The Gilded Horizon
a travel blog
Discover The Gilded Horizon, Sunkissed Bliss Travel's blog offering expert travel tips, industry insights, and captivating stories from around the globe. Whether you're seeking trending destinations for 2025, family-friendly adventures, or luxury group travel ideas, our articles provide inspiration and guidance to elevate your journeys. Join us as we explore the world, sharing experiences and advice to make your travels unforgettable.
Discover the Magic of Family Travel in Portugal
Experience the magic of Porto through the eyes of young travelers. This breathtaking view of the Duoro River from a charming Porto balcony captures the essence of family adventure—where vibrant city life meets serene river views. Perfect for families seeking unforgettable moments in Portugal, Porto offers both relaxation and exploration in every corner.
Explore These Destinations Best Seen by Water
Some places are simply meant to be explored by boat, where the journey is just as breathtaking as the destination itself. From the sun-drenched islands of the Mediterranean to the dramatic fjords of Norway, cruising allows you to effortlessly visit stunning ports, all while unpacking once and skipping the airport shuffle. Sunkissed Bliss Travel can guide you to the perfect cruise line, itinerary, and even the ideal stateroom for your needs — plus, we’ll help you book at just the right time for the best value.
The Timeless Charm of Old San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a destination that effortlessly blends history, culture, and tropical beauty. Whether you’re planning a romantic escape, a fun-filled girls’ getaway, or an unforgettable family vacation, this vibrant city offers something for everyone.
5 Summer 2025 Destinations to Explore in 10 Days or Less
If you’re already overwhelmed by the idea of summer planning, relax—I’ve got you covered with five destinations that are perfect for a 10-day (or less!) escape with children or without them. The best part? You won’t need a car to explore them. Whether you prefer land, river, or sea, these spots are easy to navigate, family-friendly, and packed with adventure.
What’s Wave Season and Why You Should Care
If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a travel insider, here’s your moment: let’s talk about Wave Season.
It sounds like something surfers dream about, but in the travel world, it’s all about scoring the best deals on cruises and other vacations. Think of it as the Black Friday of travel, only longer, calmer, and way more fun.
Trending Destinations to Explore in 2025: Beyond the Usual Favorites
With 2025 on the horizon, travel trends are shifting towards destinations that offer both richness of culture and authenticity of experience. This year, Sunkissed Bliss Travel has handpicked some top spots that are set to enchant travelers. While Italy remains a beloved classic, it's wise to avoid it in 2025 due to the Pope's Jubilee—a significant event expected to draw millions to Rome and nearby regions. Instead, consider these alluring alternatives that promise captivating journeys without the crowds.
From Oaxaca to Mexico City: A Women’s Trip for the Memory Books
I share all this to say that I am an experienced group traveler and a recovering summer camp kid. There’s nothing like forced proximity, new experiences, and exploring a destination that nurtures new friendships, increases empathy, and fosters an environment that is ripe for meaningful connections.
That’s why I’m incredibly excited about Come TogetHER IL’s spring trip to Central Mexico and grateful that they asked me to plan it for them. It doesn’t hurt that Central Mexico is a vibrant place, bursting with flavor, history, personality, art, and natural beauty.
A Day Onboard Icon of the Seas
At the end of last month, I accepted an invitation to experience a day aboard Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. Famous for being the largest cruise ship in the world, Icon can carry over 5,500 passengers, it’s nearly 1,200 feet long, 159 feet wide, and it debuted the Ultimate Family Townhouse Suite, a 3-story suite that sleeps up to 8 and includes state-of-the-art interactive features. Icon sails out of Miami on 7-night sailings alternating between an itinerary with stops in Honduras, Mexico, and another itinerary with stops in St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Thomas. Both itineraries spend a day at CoCoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas.
A Hack for Multi-City Itineraries
If you're anything like me, you hear the words “group travel” or “organized tour” and you cringe. The phrases conjure images of giant tour buses laden with octogenarians and a peppy guide in uniform. But having recently experienced a 9-day escorted itinerary, I can personally attest that those stereotypes no longer apply to all tours. Better yet, there's a way to make this mode of travel work for you that you may have never considered before.
Adventure Travel for Families
As a parent of two elementary school aged children, I like to take active vacations to keep them busy, but not so adventurous that I’m risking their safety or surpassing their capabilities.
Here are soft adventure travel experiences that are exciting yet suitable for younger ages:
Group Golf Trips Grow in Popularity
Golf trips among male friends has been a popular group vacation for decades and as the boomers are retiring and their children are hitting their career stride, golf resorts are pulling out all the stops to impress multiple generations in this surging market.
Wow-worthy Alternatives to Popular Destinations
Overcrowding is becoming a problem in the world's most popular destinations across southern Europe in destinations like Italy, Greece, France, and Spain. Crowds coupled with surging heat waves in recent summers can ruin a vacation, no matter how carefully you plan it. This has spawned a trend in alternative destination travel. But even the alternatives are starting to feel strained. Fortunately, Meredith has some exceptional recommendations for alternative destinations that will fill your European cup of wanderlust.
How it all started
I founded Sunkissed Bliss Travel to provide thoughtful travelers and busy families with a curated travel planning solution that prioritizes meaningful connections and core memory-making. Your time is precious. When you travel, you deserve a trip overflowing with excellence.
My name is Meredith Schnepp and I recognized the need among my family and friends for personalized and intentional travel planning steeped in first-hand experience, industry knowledge, trusted partnerships with a hyper-focus on the details.
The Inimitable Charm of Ireland
There’s a special place in my heart for Ireland. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to visit and see if what everyone says is really true. Are the hills that green? Are the cliffs that steep? Are the towns charming and the people that friendly? Does Guinness taste better over there? (Spoiler alert: yes, it does.) I didn’t have my feet on Irish soil for very long when I knew that everything I’d heard about Ireland was not hyperbole. If anything, all the praise you hear for the Emerald Isle doesn’t even scratch the surface. I’m a firm believer that Ireland should be on everyone’s destination punch card.
Virgin Voyages
From the moment I started designing travel, I knew that I wanted to try Virgin Voyages. They are racking up awards left and right, shaking up the cruise industry, and I kept hearing that they are unlike any other cruise line on the market.
So when three of my girlfriends expressed the desire to take a trip together, it wasn’t hard to convince them to try a Virgin Voyages sailing with me. We sailed out of Miami on the Scarlet Lady and went to Key West and Bimini, The Bahamas. Here are some of things that set Virgin apart from the pack, or should I say fleet?
SBT’s Spring Break Recommendations: The Expected & Unexpected
Spring Break sneaks up on families quickly. While you’re laser-focused on holiday festivities, managing children who are off their routines, and (hopefully) enjoying a few days off work, everyone gets to January and naturally looks ahead to what the new year has in store for them. Travel plans float into your mind and you ask yourself, “When is the next school break? Let’s go somewhere.” And bam! You realize that you have 8 to 10 weeks to research, plan, and book a family vacation during a peak time for travel.
This phenomenon is called “wave season” in travel. In short, you are not alone. Millions of other people (with and without children) around the world turn over the calendar page to the new year and are ready to plan their vacations for the year within the first quarter. Sunkissed Bliss Travel is here to help you plan your trip no matter when it is, but we have some tricks up our sleeve for planning spring break on a tight timeline. We’ve got the industry knowledge and insider perks to turn your “let’s take a break” vacation into an unforgettable experience that will leave lasting memories for you and your family. Whether you want to get away for the entire week or a few nights, we can help. Here are some of our favorite spring break destinations for families.
Bucket List Resorts
The term “bucket list” has been around for decades. The idea that you need to complete all the items on your list before you “kick the bucket” is a motivator for many adults past middle age. Since 2020 and the global pandemic, there’s been an even greater emphasis on travel bucket lists. Coming out of the pandemic, people were ready to make up for lost time and travel the world, take risks, and go places that they didn’t consider before. The industry affectionately coined this surge in travel, “revenge travel”.
International Travel with Children
Showing our children the world and providing them with authentic experiences is the best gift we can give them. Giving our young ones the space to explore, interact, and learn about people and places different from their own – situations that make them slightly uncomfortable – but expand their tolerance, increase their compassion, and expose them to the real-world is more important than any textbook or honors class. The earlier you can travel with your children, the better, but it can be very intimidating. Do not fear though. With the help of a trusted travel advisor, you can offload the stress of planning and managing a family vacation to us. We have the knowledge, connections, and experience to guide you down a path to joyful travel moments.
River Cruising
River Cruising is fast becoming one of the most popular ways to experience Europe, and more recently Asia, Africa, and South America. Commonly stereotyped as a vacation for retirees, river cruises are for people of all ages. Sure, there are specific cruise lines that cater to the baby boomers, but when you work with Sunkissed Bliss Travel, we can point you in the right direction based on your preferences. There are even options for river cruising with kids. Here are some benefits to river cruising:
California Wine Country
A trip to California Wine Country should be anything but ordinary, and there are hundreds of wineries located throughout several valleys for your enjoyment. Arguably the most popular, the valleys of Napa, Sonoma, and the Russian River (located within Sonoma County) have unique characteristics that distinguish themselves from one another. The undiscerning traveler might assume that “wine is wine”, but you will not have the same experience in Napa as you would in Sonoma, or in the Russian River Valley. Here’s some information about each of them.