Travel by Adam

October 30, 2020October 30, 2020

Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa / Breathless Riviera Cancun

Looking forward to checking out this new addition to Secrets! We are excited to see how the resort works with the new setup with Secrets and Breathless. We are here to help with your next vacation! Travel by Adam or call/text 816.656.7330.

This is one of my favorite resorts with a new great option to stay at Secrets and enjoy all the amenities of Breathless Riviera Cancun.

Check out our Facebook Group for this new resort.

10/29/2020 Dear Valued Travel Partner, We would like to take this opportunity to announce that we are expanding our Secrets brand footprint in Cancun with the announcement of Secrets^® Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa, set to open and begin receiving guests on December 15, 2020. Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa is a new subdivision of Breathless^® Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa located adjacent to the existing resort. The existing Breathless xhale club buildings, consisting of 164 guest rooms, will be rebranded to Secrets offering guests the best of both worlds. Nestled between the Caribbean Sea and the Lagoon of Bahia Petempich, Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa will offer guests an exclusive, all-Preferred Club-Suite resort for adults seeking an exquisite getaway with pampered, destination-concierge style service with access to the social sophistication, excitement and nightlife of Breathless. In addition to the Secrets standard Unlimited-Luxury^® experience, all guests can take advantage of: 164 guest rooms, including 18 Master Suites and one Presidential Suite All rooms designated Preferred Club with exclusive, elevated services Dedicated Concierge service and Preferred Club Lounge One pool dedicated for Secrets guests Kibbeh, the current restaurant at Breathless Riviera Cancun designated for xhale club members, will rebrand as Rosewater for Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa guests only All guests of Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa will have access to amenities at the existing Breathless Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa including nine restaurants, nine bars and lounges and two pools offering the best of both worlds experience In order to accommodate this new resort on the existing footprint, Breathless Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa will also undergo changes and continue offering the Unlimited-Luxury^® experience to all guests, including: 362 guest rooms, including four Master Suites and one Presidential Suite New xhale club lounge for xhale guest use Select suites will be modified to become xhale club rooms, and select xhale club Ocean Front guest room balconies will have whirlpool tubs Private ocean view a la carte breakfast venue only for xhale club guests Breathless and xhale club guests will not have access to amenities in Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa Please also note that both resorts will share the existing motor lobby, however, both resorts will have separate access to their respective lobbies and lounges.

December 6, 2018December 6, 2018

Cell Phone Roaming While Abroad Tips

It doesn’t have to mean a huge cell phone bill when you want to use your phone abroad! I remember in 2009 my friend, Amanda was on her phone a lot. I warned her that it would make her bill huge. It did! Over $1,000 in data roaming. That is not the case anymore!

Some carriers allow free access to texts and 2G Data (Sprint and T-Mobile) on most plans. You can add high-speed data for a fee. T-Mobile One plans allow you to use data on Gogo-enabled flights for free. Some AT&T plans have North America date, text and talk included. Verizon and AT&T have roaming packages you can purchase. I have used my Sprint plan in Mexico, Caribbean and many European countries with no issue. I will say that the free 2G data is painfully slow, so I just purchase the daily/weekly passes.

Make sure you check with your carrier before leaving to make sure your device is ready to use and that you understand what your plan includes.

More on Sprint’s offerings here. Highlights – free text and basic data in over 200 worldwide destinations. $25 cent per minute calls. Faster data $2 day / $10 week Mexico & Canada, Most other destinations $5 day / $25 week.

More in T-Mobiles offerings here. Highlights – free text and basic data in over 210 worldwide destinations. Unlimited talk and text + 5 GB LTE data in Mexico & Canada. $.25 cent per minute calls. Faster data passes can be purchases for $5 per 24 hours for 512 MB data and unlimited calls.

More on Verizon’s offerings here. Highlights – TravelPass $5 day Mexico & Canada. $10 day most other destinations. You are using the data/minutes within your plan with the travel pass.

More on AT&T’s offerings here. Highlights – Talk text and data included in Mexico & Canada on some plans. $10 day International Pass unlimited text and talk and using the data limits in your plan in more than 100 countries.

Thinking about your next trip abroad? Let us help! Check out Travel by Adam or contact us for help planning your next trip.

September 20, 2018September 25, 2018

Royalton Riviera Cancun

Royalton Riviera Cancun is a fantastic 4.5 star resort located about 20 minutes south of the Cancun airport. It is an easy trip from the airport and seemed very safe. It is located off the main highway down a private road with a guard house.

It has an adults only section called Hideaway that gives you access to an adults only pool and additional restaurant and bar options.

It is a modern, new resort (opened in late 2014). It features 800+ rooms with a dozen pools, 10 restaurants (including a food truck), 24 hour room service, free WiFi. Standard rooms are very nice and upgrades can include a swim out room, terrace jacuzzi and Diamond Club (butler service).

The pools are beautiful and have something for everyone. From the main pool with activities throughout the day, quieter relaxing pools with swim-up bars to the kids splash park with a good selection of water slides and the adults only Hideaway pool.

The food is amazing. I have stayed at many all-inclusive resorts where the food is average at best. They have dining options for everyone! Gourmet Marche is the international buffet and is really impressive in the selection. Hunter Steakhouse is a great spot to get a perfectly cooked steak. Zen is Japanese featuring authentic teppaenyaki experience. They also have great Japanese cuisine and fresh sushi. We only had a little over 48 hours at Royalton so we didn’t get to try everything. The room service was decent.

The spa was great. Brice has his first massage ever and loved it. We had a couples massage where we started with hydrotherapy and then a 50 minute massage and facial (it was the daily special and was something like $250 for the two of us).

They have nightly entertainment/shows and a 24 hour sports bar (with all kinds of games on anytime day or night). The club, XS was fun. The DJ played good music and people were dancing and having a good time.

The only downside of Royalton is the beach. The beach is nice white sand. However, as with many other places from Mexico and all over the Caribbean there is a current issue with seaweed Sargassum problem. They do a good job of clearing off the beach so you can still lounge and get drinks while watching waves. People were still swimming but it was not a beach I want to swim in as of August 2018.

Here are some other pictures:

March 26, 2018October 8, 2018

Welcome to my travel blog!

My passion is travel. The point of this blog is to provide travel reviews, tips, ways to get more bang for your buck. I have thought about starting this blog since the early 2000’s and finally pulled the trigger! I hope you find value in my honest reviews and travel tips. I will also be sharing trip reports and itineraries that I have planned/been on or that my awesome group of friends and family will let me share with you.

After I got engaged I started planning my own destination wedding. As I started to research places and how to plan a destination wedding I quickly realized that using a travel agent was going to be very helpful. The more time I spent doing research and getting quotes I realized I have always been great at travel — and that travel agents provide a lot of value! I started my company, Travel by Adam to help people live their best life. If you need inspiration for a quick getaway or once in a lifetime vacation let me know! Check out my travel company, Travel by Adam.

Some of my trips in the last few years include (trip details will eventually be posted for all of these with reviews, lessons learned and much more.):

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – family vacation
Norwegian Cruise Lines – European Cruise (7 nights – Barcelona, Spain; Rome, Italy; Florence/Pisa, Italy; Naples (Pompeii), Italy; Cannes, France; Marseille, France. Also got 24 hours in London due to a flight issue on way home.)
Cancun, Mexico – many times ranging from romantic getaway to group trips & spring break (early 2000’s baby)
Isla Mujeres, Mexico – group trip
Nassau, Bahamas – many times ranging from group trips to a romantic getaway
Las Vegas, NV – many times ranging from New Years Eve, March Madness every year, group trips, weddings
New Orleans, LA – many times ranging from weekend getaway to bachelor party
Biloxi, MS – weekend getaway
Lake Tahoe, CA/NV – friends trip/brother trip
Chicago, IL – Royals vs Cubs, work trip
Panama City Beach, FL – family vacation
Perdido Key, FL – family vacation
Orlando – Disney and Universal
Sonoma/Napa Valley, CA & San Luis Obispo, CA – Group trip for a wedding
San Diego, CA/Temecula, CA – weekend getaway
Lake of the Ozarks, MO (many times – weddings, family vacations, weekend getaway)
Berlin, Germany; London, England; Paris, France – romantic European trip

I went to Paris for the first time when I was 16 and traveled many places with my 2 brothers (Mark & John) and mom and dad (Gwen & Steve). I am so thankful to my amazing family and parents for taking us to such amazing places as a teen.

In college i continued to have the travel bug and decided to study abroad in a small Italian town, Paderno del Grappa, Italy. It was an amazing jumping off point into Venice (1.5 hours away) and then into the rest of Europe from there. I made amazing lifelong friends while seeing so many amazing cities and countries. If you have children encourage them to study abroad. It truly is life changing.

I am working on a true list of everywhere I have been and when. It is much harder to pull together than I thought it would be! I will eventually add it to this blog as I continue to work on it including as much detail as I can provide on where I stayed and the type of trip/what I recommend doing.

Please message me blog@travelbyadam.com with your travel tips, dream vacations, questions and of course let me help plan your next getaway!

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