Airport.ca the travel blog

AUG

300 Private Luxury Artificial Islands For Sale

Arabian Sheikh's have a lot of money, and they dream big dreams. This dream looks like it's coming true. The Crown Prince of Dubai recently unveiled an ambitious development plan called 'The World'. The World will consist of 300 man-made private luxury islands off the coast of Dubai. For the supremely wealthy, it offers an opportunity to build your own master-planned community. "Create a private island of neighbours, where families can escape to a community built just for them, or couples to elegant island apartments where they can reconnect and recharge. Imagine a place where no one is a stranger, and the focus is on one thing: Relaxation." That's all well and good. But let's be real here, the best reason to own one of these things, is to boot your friends off the island, or better yet, how about your mother-in-law?

TAGS: dubai islands luxury

AUG

Luxury, Scenic Train Travel Is On The Rise - Rocky Mountaineer Is Among World's Best

Scenic train travel is experiencing an upsurge in popularity around the world. On the one hand, with so much emphasis being placed on fast, discount travel it's somewhat puzzling. However, as airliners and cruise ships continue to cater to the masses, train travel is niching itself as a less crowded, more personable mode of transportation. In addition to being more exclusive and upscale, trains are also taking people to some of the most unique destinations in India, Peru, Australia, Switzerland, Alaska and Canada.

Rail dining follows its own unique route. For GoldLeaf Service guests aboard Rocky Mountaineer trains, comfortable seats under glass domes in the custom-built coaches are for savoring the scenery. On the boarding level below, meanwhile, private dining room booths are set with crisp white linens, sparkling glassware and fresh flowers.

With the landscape changing at every moment outside the panoramic windows -- from coastal land, to forest preserves, valleys and on to vast mountain ranges -- passengers are served from three-course, a la carte menus. Both a full breakfast and an elaborate mid-day dinner are prepared on board each day.

Executive Chef Mark Jorundson oversees and develops recipes for the Rocky Mountaineer dining rooms, making sure the travelers' menus are linked to the land. His focus always is on serving foods indigenous to the region that the train is passing through, from the fresh wild salmon that spawn in British Columbia's waterways to slow-roasted venison and bison found in Alberta. Wild mushrooms that grow in passing forest land wind up in a marvelous soup.

Chef's focus is on foods local to the region [Staten Island Advance]

TAGS: canada luxury rockies trains

JUL

Dubai's 7 Star Hotel

"Standing 321 metres high, Burj Al Arab is the world's tallest hotel. It has 28 storeys comprising 202 suites charging from 1,000 US dollars per night for a one-bedroom Deluxe Suite to 10,000 US dollars for a Royal Suite.

The hotel boasts of offering the world's best service, and continues to attract guests from all over the world despite the emergence of more luxurious hotels, like the three-billion-US dollar Emirates Palace which opened in March, also in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)."

TAGS: dubai hotels luxury

The Galle Fort Hotel Is A 300-Year Old Dutch Masterpiece In Sri Lanka

Geoffrey Bawa is without question Sri Lanka's most famous architect, so when one of his top proteges Channa Daswatte agreed to transform a 300-year old Dutch merchant house into a 14-room boutique hotel, you had to know the results would be spectacular, and they are.

..this 14 room hotel is in a seventeenth century Dutch merchant's house in the heart of Sri Lanka's historic, now hip, Galle Fort. Owners Karl Steinberg and Christopher Ong, exacting guests themselves, have trained the young staff to abandon Oriental bows for genuinely great service ...Ong oversees a daily menu of Asian favourites that draws deserved raves from across the island, particularly a Kung Pao Chicken that elevates the take out classic to haute cuisine. Dutch antiques fill the rooms, no two of which are alike..." - Cynthia Rosenfeld CONDE NAST TRAVELER The Best New Hotels of 2005

TAGS: hotels luxury srilanka

MAR

Luxury By Lufthansa In Munich

Does relaxing on Edra leather daybeds, walking on hand-tufted woollen carpets, dining from a Do & Co a la carte menu and refresh with monsoon showers and marble baths sound like a nice.....airport terminal? Kudos goes to Lufthansa who becomes the first airline in the world to launch a First Class Terminal. The 30 million euro two-story building spares no expense in its uncontested effort to set a new gold-standard in luxury travel. They chauffer you to your plane in a Porsche Cayenne or Mercedes S-Class, oh that is so Gordon Gecko. Greed is good!

Flight Fantastic [Wallpaer: Travel]

TAGS: airports lufthansa luxury munich