Jetsettersblog

Windstar to sail from Venice

Luxury yacht cruise operator Windstar is to run fly-cruises from Venice next summer as part of deployment plans for 2009-2010.

Return sailings from the Italian city will be run by each of the company’s three vessels, 312-passenger Wind Surf and 148-passenger Wind Star and Wind Spirit.

The voyages will take in destinations in Croatia such as Rovinj, Split and Dubrovnik.

New ports to feature in the line’s new Voyage Planner include L’lle Rousse in France and Ischia in Italy.

Mediterranean departures next summer will run from Barcelona, Lisbon, Nice and Rome (Civitavecchia) in addition to Venice. Itineraries of between six and eight nights have been scheduled.

Greek island fly-cruises on Wind Star lead-in at £2,279 per person for seven nights between Athens and Istanbul departing the UK on July 9, 2009.

Wind Surf will operate seven-night Caribbean sailings from Barbados and Wind Spirit from St Thomas this winter. Wind Star winter itineraries cover the Panama Canal, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

The company has also re-established its Signature Collection Series featuring guest lecturers on selected cruises next year covering subjects such as wine, art, food and sports.

Hotel Savoy in Florence Impressionist Package

Rocco Forte’s Hotel Savoy in Florence has launched a new package that includes tickets to “Impressionism:

Painting the Light,” a new exhibition taking place at Palazzo Strozzi from July 11 to Sept. 28. Upon arrival, guests will also receive the exhibition catalogue. Painting Light will examine some of the most famous canvases of the last century, including Monets, Van Goghs, and Renoirs, looking for clues as to where the paintings were made and under what conditions.

Visitors will be able to look at these works through scientific eyes with the assistance of high-powered microscopes, infra-red and ultra-violet light to see what the traces left by brushes, pencils and spatulas can tell us.

The Hotel Savoy is a five-minute walk from Palazzo Strozzi and is steps away from the city’s other key attractions, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Duomo. The package is priced from 394 euros (approx £313) per room per night based on two sharing, and including breakfast, entrance into the exhibition and the catalogue.

Call 800-988-4040 or visit www.roccofortecollection.com

Croatia Hosts Summer Fests

Croatia is holding several festivals this summer. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival ( www.dubrovnik-festival.hr)  to Aug. 25, uses open-air stages to host about 80 plays, ballets, operas and musical performances, literary events, exhibitions, poetry recitals and more.

The Kastav Cultural Summer (www.kkl.hr) runs through Aug. 29 in Kastav, a small town close to the city of Rijeka on northern Adriatic coast. During summer months, Kastav becomes a center where many cultural events take place. Concerts, theater and dance performances and much more is happening in this small inland town that’s becoming more popular as a tourist destination in the past few years.

The Split Summer Festival (www.splitsko-ljeto.hr), to Aug. 14, features opera, theater, dance and music. It takes place on locations in and around the city, including the Diocletian’s Palace.

Call the Croatian National Tourist Office at 800-829-4416 or visit www.croatia.hr

Monte Carlo Fireworks Competition

Monte-Carlo International Musical Fireworks will run on July 25 and Aug. 11 and 22. This free event attracts thousands from the area to view some of the most beautiful and original fireworks around.

The competition has been held since 1966 and brings pyrotechnic specialists from around the world to show off their talent. Fireworks begin around 9:30 pm, or when it is dark.

There is good viewing from several locations: around the port sitting at a café, from the palace area or along the ramparts of Fort Antoine, and just off the Casino Terrace. The competition continues through the month of August and the winner returns Nov. 18 to create the fireworks display on the evening before the National Holiday.

Visit www.visitmonaco.com

Tripwolf Free Guides to Europe

Tripwolf.com, a social travel guide that specializes in Europe but also offers content about other pats of the world, is targeting the U.S. market. It combines professional editorial content with user-generated content from travelers worldwide. Tripwolf is backed by MairDumont, Europe’s largest publisher of travel guides, including Baedeker, Dumont and Marco Polo. Through collaboration with tripwolf, MairDumont has put all of its content - covering more than 200,000 destinations and points of interest - online for free.

For more information, visit www.tripwolf.com

Exotic Mediterranean with Ya’lla Tours

Ya’lla Tours USA, Inc., is a Portland base tour company operated by President and Owner Ronen Paldi who took his travel industry expertise and moved from Israel to Melbourne Australia where he initially started the company in 1990.

Ya’lla Tours USA, Inc., is a Portland base tour company operated by President and Owner Ronen Paldi who took his travel industry expertise and moved from Israel to Melbourne Australia where he initially started the company in 1990. He then moved to Portland, OR in 1993 and established Ya’lla Tours USA.

Ya’lla Tours offers travel services to six countries of the exotic Mediterranean including Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Jordan, and Greece. The company prides their services on welcoming every traveler to their home, the exotic Mediterranean, where each one of their visitors is welcome and treated as their personal guest and they do not spare any effort or expense when it comes to providing for the experience of a life-time. In 2002 they also added Cuba as a new destination as they were approved by the US Treasury as one of the few travel entities to offer legal travel to Cuba.

Ronen Paldi, who started out his business in Israel as a licensed tour guide offering tours to more than 22,000 English and Spanish speaking Pilgrims and tourists explains what attracted him to the travel business and stated, “I always had a great passion for travel and to share my knowledge and experience of it, as well as my ability to “tell a story”. What I did as a tour guide, and my current position as the owner of Ya’lla Tours, is a real privilege. I am able to be a witness to a life changing experience for people, and I’m very proud to be able to provide that experience”.

The company believes in quality travel and hopes to make a difference in the market by competing in quality and not in price and being innovative in creating new ideas and new destinations like Cuba (Ya’lla is the ONLY tour company in the USA that has a license from the US Treasury to sell legal travel to Cuba). Saying “yes” is also a part of the experience because while the tours are not the cheapest, the company prize themselves on maintaining the highest standard of service and quality which reflects in their prices.

Ya’lla Tours is also looking forward to accomplishing some of their corporate goals including enhancing their programs and getting more segments of the population expose to their tours.

To learn more about Ya’lla Tours USA including current specials, please visit their website at;
http://www.yallatours.com

Key Tours Upgrades Shore Excursion Experience

Key Tours is offering private shore excursions and pre- and post-cruise packages.

Keys Tours private shore excursions include a wide variety of options in many ports starting at $39 per person for Izmir City Tours for a group of four to nine people. Listed below are some of the destinations and shore excursion sites: Italy, including Civitavecchia, Naples, (Pompeii), Livorno, Genoa, Venice, Palermo, Catania, Tuscany;

Turkey, including Istanbul, Kusadaci, Izmir, Ephesus; Greece, including Piraeus, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete and Delphi; Spain, including Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga; Croatia, including Dubrovnik, Split; Portugal, including Lisbon; France, including Nice, Monaco, Marseille; Morocco, including Casabanca.

Many other ports with shore excursions are available on request. All shore excursions are customized for the agent’s clients and including groups and families. To kick off the program Key Tours is offering a free half-day shore excursion for groups of 10 or more who book a full day Istanbul shore excursion. Key Tours Pre- and Post-Cruise packages offer you a Taste of… a city from $269 per person Itineraries are tailored to the clients needs and can include every detail and personal choices of sightseeing and activities.

Sample Port Packages include: Taste of Barcelona from $559; Taste of Rome from $569; Taste of Venice from $789; Taste of Athens from $479; and Taste of Istanbul from $269.

Rates are per person based on double occupancy. All packages include: three nights Superior Tourist/Traditonal hotel accommodation; Hotel taxes and service fees; breakfast daily; private arrival and departure transfers; half-day sightseeing tour; highlight dinner at a hand picked local restaurant. Key Tours has been serving for 16 years serving travel agents and offers guaranteed departures, value added approach to custom vacations; custom, flexible itineraries; local experts in all destinations; bulk airfares in coach and business class and travel protection, all monies are held in escrow.

For more information and reservations, call 800-576-1784 or visit www.keytours.com

Blue Water Launches The Desktop Cruise

Now everyone can plan their cruise and explore cruise ports from a computer screen using a new online program from Blue Water Holidays.

The online cruise and boating specialist has created a webpage where anyone can go, select the cruise ports they wish to visit, then click to generate a Google Earth virtual cruise travelling between the ports. “Viewers can pause and zoom in to explore each port, then continue their virtual cruise” says Barry Peters, Blue Water Holidays Managing Director. “This allows everyone to see where the cruise port is in relation to nearby towns, and even to see where the nearest airport is in relation to the cruise terminals”.

Technically known as a ‘mash-up’, the Blue Water Desktop Cruise covers ports worldwide, and includes links to port reviews written by visitors and other sources. “We feel this is an extra aid to help people choose where to go for their cruise – destinations are now becoming the main factor in cruise choices” added Barry Peters.

Blue Water has added the Desktop Cruise to its mainstream cruise website at www.cruisesonline.co.uk . A modified version is also available on its Europe river cruise website at www.cruisingholidays.co.uk which shows a Google Earth view of the towns and cities visited on over 60 cruises on rivers such as the Rhine and Danube.

Web Links

Ocean Desktop Cruises:
http://www.cruisesonline.co.uk/desktop-cruise.asp

Europe River Desktop Cruises:
http://www.cruisingholidays.co.uk/river-cruise-search.asp

MSC Cruises Credits on 2009 Europe Sailings

MSC Cruises is offering shipboard credits to those who book 2009 Europe sailings by July 31. The amount of the shipboard credit will be determined by the type of stateroom booked. An interior stateroom booking will lead to a $25 shipboard credit per person for a maximum of $50 per stateroom.

Ocean-view staterooms include $50 shipboard credit per person for a maximum $100 per stateroom. Balcony staterooms net a $100 shipboard credit per person for a maximum $200 per stateroom).

Fares for the line’s 2009 Mediterranean and Northern Europe itineraries begin at $799 per person, double occupancy, for a seven-night cruise. Children under the age of 17 sail free on all sailings when sharing a stateroom with two full-fare-paying adults, and guests need only place a deposit of $100 per person.

The company’s new MSC Fantasia will debut in December, followed in June 2009 by sister ship MSC Splendida. They will offer an exclusive VIP area of 99 suites (up to 700 square feet), plus a bar, solarium, two Jacuzzis, a pool with sky dome, and butler service. After its December christening in Naples, MSC Fantasia will sail two eight-night roundtrips from Genoa: the Dec. 20 sailing calls at Rhodes, Alexandria, Messina and Naples, while the Dec. 28 itinerary visits Barcelona, Lisbon, Malaga and Civitavecchia. The ship will then sail 11-night Western Mediterranean and Canary Islands roundtrips from Genoa that call in Barcelona, Funchal, Tenerife, Arrecife, Malaga and Civitavecchia through March 1, when it will begin seven-night “Mediterranean Fantasy” roundtrips from Barcelona to Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, La Goulette, and Palma.

MSC Splendida will begin its inaugural season June 29, 2009, sailing “The Splendid Mediterranean,” roundtrip seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries from Barcelona through November.

MSC Poesia, which debuted in spring 2008, will spend the winter sailing alternating 11-night “Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt” itineraries with Western Mediterranean and Canary Islands itineraries roundtrip from Genoa. In April, it will begin a series of seven-night “Turkish Treasure and Croatian Coasts” Eastern Mediterranean itineraries from Venice.

The MSC Musica will operate seven-night “Greek Islands in the Sun” cruises from Venice April through October. MSC Sinfonia offers seven-night “Sparking Rivieras” Western Mediterranean itineraries from Livorno, from late April through October. MSC Opera will operate seven-night “Jewels of the Adriatic” roundtrips from Trieste in fall 2009.

MSC Orchestra will offer eight-night “Iberian Discovery” cruises from Barcelona in fall 2009, while MSC Lirica is set for seven-night “Mediterranean Marvels” roundtrip from Civitavecchia (Rome) in fall 2009.

MSC Cruises also will have three ships in Northern Europe in 2009. MSC Lirica will offer 11-night “Treasures of the Russian Czars,” “Fairytale Towns and Towering Fjords” and “Voyage to the Top of the World” itineraries from Dover May through August. MSC Opera will alternate 11-night “Czarist Russia Revealed” and “Land of the Midnight Sun” from Copenhagen May-June; alternating seven-night “Baltic Beauty and Russian Treasures” and “Route of the Vikings” from Copenhagen July-August. MSC Orchestra will alternate seven-night “Baltic Castles and Russian Palaces” and “Fascinating Fjordlands” from Copenhagen May-September.

MSC Cruises offers alternate departure ports, such as Bari, Valencia, Kiel and Amsterdam, on many itineraries. For more information, visit www.msccruisesusa.com.

Silversea Resident Artist on Prince Albert II

Silversea Expeditions kicked off its new Resident Artist and Photographer Program aboard Prince Albert II’s inaugural sailing from London to Tromso, featuring Sharon K. Schafer as its first artist-in-residence.

An award-winning designer, Schafer’s background also includes wildlife biologist, naturalist, photographer and writer. As a self-employed artist, she combines her love of nature and art as she sketches and photographs the polar expedition.

Camille Seaman has been selected as the resident photographer for the following series of expeditions, starting from Tromso on June 30 and concluding in New York on Aug. 25. Seaman is a photographer best known for her polar images. Her work has been exhibited and published in magazines internationally.

As hosts of the Resident Artist and Photographer Program, Schafer and Seaman will lead art and photography workshops and lectures aboard Prince Albert II and accompany guests ashore to share their perspectives and offer photography advice. Using a camera and hydrophone, they will record the underwater environment and share these images with guests during evening presentations.

The photographers will also photograph and videotape each expedition. Guests will receive a complimentary collection of these photos on a CD. A special DVD will be available for sale containing a digital slide show, interactive map and video footage of the voyage. All proceeds from the sale of the DVDs will be contributed to the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to support work in environmental conservation.