Blog – The Girl Who Goes

Last Updated on November 18, 2025

Trip Review: Barcelona + European Road Trip

Originally Published on January 17, 2023

Bonjour, friends! As I begin to write this post, I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Bordeaux, France. I’m almost halfway through our two-week European road trip across Andorra, southern France, and northern Spain. It’s been raining all day. Matt is back at the Airbnb taking a nap. And I almost didn’t sit down to write this because my computer was almost dead and all the outlets in this coffee shop had plastic covers on them. Devastatingly, I don’t speak French so I was too afraid to ask the one person who works here for help. Eventually I settled for a weak “bonjour” and holding up my laptop charger… and here we are.

I have SO MUCH to tell you all about this trip! About the cities we’ve been to, about the car rental process, about taking a road trip in Europe. But I wanted to start with a “trip review” type post, as I’ve done in the past. I’ll probably publish this before it’s all the way done and then just update it as we go through the rest of the trip. I think it will provide a lot of good context for the trip, and I’ll eventually update it with links to specific topics as well. [Read more…]

Last Updated on February 12, 2025

A Review of Porter Airlines: Boston, USA to Quebec City, Canada

As I’ve mentioned here before, Matt and I have recently delved into the world of travel credit cards. No, we aren’t going into debt just to get free flights. (I don’t recommend anyone do that, obviously.) But we have used our credit cards to enhance our travel strategy. For example, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card — our new go-to — we can get 5x points on any travel we book through the Chase travel portal.

When it was time to book our flights for my 30th birthday trip to Quebec City, Canada, we used a couple of our tried-and-true travel strategies in conjunction: fly from Kansas City to Boston on Southwest points, then book a separate flight from Boston to Quebec City. The whole thing ended up a lot cheaper than if we’d booked from KC to QC on one ticket. And, of course, we booked the Boston to QC flight using Chase travel.

But the big surprise was for the cheapest flight option we found: a company called Porter Airlines. [Read more…]

Last Updated on March 10, 2025

5 Things To Know Before Visiting Quebec City in December

Back in December 2022, I celebrated my 30th birthday in Quebec City, Canada! When you have a mid-December birthday and your boyfriend says “Let’s take a trip,” you have two options: Flee the Midwestern cold for somewhere warmer, or lean into the winter weather by going somewhere even colder. Clearly, I chose option #2. So we set off for Quebec City with Porter Airlines.

But really though, Quebec City felt like the perfect place to spend a chilly pre-Christmas week. If you’re planning your own trip, though, there are a few things I think you’ll want to know in advance. So here’s my list of 5 things to know before you visit Quebec City in December! [Read more…]

Last Updated on December 14, 2023

30 Years, 30 Countries

Hello from Quebec City, Canada. Today is my 30th birthday!

I was trying to think of something special to write about here, like I did last time I had a milestone birthday. When I turned 25, I wrote about my Top 25 Travel Experiences of that year. (It was a good year!)

For today, I decided to share a goal I’m setting for myself this year — to visit country #30 while I’m 30. At this point, I’ve been to 25, so I’ve got my work cut out for me this year. But it sounds like such a fun challenge, so I’m really excited. Throughout this year, I’m planning to update a new page here on my site so everyone can follow along with my progress: 30 in 30.

I also thought it would be fun to share a little bit about each of the countries I’ve visited up to this point, along with the year I first visited. So, here they are… [Read more…]

Last Updated on November 9, 2025

Trip Review: Scotland, Ireland, and England

Originally Published on November 25, 2022.

Here we are, wrapping up our last travel-free month, having been home since the end of August. December, January, February, and March will bring plenty of trips to new places, and certainly lots to write about! And while I’ve talked some about our most recent trip over to the UK and Ireland, I hadn’t gone into too much detail.

But I thought it could be fun to share in “trip review” form. This trip in particular was a great mix of new and old places, and new and old friends. So if you’re wondering what Matt and I got up to during our two weeks across the pond… keep reading. [Read more…]

Last Updated on February 14, 2025

A Review of Lumo Train: London to Edinburgh

Back in 2013 when I studied abroad in London, my school had a few organized trips that they offered to students. Some were short, like a day trip by bus to Stonehenge and Bath. But others spanned the entire weekend — like a longer train trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Having already taken a long 10-day fall break to four countries and trying to be conscious of my college student budget, I reluctantly passed on the Edinburgh trip.

Fast forward to this past spring, when Sarah and Kelan invited us to come visit them in Dublin in August. From the U.S., it was much cheaper to fly in and out of London, a city I love and was excited to share with Matt for the first time. And then I thought… while we’re across the pond, why don’t we visit Scotland too?! Scotland had been on my bucket list ever since the trip I’d missed out on.

I think that’s why I also had my heart set on traveling by train to Scotland, just like my friends had done. So when it was time to plan our trip, I started by looking at train tickets. We ended up going with a Lumo train from London to Edinburgh. Here’s what it was like. [Read more…]

Last Updated on March 18, 2025

What It’s Like To Be a Digital Nomad in Mexico City

In 2022, we took four international trips, though two were what we considered to be digital nomad “lifestyle” trips rather than vacations: Quito from January to March, and Mexico City for three weeks in May/June.

With these two trips, the purpose was to take advantage of the fact that we could work remotely… so we just decided to try out life in a different country for a while. All we needed besides plane tickets was a longer-term Airbnb where we could make ourselves at home for a few weeks or a few months.

Here’s what it’s like to be a digital nomad in Mexico City. [Read more…]

Last Updated on January 20, 2025

How My Travel Credit Cards Saved Me Money on My Trip to Europe

I like to think of myself as a pro traveler. I started traveling to Europe (alone!) when I was 18. Studied abroad in London for a semester when I was 20 and was introduced to the world of European budget airlines and train travel. Lived and worked as a traveling consultant in the U.S. for three years before quitting to move to Spain for two years. And traveled to another country every month while I was there! So… would it surprise you if I said that I never used travel credit cards? 😬 [Read more…]

Last Updated on March 17, 2025

Top 9 Things To Do in Mexico City

Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City

When many people thing of visiting Mexico, they may think of beach or resort towns like Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, or Cabo. But I’m not a resort girl — I prefer to visit places where I can get more of the local culture and go exploring on my own. Which is why, back in 2018 when Southwest Airlines still flew there, I spent some of my hard-earned points on a solo trip to Mexico City.

What I never expected was how much I’d love it! Mexico City is a busy, beautiful, vibrant city full of delicious food, gorgeous artwork, and friendly people. So when Matt and I had the opportunity to visit this past spring — and stay for three weeks — we jumped at the chance.

But Mexico City’s population is larger than New York City’s. And it’s nearly twice the size geographically! Which means it can be hard to know where to start with exploring the city, especially when your time is limited.

To help, I put together this list of 9 things you must do during your Mexico City trip. [Read more…]

Last Updated on January 26, 2024

3 Things You Need To Know Before Visiting Cuba

Hi all! I’d like to introduce my friend Sarah, the first-ever guest author for The Girl Who Goes! I met Sarah back in 2018 when we were both assigned the same school as language assistants in Madrid. And just a few weeks ago, Matt and I were able to visit Sarah and her boyfriend, Kelan, in Ireland! As they told us all about their recent trip to Cuba — somewhere I’ve never been — I asked Sarah if she would write a few articles about visiting Cuba for me.

I’m so excited she took the time to share her experience and these essential tips for anyone planning a trip to Cuba, especially in light of the pandemic. I hope you all enjoy! –Cathy

Cuba is one of those bucket-list countries a lot of people talk about visiting. The allure of old buildings and cars, of an old world that appears to be simpler. However, before we visited Cuba in July 2022, we never could have anticipated how far back we were going!

We look back at our twelve-day trip to Cuba with great appreciation for our modern conveniences. Though we felt we had prepared well and done our research, we forgot one key issue — the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, Cuba had shut its borders for two years, and hence a lot of the information we had read was out of date. Luckily, I’ve a great friend Cathy who let me borrow her blog to tell you all about what Cuba is like now, as of summer 2022. [Read more…]