Vacations

A day after being sworn in for his second term as Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa jetted off to South Africa on Thursday for a nine-day vacation. The mayor's office released a statement Thursday afternoon saying only that the mayor will be out of the state from July 2 to July 10. A source familiar with the trip said the mayor will attend a summit in Cape Town and Johannesburg sponsored by the Academy of Achievement.

School's out for summer -- except for hundreds of children in western San Bernardino County who, because of an administrative snafu, must make up 34 days of school this summer. The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Rolling Ridge Elementary in Chino Hills and Dickson Elementary in Chino exceeded the state's requirement of minutes spent in the classroom, and the last day of school was supposed to be Thursday.

In the elite circles of private schools in Washington, D.C., globe-trotting vacations are common, but it is hard to imagine that many schoolmates of Malia and Sasha Obama will be able to rival their summer adventures. Although the White House zealously guards many of the details of the Obamas' private family time, the public caught a glimpse Sunday of the girls' sightseeing tour of the Grand Canyon, and a day earlier, of their visit to Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this summer, photographers captured visits by the first daughters to the Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou Center in Paris, a slave dungeon in Ghana, and the Kremlin in Moscow.

Even the pros need to take a vacation and recharge. Where do top hotel executives choose to go and why? What are vacation strategies of hoteliers that we travelers can learn from? What draws them to a vacation spot? We asked four top hoteliers to share their thoughts. Michael J. Quinn Complex director of sales and marketing, Crestline Hotels & Resorts What do you seek when you travel for pleasure? Water, history, culture or any of these combined. What are your top priorities?

Need a getaway? Never mind the packaged 10-day Caribbean cruise or the condo in Maui. Misty Ewing, right, of travel network Virtuoso says affluent vacationers today are all about doing something different. (Think dinner on the Great Wall of China or after-hours tours of the Louvre.) Virtuoso's travel agents plan trips for Fortune 500 CEOs and owners of professional sports franchises. Here are Ewing's suggestions for adventurers willing to flash the cash: $55,950 I'm leavin' on a jet plane.

Chrysler is trying to cut its way back to significance. It's going to hurt. The automaker's 71,000 employees will be on "mandatory vacation" for two weeks in July when all operations across the country are shut down, the company said Thursday. A forced break is drastic, though for Chrysler perhaps not surprising considering its financial straits. After losing $1.

All through the months that the cold and wind and wet left this southeast suburb of Cincinnati shivering, Megan and Keith Licursi eagerly looked forward to their annual spring vacation: a road trip to see family and bask in the sunshine of Orlando, Fla. But with gas prices forecast to climb as high as $4 a gallon and recessionary fears fueling consumer uncertainty, the couple decided to scrap their travel plans and stay home. So have some of their neighbors.

The checks are in the mail -- and in some bank accounts. The Department of the Treasury has signed those little slips of paper designed to give many of us a piece of the $168-billion stimulus package that is supposed to kick-start our flagging economy. Which is good news for any traveler eager to help the patriotic cause and have some fun too. In polls and surveys, at least 1 in 5 Americans say they are likely to spend some or part of their rebate for vacations or travel.

Azusa residents Sue and Jim Young had planned to spend the Fourth of July weekend in Silverton, Colo. But, on Friday, their fifth-wheel travel trailer was parked at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey. "We canceled it because of gas prices," said Sue Young, 57, who was settled in a USC folding chair in the sand in front of the parking lot. "We thought about Santa Barbara, but this was closer."

They left the Nile Delta before dawn, piling into a van and driving across the green flatlands toward the coast, plopping on the sand and diving into the surf, watching the sun rise over the jetties and trawlers churn the horizon. There are 11 of them -- cousins, mothers, friends and kids.