Orleans sizzles in summer

NEW ORLEANS -- Some of New Orleans' most popular events will be drawing visitors this spring, while the city is counting on a series of big conventions to keep tourism going this summer.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival celebrates 40 years of music with performances April 24-26 and April 30-May 3. The French Quarter Festival is scheduled for April 17-19.

One new event taking place this year during the French Quarter festival is the Louisiana premiere of the opera Cabildo, written in 1932 by American composer Amy Beach. The April 18 performance will take place in the courtyard of the Cabildo, a historic government building that is now a museum. Admission will be free.

Tourism to New Orleans usually slows down in the summer, but the industry is expected to get a boost from seven major conventions booked for June and July.

"It's the biggest June and July we've ever had," said Steve Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Overall, convention business in the city is projected to be down 5-7 per cent this year, but Perry said that's actually good news compared with other cities.

"You take cities like Las Vegas or Orlando, they're looking at 12-30 per cent drops," he said.

Tourism is the No. 2 industry in Louisiana and the top industry in New Orleans, where it generates $5 billion US in visitor spending and $250 million to $300 million in tax revenues, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Meanwhile Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu says crime in New Orleans -- or the perception of it -- is the No. 1 inhibitor in building tourism in the city, even though crime statistics for 2008 released by the New Orleans Police Department show a drop in all categories of crime except auto theft.

Murder was down almost 15 per cent. Total crime for the year, compared with 2007, dropped by 6.76 per cent.


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Booking air travel on a budget

Booking air travel on a budget

If you’re on a budget but you’d like to fly somewhere for your next vacation, there’s good news.

“Domestic fares are down 9 percent over a year ago and summer fares to Europe are down 19 percent,” said Mike Fridgen, product manger for Farecast.com.

“Bargains are out there,” agreed George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com.

Examples: JFK to Paris, for under $500 roundtrip; Southwest’s $49 one-way tickets, and once-in-a-lifetime dream fares from Newark to Hawaii, in the mid-$400s, including taxes and fees.

These and many other deals are easy to find online. But there are some strategies you can use to make sure you get the lowest possible airfares. Here are some tips from the experts.

RESEARCH: “The most important thing is to do your homework,” said Michele Perry, spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com, which just launched a new flight search aggregator.

To do your research right, you’ll need to compare fares from many different sources. “Too many people get cozy with their favorite search engine, blithely thinking that it’s the best,” said Hobica. If there were one best Web site, he added, “the rest would be out of business by now.”

“There’s not one Web site out there that has the cheapest fare,” agreed John E. DiScala, founder of JohnnyJet.com.

Sign up for newsletters and e-mail alerts from airlines that serve the routes you’re shopping for, and from sites like AirfareWatchdog, JohnnyJet, Farecast and others, including FareCompare, Kayak, Orbitz and Travelocity. Many airlines post their best fares only on their own Web sites, including Southwest, Allegiant Air, SAS, Aloha, Aer Lingus, Qantas, Alaska, Air New Zealand, and JetBlue, Hobica said.

Absurdly cheap fares, like a recent $14 flight on JetBlue from New York to San Francisco, don’t show up on booking sites because the sites can’t earn a commission on them. But that fare was mentioned in an alert from AirfareWatchdog, in JetBlue’s e-mail stream and on Twitter, Hobica said.

“They Twittered to death that $14 fare, but it was not on Kayak, Travelocity or Expedia,” Hobica said.

Airlines may also make deals with some sites and not others, so you may find fares differ for the same flight on different Web sites.

Another source for news about cheap fares, DiScala said, is the message boards of Webflyer.com.

And don’t overlook promotional codes. “If you sign up for an airline’s frequent flyer program or the airline newsletter, some airlines will generate a promotional code that you can use to get a discount when you book,” Hobica said. Often these codes are generated individually and can only be used once, so you won’t find them on Web sites.

Finally, as crazy as it sounds, check out package deals. Sometimes it’s cheaper to book a hotel and airfare package even if you don’t need lodging.

DiScala said he recently saw an airfare on United for $590, but on Travelocity, the same airfare was $480 including four nights in a hotel. That’s because hotels and tourism agencies sometimes subsidize airfares to bring people in.

NOW OR LATER: You’d need a crystal ball to know for sure whether fares will keep going down or if they’re stabilizing.

TripAdvisor’s Perry says “there’s anticipation that we’re fairly close to rock bottom,”

But Hobica says the news on the economy just keeps getting worse, and “the airlines are panicking again. Spring fares softened and they’re softening more. I expect to see summer fares soften, too.”

He added that “we’re seeing a lot more low fares with no advance purchase, or just three days’ advance, because the airlines realize that people are afraid to plan way ahead in this uncertain economy.”

If you book now and the fare goes down later, some airlines, including JetBlue, Southwest and Alaska, give a voucher good for future travel for the difference, said Hobica. Others will refund the difference but charge a fee of $150 or more.

WATCH THE HYPE: Sometimes a fare is so low it seems too good to be true. And it just might be.

First, a lot of really cheap deals are one-way, and the return fare may be more, depending on when you want to come back.

Second, look for those pesky little asterisks next to the price. On international flights, taxes and surcharges could add up to several hundred dollars.

“You’ve got to be careful about the hype around the deals,” Perry said. For example, she recently checked out one of Southwest’s famous $49 fares, “but when I priced it, it wasn’t the cheapest option with taxes and fees, plus it’s only one-way.”

TripAdvisor’s new Flights finder comes has a “Fees Estimator“ function that can also help you keep track of little things — charges for food, checking baggage, even headphones. “If you’re traveling with a family of four and everybody sends a bag, you could end up spending the price of a ticket on checking your luggage,” said Perry.

DATES MATTER: Look for deals early in the week: “A lot of airlines release their sale fares on Tuesday,” said Perry.

And be flexible about when you travel. “It’s usually cheapest to fly midweek,” she said.

You could also save big on summer fares if you fly early or late in the season, during the shoulder periods of May to mid-June or late August to September, in the weeks before and after peak summer travel, according to Fridgen of Farecast.com.

Newark to Honolulu, for example, is on sale in the mid-$400s through early June, but “once you get to June 15 on, it’s up it bumps up $200 a ticket,” Fridgen said.

Similarly, JFK to Paris, Fridgen found a sample fare departing June 24, returning July 2, for $567. Push the departure date forward just one day to June 25, and the price goes up to $822.

Hobica recommends using a flexible date search. “Orbitz and CheapTickets.com search over any 30-day period, and include all international routes; Travelocity and CheapAir.com search over a 330-day period, but don’t offer all international routes,” he said.

COMPARE ROUTES: “Connecting is usually cheaper than a nonstop if you’re willing to take a connecting flight,” said Perry.

But weigh the risks: If you’re switching planes, is there enough time to make your next flight? If there’s a long layover, are you going to blow a day of your vacation in the airport, spending money on food?

And check out alternate airports. Perry’s home airport is Logan in Boston, so she always looks at flights out of Providence, R.I., and Manchester, N.H., too. “Sometimes nearby airports will be cheaper,” she said.

AirfareWatchdog has a search option to see the cheapest fares to any destination from a wide range of cities at a glance — for example you can ask to see all the lowest fares to Paris from anywhere in the U.S.

In Europe, the cheapest destination airports include Dublin, Frankfurt, Shannon, and London Gatwick (not Heathrow), Hobica said. Even if you’re not headed to those cities, you might save money by flying in and connecting to a cheap European airline like Ryanair or EasyJet to get where you’re going.

For a quick directory of which budget airlines serve which markets, visit WhichBudget.com.

Just remember that it’s not always easy to transfer between two airports near one city. It could take hours and cost a bundle to travel between London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.


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You condo it in a breeze

The Dominican Republic is best known for its beaches and hot weather, but did you know that in the small northern town of Cofresi, there is a perfect breeze every afternoon?

And the most optimal spot to experience this breeze is sitting on the spacious balcony of your own private condo.

Which is exactly where I was every afternoon during my week-long stay in the beach community just outside of Puerto Plata.

Yes, I was just another Canadian on vacation in the Caribbean during the cruel winter months, but my trip was not your ordinary trip down south.

While up the road from me, other tourists sporting multi-coloured wristbands were sharing their designated beach areas, I was sitting on my private balcony in the Condos Club Paradise complex, overlooking the private pool and the ocean metres away.

Yes, this was the luxurious vacation most people envision when they think of the Caribbean.

My travel companions and I also had our own private maid/cook for the week who took us grocery shopping to pick whatever local foods we wanted her to cook for us throughout the vacation.

Every morning we woke up to a home-made Huevos Rancheros or breakfast burritos, or some other Dominican dish -- and every evening we came home to dinner waiting in the oven, everything from exotic local dishes to fried chicken with rice and beans.

We also had a concierge who would come by our unit to help us arrange day trips and tell us about his country and his family over afternoon drinks on the balcony.

And our own personal driver gave us a cellphone so we could call him to pick us up any time, day or night --and he even came out with us at night, at no extra cost, to act as our personal bodyguard/dance instructor.

But the best part of this arrangement was that it was cost-efficient.

A sparkling clean two-bedroom condo in Condos Club Paradise costs US$1,000 a week in high season, or $250 a person -- and US $700 a week in low season.

And that includes all the fixings, plus 24-hour security guards.

Despite all this, renting your own condo is still a fairly well-kept secret, says property manager Luis Francisco, as most tourists aren't comfortable venturing beyond the standard resort experience.

"When you're in a condo, you get the feeling like you need to travel on the island to get what you want," he says.

"It's not just beach, cocktails and palm trees as in a resort."

Once you experience the independence of staying in a condo though, you probably won't go back, says Chris Brawn, a Calgary-based software developer who has owned a condo in the complex for 18 months.

"You go beyond being a tourist when you're there," he says, adding it's not uncommon for condo owners to invite staff members' families over, and be invited into staff members' homes.

"You're not an ex-pat or a local, but you have a connection with the community and the people in the community."

For more info about Condos Club Paradise, e-mail paradisecondos@codetel.net.do or call 1-809-970-7576.


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Blooming wonderful

PHOENIX, Arizona -- There are many better places to spend time in Arizona than the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. I had just arrived from Sedona by shuttle bus and was hoping to squeeze in a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden on the last day of my trip. But where was the taxi?

"It'll be there in five minutes," the dispatcher had assured me. An hour-and-a-half and three follow-up calls later, the cab finally arrived.

"And how are you today?" the driver asked with a cheerful smile, oblivious of my long wait. It was still an hour's drive to the garden and daylight was slipping away. Naturally, I wasn't in the best of moods.

But once I entered the Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Trail, one of five themed trails in the garden, everything changed. Almost immediately I felt enveloped by a sense of tranquillity and calm.

Perhaps it was the sight of butterflies fluttering between the desert marigolds and the Angelita daisies, or the way the late afternoon sun cast an outline of glowing light on the fuzzy Teddybear cholla plant.

There were only a few other people around this late in the day. Most of the time it was just me, a few reptiles basking in the sun, rabbits hopping to and fro, and 50,000 desert plants to enjoy.

My timing couldn't have been better. During spring, the Arizona landscape blooms with wildflowers. Desert plants and cacti sprout new leaves, branches, arms and pads. Animals are active in the daytime gathering food, building homes and enjoying warmer days.

It was a surprise to see the prickly pear cactus, which typically begins to bloom in early May, already flowering in April. It's a sure sign of spring when spikes of fiery red, tubular blossoms flame at the end of the whip-like branches of the ocotillo shrub.

The show-stopper was the canopy of yellow blossoms on the Palo Verde trees. It made me think back to the time I'd spent at the Boulders Resort, which has a lovely desert garden.

In an effort to keep everything looking pristine, the grounds keepers, to my dismay, had raked up all of the tree's golden blossoms. But here, the flowers remained where they'd fallen, creating a spectacular yellow earthen carpet, too beautiful to ignore.

Even when not in bloom, Arizona's state tree, a native species of the Sonoran Desert, is worth admiring for its green-coloured trunk and branches. (Palo Verde is Spanish for green stick).

Using the free trail map, I tried to identify the various animals to be found here. No sign of the desert tortoise or the Gila woodpecker, but I did see a few cactus wrens and Gambel's quails, lots of black-tailed jackrabbits, and Anna's hummingbirds, as well two shy desert spiny lizards.

Mention the word "desert," and for many it conjures an image of a vast desolate region. But the number and variety of desert plants is actually quite astounding. The Desert Botanical Garden alone has more than 21,000 plants representing 139 plant families.

Nestled amid the buttes of Papago Park, it claims to be the only botanical garden in the world whose mission from its inception was to focus solely on desert plants. Founded by environmentalist Gertrude Divine Webster in 1939, the garden is a "Phoenix Point of Pride," and one of 36 botanical gardens in the United States accredited by the American Association of Museums.

Spread out over 58 hectares, the collection is especially strong in cactus, agaves, aloes and the flora of the Sonoran Desert. You'll also find 169 rare, threatened or endangered plant species from the world's deserts, especially the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.

If you can't make it in April, the months referred to as dry summer -- May and June -- are equally beautiful.

That's when the Saguaro cacti and queen of the night plants bloom with bats and moths drinking their nectar at night.

Watching the sunflowers bend with the fading light I realized it was time to leave.

"How was it?" asked my taxi driver, when I emerged at closing time.

"Great," I chirped, feeling thoroughly recharged.

It's amazing what the desert in springtime can do to lift your spirits.

WRITER@INTERLOG.COM

---

MORE INFORMATION

Desert Botanical Garden is at 1201 North Galvin Parkway. Admission is $15 (prices in U.S. dollars) for adults, $13.50 seniors (60 and up) $7.50 students, $5 children (age 3-12), and free for children under 3. See dbg.org. For travel info, check visitphoenix.com or scottsdalecvb.com.

You may want to time your visit to coincide with one of three events this spring.

- Spiked! presents Chihuly Nights. Every Thursday night until May 14, one of the garden's will feature a different glass sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly paired with a Chihuly-inspired cocktail. Price $25.

- The Spring Jazz in the Garden concert series continues Fridays nights through June 26. Price $20 for non-members.

- Butterfly exhibit: Butterflies will surround you as they flutter about the Marshall Butterfly Pavilion. Until May 31 you can view the scaly-winged friends up close at a "discovery station." Price $3 for non-members.


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Bookends to paradise

Largest Hawaiian island expands

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii - The largest and southernmost of the Hawaiian islands is shaking, spitting, and stretching as it slowly expands into the ocean.

You'll see and feel reminders of this almost everywhere during a trip to Hawaii Island, which most locals call the Big Island.

On the southern shore, streams of lava pour into the ocean where they form new land.

In some neighbourhoods, you'll see fields of black, cooled lava that have poured from Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes in recent decades.

Sometimes the ground shakes as gravity pulls on the accumulated piles of lava. But don't let a fear of temblors prevent you from visiting: the vast majority of these earthquakes are far too weak to feel. Big earthquakes measuring magnitude 6 or more tend to only hit the state about once a decade.

Volcanoes have been central to stories told by Hawaiians for centuries.

Legend says the volcano goddess Pele dug fire pits as she travelled from island to island looking for a home with her brothers and sisters.

She finally settled at Kilauea's summit, where she lives at Halemaumau crater. It's said that Pele stomps on the floor of her fire pit when she wants to summon lava, hot rocks, steam and smoke.

You can see for yourself how Pele's lava is building the Big Island if you visit now. Kilauea volcano has been erupting simultaneously in two places for over a year, something that's unprecedented in 200 years of its recorded history.

The first of these eruptions has been spilling lava across the southern part of the Big Island since 1983, swallowing roads, homes and even entire towns.

Fresh flows from this eruption are currently slithering into the ocean near Kalapana, a formerly robust town that was mostly buried in lava in 1990.

Kilauea is also erupting from Halemaumau crater at the summit. That's where a large explosion opened a vent in March 2008, leading to the daily release of hundreds of tons of sulphur dioxide. Kilauea has spit small fragments of lava from Halemaumau but hasn't released any lava flows from here.

You can watch the summit eruption from a lookout point inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It's humbling to see the crater's gas plume rise hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of feet into the air from a vent larger than a football field.

From the visitor's centre inside the park, you can join ranger-guided hikes to see cinder cones and now-solidified lava lakes created by previous eruptions. Some of the walks meander through rainforests. Visitors can even venture into an old lava tube - a tunnel through which lava once streamed.

Getting near flowing lava can be dangerous, so it is vital that visitors follow guidelines set by the national park and Hawaii County.

Park ranger Mardie Lane said most visitors comply with the rules and have no problems. But in 1993, a lava-watcher was swept away when the unstable lava bench he stood on collapsed. Nine years ago, two visitors died after inhaling steam near a point where hot lava enters the ocean.

Hawaii County, which operates the ocean entry lava viewing point near Kalapana, outside the park, has designated a safe lava viewing area and cordoned off fragile lava benches.

Don't be disappointed if you are prohibited from standing next to the lava flow. Watching lava slide into the ocean is powerful even from a distance.

At the Hawaii County lava viewing point one recent evening, a few dozen visitors oohed and aahed as they watched a large steam plume rise into the air as scalding hot lava hit the chilly sea near Kalapana.

The plume glowed pink whenever lava slithered into the ocean from an above-ground lava tube prompting viewers to gasp and murmur.

County workers on duty at the viewing site have spent most of their lives next to lava.

Emily Hauanio saw her hometown of Kapaahu submerged in molten rock in the 1980s. She says Pele was cleansing the land so she wasn't upset.

"There was a lot more people coming in. Our famous swimming holes were getting polluted," said Hauanio, a Hawaiian whose family has lived in the area for generations. "It was time for her to come in and clean up the mess. That's the way I felt. And that's what she did."

Another county guide, Malia Mendes, whose grandmother's home was one of the only Kalapana structures spared by lava, was also accepting.

"It's nature's way. It was meant to be," said Mendes, who is also Hawaiian.

Hawaii's volcanoes are created by an underwater "hotspot" where magma from deep inside the earth has been poking through the earth's crust for at least 80 million years.

Few other places on Earth have a hotspot forming new land. One is the North Atlantic, where a small island called Surtsey grew off the southern coast of Iceland in the 1960s.

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific plate - one of the earth's eight major tectonic plates - has slowly edged northwest over t he stationary hotspot.

The Big Island, the newest in this chain, is made up of five adjacent volcanoes, most of them still active.

Kilauea is the youngest of the five, having started erupting underwater 300,000 to 600,000 years ago. Between 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, Kilauea grew tall enough to emerge from the sea.

Most of the volcanoes on the other, older Hawaiian islands are now extinct. The exception is Haleakala on Maui which last erupted in the late 1700s.

-

If You Go...

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK: http://www.nps.gov/havo/. The site will give you the latest information about where the lava is flowing into the sea, and what the summit eruption is doing. It also has information on hiking and camping within the park. The park is located on Hawaii's Big Island.

GETTING THERE: Round-trip flights from Honolulu to Hilo, the nearest city, run frequently throughout the day, take about 45 minutes and can be booked for about US$100. There are also some direct flights to Kailua-Kona, a city on the west side of the Big Island, from Los Angeles, San Francisco and a few other mainland cities. The Big Island has limited public transportation so renting a car is your best option for getting around and exploring the island. Official Hawaii tourism site: http://www.gohawaii.com.

WHAT TO BRING: Flashlight, sunscreen, water, sweater, parka, hiking boots or sneakers. You'll need some warm clothes as Kilauea summit is 1,200 metres above sea level and temperatures there are much lower than the coast. Check for temperatures by looking up the weather for the town of Volcano, which is just a few kilometres from the park entrance and the Kilauea summit area.

FURTHER READING:

-"Hawaii Island Legends: Pikoi, Pele and Others," by Mary Kawena Pukui and Caroline Curtis. Kamehameha Schools Press.

-"Volcanoes of the National Parks in Hawaii," by Gordan A. Macdonald and Douglass H. Hubbard. Hawaii Natural History Association.


Bookends to paradise

Bookends to paradise

TAHITI, French Polynesia -- The itinerary reads like the script of a daydream: Two days at the laidback Intercontinental Tahiti Resort, island hop around French Polynesia aboard the luxe Silver Shadow, sail around the Hawaiian Islands, then rest up at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua on Maui before flying home.

Silversea Cruise's literature for the 10-night sailing with pre-cruise and post-cruise hotel stays promises an extraordinary journey -- the ultimate romantic voyage. Or in my case, the ultimate "ro-tic" voyage -- romantic without the man, who is unable to accompany me due to previous commitments.

The lure of exotic explorations is too good to pass up despite the absence of my significant other. The solution: Take a gal pal. There may not be dancing under the stars but there are still plenty of thrilling experiences to make a heart skip a beat or two.

These include exploring the remote islands of Rangiroa and Nuka Hiva, sailing across the equator, touring Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii's Big Island, making a pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor memorials on Oahu and hitting the high elevations of Haleakala National Park on Maui.

* * *

French Polynesia has always been high on my "go to" list. Once difficult to reach, it still enjoys an "end of the earth" mystique.

The Intercontinental Tahiti does not disappoint. Recently renovated, it's typically Tahitian -- palm trees fringe the beach, the infinity pool has a sand bottom and swim-up bar, the open air Tiare restaurant provides poolside dining with ocean views. Our room has a balcony and looks across turqouise waters to Moorea. Every afternoon guests can watch staff feed colourful tropical fish at the Lagoonarium. Some days there are cultural presentations.

The new Deep Nature Spa by Algotherm (opened since our visit) features Polynesian Hei Poa and Tahitian Wave massage, plus seaweed wraps and marine body scrubs.

We dine with new friends at the resort's Lotus restaurant in an over-water palapa. The service is seamless. The open air setting is magical. The meal is memorable. I could stay forever but Silver Shadow awaits at the dock in Papeete.

* * *

If a ship that measures 186 metres long, weighs 25,635 metric tonnes and carries 382 passengers can be considered "small," then the Silver Shadow gets my nomination for the title "Tiny Perfect Cruise Ship."

The "tiny" designation is in comparison to the mega-liners plying the waters today. Some of these floating cities weigh 10 times more and carry 6,000 passengers and a couple of thousand crew. Passengers face rush-hour traffic jams at the buffet and theme-park- style lineups to disembark.

Still, there are some who revel in the carnival-like atmosphere of a really big ship. These leviathans do create a buzz when they sail into ports large enough to handle them.

But my tastes have always run more to low key sophistication and off the beaten path exploration so this "small" ship is more my style. For all it's "smallness," Silver Shadow is actually one of the larger vessels in Silversea's five-ship fleet, which includes a new expedition ship, Prince Albert II, that carries 132 passengers.

What truly makes her "perfect" is -- apart from kitschy things like boxing rings -- Silver Shadow has all the essentials of a large ship but on a human scale.

The spacious cabins -- most with verandas for watching the world go by -- are immaculately kept by attentive stewards who stock the minibar with your favourite libations -- everthing from Champagne to Scotch. (Alcohol and gratuities are covered on this all-inclusive line.)

There are three restaurants, a fitness centre, a spa, a library, a show lounge and a casino. All are less than five minutes' walk from anywhere on the ship.

The swimming pool and whirlpools are seldom crowded. And there's a level of old world service befitting a five-star luxury cruise line.

Silver Shadow is kept shipshape under the watchful eye of Captain Angelo A. Corsaro, who also updates passengers on sea conditions, the ship's progress and ports of call.

Cruise Director Helga Reiss plays the role of gracious hostess. Passengers seem to be naturally drawn to Reiss, an outgoing Newfoundlander with a melodious speaking voice.

A classically trained pianist, Reiss turned to singing after an injury forced her to give up the piano. An adherent of the "when one door shuts, another opens," philosophy, Reiss says she "ran away to sea" like her Norwegian grandfather before her, and found a new career as a singer and cruise director. She has performed with jazz greats Oscar Peterson and Charlie Biddle and performed for the Royal Family.

Since joining Silversea, her show, Big Time, has become a passenger favourite that allows her to showcase her considerable singing talents.

After calling at Rangiroa and Nuka Hiva, Silver Sea sails for Hawaii. There isn't much between French Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands except endless vistas of Pacific Ocean. People new to cruising worry they might be bored on sea days. But more than a dozen cruises has taught me to cherish this special time suspended between here and there.

Sea days are for sleeping late, soaking up sunshine, having a massage, catnapping between chapters of a murder mystery, relaxing over afternoon tea, watching the sunset from your veranda and indulging in a beautiful dinner -- dessert and all.

One afternoon, there is some general silliness on the pool deck as Silver Shadow crosses the equator and passengers pay their due to Neptune. Each of us is awarded a handsome certificate and we enjoy an unearned sense of accomplishment.

After four days at sea, we dock in Hawaii. By now, the ship feels like home and disembarking feels like work, but then we imagine the discoveries that await on the Big Island, Oahu and Maui.

* * *

A few days later, saying goodbye to Silver Shadow proves to be hard but saying hello to the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua turns out to be a welcome transition from sea to land.

The lush grounds of the beautifully renovated resort resemble a botanical garden. Our room is spacious and tastefully decorated. The three-tier pool is calling.

There are activities for everyone -- everything from golf to the new children's program, Ambassadors of the Environment. Launched with Jean-Michel Cousteau, it includes rainforest hikes, reef snorkelling and underwater photo sessions all designed to teach about Hawaii's ecosystems.

As we bid farewell to Maui, it occurs to me that my vision of French Polynesia has always been of oceans and beaches while Hawaii sparked images of palm trees and fiery-hot volcanoes. Now, it is people and colours that come to mind: A collage of friendly locals greeting Silver Shadow in every port, a riot of blooms growing wild, a shifting palette of Pacific blues, inky black lava and the gold-red hues of Haleakala.

Silversea calls this a cruise. I call it heaven.

---

BOTTOM LINE

SOUTH PACIFIC

Silversea Cruises specializes in unique voyages to exotic destinations. In 2009, Silver Shadow will visit French Polynesia twice: First on a 16-day sailing from Los Angeles to Papeete, departing from L.A. on March 7, and later on a cruise from Papeete to Sydney, Australia, departing March 23 from Tahiti.

SILVER SAVINGS

Silversea Cruises has some very enticing offers this year. These include up to 50% off select cruises, free and specially priced airfare, and a $1,000 onboard credit that can be used for shore excursions, spa treatments, etc. In addition, all three offers are available on some cruises. See silversea.com/enticing for details.

MORE INFORMATION

For Silversea Cruises information, see silversea.com or your travel agent. For more on the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort, see intercontinental.com. For the Ritz Carlton Kapalua, see ritzcarlton.com.


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Beach setting for resort wedding

The wedding guests sat on chairs covered in white on the beach, facing the vivid blue-green waters of the Caribbean instead of an altar or stained-glass windows.

Some wore short-sleeved shirts and dress shorts. Nearby was a basket with a sign reading "shoes optional.'' It was pretty much full.

This was my first experience with a Mexican resort wedding. A kind soul at the Azul Beach Hotel, near Cancun, noticed I was dining alone and invited me to join their table.

They were from British Columbia and were there for a wedding. I ate with them the next evening, , and ended up meeting most of the wedding party, including the bride, who insisted I attend the nuptials.

That's how I came to be sitting, slathered in sunscreen, while Katharine, a Brit, and Liam, a Canadian, stood waiting to become man and wife.

It was a civil ceremony, conducted in Spanish with another woman translating everything into English.

It was pretty dry stuff, until Katherine and Liam exchanged vows that sounded like they'd written them themselves. It was those heartfelt expressions of love and hope that made the event intensely personal, and had some reaching for their tissues.

Hotel staff had cordoned off a stretch of beach before the ceremony. Swimsuit-clad resort guests watched from the sidelines. Some even snapped photos.

Louis Armstrong's version of It's a Wonderful World came over the sound system. A little mop-haired boy solemnly distributed flower petals for guests to toss when the time came.

Dark clouds moved in, a few drops fell, and plans for post- wedding drinks on the beach were quickly shifted under cover.

Weddings -- and such followups as anniversary celebrations and renewals of vows -- are a huge business at sun-destination resorts.

One advantage is obvious -- a combined wedding and honeymoon for the bride and groom, a holiday for the guests.

Katherine gave me other reasons for flying thousands of kilometres to say her "I do's'' in a foreign country.

It equalized, to some extent, the distance the guests had to travel. Katherine's mom and dad live in England and Liam's mother lives in France, but there was a large contingent from B.C.

And it relieved Katherine's elderly parents of having to host guests and show them around, something she said they would felt obliged to do had the wedding been held in Britain.

She and Liam picked the Azul Beach because it is small -- a 97-room all-inclusive -- and has a policy of holding only one wedding a day.

Couples interested in a sun- destination wedding can deal with a resort directly or use one of the major Canadian tour operators. They offer discounts for group bookings and some have resort partners that will do the wedding for nothing if a certain number of rooms is booked. A travel agent can steer you in the right direction.

Presentations

Novack's Talks With Travellers, 7 p.m., Monday, 211 King St., London. Yosemite & San Francisco, with James Cowie.

What's new in Britain

- A skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is among the exhibits at the new Great North Museum opening this spring in Newcastle upon Tyne. Local interest will be represented by an interactive model of Hadrian's Wall. The museum will be open daily and admission will be free. Visit www.greatnorthmuseum.org.

- A 65-metre-long sprayed concrete "cocoon'' housing millions of insect and plant specimens will be the architectural highlight of the Darwin Centre, which opens at the Natural History Museum in London, England, in September. The museum is open daily and admission is free. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk.


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