As much as I love summer and the sea, when it comes to autumn, I love to go visit as often as I can the mountains. If there’s a lake involve, even better. You know how wonderful and magical the italian Alps are, so when my friend asked me if I want to join her in a trip at Braies Lake, I could not say no to her.

Usually to go to lake Braies from Milan, is a pain in the a…. If you take the train from Milano Centrale ( Central Station ) you have to go to Verona Porta Nuova, from there, taking another train to Fortezza and from Fortezza another one to Vilabassa Braies. From Vilabassa you can arrive at lake Braies with a bus. All this adventure it will cost you arround 35-75 euros and 7,5 hours of your day. With the bus from Milan to Braies is pretty much the same amount of money and time. The most convenient way is by car. Around 4 or 5 hours.

Anyway, I did not choose any of the options above. My friend knows a company ( HAZ TOURS on facebook, and by the way: this is not sponsored! I just want to share my tips when it comes to road trips or travels, because I always talk about how a place makes me feel but never about how I get there and how much I spend ) that does national and international trips at a very low-cost. For example, this trip costed me 40 euros with breakfast included ( a croissant and fruit juice ). The departure took place at 6:40 in the morning and due to an increase traffic we arrived there at 12:00 AM instead of 11:00 AM, but I did not feel the burn of staying in a bus that long because there was a tv and we watched two movies at the time we got there, pus the view from my window was fantastic, so no time for me to get bored.

My advises when it comes to travel:

• Forget about the idea that you need a lot of money to travel.
• Always search for alternatives. If a plain is too expensive, search the train. Join Facebook groups who organize trips in popular places. Talk with friends, rent a car, split the expenses.
• Book in advance the tickets and the hotel. It will save you some money.
• Spontaneous trips are the best. If something comes your way ( like this trip came to me ) say yes! You never know when another opportunity could come again. I never planned on going at Braies and here I am now, writing about it. Those 40 euros were well spend.
• Choose to travel in out season months. It’s cheaper and you can actually enjoy the place without being overwhelmed by the crowd. For instance; my trip to Capri, Naples and Amalfi Coast at the end of June was really cheap. 3 nights in an apartment ( a shitty one tho ) plus the train tickets costed me a total of 360 euros. Winning!! Not to talk about my week on Cote d’Azur with my mom, in mid July. Train tickets for two plus that fabulous apartment made a total of 370 euros. France is cheaper (and chicest) than Italy.

At the moment I can’t think at other advises, this is what I do and I always get to see fantastic places without spending too much. But even if you get to spend much on a trip, don’t be sorry. As the quote says: “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”.

The memories that a travel gave you are priceless.

And about the lake, what can I say…It’s marvelous. useless to say that once arrived there I started to breathe in and breath out like a crazy person in a desperate need/wish to fill my lungs with that fresh air. It reminded me about the place I was born and grown up. Carpathians Mountains in the north of Romania. I really needed that escape! Nothing compares with fresh mountain air! It took us about two hours to make the entire walk around the lake, with a lot of pit stops of course. Every corner required a picture or two or just stopping and admiring the surrounding. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic! We also took the boat. The cost of a boat is 25 euros for an hour. We split the cost in two. It was really nice to do that. We had a lot of fun about our struggle to guide that boat. Looks easy but it’s not. At least not for two girls with zero experience and very weak arms. At the end of the trip we stopped at one of the several terraces to enjoy the view for the last time and eat a strudel! Oh boy, how I loved that strudel.

Hope you like reading this article and you find it helpful. If you have some tips about your travels I would love to read them.

Stay inspired

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Alina