Category Archives: Vacation

Trip Tripping #CubanLink17

 

I would have to say that Cuba was definitely an amazingly beautiful place. An amazing adventure with a great group of people. With 30+ young professionals heading out to a new place like this, I would have to say planning this trip was definitely not easy. I’d like to shout out our trip planner Kai’la, also known as Sallie Mae (Navient to others), for planning this amazing trip. As I said in some of my previous travel post, certain places you need a plan while others you can just wing it. Cuba is definitely not one of those places you can wing it entirely. She setup the AirBNBs, full itinerary for everyday and even dealt with the headache of dealing with all the different personalities in a new environment. Continue reading →

Trip Tripping: Montego Bay, Jamaica


So I realized I didn’t write anything up for my trips to Toronto and Miami this year but that’s fine I went to Jamaica for the first time this year and I will share it with you. So my girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and she hasn’t really been outside the country, so why not just take a trip. Decided to book an all-inclusive package via CheapCaribbean.com(unlimited food and liquor). As I said before when it comes to planning trips don’t wait 2 weeks before, give yourself enough time to find deals and to confirm you want to go to the place you booked. I went through maybe 6 or 7 sites before actually finding an amazing deal on the Cheap Caribbean website.

The Decameron has many resorts and I would definitely visit another one of their resorts around the world. It was very clean and the staff was very enjoyable, especially the entertainment staff they had on the resort. They had different activities throughout the day and they also had motorized/non-motorized water activities to do. I went snorkeling for the first time and that was very enjoyable. I know how to swim but only breathing through your mouth has to be the scariest experience in life. All in all I really enjoyed my experience in Montego Bay. If you plan on doing a couples trip consider thinking all-inclusive over everything. All-inclusive tend to have a lot more for you to do and also think somewhere warm.



We stayed at the Royal Decameron Montego Beach, which was a great place to stay. Not too far from the airport and also not too far from the tourist attractions. They didn’t really have traditional Jamaican food plus the wi-fi sucked really bad (you also have to pay for it). Don’t get me wrong the food wasn’t bad but it was more Americanized Jamaican food. We did leave our resort but if you leave the resort the most annoying thing is locals hounding you to come shop with them. That had to be the most annoying thing we experienced. Of course when you’re traveling this is always to be expected. We went to a restaurant outside of our resort and it had to have the best food in life. The platter was a good portion, reasonable pricing and after eating it I definitely wanted some more. Right next door was a great spot to pick up some souvenirs, with the owner not being one of the many locals to stalk us as soon as we left the resort.

Quick Advice

  • If you take trips please sign up for Global Entry or at lease Pre-TSA. It will save you a lot of time getting thru TSA and customs. No one is ever in those lines. Global Entry is $100 (last you 5 years but gives you the benefits of Pre-TSA and coming through customs) and Pre-TSA is $85 (last 5 years but is only for domestic flights). (Click Here for more details)
  • Try to plan out your trips for the year or at least 3 months in advance. Planning early lets you have money to spend when you get out to your destination
  • Don’t forget your GoPro . . .I have the GoPro4 🙂

Trip Tripping: Vegas MDW 2015

Hey readers so I am going to give you a run down of my trip to Vegas Memorial Day weekend. Before reading this maybe take a look at my initial blog topic about trip planning (Click here – Trip Tripping)

A Vegas trip is expensive but gets very expensive on particular holidays, memorial day weekend being one of them. I try to tell everyone to plan ahead of time especially for special weekends like this. I’ve been to Vegas on a really regular weekend and on event weekends, they are 100% different.

My Observations**

Vegas Special Weekend (Holiday, Fight Weekends, etcs.)
Party prices increase**
Hotel prices increase**

It’s always good to book your flights and hotel early but it’s also good to purchase pre-sale tickets for parties. I say this for guy’s mostly because the price difference for guys and girls is extremely different. For females they literally can get into most places to free if they are cute, have a group of girls and sometimes if they know the promoter. Depending on the event they may actually have to pay but it may be like $5 – $60.

So I will give you a quick run down of my trip and what I did.

Hotel: The Cromwell
Most of the hotels in Vegas have their own clubs and are like mini malls. The Cromwell being one of the newer hotels on the strips has the Drias Beachclub, Nightclub and After-hour spot. Each one of these is supposedly free for hotel guests but we ran into a couple issues with them regarding this. The Cromwell looks nice but its a new hotel so don’t expect to much from it. I would suggest trying something more seasoned like the Venetian, The Mirage or the MGM. I personally would give the Cromwell another year before it’s even as decent as these other hotels.

Parties: Day and Night
So that everyone is aware it’s all about the day parties and then going to the night parties. You won’t have a great experience if you only go to the night parties. Day parties that we hit where Wet Republic (Steve Aoki), Palms (French Montana) and Tao Beach (Fabolous Party). The pool parties where definitely amazing. Steve Aoki scared the mess out of me when he threw a big ass cake in someones face but it was a great experience. Wet Republic and Rehab are definite spots you go to Vegas, even if you just go to one you need to go for the experience. The Palms and Tao where definitely fun because we had cabanas/daybeds and had a great group of people with us.

The night experience is different because they have so much going on. No matter which you go to you will have a lot of fun. Drias nightclub and Tao nightclub treated us really well. As they are very big and can support a lot of people. The price for guys is crazy but we got that handled with Drias management. We actually went to the Chris Brown party our last night in Vegas and that had to be bananas. Certain parties of course they won’t let females in for free because they are normally the only ones that would come in large clusters. That price was $60 for them and $175 for guys. Trust me I did not pay that.

Quick Advice
 As I stated in my initial blog about taking trips please follow these steps when you are taking a turn up trip

  • Travel with people who have money.
  • Travel with people who are trying to have fun.
  • Throw a bottle or 2 in your check in bag.
  • Buy a gallon of water when you touch down.
  • Trust the people you are with. 

Trip Tripping

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Hello readers, as it is still January you should be planning your trips for the year. I think its great to plan trips especially if you plan trips with great people. When it comes to planning trips with people you always got to have some ground rules with some people. You can’t really go on vacation with people you don’t trust or you don’t like. It just makes things awkward. Maybe if you don’t like one person on the trip and are cool with the other person you can keep it cordial. Still that is a bit of a risk. You don’t want to be miserably on vacation when you are supposed to be enjoying yourself.
            Plan at least 5 different destinations (minimum) you want to go on for the year. No matter what they are, just plan 5 and if you make 2 of them you are still fine. The 5 destinations you want are locations where you will have the most fun and forget all of your troubles. You also definitely want some international trips where you have to use your passport. If you are not actively using your passport you are really missing out.
            The last part is deciding who you will go on these trips with. Honestly this is the hardest part because you can’t trust everyone when it comes to vacation time. You will definitely know who your friends are when you are on vacation. Money is always an issue especially if someone doesn’t have any but they want to go. You don’t want to go on vacation with someone that doesn’t have money. If you have to pay their entire way, then that is a problem. You don’t want this type of person with you. My friends and I have a system when it comes to stuff whether it be plane tickets, liquor, parties, food, etc. We all got each other and pay each other back no matter what. We don’t hound each other for money we have a system. If someone says they got the flight, the other person pays for the hotel. If something cost more then the other additional funds get transferred to the person or that money goes into buying the needed items when we land (food and/or liquor).  You will learn these lessons when you are traveling with the wrong people. When you travel with the wrong people you will know exactly the write people to travel with.
All in all, live your life and travel as much as possible. Try new things and experience the world before you can’t. You are the only one holding yourself back from trying new things. Be great, plan accordingly and live your life.
My 5 trips from last year are Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, Las Vegas (Again) and Haiti. Each adventure has its own story that we will save for another time.
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page“