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Volume 5, Issue 50, December 11, 2007 |
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Travel can be the ultimate gift — and it can also be ordered at the last minute and fit inside a card, if you go online and find a special treat for that special someone. Even top hotels favored by business travelers are not immune to catching — and capitalizing on — the holiday spirit.
Jumeirah Hotels has just introduced its online Jumeirah Collection in time for the holidays. In addition to signature bedding identical to what’s used at the 7-star Burj Al Arab, you can also buy gift certificates good for scuba diving lessons ($590) or a “princess for a day” package ($590) that includes several treatments at the hotel’s Assawan Spa and use of a chauffeured Rolls Royce.
Here’s one for the traveler who has everything: The May Fair Hotel in London is offering “the ultimate holiday gift: a Suite Year in London.” The lucky beneficiary gets 365 consecutive days’ use of one of The May Fair’s signature suites for just $585,000 — a bargain, considering that sum would normally cover fewer than 120 individual nights at the usual daily rate for a one-bedroom suite sleeping four. The signature suites, recently redecorated as part of the hotel’s $150 million renovation, feature Chinese antiques, remote-controlled fireplace, private phone numbers, butler service and more — in other words, all the comforts of home and then some.
If you’re looking for a leisure-travel gift to share with a loved one — and that lets you use some of those frequent-flyer miles you’ve been accumulating all year—here’s a brand new Caribbean spa retreat. To mark the grand reopening and redesign of its spa, The Palms, The Nisbet Plantation Beach Club on Nevis is offering a seven-night Spa Celebration package. It costs $5,500 for two and includes a suite, daily breakfast, dinner and afternoon tea, and $500 in credit toward spa services. The offer is good between Jan. 3 and March 31.
Closer to home, treat your sweetie to a Weekend Wine Getaway at The Manor House in Poplar Springs, Va. The two-night package includes a deluxe room equipped with wine and cheese for your arrival, tours of three local vineyards, gourmet picnic basket, and a vinotherapy spa treatment, for $898 per couple. 
Enter the eFlyer and AAdvantage eShoppingSM Mall contest by Dec. 19 and you could win one of five 8GB iPod Nanos. This is a special holiday bonus for eFlyer readers, with five grand prizes being awarded. To enter, first visit www.aadvantageeshopping.com and find a travel-related gift in one of the many stores in the American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping online mall, then write its name on the eFlyer entry form along with your contact information. Five winners will be chosen among all completed entries received by noon Dec. 19, with the prizes shipped in time for holiday gift-giving.
While you're visiting the AAdvantage eShoppingSM Mall, check out the various bonus mileage offers available for your holiday shopping, including the extra bonus offer for shopping with your MasterCard® card. No purchase is required to enter the contest.
Time is running out: You have until Sunday, Dec. 16 to enter our Global Traveler of the Year essay competition. It’s your chance to win the Grand Prize, a package to Rome for two from our contest co-sponsor Alitalia, including Magnifica-class tickets and two nights at the Boscolo Hotel. The winner will also be invited to GT’s annual Awards Luncheon on Jan. 16 in New York City. To enter, all you have to do is write an essay of 200 words or less about the favorite place you have ever visited.
Swiss International Air Lines is making moves in New York and Geneva. As of Dec. 20, the airline will have moved from its current home at Terminal 1 at New York’s JFK to Terminal 4. There will be a newly built SWISS Lounge for the airline’s first- and business-class and Miles & More Senator passengers, and a separate security checkpoint for first- and business-class passengers. At Geneva (GVA), the airline has opened two new executive lounges, one for first-class passengers and one for Senator members, to complement the new business-class lounge opened earlier this year. The new lounges will also be open to qualifying ticketholders on other Star Alliance carriers.
Now open: The Veneto Wyndham Grand in Panama City, Wyndham’s first hotel south of Mexico. Formerly the Veneto Hotel & Casino, the 301-room property in the city’s business and financial district is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation and will continue to have four restaurants and a full-service spa/fitness center, complete with rooftop pool.
Emirates Airline introduced flights last week between Houston (IAH) and Dubai (DXB). The nonstop flights currently operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday out of Houston and will become daily as of Feb. 1.
MasterCard is introducing a new, prepaid and reloadable Travel Card that is equipped with PayPass contactless technology. The first such card to be issued in the United States, it’s both an alternative to travelers’ checks and a convenience for travelers whose own credit cards don’t work with contactless systems. The remote-scanning systems are increasingly popular internationally, particularly in Asian countries. The travel cards are available at more than 20,000 ARC-accredited travel agencies.
Lidia’s Kansas City
101 West 22nd St.
Kansas City, KS 64108
tel 816 221 3722
www.lidiasitaly.com
In 1998 the old railroad yards near Kansas City’s Union Station were still years away from gentrification when New York chef and restaurant owner Lidia Bastianich decided to take over a century-old wood and brick freight house and turn it into an eclectic, modern Italian restaurant.
Bastianich, who had been running New York City restaurants since the 1970s, wanted to bring her traditional cuisine to another big-city market, this time one that was under-serviced with regional Italian food. Kansas City has its own food culture, namely barbecue and thick Midwest steaks, but Lidia’s take on northern Italian fare hit the spot with Kansans nonetheless.
My companion, a local who had been to Lidia’s several times since it opened nine years ago, did most of the ordering while I stared at the hand-blown Chihuly-style chandeliers hanging from the high, wood-beamed ceiling, and the massive stone fireplace at one end of the large room. We started with the specialty of the house, Lidia’s trio del giorno, a selection of fresh pasta, risotto and polenta. The ravioli with spinach was unbelievably fresh and light. This could have been dinner, but we couldn’t resist the salmone alla griglia (Atlantic salmon fillet) or the wonderful tasting zuppa di pesce, a soup filled with the freshest seared shrimp, scallops, mussels, calamari, octopus, onion, leek, and Sardinian couscous. The dessert menu is equally as impressive, with house-made cakes, biscotti, tiramisu, ice cream, tortes, and coffees and liqueurs.
Lidia Bastianich owns, or co-owns, five other restaurants, including Felidia, Becco, Esca, and Del Posto, all in New York City, and Lidia’s Pittsburgh. She also owns vineyards in Italy, produces her own line of tomato sauces, appears on TV, and writes best-selling cookbooks. Although she has lots of irons in the fire, Bastianich has trained her chefs and their assistants well — the northern Italian cuisine coming out of the kitchen is as tasty and colorful and fresh as in any country kitchen in Istria, her birthplace. And though the feeding frenzy in the huge dining room at Lidia’s Kansas City can seem overwhelming, the ambience is still casual Italian farmhouse-style.
Score: ••••• Ron Bernthal
Here’s a quick chance to save on travel to London in December or January: Silverjet is offering a round-trip price of $1,999 between Newark (EWR) and London Luton (LTN) if you buy tickets by Dec. 20. The Merry Sivilised Sale price includes all taxes and fees.
Hilton Hotels in Asia are offering a variety of “bundled” deals to appeal to both last-minute business travelers as well as to those who can plan ahead and/or want to add some leisure days to their trip. The Asian minibreaks include features more typically found in weekend packages: a range of packages at each hotel including breakfast, or both breakfast and dinner, along with late checkout, kids’ programs, and advance-purchase discounts. For example, at the Millennium Hilton Bangkok, a guestroom starts at $119; a minibreak with breakfast and dinner starts at $150. Participating hotels include Hiltons in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Say it with flowers for the holidays, and earn some SkyMiles while you’re at it. Delta has teamed up with 1-800-FLOWERS.com to give 10 miles for every dollar spent, plus 2,500 bonus miles, when you mention promotion code DL8 and your SkyMiles membership number. The offer is good through midnight Dec. 15.
It’s March madness, Kiwi-style: Fly from Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO) to Auckland (AKL) this March for $1,098 round trip. Tickets for Air New Zealand’s summer sale must be purchased by Dec. 31 for travel departing the U.S. March 1-31. Add $120 to include stops in Christchurch (CHC), Wellington (WLG) and Queenstown (ZQN).
Scandinavian Airlines’ Winter Fare Sale is under way. Seats available at discount prices are for travel from New York (EWR), Chicago (ORD), Seattle (SEA) or Washington, D.C. (IAD) to any of more than 20 European cities. Tickets must be purchased (online only) by Dec. 21, for travel between Jan. 7 and March 13, and require a Saturday night stay at the destination. Sample fares: Chicago-Oslo, $450 round trip; Seattle-Paris $568 round trip; some taxes are extra.
