I remember we were at a luxury 5-star All-Inclusive in Puerto Vallarta and on the surface, everything was fine. The food was underwhelming, but it was free! The drinks were terrible but were free! The lounge chairs were all taken by 6:30am, but they had lounge chairs! The people were quite social, but most were drunk MAGA folk who were partying in Mexico which is fascinating in its own right. We left spending a lot of money and realizing the only reason we were even staying in an All-Inclusive in Mexico was because everyone else does it.
We were babies once!That’s a lot of pools….which means lots of people!
It got us to reflect on our travels over the years. At that point, our two favorite vacations were to Tuscany and Madeira (Island off Portugal/Northern Africa). Now is it completely fair to compare a North American destination to two oversea ones? Maybe, not, although I love Mexico, the food, the culture, and the people. My issues with the all-inclusive had nothing to do with Mexico. My issues were the food in the factory (err hotel) was meh, the people were irritating, the drinks were terrible, and we spent a lot of money to stay at this ‘Luxury Resort.’ To put it in perspective, our Portugal and Italy trips were marginally more expensive (thanks to airline miles) yet DRAMATICALLY better.
No one for miles in TuscanyThe sea without the people!
So why were our two favorite destinations rural Tuscany and an Island off Portugal. What did those two have in common compared to an all-inclusive or a cruise (which we also liked but did not love). Both trips as as do all our vacations now have these four commonalities,
Less People: We are both introverts (me more) and we both relax better in quieter settings. Being crammed onto a cruise or a mega resort doesn’t do that.
Excellent Food and Wine: We do write a cooking blog too…. this one is a no brainer for us.
Unplug: We find going far overseas makes it easier to get off our phones and ignore work.
Flexible: When we landed in Madeira, we literally had nothing planned. We figured it out as we went, but it was wonderful not rushing to get to dinner in time, or to save a lounge chair or to fight crowds.
Minimal Children: 😊
We only get so much PTO a year and only have so much money to spend. Why waste it on destinations that doesn’t fit your needs. Going to Disney World, or to a hotel in P-Town or on a cruise would be very expensive and we would return home more exhausted because we like quieter locations. Please don’t choose your destinations because everyone else goes there or all my friends love cruises. Think about what you value or need on a vacation and find a destination that provides that to you. You work hard for your vacations, go somewhere that relaxes you and that provides you what you need to fully escape! Where will you be going next?
Hi everyone! We are still here but have been mostly silent for the last few months. Sorry, it has been challenging finding a minute to write in between settling into our home, getting comfortable, making new friends, and working full time. Not much happening in the world of international luxury (on a budget) travel, but we have a few things in the pipeline….
The House
Well, the house needs to be gutted and completely rebuilt as we would do so many things different next time. Kidding (sort of) the house is beautiful, and we couldn’t be happier. We are cooking up a storm (check out our sister blog homemade-chef.com), sitting by the fire and spending much more time outside in our wooded backyard before the frost comes in. As Matt literally just said on the phone to his parents, every single window (all 14 of them), or external door has views of the woods. It is just calming and peaceful and as much as I dread the coming snow, it will be stunning.
A deer across the street
Maine
While Maine is not physically abroad, mentally it could not be further away from what I am used to. We are in a remote area, the weather is quite cooler than our last 12 years in the South, it is quiet, no traffic and people are nice and tolerant! I have always wanted to live here and now I am wondering what has taken so long. I have never been more relaxed, not in a rush and less anxious in my life. There is just something about these woods, the animals, the sounds, and lack of urgency that is so refreshing. Having Ogunquit just 15-20 minutes away is great when we want to get out and have some gayness, but it is also wonderful to be able to drive to our wooded home after to relax.
Matt is feeding the grass
The Babies
They also love the house, the sun, and the quiet outdoor possibilities.
Of course the beagle makes himself comfortable on the furniture
Upcoming International Travel
So far, our upcoming international travel for the next year is minimal. We are traveling to Canada in a couple of weeks for our sister’s wedding (there will be reviews of the flights, see upcoming posts) and we are traveling to Portugal in July. However, you know us, sometimes more just pop up!
Lessons Learned
Work remotely and live wherever you want! Lol okay not always practical, but don’t be afraid to take some risks in life. Maine is very different than what we are used to and so far, it has been best decision we have made in a long time (helps we have a cozy condo in FL to hide in during the winter months!). The house, the location and the people we have met are all just lovely.
Woods are great and I also have this just a few minutes away To being a Mainer
This was my first experience ever traveling on a long-haul European business class product. We had a lot of credits to use on Air France due to a cancelled Paris vacation we booked during the pandemic, and we cashed them in to fly business class to Florence, Italy with a transfer in Paris. Overall AF business class was a wonderful experience and blows what we are used to here in the USA out of the water.
At the Airport
While we were able to use the elite desk to check in, Matt and I did not check bags as we have heard bags now get lost while transiting in Europe. So we checked in online and, we used our Clear to breeze through security and went straight for the Air France Lounge.
🤮 AF Boston lounge Delta lounge, much better!
There is no reason to ever head to the Boston Logan International Airport early when flying Air France as their lounge was sad. Very few outlets to charge phones, the food was minimal and since it was also a contract lounge for other airlines it was also quite packed. We moved to the Delta lounge and hoped since Air France and Delta are friends (same alliance) they would let us in, and they did! Much better, but I am not sure if that was supposed to happen as we were flying AF and AF had their own lounge, so we either had a nice lady check us in or they made a boo boo as I would not count on that again.
Boarding
Easy and seamless as business passengers get to board first instead of families of 20 with one baby.
The Seat
The seat was wonderful. A lovely and private pod with plenty of storage and room for my feet. The seat alignment on the plane was 1:2:1 so we chose the 2 in the middle so we can be together.
Pod!Middle pods are great if you have a travel buddy! Otherwise a barrier wall does exist.Plenty of room
Food and Service
Oh, my this is where American (by American I mean United/Delta/AA) are put to shame. The food was delicious. For dinner I had this braised beef that was restaurant quality. The wine was delicious, and the flight attendants came around all night asking if we wanted refills.
Of course I want a refill!
Dinner itself lasted about an hour. I had a glass of Port for a cordial and passed out for several hours and woke up right before breakfast (3 hours after dinner, I was not remotely hungry, but of course I ate it!)
Dinner!Breakfast (sorry bar photo!)
Amenity Kit/Bathroom
Pretty comparable to American airlines’ kits with toothbrush/paste, hand moisturizer, sleep patch, socks, and noise cancelation headphones. Bathrooms were also kept clean the entire flight something our domestic airlines do not do. People blame the FA union for that, but AF is unionized too, and they manage 😊.
Overall:
****.5/***** The lounge experience at Logan dings it a little, but the actual flight was wonderful.
Matt and I had a lot of United miles to burn, and we figured we would use most of them to fly home from Rome to Boston. When we searched for flights on the United App, we saw we were able to book two business class seats (transiting in Zurich) for about 75,000 miles on Air Swiss (a partner of United). That was a steal and I have heard very good things about Swiss Air!
At the (Zurich) airport
This has got to be one of the most beautiful airports I have ever been to. There were open windows everywhere so you can see the runway and the hilly countryside. We had access to the priority check in lane but skipped it as we checked in online since we had no bags.
The Swiss Air Business lounge was beautiful. They had cooked to order breakfast items, pastries, and cereals with a self-help bar 😊. The best part of the lounge though had to be the patio where we could watch flights take off. It helped that it was a beautiful day.
Hanging out in the Swiss lounge patio Mom liked it too!Inside was nice too
Boarding
Similarly, to Air France, Swiss Air invited their First and Business class passengers on before anyone else.
Seats
My only real complain on Swiss is they still have older seats on the 777. If like me you are traveling with someone than the two-seater without the privacy of the pod is fine, but if you are solo you might prefer the pod seat. Otherwise, it was very comfortable with plenty of room and storage.
No pod but still becomes a bed and very comfy Matt wants a pod 😂
Food and Service
Swiss Air promoted this 2-hour gastronomical experience, and to be honest I was skeptical. But it was just that. For the appetizer we had this wonderful salad and hummus and for lunch I had the Beef filet. The flight attendants also enjoyed sharing their knowledge on Swiss wines (which were wonderful). I really was touched by the pride the Swiss crew had in business class. Service was clearly their passion and they enjoyed it. ‘Sir can I please tell you about our Swiss wines’ was a long way from ‘what do you want to drink’ on United/American.
Appetizer Main course Dessert with Port
Amenity Kit/Bathroom
The amenity kit had all the standards of international business including a toothbrush/paste, sleep patch, socks, and noise cancelation headphones. The only thing that was shocking was there was no hand cream. However, when I used the restroom, not only was there cream there, but also face toner which was just lovely to use throughout a 7-hour flight.
Overall
*****/*****
This was by far the best flight experience from Airport to landing I have ever had. I could ding it a point due to an older seat, but I was with Matt, so it worked better, and it was still very comfortable. Plus, you get free Lindt chocolate (in coach too). I cannot wait for my next Swiss Air flight!
Short Haul business class is typically on flights <5 hours long on your standard plane like the Boeing 737 or the Airbus 320 and of course any regional aircraft. Typically, if you are American and are flying within North and Central America or if you are European and you fly within the EU or the UK (thanks Boris) you are on a short-haul flight. While the type of aircraft and flight lengths are similar, the short-haul experience in business class is quite different. Let’s examine how they are different before identifying if North American Airlines or European Airlines offer a better short haul business experience. You might be surprised with my conclusion…
Booking
I have been scanning different flights to different locations within North America and the EU and pricing for business class is generally comparable. A business class ticket comes with more checked bags, priority boarding, fast track security etc. However, one noticeable difference are the European airlines offer free lounge access to short-haul business class customers while the North American airlines do not. That is a nice perk, but us luxury travelers on a budget already have lounge access with our credit cards 😊.
Rome FCO Star Alliance Lounge (included with a Swiss airlines short-haul business class ticket)
The other thing is we found the boarding process on Air France and Swiss Air much more seamless. Business class boards first, very simple. Not the North American Way of people requiring extra time, babies, elite members, military (why not firefighters?), those born in March, etc., before business class.
Winner: European Airlines
Pre-Flight Cocktail
Very simple: North American airlines win as European airlines typically do not offer it.
Plastic? Really American Airlines? Well at least we get a pre flight cocktail
Seats
This is where the difference is probably the most obvious. European short-haul business class seats are literally economy seats, but the middle seat is left empty. While North American business class seats are dramatically wider, plusher, have more legroom and recline more. The difference is quite striking.
American Airlines Business class seat (short haul)Poor me crammed in an Air France Economy (oops business easy to get them confused) seat
Winner: North American Airlines
Food and Service
The difference is also obvious in this category too, but this time in the European favor. Let’s be honest, the food in business class on United/American/Delta is barely edible and is the equivalent of domestic economy food from the early 90s, when it was available. Occasionally it is decent, but generally terrible while the flight attendants are generally pleasant but are also clearly checking the boxes and after 90 minutes or so tend to sit and generally ignore the passengers.
American Airlines short haul food 🤮
However European short-haul business class food was quite wonderful. Whether the flight is 2 hours or 45 minutes you get a full meal with endless wine refills. The flight attendants do not stop and even came around with cordials after the meal (on our 45-minute flight).
Swiss Air Short Haul meal. A cheese course included Air France short haul (delicious) meal
Winner: European Airlines
Overall
This might come to a shock, but despite the far superior service and food in Europe, I would go the with North American Airlines short-haul business class experience. While a lovely meal is always nice, on a short flight I probably don’t really need to eat on the plane, besides I get my lounge access from my credit card for food 😊. The seats and comfort on a North American business class route is far superior and it is nice to be comfortable. Spending several hundred dollars more for the same economy seat, but better food in Europe just does not make sense, but spending a few hundred more to be much more comfortable with (bland) food on a four hour flight across the USA offers much more value.
Buongiorno! We have returned from our beloved Italy and are now preparing for our (finally!) move to Maine…. just in time for the cold ☹. Please excuse the slower pace of posts over the next few weeks as we get our lives together in the new house, but I did want to post our itinerary for our week in Italy, Bossoncina.
Villa View and Pool The Villa
Why did we spend a week in one spot?
People are often flummoxed when we tell them we are spending a week in Europe in one location, just Barcelona, or Funchal or a villa in rural Tuscany. Matt and I have no problem flying across the world and transferring in major international airports (flying business and having lounge access in fact usually makes travel days the highlight of our vacations), but once we arrive, we are done with the shlepping.
Family time at the Villa
You know the European trips I speak of. The ones where you wake up at 7am at your mediocre hotel to board a bus with highly irritating people to see every museum and church you have never heard of (I have 2 history degrees and I can assure you outside of the Louvre, I haven’t heard of it either) to finish your day in a new city having a wonderful authentic Caesar salad and broiled chicken at your 4-star boring hotel. Hurry off to bed because you must wake up at 6am to see the church of St. Choose a Name!
Once we arrived at our villa in Tuscany we stayed there for a week. Sure we saw some beautiful (and empty with no crowds) churches and we did a few day trips to vineyards, small cities, and spas, but rest assured we returned to the villa each day by 2pm for nap time! With that, let me share our itinerary along with links for those who travel to Tuscany who wish to try some of this out! I hope this inspires future trips to Tuscany and do let me know if you have any questions.
Day 1
We arrived in the afternoon, went to the grocery store, and unpacked. We enjoyed the views and Matt made a lovely dinner of Grilled Tuscan pork tenderloin with lemon potatoes and peppers.
First day at the villa
Day 2
Another day at the villa! Today we also drove 5 minutes into Montepulciano and causally walked around the town where we had a glass of wine, a lite lunch and shopped. For dinner I made a more southern Italian version of Ragu as a Tuscan Ragu (which I prefer) was too gamey for some of our guests.
PM walk in Montepulciano
Day 3
We finally left the villa and drove an hour to Siena. Siena is a lovely medieval city that is more walkable than Florence, but similar idea to Florence. While you can go on a walking tour with the irritating guide with the umbrella, being miserable as you learn about stuff you won’t remember by dinner, we walked ourselves to the main square, Duomo and shopped around. We returned to Montepulciano for dinner at ate at La Grotta (review to come)
Mom and I in Siena Outside La Grotta
Day 4
We drove about 45 minutes to Montalcino the hone of Brunello wine. There is really no reason to drink anything else. We went on a tour at our favorite vineyard and purchased a case for our new home. For dinner my mother in-law made her amazing chicken parmesan, which is not Tuscan or Italian, but whatever, it was amazing.
Abbey of Sant’Antimo (a much prettier and emptier church than the umbrella tour guide person will take you to in Rome)Wine tasting
Day 5
We chilled at the villa until a private cooking class at night (I will blog more about this amazing experience soon).
The parents cooking while the kids drink their wine!
Day 6
Adler Thermae ❤️❤️
Okay this was our big hectic day! We did not return until 7pm! We had a very stressful SPA DAY at the Adler Thermae. This spa will change your life and you must go. My mother in-law made another wonderful dinner of a Mediterranean style chicken.
About to have our couples massage
Day 7
Final day at the villa. We just relaxed by the pool until we went to a local osteria at the very top of Montepulciano with stunning views. The food is always good and the owners are just lovely.
Dinner with a view
That’s it! We did not attempt to see every city in Italy in 7 days. Instead, we got to really know a specific location, eat amazing food, saw a few sights, and spent quality time with one another. Stay tuned to more in-depth posts about the trip.
Have you been to Tuscany? What are some of your favorite activities?
No this is not an anti-wellness or PTO post. It is the opposite. Sometimes vacations don’t sit well and stress you out. Why spend the money and PTO time to go on a vacation that is going to stress you out? That seems silly, unproductive and a colossal waste of money.
Vacation is fun, Beagle is better!!!
We Love Paris but Not This Time
We were originally planning on vacationing in Paris December 2021. This was meant to be our first post-vaccination overseas trip. In the meantime, we booked a last-minute vacation to Barcelona in October 2021 and decided to postpone Paris as a result to October 2022. However, we then decided to build a house in Maine.
Paris 2019
I am currently about to head over to the airport with my lovely husband to vacation to Italy. We then return and immediately close on our house in Maine and move into it in mid-September. France would only be a month away at that point. That would be a lot….and we also are about to go to Italy.
We are very excited to move into our dream house in our dream state. While Paris is wonderful, we were worried it would be too much for us, our babies, and our wallet! We woke up this morning to work out of our hotel in Portsmouth, NH and both came to the same conclusion, won’t we feel better if we just cancel Paris
Wait Didn’t You Lose All Of Your Money
One of the benefits of booking on points/miles (other than it’s free) is it’s much easier to cancel. I already have received my Marriott and American Airlines point/miles returned to my account. The only real hiccup was our flight to Paris on TAP Portugal. They do have a cancellation fee of 250 dollars. Now, truthfully, we would have just eaten that as one day in Paris will easily cost that much in wine/food. However, we lucked out in that TAP will reimburse the entire amount into a voucher we can use again.
TAP is an excellent option for business class flights to Europe using Lisbon to transit as their fares are usually much cheaper than their competitors. However, we literally just booked a summer 2023 trip to Portugal and will absolutely use our vouchers for that. By canceling one trip we just paid for another!
Don’t feel bad, we are literally about to board our business class flight to Florence.
Lessons Learned
Matt and I both feel so much better now that the trip was canceled. We now can move into our house in a few weeks and have a few months getting used to our new home with our babies. We literally just paid for our summer flights and now we can also save PTO for a later date as Paris is just a month from now and we won’t mentally need it yet as we are now about to take two weeks off for Italy.
The point I am making with this post is I know others who have booked vacations they were stressed about for either personal, professional, or financial reasons and they still went! What is the point of spending thousands of dollars while utilizing PTO to be stressed out? I can do that for free every day, it’s called work! Cancel those stressful trips baby!
Book on points, spend a few dollars more to book refundable tickets, get travel insurance, etc. but always give yourself an out as if you book vacations months in advance things can change. Our house was supposed to be built in June, but here we are!
Is it really happening? Matt and I have been talking about this since we got engaged in 2013 when we were planning our wedding in York, Maine. However, we never took it seriously as I was a public school teacher in Houston and Matt worked for an oil company (and traveled quite frequently). The years went by, and we continued talking about it. We both moved into careers where we did not have to commute, but we still traveled almost weekly, so Houston still made sense. Then covid came along…
Leaving Houston
We lived in Houston and adopted all our dogs from there. Houston will always have a huge place in our heart. However, we also saw Houston as a distressing place, and we were looking to leave for a while. We had a lot of issues with our house along with being evacuated during Hurricane Harvey. We tried to expand our family as well and were not successful. After Covid hit, both Matt and I clearly did not have to travel anymore and decided to finally make the move to Maine.
Lovely pool but a not very practical house
We Moved to Florida
Wait what? Didn’t you just say you moved to Maine? Well, that was the plan, but our troubled house sold for significantly less than planned and it took a very long time. In fact, before our house in Houston even sold, we decided to sadly forgo Maine and purchase a Condo in our favorite domestic destination, Wilton Manors, Florida.
Boat ride in Fort Lauderdale
We always envisioned buying something in the Fort Lauderdale area, but after we built our dream house in Maine to escape the winter. Matt and I lucked out and bought an adorable condo right in Wilton Manors for a very reasonable price (low interest rate and before covid real estate prices increased) in walking distance to the gayborhood. In the meantime, our house in Houston eventually sold and we decided to regroup in our small condo here in Florida and go from there.
Our wonderful Wilton friends
To be honest we did not get off on the right foot with Wilton. Once we were vaccinated it took a bit of time to make a core group of friends (who we now absolutely love). We learned about a year in that we did love it here, but not full time. We missed having a house, we miss a more domesticated lifestyle, we wanted something a little quieter and honestly we were getting sick of the heat.
Maine, Finally!
Living in Wilton Manors and regrouping allowed us to make Maine a reality. We started the building process in October 2021, and we can finally say we are getting ready to relocate in our Maine residence until the winter. Wells, ME is about 20 minutes from where we were married and just 10 from the Southern Maine Gayborhood of Ogunquit. We are very excited for a quieter slower paced lifestyle but having our condo in Wilton to escape the winter and have fun with our beloved friends and family who we will miss very much.
Our house in Maine The homemade chef needs to be able to entertain again! But still have our condo when we need to let loose!
How is this Out and Abroad Related?
It’s not! My blog, my rules. I can write about whatever I want! But we are gay so there is the Out angle and Maine is practically in Canada, so there you go!
For the next 2 weeks Matt and I will be traveling to our beloved Tuscany. Tuscany has been a favorite of ours since our Honeymoon in 2014 and we are excited to return. During this time, we will be spending 4 days in Florence and 7 days in a large private villa in Montepulciano.
Matt was truly in love with me on our honeymoon! 2014Honeymoon (that’s better) 2014
Trip Purpose
I may blog about this some more, but I am a firm believer that every vacation should have a purpose(s). Otherwise, one can tragically book an interior carnival cruise room and be miserable. Now if your objective is to be crammed on a cheap floating super spreader event then an interior cruise room sounds perfect!
Look at this horrifying cruise! 2012
Our purpose is to eat amazing food, drink delicious wine and do as little as humanly possible. Ideally the less people we see the better, so a tranquil villa is bliss. Matt and I haven’t been on vacation since early March and we have had quite a stressful few months at work while simultaneously building a house which is exciting, but no picnic.
We also stayed at the same villa in 2019 with our mothers and had such a wonderful time we had to do it again while they are still young enough to be comfortable on such a long flight. We will post several more posts including reviews about this trip over the next month.
Montepulciano 2019 with our mothers
Flights
One hack to secure reasonably priced business class seats is by booking one-way tickets. We will be flying all business class and reviewing.
Air France Boeing 787: Boston-Paris
Air France Airbus 318 Paris-Florence
Swiss Air Airbus A220 Rome-Zurich
Swiss Air Airbus A330 Zurich-Boston
And Matt stays in Boston to close on the house while I get on one more business class flight to Miami
American Airlines Airbus A321 Boston-Miami
We really do feel more at home in business class. United Polaris 2019
Out And Abroad 