What To Do in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

As I mentioned before in my Nicaragua Travel Tips and Visiting Granada I went down to Nicaragua in mid-June 2017 for my sister’s wedding and had the best trip of my whole life. I have a couple wedding pics on this post, but to see all of the incredible professional photos by her photographer Chelsea Erwin be sure to check out Chelsea’s blog post. My sister and her husband are seriously like models you will die.

Photo of my brother-in-law Josh and my sister Hannah by their wedding photographer Chelsea Erwin in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Um could you die!?

We spent a whole week in a little beach town on the west coast (Pacific Ocean side) called San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Before traveling to Nicaragua I heavily lurked the amazing Instagram account @discovernicaragua which gave me so many great ideas for places to visit!

View of the bay and the town of San Juan Del Sur from one of our rental houses.

San Juan Del Sur is a popular place for surfers, college students, backpackers, and yoga retreat goers, but if you don’t fit into one of those categories this place can still be an amazing destination to visit! PS If the pictures are making these recommendations hard to follow, scroll all the way to the end for an outlined list of all of the places I mentioned here!

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The view from one of our rental houses in San Juan Del Sur. Can you spot the Jesus statue on top of the hill on the right?

Disclaimer: Let’s keep it real. Nicaragua is a developing country. These are photos of beautiful mansions and yoga studios and restaurants that we were privileged enough to travel to. Most of these places are right next to homes with no electricity where some of the locals live which are not pictured. The people we met in Nicaragua were amazing and kind and loving which made the trip that much better. But things in Nicaragua are going to be different then back home- all of our houses had gates, full-time security, and drivers that would drop us off, wait for us to finish whatever activity we were doing, and be right outside ready to take us home after dinner or the bar. I never ever felt unsafe in Nicaragua for one second, but I did have these added luxuries. I was reminded of this when I showed my dad some photos and videos and he said “I feel like you went to a different Nicaragua than I did.” I want everyone that books a trip there to keep this in mind, I am only showing you one side of beautiful Nicaragua, but there is more to the picture than what you are going to see in this blog post. That being said, I highly highly recommend you check it out for yourself!
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Unique LA

Back in May I won tickets to a really amazing event called Unique LA and had the best time ever! I highly HIGHLY recommend checking this out and definitely bring your wallet because you are going to want to buy ALL THE THINGS! Like I was shook at how much amazing local stuff there was. I also went by myself and stayed all day and had an absolute blast!

“Your dollars make a direct impact in your neighborhood! The entrepreneurs you shop from at Unique LA are registered business owners in their cities, and therefore local taxpayers, so buying from them directly helps your neighborhood public schools, libraries, fire departments, parks, and more. How great is that?!”

— Sonja Rasula, Founder of Unique LA Continue reading “Unique LA”

Tropical Bridal Shower Ideas

When my sister told me she wanted a tropical bridal shower I hit Pinterest and began furiously researching ideas and recipes! It was a brunch bridal shower that began at 11am on New Years Eve in Jupiter, Florida our hometown. Thank you so much to my step-mom Mary and to my sister Hannah for helping me with all of this as well as taking these amazing photos for this post! Check out more of her amazing photography on Instagram @hannah_claire_photography.

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Amazon Holiday Gift Ideas 2016

Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed my Holiday Gifts Ideas for Her 2016 post with tons of ideas from Nordstrom! One of my hobbies is cooking and I have a lot of kitchen gadgets and tools that I have ordered from Amazon and love. So even though these aren’t beauty/dating/travel related I thought it might be helpful to see some items that could be good for a range of people on your shopping list. Also lots of these are Amazon Prime which means they have free 2-day shipping so these are great for last minute gifts too!

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LA Guide – Hollywood

3/2/19 I am updating this post, but it’s incredible how most of the originals are still my all-time favorites and go-to’s when I have guests in town or give recommendations!

I’ve added mostly photos, but a few great newer places to check out – Rubies + Diamonds, Tocaya Organica, The Highlight Room, TAO, Blackwood Coffee Bar, Lono, Division 3, Afters Ice Cream, and Pace Joint. There’s also a few OG’s I can’t believe I didn’t include the first time – Mashti Malone’s Ice Cream which has been a Hollywood Staple for about 40 years! And Tiago which was my go-to breakfast place when I lived in Hollywood. I’ve also included a few gyms to burn off the calories after you eat and drink at these incredible places.

Recently I had my 5 year anniversary of moving to Hollywood so what better time to write up a guide or list of recommendations for anyone who wants to explore my neighborhood? Sorry for the lack of photos, most of these places are dark and sexy so even if I posted photos from there you wouldn’t be able to see anything!

Where to stay in Hollywood

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San Francisco City Guide

I went to San Francisco for a conference and a long weekend a few weeks ago and I forgot how much I love that city! The food, the shopping, the parks, the homes, the history, it’s amazing! I wanted to give you a run down of some of my recommendations.

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Vegas Bachelorette Party

I recently went to Vegas for my friend Courtney’s bachelorette party and had an absolute blast! Here’s some info that might help you with your next bachelorette bash or your next trip to Vegas!

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Toronto Top Five Recommendations

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Traveling to Toronto, Canada and not sure what to prioritize visiting? I have some great recommendations for you! I found this city so amazing and loved it and I hope you will too!

Here’s the short list of my top 5 recommendations for Toronto:

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Where to Go in Paris

This is long list filled with great recommendations of where to go and beautiful photos of delicious pastries in Paris. I realize, though, that you might need a handy short list. Here’s a list of the places I personally recommend going in Paris:

Where I Stayed in Paris

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How to Spend One Day in Barcelona Spain

On this trip I stayed outside of Barcelona in the lovely little beach town of Sitges, Spain while my friend Molly went to her neuroscience conference. Once her conference was over we headed to Barcelona for a full day of exploring. Here’s a quick list of recommendations for Barcelona:

What to See in Barcelona:

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