Forget The Tourist Traps—These 5 Getaways Feel Like Hidden Gems
When it comes to planning a vacation — whether a girls trip, a baection or a solo reset — social media can be a gift and a curse. On one hand, it can provide endless inspiration for your vacay looks, places for indulgent cuisine, content friendly locations and crowdsourced tips on safety (especially clutch for Black women travelers). But, on the other hand, once a destination goes viral it seems like everyone hyper-fixates on that one place, leading to packed beaches, long lines and worse— increased prices due to demand. While your IG feed may be filled with the usual hotspots, the real flex is choosing the detour destination.
I'm not saying completely skip that popular island resort that's been living rent-free on your vision board. But, what if your beach getaway came with a twist? Think, flying to Aruba but with an added jaunt over to Curaçao. These detours aren't just side quests — they're the secret sauce that turns a good getaway into a great one.
So before you request that much-deserved PTO, let me put you on to a few under the radar— but just as worthy— spots that deserve your time.
Aruba For The Beaches, Curaçao For The Culture
There's no denying the pristine beaches found in Aruba. We're talking powdery soft sand and the perfect hue of cerulean blue waters. Of course, you can't miss the option to get up close with the island's famous flamingos, too. Start your adventure with a few days at the Aruba Marriott Resort, located on Palm Beach, then for a casual, fresh seafood meal, head to local favorite, Zeerovers. If you're into adventure and adrenaline-pumping experiences, book a half-day off-road excursion through Arikok National Park.
Once you've had your fix in Aruba, take a 30-minute flight to its sister island, Curaçao. Part of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), here you'll find a more authentic vibe, which invites a slower pace, immersion in local traditions and over 35 beaches. Start by strolling the capital, Willemstad, for the colorful row houses. As for where to stay, Black-owned Bario Hotel & Bar is located in the artsy Otrobanda neighborhood. The star of the show for the property, though, is its open-air al fresco food court, Bario Urban Street Food. It's a colorful hub of shipping-container stalls, each serving distinctive and locally-inspired street food and craft cocktails.
Miami For The Nightlife, Fort Lauderdale For The Laid-Back Luxe
Miami has always been regarded as an ultra-luxe city, known to be frequented by some of our favorite celebs. And, for good reason. For starters, there's world-class shopping and dining experiences at places like Brickell City Center and Miami's Design District. All while being just a short drive away from the iconic shores of South Beach. But let's be real: in recent years, the city has become quite crowded, especially during peak seasons like spring break.
If you've never indulged in the thrill of the 305, then by all means, try it at least once. But, if you're craving some place equally chic, yet laid-back, then opt for nearby Fort Lauderdale located only 45-minutes north. Nicknamed the 'Venice of America', you'll be treated to more than 3,000 miles of waterways, weaving throughout the city and best explored via Water Taxi. For the foodies, head to Las Olas for some of the area's best restaurants, like Louie Bossi and Black-owned The Katherine.
Still want a luxury feel? The W Fort Lauderdale is unmatched. There you'll find a rooftop pool, full-service spa and lively cocktails served with a vibe at their Living Room bar.
St. Maarten For The IG-worthy Photos, Saba For Its Natural Charm
We've all seen at least one photo or video of the viral low-flying plane landing just above St. Maarten's Maho Beach. While it's certainly a spectacle to behold this half-Dutch, half-French island is more than a photo opp. It's home to the world's steepest zip line, an underwater sculpture museum and more than 200 cultures. But it's also the perfect hub to island hop to smaller islands, like Saba.
Only a 12-minute flight from St. Maarten's airport, Saba is a tiny island with the world's shortest commercial runway. Pro tip: grab a seat near the cockpit because the view is unbelievable. Once there, get ready for true natural immersion by way of the more than 20 hiking trails, swim through volcanic caves or simply enjoy time in this nature-lover's paradise.
Nashville For Endless Live Music, Memphis For The Rich Black History
Tennessee's capital city aka 'Music City' is known for its Honky Tonk Highway on Lower Broadway, with rows of venues that fill the street with live music day and night. It's also a magnet for bachelorette parties and is said to be the bachelorette party capital of the United States, drawing in thousands each year. For something a bit unique, Nashville's Centennial Park has a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon. While this is certainly all worth the trip, Memphis deserves a little more commotion.
There, stay in the heart of all the action at Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis, the first and only hotel on iconic Beale Street. Here, you can easily walk to major landmarks and attractions. Grab ribs at Rendezvous, hot chicken at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken and head to B.B. King's Blues Club for a nightcap. Then dive into Black music history at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Blues Hall of Fame. This city moves with legacy.
Nassau For The Eats, South Andros For The Escape
Most folks choose to visit Nassau via their favorite cruise line. Once on the island, they lounge on Junkanoo Beach, get their straw market souvenirs, take a booze cruise and of course, indulge in all the authentic Bahamian cuisine their hearts desire. But Nassau is also the perfect base for accessing other picturesque islands within the Bahamas, like South Andros.
The largest but least populated of the Out-Islands, this quieter detour option is perfect for those seeking a little relaxation after the hustle and bustle of Nassau. It's giving private island vibes without the pretentious price tag. Stay at Caerula Mar Club, situated on 10-acres of beachfront, the resort features private open-air villas and suites, an oceanfront spa, complimentary bicycles to explore on your own and plenty of dining options to suit any palate. While rest is key on South Andros, there are also plenty of opportunities for boating excursions, hiking trails, swimming in underwater caves and visiting The Bahamas' mystical blue holes.
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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
‘I don't know why the president has this problem': Trump had a history of disparaging Haiti and Haitians before the travel ban
So when Haiti was included late Wednesday in a list of countries on which Trump was imposing a near-total travel ban, some saw a culmination of a long campaign against the population. Advertisement 'Donald Trump has been very consistent in his anti-Black racism, both domestically and globally, and when it comes to the country of Haiti, the people of Haiti, he has a long track record of vile, offensive, harmful rhetoric and policies,' said Boston Representative Ayanna Pressley, who co-chairs the congressional Haiti Caucus. 'It is just purely evil.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost, who is of Haitian descent, echoed Pressley's comment that the travel ban is 'rooted in bigotry.' 'It does nothing to make our communities safer, but it does vilify immigrants,' Frost said in a statement. 'It will devastate our immigrant families across this country.' In response to Pressley's accusations, the White House called her assertions 'lazy, unfounded and just straight-up false.' Advertisement 'While President Trump is fulfilling his promise to unite the country and keep the American people safe, Pressley is desperate to divide us and smearing our heroic law enforcement officials in the process,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, pointing to the rationale listed in the ban. Haiti is one of 12 countries facing a near-total ban on travel to the United States under Trump's new order, which cites an inability to vet immigrants for national security risks and a high rate of people overstaying their visas as justification for the measure. There are limited exceptions, including current visa-holders, permanent residents, dual nationals, athletic teams, and certain immediate family members of US residents. Other countries affected include Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The move follows several other Trump administration actions that have had an impact on the Haitian community in the United States, including an early end to Temporary Protected Status protections for an estimated through the appeals process. Trump made similar moves in his first administration though most were ultimately blocked by the courts. The United States first granted Haitian migrants protection from deportation after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. Since then, a string of natural disasters and political conflicts have worsened conditions. Today, gang violence, crime, and instability are rampant on the island. Advertisement Amid the worsening situation, many Haitians sought refuge in the United States or came to join family here, either through the CHNV program, legal avenues, or without permission. Massachusetts has the third-largest population of Haitians in the US, including an estimated 15,000 who held TPS, But the influx of migration from Haiti has also spurred backlash, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who was the only Democrat in the 2018 meeting with Trump's now-infamous comments, said he doesn't understand why Haiti seems to irk the president as it does. 'His hatred over Haiti is just impossible to explain,' Durbin said. 'I've been there many times. And this is one of the poorest nations on Earth, the poorest in our hemisphere, these people are suffering and need help, and they're wonderful people. I don't know why the president has this problem.' But Republicans defended Trump's actions and denied there was any animus behind it. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican who has backed pro-immigration policies in the past, was also in that 2018 meeting. And while Diaz-Balart declined to talk about what was said, he does not believe Trump has an issue with Haitians. Advertisement 'No, I don't,' he said. 'I really don't. I really, really don't.' His South Florida district is home to a large Haitian population and others affected by the CHNV and TPS reversals, including Cubans but he defended the travel ban. 'There are countries obviously that can't guarantee a process where we know that people are [vetted] to keep the country secure,' Diaz-Balart said. 'I don't think it's unreasonable.' Former Florida Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo, a moderate who was part of the immigration negotiations in 2018 that preceded the meeting, said Trump seems to prefer 'white-collar' immigrants or those whom Trump perceives to be have been recruited or have sufficient resources to come here. 'I don't think he understands or cares that those types of comments and campaigns unfairly mischaracterize hundreds of thousands of people at a time, and I don't think he understands that just because you're a refugee or an exile, that doesn't mean that you aren't capable of making major contributions to this country,' Curbelo said. Noting the Cuban exile community where he (and Diaz-Balart) hail from, Curbelo continued: 'It's people who had to leave their country, that was not their first choice, that was their only choice, and that doesn't preclude people from becoming exceptional Americans who do wonderful things.' Pressley, though, is convinced Trump's approach to Haitians is a concerted effort. She compared the trauma inflicted on the migrant community to the terror campaign of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, saying it gets harder to fight back and project optimism when the actions layer on top of each other. 'It is terrorizing. It is terrifying. It is traumatic,' Pressley said. 'And it's just so intentional. ... Singling out Haitians, I mean, he's moved in a way that is obsessive and consistently, pointedly harmful.' Advertisement Tal Kopan can be reached at
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Miami Herald
‘This is choking Haiti': Haitians blast Trump administration's travel ban
Even before President Donald Trump told Haitians this week they will no longer be welcome in the United States, travel from the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation was already difficult. It's been restricted by deadly gang violence, repeated airport shutdowns and years-long visa delays at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Now, with the newly instated travel ban, Haitian families are facing prolonged separation and the country risks being further isolated, according to Haitians and heads of U.S.-based organizations who see the move as unfair and discriminatory — and likely to have devastating consequences. 'This is choking Haiti, choking Haitians,' said Clarel Cyriaque, a Miami immigration attorney and longtime Haitian rights advocate. 'The impact on Haiti and Haitians is astronomical.' Haiti is the midst of a spiraling crisis marked by years-long political instability, escalating gang violence, economic collapse and deepening hunger. On Wednesday, Trump made it the only country in the hemisphere whose nationals are banned from entering the U.S. The list of 12 nations with full bans also includes seven African countries. Cuba and Venezuela were added to a list of seven nations with partial bans. The measures are set to take effect on Monday and have left many Haitians confused. While the White House proclamation made clear that the issuance of all new non-immigrant visas for Haitians will be suspended, both State Department and Homeland Security officials have refused to say whether those with current, valid B1/B2 tourist visas will be allowed entry. If those with current visas are banned, it will mean that many children will be unable to see their parents. Due to the ongoing gang violence and kidnappings, many children emigrated to the U.S. with one parent, leaving the other behind. A former Haitian lawmaker who travels frequently to the U.S. to see his own kids, and who is currently in Haiti, said countless families will be split. 'The biggest winner are the gangs, holding the country hostage and instilling terror, which has led the U.S. not to take action to help Haiti to eliminate the gangs but rather to consider all law-abiding Haitian citizens as gangsters and pariahs,' said the lawmaker, who asked not to be named because he fears the ire of U.S. authorities. The ban stands to affect not just all aspects of Haitian life but also South Florida's economy, which offers the only U.S. gateway into the country aboard a Haitian-owned airline. Sunrise Airways became the sole carrier into and out of Haiti after gangs opened fire on three U.S. commercial airlines flying over Port-au-Prince's Toussaint Louverture International Airport in November, prompting an ongoing Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. airlines. ''Why are they doing this now?' said Nathan Letang, a Haitian businessman. 'Why are they doing this to Haiti in 2015?' Letang, attending a Boston Foundation Haiti Funders Conference in Boston this week, blasted the ban as an effort to 'humiliate Haitians.... If they want to isolate Haiti, they should just say they want to isolate Haiti.' The Caribbean nation is already isolated from the neighbor with which it shares the island of Hispaniola. Since April 2024, the Dominican Republic has had its airspace closed to Haiti, and since January has deported more than 139,000 Haitians back to their country. Terrorist designation, travel ban Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated some of Haiti's most powerful gangs as global and foreign terrorists, a label that was welcomed by some Haitians, though others now see as having devastating consequences after President's Trump travel ban. The ban, and the terrorist designation, are likely meant to deal with the problem of illegal arms trafficking to Haitian gangs, which have used South Florida ports to smuggle weapons to Haiti, said Kim Lamberty, executive director of the Washington-based Quixote Center, a nonprofit social justice organization that advocates on behalf of Haiti. Administration officials, she said, are afraid of taking on the U.S. gun lobby to curtail the illegal arms and have instead turned to measures like the terrorist designation and the travel ban. 'This visa thing now punishes regular people,' Lamberty said, 'because they [U.S. authorities] don't think they can deal with the real issue because of the gun lobby.' In justifying Haiti's ban, Trump's proclamation cites the Haitian government's inability to provide the 'information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States.' The administration also cites high so-called overstays — over 31% for B1/B2 tourist visa holders, and 25% for individuals with student visas. 'Additionally, hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden Administration,' the proclamation said, in reference to the more than 200,000 Haitians who legally entered the U.S. under a humanitarian parole program that required them to have a financial sponsor in the U.S., undergo government background checks and buy airline tickets. 'This influx harms American communities by creating acute risks of increased overstay rates, establishment of criminal networks, and other national security threats,' the proclamation added. The Congressional Black Caucus on Friday issued a statement blasting the travel ban, noting that the majority of the nations involved have predominanly Black and brown populations. In the case of Haiti, the CBC met with the country's new ambassador to the U.S., Lionel Delatour. 'This proclamation has nothing to do with national security. Rather, it represents a continuation of the Trump Administration's long standing pattern of bigoted attacks against Black and brown nations,' Rep. Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, said. 'His aim is to create fear, sow division, and demonize the vulnerable—many of whom are struggling to recover from catastrophic circumstances, seeking life-saving medical attention, or have waited decades to be reunited with family members.' U.S.-based organizations that rely on visas to bring employees to the United States for training and conferences warn of the ripple effects and say the new policy is akin to keeping people 'inside a burning house.' 'They're actually blaming the people, as if they twisted the Biden administration's arms to create these programs through a planned invasion, and now they must pay the consequences,' said Cyriaque. The narrative being pushed by the Trump administration is that beneficiaries of the Biden-era humanitarian parole program known as CHNV, the initials of the four countries affected — Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — have assaulted the immigration system. Haitians haven't had access to normal visa services at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince since before the COVID-19 pandemic, which created huge backlogs in the processing of applications. The gang violence that escalated after the July 2021 assassination of the president, Jovenel Moïse, only exacerbated the situation. The embassy's next appointment to process requests for non-immigrant visas to the U.S. is in 2026. In the meantime, the country has continued to plunge deeper into chaos. The main international airport in Port-au-Prince remains close to U.S. commercial traffic. Roads in and out of the capital, already in imminent danger of collapse, are controlled by armed groups, leaving those with means and connections to resort to helicopter flights to escape the violence out of the only airport connecting them to the outside world in Cap-Haïtien. Longtime U.S. visa holder and Haitian development professional Ronel says this is what led him and his wife to leave the country under the humanitarian parole program in 2023, after spending a year in limbo unable to get his U.S. visa renewed. 'I was stuck,' he said. 'There was no more hope.' After arriving in the U.S., Ronel, who asked that his last name not be used to avoid being targeted by U.S. immigration authorities, applied for political asylum, citing threats against him as a youth organizer and international project coordinator in Haiti. Despite his fear of persecution in Haiti, he's says he's now considering abandoning his asylum application. 'Even though I was actually persecuted in Haiti... the thing with asylum is you cannot travel, and I am a global traveler,' he said. 'I am part of different networks in the world, volunteer networks; there are conferences happening everywhere in the world, and you're stuck.' He is also concerned about the Trump administration's targeting of Haitians and other immigrants, especially the half-million in the Biden-era parole program who are now being targeted for deportation after the U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump the green light last week. 'I don't want to stay in the U.S. with this situation. I don't like living in distress,' said Ronel, 38. 'That's why we are really actively exploring the alternatives, before it's too late.' While he and his wife are exploring several countries to move to, there is one that is off the table: Haiti. 'I don't want to be stuck in Haiti,' he said. 'It's hard for you to get out of the country and almost everywhere you go, requires you to transit through the United States.... This is very bad news for Haitian professionals who want to be connected with the world.'
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Miami Herald
Former HBCU star thriving with Harlem Globetrotters
Randy McClure always dreamed of making basketball his career-and now, he's living that dream with flair. Known as 'Crash' the former HBCU standout at Albany State University, McClure is now dazzling audiences around the globe with the World Famous Harlem Globetrotters. McClure carved his name into Albany State history with over 1000 career points. From 2016 to 2020, he earned titles such as D2 All-American and SIAC All-Conference. He was also named twice to the NBPA HBCU Top 50, a rare honor for student-athletes at historically Black colleges and universities. After college, McClure played overseas. He won both League MVP and Championship honors in the Moldova Superleague. His success abroad led to a homecoming with one of basketball's most iconic teams. "When an opportunity to play with the world's most historic team comes, you don't turn it down," McClure said. Since joining the Harlem Globetrotters in 2021, McClure has continued to rise. In 2024, he was invited to perform as a third quarter showman during the team's world tour. That role is typically reserved for veterans. "No way at all would I have pictured myself in this position my first weeks as a Globetrotter," McClure reflected on Instagram. "But in my third year, I've learned a thing or two from the best." He gave special thanks to mentors Saul White Jr. and Chandler Mack, as well as the entire team for their support. From HBCU hardwood glory to international courts and the bright lights of the Globetrotters' stage, Randy McClure's journey is shared by his teammates. He also plays alongside former HBCU stars like Carl Garcia from Miles College, Prince Moss from Grambling, Asanti Price from Benedict College and Angelo Sharpless from Elizabeth City State University. The post Former HBCU star thriving with Harlem Globetrotters appeared first on HBCU Gameday. Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2025
