Find the right beach resort for you

Myidealbeach.com is the best five-minute work distraction this side of a Mai Tai. Whether you can take a vacation or merely dream of one, get swept away to a dreamy beach resort customized just for you.

What’s hot: It’s a quick and easy three-step questionnaire that asks your travel preferences and delivers a variety of beach resort options, whether you’re traveling alone, with the kids, with friends or trying to get away for some romance. The site is powered by Orbitz, but you don’t feel as though you’re on the Orbitz site until the end when you select the hotel. The site suggests one ideal resort but backs it up with other recommendations. The site qualifies its selections and lets you know whether that particular resort is even just a slight mismatch for your hotel or activity interests.

What’s not: Oftentimes when I clicked through to the end, the hotel was $75 to $100 a night cheaper on Orbitz than it was through the beach site’s overview. Once I selected the ideal beach resort, I couldn’t use my back browser’s button to go back and see the other recommendations. Instead of keeping me on the My Ideal Beach website, it took me to whatever browser page I was looking at before this one -- and if I did that and then hit the forward button, it took me to the beginning of the questionnaire, so I had to start all over. There is a “back to results” link in your results -- on the lower left side of your resort description -- but be warned that the sound of the ocean waves and details of your dreamy resort might distract you.

-- Jen Leo