Five Beautiful Cities for a Beach Holiday-Part 1

By : Juhi Bansal I am a beach person. I love the water, the two piece bikinis (I may not have the body for it but who cares!),the gorgeous tan, sipping on margheritas while reading a book and just lazing on the sand. If I could, I would move to one of these cities today! K concurs! I won’t make the mistake of calling them the best of the best….if they were, we wouldn’t be inspired to travel anymore-but they are definitely the most stunningly gorgeous ones that we’ve seen. If you’ve seen them I am sure you’ll agree, if you haven’t, I hope I can inspire you enough to want to visit them.

Rio, Brazil

The laid back life of a carioca (that’s what the localites call themselves) almost makes one green with envy. The beaches, the water, the food, cachaça, the quirky localities and the Christ Redeemer overlooking the city….oh! what I would not give to be “the Girl from Ipanema”. While tourists swear by Copacabana, my favourite beaches in Rio were Arpoador and Praia da Barra da Tijuca -almost virgin with a superb view. When you are there, don’t forget to pack your slinkiest bikini (or you’ll be overdressed for the beach), party at Lapa, take samba lessons, taste as many variations of cachaça as you can and walk the beaches while the sun is setting. And if you OD on Caprinhas, “Blame it on Rio” 😉

The Amazing Rio

Selfie to banta hai!

The Barra-da-Tijuca Beach

The rocking Lapa Steps

2. Capri, Italy Spread across an unbelievably small area of about 10 square kms (unbelievable because of the action it packs!), the Isle of Capri still manages to make you feel really really puny. While the crystal blue waters, the white sands and the view from Anacapri are breathtakingly gorgeous to say the least, the extremely narrow lanes and bylanes house the biggest and the most luxurious designer labels from across the world. It’s almost a crime to go there penniless! Almost but not quite 😛 (ask me….we went there on a strict budget and still managed to have the time of our lives). Anacapri is one small cable chair journey away. The view from the top is inexplicable in plain English so I do hope my pictures do it some justice. Although there are a couple of ways to get into Capri, we took the cheaper route through Naples. As dirty as Naples may be, it gave us the opportunity to taste the original Napolitano Pizza. While you are at Capri, do not miss the beautiful Blue Grotto as well!