Jetsettersblog

The InterContinental Hua Hin Resort is offering the two-night La Résidence Royale Hua Hin package.

The package includes accommodation, and a 35-minute scenic private plane transfer from Bangkok with a butler on board to service all passengers.

The property reflects the opulence offered by an exclusive beachfront house influenced by Thai King Rama VI’s 19th century designs for Hua Hin’s Royal Summer Palace.

La Résidence Royale Hua Hin is a restored period standalone house set on half an acre personifying seclusion and regal living. La Résidence Royale Hua Hin features two bedrooms furnished with local art and Thai design with large en-suite marble-finished bathrooms, separate living and dining areas, a spacious garden, infinity pool and full-time live in personal butler on call 24 hours a day.

Valid from Oct. 1 to March 31, a minimum two-night stay for the exclusive package costs $17,000 net based on four guests (adults or children) sharing and includes return private plane transfers from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport; return limousine transfers from Hua Hin Airport to the resort; daily breakfast for four persons in La Résidence Royale Hua Hin or at a resort restaurant; on-site personal butler service available 24 hours a day; one bottle of champagne upon arrival;

unlimited mini bar and laundry; one signature spa treatment for all guests (50 minutes); one private sunset boat cruise to Khao Takieb for stunning views or the mountain and temple followed by a barbeque for all guests at La Résidence Royale Hua Hin; and complimentary Wi-Fi service.

For more information, call 011 66 (0) 32 616 999, email rsvn@ichuahin.com  or visit the banner above.

Hilton Hotels has joined the Thai marketing cooperative Golf in a Kingdom:

The Thai Golf Experience (www.golfinakingdom.com).

 As new hotel partners, Hilton properties across Thailand — in Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Phuket — are now preferred lodging options, alongside the country’s top golf courses, in variety of stay-and-play itineraries offered and executed by tour operator Golfasian (www.golfasian.com)

The four Hilton properties that have joined Golf in a Kingdom include the Hilton Pattaya, the Millennium Hilton Bangkok, and Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa.

By banding together to form Golf in a Kingdom: The Thai Golf Experience, the country’s top courses and hotels have created a cooperative itinerary that matches the most desirable “stay” options with its most desirable “play” options.

Those play options include Banyan Golf Club, Chiang Mai Highlands Golf & Spa Resort, Muang Kaew Golf Club, The Old Course at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Siam Country Club’s Plantation Course, Thai Country Club in Bangkok, and Black Mountain Golf Club.

For more information on Golf in a Kingdom: The Thai Golf Experience, or to make golf travel plans in Thailand, email info@golfinakingdom.com  or visit www.golfinakingdom.com

Compagnie du Ponant’s Le Ponant will offer 17 voyages this winter and spring that follow ancient trading routes, calling at ports such as Aqaba, Sharm el Sheikh, Muscat, Khasab, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, Kochi, Malé, Phuket and Penang. From Dec. 4 to April 4, the yacht will sail through Arabia, around the Maldives and India and on to Southeast Asia.

Le Ponant is a 290-foot sailing yacht that accommodates 64 guests in 32 outside staterooms. It has two restaurants, two lounges, a library and a 4,300-square-foot deck. The ship has 16,000 feet of sails.

Kicking off its winter season on Dec. 4, Le Ponant’s six-night “Jordan & Egypt: Sacred Lands of the Red Sea” starts from Alexandria and transits the Suez Canal on its way to Aqaba. The five-night “Ocean Voyage” from Muscat to Kochi will depart Dec. 23, Jan. 18, Feb. 18 and March 24.

The “India and the Maldives: Spices and Silver Sand” cruise, which departs Dec. 28 and March 10, calls at two ports in India and four islands in the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” archipelago.

Four seven-night Malé roundtrip voyages, “Atolls of the Maldives: Natural Aquariums and Blue Lagoons,” depart Jan. 4, Jan. 11, Feb. 24 and March 3.

Optional dive packages featuring eight to 10 dives are available for PADI-certified divers.

The eight-night “Thailand and Malaysia: Islands and Marine Treasures” cruises are roundtrip from Phuket and depart Jan. 25, Feb. 2 and Feb. 10. Le Ponant sails the Andaman Sea visiting Thailand’s Butang, Similian and Ko Phi Phi Islands and Malaysia’s Langkawi archipelago and Penang.

High points of the seven-night “Saris, Temples, and Lagoons,” which departs March 17, include Kochi, Trivandrum and New Mangalore.

The cruise continues to Goa and ends in Mumbai. In making its way back to the Mediterranean, Le Ponant follows the old Arab trading route. The seven-night “Lands of Honey and Incense” itinerary, which departs March 28 and April 4, sails between Muscat and Dubai.

Prices for the winter season start at $2,435 per person, double occupancy, for a Marie Galante Deck stateroom on the six-night “Jordan & Egypt: Sacred Lands of the Red Sea,” and range up to $4,095 per person, double, for an Antigua Deck stateroom on the eight-night “Thailand and Malaysia: Islands and Marine Treasures” cruise.

All wine, beer, mineral water, soft drinks and specialty coffees served with meals are included in the price.

For more information, call 888-400-1082, email USreservations@ponant.com  or visit www.ponant.com

The InterContinental Hua Hin Resort has become the first hotel in Hua Hin to launch its own private air service to shuttle guests from Bangkok to the beachside city.

The service departs from either Suvarnabhumi International Airport or Don Muaeng Airport direct to Hua Hin before a resort limousine takes guests away for the 10-minute drive for check in.

The service uses an eight-seat Cessna Grand Caravan on the 35-minute flight between Bangkok and Hua Hin.

Flights can be either one way or return on the Cessna, and packages combining the shuttle service and accommodation are available from the InterContinental Hua Hin Resort.

In Thailand, Courtyard by Marriott Hua Hin at Cha Am Beach is offering the Kids Rock Family Package.

From now until the end of the year, children under 12 whose parents book the package receive special check-in privileges and a Kids Rock VIP Membership Card, entitling them to activities in the Kids World zone and free meals when their guardians order from the regular menu.

The deal also includes a welcome gift upon arrival, deluxe room accommodation and complimentary breakfast for two adults and two children for each night’s stay.

Parents are presented with a MoMo Café discount card and 20 percent off spa treatments.

Courtyard by Marriott Hua Hin at Cha Am Beach is located halfway between Hua Hin and Cha Am, less than three hours’ drive from Bangkok.

Opened in 2008, the 243-room hotel features 10 function rooms that can accommodate up to 500 guests as well as the latest in playground equipment and computer games.

Founded in 1909, Hua Hin became a popular retreat among Thai sovereigns 12 years later, when a railway station and hotel were erected to service elite train travelers between Bangkok and Singapore.

Today, Hua Hin is the full-time residence of the world’s longest serving monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and a haven for golfers, water sports mavens, spa goers and wine enthusiasts.

For more information, visit www.itsinhuahin.com

In the foothills of the Khao Yai National Park not far from Bangkok, travelers to Thailand will find Muthi Maya, a forest villa collection from the Kirimaya Resort team.

For a limited time, Muthi Maya is offering a new “Family Getaway Package.”

The package includes breakfast, in-villa dinner and the option to stay a third night for free.

Visitors can use Muthi Maya’s complementary DVD Library, babysitting, private villa pool and Jacuzzi, 32-inch LCD screens, wireless internet access and personal butler.

Muthi Maya’s Forest Pool Villa consists of two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, a pantry, a foyer, an indoor terrace, and an outdoor terrace with a private pool.

The offer is valid through the end of October.

Prices start at about $340 a night.

For reservations or more information, call 011-66-4442-6000,

email reservation@muthimaya.com

or visit www.muthimaya.com

Bangkok’s newest luxury resorts, Best Western Premier Amaranth Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel and Cottage Suvarnabhumi, are located a short distance from the Suvarnabhumi Airport, offering visitors transferring to flights to Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and elsewhere in Thailand an overnight option.

The Amaranth Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel provides shuttles to transfer guests the 15 minutes from the airport to the resort.

A representative stands by the gate at the airport to welcome guests and take them to the shuttle bus.

The resort is equipped with 278 rooms, an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, a high-speed wireless network and spa, where guests can partake of the “Jet Lag Recovery” treatment to get revitalized after a long trip.

For reservations or more information, call 011-66-2315-9393 or visit www.amaranthhotel.com

The Cottage Suvarnabhumi is located five minutes from the airport.

It offers 101 rooms, each with its own balcony. It features wireless Internet, cable and air conditioning, as well as a flat-screen TV.

For reservations or more information, call 011-66-2727-5858 or visit www.thecottagebangkokairport.com

Auto Europe has expanded its chauffeur services and now offers Transfers, Executive and Premium Chauffeur Drive services in over 38 countries.

In addition to servicing countries throughout Europe, Chauffeur Services are now available in South America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

East Asia is also covered in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Locations in the Caribbean include Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Bermuda and Jamaica.

Services are also available in Australia and South Africa.

Auto Europe offers chauffeured transfer services between airports, hotels, rail stations, and piers and within the same city or between cities.

Chauffeur drive services are also available at disposal for service based hourly, half day, full day, overnight or even longer.

The drivers are experienced, multi-lingual professionals with an excellent knowledge of the local area.

In addition to servicing over 6,000 car rental locations in over 60 countries worldwide, Auto Europe also offers coach and business class airfare to Europe and services three-, four- and five-star hotels worldwide through their tour division Fly International.

Skyros is its delightful natural environment, the great courses run by top professionals and, as many say, its delicious, healthy food.

However, more than anything else Skyros is its community and its ethos.

Taking pride in it, even at times that the instinct towards community seems to be becoming extinct, seems a little paradoxical. Yet it is the community and its spirit that, more than anything else, gives people wings to fly. See www.skyros.com

The community gives everyone a sense of belonging to something larger than one’s own self.

It provides direction, safety, self-esteem and meaning and purpose in the daily life.

It also provides the motivation to strive for personal uniqueness, ie the individuality that in our times is falsely identified with individualism.

Feeling you belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealised purpose, sets people free and empowers them to dream again.

In its world, individuals make a positive contribution towards the community‘s welfare or, more precisely, demonstrate with deeds the noble and generous side of their nature. That’s how they honour their friends, partners and fellow members.

Goodness is cultivated, and then realised, not in isolation, but through its active exercise in relation to other people. In turn, this is how they are accepted themselves as esteemed members of their world, honoured for their giving as opposed to their buying power.

And that’s just Skyros’ starting point….
 
If you have been with us before, come again.

If you haven’t, join us now. It may well be one of your life’s best decisions!

With our best wishes,

The Skyros Team

Isle of Wight

See www.skyros.com  

  for details of late availability holidays in Greece, Thailand, Cuba and Cambodia.

Westin Hotels & Resorts is set to open two new breathtaking resorts in premium locations this summer. The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino recently made its debut on Greece’s west coast and will be followed by the opening of The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa in Phuket, Thailand in August.

This summer will also mark the opening of the brand’s sixth property in Mexico — The Westin Sante Fe, Mexico City.

With the addition of these two new resorts in Greece and Thailand, Westin hotels now boasts a total of 40 resorts in the world’s most sought after vacation destinations.

In addition, the brand is on track to add a total of 14 new properties to its global portfolio by the end of 2010 — 85 percent of which are opening outside of North America. Latin America and Asia Pacific represent two of the most robust markets for the future expansion of the Westin brand.

The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino offers views of the Ionian Sea.

The second Westin to open in Greece, this retreat offers 445 guest rooms and suites, including 123 with infinity pools.

Inspired by old Messinian mansions, the resort’s low-rise villa clusters use natural stone and local design elements to create a motif in perfect harmony with the virgin sandy beach and pristine hillside landscape.

Amenities include four restaurants serving a range of international cuisine, several pools and lounges.

The Anazoe Spa at Navarino Dunes offers a serene sanctuary, with a menu of specialty treatments based on ancient health and beauty practices, and conference facilities.

The resort also boasts Greece’s first signature, 18-hole championship golf course with sea and river views designed by U.S. Masters Champion and Ryder Cup Captain Bernhard Langer and managed by Troon Golf.

Guests can stroll to an adjacent shopping village, home to a variety of exclusive boutiques, restaurants and bars.

The second Westin to open in Thailand,

The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa occupies a prime location on Siray Island off the east coast of Phuket.

The resort boasts 261 rooms, suites and villas with panoramic ocean views, as well as a pristine beach, Heavenly Spa by Westin, the brand’s signature WestinWorkOut gym experience, Westin Kids Club and comprehensive meeting facilities overlooking Siray Bay.

The Westin Sante Fe, Mexico City will be the brand’s fifth hotel to open in Mexico and the seventh Westin in Latin America.

Located in downtown Mexico City, this urban retreat is a short stroll from Expo Bancomer Convention Center, corporate offices and the shops and restaurants at Centro Commercial Sante Fe. The hotel offers 265 guest rooms, a Heavenly Spa by Westin, a range of culinary experiences and a WestinWorkOut gym.