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Ian Wilson has written 42 reviews in 19 countries.
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Surfing in Portugal
One of several Portuguese surf spots that are good and can get big in winter. The water is cold though - cold in summer and colder in winter, so a wetsuit is a necessity all year round. Lots of locals and probably quite a few visiting British surfers working their way down to Morocco in Autumn and early winter. The standard of surfing, as in France, will be variable. |
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Islands in Croatia
I have sailed along this coastline in a small yacht and frankly the islands, the restaurants, the atmosphere and the local people's friendliness doesn't compare with the Greek Islands or more especially the Turkish islands, which are the best of the three. But Croatia was still communist when I was there in a boat, so maybe it is better now. I have been to Dubrovnik recently and things do seem to have improved on the friendliness front and English is now more widely spoken whereas it used to be German that was the foreign language of choice. The islands have few beaches and this is the Adriatic, so the sea is less clean and clear than in the 'open' Med. |
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Islands in Bahamas
This place is so special to me I probably shouldn’t even be mentioning it. It’s not for nothing that Club Med have set up here with a place devoted exclusively to diving. There isn’t much else to do on San Salvador except visit old ruined plantation houses. But drive a rental car to French Bay on the south shore of the island, near a former plantation called Watlings, and find a white sandy beach all to yourself (not to difficult as you’ll probably be the only visitor on the island apart from the Club Med lot, and they go everywhere by boat.). The water in front of your white sandy beach looks like the water anywhere in the tropics - warm and inviting. What you don’t realise until you step in is that a few yards off shore are the most incredible coral gardens in about five metres of water. I’ve seen the best on many tropical dive sites, including the Maldives, Fiji, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Seychelles, the Tuamotus to name a few, but for sheer underwater splendour this took the prize - there was a forest of giant living elkhorn coral, there were turtles, sharks and fish aplenty. And all stretching towards the horizon from just a few yards off the beach. |
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Islands in Indonesia
Now ranks with Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives as a place full of top end hotels like Aman Resorts etc. But there are still cheap places to stay. Still getting over the Kuta bombing. Better to leave Kuta alone and travel round the island going north in a clockwise direction. The art is very stylised and not to my taste. Visitors will be offered a great deal of it. People friendly but with motive of selling you something, which takes the shine off their friendliness. beaches not great. Poor for diving and most reefs more dead than alive. Best for the cultural experience and not the beach experience. |
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Islands in Fiji
The best of Fiji that is open to tourists if you can afford it. Places like the Yasawa Island Lodge and Blue Lagoon resort could easily cost £500 a day for a couple. Great snorkeling and very unspoilt. Local people extremely friendly, unlike their French Polynesian counterparts. |
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