10 Reasons why you should visit Aruba

1. The endless view of palm trees and straw umbrellas

This is what paradise looks like to me! I just LOVE the view of straw umbrellas, palm trees, blue skies and turquoise water<3 And the sun is shining almost all the time as well. Aruba has it all! 

2. Explore the colorful Orjanestad

The capital city of Aruba is a lot of fun with all it's colorful buildings. You can easily see it's influenced by the Dutch and Dutch is in fact the official language of the residents of Aruba. 

3. White sandy beaches

You can find gorgeous beaches like this one several places on the island. This specific beach is called Baby Beach. Shallow, turquoise water and white sand as long as your eyes can see. Here you can also see a Fofoti tree. These trees are iconic to Aruba (along with the Divi Divi tree, that looks the same but grows other places than on the beach) and always points in the same direction, southwest!

4. Get friendly with the lizards

There are a bunch of different lizards on Aruba and they are not very afraid of people. I got a new friend by the hotel pool, sunbathing next to me and eating my leftover salad ;) 

5. Soak up the sun 

Surroundings like this are perfect for sunbathing and swimming. Aruba is also great for sailing, snorkeling, wind surfing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding etc. so you won't get bored if you're the active type. 

6. Rent a Jeep and go off-road driving in Arikok National Park

Aruba has a beautiful National Park, Arikok, that you can explore if you rent an off-road vehicle. There are cactuses, goats, dusty roads and beautiful views along the way. This is also the only way to reach the "natural pool", which is a circle of rocks in the ocean making the shape of a circular pool. Really cool :)

7. See the Pelicans

Aruba is famous for their Pelicans and it is quite fascinating to watch them dive into the water for their catch of the day. Sometimes they'll even come visit you at your dining table, especially if you're having dinner at the Pelican Pier :) 

8. The smoothie bowls at Eduardo's beach shack

This is by itself a reason to go to Aruba. Smoothie bowls are one of my favorite things to have for breakfast or lunch, sooo delicious! And the ones at Eduardo's... YUM<3 You should try them! 

9. Try SUP-yoga

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Aruba in the first place was actually that I had read the book Yogagirl by Rachel Brathen (with lots of beautiful pictures of Aruba) and heard about the company Island Yoga that she founded. They offer classes in SUP-yoga, something I really wanted to try. So we did :) And it was a lot of fun. Definitely would need some more practice to get good at it, as it is quite difficult to balance out on the water. But it was such a nice experience to do yoga out on the turquoise water<3

10. Relax and unwind

In my opinion there is no better place to relax and recharge your batteries than on this amazing island. 

6 awesome beaches to visit in Sri Lanka

Dalawella beach

This might be one of the most famous beaches in Sri Lanka and a lot of instagrammers have been posting these kind of pictures. So I had to see what the fuzz was about! And it was gorgeous in real life as well. Had to go back several times actually, because I liked it so much. The swing is a lot of fun and a good workout, but you have to pay 500 rupee to use it (then we could use it as many times as we wanted). We also got to see two turtles swimming around close to the beach during sunset, so cool! You will find this beach close to Unawatuna. 

Hikkaduwa beach

This beach is a long beach along Hikkaduwa and this photo is from the part near the hotel Hikka Tranz by Cinnamon. It was really beautiful to watch the sunset from this spot. And this beach also has a lot of turtles coming close to the beach to eat seaweed at specific times during the day. So cool to watch those animals, I have never seen them out in the wild before. Great beach, but a bit crowded. 

Blue beach

This might be the best place to go swimming because this is a bay without big waves. We spent a day here after meeting some travellers who recommended it. We liked it a lot:) It has a few beach restaurants and it is nice to go for a walk around the area. This place is not far from Tangalle. 

Mirissa beach

A great beach with lots of places to eat and things to do. The waves are pretty big, but we got ourselves a bodyboard and had some fun with that. While we were staying here we also went whale watching and got to see the blue whale. In one way a really cool experience, but in another way.. There were 20 boats full of tourists all following each other to find the whales. So it wasn't as peaceful as I was hoping for. 

Dewata beach

This is the perfect place to go surfing for beginners! We spent several days here and had a lot of fun. There are lots of surf schools here where you can rent a surfboard and get help with the technique. The sunset is also really beautiful from this beach :) You can find it between Galle and Unawatuna. 

 Ranlakshmi Paradise beach

This is a hidden gem we found because we stayed at the hotel next to it, Eva Lanka hotel. It is close to Tangalle. It lived up to the name and I got all the paradise vibes I could dream of from this place. It has a swing from the palm tree and a small cafe with smoothies and some seafood. It was also really nice to go bathing here, the waves were not so big. And the best part, there were almost no people here! A great place to spend the day :)

5 things to do when staying at the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort

  1. Stay in a glassiglo

The hotel rooms in this Finnish winter wonderland is unreal! I have been wanting to sleep in one of these since the first time I saw an article about them several years ago. It turned out to be just as magical as I had dreamt of. Going to sleep under the stars and the northern lights and then waking up to the sunrise was so relaxing and beautiful. 

2. Go on a husky safari

Going on a husky safari let you experience the wilderness, enjoy the landscape and gives you a special kind of peace and quiet. I loved it so much. Our dogs were so eager to go and it seemed like they had a lot of fun. Our safari lasted for 2 hours and we got 1 hour as a driver and 1 hour as a passenger each. It was a bit scary to be in control of the dogs at first, but the instructor explained it very well and we all managed it fine. 

3. Enjoy the view from the Iglo Tower

The resort has a tower with a glass iglo on top! This place was so cool. You get a 360 degree view over the snowy landscape and there is a bar there too. 

4. Watch the northern lights

I am so happy I can check this off my list! I was crossing my toes and fingers that we got to see them and we got LUCKY. The first night it was really cloudy and we could not see anything, but the second night the conditions were better. No clouds blocking the sight! At first we just saw a lot of stars, which also was beautiful to watch. But when I was out taking pictures I suddenly noticed a hint of green light in my photos (my camera picked it up faster than my eyes). After that it got more and more visible and finally the lights were literally dancing through the sky. So magical and breathtaking! 

5. Finnish sauna and snow bathing 

The Finns are well known for their saunas! This picture shows a smoke sauna where there is no chimney and wood is burned inside which makes a lot of smoke. When it is warm enough the smoke is ventilated out and the sauna is ready to use. You should definitely try it and go out snow bathing in the middle of your session. We did this both days here and it felt very good (we only tried the regular sauna as the wood saunas cost a bit of extra money and had to be booked in advance)! 

(This trip is not sponsored in any way, I just liked the place a lot)