Tag: vacation
Shell Beach – Best Central CA Vacation Spot
Shell Beach: What makes this area the perfect spot for a summer vacation? Great weather and a relatively laid-back atmosphere. Further north, coastal fog can be a problem, and in some areas to the south, beach resorts are packed in cheek-to-jowl. But Shell Beach, which is the upmarket resort area of Pismo Beach, feels quiet […]
Lava Lava Beach Club – Eat, Play, Slumber
Lava Lava Beach Club. Isn’t that a great name? And here’s the best part: unlike many cool monikers that aren’t as great as they sound – this place is even better. Located right on the beach on the Kona side of the Big Island of Hawaii, the Lava Lava Beach club is both a great […]
Rancho La Puerta – Savor Mexico Near San Diego
Rancho La Puerta, the famous spa retreat in Tecate, Mexico, is a great option for visitors to San Diego who want a taste of Mexican culture. The resort is an hour east of San Diego and just 3.3 miles south of the border. Normally reservations are only accepted for one-week stays, but savvy San Diegans […]
Carmel Valley – Where to Stay and Play
Carmel Valley is a popular destination for luxury loving Californians. Resorts, lodges, and restaurants in this area two hours from San Francisco offer the food, wine, and activities that Golden State residents love. Want to connect with the local culture? You couldn’t make a better choice than to spend some time at Carmel Valley Ranch. When I […]
Best La Jolla Beach Boutique Hotel
La Jolla beach hotels tend to be busy places, but one boutique property offers a sweet retreat with an ocean view. Scripps Inn faces the Pacific a few blocks south of La Jolla Cove – just far enough from the Children’s Pool seal colony to avoid the masses of visitors that the marine cuties attract. I’ve lived […]
Best Time to Visit La Jolla, California
The best time to visit La Jolla – my hometown – will depend on what you want to do when you get here. For classic car enthusiasts, that means early April, when the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance takes place. In fact, the 2016 La Jolla Concours will take place Sunday, April 10. Now in its 12th […]
Cozumel Vacation Rentals –How to Find a Home
Cozumel Vacation Rentals are not in short supply. However, it took my husband and me a couple of days to find a house that would meet the needs of our family. In fact, I thought we might go blind looking on VRBO, Flip Key, and HomeAway – and then we finally found the home of […]
Cozumel Mexico – Warm Beaches & Cool Diving
Cozumel is a magnet for lovers of warm weather, sunny beaches, and great diving. This includes my immediate family – all three generations of us. The youngest likes nothing more than building sand castles; we all love swimming; and the adults get really excited about snorkeling around exotic marine life. I’d heard of Cozumel, but […]
Santa Fe Opera – Musical New Mexico
Santa Fe Opera had been on my bucket list for years, and I finally got there last July. I’m happy to report that it was everything I’d hoped for and more. BTW, what I’d hoped for included an authentic travel experience (as well as world-class opera). As I’ve mentioned here before, two of my favorite ways […]
Best Santa Fe Hotel – New Mexico
Which is the best Santa Fe hotel? For a fairly small city (less than 150,000), Santa Fe offers a great selection of places to stay. This reflects the special fondness that many travelers have for the destination and – to a lesser extent – the fact that Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico. […]
Authentic Barcelona Hotel and Opera Tour
This trip report was contributed by my friend Mary Anne Curray. She and husband Joe are avid travelers. Mary Anne previously wrote about their 14-day Rovos Rail Journey in southern Africa. We stayed at an authentic Barcelona hotel when we were in Spain in March – Hotel 1898, on Las Ramblas. Loved it. Great location. Good […]
Authentic Barcelona Hotels – Regional, Regal
Authentic Barcelona Hotels was contributed by Barcelona Experience. If you’re headed to Spain, you’ll find this and their earlier guest post very helpful. Barcelona is a city where combining luxury and local can be difficult. In this post, we’ll explore the intersection between regional culture and regal accommodation. Many of the city’s grand luxury hotels […]
Edinburgh Insider Tips
During festival time in Edinburgh, Scotland, the city is alive with events and bursting at the seams with tourists, but it’s still possible to escape the crowds and enjoy the locals’ favorite places. I asked Ross from The Luxury Editor, the Edinburgh-based independent luxury travel magazine, to give us an insight into best place to go and […]
New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden wasn’t on my must-see list the first time I visited New York City. Nope. Instead, I chose to wait in line interminably to take the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building, and I rushed back and forth across Manhattan from one mega-museum to another. I don’t regret […]
