Where to go, and when · with the homework done
NEGRIL · KNOW BEFORE YOU GO · EXPERIENCE, NOT PAPERWORK Ask a Negril hotel where it is and you get a position rather than an address: north end, past the roundabout, up by the lighthouse. There is no square, no old town, no grid to get lost in. One road runs behind the sand, another … Read more
MADEIRA · DAY TRIPS · FROM FUNCHAL You are on the island already, the car keys are in your pocket, and the only question left is what a single day buys. Madeira answers in fees and clock times: a ridge crossing with a price per head, a north-coast pool complex that costs less than a … Read more
MADEIRA · WHERE TO STAY · THE BASES COMPARED You have picked Madeira. What is left is a bed, and on an island this steep a bed is a timetable. Funchal holds most of the rooms, the wine lodge on Avenida Arriaga and the base station of the cable car; everything else is a drive … Read more
FLORIDA · NOVEMBER · 24.5° N TO 30.5° N Florida in November is not one forecast but six. On the 15th of the month the sun sets at 5:30 p.m. over St. Augustine and at 5:41 p.m. in Key West, and between those two towns the average November night differs by nearly 21 degrees Fahrenheit. … Read more
FLORIDA · SEPTEMBER · WET SEASON September in Florida is one month with six different thermometers. On paper the days look uniform: Tampa’s normal high is 90.2°F, St. Augustine’s 87.2°F, close enough to sound like a single state. Then look at the nights. Key West holds 79.2°F while St. Augustine drops to 70.5°F, and the … Read more
FLORIDA · DECEMBER · DRY SEASON Key West spends December with an average low of 68.3°F, which is bath-warm by any northern standard. The NOAA gauge at Jacksonville International, the station that stands in for St. Augustine, averages a low of 45.8°F and logs 3.6 nights at or below freezing. Both readings describe the same … Read more
