About Me.

Bonjour tout le monde! My name is Erin and this - Crumpets & Croissants - is my attempt at becoming the next Rick Steves. A girl can dream, non? Here you will find countless lists and travel guides, helpful hints, and personal reviews; all compiled from my own personal experiences, stories, and research.

After planning and researching countless trips for myself, and later for friends, I decided that all that work - and experiences that came from it - could be put to good use in helping others make the most of their own travels.

While I am in no way an expert, I have been fortunate enough to travel a lot in my life, and through that I have definitely formed some opinions and accumulated countless recommendations that I think could prove beneficial to others when planning their own trips, or even when just looking for general inspiration and information.

As a lot of my trips have been planned and centered around my own personal interests, you can definitely expect a lot of posts and guides focusing on food/drinks, shopping, and history, along with general "what to see and do" guides. Further, you can also count on me sharing some of my own bucket list trips that I hope to one day have the time and money to achieve, along with live updates while I tackle new and familiar places.

 Let me be clear, I know I am very fortunate to have travelled as much as I have. Even more, I'm lucky that when I look back at my photos, I get to watch myself grow up and mature through travel.

My first trip overseas was when I was 12 years old and I was finally able to convince my parents that I should go to London and Paris - I'd only been begging to go to London since I was about six years old. My mom booked a mother-daughter trip for us with a popular bus tour company, something she felt would be a good way to ease her teenager daughter into travelling abroad. However, the day we landed I broke out into chicken pox and ended up spending over four days in the hotel, only venturing outside towards the end of the week. Despite the limited time I had in London - where I was mostly stuck inside a small room without Netflix or even a computer, feeling completely awful and wanting to scratch my skin off - and despite cancelling the Paris portion of the trip, I still fell in love with the city of London and the act of travelling. I saw it as my portal to history and the gateway to the world I revered.

 To this day, I still see it that way; I absolutely love to travel and see it as one of the most liberating and educational thing one can do. The opportunity to walk in the steps of history, try local cuisine, and bring home unique treasures that I'll always cherish - or at least until I break it - is something I hope everyone gets the opportunity to enjoy.

I fell in love with Europe through movies, TV, and literature when I was just a little girl, and it has stayed with me since then. Because of this, it's been a life-long goal of mine to go to every country in Europe before 30. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, I will undoubtedly not be reaching that goal, though I'm not TOO far off. However, the second it’s safe to travel again, I will be back on a plane and back to crossing places off my bucket list. If only I would stop wasting (but is it ever a waste though?) trips going back to places I've been countless times before. So bear with me as I work my way through Europe first, before I tackle the rest of the world.

That said, I did grow up in Toronto, Canada, and lived in New York City for nearly 5 years, so I definitely have some opinions and suggestions when it comes to these two cities. They've also allowed me to explore other places in North America, though not nearly as much as I should've done. More recently, I lived in Dublin, Ireland, which not only allowed me to travel a fair amount, but allowed me to make wonderful friends from around the world. Don't be surprised if I occasionally refer to the "experts" for some local advice and recommendations.

So until there is a vaccine and quarantine is no longer a necessity - and health insurance is remotely affordable in regards to COVID - let this website be a source of inspiration for your future travels, and let it be a way to declutter my laptop, which is full of my notes, ramblings, guides, stories, etc.

Without further ado, welcome into my world of travel and hopefully you'll find some inspiration and helpful information inside.