Our base in Portimao was an excellent spot for exploring the south coast of Portugal. In the spirit of adventure, we decided to go all the way to Sagres. Drive west from Lagos and you’ll find yourself at Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina, a national park in Sagres. It’s not the kind […]
beach
Ponta da Piedade, Lagos
In my last post about the old town of Lagos, I mentioned Ponta da Piedade (Google Maps link) as a nearby attraction. The popular cliffs of Ponta da Piedade have many beautiful gold-coloured rock formations that are visible from the point. There are also many caves, most of which are only accessible by boat. It might be […]
Algarve Beach Hike
Portugal has long been on my bucket list. The cliffs of the Algarve in particular. This area is extremely beautiful, even in winter! For my birthday in February, we spontaneously booked a trip to Faro in the south east corner of Portugal, especially to do an Algarve beach hike. How to travel There are quite […]
Hiking to Beautiful Balos
Balos is worth visiting, even if only for a day. There are a few different ways that you can get to Balos. You can go on foot, by vehicle or ferry. We ended up doing all three Hiking to Balos Because our car rental insurance didn’t cover incidents that might happen when driving on sand roads, […]
Aspri Limni / White Lake Beach
Aspri Limni is situated on the west coast of Crete, just north of the popular Elafonissi Lagoon. It’s worth a stop-over if you’re travelling south to Elafonissi. The name of this beach means “White Lake”, probably so called because of the salt that collects and dries around it. The salt gathers on the sharp rocks that form […]
Swimming at Elafonisi
One of the most popular beaches in Crete, is Elafonisi. It gets quite busy, but there is a lot of beach space for everyone to spread out. If you enjoy walking, there’s a lot to explore. If your legs are wrecked from hiking Samaria Gorge, you also don’t need to walk very far to get a […]
The Pearl of France
Nicknamed the Pearl of France, Menton is well-situated between mountains and the Med. The city was ruled by the Princes of Monaco until the French Revolution. It rejoined Monaco in 1814 and then separated from Monaco again about 40 years later. Apparently this was partly due to the tax that was being imposed on lemon […]
Menton Beachfront
The sunny south of France obviously has a sense of charm, attracting tourists and socialites from near and far to crowd beaches and flood cities. We avoided Nice and Antibes because of the crowds, parking and general tourist madness in June/July, but Menton was pretty laid-back at this time of year. I really loved the architecture, pastel buildings and warm colours […]
Camping in Menton
When you look at it on a map, the drive from Verdon to Menton looks long. We woke up early and packed up our tent in Verdon. Then we started the next leg of our scenic European road trip. We headed down to the coast, then east past Antibes and Nice to Menton. It took about two […]
Packing for a European Camping Trip
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been blogging my way through a epic nomadic getaways in Europe. We started in Paris and then followed the Atlantic coast southwards into Spain before going east. I’d love to do another trip like that again soon! It was really a memorable experience to travel through five […]