7 Places We'd Go Back to in a Heartbeat (After 40+ Countries)

For the last three years we've been traveling full time, living on the road, crossing borders non-stop and visiting over 40 countries together. And after all of that, these are the seven places we'd book flights back to tomorrow. We're talking about a European island with water so blue it rivals Greece. An island that's been voted the world's best island destination 11 years in a row, yet most people still have no clue what it is. A surf town where the Moroccan desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. And an island in the Gulf of Thailand that feels like Thailand 30 years ago. These are the seven places that reminded us why we fell in love with traveling in the first place and might just become your next favorite trip. So first one on our list is a island off the coast of Portugal and honestly we just spent a week here and we were completely blown away. This island is called Madeira. Now we only heard of this island about maybe a year ago. Yeah, if even. If even. I don't even know if Aussies know it that well. But yeah, it's off the coast of Portugal kind of near Morocco and Africa. It was absolutely stunning. It's got the most incredible like giant landscapes you have ever, ever seen. Just like mountainous hills everywhere and houses all over the place. And it's got amazing coastlines. It's got incredible hiking. Really, really special. So the best time of year to go is from April through to about June or July. We went in June and the weather was perfect. One thing to know about Madeira though is that the weather is not always accurate on the app yet. Another thing to know is that it is kind of known to have a dangerous runway and I was very scared going into it because it can get quite windy. The runway used to be a lot shorter. They've since extended it twice and the pilots are specifically trained for this runway. So please don't be scared at all. You'll be completely safe. If you can't land, they always just kind of divert you back to Lisbon. So the island is also quite small. You're going to arrive in a place called Funchal which is where the main city is, I guess, and the airport. But we actually wouldn't recommend staying here. You could for like one or two days because it is, you know, quite happening. There's awesome restaurants and things like that. But it's not very central. We actually stayed in a place called Ponte de Sol and it's about a 30-minute drive from Funchal. Another thing about Madeira is that it's quite small. You can kind of drive everywhere in about a day, which is awesome. You will definitely need a car. So hire a car in Funchal, drive and stay in Ponte de Sol. And this is a cute little beach town and it's also the sunniest place in Madeira. Because of the big mountains, sometimes the sun can easily get blocked. So it's good to know that and we definitely would recommend that. And then from there, you can kind of do your little day trips. So you can drive to a place called Porto Meniz which has the most amazing rock pools. We hung out there for the morning and took our own breakfast and absolutely loved it. There's a place in Seixal, I think it's called, that has like an awesome black sand beach that we found really cool as well. And then of course, you're going to want to do all of the hikes. Book ahead though. We did not. We made this mistake and we almost missed out or we did miss out on the famous one. It's called PR1. There's this big stairway to heaven or staircase to heaven that you might see all over Instagram and TikTok. And yeah, we did the start of that. But unfortunately, we couldn't go any further because we didn't have tickets. So definitely book ahead. Number two, we're still in Europe. But a special island that we had never been to until very recently and that is Sardinia. This is an island part of Italy and it is absolutely beautiful. Such a beautiful coastline. And we stayed in a place called Caligononi which is where we would recommend for anyone to stay. This is on the east coast in the middle. So it's a good base to go to the north and to the south. Caligononi is this town in amongst the mountains and it's on probably the most beautiful coastline other than some of the beaches up in the north. The coastline, the Bune coast is so blue and it's epic. One thing that you'll have to do while you're there is do a boat day or a boat trip. And you can do one where you drive your own boat or get a skipper or do like a group tour. But you have to do this. Caligononi is an awesome place to do it and you'll visit some of the best beaches along there. Kalaluna being one of the most beautiful. Or if you go up to the north, you got the La Maddalena Islands. So this is a group of archipelago islands. Extremely beautiful. You can drive your car to La Maddalena or take a ferry. Take your car on the ferry and then explore the island that way. Or you can do the boat trips like I said before and go visit all of the different beaches and stuff. The other reason why you should do the boat trips is because lots of these beaches are only accessible by boat. And so, you know, if you want the private beach, beautiful European summer experience, that's the way you do it. One thing to know about Sardinia is that the north and south are quite different. So the south is a little bit more like local and a little bit less expensive. Then you head up north and you've got kind of like the private yachts and the very bougie kind of area. That's why we loved Caligononi because it was kind of in this middle ground. It was local but it also had a little bit of like a fancy feel. So yeah, Caligononi was awesome. Yeah and one other thing is Caligononi was home to one of our favorite experiences and you can do these all over Sardinia. But you can go to an Agriturismo. And this is basically a farm-to-table restaurant where all the stuff they prepare is like local food and you just get spoiled. So much food. Absolutely spoiled. Unlimited wine, a bunch of food and you try everything. We did this one called Baku Kadu. So Agriturismo Baku Kadu in the south. And then we did one near Caligononi which was called... Codula Fuli. And the Codula Fuli one we would 100% recommend. Actually both of them we would recommend but the one near Caligononi was our favorite because it was right on the cliff and it was spectacular views. Food was amazing. Yeah and it's also just 40 to 45 euro per person like flat fee and then you get all this food and unlimited wine as well. Similarly to Madeira in booking your hikes you have to book your beaches in Sardinia. Some of the most famous ones like La Plessa you have to book in advance and I'll put the website to book up here but you can actually catch booking two days before. So just jump online at like 9am, book your ticket two days out from going to the beach and then you'll be sweet. Number three is where we are right now which is a small surf town on the coast of Morocco. It's called Tagazou and it is definitely one that you need to check out. It is very unique I would say. Rough and ready. It feels like we are kind of in the middle of the desert like there's dust everywhere. There's you know kind of elements where it feels like we might be in like a war zone. I don't know it kind of looks like that kind of rustic feel but then you have these amazing cafes that pop up and these vintage stores and this awesome surf culture and it's just really funky. So the best time of year to come is from October through to April. We are here now in July and it's very quiet compared to that busy season. It's still great. It's still warm. We love it. But there's just no good surf. So the reason people come here is because it is the surf capital of Morocco. So there's heaps of surf schools. There's heaps of opportunities to surf every day if you want to but the best water and the best swell is from October through to April. So that is going to be the peak season here and I believe it is a little bit colder than it is now because when our friends were here they were wearing like jumpers in the morning and night at that time of year but right now it's quite warm. So it depends what sort of vibe. If you're not a surfer it could be a good time of year to come now. Yeah it's still fun. We went and ventured to Taguz out yesterday and spent the afternoon there and there's so much going on. If you like to skateboard there's an epic skate park right on top of the hill and what you would imagine Morocco or Marrakech to be like lots of little streets and restaurants and stalls. That's what it's like. Rugs and little knickknacks. Yeah we loved it and we had a really good meal last night at a restaurant called Restaurant Sol I believe and it was just like it was 80 dirham which is 8 euro or something. $15 maybe like 10 euro or something and we got this like amazing bread and fish and sardines and big tagine and we loved it. It was awesome. Yeah it's fantastic. The local food's great. It's super affordable. Yeah it's a really really cool place. Yeah it's definitely different. Like it's very different from like Sri Lanka or things. It's a lot more rough and ready but yeah it's awesome. One of our favourite things though is they have built this massive esplanade so this huge long walking track that goes all the way from Tamrat to Tagazhout which is quite long. It takes you about an hour and a half to walk but it's extremely beautiful and then they have decorated with flowers and it's done really nicely and it's right along the beach and just makes it a really cool place to hang out. Number four we're heading to one of my favourite places in the world, Kerala, India and specifically we're going to look at Varkala first which is a cliff beach town in Kerala and it's something that probably a lot of people don't think about when they think about India is a beach town but this one is so beautiful. It is on a huge cliff and they have restaurants all along this cliff, restaurants and bars and the beach is really really beautiful. You'll see some of the best sunsets here because you've got that golden sand and then they do a whole bunch of paragliding and surfing even there. We didn't surf, I don't know how good the surf would be in Varkala but it's just a really cool place to go. The other thing is it's really known for its Ayurvedic and yoga scenes so if you wanted to do a yoga course or a retreat then this is the place to go and it's really kind of up and coming for western tourists. The local tourists obviously know about it but western tourists are just kind of getting to know it and if you are doing an India trip this is definitely one you could add to your list. In addition to that while you're in Kerala there's so much you can do there. One thing that I would suggest you do is go to Fort Cochin and get a houseboat from there. These are these boats that go on the backwaters in Kerala and you can stay on them, they cook you food and you know the Indian food is incredible and then also go and stay at the Indian summer house which is Abby and I's favourite resort in the entire world. It is a real special experience and not many people you know especially from Australia and the US know about it so if you are heading there make sure you add that to your list. Number five we are heading to Central America and this is a place that I have been twice and I loved it so much the first time that I dragged Tice back there a couple of years ago. I'm glad, it was epic. It was so good and it's a place called Guatemala. Honestly it's just so underrated. There's no doubt. There's a place and a town specifically called Antigua that is about an hour drive from the airport so once you get arrived just jump in a car and head straight to Antigua. Stay there for a couple of days maybe like five to a week and it's just this beautiful like kind of colonial style town. There's no high rise, it's all short buildings, it's got like cobblestone footpaths, awesome food scene. We had like yeah amazing meals and like rooftop bars and the best part is you can see live volcanoes like erupting in the background. It is wild. I couldn't believe it when we arrived there and we sat on our terrace and our beautiful little accommodation and then all around volcanoes. There's just volcanoes erupting and you can also do a really famous hike so it's called Asatenango hike and I've done this twice as well. We did it with a company called Wicho and Charlie's and they take you to one volcano called Asatenango and you actually go to their base camp there. You do a bit of a hike, it's quite challenging and then you stay there the night and then you watch volcano Fuego erupt all night. That's a bucket list thing to do. It was more incredible than you can describe because like at night time you can't see anything and then you just see this lava blow out of this volcano. One thing to note though is some of these companies allow you to hike onto the live volcano but I wouldn't recommend this because especially recently there have been large eruptions and the people who have done this have been injured from that. Aside from that though you also do need to head to a place called Lake Atitlan which is about a three hour drive from Antigua and this is a beautiful lake again surrounded by volcanoes and we stayed in a place called San Pedro which is really cute. It's kind of got a Israeli kind of vibe. Yeah, it does. Influence I guess. There's Israeli restaurants and things like that and then you hop on little boats and they take you to these cute little towns along. It's kind of like Lake Como, like a little mini Lake Como. You wouldn't expect this in Guatemala. I know I definitely didn't expect this in Guatemala and then they have all these little restaurants and cafes. Each of the towns got its own little style. What was that one? Well yeah, the San Pedro which we stayed in was kind of like the mainstream and then you can head to a little town called San Marcos which is like a hippie town. Like you walk in, it's just a completely different world to the other one that we were staying on and if you find this hidden cafe called Eagle's Nest it'll take you on this like kind of ride wild up the hill. We got lost. We had to ask a guy to take us there. Took us like through all these alleyways and like broken fences and walked through and then there's this amazing cafe that overlooks the whole city and the whole lake and yeah, it's called Eagle's Nest and you can do yoga there. I believe you can also stay there so it's definitely one to check out. Number six, we're making our way back to Europe and we're going to one of the biggest islands, Crete. And this is a Greek island that a lot of Europeans already know Crete but a lot of Australians and people from the US won't know Crete. Crete is incredible. We didn't have enough time in this island. We only had about what? One week. Only one week. So we only got to explore a little bit but it already blew us away while we were there. We stayed in Chania. I think they pronounce it and we would 100% recommend you stay here. This town has everything. We did a Crete and Tasty Trails food tour and we would definitely recommend that. The guys who run it are awesome, fun and super knowledgeable and we got to try all the food which is what Chania is famous for. They're famous for having some of the best Greek food in Greece. So while you're there, check that out and then you can also drive around and go to certain beaches or go and do hikes in these gorges that they have there. They have pretty much everything you need on a Greek island. So the best time of year to go to Crete is actually in kind of the shoulder seasons of the European summer. So we would recommend like May, early June and then also September, October. We were there early October and it was a little chilly in the mornings and evenings but the days were beautiful and you're going to get like far less crowds. If you go June, July, like July, August which obviously some of you will be because it is school holidays. We do understand that you can't travel outside of that area but if you do have the flexibility, like avoid those peak months because it's so hot and it's just so busy. So yeah, the shoulder months are definitely the best time to go. And then last on our list, we are heading to our favorite country, of course. There wouldn't be a list of seven places to go without adding Thailand to your list but maybe this is an island that you have not heard of before because again, we hadn't really. I remember someone recommended this island to me right before we were about to leave our trip and she said that, you know, this was what Thailand was like, you know, 20 years ago when like not very many people were there and this island is called Koh Kood. So it's actually on the other side of the Gulf near Koh Chang and it is so beautiful. The water is like crystal blue. You've got white sand. It feels like untouched paradise. Yeah. Palm trees. It's quiet and yeah, we just loved it. Yeah, if you're there, it's crazy because when you venture to the other islands, you'll, you know, the roads will be busy and all of that. Most of the time when we drove around on our scooter. We were like the only ones. No one around and you go to beaches. Even if you go to a beach that people know, there's hardly any people and if you walk down to the left or down to the right a bit more, you've got the beach yourself. It is literally like a private island. It was beautiful. We went in October, I think, or November and it was beautiful weather but the best time of year to go is from like December through to April and that's going to be like peak season as well. So it might pick up in terms of busyness towards the maybe like January, Feb but still it's nowhere near as busy as the other islands. So where to stay? You can just stay anywhere on the island because it is so small. Just hire a scooter and you'll be able to zip around anywhere but we would, if you do want to like lash out, we would recommend staying at a resort called Seneva Kiri. This is where we actually got engaged. We didn't stay here but we found this famous restaurant, tree top, or tree basket. Basketed in a tree. Sounds weird but we'll put some videos up and they basically, yeah, the restaurant is in a basket and they hoist you up into the air into this tree and then he delivers all your food on a zipline. Yeah, it was pretty wild. It's crazy. So Ty's proposed there and he pretended that he dropped the ring and everything. It was a good time. It was fun. It was awesome. Best night. The food was amazing. Mango sticky rice and like they give you champagne and yeah, we just had the best time. So if you want to stay there, I think it is a bit bougie but definitely. Otherwise, just try and check out that restaurant because it was super fun. We'll be back and staying there, no doubt. Yeah, definitely. So that brings us to the end of the video. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already. We've got a heap more videos coming out very soon and also come check us out on Instagram here because we're very active on there and we answer everyone's questions on a Monday. So if you have any questions, shoot them through there, pop them down below and we'll see you in the next one. Ciao.