Guest Post - Summer Lovin' in Sanse (Part 2)

Day 3

This day, we felt adventurous and decided to explore somewhere outside Sanse. Given that Sanse is only 20km away from France, Bel had initially wanted to visit this place called Biarritz, a luxurious seaside town. However, our friendly guesthouse host told us that it was not very accessible and after getting some tips from him, we decided on a small coastal village called Hondarribia instead. It took us about an hour to reach by bus and within 30mins, we were done walking around the village and started to get bored. Not that Hondarribia wasn’t nice, but it was just really tiny. After taking some photos, we had to settle down for lunch although we just had our breakfast an hour ago to at least make our traveling time more worthwhile.

Take time to stop and smell the flowers

While walking along the coast, we saw a little river taxi ferrying people to another “island” across the water but did not think much of it. Anyway we had lunch at a nice little restaurant along the coast and ended up staying much longer than we expected. Just as we thought it’s time to head back to Sanse, we asked the only waitress in the restaurant who could speak English where the ferry heads to, only to find out that the “island” across is France! The best part was that it will only take us 5mins to get there! We were wildly excited and without any hesitation, we hopped onto the boat although we had no idea what to expect.  EUR 1.80 per person to get to France - happy dance!

Lunch - yummy squid again

We arrived at Hendaye in no time, and where the boat docked was a beautiful marina. We had a good feeling and true enough after walking for about 10min we came to… another gorgeous beach! It wasn’t a wasted trip out of Sanse afterall! Bel and I were excitedly walking on the beach and taking pictures and as we walked back, we saw Kian dragging 2 beach deck chairs towards us, all ready to nua and nap! We spent about an hour at Hendaye and sadly bade goodbye to this treasured find.

The marina at Hendaye

Another beautiful beach at Hendaye

A furry passenger on the boat

Back in Sanse, it was time for more tapas as it was our finale night! Honestly, I have lost count of the number of bars we went that night but there was one that blew our mind! It’s called Zeruko, a modern bar serving an incredible selection of pintxos with a molecular twist added. Every single item we ordered (thanks to the list given by our guesthouse) was a miniature piece of art that looked too pretty to be eaten. Each time an item was served onto our table, all eyes followed and there were people asking for the name and even wanted to take pictures of it. Not only did they look good, they were real delicious too! We were glad to have eaten this only on our last night – the rest we ate earlier were good but this was the bomb.

All thumbs up for this pintxos bar Zeruko!

Minature art pieces - looks good, tastes even better

Burp…

Day 4

Looking forward to idling the day away at La Concha Beach, we had a quick breakfast at the same 斗鸡 restaurant we went on day two, went back to pack and dashed to the beach to make the most of the day before catching our flight.  (Bel: yes we were almost desperate to go to the beach.  Just threw all our barang barang into - get this - plastic bags (for the lack of better looking bags) and left hurriedly walking towards the beach led by eager K.) 

La Concha Beach really lives up to its ranking of being the #1 attraction in Sanse on TripAdvisor. It is absolutely impossible not to fall madly in love with this place after seeing the stunning beach. The whole time, we cannot stop saying how correct our decision to visit Sanse was lol.

Heaven is a place on earth!

By noon, the beach was sprawling with tourists from all over, trying to secure a good spot on the fine white sand. We paid for a beach tent which was a really good choice as the sun was shining down brightly. Although it didn’t feel hot, we could feel ourselves getting tanner by the minute (ok except Bel). The water was a little cold at the start but as we stayed in the sea long enough, we got used to it. There were 2 platforms in the middle of the sea with a slide and a diving board. Anyone game enough could swim to the platform and throw themselves into the sea with the equipment provided. Super fun!  (Bel: yes Cin went first and did many jumps into the sea from the platform.)

What cares in the world?

We spent about 4 hours on the beach, in and out of the sea and just sharing about our lives in general. A luxurious and uninterrupted afternoon of not having to worry about work and deadlines, and just being so thankful for such good lives we are leading. We unanimously agreed that these 4 days were the best in 2014 yet!

Ahh.. C'est la vie!

Reflecting on the trip now 4 weeks later, it still brings a smile to my face. Really grateful for the experience and I couldn’t ask for anything more. It was such a perfect beach vacation which I’ll remember for years to come!

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Cindy has outlined very well how much we enjoyed our summer getaway.  Thank you Cin for being my guest blogger!  It had been a blast having you around for the two weeks, and please continue to enjoy marmite and butter toast (or marmite and cheese toast) in Singapore and think of me lol.  Next time I go to Pizza Express for their salads, I will think of you too. :P

Before we went to Sanse, people commented that 4 full days were too much for Sanse, as it is a small town.  We even planned to stay a night in Bilbao but no, I think you need at least 4 days in summer - especially you can travel to France (Hendaye and Biarritz) so easily.  Everyone I know who went to Sanse all love this place so… are you tempted to go now too?