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It’s officially Fall! It definitely doesn’t fe It’s officially Fall! It definitely doesn’t feel like it in Miami, it really never does but that just gives us a reason to explore other states. West Virginia is one of them, fun fact I actually lived here between undergrad and grad school! Here are Things to do in West Virginia (SAVE + SHARE): 

1. Enjoy New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, or visit any of the states 35 state parks as West Virginia has 1.5 million acres of parks and public land. We personally walked the Shavers Lake Trail and canoed on the lake. 

2. Enjoy some serious adventures! We’re always trying something new and West Virginia offers a lot of options from whitewater rafting, to 1,000+ miles of off-road ATV trails, to rock climbing, caving and mountain biking . 

3. Take a train ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad which stops at the Whittaker Camp where those who worked in the lumber and coal industry lived during the work season. 

4. Explore Cranberry Glades Botanical Area where you might just get to see some black bears! 

5. Walk the Falls of Hills Creak trail to get up close to some gorgeous waterfalls! 

This week I’ll be sharing various cities and states you can experience a beautiful Fall getaway. What are some of your favorite places to enjoy autumn?

Tap the link in my bio for my West Virginia blog post and a blog post of the best places to experience Fall in the US!
Still not over our day exploring the waters of For Still not over our day exploring the waters of Fort Pierce. We danced, snorkeled, fished and went tubing. Definitely want more days like this and still pinch myself that this is what a day of work looks like for me sometimes. Thank you @seadoo for the opportunity.
If you know my husband you know water activities a If you know my husband you know water activities are his favorite! Fishing, jet skiing, just being on a boat on the ocean relaxing, name it, he’s there. So we couldn’t be more excited than to not only get the chance to test out the new @seadoo Switch but be the stars of a whole commercial for it. We had entirely too much fun filming this. Of course now he wants to buy one!

Do you like getting out on the water? Favorite activity?
Our 3 Day London Itinerary (SAVE + SHARE): 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 1: Walked across the Tower Bridge (you can take a tour of London of Tower as well), walked along the River Thames and took a make a fascination hat class with @create_your_own_hat! 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 2: Harry Potter walking tour, checked out Borough Market and went on a night ghost bus tour. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Day 3: Morning Tea at Peggy Porschen, Buckingham Palace for Changing of the Guards, and explore Westminster for the infamous red telephone booths, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

If you have more time on previous visits to London we have taken a day trip to check out Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle, rode the London Eye, took a ferry ride down the Thames River, checked out Warner Brother Studios, and did a graffiti/street art tour.

Is London on your list? If you’ve been what did you do that you think is a must for visitors?

Things to do in London, London with kids, family travel
Then vs Now (swipe left)!🥹🥰 My babies are no Then vs Now (swipe left)!🥹🥰 My babies are not babies anymore. Where has the time gone? Excuse me while I go cry in the corner 😭😭😭😭. 

Too in my feelings to provide an informational post, I’ll be back tomorrow.
Why is this man always trying to stop my fun? List Why is this man always trying to stop my fun? Listen replace husband with whoever you need to but why these ppl keep acting like we can take our money when we’re gone?!? Y’all feel me or nah? 😅😬😩
Morning Tea in London! Afternoon or High Tea is us Morning Tea in London! Afternoon or High Tea is usually on everyone’s things to do in London list but since the girls and I don’t eat beef or pork the menus for most places didn’t make sense for us as they are filled with ham sandwiches and other things we don’t eat. I ended up finding Morning Tea at Peggy Porschen instead which offers a tea menu with breakfast items, while not traditional it worked best for us! It cost £35 pp.

For a traditional Afternoon or High Tea Try:

🫖Palm Court at The Ritz
🫖The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum & Mason
🫖Theatre Royal Drury Lane
🫖The Grill Room Hotel Cafe Royal (has vegetarian an vegan options)
🫖Coronation Afternoon Tea at Cellarium, Westminster Abbey
🫖The Rosebery Coronation Afternoon Tea at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
🫖The Goring Hotel

Afternoon Teas Geared Towards Families:

☕️Peter Pan Afternoon Tea at Aqua at The Shard
☕️Jurassic Afternoon Tea at the Ampersand Hotel
☕️Jungle Book Afternoon Tea at Brown’s Hotel
☕️Secret Garden Afternoon Tea at Taj 51
☕️The Buzzy Bees Afternoon Tea at St. Ermin’s Hotel
☕️Grover’s Children’s Tea at Grosvenor House Hotel
☕️The Peppa Pig Afternoon Tea Bus Tour
☕️Sherlock Holmes Inspired Afternoon Tea at the Mind Palace
☕️Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tea at One Aldwych
☕️Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea at The Sanderson
☕️Wizard of Oz Afternoon Tea at The Soho Hotel

Have you done a proper Afternoon or High Tea in London before? Was the one you did on this list, if so what did you think of it? If you have additional recommendations please do leave a comment!

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One Day in Madrid: Complete Itinerary

April 18, 2020      Destinations, Europe, Spain

This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more information. All opinions are my own.

On our trip to Morocco, exploring Chefchaouen, Fes, and the Sahara Desert our flight to Marrakech included a layover in Madrid. We’d have a full 12 hours of daytime to explore, from 9AM-9PM before having to be back at the airport for our flight. Here is our itinerary for getting the most out of one day in Madrid.

One Day in Madrid: How to Get There

While our one day in Madrid was due to a long layover on the way to another destination, Madrid is very close to other cities. You can spend one day in Madrid if you’re in Barcelona by taking the train over. The first train leaves Barcelona at 06:05AM with the last train back to Barcelona at 9:30PM. The train ride is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes each way. We’ve done a quick turnaround like this before when taking the train from London to Paris. The earlier you book your train the cheaper it is with tickets as low as $30 each way.

From Barcelona you can also take a 1 hour and 30 minute flight to spend one day in Madrid. While it is an hour less than the train you’ll need to arrive at the airport earlier and go through extensive security that you won’t have to do via train. Round trip flights go for as low as $65 on Iberia Airlines. Click here for the websites with the best flight deal.

One Day in Madrid: Where to Store Your Luggage

If you’re team carry-on only like we are or if your luggage doesn’t go through to your final destination you can store your luggage at the airport. There is luggage storage in both Terminal 1 and 2 in Madrid’s airport. The storage shop in Terminal 1 is actually outside while the one in Terminal 2 is inside the airport. If you plan on taking the train to/from the city center, it’s best to store your luggage in Terminal 2. This is because the storage shop is right next to the train station.

As of November 2019 these were the prices to store your bags:

One Day in Madrid: How to Get From the Airport to the City Center

To get to and from the airport you can take a taxi which is a flat fee of 30 Euro. An alternative to save money is taking public transportation via the train/metro. Depending on the time of day your flight is this could take 35 minutes to an hour. We went this route to save money as a one day pass is 8 Euros per person and we could use it all day. 

Your One Day in Madrid Itinerary

El Parque Retiro

As we’d already had breakfast on the plan when we landed we kicked off our one day in Madrid by heading straight to El Parque Retiro. After 12 hours of travel time the park was the perfect place to get fresh air and stretch our legs, especially with a child. Besides just walking around you can rent a paddle boat and go around the lake.

mom holding daughter laughing in front of lake with paddle boats in it

Puerta de Sol

Next we took the train to Puerta de Sol, the heart of Madrid. The square was filled with people dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Mario & Luigi and other characters to entice kids to take a picture so their parents can tip them! The square is at the heart of streets lined with department stores, restaurants and bars. It’s also home to a statue of the most famous symbol in Madrid, El Oso y el Madroño.

Plaza Mayor

After taking in Puerta de Sol we walked over to Plaza Mayor for lunch. There are so many restaurants here, many having quite similar menus. Since we didn’t do any prior research we just sat down at a place we could find a seat, each restaurant was equally as packed. You can’t come to Spain and not eat paella so of course that’s what we ordered!

plate of seafood paella

San Miguel Market

If you don’t have time to sit down and eat or want to try a variety of foods, just three minutes from Plaza Mayor is San Miguel Market. It’s a food hall with plenty of options and lots of wine! It was packed when we walked around, so packed we ended up just leaving. Trying to maneuver through it with a stroller was a bit of a task and everyone was bumping into each other. Maybe don’t come here during prime lunch time hours!

Royal Palace of Madrid

A six minute walk from the market is the Royal Palace of Madrid. Guided tours are available but we took the self guided one for 12 Euros, kids 5 and under are free. The palace is gorgeous but you’re not able to take photos inside in most rooms. Another option is this guided tour that also lets you skip the line. 

If you’re traveling with kids like I was across the street from the palace is a playground. If your child needs a break this is the perfect place. There are swings, slides, and a big open space.

Attend a Flamenco Show

We ended our one day in Madrid watching a Flamenco show! There was no way we could say we visited Madrid without seeing one. Most are dinner shows and I highly recommend making a reservation in advance. Since life got in the way before the trip I was mostly playing our day by ear and didn’t realize how necessary a reservation would be. I walked to three shows until I finally found one that wasn’t sold out at Cafe de Chinitas. The show was decent but I could tell why it wasn’t sold out and can only imagine what a better one would be like. Still we got our Flamenco fix just in time to head back to the airport to catch our flight to Marrakech.

Where to Sleep on Your One Day in Madrid if You Spend the Night

If your one day in Madrid includes an overnight stay there are plenty of options on where to sleep. On our flight home from Marrakech we had another layover in Madrid but this one was overnight. We chose to stay at The Walt Madrid, a central hotel walking distance to Puerta del Sol. The rooms were modern and clean and so was the rest of the hotel, we were very pleased with our choice. Here’s a video tour of our room:

 

If you ever have the opportunity to spend one day in Madrid, especially via a free layover don’t pass up the opportunity! There is plenty to see and experience in one day. Did you find this article helpful? Please share it!

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Hi! We’re The Hambricks

Hi! We’re The Hambricks

If kids live there, kids can visit! That's our motto and you'll often find us exploring destinations most don't find "kid friendly". We've traveled to 35 countries on 6 continents with our children since they were 10 weeks old and share tips to make it easier and affordable. But mom and dad are people too so we also write about solo travel, baecations and girlfriend getaways.

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