Disney Operations Extend Hotel Affiliation
Travelers can now stay at a Disney-operated resort even if they’re not visiting Walt Disney World. Disney’s Vero Beach Resort in Florida opened in January, and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina opened March 1.
The Vero Beach resort, the first Disney resort not associated with a theme park, has a 115-room inn with a four-story atrium lobby, 60 villas and 3 restaurants. On the grounds are live oak trees, and on dunes separating the resort from the beach are sea turtle nesting areas.
At the 102-unit Hilton Head resort, accommodations include studio units, one-and two-bedroom houses and villas for up to 12 people surrounding a central lodge and accessible to an oceanfront beach house with a snack bar, a pool and an arcade with pinball machines and other electronic games. Nearby dunes are the breeding grounds for loggerhead sea turtles.
At both resorts, individuals may participate in a version of a timeshare arrangement in which members own real estate interest, but not particular guest accommodations. Children 17 and younger accompanying an adult may stay free.
Reservations: (800) 359-8000 for Vero Beach, (800) 453-4911 for Hilton Head.
Aruba ecology: Eco-tourism is taking a step forward in Aruba, which recently announced plans to expand and improve access to a national park and to create an environmentally protected zone outside the park. The project will double Aruba’s protected land, making it 20 square miles, about one-fourth of the 73-square mile island.
The park and nearby protected area will be a significant part of an $800 million project designed to develop the island’s natural, cultural and other resources, said Robertico Croes, Aruba’s Minister of Economic Affairs.
The project will add about 600 acres to the approximately 6,000-acre Arikok National Park, which now has no defined boundaries, and give it a network of hiking and bicycling trails, roads, signage and a visitor’s center inside old adobe walls built by gold miners. The protected area outside the park will include coral reefs.
The sights include iguanas, caves and the Ayo rocks, which are huge boulders of unknown origin. The plan also includes a heritage trail of roads around the island, a sports park, market square, waterfront park and an arts and culture center with two museums.
For more information, call the Aruba Tourism Authority, (800) 862-7822.
On the wild side: The best U.S. zoo exhibits, as listed in “The Zoo Book” by Allen W. Nyhuis (Carousel Press; $14.95):
1. Lied Jungle (Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo)
2. Wilds of Africa (Dallas Zoo)
3. Tropic World (Brookfield Zoo)
4. Northern Trail (Minnesota Zoological Gardens, Apple Valley)
5. Louisiana Swamp (Audubon Zoo, New Orleans)
6. Tropics Trail (Minnesota Zoological Gardens)
7. The RainForest (Cleveland Metroparks Zoo)
8. Children’s Zoo (Baltimore Zoo)
9. JungleWorld (Bronx Zoo)
10. North American Living Museum (Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum)