A travel journal is something a lot of travellers wish they would keep but somehow they don’t.

But there are so many great reasons why you should keep a travel journal during your trips. Travel journaling helps you slow down and makes your travels more meaningful. Here are 5 powerful reasons for you to start journaling on your next trip. 

The little highlights, some challenges, who you met. Whether that’s the sound of a big city at rush hour or the smell of cotton candy on the beach. It’s these experiences that photos can’t capture.

When you journal soon after your adventures happened, you may often journal about so many details, which are still fresh and made an impression on you. If you write your impressions a few days or weeks later, your notes may be a rather chronological recap.

When it comes to travel journaling, it’s not just about what you did. It’s about how this made you feel. What surprised you, what made you happy, what disappointed you. And then it’s all there, captured in the moment, in your travel journal.

So - do you want to journal during your next trip and make incredible memories?

Get yourself The Ultimate Travel Planner today and have it ready as soon as your next adventure starts.

We'd love to hear your impressions and see your photos. 

Tag us on instagram @timetotrawell and use the #timetotrawell hashtag. Looking forward!

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Portugal is the hidden gem of Europe and the Algarve is the hidden gem of Portugal ❤️ It’s beyond amazing and magical. It’s an absolute dream we sometimes wish we’d had discovered earlier.

The breathtaking coastline with stunning cliffs, amazing deep blue ocean, dreamy beaches and the extraordinary landscape with arches and caves – the Algarve is truly unlike anywhere else and an absolute must if you’re planning a trip to Portugal.

Whether you’re a city person, beach lover, or trail adventurer, the charming beach towns of the Algarve will absolutely steal your heart. They’ve definitely stolen ours 😍

Fun anecdote – when we were in Portugal in November last year, Katja insisted on staying in Lisbon during the whole period (2 weeks) because she loves Lisbon that much. Réda needed to reeeeeally insist and organise everything in order for Katja to even accept the idea of driving to the south 🙈 Turns out our first trip to Algarve has stolen both of our hearts and Katja couldn’t be more grateful for Réda’s persisting encouragement to discover the region. We’re in the Algarve region for the second time now and we are 100% sure we’ll be back in no time 🙌

BY CAR

Until now, we’ve always rented a car in Lisbon and drove about 2,5 hours south. The infrastructure is amazing, the landscape really beautiful, and you get to cross one of the two great bridges leading from Lisbon to the south – Vasco de Gama Bridge and The Ponte 25 de Abril. The tolls are very reasonable (highway + bridge) and in the Algarve region you can easily avoid tolls by using the great regional roads.

You can check a short video of our beautiful road trip to Algarve out here.

BY TRAIN

You can take a train from the Entrecampos Station in Lisbon to the Faro Station in Algarve. The journey takes nearly three hours, and you can buy tickets online or in person. 

BY AIRPLANE

If you want to fly directly to the Algarve, the best way is is to fly to Faro airport, centrally located in the region. You can also fly to Lisbon airport and then commute to the Algarve using the above means.

Our suggestion indeed is the car rental. It makes it super easy to explore the region and hop around between different towns and beaches. There is a possibility of public transportation in the Algarve region, but it would require much more organisation and the need to stick to schedule. 

There are so many beautiful villages and towns in the region. Your choice of accommodation location will of course depend on the experience you’d like to have.

STRATEGIC LOCATION FOR EXPLORING

Our recommendation is to stay at one location and move around by doing day trips. The region is fairly small so having a “strategic base” at the right spot makes it very easy for you to move around.

We highly recommend an accommodation somewhere between Faro and Lagos, two bigger cities in the region. Note that Albufeira is one of the more touristy towns in between Faro and Lagos, so you may want to look for a smaller and less touristy town (even though Albufeira is a great town to visit).

ISOLATED REMOTE TOWN

When we traveled to the Algarve the first time, we stayed in a small town called Galé. It is a very quiet and peaceful town close to Albufeira, making it great to relax and have quite some intimacy. However, apart from the access to the beautiful beach you will have to drive to Albufeira for anything else (groceries, bakery, fish market etc). This is not an inconvenience but it’s good to be aware of it and adapt your choice to your preference.

RESIDENTIAL SMALL CITY

This time we choose to stay in Armaçao de Pêra, a town about 3km away from Galé. Set in a wide bay Armação de Pêra is amazing for a very easy access to the beach, but also to many cafés, restaurants, supermarkets and more than a few ice-cream shops. There is also an amazing daily fish and fruits & veggies market, where you get to interact with locals all while getting the best seasonal products in the region.

 – Explore the beaches. You simply have to discover the variety of stunning sandy beaches (see below for the selection of our fav ones). Note that there is not much shade on the beaches and it is highly recommended not to seek shade just below the cliffs for the security reasons. We recommend you check with your accommodation if the reservation includes the sunshade. Otherwise you can either buy one in the nearby stores (raging from 6 to 15 eur) or rent the shaded spot on the beach (only available on more urban beaches though and can be rather pricy).

– Discover the charming towns. From Albufeira and Lagos to Sagres and Faro, the beautiful Algarve towns are worth exploring. We were particularly impressed by Sagres, the westernmost point of Portugal, which used to be thought of as the end of the world. We visited the Fortaleza de Sagres, which totally amazed us. Walking around the place from which the discoverers once set sail into the unknown waters is a feeling hard to describe. Apart from the spectacular panorama, the place offers a lot of insights in the historical and natural parts of the area. The entrance fee is only 3 eur per person and we spent 2 hours there.

– Hike on the cliffs of the Algarve coast. Regardless of how sporty you are, the great trail along the coastline of the Algarve is a big must for anyone in the region. You decide how long you want to walk around and whether you’ll just hike to the beach or rather go for a longer hike. The coastal trail meanders past picturesque beaches and offers amazing perspectives.

– Go on the boat tour of stunning caves and dolphin watching. We are usually not fans of organised trips but this one is so worth it! Thanks to the special rock formation, there is more to Algarve than stunning cliffs and beaches. By boat you can discover amazing caves that are otherwise not accessible by foot. Also, the boat tour offers a totally different perspective on the coastal area, making you appreciate it even more. Last but not least, seeing dolphins in their natural habitat is a totally magical experience. We loved it so much when we did this boat tour back in November during our first trip to the Algarve. Click here to see the video of our experience. Btw – we took the boat from Albufeira but there are plenty of options from various cities, offering more or less similar experience.

Every beach in the area is unique and has something great to offer. Some are very easily accessible, some are a bit more remote, some are more urban, yet some others are very natural. It is therefore hard to highlight just a few, but here is the selection of our fav ones we’d definitely recommend.

– PRAIA NOVA

Praia Nova is a relatively big beach, stretching for about 300 metres in length. The beach is backed by tall rock formations. On top of the cliff on the left hand side of the beach is a beautiful chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha, a great spot for some beautiful views. Praia Nova is usually not very crowded. The beach is quite large, which means there is a lot of space. Since the beach is relatively unknown, few people visit it. Compared with Praia de Nossa Senhora da Rocha (the beach next to Praia Nova), Praia Nova is much bigger, less crowded and more quiet.

– PRAIA DA MARINHA 

Praia da Marinha is one of our ultimate fav beaches and one of the most picturesque ones. Its iconic rock formations have graced the covers of a hundred holiday brochures – and rightfully so. The beach itself is sandy, but fairly small. Despite being located in the middle of the Algarve coast, Praia da Marinha lacks the facilities and most importantly, the easy access of other Algarve beaches. To get to the beach involves a bit off a drive off the main road followed by a steep descent down to the beach via a set of steps. The special rock formation makes it very unique to swim there or to explore it with a kayak.

– PRAIA DE ALBANDERA 

What makes the Albandeira beach stand out amongst many of its neighbours is its small size, a fairly easy access and the iconic Arco de Albandeira, very unique rock formations, seen from the cliff overlooking Praia de Albandera. This huge arched rock formation is a beautiful spot to admire during sunset, just at the end of the day at the beach. The high tide on Praia de Albandera may force visitors to move towards the upper part of the beach, making it seem more crowded than it actually is, but it’s particularly enjoyable early in the morning and late in the afternoon where there are only a handful of visitors.

The iconic Arco de Albandeira next to the stunning Praia de Albandeira

So - do you want to journal during your next trip and make incredible memories?

Get yourself The Ultimate Travel Planner today and have it ready as soon as your next adventure starts.

We'd love to hear your impressions and see your photos. 

Tag us on instagram @timetotrawell and use the #timetotrawell hashtag. Looking forward!

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Imagine a long white beach with stunning blue water.  Maldives? Bora Bora? Try much closer. Greece? Sardinia? Ok, MUCH closer. Take a guess. The beach is called Spiaggia Bianca, or The White Beach, and is located in Tuscany, Italy, some 25 km from Livorno. 

We stopped at this hidden beach for 2 hours only, just to check it out on our way to Florence, and see for ourselves whether photos we’ve seen of it were doing it justice. Photos indeed don’t need filters to enhance the beautiful colors of both the sea and sand – this place indeed feels like a piece of Caribbean in the middle of Italy.

The Spiaggia Bianca with the sand as white as snow is not a very touristy place and there are not many signs orienting you towards it. This may be due to some controversial opinion about this beach as the beautiful colors of both the sand and the water are presumably due to a nearby local factory which manufactures bicarbonate of soda. 

The vast majority of sunbathers and kite surfers at the beach are locals – but this doesn’t make the beach less crowded. A big advantage of it being so long is that people distribute rather evenly along the beach and thus avoid the feeling of an overcrowded place (at least when we were there).

COORDINATES

43.381045, 10.434789.

You can simply search for Spiaggia Bianca Rosignano on Google Maps or in your GPS.

BY CAR

A lot of people integrate the visit of Spiaggia Bianca into their Tuscany road trip. Arriving by car is a very easy way indeed. There is an official paying parking spot just nearby. However, there is no shade and the car easily gets very dusty from the sand. Also, the parking is not charged per hour but for a full day only.

If you want to make it a short stop and feel like avoiding paying for a full-day parking, we suggest you park less than 10 minutes walk away on a residential street.

BY TRAIN

You can take a train to the Rosignano train station. It will take you about 15 minutes to walk to the Spiaggia Bianca.

We’re big advocates of “behind the scenes” stories and realistic experience sharing. The Spiaggia Bianca is indeed stunning when framed well, but if you want to get the bigger picture of this place, you need to look beyond the white sand and blue sea.

As already mentioned, there is a factory near the Spiaggia Bianca. When you’re on the beach, you don’t see this and it doesn’t disturb your time there. 

Spiaggia Bianca is located in the industrial part of Italy, not far from a huge port in Livorno. The location however is well shaded from the big cargo boats and somehow an oasis of peace.

There are a few things to have in mind for a good experience. We’ve done some research before leaving and prepared some tips we wrote down in our Ultimate Travel Planner.

– This place is NOT very urban. There is no bar or restaurant nearby so remember to bring water and food with you, especially if you’d like to stay longer. During summer months it may get really hot there so make sure to remain well hydrated.

– There are no showers on spot. Or any standard beach facility for that matter. We highly recommend you to bring a few bottles of tap water with you, which you can use to rinse your feet once you want to put your shoes back on. The sand is so fine that it’s more like dust – you may want to avoid having it all over your clothes.

– There is almost no shade at this beach, so you may want to bring a parasol with you – or at least really good sunscreen. You can easily buy a parasol there if you’d like – there are quite some people on spot trying to sell you quite a few things, including a parasol. They didn’t disturb us but we’ve read many commens of visitors finding that rather annoying.

– Avoid brining any valuables with you. There is no chance to store your valuables anywhere and since the spot is not particularly urban, you wouldn’t want your things to get stolen. We did feel rather safe there – but a bit of mindfulness is always good.

Do you wish to visit this secret beach? We’d love to hear your impressions and see your photos.

Tag us on instagram @timetotrawell and use the #timetotrawell hashtag. Looking forward!

So - do you want to journal during your next trip and make incredible memories?

Get yourself The Ultimate Travel Planner today and have it ready as soon as your next adventure starts.

We'd love to hear your impressions and see your photos. 

Tag us on instagram @timetotrawell and use the #timetotrawell hashtag. Looking forward!

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One thing we’ve learned as travellers who visited over 50 countries is that the more you can learn about yourself as a traveler, the better. 

When you fully leverage and utilize your unique qualities, the sky is the limit when you travel.

This is exactly why we created this free guide to share actionable tips to help you gain better understanding of your unique abilities as a traveller based on your zodiac sign, so you can travel like a pro.

Download this free e-book and make the most our of your travel adventures.