Unpacked: Seville, Bologna, Peligoni, Cádiz & more with Suzannah Ramsdale, Lifestyle Director at The London Standard

0:05Hello and welcome to The Travel Diaries Unpacked, your weekly weekend dose of wanderlust. I'm your host Holly Rubenstein and today I am joined by the brilliant Susannah Ramsdale, the Lifestyle Director at the London Standard. Her job involves knowing exactly where's worth going and what's worth your precious time off and she is such a wealth of travel knowledge i can't wait to unpack this week's episode with her and there is so much inspiration in this conversation if like me you are already dreading the clocks going back susanna has some very tempting ideas for extending your summer with a little help from her spanish family connections and there's the seaside spot she returns to again and again, a foodie-filled Italian escape that had me mentally checking the flights before we'd even finished talking.

0:59And of course, we have my hotel of the week, which is a Greek island favourite that promises to solve a few of those familiar family holiday dilemmas. Having finally been myself, I have got plenty to tell you on that one. So, settle in and let's get unpacking with Susanna Ramsdale.

1:18Susanna welcome to the travel diaries unpacked it is so nice to see you how you doing I'm great yeah a bit hot as we're recording this now I feel like this whole season I've literally I may as well just be like in the Maldives it is so unbelievably hot I know we all need to start investing in swimming pools or at least better paddling pools or something I have spent such a long time researching paddling pools this summer like ones that actually are for i need adult yes you need to be able to get your shoulders on you sit in it with a rose maybe we should get a timeshare of a giant paddling pool that we can put in our gardens uh but we are going to talk about so many fabulous destinations abroad today so we're going to cover louisiana Sakynthos, Bologna, Seville and many many more destinations.

2:09Obviously this week was our Louisiana destination special and you had an amazing trip there yourself. Yes I was in this really good situation which if you can sort of navigate your way into the situation it's good. I met my husband who is now my husband in South America. He was this is sorry this is probably a long story you might want to cut this but anyway he was studying his MBA at Duke University and we met while we were both on holidays doing the Inca Trail. Anyway cut to we got on very well we did long distance for a year and part of that we would meet in places all over the world about every six weeks.

2:45I didn't know this. Yeah so our dating was kind of brilliant we went to Budapest, Miami, New Orleans in Louisiana was one of these places that we met up. No way. So yes it was probably about 10 years ago was this when you were a travel editor um was i travel editor i was editor i was digital editor in style magazine so not specializing in travel right so so you were just planning these trips yes i was just going on my own yeah yeah doing them no it wasn't work no it was just for the we're just trying to where can we meet up um and we stayed in an airbnb um and i remember it had a rooftop pool and we would sit there for hours just dangling our feet in the water and chatting and drinking wine because it was affordable.

3:28And my memories are a bit hazy. It's such a fun city. I would die to go back, actually. I would absolutely love to go back, yeah. And I just remember sort of sitting at bars, watching jazz. Everywhere you go, there's jazz. It's just brilliant. Like alive and vibrant. Like it has an energy to it. Such an energy. And also it's that thing about you don't have to buy a ticket to anything. You can just stroll on in. you know the drinks are strong the people are friendly like everyone is there for a good time right is it a party city would you say yeah I would say so yeah I mean we went we didn't go during Mardigar or anything like that we went during I can't even remember if it was a weekend or a weekday I'm not sure um we went partying because you know we were dating yeah um but we definitely you know we would sit at bars but you could definitely have a great night if you wanted to sort of go hard I would say and it's a foodie destination as well like do you remember any standout meals that you had so I remember the portions were huge like gigantic and I've got a good appetite um I remember having some quite peculiar things I remember having um deep fried avocado oh wouldn't recommend no I that that actually sounds awful yeah it was horrendous hot avocado in general yeah exactly it was horrific um i'm trying to think what else we had do you know what i was probably in my sort of trying to be all delicate and demure i'll just have a salad um but you can get a great barbecue out there so you know like ribs i'm sure my then now husband went to town on the ribs yeah um there's great seafood there um obviously it's all creole um so lots of flavor um you get the the bayonets which are like the little donuts oh yeah beignets thank you beignets um and there's a really famous place that i remember going to it's sort of um really traditional place that you go to get them and i remember actually someone was getting married there or having like a wedding photo shoot there wow um it sort of feels a little stuck in time but also just so fun yeah yeah the architecture is so unusual yes oh and you know what i remember now it was halloween and that's such a fun yeah because we just walked around all of these incredible neighborhoods with these just sort of mansions and you know they go to town in the u.s with the decorations don't they um and just being absolutely like jaw on the ground with like the spectacle of what they had done like huge tarantulas taking over whole lawns and stuff like that so that was a really fun time of year to go as well I have to say going to the US for Halloween anywhere I would so thoroughly recommend we did a road trip that actually started in Toronto and then ended in New York City so it went through Niagara the Finger Lakes of upstate New York then the Catskills and then ended in Manhattan in October and then at that time of year you can see the fall foliage you know go leaf peeping and then it is just so quintessentially american when the skies are clear blue starting to be a bit crisp but it's still warm and then there are like amazing halloween decorations everywhere especially in upstate new york i would love to do that that sounds brilliant just pump and pumpkin pie you know all of the things that are just yeah leading up into thanksgiving yeah thanksgiving it feels like a movie scene yeah yeah one of the places that we stayed on that trip actually before I move on is a place called the Inns of Aurora I don't feel like it's a place that has had a huge amount of press coverage but it was one of those all-American style like white picket fence porch Adirondack chairs leading down to a lake oh it was so so magical oh my god dying to go that sounds wonderful so romantic you want a place called aurora as well which isn't that in itself just like so so lovely in the kind of wine country of upstate new york just want to drape yourself in a cashmere and yeah exactly it's like a nancy myers movie isn't it essentially exactly yeah so anyway i'd love to now move on to my hotel of the week uh actually this one is not technically a hotel which is slightly cheating but it deserves to be talked about in the same way it is pelagoni in zikinthos i have heard so much about this how tell me i'm so excited to know but i also feel like it was a place that had been on my radar for a really long time in fact growing up i knew people who would go there in the summer it had a kind of reputation that preceded it as being like a gorgeous european summer holiday destination and i do think it suits families in particular so now that I've got children I was so thrilled to be invited to go and check it out yeah it was wonderful so for people who aren't familiar with it Pelagone is in Zakynthos which is uh or Zante depending on you know what time of your life you've frequented I suppose if you're going after A-levels like half the people on the plane then it's Zante oh uh nostalgic vibes yeah but we were in the northeast of the island much more family quiet not that party vibe that's a different part of the island and it is what I would say how I would describe it is it's a range of villas that you all stay in dotted around a hillside and then there is a central club which is towards the water and you can dip in and out as much as you like so you're having this hybrid of a villa holiday but with the amenities of a resort i've actually always wondered how it worked i was a bit confused about because you can get different memberships i think yes i think in most villas a membership to the club is included and that typically is the water sport so if you're into sailing or kite surfing or doing any of those kind of jet skiing water skiing all those kind of activities it's a fantastic place it actually is traveling with older children or if some people described if they have a labrador husband who just needs to be busy all the time yeah it's it's it's a great place for that kind of active holiday i was traveling with a three-year-old and i can't remember how old he was at the time like six or seven months old so we didn't really partake in the like water sports that were on offer but what is incredible about it and again as we've talked we both have young babies the holy grail of traveling in europe a kids club that starts at four months yes oh incredible and i have to say like so it's there are two there are actually there are kind of three different kids clubs there there's a creche and then there's i think it's called rugrats and rascals which is for four five year olds um so actually isabella went into that one and Casper went into the creche but these are vast beautiful lush outdoor um kids clubs that have big shaded areas and then indoor air-conditioned rooms as well the kind of itineraries things that Isabella did like a fossil a fossil hunt a face painting party um they are really quite intrepid and they take them out onto the water to do like little boat trips and And they really set them up on adventures.

11:03And then the kids' activities go all the way up to teenagers. It was a kind of timetable that I could have only dreamt of doing. That's so good. Because so often the kids' clubs are just little pokey dark rooms, aren't they? And you just feel horrendous for even considering. This is the Rolls Royce of kids' clubs. And I would say that Pelagoni, it's not a... It isn't a polished luxury place. it is high end but it's more boho rootsy chic that's what it's aiming to be it's not wanting to be you know too snooty it's wanting to feel really accessible and that's actually really um i think demonstrated also in the accommodation options we stayed in this stunning villa called villa calista had six bedrooms it had a heated swimming pool it's a great place for multi-generational travel we brought my mother-in-law as well um but there are rooms that there are there are kind of smaller apartments kind of two bed much more basic options uh ranging all the way up to like super super snazzy and like mega villas so there's something for most price points in most um sizes of groups i would say oh my god heaven because that's the thing you need a villa or something with multiple rooms don't you because that's the dream you know the sort of creeping around once you put the baby in the travel cot at the end of your bed and yeah it's just awful it's it's it's actually kind of quite cortisol inducing or like hanging out in the bathroom yes exactly watching something on your phone so could you do self-catering if you wanted or would you do your food out in the restaurants and so bars so they're all I think pretty much all the accommodation is has the option to be self-catering and that there's there was an in Villa Calista there was both a lovely kitchen inside and an outdoor kitchen but also pelagoni put on these incredible feasts that you pay to go to um and they do these kind of long banquet tables with live music and like twinkly lights yeah and it almost feels like um it made me feel like a summer's wedding you know where all the children are staying up late and they're running around and making friends with each other and dancing and there are different food stations and stuff and there was kind of different guest chefs and different themes and stuff each night so it was a really great place to have that hybrid because you say for lunch we had it in the villa and then you could you could eat while casper was napping you just need that flexibility don't you it really really works if you've had for whatever reason a bad day no naps naps have been skipped or something like that and you're just i just need to eat in the apartment yeah totally and what is also amazing is that they have like this super squad of housekeeping that come in and so somebody comes in and does the villa every single day that's what you need clears up breakfast which was dreamy so yeah it's a really unusual hybrid I was thinking that in the summer when my kids are at school and you know you're at a loss for the school holidays like what you know and you're signing on to clubs and this and the other the cost of attending the kids club at Pelagone was very comparable if not more affordable than a week at nursery so it's like you know a really great place to base yourself for them to keep busy and one place i'd really recommend if you do go um nearby is just down the hill a couple of minutes is a beach uh restaurant a bio-organic restaurant and beach called a nobelos beautiful crystal clear water in this bay overlooking sailing boats and and kephalonia in the distance and it was really really stunning have you been to kephalonia i have been to kephalonia yes we went for our baby moon yeah so three years ago or something now but um i adored it yeah we stayed in the ilia moss villas i think it's ilia moss anyway it's definitely the main name beautiful beautiful very boutique i think i don't know how many let's say there's nine twelve something like that yeah it's gorgeous absolutely gorgeous i loved it and then we had a little car so we sort of went around lunch into different beaches and towns and stuff which I think you kind of have to do with Greece because it's so gorgeous yeah yeah I haven't been to Kefalonia it's on my on my bucket list actually but I would say also for Pelagoni if you're staying you do really need to hire a car there are transfers that go between the villas and the drive time between our villa and the club was like a minute and a half or two minutes or something very short but it is on quite a steep hill okay so you're not strolling down to the club you're not really yeah I mean our villa was was listed as walkable um but I would think if you had a baby in a pram that would be tricky if it was just us then I think we could have done but it is hot as well so it's something to bear in mind but we loved it and I hope that we'll go back for many years to come it's just really really lovely to have that option to dip in and out and to have child care on off it if you need it it sounds so great i think do they also do post-school holidays sort of retreats and stuff and yes i think there's lots of fitness yeah it's a very cool place yeah there's i think if you're into yoga and wellness there's a lovely spa there as well so okay right sold yeah yeah 100 i can't wait to hear when you go yes we'll have to do a debrief yeah today's episode is brought to you in partnership with airbnb there's always so much to organize before a trip.

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19:02where are you back from i am back from bologna so i went with some girlfriends that i had gone to university with my sister um and it was brilliant have you been to bologna no it's rick stein's fave it was his fave place or his recommendation on the podcast so endorsed by the culinary man himself very foodie and i must say that's pretty much all we did yeah we just sort of ate and drank our way around there was this um we were very light on tourist attraction research as well so we'd booked all of our meals you know that i love that there was a spreadsheet yeah and then sort of in the in between times when we thought maybe we should stretch our legs um we rocked up to this these towers that were sort of tilted um but they were under construction so we couldn't walk up them um so so like leaning towers under construction so in terms of sites i'm not an expert but the food wow wow wow wow so we had a again it was an airbnb um an apartment right on the plaza maggiore overlooking the main plaza um it was down a little alley off the plaza and that was the main um foodie it literally dates back to the middle ages medieval times it's these kind of tilted wonky narrow alleyways with bars where you can get aperitivo sort of um stalls with all their produce i mean i spent so many like just hours taking photos of you know the architecture the architecture but the food in the shops oh really like the windows hams like stacked up for miles you know just the freshest tomatoes just incredible and then you can just pitch up and get a plate of charcuterie some camparis it was cheap um everyone's friendly flights are cheap flights were cheap so they were cheap and we had a bit of a problem uh because there were some strikes going on so actually they cancelled our flight on a thursday evening we're going on the friday morning but no problem we got new flights to florence and jumped on the train which was about i think it was about half an hour and the train journey was so heavenly that we didn't want to get off honestly so so actually also a cool dual center exactly yeah i would say and you could even get the train to venice from bologna it's about an hour and a half wow so you could do a little italian tour yeah it was really really lovely i wish we american listeners that come over and want to see multiple places as well that's a really good yeah and also you know outside of bologna there's wine tasting and you could really spend a long time sort of pootling between the two on a train if that's that's what you're into yeah so um really easy to get to even if your plans are scuppered basically but they were super cheap flights yeah amazing um an airbnb was cheap um it was gorgeous as well absolutely gorgeous good hendu destination hendu maybe like a more civilized yeah yeah we definitely had a second wedding yes yes exactly in middle age um we definitely had a night out like we found the bars and yeah my friends on the first night I was a bit like I've not been away from my baby and I've had like a bottle of wine and I feel quite tired so I went to bed I don't know midnight and they got home I think about four okay I don't know what they'd got up to and then the next night we all managed to have a bit of a big one so yeah you could definitely have a brilliant time there yeah and the food obviously it's lasagna and ragu and bolognese and it's just all the good stuff all the pastas but I didn't know well I suppose I did know it's Italy but the gelato so I've got a friend who's very very serious about gelato again had done the research and we found three do you want the names for any gelato fans out there and I'll put all of these in the destination okay recap as well fab fab so the three that we we tried about 10 but the three that we loved was and also i'm so sorry about my pronunciation but cremeria santo stefano santo stefano incredible they did slightly more unusual flavors that i've never heard of their own sort of concoctions a really old place beautiful any standout flavors you like do you know i can't remember yeah but i always get pistachio i'm quite boring yeah i just love pistachio you do not no actually i don't know No, I like Stracciadella.

23:14Yes, that's good too. Yeah, that would be my second. Stracciadella, Stracciadella. Don't ask me. Terrible pronunciation. Yeah, that's the vanilla with chocolate chips. If I could get a double cone, that one. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Another one was Cremaria La Vieca Stalla. I'm so sorry to anyone Italian speaking listening to this. And then Cremaria Cavour. Brilliant, brilliant gelato. Yeah, really, really good. Okay, noted. Oh God, I feel like an ice cream right now. It was so, so good. I don't even have a sweet tooth but I was just like fully in that sounds like such a lovely time just pootling around and eating and yeah and catching up yeah getting up having a gorgeous coffee walking around we did some good vintage shopping actually oh yeah yeah I got a really great jumper a belt my sister got some cow print jeans which I'm not sure if she regrets them or no it was a bit of an impulse purchase I've not seen her in them um but they were cool um so yeah we just had a fabulous time wonderful wonderful and how long would you say would be the ideal time to spend there I would say I think we went for three nights I think was it two or three two would be fine it's not um it's a very walkable almost university feeling city and I think you know if you book your meals right you can hit off obviously lunch dinner breakfast you can get what's that half a dozen or more good meals in you um but again like like I was saying if you wanted to combine it with a day trip out to a winery or go on down to Venice if you've never been there stuff Florence um you could kind of make it how you want it but we did two to three nights and that worked well that was really good yeah lovely right another destination to add to the wish list yeah so Susanna we have got our listener Q &A and this is one I feel like I could have written myself as someone who definitely struggles with the nights drawing in so this is Jane in West Sussex hi Jane and she says um I'm looking for a destination for a long weekend once the clocks have gone back I always find myself worrying about the nights roaring in and the weather getting cold here in England is there somewhere short haul where I can prolong my summer for a few days I so relate to you Jane so much do you have any recommendations I do I do um so the aforementioned husband that I spoke of he is actually from Seville Seville um so I'm lucky enough to go there about four times a year um his mother still lives there um and they also I'm so lucky I married the right man they also have a beach apartment in Cadiz as well which is about maximum two hours on the train um down by the coast so we I mean we go all the time one of my favorite times to go is October is it yeah absolutely just when Jane wants to go yeah absolutely it's gorgeous we also go I mean we go for New Year's Eve as well and we're still in Cadiz sat on the beach um in your jeans and a t-shirt but we have a New Year's Eve lunch on the beach every lovely it's just seeing that that light isn't it having that kind of strength of sunlight going into your eyes makes such a difference yes well we always actually say and my husband particularly we live we live in the UK um when we go back to Seville he's just like this light it's kind of like golden a little bit honey it's just a completely different light than you have here and he grew up there he grew up in Seville yeah so he grew up with that light yeah does he find it like romantic mesmeric he does now like he actually loves living in the UK because he doesn't like the heat um coming from southern Spain is not ideal yes yes I mean yeah summers obviously they're getting worse but it can get to four plus 40 in the summer yeah um so he actually loves the coziness but I would say October it's about 24 degrees 25 degrees that's literally like optimal it's just perfect perfect perfect we were going to get married there in the May and I would say that was the set you know October May that lovely shoulder season um beautiful 24 degrees yeah gorgeous but you didn't get married oh COVID happened oh yeah we got married in Camberwell instead but I would say actually speaking of our wedding um obviously when I go I stay um my mother-in-law's most of the time I don't really do hotels but we booked um a place called Palicio Buccarelli for our guests and for us to stay um and I have been there and that is one I would recommend it's family run really really gorgeous lovely in Seville in Seville yes yeah and I think the charm of Seville is um it hasn't yet been hit by the big big hotel brands really um there's a four seasons opening I think it's 2027 it might be 2028 I can't remember off the top of my head but apart from that it's very boutique-y family run really gorgeous there's another um new one I think it opened late last year Christine Bedford um she's got she that's the brand they've got um another one in malaga and another one in minorca oh yeah yeah really cool like the interiors are to die for i haven't stayed there but i went snooping around and when i was there over christmas really really good yeah really good okay i'll add these into the list as well of course guys and so how would you spend a perfect day in seville would you say well if the beauty of seville is you can just walk around and have a brilliant time yeah it's I would say for a first timer, the tourist attractions are really are worth doing.

28:40Like they are incredible. So the Real Alcazar, this incredible Moorish building, they filmed Game of Thrones there. My friend actually got proposed to in the gardens of the Alcazar. Like it is that stunning, like unbelievably beautiful. Yeah. Definitely, definitely go there. The cathedral. I know there are cathedrals in all of these cities. I remember the cathedral. it's incredible it's the largest gothic cathedral in the world um and what we did actually is got a tour up on the roof um so you can kind of climb up onto the roof and have these incredible views of the city so it's kind of ticking off a few things yes that was really good that 360 like panorama yeah and really get your bearings and yeah see where you are um plus i don't know about you i love just sitting in a cathedral it's cool yeah have a minute just like sort of gather your thoughts and um so the cathedral is really worth doing um what else oh plaza de spania incredible um it's this beautiful um building basically opposite the park which is called i have to write these things down because i just sort of follow my husband like a yeah like i kind of leave my brain at the door when i go to spain which is what i love yeah you could just let someone else take the lead you're busy making itineraries and writing articles the rest of the yeah so the park is Maria Luisa Park and the Plaza de España it's this incredible building like they have photo shoots in front of it all the time like it's got this amazing tiles this moat lake canal body of water in front of it you can get a rowboat on if you want that looks a bit touristy I've never done that but it might be fun I don't know yeah that's incredible as well so like the main things that are quite touristy are really worth doing and also I'd say go over the river to triana which is famous for its ceramics oh so they've got lots of bring a spare suitcases definitely yeah they've got lots of ceramic factories there and so yeah loads of shopping loads of great things and the flamenco tends to be on that side of the river so like i have walked into restaurants and just there's a guy been playing the sort of flamenco guitar and people just get up and start dancing it's great because it is a place that people go to see flamenco yes yes it is i haven't actually done that because i think you know when you go with someone who lives there yeah it's a totally different experience yeah yeah but they definitely do and to have that spanish guitar kind of playing out on a on a balmy autumn night yeah heaven heaven and you know it's cheap like you can get a canya of beer like a little 200 mils of beer for like three euros and the tapas you know what's your favorite tapas to order my favorite tapas so i I obviously love croquettes but I love um samorejo which is basically a carby gazpacho so it's bread um whizzed up with tomato loads of olive oil garlic sometimes my husband puts carrot in it when he's making it at home but I don't know if that's like official um it's really refreshing but a bit more substantial than a gazpacho I love it um and they serve it with like little bits of chopped up ham on on the top sometimes a bit of grated egg that's really unusual I've never delicious it's one of my favorite things in Spain I get it every meal yeah really good okay noted and how about Cadiz then because I well I've been to Seville I have never been there so how would you kind of spend a perfect would you do that dual center or would you do two separate trips I would do it if you had the time so I think you know Seville you probably need about three nights at least like it it's definitely a weekend to actually enjoy it don't exactly yeah to take the time to poodle around exactly yeah and have long lazy lunches where you're eating tapas after tapas and you know stuff like that um yes exactly um and then but yeah you can get the train down to cadiz as i said it's about two hours um i love cadiz i i say it's my happy place like i just think seville is a city right so it is it's it's nothing like london but it's busy you know it is quite crowded there's an energy there it's vibrant um cadiz is also vibrant but it's it's a seaside town seaside places are just more chilled aren't they um so we always stay in the old town which is stunning again like very narrow cobbled little streets to walk around um it's sort of got wraparound views of the ocean of the atlantic it's on i don't know if you've seen it on a map it's like out on on its own on this peninsula yes so sort of everywhere you go you kind of get a glimpse of the ocean at the end of a road eventually like it's you can always sense that when you're in a place as well can't you?

33:12Yeah you really can um so we stay in La Vigna which is the area that I well my mother-in-law has an apartment um and then in that square there is Casa Manteca which actually Rick Stein your boy Rick Stein he made that really famous with one of his shows with his long weekends with one of his long weekend shows and actually um it's now it's just like the destination you have to queue up to get in there they've actually opened a place opposite the square as well that sells just fried tapper um and then the other side sells yeah lots of different tappas again the best samorejo they do it with olive oil ice cream on the top which i think is my favorite um so yeah cadiz i would i just think it's gorgeous and then it's got a beach um off the old town called la caleta um which is really charming and it's got an old fortress down the side that you can walk along and people fish off there and stuff or you can stroll down the main strip um get a bit maybe about 20-25 minutes and you can rent a sun lounger and they've got more like traditional holiday you know maybe our style of holiday beach clubs and restaurants on the beach sandy beach sandy golden sand really yeah yeah it's really nice um and we quite often go there for the day and have a lunch lots of beers rent a sun lounger and is it more frequented by Spaniards?

34:28Yes. Over the 10 years that I've been going, I've noticed it getting more international. Not that many Brits. Quite a lot of Germans. But it's definitely a Spanish destination. Lots of my husband's friends from Madrid and Seville have holiday homes. They're all around that area. I always think that's a good sign. I think it's a really good sign. It's a place that maybe it's changing, but brush up on a little bit of Spanish before you go. which, you know, ideally we would all do that anyway. Yeah, I think maybe brush up a little bit because not everyone speaks Spanish, but I'm sure that's English.

35:05But I'm sure that's changing as it gets more well-known. Because the thing is you can't fly directly there. You go, well, what we do is either from Seville on the train or we fly to Jerez, which is about 40 minutes in a taxi, I would say, which again, if you wanted to do a weekend, you could maybe do Cadiz and Jerez and go sherry tasting or something like that, which is another really lovely foodie city as well there's so much so much to do yeah and then away from cadiz um if you had a car there were gorgeous beaches like ones with like sort of massive sand dunes and proper turquoise water and stuff so so could you go to cadiz for uh just a beach holiday would you do that you could i mean cadiz like city it's not the beaches are lovely it's not like a mallorca or menorca and ibiza or they're not they are beautiful but they're not like picturesque stunning yeah but it's a really great vibe yeah if that makes sense and quite relaxing um so yeah you could definitely go for a beach holiday no doubt i well i just love any kind of beach city like barcelona miami like all these kind of places where you can do some sightseeing and some shopping and things like that but there's a beach yes exactly it's It's exactly that.

36:21Yeah, it's exactly like that. Great seafood. Just, yeah, fantastic, really. And also, if you had an apartment or something, the supermarkets, the wine is so cheap, the food is so cheap. You know you can go and get this lovely jamon from behind the deli counter. You know, like, it's great. It's just great. It can be quite a cheap getaway. I hope that this has helped give you a bit of inspiration. It definitely has me. At that kind of time of year, just going back to her question for Cadiz, what kind of temperature do you think it's really? oh again 23 24 22 sunny most days yeah like i said we go for christmas and new year's and i'm we're on the beach you know on in january so definitely october absolutely great dreamy yeah don't think that you could have answered that any better oh well i hope it's helpful well thank you so much susanna obviously we always love to wrap up with asking the destination at the top of your travel bucket list where is next for you that you'd love to get what I would it's not next for me because I have a baby at the moment I think it's quite hard but I really want to go to South Korea Seoul I've had a colleague of mine has just come back from Seoul actually and he's um he's quite a dry person I've never seen him so enthusiastic in my life just like buzzing with excitement about Seoul in particular um the shopping the people the music the food he just said it's like nowhere else he's ever been so yeah so eventually quite a long way to go and probably not that baby friendly at the moment yeah that is that is that's a long way to go i feel you my my bucket list destinations are like japan yeah like huge huge journeys as well but um i have a friend who lives in singapore and when you're in singapore you can do just long weekends to so many different places and she's seen all of asia now basically and south korea was her favorite as well so Seoul in particular really my I um when I was younger I went like about 10 years ago I went traveling and I went to Laos as one of the stops and partied a lot in Laos and there were lots of um young people from Seoul and I've never met such like a fun crowd such a fun welcoming up for it just inclusive like bunch of people so if that little snippet of people from soul is anything to go by like yeah you cannot have a bad time basically i guess now with also the like absolute sensation of k-pop as well like there's a whole other element like it's been on people's radar now so i guess it will change quite significantly because there'll be so many people heading yeah i'm sure and obviously all the beauty as well hey beauty my colleague said he's got a daughter i think 13 14 years old or something and he just went like running around the beauty stores was just like face masks and it was just so cheap really yes so cheap because they're so marked up here yeah exactly so he's walking around with glassy skin now and now of course fab lucky him oh well i hope you get there at some point yeah i'm sure i'm sure you will there's a way exactly listen thank you so much is that was so fun come again thank you anytime thank you so much.

39:24A huge thank you to the lovely Susanna. You will find all the destinations mentioned today in the destination recap, in the episode show notes and on my website, thetraveldiariespodcast.com. If our chat about New Orleans has left you wanting to explore more of Louisiana, don't forget to listen to Tuesday's episode, the destination special, all about that fascinating state. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please send it to someone you'd love to plan a trip with and make sure that you are following the Travel Diaries on your podcast app so that the next episode is ready and waiting for you.

39:57I will be back on Tuesday with another episode. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening and wishing you guys all safe travels.

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