Palm Paradise: Isla Verde, Puerto Rico

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Another day, another blog post from another beautiful Puerto Rican beach! Because that's the beauty of budget vacationing on an island.. the one most popular activity of them all is free. ;) For the second half of our trip, we shifted base to Isla Verde and stayed at the TRYP by Wyndham. Having mentioned that Airbnbs are the wallet-friendliest of all stay options in this post, I should tell you guys that we only stayed at our hotel because surprisingly, we got a better deal than all other home-share options here, which brings me to my...

Point Penny Wise: Research is everything when it comes to budget travel, so always explore all options before making a stay choice. If we hadn't looked into hotels assuming that an Airbnb is our cheapest option, we'd have actually spent more than we did staying at a luxury hotel! The reason for that- it's a spanking new hotel and they had promotional rates. New hotels will always look to fill rooms and get good reviews at the start, so keep your eyes peeled for them in your destination of travel. (FYI, when looking for hotels, we've found Hotwire to be our jam.) Also, it helps to save money to stay a reasonable distance away from a popular tourist destination. For example, our intention was to explore (Old) San Juan during this leg of the trip but OSJ was way out of our budget. Isla Verde was not only just a short cab ride/inexpensive bus ($2!) ride from OSJ, it gave us the beach and cost half as much. #winning

Isla Verde was a quick change in pace from laidback Luquillo, being a proper metropolitan city bustling with energy. On our last day, we spent one last morning lazing at the beach before heading to the airport. I simply slipped on my airiest of airy black pants over my suit and made my way through the glorious palm trees to the waters, beach bag and beach towel in tow.  I love that 1) this Gypsea swim top functions as a crop top all on it's own, 2) If I so wish, my beach towel functions as a gypsea queen's throne on the golden sands, and 3) Everything comes up rose gold in these seriously killer Firmoo shades. Maybe this compulsive list making means I'm ready for Spring break.. hmm... 

If any of you have similar travel tricks up your sleeve, please pretty please, share. :)
Thank you for reading and have a lovely weekend!
XO Sushmitha :)

                            Swim suit: c/o Gypsea Swimwear (Top, Bottom)

                            Hat: Alloy Apparel (Similar here)

                            Sunglasses: c/o Firmoo

                            Pants: Old from India (Crochet option here)

                            Beach Bag: Victoria's Secret (Love this one)

                            Beach Towel: c/o Beach Lulu