EVANGELINE SPA @ THE EPICUREAN HOTEL - TAMPA BAY FLORIDA

Evangeline Spa @ The Epicurean Hotel in Tampa Bat

On my recent trip to Tampa Bay I got to experience my first ever HydraFacial MD® Spa Treatment! Before I talk about this breakthrough facial treatment that my head is still whirling over, let me give you some back story!

The Epicurean Hotel - Tampa’s upscale boutique hotel was voted one of Florida’s Top 10 Hotels by Conde Nast Traveler. From the ground floor up this hotel was made for food lovers! From the wine shop and theatre kitchen on the main floor to The Edge cocktail bar on the roof this hotel is the place to see and be seen. The Evangeline Spa located on the main floor of The Epicurean mimics the hotel’s passion for food by featuring food based materials, including coffee scrubs, to help guests relax. It’s no surprise then how excited I was when I got to experience their spa.

The Evangeline Spa is the best place in Tampa to spend a day relaxing and being pampered. The intimate spa setting makes you feel like a true VIP and their selection of treatments will have you walking out of there felling completely rejuvenated. Each product you will experience during your treatment has been carefully selected to awaken your senses. Their fresh fruit scrubs, buttery lotions and rich botanical oils are infused with fresh herbs to successfully relieve stress and leave you feeling revitalized.

One of the spa’s newest offerings is the HydraFacial MD® Spa Treatment. This 30 minute treatment cleans, exfoliates, extracts, hydrates and adds antioxidant protection all at the same time. The newest advancement in non-laser skin resurfacing HydraFacial MD® Spa Treatment is completely painless and is known to deliver clearer, more beautiful skin with very little redness, swelling or downtime.

Having never done a HydraFacial MD® Spa Treatment before I was surprised to see this state of the art skincare equipment in action. The non-invasive, multi-step facial procedure first exfoliates your skin using a serum that removes dead skin cells. The hand held instrument used to conduct the treatment drops serum onto you skin at the same time sucking it up again along with all the dead skin cells. It’s the weirdest sensation! Each step in the procedure is done in the exact same way where a small amount of serum is applied and suctioned off. This technique allows you to do a full peel without any irritation and clean on your pores using suction! How crazy is that!

The last step in the procedure includes an antioxidant protection serum that aims to nourish and protect the skin. I could instantly feel my skin soaking up as much of it as possible! The results were perfect – no irritation,  no redness from extraction just clean, smooth skin! After my procedure was over my technician showed me all the dead skin and dirt that was pulled off my skin - gross I know but also so cool! It was amazing how much he was able to remove even with consistent exfoliating and cleansing on my part!

If you are ever in the Tampa Bay area I greatly suggest you go check out the Evangeline Spa at the Epicurean Hotel for some relaxation and rejuvenation. After your treatment go next door and check out the amazing wine shop at the Epicurean Hotel or rooftop lounge for cocktails under the stars! A perfect way to end any day!

Have any questions about the HydraFacial MD Spa Treatmetn, Evangeline Spa or the Epicurean Hotel? Leave them in the comment section below and I will try my best to answer them!

CUBAN SANDWICHES & THE MIAMI WYNWOOD ART DISTRICT, FLORIDA

MY MIAMI TRAVEL GUIDE

One of most amazing parts of being a blogger is discovering things. New food, new places, new people. If you have been following me for a while you have probably already figured out that I’m quite a naturally inquisitive person and if you haven’t, well let me tell you – I like an adventure. You may even soon discover that locals want to share their experiences with you and recommend places to go and restaurants to eat at. Sometimes, it’s even before you have a chance to ask for it! Haha!

I recently went to Florida to visit my mom who like many other Canadians has become a snowbird flying south for the winter. I will admit I went on this trip with one objective, to find the best El Cubano sandwich. It is well know that Miami is the epicenter for Cuban influence in America and I was determined to find the best, most authentic Cuban pork sandwich Miami had to offer – and thankfully, my mom was game!

After doing some research I found a Cuban restaurant located in Little Havana called Versailles that was supposed to have the best Cuban sandwich in Miami, so off my mom and I went.  It was no surprise that the restaurant was packed with Cuban families and businessman.

Aesthetically the restaurant is a little outdated, but the prices are great and everything that came out of the kitchen looked delicious including my sandwich. The bread was toasted until golden, cheese melted just so, pork perfectly roasted and full of juicy flavors, all topped with the perfect amount of mustard accompaniment - YUP! It deserved all the hype I had previously read about!

Now, this is when things get good because blogging and being a social media creator opens a lot of doors/windows into other people’s lives. I mean, isn’t that what social media is for? To discover and share experiences? Well, it didn’t take long for me to soon stumbled across photos of walls, many walls, painted in these amazing murals. I was very happy when at one point I made a new Instagram friend who grew up and worked in Miami and recommended I check out the Wynwood Art District while I was in town – specifically the Miami Wynwood Walls. Perfect! My mom was game so off we went on another adventure!


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The Wynwood Walls (where you find all the murals) occupy an entire city block on NW 2nd Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. Here you will also find a garden, indoor gallery and studio space, as well as the adjacent Wynwood Kitchen & Bar.

Finding parking, a places to eat or bars in Wynwood is very easy. The entire art district and neighbourhood seemed to consist of about five square blocks but even before visiting the walls my mom and I went to a great contemporary art gallery in the area and grabbed food in Wynwood at The Butcher Shop Beer Garden & Grill . The Butcher Shop has both an indoor seating area and an outdoor patio at the front of the restaurant shielded nicely from the street. Like a little oasis my mom and I took some refuge from the mid-day sun for lunch and were pleasantly surprised to find the service quick and food delicious. I really liked this spot and thought it had a great casual dining vibe and a perfect spot to grab drinks if you are looking to enjoy a Wynwood happy hour . It also soon seemed to be a popular spot amongst young creative’s that work and live in the area which made it all the more appealing to me.

With our bellies full and the taste of sangria still on our lips we wondered over to the Wynwood Walls and were surprised to discover how many murals there were and how they span both sides of an entire block not to mention lining a pedestrian only walled walkway/art park. The entire place was awesome and I would definitely recommend the Wynwood Art District to anyone visiting Miami who is looking for a cool activity for a day. If you are like me you won’t miss the opportunity to snap a photo in front of a Miami mural than perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to leave with a new profile picture like me – it’s just that good.

Cheers!!!!


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