Jetsettersblog

Starwood’s W Hotel brand makes its debut in Manchester in 2010 with a 160 -room hotel located in the city’s warehouse district.

The Ian Simpson-designed property will feature meeting space (including a ballroom), a spa, fitness center, retail store and restaurant.

The hotel will form part of the Origin mixed-use development, an ultra-modern building located on Princess Street, within walking distance of the city’s Piccadilly Station.

For more information, visit www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Saudi-based investment holding company, Siraj Capital, announced the locations of the first three Holiday Inn Express hotels to become operational in the kingdom.

The three new hotels will be located in Madinah Road, Jeddah; Knowledge Economic City, Madinah; and King Abdullah Economic City under a master franchise agreement between IHG and Siraj which will see 12 Holiday Inn Express hotels open in Saudi Arabia over the next five years.

Holiday Inn Express is a well-established limited-service hotel brand in Europe and the United States.

Holiday Inn Express is an uncomplicated hotel choice for guests on the go, offering the quality and service of a Holiday Inn with pared-down facilities to suit the needs of guests on the move.

The agreement for the development of the first three locations was signed at the InterContinental Jeddah by John Bamsey, chief operating officer, IHG Middle East and Africa; and Ibrahim A. Mardam-Bey, chief executive officer, Siraj Capital.

As the master franchisee for the development, operation and management of the Holiday Inn Express brand across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Siraj Capital has banked on the value of the brand.

The first three Holiday Inn Express properties in Saudi Arabia will offer 575 rooms.

The hotel at Madinah Road, Jeddah will offer 252 rooms, King Abdullah Economic City will feature 183 rooms, and there will be 140 rooms at Knowledge Economic City, Madinah.

For more information, visit www.ihg.com

Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., developer of The Villas at La Samanna on the French side of St. Martin, has entered into an agreement with the luxury destination club Quintess,

The Leading Residences of the World, to add two of La Samanna’s free-standing villas to its portfolio as of Feb. 20.

Quintess, LRW is initially bringing on two villas for the club’s members, each with four-bedrooms, a private pool, unparalleled service and panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea.

While many other destination clubs are reducing their portfolios, Quintess, LRW has been able to expand its horizon with additional properties and new destinations. Providing its 525-plus members with access to more than 80 multimillion-dollar residences in more than 40 international destinations, Quintess, LRW continues to welcome new members.

Overlooking St. Martin’s Baie Longue, a white sand beach, the eight newly constructed Villas at La Samanna offer Mediterranean architecture with a Caribbean spirit and boast more than 4,600 square feet of space, with generous living quarters, master bedrooms, private terraces and indoor/outdoor dining space.

The Villas are only a short drive to the exclusive shops of Marigot and the restaurants of Grand Case. For more information, visit www.lasamanna.com

In the coming weeks, Orient-Express will welcome the first residents to Porto Cupecoy, a high-end real estate initiative in St. Maarten, which is approaching its grand opening with strong sales. Proving to be an exception to the rule in the Caribbean real estate market, Porto Cupecoy embodies the characteristics of a Mediterranean village with 182 residences, high-end shopping, dining, services and amenities, in addition to the island’s newest marina.

Phases 1 through 4 are 70 percent sold out, with the overall project 50 percent sold out. Fueling sales successes are Porto Cupecoy’s price points, which range from $400,000 to $1.4 million per unit, and pre-grand opening incentives such as 90 percent financing and two year’s complimentary homeowner’s association fees.

For more information, visit www.portocupecoy.com

Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World is a luxury destination club that creates highly personalized vacation experiences for its members.

Quintess, LRW provides its members with access to 80+ multimillion-dollar residences and experiences in 40-plus international resort and city destinations, including Aspen, Los Cabos, Florence, Hawaii, Jackson Hole, London, Napa Valley, New York City, Paris, Saint Martin and Tuscany, among others.

As part of Quintess, LRW’s strategic relationship with The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., the club now offers Q Leading Experiences at select member hotels around the globe. F

or more information, call 800-550-0324 or visit www.quintess.com

The Hotel du Palais, a palace built in 1855 by Napoleon III as a summer mansion for Empress Eugenia, is a new member of the exclusive Comite Colbert.

The union of this hotel and elite luxury association supports their confidence in French luxury. Comite Colbert invited a total of five luxury houses at one time to become members on Nov. 26, including Les Editions Diane de Selliers, Lorenz Baumer, Pierre Herme and Pierre Hardy, in addition to Hotel du Palais.

Founded in 1954 at the initiative of Jean-Jacques Guerlain, the Comité Colbert, an association governed by the French law of 1901, has a membership of 75 houses of luxury whose object is to collectively promote their shared values in France and internationally.

Their quest is to combine tradition and modernity, craftsmanship and creativity, history and innovation.

For more information, visit www.comitecolbert.com

Hotel du Palais located in France’s Basque Country overlooks the beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

Owned by the city of Biarritz, the hotel has been permanently restored and now boasts a five-story Guerlain spa.

Rooms with balconies and Atlantic views contain furniture and decorations dating from the Second Empire.

For more information, call 011-33 (0) 5 59 41 64 00 or visit www.hotel-du-palais.com

Elegant Ireland is promoting Ross Castle, located on a 120-acre estate on Ross Lake in County Galway, Ireland.

The 16th century manor house with interconnecting apartments is one of the county’s top family reunion vacation rentals.

Comfortably sleeping up to 36 guests, the estate is enveloped in a setting of mountains, lake, gardens, parkland and forest, creating a secluded world for families to reconnect and celebrate.

The main house of Ross Castle has been resorted to meet contemporary standards, while honoring old-world Irish design.

Five bedrooms all have adjoining bathrooms with showers and heated towel rails. It features an elegant drawing room, complete with two Steinway grand pianos, Persian carpets, fine oil paintings and an antique chess table, plus three windows that command a stunning view of nearby mountains and lake.

There’s an indoor heated swimming pool and tennis court.

Adjacent to the main house lays the grand courtyard surrounded by self-catering units, two cottages, four interconnecting apartments and a chapel.

Services include breakfast, dinner with wine service, personal laundry and cleaning.

The five bedrooms in the Main House all have adjoining bathrooms with showers and heated towel rails.

Ross Castle sleeps up to 10 in Manor House, plus 26 in adjacent buildings. One week costs in the region of $25,000 for up to 10 guests, in the manor house, inclusive of staff and meals.

For more information, call 011-353 1 473 2505, email info@elegant.ie  or visit www.elegant.ie

London’s Theatre Passport is a new addition to the deals you can find on VisitBritain’s Online Shop.

The Passport allows clients to see the top shows, get the best available seats, with savings.

U.S. visitors can have their own Theatre Passport for $33 granting access to some of the most spectacular musical and theatre shows.

Theatre Passport vouchers can be exchanged for tickets at The Britain and London Visitor Centre when in London.

For more information, visit www.visitbritain.com/onlineshop

On Dec. 19, Anguilla’s first golf course, the Temenos Golf Course, the $50 million creation of Greg Norman, will re-open.

“The Temenos Golf Course provides an extraordinary golf experience that greatly enhances Anguilla’s tourism product and we are pleased that it will re-open in time for the winter season,” said Victor F. Banks, minister of finance, economic development, investment, commerce and tourism.

The 7,063-yard championship course first opened in 2006.

It offers dramatic elevation changes, water features on 13 holes and will be now be managed by one of Anguilla’s five star properties, Cap Juluca.

Located at the Temenos development, the Temenos Golf Course will be open for the 2009-10 season and tee times can now be booked by calling the Temenos Golf Pro Shop at 264-498-5602 or by email at golf@capjuluca.com

For the 2009-10 season, the greens fees for a round of 18 holes during peak times will be $225 per person.

Discounted greens fees will be offered for twilight tee times, and to citizens and longtime permanent residents (known as “belongers”) of Anguilla and St. Maarten.

Some of its signature holes include a spectacular vista of St. Maarten and the Caribbean Sea at the tee box of the 390-yard starting hole; large sand dunes on the left and a saltwater pond on the right framing the perilous drive on the 440-yard 16th hole that plays dead into the trade winds and ends with an elevated green surrounded by water and protected by deep bunkers; and the drive for the finishing hole carrying the edge of the mangrove thicket in a vast stretch of salt marsh that winds through eight of the course holes.

For more information, call 877-4-ANGUILLA or visit

www.anguilla-vacation.com  or www.capjuluca.com

The £72 million ($117 million) Museum of Liverpool is the largest newly built national museum in Britain for over a century and the world’s first national museum devoted to the history of a regional city.

Opening in 2010-11 and occupying a UNESCO World Heritage waterfront site, it will be a free, family visitor attraction and a learning and community resource dedicated to telling the story of Liverpool’s development from pre-history to the present day.

For more information, visit www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Named Manchester, England’s and the Northwest’s largest visitor attraction for 2009, the Imperial War Museum North is set to offer a series of exhibitions and events in 2010. “Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin,” which opens in February, features the largest ever U.K. exhibition of the work of the first Briton to be named World Press Photographer of the Year. This will be closely followed by family-friendly displays that include the first large-scale exhibition by Imperial War Museum to focus on life at sea in wartime, and a smaller interactive display on camouflage.

Later in the year, the museum will be marking the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of the first Gulf War with a new photographic exhibition.

All this will be supported by a rich mix of performances, activities and events.

Continuing exhibitions include “Living With The Wall: Berlin 1961-1989,” which marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The show includes a photographic display showing how a city was cut in two.

Drawing on IWM’s photographic archive, the small but powerful display will explore how the wall split a city, and also its population.

This will be the first time that many of the photographs have been on public display.

The Imperial War Museum North is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (to February from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) with free admission.

The museum tells the story of how war has affected the lives of British and Commonwealth citizens since 1914.

The museum’s five branches are Imperial War Museum London, with six floors of exhibitions and displays;

Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall;

the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast;

Imperial War Museum Duxford, a world renowned aviation museum and former Second World War airfield;

and Imperial War Museum North, housed in a spectacular award-winning building designed by Daniel Libeskind.

For more information,

visit www.iwm.org.uk

The JORVIK Viking Centre will reopen in February 2010 following a £1 million ($1.6 million) refurbishment.

The new center will incorporate an underfoot reconstruction of the original Coppergate excavation on which the Viking Centre was built;

new animatronics and the reconstruction of a new Viking-age house and backyard.

In conjunction with the reopening, the 25th JORVIK Viking Centre Annual Viking Festival (Feb. 13 to 21) offers a bumper program of events in York, in celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Visitors from all over the world will descend on the city for the nine day program which will include Vikings fighting in ferocious battle; a celebratory fireworks display; a newly commissioned theatre piece from one of the north’s most admired theatre groups and an atmospheric candlelit evening of poetry and music performed for the Viking King.

For more information,

visit www.visityork.org

or www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk