Meet Me in St. Thomas

St. Thomas is hands down one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. I traveled there with my family while on a cruise a few years back. We started off our day getting a driven tour of the island. We went ventured up to the peaks of the island were we looked out at the ocean that seemed to stretch on forever.  We stopped at various points admiring the views and random animals that were roaming the island. We retreated to Magen’s Bay where we laid on the beach and relaxed in the calm, crystal clear water. The beach was so relaxing and is exactly what I think of when I think of paradise. After a few hours on the beach, we hopped back into the car, where they took us to see the beach we were just at, but from above. This is the first time in my life that I saw something that actually took my breath away. I don’t think any camera can capture how stunning the view really was. I could have stayed there forever. Since we were on a tour, and had to comply with the timeline, we eventually had to leave :(. We arrived back at our ship and departed from the island in perfect time for sunset. All in all, another perfect day in paradise.

[Magen’s Bay, from above]

Here Today, Where Tomorrow?

As many of you know, we just returned from our amazing trip to Barbados, but me being me, on the plane ride home I was already asking the infamous question – Where should we go next?

Okay what are we aiming for: Driving, flying, cruising? Tropical? Hiking? Site seeing? Historical? Relaxing? Adventurous?  Ahhh, so many options I can’t think straight…. I’m just going to pretend that these issues don’t exist.

It’s not helping that the advertisements in NYC are taunting me at every available opportunity. My train has ads for Carnival Cruises, Grand Central is currently devoting 90% of their ad space to Delta Airlines, and half the people at my job are putting in for vacation time.

I’m extremely tempted to throw a dart at a map to decide where to go next, but that would require me to go out and buy a dart…. And a map.

Someone help me – where should we go? I need travel therapy.

First image via

Snorkeling in Barbados

One of the highlights of our trip to Barbados was our snorkeling trip. We booked a catamaran trip that was nothing short of spectacular. We were picked up from our resort bright and early and our driver gave us a mini tour of the island on the way to our boat. I was a tad skeptical because where we were staying, the water was very very rough. The driver informed us that only the east side of the island has rough waters, and she was taking us to the west side where the water is basically still. It is amazing how different this part of the island was.

We chose to take the trip on one of the smaller catamarans (only 10 people – including the 2 who worked on the boat), and it was so worth it. They took us out to an area where the sea turtles “hang out.” As soon as we got into the water the turtles were swimming all around us! It was insane. I can’t believe how close they were getting to us. My underwater digital camera paid for itself on just this one experience. The below pictures may be a tad repetitive, but I don’t care – I am still amazed!

During part two of our snorkeling adventure, we were brought to a sunken ship/coral reef area where the water was a tad deeper. There were so many fish swimming around me, at some points I couldn’t even swim forward because I couldn’t see where I was going. For anyone heading to Barbados any time in the future, I definitely recommend participating in one of these excursions – We used Shasa Catamaran Cruises! This was a truly unforgettable experience.

Meet Me in Barbados

Barbados has always been a place that I have been dying to go. I don’t know anyone who has been there and I knew I had to check it out. One of my travel dreams is to visit every island in the Caribbean.We just returned from our ah-may-zing trip and I can finally check this off of my list! Here are a few pictures from my vacation. I’m looking forward to sharing my snorkeling pictures!

The Sand: As I’m sure you can tell by now, I am beach and sand obsessed. The sand in Barbados was completely unique to any I have ever seen or felt. It was so soft in-between my toes, I could have laid on that beach forever. The sand was very white, although had a more yellow-ish tint when it was wet. My favorite part, was if you look very closely you could see little pieces of pink sand.  Love it.

Whale Watching in Ecuador

Last summer I had the pleasure of taking a trip down to Ecuador with BaDing* and his family. His uncle thought it would be an amazing experience to go whale watching. I couldn’t agree more, but as for the rest of the family, they weren’t too sure. I was the definition of  “ignorance is bliss,” because I had no idea what I was in store for or why the rest of the family was so nervous. When we arrived at the beach (not at all trying to sound high maintenance,) I was expecting a long dock leading out to a yacht. I don’t know what I was thinking. Lets just say this was no yacht. Once walking into the ocean to load ourselves into the boat (that had pulled up to shallow waters), we took off hitting the waves and flying high. It was a fairly overcast day, and the water was rough to say the least. Our lovely tour guides were telling us all the safety precautions, what to expect once we arrive at the viewing site, and what we should or shouldn’t be doing. Luckily for me, this entire speech was in spanish, which I know about 2 words of.  After an extremely rocky boat ride we arrive. Unfortunately, multiple passengers got sea sick, and others were crying… it was a mess. I felt so awful for them, but I still needed to see these whales!

Next thing you know the whales are leaping out of the water so close they seem to be in arms reach! There were so many of them. It was literally one of the most amazing things I have every seen. It is unreal to think there is an entire world under the ocean that I know so little about, and that an animal so big and strong could be swimming around right beneath my boat! BaDing* translated that the tour guide/boat driver was asking if anyone wanted to get a closer look at the front of the boat, and I obviously jumped up, but I didn’t understand anything he was saying about how to balance myself by holding a rope, and I almost went flying off the edge (no big deal.) The view was worth it though. We only had a short time before they took us to go take a dip in the water and see a few more sites, but this was undoubtably one of my favorite parts of the trip.

None of these pictures do justice to what we saw that day. The rocking of the boat and the time the camera took to flash made it almost impossible to get a good shot, but I still think these pictures are worth 1000 words. I will spare you the pictures of the throwing up and crying!

My Top Ten Tropical Travel Destinations

[a wooden sign in my apartment, and a constant reminder]

So if you can’t tell by now, I’m a tad beach obsessed. Living in New York, we don’t have the long soft beaches that perfectly mesh with the clear turquoise ocean. We have blueish-brown rough water, where you can’t even see your feet when you are only two inches deep. Don’t get me wrong, I clearly head to these spots as often as I can during the summer, but it just doesn’t compare to the beaches around the world. I look at pictures of these places and just dream about when it will be my time to go there. How do places this beautiful exist?

My top ten tropical destinations:

[Bora Bora]

[Fiji]

[Maldives]

[Kiribati]

[Barbados – I can’t wait to check this off my list in less then 1 month!]

[Aruba]

[Australia – literally I want to go to the entire Continent. Not kidding.]

[Hawaii]

[Cabo San Lucas]

[Thailand]

Images via [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

An Infinite Piece of Paradise

One of the things I love the most about going on vacation is lounging on the beach and having the sand between my toes. I love how every beach is unique. Whether it’s the waves, the texture of the sand, the breeze, or the atmosphere. Throughout the years I began taking a small cup of sand from various beaches that I have been to. Seeing them all side by side really shows how one of a kind and rare they really are. When I look at each one I can recall the memories of that vacation or day. By far, my favorite keepsake.