Our road trip to France, was semi-planned. We had an idea of certain areas we wanted to visit to see if they could be added to our list of possible places for relocation. So, as we set off for the...
Travel…
We love to travel. And while we’ve been travelling, because we tend to veer off the tourist trails, we realised that we were discovering so many hidden gems, having amazing experiences and picking up tips and avoiding near-disasters, that we thought it would be a nice idea to have somewhere, where this could be shared. In March 2017 we finally realised our dream to relocate to the sunshine and are now living in Istria, in northern Croatia, enabling us to explore Europe much more easily. And especially now that Croatia is part of the Schengen Zone. Of course, we remain very linked to the UK – our families are there, our We Are Life Design clients are there, and our friends are there, so we continue to keep our close links to the areas in UK in which we have lived. And we still return to on a regular basis.
What we blog about is a good mix of wherever we go. So whether that’s somewhere not too far from where we live in Istria, a UK destination or a bit further afield, it’ll be here. If you love quirky places and things maybe a bit different from the norm, hopefully you’ll like what you find here. You can also pop over to Twitter, for the brief version!
And, we’re not being paid to mention hotels etc, & none of the blogs are sponsored – although, if one day, I could make a living out of travelling to gorgeous places…
recent travel blogs
centro paolo vi : brescia
We're not religious people by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like a bit of Italian theatrics when it comes to things of a holy nature. I also like a hotel which is a little bit different,...
l’ancienne boulangerie : caunes-minervois : occitanie
Sometimes you stumble across somewhere that is just too pretty to be real, even when the weather isn't on your side, and instead of being bathed in sunlight, grey clouds and drizzle dominate. On the...
casa m apartment : citta alta : bergamo
Whenever we stay in Bergamo, in Lombardy, we like to discover new places to stay. In December, we met up with friends from Manchester who had flown over, and so rather than a hotel room for two, or...
Šibenik : dalmatia coast : croatia
Although we've now lived in Croatia (Istria, to be exact) over six years, and we've done lots of exploring, we are still yet to discover the hotspots of Split and Dubrovnik and the more southerly...
art hotel tartini : piran : slovenia
Piran, on the tiny sliver of Slovenian coastline, is very close to our home - about 35kms, through beautiful countryside and across the border, which now, thanks to Croatia joining the Schengen...
strunjan : slovenian riviera
Slovenia has just 47km of coastline on the Adriatic Sea, but it certainly makes the most of it. Three seaside towns – Koper, with its medieval core, Izola, known for its good restaurants, and...
free passage : croatia : schengen zone
When we moved to Istria in 2017, we knew that at some point in the future, the country would be allowed to join the Schengen Zone and there would be no more border checks. We kept checking online to...
los caracoles : frigiliana : andalucia : spain
On a drive, high up in the Andalucian hills, above the white washed town of Frigiliana and the coastal town of Torox, we spotted some very unusual shapes ahead of us. White domes, almost...
antiq palace hotel : ljubljana : slovenia
In the heart of Ljubljana city centre, a distinctive stone archway marks the entrance to Antiq Palace, a luxury 16th century palace hotel. Designed originally as the residential palace of noble...
venice : italy : december 22
The last couple of years have been a bit crazy, haven't they? Travel, in the early days, was for very obvious reasons much curtailed and so for a long time we didn't get to see family and friends in...
maison matilda : treviso : italy
Being less than 40kms from Venice, Treviso has been overlooked by us in the past.Although we have been before, we always opt for Venice because, you know, it's - Venice. But on our last Venetian...
marrakech : morocco
Marrakech is absolutely everything we ever thought it would be. We've only ever visited in January, as a stop over before journeying across for a longer break on the western coast, in Essaouira. But...
mandria del dottore toscano : tarsia : calabria : italy
On our road trip around Italy, driving in the Calabrian south was tiring, so we needed to break the journey up from Villa San Giovanni (where you cross to & from Sicily) to Matera and so...
vatican museums : rome : italy
The Vatican Museums are the public museums of the Vatican City, displaying works of art amassed by the Catholic Church and papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most renowned...
hotel heritage : ljubljana : slovenia
According to the website, the recently renovated Heritage Hotel is... ...one of Ljubljana’s finest boutique hotels. It combines the rich cultural heritage of a Renaissance bourgeois building from...
puglia : italy
Living now in Istria, the tiny heart shaped peninsula, right up in the north of Croatia - bordering Slovenia, close to Trieste and across the Adriatic from Venice - we are very lucky that we can now...
sperlonga : latina : italy
We’d not previously heard of this place, but now we know about it, it’s very definitely somewhere we’d revisit next time we’re in the province of Latina. Halfway between Rome and Naples, the very...
zadar : croatia
Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world, more beautiful than the one in Key West in Florida, applauded at every evening. So said, Alfred Hitchcock, on a visit to the stunning Dalmatian...