Summer Travel Advice

For some lucky students, graduation is around the corner. For me it's almost that good too--it's summer vacation! The question is: where's the best place to travel to? I would usually answer that with "Any place!" I enjoy living in Tucson, but when I have free time, my vagabond feet yearn for uncharted territory. The problem is this: we don't have unlimited time or resources, so how can we decide where to travel to?

Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

For some of my friends, vacation means lying on the beach. There are lots of good places for this. There are plenty of good beaches in Florida, the Caribbean, the East Coast, the West Coast, Hawaii, France, Italy, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, and Greece--and those are only the ones I know about!

What are your own beach suggestions?

I'm partial to Greece because the scenery is so striking. Many of the beaches are rocky. The blue waters are deep and clear (although sometimes they come complete with jellyfish). One of the many advantages to "beaching" around Greece is that you can base yourself in one town on one island and explore different beaches every day. Instead of moving around a lot, you can appreciate all the beauty that you can imagine. There's a wonderful pleasure in getting up in the morning and having no goal more strenuous than heading to the beach!

Phuket, Thailand

In ISLAND CASUALTY, my new Andy Veracruz mystery that will be published next month, Andy goes to Greece for that reason--to have a chance to relax. He wants to visit Rachel as well, so he's hoping to have some flirty fun, but what he really needs to do is simply sit on the beach and have peaceful ocean swims. As you might guess, things won't work out so well for him, but his intentions are good!

In the book, the island Andy visits is called Amiros, but while I was composing, I had Kalymnos, a small island in the Dodecanese, in the back of my mind. He erroneously thinks he's going to an island paradise.

What would be your own favorite paradise?

South Coast, Sri Lanka