Category: Personal Travels

My Top Five Beaches! (so far)

Let me preface this blog post with I haven’t been to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Seychelles or Australia (yet). I realize those four are very important in terms of beach rankings, but I’m sorry I haven’t been lucky enough to see them by June 6th, 2019. I definitely will one day though!

This blog post came about because some magazine released a top ten ranking for beaches in the world and literally got it so wrong, I can’t even begin to tell you. How do you know they got it wrong? Bali is in their top ten. If you have been to Bali, you’ll know that their beaches are nice for pictures but not particularly great for actual swimming. Just surfing. Now, the Gili islands surrounding Bali have exceptional beaches, but the island itself is just OK. I’ll give it an OK for beaches. Furthermore, the list didn’t include even ONE Caribbean island for their beach ranking. Now how the hell does that work? No no. I can’t have that.

So at the recommendation of one of my super duper Twitter followers, I decided to make my own little top five beaches I have been to that I think you should totally go to as well.

I should mention the three things I probably want most for beaches:

1) what is the sand quality? (no rocks, no damn water shoes needed etc.)

2) is there stuff nearby? (food etc.)

3) how busy is it? (I prefer total isolation for beaches)


#5: Vouliagmeni Beach – Athens, Greece

I really debated about this one because it was between Vouliagmeni in Athens or the black sand beach named Kamari in Santorini, but I know in my heart where I had the most memorable experience.

When my friends and I went to Greece in 2015, one of the biggest regrets we had was staying in the center of Athens instead of knowing about this gem just outside of the city. Of course you choose the center because you want to see all the historical things but once we went to spend a day over at Vouliagmeni, yep, we regretted not just being there the whole time.

Getting from Athens to Vouliagmeni takes a little while if you choose to take transit like we did, but it’s so worth it. In my countless travels to Europe absolutely no beach felt as comfortable as this one did.

What do I mean by comfort? The people and the locals on the beach. Not only was the water nice, the sand hot and lots of food stalls nearby but the people really made the experience so memorable. Every woman of every size and age was comfortably walking around that beach. Even my two friends (who are significantly slimmer than I am) commented on how comfortable they felt at this beach because all kinds of bodies were trotting around in their thong bikinis. And you know what? No one gave a shit. There wasn’t the prying side-eyes of Snapchat filters and body shaming jokes comparing your body shape to that of some farm animal. Nothing. People were mad chill and everyone was enjoying themselves. We loved being here so much we actually even stayed all the way until the sun went down, we didn’t want to leave.

It isn’t the soft sand like other places, there was definitely some ‘ouch’ and ‘ooh’ when walking around but if you are ever in Athens, please go visit this beach. The water will cool you off from the super hot walkways and your soul will be rejuvenated into wanting to wear the smallest bathing suit ever and still feel like a bad bitch. Just get there early too, this place gets very busy!

#4: Worthing Beach – Barbados

Barbados. Barbados. Barbados.

I love this island because I swear every ten steps I can find a beautiful beach. There is literally no shortage of nice beaches on such a small square footage of land.

Since 2012 I have spent a combined five weeks on the island of Barbados. I have been there three times and all three were for the purpose of Cropover. Between all my drunken stupors and fetes, I took the time to see the beaches in Barbados and attempt to get from pale white to off white in colour. (I failed, there is only red as the other option)

There will probably be some debate about the beach I chose because 1) there’s literally so many and 2) I’m not even 100% sure if this should be called Worthing/is a part of Worthing?

So anyone fun who has been to Barbados has likely visited the St. Lawrence Gap. That is the super awesome party area where you can indulge in the greatness that is Bajan soca, pigtail, mac pie and the Gap burger. At the base/beginning of the St. Lawrence Gap there is this incredible little beach. There are some smaller boats docked there, usually a gentleman selling necklaces and just other tourists wandering around to get into the party area. It isn’t necessarily quiet but I wouldn’t describe it as super busy either like the nearby Rockley or Dover beaches.

I love this little stretch of beach. As someone who has done the UNGODLY act of walking from Worthing to the center of Bridgetown in that Barbadian August heat, this little beach to cool off at the beginning of your journey is to die for. It’s the perfect blend of everything good!

You begin your walk from your hotel in the Gap, you get some pigtail, you go into the water for a bit, continue your walk, go eat some doubles from that one super nice Trinidadian lady on the street with a stall, continue your walk, go into Bubba’s Sports Bar and get a drink, continue your walk and now you’re drunk and closer to Bridgetown. Congratulations, you just lost 40lbs in water weight.

But seriously, this little beach is so great because the location is superb for cooling off before/after any activity you get up to. The sand is soft and the water is forever at a great temperature.

If you visit Barbados, I assure you that you will see this beach at some point and think of me telling you to stop mekkin sport and jump in.

#3: Cayo Guillermo Beach – Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Coco, Cuba

Just like Barbados, the island of Cuba has a plethora of beaches to pick from that are superb (just, with more landmass).

I have been to Cuba five times now and the beach in Cayo Guillermo is by far the best one I’ve seen.

In 2016 my family and I traveled to Cayo Guillermo in the Cayo Coco area of Cuba. Not much of a party area, but definitely a splendid beach area. Our resort was on this insane stretch of beach that I decided to walk the length of one day and when I returned my phone said I’d walked something crazy like 7km? I obviously don’t spend enough time worrying about things like heat exhaustion or burning skin. (idiot)

This beach had perfect buttery sand all up and down this long stretch of walking and it also had hoards of tourists on it because of the resorts. I enjoyed occasionally stepping in to swim, then go back to walking and then swim again.

If you are ever trying to pick a resort with a breathtaking beach in Cuba – I would highly recommend choosing one along Cayo Guillermo. Just make sure to walk around the group of hippies doing yoga in the water and sidestep the crying children whose parents are too drunk off Havana Club to watch them.

#2: Maafushi Bikini Beach – Maafushi, Maldives

I mean, it’s the freaking Maldives, you know?

For Christmas 2017 I was fortunate enough to be in the Maldives. The famed country of so many islands that people dream of going for their honeymoon one day. Beautiful country with incredibly nice locals and weather. You have beaches and beaches galore on the local and private islands, that is why you came to the Maldives. Beaches are the purpose.

My favourite beach was the bikini beach we had in front of our hotel. Not particularly busy, nice sand and a restaurant literally leading onto the beach. That’s a nice 3/3 in what I want in a beach. It was very easy to relax there and just lose your day caught up in all the sunshine and realization that you had worked so hard to make it to such a special place. The Maldives are one of those places where you are sitting on whichever island you chose to visit of theirs and you try to imagine it on the world map and are in absolute awe that you, little YOU, made it there.

The only reason that Maafushi did lose out to what is my #1 beach pick is because I couldn’t have any alcohol while enjoying all of this (I mean, totally petty reason I guess) so if I spent a week here I’d be wondering where is my rum? But the other 96% of the reason was at 5’9 if I walked out into the water so it would be up to my neck – there was still rocks IN the water. I hate rocks, I hate water shoes. There is nothing awesome about pebbles and rocks cutting into your feet and my foot bottom is already tougher than calculus, so I can’t even imagine how that feels for people who get actual pedicures.

If you go to the Maldives one day, I really suggest coming to a nice local island like Maafushi for two-three days before heading off to one of the private islands. This beach was beautiful.

#1: Shoal Bay Beach – Anguilla

And it wasn’t even close!

The absolutely most perfect beach I have been blessed to step a foot on is Shoal Bay in Anguilla.

Buttery sand? Check. (not even butter, more like creamiest margarine of life)

Complete isolation? Check. (it was December, and there was only 10 of us for the ENTIRE place)

Food? Check. (the snapper? oooommgg)

Access to alcohol? Okay I’m being petty again, but CHECK! (I had a tequila shot before 8am by the ferry dock in Anguilla, but we were celebrating!)

For my 29th birthday I was blessed to visit my 20th country and that was the small island of Anguilla. To get there we took a ferry from St. Maarten for the day and I regret that we didn’t spend more time in this idyllic place. It’s so damn perfect. You take a ride from the ferry dock to Shoal Bay on the other side of the island and as you arrive you kind of feel like Leo in ‘The Beach’. It’s this incredibly beautiful scene of perfect blue water, serenity and just peace. There’s no one else there. You feel like you have the whole place to yourself.

Our tour I think had no more than ten people, and we were the ones occupying it as far as I could see up and down the beach. There was this little restaurant right there so we wouldn’t go hungry and we literally laid there all day taking this scenery in.

I have been to forty countries now, and no beach has been as immaculate as Shoal Bay is. If you have the time to make it to Anguilla, you really must go experience this place for yourself. I’m not entirely sure if we were just super lucky on December 16, 2015 to have that beach to ourselves but whatever it was, I’m happy it happened. A must-see beach.

I would like to give a special shout out to Verudela Beach in Pula, Croatia, Maiden Cay in Kingston, Jamaica and Maho Beach in St. Maarten because they were all pretty amazing to me as well, but not enough to crack my top five.

I would love to hear below in the comments what YOUR favourite beaches are as well so that I may know what I may be missing out on and what I need to venture to next!

  • Mirna

Victoria Day Long Weekend Girls Trip Recap

It has been like nine days since we came back from an incredible weekend up in Blue Mountain.

During these nine days I’ve managed to get horribly sick and also wake up daily wondering why there’s no smell of bacon nor delicious porridge awaiting me. It’s pretty shit to be quite honest. How did I have such an awesome weekend that was filled with food, liquor, more food, naps and dancing but now I’m such a shell of a human being again? Why are we still not up at Blue Mountain? *takes long deep breath*

This all started all the way back in December 2018. Because I have absolutely nothing to do during my overnight shifts, I was perusing AirBnB and imagining where and what I could do for some long weekends for 2019. Due to my MASSIVE European trip coming up in August I knew I wanted to still get away, but I didn’t need to take a flight to go do all that. It was a good time to think about maybe a peaceful cottage weekend, the real Ontarian-type of long weekend you know?

Me: Yes, I want to go to a cottage for long weekend – Oh look, I love this cottage – This cottage fits lots of people – Let me go ask people!!!

By the following afternoon I had messaged nine of my favourite women to go to this cottage with me for Victoria Day Long Weekend 2019. Within a matter of hours, like seven of the nine women had already even sent me their full payments. HOURS. As someone who is staunchly against big group trips, this sure was working out pretty fucking awesome.

We were all booked up and 2018 wasn’t even done yet. Perfect.

Now let’s talk about the specs of the cottage. Look at this beauty (click here). The location was perfect, the host was super nice and there was no way you could beat this price, especially for a long weekend. For ten of us it would be $172.00 per person (so $1720.00 total, hard math) for THREE NIGHTS. I’m not even sure if we could get hotel rooms for that much for one night during a long weekend, nonetheless a whole ass cottage for three nights.

Five bedrooms. Massive living room(s). Big kitchen. Dining area. I counted nine beds. Two bathrooms (that was really entertaining with ten women). A sauna. Fire pit in the backyard. Beautiful balcony. A BBQ. Lot’s of firewood.

Here are some pictures of the cottage for your enjoyment:

The five months or so finally passes by and it was time for us to go. Now these are the people I had on the trip with me:

Jummy – my best friend, calm levelheaded human being

Sherry – my other best friend, a perennial hoodman

Lorren – my other best friend, imagine like a holistic hoodman

Shurly – this is foodbae

Kyra – nice human being

Deja – imagine every video vixen ever

Alicia – my fellow Saggi

Nikkie – a reformed hoodman, turned mom

Camille – a reformed party animal, turned mom

How could anything go badly with this lineup right? Nothing did. Literally, not a fucking thing.

I’m not sure if there could have been a more amicable group of human beings for a trip. From deciding on who is bringing what, to communication, cleanup and just overall cohesion? It was really amazing.

Poor Sherry had attempted to make a Wunderlist so we could all fill in what each person would bring on the trip and it ended up failing miserably because apparently ALL of us go to grocery stores and purchase too much stuff anyways. You hear stories about people NOT contributing to trips (via liquor, food, supplies etc) – yeaaaaaah we were the polar opposite of that. To put it in perspective, myself, Lorren and Jummy barely fit in a car with ALL the food supplies and liquor we were bringing on the damn trip, and that was just 3/10 people.

The first image below was MY portion of what I packed for the trip. The second is our fridge upon arrival. And the fourth one, well, you can figure that out. PARTY TIME.

The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur. I’d give you a full play-by-play but then I’d have to give away too many secrets you know?

Friday we arrived. We unpacked. Drank and ate. Went to sleep.

Saturday we woke up, there was bacon and delicious porridge to be had. We relaxed. Myself and Shurly took a walk to go exploring the nearby highway and waterfront while avoiding being hit by cyclists. Decided to have a BBQ that consisted of every animal known to man being consumed. More drinking. Went up to Blue Mountain Resort to watch some fireworks. Froze sitting outside. Came back to watch an Adam Sandler movie.

Sunday we woke up, yes, more bacon and porridge. Lazy day eating, napping and drinking. There was a lot of dancing and some games played like: ‘these cards will get you drunk’ and ‘truth or dare.’ At some point I believe we did try to get a bonfire going in the backyard but the rain had other plans.

Monday we woke up, OH LOOK, more bacon and porridge deliciousness. Then we all left to drive back to Toronto for a boat ride at 1pm.

At one point in time we were eating cevapi (shout out to my mom), burgers, oxtail (shout out to Deja’s dad) and joloff rice (shout out to Jummy). We literally brought the United Nations out to cottage country via food. Major shout out to Sherry’s porridge in the morning as well, it has been nine days and you still haven’t sent the recipe to the group chat. Rude.

I’m very grateful for the weekend that we had because it was a very easy experience. That’s what group trips SHOULD be you know? Easy. Traveling to Blue Mountain with these nine women was seamless and it has set a high standard for how group trip planning will go in the future, and how I expect to be treated by people when it comes to food and liquor consumption 🙂

Let’s do this again for 2020, hopefully.

  • Mirna

The Day Pass Travel Hack

So you’ve contacted me for a cheap vacation to wherever right? You want to save as much money on getting there and sleeping there right? You realize you may not be able to afford the 5-star hotel or resort on your budget, but you still feel like you SHOULD experience the finer things in life right?

Well I’m here to put you on for a travel hack I’ve been using since forever.

The Day Pass Travel Hack.

Last week on my Twitter page I had happened to mention I was planning for my upcoming trip to Antalya, Turkey. I’m there for nine days and tried to find a nice cheap place to stay for that duration, even though this specific city has a plethora of beautiful all-inclusive beachfront hotels/resorts as options. I didn’t go that route because 1) I’m not paying that much – 2) The purpose of me being there is to get my teeth done – 3) What’s the point of an all-inclusive when there might be days I may not be able to chew? Etc etc. But only because I can’t afford to be in one of those/don’t want to be in one for whole time, doesn’t mean I don’t want to hang out there for ONE of my days. So I began sending e-mails to some of the nicest places I could see to inquire if they offered day pass options. (Hopefully they respond and say yes.)

This is how a whole thread on the usage of day passes came about. I realized with the interactions I got that not everyone has necessarily tapped into this simple travel hack. So here we are. Let me put mans on.

First of all, there are plenty of apps and sites nowadays for day pass options. I personally have never used one because I like dealing with the place directly via e-mail or in person, but just to name some:

daypassapp

resortpass

resortforaday

daycationapp

So if you don’t want to take the leap and contact places directly, I guess try one of those. Again, I personally haven’t tried any of them myself so I have no feedback to give. Just here to provide information and options.

I will give you four examples of how this has worked out VERY WELL for my personal travel experiences and for the awesome fancy pants pictures you’ve seen on the blog.

Santiago de Cuba:

I’ve been going to this city since about 2012. It is my favourite place in all of Cuba, but it lacks something the rest of Cuba has an abundance of. Beach. There are some beaches nearby, but they aren’t the picturesque white sand images you usually see in Cuba and they’re kind of far via taxi. So how do you cool off in a busy city with no beach? Well your only option is either standing naked in front of your air conditioner or going to a pool. (I don’t judge either way, FYI)

For the three times I went to Santiago de Cuba, I would always stay in the same casa particular. This was basically a guest house a wonderful couple would rent out to me for $25 a night which had a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and they would also make me a fresh breakfast every morning. Unbeatable price. Down the street from where I’d stay was the Melia Santiago de Cuba. This hotel is impossible to miss with its tall frame and red paint. The cost of staying there for two nights would run you about $200. So to show you the math of that, $25 x 7 = $175.00…. what I’d pay for a week in my casa particular would be less than what the cost of two nights at the Melia were.

Now, the one thing the Melia had that was of use to me was a very nice pool to cool off in. There was a bar there, kitchen, numerous lounge chairs and a really attentive staff. For $10 CUC ($13.47 Canadian today) you would pick up a day pass at the front desk to be by that pool THE WHOLE DAY, aaaand it would include a whole pizza and two drinks!! Seriously. Is that not an amazing deal or what?

I capitalized on that deal at least 3/7 days I’d be in Santiago. I hope they still have it.

Views from the Melia pool…..
Views from the Melia pool…..

Bali:

When I went to Bali back in 2016 I tried to do it on a pretty small-mediumish budget. My hotel for a whole week had come to about $215 and I loved being there because it was located in the center of Kuta where all the action was. Unfortunately, if you have ever seen the beach in Kuta it was somewhat lackluster and didn’t look as inviting to go swim at. Totally awesome place to hang out by and people watch, yes. Definitely do that if you are ever in Kuta, but when you’re in Bali you want some nice beach time as well you know?

The person at the front desk of the hotel I was staying in had mentioned he previously worked at this hotel/resort that had a really nice beach and that they offered day passes. I believe it use to be named something completely different, but when I was there this hotel was called The Hilton Bali, in Nusa Dua. The cost of staying there for two nights will cost you about $400. So again, the math, $215 for seven days at hotel I was staying at vs $1400 for a week at the Hilton. I refuse to spend that much money on an island that is as thrifty as Bali. But I did want that beach life.

I took a taxi down to Nusa Dua and spoke to the front desk. If my memory serves me right, the day pass was about $20 USD. ($26.94 Canadian today) Although their day pass didn’t include the food and drinks like the spot in Cuba did, it was worth the peace and quiet. The resort is beautiful, the staff is really nice and the beach was secluded. My favourite kind of beach. There was at least four different sized pools, numerous lounge chairs by the beach and you could help yourself to as many towels as you needed. Along with that, you could order food to your lounge chair!! So I had a burger and french fries served to me on the beach and just paid with cash.

The day pass was totally worth the chill day on a beautiful beach.

The Maldives:

This is where the SUPER DUPER pricey stuff usually is. We all think of getting to the Maldives and getting one of those sexy overwater villas we see on fantasy IG travel pages.

I went to the Maldives in December of 2017 with my best friend Sherry. We opted to stay on a ‘local’ island called Maafushi because we wanted to get a full experience of being around people from the Maldives just as much as relishing in the incredible beaches and views. Not to mention, have you seen the goddamn prices for those villas and for staying on the private islands? To hell with that. I don’t need liquor that much. The cost of our beautiful (beachfront) hotel on Maafushi was $495 per person (so $990 total) for six nights. Definitely a steal.

Naturally though, we did want to at least visit one of the super fancy resorts on a private island so we could fulfill the Maldives dream, if only for a day.

Our hotel (and many, if not most hotels on the local islands) offered various excursion packages/day passes to these private islands. After Sherry and I discussed it, we decided to go with The Olhuveli Beach & Spa resort. If you guys had seen this place? Oh my goodness.

It took about 30 minutes to get from Maafushi to Olhuveli via our hotels speed boat and from seeing the place as we arrived to exploring the island – complete paradise. Perfect white sand, places to drink, a beautiful infinity pool and just an overall idyllic setting.

Again, time for the math. For 6-nights at THIS place the cost for the cheapest room was $3004 total vs the $990 that Sherry and I had paid. This is for the CHEAPEST room, if you wanted like a fancy room or maybe the all-inclusive option it would be north of $5000.

Sherry and I each paid $125USD ($168.35 Canadian today) which included the roundtrip boat transfer and getting to be on this amazing island for about 7hrs.

Well worth the money to indulge for a day in a place that looks so perfect. I should also note, this day trip reaffirmed that we made the right decision to NOT stay for a week on a private island because it was all couples and families. Yawn.

St. Moritz:

If you’re ever in the mood for feeling broke – go to St. Moritz in Switzerland.

In December of 2018 I had made it to one of the places I had dreamed about for a long time. I took a day trip from Zurich (6hrs roundtrip) to get to St. Moritz. This is the place you think about when you’re young and wonder if you’ll ever be wealthy enough to finally see in person. I definitely was NOT wealthy enough to fully immerse myself to the depths that others may, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t take advantage of experiencing some part of it.

Prior to traveling to Switzerland I did my research on things to do in St. Moritz and this one spa kept coming up. The name of the hotel it is located in is Badrutt’s Palace and the name of the spa is Palace Wellness.

I will give you a second to go peruse the website to see the luxury of this place.

Okay, you good? Yeaah, you see what I mean right? So fancy pants.

The hotel I was staying in for the four nights I was in Zurich I believe came to about $300 total, which is a STEAL for Switzerland’s insane pricing and exchange rate compared to the Canadian dollar. So now, the math for this? ONE night in the cheapest room at Badrutt’s is $467 CHF which is $619.89 in Canadian. So very VERY simple math was that four nights in my hotel cost me 1/2 of ONE day at the hotel in St. Moritz. Remember what I said about being in the mood for feeling broke?

I got very lucky though. While doing my earlier research I found out the spa inside Badrutt’s offered day passes for $100 CHF ($132.74 Canadian today). I e-mailed the spa directly and asked if there was availability for the day I intended on coming and they got back to me the next day saying that they didn’t have many spa bookings so I would be more than welcome to use the day pass. YAY.

The pictures don’t even do the spa any justice. I realize they are pretty, but absolutely nothing can compare to exiting out of a pool indoors to go directly into an outdoor hot tub where you’re surrounded by the snow-covered Swiss Alps. Nothing. You get to use the pool the whole day, the hot tub, mingle with the actual super wealthy who are staying at the hotel and you can pay with your card and have food brought to the lounger you’re relaxing at with the touch of a button.

Spend the time to come here and get this day pass if you’re ever in Zurich or in any other part of Switzerland. You will not regret spending the $132.74 for a memory like this.

So there it is. Don’t pay lavish prices to stay somewhere that you could totally just go visit for a day at like 1/5th of the price of the stay. Before you go on any vacation, look up somewhere that might look like a fairy tale or dream you’ve once had and go make it a reality for a couple of hours or a day.

Although we may not be wealthy yet, doesn’t mean we can’t also enjoy the finer things sometimes. I’m super happy when I can find a cheap (safe + clean + well located) place to sleep for the duration of my trip. This leaves more money to eat all the yummy local food and get to experience places like I mentioned above. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford actually staying at places like this, but let’s be serious, I’d probably still want a cheap spot to stay and just go visit 2-3 of these places for a day.

Do your research. Reach out to resorts/spas/hotels and find out if they offer day passes to whatever it is you’d like to see. Even super popular family places like Atlantis in the Bahamas and/or the naughty Hedonism in Jamaica offer day passes. Go live lavish on a budget, even if it’s for a day!

  • Mirna

Weekend in Las Vegas Recap: Sky High and Pools Pools Pools

It has been about three weeks since I came back from a weekend in Las Vegas and that’s probably enough time to adequately talk about that weekend with 20/20 vision. If you’ve been to Vegas before, I’m sure you can understand why ‘fear and loathing’ is most DEFINITELY a feeling you experience while there and after leaving there.

The first time I went to Las Vegas was for the big new years 2000 celebration. Remember when we all thought we would die because of a computer glitch at midnight? Yeah, good times. Well, let me tell you, going to Vegas as a 32-year-old vs when I was like 13 is different. I didn’t like Vegas that much when I was 13, but I liked the city much more now.

I went away for the weekend with my boyfriend Mark, who was celebrating his 32nd birthday that weekend. We flew there with Swoop Airlines, and you can read the review of how that went here.

We arrived kind of late to Vegas on the Friday, I believe it was about 10pm. The luggage came out fast so we were able to get our stuff, hop in an Uber and be checked into our AirBnB by about 11pm. Not bad at all.

The AirBnB was really nice. I loved the decor of it, the size of it and that we had a pool somewhere in the gated community as well. We dropped our stuff and went walking (about 25 minutes) to the Las Vegas Strip. I had unfortunately suffered a pretty bad ankle injury the week before at basketball, so this walk COULD have gone quicker. Also, why the hell are there so many stairs and bridges? My goodness. Some of the escalators didn’t work so I had to hobble up and down to get across the street. That was NOT awesome.

After some gallivanting we made it into a Wahlburgers to get some food and drinks in our system before heading to an type of establishment I had never been in before.

A dispensary.

So, I do not partake in any cannabis-related activities nor have I ever tried it myself. I also have nothing against the use of it by adults. Figured I’d start this part with making sure I made that very clear. It isn’t for me, but it sure as hell can go ahead and be for everyone else because that has nothing to do with me or my body. Clear? OK.

Our Uber took us to a place called The Apothecary Shop. Upon entering you have to show your ID and then you are given a ticket with your number on it for when it is your turn to speak to a sales associate. In the room you proceed to enter there are various pictures of the types of strains available, what the potency is, the different kinds of applications of cannabis and just other interesting things I’d never seen before. I liked that they had a line for recreational use and one for medicinal, obviously, the medicinal would be serviced first.

You know what I really liked about this dispensary though? Their level of professionalism. Everyone that worked there was dressed like a regular Monday-Friday job. No gimmicks, no cutesy nonsense – they knew their products and were there to inform people about them prior to purchasing. The reason I mention this is that SAME WEEKEND a legal dispensary (I won’t name it, if you live in Toronto you’ll know) opened up with some bullshit t-shirts as uniform. Like who the fuck though ‘I run on weed and gangsta rap’ was even remotely appropriate as a slogan? There are thousands of people in Canada still serving time over selling cannabis, and you’re here making this shit a joke? That doesn’t sit well with me.

Enough of me ranting about what was going on in Toronto though, this dispensary place was really impressive and the staff was very informative. Happy to have learned about something new while on my first night of vacation.

On Saturday morning we woke up at a somewhat decent hour and made our way over to Hash House a Go Go inside the Rio. Make sure that the fried chicken and waffles is what you order if you ever go eat there as well. The damn waffles even had bacon baked into them! Delicious. Great decision on our part.

After eating 1,560,000 calories worth of food on one plate, Mark and I made our way over to the Neon Museum. I had made a reservation for the 2pm slot to walk around and explore this cool place. Not going to lie, I only heard about by watching the movie Last Vegas and I was absolutely hooked. This place really is everything you’d hope for it to be from the pictures. If you’ve also never heard of it, this is basically a boneyard for old Las Vegas signs you’d see in movies etc. One of the best parts of visiting it wasn’t even the views, it was the staff there to explain all the history behind the signs. There was so much information to be taken in, and if you really love Las Vegas lore – this is a MUST visit.

I think we left the museum around 3pm and obviously that meant it was time to begin drinking. We took an Uber to a place called Atomic Liquors. How could this go bad, right? This place was so cool. There’s like a grungy inside but the outdoor patio is huuuuge. On a nice day with sunshine it was absolutely perfect to be out there people watching, drinking and slightly tanning. I think the beers Mark got were only $3/each as well. Big win.

From there we began walking around downtown Las Vegas a little bit more. I didn’t know that the Vegas strip was actually NOT downtown. It’s just the strip. I ABSOLUTELY love downtown so much more. That Freemont street area is so unbelievably cool and fun and soooo much cheaper to be in. If I ever return to Vegas, I may actually just opt to stay in a place closer to that area because that’s how awesome it was.

Our next stop was the Downtown Container Park. I had seen something similar in London with the containers being stacked and used as storefronts and restaurants. I love the concept. This one had a huge playground in the middle of all the containers so the children could go be there while the adults sat on the side drinking. And yes, drinking we did do. We sat down at some random spot and had the absolute best charcuterie board ever. The cheese and the meat, along with the walnuts and cranberries were delicious. Naturally, the rum and cokes we had with this were great as well. Food and liquor on a hot day in Vegas is the kind of Saturday we should all have.

We thought we’d go home and take a quick nap and come back to party in downtown later (at the recommendation of two Uber drivers and a bartender) but instead, like real old people, we fell asleep super early and didn’t wake up until a time that clubs were not even open anymore. Fail. Horrible.

Sunday morning seemed like a complete blur to me.

We got up. We packed our stuff. We got to the Bellagio to drop off our stuff so that we could make it to Tao Beach Club for 11am.

About a month before going to Tao I had made a reservation for one of the tables/chairs/comfy sofa thingy’s near the pool. I had seen videos and noted that it gets pretty busy, so I figured having our own spot would be really be beneficial. I believe our ‘seat’ was a GOLD seat and it was $100USD minimum spend. That included our cover, the table and basically meant that we just had so spend a minimum $100USD on liquor/food for the time we were there. Obviously, not a very hard task. I think we actually surpassed that in the first hour we were there. Yes, by noon. Go judge elsewhere OK?

I enjoyed Tao, like I understand why this place is popular. Hot women serving you in bikinis. There’s a pool. There’s music and alcohol. We had a good time here, the atmosphere was fun and very chill for such a loud place. Definitely do look out for certain levels of drunken douchebaggery though – we saw quite a bit of it from the 17+ dudes who booked the largest cabana there. Was very happy at that moment to be a couple seats away from the pool.

We left Tao at about 445pm to go check into our room at the Bellagio, shower, get changed and then be picked up for our next adventure at 630pm.

The next adventure was a helicopter ride over the Las Vegas Strip at night. The company I booked it with is called 5 Star Helicopter Tours.

They pick you up in this big van and drive you a little outside of the central Las Vegas area. You get a good debriefing on security and safety, then you wait and are whisked off into the sky. Let me tell you, that ride is too damn short. I know it is 15 minutes but the views of the strip are so amazing that you don’t want to come down. Even if you’re one of those people whose stomach turns a little for take offs and landings, you literally will feel none of it on this ride. Our pilot (YAAAAS LARS) was awesome and he made the experience that much cooler. If you can spare the time to head out and do this activity at night, make sure to do so. It is equally as exhilarating as it is calming. Seeing the big picture over Vegas helps you put a lot of the bullshit in your life in perspective. If you want to see a video of what some parts of the ride were like, you can find it here on my YouTube channel.

Once the ride was over, the van took us back to our Penthouse Suite at the Bellagio and you can read all about what that experience was like here.

I hope I return to Vegas again one day, especially if I could do it with my girlfriends! I think birthday boy had a decent weekend there as well.

Four days in Vegas was more than enough for me, I’m not sure how people do a whole week but to each their own. One day I’ll come back and MAYBE even gamble since I failed miserably and not doing any of that on this trip.

  • Mirna

Review of the Bellagio Penthouse, Las Vegas

This is all you need to know about this room – THERE WERE TV’S IN THE MIRRORS OF THE WASHROOMS AND I GOT TO WATCH ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC PLAY IN MY MIRROR WHILE SHOWERING.

That’s it. That’s the blog post. Fin.

Okay I may have exaggerated, obviously I’m going to tell you more but that first line really was what cemented how amazing this room was.

On Sunday, March 31st we checked into the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I wanted to pick somewhere special to stay on the eve of my boyfriends birthday so getting a penthouse suite at the Bellagio was OBVIOUSLY what I chose. This probably sounds selfish, but I really think it was equally for me as it was for him. Oh well, still did it.

We arrived at around noon to drop our bags off before heading to a pool party and the valets outside promptly took care of storing our stuff until we would come back. (Shout out to Ivan, always tip your valets!)

When we got back around 5pm there was still a significant line for checking in to the hotel but I’d never seen so many open tellers ready to help. There must have been at least 20 people working the front desk so everyone could check in quickly. As someone who is quite impatient (duh) I love seeing a hotel doing everything they can to get people checked in as fast as possible.

For those of you using a credit card, they will hold $150USD for incidentals. For those of you who will be using cash, they will hold $500USD for incidentals and give it back to you as soon as you check out. Wanted to make sure all mans knew that, I know not everyone is too fond of using credit cards for everything.

Another fun fact I wanted to share is, DON’T TOUCH SHIT IN THE MINI BAR. I understand that a lot of you wouldn’t anyways, because those things are usually very expensive. However, I literally mean do not even touch it. I guess I haven’t stayed in a fancy pants hotel in a while because apparently now things are weighed? So if you even pick up any of the items at your minibar for 10 seconds, guess what? You bought it. It’s yours. Our mini bar had liquor, a portable phone charger, snacks and actual Bellagio casino chips. We didn’t even go breathe near that area as a result of knowing this.

Our room was on the 32nd floor – #62. Once we opened the door, it all became so surreal. This room was the biggest space I had ever slept in. It was legitimately larger per square foot than WHOLE AirBnB houses I had rented. Ours was the one bedroom penthouse and it had 2.5 bathrooms, a living room area and a dining room area. If you want to see a video of me taking my YouTube followers on a tour of it, you can find that here.

Upon entry you have the .5 bathroom to your right and the minibar area to your right. The living room area is directly in front of that and had some comfy couches and a huge TV that I feel had so many plugs, I may have been able to hook up like seven video gaming consoles to it if I wanted. The dining room area was a table and some chairs for hanging out, along with our massive windows overlooking the Bellagio pools. Then in the back was our huge bedroom that had a TV, a love seat and the BEST blackout curtains I have ever seen. In our dining/living room area it was really bright but with the blinds shut in the bedroom it looked like 3am dark. It was awesome.

Connected to the bedroom were the his and hers bathrooms. These bathrooms were larger than my whole bachelor apartment in Toronto OK? The ‘his’ had a closet, a seat, a robe with slippers, huge mirror with the TV in it, toilet and a shower. The ‘hers’ had a massive soaking tub, toilet and bidet, closet, seat with vanity mirror, huge mirror with TV in it as well and of course the robe and slippers.

Each bathroom also had its own toiletry kits from shampoos, conditioners, creams, a shaving kit, dental kits and even a sewing kit. I assure you, all of those made it back to Toronto with me 🙂

Not sure if this will make me sound a little bougie, but having your own massive washroom was so cool. I loved that we could get ready at the same time but in totally different spaces.

After taking in the grandiosity of the room we had other plans to get ready for and we went out and did those prior to turning in for the night. Best sleep on that bed EVER, I should add. The bed was huge and with those blackout blinds it was pitch black all the way until noon for us.

The check-out was supposed to be at 11am but we asked the concierge if we could stay until noon and they obliged.

After going to the front desk to report we had checked out, we gave our luggage back to the valets and with our room key were able to spend the rest of our day at the Bellagio pools. I really like that we had use of the grounds even after check out because our flight was not until 11pm later that day.

Overall, HELL YES if you want to do something special or be somewhere special, you should book this penthouse. My only regret was having other things planned that night, otherwise I would have just stayed in the room from 3pm to 12pm the following day and not moved. I loved it and hope one day I’ll have another reason to come right back to this penthouse.

  • Mirna