Shakira and Waters are reportedly hoping to “reinvent the concept of tourism” by building both a small group of luxury vacation homes, private beaches and hotels with plans to sell prime ocean front real estate on this sexy little Cay.

Bonds Cay has 5 beaches and 3 bays, and a number of waterfalls. Waters and Shakira are also making plans to build an artists’ retreat which will house a series of artists-in-residence and galleries walled with new creative works from up and coming artists. It’s a concept more related to art and culture the boats and golf.”

According to John Christie of Caribbean real estate brokerage H.G. Christie said: “It’s a beautiful island with some height to it, which means as you build up, you get better views. There is the ocean to the east of it so you’ve got reefs and views of turquoise water”.

If it’s as cool as Pink Floyd music and as sexy as Shakira, it’s a resort and real estate venture that will work even in this market.

It’s hard to find a place to start when talking about adventures and the most amazing spot in Central America. Luxury Living’s “Best of Paradise” series heads to that less traveled part of the Americas between Mexico and Columbia.

For starters, try climbing lava spuing volcanoes, with perfect cones piercing the cloud line above. Endless adventures include jungle walks that wind past Mayan pyramids near the worlds only Jaguar preserve. Wildlife abounds with spider and howler monkeys, sloths, quetzals and birds taken from Fruit Loop boxes. Cool surfing towns line the Pacific shoreline, where waves rush gold-sand beaches. Diving and fishing here is some of the best in the world, from Blue Holes to the world’s second largest coral reef.

Beyond the beaches, there are hidden Maya, Kuna and Miskito villages, haciendas turned language schools and the cobbled streets of beautiful Spanish-colonial towns, where vendors push squeaky carts of fresh corn or shaved ice. Central America offers the best of paradise for those who like a road less traveled.

Tikal, Guatemala
It’s no coincidence that Francis Ford Coppola built his third resort and jungle lodge here. It is one of the most amazing sites in the world, outside the great pyramids of Egypt. Certainly the most striking feature of Tikal is its steep stone temples, rising to heights of more than 120ft. But Tikal is different from Copán, Chichén Itzá or most other great Mayan sites, because it is deep in the jungle. As you hike towards the towering temples and turn the corner to see the first pyramid, it’s so surreal that these temples, former gifts to the gods, play tricks on your eyes. Its many plazas have been cleared of trees and vines, its temples are uncovered and partially restored, but as you walk from one building to another you pass beneath the dense rainforest canopy. Rich, loamy aromas of earth and vegetation, a peaceful air and animal noises contribute to an experience not offered by other Mayan sites.

Belize’s Coral Reef
From this comparatively pristine vantage point, it’s easy to see why naturalist Charles Darwin declared this necklace of mangroves, seagrass and submerged coral, stretching more than 150 miles off the Belize coast, “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies.”

With over 200 individual Cayes (small islands) a few days of sailing around each mini paradise is like nothing else in the Western Hemisphere. Belize also has one of the most diverse reef ecosystems in the world, the Barrier Reef itself which grows along the edge of the continental shelf, separated from the mainland by the lagoon; and three offshore atolls (Lighthouse Reef, Turneffe Atoll and Glovers Reef). The presence of atolls is unusual, as a matter of fact only two others exist, in the world. And of course, these tiny jewels and amazingly clear water make for some of the best scuba diving on the planet.

Lake Atitlán and Antigua, Guatemala
Nineteenth-century traveler and chronicler John L Stephens, writing in Incidents of Travel in Central America, called Lago de Atitlán “the most magnificent spectacle we ever saw”, and he had been to and seen a lot.. Today even seasoned travelers, some call it the Lake Tahoe of Central America, marvel at the lake’s rippling expanse and the villages that tumble down from green hills to its shores. Fishermen in rustic crafts ply the lake’s aquamarine surface, while indigenous women in multi-colored outfits do their washing by the banks where trees burst into bloom. Fertile hills dot the landscape, and over everything loom the volcanoes, permeating the entire area with a mysterious beauty.

Antigua Guatemala, may be the most outstanding and best-preserved colonial city in Spanish America. Tourists visit Antigua Guatemala every year from around the world to enjoy its natural beauty and historic monuments. The Spanish Colonial style is evident in every part of the town: its houses, churches, squares, parks and ruins, also in its traditions and folklore as well. Antigua is a city of charm and color where you can see and buy an overwhelming variety of attractive, handmade products that honor the traditions of generations of artisans. It happens to be one of the favorite stops in Central America for heads of state including Bill Clinton.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
This national park on Costa Rica’s south coast looks just like a picture postcard. Every color is cranked up to full saturation, from the stingingly aqua colored water to the lime-green forest, with perfect strips of pale sand stretching between. Manuel Antonio has four beaches in total: Playita, Espadilla, Manuel Antonio, and Escondido. Take a hike along the narrow, sandy bridge to Punta Cathedral for unforgettable Pacific views.

Stroll down one of the park’s several walking trails, and you might spy coatimundis, ocelots, sloths, monkeys (possibly even the endangered squirrel monkey), caiman, anteaters, along with birds of every shape and color imaginable. The offshore coral reefs bustle with marine life, including dolphins and whales—book a day trip out to Caño Island for some prime scuba diving. Manuel Antonio is so pristine, you’d think it was entirely removed from society all together.

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
This little jewel on the Pacific Coast and only 20 minutes from the Costa Rican border, San Juan del Sur is a quaint surfing town and fishing village that shouldn’t be missed. Nicaragua is becoming a world-renowned surf destination and San Juan del Sur has become its hotspot with much smaller crowds as compared to Costa Rica and Mexico. It’s among Nicaragua’s best and most accessible beaches, it offers the same white-sand, excellent surfing and sunny, dry resort weather as Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, an hour south, where folks like Madonna shack up at the Four Seasons. In San Juan del Sur, be sure to have a drink at the Pelican Eyes Resort perched on the side of a hill with amazing views of town and the Pacific. Oh, and make sure you go at sunset.

With an average of 300+ days per year of offshore winds attributed to the proximity of Lake Nicaragua, day trips to volcanoes, cigar plantations and one of the oldest cities in the Americas, Granada, a charming colonial town, makes this entire area an easy pick among our “Best of Paradise”.

Stann Creek District and Hummingbird Highway, Belize
Passing through jungle and citrus orchards as it skirts the northern edges of the Maya Mountain range, Belize’s Hummingbird Highway offers a near constant procession of postcard-perfect vistas. At times you’ll feel like you’re headed to Jurassic Park. There are also plenty of reasons to stop along the way, chief among these being a visit to Cave’s Branch for cave tubing and St Herman’s Cave, where, with a guide, you can explore its huge caverns and classic Maya ceremonial chambers containing calcified skeletons and artifacts. There is also the Blue Hole, a 25-foot-deep sapphire-blue swimming hole inside a 328-foot-wide cenote that was formed when the roof caved in on one of the Sibun River’s underground tributaries.

Just 30 minutes from the end of the Hummingbird Highway you’ll find the very cool village of Placencia to the south. It’s well worth the drive. Not only does it play host to the best beach in Belize and Francis Ford Coppola’s famed Turtle Inn, but also it has some great shops and galleries along the world’s smallest main street, according to the Guinness Book of World records.

Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
Isla de Ometepe’s twin volcanic peaks, rising up out of Lago de Nicaragua, have captured the imagination of everyone from pre-colonial Aztec descendents (who thought they had found the Promised Land) to Mark Twain (who waxed lyrical about it in his book Travels with Mr. Brown) to the surprisingly few travelers who make it out here. The island’s fertile volcanic soil, clean waters, wide beaches, wildlife population, archaeological sites and dramatic profile landed it on the 2006 shortlist for the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Bay Islands, Honduras
Honduras’s Bay Islands move to a lyrical reggae beat and offer some of the best diving and snorkeling in Central America. Perched on the southern terminus of the Mesoamerican Reef – the second largest barrier reef in the world – this is a water-lover’s dream, with amazing reef systems and enough marine life to keep divers and snorkelers busy for days on end. Backpackers and beach bums will love the vibe, the sand streets and cheap accommodations of Utila, while mainstream Roatán – the most visited of the islands – appeals to an older crowd, families and folks looking for a bit more on the creature-comfort scale.

Arenal Route, Costa Rica
If you have a little time, take the road from Ciudad Quesada to the Arenal area – you are in for one beautiful ride. With the backdrop of Volcán Platanar behind you, the road winding through this green, river-rich agrarian region passes through prosperous, quaint towns bright with bougainvillea. In front of you, if the weather cooperates, the smoking peak of Arenal will loom in the distance. On either side of the road, up the green slope and down on the lake side, turnouts and driveways for lovely inns, kooky ersatz Austrian mini-villages, hip coffee houses and eccentric galleries appear invitingly like pictures in a pop-up book. Heading back around the western edge of the lake, you will pass through the lakeside Nuevo Arenal and down to the pleasant mountain town of Tilarán before descending back toward the Interamericana. Don’t miss some of the many unique spa experiences in the area, too.

Panama City, Panama
The most cosmopolitan capital in Central America, Panama City is both a gateway to the country’s natural riches and a vibrant destination in, its own right. A hub of international banking and trade, Panama City sports a sultry skyline of shimmering glass and steel towers reminiscent of Miami. And of course we all know about the canal and its history so you have to go watch the huge ships seemingly walk across the land.

The colonial neighborhood of Casco Viejo is a dilapidated peninsula with ruins and cobbled streets reminiscent of old Havana. After the city elite fled to live in skyscrapers, decades passed with Casco Viejo crumbling on the edge of the sea. Recently, artists and small businesses are moving back in and renovations are abundant. With luxury lofts, cafes and the hottest nightspots Casco is making a run for ‘the’ sexiest part of Panama City.

Is Jamaica back? With the reopening of James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s famous villa, Goldeneye, as a luxury resort and real estate enclave, Jamaica has the potential to get back onto the Caribbean’s A-list of second home destinations. At the same time, the very recent sale of the venerable Half Moon resort community to Colorado ski powerhouse Vail Resorts, the suddenly expanded development of the previously pristine Southwest coast, and the offering of beachfront lots at Goldeneye’s sibling boutique resort, Jake’s, speaks to a Jamaican renaissance.

In recent years, high crime rates and horror stories out of the capital, Kingston, scared off many potential tourists and buyers. But thing have improved dramatically, and these days there is ample non-stop air service from the States into the international airport in Montego Bay, leaving no reason to fly into Kingston at all. Montego Bay is also much more convenient to the many second homes in that city, Ocho Rios and Negril. The atmosphere right now hearkens back to the post-war 1950s when Jamaica was the Caribbean’s in-place for movers and shakers, with an influx of British and American buyers, especially celebrities like Katherine Hepburn, Noel Coward and Fleming, who penned all of his 14 best-selling James Bond novels at his Goldeneye villa here.

Jamaica has no bigger champion than Chris Blackwell, Reggae impresario and the founder of Island Records, the label that made an international mega-star out of local hero Bob Marley. Blackwell has long been involved in every aspect of tourism and economic promotion here, including his Reggae Xplosion, the Caribbean’s answer to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, a high-tech interactive museum of all things reggae. Blackwell also founded Island Outpost, a “chain” of boutique hotels throughout Jamaica which evokes the former British Colonial charm with unusually attentive service, afternoon tea and high style at very turn. Blackwell’s emphasis at these properties, including The Caves, Jake’s and Strawberry Hill, has been on creating a special “sense of place.” It was Blackwell who purchased Goldeneye and recently shuttered it for a dramatic two-year top to bottom renovations and expansion, reopening it just this past fall. Besides a greatly enhanced main villa, where guests can write postcards at the same desk where Fleming created his superspy adventures, second homes are now part of the mix. The 52-acre beachfront property is just outside Ocho Rios, and features 12 new villas, luxury real estate at its best, all on the beach or lagoon, which allow buyers the option of putting them into the boutique resort’s rental pool, managed by the hotel staff, to generate income when not in use by the owners. Sales have been very brisk, and of the new villas, priced from $900,000-$1.2 million, only three remain unsold, all on the resort’s private beach. They are all one-bedroom units that sleep four and have full kitchens featuring high-end Italian appliances. The remaining units are all around $1.1 million and come fully furnished, with upscale electronics and flat screen televisions, plus a veranda, large porch and extensive outdoor living spaces with an open air shower and private garden, all just steps from the Caribbean Sea.

The Ian Fleming tie in offers buyers a taste of a lifestyle James Bond himself would undoubtedly approve of, combining one of a kind history with first-rate food and service, a brand new onsite spa, and the relaxed good life Jamaica is famous for.
www.goldeneye.com

Until very recently, the second home market on Roatan was almost exclusively aimed at avid scuba divers. Now golfers have a good reason to look at this quiet Caribbean Island as a destination for that dream Caribbean home away from home.

Roatan is more than 30 miles off the mainland coast of Honduras, but the island has always marched to its own tune – even during the recent military coup in the capital, life here went on in totally normal fashion, which is to say, another day in paradise – cocktails, diving, boats trips and laying in the sun. Almost all tourism infrastructure, from dive shops to restaurants, is owned, managed or staffed by ex-pats from other countries or lifelong Roatan natives, who consider themselves part of the Caribbean rather than Central America, and the result is the best you will find in Honduras.

The Scuba diving is widely considered among the very best on earth, with easy access to the world’s second largest barrier reef and warm, clear waters teeming with marine life. Diving is why people have come since the 1960s, and the sleepy, easy going lifestyle is why they have often stayed or made second homes here. It is also inexpensive, both for real estate and cost of living, and half a million dollars will buy you an impressive and spacious beachfront home of 3-4,000 square feet, with a big focus on outdoor living and plenty of decks and patios. On Roatan you get more bang for your buck than on almost any comparable Caribbean real estate, and property taxes are extremely low, with no sales or income taxes whatsoever (though buyers should be aware that since outdoor living is taken for granted as part of the lifestyle, decks are often included in square footage totals for home listings, not the norm elsewhere).

With a very high profile golf community that is the island’s first, and a new $62 million cruise ship facility, Roatan is on the verge of awakening from its off-the-radar slumber. Two years ago the island saw a quarter million cruise visitors, 2010 has brought about three quarters of a million, and next year they are predicting a million, an impressive fourfold increase in just 36 months. The number of direct flights from the US has exploded in the past few years, with easy non-stop service from Houston, Miami, Newark and Atlanta. Its location outside the hurricane belt is another positive factor, attracting buyers scared by the risk of damage from the big Caribbean storms.

A large new marina now under construction at the Pristine Bay community should attract more non-cruise boaters – and Pristine Bay is already attracting golf fans. Right now, for buyers who do not want individual homes and are looking for a planned, amenitized community, this is Roatan’s and the islands 800-pound real estate gorilla, home to the Black Pearl, a dramatic new 7,257-yard Pete Dye designed golf course, half opened with the remaining nine debuting in early 2011. Fourteen of the holes feature ocean views. The 405-acre development is located on the central North shore, the island’s new hub of development, and will soon include a hotel, beach club, the marina and an adjacent village center with shops and restaurants. Two-bedroom villas start at $600,000 while the 4-bedroom models are just over a million, and to-be-built condos will sell for $350-$700,000. Lots for custom homes start just over $200,000.
www.pristinebayresort.com

World-renowned and award-winning chefs and wine experts roll up their sleeves for the Cayman Cookout at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman on Seven Mile Beach. Wine tastings, culinary demonstrations, friendly chats and other informative, inspirational and invaluable events open up the world of delectable cuisine found in the finest restaurants across the globe. Events range from a relaxed kids’ brunch and an artisan market to gala dinners and champagne brunches hosted by the Ritz-Carlton perched on some of Caymans finest real estate, Seven Mile beach.

The event is hosted by none other than Eric Ripert, acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest seafood chefs and star of the recent PBS series “Avec Eric.” Guests will join Ripert along with several other famed celebrity chefs and food critics for a four-day culinary tour across the Cayman Islands. The intimately-styled events include a starlit dinner on the Seven Mile Beach, a picnic on Starfish Point, and the seven-course Gala Dinner In Blue…

Some of the special culinary guests featured at this year’s event include culinary travel expert Anthony Bourdain, JBF award-winning Spanish chef Jose Andres, Irish celebrity chef Rachel Allen, fusion cuisine expert Susur Lee, Miami chef Michael Schwartz, award-winning restaurateur Charlie Trotter, and Food & Wine Magazine writer Gail Simmons. Napa Valley wine experts Dennis Cakebread and Bo Barrett will be present as well, sharing their expertise from the region along with renowned critics Ray Isle and Anthony Giglio.

Director of Tourism Shomari Scott says that the annual Cookout is just one way that the island community celebrates its rich culinary culture. “Each year, we witness the four-day weekend grow with the addition of new events tantalizing the taste buds of even the most discerning of diners, and Cayman Cookout 2011 is sure to attract those truly passionate about great food.”

The Cayman Cookout 2011 will be held January 13-16. Tickets and more information can be found on www.caymanislands.ky/cayman_cookout

Chef Eric Ripert
Born in Antibes, France, Chef Eric Ripert began his relationship with food in the most formative of all kitchens, his grandmother’s. Watching, tasting and learning at her elbow, Ripert developed the Mediterranean palate that influences his cooking today. When the young chef’s family moved to Andorra, just over the Spanish border, he expanded his repertoire to include Spanish flavors and ingredients.

Ripert attended culinary school in Perpignan, and in 1982 moved to Paris to work at La Tour D’Argent, the renowned Parisian establishment that dates back more than 400 years. After two years as a cook, Ripert moved to the Michelin three-star, Jamin, where he soon was promoted to Assistant Chef de Partie. He left to fulfill his military service in 1985, then returned at the request of Jamin chef/owner Joel Robuchon, as Chef Poissonier.

Ripert came to the United States in 1989 to work as sous chef at Jean Louis in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. In 1991, he moved to New York, where he worked briefly as sous-chef under David Bouley until he was offered to work for Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze as a chef for Le Bernardin.

In 1995, Ripert earned a four star rating from the New York Times and Le Bernardin continues to receive critical acclaim for its food and service, including being recognized by the Zagat Guide as the “Best Food” in New York City for the past four consecutive years. In 1998, the James Beard Foundation named Le Bernardin Outstanding Restaurant of the Year and Eric Ripert Top Chef in New York City, and in 1999 they received the Outstanding Service Award. In 2003 the James Beard Foundation named Ripert Outstanding Chef in the United States.

Chef Rachel Allen
Rachel Allen was brought up in Dublin and left home at eighteen to study at the world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery School. Rachel is now a busy TV chef, author, journalist and mother, and still teaches at Ballymaloe.

Rachel is the author of four bestselling cookery books, which include Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home and Rachel’s Food for Living. Her extremely popular television series for RTE and the BBC have been broadcast internationally and she frequently appears on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen. Her charming manner and effortless style make her a delight to watch. Rachel is columnist and contributor to a number of Irish publications, including the The Sunday Tribune magazine, and is often featured in articles and interviews in the media.

Chef Anthony Bourdain
Dubbed “the bad boy of cuisine” for his rock-star look and blunt observations about the world of restaurants, chefs and cooking, Anthony Bourdain is not your typical celebrity chef. A 28-year veteran of professional kitchens, Bourdain is currently the executive chef at New York’s famed bistro, Les Halles.

Bourdain entertains and educates with his exotic tales of travel and lessons learned from the kitchen trenches. He shares his passion on topics ranging from “Great Cuisines: The Common Thread” to the celebrity chef phenomenon and the culture of cooking. He also imparts his drill-sergeant approach to running a kitchen, which he shared with the Harvard Business Review, in “Management by Fire: A Conversation With Chef Anthony Bourdain.” “The fantastic mix of order and chaos,” he says, “demands a rigid hierarchy and a sacrosanct code of conduct, where punctuality, loyalty, teamwork and discipline are key to producing consistently good food.”

“Lights are blowing from the palm trees, stockings hanging from the mast. Santa riding on a dolphin, don’t you want to make it last. It’s Christmas in the Caribbean.” – Jimmy Buffett, Christmas in the Caribbean

In 1996, Jimmy Buffett brought a tropical Christmas to life with his hit “Christmas in the Caribbean.” He was not the first to trade-in snow for sand during the holidays, and he certainly won’t be the last. Shoveling icy slush in biting winds grows quickly tiresome, as do days that are short and bleak and nights that are dark and long. With Christmas and New Year’s so close together, the holiday season is the perfect time to gather-up friends and family and head for the tropics to create a new holiday tradition.

Tropical Christmas

The best part of a holiday trip to the tropics? Many cultures rich in island tradition hold holiday festivals and many encourage participation of visitors from around the world. This is a great time of year to experience the cultural diversity found in the Caribbean and Latin and Central America and to celebrate and shed inhibitions, even for a moment, during this wonderful time of year. If you choose not to dance and celebrate, it will not be for lack of opportunity. Luxury Living International has located the new winter wonderlands in paradise.

Bursting with music and festivity, St. Kitts is a fantastic place to experience a blend of celebrations. The St. Kitts National Carnival, a two-week festival starting on Dec.18, is a mix of African, European and regional influences resulting in a lively display of unique folklore and tradition. A conglomeration of celebrations including art, dance, poetry and drama, Carnival is a fun-filled event that runs through New Year’s. Revelers fill the streets to enjoy elaborate displays that comprise the heart of the festival with Masquerade, Mocko-Jumbies and clowns entertaining the crowds. The Masquerade is a showcase of dancers in intricate headdresses, while the Mocko-Jumbies are stilt-walkers that dance about in brightly colored costumes. The Bull is a comedic interpretation of an incident from the early 1900′s involving an errant prize bull running wild through the streets. A more traditional Christmas is revealed through music. Steel and brass drum bands add a Caribbean sound to carols as throngs of gospel choirs sing in downtown Basseterre. A jubilant experience for locals and visitors alike, Carnival in St. Kitts combines exuberant festivities with the Christmas holiday, something to provide a different “flair” to the typical, more traditional festivities.

Beach parties, private light displays and homecoming gatherings prove that there is something to help everyone find the holiday spirit in The Grand Cayman Islands. Traditionally the season was a time for sailors to return home from their nomadic lives aboard shipping vessels. Native Islanders would create their own “White Christmas” by piling sand for weeks-on-end into backyards until finally, on Christmas Eve, the piles were swept flat so that the entire yard was white and undisturbed. Tradition required that the sand not be walked on until Christmas Day and, even today, there are yards of white sand that still exist to keep the tradition alive. Church is central to the Cayman interpretation of Christmas, as well as holiday songs and poetry. Santa and Christmas Trees made their way to the Caymans in the early 1900′s and have been a mainstay ever since, the main difference being that Santa arrives via boat instead of sleigh. The Cayman locals have embraced the spirit of Christmas decor. Their increasingly extravagant “Griswold” light displays will make any traveler feel at home.

Festival, the biggest party of the year in Montserrat, takes place in December, the highlight of which is Christmas Week. Festival runs from Dec. 4 until New Years Day. Dedicated to celebration, Christmas Week is a culmination of a number of fun-filled activities. The Miss Festival Queen Pageant, a Calypso King Competition and musical extravaganzas comprise some of the events, as well as caroling on Christmas day. The origin of the festival lies in the history of plantation life, when slaves would get three days off to celebrate Christmas. Since the abolition of slavery, the three-day festival has grown into a month-long jubilee, ending on New Year’s Day. Visitors flock to Montserrat for the yearly festival, even more so now that flights from Antigua have become available to make travel that much easier.

Costa Rica is home to one of the most traditional Christmas celebrations in the region. Children are on a month-long break from school, and all working adults receive their mandatory end-of-year bonus. There are three Christmas parades; El Carnival with dancers and musical groups from all across the country, El Tope, a parade of show horses and decorative hand-painted ox carts, and the favorite, El Festival de Luzes, a nighttime parade filled with thousands of decorative lights. Many of the floats in the Festival de Luzes feature fluffy white decorations to imitate snow. Toros a la Tica, or bull fighting, is also a favorite tradition for many native Costa Ricans, and gringo visitors or residents are encouraged to participate in all festivities. Christmas is celebrated with fervor, and feasts are prepared for days and enjoyed well into the nights. They finally end on Jan. 6, symbolizing the arrival of the three wise men.

The British Virgin Islands are a perennial favorite for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, with plenty of fantastic parties. Celebrations include feasting and caroling as well as a unique and native “Christmas” tree. Known as a Fishing Rod Tree, the tall succulent plant blooms in April and by December has seed pod clusters that are decorated silver to add to the aura of the celebration. Spiced Guavaberry rum is the traditional drink, and streets are filled with calypso and reggae music as shoppers hunt for last minute gifts. In anticipation of New Year’s, yachts jostle for prime anchorages. It’s hard to go wrong and the weather and winds are, typically, ideal

Last-minute travel deals mean it’s never too late to plan a Christmas abroad. Start a new tropical holiday tradition searching for sleigh tracks in the sand on a beautiful sunny beach this Christmas morning. Why not start 2010 tanned, refreshed and the envy of the town!

Opened in 2006, Punta Espada has the distinction of being the first golf course in the Dominican Republic to host a PGA TOUR sanctioned event, having been the site of The Cap Cana Championship, a golf tournament on the PGA TOUR’s Champions Tour, since 2008. The third annual Cap Cana Championship golf tournament is scheduled for March 22 to 28. Punta Espada is the first of what is expected to be three Jack Nicklaus Signature courses located within Cap Cana. Las Iguanas, the second Nicklaus Signature golf course, currently under construction, is due to open next year.

Cap Cana is a 30,000-acre, master-planned luxury resort and real estate community located on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. The community is fully operational with championship golf and yachting facilities, a hotel, beaches, dining and retail establishments and more. Since breaking ground in 2002, Cap Cana has invested approximately $800 million in infrastructure and other improvements and has entered into contracts with aggregate value of approximately $1.4 billion for the sale of approximately 1,500 units of real estate properties. Throughout this period, Cap Cana has delivered approximately 700 real estate properties to buyers, including retail and developer hotel lots, condominiums and villas. Call 809-227-2262 or visit www.capcana.com.

Roatan a tiny but very sexy island is more than 30 miles off the mainland, is part of Honduras. But the island paradise for scuba divers, and increasingly for international second-home owners, also has its own identity. “We consider ourselves part of the Western Caribbean, a territory unto ourselves, like Puerto Rico is to the United States,” says Andrew Storms, an independent real estate agent with RE/MAX Roatan. “It is very much a community of native islanders and ex-pats, mostly Americans but also from Australia, New Zealand, Italy and many other countries.”

Roatan, the largest of Honduras’ three Bay Islands at 37 miles long, is on the cusp of being a full-blown tourism destination. It’s drawing more cruise ships and flights. It’s first golf community is nearing completion. “We are the Cayman Islands or Bahamas 15 years ago – we are 15 years behind in terms of tourism,” Storms says. “But the same is true for prices, and $500,000 buys a lot more here than on other Caribbean islands real estate.

Elizabeth Cano of Fortune International Realty in Coral Gables, Fla., which sells some Roatan real estate, is more blunt: “When you tell people Honduras, they sometimes get scared, but on Roatan, much business is handled by Americans. If you go scuba diving, the captain is American, the instructors giving you lessons are American.” Spanish is the official language of Honduras, but English is spoken widely on Roatan. And it’s English speaking sister Belize sits only a stones through away too.

Scuba diving has long been the No. 1 draw of the island, which is surrounded by the world’s second-largest barrier reef. The island has more than 100 marked sites, dozens of dive shops and a reputation as one of the least-expensive places for experienced divers and novices. On land, lush, mountainous Roatan remains rather pristine.

Value is the biggest reason driving second-home sales right now, Storms says. “There has been a decrease in values in the last two years of 30% to 40%, and we are seeing Americans and Canadians scooping up homes,” he says. “It’s cheaper to buy a new home than to build.”

The island’s most established second-home region, the western tip, offers single-family houses starting at about $300,000. The remote east end is cheaper. “I just sold a 2,000-square-foot home with a 1,000-square-foot deck for $240,000 – on an acre on the coast,” Storms says. “You couldn’t even build that house for that.”

A look at three Roatan neighborhoods

West Coast: The best-developed enclave of second homes includes three nearby towns with separate personalities. West Bay is sleepy, a true beach resort for sun and surf lovers. West End has a small village filled with shops. It’s home to the island’s dining and nightlife, and it attracts an artistic crowd. Local real estate agent Andrew Storms likens it to Venice Beach, Calif. The upscale town of Sandy Bay is home to Lawson Rock, the most prestigious residential community. Condos and single-family houses in West End and West Bay run from $300,000 to $600,000. Lawson Rock condos begin at $500,000 and houses at $1 million.

Pristine Bay: On the central North Shore, this is the most ambitious new project on Roatan and “the only development here that continued work and pushed through the hard economic times, which has been very reassuring to buyers,” Storms says. The first villas are complete. Condos are under construction. The first nine holes of a golf course are open. The second nine holes, a hotel and beach club are planned for early 2011. The 405-acre development also will get a marina and adjacent village of shops and restaurants that’s designed to be a community unto itself. Two-bedroom villas start at $600,000, and four-bedroom models are more than $1 million. New condos will sell for $348,000-$700,000.

East End: “The opening of Pristine Bay has opened up the island a lot more, with services, gas stations and shops popping up around it in the mid-island,” Storms says. “More people are moving east, where it is cheaper.” Port Royal is the largest village on the remote eastern tip. It’s near a high-quality oceanfront home Storm recently sold for $240,000. “It’s for people who really want to get away from it all, as you are about a 45-minute drive from any services,” Storm says. “You get a lot more for your money, plus peace and quiet.”

Who doesn’t want to experience the good life and enjoy the pleasures that come with owning a luxury vacation home in the Caribbean or Latin America? You’ve worked hard and earned your success but spending millions on the posh Aspen pad, the Caribbean Villa or the private jet is still tough to justify even if you have the cash. For many, making those goals a reality is only possible through fractional ownership; all the luxury – at a fraction of the costs.

Just four years ago luxury second and vacation homes were the fastest growing segment of residential real estate. Baby boomers flush with cash and equity in their primary homes decided to live the dream of owning that opulent second home in places like the Rockies, Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Between 2003 and 2006 luxury developments were selling out in months, in some cases, weeks. Now, those days are gone, probably forever. With much of their equity evaporated and the pile of fun money dwindled, baby boomers have pulled back from the $1M or $2M dollar vacation villa perched on a warm sunny beach.

But, there is one thing that has not dwindled, their desire to enjoy time and reconnect with family and friends in a beautiful location in a luxurious home in places such as Bermuda, or on a white sand beach in St. Barts or the Dominican Republic. From younger wealthy consumers to millions of Baby Boomers, consumers still have the urge to travel, to have exotic adventures and to do it all from a luxurious vacation home instead of a cramped hotel room. After all, they’ve still earned it.

But spending a couple of million on a beach house that you will probably only a use three or four weeks a year, for most, doesn’t make much financial sense. Upkeep expenses, maintenance hassles, taxes, and property management can really take the fun out of relaxing on the beach or playing a round of golf in paradise.

Luckily, for active and affluent vacationers, back in 1990 an advertising executive in Park City, Utah’s stylish Deer Valley ski resort came up with an idea that changed the vacation home ownership model forever. Steve Dering observed that multi-million-dollar Deer Valley vacation homes sat empty most of the year. Dering’s idea: build the luxury residences the Deer Valley market wanted, provide use that mirrored Deer Valley homeowners, offer more services and amenities than any other real estate product, and make the ownership price and annual cost proportionate to the amount of time they’d use it by spreading them among six owners per residence. The result was the Deer Valley Club.

Hence, the first private Residence Club, the luxury segment of fractional ownership, was born. Today, that simple concept has spread far beyond ski resorts and meets the needs of a new buyer for whom luxury and efficiency go together, and their playgrounds are North America, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.

The shared ownership business model has now grown into a billion dollar per year real estate option that is expected to grow at a much more rapid rate than traditional vacation home ownership. According to research done by Ragatz Associates there were over 200 residence clubs and other fractional developments in North America in 2006 alone and fractional ownership can now be found throughout the world. Others concur, “Fractional ownership is indisputably growing in popularity as the vacation home market continues to evolve,” said Scott D. Berman, Principal, and Hospitality & Leisure Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Despite the increase in product awareness, there are many US households with means who are still not familiar with fractional ownership and its lifestyle attributes, creating demand-side opportunities where fractional ownership is suitable.”

To put it into simple terms; The real estate is owned as deeded real estate or deeded equivalent in a corporation owned by individuals; each owns a percentage share in the asset and has equal rights and privileges to using the property. Normally a management company provides the daily asset management overseeing upkeep hassles and typically provides services often similar to those you would find in a luxury hotel. From transportation and travel services and grocery shopping to housekeeping, private chefs and pool butlers seems to be the norm in luxury fractional real estate.

Dering is now a principal and founding partner of DCP International, a consulting firm that has brought more than 30 residence clubs to market. He noted that residence clubs were the fastest growing segment within the vacation home market when the recession hit.

“There’s no question that our sales have slowed during this downturn,” Dering said. “However, existing clubs are still selling, albeit at a slower pace, and we are in the process of converting stalled whole ownership developments into residence clubs at ‘reset’ prices. Our concept makes even more sense now that the investment incentive has been removed from the vacation home purchase.”

Bill Shea, with Palms International and a partner in Cielo del Mar, a new boutique fractional project in Las Terrenas, a growing area on the Dominican Republic’s northern coast explains “Our research showed that most people only used their second or vacation homes 20-30 days per year. The fractional ownership model is appealing to more and more affluent buyers even allowing consumers who may not be considered wealthy to enjoy our luxury beachfront villas at a fraction of the cost. And they have many of the services and amenities of a five star resort, services that a single vacation homeowner can’t enjoy without substantial costs and management”.

Some luxury hotel groups run their own private residence clubs including Ritz Carlton, St.Regis and Four Seasons. Occasionally membership in a private residence club grants to its members only a right to use the club properties and services without ownership in the properties themselves. But in the case of Cielo del Mar, a Private Residence Club in the Dominican Republic, members own the real estate and share in potential appreciation. And ownership is a fully transferable asset like any real property.

In addition to luxury fractionals and private residence clubs, single “stand-alone” vacation homes can be converted into fractional ownership. Converting a vacation home can be accomplished by any knowledgeable seller or through a fractional consulting company such as the Palms Collection in the Dominican Republic. The benefit of fractional home conversion includes the ability of the homeowner to keep a portion of the ownership for themselves if they wish, cashing out some of their equity or to pay off debt and offset expenses.

The benefits of fractional home ownership are so compelling that many people who could easily afford their own place are opting for the fractional ownership model instead. Perhaps even more surprising, many people who already own vacation homes are choosing to sell some fractional interests in order to lighten their cost and management load while maintaining use of the property, as often as when they were the sole owner.

Without sounding like a sales pitch, it’s hard to find something that doesn’t make sense about fractional ownership. Lower acquisition costs offer more home for the buck than you could or would normally afford, professional management and luxury resort style services make it easy to see why fractional ownership and the residence club model is predicted to be the fastest growing segment of vacation and second home ownership for a long time to come. It just makes good sense.