Travel

Take Me Back Tuesday – Cancun, Mexico

I woke up this morning before the 6AM mark. It was cold, dark, and SNOWING! What the heck? Since I’m really just not ready for the snow flakes I think a little Cancun, Mexico edition of Take Me Back Tuesday will put me in much better spirits!

This past May me and Andy ventured off to the beautiful beaches of Cancun, Mexico. Funny story about why we decided on Cancun. We were planning on being there for my birthday, Cinco de Mayo (pretty awesome birthday). Silly me thought how fun it would be to celebrate the Spanish holiday in Mexico! Well come to find out, Cinco de Mayo is not very Spanish at all. Americans have basically made it what it is, which is primarily a drinking and partying holiday.

With that aside, we ended up having an awesome first vacation, in a beautiful place, for very cheap! Here were the details of our trip.

Booking

We booked our trip on CheapCaribbean.com. This site is awesome! You can find some fantastic deals, many which include flight and all-inclusive hotels. We ended up booking our 5 night vacation, including airfare, hotel, and airport transfers for under $1000!

Hotel

We stayed at the Grand Oasis Cancun. This hotel was huge! Definitely not a 5 star resort but we had to keep in mind how much we paid.

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Positives

We scored an Ocean View room.
A few different pools, some with swim up bars.
A small gym.
The beach was big, clean, and beautiful.
A good buffet breakfast place.
A great Brazilian Steakhouse and awesome Sushi restaurant.

Negatives

You had to book reservations for most of the restaurants in the resort the day before very first thing in the morning.
You had to reserve beach chairs very early in the morning if you wanted to get any.
No wireless connection.
At certain restaurants, the best items on the menu were “extra.”
It seemed one half of the resort was filled with college kids on spring break while the other half was for couples/families.

Excursions

Isla Mujeres, Snorkeling, and Swimming with Dolphins

We bought this excursion from the CheapCaribbean reps that we had to meet with once we got there. This was an absolutely awesome excursion that included three exciting activities. We started the morning sailing off on a catamaran. We were completely catered to by the crew. They served us drinks until we got to the snorkeling area. The snorkeling was so great I think it may even beat Aruba’s. We saw some really cool fish, and the water was so blue!

After snorkeling we headed to Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Cancun. I absolutely loved it here. The island has a fisherman village type of feel and makes you feel off the beaten path, especially compared to the touristy hotel strip of Cancun. Here we really just walked around, took some pictures, and found some cool secluded beaches. I would spend a few days here next time if I could!

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Our last stop of the day was to Dolphin Discovery! I have wanted to swim with Dolphins since I was a little girl so was ecstatic for this part of the trip. You can read my review on Trip Advisor to get all of the details. All you have to know is if you ever go to Cancun, you should definitely swim with the dolphins at Dolphin Discovery!

A Night on The Hotel Strip

For my birthday night we decided to leave the hotel and explore the restaurants and bars on the hotel strip. We went to a fantastic restaurant called Lorenzillo’s where I ordered an amazing surf and turf meal. Filet Mignon stuffed with lobster! We also had a friendly visitor during dinner.

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After dinner we headed to Senor Frogs for some good ol’ touristy shenanigans. They very much so celebrated Cinco de Mayo here for all of us Americans.

I really enjoyed Cancun. It was the perfect, relaxing vacation where we didn’t feel pressured to do too many activities or sight see. Where is your favorite relaxing destination?

Take Me Back Tuesday – A Weekend in Manhattan

November 5, 2013
Kelsey Finkle
0 comments
central park, Getaway, Manhattan, marathon, NYC, Take me back tuesday, trip, Weekend

For this weeks Take Me Back Tuesday post, I decided that I’d like to just re-live my past weekend in Manhattan, Yeah, yeah I guess that’s being a little greedy but it was just the perfect weekend. Andy and I celebrated our one year anniversary in the city. It was an absolute beautiful weekend for it and neither of us realized before that it was the weekend of the marathon!

We arrived at our hotel Friday night which Andy booked. As soon as we arrived he took me up to the roof top deck which had an awesome view of the Empire State Building! He knows me well. We tried to get some pictures of ourselves but night time selfies are tough!

We went to dinner at a restaurant in Murray Hill called Cask Bar & Kitchen. Take a look at my Yelp Review. We indulged in some bread and oil and a great cheese and meat board.

Saturday morning we woke up and went for a run. It was the perfect temperature and the city was buzzing because of the marathon! We ran a couple of miles up First Ave, which is part of the marathon route. I was only maybe pretending we were running the next day 🙂

We came back to our hotel and did some handstand practice. I really need to work on my banana back! Baby steps.

After our work out we decided to head out and walk uptown towards Central Park. I hadn’t been to Central Park in a while and thought it would be pretty on a fall day. On our way there we ran into a street market!

Central Park was so pretty. The pictures don’t even do the foliage justice!

From Central Park we headed to Rockefellar Plaza. I’ve heard that the Top of the Rock is an awesome view of the city. Of course, most tourists go to the top of the Empire State Building but going to the Top of the Rock you actually get to SEE the Empire State Building.

The view was awesome! Andy was probably getting a little antsy with how many pictures I was taking from every angle possible.

That’s Central Park behind me!

Everyone was really friendly up there and offering to take pictures. I returned the favor of course!

On Saturday night we headed to dinner and then to a Comedy Show at The Stand in the Gramercy area. I highly recommend this comedy club. Tickets were cheap and the acts were hilarious. Oh and I should mention that Jim Gaffigan was a surprise guest!! Along with Godfrey. They are both really well known comedians.

We had an awesome night!

On Sunday morning we woke up and headed to a great diner (I think they might all fit that description). I ordered their “Red Flannel Hash” which was a twist on hash that included sweet potatoes and beets! It was so different and so good.

After we ate we headed to the train. I was sad we couldn’t catch the marathon but then we were lucky to see it from the train!! That’s all I needed 🙂

I love this weekend. New York is such a fantastic city and I’m grateful to live so close and just a train ride away. Now if I could just figure out how to get my pictures on my blog to be bigger!

Take Me Back Tuesday – Interlaken, Switzerland

I’ve slacked on my Take Me Back Tuesday post for the past couple of weeks. It’s a whole process writing these posts because it requires a lot of remembering, reminiscing, and getting lost in tons of photos and stories. This week I want to share with you one of the most beautiful and exhilarating places I’ve ever traveled to…Interlaken, Switzerland!

I remember after coming home from studying abroad in Europe people would ask ‘which country was your favorite?’ It was so hard to choose just one, but Switzerland always came to mind first. My best friend Rachel, who I traveled there with, and I, still to this day say we want to retire in Switzerland.

Rachel and I were inspired to buy our tickets to Switzerland after a bunch of our friends traveled there to go skydiving. We watched all of their videos and decided that would be our next trip. It actually ended up snowing, so we couldn’t skydive (that would come a few years later). Instead we went Canyon Jumping….which was even more insane than sky diving!

Here are the reasons why Interlaken, Switzerland was one of my favorite places in Europe:

The back drop of the Swiss Alps is beautiful.

The air is so clean, crisp, and fresh.

The small, quaint little streets with small chalet styled shops, restaurants, and stores.

Cows!

The people are so friendly.

We got to drive this teeny, little car. We followed a map to a lake not too far away.

The lakes are a blue I have never seen before!

Our hostel was one of our favorites of the whole semester. It was called Balmers. The staff made you feel right at home, we even met the owner Erich Balmer who gave us an inspirational talk. There was a bar in this hostel too, so a great place to meet other travelers.