Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

If you fancy sharing photographs of your latest trip or luxury hotel features with your family and friends, Postcardly is a great way to do it. It combines the simplicity and convenience of sending an email photo attachment from your laptop with the more traditional pleasure of a sending a postcard to keep.

For US travelers it is a novel way to send short messages and photos. Business travelers can quickly send a personal snapshot home to the kids, delivered by the postman. Those on vacation can send their favorite digital photo on a touchy-feely postcard home to colleagues and friends. They also make great postmarked souvenirs of your travels if you send one home to yourself!

This is how they work. Send an email photo attachment from your Smartphone or laptop to Postcardly, along with your personal text. They produce a real postcard with the photo on the front and the message and address on the back. They then mail it (stamp and all) to the people you have listed. They are not a phone app or a cheap gimmick, they are a good old fashioned postcard designed to be attached to the office pinboard or refrigerator with a fridge magnet.

A pretty cool idea for Luxique travelers who want to send mementoes home for around $1 a postcard.

by Gillian

Travellers wanting to book inter-continental rail journeys across Europe currently face a nightmare of red tape when booking each stage, country by country. The exceptions currently are Eurostar and Thalys high-speed rail services but their services are limited to certain central European cities.

The European Union has now paved the way making it as easy to book rail journeys between countries as it is to book flights, with a combination of stops and destinations to suit the needs of both business people and tourists. The EU is adopting new regulations to force the standardization of rail passenger data on fares and timetables right across Europe.

In 2012, by law, rail operators must bring their computer systems and practises inline, making it easy for travel agents and individuals to book tickets to and from most destinations, hassle free.

One of the main reasons behind this approach from Brussels is that inter-city travel by rail is far more environmentally-friendly than travel by car or by air. Rail travel considerably reduces harmful emissions and the effects on global warming, possibly making it the recommended method of travel for forward-thinking governments of the future.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

A new concept in luxury hotels is opening in Sweden on Saturday.

The Swedes have elevated the simple tree-house into world-class hotel rooms for design-conscious travellers.

Treehotel, located in Harads about 37 miles south of the Arctic Circle, will consist of four rooms when it opens, each with its own distinctive character. They’re called the Cabin, the Blue Cone, the Nest and the Mirror Cube. Two additional structures are scheduled to open in October – the UFO and A Room With a View.

The Mirror Cube is currently attracting the most fascination. Thirteen feet square, with walls of mirrored glass, it’s attached to a single tree. Kent Lindvall, Treehotel’s owner, said: “Everything will reflect in this – the trees, the birds, the clouds, the sun, everything. So it should be nearly invisible in the forest.” However, a special film will be applied to the glass, which will be visible to birds.

The motto of Treehotel is ‘Feel Free In A Tree’, but the lofty experience comes at a cost: in the region of 290 euros (£242/$366) a night for a single occupant to 420 euros (£351/$531) for two guests in the Mirror Cube.

by Andy Moreton

If you prefer to keep your feet firmly on the ground, Luxique offers a selection of more traditional luxury hotels in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

All that half-used soap and shampoo that’s simply left in the tub when guests check out of their hotel is being put to very good use by a charity called Clean The World.

The charity is recycling these leftovers into new soap and shampoo, and shipping it to developing countries and homeless shelters in the US.

Clean The World says its primary goal is to help developing countries combat the diarrhoeal diseases that cause nearly 1.8 million childhood deaths a year. Proper hygiene practices can help to eliminate these avoidable deaths.

At its laboratory in Florida, Clean The World cooks the soap to remove impurities and then re-shapes it into two-ounce bars. According to its website, it has put more than four million of these bars – as well as 200,000 pounds of shampoo and conditioner – back into use, simultaneously eliminating more than 380 tons of waste. About 175 hotels, both luxury and budget, are currently involved in the project.

One of the luxury hotels taking part is the New York Palace in Manhattan. Elvir Dervisevic, Director of Housekeeping, said: “Reducing environmental impact is a priority for us, and Clean The World’s ability to recycle discarded soap was a simple solution for our ‘reduce waste’ team.”

by Andy Moreton

The red bus is one of the most instantly recognisable sights for visitors to London, and the image appears on souvenir T-shirts, caps, bags, mouse-mats and postcards.

Many native Londoners look back with fondness at the double-decker variety known as Routemasters – hop-on, hop-off workhorses (with friendly conductors collecting fares) that served the capital for 50 years until they were scrapped in 2005.

Now, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has honoured his election pledge and unveiled his new generation of Routemasters to replace the much-maligned single-deckers nicknamed ‘bendy buses’.

The new Routemaster is bigger than the old one – people have got larger and there are rules about headroom and gangway widths, plus accessibility requirements. And there are two staircases, with the ‘open platform’ door at the back staying open or closed depending on whether there’s a conductor to collect fares and scan ticket swipe cards.

The Mayor is pretty pleased with his new bus, telling passengers to expect a ‘greener, light and airy’ service when the first of them is rolled out across London in 2012.

The London public, though, are divided. Some love the idea of an iconic favourite working the streets again; others think the £7.8 million ($11.2 million) for five buses could be better spent.

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.

High-flyers will love this exclusive luxury hotel accommodation. The two-bedroom suite is housed inside the fuselage of a 1965 Boeing 727, which was destined for the scrap-heap.

It’s located at the luxury Hotel Costa Verde on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica’s Manuel Antonio National Park. Jutting out from the hillside, the Boeing offers views of the ocean and jungle from balconies built on each wing.

The plane was transported piece by piece on five big trucks from San Jose airport to its current resting place on a pedestal 50 feet above the beach.

There are two air-conditioned bedrooms, each with private bathroom, a kitchenette, dining foyer and flat-screen TV. The plane’s interior is Costa Rican teak panelling from the flight deck to the tail. The hand-carved, teak furniture comes from Java, Indonesia. The private entrance is up a spiral staircase hewn from rock.

And the cost of booking a luxury hotel room in this piece of cleverly recycled aluminium? Between $400 and $500 (£266-333) a day.

by Andy Moreton

For a small country, the Maldives generates a fair amount of publicity.

The latest news from the island group is that the country’s cabinet is to meet on Saturday … underwater.

The idea is to highlight the threat of global warming, to which the Maldives is particularly vulnerable. Most of the islands are less than three feet above sea level and face being wiped out if oceans rise.

An adviser to President Mohamed Nasheed said the dive was ‘a bit of fun’ but the cabinet intended to send a serious message about rising sea levels. Members will sign a document (waterproof, presumably) calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. Mr Nasheed, who’s a qualified diver, will hold a news conference.

The President’s adviser said that although the country’s government was almost all going to be under water at the same time, there was no real danger. Each minister would be accompanied by a diving instructor and a military minder and the local sharks were ‘friendly’.

by Andy Moreton

Dive in for a taste of paradise – Luxique offers ten luxury hotels throughout the Maldives.

The Maldives has said it’s introducing a new environment tax on all tourists who use its resorts.

The low-lying archipelago has been at the forefront of efforts to mitigate climate change because rising sea levels are forecast to submerge most of its islands by 2100. In March, President Mohammed Nasheed announced plans to make the Maldives the world’s first carbon neutral nation within a decade.

If approved by parliament in the capital, Male, the tax will be $3 (£1.80) per tourist per day. At a rough estimate, the measure will bring in $6.3 million (£3.8 million) a year.

President Nasheed has said he can’t afford to go the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, much as he’d like to. The Maldives would be represented only if someone offered to pay for his trip.

He hoped the Copenhagen summit would come out with positive plans, like renewable energy promotion, rather than stressing what he called negative ones such as capping carbon emissions.

by Andy Moreton

The Maldives is famed for its high-end luxury resorts and white sand atolls, and Luxique can guide you towards some of the best secluded places to stay, including the Banyan Tree and the award-winning Four Seasons resort at Kuda Huraa.

I spent a day in Paris a couple of weeks ago and was impressed to see the cycle-renting service Vélib working very effectively, in spite of problems with theft and vandalism.

Cities all over the world are making big efforts to go green and encourage people to cycle rather than drive. Amsterdam has always been in the vanguard of this, but Copenhagen is making a bid to become the world’s friendliest city for cyclists. It has good reason - the Danish capital is hosting the UN climate change summit at the end of the year.

At present, about a third of people in Copenhagen already cycle to work, school or university – there are 217 miles of cycle routes. “The city has worked consistently to improve things for cyclists,” said Andreas Rohl, who’s in charge of the city’s cycling programme. “For people here, going on a bicycle is a bit like brushing your teeth, you don’t think much about it!”

Two of the city’s main bridges have recently had a makeover to encourage more people to cycle. One is now completely car-free, the other includes double cycle lanes on both sides. Other cycle-friendly measures are being considered.

Barcelona and London are among the other European cities openly committed to improving cycle routes.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer a choice of five of the best luxury hotels in Copenhagen - from the Nyhavn 71, ‘a rustic warehouse conversion’, to the smartly refurbished Avenue Hotel.

A report says the Great Barrier Reef faces catastrophic damage from climate change and chemical run-off.

The reef, which stretches for 1,200 miles off the north-east coast of Australia and has World Heritage status, is already showing the impact of climate change, according to the report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

“While populations of almost all marine species are intact and there are no records of extinctions, some ecologically important species, such as dugongs [large grey mammals], marine turtles, seabirds, black teatfish and some sharks, have declined significantly,” the Authority writes.

Coral disease, outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae and infestation by pests such as the crown-of-thorns starfish appeared to be becoming more frequent and more serious, it added.

The report concluded that climate change, declining water quality from coastal run-off, development and illegal fishing were the biggest dangers to the reef. The Australian government responded with a plan to cut the amount of pollution reaching the reef in the water run-off from agricultural land.

David Adam, writing in the Guardian, says: “Coral reefs are doomed. The situation is virtually hopeless. Forget ice caps and rising sea levels: the tropical coral reef looks like it will enter the history books as the first major ecosystem wiped out by our love of cheap energy.”

by Andy Moreton

For a luxury hotel close to the Great Barrier Reef, check out the Hayman Island Resort on the Whitsunday Islands.