Wine and Spirits Travel

It was a beautiful day in the high 70s, with the sun shining over the aqua water of the Adriatic Sea. The only thing my friend Lynn and I had to decide was what we wanted to do at the beach the next few hours. I felt like I was in a dream when I woke up in our little cottage in Bi Village. It was day four of our Share Istria adventure and we were in Fazana, Croatia, just a short walk from the Adriatic Sea. What made it even more of a dream was that we had a free morning, something I rarely got on a press trip. We could have a leisurely breakfast at the Bi Village restaurant – a nice selection of fruit, cheese, rolls, pastries, and eggs – and then enjoy the beach. I was trying to decide whether to go windsurfing or paddle boarding as we enjoyed the view on the long walkway that went along the sand on this Fazana beach. It was a little disappointing when we arrived at the watersports area and Antonio told us the conditions weren’t right for either, but he offe

I consider myself very lucky that my job allows me to cross a lot of things off my bucket list as “all in a day’s work.” I’ve never been given the opportunity, though, to take two dreams off at once – until now. When I was approached by Cierra Savatgy-King, who along with Natalie Jenkins and Crystal Veness founded Reset Retreat , I didn’t have to listen much further than “Belize” and “Yoga” before I said, “I’m in.” I’d always wanted to go to Belize and I relished an chance to do yoga on a retreat, so this trip seemed ideal to me from the start, but the more I read and the more I talked to the ladies involved, the more I realized this was so much more than yoga on a beautiful beach. Reset Retreat is about re-charging, re-motivating, re-freshing, and re-inviguorating your life. It’s about bonding like only women can bond, it’s about finding out what you really want to put on your bucket list, and how you are going to adapt your life so that you can do it. The v

I was up early for another fun-filled day with MSC Cruises . It was my first time to Grand Cayman, an island I had heard nothing but good things about. I let Mom sleep in and I had breakfast in the Yacht Club’s Top Sail Lounge. It was an excellent cold buffet filed with fruits, Danish, cake, bread, muffins, cheese, cereal, and yogurt. I had a little of everything along with a cappuccino, also complimentary to MSC Cruise’s Yacht Club guests. I had made arrangements with Viator to take a tour so I had a quick breakfast and took one of the first tenders from the MSC Divina to the island. It was warm and sunny as I walked around looking for my guide.                                                                          Rex found me at the pier and took me to the bus to cool off and wait for the others on the tour. Once we were all onboard, he told us about this wealthy island with beautiful beaches and lots to do. As we drove, Rex pointed out some of the inte

I had fallen in love with the Nisbet Plantation on Nevis and was going to make the most of my final day here. Friend and fellow travel writer Sue Campbell, who was going to be heading back to snowy Montreal when she left, was right alongside me – on the beach. Fortunately, we did have a little more sun time, even when we left here. The first thing that excited me when I was reading about Nisbet Plantation was the hammocks on the beach. Ironically, I had been here four days and hadn’t made it to the hammocks. After we had our last beachside breakfast at Coconuts, Sue and I went right down to those hammocks. I actually finished a book for the first time in months. All too soon it came time for our driver to pick us up and take us to the boat launch to St. Kitts .  We said goodbye to the staff, especially our very gracious host, General Manager, Alistair Forrest. We waved goodbye to Nevis as our boat docked in St. Kitts after a very short six minute ride.

I slept well after a full day that had included an amazing snorkeling trip on a catamaran . After dressing casually I took a stroll down to the beach to meet my friend and fellow travel writer, Sue Campbell, for breakfast at Nisbet Plantation in Nevis. Coconuts is the name of the beachfront restaurant at the resort. It was once again a beautiful day to enjoy the view of the turquoise sea while we ate.  I had some tasty banana coconut pancakes with fresh juice and yogurt. We didn’t have much time to admire the view as we were being picked up soon for a tour of Nevis with a representative of the island’s tourism board. Our first stop was to look at the remains of the last sugar plantation on the island. It was here we also started talking about the monkeys. We were told the green monkeys in Nevis outnumber the people, yet we hadn’t seen any in the three days we had been there.  There were none to be seen at the old plantation, so our hopes were on the n