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.

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

ResortQuest Partners with Interhome

Effective July 31, 2008, ResortQuest and Interhome will enter into a partnership to create the largest vacation rental management network in the world.

ResortQuest and Interhome will continue to operate independently under their respective brand names, providing the ultimate in vacation rental product, service, quality and selection to customers and homeowners alike.

New initiatives and expansion have been a focus of ResortQuest over the past twelve months. In December 2007, they launched the ResortQuest Partner Program. This program allows property management companies to partner with ResortQuest and benefit from its strong online presence and web marketing. Partners have the advantage of quality link building, better search rankings, shared best practices, and enhanced homeowner perks. The new partnership with Interhome greatly enhances this competitive advantage.

For more information, visit www.ResortQuest.com

Uniworld Cruises Early-Booking Incentives

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection is offering travelers who pre-plan their cruises additional savings.

With Pay-In-Full and early-booking discount programs, travelers reduce their costs by booking and paying for all or a portion of their Europe cruises in advance. Couples who book a 2009 Uniworld Europe river cruise and pay in full before Sept. 30 can save up to $1,000 per person on select itineraries in Europe. By paying before this date, travelers are protected from any currency fluctuation. Those who place a deposit on a 2009 river cruise can save up $300 per person by booking and depositing by Nov. 30.

For more information, call 800-733-7820 or visit www.uniworld.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

Cutting The Cost Of Motoring

Rental vs Ownership Expert Comment From David Alexander, Operations Director, Europcar UK Group.

Planning a feature on how to cut motoring costs? David Alexander, Operations Director for Europcar UK Group can help.

With the rise in fuel, VED, insurance and finance costs combined with increased household expenses and the credit crunch, more and more consumers are looking for alternatives to car ownership. Whether it’s choosing to downscale the number of cars in the household, opting for a smaller more fuel efficient vehicle or giving up car ownership completely,

David Alexander, Operations Director for Europcar, the UK’s leading vehicle rental organisation can comment on the solution vehicle rental offers to those looking for ways to cut motoring costs.

David Alexander has sound experience of speaking to the media and can comment on the following issues:

• The cost and time savings that can be made through rental vs ownership - no mot, tax, insurance or maintenance to worry about, no need to refuel with fuel inclusive rates and no need to wash the car at the weekend!

• How rental can reduce fuel consumption

• The benefits of vehicle rental vs car clubs

• The rise of the weekend renter

• Fuel frugal driving

Europcar can also provide case studies of customers who have chosen to give up their household car in favour of rental.

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

New Wizzair Flights To Ukraine

Wizz Air Ukraine, the first low cost airline in Ukraine, announced that it will start operating an initial network of seven Ukrainian domestic routes from its operating base at Kiev Boryspil Airport on 11 July 2008. Wizz Air Ukraine will provide low fare air travel service from Kiev Boryspil Airport to Lviv, Odessa, Simferopol, Kharkov and Zaporozhye.

Of particular interest to UK travellers are the flights from Kiev to Simferopol, gateway to the Crimea resort. Let Regent Holidays book these flights for you in conjunction with a special offer staying at the newly opened Radisson SAS Resort Alushta.

Regent Holidays (0845 277 3317 www.regent-holidays.co.uk)  offers 7 nights B&B staying at Radisson SAS Resort Alushta from £495 per person including return Wizz Air flights (Kiev-Simferopol-Kiev) and private return transfers. Full details at this link.

Valid for departures in August and September.

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.