Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for luxury travel
Aircraft Bling
By Linda Tancs
Luxaholics will no doubt feel like they’ve died and gone to heaven after an experience with Air Emirates’ A380. For those who have been sleeping, the Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Its girth isn’t the only thing that’s supersized, though. This super jumbo has enough amenities to make old Concorde look like budget travel. Just ask the folks at Telstar Logistics, who wrote an eye-popping account of their invitation to scope out the digs. Photos included. Reminds me of Shakespeare’s observation: “Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy.”
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Hitchhiking Goes High Style
By Linda Tancs
Brother, can you spare a–flight? You know times are tough when even luxe travelers find ways to cut corners. A new service matches charter flyers with potential partners to reduce the costs of private flights. Prospects must join a social networking-type site (sort of like a LinkedIn for flyers) and then check for any flights of interest. Who knows, with commercial carriers taking hits left and right, this could become the preferred method of getting from A to B.
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The Hottest Place on Earth
By Linda Tancs
Summer brings its share of perils–ozone warnings, dust storms, fires, draught and stormy weather. In some places, the heat is so extreme you might be wishing for your own polar ice cap to float on. Take Dubai, for instance. At a mere 40 degrees or so (centigrade, that is) in the shade, the air is so humid now you’d feel like a palm tree in a conservatory. So why are more and more Europeans flocking to this place in the stoking hot season of summer? In today’s crushing economic environment, value may be one answer. Outside of high season (September to May), this up-and-comer’s offerings are more affordable for those wanting a taste of the good life. And let’s not discount the probable desire of many travelers to witness history in the making as this Gulf resort for the super rich builds the world’s largest shopping mall and highest building. So there’s more than heat that’s hot about this playground. Whatever the season, though, those landmarks are likely to be little more than a gleam in your camera lens unless you’re part of the Jet set.
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You Can Be a Select Traveler
By Linda Tancs
Imagine yourself sipping champagne in an ornate wood-paneled dining car, watching the Italian Dolomites soar as the steward offers you yet another canape. Or perhaps you prefer the French country elegance of a château. Or the craggy, mystical highlands of Scotland. Or the samba beat of South America. Whatever your guilty pleasure, Continental Airlines now gives you a menu of options to choose from with their new Select Escapes luxury packages. They’ve put together an impressive array of high-end rail tours, palatial digs, resorts and spas. Someone once said, “Vacation used to be a luxury, but in today’s world it has become a necessity.” Does that mean that a luxury vacation is an imperative? You decide.
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The New South Beach
By Linda Tancs
If market saturation in Miami’s South Beach has you feeling less than sanguine about your prospects for peace and quiet–not to mention scoring that coveted table at Bed–then head a bit north to Sunny Isles. Soon to go upmarket, Sunny Isles will offer CHI condo towers, sporting $5 to $7 million digs complete with personal mineral water pools. Not to be outdone, Regalia will offer full-floor condos in the $7 to $14 million price range. Better hurry before the Euro crowd–or any other dollar beaters for that matter- swoops in for the kill.
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Trump Luxury Expands
By Linda Tancs
Never one to rest on his laurels, Trump has now launched the Trump Hotel Collection, a luxe brand including the New York Trump International Hotel and Tower and the yet-to-be completed Chicago and Las Vegas properties. In Chicago, the new Spa at Trump line will be unveiled, sporting dedicated spa guestrooms and a full-service health club. Lest you feel overwhelmed by all the extravagances available to you, a personal butler is on hand to see you through it. That alone should let you rest well on your 500 thread-count Bellino Italian bed sheets.
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How to Find a Good Tour Company
By Linda Tancs
Granted, there hasn’t been much news lately of a tour company going belly up, stranding hundreds of passengers and stripping them of their tour and deposit monies–not to mention peace of mind. The majority of tour operators are stable and reputable, but do your homework nonetheless. Check with the Better Business Bureau in the city in which a tour company you plan on using is doing business. You can also download a list of members of the U.S. Tour Operators Association at www.ustoa.com. Each tour company member is required to carry $1 million in security in the form of a bond or letter of credit held in trust by the USTOA to reimburse travelers against the operator’s financial instability or other failures. With over $9 billion in sales volume, that’s a lot of money to look after so be sure to finish your homework.
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Luxury Travel
By Linda Tancs
Is there really such a thing as “luxury travel”? Who gets to define what luxury is, anyway? As the old saying goes, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” Webster’s dictionary defines luxury as self-indulgence–an enjoyable, but not necessary, thing. But let’s face it, travel is the ultimate indulgence for the mind, body or spirit–whether it be around the block, around the country, or around the world. In that sense, the luxury of any journey, then, depends on how you arrange it in your mind, or as Winston Churchill put it, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
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