Allison Owens

Well why not go out with a bang??  Today the Goads and Owens headed to London from Mallorca.   We landed a little late after 4pm and after getting through customs and getting our luggage we loaded into a taxi!  Over an hour later we arrived at the beautiful Hotel Ermis.   Dashing upstairs to […]

What a way to wrap up this amazing vacation than to take a “down day” at the beautiful Castillo Son Vida Hotel.  We had lazy mornings, work outs, massages and golf as well as lounging by the pool.  It has been two weeks of great times, great locations all with great friends and to just

Today we finally left our beautiful Atlas World Traveller yacht and are land bound for the remainder of our trip.   Today we toured our port city Palma, the capital of the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, which is a historic and vibrant city known for its stunning Mediterranean coastline, rich cultural

Our day in Barcelona started off rainy and stayed cloudy but cool all day!   The Murphy’s were the only ones that had not been to Barcelona so we decided to do the hop on hop off bus so they could get a good feel for the city.  We started off at Sagrada de Familia

After taking the first day of tours off for my knee, on day 2 I got back in the game!  While the Goads and Murphy’s went over to Hyères-les-Palmiers, Phil and I headed to Cassis.  Cassis is a charming little fishing village which has been able to maintain its old world feel.  They do not

Marseille, France’s second-largest city, offers a rich blend of history, culture, and coastal beauty. We boarded a bus to see some of the top sites:  the Notre-Dame de la Garde, This iconic hilltop basilica offers panoramic views of the city and Mediterranean Sea. Its stunning interior included models of all types of ships and sail

Our final private tour day before boarding our cruise was spent seeing the 2nd smallest country in the world, Monaco and visiting the French hillside village of Eze.  Once again we were surrounded by yachts and the life styles of the rich and famous as we strolled along the rampart over looking at the harbor.

What a day in St Tropez!  Our tour guide Laura was wonderful and educated us all the way on our drive to St Maxine where we caught a ferry across the bay to St Tropez.   What we saw were Yachts, yachts and more yachts….we were just blown away by the sheer number of this

The last three days of our three week trip will be dedicated to a private Rioja Region Wine tour of Spain which takes us out of the big cities and puts us out int he beautiful countryside of farm land which we are so excited to experience! Rioja Tour – Day 1 Today we travelled

We are wrapping up two days in Barcelona and boy is this place beautiful but very busy.   We think we have figured out that  while seeing these cities is a “must do”, we are not big city people.   So same as Vanlencia I am going to cover both days in one post cause it is

I am going to start off by saying we LOVED Valencia!   And I am going to put both of our days into one post, well…just because it is easier!  Valencia – Day 1 We rode on a high speed train from Madrid to Valencia that took just about 2 hours and of course Phil LOVED

Our second day in Madrid started with our new fave of a chocolate croissant!  Then off to site see some things we missed yesterday.  Our first stop was the El Retiro Park which up until 1868 beloged to the Spanish Monarchy but then turned into a pubic park with smal lake where you can rent

Our first full day in Madrid was a busy one.    We were surprised at how big Madrid is and how crowded, there are a lot of tourists here in the “shoulder” season with cafes and streets very busy.   We started our day at the Madrid EDITION hotel for a site visit and we just

Well it is our final day in Portugal and we decided to enjoy the day seeing any last minutes things we had not had a chance to do, so we headed to the Boneca Bar which is a cliff side restaurant & bar in Carvoeiro.    The bar is literally built into the side of

To say that yesterday’s adventure WAS an adventure is an understatement.   We had rented a private boat tour to cruise the Algarve coastline and see all the beatufiful beaches, cities and caves from the water.    It was a beautiful day but windy and boy did we feel it.   The first two hours of crusing

Today was a day to take a leisurely drive down the Southern coast of Portugal on our way to the Algarve.   We stopped at a few beach towns, Sines, Villa Nova de Milfontes & Sagres with one spectacular beach called Praia do Malhao and a cool lighthouse and jaw dropping cliffs (along with some goats)

Time to head back to the Southern part of Portugal and we did half of that trip today.   We only had two stops but they were AMAZING.   About 1.5 hours outside of Porto we came to the Bucaco National Forest and Palace Hotel.  The Forest was once home to the Dscalced Carmelite Monks who built

Today was the day for us to explore Porto and boy did we get alot in.   We began our morning walking to the Livraria Lello book store that was inaugurated in 1906, it has a magical central wood staircase and was said to have inspired Hogwarts design in the Harry Potter books.   They had all

We started out this day with a big “bucket list” item for both of us, but especially Phil.   With him growing up in Southern California and surfing he has always kept up with the WSL  and we often watch surfing events or documentaries but when Netflix came out with two seasons of One Hundred Foot

We left Lisbon and made the short drive over Sintra to see a few sites.  We hired a Tuk tuk driver to take us up to the Moorish castle which is a fortification that was founded in the 10th century.  Inside the walls were beautiful rocky hillside country with lots of wild flowers and plants.

The first stop on this 3 week trip is Lisbon.  We were lucky enough to be invited to stay at the Four Seasons Ritz hotel and the Sales Director, Joao met us upon arrival and showed us this beautiful hotel.  We were exhausted after the long travel day so we decided to grab a quick