VoyageMonkey Travel Blog

One of our favorite places as a vacation paradise is Cabo San Lucas, Mexico ( Cabo ).  Located at the very southern-most tip of the Baja Peninsula; Cabo rests where the Pacific Ocean meets the tranquil Sea of Cortez.  Cabo is only a short two hour flight from Los Angeles California making it ideal for short getaways, golf weekends, bachelorette parties, and spa treatments.

In and around Cabo you’ll find plenty of activities and water sports, like fishing, diving, wave runners, parasailing, snorkeling and more.  The sea water is always a warm comfortable swimming temperature.  Sports fishing enthusiasts come from all around the world for the Marlin and Tuna fishing, including high dollar fishing tournaments.  There are plenty of fishing boats to charter in the Cabo Marina as well as sunset dinner cruises, dive & snorkel trips and water taxis.  Golfers can play Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones designed golf courses while shoppers enjoy an array of shopping complexes and small shops & boutiques.  The local people are super friendly, warm hearted and many speak at least some English.  The U.S. Dollar is widely accepted so you can get by without converting to Local Pesos.

Cabo has a large choice of world-class resort hotels to choose from.  You can go all-inclusive at such resorts like the RUI Palace, which include meals and liquor, or stay with the typical spend-and-pamper as-you-go plan.  Either way you’ll find top beachfront accommodations to fit any budget.  We like all four of the Pueblo Bonito Resorts in Cabo.  All are beautiful beachfront properties and offer free shuttle between each sister resort and reciprocal resort privileges & room charging at each resort.  It’s great to use the different pools, facilities, and beaches each of these resorts has to offer and be a welcome guest with a room tab.  It’s a way of getting more for your money.  On the Pacific side of town you’ll find Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach and Pueblo Bonito Pacifica, while on the Sea of Cortez side of town you’ll find Pueblo Bonito Rose and Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos (Blanco).

Cabo has a number of fun bars and restaurants.  No trip to Cabo is complete without stopping by Sammy Hagar’s famous Cabo Wabo Cantina, Squid Roe, and The Giggling Marlin, Cabo’s oldest bar.  All offer great food, drinks and fun music & entertainment.  There are also some nice beach bars and restaurants if you want to keep your toes in the sand.  The Office, Edith’s, Baja Cantina Beach Grill and the Mango Deck all offer beachside dining and great Mexican beach ambiance.  It’s typical in Cabo to see restaurant guests partaking in silly dance contests or drinking games orchestrated by the waiters and staff.  The Mexican’s think we love that stuff, which apparently we do.

Find out more about Cabo travel reservations and Cabo hotel accommodations at VoyageMonkey.com Online Travel Booking.

 

Daytona Beach is located on northern Florida’s east coast, a little over an hour drive from Orlando.  There is a lot of Florida to see in this area so Daytona can be a great place to spend a few days when it’s not spring break or bike week. 

Along the heart of Daytona Beach you’ll find several nice resort hotels on the beach that have full amenities and prime beach location, complete with beach chairs and umbrellas. You’ll want to spend a little money and stay at recommended hotels since some of the resorts can suffer from spring break syndrome and have typical beach-front maintenance issues.  Our personal preference is the Hilton Daytona Beach Resort Ocean Walk Village or the Wyndham Ocean Walk Resort directly next door.  Either resort will make your stay in Daytona enjoyable.

Daytona Beach is a fun beach town with such attractions as their famous International Motor Speedway, a long white sandy beach you can drive your car on (certain times), and a host of aquatic activities.  Here you can Jet-Ski, parasail, Kayak, sail, windsurf, surf, fish, plus more.   Daytona has a convention center near the beach, plenty or bars and restaurants, surfers, the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse, the largest Harley Davidson dealer in the world including a Biker Theme shopping center with biker bars, biker restaurants and a biker hotel, all first class stuff for the constant bike & car rallies that run through Daytona.  After all, Daytona is NASCAR country, the friendly south.

There is always plenty of entertainment and fun in and around Daytona.  Daytona’s central location allows you to easily take short day trips to Jacksonville, Amelia Island, St. Augustine, Cape Canaveral (the Kennedy Space Center), Cocoa Beach (Ron Jon’s Surf Shop), as well as Orlando and Disney World, and be back in time for dinner.  If you like golf there are hundreds of golf courses in the area.  Find out more about vacation package deals and discount travel to Daytona.

When it comes to cruising and taking in some great Mexican culture, there is no better cruise than the Pacific Coast of Mexico.  You have several fabulous cruise itineraries to choose from.  You can generally sail from Los Angeles, Long Beach or San Diego California.  Most sailings to the Southern Mexican ports, like Acapulco, will originate from San Diego.

From any of the three departure cities you can cruise to the popular ports of Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.  Southern ports, in addition to Acapulco, include Ixtapa –Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo.  These six Mexican port cities all offer plenty of traditional and contemporary culture, entertainment, dining, music, beaches, sports, and fun in the sun. 

You will find that the local people are very friendly and warm hearted.  You are a tourist and they love you.  It’s fun to talk to the locals and many of them do speak English, or some.  The local seafood, shipboard flare and flowing margaritas usually make for a great week aboard a cruise to Mexico.

On your ship you’ll usually find fine dining, multiple restaurants, multiple bars, cocktail lounges and entertainment lounges.  You can enjoy swimming pools, Jacuzzi’s, gambling casino, live music, live theater, spa, salon, gymnasium, shops, and a multitude of onboard activities and shows.  The food is usually good to very good and served around the clock.  Food is usually included in the price of your cruise, but not drinks.

I’ve found that a sunny day on the sea relaxing on an open deck gazing out over endless ocean can really take you away from your stresses, at least for that moment.  A cruise along Mexico’s west coast is always a great way to take a vacation that is affordable, great value, and logistically easy, check-in, check-out.  Cruise lines have a very high repeat business for a reason.  Learn more about online travel booking your cruise vacation.