our 6-week You & Me Retirement Tour! Maybe you didn't need to know all of that, but many of you have asked our process, so we are sharing a little of our personal insight of planning.
To track all the travel itinerary details with dates, times, confirmation numbers and even the budget we started a shared google sheet with everything in one place. We are now going to use that same format for all of our trips.
Below is a quick recap of each destination. For more information on each country, click the links!
And no, we weren't ready to come home!!!!
Kotor Old Town was our home base for 3 nights while we explored the Old Town, Kotor Fortress, Perast and a took a speedboat tour to visit Our Lady of the Rocks, see the submarine tunnels, the gorgeous bay of Kotor and swim in the blue cave.
Our inspiration for visiting Montenegro was hiking the 3 peaks of the Volusnica trail, a 6+ mile hike with over 3200 ft elevation gain - it was truly breathtaking. At the top we even hiked along the Montenegro/Albania border!
On our last stop in Montenegro, we explored the beautiful coastline of the Budva riviera both by land in our car and by sea in a speedboat we chartered and were treated to beautiful beaches, fortresses, caves and a blue lagoon.
With less than 24 hours in Dubrovnik, we walked the walls in a light rain, enjoyed a drink at the Buza bar, ate an amazing meal at Trattoria Carmen, had gelato in a torrential rainstorm and the next morning explored the old town in search of pastries and coffee before we drove up the coast to our next stop. It definitely wasn’t long enough!
Split and the surrounding area completely blew us away! We were spoiled by our Marriott stay, enjoying sunsets from our own patio. The old town, dating back to 4th century AD was fun to explore and left us in awe. A speedboat to the Blue Lagoon and the island of Solta, complete with a visit from mojito man and pina colada man, and swimming in the Adriatic was amazing!! A day trip to Krka National Park and another ferry (with our car) to the Island of Brac showed us even more of the beautiful country of Croatia!
Magical! The raw beauty of the lakes and waterfalls of Plitvice National Park was unreal! Hiking for 2 half days we enjoyed the picturesque scene and the sounds of silence and then roaring waterfalls as we walked the boardwalks and trails. Pictures and words can’t describe the experience. It was truly magical!!!
We spoiled ourselves on this leg of the trip!!! Staying on Capri was an indulgence and we loved every bit of it!! Everything about our stay at La Minerva Capri was amazing, the rooms, the views, the pool and most importantly, the staff!!! With only 19 rooms the service was unmatched. We explored Capri Town, the gardens of Augustus, Anacapri, saw the Natural Arch, walked along the coastline, and spent afternoons pampered by the pool with a spectacular view, amazing food and afternoon granitas..
Another stop on the Amalfi Coast, Positano was gorgeous! A highlight was our private boat tour of the coastline, which included an amazing swim by ourselves in a cave and a quick stop in Amalfi. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted so we will have to go back again.
While we had spent the first 4 weeks just the two of us on our retirement trip, this week was special! We invited our sons and wives to join us and we explored Crete (& then Athens) together! It filled our hearts!!! Between the majestic mountains and the blue water, Crete is stunning!!! It is a very large island so we limited our exploration to Chania, exploring the Old Town and a few beaches within an hours drive. From Falassarna beach to Marathi beach, the water is mesmerizing. We had an amazing Airbnb with our host acting as the perfect concierge and taking good care of us. From dinner reservations, to recommending a private chef to come in and cook for us, to front row sunbeds at the beach club and making sure we chose our daily activities correctly based on the weather, she was the perfect hostess! While we only scratched the surface, we loved Crete!! There is much more to explore!!!
Having visited Athens previously, we were excited to share our awe of the birthplace of democracy with the kids. From our tour of the Acropolis and the Acropolis museum to the Ancient Agora (the center of democracy) to walking the streets and seeing the many ruins that showed the history of the city we truly enjoyed our visit. Even our Airbnb had a small piece of the history of Athens, it was surreal to live among the relics showcased in our space!
As the kids head back to the USA, we are headed to Istanbul for the last week on our retirement adventure!
What an unexpected surprise!!! We didn’t have plans heading into Istanbul, but we filled our 6 days easily. We were thankful for our private tour guide to guide us through Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and experiencing the call to prayer while we were in the Hagia Sofia is something we will never forget. We wandered through the craziness of the streets, the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar, a yacht voyage on the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul, saw many mosques, the Iron Church, Galata Tower, the frescoes and mosaics of the Kariye Mosque and the unbelievable Dolmabahce Palace.
But our favorite experience was the Turkish bath!!!! We definitely recommend the private couples experience!!! And we can’t forget the amazing food, from our Turkish breakfast every morning to the fish wraps, durum Döners and sweets the food in Istanbul was amazing!
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