J A M A I C A // anniversary vacation

This was our first trip to Jamaica and we absolutely fell in love with this beautiful country! Jamaicans are LOVELY and welcoming, and our resort was perfect.

We flew out of Charlotte Thursday morning. The girls stayed with my mom the first night, and for the remainder of the nights, my mother-in-law had Charlotte here at the house and my mom and dad had Camille down at their lakehouse. 

We arrived into Jamaica after a 2.5 hour flight, went through customs, and then they have you wait outdoors for your resort transportation right next to a bar. We bought two drinks, Red Stripe beer for Ian and a pina colada for me -- $24 later (before tip), we were so ready to get to our all-inclusive resort :) 

earrings

We stayed at Secrets Wild Orchid in Montego Bay which was only about a 20-25 minute trip from the airport. Super close. We honeymooned at a Secrets resort in Dominican Republic so we knew we liked this brand of all-inclusive resort.

We did choose two upgrades: the Preferred Club upgrade which gets you your own (quieter, more relaxing) pool along with the butler service and a few more amenities, and also a swim-out room. This means that from our bottom-floor room, we could walk out and take a few steps down right into the pool water. It's not the main pool, it's more like a small strip of a pool that only the swim-out suites have access to. This was awesome for post-dinner dips because we didn't have to walk across the resort grounds, we could just suit up and we were right there. 

Right after getting settled, we made our way to the pool and relaxed, read, and sipped some beverages!

That night we had dinner at Portofino, the Italian restaurant. It was delicious! 

The next morning, we snuck in a short workout at the gym and hung with the resident parrots on our way back to the room.

Please don't mind my socks, ha! I left mine at home and borrowed a pair from Ian.

I read The Castaways which I blogged about yesterday. 

Every day at lunchtime, there was a gentleman who would man a jerk chicken cart. He cooked it right on the spot and people lined up for a paper plate of spicy goodness!

That evening we ate at the Jamaican restaurant on property and then went to the piano bar where they were having an outdoor show. 

Cheesy kiss shot, but the resort photographer captured this one below.

I wore a new Lilly top (this one) and their adorable Georgia May palazzo pants (these). A go-to summer outfit. 

The next morning, I hit the pool with my book after we had breakfast and Ian went back to the gym. (You can see the swim-out rooms there on the left)

I saw Ian heading my way from the gym and then I saw that he spotted a beach volleyball game going on. I knew he wouldn't be able to hold back. Next thing I knew, he was taking off his shirt and tennis shoes and was playing along.

PSA: I bought this Neutrogena SPF 50+ sunscreen stick on Amazon before our trip (HERE) and it was awesome. Perfect for flying since it wasn't liquid. Went on smoothly and we loved it. They were selling sunscreen at our resort for $23, so I was way happy that I remembered to pack ours! 

For the third evening there, we went to the Asian restaurant. I wore a new inexpensive TJ Maxx top, my $12 Charming Charlie earrings, and my new white jeans!

This photo from Snapchat shows the earrings the best:

Breakfast was always a highlight of the day. They had the most insanely delicious banana milkshakes that we had each morning. 

Sunday was our anniversary, so I wore my new favorite suit. Twenty bucks HERE on Amazon. 

That morning, we went snorkeling which was AMAZING. We were prepared to book an excursion off-site but decided to try the free one that was offered by the resort. It was perfect. We snorkled in waters that went about 25 feet deep and saw tons of different fish and sea creatures, swam over coral reefs full of sea life, and I got to hold a jellyfish (!!!) and sea urchin (!!!). 

We decided that would be the day that we tried the "signature" drink of the area, called the Bob Marley. Frozen goodness in red, yellow, green. Fun for the photo opp, but really sweet!

Later that evening, we got ready for dinner and had a drink out on the patio. I wore another new dress, Lilly again, I can't stop!

tunic dress

For our last dinner on the fourth night we dined at Bordeaux which is their French restaurant. The restaurants had these fun lit menus ... so smart. 

Another gratuitous smooch shot captured by the photographer. :) 

Towards the end of the trip, I asked Ian if we were vacationing again if he would go to Secrets again in Dominican Republic (where we honeymooned - blogged HERE), Paradisus Playa Del Carmen (where we went two years ago - blogged HERE), or Secrets in Jamaica ... and he said without even hesitating that he'd go back to Jamaica as his first choice! I think I agree ... although it's a toss-up for me with the Dominican Republic resort.

Six years married -- cheers to many more!

Our Mexico Trip!

Last week's trip to Mexico was just wonderful. We were looking for a fun way to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. For year one, we went to New Orleans. Year two took us to Europe (France, Switzerland, and Italy). Year three - we stayed at home with our two-week old newborn babe! And for this fourth year, we wanted a quick, direct flight, a beautiful all-inclusive resort, and a lot of lounging around. We got exactly that.

My sister and her husband had such a marvelous resort experience on their honeymoon and had nothing but rave reviews about Paradisus La Perla in Playa del Carmen. I'd visited Playa del Carmen before and loved it, so I was excited to see the area again. The reviews on TripAdvisor were great, and I ended up searching several sites for the most competitive rate and settling on cheapcaribbean.com. I was a little nervous not booking directly through the resort, but we ended up having a very positive experience using that booking site and it was quite easy. I was even able to add in round-trip transportation from the airport to the hotel (about 45 minutes away) when booking -- one last thing for us to have to deal with upon landing and returning home. 

Upon checking in to the resort, we were greeted with sparkling champagne and macarons ... not a bad touch! We did decide to pay a little more for the Royal Service upgrade. This upgrade allowed us access to a separate part of the resort with a smaller, quieter pool, more top-shelf liquors, an open-air restaurant that serves all three meals called La Palapa, and a personal concierge to help us with anything we needed. 

Our arrival time was around 4:00, so for our convenience, our concierge had already set us up with a dinner reservation that evening at The Market, which is an Argentinian steakhouse where they serve dinner Rodizio-style ... big salad bar in the center of the restaurant and the waiters walk around with large skewers of various meats to cut off and serve you until you are full. After dinner, Ian and I walked around the resort a little and walked down to the ocean to put our toes in the sand. 

The next day, Wednesday, we spent a good amount of time at the pool in the morning. Ian went to the gym so I had some solo time to read before he joined me. 

We had a simple lunch at the buffet at The Grill and then got ready to go to Fifth Avenue (downtown Playa del Carmen) to walk around for a bit. 

After walking all over downtown Playa, we stopped into a cute bar for a cold beer. It was so hot outside!

Later that evening, after cleaning up a bit, we stopped in for a pre-dinner martini at their onsite martini bar (the Spicy Tamarind martini was my favorite ... made with habanero-infused vodka!) and then went to a sushi dinner at Bana. Super dinner, but not the best service that night. 

The next day was our wedding anniversary! We started out our day at breakfast at La Palapa, went to the gym together, and then hit up the pool. We met a really sweet couple from London by the pool and had the best time chatting with them. 

That afternoon we enjoyed a couples massage at YHI spa ... highly recommended! I'm usually not one for couples massages but this was a great way to celebrate our anniversary day. Ian went with the deep-tissue massage and I chose the more relaxing version. 

Later that evening we got together with our British friends before our dinner reservations and attended a wine tasting. We split up for our dinners (we had an amazing supper at their Latin-fusion restaurant called Fuego ... our favorite dinner of the entire trip) and then got together again afterwards for the resort's Casino Night. 

We all went to the little nightclub afterwards together before calling it a night!

On our last full day, Friday, we went back to the spa (the Royal Service upgrade gave us daily access to the spa pool, jacuzzis, steamroom, sauna, and facilities) to relax at the pool and read. 

Later that afternoon is when we spent a few hours sitting by the ocean ... and immediately wished we had more time to spend there. We enjoyed the breeze coming off of the water and also cooled off with yummy Rum Runners. 

We were so surprised to return later that afternoon to our room and see that our new friends had purchased our favorite bottle of Mexican wine from the previous night's wine tasting and had it sent up to our room for our anniversary! They included the sweetest note with a little inside joke that we laughed together about the previous night. What awesome folks. 

We had plans to mee them at 5:45 and hop in a cab with them to downtown Playa to check out Alux (pronounced "Uh-loosh"), a restaurant and bar that my family has visited that is actually below ground in a cave! 

I was so excited to see the facial expressions of Ian, Sarah and James as we descended down into the caves to have a pre-dinner drink together. They were all in awe!

I am normally one to skip out on shots, but they have a specialty shot bearing the restaurant name that our waiter said was great. We were so impressed with how it looked - a quick drop of Bailey's into the shot gives the appearance of a cave's stalagtites and stalagmites!

Once we had our cocktails in hand, our waiter gave us a tour of all of the caves. It was breathtakingly beautiful. 

This is their main bar. If you are ever in the area, this place is a true experience. 

We were just having such a great time together that we all decided to ditch our separate dinner reservations back at the resort -- we cabbed it back and ended up being able to all have dinner together at The Market ... where we had a very tasty dinner and I somehow got roped into another shot. Blehh!

From that point on, many other photos were taken which will just have to survive in the safety of my phone. Lawdamercy. Crazy times with this beautiful couple, and Sarah and I may have crashed a wedding reception for a spin around the dance floor before we felt guilty and danced right out (so embarrassing but hilarious). 

We will definitely be keeping in touch with them ... they are just a blast and a wonderful couple!

The next morning was a bit rough -- the wake-up call came at 6am and we were being picked up by the shuttle at 7:10am. The light at the end of the tunnel was that we were SO excited to see our baby again after 4 nights away and spend a wonderful evening with her!

If you are looking to vacation in Mexico, I would highly recommend this resort. I have a feeling this will not be our last trip there!