Everything You Need to Know to Witness the Incredible Horseshoe Crab Migration

Date Published: Nov. 12th, 2025 | Last Updated: Nov. 12th, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: June 9-10, 2025

Being veterinarians, Toby and I get super excited about nature and different species of wildlife so of course when I found out about the horseshoe migration in Delaware, we just had to go! Toby had actually never seen a horseshoe crab in person before until last year at the New Jersey Science Centre and it blew his mind (they don’t have them in Australia)! The chance to see thousands of them in their natural habitat was something we just couldn’t pass up.

Horseshoe crabs are an amazing ancient species with fossils dating as far back as 445 million years – predating the dinosaurs! Despite the name, these incredible “living fossils” aren’t actually related to crabs at all! They’re related to the extinct trilobites and more closer related to spiders. They have fascinating anatomy and look unlike anything else on this planet – they kind of remind me of a Pokémon 😅.

When we were planning for our Delaware trip, there was surprisingly very limited information available on seeing the horseshoe crab migration. I thought this would’ve been a big tourist attraction for this amazing once a year event, but apparently not! After scouring the internet, I managed to piece together enough information for our trip and I’m sharing it here with you all!

If you want to learn more about horseshoe crabs, I found this website very helpful and informative in our research and education on the horseshoe crab, I highly recommend checking it out: https://horseshoecrab.org/

What is the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Once a year, millions of horseshoe crabs make the journey from their natural habitat in the deeper ocean to the shallow coastal areas to spawn. This is one of the world’s oldest and largest wildlife migrations – it’s like witnessing a Planet Earth special in real life!

During spawning, the egg-laden females emit pheromones to attract the males and a single male will attach to the back of the female with special clasps. Once attached the pair will make the journey to the shore (pretty much a free piggy-back ride for the male who is usually much smaller in size than the female) where the female will deposit her eggs in the sand and the male will externally fertilize the eggs at the same time she deposits them. Although there can only be one male that attaches, often there are “satellite males” that huddle around one female in hopes of also fertilizing the eggs.

Incredibly, one female can lay 80,000 eggs in one season!!! 🤯🤯🤯 You’ll see millions of little tiny dark green eggs on the shore during the migration. These eggs provide a nutritious source for migratory birds, so you’ll also see tons of signs for migrating birds in the area at the same time.

Look at all the eggs getting washed around the shore! 🤯

Where to see the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Map of spawning habitats of the Horseshoe Crabs (https://www.horseshoecrab.org/nh/habitat.html)

The Delaware Bay is the most popular place to see the horseshoe crab migration due to its location and protection from large ocean waves as well as sandy beaches. The states of Delaware and New Jersey surrounds the Delaware Bay so you should be be able to see them on either the Delaware side or the New Jersey side. Luckily there is a ferry that connects Lewes/Cape Henlopen and Cape May so you can check out both sides if you have the time (trip takes 1.5 hours one-way)! We had better luck on the New Jersey side this year but we were also two days away from the full moon on the Delaware side and only one day away from the full moon on the Jersey.

Selection of the perfect spawning site can depend on a number of factors including how coarse or fine the sand is, how quickly the sand drains, sediment of the beach…etc. The most preferred sites are usually next to large intertidal sand flat areas. Thankfully horseshoecrab.org provides a map of the popular spawning sites with the highest densities on their website seen above.

You can try your luck at any of these beaches, but since there’s only so much time between evening high tide and last light, you won’t be able to visit all of them to see the crabs before the sunset. Here are a few recommended beaches that I came across in my research:

A map of the popular beaches to see the horseshoe crab migration

Pickering Beach, DE: An official horseshoe crab sanctuary with limited public parking spaces along the road near the public access to the beach. Roughly 15 minutes south of Dover.

Kitts Hummock, DE: Another official horseshoe crab sanctuary, also with limited public parking spaces along the road near the public access to the beach.

Bowers Beach, DE: A public beach within a small bay community. There’s plenty of beach parking in a public lot on South Flack Avenue a block away (type in “Bowers Beach Parking Lot” on Google Maps or 102 South Flack Avenue, Frederica).

DuPont Nature Center, DE (2992 Lighthouse Road, Milford): This is NOT a place to see horseshoe crabs in their nature, but instead it is an education centre with interactive exhibits if you want to learn more about the horseshoe crabs!

Slaughter Beach (354 State Road 15, Milford): One of the most popular hotspots, has plenty of parking.

Reeds Beach, Middle Township, NJ: One of the more popular spots on the New Jersey Side to see the migration due to its closer vicinity to Cape May.

Our actual experience: Due to timing and our travel itinerary, we chose Slaughter Beach as our beach of choice to see the migration. Even though we went at the perfect time of day, unfortunately being that it was the end of the season and we were still 2 days out from the full moon, we only saw one mating pair. I was really disappointed after all of the effort we took to plan our trip around the migration. Luckily we had already planned to take the ferry to Cape May the next day to continue our road trip, and decided last minute to try our luck on the New Jersey side at Reeds Beach. On our way to Reeds Beach, there was a small tiny beach between a few houses on the side of the road that had TONS of horseshoe crabs!! I was ecstatic! After spending a good half an hour or so here, we headed up to Reeds Beach which surprisingly, although was a MUCH bigger beach, the number of horseshoe crabs here were a lot less (but definitely more migratory birds), so we went back to the original tiny beach 2 minutes away. My take on this experience is that if you don’t see many crabs, try driving around the area along the waters to see if there’s a pocket of beach with more crabs! (But also more importantly, try to go on a full moon or new moon unlike us to increase your chances at seeing them.)

Here are some photos of our experience at Slaughter Beach (Toby found a HUGE female that was unfortunately dead but super cool to see the anatomy up close):

Here are some photos of the little beach we found between some houses on our way to Reeds Beach in New Jersey:

Here are some photos of Reeds Beach, NJ – not as many horseshoe crabs but TONS of eggs on the shore and migratory birds in the distance:

Timing is Crucial to Witness the Migration!

The horseshoe crab migration happens every year in the spring between the end of April to the start of June, with the peak season in mid May-June. We were late to the migration when we went on June 9th-10th 2025 and although we didn’t see as many on the Delaware side, we saw plenty on the New Jersey side (more on this later).

Peak spawning occurs on a full moon or new moon and in the evening at high tide. You want to arrive at least 30 mins before high tide (it actually lines up nicely with sunset to make it all the more magical!).

The monthly tide charts on the US Harbors website is useful when picking a date and time since it has both the moon phase and the tide times in their charts. Check it out here (I have it set to Bowers Beach, but you can always google more specific tide times depending on which beach you choose to go): https://www.usharbors.com/harbor/delaware/bowers-beach-de/tides/#monthly-tide-chart

Here is a sample of the May 2026 tide chart from the US Harbors website. In case you’re unfamiliar with reading their tide chart, I’ve circled the important areas in blue and red:

To read the chart to pick the best day:

1) First look at the Moon column on the right and determine which dates are full moon and new moon. From the chart, the full moon is on Sat May 2nd and the new moon is on Sun May 17th.

2) From those dates, find the PM high tide time of the day. From the chart, it’s 10:49pm on May 2nd and 10:38pm on May 17th (circled in red).

3) Since you want to arrive 30 minutes ahead of the high tide, your ideal time to witness the migration in May 2026 would be on either May 2nd 10:19pm or May 17th at 10:08pm. (I’m writing this post in November 2025, so double check the charts before you go to ensure this forecasted information is still accurate if you’re going in May.)

Don’t worry if you can’t make it exactly on a full moon or a new moon, we were 2 days early before a full moon and still saw tons of them on the New Jersey side, but we did have to drive up and down the coast a little to find a good spot to see them.

As beautiful and amazing as this event is to witness, know that once the sun goes down, the horseshoe crabs will continue to come to shore and can get to horror movie-level numbers. I still found it really cool, but realize that it may not be for everyone – one of my coworkers was not a fan of my night time migration photos at all 😂.

Here are some night time photos of the migration so you know what to expect:

If you get all 3 things correct in terms of timing (1. season, 2. full moon or new moon, 3. evening high tide), you should be able to see hundreds if not thousands of horseshoe crabs!

If you come back to the beach early next day, you may be able to see the migratory birds feeding on the eggs!

What to Bring to See the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Sturdy waterproof shoes (ie. rain boots or waterproof hiking shoes)
- The horseshoe crabs will hang out just on the shoreline where the water and the beach meet, so if you want to get up close, waterproof shoes are recommended to avoid your shoes from getting wet.
- Depending on the beach, there can be a lot of debris, sticks, and dead horseshoe crabs that didn’t quite make it, so a sturdy pair of shoes will be best to walk through it.
- I’d recommend rain boots as the shoe of choice because it can smell a little fishy on the beach (after all, they are spawning), so you want to wear shoes that are easy to rinse off afterwards.
Bug spray or covered clothing
- We learned this the hard way. There were so many teeny tiny flies and although I wore leggings (albeit thin), they managed to bite through and around my uncovered ankles. Although not painful, I was hella itchy for a few weeks. I counted 14 bites on both legs when we got back to our hotel. 😫
Headlamp or flashlight
- Depending on the day, if the evening high tide occurs after sunset, you’ll want a light source to see these guys best. The most abundant numbers occur at night and a headlamp will keep your hands free if you’re walking through debris or taking photos.

Now you’re ready!

Now that you know the season (spring, May-June), the day (full moon or new moon), the time (30 minutes prior to the evening high tide), and the location (beaches within the Delaware Bay), you’re now ready to see the amazing horseshoe crab migration! I’d love to hear about your trip in the comments!

One more thing, if you see any overturned horseshoe crabs…Just flip ’em!

Due to their wide anatomy and the rushing waves, unfortunately you’ll more than likely see a few overturned horseshoe crabs. Sometimes they’ll be able to correct their own position with the right tide or passerby, but more often than not many of them will die stranded. So if you see an overturned horseshoe crab, just flip them over! Although they can look a little scary and pointy up close, horseshoe crabs are very gentle creatures and they do not sting nor bite. The best and gentlest way to flip them over is to grab them by the edge of the shell and flip them over. Do not grab them by the tail! Although it doesn’t look like it, they actually have very delicate tails and can damage easily.

Spread the word! Save the stranded overturned horseshoe crabs!

The ERDG (Ecological Research & Development Group), a non-profit wildlife conservation that focuses on the conservation of the world’s four horseshoe crab species, has a “Just flip ’em program” that promotes flipping stranded horseshoe crabs (https://www.horseshoecrab.org/act/flipem.html) and has made a fantastically catchy song that can be found on the website or directly linked here: https://www.horseshoecrab.org/poem/img/makinmusic/justflipem.mp3. The lyrics are amazing and I’ve literally already listened to it 3 times back to back while writing this post 😂. I wish it was on Spotify.

PS: Horseshoe crab numbers are declining due to habitat destruction and you can volunteer to be a part of the horseshoe crab survey to keep an eye on the numbers: https://www.delawarebayhscsurvey.org/.

Their website has posted volunteer survey dates every year which is a good guide to when you should go see the horseshoe crabs. I’ve attached a copy of their 2025 dates top the left.

Some Final Thoughts

Horseshoe crabs are super cool.
The annual mass migration will blow your mind 🤯 and is 100% worth it.
There are only 2 “perfect” days every month (new moon and full moon), so make sure you plan ahead!
Wear good shoes you can wash – yes, it will smell fishy.
Flip over any stranded overturned horseshoe crabs!

November 12, 2025November 12, 2025

AbbyLeave a comment

Best Places for Crab Cakes in Maryland: A Complete Guide to Local Favourites

Date Published: Sept 6th, 2025 | Last Updated: Sept 6th, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA

First things first: Why Maryland?

If you were to pick one food ingredient that perfectly encapsulates Maryland cuisine, it would be blue swimmer crabs (with Old Bay Seasoning as a close second). Due to the abundance of these crabs in the Chesapeake Bay that runs right through the Eastern half of the state, the crabbing industry in Maryland has been an important part of the Maryland economy and culture dating back centuries! You can find all sorts of crab dishes in Maryland, including steamed crab, crab soup, crab dip, crab egg rolls, and of course the famous crab cake.

The peak crab season each year is between April to December, with the largest crabs on offer in the fall season between September to mid-November.

What is a Crab Cake?

A crab cake is a delicious savoury type of fishcake that is made up of crab meat and a variety of fillers traditionally bread crumbs, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, and a variety of seasonings. It’s either baked, fried, or pan-cooked. You can find crab cakes around the world, but a Maryland crab cake hits different. Maryland crab cakes are seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning and the best cakes use jumbo lump crab meat.

What is jumbo lump/colossal crab meat you ask? Jumbo lump crab meat is the most prized and highest grade of crab meat that comes from the swimming fins of the crab – unsurprisingly, it’s also the most expensive. This piece of meat should be unbroken and come in large chunks compared to regular lump crab meat which are in smaller pieces and extracted from smaller swimming muscles of the crab. The best Maryland crab cakes (and the most expensive) are the ones made with jumbo lumb crab meat which results in large chunks of crab in every bite rather than smaller broken and stringy pieces of crab you see in regular crab cakes. It’s certainly an experience, especially for my fellow crab lovers!

For the visual learners like me, I’ve included a photo and diagram of the different types of crab meat:

Comparison of where Jumbo Lump Crab meat is from and how it compares to other parts of the crab.
Image from: https://www.seacoreseafood.com/product/Blue_Crab

Packed containers of jumbo lump crab meat – one of these containers can run you $60-70!

Accompaniments: Crab cakes are almost always served with a small packet of saltine crackers. This is to add texture to the overall softness of the crab cake. Toby prefers not adding it at all, but I like to crumble mine over the crab cake for a bit of extra crunch with every bite. Many people will also order a side of tartar or cocktail sauce to go with their crab cake for an extra kick.

What Makes a Good Crab Cake?

Fillers: The one and only golden rule of a good crab cake is that is should be maximum crab and minimal filler. I’m talking about 85-90% of the crab cake should be just crab meat and the filler should only really be there as a binder to hold the shape and for seasoning (read: Old Bay). No chopped veggies, no fancy herbs – maybe parsley.

Seasoning: Old Bay is a must for Maryland crab cakes and you’ll often taste celery salt as well. It is because of the simplicity of the Maryland crab cake that you’ll find most of them pretty similar in flavour. Some cakes are more heavily seasoned than others but this will be due to personal preference. I prefer mine on the less-seasoned side to not over power the delicate flavour of the crab and most places in Maryland will have a spice shaker of Old Bay so you can add extra seasoning if you like.

Without further ado… here are some of the top places to grab a crab cake in Maryland!

Much like my unexpectedly popular post on The Ultimate Guide to Philly Cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, this post is my personal take on these popular spots. I know there will be a lot of differing opinions and I’ve seen heated debates on who has the best crab cakes, and at the end of the day the answer will depend on individual preference. There’s no one right answer – it’s like asking a New Yorker who has the best pizza. Everyone will have their own favourite and this post highlights some of my favourites and thoughts on these popular joints. The places that we tried were all due to research from locals but this is in no way a comprehensive list. Let me know in the comments if you think I’ve missed a popular spot!

In this post, I’ve reviewed Pappa’s, Faidley’s, Koco’s, G&M, and Jimmy’s.

* Please note that the cost of crab cakes are often seasonal and can change regularly depending on market price. The prices I’ve listed below are from our trip in July of 2025.

1) Pappas: Pappas Seafood Co. & Pappas Restaurant and Sports Bar

Pappas Seafood Co. (carry out only):
Address: 8801 Belair Rd, Nottingham, MD 21236
Hours: 11am-8pm daily
Cost per crab cake: $27.50+tax (market price) for 11oz large jumbo lump crab cake, $25 for Imperial
Website: http://www.pappascrabcakes.com/

Pappas Restaurant and Sports Bar (sit down dining):
Address: multiple locations around Maryland (we went to 6713 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061)
Hours: hours vary by location, usually 11am-9:30pm daily (check the website for more details)
Cost per crab cake: $28.99 for 8oz jumbo lump crab (extra $2 for a platter with 2 sides)
Website: http://www.pappascrabcakes.com/

Pros:

Great crab cakes with minimal filler, tons of crab meat, lightly seasoned
Good prices at the distribution centre (better than their restaurant)
Multiple option of sizes of crab cakes including a large 11oz cake!

Cons:

Distribution center located farther out from Baltimore
Cream of crab soup is way too salty (at the restaurant location anyway)
Lightly seasoned crab cakes which is what I prefer to pair with a tartar sauce, but some may find it bland

Pappas was recommended time and time again throughout my internet research, but everyone always just called it “Pappas”, rather than the full name, so when we typed in “Pappas” on Google maps, it directed me to “Pappas Seafood Co.”. When we arrived, it was a big warehouse-like building that only had carryout options and nowhere to sit. We thought it was strange that so many people would recommend a carryout place until we spoke to the cashier who told us that they have multiple restaurants that have dine-in options but the location we came to was their distribution center. Ahh. We were super hungry at the time and didn’t want to make the further trek to their restaurant after driving 3 hours from NYC so we just ordered carryout. Luckily they had pretty much a full menu and there was one picnic table out back so we didn’t have to eat in the hot car.

For those of you who are like us and never seen a “carryout” before, it’s a type of food service where you park your car in a designated number spot in the parking lot, go inside to order, and they’ll bring out the food to your car. Neither Toby and I had encountered a ‘carryout’ service before coming in Maryland – we thought it just meant takeaway. When we arrived, we thought the numbered lots were for reserved parking so we chose a spot without a number (which ended up being for employee parking – we thought it was strange why we had to park so far away from the main door 😂). When they asked us what our car spot number was, we just told them which car it was 😅.

There was an option of the size of crab cake you want: small, medium, or large. We of course got the large because we were so hungry. It was a whole 11oz and very filling. It was delicious from the very first bite! There was no skimping on the crab meat and minimal filler. It was lightly seasoned – just the way I like it and it was even better paired with their tartar sauce.

We also ordered the Imperial Crab cake that is made with their imperial sauce. The Imperial was more moist with more seasoning and eggy in flavour. It’s a gluten free option without a binder so it was also more sloppy looking. I thought it was good but not as good as the regular jumbo lump crab cake but Toby LOVED it way more.

This crab cake was the one to beat but just incase we were biased because we were starving when we tried it, we tried it again at one of their restaurants on our way back home from DC. The restaurant looked like any other sports/family restaurant (we went to the location in Glen Burnie). We sat at the bar and we ordered both the jumbo lump and the imperial crab cake again. I can confirm that this was still our top pick for favourite crab cake after trying 4 other places. (Side note: I also ordered the recommended cream of crab soup and it was super salty – would not recommend. Stick to the crab cakes.)

2) Faidley’s Seafood

Address: 119 N Paca St, Baltimore, MD 21201 (inside Lexington Market, level 1)
Hours: 10am-5pm most days, closed Sun
Cost per crab cake: $25 + tax (market price) for 6.5oz jumbo lump crab cake
Website: http://faidleyscrabcakes.com/

Pros:

Best location within Baltimore downtown, although a bit of a walk from the waterfront
Great oven-roasted browning flavour

Cons:

More expensive for the smallest crab cake on this list (standard size for most places is 8oz, theirs is 6.5oz)
More filling compared to the other crab cakes with less crab
Food-court order style
Standing room and some picnic tables outside

Faidley’s is an institution in the Baltimore area. Open since 1886, they have the reputation as being one of the oldest seafood purveyors in the Chesapeake Bay region. It also has the best location for tourists (right in downtown Baltimore!) compared to all the other places in this post. It’s roughly a 15 minute walk from Oriole Park baseball stadium or a 30 minute walk from the Baltimore waterfront. Located in Lexington Market, Faidley’s has food-court style service where you go up to order and they put your food on a tray. They also have a separate area for a raw bar and takeaway raw seafood/meat (including raccoon and muskrat meat!).

There’s standing room only here at the high tops or there’s a few picnic benches on the patio outside. The first time we went it was on a Monday afternoon in March during game day. It was pretty busy but not crazy. The second time was in July which was a lot less busy but the food was still consistent.

There’s only one size of crab cake here, which is a 6.5 oz for $25 (market price), smaller than the standard 8oz size at other restaurants. The food was served very quickly (almost immediately!) and on first impressions, it had a lot more browning compared to other cakes but also had more filler. Despite this, it was well-season and the roasted browned flavour gave the crab cake more depth that the other cakes didn’t offer. It was like having thanksgiving stuffing out of the oven, crab-cake style! If this crab cake was larger with less filler, it would’ve easily taken the number one spot for best crab cake for me!

We also got a “Coddie” which is a fried cod and potato ball (not bad), the crab dip (amazing!), and the cream of crab soup (I thought it was okay, but Toby liked it).

You can actually watch them make the crab cakes while you wait for your food. I saw celery salt, Old Bay, and crushed crackers go into the mix!

3) Koco’s Pub

Address: 4301 Harford Rd, Baltimore, MD 21214
Hours: 11am-9pm on most days, closed Sun & Mon, evening only Tues (check their website for up to date hours)
Cost per crab cake: $39+ tax (market price) for an 11oz crab cake
Website: http://www.kocospub.com/

Pros:

Great ambience with lovely decor
Koconut shrimp was delicious
Good service

Cons:

15 minute drive from Baltimore (can be tricky to get here if you don’t have a car)
Texture of the crab cakes were too soft for my liking compared to others
Not a fan of the cream of crab soup
Much more expensive crab cake compared to others ($39 for an 11oz – Pappa’s takeaway was $27.50)

Of all the crab cake joints we’ve visited in Maryland, Koco’s pub had the most character with great vibes. It’s situated at the end of a quiet street – you can’t miss it, it’s the bright yellow house! Although a little farther out from Baltimore (15 minute drive), Koco’s reputation of great crab cakes seem to fill the place again and again. When we arrived without a reservation, there was only seating at the bar available (which was a bit uncomfortable since the table top doesn’t extend out as much as it should and we had to lean in to eat – you can probably notice it in one of the photos below). The interior of the restaurant made you feel like you were in a tropical family restaurant/pub with more brightly coloured walls and decor.

From the reviews, apart from their crab cakes, others have recommended the Koconut shrimp and the cream of crab soup, so we ordered all 3!

Crab cake: Although their standard crab cake size is the same 11oz as Pappa’s large, it seemed much smaller when it arrived (there are also larger and smaller options available that’s not on the menu). The crab cake was overall good, however we felt that it was a bit heavy on the Old Bay seasoning and the crab meat was more shredded in the crab cake rather than large chunks of crab meat which made it a softer texture that I didn’t prefer.
Koconut Shrimp: This was our favourite. It’s shrimp covered in koconut shavings and deep fried, served with a jalapeño raspberry sauce. The sauce sounded weird but interesting and it was delicious!
Cream of Crab Soup: Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of it. It was too thick and floury with minimal to no crab flavour. It if weren’t for the clumps of crab meat in the soup, I wouldn’t have known it was crab soup.

Overall, although the ambience of the place was fantastic and there was lovely service, the food fell a little short for us (except the Koconut shrimp) and we found it expensive compared to the others.

4) G & M Restaurant

Address: 804 N Hammonds Ferry Rd, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090
Hours: 11am-9pm daily
Cost per crab cake: $29+ tax for an 8oz crab cake + 1 side, or $58+tax for two 8oz crab cakes + 2 sides
Website: https://gandmcrabcakes.com/

Pros:

Delicious crab soup
Comparable prices of crab cake to the others

Cons:

15 minute drive from Baltimore (can be tricky to get here if you don’t have a car)
Crab cake didn’t taste as fresh as some of the other places

G & M Restaurant is about a 15 minute drive south of Baltimore and is a very large restaurant tucked away in a quiet plaza just off the freeway. The outside of the restaurant feels like you’re about to walk into a warehouse, but the ambience of the place inside I would describe as old school grand – a bit outdated with a dash of fancy. There’s wooden floors, wooden chairs, folded fabric napkins, and tall ceilings. When we arrived on a Tuesday afternoon around 3pm, the restaurant was pretty empty so we sat at the bar.

They had a decent sized menu and also a Ballpark Special menu. We ordered the crab cake, cream of crab soup, and the pretzel crab dip.

Crab Cake: The standard crab crake size here is only 8oz (for $29 with one side, or two crab cakes for $58 with two sides). There’s also an a la cart 4oz crab cake option for $19. The crab cake was good and lightly seasoned, not too heavy on the Old Bay with good chunks of crab meat in the crab cake without too much filler. However, although it ticks the boxes on a good crab cake for me, the overall taste of the crab didn’t seem as fresh as some of the others.
Cream of Crab Soup: This was the BEST cream of crab soup we’ve had on our trip – I was starting to lose hope after being disappointed again and again. Unlike most cream of crab soups, the flavour of the crab actually penetrates into the soup with good chunks of crab meat. You can also tell they use wine in the recipe which gives it great flavour. I started off with a cup of soup, but it was so good that I ordered a bowl to go at the end of our meal (it was indeed still delicious the next day)!
Pretzel Crab Dip: This was a game day special that I couldn’t resist because I love pretzels. It was a huge portion with lots of crab and the dip was great. Toby especially liked it because it was similar to the Imperial Crab Cakes at Pappa’s.

Overall, the food was great. The crab cake is smaller and a little more expensive than Pappa’s, but it comes with a side, so I guess it evens out. Had the crab cake tasted fresher, it would’ve taken the #3 spot over Koco’s for me. The cream of crab soup is definitely a must-try here and that alone I feel is worth the drive out from Baltimore.

5) Jimmy’s Famous Seafood

Address: 6526 Holabird Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224
Hours: 11am-2am, daily
Cost per crab cake: $34+tax for 8oz
Website: http://www.jimmysfamousseafood.com/

Pros:

Big menu
Open late
Modern look

Cons:

Mandatory 21% gratuity on all dine-in cheques! (18% gratuity + extra $3% “labor of love” service charge) – wtf
15-20 minute drive from Baltimore (can be tricky to get here if you don’t have a car)
Slow service despite the bar being near-empty
Douchey vibes
May not be real Maryland crabs!

Jimmy’s Famous Seafood is a HUGE restaurant outside of Baltimore that has a restaurant section and a bar/lounge section. We weren’t sure which area to go in, so we went into the first door closest from the parking lot and was in the bar section. It seemed like a pretty modern venue with nightclub vibes (they are after all open until 2am daily). We arrived on a Friday afternoon around 3pm and the were only 2 other tables seated around the bar. Eventhough it wasn’t busy, service was very slow. Someone gave us menus and seated us right away, but no one came back to acknowledge us after 10 minutes of waiting so we went up and ordered at the counter. While we were waiting, I scrolled through some Google reviews of this place and realized that many poor ratings were due to a mandatory 21% gratuity! Low and behold, as I scanned the menu more closely, right at the bottom in small print it states “Jimmy’s reserves the right to add an 18% gratuity because we love our employees”…”We add a 3% labor of love service charge to all checks at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.” Wuuuuut? Pardon my language, but fuck that. Coming from NYC, we’re used to tipping a lot more, but a restaurant that has mandatory tipping just didn’t sit well with me. It screams cheapskate owners that don’t want to pay the employees a decent wage so they take that expense out on the customers. No way were we being forced to pay 21% gratuity just for sitting down (and at the bar!) without being told about it beforehand, especially with no service and we had to order at the counter. Toby went back to the counter and told them that we’re going to take away our food to avoid that mandatory tip – they still charged us the 3% labor of love fee 😒. Super shady. If you’re going to add on a charge, at least inform your customers beforehand instead of letting them find out on their own.

Tipping frustration aside, they had a huge menu with plenty of choices that sounded delicious, but unfortunately at this point of the day we were getting pretty full so we only ordered a crab cake and also the crab egg roll that was highly rated from the reviews.

It was another 15 minutes before our food was ready, but it seemed much longer. We were seated infront of a TV screen that had a non-stop video loop of the owner/chef doing things in different poses. It was as if he made a commercial of himself, rather than the business. This, on top of the mandatory tipping gave me douchey vibes.

Overall the crab cake was decent and well-made but it didn’t stand out from the other crab cakes. It did come with 3 different sauces though which was nice. I wasn’t a fan of the egg roll but Toby liked it. Overall the food was okay, but the mandatory tipping and the douchey vibes with poor service tainted the whole experience for us.

Even after leaving the restaurant, I was still raging about the shadiness of this place, so I did some googling and I’m gonna leave this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/1luywvj/in_a_move_that_surprises_no_one_jimmys_seafood_is/

In Summary:

Pappa’s takes #1 for us for the best crab cake. It just ticks all the boxes and is also the best-priced!
Faidley’s has the best location with more depth of flavour of their crab cakes, however it was also the smallest and most expensive for the size.
G&M’s has the best cream of crab soup.
Koco’s has the best atmosphere for a restaurant.

I hope you enjoyed reading my take on the best Maryland crab cakes! Leave a message in the comments if you feel that I’ve missed a restaurant that should be on this list!

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AbbyLeave a comment

Top Things to Do in Birmingham, Alabama & Surroundings: A Travel Guide

Date Published: July 13th 2025 | Last Updated: July 13th 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: June 16th, 2025

Birmingham, Alabama is the state’s largest city by metro area (but only second to Huntsville by population). It was a major industrial centre in the 1800s known for iron and steel production that lead to rapid growth and earned the city’s nickname “The Magic City”.

Coming from NYC, Birmingham seemed like a pretty small town, but it’s home to a fascinating history, a giant bare-bottomed statue, and some of the best BBQ around! Nearby around Birmingham there’s a motorsport museum that can’t be missed (even if you’re not into motorcycles), a statue of liberty replica, a national park, and a grotto of miniature holy places.

How many days do I need?

Although you could definitely fit everything within a 12 hour day, but because the museums all close around 4-5pm, it’s impossible to hit them all before closing time. Therefore, you’ll need 1 day for everything in Birmingham (Civil Rights Museum, Vulcan statue and museum, Sloss Furnaces, and the Botanical Gardens), but add on an extra day to do things around Birmingham such as the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum (HIGHLY recommend!) or some hiking – plus, an extra day also lets you try out more local BBQ!

Best time of year to travel?

You can visit Birmingham any time of the year, but it gets quite hot and humid during the summer months, so spring (March – May) or autumn (Sept – early Nov) would be the best times to go, especially if you plan on doing some outdoor hikes. If you plan on only sticking to the museums, then any time of year would be suitable.

Getting Around

The best way to get around Birmingham and the surrounding areas is by car.

Where to stay?

As you can see from the map below, everything is a little spread out so it doesn’t really matter all that much where you stay. The “central downtown” area isn’t really worth paying extra to stay near since there wasn’t much in terms of street shopping, nightlife nor a collection of restaurants. We stayed at a cheap Quality Inn off highway 280 for $90 a night and it was actually pretty decent.

Things to Do

Vulcan Park and Museum

Address: 1701 Valley View Dr, Birmingham, AL 35209
Hours: 10am-8pm Sun to Thurs, 10am-9pm Fri & Sat (gift shop closes at 6pm)
Cost: $6 per person
Time needed here: ~ 40 minutes
Website: https://visitvulcan.com/

Vulcan, named after the Roman god of fire and forgery, is a colossal 56 feet (17m) tall iron statue that sits on top of a 124 feet (37.8m) pedestal that overlooks the city of Birmingham. Weighing in at 50 tonnes (100,000 lbs), it is the largest cast iron statue in the world and the largest metal statue ever made in the US!

Vulcan was made for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri to promote the city’s abundant iron and steel industry. After the fair it was brought back to Birmingham (after sitting on the side of the railroad for 18 months due to unpaid freight fees 😳) but his spear was lost during transport (how do you even lose a giant spear? 🤔). Vulcan sat at the Alabama State Fairgrounds with nothing to hold and companies used this to their advantage. Over the years he held a Coca-cola bottle, ice cream cone, and even Heinz pickles! In 1936 they found Vulcan its current home on top of Red Mountain where he has stood atop his pedestal ever since. In 1946 they made Vulcan hold a temporary light-up torch to bring awareness to traffic safety, and in 2001 they finally made him a new spear and hammer.

You can drive right up to the Vulcan statue where it’s $6 to enter the park which includes admission into the small museum and access to the observation deck at the top of the pedestal right at the base of the statue. Unfortunately when we went, the elevator was out of order so we climbed 159 steps to the top…only to be mooned by Vulcan. The statue faces towards the city, but from the parking lot and the exit of the observation stairs, all you see is his bare bum 😂. I can’t tell if he’s wearing skin-tight pants or they’ve just decided that he should be bare-assed. It seemed like every angle was of his bum.

The elevator is to the right of the statue

The view from the top over Birmingham was nice. Your ticket is actually good for the whole day and the staff recommended coming back for sunset views over the city – a lovely thought, but no way we were climbing these stairs twice in this heat 😅.

The small museum covers the history of the construction of Vulcan and the history of Birmingham’s industries. It doesn’t take long to walk through. Overall we spent a total of 40 minutes here including the observation deck and climbing those stairs.

Sloss Furnaces

Address: 20 32nd St N, Birmingham, AL 35222
Hours: 10am-4pm Tues-Sat, closed Sun & Mon
Cost: Free for a self-guided tour; for a 1 hour guided tour: $10/adult, $5/child – book early, only 2 tours a day at 10:30am and 2pm
Address: https://www.slossfurnaces.org/

Established in 1881, Sloss Furnace was a huge blast furnace plant where iron was made from 1882–1971. Due to vast deposits of coal, limestone, and iron ore in the area, it was once the largest crude iron producer in the world! It provided thousands of jobs for people from all around the Southern states, including former slaves and European immigrants, but it also had an ugly history of racial injustice, union busting and dangerous working conditions. Sloss played a role in the history of civil rights in Birmingham and it is said that the history of Sloss is the history of Birmingham and the industrial age.

Sloss Furnaces was a major source of air pollution and it was closed permanently in 1970 due to a combination of pressures from environmental regulations and the availability of more efficient and profitable ore sources in other regions. Today the site is a national historic landmark and is the first industrial site in the US to be saved and converted for public use. It is currently a museum, an education centre, and a venue for concerts and festivals.

You can tour the furnaces for free as a self-guided tour with information plaques to read, or you can book a $10 guided tour that walks you through the grounds (book early, only 2 tours a days at 10:30am and 2pm). Unfortunately, as cool as this place looked (it’s huge, you can see it from the highway!), we weren’t able to visit because it was sadly not open on Sundays and Mondays when we were in Birmingham 💔. I’ve included it in this post anyway for anyone else that is planning a trip to Birmingham and may want to check it out!

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Address: 520 16th St N, Birmingham, AL 35203
Hours: 10am-5pm Tues – Sat, closed Sun & Mon
Cost: $15 per adult
Website: http://www.bcri.org/

Birmingham was known as one of the most segregated cities in the US. It had a notorious history for police brutality and the local KKK was the most violent. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a museum that depicts the struggle for black equality and highlights the civil rights movement in Birmingham in the 1950s and 60s, including the Birmingham Campaign and the Children’s Crusade that included boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and other non-violent protests that were met with brutal violence that shocked the nation and received widespread attention. The events at Birmingham shaped the fight for equality.

Unfortunately this museum was also closed on Sunday and Monday, so we weren’t able to visit when we were in Birmingham, but I’ve included here as another noteworthy place to visit when in town.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Address: 2612 Lane Park Rd, Birmingham, AL 35223
Hours: 7am-6pm, daily (hours change seasonally, check the website for the most up to date info)
Cost: Free
Website: https://www.bbgardens.org/

With only one day in Birmingham, we sadly didn’t make it to the botanical gardens before it closed – it didn’t help that it also started raining. I’ve included it in this post because it came highly recommended by a few people in our research and it also has a great online rating. It seems pretty big, so I’d allow at least 2 hours here!

Food

Saw’s BBQ/Saw’s Soul Kitchen

Address: 6 locations, Homewood location is the OG, we went to the Avondale location (215 41st St S, Birmingham, AL 35222)
Hours: Mon – Thurs 11am-8pm, 11am-9pm Fri & Sat, 11am-4pm Sun
Website: http://www.sawsbbq.com/

This Carolina-style BBQ has been voted the best BBQ in Alabama. Although Toby and I didn’t have time to try out the many BBQ joints on offer in Birmingham, we’d agree that Saw’s did indeed serve up some amazing BBQ! There are 6 locations around the Birmingham area, but the OG is the Homewood location. Each location serves the main popular items on the menu, but each one also offers a little something different, according to our server.

We went to the Avondale location which was closest to us. At first glance we weren’t sure if we were in the right place. The sign was barely visible – half faded on the side of the wall – but once we entered, the unmistakable smell of BBQ assured us this was it. Unlike a traditional BBQ joint where they slice the food by weight in front of you and you self-serve your sides, this joint was fast-food style where we placed our order at the counter/bar, grabbed a number and the food was brought out to our table.

True to our nature, we ordered a bit of everything that’s popular (sadly, no brisket):

Smoked chicken thighs – AMAZING. Perfectly cooked, juicy, slighty crisky and smokey. The sauce was delicious!
Pulled pork and grits – my favourite of the meal. It was hearty and tasted like a home-cooked Southern meal. Goes great with their table BBQ sauce.
Sweet tea chicken sandwich – this was Toby’s all time favourite. Although the bun sucked and kept falling apart, but the flavour of the fried chicken was SO GOOD. I’d come back just for this chicken!
Fried corn, fried green tomatoes, and banana pudding were just okay.

For everything above we dropped $61 which we thought was pretty reasonable! They also had a pretty good red sauce and white sauce on the table that they sell at the local Piggly Wiggly if you wanted to bring some home.

If you’re into BBQ, there are tons of other BBQ places around Birmingham also with very high reviews. Next time, I’d stay an extra day or two just to try out more places!

Just outside of Birmingham

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

Address: 6030 Barber Motorsports Pkwy, Leeds, AL 35094
Hours: 10am-5pm Mon to Sat, 12pm-5pm Sun (check the website for the most up to date info)
Cost: $20 per adult, $15 per child
Time needed here: at least 2 hours
Website: http://www.barbermuseum.org/

If you’re into motorcycles and the motorsport industry, this is the place for you! If you’re not into motorcycles, you should come here anyway!

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum has the largest collection of motorcycles in the world. There are over 1000 mint condition motorcycles on display from every era. Neither Toby and I are into motorsports, but this place was so highly reviewed in our research that we had to put it on our list to see what all the hype was about. We’re so glad we did because this is hands down one of the most aesthetically pleasing museums we’ve ever been in. Right from the beginning you’re faced with a shit ton of motorcycles, all perfectly lined up and shiny. The reflection off of all the chrome is mesmerizing. Not only was it cool to see all the motorcycles throughout the years, they also had sections of different type of motorsports such as drag racing, speed racing, dirt biking so you can compare the difference between the different types of motorcycles.

Apart from racing, our favourite part of the museum was actually the history of the invention of motorcycles. They had a steam-operated bicycle that is said to be one of the earliest models of the motorcycle. Back in the day, motorcycles were made by literally adding a motor attachment to a bicycle and as time went on, it became more and more custom and a separate machine on its own. They have war time bikes, Arnott’s biscuit bikes, holiday side car bikes, snowmobile bikes…etc. If you can think of a type and era of bicycle, they’ll probably have it on display! It was honestly such a cool museum to visit and I highly recommend everyone to go! It took us about 1.5 hours here to walk through everything, but if you’re a motorcycle enthusiast, you could easily spend much longer, reading through all of the information plaques.

1867 Roper Steam Velocipede replica – possibly the first true two-wheeled motorcycle with a steam power cylinder and a coal fired broiler 😂

Teeny tiny bikes that Toby remembers from his childhood

2016 Christini 450 II-Track – a motorcycle and snowmobile all in one! 😂

Statue of Liberty Replica

Address: 516 Liberty Pkwy, Vestavia Hills, Alabama, 35242
Hours: 6am-9pm? I can’t really find a direct source on the opening hours apart from what’s listed on google maps
Cost: Free
Time needed here: 10 minutes

View from the parking lot walking up to the statue

Something totally random and unexpected to find in Birmingham is a Statue of Liberty replica that’s one-fifth the original size. This statue was commissioned by the Liberty National Life Insurance Company as their symbol and sat on top of their building in downtown Birmingham from 1958. In 1989 the statue was moved to its current location (I couldn’t find a reason why).

There’s not much to do here apart from gaze at this statue – it actually is a pretty good replica compared to the real lady liberty. You don’t need to spend much time here and if you’ve seen the real thing, it’s pretty much just a smaller version so feel free to skip it if you’re on a time crunch. There’s a small parking lot you can park your car, then it’s a 30 second walk to the statue.

Oak Mountain State Park – Kings Chair Overlook Hike

Cost: $5 per adult for admission into the state park
Hours: 7am-8pm, daily
Park Website: https://www.alapark.com/parks/oak-mountain-state-park

Length: 5.4km total
Elevation Gain: 360m
Trail type: Out & back
Difficulty/Terrain: moderately strenuous, mostly uphill with a moderate incline, nice walking terrain
Estimated duration: 2 hours total
Starting point: North Trailhead Parking Lot (975W+43, Pelham, AL 35242)
Things to bring: water bottle, sunscreen & hat (most of the trail is shaded with some sunny area), good hiking shoes, tick/insect repellent depending on season, screenshot of the trail map
More Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/alabama/king-s-chair-overlook-loop (we didn’t do the full loop, just the out and back on the blue trail)

Located just 30 minutes outside of Birmingham, Oak Mountain State Park is Alabama’s largest park and offers recreational activities such as hiking, fishing, camping, horseback riding, and biking.

There are numerous hikes in this state park, but due to timing, we only went on the most popular hike, the King’s Chair Overlook. You can reach the overlook through a few different trail paths and make it into a loop, but we took the most direct route by starting on the blue trail and followed the trail left until we reached the overlook (I’ve highlighted our path in the map below) then turned back the way we came.

Overview of the path (blue trail) we took to get to King’s Chair Overlook in Oak Mountain State Park

The trail starts at the North Trailhead Parking lot. It’s pretty easily accessible with enough parking for at least 20 cars. We started at 8am to try and escape the heat and there was only one other car there when we arrived. It was a little busier when we left but still plenty of parking.

Overall the hike was moderately strenuous with a pretty consistent moderate incline almost all of the way. It took us about 2 hours total. It was a lovely walk through the forest and the views at the top were great with an overlook of the tree canopy below, but if I’m being honest, it wasn’t a unique view with interesting structures or special scenery. It was like any other overlook in any other state or country. So if you’re short on time and you’ve done overlook hikes before, I’d probably give this one a miss.

Ave Maria Grotto

Address: 1600 St Bernard Dr, Cullman, AL 35055
Hours: 9am-5pm Mon-Sat, 11:30am-5pm Sunday
Admission: $10 per person
Time needed here: 20 – 30 minutes
Website: http://www.avemariagrotto.com/

If you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary, the Ave Maria Grotto is a garden area outside of the Saint Bernard Abbey that is home to handmade miniature replicas of famous religious places around the world.

Created by Brother Joseph, a Benedictine monk of the abbey for nearly 70 years, he built his first miniatures in 1912 and at first they were placed near the monastery, but the large number of visitors that would come to see them resulted in them being moved to their current location in the grotto. The current collection includes 125 small stone and cement structures and is built out of stone, concrete, and unwanted donated materials (e.g., broken plates, costume jewelry, ceramic tile, beads, marbles, seashells, etc.).

The Ave Maria Grotto is located 1 hour north of Birmingham. It’s $10 admission per person and will take you roughly 20-30 minutes to walk through the winding garden of miniature scenes. If you’re really into miniatures, then check this place out – if not, then it won’t be quite worth the 1 hour detour just to get here. We stopped by on our way from Birmingham to Huntsville.

A Sample Itinerary

Double check all opening days and times before going! Some places are not open every day.

Day 1:

7:30am – 9:30am: Wake up early and do a hike at Oak Mountain State Park before it gets hot – it takes 2 hours to do the Kings Chair Overlook trail
9:30am – 11am: Drive half an hour from Kings Chair parking lot to Sloss Furnaces. Reach Sloss Furnaces by 10am for the one hour guided tour (be sure to book tickets ahead of time)
11:30am – 1pm: Lunch at Saw’s BBQ
1:30pm – 4pm: Civil Rights Museum
4pm – 6pm: Botanical Gardens
6pm – 8pm: Vulcan Statue museum & observatory – head up to the observatory at sunset for views of the city below

Day 2:

10am – 12pm: Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (aim to spend at least 2 hours here)
12:30pm – 12:45pm: Swing by and check out the Statue of Liberty Replica
1pm -2:30pm: Try out another delicious BBQ joint for lunch or head to Saw’s again!
3pm+ optional to head to the Ave Maria Grotto depending on time (it’s a 1 hour drive north of Birmingham)

Some Final Thoughts

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum was one of the highlights of the area!
Saw’s BBQ is AMAZING. I still dream about the pulled pork and cheesy grits.
Book tickets in advance for Sloss Furnaces.
Not all the attractions and museums are open everyday. Double check the opening times before planning your trip!
Will I ever know why Vulcan doesn’t have pants???

July 13, 2025July 15, 2025

Abby2 Comments

Exploring Memphis: From Graceland to Beale Street

Date Published: June 30th, 2025 | Last Updated: June 30th, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: April 13th-14th, 2025

Memphis, TN is credited for being the birthplace of rock n’ roll and home of the blues. I’ve heard so much about this iconic city and expected it to be huge, but surprisingly it actually wasn’t all that big nor all that much to do here apart from museums and checking out live music. Overall Memphis seemed very geared toward tourists, but it’s still worth checking out to visit the historic places such as Graceland, Elvis’ home, Sun Studio where so many artists started, and Lorraine Hotel which is the site of the National Civil Rights Museum and also where MLK Jr. was fatally shot. It’s worth a visit at least once to walk through the historic places, especially if you’re a music fan!

How many days do I need?

Although you only need 2 days to see the highlights, most museums will close by 5pm and each museum takes a few hours to get through (especially Graceland where you’ll need at least half a day), so leave yourself 3 days if you want to get through all the places. I’ve highlighted the main attractions in this post with a rough amount of time you’ll need at each place to help you plan your trip.

Best time of year to travel?

Apart from Beale Street and outdoor exhibits, the main museum attractions are indoors, so the time of year isn’t all that important when visiting Memphis.

April to May will be the best season to travel before it gets too hot, but it will also be the busiest season.

June to August will have more outdoor music and festivals, but it’ll get very hot, so be prepared and have plenty of sun protection!

Budget travel times with the cheapest hotel rates: November to February – it’ll be colder and off-peak season but winters in Memphis tend to be mild compared to other states.

Where to stay?

Stay closer to the downtown area/Beale Street for better access to live music at night and you’ll be within walking distance home afterwards. Most attractions in Memphis are not within walking distance, so unless you plan on taking an Uber everywhere, try to find a hotel with reasonable parking rates or a parking garage nearby.

We stayed here:

Caption By Hyatt Beale Street Memphis
Address: 245 South Front Street, Memphis, TN 38103, United States
Website: https://www.hyatt.com/caption-by-hyatt/memcp-caption-by-hyatt-beale-street-memphis

It was a great location, clean, and a modern hotel. It cost us about $130/night in April but there are definitely cheaper options around if you’re looking for a low cost option. The valet parking here was super expensive and not worthwhile but the parking garage across the street had great rates and was easily accessible.

Getting Here and Getting Around

The closest airport is the Memphis International Airport, which is only a 20 minute drive away from downtown and less than 5 minutes away from Graceland.

Side story: We didn’t find many flights coming into Memphis from NYC that suited our schedule (most flew in the middle of the day and we like to either fly super early or super late to get the most out of our days) so we actually flew into Nashville, TN which had more flight options, stayed around for a few days to check out the country music scene, then made the 3 hour road trip to Memphis. If you’ve got time to spare, I’d highly recommend checking out Nashville!

Downtown Memphis is not very big, but most of the bigger attractions such as Graceland or Sun Studio aren’t walkable and will require some sort of transport. Driving is the best option to get around with free parking at most tourist areas, but you can also choose to use ride share such as Uber or Lyft to save on driving.

We parked here overnight:

MLGW Parking
Address: 234-238 S Front St, Memphis, TN 38103
Google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/oNvR92fhjKV7Dh1AA

This parking garage was directly across from our hotel and is also a great location near Beale Street. The prices are reasonable and overnight parking is available.

Map of Memphis

Overview of Memphis with the main attractions labelled (blue = attractions, red = food, green = our hotel)

A zoomed in view of downtown Memphis with Beale Street highlighted in Pink (blue = attractions, red = food, green = our hotel)

A Word on Safety

Memphis was listed in the top 3 most dangerous cities in the US. We actually didn’t know this until we arrived on a Sunday night and immediately experienced some wild behaviour from people erratically swerving their cars, yelling on the streets, and grown ass women screaming and crying in a hotel lobby while laying on the ground all within the first 30 minutes of arriving in downtown Memphis. A quick google search highlighted the ugly side of Memphis and put us on our guard for the rest of the trip.

It turns out that the first night when we arrived there was a food festival in town and drew in all sorts of crowds that led to the insane behaviour, but for the rest of the trip we mainly felt pretty safe and just steered clear of any suspicious areas.

To be on the safe side, I’d recommend exploring during the day and stick to the touristy areas and not venture too far off on your own, especially at night. Park your car in reliable parking garages with good security, and stay in hotels closer to the main attractions. Just be on your guard, stay clear of any drama, and avoid sketchy areas and you’ll be fine.

Things to Do:

The top 2 attractions in Memphis are Sun Studio and Graceland. There’s just so much to talk about that I’ve made a separate post for each of them, see below for the links:

Sun Studio

Explore Sun Studio: Rock and Roll’s Birthplace

Sun Studio in Memphis, founded by Sam Phillips, is a historic recording studio where legendary artists started out, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. This guide is an overview of everything you need to know before visiting.

April 29, 2025

Graceland

Graceland: A Complete Guide to Visiting Elvis Presley’s Home

Graceland is the home of Elvis Presley and his family and is the number one tourist attraction in Memphis. My guide contains everything you need to know about visiting Graceland with tons of pictures to help you plan your visit.

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025

Memphis Pyramid: Bass Pro Megastore + Observation Deck

Address: 1 Bass Pro Dr, Memphis, TN 38105
Website: https://stores.basspro.com/us/tn/memphis/1-bass-pro-dr.html
Hours: 9am-9pm most days (check the website for updated information)
Cost: Free entry into the pyramid, it’s $8 to go up the elevator to the observation deck

The Memphis Pyramid was built in 1991 and was originally used as a sports arena/entertainment venue. The pyramid shape was to pay homage to the city’s namesake to an ancient city in Egypt that was known for its pyramids. It was closed for some time in the early 2000’s but then re-opened in 2015 as a Bass Pro Shops megastore.

This is the largest Bass Pro Shop and like most Bass Pros, the inside is decked out to look like a wilderness scene, but this is to the next level. They’ve got alligators, a large indoor body of water with large fish, restaurants, and even a hotel on the upper level where you can rent rooms with balconies overlooking the store or even rent an entire small cabin! So if you’re REALLY into Bass Pro, or just a fan of pyramid-shaped buildings, here’s your chance to live in one. 😉 If you’re not into either, there’s an elevator in the middle of the pyramid that takes you to the top for views of Memphis and the waterfront.

In the middle of the pyramid is the tallest free-standing elevator in the US and stands 28 stories/300 feet high. It costs $8 to go up and at the top it opens into a restaurant with an outdoor observation deck with sweeping views of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River. The line can get pretty long, but it moves quickly. Definitely worthwhile to go up for the price!

Bus Tour of Memphis

For an overview of Memphis, we took a musical bus tour with Back Beat Tours. It was a great tour that drove around the city and pointed out historical sites such as the small apartment where Elvis and his parents lived before he made it big and the Overton Park Shell – THE outdoor performance stage where so many have started their careers. The tour guide was a musician and would sing famous songs that was significant to the area as he talked us through the Memphis music history. There’s an option to get dropped off at Sun Studio at the end of the tour if you haven’t visited yet.

Apart from the bus tour, there’s also an option of a walking tour to get more of an overall history of Memphis rather than a focus on music. We had a great time and I’d highly recommend checking them out!

National Civil Rights Museum

Address: 450 Mulberry St, Memphis, TN 38103
Website: https://civilrightsmuseum.org/
Hours: 9am-5pm, closed on Tuesdays (check website for updated hours before going)
Cost: $20/adult

Although there are many civil rights museums around the US, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is considered one of the best ones. You’ll need at least 2 hours to get through most of it here, but set aside 3 hours if you want to read everything (there’s a lot to read!).

If you’re visiting internationally and don’t know much about American history, a VERY basic summary that you should know before visiting is that the American civil war was a significant war from 1861-1865 between the Northern and the Southern states over slavery. The Southern states heavily relied on slaves for cheap labor on their industry such as cotton plantations, whereas the Northern states wanted to abolish slavery and make slavery illegal. Spoiler: the North won and slavery was abolished, however as significant as this win was, racism continued and the struggle for black rights continued for decades to come. This museum is a comprehensive coverage through time of the complicated past and the fight for equality. The exhibits starts off with how slavery came to be in America and ends with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., highlighting significant events along the way and important figures.

The museum is actually located at the site where Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot, outside of his hotel room at the Lorraine Hotel. The Lorraine Hotel has since closed down but the outside of the hotel has been preserved, as well as his hotel room. The inside of the hotel is renovated into the museum and it’s actually a pretty cool-looking building from the outside – even if you don’t have time to go to the museum, it’s worth checking out the outside of the building and seeing the site and memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – it’s free for everyone.

Stax Record Company – Museum of American Soul Music

Address: 926 E. McLemore Ave, Memphis, TN 38106
Opening Hours: Tues to Sun 10am – 5pm (tours stop at 4pm), closed Mondays (double check the website for the most updated information)
Website: https://staxmuseum.org/
Admission: $20/adult, $16 for children and seniors

Founded in 1957 by two siblings, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, Stax Record Company (named by combining their last names) became a powerhouse for soul music. They’re known for blending rhythm and blues styles and influential in creating the “Southern Soul” or “Memphis Soul” sound. They are one of the most popular soul music record labels of all time and launched the careers of legendary artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, among numerous others. You can read more about their history here: https://staxmuseum.org/1957-1968/

Although the original recording studio no longer exists, you can visit the Stax Museum and learn all about the history of soul music in Memphis. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to fit this into our itinerary but it was highly recommended by our music tour guide.

The Peabody Duck March at The Peabody Hotel

Address: 149 Union Avenue, Memphis TN 38103
Website: https://www.peabodymemphis.com/
Time: daily at 11am and 5pm, it is recommended to come 30 minutes prior
Cost: Free

Alright, this isn’t a “must do”, but it’s mentioned time and time again by internet reviews so I thought I’d include it for the people that want the “full” Memphis experience.

The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in downtown Memphis that was originally built in 1869 at a location 1 block away from the current location. It housed several historic figures including presidents and generals back in the day. It closed down and re-opened in 1925 one block away and has retained its historical status. Apart from it being a fancy hotel, there’s a long-standing tradition since the 1930s of marching the resident ducks that live on the roof top of the hotel to the fountain in the lobby, called the ‘Peabody duck march’. It’s a 1 minute “show” where people line up along a red carpet and watch these ducks get ushered from out the elevator and to the fountain. I’m told it gets pretty busy, but you can sit at the bar for a better view if you buy a drink. Honestly, it’s not the most exciting, but it’s something different!

Toby didn’t actually tell me about this when he planned this trip because he didn’t think it was that exciting, but I got curious when the tour guide was talking about it and looked it up myself. Here’s a POV youtube video that someone filmed of the march in case anyone’s interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCLMZ_6DSpg. He was right, it didn’t seem that exciting, especially since we had limited time in Memphis.

If you’re REALLY into ducks, for $434, you can book a “Ducky Day” package that includes a 1 night stay and duck-themed souvenirs 😂.

Beale Street

Beale Street is a historic street in downtown Memphis known for live music, restaurants, and shops and is considered the heart of Memphis. If you came to Memphis for some live music, this is the place to go. The entertainment part of Beale Street only runs two blocks between S. 2nd St. and S. 4th St. (highlighted in pink in the map above) with about a dozen restaurant/bar/live music venues scattered between the many souvenir gift shops.

Take a stroll down during the day and check out the shops and restaurants. Read the historic information plaques, check out a statue of Elvis’, get an old school milkshake at A. Schwab, or take a walking tour to learn more about this historic street.

Come in the evening for the iconic experience when the neon lights are lit up and the live music pours out of these venues. We’ve asked multiple locals on what their favourite place is for live music, but it really depends on who’s playing that night and what kind of music you’re into. Some musicians will be seasoned pros, whereas others may just be starting out. Instead of seeking out a specific place, I’d recommend just taking a stroll down Beale Street with open ears and see which artists you enjoy. Although Beale Street is known as the “Home of the Blues”, we not only heard different styles of Jazz, but country music and even a mini orchestra band while walking down!

On our last night in Memphis we settled in at Rum Boogie Cafe and listened to Baunie & Soul perform for a few hours before returning home.

Although a very touristy area, be a bit cautious when walking around downtown Memphis at night. When we arrived on a weekend night, there were some rowdy crowds around with a few suspicious characters, but during the weekday it was a bit quieter and we felt completely safe.

Food

Arcade Restaurant – Memphis’ Oldest Cafe

Address: 540 S Main St, Memphis, TN 38103
Hours: 7am – 3pm daily
Website: http://arcaderestaurant.com

Arcade Restaurant is Memphis’ oldest cafe, open since 1919! Back in the heyday when Memphis was a bumpin’ place to be, the Arcade was open 24/7, catering to the many resident musicians at the time, including Elvis Presley! It is known that Elvis was a regular at the Arcade and would always order a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich at his preferred booth beside the back door in case he ever needed to make a quick escape from crazy fans! You can actually sit at ‘the Elvis booth’ if you’re lucky enough for it to be free when you’re there!

Even without the Elvis popularity, the Food Network listed the fried PB sandwich on their top 100 sandwiches in the US. We came here early in the morning for breakfast before our day at Graceland to experience this retro-style arcade and to ‘eat like The King’. We got to sit at the Elvis booth! The fried PB and banana sandwich tasted exactly as it sounds – two slices of bread with peanut butter and sliced banana in the middle, then pan-fried on the outside until golden. It was a fine sandwich, but not mind-blowing, something you could easily make at home. They had some pretty good sweet potato pancakes though and the smoked turkey and brie sandwich wasn’t half bad either!

Blues City Cafe (on Beale Street)

Address: 138 Beale St, Memphis, TN 38103
Hours: 11am-1am most night, open until 3am on Fri and Sat nights
Website: https://bluescitycafe.com/menu/our-menu/

This restaurant was recommended by our tour guide for some good classic southern food. It is conveniently located right on Beale Street, perfect for grabbing dinner then strolling down the street for some live jazz music.

Being our first time in the South, we wanted to try a bit of everything. Their gumbo cheese fries and BBQ ribs were just okay, the fried catfish was beautifully fried and super fresh, the collard greens were pretty good, but my all time favourite was the gumbo. I originally got a small cup but it was so good that I immediately ordered a full size bowl 😅. They will usually have live music in the back, but we must have just missed them when we were there 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken

Address: 310 S Front St, Memphis, TN 38103
Hours: 11am-9pm most days, until 10pm on Fri and Sat night
Website: http://gusfriedchicken.com/downtown-memphis-tennessee-location/#menu

We arrived in Memphis pretty late in the evening and many restaurants were already closed, but we found Gus’s that was only a 2 minute walk from our hotel with a ton of positive Google reviews so off we went, excited to try our first fried chicken in the South!

This joint was indeed busy and as usual, we ordered a bit of the most popular items to try it out. Apart from the fried green tomatoes, sadly the rest of the food was very underwhelming. The spicy fried chicken that so many people online rave about was just okay. It was cooked well, but the flavours were lacking. We really wanted to like it 💔.

Memphis BBQ

We’ve heard so much about Memphis BBQ, but unfortunately most of the popular BBQ spots weren’t open on the days we were there so we never got to experience true Memphis BBQ, apart from the okay ribs at Blues City Cafe. Memphis BBQ is predominantly pork-based, although some restaurants also serve beef cuts. From what I can tell, Memphis-style BBQ offers pork ribs that are served either “wet” (with a sauce covering) or “dry” (cooked with a dry rub).

Here’s a list of popular Memphis BBQ places we’ve come across in our research incase we ever head back to Memphis again or if anyone is planning a trip (as you can see, most are closed Sunday & Monday, the only 2 days we were in Memphis 😭):

Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous
Address: 52 S 2nd St, Memphis, TN 38103
Hours: 11am-9pm most days, closed Sun & Mon
Website: https://hogsfly.com/

Cozy Corner Restaurant
Address: 735 North Pkwy, Memphis, TN 38105
Hours: 11am-8pm most days, closed Sun & Mon
Website: https://cozycornerbbq.com/menu/

The Bar-B-Q Shop
Address: 1782 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104
Hours: 11am-8:30pm most days, closed Sun & Mon
Website: https://thebar-b-qshop.com/

Central BBQ
Address: 147 E Butler Ave, Memphis, TN 38103 (2 locations)
Hours: 11am-9pm daily
Website: https://eatcbq.com/pages/downtown

Some final thoughts…

Memphis is very touristy, especially Beale Street
Be cautious of safety and suspicious characters
Graceland and Sun Studios are the two main attractions in Memphis
Don’t visit on a Sunday or Monday if you want to have good Memphis BBQ
Civil rights museum is worth visiting for its historical significance
Check out the bigass Bass Pro Pyramid, if not for the shop, then for the observation deck at the top
If you like ducks, head to The Peabody

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025

AbbyLeave a comment

A Day in Princeton & Beyond – University, Grounds for Sculpture, & Trenton

Date Published: April 21st, 2025 | Last Updated: April 21st, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: March 1st, 2025

Princeton, New Jersey is roughly a 1.5 hour drive from NYC which makes it a great day trip away from the big city. In fact, it is exactly halfway between Philadelphia and New York, which were the two wealthiest cities back in the days and as a result, Princeton was a popular stop for stage coaches to let their horses rest. You can still find old stone horse troughs still around town!

Princeton is of course home to the famous Princeton University. The main highlight of this town is to tour the campus but there are some cool shops around this town as well to check out. This post will highlight a tour around the college campus, some famous houses, and the nearby Grounds for Sculpture and Trenton, the capital of New Jersey.

How many days do I need?

There’s not all that much “to do” in Princeton, so a half a day will be enough to see the highlights and check out the campus. Make it a full day if you want to visit Grounds for Sculpture.

Parking:

The best parking will be at Spring Street Garage (24 Spring St, Princeton, NJ 08542) which has very reasonable rates and is conveniently located in the middle of town.

Book a walking tour

Booking a walking tour is the best way to explore both the town of Princeton and Princeton University. There are so many notable buildings with a unique history that it’s easy to miss if you walk around yourself. The university campus is also quite large and can be easy to get lost. In this blog post I’ve highlighted some notable places, but they were all covered on our walking tour.

We booked our walking tour with this company. It was reasonably priced and informative. The guy that did our tour seemed to be new 😅 but we still hit all the spots.

Historical Nassau Street

Nassau Street is the main street of Princeton with shops and restaurants. Although we didn’t have time to grab a bite, our tour guide recommended Winberie’s Restaurant & Bar and Triumph Restaurant & Brewery off of Palmer Square.

Apparently most of the nightlife here is targeted to the undergrads.

An old stone water trough for stage coach horses back in the day (now filled in with concrete)

Across from Princeton University at the corner of Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street is a tudor style building called Lower Pyne (now home to Hamilton Jewelers). This beautiful building was built in 1896 and was used for commercial shops on the ground level and student dormitories above. In 1950 the dormitories were converted to office spaces. You’ll see this iconic building on many post cards of Princeton.

Touring Princeton University

The campus grounds of Princeton University is open to all and you can freely walk around and explore, but access into the buildings is restricted.

For prospective students, you can book a free university tour with admissions information.

For tourists that just want to learn the history of this famous campus, the university runs historical tours with limited dates in the fall or you can book a third party tour company like we did that will not only explore the campus but around the actual town as well.

I’ve highlighted some interesting spots around campus below:

FitzRandolph Gate

FitzRandolph Gate is located just off of Nassau Street, across the street from the Lower Pyne building and infront of Nassau Hall. It is the official entrance to the Princeton University campus. It was erected in 1905 and named after Nathaniel FitzRandolph, who was instrumental in raising the money and land needed to build the college.

The gate was originally always kept closed and locked except for special occasions such as graduation, but the class of 1970 ensured that the gate would always remain open “in a symbol of the University’s openness to the local and worldwide community”.

There is a local superstition that if you exit from FitzRandolph Gate before graduation, you will never graduate from Princeton. You can enter the campus through the gates, but not leave unless you’ve graduated. This includes babies and children that may wish to attend Princeton in the future 😂. Our tour guide was a graduate of Princeton and says that this superstition is still very much alive to this day.

The President’s House

Princeton University had a couple of different locations (including Newark, NJ) before settling into its current location. At the time, Aaron Burr Senior (father of Aaron Burr Jr. – the guy who shot Alexander Hamilton, for you Hamilton fans) was the president of the college. The small yellow building below is where Aaron Burr Sr. lived at the time as he oversaw the building of this new campus.

Nassau Hall

Nassau Hall is the first building of the college and also the oldest building on campus. It’s the first building you’ll see through FitzRandolph Gate and its covered with ivy around the majority of the building.

John Witherspoon Statue

Throughout the years they’ve had many university presidents that kept dying from random things. The university was in a poor state with debt and poor instruction. John Witherspoon came on as the university’s 6th president and was monumental in saving the school from closing down. He travelled to New England and the South and recruited the wealthy to join the school. He updated the curriculum and turned Princeton from a place that predominantly trained clergymen into a place equipped to produce the future leaders of tomorrow.

Although Witherspoon is credited for the expansion and progression of the university, his racist roots in slave ownership has been a topic of heavy controversy. There have been petitions to remove his statue outside of East Pyne Hall, pictured below.

East Pyne Hall

East Pyne was built in the late 1800s as an extension to the Chancellor Green Library next door. When entering the middle gates, you’re inside an enclosed square with beautiful architecture surrounding you. This site has been a popular choice for filming movies including the latest movie Oppenheimer.

Princeton University Chapel

The Princeton University Chapel sits in the middle of the campus and was built in the 1920s to replace the previous chapel that had burned down. Its gothic architecture has a hidden surprise – the 5 stone makers hid their faces into the outside of this building (see if you can spot one in the photos!). Inside this beautiful building are impressive stain glass that lines the walls and is said to be the most valuable stain glass in the Western Hemisphere! The pews are carved from wood that was intended for Civil War gun carriages.

It’s a highly sought after place to get married. Our tour guide told us there’s about a 5 year waiting list to get married here! 😮

Princeton University Library

Across the chapel is the Princeton University Library. This enormous library holds over 7 million books including many rare books. It is one of the largest libraries in the world by number of volumes. There’s no public access to the library.

Prospect House

Across the chapel is Prospect House, built in 1851 and housed the university’s presidents for about 100 years, until they were relocated to the Walter Lowrie House (which was originally used as a guest house). I can’t quite find the exact reason why they relocated from this beautiful mansion, but online sources say it coincided with renovations to the building and turning it into a faculty club. Our tour guide says that in the 60s there were protests that a president shouldn’t live so lavishly in the centre of the campus. Whatever the reason, it’s currently the staff and faculty dining area. It’s a pretty nice building. People who get married at the chapel will usually also have their wedding reception here. There’s also a nice garden in the summer.

Witherspoon Hall

Witherspoon Hall was the most modern and elegant dormitory when it was first built in 1877. It was the first to have electricity and indoor plumbing. This is the first building you come upon when entering the campus by stage coach and has been purposefully made to attract a more “affluent” student population (aka them rich kids to bring their money to the school). There are even dumbwaiters and special corridors and rooms for servants!

Princeton University Art Museum – Opens October 2025

The Princeton University Art Museum has an impressive collection that has been mentioned time and time again as a “must do” when visiting Princeton. Unfortunately they are currently in the works of opening up a new building that’s not set to open until October 2025. It’s located near Prospect House.

Some Scenes around campus (aka places I forgot the names of):

Exploring Off-Campus: Scenes around the Town of Princeton

Albert Einstein’s House

Address: 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey

Albert Einstein lived here in the final 22 yrs of his life. He was invited to Princeton to be the first to join a think tank – the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS, the one they featured in Oppenheimer). He was never employed by the university while he lived in Princeton. The house is now a private residence even though it is owned by the IAS. There’s no place markers for this house, but the home next door has a sign 😉.

Other Famous Houses

Library Place is a street where all the fancy houses are with many of them belonging to celebrities or have had a famous person live there. It’s a lovely quiet street to walk down and gawk at all the beautiful houses. 82 Library Place was the former home of President Woodrow Wilson. This man was super racist even for his time, but his house was damn beautiful. There were a few other famous houses on this street, but this was the only one I could remember 😂.

On Boudinot Street sits Peter Benchley’s former home, the author of Jaws. It sold for 2.5 million in 2012.

Morven Museum & Garden on Stockton Street was the home Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. This home is now a museum and garden.

Princeton Battle Monument

Albert Einstein Statue

Princeton Battlefield State Park

This park is just outside of town. It’s a big field with a monument and is the site where the Battle of Princeton was fought. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop here.

Nearby: Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, NJ

Address: 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton Township, NJ 08619
Cost: $25 per adult

A 15 minute drive from Princeton is Grounds for Sculpture. It is a massive outdoor area with multiple small trails that lead to random sculptures. It’s a pretty cool place with some nice scenery along the water and amongst the tress. Toby and I aren’t big sculpture people but we found some that were pretty neat. There’s a restaurant here called Rat’s Restaurant that has good reviews – we didn’t have time to go, but it looked like a cool place to hang out by the water. It took us about 1 hour to walk through it all, but some people recommend spending at least 2-3 hours, especially if you plan to go to the cafe (reservations recommended).

Nearby: Trenton, NJ

Trenton is New Jersey’s capital city. We’ve made it our goal to try and hit as many capital cities as we can, even if they’re not that popular. Trenton is only a short 20 minute drive away from Princeton so we figured we’d check it out. The downtown area looked decent with tree-lined streets and nice shop front buildings, but on closer look many of them looked suspicious or run down and none of them were any I’ve ever heard of and many were vacant. There were also many questionable characters around town. I’ve read that there are some nice museums and restaurants in the area, but the few streets we drove down didn’t make us want to get out of the car.

Trenton Farmer’s Market: I love a good farmer’s market, so we headed to the Trenton Farmer’s Market that was only a few minutes away. The outside did not look nice at all. Unfortunately the inside wasn’t much of an improvement either. The market barely had any produce (perhaps we were in the wrong season) and the produce they did have did not look great and some were more expensive than prices in Manhattan! The shops were kinda junky, with old “antiques”, some handmade items, and a few homemade jam stalls. It took us 10 mins to walk through it all. Although I will say, there were a couple of decent looking meat, sausage and cheese shops, but that was it.

April 21, 2025

AbbyLeave a comment

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham – The Largest Hindu Temple Outside of Asia

Date Published: April 20th, 2025 | Last Updated: April 20th, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: March 1st, 2025

Location: 112 N Main Street, Robbinsville, NJ 08561 USA
Opening hours: Wednesday to Monday 9am – 7:30pm (closed Tuesdays), gets busy – come early!
Website: https://usa.akshardham.org/
Entry fees: FREE, but you need to reserve a timed ticket on the weekends and on holidays
Time needed: at least 2 hours to walk through everything, more if you want to check out the cafe

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham is the largest Hindu temple outside of Asia and it is SERIOUSLY impressive and a MUST visit in New Jersey. It opened only in October 2023 and took 7 years to build with 12000+ volunteers. Some parts are still under construction.

BAPS stands for Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha and it is a socio-spiritual Hindu faith that was revealed by Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781-1830) in the late 18th century and established in 1907 by Shastriji Maharaj (1865-1951). Founded on the pillars of practical spirituality, the BAPS reaches out far and wide to address the spiritual, moral and social challenges and issues we face in our world. Its strength lies in the purity of its nature and purpose. – https://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/WhoWeAre.aspx

There are multiple BAPS temples globally and more than one location in New Jersey, so make sure you’re inputting the right one when travelling here!

Visitor Etiquette & Dress Code

This beautiful temple is a place of quiet worship and there are a few rules when visiting. The most important is the dress code. Your shoulders and knees need to be covered – if you forget, there may be some shawls or coverings available on the day but you’ll need to ask the information desk.

They will ask you to remove your shoes when entering the temple so be prepared to walk either barefoot or in socks for the majority of your visit. There are shoe shelves at the entrance of each temple.

Respect the silence. People worship here. You can spend as long as you like inside the temples, but be mindful of the volume of your voice.

How much time do I need?

You need at least 2 hours to walk through it all, more if you want to go to the cafe or shop at their grocery store.

Get here early!

Although this temple only opened less than 2 years ago and it’s not quite a tourist hot spot (yet), it still gets busy as the day goes on. I’d recommend coming early in the morning when it’s quieter and feels more serene and there’s also the added bonus of fewer people in your photos and better parking.

When you arrive:

Here’s an overview of the grounds from their website: https://usa.akshardham.org/explore

When you arrive, you’ll see the building from the parking lot. You’ll first walk through the garden area with large golden statue of the child yogi Nilkanth Varni, later known as Bhagwan Swaminarayan and see his 7 year path across the Indian subcontinent during his youth. Bhagwan Swaminarayan is seen as the reincarnation of God and was a spiritual leader and credited for being the founder of the BAPS religion. This statue stands 49 feet tall, to represent his 49 years on earth.

As you walk through the area, you’ll get a great view of the temple with a pool of water in front known as the Brahma Kund. Water represents life and in this pool there’s a mix of water brought from 108 holy rivers and lakes around India and also water from all 50 states in the USA!

Welcome Center

When you reach the Welcome Center on the right side of the temple, this is where they’ll scan your reserved ticket (on weekends or holidays). You’ll go through security then meet some lovely greeters that will give you a map of the grounds and explain the lay of the land.

Guided tours are offered every hour and subject to availability. Check with the information desk if you’re interested. There are also wheelchairs available if needed.

You’ll start your visit at the orientation theatre where they’ll play a 7 minute long video that gives you an overview of this place and areas to visit. There are multiple theatres here so you’re never waiting long for the next video to start. After the video, appreciate the architecture and artwork within this beautiful building.

Mandir

From the Welcome Center you’ll next come across the Mandir. The Mandir is considered the house of the god to whom it is dedicated and is a space for individual worship and personal prayers. There are no photos allowed in here, but there are beautiful marble paintings and carved marble columns similar to the inside of the Akshardham (the main temple). Their website will have photos of the inside if you’re interested in taking a peak, but I highly recommend experiencing the space yourself.

The Mandir is closed at certain times of the day, so keep an eye on the time when you visit. You can always explore the rest of the grounds and come back. It’s a smaller space, takes about 15 minutes to walk through, but there are colourful marble walls here that make it unique compared to the Akshardham.

Akshardham – the main temple

From the Mandir, walk through the centre of the campus and head straight towards the Akshardham – the main temple. You can take plenty of photos on the outside, but no photos are allowed inside.

You will need to take off yours shoes in the Akshardham at the designated shoe shelves. It takes about 30 minutes to walk through it all. The inside is full of amazing intricately carved marble everywhere you turn, including the beautiful ceilings. You get a sense of serenity in this place. The carvings are done by master carvers in India and is then shipped to the USA piece by piece and assembled like a puzzle.

Parikrama – Red corridor walkway

Surrounding the Akshardham are carved red corridor walkways called the Parikrama. These beautiful carved gates creates a trippy effect when you look through. You’ll come across these right at the start of the visit and you could have walked through them clockwise to reach the Akshardham instead of through the middle, but you’ll also come across it when you exit the Akshardham back towards the Welcome Center.

Shayona Cafe, Gift Shop, Back to the Welcome Center

Lastly you’ll enter a building next to the Akshardham that contains the gift shop, cafe, then back to the Welcome Center. There’s an express cafe that’s not always open but the main cafe is the Shayona Cafe which doesn’t open until 11am. They serve both Indian and American food (see photo below of their menu). It looks pretty nice but unfortunately we had lunch plans already so didn’t stay for a bite. Across from the cafe is also a food shop where you can pick up some groceries.

I hope you enjoyed scrolling through our trip to this amazing temple! I highly recommend anyone to visit – it’s such a unique gem in New Jersey!

April 20, 2025April 20, 2025

AbbyLeave a comment

Hiking Acadia’s Beehive Trail: A Complete Overview

Date Published: Nov 3rd, 2024 | Last Updated: Nov 3rd, 2024
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Oct 13th, 2024

If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s a post of an overview of Acadia National Park if you need more info about where to stay, where to eat, getting around, and other travel recommendations.

Discover Acadia National Park: Your Guide to Mount Desert Island

Acadia National Park is the “Crown Jewel” of the North Atlantic Coast providing breathtaking coastal views, mountainous hikes, scenic drives, beaches, and a town with no shortage of restaurants. This national park is a must-do in Maine!

The Beehive Trail is one of Acadia National Park’s most popular hikes, offering breath-taking panoramic views. This hike has a reputation for being thrilling and difficult with iron rungs and vertical climbs but we personally didn’t find it bad at all, especially with good pacing. I recommend starting early, wearing good shoes, and dressing in layers. For safety, avoid this hike if it’s raining.

I highly recommend coming during peak autumn foliage season for the gorgeous colourful red and orange leaves.

Hike Stats:

Length: 2.4km
Elevation Gain: 155m
Trail type: loop
Difficulty/Terrain: difficult-ish with uphill climbs and rocky terrain
Estimated duration: 1-3 hours, depending on the number of people and waiting times (it took us 2 hours starting at 8:15am – 1 hour to get up and 1 hour down, including waiting in line)
Starting point: park at Sand Beach parking lot, then cross the road to the trailhead
Things to bring: water bottle, sunscreen & hat, good hiking shoes, snacks, dress in layers in case it gets cold as you wait
Driving option?: no
More Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/the-beehive-loop-trail

Is it really that difficult to climb the Beehive Trail?

Not really!

I was a little nervous for the Beehive Trail because I kept reading about how hard it was and there was a lot of climbing. For a person that was not the most fit and with minimal upper body strength, I was anxious to get this hike over and done with. While doing the hike, I kept expecting it to get harder and harder, but it actually wasn’t bad at all. Yes, there are short bursts of vertical climbs and you’re exposed on the side of the cliffs, but there were enough handles to grab on to and good footing to stabilize yourself. It also helps that there was always someone to lend a hand hopping over the trickier bits or climbing up a big rock. At no point did we feel unsafe. We were also moving at a glacial pace near the top where the trickier parts are, so we barely broke a sweat getting to the summit.

If you have a mild fear of heights or if you’re generally a slow hiker, just take it slow and let people pass. The path eventually becomes single-file and the hike may naturally slow down or come to a standstill anyway if it’s busy, due to people taking their time crossing or climbing certain parts. We didn’t mind the slow ascent because the view along the way to the top is AMAZING and gave me ample time to snap (too many) photos. The view gets better the higher you go!

*If you are really terrified of heights, you can try to climb to the first view then decide if you want to turn around. The views at this spot is the same view as you would get at the top, but at a lower viewpoint (see the photos below). I’ve marked this spot on the map here –>

You can also take the Bowl Trail instead where the hike is covered amongst trees until you reach the very top (more on that below). As you can see on the map, it’s not far to backtrack if you decide to take the Bowl Trail instead.

Here’s a comparison of the view from the first view point vs the summit view:

View from the first lookout at the bottom

Map of the Trail/Trail Overview

A Brief Overview of the Trail:

A) The Beehive Loop trail starts just off of Park Loop Road (a 5 min walk from the parking lot).

B) The trail starts covered amongst trees and you’ll come to a fork in the road. The right is the Beehive Trail and the left is the Bowl Trail (circled in white and grey in the map above). Although technically a loop, the Beehive Trail is single-file going up the mountain due to the sheer amount of people and it also gets dangerous if you’re coming down the mountain on the side of a cliff. Therefore, if you want to take the easier Bowl Trail, you’ll have to do an out-and-back hike when you reach the summit.

⭐️ Green star on the map marks the point where you’ll see the first ocean views (more pictures below). The path gets more narrow here and will become single-file, so if you want to turn around, do it here.

C) After some vertical climbs and taking way too many photos on the way up, you’ll reach the Beehive Summit. Take a breather and soak in the views, take more photos, then start to make your way down the mountain.

D) You’ll reach another fork in the road. You can either continue on Beehive Trail to reach The Bowl, or take the shortcut and get back to the parking lot via the Bowl Trail.

Ready to hike? Let’s Go! – a more detailed guide to hiking the Beehive Trail with way too many photos

1. Park at Sands Beach – START EARLY!

If there is one crucial piece of advice I can give you to hike the beehive trail, is to start as early as possible to avoid the crowds and get a parking spot. The Beehive Trail is one of THE most popular trails in Acadia National Park due to its amazing views and adrenaline-pumping hike. As a result, it gets INCREDIBLY busy, especially in peak season (which is when we went).

The closest parking lot is at Sands Beach, which is only a short 5 minute walk to the start of the trail. There’s roughly enough spaces for about 100 cars, which sounds like a lot, but by the time we arrived at 7am, the lot was already 70% full. We started the hike at 8:15am (after visiting Thunder Hole) and by the time we finished around 10am, the parking lot was completely full and there was an incredibly long line of cars parked along Park Loop Road and many people were walking 20 mins+ from their car just to get to the start of the trail. There were also park rangers standing at the entrance to stop people from going in, so you can’t even circle the lot to wait for a spot to open up. Therefore, try to get to Sands Beach before 7am if you’re visiting in peak season like us and driving a car.

The parking lot by 8am with the Beehive Summit ahead

If you don’t get here early, be prepared to park far away or consider parking at a different parking lot along Park Loop Road and take the free Island Explorer Bus to Sands Beach parking lot. The bus will drop you off near the public restroom in the parking lot (see map above) and runs every 30 minutes.

Apart from trying to get a parking spot, you want to start the hike as early as possible to avoid the crowds and the line. If you do the trail clockwise via the Beehive Trail (which I recommend for the best views), it becomes single file up the rocks as you scale the mountain. Some people stop to take photos, others who aren’t as confident with climbing or have a fear of heights take it slow, and as a result, you could be looking at a long wait just to get up the mountain when it’s busy. We started the hike at 8:15am and two-thirds up the mountain, we already had to wait in line, taking a few steps at a time until we eventually reached the top (which although was annoying, wasn’t the worst in the world because you’re constantly exposed to the amazing views all the way up and gave me plenty of time to take photos). By the time we finished the hike a couple hours later, the line was much much longer and we were glad we started as early as we did. You can actually see the line from the parking lot. Therefore, I’d recommend starting the hike as soon as the sun comes up or be prepared to wait. Wear layers and pack a snack.

2. Cross the road to the start of the trail

Once you’ve parked at Sands Beach parking lot, make your way across the road to the start of the trail head (there is a public restroom at the parking lot if needed).

The path starts covered amongst trees and gradually increases in elevation with a rocky terrain – make sure you wear good hiking shoes for this hike.

3. Reach a crossroad and turn right to the Beehive Trail to do the trail clockwise

As you make your way to the base of the mountain, you’ll reach an intersection. When it gets busy, there’s a park ranger there that can provide more information. This is the split between the Beehive Trail and the Bowl Trail (see the map above to see the difference). Although more difficult, I would recommend continuing the hike via the Beehive Trail and doing this loop clockwise for the best views. The Beehive Trail is steep and will lead you to vertical climbs (that aren’t bad at all in my opinion) along the side of the mountain, but you’re faced with the beautiful views the entire time, constantly getting better the higher you climb. There are also rock ledges along the way for some great photo spots.

Park ranger at the crossroads helping people decide which way to go

If you choose to do the trail counterclockwise via the Bowl Trail, the trail is not as steep (although there are still large rocks to climb), but the majority of the trail will be covered amongst trees and you will only get the iconic views of Sands Beach and the surrounding views when you reach the top. This may be a better option if you have a fear of heights. Note: You will not be able to go down the Beehive Trail due to the sheer amount of single-file hikers trying to get up the mountain so prepare for an out-and-back hike once you reach the summit.

4. Continue the climb up, cross a metal grate, and climb iron rungs while enjoying the view

As we continued on, it becomes more steep with more boulders to climb over, and we mentally prepared ourselves for vertical climbs and clinging onto the side of the mountain. This was where the line started for us. It was moving along at a decent pace at first, but it got slower closer to the top. Yes this hike is steep and yes there are vertical climbs, however because we had to wait in line and only moving a few steps at a time and taking a few thrusts up big rocks at a time, this hike actually became a breeze. We barely even broke a sweat! There was always something to hold onto and there were flat parts to stand as you wait. You’re constantly exposed to the amazing views beside you and the waiting gives you more than enough time to get some nice photos on rocky ledges. We didn’t mind waiting at all. It was actually a more enjoyable and fun hike compared to constantly walking uphill.

Here are a bunch of photos of our ascent up the mountain (the view gets a bit repetitive, but when you’re there in person, it never gets old):

Our first views of Sand Beach inlet as we emerge from the trees and up the first set of rocks:

*This is the first view of the ocean that you’ll see after emerging from the trees. If you’re scared of heights, there’s still time to turn around at this point before it becomes too difficult to turn back. The views at the top is similar but at a higher vantage point (see the photos below).

As we continue to climb higher, the views open up a little more with fewer trees obstructing the view:

Then the path gets a little more tricky with metal gates and iron rungs. The photos make it seem scarier in photos than it actually was. At no point did I feel like I was going to fall off the side of the mountain or feel like I couldn’t make the climb up. This is where the line started for us as people take they time with the obstacles, but no matter, we’re still loving the views:

Our first metal grate. It did not feel dangerous at all.

Encountered the iron rungs, which were a lot easier than I expected. There’s never more than 3-4 at a time:

This is probably the most common photo I’ve seen that shows how close to the edge you are, however…

…when taken at a different angle you can see that you’ve got the tree beside you with branches so smooth where thousands have people have grabbed onto for support. It didn’t feel scary at all.

The smoothest tree branch from multiple people grabbing onto it over the years

Still slowly waiting in line to make our way up, but still enjoying the views every step of the way:

As we got closer to the top it became more steep:

5. Reach the summit and take in the views

The final push to the top was just climbing over rocks but the view at the top was absolutely worth it. I can see how it is one of the most popular hikes in this park!

Take a breather and soak in the view. It’s the same view as what you see on the way up, but higher and more grand with sweeping views of the forest and ocean around you.

Plenty of space at the top for a snack or a packed lunch

But the views don’t stop here. Continue following the blue trail markers to the other side of the mountain. Here you’ll see a sign that marks the actual summit of the mountain and you’ll get more ocean views with the small islands in the distance.

6. Make your way down the mountain

Continue following the blue markers to make your way down the mountain. You’ll get panoramic views of the beautiful trees below before you reach the trail path again.

As you make your way down, you’ll eventually be amongst trees again and climbing down big boulders, but then it gets easier as the ground plateaus and the path is much smoother.

7. Reach another crossroad: Continue on to The Bowl or take the shortcut

You’ll reach another intersection with trail signs that point to The Bowl. Continue on this path to reach views of The Bowl, or take the shortcut and continue the path back to the parking lot. We didn’t have time to make it to The Bowl so we took the shortcut back.

As you make your way back, you’ll eventually meet up with the original trail again and climb down the large rocks back to the parking lot.

By the time we met up with the starting trail, there were SO MANY more people and the line was MUCH longer. The ranger was telling people to do the loop backwards via the Bowl Trail avoid the line going up the Beehive Trail.

8. Get back to the parking lot and be glad you started early

By the time we got back to the parking lot, the lot was completely full with a very long line of cars parked along the road. You can see the top of the Beehive Trail from the parking lot with the many many single-file people slowly making their way up the mountain. Although we had to wait in line ourselves, we were SO happy that our line was no where as long as the one that was forming when we finished!

Some final thoughts

Get here early.
Get here early.
Get here early.
The views are amazing and worth the time and effort.
Wear good hiking shoes for good traction getting up rocks.
Consider skipping this hike if it’s raining.

When you get back to the parking lot, there are a few things you can do:

Check out Sand Beach, a short walk to this beautiful inlet beach
Walk Ocean Path – a flat easy path along the coast with beautiful views along the way
Thunder Hole – a 10-15 min walk along Ocean Path to this narrow inlet where rushing water creates loud thundering sounds and big high splashes of water into the air (come 1-2 hours prior to high tide for the experience)

November 3, 2024December 2, 2024

Abby4 Comments

Top Things to Do in Portland, Maine: Eat, Shop, Explore

Date Published: Oct 22nd, 2024 | Last Updated: April 22nd, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Aug 5th, 2025

Portland is the largest city in Maine, full of cool shops and endless lobster rolls. Spend an afternoon here walking through the old streets, sample the abundant seafood, and take a tour around town.

Fun fact: Although Portland is the largest city in Maine, the capitol is actually Augusta!

We originally did this trip in August 2024 on our way up from New York to Rockland for the lobster festival (you can read about the lobster festival here). We stopped by Portland on our way home and spent the afternoon here walking through the streets and perusing through the variety shops ranging from cool hipster vibes to fancy boutiques. There’s a LOT of restaurants here, not just seafood. Sadly, due to our short time here and limited stomach capacity, we were only able to hit up a few places, but the next time we come back I’ll definitely be crossing more off my list!

Below is a map of downtown Portland divided into 4 regions: the arts district, government district, old port district, and waterfront district. The majority of the shops and restaurants are in the old port district (in red).

https://www.portlandmaine.com (image edited)

How long do I need in Portland, Maine?

You really only need a few hours to explore downtown Portland. Even though it’s Maine’s largest city, it’s not actually that big. It’ll take you about 20-30 minutes to walk up and down the main street of Old Port (Commercial Street) and Exchange Street, then add in a couple extra hours for shopping and eating. There are a couple of museums and points of interest you can hit up as well to fill out the day and some microbreweries to check out in the evening. We didn’t have time to do these, but I’ll include it below.

There are also harbour cruises and island-hopping ferries you can take as well to explore more outside of Portland. Therefore, if you want to just do the city itself, an afternoon will be enough (or stay longer so you can fit in more meals in a day 😜) but you can easily stretch it out to 3-4 days if you want to take it slow. Portland is a nice place to be.

Also, Cape Elizabeth is 15 minutes south of Portland and is home to Maine’s oldest and most iconic lighthouse: Portland Head Light. I’d recommend spending a couple hours here as well to check it out, do the cliff walk, and also have a look at Bug Light (the cutest smallest lighthouse I’ve ever seen). There’s also more seafood options here in case you haven’t gotten your fill of lobster rolls yet.

Where do I park?

Your best bet is to park in a city-operated parking garage in Portland. The rates are reasonable and some of them are very central and within short walking-distance to the centre of downtown Portland.

Here is a list of city-operated parking garages with the parking rates: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/296/Parking. I’ve made a map of the most central city-run parking garages below along with the most popular eateries and walking streets to give you an idea of the best location to be.

We parked in the Elm Street garage, which was $28 max per day and $4 per hour. It was easy to get to and pretty central, only a short walk to Exchange street which leads right to the harbour. We found this rate pretty reasonable (especially coming from NYC), but there are cheaper lots further away that have $15 all day parking (check the website).

Some people also say there’s free unrestricted parking on Somerset Street by the Whole Foods but we didn’t investigate this because it was too far for us to want to walk (it was also a really hot day).

I’d avoid parking in private lots since it can get crazy expensive (some up to $40-50 per day). You can also do street parking which is about $2.50-$3.00/hour, but it fills up quick and most streets have 2 hour restrictions.

Map of downtown Portland highlighting the closest parking garages and the most popular eateries. The highlighted yellow streets are the most popular for shopping.

What to do in Portland: Shop, Eat, and Explore!

We only had an afternoon here and from my research on Portland, we’ve hit up the most popular places. We do plan to come back again in the near future and explore some more, so I’ll be updating this post when we do – keep watching this space!

1) Shop

Commercial Street

Walk along Commercial Street and you’ll find many cute boutique and souvenir/gift shops lined up one after another. This street is right by the harbour and is one of the busiest touristy streets for shopping. It’s highlighted in the map above.

Exchange Street

Exchange Street is another street full of shops. This street is more tucked away compared to Commercial Street but I found the shops here to be a lot more interesting with a cool hipster vibe. There’s restaurants along this street as well with some nice coffee shops. I found this street to have more character compared to the more tourist-y Commercial Street. This street is also highlighted in the map above.

2) Eat

When in Maine…eat Lobster Rolls! There is no doubt an abundance of seafood in Maine and we had nothing but seafood on our brains so that’s what we focused on, but there were tons of other non-seafood restaurants that looked amazing as we walked by. In my research, the consensus for the top 3 places for lobster rolls were: Luke’s Lobster, Highroller, and Portland Lobster Company.

Portland Lobster Co.

Address: 180 Commercial St, Portland, ME 04101

Portland Seafood Co is a small shop on the harbour with limited seating inside the restaurant, but there’s a huge open back patio by the water where you can easily grab a seat. We went right when they opened and there were already a few people there. They have a decent sized menu and the prices were fair. They’re well known for their lobster rolls, but Toby really wanted to try the Lobster BLT since we had never seen it before – it was REALLY good and they were generous with the lobster meat. I had a classic steamed lobster. Unfortunately I had a bad time with gastro from an earlier donut shop (more on that later) so I couldn’t fully enjoy the extent of the meal, but from the bites I had, it was delicious. Toby was more than happy to help me finish my lobster.

Luke’s Lobster

Address: 60 Portland Pier, Portland, ME 04101

Everyone was going to Luke’s or talking about Luke’s. It’s probably the most popular lobster roll spot in Portland and it’s also situated right on the water. We didn’t end up coming here because we’ve had Luke’s in NYC (it is indeed damn good) and wanted to try something new. If you’ve never had Luke’s before, I’d highly recommend coming here.

Highroller Lobster Co.

Address: 104 Exchange St, Portland, ME 04101

Highroller Lobster Co. had really cool vibes and it was super busy. We needed to get on the road and we were still full from Portland Lobster Co. so we decided to grab takeout instead of sitting down in the restaurant. The takeout menu was much smaller, but we were mainly here to try out their lobster roll anyway so we didn’t mind (although there were some amazing looking dishes on the full menu – I’ve included photos of both the dine-in and the takeaway menu). We ordered two 2oz lobster rolls that was $17 each. Super pricy and it was also SUPER TINY 💔. The bread was good and it was a decent lobster roll, but for the long time we had to wait and the small portion, it wasn’t THAT good. Next time maybe we’ll go for dine-in and get more variety.

Duckfat

Address: 43 Middle St, Portland, ME 04101

Not seafood, but I thought I’d include it due to the sheer popularity of this place and how every single travel blog mentions it. This place was even featured on an episode of ‘Somebody Feed Phil’. Duckfat is known for their Belgian-style french fries that are cooked in, you guessed it, duck fat! Their poutine is the go-to most popular item. Unfortunately we did not get to try this place because when we arrived, the line was super long and it would’ve been at least an hour wait. We were still full from all the lobster rolls anyway and we also still had a 7 hour drive ahead of us, so we didn’t wait. They don’t take reservations, it’s walk-in only, but you can pre-order and have it as takeaway – something we didn’t realize until we got there.

They do have a second location that only does takeaway called Duckfat Frites Shack (43 Washington Ave, Portland, ME 04101) that may have faster service. It’s another 10 min walk that we didn’t take because by then we would’ve been too far from our car. Womp womp.

The Holy Donut 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

Address: 177 Commercial St, Portland, ME 04101 (there are 3 locations in Portland, but this is the most central)

I don’t get it. I honestly don’t.

The Holy Donut is a donut shop that specializes in potato-based doughnuts. Their google reviews are off the charts. Every single travel blog says to come here and they say to come here first thing in the morning before they run out and have these doughnuts for breakfast. So we did. They open at 7am and we arrived just after 9am and there was a line of about 10 people in front of us, but the line went quick. We ordered 3 donuts (at $4.50 – $5 each): the blueberry glaze (most highly recommended), the blueberry lemon, and maple bacon. There was nowhere to sit so we ate it outside.

I was so excited to try these. After having a bite of each one… I was disappointed. I don’t get the hype. The potato-based doughnut made it really dense like a heavy cake and I felt like there was too much cake to the topping ratio so you get a small amount of flavour, then the rest of the time you have a mouthful of dry dense cake. Toby liked it, but he likes dense cake.

The aftermath was what made me curse this place. We hadn’t eaten anything apart from these donuts that morning (and I only ate a total of 2/3 of a donut to save room for lunch) but I started to have the worst acid reflux I’ve ever had (and I’m not a person that gets reflux issues!). Maybe it’s the empty stomach or the dense carbs in the donut, but after 40 mins of walking, I was sweating up a storm and vomited up acidic fluid multiple times (so glad I was able to find a restroom in time). Not appetizing, I know, but this messed up my stomach for the rest of the day which was quite upsetting because I was ramped up for more lobster meals in Portland. Never again shall I come here.

But, as much as I dislike this place, there are many more that love this place so I’ve included it in this post so you can make the judgement yourself. If you do go, I’d recommend not being on an empty stomach and bring some Tums or Pepto just in case. We struggled to find a pharmacy within walking distance.

3) Explore

We pretty much just ate and walked around town looking into the shops during our afternoon in Portland. Due to the donut incident, my stomach bothered me for the rest of the day so we didn’t do much else, but here’s a list of things I found that seemed cool for our trip next time:

International Cryptozoology Museum (32 Resurgam Pl, Portland, ME 04102)
- A small museum dedicated to the study of hidden or unknown animals. There are exhibits on Bigfoot, the Lochness monster, mermaids…etc. This is the only cryptozoology museum in the world.
- This is a little out of town, so it’d be best to drive here.
Victoria Mansion (109 Danforth St, Portland, ME 04101)
- A 19th century mansion preserved to its original architecture from when it was built in the 1800s.
Top of the East at The Westin Portland Harbourview hotel (15th floor, 157 High St, Portland, ME 04101)
- This lounge serves cocktails with a view of Portland below.
The Portland Observatory (138 Congress Street, Portland, ME)
- A signalling tower that offers panoramic views of Portland and the harbor.
Take a trolley tour
- A fully narrated tour on a trolley that brings you around Portland and will also stop of Portland Head Light.
- https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g40827-d26244845-Discover_Portland_City_and_Lighthouse_Tour-Portland_Maine.html
Historical walking tour
- https://www.mainehistory.org/education/walking-tours-1/
- Self-guided freedom trail walking tour: https://www.mainehistory.org/documents/41/Portland_Freedom_Trail.pdf
Go island-hopping on a ferry
- https://www.cascobaylines.com/
Take a lobster boat tour
- https://www.luckycatch.com/
Checking out local breweries
Cape Elizabeth & Portland Head Light
- The oldest and most well known lighthouse in Maine
- Roughly 15 mins drive south of Portland

Some final thoughts

I don’t get the hype with Holy Donuts.
Portland is a cute town with tons of boutiques and cool shops.
You only need a day to explore the city, but if you want to add on island-hopping, boat cruises, and museums, you can easily spend at least 2-3 days here.
Try all the lobster rolls!

If you’ve been to Portland before, I’d love to hear about your favourite places or other places you’d recommend!

Need more travel recommendations for Maine? Check out these other places!

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Abby2 Comments

3 Days in Washington, DC

Travel Dates: June 24-27, 2023

Finally, a long weekend road trip getaway to explore this grand nation! Since moving to the US 3 months ago, we’ve been so busy settling in and exploring our neighbourhood that we haven’t had any time to do any road trips. This long weekend we finally decided to plan one and as our first American road trip, we chose to visit Washington, DC – the capital of the nation! I’ve been to DC a couple times in the past but this was Toby’s first time. He was more than excited to see all the famous buildings, but most importantly the Air and Space museum!

For our first time hiring a car in NY, Toby did a lot of research into finding the cheapest option for rental cars and settled on a small local shop. When we went to pick up the car the day before, it was less than ideal. The entire car had stains, scratches, and I swear the little holes in the seats looked like cigarette burns. I’d post pictures, but let’s not start off our happy weekend vacation blog on a bad note. Just believe that it was gross 🤮. It was so gross that I had to quickly Amazon cheap car seat covers and luckily had them delivered the same day in time for our trip (gotta love Prime). You can just see the car seat covers in the photo looped around the head rest 😂. It was a 4.5 hour drive to DC from our home in Brooklyn. Luckily Washington is a pretty walkable city, so we parked our car in the hotel lot and didn’t have to touch it until it was time to go home. 😅 Needless to say, this would be our first and last time hiring from this company.

We stayed at Hotel Washington. It was a beautiful fancy hotel that Toby chose because it was near the White House, Washington Monument, and restaurants. They were filming the next Captain America movie just outside! 🤫 Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any celebrities during our time there and missed out on all the times they were filming. The valet told us that one of the main stars of the movie was staying at our hotel though – too bad he couldn’t remember his name.

It never ceases to amaze me how huge the buildings are in DC!

I’ve always been impressed by the sheer size of the buildings in Washington. Many of them take up an entire block!

Things to Do: The National Mall

When you visit Washington DC, the main sights can be broken up into 3 categories: 1) Monuments and Memorials, 2) Government Buildings, and 3) Museums. All of these surround a large walkable grassy area that is grouped together known as The National Mall. The map below outlines this grassy area and if you have a good pair of walking shoes, you should be able to hit all the memorials in one day, which is what we did!

Our itinerary:

Day 1 (red): We arrived around lunch time and after checking in, we started at the White House (right across from our hotel) and headed towards the Washington monument then did a circle to the Lincoln memorial, around the Jefferson memorial, then back up past the Washington monument and back to the hotel for some dinner.

Day 2 (blue): We headed to Capitol Hill and took some photos outside, walked through the US Botanic Garden, then finished off at the Air and Space Museum.

Day 3 (green): We spent all day at the massive Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

How Many Days Do You Need?

It depends on what you want to see and how much time you’re willing to put in. If you only want to see the major monuments and memorials and the outside of the buildings, you could easily finish it all in 1 day.

If you want to go inside the government buildings such as Capitol Hill and The White House and join a tour, I’d recommend adding on an extra day or two, depending on your tour times and how packed you want your schedule to be.

Washington is home to MANY museums and it would be a shame to leave without at least visiting one or two. The two most popular ones are the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Each of these museums are quite large and can easily take up nearly an entire day. If you want to visit both, add on an extra 2 days. Apart from these two, there are also a variety of other museums that are free of charge that can easily add on to your itinerary.

For us, we spent a total of 3 days and saw all the major monuments and memorials, saw the outside of the White House and Capitol Hill but didn’t attend any tours, and went to the Air and Space Museum as well as the Museum of Natural History. This was just enough time for us to enjoy everything without feeling too rushed. If we have a chance to visit again, I’d book some walking tours inside the government buildings and maybe visit the Museum of American History which has a lot of cool famous historical items.

1) Monuments and Memorials

Washington Monument

You can go inside for free, BUT tickets have to be reserved at least 30 days in advance or released at 10am the day before. You can find more info at recreation.gov. We didn’t end up going inside during this trip, but I went in a few years back and I remember it being a small museum of the history of the monument and photos documenting the building process.

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial looking back to the Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

View of the Washington Monument from the top of the Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Veterans Memorial

I’ve been told that this memorial is also cool to check out at night!

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

It was a longer walk to get to this memorial but the stroll along the water was beautiful and there were tons of geese!

2) Government Buildings

The White House

This was the best photo I could get of the White House. If you get too close to the White House you end up with bars and gates in your photo and its hard to see the entirety of the building. We didn’t end up going into the White House because it is a HUGE process to organize. First, you have to book your tickets at a minimum of 21 days prior to visiting but no longer than 90 days. Second, in order to organize your tour, you have to contact your member of congress if you’re a US citizen, or if you’re a foreign citizen, you have to contact your embassy in DC. More information here. I definitely did not plan early enough for this trip to make this happen and the amount of effort it took was a bit too much for us. Maybe next time.

Capitol Hill

You can visit Capitol Hill free of charge, but it has to be with a guided tour. Tours last roughly an hour (more info here). We didn’t end up going in during this trip because we were a bit short on time. I mainly wanted to see the outside of the building, however sadly during our trip, it was under renovation. 😦

United States Botanic Garden

This wasn’t originally on our list but we happened to walk past it on our way to Capitol Hill and checked it out. It was a lot larger than we expected they had a large display of unusual orchids on display at the time!

3) Museums

There are a TON of museums in DC and the best part is that they’re all free! The Smithsonian museums are HUGE and takes a lot of time to get through but there are some really cool things in them. Due to popularity, remember to check online to see if you need to book tickets ahead of time. We almost didn’t get to see the Air and Space museum because we didn’t know you needed a timed ticket!

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

https://airandspace.si.edu/

This is one of our favourite Smithsonian museums in DC. There are a lot of original famous historical items here including the original Wright brothers’ plane and also original parts from the space shuttle missions. The museum goes through a chronological history of air and space in time starting with the invention of planes and ending with space travel. Tickets are free, but you HAVE to buy them early and there are timed entries. If you don’t buy them early, same-day tickets are released at 8:30am and if there are any leftover, they are re-released at 12:30pm. Toby and I (and many other tourists) learned this the hard way. We rocked up at 12:15pm and stood outside in the super humid heat and waited until 12:30pm until online ticket portals were open and quickly snagged two tickets. Not everyone was so lucky and had to come back another day. It was also super busy, so I’d recommend planning early and booking the first ticket of the day so you’re not rushed to get through everything in time before closing. We JUST managed to get through everything but didn’t have time to see any of the short films.

Right at the entrance, you’re initially greeted with the original model of the Enterprise they used in the Star Trek TOS opening scenes!!!

Toby’s mind was blown when he saw that they had the original Wright brother’s plane!

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/

This was our second favourite museum in DC. This museum is HUGE and tickets are not required beforehand. Entry is free and it will likely take you all day to get through it all. This museum has the largest collection of dinosaur fossils that I’ve ever seen and there are a TON of things to see here. Definitely worth a visit!

You can see what you’d look like in prehistoric times

Smithsonian Castle

This was also not on our list of things to do, but we happened to walk by it on our way to the Museum of Natural History. There was a beautiful garden to walk through and the building is the Smithsonian Castle, which is temporarily closed.

Things to Eat

We weren’t really expecting a big foodie trip, so we just googled nearby restaurants to our hotel and found the two top rated ones and spent most of our meals there 😅.

Joe’s Seafood, Prime Rib and Stone Crab

https://www.joes.net/dc/

Joe’s is a chain restaurant with locations in Chicago and Vegas. They specialize in seafood (esp stone crab) and prime rib. Over the course of two separate meals, we ordered the crab cakes, steak tartare, lobster, prime rib, and stone crab. The prime rib was meh, but the crab cake was delicious (although pricey) and the stone crab was out of this world! We had never had stone crab until now and we were HOOKED. We went back the next day just to have the stone crab again. Oh boy!

The stone crab was SO freaking good. I’d come back to DC just for these babies!

Old Ebbitt Grill

https://www.ebbitt.com/

This restaurant has historical significance – it is Washington’s first saloon, opened in 1856! It’s now owned by a corporate restaurant chain but they’ve preserved the interior very nicely and the place has a great ambience to it. They pride themselves on being a ‘scratch kitchen’, making everything from scratch including all the sauces. The food was decent but nothing mind-blowing (the crab cakes were better at Joe’s), but the atmosphere was great and it was always busy during dinner time, so make sure you make reservations!

VUE Rooftop (inside Hotel Washington)

https://www.vuerooftopdc.com/rooftop-bars-dc

This rooftop bar was located inside of our hotel which was nice. It has great views of the Washington monument as well as the White House in the distance. The drinks are decent and the vibes were lovely at sunset. There’s a whole restaurant area but we already had dinner at this point so we only had drinks and dessert.

We drove home early next day to make it back in time to unwind and do laundry before work started the day after. Thanks for reading! If you have any tips or suggestions for DC, I’d love to hear them!

December 31, 2023October 7, 2024

Abby4 Comments

Contents:

What is the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Where to see the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Timing is Crucial to Witness the Migration!

What to Bring to See the Horseshoe Crab Migration?

Now you’re ready!

One more thing, if you see any overturned horseshoe crabs…Just flip ’em!

Some Final Thoughts

Contents:

First things first: Why Maryland?

What is a Crab Cake?

What Makes a Good Crab Cake?

Without further ado… here are some of the top places to grab a crab cake in Maryland!

1) Pappas: Pappas Seafood Co. & Pappas Restaurant and Sports Bar

2) Faidley’s Seafood

3) Koco’s Pub

4) G & M Restaurant

5) Jimmy’s Famous Seafood

In Summary:

Looking For More Ultimate Food Guides? Check out these below!

Contents:

How many days do I need?

Best time of year to travel?

Getting Around

Where to stay?

Things to Do

Vulcan Park and Museum

Sloss Furnaces

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Food

Saw’s BBQ/Saw’s Soul Kitchen

Just outside of Birmingham

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

Statue of Liberty Replica

Oak Mountain State Park – Kings Chair Overlook Hike

Ave Maria Grotto

A Sample Itinerary

Some Final Thoughts

Contents:

How many days do I need?

Best time of year to travel?

Where to stay?

Getting Here and Getting Around

Map of Memphis

A Word on Safety

Things to Do:

Sun Studio

Graceland

Memphis Pyramid: Bass Pro Megastore + Observation Deck

Bus Tour of Memphis

National Civil Rights Museum

Stax Record Company – Museum of American Soul Music

The Peabody Duck March at The Peabody Hotel

Beale Street

Food

Arcade Restaurant – Memphis’ Oldest Cafe

Blues City Cafe (on Beale Street)

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken

Memphis BBQ

Some final thoughts…

Contents:

How many days do I need?

Parking:

Book a walking tour

Historical Nassau Street

Touring Princeton University

FitzRandolph Gate

The President’s House

Nassau Hall

John Witherspoon Statue

East Pyne Hall

Princeton University Chapel

Princeton University Library

Prospect House

Witherspoon Hall

Princeton University Art Museum – Opens October 2025

Some Scenes around campus (aka places I forgot the names of):

Exploring Off-Campus: Scenes around the Town of Princeton

Albert Einstein’s House