Adventures of Kim & Derrick

05/05/2022

We visited Kauai for the first time and absolutely loved it! 💙🌺🏝 We spent 5 nights in a beautiful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo right on the beach with amazing views in Kapaa. The grounds were so beautiful, the pool and beach were clean and hardly anyone ever there. It definitely felt private. Within walking distance we’re shops and restaurants. JoJo’s shaved ice was a fav of mine of here.

For activities we did:

Luau Kalamaku- Amazing show. Meh food. 👍🏽

Kayak Wailua - Serene and peaceful. We kayaked the Wailua River then hiked up to the beautiful waterfall where we were able to cool off and hang out a bit. Then hiked and kayaked back. 👍🏽👍🏽

Tried to get to Tunnels Beach but there was no parking so we drove a little further and checked out Ha’ena Beach which was beautiful. We saw a big sea turtle getting some rest on the sand. I believe we ended up walking down to Tunnels Beach though.

Queens Bath. A must!!! You have to hike down a muddy slippery trail CAREFULLY! I ended up taking off my shoes and going real slow but once you get down to the bottom keep going left. Queens Bath is so worth the hike down. So gorgeous! Met a local who showed us an easier quicker way up without the mud. 👍🏽👍🏽

Wanted to get to Kauapea Beach as they have a clothing optional area but never made it.

Spouting Horn. Cool to see and add to your photos. 😀

Poipu Beach. Beautiful beach but more crowded here. Waters are pretty calm though. We saw a monk seal resting here.

Shipwreck Beach. Supposedly where you can see cliff jumpers but nobody was jumping. The waters were really ruff here. But we did hike up to the top of the cliff.

Food places:

Jo Jo’s shaved ice - yes!

Kenji Burger - pretty good

Home Cooking Waipouli Restaurant - good breakfast!

Hamura Saimin - lilikoi chiffon pie, yes!!

The Cabana Bar & Grill - fish tacos were good and hubby liked his burger.

Red Salt (at Ko’a Kea) - Ribeye was good! Didn’t like the Chilean sea bass.

Daddy O’s - went here before heading to airport. Oxtail Soup is 🔥.

Looking forward to returning! As always, didn’t want to leave and needed more time.

Aloha! 🌴🌺🌊

10/22/2020

Our 2nd trip during the pandemic (10/18/20-10/21/20). Absolutely love Mexico and the precautions they take.

We flew on Alaska (middle seats are still not reserved). Hope they keep it like that for the next year!

Our R/T tansportation was through Airport Baja Transfers (www.airportbajatransfers.com). We had a private GMC truck. They had cold water and beers for us. Would use them again.

We stayed at Zadun - Ritz Carlton Reserve in their Ocean View Plunge Pool (room #223). They pick you up in a golf cart, stop to get a fresh hibiscus drink and take you straight to your room where you officially check-in. The room was incredible. Urias & Fernando our personal concierge were awesome. Service at this resort and the restaurants were on point!

We had breakfast every morning at El Barrio. Delish! We also had lunch and snacks here. 👍🏽

Had a drink and tapas at Candil. Excellent!

Off property restaurants we went to were Cocina Del Mar at Esperanza Auberge which is about 40 min from our resort. Incredible spot with the best views!! We also went to Casa Calavera at Vidanta on a Tuesday night for all you can eat tacos. Very good and they had a great live band. Both restaurants have outdoor seating of course. And service was amazing at both places.

Uber is great and the best form of transportation if you leave the property.

We actually met a great guy who does it all, driver, tours, activities etc. his name is Victor Moreno ([email protected]). We will definitely be using his services next time.

Zadun was only booked at 30% capacity at the time we were there which was lovely as nobody was ever around. Especially at the pool. Pool service was excellent as well.

I would do this all over again! Looking forward to returning soon.

❤️ 🇲🇽

Our 2nd trip during the pandemic (10/18/20-10/21/20). Absolutely love Mexico and the precautions they take. We flew on Alaska (middle seats are still not res...

10/01/2020

Our first trip during this horrible pandemic to Puerto Vallarta during September 2020. We rented a home (Villa Roca Loro) in the Mismaloya area. Such a beautiful home in the jungle that is built in the cliff overlooking the ocean. The views are breathtaking! Ana & Miguel were awesome! The weather was hot during the day and rained at night. It was perfect.

We used Aero Movil for the roundtrip airport transfers who I would definitely use again.

For excursions we used Estigo Tours. Gonzalo is the best. We booked 2 private tours for our group of 5. We did the Marietas (Hidden Beach) Snorkel & Sail which was an all day excursion. Beautiful day, great people and beautiful island. The 2nd excursion was the ATV / Zip Line combo. Our tour guides were Armando & Abraham who were both great. Loved riding through the city and up the mountain to get to the zip lines. We did 8 lines which were fun then went up the mountain some more and rode through some wet and muddy areas which was so much fun. After we came back down the hill we stopped at a restaurant by the river. The food there was soooo good! Great photo op on their swing too.

A trip worth taking all over again.

Our first trip during this horrible pandemic to Puerto Vallarta during September 2020. We rented a home (Villa Roca Loro) in the Mismaloya area. Such a beaut...

03/20/2018

We visited New Orleans March 2-5, 2018. Perfect weather, amazing food, a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous couple. Love the energy and atmosphere of this city! One of my favs... oh and did I say Amazing food!?!

We stayed at the intercontinental on St Charles Ave which was about a 10-12 minute walk to Burbon St. Good location but would have loved to stay in one of the historical buildings closer to Burbon Street.

As for the restaurants... we went to The Ruby Slipper Cafe, Neyow's, Broussard's, Upperline, Olde Nola Cookery, Jimmy J's Cafe & Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar. All were bomb but Neyow's & Jimmy J's were my favorite!!!!!!!

Our beautiful New Orleans trip 3/2/18 - 3/5/18. Beautiful weather, wedding and amazing food!!! Looooove nawlins!

10/02/2017

Maui - Sept 2017

We just spent 6 amazing days in Maui and it was hubby's first time in Hawaii period. I think he's sold now. :-)

Hotel: Aston Ka'anapali Shores. Good location, clean resort, 2 nice pools, calm beautiful beach, full kitchens in room but furniture is very outdated.

Car: Rented a car from Maui Budget Cars which was a great experience. They are easy to communicate with and quick to respond. You get picked up in your rental car from the Maui airport. Paper work is done in the parking lot and you're on your way. When you return the car, you simply return car in the same parking lot, leave the key under the mat and let them know where it's parked and that's it. Highly recommend them.

Activites/Excursions:
Maui Ocean Center - Cool lil walk through of their aquarium.

Pacific Whale Foundation - Snorkel & Sail. Beautiful newer boat with a great crew. Went to 2 locations. Saw turtles and a school of dolphins. Amazing to see! Was fed a continental breakfast and a yummy lunch.

Surf Lessons - with Ikaika. Let me know if you want his contact info. He was great!!

Road to Hana - Private tour with Ohana. Crisp air and beautiful!

BBQ, Beach & Canoe Day - A good day at Ukumehame Beach w/Ohana. Canoeing was so much fun!

Kapalua Zip Lines - We did the 5 line tour. Amazing views and a great ATV type fun crazy ride.

Old Lahaina Luau - Very authentic, great food and beautiful dancing!

Another succesful and wonderful vacay!! Can't wait to go back!

https://youtu.be/HnVBqV6R4go

09/12/2017

This is cool

08/30/2017

Best adult only beach resorts

08/29/2017

I just realized I never posted our Puerto Rico trip from August 2016.

We rented a HomeAway condo for 5 nights right in Condado Beach. It was perfect! Great location, many restaurants and shops within walking distance and the beach was right across the street. The only thing missing was a pool but we used one at the hotel across the street from us. :-)

Things we did:

El Morro Fort (Castillo San Felipe del Morro) - Beautiful views and a great historic site with interesting information to learn about in Old San Juan.

Tanama River Adventures - It was just us 2 and our guide, Fernando who was great! It rained and apparently we didn't get the memo that the tour was cancelled. He still gave us a tour and it was a beautiful, serene, peaceful, quiet, amazing tour! Nobody was out there but us 3 river trekking and tube caving.

Rio Camuy Cave Park - A beautiful tour of the caves. You take a trolly down into the caves and you're given headsets to listen to information at each stop inside the caves.

El Yunque - Beautiful rain forest that you can do yourself. Plenty of hiking trails and gorgeous waterfalls.

Loquillo Beach - Very pretty and calm.

Condado Beach - Right across the street from our condo and beautiful.

Kayaking Puerto Rico - Very nice bio bay kayaking tour through the mangroves. Watched the sunset. Then learned about the microscopic plankton capable of producing natural light at the touch of your hand. They didn't light up as much as I thought they were though.

Food:

Cafe del Angel was walking distance from condo and a great spot!

Nuyorican Cafe in old San Juan is a cool spot for latin jazz and salsa.

We did brunch at the hotel across the street from us and acted like we were guests of the hotel and used their pool all day. Great location over the ocean.

If you want to hire a personal chef, Rosalind Diaz Rivera with Anoranzas was great. Just ask for Chef Angel. He was amazing!!

This trip was for Derrick's 50th. :-) We had an amazing trip and I absolutely loved Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico - August 2016 A compilation of our Puerto Rico birthday vacay for the hubby's 50th!

08/15/2017

Cancun - August 2017

We had 18 friends and family and none of us been to Cancun before. We stayed at Sandos Playacar Beach Resort which is about an hour away from the Cancun airport but could be longer depending on other drop offs if you have shared transportation.

We had an oceanfront room in building 2 which was about a 10 min walk from the lobby. They do have golf carts that shuttle people around but walking can be faster as the carts get full or you may be waiting long. The oceanfront room was very small and there isn't much of a view of the ocean as the palm trees are blocking the view. We asked to me moved to the adult section and we were very pleased with our room (in building 9). It's at the top of the hotel by the lobby but the rooms are way more nicer and larger with big whirlpool bath tubs. This is the adult section with an adult pool and adult breakfast buffet. No ocean views here at all but we had a nice pool view.

The adult pool is big pool with a swim up bar, entertainment and has a lunch buffet daily. Best pool to be at.

Food was meh. Wasn't happy with the food here. I thought the beef dish at the Asian restaurant was pretty good though and their fried cheese and spring rolls. The Mexican restaurant was not good at all. The rib eye at Gaucho was decent compared to everything else. Buffet had good chicken but everything else was just whatever. Mostly everyone in our group had stomach issues so not sure if it's from the food, water or what.

The drinks were just okay. A lot of the mixed drinks had a weird after taste. Thinking it's the artificial sweetener.

Nightly entertainment in the outdoor theater was nice and different each night.

The beach was nice but there was a lot of seaweed. The waters weren't as clear or blue as I imagined it would be but the water was warm.

We have all stayed at Sandos Finisterra in Cabo and that property is WAY nicer and better all the way around. The only thing there is you can't swim in the ocean as the undercurrent is very strong.

Take a taxi to 5th street which is a nice outdoor shopping area with familiar stores and local stores with restaurants.

For excursions we used Riviera Adventours and which were both great!

Riviera Adventours - Virginia is the best and very accommodating!! We communicated back and forth through email prior to us even arriving in Cancun. We had a group of 14 and booked a custom private Extreme Expedition which was soooo much fun!

Elie and Rachel were our tour guides and were the best!! We had such a good time with them!!

We snorkeled in the Tulum Turtle Reef and only a few of us spotted a turtle and stingray as we were all kind of spread out searching.

We ziplined on 3 lines which was interesting and fun as we had to break ourselves using a stick to pull down on the cable. Don't worry, your not going fast. :-)

We canoed in a beautiful open cenote.

We cliff dove into the most beautiful cenote or body of water I have ever seen. What an amazing place!! Then we swam and played around in this beauty for a while.

We also went to an underground cenote and bat cave which was just as amazing but cold. So worth it though! Wishing we could bottle up the minerals in the water for our skin and hair. :-)

Either it wasn't a busy day or Eli knew when to go to these places because I felt like we had every location to ourselves.

We also had lunch at Oscar & Lalos which was very nice as we were hungry!!

Definitely book with them. You will have an amazing time.

Maya Adrenaline Tours - We were walking around 5th Ave in Playacar and stopped at an activities both. They offered our group of 11 a tour that included a visit to the Maya Tulum Ruins, zip line, rappel, atv, cenote and Mayan ceremony.

Yam was our guide for the Tulum Ruins who was great but it started pouring on us and we were basically on our own as most folks took cover including Yam. Lol! The Ruins were pretty amazing.

Once we arrived to the Adrenaline park Jose was our guide for the rest of the tour and was awesome!!

The 3 zip lines were fun but wished they were longer lines. Loved how they stop you. Lol!

Rappelled down a small cliff. Wished that was a taller cliff.

Lunch was chicken taquitos, rice, beans and lemonade.

After lunch we did the ATV portion but was on a dirt road out and back in and not so much "through" the jungle. Wished we could have went faster and did some off roading. The fun part was that it had just rained so there were a lot of muddy puddles.

Once we came back to the site we rinsed off, had shots of tequila and took part in a Mayan ceremony which was very spiritual. Loved it!

Then we got into the beautiful chilly underground cenote. Such a beautiful place!!

Loved the culture experience and we had fun with Jose.

They took some amazing pictures of us but wanted to charge us $90 usd for our group and it was just for an emailed link. We passed on that.

Great experience and worth it!

We had an amazing fun trip. Wouldn't stay at this property ever again but definitely come back and stay somewhere else.

05/08/2017

Royal Caribbean - Enchantment of the Seas!

For our 2nd year anniversary we flew to Miami and stayed two nights at a Diamond Resorts property, Crescent. It's an older resort but it's on Ocean Dr and right across the street from the beach. We stayed in a 1 bedroom suite. The resort and rooms definitely needs some updating but it's a great location and for only 2 nights it was all we needed. We hung out on the beach, walked around and ate at several places. We went to Area 31 at Epic hotel for dinner one night and they have great food and amazing views!! Also ate at Havana 1957, Jalapenos and others but can't remember the names. We even tried an Orange Theory workout for the first time which was good and went to Gfive for some entertainment. :-)

As for the ship, we had a "1 bedroom suite" but it was just a regular sized small cabin with a window. The ship itself was also small as well but the food was good. We stopped in Nassau, Bahamas and Coco Cay (which is Royal Caribbean's own private island) and Key West, FL. As for excursions we purchased 1 day passes online through Atlantis directly in Nassau. Atlantis is pretty amazing. Huge resort, with several pools, slides, places to eat and a mile long river ride through waves, dips, tunnels and rapids. Their beach is gorgeous as well. Crystal clear/blue waters and clean! In Coco Cay we just lounged around on the beach and relaxed. In Key West we did a Trolley Tour where you can hop on and off. We walked around, did a little shopping and had lunch.

When we returned in Miami from the cruise we rented a car again and hung out in Miami for a little bit as our flight wasn't till later. This time the weather wasn't so great at first but soon as we had to leave it started to get sunny!

Overall another amazing anniversary baecay!

Royal Caribbean - Enchantment of the Seas! For our 2nd year anniversary we flew to Miami and stayed two nights at a Diamond Resorts property, Crescent. It's ...