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Once a haven for the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Florida’s Don CeSar now attracts families: Twenty-five percent of
guests bring the kids.
Photograph by Theo
Westenberger |
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Pink is what red looks like when it kicks off its shoes and lets its
hair down. Pink is the boudoir color, the cherubic color, the color
of heaven’s gates. (Not gold, brothers and sisters. Pink.) Pink is as
laid-back as beige, but while beige is innocuous and bland, pink is
laid-back with attitude. The
Don CeSar
(275 rooms and all the water sports a
bipedal mammal can handle) wears that attitude well. It knows
that it looks as if it were carved out of bubble gum, as if it mutated
from a radioactive conch patch, as if it leaked from the vat where
old flamingos go to dye—but the Don CeSar doesn’t care. It
simply winks, lazily flaunts its pigmentation, and like a panther
that’s peddled its last lucrative roll of home insulation, turns its
face to the sun.
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Pretty in pink: a bather relaxes at the Don. From 1942
to ’67, the Florida landmark served as a convalescent
center and VA headquarters.
Photograph by Theo
Westenberger |
Excerpted from “Tom Robbins’ Big Pink,” by Tom Robbins.
Read more about the novelist’s Personal Place of a Lifetime in
the March 2000 issue of TRAVELER.
RESORTS ON PAR WITH DON CESAR
Renaissance Vinoy Resort
http://www.renaissancehotels.com/tpasr
This regal, upscale hotel on St. Petersburg’s downtown waterfront
has truly enjoyed a renaissance, and now offers some of the best
accommodations in the area. Opened in 1925 as the first hotel in
the country with steam heat, the Vinoy treasures its past, offering
guided tours for [U.S.] $7 every Wednesday-Saturday at 10:30
a.m. If you want to stay for lunch, which includes the Vinoy’s
signature white chocolate dessert, it’s an additional [U.S.] $20.
Much of the hotel’s original interior design remains and the view
of Tampa Bay is spectacular. (501 Fifth Avenue Northeast, St.
Petersburg, Florida 33701; Telephone: +1 727 894 1000 or (in the
U.S. and Canada) 800 468 3571; 360 rooms. American Express,
Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa. [U.S.] $139-289).
Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa
http://www.belleviewbiltmore.com
In addition to being a popular upscale resort hotel, the Belleview
Biltmore Resort & Spa is on the National Register of Historic
Places, sitting on 275 well-landscaped acres, one mile [1.6
kilometers] from its own 18-hole golf course. The main building is
the largest wooden structure in the U.S., built in 1897 as a railroad
destination for wealthy visitors. The train doesn’t stop here
anymore, but it’s still an ideal spot for golfers and for a relaxed,
old-fashioned stay. The rooms are being remodeled and the old
wooden floors refinished. (25 Belleview Boulevard, Clearwater,
Florida 33756; Telephone: 800 237 8947 (in the U.S. and Canada);
+1 727 442 6171; 244 rooms. American Express, Discover,
MasterCard, Visa. [U.S.] $125-1,500).
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