When you’re planning a vacation and someone sends you a Google Map, you know you’ve won the lottery.
AND HELLO! I’ve just returned from a whirlwind trip to Edinburgh and Praiano (well, London then Edinburgh then Naples then Pompeii then Praiano then Rome then Boston…an accidental euro summer), and wow, I did not think I was going to share a travel guide. But after this trip? I simply must.
I have an interesting history with travel. I think I’m pretty good at it… (but don’t we all?), I tend to plan a little looser than some of my friends (you will find no infographics here!), and I like to think I get what I want out of every travel experience. I did a lot of solo trips in my early twenties (I worked weekends, so I would take a redeye flight after work on Sunday like a crazy person, then stay in a city until I had to fly back on Thursday, like a crazy person), but with those trips the stakes were low. As I’ve gotten older, it’s easy to fall into the “experience-as-currency” trap. Like: You MUST get the best time out of every experience or that experience isn’t worth it, kind of trap. Which made vacationing stressful. Especially in this job, I felt like all my recommendations had to be the *best*, which is a tall order when you’re traveling somewhere new!
So for this euro trip we took, I told myself it was pure vacation. No crazy pressure, no crazy planning, no crazy price tag. And in doing that (and of course, relying on some of our local friends for their top-tier recommendations), I feel like we had a trip where we really nailed it. Hidden beaches, local sandwich shops, very broken Italian conversations - I couldn’t wait to share it with you all!
For Edinburgh, I just did a round-up of restaurants and places we really loved going, and for Praiano, I dive a bit more into our itinerary and tips (the Amalfi Coast is bananas). I did have a few people DM me asking not to “blow up” the Praiano section of the Amalfi Coast, but I trust that only cool and respectful people follow me, so when you do book travel here, you’ll be cool and respectful about it. Cool?
Okay, read on for the favorites!
The one thing I can say about Edinburgh is I wish I had more time. There’s so much to do, but really we mostly ate and explored, and here were some of my top picks:
Dean Village & Circus Lane - perfect for grabbing a coffee and strolling through, just be respectful of the people who live there, it would be wild to live in a tourist spot like that!
Topping & Company Booksellers - a great place to simmer down and breathe after hiking Arthur’s Seat! And I needed to breathe…..deeply lol.
Lannan is absolutely worth the hype. We went twice because on day one we were way too late to sample everything we wanted. So queue up by 8am if you want the full list of items!
Harkness Pies, you simply must go! It’s tiny and smells delicious, and is delicious. Handpies forever.
Ante is a cafe where the menu feels like it was built for me. Rhubarb porridge for breakfast and a crab and cabbage slaw sandwich on brioche for lunch? Dreamy.
The Outsider - you know how much I love a handwritten menu and a cheeky wine list. This place has stunner views of the Edinburgh Castle, so it fills up with tourists and locals alike. They only take bookings by phone, but I highly, highly recommend a reservation.
Spry Wine Bar - right above Ante, and a perfect place to split a bottle of wine and be wowed by their creative, inventive and yet somehow still homey-feeling menu. It’s small plates, so there’s room to get many.
Thistle Street Bar - I wanted to go to this because it was cute. SUE ME. Turns out, it was cute, and a great place for a sneaky pint after exploring a few museums nearby.
The Devil’s Advocate - if you’re staying near Royal Mile, this is a cool environment for a late night nightcap. Very spooky. However, probably wouldn’t recommend the food.
Now this is the part of the trip I’m very proud of.
Praiano is the city that sits between Positano and Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast. And after visiting all three cities, I really don’t think I can recommend staying anywhere else.
Everywhere you go on the Amalfi Coast will feel a bit touristy, but Praiano feels untouched in a way. Quiet, calm, and filled with great food and small rocky beaches. The most challenging part is getting around, but after that everything is easy-breezy. We found that since we were staying outside the months of July/August, we didn’t need any reservations or plans. Which for me, was a relief.
We hopped between two airbnbs during this leg of our trip, but of the two, I cannot recommend La Barbera Bed & Breakfast enough. At €390 a night it is a bit on the pricier side, but the views were stunning and the hospitality was off the charts. We skipped our welcome drink because we were tired, but when we came down later to get some spritzes, they made us up a whole little (complimentary!) aperitivo. AND YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT TARALLI.
Also, get the cake at breakfast. You must.
We rented a car through Sixt at the Naples airport. Driving in Naples and to the coast is a bit nuts, but very doable, and just gives you an extra level of freedom for getting to/from the beaches I’m about to mention.
We also used the bus system. Praiano has two bus systems that are incredibly easy to navigate. One will take you to Positano and back, and one does an internal loop in Praiano, which saved us from so…so many stairs. The bus schedule was pretty accurate, which made planning easy.
And yes, boats! In Positano, instead of taking the bus back, you can just walk up to one of the boat companies on the beach and asked if they can ferry you to where you need to go. For us, this was Marina del Praia (the main beach in Praiano), and for €30 we got an immediate private boat taxi back to where we needed to be. Our driver (captain? idk) took his time and gave us a tour of the blue and green caves along the coast line, probably because I look like a person who tips. But either way, it was a great way to save money compared to proper boat tours, while still getting a similar experience.
The beaches were my favorite part. The first one is definitely “discovered,” but the second one I still can’t find on Google Maps, which makes it all the more precious to me. And let’s be clear, no beach is a bad beach. I just like to think of the beaches in Positano like a bachelorette party, and the beaches I’m about to list here are like your grandma’s backyard in the summer.
Fiordo di Furore - a free, small beach where you can rent lounge chairs from a nice guy for €10, and he probably makes a killing. We got there around 10am and had the place nearly to ourselves. There is a bus line that goes directly here, but we parked at Ristorante Euroconca, which looks like a tourist-bait place to eat, but they kindly let us park for €15 for the whole day.
The unnamed beach in Conca dei Mari - to find this beach you have to map a route to this restaurant, La Tonnarella, and then you’ll get your reward. It’s a tiny beach (where you can also rent lounge chairs!), but it was definitely a 70/30 split between locals and tourists. While it is small, it felt comparable in size to Marina del Praia, just way less crowded. La Tonnarella boats people in from Amalfi for lunch, but that saddest thing was seeing them come, eat, then leave. To get the full experience, I highly recommend getting to the beach, having a long lunch, then lounging and swimming until 4-5pm when the sun finally leaves the beach. It felt like our own version of the Da Adolfo Beach Club, just on our own schedule (and budget).
And of course, it’s crowded, but the water at Marina del Praia is bluer than I’ve ever seen. It’s worth a stop by, maybe not to stay, but definitely to see!
This is what you came for, no? While I might not be supremely confident in my trip planning, I am SUPREMELY confident in my ability to sniff out what’s a tourist trap that has bad food, a tourist trap that has good food (they exist!), and a gem. Here were my favorite gems in Praiano:
Kasai - for the best pasta in Praiano, we still talk about the sea urchin and hazelnut linguine. This place you might want a reservation for, although it’s not impossible to be a walk-in. Also great for lunch.
Che Bonta - this one errs on the side of tourist-trap-y, but the food was amazing. Get the pizzas, skip the pastas. Get any anchovies they are frying that day.
La Tonnarella - I’m not sure why this place has anything less than raving reviews, we went twice and had a great experience both times. The best thing was watching them deliver boxes of pasta to old Italian men on the beach (this familial service is reserved for older Italian regulars and not American tourists, sadly).
Cafe Mirante - A bar you should absolutely go to for sunset. Amazing drinks, really nice people. And taralli <3
La Moressa - On the fancier side, but the best pizza we had of the trip. And that’s not just because I made friends with the man shaping pizza dough while I was waiting for the bathroom.
Luisa gastronomia artigianale - Okay, a rare Amalfi mention, but this place is such a gem! I found it by following an older Italian couple who were buying prosciutto, which can only be a good sign. Get your beach sandwiches here and skip all the busy spots on the water. The owner here was so, so nice.
*Also, breakfast isn’t really an easy thing to find here. I recommend staying in a place where breakfast is provided, since that will always be a bit better than what you can find in town!
So in other news…I might take up scrapbooking. I know this was a marathon of a post, but I hope it helps if you ever decide to go to either of these places! It will be up on the blog shortly, but for now, feel free to save it for when you need it. And I’ll get to work on more google maps!
I can’t wait to get back to my kitchen to cook for you, but I hope this reminds you to TAKE YOUR PTO.
Ily very much, until next week,
Xoxo,
Sisterhood of the Traveling_Snacks
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