jetsetters: the traveling greaves

One of the best things to come from our travels is the friends we’ve made all over the world. There’s just something about fellow travelers that makes it easy to connect. There’s an openness, and a desire to try new things. Plus, of course, a shared love of discovering as many new places as possible.

That’s why, when we got an email from two travel-lovers closer to home — so close in fact, that we graduated from the same high school — we just couldn’t believe what a small world it really is.

Meet Lauren and Doug of the Traveling Greaves. They’re a travel-loving couple just getting into the blogging game. Included in their travel dossier: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK, and that’s just to name a few. They’re hikers, autumn-lovers (I meaaaan, duh), and their next adventure is to Virginia wine country, which makes us fast friends. We could go on, but we’ll let them share all the important deets.

Place you can’t wait to return to: We did a road trip through England and Scotland in the spring of 2013. We just fell in love with the UK. We saw a lot—Oxford, Bath, the Lake District, Hadrian’s Wall, Stirling, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews—but there is so much left to see. Whenever we decide to start planning a new trip, England is always in the back of our minds now.

Dream trip: Doug and I recently realized that I will be graduating from grad school and he will be turning 30 on exactly the same day next spring. If that doesn’t call for a huge adventure, I don’t know what does. We really want to make it to the other side of the planet, and go to either Asia or New Zealand. It’s in the dream stage right now, but we tend to find ways to make those dreams happen, so we’ll see! We would love to go to New Zealand and see Hobbit country. J But Thailand and Japan are calling too! Part of the fun of travel is, who knows where you’ll end up in 6 months?

Photo credit: Sam Hurd Photography

Best hotel experience: This past January we decided to visit the second coldest capital city in the world, Ottawa. We stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier and it was just positively glamorous. Designed by a man who was on the Titanic and visited by royalty and celebrity alike, this place made us feel like a king and queen ourselves! It was so beautiful in the snow too.

Favorite “I can’t believe I’m doing this” moment: It’s fresh on our minds, but that would have to be cruising through the Norway fjords. There are just no words for the dramatic landscape up there. It’s something we both never really imagined doing or seeing, which made it all the more surreal!

Any exciting trips coming up? If you think wine and hiking are exciting, then yes! We are heading to Virginia to visit some Loudoun county wineries next weekend. An article in the current issue of Food & Wine magazine claims this region is even more beautiful than Napa Valley, and with wines to rival the famous California region. We’re excited to discover it for ourselves next Saturday, and then do some spectacular hiking on Sunday, if we’re able to after Saturday ;).

Photo credit: www.annieriedora.com

Now that you’ve had a taste of Lauren and Doug’s travels, get thee to The Traveling Greaves to check out more stellar photography. One photo of fjords is just not enough, ya know?

xo!

the romantic & the wino