Luxury Travel: A 24 hour detox spa package at Mandarin Oriental, New York

by McLean Robbins on
Bathing suit season is just a few short weeks away. If you’re looking to maximize your detox in minimal time (and in a luxe hotel setting), this package sounds just about perfect.

The new “Ultimate 24 Hour Detox Spa Package” at Mandarin Oriental, New York includes accommodations, The Spa’s detoxifying Himalayan Salt Sea and Chakra Therapy treatment and one day’s worth of the trendy BluePrintCleanse juices.

You’ll begin with an organic purification tea, a dry brushing, and an application of an oxygen-intensive serum. You’ll then enjoy a Thermalism series of cooling and warming while a Prana breathing sequence is performed (supposedly to enhance the mind-body connection), followed by a cupping massage using silicon cups “to drain the toxins.”

Finally, relax with a full-body massage using heated Himalayan salt crystals, said to provide a dense concentration of minerals to balance the skin’s pH, remineralize and protect the skin. The treatment concludes with a soothing facial massage, Chakra healing and crystal therapy. Guests will receive a complimentary oxygen-intensive serum to take home.

Afterward, enjoy a spa bento box dinner in The Spa’s relaxing Oriental Tea Lounge. The next day, you’ll continue the detox with a day’s worth of BluePrintCleanse Renovation Cleanse juices (six 16oz.bottles). Guests will also get a copy of the BluePrintCleanse book to take home.

The package starts at about $2,000 per person, per night, lower than what one might expect, given the Mandarin Oriental name.

NYC’s ‘The Out’ hotel opens; Louisville plans their own gay hotel

by McLean Robbins on
NYC’s “The Out” hotel is finally opening its doors to guests today, reports HotelChatter, bringing to the city the first hotel actively marketing to the gay community. Rates start at $150, and the hotel says that if you tweet or share information online about your upcoming trip, they’ll give you a complimentary room upgrade.

Great. But let’s just say we’re not all that shocked by the opening of a hotel catering to the gay community in a city as big as New York.

But a gay hotel in Louisville, Kentucky? Now that’s news.

The Courier-Journal is reporting that plans are in the works for a 55-room boutique hotel in Louisville’s Smoketown neighborhood.

The hotel, called the Vu, will be located in a former warehouse with investments to be lead by a local businessman, also the owner of Louisville gay bar Connection, which bills itself as “one of the 60 best gay bars in the world.”

Rooms are expected to run just $150 – $175 a night and construction will hopefully begin this year.
What do you think – is a gay hotel in Louisville (or NYC) still scandalous, or is it just another hotel opening?

InterContinental Hotels Group launches EVEN, a wellness-focused hotel brand

by McLean Robbins on
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) today announced the US launch of EVEN™ Hotels, its new, wellness-focused hotel brand.

What is a “wellness hotel”?
Over a span of 18 months, IHG closely analyzed emerging trends, conducted studies and talked to over 4,000 customers. The research showed a demand shift to a holistic wellness travel experience, and confirmed an unmet need among customers – staying healthy while they travel.

Keep in mind, these won’t be destination spas or luxury resorts. The operating model for EVEN Hotels will be similar to limited service hotels.


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What will guests find?
Guest rooms will be designed for in-room workouts with multi-functional room amenities (e.g. coat rack that doubles as pull-up bars); a best-in-class gym with equipment and group exercise activities; a “Wellness Wall” resource for fitness tips, walking distances, and equipment rentals; and personalized guest services offering advice on fitness options.

Rooms will feature tech amenities such as high speed Wi-Fi, multimedia ports, easy access to outlets, and ample desk space. Additionally, there will be social areas in the bar and lobby. Rooms will also feature green and allergy-friendly amenities, including: hypoallergenic linens, powerful showerheads, natural lighting, LED dimmers, and antibacterial wipes.
Nutritionally designed menus will offer a particular focus on natural, fresh, fit, and energizing meals. In an open-air café and bar, guests can enjoy complimentary coffee, mini-smoothies, and flavored, filtered water with glass bottles available to fill up and take back to their rooms.

The company is so confident in the brand that they have planned an aggressive $150 million growth plan over the next three years and expects to sign contracts for 100 EVEN Hotels within the next five years.

Look for the first locations to be announced soon and the first hotel to open in early 2013.

Comedic team of ‘Portlandia’ set to create an off-beat Portland, Oregon, guidebook

by Jessica Festa on


Are you bored of the usual travel guidebooks aimed at everyday tourists? If you’re interested in Portland, Oregon, and would rather learn about funny, fictional places that could exist rather than the Oregon Zoo and the Portland Art Museum, you should put “PORTLANDIA: A Guide for Visitors” on your shopping list. Set to debut in November of 2012, the book is being created by the team who brought you the hit comedy series “Portlandia,” starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, which takes you on an off-beat tour of Portland while poking fun at the city.

“It will be written like a Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guidebook, but full of fake, made-up, humorous stuff that could easily exist in a place like Portland, but doesn’t,” explains Ben Greenberg, the executive editor of Grand Central Publishing who will be producing the book. “Everything will be a bit off.”


To get an idea of the team’s humor and what to expect, check out the clip above from “Portlandia” on the Independent Film Channel (IFC).

Serena Hotels: Opulence amidst squalor and bloodshed

by Dave Seminara on

Anyone for a game of badminton and a round of emerald-hunting in Pakistan’s Swat Valley? Or perhaps you fancy a beach resort on the shores of Lake Kivu, just minutes from the Democratic Republic of Congo?

The March/April issue of Foreign Policy features an interesting story and photo gallery on the luxury Serena hotel chain, which they dub the “Ritz Carlton of Failed States.” The chain, which originated in Africa in the 70s, operates luxury hotels in a variety of dodgy places, including Pakistan, Kabul, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Mozambique and others. The Serena hotels are operated by an economic development fund founded by the Aga Khan, a spiritual leader for Shia Ismaili Muslims.

FP reports the Kabul Serena (see photo above), which has been attacked three times has rooms that start at $356 per night. The chain has been criticized for partnering with the Assad regime in Syria on the development of hotels in Damascus and Aleppo, but Aga Khan told FP that the company’s involvement in conflict zones brings “an investment seal of approval” that helps attract more foreign investment. The hotels also create jobs in countries with high unemployment.

But is there something unseemly about a luxury hotel which features “holistic health and wellness services,” a pastry shop, swimming pool, a “mind, body and spirit spa,” and other amenities in an impoverished, failed state like Afghanistan? FP’s slideshow juxtaposes scenes of opulence at the Serena hotels with images of children sorting through trash, smoldering buildings, and tin roof shacks.

One can certainly quibble with the high prices and unnecessary luxuries of these hotels, but the notion that aid workers, journalists, government officials, and businessmen should stay in slum-like conditions while traveling to conflict states is far-fetched. The reality is that many of these people are stuck in very primitive, dangerous conditions, sometimes for weeks, months or even years, and only get to repair to places like the Serena hotels for well-deserved R & R’s.

I certainly wouldn’t begrudge a Medicins Sans Frontieres volunteer who spent the last six months treating sick children in the Congo a long weekend at the luxury Serena resort in Rwanda. That said, a case can be made that holing foreigners up in luxury hotels allows them to exist in a fairytale bubble, where they are insulated from what’s going on in the country at large. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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