Summer is well underway here. A/C is on full blast and kids are out of school. Now, I love traveling as much as the next person. Especially going to a new country. But, we aren't millionaires and I'm a SAHM. We are fortune to travel off island, 1 or 2 times a year. So we plan lots of stuff to do locally. I mean, we aren't going to live here forever , so we gotta take advantage and see the sights.
One thing that we have done a lot of are staycations. We not only have done them here, but we've done them in places back in the states. When we were in WA, we would get a hotel room in downtown Seattle for the weekend and roam the city. When we were in VA, we would get a hotel room in Northern VA and roam the city. In CA, we would get a hotel room on the beach and roam the beach. You get the idea. But vacations don't always have to be to to new exotic places. Plus, staycations are quick, fun, and cheap.
Luckily, we live on a beautiful tropical island, with an abundance of awesome hotels. We booked a weekend at The Rizaan hotel. Its literally 20 minutes away! Not far at all. We got together with 8 other families and planned a weekend there. The hotel was awesome! Right on the beach, indoor pool, outside pool, slides, restaurants, huge breakfast buffet included and the hotel room was reasonably priced. We spent two days there, and we had a blast. I swear, the kids became fish. They didn't want to leave the pools or the beach. Even though it was 20 minutes away from our house, I felt like I was on vacation somewhere else. It was very easy to get into that vacation mind set.
Notable mentions:
Breakfast buffet::
When I booked our hotel our buffet was included. I always love when this is included because breakfast is usually the only meal that I know for sure we will eat when we go on vacation. Throughout the day if we are sightseeing, beaching, pooling, we forget about time and we usually consume snacks rather then meals. This buffet was huge,lots of selection and pretty good food. They had traditional Japanese and American breakfast options. There were also lots of fruit and veggies. The options changed daily, which is nice! So we started our days with a good hearty meal to keep us going for our long days.
Rooms:
The basic rooms, which is what we booked, was actually not too bad. Especially in Japan! We've been to a few Japanese hotels and most of the time the rooms are pretty tiny. Our room was small, but good enough. We had 2 beds, a pull out bed, couch, coffee table, and mini fridge. I was really surprised with the room. I was thinking it would be tiny. But it was a good enough size to fit all 4 of us comfortably.
Pools:
The hotel had 2 pools, one inside and one outside. Both had areas for smaller children and water slides. The outside pool did have a waterfall. The kids loved going under it. It was nice that there was the option of inside and outside. Sometimes outside it was way too hot, Oki summers can be pretty brutal. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves at both pools.
Memories:
I know this sounds cheesy, I dont care!!! We made lots of memories that weekend. I loved seeing the huge smiles from my kids. I loved seeing M relaxed and enjoying himself. It was so much fun going with all our friends. I honestly was afraid when we were planning it, I thought it was going to be a mad house. In the end, it was the more the merrier. We kicked off summer with a bang! I'm so excited for all the fun stuff this summer has to come!
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