When winter comes, can the blahs be far behind? So zero in on a sunny harbor, a toasty beach, a golf course with swaying palms, a villa by the sea. Whatever your needs, you don’t have to escape for long. A week will do wonders. Here are some warm, tempting spots–one or two may work for you. (Unless otherwise noted, rates are per room, double occupancy.)
1. Hemingway went to Bimini in the Bahamas to fish and to flee responsibility, i.e, his editors, and those are still two good reasons to go. Alice Town, 50 miles due east of Miami, is the sleepy capital and only settlement on North Bimini.
A skinny road, grandly named the King’s Highway, runs through the town and up the spine of the island. Drop in to the dockside bar of the Bimini Big Game Fishing Club & Hotel and swap yarns with the anglers, boaters and locals. Later the action shifts to The Compleat Angler, a funky tavern and inn that opened in 1935. Two rooms off the bar serve as a Hemingway museum. Fish, swim, snorkel, relax. Bimini, a short seaplane flight from Miami with Chalk’s Ocean Airways or from Ft. Lauderdale with BIA or Island Air, squats on the Gulf Stream which jumps with tuna, marlin, wahoo, bonefish. Rates at the Bimini Big Game Fishing Club are $158 and up; 800-737-1007, www.bimini-big-game-club.com. At the Compleat Angler (809-347-3122) it’s just $65 to $80 a night.
2. About the only time that George Town, on the island of Great Exuma, ever sizzles is during the Out Island Regatta in April, a weekend race pitting wooden work boats built in the Bahamas. Any other time, you’ll have this Bahamian island to yourself. And because the Exumas, a 90-mile strand of cays and coves, are well south of Nassau in the Bahamas, the winter temps are higher.
If there’s a social hub in George Town, it is the Club Peace and Plenty, a pink two-story inn that nudges up to the quay. You can get all the local gossip in the inn’s snug bar, overseen for the last 30 years by Lerman “Doc” Rolle; the kitchen turns out fresh grouper, snapper and other seafood dishes. If you’re not into pool-sitting or bone fishing in the island shallows, then hop a boat that runs twice a day across bottle-green waters to Stocking Island.
It’s a Robinson Crusoe kind of place, a narrow uninhabited strip of white sand. A narrow sandy trail leads to the wild side of the island, past almond trees and silver palms, which local ladies come to harvest and turn into basketry that they sell at the market in George Town. The trail ends in a sandy, boulder-backed cove, and now you are totally alone. Rates start at $150 (800-525-2210; www.peaceandplenty.com).
3. Before traffic lights and condos made their presence felt, Sanibel and Captiva on Florida’s west coast had no peer for shelling and solitude. The island twins are still hard to beat, but when I want a beach to myself and acres of exotic shelling, I head for Cayo Costa, not far away in Pine Island Sound.
Lonely Cayo Costa, 12 miles long and a half-mile wide, has a few cottages peeping out of pine and seagrape. You can catch a day-trip boat out of Pine Island or Punta Gorda to the state park beach on one end. But I wanted to see the more secluded northern end so I hooked up with a charter skipper named Pat Hagle. Hagle will drop you on the beach and pick you up at a prescribed hour ($60 for up to four passengers). You leave from the sleepy port of Pineland, north of Captiva, and in a matter of minutes you’re on the beach. It was all mine. The shelling was unlimited (sand dollars, lion’s paws, angle wings) and the swimming ideal in the clear shallows.
For reasonable digs, there’s the Bridgewater Inn, on tiny Matalacha, a short drive from Pineland, a friendly 11-room inn on tall pilings–you can fish from the wraparound deck. Rates range from $39 to $139. Contact 941-283-2423; www.bridgewaterinn.com. Capt. Hagle’s number is 941-283-5991.
4. There’s no guarantee of 80-degree midwinter heat, but will you settle for: an endless beach as flat and wide as a country road, shirtsleeve tennis and golf, seafood shacks, birdlife galore and a historic port town to prowl?
That’s Amelia Island, hugging the northeast coast of Florida and a 20-minute drive north from Jacksonville’s airport. The temps are often in the high 60s in February and March, and the beach waits to lure you, just beyond those towering dunes, stretching out hundreds of yards at high tide.
I like the easy convenience of Amelia Island Plantation, with its four golf courses and one of the prettiest clusters of clay tennis courts I’ve played on.
Make the short drive to Fernandina Beach, a reviving fishing port with many square blocks of handsome Victorians houses. Centre Street runs down to the pier, past shops and boutiques and cafes. Another easy drive takes you to the Mayport Ferry. Leave your car and make the five-minute crossing to Mayport, get a table in tacky old Singleton’s, order a grouper sandwich and watch the pelicans plays. For something smaller than the Amelia Island Plantation, the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge is a handsome, grey-shingled B&B smack on the beach a mile from downtown Fernandina.
Rates at Amelia Island Plantation start at $135 (888-261-6161; www.aipfl.com). Elizabeth Pointe Lodge starts at $160 (800-772-3359; www.elizabethpointelodge.com).
5. It was 30 years ago that I first laid eyes on bountiful Bequia, sailing into Admiralty Bay on a 51-foot sloop. The pearl of the Grenadines has grown up, but it still has a magical pull with international wanderers.
If you don’t have the time or wherewithal to make the dramatic approach by sea into the high-walled harbor, you can hop a small plane out of Barbados and you’re there in about an hour. Bequia until recently lived on boat-building, and though much of it has moved to Tobago, you’ll find miniaturists are in the majority. Mauvin Hutchinson sells his whimsical tall-masted models for $100 to $2,500 in a shop along the harborfront in Port Elizabeth.
Stroll the long curving shoreline path in Port Elizabeth, lined with print-block clothing shops, the blue-trim St. Mary’s Church with its tree-shaded rectory, an orderly open-air fruit and vegetable stand, sail shops, and a cool outdoor cafe and hotel with a great view of the bay. Catch a water taxi around the point to Lower Bay, a beautiful crescent beach. Bequians and winter visitors swim in the shallow surf and hang out in the palmy seaside cafe.
Lodging is limited on Bequia, but two good choices are the Gingerbread Hotel and Frangipani. Gingerbread is a nine-room beauty overlooking Admiralty Bay with a good restaurant. Rates start at $150 (784-458-3800; www.begos.com/gingerbread). Nearby is the 15-room Frangipani, built almost a century ago by a sea captain, is small, charming, discreet and scenic. Rates start at $55 (784-458-3255; www.frangipani.net).
6. Variety on the little green Caribbean island of St. John means looking for a different beach each day. And what a choice. Smallest of the U.S. Virgins and the most enchanting, the soaring St. John is two-thirds national park, and a score of sandy bays and beaches stretch along the north shore.
St. John is a 15-minute ferry ride from St. Thomas. Rent a jeep and let the roller-coaster road take you to: Hawks Nest Bay, a beach with soft white sand; the remote Gibney’s, a favorite of local beachniks; Trunk Bay, with easy snorkeling along its underwater trail, and Francis Bay, a long curving bay where you can swim with sea turtles. Go hiking on national park trails, book a sailboat and see the beautiful splatter of islands called the British Virgins.
Hang out in Cruz Bay, a bustling little port. The cafes and shops tucked along the lanes and waterfront are mostly run by happy mainland renegades. Stop in and see Elaine Estern and her dazzling watercolors at Coconut Coast Studios. Or drop in to Woody’s, a rollicking seafood shack.
St. John is home to the posh Caneel Bay resort and the comfortable Westin Resort, but I liked Gallows Point Resort, a cluster of cottages on a lawn above Cruz Bay. Rates start at $145 (800-323-7229; www.gallowspointresort.com).
There are two permanent campsites, Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay, or you can rent a house–at rates from $100 a night to $3,000 a week. Try a listing at www.stjohnusvi.com or the St. John Hotel and Tourism Association, 340-774-6835; www.st-thomas.com/m-islandinfo.html.
7. It is mostly flat, even scrubby in spots, but I wouldn’t trade Anguilla for many tropical islands anywhere. Why? How about a friendly populace, a wealth of gorgeous beaches–33 by one count–and an air of breezy insouciance. Anguilla, an easy 40-minute run by hovercraft from St. Martin, seems to add a posh new resort every year (Cap Juluca, CuisinArt Spa, Sonesta Beach), but for easygoing atmosphere and reasonable rates, I like the Rendezvous Bay Hotel. It sits on one of those postcard beaches, Rendezvous Bay, 2 miles of undulating white shoreline always studded with pink conch shells. It’s run by a local family and you’ll never lack for suggestions on what to do, where to go. Rates start at $120 (800-274-4893; www.rendezvousbay.com).
The best news out of Anguilla is that Bankie Banx, a beloved island singer, has rebuilt his cafe and nightclub, the Dune Preserve, destroyed by Hurricane Lenny. It sits in the dunes at Rendezvous Bay, and Bankie plays Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The other choice is to hit Jonno’s, a shack of a nightclub down at the docks at Road Bay, and dance till dawn.
8. No wonder they filmed “South Pacific” and much other paradisiacal footage at Hanalei: When I stand on the town pier at sunset and eye the sweeping bay and stage-set mountains, I can hear strains of “Bali Hai.”
Kauai’s north shore can get damp in the winter, but I’ll take my chances, given the bounty of staggering scenery, South Seas lassitude, world-class beaches, topnotch snorkeling on this Hawaiian island. Hanalei town is the hub–sleepy, laidback, much like the scenic little ports in Tahiti, with an infusion of hip culture.
Start the day with breakfast on the porch of the Hanalei Wake Up Cafe. Then head for the beach; everyone has a favorite, and mine is Tunnels, three miles past Hanalei along the wiggly coast road and a mile past the Wainiha Store, the last chance for sandwiches and cold drinks. It’s called Tunnels for the tunnel-shaped surf, but most come to picnic, kick back or to snorkel in the shallow sandy reef, among varieties of colorful fish and some big turtles.
You can stay less than a mile away at the Hanalei Colony Resort, a cluster of two-bedroom condos that rent for $145 and up a day (800-628-3004, www.hcr.com). Closer to the Hanalei buzz is the Hanalei Bay Resort, a range of condos starting at $155 perched above dreamy Hanalei Bay and next door to the posh golfing haven Princeville (800-827-4427; www.hanaleibaykauai.com).
9. High above the eternally sunny Kona Coast on Hawaii’s Big Island is a world in miniature, a string of hamlets perched on a cliffside and clinging to a way of life the tourists who hang out at the resort hotels below can’t fathom.
It’s the Kona Coffee Belt, and you reach it by driving straight into the heights from the busy port of Kailua-Kona. Simple frame houses and tiny shops, Oriental cemeteries and wee coffee farms cling to either side of the road.
Holualoa, the liveliest of the villages, has turned its raison d’etre from coffee-growing to art; the Kona Arts Center, which was built out of a disused coffee mill, is a studio for area artists and has spawned a number of galleries, one in a former church, another in an ex-post office.
One of the few places to stay in the Kona hills is the Holualoa Inn, an airy vacation house turned into a stylish six-room B&B, with a swimming pool perched high above the sea. Rates start at $150, including full breakfast (800-392-1812; www.konaweb.com/HINN).
Down the hill, the ever-sunny Kona Coast has sprouted some of Hawaii’s classiest resorts; chief among them is Mauna Lani Bay, a haven for golfers, tennis players, snorkelers, pool-sitters and lovers of quiet good taste. Rooms start at $350 (800-327-8585; www.maunalani.com).
10. Morning in Arizona. Is there a sweeter wake-up call than the twitter of cactus wrens? A more comely, comical sight on looking out the window than a saguaro cactus crooking its finger skyward?
That’s how the day greeted me in Tucson at the White Stallion, a dusty friendly guest ranch northwest of town. I am not a riding guy, so I used the ranch more as a base of operations for exploring the sprawling Tucson and other parts south and east.
I strolled the reviving blocks of 4th Avenue, with its blend of the clever and functional: furniture strippers, frame shops, cafes and coffee bars, cowboy and cowgirl boutiques; prowled the giant second hand bookstore, Bookman’s; checked out the southwest Indian artifacts and jewelry at a restored adobe called Old Town Artisans, across from the fine Tucson Museum of Art; watched the Colorado Rockies work out at Hi Corbett Field.
One day I hit the trail south and east and explored the border country, stopping in Tombstone, which still trades on its one-minute of fame in 1881, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and Bisbee, a onetime mining town settled in recent years by artists, artisans and other free spirits.
With pool, tennis and other diversions, the White Stallion is more than just a dude ranch. Per person, double occupancy rates start at $122. Contact White Stallion Ranch, 888-977-2624; www.wsranch.com.
You could also get a good fix on Tucson by staying at the Arizona Inn, a stately and venerable white-washed building behind a high hedge in the heart of town. Rates start at $225 at the Arizona Inn (800-933-1093; www.arizonainn.com)
If you like tennis, the Westward Look resort (a onetime guest ranch) will polish your game with some of the best and most forgiving resort pros I have hit with. And it runs a masterly juniors program for the kids. Rates start at $269 (800-722-2500; www.westwardlook.com).
