Jetsettersblog

Europcar - Prius - final.docWorkers and residents in and around London can now escape the city whilst saving fuel, congestion charge costs and their conscience with the availability of the Toyota Prius from Europcar. The UK’s leading vehicle rental organisation is now offering the Prius, the world’s first and most successful hybrid power vehicle, from all of its London locations.

Driving pleasure, comfort and space haven’t been sacrificed to provide an eco-car. Instead the Prius combines style and superb handling with state of the art technology needed in these environmentally conscious times.

The fleet of vehicles are exempt from the London Congestion Charge and can be driven certain distances using electric power only at the press of a button. This means zero emissions, less noise and better fuel economy – perfect for city and country driving alike.

“The availability of the Prius provides customers with an opportunity to put the hybrid to the test following news that Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million hybrid vehicles annually in the early part of the next decade.” said Catriona Lougher, Marketing Director for Europcar.

“Renting a car with Europcar is already a green choice as all our vehicles are on average just 3 months old and fitted with the latest technology to cut emissions. The average CO2 emission of our fleet is 157 g/km compared to the UK car parc of 164.9 g/km*. However, by making the Prius available we are bringing our customers a new way to drive greener that will also help them cut costs in terms of fuel and congestion charges. It’s all part of our commitment to exploit new manufacturer developments to bring customers the latest models to hit the road and a great rental experience.”

*Source SMMT 2007 report.

Reservations Phone: 1-800-626-0126Website: www.amawaterways.com

Over a million British guests are expected to flock to the ski slopes this winter. The UK’s fastest growing ski tour operator, online ski specialist Directski.com, give their recommendations as to the top ten ski holiday destinations, by category, for everyone from beginners to those looking for the greenest ski holiday this winter.

1. Best beginners’ skiing – Arinsal, Andorra

60% of Brits fall into the `beginner’ category so an unpretentious resort like Arinsal, away from the glare of Europe’s superior skiers and prices that are among the best value in western Europe is ideal.

A week’s skiing for 6 sharing an apartment at the Hotel Ayma can be booked for £319 per person, with return Gatwick flights (Manchester from £339) and transfers. www.directski.com

2. Best green skiing – take the train to Les Arcs

Reduce your ski carbon footprint and take the Eurostar ski train direct from St. Pancras to Bourg St. Maurice then a short local transfer to Les Arcs. The ski train travels overnight on a Friday, giving `green’ skiers a bonus day on the slopes, as those who fly arrive later in the day.

A week’s self catering stay for 6 friends costs from £329, including return train travel from St. Pancras and transfers.

3. Best family ski resort - Kaprun, Austria

The Austrian’s are notoriously family minded and with short airport transfers and excellent family facilities, from the sports centre to the kids’ ski school, Kaprun is a popular choice for families. Many hotels have child friendly facilities too, the Gasthof Zur Muhle has quadruple family rooms, an outdoor heated pool, table tennis and table football, a sauna, solarium, steam bath and the ski bus stops right outside.

A week’s stay at the Sporthotel Kaprun costs from £419 per adult, kids under 7 stay free and kids 13 and under pay half price, including return Gatwick and Manchester flights and transfers.

4. Best value skiing – Pas de la Casa, Andorra

The prize for best value ski holidays and best value après ski has to go Andorra for its duty free pricing, inexpensive, great value resorts. The happy hours, discos, lively cafes and restaurants also give the Andorran resort of Pas de la Casa its reputation as one of the liveliest resorts in the mountains.

A week’s skiing with self-catering accommodation at the Frontera Blanca apartments can be booked for just £249, with return Gatwick flights (Manchester £269) and transfers, based on 6 sharing.

5. Best advanced skiing - St. Anton, Austria

It’s said a blue run is a red, a red is a black in St. Anton, blessed with world-class skiing, amazing powder and opportunities for huge off-piste mileage. A good skier can spend much time off-piste and, with its chic and stylish village centre, a good shopper will be fairly content too.

7 nights b&b at the 3* Hotel Tirolerhof in St. Anton costs from £489 per person, with return Gatwick flights and transfers.

6. Best après ski - Livigno, Italy

Start early and finish late in the tax free Italian resort of Livigno, with its reputation for great skiing, lively après ski and numerous watering holes. The resort has access to over 100kms of pistes and even more bars, clubs and reasonably prices restaurants.
DirectSki.com has a selection of self catering apartments from £319 per person, based on 2 sharing, including return Gatwick flights and transfers.

7. Best ski & spa – Bad Gastein, Austria

The Austrian spa town of Bad Gatsein is world renowned for the healing powers of its natural thermal waters. It’s snow record is pretty good too, which makes it a perfect ski and spa combination for those looking to relax after pounding the slopes.

A week’s half board ski holiday in Bad Gastein can be booked for £349 per person, including return Gatwick flights and transfers. Famed for its wellness facilities is the Hotel Cordial Sanotel, where a week’s half board stay costs from £519, with flights.

8. Best cross country skiing - Oslo

More than 2,600 km (1,600 miles) of prepared cross-country ski trails run deep into the forests around Oslo, of which 90 km are lit for evening tours. The ski resort of Tryvann Vinterpark is just 20 minutes from the city

A three night b&b stay at the 3* Thon Hotel in Oslo costs from £439, with return flights and transfers.

9. Best ski weekend – Lillehammer, Norway

The former Winter Olympic ski resort of Lillehammer has all the ingredients of a great ski weekend, with guaranteed snow from November through to April, great skiing, lovely hotels and a short airport transfer. Non-skiers can enjoy tobogganing, luge, sleigh rides, ice-skating and snowy walks.

A 3 night half board trip to Lillehammer costs from £339, with b&b accommodation at the Hotel Molla, return flights from Gatwick and transfers.

10. Best non-ski activities

For non-skiers and those wanting to take a break from the slopes the Tirolean resort of Soll has tobogganing, bowling, a leisure centre with indoor sports, squash, tennis, swimming, ice-skating, hang-gliding, sleigh rides, cleared walks, massage and spa facilities.

7 nights half board accommodation at Hotel Teni Garni costs from £419 with return Gatwick flights and transfers, £429 from Manchester.

www.directski.com

The Eurail Group is bringing out several special edition extended rail passes, offering free travel days good for travel throughout Europe in the spring. With fewer crowds, lower airfares and more availability in hotels, spring is a good time to travel to Europe.

Tourist attractions, such as museums and monuments, are less crowded and the weather is also pleasant. Eurail is launching a special off-peak promotion, offering free travel days on two of its products: the Eurail Select Pass and the Eurail Global Pass.

The Eurail Select Pass allows customers to choose three or more adjoining countries in which to travel, enabling a tailor-made rail pass. For those wishing to cover more ground, a Eurail Global Pass gives travelers access to 21 participating countries from January.

Customers buying a 15- or 21-day Eurail Global Pass will instead receive 21 days or one month, respectively. The Eurail Select Pass 3 Countries, valid for six or eight days within two months, now comes with an additional two travel days.

These passes go on sale worldwide (outside of Europe) from Oct. 1.

To be eligible for the additional travel days, passes must be purchased before the end of November. Travel can start as from March 1 and must be completed by May 31.

All Eurail Passes are available from Eurail’s network of authorized Sales Agents worldwide: ACP Rail International (www.eurail-acprail.com);

Eurail (www.Eurail.com); Flight Centre (www.flightcentre.com);

www.OctopusTravel.com;

Rail Europe (North America: www.raileurope.com,

rest of the world: www.raileurope.fr),

and STA Travel (www.statravel.com)

Auto Europe has extended its free GPS rental offer in Europe with car rental services.

Travelers will receive a free Gamin Nova 270 or similar for the duration of their rental with routing maps of Western Europe and most of Eastern Europe with car rental services in Italy, France, Austria, Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Norway. In addition, Auto Europe is also offering this promotion with any Peugeot Open Europe lease of 17 days or longer and with any long term rental of 21 days or longer. The free GPS offer is valid with minimum seven-day car rental reservations booked now through Sept. 30. The offer applies in Italy, France, Austria, Spain and Norway with any intermediate car rental or larger for travel through Nov. 30.

The GPS offer is valid in Ireland and Switzerland for travel through Oct. 30. Germany is valid with any compact car rental or larger for travel now through Oct. 31. UK is valid with any intermediate car rental or larger for travel through Oct. 31.

Free GPS offer is valid on select Peugeot models with Auto Europe’s Peugeot Open Europe program for travel through Nov. 30, and with any car category booked for 21 days or longer for travel through Oct. 31. Free GPS rental validity dates exclude shipping and handling charge of $40. Optional insurance is available at $1 per day.

Offer is subject to change without notice. Additional restrictions apply.

PARK CITY, Utah - The competition promises to be full of action as the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix returns for its 13th season as America’s top snowboarding competition tour. The Grand Prix will feature new stops at Copper Mountain in Colorado’s Summit County, Boreal Mountain Resort in the North Lake Tahoe region near Truckee, CA and a return to Vermont’s Killington for the final stop of the tour.

“I am excited about the resorts that we are partnering with for the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix because not only are they all great destinations in great locations, but they are creating new ways for snowboarders to ride resorts,” said Grand Prix Tour Director Eric Webster. “The line-up of Copper, Boreal and Killington seems like the perfect mix of progression and history which is fitting as the Grand Prix enters its 13th season.”

NBC and Versus will be on hand to broadcast the competition. (Schedule details will be released closer to competition.)

Copper Mountain Kicks the Tour Off

The Grand Prix kicks off Dec. 12-13 at Copper Mountain, one of the best snowboarding resorts in America. No stranger to the Grand Prix tour after hosting it in 1998 and 1999, Copper, which is known for encouraging innovation in snowboarding with its terrain, has signed on to host the tour for three years. The event, which will take place just 75 miles outside of the Denver area, will open with the traditional men’s and women’s halfpipe competition and will include an exciting nighttime exhibition event with the Paul Mitchell Progression Session.

“I am really looking forward to the Grand Prix being at my home mountain,” said Clair Bidez (Minturn, CO), who was on the podium in two of the Grand Prix stops last season. “I know that they’re going to do a really good job with it and I can’t wait to be there with my friends and family watching.”

This season, Copper launches Woodward at Copper. The 19,000 sq ft indoor facility and on-hill components are a first of the kind, using progressive learning techniques already at play in skateboarding and BMX and applying them directly to skiing and riding. Athletes will have an opportunity to progress their skills in a safer, more controlled environment. Woodward at Copper will offer Winter Experience this season and Summer Camps in 2009. (More info www.woodwardatcopper.com).

California’s Boreal Joins the Tour

The tour migrates further west to Boreal, which is right off of I-80 between Reno and Sacramento, Jan. 29 - Feb. 1. Riders will boost their best tricks in the Boreal Superpipe, a 22-foot-pipe which will have athletes going bigger while providing them with a chance to show off their best runs in an Olympic sized halfpipe as the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver hover on the horizon.

Also adding to the excitement in the resort located atop Donner’s Summit is the addition of the Visa Snowboardcross Championship series to the competition lineup. The Tahoe area is busting at the seams with top U.S. Snowboarding SBX athletes, including reigning X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, CA), Jeep King of the Mountain champion Shaun Palmer (South Lake Tahoe, CA) and Olympian Jayson Hale (Sierraville, CA). The competition will have riders vying for the right to claim the title in a town full of local talent.

“I’m stoked to compete in my hometown. It will be an opportunity to have a lot of friends come and see what I do when I’m gone for half the year,” Holland said. “It will be a unique experience having them at the race and cheering for me. It’s a little added pressure, but I thrive on pressure.”

Killington Awards the Grand Prix Champions

The Grand Prix returns to Killington, right in the heart of New England, for the second year in a row on the final stop of the tour March 14-15. The Killington competition will also include a 22-foot halfpipe and the overall Grand Prix champions will be crowned. Last year snowboarding phenom Louie Vito (Columbus, OH) took top billing with two wins on the tour and Olympic champion Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) proved her medal winning her fourth Grand Prix title. The weekend snowboard celebration also will feature the final Paul Mitchell Progression Session of the tour.

“Killington has always been a leader and innovator in creating ways to make snowboarding at resorts better, especially this year with the resort building a new Burton Stash trail, and combined with a dedicated staff, creative terrain and events like Spring Loaded that are legend in the sport,” Webster said.

With a field of about 100 invited halfpipe athletes, the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix looks to make waves as the 13th season brings the best snowboarding competitors to towns across the U.S.

2009 U.S. SNOWBOARDING GRAND PRIX SCHEDULE:

Dec. 12-13, 2008, Copper Mountain
Friday, Dec.12 - Men’s Halfpipe Qualifiers
Saturday, Dec. 13 - Women’s Halfpipe Qualifiers, Halfpipe Finals and Paul Mitchell Progression Session (night exhibition event)

Jan. 29 - Feb. 1, 2009, Boreal Mountain Resort
Friday, Jan. 30 - Halfpipe Qualifiers
Saturday, Jan. 31 - Halfpipe Finals
Sunday, Feb. 1 - SBX Qualifiers and Finals

March 14-15, 2009, Killington Resort
Friday, March 13 - Halfpipe Qualifiers
Saturday, March 14 - Paul Mitchell Progression Session Qualifiers and Halfpipe Finals
Sunday, March 15 - Paul Mitchell Progression Session Finals

Leading ski website offers more ways of finding accommodation for independent travellers.

In response to this, the leading ski website chaletsdirect.com has grouped together a variety of services to form a new interactive area for people looking for ski and snowboard breaks. Called simply Chalets Direct Interactive, the new section provides holidaymakers with more tools to find their ski accommodation, in addition to traditional searching and browsing. Visitors can also use the interactive area to find and research holidays.

Chalets Direct Interactive includes message boards, resort reviews, a ski blog and The Solutions Room, where users can post up their holiday requirements and wait for offers to come back to them. The site also provides a Promotions area where visitors can view promotions and special offers for specific dates or resorts. The aim is to give independent skiers and snowboarders a better choice when looking for their winter holiday and to provide more ways of getting results.

Some key features of the interactive area include the Solutions Room, a unique bulletin board where people looking for holiday accommodation can say what they\’re looking for. Chalets Direct members can then reply to them to either match their requirements or propose alternatives. Launched in 1999, the Solutions Room has proved a useful tool for both holidaymakers and advertisers. A post made in the morning will usually have attracted several replies within a few hours, by the evening there will often be more than 20 proposals for the enquirer to choose from. Further development of the Solutions Room is currently taking place and enhanced features will be introduced later this autumn.

The Resort News and Reviews area means visitors can see what others are saying about resorts. This section is also an area to get news “as it happens” – with current bulletins about weather and snow conditions or upcoming events.

The Ski Blog, launched this summer, is a general discussion area focusing on ski industry events and news, with useful advice and hints for booking holidays in the mountains. The What Makes a great…Beginners Week post for example, gives helpful hints for first time skiers and snowboarders.

Chalets Direct Interactive also has a jobs board and Q & A area for people wanting to do a ski season or a long term let.

The interactive features can be found by clicking on the home page of www.chaletsdirect.com

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines will introduce a smoke-free indoor environment on all five of its vessels beginning early in 2009. Smoking will be banned in all indoor areas, and permitted only on cabin balconies and specially designated areas of deck space.

This new ruling will come into effect initially on three vessels. Boudicca, Black Prince and Braemar will become smoke-free from their first sailings in 2009 (Jan. 1, Jan. 5 and Jan. 8, respectively). Black Watch and Balmoral will follow suit after completion of their 2009 World Cruises (April 13 and May 29, respectively).

At present, indoor smoking on Olsen vessels is restricted to designated areas of certain lounges on each of the five ships.

“A recent very extensive survey among our current and past passengers has proved to us without a doubt that this course of action is what most people want and, frankly, expect.

Even those passengers who are committed smokers understand the situation and accept that smoking onboard will be restricted to balconies and specified deck areas,” said Mike Rodwell, managing director of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

“While we may have a few negative comments initially, I am confident that many new customers who are non-smokers will be encouraged to cruise with us in the future.” Braemar will be based in Miami for the winter 2008-09 season and Boudicca will be based in Barbados.

For more information, call Olsen’s GSA, Borton Overseas, at 800-843-0602, ext. 6, or visit www.fredolsencruises.com

Lufthansa passengers can now use mobile boarding passes on all flights from Germany to any destination in Europe.

Following the successful pilot scheme conducted in the spring and the across-the-board introduction of mobile boarding passes on all domestic German routes in the summer, this innovative service has gained widespread acceptance among travelers. As the last count, more than 7,000 passengers a week were using electronic boarding passes.

The service has now been extended to about 1,000 European flights a day from Germany. The mobile boarding pass is sent to passengers via email or SMS to an Internet-enabled cell phone.

In addition to the relevant flight data such as the passenger’s name, flight number and departure time, the boarding pass contains a barcode which permits passengers to pass through the security checkpoints and then proceed straight to their departure gate.

There, the barcode is read by a scanner, enabling the passenger to board the aircraft without a printed paper document. Lufthansa passengers can request an electronic boarding pass via the mobile portal by using an Internet-enabled mobile device or they can check in online via the Internet. All they need in order to identify themselves at check-in with their mobile device is their booking code combined with the name of the traveler. Alternatively, passengers can collect a printed boarding pass at a check-in terminal or at a ticket counter if they cannot display their electronic boarding pass on their mobile because, for example, the phone needs charging.

Leading worldwide serviced apartment company SACO has launched the UK’s first specialist travel agency for booking serviced accommodation.

Based in Lambs Conduit Street in Holborn, London, the agency is dedicated to providing information and advice on SACO’s network of 12,000 serviced apartments across 35 countries to help customers find the accommodation which best matches their needs.

SACO is continuously expanding its worldwide network and this year it is focusing on growth in London. In the last four months, the company has launched three new locations in Canary Wharf, Covent Garden and most recently Holborn, which is situated above the new travel agency.

The company’s website already provides a quick and effective way for customers to book accommodation. This new service – the first of its kind in the UK – provides an alternative booking method for customers wishing to discuss their requirements face-to-face.

The Agency’s staff have an in-depth knowledge of SACO’s worldwide network meaning that each trip is planned and tailored according to customers’ specific requirements.

Jo Redman, SACO’s sales and marketing director, said: “We are delighted to be in a position to extend our services by providing a place where people can drop in for advice on apartments and locations that will best meet their individual needs.

“The agency helps us to ensure that booking an apartment is made as convenient as possible for both leisure and business travellers alike. It provides them with a choice of how to book whether it be face-to-face, over the phone or online.

“It is already attracting a lot of interest from both business and leisure customers, including local businesses that are realising the benefits of serviced apartments as an alternative to hotels as well as a large amount of passing trade.”

Serviced apartments offer privacy, flexibility and space together with high standards of design and comfort to create a home from home. Added benefits at many locations include a maid service, internet access points and concierge/reception.