John Knowles: I've had a request for a mariachi band, and we asked Mama Mexico to create a night of experience in the room and suite. Many have asked for Broadway tickets and TKTS and concierge services.

Don't forget to leave a comment below to win one of THREE Roger's Bills worth $100 towards your stay at the hotel. Winners will be picked by April 15th. 

If you need a little sun and relaxation after the long winter, and also a spot that will have activities for the whole family, consider the Sandpiper Bay of Club Med for your Florida vacation. Florida has always been a popular destination for vacationers, and is considered a top ten vacation by US travelers, according to the Travel Channel. Sandpiper Bay will impress even the experienced Florida traveler with its beautiful sandy beaches and excellent ocean views. Sandpiper Bay offers a little something for everyone, ranging from relaxing accommodations to gourmet dining to daily excursions without you having to worry about a passport.

Recreation

One of the many reasons why guests are drawn to Sandpiper Bay is the resort’s ability to be tranquil when they need some rest or a hotbed for fun in the sun, when they’re ready to get out there and play. At Sandpiper Bay, guests will always find a plethora of activities ready for them to partake in whenever they desire. There is an activity for everyone to enjoy, and at any time, guests may enjoy recreational activities ranging from tennis to water activities to yoga for no additional charge.

Excursions

If at any time during their vacation guests are feeling a little adventurous, they can easily book a daily excursion through the hotel. The resort provides excursions for every age range, and even caters certain trips to individuals, couples, and families. Sunset cruises, jetski tours, and deep sea fishing are just a few of the daily excursions offered by Sandpiper Bay, and all are available for minimal additional fees.

Rest and Relaxation

For those who are choosing to simply indulge in some much needed rest and relaxation during their vacation, they may want to consider paying a visit to Sandpiper Bay’s spa and wellness center. Sandpiper Bay understands the importance of inner well-being, and offers a variety of spa treatments and services to ensure all guests are able to feel their best. At the center, guests may enjoy massages, facials, and even consultations with the resort full-time nutritionist or personal trainers for a minimal additional cost.

A Florida vacation is a great way to take a break from the daily grind of real life, and what better way to spend your vacation in a resort that caters to your unique travel needs. Guests have everything they wish to make their vacation enjoyable at their fingertips when they stay at Sandpiper Bay, and are able to enjoy it all for a reasonable cost.

Note: this is a Sponsored Post

The most surprising — and addicting part — of my Aruba trip has always been the Butterfly Farm (this should come as no surprise to my readers that I am enamored with winged creatures).

The Butterfly Farm is for the kid in all of us; it's like taking a first grade field trip but the learning curve is what you make of it. It's situated directly opposite the Divi Phoenix Resort, and is a lush oasis filled to the brim with every bright specimen available. The fluttering residents hail from over 50 countries — as far flung as Indonesia — and call every tree, fern, leaf and bark their home.

Below, is the M. menelaus, or Blue Morpho, which hails from Brazil. The smoky fringe, and the meandering yet perfectly veined butterfly is a particular favorite of mine.

The unforgettable Monarch butterfly below is painter-perfect, with elegant curves and dappled edges. Its dots remind me of young deer, and its bright, almost tabby cat orange is a favorite shade. I just fell in love with this graceful pose.

The Scarlett butterfly is evasive: we almost played a game of ping pong with it. Finally, it sought a cool, leafy resting place.

I had purchased a special Butterfly dress in honor of the occasion.

Although the Butterfly Farm is small, it feels like the Amazonian rainforest. There are trellised pathways, trees, a boisterous and clattering stream, and park benches that are meant for contemplation. It's the zen zone of Aruba, perfect for a midday yoga session.

The Farm offers a tour to every visitor. You'll be guided every inch of the space and you can ask any and all questions about the species. If you're eager, dip your finger (or hand) into the nectar-laden fruit to attract the butterflies at close quarters.

Below, myself and Tanya, who mans the front desk. Tanya got married in the Butterfly Farm…I only wished I could see her pictures.

Quite surprisingly, the butterflies thought my dress butterflies were flowers in and of themselves, and tried to sip nectar from the silk chiffon! It was such a joyous moment for me because I felt the splurge (the dress) had been worth it.

Matthew was enamored as well…

This is the underside of the Blue Morpho. All I did was dip my finger into the nectar and it landed at such close quarters. A true Alice in Wonderland moment.

- Charu Suri

I remember how everyone was telling me to log on to Twitter three years ago. I was hesitant because I have enough ADD to deal with on a regular basis (magazines, television, phone calls, events, travel trips, blogs) that one more distraction was more nerve-racking than exciting.

Having successfully created my Twitter profile at the end of 2008, I am now loving the entire experience, with a few caveats. I'm well aware of the Twitter explosion (everyone and their grandmother is now on Twitter) and the way brands are working their publicity magic. Now Twitter is a platform where I log on to a lot for contests, meeting travel bloggers and industry movers and shakers, and following important travel news.

The Good

1. The Valuable Connection: Twitter is a tried and true platform for meeting industry-relevant folks. Over the past few months, I have been so fortunate to meet and connect with some outstanding tweeps whose adventures I follow closely. More than that, I live vicariously through their intrepid posts. The list is too long to detail, but I thank Twitter (and my obsession with social media) for friends I've come to love and cherish. As Yeats rightly said, "Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends."

2. Brand Awareness: If you spend enough time on Twitter, you'll appreciate how many brands you can now interact with. As a consumer in the 1980's and 1990's, this type of tete-a-tete with household names was virtually impossible. Now, you can not only interact with brands, you can also have candid chats with them and influence them to practice better business.

A side perk: brands are increasingly willing to hold giveaways on Twitter with the hopes of promoting their business. For example, I won a round trip ticket from  Jet Blue  last April while the airlines was celebrating their 10th Anniversary, and recently used it on a trip to Aruba.  Recent contests I have entered (in the vain hopes of winning) include "Tweet your Way to Turkey" and "Lufthansa's A380" inaugural flight. When my friends asked me how I had heard of these opportunities, I steer them towards Twitter.

Thomas Friedman, in his book, "The World is Flat," was describing exactly what I believe to be the Twitter experience when he wrote, "Clearly, it is now possible for more people now than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the  the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world." Granted, he also wrote what may also well be the longest sentence in the English language. But the point here is that Twitter –if used wisely– is is a magnet for relevant human thoughts and shared experiences.

3. Economy of Words: As a life-long admirer and writer of poetry, I love the way Twitter forces you to economize your thoughts into words. The naturally long-winded narrative is sometimes rudely and abruptly chopped, but since brevity is the soul of wit, there's a lot of wit on Twitter. I truly believe that if used smartly, Twitter can end up making better writers out of us. Of course, James Joyce may not agree.

4. Chronicling the Real-Time Experience: There's no question: you're stuck in a never-ending line at the airport, or can't get on a flight. Twitter is a great tool to publicize your journey. You've spotted a Blue Morpho: twitpic it to your followers. Your readers (myself included) will thank you. There's no platform that allows you to give such candid experiences in real time as Twitter. For the travel writer, this is the gift that keeps on giving.

5. SEO: As more search engines are starting to categorize and organize Twitter feeds, it pays to vocalize your content and thoughts on Twitter. After all, it's an additional social media platform that will give your page more clicks and views– what's not to love?

The Bad

1. The Deulge: As in the case with any new platform, there are users who have no idea how to leverage the platform. Myself included, of course. I see so much each nanosecond on Twitter than I'm apt to turn it off like I would a dull television program or commercial, but the show goes on regardless.

In the realm of travel blogging, one of my pet peeves is the flood of posts that Twitter inevitably brings. I am well aware that by having a Twitter profile, I agreed to the deluge. But I wish I had been given a Noah's Ark to deal with the flood. My brain just cannot process the ten million itineraries, photos and conversations that are simply happening on Twitter at any given moment. And I've given up trying.

In one second, for instance, I'll see Twitter headlines like:

Click HERE to enter this awesome contest and win a lifetime's supply of Mac & Cheese…

Top 10 Most Awesomest Places to Visit in the World…click here, it's AWESOME…

to

Best Photos EVER…for all travelers…EVER. Click HERE.

It is at this point that my brain shuts down. It cannot process the connection between the Mac & Cheese to the Most Awesomest places to visit and the photos. I often feel like a jigsaw puzzle when I log on to Twitter, and all the pieces are scattered widely, in any direction. While I am certainly grateful for all the information, Twitter does not always help my memory and focus. In fact, it UNFOCUSES me, rather than the opposite.

In such instances, I just glean relevant bits of information, and only click on the headlines that appeal to me. And immediately log off so I can focus on the task at hand. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the bits and bobs of information I've learned from the few minutes I spent on Twitter.

The Ugly

On many an occasion, my work output has equaled zero. Zilch. Nada. All thanks to Twitter. It's happened far too many times to count, and I've ended up realizing I'm the sort of Twitter user who can only afford to log on to Twitter at prescribed hours, doing planned tasks (such as catching up on feeds and replying/ commenting) and then shutting it OFF. As a freelance writer, I depend so much on my thoughts and stream of consciousness to produce solid content and relevant material. I know for certain that I cannot become the writer I would like to be by logging on to Twitter every few seconds. It can work for others, but certainly not me.

***

As a travel blogger, I love the way Twitter gives me a platform to interact with others, and also to put out my content and share it with others. Note that this is a two-way street: no one just wants to hear about you all the time. You need to give as much as you take from Twitter to have the best outcome.

But when I travel, I often schedule my tweets and catch up on responses at the end of the day, and just tweet my experiences in real time. It's so easy to feel guilty into thinking "you must Tweet your experience at every single moment during every single day," but the truth of the matter is, I look for really credible and informative experiences. For instance, I certainly don't need to know if you're eating three meals a day in Dublin or Belfast, but I would love to know if you've managed to stay within your budget during your trip and how you did it. Details are so important, but the nature of the details — even more so.

If you're on Twitter, I would love to know more about you, and even if I don't reply immediately, please note I value the discussions — very much. Finding a right balance between writing, promoting and interacting is all too important now — and I'd love to learn if you have a methodology for efficiently using Twitter as a travel blogger.

- Charu Suri

This is one of my all -time favorite shots. It happened quite serendipitously, while we were sipping water and mojitos at Divi Phoenix Resorts on Palm Beach, at the Pure Beach restaurant. It was a warm day, with seagulls shrieking above the ocean studded with swimmers and snorklers alike. Pure Beach was very relaxed; on one side of the restaurant, a swim-up bar. On the other side, large wicker tables and chairs covered with white table cloths and pristine, pressed napkins.

Tourists from all over the world relax at Pure Beach, to sip drinks, look at sports action on the television, and to indulge in happy hour music. As I sipped the refreshing mojito dancing with fresh mint leaves, I spied the beach cabanas and the curvaceous coconut trees: inverted and refracted through our glass of water.

A Jay Maisel moment here (in case you don't know the photo I am referring to, click here).

What do you think?

Photo protected by copyright. All uses of this photo must be attributed to Matthew Minucci, Butterflydiary.com

- Charu Suri

My Aruba series continues, and I jumped the gun a little when I posted pictures of flamingos on Renaissance Island. Of course, those gorgeous birds, with their photogenic S-shaped necks deserve the spotlight in and of themselves, but first let's start at the very beginning, shall we?

As you probably know, this was my third trip to Aruba. My husband Matt and I felt that we had been visiting the island forever, so we actually thought it was our FOURTH trip, but we calculated and found out that we had only been there two other times. I'm guessing that when you replay so many of the cherished memories in your mind, over and over again, time freezes. You feel as though you're a native, and you've been coming to that destination forever.

Well, the evening before our flight (which departed at 6:30am from JFK), I didn't sleep. I was catching up on all sorts of deliverables for the following day, and I figured I would simply sleep on the 4.5 hour plane journey to Aruba.

As soon as we landed, I could almost taste the salt in the air. The Aruba airport is shoebox small but so charming, and everyone seems to be smiling. I've always noticed that about the Caribbean. It doesn't matter if the locals make five cents a day or five hundred dollars a day…they always have a smile on their faces.

So, we typically never splurge on taxis if we can help it, but our luggage felt as though it was packed with heavy, Medieval-style stones, so we went straight to our hotel, the Renaissance Aruba. There we found our delicious room with a view:

I particularly loved the view that day: after having come from a bitterly cold, almost Ice Hotel worthy climate, it was refreshing to see a cruise ship the size of Texas outside the window.Hunger pangs, however, needed to be satisfied, and we saw a tapas place outside our hotel room in Oranjestad, and had delicious pizza and Spanish wine for lunch. We cannot fail to mention the Aruba Spicy Olive Oil that made its way to our table (I had never before equated Aruba with "spicy" oil, so this was a neat surprise for me:

After lunch, we went to the pier and took the boat to Renaissance Island, because we were so badly in need of a BEACH:

We waved goodbye to our lovely hotel:

Until it became a speck in the distance:

At Renaissance Island, I finally felt free and alive. My face broke into a smile. During the winter in New York, it was extraordinarily hard for me to be happy, even though I had invested in a new Land's End down jacket and endless cashmere sweaters. I felt extremely unnatural to consistently be layered in sweater after sweater.

Matthew was finally in his own personal heaven as well:

We took in the blissful hammocks, the seagulls dotting the horizon, the liberating colors of the Caribbean, and the Kokomo-style beaches. Every time I see the beach I think of the Beach Boys…

Finally, we ended the day by taking in a brilliant sunset that was tinged with gold, yellow and grays:

Our first day in Aruba and we finally felt alive, with sand in between our toes, bathing in bath water and appreciating the graceful sway of coconut trees. We were home.