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

Surrounded by vineyards and the spectacular background of snow-covered Alps, Montreux is the most frequented resort in French speaking Switzerland. Located on the edge of Lake Geneva, Montreux has a mild climate that gives it a Mediterranean feel. The city offers luxury hotels, high gastronomy and wines, a natural beauty and a wide choice of sporting and cultural activities.

The main attraction in Montreux is the Chateau de Chillon. This historical monument is surrounded by the spectacular panorama of the Alps and Lake Geneva. Strategically built on a rocky island along the antique road to Italy, the castle consists of 25 building units.

Besides the historic architecture, Montreux’s attracts with its numerous international festivals. The most well-known of which are the Montreux Jazz Festival (July), the International Choral Festival (the week following Easter), the September Musical Concert and the Christmas market. 

The Westin Kierland Resort and Spa offers luxury and relaxation in scenic Scottsdale. The Westin Kierland is located approximately 20 miles from Phoenix International Airport, which features shops, boutiques, and restaurants. In harmony with its surroundings, the resort’s picturesque silhouette is inspired by the nearby Phoenix Mountain Reserve.

This Resort Offers 732 Contemporary Southwest-style Guestrooms, Suites And Casitas Furnished With Pillowtop Westin Heavenly Beds.

Business travelers can take advantage of guest office rooms stocked with phone, fax and printer.

 Activities: Golf, Tennis, Spa, Fitness Facilities, Swimming pool, Golf Practice Range, Golf School, Putting Green.

 Treat yourself to a little relaxation at Agave, The Arizona Spa, a full service spa with 19 treatment rooms, saunas, massage therapy, skin treatments and salon services.

Hotel offers a passionate and lively dining experience like no other in Arizona.

27 holes of world-class golf at the Kierland Golf Club.

Sandpearl Residences is located on the Gulf of Mexico directly on Clearwater Beach just north of the pier. On 700 ft/213 m of beachfront, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico on the northern end of Clearwater Beach. Resort amenities include an oceanfront pool, the Spa at Sandpearl, recreational fishing fleet, boutiques and restaurants.

253 rooms. Accommodations are spacious and inviting, most featuring spectacular views of the azure-blue water.

Amenities: Pets Allowed, Wheelchair Accessible, Meeting Facilities, Babysitting, Kitchen, Beach, Air Conditioning, Television.

Special Amenities: Bar/Lounge, Business Cente, Fitness Center, Pool, Outdoor, Restaurant, Parking Garage, Child Rate.

The Sandpearl Spa offers a variety of treatments, as well as enrichment programs that embrace nature to create unforgettable experiences.

One thing they couldn’t change — wouldn’t want to change — and that is the beach!

Located in the heart of Aruba’s capital, the Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino truly caters to all vacationers. The hotel had great restaurants, pools, casino, activities and beaches. This is the only resort in Aruba with its own private island and complimentary water taxi.

559 spectacular, newly renovated rooms and suites. It’s offers the most spacious guest rooms on the Island of Aruba with in room safes, hair dryer, ironing board, coffee makers and mini refrigerators in all rooms, non smoking and wheelchair accessible rooms available, and high speed internet access.

Spa treatments are also available at Renaissance Island, a mangrove-shaded hideaway that offers private and couples treatments within view of the Caribbean Sea.

The restaurant choices here are unrivaled on the island and Wave’s Beach Bar is the perfect place to enjoy the sunset.

Top Attractions: Okeanos Spa, Crystal Casino, Renaissance Mall and Water sports.

La Residence Phou Vao is a luxury spa hotel sits roughly a mile from World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, Laos. Enjoying breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains, this world class hotel provides modern comforts and is an ideal way to relax the mind, body and soul.

The guest rooms provide breathtaking views of the mountainous landscape of your private terrace make this an ideal vacation for couples and spa lovers. Built with traditional Laotian materials the rooms are furnished simply and elegantly. All of them have a hair dryer, satellite television, mini-bar, personal safe, air conditioning and international direct dial telephone. Wireless Internet is available in the lobby area and the restaurant.

An infinity plunge pool and a water lily pond overlooking the city surround the spa. Try the almost chiropractic Lao massage, in which a masseuse applies hard pressure all over your body with her thumbs and palms. La Residence can organize boat trips on the Mekong and rents bicycles, which are perfect for exploring the area. Languages Spoken: English, French and Thai.

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.