Other agencies, with different properties but similar rates, are Mendocino Coast Reservations, (800) 262-7801 or (707) 937-5033, www.mendocinovacations.com; Coast Getaways, (800) 525-0049 or (707) 937-9200, www.coastgetaways.com and Robison Properties, (800) 359-4649, www.pacific.net/robison.
"[It makes for] a nice East Coast summer weekend getaway for hiking, biking, horseback riding," says Michelle Finkelstein of travel agency Our Personal Guest.
A fourth group went to Lamu, an island off the Kenyan coast, to prepare a getaway boat.
I can tell you, however, what I would have missed had I still been glued to my BlackBerry: The sparkling blue Pacific as my husband and I drove up the California coast for one last getaway before we became parents.
New hotels from big brands such as Westin and Wyndham, and low-cost flights - there's four international airports which house low-cost carriers including Allegiant and Southwest - are making this coast an affordable beach getaway for sun-seekers.
South of the border, Mexico remains a popular destination for visitors looking for everything from a sun-soaked, relaxing beach getaway on either coast, to the gastronomic delights to be found in Mexico City's sprawl, and cultural excursions galore in towns like San Miguel de Allende.
Just don't plan any weekend getaways down the coast.
On family getaways to the coast of Maine, she captured shells, plants, and animals on paper.
After the credits came a coda: Ari Gold, basking in his five-star getaway on the Amalfi Coast, gets a phone call with an offer he surely would not refuse: the job of chairman and chief executive of a studio.
Inspired by the Campsite Project – which parked a caravan on the Cornish coast to serve as an artists' getaway – they're carving out a sense of Cornwall on the top floor, painting impressions of its geology on the walls.
