Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 8)

Week 6. 4th May – 10th May 2026. Cala Montgo to Cantallops, Spain – 47 miles.

We are in our last week in Spain and spending it in one of our favourite places. The Costa Brava has a fantastic rugged coastline, charming towns and villages and slightly different food from the rest of Spain, being in Catalunya. A lot of bike riding this week and dirty van roofs. This week we meet up with an old holiday friend and end up with a coughing and sneezing fit from, of all things, a tree.

Monday 4th May 2026 (Cala Montgo to Sant Pere Pescador – 11 miles)

There are storm warnings for some parts of the Costa Brava, so last night we took in the awning and all the outside gear, just in case; however, this morning it’s blue skies and not a breath of wind. Nice. After some hearty bacon sandwiches, we explore the other half of the campsite. Some of these Spanish coastal campsites are immense, with 500+ places in each. Some towns have an influx of 3000 plus campers in the summer. 

Aquarius camping in San Pere is a beautiful campsite which we have been to before. We thought it was only 3 years since we visited, but when we looked it up on our blog, it was 7 years ago! Which is terrifying!

We get a nice spot and settle in, we are right next to the beach with an expansive view of the bay of Roses. It’s a windy day, and lots of kiteboarders are out jumping 20ft in the air.

Back at the pitch, we are visited by a British camper, pitched nearby, who is surprised to see us. It’s true there not many of us Brits out on the road, the majority are German, Spanish, then Dutch.  

Dinner is pasta with a caprese salad, which Del gives a big thumbs up to. 

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Tuesday 5th May 2026 (Sant Pere Pescador – Day 2)

It’s blue skies again when we wake up, but as we eat our breakfast outside, it clouds over and gets quite cool. Today, like yesterday, we have a yellow warning for rain, hail and strong winds. It didn’t come to anything yesterday, and we ignore it again today and set out on our bikes to L’Escala.

It’s a nice ride through the countryside next to orchards on one side of us and the sea on the other. We stop at the historic village of St Marti d’Empuries for a walkabout.

It’s one of our favourite areas in the Costa Brava with huge Roman and Greek ruins.

We cycle on to the town of L’Escala, which is lovely and on to the marina at the far end of town. After a drink, we head back towards the camp, but on the way, we visit a hotel that we used to stay regularly at in the late 90s. El Moli in San Pere Pescador is a charming boutique hotel which we used to love staying at. We knew the owner, Elena, quite well, and she even came for a drink on our boat when we stopped at Empuriabrava 23 years ago! This was the last time we saw her.

We pop into the hotel, and Del seeks her out. It takes a few seconds, but soon she is giggling and hugging us and remembering us well.

We sit outside with a drink and chat about the years that have passed (Del does, and H tries to keep up and chip in while she can, not being the expert Spanish speaker that Del is).

What a lovely day. We cycle back, buying some home-brewed sangria on the way from a local farm shop. We have had a good 19-mile ride, so we are ready for dinner. It’s another fideua on the gas stove and a winner as usual. We eat just in time as black clouds and thunder roll in…

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Wednesday 6th May 2026 (Sant Pere Pescador to Empuriabrava – 9 Miles)

It’s been a great stay at Aquarius camping, lots of good exercise and relaxing. Very nice, Today we are not going far, we are just moving about 10 minutes north to Empuriabrava. But first, we’ve got to do something about our roof.

Our pitch was under a tree, which was frequented by pigeons, and it was covered in a huge amount of bird poo, but a lot, we’ve never seen so much of it…

We could hear them doing it as it hit the roof. We’ve found a jet wash with a small gantry, so we head there. The gantry is not quite high enough; in fact, we wonder what the point of it is, but it will help a little. Jess is 3m high, and the gantry is about 80 cm. Del gets our foldable step out and uses that while H backs Jess in and out at various angles to get the different parts of her cleaned.

To get closer, Del ends up keeping his balance by steadying himself on the front of Jess… Fool! It’s not the best example of health and safety, but we get the job done.

The camper park in Empuriabrava is brand new and is a good addition to the town. We used to occasionally go to a free parking area nearby that was council land, but recently there had been security issues, van break-ins and damage, so the council have closed it, leaving the way clear for Autocaravaning Empuribrava.

It rains heavily on and off, so for lunch we decide to wait for a break in the weather and go to the local supermarket here, which does excellent food on their terrace, it’s much nicer than it sounds. We get a table to find there’s no set lunch, the service has gone downhill, and the menu is expensive. We decide to go into the centre of town to hunt down a good lunch.

Last May, we rented an apartment here. We tried to go to a fine dining restaurant called The Noray, which does a good, cheap lunch menu, but it was always shut for one reason or another. This time it’s open, so we seize the chance. We’re a bit on the scruffy side in our cycling clothes, but it’s fine.

The lunch we have is the best of the trip, and is beautifully presented with a view of the Empuriabrava canals. (Empuriabrava is often called the Venice of Spain and is a massive housing complex on canals with moorings.) We cycle back just in time to beat the rain. 

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Thursday 7th May 2026 (Empuriabrava – Day 2)

Today we will stay in Empuriabrava but move to another nearby unvisited campsite, called Camping Mas Nou. It’s a similar price to last night’s spot but a vast difference from the camper park with beautiful grounds and facilities.

Today, we get back on the bikes again and explore parts of the town that we have not seen before on past visits. It’s a vast and sometimes confusing waterway of canals and streets.

Empuribrava was reclaimed many years ago from swamp land. There aren’t a lot of bridges over the canals, so places that look near are actually hard to get to.

We also visit the skydiving centre. Empuriabrava is a very popular place for skydiving; we imagine the view would be great, but jumping out of a plane is not for us. Still, it’s great to watch and hear the rush of wind over the canopies as they come in to land 10m above you. We’re surprised how popular it still is with a tandem jump for beginners starting at €300 and rising to nearly €500 with a video package.

We have a look at the indoor skydiving place called Windoor, which is basically a vertical wind tunnel capable of speeds of about 300 kph. There are 2 men inside, twirling and twisting around upside down and being thrown around like rag dolls. It’s a bit mad. H had a go at this 7 years ago and thought it was great fun!

We get some good exercise today with a 10-mile bike ride, then spend the rest of the afternoon at the van having a lovely dinner outside, with far too much to drink… Oh dear! 

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Friday 8th May 2026 (Empuriabrava to Sant Pere Pescador – 9 miles)

We are driving back to St Pere Pescador today. We stayed a couple of days here at the Aquarius campsite at the beginning of the week, and while we were there, we popped in to see our friend Elena, the owner of a local hotel where we used to stay. She has invited us for dinner tonight, so we are camping in a campsite directly opposite the hotel called Camping Senia Riu.

At the site, we get a large space, and we get ourselves set up, then we are off on the bikes again, exploring the local river area and nature reserves nearby. It’s a fabulous bike ride, and we end up on the beach where massive sand dunes have formed. The sand dunes here change every year in size, due to the sometimes strong winds; these winds also make it a very popular area with kite boarders and windsurfers. This really is a beautiful part of Spain with its long rocky coastline and lovely beaches.  The scenery is beautiful, and the vibe is very relaxed.

Back at the van, we are sneezing and coughing and discover that we are parked beneath plane trees. They are well known for causing respiratory problems, especially at this time of year, and the campsite is full of them. We have to lock ourselves in the van behind the fly screens until it’s time to go out for dinner. It really is that bad.

At 7:30pm, we cross the road to the hotel El Molí and meet Elena and her Swiss boyfriend Andy. We have dinner in the back room of mussels, a salmon stew and Spanish cold meats and bread washed down with wine and a vintage sherry that they opened for us, a sherry that is at least 40 to 50 years old and was tucked behind the bar when we used to holiday here.

What a special evening, it’s so nice to see Elena again and to be in El Moli, where we have so many fond memories. 

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Saturday 9th May 2026 (Sant Pere Pescador to Roses – 11 miles)

Elena has invited us for breakfast this morning. A simple but tasty affair of croissants, toast and some very fine coffee. We chat with her and Andy for a while and bid them farewell. It has been great to see Elena, and we won’t leave it so long next time. We can’t quite believe it’s been 23 years since we last saw her. This time-passing thing is getting quite scary. 

Back at the van, we pack up, which involves shaking and folding the groundsheet. This releases a huge amount of pollen and irritants which have fallen from the surrounding trees, and for the next hour or two, we are both coughing and wheezing. Del is suffering worse than H. We do the long drive to Roses, 15 mins away, where we have stayed many times before. We are trying a new campsite here, as the last time we stayed in Roses with Jess, the campsite wasn’t great. This one, Camping Salata, is fabulous.

There are beautiful flowers everywhere, the shower block is the best ever, and they have a gorgeous shop where we end up spending £20 on stuff we didn’t think we needed.

We set off into town on the bikes and explore the back streets. Del is in a bad way with his coughing and streaming nose, so we take a break for a drink. There are plane trees here as well, all down the promenade. Feeling better now, though, we have a walk around the town before a quick cycle around the marina where we used to stay. 

Back at the van, Del does a complete clean-down of the surfaces inside that we think the tree pollen may have landed on. It’s nasty stuff; neither of us suffers from hay fever or allergies, but this tree has badly affected us.  Watch out for it…

It’s getting quite cool now, so we sit inside. H plans the stops in France and books some campsites. For dinner, she makes us a rather splendid dauphinoise potatoes, pork, and salad, with a delicious local cheese afterwards. We sit in the van with soft jazz playing, with the now heavy rain hammering on the roof. It’s nice and cosy though. 

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Sunday 10th May 2026 (Roses to Cantallops, Spain – 22 miles)

There was a lot of rain in the night, and it’s cool and foggy when we wake up. It clears eventually to a beautiful day as we set off to continue our journey north. Tonight we are stopping at a small parking spot, which is free to stay if you visit the restaurant that owns it.

We tried unsuccessfully 3 times to fill up with LPG on the way. 2 of these attempts are in La Jonquera, the last town on the motorway in Spain, towards France. It’s chaos here, and that’s even with a large number of trucks parked up because it’s a Sunday. The whole place is set up as a huge truck stop with garages, supermarkets and some dubious-looking showgirl clubs. There’s also a huge influx of French cars coming over the border to save 65 cents a litre on fuel.

Eventually, we get clear of the concrete jungle of La Jonquera and drive up the very narrow and windy road to the restaurant.

Their overnight spot is fantastic, full services for your van and an amazing view over the Bay of Roses.

The restaurant is very busy, but we manage to book a lunch at 3pm. In the meanwhile we tuck Jess into a cosy spot and sit and have a beer with the fantastic view. We are surrounded by cork, olive and pine trees, along with just the sound of birdsong. It’s idyllic.  

At 3pm, we walk down to the still very busy restaurant. We are in the middle of nowhere, yet there are about 200 people in here.

We have goat’s cheese salad, calamari, shoulder of lamb and duck, and it’s all amazing. We complimented our waiter on the Ali oil, the garlic mayonnaise, the best we have ever tasted, and he came back with a ceramic dish of it, telling us to put it in our pocket and keep quiet.

The meal is delicious with friendly, professional service; we can see why it’s so popular and why people take the twisty detour to be here.

We stagger back to Jess after a Ricard each, a half carafe of wine and a chopito (a free Spanish shot). We tip the waiter generously for his fine work looking after us. Finally back at Jess, we sit outside in the warm afternoon, chatting and reading. What a great day. 

Tomorrow we will cross the border into France. Our last week.

Week 5. 27th April – 3rd May 2026. Benidorm to Cala Montgo, Spain – 395 miles.

Last week we had such wonderful weather on the Costa Blanca, but now it’s taken a turn for the cooler and the cloudier as we continue our journey north along the east coast of Spain and to the Costa Brava while stopping for an unscheduled sleepy hotel stop…

Monday 27th April 2026 (Benidorm to Calpe – 15 miles)

We have woken up to another beautiful day in Benidorm, clear blue skies and just the right temperature to have your coffee and fresh croissants outside.

We’re moving on today, but not very far, just an hour north to the town of Calpe. After breakfast, we get packed up and set off. We don’t go far before we see the view of the bay, and stunning Penan d’Ifach rock is quite something as it looks like it’s just rising out of the sea. We pull off the motorway and wind our way down to the sea.

We have booked into a camper park that looks quite new. These are popping up everywhere. They are a hybrid campsite. Not a free aire or parking spot, or a fully fledged campsite, it’s somewhere in between, and for €22 you get a space with a small terrace and full services.

We chill out in the van, H does a small shop, after which we walk into town via the large salt lake, where we can see wild flamingoes. There are a lot of new high-rise apartments going up between the beach and the salt lake.

It’s a beautiful town with a wide-open bay and is very different from Benidorm. Lots of small charming restaurants, no drunks staggering about in nappies and nun outfits. We always liked this part of Spain the best when we sailed the Mediterranean.

We used to stay in Altea nearby, another lovely town, and used to anchor regularly just north of here. This part of Spain has really taken off, with some fantastic-looking high-tech apartment blocks. It reminded us of a miniature Naples in Florida. It really is an attractive place, which will not have very attractive property prices!

We wander along the beachfront, taking it all in and then make our way up into the old town. Again, this part of Calpe is lovely.

H does a bit of shopping, then it’s back down to the sea front for a refreshing drink with a sea view. It’s now late afternoon, and time to get back to Jess. We are hungry and thirsty. By the time we get back to Jess. We have walked a total of 6.5 miles, and it feels like it.

We really like it here and could certainly stay longer than one night, but we must keep moving north; we will run out of time.

Dinner is another cookout with the tabletop gas burner. H knocks up some fantastic turkey fajitas. Delicious. 

Time to get cleaned up, showered and turn in. Tomorrow is a long driving day to Benicarlo, which is 170 miles, about 3 and a bit hours by car, but for us, probably 4 to 5 hours. We also want to stop for a menu del dia, which was introduced in Spanish law in 1965. It’s true. Click the link above…

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Tuesday 28th April 2026 (Calpe to Benicarlo – 170 miles)

We are doing our longest drive for a while today. We set off after a light breakfast and do a quick shop along the way.

An uneventful day so far, which is how you want it. The traffic near Valencia is very busy with trucks driving about 2 feet from our bike rack; we can even see them on our reversing camera that points downwards. Del drives most of the way, and we take a break for lunch at a restaurant attached to a petrol station, which gets excellent reviews for its food and the excellent price.

Lunch here is taken more seriously than in the UK, and truckers pull into these places and have a 3 course set meal. This one is a very good one and all for 14€. We’ve taken our time and spent over an hour over lunch, and we set back off at 2:30. By 4:30, we are at the campsite. We have been to this particular site, Camping Alegria, a few times before, and we like the vibe here in Benicarlo. This is where they make Benimar motorhomes (which was our second choice of van when we were looking around). We are given the choice of pitches, so H goes off to find one; quite a few are being taken up by an organised French pétanque tournament taking place today. We settle in and, after our free welcome glass of wine, we take a walk on the beach in the sunset. It’s a lovely night, and an end to a long day on the road.

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Wednesday 29th April 2026 (Benicarlo – Day 2)

Del has an affliction. He has many, but one that has become more prominent is his snoring! As a result, we slept badly last night. It’s actually been bad for a few nights now and has come to a head. It’s a very bad combination, Del’s snoring and H, who can’t sleep at the best of times. We desperately need a reset and some good sleep, so tonight H books a nearby hotel in the town so we can sleep separately.

It’s a lovely day, and we walk down the beach for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for 17€. You get a table with a tablet where you can wipe, touch and order as much food as you like.

Indeed, we do. We have lots of delicious sushi and other Japanese dishes, and some unusual fusion dishes – Mango Salmon anyone? Back at the van, we relax, and Del gets ready to depart for his hotel. He wants to be in bed by 8pm.

Del is indeed in bed by 8 and H by 9. Let’s see how we go…

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Thursday 30th April 2026 (Benicarlo to Mont Roig – 65 miles)

H is sat outside the van with a coffee ready as Del turns up, refreshed from his hotel sleep. It made him laugh. The power of the tracking technology in your phones today. She was able to watch him leave the hotel, walk along the beach, and enter the camp… (Get the coffee on). See him walk around the corner towards the van… (coffee on the table.) Here he is…

We have both slept better and are ready to carry on. We pack up and set off north to a campsite just over an hour away. 

Camping Miramar is right on the beach in Mont Roig, and we are given a spot just a few metres away from the sea. It’s a bit of a struggle to get in as the lanes and roads to access the pitch are narrow with low trees, and just for fun, the entrance to our pitch has a lampost right in the middle… Very handy… It takes us a good 10 minutes of shuffling about and attacking the problem from different angles, but H eventually squeezes Jess into the spot with Del’s expert direction.

It’s a lovely small campsite, and we are lucky to get in as it’s the May Day bank holiday tomorrow.

We give Jess a bit of a clean out and set off for a walk down the beach to a restaurant located right on the beach. We can’t help ourselves and have a larger and more expensive lunch than planned. Well, what else are we doing? It’s all very nice, salad to start, then octopus Galician style for Del and baby squid with spicy potatoes for H, with a couple of desserts to follow. 

It’s a perfect setting, quiet, right on the beach with an aqua coloured sea gently rolling in and a cold glass of white wine to enjoy the view. It’s hot.

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Friday 1st May 2026 (Mont Roig to Lloret de Mar – 130 miles)

Today we are setting off for Lloret de Mar, a very popular holiday destination on the Costa Brava. Before we leave, we need to do a van service, drop the grey water and fill up with fresh. Again, it takes a bit of van ballet as the site is so tight and close quartered, but with a bit of ‘to you, to me to you’, we eventually get in. A little bit of tree and bush trimming would make life a bit easier. There are lots scraping down the side of Jess; fortunately, they are soft, and there’s no damage.

We finally set off north, passing west of Barcelona, avoiding the city and its punitive low-emission zone, and into a massive traffic jam! That’ll keep the air clean. It’s a bank holiday today here and everywhere is busy, but there are five accidents on the motorway all near each other.

The accidents add over an hour to our trip. It’s no wonder there are accidents; there are chevrons to show minimum distance, and nobody is observing them. Trucks are tailgating us, people are on their phones, driving too fast, some even too slow, the list just grows…

In the end, it takes hours to get to Lloret, where we finally get set up in a campsite that we visited in December 2024. At that time we were the only ones there; today, May day bank holiday it’s packed, but there is a small space for us…

Once settled in, we set off into the town of Lloret and the lovely beach here. There’s a fierce wind keeping people off the beach, but the restaurants are busy. Lloret is built very low-rise compared to Benidorm, and the vibe here is a lot calmer. Most people here are Spanish, enjoying their bank holiday weekend. Windy but nice, as we walk along the sea front, reminiscing about our boat adventures around these very waters more than 20 years ago.

Dinner tonight is onboard Jess, for a change. It’s been a while since we did that, and it makes a lovely change. Tonight, we start watching Chernobyl again. This week is the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. It’s an excellent watch and won many BAFTAs in 2020 when it was released.

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Saturday 2nd May 2026 (Lloret de Mar to L’Estartit – 50 miles)

Our journey moving up the coast of Spain continues today. We are only driving an hour today on the back roads to L’estartit, an old sailing favourite of ours, with the Illes Medes just off the coast. A lovely place.

The campsite we have picked is very old school and basic, but right on the beach. Camping Molino is celebrating its 60th birthday. Whilst basic, it does the job. Everything is there, and it all works.

We get a pitch right next to the dunes, and the entrance onto the long sandy beach that stretches right around the bay of L’Estritt. From our van, we can hear the sea crashing on the beach. We take the 40-minute walk from the van to the town.

The weather has taken a bit of a turn up here in the north with cloudy skies and strong winds. No matter, it’s time for lunch, and there are plenty of places to choose from here. We have a set lunch as the sun pops out! About time…

We struggle with the walk back against the wind, but once back at Jess we get showered and have a lovely evening in.

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Sunday 3rd May 2026 (L’Estartit to Cala Montgo – 14 miles)

We wake to the sound of the sea on a windy, grey day. It’s quite cool, and we are in warmer gear than usual.  We’re only going 30 minutes north to Cala Montgo today. The journey will take us around the Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park. There is no direct route.

After filling up with cheap diesel and a quick Jess wash, we arrive after negotiating the largest amount of speed bumps ever, and into Cala Montgo.

The campsite, Illa Mateua Campsite, is immense and even has its own supermarket and restaurant. It’s a shame the weather isn’t better, as this is a beautiful area with very fond memories for us.

We set up our outside furniture and get a rotisserie chicken and some potatoes from the local campsite takeaway.

Catalonians do the tastiest spit roast chickens, and takeaways are everywhere. It’s delicious with a fresh baguette and a glass of wine.

Time to walk it all off, so we take a good walk to the bay, through the pine trees and to the entrance to the deep bay of Montgo.

We used to anchor our boat here and rent kayaks regularly back in the day. 

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Week 4. 20th April – 26th April 2026. Mar Menor to Benidorm, Spain – 90 miles.

Last week, we skimmed along the south coast, where we got lots of cycling in and visited old stomping grounds before turning north. We also had a temporary pet! This week, we have continued north, where some of this week was spent in Benidorm, a lively place that we have visited before. Del went to Benidorm with an old school friend when he was 19, that was 1981…! Blimey.

Monday 20th April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 2)

This morning, we can hear small planes taking off at the military airport next door; there’s a constant flow of quite a few turboprop aircraft taking off, and we think that this is Spain’s new aerial display team to replace their Patrulas Aguilas team, which finished last year after 40 years. Some people here hate the planes and give bad reviews for the campsite, but we quite like it. 

There are a few good, long cycle trips in the surrounding area, but it’s very hot today, so we opt for the shorter one across a boardwalk that cuts through the nature reserve to the nearest town of Los Alcazares. We’re shocked to find that, since we were here just over a year ago, the wooden boardwalk has been destroyed, burnt, and partially removed.

It starts ok then just disappears, and we find ourselves lifting the bikes over missing parts of the walkway and onto the next bit. We’ve come this far, so we might as well carry on, we think, but it gets worse, and we end up cycling through thick foliage. We persevere and make it to the promenade, only to find that it, too, is dug up for works. It’s not going that well. We manage to divert into the town, cut out the disruption and end up having a pleasant cycle along the front and return through town. Despite the broken walkway, we managed a 13km bike ride… Not bad.

Dinner is turkey steaks, fries and salad outside, which starts to be a very pleasant evening, but it’s not long before mosquitoes start biting us, not just one or two, but a few. H has already been bitten badly, so we retire inside soon after.

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Tuesday 21st April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 3)

It was a bad night last night. We both got bitten a few times. They are quite aggressive here at the moment, and there have been complaints about it on reviews for this campsite, so it’s a known thing. We just couldn’t settle; you could hear them buzzing past over your head, loud and fast.

We have a light breakfast as we are going to Kinita, again, for their set lunch today. This Kinita restaurant thing is H’s “favourite restaurant in Spain”. The food is excellent, nice menu and very nice restaurant right on the beach, plus you get the planes at the military airport next door whizzing about, and today they are very busy.

Before lunch, H sets off on her bike and stands at the end of the runway watching them come in low overhead. It’s a great view and a bit disconcerting seeing them coming for you straight on. 

Lunch at KINITA is on the beach and is very civilised, 3 courses plus an amuse bouche, a drink, coffee and bread for €25. An absolute bargain! The sun is shining, and the palm trees are wafting in the breeze. Lovely.

We leave satisfied and relaxed, doing the short walk back to the van. Del does some work, and H maps out the days we have left. We have no campsites booked after the end of April, so it’s good to get an idea of the distances involved to get home. We’re praying for a good sleep tonight as we are both very tired. We’ve been careful with the mosquito nets that all the windows on the van have fitted, and hope that none have got in. They do, though. They can get in through the tiniest of gaps. Buggers…

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Wednesday 22nd April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 4)

It was another terrible night of no sleep again. Del is not happy and is talking about moving on. It is very bad, and we are not in the summer season yet. Several mosquitoes were in the van and were just feeding on us all night. This area here is noted for bad mosquitoes that are small and aggressive; we’ve never suffered here before in the past, as we normally come in the colder months. This calls for a proper solution, so after breakfast, we hop on the bikes and set off for the town to go to a fantastic hardware store here that we know. Nobody does hardware stores better than the Spanish; they stock absolutely everything. Rarely have we been disappointed. We are looking for a plug-in Mozzy killer and a Spanish to UK plug adapter, as all our sockets in Jess are, of course, UK. We get everything we need; hopefully, this will cure a very bad problem. Maybe tonight we will get a good, mozzy-free night…

H decides that since the local restaurant, Kinita, is so good and does a cheap set lunch/dinner menu, we would have an early dinner there, so at 5 pm, Del is dragged off to eat, where we sit inside with a lovely late afternoon sea view.

The food is delicious as usual. Back at Jess, we sit outside and enjoy an early sunset with a drink or two… 

We have been watching a Netflix series called Radioactive Emergency. We have one left, so tonight we finish off the last of the series. It has been a very good watch, a true story. It’s a horrific story of carelessness, total denial and corruption from people that are supposed to be responsible, but never are…

Time for bed, so we plug our deadly mosquito-killing device in. Let’s see how we get on tonight.

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Thursday 23rd April 2026 (Mar Menor to Santa Pola – 48 miles)

Well, that was better… There were no mosquitoes overnight, and we get a good solid 5 hours’ sleep until we hear the awning flogging outside in the wind. It’s tethered down but still makes us nervous that it will be damaged, and it’s noisy, so we get up at 4am to put it away as quietly as we can. This wind is stronger than predicted, so we didn’t expect this. Back in bed, we get a few more hours of sleep. 

We are a bit late setting off this morning, but we are only going an 1 hour north of here to Santa Pola. We do a shop at a Lidl nearby and fill up with diesel, it’s relatively cheap here at €1.64 a litre, we’ve heard that it’s averaging €2.28 a litre in France and only getting worse. The Spanish government has reduced the tax on fuel at the pump to help out. No doubt when this is all over, it will be doubled. time to check the tyres also today…

The drive to Santa Pola is quite interesting as we pass through multicoloured, huge salt pans with lots of wild flamingoes. On the way, we pass one of those Osborne bulls that you see when driving up and down Spain. It’s a large black silhouette of a typical Spanish Bull that was part of a nationwide advertising campaign by Osborne Brandy and this one is actually accessible instead of being behind a fence.

It has been a rather windy day today, so we are glad to be at the Santa Pola campsite, where we get a nice space and tuck ourselves away as best we can from the now quite fierce wind.

We had hoped to cycle to the salt pans and visit their local Osbourne bull, but it will be too much of a slog into the wind to come back. We will walk into town instead and do the salt pans in Jess tomorrow.

This is another place where we once stopped 22 years ago on our boat, and we liked the town. It sure is windy; it takes us 15 minutes to walk into town. The marina is very large and still busy, with many new bars, restaurants, and shops.

We can only spot one UK red ensign flag on a boat. That’s changed a lot since our day, but it’s much harder, if not impossible, to sail here and back in the 3 months allotted time for non-EU countries. We count ourselves lucky that we did it at the best time.

The town is not too bad, with a large castle smack in the centre. We have a little look around and then head back. Neither of us is that hungry tonight, so we just have a snack on Jess before turning in.

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Friday 24th April 2026 (Santa Pola to Benidorm – 44 miles)

For breakfast, we have our first proper bacon sandwiches of the trip! We managed to find some proper back bacon in Palomares. It was where we camped on the beach for a free night. There are a lot of English people living there. Spanish bacon is the streaky American type, and much too fatty for us; the shops manage to supply what the English like in those parts.

Our priority today is to visit the Osbourne bull nearby. It’s very rare to be able to get up close to one; they are normally on hills and fenced off, but this one is right there and accessible on the roadside. We take some pictures together with this Spanish icon and then head towards Benidorm.

Our coffee stop on the way has a jet wash with a gantry for cleaning the roof, so we take advantage of it. The roof is orange from the sandy rains and the dirt from the early part of the trip.

We finally arrive at the campsite in Benidorm, which is huge, with over 500 spaces. This campsite was one of the locations for the hit Channel 5 series called Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun. If you have never seen it, then it is an interesting watch, for one episode at least.

Our pitch is the biggest we have been in at 10m wide and 8m long. The public areas here are very beautiful, a huge green lawn with a bar, 2 pools and another bar and restaurant.

All the connected pathways around the site have colourful flowerbeds. It’s very impressive, and you can understand why people make it their “home”. It’s nice now as it’s not too busy, but it’s probably chaos in summer with potentially over 1000 people staying here. They have a big laundry room, so we get everything washed and dried just before the rain comes. It’s still warm, though, so we sit outside with a drink under our awning and play an UNLOCK escape game.

The rain stops for dinner, so H cooks a fideua outside, which is another winner. 

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Saturday 25th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 2)

We are going into Benidorm’s old town today, which is either a 40-minute walk or a 10-minute cycle. H is having trouble with comfy walking shoes at the moment, so the bikes it is. When we last came a few years ago in January, it was pretty quiet despite being pleasantly warm; today, though, it’s madness.

The bars in town near us are already crammed at noon, blaring loud music, and the number of people here is staggering.

We park the bikes and chain them up in the old town, which is mainly busy with Spanish. It’s a lovely little area with narrow back streets and a viewpoint overlooking the bay on either side. It’s a shame it’s a bit grey and cool today.

There’s a tapas alley here which is heaving with people enjoying beautiful plates of food with a glass of wine. Quite a contrast to the noisy bars in the ‘vibrant’ part of town serving fish and chips and Guinness. There’s something here for everyone.

There’s a sketcher’s shop here, so H sorts herself out with some comfy shoes, puts them straight on and declares she can walk for miles. So we do. She also gets herself a pair of sporty sunglasses. Feeling a bit peckish by now, we decide that Benidorm will probably be a good place to find a good Indian restaurant. We find a nice-looking one with a set menu. It’s empty but gets very good reviews, so we go in. The food is delicious and just the right amount with friendly service, and now the place is filling up despite being 3:30pm. Sometimes restaurants just need the first person to sit down. Satisfied, we walk around some more and head back towards the van. We shall walk down the ‘strip’ on our way back. 

Calle Gerona is the heart of the nightlife here, and despite it only being 4:30 pm, it’s in full swing. People are already visibly drunk, staggering around. One man in the Irish bar is naked apart from a nappy! Another 2 girls are dancing on a podium high up, giving everyone a view of … well, you get the drift. 

We are causing a bit of chaos wheeling our bikes down here, pushing them on the pavement in the wrong direction, so it’s a relief to get back on the road. 

Back at the van, we relax. Del actually beats H at chess. Finally…

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Sunday 26th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 3)

It’s a beautiful day today, and Del whips up a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which we have outside in the warm morning sun. 

Today we plan to walk around the newer, tourist area, having seen and spent some time in the old town yesterday. On the way, we discover a huge market selling everything from fruit and veg to clothing and bags. H needs some new socks to go with her new flashy shoes she got yesterday.

We get to the beach, which is busy, very busy. There is still enough capacity for many, many more people, though. You can see why it’s a popular place; the beaches here are beautiful, with fine white sand.

While myth suggests the sand was imported, the seven kilometres of fine sand are indigenous and actually sometimes exported to other local resorts around Spain. People from all over the world come here, and we have heard many different languages, but the most heard one is the British accent.

Benidorm started as a small fishing village of 3000 people; now the residents total over 77,000, but in the peak season, with visitors, it can reach 350,000 people. It’s clearly doing something right for a lot of people…

We have a small beer in a bar on the front and do some people watching, which is always a good sport here. It’s a sea of pink and red flesh everywhere… Having had enough of that, we walk back and have a late lunch/early dinner of a paella cooked on our stove, Beryl, in the sun.

We intend to go back into town to catch some of the nightlife, but first, there’s the karaoke in our campsite.

In the event the karaoke is a bit low-key, we walk into town again. Surprisingly, it’s quieter than 5pm yesterday. Either everyone’s worn out from yesterday, or we’ve hit a lull where people recover at their hotel before the evening session. To be fair, we are way too early; it’s only 7pm, but we really can’t be bothered to stay up late and do this. Some of the bars here shut at 4:30 am. That’s too much for us now, even for H, who used to go to all-night raves in the late 80s. 

Back at the van, we have a drink. Del mixes up a Calimocho, a combination of red wine and Coke, which was originally a Basque region drink.

Guess what…? It’s not bad at all and tastes a little like Sangria. . A wine glass with ice and 50 -50 of any red wine (not an expensive one, of course) and Coke. Very nice. We play some chess as the sun is fading and the air is cooling before going in. How very civilised, we must be showing our age.

We have done three nights here in Benidorm. We’ve been here before, in January 2024, two years ago! This time it was a lot more lively and busy, so we can’t imagine what the summer will be like when all the schools in Europe are off. We like it here, it’s very chilled and relaxed, and has some nice places in the old town. There is something for everyone here, that’s for sure. There is a stigma attached to Benidorm, but it is really misplaced; you can have all sorts of different types of experience, from partying to chilling out.

Time to continue our journey north now, though. The next stop is a staggering 40 minutes away to the town of Calpe.

Week 3. 13th April – 19th April 2026. Nerja to Mar Menor, Spain – 230 miles.

Last week, we did an almost straight line from just east of Madrid down to Nerja on the south coast, where both the weather and the culture change. Oh, and it’s ever so slightly cheaper… The south is arid in parts, but still rather spectacular. We will hug the coast before turning north. As we move slowly north, we are hoping that the good warm weather we are having will stay with us.

Monday 13th April 2026 (Nerja to Balerma – 67 miles)

After a windy night, the sun is out this morning. This area is renowned for wind; when it blows, it can be quite severe. We are leaving Nerja after a very nice couple of days and going east now – this is as far west along the Spanish coast as we go.

We set out after saying goodbye to our favourite parrot here. A stop at a supermarket for a food stock up, and soon we are on the motorway. We used to live north of Malaga, near the town of Antequera, and kept our boat at the Almerimar marina 20 years ago. Back then, H used to drive between the home and the marina before the motorway was built, and it took 3 hours slogging through towns and villages; it was very fiddly, so the motorway makes a huge difference.  However, the motorway is now being upgraded, so there’s a lot of roadworks and speed restrictions, and it’s much hillier than we remember.

The drive turns into a long, slow one, and it just feels like a bit of a slog. We eventually stop for a coffee after 90 minutes and swap over. We are going to stay at a campsite we’ve been to before at Balerma. Check-in is quick and easy; it’s a lot quieter than the winter months, which is nice.

Before going to our pitch, we visit their cheap, well-designed jet wash as Jess is still quite dirty from the sandy rains. 

The campsite is very quiet; it seems the German campers who love it here have gone home for the spring. We discover the campsite laundry room with 5 empty washers and dryers!

This is a luxury to us. It’s funny how the little things please you when you’re camping, we think nothing of putting a wash on at home! H takes over 3 machines and gets all the washing done, and the bed changed. 

Del gives Jess a good wipe over inside and out, and she looks fabulous again. He also gets a bit of homework done for his next project. Happy days.

We’re so pleased with ourselves that we have to test our new fizz glasses with some Prosecco that our good friend Karen from back home bought us for Christmas. It’s delicious. Cheers Karen…!

Dinner is a French lentil and pork tinned concoction that we’ve been travelling around Europe with for quite a while now, with homemade dauphinoise potatoes and broccoli. 

We walk to the beach afterwards to watch the huge breaking waves and the sunset. 

The wind has really kicked up the sea. So much so, we come across a poor, dead baby dolphin. It must have got too close to the shore in the strong sea, beached and not been able to get back into deep water. Sad.

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Tuesday 14th April 2026 (Balerma – Day 2)

We have beautiful blue skies with NO WIND, and it’s a warm day.

We have a coffee in the bar on site and then a light breakfast back at Jess, as we are planning a lunch out. Today we are going out on the bikes to get some exercise. H lifts the bikes off the back of Jess and cleans them (she is missing the gym, and this is the only weightlifting available). We foolishly took the cover off the bikes too early last week, so they are covered in rain and sand.

We are going to cycle to Almerimar Marina today, which is just over 6 miles away. After covering ourselves in suncream, we set off.

It’s mostly flat along the seafront with some weaving through a town. Down here in the south of Spain, it is considered the greenhouse of Europe. If your fruit or veg says it’s come from Spain, then it’s most likely to have come from this part of Spain. The greenhouses are basically acres of plastic sheeting, which break down in the heat and wind and have to be replaced.

What shocks us on our ride is the amount of small pieces of old plastic sheeting stuck in the vegetation at the side of the roads and beaches, ready to blow into the sea just metres away. Surely this is an environmental disaster? It makes all our efforts with plastic bags in the UK seem pointless when you see the amount of damage on this scale. Check out this video.

We finally arrive at the marina in Almerimar, and we find the spot where we used to be berthed.

We both agree that the place is looking a bit tired and tatty, and some of the boats look like they are from our era, 22 years ago. We cycle around and admire the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the background. There’s a motorhome aire here, but it was always too busy in the past when we used to visit it. We have a chat with a couple who have been there for 5 weeks, that’s a long time in one spot…!

We start the cycle back, on the way, an elderly cyclist stops us, a Spanish chap wittering on about H’s seat being too low, something which has always been a bone of contention with her as she doesn’t like the seat too high, but loses power as a result. She does, from the back, look like a circus chimp on a tricycle going up a hill in low gear. She does need to sort that out, it’s bad when a local Spanish cyclist has to point it out as well…!

We cycle back to a seafront restaurant past the campsite, which does a very reasonable menu of the day.

We have salad, anchovies, black rice, Russian salad, two different types of pork and a local dessert between us, served with a glass of wine and coffee afterwards. It’s quite a feast, but we have earned it after 26km of cycling. Back on the bikes and back to Jess, where we spend the rest of the afternoon reading, Del does some more work until the early evening.

There is a petanque court here, a popular game in France and Spain and there are 5 courts here. We stock up on some local cheese and ham, and our steel balls and set off for the court to play a couple of games in the sunset.

It’s a lovely evening. Del soundly beats H.

A good day today. We have enjoyed our two nights here; it should be a short drive tomorrow to the southeastern tip of Spain, the Cabo de Gata (the Cat Cape!).

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Wednesday 15th April 2026 (Balerma – Cabo de Gata 55 miles)

It’s a lovely, bright, fresh morning, with clear blue skies. We have a simple breakfast outside, after which we pack up and set off for our next stop, to a campsite we have been to before in the Cabo de Gata (the bottom right corner of Spain). Del has a work video call to take at 11 this morning, so after we have paid, we park up outside the campsite so he can do that before setting off. It’s another beautiful day today, very still and calm at sea, and everything is blue! Lovely

We arrive at the campsite just in time for lunch. They have a very good restaurant here which does an excellent menu of the day. It’s bad news, though, the restaurant is shut for renovations! Luckily, we have a fridge full of Spanish goodies, so we will save some money today (and probably calories). 

We set up camp, it’s lovely and peaceful here, just lots of birds and some parrots squawking. We get a visit from a friendly ginger stray cat.

H gives her a prawn, and that’s it, we’re mates forever. She stays all day napping next to us. For dinner, we get the outdoor gas stove out, and H makes a Fiduea, which Del declares as the best one he has ever had.

It’s a fantastic dinner, cooked and eaten at the table, with a little tapa of tomato bread and Cantabrian anchovies. We give our cat (Hazel, we have named her) some cat food that we have bought for her. Yes, she has got us wrapped round her little paw. We sit outside in the lovely evening air. Peace…

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Thursday 16th April 2026 (Cabo de Gata – Day 2)

When we open the blinds this morning, our little cat friend is waiting patiently outside. We give her a little something. Del cooks up bacon and eggs on the stove outside, and H does the toast and chops an avocado.

Complete with some freshly brewed coffee, it’s a lovely breakfast on a lovely day. After clearing up and a bit of paperwork (H booking out our next trip and Del doing some homework), we set off for a cycle. The area here is mostly scrubland with the occasional greenhouse, and it isn’t much to write home about, but saying that, it does offer some charm; it is quiet, peaceful and interesting in parts. We like it, and it does get busy here in the summer.

This is the driest part of Spain. For us, the attraction is the tranquillity of the campsite itself. Nevertheless, we like to have a good explore, so we set off across the bumpy dry land towards the sea. The town of Cabo de Gata looks sandblasted and deserted, but there’s a bar open on the seafront. We are forced by the sunshine and blue sea to have a beer and a free tapa each, fried potatoes for Del and a delicious sardine for H.

We shall cycle back on the main road and try to work out the confusing road layout in the town, discovering in fact that deep in the centre it’s actually quite lively.

By the time we get back to the van, we have done 12km, not as much as Tuesday’s cycle, but not shabby. 

The outside table top stove is back out, so for dinner we have a starter of garlic prawns, and chicken for the next course, but when she opens the pack, it’s rancid despite being within date. We have to bin it, we don’t like throwing meat away, it feels disrespectful. We have tuna steaks instead, with a salad.  Hazel, our part-time pet, has had a 3-course meal – a prawn to start, cat food for main and some cheese for dessert. 

We are spoiling her.

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Friday 17th April 2026 (Cabo de Gata – Palomares 56 miles )

Once again, this morning, “our cat” is waiting for us outside.

We have a simple breakfast of croissants and cat food outside before starting to pack up. Hazel the cat has clocked this new activity and is most upset, having had a stable home for two days. She skulks off and won’t let us come near her. We’re really sad too, but we knew that this would happen. She was the sweetest cat and became attached to us. We just wish we could have taken her with us. 

We set off with heavy hearts to Palomares, a free beach park up, a very popular location for vans from all over Europe, which we have visited a couple of times before.

We shall be completely off-grid tonight, so we have charged everything that has a battery inside it, we have full water tanks ready with plenty of food and drink. We like the off-grid stops, and this place is a good one to be off-grid.

It’s a lot quieter here than we’re used to. We find a good spot, side on, facing the sea. There’s a nice restaurant located at the entrance here, so we take the short walk and have some baby squid and spicy potatoes with a glass of wine, delicious.

We relax back at the van for a while and then get the bikes down for a cycle into the nearest town, Villaricos.

The weather is the best you can get. The temperature is just right, no wind, the sea looks fabulous with different shades of blue, and it is so calm and quiet. We stop and look and think fondly of the time we sailed past here just over 20 years ago… The time is just rushing by…

Back to Jess, where we swap the bikes for chairs and a rather large glass of Ricard with ice and sat by the waters edge before dinner of a huge salad and sardines. A nice day…

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Saturday 18th April 2026 (Palomares to Mazarron – 56 miles )

It was a quiet night with just the sound of the sea breaking on the shore. It’s another beautiful day this morning, so we sit outside with a coffee after a paddle in the sea. There’s a baker’s van that comes round the beach beeping his horn to let you know he’s here.

Del is dispatched to buy some croissants and a stick of bread. We sit in the sun and eat them with another coffee. What a place, you can’t beat it, a beautiful sea view, gorgeous weather, free of charge, with pastries delivered to your door. Not a bad start to the day…

We do a slow pack up and leave just before midday. It’s a busy, popular place here. People have been known to spend many weeks here, and we wonder what they are doing with their black and grey water? We have a good idea, and we have read on the internet from some locals about seeing people just dumping everything in the fields behind the parking area. No wonder places like this are becoming rarer when some motor homers behave so badly.

We need to get back on the motorway. Today sees us turning north properly now and heading up the east coast of Spain. On our way to the motorway, Google routes us down a road that gets more and more rustic and drops us in the middle of what looks like a man-made reservoir area. There are short, steep hills between each raised basin of water, and we are led through the storm drains and “run-offs” lanes.

We are not in the wrong place, as many cars seem to be using this route; it just seems a bit odd, the hills are short and steep, and we are a bit concerned that we might bottom out. We take our time, though and get to the other side without a scrape or touching water!

We are heading to Mazarron, which has a harbour, which was always full when we tried to get in with our boat years ago. There is a cheap camper park here, Camping & Resort Bahia Mazarron, which is brand new and has 250 spaces ready out of a 450 total, which are coming next year. This is the kind of place that will fill up instantly in the winter, but for now it’s reasonably quiet. Unfortunately, though it’s in the middle of nowhere, the back end of the town, but it’s a nice place with good showers and a lovely little bar.

We have a coffee and then set up Jess’s with all the outside stuff, chairs, tables and definitely an awning. It’s so hot, and there is no shade at all…

As it’s so hot, we wait a while to cycle into the town. It’s only a short ride away, and when we get there, we are a bit surprised about how tired-looking it is.

We have noticed on our drive this time that this is the case with so many towns in the area, they just look like they have been battered with sand over the past winters and not kept in good order. We stop for an alcohol free beer while contemplating the state of the world. Back at Jess, it’s dinner in the sun, pasta and salad. H beats Del at cards once again… Some things never change…

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Sunday 19th April 2026 (Mazarron to Mar Menor – 42 miles )

We sit outside in the morning sun for breakfast; it’s very hot already, and our awning isn’t shading us at all. It’s only an hour’s drive to the next stop, Camping Mar Menor, where we have reserved for 4 days. This is another regular stop for us as it’s a great campsite and the area is good for cycling. The best bit, though, is the ‘campsite restaurant’, which is not your average camper restaurant; it deserves to be in the Michelin guide. It’s H’s favourite Spanish restaurant and is called Kinita.

We have booked for tonight for their tasting menu. 

At the campsite, we get a large plot with a bit of a sea view and get settled in.

We spend the afternoon reading, relaxing, and just chilling out; it’s quite hot here. At 6pm we go across to the restaurant. We’ve booked an early dinner, as the tasting menu will be a lot of food. We get a table with a sea view and start with a red vermouth, a traditional Spanish aperitif.

The food is delicious, with truffle croquettes, tuna tartare, and a cold tomato soup with prawn tartar, which is amazing. 

Eight courses in all and not tiny ones either. We make it to the last one, but it beats us; we can’t even eat half of it.

We stagger back to the van for a lie down and watch an episode of Radiactive Emergency on Netflix, a shocking true story that we don’t even remember happening at the time. A quick look up tells the whole story…

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Week 2. 6th April – 12th April 2026. Buitrago del Lozoya to Nerja, Spain – 366 miles.

Last week, our journey started with an uneventful, pleasant sea crossing from the UK. Our first week also took us into the Rioja wine region, where we sampled some of the local wine and stayed in some lovely cities in the area. We are now pushing further south this week and heading for the Spanish coast

Monday 6th April 2026 (Buitrago del Lozoya to Aranjuez – 82 miles)

It was a peaceful night here in the hills north of Madrid, and we slept well. We have breakfast and bid farewell to our friendly host, after squeezing the night’s fee into his hand, and set off towards Madrid. Del is driving, and H is navigating.

Madrid has a very large and sprawling low-emission zone, which is very difficult to find information about. As a foreign vehicle, we think we are supposed to register before entering, but the only way is to email the government at least 20 days before, or it’s a €200 fine. Google Maps insists on taking us through the zone as there’s a sneaky little bit of it right across the outer ring motorway. This isn’t about greenness anymore; it’s just about catching people out and charging them. Because we have not been able to register, it means that we have to burn more fuel, go the long way round and create more emissions, just to avoid the emissions-free zone! Ah, but you see, what happens outside a city’s emissions zone is not their problem, it’s someone else’s, we’ve got your money…

H finds a complicated route avoiding the zone, passing through some small towns, but with some lovely scenery.

We arrive at the campsite just outside, and within walking range of the centre of Aranjuez (yes, the place of the concerto of the same name). It’s a very nice site with helpful staff who let us pick our place, so we find one and get set up in a nice, long, cosy pitch near all of the facilities. There’s a recommended restaurant overlooking the river, so we head over there and have an impromptu lunch that was rather larger than expected: a couple of salads, some baby squid, and fried pork.

We have 2 days at the campsite, so today is a bit of a reset day to do laundry and to give Jess her weekly clean. H does an excellent job of cleaning the toilet and bathroom, you know!

It’s a beautiful, warm day, so we have everything set up outside the van and are just chilling out. The temperature is just right, so for dinner we will try out a new bit of kit that we have bought. It’s an outdoor single-ring gas stove.

Every camper has one, and now we do too. We have some thin leftover chicken pieces, which we fry with onions and put on a baguette along with some asparagus and chorizo. It all works well, and we’re very pleased with our new purchase.

We sit out until gone 9pm in the warm air. Del gets another thrashing at chess… Oh, and cards too later on!

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Tuesday 7th April 2026 (Aranjuez – Day 2)

We wake up to a cloudy day, quite a difference from yesterday, with the bright blue sky and hot sun. We take the 30-minute walk into town, which doesn’t really ‘wow’ us, it’s nice and all that, but just a bit ordinary… People come here mainly for the Royal Palace and the gardens. The gardens are huge and spread out over a large area, but at the moment they aren’t looking their best after the winter, and the grey sky doesn’t help. People are working on them, so by the summer they should look marvellous.

After a rather handsome and cheap three-course Spanish lunch, with wine, we walk back to the palace. Our legs are a little heavy… We have decided to pay the 9 euros admission fee and take a look. The history of the palace is greater than the town, which doesn’t look very old.

Some research shows it to be one of the best palaces in Spain and very ornate. We get our tickets and are checked in by security. This place obviously is set up for massive crowds in the summer, but fortunately, today it seems to be just us. Every room is spectacular and ornate, very impressive. It’s very good and well worth the entry fee, especially as we’ve got it mainly to ourselves.

We spend an hour admiring the various rooms, like the porcelain room where everything, including the walls, is made of porcelain and the banqueting room with its impressive frescos. A trip well worth making.

Today, we are tired, more so than usual. We are not sure what’s going on, and now it is catching up with us, having done a good few miles of walking and digesting our 3-course lunch, so we trudge, and we mean trudge, back to Jess, which seems to take forever. She will be a sight for sore eyes.

A good day today. A quiet night in on Jess.

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Wednesday 8th April 2026 (Aranjuez to Noalejo – 199 miles)

A very nice stay in Aranjuez, we really enjoyed the Royal Palace. Today we are moving on to… We don’t really know where to yet. That’s the good thing about this van caper, with plenty of time. It’s good to have a basic plan, but when it comes to the day to day you can just make bits up as you go along.

It rained most of last night and was sometimes very noisy on the roof. It doesn’t make for the best of sleep, so we’re not in the best of spirits this morning. We don’t know how far we will travel today. Maybe to Valdepenas, maybe to Jaen or even further to a cute little privately owned park up in the Andalusian hills. We set off after breakfast and have our usual Spanish coffee from a restaurant on the motorway. We really enjoy this ritual of stopping on the motorway for a coffee. The coffee is delicious, and we intend one day to have lunch in one of these roadside establishments. They always have fantastic menus, and they are so cheap. M&S or Waitrose on the M6, it’s not… This stop this morning has a full fire and roasting rack for whole pigs…

It’s a dull drive in very gloomy weather and rain, and soon H gets bored and so swaps with Del, who can drive for hours and hours like a machine.

As the weather is so rubbish, we decide to press on south. It’s raining heavily and 11 degrees, and we receive a text from a friend back home on the island showing her sunbathing in her back garden in the 22-degree heat. 

As we head south, we soon cross into the province of Andalusia, and the roads become terrible, shaking Jess and us for a good 50 miles. 

The park up tonight is in a little town of Noalejo, which is between Jaen and Granada, with views of the olive tree-covered hills.

It’s a lovely place with everything you need, and very nice showers. It is even colder here, though, as we are now over 1000m above sea level. It’ll be a cold night tonight. 

H whips up steak and dauphinoise potatoes for dinner.

We have a glass of red in the cab seats with our super view.

The owner here is very friendly and has given us a little bottle of his homemade olive oil. We’ve bought a bottle of his red wine also to put in the cellar in Jess, (the back wardrobe). 

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Thursday 9th April 2026 (Noalejo to Granada – 30 miles)

The weather has improved today with blue skies and promises of 28 degrees later. We have a coffee and a simple breakfast before setting off towards Granada. We are staying at another private parking area just outside the city for two nights. The Camping Bellavista offers everything you need and is only 30 miles from where we are now. The plan is to stay there for two nights, it’s nice and close to Granada on the bus and tram routes. Granada is another city with a LEZ, so we won’t be going too close to the centre in Jess.

We stop for our morning coffee, and Del has a magdalena – a sweet breakfast pastry, and H has tomato bread – a toasted small stick of bread with olive oil and grated tomatoes, it’s delicious and one of H’s favourite Spanish breakfasts. 

We arrive at the site. It’s basic but very well done. It’s not a campsite as such, but it has everything you need in a well-maintained place. A little shower block which is immaculate and all the services laid on, it all looks very new.

It’s a 20-minute tram ride into the centre. It’s now 28 degrees, so we have shorts and t-shirts on, but the locals all have big puffer coats on and warm boots. We stand out just a bit, but we don’t care; it’s hot. The Spanish must have a different idea of warm weather.

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing the famous Alhambra Palace on this trip. We tried to book a few days ago, only to find that it’s booked until May 11th. It’s a shame, but it’s something that we’ve seen before, so it’s not a disaster; we will get the chance to see “other stuff“.

Del has broken yet another pair of sunglasses (probably the third in the last 4 months), so we need to find him another pair and a sun hat to protect his face. We walk around the souk/arab market area of the town and find both easily. 

Of course, we can’t resist having a bit of southern food, so we dive into a restaurant bar and have Flamenquin – pork and Spanish ham rolled with cheese and fried. We also grab some fried aubergines with honey. The south of Spain is famous for frying a lot of its food, so we will have to be careful not to overindulge too much whilst we are here. We are also given a free tapa with our drinks, which used to be the norm in Spain, but tapas have now become very trendy and, in some cases, expensive. Granada is one of the few places to retain the tradition of a free tapa with your drink.

The backstreets are interesting here in Granada, and there are lots of lovely shops to look at.

We eventually stumble on the cathedral. It’s the 2nd biggest in Spain (after the beautiful Sagrada Família in Barcelona), and it’s very impressive. The scale of it is immense, and the decorations are incredibly intricate.

It was built after the Catholics overcame the Moors after nearly 800 years of ruling, during which Christianity was banned. They certainly made up for the long wait with this amazing building. 

We get back to the van on the tram just as the sun has gone in and the visibility has dropped to about 200m. It’s quite surreal all around us; we suppose it must be a dust storm or something in the air. 

We have a small supper of ham and cheese and some of the biggest strawberries you’ve ever seen. 

It is Jess’s birthday today; she is 8 years old already. The time has gone very quickly. 

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Friday 10th April 2026 (Granada – Day 2)

The weather was pretty bad here last night, with strong gusts of wind, which meant battening down the hatches but also made the temperature inside Jess uncomfortably warm. Consequently, we’ve both not slept well again.

We’re slow to get going this morning, and it’s raining anyway. All the vans here are covered in sand after last night’s storms. 

We head out, slowly, into town and get tickets for the tourist sightseeing train/bus thing; the idea is that we can just sit and get driven around all the major sites in the town.

The local tram takes us near the centre but not in as far as it probably should, and a lot of the streets are narrow and hilly, so there are not a lot of buses. The streets are cobbled in many parts, and with the flow of pedestrians, the pavements have the slippiest streets ever. We’ve not found it that easy getting around here. Granada is a wonderful place, but it’s very compressed and tightly packed despite the sprawling area of the city. We hope the tourist train will make things easier for us.

Like all these tourist trains it bounces us around and feels like it has square wheels. We get off and have a look around the oldest square, where they used to execute people and walk around yet another Arabic section. There are lots of them here, all selling the same stuff. We find ourselves in ‘tea street’ and go into one of the lavishly decorated Arabic tea houses.

The tea menu is amazing and H plumps for a green tea, flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. Del has a coffee to help wake him up. We also try one of their pistachio baklavas and a slice of pistachio cheesecake (everything is pistachio here).

After a 40-minute wait at the train stop, we eventually set off again, bouncing around up to a viewpoint. It seems that there are not enough trains on this route, and there are about 50 tourists at the next stop trying to get on, and it starts to rain. Realising that that could be us if we get off, we decide to admire the view from our seats and stay on board the square-wheeled train.

It’s not been the best experience on the train; we can’t imagine how it will be in the summer when it’s really busy. We head back to Jess just in time as a vicious wind storm with some rain is upon us. We have had enough of today, really. We are both tired, Granada was a nice city but packed and tiring and the train was rubbish, so we have a light dinner, shower and then turn in, earlyish…

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Saturday 11th April 2026 (Granada to Nerja – 60 miles)

We wake up this morning, after, finally, an excellent night’s sleep We have woken up though to find that we have an orange van! A lot of rain fell in the night, and it contained a lot of sand. We’ve never seen Jess so mucky. All of the vans here are all looking a bit… orange.

We slowly pack up. Today we are heading, finally, for the south coast of Spain to a regular stop of Nerja. We stop at a coffee stop on route for our usual full Caffeine hit and a jet wash. She needs it. So does Jess… It’s only just over an hour away and a spectacular drive, mainly downhill through the Sierra Nevada and past huge reservoirs and dams, which are full of water. We’re not surprised after the rain we have seen recently.

We did enjoy our stay in Granada, we had a great place just 20 minutes from the centre via an excellent tram system. We don’t think that we did the place justice, really. First, we were both absolutely worn out from lack of sleep, but also the town is rather exhausting, and that’s in the spring…! It’s a very beautiful city, very tightly packed with streets just weaving around randomly; there appeared to be no “centre”. Also, like all cities now, Granada too has a LEZ (Low Emissions Zone) and again, some of it is designed to catch you out.

As we start our journey, Del reminds H that we seem to be heading back towards the town, and that maybe we shouldn’t, unless we want a 200 euro fine. Quick off the mark, H soon has us re-routed, burning more fuel and polluting the air outside of Granada. They don’t care, though… It’s someone else’s problem now.

At last, we can see the sea, and we arrive at the campsite that we have pre-booked. We’ve been here a few times; this is probably our 4th time. We love the rusticness of it. It’s full of fruit trees, including avocado trees. We set ourselves up in the sun very quickly, and with a drink. We are getting slick at this.

We always seem to plan our next trip while on one, and this trip is no exception. We have a plan brewing for next winter. H settles down with a computer and starts some travel planning, which keeps her quiet for a while. Soon, the rain starts again, so we take everything in. We planned on a walk to get some exercise, but that’s been dashed. Oh well…

Dinner is a rather splendid pesto pasta and salad with a glass of wine from the camper spot in Noalejo, a couple of days ago, it’s rather nice.

The rain is off and on for the rest of the early evening, so after showers, we just settle in for the night. Tomorrow is another day.

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Sunday 12th April 2026 (Nerja – Day 2)

We had our fair share of rain last night; the weather forecasters are not doing a good job at the moment.

The morning is cool and fresh, but pleasant. After breakfast, we get ourselves ready and set off for a good walk along the seafront. The sea is huge and crashing on the beach, and more wind is forecast for later in the day with a peak overnight.

We’ve never been to Nerja this late in the season; our visit down here is normally around January. It’s also much quieter than we’re used to, with lots of empty pitches.

We have a coffee at a beach bar and discuss where to have lunch. Priorities first and foremost!

There’s a good beach bar further up the beach that does barbecues and a lively restaurant a mile further on; unfortunately, both of these are being blasted by a fierce wind coming off the sea, not quite how we imagined our Sunday lunch. So we walk into town and wander through the backstreets looking at the tourist shops.

It’s busy today; the sun is out now, with good, clean, fresh air and a strong wind. It’s lovely. The Balcon de Europa is a viewing point overlooking the coast. It’s very busy, but while we are there, down below us, we spot a restaurant on a private beach that belongs to a hotel, it’s tucked away out of the wind. Fearing that they might be fully booked, we head on down and to our surprise, there are plenty of places, so we book ourselves in for 1pm.

We walk around the town some more, exploring the bits we haven’t seen before. It’s a lovely place, Nerja, very popular this time around with the Brits. Soon it’s time for lunch. We are given a nice table just a few meters from the sea which crashes into the nearby rocks before settling on the small beach.

A lovely place for a Sunday lunch where we share a tuna salad and a Fideuà (like a paella but with noodles). It’s a very pleasant afternoon. This is helped along with a glass of Cava, followed by a glass of cold white wine each.

The wind is now straight in our face as we battle through the strong wind back to the campsite, and Jess, we share an ice-cream in the hope that it will take the edge off the wind… It doesn’t…

Tonight the wind is predicted to be 52 knots, which is a severe gale, and already it’s started to build up. We put everything away outside, the table and chairs, etc., and sit inside, only for the wind to stop and the sun to come out again, so we get the chairs out again and get the last sun of a very good day.

Tonight is games night. We have a collection of escape games from UNLOCK, so we get on with that, ending with Del getting beaten at cards… Again.

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To see more of Del’s photographs from the past week, have a look here…

Week 1. 30th March – 5th April 2026. Home to Buitrago del Lozoya, Spain – 1053 miles (mainly at sea!)

Yes, we can’t keep still, and why should we…? Fresh from our 3 months in Asia and a weekend in Vienna for a Mozart weekend, we are now off again on a Jess trip. It has been a while since we have had a van trip. Jess has been undercover for quite a few months over the winter. Now we are back on her, and we have spent some pennies on her…

New Tyres, new upholstery in the habitation area, new cabin mat, new mattress, new front seat covers (coming soon). New starter and habitation batteries, and new champagne glasses!!!! She has also had the biggest deep clean, so she is as good as new and ready to go…!!!

Monday 30th March 2026 (East Cowes to Portsmouth – 14 miles)

Today we are setting off on a 7-week trip with Jess down to the south of Spain and back again. The trip will take us from home to Portsmouth, by ferry, down the west coast of France to the north coast of Spain, getting off at Santander. We plan to see some of the north of Spain before driving off down the middle of Spain, past Madrid and to the south east coast of Spain, before turning north and hugging the east coast, up through France and back to the UK via the Eurotunnel from Calais. Whew!!

We planned this trip a few months ago when there was no sniff of any bother in the Middle East, and diesel prices were just high but not extortionate. One good decision that we made was to put ourselves on a ferry from Portsmouth to Spain, cutting out the long drive through France, thus saving on the cost of diesel, and also the toll roads in France, which are so expensive.

The ferry leaves tonight at 9:45pm and takes just over 32 hours to arrive in Santander. We prepared most of the van yesterday, so today we just have to pop the bikes on the back and add some food. We’ve left lots of time between our Isle of Wight ferry and the ferry from Portsmouth to Spain, as we don’t quite trust Wightlink not to cancel a few ferries for various reasons; the usual excuse is that the sea is wet and moves a bit! In the event, though, they managed to put us on an earlier ferry because of issues they had in the earlier part of the day. (See what we mean. If they have to go anywhere near water, they panic, and it all goes wrong!) This means that we have plenty of time to kill in Portsmouth. First, Jess needs a wash and her tyres checked.

H has cooked up some Belgian stew but adapted it using Guinness, so we guess it’s an Irish stew now.

We find a nice spot near the port ready for our ferry and have a very civilised dinner before driving the 500m to the port next door. There are lots of other motorhomes here, so we aren’t the only ones risking any fuel crisis that might come our way. 

Once we get on board the Brittany Ferries boat, we settle into our cabin. We have brought some comforts from home, slippers, robes, and our own pillows, amongst other things, just to make our journey that little extra comfy.

We toast our trip with a drink in the bar and then turn in for the first night. The weather is predicted to be low wind, but with a large 4m Atlantic swell for most of the journey. Could be interesting. 

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Tuesday 31st March 2026 (Portsmouth to Somewhere in the Bay of Biscay)

Del slept well last night, but H, unfortunately, not so well; it wasn’t the gentle rolling of the ship keeping her awake; she just couldn’t sleep. By 9am, the rolling swell is quite large and hitting us side on, twisting and rolling the ship. We have a light breakfast of coffee and croissants in the restaurant. There are some rather green-looking children here on board, clutching sick bags. 

After a walk around the ship, the excitement of the lots of sea around us and the grey skies force us back to our cabin. H is tired and needs a lie down.

After a very nice, peaceful rest, we spend the afternoon playing cards in the lounge area with a beer and a packet or two of crisps, where we are just in time for a quiz starting.

We are given a keypad to present answers from, and the quiz starts. Very soon, we are at the top of the leaderboard, and stay there until the very last question, where we are beaten to the correct answer by a split second.

Oh well, we never did get to see what we could have won, but it was a bit of fun all the same. 

We have booked into the main restaurant for dinner tonight, in the fancy bit of the boat, but first we have a glass of fizz for an aperitif. For dinner, we both choose from a set menu, salad bar and then a rare steak with a glass of Merlot. It’s all rather delicious and sophisticated; the salad bar is generous with huge prawns and smoked salmon.  We expected the price to damage the bank card, but it’s all very reasonable. The food and service are excellent, the ship is French-flagged with French staff, so of course, the food is very good. It’s to be expected. They do know what to do with a saucepan!

After an evening walk and to get the last bit of cloud, we turn in. We will be up at 6 bells in the morning, ready for disembarking at 7am sharp.

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Wednesday 1st April 2026 (Somewhere in the Bay of Biscay to Victoria – Gasteiz, Spain )

At 5:45am, we are woken gently by soft music coming over the cabin speakers. We get up, have showers and pack. H sets off in search of some coffee and Danish pastries to have in our room. At 7am ship time (8am Spanish time), we are docked, and released from the boat and out into the cold, damp, grey skies of Santander.

It’s cold and wet. Lovely.

We have heard horror stories of people spending hours in queues here because of the new EES system, where all non-EU country visitors must be fingerprinted and photographed at the border. Fortunately for us, we are waved through to the front, and soon we are in front of a camera and sticking our claw onto a piece of green flashing glass before being stamped in our passports and allowed entry. Tiresome, really, but there it is.

We need to stock up and do a shop, so we find a Lidl, and after spending some time and money, we head off towards Vitoria Gasteiz, where we have reserved a place in advance at a paid camper park.

The place where we are staying is 10 euros for the night and includes fresh water, a place to fill up your tank and empty your grey water. Very nice. We arrive and manoeuvre ourselves into position and commence the service. Very soon, an irate chap with a hi-vis vest, clipboard and waving a mobile phone camera at us is telling us off in a rather aggressive manner, saying words to the effect that we “shouldn’t be doing that”. Del breaks into some Spanish, and the ‘official’ calms down a little. It transpires that on a Wednesday, which is market day, you can’t use the facilities during certain hours. Interesting one that. We leave with our tail between our legs, after already being able to empty our grey water tank and fill up with fresh water to almost full. Stick that on your clipboard, mate…! 

We need some exercise after 32 hours on the boat and head into the town of Victoria – Gasteiz, a 35-minute walk.

Victoria – Gasteiz is in the Basque region of Spain, and has had a rather tetchy past with Spanish governments going over several years, which today, by and large, has been forgotten. Something about independence from Spain and all that kind of thing. A lot of people got hurt and killed for the cause.

Despite leaving it until later in the day, it’s all looking a bit shut and deserted in the old town. Siesta opening times are still going strong here. We walk around for a while.

We are in the old part of town, which is normally a pleasant and interesting place to walk around, but this place is a bit… well, edgy. Lots of graffiti, lots of closed and boarded-up shops. Is this the right place? It doesn’t feel right. We carry on walking and come out of the old town into the town ‘proper’ and find it very pleasant. Lovely shops, all clean and tidy, very nice. We stop at a bar for a drink outside in a little patch of sun that we have found. Within 20 minutes, though the temperature has dropped and we are cold to the bone and hungry. We walk to the bus via the rather modern but old-style immense cathedral, and get back to Jess, who is warm and welcoming.

Dinner is a tapas feast on board of Spanish goodies we have just bought. It’s rather delicious. 

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Thursday 2nd April 2026 (Victoria – Gasteiz to Logrono – 40 miles)

We both slept well last night on Jess. It was our first night on our new mattress, which has been custom-made, and it is very comfy. A hit!

We have a light breakfast and set off. Today we are visiting the Rioja wine region. Our first stop is to a cute little town on a hill called Laguardia. The parking place has views over the vineyards, which stretch for miles. All the vines look dead and withered, and the weather is showery and cold; it’s hard to imagine that soon this will all turn into lush vines of grapes in the sun.

One advantage of this weather is that it’s quiet – this is one of those places that will get crazy busy in the summer. We find a bar with a beautiful display of pinxos (small snacks of meat, fish and vegetables on a slice of rustic bread popular in the north of Spain). They look beautiful, but we don’t fancy anything today. H has a glass of Rioja (when in Rome, etc.) and Del has a coffee, well, someone has to drive.

The town is very pretty, charming and very old. After a good look round, we drive on to Logroño, a large town in the region well known for its ‘tapas street’. We’re amazed that we manage to get a space in the free motorhome area, as it’s Easter week – last night’s park up was very busy, or rather the free bit outside was, with about 40 vans parking in the supermarket car park. (We parked in the quieter paid bit next door). 

We’re a bit out of town here in the Logroño ‘park up‘, so we will get the bus, we wait, and wait and wait. Three don’t turn up, and we are about to give up and move on to the next town when it comes around the corner.

We’re glad it did, the town is beautiful, much better and bigger than we expected and has an amazing foodie vibe with cute backstreets crammed with cosy tapas bars serving amazing looking food paired with glasses of Rioja wine. 

We take a walk up the famous tapas street, Calle del Laurel. It is just packed…

We try a couple of places, sampling a few of the local specialities. Riojan potato stew (nicer than it sounds), garlic mushrooms and squid, and a pastrami carpaccio. We wander around, taking in the atmosphere and notice quite a few preparations for Easter events tomorrow. Perhaps we should stay another day now that we have our space?

We jump on the bus back and pop into the huge Carrefour supermarket opposite for some supplies. We can’t resist a rotisserie chicken, so have that back in the van with a salad and some wine. Not forgetting, of course, our lovely view here of a petrol station opposite, where we can watch the fuel price rise. So far, it has gone up 5 cents a litre since we went into town a few hours ago!

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Friday 3rd April 2026 ( Logroño – Day 2)

Happy Easter, everyone!

After a Spanish breakfast of tortilla (thick Spanish omelette) and a bit of research for the next few stops for the next few days, we set out on the ‘unreliable‘ bus into town.

Today is the day when catholic churches around Spain walk through the streets to mark the start of Semana Santa. The parade we watch is a very solemn event, and it’s supposed to commemorate the day Jesus was crucified, and to celebrate that the local churches build and parade effigies of Jesus on solid wood floats that are incredibly heavy and require many people to lift and carry them. They are so heavy that they can only walk it 20 or so meters before putting it down to rest.

We have an idea of the route for tonight’s large parade, so we shall come back later. While we’re here, we might as well have a spot of lunch. We find a bar on a busy street and have a few plates of Spanish goodies and some red Rioja to wash it down. Well, we are in the capital of Rioja after all.

After a quiet afternoon, we walk this time back into town and see that it’s become very busy. In the square, there are a few floats set up ready to be carried on the shoulders of the penitents wearing hats and gowns. Their outfits are remarkably like the ones of the Ku Klux Klan, and it looks very strange to our eyes, but here it’s the dress and does not mean anything dodgy.

Each float has its own marching drum band, and soon it becomes very noisy. We watch for a good while, we have a good position near the front, and the crowd is now eight deep. Easter here is a bigger event than Christmas. These processions can go on for hours; in some parts of Spain, they have been known to go overnight!

After an hour, we feel we have seen enough. There is only so much drumming and heavy float lifting one can take, so we walk back to the van.

We’ve enjoyed our couple of days in Logroño, it’s a good-looking city that’s very well cared for, very neat, very tidy, with a lovely, relaxed atmosphere and a great free parking space for Jess to stay on. Tomorrow we will move on. 

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Saturday 4th April 2026 (Logroño to Burgos – 70 miles)

This morning, while we have been having our breakfast, the price of diesel at the local garage has gone up another 2 cents. We have a good view of the prices here on our spot, and in two nights we have been here, the price for a litre of Diesel has gone up 7 cents! Crazy…

After a full service, we set off, and soon we are away from the beautiful city of Logrono and on a free motorway heading west towards the city of Burgos. The drive is beautiful. We have clear blue skies today, and the scenery is very nice, very hilly and green. It changes from looking like parts of the Lake District to Switzerland. The motorways are free and excellent.

It’s a very lovely drive today. As the motorway snakes its way into the distance, we can make out the last snow of winter on the mountains in the distance.

Our drive today runs parallel, on occasion, with the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James). It’s a famous and popular walk. There are lots of people doing it today, it looks like hard work. Why? Well… people undertake the Camino de Santiago for a mix of spiritual, personal, and physical reasons. While rooted in religious tradition to visit St. James’s shrine, modern pilgrims often seek personal growth, mental clarity, physical challenges, cultural immersion, and social connection with fellow walkers. Well, so they say. We’ll take the motorway!

H has found us another free night’s stop in the city of Burgos. We have done well with free stops so far in Spain. They are well-equipped here and make it easy for motorhoming. We are soon parked up, and we quickly set off for the bus into town, which has an elaborate cathedral. We shall see.

Once we got off the bus, we are greeted by a monument to El Cid. You’ve heard of him, right? He was a medieval military leader who became a Spanish national hero. He was famous for his victorious campaigns against the Muslims and Christians, most notably conquering Valencia in 1094.

Here in Burgos, as we walk the old close-built streets which are lined with cafes and restaurants, the locals here are really into the coffee culture, and they do it so well. They are all busy outside, people sitting in the open sunshine, enjoying coffee, a glass of wine or a small beer just chatting away. It’s all rather nice, so we decide that we should do the same with a small beer.

We give the cathedral a miss inside. They want 11 euros to go inside, which, considering that most are free of charge, we think is a bit steep.

We do walk around it on the outside. It’s very ornate and impressive.

What we did find out is that Burgos is Spain’s coldest city. Didn’t feel like it today…

Back at Jess, H makes her first Paella of the trip… It is wonderful, made with spicy Spanish Chorizo and the biggest prawns ever.

Amazing. We finish the dinner off with some blue cheese with the wonderful Rioja wine that we bought in the town of Laguardia on Thursday. Excellent. The night ends with Del getting thrashed at cards. Ah, nothing changes…

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Sunday 5th April 2026 (Burgos to Buitrago del Lozoya – 103 miles)

We have scrambled eggs with salmon and toast for breakfast before a quick pack-up, a van service, and soon we are away from Burgos and back on the motorway heading due south.

Today, we will stop at Aranda de Duero, a small town which is supposed to be charming. Our drives are quite short these days, so it’s not too long before we are in the town and hunting down yet another free space for the night!

We finally find the parking space, but we are not too keen on it. It’s a bit cramped, and what we have seen of the town on the way in doesn’t really inspire us, unless of course you like old buildings covered in graffiti. We move on. Our next choice is to go to Buitrago del Lozoya.

Another lovely drive as we climb higher to just over 1000m above sea level. The scenery just gets better. As we get to 1400m, we see more snow-covered mountains off into the distance. The sun is shining, and we are doing 60 mph down a fabulous Spanish motorway. Smashing.

We are about 70 km north of Madrid, and H has found us a nice, quirky campsite/stop. It’s not far from the town of Buitrago del Lozoya. The guy who runs it is so friendly and charming.

The place is basically built from repurposed shipping containers, painted and refitted with toilets, showers and a kitchen. For 18 euros, you get a place for the night with electricity and all the services. It’s a great place.

Time to use those bikes that we have hauled all the way from East Cowes… They are off the back, checked through, tyres pumped up, and away we go for the short bike ride into town, which is very cute and very old.

Again, people are all out in the sunshine, drinking, chatting and now having lunch, another big social deal here in Spain.

Back at Jess, we will have our first al fresco dinner. It’s so peaceful and pleasant here. We get ahead and have early showers, clean the van and have dinner. A great day today. We are feeling a bit tired though, so bed early tonight.

The new mattress is excellent by the way…! 

To see more of Del’s photographs from the past week, have a look here…

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Week 11 – Sunday 1st March – Saturday 7th March 2026. Hua Hin, Thailand, to Home, East Cowes. (The last week!)

Sunday 1st March

We wake up this morning to the news of a bombing in Dubai, with the airport and some hotels suffering damage, and the whole of the UAE airspace now closed. Most of the morning is spent discussing our options as our journey home is with Emirates via Dubai, with a two day stopover while we are there.

Will our flights be cancelled? Should we book an alternative flight now and risk not getting a refund on our original one? Should we leave it for a while, or will the flights fill up? We are very unsettled, but we get on with our day just the same.

Del has another much-needed haircut; after that, we use the gym for an hour, followed by a quick dip in our pool. We decide to go out to the local mall in the afternoon to have a drink and discuss our options further, as the window of opportunity is narrowing by the hour. The situation is getting worse, and Emirates has now offered us the option to request a refund. We find a couple of flights routed through China as alternatives, but agree to have an early dinner and get back to the hotel, where we can use the laptop to book flights and hotels instead of squinting and tapping away on a phone screen.

While we are out H decides to try a new massage machine. This one basically crushes you into submission. She did say that it was “deadly”.

Dinner is at a huge BBQ restaurant near the hotel. It’s very popular with the locals, and there’s only one other Western couple in there with us.

It’s quite a place – there are fridges full of trays of meat which you can help yourself from. There’s seafood, salads, cooked items and desserts; we won’t go hungry here, that’s for sure. It’s all you can eat for £6.50…! We assemble some plates of goodies and go to our table, which has had burning coals delivered to it.

We have a lovely time grilling and sampling everything. The locals are professionals at this. They have it all set up; they know exactly what to take and how to arrange it, compared to our slightly ad hoc, chaotic table. 

Dinner done, we go back to the hotel and start looking at flights again. There will be no flights at all routed to or from the UAE, so we will have to go over Russia or through Africa. There is panic everywhere, and the choice is already dwindling. On brokerage sites like Skyscanner, 99% of flights are supposed to transit through the Middle East, and airlines are still selling them in the hope that the situation will clear up. We doubt it will…

It raises the question of whether it’s good for the world’s airlines to have hubs in the Middle East, or even to connect through there, given that it’s a notoriously volatile region. Eggs in one basket come to mind. Every flight we pick disappears as we try to buy it, saying it’s no longer available. We are starting to become desperate. After five long and exhausting hours, we finally find a route home.

Our new route home will now be Bangkok to Shanghai, Shanghai to Zhengzhou  (we haven’t heard of it either, or know how to pronounce it!) and then Zhengzhou to Gatwick. All in all, it will take 56 hours, which includes 2 layovers at hotels. That’s not even counting the British trains and ferries that will no doubt do their best to add to the length of our trip home.

It’s a bit of a nightmare, really, but at least we will get home. Even if our original flight operates, we could end up being stuck in Dubai waiting for our next flight, which would be dangerous and expensive.

We go to bed at 1am, a little relieved.

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Monday 2nd March

We both didn’t sleep very well last night, but we are up at 8 am to have breakfast and pack for our 4-hour journey to the next hotel in Bangkok. We have a car booked for 11 am. 

Our lady driver turns up in a lovely car, and we are off to Bangkok. It’s another hot day today. En route, Del tries in vain to contact Emirates again about our refund, while H hammers the bank card some more, booking hotels for the Chinese layovers. She is consoling herself that she will hopefully get a chance to ride the world’s only commercial Maglev train from Shanghai airport into the city. We will have a few hours to have a quick look around. 

Finally, we arrive at our hotel, The Rose Residence, which is nicely tucked away in a back street away from the Bangkok city chaos.

Our room is large and comfy, and you would never know you are in Bangkok. We fancy a bit of lunch now, and the poolside restaurant is highly recommended, so we give it a try. We have one dish each. H has a Burmese curry, which is lovely, and Del has a Massaman curry, which is fantastic.

We unpack and settle in. There will be additional luggage logistics when we leave here, as one of our new connecting flights has a lower baggage weight limit, just to add to the complication of it all. 

The heat here in Bangkok is like a furnace, so we chill out in our room until it cools down a little. We are very close to Patpong Night Market, so we take a walk and look around it. They are only just setting up, but some nearby clubs are already touting for business. There are a few, shall we say ‘interesting’ shows here that some ladies perform in. We shall leave it at that! 

We’re going to see all the seedy nightlife that Bangkok has to offer tonight, oh yes, we are going to see it all tonight… Next, we walk to Soi Cowboy, famous for its go-go bars and adult entertainment.

It’s early yet, but it’s already busy, and even a few ladyboys are advertising themselves. We sit outside a bar with a beer and people-watch. Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Next is Nana Plaza, which considers itself “…The world’s largest adult playground…” (we might as well get all this done in one night). It’s an indoor plaza, like a mall if you like, that is 3 floors high with lap dancing clubs, bars and…, well just ‘places‘…! We walk around the perimeter visiting all three floors. We have to walk through gaggles of ‘dancers‘ in bikinis who are giving H a few looks – there aren’t many women walking around here.

We do see some sights, it’s certainly an education. We get another drink and watch what’s going on. No cameras are allowed to avoid incriminating anyone. We leave after our drink. We have seen more than enough and educated ourselves on Bangkok nightlife. Now it’s time for the peaceful oasis of our hotel. We jump on a rather jazzy tuk-tuk for the exciting ride home.

The tuk-tuks here are not the standard small ones found in the rest of Asia, but more like souped-up trikes with loud music, alloy wheels, and LED lights all over them. We zip through the streets and are soon back at the hotel. Ah.. bliss. That’s better…!

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Tuesday 3rd March

The breakfast at our hotel is lovely and à la carte, served in a very traditional dining room.

Del has breakfast but isn’t feeling great today. We get ready to go out, but opt to visit some malls first, as they are nicely air-conditioned and Del is not on top form today. H thinks that he should lie down, but he insists on going on, so off we go in a cab. He’s feeling worse as we walk around, and even the huge number of electronic shops can’t make him feel better, so we get another cab back. H goes out and buys him some drinks and some ginger tea. Leaving him alone to have a nap, H sets off into town to visit more malls. Like Malaysia, the malls here are huge, filled with expensive designer shops. One mall even has car showrooms inside from all the top manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, and Maserati. 

Once she’s had enough, she jumps on the metro and heads back. Del is feeling a little bit better and so wants to go out again. We find a cat cafe nearby, so we walk there, but it’s closed. It’s a big holiday on the Buddhist Calendar called Makha Bucha Day. Many places are closed today. We pass a huge temple complex and go inside to take a look.

People are praying, making offerings, and walking in a parade around the temple buildings, carrying flowers and candles. We light a candle in memory of our parents and put it on a water in front of a Buddha.

We have no idea what this is all about, but it’s nice to remember the people we have lost. 

Tonight, we have received an email from Emirates officially cancelling the first leg flight from Bangkok to Dubai.

It looks like we made the right decision after all. Dinner is in the back streets in a tiny family-run place, rustic but delicious.

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Wednesday 4th March

We have breakfast outside on the hotel terrace and plan to go out early to visit the large temple nearby. Before we leave, we receive another email from Emirates saying our refund submission has failed! Del is back in the queue for the online chat. Eventually, we get through and find out Emirates had split our booking reference into two different numbers and didn’t tell us. When applying for a refund on one reference number, they created another?!?! The operator has confirmed to us that we will receive a refund, which is a huge relief, having spent money on new flights and hotels.

The heat is like an oven, it’s so hot, low 40s, and it’s bouncing off the pavements. We arrive at the Wat Pho Temple, and H puts on her fancy wrap to cover her knees, as one must. This is the famous one that has the bloke lying on his side! We walk around the various buildings and temples.

It’s a huge place, beautifully ornate in the Thai style. After an hour or so, we are getting a bit weary despite drinking bottles of water.

We enter another building, always taking our shoes off, and Del moans, ‘It’s just more Buddhas in a row!’ What a philistine he is. 

We can’t take any more walking, it’s just too hot, so we opt to go to a shady garden cafe/zoo slightly out of town called “The Little Zoo Garden” where they have lots of animals like capybaras, goats, nutrias, chickens and a deer. On the way, however, we spot a cafe doing mango sticky rice, so we can’t help ourselves, or rather H can’t, and stop and have some and a coconut ice cream. It’s delicious.

This is almost our last chance to have it for a while. We could make it in the UK, but the mangoes here are a different type. It’s fast becoming our favourite dessert ever, after an Ile Flottante.

The cafe/zoo is quite expensive, but for your ticket, you get a drink and a homemade cookie. We spent a good hour feeding the capybaras and nutrias, which look like large rats. They are all sweet and very gentle, and we have them to ourselves for a while.

We opt for a taxi back instead of the metro. Back at the hotel, we freshen up and go for a drink while we discuss options for our last night in Bangkok, indeed Thailand. We will go to the Yarowat Road tonight. It’s in Chinatown and is one of the two busy food-and-nightlife streets in Bangkok.

It is indeed busy with street food and restaurants, and neon lights all the way down it. We have a slice of pizza, some Thai fish cakes and some coconut pancakes. All very delicious. It’s a mad place, with so much food available, and this is happening in every Asian city.

Time to get one of those loud, bright, fast tuk-tuks back to the hotel.

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Thursday 5th March

Today, we are leaving Thailand as our East Asia tour is now fast coming to an end. We are flying to Shanghai; it should have been our flight to Dubai, but that is all gone now. Some flights are running out of Dubai to back home, but they are prioritising the people who have been waiting the longest, and we can’t believe they are flying out of the airport whilst there are still drone attacks on the city. We certainly would not want to be taking off while that is going on with Iran just a few miles away. 

We are flying with Spring Airlines today, a Chinese operator, we’ve never heard of them, but they check out ok on the internet. One of the few flights that we looked at when we were booking was Air Turkmenistan. Yes, we were getting desperate! However, once we saw their safety score, we quickly changed our minds. They had only recently been allowed to fly to Europe after some incidents.

The Spring Airlines flight turns out to be very good. We leave on time and get safely to Shanghai 4 hours later.

The bags arrive quickly, and we are through immigration and at our hotel in just over an hour. It’s 1 am when we finally turn in for the night. 

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Friday 6th March

We are up early despite being very tired. Our flight is at 22:30 tonight, so we have a few hours to see Shanghai. We check out of the hotel and leave our bags at the airport’s left luggage and set out to hunt down coffee and a croissant at the airport.

Buying things here is more complicated than we thought. We have signed up for all the payment apps here. Cash is not really popular for payment anywhere in China; instead, they use apps like Alipay and WeChat. You can’t buy anything without a code being generated and scanned through these apps. The apps are, of course, attached to your bank account. When you get it going and understand it, it’s actually not too bad.

We finally get our croissants…!

It’s the big day today, and we will get the maglev into the city. This is the world’s only commercially operating maglev train.

Surprisingly, it was built in 2003 at a cost of over $ 1 billion for the 30km track. It takes 8 minutes and travels at 300km/h (186mph), but it can reach 267mph.

We buy VIP tickets, of course, and get the carriage to ourselves. We set off, and the acceleration is quick. We are soon speeding at 300kph and tilting around corners. It’s fabulous. 

We have a busy itinerary in Shanghai, including the old town, the Temple of the God of Heaven, and Yu Garden.

The temperature here is 10 degrees. It’s a shock after coming from 40-degree heat, and we don’t really have the clothes for it, as we didn’t expect to be doing this.

The old town is very pretty, and we have brunch in a very local food court; we are the only Westerners here. Again… The food is disappointing, but maybe we have chosen the wrong things. Next, we head to the Pearl Tower. 

We notice that cameras are everywhere, facial recognition is widely used here, and any ‘bad behaviour’ by Chinese citizens is met with a talking to by plod. Even jaywalking can lose them their ‘social credit’, which is a state-led initiative to assess the trustworthiness of individuals. Any bad behaviour is punished by losing credit, which means restrictions on booking flights, using high-speed trains, exclusion from certain jobs, and public naming and shaming. Hmm.. Interesting concept, how long will it be until we get this.

This probably explains why the city is also spotless. This is our second communist country on the trip, the first being Vietnam, which is much more relaxed. In China, the internet is also restricted; apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and many more are banned. We can use them, though, because we have foreign phones with foreign eSIMs. This is why there is a high rate of phone theft in Europe now (especially in London): the phones are then sold in China to circumvent banned websites and apps. 

The Pearl Tower is a distinctive landmark in Shanghai that resembles a rocket. The view is a bit hazy, but interesting.

The city is massive and sprawling. There’s a glass walkway, which is the scariest one we have done as it’s 260m high, overhangs the tower and is very clear.

There is a fabulous media display and a VR coaster, which H goes on.

It’s very good – a real roller coaster on which you wear a VR headset which displays an animated world; it’s a bit scary not to have decent restraints and not to be able to see the track ahead. H grips on, which is unusual for her.

Del fancies some duck, so we go to a highly rated duck restaurant.

It’s high up in a department store, one of the cleanest and flashiest we have seen, with a view of Nanjing Road, and it has the most delicious melt-in-the-mouth duck we’ve ever had.

We are fast running out of time, so we walk to the riverfront to see the skyline. Truly spectacular, with the opposite river bank lined with huge skyscrapers all lit up and showing video and bright lights all over them.

We have to rush back now and take the maglev back to the airport to pick up our bags and check in for our flight to Zhengzhou. The China Southern flight is excellent, and we touch down dead on time in Zhengzhou at just gone midnight. It’s minus 1 degree here, and we are cold to the bone. The wait for a cab is horrendous. Eventually, we get one and arrive at the hotel, a fantastic Marriott, very nice and comfortable. It’s 2:30am when we go to bed. 

Here are a few more snaps from our 36 hours in China

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Saturday 7th March

We are up at 9am, tired once again, and have breakfast. As we are checking out, we see a food delivery driver come into the lobby and drop the delivery into a slim box on wheels with a screen just inside reception. It’s a robot that sets off for the lift, chatting away to itself in Chinese.

It somehow calls the lift and enters, goes up to the floor and then the room where the delivered goodies are dropped off. We have never seen anything like this. China is far more advanced than any other country in terms of things like this.

Zhengzhou is a well-known city in China; it is the birthplace of Chinese civilisation and also home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, run and owned by Foxconn.

It’s a pretty grim-looking place, though, grey and very industrial. It is probably better in the centre of the city, we will never know, as we are staying at the outskirts near the airport. 

We board our flight and leave on time. The flight goes smoothly; it’s on a 787 Dreamliner, which we haven’t been on. Very nice, quiet and comfortable, but we prefer the giant A380. We arrive at a grey, soggy Gatwick slightly early after 11 hours. Our airline, China Southern, was very good. The food was ok, the service was very nice, though there weren’t many Western films on the entertainment system. Top marks though…

We have a 55-minute wait at Gatwick for our bags, and have to run for the train that will connect us to the 9 pm ferry; we make it just in time. If we missed the 9pm, then we would have had to wait until midnight for the next one. We finally walk through the door at home at 10:30 pm, very tired and jet-lagged, but grateful to be home safe and not stuck in Dubai. 

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…and finally…

We have been away for three months, departing the UK on the 15th of December 2025. We have visited Dubai, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, ending with an unexpected but excellent, short trip to China.

It has been a fabulous trip, missing most of the UK winter, which was our plan. We are grateful that we have been able to do it. It has taken a lot of planning and research, most of it done by H, who found us some excellent flights and brilliant hotels.

We have seen and done a lot. Seeing how other people live, work and get through their day is truly an education. You don’t have to go mountaineering, bungee jumping, living in a hut in a jungle, or daft wunderlust things. Just walking around, eating, travelling and mixing with local people is rewarding in many ways. We are all the same, really. We need to work to put food on the table, keep a roof over our heads, and try to stay healthy. No matter where you go, that, in the main, is what everybody wants. Unfortunately, we are so polarised now, and governments don’t help; in fact, they make it worse. The problems we have here at home are just the same in all the places that we have just visited.

During this trip, we have stayed in 17 hotels (and 1 apartment) and taken 12 flights (plus 7 more for Del…)

We are now home and planning our next trip, this time in Jess, our home on wheels. The plan is to sail from Portsmouth down south through the Bay of Biscay on Brittany Ferries to northern Spain, drive through the middle of Spain to the south, then turn back up and drive north along the east coast of Spain and into France and back home via Le Shuttle, seven weeks all told, back in time for summer on the island.

Again, thank you to our family and friends who have followed us on our Asia trip. It’s just a load of rambling we know, but it helps us to remember in more detail what we did all this time we have been away, and we are happy to share it with you.

We would like to send you our very best wishes and to encourage you, if you can, to “get out there“. The world is a wonderful place, really, with some wonderful people, despite all that’s going on in various places.

See you soon…

Del & H

Week 10 – Sunday 22nd February – Saturday 28th February 2026

We are now going into week 10 with 2 weeks or so left before home. It’s time for Thailand, having done Malaysia to the south and Vietnam to the east. Our time so far down here in South East Asia has been fantastic; we have seen and done a lot. This week we are just chilling and relaxing in Hua Hin, as in the map above, then the last few days in Bangkok, before setting off for home via Dubai…

Sunday 22nd February

It’s a grey day today here in the capital city, Hanoi, Vietnam, with some light drizzle, so after breakfast, we finish off the week 9 blog, and Del does a bit of homework, after which we visit the gym. It’s still raining when we finish, so we take our chance to have a last salted coffee and egg coffee.

Egg coffee was invented in Hanoi during the First Indochina War in the 1940s when milk was scarce. It was invented by a bartender in Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel as an alternative creamer. It’s very nice and smooth with a slightly eggy aftertaste. We squat down on the usual Vietnamese small stools and enjoy morning coffee, people watching.

Tonight we are going to the famous water puppet theatre here in town. We have been before, but it always makes us grin… As it’s still raining, and it’s the Tet holiday weekend, the traffic in town is just gridlocked. We need a cab to get us to the theatre, but no chance, the waiting time will make us late for the show. Del has a bright idea: book 2 mopeds instead. H is a bit nervous about this, having seen how the traffic and the driving is here today, but really, we have no choice, we will never make it in time, so we book one each, and we are soon whisked off, squeezing between the cars and the people… to arrive on time. This is the second time we have been on a Grab bike. It was fun, though. Big grin for that one.

Water puppetry is a Vietnamese folk art dating back to the 11th century. Puppets act on a water stage operated by half-submerged puppeteers behind wooden blinds. It’s very good and quite comical in parts; there’s an English translation, but we prefer to just watch it in Vietnamese as the story is quite easy to follow. There are scenes of rice growing, dragon dancing and phoenixes bringing up their young, all accompanied by live traditional music and vocals.

It’s a fabulous show, and we leave with a grin on our faces. 

The area near the theatre is just chaotic with tourists. Since we were last here 8 years ago, some parts of Vietnam have just taken off tourist-wise, so we walk towards the hotel in search of the calmer, quieter part. We walk until we realise we are at train street, again. We might as well get a beer while we are here and find a restaurant that’s nearby on Google Maps.

Our timing is immaculate, as just as we sit down, a train comes past. This one is extra wide and makes us a bit nervous as it’s the closest to us yet! 

We walk to a nearby restaurant and have our last Vietnamese dinner, which is made up of summer rolls, lemongrass chicken and a Vietnamese pancake, all of which are very nice.

As it’s our last night in Vietnam, we even decide to visit our expensive hotel rooftop bar for a goodbye cocktail, which in the end is quite reasonable after all.

Again, we are the only ones there again. Odd for such a lovely place.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam and hello Thailand…!!

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Monday 23rd February

We wake this morning to 2 emails from Vietjet, Vietnam’s, or rather the world’s, worst airline for time keeping, who are again moving our flight to Bangkok back twice. Great.

We head to the airport anyway, as we don’t trust them and with good reason. At the bag drop, we are told that we haven’t paid for our bags!! Which is nonsense, of course. We show our booking with proof, but the woman just refuses us and sends us to the information desk, where we have the same experience. It’s a real case of ‘computer says no’. Of course, H is on the internet chatting with the booking agent, but it’s taking too long, it’s too complicated, and life is too short, so we pay the extra 33 dollars for the bags. We get receipts, and we will just have to sort them out when we have time. The agent has agreed to look into it, so we shall see. As a bonus, though, they have moved the flight back again for the third time… great.

We booked with Vietjet because they had a good flight time, but now we will be 4 hours late into Bangkok. We will never use Vietjet again. 

It’s a bit of a bumpy flight; the landing is fun too, as the pilot slams us down onto the runway in Bangkok. The poor plane’s wheels felt like they should have snapped off. 

We are heading to a place called Hua Hin, which has no useful airport to speak of and is a 4-hour drive by car. We have pre-booked a nice car to take us in some comfort to our destination. We get stuck in roadworks and various accident tailbacks. The journey eventually takes 4.5 hours. It’s a comfy, luxurious car, but we can’t wait to get out at the other end. We’ve spent 12 hours travelling today.

We are a bit numb and a bit peckish and in need of a glass of wine. Most places are closing up as it’s getting near 10 pm, but one nice place agrees to cook for us. H has a delicious pad Thai, and Del has a club sandwich. It’s been a long day, but we are finally here at our next place. The hotel is fabulous, the Hotel G Hua Hin, our home for the next 7 nights.

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Tuesday 24th February

It was a late arrival last night, so we get up just in time to have a very nice breakfast and then set about exploring the hotel. It’s a very nice place, made even better as our room has a private pool/jacuzzi.

The heat here is the hottest of the trip so far, and we will definitely need our pool to cool off.

The beach is very close to the hotel, just across the main road, so we set out for a walk. It’s a lovely sandy beach, with a nice aqua sea, which is probably full of deadly jellyfish! It’s also a very popular beach with many flats and hotels backing onto it. It’s so so hot though, and people are just walking about like it’s no big deal, how they do it we don’t know. We like it, though, despite the heat.

Time to see what’s here in the area. This week is a week where we will just stop and chill out. We tried it in the last hotel in Phu Quoc, which didn’t go as well as we hoped, but this time we’re in a very nice hotel where it’s very comfortable.

We head off for the comfort of some good AC and find a mall. There are numerous interesting shops here, and a large supermarket is located in the basement. Malls are a big deal in Southeast Asia. We are struck by the number of Westerners here, lots of them. If they all left this place, it would be empty. Many of them are single men in their 60s.

Time to stock up on some water and some beer. We find a very large and comprehensive sushi fridge in the supermarket, pick a few things out for lunch, and hurry back to our pool at the hotel. It’s fab with a big daybed to lounge on. We dine on our sushi, relax and spend the afternoon reading and dipping in and out of the pool. 

For dinner, we catch a tuk-tuk to the local night market. These are always popular places, and this one is no different. It’s packed! Lots of stalls cooking fish, meats, and all manner of things on sticks.

It’s also hot and humid; we are heating up fast. Finally, we settle on somewhere for dinner, but there’s no AC, just fans on the wall! To make things a little hotter, we both have different Thai curries. Del has a Massaman curry, and H has a Panang curry. They are delicious, of course, Thai food is one of the tastiest in the world.

Have we ever been this hot at night? We have forgotten how hot Thailand can get compared to Vietnam. After our hot and tasty dinner, it’s back out onto the hectic street in search of a dessert. We find one – khanom krok, which is a coconut rice pastry with a rich coconut filling cooked in round moulds.

They are cooked in front of you, so there is a bit of a wait before you can safely eat them! They don’t disappoint; they are the most ‘coconutty’ thing we have ever had. Fantastic. 

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Wednesday 25th February

After breakfast, it’s off to the gym! Yes, it has to be done!! Today we are going to shop… Something we don’t normally do as a habit, but we feel we need some new, fresh clothes! So we get on a songthaew to another large shopping mall. A songthoew is basically a converted pick-up truck with 2 parallel benches in the back and a roof. You flag them down and jump on, they will stop anywhere you want on their route, and then you pay the flat rate of 15 baht (35p). It’s a very common form of transport in Thailand, and multiple routes run here.

2 months in Asia, sweating into and wearing the same set of clothes, and using local laundries will really take it out of your clothes, so it’s time for a refresh. We go a bit mad, shopping like this feels a bit odd for us. Normally, we just go out on our own and get what we need when we need it; it’s never done as an occasion or an event, but today we are armed with some cash and a card, and we are going to shop!

Nothing too exciting, just some t-shirts each. Told you, shopping is not our thing.

Dinner tonight is Japanese. There is a very nice place in a mall called Fuji Restaurant. It’s part of a small chain, but it looks very nice inside with an excellent menu. Before that, though, we can’t help ourselves and do more shopping, we have the bug! H gets some shoes, Del gets a lightweight, trendy jacket. We are shopping till we drop here, folks, we are going mad…!

The Japanese dinner is fantastic. We had a traditional Okonomiyaki, a salmon salad, squid, dumplings and sashimi. This was all helped along with three small carafes of cold sake…! Well, when in Rome and all that…

Once we have found the connection back to our legs, full of fish and sake, we slowly and carefully leave the restaurant and head for home. On the way, we find a wine shop selling French fizz. We’ve been looking for this for ages… We will chill this and save it for a night in the pool. We have a few things to toast…

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Thursday 26th February

Here’s something different to start your day… We have booked a ‘floating breakfast’ this morning. We saw it advertised and couldn’t resist – how often do you get to do that? It’s only available for the rooms with the private pools.

At 9:15am, 2 staff members gingerly enter the room and delicately place the large white basket-like tray into our pool. After checking for buoyancy, they leave us to it. They probably think we tourists are very strange. There’s a cooked breakfast each, pastries, toast, cereal, yoghurt and fruit and a pot of coffee. We sit in the pool with the tray in front of us, cutting up our bacon as the tray tries its best to float away.

It’s very funny, and we enjoy the novelty, but it’s not the most practical way to have breakfast. We’re glad we tried it, though; it’s got to be one of the most unusual breakfasts we’ve had. It’s 30 degrees (with a real feel of 37) even at this time of the morning. 

We have a bit of a quiet, relaxed day and sit by the pool reading. Del gets on with some homework. The year ahead is looking pretty good in the lighting world, so he’s a bit of a digital nomad at the moment.

There’s a little pizza place next to the hotel, and Del does love his pizza. H isn’t that hungry, having felt a bit off all day, probably due to the breakfast. They do small pizzas here too, so she goes for one of them while Del goes full strength, of course and confidently proclaims it as “the best pizza” he’s ever had (again). 

We grab a taxi to Walking Street, the place where all the late-night bars and pickup places are. Some of them look very shady, and that’s just the people… There are lots of local girls here and quite a few single men roaming around.

It’s quite sedate and well-behaved, really, compared to Saigon or Bangkok, which are loud, lively, bright and brash. Good though.

We go back to the hotel and have a sensible early night. 

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Friday 27th February

We had a good sleep last night. A couple of days ago, we noticed a classic car museum in one of the malls, so we thought that we would take a look. We are a bit surprised as it’s more impressive than we first thought. It’s a large space with about 30 or so cars in it, ranging from the 1950s sports cars, sedans and luxury cars right up to the present day.

There are some lovely models here, our favourites being a gorgeous blue Mercedes SL55 4Matic +, the cheeky Mazda MX5 and the very impressive BMW i8 (why can’t all electric cars look this good?).

We spend over an hour admiring the cars, which are so shiny and well presented. We are the only ones in; for something like this, we expected many more people. There’s also a small art gallery with some strange local art, which is a bit random, as it seems to be just tacked on at the end. 

Time is getting on, so we have a late lunch. Del’s not too impressed with his rather spicy curry. The Thais love spice, and if you request a medium spice level when you order, you will receive a curry that will blow your head off. H likes it, though, being a bit hardier in the matters of Thai curries! On our way out from lunch, we find a Michelin-rated restaurant who specialise in the delicious Thai dessert, Mango Sticky Rice, which is just amazing…

Back at the hotel, we decide that the time is right to have a glass of fizz in our pool and discuss how quickly the time is flying by, which it is.

Del has not failed to mention it every day! He is right, our 7-night stay is just zooming by. This time next week, we will be in Dubai on our way home. 

There are two large food markets here that open at weekends. Cicada Market is an arts and crafts market with food stalls and live music from traditional Thai instruments to an 8-piece jazz/funk band on a nice big stage. The whole market is purpose-built and very neat and tidy; it’s a bit of a contrast after Vietnam’s chaos.

We’re not very hungry having had lunch late, but we manage to share a pad Thai and some satay chicken. Next door is another market, which is just food. The Tamarind Market is a bit more rustic and also has music on. Del prefers this one, and mentions it several times… We have coconut ice cream served in a coconut shell, very nice and coconut pastry balls known as khanom krok. We tried them earlier this week.

They are very special… We sit and watch the acoustic band as they struggle with a dodgy cable that produces lots of hums, bangs and cracks. They get it sorted and turn out to be very good.

It has been a rather exhausting day today, so we take a traditional tuk-tuk back to the hotel.

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Saturday 28th February

Today is H’s rabies jab number 4. We pre-registered on Tuesday, filled in all the forms, agreed on a price and were told to return today, so we set off for the hospital soon after breakfast.

We turn up at reception. They are a tad confused and seem to know nothing about the appointment. Good start.

We are directed to A&E, where we wait for an hour and have to explain to the doctor what happened, how it happened and where and how to inject the vaccine. We guess he is just being careful. With rabies injections, you can’t mix intramuscular and dermo. You can’t mix protocols, i.e., 5 jabs or 4. (That’s your Essen v Zagreb protocols for those interested in how rabies vaccinations work…! Here is your very own cut-out and keep run-down of the rabies vaccination.) Once you start the course of injections, you must stick to it until the last one. Rabies is 100% fatal, so don’t mess about..!

We are reading in the news that Israel has started bombing Iran; it doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s been on the cards for a while. We will keep an eye on that one and see how it develops.

Eventually, H gets the injection and is whisked off to the payment area. To top it all, it’s double the quoted price, which we have to pay. The most expensive of all of the jabs so far at £45.00. Hospitals can charge whatever they want to. The vaccine itself is under a quid. They know that you have to have it, so they stick a finger in the air and make up a price. Bad. Very bad.

We go back to the hotel for H to recover. The reactions to the jab are getting stronger with each one, and it completely wipes out H, who feels dizzy and nauseous. (Hasn’t stopped her talking though…!)

The rest of the day is spent by our pool. We share a pizza, and Del tries a Matcha Tea and decides that it’s not for him, despite trying it some time ago on a trip to Japan!

It turns out that the bombing in Iran by Israel was and is with US backing, and that the situation there is escalating. We are where we are; all we can do is keep an eye on it. We finish off the fizz in the pool. Del toasts a successful and pleasant winter trip in Asia. Probably a bit premature, as we have a week still to go, and the Middle East has become a trigger-happy place

We are going to a local food market tonight, which has live bands on. The perimeter of the place is just covered in food vendors selling anything and everything that is edible. It’s a lively and busy place. We have a walk around but decide it’s not for us tonight, we have done two food markets here already. Seen one, you’ve seen them all!

So for dinner, we head for a local place called “Thai Kitchen at 94“, A small family-run place that is fabulous.

Del has a Panang curry, and H has a Tom Yum Soup, both of which are delicious. For dessert, we shared a Mango Sticky Rice.

Back at the hotel, we check the latest on the Middle East, which has escalated so much that flights are now being cancelled in Dubai. We are booked with Emirates to fly into Dubai and spend two nights there on our way home. It seems that the situation in the Middle East is getting worse.

Tomorrow, we probably need to look at a ‘Plan B‘.

Week 9 – Sunday 15th February – Saturday 21st February 2026

Sunday 15th February

We are moving rooms today, hopefully into the correct one that we booked! We spent the night in what they call a ‘suite‘. It looked nice but was terrible. Half the windows had no curtains, there was dodgy plumbing and a bathroom, where the gaps between the walls and the roof were open to you and your neighbours. Not great.

After a reasonable breakfast, we pack up our bags, finish the week 8 blog, and wait in reception. At 2 pm, we are finally given our room. It’s got a good bathroom with a proper shower, at last.

It’s also in a nicer, leafier area of the property. It’s a wooden hut, but done out nice, the power sockets are all in the wrong place, but we will survive! We unpack, have showers and take a walk around the local area and settle down with a salted coffee. Very nice. Things seem to be back on track.

We are both without sunglasses at the moment, we’ve both broken a pair, and H lost her original, favourite ones in Penang, she left them in the back of a cab, Del sat on his! So we decide to go into the main busy town of Duong Dong to see what we can find.

The taxi ride takes us down an unusually huge, wide and long road with no markings, which isn’t strange in itself, as most roads here have no markings and if they do, nobody takes any notice of them, but it’s only when H looks at Google maps that she sees that it’s the old airport’s runway. It has even kept its runway numbers, 8/26. Here is an interesting wiki about the airport for our reader. The traffic seems to work, though in the usual chaotic Vietnamese way, and we’re soon in the town.

It’s business as usual here, Vietnamese street life of food carts and markets selling all sorts of food from fresh herbs to whole chickens.

It’s a big fishing port here on the river, and the huge fishing boats are rafted up.

We find the night market and some sunglasses, hurrah! We can stop squinting! 

There is a seafood restaurant in the market right next to the fishing boats, so we stop and decide to dine and have some fried rice, grilled squid and chicken skewers, which are all tasty, if expensive, compared to ‘normal’ Vietnam, but we are in a bit of a tourist trap, which consists mainly of Russians.

We need a few essentials: water and deodorant. Del is starting to kick up a bit now. We find a small supermarket which has a resident kitten running around the aisles and climbing on the shelves, a tiny little thing with a pearl collar, quite tame and chatty.

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Monday 16th February

It’s New Year’s Eve here today in Vietnam, in fact, in most of Asia today. They call it Tet in Vietnam.

We are up at 6:30 this morning!!!! We have to be at the hospital for an 8am appointment for H’s 2nd rabies jab. We are first at breakfast, instead of almost the last, then we are off in a cab.

The doctor who said she’d meet us, and to come early, sees us and directs us to A & E. It turns out we didn’t need to get here early after all… We were told that because of the Tet, New Year holiday, there won’t be many people in; however, when we get to A&E, it’s just as busy as a normal day. No 8-hour waits here, though. People are in, seen to, and out…!

H gets her second jab, and the paperwork is filled in. The next one will be in Hanoi on the 21st of February. We are looking for a coffee, so we take a cab to Grand World. It’s all part of the Vinwonders tourist attraction.

It’s all done in that nice fake Italian style here that they like so much. We visited last week at night. It was chaos, people everywhere, noise, and so much colour and light, your eyes and ears hurt. We haven’t seen it by day, and as it’s close to the hospital and we want coffee, we decide that we will have a look.

By day, it’s even more weird, with high-speed gondolas whizzing about with hardly anyone on them, and bright Italian buildings with British red phone boxes (in Italy?) The town is deserted, dead. It’s New Year’s Eve here tonight, so they are preparing for that, with a large area cordoned off as they set up a load of fireworks around the lake.

Back at our garden hut, we sit by one of the pools and read. H goes and gets a couple of bahn mis, the famous Vietnamese sandwich, but on this occasion, they are disappointing, we eat them on our terrace. 

Later, we sit by our second pool and read and talk about the future. A long conversation that was!

A few of the local restaurants are shut tonight because of the New Year Holiday, so we take a stroll and decide to go to the family restaurant we went to on Saturday night.

It’s nice there with all the family working in there, and they are always so smiley and friendly.

We have crispy prawns and a BBQ platter of chicken, squid and prawns. It’s delicious and all served by the kids!

They wish us a happy new year and give us bananas and water when we leave?! We end the day with a walk to the very small front where someone is letting off fireworks. It’s a bit different to New Year’s Eve in Kuala Lumpur. We find a temple, most of which is dedicated to fishermen. It’s all very peaceful and serene, quite nice. We stroll back to the hut. We have the intention to stay up until midnight, but decide not to bother. Once you’ve done one New Year’s Eve, you’ve done them all…!

Happy New Year!

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Tuesday 17th February

Today is 30 years to the day that we had our first date! Oh, the pain…! It took place at a Chinese restaurant in Manchester while Del was working up there. He met H, who at the time was working for Granada TV, on ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ (who remembers that?) 30 years have gone very quickly.

We are still reeling from the excitement of the fake Italy yesterday, so we sit by the pool and read and generally don’t do much, no places to visit, no taxis, no masses of people and trying to cross the road, we just sit by the pool, read, eat and go for walks.

There is a gym here, but it’s a big disappointment; it’s outside, and everything is rusty. It looks more like a scrapyard than a gym. 

For dinner, we try what is considered a nice restaurant in the local area.

It looks impressive, and the reviews look good, but it doesn’t go very well. Del has a watered-down cocktail, a Moscow Mule, which tastes like a ginger beer on ice! For a starter, we have their fresh summer rolls, which are just tasteless. Normally, these things are packed with lots of different herbs, and are very tasty, but not on this occasion, these were just packed with lettuce and shredded carrot! H has a Vietnamese pancake which is supposed to be crispy and again chock full of herbs; however, it’s soggy, limp and tasteless. (It’s actually pancake day today, but we didn’t know that until afterwards.) We pay and leave. Del consoles himself with an ice cream, which is also disappointing. It’s going very well…! A lot of the businesses are shut today as it’s New Year’s Day, so maybe that explains a few things. 

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Wednesday 18th February

We are a bit tired today, and no gym to get some life into us, so we have a slow morning. The hotel provides a free buggy to the beach, so we have the idea of getting ready and going; however, today, of all days, it’s broken! (We are becoming less impressed with this hotel.) We are considering walking the 20 minutes to the beach, but the heat is stifling, mid to high 30s, so we decide instead to have lunch nearby.

Del has a traditional Vietnamese broth called Pho, and H has a more successful Vietnamese pancake than last night’s. All very tasty. We stroll back to the hotel and elect to just have a lie down in our AC’ed room and read. Del has a bit of work to do, so it works out well.

As the afternoon turns to early evening, the temperature drops, and it’s much better, so we sit by the pool with a drink, chat about the future, again, and swim. There’s not really a lot to do here, which is kind of what we were looking for, but we are finding the hotel is not as comfortable as it should be, or as we had hoped for.

We are not hungry for dinner tonight after our lunch, so instead we go for a cocktail nearby with a side of spring rolls and fried prawns that are just delicious.

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Thursday 19th February

Still no working buggy for the beach today, so we will do the 20-minute walk after all. The beach is supposed to be very nice, so we shall see. We set off at about 10am before it gets too hot.

Indeed, the beach is lovely, with comfy sunbeds and palm trees providing the shade. We relax and get an iced coffee and a fresh coconut.

The sunbeds back at the hotel have no cushions, just hard wood or plastic, not very comfortable at all. Not sure if we’ve mentioned it, but we are not impressed with the hotel for a lot of things, uncomfortable sunbeds are just one of them. In fact, we have decided that it’s the worst hotel of the trip and a big disappointment, their website says one thing, but the reality is something else.

We spend a pleasant 3 hours on the beach on the comfortable sunbeds in the shade of some palm trees. It’s lovely. Del has recently got into a new app called NotebookLM. It’s your own AI notebook. You collect sources from the internet or your own documents and stuff them into the app, which you can then chat with. It’s a fabulous learning tool that generates podcasts, slide shows, quizes and flash cards to help you with whatever you are studying or researching. So he puts together a roller coaster knowledge base and generates a quiz all about rollercoasters for H, who is very sceptical about AI.

An hour is spent quizzing her. She’s very good at it. She knows all the fastest and highest coaster, who makes them, types, and so on. What a nerd. After demonstrating her knowledge of global coasters, we head back. It’s hot… Very hot, and we can’t wait to get back to the cool AC room…

Dinner tonight is the good old, tried and tested Streamside family restaurant just down the road from the hotel, which has become a regular eatery. We like it there, you get served by the whole happy, smiley family. They do excellent crispy shrimp and a BBQ, which we enjoy with a glass or two of wine.

Tomorrow we escape, sorry, move on to Hanoi.

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Friday 20th February

We are up and about by 9 this morning and on our way to have breakfast, after which we will pack and leave the room at 12. The hotel has kindly arranged for transport to the airport, but what they didn’t tell us is that it is a shared car. When it arrives, it’s all too cramped and cosy. The cases have to be literally kicked and punched in the back of the car, with three of us snuggly squeezed in the back and one in the front, complete with our carry-on bags on our knees.

We politely refuse and book our own cab to the airport, a nice, roomy six-seater with plenty of room. We are not sure if we have mentioned it yet, but we are glad to be getting away from this hotel….!

Our original flight at 13:20 to Hanoi has already been moved to 15:35, and now we find out that it’s been moved again to 17:00. We are on a local carrier called VietJet. They have a bit of a reputation for moving flights, with some people complaining of up to a 9-hour delay. Unfortunately, there is no real regulation here, so the three-hour delay and claiming compensation as you can in Europe doesn’t exist here.

We will have to kill time at the airport, so we have a light lunch, and a rather nice tea and coffee. With all of the horror stories we have heard about our illustious carrier, we are expecting the worst, but despite the delay, the check-in goes well. The flight goes well, we arrive on time, our bags come on the flight with us… What a result. In all, despite the delay, it wasn’t altogether a bad flight. We have another one with them in a few days to Bangkok, let’s see how that one goes.

We are soon on our way in a taxi and on to the hotel. The temperature here is very nice, it’s 8pm in the evening now, and it’s 23 degrees, compared to 30 at this time when we were in Phu Quoc. 

The hotel is wonderful…! We are in the Hotel de Lagom. A far cry from our previous accommodation.

We drop the bags in the room and make our way to the rooftop bar. It’s a lovely space with a pool and a proper ‘sit at the bar’ bar, cushions everywhere and comfortable seating. Simple stuff.

We can see the mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh is laid. Fabulous. We have a glass of Merlot, some fries and a Bao bun to share – a steamed roll filled with beef, herbs and pickle. Delicious. We toast our safe arrival and are happy to be away from the Herbal Spa Resort.

We get the bill and nearly fall off our barstools. £45.00…!!!! The wine is over £10 a glass – expensive for London, even. For Vietnam, that is an extraordinarily massive sum of money. We look around and realise that it’s empty, we are the only customers on a Friday night in the capital of Vietnam… We laugh about it but decide there and then that although we have had a nice night, we will not be frequenting this bar again…

Back to our lovely room, shower and bed…!

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Saturday 21st February

We wake up in our fabulously comfortable room, but have to admit that we didn’t sleep as well as we thought we would. The bed is super comfortable, it’s quiet, but we only got 5 to 6 hours. No matter, we have a busy day ahead of us, so hopefully we will wear ourselves out for tonight!

We have a delicious breakfast. It’s à la carte table service and a buffet with some tinkling piano music in the background. Very civilised compared to last week. 

Our priority today is to get H’s third rabies jab booster. There are plenty of vaccination clinics nearby. She has already decided which one it will be, a short walk away.

What we have noticed in Vietnam, in general, is that the pavements are not really for pedestrians. You only have to walk a few feet, and you have to walk around a tree, an electricity sub-station, and some mopeds.

The moped is the main form of transport in Vietnam, and we have seen so many strange things on the back of them, from fridges, trees, luggage and gas bottles.

We arrive at the clinic, which is immaculate and very efficient. No sooner were we in than we were out…! A few questions, some paperwork, and a quick once-over from the doctor, and she is injected with jab number 3 of 5. After being monitored for 30 minutes to ensure all is well, we set off towards Train Street.

Train Street is just what it says. It’s one of the main railway lines into Hanoi central station that is very narrow. The trains run right through the middle of a street that is lined, in some parts, on both sides with cafes and restaurants.

When the trains come through, the tables and chairs are moved back, and the huge trains pass by slowly with less than a foot to spare from your knees. This area sometimes gets shut down due to safety reasons, and there have been accidents, though nothing fatal. It’s staggering how there aren’t more problems, as there are the usual dopey, Instagram-obsessed tourists trying to pose too close as the train arrives.

The cafe owners are very strict and constantly yell and shove people to clear the line. It’s quite an experience having a huge train pass so close to you. We visited here 8 years ago, and it was a lot quieter, so quiet that there were chickens casually picking around on the tracks. Now it’s rammed with so many cafes, restaurants and tourists, of which we are part of!

Back at the hotel, we are desperate to go to the gym after missing a week, because of the rusty outdoor gym at the last hotel (did we mention that?), but H has come over quite dizzy after her jab. It’s one of many side effects you can get, and the side effects increase in intensity with each booster, which is normal. It means the immune system is working. She has a lie down, and then goes nearby for a light lunch while Del does an hour in the gym. 

Del has had a good workout, and after a shower, we venture out into Hanoi again. 

The temperature out today is much cooler and much easier to walk around in than in Phu Quoc or Saigon. We are visiting a small lake in a built-up area where a B52 crashed after being shot down in 1972 during the Vietnam War.

There’s a bit of fuselage and the wheels sticking out of the water, and it has been left untouched for over 50 years. The other bits of the plane are in the B-52 Victory Museum, which we walk to, after getting a little lost down tiny backstreets where all the locals live.

At the museum, they have laid out the rest of the B52, it’s a huge plane with 8 jet engines, it must have made quite an impact when it crashed.

While we are at the museum, H visits what she has classified as ‘the worst toilet in the world’ and comes out looking visibly traumatised, which lasts for most of the rest of the day!

Quiz of the week. In one of the ladies’ toilet rooms (not even the worst one), H came across this….

Is our reader able to tell us what’s going on here? A man has clearly used the middle one!

We jump in a cab and head to the shopping area.

The traffic here is just manic with mopeds and scooters weaving around each other, cars everywhere and people. How there are no accidents, we will never know. It’s like watching a ballet. We have a few things on our list to buy. We manage to get H a new coat, sunglasses for both of us (again, the last ones fell apart), some caps and sandals for Del. It’s a successful shopping trip, and we celebrate with some very tasty craft beers. 

We have always said that one day we will be brave enough to try a Grab bike taxi. Moped taxis are very popular here, but the Saigon traffic has always put us off. We decide that we will try it here in Hanoi, where it is less chaotic, as it’s only about half a mile to the hotel, so how bad can it be?

We both order one separately, the bikes turn up, we put our helmets on, and we’re off. It’s certainly a new perspective on the creative ‘rights of way’ rules and quite fun. We arrive at the hotel in one piece. 

Dinner tonight is on Train Street. We sit by the tracks and have a simple Vietnamese dinner, which is very tasty while not one but 2 trains pass by just a foot away from our chicken and fried rice… 

Before turning in, we have a look at our rooftop bar. It’s a Saturday night, and it’s empty, nobody there, which is such a shame because it’s a fantastic place, one of the best we have seen, but it’s just so expensive. Before we are tempted, we leg it…!

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Week 8 – Sunday 8th February – Saturday 14th February 2026

Last week was a week of history, learning more about the Vietnam War and the atrocities that went on here. A visit to the coastal town of Vung Tau and some more good eating. This week we are going to have some ‘fun’ with a visit to Phu Quoc, riding cable cars, theme park rides and visiting a local hospital!

Sunday 8th February

We are starting week 8, and today we are getting the high-speed boat back to Saigon, which is very busy. Vung Tau seems to be a weekend retreat for some of the residents of Saigon, as we all pile onto the boat.

The trip passes quickly, though, and we are soon back into the mayhem and noise of Saigon and on our way to check into a hotel we have been to a few times on past visits. It’s a tiny boutique hotel in District 1; they even remembered us by name when we popped in for a drink last week, the week we stayed in a bigger 5-star hotel here in Saigon because it had a pool, but in reality, it was too busy, and we really do prefer our little TripleE Hotel.

It’s in a charming local area with good, basic local eateries nearby. They also have a little bar with a small terrace that faces the street. We love to sit here and watch life go by; it really is an education just sitting here, people watching.

They do make the most amazing cocktails at this hotel, probably the best we have had, and we have had a few of those in our time! They really are quite delicious, and the price is very reasonable. They are so good that we have one before we go out.

We take a walk to the busy local market, followed by dinner in a back street, where we have delicious meatballs and a Vietnamese pork pancake. We take a rather warm walk from there to the famous ‘walking street’, which is the party area of Saigon.

It’s quite a place, so much colour and noise. We’ve never been to this area before, it’s a bit mad. Noisy neon-lit bars with women dancers (and men, or at least one that we saw) with live music. This place is set up for thousands of people and reminds us of some areas of Bangkok. 

Back at the hotel, we just have to have one more cocktail and then turn in quite early. It’s hot and noisy, but we quite like it

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Monday 9th February

We are flying to Phu Quoc Island today. It’s a Vietnamese island just south of Cambodia and known for its beautiful sunsets, a rarity in the mainly east-facing Vietnam mainland. We have a steak and eggs breakfast at our favourite place, Bo Ne Ba Nui. It’s very busy with people queuing up, but we time it just right and get a (miniature) seat and table inside. 

Dining here is done on miniature tables and chairs. They like to squat, so when in Rome…

Our cab is whisking us off to the airport, T1 domestic, for our flight; the only problem is that we are at the wrong terminal. Vietnam Airways moved all of its operations to T3, similar to BA moving to T5. This is not on any of the paperwork, but when you ask to go to ‘domestic’ to the cab driver, even they don’t know that Vietnam Airways moved in May. We have to quickly find another cab to get us sharply from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, which ends up having to navigate around the busy Saigon traffic, as the terminal is nowhere near the rest of the airport.

We make check in with less than an hour to our departure, only to then find out that the flight is delayed. 1 hour 30 minutes later than our scheduled time, we touch down at Phu Quoc airport.

We are staying in Sunset Town. We have booked a small hotel with a sea view (and a cable car view!). This was a change that we made to our plans last month, sacrificing 2 days in Saigon for an extra 2 days at Phu Quoc.

Sunset Town is a strange place. It’s like a theme park, everything is new and manicured and themed with an Italian style, with all of the buildings, roads and bridges all looking like something from Rome or Milan, there is not a scrap of litter anywhere.

If you’ve ever been to Rome or Milan, however, then you will know how wrong they have got it here! It’s all a bit weird.

The cable car station is in a mock-up of the Colosseum in Rome.

They’ve gone mad spending money building in this place, which includes a huge bridge called the Kiss Bridge. It’s a huge walking bridge that curves out into the sea and has a gap where it meets. The gap is approximately 30cm, enough to lean over and kiss your partner! Of course, you each have to walk on one side to meet in the middle, though there may be some who think that they can both walk up one side and climb over the gap.

There are two shows here that perform every night. We have bought tickets for both, which we think are expensive at a total of £68; we shall see. We grab a quick snacky dinner and head to the bridge to watch the first show, ‘Symphony of the Sea’. It is a spectacle on water with jet skis, flyboarders, lasers and fireworks. It’s jaw-droppingly impressive, well worth the ticket price. All the performers wear LED suits and body-mounted fireworks.

H is most impressed with the flyboarders. A flyboard is a water jet platform powered by a jet of water fed via a long, flexible, thick hose, which is connected to a jet ski! You stand on the platform and can raise yourself out of the water by up to 14 metres (45 ft). There are 5 of these performers, and they are incredible to watch, doing backflips and dives; it’s an amazing show. It all ends with a spectacular fireworks display. This would be impressive even if it were just once a year, but they put this on every night.

The next show is nearby in the world’s largest water projection theatre, which is made up of lights, lasers, dancers, fire and of course water projection effects! The show is called Kiss of the Sea. This, too, is unbelievably spectacular. What the heck is going on in Vietnam? Every show we have seen is the best of its type and shockingly good. It has to be said that when Vietnam decide to build something, they do so on an immense scale. We are just amazed at the effects and vision of the whole thing. This show ends with another, even better, fireworks display.  Wow. Del has proclaimed after 40+ years in the business, the best shows he has seen are both in Vietnam, this one, Kiss of the Sea and the amazing Hoi An Memories. The scale and visual presentation are second to none.

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Tuesday 10th February

The hotel we are in is unusual in that we have to walk to the hotel-owned restaurant a couple of blocks away. The hotel is good, but a bit odd in this respect. However, after the short walk, we arrive at the restaurant and have a delicious à la carte breakfast underneath the cable cars.

It’s all very pleasant. Today we are going on the cable car, the 8km (5miles) to Hon Thom Island. The ticket includes a water park, so we will have to give that a go too. 

We have been a bit dubious about cable cars for a while now, after hearing of recent accidents and fatalities. We did do the terrifying Mont Blanc cable routes, one of which is almost a vertical pull. We then did the route over Mont Blanc, which runs between France and Italy directly above the Mont Blanc tunnel.

We decide that we can’t miss this cable car. It’s the longest over-sea cable car in the world, and the views are amazing – from the manicured European-looking Sunset Town over the hundreds of fishing boats and then the cramped fisherman’s towns, over forests and sea and different islands.

The view of the immense concrete towers supporting the cables, and the catenary of the long stretches of cable hanging down under the weight of the cabins, is truly an amazing piece of engineering, but it’s one that we don’t hear enough of. It’s beautifully engineered and smooth, being built, of course, by the Austrians, Dopplemayr, for fellow nerds like H. 

Aquatopia, the water park and amusement park at the other end of the cable car trip, is lovely, well-manicured, very green, and very well maintained. There’s a big wooden roller coaster here, but it’s shut just for today, so H misses out on it, and so does Del, doing his duties of bag carrying. Whew!

We do get to go on some other rides and then head to the water area. We’re not very well prepared for this, but there’s a shop here, so we get some water shoes and rash/UV tops that will be handy back home on the kayaks. We start off with some small slides sitting together in a double inflatable and then have a float down the very calming lazy river. H has spotted some bigger slides, so has to try some out. It’s all very good and well designed.

Our ticket includes a free beer, so we take a rest and get it down us! Buoyed on by the rush of alcohol, H decides she will try the huge funnel slide, followed by the terrifying vertical drop slide.

She’s seen these on the internet and thought, Who would do this? After slowly staggering up the stairs to the top of the tower, she is queuing up when the operator asks, “does anyone want to go on the extreme vertical slide?’ There have been no takers for this thus far, as everyone is opting for the more gentle of the two. H shoots her hand up in the air, which elicits a round of applause from the rest of the queue. She is ushered to the front to stand in a vertical cabinet, which, inside, has a trapdoor. The cabinet door is closed, the operator asks for a thumbs up, then…

The floor disappears, and she free-falls down and into the long deceleration area. Del is watching this with other spectators who give up a spontaneous gasp and cheer as she is released and kind of gracefully deposited below the slide. H is grinning from ear to ear, but a bit shaky. The terror of standing on an opening trapdoor hasn’t put her off, and she’s back up for another go. It’s amazing what courage a litre of free beer does. What an idiot. 

After spending a good day at the water park, we get changed and join the queue for the return cable car.

Once back in Sunset Town, we can access the Kiss Bridge with our ticket, so we each walk on the separate walkways to meet in the middle for a kiss over the gap.

It’s full of Instagrammers and drones, of course, but we get our chance. While we are doing this, another water show is starting, and the flyboarders are back doing amazing tricks. One raises himself up to the bridge and gives us a high five!

The skill and control of these guys is impressive, and apparently, 5 of them are world champions from Canada, the UK and other countries. 

After all this excitement, we have a quiet dinner out at our hotel’s restaurant on the terrace, which is fabulous, despite the Italian music on a loop… After dinner and a few ‘buona nottes’ to the confused Vietnamese staff, we take a gentle walk around the night market before heading back to the hotel. It wears you out with this fun stuff..! We make it back to the hotel just in time to watch the fireworks from our balcony. 

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Wednesday 11th February

H had a bad sleep; she was bitten all over by mosquitoes in the night despite spraying herself with repellent. That will teach us to leave the balcony door open while watching fireworks.

We spend the morning looking around the town and having a coffee before moving off in a cab for the 1-hour drive north to the Vinpearl Resort and Spa Hotel, for some more fun…

The hotel is a luxury resort connected to Vietnam’s biggest theme park, run by Vinwonders. Unlike the last one, which was run by Sun World, this one is run by a huge corporation here in Vietnam, going by the very creative name Vin Group, who own hotels, theme parks, schools, hospitals and car manufacturing. They are huge…

We get a lovely ocean view room and sort our bags out now that we have plenty of space.

After a drink on the beach, we visit Grand World, which is part of the complex and is a mock-up of Venice, complete this time with gondolas. (What is it with the Island of Phu Quoc and the Vietnamese and Italy…?)

We have a Vietnamese dinner and wander around the town. It’s all rather odd, all very Italian, all done rather too well! Back to the hotel and a walk around the lanterns. Which are Vietnamese…

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Thursday 12th February

We are up early to get the most out of the Vinwonders theme park today. Del has had a good sleep and is limbering up, preparing to carry the bag while H goes stupid on some coasters! The park is huge and has a touch of the Disneyworld look about it, but done with a Vietnamese twist, with a few Italian buildings amongst the Disney-style castle.

This place also has a water park inside. H has plans to go on a couple of roller coaster rides first, however.

Joking aside, this place is done very well and is a popular ticket, which, for what you get, is very well priced. There is the theme park, a water park, a safari park and what is probably the best aquarium in the world, housed inside a huge building in the shape of a giant turtle. It is just amazing what they have done here.

It’s a pretty empty start to the day; it’s like we have the park to ourselves, which sort of makes up for some incredibly slow operations. The two main coasters are very good for their type. Del performs his duties very well, and as a reward for his good standing is given time off to go on the big wheel, which is 120m high, but H draws the line there and won’t go on. She’s scared…!!!

It’s getting hot, so it’s time to cool down in the water park. We have all the right gear with us now, and soon we’re floating about in the wave pool, bobbing alone on the lazy river. H goes on a few slides, but none as scary as the ones earlier in the week at Sun World. Is it the lack of a small libation? We visit the amazing aquarium, which on the outside is incredible, but inside it’s something else! The scale of the place is jaw-dropping, with a huge collection of fish and vast spans of glass and water, all very clean and first-rate. We have never seen anything quite like it.

Dinner is on the beach tonight at the hotel with a glass of wine. It’s a very nice evening.

We are both exhausted, having walked miles and worn ourselves out in the heat, having so much fun…!

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Friday 13th February

Today we are visiting a safari park which is connected to the theme park and is part of our fun-filled ticket price! They also have an enormous zoo there. All the animal enclosures are huge and nicely presented. The animals all seem to be well cared for. Some offer feeding opportunities for the animals. We get the chance to feed giraffes and capybaras (our favourites), and there’s even a place where you can feed and stroke Binturongs.

Binturongs (otherwise known as bearcats) are native to SE Asia and famous for smelling of popcorn. They are extremely cute, docile and friendly. We take the opportunity to feed them. We are given a cup each of fruit with a stick. They love it, walking along their enclosure fence, sitting in front of you while you feed them fruit from a stick. The Binturong that H is feeding gets a little too excited and reaches out to her, scratching her arm and drawing a little blood, nothing major, but a scratch all the same, which we clean up and wash thoroughly.

We carry on looking around the park and enjoying the animals, then realise that H probably needs to get a rabies shot. Rabies is very common here, and you can’t take any chances, as once symptoms develop, it’s 100% fatal. If the shots are given soon after the bite or scratch, it’s not a problem. So it’s off to the hospital with H…

We drop everything at the hotel and set off for the short drive to the Vin Group-owned hospital.

We see a nurse and a doctor, and straight away she is on the course of 5 precisely timed shots. The second of which falls on the national holiday of Tet, so we will be back at 8am to see a doctor that day; the first two shots are the most critical for timing. The follow-up shots will be in Hanoi and Thailand, with the final one in the UK. We notice that it’s Friday the 13th!!! Unlucky for some. Once she has had the first jab and is monitored for 30 minutes for any adverse reactions, she’s released. 

We have time to revisit the theme park, and we head to the aquarium again, which is excellent. Del says the best he’s ever seen. 

H squeezes in a couple of more coaster rides and gets her bravery up to go on the big wheel, the one she is scared of…! It’s a fantastic view of the current park and an abandoned park that shut down 3 years ago, complete with abandoned rides and a castle. 

We watch the impressive evening show from the park lake only to then end up in a scrum to get the shuttle bus to the hotel.

There are no chances of taxis. Once back at the hotel, we relax at the beach bar with a drink, listening to a three-piece acoustic band playing a few relaxing tunes to bring to a close another fun-filled day…!

We are ready to move on now… We’ve had enough fun…!

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Saturday 14th February

It’s Valentine’s Day today, so we exchange cards. We both thought the other had forgotten. After breakfast, we finish packing and take a last walk along the beach. It’s certainly a beautiful setting here. 

The beach is fantastic, and the water is properly aqua blue.

We take a 15-minute taxi to our next place. It’s a boutique hotel in the more ‘normal’ non-Italian-influenced part of the island. It’s easy to forget where you are in a luxury resort and theme park. We are back to the good, family-owned restaurants and busy backstreets. We are early, so we have to wait for our room to be ready.

When it is finally ready, and we go in, we are surprised.

What we paid for, and what we are expecting, is a wooden-roofed, glass enclosure shower with a rainfall head, all part of a garden view wooden villa. All very nice. What we get is a bath with a handheld shower mounted 3ft off the floor, with previously abandoned mounting holes and a tin roof through which the mosquitoes can fly under. It’s a shack; the bathroom is a lean-to.

We complain to the front desk about the blatant misrepresentation, and show them the pictures of what it should be and what we are being given. Del insists on seeing the manager, but we have to wait, and wait we shall… We explain the situation; however, she is in a tricky position, it’s the Tet holiday and therefore busy.

H did our booking to stay here way in advance in May 2025, but it looks like they have palmed us off with the bottom of the barrel. Eventually, she puts us in an ‘upgraded’ room. Which is smart-looking but on closer inspection is all style and no substance, complete with no shower again and a leaking bath. It is brand new and hasn’t been finished. We go out for a beer, miserable, to consider our options.

The only accommodation left for this week on the island seems to be villas for £6k plus or hostels for £15 a night, oh, and our old room dishonestly re-advertised with the nice bathroom with the rainfall shower again. We will have to stay, we guess. We also need to be not too far from the hospital for H’s next crucial jab that has to happen on Monday. 

We spend the rest of the afternoon doing this blog for you, dear reader, before setting off for some dinner. The area is very nice, as is the hotel. H carefully vets every hotel, and every hotel so far has been very good. Today they have just given us the worst of all the rooms left. We shall see how we go tomorrow and the rest of the week. Del is not letting it end here…

We forget the room issue and set out for dinner. Most of the restaurants here are what are called family restaurants. They are called this because the business is literally run by the family. The one we go to has three generations working there. We are served by an 11-year-old, a 30-year-old and what we guess is the grandad, but daren’t put an age to him! It was a nice end to a shaky start.

We shall see how our room issue will be resolved tomorrow.

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