Daily Pampering: Red Carpet package at Spa Montage Beverly Hills

by McLean Robbins on

Awards season is fast approaching … and now you too can make like a Hollywood A-lister, thanks to Spa Montage at Montage Beverly Hills. Book the “Ultimate Pre-Red Carpet Spa Experience” to take care of every beauty need.

Begin with an anti-aging facial, designed to hydrate, firm, and offer immediate, photo-ready results. A connective tissue massage will help firm and contour, and you’ll also enjoy a penetrating Oxygen serum. Next, enjoy Body Sculpting therapy to assist in removing cellular waste and retained fluids. Customize the treatment for focus on your own personal “trouble spots” like the abdomen or thighs. If you dare to bare, follow with a back facial, where your therapist uses steam therapy to lift out impurities plus exfoliation and gentle extractions to ensure your back is as camera-ready as you are. The facial ends with a muscle-melting back and foot massage. Complete your day with an detoxifying body wrap and hypnotic scalp massage.

You’ll also get the oxygen serum, anti fluid gel, dry body brush and hydrating lotion to take home and continue your red carpet-ready glow for weeks to come.

The full day package starts at $1,050 (and can be spread over several days if desired) and includes four coordinating treatments designed to prep the body from head-to-toe. Naturally, the package also includes access to the Spa Montage facilities and rooftop pool, plus a welcome glass of bubbly or blueberry tea upon arrival. The treatment package is available through March 2011.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Daily Pampering: Customize your Le Pilage Longchamp Bag

by McLean Robbins on

Looking for the perfect gift your favorite traveler (or yourself)? Use Longchamp‘s custom bag program to create a “just right for you” version of one of their most popular bags, the Le Pilage.

Choose from four sizes, fifteen colors, two handle types, three varieties of finishing colors and a leather embossed monogram or your name embroidered in the nylon. Our favorite is largest size, which, at 17.25″ long, 13.75″ tall and 23.25″ deep, is perfect for a weekender. We love Longchamp because they fold down into a tiny manageable size – perfect for slipping into your luggage just in case you pick up a few extra goodies on your vacay. Starting at just $135 for the largest size, they’re practically steal.

Even better? You can customize now your bag without ever leaving Facebook – they’ve just launched a new app that lets you complete your order through their fan page.

Daily Pampering: Get away like a Real Housewife at Keswick Hall

by McLean Robbins on


Make like your favorite Real Housewife at one of Virginia’s most elegant resorts, Keswick Hall.

Set just minutes from Jefferson’s Monticello, this intimate 48-room boutique inn and resort at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is offering a special two-night retreat perfect for a girlfriend getaway or a romantic weekend away.

To detox and unwind after a season filled with intense moments (and plenty of Virginia wines), Keswick Hall provides the perfect getaway experience with their “Housewives of DC & Beyond” package.

In true housewife fashion, don the glitz and glam to sit down for a five-course gourmet meal at the Signature Table in a private setting, complete with wine pairings featuring top-quality Virginia wines. Continue the pampering with a trip to Keswick’s spa for a luxe seasonal Organic Brown Sugar Pumpkin Scrub treatment (for two), or for the golf-loving housewife, a spa treatment can be swapped out for one round of golf on the Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course. This two-night package is available November 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011 for $1,020* based on double occupancy.

*Rates do not include taxes or gratuities and are based on double occupancy. Offers are subject to availability and cannot be combined with any other packages. Blackout dates apply. Dinner in the Fossett’s excludes beverages and the treatment and the Spa at Keswick Hall are limited to the value of $120 each, or one spa treatment and one round of golf, per stay and must be used during your stay.

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Daily Pampering: Royalton hotel serves up $495 punch at Forty Four

by Melanie Nayer on

How much would you pay for a good drink? If money is no object (and in Daily Pampering, money is no object), you might consider shelling out more than $500 for a good punch.

Morgans Hotel Group’s Forty Four at Royalton hotel in New York City, and the bar’s all-star team of bartenders known as The Cocktail Collective, created a punch that pretty much beats out any punch Mom used to pour. Comprised of Blue Mountain – 21 year old Jamaican rum, fresh squeezed lime juice, demerara syrup, allspice dram and finished with a dusting of fresh ground Blue Mountain coffee and nutmeg, the punch cashes in at $495 (tip not included).

Forty Four is known for its innovative cocktail menu, which focuses on pre and post prohibition cocktails presented over crushed, cube and freshly chipped rocks of ice. The “Classics” section of the new cocktail menu pays homage to the finest hotel bars from around the globe with cocktails such as the “Hotel Nacional” and the “Vieux Carre”. New “Originals”, created by “The Cocktail Collective”, include dynamic Gin drinks like the “English 75” and the “Hocus Pocus”, and a soothing and witty Rye based contribution called, “The Reconciliation”.

Intrigued? Order up!

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Daily Pampering: Orient-Express launches “Art of Travel” tours through Europe

by Melanie Nayer on

Luxury train operator Orient Express is taking guests on an art journey through Europe, starting in April 2011.

“The Art of Travel” is a series of art tours to Venice, Paris and within England, in conjunction with London’s renowned National Gallery. Guests will learn about the lives of artists such as Canaletto, Bellini, Titian, Veronese, Monet, Rubens, Turner and Constable, all while seeing the places that inspired their work and notable places that house their work today, accompanied by a National Gallery expert.

All tours include at least one night at London’s Goring Hotel and begin at The National Gallery, where a specialist gives a guided introduction to selected masterpieces before the journeys begin. The tours include:
Venice of Canaletto: This seven-day tour gives travelers the opportunity to view Venice through Canaletto’s eyes. Travel from London aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express through France, the snow-capped Alps and northern Italy. In Venice, guests stay at the Hotel Cipriani and trace the footsteps of Canaletto – the artist forever associated with magnificent Venetian views. Trips start at £4,985 (US$8,000) per person.

Venetian Painters: A six-day tour that introduces great masters from Giovanni Bellini and Titian to Veronese. The morning after a tour and dinner at the National Gallery, guests will fly to Venice where they will step back into the Italian Renaissance and explore great sights such as the Doge’s Palace, the Accademia and Ca’ Rezzonica with an expert from the National Gallery close at hand to add depth to all that is viewed. The price of these trips start at £4,320 (US$6,940) per person.

Impressions of Paris: This series of five-day tours focuses on French Impressionism. Guests will trace Claude Monet’s life and will learn about the drama of the birth of a new movement of art – when painters first began painting out in the open air to capture the effects of light. Prices start at £2,990 (US$4,880) per person.

British Pullman: Combining the thrill of a steam-hauled luxury train, complemented by gourmet dining – brunch on the outbound journey and a three-course supper on the return – and delightful scenery, these exclusive tours include Bath’s finest art collections:

  • Collectors and Collecting: This trip is timed to coincide with the reopening of the Holburne Museum in May 2011 following a major project of restoration and extension. Priced at £1,130 (US$1,815) per person.
  • Thomas Gainsborough: This journey focuses on landscape paintings by notable British and European artists including Rubens, Turner and Constable. Priced at £940 (US$1,510) per person.

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