A bit of rest & relaxation…
A summer for me is just not complete without a cheapy trip to Europe for a proper beach holiday. I live for the short flights, temperatures above 25ºC, crisp linen sundresses and afternoon beers at the beach!
Jordie and I have explored a lot of beautiful places in Europe – from Croatia to Italy and Spain, but nowhere has ever quite captured my heart like the Balearics. Last year we went to Ibiza, but this year we headed back to magical Mallorca, one of my favourite places in the world!
I feel like most of my summer is given over to touring Scotland to film the show, but I made sure to squeeze in a short getaway before the shoot started. This trip actually came about because our best friends Mikey and Kristy said they had taken a few days off for a summer trip, and the dates coincided with a free week I had in my calendar too.
Kristy and I were in Edinburgh when we excitedly text our boys with the plans of booking flights abroad, luckily they were just as keen as us.
Where we stayed…
Booking accommodation is always the hardest part of any trip! I never know if it’s worth splashing out (I’ve stayed at so many beautiful hotels in my time but not all of them have been worth the cash!), or settling for a bit of a budget find.
I wanted a really relaxing getaway, so I was hoping to find a villa with a pool that could offer a bit of privacy. Somewhere located close to the beach that also felt peaceful and had a very authentic feel to it – all within our budget!
I searched high and low and found Sa Nau, a little apartment complex that ticked all our boxes. Admittedly, it wasn’t a private villa but it looked so charming that I booked it anyway. It was sold out on booking.com, but then when I looked on their site a duplex apartment for four was available, so we booked through the website and they confirmed in an email a few hours later.
I did a fair bit of research – checking the Instagram geotags, reading reviews etc., but I still wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there. It was dark when we arrived, having picked up the rental car and stopped at the supermarket on our way, but it was soon clear that we had lucked out. The apartments were beautiful!
There’s around 13 apartments in total, and I think three swimming pools too. The back door of our apartment opened out on to a big outdoor swimming area with sunloungers and tables, and there was another pool out the front too. We spent most of the trip splashing about in the pool, us girls floating in inflatable donuts while the boys brought us drinks! It was one of the best (and cheapest!) holidays I’ve ever, ever had.
The best part of having a villa was that we could make our own meals! I get so bored of going out to restaurants on holiday. Especially because most of us have some sort of dietary requirement (such millennials!). I think we went out for dinner once the entire time, and another evening we just went for drinks – it was about a 40 minute walk from our villa to the local town of Portocolom, but it was an excuse to get dressed up (ie change out of our bikinis!) and take a few photos along the way.
Instead we loaded up at the supermarket, stocking up on local wine, beers, bread, cheese, salads, olives and crisps. We’d eat croissants for breakfast while Jordan made a fresh pot of coffee, and start the day in the sun before moving out to the pool and having a swim until it was time for lunch.
Then I’d whip up a round of aperol spritz’s and a lunch that involved big salads and lots of bread and cheese! We were in holiday heaven, it really was the perfect getaway.
At night we’d sit outside and play cards while drinking beers and listening to music from 2004. Many, many games of Uno were played, and yet somehow I remain undefeated.
We took a trip to the beach one day too, although my favourite days were definitely the ones we spent around the pool just the four of us. I love how private the Sa Nau apartments are, we didn’t really have to share the pool at any point and our neighbours were chilled and quiet.
I asked the manager of the complex about the best beaches, so we drove to a few to check them out. The first was Cala LLombards which I think is quite a famous one – it was reached via a very precarious staircase and lots of climbing. In the end it was a bit rocky for us here, so we headed to Cala Mondrago, and wandered until we reached a smaller beach. Here we hired a pedalo for €15 and took turns pedalling and sliding down the slide until our hour was up. It’s the simple things!
I rarely feel like a holiday isn’t long enough, I take enough trips that I feel ready to go home and embrace the next chapter, but I honestly thought about extending our trip while we were in Mallorca! It was everything I could have asked for from a proper relaxing trip away – endless days swimming in the pool, aperol spritzes in the sunshine, time with our best friends and so many games of cards. It was so uncomplicated – the trip itself was inexpensive, we ate well and swam all day, I had a proper break from social media and we came back feeling revived and with a golden glow!
I know we’ll be looking at booking the same trip away from next year too, although if I could squeeze in another trip this year I totally would. Even just writing up this post has given me the post-holiday blues!
Have you ever been to Mallorca? Where is next on your travel bucketlist?
