If you read our blog earlier this week, you learned we have moved up our date to begin leading group experiences*. If you missed the blog, it’s a great story; you can read it by clicking here. We are taking our first group to walk on the Camino de Santiago this July 7-18, 2025. Below are details about what to expect on the trip, followed by the total costs for singles, doubles, and singles in shared rooms, the registration deadline, and what is not included. If this doesn’t work for you this year, we will have a trip for you next year, which is summarized at the end of the blog.
As of March 24, 2025 – The trip is SOLD OUT. Please subscribe to see what trips we will be adding in the future!
What to expect:
You can walk every day on the Camino Frances from Samos to Santiago de Compostela, covering 132 kilometers or 82 miles over seven days.
You don’t have to walk at all. There will be plenty to do for people of varying physical abilities.
Light continental breakfast, typically coffee and a pastry
Have a communal dinner with your group every night, including multiple courses and wine. These will not typically be your average “pilgrim” dinner – when you are Cruisin’ with the Colemans, you are with foodies!
Private or semi-private (with another group member) rooms that fit your needs
Daily luggage transfer: all you have to carry is a light pack with just your snacks and water
Transfer to/from Santiago airport at the start of the trip
Daytime transfer if you need to skip a part of the walk
Begin in the small village of Samos to explore the Monastery of San Xulián de Samos, built in the sixth century
Rest day near the end of the trip in Santiago de Compostela with guided or not guided time in the old town
On the rest day in Santiago, we will explore the Cathedral and the museum and do a rooftop tour of the church. A botafumeiro is not guaranteed during mass (this is a $3000 expense)
Enjoy a traditional guiemada ceremony as a group after dinner in Santiago de Compostela
Group bus trip to Finisterre to enjoy the beach, shop, take the 2.5 km walk to the lighthouse for sunset, and celebrate with a group dinner
Transfer back to Santiago de Compostela for the end of the trip
Advance support for planning your trip
Camino 101 Zoom sessions to get ready and get familiar with those you will be traveling with
Help to make travel arrangements to/from Spain, including suggested flights from the US to Spain
Credential, pilgrim shell, and travel wallet to carry your pilgrim credential and passport
Thumb drive of photos and completed summary videos of your trip
The Cost Breakdown of the Trip:
For those who are traveling as a couple, your cost for all of the above will be $4,350 total
For those who are traveling solo but are willing to share a room with another member of the group, your cost for all of the above will be $2,600
To secure your spot on the trip, a $500 non-refundable deposit is due immediately. The remainder is due by June 1. Payment plans are encouraged.
Deadline to Sign Up: The registration deadline is April 1st or as soon as we reach 12 people.
What is Not Included: Your only remaining expenses are your gear, daily lunch and snacks, and airfare from your hometown to Santiago de Compostela airport or Sarria train station. We will have a car ready to pick you up and take you to our starting point. If you need assistance, we can help you plan your flight. Most people fly into Madrid and then take a connecting flight or a train to Santiago de Compostela.
Can’t make it this year but want to go Cruisin’ with the Colemans next year? As of February 2025, we plan to offer much more group travel! In 2026, we are looking at a walking tour in Italy; in 2027, we are walking the Camino Portuguese from Porto to Santiago. We are also looking at future caravan opportunities for our RV friends!
*We are not certified travel agents, but we are experienced travelers and educators with over 25 years of leading group experiences. We organize travel experiences to destinations we know well from our own journeys. However, we do not claim to be experts on the various cultures or locations we visit. If available, we may hire a local expert to enhance your travel experience.
A budget for any vacation/holiday is a personal topic. It’s scary to allow others to see how we chose to spend our money. We risk judgment and ridicule. However, the benefits of sharing go back to the theme of all my blogs which is to share all parts of our Camino experiences despite what others think. I am an open book and will remain that way. You’re welcome. ❤️
We have walked 3 pilgrimages, the Camino Frances, Camino Portuguese, and the Via Francigena from Switzerland to Rome. We found it was the cheapest to walk the Camino Frances and the most expensive was the Via Francigena. If you want to see our YouTube videos on our latest walk, the Via Francigena, please click here.
A typical bunkroom in Switzerland
With some exceptions, you can find lodging from as cheap as a donativo where you make a donation for a bed, typically in a shared bunk room, with a shared bathroom. Sometimes that accommodation has bedding but you usually need to bring your own. Occasionally your host will serve a communal dinner but it is expected that you would leave more money. A typical donation is anywhere from €10-20 per person.
On the Via Francigena, you can camp in many places if you have a tent but I don’t know much more than that because we have never made the decision to camp. I know it’s illegal to wild camp in Spain but I also have known those who do it from time to time. Again, not my area of expertise.
The entrance of our donativo lodging in Cort St. Andrea
With all of the pilgrimages we have done, we use guidebooks. They include lodging suggestions ranging from a donativo, camping, churches, municipalities, and private lodgings. When creating our reservations we always start with the guidebooks and create a plan from there.
Speaking of a plan, that’s another factor – to plan your reservations ahead or not. Some people will reserve a night or two ahead, especially in the busy season. Some people will just wing it every day, letting their feet decide how far they will walk each day. Others, like us, plan out all of our reservations ahead of time. There is no right or wrong way to plan…or not. It’s up to you and your personal preference.
Why do we choose to plan every night in advance? It’s a great question, haha. I mean, what if there’s an injury? What if we just can’t walk that far? What if we meet people we really want to walk with but can’t because they are staying in different places? Life is full of “what ifs.” We have also experienced every one of those challenges.
On our Camino Portugues, I had a foot injury and we had to rent bikes for a few weeks to give my foot a break. This meant we didn’t bike very far every day because we had to stick to our lodging plan. We made a few changes along the way to have some longer days more suited for a bike but only with the refundable reservations.
We always have days when we just can’t walk as far as we planned. However, we aren’t purists so we are ok with grabbing a bus, train, or taxi. We have to walk during the hottest part of the year so there are always going to be challenges, heat or not honestly. Creating a plan works for us because we enjoy trip planning. We enjoy making a few decisions while walking a pilgrimage. We like looking forward to planned rest days in villages/cities we have developed an interest in during our planning. Finally, as a couple, it gives us one less thing to debate when we are hot, tired, and crabby. My philosophy is I can argue for free at home but when on vacation/holiday, I don’t want to argue. Haha! Plus, planning gives us something to think about when the school year is getting exhausting or the winter months are feeling long.
Knocking on the budget door!
But you came here for a budget talk. There are a lot of factors that go into a budget for anyone. We have a few basic expectations if possible: (1) A private room because it’s the summer when we are walking and it’s too hot to be in a room with others. Additionally, snoring and the noise of a shared room are not something we prefer. A good night’s sleep is critical. (2) A private bathroom is ideal but not required. A shared bathroom is ok from time to time if it saves us money but we really like a private bathroom. (3) We want shared experiences with other pilgrims so we look for accommodations for pilgrims with a communal dinner and then ask if they have private rooms. Many times they do if you ask early enough, as these tend to book up early. (4) Since we are walking in the heat of the summer we look for places with air conditioning from time to time and more often when we are experiencing excessive heat. These are the most expensive rooms but necessary for relief from the heat. I get terrible heat rash in the summer and only a cool night’s sleep brings me relief from it. (5) When we are booking a two-night stay we always look for a private room, with a private bathroom, with air conditioning. This is the ideal situation unless the air conditioning isn’t working but that’s another subject.
The joys of a private room
I mentioned you can find rooms for €10-20 a person and in order to make our budget work we find rooms like this from time to time. Other rooms in accommodations for pilgrims can run us €35-50 total for both of us. A room from websites like Booking.com can run €50 to over €100, depending on the city. Of course, your bigger cities will have all types of accommodations for any budget.
For comparison, in 2017 on the Camino Frances, our budget averaged €50 a night but if we were to do it again we could do better to lower that budget. We didn’t stay in as many pilgrim accommodations as we could have then. We’ve learned a lot since 2017. Though with inflation, who knows for sure what our budget will be?
In 2019, on the Camino Portuguese, we walked the coastal route which is more expensive. Our budget averaged €65 a night. However, we struggled to find pilgrim accommodations on the coast. In retrospect, I think we could have done a better job and lowered that cost a bit.
In 2022, on the Via Francigena, we averaged €75 a night. Our cheapest nights were donativo’s at €20. We had a few pricey nights because we took rest days in Marina de Massa and on Lake Bolsena. But we have no regrets. This was our 15 wedding anniversary trip and our 50th birthday trip. It was all we dreamed about and more.
We didn’t spend money on laundry because we hand-washed our clothes every day. Our only other expense was the occasional pharmacy run for compeed or anti-inflammatory cream, food, and of course, wine.
Sometimes you just need Doritos and wine… in bed while your laundry is drying 😆
A food budget is extremely subjective. There is no way we can compare food budgets and be helpful. First, I am married to a foodie so getting him to pull back on trying every new dish is impossible. Second, we are wine lovers so there has to be a wine budget. And why not, it’s Italy!
We saved food money by utilizing any free breakfast food offered even if it didn’t appeal to us. We packed them as snacks or enjoyed them immediately. We limited our espresso budget and only enjoyed a good cappuccino from time to time, sorry we aren’t coffee lovers. We would grab food in a market whenever possible. But our love of cocktails, wine, and outstanding dinners made our budget a bit bigger. We spent about €75 a day on food.
As the CFO of our family, my goal is to stay within our budget and never have credit card debt. We want to retire debt-free and retirement gets closer every year. We did what we set out to do. Are we more cash-poor because of it? Yes! But the memories are priceless and you can’t take it with you! ❤️
Our trips may look extravagant to some but when you’re on pilgrimage there are no souvenirs. We took a long walk to Rome and enjoyed every step, even the rough ones.
There are a plethora of great quotes about wine and I love them as much as I love deep, old, rich, luxurious red wine. I like my wine to smell good, have long legs, and stay in my mouth longer than my throat. Is it getting hot in here or is it me? I haven’t had any wine in five weeks and it shows in my writing. 🤣 If you don’t know anything about red wine you are probably lost but stick with me and will get through this post together. Wine is a metaphor for life and today I have quite a tasting flight for you.
Just like I had in post #3 in this series, I have a disclaimer: We don’t have an addiction to alcohol. We have traveled the world, and unlike in the US, most of the world takes a different view on alcohol. It’s ok to have a glass or two of alcohol with dinner, maybe have an occasional night with more. It probably is not ok when your body craves it, can’t get enough of it, and you can’t stop drinking when you start. I am not an expert in any of the subjects I discuss, they are merely my life experiences and insights. As I have said previously, I lived with an alcoholic many years ago. The destruction was devastating and I never wish that addiction on anyone. Brian and I know our limits. We consciously take time off from alcohol. For example, we typically take 4 weeks off at the start of the year for a good cleanse during “Dry January” and we are currently on week 5 of no alcohol. What wait? 5 weeks! Crazy Americans! I know, tell me about it or should I say let me tell you about it. Haha!
“[Her] lips drink water but [her] heart drinks wine,”
~ EE Cummings
Did you know there are 463 quotes with the word “wine” in them on GoodReads? 70 countries produce wine. There are over 100 bible verses about wine. Why does the world love wine so much? Maybe it is the fond memories, new experiences, a conversation starter with new people, the diversity of wine, the connection to Earth in the grapes, or that the process of making wine is fascinating. There are many reasons but this blog post is about how it adds to our life and how it doesn’t always help us reach our health goals.
“Beer is made by men, wine by God,”
~ Martin Luther
For me, the bottom is line is alcohol is only a problem when my goal is weight loss. During our two years practicing intermittent fasting (IF), I have learned I can maintain my weight while enjoying life with alcohol in it. Hallelujah! I could never make that statement while on Weight Watchers, following the Biggest Loser plan, or using the MyFitnessPal app. When we lost weight the first time, we were told to eat all of the time, count points, and if I had a glass of wine I gained weight quickly and couldn’t lose it. Besides having to eat tiny, unsatisfying meals 6-7 times a time, not being able to enjoy the finer things like a good bottle of red wine was something I couldn’t live with forever.
Just like with food, I don’t want to feel guilty every time I say “yes” to wine. See part 3 in this series to understand my relationship with guilt and eating. I am trying to rid myself of everything that makes me feel guilty. I don’t want to have to say, “No, I can’t, I’m dieting.” UGH – Dieting STINKS! To me, I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was always on a diet. Honestly, if I died today, that could easily be the quote on my tombstone, “Michelle: The girl who was never happy with her weight and was always on a diet.” Yuck, yuck, yuck! I want my tombstone to say, “Michelle: She lived life to the fullest and always said yes to new experiences.” As a disclaimer, I will be cremated with my ashes spread on top of a mountain with an amazing view and there won’t actually be a tombstone, so there’s that detail. 😊
2017 – Walking the Camino Frances, living our best life with good food & wine
I believe wine is a metaphor for life. First, wine needs patience. Shouldn’t we all be a bit more patient with ourselves, our shortcomings, and definitely with others? Everyone walking this Earth is on their own journey, doing the best they can, and we cannot rush change. Though I wish we could rush change when it comes to racism and sexism, that’s a topic for another day. We don’t know the burdens other people carry around. If I believed in rushing change, I would have had gastric bypass surgery years ago when the scale read well over 300 pounds. That was a choice I couldn’t make back then, though I am not judging anyone else’s choices. I knew if I would have had the surgery, I would find a way around that tiny stomach and would have gained all of the weight back and more. That’s just me. I don’t do well with “cannot,” rather I need, “yes you can.” I can have wine, pizza, and burgers without someone else or a surgically induced tiny stomach creating limitations. I need to find the patience to create my own limitations. For example, I have decided to break up with wine for 3 months (and all alcohol) not because I need to or someone told me I need to, I want the change to achieve my goals. 2020 was rough, and like most of the world, I consumed more than my fair share of alcohol. So I decided to take a break so I can clear my head, my soul, and my liver. 😊 It’s always better when it’s our choice to make a change. I need to clarify one thing in case you see a post on social media, we will have wine on Valentine’s Day along with a romantic dinner for two. We aren’t monsters. 😂 We enjoy celebrations with wine and I don’t see that changing… ever. The glasses of wine in the photo at the top of this post are from 2019 when we celebrated walking to the end of the Earth together on the Camino de Santiago. You will often see us celebrating accomplishments with a nice dinner and wine.
Moving on, wine is complex and multi-layered. Just like with life, there are so many complexities it can be near impossible to stick with a diet 100% of the time. Which is OK!! Sometimes we need a vacation, a break, a burger, and a beautiful glass of wine. It is why I am no longer dieting – IF is my lifestyle. Sometimes it will be low in carbs and other times high in carbs. I am not changing what I eat rather when I eat and, I believe, that makes all the difference. Before IF, my hormones were so messed up that one week on vacation or even one weekend of amazing eating would throw everything off, and I would not be able to lose the weight I gained. I was in a complex spiral of weight problems and hormone nightmares. Once I decided to never diet again but rather understand the journey I was on more clearly (with the help of a fantastic doctor), change was real. I needed patience, I needed to understand the complexity of hormones, and I needed to work through the layers of misinformation I have put my body through. I have been dieting since I knew what the word meant and my body needed time to believe I would never put it through a diet again! Ever, never. I don’t know if my metabolism will ever be “normal” again but I sure am trying to love myself, my hormones, and my metabolism again. IF is not a diet to me. Like wine, IF can be complex to achieve your goals but it doesn’t have to be complicated forever. The simple side of fasting is: you eat, you fast. The layers that can make it complicated include what your goals are for fasting, how long you fast, what you eat when you feast. That is all personal, is always changing to meet your needs, and most importantly you need to reach to the experts for help. I am not an expert.
Third, a wine needs to be paired well to be at its best. I’m quite lucky to have a partner who jumped on the IF journey with me from the start. I pray you are able to surround yourself with people who lift you up, support you, and encourage your decisions. We all need more cheerleaders and fewer critics. A good marriage is made up of two people who can be completely different but pair well together. Brian and I aren’t always on the same page, aren’t always looking for the same outcome, and sometimes we do more harm than good when trying to achieve a goal. We have a saying that when we are good together, we are unstoppable but when we are in the mood to sabotage, we can be very bad together. 😂 For example, if we are fasting on a random Saturday and I said to Brian (or he said to me), “I really want pizza tonight and some wine,” it would be extremely challenging for either of us to continue to fast. When we are “flexing our fasting muscles,” we are unstoppable but we can just as easily push the other person into the deep end of a deep-dish pizza. 😂 How do we focus on achieving our goals? Boundaries, topics that are off-limits, and forgiveness is a must. Food is an off-limits topic on fasting days. Further, we recognize though we are individuals, we share a home that needs boundaries so what’s in the pantry, the fridge, or the liquor cabinet needs to support both of our goals. It also means we have created a schedule based on how we pair together. Those are just a few of the things that we found have worked. Every couple is different. The ultimate goal is to determine how you pair with the people around you to bring out the best in each other.
Finally, wine has many varieties. Yes, it does and just like with people we come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities. 🙌🏼 You don’t have to like every wine but you can appreciate the differences they bring to a meal. Did you know that wine tastes different based on what food it is or is not served with? It’s shocking how different the same glass of wine can taste with fish, steak filets, or nothing at all. Sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s downright skunky. Wine not only needs to be paired well but everyone has a different palate so the varieties are important for enjoyment. We don’t have to like every person that comes into our lives but we should be kind, fair, and non-judgmental. It is not our job to judge where someone is on their journey, what they look like, or what choices they make. Our job is to support other people and to be an example of kindness and forgiveness. We should appreciate that variety is the spice of life and we all need a bit of spice! 🌶
Do I miss wine when I am cleansing? Sure, when I see it on TV or when I am enjoying a good meal and know what wine would be amazing with it. However, my goals are more important. I can’t always say that because sometimes wine is more important. 😂 It’s a bit easier to take a break from wine right now because of COVID. We are not going out like we normally do and our social life is null and void. For better or worse, this time of COVID has created a space in my life to be more like wine. Instead of drinking wine, I am learning to be patient, I appreciate who I am paired with, and I am keeping my life full of variety with other things I enjoy. Sometimes it is OK to hang out in the wine cellar and wait until it is your time to pop the cork.
Next week will mark 6 weeks on our new IF regimen. I will show you some photos of our journey because we can already see a difference in our bodies! Hint: We both have already lost more than 13 pounds each! I will talk about the lessons we have learned throughout our 2 years of practicing intermittent fasting. Thank you for coming along. Thank you for supporting our journey with your kindness. Subscribe to our blog for notifications each time a new blog comes out.
Be kind to one another. Love yourself. You have one person and one person alone to look at in the mirror for the rest of your life. It’s important to love what you see in the reflection. For better or worse, love yourself more than you love wine. ❤️
To go back and re-read this series from the start, click here. To read post #6 in this series, click here. Want to know more about IF? Something you want to be explained further? Leave a comment! I always welcome topic inspiration.
Food is not in a pill. It’s not in a juice, a bar, a powder, a diet label, and it definitely is not in a pill. Food is real. It is crunchy, flavorful, chewy, colorful, and can bring people great joy. We need food to live and it is meant to be enjoyed. If you eat something because a diet plan tells you to eat it and it doesn’t bring you joy, I get it. I have been eating foods that I don’t enjoy for too long. Guilt and food describe my life in short. Until January 2019 when I decided to try eating without guilt.
Food is meant to be enjoyed.
I wish I could remove all guilt. Unlike other life experiences, guilt doesn’t do us any good. It makes some of us eat more. It can make us crave unhealthy food and drink. We think food/drinks will make us feel better, remove the guilt, but it does nothing but make us feel worse. This is the story of my entire life – eat, feel guilty, eat more, drink something to ignore the guilt, continue this never-ending cycle.
Disclaimer: We talk openly about food addiction and are well aware of our keenness for food. We continually work to redefine our food relationship. We don’t have an addiction to alcohol. We have traveled the world, and unlike in the US, most of the world takes a different view on alcohol. It’s ok to have a glass or two of alcohol with dinner, maybe have an occasional night with more. It’s not ok when your body craves it, can’t get enough of it, and you can’t stop drinking when you start. I lived with an alcoholic. It was painful to watch the destruction. I never wish that addiction on anyone. Brian and I love to enjoy good wine, creative cocktails, and we know our limits. We consciously take time off from alcohol. For example, we typically take 4-6 weeks off at the start of the year for a good cleanse. As of this post, we are on week 4 of “dry January,” we haven’t decided when we will start drinking again, and I promise, we will be talking more about alcohol in another post. For now, back to food!
When I found intermittent fasting (IF), the prison walls of guilt eating started to crumble. They still stand but there are huge cracks in my prison cell. To read about how my IF journey started, click here and read post one in this series. I don’t know if I will ever be paroled from guilt. I feel guilty for what comes out of my mouth, what goes into my mouth, and much more. If you don’t struggle with guilt, I wholeheartedly commend you. I am not here to talk to you about where my guilt comes from, my therapist holds the key to that web, but I do want to tell you about how the prison walls started cracking and the bars began to open. Though I haven’t always practiced IF “correctly,” I have seen I can eat one or two meals a day without my warden, guilt.
I vividly remember when I started IF in mid-January 2019 because I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted as long as I only ate one meal a day. I was in love with my new regimen. For the first time in my life, I ate whatever I wanted without guilt. It was like the warden let me have a taste of the great outdoors. Mind you, Brian had not started IF but he was thrilled when I would text him and ask him to bring home pizza. He was curious as to how I was eating our favorite foods for dinner and losing weight. I am confident it is why he so quickly jumped into practicing IF himself. Who wouldn’t? Since we were already denying ourselves wine because it was “dry January,” then pizza, tacos, and burgers were the perfect substitutes. Another Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, rather I am just sharing our journey. If you read the first two blogs in this series, you know that we haven’t practice IF “correctly,” and ultimately, we didn’t lose any long-term weight but we did maintain our weight which was, at the time, a major victory.
Something was working with this practice of intermittent fasting. I lost weight in the beginning, Brian did too. What we now understand is that it wasn’t our time for weight loss. First, we had much to learn about eating without guilt. We had to in essence give ourselves permission to just eat because we had been dieting since our marriage started. But let’s get back to 2019. February came too fast, we started to add wine back in with many evening meals. March and April came even faster and we got busy with Brian’s musical (something we produce together for Brian’s high school students). We loosened up the one meal a day and started having a snack and a meal. Then summer came. If you don’t know, we spend our summers adventuring either in our RV or on the Camino. In 2019 we walked the Camino which you can read about here. We planned to walk 10-15 miles a day so we worried that we needed to eat more. We still practiced IF but we only skipped breakfast. Further, we drank way too much of that beautiful Spanish wine and indulged in too many plates of mouthwatering Portuguese pastries. We were on a two-month holiday and it was wonderful.
However, once those habits changed to a wider eating window it was excruciating to go back to one meal a day. In fall 2019 we stuck with eating two meals a day and have been practicing that ever since. In 2020 we continued to fast for about 18 hours a day, eating lunch, snacks, and dinner in a 6-hour window. You would think it would lead to weight loss if you have read about intermittent fasting but you don’t yet know what we ate in that window. 🤣 I’m getting there.
For the most part, our previous weight loss success was by following Weight Watchers. We learned we should eat 6 or 7 times a day to “keep our metabolism up.” That’s a truckload of crap, people! A truckload of full-on crap! All that eating plan did was make me feel deprived, tired, and upset that I would only ever eat tiny, unsatisfying meals. The worst of it: Not only did we believe we needed 6-7 meals a day but we told others they did too. We told people breakfast is the most important meal of the day. More crap! I want to genuinely apologize to each person we fed that information to in the past. I am deeply sorry. Breakfast means to “break your fast.” It is not the most important meal of the day, that is just what cereal makers want us to believe. Read this blog on Dr. Jason Fung’s website, or this one on the calorie debacle, and then read his books (linked below).
Why do we still practice intermittent fasting if we haven’t lost weight? Because we both feel a thousand times better than we did on weight watchers or not following any eating plan at all. We eat real food. We eat food that feeds the soul. We eat food without guilt. In 2020 we tried eating Keto. It’s ok but I love bread. I already have to eat gluten-free for my gut health. I have been gluten-free since 2013 and my gut is much happier. Managing my PCOS and Hashimoto’s well means being gluten-free but that’s another story, for now, back to bread… mmmm! We lowered our carbs and were feeling good but we both refuse to ever go back to counting anything. We are not now, nor ever, going to count calories, carbs, fat, or anything. We want to eat (feasting), we want to not eat (fasting). That’s it. We never again want to agonize over anything or any number again. We did that for too long and we weren’t happy. But yes, we started settling into a decent low carb life, we were feeling good, and then COVID happened in late March 2020.
COVID cocktail hour while our Governor provided daily briefings
Here’s how the rest of 2020 eating looked: Open our eating window with a cocktail hour, eat lunch, continue the evening with more cocktails or wine, eat a hearty dinner, and maybe have a dessert. In our six-hour eating window, we enjoyed delicious food and mouth-watering drinks. We managed our feelings and isolation the only way we knew how – to eat and drink. But that’s ok. Our world was experiencing a major crisis, we were all coping. Ultimately our clothes got a bit tighter, we were putting a band-aid on our feelings, and the happy train left the station without us. Something was different though. We weren’t gaining weight as fast as we would have in the past. Every time we pulled back on the cocktails, cut out the snacks and dessert, tighten up our feasting window, our bodies said thank you and we dropped a couple of pounds back off. We didn’t miss the lesson here but summertime was upon us. We spent the summer in our RV traveling out West avoiding people as much as possible while still adventuring in our national parks. We continued our somewhat ridiculous eating and drinking in a six-hour window but because we were doing a lot of walking and hiking, our clothes loosened up a bit more. YAY! We finished our summer trip at pretty much the same weight that we had started it, how often can you say that after vacation? Especially one that is two months long. Not us.
Intermittent fasting was working, there is no doubt about it. However, both of our doctors reminded us that we needed to give our livers a break and be a bit more thoughtful about what we ate. My blood pressure was high, Brian was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. It was time to put on the brakes and rethink our priorities just in time for Christmas indulgences. It was time to start with the basics about IF again so we turned to audiobooks and podcasts while driving to Tennessee to spend a quiet holiday in the RV. We listened to Eve Mayer’s book, Life in the Fasting Lane. We listened to Dr. Fung’s podcast. We worked on setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, focused on reminding ourselves why we love IF, and figured out how to do it better.
I am learning to walk out of my guilt prison. I am learning to lose while winning!
The prison walls of guilt have been crumbling since we started IF in 2019. In order for them to be gone forever, I have to learn how to balance between eating what I want, eating what is good for me, and figuring out what I can live with forever. I have learned to eat without guilt but learning to eat well and lose weight is a process. I have learned how to maintain weight and that is our biggest win thus far on our two-year IF journey. A win I am proud of because I never maintained my weight before on any diet plan. I was never happy on any diet plan – period! Losing weight is easy when you are on a diet but maintaining that loss when you are living the rest of your life is an entirely different challenge. If you have followed our journey from the very beginning, you understand we intimately know the weight maintenance challenge. Learning to lose weight again, well that is our 2021 plan and we are set up for success. We’re not getting into the details of what’s happening yet because I need to see how much “sticks” before I can speak on it intelligently. However, I will tease you by saying something is working. As of this post, Brian and I are already down quite a bit of weight, our blood glucose numbers are better, my blood pressure is already normalizing, and our waists are smaller. I like looking in the mirror again – the biggest win of all so far. One day at a time. I am on the happy train and I have no intention of getting off again.
If you are thinking about starting intermittent fasting, or maybe you are already practicing if but not getting anywhere, I challenge you to read about it. Get the facts from those who have been there or are the experts.Do not just listen to me. Others have so much more to teach you.Do not follow my eating habits! Start with Dr. Fung’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Intermittent Fasting. It is life-changing. I am reading it again and I can’t believe how much I forgot or skipped over because I wasn’t ready for this change in 2019. He also wrote the books, The Obesity Code and The Diabetes Code. They are outstanding! I am also re-reading Gin Stephen’s books, Delay, Don’t Deny and Feast Without Fear. Gin put a new book out in 2020 that I can’t wait to dive into Fast. Feast. Repeat.
Come back next week when I talk about how this gym rat got fat again. 🤣 Last week I talked about out-running the yo-yo diet phenomenon with over-exercising. Next week I will talk about how I balance good exercise habits without guilt warden showing up when I don’t exercise “enough.” I promise I will talk about IF and our relationship with alcohol after that post; I am going to explore how wine is a metaphor for living well. Then we will reflect on what we have learned during our first two years practicing IF. Finally, at that point, I think I will be ready to talk about where we are in 2021. If you want me to talk about something specific related to our journey of living well and in good health, leave a comment or email me.
Thank you for coming along on this journey of self-reflection. Subscribe to our website to get notified when we post new blogs. I pray these blog posts help you on your own journey to good health and even better living. Ultimately we have one life to live.The goal should be to live it well.
To go back and re-read post #2 in this series, click here. To read post #4 in this series, click here.
*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Thank you for your kind words after our first post in this series. It is tough to open up about a weight loss journey that isn’t what most people would call a success. But never the less, it has been our success, and that is why I am here to tell you about it in this blog series. I appreciate you coming along on this journey of self-reflection.
We have not been featured in any magazines since we were in Woman’s Day magazine in 2014 and I am completely OK with the lack of public attention to our journey. I am sure people whisper and wonder about us. Heck, that may be why you are still reading part 2 in this series because you want to know what happened. I’m OK with that, it’s an interesting story. You may look at what we eat, drink, and think, “How could they?!” I get it.
I have no idea how people live a happy, food-fulfilled life on only 1,200 calories, eating salads and diet coke, endlessly exercising, and counting calories every single day to make sure they don’t go over. I don’t get it. I tried to live that life and I certainly cannot live that way for a lifetime. I love food and wine, oh how I love deep, luscious, red wine. I love cake, delicious and rich chocolate cake. For those couple of years from 2011-2015, I was miserable as a “skinny girl.” Sure, I loved looking in the mirror! Butliving was a problem. It was things like only being able to eat one unsatisfying slice of pizza, one mini cupcake when I wanted to eat the big one, and one guilty glass of wine that led to finishing the entire bottle because I just wanted to say, “screw the limitations, I need to live!” I was working out to burn more calories to eat even more food. That is what the “experts” say, right? Eat less and move more! Rubbish! I wanted to go on vacation without spending a year losing those pounds I picked up as souvenirs. I wanted to eat without getting fat – period. It’s every person’s dream. But alas there I was, a skinny girl who struggled to live while my hormones continued to rage out of control because the weight started to fluctuate…a lot. Alas, the yo-yo diet run for my life begins again.
Indulging in the mini-cupcake when I really wanted the big one!
I had just turned 40 when this weight loss journey was at its peak. My son was in the United States Marine Corps and I was mad about it. I wasn’t mad at him, he was made for the Corps. He is a warrior in every sense of the word. I hated him being so far away especially when he was deployed overseas. I took out all of my anger at the gym, a temporary motivator. I cannot live well in that constant state of anger. Fortunately, my son came back home safe and life is a bit quieter.
If you don’t already know, you can’t outrun a bad diet. You can move as much as you want but if your diet is a horrible mess, you will be too. I know this all too well. I tried my best to outrun the yo-yo phenomenon. I ran half marathons. I completed several triathlons. I hiked 500 miles across Spain. I worked out 2, even 3 times a day. I wasn’t living. I was trying to outrun the food demon inside of me and I was ticked off it didn’t work. I knew it wouldn’t work but it wasn’t until intermittent fasting (IF) that I learned why it wouldn’t work. We’ll talk about that in another blog post. I promise it’s coming. I have a lot to say about what we have learned on IF.
Here’s what I learned from our “weight loss success” – (1) I hate counting calories. (2) I hate thinking about food unless I am eating or menu planning. (3) I hate thinking about all the foods that are “restricted” because the experts at some diet company deemed them forbidden. (4) I hate tracking my food and therefore having to think about food more often. (5) I unequivocally cannot stand food prep. I hate it more than I hate dieting. (6) In the future, I only want to outrun a bear.
In the future, I only want to outrun a bear.
Also at the age of 40, I had a hysterectomy though I should have had it long before. Unfortunately, the insurance company had too many opinions on what I should do to my body and when I should do it. A rant for another day. My hormones have been a struggle since I was 15 years old, probably even younger. I remember vividly when the OB/GYN told me I had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) followed by, “you will never get pregnant.” Yep, you heard that one right. This teenager was just given the license to have sex while dealing with the emotion and devastation at the thought of not becoming a mom. Obviously, that doctor was wrong because I have a handsome adult son. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get pregnant but rather it would be difficult to get pregnant. My son was unexpected at age 20 but he remains to be my greatest blessing in life. In 2020 he and his wife made us grandparents. 🙌🏼
Hormones are the greatest blessing and challenge of being a woman. I am not a nutrition expert, as if you didn’t know that already. I am certainly not a medical professional, again no big surprise. Therefore, I don’t know if I had PCOS because I was fat, I was fat because I had PCOS or something else entirely nor do I care at this point. I have read a lot about PCOS but that is not the point of this blog. What I know is my hormonal challenges only seemed to get more complicated as the years went on and I became more overweight and unhealthy. The yo-yo run continues.
PCOS is just another symptom of a bigger problem. I have struggled with being pre-diabetic, excess hair growth, terrible acne, overall saggy skin, high blood pressure, anxiety, and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2016. Hashimoto’s is an umbrella diagnosis for an autoimmune condition related to the thyroid. I knew my thyroid was a problem because I got that diagnosis in 2006 but it took me a while to find a doctor who could help me put all of these hormone pieces together. Oh, and did I mention I am also going through menopause? Yep, that too!
Are you thinking yet, she is a mess and I am glad I am not her! I wouldn’t blame you. Finding a doctor who could understand my diagnosis and help me take action was amazing. It also meant trying a new medication, finding the right dosage, which meant more weight gain. I remember our anniversary weekend getaway in 2017 when I was trying yet another new medication. I gained 12 pounds in one weekend! Yep, thank you underactive thyroid. We even hiked about 15 miles that weekend. You can’t outrun a bad thyroid either.
Grasping what was happening on the inside behind what everyone could see on the outside is important to appreciate the journey. I think we all have “stuff” to deal with in our progression towards good health. Whether it’s food addiction, hormones, some other health challenge, or emotional baggage. Life is a roller coaster, a yo-yo, or maybe it’s like dodgeball and we are all just trying to not get hit too hard by what’s thrown at us next. If we can just control how we react to it, we’re winning. Right? Sounds so easy (sarcasm). Intermittent fasting is kind of like that, controlling when we eat so we can enjoy more of what we eat. I wish we would have found it much sooner. Sadly, between 2015-2019, Brian and I gained back about 100 pounds of the 254 pounds we lost while rebelling against the restrictive diet we had known all too well. 😔
But I haven’t even begun to tell you what we gained when we found IF on that day in mid-January 2019. We gained enough to make an entire blog series about our journey. We cut the string on the yo-yo all together. Let me make sure you don’t miss this point – Because of intermittent fasting, we threw the yo-yo away forever. In the first blog post, I had a picture of all of our favorite foods. Can we eat all of those foods? Yes and no. We spent two years trying to see how much food we could eat when we were feasting between our fasts. Guess what? In two years we loved life, we lived well, we ate well, we drank well, we fasted, and we didn’t gain any more weight. Do we want to lose weight? Of course, we do! But for two years, this hormonally-challenged woman and her easy-going husband didn’t gain any weight. I could never have said that when we were “skinny.” The story isn’t over yet. Come back next week when we talk about learning to eat again. Subscribe to our blog to get notifications when the next blog post is up.
To go back and re-read post #1 in this series, click here. To read post #3 in this series, click here.
Back in 2014 on our More Grand Vaca (which will be featured in a future blog post) our dear friends Michael and Bonita Hutchison invited us to spend the 4th of July with them in Park City, Utah. As the picture below might indicate, it was quite a week!
Bonita is quite the cook and in additional serving us the most amazing elk tenderloin we have ever eaten, she made delicious drunken mushrooms. We’ve tried to replicate them several times and after much trial and error, I think we have finally come up with a version that is a little more calorie conscious but still rich and decadent. These are best served with steak and friends, like our first follower, Bonita.
In a large, heavy bottomed pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the butter stops foaming, add one thinly sliced sweet onion and 4 cloves of minced garlic.
Saute over medium heat until just soft, about 8 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic. If you do, throw the whole thing out and start over!
While the onions are cooking, clean one pound of mushrooms and cut them into halves or quarters if they are big. Do not rinse mushrooms in water to get the dirt off, they will absorb the water and leave you with a soggy mess once you start to cook them. When the onions are ready, remove half of the mixture to a bowl. Add the first pound of mushrooms to the pan and cook about 6 minutes.
They will almost immediately suck up every bit of oil and butter in the pan, but will release it again slowly as they begin to cook. Keep stirring them occasionally while you prep the second pound of mushrooms.
Once they become a beautiful brown color and have released most of their liquid (which will evaporate), remove them to a bowl.
Put the reserved onion mixture back in the pan along with the second pound of mushrooms and cook again for another 6-8 minutes. Here you can see how much volume you lose as the mushrooms cook. Both pounds are plain old white button mushrooms, but you could mix them up with baby bellas or another variety. A note about doing this in two batches: you may have a Dutch oven, stock pot, or something else that will hold all of the mushrooms at once and be tempted to do it all in one batch. STEP AWAY FROM THE STOVE!! Just because you can do them in one batch doesn’t mean you should. Crowding the pan will create more liquid than can evaporate and the mushrooms will not create the brown crust that adds so much flavor. Like Julia Child said, never crowd the pan.
Here is a shocking statement: I love cheap wine. We have a go to party wine that is inexpensive, tastes great, and doesn’t give either one of us a headache: Dark Horse Merlot. It is also perfect for cooking with. Someone said that you should never cook with wine that you wouldn’t drink and that is definitely true, but likewise, I’m not going to pour a $50 bottle of wine into a pot of mushrooms! At $7.99, this wine is affordable and adds great flavor. In other words, it gets me where I need to be! Also, we use Kitchen Accomplice‘s broth concentrates for cooking. They are lower sodium than most broths and in the RV they save valuable space and weight.
Add the first batch of mushrooms back into the pan. If you are in a hurry, add salt and pepper to taste at this point and serve them now. They will be delicious, but the next step is what makes them worthy of company.
Pour an entire bottle of dry red wine and 2 cups of beef broth into the pan and bring to a boil. Do not add salt at this time.
Once they come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for two hours.
After two hours, remove the lid and turn up the heat a little. Notice that about 1/3 of the liquid has evaporated at this point. Continue to simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour until all of the liquid has absorbed. The mushrooms will begin to brown again a little, which is ok, but don’t dry them out. Add salt and pepper to taste. We serve they atop a medium rare rib eye steak, over a baked potato, or just as a side dish. If there are any leftovers, they are wonderful in an omlette with some raclette or fontina cheese.
Don’t miss any of our recipes of the week, make sure that you subscribe to receive notifications each time a new post comes out!
We are always looking for new red wines, leave us a comment letting us know what your favorite bargain wine or splurge wine is.
CC’s Drunken Mushrooms
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1 large onion sliced thinly
2 pound button mushrooms cut in half or quarters if they are large
2 cups beef broth
1 bottle red drinking wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large, heavy-bottomed pan, heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat until butter is melted.
Add in garlic and onions. Sauté until just soft, about 6-8 minutes.
Remove ½ of the onion mixture to a bowl.
Add 1 lb. of mushrooms and sauté until lightly browned, about 6 minutes.
Remove mushrooms and onions to a plate (try to leave the liquid behind)
Add reserved onion mixture and remaining mushrooms to pan and sauté again until browned.
At this point the mushrooms could be done, salt and pepper to taste and serve or…
Put first batch on mushrooms back in pot and add broth and wine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for two hours.
Uncover, turn the heat up a little and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.
The first time we visited Traverse City we came for the wine but we have kept coming back for the fun! There is so much to do here in the summer (which is the only time of the year we have been here so far). From the Traverse City Cherry Festival, the Traverse City Film Festival, the TART and Leelanau bike trails, lake activities in Traverse Bay, the wineries, breweries, and distilleries, and all of your other normal tourist activities. This is our third time visiting the area and we always find something new to do.
Every time we visit we stay at Traverse City State Park. We have camped in our tent the first two times and the third time has been with our new rig. Check out our blog post about parking the rig if you are looking for a laugh.
The first time we came we stumbled in during the cherry festival – what fun it was to taste everything cherry flavored! The second time we researched a bit better and learned we were coming during the film festival. Fortunately we researched early and scored tickets to two different films! This time we are too late for the cherry fest and too early for the film fest but that is fine with us because there was still plenty to do!
I (Michelle) wasn’t feeling too good at the beginning of the week, I was thoroughly exhausted from our son’s wedding festivities that were the week before. But that’s ok because we meandered around the state park, walked across the street to the beach, and walked two-tenths of a mile to play mini golf at Pirates Cove Adventure Golf (where you can also zip-line, climb the challenge course, ride go-carts, and play bumper boats). We visited a few wineries on Old Mission Peninsula. We have a few favorites on Old Mission including Chateau Grand Traverse and Brys Estate Vineyard. But seriously, they have wine for every palette.
After I was feeling better we decided it was time to get some real exercise in; what you will learn about us is that we are very active. We love to walk, hike, and bike anywhere! It was Saturday morning and the farmers market was going on in downtown Traverse City so we decided to lace up our shoes and head out. It’s 4 miles just to get downtown and we love a day that involves a long walk for exercise and fun things to see and do when we get there. We ended up walking 10 miles on Saturday! We could have spent the entire day there between the farmers market, downtown shops, food trucks, wine/spirits tasting, and the beach.
On Sunday we were itching to bike because it had been two weeks since we had gotten any real cycling in. From our campground Suttons Bay on the Leelanau peninsula is 21 miles. The Leelanau trail is 17 miles so you are on the TART trail for the 4 miles. We weren’t too confident in our abilities to ride there and back because we haven’t been biking a lot lately and it was going to be a hot day. Therefore, we opted to use their bike-n-ride program. We parked our truck at a bus stop, rode 17 miles to Suttons Bay, wandered around, and when we were ready to leave we put our bikes on the bus and we rode back to our truck. This made for a gorgeous day of riding and enjoying the quaint little town of Suttons Bay!
One of the new activities we have learned about on this trip is that you can “Kabrew” – don’t know what that is? Neither did we! It’s kayaking from brewery to brewery! Check out The River Outfitters to see more about this activity. Of course you can always do a bike and wine tour – check out Grand Traverse Bike Tours for information. The last time we were here we did our own bike and wine tour on the Old Mission Peninsula. Unfortunately it was about 90 degrees that day so we only hit 3 wineries and we drank a lot more water than wine. But it is still an amazing day when you are biking on Old Mission Peninsula because you spend most of the day with the water on in view.
If you want to just play in the water, there are many water activities on Traverse Bay. However, be mindful of your expectations. This is Michigan. This water is a part of Lake Michigan. It is not Florida. The water will be chilly and sometimes downright cold even when the air temperature is 90 degrees. On Monday, we rented jet skis and parasailed from TC Watersports. We have kayaked in the past and you can rent a boat, go out on a sailboat cruise, rent a stand up paddleboard, or just hang out on their beautiful Michigan beaches. The water is so clean and clear. It will certainly cool you off on a hot summer day!
I would be remise if I didn’t mention one more place we love to visit when we are here and that is the Grand Traverse Village. On the grounds of this “village,” you can hike, bike, shop, visit the arboretum, taste wine, get a great meal, or are you ready for this? You can take a guided historic tour of as this village used to be the Traverse City State Hospital. Check out their website for cool photos of the old hospital! One more thing, before you leave leave the village, go to Left Foot Charley and enjoy a glass of Reisling. Left Foot Charley has great wine, good stories, and a very cool building!
When you go to Traverse City, you can use this as your hub to visit so many other cool places. For example, Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore is a short 40 minute drive west. You can head north to the quant towns of Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs. We are heading to Petoskey to camp for a few days. So until next time Traverse City – we love this town! Have you done something else in the area? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!
Sometimes we love to hike in the rain, other times we love to just hang out indoors, but most of the time we are off finding some local fun. When you are in the Finger Lakes region the best thing to do when it’s raining is find a few wineries. This is our third vacation in the Finger Lakes region so we have a few favorite wineries that we have been excited to visit for one reason or another. When we have the time, we like to visit our favorites while sprinkling in a few new wineries.
This day started with a favorite winery for us and one that is known for its port at Ports of New York in Ithaca. We keep coming back to this winery for a couple of reasons, the story of how the winery started and the delicious port wine! Frédéric Bouché has been making wine in New York for about 10 years. Every year we visit the winery we get to see it evolve and grow.
Next stop was the Lively Run Goat Dairy Farm, established in 1982. This was the most impressive stop of the day. It was new to us but we will definitely be back! The visit started with “playing” with the goats, chickens, and the horses while our cheese tasting was being prepared. We did a lot more talking to them than actually playing with them, but oh my goodness they were adorable!
As if that wasn’t enough fun, our cheese tasting was ready. For only $5 a person you get to taste 10 types of cheese and 2 jams. We also had a few more tastes of cheese and jam once she realized how much we loved cheese! LOL The cheese was really that good! The flavors were rich, creamy, and a good variety to meet everyone’s cheese needs!
When we were in Spain last summer, we fell in love with quince paste jelly (tastes a bit like combination of apple butter and pumpkin pie filling). We were pleasantly surprised when she had quince paste and quince jam!! Needless to say, we left with 4 packages of cheese and some quince paste.
Next stop was another familiar winery. Lucas Vineyards has been in the Finger Lakes region since 1980. The founder, Ruth Lucas, not only started this family business but she also co-founded the Cayuga Wine Trail, noted as America’s first wine trail.
Brian was in a hurry to get inside because it rained all. day. long! 🙁 Lucas Vineyards is a beautiful place to listen to great music on the patio on Thursday nights, meander through their shop, and of course, taste good wine! We purchased Lucas Blues, a blend of Seyval and Cayuga grapes, to enjoy on a summer evening. We also purchased a couple of sweet bottles for our sweet wine loving friends. The wine looks good, tastes good, and is reasonably priced – this is a trifecta for us! We really love the Nautie line for a nice gift with a bit of attitude!
The last stop of the day was another new winery, J.R. Dill Winery. We stopped here because (1) they had wines that interested our taste buds,(2) they had a great view of Seneca Lake, (3) had a nice patio to enjoy their wine while looking at the lake.
This was a great find! If you enjoy looking at the character of a winery, you will love this place. They had an antique bar back from an old soda fountain shop and sea glass collected by the owner in the bar, just to name a couple bits of the character in this shop.
There is usually more to enjoy in a winery than just wine, which is great for a person who doesn’t drink or is the designated driver but still wants enjoy the experience. J.R. Dill Winery had cheese and are you ready for this? Riesling Garlic Dill Pickles! If you love garlic and pickles, you will be in heaven with this combination! Your friends may not love your breath, but if that is the case, they are not real friends! LOL
We ended our winery and cheese day with a nice glass of Cabernet Franc Rosé and a bit of cheese. I would love to show you the cheese but we inhaled it faster than I could take a picture. Now that is good cheese!
We have just a couple more wineries to visit before our time comes to an end in Watkins Glen, NY., including Shalestone Winery who has the best tagline ever, “All we do is Reds!” Check out their website to read their philosophy. If you love them, you love us! 🙂
Want to read more blog posts from us? Make sure you sign up to get here to get email notifications. Like what we had to say? Leave a comment!
Niagara-on-the-Lake has wine for every taste bud; from a smooth, dry Italian wine, to a refreshing Riesling, to a sweet Ice Wine, they have wine that is pleasing to all palates. You can check out just a sampling of what they have to offer here. Before we get started you need to know that we have a few “rules,” if you will, when going to wineries for the day:
We look for recommendations from friends
We look for wineries with character or maybe a good story regarding why the winery got started
We try to avoid the weekends because of the crowds
We try to avoid wineries with buses in the parking lot
We make sure they have wine we enjoy – we are dry wine people so it is important that we look at their website to see what wine they have on the tasting menu before we visit
Finally, we won’t visit more than 3 wineries in a day unless we are either sharing tastings or on a tour bus. Teacher moment: It is important to be responsible when you are wine tasting. 🙂
If you have never visited a winery, there are some “etiquette” rules, we like Wine Enthusiast’s 14 rules.
The first stop we made was Between the Lines winery. They have a fun story, you can check it out at https://betweenthelineswinery.com/. We really enjoyed their wine, the staff could have been more knowledgeable but we let the wine distract us. We always struggle with how much to buy, especially when we really enjoy the first winery we visit and when we are in Canada and have to respect the import laws when we head back to the states on Monday. We left with 2 bottles of Pinot Grigio, and let me tell you, the one we enjoyed last night was just as good as thought it would be! 🙂 Yes, on a warm, summer evening we love a nice white wine on our “RV patio.”
The next winery was a recommendation from friends, Colaneri Estate Winery, and let me tell you, our friends know us well! Look at that building – it even more gorgeous in person! We enjoyed beautiful Italian red wines, visited with the owners, and learned a lot about the labels on their wine bottles. Seriously – ask about the wine bottles when you go!
We enjoy taking wine tours because it really adds to the overall wine experience and every winery creates wine just a little bit differently. For example at Colaneri Estate Winery they dry the grapes first using the “appassimento” style. You never know what you will learn when taking a wine tour and you certainly never know who you will meet along the way.
The finally winery of the day was Peller Estates Winery. We were excited to visit this winery because it was recommended by several people and we had tasted a beautiful Cab-Merlot earlier in the week. Unfortunately, when we pulled up there were two buses – yes two! Fortunately, it is a large enough estate winery that it wasn’t crowded. However, the Cab-Merlot that we loved wasn’t on the tasting menu nor was it for sale in the winery. Sadly, overall the winery was a disappointment. Now I will say, we heard the food in the restaurant is amazing and we have put this winery on our “try again” list.
There was so much more to explore in Niagara-on-the-Lake wine region. This was our third time to visit the region and we always look forward to going back! If you have a favorite winery in the region, leave a comment and let us know because we are always open to suggestions! This summer will also be visiting the Finger Lakes, Geneva on the Lake, and Traverse City, so if you have a must see winery, leave a comment!
★ 25 years guiding★ 48 U.S. states★ 10 countries★ 3,000+ Camino miles
RV tips, travel inspiration, and updates on the trips we're planning — delivered to your inbox each month.
Questions about this trip?
Send us an inquiry.
Tell us what you'd like to know about this trip and we'll get right back to you.
Know before you go
Activity Level.
Every Cruisin' with the Colemans trip comes with an activity level so you know, before you lace up, roughly how hard the walking will be. Think of it as the overall rhythm of the trip — a few days might push a little past it and a few will feel gentler, but it's an honest read on what your legs are signing up for.
Nobody knows your body better than you do. We're all for a good challenge, but pick a level that matches your current fitness and trail experience and the whole walk gets more fun. Not sure where you land? Reach out — we've walked every one of these ourselves and we're always happy to talk it through.
Grades
EasyEasy0–8 km (0–5 miles)
Gentle, mostly flat days on well-kept, easy-to-follow paths. Ideal if you're new to multi-day walking or simply want a relaxed pace with plenty of time to soak it all in.
Easy – ModerateEasy–Moderate8–16 km (5–10 miles)
A little more distance over mixed ground — mostly maintained trails, quiet lanes, and the occasional gentle climb. A good fit if you're reasonably active and ready for a few longer stretches.
ModerateModerate16–20 km (10–12 miles)
Fuller days on varied, sometimes rugged terrain with regular ups and downs. Great for steady hikers in good shape, or determined first-timers chasing a real sense of accomplishment.
Moderate – StrenuousModerate–Strenuous20–24 km (12–15 miles)
Long days with sustained, often steep climbs and descents on rough trail. You'll want solid fitness; a few exposed spots call for a head for heights, and navigation can get trickier when the weather turns.
StrenuousStrenuous24–28 km (15–17 miles)
Big days on demanding, often remote mountain terrain — serious distance and elevation for experienced, fit hikers. Expect rough footing, the odd exposed or aided section, and higher altitude on some routes.
ExtremeExtreme+28 km (+17 miles)
Our toughest walking, built for very fit, very experienced hikers. Rugged, sometimes remote mountain terrain with scrambling, exposure, and aided sections — plus altitude, weather, and navigation that all add to the challenge.
Where you rest
Accommodations Levels.
Where you sleep is part of the story, so we hand-pick locally run places that welcome you like an old friend. The level shifts a little from trip to trip depending on the route, but the goal never does: a clean, comfortable, genuinely local stay at the end of every walking day.
Most nights you'll land in friendly, independent or family-run hotels, guest houses, and B&Bs chosen for their charm and the little touches that feel like home. Some trips lean a touch more luxurious; others, especially in the remote stretches, mean simpler refuges or huts. Either way, we've picked each one to help you rest up and wake ready for the trail.
Basic – A Place to Rest Your HeadBasic
Mountain huts, refuges, and simple B&Bs. Ensuite rooms aren't a given, and you may share a dorm with fellow walkers — but what you trade in polish you more than gain back in camaraderie and a big, rustic welcome.
Classic – Charming Without the FrillsClassic
Locally owned B&Bs, guest houses, and small inns that feel like a home away from home — usually family-run, cozy or freshly kept, and well placed for the next day's walk. A warm welcome comes as standard.
Comfort – A Little More...ComfortableComfort
Characterful, locally owned hotels and B&Bs with the little extras that make a stay feel special — décor rooted in the region, the occasional spot to unwind, and sometimes a kitchen worth lingering over.
In Style – For Those who Want to Treat ThemselvesIn Style
First-class stays in boutique hotels, vineyards, and country manors — often in the best seats in the house, from hilltop towns to the water's edge, with standout service and, now and then, a truly memorable table.
Mixed – Boutique Hotels to Mountain Huts, all in One TripMixed
One trip, a bit of everything. You might bed down in Classic or Comfort rooms through the towns and villages, then a refuge or other Basic spot up in the mountains where that's all there is — an honest, memorable mix that matches the journey.
We serve they atop a medium rare rib eye steak, over a baked potato, or just as a side dish. If there are any leftovers, they are wonderful in an omlette with some raclette or fontina cheese.
