Weekend travel media’s top five

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Here are some keepers from this past weekend’s English-language newspaper travel sections.

1. In the Financial Times, Philip Horne writes a fascinating North Dakota pilgrimage story that traces Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure in the Peace Garden State.

2. In the Guardian, Haroon Siddique writes about the Bed&Fed phenomenon (a couchsurfing/hostelling hybrid) across the UK and Ireland.

3. Also in the Guardian, Gemma Bowes weighs in on remarkable deals in Greece this summer, including an overview of luxury villas, some of which turn out to be surprisingly inexpensive.

4. In the New York Times, Jeremy Peters ponders 36 Hours in Genoa. In between his hunger-inducing restaurant and wine bar recommendations, Peters helps readers envision a day and a half of well-met culinary urges.

5. In the Times of London, Tom Chesshyre, Daniel Start, Alex Wade, Derwent May and Rufus Purdy list the UK’s 40 best beaches, from Land’s End to the Isle of Skye.

(Image Credit: Flickr/cm195902)

London town hall reopens as luxury hotel

by Melanie Nayer on

What’s one way to restructure an old building? Turn it into a luxury hotel.

The old town hall in the heart of London‘s East End officially reopened as a luxury hotel on May 12, featuring 98 luxury rooms and apartments all within walking distance to London’s financial district.

The hotel developer, Design Hotels, kept much of the town hall’s aesthetics in place when renovating the building for hotel guests. Many of the original interiors, including a council chamber, marble hallways and spiral staircases, are still intact and part of the new hotel design.

The Town Hall Hotel offers studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom options with various interior designs, some with modern kitchens. Artwork was provided by local London artists and the hotel also features a gym, a pool and a restaurant by Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes.

Rooms range in price depending on the amount of time you stay. For the hotel rooms, a double bedroom will run you £290.00 a night (approximately $427 USD) for 1-6 nights; £247.00 a night for 7-28 nights; and drops to £203.00 a night for stays more than 28 days. Comparatively, a one-bedroom apartment costs £345.00 a night (approximately $507 USD) for 1-6 nights; £293.25 a night for 7-28 nights; and £241.50 a night if you stay longer than 28 days.

The hotel opens in plenty of time to capture the pending tourist rush for the 2012 Olympic Games, which city officials hope will revitalize the East End area.

New US embassy in London to be bigger, sexier, stronger

by Grant Martin on

With today’s modern threats all around us, US embassies have become a bit of an eyesore of late, many circumferentially heaped with piles of concrete, checkpoints, armor, guards and other, nefarious security. One would never imagine that those sorts of security facets could tastefully be integrated into a structure, but lo and behold, the folks at Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake have pulled it off.

London’s new US Embassy, an update to the current, less-secure digs, looks less like an iron and concrete government building (J. Edgar Hoover building what?) and more like an architectural masterpiece from the 21st century.

As KieranTimberlake describes it:

The expressive challenge is to give form to the core beliefs of our democracy – transparency, openness, and equality – and do so in a way that is both secure and welcoming. At the same time, the building must confront the environmental challenges all nations face with leading edge sustainable design.

And so the building will rise, a glass cube on the south shore of the Thames with an integrated urban park, photovoltaic (solar cell) roof panels and energy efficient design throughout.

That said, the new building will also still have plenty of security features, from a giant moat to (shrubbery infused!) barriers to blast resistant glazing.

Check out the full details over at KieranTimberlake. The new building should open up in 2013

[Via PRI’s The World]

ABBAworld opens in London

by Katie Hammel on

Get ready, ABBA fans, because ABBAworld, the first official (and band-supported) ABBA museum has just opened in London.

The interactive museum will contain 25 rooms full of ABBA memorabilia, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, never-before-seen music videos and photos, and clothes, instruments, and personal belongings from each member of the band. In one room, you’ll even find the helicopter pictured on the cover of the “Arrival” album.

Visitors will have the chance to feel like a part of the group too, as they see images of themselves projected into music videos and photos and onto album covers (which fans can then access online afterwards). The can test their trivia knowledge with quizzes, remix their own ABBA tunes and even be a “dancing queen” up on stage with a holographic projection of the band.

The exhibit is open daily now through March 28. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster for £21.45 per adult and £14.30 for kids.

The exhibition is expected to visit other cities, but so far no others have been announced.

BA flights attendants trash good wine in protest

by Katie Hammel on

According to the UK’s Telegraph, the latest casualty of the problems between British Airways’ cabin crews and the company is vintage wine. Those involved in the alcohol abuse were members of the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa), which is part of the union that represents the airline’s 13,000 cabin crew. They say they destroyed the wine as a symbol of “passive resistance” against some of the new practices that British Airways has instituted.

The unhappy employees had planned on striking over the Christmas holiday, but thankfully, the strike was blocked by a judge.

Apparently, the flap all started when BA introduced some new cost cutting measures – which included firing hundreds of employees and freezing pay for current workers. As a result, the “disaffected” workers have stopped any of their own money-saving efforts onboard the airplanes. One worker was quoted in the Telegraph article as saying that “No-one is doing anything to help save costs any more. Whereas we used to keep unfinished bottles of wine in first-class to save money, now they’re routinely poured down the sink.”

Let’s hope the union and British Airways can resolve their issues soon. I hate to see good wine go to waste.%Gallery-76818%

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