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Chicago in 2+ Days, 2026 (Draft)

Chicago | Perfect 2+ Day Itinerary & Food

My inlaws took our kids on a cruise. Childless during July 4th, my husband and I decided to take the opportunity for a couple's trip. The most interesting affordable destination was Chicago (under $300 from Boston). It was an amazing choice for architecture, arts, and food. While officially the 3rd largest city behind LA (too spread out), Chicago feels like a newer, cleaner New York with lots of high rises and friendlier locals.

Millenium Park

Centrally located, Millennium Park is a great place to start exploring Chicago. Some of the cool sites:

Cloud Gate "The Bean" - an instant people-magnet, its curved surface works like a funhouse mirror, especially the underside. Go in the early morning for the quieter view.

Pritzker Pavilion - next to the Bean is a concert hall designed by Frank Gehry and also shiny and cool! I'm bummed to have missed a concert here. Must be pretty epic.

Lake front & Beaches

Keep walking east, and you'll pass a delightful kids playground then hit Lake Michigan and the Lakefront Trail. You can also rent paddleboard and kayaks here. (Just call ahead as it's a bit weather dependent.)

The Lakefront Trail is AWESOME, it's 18.5 miles and link together multiple parks. I really enjoyed walk to Ohio Street Beach and admire the open water swimmers training with the Chicago skyline behind them. From here you can walk east to Navy Pier or further north on the trail to Lincoln Park, which we'll come back to in a bit.

Chicago Rivers

The Riverwalk is a 1.25-mile, pedestrian-only promenade along the south bank of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago.

Institute of Art

Field Museum

Green City Market

#chicago

Perfect Two+ Day Chicago Itinerary & Food

Chicago Sights | Perfect 2+ Day Itinerary & Food

Thanks to Google Gemini and some trial and adjustment, here's the Perfect Two+ Day Itinerary we followed. We also adjusted based on when it rained. We traveled during the July 4th weekend in 2026.

Note: it's not for the faint of heart. I'm an early riser and did a lot on my own before my husband woke up. Skip the italic part to save on energy.

Perfect 2+ Days in Chicago

Arriving in the evening

Take Orange Line train from Midway Airport to City Center. Great view of the city from the elevated L Train.

Check into hotel near Millennium Park.

See Cloud Gate and Crown Fountain in the twilight with a lively crowd.

Get drinks at Cindy's or similar rooftop bar overlooking Millenium Park (see photo above).

Day 1. Water and Cityscape

Starting 7am at Millennium Park, see Cloud Gate without the crowd.

Walking to Lake Michigan, and keep walking along the waterfront to really immerse in the view.

Walk the Lakefront Trail on the west hand side, so you can get a breathtaking first view of Chicago River below.

Keep walking to Ohio Street Beach for epic beach and high-rise view and admire the open-water swimmers training. Cold plunge here if you're feeling brave.

Go back to hotel, have breakfast.

Kayak the Chicago River with Urban Kayaks. One hour is plenty, you'll go as far as Franklin Street where the river branches. To save your energy, you can walk the south bank Riverwalk instead.

Lunch at Purple Pig or similar wonderful restaurant near the river. Pizza Portofino is another highly rated choice, overlooking the river.

Go to hotel and rest.

See Chicago Institute of Art, next to Millennium Park. I spent two hours just enjoying the impressionists and modernist art. Cap the time to save your energy and go back to hotel to rest.

Around sunset time or just before, take the First Lady Architecture River Cruise. Such a great way to learn about Chicago's history and amazing architecture. And what a view from the water!

Day 2. Authentic Chicago

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, check out Green City Market at Lincoln Park. You can take the Brown Line Train from Millennium Park. I'm so glad genAI recommended this, for a more authentic experience away from tourists.

If you didn't get to swim Lake Michigan at Ohio Street Beach, here is your second chance at the North Avenue Beach.

Take a cab to Chinatown to have authentic dimsum at MingHin or Phoenix. You can then take a walk through the Chinatown gate nearby.

Cab over to the Field Museum, walk to 2nd floor to join the dinosaur tour. Meet "Sue" the most complete T-Rex fossil and see the Archaeopteryx fossil. Pace yourself and don't overdo, it's huge.

Rest at hotel, souvenir shopping.

Dinner at a West Loop restaurant, e.g. Avec. If have time, can walk around the area known for food.

Where to stay

We stayed near the Millennium Park marked with a heart in the middle of the map below. It's very centrally located. You don't need a car to get around and can just walk to key sights or take a taxi (cheaper for shorter distance), or ride share. Parking can be difficult and expensive.

Chicago is a really well-laid out city. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 while tragic in wiping out the smaller wooden buildings, provided a unique opportunity for an intentional design, thus easy to get around.

We really loved our hotel Chicago Athletic Association (a Hyatt Hotel). It's so centrally located, with a rooftop bar cindy's overlooking the Millennium Park.

Chicago Food

Italian Beef at Portillo's

Our trips

2026

Morocco: Marrakech | Ourika | Moroccan Food | Travel Tips

Barcelona | Food

Japan: Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Travel Tips

2025

Banff

2024

Dublin & Ireland

Whistler Skiing: Vancouver Food | Whistler | Travel Tips

2023

Vail, Colorado

Lake Tahoe

Iceland: Reykjavik | Snæfellsjökull National Park | Snæfellsnes | Thingvellir & Reykjanes

Colombia: Cartagena | Rosario Islands | Bogota | Food & Travel Tips

2022

France: Paris | Food | Travel Tips

Belgium: Brussels | Bruges

2020

Pandemic outdoors: Boston | Cambridge

Utah Skiing: Deer Valley | Alta & Snowbird

2019

Phillippines: Coron Island | Manila

Japan: Tokyo | Kyoto | Japanese Food

Brazil: Sao Paulo | Rio de Janeiro

Providence, RI

Puerto Rico including amazing Vieques

2018

Miami & Everglades

Iceland: Overview | Blue Lagoon & Golden Circle | waterfalls & Vik | Glacier Lagoons | Travel tips

Amalfi Coast

2017

Vietnam

Cambodia: Ankor Wat

Krabi, Thailand

Barcelona

Minorca

2016

Kauai

Maui

Montreal & Quebec City

Guadeloupe

2015

Sanibel Island

Italy: Rome | Venice | Lake Como

2014

China: Guilin | Beijing | Shanghai | Hong Kong

#travel #travelwithkids #beach #food

Marrakech

We found Morocco to be of high contrasts, a feast for the senses. As Morocco's cultural center, Marrakech is centered on the Medina, the old town filled to the brim with shops known as souqs, and not open to cars though there are plenty of mopeds.

Jamaa el Fnaa - the main square gets filled up at sunset with everything you can imaging: food, shops, music, and exotic animals. It can get a bit overwhelming. You might find it easier at first to explore in the morning when the city is just waking up, without the crowds. But all that craziness is also what makes it so much fun. There's always a store, or 10, that sells what you're looking for.

There are also a few key attractions worth going to see.

Madrasa Ben Youssef a former madrasa, is a beautiful work of art.

The Secret Garden is perfect for a sunset visit, without the crowds. An oasis in the middle of a bustling city.

Bahia Palace can get crazy busy during the day.

Koutoubia is the bell tower with ruins of a larger mosque. Atmospheric to walk through in the early morning.

A few more street scenes...

Walking through the souqs and checking out the different wares, getting lost and discovering cool things is the main fun here. After 1.5 days here, we decided to try an excursion, to Ourika Valley. You can also learn more about Moroccan Food or our Travel Tips.

#morocco #marrakech

Ourika Valley

We were deciding between Agafay desert sunset dinner and camel ride or a drive out to Ourika Valley. I'm so glad my husband suggested watching some vids to make a call. Ourika Valley is beautiful to see and the hike to the waterfall was the highlight of the trip for me.

Ourika Valley is 1.5-2 hours drive from Marrakech. An hour in, and you can see an open view of the valley. A guide showed us a Berber House nearby. Berber is the traditional people of North Africa, before the Arabs came in 7th-10th century.

From the house (listed on Google Maps as Dar Fatima), you can see a beautiful view of the Atlas Mountains, some with snowy peaks. The house house was built using clay and straw. The owner was proud to share that his father's ancestor built the house 300 years ago, and it stood despite the magnitude 6.8 earthquake in 2023. Also fun to see is a small one-person sauna in the yard.

Deeper into the valley, you'll see tons of restaurant seatings next to the Ourika River, perfect for a relaxing and enjoyable meal with views.

We hired a guide to take us up to the Setti Fatma waterfalls, about a 30-minute hike. The hike itself is fun, and along the way you also learn about the Berber (Amazigh) people. After more than a thousand years of intermarriage with Arabs, the population is quite mixed. However, in the Atlas Mountains there are still more Berber communities, while in the cities people tend to identify more with Arab culture.

On the way down you'll see some friendly monkeys, very easy to feed. You can also pay for camel rides along the drive.

#morocco #ourikavalley #atlas mountains

Moroccan Food

One of the highlights of the trip is definitely the Moroccan Food.

You can eat really well here. On the high end, we loved the Slimana Restaurant, about €100-150 for 6 people including alcohol (not easy to find here and very expensive).

My daughter who loves vegetarian food was delighted at the vegetarian couscous, while the guys loved the hearty beef tanjia and lamb tagine. I enjoyed the varied Moroccan salads, little dishes with eggplants, olives, pepper, lentils, and a delicious gazpacho soup with cucumber and anise.

We also ate for €50 at simpler places like Dar Chef with delicious pastilla, or fried hexagons filled with chicken, seafood, or vegetables.

There are also simpler eateries like Chez Cherif, where you can get €6 set menu with kefta (ground meat) tagine or chicken skewers and little moroccan salad dishes. Yum! Keep going and you can find €1.5 to 2 sandwiches with grilled sausage, onion and tomatoes. The place near our Riad called Chez Hicham sells them like hot cakes.

Other memorable food experiences include rooftop restaurants with view of the busy souqs below, drinking Moroccan mint tea and resting our feet, or watching slow-cooked Tanjia pour out of a cup. The sweets here are so tasty as well, made of nuts, rose water, filo dough.

We also really enjoyed how our riad comes with a maid who cooked breakfast for us daily, with

Baghrir - spongy pancake with lots of holes

Msemmen - flaky layered flatbread - our fave

And a tray of condiments including fresh peanut butter.

#morocco #moroccan food #marrakech

Morocco Travel Tips

Ever since I learned how close Spain is to Morocco (17 km by ferry), I’ve been wanting to make the trip. Finally on my 4th trip, we made it to Morocco!

As Morocco’s cultural center, Marrakech is centered on the Medina, the old town filled to the brim with shops known as souqs, and is only for foot traffic.

Lodging

Staying near the main square of Jemaa el-Fnaa is a great way to be in the center of the action. We found it easy to walk to everywhere. We highly recommend staying at a riad, a traditional house. Ours fit the 6 of us, has a hot tub, and even comes with a maid who came and made us breakfast everyday!

You should arrange the hotel to pick you up from the airport, so that they'll not only send a taxi but also a porter who can help you carry luggage from the Shell station near the square to your hotel.

The only top attraction not in the Medina is Jardin Majorelle, a famous garden. So stay near the main square is a great way to explore the city. A related note, do book tickets for the Jardin Majorelle early. We tried to book it the day we arrived, and tickets were sold out.

All the other attractions are about 10 minutes walking away.

The local currency is Dhirum, about 10 to €1. You can get magnets for around €1, or a fresh meat sandwich for €2. So things are quite cheap here. You'll need to carry cash for everything. We kept having to go back to the ATM near the main square.

People speak good enough English for you to get around. So no stress there.

#morocco

Barcelona 2026

For April vacation week, we found cheap flights to Barcelona direct. This is our second trip here with family, having visited 9 years ago. The city is as beautiful as we remembered, and the food superb... probably as good as our other favorite, China.

Foundacion Miro Having already seen the Gaudi sites the last trip, this time we were curious of the rest. Foundacion Miro houses art by the Barcelona native surrealist in a perfectly designed setting. It's a short ride away via subway and funicular. We enjoyed the view, the architecture, as much as the art.

Miro is known his colorful, whimsical works, we learned he's also very much connected to Catalan rural tradition. There were artworks using farmer's sack, or dyed thick yarn.

Check out also how Miro subverts art traditions. Yes, that's a collection of 3 paintings with a hand-drawn line in each. :) And in the second example, he painted figures over a traditional landscape. That's ballsy!

We didn't have time to see the other famous museum MNAC, which is a short walk away in a beautiful building complex. The garden on the way down was fun to see. Be sure to stop by the excellent restaurant Santamadre Carn, peix i marisc, our favorite in Barcelona. See more in Barcelona Food .

The other site we visited was Ciutadella Park, complete with a green house and a ridiculously beautiful and gigantic fountain.

My daughter also found some unique shops like this beautiful candle shop. Walking around the more modern neighborhoods like Gràcia was fun. Yes, venture outside of the touristy parts: you'll see how beautiful it is here, everywhere you look. I told my family Barcelona is probably my favorite city to spend a bit of extra time. Not to mention the food!

#fc barcelona #spain #europe

Barcelona Food

Our family of very choosy eaters agree, Barcelona has the best food, on par with the best of China, our other family favorite. If you love seafood especially shellfish, you'll be in heaven here. If you love foie gras like I do, there's no better place anywhere.

We started our culinary experience with a visit to an old fave, Ciutat Comtal. Amazingly after 9 years, they charge only €2 (was 1 before) to add a giant piece of foie gras on top of the steak skewer. And what a beautiful setting for a restaurant.

Our favorite restaurant on the trip is Santamadre Carn, peix i marisc, near Foundacion Miro. The razor clams were so fresh, the waiter showed us that they are still moving. The waiter is very chatty and showed us how the proper way to serve tomato bread is in a bag. so you can spread the garlic and tomato. The artichoke was the best I've had, so tender. There wasn't a single false note in the entire meal, down to the hazelnut souffle dessert.

Yep, it helps to venture out of the touristy areas. Where you eat surrounded by locals.

This time we stayed just outside of Barri Gòtic near Jaume. It's a great location for food. Even the Pizza Local or Carmina pasta place just across the street from our Airbnb is so good.

We did try a sample of bakery items, and turned out the croissant, even from Brunells that won best of Spain, was just okay.

Last time we came, we really enjoyed El Quim from Mercat de la Boqueria. This time we found the market to be overly touristy and the seafood platter while good, way too expensive. The garlic shrimp and mushroom with port wine are the best.

The highlight of the trip for my daughter is the chocolate making class at Kina Chocolates.

#barcelona #spain #spanish food #europe

Tokyo 東京, Japan 2025-6

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

We stopped by Japan for 4 days back in 2019, and everyone felt we could've used more time. After finding out about Japow, the amazing snow in Hokkaido, we decided to make a new food & ski trip.

Toyosu Fish Market - Since we were jetlagged, we did our favorite food hack: I lined up at 4:30am at Sushi Dai at Toyosu Fish Market for amazing sushi. The line is even longer now but they've got a better system for ticketing. The abalone sushi and cooked tuna cheek that tastes like meat were the standout.

After, you can walk around the market where you'll find everything from fresh wasabi to view of commercial fish sale going on below. Be sure to also visit the garden roof, with a panorama view of the harbor and Tokyo. And on a good day you can see Mount Fuji!. If you want to see the 5:30 tuna auction, there's a viewing deck in the building across the street via footbridge. There's also the Senkyaku Banrai food market area nearby, lot of touristy offerings with mediocre food. The standout is Kanaloa the poke place on the third floor.

teamLab Planets - Close by Toyosu is teamLab Planets, the interactive exhibit. It's really fun and imaginative. We chose Planets where you'd get your feet wet. And we found out why, they project a koi pond on to the flowing water! And you can touch the fish and change them. It's so amazing to experience. There's plenty of others to experience.

This is the only other thing I planned on our Tokyo Itinerary, and well worth the 5,000 yen ($32) entry fee.

This time I didn't plan much besides flights and hotels, and asked the kids to figure out where to go. It worked very well. We also visited the next day...

Shibuya Crossing - my son had to visit the famous crossing and subway station, site of Jiujitsu Kaisen a popular anime. It's great for food and shopping as well. My son checked out the Animate Store to buy anime items for his friends, while my daughter visited Loft for matcha. We very much enjoyed the Japanese yakiniku with Wagyu at Yakiniku Futago. Also nearby is the Meiji Shrine, which I got to visit while the kids shopped at Omotesando (fancy name brands) and Harajuku (cute boutiques).

Day 3. I went with my son to Akihabara for more anime shopping, while my daughter and husband tried to shop at Roppongi but found many stores closed on a Sunday.

Akihabara - is the heart of electronics and anime. We saw long line of mostly men waiting around the block for pachinko stores to open. My son shopped at the Animate and Don Quijote store for anime souvenirs.

Imperial Garden - my son suggested we go for a walk there, great idea! It's an urban oasis, a giant park in the middle of Tokyo, where you can see gates and towers.

Ginza - where we stayed is a hub for upscale shopping. We stayed at a tiny Airbnb near the Kabuki Theater, and enjoyed being in the middle of everything. My daughter found an incredible 12-story stationary store called Itoya. There are counter where a lady sells pen like jewelry! We found a perfect bowl of ramen at Soranoiro, and amazing shaved ice Yukimido.

There's a lot of good food to be had in Japan! But we also had plenty of average food. More on that here.

Next, we flew to Sapporo, Hokkaido for skiing.

#tokyo #japan travel

Skiing at Niseko ニセコ

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

Niseko feels like the Vail of Japan. It's huge and overrun by westerners, maybe about 70% of the visitors. Understandable because the terrain is challenging and vast. No wonder it's featured everywhere.

It's made up of 4 resorts side by side. Grand Hirafu has the more challenging trails off of the bubble 6 lift. The various gondolas like Ace or King or Niseko takes you most of the way up the mountain, then you can take single person lifts to near the top. And if you're really feeling brave, like my kids, you can hike 30 minutes to the very top. Then it's just deep light powder down. I fell so many times in the 2 feet deep powder with my all-mountain skis. ;-)

Otherwise the skiing is quite nice, with many trails to choose from. And you can get a pass for a just a bit more to let you go all across the mountain, including to Hanazono with more groomed rails.

Even the food here feels like Vail food, overpriced but good quality.

Be careful not making the mistake we did of going down Niseko Village after 3:15. The Niseko Gondola closes right at that time, and you have to wait 20 minutes for a horribly slow shuttle that takes 45 minutes to get you to Grand Hirafu. Stick with Ace Gondola which returns you to the parking lot near the Welcome Center, or the King Gondola, both of which run thru to night skiing.

Nisko is on the other side of Mount Yotei 羊蹄山 Volcano from Rusutsu, a short drive away.

Last but not least, I do love the communal bath 大浴場 or 露天風呂 (for outdoors). Note it's called onsen when they use natural hot spring water vs. just hot water. It's so incredibly relaxing. And when I go early in the morning or late at night, there's often nobody else there.

#niseko #hokkaido #japan travel #skiing

Skiing at Rusutsu ルスツ | 留寿都

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

Hokkaido has the famous Japow - light dry fluffy snow. And Rusutsu Ski Resort has won best ski resort in Japan for 6 years. It has world-class tree skiing, possibly the best we've tried. We found it to be smaller and more manageable than Niseko, and feels more authentic, though a bit overrun with Asian tourists.

It's situated at the East side of Mount Yotei, and has an amazing view of the volcano. It's made up of Mount Isola the largest on the left, East Mountain in the middle, and West Mountain on the right, with also night skiing. You can park in the lot at the bottom of the East Mountain and traverse to Mount Isola. A gondola connects East Mountain to West Mountain.

What's really cool about Rusutsu is that the entire ski area is open for tree skiing. There's gentle slopes, challening slopes, all with lots of powdery snow.

We really enjoyed our 4.5 days skiing there. It snowed almost everyday. And it would snow then clear up, and snow again. Almost everyday we saw the sun. We appreciated the bubble cover for the quad lifts, that made it comfortable riding up the mountain.

Be sure to eat at the かつ処貫気別 tonkatsu restaurant, located in the same building as the more foreigner-friendly Isola 2000, at the bottom of the Isola Gondola. The tonkatsu is so incredibly juicy, and lightly fried. Goes perfectly with the rich curry sauce. My son considers this his favorite meal in Japan. I enjoyed the simpler beef curry.

The local mutton BBQ place Mokumokuya is all-you-can-eat. Wow it's so good.

We stayed near by at the cute little town of Kimobetsu. With view of Shiribetsu Mountain to the south and Mount Yotei to the West. It's big Airbnb with the most unique wall decoration ever. Convenient for some night skiing.

#hokkaido #japan travel #skiing

Sapporo, Hokkaido - 札幌, 北海道

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

The northern island of Hokkaido is known for perfect snow and skiing. The main city Sapporo is the gateway to that and fresh seafood. We got there via 1.5 flight from Tokyo to New Chitose Airport, then an hour drive. You can also take an 8-9 hour train ride.

We picked up our rental car near the airport, from Chinese workers at the Japan Rental Car. Driving on the left side of the road isn't easy, through a rainstorm!

Maybe because we stayed at the Susukino entertainment district, we found the city very touristy, with Asian tourists both domestic and from places like Southeast Asia, for many this is the first time they've seen snow.

Nijo Seafood Market is fun to walk through while we waited for a table at the Yoichiya Uni Specialty Restaurant. They have 11,000 Yen premium Hokkaido uni or Russian uni for 6,500. We actually enjoyed the fresh tuna more, the hair crab soup is not bad.

Sapporo Beer Museum - Sapporo Beer is famous, and the free museum is a lot of fun to visit and learn about its history. Made the beer tasting after even more enjoyable.

We enjoyed walking thru Tanukikoji Shopping Street (狸小路). This is a shopping arcade spanning multiple streets. You can get pretty much everything here! And yes great fun shopping at Tanukiya Souvenir Shop. We slso enjoyed walking thru the narrow Ramen Alley where you have to wait a while to get a bowl of ramen. Apparently miso ramen's invented in Sapporo.

My husband's favorite ramen on the trip is from Teshikaga Ramen in the Ramen Alley.

On the way back from skiing, we stopped again in Sapporo for the night. We found an excellent Izakaya called Shinamon Do on the 3rd floor, where we can hear lots of Japanese, always a good sign. The food is excellent, whether raw, the salad, or booked. We also enjoyed the Japanese hotpot. Do be aware that they charge 4000 off the bat for 4 people for drinks and appetizers even without you ordering. This restaurant is a good example of how you can't trust the western reviews on Google Maps with locals giving it 5s while foreigners complained about bad fries (?!)

What's also cool about Sapporo is there are ski resort all around. One is just 18 minutes from downtown, and offers night skiing! And it's just 1.5 hours from Rusutsu for world-class skiing, and Niseko just 30-40 minutes more.

#sapporo #hokkaido #japan travel

Japan Food 2025-6

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

Yes, after all the food I mentioned in the different blog posts, there's still room to do a whole post on Japanese food to do it justice. After all, besides skiing that's our other favorite thing on the trip.

Our family care a lot about food: we're willing to travel for it, wait in line, research it, etc.. And it's one of our favorite cuisines (along with Chinese and Italian). With the high expectation we did have a fair bit of frustrating experience on food. Paying more or going to a fancier place or wait in line doesn't always work to get the best food.

What I learned on this trip: Japanese food is really about the fresh taste of the ingredients and letting that shine. Some of our favorite food memories were at unexpected places:

Juicy tonkatsu curry at a ski resort - my son's fave

Tender fried chicken at our ski hotel - so tender the chicken here, makes you feel sad for all the dry chicken you've had in your life.

Lamb BBQ that has none of the usual lamb/gamy taste

Wagyu BBQ that's so soft it reminds me of toro (sashimi yellowtail belly)

Chicken ramen at an airport restaurant

Rich Cremia soft serve ice cream with Hokkaido cream and unique thin cookie cone - my husband and daughter's fave

Tuna cheek that tastes like beef

Onsen eggs, yes from convenient stores

Japanese red carrots - wow this is what carrots are supposed to taste? like tomatoes we all missed from our childhood.

Often it's one bite that make us say Wow, I didn't know you can have food that tastes like that!

We found most of these by a combination of Google Maps and trying out unexpected food. We read that Tabelog is a better way to find good restaurants, but maybe given we stayed at relatively touristy areas, that didn't pan out too well either.

We had plenty of expensive, long waited duds too:

Sapporo Uni - good but not sure if worth the expensive price, maybe get in smaller doses?

Cold crab meat - same, just not that great

Ramen at Sapporo's Ramen Alley - just okay after an hour wait in the cold. Another one had us come back after an hour and still wait for half hour but was good.

Hibiya food - we had two dinners there, trying to find dinner reservations the day of, and both were kind of meh. Just stay away from that area.

Some of our lessons:

Book restaurants early - I don't think we really figured out Tokyo restaurant booking.

See where locals wait in line - that's probably the best signal.

Check size of the restaurant - so you don't get stuck waiting a long time.

Watch for opening times - many restaurants close on Sunday or Mondays or during the New Year (1/1-4, sometimes 12/31 to later).

Google maps 4.8+ ratings are generally good.

Restaurants on the 2nd or 3rd floor are more likely to be good than those on ground floor. They have to work a bit extra to survive.

Just enjoy the full experience even if the food isn't the best. Like we've never tried Japanese sukiyaki before.

#japan travel tips #japan food #japan travel

Japan Travel Tips 2025-6

Tokyo | Sapporo | Rusutsu & Niseko Skiing | Food Tips | Travel Tips

We found a lot of things the hard way. Looking at what's already written out there, there are quite a bit not captured, so I'll spell it out here.

Book flight using Haneda Airport for Tokyo instead of Narita. The former is a 45 minute subway ride, easy; while the latter is more like 1 hour 45 minutes away. If you do get stuck with Narita, then don't take the subway alone, but use Skyliner which will shave off half hour at least.

Great time to go to Japan now due to friendly exchange rate. $1 USD is about 150 yen, so it feels like the whole country is 1/3 off. :) Meals to hotels all cheaper.

Register on Visit Japan Web to get tax-free purchases - about 10% off. Only our daughter completed this. Look for taxi-free counters, usually separate from the main counter. Note some stores do not accept the QR code generated, only actual passports, e.g. Onitsuka Tiger.

Language not a barrier. This is my 3rd time going to Japan, first time back in 2000. A lot more people speak English now or know how to use Google Translator. We didn't find language to be an issue, if that helps ease your worries of traveling. There are also a lot more foreign workers, from South Asians staffing the convenient stores to workers from UK and southeast Asia and Taiwan and China staffing the ski resorts. Related, there are a lot more foreigner tourists now. Granted, we stayed in touristy parts or went to touristy ski areas. Everywhere we go we hear foreign languages spoken.

Always book dinner reservation. We ended up eating Xmas dinner at the convenient store and Yoshinoya because we didn't have a reservation. And then second night we had a repeat! You just can't walk up to a restaurant and expect to eat. Google maps and Tabelog offer reservations, or you could also call up the restaurant, where many speak English.

Be prepared to wait in line for lunch. People typically don't reserve for lunch. And Japanese restaurants are small. Many have 10 or 12 seats. So around lunch time you'll see lines in front of restaurants, often across the street. Also, food can sell out. An udon shop we wanted to go to sold out their tickets by 11:50. So waiting at 12 noon is useless.

You'll need cash. You can use it to pay for train ticket, vending machines that don't accept credit cards. Look for ATMs and get it using your debit or credit card. I was stuck unable to buy from the vending machine, fortunately a very nice Japanese lady bought my drink for me.

8. Fortunately, convenient stores are awesome! You'll see 7-Eleven, Lawson, or Family Mart on every street corner. And they offer so many delicious food options, some of our favorites: - egg sandwich - my husband loves 7-Eleven's while I love the more flavorful one from Family Mart. - vegetables for one, from broccoli and soybean to tofu and seaweed, to bean sprouts. You can get your daily veggies here (since many Japanese meals can be a bit low on veggies) - onsen eggs and ramen eggs - the former especially is so tasty, with a bit of mirin flavoring - steamed buns - perfectly heated, tender and yummy, amazing! - hot tea - u can also get those from vending machines. You can get black bean tea if you worry about caffeine in the evening. - stewed pork - perfect for homemade ramen, with above eggs too. Makes it easy to make delicious ramen at home. - fresh fruits - especially mandarin oranges - tiny cream puffs, in a packet of 8 or so. wow so good. Sadly we only saw them once. - milk pudding - I don't know how they make it so rich and soft. - beer - so easy. - meat slices, e.g. duck or pig ear, or pork liver my personal favorite.

You can see how much we love the stores. Oh and yes they do carry the normal stuff like snacks and drinks.

#japan travel tips

Banff

At Calgary for a conference, I joined the bus tour for attendees to Banff. The view all along the way is simply spectacular.

Our drive followed the Bow River, which carries glacial water all the way to the Atlantic. And yes, you'll see glacier such as on Temple Mountain.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise is justly famous, with view of the Victoria Glacier right in the center, and turquoise colored water. Take the pathway to walk around the lake, going counter clockwise. It's impressive to see the color change from light green in the second picture to turquoise blue in this first picture, just with changing angle.

Our wonderful tour guide Cindy explained that the color comes from the glacier pressing on limestone and creating fine powder that act like tiny mirrors reflecting... so yes, the beautiful lake color is actually optical illusion. :)

Moraine Lake

Due to over-tourism, today you have to take a bus to see Moraine Lake. Stepping off the parking lot, the view is quite nice. For a better view, hike for 15 minutes (10 if you go fast) to the Rockpile Trail, and you'll be rewarded with a fairytale view of the 10 peaks. It's also called The $20 View because it was featured on the Canadian twenty-dollar bill back in the '70s.

Banff Town

The Drive

Talloires

In the middle of our week-long trip to France, we stayed for 4 nights at Talloires, a half-hour drive from Annecy. We arrived in the evening, and decided to go for a night swim anyway. A number of folks still stayed and the water temperature is still comfortable. Our kids even dived off the diving board. The restaurant next to the beach was still buzzing: the whole scene just felt so magical.

The next day we got to see the action live. Lots of fantastic dives. The water is such a pretty aquamarine, and the kids even saw fish. There's a water slide that everyone had fun with, and even beach volleyball which my son enjoyed very much.

The only downside is the rain, which there was a lot of this week. We had to pick and choose activities depending on the weather. We saw bikers everywhere in the mountains, and there's nice dedicated bike lanes. And so many paragliders!

Being in the mountains, there's good hiking too. The hike to Cascade d'Angon was especially nice, as it was easy for a good chunk, has amazing views and the waterfall is spectacular! From the parking lot, it was maybe 15-20 minute hike, mostly easy just the end part a bit steep but with railings. It will take a bit onger because you'd want to take lots of pictures.

#annecy #france #swimming #diving #europe #french alps

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