This month’s leisure issue considers how to schedule a meeting with yourself. And just as important, where to go when you need to get away.

It’s almost June and time to start planning your summer vacation. But what to do-that is always the dilemma. I plan, pack and get on a plane every week of the year for business, so deciding how and where to travel for a purpose other than achieving a corporate goal is a challenge. I want something very different.

One of my most memorable vacations was spent working in an orphanage about two hours outside of Bucharest, Romania. Our duties as volunteers were very simple: feed and play with the children each day. The experience is one I will never forget. I can see and hear those children, even now, five years later.

In this issue, we explore leisure through the lens of the business traveler. As people who are constantly in the air and in hotels, our take on rest and relaxation is quite different from those who rarely get away. There are many options: Accessible or unplugged? Decadent or healthy? Lazy or educational? In our cover story, “Just the Ticket,” we sort out the many choices.

We also look at a surprisingly common career phenomenon: people who leave respectable-and often highly paid-jobs to turn leisure pursuits into businesses. Career rule #1 is to love what you do, right? So, it’s not surprising that hobbies can become money-making enterprises. Check out “Labor of Love” to learn more about the joys and pitfalls experienced by some successful entrepreneurs who have followed this path.
On our destination agenda this month are Denver (“A Higher Altitude”) and Rome (“When in Rome”). For both cities, we give you the insider’s scoop on where to stay, where to entertain clients, where to eat and what to see-all from the perspective of a business traveler. Finally, a visit to a dude ranch (“Hey Dude”) may be just what you need for your own getaway this year.

Whether you opt for a beach experience at Caneel Bay or lessons at the Land Rover Driving School in Quebec, know that there are lots of vacation options that will make getting on a plane this time far different than your everyday business trip. Have a great vacation.

En route

Thoughts on a couple of my business travel experiences this month.

Four Seasons Aviara

San Diego, California
Over the years, my experience with concierges has been lukewarm at best. But my stay at the Four Seasons Aviara in San Diego showed me the impact a responsive, efficient and cheerful concierge team can add to the overall hotel stay. This staff was able to have repairs done on a dinner outfit in record time, pack and ship home 30 pounds of paperwork and three bottles of wine (in less than three minutes) and find a surfing instructor who got all of us novices standing (sort of) on the board. Cowabunga and thanks to the concierge team at the Four Seasons Aviara!

My BlackBerry

Los Angeles, California
It finally happened. While juggling too much stuff getting out of the rental car, I dropped my BlackBerry and cracked the screen. The enormity of this catastrophe hit me immediately: No more phone, email, calendar, address book, alarm clock, access to eSkyGuide flight schedules, notes and to-do lists. I felt cut off not only from my own life, but from the rest of the world. What did we do in the “olden days”?


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