Italy, France, Spain med coast. Why bother?

[inchcailloch]

Originally Posted by hoppy

LOL

I regret that I never got a chance to see Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica & the Balerics but I'm still not convinced I missed anything along the coast.

From my hotel room in Monaco I enjoyed looking down on the Superyacht owners and guests. Can't do that from a yacht
Attachment 129120

I disagree! I anchor, get great views, good swimming same anchorage and relax. A super yacht comes alongside and anchors, gets the same views, same swimming same relaxing. But I look over a multi million pound yacht and he looks over a £40.000 yacht. I get the better view he gets a poorer view (of me) but costing millions more! He goes back to his stressful life in the city......we carry on sailing. Us yotties are winners everytime 😀

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[barnakiel]

Along the coast perhaps not. But you missed everything that could be experienced ashore. Like say Nero di Avola. To name only one of their wonders.

Why go places? To sail them by?

???

b.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Along the coast perhaps not. But you missed everything that could be experienced ashore. Like say Nero di Avola. To name only one of their wonders.

Why go places? To sail them by?

???

b.

Its the voyage.. not the destination..
Not everyone's a Nikon Culture Vulture..

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Its the voyage.. not the destination..

I agree....

The destination to me has always been just somewhere to aim my boat, car or motorcycle at.

Originally Posted by boatman61

Not everyone's a Nikon Culture Vulture..

These days it's more of a selfie culture. Photograph yourself in front of X and post it on instasnapbook

[Kenomac]

For us it's the destination and spending time with friends met while cruising that's the enjoyable part. On Sunday we'll get together with Andrea and his family who we haven't seen for two years. The last time was anchored off Mallora, this time Cavtat, Croatia.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

For us it's the destination

Clearly as you are considering a motor cat..

That deserves a double

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Clearly as you are considering a motor cat..

That deserves a double

We'd be just as happy sticking with our present boat. But as you should know, here in the med there's usually no wind, too much wind or wind blowing straight in your face.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

We'd be just as happy sticking with our present boat. But as you should know, here in the med there's usually no wind, too much wind or wind blowing straight in your face.

I find that the "too much wind" is more of a pain when at anchor than when sailing.

[Prairie Chicken]

We just took a boat from Mallorca to Gib & back to reset the VAT clock. My disclaimer is that we were moving with a destination in mind, not cruising in a leisurely manner to see & explore..

This was the first time we've seen the mainland from the sea and I have to admit neither the Costa del Sol nor the Costa Blanca inspired any desire to go back and inspect it more closely. My impression was this is a coast to go into a marina & rent a car for a day or two to explore inland. Or, to anchor outside a marina & go ashore to explore the old town. A lot of towns have high rise developments to which did nothing to improve the vista. The land itself just wasn't as attractive or inviting from the sea as the Balearics are.

There were not a lot of anchorages, and many were buoyed off for swimmers (although fewer now that the season is over for the beach goers). The more protected ones we checked out were often near a port.

Perhaps I was just put off by the hoards of mosquitos that attacked me on the Costa del Sol.

On a positive note, we saw large numbers of dolphins most days. That is always a pleasure.


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[Carraiadimare]

Originally Posted by inchcailloch

I disagree! I anchor, get great views, good swimming same anchorage and relax. A super yacht comes alongside and anchors, gets the same views, same swimming same relaxing. But I look over a multi million pound yacht and he looks over a £40.000 yacht. I get the better view he gets a poorer view (of me) but costing millions more! He goes back to his stressful life in the city......we carry on sailing. Us yotties are winners everytime 😀

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Absolutely logic and unconvertible😂


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[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Prairie Chicken

We just took a boat from Mallorca to Gib & back to reset the VAT clock. My disclaimer is that we were moving with a destination in mind, not cruising in a leisurely manner to see & explore..

This was the first time we've seen the mainland from the sea and I have to admit neither the Costa del Sol nor the Costa Blanca inspired any desire to go back and inspect it more closely. My impression was this is a coast to go into a marina & rent a car for a day or two to explore inland. Or, to anchor outside a marina & go ashore to explore the old town. A lot of towns have high rise developments to which did nothing to improve the vista. The land itself just wasn't as attractive or inviting from the sea as the Balearics are.

There were not a lot of anchorages, and many were buoyed off for swimmers (although fewer now that the season is over for the beach goers). The more protected ones we checked out were often near a port.

Perhaps I was just put off by the hoards of mosquitos that attacked me on the Costa del Sol.

On a positive note, we saw large numbers of dolphins most days. That is always a pleasure.


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AKA.. El Costa del Plastico..

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Prairie Chicken

We just took a boat from Mallorca to Gib & back to reset the VAT clock. My disclaimer is that we were moving with a destination in mind, not cruising in a leisurely manner to see & explore..

This was the first time we've seen the mainland from the sea and I have to admit neither the Costa del Sol nor the Costa Blanca inspired any desire to go back and inspect it more closely. My impression was this is a coast to go into a marina & rent a car for a day or two to explore inland. Or, to anchor outside a marina & go ashore to explore the old town. A lot of towns have high rise developments to which did nothing to improve the vista. The land itself just wasn't as attractive or inviting from the sea as the Balearics are.

There were not a lot of anchorages, and many were buoyed off for swimmers (although fewer now that the season is over for the beach goers). The more protected ones we checked out were often near a port.

Perhaps I was just put off by the hoards of mosquitos that attacked me on the Costa del Sol.

On a positive note, we saw large numbers of dolphins most days. That is always a pleasure.


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We spent two years exploring the area you're discussing and including the Balearics, your experience wasn't our experience at all. I guess you'll need to slow down next time and get to know the local people and all the right places to stop.

Did you stop in Malaga and anchor off the downtown beach for a few days and explore the inland areas, take in a weekend festival, taste the local cuisine and maybe go cycling or driving around in the beautiful surrounding mountains and olive orchards.... or did you just motor by?

Were there other great towns you simply motored past and drew the same conclusions? Did you spend any time in Torrevieja? Free anchorage and a fun place to spend a couple of days. Lots to see around Cartagena.

You might want to avoid all of Italy if bothered by an occasional mosquito bite, but you'd be missing out on one totally awesome country with wonderful, friendly people.

[Polux]

Probably I have some information about it, having sailed around all med (except muslim countries) and have cruised extensively Europe by car and motorcycle.

Just to give you an idea just this year, after leaving the boat on the hard I cruised about 2500km on the mountains of North of Greece, on Macedonia and Thracia. After that I picked the car at home, in Portugal and made about 6000km going to Swiss and back, cruising mostly in France, that I crossed always by country roads, sleeping on rural houses.

Cruising in a boat for me has to do with the possibility of staying on anchor on very beautiful places, not so much with the possibility of enjoying the culture and knowing a country. On the coats it is dificult to find true culture alive, being everything submerged by the touristic offer that changes the landscape and brigs people from all around to work, not to mention that it is everything much more expensive.

Saying all that the idea that all the continental med coasts are very expensive is not true. Well nothing like East med in what regards prices and availability of ports and anchorages but namely in Spain and in the South coast of Portugal (even if it is already out of the med) you can find some places to anchor safely and you can find marinas not too expensive, about the same price or less than marinas in Greece.

Regarding main coast of Italy and France my experience in what regards marinas is that they are considerably more expensive, about the double or more. You can also find some places to anchor but the problem regarding Italy is that the winds change easily and you cannot be sure that you have not to move at middle of the night and leaving the boat unattended for a considerable time can be dangerous (the meteo service is not to be trusted).

Regarding cruising by car, you can buy good regional food on supermarkets and local stores and eat on the nature (it is expensive to eat out in France, inexpensive in Portugal and Spain) and you can use dedicated sites for looking for rural houses that offer what the British call Bed and breakfast. Here my 2 favorite sites:
https://www.gites-de-france.com/
Casas rurales, turismo rural: Toprural
Sleeping on one of those houses cost about the same as staying on a marina and that is not counting a very good breakfast.

[Brob2]

Originally Posted by Polux

Sleeping on one of those houses cost about the same as staying on a marina and that is not counting a very good breakfast.

Do you not serve a good breakfast on your boat???

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Brob2

Do you not serve a good breakfast on your boat???

Yes, but I have to pay for it, the marina does not provide it while on rural houses is included.