I am constantly on the hunt for long-weekend destinations. And, with Memorial Day just around the corner, I thought I’d share with you the perfect little hideaway. It’s called Harbour Island, known locally as Briland, and it has pink sand. Need I say more?
Harbour Island lies just northwest of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. It’s famous for its pink sand beaches and cute little pastel cottages.
To get to Harbour Island, you must first get to Eleuthera. Luckily, there is non-stop service from Fort Lauderdale to Eleuthera on both commercial and chartered airlines. You can also fly to Eleuthera from Nassau.
Once you make it to Eleuthera, you have to hop a cab ($5 per person) from the small airport to the dock and take the ferry over to Harbour Island (another $5 per person).
As soon as you get onto Harbour Island, you need to rent a golf cart (around $50 per day), as this will be your mode of transportation for the weekend. And, you need to get comfortable with driving on the other side of the street! Dunmore Town, the only town on Harbour Island, is full of golf carts zipping all around town.
When it comes to choosing lodging, you have two options: either rent one of the cute little cottage homes or take up residence in one of the many hotels on the island. If you are a family or a large group, the cottage homes are the way to go. While many of them are not beachfront, they have views of the bay. If being on the beach is your goal, then there are really only three options: The Dunmore, Coral Sands, or Pink Sands.
The Dunmore is hands down the most luxurious of the three, but it is also the most popular, and the property stays pretty full. While they are oceanfront, it is located on a busier part of the beach, so there are a lot of people around.
We stayed at Pinks Sands, and honestly, I am glad we did. Pink Sand’s is an historic property. But, it’s location is what makes this property a gem. It is tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Dunmore Town and right on the ocean. The property is large, with 20 acres of gardens. There are 25 British Colonial cottages, so there are only a limited number of guests sharing this paradise with you and there are not many, if any, non-guests on the property. The best part is the private stretch of beach reserved for guests, with powdery pink sand and crystal clear turquoise water.
There are other hotels, like The Landing (owned by Prince Charles’s goddaughter, India Hicks), Bahamas House, and Valentine’s Resort and Marina, but these are located in town.
Harbour Island definitely runs on island time. The pace is just a little slower. The atmosphere is relaxed, but there is a hint of casual elegance. In fact, it’s a bit bougie. It is the type of place that unassuming billionaires go to relax; where people are casually, but expensively, dressed. There are a lot of regulars who return to the island year after year, and the marina is full of yachts. This is not a budget getaway. Food, lodging, and activities are pretty pricey on the island. Fortunately, the American dollar and Visa and MasterCard are widely accepted.
We spent our mornings on the beach, but by afternoon, we were out and about in the town. Our first mission was to grab lunch. Our go to spot was Sip Sip (the local slang for gossip). It is only open from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, and it is packed every single day.
There is one thing that you absolutely MUST order at Sip Sip: the lobster quesadilla. I dream about this quesadilla. It is one of the most delicious things I have eaten in my life. At $45, it is also the most expensive quesadilla you will ever eat. IT is worth every penny. It is generously filled with juicy chunks of fresh caught lobster. I am a food snob (just ask Chad). I am underwhelmed and unimpressed with most restaurants/meals. So, I don’t just throw around this kind of praise for dishes.
Another “must visit” eatery is Queen Conch. This place also gets super busy and is cash only. Their conch fritters are amazing (and, I am really not a huge fan of the conch fritter because they tend to be more fritter than conch), but the real star is the exotic conch salad.
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We would take ours to go and have a picnic on the sandbar.
After lunch, we explored the town, stopping in at all the fab (but pricey) retail shops.
We headed over to Arthur’s Bakery for cookies and key lime tarts and to the Sweet Spot Cafe for smoothies.
On some days, we would just ride around the town exploring all the local streets and the cute cottages.
We visited the straw market.
And, on one of the days, we chartered a boat to go snorkeling.
You can even ride horses on the beach!
In the afternoons, we would post up on our pre-reserved beach chairs and wait for the sun to set or take a ride out to the sandbar.
On one such afternoon, I had the great fortune of discovering this amazing young Asian couple who brought a giant sherbet colored unicorn raft onto the beach. This had Instagram written all over it. The little Asian girl posed for what seemed like an hour on the raft while yelling at her husband as he snapped away. Once she tired of the raft, she simply left it behind on the beach.
Not being one to pass up a gram-able moment (or a unicorn), I jumped on that bad boy and made like the Asian girl, while Chad died of embarrassment and took these photos! #BlogLife #BlogHusband
For dinner, there are two must try places, and neither of them are cheap. The first is the restaurant at The Landing, which requires a reservation.
The second is the Rock House, where a table on the terrace at sunset guarantees a magnificent view.
Before you know it, your long weekend will come to an end, and you will have to leave behind this little island paradise and return to real life. Hopefully, you will return a little tanned and well-rested, which is almost guaranteed after a few days on this little jewel of the Caribbean.
There are some beautiful properties to choose from for an overnight stay. You can go wine tasting in this region, and, I am told that once the day-trippers leave, Sintra becomes a different place, and the sites stay open to allow the people staying there to enjoy them without the crowds.
We chose to stay in the Old Town of Rhodes. Old Town is surrounded by medieval walls with seven “gates” (Gate of the Naval Station, Gate of Agios Ioannis, Gate of Agia Ekaterini, Gate of the Apostle Paul, Gate of Amboise, Gate of Agios Athanassios and the Gate of the Port). Today, the gates are the seven entry points into the Old Town. When you enter these gates, you feel as if you have entered another world. I am so glad we chose to stay in the Old Town. It was truly enchanting and much more charming than staying at one of the huge beach resorts in the modern city. You literally feel as though you have entered some sort of enchanted land.
Angela and Nikos have anticipated your every need. They literally have thought of every single little detail. Each room comes with a fully stocked beach bag that includes towels, mats, and bottled water.
Breakfast is included with your room, and you would be a fool to miss it. It is literally the best breakfast I have ever had at a hotel, and Chad and I have stayed at some VERY nice hotels all over the world. Angela serves up a three-course, homemade breakfast. First, she brings you a French pressed coffee or a hand-squeezed juice (all of which are amazing) and an array of bread with homemade jams (which are also amazing).
Also, the hotel is located in a quiet residential district, so there is no noise from cars, bars, restaurants and people, but it is walking distance from all the action.
Here’s the best part: this hotel is affordable, especially when you consider what you are getting (breakfast, fully stocked mini bar, daily cocktails, car rental, etc.) and compared to the other options on the island. Hell, even if the hotel was a splurge, I’d spend it! Nikos is a wealth of information about the island, and both Nikos and Angela are truly passionate about what they do, which translates into the guest experience. Everyone on the island knows them and their hotel. I am quite confident when I say that you will never again stay a hotel that is quite like this one. I dream about this hotel and coming back. Hats off to Angela and Nikos for creating the ultimate guest experience. If you go (and, I truly insist that you do), please let Angela and Nikos know that I sent you.
By the way, if you are into doors and floors, then hold on to your britches, because Old Town Rhodes is an assault of charm in the door and floor department. The ancient mosaic stone work on the floors is incredible! And, the doors…I died!
On Angela and Nikos’s suggestion (which, by the way, were always spot on), we stopped to eat lunch at this amazing little restaurant and loved the food so much that we came back again, which is VERY rare for us, as we try to eat at as many different places as possible.
After lunch, we decided to explore the area outside of the Old Town wall.
On our second day, we hired Nick of 
Lindos is a cute little village that has many shops and small, but stunning churches to explore before you make your way up to the Acropolis of Lindos, a climb that includes several hundred stairs of various heights with no guardrails. Not to worry, it is totally do-able (if you are wearing the right shoes), the views are incredible, and there are donkeys to assist.
I wish we had a little more time to explore this village, but it was pouring that day, so as soon as the sun came out, we hiked up to the Acropolis!
And the views from the Acropolis of Lindos are not too shabby:
After Lindos, Nick took us to the cutest little beach side taverna for lunch (which had the most INCREDIBLE views) before we set off to explore other sites around the island, including 
On our third day on the island, we took advantage of the free rental car that came with our room and took to the roads with our tablet to explore other points of interest, such as the 
Ancient Kamiros: 
Seven Springs:
On our last day, we stayed in the Old Town and visited the 
This summer in Crete, Chad and I found a place where tomorrow never comes. A place where everyone seemingly lives in the moment of today. And, we are officially obsessed. If you find yourself in Crete this year (and we highly recommend that you do in fact go to Crete, like now), put Matala on your itinerary. Trust us, you will not regret it!
To reach Phaistos, follow the signs along the highway, which direct you up a pretty easy mountain road. If you use your iPhone navigation, you will be directed to leave your car and walk. Ignore those directions. The road is paved all the way up to the site, and it is in great condition. When you reach the site, there is a parking lot on the left, and the entrance is a short 3 minute walk on a paved road to the right. It costs 8 Euro per person to visit the site. Once inside, there are clean restrooms located inside a snack bar that also doubles as a small souvenir shop. Also, there is free Wi-Fi! More information on visiting the site can be found 
Phaistos, like the 
There is a large parking lot that has direct access to the beach, and it only costs 2 Euro to park there all day. The lot has beautiful street art on the buildings.
From the lot, it is just a short walk onto the beach, which, in late May, was not that crowded. You can walk a path to get to the cliff and actually climb up the cliff and visit the now empty tombs. The cost for the all-day ticket is 2 Euro per person. It’s kind of wild to think that you are visiting both a grave site and the former “homes” of some of the world’s most notable musicians. Apparently, there are additional tombs that have not yet been excavated.
Matala has several sea-side taverns with a view of the beach or you may opt to walk into town where you will find several taverns, bars, and shops. We ate at Taverna Sirtaki, which was great and had an awesome view. After lunch, we walked around town where I got a great pair of handmade sandals and some fantastic handmade jewelry from the shops in Matala.
As you walk around the town, you will notice drawings on the street. These are allegedly made by a hippie named Frankie who, like many of the part-time nomadic hippie residents, spends the summers in Matala.
In my heart, I am a wanderluster with a gypsy soul who craves a life of clean eating, knowledge through exploration, and satisfaction derived from simple pleasures. Unfortunately, my real-life and my day job are not conducive to living the life I crave. But, a short trip to Tulum gave me a taste of that life. Calling all wanderlusters, gypsy souls, boho babes, hippies, yogis, beach babes, juicers, holisitc chicks, and wannabes of the aforementioned; I have found your haven!
The hotel is fairly new. It has an on-property restaurant called 
The room comes with a beach bag to use while you are there, which was very helpful, and their toiletries were amazing, all organic, and smelled like heaven. The staff was friendly. Housekeeping replenished the bottle water that was provided for brushing your teeth daily and accommodated requests for extra pillows. The hotel also helped with reservations to restaurants and rental of snorkel equipment. They also offered yoga every morning for an extra price and could arrange in-room massage services.
The most surprising thing we saw at Chichen Itza is that they allow a regular ole’ flea market to operate within the grounds of the ruins. Hundreds of vendors set up selling all kinds of trinkets, art, t-shirts, magnets, and other souvenirs. If you are going to buy them, this is as good a place as any. You can haggle on the price, and it is cheaper than the shops in Tulum (including the downtown shops), but you need to pay cash. Also, who doesn’t want to buy a Mexican souvenir, from a Mexican, in Mexico, wearing a Mexican sombrero?!? Nobody!
From there we made a stop in Akumal Bay to swim with the sea turtles. Akumal Bay is a small town between Playa del Carmen and Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. While there were some sea turtles, I would skip this. First it is uber touristy. The beaches are very crowded because there are a lot of resorts here. The best part of Akumal Bay was this bar with swings. I love swings. But even this bar would only serve guests of its resort, so it was a fail. Seriously, just skip Akumal Bay. Go to a cenote instead (see below for what that means).
Our last stop was to the 
On our next trip, we plan to visit 
Other cenotes that are close to Tulum include Manatee, Carwash, Zacil Ha, and Crystal and Escondido. I even found a 
There are also no shortages of spas in Tulum. While I did not get to visit one this time, when I return, the spa at 
We also tried 
We kept hearing over and over that Be Tulum also had an amazing breakfast, so that is on our list for next time.
Also, the famous 
Other than the perfumes at Coqui Coqui, the one thing I wish I would have brought back is a beautiful, handmade dream catcher. If you want to buy one too, there was a shop directly across from our hotel that sold them for about $30.00 (all cash) or you could go into downtown and get them from the shops there for way cheaper than at the shops in the Hotel Zone.
No trip to Thailand would be complete without a visit to one of Thailand’s breathtaking islands. I strongly urge you to skip the overly commercialized Phuket and opt for one of the less developed islands. During our trip, we chose 
We chose the 
I am going to shut up now and let the photos tell the rest of the story (although these pictures don’t do the natural beauty of the island justice, nor do they properly convey the absolute peace and tranquility that this resort provides to its guests; I HIGHLY recommend that you make it to this Heaven on Earth sometime soon!)…
Private foot path to the nearly private beach:
The sunsets were unreal: 
Relax, snorkel, float…
