It's been a while since I last posted something and even though I did have some stuff ready, it wasn't completed yet and so I decided to combine my trip to Benidorm with the one to Florida. "Living the life of a snowbird". A snowbird is someone (usually elderly) that (yearly) visits warm and sunny destinations to avoid (cold) winters at home. And that's kind of what me and my friend Santousha did.
Wow what a gem! I was invited for a hen (bachelorette) party in Benidorm! Benidorm?! Isn't that where all the seniors live? Yes, my thoughts exactly but boy, did I have a great time!! I asked my best friend to come along and I would split my time between her and the hen party, but she was welcomed in to join! And so off we went! We flew to Alicante and from there took a pre-booked bus to Benidorm. We had to wait for a while, since we were the firsts to arrive, for the rest of the people on our bus. Pretty much all English. We learned that it is a hotspot for the Brits, cheap drinks, flights, accommodation, sun, beach, etc.
The drive to Benidorm was nice, even though it was at night and pretty dark. We drove through, what looked like sand hills and the moon was almost full and huge! Once we got closer to Benidorm, it was one tall building after another. We wondered where we would end up at, having no idea where it was. My friends were in this place and so I just booked the same place. Because it was dark, we couldn't see a lot and it seemed like we ended up in the middle of nowhere. I asked the reception to put us close to our friends and so we got a room on the same floor. Unfortunately for us, they already fell asleep by the time we got there and so we went to bed as well,…hungry!!
We woke up pretty early and headed for the balcony, the views were AMAZING! It was beautiful!! Lots of high buildings, but also beach, sun! And so we knew, we weren't in the middle of nowhere after all hehe. Anyways, headed to the beach for breakfast and soon realized it was booze paradise. When we had our breakfast with tea and coffee, people next to us were drinking cocktails, beers and sangria. We soon ended up doing the same ^_^. We found a place on the beach in the sun and started drinking cocktails (after noon of course). Our friends joined us when they finally got out of bed haha. And I saw my friend Ellen again!! It was her hen-party. I met Ellen in New Zealand 5 years ago and we also went to Bali together and met up in London a few years ago (and because it took forever to finish this blog, I also already went to her wedding in the UK in April). We drank, then had some food, then took naps/rested and went out for her big night dressed in matching t-shirts. What happened that night..? What happens in Benidorm stays in Benidorm ;-).
I loved Benidorm though. I feel sad for the elderly a lot of the time here, but there, man, they know how to live!! Taking one step at the time, or one scooterride at the time hehe. Instead of a rental place for bikes, you were able to rent 4wheels electric scooters or even a tandem ones (for the elderly)! And they were just enjoying life. There was a booth in the middle of the beach where they could read a book or play chess. I loved watching them. And because it was in low season, it wasn't too busy and the weather was fantastic! And there were palm trees everywhere. I would go back every year if I could, haha. It's the European Bali or Florida!
A few weeks after Benidorm, Florida followed. Me and Santousha had a great flight, drinking prosecco and eating a crème brûlée dessert, way to go Swiss Air J! We rented a car for our trip since we were doing a bit of a road trip. I've been to Florida so many times that this time I wanted to explore it a bit more. We started in Miami South Beach of course, which was not like I had ever seen it before. You see, it was Spring Break. So super busy and youngsters out on the street at night!! We had some dinner after we arrived at our hotel and then went to bed at a normal time. Because of that, we woke up early and walked to the beach for a beautiful sunrise. It was times like these that I missed my yearly trips to Florida and realized how much I love going here. We had breakfast at the beach and walked around for a bit. We also did a hop on hop off bus (only it was the last one so not a lot of 'hopping off'), my first ever there. It was a great way to start our trip and we didn't need the car, because everything was walkable.
The rest of our time in Florida was great as well! A lot of driving though….almost 2000km! One of our first drives was through the Everglades and we spotted a few alligators along the way, that was pretty cool!! We also visited Fort Myers and Sanibel Island. Sanibel island is small and has a kind of Key West vibe. It's known for its shelling, meaning beaches are filled with shells and people from all over the world come down here to collect shells. Of course Santousha and me joined in the fun but soon realized we were such amateurs not bringing any buckets or shovels haha.
More new things followed soon, such as visiting Downtown Orlando for St. Patricks Day and spending a day at the Kennedy Space Centre. Also very cool! We did have a bit of rain, and a lot on our way to Boca, it was like nothing I had ever seen before in all my visits to Florida. And after getting yet another room out looking the pool, I wondered if we were able to use it at this hotel. And man oh man, did we J!! We spent about 5-6 days in Boca, seeing friends, chilling at the pool, getting acquainted with the bar staff, seeing family again, having cocktails, shopping, etc. It was nice to be at one hotel for more than 2 days but we still had to drive a lot. After that we went back to Miami for our last few nights, the views from our balcony were to die for! Fantastic!! And I also went to another sunrise at the beach, which completed the circle for me :)!
Well there you have it. Me and Santousha living the life of snowbirds, returning in winter with a tan!
Until next time,
T.