Travel blog
A blue summer? Nothing like traveling to Sidi Bou Said to get it. In this coastal town in Tunisia, just twenty kilometers from the capital, you will be able to smurf like nowhere else, with the permission of the Moroccan Chaouen. The feeling of entering …
Tucked amid ten mountains of gray rock with snow-capped tops and cloaked in low clouds, is the beautiful Moraine Lake. This natural wonder has been recognized as one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It is one of the most incredible views that …
Boulders Beach is one of the most popular attractions in Cape Town, tourists go there to see the African penguins that settled there in 1982.
Located south of Cape Town, it is a beach sheltered between granite rocks, from which the name originated.
On the main beach you will find only a few penguins, but if you walk among the rocks or swim through them you can reach areas with many of them.
Plus, you can get great views with tons of penguins from Foxy Beach, where wooden piers take visitors within a few feet of the birds.
This beach is one of the most famous in Cape Town and is definitely worth a visit. Perfect for a day trip to also explore the town where it is located: Simon’s Town.
These African penguins are the only ones on the continent. Its history is very interesting, from only two breeding pairs brought to False Bay in 1982, the penguin colony has grown to about 3,000 birds in recent years.
Unfortunately, the population has declined due to marine pollution and habitat destruction.
Figures for 2011 are around 2,100 birds. As a result, the penguins are under the protection of Cape Nature Conservation.
The beach is very beautiful; it is surrounded by granite rocks. Because of this, it is a bit out of the wind and offers a great place to relax. It is familiar and generally not overly crowded.
Of course, one of the main attractions is the penguins, they can be seen all year round, they are very cute and you can take amazing photos with them.
The place is perfect for family picnics and sunbathing. There are great views to enjoy and it is also suitable for swimming even though the water is cold.
Less crowded than Boulders Beach, on this beach you can walk along the wooden piers that cross the length of this penguin colony.
Penguins are busy doing their thing and not paying attention to people. It’s a great place to watch them go in and out of the water.
Hours and rates are the same as Boulders Beach. If you pay for a ticket to Boulders Beach, you can enter Foxy Beach for free.
Boulders Beach and Foxy Beach are located on the Cape Peninsula, near Simon’s Town towards Cape Point. It is part of Table Mountain National Park.
Buy African handicrafts
Around the Boulders Beach area there are several shops and people selling handicrafts on the street! Find good souvenirs, jewelry and other local products.
Eat at Boulders Beach Lodge and Restaurant
Boulders Beach Lodge and Restaurant is located directly across from Boulders Beach. It has a great diversity of food, but it is especially known for its excellent breakfasts.
Boulders Beach is part of Simon’s Town. This cute town offers many nice places, such as bars, restaurants, water sports facilities, hotels and hostels.
Some examples of restaurants in the neighborhood, where you can enjoy various types of dishes are:
Salty Sea Dog which offers excellent fish and chips, The Lighthouse Cafe which offers a variety of great foods to enjoy and Cafe Pescado which offers wonderful fresh fish dishes.
Make sure to visit Boulders Beach. A day trip, which will definitely be worth it!
Can a monastery be suspended from heaven? The answer is yes and it is located in Greece, in the region of Thessaly, we speak of the Monasteries of Meteora. It is about six Orthodox Christian monasteries, World Heritage Site (1988) by UNESCO, built on the …
After six months closed for environmental cleanup, the island of Boracay is once again open to the public! This famous island in the Philippines, just an hour’s flight from Manila, was closed by the government in order to carry out environmental maintenance tasks. Now, with …
«Sardinia is out of time and history.» Perhaps the English writer D. H. Lawrence forgot to say that the most beautiful corners of the island are also off the beaten path. Because that’s the truth.
When you think you know Italy thoroughly, suddenly someone talks about the Gulf of Orosei, in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and everything changes forever. But does it exist? Can someone put it on the map? It may not have the fame of other cities steeped in history or regions where wine and gastronomy have seduced travelers for centuries.
This gulf, located in the central stretch of the eastern coast of Sardinia, has beaches and coves that seem to have been painted with watercolors by the hand of a child. The blue is intense, the green the color of emeralds, the sand of pure gold.
Some of the island’s beaches are covered in soft powdery sand, some have really crystal clear blue waters, some have picturesque rocks and cliffs, some are less frequented, some are more child friendly, some are better for adults and others almost too beautiful to be true.
One of these beaches is Cala Mariolu, on the east coast of the beautiful island of Sardinia. It is especially beautiful and has bright turquoise waters, especially clear.
Located in a small inlet framed by sheer limestone cliffs lined with lush trees and greenery, this stretch of beach is a mix of golden sand dotted with small rounded stones smoothed by the endless gentle lapping of the waves.
Suitable for scuba diving and considered one of the best beaches for diving in Sardinia, it is also an ideal place to paddle, swim or lie in the shade of the limestone rocks, which provide relief from the sun in the late afternoon.
Actually, Cala Mariolu could be reached on foot. But, for this, you would have to walk a lot and dedicate many hours and efforts to avoid large rocks eroded by the sea and the wind.
There are those who believe that the best beaches are those to which Mother Nature has placed geographical obstacles to hinder the presence of human beings.
It may be so. Because when the ship begins to approach our final goal it seems impossible not to collide with the huge white stones that precede the neat sandy area, where thousands, millions, of pink pebbles sparkle in the sunlight.
«Sardinia is mysterious,» the island’s inhabitants say regularly. And they may be right. After spending several hours lying in the sun in Cala Mariolu, on its white sand, one is always curious to know what the coves will be like on either side of this wild gulf, located exactly 140 kilometers from Cagliari along the road from the coast.
In it is the famous Gruta del Bue Marino, like the jaws of a lion that instead of teeth had stalactites and stalagmites. Cala Sisine and Cala Biriola complete the circuit, with a lush forest behind them and a natural stone arch that emerges defiantly into the sea.
Lanthia Resort
A hotel that in its 28 rooms tries to reproduce the most genuine atmosphere that is breathed on the island of Sardinia. Thus, artisan works abound, as can be seen in the decoration, where wood, stone and brightly colored fabrics are the main protagonists.
Your Gologone
It is defined as a hotel of experiences. The common spaces are authentic art galleries and are exhibited full of period costumes, tapestries and old ceramics, which are true testimonies of a little known crafts.
It also has its own workshops where embroidery is made, orchard and wineries in which the owners of the establishment organize wine and oil tastings for guests.
Very old, mysterious, spectacular. In Waitomo, New Zealand, there is a unique place in the world, where thousands of luminescent insects give life to an underground starry sky. The Waitomo Caves, in New Zealand, are known because strange creatures inhabit their interior, the glowworms (luminous …
To say that Gengenbach is the most beautiful town in Germany is perhaps foolish on my part. The general appearance of Gengenbach is fairy-like, with its rampart, its gates to the city and its medieval watchtowers. Inside a labyrinth of cobbled alleys, with colored half-timbered …
It is one of the great Wonders of the Ancient World, one of those places that if you can afford it, you must visit at least once in your life.
I’m talking about Petra, a historical enclave of Jordan that I have had the opportunity to visit, and that still surprises you live with what you can imagine seeing photos of its famous corners, especially the Treasury.
Petra is known as the lost city because although its history dates back to the time of the Nabataeans, in the 7th century BC, in the Middle Ages it was completely abandoned and was not «discovered» by Westerners until the early 19th century.
Specifically, it was the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt who in 1812 got the local inhabitants to take him to know that lost city that was talked about.
An enthusiast of Arab culture, he previously converted to the Muslim religion and changed his name to Ibrahim Ibn Abd Allah, which allowed him to gain the confidence to be taken to Petra.
Contrary to what many believe, the city of Petra was not built in stone but carved and sculpted in the rock, forming a unique monumental complex that earned it to be included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 1985.
And the work must have been very arduous, because in this city more than 30,000 people lived.
The main reason Petra became the lost city is its unique location in a valley surrounded by high rocky mountains whose entrance is the deep gorge known as the Siq.
With a length of a kilometer and a half, the gorge reaches a minimum width of just over two meters in some of its sections.
For this reason, it became a totally hidden and impregnable enclave.
It was an Arab town that reached its maximum splendor between the 4th centuries BC. and I AD, which spread through the lands of Palestine dedicating itself to trade.
Although it was enlarged during its heyday, it is believed that Petra was born to the Nabataeans as a funerary city, as they themselves baptized it as «the city for tomorrow.»
At the beginning of time, according to some experts, the inhabitants of Petra lived in jaimas, since the buildings excavated in stone are, for the most part, tombs from the 3rd century BC, which vary in size, design and ornamentation depending on the position social security of the deceased.
From the 4th century BC Petra flourished as a commercial city thanks to its location at the confluence of up to seven trade routes between East and West, between Arabia and the Mediterranean.
After the establishment in Petra of the Nabataean people, an Arab nomadic people accustomed to the looting of caravans, it became a prosperous and wealthy city thanks to looting during the first years and, later, to the high tolls they charged for the security of its walls.
One of the keys to the rise of Petra was the availability of water, always scarce in these Middle Eastern lands.
Due to its location among rocky mountains, and thanks to the construction of complex networks of channels, Petra had enough water for its population.
One of the most surprising finds when visiting this marvel is the theater, an architectural wonder carved out of the rock.
At first it was believed that this 1st century construction was of Roman origin, but what they did was remodel and perfect what the Nabataeans had already built.
The most surprising thing is its bleachers, perfectly carved into the foot of the mountain and where an estimated 5,000 spectators gathered.
In the year 363 there was a major earthquake, which caused a large part of the city’s buildings to be destroyed.
And since it no longer had the commercial importance of then, they were not rebuilt and little by little the city was abandoned.
In the later Middle Ages, there was a time when Petra was occupied by the Crusader Knights, until 1187 when they were defeated by Saladin.
From then on, Petra was practically abandoned until the Swiss explorer rediscovered it in 1812.
It’s hard not to feel like a tourist in Siem Reap, a small Cambodian town whose name may not mean anything to less seasoned travelers. It is actually one of the most visited in the world, especially by backpackers and collectors of world wonders, although …