Exploring Dubrovnik

All inclusive holidays are great, we aim to do one a year. It’s simple, everything including flights, transfers, accomadtion, food, drinks, entertainment are all organised for you. You could do it without speanding any extra money than the package you paid for. 

But a week of sunbathing, eating and drinking can get a little tedises when you’re only in your mid 20s surrounded by mostly retired couples and families. So we like to add activities and sight seeing to our list. 

Croatia has so much to offer but can be restricting if you’re not backpacking it so picking a good location is key. We’ve chosen Cavtat as it’s quite but transport are easily accessible. We can explore Cavtat old town, very small and cute by foot and enjoy the beautiful coastline. 

Dubrovnik is a 45mins boat journey costing 100kn working out to just over £10 for a return. Cheaper option is the bus, 50kn for a return. Not much difference in duration of the journey, which is around 50mins to an hour. We’ve chosen the boat ride as we wanted to see the view of the coastline. 

The boat drops you off right on the harbour outside of the city walls. Transport to and from runs regularly so once you’ve had enough, the wait back is never long. 

Dubrovnik has a lot to offer, history and culture tours including a very popular games of thrones tour. You can take a tour around the city’s wall or get a cable car up above the city. The main square is buzzing with restaurants, cafes and shops. 

But the lovely thing is that there are many stair ways off the square, taking you up to hidden cafes and on one side beach access. 

My recommendation is doing the city wall. As you’re higher up and can see the whole city from slightly above. The walk can be challenging in the heat as it does take up to 2hours. Longer if you’re constantly stoping for photographs and rest. There are a couple of restaurants and cafes along the way but thats a more expensive option. So make sure you have plenty of water with  you and enough sun screen on. Snacks would also be a good idea however we did the walk after making sure we were fed and energised. Another thing to point out is that you go to the toilet before! There were no more than a couple along the way unless you’re buying something from one of the restaurants. 

The walk really is beautiful and the views are incredible. 

After the walk, I would recommend taking a much needed rest. And what better way to do so than by having a splash in the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea. 

We headed out towards the harbour and walked around the outside of the wall where we came across a rock spot perfect for sunbathing and access to the water. When looking at a map of the city, these spots are referred to as a ‘beach’, it’s really just a sea access. These spot offend include showers which is always a bonus! 

So remember to pack your swimwear and a towel! Because trust me, you’ll want the swim at some point during your day of exploring in the heat. The crystal clear water is always so inviting. 

The day was finished with an ice-cream and boat ride back to our hotel where we could enjoy dinner and watch the sunset. 

I haven’t gone into as much detail of this day trip as I would have liked, it’s a very brief recommendation. So feel free if anyone reading has any questions or would like more details. 

Bali- Ubud

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of spending every single day of my holiday relaxing on the beach, surfing and sipping coconuts but sometimes, all that heat and sand just becomes too much. And I’m itching for a change of scenery. After all, it was my birthday, so I was able to plan this part of the trip. So to Ubud we went.

It’s a little hard to describe, you really need to experience the place first hand. It’s culture mixed with spiritual hipsters. Everything about this place appealed to me. There were nearby waterfalls, rice paddies and even a volcano to explore. We only set ourselves 3nights to spend in Ubud, which for me, really wasn’t long enough. At the time, I was also still recovering from being ill as I mentioned in my last blog, so that limited us.

I want to talk a little about food. When we first started our trip in Bali, it was difficult trying to figure out the local cuisine as so many restaurants and cafes were rather westernised. We had yummy fish tacos and amazing burgers, but that’s not local, not at all. I mean, we discovered the Nasi Goreng and the Mie Goreng, which were delicious but kind of got a little boring. This all changed when we made it to Ubud, the selection of Balinese dishes were incredible.

A couple of activities in which I enjoyed most during my time in Ubud were visiting the famous Monkey Temple and chasing waterfalls.

Monkeys are not for everyone, there’s a reason we created the term ‘monkey business’. Those creatures are so cheeky, naughty and un predictable. Extremely clever too as we know. I can not stress enough about how cautious everyone needs to be about being around them. I, myself, have been jumped on scratched and nipped by one. Neither the less, non of these experiences have put me off, but it has kept me on my toes when it comes to encounters with wild monkeys.

Not only were these mischievous creatures allowed to roam freely within the temple but were free to come and go as they pleased. When walking around the streets of Ubud, especially during the morning hours, you will definitely come across one of these along your path.

Upon entering the temple, you can buy banana’s to feed the monkeys. We had to hide them in our bags to avoid them being taken in one go. Any sign of banana’s and you’re all of a sudden the most popular person there to them.

Moving onto chasing waterfalls. There are a few waterfalls situated close to Ubud. Once again, our choice of transport was to hire out a mopped. But as I’ve mentioned in my previous blog, transport were never an issue as taxi services and uber were available everywhere. Uber is a great choice as it was one of the cheapest way of getting around. That was how we did most of our longer distant commutes when moving from one place to the other.

As you can imagine, waterfalls are not always the easiest of places to get to. So be sure to be sensible and wear comfortable footwear and take plenty drinking water. It’s usually a long way down and a climb if you want to check out the top as well. It’s worth having your swimming stuff handy, it’s very likely that by the time you’ve climbed all that way down, the first thing you want to do is jump straight in.

There were so many activities that we would have loved to have done and things to see. Some recommendations were the volcano trek during sunrise, Balinese fire dancing at the old palace and the Tagalalang rice terrace.

Lastly, make sure you get a full body balinese massage. A little strange to start with when your masseuse climbs onto the massage table and put their whole weight o your back but you sure come out feeling amazing!

Bali- It really was Paradise

Bali, one of Indonesia’s most well known islands. It really does have something for everyone. The island host a varied landscape of hills and mountains, ridged coastlines and beautiful beaches ranging from white to black sand.

Surfing and diving are a popular choice when visiting the island. Whatever your level of surfing, there are waves for everyone, even those (like myself) who are just starting out. Same goes for diving, no matter what level of diving experience  you have, it really can be enjoyed by everyone.

Bali attracts all kinds of visitors, ranging from backpackers, romantic getaways and the super rich. There’s a massive range of accommodation.

We visited Bali based on our love of sun, surf and sea. It definitely did not disappoint. Flights were cheap enough and the duration wasn’t too bad. Our visit took place over Christmas and New Years. For Bali, this is during their wet season. It did rain but mainly during the night, by which time, we were already in bed. By the morning, it was dry and sunny.

 

Our first visit was to Canggu. A costal village. Although the beach was not walking distant  from where we stayed, it was easy enough to get to on rented mopeds. You can hire them with or without surf racks. If carrying a surfboard, like we were, I’d recommend requesting a rack, it just made everything, a lot easier. If you’re not comfortable with driving a mopped, there are many taxi services including uber.

We spent most of our time on Echo beach. It can get rather busy throughout the day, depending on the surf. All in all, there were always waves. Personally, I found that this was the best place for beginning to surf as there were no reefs. Even though the waves weren’t always clean, it was great for practising to stand on white water.

Adam happens to be a lot better at surfing than I am 

 

After Canggu we ventured to Balian. We were meeting up with a friend who loved to base himself there. For those considering Balian, let me tell you, unless you are there to surf, there really isn’t much else there. Sadly, I fell ill during our time there, heat exhaustion and food poisoning which saw me bed bound for a good couple of days. Luckily, we were staying at a rather nice place so I was comfortable. Our accommodation over looked the beach and was a very short walk across the road to get to. Ideal for Adam as I laid in bed all day. When there was no surf, we did have to venture to nearby beaches.

Next stop was Ubud! Very different from what we’ve seen and experienced so far on our trip. But I’m going to stop here before this blog post becomes an essay on Bali. There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Ubud, it deserves it’s own blog altogether! And I can’t wait to share it with you on my next post.