resort travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Chiva-Som, meaning Haven of Life, is located in the south of Hua Hin, Thailand,  is a three-hour drive from Bangkok. The resort  is surrounded by tropical gardens and next to an idyllic beach on the Gulf of Thailand. Chiva-Som provides a comprehensive range of spa, medical and fitness programs that combine the very best of Thai hospitality and Western-style treatments.

The resort offers privacy and seclusion with only 57 elegant Thai-style pavilions, Ocean View rooms and suites.They offer private balconies or terraces for drinking in the fresh air and relaxing atmosphere, and listening to the softly lapping sea.

There are many fitness activities including t’ai chi, pilates, health and beauty workshops and holistic programmes that incorporate forms of traditional Chinese medicine.

Specialty Activities: Xi Gong, Thai Boxing; yoga, aqua aerobic and water fitness classes; physiotherapy services; naturopathic consultation, iridology-diagnosis through the eyes.

Restaurants at the resort include the Emerald Room- an international spa cuisine restaurant and the Taste of Siam – a restaurant by the beach serving Thai spa cuisine. Spa Cuisine- Detoxifying, fat and salt-free cuisine incorporates local herbs and spices.

Outdoor Options: Outdoor pool, Biking, Tennis, Sea Kayaking, outdoor training, golf, sightseeing and guided tours.

Tucked into the native maritime forest, you will find the sanctuary of Bahia Beach Resort  and Golf Club. Bahia Beach Resort and Golf Club, Puerto Rico located on Puerto Rico’s northeastern coast where the Atlantic Ocean blends with the azure waters of the Caribbean Sea. The community will boast a magnificent two-mile crescent of Sandy Beach.

139 magnificent rooms, where private terraces lead to spectacular ocean views.

The pool is beautiful.
 

It’s unique location in the salt flats of Cabo Rojo, also offers tourists the opportunity to bike, go scuba diving, boating, kayaking, deep sea fishing, jogging, trekking, even golfing.
18-hole championship golf course – with spectacular holes along the ocean, scenic lakes, undulating fairways and gentle ocean breezes.

The resort is home to a variety of animal inhabitants including snook and tarpon, frigate birds, pelicans, palm trees, golden leather ferns, whistling ducks, iguanas and many species of songbirds.

Set among of 12 hectares of lush tropical gardens, with perfect beachfront location on popular Kuta beach, Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel Bali will helps you to deliver the truly romantic of this paradise on earth for your wedding ceremony and reception. This luxury beach resort offers a mix of 312 Ocean Facing Rooms and Family Suites set amidst an oasis of shady coconut palms.

The resort has a wide choice of restaurants and excellent sporting facilities. Sport facilities include one sparkling swimming pool for adult and one for children, tennis and volleyball courts, two squash courts, fitness centre with sauna and massage services. Water sports include parasailing, cruising, sailing, water skiing, scuba diving, snorkeling and etc. Also you could explore Bali Island from above by taking a ride of helicopter flight.

Today Las Vegas has suffered from D-cup syndrome, no matter its plans and dreams. It’s a gaudy casino resort with greed, gluttony, simulacra that push the pleasure buttons of masses. Vegas is a real city and every day it’s getting more real. The city is always sunny and beautiful.

Las Vegas is developing into a future city with their own homegrown, groundbreaking architecture. Residents of Las Vegas have a lot of lost pets – from feral cats to farm animals and because the is in the desert – water is a huge issue. But clever architects have addressed those things in a very attractive design with solar panels and a ” living machine” to recycle graywater.

The city seems to be a sprawl of sand, bulldozers and acres upon acres of tile – roofed housing developments. And the question is ” Does the city have any real architectural history”? The answer is ”Yes” and the residents are trying to save it. The La Concha is a Paul Revere Williams structure, one of the last hotel landmarks on the Strip. There’s also the Old Mormon Fort, a historical landmark with a new addition by local architect Eric Strain. The structure is another example of how every great city needs to develop its own architecture.

When we talk about new architecture get in the elevator and go to Mix – it’s on top of the hotel at Maudalay Bay. Mix is the first restaurants and lounge, where the hotel spent a lot of money bringing in a major league restaurateur. The restaurant’s facade is made of 15, 000 Murano blown- glass baubles. It’s very beautiful.

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but once you leave, you may have trouble banishing Sin City from your mind.

Rogner Bad Blumau is a hotel of discovery. Green roofs, round shapes and colorful facades make up a wonderful work of art in the middle of nature. The hotel is build like a city with various district. The architect is the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser whose vision is that life is harmony and in harmony with nature. So the Rogner Bad Blauman is one of these places. The hotel is located in Bad Blumau municipality of the district of Furstenfield in Styria, Austria.

From his early days Friedensreich was a painter, who later also became an ecologist and building designer. He collected many ideas while traveling all around the world. Later he used these experiences when he started to design buildings.

Two curative springs supply Rogner Bad Blumau with power, heat and energy. Floating in the warm water, daydreaming alone or as a couple under canopies, on the glass-covered roof or when reading in a room of silence. The Melchoir spring is the soft and mild one at the hotel. When it comes from earth, the highly mineralized  thermal water has a temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius. The other one – Vulkania spring is made up of a unique composition of depth groundwater. The mineral content in this naturally strong sole spring exceeds the required guide value for curative waters many times.

The Vulkania curative spring is of volcanic origin and the highest mineralized curative water in the Styrian spa region. Collected in the Vulkania curative lake, the water is genuine and powerful with warmest bathing temperature out in the open. Bathing in this water feels like silk.

One of the greatest service is relaxing in the Dead Sea Salt Gretto. Teh walls, the ceiling and floor consists of 100% salt from Dead Sea. During your session in the Dead Sea Salt Gretto you will inhale ionized air rich in micro – elements like iodine, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron and selenium.

Since it was founded, Rogner Bad Bluman has been awarded numerous prizes again and again. Out of and about at Rogner Bad Blumau guests can also enjoy a lot of sport activities like cycling, fishing, tennis, running, inline skating, beach ball, skater track and street ball.

Miami is a world of man -made islands and the original polo fields are new golf courses – Miami first make a loud at the beginning of the 20th century. Many times I wrote about Miami but this time I will mention some other interesting facts. I love Miami in part for all its flashy invention. In my opinion the big constructions are adding some serious substance to this subtropical city.

I suggest you this time exploring Miami on a two-day bike tour visiting city streets, galleries, delicious drives, one stop Haitian voodoo shops. You can covered 40 miles and 11 islands and used up an entire tube of sunblock.

One of my favorites building in Miami is Bacardi Building north to downtown Miami, at Biscyne and Northest 21st. This building is the greater example of how the International style meets the subtropics. I’m a modernist and I reckon we should protect the buildings of the past, but also the new architecture should reflect our own times and aspirations.

A fantastic way to experience Miami cultural diversity is through its culinary culture. Just north of downtown it’s Enriqueta, a delicious little Cuban spot with hundreds of fun and mostly family-run restaurants. There are incredible Cuban Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Brazilian and Argentine food. Miami has an extraordinary influence of cultures, but you have to get out of South Beach to feel it. The botanicas in Little Haiti are just an example for getting a sense of rich Haitian culture here.

For the first time, there is massive residential development in the downtown area that will transform what was once a dark working center into a great downtown. In addition to Museum Park (the new Miami Art Museum/Museum of Science complex) and the Performing Arts Center, over the next several years we will see a new Frank Gehry Soundspace for the New World Symphony and new Herzog & de Meuron and Enrique Norten buildings here in Miami Beach.

Best Western Irazu is located next to the San Jose 2000 shopping center. The Best Western Irazu Hotel is located only 10 minutes from the International Airport and 10 minutes from Downtown San Jose. The Best Western Irazu, a resort within the city, offers a large swimming pool, 2 lighted tennis courts, an in house gym, and beautiful garden areas. 

The hotel offers 327 spacious and comfortable guest rooms that are well equipped with numerous standard amenities.
All rooms feature satellite TV, safes, coffee and tea facilities, private bathrooms, and air-conditioning. Most rooms have a balcony overlooking the swimming pool or gardens. Business travelers can avail of spacious meeting facilities for corporate events.

The hotel’s restaurant “La Gallera” has an interesting international menu and it’s open from 12:00am to 10 pm, 7 days a week.

Denny’s restaurant open 24 hours a day, tennis court, wireless internet access, free local phone calls,  and much more. Guests will also have 24 hour entertainment at the Casino Concorde. The hotel also offers a complimentary airport shuttle.

Here guests can sit back in the warming Jacuzzi, play tennis, enjoy our massage services, small gym, enjoy tropical cocktails from the lounge bar.

Côte d’Azur is also popular in English as the French Riviera – it is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeastern corner of France, extending from Menton near the Italian border on the east to either Hyères or Cassis in the west. The Côte d’Azur was once one of the first resort areas in the world. It began as a health resort for ailing British tourists at the end of the 18th century, after that in the mid-19th century, when the railroad arrived, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales.

In the first half of the 20th century it was visited by artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edith Wharton and Somerset Maugham, as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II it became a popular destination for mass tourism and conventions, as well as a summer home and meeting place for celebrities from Brigitte Bardot to Elton John.

Officially, the Côte d’Azur is home to 163 nationalities with 83,962 foreign residents, although unofficial and semi-official estimates of the number of non-French nationals living in the area are often much higher. The French Riviera also contains the seaside resorts of Cannes, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Beaulieu, Cap d’Ail, Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, and Saint-Tropez, and surrounds the principality of Monaco, with a total population of over 2m.

Monaco

Built in the 18th century, Devi Garh Resort is nestled in the Aravali Hills, Udaipur. This all suite luxury hotel comprising of 39 suites with an emphasis on design and detail, using local marbles and semi-precious stones. The palace is made of local marbles and semi-precious stones.

All of the 30 suites at Devi Garh are unique; luxurious and beautiful, yet equipped with the most modern facilities to make a guest feel totally at home. The palace Suites is embellished with semi precious stones that reflect the colors of Rajasthan.
Room Service, Airport / Station Transfers, Telephone, CTV, Mini Bar, Room Safe, Ironing Board, Hair Dryer, CD Player, Doctor On Call, Laundry, Money Changer, Fax, E-mail, Internet Access, Safe Deposit, Baby Sittting.

 Devi Garh offers something more profound: holistic Serena Spa wellness therapies based on a unique combination of Ayurvedic and modern Spa concepts. The Restaurant at Devi Garh features innovative Asian and continental cuisine. The Conference hall, decorated in shades of silver and gray, seats 50 and is adequately provided with audio-visual equipment

Among the large number of luxury-boutique hotels stands out a Pretty Beach House. This holiday house is an exclusive food-lovers Hamptons-esque private beach house resort just outside of Sydney that takes the concept of ‘weekend’ getaway to a new level. The resort is consisted of three private structures; relaxed, non-pretentious and homely beach villas nestled discreetly into a landscape full of hundreds of old gum trees which stand there like living art sculptures.

As soon as you arrived, a sense of peace and quiet descends upon you,  with fresh and stunning designer elements. The villas interiors are luxurious made of natural materials. Privacy is paramount which is why, each villa also has its own private swimming pool. There are no TVs in the villas, just a Bose Soundock with iPod and wireless internet so there’s nothing else to do but slide from day bed to pool and back again in a haze of sedation.

The real adventure in the Pretty Beach Villa begin when it’s time to eat! The Sydney chef Steve Manfredi is the master of the kitchen and largely responsible for the best part of the trip, exporting sophisticated, city fine dining into this laid-back environment. The chef often serves guests himself. If anything is worth it in your trip to Pretty Beach House is the delicious meal.

If you get tired of sleeping, lazing, eating and drinking, you can have a stroll down to Tallow Beach for a swim and a dose of dolphin watching. Or if you are looking for a piece of adventure hop into the Pretty Beach House boat or take out a helicopter ride over the area.

The Bahia Principe Resort is formed by (Tulum and Akumal) and is located in Riviera Maya, on the east-side of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The Yucatan Peninsula is only a 60 minutes drive away from Cancun airport, 35 minutes away from Playa del Carmen and 20 minutes away from Tulum. The hotel complex is comprised of three Gran Bahia Principe hotels, forms a stunning spread of luxury and comfort.

The resort offers a total of 1,259 guestrooms which are distributed in three-story villas housing 18 rooms each.The rooms are divided up into 3 story villas dotted throughout the property and making it feel a more intimate and cozy.The rooms come with a complete bathroom with hairdryer, direct dial telephone, satellite/cable TV, radio, minibar, 2 full size beds or a king size bed, air conditioning, balcony or terrace and living room.

Four restaurants: two in Gran Bahia Principe Tulum and two in Gran Bahia Principe Akumal,  are at the disposal of the AI guests; Tulum: the grill Gran Tortuga and the Mexican Tequila: the Italian Dolce Vita and the fish restaurant Fruits del Mar. Snacks such as hot dogs, nachos, French fries, hamburgers,  nuggets, salads and fruit.

All Inclusive Entertainment: Close to the beach,  bar and buffet. 7 bars, two pools, sporting activities, five tennis courts, water sports/dive center on the beach, sailing,  entertainment, drinks in the bars and in the disco. Include gym, aerobics and meringue lessons, windsurfing,  snorkeling, catamaran, soccer, boogie boards, bicycles, volleyball, diving classes, kayaks and basketball as well as daily activities, night shows.

Barbados is an independent continental island situated east of the Caribbean Sea in the western Atlantic Ocean. The east coast of the island is home to clean, perfect and enormous waves. The island’s west coast is emerged as: powdery beaches, clear turquoise water, maincured estates, really maincured resorts and even though maincured golf courses. As well as this part of the island is known as the Platinium Coast, due to the color of its sparkling coastline. But this is Barbados of the travel agencies and guidebooks. This is only half the story. Let me tell you about the wild Barbados.

The eastern coast of Barbados is a whole other world. Hide away from the luxury resorts by acres of sugar cane fields, thick verdant forests and trees full of wild monkeys, this is Barbados’s real side. You could spend all your time in the west and never know the real Barbados. The east is run by the locals, not the tourists.

The main town in eastern Barbados is called Bathsheba. The town look as if it was once the playground of mythical creatures, because of the enormous limestone boulders strewn in the shallows. The wind sweeping along the hillside, which is hollowed by the warm blasts and palm trees. It’s a coastline carved by centuries of wind blowing from thousands of miles away.

With such an identity, come characters. This is a place, where people have names like Biju, Yellow and Chicken. But the real celebrity in town is Soup Bowl, the island’s biggest wave. ” When Soup Bowl is good, it gives you goose bumps”, said Ms. Pitcher – a surf teacher.

On a map, Barbados looks as if it is drifting out into the open Atlantic, which is exactly what makes Soup Bowl ideal. Soup Bowl is one of the tip three waves in the world. This wave can travel nearly three thousands miles in the open ocean, undisturbed by sandbars, reefs or land, before it breaks the island.

Aquatic life in Barbados isn’t just for world champions, professional athletes and people who want they could surf before they could walk. Much of the coasts offer makeshift beer bars, street food, vendors selling fried fish and cheap guesthouses that are so appealing to people who prefer to watch surfing, than waxing a board. But the locals will remind you one more time: What makes Barbados unique is that there is a single wave for everyone.

Anyone can surf Barbados and I mean anyone. You can close your eyes and point to the calendar – any day you hit, Barbados will have great beginner and intermediate waves. Action! Do you want a drink? Listen if I say Jamaica you think reggae right, but when I say Barbados nothing comes to mind and that has to change. But I would say also: Popular is good, too popular is dangerous!

American Airlines has nonstop flights from Kenedy Airport in New York to Grantley Adams International Airport in Seawell, Christ Church on the south side of Barbados, about a 25-minute drive from the surf beaches near Bathsheba.

Lutsen Mountains Resort is a fuzzy dream, where skiers shouted unseen from the fog and snowboarders edged figures in low contrast falling from the sky. The resort is overlooking Lake Superior and has a gray skies, soft snow, quiet woods and winter streams. Lutsen is the largest ski resort in Minnesota. The spot is a worthy downhill destination with 92 trails and a respectable 1,088 feet of vertical drop.

Situated among four peaks in the Sawtooth Mountains of Minesota, trails cut through deep woods and a snow-choked valley that conceals a creek. A gondola tram lift, very unusual in this part of the country carries red cars over the Poplar River.

If you look inland from one of the lifts at Lutsen and the Superior National Forest rolls away to the horizon, a carpet of birch and pine heading onward into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, then to Canada beyond. Then look south or east and the view offers the blue sky with icy plane of Lake Superior.

On Moose Mountain, the resort’s largest hill, trails roller coaster from a broad summit. The resort opened its lifts in 1948. It grew over the decades, adding lodges and lifts but held on to its North Woods aesthetic. The area had a distinct feel with a “laid-back woodsy vibe where you can wear a flannel shirt and you smell wood smoke in the air.

But Lutsen’s long runs and varied terrain, including beginner to expert trails served by 10 lifts, keep regulars coming back. The resort is more affordable than a Rocky Mountain getaway, and its slopes stay open later — until April 12 this year — than most ski areas in the Midwest.

The hotel is located right alongside Varadero beach and within the new Varadero golf course. Just 35 km from the airport and only 8 from downtown Varadero, Hotel Melia Las Americas. Here you will find a list of more than 160 locations.

340 rooms: 220 Doubles, 12 Duplex, 14 Suites, 2 Gran Suites and 2 Presidential’s Suites with hydro-massages and 90 Bungalows. The Junior Suites are located outside the main building and surrounded by the lush tropical vegetation. Guests may also make use of Internet access, a laundry service, room service and a car park.

Good taste, functionality and modernity are the elements that compose the design and decoration of these rooms. American breakfast in the room (on request). 

The hotel’s three restaurants offer the very best, most varied and exquisite of international cuisine.Barbecue Restaurant on the beach, specialized in Spanish paellas. Lobby bar and Piano bar.

Melia Las Americas boasts a swimming pool with a waterfall set in lush tropical gardens, a children’s pool, jacuzzi, fitness center, watersports center, activities program and boutiques. Convention Hall with natural light for up to 200 guests.

Melia Las Americas, a great resort for avid golfers.
 

Leichenberg Life Medicine is a wellness retreat that marries hospitality and medicine, bringing together service industry standards, old-school European spa culture, modern diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. The center is something between traditional five-star luxury hotel and high-tech medical treatment.

Guests can come in the resort for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation or just a simple relaxation. Situated in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria, life medicine benefits from a mild local climate, idyllic landscape and two mineral-rich water sources, thermal springs.

The resort offers all the traditional wellness services which are thermal baths, sauna and a wide range of face and body treatments. It also offers an impressive array of diagnostic services, including lab testing, allergy profiles, metabolic panels and ultrasounds, to name a few.

The philosophy of the hotel strikes a healthy balance between culinary indulgence and responsible consumption. Meals at the main restaurant, spa bistro and lounge cafe are very low in calories but high in taste, rich in ingredients from local farmers and producers.

The resort’s focus is nature, as reflected in the extensive use of larch wood, glass and natural stone as well as the pervasive browns, reds and greens that blend perfectly with the surrounding landscape.

The 107 rooms, three suites and various conference areas are similarly outfitted, full of light woods and soft hints of natural colours. The resort was built around an existing park, thus incorporating several centuries-old trees and an ancient brook. Local activities include hiking, golfing, stargazing and visits to nearby castles and imperial villas.