Travel

Hey hey cuties! Can you believe it’s Spring Break time?! What I wouldn’t give for a margarita on a beach right now. Paul and I went to our first all-inclusive EVER back in October and it was amazing. We went to Finest by Excellence Resorts and for real had the time of our lives. It was so nice, the service and people were incredible, and I still can’t believe how cheap we went for. (Going off-season helps, but even still, their prices were impressive!)

Our opinion as first time all-inclusive goers… do it. It’s worth it. The ease of knowing everything is paid for and that we aren’t having to watch what we spend (because we already saved up and paid for it all) played such a huge part into feeling like we were truly on vacation. Not a care in the world! Paul ate 3 rib-eyes one night just because he could, the drinks and smoothies and coconuts were bottomless, and the coffee shop had all the coffee I could ever ask for (and ice cream!). I don’t know if we can ever travel a different way now that we’ve experienced the all-inclusive life.

Two weeks ago I shared our ski trip for all of you spring breaking in the snow. Today, I am sharing my beach trip packing list! From my current favorite swimmies to the sunscreen I have been testing, I have it all for ya.

Albion Fit Swimwear: My current favorite line of swimmies! They are so pretty AND durable. They are really worth every penny. Here are some of my faves.

I also have this jumpsuit (Here are the joggers in the same material and print, too!).

Fawn Design Weekender Bag: Yep, my favorite backpack now makes a weekender duffle bag. It’s beautiful and you need it!

Just the bag, here.

The Travel Bundle, here.

Coola SPF Skincare

For the Sand- Tee shirt dresses and rubber slip-ons!

For the Day/Spa/Casual Entertainment- Simple but tropical!

Dinner and Evening Entertainment- Simple and elegant!

Hats

More from Finest

Happy Thursday, friends!! I am so excited to share all the ins and outs of our trip to Angel Fire last week, from where we stayed, what we ate, what we wore, and how you can book an amazing home in the mountains, too!

Paul and I both have been skiing and snowboarding before, so we were pumped to get back on the slopes. However, it’d been a heck of a long time since we had last done it… so we were hopeful to say the least that this would go well. I am pleased to say we both did really well, though we both each had a pretty good wipeout each. But hey, one wipeout each? We will take it! Angel Fire obviously has the usual Ski School, though, if you need to take a morning class before hitting the slopes. I would not suggest going a first time without Ski School.

We drove to Angel Fire, which about a 9.5 hour drive from North Texas. Growing up, people always went on Spring Break trips to Angel Fire from the San Antonio area, so though I had never been I knew it’s a great spot! The drive sorta scared me… but it actually was the EASIEST drive ever. It flew by, to be honest. There was zero traffic and it really was so easy.

Paul booked us a home for our 5 year anniversary trip with Resort Properties of Angel Fire. They provided us an incredible home right on the ski slope, and it was just stunning. I shared in my stories a tour of our home within minutes of getting inside of it because I couldn’t handle how beautiful it was. Resort Properties has dozens of homes to pick from to stay in for your vacation to Angel Fire. Imagine like an Air Bnb for all things Angel Fire- that’s what they do! They have everything from condos at the base at very reasonable prices to entire homes like what we booked. Our home, Blue Aspen #1, sat on the green slope Heading Home, which worked out perfectly because it was our slope we stayed on the entire time we were there. (It was the easiest way down the mountain… lol.) We would literally do a few times down and then pull off to our place for lunch. It was perfect!

For our food, we set up with HelloFresh a delivery to our home for all our dinners. I am SO GLAD we did this. It was like having restaurant-worthy food each night without the price tag, and we had fun nights in each evening by the fire. Our home was so high up the mountain that driving down for dinner each night would have been tough with the snow storm that came while we were there AND the -27 degree temps… CRAZY RIGHT?! Also, with our food allergies and wanting to stick to a budget on our trip, we didn’t know what we would actually be able to eat in the village. However, I will say that I was blown away by the little bitty grocery store they have in the village! I had very low expectations… but they had an amazing gluten free selection and carried a bunch of the brands I buy at my nice grocery stores at home. Also, the prices weren’t as insane as most resort stores are. We bought all of our lunch stuff here when we first arrived to the village.

(You can follow the link to HelloFresh above with a personal discount that will give you 6 meals on me!)

For our ski gear, Saint Bernard sponsored the majority of Paul’s and my stuff. I seriously LOVED my coat and can’t wait to wear it again. It was so well-priced ($189 vs. $250+ for anything else!) and it. is. so. cute. Paul already had a down North Face coat, but got his pants, beanie, and snowboard boots from the shop! I have linked below everything we wore!

We can’t wait to go back. I no joke cried twice watching dads teaching their sons how to ski haha. I can’t wait to come back with Knoxy one day! I will say one con of our entire trip was that I had pretty gnarly altitude sickness the entire trip. I didn’t prepare well, because to avoid stopping a million times on the drive there… I didn’t drink hardly anything. Mistake #1. Second, upon arriving, I didn’t replenish as I should have (despite the warnings from our amazing hosts that I should drink tons of water to avoid getting sick.) I also think I caught some kind of a bug because I then had the stomach flu for three days upon arriving back home, so I think I had a very unfortunate combination of problems while there. However, even still with altitude sickness, I had such a blast. I can’t wait to go back and redeem the trip a little bit by being better hydrated. But, seriously, I can’t suggest Angel Fire enough. It’s small and quaint and FAR BETTER PRICED than anything in Colorado. And did I mention it is beautiful?

Happy booking, friends! I hope you book and have an amazing spring break or summer trip!