My Trip to Mexico - Everything I Needed a Vacation to Be

2019 has been BUSY. Remember that little new years resolution I made this year? Yeah… I took five trips in the first three months of this year. I’m not counting one of them because I went to Norway twice, but still… I’ve been pooped. With all of these trips booked, I knew a vacation was in order for my birthday. All I wanted was to lay on the beach with a margarita in one hand and a book in the other. But where to go? The options were endless! This was going to be my boyfriend and my first vacation together and we wanted it to be special, so we had to come up with some criteria in order to narrow down the options.

It had to be on the cheaper side - Sean and I are hoping to take a big European vacation later this summer so this vacation needed to be as cheap as possible.
No spring break shenanigans - My birthday always falls during spring break. Because of this, I always have to be careful where I stay when travel. If I’m not careful, I might end up at a resort with a bunch of college kids partying until all hours of the night. Believe me - it’s happened before - You show up ready for an adult vacation and before you know it you are partying into the wee hours of the morning with a bunch of 21 year olds. As much as I love a good party, I just COULDN’T let this trip be anything but relaxing. My sanity back home depended on it.

With the criteria listed out, we searched all over the internet for the best vacay option. We looked at every small island in the Caribbean and compared hotel cost and flights. The message was clear - Mexico was the cheapest option for a beach vacation. But which area? We then spent hours looking at what seemed like every all-inclusive resort in the country of Mexico. Were the beaches swimable? Did we like the look of the pool? Is the resort fancy enough where spring breakers wouldn’t be able to afford to stay there, but not too fancy where we are breaking our own banks? After many hours, we finally decided on Sandos Cancun Lifestyle Resort.

This vacation was everything I needed it to be and more. All we did every day was lay on the beach from around 10AM until 3-4PM. We would then go back to our room and take a two hour nap. From there, we would get ready and go to dinner and have a few cocktails at the bar before going to bed around 11PM. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Only difference was my actual birthday! Sean went all out - room service, fancy champagne, sand writing, parasailing, dinner, etc. I felt super special!

The resort? It was good for the most part. I would say it was better than all of the all-inclusive resorts I’ve stayed at in the past. The decor was beautiful and the rooms were really nice. The food was ok for the most part - much better than other resorts I have stayed at where the food wasn’t edible. Our biggest complaint was that everything needed more salt. And the people working there were SO nice! The real MVP was our beach waiter, Casanova, who never let our daiquiri glass become empty. Would we stay there again? Probably not, but it was everything we needed it to be.

Now, would I go back to Cancun again? Probably not. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a wild Cancun spring break in 2008 with my cousins. Remember this?

Yeah… this was a much different trip, but it explained a lot of the issues I had the first time. Back in 2008, the water was so rough. Fast forward 11 years and that hasn’t changed - the problem is that it is always windy there (something we assumed back in ‘08 was just the weather for that week). Also, there was a lot of seaweed in the water, which made the ocean unswimmable at certain times of day.

Overall though, whether I’m 21 and partying until the sun rises every night or 32 and having a chill vacation with my boyfriend, Cancun will always have a special place in my heart. <3

xoxo - Kim