• American Express Persona Magazine: “West of Key West ”
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Globetrotting – Cuba”

Bahamas - Served a two-year term on the tourist advisory board and helped develop an effective airport plan, plus gained friendships with some great Bahamian people.

Barbados - Met with the Minister of Tourism to plan a series of incentive travel groups, which resulted in over 8,000 people visiting the island in a 2-year period. At Sam Lord’s Castle, a plantation great house, golfed, body-surfed and wind-surfed, then operated a travel program for a group of 250 stockbrokers.

Cuba - Sat in Ernest Hemmingway’s bar seat in old Havana (there must be ten of them), and swayed to the pulsing Cuban music at the posh resort at Varadero Beach Resort. Secretly slipped into the southern city of Santiago de Cuba, to see Spanish fortresses and the U.S. base in Guantanamo from the Cuban side.

Dominica - On this provincial island, absorbed the culture of the people who carried bananas on their backs for two days to sell at the local boat dock. Hiked through rainforests filled with enormous endemic frogs and talked with some of the few remaining Carib Indians.

Dominican Republic - Watched a knife fight in the Santo Domingo Hotel, but undaunted, danced the night away with the pulsing meringue rhythms.

Grand Turk - Putted around on a motor-scooter for three days and departed from the island on one of the very last PanAm flights.

Haiti - Came ashore with a large cruise group and mounted under-fed donkeys for the dusty two-hour climb to the immense Citadel Laferriere, built by Haiti first emperor Henri Christophe.

Jamaica - Climbed Dunn’s River Falls with my family and shared travel stories in Kingston with the local historians.

Martinique - During a four-hour strenuous climb with a fellow travel director, reached the summit of the infamous Mt. Pelee, then lost directions in the deep fog and almost fell a thousand feet into the crater. Gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to the General Manager of the Hilton Hotel and brought him back to life. As a first timer, swam nude on a public French beach.

Puerto Rico - In my single years, had a wild fling and romance, accompanied by tropical drinks from El Morro fortress to the El Yunque Rain Forest. Later in life, at a travel meeting, coaxed Travel Chairman Arthur Tauck, of Tauck Discoveries, to be a contributing writer for my book “Champions of Travel”

St. Barts - Developed a case of white knuckle flying after landing on the tiny airport sliced out of the side of a mountain.

St. Kitts - Walked through sugar cane fields and ran to the top of Brimstone Fortress, the great bastion of the British Caribbean.

St. Martin - Experienced the lifestyle of the rich and famous on the Dutch-French Island, then with more fear than danger, was bitten by a four-foot shark on a deserted out-Island.

Trinidad - At sunset in Port-of-Spain, enjoyed a front row seat at a formal concert of a 40-piece steel band.

US Virgin Islands - Sailed on a windjammer through azure blue waters, later brought thousands of tourists aboard cruise ships to the St. Thomas duty-free shopping frenzy. Lost a $5,000 group deposit when Mahogany Run Golf Course went bankrupt.

Ascension Island - With special permission from the governor general, flew on a military charter with the British Royal Marines to this remote isle, with moonlike terrain. Spent the morning playing a sand and rock golf course (the worst in the world) in the afternoon climbed Green Mountain, and that evening drank beer with GI’s at their top-secret communications base.

Azores - In the little known Portuguese Island, visited an amazing botanical garden complete with endemic trees, lakes and hot thermal mud pots.

Bermuda - Walked between the quaint Moon Gates sporting my Bermuda shorts, golfed at Port Royal overlooking the turquoise bay, and escorted a Shell Oil group to a “dine-around”, while falling in love with this cupcake island.

Greenland - Near the Ice Fjords of Disko Bay, joined travel agents from Spain for a three-hour boat trip and, like the S.S. Minnow of Gilligan’s Island fame, got caught in a horrific squall with capsizing waves; the captain found refuge between huge icebergs, and, with local fisherman, we rode out the storm.

Iceland - In the capital city of Reykjavik, got drunk with a buddy on non-alcoholic beer; maybe we were just a little tired from the jet lag! Thirty years later, visited Iceland, exploring the geysers, lava fields and tectonic plates; then stripped down to a bathing suit and swam in the steamy waters of the Blue Lagoon with temperatures below 20 degrees.

Madeira - On third visit to Madeira, the island of flowers and mountain vistas, encountered an Atlantic storm and landed on the petite mountainside runway, a death defying air experience.

St. Helena - Cruised into the seldom-visited port to visit Napoleon’s home in exile at Longwood and his original burial site. Joined the police commissioner and Island communications director for a sporting game of golf overlooking the deep flax valleys.

Tristan de Cunha - Warned by the ship’s captain that bad weather usually prevents landing, we found calm seas and came ashore on an island with a population of 210 (the most remote inhabited island in the world); played 9 holes of golf in a cow pasture and beat the Director General by one stroke, then sailed eight monotonous days for my only Atlantic ship crossing to South Georgia Island. A passenger encountered a medical emergency, requiring our ship to alert the British Navy, which in turn, made a dramatic sea helicopter gunship rescue of a critically ill patient. “Hail Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”.