Loft living area in Hotel 32 at Monte Carlo (Courtesy of MGM/Mirage)

With the opening of the monumental City Center mere weeks away, virtually all of the major Las Vegas hotels on the Strip have been sprucing up to try and keep pace. But none has done more perhaps than City Center neighbor the Monte Carlo. For a long time, this European-styled resort was something of an also-ran in Sin City, but in the last year major changes have given it new life: revamping Andre’s Restaurant, Dragon Noodle, and the Pub; adding Brand Steakhouse and Diablo’s Cantina; introducing comedian Frank Caliendo; bringing back lounge lovers Zowie Bowie; and even revising Lance Burton’s image. But the crowning glory of the Monte Carlo (literally) is their new boutique floor, Hotel 32.

While perhaps not on the level of the highest high-roller Vegas accommodations, Hotel 32 nevertheless represents a significant upgrade in service and style, comparable to many of the nicest rooms in town. The personalized experience begins with a personal driver retrieving you from (and, ultimately, returning you to) Vegas’ McCarran Airport. Upon arrival at the Monte Carlo, your suite assistant will escort you up dedicated elevators to the 32^nd floor lounge, where a concierge will fulfill any request throughout the day. Everything from Voss water and Champagne to gourmet light breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres are all complimentary-even snacks throughout the day.

Penthouse bedroom at Hotel 32 at the Monte Carlo (Courtesy of MGM/Mirage)

No need to wait in long lines at the main desk in the lobby. Registration is completed in the comfort and privacy of your room, where you’ll be issued an iPhone-style device that offers information and contact to all the restaurants, entertainment, spas and other amenities available at all MGM/Mirage properties in town.

Accommodations range from a standard-size studio to the expansive two-bedroom 2,000 square-foot penthouses. My high-ceilinged 700 square-foot suite was an unusual wedge-shaped room beyond a white marble entryway, decorated in a bright modern Miami-feeling palette of orange, blue and white textures and wood grains, with modern art and objects all around and views of the remarkable City Center (to which Monte Carlo will be connected by tram). The bedding, with soft white linens, was utterly seductive, and the bathroom featured a spacious glass-enclosed shower with spa-level multi-jet functions.

Penthouse bathroom in Hotel 32 at the Monte Carlo (Courtesy of MGM/Mirage)

The larger loft and penthouse spaces are the truly impressive, each decorated in varying expressions of contemporary mod-regency aesthetics, with lighting and atmosphere controlled by wireless remote Crestron interface, espresso machines on the wet bars, large flat screen TVs at every turn, huge infinity spa tubs and steam showers with cool chroma key mood lighting. A romantic weekend or bachelor/bachelorette party would be equally well served here-and hipsters would not feel the least bit hapless.

Wi-Fi, newspapers and soft drinks of your choice and access to the Monte Carlo’s active spa and fitness facilities are among the many meaningful amenities; bathroom products are by Kiehl’s, and the Sobel-Westex oversized ribbed towels are some of the nicest I’ve enjoyed anywhere. Turndown service comes with macaroons.

Lounge 32 at Hotel 32 (Courtesy of MGM/Mirage)

While competition remains fierce on the Las Vegas Strip, the Monte Carlo has managed to make itself a player perhaps more than ever before.

Insider Tip: Andre’s second floor cognac and cigar bar remains one of the Strip’s most elegant hidden secrets. Check it out!

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Veteran entertainment and travel writer E. C. Gladstone writes regularly for Las Vegas Magazine and the Las Vegas Weekly, also interviewing top Strip entertainers, restauranteurs, moguls and behind-the-scenes players for other local and national publications and websites. Like many Las Vegans, he sleeps only when absolutely necessary.

• The Canada Line has opened and slashed mass-transit travel time between Vancouver Airport and downtown Vancouver to 25 minutes. The airport station is in the Link Building between the domestic and international terminals. The train serves nine stops in Vancouver and four in suburban Richmond.
• Mexicana has shifted its check-in operations at Los Angeles International Airport to the upper/departure level of the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
• Hertz has signed up Andrews Car Rental, an agency in Sri Lanka, as its franchisee in the island’s capital of Colombo.
• Avis and Budget may now ban smoking in all rental vehicles.
• British Airways flyers take note: BA says it’ll move its Bangkok, Singapore and Sydney flights into Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport on October 29. Qantas is also moving its London-Sydney flights to Terminal 3 on the same day.

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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.

Fort Lauderdale Beach off of Las Olas Boulevard

By John George

I’ve always had relatives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and my family lived there in the early aughts. We are returning for a week around Christmas, and will definitely utilize the following tips to help make our trip go smoothly.

Find Appropriate Accommodations
We’re lucky enough to be staying with relatives this trip, but have spent enough time visiting to know some of the better hotel options that suit our needs. Our current favorites in town are the Marriott Harbor Beach and the Riverside Hotel—we used to love staying at Ireland’s Inn Beach Resort, but it closed two years ago for renovations and no new information is currently available. We have also used the Embassy Suites on the 17^th Street Causeway; although this hotel is about two miles from the beach, the suite layout is very family friendly.

Pack for the Weather
December weather in southern Florida is definitely unpredictable. We’ve enjoyed marvelous beach time and also some chilly days in late December—and even early January (we, of course, console ourselves by remembering the weather back home up north. If you are planning on visiting before about mid-January, be sure to monitor weather conditions before packing for your trip. One year, we had some of our cousin’s visit for New Year and during their stay, the weather turned cool—shorts and tank tops gave way to jackets and sweaters. Good thing we were there to lend some clothes!

View from one of the many hotels on Las Olas Boulevard

Have Gifts. Will Travel?
Now, the question on the mind of every kid traveling at Christmas time is, “How will Santa find me? I’m going to be hundreds of miles away from home!” Actually, our son, Zeke, is past that age, but we’re still left with the matter of getting gifts to our vacation spot. As everyone knows, with scant few exceptions airlines now charge fees to check luggage, and there are pretty strict rules about bringing already-wrapped presents along in carry-on baggage. After considerable discussion, we determined that we’d each carry a single gift and that we’d use the free or reduced-rate shipping from many online retailers to ship anything more bulky than a book or CD. We’ll see how this works out.

When you Want to Pray
If you want to attend Christmas Mass during your vacation, you can likely find a local church. Most denominations have online listings of their churches and service times. We’ll be attending Mass at St. Anthony, our old parish in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Christmas Festivities
Fort Lauderdale fancies itself as the Venice of America. There’s a fun (and free) Holiday Boat Parade a couple of weeks before Christmas, part of Fort Lauderdale’s Winterfest activities. Hundreds of boat owners decorate their boats with lavish holiday décor and lighting. You can view the parade from many vantage points along the Intracostal—why not bring a picnic dinner and make an evening of it? In addition to the parade, there are other family activities, including a tree lighting at the Riverside Hotel.

Another holiday event that we’ve enjoyed in the past is the Fantasy of Lights in Coconut Creek, a short drive north of Fort Lauderdale. Thousands of lights are strung up in Tradewinds Park, which is also home to an interesting butterfly zoo. There’s a small drive-in charge, and the loop takes 20 to30 minutes.

Speaking of lights, a closer option, which also happens to be free, is to drive or stroll up the Las Olas shopping strip. While this is definitely a different experience than Fifth Avenue in New York or Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, the holiday decorations are pretty and unique—how often do you see Christmas lights on palm trees?

A Florida vacation in December gives families from the North the chance to experience the holidays in a different fashion. No doubt there will be some cognitive dissonance—hearing “Frosty the Snowman” while driving with the convertible top down, for example. Remember that in one of the all-time favorite Christmas movies, White Christmas, the plot started out in Florida!

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John George is a full-time working dad to his 11-year-old son. After visiting every continent, save Antarctica, he was domesticated by his wife Jenny. Their family enjoys cruising, beach vacations and getaways to the Big Apple.

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By Mark McCullough

Colonial Williamsburg officially starts the holiday season with Grand Illumination, a wonderful evening of singing, storytelling and fireworks. The event offers a great opportunity for families to get into the holiday spirit by strolling the pedestrian-only areas of Williamsburg’s historic district and enjoying the candlelit windows, wreaths and entertainment. There are multiple stages in the historic area that features storytelling, period music and events for the children.

My family arrives around 3 p.m. so we can take in all the sights before sundown. We pack a thermos full of hot chocolate in addition to making stops for hot cider and the traditional Virginia ham biscuits that should not be missed. The fireworks display truly highlights the evening as it projects from three different locations: the Governors Palace, the Colonial Capital and the Magazine. All of these are within eyesight of each other, so getting a good viewing spot isn’t difficult. Never before have I experienced seeing fireworks in a 360-degree eruption where the lights are kept lower in the sky, creating a more intimate setting that doesn’t scare the kids-truly a grand illumination.

Don’t miss the opportunity to visit the Williamsburg Inn and the Williamsburg Lodge as these hotels are dressed up in wonderful holiday decorations and serve traditional Tidewater Virginia fare. So if you are looking to kick off the holiday season in a more traditional way, Colonial Williamsburg’s Grand Illumination is a perfect family fit.

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Mark McCullough, father of 3 children under age 6, often reminisces about his former life as a raft guide and rock-climbing instructor. Now his outings are more subdued, like canoeing along the tidal rivers in Virginia’s historic triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg.

My wife and I are preparing to pack up our two young kids for a family vacation to Scotland this Christmas, which is where my family lives. Getting on the road is never easy around the holidays, but even less so when you’re facing a long transatlantic flight. Here are some tips for coping with stressful international travel during busy holiday periods.

1. Get Organized Early!: I swear my wife starts stressing about what to bring before the stores even have their Halloween decorations out. But she’s always the one smiling once the day of travel arrives. If you have presents or gifts to take, think about sending them ahead by mail to save some room in your suitcases. And don’t forget a daypack of kiddie essentials like changes of clothes, wipes, plastic bags, and that favorite stuffed animal.
2. Be Direct: If you can, book direct flights to your final destination. Cutting down on layovers will lessen the chances of missing connections or sprinting through an unfamiliar airport with cranky kids in tow. It will also mitigate the chances of your luggage getting lost or delayed in transit. If direct flights look too expensive, consider flying through smaller regional airports to avoid some of the more major travel snarls that can occur at big, busier international airports (for example, we like to transit to Scotland via Ireland or Iceland instead of facing London Heathrow during the busy holiday seasons).
3. Keep ‘Em Fed & Watered: A plentiful supply of snackfoods is the lifeblood of any family outing. But when you’re on a longer flight or train journey, for example, remember that Animal Crackers are no substitute for proper meals. Plan accordingly with sandwiches, fruits, and juice boxes, just in case there’s no meal service on board or the in-flight meal tray doesn’t do it for your kids.
4. Play Christmas on the Plane: Stocking stuffers might traditionally be for December 25th, but spending long hours on the plane can be alleviated by having small toys, games, puzzles, and books ready to conjure up when tempers start fraying. Wrap these trinkets up like presents and produce them every hour or so to build anticipation and break spells of boredom. It will also enable you to break down the journey into smaller units of time that your kids will more easily be able to digest. Better yet, the stuff you don’t use can go in those stockings on Christmas Day!
5. Don’t Overdo It: Everybody will usually suffer some sort of jetlag, but be especially prepared for your kids being off-kilter for at least two or three days once you arrive if you’ve crossed several timezones. Patience is key! Try not to over-schedule things on the first few days of your trip, especially if your kids are younger. You might want to hit all the museums, castles, and parks on day one, but you won’t be doing yourselves any favors if everyone’s feeling miserable three hours later.
6. Stay Healthy: Nobody can predict what illnesses might strike pre-trip or in the hours leading up to a trip. This year in particular, H1N1 is the X-factor as international air travel offers an easy transmission route for the virus. Be a smart traveler by doing your research beforehand through official outlets such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. Stay informed and make plans accordingly.
7. Go With the Flow: Returning to the first point, it’s important to be organized so you can remember all the extra gear you need for traveling with children. But if you do happen to forget something, don’t worry too much. Chances are, wherever you are in the world, you’ll be able to find a suitable replacement-maybe for less money! After all traveling to new places is all about discovery and breaking out from the routines of home, whatever the age ranges of your traveling companions.

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With two young ones in tow, Alistair Wearmouth’s travel perspective has shifted seismically from finding the best backpacker hostel in Kathmandu to coping strategies for toddlers on a trans-Atlantic flight. His world travels include Europe, India, Nepal, Japan, Southeast Asia and Canadian Rockies.

Sugar Skulls for sale at a Marketplace in Oaxaca (Courtesy of the Mexico Tourism Board)

Snack on sugar skeleton, picnic in a cemetery, party in a mummy museum, and build an altar to the dearly departed right in your foyer. While all these ideas might shock you, they’re beloved holiday traditions south of the border. November 1 marks Dia de Los Muertos, the famous Day of the Dead holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and in U.S. cities with a large Hispanic population. Drawing from Roman Catholic Spanish traditions and pre-Colombian rituals, this annual holiday is a time to remember and honor the deceased. It is an exotic and eccentric holiday, but not a scary one, despite all the skeletons on every corner. In the places that really celebrate, street corners and shops display countless homemade altars, while the church steps and sidewalks flow with colorful flower petals and candles.

If there is an epicenter for Dia de Los Muertos celebrations, it might be the tiny island of Janitzio in Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. Indigenous pre-Colombian people believed Lake Patzcuaro might be the doorway to heaven. People have traditionally made pilgrimage to this island each year to observe Dia de Los Muertos through prayer, offerings and traditional dance.

For a zany, unique and somewhat creepy Dia de Los Muertos, visit the city of Guanajuato in Mexico’s interior, about an hour away from the artist colony of San Miguel de Allende. This city is famous for its Mummy Museum, which stores and displays more than 100 mummies naturally created from soil conditions in the cemetery outside. It’s a bizarre and unnerving visual experience that’s actually famous enough to have inspired its own tour: The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato, a 10,000 square foot temporary exhibit that will travel to major North American cities starting in 2010.

Traditional Day of the Dead altar in Oaxaca (Courtesy of the Mexico Tourism Board)

San Miguel is also a striking sight on Dia de Los Muertos because the celebrants create a giant altar in the Jardin, the plaza in the city center. The massive stone steps carpet the front of the church in a beautiful flower petal pattern, and hundreds of votive candles lend an ethereal glow. Bigger-than-life, almost theatrical altars, sprout around town, built, in part, by the departments of Education and Culture, which dedicate each to a notable Mexican personality from the past.

The Mexican state of Oaxaca is known for its colorful and culturally rich traditions for observing Dia de Los Muertos. Most family homes have altars in the biggest or most heavily trafficked room, with offerings of everything from food to cigarettes to images of the saints placed around photos of the deceased. The Oaxacan Dia de Los Muertos gains particular color due to the actual flowers used to decorate the altars: in certain regions, the velvety red flower called “rooster’s crest,” and in the valley regions, the tiny, vivid yellow “Flower of the Dead,” which only blooms in October and November.

While many only associate the Riviera Maya with its major tourist destinations of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the region also encompasses Tulum and Coba, two famous pre-Colombian archaeological sites. While both comprise magnificent monuments to Mexico’s past, the Mayan cultural heritage site-turned-eco park Xcaret is a better place to learn about Dia de Los Muertos. It will host a number of performances, culinary events, traditional ceremonies and tours centered around the holiday.

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Lena Katz is the author of SUN: California and SIP: California, part of the Travel Temptations series published by Globe Pequot Press.

By Emma Simmons

Indian Lighthouse

Even though I was born in Texas, I grew up in Maine-Midcoast Maine, to be exact-with a camera constantly in my hand, chasing the sun day in and day out. I was lucky to often see the sun sitting high above the water of The Penobscot Bay; there is something truly beautiful about that high northern sun hitting that bay, whether it is light diffused through thick summer fog or late afternoon rays hitting the lobster boats and leaving magnificent reflections in the water. It was these experiences with the Maine light-not to mention some of the most magnificent landscapes in the U.S.-that moved my love of photography from a hobby into a career.

In my images of Maine, I try to capture all of the five senses, whether through the crisp salty air, the sight of an electric blue hue in the sky 30 minutes after sunset, the smell of a beautiful steaming lobster or the feel of wet moss after a summer rainstorm. The feelings that can come from some of these images are as close to serenity as I can shoot.

I have traveled to many distant places and photographed the landscape and people, however Maine always holds a favorite place in my heart. The challenge I continue to run into, however, is that it is all too familiar; I have to find something different out of a view that, fortunately, has become ordinary to me. These images you are viewing here were taken not far from where I grew up, reminding me that you do not have to go far to capture something beautiful. It can be in your own backyard.

Maine lobster straight from The Penobscot Bay

Marshall Point Lighthouse

A lobsterman preparing to throw his traps back into the water

Rockport Harbor at twilight

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde, Maine

Penobscot Bay, Maine

A typical Maine view

Friendship, Maine

A lobster boat heading out for the day

Friendship, Maine

Camden Maine in the winter

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Emma Simmons is a professional photographer who splits her time between the east and west coasts. Although permanently residing within the continental U.S., her passion for photography has taken her across the globe. Check out the world from the eyes of Emma at http://www.emmasimmons.com

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