what’s your vacation style?
are you a cruiser? a mountain climber? a tourist? do you like to visit a new place or go back to the same place? with the kids? without the kids? where’s the best place you’ve gone? where’s the furthest you’ve gone?
i’m so definitely one of those people who likes to go on vacation to RELAX. to lie out by the pool or the beach and have someone bring me alcohol. lots of alcohol. to spend the day reading a good book or some trashy magazines. to have nowhere to be.
truth be told, i haven’t been on that many vacations. as a kid, we did a big vacation usually once a year. Myrtle Beach. Boston. New York. Los Angeles. Bahamas. Disney World. etc. but once we got married, we’ve been on, um, three vacations, i think?
We went to Aruba for our honeymoon. it was pure bliss. amazing. i once traveled alongside the husband when he went to Orlando on business. the last hurrah before Emily was conceived. we went on a family vacation to the Greystone Inn in North Carolina. again, pure bliss.
oh, and we went to Barbados with the husband’s family 3 weeks after Josh was born. now that’s a post all on it’s own. can you imagine anything less enjoyable? imagine yourself three weeks postpartum – and then imagine yourself sitting on an airplane for 5 hours straight….with an infant and a toddler…having to leave the beach every three hours to nurse…there was no way i was getting into a bathing suit (also…no physical way that i could…)
but…next spring the husband and i will be celebrating our ten year anniversary. and my 20-tenth birthday. and our two best couple friends are also each celebrating ten years. so, we decided that we are going to go away together. and i’m already starting to get excited about it. but we haven’t yet decided on the locale.
i want to lie on the beach, drink beer (i know…i’m all class) and read my magazines. i’m terrified of cruises – there are too many norwalk virus outbreaks, and we know how i feel about those… and the husband isn’t really interested.
so, we want to go somewhere hot and island-y – and i think we are looking at March-ish.
so…the point of this whole post was to ask for some vacation location destinations. Where have you been that you’ve loved? hated? would you do all-inclusive…or go at it on your own? what sort of things did you do that were amazing (you know, to get my lazy ass off the beach)
some of you may have noticed the lack of new posts over at Cheaper Then Therapy this week. I’m in the process of switching over my hosts…and i have been writing new posts….but dreamhost has been a huge pain and we haven’t been able to switch the posts to the new host. and when i say "we" i mean "Chad" because he’s doing all the work…and i’m just reaping benefits.
so, please be patient with me through this process! hopefully, it will be up and running soon!
Ahhh vacations. The reason I work…..
I’ve been to Mexico twice in the Mayan and quite enjoyed it. All inclusive totally sounds what you are looking for. Lay on the beach, read and have someone bring you drinks. Although I had heard lots about the water in Mexico, I didn’t have a problem with it. Plus all the water you ever drink is from a bottle.
We’ve also been to Jamacia which is quite nice. Although the weather was not as good for us there. We did stay at a “Beaches” resort, and found very little difference between a regular 5 star and a Beaches.
Do you know about Trip Advisor. It’s a great website to help you decide on a hotel once you have decided your local.
Good Luck and enjoy!
Jenn
We tend to do a lot of vacations (or did, before our big reno), hubby has travelled a lot (and I did a fair bit before becoming SAHM) so we’ve been able to use points for quite a few flights.
We’ve done the all inclusive with and without kids (Beaches resorts in Jamaica, though pricey, are great if your little ones love Sesame street). Only thing, if your kids are too young they may not love the nursery, and can be clingy.
We’ve done a lot of the Caribbean, including a cruise (but we’re not cruisy folks). To be honest, the best vacations we’ve had (other than fun at a rented cottage) are city vacations – our family loves NYC, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal; one of the best trips we took as a family was San Francisco when the boy was 2.5. I love Europe too, but have never taken the kids.
For our 10th anniversary hubby and I took our first trip alone since we had our son (he was 3) and spent it in Chicago at the W hotel …LOVED it! For a trip of a lifetime, ICELAND (I just wrote about it).
I love vacations, have fun planning!
I never went to Europe until my husband surprised me with a trip to Paris…booked, planned and done within three weeks. We normally don’t go back to places we’ve been because we feel there are too many places to see…but we would go back to Hawaii (only went to Oahu and we want to see the other islands) and Ireland (the people are so incredibly nice)! Alaska was memorable and I definitely recommend it…but it’s a one time thing. I wouldn’t go back. Australia and New Zealand are on our must-see list.
Do the Sandals all inclusive in Turks and Caicos. It’s awesome for couples and kids (if they’re going). Plus, it’s probably a 4 hour plane ride non stop from Canada.
I’m still waiting to take my honeymoon and that was 18 years ago! We were planning a trip to St. Croix but then I found out I was preggers with #2. I would HIGHLY recommend St. Croix though and if you go give me all the details so I can live vicariously through you.
Hawaii…. I went there on my honeymoon. Particularly Maui — there’s SO much to do there, and SO many celebs (they stay at the Four Seasons). It’s SUCH a big party in Maui, AND it’s beautiful………
Last year my husband and I went to Las Vegas for a long weekend and it was AWESOME. Which I NEVER thought I’d say. We went in June and it was hot-hot-hot. We stayed at our hotel (THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay) the entire time – eating, laying by the pool, napping, going to the spa. After one morning at the spa and an afternoon at the pool, I took a SIX hour nap. Heaven.
We went to Hawaii & Australia for a 5 week honeymoon & it was awesome!!! Since then we’ve been to Florida when my son was almost 2 & it was a nightmare. I vowed never to travel with kids again until they are out of diapers & understand the word “comsequence” – ha ha…
Feb. is our 5th anniversary & as long as parents still agree to watching the kids (I have 2 WILD boys) we are going away for 1 week. We haven’t decided where yet either but as long as it’s all inclusive, a nice resort, with a great beach I’m happy!!! I’m with you – all I want to do is drink & read in the sun so I’ll be reading on to see where you decide to go. Mayan Coast/Cancun is my 1st choice as I’ve never been & heard beaches are excellent. It all depends on price & last minute options for me.
We’re getting geared up for our first “us” only trip since kids this fall – heading down to Vegas to party it up and enjoy some more summer heat. My hubby has never been, so should be fun. Am so looking forward to sleeping in, eating meals, reading a book. We’re big walkers – so will be walking everywhere.
We went to the Cook Islands for our honeymoon – a REALLY long journey, but awesome. Quiet, great beaches, quaint. Even talked about going back again with our future kids one day. There’s hiking stuff to do there too.
On our European adventures, we realized that we needed somewhere with water – Barcelona on the ocean vs. Madrid on the interior. Highly recommend Barcelona!
I did go down to Mexico last winter to visit my mother who winters down there and really enjoyed Mazatlan. Especially if you can find a condo to rent and not have to stay on the “strip”. Beautiful beach there.
Oh – I second Dubai! I spent a month over there visiting my father a few years ago – absolutely AMAZING!
South of France – Nice, Cannes, St Tropez – super place to celeb watch on the beach, seriously! Amazing beaches (it is the riviera after all), great restaurants, shopping, hotels etc. You may want to check the temp in late march
Dubai – AMAZING beaches and hotels – you literally arrive and all is done for you!
Check out this link
http://www.silkroadandbeyond.co.uk/dubai5.html
It’s definately an AMAZING place to spend a week vacationing if you want to relax!
Finally Thailand
Puket is amazing, the beaches, thai massages, reflexology sessions all on the beach are AMAZING!
Two of the best vacations hubby and I have ever taken were also the worst since during both I was pregnant! 🙂 We were married in Hawaii and since we were surrounde by friends and family the whole time we decided we never really had a true honeymoon -so we planned a trip to Paris six months after the wedding. Yup – ten weeks prego – morning sickness the WHOLE time. While I loved Paris – having to get off the underground at every stop to throw up was not so fun. And forget eating all the Yummy food!
6 months pregnant with Maddie found me in Bali – perfect except I could not drink and was the size of a house. But we rented a beautiful villa with a staff that cooked and brought us anything we could want. The week was filled with in villa massages and relaxation – Perfect if you are looking for pure laziness!
In a few weeks we are off to Napa for a week – without the kids…
I’m totally with you on the all-inclusive. We haven’t been on a real, relaxed vacation in FAR too long. And, I don’t see it happening for a couple more years. Next year is Disney World (with the entire family). Maybe for our 10th? (and we just hit six)
But, I’m not big on the adventure vacations. Plus they are expensive.
But, I also think that my vacation ideas change all the time. Like right now we’re tired and need on so chilling on a beach and drinking sounds so good!!
i love vacations except for the flying…i also love to hang with the locals and rough it a bit.we’ve been to europe my hubbys family is there.and we’ve been to florida and guatamala.i loved it there.it was fantastic and so much to see.the children come everywhere with us.but i’m trying to talk hubby into going to cuba by ourselves.
two words: CA.BO.
im sure it had to do with the five star resort we stayed at, but cabo san lucas is GORGEOUS. theres plenty to do (we swam with dolphins, snorkeled, wouldve gone deep sea fishing had someone ELSE not gotten smashed the night before…theres golfing, decent bars, etc.)
but, ive also been to st martin, st thomas, the bahamas and loved them all too. (you could see them ALL on a cruise) but if you want a very chilled out time, i think anywhere with clear waters and white beaches should work.
and, um, miss editor? its ‘too’ many norwalk outbreaks 😉