Have hotels gone to the dogs?
Condé Nast Traveler posted a list of unusual hotel amenities from the 2012 Gold List of top hotels. One of the Top Ten, which they claim is the Gold Standard of the Gold List, The Peninsula Beverly Hills offers Fido and Fifi amenities fit for a king! Here’s what CNT says:
“At The Peninsula Beverly Hills, canine guests are treated to personalized towels, plush doggy beds, walks around the neighborhood by white-uniformed staff, and a special “people-food-for-dogs” menu, with eats like a Bow Wow Beef Burger and Spot’s New York Strip. Owners can keep the doggy bag for themselves!”
Pet friendly hotels are plentiful. Once relegated to more moderate priced accommodations, you now have options across all price ranges. Dog sitting? No problem! Is Fido craving a walk in a stylish dog park in San Francisco? It can be arranged! Does Fifi want a new “do” in LA? Pick from a plethora of high-end doggie spas and styling centers!
I know my 2 four-legged kids, Winnie and Willie, would love to live in the “lap” of luxury. I’m just not sure I’d spend the bucks to take them with me. As it is, they stay at Woofs Play & Stay, which offers lonesome owners like me the opportunity to observe them via video camera and I like my vacations that way. They have theirs and I have mine and rarely, if ever, shall the twain meet.
What’s your opinion on traveling with your pet?
City Getaways? YES!
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What a conundrum! Announcing our updated website on our website
In all the excitement of the past few months*, I forgot to share that we’ve updated our website! We have new homepage photos, updated most of our other pages, and have new photos of us. I could write a whole blog just about the advisors’ resistance to having new photos taken, but check them out. Jenny Wheat, photographer extraordinaire, captured our essence! http://www.greatgetaways.travel/about/our-advisors/ When you click on an advisor, you’re taken to a page with more photos of each of us highlighting our tagline of “Imagine. Create. Experience.” We’ve also added a page for “in the know” tips before you begin your vacation. Hopefully, God willing and the creek “don’t” rise, I’ll remember to update them regularly!
What other features would you like to see? We’re playing with some ideas and we want your input. This site is for you—to plan a vacation, to learn about us, to see photos from around the world, to fulfill your travel dreams. Please join Great Getaways Travel and create a website that works for all of us passionate travelers!
*You did follow the asterisk, didn’t you? What was some of the excitement of the past few months? Here are a few highlights:
- Judi Chaitman was selected as a Top Travel Specialist by Condé Nast Traveler for the 11th year in a row: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, & 2011, http://www.cntraveler.com/travel-tips/travel-specialists/judi-chaitman
- We added 3 advisors to our staff: Angela DiFeo, Kassie Lindsay, and Karen Henderson
- Great Getaways Travel was chosen as one of 25 Under 25, 25 top businesses with under 25 employees, http://www.ithinkbigger.com/25-under-25r-awards
- Chef Debbie Gold, Executive Chef of The American Restaurant, agreed to participate in our exclusive cruise event aboard Regent Seven Seas Mariner in May, 2013, which Becky Sullivan and her husband, Brian, will host: http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters/bio/debbie-gold, http://www.greatgetaways.travel/about/our-advisors/test-person/
- Barbara King sold a flight into Space to a Kansas City business person aboard Virgin Galactic, http://www.greatgetaways.travel/things-to-do/space-travel/
- Barbara King was named as one of the Top 100 People in KC who make life better, http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=9Kr1Y08c1bT2&EID=38f3e166-4016-4c37-8e2f-b59d22ab9f9f&skip=
- We’re gathering delicious vacations for our 20th Anniversary Celebration and Auction for children’s charities to be held September 23rd at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Overland Park, KS. www.greatgetaways.travel
Okay, no more asterisks! You can stop reading now….
The Great Train Adventure-the continuing saga of The Traveling Kings
Au revoir Paris et Buon Giorno, Milano, Genoa, and Portofino! Today we find the Traveling Kings embarking on a rail journey from Paris to Genoa and onward by car to Portofino, Italy. A true tale of wanderlust, we hadn’t ridden a train since the few minutes we spent aboard the Maglev in Shanghai, traveling at over 200 mph to the Pudong International Airport. Suffice it to say, the TGV is no Maglev, but it’s actually a delightful way to spend the day, enjoying views of the French countryside (okay not really breathtaking—definitely do-able) and a taste of the famous Alps. Did I mention we saved over $600 by taking the train instead of flying AND we didn’t have to endure the usual lines at Airport Security.
The trains are prompt, legroom equivalent to Premier Coach on an airplane, food comparable to flying, a game of “Guess the meat” and it’s not free. Finding our seats was a bit tricky. I was getting comfortable in what I thought were our seats when two men, speaking rapidly in a mix of French, Italian, and mystery dialect, told us we were in their seats. Not shying from this conflict, I gave a confident smile and showed them our tickets and indicated the seat number on the ticket matched the one above my head. Exasperated, they continued to wag their tongues and wave their arms in an aerobic frenzy. Cobbling together a few words I remember from years of studying French, “ce sont nos sièges!” [These are our seats.] The older man grunted, “Un.” [One] “Non, deux, mon mari et moi!” [No, two, my husband and me!]. “Oui,” he agreed…but what he was trying to tell us and we finally understood after a few more renditions of “Who’s on First” was that we belonged in the second train car and we were sitting in Car #1. So, swiftly switching from confidant to apologetic, we grabbed our bags and found the “CORRECT” car and seats.
Seven leisurely hours later we arrived in Milan at the Milan ##### Station. Rail Europe, who kind of has a lock on European rail tickets sold in the US, told us to take the Metro from the station at which we arrived to catch the train to Genoa from a station called Milan Centro. They assured us we had enough time to make the connection using the Metro. Then, click, they were gone and on to the next person needing rail tickets. The ticketing agents at Rail Europe aren’t rude, they just practice Customer Indifference. We had just a teensy weensy problem—we couldn’t find the Metro nor could we find anyone who understood what we were looking for. We did meet another “etranger” meekly asking people for Il Metro but it was truly a case of the blind leading the blind.
The minute hand on the station clock seemed to be moving rapidly and our “easy” connection was starting to fade from view. We made a decision to take a taxi rather than the Metro (our words were a bit more colorful than making a “decision”) and made it to Milan Centro with an easy 10 minutes to spare.
Next time we decide to stray from the beaten path, please remind me that we aren’t as young and fit as we used to be, that carting luggage up and down stairways is better left to Millenials, or actually, better left to high school graduates! The good news is we got one heck of an aerobic workout with some hardcore strength training thrown in at no extra charge!
Pass the sugar, please…
Bonjour and welcome to today’s edition of the Kings of Travel Traveling Tales. When we last left off, we were extolling the virtues of Paris and Hotel Esprit St. Germain. Moving forward (actually I’m on a train going forward but sitting backward at the moment—are you with me on that?), we found our way to Gerard Mulot, an haute Foodie experience—even for the non-Foodie! Gerard Mulot is a treasure trove of tortes, tartes, breads, cookies and the world’s best macarons! (Amuse me on this-no, I have not tasted all macarons in every corner of the world-consider this editorial license!). The store is a bakery, a patisserie, a candy shop that converts a non-chocoholic into a raving cocoa craving lunatic. Customers patiently queue up to enter the small venue, which uses every wall and window to display their delicious edible art. We bought two boxes of assorted flavors of macarons, totally 30 nuggets of this sugared quarter-size “manna” from Heaven, which translates to €50 worth (approximately $62 USD). While some may consider this extravagant (after all, each morsel is about a two-nibble serving), I classify it somewhere akin to, oh say, one’s first kiss—yes, that unforgettable.