Jetsettersblog

Elite Island Resorts, the Caribbean hotel group, is offering a Christmas Holiday promotion — book clients for one week and they receive three additional free nights.

The Three Holiday Bonus Nights offer is valid from Dec. 21 to Jan. 5. Plus the Kids Stay, Play & Free promotion with select room categories on Antigua is combinable with this offer. “Elite Island Resorts decided to implement ‘Three Holiday Nights Free’ program to offset rising airfares this season. We want to ensure our resorts are both affordable and accessible, and this program represents a 30 percent savings for stays during the holidays. We hope that travelers can find more affordable airfares with the extra flexibility of three additional free nights during the peak Christmas holiday week,” said Steven Heydt, president of Elite Island Resorts.

The following per person adult double occupancy rates are valid per night for the 10-night stay and reflect the three-bonus night’s savings: Antigua, All Inclusive Galley Bay Resort & Spa, starting at $347; St. James’s Club & Villas, two kids stay free featured, starting at $240; and The Verandah Resort & Spa, two kids stay free featured, starting at $222; British Virgin Islands, Tortola, MAP Plan Long Bay Beach Resort & Villas, starting at $218; The Grenadines, Palm Island, starting at $312; St. Lucia, Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort, starting at $310; and the Village Inn, starting at $110.

For more information, call 800-345-0356 or visit www.eliteislandresorts.com

Turks & Caicos Islands said US Airways will increase flight service from Boston (BOS), Charlotte (CLT) and Philadelphia (PHL) to Providenciales (PLS), also known as “Provo,” as of Jan. 1.

“While many airlines are decreasing service, we are pleased that US Airways acknowledges Turks & Caicos as the foremost destination in the Caribbean,” said Ralph Higgs, director of tourism and marketing at the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board.

With the new US Airways schedule, vacationers are afforded greater flexibility and more options for travel with an additional once daily flight from Boston on Saturdays and Sundays; twice daily flights from Charlotte on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays; and once daily flight from Philadelphia on Sundays. Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines increased flights from Atlanta to Provo beginning Dec. 20.

For more information, call 800-241-0824 or visit www.turksandcaicostourism.com

$426 - 5 SEAWATER THERAPY SESSIONS
$426 - 5 SEAWATER THERAPY SESSIONS

Season: from January 01 to December 12, 2008

Rates per person
Not included: Tourist tax/ person / night rates to be paid directly at the hotel/ Administration charges

Do you need a lift? Treat yourself to an express seawater therapy in Carbet : packing, jet, massages, skin care to set your mind free!

Seaweed Application
Jet
Massage

Health Week
$648 - 8 DAYS / 7 NIGHTS
$648 - 8 DAYS / 7 NIGHTS

Rates from $648 / person/ based on 4 people
Not included: Tourist tax/ per person / per night to be paid directly at the hotel/ Administration charges

Treat yourself to a health program, make the most of the oceanic pleasures enjoying cheerfully the seawater therapy benefits, available just for you!

Two-star tourist furnished accommodation provided in Carbet, with pool
5 sessions of 3 seaway therapies treatments in Carbet, spread over the week:
Jet: true hydromassage
Seaweed application : to retrieve your vitality and skin softness
Massage: boiling and hydromassaging bath
From May 01 to December 14, 2008
2 persons 4 persons
$1338 $2592

Website: www.martinique.org

Windstar Cruises this fall and winter will operate in the Caribbean with the 312-passenger Wind Surf and the 148-passenger Wind Spirit. The Wind Spirit sails roundtrip from St. Thomas on seven-day sailings to St. John, St. Martin, St. Barts, Tortola, Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda.

Cruise rates begin at $1,949 per person, based on double occupancy. The Wind Surf offers seven-day sailings roundtrip from Bridgetown, Barbados, on northbound and southbound itineraries. The northbound itinerary includes St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Martin, St. Barts, Basse-Terre, Iles des Saintes and St. Lucia. The southbound itinerary includes Bequia, Dominica, St. Lucia, Mayreau, Grenada and Tobago. Cruise rates begin at $1,799 per person, double occupancy.

Windstar offers holiday sailings on Wind Spirit and Wind Surf. Wind Spirit’s seven-day holiday cruise departs St. Thomas on Dec. 20 and is priced from $2,249 per person, double occupancy. Wind Surf’s seven-day holiday voyage departs Bridgetown Dec. 21 and visits Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Dominica and St. Lucia. Cruise rates start at $2,149. Wind Surf’s seven-day New Year’s cruise departs Bridgetown on Dec. 28 and visits Tobago, Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique and St. Vincent. A New Year’s Eve party will feature party favors, live music, official countdown by the captain and champagne toast. Cruise rates start at $2,149.

Regent Hotels & Resorts broke ground in Puerto Rico its newest luxury development, The Regent Palmas del Mar Puerto Rico. Joining in the ceremonies were top government officials, property developers and executives of Regent Hotels & Resorts, including the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Aníbal Acevedo Vilá; Luis F. Muñiz, chairman and CEO of RPR Development, LLC; and Bjørn Gullaksen, president of the Regent Luxury Group. Officials gathered at the ocean-front site of the resort, approximately 30 minutes southeast of San Juan, to ceremoniously commence construction on this comprehensive new luxury development, which will be anchored by a showcase new Regent resort. Scheduled to open December 2011, The Regent Puerto Rico will be the focal point for one of the premier integrated luxury resort communities in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. The new Regent will join the existing portfolio of luxury resorts in the Americas, including The Regent Palms Turks and Caicos and The Regent Bal Harbour, Florida. Additional Regent Hotels & Resorts are located in Europe and Asia, with eight properties under construction globally.

The 150-room Regent Puerto Rico will offer beachfront accommodations and interiors by award-winning designer Trisha Wilson, whose work includes Little Dix Bay Villa and Spa in Virgin Gorda and The Palace of the Lost City Hotel, Suncity, South Africa. The hotel’s architectural firm, Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates, also created The Regent Bal Harbour and The Regent Palms Turks and Caicos, as well as hotels for St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton. The Regent Puerto Rico will include 96 guestrooms and 52 suites as well as a spectacular 5,500-square-foot Presidential Suite and a Presidential Beach Cottage, featuring expansive views of the Caribbean Sea, neighboring island Vieques and Puerto Rico’s rainforest.

The Regent Puerto Rico will also offer 153 Regent-branded residences. Resort amenities will include a signature restaurant from a renowned culinary operator, three private pools, preferred tee times at nearby championship golf courses and a 16,000-square-foot spa featuring five over-water spa suites. The Regent Puerto Rico will also offer an on-site ballroom and chapel for destination weddings and events.
Located 35 minutes southeast of San Juan, The Regent Puerto Rico will be part of a comprehensive and exclusive resort community.

Clients will save up to 35 percent when they book a 2009 winter getaway with Spirit Vacations to a Couples Resort in Jamaica. Clients enjoy free value-added inclusions such as off-site excursions, scuba diving, glass-bottom boat tours and more. Sample deals to the all-inclusive Couples Resorts with Spirit Vacations include Couples Tower Isle, where guests receive 35 percent off all-inclusive rates in a deluxe garden room on Monday departures, March 16 through 30. A three-night stay is priced at $991 from Fort Lauderdale; $1,009 from Orlando or Tampa; and $1,048 from Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Myrtle Beach, New York/LaGuardia or Washington, D.C./Reagan National.

Couples Negril guests will get 25 percent off in a deluxe garden room on Monday departures, Jan. 5 through Feb. 9 and Feb 23 through March 30, on three-night stays of $1,016 from Ft. Lauderdale; $1,034 from Orlando or Tampa; $1,073 from Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Myrtle Beach, New York/LaGuardia or Washington, D.C./Reagan National.

At Couples Sans Souci, guests will receive 25 percent off an ocean suite on Monday departures, Jan. 5 through Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 through March 30, on three-night stays: $1,046 from Ft. Lauderdale; $1,064 from Orlando or Tampa; $1,099 from Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Myrtle Beach, New York/LaGuardia or Washington, D.C./Reagan National. At Couples Swept Away, guests will receive 20 percent off a garden suite on Monday departures, Jan. 5 through Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 through March 30, on three-night stays: $1,098 from Ft. Lauderdale; $1,116 from Orlando or Tampa; $1,155 from Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Myrtle Beach, New York/LaGuardia or Washington, D.C./Reagan National.

Spirit Vacations offers complete vacation packages to destinations throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, Central and South America, Mexico and the United States.

Frenchmans Lookout, located on the Caribbean island of Tortola, is offering a Thanksgiving special. Five nights for a group of 10 people starts at $10,715 or $215 per person per day and includes airport and ferry transfers, breakfast each morning, one full day on a captained yacht and a Thanksgiving dinner. For seven nights, the price is the same, but the package includes two days on a yacht with captain, and five hours of massage. Four percent gratuities and 7 percent tax are not included. For parties of eight, the five-night package is $268 per person per night. Both five- and seven-night packages are also available for other time periods.

Frenchmans Lookout sits on one of the highest points on Tortola’s west end. It is a two-story Carolina house with a grand wrap-around porch on each floor. Richard Friedman purchased it in 2001 and after several years of remodeling and refurbishing has turned it into an ultra-comfortable Caribbean House. Each of the five bedrooms — four upstairs and one on the ground floor — open out onto a wrap-around verandah. On the main floor are a comfortable living room with music and entertainment center and a newly renovated and well-equipped kitchen. Across the foyer is the dining room with mirrored closet doors reflecting the surrounding sea. Thanksgiving dinner will be served by a private chef.

 For more information, call 800-783-6904 or 866-940-0200 or visit www.frenchmanslookout.com

The traveling exhibition of African laureate, Olaudah Equiano, has arrived on the island of Montserrat.

The exhibition opened Oct. 1 and will remain on display at the National Trust until the end of the year.

Considered to be one of the more famous residents of Montserrat, Equiano purchased his freedom in Montserrat and went on to become a successful author and businessman in the United Kingdom. His story tells the tale of the anti-slavery activities of well known abolitionists Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and religious leader John Wesley.

 Equiano made significant contributions to the abolition of slavery but died 10 years before the British Parliamentary Act abolished slave trade.

“This exhibition holds great significance to the people of Montserrat and the Caribbean,” said Lady Eudora Fergus, director of the National Trust. “He and other black abolitionists such as Sancho and Mary Prince were influential in the anti-slavery movement and their contributions have not received wide acclaim. It is our hope that from this day forward, the importance of their work will never be forgotten.”

The Equiano Traveling Exhibition opened in Birmingham in September 2007 and is considered a major bicentennial activity that introduced Equiano’s story to thousands of people. The exhibition was sent to Montserrat through the Equiano Society, United Kingdom and the Birmingham Museum.

For more information, call 664-491-3086 or visit www.montserratnationaltrust.ms

 or www.visitmontserrat.com

American Express Travel is partnering with Royal Caribbean International for the unveiling of the final “neighborhood” aboard RCI’s Oasis of the Seas, which the cruise line will launch in November 2009. The cruise ship’s design features “neighborhoods,” which will provide an array of experiences to cater to guests’ personal style, preferences or moods. The unveiling of the final neighborhood, available exclusively to American Express cardmembers, customers and travel agents, will take place Oct. 21 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time, via a live WebEx webcast.

The webcast will be co-hosted by Adam Goldstein, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, and Lynne Biggar, senior vice president and general manager of the American Express Consumer Travel Network. Oasis of the Seas’ neighborhoods already announced include Central Park, Boardwalk, Royal Promenade, the Pool and Sports Zone, and the Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center.

 For more information, call 800-297-2977 or visit www.americanexpress.com/travel

Costa is letting kids sail for free when traveling with their parents in the Caribbean this winter.

This offer is available on 12 sailings — including Christmas and New Year’s — aboard the Costa Fortuna, which departs from Fort Lauderdale on alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean routes each Sunday.

 Fares for parents begin at $669 per person. Costa features a children’s program, or “Squok Club,” structured to accommodate younger guests from a variety of backgrounds.

Squok is the plush mascot of the club, a mix of dolphin and shark.

The 105,000-ton Costa Fortuna has a double-occupancy capacity of 2,720, 11 bars, four restaurants, a theater extending over three floors, three swimming pools, a casino, disco, ballroom and a gym.