“On an island in the sun, We’ll be playing and having fun

And it makes me feel so fine I can’t control my brain”

That essentially sums up the experience of visiting Peanut Island, a nearly 80-acre haven for boaters, paddlers and beach enthusiasts who like to spend their days soaking up sunrays or visiting with marine life on a snorkeling excursion. For many area boaters, the island tucked just inside the Lake Worth (Palm Beach) Inlet presents a place to pull up for an afternoon beach cookout and swim.

This small slice of paradise also allows the option to stay overnight in one of 17 reservable sites, allowing campers to enjoy the island long after daytime revelers have pulled up anchor and headed back to shore.

Getting There

The only access to Peanut Island is by boat on the Intracoastal Waterway. Those with access to a pontoon, a fishing boat or personal watercraft will have no problem pulling up for a few hours or a night of camping. Kayakers and paddlers are also commonly seen around the island, and launching and rentals are available at nearby Riviera Beach Marina.

This is also where visitors can catch the Peanut Island Shuttle Boat, which departs at regular intervals daily for $25 per adult and $12 per child (online advance reservations). Dogs are allowed on the shuttle boat free of charge and permitted on the island as long as they are leashed.

The Palm Beach Water Taxi ($20 per person) makes multiple daily trips from the Sailfish Marina Resort on the eastern side of Peanut Island.

For those with their own vessels, launching at Phil Foster Park just to the north of Peanut Island is also an option — but parking may be limited on the weekends.

Things to Do

Paddling or boating around Peanut Island is inherent in the experience, and there are plenty of places to pull up on a sandy stretch of shoreline.

The island’s main draw is swimming, with a dedicated snorkeling lagoon and guarded beaches on the southeast side. The best time to snorkel is during the hour before and after high tide.

Get Wet Watersports, which offers snorkeling tours to Peanut Island, advertises that visitors will see plenty of colorful fish, rays and the occasional manatee or shark.

Fishing is also available to anglers at various points on the island, including a fishing pier near the campground.

A 1.25-mile walking trail takes visitors on a scenic stroll around the island. Plenty of picnic tables, pavilions, charcoal grills and a few chickee huts are spread out for daytime visitors to enjoy.

An Island Overnight

On a sunny weekend, especially during the summer, the island and surrounding waterways can get quite congested and loud, with revelers on boats blasting music and partying. But as the sun goes down and the riff-raff retire for the evening, all daytime visitors must leave the island, and only those who have reserved one of 17 campsites can stay.

Fourteen of those sites are single sites ($30 plus tax) meant for one tent and a maximum of six campers, while three are double-wide ($60 plus tax) for up to two tents and 12 guests. Each spot contains a tent pad, charcoal grill and picnic table.

Individual sites don’t have campfire rings, but there is a communal firepit and wood available for purchase on the island.

Although alcohol isn’t allowed for daytime visitors, it is permitted in the campground for overnight guests. Showers are available in the restrooms, exclusive to campers and only accessible by punching in a code.

As the moon rises, it’s nice to enjoy dinner and a beverage outdoors while taking in the sensations of wind whispering through the palms, crickets chirping and stars emerging overhead.

Peanut Island also makes for an interesting vantage point to watch cruise ships and giant cargo vessels pull out to sea under the setting sun, not to mention plenty of larger-than-life yachts.

A Nearly Nutty History

Originally named Inlet Island, the man-made enclave originally encompassed 10 acres created in 1918 with material excavated while dredging the Lake Worth (Palm Beach) Inlet. By 1923, the Port of Palm Beach was using the island as a spoil site, and eventually, the island grew to 80 acres.

The name came from a plan to ship peanut oil from the island, and while that idea was abandoned in 1946, the name Peanut Island always stuck.

Amid the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s, a nuclear bunker was built on the island for President John F. Kennedy, who vacationed with his family at his “winter White House” in Palm Beach. The bunker was previously open for tours but closed in 2017. Historic buildings that previously served as a Coast Guard station sit near the site of the Kennedy bunker.

Brighter Days Ahead

While these facilities are currently fenced off and off-limits to visitors, Palm Beach County plans to renovate the historic structures, bunker and docks in a yearslong, multi-million dollar improvement project.

According to a sign placed in front of the site, the boat house will serve as home to exhibits and a gift shop while the Coast Guard station will house educational and historic displays. Eventually, the plan is also to reopen the Kennedy bunker for tours.

Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com.

If you go

Peanut Island is located in the Intracoastal Waterway near the Lake Worth Inlet in Riviera Beach and is open for day use from sunrise to sunset. There is nothing for sale or rent on the island, so visitors should be prepared with supplies for a half-day away from the mainland.

The Peanut Island Shuttle can be reserved online or by calling 561-777-0438, or the Palm Beach Water Taxi can be booked online or by calling 561-683-8294. Peanut Island aims to offer online camping reservations in the future, but for now, sites can be booked by calling 561-845-4445 or toll-free at 866-383-5730 or by emailing pnutcamp@pbcgov.org. A maximum of three nights can be reserved up to 90 days in advance. For more information, visit discover.pbcgov.org.

They recently featured readers’ takes on the top 10 historic small towns in the U.S., a list that includes Winterset, Iowa (No. 10 on the list), the county seat of Madison County which is known for its covered bridges — as in the 1995 movie, “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Arizona’s Winslow takes the No. 6 spot not only for its place in pop culture — cue the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” — and setting on historic Route 66, but for its Anasazi history. And 17th century architecture rules supreme in Wickford, Rhode Island, which holds the No. 2 ranking.

Take a peek at the list below, then check out the full story, complete with photos and snippets of history, at https://10best.usatoday.com.

1 Ludington, Michigan

2 Wickford, Rhode Island

3 Abilene, Kansas

4 Ruston, Louisiana

5 San Elizario, Texas

6 Winslow, Arizona

7 Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

8 Cumberland, Maryland

9 Jonesborough, Tennessee

10 Winterset, Iowa

A man carrying luggage jogged up and started asking questions.

“Oh, you need to go downstairs to check your bag,” Bradway said with a smile. “Yes, downstairs. Down that way.”

The man looked relieved and hustled away toward the escalators.

Norfolk International has 28 airport ambassadors, mostly retirees, who volunteer to soothe the nerves of frazzled travelers. Ambassadors wear mint green, hard-to-miss shirts while they stand throughout the terminal. They keep travelers moving and, in turn, help the efficiency needed in an airport. Their work has become more crucial. The airport expects to exceed 5 million travelers by the end of 2024, a record.

“They’re the airport’s face to the community,” said airport CEO Mark Perryman, “our face to our passengers.”

The program started in 2000 and has grown with the number of people flying in and out. Since 2022, the airport has hit a record each year. More than 4 million people traveled through in 2022; the following year, about 4.5 million.

Bradway, a retired business executive who lives in Virginia Beach, started as an ambassador in 2017 and enjoys bumping into former colleagues who still go on business trips.

“I’ll end up having a conversation with somebody I’ve known for 20 or 30 years,” he said.

He’s also happy to answer what he called the four most common questions for ambassadors: Where are rental cars? Are there places to eat beyond security? Where are the bathrooms? Which gate do I go to?

“Sometimes, you get, ‘Is there somewhere I can take my dog out?'” He’ll show them to an outside area.

Then again, not all travelers have needs that are so simple.

Vera Cornish, a 78-year-old retired educator from Virginia Beach, remembers a woman who declared to her: I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. The woman and her children had missed their flight and didn’t have much money, Cornish recalled.  She led them to the airport’s “family room,” which has a bathroom, changing table and comfy chair. She told the woman to lock the door and take a nap. By the time the woman woke up, Cornish had called a friend who allowed the woman and her kids to stay the night until they could board a flight the next morning.

Another time, Cornish enlisted her husband to help a traveler find her car after she forgot where it was in the parking deck.

“We searched for two hours,” Cornish said. “But I’m glad we found the car.”

After retiring from a 48-year career at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2018, Bill Morehead needed something to get him out of the house.

“My wife was telling me I was getting to be too much underneath her feet.”

Now 67, Morehead said the people-watching opportunities are too good to give up. He’s seen a man get on one knee and propose. He’s worked on Halloweens when people dressed as Godzilla and Barney cheered up children nervous about flying. He once saw hundreds of strangers begin to cry when a serviceman sneaked up on his relative after months away on duty.

“We see everything here.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

That’s the future confronting visitors to central Barcelona in four years. To safeguard and expand the housing supply for full-time residents, local authorities want to rid the Spanish city known for its architecture, beaches and Catalan culture of the 10,000 apartments licensed as short-term rentals.

Barcelona City Hall announced last month that it would not renew any tourist apartment licenses after they expire in 2028. Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet said the city wants tourism, which accounts for 15% of the local economy, but must help residents cope with skyrocketing rents and real estate prices.

“Our housing emergency obligates us, forces us, to change the way we do things and to put the priority on housing above our policies for accommodating tourists,” Bonet told The Associated Press.

Property owners plan to fight the decision, arguing that eliminating short-term rentals would threaten their livelihoods and leave the city without enough temporary lodging: Some 2.5 million tourists stayed in an apartment last year, according to the Association of Tourist Apartments of Barcelona, also known as Apartur.

Residents of the city, which has a population of about 1.6 million, have campaigned against “overtourism” for several years, but the anti-tourism sentiment has grown more heated: During a protest in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas district this month, some participants shouted “Go home!” and squirted water pistols at people seated at outdoor tables.

Residential real estate prices in Barcelona have increased by an average of 38% over the past decade, a period in which the average rent soared by 68%, according to the municipal government. Like in other popular urban areas, many young people who grew up there struggle to afford a place of their own. Authorities say a lack of supply is partly to blame.

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A global dilemma

Other cities around the world also are struggling to reconcile the housing needs of year-round residents, the rights of landlords and the allure of the economic benefits that being a top tourist destination can bring.

Measures to limit the free-for-all of investors converting apartments into holiday rentals have included partial bans, caps on the number of days units can be let out and registration requirements for frequent hosts.

New York cracked down on short-term apartment rentals in September with rules requiring owners to remain in their residence when they host overnight visitors and capping the number of guests at two. Maui’s mayor said last month that he wants to end condo rentals to tourists to help deal with a housing shortage made worse by last year’s devastating fire on the Hawaiian island.

In Italy, a 2022 amendment to national legislation allowed the lagoon city of Venice to limit short-term rentals, but the city administration has not acted on it.

Before moving to eradicate tourist apartments altogether, Barcelona officials tried more limited approaches. Its previous mayor, a former housing activist, made several moves to regulate the market, including a ban on the rental of individual rooms in apartments for stays under 31 days in 2020. The city also has moved aggressively to get unlicensed tourist apartments removed from online platforms.

“We have accumulated lots of know-how in Barcelona that we are ready to share with other cities that want to have this debate,” Bonet said.

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What’s at stake for owners

The decision in Barcelona was made possible after the government of Catalonia, the northeast region of which Barcelona is the capital, passed a law year year stating that current licenses for tourist apartments would expire by 2028 in areas determined to have shortages of affordable housing.

Local governments that want to renew the licenses must demonstrate that doing so is compatible with locals being able to find affordable housing. Barcelona City Hall said it wasn’t.

Spain’s conservative opposition party is challenging the regional law in the country’s Constitutional Court, alleging that the law infringes on property rights and economic liberty. Apartur, which represents 400 owners of short-term rental units in Barcelona, argues the industry has become a scapegoat in a city that has not granted any new tourist apartment licenses since 2014.

Bonaventura Durall runs a company that owns and rents out 52 apartments near Barcelona’s beachfront. Forty of the apartments are located in a building that his business and others built in 2010 to tap into the growing short-term rental industry. He says the municipal government’s plan to phase out vacation rentals is unfair and puts his business and its 16 employees at risk.

“There is an investment behind this that has created jobs and tax revenues and a way of life, which will now have its wings clipped,” Durall said. “This is like you go to a bar and take away its liquor license or you take away a taxi driver’s permit to drive a taxi.”

Critics also say the move amounts to Barcelona exercising eminent domain and will inevitably create a black market of unregulated vacation rentals. Bonet, the deputy mayor, denies that City Hall is expropriating anyone’s property.

“We are not saying that these apartments will disappear and therefore the owners of these apartments can’t generate revenue from them,” Bonet said. “They will have the same assets, but they will have to put them to the use they were originally built for, which is to house families.”

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The limits of the sharing economy

Ignasi Martí, director of the Observatory for Dignified Housing at Spain’s Esade business and law school, said that in addition to likely facing legal hurdles, the initiative would at most only dent rental costs.

Most studies indicate that Barcelona needs about 60,000 new housing units to meet current demand, he said.

But Martí thinks that removing tourists from residential buildings could improve the daily lives of people who call the city home.

“Take the case of a mother who needs to leave her child with a neighbor. If she lives in a building with tourist apartments, she knows that she can’t count on them,” he said. “Tourist apartments undoubtedly have repercussions in the possibility of creating ties, solidarity or making friends, beyond the issue of noise and people coming and going at any hour.”

Esther Roset, a 68-year-old retired bank worker, thinks so, too. She has spent years complaining about the tourist apartment above her home. Some guests have done things like vomit off the balcony, brought in prostitutes and opened a fire extinguisher in the stairwell.

Apartur argues that such behavior is rare, in party because of Barcelona’s strict regulations.

Roset has other tourist-related pet peeves, such as the expensive food joints catering to foreigners that have swept away the traditional bars where she could get a simple sandwich. She pointed to three nearby restaurants that specialize in brunch. Roset, like most Spaniards, doesn’t do brunch.

“I shouldn’t have to leave. This is my apartment. If the tourists who came behaved, OK, but one out of every 10 doesn’t,” she said. “At the end, I will have to follow the advice of a lawyer and hang a sheet from my balcony with the message ‘Tourist go home.’”

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Colleen Barry contributed to this report from Milan.

Travelers have many concerns, but safety is often a major priority, especially for women and LGBTQ+ travelers. A recent Forbes Advisor study identified the riskiest places in the world to visit based on seven key criteria — and the destinations that ranked the safest.

The list analyzed 60 cities across the globe on a 100-point scale, 100 being the most severe risk for travelers. The criteria include risk for crime, personal security, health security, infrastructure security and digital security.

Curious to dive into the results? They just might surprise you.

Riskiest cities to visit

The riskiest city for travelers to visit is Caracas, Venezuela. Scoring the only 100 out of 100, the Venezuelan city offers the highest health security risk due to the low quality of health care available, the highest crime risk, the second-highest infrastructure security risk and the second highest digital security risk. Venezuela as a whole is rated by the U.S. State Department as a Level 4: Do Not Travel risk due to “crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, and the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

The second-riskiest destination in the world is Karachi, Pakistan, which ranked 93.12 out of 100. It has the highest personal security risk due to crime, terrorist threats, economic vulnerabilities and even natural disasters. It also has the fourth highest infrastructure security risk. The State Department ranks Pakistan as a whole as a Level 3: Reconsider Travel, due to terrorism.

The third riskiest destination is Yangon, Myanmar. It scored 91.67 out of 100, and represented the highest digital security risk, the third highest personal security risk and the third highest health security risk. The State Department ranks Myanmar as a Level 4: Do Not Travel country, due to “civil unrest, armed conflict, and arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” which have escalated since the February 2021 military takeover of the country.

The full list risky cities include (in descending order):

Caracas, Venezuela

Karachi, Pakistan

Yangon, Myanmar

Lagos, Nigeria

Manila, Philippines

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bogota, Colombia

Cairo, Egypt

Mexico City, Mexico

Quito, Ecuador

Safest cities to visit

Now what about the cities that ranked the least risky? Well, two of the top three safest cities are located in Asia, while the top 10 safest include destinations from Asia to Australia and Europe.

The least risky city to visit in the world is Singapore, which scored a stunning 0 out of 100. It has the lowest natural disaster risk, the second lowest health security risk, the second lowest infrastructure security risk and the second lowest digital security risk. Singapore is rated by the State Department as a Level 1 security risk.

The second safest destination is Tokyo, which has a security score of 10.72 out of 100. The large metropolis offers the lowest health security risk and the fifth lowest infrastructure security risk. Japan is known for being quite safe, and the State Department ranks it as a Level 1 risk.

Leaving Asia, our third safest destination is Toronto, Canada. It scored 13.6 out of 100 and ranks with the fourth lowest infrastructure security risk and the seventh lowest health security risk, making it a great big city for travelers to visit with little safety concerns. Canada is also ranked as a Level 1 risk destination.

The full list of cities that ranked lowest on the security list (in ascending order from least risky) are as follows:

Singapore, Singapore

Tokyo, Japan

Toronto, Canada

Sydney, Australia

Zurich, Switzerland

Copenhagen, Denmark

Seoul, South Korea

Osaka, Japan

Melbourne, Australia

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

There’s a lot to unpack in Steve Hoffman’s new memoir.

On the surface, “A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France” chronicles the six months Hoffman and his family — wife and fellow author Mary Jo and their two children — spent immersed in a small winemaking village in southern France more than a decade ago.

But it’s also a journey of self-discovery, as Hoffman talks readers through his complicated relationship with France, from a Minnesota high school kid learning the language, to a stint in Paris in his early 20s, to falling in love with the Languedoc region as an adult.

It’s a story of a husband and father wanting his family to share his love of France, and how this adventure changed their dynamic — and their futures.

But it’s also about friendship, how Hoffman worked to set aside his idyllic vision of Paris to become part of the village of Autignac, where neighbors became family and local winemakers became close friends. About how the experience upended the way Hoffman, a tax preparer and award-winning food writer from Shoreview, views not only French food and wine but what it means to belong.

And, finally, it’s a lesson in patience.

“It took me about eight years to write the book,” Hoffman said. “It took me that long to give the book time to find itself, to become what it needed to be, to express what that experience meant.”

Ahead of the book’s release, we talked to Hoffman about getting out of his comfort zone, the importance of culinary traditions and how this epic trip changed his relationship with food, wine, France and family. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The French way of life has been a constant thread in your life. Why?

I think it started with the fact that I was able, from a young age, to speak French fairly easily, and there was this feeling of inhabiting a new person when I was speaking French that I found intoxicating. But I was still just a French student until that year in Paris. That manifested what I had felt but never experienced, which is that this language allowed me to essentially be a different person, and a far more interesting and romantic figure — to me — than Steve Hoffman, tennis player and student at Ramsey High School in Roseville, Minnesota.

Cooking plays an important role in the book. Did you cook before you went to France?

I loved to strap on an apron on a Sunday afternoon and open a bottle of wine and spend two or three hours making something complicated and ambitious and making a bunch of dishes. I did cook for the kids when they were young, but I was a recipe follower. I was not somebody who could go to the grocery store or get a CSA and make something with most of what he would find in his kitchen. That was very much an evolution that happened during that trip.

Of all the meals that you cooked in France, which one stands out?

Just grilling fresh sardines over a vine-wood fire in our courtyard with sea salt and a bunch of lemon juice, and picking those skeletons clean. It was just such a simple, beautifully Mediterranean way of preparing that very Mediterranean fish.

Did your experience change the way you cook at home?

I started cooking more often, and spent a lot of time trying to find the recipes that I could make fairly easily that were full of flavor that the kids would love. And I feel as if I did. I’m kind of proud of this, because I didn’t have this as a child. I didn’t have a tradition to draw from, a mother who cooked or a grandmother who cooked. That wasn’t part of our family.

If you’re looking for a taste of France in Minnesota, what do you cook?

Now that we’re here, we’re more focused on how do we translate the spirit of what we did there. We’re still surrounded with beautiful food in Minnesota. How do we make it flavorful? How do we fashion it into dishes that people we love and that our family will love and crave?

You worked in the vineyards. How did that change your relationship with wine?

I was interested in wine previously as an element of a good life. It was very much a part of my relationship with France, but it had more to do with knowing regions and knowing grapes, being able to pick out the notes that come out of a glass of wine. It was very removed from vines and soil and plots of land. And that was really the shift. And it shifted my entire approach to wine, the reasons that I valued wine. It was such an agricultural experience. It allowed me to see from literally the ground up how you take these base materials and slowly move them through this process to turn them into something transcendent in a glass.

At times you longed for comfort, yet you were constantly out of your comfort zone. How did you reconcile that?

That’s a great question. I arrived with a notion in my head that I was just automatically a happier and better person in France. And it just happened without any particular effort on my part because I could speak the language. The lifestyle was conducive to what I love, which is food, wine and a sort of sophisticated European way of moving through your day. I was going there expecting that I would be in my comfort zone, that I would be the French speaker who would help my family fall in love with France. And it would be as simple as that.

And?

Early on Mary Jo was really insistent saying, “Wait a minute, this isn’t working. We’re not going to be a part of the Steve Hoffman show while you go have nice experiences at cafes. … You need to make something happen here. Or this whole dream of France doesn’t really make sense.” So I was faced with this dilemma of, yes, I can stay in my comfort zone and it can be a pretty little trip, but at the risk of maybe losing France in some way. Or I can get out of my comfort zone and start making something happen, that potentially gets us what we wanted in the first place, which is to become part of the fabric of this little village.

Mary Jo seems like the voice of tough love and reality.

Absolutely, and has been for much of our marriage.

I have mad respect for that.

It’s not an easy thing to do. She had both the wisdom to recognize that it wasn’t going that way, and the courage to risk a little bit of conflict in order to engineer something better, knowing that because she didn’t speak the language, she couldn’t just step in and do it. She needed me to do it. I could have been super resentful, or I could have gone into a self-defensive mode. You know, she really kind of risked something by stepping up and having that conversation with me.

You talked about feeling like the Steve you wanted to be. How has that translated into Steve now?

There was that slow movement toward realization, and it happened in part through cooking. My initial efforts were to try to cook like a French chef, which led to this breakthrough of the cooking that I want to do is for this family. Yes, I want to have fun with these beautiful ingredients. And I want to cook good food that people love, but I want to cook it for this family. By the end of the book, I feel as if I had discovered that the best me was the me that was devoted to the few things around me that really meant something, primarily Mary Jo, Joe and Eva.

What was coming back to Minnesota like?

There was a kind of sadness to come back, you know? There was this feeling that we had really been through something that we couldn’t quite put into words, but that we felt really deeply. And there is an ordinariness to daily life that we had to contend with, and that we’re still contending with, even all these years later.

You kept journals during your during this trip. At what point did you say, hey, this should be a book?

Honestly, [former Taste editor] Lee Dean was one of the critical early supporters of my writing. I sent her one of my journal pieces. It was ridiculous. It was like 5,000 words long, but she had made it a point to always read anything submitted by a Minnesota writer, and she took the time to read it. It was obviously unpublishable in that form, but she saw something in my writing and invited me to submit letters from Languedoc to her. That was the turning point.

You’re a real estate broker, tax preparer, food writer and now an author. What’s your next season?

That is the question. I think ideally, it will bring a slow transition toward taking writing more seriously as an actual career as opposed to a side hustle. But I think the next season is Mary Jo [author of the blog and book “Still”] and me both taking these new creative careers and finding a way to create a body of work that we’re proud of, create a legacy that would involve working together on a project that is both of ours, in addition to doing whatever work we would do separately.

A decade ago, could you have imagined you both publishing books in the same year?

Never, never, never. One of our habits throughout our marriage has been to do five-year plans. And it’s been surprising how often everything on the list somehow happens. It seems that there’s a magic in writing it down and making it intentional. When we got back from this trip, we did a five-year plan, and it involved me maybe writing a book and possibly being on the kind of terms with a national food press where I could email, say, the editor of Food and Wine magazine and they would know who I was. And that was the most pie-in-the-sky, never-going-to-happen dreaming. And I’ll be damned if 10 years later, that hasn’t entirely come to pass. It’s absolutely still mind-boggling to us that we’ve reached this point.

Nicole Hvidsten is senior Taste editor at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis).

Lavishing in ultimate luxury doesn’t come cheap, of course. The million-dollar question of “to splurge or not to splurge?” can add thousands of dollars to an already pricey purchase. For those who can afford a stately stateroom, however, they are often afforded a boatload of benefits beyond the deluxe digs.

But like pretty much everything in life, you don’t always get what you pay for. While the majority of passenger ships put the biggest spenders in cruise control with such privileges as exclusive dining options, private lounges and reserved theater seats, some have guests looking at their travel budget with a sinking feeling.

Playing the dual role of travel agent and real estate agent, we’ve checked out some prime properties that, under normal conditions, promise an elevated experience when paying a suntanned arm and leg.

Even without getting into upgrades, cruise fares are all over the nautical map due to such factors as the number of nights, itinerary, season, availability, the cruise line and even the ship itself. For sanity’s sake, we’ll do like a bad kayaking shore excursion and only scratch the surface here.

Focusing on the value-based mainstream cruise market (because, let’s face it, those who can afford the best don’t even blink at upgrading), the big four are serving up a buffet of bundles — and we all know how much cruisers love buffets. The key is making sure your eyes are not bigger than your stomach — or in this case, wallet.

Despite the dizzying number of premium packages out there, a standard inclusion with a suite on mega-ships (those defined as having 1,500 or more cabins) is a “fast pass” of sorts when checking in, boarding, debarking, tendering and dining in the main restaurants.

The OG of exclusive suite zones is Norwegian Cruise Line (ncl.com). Having pioneered the concept in 2005, giving it a name — The Haven — in 2011, mass-market NCL offers this elite enclave on the majority of its fleet. This includes the newer Prima-class ships: the 3,099-passenger namesake and 3,215-guest Viva, both of which blur the line between the mainstream and premium categories. A private bar, lounge and restaurant, secluded sundeck and infinity pool, and 24-hour butler service, all within an area accessible only by keycard, will also delight future passengers on the 3,571-guest Norwegian Aqua, debuting in April 2025.

How much is a slice of heaven in The Haven? The fleetwide average fare for a seven-day sail in a 300-square-foot balcony room is around $3,000 per person. That’s chump change and a cracker box compared to one of the two 2,100-square-foot, three-bed, three-bath Duplex Suites that will be on Aqua. At press time, these maritime mansions were about $14,000 per person for a weeklong Caribbean cruise out of Florida next summer.

On Royal Caribbean International’s amazing Icon of the Seas, the largest suite of the world’s largest ship is the 1,772-square-foot, three-story Ultimate Family Townhouse that sleeps eight. It’s got a multi-level slide, a wraparound balcony, whirlpool, areas for karaoke and watching movies, and even a patio with ping-pong.

Royal Caribbean (royalcaribbean.com) divides its top suites on its newer and bigger ships into three Royal Suite categories — Sea, Sky and Star — and, no surprise, the Ultimate Family Townhouse belongs in the class named for the physically highest of the trio. Services and amenities are still impressive up in the Sky and even at Sea level, but being a Star comes with pre-paid gratuities, specialty dining and a deluxe beverage package.

Carnival Cruise Line (carnival.com) is known for being more fun than fancy, but with every renovation and new ship there is an opportunity to add frills with the thrills. “Fun Ships” don’t have private elevators for guests between suite enclaves and main decks — at least not yet — but most of Carnival’s fleet offers VIP treatment when staying in certain zones. Excel-class suites, available on the 5,282-passenger Jubilee, Celebration and Mardi Gras, provide access at Loft 19, a top-deck sanctuary that offers super-comfortable lounge chairs, an exclusive and spacious infinity whirlpool, and rentable cabanas that come with such indulgences as dedicated concierge service, chilled towels, lunch delivery, and glorious shade.

Other perks of an Excel-class suite include sparkling wine and a fruit bowl upon arrival, soft drink package, and use of the Thermal Suites, which are dedicated relaxation centers that offer seafaring splendor in a variety of environments. Also worth a look before you book are the following communities that come with select services and amenities: Cuban-themed Havana on Vista, Horizon, Panorama and the three Excel ships (for guests 12 and over); Italian-accented Terrazza on Firenze and Venezia (same); wellness-focused Cloud 9 Spa on 13 ships; and Family Harbor. The latter stateroom and suite community, on Celebration, Horizon, Jubilee, Mardi Gras, Panorama and Vista, comes with daily breakfast and snacks in an exclusive family-friendly lounge stocked with age-appropriate video and board games, and movies, an evening of late-night babysitting service at Camp Ocean, and other cool stuff.

MSC Cruises (msccruisesusa.com), the third-largest cruise line after Royal Caribbean and Carnival, has the MSC Yacht Club, a winning response to the competition’s various exclusive suite enclaves. Strutting around the loftiest lodging on the beautiful 5,877-passenger Seascape and a dozen other ships in the fleet lends a feeling of being on a cruise within a cruise. Elegance begins with a less stressful embarkation process in port and continues onboard with full-service and buffet-style gourmet dining. Yacht Club privileges also include the best drink and internet packages, 24-hour butler and room service, special concierge desk, perks at the spa, afternoon tea, exclusive pools and lounges, and priority over commoners at several useful places. The Yacht Club experience continues on land should the itinerary include Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, where the private and serene Ocean House Beach awaits with ocean views, beachfront cabanas and inclusive amenities.

Moving on up to the premium category, Disney Cruise Line (disneycruiseline.com) has an E-ticket suite on its 4,000-passenger flagship, the mouska-riffic Disney Wish. The apex of accommodations has an avant-garde address. Nestled inside the one funnel that’s just for show is the “Moana”-themed Concierge Wish Tower Suite. Spread across 1,966 square feet and two levels connected by a spiral staircase are four bedrooms, four and one-half bathrooms, and enough space to sleep eight. The happiest place at sea is running about $35,000 for a family of five on a three-day Bahamian cruise next summer.

Within the luxury class, Windstar Cruises (windstarcruises.com) has three all-suite motorized Star Plus-class ships in a fleet filled out by a trio of Wind-class sailing yachts. Aboard each of the 312-passenger Star Plus vessels are three owners suites ranging in size from 575 to 1,374 square feet. Over the past two years, Windstar has rolled out two additional suites on each Star Plus yacht, and their concept is not only unique, but award winning. Earning bragging rights as “Best Suites at Sea” (small-ship division) at last year’s Cruise Ship Interior Awards were The Broadmoor and Sea Island suites that match the decor of their namesake five-star resorts in Colorado Springs and the Georgia coast, right down to the furniture, crown moldings and wallpaper.

Hitting the heights, which in the cruising world means the ultra-luxury category, Crystal (crystalcruises.com) offers up a 1,372-square-foot Crystal Penthouse Suite on the 740-guest Serenity, which went through a near-complete makeover in 2023. with expansive living areas, a private veranda, elaborate finishings, a Romanesque bathroom, dining area, big-enough private kitchen with a dishwasher and microwave, and, speaking from personal experience, one of the two best butler services at sea. (Seabourn has the other). At last check, bunking in the best of the best on an eight-day Mediterranean cruise was going for about $44,000 for two next summer.

The beauty of cruising is you don’t have to go big or go home. Living the suite life may cost thousands or tens of thousands, but even if the low end is too dear, cruise fares, like ships and passengers, come in all shapes and sizes.

The airline said Thursday that it has been studying customer preferences and expectations and is making the changes because of what they’ve heard, but it could also generate revenue and boost financial performance.

While Southwest has used an open seating model for 50 years, the company said that it understands that preferences have changed, with more customers taking longer flights and wanting an assigned seat.

The airline is said it will offer redeye flights for the first time.

Southwest said that its first overnight, redeye flights will land on Feb. 14, 2025 in nonstop markets that include Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando; Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville; and Phoenix to Baltimore. It plans to phase in additional redeye flights over time.

Turns out it was built by entrepreneurs and cutting-edge engineers who designed “Sphere” as a unique entertainment venue, one that catches attention even in the flashy world of Las Vegas.

Outside, the exterior — called the Exosphere — of this enormous globe is visible to anyone driving down the Strip and even from airplanes overhead, making it an instant Vegas landmark.

This immense orb is covered with LED lights. Sphere executives say it’s the largest LED screen on earth, covering 580,000 square feet with 1.2 million LED pucks and capable of displaying a billion colors, and also the world’s largest spherical building.

Inside the venue, one has the feeling of being in an immense planetarium, with 360-degree screens and graphics. It opened with its first show in September 2023.

I went inside for the first time in May to attend the “Dead Forever” show by Dead & Company, which contains former members of the Grateful Dead, and also guest artists such as singer-songwriter John Mayer. The Dead had always been known for its cutting edge technology and marvelous graphics, so I was interested to see what they’d do with an unusual venue like this.

I had trouble getting tickets, because mobs of other Dead fans were also fighting for them, but I finally scored three for my birthday in May.

I paid a cringe worthy $1,100 for the three tickets, which was the most I’d ever paid for any concert in my long, long life. Afterward, I deeply regretted spending so much money on just one show, but I invited a pair of friends to come with me as my treat and celebrate my 68th birthday.

I was still griping about how much I’d spent as we arrived at Sphere, which is located adjacent to the Venetian hotel and resort. I’m gimpy and I use a cane, so I was happy to see a smiling wheelchair attendant waiting at the Uber drop-off lane, to help anyone who needed it.

My friends and I had to stop for a few minutes to take pictures of ourselves in front of the remarkable glowing orb, which was showing famous Grateful Dead graphics.

Then, I was wheeled quickly inside and into the bowels of the building, where there was a service elevator to take wheelchair patrons up to their seat level.

I saw a man wearing an apron with Grateful Dead graphics on it, and I told him that I liked it. We chatted for a minute, he found out it was my birthday and then insisted on buying us drinks. He accompanied us on the elevator up to our level, which was conveniently right next to an attractive cocktail lounge. I can’t ever find fault with seats located so close to a bar.

I ordered a special Mai Tai drink they were calling a “Tai Dye” and it was delicious. It was nice that someone else was buying, because the drinks were expensive — like they always are at concert venues.

Our host, Martin Valenzuela, told us he was the executive chef at Sphere, and he certainly made converts out of us with his kindly gesture.

Then, we walked into the actual concert hall, and found ourselves momentarily stupified by its size and configuration. The 17,385-capacity seating area seemed dwarfed by the enormous dome around us. We couldn’t help taking pictures, even before the show began.

I stopped complaining about how much I’d paid for the tickets. According to the company’s website, the entire Statue of Liberty would fit inside.

We were early, so we sat down and enjoyed watching the arena fill up. The seating process seemed orderly and easy. There was a wheelchair section near me, but I didn’t need it.

The show began on time, which is always big with me. I’m old —don’t waste the time I have left.

We could see the band down below, but they were dwarfed by the enormous graphic projections that began appearing all around us. I don’t know if people were intoxicated around us — Dead shows have always been known for their fans’ use of psychedelics — but you really didn’t need any drugs to appreciate the experience.

The graphics — it’s tempting to call them “visions” — became a view of the earth that focused down and down and down until it became a close-up of a certain white Victorian building in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury. This elicited a cheer from the crowd, as people recognized the house where the Grateful Dead lived when they were first starting out.

Then, the camera pulled out, showing us the San Francisco Bay, and kept pulling out and out until we were looking at the Milky Way. During the four-hour-long show, the glowing dome surrounded us with animation designed to accompany specific songs, sometimes eliciting a gasp from the entire crowd.

At times, our seats rumbled and even shook along with the music. Apparently, engineers can also change the air, to add a breeze for example, and even add scents. I’m happy to say that the air was less smoky than it often is at indoor Dead concerts, which I appreciated. I assume the venue has some sort of amazing ventilation system.

It was so wondrous and overwhelming, that I turned to my friends and said, “We should come back and see it again!” no longer caring how much the tickets had cost.

Was it the very best Dead show I’d seen in 45 years? Musically, probably not, although it was darn good. John Mayer performed the late Jerry Garcia’s role in the band, and other younger musicians also sat in.

But was it the most mind-blowing concert experience I’d ever had, with or without mind-altering substances? Yes. For sure. We all walked out talking about the show, and the euphoria lasted for hours.

When there’s no concert scheduled, the venue offers “The Sphere Experience,” which is a multimedia show running most days. Tickets start at $94, according to the website.

For fight fans, the Riyadh Season NOCHE UFC is scheduled for Sept. 14.

The next concert scheduled for Sphere is The Eagles, in residency from September through January and I really don’t know if the graphics would match what I’d just seen. After all, they’re known for country rock, not psychedelics.

At this writing, ticket prices allegedly start at $325, but I could only find seats for $1,100 each and up, which is above my budget unless I win the lottery.

But I would certainly go back to see another show at Sphere, and apparently the owners — Sphere Entertainment Co. — are considering whether to replicate it in other cities.

I’ll be interested to see what happens.

The Sphere

Where: 255 Sands Ave. Las Vegas

Information: thesphere.com

Learn more about the science behind the building: thesphere.com/science

Head to Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa, a new glamping experience that’s now open at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, which is about halfway between Philadelphia and New York City.

The exclusive overnight experience is situated within Six Flags Great Adventure’s 350-acre Wild Safari area, which is home to more than 1,200 animals.

“Spending the night in the comfort of a luxurious glamping suite, surrounded by more than 1,200 animals, right in the middle of a safari, in New Jersey, is unreal,” says Staci Wheeler, marketing manager for Six Flags Great Adventure. “Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa is both exciting and serene. Surrounded by 350 acres, guests can imagine themselves on African safari when, in fact, they are less than an hour from New York City.”

Guests can check into 20 one- and two-bedroom glamping suites, which can accommodate between two to six guests and feature customized furnishings, Gilchrist & Soames amenities and décor made from organic and natural materials. Some of the glamping suites have private verandas that offer panoramic views of Wild Safari.

Overnight visitors can also relax in the safari-inspired spa, dine at a private restaurant and enjoy other VIP experiences, like chauffeured access throughout the resort and opportunities to feed the giraffes. Visitors can also take the first “Safari Off Road Adventure” tour of the day, which involves riding in an open-air, off-road safari vehicle to see animals like African elephants, Siberian tigers, lions, red kangaroos, white rhino and bears.

Travelers will also get a limited-edition “Save an Icon” collectors pin from the Wildlife Conservation Network to commemorate their story. Six Flags Great Adventure has donated more than $100,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Network over the last five years via the pin program.

“Our full Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa team is dedicated to making every guest experience personalized and unique,” says Elizabeth Bransky-Cannata, manager of Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa. “Some guests have traveled from as far as Europe, others live close by in Philadelphia or New Jersey. What they all seem to have in common is a love for animals and a desire to experience something that is one-of-a-kind and totally unique.”

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