Champagne Vending Machine at this NOLA Hotel Makes Every Day New Year's Eve
The motto of New Orleans is 'Let the Good Times Roll'. Nowhere is that more true than at the local Ritz-Carlton, which now boasts the area's first permanent champagne vending machine.This classy, tongue-in-cheek interpretation of lobby fixtures in sadder hotels holds 320 'piccolo' (mini) bottles of liquid celebration, and blends right into the hotel's festive seasonal décor and events.A nearly life-sized gingerbread NOLA streetcar dominates the lobby, with festive gingerbread making and decorating events throughout advent for the young and their...
Las Vegas Has a New Culinary Destination
24 hours a day, 40,000 square feet, 400 types of wines from all 20 Italian wine regions, 2 restaurants, 3 bars, an educational chef's table, 6 food counters representing authentic versions of your favorite Italian delicacies and comfort food plus 5000 retail products you can take home – directly on the Strip. Foodies are asking themselves why Eataly hasn't opened a Las Vegas outpost before now.The debut of Eataly in Vegas' newest resort, Park MGM, marks the world's largest Italian shopping...
Searching for 'Hygge' in Copenhagen - and Happiness at Home
It's a global buzzword and cultural phenomenon. And today, more and more of us are in need of Denmark's signature recipe for happiness: 'hygge'.Danish 'hygge' (pronounced 'HOOG-uh') is sweeping the world – everyone wants in on Denmark's famously convivial way of life. The Danish are the happiest people on the planet – even during the long, dark days of winter - and it's all about hygge.So much so, hygge has actually been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status. It might be the...
What Happens to Worn-Out Hotel Sheets? A Good News Story
How many times can your hotel sheets be slept in once, then washed, and slept in again before they're too worn to use one more time? We don't know.But we do know that there's now a better end story for used sheets than landfill or being tied together to form an escape route out the back window in a romantic comedy. Westin Hotels has decided that there's more to their famous 'Heavenly Bed' sheets than thread count. In fact, their...
Video: The Most Photographed Hotel in the World Celebrates 125 Years
How does a hotel become the most photographed in the world? Many hotels have spectacular architecture, magnificent and dramatic settings... but very few hotel silhouettes define the destination. Fairmont's Chateau Frontenac is to Quebec City what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. The hotel not only evokes the grace and elegance of the French castles that inspired it. It is literally the high point of this historic, 400 year old city's UNESCO world heritage site. Although it appears to rise from...
7 Places Not to Miss in Indochina
Two hundred years ago, Europeans started referring to the region between India and China as Indochina.Already, it was recognized as one of the most beautiful, exotic, culturally unique destinations on the planet. With its very strategic position, Indochina was also center-stage in some of the defining conflicts of the 20th century including the Pacific theater of WW2 and the Vietnam War.Fast-forward to today, and the legendary countries of South-East Asia - SEA for short - are magnets for travelers by land and...