Ain't nothing free about New Year's Eve.Every nightclub advertises a champagne toast (read: a plastic glass of Korbel) and charges $20 to dance to Nelly until the ball drops. The truly swank places — the Renaissance Vinoy, the Don CeSar — you can't get a table for less than a couple hundred dollars. And really, are you missing anything?
The best New Year's Eves are the less complicated affairs, situations that don't involve hundreds of besotted strangers (some perhaps trying to kiss you at midnight) or driving home at 3 a.m. in a congestion of drunk drivers. You want to have your champagne and reefer without stress. You want to get stoned and contemplate life in the upcoming 365 days. You want to be someplace pacific and evocative.
So just book a hotel room at the beach for yourself and some friends, buy your booze at ABC Liquor and invite whomever you wouldn't mind trying to kiss you at midnight, smelling like Seagrams.
No, booking a hotel isn't free (see lead sentence). But running drunk on the beach, hopping in a heated pool in your underwear at 4 a.m. (only to be told to get out by security) and having a room to trash and not clean up — that's a Master Card ad waiting to happen.
It just so happens that WP is running an extended section of lists this issue, including a rundown of area beaches. The lists are intended as a guide for folks looking to spend the week after Christmas out of the house — visiting attractions, seeing museum exhibits, hiking parks and trails and going to the beach.
So take a look at the list of beaches if you need some ideas of nice, new places to go. As for making reservations, good luck.
And if you're set on getting something free out of this, find a nice seashell and steal a towel.
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2003.