Love Nest Sonesta Style
 

 St. Maarten, The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort Casino wants to sweeten the pie with a new Romantic Rendezvous Package.

Stay in a Pool or Ocean View guestroom, and enjoy a gift box of chocolates and welcome bottle of champagne. Get one complimentary dinner for two including special dessert and house wine from room service and one complimentary breakfast in bed for two, plus20% off treatments at the Good Life Spa, and turndown service. The rates are $199 per room, per night, based on double occupancy with additional nights at $150 through 21 December, 2007.  Winter rates, in effect 2 January 2008 to 28 March 2008, begin at $349 per night, with additional nights at $299 per room, per night based on double occupancy.  For more information, call 800-223-0757 or click here.

        The Choo-Choo Card

 Maybe it's a coincidence.  Now that travelers are renewing their interest in railroad travel, especially along the Northeast corridor, Amtrak and Chase have teamed up to present a new affinity credit card   -- -- the Amtrak Guest Rewards World MasterCard.  As you swipe your way to happiness with this card, you get two points for every dollar spent on Amtrak   and one point for every dollar spent on any other card purchase.  There's a 5000 point bonus upon the first use of the card.  You also can exchange points for free Amtrak trips, hotel stays, car rentals and gift certificates.  For more information call 888.58.AMTRAK or click here.

         Magnum Opus

San Francisco, an exhibition devoted to the works of the photojournalism great David "Chim" Seymour opened at the de Young Museum on 29 September.  Seymour, gun down by Egyptian machine gun fire in 1956 during the Suez crisis, was an eyewitness to the stark drama is played out in the 1930s and 40s. exhibition images include of French workers demonstrating in 1930s France; the World War II aftermath;and European child refugees. There also will be portraits of Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, Bernard Berenson, Ingrid Bergman, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren. The exhibition closes 24 February 2008. For more information call or click here.

Image: Chim (David Seymour), Bernard Berenson, Rome, 1955, printed later, gelatin silver print. FAMSF, gift of Ben Shneiderman
 

                  Party Favorite

Cancun Hello adventure lover! The Blue Bay Getaway & Spa (for the over 21 set) has a new three-night Adventure Package. Features of the package are

          This is definitely a party place with its nightly all in fun entertainment for adults and its (optional) topless pool. Plus there is much to do in the water, on the beach and at the bar.

The Blue Bay Getaway’s Adventure Package is priced at $355 through 20 December, 2007. Rates include  accommodations, all meals, gourmet dining, room service for continental breakfast, all drinks and cocktails, daily activities, nightly entertainment, non-motorized water sports, billiards and ping-pong, scheduled shuttle between the two resorts and hotel taxes and tips.

For info, call 800-BLUE BAY, email or click here.

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Golf Gadget

At last! A new product  for golfers. Fine Tune Golf’s G-Clip MINI Compact Golf Tool ($11.95) places a ball marker and a golf glove grip and the same clip-on device. (What you clip it to is limited only by your imagination; but manufacturer notes that  belt, waistband or pocket are the usual locations.) The G-clip doubles as a money clip which makes it easy to spring for drinks. This friend of golfers is available at such retailers as Edwin Watts Golf Shops, The Golf Warehouse, and Golfsmith Golf & Tennis.

      Current Events

And now a plug for plugs. Or at least for a Web site that answers the post modern question — if it’s Tuesday and you’re in Belgium, what type of electric plug do you need?

            The World Standards site has a page devoted to the varieties of plug experience throughout the world. Its charts, illustrations, graphs and maps clearly demonstrate which plugs get used in which regions. Other site sections talk about in which countries on drives on the right and which on the left ; international paper sizes; the world's scripts and alphabets; internet domain suffixes; international car codes; international time; the metric system versus the imperial system; and international bar codes.

After all, what good is travel without standards? Click here.

Making it Real

Cancun  Real Resorts adds another beauty to the beach with its 6 February grand opening of a new luxury hotel, the 285-suite Royal in Cancun. Congratulations it’s an Aquarius! This new entry is a welcome and worthy addition to the area. Can there ever be enough luxury? {Master Suite bedroom, seen left.) Restaurants! Bars! Shopping! Swimming pools! Amenities up the wazoo, SPAzul, the Royal’s oceanfront spa, combines, we are told, European and Mayan philosophies. The new hotel leaps into the launch with a new six-day, five-night  package,  RomanticMemories. Perks include candle-lit dinner (serenade extra), and “Moon and Stars Massage.” Prices range from $1465 per person to $3730/person. The package is in effect until 20 December, 2007. For more information about the hotel, call 800.543.7556 or click here.

Keeping Pace with Space

Shreveport On November 18, the Earth was invaded — not by aliens — but by the new Space Center expansion at Sci-Port Discovery Center, located on the Downtown Shreveport-Bossier City Riverfront. Billed as “the world’s first open-access, interactive laser planetarium, which allows visitors to create their own astronomy experiences,”  the new facility has a good chance to live long and prosper.

Some of the Sci-Port Space Center attractions are the 32-foot-long, lighted Foucault Pendulum that rings individual chimes; The Solarium with Sundial is a room with a view of two cities, (Shreveport and Bossier City) plus a 20-foot sundial that doubles as a skylight; 60 interactive astronomy and space science exhibits about such topics as “Exploring Space” “The Solar System” “The Sky,” “ Flight,” and Deep Space.” The Space Center has Hydrogen Alpha and White Light Telescopes that allow visitors to safely view  spots, prominences, the corona, and the photosphere of the Sun. And there are  30 hands-on applied math exhibits.  Add live programs , space shows and loads of interactivity and you’ve got one space center that is out of this world.

For more information, call 318-424-3466 or click here And for more about Pluto, click here.

                New Princess Schedule
Bodies of water – Next year Princess Cruises will send seven ships to 135 ports in 57 countries and drop anchor in all seven continents. That’s  the word, according to the cruise line’s just-released 2007-08 schedule. Here are some highlights.

    The Sapphire Princess is doing 12, 15. 16 and 20 day trips. Its journeys include Sydney-Auckland., Beijing-Bangkok, Bangkok-Sydney and Anchorage-Beijing.
    The Star Princess sails about South America and Antarctica, including several Cape Horn cruises Its  Buenos Aires-Santiago route makes four trips 26 January and 18 March, 2008. Other Star Princess routes are Ft. Lauderdale-Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires-Antarctic Peninsula, and the 24-day transatlantic Buenos Aires-Venice. The Royal Princess, on the other hand takes two 14-day trips up the Amazon River. For information about all of the above as well as details on the voyages in Hawaii and Tahiti; the transpacific voyages and world voyages, call  800.PRINCESS, or click here.  Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises