Montego Bay: Family Vacation

Our trip to Jamaica last weekend was one for the books especially since it involved lots of family time and relaxing by the pool and beach with frozen cocktails. 
 

We stayed at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay which exceeded my expectations in terms of the restaurants, entertainment, and overall amenities. Plus it's a gorgeous location for a destination wedding which was the purpose of our trip.

K and I booked a standard room and were so surprised to see this beautiful view from our balcony, considering most resorts charge an upgrade fee for an ocean-facing view.

Like one should do on vacation, I traded technology and my first-world worries for relaxing, exploring, indulging, and luckily spending time with family so I'll let the pictures do the talking from here.

The Restaurant Scene

 

My Cousin's Wedding

Family Excursion

All I can say now is "Take me back!!!"

Vacation Highlights

I'm back and hoping to catch up on all the blogging over the weekend!

Thankfully Friday arrived really quickly this week after returning home from Jamaica on Wednesday night. It's never fun jumping right back into reality but a two-day work week makes it so much more bearable to deal with the post-vacation blues.

We flew to Montego Bay last week Friday for my cousin's wedding and had an amazing time catching up with 20+ family members that came in from three different countries. It was really good for the soul and, being at an all-inclusive resort in paradise, made it that much sweeter!

 

I plan to post a full travel recap next week when I've had time to organize my photos...and my brain, let's be honest...but I wanted to share some highlights from the trip.

Family Time
K and I are the only ones that live in the US so spending time with my parents, sister, and the extended family was much needed. Especially being able to catch up with my cousins and meet their babies (and not-so-much-babies anymore) for the first time.

 

Pre-Wedding Fun
On night one, the bride-to-be willingly agreed to participate in the Miss Iberostar "pageant" which was really a very unorthodox competition involving collecting as many shirts and pants from the audience. Guess who won?



On night two, we secretly organized some extra entertainment from the staff that came to the beat of the Magic Mike soundtrack. She was a good sport and it was no rated-R show but it was so fun and pretty hilarious to cap off the night before her wedding.



The Wedding

This is a given because it was the purpose of our trip but we got to witness my cousin and her love say their vows in a beautiful setting.

Post-Wedding Fun
We only had time to leave the resort and do one excursion on this trip so we picked a catamaran cruise (more to come on this) but snorkeling was one fun part of the excursion.

On our last night we had a bonfire cocktail party on the beach for one last get-together before saying our goodbyes the next day.

Bonus Highlights
Other than all the quality time with my family which is priceless, a huge highlight of our trip was winning two free gifts. I chose a 50-minute massage at the and K picked two tickets to the VIP departure lounge in the Montego Bay airport. So much unexpected pampering but we loved it!

The MoBay VIP departure area offers complimentary food, drinks, and a really comfortable lounge with reliable WiFi access so it was a really nice end to our trip.

So happy to be home to be with my Lola but lots of detoxing and cleaning eating is much needed for the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy the weekend just as much as I will enjoy sleeping in my own bed!

An Anniversary trip to Ocho Rios

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm still in Jamaica relaxing for a few days with the family after celebrating my cousin's wedding yesterday. K and I visited Jamaica back in 2012 for another destination wedding in Negril and now we're in Montego Bay so I've been looking forward to seeing a different part of the island.

My good friend and fellow blogger, Kate from Green Fashionista so generously offered to share the highlights from her wedding anniversary trip to Jamaica. They happened to visit around the same time we were there in 2012 but they stayed in Ocho Rios which is a part of the Jamaica I've yet to visit.

 

Kate and her hubby spent 4 nights at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, which they chose because it's a beachfront all-inclusive resort with some beautiful pools and waterslides.
 

The swim-up bar is always a favorite when it comes to all-inclusive resorts and Kate said they immediately got in the pool when they arrived and could just feel the stress melt away.



Their days were spent lounging in the cabanas by the pool, sipping on cocktails, and enjoying the pool and waterslides.

Sounds like the perfect vacation to me and that's exactly what we've been doing.



They enjoyed some Bob Marley cocktails poolside which look delish.

I just love the view from their hotel room and it gives you a nice glimpse of Ocho Rios' coast.

Thank you Kate for sharing the highlights of your anniversary trip to Jamaica!

If you're interested in exploring more about Jamaica, you can read Kate's full Ocho Rios trip recap and my trip to the 7-mile long beach in Negril.

Hope this week treats you well!

                                                                                 

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Negril, Jamaica

 

I visited Negril in Jamaica a few years ago for my cousin's wedding and to celebrate our honeymoon a little late since their wedding was only a month after ours and couldn't swing two big trips. We flew into Montego Bay Airport and took a shuttle for about 1.5 hours to get to Negril. We stayed at the Riu Negril Resort which is an affordable all-inclusive resort located along Negril's seven mile beach. About 25 family members and friends made it to Negril for the wedding so our days were spent doing water sports and hanging out on the beach and at the pool bar. 

Most of the trip was spent at our resort since there was everything we needed in one spot including lots of entertainment and water activities however K and I made sure to plan some time alone for our "honeymoon". We went on a private boat tour up Negril's coast stopping at several spots to snorkel, have lunch or a drink, and eventually cliff dive at the famous Rick's Cafe.

Margaritaville Negril

Some of the locals are professionals at diving off the cliff and even our cruise tour guide got up there and took a back dive off the cliff.

There's a big possibility we'll be going back to Jamaica next year for another cousin's destination wedding so I hope she choses a different area such as Ocho Rios or Montego Bay since we got to see all that Negril offers. That coast is just beautiful though!

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