Some islands are more affordable for more than a select few. I prefer those.
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It’s gotten ridiculous here on Kauai. There are now 23 billionaire land owners on Kauai, with Mark Zuckerberg buying up property like crazy. With all of the silicon valley money here now, the median price of a home is now 1.4 MILLION dollars…and yes, I meant to capitalize and scream that. I am grateful that I was able to purchase a home here over 30 years ago. Rentals are becoming impossible to find, and when available are outrageously expensive as well. As I am married into a local family, I feel bad that so many will never be able to afford to purchase a home. But so many local families are houseless not because of drugs or mental illness, but that there are just not enough rentals and the price is high. It makes me upset just to type this here…
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Another characteristic of the French is bakeries. Every town and neighborhood has them. The island has a population of around 11,000. There are at least 4 bakeries on the island. I dropped by the one that’s closest to where I am staying so I guess that would be my local bakery. Anyone got a place like this that you just stroll on over to? French island life is pretty nice.
Picked up some croissants. Had some smoked trout and chèvre at the house so here’s my breakfast.
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Let me know where you find those. I’ve been searching. The islands I look at where there’s a combination of good weather, beaches, natural beauty and a good variety of food aren’t cheap. They go from expensive to outrageous. Covid made it even more so.
Sicily. Not a lot of French bakeries, however.
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I’m too much of a city boy to ever want to live on a really small island but I do like to visit them. Cyprus, Mallorca, Tenerife, Jersey, Malta - all have their merits for a couple of weeks holiday. We visit Tenerife annually but, for the food, Mallorca ticks all my boxes. Not really any French bakeries but every village is going to have a Spanish one. Good bread, coca, ensaimada, empanada, cakes such as braso de gitano.
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Can you get those €1 houses there? That has intrigued me. Problem is they’re usually located where there isn’t much going on.
You can. If you are willing and able to invest however many 10s of 1000s of € it would take to make them inhabitable.
@EatsFrites I’m a native Rhode Islander, so I’m an island girl by default. 
We often travel to islands and we’re frugal yankees. Much of my data are old and I know situations have dramatically changed but some old favorites that are not too expensive include:
- Thai islands (a favorite was Ko Lanta but we’ve been to others)
- Philippine islands (Palawan, Coron, etc.)
- Palau (expensive to get there, but once we were there, we did our budget travel thing)
- Bora Bora (same as Palau; once we got there, our biggest expense was lodging because we mostly went to the local grocers and bought baguettes, tomato, cukes, cheese, Hinao beer, and subsisted on sandwiches and beer at the beach)
- Greek islands that are off-the-beaten track (Syros, Paros, Hydra [expensive but low-key and not gouge-y like other islands, at least when we went > 10 years ago])
- As @Harters mentioned, Canary Islands (we’ve been to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Fuerteventura; the latter is probably less pricey than the former 2)
- Azores (only been to San Miguel; fares from Boston never go on sale from but once we got there, we soon forgot the price of getting there)
- Vancouver Island
- Puerto Rico (we loved the W/NW coast and Vieques)
- Ærø in Denmark was lovely and quite festive if you catch the Ærø Rund regatta as we did by accident in 2022
- And my absolute favorite - Block Island. Cuz again, I’m a Rhode Island girl
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A particularly lazy day. Woke up late. This not working thing has gotten me off my usual early morning wake up routine. Had some coffee, read the news and finally decided to go into town. The benefit of a low season visit is that I don’t need reservations. Places that would be packed in winter or spring are now peaceful and available for walk ins. One of my favorites is Fish Corner which is located down an alley. If you didn’t know about it, you would not likely come across it as it’s practically hidden.
Cold half lobster with freshly prepared mayonnaise and a side of the best sweet potato fries.
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Not a cheap place. Have you looked at what a house runs there?
Mind if I ask how much a lunch like that would set you back?
With a bottle of water and a glass of wine €72. As its service compris, that is the all in amount.
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Agree on Thai islands, although my only experience there was well over 20 years ago. I hear that the food and lodging is still very affordable. I visited Ko Samet, Ko Lanta, Ko Phi Phi, and Phuket.
Absolutely stunning, and some of the best food of my life.
Spent time on Tinos & Syros, but that was even longer ago. Kerkyra is allegedly overrun with Brits these days (and has been for a while), and I consider myself lucky to have spent a couple of weeks on Santorini, well before it became the It Island. Mykonos was already a little too glamorous and chichi for me in the 80s.
Gran Canaria was fun, but a little too touristy, at least where we were staying. Gorgeous island, though.
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The local paper runs a daily lunch specials section. Went to a new place called Mapo which took over the space of an Irish pub which is a strange thing to have on a French Caribbean island. Today’s special was a tuna carpaccio. Came with salad and frites. A great deal for €22.
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Do you remember when watermelon tasted like watermelon? Not watermelon flavored. As a child we would sit outside in the summer with big slices of watermelon dripping all over our hands. Take a big bite, chew and spit the seeds out into the yard. The glory days. Today’s watermelons are bred to be compact but rotund and seedless for convenience. Taste isn’t a primary consideration. I know technically they’re not seedless, more that the seeds don’t fully develop. I have always wondered if the seeds don’t ripen, can the watermelon?
I picked up a watermelon. It was grown in Guadeloupe, or Gwada, which is about 140 miles away so local to some degree. Cut it up this morning. It was full of seeds.
Wow. Bursting with flavor. The sweetest part was the middle right where the seeds are. I could feel those long ago days of summer but spitting the seeds into the sink. 
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I just chew the seeds up and eat them!
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But spitting them out (or seeing how far you can spit them) is part of the fun! Although cherry pits have a better flight power 
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Damn. There’s a great summertime memory!
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Hours spent on top of a neighborhood tree 50ft up in the air picking cherries off the branches and spitting the pits down. Good times 
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