Tag: plus size vacation wear

With project deliverables and timelines being pushed back, October was the first time I’ve been able to schedule a vacation all year!

The biggest pain with travelling solo is the ‘single supplement fee” many vacation destinations and travel packages charge travellers simply because they’re travelling solo.  I had no real plans to go away this year, but not taking any time off since last November was starting to take its toll on me.

Luckily, a gf of mine was also looking to get away for some R&R…and we were able to snag a fabulous Air Canada Vacation deal at a 4-stars ALL INCLUSIVE 7-night stay at a beautiful resort in Grenada!  TripAdvisor scored it pretty well, the dates worked and the price was right!

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ve likely already seen a few of these pics…

The last few years of trips and travel have been more bucket-list-adventure focused (click here to see what I mean).

For this trip, I truly was a beach bum!  There was a lot of lounging around the pool, drink in hand, reading my book while falling in & out of naps in the sun.  To be honest friends, there weren’t too many outfit pictures taken on this week away.   It was a SOLID rest and relaxation for the first time in a long time (vacation-wise).

Having said all that, this blogpost will be focus more on ‘What I Did”, rather than “What I Wore”.

Here we go….

Packing for the Trip

Seems that whenever I travel, somehow a pair of sunglasses goes missing.  No matter what.  So, I’ve gotten into the routine of buying a few ‘cheapy vacation pairs’ to combat my forgetfulness.

I picked up these three below:  Heart shaped polka-dots from Clare’s Accessories ($5) and the other two from Forever21 ($7 each)

Packing outfits for this trip was pretty simple:  I just looked back to the blog to see what Summertime looks I rocked and shoved those items into my suitcase.  I’ve linked each image below with their respective blogpost if you’re curious about the specific outfit deets 😉

Grenada is an island country consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.  Known as the Spice Isle for the nutmeg and cinnamon, clove, ginger, vanilla, lemongrass, bay leaf, thyme, and turmeric that grow so abundantly here, Grenada is a wonderfully green peaceful place, that feels off the beaten tourist track.  Which totally works for me!

The Vacation Package (Flight + Hotel)

As I said above, we found a last-min deal with Air Canada Vacation — advertised as a  4-star resort in Grenada:  Grenadian by Rex Resorts.  

Let me start by asking … when YOU hear 4-stars, what do you expect out of an ALL INCLUSIVE resort?

The ‘Garden View’ Rooms weren’t anything special. They were clean and the view really wasn’t a garden so much as it was a hilly batch of grass.  But who cares about that stuff.  My biggest disappointment was the fact that the bathroom was teeny-tiny and did not have a tub.  Now, I realize that a tub isn’t essential….however the standup shower was soooo small that if you were to drop the soap, your bare ass would be completely out of the shower!  Shaving ones legs all week in there was not easy friends.

Seriously!? 4-stars and I have to ASK for a four-piece bathroom – really?  Just saying’…

Outside of that bathroom disappointment, there weren’t any a la cart restaurants voucher included with our stay.  The single restaurant on the resort grounds would give us a $40 credit, which didn’t mean much as each entrée started at the $80+ mark.

Lucky for us the buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinners were delicious!  Super flavourful and authentic, which I appreciated.  Hate it when resorts make their foods more “tourist friendly”.

The grounds of the resort were beautiful.  There was only one pool, but since it was a off-season, there weren’t too many people there in general, and even fewer children.  There seemed to be a lot of travellers from the UK there, but mostly honeymooning couples or retirees with tons of vacay time (upwards of 5-weeks).  We did meet and hang with three Brit dudes that week – let’s call them Alvin, Simon and Theodore.  And by mid-week there was an invasion of Caribbean Tennis Pros who happened to be conference at our resort.  So there were plenty of friends to be made for drinking and dining with, all week-long 🙂

Things To Do in Grenada:

Coincidentally, earlier in the month I met a light-eyed, broad, tall, handsome stranger at a networking event who happened to be from Grenada.   My immediate thoughts were…”If THAT’S how they grow their men in that country, then I need to get to there!’ 😉

He shared the following list of things I HAD to do while visiting (those listed in blue consider them completed off the list):

• Eat Oil Down – traditional dish of Grenada, its delicious!
• Try to visit Cariacou (one of Grenada’s sister Islands, the other is Petite Martinique). I believe there is a ferry service daily
• Grenada Chocolate Factory Co-Op (best chocolate ever! completely organic)
• Nutmeg processing plant on one of the estates
• Annadale Falls
• Fort Fredrick (and old Fort built by the French in the 1790s i believe). One of the best views on the island!
• Concord Falls
• BEACHES – Grand Anse (Grenada’s “top” beach), BBC (nice and secluded. this is my favourite), Bathway (stay within the retaining wall area, the sea is very rough but manageable as long as you stay within that area), Levera (very rough water where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic. Also where the Leatherback Turtles come to lay their eggs. you might just want to take a walk along that beach if you’re not a strong swimmer. Bathway is around the corner, so you can always take a dip there), Pink Gin Beach (pinkish colour sand), Magazine Beach (I think my hotel was on might this beach)
• River Antoine Distillery (organic white rum, Full Strength!! lol) 
• Sulphur Springs (great mud bath, close to Levera and Bathway)
• Fish Friday in Gouyave 

Things I DID in Grenada:

Great beaches, excellent Caribbean food and wonderful people.  I’m told there is really good scuba diving (I’m a non-swimmer, but an excellent wader! I did manage to convince one of the wait staff to procure a noodle just for me to use ALL week for both the pool & beach.  Seems I’m an excellent sweet-talker … especially in my bathing suit 😉

Leapers Cliff

Concord Falls

Nutmeg Processing Plant

Crater Lake

Rum Factory  

River Antoine Distillery (organic white rum, Full Strength!!)   One of the last places if not the last, that uses a water wheel in the distilling process, a system that goes back to the 1700’s and I believe the wheel they have running there is the original one from that time.

Fish Friday

Fish Friday in Gouyave – a weekly street party with lots of FRESH fish and seafood cooked up in a variety of ways plus music and other entertainment.

And one morning I even woke up bright and early for Bird Watching (yup…you heard me right).

I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it too. 🙂

Things I BOUGHT in Grenada

I did very little shopping while I was there.  I did bring back with me bars of Grenada’s finest dark chocolate from both Jouvay and The Grenada Chocolate Company.  AND a bottle of the fantastic West Indian hot sauce. As you can see I’ve used much of it already since being home. I’m a fan – the spicier the better 😉

Oh! And I bought a bottle of Rum Punch from the factory too…no pictures of that…. **hiccup**

There it is … my 2014 vacay summary recap.  With Winter weather upon us, some of you may be looking for a sunny vacation destination to get away to.  Having read my post,  would Grenada be on your shortlist?

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