Summer the best time to visit Floirida

This is the scene that greeted me this morning
as the sun came up over the 18th hole
at Fairmont's Turnbury Isle golf course.

Since arriving in Miami a few days ago, I've been fortunate enough to:

- Stay in two of Florida's best hotels - the magnificent Mandarin Oriental in Miami and the Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Aventura near Ft-Lauderdale;

 - Eat at two of the finest hotel restaurants I've ever experienced - Azul at Mandarin Oriental (the best meal I've ever eaten in Florida, by the way) and Bourbon Steak at the Fairmont;

- Be pampered in two world-class spas that I now rank among the best I've ever enjoyed - the state-of-the-art Mandarin Oriental facility and Fairmont's Willow Stream Spa (the Turnberry Isle branch may be the chain's best in my humble opinion).

- Play one of the best golf courses in Florida, if not the entire United States - the Fairmont Turnberry Isle's Miller Course, which was originally designed by the famed Robert Trent Jones Sr. and retouched recently by PGA Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd.

Pretty impressive huh. But the best part about my stay here is that I've been living the high life on a shoestring budget.

Everything in Florida in summer is reduced, starting with room rates and then they toss in incentives like free golf on the Miller course for free (normally a $225 value in high season - you just have to pay a $40 cart fee); 90-minute $99 spa treatments at the gorgeous Willow Stream facility (treatments there normally start around $199) - Mandarin Oriental's great spa is also offering reduced summer rates right now; and then they offer gourmet meals at top end restaurants like Azul and Bourbon Steak under the Miami Spice promotion where three-course meals cost just $35 (lunches at these high-end eateries cost just $22).

The free golf promotion at the Fairmont runs through Sept. 30 and the $99 spa treatments will be offered until August 31 - so hop on a summer discounted flight to Florida and take advantage of these wonderful deals at both properties!

Oh, the temperature today will reach 40C in Ft. Lauderdale and all I can see from my Turnberry Isle balcony is blue skies. The pool water is refreshingly cool and the kids are having a blast.

Summer is indeed the best time to visit Florida.

Wish you were here!

I'll be featuring stories on both the Mandarin Oriental Miami and Fairmont's Turnberry Isle Resort in upcoming issues of TraveLife magazine and online at http://www.travelife.ca/, so stay tuned!

Shot lots of birdies - on film - during my Turnbury Isle round in Florida

The 18th hole on Turnbury Isle's Miller Course is delightful.

Florida cities offer lowest tourist taxes

Travel can be taxing on tourists at the best of time so they don't need the added burden of high taxes at the destination.

So it was with interest that I read this morning a study, which I wanted to share with you, by a group called Global Business Travel Association Foundation which identifies the Top 5 U.S. cities with the lowest and highest tourism taxes.

Listed as the five lowest tax burdened cities out of 50 destinations studied, three Florida cities topped the list  - Fort Lauderdale was first, Fort Myers second and West Palm Beach in third. Following in fourth was Detroit and Portland was fifth.


According to the study, those five cities are lowest in both general sales tax and travel-related services such as car rental, hotel and meals.

On the flip side of the study, the five highest-tax imposing cities on travelers were in order: 1-Chicago, 2-New York City, 3-Seattle, 4-Boston, 5-Kansas City.

The study showed some drastic tourism tax differences between cities, in some cases 80 per cent more in comparison.

The study identified the Top 5 cities with the lowest discriminatory travel tax rates or travel-related services -- not including general sales tax - as being the California cities of Orange County in first, San Diego in second, San Jose third, Burbank fourth and Ontario fifth. The five highest discriminatory travel taxing cities are 1-Portland, 2-Boston, 3-Minneapolis, 4-New York City, 5-Chicago.