a lifestyle, family and travel blog
A lot of thought, a few tears and a bunch of undue anxiety went into picking our honeymoon destination so I figured I'd share our considerations for anyone currently in that stage of wedding planning. I put a lot of pressure on myself during this process because I had unreasonably high expectations of what I considered to be "the perfect honeymoon" and if I can spare even one person a fraction of the stress I experienced, this post is worth it!
I can't believe it's been more than two years since our honeymoon but I'm excited to finally share our experience in the Seychelles! I'm not sure why I chose to write/post our honeymoon in reverse order but we've finally reached the grand finale. Click in to read more!
Another oldie but goodie from the archives! I figured I'd share because it's been exactly almost five years since my three girlfriends and I visited the island of Puerto Rico. Plus, since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory it's one of the few places open to American tourists right now. Without rereading the post first, the most memorable things from this trip include, the colorful and charming town of Old San Juan, snorkeling with sea turtles and sting rays on Culebra Island, beautiful Flamenco Beach [also on Culebra Island], the strangely good Chinese food at Tayzan and the tasty acai bowls from Bajuice Juice Bar. Read on for more details!
Like most people, we've had to cancel several trips due to COVID-19 and have been dying to get out of our city condo and travel somewhere - anywhere. Knowing the virus is still very much at large and airline travel is primarily for essential needs only, we needed to find somewhere within driving distance. Emerald Isle is a bit of stretch since it's a good 15 hour trip from Chicago but sun, sand and salt water were all trip requirements and geographically speaking, we weren't going to find anything much closer. Besides, Kevin and I never scare away from a good road trip.
Never have I visited a spot that so many claim as their "favorite place EVER." It is for this sole reason that we elected to stay on the island of Capri for two days over the popular day trip alternative from one of the neighboring Amalfi Coast towns.
Zanzibar was the final stop on our honeymoon tour of Africa. We purposely chose to end in Zanzibar because we thought it would be nice to leave on a "relaxing" note after the "active" portion of our trip. Turns out, the Safari was just as relaxing as lounging by the pool all day. All the same, it made for a good excuse to visit and explore this beautiful island off the coast of Tanzania.
We knew we wanted to travel for our wedding anniversary but we had such a busy month of September that we never pulled the trigger on a trip. That left us scrambling the week before to find something that "felt special" (my sentiment) but practical (Kevin's sentiment). That's how we stumbled across Santa Catalina Island. It's super easy to access from Southern California but still has an island getaway feeling. My only regret is that we discovered Catalina so late in our SoCal years because I would have loved to have spent more time here!
We chose The Bahamas for our Babymoon because it's one of the very few Zika free tropical destinations within a reasonable distance to the U.S. Having both been to The Bahamas before - think college spring break style circa early 2000's - we were a little unenthused about this destination at first since that wasn't the vibe we were going for on this particular trip. However, a little research led me to discover the Out Islands and we instantly fell IN LOVE with the pictures and description of Harbour Island.
Next stop on our big family vacation was the Hawaiian Island of Kauai! As a surprise, I worked with a local company, Lei Greeting, to greet us with flower leis ($28.80 per lei), in traditional Hawaiian form upon our arrival at Lihue Airport - Aloha! My niece and nephew especially enjoyed these vibrant, fresh flower necklaces; the boys not so much, but it sure made for a cute family photo!
KARA VALLARI 