I can never decide which I prefer; a beach break or a city break. I tend to swap and switch between the two depending on what mood I’m in.
When I was travelling in Australia, we visited beach after beach for about a month – and it was stunning. But don’t get me wrong, after a month of sandy shoes and salty hair – I was ready for a stopover in Singapore to soak up city life.
For me it also depends on the time of year. I love jetting off to cities in the summer – there’s no better time to meander around the city sights than summer, and you’d be surprised how easily you can catch the sun when you’re sightseeing too. Oh and you BURN SO MANY CALORIES on a city break (what with all that walking around) that you can absolutely pig-out in the evening. Whether that be a pizzeria in Rome, or a slab of ribs in NYC.
For beach holidays, I find winter works best. You can escape the dreary UK weather and find yourself somewhere completely different (and let’s face it, much nicer) in a few hours. In the UK, winter can seem a bit never-ending, so it’s awesome when you can break it up with some sunshine and a beautiful beach. I appreciate beaches much more when I know the alternative back home is rain and puddles.
The last beach holiday I went on was to the Dominican Republic, and it was just stunning. We went in March (and escaped some pretty grim weather in the UK) and had perfect summer sunshine the entire time. I think the Dominican republic might be up there in my favourite beach locations now.
You can have both though.
Some cities have the best of both worlds. They have sunshine, sea, sand but also skyscrapers. My favourite ‘best of both world’ vacation spots are probably Dubai and Sydney. You have the perfect mixture of beach life and city life in those places.
I think the thing I found most surprising was that Dublin got the number one spot for cities! I’ve been to Dublin, and whilst I did enjoy my little break in Ireland – it wouldn’t enter my top 5 of cities, or even my top ten. The nightlife was great, and the people were great – but apart from that I thought Dublin was just your average European city. I needed more landmarks and more ‘epicness’.
Where are your favourite beach and city locations?
Well Dublin is on my list of places to visit, but I’m just as surprised as you are! What about all the obvious ones, like London, or Paris, or Edinburgh? Maybe I need to head over there and see what all the fuss is about…