Hey you Beachboys, this is the 3 best beaches in Europe!
Are you craving to swim in crystal clear water, laying in soft sandy beach with sun shines above you, plus envy to have exotic bronze like us Asian? But you can't decide where you should go? Worry no more! Here I have some suggestions for you. Plan your trip now, book in advance so you can get ridiculously cheap RyanAir ticket! If you book in June or July, expect to pay much more.
I know what you're thinking. You probably know more beautiful beach than I mentioned here. Perhaps in Southern Italy (regret I didn't go there) or in Dubrovnik or Split in Croatia, but I can't make a review a place I've never been to.
So let's start! You can go to southern France for exotic Cote d’Azur to the southernmost European Peninsula in Algarve. Forget Mallorca or Ibiza, you can party all night in Mykonos. Need a place to heal your broken heart? Naxos is famous place to heal all your sorrow. Or you can spend whole month in heaven on earth with your lovey in Cyclades Islands, including my honeymoon place Santorini. If you want more adventure, why not to Africa? Here you will find the most beautiful beach on earth! Forget hyper-expensive resort in Pacific or Maldives, you can have whole beach just for you! And don’t forget, we’ll do this Bosspacker style, awesome like a boss, cheap like a backpacker! Don’t blame me if you put your swimsuit already.
SOUTHERN AND WESTERN FRANCE
Must see place: Marseille, Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Eze Village, Grasse, St. Tropez, Biarritz
Bosspacker level : 5. If you have 12-25 card and friends to stay, it’s super cheap. If not, well it’s Monaco we’re talking about here!
Low in budget? You have 12-25 discount train card you rarely used? Time to use it now. And if you have friends to stay in Marseille, don't think again, just go there! Bienvenue a Cote d’Azur. Even Mr. Bean is craving to visit here for his last holiday. If Paris has pickpocket and rude waitress, Marseille has magnifique Callanques. Go hike or take a boat. You can’t compare with Norway’s fjord, but you can’t compare the price too.
I know what you're thinking. You probably know more beautiful beach than I mentioned here. Perhaps in Southern Italy (regret I didn't go there) or in Dubrovnik or Split in Croatia, but I can't make a review a place I've never been to.
So let's start! You can go to southern France for exotic Cote d’Azur to the southernmost European Peninsula in Algarve. Forget Mallorca or Ibiza, you can party all night in Mykonos. Need a place to heal your broken heart? Naxos is famous place to heal all your sorrow. Or you can spend whole month in heaven on earth with your lovey in Cyclades Islands, including my honeymoon place Santorini. If you want more adventure, why not to Africa? Here you will find the most beautiful beach on earth! Forget hyper-expensive resort in Pacific or Maldives, you can have whole beach just for you! And don’t forget, we’ll do this Bosspacker style, awesome like a boss, cheap like a backpacker! Don’t blame me if you put your swimsuit already.
SOUTHERN AND WESTERN FRANCE
Must see place: Marseille, Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Eze Village, Grasse, St. Tropez, Biarritz
Bosspacker level : 5. If you have 12-25 card and friends to stay, it’s super cheap. If not, well it’s Monaco we’re talking about here!
Low in budget? You have 12-25 discount train card you rarely used? Time to use it now. And if you have friends to stay in Marseille, don't think again, just go there! Bienvenue a Cote d’Azur. Even Mr. Bean is craving to visit here for his last holiday. If Paris has pickpocket and rude waitress, Marseille has magnifique Callanques. Go hike or take a boat. You can’t compare with Norway’s fjord, but you can’t compare the price too.
Next I suggest you to stay in Nice. Ideally located in between, there are more options for cheap hostel here. You can go to Cannes to see the famous place for festival and see how super rich people look like in Monte Carlo. It just take 10 minutes train with less than 5 euro. But don't try to come here during Film Festival or Formula 1, hotel price skyrocketed. I went there on New Year, when everyone is drunk like a skunk the night before. No one outside, it was so cool.
In western part, you can go to Biarritz. Wonderful beach. And you can continue your trip up north to Bordeaux to taste its wine, go to mind-blowing Dune du Pilat in Arcachon and visit some of the most famous nudist beach around there. Google it by yourself. Hehehe. As for myself, I did the whole southern-to-west-back to Paris trip. From Cote d'Azur to Montpellier to Nimes to Toulouse then Biarritz to Bordeaux while visit Arcachon then back to Paris. And I stayed in my friend's place during the whole trip. That's the beauty of having friends! Free hotel and free foods!
ALGARVE, PORTUGAL
Must visit: Faro, Lagos, Cascais, Estoril
Bosspacker level: 7. If you can get cheap ticket to Faro, just buy it. Food is cheap. Try the fish, so yummy.
Open RyanAir NOW! And search Faro. Yes, there’s frequent flight from Paris. Faro is the perfect hub before you discover amazing Algarve region. But don't forget to book in advance since it’s very famous destination during summer. I suggest you to stay in Faro, there are lots of cheap hostel there. I stayed in double room for 30 euro only.
Must visit: Faro, Lagos, Cascais, Estoril
Bosspacker level: 7. If you can get cheap ticket to Faro, just buy it. Food is cheap. Try the fish, so yummy.
Open RyanAir NOW! And search Faro. Yes, there’s frequent flight from Paris. Faro is the perfect hub before you discover amazing Algarve region. But don't forget to book in advance since it’s very famous destination during summer. I suggest you to stay in Faro, there are lots of cheap hostel there. I stayed in double room for 30 euro only.
Then you can hop-on-hop-off by their frequent and cheap train to visit each cities along the coast. But you really have to go to Lagos. The beach is nice while you can rent deck-chair there to sunbath. Put your sunglasses, laying in chair, read a book, while drink cold orange juice. That’s what I call holiday baby! And my crazy friend did skydive there (I think it’s around 100 euro) but she said that was awesome. Do that. Another worth visit cities are Cascais (less people than Lagos) and Estoril (famous for its MotoGP circuit).
I did the cross country trip starting from Porto in North then jumping to 7 more cities like Lisbon, Aveiro, Coimbra, etc then end in Faro. Two weeks in total. Portugal is relatively cheap but I don't like the food at all. Either I couldn't find one or they don't have yummy foods. What I regret most is that I didn't know back then that Portugal has fantastic remote island called Azores, far far away west from mainland. When I saw it in NatGeo, holy Cristiano, why I didn't know it? If you have more time, and much much more money, you should go there.
CYCLADES, GREECE
Must visit: Mykonos, Naxos, Santorini, Crete.
Backpacker level: Over 9000! The most expensive is the boat. Rather than that, it’s cheap. I ate 2,5 euro Pita for whole month. And there are a lot of cheap hostel, even in Santorini.
Oh my Poseidon, I fall in love in this Land of Gods. I was planning only to stay for two weeks in Greece, but I ended up almost a month. Because of the crisis, they need us more than ever. Price are so cheap, you can feel the crisis is on the air, but the people is so nice.And the language is so funny. They write in mathematical equation. Lamda Sigma Alpha Epsilon can means COW. I don't know.
But remember, Greece during summer is like ScarJo, unbelievably hot. Bring hat, sunglasses and tons of suncream. You can go directly to Santorini by plane, then take boat all the way up to Athens or vice versa. I suggest you go to Athens first, visit magnificent Parthenon, enjoy the old history, then let’s get ready to Island Hopping! In Athens itself you can find several nice beach, but it's not close to city center. Once you landed in Athens, go to Piraeus harbor the next day to buy the ferry ticket. Quite difficult to get in the summer. There are two types, ferry or fast boat. The gargantuan ferry is cheaper (sometimes you even don't get a seat) and slow. But who cares, it's only few hours (unless direct ferry Athens-Santorini can take 9 hours). While the fast one is expensive and if you seasick, get ready to throw up.
CYCLADES, GREECE
Must visit: Mykonos, Naxos, Santorini, Crete.
Backpacker level: Over 9000! The most expensive is the boat. Rather than that, it’s cheap. I ate 2,5 euro Pita for whole month. And there are a lot of cheap hostel, even in Santorini.
Oh my Poseidon, I fall in love in this Land of Gods. I was planning only to stay for two weeks in Greece, but I ended up almost a month. Because of the crisis, they need us more than ever. Price are so cheap, you can feel the crisis is on the air, but the people is so nice.And the language is so funny. They write in mathematical equation. Lamda Sigma Alpha Epsilon can means COW. I don't know.
But remember, Greece during summer is like ScarJo, unbelievably hot. Bring hat, sunglasses and tons of suncream. You can go directly to Santorini by plane, then take boat all the way up to Athens or vice versa. I suggest you go to Athens first, visit magnificent Parthenon, enjoy the old history, then let’s get ready to Island Hopping! In Athens itself you can find several nice beach, but it's not close to city center. Once you landed in Athens, go to Piraeus harbor the next day to buy the ferry ticket. Quite difficult to get in the summer. There are two types, ferry or fast boat. The gargantuan ferry is cheaper (sometimes you even don't get a seat) and slow. But who cares, it's only few hours (unless direct ferry Athens-Santorini can take 9 hours). While the fast one is expensive and if you seasick, get ready to throw up.
Our first destination is Mykonos, the Greek version of Ibiza. If you love party, this is the best place. I don’t like it, so hearing loud music 20 hours per day is too much. But I met a lot of cool guys here. If you don’t like party, stay near the harbor in city center. There are a lot of beach, choose one. I stayed in Paradise beach in southern island. This is important tips: When you Island Hopping, always book hostel in advance. Because once your ferry arrived, you will be picked up by drivers from the hotel. In Mykonos, you will see typical Cyclades region: crystal clear water with white-painted house and blue roof. Really Beautiful. Oh and as usual, once you arrived, go to boat office to ask ferry schedule and if you have fixed itinerary, just buy it. The price is fixed, don’t worry.
Next is Naxos, an island famous for healing your broken heart (it’s bullshit, didn’t work for me). Again, people from hostel will wait for you in harbor. This is one of my favorite city. When you arrived, you will be greeted by it’s famous Temple of Apollo above the hill. Go there during sunset, the view is breathtaking. The city center is small but so lovely with many shops and restaurants. At night, I bought frozen yoghurt and just sit down next to the sea. Thinking about my failed relationship and what the hell I'm doing here alone :( One day is enough here. But if you want to go to other small islands you can do that. Most famous is Milos. You remember that armless statue Venus de Milo in Louvre? Yap, she is found in this island. The tour cost no more than 20 euro.
And next, the piece of heaven, most romantic island ever. The most beautiful place to see the sunset and my honeymoon place (do you read this my future wife???), the fallen paradise... Santorini. I bet you saw so many pictures of this island in Twitter or Instagram. And yes, it is that beautiful. You will see so many couples in their wedding dress, most of them are Asian. Jealous like shit. Almost 90% are couple, having candle light dinner and staying in hotel that cost my entire trip. I promise to myself, I will come back here with my wife no matter what!
You have two options to stay, either in Oia (best place to see the sunset) or Thira. I stayed in Thira because I found the cheapest hostel there. Not so many hostels here mind you, most of them are on the cliff with sea or caldera view. Wanna stay there? better save a lot. It can cost thousand euro. I stayed in Santorini Camping, just 10 minutes walking from the cliff, cost only around 15 euro. I stayed there three days, nice place with pool and many cool guys so i'm not feel that sad. On first day, I explore Thira by myself. Just walking around, or you can take a donkey, or just sit in cafe, drink coffee while staring at dark blue ocean and the caldera. On second day, I took a tour (you can ask receptionist in your hotel) for around 25 euro to visit the caldera and the other small islands.
You have two options to stay, either in Oia (best place to see the sunset) or Thira. I stayed in Thira because I found the cheapest hostel there. Not so many hostels here mind you, most of them are on the cliff with sea or caldera view. Wanna stay there? better save a lot. It can cost thousand euro. I stayed in Santorini Camping, just 10 minutes walking from the cliff, cost only around 15 euro. I stayed there three days, nice place with pool and many cool guys so i'm not feel that sad. On first day, I explore Thira by myself. Just walking around, or you can take a donkey, or just sit in cafe, drink coffee while staring at dark blue ocean and the caldera. On second day, I took a tour (you can ask receptionist in your hotel) for around 25 euro to visit the caldera and the other small islands.
You’ll go to caldera by ferry (you'll climb, extremely hot and tiring, just prepare yourself), then you'll go swim, visit small island to have lunch, and end up to see the sunset in Oia. And the sunset, ohlala, I can't describe it. You will see the sun descends from big orange ball slowly getting smaller and fader until disappear in horizon. The sky is orange contrast with the blue ocean. Majestic. And during the sunset, the whole city glows into romantic gold color. Ahh, you have to see it by yourself. More perfectly if you can hold hands or kiss someone you love (you read that my future wife???). Seriously, you have to go there. But be ready one hour before because thousand of people will be there. Find a perfect spot. Wait for me again Santorini...
Our last destination is the largest island, Crete. Famous for its Minoan civilization, this island is so underrated and sometime skipped by traveler. But I tell you boys, there are so many hidden gems here. From Santorini I took expensively 50 euro fast boat (I can’t find the ferry). The trip take only around one hour, but that’s the longest trip ever. Do not eat before, the boat will jump and jump so high even Popeye will throw up. You’ll arrived in city of Hercules, Heraklion. Here you can’t find a good beach, but this city is very famous for place where Hercules fight Minotaur, The Temple of Knossos. If you love Greek Myth, you have to go here. Just one-two day is enough. Then to continue to next city, you can take the bus. It's frequent, comfortable, and cheap.
You can go directly to beachy place in Chania, but I stopped by in the middle in Rethymon. Lovely city as well. Eat some fish here beside the sea. I had dinner with delicious food facing the sea during the sunset. But goddamit I was alone. But the real gems is in Chania. I was supposed to stay only for 2 days then go to Istanbul, but I ended up 5 days and cancelled my trip to Istanbul. I stayed in a room with wonderful/coolest/beautiful girl from France, and we travel together for whole trip.
Hmm, where should I start. Chania city center itself is lovely with a lot of seafood restaurant, café, bars that open all night. But the real beauty is the beaches. A lot of beach there, but most famous are Elafonissi, Falasarna, and Gramvoussa. To go to all this three, just take a frequent bus. My favorite one is Elafonissi. The water is only knee-deep, cold, but dear Hades, the water is so clear you can see your feet! It’s basically a gigantic children pool. Elafonissi also called the pink beach, because when the waves hit the sand, it turns pink or orange. Note the return bus schedule. I spent around 5 hours there.
Here I realized that you European has super power. For my whole life, I'm living under direct sun no less than 30 degrees, but I never feel that hot like in there. It was so hot my brain melting. I ate 5 ice creams and stay in restaurant most of the time. But you European, I salute you. There you are, laying in goddamn sand directly under the sun, no umbrella, smiling and enjoy your time while you're more red than boiled lobster. Amazing superpower you have there.
And in Gramvoussa, you can take the tour which is really worth it. You will climb quite high cliff but the view is totally blow your mind. You'll get a chance to swim too, but not as beautiful as Elafonissi. Are you tired sunbathing? Chania has another thing to offer. Why don’t you go hiking in the largest gorge in Europe? The Samaria Gorge. You will walk between the narrow cliff with the smallest one only 60 cm wide. Wake up early, take 6 o’clock bus then go hike! The view is good, but I didn’t know that it took 6 freaking hours walking. You can drink in natural fresh water along the many checkpoints. I even take a nap. But remember the last boat to go back was at 4 pm. So don't be that slow. After I finish while waiting the boat, treat yourself with fresh fish and fresh cold orange juice. Life is really wonderful.
So that’s all my 2 weeks trip in Cyclades. You can go back to Athens either by boat or plane, or in my case I took a flight to Thessaloniki then spend another 13 days in Greece to climb Olympus, to fantastic Meteora and to ancient city Delphi before going back to Athens. Greece still hold my record as the longest place I’ve ever stayed, 27 days. My only regret, I didn’t have chance to visit Zakynthos, arguably as the most beautiful island in the world. Just google if you don’t believe me. Quite difficult to get there. But one day I will go there plus exploring the only island left, Peloponessos. Oh, I really want to visit Corfu too. And Rhodes. Cyprus. And Kos. Dear Kratos, no wonder they praised Poseidon a lot. Greece has sooooo many must-visit place. My favorite country in Europe for long time before Thor and Odin from Iceland took the throne from Zeus and Co.
AFRICA
Must Visit: Nungwi, Lamu
Well, this is very long story I guess it’s better if I write in another thread. And I’m not sure there’s a lot of you who will go there. Lots of effort, pretty expensive ticket, and you must have a shitload of adventurous spirit in you. Remote, horrible transportation, and many many obstacles. But if you courageous enough, I challenge you to visit there! Who doesn't want to see wildlife while doing Safari or climb the Kilimanjaro? But the best prize is the beach. And to make your mouth watered, here is some pics of African beach.
AFRICA
Must Visit: Nungwi, Lamu
Well, this is very long story I guess it’s better if I write in another thread. And I’m not sure there’s a lot of you who will go there. Lots of effort, pretty expensive ticket, and you must have a shitload of adventurous spirit in you. Remote, horrible transportation, and many many obstacles. But if you courageous enough, I challenge you to visit there! Who doesn't want to see wildlife while doing Safari or climb the Kilimanjaro? But the best prize is the beach. And to make your mouth watered, here is some pics of African beach.
Still want to stay in your boring city this summer? Get your ass off from the bed, open skyscanner, and book now! And if you really visit one of this place, tag me in your photo. Make me jealous :)
Bon voyage guys!
Bon voyage guys!
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