Girlfriend Getaway turned into a Couples Trip!

In July 2014,  Sue and I were discussing putting together a girls trip to Mexico for January 2015. We had such a bad winter the previous year, we wanted to have something on the books to look forward to! We knew we wanted to use our Southwest Miles to fly non stop and hoped it would be 20K miles to Cancun.  We marked our calendar for the date when Southwest would release their flights for January, which is 6 months before your departure date, and started to make plans!  When August rolled around Sue and I grabbed our flights- 20K each/non stop/round trip to Cancun!  From experience, we knew that you need to grab the flights when you see them for low points, because the amount of points needed for a flight changes by the hour.

As it goes with group planning- the other girls hemmed and hawed- excuses ranged from:

* Can't get off work-it is 6 months away- I can't possibly request off! 
* Can't travel in three's-if a 4th girl goes, then I am in.
* Can't leave my dogs, I mean my kids- that is what I meant to say!
* I can't go on vacation without my husband/partner- are you crazy! 
* I love cold weather, you are nuts to leave! 
* Mexico? I heard it wasn't safe.
* I don't have any miles, how can I get miles?

About 2 months prior to us leaving, with no other girls committing, Sue suggested we invite our husbands.  Phone calls were made, Grandparents were booked to babysit, flights were booked with Southwest miles (had now gone up to 25K miles for the guys-still a perk!) and we booked another room. 
   
Please read here about Southwest miles.

Where we stayed...

Azul Sensatori- booked through Edgewood Travel.  All inclusive resorts are tough for points (very limited- maybe only Hyatt, Hilton, IHG but extremely limited)


* loved our rooms- we had the honeymoon suites (complimentary upgrade), oceanfront. Beautiful rooms, amazing outdoor space.

* Great Food- especially enjoyed breakfast delivered to our balcony every morning (nice all-inclusive perk).  For dinner the Italian restaurant was one of our favorites.  There is a restaurant that is an additional cost -Le Cirque and open to people not staying on the resort.  It was disappointing that we could not get in there the entire time we were staying there.  If anyone has eaten there- let me know! Would love to know what you thought!

Meredith on her way to the pool

This is the main pool, that has the swim up bar and daily games

        The Beach is not great-pretty to look at the water but full of seaweed.
They do a nice job of clearing the seaweed from the beach.

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Excursion
   We wanted to check out Tulum while in Riveria Maya- looking at the cost of the tours, we decided to rent a car instead for $90 total (instead of a tour for about $90 pp).  We were on our own time and for a fraction of the cost.  Driving in that area is very easy- one main highway that is very well marked.  The check points with police officers with very big guns may be a little intimidating but they don't seem to bother the tourists.


We researched a bit online and wanted to actually go to the beach town of Tulum.  We ended up at a beach bar named Ziggys where we had a great lunch of tacos followed by swimming on the beach.

Enjoying lunch!

Great time to Mexico, even if it wasn't the Girls Trip we had planned!  It was a great, quick getaway escaping the Michigan Winter. Even better that our airline tickets were booked with Southwest Points!

Southwest still has 50K mileage promotion going on- check it out!