Tips & Trips

By ANTHONY GRANT | July 8, 2005

HOTELS

Hospitality giant Starwood Hotels & Resorts is offering a variety of summer specials at its 18 Florida and Caribbean properties. Through May 31, 2006, the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort - which will be closing for good on June 1, 2006 to make way for the new St. Regis Residences - is offering complimentary breakfast for two and a $50 resort credit to guests. In celebration of its one-year anniversary, the Atlantic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is offering rates from $209 a night plus a chilled bottle of champagne through September 30. At the Sheraton Cypress Creek in Fort Lauderdale, there's an "Escape to the Movies" package through September 30; guests who book it can enjoy two movie passes and suite accommodations for $99 a night. Other Starwood properties with special rates or packages include the Westin Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, the Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport, and the Westin and Sheraton at Our Lucaya Beach & Golf Resort on Grand Bahama Island.

For more information on these and other summer specials, call 866-716-8108 or visit www.spg.com/florida.

CHARLESTON

When it opens on Saturday, July 16, the Charleston Ravenel Bridge will become North America's longest cable-stayed bridge, spanning 1,546 feet across the Cooper River and connecting Charleston and Mount Pleasant, S.C. A celebration that day will include a gala fireworks display, walking tours across the bridge before it opens to vehicular traffic, and a concert featuring Kool & the Gang. Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina has created a Concert Celebration Package for the event. For $500 a night, double occupancy, guests receive deluxe accommodations, two concert tickets, waterfront fireworks viewing, a limited edition commemorative print illustrating the Ravenel Bridge celebration, and breakfast for two. The resort is across the harbor from downtown Charleston and includes a full-service marina and 18-hole golf course.

For more information, call 888-856-0028 or visit www.charlestonharborresort.com.

ITALIAN SPA

Not everyone goes to Italy to gorge on pasta and art. Some travelers go to luxuriate at Tuscan spas such as the Terme di Saturnia, the centerpiece of which is a 3,000-year-old thermal pool. The spa is now offering a last-minute deal that includes seven nights in a junior suite, daily breakfast and lunch, one "Mukha Bliss" treatment (an Ayurvedic face massage), daily use of the thermal pools and New Roman Bath House, a daily guided morning hike, and more. The package price starts at about $1,160 a person for a double room and is valid only through July 31.

For more information, call 011-39-5646-00111 or visit www.termedisaturnia.com.