Article November 2014
QCT South Florida Winter 2014

Whipple spent five years attending both junior and high school on the world famous Miami Beach where rumors of Al Capone’s hideout, the filming of the Jackie Gleason Show, Heavy Weight Boxing Champ Muhammad Ali worked out, and activist Anita Bryant were all well-known idiosyncrasies of the area. "Crossing over those bridges from Miami back then was like entering an entirely different planet that had all of the amenities of heaven on earth,"remembers Whipple. "I worked at the Doral during its hey-day and was fascinated by the conversations of their well-traveled guests."

Just down the street was the world-famous Fountain Bleu whose guests list reads like a who’s-who of internationally known celebrities like The Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr.), and recently (May 2014) Prince Harry; and equally famous movies filmed on the island like Scarface (1983). Back in the1980’s Miami was once again in the spotlight via the filming of the NBC hit Miami Vice (1984 - 1990) series featuring the dynamic, no socks wearing, dapper-dressed, sports car pushin duo of drug detectives Sonny Crockett (played by Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Played by Philip Michael Thomas). "I was extremely home sick during the run of that series,"quips Whipple. "Its influence, however, was spread all the way up to the Carolinas. “I can remember driving my black sports car (With the flip up headlights) for a night out on the town wearing my Willie Wear designer coat and pants, my snakes, and of course; no socks."

The renaissance of the world-famous South Beach area – inspired by the late designer Versace -- also did wonders for the international appeal of the Miami area."In the 1970’s – South Beach was considered the ghetto of Miami Beach and most tourists would avoid that area like the plague," recalls Whipple. "I was on the Miami Beach High School track team and I would often run from school there (a couple of miles) as a warm up before practice."A stark contrast from today where it is not uncommon to spot a celebrity or two or half dozen hanging out on the beach, clubbing, or just being a bad boy like a certain celebrity from Canada. As such, Miami Beach will be our first area of expansion after Miami, followed by Coconut Grove to the south, Ft. Lauderdale to the north, and of course Key West to the west. Maybe one day we will be able to offer tour services to Cuba but not before the Bahamas.

Our tours will be unique in that our Director has a personal connection with the area dating back to the 1960’s and 1970’s as well as a plethora of kin folks to draw from for past, present, and future plans from one of the most well-known tourist destinations around the globe. "We are confident in our abilities because the same folks that have toured with us in the Carolinas will be the same folks that will tour with us in Sunny South Florida," says Whipple. "We have a long list of those folks in our data base dating back to the last century and plan to use it to lure those folks to my hometown for fun in the sun." We will also dedicate more space to intriguing peoples, places, and events in Trend Magazine Online™ , our signature publication.

We all look forward to bringing our unique brand of tours to South Florida whose economy is developed around this important market and offers limitless resources for those of us that specialize in tourism.

We hope to see you in Sunny South Florida soon and really look forward to showing you why this area is a genuine mecca for tourism. Book early and save at www.queencitytour.com/index.southflorida.htm. Tell them that Trend Magazine Online™ sent you.