Hair blonder from the sun, feet cut from my new sandals, traumatised after getting stuck in a lift and a patch of sunburn on my nose – all signs of a fun girls holiday.

The gals took off to travel to 5 different destinations in just over 2 weeks. I joined the group for the second half of the trip and met them in Venice, after they had visited Split and Hvar in Croatia. I’m definitely missing the sun after spending 9 days soaking it all up in different cities. We made the most of sightseeing, beach days, shopping, eating and drinking and now I want to share some of the best bits from the 3 gorgeous locations I visited.

(Disclaimer: I had no hand in organising accommodation for this trip so I won’t be going in to much detail about that part of the trip. Also all of the accommodation is based on 6/7 people sharing so would be hard to go by.)

Venice

At 10:45 on a Saturday night I arrived in Marco Polo airport and waited for my friends, who were travelling from Split, to arrive so we could venture off together. One taxi ride and roughly a 25 minute walk later we arrived to our apartment in the Venetian Ghetto. The walk was a workout to say the least, dragging our suitcases behind us as we trekked over bridge after bridge.

The area we stayed in was so quiet and peaceful so we slept soundly that night knowing we only had one full day to explore Venice. Up bright and early the next morning we set off with no real plan in place, just wanting to explore the beautiful city. We took our time walking through the city popping in to little shops along the way. I must say the shopping is amazing in Venice and is great for finding unusual things you might not typically find. I bought a lovely pair of sandals, a masquerade mask (Halloween sorted), and of course souvenirs for the gang at home. All of our walking brought us to the Rialto bridge, which was of course swarmed by tourists like ourselves.

Murano was our next destination, about 30 mins on a taxi boat from Venice. This beautiful island is famous for its glass, and there were loads of little shops showcasing it. We got a taxi boat back to our apartment which was a great experience as our driver was so lovely, blaring music for us and making us feel like we were on our own private yacht! The short trip cost us 70 euro which was pricy enough, but divided between 7 of us was only a tenner each so we didn’t mind too much.

Venice was short lived but an amazing start to our trip. I would love to visit it again for a little weekend getaway.

Verona

A one hour train journey from Venice brought us to Verona. As soon as I arrived I was in awe of this beautiful city. We got a taxi to our apartment, which was quite central. The apartment block itself was stunning and we had a fab outdoor terrace. We started getting ready for a night out and with six girls all blasting hair dryers and charging phones of course we blew a fuse! After the drama we headed out for a nice Italian meal and some drinks. We found a restaurant nearby where I had the most delicious carbonara and a yummy mojito.

We wanted to continue the night in a bar (ideally with cocktails), so good old Google Maps led us to “The Soda Jerk”. This was a strange but memorable experience. Our map had led us to a door off the beaten track. We were all thinking “this is hardly the popular cocktail bar we looked up?”. Hesitantly ringing the doorbell and standing “confidently”, we had no idea what to expect. The door swung open and we were greeted in by a cheery barman. We entered a dimly lit bar with a black and white movie playing on a projector. I knew I would like it from the minute I walked in! The cocktails were amazing, and cheap enough at only 9 euro each! And of course, when I saw cheesecake on the menu I HAD to order it (even if it was 3am). Hands down the best cheesecake I’ve ever had.

Brunch the next day was much needed and we found the most perfect place; “Bakery House”. With everything from pancakes to caesar salad, how could you go wrong?

We spent the day exploring the beautiful city of Verona and our first stop was Juliet’s Balcony. Unsurprisingly this was a tourist trap, but we gave in and paid the 6 euro to go into the house and stand on the balcony (doing it for the gram). The scenery was beautiful and I will most definitely be rewatching “Letters to Juliet” (it’s on Netflix).

Verona is a chill city so we took advantage of the down time and finished our day checking out the many restaurants that served cocktails! It was an earlyish night for us as we needed to prepare for the seven hour train journey to our final destination, Nice!

Nice

Our time in Nice mostly consisted of days spent on the beach and evenings spent chilling in the apartment with takeaways and wine, or drinking cocktails in an Irish bar (Waynes or Ma Nolan’s are the best Irish bars). This was the perfect spot to end our trip.

Days spent on the beach were pure bliss. The stoney beach was hard to walk across but it sure beats having sand stuck everywhere! We dipped in and out of the gorgeous water all day, which was so refreshing in 29 degree heat.

One of the best food places we visited in Nice was “Yummy Burger”. It was a bit of a strange spot as they handed us all black latex gloves to eat with (a tradition in Dubai). I found it so wasteful that they give these to every customer. They should really think about the environmental impact of that (and also it’s just weird)!

Monaco was only a 1 hour bus journey away so we hopped on one day to see all the glamour (cost only 1.50). We spent the day admiring all the expensive yachts, and people watching. We found a reasonable enough restaurant and all ordered pizza which was well worth the 14 euro we each spent on it!

As the intro suggests, yes we did get stuck in a lift. We spent our last night, all 7 of us, crammed inside a tiny lift waiting to be rescued. Modern day damsels in distress.

The trip was both relaxing and exhausting but I wouldn’t change a thing. We started to call it “glinterailing” (glam interrailing) which is most definitely my kind of holiday. It was such a wonderful experience to be able to travel Europe with some of my best friends!