It’s last call for Global Traveler’s annual reader survey, where you name the best of the best in business and luxury travel.  And, as it did yesterday, it’s making me think about the questions that acquaintances and friends ask us.

It’s one thing to vote for your own pick for best tourism destination, as we ask, based upon your experience and weighing all the parameters that you find important. It’s entirely another thing when a friend or acquaintance who knows how much you travel asks, “Where’s the best place to go?” I always thinks that depends upon what the questioner is looking for–relaxation? adventure? education? and who they’re going with — significant other, kids, alone? Then there’s the time of year and the person’s budget to take into consideration. But the bottom line, I think, is how well-traveled the person is already.

When the person asking the question is awed by how much I’ve traveled because they haven’t done much of it themselves, I tread lightly. If they like cities, I suggest London; for the Caribbean, I suggest St. Maarten/St. Martin, because they can get a taste of two worlds. My own best trip ever was probably to South Africa, in part because I got to spend three weeks there–some time fishing in the Transvaal, some time admiring Cape Town (my own choice for most beautiful city, scenery-wise), some time in Kruger National Park admiring the sheer variety of animal life and some time at Mala Mala for bounding around in a Jeep for a Hatari-like experience.

Our personal favorites can have less to do with where we went than who we were with, or what happened when we were there. When making recommendations — or voting, for that matter — we have to filter those out.   And when someone says, “Wow, you’ve been everywhere; where is your favorite place to go?” we must remember that they really don’t want to hear the road warrior’s true answer: “Home.”

-Mary Hunt, Editor, eFlyer

It’s last call for Global Traveler’s annual reader survey. Since I’m a staff member, I don’t vote, nor do I intend to sway anyone else’s vote. What it makes me think of, however, is all the times that non-frequent-traveler friends ask these types of questions. What’s your favorite city? What’s the best vacation destination? Along with “Can I come with you to carry your luggage/hide in your luggage?” they’re probably the most common questions that frequent travelers get from friends and acquaintances.

While our survey asks your personal opinion about “best,” the answer to a friend’s question is always harder. I usually fall back on anecdotes. For example: The best hotel room I ever had was in Houston. It was a quick overnighter booked at the last minute, and when I arrived I was told I’d been upgraded to a suite. When I walked in, my jaw hit the floor: It was the Presidential suite, complete with grand piano and circular staircase.

But my favorite “suite story” comes from a hotel in Chicago. There, I’d booked a suite, because I had some meetings lined up. The first was scheduled an hour after my arrival. When I checked in, the bellman showed me to my room–and this time, it was the bridal suite. Mirrors on the ceiling, round bed, but no separate sitting area. When my first appointment rang up from the lobby, I quickly switched the meeting to the bar. The story even has a great punch line: On the day I was to check out, I asked for a later departure and was told that, regretfully, they couldn’t accommodate me; the convention of bishops was arriving. I’d like to know what bishop got my bridal suite.

My “best airport lounge” story doesn’t reflect particularly well either on me or on the airline in question, which was TWA. I’d just come off a lovely but long flight on Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Los Angeles and was tired, jetlagged, and looking forward to sleeping on my transcon TWA connection. When I got to the TWA gate, my flight had been cancelled. I had a comp ticket, so I couldn’t fly anyone else, and the next TWA flight wasn’t for six hours. My luggage had already been checked through, so I wasn’t allowed to leave the post-security area, and there was certainly no comfy place to sleep gateside. No one at the airline was being particularly friendly or accommodating, but the members-only club had access from the gate. There were no day passes at the time, so I bought a membership for $150. I found a long, lovely couch and slept until my flight was called. As soon as I got home, I cancelled the membership and got the price credited back to me. But I do have fond memories of that couch.

-Mary Hunt, Editor, eFlyer

The second half of my trip to India was spent at the Leela Kempinski Resort in Kovalam, located in the state of Kerala. The property was absolutely breathtaking - a far, far cry from Mumbai (although the Leela does own a nice property in Mumbai). My room had a balcony overlooking the cliffs, and I fell asleep at night to the waves of the Arabian Sea crashing onto the rocks. Luckily for me, the rains held off during my stay here. However, I was told the area takes on a different kind of beauty when it rains.

My stay here was brief and jam-packed, but the environment still helped me feel relaxed. On my first day, I had lunch overlooking the infinity pool and the sea, and then I took a tour of the expansive property, which houses three different sets of guestrooms, a convention center, an old castle, a private part of the beach, three restaurants, a spa and more. Then I had a traditional Ayurveda massage of my head, neck and shoulders, after which hot oil was dripped over my head for half an hour (more about my spa experiences next week!) - this was very peaceful, relaxing and highly recommended.

Day Two sent me around the city of Trivandrum. I saw a temple and a museum and took a cruise of the backwaters. This was a totally different India than I had experienced in Mumbai and it was a welcome change. After another massage and various dinners and meetings, it was back aboard a Jet Airways flight to Mumbai. And only a few hours after that, I was onboard my Air India flight back to the U.S.

There is so much more to say about my trip to India - I could probably write blog entries until the end of the year about even the smallest details that I noticed on my trip. There is only one more experience I want to share with you next week - I think you will find it humorous, everyone else has! Be sure to check out our coverage of India, my reviews of the flights and properties and a spa report on Ayurveda in the upcoming issues of Global Traveler. Until next week!

 -Kimberly Krol, Circulation and Public Relations Executive

I have just returned from the best week of sailing around Martha’s Vineyard that I’ve ever experienced. We had good sailing each day, two of which were outstanding and one of which was a red-letter day of sailing.

On the second day we sailed from Vineyard Haven down Vineyard Sound past Naushon Island and ended up coasting on light airs to just off Menemsha, which is on the southwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. The next day the wind picked up in the afternoon and we raised the mainsails and the staysails and headed across Vineyard Sound through Quick’s Hole between Pasque Island and Nashawena Island, in the Elizabeth Islands, and on across the Buzzards Bay to South Dartmouth where we anchored for the night. What was memorable about this sail was that it was all done on a single tack, which was executed getting away from Menemsha. The next day there was too much fog in Buzzards Bay for our “no auxiliary powered” vessel to safely cross over to Vineyard Sound. Buzzards Bay has heavy barge traffic, which makes it dicey for a boat with no radar to venture out into a fog-shrouded sound. So we spent that day sailing close to shore just outside of Clark’s Cove (South Dartmouth, Mass.). The following day dawned with virtually no air movement at all so we stayed another night in the same anchorage, which, to be fair, is quite a pretty area of weather shingled cottages from the early 1900s surrounding a sailboat-infested harbor.

The excitement started at 2 a.m. Saturday morning when a front came through with high winds and horizontal rain interlaced with a dramatic display of lightening. We were all awakened at 6 a.m. with a call for all hands on deck to raise the sails and anchor so we could get under way asap. All of us stumbled up on deck to find a complete change in the weather. The violent front that came through in the night dragged in behind it a beautiful crystal clear day with plenty of wind to satisfy or scare any sailor.

The wind was out of the NW and blowing a steady 30 knots. We only raised the mainsails and the staysails. We flew across Buzzards Bay at a steady 12 knots and through Quick’s Hole, which is always tricky in a high wind, and came about into Vineyard Sound.The waves in the bay looked to have been 2′-3′, whereas, those in the Sound appeared to a landlubber, such as I, to be 3 feet plus. As we sped up Vineyard Sound the water started coming in over the starboard scuppers and at one point the bow of the yawl boat, which is carried on davits off the stern, was underwater. If you are a thrillseeker, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The Shenandoah was about the only craft out that morning, except for some McMansion-sized yachts and the Woods Hole Ferry, which is about the size of an office building. We must have given the people ashore quite a thrill when they looked out their windows as they sipped their first cup of coffee of the day. I certainly would not have given up being aboard that day, but I’d have loved to have seen us from shore……straight out of “Master and Commander”.

The drama happened as we started to wear ship between West and East Chop so we would have a straight shot into Vineyard Haven’s harbor, which is the Shenandoah’s home port. The crew was making no headway in bringing across the mainsail due to the sheer force of the wind, so all passengers on deck jumped in to help. With at least 15 people hauling on the rope we just managed to move the mainsail across. Just as the mainsail was secured there was an explosion like a cannon as a 15-square-foot section of the sail ripped. The torn section was held onto the sail by its outer edge, so it produced a thunder-like noise as it whipped about in the 30-knot wind. Just as this was happening, the first mate yelled that the inner jib was ripping, and it was lowered on Captain Bob Douglas’s orders. As the Shenandoah managed to slide into the lee of West Chop where we anchored close to the East Chop side of the outer harbor, the torn piece of sail came loose and landed in the water about 100 feet away from the ship. Ryan, our superb cook, who is also a strong swimmer, immediately jumped in and dragged it back to where passengers and crew could haul it aboard. Ryan is a college student, not a professional cook, who produced gourmet meals day after day on an old-fashioned coal-burning stove in a galley the size of a large broom closet. This was his last day before heading back to school. His “rescue” of the sail was above and beyond the call of duty, which seems to be the motto for all the crew. Nothing is wasted onboard ships and that goes for usable canvas.

It seems that when we were hauling on the rope to move the mainsail across, the power of the wind was such that the gaff whipped across faster than the boom, thus putting more stress on the canvas then it was able to handle. Something had to give and the canvas sail was weaker than the wooden spars.

The excitement at the end of this sail fully demonstrated the vast sailing knowledge and experience and enthusiasm of the captain and his crew, most of whom are teens or just out of their teens. They worked like a well-oiled machine.

Like all professionals who want to learn what went wrong, the captain and his crew examined the torn canvas as soon as it was laid out on deck. Calls were immediately made to the sailmaker and the Shenandoah’s people ashore to see if there was a spare mainsail in the sail loft. With the wind steady at 20-25 knots and still gusting to 30, the captain and the crew of the Shenandoah were already getting the ship ready for its next cruise, which started on the following day.

Those on board who had been on the Shenandoah many, many times all said that this day would go down in the annals of history of the ship as the best, most exciting day of sailing.

I have to say this was the best, most thrilling vacation day I’ve ever experienced. I should be so lucky that another day will even come close to it.

It was the end of the week of sailing for the passengers, all of whom were sad to go!

- Dick Evans, vice president

Recently, while on a nice Black Sea and Mediterranean 12-night cruise, I had the opportunity to spend the day in Egypt. Although I have been in 47 U.S. states and more than 50 countries, I had been prepared by previous visitors for a “challenging” experience in Egypt. So, after visiting Athens, Greece (where the cruise began), Istanbul, Varna (Bulgaria), Odessa (Ukraine), Sevastopol (Ukraine), Kusadasi/Ephesus (Turkey), Rhodes (Greece) and Limassol (Cyprus), our ship finally docked in Alexandria, Egypt.

We boarded our buses outside the ship terminal very early and traveled caravan-style, with armed escorts on each bus as well as two armed vehicles - one leading and one following the caravan from Alexandria to Cairo - on a 3-hour journey. We learned from our Egyptian guide that while Egypt has always been very progressive throughout the centuries, some things simply resist change when it comes to culture and customs. Women have made strides forward, but there is no question that the Arabic state is male-dominated.

Although we were advised to change our U.S. currency into Egyptian pounds, we found the good ol’ dollar works perfectly in every country including Egypt (unless you are paying for entry to a government facility). We were easily recognizable everywhere as Americans (even thought we used common sense in questionable areas) and all vendors were happy to take our dollars - even in front of the Sphinx and Giza pyramids, where the temperature exceeded 115 F, but the camels and their owners didn’t seem to notice.

After a little shopping and our wonderful lunch cruise down the Nile River, during which we were entertained by belly dancers and an Egyptian band, we returned to our ship and terminal to more shopping. A highlight of our Egyptian experience was meeting delightful Egyptian shop owners right there at the terminal who were so friendly and very good ambassadors - one in particular who we made friends with. I asked him if he remembered the song “Walk Like an Egyptian” and he invited us to take his picture doing that dance. So be smart when you travel, but don’t miss an opportunity to see one of the oldest civilizations.

- Regina Kelton, Southeast, Southwest and Caribbean Sales Manager