My Spanish Vida

As the Summer is officially coming to a close Mark and I decided we needed to have some sort of vacay/mini break before the end of the season. For obvious reasons we haven't had a holiday this year like many of us and after our stay at the Caleia was a bit of a flop, to put it nicely! (you can read the post about it here) We decided to treat ourselves to a night away at one of our favourite hotels not far away from us in La Manga.   We first stayed at the La Manga Club Principe Felipeway back in January for Mark's birthday. We really enjoyed our stay back then and it didn't disappoint at the weekend either. We had a standard room, which we didn't get an upgrade this time, but even so the room was spacious and comfy. We had a beautiful view overlooking part of the golf course with the mountains in the distance. It was perfect.We spent Sunday afternoon relaxing around the pool, topping up our tans. The water to be honest was a bit chilly! I did brave it and go in, but I …

Last week seemed to have whizzed past in a blink of an eye. I had all good intentions to share the photos in this post on Instagram and post to the blog, but the days just ran away with us.During the week we did manage to squeeze in a lovely lunch at our favorite beach cafe, Max's Beach Restaurantin Lo Pagan.We shared our usual chicken tikka wrap, had a diet coke each followed by a coffee. It was a lovely couple of hours soaking up the sunny Spanish sea air. We then drove all the way along the beach promenade into Santiago de la Ribera. It's so beautiful all the way along there, perfect for winter walks.As we reached the end of the week we decided a 'holiday day' at the pool was needed. On Friday we went to our favourite pool La Miradain La Zenia. Which was the perfect way to end a busy week. Here's a few picture's from Lo Pagan and La Zenia before they disappear into the phone's abyss!











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How crazy that September is well underway and everyone's already starting to talk about everything Autumn. I must admit it has been a very hot summer and without a pool at home this year it has been a struggle. Our air-con has been working overtime. We have tried to still have a good summer even with all the Covid restrictions. We've managed to get a few pool days in at our favourite pool La Mirada in La Zenia (I've written a post about it here if you fancy a read) as well as a not so great hotel stay at The Caleia Mar Menor! A few beach days, shopping and meals out we've still made some lovely memories this summer. Even though according to the calendar Summer maybe coming to an end, we're still blessed with the warm weather, so now the tourists are gone we'll definitely be squeezing in some more beach and pool days before the weather really turns. Here's some screenshots from my Insta from today going back to the middle of May. When Mcdonald's opened a…

Last week after passing Restaurante Jardin for the last six years we actually got round to venturing in. And we are so pleased we did, the only regret is that it's taken us six years to do so!

Located just off the Carretera de Villamartin roundabout near La Zenia's Mcdonalds and the Notary you'll find this gem of a restaurant.

With a varied mix of Sushi, rice and noodles, teriyaki dishes, Bangkok style ribs, crispy beef, garlic prawns, to name just a few, they also have more simple items such as chicken balls (nuggets), fried cheese, mushrooms - which are very tasty and potato wedges.

Even though Restaurante Jardin is an all you can eat buffet it is sit down table service, with a menu and your food is made to order. For €11.95 per person (€6.95 for children) we found it extremely good value for money.

We had such a mix and didn't really have anything in any particular order.

The dishes aren't huge, but still a decent size and I actually like them being mini portio…

La Mirada Restaurante in La Zenia has always been one of our favourites. From coffee's in the winter over looking the beach to lounging by the poolside in the summer, it is always one of our go-to places and to date it's never one to disappoint.

Today we headed down to the pool to have a bit of a 'holiday' day which was very much needed especially after our recent not so great hotel stay in Torre Pacheco (see the post here).

Before entering the pool you buy your wristband from the bar opposite the pool, €9 for a sunbed and pool, €5 for pool only.

Then relax for the rest of the day!

Pedro the pool guy is excellent. He's always so friendly, helpful and very efficient.

To our surprise the pool was very quiet. It's coming to the end of the summer holiday's but we didn't expect things to start quietening down until next week.

The food at La Mirada has always been consistently good and such a varied menu. We went for a little tapas today, Calamari alla roman…

~ Disclaimer - this hotel stay was completely paid for ourselves. In the past I probably wouldn't of shared the experience as I don't want my blog to be negative, but I feel it's only fair to share my experiences whether they are good or bad ~
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After my excited post the other day (see the post here) about our upcoming stay-cation it unfortunately turned out not to be the relaxing hotel stay we were hoping for and very much looking forward too.

We have actually stayed at this hotel before, but when it was an Intercontinental and we weren't really that impressed back then. To the point we didn't even stay the night, just came back in the morning to check out of the room!

When we saw the hotel had changed brands we thought we'd give it another go. Because it is a lovely looking hotel with an amazing pool area, which is just what we needed with the scorching temperatures at the moment.

I think we've been drawn to this hotel b…