The non-profit Key West Harry S. Truman Foundation recently acquired the vintage Lincoln Cosmopolitan stretch limo from a private collector in Texas. The vehicle was based in New York City during Truman’s presidency, which ran from 1945-1953. Its new home is the Harry S. Truman Little White House in Key West.

The car, which has about 32,000 original miles (51,000 kilometers) on its odometer, features an intercom system, interior privacy shield, security elements, and an airflow controller for the president’s comfort.

“This limo is one of nine situated at different cities throughout the United States for use by the president when he would travel to different locations,” Little White House museum operations director Clinton Curry said. “Back in that period, the presidential limousine did not travel on the presidential plane.”

Limo rides are part of the museum’s new small-group White Glove Tour, where participants can view galleries of Truman objects not on public display. They can even wear white gloves to hold presidential belongings, like Truman’s prized whiskey jigger.

“Truman made 11 presidential visits to Key West totaling 175 days of his presidency, essentially running the United States right here from the Key West Little White House,” Curry said.

Restored to its Truman-era appearance, the Little White House showcases artifacts including the former president’s handmade poker table, one of the tropical shirts he wore in Key West, and the desk where he carried out his official duties.

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Florida Keys visitors can ride in President Truman limousine

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It’s compared to sugar, and is so white it’s almost blinding in bright sunlight. And people who have been cooped up because of stay at home orders can once again go walk along with it and hear the unique sound the beach makes when bare feet sink in the sand.

“It’s that fine powdery sand that talks to you,” said Dave Rauschkolb, a restaurant owner, surfer and beach enthusiast who lives nearby. “The ‘squeak,’ ‘squeak,’ ‘squeak’ of the sand when you walk in it.”

It’s a large reason the beach was picked as the best in the United States by Stephen “Dr. Beach” Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, who has been ranking the nation’s beaches for 30 years.

“It’s some of the finest white sand in the world. The first time I saw it I felt like I had to put on sunglasses it was so bright. Some people thought it was snow. I said, ‘No that’s not snow!’” Leatherman said with a laugh. “The sand is the highest quality in the world. It’s a pure quartz crystal.”

It is one of two Florida beaches that were on the 2020 list, along with Caladesi Island State Park at No. 6. The other beaches on the list, in order, are Lifeguarded Beach on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina; Coopers Beach in Southampton, New York; Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Oahu, Hawaii; Lighthouse Beach in Buxton, North Carolina; Hapuna Beach on Big Island, Hawaii; Coast Guard Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Coronado Beach in San Diego, California; and Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Leatherman says he gives bonus points for beaches where smoking is banned and that are staffed with lifeguards, which elevated the North Carolina beaches.

“Beaches are not big, giant ashtrays, and that’s what some people use them for, which is really disgusting,” Leatherman said.

Grayton Beach State Park won the list’s top spot — even without a smoking ban — based on its sheer beauty. Beyond the sand, it has crystal clear emerald water, freshwater ponds that are a geological rarity, and towering dunes that are unique along Florida’s 1,350 miles (2,170 kilometers) of coastline.

Even the walk from the parking lot is special, said Rauschkolb.

“You have to take what I call the tree tunnel trail,” he said. “You can just walk in this little wonderland under the canopy of the scrub oak and poke your head out and suddenly see the Gulf.”

While there are currently some restrictions at the nearly 2,000-acre (809- hectare) park because of the coronavirus outbreak, it is open. Groups larger than 10 are not allowed and the park is controlling capacity to allow for social distancing. Cabins and camping are temporarily closed.

In normal times, the park attracts 500 to 1,000 people during peak summer days. But with 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) of beach and plenty of trails, it doesn’t get overcrowded, said Ben Faure, who manages 37 state parks in the Panhandle for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“Grayton Beach is one of the gems along the Emerald Coast of Florida,” Faure said. “We like to call it a desert oasis. It really is a unique place with the sugar-white sands that are almost 99.9% pure quartz. Your feet squeak as you walk on the beach, it’s so pure.”

Lynn Cherry, a board member of the nonprofit support group Florida Parks Foundation, lives about an hour from the park and has visited many times.

“Oh, the fishing is great at Grayton Beach! I have caught lots of fish at Grayton Beach State Park,” Cherry said.

And the Gulf of Mexico tends to have calmer surf than Florida’s Atlantic Ocean beaches.

“On a typical day, it’s a nice surf and very enjoyable swimming,” she said.

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Grayton Beach No. 1 in top-10 US list by “Dr. Beach”

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Keep in mind that availability is limited, and award charts, redemptions, transfer options and deals can change. Remaining flexible is key to getting the most out of your points and miles. Remember, too, that if you’re not careful, interest charges, late fees and careless spending on a rewards credit card could cost you more than you can save with your points.

Kauai with Marriott Bonvoy Points

Sheraton Kauai Resort, right on the sand at Poipu Beach, may be one of the top rewards redemption deals out there. The Bonvoy rewards program ranks this relaxing piece of paradise as a Category 5 redemption, meaning rooms there start at 35,000 points per night. From your Kauai home, enjoy boat tours of the breathtaking Napali Coast, plan hikes through Waimea Canyon or golf at some of the nearby courses.

To put that in perspective, consider that the Courtyard by Marriott in crowded Waikiki (a 10-minute walk from the beach) is a Category 6 redemption, meaning rooms start at 50,000 points per night.

Get there with miles: Fly into Lihue Airport using American Airlines AAdvantage miles on nonstops from San Francisco starting at around 45,000 miles round trip.

Aruba with IHG Points

Aruba offers a sun-drenched Caribbean escape outside the hurricane belt, making this island retreat an irresistible option for late-summer travelers. And unlike many destinations where reasonably priced accommodations are a block or three from the ocean, here you’ll find the affordable Holiday Inn Resort: Aruba-Beach Resort & Casino right on the beach, with rooms starting at 40,000 IHG points per night. From this sensibly priced base camp, you can go diving off Hadicurari Beach or enjoy Aruba’s famous nightlife.

Get there with miles: American Airlines passengers out of Dallas can find connecting flights to Aruba for as little as 25,000 miles round trip. Southwest passengers flying from Boston might find round trips as low as 23,000 Rapid Rewards points, though most dates start around 46,000 points.

Mauritius with Hilton Honors

Looking for something a little more exotic? Something far, far away? Hilton Honors members can find their slice of heaven in the Indian Ocean, about 1,200 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, at the Hilton Mauritius Resort & Spa.

The beaches and the too-green-to-believe mountain peaks are the very definition of island beauty. But even paying with points, this place is a splurge: Rooms start at around 70,000 Hilton Honors points per night at a place where a free hotel can offset the cost of ultra-long-distance flights (not to mention the psychological hurdle of committing to a vacation so far from home).

Get there with miles: Passengers departing New York’s Kennedy International Airport can find connecting flights on Air France for around 90,000 Flying Blue miles (which can be transferred to some other loyalty programs in a 1-to-1 points conversion through some issuer programs).

From Los Angeles, scant award seats for this journey are available on British Airways for upward of 100,000 Avios round trip.

San Juan Puerto Rico with Bank of America Points

For a truly unique experience, stay a few miles from the beach at the historic Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan, which was built as a Carmelite convent about 350 years ago. This historic, boutique-style hotel is your luxury home base for exploring Castillo San Felipe del Morro and cobblestone streets lined with colonial structures. Bank of America Rewards members will find rooms there starting at about 28,000 points per night.

Get there with miles: Arrive from Baltimore on Southwest Airlines starting at 31,000 Rapid Rewards points round trip.

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4 Beach Vacations that Maximize your Points and Miles

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Hosted by Airbnb, a small number of guests will travel across 18 countries using eight modes of transportation, including a hot air balloon, to promote a new collection of available bookings called Airbnb Adventures.

The experience is meant to mirror Fogg’s journey from exploring the Galapagos islands to hiking mountain ranges in Australia, said Joe Zadeh, Airbnb’s vice president of experiences.

“We thought that the notion of circumnavigating the globe and visiting all these different cultures and communities in 80 days is just a really fun and interesting premise,” he said.

Starting June 20, guests can book the 80-day trip, which comes with a price tag of $5,000 and includes all travel, lodging, activities and meals. Guests will depart from London on Sept. 1, 2019. The company did not say how many of the packages would be available.

Zadeh said the company chose to recreate the story of “Around the World in 80 Days” because it encompasses the spirit of the new program, focused on giving travelers an experience that is difficult to find anywhere else, especially for the price tag.

“We really want to make the point that adventures are accessibly priced,” he said.

Developed from already available hours-long trips called Airbnb Experiences, Airbnb Adventures allows people to participate in two- to 10-day treks ranging from $79 to $5,000. Adventures are capped at 12 travelers or less. Other notable bookings include searching for Sasquatch in Washington and trekking through the Amazon.

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Airbnb to Recreate Trip from ‘Around the World in 80 Days’

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In Kailua, the sand is soft and white, the water is clear and calm, and the view is exactly what you would expect from a beach in the Hawaiian Islands.

Those are among the reasons Oahu’s Kailua Beach Park has been selected as the best stretch of sand for an annual list of top U.S. beaches.

Stephen Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, has been drafting the list under the alias “Dr. Beach” since 1991.

Leatherman uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches, with the most important categories being water cleanliness, safety and management of the beach environment and its facilities. Leatherman uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grade the beaches on water quality and has been to all the beaches on his list.

Beaches in Hawaii are consistently ranked high, sometimes at the top of his list.

“I love Waikiki Beach. No question about that — a world-famous beach — but Kailua is a lot smaller and quieter,” Leatherman said. “It’s so much more peaceful. … You don’t have big high-rises and all that. Kailua is on the other side of the mountains. It’s like a different world.”

In recent years, Leatherman has awarded extra credit to beaches that prohibit smoking , which all Oahu beaches do. He thinks other beaches around the state and country should follow suit.

Leatherman also looks for powdery soft white sand, something Kailua Beach Park has in abundance.

Vari Singh and her family were visiting Oahu from Los Angeles and spent a day in Kailua.

“The color of the sea is something like we’ve never seen before. The sand is super soft and fun to play with, it makes good sandcastles,” she said as her daughter wiped sand from her face. “And the scenery is beautiful, you just come over the hill and it’s just this majestic scene of green ocean.”

Leatherman acknowledged that not everyone appreciates the publicity his lists give to top beaches.

“I get a lot of people who are very happy about it. They like to know where to go,” Leatherman said. But “I always get some pushback. Oh yes, people say, ‘Oh no, we already have too many people coming here. What are you doing?’ It’s almost like they think it’s a secret beach or something. (Kailua) is not quite a secret beach. It is a real gem though.”

Braden Marquez, 18, who grew up in Kailua, says he is worried about overcrowding but also hopeful about the future of his hometown.

“This beach is pretty special to me just because my family has been coming here for years and years,” he said, noting the area has changed a lot since his childhood.

″(My) biggest concern would be losing the locals because of the influx of people,” he said during a recent visit to the beach. “But other than that I’m pretty excited about all the new things to come.”

For the first 25 years of ranking, any beach that won the top spot on Leatherman’s list was ineligible for inclusion in subsequent years. But in 2015, Dr. Beach cleared the slate to allow any beach in the nation to once again be eligible, resetting the clock — and perhaps the relevance— involving his annual contest.

Kailua was named the best beach in 1998, making it a two-time winner.

Leatherman is again retiring new winners and posting them on his website .

The other beaches on this year’s list are Ocracoke Lifeguarded Beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks in second place, followed by Grayton Beach State Park in the Florida panhandle; Coopers Beach, Southampton, New York; Duke Kahanamoku Beach on Oahu; Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Caladesi Island State Park, Dunedin-Clearwater, Florida; Hapuna State Beach Park on Hawaii’s Big Island; Coronado Beach, San Diego, California; and Kiawah Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Leatherman’s goal in producing the list each year, he says, is to reward high-quality, safe beaches that balance nature with accessibility and amenities. He hopes beaches that haven’t made his list will make changes for a better experience and a healthier coastal ecosystem.

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Oahu’s Kailua Beach Named Best in the US by ‘Dr. Beach’

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Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, estimates 111.8 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in 2018, plus an estimated 10.8 million overseas visitors and 3.5 million Canadians.

Officials say travel at 18 Florida airports increased by 7.6 percent last year over the previous year, with a record 93.9 million airline passengers.

Palm Beach County’s largest city, West Palm Beach, has seen some of the largest increases in leisure and hospitality (tourism industry) jobs in 2018, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

Visit Florida is known across the world for delivering innovative destination marketing to ensure that we are reaching the right people with the right message. “With today’s announcement of an eighth consecutive record-breaking year, it’s clear that by focusing on value and data-driven campaigns, Visit Florida and the tourism industry have achieved unprecedented success,” said Dana Young, President and CEO of Visit Florida. “We appreciate Governor DeSantis for his support of our organization and Florida’s entire tourism industry. Working together, we will continue to deliver results to Florida taxpayers who rely on Visit Florida to protect and enhance our iconic tourism industry.”

The Florida tourism industry reaches targeted audiences in domestic and international markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany and China.

According to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, for every $1 the state invests in Visit Florida, $2.15 in tax revenue is generated.

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Record 126.1 Million Tourists for Florida in 2018

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In a straw hut, engulfed by the nighttime cacophony of the Amazon rainforest, a shaman inhales a potent tobacco from a pipe and blows smoke on Moronci’s head to cleanse her, before she takes her place in a sacred ayahuasca ceremony. He offers the Italian woman a plastic cup with three ounces of a bitter, muddy brew made of psychedelic vines. Moronci drinks it, coughs and smiles despite its unpleasant taste.

“There is a really strong energy here,” she says, before falling asleep, amid the chirping of crickets and thundering rain.

Every year thousands of tourists visit jungle retreats in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador to try ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic elixir made of native plants that is thought to heal some mental illnesses. But while Moronci and others say they have found peace and enlightenment, for a few seekers the experience has been fatal.

And as more Westerners seek out the legendary curative, commercialization has taken over as profit-seeking impostors pop up among the dozens of legitimate ayahuasca centers that have emerged over the years.

Over the past decade at least 11 tourists have been killed in incidents linked to traditional medicine in South America, according to news reports, including a California man who was buried secretly by a shaman after he died in an ayahuasca ceremony in Peru. The latest killing took place in April, not far from the Peruvian village of Nuevo Egipto, where Sebastian Woodroffe, a 41-year-old Canadian man studying medicinal plants, was bludgeoned in broad daylight by an angry mob in retaliation for him allegedly killing a revered traditional healer.

Peruvian investigators later concluded Woodroffe shot healer Olivia Arevalo with a gun he purchased. Now they are investigating what could have led him to pull the trigger.

“The most likely scenario is that it was a dispute over money,” says Ricardo Jimenez, the lead prosecutor in the case.

In 2015, a former Goldman Sachs analyst got hold of a knife during an ayahuasca ceremony at a retreat center in Peru and attacked a Canadian man who was with him. He was killed by the Canadian, who acted in self-defense. In 2014, a 19-year-old British man died in Colombia after he passed out during an ayahuasca ritual.

Anthropologists say the region’s history of violence and lawlessness could be replicating itself in the virtually unregulated ayahuasca industry. In backwater towns like Iquitos or Pucallpa, aggressive English-speaking touts offering ayahuasca ceremonies greet tourists literally as they come off the boat, while in indigenous markets a liter-size bottle of the powerful tea fetches as much as $100.

“The Amazon has long had a frontier economy, based on the exploitation of its natural resources,” said Ana Echazu-Boschemeier, an anthropology professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, who spent more than a year in the jungle researching ayahuasca and its uses.

“To some extent, shamanic tourism is replicating this savage logic of extractive industries where people and nature have little protection,” she said.

Ayahuasca in the Quechua language means the vine of the soul — or death, depending on the translation — and it has been used for hundreds of years by indigenous communities throughout the Amazon basin, mostly in religious rituals.

The gringo trail to the spiritual El Dorado took off with the publication in 1963 of “The Yage Letters,” in which beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg described feeling like a “snake vomiting out the universe” after trying ayahuasca in the rainforest a short boat ride from Nuevo Egipto.

More recently, it has won devotees among the rich and famous despite its reputation for an all-consuming high that for many people leads to violent vomiting and diarrhea. Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan credits ayahuasca with changing her life, singer Sting said it was his only ever “genuine religious experience,” and Netflix is currently distributing two documentaries on the mind-tripping drink with big-name backers like Leonardo DiCaprio and Chelsea Handler.

Charles Grob, a psychiatrist at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles who has studied ayahuasca, says that the plants’ effects are mostly benign. In 1993, he conducted a study on ayahuasca users in Brazil, finding that subjects who attended a church that reveres ayahuasca were mentally healthy.

“A number of our subjects had strong histories of alcohol abuse that entirely ceased,” after they joined the Uniao do Vegetal church and took ayahuasca twice a month, Grob said.

But Grob adds that there are risks in taking the plant, especially in places where there is no medical facilities or proper oversight. The plant contains DMT, an alkaloid that causes strong hallucinations.

“Some retreat centers are well trained and have a good sense of ethics, but in others that may not be the case,” said Grob.

Although the ayahuasca ritual was declared part of Peru’s national heritage in 2008, there are no established guidelines for how a ceremony should be conducted or any agency in charge of overseeing people who carry out the rituals.

Moronci, the Italian tourist, says the spate of ayahuasca deaths, and the killing of Woodroffe, did not cause her much concern.

The 30-year-old businesswoman said she first tried ayahuasca in Italy as she fought depression, and credits it with “finding truths” about herself that traditional meditation could not provide. There she met a shaman from Spain who told her about retreat centers in Peru.

In a recent ritual in Nuevo Egipto led by local shaman Pablo Flores, Moronci said she relived happy moments of her childhood, and also realized she had health problems that had to be addressed.

“The plant told me I had a problem in my ovaries that I was not aware of, and that is what I am working on now,” she said.

Grob says most foreigners coming to Peru for ayahuasca are “seekers” looking for personal healing, not a psychedelic high.

But with time, the influx of these spiritual tourists is changing how the plant is used and perceived, says anthropologist Echazu-Boschemeier. While indigenous tribes have longed used the brew to ward off evil spells and even to hurt their enemies, its current popularity in the West as a form of mental and physical healing has overtaken all other traditional uses.

“Tourism is sanitizing ayahuasca,” she said. “But it has always had many uses.”

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Psychedelic Tourism Thrives in Peru Despite Recent Killing

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“We had a historic number of visitors come to The Palm Beaches in 2016, a remarkable eight years in a row of visitation growth since the Great Recession,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO for DPTB. “This is powerful testimony that tourism marketing works.”

The total increase in visitation was driven by a 7% increase in domestic visitors (United States), and a 7.3% increase in Florida-based visitors, compared to 2015. The largest domestic growth markets were New York with a 5% increase, Miami/Fort Lauderdale with an 11% increase, and Orlando with a 9% increase in visitors. Most of the visitors to The Palm Beaches (6.6 million) were domestic, while 739,000 visitors came from international regions including Canada, Western Europe and Latin America. The number of hotel room nights sold, 4.4 million, was a 2.3% increase over the previous year.

“These numbers validate our targeted marketing focus in cities like New York, Washington DC, Orlando, and Miami. They also show the increasing importance of meeting and convention sales, as well as sports events, to fill the occupancy gaps in summer and fall,” Pesquera continued. “Tourism is Palm Beach County’s number one non-agricultural industry, so it’s more important than ever that we continue to promote and sell this destination.”

In December, DTPB deployed a strategic promotional effort in key markets, such as New York and Miami, which contributed to strong visitation from those areas. The original number of visitors DTPB was projecting for 2016, 7.2 million, ended up being boosted by December’s visitation increase. That brought the record-high total of visitors to 7.35 million for the entire year.

“Thanks to our tourism partners and sister Tourism Development Council agencies in Sports, Culture, and Film/TV, as well as our continued refinement of tourism marketing strategies, we’re able to attract more visitors than ever before,” Pesquera said. “This allows us to deliver on our brand promise that The Palm Beaches are the best way to experience and meet in Florida.”

See also: a stunning video to Discover The Palm Beaches as the perfect place in Florida to travel to.

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7.3 million people can’t be wrong! 2016 saw a Record-Breaking visitation in The Palm Beaches with higher-than-forecasted 7.35 million visitors.

The post Record-Breaking Visitation in The Palm Beaches appeared first on The Florida Daily Post.