The Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Art Deco at its finest

After narrowly missing a connecting flight in Miami en route to the Caribbean, I found myself stranded in Miami International Airport for six hours, waiting for the next flight to my destination.

Given my choices of: 1. Eating fast food and watching CNN in Terminal D until my brain (and stomach) turned to mush, or 2. Getting out of there as soon as I could, I quickly boarded an Airport Flyer bus and for $2.35, took the 35-minute ride to Collins Avenue and 16th Street, aka South Beach.


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Style Director Mark Connolly spent Christmas, New Year's, and then some at the Shanti Beach Huts in Goa. It wasn't a posh vacation (see part one for a look at his lodgings), but the man who is usually front row at Prada and Gucci learned to love it. Yesterday he talked food, fashion, and massages. Here is his final post.

One great side trip I highly recommend is to Cola Beach. North of Agonda (about 25 minutes by motorbike), it's poorly signposted and tricky to find (most cab drivers know it), but it was one of the highlights of my trip. It's got a deep U beach with a strong current and a natural water lagoon feeding into it. Set back from the beach are about 6-8 rajasthani white tents for rent; spartan but comfortable, they cost around 1000 rupees per night and are the ultimate for romantic getaways. I also had my favorite meal here—a curry made from cashew nuts and almonds—at the Blue Lagoon Café. In fact, everybody had their best meals here.

Pretty soon, the days started to roll into one another and I sometimes "forgot" to shower. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow, and somehow began to welcome the barking dog alarm call at 6:30 a.m. Some friends departed, then more arrived, and new bonds were made. At this point, none of it disturbed my Goan rhythm.
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Style Director Mark Connolly spent Christmas, New Year's, and then some at the Shanti Beach Huts in Goa. It wasn't a posh vacation (see part one for a look at his lodgings), but the man who is usually front row at Prada and Gucci learned to love it. We'll keep posting his travel diary entries from his time abroad, which may be a bit hazy due to the heat—and the Indian champagne.

After Christmas, more people started to arrive, adding a different dynamic. We seemed to split into the party people and the stay-at-homes (I was bang in the middle). This proved very tricky come New Year, as one contingent was hell bent on going to a beach rave at Neptune's Point and the other half wanted a party at Shanti. Feeling nostalgic for my early 90's glory years, I decided to go to the rave.
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Style Director Mark Connolly spent Christmas, New Year's, and then some at the Shanti Beach Huts in Goa. It wasn't a posh vacation (click after the jump for a look at his portable "solar-powered" shower), but the man who is usually front row at Prada and Gucci learned to love it. For the next two days, we'll be posting his travel diary entries from his time abroad, which may be a bit hazy due to the heat—and the Indian champagne.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time: Christmas, New Year, my birthday, and my best friend Karl's fortieth birthday in Goa.  Bring together a bunch of strong-minded international tastemakers, drop them on a quiet hippie beach in Goa and laissez les bonne temps roulez! Normally, in my capacity as Style Director for Condé Nast Traveler, I thoroughly research before trips, planning and producing every moment. This time, though, the decisions were all made for me. It was a liberating experience to just get on the planes (yes, four of them—the beauty of air miles!) and turn up with an open mind and a limited budget.
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While last week’s storm dumped multiple feet of snow on New York, senior assistant editor Beata L. Santora spent a blissful week at the Excellence Playa Mujeres resort in Mexico. She was able to halt the eating, drinking, and tanning long enough to tell us how she scored the ultimate upgrade.

It’s amazing what you can get just by asking. Case in point: I booked my week-long stay at the gorgeous Excellence Playa Mujeres way back in August when Travelocity offered a too-good-to-be-true package deal—seven nights for $2300, including airfare. For two!

So as I walked into the beautiful lobby of the resort last week, I couldn’t have asked for anything better...until I did. “I would love a room with views of the sea,” I said to the front desk clerk sweetly. Before he could say that those rooms are double the price, I mentioned that I was a repeat guest. When I saw hesitation in his face, I added that eight friends were due to arrive that day based on my recommendation. I wasn’t pushy or arrogant, but friendly and firm. A short conference with the manager ensued and minutes later I was being escorted to a sea view suite within the Excellence Club. Not only did this room have the ultimate vistas (see above), it also had a private rooftop with huge loungers and a HydroSpa pool with cascading waterfalls. Plus, we got our own concierge, a pillow menu, a private club and beach area, plus name recognition at each and every restaurant on the property.

The moral of the story is this: Just ask. What’s the worst that could happen? They say no? Unlikely. Hotels and resorts are in the business of repeat customers, so nowadays an upgrade is just a smart investment. Paying it forward.

News Editor Kevin Doyle breezed through Italy last week and put down his fork long enough to make some local culinary recommendations and recount one not-so-hair raising robbery on a train.

As a destination, Ferrara has a lot of stiff competition from Venice and Florence—both about an hour away—and doesn’t score much more than a page or two in most guidebooks. Urbino is another largely unsung but worthwhile Italian city and little Umbertide, well, most Italians haven’t even heard of it, but its weekly market turns out a dish of spit-roasted pig so addictive that each plate should come with a warning. And speaking of warnings, I was robbed on an Italian train on my recent visit to these three off-the-beaten path Italian gems. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you how to avoid the same fate. READ MORE >>