“The next best thing to jetting to St. Barts, Miami, or Cabo is getting lost in a book that takes you there. Herewith, ten tomes that offer tropical settings and enough sun-drenched drama to make Jay-Z’s yacht look boring. The only thing you’ll miss is a tan.

1. “The Sweet Life” by Mia King. The bulk of this charming novel takes place on Hawaii’s Big Island, where Manhattan wife and mom Marissa has been unexpectedly relocated. Though her tale is punctuated with sunsets, tropical flowers and charming local customs, the sweetest

thing about the book — aside from the list of Hawaiian recipes in the back — is the lesson she learns about motherhood, marriage, friendship and life.

2. “The Beach” by Alex Garland. Pick up this 1996 cult thriller for a dose of nonstop action set in paradise, and you’ll be transported to a gorgeous, unspoiled lagoon on a remote Thai island. Just don’t expect to relax: the story has enough twists and turns and thought-provoking themes to get even a holiday-hungover heart pumping.

3. “Fool’s Paradise” by Steven Gaines. Why do celebs head to South Beach for wild New Year’s parties? According to this dishy new expose, it’s because the town is “a place where people get away with things they’d never get away with any place else.” Expect true tales about mobsters, models, Madonna and a healthy dose of scandal.

4. “Islands in the Stream” by Ernest Hemingway. It wouldn’t kill us to put down our US Weekly and pick up some Hemingway, and what better way to get our smart on than with a classic set in the islands? The novel starts in the Bahamas and ends in Cuba, but the protagonist (brooding, macho, and complex) and the plot (death, war, and even a little Nazi-hunting) make this way more than your typical beach book.

5. “The Last Song” by Nicholas Sparks. The setting of Sparks’ latest bestselling tearjerker — Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina — might not be the tropics, but the coming-of-age tale is so chock full of summer romance and beach town drama, you’ll see why Miley Cyrus fell for beau Liam Hemsworth on the set of the big-screen adaptation. That comes out this spring, by the way. ” (via  cnn.com) by  Linley Taber

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“Miami is a place of many guises…

There is the hyperreal Miami of Miami Vice, of alligator attacks and Elián González…

There are splashy art galleries and celebrity hotels…

There are also lots and lots of strip malls… But this collective weirdness happens to sit on one terrific piece of real estate. Miami has turquoise waters and white-sand beaches. It also has gleaming Modernist architecture and impossibly beautiful people. Joan Didion once described the city as having a “kind of perilous attraction.” And it does.

You can lose yourself here, among supermodels, nostalgic Cubans and the countless figures who live on the fringes - and remind us that until a few decades ago, this was all still frontier.

Like most modern American metropolises, greater Miami is composed of several smaller cities. Here the cookie-cutter developments all tend to blend into one indistinguishable mass of peach stucco and Spanish tile.

For the purposes of navigation, however, the city is essentially divided in two: Miami, the mainland city, which is businesslike in demeanor, with offices, malls, arts districts and residential subdivisions; and, connected to the mainland by causeways to the east, Miami Beach (a.k.a. South Beach, a.k.a. SoBe), the slim, glamorous barrier island that is draped in Deco hotels and where life is lived as if it were one big party.

If you have only a few hours to spare, choose one side of town and stick with it — or you may end up spending all your time sitting in traffic. ” (via time.com) by CAROLINA A. MIRANDA

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“College students don’t seem to be planning staycations for spring break.

Bookings to popular beach destinations are strong, according to travel companies, and volunteering vacations continue to gain momentum.

“Typically the student business is more resilient to the economy because it’s like a once-in-a-lifetime trip,” said Jason Chute, director of operations for StudentCity.com. “A lot of times kids will go no matter what.”

Here’s how students will be spending their break.

International beaches
Cancun and Jamaica are top destinations for spring breakers, according to Patrick Evans of STA Travel. Some 30,000 revelers are expected to visit the beach spot in Mexico this year. The same number came to Cancun last year, according to Quintana Roo’s Tourism Office.

Also popular is Acapulco, Mexico, according to Chute. Acapulco has some of the hottest night clubs, and many are open all night, he said.

Scott Schechter, 22, a Boston University senior, said he was looking for that big-party atmosphere. “Generally, when I think of spring break, most of the nice spring break locations that aren’t trans-Atlantic would be in Mexico,” he said. “The idea of traveling outside the country makes it a little more exciting.”

Perhaps because of the economy, more students are choosing the Party Bus this year, said Evans. The bus departs from locations in California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to Mazatlan, Mexico. Prices for the seven-night trip (two nights on the bus), start at $300 per person on StudentCity.com.

Besides Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos are the most popular international destinations for people booking through Travelocity, according to Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor.

But she said both have slipped in overall popularity from last year, which suggests people are vacationing closer to home.

Adventure
Demand for trips to Asia and Australia is up, according to Atle Skalleberg of StudentUniverse.com. And France, Italy, Spain and U.K. also remain popular, he said.
“The exchange rate is still not great for Americans, but it is a lot better and that seems to be enough,” he said. “The other reason is we have had some pretty competitive pricing to Europe this year.”

Also popular this spring break are ski trips to Colorado, said Debbie Gibb of the Student and Youth Travel Association.

Jennifer Rudolph, spokesperson for Colorado Ski Country USA, said resorts are offering more creative deals this year because of the economy. Colorado has also experienced near-record snow fall this season.

Domestic
Panama City Beach, Fla., remains a top destination for the college crowd, according to Chute. Once again the beach hosts mtvU’s Spring Break party March 8-21. The beach’s north Florida location makes it accessible for road trips, he said.

Hotel bookings are strong, according to Dan Rowe, president and CEO of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. But he said it’s too early to determine if the economy has had a negative impact, so Panama City Beach is doing some aggressive marketing.

“In addition to college students, the month of April, we’re really gearing out activities and marketing to families,” he said.

The top three spring break destinations based on Travelocity bookings are Las Vegas, Orlando and South Florida. Las Vegas was No. 3 last year. Also making the top 10 this year was Washington, D.C. Travelocity does not separate bookings by families and students.

In Vegas, average daily hotel rates are down 28 percent, said Travelocity’s Brown.

“So that combined with the fact that there are deals galore, free nights, two-for-one show tickets, Las Vegas is going to be more popular this year than last,” she said. ” (via  www.msnbc.msn.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read more about Party on! Popular spring break hot spots

“Pink slip, schmlink slip. Just because your business cards are now only good for jotting down your take-out Chinese orders doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself. Take it from someone who understands: now is the time to take a brief breather and reset your life, and isn’t that what hotels are for?

Ok they are good for a lot of other things too, but right this minute you need a break. Hold off on the Starbucks for a few days or liquidate the crap you kept on your desk and you’ll be surprised to know that you can afford a getaway to a city that is not Detroit.

1. Try your luck at Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. It just so happens that this, our number one choice for those with new time on their hands, is also the cheapest. Book a non-refundable room on their website and you’re looking at only $29 a night, a small price to pay to completely escape from your life for a little while. If you manage to save your soul from the slot machines, then head to the thrill rides that encircle the crown of the hotel; the Big Drop plunges faster than the balance of your 401K.

2. Head to warmer Climes and beach bum it at Miami’s Hotel Shelley. After Art Basel and before Christmas, the beloved art deco hotels of Collins Avenue will massively drop their rates, leaving the unemployed snow birds to grab up the $49 a night standard rooms at the Hotel Shelley. If you’re feeling indulgent, even the suite with jacuzzi rings in at only $89. This is the perfect time to have no commitments but several pairs of flip flops.

3. Give those Hollywood dreams a second chance with Los Angeles’ Orbit Hotel. Again with the warmer weather, because something as simple as sun exposure may juice you up with enough Vitamin C to feel optimistic again. The Orbit is one of those slashies, a hotel/hostel, but its vintage mid-century modern decor and excellent location on Melrose make up for possibly sharing a bathroom. Desperate to beef up your imdb profile? Bunks right now are going for $30 a night, or upgrade to a private room for $75. We can personally vouch for the shared rooms here, and the location for the price is unbeatable; stores like Kid Robot and Agent Provocateur are on the same block.” ( via hotelchatter.com ) by HotelChatter Contributing Editor-JetSetCD

Pointswizard.com Spin: read the rest of The Five Best Hotels Under $100 for the Newly Laid-Off

“MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT is a dim, crowded, low-ceilinged affair, a J-shaped belt punctuated by security zones and boutiques hawking ersatz Cuban souvenirs, with all the appeal and glamour of a shopping mall that can’t quite pay its electric bills. It is not a place where you hope to eat well.

And yet, on a layover in early November, I hoped. Though lacking in atmosphere, the Miami airport is much like Miami itself, with Cuban restaurants and cafes strewn throughout the complex. Finding an excellent specimen of the Cuban sandwich — roast pork, ham and Swiss cheese with pickles on a roll, panini-pressed into gooey, crispy deliciousness — should, I figured, be easy.

Hardly. At Bongos Cuban Café, a sleek sandwich bar owned by Gloria Estefan, the Cubano was well-pressed but devoid of flavor. At the Casa Bacardi lounge, it was inedibly dry — which was probably the point. The drier your mouth, the more Bacardi rum mojitos you’ll consume.

By the time I reached La Carreta, I was nearly in despair. Sure, this outpost of a Miami mini-chain looked appropriately shacklike, with a stand-up coffee counter and a cheap-looking backlit menu that included a host of tropical-fruit shakes. It certainly felt like Little Havana. But I’d been fooled before.

Not this time. The roast pork was juicy, garlicky and chock-full of real roasted flavor, and the cheese tasted as if it had actually been produced from the milk of a cow. La Carreta’s was a Cubano I would happily eat “off-campus,” as airline employees refer to the world outside the airport, even though the bread was oddly chewy and I wanted more pickles. Then again, I always want more pickles.

No one likes to eat in airports, but eat in airports we must, since we’re spending more time there than ever. Around one in four air passengers experienced trip delays averaging an hour and 54 minutes in 2007, according to a report from the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University. And it only gets worse during the holidays, said Lance Sherry, the center’s executive director, since airlines are running at maximum capacity and therefore can’t easily recover from delays and cancellations.

“Small delays will have a big impact,” he said.

At the same time, he added, the airports “perversely” benefit from the delays. By offering cheap leases to airlines, he said, the airports have to make money somehow, and they do so through concessions. Which is why that ice-cold turkey sandwich costs $9, the bottle of water is $3, and the delays never seem to get any shorter.

“They’re incentivized to keep passengers longer,” Professor Sherry said.

Still, there are bright points. In October, JetBlue opened a striking new food court in Terminal 5 of Kennedy Airport in New York (more on that later), and with another holiday season approaching, it seemed appropriate to see if good restaurants might exist in other American airports, perhaps overshadowed by the Cinnabons and Sbarros but producing honest, edible food nonetheless. And so, over the course of four days, I flew between some of the nation’s biggest hubs — Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas-Forth Worth, Los Angeles and, in New York, La Guardia and Kennedy, which together accounted for about 400 million passengers in 2007, according to Airports Council International, an airport trade group — and tried to discover food worth eating. But what to seek out? And how to find it?

First, I wanted to ignore the big chains and focus instead on local food. Each of these cities has a strong, distinctive food culture, and I hoped this would come through in the airports. Plus, I reasoned, local employees might have a greater connection to the local cuisine and thus a certain pride in seeing it done right.

By this measure, Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport was exemplary, with not one but three Texas-style barbecue joints, all branches of off-campus stalwarts. Cousin’s Bar-B-Q was easily my favorite — the brisket had just the right balance of meat, fat and chewy, charred burnt bits — while Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, whose brisket was watery and ribs dry, made an intriguingly spiced hot link. Only Railhead BBQ disappointed, perhaps because I was already stuffed and had to save my chopped-beef sandwich for a cold midnight snack.” ( via travel.nytimes.com  ) by MATT GROSS

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“LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World calls its workers, from actors in Goofy outfits to laundry workers, “cast members” to make them feel part of the show. There’s a garbage can every 25 steps, so litter will be tossed not dropped. There’s a polite way to answer one of the park’s most asked questions: “What time is the 3 o’clock parade?”

These nuggets are part of corporate customer service training offered by Disney Institute, a Florida-based unit of the Walt Disney Co. that has coached thousands of executives and front-line workers from other companies and organizations since 1986. Customers have included Delta Air Lines, IBM Corp., General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp. and even the Internal Revenue Service and cigarette maker Phillip Morris Inc.

Now the Institute has taken another client: Miami International Airport, which many travelers will tell you needs customer service training like an airplane needs wings. Surveys rank its service among the nation’s worst.
The airport’s terminal operations employees are taking classes taught by Institute instructors, learning leadership practices, team building, staff relations and communication skills — many formulated by Walt Disney himself.

“Many organizations think they’re different from Disney, and therefore can’t learn from an entertainment or a parks and resorts business,” said Bruce Jones, programming director for Disney Institute. “But then when they get here and work with us a little bit, they find out … these principles and similarities are transferrable across industries, across cultures, and across different sizes and shapes of organizations.
“Just think of the airport business. The reality is both businesses have millions of people each year waiting in line for a ride.”
Disney World and the airport have more in common, including dealing with ground transportation, parking and retail sales. So, it made sense for the airport to seek out Disney Institute.

“They understand how to minimize the inconvenience and maximize the entertainment value,” airline industry analyst Bob Mann said of Disney. “It’s a reasonably good move” for the airport to hire Disney.
Miami International Airport is a gateway to and from the Caribbean and Latin America. About 32.5 million passengers passed through the airport in 2006, including more than 14 million international passengers. But among 18 U.S. airports with 30 million or more passengers per year, only three airports performed worse in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2007 North America Airport Satisfaction Study.

“The customer service needs to improve,” said Sarah Abate, who oversees commercial services at the airport and took a training class. “Passengers need to understand that Miami is a friendly airport, and we are passenger friendly. Now, people don’t get that, or the perception from the passenger is not the same as what we are trying to convey.”
Disney started the Institute after it realized it was getting questions from other companies about its customer service. After offering some behind-the-scenes educational tours, the Institute developed its first professional development program 21 years ago..” [Via biz.yahoo.com]

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“Tie the knot in one of the Caribbean destinations served by Air Jamaica and you can get a free Business Class airline ticket.

To qualify for the airline’s new Executive Business Class, the bride and groom must book a minimum of 22 seats (including themselves) through Air Jamaica’s group sales office at (800) 523-6805, or groupsales@airjamaica.com.

The Business Class airline tickets are processed once the entire group is ticketed. Air Jamaica provides 300 non-stops weekly, from Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York (JFK), Orlando, and Philadelphia in the United States.

Also Toronto in Canada; and from London in the United Kingdom to Montego Bay and Kingston.

Air Jamaica also offers daily non-stop service between New York/JFK and Barbados, and direct service between JFK to both St. Lucia and Grenada.

It offers intra-regional service with flights between Jamaica and the Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, Cuba, Curaçao, Grand Cayman and St. Lucia.” (via flightbliss.com)

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Entry ends for this NASCAR race contest at 11:59:59 PM EDT on September 30, 2007