Route Planning 1..2..3.... (UK & Europe)

After we are done with the air ticket booking, next is making plans for our stops. No matter what, our start and end point are fixed, that's London & Vienna. For this reason, we only came up with 3 options.

Option 1:
London->Belgium->Berlin->Hohenschewangau->Vienna

We love to give berlin a visit, heard & read so much stories behind the Berlin wall. Not forgetting the Disney fairytale castle that we all had seen in almost all Disney production. Do you actually know its from this famous castle Neuschwanstein Castle. I didn't realise its existence until my sister highlighted to me. Its a nice little small village that require quite a bit of travelling though.

Option 2:
London->Paris->Berlin->Prague->Budapest->Vienna

Paris, well who doesn't like Paris. The thought of Eiffel Tower, Musee du Louvre , Notre Dame Cathedral immediately flashes through my mind. Prague and Budapest are some countries I love to go explore. Referring info from One day in Prague & 3 days in Budapest, its certainly a place I would want to go on solo one day perhaps.

Option 3:
London->Paris->Geneva->Milan->Florence->Rome->Vienna

Geneva is a beautiful city which is close to border, a perfect location for day excursion to Chamonix or Chateau de Chillon. Milan, a place where I used to dream about, wishing to be part of when I was harbouring the fashion dream. Its famous also for historical sites like Milan Cathedral (Duomo). Florence being a perfect site in between for easy getaway to Venice, Pisa or even Vatican City. Having watched Spartacus, I got interested in the Rome Forum. Wanting to experience how gorgeous the site is like.

 

Can you guess which is my option?

 

Ticket booking through Lufthansa

Planning for a trip isn't easy, it includes surfing lots of information on where to go, schedules, prices and of course blogger tips & reviews. I did went through such pain so decided to pen this down for sharing.

We made plans since last year September to set our foot on USA actually but it turns out the tickets from Singapore to USA cost almost the same from Scotland to USA (my bro was studying there). So we decided, well its not that worth for him after all. So we switched our destination to UK/Europe, big jump hun.. Glad we made the choice early, at least in time for various airline year end promotions.

 

London was the choice of our first stop right away as brother is in Scotland. It make more sense to meet him there first. Apart from London, nothing else was confirm.

We came across promotion from Air France, Emirates and finally Lufthansa. Airfrance had attractive pricing of SGD999 for major Europe cities and SGD1,088 for London. But it required us to fly before 31 Jan 2015. I remembered Emirates was offering somewhat close but we decided to wait abit, there comes Lufthansa.

 

Somehow I have pretty good impression of this airline and want to give it a try. After some googling, found these.

 

 

Lufthansa was listed in the top ten in 2014.

Navigation through the website was a breeze, as mine was different destination I would need to select search with more options on the front page. We entered our choice and here came the damage. Average S$983.50 each. Just did a check, flight with same conditions now cost $1,924.60. That's almost double of what I paid for.

Tips:

1. Promotions for Europe and UK trips usually starts to kicks right after end of the year, starting from Jan-Feb, travel before Mar or till May. Usually these promotions require you to travel before the peak period which is Jun onwards.

 

e.g. Air France sent out mailer in Aug'14 for travel before 31 May 2015.

 

 

2. Booking through Lufthansa website will lead you to the page where you need to pay for seats option. Save your money and ignore that, take advantage of the free seat selection prior 23 hours before check-in.

 

3. Lufthansa is part of StarAlliance, be sure to take advantage of your miles card for accumulating points. I'm using Krisflyer, or you can sign up the miles and more card from Lufthansa. Will probably dedicate a post on accumulating miles soon.

 

Starter for my upcoming trip

 

I simply love travelling, well who doesn't. This time round, we pick London as one of our to go destination. Its a modern city with lots of history, I love historical buildings. Its like getting the best of both world city + history.

 

 

With that, we jump onto the promotion by Lufthansa, a German Commercial Carrier last December. It was a great deal I must say. We will be departing to London and return from Vienna, Austria. Isn't it wonderful to kick start our trip in London and end it in another country. Meaning, there is no repeat trail, I hate the idea of going back as its kinda time consuming.

 

 

We will be city hopping from London to Paris to Geneva to Milan to Florence to Rome and finally Vienna.

In between, we will go on day trip to Pisa, Venice, Lucca and Chamonix.

The trip is just a month away from now. All the trains and buses are booked, I'm just left with slots for place of interest which I need some help.

 

Do drop me a comment or mail to recommend where to go...

 

Chat again soon!



Hello, a little update

 

 

 

Long time no see, managed to take abit off time from completing assignments and work related stuffs to log into my once loved blog. Hasn't been blogging since 2013 due to my tons of excuses. The good thing I noticed about blogging is, reading the older post seems to bring me back in time. I still remember the countless laughter and joy I gained from knowing people owning the same interest and passion for makeups.

 

Instead of repeating that I'm coming back which I'm not so confident of, I rather say I will drop a few surprise post from time to time. Hoping that the frequency will increase in the future.

 

What have I been up to?

 

I signed up for a 2 years course, yes it sounds crazy for working life + family but that's part of my life journey to go for. Its finally ending December this year.

 

Pluck up my courage to embrace the beauty of having a braces to straighten my teeth. My teeth were in complete disaster mode, it was until endless dental consultation, I decided to make the change.

 

Travelling! Yes, its still part of me or at least this part still remains.

Taipei-Seoul-Busan -> 2012

Seoul -> 2013

Switzerland & Paris -> 2013

Malacca -> 2014

Guangzhou-Hongkong -> 2014

 

another trip in the planning

 

I moved! my dream house which took 2 years in the making was finally ready in 2014. It is a pretty small unit as housing in Singapore cost a bomb and also the purchases to fill it up.

 

 

Let's chat again soon.

Staycation @ Movenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa

Back in January, hubby & I needs a break but intend to have it happen in Singapore. While browsing through the range of hotels, actually we have totally no idea which hotel to choose. Staying hotel overseas is a norm but its kinda unusual for us in fact its our 1st time choosing to stay in a hotel locally.

After reading reviews and doing some researches we picked Movenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa. Its located in a very vacation feel place "Sentosa". Sentosa is an island but part of Singapore. Meaning I can travel like & feel like a tourist but less of the custom process.

The room check-in process was a breeze, upon arrival we were served with a a scoop of movenpick ice-cream and a refreshing drink (oops no pics as I was in relaxed mode at that point.) Like everyone else I love checking in to freshly groomed hotel room.

 

Liking the color coordination of the room, its simply cozy! The bed was soft and pillow was fluffy. Defintely sweeten my dreams for the night.

The doorway is spacious too. Imagine if I'm a foreigner lugging huge baggages. This would be the kind of doorway I want. Besides placing my stuffs, I still have space for my hauls later.

my favorite Nespresso coffee machine!

satisfying selection of tea & coffee capsules for you to choose from.

 

the milk capsule is kept chilled in the mini fridge right hidden inside the cabinet.

checked out the bathtub, its absolutely clean & shiny!

Sad to say I didn't get to use it as I forgotten to bring along my bath salt etc... (-_-")

This room comes with separate standing shower room.

The hotel provide us more than enough towels for our use during the stay.

Here is me! hmm 8 months ago...

The dressing area in the bathroom is well lit, great for putting on makeup.

Opps, there is the empty movenpick ice-cream cup which we enjoyed earlier upon check-in.

 

love the full view glass window in the room. we had great time overlooking the unblock scenery.

the electronic controlled curtain makes pulling the curtain together just one fingertip away. 

Merlion peeking through the building.

This is Merlion, Singapore very own trademark.

 

 Overall, I enjoyed my 1st staycation at Movenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa. The staff are friendly and polite throughout our stay. I remembered there is this aroma scent throughout the premises, it definitely raise up the bar for vacation feel. Its well located within walking distance to the monorail which can bring us back to city life just stone throw from Sentosa. I don't have to say much for the room right. You may read up reviews from tripadvisor on how they fare.

I can't wait to blog my other trips....

Hello I'm back!

Hi all,

I had been missing from the blogging scene for quite awhile, hmm I should say it had been almost a year since I last sit in front of my laptop drafting post like this one.

Indeed life was a bitch for me, many things had changed and more challenges ahead that awaits me. Guess time really spoke for it, skincare & makeup are something I totally cannot live without. When I'm not blogging, I still keep posting updates via my instagram account.

Once again, thank you for your support!
Karen

In Love with Seoul

I'm back from my well-deserved holiday after doing months and months of research about this vibrant city! Ever since the invasion of K-pop & K-drama, I had make plan to visit Korea one day! But the plan usually falls through due to weather (kids can't go when its freezing cold or crazy hot), language barrier (how to place order for food or even take transport?), feedback given by friends who dislike korea culture in the first place (i wonder why they choose to go then "O_o) etc

this time round, we (mum, sis & i) decided to choose korea over taiwan for our once a year ladies getaway! Its proved to be an awesome choice after all! NICE!

Firstly, we carefully select on the dates (oops, actually i missed checking out as we happened to chance upon their Chuseok aka thanksgiving day and its also Mid-Autumn_Festival. Interesting to know that we share a same celebration date as the koreans. Happen to be there on this day is a good and bad choice which i will share later.