Holiday Inn Express revamp includes pancake machines

by Laurel Miller on

Move over, Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity. There’s a new hotcake in town. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), parent company of the Holiday Inn family of brands, have unveiled pancakes as the secret weapon for the newly revamped Holiday Inn Express hotels.

All of the business traveler-oriented Express properties will introduce a 24-hour market center with grab-and-go options, and an industry-first: a pancake machine, by March 31, 2011. Thirty test hotels already offer the machine, which uses commercial bags of pre-made mix (just add water!). Dollops of batter drop onto a Teflon-coated cooking belt, yielding a perfectly cooked, great-tasting product, every time. The machines produce one pancake every 18 seconds, ensuring even the hungriest executives will get their fill.

IHG is nearing completion on its three-year Holiday Inn brand relaunch campaign. One of the biggest changes has been the implementation of the “social hub” concept, which, according to HotelNewsNow.com, takes “what has traditionally been separate parts of the lobby–the bar, the food and beverage area, [and] the lounge area–and bring[s] them together in one space.” The thinking is that such enforced coziness will provide an “environment to relax, eat, have fun, work, spend time with family, friends or colleagues,” says Verchele Wiggins, VP of global brand management for Holiday Inn.

[Photo credit: Flickr user d.loop]

Free Montreal travel in three simple steps

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Do you like Montreal? I have to admit, I’ve been there three times in the past two years, and I just can’t get enough of it. The minute I hit the streets of Old Montreal, I find myself craving a hotdog at the St-Denis Pool Hall before dashing over to the art galleries on St-Paul Ouest. Even with winter approaching rapidly, I’m feeling the pull up north.

So, I was pretty excited by a cool contest that just hit the web from CheapOair, and the social media junkie in me was drawn in. The upside is pretty exciting: two roundtrip tickets to Montreal from Air Canada, two luxurious nights at the Montreal Marriott Chateau and tickets to a variety of local attractions around the city from Tourism Montreal.

If you win, I strongly suggest you go hang out with local foodie Katerine Rollet for a while. Ask her about the local hotdogs, and she’ll probably know I put you up to it.

So, how do score this getaway? Well, you have to click around to three sites … and maybe do a little typing. There are three simple steps:

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1. Head over to Facebook – assuming you’re already one of the 500 million users of the site. “Like” the Montreal Buzz page.

2. While you’re in Facebook, click over to CheapOair’s page and “like” that, too.

3. Finally, you’ll have to leave Facebook (don’t worry, you can – and probably will – wind up back there at some point during the day). Visit the Tourism Montreal blog and leave a comment telling everyone why you want to head up there. You won’t get extra points for mentioning the hotdogs in town, but I haven’t heard that doing so will hurt.

The contest kicks off November 1, 2010 and ends on November 5, 2010. The winner will be announced on November 8, 2010. Fortunately, you won’t have to wait long to see if you’ll get to hit the road.

Click here to see what else there is to do in Montreal!

Great Washington D.C. Bars

by McLean Robbins on
This is a weekend of celebration. Between rallying, marching, running and Halloweening, you’re hopefully going to find time to explore one of Gadling’s other favorite pastimes … drinking. But don’t just wander into the first pub you find – take our word for it and sample these great Washington D.C. bars and lounges.
We’ve offered both the expensive and the dive, with alternative suggestions for each … after all, it was hard to stop talking about one of our favorite subjects.

Sure, you’ve read about it in Bon Appétit and GQ, but this is one bar that lives up to the media hype. Part speakeasy, part dive bar, you’ll find made-to-order craft cocktails and a small bites menu featuring innovative items like a kimchi hot dog. Bonus – they’re hosting the official Happy Hour of the Colbert rally from 3 – 7 PM on Saturday, with cocktails like the Screaming Eagle, Tea Bagger and Fear Monger.
If you like this, you’ll also love… D.C.’s other great speakeasy, The Gibson, or the restaurant/bar next door, (to Gibson), Marvin.
The cuisine? Latin Asian fusion. The ambiance? Straight outta NYC cool. The cocktails? To die for. Savor small plates and creative libations at this tequila bar and restaurant, offering more than 100 varieties of the famed spirit, plus beer, wine and sake.
Love Latin flair and cool cocktails, but want something a bit more bar-like? How about H Street Country Club, featuring D.C.’s only indoor putt-putt course.
Order a pot of moules frites and peruse the beer book (it’s huge) at this downtown restaurant and bar. A strong competitor for the city’s best beer list, Brasserie Beck draws crowds night after night for its mixture of great food (acclaimed by magazines like Esquire, you don’t have to take our word for it) and their impressively-titled “Beer Knight,” a beer expert who actually received a title for his knowledge of the brew.
If it’s beer you’re after, Logan Circle’s Churchkey also tops our list.

Love vodka? Who doesn’t – it’s perhaps America’s most popular cocktail spirit. Venture into this Dupont Circle bar and lounge for a sip or shot. You might even catch a Capitals player or two – Alex Ovechkin has been known to hang out here.
Care for another cocktail … and at this point you don’t care what type of vodka you’re getting? Head to Adams Morgan, where bars like Tom Tom are heavy on the fun and low on the pretension.

Care to have a quintessential D.C. experience? Search no further than this intimate bar and scotch lounge in the Willard Hotel. Offering an “old boys club” atmosphere, Round Robin is a great place to play “spot the Senator” while feeling like you’re sipping in a dose of history. Impress your cocktail partners with this fun fact: Walt Whitman and Mark Twain both drank here!
Prefer something a bit more low-key? How about Bourbon, offering a similarly great lineup of cocktails but a more laid-back ambiance.

P.O.V.
Perhaps D.C.’s most hyped-up bar, P.O.V. at the W Hotel gets points for both creative cocktails and an amazing view – overlooking the White House lawn and most of D.C. Savor hot or cold beverages (they’ll even bring you a blanket if you get cold). Just beware – you’ll probably need to make a reservation to get up to the roof this weekend.
Like the vibe but hate the line? Savor similarly cool cocktails and ambiance at Mie n Yu in Georgetown.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster reopens at Universal Studios Florida

by Leigh Caldwell on

The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster is open once again at Universal Studios Florida, after being closed for maintenance on Sept. 15.

Universal has been mum on exactly what maintenance was being performed. The coaster’s German manufacturer – Maurer Sohne – issued a memo on Sept. 2, advising that all coasters similar to the Rip Ride Rockit be shut down immediately because of a flaw in the coupling bar that holds the two trains in the ride cars together.

At the time of the ride’s closure, Universal said that they had already dealt with the manufacturer’s advisory.

The Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster boasts the tallest lift hill in Orlando, at 167 feet. It has a number of unusual design features, including a vertical loop that rolls the ride cars around so that riders are not upside down at the top of it. The coaster officially opened on Aug. 19, 2009.

The ride features individual speakers in each seat and the ability to “choose your own soundtrack,” from a list of 30 songs by artists such as the Black-Eyed Peas, No Doubt, Beastie Boys and Evanescence. There are also a number of hidden tracks for the Rip Ride Rockit that aren’t on the official song list.

Travel photographs: which reality would you rather see?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I got a good chuckle out of a story on Business Insider yesterday, “Here’s Why You Should Never Trust the Photos Hotels Post Online.” The accompanying slide show offers shots of a dozen hotels side by side, so you can see what’s marketing hype and what is severe reality. In a way, it’s shocking, but cynics out there are likely to concede that they aren’t surprised by the stark contrast in the photos.

So, this creates a real problem for travel bloggers. We go out with the goal of producing solid content, and that includes making it visually appealing. On the other hand, not all of us (me, specifically) are terribly handy with a camera. The result is a tough choice: do I go with the beautiful and give a property the chance to put its best foot forward, or do I expose them to the horrible risk associated with my caffeine- and nicotine-induced shakes? I guess a third option is to mix in both and identify clearly who’s responsible for what, but that could look awkward, too.

I’m genuinely curious: what do you think? Do you value the aesthetically pleasing, knowing that it’s designed to be exactly that? Or, do you prefer the harsh truth, even if that truth is colored by a gap in photographic skills? Leave a comment below to let us know. Thanks!

[photo by e53 via Flickr]