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Universal Orlando Resort: Where to Stay & Play for a Few Days

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My recent stay at Universal Orlando Resort was so much fun and I’m going to share and highlight my favorite moments with you. First and foremost, I stayed at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort on the property which allowed me early access (one hour) to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™. It was my first time experiencing Diagon Alley™. I took advantage of the complimentary shuttle service to Universal Studios Florida and was able to … [Read More...]

Life & Style

Navigating Disney World During a Pandemic

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I recently had an opportunity to visit Walt Disney World as part of my Goofy Getaways FAM Training. It was exciting and I was a bit anxious because even though some restrictions are being lifted, guidelines are more relaxed, and travel is starting to … [Read More...]

Strike a pose at Pose Selfie Studio

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I recently had an opportunity to visit the NEW Pose Selfie Studio in Raleigh, NC with my daughter and it was so much fun. The great thing about this studio is that you have all the tools you need to capture your perfect photos alone or you can go … [Read More...]

Taste the Flavors of St. Thomas USVI

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I am excited to be collaborating with my fellow foodie lover Hannah Victoria on this listing of places to eat in St. Thomas USVI whether you are visiting or local to the island. We are giving you our personal opinions based on our dining experiences … [Read More...]

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Travel

Navigating Disney World During a Pandemic

By

I recently had an opportunity to visit Walt Disney World as part of my Goofy Getaways FAM Training. It was exciting and I was a bit anxious because even though some restrictions are being lifted, guidelines are more relaxed, and travel is starting to … [Read More...]

Taste the Flavors of St. Thomas USVI

By

I am excited to be collaborating with my fellow foodie lover Hannah Victoria on this listing of places to eat in St. Thomas USVI whether you are visiting or local to the island. We are giving you our personal opinions based on our dining experiences … [Read More...]

Food

Rosé All Day at Seasons 52

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I recently had the opportunity to experience the Seasons 52 Summer Menu paired perfectly with Rose cocktails. The menu changes with the season and I can really appreciate that. My reservation was for 7:00pm and it … [Read More...]

How to brush off that St. Thomas beach sand from every crevice

There is a particular kind of sand you only meet in the Caribbean, and St. Thomas seems to have cornered the market on it. The grains at beaches like Magens Bay and Sapphire Beach are so fine they feel like flour between your toes, which sounds dreamy until you are back in your hotel room discovering the same flour has migrated into your phone speaker, your watch strap, and the inner workings of your camera bag.

Because the powder is so fine, it does not behave like the coarser sand you might know from Sydney's Bondi or Melbourne's St Kilda. It floats, it billows, and it settles into every zipper and seam. After a long day swimming with the kids at Coki Beach, we learned the hard way that shaking out a towel in the bathroom only guarantees the sand will resurface in the shower drain later. Anyone planning a similar Caribbean escape after enjoying a recent weekend in Sarasota will recognise the same struggles, because Gulf Coast powder has its own clingy personality. This guide pulls together the routines, tools, and small rituals we now swear by to leave the beach behind without taking it home in our luggage.

Why St. Thomas sand clings to everything

The white powder along the north shore of St. Thomas comes from crushed coral and shell, which creates particles much smaller than the quartz-heavy sand found on most Australian coastlines. That smaller grain size means the sand behaves almost like a liquid. It gets sucked into fabric weaves, plastic seams, and even the tiny gaps around charging ports. When humidity is high, the grains cling with static and moisture, forming a paste that ordinary towel-downs cannot remove.

Even after a thorough rinse, residual dust tends to stay behind in car interiors, stroller wheels, and the folds of beach bags. Anyone who has tried to pack a suitcase for the long flight back to Sydney will know the sinking feeling of finding a fine white line along the bottom of a clean shirt. The key is to accept that you cannot simply brush it away. You need a deliberate process that begins before you ever step off the sand.

The essential pre-beach strategy

Prevention is the most underrated part of any beach day. We now lay out a staging area on the hotel balcony before driving to the beach: a plastic sheet from a nearby grocery store, a mesh laundry bag for sandy clothes, and a dedicated rinse bottle filled with tap water. Setting this up takes five minutes but saves hours of cleanup later.

Choosing the right bag matters too. A canvas tote may look cute, but it will drink up sand like a sponge. We switched to a lined nylon backpack with sealed seams, and the difference has been dramatic. Zip everything closed, even pockets you think you will not use, because a stray flip-flop wedged into an open side compartment will roll in the grit for the rest of the afternoon. If you are travelling with little ones, pack a separate small backpack just for sand toys so the mess stays contained to one bag.

Post-beach rinse and shake techniques

The first thing we do when we get back to the rental apartment is strip down on the tiled patio. Shoes come off first, then swimsuits, then anything that touched the sand directly. A solid shake over the patio tiles dislodges about seventy percent of the visible powder before we even step inside. Travellers from Perth or Adelaide will appreciate this approach, since it mirrors the rinse-and-shake routine you would use after a long afternoon at Cottesloe or Glenelg.

For electronics, we use a soft make-up brush borrowed from my partner's travel kit. A few gentle strokes over the phone speaker, camera lens cap, and watch face remove almost everything the eye can see. A can of compressed air, the kind photographers use to clean sensors, finishes the job for tight crevices. Avoid using your mouth to blow sand out of ports; the moisture makes things worse, and no tropical humidity is worth the trade-off.

Household items that rescue your gear

You would be surprised how many ordinary household items double as sand removal tools. A piece of duct tape wrapped sticky-side-out around your fingers lifts stubborn grains from fabric surfaces, including the seats of rental cars. A clean paintbrush from a hardware shop works brilliantly on backpacks and shoes. We even kept a lint roller in our beach bag, which sounds excessive until you see how much powder it picks up from board shorts and rash vests.

For stubborn grains embedded in zippers, a dry toothbrush is the unsung hero of the trip. A few quick flicks along the teeth push sand out of the track before you zip the bag closed. We also discovered that baby powder itself, the very product many Australian parents sprinkle on little ones at the beach, actually helps here. A light dusting on sandy skin before brushing creates a buffer that lifts the grains away from the body. The same trick works just as well on the white silica beaches of Western Australia as it does on the coral shores of the Caribbean.

Storing sand-free items for the flight home

The final challenge is the journey home, especially when your route from St. Thomas involves a connection through Miami, Houston, or Los Angeles before the long haul back to Australia. Anything that still harbours sand will share that sand with your clean clothes for the entire flight. We learned this lesson after opening our suitcase in Brisbane and finding grit in our socks.

The trick is to pack each category of item in its own sealed bag. Electronics go into zip-lock pouches with silica gel packets. Swimwear and beach towels get a final rinse in the hotel sink and air dry on the balcony before being sealed. Shoes live in their own plastic bags, and if any pair still feels gritty, a quick pass with the vacuum cleaner at the hotel housekeeping desk usually solves the problem. By the time you board the plane, your gear should feel as clean as it did the day you packed it.

Smart habits for keeping the sand behind