โ๏ธ My Story: The Budget City Break Addiction
Alright, let me set the scene. I'm Conor, 29, work in marketing in Dublin. Decent salary but rent's mental (โฌ1,800 a month for a shoebox). So holidays? Can't afford two weeks in the Maldives or whatever. But I discovered the holy grail: Ryanair city breaks.
Here's the formula: Book flights on Tuesday (when deals drop). Fly Friday evening. Hostel or cheap Airbnb (โฌ20-30/night). Wander the city Saturday and Sunday. Fly home Sunday night or Monday morning. Total cost: โฌ150-200 for a full weekend abroad. Cheaper than a weekend in Galway!
๐ป My City Break Hit List (2019-2025):
- Spain: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Malaga
- Italy: Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples
- Portugal: Lisbon, Porto, Faro
- France: Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice
- Germany: Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne
- Poland: Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk
- Czech Republic: Prague
- Hungary: Budapest
- Austria: Vienna
- Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam
- Belgium: Brussels, Bruges
- And 15 more cities!
Total: 45 cities in 6 years!
Every trip, I'd take hundreds of photos. Architecture, food, pubs, street art, random cats, the lads on tour. My phone was full, laptop was full. 14,000 photos total.
๐ค The Problem: Photo Chaos
๐ My Situation Before PhotoGlobe Sorter:
- 14,287 photos from 6 years of city breaks
- Folders called: "Phone Backup 2021", "Europe Trip", "Random Travel"
- Impossible to find specific cities: "Where's that paella photo from Valencia?"
- Photos from the same trip scattered across 3-4 folders (phone + camera + mates sending theirs)
- Barcelona 2020 mixed with Barcelona 2023 - couldn't tell them apart
- Hours wasted when I wanted to show someone "that amazing pub in Prague"
The biggest problem? I couldn't organise by COUNTRY and then CITY. I needed:
Spain/Barcelona/ โ All Barcelona photos
Spain/Madrid/ โ All Madrid photos
Italy/Rome/ โ All Rome photos
Czech Republic/Prague/ โ All Prague photos
Simple, right? But doing it manually? Nightmare. I tried once. Spent 4 hours sorting just 2022-2023. Then gave up. Life's too short.
๐ก How I Discovered PhotoGlobe Sorter
My mate Seรกn (also a Ryanair addict) told me about it down the pub. He said: "Conor, this software sorts your photos by country and city automatically. And it's โฌ39 once - no monthly shite."
I was sceptical. "How's it know which city?"
"GPS data, ya eejit! Your phone saves where you took the photo. The software reads it and sorts everything."
Free trial on 500 photos. 10 minutes later, they were organised: Spain/Barcelona, Italy/Rome, Poland/Krakow. I bought the full version that night. โฌ39. Done.
๐ฐ Budget Traveller's Brain:
Look, I'm Irish. We're fierce careful with money. โฌ39 sounds steep until you realise: Google Photos is โฌ19.99/year for 2TB. After 2 years, you've paid โฌ40 and you're STILL paying forever. PhotoGlobe? โฌ39 ONCE. After 2 years, I'm โฌ60 ahead. After 5 years, I'm โฌ60 ahead. You get me?
โ๏ธ How I Sorted 14,000 Photos (Step by Step)
I'm not a tech head. If I can do this, anyone can:
Step 1: Gathered All Photos (25 minutes)
Copied all travel photos from laptop, external drive, and phone to one master folder: "City_Breaks_All". Total: 14,287 files, 118 GB.
Step 2: Chose Perfect Structure (3 minutes)
PhotoGlobe Sorter lets you build your own structure. I chose:
Result:
๐ Spain/
๐ Barcelona/ โ All Barcelona photos
๐ Madrid/ โ All Madrid photos
๐ Valencia/ โ All Valencia photos
๐ Italy/
๐ Rome/ โ All Rome photos
๐ Milan/ โ All Milan photos
๐ Poland/
๐ Krakow/ โ All Krakow photos
๐ Warsaw/ โ All Warsaw photos
Why this structure is perfect for me:
- COUNTRY first - All Spanish cities together, all Italian cities together
- CITY second - Each city has its own folder
- Want to see all Spanish trips? Open Spain folder. Done.
- Want to compare Barcelona 2020 vs 2023? Both in Spain/Barcelona, sorted by date automatically
Step 3: Started the Magic (1 hour 52 minutes)
Clicked "Start Organising". The software:
- Read GPS data from every photo (where it was taken)
- Read date and time
- Automatically identified: Country, City
- Created all necessary folders
- Copied photos to the right folders
- Detected 743 duplicates (backup copies)
Total time: 1 hour 52 minutes for 14,287 photos. I went for a pint down the road. Came back - all done!
โค๏ธ What I Love About PhotoGlobe Sorter
โ Perfect for City Break Addicts:
- Country โ City Structure: This is the key. All European countries organised, then cities within. Exactly how I think about my trips.
- Find Any City in 10 Seconds: Before: 30+ minutes searching. Now: Open Poland โ Krakow. Done!
- Compare Same City Different Years: Been to Barcelona 3 times? All photos in one place, auto-sorted by year. Can see how the city (and I) changed!
- Show Off to Mates: "Lads, remember Prague?" Open folder, 200 brilliant photos ready to go. Everyone's impressed.
- Plan Future Trips: Thinking of going back to Berlin? Check my Berlin folder - reminds me what I've seen, what to do next time.
- Works Offline: No internet? Grand. Everything's local.
- โฌ39 Once: Not โฌ10/month forever. ONE payment. Lifetime. Budget traveller's dream.
- No Cloud: My photos stay on MY laptop. Not on some server in California.
Real story: Last month, my cousin Sarah asked: "Conor, I'm going to Budapest next weekend. Any tips?" Old me would've said "Ah yeah, it's class, can't remember specifics." New me? Opened Hungary/Budapest folder, found 247 photos, sent her my top 15 - best ruin bars, thermal baths, viewpoints. She said "You're a legend!" Took me 2 minutes. PhotoGlobe made it possible. ๐บ
โ ๏ธ Honest Cons (Nothing's Perfect)
Right, I'll be straight with you. It's not flawless:
- Windows Only: I've got Windows, so grand. But if you're a Mac person, you're knackered.
- Needs GPS Data: Modern phones have GPS. But old cameras or phones without GPS? You'll have to manually tag them. I had 380 like that. Took 40 minutes. Annoying but doable.
- Not for Editing: This organises photos. Doesn't crop, filter, or edit them. Need Lightroom or whatever for that.
- Initial Setup Time: First run took 2 hours. But that's one-time. Now new trips take 5 minutes to sort.
My take: These are minor compared to the time saved and peace of mind.
๐ฏ Who's This For?
PhotoGlobe Sorter is perfect if you:
- โ Do regular city breaks (Ryanair, EasyJet, Aer Lingus addicts)
- โ Visit multiple European cities every year
- โ Have thousands of travel photos in chaos
- โ Want to organise by destination (country/city)
- โ Prefer one-time payment over monthly subscriptions
- โ Are budget-conscious (like most Irish people!)
- โ Value privacy (no cloud uploads)
- โ Want to quickly show off photos from specific cities
Not ideal if:
- โ You've got a Mac (Windows only)
- โ Your photos lack GPS data (manual tagging needed)
- โ You're looking for photo editing software (this just organises)
โ Questions I Had Before Buying
โ How does it know which city?
Your phone (or camera with GPS) saves coordinates in every photo. PhotoGlobe reads those and automatically identifies the city. Barcelona, Rome, Prague - all detected automatically.
โ What about old photos without GPS?
There's a manual geotagging tool. Drag the photo onto a map, click the city, done. I did this for 380 old photos - took 40 minutes total. Tedious but worth it.
โ Does it delete my originals?
No! It COPIES photos to the new structure. Your originals stay untouched. I backed up first anyway, but didn't need to.
โ Can I change the folder structure?
Yeah! 1,656 different combinations. I chose Country โ City. But you could do City โ Year, or Year โ Country โ City, or whatever. Fully customisable.
โ Does it work with videos?
Yep! Videos get organised the same way. I take loads of videos (street performers, sunsets, the lads being eejits), and they all go in the right city folders.
โ How long for 10,000 photos?
On my laptop (nothing fancy), 14,000 photos took under 2 hours. So about 7,500 photos per hour. Your 10,000 would take around 1.5 hours.
โ Are city names in English?
Folders are called "Barcelona", "Prague", "Budapest" - English names everyone recognises. The software supports 50+ languages though.
โ Free trial?
Yep! Test on 500 photos for free. I did that before buying. 10 minutes later I knew it was exactly what I needed. Then paid the โฌ39.
๐ Results After 4 Months
I bought PhotoGlobe Sorter in November 2024. It's now March 2025. Here's what changed:
| Before | After | Compare Barcelona 2020 vs 2023 instantly |
|---|---|---|
| Embarrassed when mates asked for travel tips | Now I'm the go-to travel guru in my group | |
| Had no idea how many cities I'd visited | Know exactly: 45 cities in 6 years! | |
| Photos spread across laptop, phone, external drive | Everything in one organised archive |
Best moment: My girlfriend and I were planning our next trip. She said "Let's go somewhere you haven't been." I opened my PhotoGlobe folders, scrolled through: Spain - been there. Italy - been there. Poland - been there. Realised I'd covered most of Western Europe! We ended up booking Slovenia (not been yet). The organised folders made it so easy to see where I'd been vs where I still wanted to go. Class! ๐บ๏ธ
๐ฏ How I Use It Now:
- Come home from city break Sunday night (knackered)
- Monday morning: Transfer photos from phone to laptop
- Open PhotoGlobe Sorter
- Point it at new photos, click "Organise"
- 5-8 minutes later: Sorted into Spain/Valencia (or wherever) automatically!
- Share best ones on Instagram, WhatsApp the lads
Time investment per trip: 8 minutes
Time saved searching for photos: Hours every month!
๐ฐ Price: โฌ39 (One-Time Payment)
What I paid:
(pay once, own forever)
vs Other Options:
- Google Photos 100GB: โฌ1.99/month = โฌ23.88/year
- iCloud 200GB: โฌ2.99/month = โฌ35.88/year
- Adobe Lightroom: โฌ11.99/month = โฌ143.88/year
PhotoGlobe: โฌ39 once. After 2 years I'm ahead. After 5 years I've saved โฌ100+!
Budget breakdown: โฌ39 is cheaper than ONE Ryanair flight. For software that organises 6 years of memories? Bargain!
Look, I spend โฌ150-200 per city break. 10 breaks a year = โฌ1,500-2,000 annually on travel. Spending โฌ39 to organise ALL those memories is a no-brainer. It's less than a night out in Temple Bar!
๐ My Favourite Use Case
Let me tell you about the moment I knew PhotoGlobe Sorter was worth every cent.
February 2025. My younger brother Liam was getting married. For his stag do (bachelor party), we wanted to do a "memory slideshow" at the hotel bar - photos of him over the years.
I had LOADS of photos of Liam from our city breaks together - we'd done Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Berlin, and Barcelona together over 5 years. But finding them all?
Before PhotoGlobe: Would've taken me days. I'd have to search through thousands of photos, try to remember which trips he came on, manually collect them. Probably would've given up.
With PhotoGlobe:
- Opened my organised folders
- Went through: Czech Republic/Prague, Poland/Krakow, Hungary/Budapest, Germany/Berlin, Spain/Barcelona
- Searched each for "Liam" or just looked through chronologically
- Had 63 brilliant photos collected in 30 minutes
- Made a slideshow with music
- Showed it at the stag - everyone loved it
Result: Liam was chuffed. The lads were all "Conor, you're some man for the photos!" Best man speech material sorted. My ma cried (happy tears). And it was only possible because PhotoGlobe had everything organised by city.
That's the craic right there. Organised photos = preserved memories you can actually USE.
โ Final Verdict
PhotoGlobe Sorter is the best โฌ39 I've spent on my travel hobby. Full stop.
Before: Complete chaos, couldn't find anything, hours wasted searching.
After: Every city has its own folder, find anything in seconds, can actually USE my travel photos.
For a budget traveller who does regular city breaks, the Country โ City structure is perfect. Exactly how I think: "Remember that trip to Prague?"
And the price? โฌ39 once. Not โฌ10/month forever. That's proper value. Budget traveller approved.
โญโญโญโญโญ 5/5 - Highly Recommend for All Ryanair Addicts!
๐ Want to Try It Yourself?
If you've also got hundreds (or thousands) of city break photos in complete chaos... try PhotoGlobe Sorter free on 500 photos.
No credit card needed. Download it, test on 500 photos, see the result. Like I did. If you like it, buy the full version (โฌ39). If not, costs nothing.
Start Free Trial of PhotoGlobe Sorter โ
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500 photos free trial (no credit card)
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Automatic sorting by Country and City
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โฌ39 one-time payment (no subscription)
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100% offline (no cloud required)
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Works with all European cities
โ๏ธ Bonus for Budget Travellers:
If you also organise your city break photos with PhotoGlobe Sorter and love finding cheap flights, hit me up! I'm starting a WhatsApp group for Irish budget travel enthusiasts - sharing Ryanair deals, best hostels, city tips, etc.
๐ง conor.citybreaks@gmail.com (This is an example email, not real!)
๐ My City Break Journey (Stats)
Thanks to PhotoGlobe Sorter, I now know exactly:
- Total cities visited: 45
- Total photos taken: 14,287
- Time period: 6 years (2019-2025)
- Most visited country: Spain (5 cities, 2,847 photos)
- Most photographed city: Barcelona (visited 3 times, 1,124 photos)
- Best year: 2023 (12 city breaks, 3,200+ photos)
- Average photos per trip: 317
- Total saved on one-time payment: โฌ100+ over 5 years vs subscriptions
Before PhotoGlobe, I didn't know any of this. Now I can see my "city break journey" clearly. I can even plan future trips based on where I haven't been yet. Sound!
"City breaks aren't just about seeing new places - they're about collecting experiences, stories, and memories. My photos capture those moments. PhotoGlobe Sorter gave me the ability to actually organise and relive them. For a budget traveller like me who lives for these trips, that's priceless. Well, โฌ39. But you know what I mean."โ Conor Murphy, Dublin
๐ฎ๐ช The Irish Budget Traveller Perspective
Look, us Irish are famous for a few things: the craic, Guinness, and being careful with our money. It's not that we're cheap - we just want VALUE.
That's why Ryanair's so popular here. โฌ19 return to Prague? Jaysus, that's cheaper than the train to Cork! We'll put up with the 6am flight and the cramped seats because the PRICE is right.
PhotoGlobe Sorter fits perfectly into this mindset:
- โ One payment - No monthly fees bleeding your bank account
- โ โฌ39 total - Less than a night out in Dublin
- โ Lifetime licence - Buy once, use forever
- โ No hidden costs - What you see is what you pay
- โ Actually useful - Not just paying for features you don't use
To all Irish budget travellers: If you're like me - doing 8-12 city breaks a year on Ryanair deals, taking thousands of photos, but can't find any of them - give PhotoGlobe Sorter a go. It's proper value. It's what we Irish appreciate: quality at a fair price, with no ongoing costs. Sound as a pound.
๐บ A Final Word
Six years ago, I discovered you could fly to Barcelona for less than a tank of petrol. That discovery changed my life - I've seen 45 incredible European cities on a budget.
Four months ago, I discovered PhotoGlobe Sorter. That discovery changed how I interact with my travel memories. Now I can actually FIND my photos, SHARE them with mates, and RELIVE those amazing weekends.
Is it perfect? Nah. Windows only, needs GPS data, won't make you breakfast.
Is it worth โฌ39? Absolutely.
If you're a budget traveller with a mess of city break photos, this is your solution. Simple as.
Now stop reading and go book your next Ryanair deal. Sure it's Tuesday - the offers are probably live! โ๏ธ