Travel Maven blog

Melting into a ritual bath in Boca Raton, Florida

Boca Raton Resort and Club, on Florida’s East Coast, about an hour’s drive north of Miami, spreads out over 356 choice acres. Though the rules don’t require it, this is a dress-up place, where, uncommon for most of Florida, people tend to look as spiffy as the stylish furniture and wall coverings. Inside, men seem to think that neckties are resort wear, and even the skimpiest women’s attire at the beach appears as if an entire afternoon was invested in its purchase.

My goal was to get naked.

Springing forward at Florida's Disney World

You know you're in a Disney hotel when the bedside clock magically changes time while you sleep.

Woke this morning at Disney World near Orlando, Fla., to a new time, Daylight Savings.

The clock in my room at Disney's Board Walk had handled the one-hour change forward without my help.

I asked a man at the desk: Are all the clocks wired for changing the time  in spring and fall?

"We send an elf to each room during the night," he said.

A Grande slice of Gulf beach in Naples, Florida

Many of the newer condos and resorts lining the coast of Southwest Florida in and around Naples stand tall toward the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s toward, but not on the beach, because man, these days, no longer is stupid enough to destroy the mangroves, nature’s best beachfront protectors from the furious storms of the Gulf. Instead, vacation buildings near water’s edge sit behind the mangroves, which are low twisting trees with amazing root structures that live comfortably in and around the seawater.

One of my favorite activities on a Southwest Florida vacation is to play in the waters between the mangroves and the mainland, kayaking, for instance, near Fort Myers on ancient Native American paths now mapped out as the Great Calusa Blueway.

Farther south, in the Naples area, where private development sometimes makes beach reaching difficult, you’ll find easy access to the sands and a nice boardwalk for strolling through the mangroves off U.S. 41, near the venerable Naples Grande resort, which is  part of the Waldorf Astoria group.

Day dreams of Florida's sands and palms

October snow terrorized New England. Geese by the thousands are honking as they fly south, past my windows that face Lake Erie, which is turning a steely gray (see picture below, click on it for bigger view).

Early November may be a little early for human flight, but this snow bird from Ohio, having turned the heat up to "comfort zone" on the baseboard thermostat last night, is uncomfortable enough to visualize the benefits of the sands and palms of Florida.

My day dream takes me to winters past -- in northern Ohio, that's November deep into March --  when I drove my trusty Toyota convertible south, waiting impatiently for the moment when the temperature rose to a point that I could tolerate an open roof.

Rome on a budget by the train station

When choosing a hotel room for a short stay in one of Europe’s major travel destinations, location is always the key for me.

Yes, I want a clean room in a friendly place. But I start with location, which, for a budget room, usually is near a train station or a subway stop.

Some of the best sources for budget lodgings are guidebooks such as the Rick Steves series and online sites where you can read the reviews from other travelers, including TripAdvisor and Booking.com. Both have worked for me.

Rome is one of the more expensive cities in Europe, but don’t let anyone tell you that you must spend $350-$400 a night. I recently slept two nights in Rome at Hotel Mediterraneo, a fine old establishment where single rooms start at less than $200. (I found a room on the Internet at $160.)

Wandering Athens, eating well

Among the occasional advantages of advancing age are the opportunities to return to special places, destinations with meanings from the past. I suspect that I look to see what has changed, and usually I have changed the most.

In my first visit to Athens and the Acropolis, images from books, study, and expectations came alive for my wife and me in the early 1980s. Both of us lovers of human history, we soaked up the words from our tour guides and called the visit one of our best trips.

My second tour was at the guiding hand of my art-history-educated daughter, after her graduation from college. That trip I saw through her eyes the wonders of Greek art and culture as she took it all in for the first time. “Dad, this is huge,” she kept saying, explaining yet another unknown to me.

This time, with fewer expectations, I returned to the wonder of the Acropolis, visited the outstanding new Acropolis Museum, then roamed the area around Monastiraki with a goal of relaxing and eating with the locals.