12 Cyber Monday hotel deals you won’t want to miss

by Melanie Nayer on

There are two types of Thanksgiving deal finders: Those who take a quick cat nap after Thanksgiving dinner so they can be in line super early for Black Friday shopping, and those who wait out the weekend then pounce on Cyber Monday sales. In the retail world, we call this power of purchase. In the hotels world, this type of consumer behavior is known as impulse shopping, and the hotels are more than happy to aid to your impulse.

Cyber Monday deals are no secret to smart shoppers, but we wrangled up 12 of the best hotel Cyber Monday deals you won’t want to miss. From New York to Costa Rica, get your fingers ready (and your credit card out) for some fast bookings:

1. Copley Square Hotel: This little boutique hotel in Boston just received it’s four-stars and is planning to celebrate with a Cyber Monday special. Book a boutique room for $129 for a Boutique Room or a Deluxe Room for $149. The deal is valid from Nov. 29, 2010 – March 31, 2011, for all dates except New Year’s Eve.

2. Westin St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: Starwood’s Cyber Monday Sale is a brand-wide event, but we like this one in particular for its location. Head to St. John from Jan. 1- April 30, 2011, and stay a t the Westin St. John for $289 per night – a 35% discount off regular starting rates. For reservations use rate code CYBERLTO.

3. The Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club: The historic 85-year old resort in St. Petersburg, FL, will offer a discount of 30% off the best available rate for those who book online on Cyber Monday (Nov. 29, 2010) using booking code DOD. The offer is valid for stays through Jan. 8, 2011. Rates start at $112 per night.4. Broadway Hotel & Hostel, New York City: Book rooms at 15% off the best available rate on the property’s private and semi-private guest rooms. Using rate code CYBER, the offer is valid for booking Nov. 29 – Dec. 3 for stays through March 31, 2011.

5. Marrakech Hotel, New York: Guests who book two or three nights at the Marrakech Hotel, a Moroccan-themed hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, will save 15% off best available rates when booking with rate code CYBER. Those who stay four nights or more can enjoy a 20% discount using the special Cyber Monday code. Booking is available Nov. 29 – Dec. 3, 2010 for visits Dec. 19, 2010 – March 31, 2011.

6. Portland Square Hotel, New York: Currently undergoing renovations to become the four-star Sanctuary Hotel, the Portland Square Hotel in Times Square will offer a 20.10% discount on best available rates to guests booking on Nov. 29 with rate code CYBER. This offer applies for stays through March 31, 2011.

7. Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, Aruba: Buy two nights at the leisure rate and get two nights free. Rates start at $294/night and are valid for travel from April 26 – December 22, 2011. Book online and request Promo Code D52.

8. San Juan Marriott Resort, Puerto Rico: Follow @SanJuanMarriott on Twitter and any time on CyberMonday tweet “I want to book a #CyberMonday vacation at @SanJuanMarriott” to receive a reply DM with an exclusive booking code and details for a special offer. Once you receive your offer code, head to www.marriottsanjuan.com and use your twitter provided promotional code to book your room.

9. Kura Hulanda Resorts, Curacao: Buy two nights get third night free at Hotel Kura Hulanda or Lodge Kura Hulanda. Valid on all nightly room rates starting at $130/night. Travel from now until Dec 23, 2010 and Jan 03 – April 16, 2011. Make sure to mention CyberMonday when you call or email for reservations [877-264-3106 or email reservations@kurahulanda.com]

10. Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Costa Rica: Book your 2011 vacation on CyberMonday and receive $99-$119 nightly rate at Costa Rica Marriott Hotel San Jose (deluxe room), Courtyard San Jose Escazu (standard room), Residence Inn San Jose Escazu (studio); and $119.00 plus tax per room/night at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort (standard room). Valid for Travel: January 1 – December 19, 2011and request promo code PR5.

11. Cuisinart Resort & Spa, Anguilla: Book seven nights but only pay for five with this CyberMonday deal at the Cuisinart Resort & Spa. Plus, you’ll receive an additional $250 food and beverage credit. With promotion, pro-rated nightly rates start at $580 per night. (Savings of $235 per night). The rates are valid for travel from January 3 – April 2, 2011.

12. Colonnade Hotel, Boston: Celebrating the hotel’s 30 percent reduction in energy usage, the Colonnade Hotel is offering 30% off select room rates through Feb. 2011 on Cyber Monday.

Costa Rica Marriotts celebrate non-stop flights from New York with $101 rates

by Melanie Nayer on

Marriott Hotels and Resorts of Costa Rica found a way to celebrate the tri-state New York area. Residents of New York, Connecticut or New Jersey can stay at any of the participating Marriott Costa Rica hotels starting at $101 a night through Dec. 31, 2010. Why? Because they like you, and because Marriott is celebrating the recent launch of American Airlines’ direct flights to San Jose from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Those of you looking for deals to Costa Rica will save up to 40 percent off room rates under the “Residents Rate” promotion (code: N9R).

Guests will receive deluxe accommodations for two at Los Suenos Marriott and Costa Rica Marriott (both 5-star hotels) and at the Courtyard by Marriott San Jose Escazu. Los Suenos Marriott stays ($101/night) include free use of the free-form pool with private coves and water activity areas as well as lighted tennis courts and fitness center. Those staying at the Costa Rica Marriott ($119/night) will get complimentary use of the two outdoor pools and a whirlpool, three tennis courts, nature trails, and fitness center. Stay at The Residence Inn by Marriott San Jose Escazu ($112/night) and you’ll enjoy a Studio Suite with a fully equipped kitchen and separate living area, complimentary high speed internet, complimentary grocery shopping service, complimentary laundry service, complimentary breakfast, and complimentary use of the full-service business center.

If you need help deciding which Marriott to chose it’s helpful to know that both Los Suenos and Costa Rica Marriott have brand new luxury spas and the Marriott Los Suenos also has a golf-course located in the Costa Rica rainforest.

Visit a baby sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica

by Meg Nesterov on


It’s been a long week, take a few minutes to enjoy some cuteness. Sloths may not typically come to mind as a cute animal, but I’m sure after you watch this video, you’ll come around. I first saw a sloth at the New York Times Travel Show (part of a Busch Gardens exhibition) and immediately fell in love with their cuddly, sleepy, smiley oddness. This video was taken at the Aviarios Del Caribe sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, home to over 100 sloths and managed by sloth “whisperer” Judy Arroyo, who probably never complains about a long day at the office.

Visit the sloths up close in Costa Rica near San Jose; the $25 tour includes a canoe ride through the Estrella River Delta and optional jungle walks. There’s even a hotel on site if you want to sleep with the sloths (you’d think with all the sleeping sloths do, there’d be a pillow menu)! If you want to help support the sloth cause further, there’s an adoption and volunteer program.

Need more animals to get you through Friday? Enjoy Lonely Planet editor and Gadling favorite Robert Reid’s take on animals who travel; I’ll nominate the sloth for “slow travel.”

Money buys happiness, except maybe in Spain

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The five happiest countries in the world have two things in common: their all pretty far north in Europe, and money generally isn’t a problem. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands top the latest list of the world’s happiest nations, due in large part, it seems, to the fact that basic needs are covered by sufficient incomes. Spain, on the other hand, ranked seventeenth of 21 European countries … it must be the relaxed lifestyle.

Gallup, which conducted the study, found that money is good for a certain kind of bliss:

“Money is an object that many or most people desire and pursue during the majority of their waking hours,” researchers wrote in the report. “It would be surprising if success at this pursuit had no influence whatsoever when people were asked to evaluate their lives.”

Denmark boasted a per-capital GDP of $36,000 last year, putting it ahead of 196 of the 227 countries for which the CIA collects data (don’t go down the conspiracy road – it’s for the agency’s “World Factbook”).

Now, monetary satisfaction only addresses how happy people are about future prospects. When it comes to day-to-day smiles, having basic social needs is much more important, which is why Gallup found that Costa Rica finished sixth:

“Costa Rica ranks really high on social and psychological prosperity,” says [Jim] Harter [chief scientist at Gallup]. “It’s probably things systemic to the society that make people over time develop better relationships, and put more value on relationships. Daily positive feelings rank really high there.”

So, there are two keys to happiness: being rich and being loved. How do you measure up?

[photo by dotbenjamin via Flickr]

Travel Recommendations for The Office

by Andrew Evans on


Back in the olden days, long before the Internet was born, there was this thing called a travel agent–typically semi-self-aware, middle-aged ladies who helped you pick out a nice vacation destination, find a hotel that was “so you” and then book your plane tickets printed on carbon paper, folded and then stuffed into fancy airline covers. The whole process was about inside relationships, consumerist trust and catering to personal tastes. Sadly, travel agents went out of style along with high-top shoes and dual tape decks, or rather, we all became travel agents and the ones who got paid to do it lost their jobs.

As an empowered, self-proclaimed Internet travel agent, I’m offering my services gratis to the folks that need it the most: those overworked, underpaid, Vitamin-D deficient fun bunch of NBC‘s The Office, If they’re like most Americans out there, the employees of Dunder-Mifflin get only 10-15 days of vacation a year and should be using every bit of it (along with a few sick days) to get the hell out of Scranton, PA. Assuming the medicinal and therapeutic properties of travel, and summoning the travel agents’ lost art of matching personality to destination, I offer the following recommendations:

Michael Scott spent Christmas at a Sandals in Jamaica with girlfriend/boss Jan Levinson. So wrong. This was clearly a blatant case of cheesy product placement and failed to take Michael to that place where he belongs, which is on a safari in Tanzania’s Serengeti. Yes, the boss man would be just as happy at some wildlife park in Florida, but for the full range of Michael antics, you’d need him to actually be in Africa, mimicking African accents and getting a royal kick out of all the massive animals. Fast-forward to the zebra carpet on his office floor, Masai shields hanging on his wall and his new moniker “Chief.”Jim Halpert disappeared himself to Australia to avoid Pam’s pending marriage to another man. OK, we get it–Australia is the farthest place from Pennsylvania and he was nursing a broken heart, but in reality, uh, he would have been nursing some hellish jet lag. We love Australia, but it’s not a weekend getaway, or even a one-week getaway. Methinks Jim needs to go to Dublin, Ireland. Not only because he would appreciate Guinness and look handsome in tweed, but that plucky Irish spirit might counter his nervous nature. Also, as one of the better-paid employees in The Office, Jim might actually be able to afford super-expensive Dublin.

Pamela Beesley doesn’t seem that well-traveled, bizarrely. She’s camped in the Poconos and did a brief stint in artsy New York City but this new wife and mother could definitely expand her horizons. Paris for a week of art and luxury should do the trick. We recommend splurging at Hotel Fouquet’s Barrière on the Champs-Elysées (for the spa) and spending her days floating from one art museum to the next. Take your mom or a friend. Let Jim stay home and take care of the baby.

Dwight Schrute already lives in his own little world, nevertheless, he reveals a penchant for large, open spaces. Russia is such a place. Also, Russians love the martial arts and beets. In fact, in Russia there are entire collective farms that grow nothing but beets, so Dobra Pozhalovat Comrade Schrute. No matter that the new Russia is fiercely capitalist and worships pop culture, Dwight will find his own tribe and come back with some sound ideas on organizational behavior.

Phyllis Vance is a classy woman attached to a rich refrigerator-selling husband to pay for all of her audacious tastes. The Moroccan Christmas party she threw in Season 5 reveals a girlish interest in some fabled, exotic Orient, but she also needs dependable electricity and a lot of good restaurants. Hence my verdict of Istanbul. Turkey’s largest city is also one of the greatest eating cities in the world–an explosion of foreign sights and culinary delights. Also, Phyllis loves to wear shawls, of which there are many to choose from among Istanbul’s crazy bazaars. (Bob, you should stay here.)

Ryan Howard needs a double kick in the pants for his affectation and superiority complex. Yeah, he already took time off to “travel” in Thailand but anyone who’s been to Thailand knows that much of the country is just a playground for the sort of entitled backpacker that is Ryan. That’s why we’re sending short, frail, pale Ryan to sunny, sandy Kuwait and not on vacation, but Kuwait as in, “you’re in the army now, kid.” He never makes it into Iraq (imagine Ryan with war stories), but learns to answer every sentence with, “Sir”.

Kelly Kapoor is Indian-American, yes, but those of who’ve actually been to India knows she would absolutely hate it there. Kelly is a serious girl who loves anything pink and struggles with her shopaholic nature. And where is the best shopping in the whole wide world? Buenos Aires, baby, B.A. We recommend Kelly stay at this boutique hotel in Palermo Soho, surrounded by a bunch of unique clothing and jewelry stores. Also, I’m thinking Kelly is liking the Argentine gelato (and men).

Andy Bernard is the ultimate frat boy who just can’t (or won’t) grow out of it. This Ivy League manboy surely has a few pairs of well-ironed Bermuda shorts, folded nicely in his summer clothes box, and he will need them for his trip to Bermuda. In the end, all of his bros will flake on him so he’ll have to go alone, but the pink beaches, sophisticated rum drinks, and yacht culture will suit him just fine.

Angela Martin is a woman who needs to chill out, big time. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of uptight career women who’ve found their bliss in Tuscany, so Angela, Italy it is. Please take all that saved-up leave and get lost on some one-lane highway between Florence and Siena, then get found by your future Italian boyfriend. Please come back with flowing skirts and open collars, wearing your hair down and with a new-found penchant for Chianti. Grazie Mille.

Kevin Malone needs to raise hell in New Orleans, obviously. The man has a funky party side that just can’t break free in boring Scranton. As a musician, he’ll dig the jazz and as a fat man, he’ll dig the beignets, po’ boys, muffaletta, and gumbo. He will likely return bearing gifts of hot sauce for all. Go Kevin.

Meredith Palmer is a difficult client for a travel agent to please. The woman is boozy, so the Scotland whiskey tour (with designated driver) seems appropriate, however, this 6-night Carnival Cruise from Charleston, South Carolina would be perfect–if it includes drinks (Meredith, please wear sunblock). And yet, the redhead in Supplier Relations also loves going topless, so the Côte d’Azur would be just perfect.

Creed Bratton has already spent a lot of time in China and even speaks Chinese. He’s also a total whack job and kind of creepy and a schemer. Hmmm . . really old plus Chinese plus funky and scheming equals Macau. Creed will quickly lose track of the days as he gambles his way to oblivion. Once he makes his shady millions, he can go into hiding in the nearby Philipines and never come back, because really, is Creed even necessary?

Stanley Hudson is a no-nonsense kind of guy with predictable, easy-living tastes. We recommend St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, where time moves slowly and the fruity drinks are plentiful. Stanley never has to set foot outside his resort, nor will he ever let the Caribbean go past his knees.

Toby Flenderson ran off to his escapist dreamland of Costa Rica but honestly, his skin just isn’t right for it. Really Toby, consider Canada. You’ll never get sunburnt, the people are as nice and respectable as your human-resource mind believes all mankind should be, and it’s so, so safe. I say get your daughter hooked on Anne of Green Gables and then surprise her with a trip to Prince Edward Island.

Oscar Martinez already took a three-month vacation to Europe with his boyfriend Gil in Season 3. Now that he’s single, he should really be more adventurous. You’d think Amsterdam or Sydney’s Mardi Gras but I’m gonna go out on a limb and recommend Tennessee’s Dollywood. What’s better for a gay, Mexican-American accountant than a theme park memorializing an iconic diva, right in the heart of the Smokey Mountains? Dollywood has a huge gay following and yet is so quaint and respectably Appalachian. He’ll love it.

Erin Hannon Somebody in the office doesn’t have a passport and we all know it’s Erin. Coy, naïve, and a little odd, Erin still just doesn’t see the need for a passport. Sending Erin to San Diego, California would be about as far as she could go, plus there are lots of brave Navy guys to show her around. Incidentally, I think she would really love the zoo.

Darryl Philbin represents the blue collar element on the show and yet he’s got way better tastes than most of the office. Urban, hip, and cooler than cool, Daryl would be happiest in Berlin. Germany’s capital-under-construction is the perfect mix of blue collar power, good beats, and good times.