Key West

You can fly to Key West – all the major U.S. carriers serve the island – but I suggest you do what we’ve done both times we’ve been there: fly into Miami or Fort Lauderdale, rent a convertible, and drive there.

It’s about 250 km. from Miami, three or four hours along US 1, crossing 42 bridges, the longest being over 10 km. long. The Atlantic Ocean on your left, the Gulf of Mexico on your right, it’s one of the great drives. Stop at the Islamorada Fish Company in (where else?) Islamorada, about half-way. Walk across the white sand, look out at the blue waters of the Gulf, try the conch fritters.

Conch is a marine mollusc (that’s a polite way of saying water snail). White, firm, and flavourful, it’s turned into chowder, salad, fritters, and sandwiches by the locals. You have to try it.

In fact, Key West calls itself the Conch Republic. In 1982, in response to a U.S. Customs closure of US 1 (they were searching for drugs, among other contraband that was widely smuggled into the U.S. via the Keys at the time), Key West declared its independence, promptly surrendered, and asked for foreign aid. They didn’t get the foreign aid, but the resulting publicly got the blockade lifted, and Key West’s motto remains: “We seceded where others failed”. It’s emblematic of the pirate spirit that animates the place.

Harry Truman made Key West the location of the little White House and writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams have lived and written here.

Trolley and train tours (actually a bus and tractor-pulled cars) do a good job of explaining local history, and there are attractions ranging from an aquarium to a butterfly conservatory to a museum describing the recovery of sunken Spanish treasure in the local waters. You can also take a trip out to snorkel on the nearby reefs or watch the sunset.

Watching the sunset from Mallory Square is a daily ritual and the square attracts not only hundreds of visitors, but also dozens of hawkers and buskers. It’s a must do.

Duval Street is the main street where you’ll find most of the bars, restaurants, and shopping. You can read about some of those in my previous post.

Key West is only about 3 km. by 6 km. Given its small size and idyllic winter weather (daytime highs in the mid-20's), it's popular, and thus expensive. Hotels tend to start at US$300 per day, but you may find lower rates at one of the many B&B's. The weather is hot and humid in the summer and hurricane season lasts into November, but rates are lower then.

There are many good places to eat, especially if you enjoy fresh seafood or Cuban, and plenty of bars. Beer is reasonably priced, but cocktails, at US$10-12 are big-city priced.

Public transit really isn't an option for visitors, but taxis are plentiful, and the drivers are friendly and knowledgeable. The hotels that aren't right downtown offer free shuttles.

Change your latitude; change your attitude. Key West embodies that laid-back Jimmy Buffet spirit. Don't pack dinner clothes; you won't need them. You're always over-dressed in Key West.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Sipping in the Sunshine State

Just back from a week in Florida, split between Key West and Fort Lauderdale. More on those two towns in upcoming posts, but I promised a special drinks post a while back and here it is.

Key West is a slightly less crazy version of New Orleans. Old Town is its French Quarter and Duval its Bourbon Street. Most of the shopping, bars, and restaurants are here, though some gems are tucked away elsewhere.

Camille's (1202 Simonton) serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the menu changes daily. The food is terrific and so are the drinks. "Denise's Medication", named for the owner, is a vodka martini with three olives that delivers fast-acting relief. The designated drinker (a.k.a. Mrs. 500 Words) assures me the Lemon Drop martini is also top-notch.

We stopped at Jimmy Buffet's Original Margaritaville (500 Duval) for some souvenirs. We had tried the Margaritas here when we were in Key West five years ago. Made with a commercial sour mix, they were disappointing.

Instead, go across the street to Willie T's (525 Duval), which has more than 30 kinds of Mojitos on the menu. The food is better than you'd expect.

A great place to catch the daily sunset celebration at Mallory Square is from Sunset Pier at the foot of Duval Street. Service is spotty, though. Best go up to the bar to order drinks or food. Begin the evening here and you can say you started your crawl at 1 Duval.

Another terrific spot for sunset viewing is the rooftop bar of the Crowne Plaza La Concha Hotel (430 Duval), Key West's tallest building. Get your drinks from the bar inside before going outside to the patio, which is undergoing some sprucing up. Enter through the Starbucks at street level and take the elevator to the roof. Get there early if you want a seat.

The Rum Barrel (528 Front at Simonton) proved irresistible to the designated drinker. A confirmed rum fanatic, it took her quite a while to decide from among the more than 180 rums on offer (alas, none from Cuba). Good selection of micro beers too. Try the Capn' Kidd's Crock, a shrimp, crab, and spinach dip served with tortilla chips. Good service.

We were slowing down a bit by the time we hit Fort Lauderdale. Riding the water taxi along its entire route to stop 1, we had lunch at Shooters on the Intracoastal Waterway. The food was OK, but I suspect there was a problem with their draft lines, as both beers I sampled had the same musty odour and taste. I didn't finish them. Service was slow too.

The real highlight of our trip came on the final night when we stopped for a drink in the Wreck Bar at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel. This is the former Yankee Clipper Hotel, an iconic 1950's era Fort Lauderdale landmark built in the shape of an ocean liner. The bar itself is constructed to resemble the hold of a wooden sailing ship, and windows behind the bar offer a view into the deep end of the hotel pool. They still have an underwater "mermaid" swim show Friday night. A scene from the Robert De Niro/Billy Crystal movie Analyze This was filmed here, and Tim Dorsey sets a scene from his novel Nuclear Jellyfish here as well. Pure nostalgia.

Look for more on Key West and Fort Lauderdale in the next few days.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Blog Hop for World Rare Disease Day

Back in November, during Marfan Syndrome Awareness Week, I told you about this rare genetic condition of connective tissue that affects me and many members of my extended family.

Now, today, January 30, I'm joining bloggers around the world in a "blog hop" to mark 30 days until the upcoming World Rare Disease Day on February 29.

More than 350 million people, or about 5% of the world's population, have a rare disease. Some 7000 of these diseases are so rare, they affect fewer than 100 people. Eighty percent of these disorders are genetic. These are chronic, life-threatening, and fatal conditions. Only 5% have any type of treatment. More than half of these disorders have no research, advocacy, or support groups for those affected by them.

When I was a boy and young man, there were virtually no diagnostic or treatment options for Marfan Syndrome. I watched as my mother's sister and brothers succumbed to this "silent killer" and I felt sure that, like them, I would die young.

But that began to change about twenty-five years ago. New diagnostic tools made effective surgical intervention possible. And some medications have had some benefits for some people. Groups like the Canadian Marfan Association came together to foster research and offer support and information to patients and their families. Today, a large-scale clinical trial is underway, involving researchers from around the world, that is investigating the effectiveness of the most promising medication to date.

We have been lucky: Marfan Syndrome diagnosis and treatment has come a long way. Today, my brother and three of my cousins are alive thanks to life-saving surgery that wasn't available to my aunt and uncles.

It's time millions of others with rare disorders and diseases got the same chance.

So, what's a "blog hop"? At the bottom of this post, you'll find a list of other bloggers participating in this project. By clicking on their blogs, you can "hop" from blog to blog to read their stories.

And there are other ways you can get involved. World Rare Disease Day is a campaign of R.A.R.E. – the Rare disease Advocacy Research Education Project. It is trying to unite 1 Million for RARE on the Global Genes Project Facebook page. Wear jeans (genes) on February 29, or donate a bracelet to the 7000 Bracelets for Hope campaign. You can find out more at http://www.globalgenes.org/ and http://www.rareproject.org/

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

AirMiles and Priority Club Devalue Their Programs

InterContinental Hotels Group's Priority Club Rewards program was the first hotel loyalty program I joined. That was about eight years ago, during a stay at a Holiday Inn in Montréal. Seeing that handful of points in my account made me wonder how I could earn enough for a free night, and that was the beginning of this little obsession of mine.

Like any loyalty program, Priority Club certainly has its flaws, but it also has two major strengths. The first is that with over 4,500 properties worldwide, including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and Hotel Indigo, there is almost always a hotel where you want to stay, whether to earn or redeem points. The second is that, in addition to the ten points earned per dollar spent on stays, bonus points are insanely easy to get.

In fact, there are several websites that list bonus codes: Priority Club Insider, this section of Rewards Canada, and this thread on flyertalk. The best strategy to follow is to register for as many bonuses as you think you might qualify for prior to your stay. You probably won't get them all, but you're likely to get some.

What this means is that a $150 stay at a Holiday Inn, instead of yielding 1,500 points, could earn 5-10K points. There's even a MasterCard available from Capital One that let's you earn Priority Club points for all your credit card spending.

But the bad news is that, effective January 18, Priority Club is increasing the number of points required to redeem for a free night. For example, previously, most Holiday Inns were 15K points; some will now cost 5-10K points more. Not all properties are going up; some are actually decreasing, but the increase amounts to a 40% jump in many cases, and that seriously devalues both the program and the credit card.

Which brings me to AirMiles.

I'm not a collector of AirMiles. Because there are few participating merchants where I live, there just isn't significant earning opportunity for me. In addition, miles are expensive to earn and have little value. I've also had difficulties with its customer service centre in the past. Recently, AirMiles announced it would confiscate members' unused points five years after they've been earned (you can read what I think about such policies here). There are other changes to the program that are explained here.

Basically, these changes highlight an essential truth about loyalty programs, especially free-standing ones like Aeroplan and AirMiles: they are loyal to their shareholders and merchant partners, not their members.

And that raises another truth: just because a points program and/or its credit card was right for you in the past, doesn't mean it is still the best program/card for you today. Programs change, and so do your spending patterns, so you need to monitor them both and be prepared to change if necessary.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Getting the Most (Points) from Your Winter Vacation

A faithful blog reader recently gave me some feedback about my monthly posts of hotel and airline points and miles offers. Basically, she told me she found a long list of deals too daunting to be useful.

And that got me to thinking. So, look for January's roundup next week; today I'll offer some advice on how to find the best offers for your winter holiday.

Start your vacation planning by deciding where to go. And base your decision on your desire to go there. Our blog reader is correct: unless you're looking for a last-minute weekend getaway, it's too confusing to begin making travel plans based on this month's offers. For today, I'm going to ignore airlines and focus on hotels, mainly because airlines offer few incentives on flights to vacation hotspots during peak seasons.

Say you want to spend a week in the Orlando area. All the major hotel chains are represented there, so start by going to an online travel agency site like Expedia or Hotels.ca to see which hotels are available and what rates they are charging. These sites are also useful because they provide traveler ratings as well. All things being equal, the best price is your best deal.

However, sites like Expedia and Hotels.ca also have two major disadvantages: they don't list all hotels in an area, and you won't earn points if you book your hotel through them. No problem: you can always get the same rates at the hotel chains' websites. So earning points won't cost you extra and you'll also see all the properties the chains have in the area.

Once you've found a few hotels in the right location and price range, check this month's list of offers. An offer for bonus points, or a stay X nights, get Y nights free deal, could not only help you decide in favour of one hotel over another, but also earn points toward your next holiday.

Even if you don't think you'll ever use those hotel points, you can always elect to earn airline miles instead (if you belong to a frequent flyer plan). I explain how that works in this blog post.

And don't forget to double-dip by using a credit card that earns points or miles. Many cards even offer double points for travel-related charges, so check to see which of your cards offers you the biggest bang when you pay for your hotel, airfare, and car rental.

One final point: the major hotel chains have many brands in their portfolios. You may not know that you can earn Hilton HHonors points at a Hampton Inn or Doubletree, Wyndham Rewards at a Travelodge or Howard Johnson, Priority Club Rewards at a Crowne Plaza or Staybridge Suites. Check out your hotel's corporate website to see which chain and loyalty program it belongs to.

Next Thursday, I'll tell you about the offers the major hotel chains have for January-March, all specially geared to reward the winter leisure traveler.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane