Words About Things

While it isn’t as favored as Summer, Autumn has its plus points. The leaves on the trees start to turn orange and red, the weather turns and being indoors suddenly feels cozy. Autumn food is much more interesting than Summer food and digging out your winter coat is always a pleasure. Sunbathing, perhaps the dullest pastime known to man, is put to rest and walks in the countryside become so much more pleasant.

There are those who would disagree with me however, many feel a sense of foreboding in anticipation of winter as Autumn arrives. The forthcoming lack of sunlight and warmth makes normally sunny people feel dark and cold. These are the sort of people who start flicking through holiday brochures as soon as the sun sets on the last day of Summer. Not many people think of traveling to Portugal in the Autumn but this could be the best time to visit.

The Algarve in Southern Portugal reaches about 22C in October. While this perhaps isn’t enough to sunbathe in in is about twice what we would expect to experience in the UK. The weather is mild and there is plenty to see and do in Portugal‘s most popular tourist destination. 9 million overseas visitors travel to the Algarve each year but most of them will be gone by October. If the beach isn’t your cup of tea how about a rustic rural retreat.

Another area of Portugal more suited to the Autumn is the city of Porto on the west coast. Porto is one of the cheapest cities in western Europe, you can stay for €10 a night if you don’t mind staying in a Hostel. Cheap flights can also be found if you have the luxury of being able to travel outside of school holiday dates. According to The Guardian:

Porto used to be a grim, industrial port, but the old docks have been reclaimed and the buildings that cluster haphazardly on the gentle slopes of the river bank have been painted in pastel colours and now look vaguely Neapolitan. Adding to the prettiness of the scene are old port boats moored on the Douro and graceful bridges arcing over the water.

Had a lovely weekend which always seems to make Monday morning that bit more difficult. We decided to go camping in Devon at the last minute but unfortunately everybody north of Bristol had also had this idea so we had no luck finding a campsite with a vacant pitch. Instead we headed off in the car in search of a sunny beach eventually finding ourselves at Lyme Regis.

The town is best known for its fossils, 10 minutes digging in the cliffs that line one end of the bay are likely to result in at least one new type of Dinosaur being found. The beach was very busy but we eventually found a quiet spot and enjoyed the sunshine.

On the way home we drove behind a great retro looking VW split-screen van in powder blue. I never seem to notice these in the winter but come summer they are all over the place. I bet used van sales go up massively in the sunny months.

There is something strangely tiring about sitting on the beach all day (or maybe it was traipsing through town in search of suncream) and I was in bed by 10pm a shade pinker and a lot more relaxed

It’s not very often that you hear good news about fuel prices. The normal trend seems to be price rises even when the oil price goes down. This makes sense I suppose, why pass on the saving to the consumer if they are going to buy fuel anyway? Anyway, back to the good news before this deteriorates into a rant…

Fuel costs in mainland Europe are apparently 12% less this year than last and the cost of hiring a car is also falling. This is good news for tourists looking to keep costs down this summer particularly those visiting Switzerland where unleaded petrol is currently at 91p per litre. Everything else in Switzerland is massively over priced (over £4 for a Cappuccino?!) so if you’re not paid Swiss wages you might want to keep on driving.

The cost of renting a car has also fallen across the continent with Portugal seeing a 21% drop in price and french car hire also coming down in price. One place where driving costs are increasing is Florida where ‘gas’ prices and the week pound are affecting British holidaymakers. I would be surprised if it was anymore expensive than driving here though as petrol prices in the US are still much lower than in the UK.

“This year’s report shows more evidence of price cutting activity to boost tourism in popular European summer holiday resorts. The huge drop in costs in both Portugal and Greece is great news for UK tourists and is another factor that should be taken into consideration when choosing a holiday this year.”
Sarah Munro, Post Office head of travel