Coastlines and beaches are Sardinia’s most impressive features. We explored the western coast fairly extensively, going to different beaches, taking scenic drives, and also spending large parts of two separate days on boating expeditions. The first of those took us along the coast between Bosa and Alghero, the subregion known…
Not without interest. This is my usual polite way to indicate that the town in question may have a few interesting features but in no way rises to the “must-see” category. If you are in the area, you probably should visit, but don’t lose sleep over not being able to…
San Gavino Monreale was specifically targeted on our Sardinian itinerary for its murals. It is one of the more frequently recommended mural villages on the island, for us very conveniently located just a few kilometers away from the base in Sardara. Unlike in Tinnura, where all major decorations are clustered…
As is often the case with larger – if not large in the absolute sense – towns, the provincial capital of Oristano has a relatively lively compact historic center and little of note beyond that. In fact, even in that central area, the small details – from the sundial clock…
Sardara is almost certain not to feature on Sardinian itineraries – its name did not come up even once in all of my pre-trip research of “things to see and do in Sardinia”. Its location, however, is rather convenient for the hub-and-spokes touring approach in the south of the island,…
Castelsardo, like Bosa, is one of the most colorful and attractive towns in Sardinia (and a fellow member of I Borghi più Belli d’Italia). Its relatively isolated location on the northwestern coast did not lend itself to a planned visit in our original itinerary, but the cancellation of Corsica plans…
We were planning to spend a couple of days in the middle of the Sardinian trip on the French island of Corsica to acquire a smidgen of familiarity with yet another part of the world that we had never been to before. However, stormy weather prompted the cancellation of the…
Murals are a veritable feature of Sardinia. A quick online search yields a number of destinations on the island known for their extensive portfolios of wall decorations. We even had one of those villages specifically marked on our itinerary. But although Tinnura does get a mention on a couple of…
From the Bronze Age through the time the Romans colonized it, Sardinia was home to the Nuragic Civilization. Not a terrible lot is known about it, and its name, in fact, is a derivation of the most apparent heritage that it left behind: nuraghe, a type of megalithic edifice that…
Alghero is among the better-known destinations in Sardinia, a walled town with strong Catalan heritage. Here is the first view of it from the northbound coastal approach. Somewhat curiously, it failed to blow us away. I suspect mostly it was due to the expectation that a larger town needs to…
I love vivid colors, both in nature and in architecture. While the great cities of the world usually awe us with their amazing edifices (and just an occasional splash of color), the smaller towns are more likely to be called pretty because of the hues in their palette. And I…
I trust that I well established in these pages that a trip to Scotland is never about just whisky for me. The itinerary may be defined by the distillery locations, but points in between also get a modicum of attention. Herewith is a small array of depictions of such points.…
I already mark the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site as visited (#74 on my list) on the strength of the brief stop in 2015. Considering that the inscription lists 414 locations, a passing look at a single one clearly stretches the definition of “visited”. Improvements are welcome.…
On my third visit to Edinburgh, a full day exploring the wonderful city center was the least I had to set aside, including several landmark visits and a large walkabout circuit. The skies were dreary in the morning, turned cloudy blue for a short time midday, and then reverted to…
With World Heritage exploits on top of two unmissable distillery visits, the day we spent on Mainland Orkney had more designated activities than any other day of the trip. In between those, taking advantage of a relatively bright day, I caught a few nice perspectives around the island. Probably the…
While in Orkney on the recent trip, we mixed a history-seeking outing into our scotch-centric itinerary. A group of monuments known as the “Heart of Neolithic Orkney” offers a remarkable record of life on this remote archipelago that dates back 5,000 years. Of the four locations, two can be visited…
Multiple travel quarters mark the island of Skye as one of the most impressive destinations in the country that sets a pretty high bar when it comes to magnificent landscapes. Since our whisky trips are never about just scotch – or so I’d like to believe – I was very…
As previously mentioned, the recently concluded trip was larger in scope and time than its predecessors – we visited 20 distilleries over the course of a week-plus, of which 15 were first-time visits. Following my traditional approach, I will start the series of trip retrospections with a quick round of…
Whenever we venture outside of the major urban centers on our travels, I drive. Not having to depend on strangers for transportation and enjoying the unconstrained ability to stop and explore something of interest along the way are a couple of reasons that always tip the scales toward getting behind…
The pattern established in Arenal continued on the Pacific-coast leg of our Costa Rican trip. We went on a number of excursions in the Manuel Antonio National Park area – beaches, surfing, driving ATVs, dipping into the waterfall cascades – and in almost all instances my camera remained at the…