ActivitiesZiplines-There are two different routes The full red tower tour took about 45min. After each zipline you have to walk to the next line and climb a good number of stairs. The red route is very physically demanding. You are allowed to double ride on the zip lines if your total weight is less than 300lb. I saw a lot of parents double riding with their kids. The other zip line route is the green towers this one only has 3 towers and is more suitable for kids (Still must meet height requirement). Amphibious Vehicles-Drive a 4-seater UTV on jungle trails through caves and over bridges. Rafts-Adventure paddling with your own hand paddles through two different routes in the underground river. River Swim-Swim through the underground river through caves and surrounded by stalacites. Hammock Splash-Walk through the caves and finish with a hammock ride into a waterfall. Cave Walks-Explore all the trails going through caves and jungle trails. Favorite ActivitySurprisingly, I would say the UTVs were our favorite! While you have to follow the trail, you have a lot of flexibility to do your own thing. You can drive as crazy and fast as you want! Schedule9am arrived (took some time to check in and put your stuff away in lockers) 9:30-10:15am did red tower zip lines first (10 routes, finishing in water fall) 10:30-11 did the hand paddle rafts through underwater caves. 11:15-11:45 ate lunch at the buffet. The buffet was SUPER big. The food was pretty much your average all-inclusive buffet, maybe a little step up. 12-1 Drove the UTV vehicles. We loved this and did it twice. We did the first route (20ish min) and then did the second route (30ish min). You have to follow the trail but they allow you to do your thing. 1:30 pick up and headed back to our resort! We felt like the timing was perfect. We were ready to go back at 1:30, however you could easily make a full day of this park! Travel Pro TipWater Shoes are needed. I bought ours on Amazon before the trip for $10. They were selling ones there for $35. Sunscreen: Make sure to put sunscreen on before arriving, they will confiscate your sunscreen if it’s not environmentally friendly. Rating: 5 StarsMy husband and I went to Xplor Park during our trip to Mexico. The park is full of trails/caves to explore on your own, but it also has 6 different extreme activities to participate in as well. The grounds are very well maintained, the staff is kind and friendly, and the buffet lunch is quite yummy! We went for a half day, but you could easily spend an entire day there. Our favorite activities were the ziplines and the UTV trails. I would highly recommend visiting this park if you are an active and adventurous couple! The desire for grandparents and grandkids to reunite and travel together has never been stronger. It’s why Beaches Resorts is taking the Skip-Generation Vacation experience to another level and introducing a Beaches GrandEscapes vacation! The man posing with Elmo has been wearing a swimsuit since yesterday. The woman taking their picture is still glowing from a morning spa treatment. “He’s a little cuter than you, honey,” the woman says. The subtle jab indicates they’re husband and wife. But grandparents? It’s hard to tell. They’re so youthful and energetic as they move around the cabanas and pools at the Beaches Resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, their flip-flops accentuating the pace of their steps. They kick a soccer ball on the beach, bite into warm cookies, laugh easily, and post pictures for Instagram — “stunning pics,” according to their envious followers. The only giveaways that they’re old enough to be grandparents are the 8-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy who call them “Papa” and “Nana.” The sunshine and happiness at Beaches has enveloped them so completely that the four of them act as if it’s the first day of summer vacation — Papa and Nana included. They’d forgotten how it feels to be so carefree. They’d almost forgotten how it feels to be together. A family poses for a Made for Memories photoshoot, part of the new GrandEscapes package only available at Beaches Resorts. Every time the grandparents pause for a photo with their grandkids, they present a living picture of the GrandEscape at the three Beaches Resorts in Ocho Rios, Negril, and Turks and Caicos. It’s a turnkey all-inclusive Caribbean resort vacation specifically designed for the grands. It’s also Beaches’ resounding answer to the re-emergence of skip-generation, or skip-gen, travel where the parents step aside and allow the grandparents to take the kids away for a week. Mom and Dad can stay home and enjoy a week alone, or book their own trip to a couples-only Sandals Resort. Either way, they’re assured that the GrandEscapers are having the times of their lives, breathing the warm tropical air, hearing the friendly Caribbean voices, and swimming in the most magnificently colorful ocean. Cocktails and mocktails are always flowing at Beaches Resorts’ swim-up pool bars. For more than a year, grandparents everywhere had been out of the picture, protected with a minimum distance of six feet, if not complete isolation from the family. They’d been among the 70 percent of Americans who dreamed of traveling in a way they’d never dreamed or traveled before. Craving the getaway or getaways and imagining the grandkids alongside them. A GrandEscape at Beaches brings those cravings to real life, only more relaxed, more fun, more alive, and more purely Caribbean than they ever imagined. Grandparents, more than anyone, have been suffering from cabin fever, pandemic fatigue, and social-distancing burnout. “Health is wealth. And what’s a better investment of health and wealth than making extraordinary memories with the grandkids?” says Nana. It doesn’t take an Instagram post to see that a GrandEscape at Beaches is the heroic answer to Nana’s rhetorical question. An island resort created for families with a powdery beach and the friendliest staff you’ve ever met. All the pizza and pancakes you could want. Soft beds and endless views of the sea. Snorkeling with tropical fish and dancing with Sesame Street characters. Playing on the golf course and in the XBox Lounge. A place so friendly everyone says “welcome home” even though it seems a million miles away. “We have a lot of help spoiling the grandkids,” says Papa, referring to the entertainment, watersports, and restaurant teams at Beaches Resorts. Observe again grandpa’s damp swimsuit and grandma’s hand clutching a Margarita. It isn’t just the grandkids who are being spoiled. Pictured here: The French Village Pool at Beaches Turks & Caicos. Papa and Nana have been pool-and-sea-ready since they arrived with the grandkids at Beaches three days ago. The ease of a luxurious all-inclusive skip-gen vacation is one of the main reasons they booked a GrandEscape. Planning? It consists of choosing a stretch of five, seven or ten nights. “Our only responsibility was to arrive and unpack the swimsuits,” says Nana. “Since then, we’ve done what we want whenever we want to do it.” The kids sleep in while the adults make the first footprints on the beach. They eat bacon and papaya for breakfast and brick-oven pizzas for lunch. Grandpa goes down the waterslide a gazillion times and comes out of the water laughing every single time. They watch movies from the pool one night and party at a beach bonfire the next. When the kids wake up, the whole family will enjoy a complimentary Sesame Street Character Breakfast. “It sounds simple, but there aren’t many places where you can say ‘it’s easy to have fun here,’” says Nana. “My husband and I like to relax on the beach and have a drink or two. We can do that. But we also want to actively enjoy them instead of watching from a distance. We finally have the time back to bond with our grandkids again.” This is why a Beaches GrandEscape makes so much sense in 2021. Grandparents of today have a higher-powered toolkit: The energy. It’s often the grandparents’ ideas to snorkel after breakfast, play pool volleyball after lunch, and go kayaking before sunset. “We all have the ability to wear each other out,” says Papa. The time. Moms and Dads are squeezed for hours, let alone days. Grandparents can get away for longer periods of time — without being interrupted on the lazy river by a call from the office. “We’re living in the moment,” says Nana, “and the moments at Beaches keep coming, nonstop.” The means. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are more financially stable than grandparents of previous generations. It bears repeating: “Health is wealth.” No one regrets investing in the trip of a lifetime. The peace of mind. With the Beaches Platinum Protocols of Cleanliness in place, constantly disinfecting surfaces and maintaining a distance from guests, the only thing grandparents and grandkids need to focus on is spending time reconnecting with each other. “We feel so safe here in paradise,” says Nana. Most important of all, grandparents and grandkids discover right away at Beaches that they’re very much in touch with each other, with similar ideas for the perfect vacation: An immaculate beach and gorgeous sea just a few steps from the suite. A giant pool and waterpark a few strides in the other direction. Fresh smoothies at the pool … wait, make that fresh smoothies in the pool. And two more cookies apiece on the way back to the suite. Are you ready to bring your own GrandEscapes adventure to life? The time has finally come! Grandparents and grandkids can officially book their own GrandEscapes vacation at Beaches Resorts now through January 9, 2022 for travel August 28 - October 5, 2022 so they can catch up on laughter, make up for the time spent apart, and enjoy a great vacation made for family-fun. All Beaches Resorts GrandEscapes vacations of five nights or more will automatically receive a special ‘Made for Memories’ family photoshoot with three complimentary printed photos plus the choice of:
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