“New travel guides, from Lonely Planet to luxury - Danbury News-Times” plus 2 more |
- New travel guides, from Lonely Planet to luxury - Danbury News-Times
- High gas prices return - Post-Star
- Berlin makes it six for gay city guides 60by80.com - PRWeb
| New travel guides, from Lonely Planet to luxury - Danbury News-Times Posted: 05 May 2010 06:03 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — Spring is the time when many travelers plan their biggest vacations of the year: Leisurely road trips, family getaways with kids out of school, travel abroad during the peak summer season. Here are some of the new guidebook releases from this season to inspire you and help plan your itineraries. They include titles from Lonely Planet, Frommer's, DK Eyewitness, a luxury hotel group, and Budget Travel. LONELY PLANET'S DISCOVER SERIES: Once upon a time, the stereotypical Lonely Planet reader was an adventurous young backpacker on a budget, ready to rough it and explore. But today Lonely Planet fans include older travelers, travelers who do not mind spending more for comfort, and travelers looking for advice about basics and must-sees, not just offbeat adventures. To cater to this audience, Lonely Planet has launched a new series called "Discover," with thick $25 paperback books just released on Australia, France, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain and Thailand. The books are ideal for planning one- to two-week trips. "Discover Europe" will be added to the series Monday. The full-color books include maps, best-of lists, recommendations for a variety of budgets, tips from locals on visiting major attractions and suggested itineraries organized by region, theme and length of trip. One especially nice touch: "If You Like" features direct readers to less well-known attractions by comparing them to better-known places. For example, the Venice section of the Italy guide says that "If you like the masterpieces of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, we think you'll like these other modern art gems," and it goes on to list Ca' Pesaro and Museo della Fondazione Querini Stampalia. FROMMER'S DAY BY DAY GUIDES: Frommer's "Day by Day" city guides have been among the brand's best-selling books for years. This year, Frommer's launched full-size "Day by Day" guides to countries, states and other large regions. The full-color books are itinerary-based, include more than 100 maps and a pocket with a large pullout map, and are filled with photos. "Frommer's Italy Day by Day," ''Frommer's Ireland Day by Day" and "Frommer's Hawaii Day by Day" are available now, while Costa Rica and Spain are due out in October. The guides, all under $30, include easy-to-use features like what to see if you have a day, three days or a week, and "best-of" lists for lodging, dining and shopping. The Ireland guide, for example, includes a list of favorite moments (taking afternoon tea at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, visiting the Giant's Causeway to north, and seeing the murals of the Belfast peace wall), along with a list of favorite small towns (Carlingford, Inistioge, Kinsale, Kenmare, Dingle). Also new from Frommer's is "500 Adrenaline Adventures," providing inspiration for daredevils, geeks and other travelers with a taste for unusual, wacky and heart-racing experiences. Among the ideas listed in the $20 paperback: ziplining, wildlife encounters, extreme eating contests, like the famous Coney Island hot dog competition, and the annual Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Race in England. DK EYEWITNESS TRAVEL'S BACK ROADS: Road trips are a beloved way to explore America, but DK Eyewitness Travel has launched a new series this spring to inspire road trips in Europe. The "Back Roads" series includes guides to France, Italy, Britain, Ireland and Spain. Each $25 paperback describes two dozen "leisurely drives" designed to take anywhere from a day to a week. Tours outlined in the France book, for example, include the Alsace wine route, Obernai to Eguisheim; the Champagne route, Reims to Montagne de Reims; Normandy, from Giverny to Varengeville-sur-Mer; and the Pyrenees, from Collioure to St-Jean-de-Luz in the Basque country. Other features include mapped itineraries with highlights, detours and activities; "where the locals go" listings of small hotels and restaurants with regional cuisine; a pullout country map; zip codes to make it easy to coordinate the text with a GPS; and practical information on driving conditions, road signs and parking. LUXURY COLLECTION DESTINATION GUIDES: This set of six paperbacks from The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts, a group of more than 70 hotels and resorts in 30 countries, includes guides to India, Italy, the United States, Spain, Argentina and Greece. The slim paperbacks do not offer the detailed content of traditional travel guides but do have lush photographs, inspirational quotes and a few pages of highlights listing select museums, cultural institutions, shops and restaurants in each destination. Each guide also includes commentary from celebrity chefs, with Mario Batali providing his thoughts on Italy, including a recipe for tortelloni with sage butter and his recommendations for favorite restaurants: Cibreo and Teatro del Sale in Florence; Al Covo, Da Fiore and Lina d'Ombra in Venice, and Ristorante Matricianella, Roscioli, Antico Forno and Checchino in Rome. The set of six, packaged in a beautiful oversized box, costs $140. The books will be available in Luxury Collection guest rooms, in Assouline Boutiques in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York, and online at http://www.luxurycollection.com and other retailers. THE SMART FAMILY'S PASSPORT: This book from Budget Travel, $14.95, is subtitled "350 Money, Time & Sanity Saving tips." Among the suggestions: Bring powdered iced-tea or fruit-punch packets to theme parks and add them to cups of water to save money on expensive drinks; find out if a membership to your local museum has reciprocal privileges at other institutions where you can get in free when you travel; and make your own picture dictionary. That way, if you do not know a foreign word for bathroom or taxi, you can get help from a local wherever you are just by pulling up the picture of the object on your phone or camera. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| High gas prices return - Post-Star Posted: 05 May 2010 07:58 PM PDT Though their summer travel plans couldn't be more different, they were of like mind on gasoline prices. Michele Bovee was expecting a summer of weekend camping trips close to her Corinth home, while Brian and Dee Dee Connor were about to embark on a four- to five-week driving tour of the United States. They were all at the Queensbury AAA office on Friday seeking some expertise. "Gas prices?" asked Brian Connor, with a tone of amused incredulity. "Basically, we just want to see the country, and that's the only way to see it." The Connors, who live in Massachusetts but have a summer place near Lake George, took a similar trip two years ago - when gasoline prices were over $4 per gallon - and they estimate the journey cost them $5,000. That included fuel, hotel rooms, meals and presents for family. The longest trip on Bovee's summer itinerary will be a drive - camper in tow - to Dover, Del., to take in a weekend of NASCAR fun. She was at AAA to get an E-ZPass for that trip and said the price of gasoline, which was hovering around $3 per gallon throughout the region on Wednesday, wasn't a factor in her vacation plans, either. "We usually just camp in a 50-mile radius around here," she said. Eric Stigberg, spokesman for AAA Northway, said carefree attitudes about fuel prices are common, although things could change as the summer progresses. "What we've seen historically is that $3 (per gallon) is a threshold for people actually changing their travel plans," he said during a recent interview. "Then, people will be reconsidering where they're going and, in a lot of cases, if they're going." Even as gas prices continued their annual climb toward the summer driving season, industry experts warned higher prices are likely to be the norm for the next few months. Wednesday's $3.02 average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy region was 9 cents higher than the month-ago price of $2.93, according to AAA Northway. Motorists were paying $2.18 per gallon a year ago. At that rate, each 20-gallon fuel-up will cost consumers $16.80 cents more this year than in 2009. Early last month, the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, said retail gasoline prices nationwide will average $2.92 over the summer tourism season, which runs from April 1 to Sept. 30. The administration, citing improving demand due to a recovering economy, warned that the price is likely to top $3 per gallon at times. On Wednesday, the administration reported the national average was $2.90 per gallon, up a nickel from the prior week and 82 cents more than the same week last year. The East Coast average price rose more than 4 cents over the week to $2.88 per gallon, the administration reported. Local tourism experts downplayed the significance of high gas prices on the region's tourism industry. "I think the weather is even more important than gas prices," said Todd Shimkus, CEO of the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce. "If somebody could order us sunny weekends, I don't care what the gas price is, we'd have a successful tourism season." Luisa Craige-Sherman, executive director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce, was looking at a different price comparison as her gauge for a successful summer. The U.S. dollar was tracking just above the Canadian dollar this week, an exchange rate that was less favorable last summer. The last time the two currencies were so similarly valued was in 2008, when Lake George aimed a tourism marketing campaign directly at Canadians. Craige-Sherman said the chamber has renewed that effort by attending tourism trade shows in Canada this year, and she said interest appears to be strong among Canadian tourists. Scott Sopczyk, transportation director with the Greater Glens Falls Transit System, said he noticed a major boost in Canadian ridership in 2008. He said a higher price for gas also tends to push more travelers toward the trolley service that runs between Glens Falls and Lake George during the tourism season. Such was the case in 2008, when gas prices topped $4 per gallon at times. "Our phone was ringing off the hook when it was up above $4," Sopczyk said. "Just to put it in perspective, when it was up that high, our vehicles were so full there were times when we had to leave people at the curb because we didn't have room. We just didn't have enough drivers or equipment to address it." Sopcyk stressed that public transportation is an economical choice "no matter what the gas price is," but that Glens Falls Transit is prepared to add vehicles and drivers to routes if demand spikes again this year. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Berlin makes it six for gay city guides 60by80.com - PRWeb Posted: 06 May 2010 12:08 AM PDT | Is that a Wurst in your pocket, or are you just über glücklich to see me? And just how do you say "let's have a fabulous, gay time" in German? 60by80.com, the guide for gay men, has landed in Berlin and is offering a luxurious weekend at the five-star Brandenburger Hof to a lucky reader. New York, NY (PRWEB) May 6, 2010 -- The German capital becomes the sixth city to receive the queen-sized treatment, joining 60by80's online city guides to Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York and Paris. And more cities are in the works for the young media company, which has set out to become the leading international lifestyle brand for gay professionals. The stylish guides are unapologetically gay, yet far removed from rainbow-etched stereotypes. The reality is that the majority of gay men do not spend a lot of time in gay-only establishments, and 60by80's guides reflect this. Gay men appreciate good design, great service and a fabulous experience as much as everybody else, if not more, even if their needs, preferences and priorities may be slightly different. The aim of 60by80 is to show readers where, as gay men, they are most likely to have a great experience, regardless of whether the place is considered gay or not. Travel-friendly, but for locals and visitors alike, the guides offer savvy and timely advice for restaurants, nightlife, hotels, shopping, and sightseeing. To launch its guide to Berlin, 60by80 is offering readers a chance to win a weekend stay for two at the fabulous five-star Brandenburger Hof luxury hotel with a dinner at its Michelin-starred Die Quadriga restaurant. The elegant hotel is a design gem only a stone's throw from the Ku'Damm, and one lucky winner will be spoilt at the hands of the staff and indulge in the exciting new Nordic cuisine from Finnish chef Sauli Kemppainen. Details for how to enter the competition are available on 60by80's website For more information and queries please contact Michael Fuchs by email 60by80 is unique in covering destinations from the gay perspective and filtering listings accordingly: The perfect site for all those fed up with trawling through guides aimed at the straight traveller, or amateur gay sites littered with adult industry promo material. The stylish guides aim to be fun and entertaining, yet informative and to-the-point, written by savvy, in-the-know locals. In addition to its timely and carefully selected listings, the 60by80 site features useful services such as interactive, printable city maps, a monthly newsletter with special offers from handpicked quality partners, a directory of useful local services and profiles of prominent gay personalities who share their thoughts on the city they live in. Editorially driven, with original content and a strong style element, 60by80 breaks down barriers for premium brands to reach an attractive gay market. It sets out to become the leading international lifestyle brand for gay professionals and the partner of choice for brands to reach the high-end gay segment. ABOUT BRANDENBURGER HOF HOTEL AND DIE QUADRIGA RESTAURANT ABOUT THE COMPETITION ### Post Comment: Bookmark - Del.icio.us | Furl It | Technorati | Ask | MyWeb | Propeller | Live Bookmarks | Newsvine | TailRank | Reddit | Slashdot | Digg | Stumbleupon | Google Bookmarks | Sphere | Blink It | Spurl Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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