Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon planted the first European flag on American shores in St. Augustine in 1513, but it took more than 300 years before Florida opened for tourism and welcomed pretty much anyone else besides bandits and buccaneers. Henry Flagler, a founding Standard Oil tycoon, is the man who made it happen. His legacy is best appreciated in this storied beach town where art, architecture and history combine for a rarified experience that inspires visitors to dream big.
The Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage Las Vegas is the brainchild of Siegfried & Roy, who together designed a place to share their love for animals with visitors. Nothing like this exists elsewhere in Vegas. Rare white lions of Timbavati and slinky black panthers pad around in this tropical jungle lair, while leopards laze on heavy branches overhead.
On the Dominican Republic’s north coast, Cabarete is the adventure sports capital of the Caribbean, with myriad teambuilding experiences in the rugged mountain ranges. It’s also home to The DREAM Project—a non-profit that builds and manages regional schools.
“A lot of our attendees have been to Cancun so they’re comfortable with Mexico, but the Maya Riviera was something new and exciting to them,” says Emily Gallentine, a planner with Monumental Meetings. She brought a 48-member incentive group from a Fortune 500 company to Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun. The upscale, all-inclusive resort lies near the small town of Playa del Carmen, about one hour south of Cancun, on one of Mexico’s most stellar beaches.
Getting up early with a cup of coffee on the beach to watch the sun rise over the ocean horizon is a pretty great way to start the day. It’s a fairly common occurrence for landlocked meeting attendees visiting Florida’s east coast, but some planners might think an upscale resort by the sea is a little ambitious for their group’s budget. Maybe not.
Punta Cana, on the east coast of the Dominican Republic, is basically one big beach. Almost 40 miles long, the sugar soft white beach is punctuated with millions of tall coco palms leaning over sapphire blue seas. “I’m standing there thinking that beach looks almost fake, it’s so beautiful,” says Lynn Beierschmitt, who hosted 300 global attendees for software developer Intergraph at Paradisus Palma Real Resort.
The beginning of this story dates back to 1912 when Chicago bank founder and president Sam Nickerson built a mansion near the seashore in Cape Cod. It was the envy of Massachusetts with 16 bedrooms, each with a fireplace and walk-in closet, while finish carpenters and stone masons where shipped in from Italy, along with Italian quarried stone. Presidents stopped by for dinner, and the social circuit fawned.
On a warm night in southern Spain, across the street from an 8th century Moorish mosque housing a 15th century Catholic cathedral, a guitarist plays a sad melody. A seated man in black claps and sings a slow tune, its syncopation unfamiliar to Western ears, and the crowd stills in anticipation.
“Spectacular. Unbelievable. Life Changing.” This was the client reaction to a tented, white-linen luncheon arranged on an Alaskan glacier by Toni Walker, owner of Logistics LLC, an Anchorage-based meetings management firm.
Turning the idea that luxury needs to be somber on its head, the 144-room Parker Palm Springs proves eclecticism can be as high-end as elegance…