Wilson’s Promontory beach is the first Victorian site to top Tourism Australia’s list, which celebrates coastal spots
It’s not the famous sands of Bondi, the surf mecca of Bells, or the pristine white stretches along the Great Barrier Reef – but Squeaky beach in Victoria has been named the best in Australia.
Named for the under-foot sound of its quartz sand, the Wilson’s Promontory beach is close to the most southerly point of mainland Australia.
Continue reading...Barring public access to beaches and other sites is not a model for development. Transparency and engagement are needed
Walk along a Caribbean beach, which may stretch for miles, and your stroll is guaranteed to be cut short by an angry hotel security guard. In recent years, the Caribbean has seen a worrying trend of governments readily selling off assets to foreign corporations and political financiers.
Prime real estate, protected land and valuable resources are being relinquished without consideration for long-term consequences. It raises questions about whether remnants of the colonial mindset still prevail in political ideologies and decision-making.
Continue reading...Death at Black Head south of Port Macquarie comes after off-duty police officer died when rescuing his teenage son on state’s South Coast
A man has died while trying to save his teenage daughter who was caught in a rip at a beach on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
Police said the 42-year-old man entered the water after his daughter got into trouble at Back beach at Black Head, 75km south of Port Macquarie. He too was caught in the rip on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Man, 45, was caught in a rip after getting his 14-year-old son to safety at a beach on the state’s south coast
An off-duty police officer who drowned at a beach on the New South Wales south coast had swum out to rescue his own son from a “substantial” rip, police say.
The man, who has not been named, had entered the water at a beach south of Narooma after his 14-year-old son was caught in a rip on Sunday.
Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads
Continue reading...With reports of surf lifesaving rescues up in some states, there are fears of a repeat of last summer, when 145 people drowned
Australians are being urged to be safe in the water this week, as the country enters the most dangerous time of the year for fatal drownings.
Two swimmers drowned on Christmas Day – a 36-year-old man in Sydney and a 19-year-old in Lorne in Victoria – and police divers in Western Australia are searching Black Diamond Lake near Collie in the state’s south-west after a 30-year-old man did not return from a swim.
Continue reading...Dancer Pilar Gil on where to eat, dance and take a sunset stroll in one of Europe’s oldest cities
The Mercado Central de Abastos is the heart of Cádiz and where we locals go to buy our fresh fish, seafood, fruit and vegetables. It also has a lot of cafes where you can order anything from fried fish to an empanada. My favourites are Lady Papa’s, which serves traditional tapas dishes, and a vegan stall called Las Niñas Veganas – it’s not easy to find vegan or gluten-free food in Cádiz, so this is special.
Continue reading...Connemara has inspired film crews, writers and maharajahs with its wild mountains and endless expanses of sky and sea
When I was 20 and straight out of teacher training college I took a job in a school in Connemara for a year. My friends were heading for the bright lights of Dublin, but after a childhood of caravan holidays along Ireland’s west coast I was drawn to the “wild mountainous country” of west Galway beloved of Oscar Wilde and countless other artists and untamed spirits.
Instead of the indoor excitement of city life, I spent the year knee-high in bogs, scrambling up the Twelve Bens, island-hopping to Inishbofin and Inishark and pedalling along deserted roads to the show-stopping beaches at Glassilaun and Rossadillisk. A sign on the road for Rossadillisk beach read “Welcome to Paradise”. I learned to ride on Connemara ponies at Errislannan and on weekends I’d hitch lifts to random events in Letterfrack, involving local poets, map makers and sculptors who breathed life into this quiet corner of Ireland. With no advance planning, I’d find myself at the summit of Diamond Hill or spotting porpoises at Renvyle beach with a gang of newfound friends.
Continue reading...Driving, packing, parenting while driving … yes, summer holidays are here to torment us. Handily, so are Guardian writers on how to negotiate them
My holiday road rage is directed inward – at my own failures and miscalculations – although I accept it will not feel like that if you are sitting next to me. Sometimes these episodes are all I remember of the trips in question: running out of petrol halfway across a suspension bridge; the satnav voice that switched to Italian midway through a journey; that hyena I nearly hit in the middle of a hailstorm.
Continue reading...With Croatia set to go on to the green list, we pick quiet islands and beaches for a post-lockdown escape
Last summer, visitors who managed to make it to Croatia had a taste of what the country was like before the days of mass tourism. And it tasted good. But while honeypots such as Dubrovnik were unrecognisably quiet, there have always been parts of the country where you don’t have to wade through crowds.
Places where things move at a less hurried pace, where Croatian life can be savoured, where you get a flavour of what the Dalmatians call fjaka – the art of doing nothing. These islands and mainland destinations are what you want in a post-lockdown escape: peace, beauty and the chance to discover why Croatia is such an enticing country.
Continue reading...The seaside town of Anapa hopes foreign travel ban will bring holidaymakers back
It is not yet peak season on Anapa’s Black Sea coast so there is still space to spread out on its sandy beach, the pride of a resort town that may be one of the best chances many Russians get to visit the seaside this year.
Wander through the streets beyond the waterfront and you’ll find a sprawl of knick-knack shops, amusement and water parks, shashlik stands and carnival games that make up what is, this year, Russia’s resort of last resort.
Continue reading...Armona, off the Algarve, has been home since Covid’s second wave – and I’ve grown to love its beauty, simplicity and kindness
The sun is slowly rising over the Atlantic and I sit watching from the house I have rented overlooking dunes on the small Portuguese island of Armona. The sound of fishing boats heading out marks the pre-dawn, a time known as the blue hour, now a time when many are awake, having thrashed the bedding during another fretful pandemic night. I try to meditate and do breathing exercises to settle myself down. “It will be all right,” I say. And the sun says it back.
Continue reading...Some literary minds crave a full-throttle rush. For others, it’s the peace in birdwatching, kayaking or finding refuge in the trees
Before lockdown, I occasionally got uneasily into a sea kayak with my kids – usually unbalancing it and tipping us all in the water. Then they exchanged the big multi-seater kayak for two lighter two-seaters, which I can actually lift.
Continue reading...Exclusive: public health and environment at risk as water companies overuse emergency overflows, says pressure group
Water companies discharged raw sewage into bathing water beaches almost 3,000 times in the past year, polluting the environment and risking public health, new analysis shows.
Related: Face masks and gloves found on 30% of UK beaches in clean-up
Continue reading...Holidays to the Spanish islands will be on sale in time for half-term. The Maldives, Mykonos and Denmark also added to list
Last-minute holidays to the Canaries will be back on sale in time for a half-term getaway after the islands were added to the UK travel corridor list.
Holidaymakers will be able to visit any of the eight main islands in the archipelago without the need to quarantine for 14 days on their return. The move comes into effect from 4am on Sunday (25 October), the transport Grant Shapps confirmed on Twitter on Thursday.
Continue reading...