First up… confession time. We were actually announced as Travel Blog of the Week back in October… but we haven’t got round to sharing the great news so we’re telling you now!  We’re very honored that Travel Bite named us Travel Blog of the Week so thank you for the kudos Travel Bite!

But what are the real advantages of leaving that hair straightener behind?  Well – for a start you won’t have to check in luggage at the airport, (which also means not having to pay for checking in luggage on all those low-frills airlines..); you won’t be physically weighed down by your own stuff; and instead of heading straight to the hotel to dump your belongings, you can get a headstart on everyone else and go straight to your first tourist stop.  Not to mention saving yourself from the dreaded question “what shall I wear today?” The answer is simple… wear your only clean pair of shorts and the pink singlet instead of the blue one.  Done.  Finito.  De’ nada.  Get it?

By removing baggage we allow and invite more experiences into our lives. It really is that simple.  The following is an example of what Chris packed for his last 9 day snowboarding trip to the French Alps…

The list included a snowboard, snowboarding boots, snow gloves, regular gloves, 2 beanies, 1 scarf, a screw driver set and wrist brace, sleeping bag, snowboarding pants & jacket, 2 sets of thermals, 1 jeans, 1 pants, 7 socks, a waterproof pair of street shoes, slippers, 4 Tees, 2 singlets, 2 lightweight jerseys, underwear, a hoodie, a shirt, toiletries (including zinc & sublock!), cellphone, Canon DSLR camera, Kodak Zi8 camcorder.

The result of which once packed, was this…

1 carry on bag and his lightweight snowboard bag.  Not bad for 9 days on the mountain huh?

Here are some key points to remember when packing:

1. The more stuff you take the worse off your back will be
2. You can wash your clothes when you’re away
3. Don’t bother taking “just in case” items like umbrellas or binoculars.  Instead put aside a small amount of money to purchase these items if and when you need them, or better off – borrow these items at your destination.

We’re well underway with plans for our next big trip so the count down has officially started.  At the beginning of May we’ll be heading off for 6 weeks to explore Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Croatia and New York City!

The first four destinations have been booked for a while with New York City being a late addition as Gemma has a book launch in Manhattan in June – so what better excuse than to head over there for a couple of weeks?!

We plan on traveling (really) light again, taking just two small carry-on backpacks between us – most of which will probably be filled up with cameras, computers, togs and sunblock!  And after a freezing London winter (picture above as proof!) we’re now both pastey-white so we can’t wait to get out and about and see some sun!

*above is a rough lil’ vid I’ve uploaded to facebook of clips from the trip I took on the Kodak Zi8.

I (Chris) finally got some more snowboarding in this year at Risoul/Vars in the french alps. It was a last minute decision to go for 6 days of boarding & partying with the fanatics crew from Boxing Day onwards. Accompanied by my younger bro Andrew, his partner Bex and our mutual friend Bryce. We had a pretty mint little apartment right up the hill next to the lifts and there was something to do (mostly drinking) organised everynight as well as of New Years of course! We had a some bluebird powder days so it was smiles all round apart from a couple complete white-out days.

All in all it was a pretty decent mountain, it didn’t “wow” me but hey any snowboarding is better than none. For anyone considering Risoul for some Skiing or boarding make sure you head over to Vars at some stage, as we found the skiing and boarding (& snow) to be better over there, it takes roughly 25 minutes to get there on the lifts.

Whats next you might ask? well we’re really excited to have booked a trip to Egypt, Croatia, Greece and Turkey for early next year! so be on the look out for more posts from us veeery soon. Also, Chris is heading to Risoul in France for a week of powder snowboarding on Dec 26th and will update the blog via his iPhone (hopefully) thanks to AudioBoo.fm and the WP iPhone App.

Exciting news! We’ve just been announced as semi-finalists in the “Ultimate Thailand Explorers” competition for the destination of beautiful Koh Samui!

You can watch our video application below, but when you’re done PLEASE VOTE FOR US HERE! (there’s lots of prizes for voters too!)

So what does that mean exactly? well it means we’re now up against 4 other very strong competitors who all want to win badly! The team selected for each destination (5 destinations in total) will get an all expenses paid trip to their destination of choice in order to promote it to as many people as possible via social media. From there, one overall winning team will win $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in prizes!

We’ll be posting more as the competition heats up, but right now we reeally need your votes, so please vote for us as The Ultimate Thailand Explorers for Koh Samui.

After 5 weeks away including: 11 flights; 12 airports; 15 beds; 2 bags; 1 laptop; a few sleepless nights; countless itchy bites & just 3 pairs of socks, we’re now back in London.

We want to send a big shout out to all of the amazing people we met & the friends we made along the way – our trip couldn’t have been what it was without each and every one of you!

Now to plan the next one…. South America anyone?!

Checking out the old City along the river side in Porto.

Final lax-out at the beach before heading home to London….

Heading up the Douro Valley in Portugal to visit our friend Oscar’s winery – his family vineyard “Quevedo” makes the best Port in all of Portugal http://quevedoportwine.com/

This is all part of Oscar’s vineyard – as well as so much more(!)

Tasting the grapes after a full tour of the wine making process & the beautiful winery

Finishing off with a wine tasting session with Nadine – we were so spoilt with this amazing day and we know sooo much more about wine and port now thanks to Nadine and Oscar lol!

Antibes is the most chilled out / quaint Coastal town we’ve been to on the South of France – we LOVE it!

Catching up with Daizy & Tim at the Hop Store.