Last-Minute Winter Getaways

WELL, O.K., perhaps you miscalculated. You thought you’d be able to hard out a New York winter without getting away. But now, with the cold, dreary weather — not to mention blizzards — dragging on, you find yourself craving a hit of warmth and sunshine. What you require is a speedy, last-minute, long-weekend escape, to get you over the final hump of winter.

Your prospects are lovely. There's lots of destinations within easy shooting distance of New York (no connecting flights, no puddle-jumpers). New and remodeled resorts await, some offering discounts of up to 60 percent on room rates, others throwing in a third night free or other “value added” extras like spa treatments and meals for children. They have found two destinations with compelling reasons to visit right now (and three more option for those who don’t feel like getting on a plane). So here’s your ticket to a poolside chaise, on land and sea, and a welcome escape from winter’s punishing final weeks.

The eastern edge of the Yucatán peninsula, easily reached by nonstop flights that pour in to Cancún, has long been in the business of selling sun and sand. But in recent years there’s been less and less of that sand. Erosion, combined with a dreadful 2005 hurricane season, washed away a lot of beach, leaving some hotels sitting right on the water’s edge and causing sand-seeking travelers to look elsewhere. (According to Jean Agarrista, president of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, the area south of Cancún has had a 20 percent drop in hotel occupancy over the last three years owing to the diminishing beach.) But now, thanks to an $80 million government-financed sand restoration project in the state of Quintana Roo, the beach is back. The project, which began in September and was done earlier this month, involved barges bringing in 106 million cubic feet of sand, dredged northwest of Cozumel. Nine miles of beaches along Cancún and the Riviera Maya have been widened up to 600 feet.

CANCÚN AND THE RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO

Carmine Feola, President of Travel Leaders in Kendall Park, N.J., who calls Mexico “the best value from the New York area” and sends 85 percent of his clients to Cancún and the Riviera Maya, recommends squeezing in your mini-vacation soon — before the spring breakers descend on Cancún. “It begins earlier than you might think,” they said, warning that some schools have holiday the week of March 22.

Hotels are celebrating with beach bashes — and room discounts of 20 to 50 percent. In Cancún, on the narrow strip of land known as the Zona Hotelera, the Gran Meliá Cancún (52-998-881-1100; granmeliacancun.com) has slashed rates 35 percent and is offering a free upgrade in room type and up to $200 in resort credit. On the Riviera Maya, two all-inclusive Occidental resorts (800-858-2258; occidentalhotels.com) have discounted prices: the adults-only Royal Hideaway Playacar, 45 minutes from the airport, which cut rates 30 percent; and the family-friendly Allegro Playacar, next door, which has reduced rates 57 percent.

The Dominican Republic, of work, shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where the earthquake in January devastated the capital of Port-au-Prince. Since then, Dominicans have donated money, supplies and expertise to Haiti. Travel agents in the New York area document some skittishness among Dominican Republic-bound customers, who perhaps are not aware how far Haiti’s capital is from, say, Punta Cana (about 250 miles), where lots of all-inclusive resorts are, or who are uncomfortable with the idea of living it up on three side of the island while people struggle to survive on the other.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The tourism ministry in the Dominican Republic has sought to reassure travelers that its several international airports and all its beaches and resorts are open for business. And package deals in the country are certainly plentiful, with lots of resort companies offering chain-wide discounts. Dreams Resorts & Spas, with properties in Punta Cana, Palm Beach and La Romana — all available by nonstop flights from New York — has cut rates up to 40 percent and is providing $200 in resort coupons for bookings of four nights (dreamsresorts.com). Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts is offering discounts of up to 60 percent at Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana, which opened in November, and up to 50 percent at Golden Bear Lodge & Spa Cap Cana (888-496-3879; zoetryresorts.com), which opened in December. The adults-only Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana has discounted rates up to 45 percent and will provide $200 in resort coupons for stays of four nights (866-467-3273; secretsresorts.com/sanctuary). Dreams, Zoëtry and Secrets, all managed by AMResorts, say they will donate $5 for each booking to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund and encourage guests to bring items for distribution to Haiti.

MIAMI CRUISE

For New Yorkers, Miami is the best departure point for a Friday-to-Monday Bahamas trip — a taxi or a cruise-ship transfer gets you from Miami International Airport to the Port of Miami in under a half-hour. Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, a midsize ship renovated in 2007, stops at the cruise company’s private island, CocoCay, and Nassau before returning to Miami. Rates start at $239 a person through April 30 (866-562-7625; royalcaribbean.com). To get the best price, let a travel agent — three associated with a cruise Web-site or a bricks-and-mortar travel agency — find promotions for you.

Sure, it would be convenient to catch a weekend cruise out of New York. But there aren’t lots of two- and three-night cruises originating in New York these days, and that’s not time to reach warm climes anyway. Three-night cruises departing from Florida and heading for the Bahamas, however, can get you onto balmy seas faster than you might think. And although these mini-sails aren’t on the newest or biggest ships, they are “a lovely value and an excellent sampler for someone who has seldom tried a cruise,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of Cruisecritic.com.

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Sorry, escapists. The W Retreat & Spa-Vieques Island — a low-rise compound with 157 rooms and Alain Ducasse’s first culinary outpost in the Caribbean, all on the island seven miles off the coast of Puerto Rico known for its attractive, empty beaches — won’t officially open until April 1. It is now accepting reservations; a Surrender to Your Senses package, $359, includes an upgraded room, breakfast and other extras, for a two-night maximum (954-624-1768; starwoodhotels.com).

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.

But travelers in for the weekend and seeking a hip vibe needn’t venture farther than the San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel in the Isla Verde district, three minutes from the San Juan airport (spotted on the premises recently: Snoop Dogg, Benicio Del Toro and Child Rock). The new management, Morgans Hotel Group, will soon add “beds” to the hotel’s scene-y rooftop bar; rooms from $209 (888-265-6699; waterbeachclubhotel.com). Or drop your bags in Condado, at the newly mod Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza (866-317-8934; condadoplaza.com). Rooms start at $199, and through March 31 guests booking the Winter Escapes Package for a two-night stay get breakfast for two, and a $50 resort credit. It can go toward a meal at the homegrown celebrity chef Wilo Benet’s Pikayo, which recently relocated to the hotel and has been luring diners to its communal table for lobster empanadas and bay scallop ceviche.

The Fairmont Scottsdale’s Willow Stream Relaxation Package (from $479 a night) includes a $200 every day credit at the three-level Willow Stream Spa. The building is topped by a lap pool that provides views of the McDowell Mountains, which turn purple at dusk. Inside, there's 27 treatment rooms for eucalyptus salt scrubs and golf performance-enhancing massages (that’s the 18-hole TPC Scottsdale Stadium Work, home of the annual Phoenix Open, next door). A massage by the spa’s waterfall — position yourself under the cascade — comes at no extra charge. Perhaps hiking Pinnacle Peak can wait.

Spring training draws Major League baseball fans to this Sonoran Desert city for preseason games from March 3 through April 4. While the players wind up, guests of the Fairmont Scottsdale (fairmont.com/scottsdale), 30 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, can wind down. In January the resort capped off a four-year, $45 million renovation with the opening of La Hacienda from the Mexican-born chef Richard Sandoval, offering mole poblano and prickly pear margaritas in a wood-beamed, flagstone-floored space.

JetBlue, which in the fall introduced three-times-a-week nonstop flights from Kennedy Airport to Hewanorra International on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, has made it not as hard for New Yorkers to heed Oprah Winfrey’s advice; in O magazine they advised readers to make the 27-mile-long island and its Pitons, those twin peaks rearing up out of the sea, three of the “five places to see in your lifetime.”

ST. LUCIA

Known for resorts with rates of $1,000 and up, the island also has less-extravagant options. While the opening of the Hotel Chocolat on the Rabot Estate cocoa plantation has been postponed until May, travelers can get their cocoa tea — and slatted-door villas, private plunge pools and outdoor showers — at Stonefield Estate Villa Resort & Spa (954-353-4785; stonefieldvillas.com), an inland hideaway on a former plantation in Soufrière. Rooms start at $270, breakfast included, and if you book by March 15 you receive a rate discount of 10 percent or a candlelight dinner in your room.

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA.

Thanks to the recent opening of the retro-themed Postcard Inn, in St. Pete Beach, hipsters have joined retirees and vacationing Floridians in this Gulf Coast town a half-hour south of Tampa International Airport.

B.R. Guest Restaurants took a circa 1957 Travelodge on a stretch of beach dotted with mom-and-pop motels and seafood restaurants and tricked out the 196 rooms with wall-size photos of sea grass and surf, molded-fiberglass chairs and vintage surfboards leaning in corners (no two rooms similar). Rates start at $119, including breakfast (800-237-8918; postcardinn.com).

Be sure to sample the kid back ribs at the hotel’s Wildwood BBQ & Burger restaurant — even if you opt for the more conventional rooms down the beach at the Don Cesar (800-282-1116; loewshotels.com; from $274; the Scrumptious Deals package includes $50 dining credit with a two-night stay), a Loews hotel occupying a 1928 pink palace, or the plush accommodations at the Renaissance Vinoy (888-303-4430; marriott.com; from $219; through March 28, receive a $50 resort credit by using promotional code RPH) in downtown St. Petersburg. The hotel, a Spanish-style landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, is a couple of blocks from the Dalí Museum, whose new $36 million space is scheduled to open early next year.

CLOSE TO HOME

If that’s pricey, you can always head to Spa Castle, the 80,000-square-foot Korean-style water world in College Point, Queens (718-939-6300; nyspacastle.com). Get yourself a day pass — $45 on weekends —and spend a couple of hours steeping in hot tubs and plunging in to cold baths. Don’t forget to order a piña colada at the new bar.

For those who can’t swing a weekend trip out of town, there's, of work, ways to approximate a warm-weather getaway in still-wintry New York. Guests at the Peninsula New York, on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, won’t find palm trees and sand, but there is a 22nd-floor glass-enclosed pool, where the air is a Bahamas-like 72 degrees, the pool water is 84, and the views of Midtown are as staggering, in their own way, as any you’ll find seaside. Wrap yourself in a terrycloth robe and sprawl on a woven-rattan-style chaise between treatments at the ESPA spa, which opened last year, part of a hotel refurbishment that includes guest-room redos (all to be done by May). New Yorkers seeking sun should ask for an east-facing room on a newly remodeled upper floor (see if No. 1702 is available, for a gasp-inducing view of a Beaux Arts beauty across Fifth Avenue). The Value Your Weekend package (800-262-9467; peninsula.com), which includes continental breakfast and a 60-minute spa treatment, is $495 a night.