The Top 20 All-Inclusives package I did for Away this summer as part of their Best Resorts & Lodges home page feature has been up for two weeks–and finallyI get around to posting it.

http://vacation.away.com/plan-a-trip/best-resorts-and-lodges-sp.html

(As I’ve told many a PR who ought to know without asking, since my portion was All-Inclusives, you simply click on that link to see the property list. Then click on the property name to read the review. If you’re having a hard time believing that there is a publicist on the planet who can’t figure that out in the year 2009, then I’m right there with ya.)

Reuters was much more efficient in spreading the word about this fabulous new effort of Away’s than I was. The newswire service posted the official release last week, right here.

All the resorts in this feature were obviously gorgeous and posh, but the ones that won the congeniality award (for being nice to work with)…I would say Curtain Bluff (even though Antigua has a ways to go), La Source, Hacienda Tres Rios (gold star!) and Grand Velas.  The Wyoming property was cool, too, but it was such a brief encounter, my mind is dim.  Oh, and the Paradisus Guanacaste. It’s a Costa Rican property, and therefore charming in such extremes that you just want to hug everyone you meet.

 I wrote the Viceroy section only. Wish I could have done more. This package looks beautiful and reads really well too. Brides sets the standard for wedding magazines.

(Teaser: I just finished another three sections for an upcoming Brides travel section which will go unnamed for now…stay tuned for more details.)

Arthur Frommer Girlfriend Getaways, women’s travel mag and upscale Budget Traveler offshoot, published a “Great Escapes” getaway piece I wrote on San Miguel de Allende. Should be on newsstands this month.

(Disclaimer: My version suggested a free tour of historic churches, ending in the town square. NOT a once-a-week paid walking tour of private homes. I think a new editor slipped that in there so she could feel she’d made her mark.)

At last, I’m posting the PDFs received in the past month. For road trippers, a piece on California’s best coastal parks (LA to SF only).  Published in local LA magazine Whole Life Times.

Thanks to my editor Abigail for giving me the slot at the 11th hour, so I could alert LA locals to the parks’ budgetary situation and showcase some of the landmarks on the closure list. All of them are still in danger of closing within the next couple of years,  thanks to the incompetent machinations of our state government & bureaucracy.