What happened at my one-day trip to Bibione Italy

Once again I went on a one-day bus trip. This time to the beautiful summer destination Bibione in Italy. Let me tell you it was quite an eventful one day. Here is what happened on my one-day trip to Bibione Italy.

Following my previous one-day tips such as One day in the Netherlands, Christmas Dresden or Carnevale di Venezia 2018 – My experience, it’s quite clear I’m a fan of an old school one-day bus trip through Europe. I’m young and capable of sleeping in an uncomfortable position. Over my student years, I got used to traveling great amounts for my studies as my usual ride from my hometown to my school town was over 12 hours of the train ride.

So 8 hours from Prague to Bibione was pretty much nothing in comparison.

Plus it’s cheaper and quicker which allows you to visit more countries in a short time.

Me and my friend booked our trip in advance of like 2 weeks. We got a pretty cheap deal from a local online discount place and applied our coupon with a travel agency to finish up our order. Everything was set up quickly and simply. We got our boarding time and place and were all set.

Living in Prague has a great advantage in traveling as it’s pretty much a stable boarding place in most of the group trips no matter what the transportation means. We boarded the bus along with other Bibione visitors in the late evening hours.

I must admit that I’m quite short so it’s easier for me to fit into a small bus seat.

My tall friend was not happy about our bus ride thought.

Our ride had 2  additional stops along the Czech Republic to board other passengers and then 2 other toilet breaks along the way. We drove through Czech, through Austria to Italy. The traffic got a bit stuck in the morning hours right before the popular summer tourist destination Bibione but that’s only natural.

Our arrival was at around 8:30 Saturday morning.

We had a tour guide along with us the whole trip. He explained some basic info about Italy and Bibione on the bus but that’s pretty standard info out of the wiki page.

I was checking the Bibione’s weather ahead and I was not pleased as it was supposed to be raining that Saturday. All the time I was just hoping the weather predictions were incorrect cuz I had no idea what would we do on a beach during the rain. It’s not like we could hang out at our hotel cuz we had no hotel.

My prayers were heard.

We arrived at a nice sunny day, not even a cloud with a warm 28°C.

Our bus dropped us out on a parking lot in front of a huge luna park that’s easy to find if you somehow manage to get lost. It’s like 100m from the beach and we simply walked there. During our whole trip, we just walked everywhere. No need for any other transport. Bibione is not that big and it’s pedestrian-friendly.

Bibione’s beach stretches through like 8km and it’s unbelievably wide so there is literally no chance you wouldn’t catch a spot. Also, Bibione’s beach offers hundreds of beach chairs and parasols for 20 euros per day if you’re into that. We didn’t get one though, as we had our beach towels ready and set them up close to the shore.

But if you’re interested in one all you need to do is find someone from customer service and ask for one. You’ll find them in a little cute white house at the beginning of the beach. It’s easy to confuse them with changing boots. They are also these small white houses next to the toilets that are for free. Toilets are not the usual ones with the seats, but the old-fashioned squat toilets. I understand it’s much hygienic with the number of people visiting the beach on a daily basis.

But I was still grossed out by it.

We put on our swimsuits, had our breakfast we brought from home and our beach day started.

I missed the beach so incredibly much. While I was chilling out on the beach I realized how long it has been since I traveled last. Shockingly I went a whole year without any proper trip abroad. With the whole moving out and starting a new job I was quite short on money and time needed to travel. Hopefully, I could go back to my previous traveling self soon and Bibione was a great starting point.

This one was an easy journey as the whole purpose was not to explore but to relax and oh boy we did.

Literally, all we did for the whole day was a nap, snack, swim, and chat. We got some sunburns we regretted on our 8 hours bus ride home that night.

While chilling on the beach you’ll get approached by my local salesmen hundreds of times. Not maintaining eye contact with them would not help cuz they would step into your personal space anyway. Henna tattoos, braids, sunglasses, jewelry, fake handbags, massages, beach towels, or this guy selling coconuts that were so unbelievably loud but his “coco, coco, coco” slogan that was so catchy.

A new sight for me was this guy selling kites. It looked spectacular.

I appreciated this ice cream truck that was roaming the beach and selling out snacks and drinks beside the ice cream. Unfortunately, the local beach bars won’t serve you alcoholic drinks before lunch.

Happy hour starts at one o’clock.

Bibione is very kid-friendly. The whole beach has an incredibly shallow shore and it takes forever to walk till water is at least your shoulders depth. For my liking, the water was filled with too much kelp but that’s not something anyone can affect much. We found several dead jellyfishes at the shores in between the kelp clusters.

Overall we had a great time till like 4 o’clock.

Then the longtime promising storm came along.

Suddenly the water temperature rose. The waves got much bigger and the wind got stronger. I’ve been to the beach countless times but never before I witnessed a beach storm first handed.  This was the first time I saw lifeguards drag people out of the sea. Well, they tired but many just plainly ignored them.

I mean the red flag is up, the waves are huge and there is not a soul in the whole sea but some macho guys believe the lifeguard’s whistle is not their concern.

It was a sight like no other to see the full beach evacuate within the minutes.

We were able to change from our swimsuits when the rain came down pouring. Luckily we managed to hide in the closed beach bar and wait for the heaviest rain to slow down. It took like 30 minutes for the storm to calm down and we were able to walk to the closest restaurant and have some Italian dinner.

I managed to take this breathtaking photo of the Bibione’s storm.

After pizza and diet coke we left our beach stuff on our bus so we could explore the evening Bibione without any unnecessary luggage.

The main center of Bibione is full of different restaurants mostly serving pizza or seafood specials, gift shops, fashion stores, and gelatos stand. The pedestrian zone goes all along the beach zone and during the evening time, it was crowded. There was a bunch of game rooms full of loud children that only supports my theory about Bibione being a kid-friendly town. Too much for my liking.

We bought some fridge magnets as a reminder of our trip and checked out some stores. My nerdy self was so pleased with this nerd shop with actual nimbus 2001 in the store window and other random movies, tv shows, books, or comic merch.

If you ever visit Bibione you simply must get local Gelato – aka ice cream.

The weather was suddenly nice again and there was barely a track of the big storm anymore. We watched the sun went down over the now-empty beach. Even saw some crazy brave guy swims in that cold after the stormy sea.

The view was unforgettable.

We were supposed to leave the city at 10 o’clock and we still had plenty of time to spend. I found it ridiculous that some of our fellow travelers from the bus were already sitting on their seats from 7 o’clock.

You’re in Italy and you’re gonna spent your time on the bus. Well, you do you.

Next, we visited this luna park where we had parked our bus. Simple money spending place with a couple of retro candy shops, carousels or game stands. Nice lights. Many kids.

I guess I’m just too old to enjoy it myself and too young to enjoy it for the kids.

But it was still a great sight.

This was my 4th time visiting Italy and definitely not my last. The Italian culture fascinates me with all of its glory from fashion, architecture to food. I’m a sucker for sand beach and I would recommend Bibione for its touristic approach.  Everything is simple and easy. Everyone speaks English. The prices are great. Location as well. It’s very close to Venice so if you somehow get bored in Bibione it’s another option for you if you’re not a fan of a chilling and the beach sort of holiday.

I enjoyed this trip and I’m so glad I could take my friend with me as this was her first time visiting Italy.

The whole weekend in Italy cost me around 65$ and the joy of visiting a new place was priceless.