Typically my dad and I travel abroad once a year. This was something we started a few years back and is something I look forward to every year! We have been to Italy (We took an extended tour. We started at the top of Italy and worked our way down), Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, and the Dominican Republic. Out of all the amazing places we have been to the Dominican has to be my favorite.

We stayed at the Hard Rock resort and it was simply breathe taking. It was so beautiful, it had 13 pools, 9 restaurants, an on site 18- hole golf course, a full service spa, and so much more. One super cool aspect was at night you could call the service desk and request a guitar to play for the night free of charge!

To take a look at the resort here is the link to the virtual tour, its pretty spot on with how it looks in real life!

Typically we tend to stay on the resort property when we go out of the country. However this time we decided to adventure out and go on a day trip into the inner country. It was amazing!!! Expensive, butSO worth it.

We rode in this topless school bus, I was skeptical because their driving regulations are quite different than our in America, but we stopped along the way at this beautiful beach and got off the bus to explore for about an hour. At the beach there were surf board available for rent, but I didn't bring my swimsuit. Sad is an under statement seeing how surfing is basically #1 on my bucket list. anyways, at the beach there were locals selling various things. I got talking to this little boy named Miguel, he was around 10 years old. He knew a little bit of english, enough for me to know what he was trying to say. He goes to the beach everyday to sell hats made of palm tree leaves to tourists while his parents and younger siblings are at home making them. He was so curious about America and what it was like and was even wanted to me to help him learn some english in our short, 20 minute conversation.

After the stop at the beach we started to head into the inner land of the Dominican. We went through this small town and passed by as everyone sat in lawn chairs outside their house or business. We then stopped in front of this school. It was a single small building with a tall fence around it and 2 young children standing in front of it. The tour guide continued to tell us that this was their school. All aged children were taught in this single roomed building, with no cafeteria. He was so excited to announce that the president had made an initiative and that all the schools will be getting a cafeteria in them throughout the year. It really made you think about how minute your problems really are.

The children standing out front of the fence were so eager to see us! He said that they come running outside their homes every time they see the bus heading into town in hopes of getting money. The tour guide told us we were not allowed to give the kids money because then they would drop of school to gather money each day instead of learning. They waved and waved until the bus took off again, it was hard to not give them money. What would have been $5 to us would have been a fortune to them.

Anyways, we finally headed to the home tour. We went down this muddy trail which we later found out was their highway!! It was literally a muddy trail that you would typically encounter somewhere in the woods. I was mind blown.

We then pulled up to this little house. Inside there were beds, blankets used as curtains, and a table. Their kitchen was out back in this half covered little hut. They had no electronics, the tour guide mentioned that if you owned a TV you had less children and in turn were considered "rich". People who did not own a TV were bored and would have more children, I chuckled when he said this but he was being completely serious.

I could seriously talk about this trip for hours but I will spare both you and me that by letting the photos speak for themselves!