Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta Mexico

I am showing you pictures of food because after all this is a food blog.  Now I'm going to show you a picture of the actual resort where we ate our food, Casa Velas, so that you can get a better feel for the place.

Isn't it totally charming? The outside, right before you come in, has these huge sphere metal lights with stars cut out of them. At night, when the lights are on, it feels like you're enveloped by hundreds of tiny little stars, you really can't help but love it and if you're there with someone you love it's even better. During the day as you walk around you'll notice little things, like a fresh flower here or there placed on the stairs. It's discrete and intimate, and yes it's very romantic.

Casa Velas is a luxurious, all-inclusive, adult only resort with 80 rooms total. For those of you who like golf (never tried it myself) Casa Velas is right on a golf course. For those of you who like beach clubs (that would be me) Casa Velas has a beach club, just 2 minutes away that has another beautiful pool right in front of the beach with an amazing Asian cuisine.

Casa Velas is not flashy. It doesn't really feel like you're staying in a resort at all. It feels like you're staying at a friend's house, a very rich friend who is going out of his way to make you feel very welcome and well taken care of.

It's not your usual resort jam packed with activities and infinity pools. Not that those aren't fun. In January I stayed in Grand Velas in Riviera Maya, a sister resort to Casa Velas for the Food Blogger Camp. Talk about amazing pools, Grand Velas has them a-plenty and so does Velas Vallarta, another resort in the Velas family, this one close to Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta. Velas Vallarta is a kid's dream come true. Enzo would die. He would simply die if he was exposed to a place with so many swimming pools and the possibility of ordering food anytime he wanted and eating it by the pool, he would think it was the coolest thing ever. Christian and I loved Velas Vallarta whenever we went there for a swim we thought about the kids the whole time.

This is why

I am again showing you the picture of me eating pizza. It's not a great picture, true, but the ones where you can see my face is worse. Christian kept taking picture of me eating, eating pictures are never flattering but I did a lot of eating and he did a lot of teasing and I'll spare you by only showing you my back.

All inclusive is fantastic. All inclusive means eating a lot. It means ordering food whenever you want. It means walking into one of the resorts' restaurant and not worrying about the price of anything that is on the menu and just ordering away because it's already been paid for. All inclusive is genius and if you have kids all inclusive is the way to go because you know how kids ask for food every 15 minutes even though THEY JUST ATE?! Yeah, all inclusive is is your kid saying "I'm hungry" and you saying "But you just ate  Cool, so what else do you want to eat?" All inclusive is me having a pizza craving in the pool and ordering a small pizza with whatever toppings I wanted and 20 minutes later jumping out of the pool to enjoy without having to fetch my wallet and then jumping right back in the pool to finish my swim.

All inclusive is also mango Crème brûlée, and fried ice-cream, and sushi, and really fancy dinners where you use more than one fork and feel like an adult, at least that's what all inclusive is at Casa Velas. And swim up bars. Can't forget swim up bars. Our last meal at Casa Velas was at the swim up bar. I just didn't want to leave the pool so Christian and I ate at the swim up bar, and it was probably one of our best meals of our entire vacation.

And then I said good-bye to Casa Velas and almost cried.

Casa Velas was the perfect pick for our getaway. When I was arranging our trip with the Velas team and trying to figure out which Velas resort I wanted to review I was told that Casa Velas would be the perfect fit, and it was. Christian watched soccer with some of the staff. I had a private mini cooking class with one of the chefs. Right next to the Emiliano restaurant at Casa Velas there is a beautiful garden full of herbs, spices, and produce, even some fruit trees. I could not believe when I was told that everything in the garden is used in the actual kitchen. In a couple years when you go there and the coffee plants are mature you'll be able to pick your own coffee from the plant and they'll roast them right there and then for you and make your coffee. I don't drink coffee but I think that is just too cool.

I made a Facebook album of pictures from the trip. They're not all from Casa Velas. There are pictures from a Botanical Garden we went to that was very beautiful with Vanilla vines everywhere. There are also pictures of me right before flying over the trees in our canopy excursion where you hang by zip-lines and scream really loud if you're Damaris or hang upside down if you're Christian. There are also pictures from a waterfall that comes down majestically from one single rock of granite that Christian found on a hike we went on.

Going to Mexico, just the two of us, was a dream vacation. I'm so glad we were able to do it. We are already 2 days into Summer and I'm anxious to hear about your travel plans. Are you going on any dreamy vacations?

Whatever it is you decide to do this Summer I hope you do it and I hope you have a blast.