After all the hype and excitement, the worries and waiting, there was something subtlely exciting about driving into the cavern-like entrance to CityCenter last week, as the project’s first Las Vegas hotels and shops opened for business.
Making their debuts, the Vdara Hotel and Spa and Mandarin Oriental hotel and Crystals shopping mall each offered unexpected surprises, despite so much advance notice.
From the first step into Vdara’s lobby, artistic austerity dominates. The Vdara bar is open-walled seduction, offering crafted creative cocktails to enjoy in the lush lounges or outdoor swinging daybeds. Read the rest of this entry »
Orbitz is the first travel site to showcase Google Maps’ new aerial perspective. This feature gives hotel shoppers a whole new way to view properties and their neighborhoods.
Besides the traditional “satellite” view, customers can zoom into a hotel at an angle, seeing both the rooftop and sides of the building. They can rotate around the entire hotel to see it from all perspectives.
Orbitz has added the aerial perspective to maps for San Diego hotels and San Jose hotels and plans to expand the feature to more destinations as they become available. Take it for a spin yourself by clicking the “Map” tab on any hotel, selecting the satellite view, and rotating the ring around the compass to see various perspectives.
San Diego County is so California, it makes the other counties jealous. Its weather is the 80-degree-year-’round gold standard; its beaches are miles upon miles of golden sand and perfect waves; its parks and zoos are bigger than anywhere else; its golf courses and spas are better; downtown San Diego hotels are hipper…. See where I’m going with this? For an annual family getaway, a San Diego vacation is way at the top of my list — and I think the holidays are a great time to visit.
Santa Claus and Sunbathing
What a great combination, right? And let’s be honest, the picture-perfect beaches are what 90 percent of people come here to enjoy. Whether you join the splashing masses at Coronado Beach, stroll the boardwalk at Pacific Beach Park, breakfast with Shamu (and Santa!) at SeaWorld San Diego, take the family for a day of boating activities and picnics on Mission Bay, or try boogie boarding at picturesque La Jolla Shores, you’re not going to be disappointed by San Diego’s multifaceted beachside scene. It looks just like on the postcards, and lives up to the hype.
A large storm system will likely affect travel across the United States through Thursday.
Heavy snow is expected across the Midwest Tuesday, while parts of the Southeast and lower Mississippi Valley will likely experience flash flooding, including up to two inches of rain in Atlanta. By Wednesday, the storm will bring rain to much of the Northeast, with sleet and snow likely in Boston.
Flight delays and cancellations are likely. If you have travel plans, Orbitz’ resources can help:
Check the Orbitz Traveler Update site for real-time weather and traffic information, plus the Orbitz air traffic analysts’ up-to-the-minute Flying Forecast that pinpoints flight delays across the country.
Sign up for Orbitz Care Alertsto have information about any flight delays or gate changes sent to your mobile device.
More Hotels? Of Course. You Know the Story: Look, you know the story: Hotels are planned a couple of years before they actually open, so all the new properties started during the boom times are coming on-line now, in the midst of one of the worst travel slumps in modern history. So let’s just get through these new openings without any further chatter.
In New York, a 122-room Hotel Indigo in the Chelsea neighborhood
In Hamburg, Germany, a 179-room Holiday Inn Express located in the city’s former tax office Read the rest of this entry »
The SkyTeam Alliance is moving to new facilities in two major international airports. At London/Heathrow, for example, SkyTeam is essentially taking over Terminal 4, British Airways’ former digs. (BA is now in the new Terminal 5.) Three SkyTeam carriers — Delta Air Lines, KLM and Kenya — are already sharing a new 1,600-square-meter check-in facility. Several more SkyTeam carriers (Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, Czech and Korean) move in during the rest of this month. And a second level of a shared SkyTeam lounge is scheduled to open next week.
When I arrived in the gorgeous open-air lobby at Dreams Riviera Cancun, I wasn’t so sure how it would compare to my original Mexico vacation at Dreams Cancun. I was happy to find that the layout at this all-inclusive resort was incredibly easy and not overwhelmingly spread out. It took just a few minutes to walk anywhere I wanted, with no need for golf carts like at some places I’ve been.
Traveling “far away” in my own neighborhood is one of my favorite things to do. This week I went sailing — practically in my own backyard — without even having to book a San Francisco hotel.
Stockings, snow and holly are all very jolly, but who am I kidding, after a year like this, a perfect 80-degree morning on a white-sand beach is a better gift than anything Santa could pull out his gift bag. A Caribbean vacation delivers an endless number of holiday celebrations, ranging from Christmas with an island twist to Latin spice with a Bacardi float. Here are three of my favorite places to celebrate:
Barbados
After dropping a few notches on the luxury hotlist under tough competition from St. Barths and Anguilla, Barbados has lately enjoyed a return to the top. Perhaps this is because of the many new and revamped Barbados hotels to debut recently.
Since Landry’s Restaurants took over the Golden Nugget in 2005, over $300 million has been spent in renovations and construction to the property, which dates back to the early days of Vegas. If the Rush Tower doesn’t make it a 5-star Las Vegas hotel, then it’s certainly just below that certification.
By E.C. Gladstone
By Joe Brancatelli
