Jamaica: rum, reggae and rest.
In the latest travel trend -- one that adds a new wrinkle for an aging population -- an international public relations company is promoting luxury resorts not for their high-class cuisine or sumptuous suites, but as great places for an afternoon nap.
Andria Mitsakos Public Relations company came out this week with its Unofficial Best Places to Take a Nap Guide, highlighting destinations around the world that are "ideal for an afternoon siesta."
"We try to stay on top of the travel trends," said company spokeswoman Michelle Dumaine. "Napping definitely works with an older population."
Goldeneye, a resort in Jamaica, used to be famous as the exclusive spot where Ian Fleming wrote the exciting James Bond books. Now Dumaine's company is touting it as a perfect place for a snooze. "Stretch out under a celebrity-planted tree," it says.
The PR firm is not alone in identifying the trend. The idea is as contagious as a yawn. There is even a U.S. company, called MetroNaps, that has installed special sleep pods in the Vancouver airport and the Empire State Building, where you can pay to take a nap.
In a look at 2007 travel trends, writer Michael Martinez of the San Jose Mercury News identifies "man-cations" (trips for men), medical tourism (getting a facelift or your teeth whitened out of town), volunteer travel (doing good) and sleep programs. He quotes Sue Ellis, president of Spafinder.com, as saying that requests for information on spas with special sleep programs tripled in 2006 over the previous year. Ellis says more spas are installing "relaxation lounges" for napping, such as the one at Le Nordik, in Chelsea, Que.
So where are the best spots for a siesta?
Andria Mitsakos recommends more than a dozen around the world, from the once-famous-for-being-funky Nassau, in the Bahamas ("sleep in your favourite Bahamian Junkanoo coloured wooden chair on the pier") to Hacienda Xcanatun near Merida, Mexico, where, the company says, "sultry afternoons call for nap-time in handmade Yucatecan hammocks."
