Trip Advisor Review: Porta Hotel Antigua Family Friendly

“Family Friendly with the Best Atmosphere”

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This review can be seen on our Ra’Co Life Trip Advisor page.

Combine Parrots, a playground, an enormous heated pool with a 6″ shallow end and wine and you get pure and simple magic for families. This place truly enchants us! They have a glorious outdoor seating area, a spectacular place to socialize and all the amenities you could ask for. This is truly a place that is family friendly.

We haven’t stayed at the hotel, but as far as entertainment goes, this is the place. We go often in the afternoons and have a little glass of white wine and bring our daughter to swim. If we just let her swim we don’t get charged. The playground is pretty much available for playing and the parrots are just next to the playground.

We often meet friends at the hotel to play with. It is so much fun!

If you are visiting Antigua this is really the only hotel to stay at. If you live here, why haven’t you been?!

Click here for their site.

How to Entertain a Toddler for 3 Whole Days

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Thank goodness yesterday was a Monday… I don’t think I have ever been so happy for the start of the week to come! I was absolutely wiped out from 3 full days with a crazy, emotional toddler. My goodness emotions run high these days! I swear no two minutes are the same and the bouncing from happy to sad to happy to sleeping leaves my head spinning. But on the inside far beneath the facade of exhaustion, I am remembering and relishing in the tiny moments of each of our activities and I wanted to share our very occupied schedule.

This past Friday was a teacher’s development day, leaving a school full of kids and their parents without a place to go. Myself with a few other moms took it upon themselves to develop some level of entertainment to get through the 1st day which would have been our Friday, but then I was on my own!

Friday: 

  • Make a mess while cooking a blueberry pancake breakfast
  • Spend an hour cleaning up the mess after breakfast
  • Swimming, playground and lunch with friends (for 5 hours)
  • Walk around the neighborhood

Saturday: 

  • Early grocery shop, sitting front and center in the cart
  • Jump around in the car as if it was a playground
  • Skype with Abuela
  • Farm tour and find as many things that look like circles as possible
  • Talk about how Iza’s doll is scared of the mouse
  • Play with the iPad for far too long
  • Play with neighbors and then go for a walk and run into more neighbors
  • Take a bath until fingers are wrinkly

Sunday: 

  • Put together a very complicated shelving unit and hide all the screw backs from mommy
  • Spend 2 hours looking for the screw backs
  • Long walk around the neighborhood and fill the stroller up with dirt
  • Hug a tree
  • Float around the house like a butterfly (with one broken wing)
  • Paint a picture
  • Talk about how yesterday the swing backfired and hit her in the head
  • Reorganize toy baskets
  • Take a ridiculously long nap

I spent quite a bit of time researching ahead of time, so I now have a pretty long list of options for our next school closing. This was definitely a trying weekend for me with being pregnant and my poor toes on my right foot feel broken from all the running around after Iza (with the added weight of Zai), but there were wonderfully fun moments embedded into it. I relish in the simple things with this little lady. She is at a very fun age, full of discovery… I get to be apart of that discovery!

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Highlights from the 3 Days:

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Porta Hotel Antigua for swimming and playground with friends: This is a wonderful pool with a center section that has just about 4″ of water. Perfect for a toddler who wants to get wet, but is not a super fan of wet hair. Oh! And it’s heated. The playground is really an exceptional treat. Iza was just like a big kid playing with Maya Lily.

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RaCo-Life-Farm-Visit-Caoba-2Farm Tour at Caoba Farms: The beautiful and serene backdrop is not a joke. We regularly walk the grounds to just enjoy the scenery and to see what is popping up next. Here are our salad greens! Iza likes to find the macadamia shells that have cracked open and pair them together.

RaCo-Life-Neighborhood-Walk  RaCo-Life-Neighborhood-Walk-with-Hands-on-HipsWalking with Neighbors: We love to walk with the Mercer’s in the afternoons, but this Saturday we were fortunate to run into some of Iza’s other classmates. Adoi is in her class and believe it or not he is 6 months younger than her. The kid is absolutely adorable, and very tall. When Iza saw him she went running right up to him!

RaCo-Life-Iza-Dancing-Like-a-Butterfly Dancing like a butterfly: Wings are essential for any little girl – so she can fly! What a fun moment to capture on camera. Iza demanded her “corte” (Spanish word for skirt) and her wings from me, but found the hat in her dress up box all on her own. Coupled with her WHO shirt, I think this kid has some serious style. Our friend Nikki makes these wings if you are interested in them!

RaCo-Life-Iza-Hugging-a-TreeHug a Tree: This is an image from one of the first times we witnessed Iza hugging trees. She just ran right up to them and wrapped her cute little body all over the tree. There has to be something psychologically rewarding about hugging a natural element. Maya Lily and Noah (wonderful neighbors and friends) quickly caught onto the movement and helped to paint the perfect picture of happy children in nature.

RaCo-Life-Iza-PaintingPainting a picture: More like painting with water and a little color! This gal absolutely loves to see water mess something up. Water color paints are by far the best choice and this is a great set provided by my artist mother Jan Ruby-Crystal.

RaCo-Life-Mama-and-Zi-SleepingTaking a nap with Mama: While there was a kick, fight and scream leading up to this perfectly tranquil moment, it was pure heaven for me to be laying with Iza for a 2+ hour nap on Sunday. She is just so squishy and her trust implicit. I love that she is still able to just fall apart in my arms. I know soon that moment will be gone, so I am taking all I can get right now.

Lomas de Tzununa

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Truly the most spectacular views of the lake, Lomas de Tzununa will take your breathe away. It is not an easy feat to get to – it requires a boat and walking up 380 steps, or taking a treacherous tuk tuk ride from Tzununa’s public dock (a ride my step-father Drew will NEVER do again). But when you reach the top you know why it was so much work… beauty doesn’t come easy. Luckily from our house it is just a 15 minute walk and we are at the same altitude, so the effort is significantly less.

We have fallen in love with Maria and Terry’s vision and expert style in our short-time on the lake. They really know how to do something right. it is not only a 280º view of the lake, but it offers the best sunset and best sunrise viewing I have ever seen. Kurt enjoys sitting outside on the deck and playing one of Terry’s fabulous guitars he leaves for his guests. I love having a glass of wine and enjoying the view. Really I could sit up there all day and look out.

We have not stayed at the hotel yet, but we can imagine it is a lovely stay. There is a pool and plenty to do with a spa and lots of walking around the area. The hotel is set into a forest and the buildings are structured like some kind of beautiful Swiss Chalet in the Alps. It feels upscale and yet still comfortable. Kind of the perfect blend of experience.

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