One of the newest of 37 boutique Kimptom Hotels and Restaurants across the US is the four-star Hotel Solamar and its 235 rooms of hip luxury in sunny San Diego. Its Web site says the Solamar “is a perfet choice for the business or leisure traveler.” And why not? It’s got a great downtown location…
If you live in Northern Africa or the Middle East, you already know that you wouldn’t dare buy a Barbie doll for a little girl’s birthday, Christmas or other holiday celebration. You’d buy a Fulla — covered from head to toe in a traditional black robe — dressed like a proper Muslim woman. Now called…
Yesterday, the Transportation Security Administration changed its mind. Effective December 22, passengers will no longer be banned from carrying tools shorter than 7 inches onto flights, including scissors with blades of less than 4 inches. Allowing small scissors, screwdrivers, pliers and wrenches to be in your carry on bags will supposedly speed you through security…
Holiday gifts come in all shapes, sizes and styles. This one is memorable — literally — because the Sushi USB Memory Key lets you easily upload data, photos or other types of files from computer to computer. Give it as a gag, holiday, birthday, or dinner party gift.
The prices in the Alps are falling faster than the snowflakes. This Best Buy via Luxury Link offers a great deal: $499 per night per package (a $376 savings) on a stay at a luxury Italian Alps resort from now through May 22, 2006. Situated on a glacier overlooking the Gran Paradiso National Park in…
Here’s a unique twist: Instead of welcoming tourists as virtually every other hotel on the planet, the new ESO (European Southern Observatory) Hotel will cater instead to researchers and scientists who travel there to work on a very large telescope and study the surrounding Adacama Desert, which is said to be one of Earth’s most…
Tired of waiting in lines up to 30 minutes long at airport security? Wish there was a way to speed through in a mere 14 seconds? In about a month, passengers at Mineta San Jose International Airport can pay about $80 a year to walk thorugh an ID-checking kiosk. It’s part of a program that…
A few years ago, I went skiing with a buddy at Lake Tahoe, CA. He had an altimeter on his watch. I had a temperature gauge that slid onto mine. We thought, “How cool is this?” We can tell the height of our mountain, why we were shivering, and what time to quit for a…
Boasting the world’s tallest building is one thing. Including the first Armani Hotel and Resort with 172 elite guess rooms and suites, restaurants and a 40,000-square metre spa as part of it is another. But that’s the buzz on the Burj Dubai, a $6 billion project that will open in 2008 as “the most exclusive…
New Orelans, in an effort to boost its stalled economy, is offering the nation’s first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city. The system would benefit residents and small businesses who still can’t get their Internet service restored over the city’s washed out phone network. WiFi started operations Tuesday in the…
You don’t have to have a serious illness to enjoy this daytripping, 365-page gift idea. Inspired by the best-selling book of the same name, the “1,000 Places To See Before You Die” Calendar gives you a daily dose of dreams for traveling. It contains: • A globetrotter’s wishlist of destinations; • Travel tips, quizzes and…
Pawpaws, a Holistic Pet Retreat, intends to operate a number of special locations throughout Australia. The first one will open soon in the Sydney area. This unique concept plans to offer hotel-like accommodations for your dog. They’ll pamper your pooch with doggy day care, exercise opportunities with other canines, day-long inside and outside access, plenty…