Wedding Hive Podcast
Giving you the tea and ALL the buzz in the wedding world! New episodes every Wednesday!
Wedding Hive Podcast
028 - Designing a honeymoon you’ll actually enjoy—less stress, smarter money, better memories
We share the real story of a three-stop European honeymoon—Barcelona, Sorrento, and London—and how smart planning saved us from ticket chaos, currency pain, and jet lag. From using a travel agent to choosing the right home base, we give practical advice you can use tomorrow.
• choosing a travel agent to remove stress and fix issues
• why trip insurance matters for flights and medical
• handling currency exchange, Apple Pay, and card fees
• packing less, laundry strategy, adapters, and shoes that work
• Barcelona highlights, FC ticket lessons, and must-book sights
• Sorrento as Amalfi base, ferries over taxis, Capri chairlift
• Blue Grotto realities and cash-only surprises
• London costs, Uber vs Tube, Borough Market, key landmarks
• Harry Potter Studio Tour deluxe package tips
• waiting a year for the honeymoon to enjoy it fully
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Hey Queens, welcome to the Wedding Hive Podcast, the podcast where we give you the tips, tricks, tea, and all the buzz in the wedding world. I'm Kelsey, your co-host, and today our co-host Grace is officially back from her honeymoon. Welcome back, Grace. You've been so missed.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that makes me so happy. I really missed everyone. It was so much fun, but it's always good to be back. So and we were saying right before we started, I haven't recorded in three weeks.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Which feels as an eternity.
SPEAKER_01:We haven't recorded in three weeks.
SPEAKER_00:I have been Oh, yeah, you've been booked and busy. Kelsey's been, I will, I have to say thank you. You've been carrying the podcast while I was gone so I can enjoy my time and I appreciate you. And now we're back.
SPEAKER_01:Of course, babe. And honestly, I'm so grateful you're back because um I was feeling. You remember Anna in Frozen when she like starts talking to the pictures on the wall? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's how I was feeling in the studio some days. Just by yourself. Yeah, I was so lonely. I almost started, I was looking for like a dove to, you know, write you a letter.
SPEAKER_00:Hardboard cutout.
SPEAKER_01:That might have landed me in like the psych ward.
SPEAKER_00:I know. Um, our producer would have come in and been like, what are you doing, Kelsey?
SPEAKER_01:Or what is where what direction are we going with this blow-up doll? He said, Where'd you find that exactly? Oh my god. So I want to hear all about your honeymoon. And then um, I know listeners want to hear as well. Um, there was a question posted on Instagram, any questions that they have for you. And let's get all of the tips for planning a honeymoon. You went out of country, so I'll let you take it away. Okay, perfect. Tell us all about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, of course. So, yeah, for those of you who don't know, I went to Europe for two weeks. This is my first time ever going out of I've gone to Rocky Point, so like I've been out of the country, but to Europe I've never been. And it is definitely different than here in America, but it was so much fun. Um, I went to Barcelona, Spain, Sorrento, Italy, and the London UK. So we definitely hopped around quite a bit. Um, I think I kind of I wrote down on my notes so I wouldn't forget anything. Um, I think I'm gonna start with some tips and tricks. And if you also intervene, so I'm not rambling forever. No, you're good. But um, so the biggest thing for me was never having gone to Europe, I didn't know transportation, the airlines, hotels. You know, I go to Disneyland once a year, so I know like every single hotel where everything's at. And so my biggest piece of advice if you've never traveled over there, is to get a travel agent. She was absolutely amazing, um, very helpful with everything I sent. You know, we actually kind of went back and forth for like a month and a half, like before the before I officially booked it and had everything, and you know, which I really appreciated because I would feel annoyed. She would send kind of a mock-up and then I'd be like, wait, well, actually, can we do this? And she was so awesome. So if you have never been there, I would suggest getting a travel agent. And it was nice too because anything that came up um had her phone number. We were actually at the airport getting ready to fly to Italy, and for some reason I had the wrong flight number confirmation. So I'm first of all, I'm like spiraling because it's 5 a.m. in Barcelona and we're eight or 10 hours earlier. So I'm like, shoot, what time is it in Arizona? Is she gonna be able to answer? Thankfully, it was like late dinner time around seven. So I call her and I'm kind of freaky out. I said, hey, you know, and she was awesome. She printed out, you know, our all the confirmations for the hotels, the planes. And so I think there was just a little mix-up because there's like two small airlines that fly in between, you know, all the the countries. It's not like you take American or, you know, Southwest or Frontier. Yeah, you take the small airlines. And so it was like we had booked through Iberia, but it was really through Volving. And it was just so weird. But she was came to the rescue and we got it figured out. So always get to the airport early, especially in a foreign country. Um, my anxiety was very high because everyone there, I will say, does typically like speak English, or you can find someone who does. So, but you know, all the stuff's in Spanish. So it's definitely very stressful. But she was awesome, got everything figured out. So um, my biggest piece of advice, travel agent. And also, if something goes like wrong, it's not on you and you don't have to pay for it out of pocket money-wise, if that makes sense. If you kind of book the trip yourself and you screw up or pick the wrong airline, that's like on you. But um, I think that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like a wedding planner. It really is. They check all the boxes, and if something falls, it falls on the planner. Correct. Travel agent.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:It falls on them to fix it.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. And I will say we did get um insurance on the trip, which was about like$400.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Which I think is worth it because, you know, I'm just gonna be honest. Just the plane um tickets and hotels alone was um$9,500. So spending$400 to cover our butts if something happened, if there was like a delay in a flight and then we had to buy a new flight, you know, that would have been taken care of with us buying the insurance. So didn't want to do it. But and thankfully nothing ever happened. Um, you also including in that is also medical, too. So if you were on an excursion and got injured and had to go to the hospital, like you have your insurance covered. So definitely get insurance on your trip. I agree. Um, okay, the biggest thing that I think I disliked about Europe is the money exchange over there is insane. Like the um currency exchange is so terrible. Like so bad.
SPEAKER_01:Because the US dollar is down? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So basically, and we were gonna do this. We were gonna, you can go to your bank and get it exchanged, but if you do that, do it has to be at least a week or two weeks in advance. We went the day before our trip and I tried to get money exchange, and she's said, you know, we can do that, but you have to come, we have to order it. We don't just have it here at the bank. So which it was which was my fault. So they don't have euros just like pounds just like hanging in the back, like in the safe, they don't have that. So definitely I've heard, I don't know if it's true because I didn't end up doing it, but I guess you get a little more bang for your buck if you do it over here before you go over there. If you do forget or don't have time, there is money exchanges everywhere in the airports, in the town, like in the cities. So if you forget, don't stress, you can do it there. Um, I wouldn't exchange a lot of money because everywhere takes Apple Pay.
SPEAKER_01:Which literally Okay, so walk me through that because Apple Pay is my lifesaver. Exactly. Um the only the Kroger is the only place that I cannot pay with my iPhone. Nope. Okay, okay. Kroger and Walmart, but I don't know. I don't shop at Walmart. Yeah, yeah. Um, but everywhere else I don't have to, I hardly ever take my debit card out. So your Apple Pay is connected to your US dollar and you went to Europe and it you could scan it and it converted it. No, so you get like how does that work? This sounds like math that is is hurting my brain.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it was yeah. So basically whatever you're paying there, you end up, you know, when you go and buy clothes and on the tag it says like Canada and it's like$15, and then you see US and it's$10. That's how it is there. Oh, we would buy something that was$10, but then I would look at my credit card and it would be$15.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like shopping at HM.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. Like you know they lose out on so much money. Yeah. You lose out on so much money. It's so bad. Dang. So we took our credit card because you know, we were just like, we'll put it on there. We had money saved, so we could just come back and pay it off and just use one card everywhere we went. But it, yeah, whatever it would be here in America, you tap it. But when you look at your statement, you're charged in US. Yeah. So just be ready to be hoed out of money. Like we went to when we were in Sorrento, when we were in Italy, we went to a currency exchange because um we were doing an excursion and I'll talk about it later. But we for something on the excursion, we had to have Euros. So we're like, shoot, we don't have any more. And we gave them a hundred dollars US and we got 50 euros back. That's insane. That's how bad it is. So just be mentally prepared. I don't know. I was hanging out with a girlfriend the other day, and she's going somewhere out of the country. She'd gone to Holland and she didn't realize that the currency exchange. So she was like, I spent way more than I thought because I didn't realize.
SPEAKER_01:And the exchange was as rough as it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, she was saying one of the Chase cards, I guess, Chase Sapphire or something, doesn't charge you. Like you get charged whatever you're charging, they're charging you in like Europe. Okay. So that's worth looking into that. Yeah, I would look into that. I wish I would have known that because that would have been nice. Definitely would have saved me quite a bit of money, but not the end of the world. But it's just part of like going somewhere new. So, um, but yeah, like I said, Apple Pay is everywhere, every restaurant, shop in Spain, London, and um Italy, they had it. So um, okay, I think I want to go into a little bit of things that were worth it that I brought um traveling over there. Um, so if you're going to Barcelona, Italy, Europe, they have really bad pit pocketing. So we got anti-theft fanny packs and we just took those everywhere. So they had like a little clip on the end of it, and you just clip it, and so you have it right in front of you. Thankfully, didn't get anything stolen, which I'm very happy about because that would have been a buzzkill. Um, portable charger for sure. We were out all day, every day, and we used those every single day. So we got the use out of those. Um, the biggest thing too, I was so happy because when we landed in Spain, we got there at 9 a.m. And I said, I'm so like perfect. We'll get to our hotel. We have like more than half the day. The jet lag was insane. I have never experienced it. Obviously, that's the first time I've gone, you know, to Europe. And yeah, it was rough. So we literally checked in the hotel at 11, got dressed, ready, and we lasted about two hours, like venturing out, and we came and slept in the hotel the rest of the night. So definitely would suggest getting a flight where you're landing and it's like nighttime. That way you can just go to bed and then start the next day.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So that's definitely if we ever go back to Europe, that's like 100% what we're gonna be doing next time. Um, pack way less. I packed way. You overpacked? I overpacked. Why am I not surprised? I know. And John's the worst. I think he brought like six pairs of shoes. And I said, why did we need this? But it's it was funny because our our hotel in Italy was on a hill. So we had to walk down a little bit. It was like only a 10-minute walk down to like the city, you know, and like where all the shops and stuff were. So it wasn't bad. But um it was so like in our head, we're thinking, oh, we'll go down, do stuff during the day, come back up to the hotel, shower, put on a nice outfit, go to dinner. And so we just packed way too much. So, and also if you go to Italy, I'm sure obviously there there's laundry mats everywhere, but we did laundry in Italy. So we definitely could have packed less and then just rewashed clothes and like mix and match some to make new outfits. Yeah. So I would definitely pack way less because there's always laundry mats there. I mean, it's like not that fun because we didn't want to leave our clothes there. So we just stayed at the laundromat for two hours. So that was a little boring. But you know, it's kind of too, it's nice to get a break too to just like sit, relax. Um, so pack way less. Okay. Because you can do laundry.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I always like to pack less so I can buy more when I'm there.
SPEAKER_00:I know. And it was it was funny. The we hopped around so much, but on our flight home from London, like our last coming back to Arizona, she goes, Um, the suitcases, it's overweight. And we're like, frick, because we had so many souvenirs because we were finally like at the end of the trip, we gotten everything, and she was super sweet. She's like, All right, is this your last like she's like, You're just going home? We're like, Yeah, like we're going home to Arizona. She's like, it's fine. So she was super sweet and um Kelly, we love you. We kept saying, We're like, Kelly, we love you. Thank you so much. She's like, it's all good. It wasn't like super overweight, but it was overweight. So Kelly came in clutch. So pack less, you don't. Kelly, go. Go, Kelly, go. I know I'm indebted to Kelly now. I love her. Um, okay, the biggest thing I am so happy I bought is the Dr. Scholes um tennis shoes. I wore those pretty much every day, and my feet didn't hurt once. Yay. So, and it was so funny because we went to a cooking class in Italy, and I'm not joking, like 10 of the girls there had these exact same shoes because they're like viral on TikTok, and everyone's they're viral because people say, Oh, if you go to Europe, wear these, they're comfy. They have like the insoles because they're Dr. Scholes. So it was funny.
SPEAKER_01:Were they like slightly stylish?
SPEAKER_00:No, they were they're cute. Okay. Yeah, they're just like basically cream, just lace up tennis shoes. So they're good style. I think they were$75. Okay. That's not bad at all. Not bad. And to not have my feet hurt once, I think it was worth it.
SPEAKER_01:I might need to invest in those for wedding days.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I said. And now I've the last two weddings, those are the shoes I wore because they're just so comfy. The only thing that sucks is they're white, so they get kind of dirty, but it doesn't matter. Um, okay, what else am I rambling about?
SPEAKER_01:Um, what was your favorite excursions? Like, what did you do?
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, my favorite thing out of the whole trip um was the Harry Potter experience. We went to London and we went to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter studio where they filmed the movies, and it was just epic. We watched Harry Potter yesterday.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. I love that. Since this big storm is coming in. Oh, yeah, yeah. And we're starting to get some, you know, good cloud coverage here in Arizona, which is very rare. Literally. We don't get that often. So yeah. I baked my bread and we watched Harry Potter.
SPEAKER_00:I know Kelsey's in her sourdough era. I am.
SPEAKER_01:She is, and I'm in like announced it yet, but you just spilled the meat. Okay, I'm not sure. If I fail at my sourdough venture, I don't want to no one's eating it beside your family.
SPEAKER_00:And you and everyone knows when you start the sourdough journey, it takes a while. You have to learn and figure out like what how it's best for you. Yeah. So it's the family did eat the very first loaf. Okay, so then that's a win for me. So and for you. And then I'm in my soup era. I made soup once, and I swear. I'm like, I'm in my soup era and I made one. So we're gonna see how it tastes once I get home. But yeah, the Harry Potter experience, and I'll just hop to it, like, cause I wrote this down. If you're a Harry Potter fan, I'm begging you, with every inch of my body, you have to go to this place. I'm telling you, it is the most legit coolest thing ever. And two, I I'm also just a movie lover. So, like, to see all the sets and to see all the props and costumes, it's just like so cool. And if you do go, they have a bunch of different like ticket options. We bought the deluxe package tour, and it was so worth it. Like, it was and this is funny, I should have known before we went to London. I had bought the tickets and they were$250 each, which I feel like isn't even that bad.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Um, like concert tickets are more than that. So I'm like, you know what? Screw it. And I think my debit card, so I should have been charged$500, and I think my debit card got charged like$631. Okay. Because of the exchange. Yeah. So if you're buying tickets and you're back to the exchange. Back to the exchange. If you look on your debit card and it's more, that's pretty much the reasoning is the exchange currency over there. Um, but yeah, get the deluxe package. We had our own personal tour guide, and we were with like, it was us and one small family. So, like very intimate, which was nice. And she gave us the full rundown on everything. Um, we got like uh, what else did we get? Butterbeer. We got a like cool book that was like all detailed of like the whole tour. We got the photo package with everything, which I'll have to show you the pictures and videos because they're like they're silly, but it's like you want a broomstick. Like in the like um train that they take too, and it's like videos and pictures. They're like corny, but it's just that was cool. We didn't realize that we like got to get all the package deals. And then I'll shut up one more after this. Um, about the London Harry Potter experience. We're in Green Guts, which you know is where they do they have the bank and the goblins and stuff, and she's showing us the coins from the movie, you know, and she's explaining that in the first movie they had like 250,000 of them of these coins, and then by the second movie, they had like less than half because all the cast was stealing them as like, you know, totally momentums and stuff. And so then they finally took all the coins and they literally like super glued them together and like glued them to the desks, basically, so then people couldn't steal them. And then she's like showing us the coins, and we're like, oh my god, that's so cool. We got to keep them. No way, literally, yep. So we have two of the like legit like prop like coins from the Harry Potter movie. So that was like just that in itself was worth the deluxe package, like yes, and we got to go behind like and pretend to like write in the book and stuff, and it was it was so cool. So deluxe package, 100% worth it, and all my hair.
SPEAKER_01:I did walk into the um like great hall in and so were all of the like floating candles.
SPEAKER_00:Did you I need to show you? It was since it's uh spooky season or whatever, they had like the pumpkins. It was so cool.
SPEAKER_01:It would be so cool to go at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, yeah, they do a bunch of stuff too. If you guys want to do like a because they had like a dark arts theme going on, so like during the tour, there was Death Eaters doing performances and stuff, so that was cool. Um, but they said that they do a big thing for like Thanksgiving and Christmas time, and it was yeah, it was so cool. But it was so funny because the Great Hall's the first thing you see like when you enter the tour. It was so tiny.
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_00:Like in the movies, it looks so big. And I said, This is because for those of you who don't know, they filmed the movies, of course, in the back lot where you actually film, you know, you know, in the movies. And they built the Warner Brothers studio and they literally took the sets and placed them there. And I said, Is this how big it was even when they were filming? She's like, Yeah, I said, This is so tiny. I don't know how you had, because they had the two rows of the tables, but if you think about it, they have four rows for each house. Yeah. And it was like so tiny.
SPEAKER_01:No way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And they also did the um in the fourth one, the Goblet of Fire, when they do they redid the whole entire dining hall for the dance, yeah, or the ball or whatever. And I said, That whole thing was in this space. She's like, Yep, they took all the stuff away and like redid everything. And so it was weird, but that's how they do like the movie magic, you know, like the um just like the um, I'm trying to think, not optical illusion, but how they make stuff look bigger and like how they film angles or like all the outside filming that you see is like a giant like model. So like when you see Hogwarts from the outside, it's literally them taking like a camera and just going around the small little model, but they like make it look big. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:So shout out to Warner Brothers Studios because that was before, I mean, that was filmed in early 2000s. Yeah. When we were just really getting getting into like the digital era, and it was before AI, it was before some of the very amazing Photoshop, like oh yeah, things to be able to create those. I think they did amazing.
SPEAKER_00:No, it was crazy to see. Like they made like all the goblin heads, like 60 plus. They made, you know, there's um why can't oh Buck B, like that he was there, and it's like they made all this stuff because you know, it was like you said, early 2000s, but they put like so much time and effort into every single like little detail, and it was it was just so cool.
SPEAKER_01:See, look at the groom's little action figures they played with when they were little, yeah, those could turn into big real action figures.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. If Harry Potter can do it, yeah. I know one other thing too, the first movie they actually hung like real candles in the dining hall and lit them, and then they just were they realized that it would just like drip, you know? So the the first movie they literally lit like every single hanging floating candle in that movie, and then they had to go to the fake ones because it was just like way too much.
SPEAKER_01:As a wedding professional, I feel like that's slight common sense that you light a candle and it burns. Like, yeah, who I don't know, who was in charge of that decision?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I think they were I think because it's only in the first one. My guess is they probably were trying to just make it so authentic and like this has to be so good. And sometimes you just sometimes you gotta go around and do a little computer work and okay, yeah. You learn a lot of fun facts, like the um the dorm rooms, the beds were the same from when they were like the first movie. So in all the like other movies, I think the fourth movie and on, anytime they were filming in those, they had them like sitting up because they didn't fit in the beds anymore because they like grew up.
SPEAKER_01:So it's fascinating. They're like, we're not spending our budget money on new beds for you.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Because I mean they only do X amount of scenes, you know, in that room. So, but they said every time they would film, they would have them sitting up or they're reading a book or something because they did not fit in the beds anymore. That's so fascinating. So yeah, it was just like fun, cool stuff like that that you get to learn, and it was it was the best. So if you love Harry Potter, you have to go there once in your life.
SPEAKER_01:So, do you have anything else really cool to share from your Yeah?
SPEAKER_00:I think one of the best things also we did. So the whole reason we went to Barcelona is because my husband's favorite football team is Barcelona and we got to go see a game. So that was like really cool. I'm not like a huge soccer fan or anything, but just to see him so happy and enjoying it. But I didn't even tell you we had fiasco with the tickets though. It was like I for a second I didn't think we were going to this game and I was freaking out. Why? So basically, the way they do their tickets over there is just not like America, you know, when you're buying a football ticket, you know, to a game, they drop the tickets a year in advance or whenever the season's ready, and they just were not dropping the tickets and um on their official website, which we thought would be the best to buy through because we were like, we don't want to get scammed, we don't know, you know. So the week before we left, they finally dropped the tickets and they're just VIP tickets. So like a thousand dollars a ticket. And I said, I'm not spending, you know, with fit like ticket fees, probably like$2,500 on tickets. So at that point, we just start looking on like StubHub and SeatGeek, and we're just like, we're just gonna have to buy something because we literally leave in a week. So I can't either Stub Hub or Seat Geek, we buy them. And the day of the game, we kind of packed our last day real a lot. We went and saw the Sagrata Familia, we went to Parkwell, where they filmed Cheetah Girls 2, which was super cool. And I lived out my Cheetah Girls fantasy. So we're like gone all day, and we are finishing up at Park Well, and we're like, okay, we should get back so we can shower and get ready for the game. And I asked John, hey, did the seller like send you the tickets? You know, because it's usually, you know, we were they didn't we didn't have them the day before, but we're like, oh, usually it's like 24 hours in advance, it's like it'll be fine. And also the game was at 9 p.m. at night. That was so weird to me. It felt really late. That was my bedtime. That is your bedtime. So that's my bedtime. So that was like really rough, but um, yeah. So we get back to the hotel at six o'clock, the game's in three hours, and we still don't have the tickets. So at this point, I'm telling John, go on the customer service on whatever, and we need to figure this out because the game's in three hours. And we literally flew here to watch this game. So it was a fiasco for like an hour and a half. But thank God bless that customer service girl. She was like, I can see the seller hasn't signed your tickets, I can just swap them for different ones. There's no extra charge. Like, I'll just send you new ones. And so we got it figured out. And then, but it's so weird because we couldn't get the scan QR code for the tickets until we were like at the game. It was almost one of those things where you had to be in like a certain distance towards it, and then we had to put in like our driver's license ID number for the ticket. It was they do it so weird, like so weird.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so we're basically driving 30 minutes paying for an Uber. And I'm like, well, hopefully we have these tickets. You know, she's telling us, saying, You, you know, you'll get the QR code once you're there, and we're just okay. So we drive there and um we go to the ticket thing, and she's like, Yep, just go on the app, and you know, you have to put in your name, birth date, whatever, and your driver's license ID, and they should pop up and they popped up, so we went to 15 minutes to spare before the game started. So but you're like, I need a beer. No, literally. I was like, I need uh a beer shot of tequila something, so to ease these nerves, to ease the nerves. So that was something that was very stressful, but it ended up working out very well. So we did get to see that. But um, and then in Italy, I want to say we did a boat day to Capri, which was awesome, beautiful, yeah. Um, I would never visit Capri again, which is maybe a hot take. Um, I feel like Capri is really popular. One, you I'm assuming you'd have to fly in and then literally take a boat to get there, whereas we flew in and then we just took a car service to get to Sorrento, because it's literally an island like off the coast of Italy. Um, they have the infamous chairlift, which was really cool. So we like went all the way up to the top and the views are great, but it's like a stacked up island, essentially, and it's just yeah, it's it's a lot to like travel up there and you have to like take a bus, and it's like 45 minutes just to get to the top, and it was just very crowded. So I don't think I would go back there again. But you checked it off your bucket list, exactly. That's why I'm happy, and that's like one thing I'll say like with Italy, we were so happy we stayed in Sorrento because that was such like a perfect, like home-based spot. And then we were able to take um on our last day, we bought tickets to the hotel and we went to Amalfi, which I would also never go there again. Um I felt like I'm shitting on Italy. Well, like, first of all, I think you have a perception of Italy, and then when you get there, it is still that same perception, but like it's just very small there. Like all of these cities are literally like built into the side of a cliff, like essentially. So they're very tiny, small cities, and they're very populated, and there's a lot of people visiting. And Amalfi was like the worst, like, there was just like I felt like I was on at Disneyland, like the busiest day of the year. Yeah, it was so cramped. Um, so I'm happy that we did that, and it was just like a boat day, so they dropped us off, picked us up, and then we went to Positano, which is like the most famous, popular spot. And I would actually love to go back there and stay there because we only got about like two hours there, but um definitely would suggest like staying in Sorrento as a home base, and then you can easily get travel to like all the other cities on the Amalfi coast. Okay, if that makes sense, but also never take a taxi. Like ever. They're so expensive there in Italy. When we were talking with the hotel to book the boat day to like do the amalfi in post like Positano, she's like, Oh yeah, it's 70 bucks a person. And I'm like, Okay, that's not bad. Like, they literally pick you up in a bus, and then you have to drive like 45 minutes to the boat dock, and then you get on a boat, and then they drop you off. And I was like, Oh, that's not bad. And we're like, Well, what about a taxi? She said, Ooh, and we both go, What does that mean? She said, It's 150 there and back for a 35 minute drive.
SPEAKER_01:No way, yep.
SPEAKER_00:So I suggest the ferries, um, you know, the ferry boats, booking excursion through your hotel because it's gonna be like way cheaper. Yeah. Because they robbing people out in here.
SPEAKER_01:Um especially the Americans.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. Yeah. I will say everyone there was so nice. Like we never had like a bad encounter and people were very friendly there, but I'm I'm sure there's some not nice people trying to scam you. So um, okay, what else should I say? I have a few more things and then we can. How long have I been yapping for? You're like forever. Okay. Um, let's see. I also didn't think any of the hotels had blow dryers, but they all did.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, they did?
SPEAKER_00:People kept saying, like, oh, make sure you bring your own um blow dryer. They don't have one. Oh, another thing too, make sure you buy um the adapter cords. Okay. On the plugs, because they're different. There, which was like so weird to see, like just their cords, you know. It looks the same, but it's just Did you take a picture of it? Um No, I didn't actually. I should have done that. Oh, I would have totally taken a picture of it. I mean, I have the the plugs, so I can send you a picture of that. And that's what they look like. I know it's not as good, but that's all I can give you. Um, they didn't have any irons though, in in the hotels, none of them. So if you're someone who likes your clothes iron steamed, I would definitely bring one of those. And one thing that sucked too was I bought a two-on-one steamer iron, and it was literally garbage, like did not work. It was so bad. And then we had no iron. I was just like, well, guess we're going wrinkly. So but you know what, you're in Europe, so who cares if you're close to Wrinkly? Um, okay. Another thing, I would probably only do two countries next time. Um, hopping around to three and packing, unpacking three times was a lot. So and I just a lot of travel and I'm not a I don't hate the airport or like dislike plane rides, but I just just stressful. Yeah. So um, let's see. If you're wanting to do excursions, I booked through the app Viator.
SPEAKER_01:Love it. We use that app for Hawaii as well. Yep. And I agree 100%. Yep. Love the app.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they have like literally everything you can think of. I love that there's reviews. Um, and every excursion that we booked through there um in Barcelona, Italy, London was amazing. So 10 out of 10 would recommend doing that. Um, I think so. I don't make this like the longest episode ever. I think I'm just gonna rapid fire like some of my few favorite spots in each country, and then we can wrap it up. Okay, because I have a in I have a closing question for you guys. Okay, beautiful. Um, Barcelona, honestly, I did enjoy. I don't think I would visit again. Okay. Um, it was fun, but definitely it was a cool vibe for sure. Um, we stayed at the H10 Madison Hotel, 10 out of 10, loved it. Um, right by the one of the cathedrals, beautiful view, um, great rooftop bar. Um, if you're wanting to do an excursion, I think I'm saying this correct. It's called Montserrat, which is like there, there's a church and it's like up on a hill. And then we did like a winery, like wine tasting after. Oh my god, okay, I have to have to ramble through this store really quick, story really quick. We go to the winery, we get a tasting, and we do like the tapas, whatever. We have like 45 minutes left. So the tour guide said, Hey, the wine bars over there, if you guys want to grab another glass, you know, before we leave, we'll be over there. So one of the bottles of wine was the owner of the venue. Like he he literally stomps these graves with his feet and his son, like they like make the wine.
SPEAKER_01:Like so cool.
SPEAKER_00:And there's only like 600 bottles or something. So then, of course, John and I are like, okay, we have to try it, of course, you know. And we order the two glasses of wine, and when I'm ordering mine, he's like, um, 1.2 ounce or 2.5. And then John's like, 2.5, obviously. Uh-huh. This 2.5 ounce glass of wine was$47. What? John goes to pay, and I like don't really see the register. And I said, Oh,$17 for the two glasses. Like, that was cheap. He's like, no,$67. I said, How much were these glasses of wine? And so we go back to the front and they have, you know, all the wines listed. And it fair, fair, it did have the price on it, but we were just like, Yeah, we want to try it. Yeah. And I'm like, thinking in America, like it's, you know, like a$7 glass of wine. So um, no other spot um that wine was$47 a glass, but that was just a funny, like, ha ha moment that happened. I also that um that$47 glass of wine was disgusting. So just letting you guys know, don't drink it. No way. It was so gross. Why? I just so I actually didn't like any of the wine in Barcelona. Like really, I think just the way they make it and all their wine almost kind of tasted like, you know, mezcal tequila. Yes, everything just tasted like smoky. Okay. And I don't love like super sweet wine, but I just it was not for me. So wine there is not my favorite. Um, okay, I'm rapiding fire. Um Bo Bogatel Beach was the one beach you went to Barcelona. If you don't have beach towels or anything like that, there's always rentals. So we rented chairs and they had like umbrellas. You do have to pay 20 euros. So um make sure.
SPEAKER_01:Which equates to like 75 basically.
SPEAKER_00:No, literally, basically. Um my bank account's crying since I got home. Um, make sure if you want to see things like the Sagrada Familia, we forgot to get tickets and they were sold out, so we only got to see the outside, not the inside. Which sucked, but it's all good. Um, Parkwell, which I talked about where they filmed the Cheetah Girls. Um, we actually just bought tickets in the morning, so that one's easy access. Um, I already said the football game was my favorite thing. Um, if we're worried about transportation, we actually bought the bus and train tickets in the airport. They had a like station, and we never used them. We just Ubered everywhere. Uber everywhere. But technically, their Uber is called free now. So just something to think about. You have to download a different app, but it is Uber. Okay. But it's their Uber. Um, best spots to eat. Kraft was a fun live music, great bar. Um, don't come for my Spanish because I don't speak Spanish. Las Alcaba Azul was a great restaurant. We had like a lamb hummus like thing. It was so good. Um, Escriba, I was at that bottega beach, and we tried paella, which is if you don't know what that is, that's like Spain's like signature dish. I will never be eating that again, but love that for them. I'm proud of you for trying it. I did. I was proud of myself that I tried it. You know, I was like, I have to. And then last place, Rosa Negira, the best nachos ever, but they're known for their margaritas, but they were shit. They're like$5 mark, which I get, I guess maybe I should have known like$5, but$5 margaritas, and they look delicious, but they were like when you make a margarita at home and you don't blend the ice all the way and it's really crunchy.
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:And no flavor. It was terrible. Thankfully, it was$5, so it's whatever. Okay, I'm hopping to Italy really quick. Would 1000% visit Sorrento again if you're wanting to hop through a Malfi Coast but not spend the prices, say, in like Postitano or those perfect spot. You can visit all of the um different cities. We stayed at the Hilton Sorrento, gorgeous, beautiful, loved it. Um, everything is walkable, so we don't have to like taxi or Uber once in Italy, which was nice. We did a cooking class, definitely would recommend doing that. Doing that. We did the pasta and we made eggplant something. Delicious. It was delicious. Um, like I talked about the boat day was amazing. That's when we went to Capri. And um it was nice because they had like sandwiches, wine, beer, and they dropped us off at Capri. Let's see, Cherrylift was awesome. Okay, quick little story. So um, if you want to go to Capri, they're known for the blue grotto, which is like it's literally a grotto in the like side, and you but you have to like skinny like in a boat, like you have to pay. Also, if you ever go, you have to have 18 euros. They do not take Apple Pay there in the middle of the ocean. So have 18 Euros if you want to do it. But more often than not, it is closed because it is such high tides, and you have to have like the perfect amount of space to like get in and get out, because if the tide is too high, you'll get stuck in there and probably die.
SPEAKER_01:Um, okay.
SPEAKER_00:So, so just a heads up, we were obviously sad we wanted to go, but we could not. Um, what else? Okay, this is my cute little story. So there's like a blue grotto, a purple grotto, a green grotto all along Capri. And as we're pulling up to, I think it was the purple one, he goes, Oh, this is my favorite one, like our tour guide. And he goes, The rocks look like it's in the shape of a heart, like how it like is kind of like yeah, created. And he's like, Yeah, just like so romantic. As we're pulling up, me and John's first dance song starts playing.
SPEAKER_01:No way.
SPEAKER_00:Swear, swear, literally, because he just had like music playing while we're like on the boat. And I was like, wait, I said, This is literally our first dance. He's like, Really? I was like, so so cute, like that. Literally at that moment, that song played. So that was super cute. Um, okay, I already talked about going to Positano, beaches, chairs. Okay, best food spots in Sorrento, Foreigners Club, my favorite spot we went to. Blue Water. That was the only place we found that had a happy hour. No place really had happy hours besides there. Moda Lisa and then Frankie's Pizza. Um, London. We're gonna wrap it up. I would definitely visit there again, but it is insanely, insanely, insanely expensive. So be prepared. And not even just the sense of the currency exchange, everything's just expensive there. Um definitely go see all the cool spots, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge. This is the funniest thing to me in my entire life because you know, you, you know, um London Bridge by Fergie. Yeah. So you think, you know, like London Bridge is gonna be like this beautiful, like exquisite bridge. It's just a bridge.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Literally. So what people, what I think I was thinking it was is people think it's the Tower Bridge, which is the one with the like giant two pillars, and it has so that's the Tower Bridge. The the London Bridge and Tower Bridge are actually a 10-minute walk. So like you really could see, like, we jokingly like walked on it on, and we're like, hey, we're on the London Bridge, and then we walked to Tower Bridge. So just something funny that I did not realize. Um, we visited Soho, which is amazing, and that's the fun like shopping district over there. Great restaurants. Already talked about Harry Potter. Oh, Borough Market, 10 out of 10, worth the hype, worth the drive. That was that. I don't know if you saw my TikTok, but it's like a giant market with just like food, like everything under the sun you can think of, they have it. Um, very packed, but all the lines go really quick. And hated the tube. That's their main port of transportation.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:It's claustrophobic. Girl, I don't even like they had to have had those shut down during COVID because like it's bad. Like we took the train, a train, and then the tube to get to our hotel because the Uber was like$70. And we're like, oh, let's we're in London, like, let's ride the tube. And then we were like, yeah, F that. Yeah. And the tube system, the map they gave us, I was like, you have to live here for like at least a year to like actually understand this because it's so complicated. So definitely just Uber. They have Uber there, actual Uber there, in case you're wondering about transportation. And I will wrap it up with the best food spots. Deshoom, um, I don't even like Indian food. I don't even think I've actually ate ever Indian food, the best Indian food of my entire life. You just broke my heart.
SPEAKER_01:I love Indian food.
SPEAKER_00:I just like I don't think I've ever ate like authentic Indian food.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So I found that spot on TikTok and they literally had a line outside the door. And understandably, our tab was 150 and it was worth every single penny. Delicious. Um, a cute little cocktail bar is Mr. Fogg's. Um, super fun. Like, it's literally like a crafted cocktail bar, so that was fun. And I totally wrote asked John what the last restaurant we went to was called, because I can't remember. But it was the our last night with there, we had a fancy dinner, and we had like Krabby like mac and cheese and steak and wine, and it was delicious. I love it. And then we flew home.
SPEAKER_01:And now you're and that's it, and now I'm back. All right. My closing question for you, Grace. Yes. Do you are you grateful that you waited one year to go on your honeymoon? Um, or do you wish you would have gone on your honeymoon immediately after your wedding?
SPEAKER_00:Um, a thousand percent. I'm glad that we waited.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's um just the especially if we're doing Europe, like just the exhaustion of like traveling there is like so much. So I genuinely could not have imagined having a wedding, you know, and then going somewhere or going to Europe either the next few days. Um, I just would say I would yeah, take the time, wait, and that way you can fully enjoy it. Okay. Yeah. I love it. That's that's my honeymoon energy. That's the honeymoon. I know I'm so sad it's over. It came and went so fast, but it was so much fun.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm so happy for you. It sounded absolutely amazing and makes me want to. I know.
SPEAKER_00:If you could go anywhere for like a honeymoon trip, where would it be?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Okay. We we love the ocean. Um, I love history. My husband loves history. So um we're not very, we're not the type that we're not really resorty type people. We kind of like to we love to learn culture and engulf ourselves in culture when we go places. So it'd probably be somewhere super weird and random and some tribe. And we got to just experience life with them because in their history.
SPEAKER_00:So well, yeah. If you guys both love that, I'm here for that.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, um, but no cruises. I'm not interested in going on cruises.
SPEAKER_00:Do you want to go on a cruise? Everyone, we came back and they're like, okay, the next thing you need to do is a cruise. Yeah. I do want to do a cruise once in my life, like for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know what it'll be, but definitely want to.
SPEAKER_01:Want to go on a cruise. So, well, if you loved today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share with friends, or leave a review. It helps us so much. If you're feeling inspired, um, or if you are looking for inspiration, be sure to check out our Instagram, the Wedding Hive Podcast. Thank you for listening to the Wedding Hive Podcast, where we give you the tips, tricks, tea, and all the buzz in the wedding world. Until next time, remember it's not just your day, it's your love story. Bye.