The Road Reel

06/09/2026

💬 Comment “BEACH” and I’ll send you my Monopoli beaches guide with a map, beach tips, parking notes for your your Puglia trip 🇮🇹🌊✨

Monopoli may look like a pretty old town with a cute harbor at first, but the beaches are a very good reason to stay longer.

You get a little town beach right below the old walls, rocky coves with clear water, sandy pockets squeezed between limestone, and small swimming spots where half the experience is choosing which rock looks least painful to sit on.

A few Monopoli beaches worth checking out:

📍 Cala Porta Vecchia
📍 Porto Rosso
📍 Calette di Torre Cintola
📍 Porto Ghiacciolo
📍 Cala Verde
📍 Porto Marzano
📍 Capitolo beaches

The best part? You don’t have to choose between beach time and old town wandering. In Monopoli, you can swim in the morning, walk through the historic center for lunch, return to the sea in the afternoon, and finish the day by the harbor.

Monopoli beach guide

30/08/2026

💬 Comment “VILNIUS” and I’ll send you my free guide to the best things to do in Vilnius, with a map, local tips + places beyond the usual tourist trail 🇱🇹🗺️✨

📸 Ausra| Travel Blog+ Films & Photo follow for more Lithuania travel guides

Vilnius is small enough to explore on foot, but layered enough to keep surprising you.

You get a UNESCO-listed Old Town, Baroque churches, quiet courtyards, hilltop views, Soviet-era corners, street art, independent cafés, leafy parks, and neighborhoods that feel completely different from one another.

A few things I’d add to your Vilnius itinerary:

📍 Wander the Old Town streets
📍 Climb Gediminas Hill or the Bell Tower for views
📍 Visit the Cathedral and its crypts
📍 Explore Užupis, Vilnius’ self-declared republic
📍 See St. Anne’s Church and Bernardine Garden
📍 Walk up to the Three Crosses
📍 Visit the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights
📍 Find the murals, courtyards, and less polished corners
📍 Spend an evening at the opera or ballet
📍 Eat, drink coffee, and enjoy the fact that Vilnius summer does not feel like a human oven

I was born and raised here, so this guide is not just a list of main attractions. It is my way of showing you the Vilnius I know: beautiful, strange in places, very green, a little post-Soviet around the edges, and finally getting the attention it deserves.

Vilnius travel guide

25/08/2026

💬 Comment “ITALY” and I’ll send you my free 10-day Southern Italy itinerary with the route, logistics + travel tips 🇮🇹🗺️✨
Follow Ausra| Travel Blog+ Films & Photo for more Italy guides and photos 📸

A Southern Italy route for beaches, old towns, pizza, mountain villages, coastal views, and a few “why didn’t I come here earlier?” moments.

📍 Days 1–3: Naples + Procida
Start with Napoli: Rione Sanità, Quartieri Spagnoli, underground tunnels, sunset views, and serious pizza research. Then take a ferry to colorful Procida, or swap it for Pompeii or Herculaneum.

📍 Days 4–5: Amalfi Coast
Explore Ravello, Amalfi, Atrani, Path of the Gods, and Positano. Keep your car parked and use buses or ferries, unless stress-parking is part of your holiday plan.

📍 Day 6: Maratea
Head south for a quieter coastal stop with a hilltop old town, Acquafredda beach, and sunset from the Christ the Redeemer viewpoint.

📍 Days 7–9: Calabria
Visit Scilla, Tropea, Capo Vaticano, and Pizzo for clear water, sea-facing old towns, swordfish sandwiches, tartufo ice cream, and Tropea’s famous red onion.

📍 Day 10: Basilicata
Finish in Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa, two mountain villages surrounded by dramatic rock peaks, with hikes, viewpoints, and the Volo dell’Angelo zipline.

You’ll need a car for this itinerary, but trust me, this one is worth the long drive.

10-day Southern Italy itinerary

12/08/2026

💬 Comment ‘guide’ and I’ll send you my Calabria guide with beautiful places to visit, map ideas, and practical travel tips 🇮🇹🗺️✨
Follow Ausra| Travel Blog+ Films & Photo for more Italy travel guides

Calabria is one of those regions in Italy that still feels wildly underrated. Everyone talks about Amalfi, Puglia, Sicily, but Calabria quietly keeps its dramatic cliffs, turquoise beaches, medieval hilltop towns, sea caves, old castles, spicy food, and national parks mostly to itself.

It is shaped by so many layers: Greek roots, Byzantine influence, Norman castles, Arbëreshë heritage, mountain communities, fishing towns, and a coastline that changes completely from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Ionian Sea.

It also remains less discovered because it takes more effort to explore. Public transport is limited in many areas, the best places are scattered between mountains and coast, and you really need a car if you want to see more than one beach town.

These are just some of the many amazing places in Calabria worth adding to your trip.

Calabria travel guide

06/08/2026

Itria Valley is Puglia’s land of whitewashed towns, trulli houses, olive groves, and slow countryside roads 🇮🇹🌿🚗

💬 Comment ‘guide’ 👇 I’ll send you my free guide to the best Itria Valley towns and white towns in Puglia with a map, where to go, where to stay + practical tips for planning your route 🗺️✨💌

This part of Puglia feels completely different from the coast. Instead of beach towns, you get hilltop villages, narrow white alleys, dry-stone walls, cone-shaped trulli, local trattorias, and those dusty country roads that make a road trip here so much fun.

A few towns worth adding to your Itria Valley itinerary:

📍 Alberobello – The famous trulli town and the most unique stop in the valley.
📍 Locorotondo – A circular white town and one of the prettiest bases in the area.
📍 Cisternino – A laid-back hilltop town with countryside views and bombette to try.
📍 Martina Franca – Baroque details, elegant piazzas, and a more lived-in local feel.
📍 Ceglie Messapica – A rugged, less-touristy town known for seriously good food.
📍 Ostuni – The White City, with winding alleys and views over olive groves to the sea.
📍 Carovigno – A quieter white town near Ostuni with a local feel and easy access to the coast.

You can visit a few towns in one day, but I’d slow down if you can. Stay in a trullo, rent a car, and leave time for unplanned stops between olive groves and stone walls.

Itria Valley towns and white towns guide

02/08/2026

02/08/2026

Salento is not just about long sandy beaches 🇮🇹🌊✨
💬 Comment ‘beach’ 👇 I’ll send you my free guide to the 18 best beaches in Salento, Puglia with a map, parking tips, access notes + practical beach advice 🗺️💌

Some of my favorite swimming spots in Puglia were the rocky coves, old quarries, town beaches, and tiny local bays where the water was so clear it almost looked unreal.

After spending more than 10 days exploring both the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, these are 9 beaches in Salento I’d happily go back to:

📍 Cala dell’Acquaviva
📍 Spiaggia di Santa Maria al Bagno
📍 Cala Porticciolo
📍 Baia di Porto Miggiano
📍 Marina Serra
📍 Porto Selvaggio
📍 Otranto beaches
📍 Baia di Portulignu
📍 Castro Marina

The east coast, especially around Otranto, Castro and Santa Maria di Leuca, completely won me over. Think rocky coves, natural pools, cliff jumping spots, deep blue water, and small swimming places that feel much more local than the famous “Maldives of Salento” beaches.

But don’t skip the town beaches either. Sometimes the best kind of beach day is a swim, a caffè leccese, and a slow wander through the old streets before jumping back into the sea.

Salento beach guide

30/07/2026

Have you heard of Lithuania? You might want to check this out!🇱🇹🌿🏰
💬 Comment ‘guide’ 👇 and I’ll send you my free guide to the best places to visit in Lithuania + practical travel tips 🗺️✨💌

If you only know Vilnius, you’re missing so much of what makes Lithuania special.

Think medieval castles, quiet lakes, pine forests, sand dunes, wooden villages, seaside towns, hilltop views, old manor houses, and places where summer evenings feel soft and endless.

A few places worth adding to your Lithuania itinerary:

📍 Vilnius – Baroque streets, viewpoints, courtyards, and one of Europe’s most underrated old towns.
📍 Trakai – A fairytale-looking island castle surrounded by lakes.
📍 Kaunas – Street art, modernist architecture, and a cool creative side.
📍 Curonian Spit – Sand dunes, pine forests, wild beaches, and slow coastal days.
📍 Klaipėda – Lithuania’s port city and gateway to the seaside.
📍 Hill of Crosses – One of the most unique and powerful places in the country.
📍 Aukštaitija National Park – Lakes, forests, wooden villages, and nature at its calmest.

To name a few….

Best places to visit in Lithuania guide


Have you heard of Lithuania? You might want to check this out!🇱🇹🌿🏰
💬 Comment ‘guide’ 👇 and I’ll send you my free guide to the best places to visit in Lithuania + practical travel tips 🗺️✨💌

If you only know Vilnius, you’re missing so much of what makes Lithuania special.

Think medieval castles, quiet lakes, pine forests, sand dunes, wooden villages, seaside towns, hilltop views, old manor houses, and places where summer evenings feel soft and endless.

A few places worth adding to your Lithuania itinerary:

📍 Vilnius – Baroque streets, viewpoints, courtyards, and one of Europe’s most underrated old towns.
📍 Trakai – A fairytale-looking island castle surrounded by lakes.
📍 Kaunas – Street art, modernist architecture, and a cool creative side.
📍 Curonian Spit – Sand dunes, pine forests, wild beaches, and slow coastal days.
📍 Klaipėda – Lithuania’s port city and gateway to the seaside.
📍 Hill of Crosses – One of the most unique and powerful places in the country.
📍