A BIG Birthday in the BIG Apple

If I was going to HAVE to turn 30 this year, I decided that there was only one way to do so – in style!

So, I set upon writing a list of 30 (fabulous) things to do in my 30th year and top of this list was the one great city of the world I’d always wanted to explore but had always had in my head that it needed the money – or more importantly the excuse to spend the money – on doing it properly.  

I couldn’t think of a better reason to visit The Big Apple than to celebrate My Big Birthday.

So much so that during the trip we made sure everyone knew about it!

Beauty & Essex, East Village 

Photo of the month (May)

    Poppies in Giverny (29 May 2015)

Roycing around

Having spent many a weekend when growing up in the back seat of a classic car on the winding country roads of England’s green and pleasant land, when Dad mentioned he was off to spend a long weekend doing just this around the picturesque landscape of northern France, I jumped at the chance of being able to turn back time and join him on the 21^st Fougere Rally.

We left Wally (our not so appropriate Clio!) safely tucked up in a Portsmouth car park and met our ride for the trip at the harbour – a 1934 Rolls Royce – nicknamed the ‘Chocolate Rolls’

#ChocolateRolls

The Spice Island

Our first encounter with the Caribbean took us to the Spice Island; Grenada, which could also been known as the island of rum...but more on that later!

Thanks to the generosity of Chris' Mum (Carol) we were about to experience our first ever all-inclusive holiday with Chris Sister (Sarah) and partner John. Well if you're going to do an all-inclusive anywhere, the Caribbean is most definitely the place to do it!

Home from home

Grenada is one of the southern Caribbean isles and because of this it wasn't swarming in package holiday goers, mainly retirees staying for one – two months many of whom came back year on year because of just this reason (they’d practically moved in!). It's also known for being one of the safer and most friendly so when it came to choosing which island to make our destination we were easily swayed by the sound of this little paradise.

On arrival we were hit by the hot air, with temperatures averaging 30 degrees, we were very grateful as our rep met us with bottles of ice cold water as we transferred to our resort of choice The Cobaya Beach Resort.

Coyaba Gardens

More beaches than you can shake a stick at

There were three things we wanted to have out of a holiday...  sun, sea and sand. Now there are a lot of places in the world with those three things, but close to the UK and with great food took some investigating!

Bosa

After much thought, we decided on Sardinia - I think the 100s of beaches, it being an Italian island and close to the UK sold it to us. We only had a week, but still wanted to travel a little bit, so narrowed the best beaches down to four areas - the north west, south west, south east and north east. Sardinia is known for its beaches and clear waters making them appear like emeralds.

Chris and Jules

Julia loves beaches and Chris is... well the backpack... we have been together since uni (and are now engaged eeek!). We have always had a plan to see the world together.

Home is the UK, one of the most beautiful and culturally diverse countries in the world, but sometimes you just need to see what else is out there, how other people live and what natural wonders there are.

Chris has done a fair amount of travelling in the past with friends, family and solo including; Asia, Australasia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America. Julia on the other hand is a bit of a newbie having only been to North America, Europe and South Africa. But we have never really travelled together until 2013 when we went to New Zealand for 6 weeks and started this blog.

Ever since we have tried to capture our travelling memories from home and abroad. This is not just for our own record, and allow our family and friends to keep up with us (saves a lot of emails!) but to also pass on our experiences and tips to others who may travel the same or similar routes.

Reading fellow travel bloggers has helped us a lot. They allow you to learn so much more about places than any guide book and so we want to contribute as well.

We hope you enjoy reading about our travels, maybe they will also help you with your own and inspire you to make the jump and quit the 9 - 5.

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Happy travels