The first time I saw Lake Bled was in 2010, as an exchange student in Poland with a backpack and a rail map. 15 years later, I went back for my honeymoon.

From 21 December 2025 to 5 January 2026, my wife and I spent two weeks in Slovenia and Croatia, with Christmas at Lake Bled, a couple of days at a thermal spa, a night at Plitvice Lakes, and New Year in Zagreb.

Why Slovenia and Croatia for a December honeymoon?

Our brief was short: romantic, Christmas vibes, a little bit of luxury, and no dead towns. That last part matters more than it sounds, because a lot of Europe shuts down on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and a small town in winter can feel like a film set after the crew has gone home.

We weighed three options. South Korea had no closures at all, plus ski resorts and great shopping, but it felt more like a winter city break than a Christmas. Poland, Hungary and Romania had more snow and better value, with a lot more train-hopping. (Japan was on the list for a while too.)

Slovenia and Croatia won. Between them, they had the fairytale scenery, English spoken almost everywhere, quiet nature, and a Christmas market in Zagreb that runs into January.

So you might be thinking, what about the cold and the short days? Do note that daylight runs from roughly 7.30am to 4.15pm, so any long transfer has to fit into the middle of the day.

What is Lake Bled like at Christmas?

We flew in through Amsterdam, spent one night in Ljubljana, and then had 5 nights at Lake Bled. Bled is the postcard you have probably seen: a small church on an island in the middle of the lake, a castle on the cliff above it, and the Julian Alps behind.

The main event was our honeymoon photoshoot around the lake.

Bled is also the home of the original cream cake, the kremšnita, which is a tall slab of vanilla custard and whipped cream between two sheets of pastry.

One day we went up to Vogel, a ski area above Lake Bohinj, which is the wilder and quieter lake next door.

What do you do after Christmas?

You go somewhere warm, even in Slovenia. On 27 December, a private transfer took us east to Podčetrtek, close to the Croatian border, for 2 nights at a thermal spa resort.

Then another transfer took us south into Croatia, with a stop at Rastoke, a small village of old watermills where the river runs right between and under the houses. We spent one night at Plitvice Lakes, the national park of terraced lakes and waterfalls. In a cold snap, the waterfalls can freeze into curtains of ice.

From Plitvice, a FlixBus took us the last stretch to Zagreb. We never hired a car on this trip.

How is New Year in Zagreb?

We finished with 5 nights in Zagreb, and saw in 2026 there. Zagreb’s Advent market has been voted the best Christmas market in Europe several times, and it spreads across the whole city centre, with lights in the parks and food stalls on almost every square.

This was my third time in Croatia. I first came in 2010, and passed through Zagreb again at the end of 2019, on my Eastern Europe trip through 14 countries.

One tip from our planning that I would pass on: on 1 January, most restaurants in Zagreb close. The hotel restaurants stay open, so book one of those ahead. And the local dish our research kept pointing to was štrukli, a baked pastry filled with cottage cheese.

How did the trading fit in?

The same way it does on any trip, in about 15 minutes a day.

That short routine is what makes two weeks away possible at all, honeymoon included. The full setup, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, is in my post on how I trade while travelling.

What would I tell a friend?

If you are planning a winter trip to Slovenia and Croatia, three things I would tell a friend. Book your Christmas Day and New Year’s Day dinners early, because so much closes. Use private transfers or the bus between towns instead of driving on winter roads. And give Zagreb more nights than you think, since the Advent market is the reason to be there in December.

Have you spent Christmas in Europe? Which market would you pick? Let me know in the comments.

All my other trips are on the travel log, country by country, and more photos from this one are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.

Spencer Li

In June 2025, I spent 19 days crossing three countries in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

We flew into Baku on 9 June, crossed into Georgia, then into Armenia, and flew out of Yerevan on 27 June. A private car and a local driver-guide took us the whole way, with a new driver waiting at each border. This is the route, from my photos.

Why the Caucasus?

Three small countries, three alphabets and three faiths, wedged between Russia, Turkey and Iran. Georgia claims about 8,000 years of winemaking. Armenia is held to be the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301 AD. Azerbaijan has a hillside that burns on gas seeping out of the rock.

Armenia also sat at number 1 on my own list of places to go. Georgia was on it too.

So you might be thinking, how do you even get between them? You go the long way round. The border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is closed, so the route runs through Georgia, which is why our route went Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan.

What does Baku look like?

Baku was our first 4 nights. It is a city of two halves.

The new half is built on oil money. The Heydar Aliyev Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, is one long white curve with no straight edge on it. From Highland Park at sunset you see the bay below and the three Flame Towers right behind you. They light up at night.

The old half is the walled Old City, a UNESCO site of narrow lanes, with the Maiden Tower at its centre. Tucked into those lanes is a museum of miniature books, with a Guinness certificate on the wall. On the last evening we took a boat out on the bay.

Why is Azerbaijan called the land of fire?

Day 4 was out of the city.

At Gobustan, the rocks are covered in carvings of people and animals, made thousands of years ago. Then we rode out in an old car to the mud volcanoes. They are small grey cones in a flat field. Wet grey mud runs down their sides, and the ground around them dries into a cracked crust.

Then the fire. At Yanar Dag, a hillside burns on natural gas seeping from the rock, with flames licking out along the base of a low cliff. At the Ateshgah fire temple nearby, worshippers once kept a flame going for the same reason.

What is Sheki like?

On day 5 we drove north-west into the hills, stopping at waterfalls along the way and then at Nohur Lake near Gabala, where a row of boats was tied up along the water’s edge.

Sheki is an old Silk Road town in the foothills of the Caucasus. The Palace of the Sheki Khans is covered in tiles and painted panels, and its windows are shebeke: small pieces of coloured glass held in a wooden frame without glue or nails. Down the road is an old caravanserai, where traders on the Silk Road once stopped for the night, and in the village of Kish there is a small stone church said to be among the oldest in the Caucasus.

Lunch was Sheki piti, a lamb and chickpea stew. The broth came in its own bowl, apart from the meat and chickpeas.

Is the wine in Georgia really 8,000 years old?

We crossed into Georgia at Lagodekhi on day 7 and went up to Sighnaghi, a hilltop town that calls itself the “City of Love”. It rained most of the afternoon. The town walls and their gate towers still run round the hill.

The next day was Kakheti, the wine region, starting at the old Tsinandali estate.

Georgian wine is made in a qvevri, a huge clay jar buried in the ground, and the method is on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage. At a winery in Kakheti we tasted a Saperavi red made in qvevri, and an amber dry white from the Khikhvi grape, made the same way. The last glass was a fortified wine, which the menu said was made from more than 300 grape varieties from the winery’s own collection vineyard.

That night we were in Tbilisi, looking down on the city lights from Mtatsminda, the hill above it.

What do you see in Tbilisi?

Tbilisi’s old town is a jumble of carved wooden balconies, hanging over the street. Down by the river, the Peace Bridge is a curved canopy of steel and glass, Metekhi church sits on the cliff above the water, and a cable car runs up over the old town to the fortress.

On the way back down, a stall was selling churchkhela, strings of walnuts dipped again and again in thickened grape juice until they look like candles.

What is on the Georgian Military Road?

The road north from Tbilisi to Russia is the Georgian Military Road, and it is lined with sights.

Jvari monastery sits on a hill above Mtskheta, where two rivers meet. Further up, Ananuri is a fortress and church on the edge of a reservoir. Higher still, near Gudauri, the Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument is a big curved arch of painted tiles on the edge of a drop.

Most visitors stop at Kazbegi. The Gergeti Trinity Church sits on a ridge at about 2,170 metres, with the mountains behind it. On our last afternoon there, Mount Kazbek was clear, snow to the summit, right above the town.

Why is everything in Armenia carved into the rock?

We crossed into Armenia at Sadakhlo on day 13 and went south through the Debed valley, past its old stone monasteries, to Lake Sevan. The lake sits at about 1,900 metres. Sevanavank, a pair of dark stone churches, stands on the peninsula above it.

The next day started at the Arch of Charents, you look across the plain to Mount Ararat. Garni is a Greek-style temple from the first century AD. Below it, in the gorge, the Symphony of the Stones is a wall of basalt columns, so regular they look like organ pipes. Geghard is a monastery whose churches are partly carved out of the cliff itself, and inside, the walls are cut straight out of the rock.

Going south, we stopped at Khor Virap, the monastery right under Ararat. The mountain is in Turkey. Then came Areni. It is wine country again, with a barrel cellar and the Areni-1 cave, where archaeologists found what is thought to be the oldest known winery. Noravank sits at the end of a gorge of red cliffs. We ended that day in Jermuk, a spa town known for its mineral water and its waterfall.

What is the Wings of Tatev?

Day 16 was waterfalls and wildflowers on the road south, with a stop at the Shaki waterfall, fields of purple flowers and a travertine cave with pools inside. That night we slept at a small B&B in Tatev. Dinner was salads, cheese, pickles and lavash.

In the morning we saw Tatev monastery, with its old stone oil press, and then the Wings of Tatev. It is a cable car of 5,752 metres across the gorge, listed by Guinness in 2010 as the longest non-stop reversible aerial tramway in the world.

That afternoon we walked across the swinging bridge at Khndzoresk, a footbridge strung over a gorge to the old cave village on the other side. By dusk, on the way back to Yerevan, Ararat was in view again.

What is Yerevan like?

We finished with 2 nights in Yerevan. The Vernissage is an open-air market of carpets, crafts and paintings. The Cascade is a giant stairway of art and fountains, with sculptures at the bottom. From the top, at 19:35 on our last evening, you can see Ararat over the whole city.

How did the trading fit in?

The same way it always does, in about 15 minutes a day.

The trip ran right through the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and Iran borders both Azerbaijan and Armenia. My camera roll from those days has market screens between the monasteries. On the morning of day 5 there is a chart of how markets reacted to past wars and invasions. Then oil and strike headlines in Sheki the next evening, and a silver chart at 7:28 one morning on the Military Road day. The last is the news of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, on the morning we drove to Garni.

I wrote up how the routine works, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.

Where does it fit?

Every trip is on the travel log, country by country, and more photos from this one are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.

Have you been to any of the three? Which one would you pick first? Let me know in the comments.

Spencer Li