Wine and Spirits Travel

I was excited to get an invitation by AMResorts and the Cancun-Riviera Maya Food Festival to check out the event and the luxury all-inclusive Secrets The Vine. The opportunity to return to Cancun, Mexico, after a number of years was interesting in itself, but the chance to cover the festival and stay at one of my favorite resort brands was too good to pass up. It was still cool when I left the Midwest, though the travel went smoothly and included an American Airlines upgrade. They served a breakfast soufflé in first class that I can honestly say was delicious and I am always a fan of their accompanying biscuits. I got through customs in Cancun Airport rather quickly and my driver was waiting to take me on the 15 minute trip to Secrets The Vine . The only thing that wasn’t going right was the weather, but the rain wasn’t going to damper my mood on this day. My suite was in the Preferred Club, which comes with a private check-in and extra room amenities. I was given a

I was in the habit of heading to Chicago every month or two to check out a hotel and some restaurants, but my workload had me traveling so much out of the country that it had been a while since I’d been to the Windy City. I grabbed the chance when I heard about a new hotel in town. I headed into Chicago with a friend for the easiest trip there I’d had in a very long time. I almost (note that I said “almost”) felt guilty about just staying at one hotel and going to one restaurant, but we had both been working our tails off the previous few weeks and needed the break. It was an easy two hour drive to downtown. The Kinzie Hotel is located in the building that once housed the Amalfi, though you might not recognize it now. It’s a thoroughly modernized boutique property with some very interesting amenities. It’s always been my pet peeve that the more expensive the hotel (especially in big cities), the less you get. If you stay in a chain’s lowest property, you’ll ge