Posts Tagged ‘beaches’

After  our hard work in Madagascar we decided to have a relaxing beach session in relatively close by Island of Mauritius off the south east coast of Africa. This is the beautiful holiday resort island that Elissa wanted to have our honeymoon on but it never eventuated so this was her time again. Relaxing by the pool and having all our meals prepared for us was great, and it was a change from beans and rice.

We flew from Nairobi to Mombasa which was extremely cheap – only $50 USD pp return flight. The train, which is apparently ‘an experience’ in itself costs $10 less and takes 8-12 hours (most likely 12 hrs apparently), and only leaves on certain days so it was a no-brainer to fly.

With Pete’s brother Nick Ockleshaw making a trip to Europe, we decided to meet him somewhere for a few days, preferably where the sun was still shining. After lengthy discussions, we all agreed on spending a few nights in Nice and then hiring a car so that we could venture around the French Riviera through the days.

Still in search of some European sun, we booked our next trip to Biarritz. We were going to spend a week on the beaches there and enjoy another part of France. However two days before we were scheduled to depart, we were advised by Ryan Air that our flight had been cancelled due to France Air Strikes. Not wanting to forego our accommodation, we made some changes and decided to fly into Santander, travel by bus through San Sebastian for a night and then onto Biarritz for the rest of the week.

When you talk about the Greek Islands, most people will either know or have been to Santorini, Mykynos, Ios…. however we decided to take a bit of a gamble and through Flight Centre booked a 7 day getaway on what they call ‘Allocation on Arrival’. This deal included return flights to Zakynthos or Zante, return transfer from the hotel, and the hotel was literally allocated once we stepped off the plane (or so we thought)…..

Some time back we were sitting on a train at Mexico Airport being transferred between terminals and we started talking to an American lady called Nancy. We spoke to her for all of 2 minutes within which time she was kind enough to ask us to come and stay with her in Philadelphia when we eventually got to the East Coast. Well a couple of months later we travelled by Bus from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia and thought lets just place the call. Before we knew it, we were on a train and making our way to the Coast as Nancy and her husband Mike invited us to their holiday house, in Long Beach Island, NJ ( a couple of hours by train from Philli).

Deciding to indulge in a little more R&R on the beach, we flew from Costa Rica to Cancun, hired a car and made our way to Playa Del Carmen. We hadn’t booked any accommodation on arrival in Cancun but we were quickly advised by the Tourist Helpdesk to look for places that were ‘All Inclusive’. All inclusive is basically a rate that covers accommodation, all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) and all drinks (tea, coffee, juices, soft drinks, beers, wines and fabulous cocktails).

After 3 action packed days in Monterverde we decided that another stint at the beach would be ideal. We had heard many travellers along the way talk about a place called Manuel Antonio so we arranged a shuttle to take us there from Montervede. Leaving at 8am, the drive took just under 4 hours.