YOU MUST BE DREAMING
Dive, bike, snorkel, hike, kayak, windsurf, sail and more at Anse Chastanet Resort on St. Lucia’s southwestern Caribbean coast. Certified divers can spend hours exploring the rich reefs, while miles of jungle trails await exploration on bike or foot. Anse Chastanet features 600 acres surrounded by the rain forest, and on-
site activities include tennis and the full-service Kai Belté spa, which features yoga and massage. The 49 rooms are mostly spread out on a hillside, with 12 of them lined along the beach. Seven-night stays in the summer cost $4,656 per couple (winter rates go up to $5,895-$7,134), which includes roundtrip airport transfers, in-room drinks and all meals and afternoon tea, as well as tennis equipment, guided walks on the property and one rain-forest hike, jungle biking, use of watersports equipment, six days of scuba diving or one beginner course, boat snorkel trips and water taxi service to the Anse Mamin beach and nearby town of Soufriere. Book seven nights three months in advance and receive an extra night free. Call 800-223-1108 or visit ansechastanet.com.
GEARING UP
This is awesome. It’s an I-DOG, like an iPod, get it? But this is like a mini-speaker that you can carry around in its own really cute case. It has different-colored lights on its face, and its head and ears move to the music when you plug it in to your own iPod or CD player. After it hears a few of the kinds of songs you like to listen to, it gets a “personality” that makes different kinds of lights come on. Like mine listens to the Black Eyed Peas, so it has a rock/punk personality, which means red lights come on. When it isn’t hooked up, it even dances when it hears a commercial on the TV. Mom says she wishes my CD Discman could fit into the I-DOG carrying case, too; that it’s kind of stupid that you have to carry it separately, and I don’t know why the company didn’t think of that for something you’re supposed to travel with. And it’s annoying that you have to give it attention all the time; it barks if you don’t. It takes two AA batteries, and it comes in black, white or pink. For ages 8 and up. | $29.99, Target, Toys R Us
– Liza Wagner, age 9
BOOK YOUR VACATION
Here’s a sure bet for gamblers looking to find just about any casino in the country: “American Casino Guide” ($16.95, Casino Vacations) by Steve Bourie, who once worked for a South Florida casino and is considered a go-to resource by national newspapers on gaming issues. Bourie offers up a fairly straightforward listing of hundreds of casinos around the country, with their basic information, including websites and contact details, as well as whether they offer accommodations and dining, what types of games are played, their cashback options, whether RV parking is available and any special features, such as child care or movie theaters on premises. In addition, Bourie includes sections on how to play the games; insider tips and slot machine trends; and chapters on how to get a casino to give you, the low-roller, lots of “comps”; how to decide between casinos; how to join a slot club – and what exactly a slot club is – the ins and outs of video poker; and the tax implications of casino tournaments. As an added enticement, the book comes stuffed with coupons for food, two-for-one show tickets, accommodations and slot play.
WEBSITE
Site59.com
Yes, we know you already know about Site59, but did you also know about its new “Need Ideas” section for travelers? Check out the lower right-hand corner of the site, which has icons for themed package deals – called “Stores” – for trips you may not have thought of. One of the most popular: The Under $250 Store, which gets you out of town for less than that per person, including roundtrip airfare, hotel, taxes and fees. Recent options from Denver included Boston and Washington, D.C. Other Stores revolve around activities, such as Golf, the Outdoors, Food & Wine or Sun & Beach, and if you already have the flight booked, there are hotel and car packages, or flight and car deals if you already have a place to stay.
TRAVEL BY NUMBERS | Top 20 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer
A few years back, Brad Weiner and the editors at Outside magazine compiled a list of what they called the “25 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer.” For all 25, visit outside.away.com.
1. “Wind, Sand and Stars,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1939).
2. “The Worst Journey in the World,” Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1922)
3. “West With the Night,” Beryl Markham (1942)
4. “The Snow Leopard,” Peter Matthiessen (1978)
5. “Desert Solitaire,” Edward Abbey (1968)
6. “Endurance,” F.A. Worsley (1931)
7. “Sailing Alone Around the World,” Captain Joshua Slocum (1900)
8. “Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer (1996)
9. “Coming into the Country,” John McPhee (1976)
10. “Arabian Sands,” Wilfred Thesiger (1959)
11. “Touching the Void,” Joe Simpson (1988)
12. “The Mountains of My Life,” Walter Bonatti (2001)
13. “In Patagonia,” Bruce Chatwin (1977)
14. “Arctic Dreams,” Barry Lopez (1986)
15. “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush,” Eric Newby (1958)
16. “Tracks,” Robyn Davidson (1980)
17. “The Long Way,” Bernard Moitessier (1971)
18. “Running the Amazon,” Joe Kane (1989)
19. “Young Men and Fire,” Norman Maclean (1992)
20. “Great Plains,” Ian Frazier (1989)
GEOQUIZ
1. A meteorite from Mars was recently found on an ice floe not far from the Shackleton Coast of which continent?
2. The port city of Prince Rupert, founded as the western terminus of a national railroad, is located in which province of Canada?
3. The ancient city of Memphis was the capital of a kingdom on which continent?
4. The Rhine River divides into a number of branches that empty into the North Sea in which European country?
5. Which country in North Africa has a king as chief of state?
6. What is the term for the belt of grassland that stretches from Hungary to Manchuria?
7. In 1981, Israel’s government voted to annex the Golan Heights, an area north of Jordan, from which other Middle Eastern country?
8. The Scotia Plate lies between Antarctica and which continent?
9. What U.S.-administered islands, located about halfway between North America and Asia, served as a naval station near the site of a famous World War II battle?
10. In 1667, the Dutch ceded New Amsterdam to the British in return for what present-day South American country?
ANSWERS: 1. Antarctica 2. British Columbia 3. Africa 4. Netherlands 5. Morocco 6. steppe 7. Syria 8. South America 9. Midway Islands 10. Suriname
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
