The Rio Othon Palace is among the Rio hotels sprucing up for the World Cup and Summer Olympics.
By Mark Chesnut
Brazil’s original jet-set destination and one-time capital, Rio de Janeiro, is gearing up for two world-class events: The FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. But visitors can already tap into the excitement, thanks to an array of renovations, upgrades and new attractions in the works. (more…)
At the Epcot International Flower and Garden Show, landscapers fashioned Disney characters into topiaries.
By Deborah Bowen
If you don’t recall the last time you literally stopped to smell the roses, there’s a whole botanical wonderland waiting at the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. These aren’t your garden, ahem, variety topiaries, unless you, too, were planning to prune Cinderella and her prince from your backyard shrubs. (more…)
Shop talk: L.A.'s International Pow Wow hosts hundreds of travel reps this week.
By Mark Chesnut
More than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations and nearly 1,200 foreign travel companies, tour operators and other industry insiders are wandering around Los Angeles this week for International Pow Wow, the U.S. Travel Association’s big annual tourism conference. And while the focus is on selling the good old USA to travelers from other countries, the event — which takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center — always produces worthwhile news of interest to any traveler. (more…)
Coasting it: the Sunscape Dorado Pacifico Ixtapa resort.
By Mark Chesnut
The 37th annual Tianguis Turistico, Mexico’s annual tourism conference that took place last month in Puerto Vallarta, provided lots of opportunities for companies and destinations to share the latest business travel and Mexico vacation news — including a slew of new hotels that offer lots of amenities and services for both business travelers and vacationers. (more…)
Golden gates: The Fairmont San Francisco is among the hotels with upgrades.
By Mark Chesnut
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which operates upscale hotels that range from the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona to the Fairmont Monte Carlo in — you guessed it — Monte Carlo, is making some major overhauls on a bunch of its properties worldwide, and guests are the beneficiaries. (more…)
Fresh face: A redesigned guest room at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, in Atlantic City.
By Mark Chesnut
Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, one of the trendiest Atlantic City hotels, is betting that you’ll think its $50 million redesign is a winning hand.
Slated to be completed finished in time for the peak summer season in July, the upgrade will bring new style to all 1,566 guest rooms as well as the corridors. Rooms are being recast in neutral gray tones, with bright bursts of color and floral details in the new metal lamps and wooden headboards. Furniture is, according to hotel officials, “skillfully mismatched,” with English Sycamore bedside tables and desks complemented by dark wood dresser sets.
Technological upgrades include a Bittel integrated phone unit that includes speakers, iPod charger and player, USB charge port, clock radio and alarm. In addition, all rooms will have WiFi.
In addition to its 161,000 square feet of gaming — which includes 182 gaming tables, nearly 3,500 slot machines and a recently renovated poker room with more than 80 tables — Borgata also has six formal restaurants, six casual eateries and a 54,000-square-foot spa.
Among the biggest reasons why people have heard of Borgata is the entertainment. The hotel’s 2,400-seat Event Center hosts live music and comedy performances from name-brand stars throughout the year, with upcoming appareances in May and June from the likes of Pitbull, Weezer, Frankie Valli, Sting and the Jacksons, to name a few.
Borgata also targets business travelers, meetings and conventions, with some 70,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The star-studded Event Center also hosts private corporate events, as does the 1,000-person Music Box theater, which is home to the hotel’s nightly comedy club.
Since the 2008 opening of its newest hotel component, The Water Club, the complex offers even more options for travelers with either business or pleasure on their minds. The Water Club has 18,000 square feet of meeting space, including two glass-enclosed boardrooms and a poolside area that can host up to 500 people for private events.
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Mark Chesnut is a freelance travel writer, editor and publisher of LatinFlyer.com, which focuses on travel to Latin America. Unfortunately, he’s never even won at slots.
Promenade: The waterfront Malecon walkway has been expanded in Puerto Vallarta. Photo: LatinFlyer.com
By Mark Chesnut
It’s already one of the top-selling Mexico vacation destinations, but the Pacific Coast resort town of Puerto Vallarta also showed its stuff as a hotspot for meetings and conventions in March, when more than 7,000 people landed here for the Tianguis Turístico, Mexico’s annual tourism conference. (more…)
Our kind of country: Sonoma, where it's perfectly acceptable to crack open the wine at 1 p.m. Credit: star5112.
By Valerie Moloney
Having broken through the wrong side of 35 a few years ago, I owed it to my aging self to add a new experience to my travel lexicon: wine getaway. I’m no oenophile – in fact, I couldn’t tell the difference between a Pinotage and Cab Franc – but I do love any opportunity to day drink and actually fall into bed at a reasonable hour.
The time is ripe for another trip to Sonoma County. (more…)
Flying colors: the new United Airlines livery represents the heritage of both merged carriers.
By Mark Chesnut
Now that the merger between Continental Airlines and United Airlines is a done deal, what can travelers expect from the new United? Here are a few basics to keep you flying smoothly: (more…)
The spirit of SoCal: Come to Venice, Calif., May 11-12 to chat with artists during The Venice Art Walk & Auctions. Credit: ToGa Wanderings.
By Erik Torkells
Galleries can be a wonderful way to spend time while traveling, but they can also be a bit isolating — you may not talk to anybody, and if we’re going to be honest, they can blur together after a while. A number of destinations, however, offer annual artist-studio open houses where you can not only see how a real artist works, but also chat with the artist and other visitors. You don’t have to know much about art, and best of all, the events are usually free. Here are 10 worth checking out, along with their dates in 2012 — but seriously, they’re everywhere these days. Search online to see if one lines up with your next trip, or ask at your hotel. (more…)
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