Category: Personal Travels

Review of The Hyatt Regency, Cartagena

I’d say this is probably the second best hotel I have ever stayed at.

There aren’t too many opportunities for me to stay at high-end hotels since I pride myself on trying to find cheap deals, but sometimes you have to splurge right? We got our flight to Cartagena for so cheap that it made sense to spend a little more on our accommodations.

I knew I wanted to stay at this hotel as soon as I had seen the pictures of their incredible infinity pool overlooking Bocagrande. In fact, I’m pretty sure this hotel had five different pools and I was really pleased at the sexiest infinity pool having a NO CHILDREN policy. They had their own pool so the rest of us had peace and quiet to drink our liquor and take all the selfies for IG we wanted. Big win.

There isn’t too much depth and detail to go into with this review because unlike the other two ‘very nice’ hotels I have stayed at – we didn’t spend much time at the Hyatt. We had a lot of plans and activities to do so the hotel was truly only used for sleeping, swimming and the spa. (If you want to read about how the spa was, click here)

First of all, this hotel is massive. I can’t recall the exact number but I know we were on the 18th floor, the check-in desk was on the 12th, the spa on the 14th and there was floors going way up into the 30’s. This was the first time I walked into a hotel and the front desk wasn’t on the first floor, it was all the way on the 12th. Luckily the check-in process was very quick and painless as we had arrived at 11pm on a Friday night and just wanted to get to sleep as soon as possible.

The room was a good size and looked modern. Because I am lazy, I didn’t like the closets being all the way by the entrance to the room so naturally, the chairs and table by our beds ended up being where we stored our clothes. (don’t judge) The bathroom was cool because everything was motion-activated so if you went to the bathroom at 3am you didn’t even have to search for buttons, the lights would just turn on. Also, there was a lot of toiletries in the shower, the bath tub and by the sink. My travel mate said that the cream was very good and we made sure it accompanied us back to Canada as a result.

I should note, the best part of the room was the view! We were fortunate to get a room that overlooked the beach and we could also look below to see the infinity pool. This came in handy because we could time when to go to swimming due to the large groups of people wanting to occupy the area.

There are probably a million other things going on at this hotel that we maybe didn’t see or just didn’t have time to get to, but, I would definitely stay here again. For three nights we paid $280.00 Canadian per person and it was well worth it. The attentive staff, beautiful room, amazing infinity pool and location all combined into a very pleasant stay for a long weekend.

Happy travels!

  • Mirna

Review of Aqoral Spa, Cartagena

I’m really not a person who is big on spas. I don’t particularly like massages because they hurt and I’m here for a good time, not a painful time. However, there are two things I do absolutely love at a spa – head massages and body scrubs. Since I opted not to do any massages for this visit, the body scrub was my #1 choice.

Preparation to visit this spa started WAAAY ahead because I didn’t know how busy this place would be. Also, one of the main reasons I am writing this blog is because there’s literally NO information about this spa on the internet. Any reviews regarding it are just a part of peoples visits to the Hyatt Regency Cartagena so it’s mostly ‘good spa!’ or ‘my wife went and really liked it’ – that just isn’t good enough for me. I want to know more details about places so I figured I would write out my experience at Aqoral so that other people wouldn’t have to deep dive into Tripadvisor reviews that give you no information about it.

First let’s start with, no, there is no information about this spa. When you do go to the aforementioned website there is only this:

That is literally it for the information you have on the spa. If you click on the picture, it takes you right back to the front page of the Hyatt’s website. You get nowhere. What I did was message the hotel directly through the website I booked it on. From this, I received an e-mail with a PDF attached that showed all of the services available at the spa. (listed in COP currency, also note this was as of October 1st, 2018 – just in case anything changes.)

I opted to go for a (mid) smoothing scrub and 30min of the hydrotherapy and my travel partner chose the signature treatment called ‘Canarelief’. Hot tubs aren’t really my thing, but it was the pictures of the views from that damn hot tub that had me hooked on wanting to come here so badly.

Finally, on October 6th at 2pm I got my comfiest clothes on and made my way over to Aqoral Spa. Once you arrive you get to wait in this nice and relaxing lobby area and the staff will have you sign a waiver with your room # etc. on it.

Because I chose to have the hydrotherapy included, I was able to have this HUGE spa room to myself. It had its own shower, bathrobes, slippers, huge vanity, the massage table itself, the hot tub and even two chairs to lounge in one of the corners. Along with that, the incredible view overlooking Bocagrande and the pools below. Wow.

When you walk in the blinds are closed and it is nice and dark in the room, aside from a couple of candles. For the scrub I was given a disposable set of panties and a bra to put on. The scrub lasted thirty minutes and I truly could have laid there for a whole hour. I perhaps should have gone for the ‘deep’ option instead of the mid, I was worried I’d be sunburned by the time I got to the spa (I wasn’t) and the deep would have scrubbed it just a little deeper. Still great.

After the scrub I went and took a shower to get all the remnants of it off of me and during that time the lady doing my service prepared the hot tub and opened up the blinds so that I could have that kick-ass view.

For the first 20-minutes of the hydrotherapy I just took everything in. I was loving the view and my body felt so relaxed and nice in the hot tub after a long day of travel the day before and the scrub I had just gotten. For the final 10-minutes I set up my tripod and used my bluetooth shutter to take some fancy pants pictures. I did my best impression of a real travel blogger.

The total spent (with tip and taxes) was $140.00 Canadian. Although that isn’t as good as the prices in Bali for living luxuriously in a spa, I think it was still worth it. My friend also did enjoy her signature treatment, for anyone who wants to be rubbed down with cannabis oil.

Happy relaxing!

  • Mirna

Canadian Reciprocity Fee for Visiting Colombia

Updated: 3/12/19

Found on Government of Canada Travel website.
Found on Government of Canada Travel website.

The Colombian Government announced that as of May 01, 2019 they will remove the entry tax for Canadian Travellers.

If you don’t know about this, and you’re planning to visit Colombia, your wallet will be in for a LARGE goddamn shock. That was the case for quite a few people that were in line with us when we entered the airport in Cartagena this past long weekend.

The exact explanation for the reciprocity fee (as stated on the Colombian immigration page) is:

This is a reciprocity fee for Canadian citizens demanded by the Canadian Government which obeys the biometric data imposition to Colombian citizens that request visa. The PLATINUM ticket cost is to use the Single Platform Migration Information – PLATINUM used as a tool for the Immigration Control process. This payment DOES NOT guarantee the entry to Colombia and won’t be reimbursable.

Basically, since December 1st, 2014 Canadians are required to pay this fee to enter Colombia. No, this is not a visa though. When you get a visa it means you’ve been granted entry to the country, you could pay this fee and STILL be denied entry. We legitimately only pay this tax because apparently Canada isn’t so welcoming to Colombians trying to come visit us. Got it?

This post isn’t to complain about the fee, that ain’t it. I respect the level of petty by the Colombian government. This post is to just let people know this exists because we noticed in the line MANY of the other visitors were completely unaware and one family in front of us suddenly had to shell out an extra $400 for their trip that they obviously didn’t plan for. Most people look up on Google if they need a tourist visa to enter a country (we do NOT for Colombia) but this fee may not come up in your search.

The cost (currently) is $201.00 COP which amounted to $88.00 CAD. You could pay with cash, credit cards or debit cards. When you enter the customs area there is actually a whole separate line JUST for Canadians to pay this fee.

There are exemptions for the fee: “Children under the age of 14 and adults older than 79 years are exempted. Canadians travelling only to the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina are also excluded.” (Gov’t of Canada Page)

ABSOLUTELY DO MAKE SURE TO KEEP THE CARD AND RECEIPT!

When I went to leave Colombia at the end of the trip, there was no stamp in my passport for Colombia. I guess the person who had questioned me on the way into the country forgot to give me one. So there I am standing, with NO proof of legal entry into the country. Luckily, I had kept the ticket for the reciprocity fee AND the receipt of payment which obviously proved I had legally entered. The border agent then gave me my stamp for Colombia and let me proceed to go home. But what if I hadn’t kept the receipt? You think my IG photos tagging their beaches would have sufficed or nah?

Just saying, I rather you all be prepared and ready than deal with any unnecessary bullshit or money issues.

  • Mirna

Cancun/Tulum Baecation Recap

Well, I finally made it to country #30.

Mexico!

What is better than reaching a travel milestone? Doing it alongside the love of your life (looking at you Mark). There was no possible way for this to be anymore perfect, except maybe if the water was bless, but I’ll get into that later.

We had booked the flight for Cancun earlier in the year and it was our first trip together outside of Canada/US area. Because I aim to be the MOST prepared person ever, I had gone ahead and booked all of our activities as well. On Friday we would zipline and ride ATVS, on Saturday we would go visit Chichen Itza + swim in a cenote and on the Sunday we would relax on a catamaran going to Isla Mujeres.

On top of booking all those activities I went ahead and found us a decently-priced airport transfer to take us from Cancun airport to our AirBnB in the hotel zone. I had read all these message boards about it being $60USD roundtrip and I refused to pay that! I luckily stumbled upon Canada Transfers which offered the same transfer (and I added an apple juice and a beer!) for $67.00CAD roundtrip. It worked out perfectly because their service was prompt getting to and from the airport.

When I booked all those activities for Cancun I also considered some of the items we may need for the excursions. Since we were only traveling with our carry-on luggage for the flight with Interjet, we needed to pack smartly. I had written a post about my packing for this specific trip and I will say, it worked out just fine. I fell within the weight limits and still had all the items needed for the trip. For the activities themselves I had purchased us:


  • Matching folding backpacks to use for our day trips. These were super lightweight and awesome for our carry-ons because they fold into a bag the size of your palm. You can get them here. I bought Mark a green one and I got myself a pink one.



  • To go with our backpacks I got Mark green water shoes and some pink ones for myself. Found here. I thought these might be necessary when we did the ATVing and jumping into caves and whatnot. Didn’t want to wreck my good shoes but still wanted my feet protected.



  • Made sure to get us two waterproof cases because there was no way I was missing out on some photo ops just because we happened to be a little wet. Found here.



  • Because I had contemplated taking my selfie/ussie skills to a next level I went ahead and purchased a bluetooth remote shutter (found here) and an amazing travel tripod that is able to stand, be used as a selfie stick and capable of being wrapped around things so you can take some different angled pictures. (found here)



  • Naturally, I also brought along my favourite portable charger because I never wanted to be without an opportunity to take pictures of Mark, food, beach or myself. (found here)


I bet you read that and are like, ‘wow that girl is well-prepared, this should be awesome!’ Or ‘who the hell thinks of this shit?’

I do. I think of it. And guess what? Didn’t even end up needing to use most of it. Why? Because one week before our trip I saw a hotel on IG and we unanimously chose to cancel ALL the damn activities, get a refund, and stay at a hotel for one night in Tulum. We had already paid for three nights at our AirBnB in Cancun, but suddenly we were feeling adventurous I guess.

So let’s get to the trip now…..

Friday, August 31st – Arrival

We had an EARLY morning this day. Our flight was leaving at 7:30am, so we made sure to be at the airport for 5:30am. Breakfast at the airport was necessary. There really isn’t much to tell about the actual flight itself because it left on time, was fine in the air and landed on time. Nothing too wild happening.

Once we landed at 10:40am (Cancun time) we set out to find our prearranged shuttle to take us to the AirBnB. Although check-in wasn’t until 3:00pm usually, we had contacted our awesome host who said we could check in as soon as we got there. Joy.

As we exited the airport we were able to quickly find our driver, get our pre-ordered drinks and make our way down to the Hotel Zone.

The drive through the Hotel Zone is quite nice because on the left side of you there is a lagoon and on the right side is a LONNNNG strip of just resorts and beaches. I eventually found out that the length of this Hotel Zone was like 32KM? Wild.

Once we got to our AirBnB at the Solymar Condo’s we just followed our hosts instructions and made our way to our room where the cleaning lady (SHOUT OUT TO BERTA, YOU’RE AWESOME) was waiting and let us in.

I really liked our place because it was enough space for the two of us, had a nice bathroom, huge bed and a really nice view from the balcony of the pool and beach grounds.

Because I am a beach bum I got changed ASAP and went down to the beach with Mark. Sigh. This is where the sadness came for the duration of the trip – seaweed. The entire beach area was absolutely covered in seaweed that was at least up to my shins. We got ourselves some beach chairs to still relax, but I was incredibly saddened by not being able to go into the water. Mark did talk me into making a try ONCE to go into the water where the seaweed wasn’t as thick, but after five minutes we both left the water because it was just gross touching your body.

After some relaxation and alcohol, we went back inside to change and decided to go find a local variety store just to have some necessities in the condo. It was about a 10 minute walk to the nearest Oxxo and they had everything we needed there. We bought: bug spray, spray deodorant, chips, chocolate, massive bottle of water, a big Heneiken bottle and a 750ml bottle of Captain Morgan rum. This came to $25.00 Canadian equivalent. AWESOME. I was loving the prices of things here very much.

Upon returning to our room, it was time to get dressed up a little and head to our dinner reservations at Navios. This is another place I had just happened to see on Instagram and it was also listed in our hosts binder of good places to eat nearby.

Again, this was just a short 10 minute walk away and actually ended up being right next to the Oxxo we had visited earlier in the day. This restaurant was beautiful. It is right on the lagoon and the setting is so romantic. As it got darker they turned their lights and candles on, which added to the ambiance.

The food was good and the service was especially nice. We totally had lied and told them it was our anniversary on the reservation to ensure we’d get a good seat. It worked! We got great seats and they ended up giving us a slice of cake with ‘happy anniversary’ written next to it. Please don’t judge me for lying, I just wanted somewhere nice to sit. Was I going to take a free piece of cake though? Absolutely.

After the dinner we walked back and went to sleep because Friday was a very long day and Saturday was going to be the same.

Saturday, September 1st – Tulum Adventure

This day will be short and sweet in terms of what I will write in this particular blog post. Why? Because I already wrote THREE blog posts about what happened on this day.

Today we were going on our adventure to go spend a night at the hotel we cancelled all of our activities for. We had planned out how to get from Cancun to Tulum on their transit system and it worked out really well for us. If you are wondering how to get from Cancun to Playa de Carmen to Tulum, the post I wrote about that is here.

Just know, it was a good experience and along the way we got to eat some delicious breakfast by the Cancun bus station that had ‘Jamaica juice’ aka sorrel on the menu, we saw Playa de Carmen for all 15 seconds during transferring from one bus to another and I had my FIRST guacamole I didn’t hate in the downtown core of Tulum.

Arriving in Tulum was interesting because prior to going on this trip I had to repeatedly hear about the dangers in Cancun and Tulum. I don’t doubt that bad shit happens, but once you enter Tulum it’s really even more confusing. That city is literally hipsters walking everywhere. Hipsters and locals, that is it. There are countless places to buy souvenirs, to drink, book excursions and to eat. Tourists are riding around on bicycles in hoards and it is a pretty chill place. I didn’t feel any danger, personally.

After tasting the first guacamole that didn’t taste like feet and sadness, we took a taxi to our Instagram hotel and you can read ALL about our experience there in this post I wrote about it.

Most important thing to note was, cancelling all the activities to stay at this place was most 100% worth it. The end.

Sunday, April 2nd – Back to Cancun

On Sunday we left the hotel around 11:00am and headed back to Cancun. Refreshed and feeling really good we thought this might be a good night to go party.

When we got back to downtown Cancun we wanted to first get some food before making the trek throughout the Hotel Zone to get ready and hit a club. This was the plan, at least.

Again, for someone who is adamant on planning everything to the second, this trip sure as hell wasn’t going as planned. We randomly stumbled into the loudest restaurant we could find. They had statues of Spiderman and Homer outside, how could this place possibly NOT be awesome?

As we sat down, it quickly became clear to us that there was no other tourists at this restaurant/bar and also that our servers spoke absolutely no English. I live for this shit eh? Please put me in situations where I have to just figure shit out as I go along.

This place had some deal for like six Coronas for $6.00 and I should mention I don’t drink beer so that was all for Mark. We managed to order some nachos and fajitas, the beers for him and a double shot of dark rum and Coke for myself.

This is where things began to get VERY entertaining. My boyfriend Mark is a gorgeous Jamaican man with dreadlocks, just to offer this exact description of him. No boost. EVERYWHERE we went in both Cancun and Tulum, locals wanted to high five him and take pictures with him. At this bar it was happening constantly. At one point they even played reggae on the speakers for him.

During this time I realized we only had cards to pay with and this wasn’t one of those ‘electronic payment’ type establishments so I went searching for a bank machine. Let me tell you, being three double shots of rum in and the sun beaming down on me – I really went for an adventure for those 30 minutes. I left Mark at the bar to take care of our belongings (and so it didn’t look like we were trying to run out on our bill) and oh mannnn the intense search I ended up on.

Not a SINGLE one of the bank machines near the place had money in them. I even walked all the way back to Cancun central bus station, all three of their bank machines were empty. Then I proceeded to walk to exchange booths that also ended up not taking cards. Finally I found a random variety store that took credit cards and withdrew money.

Once I returned back to the bar, I found five men huddled around Mark plotting out how we were all going bar hopping later that night. Told you, dude just popular there.

We kept drinking and then I did some dancing. It was an awesome afternoon. We made plans with one of the locals to come back at 9:00pm to this exact place and continue the party. Cool. Said our goodbyes to all the friends we made at the bar and went to find our bus back to the AirBnB.

Full disclosure: I don’t remember much after this. I know we got on the bus and that Mark made some other friends on that bus. Next thing I know, I woke up at about midnight and wondering where the night had gone? I know we had left the bar at 6:00pmish …. how the hell was it midnight? Weren’t we supposed to be out? When did I manage to shower? So many questions.

Mark turned and said to me, ‘I tried to wake you up, but you weren’t even trying to hear all that’. Shit.

I went back to sleep and yeah, that was the end of the trip.

On the Monday we woke up and just hung out in the pool of the hotel and stood in awe of the gargantuan iguanas on the property. Our host had OK’d using the property until almost 2:00pm (check out was supposed to be at 11:00am) and we took full advantage.

Our shuttle service came and got us at 2:00pm and took us to the airport so we could catch our flight back home. Sadness.

This trip was really amazing. This was the first time in a long time I actually 1) relaxed on a trip and 2) didn’t do everything I had planned out. Strange phenomenon for me. I guess I have my boyfriend Mark and the rum to thank for that. Sometimes you can’t go 100% by your itinerary, I guess, maybe, sometimes.

Just know, #30 was super memorable for me.

– Mirna

Review of Azulik, Tulum (Jungle Villa)

Here’s a wild story (not really): You plan out the entirety of your trip, you book your stay and your activities months ahead and then one week before the trip you see a place on Instagram and are like ‘holy shit I want to stay there’. So you cancel ALL your activities and use the refunded money to spend one night at this marvel you saw on Instagram.

This is how I ended up planning a trip to the beautiful Azulik Tulum. Now, I’m not popular enough (yet..) to be sponsored to go anywhere nice, so this review is my unbiased experience. Especially after forking out $520.00 CAD to stay there for one night. You damn well know, I was getting every dollars worth of this stay.

Our base for the trip was in Cancun and that was where we intended on spending our time, until we booked a night at Azulik – which is located in a city about two hours away named Tulum. Because I wanted to keep this blog post strictly about the stay at the hotel, if you want to read about how to get from Cancun to Tulum I made a whole ‘how-to’ post here.

When you arrive at the spot, it looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere. Since it is basically a luxurious treehouse, this location probably makes a lot of sense. We had arrived at 2pm and check-in wasn’t until 3pm, so we took some time to explore the grounds. The gentleman at the front desk took photocopies of both of our passports and gave us some ‘Caribbean Jungle Rain’ in a bottle to drink. They have many hostesses at the hotel they call ANGELS, and one of them proceeded to give us a little tour and take us to their amazing beach area.

I sadly have to preface the beach area with – WHAT A HORRIBLE FRIGGING TIME TO BE IN MEXICO. In Cancun and in Tulum you couldn’t really go into the water because there was at least 3-4 feet of seaweed as a barrier. Usually I would just try to be adventurous and hop over such obstacles, but even when you entered the water you would have to swim through about 100 feet of gross brown stuff to get anywhere clear. No thanks. I’m too squeamish for that.

Aside from that unfortunate water situation, the beach was beautiful to look at. Very clean and had a well-stocked bar on it as well. There were plenty of beach loungers to lay on and these cool nets that you could climb on top of to suntan on, which my boyfriend talked me into doing even though I am super clumsy. (I didn’t die, FYI)

After hanging out at the beach for a little bit, our angel came to show us to our room and give us our fuzzy keys. I was really really excited at this moment because I wanted it to be everything I had seen on Instagram. You know what? It was even more. Once we walked into our room shit began to feel really real. From the beautiful, high, round and mosquito-net covered bed to the beautiful tub to soak in and then to our incredible patio that had two chairs and our own private jacuzzi. Wow.

We were in Jungle Villa #2 which was on the far side of the property, but it was awesome because we faced the spa area and were on a lower level so the breeze was amazing. This hotel is eco-friendly so there isn’t air conditioning and only two electric plugs in the room. Furthermore, the jacuzzi was actually filled with salt water and the bathtub in our room was filled with some next hippie water as well.

My boyfriend and I literally spent most of our evening in that jacuzzi. We loved how peaceful and beautiful it was there and how good some salt water on our skin felt since we couldn’t go into the actual ocean. I enjoyed every minute of that evening, probably the most relaxed I had been in a long time.

Eventually we had to get out of the jacuzzi because we had made reservations at one of Azulik’s restaurants, Kin Toh. Looking back at it now, we shouldn’t have even gone to the damn dinner. We were good in the hot tub and some room service would have been perfect. If you want to read about my experience at Kin Toh, I wrote a separate post about that here. I feel like once you read that, you will understand why we should have just stayed in our room. Fail.

Cue next day…..

The morning of our departure I was up really early. Like, 5:30am early. I’m not sure why but I decided to put some shorts on and walk over to the spa area by our room. It was a serene and peaceful moment. There wasn’t anyone else outside (except the security who keep watch over the beach at nighttime). It is a shame the water was ugly and brown because of the seaweed, otherwise it would have made the most perfect of sunrises.

I returned to the room and woke my boyfriend up to do something I had been looking forward to since I read everyone else’s reviews of Azulik – ordering room service! Because this place tries to use as little energy as possible, you can’t actually call down for room service. In every room there is a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner alongside two brown balls with your room number on it, a pencil, a pencil sharpener and little pads of paper. What you do it write down your order on those pieces of paper, put it in the ball and send the ball down a chute right outside your room! It was so cool. I realize it is very low-tech but I had never seen such an ordering system and it really endeared me.

Within about 30-35 minutes our breakfast order had arrived and we were able to enjoy this incredible meal on our private balcony as the sun came fully up. Probably one of the best moments of my life. I had food, a view and the love of my life next to me. Definitely an unforgettable experience. Also, if you ever go and order the breakfast make sure you order the little bitty pancakes. So good.

And that was it, the end of our beautiful adventure at Azulik.

This place was definitely worth the splurge. From the service, the grounds and our incredible room – I would spend that $520.00 all over again. The only thing that wasn’t perfect was the water situation (not the hotels fault) and how our dinner at Kin Toh went (again, not the hotels fault). So this place is actually perfect.

I wouldn’t really come here with a friend because this place reeks of romance and relaxation. Plus you better be REAL close with whoever you’re traveling with here since nothing covers the bath area. Your best bet is to come here with your significant other to connect or to come here alone to disconnect. Either way, you’ll love it. A day or two would suffice, I can’t imagine being here for any longer because even beautiful places get boring after a while.

I’m really happy we took a chance and came to stay at Azulik. I hope to return one day!

  • Mirna