Jetsettersblog

To coincide with its new brand and website launch, Kiwi Collection has re-imagined WOW Travel as an inspirational travel and lifestyle publication for those looking to expand their horizons.

Kiwi Collection has now updated its web presence, brand and created an online publication.

WOW Travel is focused on travel, but not limited to the theme. Editor in Chief Jim Tobler, and Editor at Large Mary Gostelow have assembled a team of in-house and international contributing writers to cover world culture in all its forms.

This team includes restaurant designer Bob Puccini, and travel writer Ted Botha, among others.

Sections include Wining & Dining, Art & Style, Spa & Sport, News & Events, and Industry Insight. In yet another feature, WOW Likes, the editorial team takes readers on a tour through an ever-growing, curated selection of their favorite products.

From coach-built supercars and bespoke shoes, to hard-to-find furniture and must-have gadgets, WOW Likes lives on the front lines of style.

Kiwi Collection, headquartered in Vancouver, with offices in Sydney and London, is an independent curator of hotels founded by people with a passion for travel.

Every hotel, including those belonging to all the well-known international brands, are personally reviewed before being invited to join. Hotels cannot pay to be included in the collection, and are excluded if they no longer meet Kiwi Collection’s strict criteria. The collection currently features 2,100 hotels in 127 countries.

For more information, visit www.kiwicollection.com/wow-travel

Westin Hotels & Resorts, in honor of the 11th anniversary of the Heavenly Bed, is kicking off a two-week sale on all of its luxurious retail items, including the 10-layer Heavenly Bed and signature White Tea home fragrance collection.

All sale items are available on Westin’s newly expanded online store and at Nordstrom stores nationwide.

Since the Heavenly Bed’s introduction in 2000, more than 75 million guests have tucked themselves in at Westin hotels around the world including U.S. Presidents, Hollywood royalty and professional athletes, and more than 35,000 beds and 100,000 pillows have been sold. .

From July  to Aug. 1, customers who visit www.westin.com/store  will enjoy 25 percent off every item in the Westin retail line, including the Heavenly Bed; White Tea candles, oil diffusers and potpourri; Brazilian combed cotton towels and bath sheets; and a variety of bathroom fixtures.

Shoppers can also pick up recent additions to the Heavenly retail line, including the Heavenly Spa Robe, Heavenly Travel Blanket, and a Heavenly Bath line created in partnership with Bliss Spa. Westin’s pet-friendly amenities, like the Heavenly Dog Bed, offer four-legged friends Heavenly comforts at 25% off, too.

Modeled after a brick-and-mortar store, Westin’s online shop is designed to provide a personalized experience with features like an Interactive Retail Concierge to assist with purchases, tops on making the Heavenly Bed, product suggestions based on recent purchases, and easy one-stop shopping.

Visitors can purchase the 10-layer Heavenly Bed – including box spring, 13-inch pillow-top mattress, sheets, blankets, and a variety of pillows – with a click of the mouse.

Palace Resorts is turning the Isla Mujeres Palace Wyndham Grand Resort, into the brand’s newest couples-only, all-inclusive luxury resort on Sept. 1, joining couples-only Sun Palace in Cancun.

Appealing to couples and honeymooners looking for a private relaxing getaway, Isla Mujeres Palace Wyndham Grand Resort is located on the Isla Mujeres, just a short ferry ride from Cancun’s mainland.

Isla Mujeres Palace Wyndham Grand Resort offers a relaxing island hideaway. Surrounded by white sand beaches and panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea, the all-inclusive resort is an ideal romantic escape for couples and intimate seaside weddings.

The property has 62 guest rooms, each with a double Jacuzzi. The resort’s restaurant, Azul, offers al fresco dining with International, Mexican, Oriental and Italian cuisines, top-shelf beverages and an extensive wine selection.

Guests can relax at the freestyle pool in lounge chairs on the private beach or in a couples’ or individual spa treatment room.

The resort’s uocean lagoon is ideal for snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, or water biking.

Guests can also experience the traditional Mexican culture of the island by exploring its many historic spots, embarking on seasonal whale shark watching trips and snorkeling in some of the best spots in the Mexican Caribbean.

Tours available at Isla Mujeres Palace Wyndham Grand Resort include excursions around the island, snorkeling, Garrafón Park, Ultimate Dolphin Swim, scuba diving and sport fishing.

Guests at Isla Mujeres Palace Wyndham Grand Resort also can participate in “1,500 Vacation Dollars for Your Indulgences” (www.palaceresorts.com/palace-passport) , making a Palace Resorts stay the most complete vacation getaway in Mexico and Dominican Republic.

As part of this promotion, up to 1,500 vacation dollars can be used on room upgrades, spa and beauty salon treatments, golf outings, romantic dinners on the beach,

Precious Wedding Collection packages and off-site excursions.

The promotion allows all guests staying in any room category for five nights or more to mix and match dollars among all included amenities.

The “1,500 Vacation Dollars for Your Indulgences” promotion is available now through Dec. 23, 2011 at all 11 Palace Resorts properties in Mexico and Moon Palace Casino, Golf & Spa Resort in Dominican Republic.

Guests staying five nights or more receive up to $1,500 per room per stay, while guests staying three or four nights receive up to $750 per room per stay.

For more information or reservations, call 800-635-1836 or visit www.palaceresorts.com

Boyd Gaming Corporation has launched the B Connected Mobile, a personalized mobile application that delivers customized offers and information directly to a customer’s iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

The app is designed to expand the benefits of B Connected, the company’s nationwide player loyalty program.

B Connected Mobile, the first multi-property, loyalty program-based iPhone app of its kind in the gaming industry, and is available for free download at the iPhone App Store.

The app provides a personalized information, including exclusive hotel, dining and gaming offers for B Connected members;

instant access to event information, schedules and special offers at all Boyd Gaming properties;

Locate Me, a GPS-powered feature that provides additional real-time information when a customer visits a specific Boyd Gaming property;

Slot Search, a search engine that allows customers to find Boyd Gaming casinos that have their favorite machines and displays the games’ locations on a casino floor map; the ability to track B Connected point balances in real time;

and the ability to make hotel or restaurant reservations.

B Connected membership is not required to use the B Connected Mobile app. However, the benefit of membership unlocks many of the app’s features. Membership in B Connected is available only to persons age 21 and older.

The company plans to release BlackBerry and Android versions of B Connected Mobile later this year. To view a demonstration of how the B Connected Mobile app works, visit www.bconnectedmobileapp.com

 For hotel information, call 702-792-7200 or visit www.boydgaming.com

Cunard’s has formed the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Company that will be introduced with the new Queen Elizabeth oceanliner in October.

The company will include 29 singers, dancers, actors and musicians who will perform in the Royal Court Theatre.

The company will present a variety of musical productions and abridged versions of plays such as a Neil Simon triple bill and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”

The Simon show will feature three scenes, one each from some of the playwright’s best-loved shows — “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “Plaza Suite” and “The Odd Couple” — each linked by their setting in an apartment or hotel suite.

At the conclusion of each show is a Q&A session with the actors. “Slice of Saturday Night” is the largest production show Cunard has ever staged. This pastiche of 1960s music, which has toured extensively throughout the U.K. and U.S., has been adapted for the Queen Elizabeth.

“The Piccadilly Line,” which will feature the entire company, explores the spoken word, song and prose as characters get on and off a train journey on the world’s oldest underground rail system.

The action is set in the shell of a London tube train carriage.

“Hotel Royale” is a musical production featuring 16 singers and dancers who bring to life the story of a hotel that is past its prime — once the playground of the rich and famous, it is now home to some quirky staff and unusual guests.

“Sing,” a lively production based on the popularity of “Singers in Concert” performed on Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, features 21 musicians and four singers on stage.

Queen Elizabeth will continue the tradition of presenting Cunard’s Royal Nights with the debut of “The Cunard Ball,” “London Swings,” “The Starlight Ball” and the “Elizabethan Ball.”

For more information, visit

www.queenelizabeth.cunard.com

Biosphere Expeditions, an award-winning non-profit volunteer wildlife conservation organization, has completed baseline research of the coral reefs off the remote and mountainous Musandam peninsula of Oman. This is the first time this area has been surveyed, bordered as it is by massive developments in the United Arab Emirates.

This high level of construction is believed to have had a considerable negative impact on the marine environment of the neighboring area.

But the results of the first survey, which have just been released are encouraging.

“We discovered corals here that appear to endure extremely hard conditions, and a higher abundance of snappers than in any other part of the region,” said Kathy Wilden from Biosphere Expeditions.

“While this is only the beginning, and we will be returning to the area in October 2010, it is a start to building a case at government level for this to be declared a Marine Protected Area.”

Volunteers travelers from around the world have an opportunity to join this remarkable volunteer wildlife expedition.

To find out more, visit www.biosphere-expeditions.org
www.biosphere-expeditions.org

Sentido Hotels & Resorts expands Tunisian resort portfolio with the addition of three new hotel complexes.

Sentido Hotels & Resorts has announced the expansion of its hotel portfolio in Tunisia with the addition of three new resorts.

The new Sentido Hotels Tunisia destinations include Tabarka (Sentido Tabarka Beach Resort), Djerba (Sentido Djerba Beach) and Hammamet (Sentido Phenicia).

With the Sentido Tabarka Beach resort, the brand will be opening up a virtually untouched vacation region in the northwest of the country, reminiscent of the Black Forest in Germany, along with access to a sensational underwater world and coral seascape.

The new 255-room beach hotel is nestled in the picturesque countryside between the coast and the foothills of the Kroumirie Mountains and is surrounded by pine forest.

The new hotel includes a designer restaurant, casino, cocktail lounge, 18-hole golf course, wellness area with Thalassotherapy center and facilities where guests can enjoy the Tunisian bath culture.

The Sentido Djerba Beach resort is a complex constructed in typical Tunisian style 25 kilometers from the airport.

The prominent domed building is reminiscent of the historical villages of southern Tunisia.

Dominated by near eastern flair, the hotel includes a restaurant, cafe, two cocktail lounges, indoor and outdoor pools, theatre, sports facilities, and a relaxation zone with sauna, massage and Thalasso facilities.

Additionally desert tours, boat rides or quad tours through dried-out riverbeds will be available for those looking for adventure.

Surrounded by a garden landscape, the Sentido Phenicia resort near downtown Hammamet provides tastefully decorated modern rooms, choice of main, themed or a la carte restaurants, a Moorish cafe and six cocktail lounges.

Like all Sentido Hotels & Resorts, the three new properties provide the “Concept of the Senses”.

As soon as guests step onto the hotel property in the evenings, a special lighting system illuminates the way to the lobby with its fresh flower arrangements.

Specially arranged music discreetly sounds throughout all public areas complemented by a unique fragrance created for Sentido which scents the air.

About Sentido Hotels & Resorts:

Sentido Hotels & Resorts is an international hotel brand founded in 2009, currently uniting 24 hotels & resorts (14,000 beds) in Egypt, Greece, Kenya, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as two cruise ships on the Nile. The hotels are all in the Four-Star-Plus segment, located near beaches and operated under the terms of direct or regional master franchise contracts.

The Sentido Hotels & Resorts concept is aimed toward discerning singles, couples and small families, who, besides quality and service, also value health conscious cuisine and wellness facilities along with wide-ranging sports and entertainment programs.

In addition to accommodations, travelers can also book flights from scheduled, vacation charter and low-cost airlines and order the Sentido On-line Newsletter over the Internet portal.

The company is part of the Thomas Cook tourism group. Sentido headquarters is in Oberursel near the German city of Frankfurt on the Main.

Website: http://www.sentidohotels.com

Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Retreat, part of the Red Carnation Hotels Collection, was voted World’s Best for Service in the 2010 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards poll.

It was voted Number One Hotel in Africa and the Middle East for World’s Best Service, achieving a score of 99.17 points.

It was voted Number Two among the Top 10 Hotels across the globe for Service Overall. In 2009, Bushmans Kloof was voted the Best Hotel in the World 2009 by Travel + Leisure readers. Bushmans Kloof was also named winner of the Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Award in the category Global Winner of Wildlife Conservations Programs 2009, and was awarded the Relais & Châteaux Environmental Trophy in 2007 for its exceptional environmental and conservation projects.

The predator- and malaria-free sanctuary and spiritual retreat is based in a secluded reserve, with more than 7,500 hectares of wilderness.

A sanctuary for many indigenous plants, animals and birds, it is home to more than 35 species of mammals, 150 bird species, and more than 755 indigenous plant species, representing three major biomes (Fynbos, Forest and Succulent Karoo).

It is recognized as a conservation success story and its projects include providing refuge for the endangered Cape Mountain Zebra and Clanwilliam Yellow Fish; its support of the Cape Mountain Leopard project; and the Clanwilliam Cedar Tree project; as well as alien vegetation clearing. With more than 130 ancient Bushman rock art sites in the reserve it is also a South African Natural Heritage Site, renowned as one of the world’s largest open-air rock art galleries.

The new spa and riverside spa gazebo offers a wilderness journey to wellness, including a wealth of pampering and restorative treatments, complemented with an extensive range of internationally known brands, as well as indigenous rooibos, flowers and plants.

Head Chef Floris Smith’s African fusion cuisine makes full use of the lodge’s own fresh organic fruits and vegetables as well as the finest local produce.

Each meal is served in a choice of dining locations, allowing guests to enjoy the natural beauty and panoramic vistas surrounding the lodge.

The lodge offers nature drives, hikes and walks, rock art excursions, mountain biking, canoeing, archery, stargazing and swimming in crystal clear rock pools.

Red Carnation is a collection of 13 five-and four-star family-run boutique hotels.

Each distinguished by an absolute commitment to attentive service and the comfort of every guest, located in some of the world’s most popular destinations.

Red Carnation Hotels are regarded as some of the world’s finest with accolades including “Best Hotel in the British Isles” in the Condé Nast Traveler magazine’s 21st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards and “Best Hotel in the World” in the 2009 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards.

For reservations, email book@rchmail.com  For more information, visit www.redcarnation.com

Mantis, manager of eco-friendly five-star properties, will open Baines’ River Camp on Aug. 1 among giant tamarind and jackal-berry trees on the banks of the Zambezi River opposite the Mana Pools World Heritage Site in Zimbabwe.

The camp was named after John Thomas Baines, famous English-born artist and explorer, who, accompanying David Livingston up the Zambezi in 1858, was one of the first white men to see Victoria Falls.

Baines’ River Camp comprises eight luxurious colonial-style suites, each named after an African explorer.

The air-conditioned suites have views over the Zambezi River, ceiling fans, oriental rugs, rich fabrics blended with leather and rattan and granite and natural hardwood timber furnishings. Covered verandas are tiled with terracotta and outfitted with large sofas, comfortable chairs and antique coffee tables.

The area abounds with wildlife including lion, elephant, buffalo, antelope, hippo, leopard and the rare and elusive Samango monkey. A modern kitchen is able to produce a wide range of dishes without a set menu or fixed meal times. The days’ activities are discussed with the hosts, and meals are planned accordingly.

The main camp features a boardroom and library with seating for 20, open-plan dining and lounge area, a bar, guest restrooms, reception with wireless internet facilities, warm fireplaces for cool winter nights and a refreshing pool for hot summer days.

The boardroom and library are ideal for corporate functions and can be converted into a studio suitable for photographic workshops and incentive groups.

Baines’ River Camp is located in Chiawa Partnership Park, a community conservation initiative spearheaded by the owners and claiming the same protected status as neighboring Lower Zambezi National Park.

Entrance to the National Park is a 20-minute boat ride from the camp. No fences exist in the area, so wildlife roams freely between the areas and in and around the camp.

The Lower Zambezi area is home to more than 60 species of mammals and more than 350 species of birds, along with a vast array of trees and a variety of habitats.

Guests have the option of a bush safari in a four-wheel drive vehicle or a game cruise on the river.

Experienced river guides take guests up- and downstream in search of the elusive African Skimmer, or elephants bathing or a rare glimpse of Africa’s most endangered species, the wild dog.

Standard bed night rates range from $495 per person double occupancy, including two scheduled activities per day, entry fees into the Lower Zambezi National Park, community development levies, all meals and local beverages, same day laundry service and free wireless internet connectivity.

Rates exclude private use of game-drive vehicles and boats, government taxes, fishing tackle and transfers between Baines’ River Camp and Lusaka.

Due to climatic conditions, all camps and lodges in the Lower Zambezi Valley typically operate their season from April to November annually.

Owing to the nature of the establishment and its surrounds, children under the age of 14 cannot be accommodated.

The Royal Zambezi Airstrip is located five-and-a-half miles from the camp. The drive between the camp and Royal Zambezi Airstrip takes approximately 30 minutes, depending on the wildlife along the way. Generally, guests will fly from Lusaka (approximately 30-minute flight), Livingstone (approximately one-hour flight) or any of the other wildlife areas in Zambia to the Royal Zambezi Airstrip.

A game-drive vehicle, complete with refreshments and cold hand-towels awaits the guests on arrival.

For more information, call +27 ( 0) 41 407 1000, email reservations@mantiscollection.com  or visit www.mantiscollection.com  or www.bainesrivercamp.com

easyHotel Dubai, Jebel Ali, the budget hotel chain’s first venture outside Europe, is now taking reservations through the brand website www.easyhotel.com  ahead of opening its doors on Aug. 1, 2010.

Located inside Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) on Sheikh Zayed Road, the hotel, operated by Istithmar Budget Hotels FZE, an Istithmar World company, is celebrating its launch with double rooms on sale from just AED 99 per night.

easyHotel Dubai, Jebel Ali is part of the budget hotel brand owned by Chairman and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. In its brand new six-story building easyHotel Dubai, Jebel Ali offers 216 air-conditioned bedrooms, which in line with the brand ethos are priced on the basis of “the earlier you book, the less you pay.” Prices during high demand periods are more expensive than low seasons.

easyHotel Dubai, Jebel Ali also remains true to the brand’s “no frills” approach and is completely transparent on its services and pricing structure.

Services such as, luggage storage, early check in, late check out, vended snacks and drinks and wifi Internet access will be available at small additional charges to guests.

A five-minute walk from the Jebel Ali Metro Station No 42, easyHotel Dubai, Jebel Ali is easily accessible by bus, taxi or train from anywhere in Dubai.

In addition to the Jebel Ali Industrial Area, Downtown Jebel Ali and Jafza South expansion zones are all within easy reach.

For more information, visit www.easyhotel.com