NYC Christmas

Here is a video montage on how we spent Christmas this past weekend in New York City.  We are currently working on a review of our AMAZING stay at Royalton Hotel and we will also cover all the restaurants we ate at. For now, please enjoy our  video.


A New York Christmas from BeachJunkies on Vimeo.

Article from More magazine

Back in the beginning of the summer, we were contacted by Camilla Cornell for a phone interview. She came across our blog and wanted to ask us some questions, more specificially, she wanted to ask me questions because More magazine is a Canadian women's magazine. In the article, I am quoted on travel insurance and tipping.

Here is a scanned copy of the article. Sorry for the poor quality of scanning but I am sure you will still be able to read it. Please click each image to enlarge.

Beach In The City

I have some exciting news! If you're a follower of our blog, you will know that we have gone to the Caribbean for Christmas twice in the last 3 years.  This year we thought we would change it up.  "A" has never been to New York City and I thought the most appropriate way to introduce her to NYC is during Christmas!  You've seen it in the movies, how wonderful and magical the city can be during the Holidays and this is what I want her to experience.

The most important decision of this trip was the hotel.  Location is everything in NYC.  Though they have a great public transit system, I find it best just to walk everywhere and experience what the city is all about. There is a certain energy you feel when you walk the streets of NYC and I wanted "A" to have that.

I want to share with you all how we decided on our hotel.  We found that it was a great way to narrow down your hotel options for a city vacation especially when there are so many wonderful hotels to choose from.

• Create a personal google map - you can do this if you have a gmail account.  Simply go to maps, then create maps.
• Mark all the sights, restaurants and shops you want to visit - this can give you an overview of how you want to plan your trip. It will also show you what the most convenient spot is to have your hotel.
• Search hotels - on the map you will find the most convenient hotels that is within the vicinity of your plans.  Once you've done that, go on tripadvisor and do your research.

Our map for Christmas 2011

I know it seems simple enough but it really helped us on narrowing down our options.

Royalton Lobby

With all that said, I am excited to let all of you know that we will be staying at the Royalton New York! This hotel to me SCREAMS New York.  It's a wonderful boutique hotel located right in Midtown Manhattan, steps away from Times Square, Rockerfeller Center, Central Park and 5th Avenue.  To us this was the perfect hotel.  

When we go on city vacations (which is rare) we love staying at boutique hotels mainly because it feels more intimate. I also find the interior decor of these hotels are just par to none.  Royalton is part of the Morgans Hotel Group which also offers the Hudson, Mondrian and Morgans in NYC as well as a few other wonderful looking properties in LA, San Francisco, South Beach and London.

We booked a Standard Room with a soaking tub. What is a Royalton soaking tub you ask?  See below

Royalton Soaking Tub

Isn't that just awesome?  I figured this was a great feature to have.  I mean who would not want to soak in this wonderful tub after a long day of trekking around the city in Winter?  

Another perk that sold us on this hotel other than the location was Forty-Four. Honestly we cannot wait to eat here and of course, have a cocktail or two.

So please stay tuned for our review of the Royalton, Forty-Four and all the other restaurants and sites that we will visit during our Christmas vacation NYC.  

If you can't wait for our review?  Check out this great review of the Royalton by Oyster

ADVICE: Room Categories

Often when you are searching for prices for an all-inclusive vacation, you come across something like this:

I will be using www.itravel2000.com for an example. This is a very popular Canadian travel site and it's one we use often when we are searching for prices. This info for a seven nights stay gives you the price, taxes, hotel and flight details. As you can see, there is a tab [+] you can open up to view all options. When you click to expand, you will see this:

It gives you the option of different tour operators (which means different possible flight times) and the most important, the room categories. If you are not picky with your room, then you probably don't care about this. If you like to have a room close to the beach with an oceanview or perhaps you would like a swim-up room, you need to either view these options if you use iTravel as your search engine or speak with your travel agent. Most room categories go up starting in increments of $20 and can start you off with the most basic room and go all the way up to the Presidential Suite. The travel agent we use is very good at letting us know what our options are and the price for each category.

Another option is to book at the lowest room category and upgrade when you arrive at the resort. It may be cheaper but with most resorts, it's better to upgrade at the time of your booking. Some resorts will charge anywhere between $20 to $60 per night. Before you book, it might be a good idea to email the resort to see how much they will charge and then weight out your options to see where you will get a better deal.

With the last trip we went on to Now Larimar, we found that many guests were disappointed and even unhappy with the room category they booked. They were under the impression they would be getting a certain room and when they arrived, there was some kind of confusion. I personally don't think it's the resort's fault, I think it's the lack of information provided by the travel agent or when you book online. Remember that if you are particular about your room, please try and find out what your options are by either speaking with your travel agent or booking the right room category online.

Iberostar Ensenachos & Grand Village Suites

Browsing around I just realized that one of our favorite resorts Royal Hideaway Cayo Ensenachos is being re-branded into Iberostar Ensenachos and Iberostar Grand Village Suites.

Iberostar Ensenachos will still welcome guests aged 13 and over exclusively until Oct. 31, 2011.  After that it will be a family resort.  Iberostar Ensenachos Grand Village Suites will be a resort that welcomes guests aged 14 and over.

This property is one of our favorite resorts.  The best beach we have ever been to is at this resort and it is amazing that families now can come and experience the beauty and snorkeling of this resort.  I'm still glad that Iberostar will be making an Adults Only section since the atmostphere of this property is meant for romance, relaxation and serenity.

Congratulations Iberostar on getting such a wonderful property.

I wonder if we should go back and do our second re-branding post, similar to the one we did for Now Larimar back in June.  I'm very interested to know what changes Iberostar will do to this wonderful property and I hope that they take immense measures to make sure that the beauty of the beaches are kept in pristine condition.  Only time will tell.

Resort Tour Post: Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana

We had a chance to check out Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana during our stay at their sister resort next door, Now Larimar.  Secrets Royal beach is an adults only resort and shares the majority of the restaurants with Now Larimar.

Walking to Secrets Royal Beach takes literally a minute from Now Larimar. You can access the resort through a pathway just off the courtyard of Now Larimar or from the beach. Our first impressions of Secrets Royal Beach was "WOW! It's really quiet over here!". You don't hear the hustle and bustle of the resort next door and a quiet, relaxation atmosphere is definitely achieved. The courtyard at Royal Beach is a lot wider and in the evenings, is a great place to enjoy a drink and listen to some live music.

The pool is very different form the ones you see next door at Now Larimar. There is a main section where the pool bar is located and a lazy river goes through the middle of the resort.  The palapas are spaced out accordingly and really promotes personal space which is key at an adults only resort.  The only unfortunate thing is that the color of the pool isn't the sea green color that Now Larimar has.  We really love the look and feel of that pool but I'm guessing you can always go next door to use it.

We had a chance to eat lunch at La Riviera restaurant and the restaurant is decorated wonderfully.  It was nice to eat outside while taking in the great ocean breeze and a nice break form the sun.  You can also eat inside but the view is just too good to miss out on.  The selection of the food at La Riviera was a lot better than the Carnival Buffet at Now Larimar.  This was of course expected since it is a 5* resort compared to Now Larimar.  The food was fresh and I really suggest in getting some of the kiwi that they have there.  I swear it was one of the biggest I've ever seen and eaten.  It was awesome.

The beach atmosphere at Royal Beach is much quieter and they offer more relaxing activites such as Yoga and Stretching in the morning and for those that want something more exciting, they have Beach Volleyball twice a day.  I found that it was a bit more competitive than the other side since of course it was all adults that were playing.  The one thing that you don't get at Now Larimar that you do at Secrets Royal Beach is beach service.  They have waiters taking your drink order and bringing it right back to you, but really the beach bar is no more than a 2 min walk from where ever you are.  The left side of the beach is where the majority of the palapas are situated and the right side is where you will find a more open area where you can still get some shade from the abundance of palm trees that are located there.  There are hammocks as well towards the back of the beach if that's what you fancy.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience more so we can't comment on the rooms and the other restaurants since the week we were leaving, it wasn't offered out of Toronto.  You can always do an upgrade once you get there if you run into the same problem as us.  It's a great resort from what we saw and if it does get too quiet, you can always go next door to get more of a different vibe.

Below you can view the 360 videos we took of the resort.  Hopefully this will give future guests better idea of how the space looks.  We are finding these days that videos are a more reliable resource of how a property really is.





For more information on the resort, you can visit the Secrets Resorts website here or to see what other people think, you can visit here

Heartbreak In Jamaica

This is a short little video we put together to show the different animals you can see right off the beach of Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton in Lucea, Jamaica.  Definitely one of the best snorkeling off the resort I've seen! Enjoy =)

Heartbreak in Jamaica from BeachJunkies on Vimeo.