Jetsettersblog

On Sunday, May 15, Okura Hotels & Resorts held the grand opening of Hotel Okura Macau. The hotel is one of three luxury five-star hotels in Galaxy Macau, a new, nearly $2 billion casino, hotel and entertainment resort complex in Macau.

Galaxy Macau features numerous shops, restaurants, bars and lounges, as well as the world’s largest wave pool, a gym and spa.

The Hotel Okura Macau, Okura Hotels’ seventh property outside Japan and second hotel in China (after Okura Garden Hotel Shanghai), has 488 rooms, including 59 suites. All guests are offered complimentary use of the hotel’s fitness facilities and swimming pool, and of the huge rooftop Sky Wave Pool, complete with sandy beach, in Galaxy Macau.

Okura Hotels & Resorts, established in 1978, is an international group of hotels and resorts managed by Hotel Okura Co., Ltd.

The group consists of 22 hotels with a total of 7,027 guest rooms.

The group plans to open a 208-room hotel in Taipei and a 242-room hotel in Bangkok in 2012. Hotel Okura Co., Ltd., founded in 1958, opened its flagship hotel, Hotel Okura Tokyo, in 1962. The company has extensive business operations in the hospitality and related industries.

It recently acquired the majority of shares of JAL Hotels Co., Ltd., which operates the Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City groups.

For more information, call 800-526-2281 or visit www.okura.com

Shanghai’s The PuLi Hotel and Spa, known for its “urban resort” hotel experience, is redefining the face of the executive floor concept with The Club.

Tailored to the needs of business travelers, The Club provides access reaching beyond the boundaries of traditional club level services including complimentary GSM mobile phones for citywide coverage, guaranteed early arrival and late departure, and private GuanJia (butler) service to assist with everything from personal errands to helping with language barrier throughout a stay.

A key highlight of the Club concept stems from the GuanJia service, known commonly as a butler and reminiscent of heads of households in ancient China where they served as the chief of staff in the homes of China’s royalty and wealthy.

Rooms and suites for Club members include access to a personal GuanJia who assists with organizing a Club guest’s daily schedule, beverage services, meals and transportation and any other needs they may have.

To meet varied travel and air schedules, Club guests are provided with guaranteed 24-hour check-in and check-out services, as well as unlimited complimentary laundry and pressing throughout their stay. VIP amenities including a personalized in-room mini bar are specially prepared by the GuanJia and stocked with the guest’s preferred alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks.

Other indulgences include a daily in-room aperitif, luxury bathroom amenities, priority bookings at the Jing’An Restaurant and Long Bar, 20 percent discounted treatments and priority bookings at Anantara Spa and complimentary use of the boardroom. Guests are further pampered with a daily beverage allowance of approximately $60 (RMB 388) based on single occupancy to be used towards cocktail selections offered at the Long Bar.

In addition to the five room categories available throughout the hotel, the luxuriously styled Grand and Jing’An suites offer access to Club benefits. In keeping with the concept, both suites are personally crafted to provide Club guests with a true taste of extravagance with sprawling master bedrooms and separate living areas, as well as ultra luxe amenities such as an indulgent exposed bathtub exuding relaxation and sensuality.

For more information, call 01186 21 3203 9999 or visit www.thepuli.com

Celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck and his company, the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group (WPFDG), will oversee all dining operations at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles when it reopens this fall after a two-year renovation.

The oversight will include the restaurant and bar, room service, catering and events, and the Garden Terrace.

The restaurant will be called Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, which will focus on modern California cuisine with European and Mediterranean influences.

The new association with the Hotel Bel-Air builds upon Puck’s relationship with the Dorchester Collection, with the scheduled September 2011 opening of Cut at 45 Park Lane in London.

The renovation includes extending the hotel bar into the outdoors with three garden niches, while retaining its lounge feeling inside with a grand piano and familiar wood paneling. Additionally, there will be a separate bar on The Terrace.

The dining room will feature multiple glass wine cellars displaying more than 2,400 bottles.

The hotel will reopen with a total of 103 guestrooms, including 12 new canyon-view rooms designed by Alexandra Champalimaud and a 12,000-square-foot Spanish mission-style structure with a bell tower, a fitness studio, three loft guestrooms and the 4,134-square-foot Spa by La Prairie.

Nightly room rates will start at $565 and will include a $100 dining credit through Dec. 29, subject to availability at the time of booking. Room reservations will be accepted as of June 1. For more information, call 800-648-4097 or visit www.hotelbelair.com

In time for National Barbecue Month, the Napa Valley Wine Train has launched a new ride-and-dine package that focuses more on barbecue. Executive Chef Kelly Macdonald created the new menu for summer.

The chef’s new menu is paired with a completely new experience in the western-themed Silverado Car. With this package, guests are treated to a multiple-course meal, as well as their choice of one glass of Wine Train private label wine, or beer.

Each of the authentic rail cars on the Wine Train have been refurbished with an eye toward historic veracity.

The Silverado Car retains the original open-air feel of rail travel in the 1920s, and is the only car in the Wine Train fleet that was not restored with air conditioning.

The western-themed decor adds to the alfresco flair. Train fare, gourmet BBQ meal, one glass of wine or beer is priced at $89, May through October.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a top dining establishment housed in an antique train that runs on 25 miles of track in the Napa Valley. The train itself has two engines, three kitchens on board and a collection of early 20th century rail cars that are pure Americana. It offers guests regional food and hard-to-find wines. Winery tours, wine tasting on board, and celebrity winemaker dinners are all offered by the train.

For more information, call 800-427-4124 or visit www.winetrain.com

The Delaware Hotel, known as the Crown Jewel of Leadville, Colo., is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year with special events and a two-night Birthday Special room rate of $125 when it reopens for the season on May 20.

Celebrations, which run throughout the summer, include narrated hotel tours every Friday and Saturday at 4:30 p.m., a fast draw competition, children’s storytelling, a Molly Brown weekend, a Model T Rally and artists who animate the characters of Horace Tabor, Soapy Smith and Big Nose Kate.

Other special presentations include the Madams of Colorado, a Night with Architect George King, and Victorian Mourning Customs and Practices. Guests will also have the opportunity to learn how to make a Victorian hat, participate in sing-alongs, sip tea in Victorian style and discuss the heydays of mining, railroading and even Leadville’s red light district with local historians.

In addition, all Delaware Hotel guests will be automatically entered into a drawing for a grand prize giveaway of lodging at a fellow Historic Hotels of the Rockies property, including the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, N.M.; the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyo.; and the Nagle Warren Mansion in Cheyenne.

A complete schedule of events is available at www.delawarehotel.com/other-services/125th-birthday.

To book the Birthday Special, call 719-486-1418.

For more information, visit www.delawarehotel.com

HOPKINS, Belize- Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort invites guests to the underwater adventure of a lifetime: diving with the biggest fish in the sea.

Whale shark diving season on Belize’s Southern Barrier Reef is April, May, and June. During the full moon phases of these months, guests at Hamanasi have the opportunity to swim, snorkel, and scuba dive with these gentle giants. Just an hour boat ride from Hamanasi, Gladden Spit is the spawning ground for Mutton and Caberra snapper; the spawn are a favorite whale shark snack.

Visibility is often well over 100 feet, allowing small groups of 8-12, to share this unique experience.

Hamanasi is a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm Resort and can offer guests beginner, refresher, and advanced scuba diving courses.

In addition to whale shark trips, Hamanasi diving and snorkeling guests can explore parts of the Belize Barrier reef system and three Belizean atolls.

After an incredible day at sea, guests can easily return to a freshly prepared dinner and the comforts of a Hamanasi treehouse, honeymoon suite, or beachfront room.

www.hamanasi.com

Tailor-made itinerary options for excursions and activities in Western Canada’s most stunning destinations top off this extraordinary journey.

Rocky Mountaineer Group Travel Consultants assist in making the meeting a seamless and personalized experience from start to finish.

With expert guidance, they can handle the logistics, make arrangements with partner hotels and recommend unique adventure itineraries which include spa, golf and/or wine excursions.

Itineraries may include a variety of destinations such as Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., or Jasper and Banff, Alberta. From legendary mountain resorts and elegant cosmopolitan hotels to activities, welcome receptions and sight-seeing tours including Glacier helicopter tours in Banff National Park, and Columbia Icefield excursions, the options are endless.

Larger groups can charter a rail car or even the whole train. One-day charters are available on the Whistler Sea to Sky Climb route, where groups can choose from either Dome Service or Classic Service and will have access to the Heritage Observation Car, with an open-air viewing area. On two-day charters, groups can choose from GoldLeaf or RedLeaf Service as well as the GoldLeaf Themed Experience coach, a bi-level domed car with a plush lounge area in the upper dome and a library and coffee bar on the lower level. They will also have access to specialty lounge cars with conference and meeting facilities. F

or more information, call 866-899-9679, email groups@rockymountaineer.com  or visit www.rockymountaineer.com.

The Los Angeles Times and Food & Wine will launched The Taste, an annual gastronomic event, in L.A. Sept. 2 to 5.

The Taste combines two previous culinary festivals — Food & Wine presents: Taste of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles Times Celebration of Food & Wine.

The Taste will span up to nine events across Los Angeles, featuring the nation’s foremost culinary talent, a carefully curated list of L.A.’s best restaurants, and notable personalities, all converging for a festival expected to attract more than 20,000 guests throughout the course of Labor Day weekend.

Among the events will be restaurant tastings, cooking demonstrations, grand tastings, wine seminars and mixology performances.

Celebrity guests and music artists will also be on hand, along with appearances by Giada De Laurentiis, Scott Conant, Art Smith, Ludo Lefebvre, Michael Voltaggio, Claire Robinson, Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos.

In addition to title sponsor Food & Wine, sponsors include Southern Wine & Spirits of California, Infiniti, Belvedere, and Peroni.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on June 1.

A portion of the ticket sales will benefit Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona, Share Our Strength, the Los Angeles Times Family Fund’s Summer Camp Campaign, Beverly Hills Education Fund, and the Los Angeles Conservancy.

For more information ,visit www.latimes.com/thetaste

The new Mariposa Jungle Lodge in Cayo, Belize, is offering an all-inclusive “School’s Out Family Adventure Special” package featuring amenities and activities for the entire family.

The five-night package is available through Sept. 4, 2011, and starts at $1,100 per person for a family of three and at $1,000 per person for a family of four sharing the same cabana.

The package includes ground transportation, accommodations, a complimentary welcome Belizean drink, all meals, taxes, service charges and amenities including eight guided excursions, including Maya sites, caving, zip-lining and river tubing.

The Belize Zoo and Burrell Boom Howler Monkey Sanctuary are children’s highlights.

A Village Culture tour offers home visits with local multi-generational families, and features cooking demonstrations and a Maya/Belizean buffet lunch.

Mariposa’s Kid’s Adventure Club features a qualified Youth Guide staff member and a flexible schedule of activities for young children.

For more information, call 304-224-2136 or visit

www.mariposajunglelodge.com

Puerto Rico’s Verdanza Hotel is offering a summer promotion featuring daily breakfast and a fourth night free.

The package also offers free accommodations for two children under age 16 sharing a room with adults, and free meals at the resort’s Eighty20 Bistro for children under age 5.

Guests who book a four-person excursion with Castillo Tours pay for only three guests on selected tours.

Located steps from the beach in the Isla Verde district, the Verdanza offers 222 rooms with 20 suites, three restaurants, wine and tapas bar, pastry shop, and more than 15,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space.

Customized perks include a pillow menu, in-room coffeemaker with premium Puerto Rican coffee, eco-friendly bath products, and a pet-friendly program.

Packages must be booked by June 13, 2011, for travel from June 1 to Oct. 2, 2011.

Rates start at $145 per room, plus 9 percent government tax and 10 percent resort tariff.

For more information, call 800-625-0312 or visit

www.verdanzahotel.com