Although Monticello is the house most associated with Thomas Jefferson, a visit to Jefferson’s other home—Poplar Forest, Lynchburg, VA,-- reveals much about the famed statesman. For Jefferson, Poplar Foresttook shape as a personal retreat, a place for solitude and renewal.

At a year-round, grande dame resort such as The Balsams, New Hampshire, the downhill runs, admittedly, tend more toward mild than wild. But what the resort may lack in slopeside thrills, it makes up for in style and fabulous food.

Creative play isn’t just for toddlers. Learning vacations allow you to try something you’ve always wanted to do, including delve into a topic alongside experts. After these vacations you come away not only refreshed, but enriched. A bonus: these trips are modestly priced.

We’re on a treasure hunt in Bonaire, a Caribbean island 50 miles north of Venezuela. Forget about beaches—there aren’t many here—or lush, tropical landscape—Bonaire is arid and desert-like. But the island does teem with underwater jewels: myriad reefs rich with coral and colorful tropical fish.

The pristine setting convinced Alissa, my then 13-year-old daughter, to go cross-country skiing with me. A denizen of high-speed downhill runs, Alissa thought that plowing ahead on level ground with skis was a boring exercise for fuddy-duddies only. That is until she took her first glide.

Big dogs, unlike “pocketbook” pooches, get turned away at most city hotels, the majority of which only let sleeping dogs lie if they weigh less than 15-25-pounds. But Loews´ hotels offer one of the lodging industry´s most pet-friendly policies.

Rock climbing, ice skating and even surfing—care of the FlowRider, a clever contraption that generates waves—are just some of the adventures onboard Royal Caribbean International’s Independence of the Seas, the third in the line’s triumvirate of activity packed mega-ships.

On little-populated Vieques and Culebra, Puerto Rico’s out islands, snorkel nearly deserted bays, swim along spectacular beaches and bike back roads. On Vieques kayak a bay rated as one of the world´s best examples of bioluminescence.

From atop the cliffside Castillo (castle)in Tulum, the crashing waves and the calls of the sea birds conjure visions of this once-vital Maya sea port. Combine a cultural visit here with river tubing and swimming with dolphins at Xel-Ha,a nearby eco-adventure park.

On the Big Cypress Reservation within an hour of bustling Ft. Lauderdale wild life means bison, great blue herons, alligators and real Florida panthers. The reservation on the edge of the Everglades belongs to the Seminole tribe who has opened 2000-acres of their natural habitat to the public.