AWESOME ACCOMMODATION
MICHIGAN
STAY IN A
LIGHTHOUSE IN MICHIGAN
Ever fancied staying in a lighthouse? Then head for Michigan, where B&B is offered in
or near five Great Lakes lighthouses, including one where you actually help run
the establishment. Lake Superior’s three offerings are Jacobsville Lighthouse
Inn, built in 1869 and offering walking, biking, kayaking and a white sand beach
Big Bay Point Lighthouse, where amenities include a sauna, library, fireplaces,
biking, waterfalls, skiing and snowmobiling and the romantic, Victorian Sandhills
Lighthouse Inn, with daily lighthouse tours, gourmet breakfasts and 3,000 feet
of private shoreline You can also stay on an uninhabited island in Lake Huron,
where the Middle Island Keeper’s Lodge accommodates up to eight people and
attractions include an island-circling boat tour, nature walks and a tour of the
lighthouse. The latest lighthouse on the B&B scene, also overlooking Lake
Huron, is the Tawas Point Lighthouse, where the newly-renovated lighthouse keeper’s
quarters is available for one- or two-week stays and guests are expected to greet
visitors, provide information about the history of the lighthouse, help in the
gift shop and take care of the artefacts in the lighthouse museum. SCOTS IN SCOTTSDALE Scots will feel at home at The Westin Kierland Resort
& Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, where guests gather around the fire pit to hear
the pipes at sunset. The Scottish Golf Experience includes kilt rentals for those
golfers who would like to try golf ‘the Scottish way’ and Johnnie
Walker beverage carts that serve Johnnie Walker Blue, Johnnie Walker Gold and
Johnnie Walker Green.
RELAXING IN A SPA CAVE
One of Napa Valley’s newest resorts, the Meritage Resort and Spa, hosts
the world’s only luxury spa cave, Spa Terra. Guests relax to the natural
sounds of waterfalls and scent of aromatherapies while enjoying steam grottos,
soaking pools, treatment alcoves and radiant heating.
A LEGEND RETURNS TO
PALM SPRINGS Palm Springs’ legendary Riviera Resort &
Spa —once a celebrity playground for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin
and Elvis Presley —has undergone a two-year, E35-million renovation. Set
in the heart of downtown Palm Springs, the 24-acre resort is one of the city’s
most significent landmark hotels.
FRIGID WEDDING
VOWS IN VEGAS Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas has opened the first
permanent ice lounge of its kind in the US. The 2,000sq-ft Minus 5 lounge includes
a wedding chapel, complete with colourful, stained ‘ice’ windows and
pews, ice sculptures and an ice candelabra. Adjacent to the Minus 5 Experience
is the Minus 5 Lodge, a warm, rustic pub themed after the great arctic explorers.
LAS VEGAS’S PINK JEEP TOURS Las Vegas’s Pink Jeep Tours now has a fleet
of 20 Tour Trekkers, all-terrain, four-wheel- drive vehicles designed to be the
ultimate tour vehicle. The Tour Trekker seats 10 passengers and offers reclining
leather seats, 15-inch DVD players, large tinted windows and foam-insulated walls
for a quieter ride. Pink Jeep Tours’ 10 off-road tours include the Grand
Canyon, Hoover Dam and Death Valley.
MANHATTAN
Gray Line New York Sightseeing has launched Dining on the Town, a New York City
dinner service on specially-outfitted Gray Line double-decker buses. Forty passengers
will be served a choice of two-course meals, soft-drinks or water by a uniformed
steward while enjoying a two-hour, twilight tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn by
a professional guide. Discover Staten Island, another new tour, begins at the
ferry terminal and takes in Staten Island’s September 11 Memorial, the Snug
Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, the Staten Island Zoological society,
Fort Wadsworth, and the Alice Austen House museum and park.
NEW KANSAS ADVENTURES
TOUR
A new range of travel itineraries for Kansas Ready-Made Adventures (RMAs) —
offers a wide variety of entertaining options, including Cowboys & Cattletowns,
Dinosaurs & Sea Monsters, Quirky Kansas and Family Fun. Each RMA offers travel
suggestions and itineraries and many include a short video of what to expect along
the way.
CHICAGO’S FOOD AMBASSADORS
The city known as the birthplace of the deep-dish pizza and as a destination full
of gastronomic diversity has appointed its first Food Ambassadors — renowned
local chefs and TV celebrities Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand, whose My Chicago Guides
website and downloadable podcast is full of hot tips on where to wine and dine
in America’s third-largest city. Previous ambassadors’ have covered
shopping and music, with architecture yet to come.