Montañita & Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

No better place to spend the biggest Ecuadorian holiday of the year than in the beautiful beach towns of Montañita and Puerto Lopez. “Carnival” was hands-down one of the most memorable weekends of my life. We stayed at an open-air hostel called Iguana Backpackers, surfed for the first time (definitely not my thing), spent hours looking for a restaurant to watch the Super Bowl, and went to beaches with black sand. There’s something about being at the beach that makes life so much sweeter.