So just what is a colita anyway? Ever wonder? In the Eagles’ Hotel California, the “warm smell of colitas/rising up through the air” phrase makes you think of an exotic, fragrant wildflower in the desert on a balmy breezeless night. Well, it is a fragrant flower but only legal in that state for medicinal purposes. However, the iconic song does represent the laid-back, peaceful easy feeling we associate with Southern California laid-back coastal comfort zone: San Diego.
No matter how upscale the clientele, visitors to Vegas always want value for their action. Trump International Hotel & Towerrises 64 stories high, next to the Fashion Show Mall, Wynn Las Vegas and Palazzo. The glass tower with the 24-karat gold sheen houses 1,282 smokeless suites ranging from 515 to 3,500 sf of palatial quietude.
It’s one of those only in Vegas moments. You’re dining on Maine lobster and drinking a nice Montrachet with 21 of your colleagues, talking shop and feeling good about the product launch—while hanging from a crane 130 feet up in the air. The brand new Dinner in the Sky restaurant/thrill ride launches this month, where guests sit strapped into chairs around a dining table hoisted high above the strip. The menus are customizeable and the view is astronomical.
During colonial times, freighters in Singapore’s clamoring harbor unloaded goods onto small “bumboats” for transfer up the river to warehouses in Clarke Quay. Today, groups can book modern bumboats to navigate towards the Quay and some of Asia’s newest and hippest dining/nightlife.
Is there any place better suited for adventure than New Zealand? Spiny mountain ranges run the length of this archipelago‘s North and South Islands. Glaciers and fjords, active volcanoes, lush rainforests, grassy plains, and a coastline that rambles around jagged headlands and inlets onto unpolluted sandy beaches are a beacon for outdoorsy types.
Fort Lauderdale’s city poobahs have fallen over themselves for years touting the fact that the spring breakers are gone; i.e. Where the Boys Aren’t. That’s true, but what hasn’t changed is equally important—a Venetian-style relationship with water. The city is ribboned with myriad canals where homeowners moor 40-foot Bertrams like cars in a parking lot. The giant marina where pulp-fiction hero Travis McGee chased down naughty yachties is still there. And the beach is Florida’s best big city strand of sand. So Fort Lauderdale has very much retained its laid-back, Pina Colada Song, metropolis mojo.
The guide perched atop the speeding airboat spots a gator off the starboard bow. He swerves violently, skimming sideways over the swaying grass until the hull stops near the animal’s menacing eyes peeking above the surface. The gator doesn’t look too scared. Everyone in the group is holding on to something solid. Eventually the reptile tires of the meet ’n greet and slips silently into the murky depths of the Florida Everglades.
What are some of the things that first come to mind when you think about Michigan, other than Detroit? Exactly. But the state is making headway.
Some mornings are better than others. Imagine eating Adirondack flapjacks with warm maple syrup on the porch of a historic 1924 inn overlooking a calm mountain lake in upstate New York. Works for us. The 4-diamond Mirror Lake Inn is a homespun collection of colonial cottages, homes and lodges housing 100 rooms and 31 suites near Lake Placid.
We all have an image of upscale European alpine villages from countless international spy movies and Vogue fashion shoots. There’s the little café with etched glass and women sipping alsace with perfect hair and puffy parkas. The men are capable sorts, usually lean and well traveled. Jetsetters, rich ski bums and other dubious types mill around low slung Citroëns with skis on the back, while the air feels charged with intrigue and adventure simmering under the laissez-faire insouciance.