Beach Day at Caorle

Saturday, July 22

Another fun and exciting day at the beach! We are certainly trying to take advantage of this being our last summer living in Italy and going to the beach pretty much every weekend. Or if not the beach we are traveling!

Today we decided to go to Caorle and our friend Jake came with us too. Last year this ended up being one of our favorite beaches because it is so open. Most beaches have rental chairs that go almost all the way up to the water, so you can't bring your own stuff. But here you have so much space you can sit almost anywhere and you were not going to have people right next to you.

The other weekend Preston and I bought the paddles with the ball to play on the beach with. So glad we did, it was a lot of fun! And plus, it was a baby workout trying to run/move around to hit the ball or when we had to go chasing after it.

We decided to rent another paddle boat, as the last time we were here we rented one and had a blast. However, this time was a little more frustrating than fun. It didn't feel that windy, but on the water our boat was rocking all over the place and kept going towards the shore very quickly. Needless to say it didn't make it any better that we were getting a little hangry, so made us a little more frustrated than usual. We still did get a few good runs down the slide. But I have to say, this was the first time I think we didn't make it the full hour we had rented the boat for. Luckily they are cheap to rent.

Definitely time for us to go eat. That is also one nice thing at the beaches here, there are usually multiple places to go eat at. We went to the closest one to our spot on the beach. We needed food ASAP! hehe :)

Now our tummy's were full! Time to go relax again on the beach until it was time to leave!

Another adventurous day at the beach for us!




Address:

Lungomare Trieste, 7, 30021 Caorle VE, Italy

Beach Day at Bibione

Saturday, 15 July

Another beach adventure for Preston and I and this time to Bibione! Today was just Preston and I going to the beach, we were going to have a beach date.

Today was another perfect day to go to the beach!

I had completely forgot how small the area is where you can bring and set-up your own umbrella and towels. All of the beaches near us there are usually already a ton of beach chairs and umbrellas set-up that you have to rent for the day. They are not that expensive, but you can't always sit as close to the water or exactly where you want when you rent these for the day.






















Since there was not much space and the tide kept rising there was literally only very small sections open to sit. We ended up sitting so close to the water, that at one point we had to scoot back as far as we could. But it also gave us a good reason to start playing in the sand, we needed to build a wall/moat to keep the water from hitting our belongings. I felt like a little kid again building castles in the sand!

After playing around for a while we went to eat a late lunch to them head back home. Nice quick and fun adventure to the beach!

Address:

Bibione Beach
Corso del Sole, 223
30028 Bibione VE
Italy

Beach Day at Lignano

Saturday, June 24

First beach trip of the summer! We decided to go to Lignano since last year we never made it to this beach. Our friend Hanna came with us on our beach adventure.

Who doesn't love a relaxing day at the beach! We rented a paddleboat, which was a lot of fun! If you ever go to a beach with a group of friends I highly recommend renting one, they are so cheap and so much fun! It's only 10 euro for an hour and they usually don't care if it's an exact hour, we have gone over an hour I think every time we have rented one and they have never charged us extra.

There are many beach spots in Lignano and almost anywhere we have been to has been nice. There is also a specified doggy beach towards the end of the long strip of beach, so your puppy can run around and play at the beach with you. The first year we got to Italy our friend brought her dog and this part of this beach is nice and open for them to run around and play in the water.

Today was a great day spent at the beach! We plan on going to the beach as many times as possible this summer, since I don't have to travel every week for work.

Address:

Lungomare Trieste, 11
33054 Lignano Sabbiadoro UD
Italy

Weekend Getaway to Sardinia, Italy

This was our last weekend trip with Bryce who has literally been a part of our family from day 1 of being stationed over here. We have been on so many trips and done so much with the 3 of us that it is weird to think this is our last trip together over here. So of course we had to go somewhere nice. He decided on Sardinia, Italy. I had heard a lot of nice things about Sardinia but never even thought about going. But I'm so glad we went, because the views were absolutely stunning!

Thursday, 15 June

The cheapest flights left on Thursday night, so of course we went with that. Our flight left around 8:30pm, so we had time to get something to eat at the airport before we left.

I have no idea why there always has to be something that goes wrong or something random that happens to at least one person always in our group but this one was probably the worst. Bryce left his wallet accidentally in the shuttle that took us to the airport from our car and didn't realize until we got through security and were about to go eat. The car people did however, call Preston to say they found a wallet and would bring it back over. When Bryce got back from getting his wallet he found out they stole all of his money from his wallet and tried to blame it on someone else and that they did not speak English anymore. Very disappointing, I will never use these people to park our car at again!

So that was an interesting way to start our trip, but luckily it got so much better from there.

The flight was not too bad, only a little over an hour to the island. But then another 40 minutes to drive to our hotel. We ended up staying at AHR Costa Serena Village.

The place we stayed at was nice, but the lady who helped check us in gave us the worst directions to our room ever! We spent probably close to 20-30 minutes trying to find our room. Finally, someone was nice enough to help us find our room since it was very late and dark out, it was hard to see any numbers or anything. But once we got to our room it was definitely time to go to sleep since it was after midnight now. We had to prepare for our first full day in Sardinia!

Friday, 16 June

Today we woke up around 7:30 so we could leave between 8 and 8:30 to head to the beach early. Preston found some beaches to go to, so we decided to go to Spiaggia di Rena Bianca which was about 30 minutes from our hotel. Which did not disappoint! The views were amazing and the water was so blue, you could see straight to the bottom. 

We ended up eating lunch at one of the restaurants that was right by the beach.

Then back to tanning and playing around.

After a while Bryce, Jake and I decided to go on a little adventure to find something to drink. We ended up finding the main square where all the shops, bars, and restaurants were.

Then time to slowly make our way back to Presty at the beach!

I still cannot get over how clear the water is here! And the water was the perfect temperature too!

After all of us falling asleep on the beach, it was time to head back to the hotel, shower and eat dinner. But first gelato!

We ended up trying to hotel restaurant, which did not turn out to be as good as we had hoped. You win some and you lose some.

After dinner we just decided to have a little fun at our place. And we had to get pictures at our hotel too with the views! 

We're just a goofy group that likes to have fun!

Saturday, 17 June

This morning Preston found another good beach for us to go to called Bassa Trinita, which was on the island Maddalena. This beach ended up having amazing views as well! I wish the water was this clear in Northern Italy.

We just spent the day playing around in the water and laying out on the beach, as it was another clear blue sky.

This beach was even more secluded than the one we went to the day before. Luckily there was a bar/restaurant up the hill a little for us to eat lunch at. We all ended up getting burgers, which actually were pretty good and at the time the best food we had eaten in Sardinia. But to think of it, we did not actually end up eating very much on this trip.

After staying at the beach until around 1500, we decided to drive around exploring the island. And plus, Jake was burnt to a crisp so probably was better for him to be out of the sun for a little bit.

There were so many massive and nice boats all around the island!

We actually ended up driving by the old Navy base that used to be located on this island. The base closed in 2008 and had been there for 35 years. From what people have told me, this used to be the base everybody wanted to get stationed at. I could definitely understand why! The views are amazing!

On the way back we decided to stop at this beach bar to take a little break and stretch our legs from sitting in the car driving around. The views were nice but, the price of ice cream and the smallest glass of prosecco was ridiculous! And this beach was small, so you would have thought it wouldn't have been that expensive. But whatever, were on vacation ;)

The one thing about Italy that sometimes makes finding places to eat for dinner difficult is the time they eat and when the actually open their restaurants. Since Italians like to eat pretty late compared to Americans, they don't even open their restaurants usually until around 1900. And of course we were at that awkward time where we were hungry but didn't want bar food and didn't want to wait around 45 minutes to an hour before anything opens. So we decided to just take the ferry back over to the main island to find somewhere to eat.

First we had found this place on Trip Advisor that said was good, but luckily we couldn't find parking right away and eventually found a parking lot that had a restaurant on Trip Advisor that said it was better than the one we were looking for, it was called Re Ferdinando. So decided to give it a try.

I will say this place did end up redeeming itself from the previous dinner we had. I ended up wiping my plate clean with the bread on the table hehe :) I got the homemade ravioli, which ended up being pretty tasty.

Then after of course I had to get some gelato!

Right by where we were they were setting up some booths and a baby area where some carnival things were. The town seemed to come out even more at night.

We only stayed around for a little until we decided to head back to our place and chill in our room. I think we still had a lot of fun our last night! ;)

I didn't want this to be our last night here, I was loving the beach life!

Sunday, 18 June

This morning was the sad day when we had to head back home. Luckily we booked the later flight so we could still sleep in a little otherwise our flight would have been at 8 in the morning! But we had time to pack everything up then go to the airport and eat lunch before leaving.

I have to say this was a fun and great weekend at the beach with friends. And sadly our last vacation over here with Bryce :( We have been on so many fun and exciting adventures with him over the past 3 years, that it is going to be weird not having him here anymore. But luckily when we do ever go back stateside we won't be too far from each other to visit.








Hotel Information

AHR Costa Serena Village:
Address: Loc Costa Serena Strada Per Porto Raphael, Palau, 07020, Italy
Phone: +39-0789-70-1029

Beaches Visited:

Spiaggia di Rena Bianca:
Address: 07028 Santa Teresa Gallura, Province of Olbia-Tempio, Italy
Bassa Trinita:
Address: 07024 La Maddalena SS, Italy

Restaurants/Gelaterias:

Central Bar '80:
Address: Piazza Vittorio Emanuele I, 07028 Santa Teresa Gallura OT, Italy
Costa Serena Village Restaurant:
Address: Loc Costa Serena Strada Per Porto Raphael, Palau, 07020, Italy
Re Ferdinando:
Address: , 72, 07020 Palau OT, Italy
Gelateria Artigianale:
Address: Via Fonte Vecchia, 12, 07020 Palau OT, Italy