Ron Joyce’s original idea was to attract the rich and famous to the gated community of Fox Harb’r by adding a few private townhouses. That vision has now evolved into a five star, four diamond resort handling up to 220 guests in 88 large suites facing the ocean, a high end restaurant with fresh produce from the resort’s own greenhouse, a vineyard and a Two Goblet designation from Wine Spectator Magazine.

The Haven Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa, a 333 room all-inclusive, all-adult property, has an ideal location, just a 15 minute ride from the Cancun airport. It sits next to acres of mangrove on a pristine, sandy beach facing the warm Mexican Caribbean.

Most of the popular all-inclusive resorts along the Mayan Riviera, stretching south from the crowded beaches of Cancun to the historic Mayan ruins at Tulum, are large, crowded and lively.

Zoëtry Paraiso de la Bonita Riviera Maya is the exception.

It’s rare to combine history and luxury in a single Caribbean resort.

But Sandals Royal Bahamian, on Cable Beach adjacent to the city of Nassau, has managed to preserve The Balmoral Club, the original section of the 400 room property which was the exclusive gathering place and playground for Bahamas high society in the early 1940s.

We were heading to the major Panhandle city of Amarillo, the “Yellow Rose of Texas”, whose growth in the late 19th and early 20th century was enhanced by the railroad, cattle drives and Route 66, the famous trans-continental highway that wound its way from Chicago to Los Angeles.