The small Thai seaside town of Ao Nang, surrounded by craggy green limestone karst mountains, was where we chose to end our exploration of Asia. By this point, we were ready to base ourselves in one place for 10 days and just RELAX, although, as it turned out, there was plenty to do! Ao...
So Long Halong Bay, Hello Lan Ha Bay, Vietnam!
While Halong Bay is world-famous for its multitude of craggy emerald-green limestone karsts emerging from the waters off the coast of Vietnam, you’d be forgiven for not knowing that just around the corner are the decidedly less tourist clogged Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay. We quickly decided that Lan Ha Bay would...
Top things to do in Langkawi for three days
To be honest, we’d never even heard of Langkawi before we got to Asia, but it is certainly a major destination, receiving daily domestic and international flights to its airport. Due to its accessibility we knew that it would be quiet touristy, and, ostensibly we visited because we wanted to border hop from our...
Koh Lipe – Thailand’s best kept secret?
The job of choosing the right Thai Island (we know, hard job) to satisfy our beach craving after India was actually a little daunting. Let’s just say that despite being famous for pristine white powder sand beaches, dense jungle and crystalline turquoise waters, Thai islands are also synonymous with notorious full moon parties. Whilst...
Exploring Western Cuba – Trinidad and beyond
Newsflash – Havana is not the only part of Cuba! Chances are that if you have made it to Havana, and didn’t go straight to a faceless beach resort (i.e. Varadero), then you are actually interested in all that Cuba has to offer- and there is plenty of it! Cuba is actually a deceptively...
Exploring the Riviera Maya in Mexico
The Riviera Maya refers to the coastal area of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, which is heavily developed for tourism, especially cruise ship tourism. We knew that Mexico would be busy with visitors due to it being August, and that prices would certainly be higher compared to our other travels in Central America. That...
Tikal & Flores – Into the Heart of the Maya Empire
Getting from Antigua to Tikal and Flores via the “delightful” holiday destination (for Guatemalans only it seems) that is Rio Dulce wasn’t easy as the roads are not particularly well-kept and there is always the sneaky, unannounced speed-bump to look out for that may outright destroy your car. Nonetheless, we managed to make it...
Ometepe Island – Nicaragua’s enigmatic volcanic treasure
We exited Costa Rica on a high, having experienced one of our favourite countries of our travels so far. We knew that the next countries would be a little more challenging as they are less developed for tourism and more rough around the edges in terms of services and infrastructure. Despite this we were...
Pura Vida (Part 3)! Exploring the Pacific side of Costa Rica
Having already spent 3 weeks exploring the Caribbean and Central regions, we still had some more time to investigate the Pacific side of Costa Rica. This is partly because Jess’s parents, the 3rd set of visitors that we received during our stay in the country, had just arrived. Of course parent-visitors are extra welcome...
Pura Vida (Part 1)! Exploring the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
CAHUITA It’s easy to cross over from Bocas del Toro in Panama to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. As we needed a boat, a bus, a border crossing and then another bus, we used a very efficient and highly recommended company called Caribe Shuttle to organise our transport. We decided to stay in...