MARCH MADNESS: THIS IS IT

Today the day got away with me.
I’d hoped to post a reminder about the sweeps that close at one minute to midnight tonight (EST) much earlier in the day. Here we are, past the dinner hour. Here’s the list, with just over four hours to go.
For more details on each, see my earlier entry http://travelcontests.blogspot.com/2006/03/march-deadline-madness.html
I feel like Cinderella.

Go for it.

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HONG KONG 5-NIGHT GETAWAY
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.continentalflyaway.com/EntryForm/
THE DIGS: www.miramarhk.com
ARV: (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,000
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LAS VEGAS: 2 NIGHTS AT PARIS LAS VEGAS
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.GQConnects.com (Go to Sweepstakes column on the right, it’s the Cinco de Mayo one)
THE DIGS: www.caesars.com/paris/lasvegas/
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. possessions (e.g., Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands)
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,500
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3 NIGHTS AT WATERMARK HOTEL & SPA SAN ANTONIO
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.concierge.com/destination/austin
(Click on the Texas It’s a Whole Other Country ad to the right.)
THE DIGS: www.watermarkhotel.com/
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Texas
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,950
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DATE A HOT SCOT: 3 NIGHTS IN EDINBURGH AND AIRFARE
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.dateahotscot.com
SPONSOR: Visit Scotland
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): Not specified.
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WEEK IN MEXICO FOR DAY OF THE DEAD
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.cinearts.com
THE DIGS: Not specified.
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida, New York, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, all U.S. territories and possessions, overseas military installations.
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $7,600
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3 NIGHTS IN JAMAICA
TO ENTER, CUT AND PASTE: http://www.nbc4.tv/travelgetaways/6656066/detail.html
THE DIGS: Not disclosed.
THE INELIGIBLES: Florida, New York and Rhode Island
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $2,600
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ANDALUCIA: 7 NIGHTS WITH RENTAL CAR PLUS AIRFARE FROM NEW YORK

TO ENTER, CUT AND PASTE: www.andalucianaffair.com/cgi-bin/sweeps.cgi
THE DIGS: Various 4/5-star hotels
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida and Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,900
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SOUTH AFRICAN WINE COUNTRY/SAFARI TOUR: 8 NIGHTS TOTAL, INCLUDES 3 NIGHTS AT MAKALALI PRIVATE GAME RESERVE AND AIRFARE
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.kumalausa.com/sweepstakes
THE DIGS: www.makalali.co.za (among others)
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Hawaii, Alaska, California
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $10,000
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15 DAYS IN AUSTRALIA WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WILDLIFE SCIENTIST (Sydney, Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory Outback, Tasmania)
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://efxmedia.net/ngaustralia0510/sweepstakes.html
THE DIGS: Various
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida and Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $20,000
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CHOOSE FROM FIVE LUXURY PACKAGES TO ST. LUCIA, CRETE, RIMINI, SEYCHELLES, MAYA RIVIERA
TO ENTER: www.luxurylink.com/LL/home_win_trip.php?save=1&suppress_email=all&WT.mc_id=TLEmail
THE DIGS: Winner selects one from five. My choice: www.thejalousieplantation.com in St. Lucia
AVR (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): TBD
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SOUTH BEACH AND ROME SWEEPS

These two close today.

If you haven't already, go for it.

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SOUTH BEACH: SPA STAY AT RITZ CARLTON SOUTH BEACH WITH $250 IN SPA TREATMENTS

DEADLINE: March 30, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking/web/ad/pur/
SPONSOR: Cooking Light and PUR water filtration systems
THE DIGS: www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/south_beach
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,300
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 13, 2006
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ROMAN HOLIDAY THREE NIGHTS AND AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 30
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://newsletter.frommers.com/contest.asp?sid=YGNHRF6YHV&id=33 (NOTE: If this link has "timed out," click on the contest icon to the left.)
SPONSOR: Frommer’s Monthly Hot Spot Contest
THE DIGS: Three nights in a premier hotel
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,400
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 20, 2006
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HONG KONG: MIND FENG SHUI

What happens to a honeymoon after the marriage ends? Does it disintegrate? Or does it endure beyond the door that has shut between two people, between two rooms that were once connected?

We went to China for our honeymoon, for three weeks. We flew in and out of Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, we took the overnight boat to Guandong, flew to Guilin, took the boat along the Li River to Yangshou, took the boat from Yanghsou back to Guilin, flew to Kunming, took a bus to Dali, along the old Burma Road, took a bus back to Kunming, again, along the old Burma Road, flew back to Hong Kong, flew back home.

We saw women fighting in the airport. We saw a dog being roasted in a market. We rode the bus with the man with the smelliest feet in the world. We saw corrupt officials driving a black Cadillac though the provincial countryside. We met an artist, who invited us to his apartment. He showed us political cartoons he'd drawn, of corrupt officials driving a black Cadillac through the provincial countryside. He sold us art. He served us tea.

We had a running argument in Dali. I wanted to go to Lijiang. He didn’t want to go to Lijiang. In the end, we didn’t go to Lijiang. I think he was afraid the Naxi, one of China’s ethnic minorities, might influence me. They live in a matriarchal system, or the vestiges of one.

Coming and going, we stayed several nights in Hong Kong. While we were there, my son’s father mailed me an oversize postcard on the sly, a photograph of the Hong Kong skyline at night, with two words written on it: “Remember this.”

It was in the mail when we got back from our honeymoon. "Remember this." And I do. Only what I remember is mostly a trip without him, as if I had taken in the sounds and sights of Hong Kong and China on my own. It remains one of the great trips of my life.

This one, a five-night trip to Hong Kong, closes Friday March 31 at 11:59 ET.

Go for it.

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HONG KONG 5-NIGHT GETAWAY

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.continentalflyaway.com/EntryForm/
SPONSOR: In-Flight Media Associates, Continental Airlines Vacations, China Tourism Company
THE DIGS: www.miramarhk.com
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,000
FINE PRINT: Must travel by April 1, 2007
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 29, 2006
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Photo Credit: Jeremy Levy dreamstime.com

POPPIES, ZOOS AND SAFARIS

When I was an exchange student in France, the summer between high school and college, I would crawl into bed at night with a paperback bilingual Larousse dictionary and look up my vocabulary words for the day. I was living with a French family in Auvergne, in central France, under the auspices of the American Field Service. No one in the family spoke English. By the end of the day most days, I had a fierce enough headache from listening to French all damn day that looking up words in the dictionary was the last thing I wanted to do. But I was hellbent on learning the language.

It didn’t take long for me to notice a phenomenon whereby I would detect a new-to-me French word for the first time, like, say, coquelicot. I’d avail myself of the nearest family member, and try to get a sense of the word, in French, of course. We'd go back and forth. (Mais, c'est quelle type de fleur? Rouge? Mais, quelle type de fleur rouge?) If after further volley I did not have a satisfactory sense of the word, I would look up it up that night. Oh, coquelicot. That’s a poppy. And I’d add it to my swelling registry of French Words I Know. Then, sometimes the very next day, I would start hearing the word I’d just added to my active vocabulary. Coquelicot this, coquelicot that. And I’d wonder how I could have gone all these days without having noticed the word, a word that did not seem to exist one day, and then, suddenly, after I'd looked it up, was on everyone's lips the next.

Maybe linguists have a name for this.

All this is to say that a similar phenomenon is happening with this sweeps business. Before I started this blog (three weeks ago yesterday, if anyone’s counting), I did not pay travel sweeps much attention. Now, they seem to be cropping up like poppies. The first week, there was the Las Vegas Sweepstakes Lady who called, the second week, there was my friend Lorraine who’d met a friend because of a travel sweeps. In the mail yesterday, I received a sweeps offer from my neighborhood zoo, the Friends of the National Zoo. For all I know, they’ve been sponsoring sweeps forever. But I’d never noticed any.

There are oodles of goods to be had. The grand prize is three nights at the El Dorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, plus airfare, for two. The second prize is a two nights in Chicago, at the Crowne Plaza, plus airfare. They are asking for a suggested donation of $5 per ticket. I believe this is a variation on the way my friend – code name Ms. Shoes – won her trip from the local public television station.

I’m going to contribute something. As problematic as zoos are, the zoo has played a huge and wonderful role in my son’s development. It’s practically our backyard. We wake some mornings to the sounds of the whoop-whoop-whoop territorial cry of the gibbons. When my son was younger, we went there nearly once a week, sometimes more. On his first birthday, while he was fixated on the monkeys, I promised I would take him to the rainforest one day, to a beach where monkeys swung overhead from tree to tree. We went to Costa Rica two summers ago.

I wisely did not promise to take him on a safari. A safari is more complicated than the rainforest, more expensive, farther away, too. Plus, he seemed too young. Now that he's older, I think a safari would be grand.

So far, I’ve entered one safari sweeps, for this trip to South Africa that includes a wine tour and a stay at the Makalali, a private game reserve (www.makalali.co.za). (There are more on the way.)

This is one of the sweeps that closes in the next two days.

If you enter this one, be sure you open the email you'll get with the subject line “Kumala Safari Sweepstakes and Newsletter Confirmation” from this sender: webmaster@vincorusa.com. I thought it was a thank-you, and did not read it for over a week. It turns out the email contains a link you have to click to complete your entry.

Go for it.

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SOUTH AFRICAN WINE COUNTRY/SAFARI TOUR: 8 NIGHTS TOTAL, INCLUDES 3 NIGHTS AT MAKALALI PRIVATE GAME RESERVE AND AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.kumalausa.com/sweepstakes
SPONSOR: KUMALI WINES
THE DIGS: www.makalali.co.za (among others)
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Hawaii, Alaska, California
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $10,000
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 20, 2006
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FIJI: HOW I LEARNED TO DIVE

In yet another example that I might be getting carried away with the fantasy component of this enterprise, I am already planning a pre-prize stay in Santa Monica around this one, a one-week stay at Namale, a spa and resort in the Fiji Islands. Roundtrip airfare is from L.A., so why not? I have been smitten with Santa Monica since my first visit there, on a business trip in 1990. Several years later, I came very close to accepting a job offer in L.A. but I ended up staying in D.C. This was right before the big earthquake of 1992, and, as a friend pointed out several days later, maybe it was a good thing that I’d stayed in D.C., because if I had moved to L.A., I might have died, been injured or otherwise hugely inconvenienced. I don’t care much for the “what if” game, except from time to time I ask myself: What if Diana hadn’t married that awful Prince Charles? Poor girl.

On this business trip, I stayed at the Cal-Mar (www.calmarhotel.com), a charmingly divey place a few blocks north of the Third Street Promenade, a few blocks east of the ocean, very Nathaniel West, very Miss Lonelyhearts. I had traveled to L.A. with a colleague, on a Saturday; this was back when Saturday stayovers were de rigueur. She was staying at the Cal-Mar, too. The first night, we went out to dinner in Beverly Hills, at a restaurant whose name I've forgotten. While we eating our appetizers, the napkin in the breadbasket caught on fire when one of us (most likely me) placed the breadbasket too close to the candle. I hoped it wasn’t an omen for the trip.

By coincidence, a photographer friend of a photo-editor friend of mine was also in L.A. from D.C., he was covering the Academy Awards the next evening. He said he could get me a press pass and hang with him. (I was writing for a newspaper myself at the time.) My stars! This was back in the day when I was scene, “scene” as adjective, “scene” as in I wanted to be a part of one when there was one. I very much wanted to go. Only I didn’t want to ditch my colleague. Plus, I didn’t think my friend’s friend wanted me tagging along. Months later, I bumped into him at a party back in D.C., and he asked me where I’d been that evening. “I was waiting for you to call!” he told me, and I could tell he really meant it. In the end I’d gone out to dinner with two colleagues, to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in West L.A. (I think it later closed.) Then, I’d gone back to my room and, very Nathaniel West, very Miss Lonelyhearts with a twist, watched the Academy Awards. I was incredulous, and sad, and mad, that Dancing with Wolves beat Goodfellas for Best Picture.

Speaking of movies, there is a wonderful old film, The Hurricane, set on a fictitious South Pacific island, starring Raymond Massey and Dorothy Lamour. It's hauntingly atmospheric, even if it won't leave you wanderlusting for a trip to that part of the world. As for going to Fiji, it certainly is a long distance to travel for one week, especially from the East Coast. Yet, what if? I would take diving lessons; Namale is a 5-star PADI resort. The diving, in the Koro Sea, is supposed to be stupendous, with little current, and coral walls and coral gardens. (Of course, I would worry about the bends. I am a tad accident prone; travel tends to accentuate the affliction. I therefore avoid high adventure activities. If I broke an arm or a leg on a trip, it would probably be because I tripped climbing out of a hammock.) I would also partake of multiple massages and facials. The treatments have great sounding names, like the Fijian BoBo massage and SavaSava facial. Ah, the ah of it.

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FIJI: ONE WEEK AT NAMALE RESORT

DEADLINE: April 16, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.spa-addicts.com/metimesweeps/default.asp
THE SPONSOR: Spa Addicts
THE DIGS : www.namalefiji.com
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $11,500
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 27, 2006
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PUERTO RICO: MY HEART'S DEVOTION

There’s a snobbism at work with these online sweeps. Practical, humdrum prizes, like a year’s worth of gas-oline, or outlandishly impractical prizes, like a Hummer H2, don’t have the same cachet as the exotic getaway. (I’ve seen sweeps for both in the past 24 hours.) We may live in an era of mass travel, but the idea of vacation as prize trumps a year’s worth of fossil fuel any day. Friends who would never go for a year’s worth of gasoline – “Why bother?” they say with a shrug – or some vulgar gas-guzzling military mobile get starry-eyed at the chance of winning a trip somewhere. It fuels the travel as credential, travel as redemption phenomenon.

Over the weekend, I entered sweeps for Scot-land, Britain and Arizona. (Details to come in the coming weeks.) I entered this today's featured sweeps, for a two-night stay in Puerto Rico plus airfare, last week. It’s the first either/or sweeps I’ve come across, where the sponsors choose the accommodations based on availability. That’s very practical, but what if the winner has been pining for, say, the Martineau Bay Resort in Vieques (www.martineaubayresort.com) over the Westin Rio Mar Beach Golf Resort & Spa in Rio Grande (www.westinriomar.com) or vice versa? Personally, I'd be thrilled with either.

Luckily for the handful of friends and family I’ve hoodwinked into reading this blog, I have never been to Puerto Rico, so no trip reminiscentiae today. (Big sigh of relief there, no doubt.) That said, it would be great fun to get there one day, for many reasons, but especially because one of my son’s teachers this year is from Puerto Rico.

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PUERTO RICO: 2 NIGHTS AT RESORT PLUS AIRFARE

DEADLINE: May 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.travelandleisure.com/contests/perryellis/sweeps/
SPONSORS: Travel + Leisure, Perry Ellis, Puerto Rican Tourism Company, et alia.
THE DIGS: www.martineaubayresort.com or www.westinriomar.com THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,500
THE FINE PRINT: Travel by December 31, 2006
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 23, 2006
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[Full disclosure: I have purchased, and subsequently worn, Perry Ellis articles of clothing. I have also written articles for Travel + Leisure. I plan to research whether having written for a sponsoring magazine renders one ineligible for sweeps participation. I know my freelancer friends are burning to know.]

PLEASE EXCUSE OUR APPEARANCE

While I conduct an experiment with the Google ads that appear in that massive "skyscraper" column on the lower left-hand side of the screen. (Scroll down, and you will see it in all its kiwi-green and turquoise glory.) I'm trying to weed out the ostensible competition, the mass sweepstakes of the moment.

COLORADO: ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH-END

This one leaves me absolutely covetous: 10 nights at four of Colorado’s premiere Rocky Mountain resorts, for four, arranged by Abercrombie and Kent, plus use of an Audi Q7, a new SUV from the Swedish automaker, for the trip. The sweepstakes is part of the Q7 launch campaign.

Vroom vroom.

Here’s the grand prize itinerary:
Day 1: Fly into Eagle, CO.
Stay at Sonnenalp Resort in Vail. www.sonnenalp.com.
(N.B. This is funny: The Sonnenalp’s homepage says the Lexus is the preferred vehicle of the Sonnenalp Resort. I wonder if the folks at Audi know this.)
Days 2, 3, 4: Stay at the Smith Fork Ranch, www.smithforkranch.com, in the West Elk Mountains.
Days 5, 6, 7: Stay at the Elk Mountain Resort (www.elkmountainresort.com)in the San Juan Mountains.
Days 8, 9, 10: Stay at the Keyah Grand, www.keyahgrande.com, in the Four Corners area.
Day 11: Fly out of Eagle, CO.

The first-place prize is a comparable 10-night trip for four in Utah. The winners fly in and out of Las Vegas. (What is this with Las Vegas? It keeps cropping up.)

My fantasy is so complete on this one that I am concerned that the itinerary is a tad too scheduled, with dinners and breakfasts, but believe me, I would enjoy one of these two trips to the hilt. I love that they arranged three consecutive three-night stays instead of mixing up shorter and longer stays. Three days is perfect for relaxing and getting a feel for a place.
The Flash microsite is cool, too, complete with a Sting-inspired soundtrack.

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COLORADO ROCKIES ROAD TRIP FOR FOUR (GRAND PRIZE)
UTAH CANYONLAND ROAD TRIP FOR FOUR (FIRST PLACE PRIZE)

DEADLINE: May 15, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://microsites.audiusa.com/AudiQ7/html/flash.html
SPONSOR: AUDI
THE DIGS: Multiple luxury accommodations, arranged by Abercrombie & Kent
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $30,360 for Colorado; $22,025 for Utah.
FINE PRINT: Fixed dates of travel: Colorado starts on June 15, Utah starts on July 19.
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: numerous, daily, starting mid-March
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GERMANY: WORLD CUP 2006

These sweepstakes to the World Cup this summer in Germany really make you work. The first one I entered required a 250-word essay. (For details, see my WORLD CUP post of March 22.) Now this latest one includes a quiz. As I understand it, entrants must answer 11 questions correctly to qualify for the drawing. The pressure's on: Some travel sweepstakes that include quizzes do not disqualify less-than-perfect scores. On top of a perfect score, entrants must put the matching letter in a box at the bottom of the entry form. So, one more step that entrants could flub. Ergo the hodgepodge of letters next to the multiple choices below. This will be clear when you see the sweepstakes site.

Here’s the link to the contest itself:
www.magazine-deutschland.de/wm-quiz/index.php?lang=eng

To spare you the task of clicking around for the right answer, I’ve annotated the quiz below with helpful and, if I say so myself, informative hints. In the spirit of fair play, I have not provided answers.

THE PRIZE: Two World Cup tickets for the quarter final on July 1 in Gelsenkirken’s AufSchalke and a one-week trip to Germany for two (plus 99 other prizes, including scarves!).
SPONSORS: Continental Airlines (Official Partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany) and media partner Deutschland.
DEADLINE: April 30, 2006

QUIZ

1. Which World Cup is being held in Germany?
[B] The 15th World Cup
[D] The 18th World Cup
[W] The 20th World Cup

HINT: The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay. (Uruguay took the cup.) This website, Soccer Ball World, www.soccerballworld.com, has a photograph of the soccer ball used in the Uruguay-Argentina game, at www.soccerballworld.com/1930%20Soccer%20Ball.htm
On the same page, don't miss the oldest known soccer ball, Charles Goodyear’s 1855 vulcanized soccer number; it’s on display at the National Soccer Hall Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York. www.soccerballworld.com/Oldestball.htm
This link also has some amazing soccer history. The U.S. sent a team to this, the first, World Cup. The team, a handsome lot of players at that, advanced to the semifinals.
In addition to more history, the site has a link on the physics of the soccer ball. www.soccerballworld.com/Physics.htm
Be sure to check out the Beckham goal. As for the correct answer, remember that the World Cup has been held every four years since 1930, save for 1942 and 1946, due to World War II. (So, 76 minus 8 divided by ... )

2. How many teams are taking part in the World Cup in Germany?
[R] 16 teams
[S] 24 teams
[E] 32 teams

HINT: The U.S. is in Group E with Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic. (Ouch. For a blogger fixated on luck, this was definitely not a lucky draw.)
There are Groups A through H, or 8 groups altogether. (Yes, this is another classic word problem, 8 times ...)

3. What is the motto of the 2006 World Cup?

[C] The ball is round
[T] You must be eleven friends
[U] A time to make friends

HINT: You should be able to answer this correctly through the process of elimination. One would be a celebration of the ridiculously obvious, another would be testing the outer limits of absurdity with a lovely prime but otherwise meaningless number. P.S. The correct answer has a Trademark. What is the World Cup coming to?

4. How many international sponsors are supporting the 2006 World Cup?

[T]15 sponsors
[M] 20 sponsors
[V] 25 sponsors

HINT: You can count for yourself at http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/partners.html.
Interesting, nary a non-G-7 official partner.

5. In which industry is World Cup sponsor Continental active?

[F] Aviation
[S] Automotive
[K] Travel

HINT: Don’t you hate when there is more than one correct answer. Which answer is more correct here, folks? Comments appreciated.

6. In how many cities will matches take place?

[L] In 8 cities
[C] In 12 cities
[N] In 16 cities

HINT: To see for yourself, check out the Official Partner Yahoo! map to the right of the screen on this link. Latin teachers and English grammar geeks everywhere will appreciate the proper plural form of stadium here. Here, here.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/d/v/hamburg.html

7. Where is the final being held?

[G] In Munich
[H] In Berlin
[P] In Dortmund

HINT: Talk about history, soccer and otherwise. The World Cup final will be held in the same stadium where the German Cup Final is held. It is also where Jesse Owens, that great American sprinter, won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.

8. How many times has Germany (men´s) won the World Cup?

[B] 1 time
[L] 3 times
[S] 5 times

HINT: It’s the median and the mode! (With a nod to my son’s new math curriculum, Everyday Math.) Here’s a cool summary of World Cups past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup#World_Cup_summaries

9. How many times has Germany hosted a World Cup tournament?

[A] 1 time
[T] 2 times
[K] 3 times

HINT: There were four contenders besides Germany to host the world cup in 2006 - South Africa, Morocco, England, Brazil. Many observers (and stakeholders, too) thought it should go to South Africa or Morocco, since Africa has never hosted a World Cup and Europe has played host nine times before.
See HOST column in this summary table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup#World_Cup_summaries

10. What is the name of the German national coach?

[M] Franz Beckenbauer
[N] Jürgen Klinsmann
[B] Rudi Völler

HINT: He’s a trained baker. His nickname, back in his professional soccer playing days, was the “Golden Bomber.” He got his start in Stuttgart soccer clubs.

11. Where will the next World Cup be held in 2010?

[L] In Japan
[K] In Brazil
[D] In South Africa

HINT: It will be the first time a country on this continent will host a World Cup. See the trusty summary table. It’s a very exciting choice, in fact. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup#World_Cup_summaries

CLICK-AND-ENTER ETIQUETTE

The folks at Luxury Link (www.luxurylink.com) put on a good show as far as contest-entry décorum goes. This is a sweepstakes you can enter daily. (I'm positively dreaming of St. Lucia.) The service is impressive. When you click to submit your entry, Luxury Link conveys its appreciation on the screen as such:

THANK YOU
Your Contest entry has been submitted successfully. Thank you for your entering this Luxury Link Contest. After this contest closes, you will be notified if you are a winner.

Seconds later, an email lands in your queue, with the following subject line and body.

CONTEST ENTRY CONFIRMATION
Hello, and thank you for entering the Luxury Link drawing for a trip for two. Good luck and keep checking the Luxury Link web site for more contests, auctions and news!
Warm Regards,
Luxury Link

In a world where, sadly, "no problem" is replacing "you're welcome," this is welcome comportment indeed.

MARCH DEADLINE MADNESS

Out like a lamb: As promised, here is the list of travel sweepstakes that close next week.

When I embarked on this luck lark two-and-a-half weeks ago, I had no idea there were so many click-and-enter travel sweepstakes on the Internet. It’s an absolute hoot, the postmodern woman's version of green stamps. So far, I’ve entered close to three dozen travel contests, and have more on my "To Enter" list. Several friends have asked if I actually expect to win a vacation. Truth told, I do not, but you never know. At the risk of sounding cornier than Kansas in August, I feel as though I’ve won already, in that I've discovered a vehicle around which to blog.

Reminder: Don’t wait until the last minute to enter these. While most close at 11:59 P.M. on the close date, at least one – sorry, but I can’t remember which – closes at 3 P.M P.S.T. on the close date.

* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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SOUTH BEACH: SPA STAY AT RITZ CARLTON SOUTH BEACH WITH $250 IN SPA TREATMENTS

DEADLINE: March 30, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.cookinglight.com/cooking/web/ad/pur/
SPONSOR: Cooking Light and PUR water filtration systems
THE DIGS: www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/south_beach/default.html
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,300
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 13, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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ROMAN HOLIDAY THREE NIGHTS AND AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 30
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://newsletter.frommers.com/contest.asp?sid=7NQJMN6AMC&id=33 [NOTE: If this link has "timed out," click on the contest icon to the left.)
SPONSOR: Frommer’s Monthly Hot Spot Contest
THE DIGS: Three nights in premier hotel
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,400
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 20, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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LAS VEGAS: 2 NIGHTS AT PARIS LAS VEGAS WITH AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.GQConnects.com (Go to Sweepstakes column on the right, it’s the Cinco de Mayo one)SPONSOR: GQ Magazine and Rémy Martin
THE DIGS: www.caesars.com/paris/lasvegas
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. possessions (e.g., Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands)
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,500
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 15, 2006
THE FINE PRINT: This includes tickets for the Oscar de Hoya fight. My sense is that attendance is not required.
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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SAN ANTONIO: 3 NIGHTS AT WATERMARK HOTEL & SPA

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.concierge.com/destination/austin
(Click on the Texas It’s a Whole Other Country ad to the right.)
SPONSOR: concierge.com and Texas Tourism
THE DIGS: www.watermarkhotel.com/
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Texas
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,950
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 15, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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DATE A HOT SCOT: THREE NIGHTS IN EDINBURGH AND AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.dateahotscot.com
SPONSOR: Visit Scotland
THE DIGS: TBD by sponsor
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): Not specified.
THE FINE PRINT: Winner must have travel insurance.
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 7, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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WEEK IN MEXICO FOR DAY OF THE DEAD

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.cinearts.com
SPONSOR: Sony and Cine Arts Theatres
THE DIGS: Not specified.
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida, New York, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, all U.S. territories and possessions, overseas military installations.
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $7,600
THE FINE PRINT: Travel dates 10-30-06 through 11-7-06
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 9, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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MALAYSIA: SIX NIGHTS (KUALA LUMPUR, KUCHING) AND AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/en/sweepstakes/default.asp?content=terms
SPONSOR: Tourism Malaysia
THE DIGS: www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hd/kulcp (and others)
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,598
THE FINE PRINT: Winner must have passport valid for at least one year.
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 12, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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JAMAICA: 3 NIGHTS IN JAMAICA

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CUT AND PASTE: http://www.nbc4.tv/travelgetaways/6656066/detail.html
SPONSOR: Northwest Airlines Vacations, NBC4TV, various
THE DIGS: Not disclosed.
THE INELIGIBLES: Florida, New York and Rhode Island
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $2,600
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 22, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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ANDALUCIA: SEVEN NIGHTS WITH RENTAL CAR PLUS AIRFARE FROM NEW YORK

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.andalucianaffair.com/cgi-bin/sweeps.cgi
SPONSOR: Andalucia Tourism Board
THE DIGS: Various 4/5-star hotels
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida and Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,900
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 20, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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SOUTH AFRICAN WINE COUNTRY/SAFARI TOUR: 8 NIGHTS, INCLUDES 3 NIGHTS AT MAKALALI PRIVATE GAME RESERVE PLUS AIRFARE

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.kumalausa.com/sweepstakes
SPONSOR: KUMALI WINES
THE DIGS: www.makalali.co.za (among others)
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Hawaii, Alaska, California
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $10,000
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 20, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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15 DAYS IN AUSTRALIA WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WILDLIFE SCIENTIST (Sydney, Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory Outback, Tasmania)

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://efxmedia.net/ngaustralia0510/sweepstakes.html
SPONSOR: Tourism Australia
THE DIGS: Various
THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Florida and Puerto Rico
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $20,000
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 8, 2006
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* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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WINNER SELECTS ONE OF FIVE LUXURY PACKAGES TO ST. LUCIA, CRETE, RIMINI, SEYCHELLES, MAYA RIVIERA

DEADLINE: MARCH 31
TO ENTER: www.luxurylink.com/LL/home_win_trip.php?save=1&suppress_email=all&WT.mc_id=TLEmail
SPONSOR: Luxury Link
THE DIGS: Winner selects from five. My choice: www.thejalousieplantation.com in St. Lucia
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
AVR (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): TBD
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: Multiple, starting March 8, 2006.
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LOOK MA, NO HANDS!

The two-faced clock in this photograph is missing three out of four hands. That shouldn't impede getting my message across: Time is of the essence. Next week, a dozen sweepstakes, to the likes of Australia, Jamaica, Las Vegas, Andalucia, South Beach, San Antonia, Rome, Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico, Scotland, close. I've entered all of them. I've blogged about some of them. Later today, I'll list all of them.

FOR MY FATHER

My father was partial to maps. It used to embarrass me anytime anyone who had been anywhere remotely outside county limits came to visit, and my father would pull out the atlas. He wanted to understand the where of where they had been. Once he found the locus in question, he would ask a lot of questions. Intelligent questions, almost as if he had been there himself. My father didn’t travel much, but he had a traveler’s turn of mind, curious and flexible. He took his most far-flung trips straight out of college: to China, where he was stationed during World War II, in Yunnan Province, and to Mexico, on a road trip with a war buddy in a Studebaker. He talked about those trips, about Dali, about Kunming, about Taxco, about the art deco architecture in Mexico City.

He planted the seeds.

The only foreign city I visited with my father was Montréal. My parents had driven up from Connecticut, I’d flown in from Washington. We stayed one night in The Inter-Continental, on the edge of Vieux Montréal, before driving south to my father’s cousin’s farm, in upstate New York, for a family reunion. Joe Cocker was staying at the hotel, too. We (my parents and I, we never made Joe's acquaintance) poked around Vieux Montréal. We ate at a place called Le Resto-Bar des Gouverneurs on Place Jacques Cartier. I only know this because the paper placemat I’d folded into eighths, with line drawings of people, very French, fell out of my guidebook earlier this week.

In the summer of 2000, my father, my son and I went to Cape Ann, Massachusetts, for two days. (My mother stayed behind to work. She was the Democratic registrat that year.) For those partial to maps, and, as I’ve indicated, my father was very partial to maps, Cape Ann juts out from the Massachusetts coast like an oversize apostrophe. We stayed at The Emerson Inn by the Sea, in Rockport (www.emersoninnbythesea.com), in E-Room 308. I know the room number because I inadvertently kept one of the room keys. It’s on an old oval key ring, maybe brass, with the room number imprinted into the metal, a travel artifact.

We went on a whale watch (www.captainbillswhalewatch.com). It was foggy, classic, nerve-racking pea-soup fog. “I love the water,” my father said on the way out. We saw three species of whale: a North Atlantic humpback, a right and a minke. The humpback gently lifted his flap towards our boat, as if to acknowledge us. Or perhaps shoo us away.

At the end of the cruise, the captain gave away a door prize, two tickets for another whale watch. In a brush with travel contests, my father won.

The next summer, my father, my mother, my son and I went to Liberty Hill Farm (www.libertyhillfarm.com), a working diary farm in central Vermont. My father had just celebrated his eightieth birthday. Fittingly, there were 80 cows, though not for long, one cow was on the verge of labor. We hoped the calf might come while we were there, but it did not. My son, who was about to turn six, loved playing in the hay loft. My father, who’d spent summers on his cousin’s farm in upstate New York, and mother, who’d spent summers in Vermont, loved sitting on the front porch.

I’m so grateful for those trips. A year ago yesterday, my mother, siblings and I were keeping vigil around my father’s deathbed. My mother asked each of us to share a memory. Out of the blue, I remembered a moment from family road trip, to Florida, to Disney World, in 1976. We were driving home along I-95 in our sky-blue station wagon, not the Pontiac Safari – great name for a car, that one – but the one after that. You know those highway signs that read, EXIT HERE. That’s all they say. The orienting information is on other signs. Well, my father did what the sign said. He exited there, onto a road in the middle of the nowhere. My mother asked him where he was going. He said, “The sign said ‘Exit Here.’” We instantly understood that he’d absentmindedly responded to the imperative. We have a huge laugh, the whole family, in the self-contained universe of the car.

Maybe you had to be there.

I wish my father were still here.

He passed away that night.

Safe travels, Dad.

WORLD CUP 2006: GERMANY

Speaking of soccer, I’ve been trolling for a contest for the World Cup this summer in Germany. So far, I’ve found only one, sponsored by a German broadcasting firm Deutsche Welle. To enter, contestants must write 250 words describing their impressions of Germany, whether they've been or not. The idea, the sponsors say, is to get beyond the beer and sausage stereotype.

I realize 250 words sounds like a lot, but I wouldn’t sweat it. The winner will be selected in a drawing, not judged on merit. In other words, this is not a writing contest. I’m going to write up something and enter the contest tomorrow. I can't decide whether to include my mnemonic device for spelling "Nietzsche:" After the "t," the sibilants come in reverse alphabetical order.

More proof that soccer has not yet achieved upper-echelon status in the States: I’ve found two other World Cup 2006 sweepstakes to Germany, one sponsored by Budweiser -- yes, Budweiser, American-as-apple-pie Budweiser -- for residents of Australia and N.S.W., and another for residents of the U.K., sponsored by a British broadcasting concern, GNC Broadcast Solutions.

* TRAVEL CONTEST *
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WORLD CUP IN GERMANY THIS SUMMER FOR TWO

DEADLINE: Not given. Winner will be selected in May.
TO ENTER, EMAIL: english@dw-world.de
SPONSOR: Deutsche Welle
THE DIGS: Not given.
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): Not given.
FINE PRINT: www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1863969,00.html
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 23, 2006
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AIDE-MOI, MEMOIRE

Remembering trips past, as I do in many posts here, reminds me how strong, deep and detailed travel memory can be. I would be happy to wax rhapsodic about recent trips, but, as I explained in an earlier post, I am the mother of a public-school student, and elective travel is very much frowned up during the school year, unless you manage to slip it in during holiday breaks or get some special dispensation. We spend those stretches visiting family. Compounding the No Child Left Behind constraints, my son plays on a travel soccer team. This limits our weekend getaway opportunities by, let me calculate, 24 weekends including winter practice.

Of course, family and corpus salutis are priorities. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve heard tell that there is empirical evidence suggesting that memories surrounding travel are stronger than those involving humdrum routine, life at home, life at work, or, as the French say, métro, boulot, dodo. (That’s “subway, work, sleep” to those who never succumbed to francophilia.) That makes perfect sense. Cognitive neural scientists have a term for recollected memory in general: “mental time travel.” I’d love to find an actual study that compares travel memory with general memory, or analyzes travel memory in any size, shape or form. Besides scrapbooks.

Here are several links on the subject of memory, travel and otherwise:

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/memory/
http://web.psych.ualberta.ca/~ecornell/Memories%20of%20Travel.pdf
http://www.escop.org/summerschools.asp

REMINDER: March Sweeps Extravaganza Coming This Friday. Over a dozen contests that close at the end of the month. Out like a lamb.

TURKS AND CAICOS

Scroll down for today's package, five nights at The Turks and Caicos Club in Providenciales plus airfare.

Good news: I solved my posting problem. It was an overly long URL, for a St. Patrick's Day trip-to-Ireland contest. FYI to all you Blogger heads out there.

OOPS | TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

You've come to the right place.

This is TRAVEL CONTESTS: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK, a blog about travel contests, travel, luck and life.

I have no idea where my sidebar went.

I did not go near the template, which stores the sacred program of the blog. Fingers crossed that the gods of the blogosphere will return my sidebar unscathed by whatever forces languish in the great beyond of the blogospheric universe. Like life, the blogosphere works in mysterious ways.

UPDATE: Apparently, my sidebar has slid to the bottom of the blog. I am informed by bloggers on high that the best thing to do is to wait it out. If you're interested in seeing the sidebar, scroll down.

TURKS AND CAICOS

I wonder if there’s a patron saint of travel contests. If so, perhaps a few prayers of petition would have produced more favorable results from a bitchy contact for an auction item I inadvertently won back in November 2000. Now, I understand this technically was not a travel contest, it was an auction, but I think any self-respecting patron saint of travel contests would have taken my implorations under advisement, given the extenuating circumstances.

What happened was this: No one was bidding on a four-night stay at The Comfort Suites in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (www.comfortsuitestci.com) at my son’s preschool auction. I thought I’d help get the bidding going, be true to your preschool and all that, and raised my hand. Wouldn’t you know it, the law of unintended consequences kicked in. After my bid, there were no takers. None.

Going once, going twice.

I really had not intended to win this one. The voucher, which did not include airfare, was good through October 31, 2001. That gave me nearly a year to get there. After I researched the Turks and Caicos, I very much wanted to go, for the water, for the light. The Comfort Suites didn’t look like any great shakes, but the hotel is right across from Grace Bay Beach, one of the Caribbean’s great stretches of sand.

The year slipped away from me. After September 11, I was beside myself with anxiety and exhaustion – the fighter jets flying over the nation’s capital night after night kept me up many a night – and forgot the voucher deadline. I happened to remember it after we’d gone trick-or-treating. Surely, I thought, there would be a grace period, given everything that was going on in the world. I called the contact person first thing the next day, All Saints Day, apologized for my forgetfulness and requested an extension for a stretch. I made clear I was flexible. He flat-out refused. He didn’t say, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m afraid not.” He didn’t say, “You know, if you’d called me a day or two earlier, I might have been able to help you out.” He was nasty. He barked, “A deal’s a deal. The voucher expired yesterday.”

Not going once, not going twice.

I’m certain I cursed fate, along with my congenital absentmindedness, this particular All Saints Day, but pray I did not. Travelers who are so inclined can avail themselves to a coterie of patron saints. There’s a slew of travel patron saints from wing on high: Saint Christopher, the patron saint of safe travel. Saint Brigitte of Sweden, the patron saint of hospitality (and inspiration for an order of nuns that run B&B’s around the world, primarily in Europe.). Raphael the Archangel. Nicholas of Myra. Anthony of Padua. Francis Xavier is the patron Saint of Spanish tourism.

Like Phineaus, the character in A Separate Peace who prays just in case there is a God, I probably should have prayed, just in case, just in case there is a patron saint or two for travel contests, just in case their beneficence might extend to the likes of me.

** TRAVEL CONTEST **
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5 NIGHTS AT TURKS & CAICOS CLUB, PROVIDENCIALES, W/ USAIRWAYS AIRFARE

DEADLINE: July 31, 2005
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.wheretostay.com/contest
ENTRIES PER PERSON: One per person, one additional for each referral
SPONSOR: Where To Stay, an online booking agency
THE DIGS: www.turksandcaicosclub.com
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
DATES OF TRAVEL: 7/15/2006 to 7/15/2007, subject to availability
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,600
THE FINE PRINT: None of note.
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MACY'S RAINS ON MY PARADE

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

This triple whammy, for trips to Rome, L.A. or New York, closes this evening one minute before midnight E.S.T.
I feel like Cinderella.
That reminds me of when I was in China, staying at a hotel in Kunming, in Yunnan Provence.
All the waitresses had English names, there was a Wendy, there was a Barbara, too.
My favorite was named Cinderella.

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4 NIGHTS IN ROME, AIRFARE PLUS $1,000 WARDROBE; UPON RETURN, A VESPA
DEADLINE: March 20, 2006 at 11:50 EST
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.macys.com/campaign/sweeps/index.ognc?sweepstake=/campaign/sweeps/entry.jsp
ENTRIES PER PERSON: One
SPONSOR: Macy’s
THE DIGS: Hotel not specified.
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $8,500
DATES OF TRAVEL: Between April 2 and October 15, 2006
FINE PRINT: Second Prize: A trip to L.A. Third Prize: A trip to New York.
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CONTEST | AROUND THE WORLD (OR PARTS THEREOF) IN 10 TO 365 DAYS

This grand prize (details below) is more complicated than most: two plane tickets, for two people traveling together around the world, with enough restrictions to stymie a veteran travel agent. This is verbatim from the contest rules:

“At a minimum, a ticket must include three (3) continents, starting with North America as the outbound continent and can include four (4) continents if selected, from North America to South America to Europe to Asia and back to North America. Travel must be in a continuous eastward (or westward) direction.: Up to two (2) stopovers may be made in the U.S. prior to the outbound International Flight. Thereafter: up to four (4) flights in total may be made in each continent. Within each continent, backtracking is allowed if required by the selected airline itinerary.”

I find it odd that Africa wasn’t part of the mix, given that FedEx ships to over 40 African nations. It turns out Ship Around the World is a bit of a misnomer, since the prize is predicated on the routes of "OneWorld" Partner Carriers: American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Lan, Qantas, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific and Finnair. Despite the omission, I would accept the prize in a New York minute.

** TRAVEL CONTEST **
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AROUND THE WORLD: PLANE TICKETS FOR TWO TO UP TO FOUR CONTINENTS PLUS $8,000 IN CASH

DEADLINE: April 22, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: http://shiparoundtheworld.com/
NUMBER OF ENTRIES: One per person, plus up to 30 incentive (see rules).
SPONSOR: Federal Express and the NBA (National Basketball Association)
THE DIGS: None included with prize; grand prize includes cash for lodging.
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
DATES OF TRAVEL: None mentioned.
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): up to $16,700
FINE PRINT: http://shiparoundtheworld.com/rules.html/ Trip can be between 10 days and 12 months.
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NEXT WEEK: AROUND THE WORLD

Coming Next Week:

Around the World Sweepstakes.

Turks and Caicos Contest.

March Sweeps: March 31 Contest Deadline Extravaganza.


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CONTESTS | IRELAND (OF COURSE) AND VARIOUS

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

I’m looking forward to the annual sipping of the green beer with my son this evening. When we get to it, we will raise our glasses to our Irish ancestors, my four great-grandparents on my mother's side, four great-grandparents from four different counties, I wish I knew each one by heart, I have to consult my notes to list them here: Wexford, Cork, King's and one described as on "the outskirts of Dublin." They met their future betrotheds in New York City. One of them, my great-grandfather Patrick Doyle, was born on St. Patrick's Day.

Family lore depicts him as a dapper dresser and raconteur extraordinaire. After the crossing, several decades after the famine, he vowed never to set foot on a boat again. When he later moved to Greenwich, Conn., he kept his promise, and never went along on family outings to Island Beach, a public island on Long Island Sound that's accessible only by boat or ferry. That self-preservation meant such self-deprivation speaks volumes to the horrors of the crossing.

I searched for a photograph of Ireland to accompany this post, but did not find one I liked enough. Ireland's beauty is elusive to the still camera. This seeming deficiency works to the advantage of first-time visitors to the Emerald Isle. I was blown away by Ireland's beauty when I went for the first (and, so far, only) time. The word "awestruck" comes to mind. For a change, a new-to-me place looked better than the cropped and filtered photographs that often overstate a landscape, a landmark, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Here are the two tips to Ireland I mentioned last week.
The Irish road trip contest ends TODAY, so get clicking.

IRISH ROAD TRIP, B&B LODGINGS, AIRFARE
www.enchantingireland.com/Home/stpatricks2006giveaway.asp
DEADLINE: March 17, 2006. TODAY!

FIVE DAYS IN DUBLIN + THE CHIEFTAINS CONCERT
www.sonymusic.com/contests/chieftains/
DEADLINE: MAY 21, 2006

REMINDER:You can enter these two contests every day to up your chances. (I’ve entered both them more than once, but not daily.)

ANTIGUA: ONE WEEK AT JUMBY BAY RESORT (On Crest Toothpaste)
http://crest.eprize.net/imagine/
DEADLINE: April 15, 2006

LUXURY LINK: WINNER SELECTS FROM ST. LUCIA, CRETE, RIMINI, MAYA RIVIERA, THE SEYCHELLES
www.luxurylink.com/LL/home_win_trip.php?save=1&suppress_email=all&WT.mc_id=TLEmail
March 31, 2006

CONTESTS | ITALY: PIZZA AND PINOT GRIGIO

First, a nod to my friend Kathy McCabe, publisher of the dreamy travel newsletter, Dream of Italy, www.dreamofitaly.com. Last spring, her blog, on all things Italian, made me see how easy blogging on my own could be. (Click the BLOG icon on the Dream of Italy homepage.) I’d like to dedicate this post to her. I played around with several concepts before coming up with Travel Contests. One week and counting, it’s so much fun, I’ve developed NBS (New Blogger Syndrome). The doctors assure me it will pass.

Here are two contests for trips to Italia. I have a soft spot in my heart for the first one: I drink sponsor Cavit’s Pinot Grigio on a regular basis. More than I eat pizza, in fact. The second, for a weekend stay in Rome, is from Frommer’s, which sponsors a contest each month.

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DEADLINE MAY 31

PRIZE: 5 Day/4 Night Stay, and Airfare, for the 2007 World Pizza Championship

TO ENTER: www.cavitcollection.com/pizza/cgpc_trip.asp

SPONSOR: Cavit Collection and Cooking Light

LODGING: Not disclosed.

THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of California, Utah, Florida, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories and possessions.

AVR (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $4,000

FINE PRINT: The rules do not disclose where in Italy. Travel must be completed by December 31, 2007.

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DEADLINE MARCH 30

WEEKEND GETAWAY TO ROME

TO ENTER: http://newsletter.frommers.com/contest.asp?sid=7NQJMN6AMC&id=33

SPONSOR: Frommer’s and Monograms (a travel agency)

LODGING: To Be Announced

THE INELIGIBLES: Residents of Puerto Rico

AVR (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,400

FINE PRINT: Sped-read, but looks fine.

THOUGHTS | COINCIDENCE CONVERGENCE

By coincidence, I had lunch with my friend Lorraine yesterday. Unbeknownst to me, Lorraine was in the midst of planning her first trip to Las Vegas. She’d read my post last week about the Las Vegas sweepstakes call. Isn’t it a coincidence, she remarked, that after all these years of not wanting to go to Las Vegas, we suddenly find ourselves actually contemplating going to Las Vegas. At that point, she didn’t know that I would be posting two Las Vegas contests the very next day. (See previous post.) So, the coincidence thickens.

Now, if you knew Lorraine, you would probably do what I did, which was to answer, “Oh, yes, that is a coincidence.” But you couldn’t leave it at that. You would have to point out that it’s simply amazing how she is always swirling in coincidence. This is a woman who is always either on the verge of a coincidence, in the middle of a coincidence or on the last leg of a coincidence. Often she is in all three stages of several coincidences at once, or in the throes of several overlapping parallel coincidences. She is without a doubt one of the most coincidence-prone people currently on the planet. When I listen to her tell one of her coincidence stories, I find myself wondering: What are the odds? What are the odds? It’s beyond six degrees of separation. It’s beyond math.

Plus, she tells a darn good yarn.

As we waited for our salad, we discussed the gamble of making hotel reservations (hers, for Las Vegas) too far ahead or too close to your stay. Then, we segued into another story. This one involved another round of coincidences involving a dear friend of Lorraine’s. There were so many coincidences in this story, I lost count. The coincidences turned on a high school reunion, a juggler, a Beatles song, a journey home. Phew!

After Lorraine got to the end, she asked me if I’ve ever won anything. I thought perhaps she wanted to discuss something that somehow did not involve coincidences. This does occur with Lorraine from time to time. Why, I told her, indeed I had, but only small things, the odd campy thing, like a trinket that constituted an official prize in the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, a costume jewelry broach that I’d pinned to my home-office bulletin board for good luck.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Lorraine asked, “Did I tell you how I met my friend?” And what happened next could only happen with Lorraine. Here she was, asking me, someone who had just started a blog about travel contests. She proceeded to tell met that the reason she met her dear friend in the first place was because of a travel contest. Yes, a travel contest. And a good one at that, to Hawaii. By chance, Lorraine’s friend-to-be invited a friend of Lorraine’s to take the trip with her. After their trip, the mutual friend suggested that Lorraine meet the travel-contest winner. He had a hunch they would become good friends.

And they did.

Isn’t that a coincidence?

CONTESTS | VIVA LAS VEGAS, TAKE TWO

I knew the Las Vegas Sweepstakes Lady wouldn't call back. So, over the weekend, I trolled for contests for trips to Sin City. I ended up entering these two.

3 DAY/2 NIGHT LAS VEGAS TRIP FOR OSCAR DE LA HOY FIGHT (IF IT’S BEEN CLEARED WITH OSCAR, THAT IS. SEE BELOW.)

To Enter: www.gqconnects.com
(The icon is to the right, under Sweepstakes. It's the first one: "Step-it-up on Cinco de Mayo.")

Deadline: March 31, 2006

The Ineligibles: Residents of California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. possessions (e.g., Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands).

Dates of Travel: Cinco de Mayo Weekend (May 5)

ARV (Approximate Retail Value): $4,500

If I won this, I’d scalp the tickets to the fight and see another show. But get this: The official rules for this sweepstakes, co-sponsored by GQ Magazine and Remy Martin, contain an interesting editorial question. I’ve cut and pasted it saw you can see it for yourself.

OFFICIAL RULES FORTHE STEP IT UP WITH OSCAR DE LA HOYA SWEEPSTAKES [Is this cleared with Oscar?]
CO-SPONSORED BY REMY COINTREAU USA, INC. AND GENTLEMEN’S QUARTERLY

So, is this cleared with Oscar? I’m guessing this insert was on overzealous editor at GQ. You know editors. It’s funny that they let this slip online. Perhaps there are seeds of doubts among the sponsors as to the fight. That would be fine with me, and, I’m guessing, plenty of people, unless some boxing fanatic like Joyce Carol Oates entered and won. Suffice it to say, I abhor boxing, I think it’s barbaric, I think it should be made illegal. I suppose this poses an ethical dilemma, but fiddle dee dee.

The Fine Print: More casting of the editorial doubt in the Official Rules. This time, good catch.

Travel must be arranged to coincide with the scheduled Grand Prize award weekend (March 5, 2006 to March 7, 2006) (May 5?)

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4 DAYS/3 NIGHTS AT PARIS LAS VEGAS FROM SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
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To Enter: http://www.swavacations.com/ (scroll down past vacation packages)

Deadline: April 16, 2006

Dates of Travel: By March 31, 2007

ARV (Approximate Retail Value): $2,280

The Ineligibles: Non-U.S. Residents

Odds: Per Southwest’s list of recent winners, no one east of the Mississippi has won in awhile. Southwest, which I flew back in the day when stewardesses were still called stewardesses and Southwest stewardesses wore hot pants, is based in Dallas. Hmm.

This package, sponsored by Southwest Airlines Vacations, includes three nights at Paris Las Vegas (www.caesars.com/Paris/LasVegas/) and comes with some fun perks: A $1,000 shopping spree at The Forum Shops at Caesar’s Place, dinner for two at Mon Ami Gabi (www.monamigabilasvegas.com/) and two massages at The Paris Spa by Mandara. The prize also includes two VIP passes to Risque de Paris ultra lounge and two free admissions to the Paris Tower Experience. (What? The couldn’t get permission to call it the Eiffel Tower?)

CONTESTS | INDIA PARADISE, WILDLIFE, YOGA

The Indian Ministry of Tourism is currently sponsoring 10 contests, for travel this summer. Among them: a "Walk with the Buddha" 3-night/4-day package in Taj Ganges-Benares/Taj Residency-Auragabad and a 7-day Ayurveda holiday, with business-class airfare, at Kalau Kovilakon in Krale. Compared to U.S. contests, details are slim. The deadlines aren’t obvious. Nor does The Ministry of Tourism post Official Rules, so it’s impossible to know what restrictions, if any, apply. Approximate Retail Value? No sign of that, either. No matter. For what it's worth (at a minimum: a chance to win), I entered the Incredible Yoga Contest, for a 7-day stay at the Ananda-in-the-Himalayas (www.anandaspa.com) and airfare on Air India business class. I also entered the Wildlife Contest, for a 4-day holiday at the Oberoi Vanyvilas in Rajasthan (www.oberoivanyavilas.com). I plan to enter more.

TO ENTER:
www.incredibleindia.org/newsite/incredible_contest.htm

Warning: There's a quiz to enter each contest. A pop-up quiz, in fact.

Here’s a question from the Wildlife Contest.

It takes 3 to 5 of this endangered species to make a single shahtoosh shawl, possibly the softest, warmest covering available, now banned by the Indian government.

- Chiru (Tibetan antelope)
- Nilgiri tahr
- Long-tailed macaque.

I didn't have a clue, but not answering correctly did not seem to disqualify me. I received a notice wishing me good luck. What I do know is that I will be studying the other eight contests in the morning. Who knows. Maybe I will enter all ten.

AGAIN, TO ENTER: www.incredibleindia.org/newsite/incredible_contest.htm

PHOTO CREDIT: Dario Diament / Ddiament /Dreamstime.com

THOUGHTS | LAS VEGAS REDUX - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Las Vegas Sweepstakes Lady still hasn't called back.

Oh well.

I should have *69-ed her.

SPAS, SPAS, SPAS

In the aggregate, there’s something disturbingly symbolic about the sybariticity of today’s spa scene. But fiddle dee dee: I love spas. I can practically still feel the light lemon-scented oil the massage therapist used during my first full-blown spa treatment. This was at The Homestead, in Hot Springs, Virginia, many moons ago. I had the works: besides the massage, a full-body exfoliation, with granular sodium chloride (table salt!), an immersion soak in the fountain-of-youth sulfur-infused hot spring waters, the aim-the-hoses-at-you Vichy showers. In a word, heaven. In a punctuation point, hyphen. I can get carried away with those multi-worded adjectival qualifiers.

As for “sybariticity,” technically it's not a word; there is no noun for the adjective “sybaritic.” I think it’s high time we create one. Sybaritic of course refers to the ancient city of Sybaris, on the southern coast of Italy near what today is Taranto. Founded in 720 B.C., Sybaris’ wealthy citizens led lives of leisure and luxury. Sound familiar? It was destroyed in 510 B.C. by the Troezenians, those fierce inhabitants of classical-history footnote-land.

To keep the legacy of the Sybarites alive, here are three spa contests. As ever, enter at your own risk, and good luck.

4 DAYS/3 NIGHTS AT SOUTH BEACH RITZ-CARLTON SPA

DEADLINE: MARCH 30

Cooking Light Magazine * and the PUR water filtration system folks are co-sponsoring this one. FYI: You can enter as often as you like. From the contest rules: “Trip includes: 4-day, 3-night standard, double occupancy hotel accommodations at the Ritz Carlton Spa, round-trip airfare for two from the major terminal closest to winner's residence, up to $250 in spa services, and a PUR water filtration system (ERV: $3,300).” (* Full disclosure: I have an article, on Baltimore, in the April 2006 issue of Cooking Light. This may well render me ineligible, but I hope folks who have no affiliation with either sponsor will enter.)

TO ENTER: http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking/web/ad/pur/

DEADLINE: March 30

To check out the resort: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/south_beach/default.html

Commentary: I think hotel groups – they abhor the word “chain” – are making a huge mistake by not customizing their properties’ websites – even just a bit. For instance, this particular Ritz-Carlton, designed by Morris Lapidus (who also designed The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc, in what would come to be known as Miami modern, or Mimo, style) and opened in 1953, is one of Miami’s great art deco properties. But there’s only a mention of this set of facts on the generic Ritz-Carlton website, with no context, that is, no elaboration on the architectural history or the moment. Not only is this not as inviting as it might be, it’s a miscalculation. People lap up this kind of stuff. (Lap up, Lapidus, pun intended, thank you very much.) Because of this omission, the only way inquiring travelers can learn anything about the resort is to resort to Google. Is that good positioning? Is that good service? I think it borders on rude, if I do say so myself. These generic websites corporatize the property, which was formerly the DiLido, instead of playing up its pre-acquisition past. I can’t find much on DiLido’s history on the Web, except that the International Association of Yiddish Clubs held its third conference there, back in the 1980s. There are other enticing details, too. The title of Morris Lapidus’ autobiography, published in 1996, is “Too Much Is Not Enough.” Too little is not enough, too.

The Fine Print: The ARV is $3,300.

TWO-NIGHT STAY AT NAPA VALLEY VILLAGIO INN & SPA.

I had a massage here once. It was during a sad time in my life. The massage made me cry. It would be lovely to go back, and appreciate how much better life feels now. I was traveling with a childhood friend, someone I’ve known since the second grade. She’s an amazing traveler, one of the best-traveled people I know. She happens to be the only person I know who’s flown around the world in one trip. (Obviously, they stopped along the way.) She was traveling in good company: President Bill Clinton, assorted administration officials, members of the White House press corps. My childhood friend worked in the White House for a stretch. (Note: This paragraph is an exercise in foreshadowing. I found a terrific Around the World Trip contest over the weekend. I’ll post details soon.)

This contest is part of a promotion by Meat and Livestock Australia, to promote Australian lamb. The grand prize is a two-night stay for two at Villagio Inn & Spa in Yountville, California. The prize also includes round-trip airfare for two. Travel dates are between May and August of this year. The Approximate Retail Value is $1,800.

TO ENTER: http://www.australian-lamb.com/newsletter/January/knife_trip_popup.html

DEADLINE: April 12, 2006

To check out the spa: http://www.villagio.com/

SWEET: DIABETIC RETREAT AT CANYON RANCH, TUSCON, ARIZONA

If you have or know anyone with diabetes, this could be for you, or him or her, or the both of you. This one’s only for people who have diabetes and are members of dLife, a commercial diabetic community built around the dLife TV show. In a way, it’s too bad the sponsors aren’t opening up the contest to people who might be prone to diabetes, given the epidemic-like incidence of Type B diagnoses. That said, it would be far too complicated to run a contest that involved medical screening on anything but an honor-system basis.

TO ENTER: http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowRegistration

DEADLINE: June 30, 2006

To check out the resort: http://www.canyonranch.com/

The Approximate Retail Value: $16,000.

The prize includes a seven-night package at Canyon Ranch’s diabetes program for two. In addition to airfare and meals, the package includes tests, consultations and lectures, and use of the spa.

PHOTO CREDIT: Leah-Anne Thompson / Showface / Dreamstimes.com