My Istria Travel Diary - Podcast Episode 2

In my Podcast Edisode 2, I’m taking you to Istria in Croatia with an audio diary of the four days I spent there with my family. You’ll hear about the Plava Laguna resort where we stayed, the cycling, swimming and sailing that’s available in this area as well as the fortified medieval hill towns and old coastal towns of Porec and Rovinj which we explored and the local specialities such as truffles and seafood.

To download Istria Travel Diary podcast, right click here 19 min [mp3]

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If you enjoy this podcast, do take a look at my other articles, photos and videos for more detail of the things we saw. There’s so much to enjoy in Istria and as a self-contained region it seems to have something for everything, whether it’s swimming, sport, relaxation, heritage or the gourmet experience. I hope you also enjoy the slide show below that’s designed to accompany the podcast and covers the places I talk about in the podcast.

Show notes

Istria Tourism website
Istria Gourmet website
Istria Bike website
All my photos of Istria on Flickr
Read all my Istria articles
Video of Plava Laguna Resort
To subscribe to all my podcasts in ITunes click here

- Music on this podcast was Venus as a girl by Andy Mckee on Music Alley
- I was hosted on this 4 day trip by the Istrian Tourist board to blog about the things I saw in Istria

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A tour of the best beaches in Sardinia

My guest post today is from Paolo at the online Sardinia specialist, CharmingSardinia.com. Paolo shares with us his favourite beaches around the stunning Sardinian coastline.

At around 24,000 square kilometres, Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The coast of this Italian island is 1,849 km long, and the pearly white beaches often appear on lists of the world’s best beaches.

A little bit of history
Sardinia is known for it’s prehistoric stone dwellings , or Nuraghi, which were added to the UNESCO heritage list in 1997, showing Sardinia to be one of the most ancient lands in Europe. These centuries-old tombs can only be found on the Italian island, and nowhere else in the world.

As a result,  Sardinia has become a favorite island to visit for archeologists and historians from all over the world, until the Ishmaelite Prince Karim Aga Khan (amongst others) visited the north side island or Costa Smeralda in the early sixties. He noticed the beauty of the Sardinian beaches, and his investment in the ’Emerald Coast’ was one of the reasons for the growing the popularity of Sardinia, as a travel destination.

Prince Aga Khan was right
Numerous bays, cliffs, isles and a clear blue sea surround the island. Whether you visit Capo Testa in the north, or Capo Teulada in the south, amazing beaches are guaranteed. There are stunning diving spots, for example Asinara Island, Capo Caccia, and the archipelago (and national park) of La Maddalena are breath-taking. Let me share with you some of my favourite beaches around Sardinia;

This amazing beach is located in the North East of Sardinia, near Porto Cervo. A few golf courses and a beautiful harbor in a bay are nearby, as well as the amazing islands of Isole di li Nibani, which are part of the ‘Parco Nazionale dell’ Arcipelago di La Maddalena’.

Isla Mortoria is a small island (also part of National Park la Maddalena) in the North East of Sardinia, and can only be reached by boat. This ensures empty, but beautiful beaches and a clear blue sea, which is a perfect place to go scuba diving.

On the east side of the country, about 10km from Dorgali, is a small town called Cala Gonone. The route from Dorgali to seaside town is beautiful, but the beaches and nature in Cala Gonone (the territory is included in the Gennargentu National Park) is maybe even more appealing.

In the very North of Sardinia, near Olbia, is a town and comune located on an island with the same name; La Maddalena. More photos of this beautiful, but sometimes very touristic, piece of Sardinia can be found here.

Whether you’re planning on hiking or biking along the Sardinian coast line, hope to go diving to see the amazing under water world, or simply want to relax on the beach - there are 1,850 kilometres of Sardinian beauty waiting for you.

Want to read more about Sardinia? CharmingSardinia.com recently released three Sardinia Travel guides, which contain over 50 pages of information about the island.

Travel Guide Cagliari - Villasimius - Costa Rei - Oristano
Travel Guide Olbia - Costa Smeralda - Badesi
Travel Guide Cagliari - Pula - Chia

Take a look at my photos of Sardinia on Flickr

More Sardinia articles to enjoy

Sea caves and a boat trip in Sardinia
Swimming in rock pools near Gola di Gorrupa in Sardinia
A prehistoric village with a sea view in Sardinia

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Book review and giveaway of Imagine - a Vagabond Story by Grant Lingel

Today I’m giving away a copy of the ultimate backpacker’s tale - Imagine, a Vagabond Story by Grant Lingel, who left a cosy suburban lifestyle to backpack around Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. If you think you’d enjoy this book, read on for my review…

Having failed to quite complete his college degree, Grant decided to get out and see a bit of the world, rather than take up a steady job like most of his friends. His journey started in Mexico with only a couple of hundred dollars in his pocket and no return ticket. For a while he joined a friend working in a hotel resort, entertaining American holiday makers before joining a group of buddies in their van travelling through Belize and Guatemala and then continuing alone wherever took his fancy.

I read Imagine- a vagabond story in between boat trips and crab fishing in Brittany and I must admit it was an incongruous but entertaining read. The book transported me to another world of easy come, easy go hostel lifestyle, where best friends are made and said goodbye to in the space of a few days and where the drugs, tequila and pretty girls are always available. My first impression was how different the travel experience appears to be for some Americans like Grant, to whom the thought of going to Mexico to work in a 5 star resort seemed impossibly exotic after his steady upbringing. In England, there are so many cheap flights and warm destinations a few hours away, that it did seem a little like me going on a package holiday to Greece.

After a while working in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen, Grant was also ready to move on to something a little more adventurous and takes up the offer of some guys who are travelling south to go with them and get a bit more off the beaten track. Together they swim in waterfalls in a deserted national park with only a few bored soldiers with loaded automatic rifles for company, take in the jungle view from the top of Mayan pyramids and watch the sun set behind three smoking volcanos.

Reading this book was a little like following the blog of a student friend on their round the world trip, albeit better written. In the book, however, Grant gives us the uncensored version of his adventures - the back cover description as a memoir of sex, drugs and salsa dancing pretty much covers it. This isn’t one you’ll be reading to your kids at bed-time. As a mother of teenagers who will be off seeing the world in the next few years, it was an education - of course I never got up to any such mischief when I was travelling in my university years!

I had to laugh when Grant was working in a hostel in Antigua and given a T-shirt to wear saying ‘Que Pasa en Antigua se queda in Antigua’,  translated as ‘What happens in Antigua stays in Antigua’. Yeah right Grant, I thought. That’s except when you write a book about it for the whole world and your mother to read!

After the first few chapters of fairly typical backpacker stuff I was half expecting something really bad to happen, like Grant getting mugged or having all his money stolen, to complete the typical vagabond tale. But luckily the worst that happens is the van veering off the road and getting wrecked and being chased by street dogs when coming back drunk to his hostel one night. After a while I did find the hostels, nights getting drunk and stoned and the travellers Grant met all merging a bit into one, as I suspect they did for Grant too.

There were times when I wished Grant could get beyond that backpacker scene and engage a little more with the locals and their culture. There was the dreadlocked local guide, Juan in Guatamala with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Tikal ruins, or Carole, the eco-farm hostel owner who’s husband had been killed by the Guatamalan forces during the years of civil war. Now here were some people with a story to tell, if Grant had delved a bit deeper to see things from their perspective.

Grant’s story is more a personal journey of a college boy who grew up and became a citizen of the world through his travel experiences. I was swept along by Grant’s delight and enjoyment of his new found freedom and opportunity to do and see whatever took his fancy. Imagine - a vagabond story is a book that will make you want to pick up your backpack and Lonely Planet guide and see where the road leads you too. If you like a book that ties in with the place you’re going, then I’d say this is one to read on that long bus journey through South America to take your mind off the hair-raising driving, then leave on the hostel bookshelf for the next traveller to enjoy.

If you’d like to have my free copy of Grant’s book, Imagine - a Vagabond story, then please leave a comment and I’ll do a draw of all the names in a couple of weeks time. Whichever name I pick out of the hat I’ll be happy to post the book to you - wherever in the world you may be.

If you’re not the lucky winner, then you can buy Grant’s book which costs $16.95 from his website at Vagabondstory.com, where you can also read more about Grant’s story and see the photos from his trip.

Update 1 Oct 09: This Giveaway has now finished - Zoe, Grant’s book will be on it’s way to you - enjoy the book and all the adventures it brings you. Check out my Giveaway category for the latest Giveway of Travel books, products or souvenirs.

Other travel books you may enjoy
Review of the Madrid Confessions by Ben Curtis

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