Self-isolation journal in Covid-19 times

We are in the risk area for this new virus, me as pregnant in the last week (week 40), Jonatan with his asthma and my mother that is here visiting has both a heart condition, respiratory issues and hyper tension at her 64 years old. 

We went into self-isolation a bit over 2 weeks ago because we realised that although many people are civilised and practice good manners, many others are a serious danger to the society with their ignorance of this virus or any other virus. People don’t respect the basic hygiene rules of not coughing in the air, or in their hands and touch products in shops after, or touch their running noses, or clean their hands, sneeze in your face, etc. We see what’s happening in the rest of Europe, mostly Italy, but seems like every country is following because Europe is so not ready for an outbreak. And since our baby girl is coming any time, the last thing I need is to get sick of an unknown virus with no treatment to date. Sweden is not taking any measures in containing this virus, however they did change a few things in the birth routines ( 1. the dad can’t be with his baby anymore in maternity – no matter if healthy or not and 2. if he shows any simptom of cold, he can’t be there to support the mom through birth). Not sure what the role of these rules are, but surely it would depress me to not have J by my side at birth because of a simple cold (would be nice to just test dads and find out if it’s corona, but well, Sweden stopped testing…)

Oh the most important of all, if I would be suspected of Corona, I’d give birth with a midwife dressed in protection equipment – how unsettling that is? – very well motivated however. We don’t want our medical staff to get sick. 

So that’s why we isolated, even tho Sweden is far away from enforcing that on its people. I wish I trusted people more and say hey we don’t need this as long as we stay away, but the last few weeks I sadly lost a bit of hope in humanity. Thank goodness this is not such a transformative virus. If a zombie apocalypse would come, we’d all be the walking dead. 

We are now isolated for 2 weeks and it works just perfect! I worked from home before also so no loss there, I defended my bachelor thesis online on Zoom, I talk to my friends through video all the time. I don’t miss anything from outside cause I get everything home! We order food home, shop online from both smaller local stores and all over Sweden, have been stocking up on some foods from before, but a little of everything not huge quantities. J shops fresh milk and other things once a week when the shop is almost empty, wearing gloves and carefully distancing himself of other shoppers.

It’s disturbing however that there are people still not taking the situation serious, he always comes home dissappointed that people still: cough in the air, cough in their hands and then touch products, not walk minimum one meter away from eachother, elderly esspecially. 

It’s not so hard to practice social distancing when you have so many shops moving to digital! 

I will continue to support our local shops and restaurants from distance, I am however sorry for all the other types of businesses that can’t survive without people in place, events and hotels for ex. This is a hard time for everyone tho, and we need to play our cards right if we’re gonna beat this. 

To be honest, the only thing I missed out on is to give a goodbye hug to my uni friends who all left the town now since school ended for us and properly celebrate that we’re finally done after 3 years. 

Anyways, 3 days left until due date. Next time I’ll write here, I’ll be a mom! 😀

XoXo

L

Our family is growing

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Well hello there! My goodness, how long has it been since I updated the blog? I just wanted to drop by and let you know that I am alive and have some exciting news to share with you…our family is growing and world’s most beloved baby girl will be joining us in March 2020! Yay!!

During July we were spending 3 weeks in Santorini and Milos islands in Greece (hope I’ll share more details on these amazing islands with you soon) and that’s where the miracle was conceived! Cannot express the happiness, gratefulness and excitement with which we talk about our future with our little girl! J. has dreamed so much about having also a girl besides his 2 beautiful sons from his previous relation. When he was a teenager he dreamed he had a little daughter running around the football field behind his parents house. We both feel this was SHE. When I got the news from the midwife that she’s a girl (we made a DNA test called NIPT to check for syndrome chances), I went straight to buy a pair of pinkish baby socks, wrapped them good and surprised J. I was hiding my excitement so he would not guess based on my poker face – which he usually does – it’s impossible to trick him nowadays. He was so emotional and breaking in tears about it and kept saying “I’m gonna have a daughter? I’m gonna have a daughter! Omg!”. It was hilarious and I got it on video, but that stays with us. 🙂

I now am pregnant in 26 weeks (25 + 3), and it has been such a blessed pregnancy so far, I think I’m carrying the nicest baby in the world! Hope she’ll be the same when she comes out 😀

The first 11 weeks were a bit harder due to nausea, but I did not even vomit once, so really can’t complain! During week 6 – 10 we were in our place in Spain and had a lovely time swimming, sunbathing and eating watermelon so that was really nothing!

But nausea wasn’t the thing that was hardest during the first weeks, but the fear. The fear of not being able to carry my baby all the way through. The reason is that last year I have been through 2 miscarriages. Not an easy thing to talk about and definitely not something I talked about before I saw my baby girl on ultrasound. Both pregnancies were very early when it happened, between weeks 6 – 8, but it still did hurt. It hurt to the point that I have been so afraid to even go and gym while pregnant now for the third time. I just didn’t want to risk anything. Little did I know that so many women are going through early miscarriages, statistics say 10 – 20 % of pregnancies end up in miscarriage the first 12 weeks. And it has nothing to do with us women, with our bodies. Most times it’s simply just chromosome problems, the baby couldn’t be formed. Just wanted to share this so that if someone who goes through this reads my blog, will know she is not alone. Love to you sister!

But after rain comes sun! And our sun is due on 29th of March!

We renovated our bedrooms, changed a bit the house to make space for her, and we’re almost ready with her room. Starting to shop stuff now and it’s sooo exciting!

The hardest part in planning is CHOSING A NAME. We had a list of names before I even got pregnant, and favorites were Celine, Chloè, Olivia and Rebekka. Now we’re calling her Chloé, but we’re keeping the rest as backups for when she’s here. I think that when I’ll keep her at my chest we’ll know who she is.

Till next time, when I’ll write about my experience as pregnant in Sweden. Very important stuff 🙂

XoXo

 

Holidays in Spain

Hello loves, I felt it’s time to update the blog one last time before the New Year, and what better way than talking about what happened lately? We decided to fly to our vacation home in Spain and stay here for a month until we feel rested enough to go back to Sweden, That is, because we both got tired of the darkness in Sweden and the weather in Alicante area during this period is quite stable and warm, compared to the Scandinavian weather. Also because before and after the wedding we had so many deadlines, projects, stress into our lives that we really didn’t feel like stressing more with Christmas at home. The first thing I did when we arrived was sleep for 40 hours more or less. Day & night. Yes, that’s how tired I was. The plan was to rest, eat good food, train and when that’s ready, get some work done. BUT, our bodies didn’t feel the same. After a few days here I got a big bad flu with lots of sneezing, nose running, fever, and all that beauty. A few days after, Jonathan followed me with an even worse flu, or at least that’s how he describes it. The truth is, women hold on sicknesses better, am I right? And that’s how it’s been for 2 weeks now, time in which we didn’t train, nor eat good food, nor work. But we did rest. And because we got all the photos from the wedding just before Christmas, we had time to go through them, enjoy and re-live the moment. Also, we’ve been so much on Netflix that I now feel I’m done with all the good movies over there, is anyone else feeling the same?

Tomorrow we decided to go to Valencia for the next 2 weeks, to celebrate New Year and to finally visit one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. Most of this time will be spent working with my latest project, creating content in beautiful Valencia for Avery Milton, but also meeting with the super cool video production company Anker Prod. We rented a beautiful apartment in Cabañal, the area of Valencia where you can see how the locals live ( how dreamy!!! ) and can’t wait to stroll around the streets full of art, eat tapas and take photos of everything! I already have a list of to do’s for content and 2 very important personal bookings: 1 macrame workshop for myself and a tapas & wine tour with a local foodie!! How exciting is that?

I made a list of resolutions inspired from a Pinterest post and I’m thinking how fun would it be to share it with you so you can add your own stuff for Instastories? Here it is for you to download it, add text to it and share it with your friends! Don’t forget to tag me, I’m super curious of your resolutions: I’ll share mine on Instagram tomorrow!

It’s time to wish you all a wonderful night and the warmest Happy New Year!

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Sneak Peek of Our Destination Wedding

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It has been 2 weeks since we have finally said YES to eachother and the emotions of the day are still all around us. I know it sounds like a clichee, but our wedding day was the most beautiful day of my life.

When we decided to get married, we knew we wanted a simple, yet sophisticated wedding, intimate, yet with all the people that are close to our heart, a wedding so slow, it allows us to enjoy every moment.

Everything we planned, came through. Well, almost! I know there are no perfect weddings and events, as well as no perfect relations, perfect lives or perfect people. And that was what we started with, if something don’t go as planned, we don’t look back, only forward. The last thing you need at your wedding is to see the wrongs. Trust me, it’s easy to find them even if you’re the only one who’ll see them.

The weather was perfect, sunny as we’ve prayed for so much! We had a few days of terror, as rain was announced almost every day. But in the end, the day of the wedding and the days before were absolutely fabulous!

We have been blessed with the most amazing team of professionals, our wedding planners and designer Paloma Cruz and Eugenio, the incredible video team Anker Prod and the amazing photographer Marcos SanchezMoreover, my friend and talented photographer Sofia Beijer from Noor Studio in Jönköping, joined us for our trip and destination wedding and followed every moment of our wedding with her camera!

Both Sofia and Marcos sent us a few sneak peeks and I couldn’t resist sharing some of the photos here on the blog. They’re just simply amazing!  (I still can’t wait for the whole gallery and the video which will come in a few weeks!) Enjoy!

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Hardest decision I ever had to make – Wedding location

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It’s been a long time I have writing anything here, and oh, how much I missed it. But life has got in the way, with lots of projects, a new startup brand and school at the same time.

But now I have something really exciting to write about and since it’s July and time is plenty, I thought of sharing the story of the hardest decision I had to make in my entire life.

Ever since last year, when in July, during our Positano trip, J and I engaged, we’ve been thinking how and where to plan our wedding. We established that we’ll be doing a destination wedding since all my family is in Romania, and his in Sweden. It felt like the right decision, a natural one. But which destination? My dream has always been to have an outdoor wedding with a view. If possible, a view over the sea. So Amalfi felt like the natural choice, since that’s where we engaged.

But after asking for offers from Swedish wedding planners, googling around for the best location, we noticed that if we wanted a wedding in a dreamy location we had to wait tooooo long for a free spot during the oh so tight wedding schedule in Amalfi’s best locations.

So after thinking a few more months about where to say YES, we felt why not doing it in Spain, where the weather is always nice, food is also amazing, wine is at its best and people always happy? And since our family vacation house is located in the South of Spain, we’d had access to plan our wedding closely at all times.

We’ve once visited this little village called Altea, near Alicante, a romantic and genuine pearl on the Costa del Sol of Spain, with fabulous views from the top of the hills. So we thought, that’s the place!

It has been a long trip from that decision to the actual decision. First I googled for wedding planners and amazing locations in Altea and surroundings and I found NOTHING on my taste. So I went to my dear Instagram and looked for hashtags and locations, and through a deep Insta-trip, I managed to find the most amazing and talented wedding planners.

I never really knew the value of having professional event planners like I know now. So grateful!

So after closing the contract with them, and choosing a few locations they recommended us to look at, we booked a flight to Alicante. Paloma and Eugenio, our wedding planners, joined us in visiting 4 perfect locations and that’s when the crazy brainstorming started!

All the places had their charm and beauty.

One was an absolutely fabulous authentic (but luxury) villa where we could sleep, enjoy and have the wedding at. It didn’t work out because everyone wouldn’t fit in, and we didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

Another was a cute hotel complex where all guests could have their rooms and the wedding could be at the same place. Fabulous views for the ceremony but…it didn’t click with us.

We’ve also visited a fabulous finca with garden in San Juan (close to Alicante), Jardines d’Abril which was omg!!! but we felt the place was a bit too big for our number of guests and could look a bit empty.

And last but not least, we’ve visited our final choice! Actually, it was the place we found on Instagram before we even decided to marry in Spain. And it was the first visit of the day. So our heart might have been already stolen by it, so not really fairplay to the other locations, but oh well..

We had made our decision in one week after we visited all places. Not an easy one. On one hand, we wanted to have a slow wedding at a villa, kind of like a real destination wedding. To wake up with my friends and family and hang at the pool for a few days including the wedding morning, before we all prepare…

On the other hand, the thought of having both families together didn’t really make us feel…relaxed. Some family members don’t have a common language, like English, some have kids, some don’t, some want to have their own vacation (we love the fact that everyone gets vacation at our wedding!!!). It just felt like it wouldn’t work in our case with a solution like that.

And also, Marques de Montemolar, our choice, is just too amazing not to dream yourself up there on the top, saying yes to the man you love.

See the photos in my latest Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlbGn8WHQjg/?taken-by=bylorellay

 

 

Favourite beauty products right now!

Like in all the other aspects of my life, I am very picky in the selection of  beauty products that I like to use. I have strict rules regarding my hair for example, or my morning or evening beauty rituals.

One very important rule is that I never sleep with make up. NEVER! Therefore, I need to use a good, efficient and easy to use make up remover. In all the (many) years I’ve used make up, I found that the easiest-to-use and fastest-to-clean make up remover is always the winner! I use make up every day. Except for beach days when in vacation, and some days when I work from home and feel really lazy and slow, I use make up every day. Always wearing foundation, blush, lipstick and mascara, and most of the time eyeliner and eye shadows. Light smokey preferably. So you can imagine as such a make up afficionada, I really need to get rid of all that make up fast, easy and safe!

I’ve tried tons of removers, from creams, lotions, milks, for eye, for face, for lips, from different brands, different textures. My favourite right now is the Micellar Water from La Roche Possay 3 in 1.

Together with the Clarins Instant Eye Make Up Remover, they do the job, every night.

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clarins double serumAs the 30s are approaching, (OMG — should I panic?) I started to investigate what serum would benefit my age, and maybe slow down the ageing process. I’m not there yet, where I want to solve and treat ageing signs, instead I’m looking more to prevent and slow them down. So, I started to use Clarins Double Serum and I can’t yet see any changes, of course, but its smell, texture and usability (the pump is intentionally built for you to customise the amount of serum you pump out according to your needs) makes a winner for the time being!

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In combination with the serum, I joggle sometimes with this Carrot Oil from Rosenserien. It smells absolutely insane! Such natural scent and amazing color. I like to splash a little in my hand and palm it on my face, applying it all over my neck and cleavage and sometimes on my hair ends. I first tried this product when I got gifted 2 of them at the Stockholm Beauty Week and I loved it so much, I continued to use it. Because it’s oil, and my face skin is quite mixed, I don’t use it daily, but more like when my skin needs extra moisturising. It really gives me a glow and color to my face.

 

 

My favourite face mask right now is this Daniele de Winter Mask with hyaluronic acidaniele de witer monaco beauty tipsd & 24 karat gold particles. Shame on me, I’ve had this one for a long time on my shelve and it never crossed my mind what a treasure was inside it! With its perfect fluid consistency that doesn’t restrain my face when it dries, this mask makes my skin already look better before I even wash it out.

And really, it feels so fancy to say, I’m gonna go wash out this gold off my face!

Last, but not least, I have a new winner in my kitchen/beauty shelve: turmeric! Yes you’ve heard right. I got the idea from my friend Raluca, who knows almost everything about everything ecological, organic, healthy, homemade, & Co. So, she shared with me this Pin, and after looking for more info, I found even the mighty IntoTheGloss mentioning testing it right here.

Feel free to tips me on other tricks as well!

Vacation time is here!

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I really can’t express how disappointed I am on my ability to stay on track with writing on the blog constantly. I post so much on Instagram and it feels like everyone is watching my Instastories, so I basically say everything there. Which is wrong of me, of course, cause I only post my visual daily bits.

But I promise for the 10th zillion time to get better!

Anyways, I have to put up in the agenda the plans for the future, and probably the most important decision of this year: in August I’ll be going back to the benches of the University! As I wrote here, I have applied for a spot into the 3 years Bachelor Program for Graphic Design & Web Development of Jönköping’s School of Engineering. Proud and happy that I got in, although there was a limited number of students! When I got my letter of acceptance at first, I was a little bit confused if I can really do this at this point in my life, but after some meditation I figured it’s what I want to do, to improve my design skills and be a better marketer and developer. I’m confident it’s going to be a fun time in my life, and no, not because of #studentlife (I’ve had that once back home in Romania, so a second one at 29 yo would seriously be creepy).

But before that, guess what?

VACAY time is here! Not that I’ve been too home stable the last year, but this vacation I’ve been looking forward for so much! It’s my favourite destination in the whole world: Amalfi Coast! Positano & Capri for almost 2 weeks! Such a dream, it took us 2 days of search to find and book the whole trip, and if there wouldn’t exist Airbnb, we’d probably not be able to travel there, as every nice hotel at a human price was fully booked. And seriously, if you go to Positano, you need a room with a view, and for that you pay a super extravagant price. We’ve got a beautiful villa from a lovely Italian lady which I can’t wait to meet, that has an amazing huge terrace with a view over Positano and a private beach.

After Amalfi, we’re going to our family house in Alicante, and spend 2 weeks of calmness, beach and relaxation just right before returning home back to reality and a new full time school. Wow how weird that sounds: back to school!

Thankfully, now with the free roaming in Europe, I’m gonna post all the time from my La Dolce Vita trip! Stay in touch on Instagram!

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What are your summer plans? I’m so curious to know what is everyone doing this summer!

Ciao,

L

 

 

A Pink Night In A Beautiful Castle In Stockholm

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Yesterday I have had a very surprising fancy experience in a place I’ve never been to in Stockholm, which I probably wasn’t going to discover if it wasn’t for Justin Bieber.

I had to travel to Stockholm for the weekend and when I looked for a room in the usual places we stay in when we travel to Stockholm, I was surprised to see they were fully booked. So I looked on Booking.com and at my surprise, 98% of the hotels in and around Stockholm were fully booked. After a short googling I understood why, Justin Bieber will have a concert in Stockholm this weekend.

But, Jonathan had an idea to expand our search and finally, after a while more we found a castle/hotel that looked incredible in the photos and seemed to have great reviews! So we booked a deluxe room in what I might call a very glam design boutique hotel. Yes, that’s it! That’s a good description.

Görvälns Slott is a castle located in the North of Stockholm, in Järfalla more precisely. The castle have been successfully transformed and adapted to a boutique hotel with amazing rooms, each category of room offering a different story and design. I really liked the concept and most of all, I really liked the quality of everything in the hotel, from decorational pieces and the original furniture, to the amenities and fabulous Mille Notti bed sheets. And the views and surroundings of the place…breathtaking! Since it’s located quite in the middle of the nature, near to a lake, you can imagine the quietness and relaxation I have experienced. To me, this was the perfect opportunity to take a hot bath in the big bath tub with views over the nature with a glass of wine and chill music. After which I have slept like a baby in the super comfortable bed. Yes, I want there again. To sleep and relax.

The Slow Life in the Only Luxury Multi-Concept Resort in UAE: Rixos The Palm Dubai

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Last month, just a few days before Easter I have been returning from what I may call, one of the most luxurious vacations of my life. It was a week in Dubai, however that’s not the only reason my vacation was oh so glamorous, but also the stay in the magnificent hotel Rixos The Palm Dubai.

Rixos The Palm Dubai view, best hotel in The Palm

 

About Dubai, you’ll read more in the next article. Shortly, I can confirm that Dubai is the best warm weather location that is close to us in Europe, perfect to visit during winter, spring and autumn, for shopping, beach and fun.

The main reason I’ve visited Dubai has been the STEP Conference 2017, but also for pleasure. Jonathan and I decided to celebrate our birthdays earlier in a warm destination, and defeat the cold that has awaited us in Sweden all April and May.

The 360° panoramic view spans of the turquoise waters, the white beaches, the iconic Burj Khalifa & Burj Al Arab and the Dubai Marina view with its incredible glittering lights from the giant sky scrapers – simply wonderful!

When I chose the hotel, I looked for a place to be relaxing, far away from the noise, crowd and agitation of the city. If you’ve been to Dubai, then you know that the city is very much alive and crowded, the traffic is absolutely insane at rush hours. Therefore, to live for 7 days in a hotel situated on the end of The Palm Jumeirah’s crescent, where I could enjoy the 360° panoramic view spans of the turquoise waters, the white beaches, the iconic Burj Khalifa & Burj Al Arab and the Dubai Marina view with its incredible glittering lights from the giant sky scrapers – simply wonderful!

 

Burj al arab view from Rixos hotel in Dubai the palm

 

You stay at Rixos The Palm when you want to have a relaxing vacation. 

Rixos The Palm Dubai is located at the end of the right branch of The Palm, which is one of Dubai’s most interesting creations. An artificial island, which simply beats many natural islands, full of luxury hotels and residences. To reach the hotel, your taxi, or rental car has to drive through The Palm, which is ok as it’s only a 15 – 20 minutes drive and you have much to enjoy on the window. The hotel offers a free shuttle several times a day to the Dubai Marina and Mall of Emirates, and a water taxi which takes you directly to the Dubai Marina pretty fast. Most times we took a taxi, as it’s so cheap in Dubai. So the location is not a problem, but actually a benefit because you get a real vacation by staying on the beach, skip the noise and see the whole beauty of Dubai from the comfort of your room’s balcony, no matter if you travel with business, for shopping or you’re in vacation. I managed to actually combine a bit of work with my vacation in the hotel, as the Wifi connection was so good. Working on the terrace of our Junior Suite was an eye-opening experience, which made me want more and more to make my dream come true, working remotely in places like this.

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The Rixos Experience

When was the last time you woke up early and made yoga on the beach surrounded by palms, turquoise water and giant skyscrapers? Think about it, we always live in a hurry, even during vacations. We want to explore as much as we can in the time we have. Well, I have discovered during my days in Dubai, that time is irrelevant for the body. I have never felt more relaxed, happy and accomplished than the day I skipped breakfast and went to yoga on the beach. After which I have jumped in the water to wake up the senses. AMAZING! The yoga class is organised by the hotel, but it’s not the only activity offered. If you are a more active person there are numerous things you can do. Water gym, beach volley, I’ve even seen they have water sports, but I’m not so into that. Also, for families with kids, I’ve seen all kinds of interesting and creative activities, such as sand art which I found hilariously funny.

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The Hotel

You usually know if you’re going to live in a good hotel and your vacation will be a success from the entrance in the hotel. Depending on how our arrival will be, our first impression, the appearance and the hospitality we have been received with, will stamp the rest of the days we’ll spend in that hotel. At least, that’s the case for me. In Rixos The Palm, the stamping started already at the airport when we have been awaited by a clean Lexus car belonging to the hotel and a very respectable and nice driver.

I loved the entrance in the hotel, and every time we returned from the town I would stand a few minutes just to enjoy and admire the beautiful plants and flowers at the entrance, which by the way, were changed every now and then! Like I said, the hotel breaths luxury, and so does its rooms.

To speak about impeccable services is not needed, as Rixos never let me down on that. I have been staying in several Rixos resorts around the world and never, ever, had I anything to complain about on that level. Upon arrival, we have been surprised in the room with a delicious plate of fruits and cakes from the hotel’s own patisserie, fresh flowers, cold champagne and a handwritten letter from the management, and you know how much I love handwritten personal letters!

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The Suite

We had a magnificent suite, with a huge marble bathroom, ceiling to floor windows with (again) breathtaking views and an even more amazing terrace and two sun chairs facing the sea and views. The suite was a wonderful experience and I must say everything in it was top class. The furniture, design, art works, the modern electricity system, the bed and the pillows were extremely comfy and the amenities….Bulgari. Yes, you heard right. After all, luxury stands in the details.

The apartment was very spacious, and there’s a great air conditioner in both the living room and bedroom. Considering the temperatures in Dubai in April, it was very well used by us.

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The Beach

The thing I enjoyed the most at Rixos The Palm was the landscape. Breathtaking, fabulous and unique views! From the balcony, from the restaurant, from everywhere in the hotel. But what Rixos has that I personally haven’t experienced before is a beach view. I admired Dubai Marina’s skyline every day from my sun chair. It’s something you don’t really experience everywhere in the world. Look for yourself:

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When lemonade with ice won’t do in the 40 degrees Celsius, take a Cabana!

The beach in Rixos The Palm is as any beach in front of a respectable 5 star hotel chain. Clean, beautiful, fun, safe, as they have safeguards watching over. The water is magnificent, crystal clear and very still in the mornings. The music in the mornings is so relaxing, indulging you to sleep more or read a book, which is exactly what I like to do at the beach. The sun chairs are super comfy, and we always got a spot near the water as we always came to the beach early around 10:00. As everywhere in the world, there are people leaving their towels on the chairs to make sure they have a place when they come back from breakfast, but the beach is so large that it didn’t create any problems to us. The hotel made sure they have room for everyone.

I loved the beach so much, that I didn’t spend any time at the pool during the trip.

The best part are the Cabanas! So delightful spacious and comfy cabanas, perfect for when the sun burns so strong as it does in Dubai. The cabanas have an extra cost of 500 AED, compared to the free of charge sun chairs, but if you have a suite in the hotel, you’ll have it for free.

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The Shisha Lounge

NuAir Lounge is where you can smoke shisha in Rixos and I must say I loved the experience. Most times after the beach I would go to the lounge and just drink a delicious fresh lemonade and enjoy the quietness in one of the cabanas.

shisha-lounge shisha-lounge-nuair

El Chringuito

The hotel hosts three nice restaurants, pool bar and you can serve food at the beach, which is pretty comfortable! Near Rixos is El Chiringuito, a fabulous beach and beach bar that belongs to the hotel, with amazing food, drinks and music! However, you need some kind of access to it, I’m not sure they let all hotel guests inside, and it’s definitely a younger crowd. We loved the ambiance and we were lucky to catch a nice party one of the evenings which was pretty fun! All classy people, delicious drinks and fine music!

el chiringuito dubai

With such an amazing time spent in this place, it’s going to be hard not miss it. My only regret is not having time to visit the SPA, which looked so fabulous as I saw a hammam bath in the images on one of the catalogues in our room, but I’ll save that for my next trip there, probably during an autumn.

rixos-style-spa