Sometimes you stumble across somewhere that is just too pretty to be real, even when the weather isn't on your side, and instead of being bathed in sunlight, grey clouds and drizzle dominate. On the...
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 are now living in Istria, in northern Croatia, enabling us to explore Europe much more easily. And especially now that Croatia is part of the Schengen Zone. Of course, we remain very linked to the UK – our families are there, our We Are Life Design clients are there, and our friends are there, so we continue to keep our close links to the areas in UK in which we have lived. And we still return to on a regular basis.
What we blog about is a good mix of wherever we go. So whether that’s somewhere not too far from where we live in Istria, a UK destination or a bit further afield, it’ll be here. 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
casa m apartment : citta alta : bergamo
Whenever we stay in Bergamo, in Lombardy, we like to discover new places to stay. In December, we met up with friends from Manchester who had flown over, and so rather than a hotel room for two, or...
one night in verona
Because of where we now live - northern Istria, near the Slovenian and Italian borders - we get to travel a lot more than we ever used to. We rarely fly now, as our location means many places,...
piran : slovenia
Until very recently, we hadn't actually realised that our closest beach/seaside town, was actually in Slovenia, not Istria. Not by many kilometres, but enough to be our closest. In just over half an...
boutique b&b : mali pariz : marušići : crikvenica : croatia
Every now and again, you stumble upon the most perfect place to stay. It happened to us last year when we discovered The Dolphin Suites, on the beautiful island of Veli Lošinj. And it's happened to...
winter : ljubljana : slovenia
Ljubljana definitely knows how to do winter. It knows how to do summer as well, but in the colder months - especially as you can pretty much guarantee snow - it is very, very pretty. The old part of...
nerja : andalucia : spain
We've not visited Nerja for a while, but when we still lived in Didsbury, we did visit often. We were very lucky that we had a friend with a family apartment there, and so if there was availability,...
ca’ amadi : venice : italy
One of the joys of staying in Venice, is trawling the internet beforehand, to find where you are going to stay. We've stayed in apartments and hotels, and thankfully have never had a bad experience....
vander urbani resort : ljubljana : slovenia
On the banks of the Ljubljanica River stands a very elegant townhouse, which has been renovated and is now the the Vander Urbani Resort. Part of the Design Hotels Group, it is described as having :...
the dolphin suites : veli lošinj : croatia
After a long hiatus from travel, and after getting our second vaccinations, we decided to do a bit of exploring this summer. Croatia has managed the pandemic well, so far and there are still strict...
frigiliana : pueblo blanco : andalucia
The small white village of Frigiliana - one of the famous pueblo blancos - is in the Axarquia region of the Costa del Sol, and regularly features in lists of Spain’s most beautiful villages. This...
ayo : burriana beach : nerja
A chiringuito is usually a bar or a restaurant on a beach - and one of the most famous ones in Nerja, is called Ayo. Like most chiringuitos, outdoors, it is a simple construction with a partly...
la concha soul boutique hotel : paguera : mallorca
It’s hard to imagine that there could really be anywhere to avoid on Mallorca. We’d discounted Magaluf, as unfortunately we’re no longer in our early twenties, and so, when booking places to stay,...
seville : andalusia : spain
Our trip to Seville was over an Easter weekend, so it was largely taken up with following the routes of the AMAZING Santa Semana processions. But, we did get to see quite a lot of the centre of this...
lluna aqua hotel : sóller : mallorca
When we last visited Mallorca, one of the hotels we booked was the Lluna Aqua Hotel in Sóller. Housed in a traditional Mallorcan townhouse, which we were told had been empty for over eighty years,...
brondo architect hotel : palma : mallorca
Over the last few years, we’ve been very lucky to be able to pack in a huge amount of travel – as well as actually move abroad, relocating from Manchester to Istria, in northern Croatia. We’ve spent...
alhambra : granada : andalucia
The absolute beauty of Andalucia. One moment, you can be lying on a beach - this was in November - and the next, up in the snow of the Sierra Nevada mountains. With a trip to the Alhambra, in...
venice : italy : winter
Winter is a gorgeous time of year to visit Venice. I've only been once in the summer and it was crowded. And hot. Accommodation was much more expensive and I think I just found it all a bit of a...
tarifa : andalucia : spain
Tarifa lies on the Costa de la Luz, across the Strait of Gibraltar facing Morocco, in the province of Cádiz, Andalucia. Located at the southernmost end of the Iberian Peninsula, it is primarily...