We're now increasingly finding that we need to be a bit more hands on with the house renovation, and need to factor in time to get across to Jimena de la Frontera to meet with Jose, the project...
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 moved to Istria, in northern Croatia. We continued to travel, and although the pandemic restricted where we could go, it gave us the opportunity to discover Istria and Croatia. Things took a very different turn in early 2024 when we decided to sell our renovated house, and take another big plunge – this time moving to Andalucia, and taking on the renovation of a traditional Spanish townhouse.
What we blog about is a good mix of wherever we go. 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
punta paloma dunes : tarifa : andalucia
The shifting dunes of the south western coast of Andalucia, really are a sight to behold, perhaps the most dramatic being those located at Punta Paloma, the headland just to the north of Tarifa,...
smartr malaga centro
For a short stay in Malaga, we recently discovered a really good company, offering fully renovated apartments in the center of the city, located on Calle Santa Lucia, in one of the city's most...
the hard rock hotel : puerto banus : marbella
Well, this was definitely a new one for us. The Hard Rock Hotel. In Puerto Banus. Not really our usual less-is-more. More, more-is-more-and-the-brasher-the-better... So, it begs the question - why?...
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...
cagliari : sardinia : italy
Cagliari is a city like no other Italian city we have visited. It's a port city, and it wears its history on its sleeve. Everywhere you go you come across traces of its rich past, from ancient Roman...
boutique b&b : mali pariz : marušići : crikvenica : croatia
Every now and again, you stumble upon the most perfect place to stay. It happened to us last year when we discovered The Dolphin Suites, on the beautiful island of Veli Lošinj. And it's happened to...
winter : ljubljana : slovenia
Ljubljana definitely knows how to do winter. It knows how to do summer as well, but in the colder months - especially as you can pretty much guarantee snow - it is very, very pretty. The old part of...
nerja : andalucia : spain
We've not visited Nerja for a while, but when we still lived in Didsbury, we did visit often. We were very lucky that we had a friend with a family apartment there, and so if there was availability,...
ca’ amadi : venice : italy
One of the joys of staying in Venice, is trawling the internet beforehand, to find where you are going to stay. We've stayed in apartments and hotels, and thankfully have never had a bad experience....
vander urbani resort : ljubljana : slovenia
On the banks of the Ljubljanica River stands a very elegant townhouse, which has been renovated and is now the the Vander Urbani Resort. Part of the Design Hotels Group, it is described as having :...
the dolphin suites : veli lošinj : croatia
After a long hiatus from travel, and after getting our second vaccinations, we decided to do a bit of exploring this summer. Croatia has managed the pandemic well, so far and there are still strict...
frigiliana : pueblo blanco : andalucia
The small white village of Frigiliana - one of the famous pueblo blancos - is in the Axarquia region of the Costa del Sol, and regularly features in lists of Spain’s most beautiful villages. This...