Evening in Antigua, and ANU-SJU-MIA-DCA on American

 6 Countries in 6 Days Caribbean Trip, Antigua and Barbuda, Flights, hotels  No Responses »
Jul 182012
 

After getting a taxi, it was off to the hotel for my short evening. It was already nearly 5pm, and I if all worked well I’d have enough time to sit on the beach a bit, watch the sunset, get a good dinner, and head out the next morning. I’d booked at the Catamaran Hotel which was right on the beach in Foulmouth Bay.  It was a very laid-back sort of Caribbean place, and while I got everything I needed, service was quite distant.  Actually after arranging a taxi to dinner for me the reception locked up…and as far as I could tell left for the night!  I actually ended up leaving the door unlocked the next morning with the key on the desk, because the office wasn’t open!

Room was good-sized, bed was comfortable, and the AC worked!  Location wasn’t near much, and it seemed most everything was closed up for the off-season.  There was a good-sized convenience store just down the street where I picked up some Diet Cokes for the morning, as well as a local ice cream shop just up the road which was super popular.  Other than that, it was quite a quiet area.  There was a small marina near the hotel beach:

Also, a bird who was intent on posing in my obligatory shot towards the water:

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Hiking in Dominica, enjoying nature, and DOM-ANU (Angitua) on LIAT

 6 Countries in 6 Days Caribbean Trip, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Flights, hotels  No Responses »
Jul 172012
 

Landed in Dominica, and that’s where the drama started. Immigration was a snap, and soon found the small shack/hut that housed the rental car companies. Went over to the Avis “desk” (which, seriously, is an overstatement. It’s a small wooden podium, with a rather nice, but disinterested man who may or may not be behind it.) Nope, no reservation. Showed it to him. “Oh, how interesting. Can’t help you.” He had no car, and while he could get me one from another agency, no matching the rate, etc etc. Chatted with the (much more) helpful lady from the other agency, and she told me for what I was doing in Dominica, I would be much better with her “friend’s” taxi. He would take me round-trip to my resort, and make sure things were happy….all for the same price as my rental car. Since I only planned to hike and chill here, I went with it.

I’d chosen to stay at the Hotel Beau Rive – and in summary – it was an awesome choice.  I normally prefer locations much more in the middle of it all.  Places to go out to eat, walking distance to cool things to see, etc etc.  You get the idea.  Beau Rive?  Well, it was absolutely none of this.  What it was, however, was set in the middle of Dominica’s awesome natural beauty with the most amazing hosts and staff you could ask for.  This is all made very clear on their website, online reviews, etc.  If you’re not ready for an “at home” atmosphere, pets on premesis who are quite friendly, and a home away from home…this isn’t the place for you.  Yet, despite being from from my normal “style” I absolutely loved it here.  I’ll go into more details, but the pics will do much more talking here.

My taxi driver was awesome….on the approximately one hour drive to Beau Rive he told me all about his island, the people, the locations…it was like a mini guided tour.  Plus, the roads were seriously harpin and pretty tricky.  Much less stressful not to drive on them!  Got to the hotel, checked in (I was one of two rooms occupied!) and immediately took this awesome shot from my room’s balcony:

Another shot from the hotel’s veranda:

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Come over to the dAArkside!

 6 Countries in 6 Days Caribbean Trip, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent  No Responses »
Jun 252012
 

A few months ago, in the midst of declaring bankruptcy and seeing the mess the United/Continental merger was causing, American decided to offer top-tier elite status to disgruntled United elites. Well, you didn’t really have to be disgruntled – I mean, I haven’t seen too many negatives myself, although I know many others have. A quick call, and I was American Executive Platinum through February 2013, with 8 systemwide upgrades good on any fare on top of it.

I mainly took them up on it because I doubted American would be around in another year, and who knows it might come in handy. Well, about a month ago they upped the ante: If you fly 55,000 qualifying miles (instead of the usual 100,000) by December 31 they will renew status (with 8 more systemwide upgrades) through February of 2014. Now…this is interesting. I already have 80,000 of my needed 100,000 United miles booked, and if I plan carefully another 55,000 on American should be possible.

To that end, I started looking at trips for July 4 where I could use American. With the 4th falling on a Wednesday it was a bit awkward, but since I had the Friday before off, by taking Monday/Tuesday off I could get a 6 day trip for the price of 2 leave days…a downright bargain!

So, I started exploring destinations that I’d always missed on United (either because they don’t fly there, or do in very convoluted ways) and where American was strong. I don’t plan for this status to last much more than 18 months so time to make the most of it. Generally, that meant exploring the Caribbean and South America.

First idea was the Bolivia-Peru-Ecuador trip I want to do soon, but that will take much more than six days, and with the dates less than a month away reasonable fares and systemwide upgrade seats were long gone. Plan two…caribbean. This is where I struck gold…I found a way to squeeze in six countries in six days by flying into St Lucia and out of Antigua. The route looks like this:

So the plan is to hit St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, and Antigua in six days.  There’s things to see, but I think for most of them one day will be plenty.  None of the flights are over 90 minutes, so most of my time will be spent exploring.  Anyone who has recommendations of things to see I’m all ears!

I don’t know why I feel like this is such an AAdventure…all domestic airlines are pretty much the same…right?  But, now I feel like I’m cheating on the United much like I originally felt like I was cheating on Northwest when I started flying United about seven years ago.  We’ll see if there’s any difference…and what the plusses and minuses are.

I still need about 21,000 miles on United and 37,000 on American and partners this year…anyone with fun (but short…vacation time is low) suggestions they’re more than welcome!