According to Lonely Planet – Winter is the time to get closer to the real Essaouira, when the wind howls at its strongest and the waves smash against the city’s defences… – and they are not wrong. Whilst the daytime temperature is still very pleasant – think a warm May day in the UK – […]
Colour. The one thing that always strikes us about Morocco. Even on a rare, overcast day, it is a country filled with the most vibrant colours, hues and shades. Marrakech Menara airport has a cool, marble toned palette – perfect as you land in a heat that you rarely experience back in Manchester! And, […]
Tarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain, with over 10 km of sandy beaches. We looped down to Tarifa after a stay in Seville, on our way back to Nerja, taking in a very quick detour to Cádiz, a definite city to revisit. Tarifa is […]
This hotel has been on my radar for some time. When we stayed in Seville, I was searching for accommodation and the Casa 1800 kept coming up in searches. We stayed elsewhere in Seville but I made a decision that the next time we visited Granada or Seville, we’d stay at 1800. (The hotels are […]
It’s always great having friends in-the-know when you travel abroad, as they often give you top tips that you don’t find in guide-books or through internet searches. Because usually you don’t know about these places and so don’t search on them. One of these gems turned up on our recent trip to Essaouira, when we […]
January in Manchester is usually a pretty dull affair, weather-wise – which is one of the reasons we escaped to Morocco on 1st Jan. We tend to have grey, overcast skies, rain, more rain and more rain. So, when we get the merest hint of a bit of snow, Instagram goes crazy 😉 Those of […]
Christmas is always a beautiful time of the year to head up north. Whether it’s crisp & sunny, blowing a snowy blizzard or foggy & atmospheric, we’re always guaranteed good shots, photo-wise, simply because it’s such a photogenic part of the country. Here’s what we saw this Christmas… Cold, bracing and beautiful. A lovely way […]
This is riad is quite simply, stunning. Located right on the sea walls, and converted from a very grand 19th century residence, you just could not have a better place to stay in Essaouira. The entrance to the riad is breath-taking – hand carved thuya wooden ceilings, stained glass windows, mosaic tiled walls and floors, […]
For anyone who’s not been to Marrakech, you need to know that everything you’ve probably ever heard is true. It is hot (even in early Janaury when we were there). It’s dusty and dirty. It’s a city of vibrant colours, aromatic aromas, constant hustle and bustle. There’s incredible wealth and the most appalling poverty. In […]
That’s right. A blog about doorways. But not just any old doorways, you understand. These are Moroccan doorways. Some astonishingly elaborate, some mosaic framed, some brightly coloured, some literally hanging off their ancient hinges, some huge, some hobbit like. But all different and all beautiful and all just so, well, Moroccan… And every doorway, quite […]
We’ve been so lucky recently to be able to do a lot of travelling and so have seen quite a few airports. Much are much of a muchness. There’s often very little that really sets one airport apart from another. But, the latest airport we flew into and out of, is definitely one of a […]