Pais Vasco is well recognised for its unique flavours, tapas and wine with cities such as Bilbao and San Sebastian boasting Michelin star chefs. While the Basque Country is largely commercialised, it’s a land surrounded by lush countryside, mountains and coastline – with much of the Urkiola National Park, Valderejo National Park and Urdaibai Biosphere Reservation untouched.
It happens to the best of us. One minute you’re happily taking in the views, the next feeling like you want to reach for a bag. My first experience of nausea was on a boat from Port Douglas to the Great Barrier Reef although self inflicted so I totally have myself fully to blame!
35 minutes by Eurotunnel and 60km down the French coast south of Calais lies Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, widely known as Le Touquet.
It’s said “Glamping is likely to satisfy any city slicker seeking a little refuge in nature – without foregoing any of life’s luxuries”. This was very much at the forefront of our minds when we reviewed the glamping experience at Chessington World of Adventures for our parent blog. They have a fantastic set up and while there was little we needed to take with us, that’s not always the case.
Our recent holiday to ‘Paris by the sea’ otherwise known as Le Touquet saw us take in much of the surrounding area. As well as learning to fly a kite for the first time on Le Touquet beach, we also visited the town of Berck which lies within the Parc du Marquenterre Nature Reserve.
The Doves’ love for tennis has been covered both here on POD Travels and on our parent blog PODcast. We’ve always enjoyed the Mark Warner model which allows you to play on holiday with LTA qualified coaches, as well as taking advantage of what’s on offer in resort. We have however also taken an activity holiday at Club La Santa which is situated on the North West Coast of Lanzarote.
We always flew to a destination before POD came along as we wanted to begin our break by the quickest means possible. Since we’ve become parents however, the journey has formed an integral part of our overall holiday experience. Now aged five, POD is a true adventurer with her inquisitive nature undeniably infectious. Luckily for us she loves to discover new places too and is pretty much up for anything. Over recent months we’ve taken the car to the Isle of Wight, the Côte d’Opale in France and Ghent in Belgium. Road trips are amazingly good fun and they’ve enabled us to do even more exploring that we might have done otherwise. This summer we’ve decided to do something we’ve not done before – travel to Northern Spain on board a Brittany Ferries’ cruise ship.
The fishing village of Ambleteuse is located on the Côte d’Opale in Northern France. It was discovered by Louis XIV in 1680 when he was passing through Boulogne-sur-Mer who decided to make it a military port. Coincidentally we visited the picturesque town following a stay in Boulogne which included a visit to the old town and the NAUSICAA aquarium.
When we booked our holiday to Greece with Mark Warner, at the Levante Beach Resort, we weren’t sure if we were going to utilise the childcare on offer. Mainly as we see a family trip being exactly that and because POD tends to be looked after by the same people.
We’ve travelled to Belgium several times now so we’re excited to be visiting the historical city of Ghent soon. Viewed by Lonely Planet as Europe’s best kept secret, this cultural hub is situated an hour’s drive from the capital with many medieval landmarks lining its largely traffic free streets. We thought we’d take a look at the must see places to visit in the Arts Quarter (Kunstenkwartier), home to the Book Tower as well as many of the city’s museums and the Historical Centre (Kuip) where there’s a thousand year old fortress, medieval towers and of course the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
