Today’s View

It’s 79 degrees, the little one is enjoying the pool while the wife soaks in some rays on the patio, and I’m debating whether or not to drive the cart 30 yards out of the garage to the tee box or just keep sampling local beers with the Canadian guy next door.

We’re just outside of Palm Springs for our annual family “Cold” vacation. My wife loves to travel and is always asking for new suggestions. Where do some of you travel during the dead of Winter? We enjoy warm weather, hiking, riding atvs of any type, and the water. We will be staying stateside for our annual family winter getaways until our family is complete and the kids are a bit older. We stay pretty close to home during Spring and Summer due to work and having the river a mile away, but the dog days of winter in February are when we look to escape. Once the wheelhouses and trucks come out, ice fishing is done for me until only walkable ice is left.

Bonus points for suggested destinations that have some unique fishing opportunities.

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Good for you & the family Bucky!

We’re actually flying out for a cruise tomorrow. I’ve only been on one before. Winter getaways we’ve done have been 3 of the Hawaii Islands, Florida Keys, Dominican, Bahamas, St. Maarten, and Anguila. We typically rent a car in those countries and get our own groceries, which is quite a challenge vs. normal resort living, so this time with a cruise we’re looking forward to everything just being there for us.

Personally this is one of the BEST times to get away. Most can tolerate winter as the holidays approach and Christmas spirit is going on. Once you get past that winter can drag (besides ice fishing). With a February trip you’ve got that dangling in front of you through the cold spells and once you get back you “should” have the brunt of winter behind you.

We like Palm Springs a lot…been there a few times. Good for both the family and a grown up vacation.

Our favorite spot has been Puerto Rico for awhile now. Great food, great weather, great beaches. People are great and there is a ton to do.

Super under rated fishing, too. My avatar is a tarpon I caught down there 2 years ago. Bigwerm and I met up as we just happened to be down at the same time. I’ve probably fished a half dozen times…fishing for tarpon down there is similar to backwaters on the river. All lagoons and shallow water. It’s a blast.

I’d put islamorada in the keys a close second. Super relaxed, family friendly, great fishing.

You mentioned staying stateside but Cabo is also great. We stay north up the sea of Cortez coast. There are some small towns with resorts that are amazing.

Don’t have Hawaii money yet, so we have done trips to AZ, and most recently Galveston TX. Good eats in Galveston, hole-in-the-wall BBQ, fresh seafood, nice beach walks, and cheap airfare and shopping for the ladies.

More importantly, the fishing is good too. We did a trip on a 24’ Bay boat inshore, bobber fishing sea trout, black drum and redfish. More intimate experience and local grills/restaurants will cook them for you.

We have been fortunate to travel all over the world and our favorite spot is the Virgin Islands. It is absolutely gorgeous there. We usually stay in St. Thomas, but will frequent St.John and Water Island as well. We head out in a little over a week and can’t wait!

I just retired, looking to head down to Fort Myers soon. BIL has a house on the river, nice Chris Craft to fish out of. Son works for Delta so we fly free but standby. Waiting for the flight chaos to wind down before we head out to other locations. Not worth spending nights in airports when a flight gets cancelled and the standby folks all get kicked to the curb.

Browndog wrote:

We have been fortunate to travel all over the world and our favorite spot is the Virgin Islands. It is absolutely gorgeous there. We usually stay in St. Thomas, but will frequent St.John and Water Island as well. We head out in a little over a week and can’t wait!

My wife and I went to St. John last year, probably my favorite trip to date!

We rented a 90hp Zodiac Dinghy for a couple of days and it was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Freedom to boat around the entire north side of the island, stop and snorkel wherever you want, just absolute bliss.

We probably saw 50+ sea turtles while snorkeling in Maho Bay, thousands of other fish, squid, nurse sharks, stingray, you name it!

It’s a premier winter destination, and like 1/2 the cost of Hawaii(or less).

x2 on Puerto Rico. I didn’t know Matt until we realized via IDO we’d be in PR at the same time. And we met up for tarpon trip, which enabled him to catch a monster tarpon, while I drank his beer, win win imo. PR is beautiful, great beaches, fantastic food, tons to do and don’t even need a passport or exchange of currency to do it.

The all-inclusive Mexican vacation is awesome in it’s own right, if eating and drinking is higher on your list than adventure and seeing sights, but it’s not my preference. I’ve done Acapulco, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, which were all good. Punta Cana in the Dominican is even better imo.

We went to New Zealand a few years ago, which was on a whole other level, and a place I plan to get back to someday. We did a full 2 weeks of going somewhere new everyday and didn’t even scratch the surface of places and things to see. Next time I plan on mixing in some hunting and fishing too.

With 2 little ones now we are coming to terms with more domestic vacations, and are going to Cape Coral/Fort Myers/Sanibel area end of March and wish it were sooner!

BigWerm and Matt Moen, I am heading to Puerto Rico the first week in March! I’ve never been, any recommendations for tarpon guides? Staying in San Juan a couple of days then over to Palmas Del Mar area. Thanks!

Brian wrote:

BigWerm and Matt Moen, I am heading to Puerto Rico the first week in March! I’ve never been, any recommendations for tarpon guides? Staying in San Juan a couple of days then over to Palmas Del Mar area. Thanks!

I’ve used Magic Tarpon about a half dozen times. Call or email them and they will set you up. I think the guides name we had was Ron but they have a few different that charter for them. They fish in the lagoons right near the airport.

Shoot me a PM if you book something and I’ll give you some tips if you want them.

Do what Matt says. We used Magic Tarpon when it was my wife and I also. Caught a handful and the guide did a boat side release on one I caught a little smaller than Matt’s. Go to El Yunque Rainforest National Park too.

Appreciate it!

Bump.

Headed back to the same exact spot on Saturday for a week.

A few people responded last time, but if anyone has been to the Greater Palm Springs area with ideas of places to check out – I’m all ears again. Anything within an hour or so is fair game. Any further than that and I’m opting to stay on the raft in the pool with beer close by

My wife and I RV. We go wherever our fancy takes us: Florida Keys, New Orleans, Savannah, Spring training….

buckybadger wrote:

Headed back to the same exact spot on Saturday for a week.

Is the gas still $5/gallon there Bucky?

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
Headed back to the same exact spot on Saturday for a week.

Is the gas still $5/gallon there Bucky?

Haven’t even looked, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess yes. We probably go through 3/4 tank of gas for the rental SUV in a week. Last year when we ate and had drinks downtown on their little strip of shops/restaurants, we informally watched all the cars go by and I’d wager that somewhere around 1/3 of the vehicles are electric.

Fuel and groceries out there make things here look dirt cheap. I don’t mind vacationing there for a limited time in the dry 75 degree air…but I could not live there.

Salton Sea might be worth the drive, pretty interesting history. Sounds like not much of a fishing destination unless Tilapia trip your trigger.

I was in Palm Springs last year and I enjoyed it. Having said that when we travel with the kids we like being by the ocean. Islamorda like Matt said, or next door Marathon is about my favorite place in the world in winter. Fishing is world class. We leave in… 18 days.

We leave for Palm Springs on Monday. Been there several times. Just a nice relaxing get-away with reliable sunny weather. We do a lot of hiking and pool time. Tahquitz Canyon loop trail followed by brunch at the nearby Farm restaurant is on our to-do list and a nice morning activity. Be sure to order a waffle on the side. The drive to a winery in Temecula was breathtaking as you go up and over the mountains outside of Palm Springs. It’s only 60+ miles but takes 1 1/2 hours as the winding road up the mountain is slow going. Kinda scary at times too, but worth doing. Of course, there is the aerial tramway which is pretty cool. Go at an off-time though to avoid the crowds.