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| Vol. 5 | Issue 6 | February 6, 2007 |    |
Over a seven-month period last year, almost 14,000 readers of eFlyer and Global
Traveler magazine voted in our annual survey of the best in travel.
You picked winners in 42 categories, from Best Airline in the World (British
Airways) to Best Business City (Hong Kong) to Best Hotel Rewards Program (InterContinental
Priority Club Rewards). And in late January, subscribers mingled with more than
300 travel-industry luminaries at The Essex House in New York City to honor the
recipients of the 2007 GT Tested Awards.
This year’s guest of honor was stage and screen actress Cynthia Nixon, perhaps most recognizable for her role on Sex and the City. Ms. Nixon is a spokesperson for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and she spoke eloquently about the life-changing benefits of the organization’s research. Check out the March issue of Global Traveler for the debut of our 2007 silent auction, of which the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is this year’s beneficiary.
Among the notables who traveled significant distances from their headquarters
to accept their awards were Kun Hae Park, executive vice president for Seoul
Incheon International Airport (Best Airport in the World); Azizan Noordin,
Director of Advertising for Tourism Malaysia (Best Tourism Destination); Christian
Herzon, head of the America division of Air France (Best Trans-Atlantic Airline);
Malev Hungarian Airlines CEO Janos Gonci (Best Airline in Eastern Europe);
Mark Kerwin, vice president of the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles (Best Individual
Hotel in the United States); and Nuri Fernandez, commissioner of aviation for
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (Best Airport in North America). 
The latest — and largest — hotel chain to ban trans fats is Marriott
International, which is eliminating hydrogenated cooking oils from the restaurants
at more than 2,300 hotels in North America. That goes for the Marriott, Courtyard,
Fairfield Inn and Residence Inn brands, all of which had already stopped using
trans fats in their salad dressings and baked goods. Omni Hotels has promised
to make all its hotels trans-fat-free by March 1, and Loews Hotels are completing
the changeover to healthier fats over the next few months. Crystal Cruises
is also trans-fat-free effective this month.
Finding out how to connect almost any city pair in Europe is now as easy as
a click of a mouse. The European Regions Airline Association, whose members
number 67 intra-European air carriers, has just launched an online
timetable that lets travelers check out route options, many involving
more convenient airports than those served by international carriers. Links
let you click through to the individual airlines for booking.
Medical tourism — travel to foreign countries, notably India and China,
to save big bucks on medical procedures — is hot, and now it’s
extending into dentistry. Eastern Europe and several Asian countries have been
dominating the dental dental tourism market, and many practitioners can be
found who have degrees from U.S. institutions. If you don’t like the
idea of going it alone, a Canadian tour operator with a clever name, The
InciDental Tourist, has just expanded
its operations into the U.S. A two-week guided tour package to the Nanjing
region of China including transportation, hotels, sightseeing, round-the-clock
guide/interpreter services, and time allocations at a state-of-the-art dental
clinic, costs $2,026 single or $3,292 for two. Airfare starts at $1,097 from
Vancouver, with add-ons for U.S. gateways. According to InciDental, quality
dental work in China costs about 25 percent of what it costs in Canada; bridge
work plus three crowns, estimated to cost $7,000 at home, costs about $1,500
in China — savings that can more than offset the cost of the trip. The
company CEO has himself undergone procedures there and swears to the clinic’s
high standards.
Reopening this month: the Red Bar and Park Room at the Grosvenor
House Hotel in London. The quintessentially British hotel on Mayfair’s
Park Lane has been undergoing extensive renovations, and its main restaurant
will be closed until late August. Meanwhile, the Park Room will offer light
snacks from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily; it will also feature the world’s
only Charles Heidsieck oenoteque, a wine library of vintages
from the last three decades.
Discount carrier JetBlue has figured out that business travelers want special
treatment, and is preparing to give it to them. The airline is in the process
of reconfiguring its fleet of Airbus 320s to have 36 inches of pitch in the
11 front seats (the rest of the seats have 34-inch pitch). Once completed later
this month, the new seats are likely to be reserved for higher-paying passengers,
some of which may be held to be sold at the highest fare last-minute.
Kali’s Mezze
1606 Thames Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
tel 410 563 7600; fax 410 276 2420
www.kalismezze.com
My reservation was for a restaurant called Kali’s Court, in Baltimore’s historic Fells Point neighborhood. Kali’s Court is one of the city’s premier seafood restaurants, an upscale and elegant place with brick walls, candlelit tables, soft music and well-dressed, starry-eyed couples sharing dinner and champagne.
But I was alone, hungry but not starved, and found that I wasn’t in the mood for a formal environment. What appealed to me instead was the Mediterranean-style tapas restaurant and bar next door, under the same ownership, named Kali’s Mezze. At Mezze, a European-looking restaurant with tile floors, wood tables, and a sidewalk café extension, the small bar was busy with young singles ordering drinks before dinner, tables were filling up with young office workers from the neighborhood coming in for wine and tapas, and the young maître’d made me comfortable at a front table, with a nice view of the cobblestone street and, beyond, the interesting urban skyline of Baltimore’s outer harbor area.
The menu offerings were also attractive. The tapas plates were grouped into “vegetable” (grape leaves, baba ghanoush, Haloumi cheese and tomato, roasted peppers stuffed with goat cheese); “seafood” (raw oysters, swordfish kebob, tuna carpaccio); and “meat & poultry” (beef moussaka, braised veal, lamb Giouvetsi). Most tapas plates — or mezethes, as they are called in Greece — are $5 to $8, and are meant to be shared.
Since I was alone, I ordered a la carte instead. The baby lamb chops were incredible, the Mediterranean olives went well with my glass of Assyrtiko — a lovely white wine from Santorini — and the oven-roasted eggplant was absolutely wonderful. I still had room for the traditional baklava.
Kali’s Mezze turned out to be a great place for either socializing or eating alone. There is no minimum order, and the crowd is friendly and constantly in flux, meaning that besides great food, there’s also good conversation and people-watching.
Score: ••••• Ron Bernthal
Korean Air, thanks to a new agreement with China, is expanding the number
of Chinese cities it serves, in gradual increments beginning this year. And
to compete with Chinese airlines in the slow February travel period, both Korean
Air and Asiana are dropping fares to cities on the Chinese mainland, with the
lowest prices between Feb. 10 and 15. For example, on Korean the fare from
Seoul (ICN) to Dalian (DLC) is about $127; on Asiana, it’s about $120.
Fares from Seoul to Beijing (PEK) range from $210 to $222 during the month.
The sale fares are almost half the normal prices; some restrictions apply.
If a romantic vacation is your idea of a good Valentine’s Day gift,
two airlines are offering last-minute deals that qualify. Icelandair’s Valentine’s
Express package costs $699 a person, including two nights’ hotel
in Reykjavik; an evening trip to the Blue Lagoon, the famous, scenic geothermal
spa; a romantic dinner for two; daily buffet breakfasts; ground transfers;
and airfare from Boston (BOS) or New York (JFK). Add $50 for Orlando (SFB)
departures. And Czech
Airlines is
encouraging couples to travel together during the month of February with a
two-for-one ticket sale to many European destinations. Transatlantic round-trip
fares start at $414; tickets must be purchased by Feb. 18 for travel through
Feb. 28.
For a Valentine getaway closer to home, here are two domestic options. At
Charleston Place, the Orient-Express hotel in Charleston, S.C., the Sweetheart
Package includes
a suite for two nights, a horse-drawn carriage ride for two, dinner for two
with wine, gourmet picnic, room-service breakfasts, roses, champagne and chocolates,
for $2,588. It’s available throughout the month of February. From Feb.
9 through 16 at the Mansfield hotel in Manhattan, the Unforgettable
package costs $599 a night and includes a luxury suite, Champagne, room-service
breakfast,
cappuccino in front of the Clubroom fire, and Japanese orchids to take home.
AAA and Hertz have unveiled a program of discounts and benefits, called the
Hertz Wow package, for members of the auto club who rent from Hertz
in 2007. In addition to a special rate schedule, the package gives a free child
seat, waives charges for an additional driver, removes the over-a-Saturday-night
requirement for weekly rates, and discounts 50 percent off #1 Club Gold membership
and off rental of Sirius Satellite Radio. There’s also a 25 percent discount
off GPS rental.
Until Feb. 14, Midwest Airlines is discounting
award redemption for trips between eight domestic city pairs. Instead
of the usual 25,000 miles, travel can be booked now for trips through March
31 at a cost of 20,000 miles between either Milwaukee (MKE) or Kansas City
(MCI) and Boston (BOS), Philadelphia (PHL) or Washington (DCA), and also between
Milwaukee and Atlanta (ATL) or Dallas (DFW).
