This was a great highlight to our time in Puerto Vallarta. This hike takes you through beaches, along the ocean, over bridges, up and down stairs, and is a lot of fun!
Getting there: We drove from Conchas Chinas 25-30 minutes south to arrive in the city of Boca de Tomatlàn. You can also take a bus there if you don’t have your own transportation.
Parking: There is street parking around; we parked on Calle Pelicanos. If you orient yourself to the pin on our Google Map link, walk shortly southeast on Calle Pelicanos (against the flow of river). You will see a bridge on your right with signposts designating the way; cross that bridge and begin heading north (to the right, toward the flow of the river).
Bring: Sunscreen, water, bug repellant, change of clothes & swimsuit, pesos for the panga (water taxi) or restaurants.
Hike: The hike is beautiful; you will walk through beaches and jungle, up mountains and right next to the ocean. You will walk by people’s houses during the hike, but no one minds as I’m sure they’re used to it. There are steep inclines, bridges to cross, and steep downhill declines as well. It will take ____ hours.
The first half of the hike, from Boca de Tomatlan to Colomitos Beach, is a bit easier than the second half. There are various rest stops and signs to make sure you’re going the right direction.
Once you reach Colomitos Beach, you are about halfway through! It’s a beautiful little beach where you can relax. There are a couple vendors selling coconuts, water, snacks, and food. There is also Ocean Grill, right next to Colomitos Beach which is supposedly very yummy! Be sure to make reservations prior to coming. From Colomitos Beach, you can flag a panga (water taxi) to take you back to Boca de Tomatlan or further south if you’d like.
If you continue onward, cross Colomitos Beach and begin the harder second 1/2 of the hike. The trail is steeper, without rest stops, and there are drop-offs as you hike right by the ocean. The trail will seem to split into two early on, take the trail to the left toward the mountain.
At one of the long beaches, you’ll see a trail that leads into the jungle. Don’t take this one, keep staying on the beach and along the cliffs/ocean to make it to Los Animas! You’ll find several restaurants with lounge chairs and umbrellas on the beach that you can sit at and relax. When you’re ready, head up onto the dock and take a panga back to Boca, or head further south to Yelapa.
Travel dates: Sept 21st to Sept 29th, 2018 (7 full days + 2 half days)
Overall thoughts on the trip: Do we recommend Belize? Yes, especially if you’ve never been! Definitely go out there, do the ATM cave tour, and enjoy the island life. Would we go back? Maybe during a different season – we went during late September, and the beaches had a lot of seaweed (sargassum), in addition to mosquitoes and no-see-ums at dawn/dusk except in Secret Beach. It was definitely a good idea to start out with mainland jungle activities and end with the islands. Belize is adventurous and your money goes far here. Locals are nice, and we felt pretty safe during our whole trip: for example, when we were swimming in the ocean we left our stuff on the shore at Secret Beach.
Favorite restaurants according to location
San Ignacio (SI) – Ko Ox Han Nah & Sanny’s
Caye Caulker (CC) – Maggie’s, Errolyn Fry Jacks, & Chef Juan
San Pedro (SP) – Blue Water Grill & Hungry Grouper
Favorite happy hour: Lazy Lizard at CC (5-6pm daily) – just make sure to head out before dusk OR wear long sleeves and cover yourself!
Favorite activities
ATM Cave Tour near SI
1/2 day snorkeling near CC
Secret Beach at SP
Total spending for both of us: $1800ish USD + $350/pp flights
General overview of Belize: Belize can be divided into 2 categories: Jungles and Islands. The areas of importance: 1) San Ignacio 2) Belize City 3) Caye Caulker 4) San Pedro / Ambergris Caye, 5) Dangriga, 6) Hopkins 7) Placencia. We didn’t get to go to Dangriga, Hopkins, or Placencia. The main areas to stay in Belize can be divided into the jungle areas such as San Ignacio, and the islands. Islands are called cayes (pronounced keys): Caye Caulker and San Pedro are the most popular ones. We decided to spend our first 4 nights in the jungle area / city of San Ignacio, then 4 more nights at the islands to end our trip.
Our itinerary: Belize City ⇒ San Ignacio (4 nights) ⇒ Belize Zoo (half day) ⇒ Caye Caulker (2 nights) ⇒ San Pedro / Ambergris Caye (2 nights) ⇒ Belize City
Tip: if you don’t care about crossing the Guatemalan border to the Tikal Mayan ruins, I’d recommend staying in Belmopan area (instead of going to San Ignacio). It will save you a lot of time, shuttle $, and also time traveling during excursions. Most of the excursions such as ATM, cave tubing, and the Belize Zoo are much closer to Belmopan.
Day 1: Arrive in BZE airport in the evening and took William’s shuttle for $100 (one way for 2 people). They stopped by a convenience store on the way.
Day 2: San Ignacio
Taxis: It costs about $5 Belize / $2.5USD to go downtown. Just wave any taxi with a green license plate. Or if you are at a restaurant, they can call a taxi for you.
ATM excursion through Maya Walk; 7AM – 3PM including transportation time
Cost $85/pp + $20 tip
Bring: Change of clothes, plastic bag for your wet clothes, towel, backpack with snacks and water, and insect repellent
Hike: 1.5 miles of hiking along the river, followed by .5 mile of hiking in the cave / river: navigating through the narrow cracks, swimming, climbing boulders, looking at bats, and learning about ancient Mayan artifacts such as pots, skeletons, and rock formations.
Lunch: was served around 1:00pm ish. Not a great lunch + local rum mixed drink.
Dinner at Guava Limb, $40. TripAdvisor gave it really good ratings but we we’re impressed and rate it 3/5 stars.
Day 3: San Ignacio
Xunantunich (Mayan ruins), $10 BZ, 8AM-4PM
We took the bus west toward Guatemala: every 30 minutes buses come: you just wave your hand to stop the bus along the road. These buses look like old US school buses. There are also some private buses which are much nicer inside and will also take you for $3 BZD/pp. Option 2: just wave at the taxi and they will take you for about $3 BZD/person (shared ride).
Take hand-cranked ferry (free) across the Mopan River, walk 1 mile mostly uphill until you reach a complex of temples and plazas that dates back to early classic Maya period.
You might see and hear some howler monkeys in the trees near the picnic area by the ticket booth. They’re really loud!
Iguana conservation center $10/person: it was a cool experience playing with iguanas for an hour.
Xunantunich
Day 4: Chaa Creek Resort. They have many activities to participate in at the resort. It’s secluded and very relaxing.
Butterfly tour
Medicinal trail tour
Upstream canoeing
Night tour
Bird watching in the morning
Day 5: Belize Zoo to Caye Caulker
The zoo was special because you could actually be very close to the animals. They are fenced but there is no extra space or protection from the fence to yourself. You could very well put your face to the fence or your hands through the fence, although we would not recommend that!
After the zoo, we headed to the water taxi ($10/pp) that would take us from Belize City to Caye Caulker
Day 5 & 6: Caye Caulker
So relaxing, very small island (you can walk across east to west in 5 minutes at the narrowest point: north to south is about 1 mile: I ran 4 miles during one of the mornings, but going through all the streets).
Beware: so many mosquitoes and no-see-ums, they are the WORST at dawn and dusk (5-6pm for us). Sam got bit 20+ times from no-see-ums during the sunset! We eliminated Belize from our potential future places to live because the mosquitoes / bugs love Sam.
The Split – one of the most popular gathering places on the island, with a nice swimming area (be careful of the strong current and speedboats). Also has an open-air bar. Water is shallow for a good stretch in front of the sea wall and the sandy bottom is free of rocks. Little fish, crabs, and starfish along the wall also.
Happy hour at Lazy Lizard: very touristy but great spot to hang out and watch the waves/boats. $5 USD for their famous green lizard juice during happy hour. Also 2 for 1 well drinks for $5 USD during this time.
Snorkeling in CC was one of our highlights. Swam with the sharks.
Day 6 & 7: San Pedro
Boat from Caye Caulker to SP one way: $9.5 per person
Secret Beach Trip
We chose to rent a golf cart and drive ourselves to Secret Beach on the west side of the island because the seaweed was on the east side of the island. We rented a golf cart from Avis which is a Lebanese family owned company ($40/24 hours + fill up gas $10). They dropped off the cart at our place, and we were able to drop off at the airport.
The ride to Secret Beach took about 50 minutes. It was a beautiful ride. We even picked up 1 hitchhiker each way and learned about their lives in Belize.
Food at Secret Beach is overpriced with tiny portions; so I would recommend eating in town beforehand. You are required to spend money to use their amenities – so save your money & buy drinks here! If you do get hungry, there is a small restaurant on the dock to the left of Pirates that was pretty good! We got the stewed chicken with rice/beans, one fried plantain, and coleslaw for $7.50 USD only!
There are 5 main bars / restaurants there
Pirates
Maruba
Blue Bayou
Wayne’s World
Paradise
We had planned to spend our day at Blue Bayou, but they were renovating and only had the bar open without any tables in the water. We decided to start at Pirates and then go over to Maruba afterwards. Pirates had picnic tables in the water and inner tubes to relax on. Maruba had very comfortable beach loungers and a floating lounger made of wicker/mesh. The floating lounger was so nice because you could submerse more of yourself in the water while still floating.
Watch out for sea lice! They are stinging baby jellyfish aka “sea lice” about 0.5cm-1cm in length. You can’t see them in the water until they “stick” onto you and sting. They are seasonal, around April-August, but there were still some in the water in late September! I also heard a few others saying they were bitten too.
The beach was so dreamy and relaxing: We spent about 5 hours chilling in the water (warm), floating on water tubes, floating on floaties, swimming, eating/drinking/lounging. Time passed by quickly. We spent about $50 USD here total.
Since it was our last night, we decided to go a bit fancy, and had dinner at Blue Water Grill (they take reservations). We ordered grilled shrimp with pineapple sauce and their dinner special of fried whole fish. They do give you complimentary bread served with olive oil/balsamic vinegar. Food was amazing and we spent about $52 USD including tax and tip.
Last Day: We made sure to buy a bunch of plantain chips (with spices) to bring back for ourselves and our friends. We decided to buy a ticket to fly from CC to BZE through Tropic Air to save us time. The ride was such a fun experience! It was a tiny plane with ~10 passengers and the view was absolutely gorgeous.
Summarized nutrition info from recent readings, podcasts, etc. I just wanted to get it out of my head and put it in writing. Hopefully this helps clear some confusions among my friends.
There is no optimal diet that fits everyone.
All types of diets can work to help one lose weight and maintain weight: low-carb, low-fat, ketogenic, paleo, etc.
The most important thing : ask yourself which diet is most sustainable.
which diet fits best with your life style,
what food you feel good on
what you can stick to LONG-term.
Quality of food you eat matters!
Vegetables and fruits have protective effects against some of the bad things you eat. Not to mention they obtain vitamins and minerals you can’t obtain else where. Meat also contain vitamins and minerals not found in plants.
Vegan is not superior to omnivore type (eating well balanced meats and vegetables). (there has been randomized controlled trials comparing Vegan vs omnivore diets and found no difference).
Calcium, iron, zinc, choline, taurine, creatine, retinol, EPA, DHA – all of these are shown to be lower in vegetarians and vegans than they are in omnivores. If you are vegan, you should get them checked.
Make sure you are supplementing correctly if you are a vegan.
What the Health movie on Netflix is extremely biased toward vegan diet, by the way.
But processed meat is bad!
Get rid of beef jerkies, salami, sausages, hot dogs, bacon, corned beef, canned meat.
But if you do eat them, eat a lot of vegetables, which has some protective effects against processed meat.
Carnivore diet is the new cult-diet-trend where a person only eat meats. This can be dangerous/risky. You are eliminating all the benefits of plants. Plus, zero studies have been done to see how safe it is.
This is what an ideal diet would look like. (My diet is more flexible, I am sprinkling in some beers, wine, baked goods, sweets here and there.)
High in unsaturated fats from fish, nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils like extra-virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil
High in complex carbohydrates from legumes (lentils, chickpeas, various beans) and whole grains (oats, couscous, pasta, polenta, and breads from whole grain sources)
Rich in a variety of non-starchy vegetables, and fruit.
Everything is in moderation. So, eat meat, saturated fat, dairy, etc in moderation. Nothing in excess.
Controversial topic: but many RCTs have shown that no evidence that consuming cholesterol increases blood cholesterol levels or risk of heart attack in most people.
Total caloric intake matters.
You gotta create energy balance if you wanna MAINTAIN weight
You gotta create energy deficit if you wanna lose weight.
But in a linear fashion over time: no sudden significant reduction of calories.
Eating sugar in combination with fat is not good for body. (Mechanism: sugar ==> higher insulin levels ==> easier for fat to be stored readily)
Faster aging.
Easier fat gaining.
Will reduce your longevity (life span)
Eating more proteins tends to help weight loss.
Proteins have higher thermogenic effects (caloric burning)
Proteins also have higher level of satiety.
Eat things that are nutrient dense: the highest nutrient dense foods in order – organ meat, shell fish (clams, oysters), fatty fish, lean fish, then vegetables
“Yo-yo” dieting is terrible: this is where you lose a bunch of weight and then gain it all back. It causes your body to go into fat-saving mode, and makes it easier for you to gain fat.
Americans don’t have problem losing weight. Most Americans can lose weight TEMPORARILY. The problem is that they gain it all back, and even more weight 2/3 of the time. The rebound is bigger.
Actionable things you can do to have a healthy life and longevity:
Well-balanced meals (eat plants, meat) without smoking or excessive alcohol
Time restrict your eating or occasional fast when you can.
Exercising (has to have moderate-high intensity)
Lower stress levels.
Adequate sleep
Go lift some heavy weights and build muscles!
Sources: Rhonda Patrick, BioLayne, D’om D’Agostino, Chris Kresser, Valter Longo,
We have been trying to take advantage of our Southwest Companion pass during our 3 day weekends. (FYI for those who don’t know, the Southwest Companion pass allows you to essentially buy one ticket, and get one free + taxes!). This time we decided to visit: Salt Lake City. It was a bit of a challenge finding things to do, but it was a good trip overall! Travel Dates: July 12 to July 15
First impressions:
No traffic even during rush hours! (also easy paid parkings)
Nice folks!
Hot but not humid: if you drive out to Park City (about 35 minutes away Southeast), it’s about 10-15 degrees cooler there! And Antelope Valley is 10 degrees cooler (52-60 minutes drive Northwest).
Full-Size Car Rental: we rented a car from the airport through the Advantage company (just walk across) for $106.48
Stayed at: Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel: 150 West 500 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 United States
Thursday Day 1
11 min / 7.4 miles from SLC airport to Sheraton.
Target to pick up 1 pack of water and 2 x spray sunscreen bottles.
1110 S 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Gelato at Capo then walked 13 minutes toward temple square for some cool architecture.
There are many different routes for this hike that are supposedly all supposed to lead to the top, where you see the city below and have a fun “couch” to hang out on.
A little history: “from the foothills of Salt Lake City to see what Brigham Young saw when, in 1847, he climbed this hill and gave it its present name. This was also the location where Brigham Young plotted out Salt Lake City, with temple square in the center and the organized grid system used today”.
Got the fried chicken biscuit with gravy, eggs benedict, and a lemonade $31+tip.
Recommended!
Explored the Public Library and spent 1.5 hours here. Street parking $2/hour payable online. It’s an absolutely beautiful library!
Public Library
Biscuit and gravy
Antelope Island ($10 entry fee per car)
Time spent including driving: 4.25 hours.
1 hour driving from the hotel (42 miles) with a tiny bit of traffic
Return trip took 52 minutes with no traffic.
Buffalo sighting: drive on the road adjacent to the east part of the shore: We drove around for about 20 minutes and saw 3 buffalo & 2 antelope from a distance.
There are a bunch of trails here ranging from short to long on the island:
We saw beautiful sunset at the “Buffalo Point Trail” which is about 0.4 miles one way in. The sunset and its reflection on the lake was breathtaking.
Cons: In the summer time, this area is known to have a bunch of gnats/flies. But luckily, we only encountered minimal # of them following us around 5% of the time.
This place is owned by Chef Adalberto, who was on the cooking show “Best Baker in America”. If you are a new customer, you get a free yummy macaron! We shared a Cruffin, which is a croissant shaped like a muffin filled with dulce de leche, which you can’t find anywhere else. It was the best croissant/muffin mix I’ve ever had in my life.
Big Cottonwood Canyon is located in the mountains between SLC and Park City. It has a lot of trails along the way, with scenic views and perfect place to have a picnic.
It was a beautiful hike with a lot of shade, a well maintained path, and great views of the lakes. The first lake, Lake Mary, was the most gorgeous.
⏰: 4.4 mile round trip, 2 hour 15 mins
Difficulty: mild-moderate
A lot of shade. And you take the same way back.
Best ⏰to go: morning time but the trail is forgiving with shade if you go later in the afternoon.
🚕: 45 min drive from dtSLC
Free large parking lot outside the Brighton resort.
Lake Mary
Lake Catherine
After the hike, it was a perfect opportunity to take the scenic route called “Guardsman pass scenic drive” leading to Park City Utah.
Google map should automatically route you using this route. If not, you can zoom in and look for that path on the map.
Park City
Street parking ($2 per hour) but there are public parking lots about 10 minutes walk where you can park for free. We walked down the main downtown area of Park city and had a beer ($6) on the rooftop at Spurs. We just spent 1 hour here because there was not much to do.
Reasons to come here:
15 degrees cooler than SLC
Outdoor activities to do if you choose: such as horseback riding, mountain biking trails/tours, kayaking, rafting, etc.
Olympic Park (on the way back to SLC from Park City )
Where they have a bunch of ski memorabilia, museum, a few games, and history lessons of winter olympics (all free). Pretty cool spot: you can even purchase tickets to do zip lining, tubing, etc.
Other trails/nature places nearby that we wanted to do but ran out of time
Donut Falls: 1.5 mile hike into a waterfall shaped like a donut.
White water rafting near park city.
Dessert highlight: We grabbed some cookies from RubySnap and they were deeeelicious!! They are a little pricey, but you can sample cookies and they gave us a coupon for a free cookie on your next visit! Unfortunately they are closed on Sundays so we couldn’t come back during our trip. We highly recommend the Blueberry Lemon Chia cookie. FYI they are more a mix between cakey/cookie rather than a thin crunchy cookie.
Lake Blanche
RubySnap cookies
Sunday: Day 3
We watched the World Cup finals at the hotel before heading out to Los Iguanas for lunch, then hiked Lake Blanche. It was a tough hike of 7 mile round trip in a 85 degree weather. We felt the view at the end of the hike is a bit overrated (would highly recommend the Lake Mary ⇒ Lake Catherine hike) but if you choose to do this hike, here are some of the details.
⏰:1:50 to the top + 1: 25 back =6.8mile roundtrip/3.5 hours + time to enjoy the lake up top.
If you’re tired of overpriced Vegas day clubs and looking for an alternative adventure, you will like this beautiful hike: Goldstrike Hot Springs. Hikes like this one change my perception about Nevada and make me appreciate Vegas trips more. We don’t know many hikes that contain such an extensive list of fun like this one does: natural hot springs, boulder climbing with ropes, going through the canyon, tiny waterfalls, a gorgeous view of the Colorado River at the end, and a mini cliff jump.
Climbing boulders
Small waterfalls
Navigating down ropes
If you’ve ever been to Zion National Park, this hike will remind you of its famous Narrows trail.
I discovered this place back in 2010, and it was pretty empty back then. When we went last weekend, there were a ton of hikers. Drive: From the strip: 45 minutes drive. Level of difficulty: mild – moderate Distance: 7.6 miles round trip Time: 4 hours (We were going at a pace of 4/10 exertion level)
From Yelp reviews: 3 hours is the fastest time, and 4- 5 hours is usually an average time.
The hike is not for the follow types of individuals: 1) you are really pregnant, 2) you have severe hip or knee arthritis causing severe loss of range of motion in your lower body, 3) any acute neck, shoulder, back, hip, knee pain, etc., 4) you rather be in the pool parties, or if 5) you are too hungover and dehydrated.
What to bring:
Hiking boots (definitely helpful for many uneven, wet, slippery surfaces you will encounter. Water resistant hiking boots- even better!)
Sunscreen
Light jacket
Water
Snacks
Gloves (optional: but really nice, especially if you don’t have calluses like I do).
If you are planning to go into to the hot springs or cliff jump:
a towel, extra clothes, socks.
# of natural hot springs that are dip-worthy: 2
There is also a cliff to jump off at the end if you dare.
Expect to climb with ropes: There were about 6-7 climbing spots (the highest one is no more than 10 feet). Unfortunately, there is only one way up/down when there are ropes, so it can take a while waiting for others to pass through the ropes.
Directions to parking:
Finding this hike can be a little tricky.
Use the address: US 93 Hoover Dam, Boulder City, NV 89005
Google maps will tell you to drive over the bridge and tell you that you’ve arrived when you’re driving through it. (Apple maps is fairly accurate in this case).
The trailhead is located slightly South of the freeway: ==> Take the exit (exit 2) right before the bridge and turn right after the exit. You will see a dirt road to park (a bunch of cars will be there) and start your hike.
So if you noticed you are going under a freeway after the exit, then you are going the WRONG way.
Note: this trail is closed between May and October: the reason being heat stroke killing a bunch of people back in 2014. ( *** )
Tips:
The best time to hike in the Winter or Spring months: December- March is especially pleasant when the rivers and hot springs are at their peak from the Fall. Also, the sun is out without being super hot: pleasant temperature in 70’s.
Leave early so you can have breakfast at the famous Coffee Cup restaurant in Boulder City on the way (featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!). We got there at 8:45AM on a Saturday morning and waited 20 minutes for a table.
Leave extra early (like 6am) if you wanna avoid the crowds, and avoid the wait to use the ropes during the hike.
It will start out boring for the first 40 minutes of the hike but we promise that it only gets beautiful, especially as you get closer towards the end (Colorado River).
Snakes: some reviews mentioned that there were some snakes (California Kingsnake, rattlesnakes) but we didn’t see any.
Have fun!! And comment below if you have any questions.
Cabo Shuttle Services: Transportation from and to airport: Email the manager Martin directly at sales@caboshuttleservices.com, you can negotiate for $125 round trip. Just let them know that Kay Lin referred you and that you “liked” them on facebook. That will help you get a deal. The great thing about this company is that it’s a private shuttle so you won’t have to waste time with picking up or dropping off people. And they will stop by a grocery store along the way (if you wish) so you can stock up on water bottles, beer, etc. You also don’t have to pre-pay: you can pay in cash after the ride. I think tipping between 10 to 15 dollars is good. Just make sure you bring change because sometimes they don’t have change.
Timeshare Presentation:
If you are married and over 30, they will likely ask you in the lobby for attending a timeshare presentation, but they call it a “tour with free breakfast”. They offered us $250 in food and beverage credit per couple ($500 total. Note that tax and tip is not included.), along with huge discounts on excursions ($30/person for zip line, sunset cruises, etc), 50% off massage). Free basic buffet-style breakfast (eggs, sausage, fruits, yogurt, etc) with the presenter, and the pitch only lasted about 90 minutes. We knew we weren’t going to make any commitment to buy, so it wasn’t a huge risk for us to listen to their presentation. We were pleasantly surprised that they didn’t put any pressure to buy the timeshare. We would definitely do the timeshare presentation again to get the deals.
Tip: Have a plan ahead of time to say no. The sales guy didn’t put any pressure on us because we didn’t present ourselves like we would fall for it. But if you don’t act right, you could end up spending more time, under more sales pressure (some reviews on TripAdvisor said people were in these sales pitches for 3 hours).
Mt. Solmar hike (1 hour-ish roundtrip)
The entrance is in front of the Naval Station (10 min walk from the lobby). We entered through the side metal gate, which was not locked. The trip advisors reviews mentioned that owner was there to let you in but there was no owner there when we went. There were some dogs, so keep the gate closed after entering. The hike gets pretty steep after about 20 mins of hiking uphill. Here, you just need to keep following the flags, then red arrows directing you where to go. There was a lot of steep climbing so our pregnant friend couldn’t go longer after halfway through. Recommend going early in the morning because it gets really hot later.
From the top of Mt Solmar
Ocean view
They do have a nice gym: free entry if you are a timeshare owner or a guest of owner.
Smith machine but no squat rack.
You can do deadlifts but can’t bang weights
Medical Care: There is a doctor at the hotel (building 4 first floor). A few of us got food poisoning after the eggs at Mama Royal Cafe. It says $135 per Dr. visit but she didn’t charge us when we went to her for Grace’s visit. She ended up having to go to the hospital at Cabo Centro Medico. It wasn’t a shady hospital like some of the reviews said. The bill was around $4500 for a day of hospitalization, which was charged to credit card. My friend just had to apply for reimbursement, which should be 100% covered.
Grocery store:
Our shuttle allowed us 1 stop at a grocery store, La Comer (took about 30 min to shop there). La Comer reminds me of Superior grocery stores back at home.
Shopping list: 2-3 packs of water (we got 2x 24 arrowhead water bottles), 6-12 bottles of beer (we only finished 4 bottles since we were drinking at the bar), chips, yogurt, fruits, Gatorade, cereal. Not to worry, there are Oxxo convenience stores (similar to 711), where you can buy big bottles of water and Gatorade for cheap.
Food: It’s $125 per person to do all-inclusive, but you have to get it 3 nights minimum. I don’t think it’s worth it because we ended up spending way less than that per person. Plus, we also got to try yummy food from downtown.
Happy Hour is at the pool bar area from 11-12pm and 4-5pm.
Any cocktail drinks are buy 1 get 1 free ($14 regular price). They also have daily drink deal for buy 1 get 1 free (for the whole day!). Their drinks are quite delicious. You can ask them to blend it. All the drinks were yummy and our favorite was the mango margarita.
You can order food at the pool bars too. Since we were at the pool a lot of the time, we used the poolside food service quite a bit and just charged it to our room. We tried the steak burrito, chicken soup, grilled shrimp grand solmar salad, grilled vegetable salad, and ceviche. The only thing I wouldn’t get again is the ceviche due to super small portion size.
Note: tax here is about 16%, and the food comps credit doesn’t cover tax or tips.
Deli bakery between 1-3 pm daily: buy 1 get 1 free pastries ($3): they are average (muffins, chocolate croissants, etc).
Chillin
Salad with grilled shrimp
Grilled veggie salad
Restaurants to avoid:
Mama’s Royal Cafe: 3 of us got mad food poisoning there, and 1 of us got hospitalized.
Mexican night at Grand Solmar $47/person: The food wasn’t tasty, and I got sick the next day from the food.
Safe places to eat from our experience.
Maro’s shrimp house: get the shrimp molcajete, 1/2 kilo grilled shrimp, but I wouldn’t get the lobster again.
Gus Tacos: cheap authentic Mexican tacos. Grace really enjoyed the quesadillas and I liked their shrimp tacos.
Zipline: $30/person with timeshare deal
We did the ziplines with Cabo tours. It wasn’t just traditional ziplining though, we got to try various things: 1) walking on ropes, 2) going down a wall 3) upside down zipline 4) superman style zipline where your body is flying horizontal, and 5) swings. They provided home-made quesadillas with hibiscus and kiwi juices afterward. We wouldn’t do it again with the same company because the ride each way took almost 2 hours (7am pickup time, 1:30pm drop off time) (because they had to drop people off). The activities itself only took 2 hours!
The only picture we took zip lining
Airport check-in process:
Very fast: we left the hotel at 1:45pm and we were through security and got to the gate by like 2:50.
Summary:
No need to convert to Pesos: Dollars work just as well. If you use a credit card, charge in Pesos to minimize conversion fees.
ONLY drink bottled water even at the hotel.
Enjoy the infinity pools and swim in them.
Take advantage of the nice empty gym.
Enjoy happy hour and drink specials but don’t get wasted.
Bring some bug repellent and sunscreen because there are some giant mosquitoes here.
Repeat.
Don’t expect to practice Spanish here because everyone will speak to you in English.
We spent about 7 nights in Tokyo and 1 day in Hakone. It might be too many days to spend in 1 place for a lot of the people but we likxe to explore one place fully without feeling rushed. Our next stop is going to be 2 weeks on the other parts of Japan: Kyoto, Osaka, etc!
We tried to organize each day most efficiently by location so we don’t have to waste time with commuting back and forth.
Lodging: In retrospect, we would have liked to stay in Shinjuku because we ended up visiting the area at least 3-4 times!
Things we didn’t get to do:
Owl restaurant
Spending a night at Haokone Ryokan or hiking there
11AM Fuunji: Bomb Ramen! Gotta get there 10 minutes before they open (11am), because there will be a line later!
Yasuda Sushi
Great experience here! Reserve in advance, so you can sit at the sushi bar. Sitting at the table is not as fun! Every piece of sushi was phenomenal, especially the rice, which was extraordinary and each piece of fish was delicious-like no sushi I have ever tasted before. Chef Yasuda was had some hilarious stories. Enter a caption
Wednesday, November 9
Shinjuku
Breakfast
8:45 am: Joel Robouchon bakery place located right outside of the Shinjuku train station: opens early, a little bit on pricier side but the bread goods were delicious. We got the two most popular items: curry bread and cheese bread.
9:30am: National Garden: Opens at 9:00am 200y per person and can be completed in 1.5 hrs at s slow pace.
Snack break: Bake cheese tart (egg tart)Opens at 11am: (SOOOO GOOD!! We got this almost everyday and even took some back to the States)
We ordered another round to freeze it.
Isetan Dept store depachka:. Tons of Bento boxes including Indian, Chinese, macaroons etc.
I only came here because my friend asked me to bring back some curry sauce packets which costs 570 yen each. The curry wasn’t that good, it’s on a thicker side. I would have liked to try co co curry which had better ratings. Next time!
Shinjuku Isetan. Super fancy department store with plenty of bento/to go food to choose from on the basement floor. You shoudl go up to their manicured rooftop garden for enjoying your bento. The rooftop area is super nice, bring your food here and enjoy!
Yasukuni Street: long street that cuts across central Tokyo (including Isetan’s Men’s). In East Shinjuku the street is lined with neon-lit buildings filled with Karaoke and Izakaya. It’s the most photogenic street in Shinjuku. (we didn’t do this)
Golden Gai for izakaya bars located in a small alley.
Takashita street is right out of exit from the subway station and filled with a lot of food snacks and souvenirs. There is a long street with a bunch of shops, crepe places and souvenir shops.
We bought a bunch of socks to give as souvenirs to our friends.
Disneyland (50 minutes from Shibuya) (opens at 8 am)
We packed lunch with bento boxes from Isetan Department store. They checked our backpacks very superficially and we had no problem bringing the food in. Food prices in Disneyland are relatively cheap though compared to America one. Churros were $3 and waffles were only $4.
We forgot our souvenirs last night at a bar in Golden Gai, so we ended up going back to grab it. We ended up stopping by Toraji restaurant since it was on the way.
Toraji: Korean bbq restaurant with very good quality Wagyu meat. Imagine GyuKaku but with fancier meat. We shared a 6000yen dinner set between 2 of us and we were both pretty full.
Tori-No-Ichi at Ootori Jinja Shrine: It was like a Night market/Rake night at Shinjuku
A little tip on foreign transaction fees: If you use your card without foreign transaction fees, they are still using the conversion rates similar to what a post-office would when you exchange cash. But the benefit of using credit cards is that at least you get points and convenient to carry!
We ended up eating some street food such as egg on the stick (highly recommended), tuna steak, mochi with fruits, then stumbled upon Sushi Zanmai, which was a conveyer belt sushi with very reasonably priced. One of the best sushi I’ve had. There are many restaurants with similar name so just pick the one with a lot of people. Haha.
2) Ginza Akebono Mochi Shop: (20 min walk north west of Tsukiji market: take the subway!!). Fancy mochi place located just across the street from A1 exit of Ginza station. Mochi ranges from 3-400 JPY. We didn’t end up getting any though. But next door, there is this
Manneken Belgian mini waffles place that we tried. It was the best waffles I’ve ever had. Get the purple one which is a sweet potato flavor. MNnekan wakes soon bomb!!!!!
We can see how this park can look gorgeous during cherry blossom times. They do have christmas lights on the trees though. It should be beautiful at night.
2) Ameyoko (Downtown/Taito) is a flea market where you can buy cheap kit kats located just South of Ueno park.
Beware: every pharmacy store has different prices for kit kats. The lowest price for kit kats for 200 yens each. Strawberry ones are not that good.
At night:
Izakaya
Torikizoku at Shibuya. Cant find using google maps.
Huge bowls, so it will definitely fill you up. The duck has a nice broth but the meat was really tough/overcooked. The curry broth felt a bit diluted.
Asakusa
Nakamise Dori Shopping area can be found on the road starting from Asakusa subway station and ending at Senso-ji temple. Save room in your tummy because there are a ton of dessert places here. They also have more skewers, crabs, etc as you get closer to the temple though.
(11am-11pm)
Senso-ji temple 6am to 5pm Free (Asakusa) (northwest of Asahi Beer)
Pineapple bread Located west of the temple itself. Get 3 for 500JPY. So yummy when fresh. You can even request ice cream and make it an ice cream sandwich for 450 JPY.
SkyTower Mall: (13 minutes east walking from Asahi head quarters)
I am glad I stumbled upon this place. Very modern mall with stores like pokemon, souvenir shops, food courts, etc.
Go up all the way to the top called Garden Dome, where you can see the Tokyo tower. There are also some benches where you can lay down and relax.
World beer museum located on 7th floor of SkyTower: this was a tourist trap with overpriced beers, Tokyo Sky tree town-Solamachi Store.
Weather was perfect so we went up to Asahi Beer HQ to see the sunset. Beers are about 6-900 JPY and Well drinks are about 500-600 JPY. The negative part about this is that smoking is allowed here. Get the seating facing west, so you can have ventilation coming in.
You can get a free stroll outside the museum with a pathway with skinny bamboo trees.However, you have to pay ~ 1000yen to get into the museum.
Takeshita Dori:
Ice cream Crepes
Socks shopping.
Observe weddings in the morning at Meiji Temple. There were multiple weddings when we went around 3 pm. These were the quickest wedding ceremony I have ever seen. Everyone looked pretty serious instead of looking “happy”. There were a lot of cute kids in kimonos taking family pictures. Apparently, the kids are supposed to wear kimonos and take pictures at the age of 5 and 7.
Omotesando : located Near apple store. The street itself is very scenic. There are a bunch of high end stores like Gucci and Emprio Armani.
Ikebukuro district:
Has a ton of arcade games
We went to Waru Waru Izakaya for dinner, which was pretty decent.
Monday: HAKONE: I do wish we spent a night here at one of the Japanese bed and breakfast places.
Option 1: Romance car (45 minutes from Shinjuku)
Onsen
Open air museum ($16) (Probably would have been cool but we didn’t do this)
Hike (didn’t because we kinda got there late and it was raining)
Get a Hakone free pass at Shinjuku Station. The info centre/desk is called “Odakyu sightseeing….” located on a floor higher up. Cost: 5140 JPY per person. So this include 1) your round trip ride via regular slower train to Hakone, 2) attraction rides such as: cable car rides and etc in Hakone, 3) small 5-10% discounts at places such as Onsen, museums etc if you elect to do them. This is good for 2 days. There is a 3 day option too if you are spending longer time there.
This ride allows you to access regular train which is slower and the seats are not as nice. You can upgrade your ride to Romance car (90 minutes one way) for 890JPY more each way. So the total cost round trip would be 5140 + 890 + 890 = 6920 per person if you elect to ride with Romance ride.
Tip: might wanna reserve the seat online for romance car. They sell out quick!
What can you do in Hakone?
It has street foods near the train station.
The main attraction: onsens/hot springs.
But if you wanna do hiking, you would have to do one of those cable attractions ( a train ride away, which is included in your hakone free tour package.
Owakudani Valley: Buy their famous black eggs which are made from hot steam from the volcanic sulfur pools (each egg is supposed to prolong your life 7 years). This crater is created from Mt. Hakone erupting 3000 years ago. Trip Advisor link
We wouldn’t have found this cool secret spot if it wasn’t for the fire in Big Sur. Very cozy atmosphere with short shady trails!
Location: about 14 miles south of Julia Pfeiffer park.
No street parking here and parking will cost $10.
The entrance can be very hidden if you are heading south (although there are signs). Expect to make a very sharp left turn (almost a U-turn). However, it’s relatively easy to find if you are heading north (on your right before the bridge).
This is a great option for camping too (3 camping areas; 1 with an ocean view!)
There are 3 trails (Lime Kiln, Waterfall, and Hare Creek).They are very short (1.5 hours total to cover all 3 trails).
Beginning of the hike
Very shady, secluded hike.Lots of squirrels.Redwood trees.Great choice for a hike even during the afternoon since it’s covered by tall redwood trees.
This is a quick stop 30 miles south of Lime Kiln Park.There is a huge parking lot (free) here on your right if you are heading south.It’s hard to miss.Park your car and walk along the coast and enjoy the views of sea lions frolicking in their natural habitat.It was super windy so bring a light jacket.
A hole in the wall with yummy fish tacos and sammiches.We got albacore and salmon tacos, $6 each. 3-4 tacos should be enough for 2 people but we chose to leave a little room for the famous chicken pies 2 blocks east: A Deli and Pieman Pies for some bomb chicken pot pie ($7).
If you like cookies (and really who doesn’t), there is a famous Brown Butter Cookies shop across the street.Their honey cookies are a must try.
Stayed at Los Osos Airbnb ($78 including fees)
Our awesome hosts provided with some breakfast and food to feed their goats (left bowl)
Kay accidentally took a bite from the goat food bowl because he thought it was an apple for us!
We are so glad we stayed in Los Osos because we would have missed this gorgeous hike if we didn’t! Here is the park brochure/map. You can pretty much drive around the whole place and pick out whichever to hike. We chose to hike the bluffs. Parking: if you look at the map on the brochure, park at the “P” located northeast of “Bluff Trail”.
The entire trail offers an absolutely gorgeous beautiful view. It’s gorgeous from every angle. We saw some of these unique-looking sharp crystally rocks that we have never seen before. The Bluff Trail is rather an easy hike that can take you about 3 hours if you do roundtrip for 4 miles. However, you can walk as much or as little as you wish and turn back. There’s no shade any where, so I think super early morning for sunrise or late evening for a sunset hike would be the best. There are benches all over the trail, facing a gorgeous ocean view. Great to have a picnic too.
It’s something that is great to visit at least once in your life. When they tell you to use both hands, you hold on for dear life to those pans! These birds are hungry and they will take you by surprise if you’re caught off guard.
You pay $6 per person to get in and get 1 bowl of food per two people to feed the ostriches. Ostriches are such funny looking creatures!
Nojoqui Falls near Solvang (77 miles drive from Los Osos)
Very short hike: round trip in just 25 minutes. After being spoiled by amazing weather in Big Sur, this was relatively a hot, dry hike, and the waterfall was dried out. It was very shady though.If you are looking for a diversion around Solvang this is a really nice spot. It’s mostly up hill so if you walk slow expect a slightly longer walk. I can see how this could be a hidden gem with the waterfall flowing.
Things we wanted to do but didn’t get a chance
Esalen hot springs: 1am-3am Hot springs; $30/person only with RSVP (check their schedule)
We took a wonderful 3 day, 2-night road trip down Highway 1 starting from San Jose, CA and ending up in Los Angeles, CA. We had a lot of fun planning and are excited to share the sights and wonders of our journey!
General tips
There is limited cell reception along the coast, so plan ahead and keep track of how many miles/minutes it is from one place to the next. (printing this blog post would be a great idea if you are gonna follow our plan!)
Check for fires before you go! Unfortunately, during our trip, there was a large fire occurring which left all hiking/parks east of Highway 1 closed.
We broke up our driving each day into small parts, and took breaks at beautiful vista viewpoints
If you love the feel and vibe of small mom and pop diners, this is a must stop. Located on the Monterey Boardwalk, this diner plays great music in the background as you enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean.
Point Lobos Reserve:85 miles south of San Jose & just south of Carmel. Be sure to get a map of the park.
Tip: Wear long pants because there is a lot of poison oak on the paths and bring a light jacket due to the chilly breeze.
Entry fee into the park is $10 per car. There are multiple parking lots, and you can drive around the whole reserve. There are lots of trails around, so park depending on how you want to navigate the reserve.If you are planning to hike the whole place or don’t mind walking a little further, there is street parking available near the entrance area (free).
Here is the map of the trails. The North Shore trail is probably the most scenic trail along the coast. It took us like a little less than 2 hours to explore the trails at the North and Northeast sections.
This restaurant has spectacular ocean views, and it’s a great place for a wedding too!
I would recommend sitting outside but ask for a table in the sun since it can get a bit cold due to the wind.
After your meal, explore the grounds! They have lounge seats with a perfect view of the coast, an exciting trail, and you can even hike onto a cliff!
Ripplewood Resort: 14 miles / 20 minutes south of Rocky Point Restaurant
The Ripplewood convenience store where you check-in is located right at the Chevron gas station on the left. If you see Fernwood Resort, then you went 1/2 mile too far South!
The road is located to the left of the picture, about 300-400 feet away.
We stayed in Cabin 12A which was cozy, comfortable, and clean. There is one parking spot right in front. Unfortunately, it’s very close to Highway 1 so you can still hear cars from the cabin. The lights outside the cabin are also quite bright at night, so it wasn’t the experience we were looking for. They do have other cabins close to Big Sur River, so perhaps we will check those out next time.
WIFI: available near the check-in area. Fairly fast.
McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park: 12 miles / 21 minutes south of Ripplewood Resort
Drop-gorgeous iconic view of Big Sur
You can park on the side of the street, walk through the tunnel and wa-la! It’s a short hike walking around this view. There is also another short hike you can take on the other side.
Roundtrip: about 6.5 hours if we didn’t get lost. Allot an entire day to this hike though as you probably won’t be able to do much after depending on what kinda shape you are in.
Parking: Free with adventure pass but $5 otherwise.
Wear layers including a rain proof jacket/windbreaker, maybe long sports pants (it could get really cold, especially on the day we went at least)
A hat
Trekking poles (these were life saver)
A backpack with
1) a lot of snacks, sunscreen, at least 1 L of water.
2) a sandwich or some sort of savory lunch to eat when you reach the peak.
3) Maybe a pair of gloves if it’s a cold day.
There are multiple ways to get to Mount Wilson but here is how we did it. We started from the parking lot The trail is actually 14 miles round trip but we actually took the wrong turns and ended up doing 20 miles 😦
Park, and walk on concrete road for about 10 minutes until you see a bridge. Then you will see a sign. Again, there are multiple ways to get there. We made a left after crossing the bridge, so we took the Chantry Flat route. (on the map, it’s lower winter creek trail ==> Hoegees camp ==> upper winter creek trail toward Mt Wilson
You will walk for a couple of miles until you see a campsite called Hoggee Camp. You gotta be careful here and look around for sign for Mt Wilson. OTHERWISE, you can end up taking the route back to the parking lot! (The mistake we made).
After about 2 miles of hiking up a bunch of loop-backs, you will see this bench.
Then Continue to follow “mount wilson” (2nd line) until you see….
Follow the direction toward “Altadena”.
In about a mile or so, you will see this fire road. However, look for a small trail with a man made stack of rocks like a “rock arrow” at the entrance.The reason: concrete pavement is a longer route while the narrow trail is a short cut.
Manmade stack of rocks on bottom left. Follow this trail up. (probably 30ish minutes until you reach the top)
After about a mile of hiking uphill, the trail will end up right into the parking lot.They do have nice bathrooms up here and water refill stations and benches to have picnics.
Parking lot
super exhausted
The return trip is much easier if you have the trekking pole you will just breeze through.
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We packed lunch with bento boxes from Isetan Department store. They checked our backpacks very superficially and we had no problem bringing the food in. Food prices in Disneyland are relatively cheap though compared to America one. Churros were $3 and waffles were only $4. 
Park, and walk on concrete road for about 10 minutes until you see a bridge. Then you will see a sign. Again, there are multiple ways to get there. We made a left after crossing the bridge, so we took the Chantry Flat route. (on the map, it’s lower winter creek trail ==> Hoegees camp ==> upper winter creek trail toward Mt Wilson
Follow the direction toward “Altadena”.
Manmade stack of rocks on bottom left. Follow this trail up. (probably 30ish minutes until you reach the top)
Parking lot
super exhausted
Kay & Sam Ventures 