The Lonely Planet travel guide’s annual list of the top ten best value destinations for 2010 contains a surprising entry – London.
Long scorned for being one of the most expensive cities on earth, London is now seen as good value for a number of reasons, including the falling value of the pound, hotel bargains and free museums. The recession has also encouraged many restaurants and shops to cut their prices and offer special deals.
Tom Hall, the publisher’s travel editor, said: “The tables have turned and London’s reputation as one of the world’s most expensive cities is over. It is far easier to do London on the cheap than it was five years ago.”
Other best-value destinations in the top ten include Iceland, South Africa, Las Vegas and Kenya.
There’s considerable satisfaction in the Irish Republic that Cork has been named in another Lonely Planet top ten – the best cities to visit in 2010. The guide says: “Cork has been in Dublin’s shadows for far too long. It has emerged as a fantastic destination in its own right with great restaurants, galleries, bars and shops as well as stunning scenery on its doorstep.”
Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2010 is now available in the US and Europe.
by Andy Moreton
Many of Luxique’s carefully selected luxury hotels in London will have special deals at this time. And if you want to experience a city that Lonely Planet says is ‘at the top of its game’ right now, Luxique offers the convivial Hayfield Manor in Cork, Irish Republic.
When a luxury hotel is built in three years’ time on the island of Solta off Croatia, the one thing that guests will not be able to complain about is the view from their bedroom windows.
That’s because the view will be constantly changing in the world’s first revolving hotel.
The British architect behind the building, Richard Hywel Evans, is keen to stress that prospective guests need not worry about becoming dizzy. The rotating section will turn very, very slowly – 1.3 times every 24 hours – and guests will not actually feel it move.
The hotel, costing around £70 million ($114 million) to build, will have 50 suites on three storeys and will stand in the middle of a purpose-built lake. There’ll be a marina and yacht club alongside.
A static reception area will be situated across the lake and an underground entrance will escort guests to the hotel. For those who wish to remain ‘unmoved’ during their vacation, luxury villas will also be provided.
by Andy Moreton
The Croatian capital, Zagreb, is now competing with Prague and Budapest as the most popular city in central Europe for foreign visitors. Luxique offers the most competitive rates at one of the best luxury hotels in the city – the Starwood-owned Westin Zagreb.
Booked your holiday for 2012? What about something a bit different – outer space for instance.
It’s reported that the first hotel in space will be open for business and accepting tourists within three years, with the help of $3 billion (£1.8 billion) of funding from a wealthy anonymous space enthusiast.
The Galactic Suite Space Resort - a single pod in orbit 280 miles above the earth and travelling at more than 18,000 miles an hour - will have two astronaut-pilots and welcome four guests at a time.
The guests will have a three-night stay preceded by an eight-week training course on a tropical island. And, despite the fact that a return ticket will cost around 3 million euros (£2.7 million /$4.4 million), more than 200 people have reportedly expressed an interest and 43 have already made a reservation.
During their stay, guests will see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They’ll wear Velcro suits to enable them to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
Xavier Claramunt, the Chief Executive of Galactic Suite Ltd and a former aerospace engineer, said the project would put his company at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it.
He forecast that space travel would become commonplace in the future. “It’s very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space,” he said.
by Andy Moreton
The Chinese authorities have approved the construction of a Disney theme park in Shanghai.
“China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Company in mainland China,” said Disney president and CEO, Robert Iger. Disney already has operations in Hong Kong, where its fifth resort was built in 2005.
A 1.5 square mile block of land has been earmarked for the Shanghai project, but there will have to be considerable compensation paid out to residents forced to move. The cost of relocation to make way for the first phase – the park, a hotel and retail outlets – is put at £523 million ($880 million).
Disney will hold a 43 per cent share in the project. The remainder will be controlled by Shanghai state-owned companies. Chinese state media said the park would cost up to £2.1 billion ($3.6 billion) and be opened around 2014.
Disney has been trying to build a park for years in Shanghai, in an effort to take a firmer foothold in a fast-growing China market where success has eluded most Western media companies.
by Andy Moreton
As Disney confirms, Shanghai is the jewel of modern China - a fascinating and vibrant city. Luxique can guide you to the best of its luxury hotels, including the Four Seasons Shanghai, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, and the J W Marriott Shanghai.
Cyprus has opened an ultra-modern airport that it hopes will boost flagging tourism and revive prospects of it becoming a regional transport hub.
The Cypriot President, Demetris Christofias, opened the new Larnaca terminal, built by a consortium of French and Cypriot companies, at a ceremony attended by 2,000 guests.
“Today serves as a landmark in the history of tourism development and the island’s infrastructure in general,” said Christofias. “This work plays a significant role in upgrading Cyprus as a main transit hub in the coming decades.”
The high-tech terminal is four times larger than its predecessor, which is just a couple of miles away on the island’s south coast. The old terminal was originally built as a makeshift facility in February 1975 after the island’s only airport, in the capital Nicosia, got caught up in no-man’s land as a result of the Turkish invasion eight months earlier.
The new Larnaca airport took three years to build at a cost of 656 million euros (£586 million / $974 million) in what was one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Cyprus. It now has the capacity to handle passenger traffic of up to 7.5 million people annually with a provision to extend this to nearly 10 million when the need arises.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique can secure you the best rates at three luxury hotels in Cyprus: the Anassa in Polis, the Annabelle in Paphos and the Londa in Limassol.
It’s been reported here in the UK that Beyoncé Knowles booked a hotel room - just for her luggage!
The diva was performing at the Liverpool Echo Arena, but stayed in Manchester in the lavish Charles Forte Presidential Suite at the Lowry Hotel at the rate of about £2,450 ($4,000) a night.
But after struggling to find space for her 12 items of luggage, her minders rented another room, this time at Liverpool’s Malmaison hotel.
A source there told the Press:
“She had seven suitcases, three hand-luggage bags and two boxes, all for her mammoth concert. In the cases were, apparently, 14 dresses, lots of shoes, make-up and 25 wigs.”
It apparently took four helpers to carry her luggage up the stairs to the room.
Beyoncé is not the only singer who refuses to travel light. Last year, Mariah Carey flew to London for a three-day trip – and brought 20 suitcases with her.
by Andy Moreton
Both these fine luxury hotels in North-West England – the Lowry and the Malmaison – are ready to book through Luxique
As well as being an historic event, the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall earlier this month brought a welcome tourist boost to the city.
More than two million visitors made their way to the German capital – a new record for the city. Hundreds of thousands of Berliners and guests took part in the celebrations at the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Around 2,800 international journalists were accredited for the event and images were broadcast around the world.
The head of Berlin’s tourism organisation, Burkhard Kieker, said Berliners had been able to show the guests what they had done with the city in the 20 years since the fall of the Wall.
“The fact that the world loves this new Berlin is confirmed by the steadily rising numbers of visitors – even in the thick of the global economic crisis,” said Mr Kieker.
“The appeal of Berlin as a site of freedom, as a focal point of European history and a city where people can live together in a climate of tolerance and openness will continue to grow in the future,” he added.
by Andy Moreton
If you’re intending to see the city’s transformation for yourself, take a look at Luxique’s carefully-selected list of luxury hotels in Berlin, including the famed Adlon, recently described as: ‘An historic masterpiece with an unrivalled location, exceptionally attentive staff, Michelin Star restaurant and immaculate interior.’
A mock funeral was staged in Venice on Saturday with grim-faced residents escorting a red coffin on a gondola through the famous canals.
The demonstration was designed to highlight Venice’s shrinking native population. The number has dropped from about 300,000 in the 1950s to some 60,000 today. The average age is 60. Newsweek magazine recently reported that by 2030 there might not be a single native Venetian left.
There are a number of reasons for the decline. Rents and property prices have become so expensive that many locals are priced out and forced to move to a cheaper location.
Rising water levels have also been a cause for concern, with many Venetians unwilling to buy a home that may not be usable in the future.
While the population has been dropping off, the number of tourists visiting Venice has been soaring every year – about 55,000 arrive each day. Venetian business owners used to charge higher prices to tourists, but are now charging those prices to locals, too, in the struggle to get by.
After travelling along the Grand Canal, the demonstrators left the coffin outside the town hall, hoping the gesture will publicise the plight of a city that’s been described as ‘a museum struggling to survive in a modern age’.
by Andy Moreton
It remains one of the most remarkable cities in the world and Luxique has a varied selection of the finest luxury hotels in Venice.
Artist Carl Warner has taken the London skyline and recreated it using 26 types of fruit and vegetables.
Tourists will be very familiar with the real Houses of Parliament – these are made from asparagus, green beans and runner beans.
Nelson’s column is represented by cucumber, baby courgettes, a carrot, monkey nuts and almond, while the London Eye has been built with green beans as its spokes and baby plum tomatoes as the pods. 30 St Mary Axe – better known to Londoners as ‘The Gherkin’ because of its shape – is crafted not from a gherkin but from two types of melon.
The top of St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome has been given a fruity new look, thanks to roundels of carrots, yellow and green courgettes and baby leeks.
The unusual art was commissioned by the Good Food Channel.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique’s Top Destination guide will help you get the best from your visit to the UK capital and we have a hand-picked selection of the finest luxury London hotels.
Last month, I reported that the Maldives cabinet had held a meeting under water to highlight the dangers of global warming.
Clearly, this kind of green protest is beginning to catch on, because I see now that ministers in Nepal are to hold a meeting on Mount Everest later this month.
The entire cabinet will travel to a base camp at an altitude of 17,585 feet to highlight the impact of global warming on the Himalayas ahead of December’s climate change talks in Copenhagen.
The Forest Minister, Deepak Bohora, said the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas was a serious concern. About 1.3 billion people depend on the water that flows down from the Himalayan glaciers, which experts say are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring floods and later drought to the region.
“Climate change has hit the Himalayas in general and Nepal in particular,” said Mr Bohora. “Its effects are being manifested in different forms, from the rapid increase in the size of the glacial lakes to erratic monsoon patterns and unprecedented forest fires.”
He said the visit would be an opportunity for ministers to gain first-hand information about the effects of climate change on the vast mountain range.
by Andy Moreton
Nepal is one of the most fascinating countries on earth and Luxique can book you a place at a hotel to match – Dwarika’s in Kathmandu. Recent guests described it as ‘a wonderful haven’ and ‘a magnificent oasis’.
