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LONG HAILED AS THE EPICENTER OF MEXICO’S distincive mariachi music, Guadalajara has steadily grown more diverse, as its many fine musical venues have branched out from the city’s time-honored traditional crooning.
Sure, mariachis still rule the city’s outdoor music scene at El Parian, a cantina in the Tlaquepaque neighborhood. Restaurants and bars surround the popular gathering place, a perfect spot to sip tequila and munch on a snack, or botana, while groups of musicians clad in beautiful multicolored costumes wander from table to table offering songs bartered individually or in a set. Closer to downtown, Casa Bariachi is a vibrant, traditional mariachi venue, where locals and tourists crowd together at small tables.
However, as Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara has no shortage of savvy young music fans looking for sounds that go beyond mariachi’s brass and mournful lyrics. They gather at the Foro Alterno, where soaring guitar riffs from national acts like Café Tacuba and international performers like the White Stripes attract swaying and nodding alternative rock fans. Meanwhile, in sleek clubs like Equinoxio, chic 20- and 30-somethings groove to international dance tracks and Mexican pop tunes spun by DJs, as strobe and laser lights bounce off the walls.
Still, while most of Guadalajara’s younger set opts for the city’s rock and pop offerings, middle-aged vaqueros, or cowboys, mix freely with college students at Gran Mexicano, where another style of Mexican music, banda, can beheard. Typically made up of more than 15 members — many of them horn players — most banda groups hail from the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, 400 miles up the coast from Guadalajara.
That this classic Mexican style has become in vogue with young people is good news for the banda hall. Gran Mexicano features an enormous stage that accommodates Mexico’s biggest banda acts and an enviable sound system that blasts dancers and listeners with a heavy, brassy wall of bold, beautiful sound.
— Eliza Barclay
QUEBEC
sheets of ice
 THE FLEETING BEAUTY OF SNOWFLAKES is always a disappointment for coldweather fans, but as the Ice Hotel Quebec–Canada prepares to open for another year, there is reason to let out a chilly cheer. Each of the last five winters, this cathedral-style hotel has been sculpted out of 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice, with 18-foot high ceilings and furniture cut from — you guessed it — ice. For a building that lasts only from January to April, the hotel offers a number of remarkable amenities. A fiber-optic chandelier hangs in the massive lobby (known as the Grand Hall); hot Jacuzzis defy the laws of thermodynamics; a cinema shows cool films; and functional fireplaces somehow survive in this crystal palace. In addition, the building offers a chapel, an Absolut Vodka ice bar, and a Scandinavian-style relaxation space. We’re not sure what that means exactly, but we’re guessing that it’s pretty cool.
— John Patrick Pullen
FORT LAUDERDALE
it’s a wrap!
Call it mummy mania. At the Trina Restaurant and Lounge, inside Fort Lauderdale’s The Atlantic hotel, master mixologist Nick Mautone mixes a “Tutini,” a mysterious-looking drink he’s concocted in honor of the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale’s exhibit Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, which runs from mid-December through April.
 The Tutini is part of the hotel’s Live Like a King package, which also includes a Mummy Wrap spa treatment (made goddess-worthy by rosemary, lavender water, and a frankincense-infused massage oil). In addition, Trina chef Don Pintabona, formerly of the Tribeca Grill, has created a Pharaoh’s Feast menu, blending ingredients and dishes from all around the Mediterranean. The Boy King would no doubt be pleased, if a little baffled, by all the fuss. starwoodhotels.com/luxury; moafl.org
— Nancy Bevilagua
OAXACA
for the festival
December in Oaxaca is essentially one long fiesta — full of parades, music, carnivals, and fireworks — and the Mexican city’s denizens glad
December in Oaxaca is essentially one long fiesta — full of parades, music, carnivals, and fireworks — and the Mexican city’s denizens gladly welcome travelers to participate in all events, religious and secular alike. Observe a posada, a traditional neighborhood nativity play with production values that would make Mel Gibson jealous. And Night of the Radishes is not a 1950s horror flick, but a competition in which contestants craft elaborate sculptures out of gigantic, specially grown radishes. Sculpture aside, Oaxaca’s food and drink are renowned throughout all of Mexico, especially its ice cream and sidra, a carbonated hard cider used to toast the New Year at month’s end.
— Kyle Hornyak
CHATTANOOGA
all business
Boasting 202 guest rooms and 25,000 square feet of technologically advanced meeting rooms, the Chattanoogan Hotel claims that it can accommodate every business need. The Complete Meeting and Day Meeting packages are all-inclusive assets, providing the services of a conference planning manager and a conference concierge, as well as continuous refreshments to fuel the brainstorming at any meeting. The Chattanoogan can provide a breath of fresh air by arranging for groups to have waterfront meetings along the city’s 21st Century Waterfront Plan, a 129-acre development along the Tennessee River that includes parks, walking paths, the Tennessee Aquarium, and the Hunter Museum of American Art. But let’s face it — deals are struck on the golf course and at the conference table. So the nearby Jack Nicklaus–designed Bear Trace course comes in handy too. And after all those grueling strolls and hard-fought holes, the hotel’s spa can help even the hardest worker relax. chattanooganhotel.com
— Carrie Frederick
ALBUQUERQUE
the natives are restful
 If the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa is any indication, the people of the Santa Ana Pueblo, who call themselves the Tamayame, have weathered their tumultuous thousand-year history well. Sitting on the 500 acres of tribal land known as Tamaya, just north of Albuquerque, the resort offers guests Hyatt-style luxury suffused with authentic Native American culture and also provides the local native people a way to protect and promote their way of life. Against the backdrop of the Sandia Mountains and traditional pueblo architecture, children can learn traditional bread-baking, Native American games, and weaving at Camp Hyatt, while adults can experience treatments using native herbs and healing techniques at the Tamaya Mist Spa. At the adobe-style restaurant Corn Maiden, the Native American and Mexican flavors of New Mexico are combined in unexpected ways. For the Tamayame and their guests, it’s clearly a win-win situation. tamaya.hyatt.com
— N.B.
LAS VEGAS
wheels, shoots, and scores
 All too often, “team-building” exercises involve being led around a room dizzy and blindfolded, forced to navigate around strangers and unfamiliar furniture. But at Ritz-Carlton’s
Lake Las Vegas Resort, Segway Polo shakes it up while keeping business travelers on steady footing. Using Segway Human Transporters and foam polo equipment, players can smash their peers who smashed their sales in the last quarter. Teams of four to 12 players square off in a battle of speed and agility and are encouraged to supply their own cheerleaders (and hecklers). Once victory is secured, the five-star hotel’s luxury suites, 30,000-foot spa and fitness center, and two championship golf courses are perfect for postgame relaxation. And perhaps best of all, Segway polo is one of the few raucous stories that can you can bring home from Vegas. ritzcarlton.com
— K.H.
PANAMA CITY
birdie putt
It’s not unusual to sink a hole-in-one while marveling at a statue of the Great Colossus, right after cursing the dreaded sand traps alongside the pyramids — if you’re playing miniature golf, that is. But at the Tucan Country Club and Resort, you can tee it up for real alongside a legitimate wonder of the world. Situated right outside beautiful Panama City, the 180-acre gated community offers world-class golf, two outdoor tennis courts, and a state-of-the-art gymnasium with a full-service spa, all just minutes from some of the Pacific Ocean’s most luxurious beaches. So before you tee off between Panama’s tropical rainforest and the “eighth wonder of the world,” the Panama Canal, pack your bathing suit and your Big Bertha. You’re going to need more than just your putter this time around. tucancountryclub.com
— K.H.
LONDON
full of holiday cheer
 The holidays really put a charge into already merry old England. Take the Red Carnation Hotel Group’s “It’s a Wonderful Life at Christmas” package, for instance. Available at two five-star London properties, The Milestone Hotel and 41, until January 8, the deal is sprinkled with holiday cheer: a full English breakfast every day, tea for two and Christmas cake one day, an It’s a Wonderful Life DVD, and a stocking hung on Christmas Eve guests’ doorknobs, to name a few. Santas who spring for a suite will find a Christmas tree in their lounge and a butler to cater to their every whim. In the evening, dinner for two, including mince pies and a bottle of wine, rounds out the cozy holiday treat. redcarnationhotels.com
— C.F.
HAMBURG
oh tannenbaum
In the weeks before the Christmas holiday, there may be no place better than the squares of snowy Hamburg to find a unique holiday gift. Home to more than 150 merchants selling everything from roasted almonds and chestnuts to traditional arts and crafts, the harbor city’s decorated markets, Rathausmarkt,
Gerhardt-Hauptmann-Platz, and Gänsemarkt, instill a holiday spirit like no other place in the world. Sample some glühwein, hot mulled wine, while watching the storytellers and jugglers. Or stop by the Mönckebergbrunnen to see 10,000 candles lighting a 60-foot Christmas tree. Also, each evening at 6, the famous Alsterspatzen choir serenades the city. After a day meandering through these historic markets, an old-fashioned carol is a perfect ending.
— C.F.
Click here for Go Explore/In the Hubs.
Getting There: All the destinations covered in the “Go Explore” section can be reached by flying Continental Airlines. To book your vacation to these and other destinations, visit Continental Airlines Vacations at covacations.com.
Photographs by: Daniel Pepper (Guadalajara); Layne Kennedy (Quebec); The Museum
of Fine Art Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale); Chattanooga Hotel (Chattanooga);
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa (Albuquerque); Ritz Carlton Las Vegas (Las
Vegas); Milestone Hotel and Apartments (London)
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