independent, intentional travel
If you’ve recently arrived in Spain for your holiday in Benidorm, you may have noticed that Benidorm doesn’t have its own airport — instead, you flew into Alicante. While you likely hopped on a bus or grabbed a taxi up to Benidorm, Alicante has plenty to see and do as well! So if you’re interested in doing a bit of exploring, here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Benidorm to Alicante. [Read more…]
One of the best things about living in Spain again is how easy it is to travel to other countries for a few days. And even better, we get to visit friends who live on this side of the world! Two summers ago, we went to Dublin to visit our Irish friends Sarah and Kelan before taking a road trip/camping trip together to West Cork. This past spring, they came to visit us in Alicante, and we made plans for our next meetup in Ireland. So we just got back from spending a few days with them, checking out their new house and even visiting Sarah’s family’s farm.
Deciding to bring only a small personal item (since we were flying with RyanAir), I asked Sarah what we would be doing and what we should pack. While she gave us a good overview of what we could expect during the trip, she did tell us there was a “surprise” on Sunday. [Read more…]
When I lived in Madrid, one of my favorite things to do when I had a free weekend was take a day trip from Madrid to another city. Now that we’re based in Alicante, we want to do the same thing! A few weeks ago we spent an afternoon in Elche, and last week we finally visited the city of Murcia.
Here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Alicante to Murcia. [Read more…]
Traveling by train is one of my favorite things about living in Spain. I feel like I must have done it 100 times by now. But on my most recent trip between Alicante and Madrid, I had a brand new experience: Rather than traveling with Renfe, Spain’s national rail operator, I tried a competitor called Ouigo.
Ouigo is a French rail company, and it entered the Spanish market in March 2021. Up until that point, Renfe had a complete monopoly on the high-speed rail market in Spain. So considering that I moved back to the U.S. in 2020, it makes sense that I didn’t have a chance to try Ouigo until recently. In fact, I had never even heard of it — and I’d also never heard of the other new Renfe competitor, Iryo.
So, here’s my Ouigo train review of what it was like to travel round-trip between Madrid and Alicante. [Read more…]
While I spent two years living in Madrid, one of the things that excited me the most about moving to Alicante, sight unseen, was all the new things I’d get to experience by living somewhere new. It turns out that a lot of the things I thought were “Spain things” were actually just Madrid things. And day by day, I’m learning what things are Alicante things — especially in regards to food!
So here are just a few of the special foods to try in Alicante during your next visit. [Read more…]
Settling back into our lives in Spain after 6 weeks in the U.S. was always going to be a little bit tricky — we had to conquer jet lag, adjust to working different hours, and get back into routines like going to Spanish class. But one city-wide celebration made the whole thing so much more chaotic. (And meant that things didn’t officially go back to “normal” for us until about 10 days after we got back to Spain.) This celebration, the Hogueras de Alicante, is the city’s biggest annual festival, and I’m so glad we didn’t miss it! [Read more…]
The famous lifeguard stations say Alicante Beach, but they’re really at Playa San Juan.
We are finally back in Alicante after six weeks in the U.S., and the city is buzzing with excitement thanks to the annual Hogueras festival. (Look for my next post on that… I’m still figuring out what all it entails.) In the meantime, my little sister Carrie is here visiting, and we wanted to take her to the beach. Alicante actually has its very own beach, Playa del Postiguet, and it’s only a 20-minute walk from here! But it’s not our beach of choice. Instead, when we want to go to the beach, we head out of the city to a smaller town named San Juan.
We’ve now been to San Juan twice, and each was a slightly different experience, but both have been amazing beach days that left me very happy that we decided to go there instead of Postiguet.
So here are 5 reasons why you should visit Playa San Juan. [Read more…]
You can’t miss the famous windmill during your day trip from Amsterdam to Haarlem!
Last month, when I visited Amsterdam, I did something different from my previous two visits: Instead of staying in Amsterdam’s center, we stayed in a smaller city called Haarlem. While we originally started looking at Haarlem because finding a hotel/Airbnb there was cheaper than in Amsterdam, we actually felt excited about getting the chance to explore a new city And it turns out that getting from Amsterdam to Haarlem and back is really easy!
If you’re spending time in Amsterdam and are interested in checking out another nearby city, even if you only have a day, I’d really recommend Haarlem. It is smaller and quieter than Amsterdam, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to do or see there! And some people find it even more beautiful than Amsterdam. So here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Amsterdam to Haarlem, the Netherlands. [Read more…]
In April, Matt and I took our first big trip outside of Spain after becoming Spanish residents — to Amsterdam! We spent about a week exploring the city and its surroundings, and of course we checked out Holland’s famous tulips. While it was my third visit to Amsterdam, it was my first time staying for more than just a couple of days, and it was also my first time visiting in a month other than October. I was hoping to enjoy some warm spring weather, but it was not to be. 😅 But we still had an amazing time.
Without further ado, here’s my city review of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. [Read more…]
Tulips in Amsterdam… but you’ll need to go outside Amsterdam to see the tulip fields!
Amsterdam may be most famous for its charming canals, legal weed, and Red Light District, but there was something else that I didn’t expect during my first visit: Tulips are a huge part of Amsterdam and the Netherlands’ culture. Despite the fact that I had visited during October in the past, tulips in Amsterdam had been everywhere — from the Tulip Museum, to the “floating flower market,” to the magnets in every souvenir shop.
When we moved to Alicante, Spain, in January, I decided I wanted to take the opportunity to see the real tulips in Amsterdam. But I had to wait until tulip season, which is typically late March to mid-May. And peak time for tulips to bloom is generally mid-April, when most flowers are at their very best.
Though it’s possible to make predictions, it’s impossible to know how things will actually play out. But we went ahead and booked our trip to Amsterdam for mid-April and our tulip tour for April 19, while crossing our fingers that the tulips would be still be at their peak. 🤞
So, here’s what it was like to see the tulips in Amsterdam and what you need to know to book your own Amsterdam tulip tour. [Read more…]