Spain Archives – This, Tatt, and the Other

I’ve been lucky enough in the past couple of years to tick some places off my travel hitlist (namely Dubrovnik, Athens and Santorini), so obviously I need to replace those places with more!

It’s been ages since I wrote my travel hitlist part 1 and part 2, so here’s an up to date version. Some are the same, some are new, and all of them look amazing!

Seville

I was inspired to visit Seville by Nina’s blog posts and photographs – she loves it so much she’s been twice. It has a reputation for fabulous architecture, incredible tapas and is the home of flamenco. Plus it has a very temperate climate so is an ideal year round destination.

Lisbon

This was firmly on my first list and remains there untouched; second only to Seville on the city break wish list. Traditional trams, small streets and pretty coloured buildings. Sign me up!

Jurassic Coast, Dorset

Closer to home, but seemingly harder to fulfil because we always look to going further afield when it comes to holidays (and summer in the UK is such an indecisive fellow). But plans may be afoot for this one…watch this space!

Cornwall

Another one that continually seems to evade us, and I appreciate that a whole county is being pretty vague, but highlights for me would be Tintagel (with the new walkway recently opened at the castle), Looe (I’ve only ever been there when the now defunct Looe Music Festival was taking place), and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. I’d love to venture as far as Penzance and Lands End, but so long in a car really puts me off!

Golden Triangle, India

This has been on my list since forever, and will remain on my list until I’m able to go there. The husband ums and ahs about going there (the amount of travelling and potential of Delhi Belly put him off!). At some point this may mean that I travel without him. I feel that it’s probably the one trip on earth that I’ll regret if I don’t do it, so if I have to go it alone then so be it! (not alone alone though, obvs, on some kind of group tour where I’ll probably hate everyone and they’ll hate me).

Frigiliana, Spain

This looks like one of the prettiest whitewashed Spanish villages I’ve ever seen, and I know people who have been there and said it’s absolutely beautiful. There’s nothing to do there so it would be a few days of good food, chilling by the pool (it’s in the mountains) and marvelling at just how picturesque it is. Maybe a day trip by bus into Nerja, which is the nearest coastal town. Sounds like a good use of time to me!

New York

Obviously this is a bit of a sore point for me, as we were supposed to go this coming September; taking advantage of super bargainous flights and an incredibly good Airbnb deal. If you read this blog regularly (not that I’d blame you if you didn’t – my posting schedule is intermittent at best!) you’d know that the Airbnb fell through and left us high and dry. Despite my protestations that “New York can go fuck itself” I do still really want to go there, if only to say I’ve been! (especially as two people in my office are going soon and I will have the jealousy)

Of course there are LOADS of other places in the world I’d like to go, but I’d say these are currently the most pressing; the ones I’d like to tick off before any others. Which to do first? We’ll have to see what happens!

Do you have a travel hitlist? Where in the world are you just dying to visit? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks, as always, for reading. x

My travel retrospective yesterday got me thinking about past travels and city breaks.

I love getting away for a weekend. Short breaks concentrate your efforts in terms of seeing everything and doing stuff. Whilst not the most relaxing of times, I always feel fulfilled and satisfied by just how much I’ve managed to do. No time for having a lie in or an afternoon nap. It’s all about cramming it all in.

Quite often a city break for us can stem from seeing a cheap flight and investigating whether the destination is worth visiting. Which is how we ended up in Malaga 5 years ago.

For most Malaga is a gateway to the Costas. Brits who have holiday homes in Spain flock to the airport, or through the airport, from the beginning of the sunny season through til the end. Families on their two week escape looking for sea, sun and sand will land at the airport and be whisked away by tour operator coaches to their coastal destination of choice. But there is so much more to Malaga.

I don’t recall what made me look into it as a destination in itself, but I was so glad I did. Husband wasn’t convinced but I implored him to trust me. In mid April, flying out on a Thursday, flights were still reasonable and we got a basic but modern, adequate and well situated IBIS hotel at a steal. The actual trip cost us around £100 each for two nights.

First things first…Malaga is very Spanish. Which seems a case of stating the bleeding obvious, but it’s true. Because it’s not a tourist destination there is no “need” for everyone to speak English. As a result (and refreshingly so) Spanish is the first language. There is a need to communicate via pigeon English and pointing at menus when ordering food. Shops don’t have English signs. There’s a real feel of being in Spain, despite the influx of Brits through the vicinity on a daily basis.

Malaga, for me, has it all. The climate (it was 25 degrees in the day and around 15 degrees at night, and that was end of April), the food (bars and cafes serving authentic tapas, and tiny backstreet alley restaurants delivering the best paella ever for about 10 euros), the architecture (white washed buildings, cathedrals and a castle in the hills) and the sea (it’s on the coast. Who knew?!)

Oh, and when we arrived, they’d had a film festival in the city, so there was a red carpet running through the pedestrian area. And not to welcome us, as I thought might be the case.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking,

Malaga is all about timing. Due to it’s popularity for reaching coastal destinations flights can actually be prohibitively expensive in summer. But time it right early or late in the season, with a mid week flight, and it’s well worth a visit.

This, Tatt, and the Other

Food, shoes, travel and tattoos

Tag: Spain

An updated travel hitlist