Jetsettersblog

The Hotel Lumen Paris Louvre in Paris and the Megaro Hotel in London have both joined Luxe Worldwide Hotels.

The Hotel Lumen Paris Louvre is near the Louvre, the Place Vendôme, and the Opera House.

Located on the corner of Rue Saint Honoré, a Paris shopping boulevard, the hotel’s 37 rooms and suites feature furniture custom-designed for the hotel.

They are equipped with complimentary high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi, mini-bar and marble or Bisazza mosaic bathrooms.

London’s Megaro Hotel is located near St. Pancras station.

With more underground connections than any other London station, St. Pancras is redefining the railway for the 21st century with top quality retail stores, dining, and Europe’s longest champagne bar.

The hotel’s 49 accommodations feature bathrooms encased in glass and wood.

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, the Megaro Hotel offers a variety of room types to suit the needs of its guests.

For more information, call 866-LUXE-411 or visit www.luxehotels.com

Discover France
CONTACT: Loren Siekman
TEL: 480-905-1235
E-MAIL: loren@discoverfrance.com
WEB: www.discoverfrance.com

Discover France, the leading specialist in cycling and hiking travel services throughout France, features creative self-guided itineraries that offer the best of each region at the greatest possible value to the traveler.

Self-guided travel is a growing trend due to the flexibility it presents and the extraordinary price that accompanies it. Offering support and independence, guests don’t have to put forth much effort in order to generate a relaxing and memorable vacation. Here are 10 good reasons to choose a self-guided tour of France this year:

1. Freedom to choose your travel dates: You can make your vacation time work for you with self-guided travel. Don’t work around someone else’s schedule.

2. Travel with only your favorite people: Want to visit France but don’t want to get stuck on a group tour with 25 total strangers? Self-guided tours let you take your France dream trip with your spouse, friends, family, and favorite people.

3. It’s almost half the price of group and guided tours: It’s an incredible value because you pick and choose the activities and accommodation from a menu of options. No more paying for stuff that you don’t want or need.

4. Luggage is always transferred for you: Don’t worry about constantly struggling with a heavy suitcase or losing your luggage.

5. No minimum number of participants: Want to travel by yourself or have a romantic getaway with your spouse? No problem. Unlike other tour companies that can only run a tour if they have enough people, self-guided gives you a guaranteed departure.

6. A customized vacation: Do you want extra nights or hotel upgrades? Also not a problem.

7. Travel your own pace: Start when you want, finish when you want, and eat when you want. On a self-guided France tour, you won’t have to rush through France at breakneck speed.

8. Emergency assistance is offered: You are never alone in a foreign country as orientations and on call support are offered.

9. Giving you the ultimate control: Discover France includes Garmin GPS units, so following the routes they have expertly designed from years of experience, couldn’t be easier with maps, cue sheets, and GPS units.

10.Cultural immersion: Without a tour guide to hide behind or only hitting the most-touristy highlights of France that most group tours feature, a self-guided France tour gives you the chance to interact with locals and absorb the culture in a personal way.

Discover France’s website features more than 30 different self guided tour itineraries that last anywhere from four to fourteen days.

For more information or to see a complete listing of itineraries, please visit the website www.discoverfrance.com

LUNEL, France —The well known name of Dordogne is equivalent to famous cave paintings, remarkable chateaux, delicious food, rolling green countryside, and historic villages.

On this journey by Discover France, cycling enthusiasts can relish soaring along the hilly and wooded areas that offer a more challenging time in the saddle than the typical cycling vacation in France.

To continue the heart pumping excitement, enjoy hiking, kayaking, a treasure hunt and much more.

Travelers will see the force of water and the large rivers that have carved out the limestone plateau and provided canvases for all the now famous grottos that prehistoric man created.

Visit these awe inspiring grottos, explore the historic aspects of important towns such as Bergerac, Sarlat, La Roque Gageac, Beynac, and Les Eyzies.

Guests see stunning castles, and stay in charming and welcoming country inns and chateaux and they even have the opportunity to stay overnight next to the Prehistory Museum and the Font de Gaume—-one of the most elaborate grottos ever discovered.

In Sarlat, guests stay in the center of town within a few paces of the old town where they can venture through a maze of walking streets that are filled with artisans, cafés, shops, and delicacies of the region.

Wine tasting in Bergerac of the local wines is also possible and local experts direct guests to personally recommended hot spots.

www.discoverfrance.com

Normandy, the birthplace of the Impressionist movement, will host one of France’s major cultural events this summer — the Normandy Impressionist Festival.

From May through September, towns across both Upper and Lower Normandy will participate with exhibits, concerts, and celebrations not only of painting, but of all the artistic disciplines (music, dance, literature) influenced by Impressionism.

Heading up the festival will be a ground-breaking exhibition at the Rouen Fine Arts Museum, “A City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, Gauguin in Rouen.” The exhibit will explore this Rouen’s influence on the Impressionist movement through some 100 paintings taken from public and private collections from around the world.

Many are masterpieces which have never been exhibited in public (June 4 to Sept. 26).

Two significant exhibitions will take place at the André Malraux Museum in Le Havre, home to the second-largest collection of Impressionist works in France (after the Musée d’Orsay). The first, “Unpublished Degas: Degas from the Senn Donation,” will show a collection of mostly unpublished drawings and pastels by Degas (June 12 to Sept. 19).

The second, “Signac: Ports of France,” contains a series of watercolors Signac did of 100 French ports.

Other major cultural sites in Normandy will illustrate the diversity of the Impressionist theme via its origins, its major sites, or its practices — the works of Boudin and Jongkind will be on display in Cherbourg; Renoir and Pissarro will be exhibited at the Castle-Museum in Dieppe; Corot’s works will be shown at the Saint-Lo Fine Arts Museum; Impressionist prints will be on display the Caen Fine Arts Museum; Riesner’s paintings will be shown at the Lisieux Museum; and various depictions of the Seine will be exhibited at the Impressionist Museum in Giverny.

Initiated by former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and in partnership with numerous government authorities (including the Regional Governments of Upper and Lower Normandy, the counties of Seine-Maritime and Eure, and the cities of Rouen and Caen), this exciting festival is overseen by Pierre Bergé, the former president of the Paris National Opéra and art collector, and lifetime partner of Yves Saint-Laurent. This multidisciplinary celebration is on an unprecedented scale for France.

For more information, visit www.franceguide.com

Auto Europe is offering several ways to save money on European car rentals this spring.

They include a free guaranteed one-car class upgrade, free GPS rentals and savings up to 15 percent off prestige car services.

Book early and receive a free one-car class upgrade in Italy, Germany, Ireland and Israel.

For example, reserve a compact class and receive a complimentary upgrade to an intermediate class. Additional upgrade categories are available.

In addition, for reservations through March 31, travelers will receive a free GPS rental with a minimum five-day rental of compact class or larger in select European countries.

The portable GPS units are the latest Garmin Nuvi 270s. The GPS units come with a dash mount but can be removed and taken into a villa or hotel room to plan the next day’s trip or to find a particular restaurant or museum. They also come loaded with mapping for all of Western Europe and most of Eastern Europe.

For the upscale traveler, Auto Europe is offering 15 percent off any weekly Mercedes Benz or Luxury car rental.

Upgrade offer varies based upon rental country.

GPS rental is available only for U.S. citizens residing in the United States and is valid for reservations paid for by March 31, for travel through May 31, 2010, and excludes delivery charges of $40 per rental..

According to trivago Hotel Price Index, from February to March 2010, the average price of hotels in Europe stayed constant at 93 pounds. Compared to March 2009’s average of 100 pounds a night, this represents a 7 percent drop.

Prices in 34 of the top 50 European cities also decreased in comparison to last year.

In contrast, prices in London have increased by 6 percent.

The average price for a standard double room in Europe has stayed consistent at 93 pounds a night — the same rate as last month, and 7 percent lower than in March 2009.

In the United Kingdom, hotel rates remained constant at 100 pounds in March 2010, compared to 99 pounds in the previous month. London is currently the most expensive city in the United Kingdom with an average cost of 126 pounds a night.

This puts the capital as the fourth most expensive city in the tHPI behind Milan (139 pounds), Oslo (142 pounds) and Geneva (177 pounds).

The overnight prices in many European tourist capitals have increased over the past month.

A hotel room in Rome (103 pounds) costs 13 percent more than in February; in Vienna (105 pounds), the price has gone up by 19 percent. Similar increases have also occurred in Amsterdam (106 pounds), Athens (84 pounds) and Barcelona (93 pounds), with all three cities seeing increases of 9 percent from February to March.

The opposite is true in Denmark and Sweden, though prices in both countries are still far higher than the European average. Hotel rooms in Copenhagen (118 pounds) and Stockholm (122 pounds) have dropped by 6 percent since February.

Major cities across the United Kingdom experienced only minor fluctuations in accommodation prices over the past month.

The average nightly cost increased 2 percent in London (126 pounds) and rose 1 percent in Birmingham (88 pounds), York (104 pounds) and Glasgow (79 pounds). No change was recorded in Nottingham (73 pounds), while costs in Manchester dropped 2 percent to 87 pounds. On the other hand, a higher-than-average increase of 6 percent was registered in Edinburgh (108 pounds), and stands in sharp contrast to March 2009, when the average stay cost only 94 pounds. In Dublin, Ireland, the average overnight price climbed steeply to 103 pounds — 18 percent higher than in February — in anticipation of the RBS Six Nations Championship and several upcoming cultural events and festivals.

For more information, visit www.trivago.co.uk

The Danube Tourist Commission’s new comprehensive guide to cruises on the river is now available in English by contacting donau@austria.info . This year’s guide to Danube excursion ships is scheduled to appear at the end of March.

For more information, visit www.danube-river.org  or www.danubesalesmanual.com

To help you plan an enjoyable rural getaway, either for business or pleasure, the 2010 International Logis Guide (3 000 hotel-restaurants in France and Europe) is available free of charge from January 2010 in a brand-new format.

Still as comfortable and welcoming as ever, Logis hotels allow their guests to travel with peace of mind and help them make the most of their leisure time by offering the best possible service: time to take your time.

A guide which is both practical and easy to browse…

2010 International Guide: choose from a selection of 3 000 Logis where you’re guaranteed a straight-forward, personalised and friendly welcome

The 3 000 hotel-restaurants listed in the guide provide their guests with an opportunity to recharge their batteries, take time to enjoy themselves, to relax and explore. The guide includes information on hotels across Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.

=> New for 2010:

o Detailed information on each Logis.
o A double-page spread entitled “Envies” at the beginning of the guide, highlighting the different themes on offer.

Pictograms of the different themes make it easy to find the hotel which best suits the particular requirements of guests.

These themes can also be viewed on the logishotels.com website.

With 850 000 copies published, the 2010 International Logis Guide is available free of charge.

=> About Logis hotels

Founded in 1949 in the Auvergne region, the International Logis Federation, which has just celebrated its 60th birthday, is the leading independent hotel chain in Europe with 3 000 hotels in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.

Although each Logis hotel is different, they all share the same values and are appreciated by guests looking for somewhere where they can relax, enjoy themselves and explore the surrounding region.

Logis hotels bring with them a guarantee of quality and comfort which is graded according to a classification system which awards 1-3 “fireplaces”, in addition to a new category known as Logis d’Exception for hotels, a new 1-3 “pot” classification system for restaurants, plus a Table Distinguée category.

Logis hotels have four basic priorities:

• A warm, friendly, informal and personalised welcome which encourages customer loyalty.
• Accommodation which combines comfort, modern facilities and traditional surroundings.
• Inspired regional cuisine which focuses on natural ingredients and local produce, enhanced by the chef’s skill and expertise.
• Personalised advice on local sights and activities to make your stay a memorable one.

For further information, log onto www.logishotels.com

Star Clippers (www.starclippers.co.uk ), which offers holidays on three of the world’s tallest and most beautiful clipper ships, has added 40 maiden calls to its 2010 and 2011 sailing itineraries, including some of the world’s most remote islands and lesser known ports and islands in Europe and South America.

The new sailing itineraries are on board the four masted Star Clipper, its twin ship Star Flyer and on Royal Clipper, the tallest full sail ship in the world.

New Star Clippers destinations include the Marquesas Islands in the open Pacific, the furthest islands from any land mass in the world, and lesser known European ports, such as Sanary-sur-Mer in Provence, France, the Greek Cyclades islands of Milos and Tinos, and new Caribbean and South American destinations including three of the British Virgin Islands, the Pearl islands in the Gulf of Panama and the Coco Islands off Costa Rica.

New exotic islands:-

In spring 2010, Star Flyer makes the 34-night voyage from Papeete in Tahiti to the Mediterranean, calling at Hiva Oa and Nuku Hiva, two of the twelve volcanic islands that make up the Marquesas Islands, the furthest islands from any land mass in the world, 853 miles off the north east coast of Tahiti.

Continuing through the Panama Canal during the same voyage, Star Flyer makes calls at the Cocos Islands, off the coast of Costa Rica, and the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama.

New European ports

From May 2010 new seven-night, western Mediterranean itineraries on board Star Flyer from Monte Carlo include yachting favourites St. Tropez, Portofino and Portoferraio (Elba), as well as new ports such as Sanary-sur-Mer, France, and Lerici, Italy.

In the eastern Mediterranean, new itineraries through Greek and Turkish waters in July and August will include off-the-beaten-track sailing destinations along the Turkish coast such as Olympus, Antalya, Kemer, Kekova, Fethiye, Gocek and Marmaris, while in Greece the ship calls at Kastellorizon, Simi, Amorgos and Elafonisos for the first time.

Royal Clipper, the company’s flagship, will sail a 12-night cruise from Malaga to Civitavecchia (for Rome) in April 2010 introducing the glamorous yacht marina of Puerto Banus.

After a summer sailing round trip from Civitavecchia or between Civitavecchia and Venice, the ship repositions to the Caribbean via a maiden call at Essaouira, Morocco.

New Costa Rica itineraries

From November 2010 the four-masted Star Flyer will operate two seven-day, round-trip itineraries from Puerto Caldera on the west coast of Costa Rica.

The first itinerary calls at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua; and Cuajiniquil, Playas del Coco/Flamingo, Puerto Carrillo and Islas Torguas, Costa Roca.

The second itinerary calls at Isla Coiba, Panama; and Golfito, Isla del Cano/Drake’s Bay, Quepos and Islas Tortugas, Costa Rica.

Each itinerary includes a day at sea to enjoy the experience of sailing on board a true tall ship.

BVI in 2011

For the first time Star Clippers has added new sailing for guests to cruise the British Virgin Islands with port calls that include Norman Island, reputedly the inspiration for `Treasure Island’, the yachting centre of Tortola, the `barefoot island’ Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda, the third largest island in the BVI.

The new itineraries represent a total of 40 new destinations and maiden ports, among the most exciting and least featured sailing destinations for any commercial cruising operation, largely due to the ships’ relatively small size.

Commenting on the new itineraries, passionate yachtsman Mikael Krafft, owner and president of Star Clippers, said

“We wanted to freshen up our itineraries so that both our loyal past guests and new Star Clippers cruisers would have exciting reasons to select a Star Clippers sailing adventure in 2010.

I’m introducing our guests to more of my favourite ports; places I have been fortunate enough to visit while sailing with my family, and these maiden calls truly are spectacular.”

French holiday parc specialist Siblu Holidays (www.siblu.com , 0871 911 7777) has launched its own on-parc EuroVoucher currency so families can cast aside worries about exchange rates and holiday costs and fix the value of their holiday spending money at 1.25€ to £1.

EuroVoucher is commission and charge free so families know that every penny they change is going towards their holiday money, rather than to the administration costs of a typical exchange service.

If holidaymakers still have EuroVouchers in their wallet at the end of their break, Siblu will swap back their pounds for no cost and at the same rate of 1.25€ to £1, so customers get their hard earned cash returned in full.

Siblu’s exchange rate smashes the tariffs of traditional online and offline services, which are currently trading at around 1.07€ to £1. EuroVouchers are available in 5€ denominations and can be bought with holidays booked through Siblu in January 2010.

EuroVoucher’s fixed exchange rate guarantees a family changing £200 will receive 250€ of vouchers, compared to around 216€ from the Post Office, Thomas Cook or Travelex and just 205€ for exchanges completed at the airport*.

EuroVouchers can be used in the restaurants, bars, shops and with activities at 11 Siblu parcs across France, in destinations from Normandy to the Cote d’Azur.

Siblu holiday parcs offer the freedom of the great French outdoors within a safe and friendly environment. They mix the thrills and frills of pools and waterslides, kid’s clubs and sports, with a peaceful haven of countryside, croissants and petanque.

To find out more visit www.siblu.com/vouchers  or call 0871 911 7777.

Siblu has owned holiday parcs in France for more than 30 years in a dazzling choice of locations including Brittany, the Vendée, Charente Maritime and Aquitaine.

*Data taken from postoffice.co.uk, travelex.com , thomascook.com  and www.moneycorp.com