Winter Getaway
If you haven't noticed, my husband and I will take any excuse to go on vacation! Winters in NYC can be pretty brutal, especially for me after growing up in South Carolina. It didn't take much convincing when Zach had a great idea this past winter to plan a weekend getaway in late January. I forward him emails pretty much daily that I get from sites like Groupon and TravelZoo of dreamy vacations just because... But this time he took it to the next level and actually started looking into some of the great deals these sites have to offer!
We ended up booking a quick 4-day trip to Grand Bahama through Cheap Caribbean. We actually had never used their site before, but some friends of ours recommended it after they had a great experience in Jamaica. We were able to find an incredible deal for an all-inclusive stay at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach. We read some great reviews, so we picked an available weekend and just went for it!
Looking back on the trip, we laugh a lot because it was very spontaneous and we didn't look too closely into the area and the weather before we booked it. We just wanted to get out of the snow asap. Even though we had a great trip, it wasn't our favorite of all the places that we have been together. Grand Bahama (which is in Freeport) is the furthest island north of the Bahamas, so it wasn't exactly hot. It definitely wasn't cold, but it was in the high 60's to low 70's, and we were imagining it to be 80-90's. Viva Wyndham was pretty nice, but the food wasn't that good. It was an all-inclusive resort so you don't go expecting the most delicious food, but we actually walked out of one of the restaurants one night because it was pretty gross and went straight to the buffet instead! Ha! Not to mention, it is always risky to travel in the winter because of all the snow storms! Our flight down was delayed, cutting out a lot of time from our trip on the day that was supposed to be the hottest. Also, on our flight back, every flight to NYC was cancelled, so after many stressful hours, we finally were able to find a flight to Washington DC. From there, we rented a car and planned to drive home, which should have taken about 4 hours. Instead, it took us 8 hours and we started our trip around 10pm getting us home around 6am-- just in time to get ready to go to work!!
When you choose to live adventurously, you are choosing to take risks. We realized that sometimes in being spontaneous, our adventures may not be perfect, but it is up to us to make the best out of them and have a good time! All in all, we did get what we were going for which was a warm and fun getaway from NYC! We chose to look at all of the good (like hello, we were in the Bahamas in January!) and focus on those things. Our hotel had a lot of great things about it. The beach was absolutely stunning, and we had access to paddle boards, kayaks, and even trapeze classes! We enjoyed just being together, hanging out in the hot tub, laughing at the hilarious entertainment at night, and taking full advantage of our unlimited food + drinks.
Our resort was picture perfect, but next time we go to the Bahamas, we will most likely choose to stay south! ;)
Xo- Tara
PS-- See the 'Grand Bahama' Gallery for more photos!
