Around the World Trip
I have just completed my Round the World (RTW) family vacation. Just so you know, my family of 5 is based in Atlanta. We spent 3.5 weeks traveling east around the globe. And I am proud to say that I planned the whole thing. This trip was really three trips in one. For phase 1, we spent 5 nights in Athens, Greece. In phase 2, we hopped on a Mediterranean cruise. In phase 3, we spent 12 nights in the land of the rising sun. Admittedly, I used my points and miles on this trip primarily for the flights and for one specific hotel in Japan.
To start, I spent 104,500 Flying Blue Miles and €379.15 to travel Air France from ATL to ATH via CDG. We stayed four nights in a 2-bedroom suite I found on Hotels.com and 1 night in a suite close to Piraeus port that I found on Booking.com. We then spent 7 nights in 2 balcony suites aboard the Voyager of the Seas. We visited three Greek islands (Mykonos, Crete, and Argostoli), Kotor, Montenegro, and Split, Croatia. We disembarked in Ravenna (Vienna), Italy and took the cruise sponsored shuttle ($225) to VCE to continue our vacation.
I used 37,500 Aeroplan miles and paid C$368.10 to catch a Lufthansa flight from Venice to Frankfurt. I also spent 247,500 United miles and $612.00 to board an Asiana flight from Frankfurt to Narita, Japan by way of Seoul, South Korea. We stayed in 4 hotels in 3 cities in Japan, one of which was the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay. I spent 48,000 Hyatt points to reserve two rooms for two nights here. I reserved 3 nights in one standard deluxe twin room at another Tokyo hotel for 5,700 Citi Thank You points and $502.76. The other two hotels were cash bookings, made on Booking.com.
Finally, I spent 225,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and ￥30,420 to fly from Haneda Airport directly home to Atlanta on Delta Airlines. Through the miracle of time travel, I landed before I took off. We lifted off at 7:09pm on Saturday and landed at 6:05pm on Saturday. Indeed, we landed before we took off.
While in Athens, we took full advantage of its mass transit system. We had purchased weekly passes, so we spent a considerable amount of time on the trains and trams. We ate plenty of healthy, cheap food in Athens. While there, we unexpectedly caught the changing of the guard at the Athens government building, visited the Holy Church of Hagia Dynamis (an old small church about the size of a modern living room) right /next to modern hotel) as well as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, a Greek Orthodox Church. RJ and I also stopped by the small Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Gorgoepikoos and Saint Eleutherius on the way out of the cathedral. We also visited the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Pantanassa in the Monastiraki Square. As you can see, even when we travel, we have to find a church or two to visit. No excuses.
I’m a history lover. So, I was excited about seeing the structures that I’ve only read about in my history books. I also enjoy visiting sites that never made into the history books but are unique on their own right. To this end, Sariah and I visited the Acropolis where we saw the Parthenon, Erechtheion (6 Maidens) temple, and Propylaia temple. We saw the Odeon of Herod Atticus theater but we did not go down to it. We also saw the Temple of Zeus (much of which has been destroyed by earthquakes) and the Ancient agoda which houses among other things a tribute to the Emperor Hadrian and a statue of Confucius, Socrates, and I discussing the latest scientific developments.
We also enjoyed walking through Monastiraki Flea Market, going souvenir shopping in the Plaka neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis, jumping on the Hop On Hop Off bus to get the lay of the land, stopping in a random store (Ramblas Restaurant) to get some Greek coffee, sharing a slushie in the Plaka neighborhood, and visiting the National Gardens just to stop and smell the flowers. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Athens before embarking upon the second phase of our trip: a 7-day Mediterranean cruise.
We boarded the Voyager of the Seas in Athens and spent 7 nights in 2 balcony suites. During our cruise, we made 5 port stops. The first port stop that we made was to Mykonos. Mykonos is one of the more popular Greek islands (along with Santorini). The whole island is painted white while certain doorways, steps, and window sills are often colored in some accent color – a photographer’s dream. In Mykonos, we saw the famous church on the coast overlooking the ocean. Makayla and Suazette returned to the ship while Sariah and I kept exploring. We took some great shots of a small Catholic church, the colorful doors in Mykonos streets, did some souvenir shopping, and just got lost wandering the island’s narrow alleys.
Our second port was the Souda port in beautiful Chania, Crete. The port is not near the city center so we caught City Bus #13 to Old Town which costed 1.20 euros per person each way. We walked to the Old Venetian Harbor stopping by the Cathedral of Eisodion tis Theotokou (an Orthodox Cathedral) en route to the harbor (no pictures allowed). At the harbor, we stopped by a restaurant for some coffee and then visited a mosque that was turned into an art museum. We saw the Old Harbor fort and the Old Venetian lighthouse at the harbor but elected not to go inside either. Rather, we leisurely made our way back to the bus stop where we snapped a few more pictures, picked up some perfume for the girls, and I bought a new travel bag. Eventually. we caught the bus back to the port.
The following day was RJ’s birthday. We woke up and were greeted to the sights and sounds of Argostoli, Greece. When I initially made this booking, Argostoli was not on the itinerary. Rather, it replaced Zakynthos as our third port of call. And I’m glad it did. This island was our favorite Greek island that we visited. It is absolutely picturesque. You can not take a bad picture here, no matter which direction you point your camera.
We walked to the famous Drapano bridge and back to the ship. That was it, but that was enough. There are people right outside the port offering tours to the nearby caves and stuff but we were content to just stay in the harbor. Argostoli is known for large sea turtles and we did see about a half-dozen of these. Overall, it’s just a laid back vibe in a beautiful setting.
Back onboard, RJ went back to his club where he was given a glow-in-the-dark whale as a birthday gift. RJ and Makayla then participated in karaoke and Makayla climbed the ship’s rock climbing wall. We had dinner in the main dining room where the dining staff sang Happy Birthday to RJ too. Finally, Suazette and I participated in a game called Crazy Quest before turning in for the evening.
The following day was a sea day. Suazette and I had breakfast in the Main Dining Room while the kids slept. We then played “Name that Port” where we earned 6.5 points out of a possible 10. Afterwards, we decided to sit outside on Deck 4 where we just watched the sea before returning to my balcony to do the exact same thing. The rest of the afternoon is a blur. In the evening, we went to Chops Grille for dinner where the girls got a filet mignon, I got the ribeye, and RJ had the kids steak. The whole meal took about 2.5 hours to complete.
The following day, I was up early enough to watch us pull into Kotor’s port. We had booked an excursion for this port. Our tour guide took us straight away to a viewpoint up in the mountains. Unfortunately, because it was so cloudy, the higher you went, the less view you had. Because of this, we abandoned going to the ultimate lookout point and kept going with the tour. We visited several villages and towns, including a town called Negusi and the city Cetinje (where we got drenched). On the way down the mountain, we rode by Budva, which has a large shoreline (it’s like a beach town). We made our way back down to Kotor where the bus ride part of the tour ended. Our tour guide then took us by foot to see Old Town Kotor with its 800-foot walls in some places. After his walking tour, we stayed in the walls a bit longer and got some pizza. When RJ and I returned to our room, a towel animal (a crab) was waiting for us. I tried to watch a sunset but it was just too cloudy. And that was it for our short time in Montenegro.
On Saturday, I woke up early again to watch the sunrise in Split. Again, it was too cloudy to see anything. Once we walked out of the port, we were inundated with taxis offering tours. We declined and walked the 100 yards to the Old Town rather than pay 30 euros. The Emperor Diocletian’s palace is the main attraction in Old Town Split. We took some pictures at the port before going to Diocletian’s palace. We entered the palace through the North Gate and saw several of the famous rooms and the cellar before fatigue set in. We cut the visit short and returned to the ship. While we were on the ship, a thunderstorm rolled in and cancelled all outside activities. Again, it was still too cloudy to take a sunset pic. We went to Main Dining Room for the final meal and took a pic with Merta and Made (our dining room attendants).
The following day, we disembarked in Ravenna (Vienna), Italy to begin the third phase of our vacation.
We took a private shuttle to take us from the port to Vienna airport where we caught a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt, we took Korea based Asiana airlines to Narita airport in Tokyo after a nearly 3 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea.
The Japan portion of the trip was actually broken into three parts. In the first part, we spent 6 days in Tokyo. In the second part, we spent 3 days in Kyoto (which included a day trip to Osaka). In part 3, we spent the last 3 days back in Tokyo. During the first Tokyo itinerary, we wandered around our neighborhood to get the lay of the land. We picked up some cool Japanese snacks in a mall that was connected to our train station. We spent a considerable amount of time on our first full day in Tokyo station. While there, we visited some anime stores and the Pokemon store. Eventually, we made our way to the Akihabara district in Tokyo where we did some evening sightseeing, grabbed dinner and some ice cream. Afterwards, we returned back to our room. This day just happened to be Makayla’s birthday. My Hyatt concierge cooked a personal Happy Birthday cake for her and delivered it to the room, free of charge.
We also visited Team Labs, an interactive museum that has a bunch of artworks that “move out of rooms, relate to one another, influence each other, and at times intermingle without boundaries.” We had a blast here even though RJ lost his iPad here. When we got back to our hotel, we asked the receptionist to call the 7-11 across from Team Labs and ask if they had seen the Ipad. They had and had put it up for us. They told us we can come pick it up anytime that evening. Suazette and Makayla went back out that evening and retrieved the iPad. It was returned, free of charge, no tip expected or required.
In Tokyo, we visited the famous Senso-ji Temple in the Asakusa region, Shibuya crossing – the busiest crosswalk in the world, the Shinjuku region that is known for high skyscrapers, its main shopping district, a mix of large department stores, fashion plaza, electric outlets, and many restaurants and bars, and the Meiji shrine in the Harajuku region.
We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto and then in Kyoto, we took a private tram to see the Bamboo forest that is connected to the Tenryu-ji Temple and the famous Fushimi Inari shrine. Fushimi did not disappoint! The orange poles make every shot you take picturesque. Much like Argostini, it was hard to take a bad picture here.
The next day, we caught the Shinkansen to Osaka. This trip was only about 30 minutes. We walked through two neighborhoods, the first was Shinsekai. It was here that Sariah and Suazette tried fried octopus balls. Sariah liked them; Suazette didn’t. She was not a fan of their texture. Shinsekai reminds me of Coney Island a lot (with its amusement park feel). Primarily, we just people-watched here. We caught the train back to Kyoto and took a cab back to our hotel. Unfortunately, RJ lost his bookbag (with Suazette’s iPad) in the back of the cab. We left Kyoto without Suazette’s iPad.
Back in Tokyo, we had some Indian food from this place called “Happy” and did a little bit more shopping in Asakusa. On our way back, we stopped at this steak restaurant called “Mr. Steak.” I got a pound of “danger” steak and the girls each got a ½ pound. That steak was the most tender steak I have ever had – no exaggeration! It was sooo good.
The next day we caught the train to a different Tokyo district called Koenji. More shopping. More food. This time, we went to a Thai spot. We were pretty tired by this point so we came home early. The Kyoto police found RJ’s bag and mailed it back to me at our new Tokyo apartment. When I opened the bag, everything was still there – the iPad, old maps, even the 2 yen were in the bag. Surprisingly, nothing was missing. After unboxing and having dinner at the Chinese restaurant that signed the package for us, we hit the hay.
June 15. Time to go home. Before leaving Japan, we stopped by the Sumida Park to see the hydrangeas that only sprout in June and July. We waited for our private shuttle on our building’s rooftop terrace. The ride to the airport was uneventful and we were dropped off at Terminal 3. Just like that, my epic family vacation was over. We landed in Atlanta and ubered home. Our trip to the land of the rising sun was truly over. I wonder what Senegal and Ghana have in store for us next year.
