In Boca Raton and Palm Beach during the early 1900s, architect Addison Mizner was the celebrated hotel designer of the day. He combined open spaces prevalent in sunny destinations with romantic Spanish, Moorish and Venetian design motifs. The look is now bi-coastal.
The unveiling of the 88-suite Tucker’s Point Hotel & Spa represents a bit of a resurgence on the island since it was 37 years ago when the last new resort opened.
Want to see real joy? Give an industrial strength impact wrench (like those used to change tires in NASCAR) to a grandmother. That happened recently to Sheri Estes, a volunteer with a Candler Hospital group from Savannah, helping rebuild a home on the Gulf Coast destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Front and center is where you’ll find Hyatt Key West. Front and center to all the action in this laid-back, charming Florida town that is known for its “be yourself” vibe, delightful architecture, quirky characters and gorgeous sunsets. And yet, while the resort is located amidst all the action, it still manages to be a tucked-away oasis on the Gulf where guests can swim among fish on a small private beach, feed turtles at the onsite pond, and wile away an afternoon at the waterfront pool.
Whether it’s the new 22-treatment room spa at JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort, or the more intimate retreat found at the boutique Finca Rosa Blanca Country Inn, Costa Rica has blossomed into a whole new world of volcano mud baths and Mesoamerican steam bath rituals known locally as temazcals.
Executive #2 says he and the missus flew silently among the clouds over San Diego in a high-performance glider. Then they went diving with great white sharks. Last year, the couple manned the controls of an Italian Marchetti fighter plane in a mock dogfight 6,000 feet over New York Harbor. Then they took private ninja lessons in Manhattan!
Meetings aboard ship are limited only by the planner’s bottom line and enough deep water. Let’s get creative. You as a planner decide to organize a sit-down dinner for 700 attendees from a global insurance company who say they “want something different.” Heard that before? So you come up with St. Petersburg, Russia and the opulent Catherine Palace commissioned by Peter the Great in 1710. A Baltic cruise to boot. Wow, good idea! Oops, somebody beat you to it.
Boston Common is the oldest city park in the United States, going back to the 1700s when a Sunday walk in the park was a decidely different affair. Public hangings, bloody duels and spirited oratory were the afternoon’s entertainment for drunkards and statesmen alike. This is where the fight for independence began with the colonies up for grabs. The laws of justice, politics and mercantile trade were hammered out, while sharp men dreamed up Harvard and MIT.
Meeting planners booking Copper Mountain Conference Resort are basically booking a small city, because the whole mountain village comes into play for groups up to 1,000 people year-round. The beautiful part for planners is that the entire operation is fully integrated. So you’re talking to one person who is connected to all the lodging, recreation, catering and facility rental operations.
If we had to give out an award for Best Venue View, Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa in St. Thomas, USVI would be in the running. The 300-room resort, with 17,000-sf of meeting space, sits on a 30-acre precipice overlooking the cobalt blue seas of White Bay.