This could be the beginning of the end for the formerly uncrowded Honduran island of Roatan. As the Wall Street Journal reported in The Next Place in the Sun, the island could soon turn into just another tacky Caribbean cruise port.

Royal Caribbean just inked a deal to build a $30 million extension to the island’s cruise terminal, while Carnival is spending $50 million on its own port of call, which it says can handle as many as 7,000 passengers daily when it opens in 2009.

This scares some residents, but others are cackling with joy at the thought of getting some bucks off these short-stay stopovers, despite all the damage to the reefs and the island’s character. To me it’s just depressing to see yet another island with a lot going for it succumbing to the pressure to open up to mammoth ships. Mass tourism wins again.

Apparently this is all driven by the average Joe and Jane tiring of ports like Cozumel, which is “packed with 15 ships on busy days.” John Tercek, vice president of commercial development for Royal Caribbean is quoted in the article saying, “People like to brag at a cocktail party, I’ve been to some place you haven’t.” As if stopping in a cruise ship port for a few hours is “being somewhere.” Good god.

As for me, I’m going to try to make it down there in ‘08, while I can tour the island and kick back on the beach without seeing a massive floating hotel right by the shore. I may be adding a new hotel or two to our current listing, Anthony’s Key Resort (pictured here).

This is the time of year with the travel gear websites go all out to take advantage of the holiday shopping season. If you have a special someone on your list who has been more nice than naughty (or at least naughty in the right way), these online gear retailers are offering free shipping for the next couple of weeks.

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Free shipping at Magellan’s on orders over $50 (expires 12/12) – use code APH7S

Free Shipping on orders of $100 or more from National Geographic. Use code MR10035 through 11/30/07.

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We are continually adding hotels to places we haven’t gotten to yet (Acapulco and Zihuatanejo coming soon), but we also add to places we have covered when one of our contributors gets wind of a fantastic place we’ve missed. That’s the case with Colemé Estancia and Bodega, an Argentine hotel that manages to deliver a luxury experience despite its remote location far from the nearest cities, Salta and Cafayate.

The lovely photo above, from the reviewer Claire Edrich, sums up the appeal of this estancia, where rugged landscapes mix with well-honed aesthetics and fine food. Colomé has a claim to fame as well: the oldest working winery in Argentina. The bodega is also purported to be the highest in the world, though with vineyards popping up nearly everywhere these days, who knows how long that will last.

Just figure on some serious transit time to get here before you get to swim in the pool, settle into one of nine rooms, and enjoy organic food with a variety of local wine.

Driving to Colomé takes about five hours from Salta City or slightly less from Cafayate. Although roads are quite rough in places they’re also rewarding and lead through some of the most beautiful scenery Argentina has to offer. This includes an accessible canyon, shady amphitheater with excellent acoustics, a Cactus Park, frontier–type villages, a barren desert, and opulently fertile oases. If you are unwilling or unable to travel by car you can arrange direct transfer by private plane or helicopter.

If you go for the latter options, however, you will miss out on some fantastic scenery. I haven’t been to this particular hotel, but I have been to the canyon area between Salta and Cafayate and the landscape remains one of my most vivid memories of Argentina.

See the other top luxury hotels in Argentina.

In the last post we pointed to the Travel & Leisure reader’s poll, which we found to have a pretty good round-up of the best hotels in Latin America. Their results for the best spas in the world were quite a bit less varied, with only 2 outside of Mexico. For Mexico anyway, this will give you a good guide to the best places to relax and get pampered.

1. Esperanza, Los Cabos, Mexico
2. Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo
3. Royal Hideaway Playacar, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
4. Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, Mexico
5. Four Seasons Hotel, Buenos Aires
6. Las Ventanas al Paraíso, Los Cabos, Mexico
7. One & Only Palmilla, Los Cabos, Mexico (pictured here)
8. Paradisus Riviera, Cancun, Mexico
9. Pueblo Bonito, Los Cabos, Mexico
10. Ritz-Carlton Cancun

As I’ve said before, these polls are always going to be a bit flawed. Even the most well-traveled readers can only visit a fraction of the hotels in a region, especially one that stretches from just below San Diego all the way down almost to Antartica.

So for any spa lovers out there, you might want to check into a few other places we’ve reviewed, especially the top hotels in Argentina. The land of vinotherapy has some lovely spas to sample.

Two readers’ polls came out within two months of each other, from Condé Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure. There is a bit of overlap in the results, but not much, which I find quite odd. Considering how similar those two magazines are (I forget which one I’m holding half the time unless I look at the cover), it’s strange that their readers would have such divergent opinions. It is especially pronounced when you look at the best hotels in Mexico, Central America, and South America–an area we know quite well here at Luxury Latin America.

The verdict? The Travel & Leisure one is spot-on. No publication on the newsstand or web has hit as many hotels in the region first-hand as we have and the Travel & Leisure results show that their readers have also been out and about quite a bit. The Condé Nast Traveler one? Well, let’s just say that somebody has figured out how to beat the system or their readers just plain don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s loaded with hotels that rarely rise above average and there are lots of properties known more for their convention facilities than the quality of their rooms or service.

We’re talking curveballs like Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun–listed as #39 in the world–is this a joke?! JW Marriott Cancun the third best resort in Mexico? The regular Cancun Marriott #17 in Mexico? I detect some serious ballot stuffing.

For a more accurate view of the best of the region, here’s the top-20 from Travel & Leisure, with links to our reviews where available.

1. La Casa Que Canta, Zihuatanejo, Mexico (just visited–review coming soon)
2. Four Seasons Hotel, Buenos Aires
3. Esperanza, Los Cabos, Mexico
4. Ritz-Carlton Santiago, Chile
5. One & Only Palmilla, Los Cabos, Mexico
6. Turtle Inn, Placencia, Belize (pictured above)
7. Alvear Palace Hotel, Buenos Aires
8. Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo
9. Las Mañanitas, Cuernavaca, Mexico
10. Royal Hideaway Playacar, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
11. Lapa Rios, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica
12. Park Hyatt Mendoza, Argentina
13. Blancaneaux Lodge, Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve, Belize
14. Hotel Villa del Sol, Zihuatanejo, Mexico (review coming soon)
15. Tides Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
16. Maroma Resort & Spa, Riviera Maya, Mexico
17. Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, Mexico
18. The Lodge at Chaa Creek, San Ignacio, Belize
19. Hotel Monasterio, Cuzco, Peru
20. Four Seasons Hotel México D.F., Mexico City
21. Casa Santo Domingo, Antigua, Guatemala
22. Marquis Los Cabos, Mexico
23. Las Ventanas al Paraíso, Los Cabos, Mexico
24. Llao Llao Hotel & Resort, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
25. Ritz-Carlton Cancun

I wouldn’t put too much stock in who’s number 5 and who’s number 25 since readers can only rate a place they’ve stayed in and don’t know how one hotel compares to the other. It’s safe to say though that you can’t go wrong with any of these fine hotels.