Since I was made aware of my birthday (which was around 3 or 4 years old), I've always made it my PRIORITY to celebrate the day I came into this world! When I was younger, I recall feeling so loved & special on October 19th. Receiving birthday cards, balloons, and gifts would put the biggest smile on my face as a child!
My passion for travel kicked into overdrive in my early 20's and since then, I made it my mission to celebrate my birthday with a dream trip annually (if time and money permit of course)! To date, I have taken 11 AH-MAZING trips to celebrate my day!
What makes me the happiest about accomplishing this is pretty simple - growth. On some of these trips, I was literally pinching PENNIES to get by! I remember staying in hotel rooms that were an absolute HOT MESS and barely having money to eat, but I made it work! From staying in lower end hotels on the Las Vegas strip to exotic overwater bungalows in Bora Bora is something that I will never take for granted!
We're about to go on a hell of an adventure! I am going to break down each of my past birthday trips with crazy moments + highlights from all over the world! Buckle up y'all and let's gooooooo!
Birthday Trip #1: The year is 2008 and I'm turning a quarter of a century old. I wanted this birthday to be one that I would NEVER forget! (Mission accomplished)!
Vegas was actually my dream 21st birthday trip, but I was hella' broke around that time in life and couldn't afford to pay attention much less book a vacation somewhere. Once my 25th rolled around, I was DETERMINED to go so I worked some crazy overtime at my job to pull off this weekend celebration! I hopped on Priceline and booked a flight + room package at the Riviera Hotel for around $450! I was TOO EXCITED!
I had my best friend and boyfriend at the time joining me and when we landed in Vegas - we hit the ground RUNNING! All I remember was us grabbing those tall ass yardsticks (Vegas is known for those things), filling them up with Bacardi 151 and then wreaking havoc on Las Vegas Blvd. that night! Money was scarce for us, so we drank as many free drinks as we could in the casinos and ate at restaurants advertising meals under $5.99! GAWD I'm cringing as I type this! 
The craziest thing on this trip though was doing the most cliche thing one could do in Vegas. Yep, you guessed it! I eloped at one of those rinky dink Las Vegas wedding chapels.....ON MY 25th BIRTHDAY (LOL)! Who gets married on their BIRTHDAY?!?!?
I don't remember much of anything else from this trip, but I do know that this was a hell of a way to start out on the many trips that were to come!
Birthday Trip #2: Whew! I was probably more broke on this trip than I was on my 25th birthday trip! The 1st mistake I made was flying to New York on a BUDDY PASS (ugh! more on that later) and the 2nd mistake was going to New York in general. I know a lot of people love that place, but I most definitely DON'T! I went with another friend/fellow Libra (Hey Reggie) that was celebrating his birthday as well!
We stayed in Hoboken, NJ and caught the subway to NYC everyday. My experience on NYC's subway was just ridiculous (LOL)! As we were riding the subway 1 afternoon, I heard what I thought was a cat meowing. I'm hella' confused because why would a cat be on the subway?!?! After about 5 minutes of hearing the meowing, I quickly looked up and noticed it was actually a homeless man making the noise - not a cat. At this moment, I was ready to end the trip and fly my ass back home!
That brings me to this part of the story. When it was time to go home on that damn BUDDY PASS, I learned that I was passenger #43 on the standby list. That meant that I wasn't leaving New York for at least 3 days! THREE DAYS!!!! After silently sulking, I got myself together and asked every airline agent possible for help! Thankfully one of them looked out for me! I ended up taking 2 extra flights to get home, but I made it back the next day!
The highlight for me on this trip was meeting the legendary, Chaka Khan at Hartsfield airport! She was so sweet and even obliged when I asked for a picture!
Birthday Trip #3: This trip was big for me because this would be my 1st time out of the country! I applied for my 1st passport at the age of 23 and after several failed attempts to book trips outside of the U.S., it was FINALLY happening!
While at home one day watching TV, a commercial for Atlantis Bahamas caught my eye! I saw the "Leap of Faith" water slide and said to myself, "Oh I'm going there one day"! And I meant every word! It was initially going to be my 25th birthday trip, but y'all know I didn't have the money for all of that at the time. Hell, I'm surprised I was able to pull off Vegas!
Atlantis Bahamas with my mom & sister was amazing! This was our 1st time to a foreign country and I'm glad we got the chance to experience that together!
Oh, and just like I said I would all those years ago, I got on the "Leap of Faith" water slide! It was dope for sure....but the Abyss water slide is where it's at!
Birthday Trip #4: I was watching the travel channel one day about the 'sexiest beach clubs in the world' and a place called 'Nikki Beach' made the cut! I instantly became obsessed and to my surprise I found out that this brand had exotic beach clubs all over the world. I knew one of these locations had to be my next birthday trip! In comes Cabo San Lucas! Nikki Beach had a location during that time (2012) at ME Cabo hotel! I worked some crazy overtime, saved my money and went for my 29th birthday!
My 1st time in Cabo was incredible! I did all kinds of fun shit: had dinner on the side of a cliff at Sunset Monalisa restaurant, hung upside down and took 3 shots at the 'Giggling Marlin' bar, and sang karaoke to a standing ovation that night at the Grand Mayan hotel! I even got a few tips!
The memories I made on this trip were EVERYTHING! This was my 1st time in Mexico, and I fell in LOVE! This is also where I got the idea to visit every Nikki Beach location there is! I have 12 more locations to go (LOL)!
Birthday Trip #5: I threw around a lot of ideas for how I wanted to bring in this new decade. At first it was Jamaica and then it was back to Mexico. However, neither of those places felt right to me to bring in the big 3-0 (the dirty thirty had to be BIG, OK)! I then thought back to this blue grotto in Italy I saw on the travel channel some years earlier along with pictures of the breathtaking, Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa on the Amalfi Coast. And THAT WAS IT! That's where I was supposed to bring in my 30th year! I hopped online and researched like never before! When I was done, my trip to Positano, Italy was booked!
I've mentioned working overtime in this blog quite a few times to pull off my vacations, but y'all, when I say I worked overtime to pull this trip off - I WORKED OVERTIME!!! OT OT!! (LOL)! It was so worth it though. My mother joined me on this trip as well! It was special because it was our first time to another continent! We were ecstatic! I don't think I got any sleep the week leading up to this trip (LOL)!
Arriving to the Amalfi Coast was a D R E A M! The drive to Positano was literally UNBELIEVABLE! We didn't have a ton of money of course so we rented a guest room from a super sweet Italian man named Carlo! The room was VERY basic. There was no TV, no A/C, the bed was extremely uncomfortable, and we shared a bathroom with other guests, but this room had million-dollar views of Positano from the balcony!
I brought in year 30 with a bang! I visited the island of Capri earlier in the day, sipped endless amounts of Limoncello cocktails, ate delicious pasta for lunch and partied that night at a club built inside of a grotto (Music on the Rocks)! It was a magical day and I'll NEVER forget it! On this trip, we also visited the Colosseum in Rome and the Eiffel Tower in Paris!
This birthday adventure will ALWAYS be special for me. It changed my life, my mindset and how I viewed travel! After this trip, I played NO games when it came to my holidays going forward! You're about to see EXACTLY what I'm talking about!
Birthday Trip #6: I took 2 years off from my birthday trips, but I picked back up like I never left! I'd taken on a 2nd job to make this dream vacay a reality! Traveling to Australia with my family came as a big surprise to us this year! We were so excited to experience the land "down under"!
The day we were supposed to leave for Australia, I learned a VERY valuable lesson: NEVER take public transportation from Orange County, CA to LAX!! *eye roll* My family & I left our home around 12:45 P.M. and STILL missed our 8:45 P.M. flight that evening!! I don't think I have ever been so damn mad! It took us ALL day to get to the airport!! We had to reschedule our flight to leave out the next evening, so that was 1 whole day gone from our vacation! UGH!
Arriving in Sydney, Australia after our 15-hour flight from California was exhausting, but we were happy to be there! We used Sydney's public transportation to navigate our way to our room which was in Randwick, a city in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. Money was definitely tight for me, so we stayed at St Marks Lodge.
Sydney is an amazing city! We hopped all around enjoying places like Coogee Beach, the Sydney Opera House, Taronga Zoo, The Rocks Sydney, fun ferry rides, the world famous Bondi Beach (my favorite) + much more!
A funny highlight from this trip was that my son was selected out of a crowd of people to be a stunt man's assistant during a street performance! The stunt man was nice enough to tip my boy 10 aussie notes for his participation in the show! (LOL)! I still tease him about that to this day!
Another cool thing was that I celebrated my birthday "twice" due to the time difference. A day ahead in Australia and the day of in the states! (Hehehe)!
Birthday Trip #7: This place right here had been on my bucket list for forever & a day! The day I left for Fiji felt unreal to me! I was working 2 jobs at the time, so money was a little better! Fiji was initially going to be my 1st international solo trip, but my friend Dashia decided to join in on the fun!
We stayed at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel Fiji - Sonaisali Island on the main island of Nadi. On my next visit to Fiji, I will definitely stay on the outer island as the scenery/water is much more beautiful! The Doubletree was a very pleasant experience, nonetheless. Staying in a Fijian Bure was cool!
I pregamed (the day before my birthday) at the world's 1st island beach club, Malamala Beach Club! Spending the day here sipping cocktails in a cabana and soaking up the sun was FABULOUS! The ocean was breathtaking and with the water being crystal clear, we saw all types sea creatures!
The next day, I brought in my 34th year of life jumping off of a floating bar in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! IT. WAS. CRAZY. FUN! Cloud 9 Fiji is just how it sounds! You can get your sip on and enjoy delicious pizza while you're here too! Another fun moment was running into the Fiji rugby team that day (ladies - they were fine too)! Cloud 9 is not to be missed when visiting Fiji!
There were a few more adventures that we had in Fiji too! I went scuba diving for the 1st time, hung upside down while zip lining (that was hard LOL) and tried Fiji's national drink, Kava (ummmmm....that was....interesting)!
Birthday Trip #8: If I ever pulled out my old travel journals from years ago, you'd see the island of Bora Bora scribbled all over my notebook as my TIP TOP destination of places to visit! I had always dreamed of visiting Bora Bora, but never really thought that I would! But in 2018, I had saved up enough to make this dream trip come to life!
Let me tell y'all something - I DIDN'T SLEEP AT ALL THE NIGHT BEFORE THIS TRIP! That's how excited I was! I arrived at the airport 4 hours early because I wasn't leaving anything to chance (LOL)!
I visited the island of Mo'orea first! Honestly, if the people of Mo'orea let me move there TODAY permanently I would! I have never seen a more BREATHTAKING place! I fell in love! My hotel for the evening was the fabulous Sofitel Kia Ora Moorea Beach Resort! I got the chance to explore the island by ATV & jet ski which I highly recommend!
I made one mistake with Mo'orea - I didn't stay long enough! But I will next time! Next up was Bora Bora!
Flying into Bora Bora is the most beautiful sight I've seen to date! The mountains and different shades of blue were astonishing! Arriving at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui hotel was a literal dream come true! And walking into my overwater bungalow was pure magic! I couldn't believe it! Everything I had dreamed of was now my reality! Crazy!!!! I woke up on my birthday in the most peaceful state of mind and so grateful for what I had accomplished...
...completing my 1st international solo trip to my dream destination! Wow! Wow! WOW!
I absolutely cried when I left Bora Bora. I mean....who wouldn't?! But one day, I'll be back!
Birthday Trip #9: I got the bright idea to hotel hop to 3 different hotels and a hostel to celebrate my birthday on this holiday! What I found out is that this was actually not a bright idea - AT ALL (LOL)!! I was exhausted after this trip! But it was TOO MUCH FUN! I started out by staying in Tulum at the eco-friendly resort, Azulik! Staying in a hotel with NO electricity was definitely an experience I'll never forget! The next night was also in Tulum at Papaya Playa Project! This beach lover's paradise was my absolute favorite! I met another crazy ass Libra celebrating his birthday (and his divorce) at the hotel as well! We took hella' shots and drunkenly sang songs off key all night long! Good times indeed!
The next day, I hopped on an ADO bus and took a 3.5-hour ride down to Balacar to stay in this quirky little hostel where the rooms are made of concrete tubes! Kulu Tubohostel is one of the most unique gems you'll find in Bacalar! The vibe is cool, and the owners (Abe & Carla) will make you feel like family! Kulu was a great 1-night experience and close to what I came to Bacalar to see - the Lagoon of 7 Colors!
When my adventure in Bacalar was done, I was back on the bus the next day headed to Playa Del Carmen for my stay at The Fives Downtown Hotel! After a long day of travel, this hotel was the PERFECT way to end my trip - in a spacious, quiet, and clean suite! My night was perfect!
Was this a tiring trip? Yes! But was it FUN?! Hell yeah! Yet another solo escapade I'll never forget!
Birthday Trip #10: Y'all this trip was in 2020 and I was losing it from being quarantined in the house all those months during the pandemic! When I saw that the Maldives had reopened their borders and that Americans could visit - I JUMPED ON IT! I packed my bags and took a 30-hour journey to the other side of the world BY MYSELF!
I decided to stay at SAii Lagoon Maldives which was simply amazing! October turned out to be a tricky time visiting the Maldives because it's monsoon season there! I ended up getting caught in one of the storms at the pool bar and SHIT GOT REAL y’all! But I lived to talk about it, so it's all good!
On this vacay I was fortunate enough to meet other fun travelers, share MANY laughs with them, and at midnight I rang in my birthday bathing on the deck of an overwater bungalow overlooking the Indian Ocean! I did a few other things that I won't mention in this blog, but please believe ya' girl got it in on this vacay (hehehe)! To say this holiday was incredible would be a complete understatement! The memories made here will last FOREVA'!
Birthday Trip #11: Typically, I like to take at least a week off to celebrate my birthday, but this year I had to improvise. I had just come back from the Seychelles 3 weeks prior (plus I quit my super stressful job before I went) so money was a bit tight. But things worked out and I doubled back to the place I enjoyed for my 29th birthday - Cabo San Lucas!
My sis, Staysia & my bro, Dion was able to join me on this trip and it went exactly like I thought it would - LOTS OF UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER (LOL)!! We stayed at my favorite hotel in Cabo, the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, where we hung by the pool, sipped mojitos & margaritas while surrounded by unbelievable scenery! It was BEAUTIFUL!
Y'all ready for the craziest part of this trip?! On the night of my birthday and after consuming waaaay too much good tequila, one of us (and I won't say any names) took a tumble from the hotel's 2nd floor balcony! I kid you not (LOL)! Once we realized he was OK and wasn't injured - we laughed HYSTERICALLY!!! There were tears, abs from laughing so hard, chest heaving, shortness of breath - WE F'N DIED!! Do you hear me?! WHO COMES TO MEXICO AND FALLS FROM A BALCONY?!?!?!? WHO?!?! el oh el. I haven't enjoyed a laugh like that in so long! I forgot how good they feel! I love my bro though, I swear!
Turning 38 was absolutely perfect! That 3-day trip is one I will NEVER EVER forget (LOL)! The Waldorf Pedregal was magical as usual!
ALWAYS CELEBRATE YOU!
I saw this meme the other day and it made me chuckle! "Maturity is when you treat your birthday like a normal day"!
Under no circumstances should we treat the day that we were born like a normal day! Because it's not a normal day! Each & every one of us are unique AF and we deserve to be celebrated as such! So go all out on your day! DO YOU like only you can!
Personally, I did exactly what Drake said - I turned my birthday into a lifestyle (Haaaaaaaaa)! The growth in my travels is something that will always be special to me! I honestly never thought any of this was possible when I was younger! I look forward to where I end up every year on October 19th!
Let's keep doing dope ish' y'all! Happy travels!
Talk to me! How do you like to celebrate your special day?
Is it with a trip or a party or dinner at your favorite spot?
Drop a comment below and let me know!
