Archive for March, 2007

New Orleans: Welcome Back!

In sports, when a season is a wash, the coaches will inevitably say that it was “a building season.” The travel industry has its building seasons, too. First there was 9/11, and we certainly had a few building seasons after that. Four years later, New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast suffered the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. Certainly 2006 was their building season — both figuratively and literally. I have always said that the most telling indicator for the long-term survival of New Orleans would be the 2007 Carnival season,…

The Caribbean’s New "It" Destination

Every now and then a new “it” destination comes around. For the past 10 years, I have been keeping my mouth shut, making several purely selfish trips before the word got out. Selfish? You bet. Worth it? Every last penny! So, what’s the secret? The Dominican Republic. What you notice first about the Dominican Republic is its size. This is not another tiny Caribbean island with a beach and a straw market. Instead, it’s a big country with incredibly varied scenery that includes the tallest mountains in the region, stretches…