When my husband and I first got married, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do before we started popping out babies. The biggest thing we had was take a European cruise, and guess what? It’s really happening!! And not only is it really happening but it’s all paid for! James and I have been saving like crazy this last year to be able to get this thing paid for way ahead time. We didn’t want to have to stress about getting it all done at the last minute and we wanted to make sure we got the best prices for flights and the cruise itself. We don’t allow buying things on credit to be an option for us so we always wait until we actually have the money to purchase things (thanks Dave Ramsey!)

Our ship docks out of Barcelona and from there goes to Monte Carlo (France), Florence, Rome, Athens, Ephesus (Turkey), Santorini (Greece), Salerno (Italy), and then back to Spain. We wanted to make sure we experienced some of Barcelona so we are flying in two days before the ship leaves to explore the city.
We didn’t want to just stay in a hotel that felt like any ol’ hotel you could find in the states, we wanted something that made us feel like local Barcelonians (?) and that’s when I started looking at Airbnb. In case you’ve never heard of it, Airbnb is a trusted service that allows people to list homes, apartments, rooms, etc. all over the country for other people to rent for whatever reason. It’s a more personal and authentic take on a hotel. When we were searching for places in Barcelona it was hard to narrow it down to just two. We finally settled on the one that had the feel we wanted, is walking distance to everything, and is close to the port. This is the one we chose:

I might be just as excited for this as I am for the cruise…. We will definitely use Airbnb for future trips.

A couple years ago, My sister-in-law and her husband went on a similar cruise with some friends. She is an INCREDIBLE photographer so you can only imagine the kind of shots she got while exploring these countries. I thought it would be fun to share some of her photos from their trip because they truly make you feel like you are there.

You can see more pictures from this trip on her blog or you can check out her other work. I highly recommend it, she’s amazing!

It feels like May will never get here soon enough, but before I know it, I’ll be posting all my pictures from the trip!