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Best for beach/pool and culture?
floofycroissant · 07/02/2022 20:32
Planning a break in May and can't figure out where we want to go. DH wants city break but I just want to relax.
I'd like to avoid a major city, somewhere with culture/sightseeing is fine and preferably short haul.
We've done most of the obvious ones: Barcelona, Lisbon, Marrakech, Naples, Athens. Any recommendations please?
LuckySnips · 07/02/2022 23:29
The Dordogne valley? I've not been but started browsing around holidays in France today and it looks great!
about-france.com/tourism/river-dordogne-area.htm
floofycroissant · 08/02/2022 14:20
Thank you! I was actually looking at Sicily and Mallorca. Some other great ideas too.
Interesting France reccs, after a few crap holidays in the north I've realised I wrote off the whole country as a holiday destination, which is pretty ignorant in hindsight.
TizerorFizz · 08/02/2022 14:44
Anywhere in the South of France. Bordeaux too. Bologna doesn’t have a beach but it’s a great hub for sight seeing in Emilia Romagna. Fantastic city too. Florence is amazing or try Puglia in southern Italy. Sicily or Corsica would work and Morocco. Look at Córdoba, Seville and Granada. As a trio they are hard to beat.
TizerorFizz · 09/02/2022 08:47
@icelolly12
So is mine! It’s absolutely ok to not have great French. We found people working in hotels, car hire, museums etc were all helpful and lots of info was in English too. I don’t speak Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Icelandic, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish or Italian or indeed any other language. We have travelled extensively though. We have never had any issues even when hotel staff don’t speak a word of English. We found this in Brazil and Japan but smiling and pointing at what you want goes a long way!
MissAmbrosia · 09/02/2022 10:21
www.hlapalma.it/en/ Stresa - Lake Maggiore. The skybar at this hotel is one of my favourite places in the world. The pools should be open in May. Walking distance to the town centre and the boat dock. You can visit the islands. You can get a direct transfer to Stresa from Milan Malpensa - takes about 45 mins. Stunning scenery and lots of lovely food.
WondrousAcorn · 09/02/2022 12:02
Sardinia fits the bill. Do some research as to which part is closest to what you want as some areas have more going on than others (south west is undeveloped with quiet beaches and definitely requires a car, for example), but I don’t think you can go wrong. The beaches are amazing, and you also have towns, cities and historic sites for sightseeing without it being on the scale of Rome or Naples.
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