For our anniversary this year, Ryan and I decided to go on our first child-free vacation. Since we were going without our daughter, I only was comfortable going for a long weekend. This worked out perfectly because we were able to use our Chase Sapphire card points to book our hotel and our Southwest card miles to book our flights, making the trip basically free for us! This is the same strategy we used to go to the Dominican Republic for free for our honeymoon!
What I Bought for our All Inclusive Trip
I was so excited to find waterproof Uno cards for us to play on this trip! Ryan and I love playing card games together, but we don't get to do that often with a little toddler around. I found a travel Uno card case to pack them in so the cardboard box wouldn't get ruined in the suitcase. I went ahead and got a matching travel card case for our favorite Monopoly card game as well, because we take that on every trip we go on.
Like I mentioned in my All Inclusive Favorites post, we like to bring stainless steel tumblers for drinks and a stainless steel water bottle for water. For this trip I got tumbler cleaning tablets to make cleaning them easier, and a collapsible cut stand to our cups air dry faster but folds flat to pack.
Since we're planning on some rest and relaxation on our child-free trip, I went ahead and got us his and hers beach pillows with cooling inserts (I decided to leave the inserts at home). This is extra, but since we live near Galveston beach, I knew we could use these for more than this trip. These turned out to be our favorite item for the trip! It made laying down on the beach chair SO much more comfortable, and they packed up so small that I want to take them on every trip.
Another thing I'm SOO glad I brought was a small Turkish beach towel. Our resort only let us check out 2 towels per day, so it was nice that I had an extra that I could use as a blanket in the mornings before it warmed up, and Ryan could use as a blanket to cover his legs when he napped so he wouldn't burn. We used this so much on this trip that I added another to my Amazon cart while we were on the beach so that next time we can each have one.
Ryan already has a waterproof travel wallet, but we keep it in our "cruise bag" that has all of our cruising essentials in it and stays packed for our cruises. I got a 2nd wallet in a new color because it's so cheap, so now we don't have to unpack our cruise bag just for the travel wallet, and can keep one in our "all inclusive" bag for future trips. I needed my own "travel wallet," but didn't want an actual wallet. Instead, I found this cute tumbler fanny pack that can hold my phone, room key, and money. I really like that is has a zipper to keep my money safe, but also an outside pocket to keep my phone easily accessible. It's also waterproof material so I don't have to worry about using it when I'm dripping wet.
What I Packed for our All Inclusive Trip
Checked luggage
Since we were flying Southwest and knew we'd get a free checked bag, we decided to check one bag and then each take a small personal item onto the plane so we could be hands free in the airport and take full-sized sunscreen in the checked bag. This was just a quick trip for just the two of us, so we could fit all of our clothes into a hanging closet organizer which took up one half of the suitcase.
The other half of the suitcase had my travel toiletry bag, travel hair tools bag, our all-inclusive bag, my husband's toiletry bag, and our sunglass box packed with his and hers sunglasses.
Carry on bags
My husband brought a carry-on backpack that had his Airpods, an airplane phone mount, a solar phone charger, my Kindle and an iPad, plus his swimsuit and sandals and sunglasses for the beach.
I wore a crossbody that had each of our passports, my Airpods, my phone, and a phone charger. I loved having our passports right on me so I didn't have to go digging for them in my bag, but they were more secure than just being in my pocket.
In my carry on, I had a wet bag with my swimsuit, coverup, and sunglasses, the Turkish towel, the beach pillows, towel bands, and a sunscreen stick.
Beach bag
For my carry-on bag/beach bag, I brought a baby Bogg Bag and I loved it! This is my first vacation with my Bogg Bag, and the baby size was perfect for just the 2 of us at the beach. I got a phone pouch for the outside of the bag, and it was perfect for putting my phone away while still having quick and easy access to it while at the airport. I added two little carabiner clips to the outside of my bag so that we had an easy way to hold on to our sunglasses and could quickly access them without scrounging around in my bag. I clipped a small waterproof speaker onto one of the shoulder straps and quietly played music for just the two of us until the beach bar opened and turned on their sound system (it was also great for listening to music while getting ready in the room). I got a little beach-themed paci holder to hang off of the shoulder straps, and because it has straps on the inside of each side of the pouch, it held both mine and my husband's Airpods perfectly.
I got a divider tray that kept my water bottle upright in the bag on travel days and converted it to a little table tray at the beach and 10/10 loved it. On our first day, we got to the beach in the late afternoon so of course all the beach chairs with tables were taken, and the only available seating was a lounge bed. I loved being able to use the tray in my bag as a table and have a place for our drinks to sit flat so we could lay down on the lounge bed and not have to hold on to our drinks.
On the second day, we played Uno at the beach and since the tray has raised sides and is a few inches lowered into the bag, it was the perfect place to play our cards without worrying about them flying away. When we weren't playing Uno, it was just another table by our chairs to keep our little beach table from being overcrowded. Also, when it's horizontal as a tray, it completely hides all the stuff in your bag so it was a good place to stash things.
What to Wear in Cancun
Women's outfits
For the flight from Houston to Cancun, I wore a matching 2-peice spaghetti-strap set, my favorite water sandals, and a lightweight knit sweater. I was so comfortable and cozy on the plane, and after we landed I just threw my sweater in my carryon and felt great in the warm weather. Once we got to the resort, I changed into a bikini, coverup, and same sandals and wore those for the rest of the day. That night, I wore a maxi dress and espadrille heels.
For our one and only full day at the resort, I wore a two piece crop top and flowy pants set with my sandals to breakfast. After breakfast, I changed into a bikini, travel sun hat, same coverup, and water sandals and spent all day down at the beach. For dinner, I wore another maxi dress with the same espadrille heels.
On our last day, I wore another matching 2-piece set for my travel outfit with my same sandals and knit sweater for the flight home.
So, in total I packed 2 matching sets for travel outfits, 2 bikinis for daytime, 2 dresses for nighttime, 1 casual outfit for daytime, 1 swimsuit coverup, 1 sweater to layer with, 1 roll-up wide brim sunhat, 1 pair of waterproof sandals, 1 pair of heels, 1 strapless bra, and underwear.
Men's Outfits
My husband packed essentially the same as me, but I don't have any additional photos of his outfits to model what he packed. For our flight there, he wore a Henley with shorts and tennis shoes, and then changed into a swimsuit and sandals at the hotel. For dinner, he wore the same shorts from our flight and a polo with his tennis shoes.
For our full day there, he wore a swimsuit and short-sleeved UPF shirt with his sandals during the day, and the same shorts and tennis shoes plus another polo for dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the resort this night (rather than the buffet), and although they allowed him in wearing shorts, he did wish that he had pants to be a little dressier, so we ordered him some linen pants for vacation.
Unfortunately for him, he didn't wear his UPF shirt into the hot tub, so his shoulders got burned by our last day. For the trip home, he wore a long-sleeved UPF shirt, the same shorts, and his tennis shoes.
So, in total he packed 2 swimsuits, 2 UPF shirts (1 short-sleeved, 1 long-sleeved), 2 polos, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of tennis shoes, 1 pair of beach sandals, and underwear.
Thoughts on our weekend getaway
It was a short trip, and we do wish we had one more full day at the beach, but we were happy to get back to our daughter. The nice thing about such a short trip was that we didn't need to pack much (and like I explained, a lot of this stays packed year-round), so there wasn't that much to unpack and we didn't have a ton of post-vacation laundry to get caught up on once we got home. What helped get us over the post-trip blues was that we actually have a 5-night cruise planned for next month, and we're brining our daughter along with us!
