This is one of my favourite articles - I co-wrote this one with my husband and I still re-read it from time to time!
http://www.weddingvacations.com/things-that-change-when-you-get-married/
Monday 4 July 2016
Saturday 6 February 2016
A Year in Review
Many of my friends, colleagues and families have been asking me the same thing - "So... did you do it?". I've stared at them blankly many times now before realizing that they were referring to my resolution to travel somewhere different every month in 2015. My answer is almost always exactly the same - "YES, but I'm exhausted!!!!"
It was hands-down, no question, absolutely the best year of my life. I traveled with friends, family, colleagues and on my own and I enjoyed (almost) every single moment. I travel quite often for work to begin with, so there were definitely some harrowing moments - i.e. "Will I make it on this flight?" or "Will I make it to work tomorrow?" and "Oh no, it's almost the end of the month and I haven't been anywhere yet!"
The highlights? Well, meeting Kardinal Offishall and going to his private concert with my colleagues after a long summer of training was probably one of the best 24 hours of my life. My family vacation was long-anticipated and such a great group of people to travel and have fun with. But mostly I think I really enjoyed being active, learning about different cities and culture and sharing my love of travel with the people I care about the most.
Here's a recap:
January: Cancun, Mexico
February: Palm Beach, Aruba
March: Havana & Varadero Cuba
April: Holguin, Cuba
May: Atlanta, GA, US
June: Montreal, QC, Canada
July: Vancouver, BC, Canada
August: Riviera Maya, Mexico
September: Chicago, IL, US
October: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
November: Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
December: Cayo Coco, Cuba
Many people have also asked me what I plan to do in 2016. My answer is simple - STAY HOME!!! LOL I know that's not a reality given that I work in travel, but I have decided to do something to improve my home every month this year! I haven't decided if I'm going to blog about it yet, but I'm already off to a great start with my giant photo collage of my 2015 travels as my first project.
SAFE TRAVELS!!!
It was hands-down, no question, absolutely the best year of my life. I traveled with friends, family, colleagues and on my own and I enjoyed (almost) every single moment. I travel quite often for work to begin with, so there were definitely some harrowing moments - i.e. "Will I make it on this flight?" or "Will I make it to work tomorrow?" and "Oh no, it's almost the end of the month and I haven't been anywhere yet!"
The highlights? Well, meeting Kardinal Offishall and going to his private concert with my colleagues after a long summer of training was probably one of the best 24 hours of my life. My family vacation was long-anticipated and such a great group of people to travel and have fun with. But mostly I think I really enjoyed being active, learning about different cities and culture and sharing my love of travel with the people I care about the most.
Here's a recap:
January: Cancun, Mexico
February: Palm Beach, Aruba
March: Havana & Varadero Cuba
April: Holguin, Cuba
May: Atlanta, GA, US
June: Montreal, QC, Canada
July: Vancouver, BC, Canada
August: Riviera Maya, Mexico
September: Chicago, IL, US
October: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
November: Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
December: Cayo Coco, Cuba
Many people have also asked me what I plan to do in 2016. My answer is simple - STAY HOME!!! LOL I know that's not a reality given that I work in travel, but I have decided to do something to improve my home every month this year! I haven't decided if I'm going to blog about it yet, but I'm already off to a great start with my giant photo collage of my 2015 travels as my first project.
SAFE TRAVELS!!!
December - Cayo Coco
For my last trip of the year, I asked one of my best friends to come with me to Cayo Coco, Cuba. Yes, apparently I really needed to even it out to 14 trips to Cuba! My friend Shannon has 4 children, so we made a deal with dad to leave the boys with him and bring the girls on vacation.
We passed the time well on Sunwing airlines, which I quickly learned was great for traveling with children. They provide backpacks for children with an activity book to colour in and a beach ball, which would come in handy later!
We stayed at the Memories Flamenco, which I had heard was a fan favourite. It was the most modern looking family resort I had ever seen in Cuba and the property was immaculate. Our room was very nice and spacious with an extra bed and crib for the kids.
We also visited the Memories Caribe which had such a gorgeous beach - aquamarine and teal as far as the eye could see and very shallow water which was nice for the children. You could walk several hundred meters before it became even remotely deep.
The beach at Memories Flamenco was very rocky - it was like a giant rock face in the bottom of the ocean - not sharp and jagged, but rather smooth and pretty slippery! Those who had water shoes on faired well, but otherwise a quick 2 minute jaunt down the beach led to a pristine beach without any rocks at all. A nice beach is most important to me on vacation, and this resort certainly did not disappoint!
November - Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
This was another monumental trip for our family as another two of my sisters had never traveled outside of Canada before. My husband and I had been to Cuba 13 times before, and three of those vacations were to Cayo Santa Maria. This tiny island is 45 minutes from the mainland on a causeway in the middle of the ocean. It has the most picturesque beach I have seen in all of my travels.
We stayed at the Starfish Cayo Santa Maria, an activity-oriented family resort. The rooms were beautiful and spacious and the Oceanview Room was out of this world! The service was extraordinary, the drinks were perfect and the resort was spotless.
We made Canadian snowmen in the sand and found Starfish in the ocean (and of course left them there like good little tourists).
We made silly family videos and even found time to visit two other resorts.
The Memories Paraiso Azul had the most energetic entertainment staff, and were running around the resort making people smile. The Hamburgers by the pool were divine and although the resort was very large, it didn't seem too far to walk between the beach and pools. We also had the opportunity to visit the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria, and it was easy to see why it was the top rated resort in the world. It was a super-luxurious boutique type resort with very few rooms and a very relaxed and quiet atmosphere. The service was superb and the food was amongst the best I have had on vacation.
We couldn't have asked for a better group of friends and family for our vacation and we all felt like there was a little bit of everything for everyone on this property - activities, a beautiful beach and pool, great food and drink as well as access to local crafts and shopping at the nearby Pueblo La Estrella.
October - Punta Cana
Well, the first day of this trip was one of the best days of my life. Ever. We arrived at the Chic Punta Cana just before noon and were treated to the Diamond Club luxury check-in service.
Although our rooms were not quite ready, our butler walked us around the resort, showing us all of the best restaurants and bars. We had lunch and then bumped into Kardinal Offishall!
After chatting with him about his concert that night, we changed into our swimsuits and went directly to the mermaid pool. Two sides of this pool are entirely glass, allowing you to take pictures of people while they're in the pool.
From the deck of the pool, we saw a foam pool party, so naturally we needed to join it immediately! There was a DJ spinning by the pool, getting everyone pumped for the Kardi Party that night.
We had dinner at the sushi and ceviche restaurant that night, and I was brave and tried all kinds of things that I wouldn't typically order. The ceviche was out of this world - I never imagined that I would enjoy octopus!
The concert that night was truly amazing. There were about 75-100 people there, and we were all front row. Kardinal was a phenomenal entertainer, and performed his classics as well as his new music from Kardi Gras Vol 1. Glitter fell from the ceiling so many times that I'm still finding it around my house a month later! It was definitely the craziest party I have ever been to, and the most beautiful and trendy location for it. I bought Kardi's CD the day it came out, what a great way to relive awesome memories and support Canadian music - not to mention tremendous talent!
I'll be honest, Punta Cana was not my favourite destination before this trip (I like a picture perfect beach) - but I would go back to this resort in a heartbeat, it's the perfect mix of trendy, casual, cool & fun, not to mention the sexiest décor I've ever seen at a hotel!
Although our rooms were not quite ready, our butler walked us around the resort, showing us all of the best restaurants and bars. We had lunch and then bumped into Kardinal Offishall!
After chatting with him about his concert that night, we changed into our swimsuits and went directly to the mermaid pool. Two sides of this pool are entirely glass, allowing you to take pictures of people while they're in the pool.
From the deck of the pool, we saw a foam pool party, so naturally we needed to join it immediately! There was a DJ spinning by the pool, getting everyone pumped for the Kardi Party that night.
We had dinner at the sushi and ceviche restaurant that night, and I was brave and tried all kinds of things that I wouldn't typically order. The ceviche was out of this world - I never imagined that I would enjoy octopus!
The concert that night was truly amazing. There were about 75-100 people there, and we were all front row. Kardinal was a phenomenal entertainer, and performed his classics as well as his new music from Kardi Gras Vol 1. Glitter fell from the ceiling so many times that I'm still finding it around my house a month later! It was definitely the craziest party I have ever been to, and the most beautiful and trendy location for it. I bought Kardi's CD the day it came out, what a great way to relive awesome memories and support Canadian music - not to mention tremendous talent!
I'll be honest, Punta Cana was not my favourite destination before this trip (I like a picture perfect beach) - but I would go back to this resort in a heartbeat, it's the perfect mix of trendy, casual, cool & fun, not to mention the sexiest décor I've ever seen at a hotel!
September - Chicago
My husband and I attempted to see all of Chicago in two days - virtually impossible! We hopped on a flight, bought a last-minute hotel room and rental car and when we arrived, we purchased "Go Chicago" passes using our phone and headed to a nearby Staples to print them out. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants!
The passes ended up being a great value and included more than we could possibly see in one day. We visited the 360 observatory at the top of the former John Hancock building and then took advantage of the free transportation (and one of the best tour guides we have ever had) and took in the beauty and majesty of the architecture of Chicago from a hop-on-hop-off bus tour.
We also explored the Planetarium, the Aquarium, had beers on the Navy Pier and took the Architecture River Cruise. We also had free coffee included on our tour, which kept our energy levels up throughout the day!
We finally ended up at the world-famous Gino's East pizzeria for dinner and had our first deep-dish pizza. It was so delicious, but also really interesting as all of the layers were in a very unconventional order (cheese on the crust? Tomato sauce on top?). It was a whirlwind two days (no pun intended) and I would certainly not turn down an opportunity to visit again.
The passes ended up being a great value and included more than we could possibly see in one day. We visited the 360 observatory at the top of the former John Hancock building and then took advantage of the free transportation (and one of the best tour guides we have ever had) and took in the beauty and majesty of the architecture of Chicago from a hop-on-hop-off bus tour.
We also explored the Planetarium, the Aquarium, had beers on the Navy Pier and took the Architecture River Cruise. We also had free coffee included on our tour, which kept our energy levels up throughout the day!
We finally ended up at the world-famous Gino's East pizzeria for dinner and had our first deep-dish pizza. It was so delicious, but also really interesting as all of the layers were in a very unconventional order (cheese on the crust? Tomato sauce on top?). It was a whirlwind two days (no pun intended) and I would certainly not turn down an opportunity to visit again.
August - Riviera Maya
My husband and I took a much needed long weekend to the Mayan Riviera in August. Although it was stinking hot, we had a great time at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya. We arrived early, and had a private transfer with Nexus Tours. Our driver was super friendly, giving us shopping tips as well as getting the party started with music videos for the drive to the resort.
The resort also had an indigenous species, called the Coatie (kwa-tie) which were totally adorable - a sort of cross between a racoon and a monkey!
The resort had a lazy river (with great music), a mini-wave pool, many pools and phenomenal à la carte restaurants. The seafood one was my favourite with a delicious surf and turf dinner.
The beach was also very beautiful and so warm, despite the claims of sargassum "seaweed" issues in the area. The staff was lovely and the service at the bars and restaurants was really top notch. It was a great property for families and people looking for a variety of activities to choose from. One of the coolest features was that there was a shopping complex on the property with lots of clothing, souvenir and jewellery shops as well as a small taco restaurant with was actually part of the all-inclusive offering at the resort.
Upon arrival, as our check in was a little later, we were shown to the courtesy rooms, adjacent to the lobby where we changed into our bathing suits. A shuttle took us to our lunch buffet (Best. Guac. Ever.) and then we headed to the ocean to cool off. The resort had free wifi everywhere and our room was spectacular. We had a private pool and butler who booked our dinner reservations for us every night.
The resort also had an indigenous species, called the Coatie (kwa-tie) which were totally adorable - a sort of cross between a racoon and a monkey!
The resort had a lazy river (with great music), a mini-wave pool, many pools and phenomenal à la carte restaurants. The seafood one was my favourite with a delicious surf and turf dinner.
The beach was also very beautiful and so warm, despite the claims of sargassum "seaweed" issues in the area. The staff was lovely and the service at the bars and restaurants was really top notch. It was a great property for families and people looking for a variety of activities to choose from. One of the coolest features was that there was a shopping complex on the property with lots of clothing, souvenir and jewellery shops as well as a small taco restaurant with was actually part of the all-inclusive offering at the resort.
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