spirit of travel

I am back from paradise and want to share the love….here is a detailed report of my stay at the wonderful El Dorado Maroma Resort by Karisma.

Location:

• in the Mayan Riviera, about 25 minutes from the airport
• beside Maroma Marina
• just down the beach from Secrets Maroma and Catalonia

First Impressions:

·         Tiny lobby!

·         They were anticipating our arrival and welcomed us with champagne and personalized check in

·         Right away took us on a tour of the property (very small, took about 5 minutes) and let us use the lockers in the spa until our room was ready

·         Extremely quiet resort

Service:

• Beyond wonderful!
• Every staff greeted you as you walked by
• Couldn’t do enough for us
• Learned our names right away and used them throughout the stay!
• One day it rained after dinner and the staff worked so quickly to move all the cushions out of the rain-even apologised to us that it was raining

The Room: Room Type

·         Infinity pool Jacuzzi suite

·         Huge room with large living room area with 2 couches (one pull out)

·         Outdoor shower-amazing!

·         Big Jacuzzi in bathroom

·         Separate shower as  well

·         Huge comfortable king size bed

·         Balcony with infinity pool overlooking the ocean

·         Balcony also had a double outdoor bed and 2 lounging chairs

·         All the rooms except the lead in (Mi Hotelito) have outdoor showers

·         Swim up suites are the highest category, only because there are so few of them. Don’t really have much privacy-I’d recommend the room I stayed in over them!

Food/Drink Service:

·         4 restaurants-one “everything”, one Japanese, one Italian and one on the beach

·         Japanese and Italian were very small and good. Japanese had tepanyaki option which was great! Best miso soup I have ever tasted! Banana nut spring roll for dessert was heavenly

·         New beach restaurant was only open for breakfast and lunch

·         Lunch was themed (for example one day was potato festival, one day was tacos, one day was fresh fish). A chef would be in the middle making the theme of the day and there would be a small buffet on either side

·         Sabores is the only restaurant open for all 3 meals-all a la carte dining

·         Lunch at Sabores was great; they always give you a plate of nachos with salsa, guacamole and mole sauce to begin. Thin crust pizza was awesome!

·         Each night there was a little plate of chocolates or mini desserts in the room

·         Themed dinners at Sabores need reservations but no other night/restaurant does

Take Note:

·         This resort only has 72 suites-it is TINY

·         Only for a certain type of person not really any nightly entertainment…it is for pure relaxation

·         It is 16+ not 18+

Things I liked:

·         We arrived at 11 a.m. and there were tons of beach beds and beds around the pool available-didn’t have to wake up early and rush

·         The beach area was protected by sandbags so the water was extremely calm, shallow, and warm. Was able to see schools of fishes swimming around my feet on numerous occasions!

·         Very private beach….nothing on the right side of the hotel so people are not walking through your beach area

·         Can walk down the left side of the resort for a while and opens to a huge, empty beach with a cove-beautiful

·         Marina is right next door for those who like water sports but it is not noisy at all

·         Yoga in the gazebo over the water

Things I didn’t like:

·         No music or anything at the beach or pools

·         It was pretty much a perfect stay!

·         Contact me for more pictures or information!!

Location:

·         55^th and 5^th Ave

·         Perfect location, right in the center of everything

·         Walking distance to everything you want to see in NYC

·         Tucked away on 55^th so was not loud at all

First Impressions:

·         Very elegant lobby

·         Very friendly, attentive, helpful staff

·         Accommodating to everything you need (room with 2 beds-not a problem)

·         Room not ready, offered a complimentary cocktail while we waited

·         Very traditional style but in perfect condition

Service:

·         The service was amazing-they couldn’t do enough for you

·         Each floor has a butler with a pager at your beck and call

·         Concierge  was very helpful and knowledgeable

·         Butler brings complimentary coffee+tea in the morning (we ordered the night before with the wakeup call)

·         Brought us complimentary flat or sparkling water, bathrobes, slippers

The Room: Room Type

·         They upgraded us to a Grand Luxe room with 2 double beds (costs are available for about $100 per night)

·         Very nicely appointed room

·         Flat screen tv, DVD player, new technology touch screen phone (with 2 other phones in the room)

·         Sitting area with couch and chairs, a desk

·         Walk in closet with drawers, lots of hanging space

·         Washroom was beautiful-toilet has a separate door, bath and shower were separate (shower has a rain shower head) and a double sink vanity

Food/Drink Service:

·         Only food service we had was coffee/tea in the morning

·         Also had a fruit bowl in the room-complimentary

·         Served very nicely and elegantly on a tray by the butler

·         Hotel had Alain Ducasse but we did not eat there

·         Room service was ridiculously expensive

Things I liked:

·         The room

·         The location

·         The service

·         The free coffee and tea in the morning

Things I didn’t like:

·         No free wifi

·         The room was big enough to hold queen beds and only had doubles

Contact me to book and receive: an upgrade at the time of booking (subject to availability) and daily breakfast for two!

Apparently, I am not so great at the blogging thing! A new colleague just checked out my blog and complimented me on it, and I realized I have not updated in wayyyy too long! Since my last trip that I blogged up (Crown Princess) I have been to Miami, the Mayan Riviera, New York, Niagara Falls, and am heading to the Mayan Riviera again in 2 weeks! I will post a review following this of my stay at the St. Regis NYC-a fabulous hotel!

I am back from a week of sailing the Caribbean sea on the Crown Princess. I am wondering when I am going to stop swaying back and forth and feeling like I am on the ship…I miss it!!!

The Crown Princess is 4 years old and a beautiful ship with all the amenities you could ever want or need. The room looked a little tired (minus the flat screen tv) but that did not really matter as we tried to stay out of the room as much as possible, and when we were in the room we were on the balcony!

Here are the highlights of the Crown Princess:
-Movies Under the Stars-they have a 300 square foot poolside movie screen showing movies all day (think watching a hollywood flick while in the hottub with a pina colada!). At night they offer blankets, popcorn and treats! I saw “The Invention of Lying” and it was a great experience!

-Crown Grill and Sabitinis-both “specialty” restaurants, they charge a cover ($25 and $20 per person, respectively) but are well worth it! The french onion soup, veal chop and steak at the Crown Grill were outstanding and the whole menu at Sabitinis was fab (you pick your main course and they bring out appetizer tastings)!

-Pizzeria and ice cream bar-served freshly made thin crust pizza and had a special of the day! soft serve ice cream with sprinkles was yummy and refreshing!

-afternoon tea-what a great idea! waiters come around pouring tea and speaking in english accents, offering scones, mini sandwiches, pastries etc-something very fun and different!

Due to high winds, we only made it to two out of the four ports (Grand Cayman and Cozumel…we missed Roatan and Princess Cays)

Grand Cayman is now at the top of my vacation list-a few hours was not enough and I can’t wait to go back for a week. 7 Mile Beach is the most beautiful that I have ever been to! We walked along the beach for hours and then stopped at a nice spot, rented chairs and an umbrella and just relaxed. We went for lunch at Hemmingways, which is in the Grand Cayman Beach Suites http://www.grand-cayman-beach-suites.com/entertainment/restaurants.html. Although it was a little expensive, as we found out when the bill came (prices were in Cayman dollars, bill was in USD) the food was excellent, the service was great and we had a great ocean view from our table.

In Cozumel, we decided to take an excursion offered by Princess to Playa Mia Beach Park. While we found it a little pricey ($70 per person) it included roundtrip transportation, lounge chairs, unlimited lunch buffet, unlimited alcoholic beverages and non motorized water sports. The beach was beautiful, the lunch buffet was okay and the drinks were plentiful! When we got back to the port, we had a second lunch at Three Amigos. While touristy (it was right at the port, overlooking the water) the food was fast, fresh and great Mexican food!

We spend four days at sea and it was very relaxing!

Now its back to work and going to start planning the next vacation!!

Turns out that as much I want to do this blogging this…I can never seem to find the time or remember! Starting today I have decided to get back into it! I was inspired by a new client who I found through Twitter, who gave me a link to her travel blog…and it makes mine look lame!!! She told me that she linked my blog to hers, and I realized mine is quite embarassing, so I better beef it up!

I came across a great new resort this week that I wanted to share.
The resort is called Cabo Azul Resort in Los Cabos. It features villas of all sizes that are sleek and modern. Because it’s so new, the prices are fabulous!! I found a 2 bedroom villa for my clients for $306USD a night…almost unheard of! A colleague of mine had a chance to dine at this resort in December and said the food was spectacular and the grounds were stunning. It is a great choice if you are looking for something new, modern and not all inclusive. I can’t wait to check it out for myself one day!

Signing off for now…finally a sunny day in Toronto and I want to enjoy a few minutes of it!

I followed the crowds and went where half of Toronto goes at the first sight of snow-Miami!
Unfortunately, I don’t have a hotel to report about as I reside at our condo at 58th street and Collins…a convienient location between Bal Harbor and South Beach!

this year was a very different year then most in Miami. first of all, the weather was not up to my standards-only had a few days of sun, and the heat just wasn’t there! It was cool, but we still managed to sit at the pool (in sweatshirts and pants) to take advantage of any rays we could get!

Normally my trips to Miami with my family are very low key, eating at major restaurant chains (Pf Changs, Cheesecake factory, etc), but this time was different! While we did eat at PF Changs-still my favourite chinese food around-we also visited some review-worthy restaurants. Sci Sci (pronounced shi shi) is an awesome new Italian restaurant in the up and coming area of Brickell. It is a hidden gem, with amazing food, great prices and outstanding service. the ambience was also incredible-loved every part of it, and would defiantely go back!
Our favourite new brunch place (we were never brunch people until we went here!) is Michael’s Genuine in the design district. Very well known and tucked away in a little corner, this place really impressed us! Brunch is served tapas style, and each dish they brought out was better then the next. I highly recommend the almond crusted pear stuffed french toast, the breakfast pizza, the homemade onion dip with chips and the falafel balls…I can’t wait to go back!

It was a short trip and I wish I was able to see more, but I am looking forward to my next trip-a Western Caribbean cruise on the Crown Princess March 6th!

Stay tuned…

I havn’t written too much on this blog due to lack of time…but I think it’s time I started.
First order of business: posting my review on my trip last week to El Dorado Royale. It was my first time to Mexico and my first time to an all inclusive and boy was I spoiled!! Here it is:

El Dorado Royale was fabulous. Arrived and was offered a cold towel and was directed to a special check in room (I am a travel agent and was there for “business”) Was offered a cold glass of champagne and checked in painlessly.

A golf cart took us and our bags to our room (located in little villas scattered around the resort) which was beautiful! large modern washroom with a huge shower and seperate toilet room, 4 poster canopy bed, seating area, huge jacuzzi with a candle, a bottle of chilled champagne-the workings!

The service at the hotel really stood out to me-everyone went out of their way to make sure you were happy-they could not do enough for you (and they don’t expect tips!)
Each cluster of villas has their own concierge villa located right across from them. My concierge David (by building 2) was so helpful! He knew my key didn’t work and before I could run downstairs to tell him, he was already on his way up to fix the problem!

The food was excellent at the resort-because of my limited time I only was able to eat at a few restaurants, but I enjoyed everything-really GOURMET food!
The breakfast buffer at Cocotal was incredible! Sit down breakfast at La Isla was excellent and has a gorgeous setting overlooking one of the main pools. There were no line ups anywhere! Dinner at Jojo’s was excellent and the service was incredible. The healthbar is great for lunch or smoothies!
Another great thing is that the resort actually has a greenhouse on property and they grow most of the vegetables you will be eating!

The resort is large but is all built right along the beachfront so everything is easy to find! If you don’t want to walk, there are always golf carts available to take you wherever you want to go.

I did the parasailing excursions which was amazing (and a good price!) and also went horseback riding which was quite an experience!

El Dorado Royale is a truly amazing resort and I would/do recommend it to friends and clients and I cannot wait to go back!