9 July 2015

My Cape Verde Holiday Experience

Hi everyone! If any of you have been reading my most recent posts you will know I have been on holiday, I've been away for two weeks and came back home on Tuesday and I am experiencing serious holiday blues! It's my first shift back at work on Saturday and I'm feeling very sad about it, never mind I am getting my university exam results tomorrow and I am so nervous I could cry!! I've definitely come back to reality with a bang but to make myself a bit happier I thought I'd do a post all about my holiday and how much I loved it!

Last year my boyfriend Matty and I went to Mexico on holiday and this year we really wanted another chill out all inclusive holiday and my aunty told us about Cape Verde, it's off the coast of West Africa, there is basically nothing there apart from amazing beaches and massive hotels that look like giant sandcastles so we had booked that last September with Thomson so we were waiting absolutely ages for it to come around! We had to fly from Manchester as the airport closest to us, Newcastle, doesn't fly to Cape Verde but it's an extra day on your holiday so it wasn't that bad. Matty didn't want to drive so we stopped over the night before we flew as we had a 9:15am flight and we stayed in the Radisson Blu Manchester airport hotel and it was amazing!! Couldn't put in to words how nice it was, the perfect place to go before you start your holiday. It even made me feel relaxed as I get so stressed before we go on holiday as I'm always panicking that I've forgotten something or worst of all, my suitcase with get lost. I am honestly so scared of it happening that I half and half all of me and my boyfriend's things into each suitcase, then if one gets lost you still have half your stuff (sad I know). Anyway we had a lovely night there and left the room about 6am to go and check in and chill out in duty free and have a look about. We boarded about 9am and the flight wasn't the best, Thomson have to use their smaller planes to go to Cape Verde as the airport is so small, meaning no entertainment on a 6 hour flight which made it quite boring. I bought the book 'Girl On A Train' and I was so bored I read the whole book on the flight there (that ruined my opportunity to read by the pool as I only brought the one book!). When you land though it is the craziest thing ever, literally looks like you are landing on Mars!


Sorry about the quality I just took this on my phone but you can see here how it actually looks like Mars, there is almost nothing there. Don't be fooled by the appearance though it is such a beautiful island and I will highlight this later with photos of where we stayed!

Anyway we got our transfer to our hotel the Riu Touareg and when it appears after literally driving through vast emptiness, there is a few goats roaming about and that's it this giant sandcastle hotel emerges out of nowhere it is so gorgeous! 


I didn't take this photo as I couldn't get a good one as we were driving up but you can see here how huge and pretty it is! It is such an amazing place to walk around you feel like you are in a Spanish town, they had this square where everything went on at night like the food and the entertainment and the architecture of the hotel is so gorgeous. The weather is perfect as well, it's around 26 - 29 degrees in June but there is a breeze all the time so you can sunbathe without feeling uncomfortable in the heat. We mostly just chilled the whole time we were there, we started going to the pool at first but all the really annoying people that go to the pool at like 7.30am were there as you couldn't reserve sunbeds and we started to get fed up of having to wake up so early just to get a sunbed so we went to the beach instead where there is always loads of them. Now I really am not a beach girl, I love the pool and I hate sand and how it gets everywhere and I don't go in the sea because I have always been scared of it after I watched Jaws when I was a kid but I was converted here! Seriously the most gorgeous beach ever, it's just soft sand, not that horrible sand with stones in that stabs your feet, just soft sand and in the sea there was no seaweed it was just so perfect! Also the waves were the biggest I've ever seen and I braved it and went in until I got wiped out by one and didn't venture in again after that! 

Matty on the beach on our first day there.



It really was the nicest chill out holiday, we sunbathed all day then went for food and watched the entertainment shows on the night, we had a couples massage in the spa as well. Anyone else think that massage time is the fastest in the world, just like a treadmill minute is really long, a 50 minute massage literally feels like 10 minutes because you're so relaxed! 


We always got a serious tan while we were there, so if anyone has any tips for prolonging a tan I'd love to know as mine fades so quickly and I need to keep it going as long as possible!

I'll put in some more pictures of totally random things, ignore the goofy ones we aren't good at taking nice pictures!




There was also cats everywhere and lots of kittens that the hotel feed I'm guessing as a form of pest control but this was my favourite thing ever as I love them and they would let you stroke them and I fell in love!


That's probably my favourite picture of the whole holiday even though we look like idiots! I'm so sad to be home I'm definitely missing the amazing weather and the little holiday bubble you get yourself into while you are away, not enjoying the real world now I'm back! I would definitely go back and would recommend to visit Cape Verde however bear in mind outside the hotel there is basically nothing to do as it is really underdeveloped however as tourism is increasing they are already working on developing the island. If you are into exploring and lots of adventure then it won't be for you but if you love chilling out in a gorgeous place then it's perfect! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as it's a little different from my usual stuff and a lot more about me, leave a comment on where you are going or have been on holiday even though it'll make me jealous! Thanks for reading xxx
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