Worth Every Mile Travel Co.

08/19/2026

Worth every mile at Széchenyi Baths in Budapest. This reel is just the outdoor pools, but the inside is a whole other world; a maze of thermal rooms, steam halls, saunas and mineral pools tucked behind ornate archways that make the place feel like a palace built around hot water. Locals playing chess in the steam while we floated around trying to process that this is a real place people do on a Tuesday. Worth it or not worth it? 100% worth it, indoors and out.
Ashley Miner Halley Parker

08/11/2026

08/09/2026

Italy travel tip: what NOT to do on train day.

We turned one simple train day in Italy into a full blown scavenger hunt, and honestly, we had it coming.

We got off the ship at Livorno and went straight to the train station to buy our tickets for Pisa, Lucca, and Florence, all at once, thinking we had the whole day figured out. Well, that plan lasted about one train ride. The first train matched our ticket time, but it was not the one that matched our plan. We ended up in Pisa first when we meant to go to Florence first, which meant our whole day got flipped backwards and we had to rebuy tickets one at a time just to get the order right again.

Here is the part that makes it worse. On the way from the ship to the train station, I actually asked our cab driver if he had any advice for getting around Italy. He seemed honest, not the type to just volunteer random tips, so when he told us not to trust the transportation system, especially the trains, because none of it ran on schedule the way it was supposed to, we should have listened closely. Instead it went in one ear and out the other. We were careful to check the schedule boards once we got to the station, but we still did not fully grasp what he meant until we were already on the wrong train.

Here is the lesson learned. In Italy, buy your train tickets one leg at a time instead of all at once for the day. The schedule looks solid on paper, but platforms change, trains get swapped, and your “sure thing” can turn into a game of catch up real fast. It worked out, we still saw Pisa, Lucca, and Florence, just in a different order than planned. But if you are heading that way, build in some flexibility and maybe a sense of humor too.

Worth every mile, even the backwards ones.

# wortheverymile

08/05/2026

There’s no better way, they say, than to spend a day roaming Pompeii.

08/05/2026

I promised you the good, the bad, and the real, mistakes and all. So let’s kick things off with the time we almost missed our own cruise, and it all started with a pair of shoes.
Steve needed last minute shoes before boarding day, so we taxied to a shopping center on a pier across the bay. My sister, Lindsay and I grabbed Starbucks and had breakfast while we waited on him. Simple morning. Nothing to worry about. Except for one small detail we hadn’t thought through yet.
We checked Uber to get to the actual port, and it said fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, in a car, with an engine, on roads built for driving. Somehow my brain took that information and decided walking was basically the same thing, just slower. We had a good half hour before check in, so we figured, why not just walk?
That decision is where everything went sideways.
Here’s the part that still gets me. I know how massive the Norwegian Epic is. You cannot miss that ship. And yet I stood there looking across that water and could not spot it anywhere. I told myself a building or the curve of the coastline had to be blocking my view.
Except there was one, and I just hadn’t figured it out yet.
The ship was invisible because it wasn’t where we thought it was. Not even close.
So we started walking, and it took about thirty seconds to realize this was not the quick stroll we’d pictured. That bridge is not flat, it’s basically a hill with delusions of being a bridge, and it just kept climbing. No shade anywhere, just full sun and full luggage, so picture me dragging a suitcase uphill like I’d been signed up for a tourist Olympics event I never agreed to compete in.
And then I looked around and realized something even wilder.
We were not even close to the main characters of this disaster. There was an entire cast. Families everywhere doing the exact same walk, kids, grandparents, rolling suitcases as far as the eye could see, because apparently nobody had arranged transportation and cabs were not stopping. Buses kept cruising right past us like they were mocking our life choices. We were too deep in panic mode to stop and flag one down.
So we just kept walking, sweating, and watching the clock.
We made our boarding window with room to spare, thank goodness we always build in an early check in time for exactly this kind of chaos. But we walked onto that ship looking like we’d run a marathon in regular clothes, completely soaked through.
Lesson learned, and it’s a big one. Always arrange transportation to the cruise port ahead of time. Plan to arrive at least an hour early, not right at your check in window. Bring a coffee, grab a snack, and give yourself room to breathe instead of testing your cardio on a bridge in the Barcelona sun.
Worth every mile, even the ones that nearly took me out.
Video of the actual walk is below. You can hear exactly how well that was going. 🤪🛳️😅

08/04/2026

Cassis, France gave us one of those days where the plan and the reality did not match up, and it ended up teaching us something early on. We booked a kayak outing through Lo’Kayak, right on the water in town, with our sights set on paddling into the sea caves tucked into the Calanques, those dramatic limestone inlets carved into the coastline outside town. We got the kayaks, we got on the water, but the weather that day meant the caves themselves stayed out of reach, which was honestly the whole reason we booked it. It was a genuinely challenging day, and coming so early in the trip, it ended up being a good thing. We quickly learned that getting around France is nothing like Spain. Barcelona had been so easy, and Cassis threw us a curveball on transportation for our first time in France. That challenge ended up preparing us for the ones still ahead. Even without the caves, paddling below those cliffs in that tiny harbor town was still beautiful, and it was a reminder that not every travel day goes as planned. Have you ever had a trip get rearranged by weather?

08/03/2026

Budapest is quirky; to say the least. I’ve never seen so many tables and chairs nailed to the wall in the name of decor/art, but it definitely works and is solidly part of what makes Budapest so much fun. Castles galore and one pretty neat looking Parliament ;)

08/02/2026

Volume up! You can hear the Zadar Sea Organ.