Turks and Caicos Islands are booming

Legendary rocker Keith Richards was out of uniform. No dangling cigarette, no wailing guitar, no stormy look. As a matter of fact, he was grinning. And scratching the tummy of a shaggy black munchkin of a dog.

It was late January, and the Rolling Stones icon was chilling on a wooden dock overlooking the turquoise waters surrounding Parrot Cay, a Caribbean islet that bills itself as ``the world's most exclusive resort.''

The 1,000-acre private island is in Turks and Caicos, a semi-obscure archipelago east of Cuba that has been propelled into the limelight by its rising popularity with the glitterati.

Rambling all-inclusive near Puerto Plata, D.R.

On a sun-drenched afternoon in the Dominican Republic, a young bride stood under a cloudless sky, draped in lace and her dark hair covered in a wisp of veil. The groom was dapper in a light linen suit, his fingers interlaced with hers. The woman said ''I do'' in Spanish; he responded in kind. Family and friends toasted the union with champagne; I raised my Happy Happy cocktail, wishing them well despite not knowing their names or their love story.

Such is the all-inclusiveness at Lifestyle Hacienda, a rambling resort on Cofresi Beach near the town of Puerto Plata, where boundaries blur and strangers fleetingly bond. I arrived alone, yet at different points during my four-day stay I was a (surprise!) guest at a wedding, a member of a 21-person posse from Wisconsin and a paddler on a two-person kayak team. I also traded Spanish words -- la playa, la piscina, donde esta? -- with a staff member-cum-language teacher, and volleys with the tennis pro. I was even a VIP member, for a split second, before getting

Family cruise to the Bahamas on Discovery

''Mom, they look like dead people,'' one of my daughters whispers.

It's 6 a.m. and my family is huddled on deck chairs in the pre-dawn chill aboard the Discovery Sun cruise ship. Other passengers sprawl around us under black rental beach towels, deep in slack-jawed sleep. The 20-something girl next to me is limp, her head resting on the arm of my chair.

But my two kids, ages 8 and 9, are too excited to close their eyes. As we glide away from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades at 8:30 a.m., our comatose neighbors stir, the sun warms our shoulders and the deck pool fills with water. The notion of swimming on a ship as it cuts through the ocean has thrilled my daughters since they saw pictures of the cruise on Discovery's website. They ignore a call for the day's first limbo contest and splash into the small, amoeba-shaped pool. The smell of fried food wafts across the deck.

It's all in good taste -- (maybe not all)

We spend so much time trying to get fit for bikini season, and yet some of the best events of the summer aren't the hotel pool parties but the delicious deals at area restaurants.

Take Michy's , for instance, a diminutive, stylish gourmet eatery where, for $33 per person every Wednesday night, you can stuff yourselves on endless servings of Michelle Bernstein's signature fried chicken with a bottomless parade of sides including biscuits and gravy, cole slaw, watermelon Greek salad and a slice of dark chocolate cream pie. Trust us that Wednesdays at Michy's are quite the scene -- and a succulent one at that.

Someone who may not be stuffing her face on fried chicken right now is drag diva Elaine Lancaster , who celebrates her birthday Thursday with a huge party called Hotel Lancaster at Score. Various artists, including Cecilia Paz and Joey Mugica , will showcase their works of art, interpretations of Lancaster, of course, who will not just sit back and be fawned over but will also showcase

We're digging Miami's hidden treasures

W hen it comes to watering holes in Miami, few can be considered underground. Before we figured out that it was behind a furniture store directly across from Midtown Miami, we'd have filed Bardot under that category. Same goes for Lou's Beer Garden , where a roadside neon sign beckons from Harding Avenue amid low rises and motels. Drive too fast, and you may miss the place. But if you like the idea of off-the-beaten-path beer and wine with a sleek poolside setting in a neighborhood not usually known for things sleek, slow down and stop at all-green The New Hotel at 7337 Harding Ave.

Also ensconced away from the madness of Ocean Drive is the B Bar , 1440 Ocean Dr., the Betsy hotel's ``personal retaliation against celebrity-obsessed nightlife,'' according to a press statement. You don't have to be famous to get in; in fact, if your last name is Kardashian, you're not on the list.

Keeping with the whole underground theme, we move on to Harvey's By the Bay , 6445 NE Seventh Ave., an American