Holidays are a Beach
Swap traditional snow for tropical sand this holiday season. Monarch Beach Resort in sunny Dana Point – just a 5 hour drive from Phoenix! – is skipping the typical, stuffy Christmas dinner and offering a wide range of holiday activites. Get in the spirit(s) with a mixology class led by the resort’s master mixologists ($40, Dec. 9,16, 23, 30). Join local portrait artist Tony Goodwin for a night of painting and wine ($50, Dec. 8, 15, 22, 29), or celebrate the fifth night of Hanukkah on Dec. 16 with stand-up comedian Brian Kiley. Book now for 25 percent of the resort’s best available rate. monarchbeachresort.com
From Frodo, With Love
With 14 distinct terrains and climates – from tropical rainforests to glaciered fjords – New Zealand is a biodiversity jackpot. And now ambitious travelers can experience each of those two dozens biomes into a single, 18-day whirlwind travel package. Conceived by travel agency New Zealand in Depth, the package starts at about $4,000 sans airfare – and, no, you don’t get to throw a ring into Mordor at the end. newzealand-indepth.co.uk
Polar Luxe-press
Taking the little‘uns to Williams for the Polar Express holiday train ride? If so, the celebrated L’Auberge de Sedona has an incentive-laden promotion just for you. The Polar Express Package includes a welcome gift for your kid, plus a packed picnic for the train ride and 30-percent reduced room rates. Yes, even with that discount, it will cost more than the Motel 6. But does the Motel 6 have outdoor showers? Only if the hose is running. lauberge.com
German Dreaming
Sad to say, but Phoenix, AZ – the nation’s fifth-largest city, mind you – currently boasts just one long-haul direct flight to Europe: a British Airways flight to London Heathrow on an old-ass 747. Tsk tsk. Thankfully, the nonstop international flight situation out of Sky Harbor will improve, incrementally, with a new Phoenix to Frankfurt, Germany route from leisure carrier Condor Airlines. The twice-weekly flight on a Boeing 767 wide-body will activate May 18, 2018, and starts in the high-$800s. So what is there to do in Germany’s fifth-largest city? Well, visit the famed Deutsches Architekturmuseum, for starters. We also understand the frankfurters are delicious. condor.com
