Trekking the Planet RTW – Europe

In this video, Sandy provides her first impressions of Europe. She also reviews our plans for the next few weeks.

After over three months in Asia, Europe is the next continent on our journey. Our new experiences began with our first stop in Europe, Latvia.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time in Riga, Latvia. In this video, you will see the sites around town as well as some of the Art Nouveau buildings that made Riga famous. At the end of the video, you will learn about their visit to the…

We have spent the past few days in the capital cities of Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland. The two cities are located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) across the Gulf of Finland from one another. We enjoyed learning about the history and culture of both places.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time in Helsinki, Finland! In 2012, Helsinki was named World Design Capital. In this video, you will see why.

Sandy writes about her return to Sweden 30 years after she was an exchange student in the country.

As we approached our first trek in Europe we knew that it would be unlike anything we had attempted to date. We would also be trekking in one of the harshest environments in the world, in Lapland, located above the Arctic Circle.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time on the Kungsleden Trek above the arctic circle in the Lapland region of Northern Sweden.

Scandinavia is one of the most beautiful areas in the world. It is also one of the most expensive places to visit. Darren writes about our tips on saving money in this region.

We did not have the budget to cruise down the Norwegian coast and see the fjords by sea. So we pieced together an overland itinerary to see as much of this scenic country as possible.

See photos and video clips of Copenhagen and learn about their innovative bicycle super highway.

During our week in Poland, we received a great introduction to the country, a ‘primer’ of sorts. We wanted to learn more about this country’s culture and its turbulent history. In addition, we wanted to view its natural features by bus and train.

Ewa Gawryla, Krokov city guide, describes the conditions that existed in Krakow during World War II. The interview was performed outside of the Oskar Schindler Factory – a new museum in Krakow

After 10 days in Poland and Slovakia, we have left Eastern Europe to visit Germany. We chose to stay in two cities that we had not previously visited, Dresden and Bamberg. Germany is also the place for a very special family reunion, almost exactly halfway into our 14-month trip.

Witness Sandy and Darren’s reunion with their daughters, Lauren and Kristen, after seven months apart. This video also features a Q&A session with them about travel.

We have just completed our second European trek. This four-day hike took us through a small section of the Julian Alps, in the country of Slovenia. We wanted to hike here to take advantage of the hut-to-hut system, which is a type of trekking found in Europe.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time in the country of Slovenia.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they visited the Palace of Godollo, which is located about 20 miles / 30 kilometers east of Budapest, Hungary.

Traveling through Europe may not pose some of the challenges found in Asia or Africa, but we have had our own set of problems to solve as we make our way through a total of 19 countries.

We journeyed to Romania to visit two different areas of the country that we wanted to experience before they become more popular in the future. Learn about our two views of Romania by reading more of the story.

In the places we have visited so far in Europe, we have sampled the local food wherever possible. What follows are the highlights of our food experiences from Latvia, through Scandinavia, and on to Slovenia.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time in the northern Romania visiting the Painted Monasteries.

While traveling through the Balkan Peninsula, we visited the countries of Bulgaria and Serbia. We targeted one destination in each country to explore.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they cover their time in Croatia.

After 41 days of traveling through 10 Eastern European countries we have reached our final nation – Croatia. Here, we chose to spend a week in three different places within this small but diverse country.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as they review their time in Europe and also discuss their upcoming trip to Kenya and Ethiopia in Africa. In all, they will be spending six weeks between the two countries, while trekking, on safari and visiting historical sites.

Sandy writes about our stay in Italy and taking time to recharge in the Italian Alps before our journey to Africa.

Sandy looks back at some of the local food highlights during the second portion of our Europe journey, as we traveled from Hungary to Italy.

We are back at sea and on the Pacific Princess, as we travel from Rome, Italy, to Manaus, Brazil, over the next 32 days. As we began our journey we visited three ports in the Mediterranean Sea.

Catch up with the Trekking the Planet team as Darren and Sandy review their entire journey. In this video, you will hear about the team’s adventures as they sought to bring geography to life. The interview takes place just days after they arrive home, with questions from their daughter Kristen.

Here are all eight of the Trekking the Planet recap videos, filmed throughout our journey, in one place!

One of the great pleasures of traveling is the culinary journey taken in trying food from the places you visit. While on our expedition, we wrote several articles about our food experiences. Read all six stories here!

During our 14 month around-the-world journey, we completed 12 treks in some of the most remote places in the world. While trekking we filmed our experiences and created short videos to summarize our time.

During our global travels we interviewed a wide variety of people. Take a look at our interviews!