As an American who is not from the Northeast, I didn’t have many opportunities to take trains growing up. But when I started traveling in Europe as a young adult, I finally got to experience train travel — and I was hooked! Now, I’ve taken trains in about 20 countries in Europe and Asia (as well as the U.S. and Canada!) 

But while I love traveling by train, most of my journeys had been about getting from one place to another. Madrid to Alicante, Tokyo to Kyoto, Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I hadn’t yet set out on a Train Trip, which was something I’d been wanting to do for the last few years since moving to Spain again in 2024.

This past spring, we finally decided to plan our very own European train trip — where we traveled from Belgium, to Luxembourg, to Germany, to Switzerland — over the course of about two and a half weeks. Since it was a new experience taking an extended trip by train, I learned a lot! 

If you’re thinking about taking a European train trip of your own, there are lots of things to think about before you make the decision. And now that I’ve done it, I’ve got a list of things for you to consider.

Here are the pros and cons of taking a European train trip. [Read more…]

Not a fan of this super smug rejection. Like, oh I’m sorry it would be expensive for YOU to approve claims.

Update: November 3, 2025 (What Our Claim Experience Was Like)

I had originally written this post about three months ago, before our big trip to Asia. While I was of course hoping I wouldn’t have to make a claim with SafetyWing travel insurance, we unfortunately did have to submit a claim.

Briefly, here’s what happened: Our flight from Tokyo to Paris was canceled, and we weren’t able to get re-booked until the following day. Since we were connecting in Paris for a flight back to Madrid, and then a train from Madrid to Alicante, everything got messed up. Air France took care of getting us back to Madrid, but our missed train wasn’t part of their responsibility after getting us to our final flight destination of Madrid.

That’s where I called on SafetyWing, to cover the rest of our travel issues. All I requested was that they cover the cost of the new train tickets from Madrid to Alicante, which were a direct result of a canceled/delayed flight, as well as the taxi we had to take between the airport and the train station.

I submitted my receipts and documentation, only for SafetyWing to reply and say my claim was REJECTED because they don’t cover flight/train tickets due to cancelations or delays.

It turns out that they are only an international medical insurance company, despite their description saying they offer “Global medical AND travel coverage.” This lends credence to the idea that they offer travel insurance for the things that many people actually get travel insurance for — like delayed/canceled flights — but this is apparently untrue. In their Essential Plan, which we bought, it says that they cover “Lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency evacuations.”

Again, this would lead you to believe they are a travel insurance provider. But this is simply not the case. I personally believe they are misrepresenting themselves in the travel insurance space because they are truly for medical insurance only.

If that had been clear from their branding/messaging, I wouldn’t have booked a policy with them and been in this situation. So unfortunately, I cannot recommend them.

But for my U.S. based friends, other companies don’t have silly policy exclusions and are an actual travel insurance company. In fact, we’ve made two different types of claims with other companies before — medical as well as travel delay/cancellation — and they paid both, no questions asked.

SafetyWing is dead to me. 💀

Disclaimer: Policies and coverage terms can change over time. Always review the official policy wording directly from the insurer before purchasing. [Read more…]

We’ve been learning to play the travel credit card game a bit in the last couple of years, and my husband Matt wanted to share information about our latest undertaking: the American Airlines Aviator Red World Elite credit card. Thanks to Matt for the guest post! We hope you enjoy it. -Cathy

Fun fact: You can fly to Europe, round-trip, for just $99 USD. [Read more…]

Matt and I have been married for just over six months now, after our destination wedding in Catalunya in late August 2024. And we’ve recently been working on planning our honeymoon trip to Asia, which we’re going to take for our one-year anniversary! So I wanted to share the story of how credit card points and a little bit of strategy helped us book two round-trip tickets from Madrid to Tokyo for a total of $457. [Read more…]

Hello again from Dublin, Ireland! Matt and I are back in Dublin for the second time since August, visiting Sarah and Kelan — I love living in Europe and being able to hop around to different countries so easily. But I’m coming at you today with a review of my brand-new CabinZero backpack, which I bought specifically for trips like this where I’m packing in only a personal item.

As you may know, flying with low-cost carriers in Europe like RyanAir or Transavia means that you typically only get a personal item/underseat bag for free. Beyond that, you’ll need to pay if you want to bring an overhead/cabin bag. While sometimes we’re willing to just suck it up and pay the extra cost — like when we take our 10-day Christmas market tour across Eastern Europe in a few weeks — it’s really not necessary for four days at our friends’ house. And while I’ve generally got the personal item packing list down, I felt like my usual everyday backpack wasn’t the most efficient for this type of trip.

A few days after our destination wedding in Catalonia, we came across a store in Barcelona selling CabinZero bags. I thought they seemed to be a great size, made efficient use of the space, and were cute, too! And after a week of thinking about it, I decided to order my very own CabinZero backpack. [Read more…]

Flighty is the best travel app for travel days | 📸 Flighty.com

I want to start off this article by sharing three truths.

First, this post is in no way, shape, or form sponsored by Flighty. When I was considering the pro membership, I was a little hesitant about the price, so I emailed them asking if I could write a post in exchange for a discount. They never responded. I also don’t get any kickbacks if anyone signs up after reading this article.

Second, Flighty is currently only available on iOS, so iPhones or iPads. I really wish they had an Android version so that I could become Flighty friends (more on that later) with my dad, but it sounds like that isn’t in the works quite yet. It’s an even bigger bummer because it sounds like another similar travel app that was available on Android, App in the Air, recently shut down. So if you stop reading here because you’re an Android user, I’m not offended. [Read more…]