Paul and Carole’s Year of Travel 2018
A year older and a year wiser!
To be honest we did not have the best start to 2018, we were thrown a real curve ball with some health issues. However, reflecting on this period it has proved to be the best thing to happen. We have learnt who and what are important to us and the direction that we both want to go in.
This post Paul and Carole’s Year of Travel 2018, looks back on what we thought was a fairly quiet year, but it certainly wasn’t!
Our first travel experience in January was a cruise ship visit in Southampton. We were invited by Fred Olsen Cruises to spend a day on the Balmoral Cruise Ship. We were really interested in seeing what Fred Olsen had to offer and must say we were very impressed. We thought that their ships would be very old and dated but we were proved very wrong. We know we would like to cruise with Fred Olsen Cruise and 2019 may be the year we do!
Early February Paul visited Barcelona for a friend Luke’s stag trip. An entertaining 3 nights away, and the only injury sustained was a wound from an old crusty french bread stick during a pretend sword fight, boys will be boys!
Paul came home safely and then we returned to our guilty pleasure that is Thailand and it was just what the Doctor ordered. We were back in our favourite island Koh Samui. The two of us spent 3 weeks on this beautiful island and it was just perfect. A time for reflection that enabled us to make some important decisions.
We stayed in 5 different parts of the island in accommodation we had not stayed in before. We started at the north of the Island in Fisherman’s Village at the Enjoy Beach Resort.
Heading east we stayed in the Choeng Mon Area at the Samui Makkala Resort and treated ourselves to a pool access room. This was such a chilled place we loved it.
Off to Lamai for some fun, an area we really love and our video below explains why. We stayed at the Holiday Park which was a great choice very cheap and very central!
We then decided to try a bit of Chaweng madness and stayed at the Montien House which was right in the centre. The hotel was excellent but very noisy due to all the nightlife that surrounded it. To be honest we loved this hotel but the noise was a problem. If you are partying until sunrise then this may be the one for you, if not then we would recommend staying off the main strip.
We finished our trip at the Baan Sukreep Resort and what a find this was! A small resort run by a lovely french couple this was a perfect end to our holiday. We loved it so much we have booked and returning with 14 of our friends in February 2019.
In May we explored the east coast of the UK and also incorporated in a cruise ship visit and had our first Saga experience. Now we are over 50 we were intrigued to see what Saga Cruises have to offer and spent a day on board the Saga Sapphire.
Our trip to Kent and the Saga Sapphire was pretty special as we were able to catch up with our relatives. We took my Dad to visit his 89 year old sister and he spent 5 days with them wile we explored the Kent Coast. We stayed in three different properties which all had their bonuses. We were also able to spend time with our Aunt and Uncle too which was priceless.
In June we were invited back to our favourite house sit in Cardiff with Lip and Shadow. Due to illness and other commitments we have not been able to do any other house sits this year but hope that that changes in the future.
June also gave us have our first Princess Cruise Experience. We were invited with other Travel Bloggers to visit the Royal Princess Cruise Ship which was featured in the TV show ‘The Cruise’. We had an amazing day, not just because of the ship visit but eventually meeting some lovely travel bloggers who we had only previously chatted with on line. Princess Cruises looked after us so well and here we describe our day and what Princess have to offer.
After our great trip around the Kent coast line we decided we wanted explore more of the UK. We stayed with friends at the Beachside Holiday Park in Hayle, Cornwall and had the most glorious week. The sun shone and we enjoyed the spectacular beaches that Cornwall has to offer.
August Bank Holiday and we were back at one of our favourite festivals the Sunshine festival in Upton on Severn, Worcestershire. We had a blast and thoroughly recommend this festival if you like a bit of old school music!
We had heard that a Thai festival was being held in Bristol so we decided to pay a visit. It was a fun day out and you can see how we got on here.
In October we had a cruise on the Marella Discovery Cruise Ship. We spent two weeks Seeking the Northern Lights and we found them, which was such a magical experience! We have so much information about cruising with Marella and it can all be found here on our Marella Page. Out of our 15 cruises so far this was definitely our favourite!
Our last trip of 2018 was a short cruise to Dublin and our first experience with Cruise and Maritime Voyages. We spent 3 days on the Marco Polo Cruise Ship and had a great time despite the rough Irish Sea on the way home! We have lots to share about our CMV here.
2018 certainly did not start as we would of expected but it has turned out to be a year of fun and plenty of travel. We have also been blown away with the response we have had over our social media channels (see links below) and the positive messages we have received from followers who have been inspired to travel and try something new. This was the reason we started our blog and gives us immense pleasure.
There will be plenty more travel in 2019 with trips to Thailand and the Glastonbury Festival and we have cruises planned, and we can’t wait to take you with us too!
Check out all our other Yearly Round Up Posts Here!
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