Vacances Costa de Este Independence Day Aircation Recap & Camera Roll + Treasure Coast Food Tour

             

This is a quick recap of my time spent on the Treasure Coast, I am talking about Vero Beach. We stayed at the beautiful hotel Costa d'Este by the famous Gloria Estefan. The thing that I loved the most about this hotel is that it is beautiful, it is right on the beach, and its only a few levels. The rooms looked exactly like the website pictured them. They had the style and design of what you would find in the Caribbean and honestly, while I was there for the Fourth of July I posted a few photos and you couldn't really tell I was even still in Florida. It was in fact, the perfect quick little "get-away" we wanted and needed for our Juneteenth celebration.

                   

The beach was just steps away from our room so we had a magnificent ocean view, given that it is July we did not utilize it a lot because of the heat. We did however partake in the hotel amenities and restaurants on site. I have never been to Vero Beach before as an adult (I don't recollect going there as a child either) so I was excited. Vero Beach was in fact a bit of a sleepy small town located on the Treasure Coast. It is a ride we are used to as we roadtrip a lot in Florida's backyard and we enjoy that particular drive. 

At the time of our visit Wave Kitchen and Bar at the Costa d'Este hotel was the best and the premier restaurant in Vero Beach. Now, Vero Beach is small so you can find a lot of nice restaurants a little further south, but if we are talking about this immediate area, then this is it.

What I found to be interesting when I did my food tour here is that none of the restaurants had a local cuisine or style of food they loved to eat in particular. The Wave had a lot of Cuban food on the menu, but none of the people who worked there had actually even had Cuban food before according to what we were told. A lot of places had tacos on their menus as well as this kind of seafood dish with a red sauce that is served with white rice. It was simply called a "seafood sautéed" , but the flavor profile was giving Cajun.

Lunch on the beach at El Sid Taqueria was great, for hubs. He loves tacos and he was so elated that it was literally right next door to the hotel. Things were a little worse for me because they really weren't prepared to deal with anyone with a gluten allergy and cross contamination which is why I ended up just getting a taco salad. Like many restaurants I go to, I run into people not actually knowing what a "taco salad" is and I have to explain it. Well, I usually get a bunch of unseasoned ground beef with the things that should be in a taco and whatever gluten free dressing that they have. The taco salad was mid, but they loaded it up with a lot so that was nice and I had enough to share later.

As far as the food scene goes in Vero Beach, at the time I visited it was not really a scene at all. I struggled to find the few nice restaurants I did, lunch places and breakfast cafe's that were able to safely accommodate my gluten dietary restrictions. If I had more time, I would have driven at least once about 35-40 minutes south to the few nice restaurants I found, but for this trip, this is what I had time for. 

Grits Scratch Kitchen is now closed permanently and I really liked that place. So, out of my food tour stops I would highly recommend Wave Kitchen and Bar as well as the Caabana Pool and Bar which serves different food and drinks. Of course, I am going to recommend El Sid Taqueria because who doesn't love tacos on the beach?