Victoria Ugarte

Maui is a breathtakingly beautiful island paradise. It's gentleness embraces you the minute you step off the plane and walk on its golden shores, as if to say "Everything is going to be okay." But Maui isn't all just Turquoise waters and sandy beaches. It boasts a multitude of fine restaurants and dining establishments. Whether you are vacationing with the kids, friends or a significant other, here are my top restaurant recommendations for Maui.

You have reached your destination bleary-eyed after a 20 hour international flight and you are irritable by the time you arrive at the hotel accommodation. You are then advised by the young lady at hotel reservations that your room isn't ready yet. You could be forgiven for loosing your cool. It may even be justified. However, would you get the best service from the Hotel Staff at that moment, and for the remainder of your stay, with this behavior? Not likely.

The town of Segovia is a delicious maze of twisting alleyways and the highest concentration of Romanesque churches in all of Europe. It also proudly features the best preserved aqueduct in the world, built by the Romans in the 1st century AD. These treasures are seemingly embraced by the city's well-preserved mediaeval walls. Segovia's attraction to the Spaniards is its close proximity to Madrid and its airport.

Oaxaca is one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in Mexico. A colonial city with a lovely tree-lined, traffic-free central square, also known as the zocalo, you'll find the cathedral with its handsomely carved facade built between the 16th and 18th centuries, and lovely restaurants and cafes under the plaza's arcades. Picturesque and oozing with charm, it was one of our favourite cities on our most recent Mexican adventure.

If you're a bit of a history buff, then Toledo in Spain will not disappoint you. With UNESCO declaring it a world heritage site in 1986, Toledo is like an open air museum filled with mosques, synagogues, churches and museums. Situated at the centre of the Iberian peninsula, it was singled out by the Romans for strategic purposes. Conquered by the Muslims in 711, Toledo was a paragon of peace and religious coexistence.

This morning, I attended a networking breakfast at 7:30 AM. Yes, I was well and truly back into my corporate mode after being away on vacation in Mexico. I found myself thinking back to my Mexico trip, remembering how tired I still felt a week into my vacation. When I should have been relaxing and enjoying the sites, my mind was like a car engine that was still running hot, even after the motor had been turned off.