travel

Kefalonia 2019

Posted on by collymarples

Lockdown 3.0 is upon us and it marks over a year of non UK travel for us! We’ve starting to get the cabin fever!

But luckily for you . . as I have been so lax in updating the blog, I still have several trips from way back in 2019 that I have not got around to popping on.

So here’s a fab trip to Kefalonia which was my 40th birthday pressie from the wonderful hubby!! 🙂

We chose to do a package holiday with TUI as we couldn’t do it any cheaper independently. So we picked the Royal Apartments based on a hillside in Lassi.

TUI don’t seem to be using these anymore but we can highly recommended it. Very modern and contemporary for Greek accommodation. A bit of a uphill walk from the main strip and beaches but fantastic views out over the town and to the sea.

First stop is the main beach in Lassi – Paliostafida Beach. Hence lots of snaps of stunning turquoise waters, wind worn rocks and a very happy husband.

It seems unreal that 2 years ago we thought nothing of hopping on a plane and landing in paradise just a few hours later.

I was definitely in danger of taking it all for granted and almost being ‘meh – another stunning beach’ – how I long to go back and kick my blasé backside!

Lassi is a small, relatively quiet resort based around one central strip. You can hire a car, do several watersports and find wonderful local tavernas.

We found it an ideal base for exploring the island.

Here’s a few snaps of the sun worshippers recharging his internal batteries. He is very much missing the heat and the sea at the minute!

Along the beach is a small marina with little vessels bobbing on the jewel bright water.

I can’t tell you how much I am missing Greece right about now! The furthest we’ve travelled in the last 12 months is to the Isle of Wight (which was awesome TBF) but not quite the same!

Singapore sensory overload

Posted on by collymarples

I’m so far behind with my travel blog that I’m only just starting on the first trip of 2019!!

As it was a ‘big’ birthday year I got to chose where we headed for our long haul adventure – and it just had to be back to Vietnam. The place that set off my love affair with Asia way back in 2008.

We also decided to stop over in Singapore for a few days too. So let’s dive headfirst into these amazing places.

We stayed in the lovely Summer View hotel that was ideally placed to explore this hectic city.

There’s lots of fascinating districts in Singapore including Arab street and the colourful Little India district which is where I dragged the hubby first!

From multi-coloured shutter and incredible street art, to buildings so candy coloured that you want to nibble them, this area is amazing to just wander round and soak up the sights.

The incredible House of Tan Teng Niah is one such incredible rainbow hued sight.

The house was built in 1900 and belonged to Tan Teng Niah, a Chinese merchant who made sweets and sold them in stores along nearby Serangoon Road.

Gorgeous isn’t it! You can find this little gem by taking the MRT to Little India Station, taking exit E and following the snap happy tourists 🙂

Every wall and building is a colour clashing dream – even the toilet below is a pastel coloured delight!

Beautiful beaches

Posted on by collymarples

Corsican is littered with stunning beaches of all shapes and sizes. So naturally we’re off to explore a few of them!

From tiny coves to vast swathes of pure white sand, there’s a patch of sand to suit everyone.

The sands are blissfully empty towards the end of September. It’s our favourite time of year to travel as the weather is still great but the crowds are thinning out nicely.

Green hills and wind blown salty trees back the lovely beach of Ostriconi.

Ostriconi Beach (also called the beach of Perajola) is renowned for its rugged beauty.

It’s wild and windswept, braced by dunes and immersed in fragrant Corsican maquis.

Maquis is a special wild-scrub area of Corsica that covers approximately 20% of the island.

It includes the fragrant curry plant and rock rose to myrte, daisies and various types of mint. When the wind blows over it, the smells are amazing.

As Corsica had seen some bad weather before we arrived, a lot of the beaches were covered in seaweed which detracted from their pristine loveliness.

However Ostriconi was not one of them and its gorgeous sands were weed free!

Look how joy filled we are!!! The water was phenomenally blue and the sun was just the right level of scorching!

Calanques de Piana

Posted on by collymarples

As we head towards Calvi we choose to negotiate through one of Corsica’s natural wonders, the exceptionally beautiful Calanques de Piana.

These are granite rock formations along the coast of western Corsica near Porto.

Winding south from Porto to Piana in the north west of Corsica, is a coastal road with some of the most stunning, otherworldly scenery that we’ve ever encountered in Europe.

The Calanques de Piana are incredible, sculptural, weather beaten rock formations with an almost alien feel to them.

The surreal landscape of wind-eroded granite cliffs tower over the road and then plunge dazzlingly into the sea.

The cliffs are a naturally harmonised palette of colours including red, pink, russet and honey.

Stacks, towers and pinnacles have been shaped by the elements and are up to 300 metres above the sea in some places.