Jetsettersblog

Seabourn has launched a Europe Suite Sale on 2011 summer and fall departures.

To qualify, cruises must be booked by June 30, 2011.

Fares start at $2,499 per person, double, for seven days, representing savings of 50 percent or more.

To take advantage of these fares, guests must book by June 30.

Rates are based on availability and may increase. Certain other restrictions apply.

To promote the sale, Seabourn will send three weekly email blasts to consumers, including past guests and prospects. The sale will also be featured on Seabourn’s Facebook page.

In addition, banner ads will appear on websites such as CruiseCritic.com, LuxuryLink.com, PerfectEscapes.com, TravelandLeisure.com and RobbReport.com.

Seabourn’s Europe Suite Sale includes savings on the line’s newest ship, the 450-guest Seabourn Quest, which will enter service June 20, 2011.

This vessel and the Seabourn Odyssey will sail the Eastern Mediterranean, operating alternating cruises to destinations and towns in the Greek Isles, Turkey and along the Dalmatian and Adriatic coasts.

PORT ANGELES, Wash.- Located in the Northwest corner of Washington the Olympic Peninsula is a modern-day Eden showcasing temperate rainforests, snow-capped peaks, historic hot springs, and strong sand and stone coastlines.

The self-guided Olympic Peninsula Waterfall Trail, offers a unique way to visit the peninsula’s varied geography. Nicknamed the Magical Misty Tour, the Trail currently has over two dozen waterfalls with new ones being scouted continually.

A number of falls are reached by short, easy hikes, some are even handicap accessible. Marymere and Sol Duc Falls are popular, powerful cascades easily reached year-round.

In contrast, Striped Peak Falls requires a more moderate hike and is best viewed from November to May.

For multi-day backpacking, check out the Enchanted Valley, also known as the Valley of 10,000 waterfalls. At least one hidden gem, Maple Creek Falls, is viewed by boat only.

Waterfalls are scattered across the Peninsula, so visitors can pick a handful to see each trip.

To learn more about all of the sites on the Waterfall Trail along with travel directions and helpful tips about visiting stop by the Olympic Waterfall Trail website or ask for a brochure from the Olympic Peninsula Visitors Bureau.

www.olympicpeninsula.org

Members of Best Western’s global loyalty program, Best Western Rewards, are now able to earn bonus rewards points redeemable for travel, gift cards, merchandise and more just for using popular social media channels thanks to the brand’s partnership with the popular social media platform Topguest.

Integrating with the Topguest platform allows guests at more than 4,000 Best Western hotels worldwide to instantly earn Best Westerns Rewards points by “checking in” via location based social media services such as Facebook Places, Gowalla and Foursquare.

Rewards members can also earn additional points through Topguest by sharing pictures through the online photo app Instagram and tweeting about their Best Western stay and experience via Twitter as well.

To instantly earn 50 bonus Rewards points, active Best Western Rewards members connect their existing social media accounts through Topguest.com and then share their Best Western experience via their mobile device.

Guests who are not yet Rewards members can also accumulate points via Topguest, which they can then cash in upon joining the free Best Western Rewards program.

Best Western is also currently offering Rewards members the chance to win 6.5 million points, one of the industry’s largest ever stand-alone points prizes, as part of the brand’s “Jump Start to Summer” promotion.

Rewards members can also earn a $50 gift card or 6,500 bonus points as part of the promotion, which runs through June 5.

Guests can register for the promotion at www.bestwestern.com/jump

Avalon Waterways has expanded its themed vacations for 2012 to include legacy themes, with a new Jewish Heritage cruise and European History and Politics cruise. The Jewish Heritage cruise takes travelers to the museums, monuments and landmarks significant to Jewish history, including Budapest’s Jewish Museum, Regensburg’s Jewish Quarter and ancient synagogue excavations, Prague’s Jewish Cemetery, and the Jewish ghetto of Terezin.

This 13-day journey begins in Budapest on Oct. 29, and is priced from $2,249 per person, double.

The European History and Politics cruise is available on three itineraries in July and August 2012 — the 17-day Jewels of Central Europe cruise (Paris to Budapest, priced from $4,929); the 13-day The Blue Danube Discovery (Budapest to Prague, priced from $2,589); and 12-day Central European Experience (Paris to Prague, priced from $2,489).

Joining travelers onboard will be a diplomacy expert who has worked at the United Nations, on the NATO/Warsaw Pact and on E.U. security and economic issues, who will present special lectures on Central Europe.

Also new for 2012, Avalon will take Tulip Time cruisers to the Floriade, an international exhibition of flowers and gardening, held every 10 years.

Travelers who book select 2012 Avalon Europe cruises by Aug. 30, 2011, can save up to $500 per person.

For more information, call 877-380-1535 or visit www.avalonwaterways.com

HELENA, Mont.–Experience the sights and culture of the Amazon through the eyes of a fascinating Huaorani in Ecuador on this new tour offered by Detour, The Adventure Travel Marketplace. The Huaorani have long inhabited the headwaters of the Amazon, living as nomadic hunters and gatherers with no outside contact until the 1950s.

Thanks to an innovative community based tourism project, the Huaorani Lodge was created to allow the Huaorani to earn an income while maintaining control of the their territory and lifestyle and giving them the means to share their culture with travelers.

This new tour begins with a fantastic overland journey past snow covered volcanoes, down into the cloudforest to Shell, where guests board a small aircraft for the flight into the Amazon.

From there, travelers accompany their Huaorani guide downriver in a traditional dugout canoe to the Huaorani Ecolodge.

Highlights include meeting the local Huaorani community, hike with Huaorani guides who demonstrate traditional ways of life, kayaking downriver for spectacular wildlife viewing and exploration, exploration of the community of nearby Quehueri’ono, accommodation in the Huaorani Ecolodge, learning about the conservation and preservation efforts of the local communities and environment, and much more.

www.detourdestinations.com

MIR Corp. is offering group and private travel options to Uzbekistan that encompass the Savitsky Collection at the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, subject of a new documentary, “The Desert of Forbidden Art.”

The film has earned accolades from the Los Angeles Times and KCRW’s ArtTalk. The New York Times recently published a review and an article about the museum.

Guests can tour a hall that contains hundreds of works painted by artists working in styles that were, in the time of Stalin, considered subversive. Concern for these works prompted an art cognoscente, Igor Savitsky, to bundle thousands of avant-garde paintings and take them far from the epicenter of Soviet power to remote Uzbekistan.

Savitsky also collected artifacts of the steppe, and today the museum is home to one of the largest collections of archeological objects and folk, applied and contemporary art originating in Central Asia. Celebrating 25 years of travel to this slice of the globe, MIR is the first American company to have an accredited office in Uzbekistan that is still flourishing today and providing a decided edge in on-the-ground operations in Central Asia.

There are several exclusive ways MIR can arrange an exploration of this region near the ever-shrinking Aral Sea. Guests can take a private side trip while in Central Asia on a select MIR small group tour.

Or a tour can be arranged as a pre- or post-tour extension for those traveling on MIR’s Silk Road Odyssey small group tour or Essential Silk Road independent journey.

MIR can also design a custom and private trip that could focus on Uzbekistan only or include some or all of the five independent “Stans” of the former Soviet Union — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. “The Desert of Forbidden Art” website schedules upcoming screenings across the U.S. and around the world, and offers a link to purchase a DVD of the movie.

MIR Corporation, whose name means “peace” and “world” in Russian, has specialized in Russia (and neighboring countries) since 1986. Offering scheduled and custom journeys to Russia, along the Trans-Siberian and across the Silk Route, MIR’s Seattle-based experts design imaginative trips that take travelers far from the familiar, and work closely with local affiliates in Western Russia, Siberia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to carry them out. MIR has twice been named one of National Geographic Adventure’s “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth,” and is a preferred operator for museum, alumni and special interest organizations across the country.

For more information, call 800-424-7289 or visit www.mircorp.com

Porter Airlines is adding a third daily roundtrip flight between Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and Sault Ste. Marie, beginning June 27.

The route began service with two daily flights less than two weeks ago on May 4, but is already performing as one of Porter’s best start-up destinations.

The third daily flight is available year-round, Sunday through Friday.

The airline currently serves Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Moncton, Halifax, St. John’s, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, New York (Newark), Chicago (Midway), Boston (Logan), and has seasonal flights to Mt. Tremblant, Que., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

For more information, call 888-619-8622 or visit www.flyporter.com

The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort is unveiling an exclusive partnership with the Tirisula Yoga School, Singapore, and offering two Wellness Retreats for a limited time in June.

The Wellness Retreats will feature Master Teachers Paalu Ramasamy and Satya Chong Wei Ling from the school.

The Wellness Retreat package and program features accommodations for one or two persons in Overwater Villa; government taxes of 14 percent on accommodations; daily full breakfast in Te Pahu Restaurant for one person; four two-course lunches in Te Pahu Restaurant for one person; one cooking class at Lagoon Restaurant with lunch for one person; one hiking excursion with picnic lunch for one person; four three-course dinners in one of the three resort restaurants for one person; one Polynesian buffet dinner at Te Pahu Restaurant for one person; extensive daily yoga schedule for one person; one healthy eating workshop for one person; one 50-minute treatment at Miri Miri Spa for one person; and one farewell beach cocktail for one person.

Rates begin at 132,396 xpf/French Pacific Franc ($1,570) per night with taxes and inclusions using booking code “WELL.”

The Wellness Retreat package is available from June 17 to 23 and June 24 to 30.

For reservations or more information, contact Karine Vanhee 011 689 607 804 or

email karine.vanhee@stregisborabora.com  

or visit www.stregisborabora.com

Vision Airlines has announced that the company will offer passengers the opportunity to connect to other cities it serves through the company’s hub in Destin/Fort Walton Beach.

By opening the ability for passengers to connect through Northwest Florida Regional Airport, there are more than 100 new options for flights.

The new schedule will take effect on June 1.

By adding these connections, Vision Airlines is connecting more cities throughout the southeast with its leisure destinations such as Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, Orlando/Sanford, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Las Vegas.

There are over 100 new routes that are possible with the new schedule.

For more information, visit www.visionairlines.com

Choice Hotels is kicking off a summer promotion that can earn you a free night after just two separate stays until Aug. 11.

This offer is good at Choice brand hotels throughout the U.S., including Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, and Ascend Collection hotels.

Stays at other Choice brands — MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn — also count, but the stays must be a minimum of two consecutive nights to qualify.

To earn a free night, guests must be a member of the Choice Privileges rewards program and book their reservations by calling 800-4CHOICE or at the banner below.

After their second stay between May 19 and Aug. 11, 2011, members will earn enough Choice Privileges points to redeem for a free night at more than 1,500 hotels.

Loyalty members can earn up to four free nights through this promotion, and Platinum- and Diamond-level members can earn as many as 10 free nights when they register for the promotion at the banner below.