Cabana Living in Tulum, Mexico

Drive approximately two hours south from the Cancun Airport on a single highway and you will arrive in the small laid-back Mexican city of Tulum. The drive to Tulum is a piece of cake - with the exception of a few surprising Topes (speed bumps)!

Forget your all-inclusive mega resort...you won't find any kiddie-pools, buffets, or drunk spring breakers here.  With a yoga flare, Tulum consists of small thatched roof cabanas dotting the coastline and boutique restaurants serving fresh fish that were caught the same day.

Local chefs can be seen fishing at sunset, so if you enjoy fish tacos - this is the place to be. In addition to the abundance of fresh fish and pico de gallo, visitors will find specialty restaurants that serve Argentinian and believe it or not...Italian food.  Be sure to visit the open air restaurants located on the jungle side adjacent to all the hotels. There, local chefs will whip up amazing cuisine in front of you using only fresh local ingredients. You won't find a better atmosphere than being smack in the middle of the jungle having candles as the main source of light.

Some refer to it as the Cancun 50 years ago. You won't find any high-rise hotels, only small hotels and cabanas with eco-friendly standards. I'm sure many have seen the famous Corona beach commercial, well, it was actually filmed in Tulum. So you can imagine the white powdery sand and ultra blue waters.

Tulum combines the ultimate beach vacation with a lot of Latin American culture and history. The only Mayan ruins on the Mexican Caribbean coast are located in Tulum.  For a small entrance fee, visitors can tour these thousands year old ruins. Be sure to pack beach gear because after walking through the ruins in 85+ degree weather you will need to take a dip at the beach there to cool off.

Just beyond the zona hotelera (or hotel zone) is the biosphere reserve of Sian Ka'an. Visitors can drive through the biosphere or arrange a tour to see unique wildlife in this preserved national park.

Tulum is a great alternative for people who want to escape the tourist crowd in Cancun or Playa Del Carmen. Only in Tulum you will be able to experience a true "beach front" room, open the door to your cabana and step onto the beach. That's my idea for experiencing the Caribbean.

So I Tried the Cruise Thing

We embarked out of NYC in the midst of bitter February. It was a ten day cruise through the Eastern Caribbean on the Norwegian Gem. Since it was our honeymoon, we decided to splurge and get a room with a balcony and I'm so glad we did. There is no experience like waking up every morning to the sight of a new island.

We enjoyed the "Freestyle Cruising" option. Basically, we got to eat wherever and whenever we wanted to. The food was included and the portions were small, but soon we learned that we were allowed to order as many things off the menu as we wanted (my husband has a big appetite).

During the first two days of sailing down the Arctic Atlantic we found many things on the ship to entertain us. There was a Casino, shopping, and the nightly shows were surprisingly entertaining. By the end of the 2nd day we were ready for our first port of call: San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Since we arrived in the late afternoon we decided to skip the beach scene and take an excursion touring the island. The tour was interesting, but it felt good to get off the tour bus and explore Old San Juan by ourselves. We had an amazing dinner at a Mexican restaurant and attempted to walk off our meal by checking out all the little shops, which somehow turned into a rum-punch pub crawl.  Luckily, we were able to stumble our way back to the ship just in the nick of time to hit the hay, since the next excursion was scheduled bright and early in St. Thomas.

We chose the downtown shopping and beach excursion.  We began the day shopping in Charlotte Amalie where I was able to find some cute beach gear, but after a couple hours experiencing the pushy jewelery store sales people, we were ready to hit the beach. We took an open air safari bus to Magen's Bay. Echoing songs from Jimmy Buffet and Zack Brown, this beach made me feel like I was in the heart of the Caribbean.

The third island we visited was Antigua.  We booked an excursion that consisted of a day at the beach and BBQ lunch cooked by the locals. Again, this beach was amazing. My husband had a ball on his rental jet-ski while I worked on my Irish tan.  They began cooking the BBQ lunch mid-morning and the delicious aroma tortured all of us waiting patiently for food on the beach. The curry chicken was amazing. With sunburned skin and full bellies we slept good that night on the ship.

Our next stop: St. Maarten. We arrived on the dutch side of the island, but didn't spend much time there. We were anxious to get to the world famous beach Orient Bay, considered to be the French Riviera of the Caribbean. There was a lot going on at this beach, many restaurants, wind-surfing, jet ski rentals, but most important the people watching (this is a topless beach after all). After enjoying some fun in the sun we took a taxi to Marigot - the famous shopping district. Most things were out of our price range, but it sure was fun being able to practice the little french I remembered from high school.

The following day we arrived at our final destination: Tortola. Located in the British Virgin Islands, it is probably the most beautiful that we had seen. With its lush greenery and mountains, it made for the most impressive photographs. We only had a few hours here, and soaked up every last bit of the Caribbean on Brewer's Bay Beach.

  

Before we knew it we were on our way out of the Caribbean and heading North through the Arctic Atlantic.  Every port of call seemed too short and left us wanting more, but we would have never been able to see so many islands unless we were on a cruise.

Tickled Pink In Bermuda

The flight only took 1.5 hours direct from NYC and we were on the beach by that afternoon. On the approach, Bermuda is a hook shaped island dotted with pastel buildings with pearl white roofs and  turquoise shallows surrounded by the deep blue Atlantic ocean. With its rustic shoreline, the island is very stunning from the sky, and we couldn't wait to be on the ground to explore.

The hotel my husband and I stayed at had its own private beach, but once we discovered Horseshoe Bay (right next door), I was blown away. Horseshoe Bay is world famous public beach, and I have to say, the most beautiful I have ever seen. If you follow the walking trails to the left of Horseshoe Bay you can explore the many smaller beaches. The water is crystal clear and the white/pinkish sand is super fine.  We set up our towels & umbrella for the day on a small beach (we pretended we first discovered it) and enjoyed it for at least 3 hours before we even saw another person.

Bermuda has a good public transportation system and that's a great thing because visitors cannot rent a car (scooters only!). The bus system is easy to follow, and there are multiple ferries that will take you to other parts of the island. 

Hamilton offers good shopping but for a pretty penny. Our  experience at the local restaurants was OK, the food was delicious but a bit too expensive for my budget. To give you an idea... when we arrived we had lunch at the hotel's pool side restaurant, I ordered a chicken panini and my husband had a burger, and we each had a frozen margarita...total cost $80. After that experience,  we hopped on the bus and headed to the local grocery store (about a 5 minute bus ride). You can also find an inexpensive lunch at Horseshoe Bay's beach burger stand.

On our first night we decided to check out a night club since it was advertising happy hour drink specials from 8-10pm. Even with the drink specials, a Coors Light will set you back $8. We spent most of our evenings (with the beer and wine we purchased in town) at the hotel's private beach watching the sunset and listening to the waves. Shockingly we were the only people there, I figured other couples would have the same idea.

Although it's an expensive Caribbean destination, the incredible beaches make it worthwhile, and because of it's close proximity to where we live, we will return again to our private beach that we discovered.