It's over ten years since we lasted visited Ronda, and that was a flying visit, as we were en route to Seville for Semana Santa. But it imprinted such a memory that we always said we'd return for a...
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
hotel tugasa castillo de castellar : castellar de la frontera : andalucia
Our roadtrip around Andalucia has introduced us to some incredible places, and definitely places we probably wouldn't have otherwise discovered, if we hadn't been "in between homes". One such place...
ático 73, victoria : medina sidonia : andalucia
Situated in the southern Andalucian town of Medina Sidonia, Ático 73, Victoria, is advertised as an adults-only hotel. Although we're not averse to staying in places which are child friendly, it's...
la guardia apartments : tarifa : andalucia
When we booked a four night stay recently in Tarifa, La Guardia apartments seemed a pretty perfect choice. Self-catering, right in the centre of the old town, in the middle of all of the action,...
ortigia : syracuse : sicily
On our travels through Italy last year, we made the decision to explore the eastern coast of Sicily and having done some online research, decided that Ortigia (in the region of Syracuse), sounded...
favignana : aegadian islands : sicily
Trapani (or Birgi Airport, located about 19 km south of the city) is accessible by Ryanair from the UK. Once in Trapani, the Egadi Islands – Favignana, Marettimo and Levanzo – to the west, are as...
tropea : calabria : italy
On our travels in Italy last year, we were so lucky to find some real off-the-beaten-track places. We’d hired a car and had no real plan, apart from having a couple of weeks to get from Rome to...
semana santa : seville : andalusia : spain
Easter may be well over now, and it’s a couple of weeks since we returned, but memories of Seville are still burning very, very brightly. We were lucky enough to be there during Semana Santa (Holy...
ronda : andalucia : spain
Staying in southern Spain, with a hire car, meant that we could get out and about and really explore the region of Andalucia. One of our trips was across to the west and the amazing city of Seville....
castellabate : campania : italy
In my book, a “cool” place to stay doesn’t need to be hip and trendy and cutting edge. It just needs to be somewhere that isn’t bog-standard. And this place we stumbled upon – quite literally – in...
angel of the north : gateshead : england
We're big fans of Anthony Gormley's sculptures and whenever back in Formby, visiting relatives, we take a trip over to Crosby Beach and walk amongst the Iron Men statues, when the tide is out. So,...
le petit dejeuner : montmartre : paris
Although Paris is packed to the gills with the most gorgeous places to eat, sometimes its the unexpected ones you stumble upon that are the most memorable. We recently stayed in Montmartre and...
venice : italy : 2013
Of all of the places we visited recently, Venice has to be one of the most memorable. We arrived on a cold, misty afternoon and were prepared for the weather to stay this way as we’d been under...
rimini : emilia-romagna : italy
Rimini – Hotel DuoMo… a pretty spectacular find of a hotel, right in the heart of Rimini. Surrounded by historical buildings and vaulted, arched walkways, sits the very striking Hotel DuoMo – almost...
hotel basiliani : matera : basilicata : italy
The amazing Matera, in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy, is going to have a blog post all of its own because it is quite simply, one the most incredible places we visited recently. This...
ragusa ibla buskers’ festival : sicily
We hit lucky when we were staying in Ortigia, Siciliy – a friend tipped us off about a Buskers’ Festival which was happening in the inland town of Ragusa, and so with very little knowledge about it,...
anti paxos : ionian islands : greece
Anti-Paxos is a tiny island, about 2 miles to the south of Paxos, in the Ionian Sea. It is reached by a speedboat service from Gaios on Paxos – but don’t miss the last one back at 5.30pm as you’ll...
tuscany : italy
Tuscany is an area of Italy I’ve never really discovered -I’ve visited & stayed in Florence and Pisa, but have never before experienced the rolling hills and fields full of sunflowers, which...
siorra vittoria boutique hotel : corfu town : corfu
update : september 14 Once again, we found ourselves pulled towards the magic of Paxos, after travelling around Sardinia, and so when we had a night’s stop-over in Corfu town, we couldn’t resist...