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Volume 5, Issue 46, November 13, 2007 |
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With the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend coming soon, here are some ideas and packages for mini-vacations at home and abroad.
How about a Cajun Thanksgiving in New Orleans? The Windsor Court Hotel’s Thanksgiving Holiday Package includes a suite for Nov. 22, a welcome gift, and your choice of two seatings for the Thanksgiving Buffet in the hotel’s New Orleans Grill. You can try smoked rooster gumbo, she-crab soup, Cajun-injected turkey with giblet gravy, barbecued-shrimp pie, crawfish etoufee, and a whole panoply of other traditional and nontraditional fare, including 15 desserts. The package costs $343-$443 for two, depending upon suite size.
Silverjet is teaming up with Jumeirah Hotels to offer a “see where the Pilgrims came from” two-night package from New York to London. Departure is Nov. 22; return is Nov. 25 (one overnight is on the airplane). You’ll stay at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London. Package price is $1,658 per person based on double occupancy, $2,116 if you go solo, including breakfast and taxes.
The Thai festival Loy Kratong, on Nov. 24, coincides with the Thanksgiving holidays this year. The festival has been held since 1863, and the most elaborate celebrations can be found along Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, in Chiang Mai, and in Sukhothai. Agoda Co. has last-minute availability at various properties, from The Oriental Bangkok ($338 a night) to Ayatana Hamlet & Spa in Chiang Mai ($97).
In New York City, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season. At South Street Seaport, the tree-lighting, complete with carolers and Santa, is on Nov. 23, and from Friday through Sunday the Big Apple Chorale will perform (the first of five consecutive weekends it will do so). As an option to actually staying downtown, try the Thankful To Be In NYC rate at the The Roosevelt Hotel, centrally located near Grand Central Station, which is $239 a night through Nov. 23. 
Southwest Airlines is going after business travelers. It has raised its last-minute fares, now calling them Business Select; those higher fares guarantee the passengers Group A (priority) boarding, which until now has required early online check-in. The airline will remain “classless” in the sense that it will still have one-class cabins and no assigned seating. Business Select tickets will cost $10 to $30 more than standard tickets, and will include a free drink onboard, plus extra Rapid Rewards credits.
New this month: Dot2Dot, London’s largest airport-transfer service yet to connect Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW) and central London hotels (it also connects London to the ExCel conference and exhibition center). Run by the National Express Group, Dot2Dot is operating a fleet of 64 new, specially designed luxury vans door-to-door, and guaranteeing no more than three other stops besides your own during the shared-ride service. You can check prices and book at Dot2.com; fares start at ₤17.50 (about $37 at current exchange rates).
Newest hotel on the Prague scene is The Hilton Prague Old Town, the former Prague Renaissance. The hotel is again taking guests, after a multi-million-dollar renovation. The Hilton Prague Old Town has 305 guestrooms and a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant, Maze. In addition to totally remodeled accommodations and reception area, the hotel now has 15 new suites and a luxury Presidential Suite. All guestrooms now have high-speed Internet access and wireless capability. Due to come on line soon are additional meeting rooms, and a health club with gym, sauna and indoor pool. The Hilton Prague Old Town is in the heart of downtown; it joins its older sibling, The Hilton Prague, which is across the river from downtown and has larger conference facilities. The Hilton Prague’s own renovations, of its health club and pool, are due to be complete by Dec. 1.
Clear, the Registered Traveler program service provider, has signed on with American Express to offer Clear membership to AmEx Corporate Card members at a reduced rate. The joint program will also allow Corporate cardholders to prebook their appointments for registering their biometric information, and will provide in-house Clear sign-up kiosks to companies who commit to signing up at least 50 employees.
Lufthansa has begun flying all-business-class flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Newark (EWR). The retrofitted Boeing 737 flying the route has 44 lie-flat (at a slight diagonal) seats, power ports, integrated reading lamps and larger tabletop areas. Passengers also get their choice of a dedicated limousine shuttle to and from Manhattan or helicopter service to city heliports, free until March 31.
United Express/Mesa Airlines, Aspen (ASE) – Denver (DEN), single-class
Having driven to Aspen from Denver via Vail, and with the direct road between Aspen and Denver closed for the winter, I had no desire to retrace my steps for 4-1/2 hours and opted instead for the short flight from little Aspen Airport into Denver to get my connecting flight home. Not only was it a great flight, but I even felt like I got a scenic sightseeing tour at no extra charge.
Aspen Airport is small — the same guy who does the curbside baggage check-in out front loads it onto the planes later — and the folks at the check-in desk seemed pretty green (a supervisor had to help my clerk figure out how to book me through to Denver). The security personnel, on the other hand, could have been on vacation from jobs at LAX or JFK, they were so thorough. I’d forgotten to put my sunscreen into my checked baggage, so I had to bid it farewell as it was more than three ounces, and I got a very efficient pat-down. I was surprised, but not displeased, to find such thorough security folks at a small airport so far from any border.
The aircraft was a high-wing turboprop Dash 8-200, and I got a seat by the wing (I almost said over the wing, but in this case, it was under). Seats were arranged 2x2 around the single aisle, and there was enough headroom that no one had to crouch on the way to a seat. Everything was clean and comfy.
The flight was about two-thirds full, and the pilot, using his best Houston-test-pilot drawl, introduced us to “Tiffany, the world’s best flight attendant,” as she was doing the usual small-plane housekeeping of moving people around to balance the weight. He also said that Tiffany would “make the next 32 minutes the most exciting 32 minutes of your life,” which I hoped did not mean rollercoaster bumpiness over the mountains (fortunately, it didn’t). Tiffany handed out water bottles, which I didn’t find overly stimulating.
The excitement came from the view — a great chance to see the various mountains and mountain resorts in relation to each other, and watch as the valleys opened out into larger plains as we neared Denver. Most exciting, for me, was being able to watch the landing gear come out of the wing and have a great view of the tires as we touched down on the runway smoothly — the shock absorbers got a lot of work and I watched the wing bounce up and down without feeling it inside the cabin at all.
Score: ••••• Mary Hunt
Travelers flying BMI from London Heathrow (LHR) to various destinations in Europe including Amsterdam (AMS), Brussels (BRU), Dublin (DUB) and Moscow (SVO) automatically qualify for a free night’s hotel stay, through Dec. 31. Book three nights and pay for two, or tack on an additional free night to three or four paid nights at your destination.
Here’s a holiday shopping package that makes sense, and saves lots of cents, the Shop and Stay package at Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The deal includes accommodations at the historic Shawnee Inn, breakfast, a 50-minute massage at Spa Shawnee, a $50 gift certificate for use at the nearby Crossings outlet mall, and free transportation to and from the mall. Weather permitting, non-shoppers can either golf or ski, snowboard or snowtube. Package price is $330 a night, double occupancy, midweek, or $382 weekends.
American Airlines has a new holiday sweepstakes with five prizes, all of them grand. The prizes, to be awarded Dec. 31, are: a trip to London for two, including round-trip first-class airfare, four hotel nights, and tickets to a Manchester United soccer game; a trip to Jamaica for two, including first-class airfare and five all-inclusive nights at a Sandals resort; flight simulator time at American’s training center for one, plus two round-trip coach tickets to Dallas; eight tickets each to an NBA game and a pro hockey game in Dallas, plus certificates for 16 round-trip economy tickets; and 500,000 AAdvantage miles, plus a year’s Admirals Club membership. Two entries per person, per email address, are allowed.
You can now use Hilton HHonors points to buy US Helicopter tickets between Manhattan and area airports. The typical $169 one-way fare can be purchased with 80,000 HHonors points.
Eurostar begins its 186 mph service from London’s St. Pancras station to France tomorrow (Nov. 14), and will also start selling through tickets across its new network of connecting British train services. There will be up to 17 connecting trains a day to Paris, and 11 to Brussels, with fares set to compete with regional airlines. Passengers can then connect to 75 destinations in France and any station in Belgium. Standard-class round-trip service from Birmingham, Edinburgh or Nottingham to Paris or Brussels will begin at ₤67 (approximately $140).
