It’s tough to walk a mile in the shoes of someone who’s been shot. But it’s worth the walk anyway, to learn about how people gone bad can find their way to good. In the Central American country of Panama, Panama City’s Casco Viejo neighborhood is a great place to do it. I’m walking with former bad boy Samuel Palacio through Casco Viejo, a historic district in Panama City that has long been riddled with crime, much of it gang related. Samuel is in a gang no more; he now […]

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Even if you’re not a fan of the style, there’s something about live country music in the actual country that makes it vastly entertaining. I’m not into country music, but last summer, atop a nearly 10,000-foot mountain under a Colorado sky bluer than any I’d ever seen before, with snow-dotted southern Rocky Mountains on the horizon and nothing but fresh air and great tunes all around, I converted in a hurry. At least for that day. The summer-long event, which this year runs into September, is the Mountain Rails Live […]

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Who wants to be a millionaire? Well, most of us. But most of us aren’t. You can, however, vacation like one at the new Sandals LaSource all-inclusive resort in Grenada. Or so it says in the resort booklet. That’s not a stretch. The resort opened in April 2014 to rave reviews, a beauty of an all-inclusive resort, luxurious, well-appointed and ideally located close to Maurice Bishop International Airport on the island’s southwestern corner. I don’t like most cookie-cutter all-inclusive resorts, but Sandals, which also runs Beaches Resorts, does theirs in […]

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Jamaica’s one of those places that gets a mixed response when you tell people you’re going. It’s either, “Man, I love Jamaica, it’s gorgeous” or “No way I’d go to Jamaica, it’s too dangerous.” Funny how that is. I’ve run into tons of gorgeous in Jamaica and never any danger. Granted, you can find danger wherever you are, or it finds you, but by and large, be careful, don’t be stupid and put yourself in known places of danger, you’ll be fine. Most recently, I was more than fine up […]

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Never have I gone to a party at the house of someone who owns an all-inclusive Caribbean resort. Nor have I rooted in slimy muck of a saltwater lagoon at another all inclusive with its chef, foraging for food to cook and eat. But I did both, in gloriously fun fashion, at Curtain Bluff and Hermitage Bay, two resorts on Antigua in the Leeward Islands of the West Indies, where the rich and famous have homes, such as Georgio Armani, Richard Branson and Eric Clapton. Hermitage Bay, a small resort […]

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Three if by land, two if by sea. Sorry, Paul Revere, but you got lit up your way, I’ll do it mine. I was at Frenchman’s Reef and Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort on St. Thomas recently, a glorious iconic resort perched high on a bluff and overlooking the capital city of Charlotte Amalie, which a few years ago did a $48-million renovation, jazzing up the spacious rooms (which start around $220 a night), and adding a fitness center, two pools, restaurant, lounge and spa. It was at Frenchman’s Reef […]

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If you’ve ever tripped along Main Street in Charlotte Amalie, the bustling capital city of St. Thomas in the Caribbean, you know how crowded it can be in season, especially when cruise ships berth, spilling thousands of tourists into the narrow streets seeking deals. At times like that it’s best to cut down some side streets and find places like the Royal Dane Mall, off jewelry store-centric Main, a sun-starved warren of ancient brick buildings and narrow alleys with little stores tucked inside, such as Carson Co. Antiques, a place […]

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It’s not often I get a man crush, something usually reserved for sports figures. But Omar and Romulo, two burly boys weighing a combined 1,000 pounds, had me at the first kiss. Omar and Romulo, along with Remo and Franco, are four massive sea lions that you can get up close and personal with – including getting bussed on the cheeks  – at Coral World Ocean Park in St. Thomas, where you can also swim with sharks and sea turtles, do snuba diving and don a diving helmet and walk […]

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Elegant, old, stately and welcoming, they are perched high on bluffs overlooking the sea, two New England grand dame hotels with unique identities and charms all their own, especially cozy in the wintry off season when it’s far less crowded. Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, N.H., and Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, the latter an icon on the Vineyard since 1891, the former since 1874, each have a rich history, and in the case of Wentworth, history changing. In 1905 the […]

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Martha’s Vineyard, noted for its rich residents and famous for presidential vacations, is not a cheap place to visit, especially in high-priced summer. But there are places to see and things to do year-round that won’t break your bank. By far, my favorite was the Martha’s Vineyard Boys and Girls Club’s thrift shop in the heart of Edgartown, on North Summer Street. The long-time nonprofit club that has been serving island children since 1937 runs one wonderfully cluttered place with some jaw-dropping values. I picked up a gray Ermenegildo Zegna […]

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I mean you can’t beat hanging around a great Caribbean resort like Harbour Village Beach Club on the island of Bonaire. It’s got a great restaurant, stunning sunsets, a long puffy sliver of silky white sand for a beach, and tons of stuff to do, from diving to snorkeling to kayaking and more. There are also the super comfy ocean-facing rooms set amid tropical gardens, and an ever-gracious staff, never leaving you wanting for anything, quick with a “hello” as you pass and an “anything we can do for you?” […]

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Sitting on the most comfortable lounger ever, watching fat white clouds scuttling by in the seriously blue sky above Cap Juluca on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, I’m wondering why I’d ever want to get up. I suspect the rich and famous who visit here, like Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, Jennifer Aniston and other cinematic superstars, don’t want to get up much either. This is one great beach, St. Maarten and St. Bart’s on the horizon, seemingly close enough to touch. This crescent sandy sweep on Maundays Bay is so […]

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OK, so I went to the Bahamas once before, as part of a cruise, putting in at Nassau and instantly clouding my view of the Bahamas as a whole, perceiving a place of giant cruise ships, sweaty tourists, over-priced gift shops and sheer sensory overload. Then most recently I visited Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbour Marina in Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island, a sedately unhurried resort, and was proven wrong. That, and having a Goombay Smash or two at Angler’s Restaurant there. And OK, a Blaster at Pete’s […]

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Ever felt lost at a giant all-inclusive Caribbean resort? It’s not an unfamiliar feeling in a one-size-fits-all place with thousands of rooms and even more guests milling about where you’re a face in the crowd, a colored bracelet on your wrist. Not so at Bolongo Bay Beach Resort on St. Thomas. This super-cozy, 62-room resort has been run by the Doumeng family for more than 40 years, where they know your name the instant you arrive and use it every time they see you. The rooms here face a beach […]

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There are tons of resorts in the British Virgin Islands, but not many new luxury ones. A recent entry into the resort scene, the first luxury development in the BVI in more than 15 years, is Scrub Island Resort, Spa and Marina, not far from Tortola. The travel world has taken note: Scrub was named one of the Top 30 Resorts in the Caribbean’ by Conde Nast magazine. The 230-acre island, developed by Mainsail Lodging and Development and managed by Marriott, the first Caribbean resort in its Autograph Collection, opened […]

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