Girls Getaway Guide 
In This Issue
The Getaway Girl® in the News
Win A Girls Getaway Vacation
Upcoming Events
Submit Your Girlfriend Getaway
Visit The Getaway Girl® Online
Girls Getaway to St. Lucia
Join Our Mailing List 
 The Getaway Girl� in the News
 
Holiday Travel Tips - BetterTV
Casey on Better for Holiday
Better, a nationally syndicated lifestyle TV show, aims to make your life "better" by focusing on trends and hot topics that affect your family and relationships. The Getaway Girl talks Holiday Travel Tips with Better TV.  To watch, click on the image above.

Marvelous Mancations on Daytime TV
Mancations pic
Looking for a great place to send your guy on a mancation?  Click on the image to watch this recent Daytime TV Show travel segment with The Getaway Girl�.
 
More Magazine Online
More MagazineCasey Wohl, The Getaway Girl, tells More Magazine her "reinvention" story and how the low points in her life turned into positives.  To read the article, click on the logo above.
Win A Girls Getaway Vacation

The Girls Getaway Guide� is pleased to announce The Getaway Girl's� fourth annual "12 Days 'til Christmas" holiday promotion.  Women everywhere can visit the Girls Getaway Guide� online at www.GirlsGetawayGuide.net to sign up for nearly $8,000 in fabulous giveaways.  One winner will be selected on each of the 12 business days before Christmas, starting Dec. 7 through Dec. 23. 

12 days logo
To view the prizes and register to win, visit www.GirlsGetawayGuide.net.

Upcoming Events

December 3
Daytime TV Taping, Tampa

Dreading traveling this holiday season? Wondering what are the travel hot spots for 2011? We will tape these travel segments on Dec. 3, so stay tuned and watch Daytime TV.

December 21-29

Girls Getaway to London
There's nothing like the quintessential British getaway, and there's no better city to spend a Girls Getaway abroad for Christmas.  Just like Cameron Diaz in the movie, The Holiday, we are ready to see what the UK has in store for us this holiday season.

December 29-January 4
Girls Getaway to Dublin
Did you know that around 9,800 pints of beer are consumed each hour by Dubliners from Friday night to Monday morning?   The "luck of the Irish" and their zest for fun make Dublin the PERFECT city to celebrate the New Year!  Welcome to Dublin, ladies!

Submit Your Girlfriend Getaway Photos


This Girlfriend Getaway photo was submitted by Cathy Hayes of Lakeland, FL. 
Cathy Hayes Fashion Week
She writes: "I wanted to send you a photo from our recent trip to New York City Fashion Week! We planned this trip in a week-seriously! A week prior during a girls night out Courtney and I decided to 'crash' Fashion Week, and the planning began. Courtney had our trip mapped out right down to a detailed agenda! The trip began by attending Fashion's Night Out visiting our favorite boutiques and meeting the designers. We lucked out by getting a table at Megu on evening with NO reservations! Our favorite spot for brunch was the Mercer Hotel in Soho. We found many treasures at the Greenflea Flea Market, including Courtney's vintage mink coat! We attended the opening night of the New York City Ballet, and received VIP treatment at the popular rooftop bar at our hotel, Empire! The highlight of the trip was watching Catherine Malandrino's show on The Grand Promenade at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center."
Visit The Getaway Girl Online 

Greetings!

The Girls Getaway Guide's Fourth Annual "12 Days 'til Christmas" has begun, and travel prizes total nearly $8,000!  Enter to win at the Girls Getaway Guide website.  You could win a fabulous girlfriend getaway.  The winning starts next week, so enter today!!!

Girls Getaway to St. Lucia

As seen on ABC's The Bachelor, St Lucia is a tropical Coconut Bayisland paradise and the perfect place for an amazing getaway.  I spent Labor Day weekend at St Lucia's Coconut Bay Resort & Spa for some R&R and adventure. 

We arrived at Coconut Bay, which is a convenient five- minute drive from the Hewanorra International Airport at Vieux Fort located on the south side of the island.  We were greeted with champagne and cool towels to help us freshen up after our nearly three-hour flight from Miami.  beachA great feature about the resort are the two separate areas: 1) Harmony - for adults, couples and 2) Splash - for kids and families.  This makes the resort the perfect choice for large groups so that guests can stay at their area of choice.

After cocktails at Peter John's Lounge, we dined at the resort's Italian restaurant, Bellagio, which requires reservations and has a dress code.  Coconut Bay is an all-inclusive resort, so guests can eat and drink as much as they want. 

The next day, we were ready for our island tour and a pitonglimpse of the island's famous Pitons (St Lucia's most notable landmarks) and volcano.  Upon arriving at the world's only "drive through" volcano, we all inhaled the rotten-egg smell the volcano emits and learned a lot about this incredible formation.  We then made our way to the Diamond Botanical Gardens, Mineral Baths and Waterfall where we took photos and made comments about the names of some flowers (i.e Sexy Pink and Flamboyant Red).  Our next stop was snorkel and sail boat ride to the base of the Pitons to see St. Lucia's underwater world.  As I swam through a school of fish, I saw (for the first time ever) a sea snake right in front of me.  I promptly returned to the boat.

We arrived back at the resort in time to freshen up for dinner at a favorite restaurant of the locals - Aunt Debbie's, which serves Creole-style cuisine with only the freshest local ingredients.  If you decide to eat at Aunt Debbie's, make sure you are VERY hungry as food is served family style and is enough to feed a small army.  The side dishes are plentiful and feature something for everyone, including eggplant parmesan, sweet potato pie, fried plantain, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach, breadfruit balls and fried okra.  Main entrees include steak, fish, lobster, shrimp and lambi (anyone know what lambi is?).

The next morning started with a zipline tour at Treetop Casey zippingAdventures where everyone had a blast racing across the lush, green canopy.  Even those in our group who are afraid of heights enjoyed the adventure.  That afternoon we enjoyed some down time at the resort, which is fully equipped to help you do absolutely nothing.  If you are looking for some pool time, you can find everything from an adults-only pool to wading pool to a pool with swim up bar to a lazy river pool.  The resort also has a mini water park complete with slides, which is a huge hit with the kids.  Many thanks to Small J at the Adult Pool Bar for keeping those poolside, beach view cocktails coming to us as we soaked in some rays.
lazy river
Day #4 started with a kite surfing demonstration by Chris at 2Elements WaterSports Complex on the resort's beach.  Kite surfing has become a very popular adventure sport and St. Lucia is quickly becoming one of the best places to kite surf.  While it takes about a week to become proficient on the board, one mandatory requirement is adequate wind, which we did not have that day.  While I was disappointed my kite surfing career would not begin today, I found comfort in the lazy river. 

After enjoying some girl time on the lazy river, we had to return to our rooms and get ready for the wedding.  No, I did not get married in St. Lucia (although it is on the list of possibilities if I ever do).  Coconut Bay Resort hosts many weddings throughout the year on property that are absolutely beautiful; however, the resort found a new destination nearby to host the ceremony of lucky couples looking for the view of a lifetime.  Just a 15-minute drive from the resort is the Cape Moule a Chique Lighthouse, which is the world's second highest lighthouse.  It is located on a cliff that is surrounded on couple lighthousethree sides by water and some of the most breathtaking views you will ever see.  Earlier this year, the resort offered an online contest for engaged couples.  They had to tell their story and submit an application.  The  couples were reviewed and narrowed down to 10 finalists.  Those 10 couples were then part of the online voting contest to win the first Cape Couple viewMoule a Chique Lighthouse Wedding, courtesy of Coconut Bay Resort and Spa.  The winners, Steve and Wanda, are the most deserving couple I have ever met and were meant to be together.  You can read their story by visiting their blog.  I felt somewhat like a wedding crasher at first; however, after spending some time with this gracious couple I couldn't help but feel like family.  Many thanks to Steve, Wanda, Hunter and Logan for allowing us to be part of this most special occasion.

No trip to a resort would be complete without a spa appointment and "Crazy" Yvonne hooked me up with a much needed aromatherapy detox massage, which was at 9:00 AM the morning after an evening wedding reception at an all-inclusive resort (I can't believe I made it there).  If it wasn't for the massage, I'd probably still be asleep.

There's nothing like a bumpy, hot ATV ride to get you over a long night of partying and that's just what we did later that day as Bash took us for the most scenic ATV atvsride I have ever been on.  From the wild horses grazing along the trail to Honeymoon Beach, this picturesque tour was one of the highlights of the entire trip and a must-do for anyone traveling to St. Lucia.  For you adrenaline junkies, Coconut Bay also houses its own paintball course, which we tried out.  I need to practice NOT shooting my own teammate - sorry Angele!

Our last day was complete with a beautiful, private dinner on the beach. It was the perfect way to end one fantastic Casey Dancing in St LuciaGirls Getaway to St. Lucia.  Many thanks to Mark, Davis and Natalia at Coconut Bay Resort & Spa for making sure our stay was incredible.  Also, thank you to the Cheryl Andrews Marketing team for another wonderful experience.


Thanks for reading! Wishing you safe travels, a happy holiday season and all the best in 2011! Santa
 
Sincerely,
Casey Wohl, The Getaway Girl &
Author of the Girls Getaway Guide series