pratt@paul.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) (01/14/90)
Hi,
John and I are planning our honeymoon for two weeks in the latter half of
1990, and this note is to solicit your suggestions for a location. Our
last two vacations have been designed in large part by suggestions from
the net, and have benefited enormously from your experience, so I
thought I'd ask your ideas at this earlier stage, before we even know
where we're going to go! In return for your kindness, I hope to write
a neat trip log to post when we get back.
Here are our constraints and preferences:
1) MUST be within the United States (although can include places like
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin islands).
2) Tropical. Yeah!
3) Should have some good scuba diving, suitable for just-certified
beginners.
4) Should have some good bird watching / nature stuff, like Hawaii has
volcanoes and fascinating things to hike on. A little ``adventure''
traveling would be good here. White water rafting, overnight hikes,
sailing trips, caving, guided bird-banding expeditions, guano
labeling.... all these would be wonderful.
5) Not crawling with American tourists and the stuff they do. We could
care less about nightclubs (unless they play Reggae), luau's, gift shops,
and museums. There's enough of these in New Jersey!
6) Cheap! Hopefully (5) should make this more likely. We can even camp
some of the time.
7) Probably not a guided thing, though I'm open to suggestions, especially
for just part of the trip.
8) I'd like at least part of the trip to be in a little grass shack on the
beach with good snorkeling nearby.
9) We're free to go any time between July and December, though over
Thanksgiving is our current favorite.
So, there you have it. We'd be forever indebted for a good place
suggestion, or barring that, a recommendation for a travel agent that's
not afraid to deal with this sort of non-standard non-cruise
non-touristy kind of thing (and of course, it must be practical for us
to work with this agent from NJ. Is this kind of thing arranged over
the phone...?). Barring that, recommendations for books would help, too.
Thanks in advance for your help!
--Lorien
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L. Y. Pratt Computer Science Department
pratt@paul.rutgers.edu Rutgers University
Hill Center
(201) 932-4634 New Brunswick, NJ 08901malpass@vlsi.ll.mit.edu (Don Malpass) (01/18/90)
In article <Jan.14.10.46.41.1990.26181@paul.rutgers.edu> pratt@paul.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) writes: > >Hi, > John and I are planning our honeymoon for two weeks in the latter half of >1990, and this note is to solicit your suggestions for a location. ---------------------------------- Lorien, Here's my standard canned response to this and similar questions. If, after getting the 800-number info, you are serious about it, contact me and I can probably get a 10% rate rebate for you. Don Malpass [Rutgers '58, EE. (back when the only computer course at RU was with an ANALOG computer!)] ---------------------------------- In article .... writes: >>In either January or February of 1989 we would like to take a trip >>to somewhere it will be warm. A few other considerations we would >>like include a nice white sandy beach, clean accomodations, good >>but fairly inexpensive restaurants, and not much night life. >>We have a whole bunch of brochures on places in the Virgin Islands, >>but a great many of these deal primarily with a younger crowd, >>honeymooners and such... >>don't want some place that we would have enjoyed 20 years ago. We're >>both in our forties. This is >>> NOT <<< a disinterested response, because we own one of the units in the place I'm about to recommend, Point Pleasant on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. It fills your requirements, except for the fact that these days there are NOT many St.T restaurants that are inexpensive. I'll email you a file of our suggestions if you settle on StT however. There are also two of us, and we're in our 50's. And in spite of the fact that Pt.P does a LOT of honeymooner business, the fact is that it is secluded enough - as far from "town" as possible, not touristy, and a lot like a tropical woods with nature walks - it has NEVER seemed crowded to us. In Jan/Feb anything down there will be busy, so you may not even be able to get reservations on such short notice. Pt.P is nearly always above 85% even in the off-season, quite frankly because it is better run than anything else on StT. The rates are not at the bottom of the spectrum, BUT they include the FREE use of a car for up to 4-hours per day (on a signup basis), the FREE use of snorkeling gear, and FREE signup use of sunfish and windsurfers. If you (or anybody else out there) wants more info, I will be only too happy to provide it if you email your request to me. I repeat that disclaimers do not apply - my enthusiam stems from having an interest in a wonderful vacation spot. However, if you track it down in unbiased books, they too provide uniformly favorable reviews. You can call the rental office on 800-524-2300 and request the current rate sheet and descriptive info. -- Don Malpass [malpass@LL-vlsi.arpa], [malpass@gandalf.ll.mit.edu] The Malpass Principle: Given a binary choice, the statistical probability of doing the right thing is 31.7% - on good days. -- Don Malpass [malpass@LL-vlsi.arpa], [malpass@gandalf.LL.mit.edu] How do I know he is going into politics? Even when I finish talking to him on the PHONE my wallet is gone! 1/90