Destination
Phuket Hidden Gems: Quiet Beaches, Old Town and the Traps That Cost Travellers Money
Phuket hidden gems 2026: quiet beaches, Old Phuket Town, Phang Nga Bay, the Similan season, the free TDAC and cheap airport transfers.…
About us
Frangipani Travel is a travel blog from Vienna – written by two people who would rather be on the road than at home.
We are two people from Vienna who would rather be travelling than at home – with a dog, laptops and usually our own car or a rental. It all started in 2023 in Bali, with an earthquake in the middle of the night that we will never forget. Since then: Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Norway all the way to the North Cape, Sweden, Finland, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and the USA – more than 30 trips to 35 countries, mostly by car, often for weeks at a time. We also run two businesses in Vienna, which is why we often travel for longer and work on the road, with Starlink in the boot and Wise as our business account.
On this site we only write about places we have been to ourselves: where we slept, what it cost, what we got wrong. The partner links (Airbnb, Discover Cars, Wise, Starlink, SafetyWing, GetYourGuide) fund the site – if you book through them we earn a small commission and you don’t pay more. We only link what we use ourselves.
Where next
Iceland in December/January – winter, northern lights and the Ring Road by rental car. In between we like to fly spontaneously when a good flight comes up. We keep building the site while we travel and report live from the road.
Our guides in English
Destination
Paris Hidden Gems: 15 Places Beyond the Crowds – and the Traps That Cost You Money
Paris hidden gems 2026: 15 quiet spots, free museums, Seine swimming, airport taxi flat rates and the official ticket sites that save you mo…
Destination
Iceland in winter: hidden gems, northern lights and the traps nobody mentions
Iceland in winter: aurora tips, ice caves, Secret Lagoon, Reynisfjara status 2026, winter tyres, parking fees and the official sites that sa…
Travel tips
How many countries are there? 193, 195 or 197 – the honest answer
How many countries are there? 193 UN states, 195 with Vatican and Palestine, 197 on the US list – Taiwan, Kosovo, sources and visa money-sav…
Destination
Los Angeles by camper – Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica, Venice and a hotel made of graffiti
LA is not a city but a motorway with a city around it. How we spent a week with a camper, a rental car and too many sunsets.…
Destination
Dalmatia around Vodice: Croatia twice outside the peak season – and the Krka waterfalls
In March 2024 and June 2025 we were in northern Dalmatia between Biograd and Vodice. Why the off-season is so good there, how to get there f…
Destination
Kraków for New Year’s Eve: Rynek, Wawel and Kazimierz – ten winter days before Zakopane
From 30 December 2025 to 9 January 2026 in Kraków, then ten days in Zakopane. New Year's Eve on the Main Square, Wawel, the Jewish quarter o…
Travel tips
Booking Airbnb the right way: how we find the good apartments
For years we have booked almost nothing but apartments. These filters, rules and questions for the host save us from nasty surprises.…
Destination
Travelling to Moscow in 2026: the current situation for Austrians
Moscow trip today: the Foreign Ministry travel warning, visas, flight routes, paying without Visa/Mastercard, internet – an overview for Aus…
Destination
Rio de Janeiro – Copacabana in the morning, Ipanema in the evening and the question of safety
A week in Rio as the start of our trip to Brazil: the beach promenade, kiosk culture, Sugarloaf Mountain – and our honest take on safety.…
Destination
Brazil – Atins, the Lençóis Maranhenses and Iguaçu: six weeks that were too short
From Rio to the northeast: the Iguaçu Falls, long-distance buses, a house in the dunes near Barreirinhas and the white sand dunes with rainw…
Destination
Finland in winter: Lapland and Rovaniemi – northern lights, Santa Claus Village and reindeer sleighs
Rovaniemi in winter: northern lights, Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle and reindeer sleigh rides in Finnish Lapland – with time need…
Contact
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Travel blog from Vienna: the bottom line
As a travel blog from Vienna, we write for people who want to know honestly what a trip was really like. We also show how far you can get from Vienna by car – to Venice, Kraków or all the way to Greece. That is why every guide includes the real dates, prices and our mistakes. All destinations are listed on our destinations page; to learn more about our home city, visit the official city portal wien.info.