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Tags: Deal Or No Deal / St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
The Windjammer Landing's 20th Anniversary Deal Is Beyond Confusing
We've plied you with St. Lucia Hotels all this week, so now let's investigate a deal for holing up on the island at the Windjammer Landing in honor of their 20th Anniversary.
So the deal is, if you stay four or more nights at their property, and one of those nights happens to be the 20th of the month (valid through December 2010), that night will cost you only $20. In addition, they're offering a few other goodies:
· 20% discount on luxurious spa treatments
· 20th Birthday and 20th Anniversary candlelit dinner
· 20 hours of complimentary babysitting/nanny services
· 20% savings on a romantic sunset cruise
· 20 percent savings on food and beverage all-inclusive packages
· Sun Dollar Savings (resort credit) worth up to $200 per night per stay
Find out if it's a deal or no deal, after the jump.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / Sports Hotels / Exotic Hotels / → All Tags
Inside BodyHoliday LeSPORT In St. Lucia, Post-Amy Winehouse
We've spent a week teasing you with images of beaches and infinity pools on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, and so now let's round out the hotels with one that includes massages daily—BodyHoliday LeSPORT.
You may already know of this all-inclusive, adults-only resort from last winter's Amy Winehouse St. Lucia debacle, where she holed up on the island, crawled around on the floor, snatching guests' drinks, and generally wreaked havoc until Le SPORT gave her a talking to. We may have even been sleeping in the same bed as her, but shudder at the thought. LeSPORT is far too good for Le Winehouse.
Tags: St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / Exotic Hotels / → All Tags
Inside The Fond Doux Cocoa Plantation Hotel In St. Lucia
Have you been digging our recent tours of St. Lucia's Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts, but perhaps the prices or beachside locations aren't up your alley? Well, while we were on the island and jumping from active volcano to scuba diving, we came across Fond Doux Estate, a working cocoa plantation that also functions as a boutique hotel comprised of several individual villas scattered around the lush grounds.
It was a complete surprise to be walking through foliage just short of a jungle—with starfruit, cocoa pods, banana bunches and ginger lilies all around—and then to emerge into a clearing with the cheery yellow cottage, Angelina Villa, you see above. This house, over 200 years old, is one of the ten cottages available for your stay, but sadly it's the only one we saw since the grounds are so sprawling. Fond Doux is not on a beach, so families or couples who elect to stay here will get a decidely non-touristy look at St. Lucia. And for nightly rates beginning from only $100 and cocoa tea with breakfast, the deal is literally sweetened.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Inside Anse Chastanet In St. Lucia: Oh, To Be A Snowbird
Forget Disney World—when you wish upon a star, this is where you hope you are. Following our visit to the uber-luxe Jade Mountain resort on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia last week, we headed down the hill a bit to peek behind the doors at Anse Chastanet, owned by the same folks and with the same impressive views of the Pitons, but a tad older a property with thankfully less expensive nightly rates.
Just outside the town of Soufrière on the southwest coast of the island, Anse Chastanet is a tribute to the indigenous charm and pride of the island, since much of the staff and property itself is of St. Lucian origin, and it's been hopping since it opened its doors in the late 1960s—don't worry, it was freshly renovated in 2004. It's now known as the premier St. Lucian resort for scuba diving (with the first scuba center on the island), bird watching, and jungle mountain biking (they have their own 12 miles of trails).
And of course, it's quite the honeymoon and destination wedding hotspot, having been voted one of the "Top 25 Resorts: Americas & The Caribbean" for 2009 in CN Traveler, and #1 of the Top Five Places To See In Your Lifetime by good old Oprah.
Tags: Green Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Island Hotels / Island Resorts / → All Tags
100,00th Tree Planted on Seychelles Island Paradise
Sometimes, that old adage, "Can't see the forest for the trees in the way" can take on a positive connotation. We've made puns about hotels taking the LEED and recently reported on Kimpton's initiative to plant a billion trees in Brazil, and in the same spirit, Seychelles' Fregate Island Private Resort is marking a significant ecological milestone: They recently planted the 100,000th tree in their endemic hardwood program.
The program is part of Fregate's efforts to become carbon neutral, which in broad terms refers to achieving zero carbon emissions. Hoping to replenish what was destroyed when Seychelles was colonized—namely local forestation that was replaced by coconut trees—Fregate sought to bring back natural flora and fauna to the area. The 100,000th tree was a Ficus, which normally thrives in rocky underground environments like those on Seychelles. The trees are said to reach heights of 50 to 65 feet and grow remarkably quickly.
And, lest you think that the resort is one of those hypocritical businesses whose real estate is taking over the island while claiming to save it, not that their buildings only occupy five percent of the island, leaving the remaining 95 percent untouched.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Unusual Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
A 'Lost Island' Gets a Hotel (And No Reality TV is Involved)
In our inbox, we received a press release that started with, "Imagine an island, just a few hours from the U.S. eastern seaboard, with windmills, hot springs, a mild year-round climate..." and, as we read through it, we prepared ourselves for some sort of a reality show pitch a la "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" (the Heidi and Spencer disaster that we have yet to successfully wipe from memory) or "30 Rock"'s "MILF Island."
But, alas, this is actually a "lost"(ish) island, and now it has a hotel. And no reality show — as far as we can tell.
The teensy island of Graciosa, one of the Azorean islands (and one of the smaller ones, in fact — it's about 8 by 12 km with a population of just over 4600), was without any hotels for a long time — and now it has one: the Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel in Santa Cruz da Graciosa. Graciosa is just north of Sao Jorge and is known for the unique style of windmills that pepper the island's landscape, thanks to some of its first inhabitants, Flemish settlers. According to the press materials, the hotel is "part of a series of investments to build infrastructure connected to the tourist economy on Graciosa," such as the Carapacho thermal baths (which are said to cure bone and skin ailments).
Tags: Hotel Strikes / Hotel News / France Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Martinique Hotels Promise They're Still Welcoming Guests
As we reported last week, times have been tough out in the French island paradises of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Protests over living costs have been plaguing the islands for weeks, and as workers continue to strike, local businesses and tourism are seriously hurting.
Needless to say, the civil unrest and the strikes have paralyzed the tourism-dependent economies of both islands. Cruise ships have been diverting to other destinations, and at least 10,000 travelers have canceled flights.
Tags: Hotel Strikes / Hotel News / France Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Strikes in Martinique and Guadeloupe Cripple Area Hotels
Our brother site Jaunted has been keeping you up-to-date on the unrest in the French island paradises of Martinique and Guadeloupe, but in case you haven't kept up: essentially, protests over living costs have been plaguing the islands for weeks and have burned local businesses and tourism. In Guadeloupe, 50,000 residents have been participating in a three-week strike; in Martinique, 11,000 are on their seventh day of protests.
Because of the strikes, gas and food are running low — and hotels are hurting for supplies while guests are canceling reservations due to the political situation. According to the UK Guardian, "petrol stations and the port have been closed and barricaded, supermarkets, schools, banks and government offices have shut and the strikes have caused power cuts, limited water supplies and left the island's half-a-million residents facing food shortages." Also, several hotels on; not good) — reportedly, about 15,000 French tourists have already canceled their plans and even Club Med has shut its main hotel property.
Got any dirt on hotel closings or what the situation is like out there? Drop us a line.
Photo: [guillaumeo]
Tags: Tanzania Hotels / Fairmont Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
We're Half-Convinced On The Fairmont Zanzibar
We've had a sudden and inexplicable fascination with the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar which led us to the Fairmont Zanzibar in Unguja City. We quite like Fairmont, we're fascinated by Zanzibar, what could be better?
Well, according to the TripAdvisor reviews, nothing. But then again, no hotel is worse either, because the Fairmont is basically the only place to stay in Unguja City.
It all comes down to who you believe more: the recent guest who reckons they were "spoiled rotten" (they had the Asali Suite with private chefs) or others who complain of an unmanned pool bar and unfriendly service in the restaurant.
To give Fairmont Zanzibar the benefit of the doubt, they have just done $10 million worth of renovations, so perhaps even those who complained might find it better now. If we do get there we'll be signing up for their Breakfast & Dinner Package (we love our food) which includes accommodation and, as you'd expect, breakfast and dinner daily, starting at $489 a night.
[Photo: viaggiatrice74]
Tags: Cubicle Dreamin' / Overwater Bungalows / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Cubicle Dreamin' :: Chopping It to Vahine Island
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way. In this episode, Hotel Maven Annie0007 is taking a trip to an exotic island only accessible by helicopter or boat. Enjoy.
Bid me Bon Voyage, folks. No more presidential debates, crappy economy, gargantuan workload, traffic horns blaring, and gas prices. Yep, I'm outta here. Goodbye, New York City! My husband and I just gave ourselves a week off, cubicle-dreamin'-style, and we're headed to Vahine Island.
Vahine is a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific's Society Islands. You can only get there by boat or helicopter. Tough, huh? This is, after all, dreaming -- let's take the helicopter.
Tags: Killer View / Spain Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Room With a Killer View: Night Time at the Hotel Hesperia Lanzarote
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Islands are good spots to find killer views and Spain's Lanzarote is no exception. This Flickr member got creative as well to take this night view looking over the Lanz Beach Club, from the Hotel Hesperia Lanzarote. Photographer JLGA was especially proud to say that this picture is a "Fully original, no digital edition!!" Yep, we're pretty impressed with this shot.
As for the Hotel Hesperia itself, having four swimming pools is a good start. Room rates start from €99 (US$150) for a standard room, rising to €212 (US$330) for a superior suite. There are about 320 rooms and suites overall, so it's not a small place, but the pool ratio works out pretty nicely, plus there's always the beach club, too. And if the view's this impressive by night, it's gotta be pretty nice by day, too.
[Photo: JLGA]
Tags: Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Island Hotels / Funicular Hotels / Hotel Video Tours / → All Tags
Hotel Video Tours: El Conquistador Is Easy On The Eyes
El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico is an extremely pretty cliffside resort that is set up as five villages full of villas (there are also 750 rooms, but the villas are where it's at), set around a good size indoor outdoor lobby, a casino, and a sprawling pool area.
If you stay here, and don't rent a car, you are going to be tied to the resort grounds for most of your stay. Don't fret though, there is a steakhouse and a Starbucks on-site, as well as plenty of other shops and restaurants.
Remember, while this highly-touted Puerto Rico resort it is old, and shows its wear in spots. Furthermore, if you want to spend your time away on a Puerto Rico beach, you will need to ride the funicular then hop on a boat to Palomino Island, which is just off sure. If this short trip to the beach sounds like a fun adventure to you, this is probably your kind of resort, if it sounds like a pain in the ass to you, you will be better off at the Ritz.
Either way, you can't deny this resorts stunning beauty, take a look at the photos we snapped below.
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