Jason Batansky

Looking around Acapulco, Mexico, today, it’s hard to believe that there was a time when it was considered the most exclusive destination for Hollywood stars on the planet. In its prime, the city was the place star-struck tourists dreamed of, a place where you could hope to see John Wayne, Elvis, or Elizabeth Taylor taking a stroll through one of the expensive hotels. But those days have passed, and in more recent memory, over one hundred cruise ships have stricken Acapulco from their itineraries, leaving the city with a fraction of the tourist market it once held. However, this serenity and exclusivity may have turned the Las Brisas neighborhood into a short drive up the Carretera Escénica outside of the Acapulco city center into one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world, a weekend getaway for luxury livers from Mexico City and abroad.

Panama City is growing and reinventing itself every day. In Panama’s capital, you see new high rises and new hotels under construction. The city is a dynamic expression of the growing importance of Central America in the world economy, and it manages to combine this ever-shifting, ever-growing dynamism with the beautiful and time tested traditions of Latin and Caribbean culture.

In 1944 during World War II, Italy’s Emilia Romagna region was home to the Gothic Line, the German forces’ last line of defense against the Allies along the summits of the Apennine mountain ranges. Over a long series of battles between Autumn of 1944 and Spring of 1945, the Allied armies breached the Gothic line in two locations in Emilia Romagna, the Adriatic, and the central Apennine fronts. This breach was known as Operation Olive, or The Battle of Rimini. Over a million soldiers participated, making it the

Any traveler, veteran, or rookie knows a certain point in all vacations when you wind up too tired (and likely hungover) to do all the vacation plans you may have made. It’s hard work having so much fun, and everyone eventually hits their limits after a few days of rushing from restaurant to bar to club to museum to attraction. Fortunately, an intelligent traveler such as myself plans and chooses a base of operations like the Westin Playa Bonita where you can experience all the luxury and relaxation and fun that your chosen destination offers without even leaving the grounds. This was the case for me halfway through my adventures in Panama when I woke up in my Westin Playa Bonita ocean-view suite, weary from the previous day’s travels, and decided that, like Bruno Mars, today I wasn’t going to do anything. And I was going to do nothing in the most fantastic way possible.