Mozambique + Croatia
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Alison is obsessed with pears. SImple things in hard times, friends. Lulu is obsessed with her Hydroflask coffee thermos, she tested it and is proud to report that her coffee stayed hot for 12 hours!
Alison wishes she liked to clean. It just holds no interest to her. Lulu wishes she was better at cleaning, and organizing, for that matter. Perhaps they should both wish for a housekeeper.
Azura Benguerra is the first eco-friendly resort in Mozambique, and was built by the local community. Aside from being in the most-like paradise locale you may ever find, a stay at this spot supports their aim to uplift and train members of the local community. That is just as much up Lulu’s alley as the eggs benedict with prawns and spinach breakfast they serve. All meals are included in your rate, as well as local beers, spirits, and house wines, a sunset cocktail of the day, as well as every adventure activity you can imagine. Seriously. Snorkeling equipment, kayaks, paddle boards, drives to dunes and lakes and beach picnics, island hopping by boat, deep sea fishing, horseback riding, scuba diving, and a sunset show cruise are all in store for you.
Lulu has booked the Royal Beach Villa, which is a wow with its private undercover deck, butler host service, outdoor his-and-hers showers, and a personal infinity pool! villa is steps from the ocean and has a personal infinity pool!
Lulu is going to make the “day at the pool” concept extra fabulous. While she is starting off pretty well with a private infinity pool by her villa, she is able to up the ante with a slathering of Unicorn Snot glitter sunscreen. It’s sunscreen, with GLITTER in it. In between dips in her pool she’s going to have a lunch brought to her. She stays cool with her splurge on The CoolZone oscillating ultrasonic misting fan, which can reduce the temperature by up to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Something that keeps you cool and relaxed in more ways than one...it also repels mosquitos and plays music via bluetooth! A winning bid on a Lisa Frank beach towel from eBay makes her pool day extra nostalgic.
Now when you stay at an all inclusive resort, you lose a bit of your exposure to the location and the culture. Lulu has a solution to that during her stay on this Mozambican island. She is going to set up an afternoon of soccer on the beach! She’s going to have refreshments, and some gifts as incentives for locals to come and play and hang out with her! For each of the 22 players, she has an Orlando Pride soccer ball and a TorrX Automatic Digital Electric Smart Ball Pump. Lulu gets a getup to wear herself, even though she will likely observe from the sidelines. Her kit includes:
Underarmour Over-The-Calf Socks - $9.99
Lululemon Enlite Hydrafinnity vest high support bra and "hydration wearable" - $178
Lulu provides the players with hydration via an Igloo Retro “Barrel of Fun” cooler filled with Harmless Harvest coconut water. Some compostable cold cups will ensure her peace of mind if she misses one during clean up, and can keep her focus on having a fun post-game hang!
Azura Benguerra’s dining options span the gamut from dining poolside to private candlelit dinners on the beach, the resort prides itself on their “innovative set-ups”. Lulu gets glammed up for her dinner back at her villa, before heading to a delicious meal for one looking out over the horizon.
Alison realizes Croatia is a whole country, and impossible to traverse in a single day. She was inspired by Lulu’s travels to Zagreb, Croatia and Split, Croatia, and wanted to take in as much as she could of this Balkan country. She may have set her sights on even more of the Balkan Peninsula, but it was by pure accident. Excited by this announcement she found on Luxury Travel Magazine’s website about a forthcoming Aman resort in Cavtat, Croatia, she missed the part about it being forthcoming and found herself on the Aman Hotels & Resorts Group website. She knew she loved her experience at Amangiri, so why not book a stay at the storied marvel Aman Sveti Stefan? Because it is in Montenegro, not Croatia, that’s why.
The resort is on an 80-acre estate on the coast of Montenegro, and is comprised of idyllic pink-sand beaches, a 15th-century fortress and a 19th-century mainland villa. You can book rooms, suites, or old fisherman’s cottages that overlook the Adriatic Sea, all while enjoying the extensive amenities expected from an Aman hotel. Alison booked the Grand Cottage which is exactly as wonderful as it sounds. Spacious living and sleeping areas, with a soaker tub in the bathroom, all inside stone walls with views of the water.
There are a plethora of engaging experiences offered at Aman Sveti Stefan, and one of them really caught Alison’s eye as a must-have add-on. An exploration of Radevic Wine Estate includes a personalized tasting session featuring one of the oldest yet lesser-known grape varietals in the world. Goran Radevic takes Vranac, a "coal-black grape" and makes just 2,000 cases annually of the most complex wine Alison is yet to have had. Can’t wait!
Alison leaves Montenegro for the first stop in her Croatian tour, the Sea Organ in Zadar. Nikola Bašić created a system of 35 tubes and a resonating cavity hidden beneath steps into the ocean, creating an instrument among the likes of the Wave Organ in San Francisco and the High Tide Organ in Blackpool, England. There is a neighboring installation called the Sun Salutation which uses solar energy captured during the day to power a light show at night!
This next stop near Drače may be the coolest experience we’ve researched here at 10K Dollar Day! Along her Croatian tour Alison discovered Edivo Wines, and their Underwater Wine Cellar. A dive trip down to a shipwreck, where a limited number of Navis Mysterium bottles and amphorae are kept is sure to excite the thrill seeker and wine enthusiast alike. For a considerably reasonable price of $230…you can take this diving tour with all equipment included, a diving guide, one Navis Mysterium bottle from the sea, and a wine tasting back at the Edivo Wine Bar.
Have you ever wondered what a frog doing human things would look like? No? Regardless of any prior curiosity, you won’t be able to look away from the 500+ taxidermy frogs found at Froggyland. An eccentric display created by Ferenc Mere in between 1910 and 1920, it’s a sight to be sure!
Mediterranean cuisine “framed in French cooking techniques” is what Alison has to look forward to as she ends her Croatian tour at 360º Restaurant in the UNESCO heritage site town of Dubrovnik. You can order starters, mains, and dessert from the a la carte menu, or go with one of their two tasting menus. Alison went for the tasting menu featuring scallops with quinoa, mackerel with a potato and miso mayo, turbot with cauliflower cream, pork neck with a smoked cheese sauce, and pear with oat ice cream. A dining experience like this was the perfect way to end a day of traversing a country - or two.
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
SOS Children's Villages - Croatian Link
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