Tortola Guest House Great Start To Trip To British Virgin Islands

Q. We have chartered a boat in Tortola, British Virgin Islands in March.

Due to airline connections we will have to arrive a day ahead of our cruise, so we need inexpensive but good accommodations for the two of us for one night. Any ideas? - F.B., Spokane.

A. You can’t go wrong staying at Beef Island Guest House, P.O. Box 494, East End, Tortola, BVI (phone 809-495-2303 or 809-495-1611).

The rates are $100 a day in March, and friends have told us that the guest house is ideally located near the airport yet on its own quiet beach 40 feet from the sea.

The management is especially friendly and the comfortable rooms all have private bathrooms.

Next door is the Loose Mongoose, a happy little bar and restaurant famous for its rum punch called the “No-See-Um” and great breakfasts and dinners at reasonable prices.

Q. Is there a directory of dude ranches? - T.D., Spokane

A. Most bookstores will have (or will happily order for you) a copy of “Dude Ranches of the American West.”

Each of the 29 Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana ranches are pictured and described in enough detail to give you a sense of their unique qualities. A section at the end provides all the practical information you need to make a choice.

Q&A Comment: Faced with the first Christmas without our children - both flew away with their families to the “other in-laws” this year - we took the advice you gave another reader several months ago and spent some time in Carmel, Calif., during the holidays.

Along with your excellent choices of accommodations (we checked out all of them one afternoon), we found the Spindrift Inn in nearby Monterey where we ended up bedding down for three nights.

We can heartily recommend this luxurious little hotel on its own beach. It has hand-tiled and hardwood floors, Oriental carpets, wood-burning fireplace and goosedown comforters and pillows in each room, along with the most beautiful bathrooms and toiletries we’ve seen in all our travels.

The $229 per night price included a fruit basket, fresh rose, newspaper, continental breakfast, afternoon tea with pastries, wine and cheese in the afternoon and transportation by Rolls-Royce to a nearby restaurant for dinner each night.

We truly had a wonderful holiday made even better by phoned-in Christmas greetings from grandchildren. - G.L., Spokane

Q. We are traveling to Israel in May and are concerned about the long flight and the lack of drinking water upon arrival. We are both prone to dehydration. Any suggestions on how to take care of ourselves? - R.H., Pullman

A. It’s a good habit to carry bottled water (readily available everywhere in Israel) with you wherever you travel in the world.

Buy a new bottle whenever you’re about to run out. Assume there won’t be another chance. It’s really important to drink two liters of water a day - especially when traveling in warm climes (it may be warm in Israel in May).

Make sure your bottled water container was sealed. Depending on where you buy your water, you might even insist on the seal being broken in your presence before purchase.

Bear in mind that bottled water comes in two types, “plain” and “carbonated” called “natural” and “mineral” (sometimes referred to as “gas”). Unless you request “natural,” you will be given “carbonated.”

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