Category: Best Of

Our Tokyo Adventure

We arrived in Tokyo at the break of dawn after two flights and a layover, a long day. After taking the train into the city, we dropped our bags at a hotel (not our hotel, but close enough), and started exploring. Our Tokyo adventure began with a free walking tour and continued with lots of fun in Japan’s sprawling capital city. Our introduction to Japan, Tokyo is overwhelming and enchanting and we loved it.

About Tokyo

Tokyo is so big that all the neighborhoods are their own cities. It is massive, both physically and population-wise. In fact, Tokyo has the largest population of any city, with 37 million people. I have lived in big cities, including NYC, and Tokyo still overwhelmed me. It’s bigger and busier and electric. The good news is, it is very safe. If we got lost, we found help, and if we lost something, it was returned to us.

Overview of Our Tokyo Adventure

We had five days and nights for Tokyo, and we did a lot but also barely scraped the surface. Since we planned it so last minute while waiting on our boat insurance, we didn’t book any of the big attractions in advance. Our Toyko adventure was more about experiencing the city.

Free Walking Tour

We arrived in Japan early in the morning, so after dropping off our luggage and fueling up with much needed coffee, we took a free walking tour. The three hour tour hit a couple of neighborhoods, including Akihabara and Ueno Park. Still, the guide gave us some great tips and we got some exercise after our long trip from Australia.

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Tasmania Highlights

If you like nature, wildlife, and delicious food, add Tasmania to your list of places to visit. Our Tasmania road trip featured all that and more. I had previously envisioned Tassie as a mini New Zealand, but the state stands out as it’s own place with it’s own slow pace and friendly personality. Australia is a casual country, where even in Sydney, its biggest city, you’ll often see barefoot surfers waiting for the bus. Tasmania, with the world’s cleanest air and loads of natural scenery, is even more relaxed. If you have months, take them to explore this beautiful state. We had too little time and jammed it with these Tasmania highlights.

Tasmanian Islands

The state of Tasmania is made up of 334 islands. The two we visited, Bruny and Maria (pronounced Mariah, as in Carey) islands, were easily among our Tasmania highlights.

BRUNY ISLAND

Located south of Hobart and a twenty minute ferry ride across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island is known for its natural beauty and fresh and delicious food.

Bruny Island neck
Beautiful view from our tour of Bruny Island, Tasmania
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Best of Sydney

We loved Sydney. After sailing there for the holidays, it was hard to leave. What started as a month long visit became a wonderful two month stay. I miss the city’s clean streets, happy residents, busy bars and restaurants, excellent museums, and fun festivals. The best of Sydney ranges from cool music venues to funky neighborhoods to free art galleries and beautiful hikes.

Best Anchorage: Glebe Bay

My list of the best of Sydney wouldn’t be complete without talking about where we spent most of our time on the boat. Sydney has a lot of great anchorages, and it’s easy to move around as long as you avoid the ferries. You can anchor somewhere for great beaches and elsewhere for the fireworks. For us, the most convenient bay for shops and sightseeing was Glebe, which has three anchorages.

Glebe, Blackwattle and Rozelle were great anchorages for the selection of safe and convenient dinghy docks. We had dinghy parking at the fish market, the ferry dock, or Rozelle Bay park, giving us access to multiple shops, restaurants, and transit lines.

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