Montag, 29. November 2004

Ski Romania!. In addition to being the home of Dracula, Transylvania's capital town of Brasov is a paticularly attractive destination for skiers and others who travel outside of Bucharest. Brasov boasts a largely intact Medieval town square (Piata Sfatului), and the Black Church, a gem of Gothic architecture. It is also the home of Poiana, Romania's leading winter sports resort, where lift tickets will run you a fiver. Yes, kids: five quid. That's per-day, not per run. [Wanda Lust] 12:13:53 PM    comment []

Low-Cost Latvia. A few weeks ago I wrote about the new low-cost airline routes launched last month from a variety of carriers -- flights that had appeared out of nowhere to whisk passengers off to, well, nowhere I had ever heard of. And so it was with great curiosity that I read a Guardian piece on trips to the Latvian cities of Riga and Jurmala. Any country where beer is 60P a pint, dinner is under a tenner and good clean rooms are £20 per couple B&B is a winner in my book, but both travel writers seemed to find their Latvian destinations well worth a visit. Riga, they tell us, is "bright and bohemian" while Jurmala is "beautiful and unspoilt." Since the two cities are 20km apart, it's nice that you don't have to choose. [Wanda Lust] 10:21:58 AM    comment []

Heavenly Hotel Hospitality. No, I have not lost my mind and no, this photo is not upside down, though the woman in it clearly is. Apparently, she's a "wine angel" descending from the 13 metre wine tower at the brand new Radisson SAS Hotel London Stansted Airport. The wine angels are winched up and down by a computer system to retrieve your selected bottle of plonk from its 4,000 bretheren in the hotel's bar. I really can't decide if I'm appalled or enthralled. Anyway, the hotel has 500 rooms in three diferent styles, which they claim are "distinct" but basically look like a choice of colour schemes to me. The hotel also boasts a state of the art health club, wireless Internet access, and 2 minute proximilty to the airport, but let's face it: this one is all about the wine angels. [Via: Hotel Chatter] [Wanda Lust] 10:19:45 AM    comment []

RHD: Big Sur, California, USA. In the mid 90s, I took an epic road trip with my sister, driving from New York City across the top of the US to Seattle and down the Pacific Coast Highway to LA. It was on this trip that I discovered one of my Top Three USA Destinations, and possibly the most romantic honeymoon spot in the country. To be fair, Big Sur, California is not so much a destination as an experience. Travelling there is a bit of an adventure, and being there is a fairy tale experience. [Wanda Lust] 10:19:12 AM    comment []

Price War Won in Belgium. The Guardian reports that in a survey of online airfare websites, Belgian vendor Travelprice consistently delivered the lowest ticket prices, sometimes by hundredes of US dollars. The survey was conducted and published by Consumer WebWatch, which concluded that: When booking international airline tickets, consumers may want to consider buying them on German or Belgian travel Web sites, which offered bigger savings and fewer "fare-jumping" problems than U.S. sites Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, according to new research by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The report also revealed surprising differences in fares between different country sites of the same brand, such as Expedia and Opodo. A flight booked on Opodo.co.uk may be significantly more or less expensive than the same flight booked on Opodo.com. But either way, the report also concludes that 25-75% of the time, the airfare you find online will be cheaper than that offered by a travel agent. Moral of the story: learn to read French and German book your own flights online. [Wanda Lust] 10:18:08 AM    comment []

The Slippery Slope of Ski Costs. The Telegraph has this excellent article on the price of a week's ski holiday, comparing the costs of three families with small children at the same resort. Family A drops £13,000; family C gets away for a snip at only £2,000. It's a very interesting way to look at what you value most in a holiday and ways to save (or spend) money; I'd happily give up £600 worth of on-piste lunches for a daily massage at £250 for the week, for example. But then, I've always enjoyed the apres more than the ski. [Wanda Lust] 10:17:43 AM    comment []

YO! Sushi! YO! Hotel!. There's good news and bad news here. The good news is that an ultra-hip, ultra-modern, ultra-urban version of Japanese capusle hotel is coming to London courtesy of the people who brought civilization to the masses with YO! Sushi. This means cheap, well-designed, groovy accommodation in the capital, which is nice. The bad news is that while the 10x12 size may not put you off, the lack of windows might. Reportedly the company is still scouting locations. My suggestion is that at £10 an hour, they avoid areas frequented by anything except the very poshest call girls. Otherwise, the rest of us will never get in. [Wanda Lust] 10:16:58 AM    comment []

Good Afternoon, Vietnam. I'm not generally a fan of tour company trips, except under two circumstances. One, when the destination is problematic due to language, culture or planning problems, or two, when the tour is a good deal at the right pace. I like this tour for both reasons. It starts in Saigon and ends up in Hanoi and features a boat trip through Can Tho's floating market, a trip to the Holy See Cao Dai Temple, tours of Hanoi, Hoi An, and the Unification Palace and War Remnant Museum. The price of £750 per person includes meals, tours, transfers, activities and hotels for ten nights and eleven days. Airfare is additional. The tour is family-friendly and the tour company practices responsible tourism. [Wanda Lust] 10:14:27 AM    comment []

Italian Museum Fast Track. As I've mentioned previously, one of the reasons I go on holiday is to get away from pedestrian British queues, not to stand in more of them. Which makes visiting museums and sites when abroad a bit of a chore and something I only do when there's one I particularly want to see. So this seems a clever idea. You can book tickets online for specific days and times for popular museums and sites in Rome, from the Catacombs to the Colosseum and Palatine Museum. The company also runs booking sites for Venice, Florence, Milan and Naples. There is a £1.50 booking fee for every ticket, but then time, as they say, is money. [Wanda Lust] 10:07:22 AM    comment []

Winter Sky, Northern Lights. For a winter spectacle that beats the pants off the neighbour's rooftop holiday lighting extravaganza, head for Scandinavia and the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. Telegraph writer Erik Owen saw this phenomena whilst aboard a ship in Norway, and was captivated: "It is a glory as spirals and blades of colour intertwine in a stately, silent dance across the vastness of the sky." [Wanda Lust] 10:05:49 AM    comment []

RHD: New Orleans, LA, USA. This was actually the perfect US destination for us: lots of booze, lots of music, plenty of places to get in trouble at night, and a beautiful, romantic, historic city with very strong coffee in which to be hungover during the day. Also, I was looking forward to introducing my British husband to the joys of blackened catfish, gumbo, po'boys, and black eyes peas. Not to mention that the city's bordello history also appealed to my sense of what one should be doing while on honeymoon. [Wanda Lust] 10:04:52 AM    comment []

Trailer Park Chic. If you're ever in New Jersey (and having lived there very briefly, I'm hard pressed to imagine very many reasons why you would be), you can head for The Wildwoods, a seaside resort caught between the 1950s and the Jetsons. The Wildwoods is wild about doo-wop, and the classic amusements and retro architecture reflect the obsession. [Wanda Lust] 10:04:13 AM    comment []

Lego Land's Love Child. What do you get when you crossbreed Legoland Windsor with Disney's EPCOT in a drunken all night orgy fueled by EU funding? You get Mini Europe, that's what. I have no children and therefore think Legoland is utterly vapid. I don't wear plaid and therefore abhor Disney parks the world over. But I confess a certain weakness for Mini Europe, possibly because it's just so utterly bizzarre. So if you're ever in Brussels, mildly pissed and mildly bored, stroll over to the Automium to see Europe laid out at your feet in 1/25 scale. Try not to knock over Big Ben. [Wanda Lust] 10:03:32 AM    comment []

My tip for the winter hols: the Icehotel. The Icehotel is re-built every winter from tons of snow and ice, in the village of Jukkasjârvi in northern Lapland, Sweden. In Icehotel are double rooms and suites, a lobby, a chapel, a film auditorium and an Icebar. You sleep in specially made sleeping bag and in the morning (that's if you're still alive, I guess) a hot drink is brought to you, then you can hit the sauna. The temperature in the Icehotel varies between -4 and -9 degrees centigrade. It´s a great experience staying overnight in Icehotel They also organize activities like snowmobile safari, "Jack London" style dogsled tours, ice sculpting, etc. Via WandaLust. [we make money not art] 9:52:56 AM    comment []