Destinations – The Girl Who Goes

Last Updated on September 13, 2025

Trip Review: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, Japan

I’m so excited to be back in Asia for the first time since 2017! And this time, I’m not a solo traveler — I’m on my one-year anniversary/delayed honeymoon with my husband, Matt. We are visiting three countries on this trip: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, all three of which are completely new to both of us.

I feel like I have a million things I want to share about the trip so far, and I’m probably going to be writing about everything for the next year. 😅 But we spent the first two weeks of our trip in Japan, with a week in Tokyo and about a week in Kyoto, so I guess I’m going to start there… [Read more…]

Last Updated on September 8, 2025

How To Eat Gluten-Free in Japan: Japan Gluten Free Restaurants + Guide

I can now officially say that I’ve survived being gluten-free in Japan. Despite the amount of research I did in advance, it certainly wasn’t easy — especially since I only got diagnosed with celiac disease two months before the trip.

While I felt super overwhelmed beforehand, blog posts and videos about visiting Japan as a celiac from my fellow gluten-free travelers made a huge difference in giving me the basics on how to get started. I’m so thankful to the gluten-free community as a whole, because we’re the ones who are always looking out for each other.

As I was planning my trip, there were a few things in particular I wished that I had in advance: a comprehensive Google Map with a clear key/guide, photos of what kinds of foods I should be looking for in convenience stores, and a list of must-visit restaurants — especially ones that needed reservations.

And of course, after I actually arrived in Japan, I learned quite a few things from my own experience that I felt weren’t really talked about online enough.

Since I didn’t have those things, I decided to make them myself. And now I’m happy to share them with you. 🙂 [Read more…]

Last Updated on September 3, 2025

How To Get the Cheapest Shinkansen Tickets for the Train in Japan

Hello from Japan!! At long last, we’ve arrived in East Asia for our honeymoon, celebrating our first anniversary. 🙂 Right now we are in Kyoto, after spending about a week in Tokyo, and we’ll be headed to Osaka in a few days. And I’m so excited about all the new experiences I’m having and will eventually be able to share with you all!

This morning, we took the Shinkansen — Japan’s high-speed train line — from Tokyo to Kyoto. While we actually booked these tickets about a month ago, it took some experimenting to figure out how to actually get the cheapest Shinkansen tickets. So, here’s what you need to know! [Read more…]

Last Updated on July 29, 2025

Tabarca Island Ferry from Alicante: What You Need To Know

At our apartment in Alicante, we’re lucky enough to have a balcony that looks out over the Mediterranean Sea. 😍 (Being from Missouri I still can’t believe I just wrote that sentence.) And while we love overlooking all the port activity, sailing lessons, and cruise ships, there’s something else pretty interesting that we’re able to see out in the distance on a clear day — the Spanish island of Tabarca.

This summer, we’ve set out for Tabarca twice. First, we rented a boat with a private company since Matt has his Spanish boater’s license. But we learned there are some unique pitfalls to doing it that way — like the fact that you can’t pull into port on the island if you’re just visiting. So for our second visit, we decided to take the ferry along with most people who visit Tabarca.

Here’s what you need to know to plan your own Tabarca Island ferry trip from Alicante! [Read more…]

Last Updated on July 8, 2025

Black Cab Tour Belfast: What To Expect & Why It’s a Must-Do

Last month, we spent a week in Ireland with our friends Sarah and Kelan! We started in County Donegal in the northwest of the island before heading east into Northern Ireland — a few hours in Derry/Londonderry and then a few days in Belfast. While I’d passed through Belfast for an afternoon in the past, on my way to the Giant’s Causeway for the first time, I hadn’t done much other than visit the Titanic Museum.

On this visit, we had a lot more time to explore Belfast! And one of the things I knew I didn’t want to miss out on was a Belfast Black Cab Tour. These tours help visitors learn about Belfast’s history and the history of Northern Ireland as a whole. Having read Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe last summer, I was super interested to see all the places in Belfast where history was happening in the book.

So, here’s what you need to know about Belfast and why you can’t miss out on a Belfast Black Cab Tour. [Read more…]

Last Updated on June 28, 2025

What You Need To Know Before You Visit Derry, Northern Ireland

I’m not a big TV or movie person — but my friends are constantly recommending things for me to watch. Most of the time, they know I’m never going to do it. (But if I do watch something of my own accord and suggest it to them, I expect them to drop whatever they’re doing and start watching immediately.)

But a few summers ago, when Matt and I were visiting my two besties from college for a long weekend, one of them suggested: Let’s watch Derry Girls. Both of them had recommended it to me in the past and I had resisted watching, per usual. But this time I had no choice. And within two minutes of starting the show, the clever opening scene with the background of “Dreams” by The Cranberries (who else?) had me hooked. We watched the next episode, and the next… and soon we had finished the entirety of both seasons that had been released to that point. It would be more than a year before the third and final season was released, which Matt and I dutifully binged at home as soon as it came out.

Fast forward to our most recent trip to Ireland a few weeks ago. After meeting up with our Irish friends Sarah and Kelan in County Donegal (thanks to the Bus Eireann Expressway), we spent one night in Bundoran and two nights in Falcarragh. After exploring County Donegal for a few days, our plan was to continue on to Belfast — but considering the driving route literally passed through Derry, there was no way we were going to miss the chance to visit.

Whether you’ve watched Derry Girls or not, I still think it’s worth it to visit Derry on your trip to Northern Ireland. So, here’s what you need to know before your visit to Derry. (Though I might still try to convince you to watch the show before your trip!) [Read more…]

Last Updated on June 19, 2025

Bus Éireann Expressway Review: Dublin to County Donegal, Ireland

The Bus Éireann Expressway we took to Donegal from Dublin

Summer is (almost) officially here, and it is officially HOT in Spain. In Alicante, we are gearing up for the famous Hogueras celebration, and I’m excited but also not sure I’m mentally ready for two straight weeks of staying up until 3 a.m. But in the meantime, we took a break from the heat and the planned chaos to visit our Irish besties, Sarah and Kelan, for a week-long trip to the north of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

When we landed in Dublin, Sarah and Kelan had already been up in County Donegal with Sarah’s family, and that’s where we were going to meet them to start our trip. So it was up to us to arrange our transportation from Dublin to Ballyshannon, Donegal, where they would pick us up. After a little bit of research, it turned out our best option was a direct bus from Dublin Airport to Donegal with Bus Eireann Expressway. So, here’s my Bus Éireann Expressway review: Dublin to County Donegal, Ireland. [Read more…]

Last Updated on April 6, 2025

How To Get Free Notre Dame Cathedral Tickets in Paris

We all saw the news in April 2019 — one of the world’s most famous churches, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, caught on fire. And if you somehow missed that, then your Instagram feed was certainly full of every person you knew who’d ever been to Paris posting grainy photos from the early 2000s of themselves at Notre Dame, captioned simply with a #brokenheartemoji. 💔

But six years later, Notre Dame lives again! In fact, it just re-opened to the public in December 2024. So when Matt and I visited Paris at the end of March, we couldn’t miss our chance to check it out. And when I was planning our visit, I was shocked to find out that tickets to visit Notre Dame are free! However, only a limited number of reservations are available per day — and they don’t make it easy to claim those tickets. So here’s exactly how you can get free Notre Dame cathedral tickets. [Read more…]

Last Updated on March 26, 2025

Truth or Stereotype: Are Parisians Actually That Mean?

I first visited Paris in the summer of 2011, right after graduating from high school, on my first-ever trip to Europe. After spending a few weeks in Germany with my boyfriend at the time, we boarded a tour bus in Stuttgart for the 10-hour ride to Paris. I remember visiting Notre Dame, being amazed by the Eiffel Tower, drinking wine on a Seine River cruise (so scandalous for an 18-year-old), and generally having a good time.

Since that was my first big trip outside the U.S., I was so curious about visiting Paris again with a different perspective — the perspective of someone who’s now visited 31 countries and countless major cities around the world. I was excited to go with Matt, too! But when we told people about our plans to visit Paris, we heard a few variations of this sentiment: “The people in Paris are so mean.” [Read more…]

Last Updated on February 27, 2025

City Review: Bratislava, Slovakia

An Eastern European Christmas Market tour this past December was the perfect time to check another new country off the list! After visiting Wroclaw, Poland, and Prague, Czechia — both of which are cities/countries I’d been to before, our last stop was Bratislava, Slovakia. For being the smallest of the cities we visited on this trip, the Bratislava Christmas market was super impressive and had the best food out of the three.

Whether you’re planning a visit to Slovakia’s capital city for Christmas or any time of year, here’s what you need to know about visiting Bratislava. [Read more…]