From Cheap flights to amazing adventures, Roam to Rome will reveal how to travel the world like a king on a small budget.
You can’t go to Arches without posting a picture of one of the beautiful arches in the park. Sadly, it’s our last day in Moab and its almost time to make our way to Arizona. We had intentions on going to a couple more places but because of COVID all the sites on Navajo land are closed. I guess we will have to come back in the future to see places like Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley up close. Also, we didn’t expect for there to be much snow so it’s going to be a fun drive.
We spent a few days at Arches and even extended our trip for a day in Moab, UT so we could try and see it all. It was cold and we only had a few hours of sunlight, but we caught the sunset at the perfect time. The red rocks with the mountains in the background were breathtaking. We’d definitely recommend coming in the winter too, the trails were almost empty and we felt like we had the park to ourselves.
Read this for some inpiration on your next travel destination. 2021 will be a year of traveling for a lot of people.
Here's where we're headed—in the United States and abroad—once travel gets the green light.
The next stop on our road trip is Arches National Park. If you’ve never been to Arches it’s a must-see! You could be here for days and you wouldn’t be able to see everything. Most of the hikes are pretty easy and quick so a lot of people can do it. There was a 3-4 year old that was catching up with us on one trail. I must say that Arches has become my favorite so far, you feel like you’re on another planet. We have more photos of this beautiful place coming later this week.⠀
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We’re finally traveling again! Instead of flying we did a road trip across Utah and Arizona. Our first stop was Zion National Park in Utah. We’ve talked about traveling this side of the United States for years. Since we couldn’t travel to another country we decided to hop in the car and travel around our own.
Living in Chicago is amazing, but I can just imagine waking up to this view every day. We didn’t get to hike that much because we are working most of the day, but the couple times we did the sites were breathtaking. This view is from the Canyon Overlook trail, which is pretty easy for most people. You might get a little lost though.
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After the first day of our cabin weekend, I decided to take the drone out and play around just before the sun completely set.
The image of the tree in our last post was so nice we thought it deserved its own photo instead of being cropped out for this picture. This place was so nice, and the people there are amazing. we sat and talked to an older couple for over an hour.
We decided to take a quick trip up to door county Wisconsin with some friends for a cabin weekend. With being in quarantine for the last couple months getting out of the house was well worth it. Hopefully this becomes a yearly tradition.
The second part of my crazy Bali trip starts with me driving up a mountain trying to reach Amed. This town is pretty small so it's completely off the radar for most tourists. The city's main attraction is its scuba diving schools. I was going there because a friend that I met in Thailand was there diving for a couple of days. The road up this mountain was pretty curvy so it really tested my skills to ride my little motorbike. Once I got to the top of the mountain you could see the town with lush green fields of rice down the mountain and the ocean in the background. Of course, I had to stop and take a picture, but for some reason, I can’t find those pictures. I made my way down the mountain and got to my hotel room for the next couple of nights. Amed is a pretty sleepy town and honestly, the beach area up close is not that great. Black sand beaches sound great in theory but when you actually see them up close it’s just a letdown. The real beauty of this area is seen when you’re up higher.
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One of the big things I’ve learned while traveling is when it comes to food you shouldn’t order anything from your country’s cuisine…you will be disappointed. With knowing this I decided to ignore the rule and order pizza from my hotel’s restaurant.⠀I’m going to say this and hopefully, no Chicagoan reads this, but that pizza was the best pizza I’ve ever had at least at that point. I honestly ate that pizza every day while I was there.
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Before I left Amed my friend and I decided to go to the famous Lempuyang Temple in the mountains. On the way up, we decided to pull over and take some pictures of the city and ocean…those pictures I still have. This place really looks amazing when you’re viewing it from higher up! Lempuyang Temple coming up next.
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Everyone dreams of going to places like Bora Bora, but you never think it's possible because it's so far away and so expensive. Typically, this place is reserved for people on their honeymoon and I had the same notion about the place. I’ve said for years that I would avoid coming here because I wanted it to be the honeymoon destination later. As you can see, avoiding didn’t work because we found a deal of a lifetime.⠀
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During cyber Monday last year, United Airlines had a one day sell on flights to Tahiti from Chicago for half the miles and we couldn’t resist. This flight should've cost us $1500 each, but we got it for 32,000 United miles. ⠀
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Because the trip was in February we were a little worried about the weather being crappy the entire time. We checked the weather every day just before the trip started and it said it would rain basically every day we are there. Even though we knew this we didn’t want it to ruin our amazing vacation so we took our rain gear and hopped on the plane. ⠀
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Once we got to Tahiti we took another flight to Bora Bora the next morning. When we got to the airport one of the people in the boarding area told us to sit on the right side (when walking on) of the plane for the best views of Bora Bora as we fly in. If you take only one thing away from this post make sure to sit on the right side of the plane and have your camera ready! This place is absolutely beautiful, and it really looks like the pictures.⠀
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We decided to stay in both Airbnb and Hotels using my points with the first stop being the InterContinental Le Moana Bora Bora. This picture is from just outside of our overwater bungalow. The best part is that it only rained one day for maybe 2 hours.⠀
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In 2015,⠀I took a solo trip to South America, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia, and Peru was my last stop on the South America leg of the trip. I was just a couple months into the trip, and I was already broke.
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Because we were so broke we didn't take the train to Machu Picchu so we decided to walk along the train tracks which took forever but we made it to the city. We didn't have enough energy to trek up the mountain so we took the bus with the old people.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5mmZxhzPO/
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We took a day trip from Lisbon to Cascais by train. It’s crazy cheap and it only takes 30 minutes to get there. The atmosphere is very different compared to Lisbon even though it’s so close. The view from the devil’s mouth was beautiful. It's pretty easy to walk there from the train, and it’s completely worth the journey.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CALb4luhHEr/
I did a quick Euro trip with some friends for a month and we ended up in beautiful Portugal. The coastline was beautiful.
A beautiful view of the Portuguese rooftops and sea after we hiked up the hills of Lisbon. Definitely more difficult to walk up than you think, but worth it for the view!
A few years ago, I took a solo trip to the Southwest US.⠀I hiked in St. George Utah and was amazed at how surreal⠀the red rocks and rolling hills look to a Midwest girl.⠀Can't wait to go back again to explore with Ditron.
Bali is one of my favorite places in all of SE Asia. I loved every bit of Thailand and Vietnam, but Bali is on a different level for many reasons. As soon as I landed in Ubud I instantly felt like I could stay here forever. The people are amazing and the food is to die for…lots of pork. Unfortunately, a few things did happen while I was in Kuta. A friend of mine got his wallet stolen in a club by a little kid. Nonetheless, this place made me want to stay for months…just not in Kuta.
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By now I’ve stayed in more than 20 hostels so I decided I wanted a real hotel room for a couple of days. I used my rewards points and stayed at the for 3 nights, and it was absolutely beautiful. We had an indoor-outdoor pool with the ocean only steps away. To make sure my stuff stayed safe I placed my passport in the hotel room lockbox. The day I checked out I decided I was going to rent a motorbike (Again…I should know better) and drive to Amed to meet up with some friends. After an hour of riding through the middle of Bali, I realized that I left my passport in that lockbox. I had absolutely no desire to turn back around and ride back to the hotel so I called and asked them to hold it at the front desk.
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So back to my journey, instead of taking the direct route through the middle of the island I decided to take the more coastal route. This is Bali so of course it started raining constantly so I had to pull over multiple times since I didn’t want to fall off this motorbike again. After the rain died down I started my journey again over a mountain. The view from the top of this thing was amazing as you can see. Even though the rice was already harvested the grass was still very green. After making it to the other side of the mountain there was another amazing view of Amed and the ocean…coming soon.
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Nine months into my solo trip around the world I end up in Thailand. My Southeast Asia trip revolved around me being in Thailand for the Lantern Festival (Yi Peng festival). Before the festival happened, I decided to do a little bit of island hopping.
It started in Koh Phangan for the full moon party, which is where everything went downhill. During a pool party I stepped on a piece of broken glass while barefoot, which left me with a massive cut…that I never properly got taken care of. To make matters even worse I decided to rent a motorbike for the first time, and I’m sure you know what happened. Just after it stopped raining I decided to ride up a hill and at the top was a patch of sand. I freaked out and locked up my front brake causing me to fall on my wrist which I’m pretty sure I broke. I also never got this injury properly taken care of either...of course. So now I’m limping with a wrist that hurts and a broken motorbike that I had to pay to get fixed. I decided to take my broken body and bruised ego to the next island…Koh Tao.
I didn’t know Koh Tao was the island that everyone went to when they wanted their PADI certificate so I didn’t plan to do any scuba diving while I was there. Even though I didn’t dive here I quickly fell in love with the place because of the amazing sea life around the island. Like a crazy person I decided to rent another motorbike and drive through the hills to Mango Bay. After the long journey through unpaved muddy roads I arrived at mango bay unscathed. The view of this place is amazing, but what made it special was that I decided to put my feet in the water and clownfish came up to me and started biting at my foot…I felt like I was in Finding Nemo. I wish I took pictures of this beach but I didn’t have my phone with me.
I was staying in the Taco Shack Hostel…yes that’s a real place. I remember drinking with random people at the hostel bar and one girl was really drunk and decided to order food. She was a 14 year vegetation so she ordered a veggie burger, but once she got it she didn’t realize it wasn’t veggie until she was halfway through the burger.
We place on going back to Thailand next year so I will have another chance to go back to Koh Tao. Maybe this time we will be able to do some diving unless I chicken out.
Another picture from my Ha Long Bay tour in 2015. This place is absolutely amazing, and the tour was absolutely worth it. I had my own room on the boat, and we learned how to make spring rolls.⠀
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We took an amazing ATV tour around Moorea with tours. It was one of the best tours of the trip. The view from Magic Mountain was amazing. ⠀
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Flashback to my year-long solo trip to Southeast Asia. I can’t wait to do it all over again with Emily.
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The faces of Roam to Rome. As you can see from the picture this isn’t Rome, but we met in Rome. We travel all over the world in search of the next amazing dinner, music festival, and a beautiful beach. Since has us stuck inside we have to wait a little longer to do all of that. ⠀
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The faces of Roam to Rome. As you can see from the picture this isn’t Rome, but we met in Rome. We travel all over the world in search of the next amazing dinner, music festival, and a beautiful beach. Since has us stuck inside we have to wait a little longer to do all of that. ⠀
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We can't complain about being quarantined in the beautiful city of Chicago for another month. (photo was taken prior to quarantine with DJI Mavic Mini)
For more pictures: https://www.instagram.com/roamtorome/
Another post capturing the Australian beauty and view from above of Seven Mike Beach.
For more pictures: https://www.instagram.com/roamtorome/
@ Seven Mile Beach
Another throwback to living abroad in Sydney. Beautiful sunset over the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
For more pictures: https://www.instagram.com/roamtorome/
One last reminder to enter our giveaway by Friday at 12:00 AM CST
We’re giving away 2 Eagle Creek Packing Cubes!
Follow the link in our bio and the instructions on how to enter. Good luck!
The first few trips will definitely be different, but we’re booking now in case the world changes faster than we imagined.
Back in 2015, during my gap year I spent a month in India. The architecture of the Taj Mahal was unforgettable.
Looking back at our time living in England... views of Stonehenge and Durdle Door in Dorset
@ United Kingdom
Eagle Creek Packing Cube Giveaway
Its giveaway time! As our first giveaway of the year, we are giving one lucky person a set of eagle creek compression packing cubes.
We know everyone’s ready to get back traveling soon so we’re kicking everything off with a giveaway.
We’re giving away 2 Eagle Creek Packing Cubes valued at $40.
GIVEAWAY ENTRY
To enter, go to the link in our bio and follow the instructions there!
The contest runs until 4/25 12:00AM CST
US addresses only
Good Luck!
This is our first giveaway of 4 this year with each increasing in value up to our $2,000 grand prize. Subscribe to the blog and follow us on our social media so you don’t miss out on any prizes.
Throwback to our 2019 trip to Morocco including a 3 day tour to the magical Sahara Desert by camel
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And FYI Sally the (Moroccan) camel only had one hump...
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@ Sahara Desert Morroco
A travel blog brings together people with like minds that would love to hear your story.
originally, I wanted to call the blog “Running Amok” but I was told by the smarter one (Emily) that Amok is an odd word and people will have problems spelling it. So of course, we choose a homophone as the blog name because that’s much easier for people to remember.
Sometimes we travel in our own backyard too... reminiscing about the changing colors and stunning hikes at Starved Rock
@ Starved Rock State Park
Check out our new post about Airbnb during quarantine.
Ditron and I are superfans of AirBnB so what’s happening to them and the entire travel industry is devastating. We’re hosts in Chicago, guests around the world, and often AirBnB experience tourists.
Traveling back in time to 2015, a 3-day tour to the Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia and biking down death road...
@ Salar De Uyuni - Bolivia
Remembering when we explored the ancient temples of Ankur Wat in Siem Riep...
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Patiently waiting for the day when we get to travel the world again
@ Siem Riep, Cambodia
We love Bali Sunsets...daydreaming of our next trip to Indonesia.
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