Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

It’s happened. We’re now upwardly mobile – at least on one airline.

The budget carrier, Ryanair, has become the first European carrier to offer the chance to use a mobile phone while in flight. Passengers can now call, text and email above 10,000 feet.

Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said the service had been brought in as a result of demand. “It will allow passengers to keep in touch with the office, family or friends.”

At present, only people on the O2 and Vodafone networks can use the service, but Ryanair is negotiating with other operators.

The Daily Telegraph’s Travel News Editor, Charles Starmer-Smith, who tried out the new service, said: “The voices [of mobile users] did not travel as far as many feared and, indeed, were hard to hear above the background noise in the cabin.”

“The technology is impressive – my call home connected within seconds (despite going via satellite into Monaco and back to London). There was no speech delay and the voice was clear enough.”

I have to say that in most of the commentaries I’ve read this week, very few people are relishing the prospect. Carolyn Hitt, of the Western Mail, for example: “Flights were the last refuge from enforced eavesdropping. But just when you thought a wailing baby or snorer were the worst passengers to turn up on the other side of your window seat, you could now be stuck next to a text maniac.”

by Andy Moreton

Planners building a major intersection in Tokyo have factored in a rooftop sky park above it.

With space at a premium in the world’s busiest city, the Ohashi 1-chrome Park will create more than four square miles of green space on top of the looping concrete structure linking two major roads near the busy Shibuya railway station.

A spokesman for the local government office building the new park said: “The city is getting hotter and hotter and temperatures are rising, so we wanted to create a green area to help lower them. Tokyo does not have much space, so we also wanted to create a relaxing environment for residents to enjoy.”

The rooftop park – a first for Japan - will be from 23 to 115 feet above street level, following the expressway junction as it climbs upward. It’s due to be completed by the end of 2012.

by Andy Moreton

Book your luxury hotels in Tokyo through Luxique. We offer great rates at four hotels which all feature in the Conde Nast Traveller 2008 Gold List.

It’s not every day that hotel staff receive a $250 billion tip, but that’s what happened at the Metropole in Leeds in northern England.

Unfortunately for them, they were Zimbabwean dollars and with inflation there running at a virtually unquantifiable rate (one estimate has the percentage at 5, followed by 21 0s), the ten $25 billion bills were completely worthless and couldn’t be exchanged.

The hotel’s Deborah Heather said: “We thought we’d won the jackpot and imagined how we’d spend it. Then we realised it wouldn’t even buy a penny chew” (cheap candy popular when some of us were young).
She’s right: even a recently introduced bill, with a denomination of 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, was worth barely 20 pence (28 cents) and halved in value every few hours.

by Andy Moreton

Recession or no recession, the leading British high street fashion chain, Topshop, is going ahead with its long-awaited $20 million (£14 million) flagship store in New York.

Topshop and its male counterpart Topman have a prime corner site in London’s West End and will occupy an equally enviable spot in NY – a listed building at 478 Broadway.

It will feature floor-to-ceiling display windows on three floors for what’s described as ‘an army of mannequins.’ There will be original beams, Ionic columns and reclaimed timber floors mixed with raw brick, futuristic lighting and a DJ booth suspended over the heads of shoppers.

The centrepiece of the merchandise will be the Kate Moss collection. Other young British designers will also be featured and it’s hoped to showcase a new American talent.

Sir Philip Green, the boss of the parent Arcadia Group, agreed it was not the best of times, “but it’s not Armageddon. We’re going to have to work harder, but we’re well set up, in spite of the market.”

The New York store – due to open on April 2nd - will be the first of a planned US expansion, with other shops envisaged in Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Boston.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can help you book some classic luxury hotels in New York – at the best possible rates.

If you’re visiting the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, this spring, a pleasant day out might be to the international flower exhibition called Keukenhof.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the exhibition, which attracts some 800,000 international visitors every year. Over the past few months, more than seven million flower bulbs have been planted throughout the park in preparation.

The 2009 show will commemorate the fact that 400 years ago, Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan and founded the settlement of New Amsterdam, which later became New York. A spectacular flower mosaic, produced from more than 25,000 bulbs, will depict the Statue of Liberty.

The vast park is situated in Lisse, south of Amsterdam. I’m told that the Amsterdam Tourist Information Office (situated just opposite the Centraal Station in the city centre) offers a joint ticket at the cost of about 20 Euros (£18 / $26), which includes admission and a bus connection from the city.

The exhibition will be opened by Queen Beatrix on March 18th. Public admission runs from March 19th to May 21st from 0800-1930. More details at http://www.keukenhof.nl/

by Andy Moreton

Book your luxury hotels in Amsterdam through Luxique – we have a varied selection.

The Dorchester is one of the finest traditional luxury hotels in London – it has a long and distinguished history and has always attracted the top personalities of the day.

Recently it played host to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who were in London for the Baftas – the UK equivalent of the Oscars.

But when it came to a pre-Baftas meal, they shunned not only the hotel’s classy Alain Ducasse restaurant, where meals are around £100 ($144), but also any number of other Michelin-starred places.

Instead, they opted for a £20 ($29) a head meal at the Noor Jahan, a curry house in the South Kensington area. They were joined by former supermodel Claudia Schiffer and her film director husband Matthew Vaughn, as well as actor Robert Downey Junior.

The party apparently dined on a feast of vegetable samosas, tandoori lamb chops and the house special, lamb passanda – a favourite dish of Vaughn’s, who recommended the 40-seat restaurant.
And it seemed they wanted a low-key night out to match their choice of restaurant. Shauyab Ahmed, part-owner of the restaurant, said: “Some of the staff asked them for autographs, but they didn’t want to give them. They just wanted to chat, so we didn’t take photographs.”

Perhaps the meal was the best part of their evening, as neither won a celebrated Bafta mask: Pitt, nominated as Best Actor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, lost out to Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. Jolie, nominated as Best Actress for Changeling, was beaten by Kate Winslet in The Reader.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a range of luxury hotels in London, including five in the South Kensington area: Blakes, The Pelham, Number Sixteen, base2stay and The Cranley.

Earlier this year, I wrote about a dream job in Australia – to be caretaker on a desert island with a handsome salary and a three-bedroom house thrown in. So many applied, apparently, the website went into meltdown.

Now I hear of another attractive offer, although somewhat less lucrative. The idyllic Indian Ocean islands of The Maldives want to improve educational standards, so they’ve put out a call for British head teachers to consider taking up posts there.

The teachers would leave behind snow, rain and the crowded train for long sunny days and a leisurely commute across a crystal clear bay.

Last October, the Maldives had its first democratic presidential election and a former political prisoner, Mohamed Nasheed, defeated Asia’s longest-serving ruler, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Mr Nasheed studied in Britain and has said improving education for the country’s poor is among his top priorities.

The country, which has 370,000 people and 1,000 islands, plans to assign British headteachers to oversee seven newly decentralised regions. In addition to heading their own schools, they would be expected to help develop education in their zone.

By Western standards, the likely monthly salary of about 10,000 Rufiyaa (£523 / $745) is not vast. But in The Maldives, this is considerably more than the average.

Having won its independence from Britain in 1965, The Maldives has progressed from an economy that was almost entirely dependent on fishing to one where tourism accounts for 28 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product.

For holidaymakers who want to taste a little bit of paradise, Luxique offers ten luxury hotels in The Maldives.

by Andy Moreton

There are any number of niggling setbacks that can befall you as you stagger out of the airport and hail a taxi to take you to your hotel. Having difficulty with the language, for example, or not holding enough local currency.

But for Samantha Lazzaris, from Bristol in the west of England, it was a whole lot worse than that – she was in the wrong country.

She’d booked a trip to Costa Rica in Central America, but after a mix-up with flights, she found herself about 1,300 miles away in Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean. It was the cab driver who broke the unfortunate news.

Miss Lazzaris had to pay £800 for three extra flights to get to her chosen destination. She blames her tour company, saying it used the booking code SJU for San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, instead of SJO for San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.

The company is investigating.

by Andy Moreton

If you accidentally find yourself in Puerto Rico – or it’s your intended destination - Luxique can offer the best rates at one of three top-class luxury Puerto Rico hotels.

The island nation of Fiji has begun a drive to boost its visitor numbers.

There’s a new logo and additional funding to try to achieve a ten per cent increase in tourist arrivals this year from 545,000 to 600,000.

The Minister for Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, said the additional funding would enable Tourism Fiji to develop a higher profile in several key emerging markets offering huge potential, including China, India and Russia.

“The increased funding will also allow Tourism Fiji to step up its efforts in attracting niche market, special interest and sustainable tourism business,” said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum. “These include backpackers, conference business, sports tourism, diving and the key romantic travel market - weddings and honeymoons.”

The travel website www.myfiji.com says: “Fiji embodies everything the romance of the South Seas is supposed to – with laidback maritime charm, a warm, tropical climate, friendly people, exotic fruit and vegetables, and strange yet harmless creatures.”

Luxique can offer a choice of two award-winning luxury resorts in Fiji – the Outrigger On The Lagoon, situated in a 40-acre garden on the island of Viti Levu, and Royal Davui, an exclusive adults-only sanctuary in Fiji’s spectacular Beqa Lagoon.

by Andy Moreton

It’s depressing to have to report that the enterprising Vélib bicycle rental scheme in Paris that I wrote about last year has become a victim of theft and vandalism.

Half of the original fleet of 15,000 distinctive grey bikes have disappeared, presumed stolen; several have been spotted in Romania. In addition, more than 11,000 have been vandalised – tyre-slashing is the most common problem, although some bikes have been found hanging from trees or dumped in rivers.

JCDecaux, the advertising company that supplies them to the city, has been repairing or replacing most of the original cycles. This led to it complaining that the city was making all the money from the rentals while the operating firm was bearing all the costs. The Mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, has now agreed to pay for a proportion of the stolen and damaged stock.

Vélib - a contraction of the French words for bicycle and freedom - remains popular with the city’s residents and tourists – in its first year of operation, it made €20 million (£17.5 million / $26 million).
But as well as theft and vandalism, the cycles have fallen victim to a craze called ‘Vélib extreme.’

Young riders use them for daredevil stunts that they film and post on the internet, set to rock music. They include jumps and fast descents down the long stairs of the Montmartre hill.

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to France’s romantic capital city, browse through Luxique’s unrivalled selection of luxury hotels in Paris.