Give a Toy and Get a Smile: a charity organization in Cancun that helps tourists give

by Jamie Rhein on

Last March I went to Mexico on a do-good travel venture which involved building a house. Here is a simpler way to do good if you are heading to Cancun, Mexico on a vacation and want to share your good fortune at being able to afford such a vacation in the first place.

When I read about this program in Home and Away magazine, it caught my attention as one way to count blessings while on a holiday jaunt. As a response to the often impoverished conditions outside tourist resorts in Cancun, Andrew and Nancy Myers began Give a Toy, Get a Smile. The organization gives toys to children in the region who may not have many toys, if any at all.

The suggestion of the organization is that you add hair ribbons, non-battery operated or non-electrical toys, school supplies, a backpack, or any other simple and useful item a child might enjoy to your bag when you pack. When you arrive in Cancun, you can drop off the items at a specific location.

In case you get to Cancun and don’t have items to donate, it’s not too late. Buy school supplies at a local store and donate those. There was a small grocery store near the house that I helped to build. The house was not really in a town, but perched up on mountainous area about thirty miles from Tijuana. Among the shelves, I saw items a child would enjoy. I imagine that while you are in Cancun you can find a box of crayons somewhere.

Here are more ideas for what you might bring to donate if you feel so moved.

The upside of rising travel costs

by Meg Massie on

Raise your hand if you’ve had to change your travel plans in the last year due to budget constraints. Just about everybody, huh? Travelers who fly to their vacation destinations have had a rough time this year. Fares are up across the board, except in the cases where whole airlines have ceased operations entirely. Maybe planes don’t even fly to our destinations anymore, or those that do cost three times more than the budget airlines that have recently gone bankrupt.

Leisure travel has taken the biggest hit, of course, and resorts are suffering heavily as tourism is down 5-10% in many American vacation hotspots this year. Labor Day air travel was down this year for the first time since 2002, the first Labor Day following 9/11/01. The last part of this ugly equation is the development boom that began a few years ago — now more hotels than ever are competing for far fewer guests.

In order to stay afloat, hotels and resorts have been slashing prices and offering incredible vacation incentives to attract visitors. Some are cutting prices and offering deep discounts, and almost all have slowed their price hikes, which have been steadily increasing over the past several years. Other resorts are directly addressing the airfare issue. Sandals recently unveiled a new “fly-free” offer with an airfare credit of up to $550 per person for trips booked by Oct. 23, and Elite Island Resorts just announced a new promotion that guarantees round-trip airfare of $299 on American Airlines flights to its properties in Antigua. Both companies operate resorts in the Caribbean.

Now at the tail end of the summer travel season, hotels and resorts are bracing for an even weaker autumn and winter. If you can handle the more expensive plane tickets, you may be able to recoup some of that money in hotel savings. So if you put your summer vacation on hold this year, maybe it’s time to consider a fall getaway. It should be easy to find some bargains.

Where’s the best snow?

by Martha Edwards on

Here in my neck of the woods, on the eastern edge of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, we have tons of snow — and temperatures that match the chilly look of the landscape. But drive a few hours west to the central mountain region–where I’m spending my Christmas Vacation–and the snow’s terrible. What gives?

For many people, the less snow the better but for those of us who are planning on heading to the ski slopes this year, snow is a must. So if you’re planning on heading for the slopes, check out Bestnow.net for snow ratings, trends and reports at all the best slopes. Want to know what US resorts are the snowiest this year? MSNBC has the scoop.

Check out the ’08 season report for a look at the snow conditions across the board — it seems that snowfall at most resorts is either way up or way down. I’m hoping it will be a record-setting year here, provided the temperatures stay mild enough to actually venture outside.

Top 10 resorts to rent out

by Jerry Guo on

Do you ever spend too much time daydreaming about posh resorts or destinations you could never afford? Whenever’s it’s drizzly or overcast out, I always spend hours surfing those sites about the lives of the rich and famous.

Here’s a good one: the top ten most expensive for-hire resorts. We’re not talking about staying at some ritzy hotel. No, what’s hot these days are renting out entire islands, safari lodges, and Spanish villas. The Colonial style home (scene in the picture), valued at $24 million, can be had for $11,900 a night.

Or how about the original exclusive-use resort, Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. That’ll set you back a cool $47,000 a night.

Band on the Run: No Silver Spoon, Just Stainless Steel Please!

by Ember Swift on

Ember Swift, Canadian musician and touring performer, will be keeping us up-to-date on what it’s like to tour a band throughout North America. Having just arrived back from Beijing where she spent three months (check out her “Canadian in Beijing” series), she offers a musician’s perspective on road life. Enjoy!

My roommate Elaine is awesome. She’s from Calgary, AB and a friend of my sister’s who also came to this wedding on her own. She and I are sharing a room because these rooms are unbelievably overpriced, as is the way with most resorts. We also know each other from the number of times that my band and I have passed through Calgary on tour across Western Canada (and she’s been a great support of my music for several years) so, at least we had a bit of background before we had to share this space for several days.

Elaine has these big blue eyes the colour of the ocean and a bright wide smile. She is one of those people who has no problem being blunt and direct – telling it like it is – and she has been amazing to spend time with here. She makes me laugh regularly. I had forgotten how funny she is and the extra flash of entertainment has made the world of difference to me here.

Having a bit of company (who I’m not related to) hasn’t hurt either.

This morning, I called up room service to request a spoon. I had been grocery shopping yesterday to offset the price of food (and absence of vegan options) and so I wanted to eat my cereal here in my room, just quietly bringing in the day with the ocean (and Elaine) as my witness. Lo and behold, there was no cutlery in the room and so I called room service and requested they bring me up a spoon to use.

The guy arrived a few minutes later with a paper napkin wrapped around four plastic spoons.

I took the spoons without a comment and the guy left, but Elaine took one look at the spoons when I had unwrapped them and said “Oh no. That’s insulting. What are we in prison here? They can’t bring us up real spoons!?” She got on the phone to room service and said, quite plainly, “Excuse me, I’m paying good money for this room and you could only bring me a disposable spoon? I’ll be needing a metal one. Thank you.” Two minutes later there was another knock on the door and four metal spoons arrived (we didn’t need four of them, but that’s okay) and they were wrapped in a cloth napkin this time.

Go Elaine!

I mean, we weren’t asking for a silver spoon, just one made out of stainless steel.

So, I ate my cereal with a bit of class – which, in my case, is “working class” and that’s just fine with me.

Another example of how I simply don’t fit in here is that yesterday, after my run, my running pants were wet because I had put them back on after my impromptu jump in the ocean in my underwear. When I got back to the room, I hung up my wet things on the railing and went about my day. When I returned to the room several hours later, the light on my phone was flashing indicating that I had a message.

The message was from the front desk. It said, “Excuse me Ms.Swift, can you please remove the clothing from the railing of your room. It’s a safety hazard.”

Really? What kind of safety is it threatening? There’s an awning under the balconies that covers the dining area, so the potential of falling clothing harming someone is absent. Besides, I actually tied them onto the railing in case the wind picked them up.

Perhaps it’s threatening the safety of having a set of balconies look pristine to all of the beach walkers and ensuring regular bookings at these resort rooms? Or, the safety of having each balcony look alike and unmarred by running gear, thus offsetting the consistent (read: conformist) “look” of the resort? Hhmm, other than those safety issues, I could think of no others.

I laughed out loud when I got the message. I went to check on the clothes that weren’t quite dry and so I left them up for another half hour before bringing them down.

Safety hazard, my ass.

The final and biggest insult here at this hotel was at the moment I checked in. The woman at the front desk told me that they no longer had any rooms available with two double beds and would we mind sharing a king-size bed or else having them roll in a cot for one of us to use? I was shocked. These rooms are listed between $350 and $1250 each and even though we got them through a wholesaler at $240 each, they’re still WAY overpriced in my opinion. We’re splitting it and even then, I don’t generally spend $120 on myself for a place to sleep!

My response to the front desk clerk was a calm and straightforward, “Uhm, no, not at this price! How about you just give us two separate rooms for no extra charge. I’m sure that’s possible.” She looked at me shocked and stammered, “Oh, no, we can’t do that, ma’am. Let me get my manager.”

The manager arrived and I smiled at her and introduced myself. I told her the situation, paused, leaned on the counter and put my head in my hand. I said, “I’ve got all the time in the world, so I’m sure you can figure this out. I’ll just hang out here until one becomes available.” The manager shook my hand, smiled back at me with clear eyes and then bent her heard and pushed some keys in the computer without a word. She then whispered something to her employee, turned and left.

Moments later I had my keys to this ocean front room that is listed at $1250 (robbery prices!) and definitely has two double beds in it. They obviously did have some available, just not in my original price range. Oh, the bureaucracy.

Did I just get a free upgrade? No complaints, of course.

When I told Elaine that story, she laughed with her whole body. It was at that point that I knew we’d have a great time together.

Eating off real metal spoons and staring at the ocean through the clothesline that doubles as our balcony railing.

In Maui, Hawaii.