Greece, Croatia and Ireland: A Different Kind of Trip

The Greece, Croatia, and Ireland trip I’ve been looking forward to more than any other this year is finally here! It’s also coming at a good time. Tasted and Traveled has been a little quiet lately because I’ve been focused on launching Cork and Copper, the wine and whiskey tasting experience business I started with my friend and business partner Jerome, and preparing for my WSET Level 2 wine certification.

Now the exam is behind me, Cork and Copper is moving forward, and I can finally turn my attention back to travel.

In just a few days, I’ll board a flight to Greece. My 17-day Greece, Croatia, and Ireland trip will begin with a wedding in Athens, continue through Split and Dubrovnik, and end with a week of remote work in Dublin. I’ll stand on the Cliffs of Moher, kiss the Blarney Stone, and hopefully come home with a camera full of memories and a notebook full of stories.

But this trip feels different. Not because of where I’m going, but because of how I’m approaching it. For the first time, I’m traveling with the intention of slowing down even more than I have in the past. Very little is planned beyond my flights, hotels and a few key experiences. I’m intentionally leaving plenty of room for spontaneous discoveries.

Over the past year, Tasted and Traveled has grown from a place where I shared my adventures into something much more meaningful. I’ve realized that my favorite memories aren’t always the famous landmarks or the “must-see” attractions. They’re the conversations with locals, the quiet mornings over coffee, the meal that surprised me, or the street I wandered simply because I had nowhere else to be. This trip is built around those moments.

It begins in Athens, where I’ll celebrate the wedding of someone I’ve known for nearly a decade. Laksh was the first newly minted college graduate I had the pleasure of managing as he began his consulting career. Over the past nine years, I’ve had the privilege of watching him build an incredible career and now begin a new chapter in life.

Being invited to celebrate this milestone with him, his fiancée Sibel, and their families is an incredible honor. Even more special, it will be a two-day celebration that brings together Indian and Greek wedding traditions. I am so excited to experience it all. It’s a reminder that some of the most meaningful journeys begin not with a destination, but with an invitation. You can read all about their story here!. They outdid themselves with their wedding website, sparing no detail and making it so easy for their guests to plan.

I want to actually slow down, sit by the water and enjoy where I am. I am making room for one experience I’ve really been looking forward to: a sunset trip to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon. Between the history, the views over the Aegean and the timing, it feels like exactly the kind of experience worth leaving the beach chair for.

From Greece, I’ll head to Croatia.I’ll spend time exploring Split from inside the walls of Diocletian’s Palace before continuing to Dubrovnik, where I’m looking forward to early mornings, quiet stone streets, and discovering the city before the cruise crowds arrive.

Then comes something completely new for me. Instead of taking vacation for the entire trip, I’ll spend a week working remotely from Dublin. Because my workday won’t begin until 2:00 PM local time, I’ll have each morning to explore the city at a slower pace. I’m looking forward to coffee shops, neighborhoods, museums, parks, and whatever unexpected discoveries come along the way. I’m curious to see what it feels like to experience a city this way instead of trying to squeeze everything into a long weekend.

I’ll wrap up the trip with day tours to the Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Castle before flying home with what I hope is a camera full of photos, a notebook full of stories and plenty of inspiration for the months ahead.

I’m also trying something new behind the scenes. This will be my first major trip traveling with an Insta360 camera. Instead of rushing to publish while I’m away, I’m planning to collect stories first and share them thoughtfully after I return. My goal is to spend less time worrying about posting in real time and more time noticing the little details that make a place memorable. Though I am sure a few moments will still find their way to an Instagram Reel or two.

If you’ve been following Tasted and Traveled for a while, thank you for coming along for the journey. I hope this series gives you practical ideas for your own travels, but even more than that, I hope it encourages you to slow down, wander a little longer, and discover the stories waiting between the highlights.

The adventure is about to begin, and I can’t wait to share it with you.