Posted by Raphael on Jan 25, 2013 in Inspiration, LoweStudio Photos, Personal, Photography | 0 comments

Finally after almost 3 decades of independent travel, I think I finally found the secret to having a real vacation such that I feel much more refreshed than I have been in a long while. You know how you can go off to a long vacation and feel even more tired than you left? You feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? I didn’t feel any of that this time around.

You know what I did differently this time? NOTHING!  That’s right….I didn’t plan to see anything, I didn’t schedule to go anywhere, I didn’t even rent a car to drive. We essentially had a stay-at-the-resort do nothing trip where we woke up as late as we wanted to, spent our day walking to nearby eateries for our meals, and just swam all day in the heated infinity pool. No more feeling like I had to get the most out of my trip by visiting every darn thing possible.

Granted, there isn’t much to see on the Big Island of Hawaii but endless lava rocks. But that made it even easier to justify the do-nothing plan. Loved it. From now on I think we’re going to try for some kind of stay-cation like this where I’m simply going to remove myself from every responsibility and just veg.

The main purpose of this particular trip was for this little guy’s 4th birthday. What was supposed to be a trip last Summer had to be postponed because he broke his arm at school last year. So as it worked out we rescheduled the trip for him this time around risking the chance it would be rained out.

We stayed at the Waikoloa Marriott, which was another 1st because our original plans to stay at the Hilton was thwarted because of some kind of big eye convention. As fate would have it, this turned out to be another plus too because we found the Marriott to be a much more chill environment and the heated pools were fantastic to hang around all day long. Kingston especially loved the sand pool which gave toddlers a fun and safe environment for him to play around without fear that he’d sink like a stone.

Surrounding areas along the Marriott property was great too. Beachside access was right there and it was surrounded by protected Hawaiian ponds. Lots of animals nearby even gave me a convenient way to give the little guy some early education on wildlife. We even got to see some sleeping sea turtles on the last day as we took an easy stroll along the beach shoreline.

I highly recommend the Marriott if you’re ever in the Big Island area around Kona. Remember — do NOTHING!!