The Calendar of Events shows daily activities month by month. Before booking your air, check the calendar. You might find something of interest and want to come a day earlier or stay a day later to enjoy it.

Mexico City's El Presidente Hotel has 7 restaurants! The Mexican restaurant is wonderful, really delicious food. The hotel rooms are ample and the new GM is working on consistency of service details.

Habitat Hotel Monterrey: Amazing staff, personal service is above and beyond. Henry, from the front desk, walked me through my class in how to use all the lights in the room (which really does require a class with notes) arranged for every request and executed it perfectly. The 8th floor is the top and has an amazing bar with 360 degree views of Monterrey with the twinkling lights of the city and views of the mountains. There is a bar pool, and the manager of the bar greets everyone personally. It's a great property if you want sleek design and very hip, private club atmosphere. More amazing is the music at the bar. It's contemporary but played at a relaxing level so everyone can chat and hear each other -- a huge difference from the NYC bars where no one can hear each other.

Paris's influence on Washington DC is immediate with gorgeous architecture and the ability to see the sky because the building heights are low compared with New York and Chicago.

My first night was at the Georgetown Ritz Carlton, a contemporary looking property, small yet set in a great location to walk the Georgetown neighborhood. Nelya is a Lebanese restaurant that is really delicious and a perfect stop before an evening of jazz at Blues Alley.

The second night was spent at the historic Hay Adams, with rooms that overlook the tree tops to view the White House starting from the 6th floor and up. It's a charming property, beautifully appointed guest rooms with a true residential feeling. One look at a suite was all I needed to bring a toothbrush and feel at home. It's the first hotel that I have stayed in that has great lighting so you can read in bed. The bathrooms are renovated with pedestal sinks, so counter space for items is challenging. A small spray bottle of Molton Brown's relaxing "yuan zhi sleep mist" was on the pillow when I returned to the room. What a lovely touch. Wish that both the Ritz and Hay Adams had coffee pots in the rooms so everyone could make coffee when they wake up and not have to figure out ahead of time when to have it delivered or call for room service. The Ritz touch of delivering a complimentary pot of coffee in the morning and leaving it outside the door is not an option at the Georgetown property. It’s $11.++ to have it delivered.

Nice little touches at the Hay Adams included: outlets in the desk, lighting everywhere, dimmer switch in bathroom, dark chocolates rather than milk chocolate. Complimentary water, use of hotel car in the morning, etc.

The U shaped hotel has rooms facing a courtyard which are best for light sleepers, side street view and White House views are nicer, but noisier so book accordingly. Breakfast was really delicious with homemade corned beef hash and perfectly cooked poached eggs. Seems simple to request eggs cooked to order, but most chefs simply don’t know how to poach an egg medium well. The chef at the Hay Adams could hold classes and frankly wish they would.

In LA, I stayed at The London. This is a surprisingly comfortable and very nicely appointed property. The staff was really great once you explained what you wanted. Beware that although their welcome says “all suite hotel”, the rooms really are junior suites with few having partitions that can separate the living room from the bedroom. The bathrooms are amazing with fabulous lighting, beautiful tiles and great vanity mirrors. In fact, I bought one of the mirrors and sent it home! The bathroom lights sense when you enter the room at night and light up to the point on the dimmer switch where you have set it. There are coffee pots in the room, Complimentary muffins, coffee, tea and fruit are on the roof top area in the fitness center. They really need more than three treadmills to avoid lines in the morning waiting to get on them so be prepared to wait.

Airport awareness: Every trip back to New York has been plagued with delays. It’s usually weather related, but a runway under construction at JFK delayed take off for three hours from LA on Friday night. Weather delayed my 50 minute flight from Newport News, VA into LGA by 7 hours! Seems impossible, but I could have been in London in less time.

Please note that since many corporations are requiring their employees to take taxis rather than transfers, the wait time on the taxi line is now running around 45 minutes so allow time or call us to book the transfer as part of your package at 212-370-1319.