the seven continents

i'm getting the itch, folks.  and i'm not talking about mosquito bites sustained while drinking my new beer obsession outside with my husband.

i want to take a trip.

we have a little bit of money saved up (read: little!) and it's burning a hole in my savings account.  philip and i met while studying abroad and we took quite a few epic trips together.  and every year since we have met we've tried to make one big trip outside of the country...

2006:  we met in prague; went to hungary, italy, austria and slovakia 

2007:  spain, germany

2008:  germany, czech republic, turkey

2009:  france

2010:  spain, morocco

2011:  NO TRIP PLANNED! 

now, we had said that we weren't going to take a trip because we were redoing our bathroom.  well guess what?  i changed my mind.  i haven't stamped my passport in a year and that is 100% unacceptable. but the problem is that i've signed up for school including weekend classes - which means we are very low on time to take a trip.  we only have one possibly weekend in october and it will only allow us three days - which means... ALL INCLUSIVE!  i've never done an all inclusive before, including during college when all my roommates went to spring break in mexico and i went to the hockey hall of fame in toronto with my dad :)  true story.  but my cousin emily and her fiance swear by all inclusives.  and i think i could handle that.  sand, surf, sleeping in with philip, all you can drink booze... yeah that sounds good to me.

now, every little kid dreams of something.  they want to be astronauts. they want to be presidents, they want to be the first girl on the rangers.  i wanted to step foot on all seven continents.  now i'm not trying to say i didn't have any other dreams - i wanted to be a writer or an ambassador - but because they involved travel. and so that is something that we have tried to incorporate on all of our trips.  we take a few trips a year; with family in new york, massachusetts and california it's hard not to take multiple trips each year.  but we only take one vacation - so that vacation has to last us.  it has to be meaningful and we like to go somewhere we have never been before, where we can see something worthwhile and experience a new culture.  we are into experiential travel - doing the fun stuff but also living a bit like locals.  i've never seen the value, or the point, of sitting around on a beach for a few days.  but now that i'm a little bit older i want to experience that trip at least one time before we settled down.  so what better time than a mini-break from school this fall?

anyone been to any good all inclusives?  let me know because i am on the vacation hunt!

the closest we ever got to a beach getaway: costa del sol, march '08