South to a warmer place … a lot of them

Find tropical warmth at the new The St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, Puerto Rico. Designated as a Certified Gold Audubon International Signature Sanctuary, the St. Regis is first Caribbean resort to earn this distinction.

By Joe Brancatelli

As cold weather and longer nights begin to dominate many places in the United States, airlines and hotels begin focusing on warmer-weather spots. So if you’re battling the cold and dark already, consider these balmier options:

• Continental Airlines adds flights between its Newark hub and Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, on February 18.
• A 139-room St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Puerto Rico. Next May, St. Regis’s parent company, Starwood Hotels, will add a Westin in Costa Rica when it reflags the 406-room, all inclusive Paradisus Playa Conchal Resort in Guanacaste.
• Hyatt is turning the shuttered Wailea Beach Resort on Maui into a 290-room Andaz due to open late in 2012. Over the years, the property on Mokapu Beach has been called a Stouffer and a Renaissance. The hotel closed in 2007. More immediately, the 311-room Courtyard Kaua’i at Coconut Beach is the new name for a property until recently known as the Aston Kauai Beach.
• Aeromexico is resuming two of its seasonal routes. On November 20, it relaunched flights between Los Angeles/Ontario and Guadalajara. Flights between Denver and Mexico City resume on December 15. Both routes are daily. Speaking of Mexico, Southwest Airlines has cut a deal with Mexico’s Volaris Airlines. Beginning December 1, Southwest flyers are now able to book flights from 20 U.S. cities to five Mexican destinations: Cancun, Guadalajara, Morelia, Toluca/Mexico City, and Zacatecas.
• It’s taken almost six years, but KLM says it will resume nonstops to Miami and from its Amsterdam hub on March 27. Three-class MD-11s will be configured with business, premium economy and coach and operate four times weekly.

Related resources

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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2010 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.

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