Jetsettersblog

Wandrian Adventures is a new company offering small-group travel experiences.

It combines adventure, education and culture into a one-of-a-kind adventure travel package that inflicts minimal impact on the environment and on the cultures involved.

Wandrian provides adventures around the globe, from the Himalayas, to the Galapagos Islands and everything in between including Africa, China, India, Peru, Siberia, the Arctic, Brazil and more.

Hiking, biking, rafting, climbing, camping, touring, exploring and more activities are offered. John Ricci, founder and CEO of Wandrian, has held executive level positions in sales, marketing, operations, and community development in both public and venture-backed companies ranging in size from 30 to 85,000 employees.

As an adventure guide, he has lead professional whitewater expeditions, offshore sailing, mountaineering and backcountry excursions, as well as extensive river and ocean trips, all on six continents and in more than 40 countries.

For more information, visit www.wandrianadventures.com

Preferred Hotel Group’s newly launched Preferred Golf website now features a built-in social media platform, interactive capabilities that share up-to-the-minute golfing news, and exclusive members only travel offers.

The launch of this community-driven site marks the next evolution of the member-based program and is guaranteed to help take your game to the next level.

With access to over 100 of the world’s finest courses including The K Club, Ireland; Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina, and The Broadmoor, Colorado, members are just a click away from the round of their lives.

To enjoy the sites’ increased functionality and interaction, members will choose a username and password enabling them to access key new features such as a Community Platform — meet new golfers, organize trips with friends, contribute to on-site forums and blogs, and share photos; Buddy Trips — choose your destination and Preferred Golf handles the rest, including reservations, tee-times, and more, and share the final itinerary with your friends and become your group’s organizational hero; Personalized Player Profiles — add a photo, your handicap, and even your best scores, with profiles to encourage members to keep track of their “wish list” of world-renowned courses they dream of playing; and Golf VIP Desk –

Have a question? Ask the Golf VIP Desk. The Golf VIP Desk can help plan a trip.

For an annual fee of $295 on the American Express card, members will enjoy the new website’s capabilities, special access to some of the world’s most elite courses, and the best rates publicly available on the web.

If a lower rate is found, contact Preferred Golf and receive a later check-out and additional savings of 10 percent off.

To become a Preferred Golf member or to learn more about the full list of member benefits, visit www.preferredgolf.com

Red Roof has partnered with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) to offer chain-wide discounts to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community and association members.

Gay and lesbian guests as well as employees have always been very important to Red Roof, which is why the decision to partner with the IGLTA was an intuitive one, made so LGBT travelers will be able to enjoy wide-ranging discounts at the brand’s 350 locations nationwide.

Red Roof’s partnership with the IGLTA comes at a time when Red Roof recently launched its NextGen new property design, with new hotels comparable to a mid-priced boutique hotel with bathrooms that feature granite countertops, vessel sinks and walk-in showers; and rooms that include flat-screen TVs, spacious workspaces and plush bedding.

LGBT travelers can take advantage of the 15 percent discount when they book their next stay on

www.redroof.com

or by calling 800-RED-ROOF and mention code 600446.

For more information about this partnership, visit

www.redroof.com/partners/iglta

Noma, chef Rene Redzepi’s flagship restaurant in Copenhagen, was named “Best restaurant in the world” on the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2010.

Noma — derived from nordisk mad, Danish for “Nordic food” — features local specialties of the North Atlantic region such as musk ox, wild salmon, horse mussels, deep-sea crabs and Faroe Island langoustines.

It is co-owned by Danish restaurateur, celebrity chef and TV host Claus Meyer, known to U.S. audiences as the presenter of the Denmark segments of “New Scandinavian Cooking” on PBS. Noma holds two Michelin stars.

For more information, visit www.visitdenmark.com  or www.noma.dk

The Wolf Camp in Norway’s Polar Zoo in Bardu, Troms, was founded to ensure better life for wolves in captivity, for educational purposes, and to give visitors the possibility of an experience with wolves. Wolves are genetically fearful of humans and for this reason, non-socialized wolves in captivity often live a stressful life in fear of the crowd.

The wolves of Wolf Camp are socialized to humans.

They are wolves just like any other wolves with one exception: They do not fear human beings and enjoy human company as part of their environment.

At Wolf Camp, clients will be inside the enclosure for an hour together with the wolves.

The wolf staff is there the entire time to offer information about the wolves, while the clients and the wolves are getting to know each other.

Clients must be at least 15 years old, able bodied, dressed properly and willing and able to follow instructions to meet the wolves. Wolf Camp’s primary concern is safety, for both visitors and wolves.

A maximum of 15 people in a group are allowed entry.

The price is NOK 600 ($98) per person for one hour with the wolves.

For more information, email polarzoo@online.no  or visit www.polarzoo.no

Six Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) actors with a suitcase of props and costumes performed a 20-minute version of “Henry V” at a press briefing at New York City’s Algonquin Hotel yesterday to showcase the opening later this year of the new Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon, due late 2010 following a $200 million makeover. VisitEngland, the official tourism body for England, also invited visitors to discover the Arden Hotel, Stratford’s first independently owned boutique-style hotel, opening opposite the theatre in July.

Now in its final stages of transformation, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre will have a new thrust stage auditorium at its heart, one of just a handful in the world and the only one with such sophisticated stage technology, allowing directors and theater artists huge flexibility and creative freedom.

The audience will be much closer to the action, wrapped around the stage on three sides, with the seats at the back twice as close to the stage as they were in the old 1932 Elisabeth Scott cinema-style auditorium.

The new building, alongside the River Avon, contains both the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres.

It retains elements of the original Art Deco building and new features such as arooftop restaurant, a linking colonnade, riverside terrace, a Theatre Tower from which all the main Shakespearean locations can be seen, a new theater square, Weston Square, and the PACCAR Room for exhibitions, along with much-needed new facilities for visitors and artists.

“It’s long been our ambition to create the best playhouse for Shakespeare and a closeness to our audiences which is only possible in a thrust stage space,” said Vikki Heywood, RSCexecutive director.

“People already love our award-winning temporary Courtyard Theatre, which opened in 2006 and has been used as a prototype for the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Our new home will be a place for everyone, offering Shakespeare, other classics and new plays by living writers as well as opportunities for visitors to understand and be involved in the theater-making process.

“We are on time and on budget, and plan to open to the public in late 2010 with a series of preview events and activities designed to test the building, leading up to our openingperformances in February and March 2011,” Heywood said.

“We will reopen the transformed Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium with productions from the current repertoire, performed by the same RSC acting ensemble that will visit New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2011 as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

“The Swan Theatre will also reopen at the same time. We will then celebrate our 50th birthday with new companies and new productions.”

The RSC has long enjoyed a close relationship with North American audiences, who helped fund the 1932 Elisabeth Scott building and its adjoining Swan Theatre in 1982, and asignificant number of visitors to Stratford-upon-Avon and the Heart of England are from the U.S. and Canada.

Attracted not only by the RSC, visitors travel to see where Shakespeare was born, where he went to school and where he died, as well as the countryside on the banks of the River Avon.

The RSC’s joint venture partners, the Eden Hotel Collection, will reopen the Arden Hotel in July this year.

As Stratford’s first independently owned boutique-style hotel overlooking the river, the hotel will offer overnight visitors a location situated directly across from the theater.

The RSC will announce titles of the February and March 2011 opening productions in September. Details of its 50th birthday anniversary year will be released when the Royal Shakespeare Theatre reopens for preview events in late November 2010. Meanwhile, the company continues to perform a full repertoire of Shakespeare plays and other titles at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, including a special week of short Young People’s Shakespeare productions in September.

In November, the RSC opens a new musical version of Roald Dahl’s “Matilda,” the story of a little girl with extraordinary powers, which has been a favorite novel for millions of children across the world since it was first published in 1988. “Matilda,

A Musical” will be directed by Tony Award-winning Matthew Warchus.

The book is by playwright and screenwriter Dennis Kelly, and the music and lyrics are by the anarchic Australian comedian, musician and composer Tim Minchin. This family show will entertain audiences through the winter in The Courtyard Theatre, running alongside the reopening preview period of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

For more information, visit www.theardenhotelstratford.com , www.rsc.org.uk  or www.visitengland.com

Compagnie du Ponant’s 264-guest Le Boréal has sailed out of Fincantieri shipyard and embarked on its maiden voyage from Marseilles. Through Sept. 27, the $150 million vessel will sail in the western Mediterranean, and then head to northern Europe for a series of Baltic cruises.

From there, it will continue west for two Iceland itineraries, and then return to the Mediterranean, visiting ports in the Black Sea, Greece, Turkey and Croatia.

On Nov. 1, the yacht will depart Nice for Rio, and then sail down the coast of South America to Ushuaia, arriving Dec. 10 to kick off its series of Antarctica cruises.

Le Boréal’s itineraries (all but one are seven-day cruises) include unusual ports and out-of-the way islands not accessible to larger cruise ships. “Mediterranean Escapades” (departing May 13 and Oct. 25) takes guests around Italy from Nice to Venice with calls in Corsica, Sicily and Croatia.

The June 8 “Cruising to the Rhythms of Jazz and Gospel” cruise will offer a similar itinerary, plus entertainment by the Alain Rattier Jazz band and French singer Segan, whose repertoire ranges from Ella Fitzgerald to Mahalia Jackson.

“Secrets of the Adriatic” (May 20 and 27 and Oct. 4, 11 and 18) will sail to and from Venice along the Dalmatian Coast, stopping at eight ports and islands in Croatia and Montenegro.

Stops include fishing ports and four UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Krka, founded in the 9th century by Croatian princes. On the June 18 “Marine Harmony” cruise from Nice-to-Honfleur, guests can practice yoga and Pilates, receive bodywork and beauty treatments and partake in healthy culinary options and nutritional counseling.

Ports in France, Spain and Portugal are featured, including: Barcelona, Malaga and the Alhambra of Granada, Cádiz, the oldest city in Western Europe and Porto’s Ribeira district, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The yacht also offers several Northern Europe/Baltic sailing. “From Norman Shores to the Baltic: The Kiel Canal” (June 27) departs Honfleur, traveling to Bruges, the Venice of the North, by way of Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Hamburg before passing through the locks of the Kiel Canal on its way to Copenhagen. “St. Petersburg and the Great Baltic Capitals” (July 4 and 11), from Copenhagen to Stockholm and vice versa, calls in Helsinki and Tallinn, a World Heritage site, with three nights in St. Petersburg.

“Iceland’s Viking Country: At the Heart of the Geysers and Glaciers” (July 22 and 29) sails roundtrip from Reykjavik and features fjords and the Snaefellsjokull volcano (of “Voyage to the Center of the Earth” fame).

The cruise will also include a visit to Grimsey Island on the Arctic Circle for its colonies of seabirds, puffins and penguins and a call at Heimaey, the only inhabited of the Vestman Islands, home to seals and killer whales.

Le Boréal will return to the Mediterranean with three Greek Island and Turkey itineraries. “Ottoman Reveries” (Aug. 23) explores the western coast of Turkey (Bodrum, Dikili and Marmaris) and the Greek Islands of Rhodes; Chios, with its 11th century Byzantine monastery; and Patmos, where St. John wrote the Book of Revelations. “Symphony at Sea” (Aug. 30) follows a similar itinerary, plus a stop at Kusadasi to visit Ephesus.

This cruise also will feature classical musicians, many from Paris’ National Music Academy. “Pearls of the Aegean Sea,” from Athens to Istanbul (Sept. 13), visits famed sites in Turkey such as Ephesus and Pergamum, as well as five Greek Islands — Rhodes, Symi, Delos, Mykonos and Santorini.

“Leading Lights of the Black Sea” (Aug. 16 and Sept. 20) explore ports in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, like the UNESCO World Heritage site of Nessebur, “city of 40 Byzantine churches”; Romania’s largest port, Constanta and its Orthodox cathedral; and historic sites in Odessa, Sevastopol and Yalta.

On Sept. 27, Le Boréal makes its way from Istanbul to Venice. “From the Grand Mosque to the Grand Canal” visits ports in Greece (transiting the Corinth Canal), Croatia and Italy.

On Nov. 1, the yacht departs Nice for Rio on a 15-day repositioning voyage for its first season in Antarctica, where it will remain until the end of February.

The 466-foot Le Boréal features a French-design nautical ambience and offers technological amenities.

Among its public spaces are the Theatre, the Main Lounge, the Panoramic Lounge, the Library, two open-air bars and two restaurants.

The yacht also provides 24-hour room service.

The Carita spa offers a range of therapies and beauty treatments, as well as a hammam and a hydrotherapy room. There are also a fitness center with views the Sun Deck, with a pool, and the Panoramic Terrace.

All but eight of Le Boréal‘s 132 suites and staterooms have verandas. Measuring 484 to 200 square feet, the suites and staterooms are designed in a contemporary style with king or twin beds; bathtubs or showers with L’Occitane amenities; flat-screen TVs; DVD, CD and IPod players; satellite direct-dial telephones; and Wi-Fi. Suites also have Nespresso machines and Carita amenities. Le Boréal has the flexibility to reconfigure 40 staterooms into 20 suites, making a total of 24 suites and 88 staterooms.

Le Boréal has the Green Ship label for its advanced waste water treatment, reduced fuel consumption and lower exhaust emissions.

The electric propulsion system is quiet and economic, and the diesel engines use a lighter, less-polluting bio fuel.

Starting at $2,885 per person, double, for a seven-day cruise, prices include all wine, beer, mineral water, soft drinks and specialty coffees served with meals.

For more information, call 888-400-1082 or visit

www.ponant.com

The Makena Beach & Golf Resort on Maui has announced a five-night Stay and Scuba Package.

Included are a two-dive boat excursion, one dive with a hands-free underwater scooter, and admission to the resort’s luau.

Guests will receive a $100-per-person dining credit if they stay is during a period when no luau is offered.

On the four-hour boat excursion, divers use one tank to explore the Molokini Crater, a preserve habitat for Hawaiian sea turtles, spinner dolphins and manta rays.

A second tank is provided for another dive, subject to dive conditions and experience levels. Continental breakfast and lunch are included.

The scooter dive, which lasts up to 90 minutes, tours a World War II shipwreck off Maluaka Reef, as well as a turtle cleaning station where sea turtles often stop to have their shells cleaned by schools of fish. All equipment is provided.

All divers must be 12 years of age or older and provide proof of scuba certification and dive activity within the past three years.

A refresher course is recommended for those who have not made a dive in more than a year.

Non-divers may choose to snorkel on the boat excursion and take an introductory dive lesson with a certified instructor in place of the scooter dive.

The package is priced from $899 per person, double, through Dec. 23.

The resort also is offering The Ultimate Paniolo Experience, a horseback tour along the slope of Mt. Haleakala, the world’s largest dormant volcano, where guests mingle with paniolo (or cowboys).

Tours run Monday through Saturday in the mornings and afternoons.

Each group has a maximum of six riders, although larger groups can be accommodated with prior notice.

Riders spend two hours winding through ranchland and kiawe forest.

Tours start at $135 per person, plus $20 for an optional barbecue lunch.

The tours are available for riders ages 7 and older.

For more information, call 800-321-6284 or visit www.makenaresortmaui.com

For additional boat dives, call Scuba Luv Maui at 808-870-2738.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts announced its continued expansion in Florida with the opening of the 133-room-and-suite Wyndham Garden Hotel Miami South Beach.

The newly renovated Wyndham Garden Hotel Miami South Beach, located in South Beach’s entertainment district at 1050 Washington Ave., is just a short drive from Miami International Airport and the Port of Miami and walking distance to the Miami Beach Convention Center. For beach-goers, the hotel sits only two blocks from Miami’s white sand beaches.

The historic hotel, preserved by the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board, underwent a $5.5 million renovation before joining the Wyndham family; the renovation maintained the hotel’s original Art Deco design and architecture.

The Wyndham Garden Hotel Miami South beach joins the 405-room Wyndham Miami Airport Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, located on the banks of the Miami River, less than one-quarter mile from Miami International Airport.

Rooms and suites feature free high-speed wireless Internet access, 32-inch LCD televisions with a stereo system, colorful décor, large work desks and ergonomic chairs, as well as marble countertops, white lacquered vanities with contemporary vessel sinks and spa teak benches in all showers.

The property also features Wyndham’s signature BeWell bedding, room service concierge services, valet parking and gardens surrounding the outdoor pool.

Guests also have access to a 24-hour fitness facility, meeting rooms and a business center with computer kiosks, wireless Internet access and faxing and printing capabilities.

The “Linha Verde” Imbassaí Natural Reserve, near Salvador de Bahía, will be the location for the Grand Palladium Imbassaí Resort & Spa, an 864-room resort with seven themed restaurants, 10 bars, four swimming pools and integrated Jacuzzis.

Palladium’s parent company, Fiesta Hotels Group, has invested more than $160 million in the 400,000-square-meter property.

The Brazilian resort is currently in its final construction phase and expects to open its doors in the coming months.

Following the group’s strict environmental policy, the Grand Palladium Imbassaí Resort & Spa will respect the flora and fauna of the area integrating the resort within the natural landscape as they do in all their resorts.

For more information, visit www.fiestahotelgroup.com