Five travel gift ideas for Mother’s Day

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You need options – fast. Mother’s Day is less than month away, and moms want to travel. They want to get out on the road, be treated like royalty and experience all the luxuries for which they don’t have time day to day. With a whole world at your disposal, how do you choose? Well, I poked around and thought you might be interested in the following deals for Mother’s Day. Here are five ideas that will at least get you started.

1. Residence Inn by Marriott
At all 588 hotels, Residence Inn will be dishing out 50 red roses for moms – that’s 29,400 red roses you don’t need to remember to buy! Also, all guests – kids and dads included – will get free hot breakfast every day, free internet access and plenty of space in the guestrooms.

2. La Posada De Santa Fe Resort & Spa
Art, culture, fine dining and pampering are the norm in Santa Fe, and La Posada does it right. With its Mother’s Day Celebration package, good from May 1, 2010 to July 5, 2010, the resort kicks in a $200 spa credit (good at the RockResorts spa), a pair of specialty turquoise margaritas at the Staab Lounge and a bottle of champagne with chocolate-diped strawberries.3. ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa
Is there a stylish mom you need to take care of next month? ONE Bal Harbour has the answer. Ship her off with her friends for a girls-only getaway, where she can truly get away from the demands of motherhood for a little while. The resort’s “Sun, Stay and Shop” package includes two cocktails at the hotel bar, breakfast every day and a VIP shopping experience that’s got a car service, personal consultation and a special discount at Saks Fifth Avenue’s 5th Avenue Club.

4. Concorde Hotels & Resorts
Get mom off to the City of Lights this Mother’s Day for three night at the century- old, landmark Hotel Lutetia. With the “Centennial Offer,” this Parisian hotel includes a double room, buffet breakfast daily and a 100 euro gift voucher (for a celebration dinner, maybe?).

5. Abercrombie & Kent
Okay, this is top of the line. If you’re a fan of our Daily Pampering column, consider this to be up your alley. Check out an A&K “Journeys for Women” trip, which give moms and daughters the chance to bond while experiencing a foreign culture.

Moms make it clear: give us travel!

by Tom Johansmeyer on


Keep your flowers, cards and candy: mom doesn’t want it! She wants to travel, so give her what she wants for Mother’s Day. The latest survey from BedandBreakfast.com reveals that travel is the top gift choice for (as told by moms). So, if you need a few ideas, check out the Mother’s Day deals we’re running here on Gadling. The only excuse you won’t have this year is that you couldn’t find any travel to give!

And, to help you along, BedandBreakfast.com is running a deal this Mother’s Day season. Use promotion code BBMOM10, and you can save 10 percent on the purchase of a $100 (or more) gift card.

Three Intrepid Travel deals for Mother’s Day

by Tom Johansmeyer on


Are you standing in stores, staring at shelves and scratching your head? Figuring out the perfect Mother’s Day gift is always tough. In the end, you can’t afford what you want to get her, buy her something that sucks instead and try to look like the thought is really what counts. Every year, you go through it, and the outcome is the same. Until 2010.

Make this the year you do something different for your mother, giving her the chance to get away from her kids for a while. Here are three deals for Mother’s Day (which is May 9, this year) from Intrepid Travel:

1. The Kimberly
You can save 20 percent – that’s $338 – on Intrepid’s eight-day “Spirit of the Kimberly” excursion in northwestern Australia, which includes the Mimbi Caves, crystal clear pools, rare fossils and ancient rock art.
New price: $1,352

2. Grand China
Send your mother down the Yangzi River as part of a 21-day trip focused on cruising the most famous rivers in the world. Mom will get to enjoy the culture, countryside and archaeological sites offered up on this trip, and you’ll save 20 percent ($711).
New price: $2,844

3. Rome to Istanbul
Mom will spend her day on the Greek island of Santorini, relaxing because of her children – not despite them. This is only one of the 16 days on this trip, which includes Italy and Turkey, as well … not to mention a $558 savings.
New price: $2,232

Check out our other Mothers Day coverage here.

What does your mom prefer this May?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What does the mom in your life prefer? Whether you’re thinking about your wife or your own mom – not to mention anyone who’s given you a motherly nudge throughout your life – consider the gift of travel this may. The Preferred Hotel Group’s Mother’s Day program, IPrefer, offers a unique set of resort escapes at hotels across the United States. The “IPrefer Resort Escapes are valid until July 31, 2010. Sign up online (it’s free), and your favorite mom will enjoy a $75 daily activity credit, breakfast for two every day, a guaranteed room upgrade, late check-in and check-out and complimentary internet access.

Also, every participating resort will have a special amenity waiting for your favorite mom upon arrival. At The Palms Spa, a luxury Aveda spa at The Palms Hotel & Spa in Miami, Florida, discounts are available, and the theme is culinary at The Sanctuary Kiawah Island in South Carolina.

Pirates vs cruise ship: Travel fibs I’ve told my mother and a poll

by Jamie Rhein on

I don’t plan to tell my mother lies when I travel. I actually think what I’m saying is accurate information, but I have one of those mothers who sees disaster looming at many corners so I try to sideswipe her fears with a “That won’t happen.” The latest fib has to do with the pirates that attacked the MSC Melody cruise ship on Saturday.

See, just last month I insisted that pirates would not attack an MSC Cruise Line because I wanted her to agree to go with me and my son on a Greek cruise on the MSC Musica. My mother balked at first. She wondered about pirates. “Oh, Mom,” I said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Then there was the fire.

Two summers ago, I told her there wasn’t any chance that we were going to be in the midst of the fires that were blazing in Montana the same time that we were heading there. Never mind that the fires were making the national news.

Do the fires that were blazing right next to the highway count? They weren’t dangerous. All they were doing were burning up sections of hillside a few feet from the road when we passed. We did follow the warning sign that flashed “Don’t stop.” My daughter was able to snap this picture, however. Neat, huh?

Then there was the earthquake. I told my mom that Taiwan was perfectly safe and sound when my husband and I decided to move there with our then 6-year-old daughter. Three weeks after we moved to Hsinchu, I woke up in the middle of the night with the bed shaking like the tornado scene in the Wizard of Oz.. It wasn’t like we were at the epicenter, just close enough that objects spilled off shelves, we lost electricity for four days and most of the TVs at the swank Hsinchu Royal Hotel down the street took a tumble and broke. You might remember that earthquake. It made national news and there was a girl on the cover of Time Magazine with her head bandaged up and building rubble in the background.

It’s not that I plan to fib. It’s just that when one goes out in the world things happen. I’m thinking that since one MSC cruise had a run-in with pirates, our cruise should be excitement free. The pirates aren’t near Greece anyway. Right?

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