BrownGirlsFly

Ciao Bella! Beyonce & Jay Z really know how to celebrate. Heck. Why not? They have plenty of reasons — big birthday, new album, baby in the making — the list goes on …

When I logged into Twitter and saw that Nelson Mandela had bubbled to the top of today’s topic trends, I worried that something bad had happened. The opposite is true. It’s his 93rd birthday!

It’s pretty exciting for us to see Michelle Obama showing her daughters the world. Last year they vacationed in southern Spain and this year a good will trip to Africa! What an amazing way to grow up!

Earlier in the year, I rambled on about my penchant for undiscovered locales and how I try to avoid the over-publicized celebrity hot-spots. But, out of curiosity (and in efforts not to be so closed minded), I started keeping track of the travel patterns of some of the A-listers. Los Cabos, Hawaii, and the French Riveria bubbled to the top of the list … and so has St Barts. I didn’t know much about the locale and decided to do a little research. With so many folks planning to celebrate the New Year on this tiny island, I thought I’d share a few interesting tidbits. History, a little gossip and some delectable eye candy follow.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys … Whatcha Gonna Do? Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You?

Everybody loves a bad boy … until, that is, he does something horrible that impacts you directly and personally. In recent weeks, quite a few bad boys and girls of travel have emerged. Here are some juicy tales about the airline industry reps, passengers, pranksters, terrorists and scammers who been doing things that make us shake our heads, giggle and blow a gasket all at the same time.

Toilet charges, luggage fee increases, airline mergers, a deceased man masquerading as a sleeping passenger, a bomb scare and a plane crash — an interesting travel news week indeed.

The travel industry has been abuzz since the US Department of Transportation announced last December that new, hefty fines would be doled out when airlines left passengers trapped in planes on the tarmac for more than three hours. And, by hefty, they mean HEFTY. How does $27,500 per passenger sound?  That’s upwards of $4 million [...]

Several years ago, I remember trying to convince my family and friends that Turks and Caicos was this most amazing, often overlooked, island paradise just a stone’s throw away from the Bahamas.  After months of making references and dropping hints, everyone’s eye’s glazed over.  “Yes, girl, we know!  “Turks and the Caicos . . . [...]