It’s been a couple of years since I really blogged. Why? Well for starters, because of the pandemic. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac (not clinically diagnosed) so the thought of traveling while people were still spreading COVID made me nervous. I spent the better part of 2021 trying to acclimate myself to a job that came to an end in August 2022, so that put another fork in my plans. I’ve put together so many itineraries in the last two years. Itineraries mostly to cities I’ve missed in Western Europe over the last 15 years. Places like Bruges and Frankfurt and Basel and Luxembourg. But there al ..read more

Before I went to Portugal in March 2020, I made a list of all the things I wanted to see while I was there – as I usually do. One of the places that I wanted to visit was Belem while I was in the city of Lisbon. I decided I’d go there because it was listed as something everyone does on all the websites I found while researching prior to my trip. Unfortunately, I hate to tell you, I thought Belem was incredibly overrated and here’s why. When I read about Belem, a district of Lisbon, I thought it sounded neat because what’s not neat about a little district on the water with a few cool buildings ..read more

I spent most of February 2020 reading about this new novel coronavirus, aka COVID-19, while panicking about my upcoming trip to Portugal. I’d booked my flight several months earlier and I was really excited to get to explore the country to which I’d been putting off a trip for years (a better place just always came up and took precedence). Everyone assured me that I would be fine, though this didn’t stop me from bringing a thermometer with me in my backpack. After hopping off the plane in Portugal I’d stopped reading the news and just tried to enjoy myself. It’s not breaking news that I love l ..read more

Wow! What a year it has been, am I right? To say I had a crazy start to 2021 would be an understatement and it’s why I’ve been MIA. I don’t know if you noticed, but I haven’t written in months but since travel is beginning to become a thing again, I wanted to start writing about it again to hopefully inspire people to get out there – safely – when they can. I’ve been getting out there a little myself, too. At the end of June I was on a plane for the first time since March 12, 2020. I became fully vaccinated in April 2020 (science FTW!) and recently single, so I flew to Nashville to meet some f ..read more

I am excited to publish That Girl Away’s first guest post from Neha at Dubai Wikia! Dubai is somewhere that I haven’t been able to time to yet and I don’t see myself being able to get there anytime soon (thanks, COVID!) so I thought Neha‘s take on the city would be of interest. Below you’ll find her top things to do in Dubai for first time travelers. If you’re interested in writing a guest post on That Girl Away, please send me an email at allison@thatgirlaway.com! Dubai is an inimitable city abuzz with imposing landmarks, plentiful of dining/shopping attractions, finest leisure choices, and ..read more

I was looking at my photos from Nashville recently and wanting to write about my trip there in April 2019. Then I realized that I couldn’t write enough about anyone single tourist site that I went to, for the most part, so I thought I’d do a round-up of all the top 13 things to do your first time in Nashville, once COVID is gone, and they’re sights that don’t take hours to see.  13 Things to Do Your First Time in Nashville I Believe in Nashville Mural: The first thing that I wanted to see was the I Believe in Nashville mural. It was just a couple of blocks from our AirBnB. It’s located o ..read more

When I went to Israel in February 2019, finding the best vegetarian and vegan food in Tel Aviv, or Israel, wasn’t the point of the trip (spoiler: it’s to try to convince us to move to Israel). We honestly didn’t have a whole lot of free time (like I wrote here). Sachlav, the group I went with, tried to give us free time during the day and at night because we were the older group and full-fledged adults as opposed to the usual college-aged 20-year-old idiots that go on Birthright. But there wasn’t a whole lot of room for going out and finding our own eats, so as soon as we got to Tel Aviv, and ..read more

I realized recently that I’d never written about the Jack the Ripper walking tour that I did while I studied in London and since it’s October, I wanted to rectify that ASAP. Not only did I go on A Jack the Ripper walking tour, but I went on the BEST Jack the Ripper walking tour in London. When I studied abroad in London in 2007, I went on a bunch of walking tours. I did the Beatles walking tour and a tour of my new neighborhood (Kensington), but before that I went on an evening Jack the Ripper walking tour. It was led by a well known historian named Donald Rumbelow. Because it was 2007, my pho ..read more

It’s that time of year again where I talk about the Best Halloween Travel Destinations to get in the spirit of the month of October! Honestly, it’s a tossup for me between April (when the weather is still quite cold AND it’s my birthday month) and October (because Halloween and the cold weather, obviously), but this post is going to focus on October because, well, obviously. It’s also the time when I get to round up all my favorite spooky ghost and haunting related posts for you lovely people to binge! Because I am THAT type of traveler, there are always at least one or two additional new pos ..read more

I’ve been meaning to write a review of the Hotel Salem in Salem, MA for a while now so I thought I should finally get on it. When Nick and I were researching long weekend trips that we could easily, and safely, take from New York, I did a search for hotels on Booking.com in Salem, MA. Quickly I stumbled upon the Hotel Salem on the main drag in downtown Salem, Essex Street. The hotel was new-ish and my favorite type of hotel: a boutique hotel. This means tiny minimalist rooms, like the one we stayed in for a night in Boston back in January at the Revolution Hotel. I don’t know why but I really ..read more