Navarre Beach, Florida

I just came back from vacationing in
Navarre, Florida. It is about an 8 hour drive from Anderson, South Carolina. The drive is all on the freeway until the last hour where you drive through some small towns in Alabama. There were miles of cotton fields.

Navarre Beach has beautiful white sand and the water is bright blue. The city just completed rebuilding the beach and the dune walkways last year because it was swept away from Hurricane Dennis in 2005. They added 200 feet of new sand to the beach. There were surfers there the day we went to the beach. The waves were huge due to the tropical storm that was heading toward shore. The tropical storm did not worry me as I have lived in Florida before for many years. It was actually nice to hear the rain all night long. I am sure the people who live there get nervous whenever a storm arrives as they have been hit quite a few times from hurricanes.

Further down the beach there are rows and rows of beautiful homes of all colors that have just been rebuilt or are in the process. Most of this part of the beach is vacant until the homes are completed. Once completed it would be a really nice place to retire.

East River Smokehouse had really good food and live music at night. TC's Front Porch has the best burgers and the place reminds you of the beach even though it is in town. It is set up like a deck with all sides open so you can enjoy the outdoors. The place that really gives you that tropical feel is Juana's Beach Bar which is located on the inter-coastal side. It is a tiki hut with the sides open, straw-style roof, and sand as the floor. They have volleyball outdoors and a wonderful view of the water. There is a restaurant next door called Sailor’s Grill which has an open deck.

There is something for the entire family to enjoy. You can relax on the beach, canoe on a river, stroll along a nature trail, or visit the Zoo or Butterfly House. Navarre is located in between Destin and Pensacola. It is a nice drive to both places to go shopping. The best part of my vacation was visiting family at my sisters’ homes who both live in Navarre.

Contiki Tours to Europe for 18-35 Year Olds

In July of this year I took a 12-day tour of Europe with my sister. The tour was through Contiki Tours on their “Amsterdam to Barcelona” tour, which is one of their Superior tours. I chose a guaranteed departure date, as I booked my own flights, and decided to do a pre-night before the tour started in Amsterdam.

Let me preface this by explaining that Contiki is an Australian-owned company. They specialize in vacations for 18-35 year olds and when you go on a Contiki tour, this shows! I had an amazing time on mine, which, according to our tour conductor, was not quite the norm for the shorter Contiki tours—we literally had people aged 18-35 on it, with numerous couples, and most of the people were from Australia—but everyone was friendly and open and ready and willing to make the tour as fun as possible.

Our tour started with a bang in Amsterdam. Having heard mixed things about the city, I was actually very impressed by the cleanliness and the friendliness of the people. My sister and I especially enjoyed the Rijksmuseum and the Heineken Experience! We then headed to Paris, where we experienced amazing food and beautiful architecture, especially the Notre Dame Cathedral. We even got to see a cabaret show in Montmartre, and that was the experience of a lifetime!

From Paris we had one day in Switzerland and one day in Chamonix in the French Alps, where we enjoyed some great shopping and beautiful scenery. Our second to last stop was the French Riviera—we stayed in Nice and had a wonderfully relaxing day on the beach, then got to see Monaco as well. We spent about 12 euro to rent beach chairs for a day, as Nice has a rock beach, and that was probably the best money I spent on the entire trip! The chairs were so comfortable that I napped the perfect July morning away. Finally, the tour ended in Barcelona, Spain, but unfortunately we were there on a Sunday and almost everything was closed. We caught a glimpse of the Sagrada Familia and the Columbus monument, as well as doing a little shopping along Las Ramblas, before catching a Flamenco show and finishing off our trip with a night at Port Olympia.

The Contiki experience was definitely an interesting one. In order to keep their prices extremely affordable, the hotels were mostly 3 star hotels and many of them were a little farther from the city centers than I would have liked; however, they were clean and of course we were too busy sightseeing to spend too much time in our hotel rooms anyway! Our tour conductor was extremely knowledgeable and approachable and I will never forget our bus driver maneuvering that big motor coach through the Alps. Over the course of nearly two weeks, we became very friendly with the other 47 people on our tour—I’m sure we even made some friends for life.

All in all, if you are a young person looking for a great time and a great deal on a trip to Europe, Contiki Tours may very well be perfect for you!