After a two-year, $30 million renovation, Istanbul’s Pera Palace is back on top. Built in 1892 to host passengers of the Orient-Express, the historic hotel was one of the most luxurious of its era, welcoming all kinds of royalty and celebrity guests, including Agatha Christie, who is rumored to have written “Murder on the Orient […]

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Hawaii is happening these days. There’s a whole lot going on at Starwood’s fine collection of hotels and resorts. (For the full list of news and packages, click here.) Case in point: The Moana Surfrider– currently running a glorious winter sale through March– is the only hotel in Waikiki to offer a Concierge App fit […]

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The Peninsula Hotel Shanghai opened its doors last fall for a special preview, and now the dazzling new hotel is prepping for its Grand Opening which will welcome 4,000 international guests to the Bund this coming Friday. As detailed in an excellent article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, this debut marks a special homecoming for […]

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Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed a growing trend in the hotel world: top designers are being enlisted to add some glam to hotels’ interior design. From Missoni to Armani to Vera Wang, luxury hotels around the world are being transformed with star power. The latest announcement: Diane von Furstenberg is designing a series […]

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The next time you’re in London, stop by The Ritz to taste a glass of the hotel’s signature Pauillac wine, bottled by Baron Philippe de Rothschild in the first ever partnership between the prestigious label and a hotel. The Ritz London exemplifies the new movement by luxury hotels to offer guests bespoke, customized house wines. […]

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Since powerful floods washed away the access routes leading to the isolated ruins at Machu Picchu, the UNESCO World Heritage site has been closed to visitors. But we’ve just learned today that the Peruvian Minister of Tourism announced a reopening date of April 1, 2010 for tourists to once again visit the Inca ruins.

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Just a few weeks old, CHI, The Spa is giving Sydney residents (and visitors, of course!) something to smile about. Shangri-La’s signature spa brand opened in Oz on February 16 with a big opening ceremony (which featured a “lion dance”). The first CHI in Australia, this luxurious sanctuary has six private spa suites, each described […]

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Come September 2010, Kuwait City will be the site of one of the hottest resort openings of the year. Smack dab in the city center near the world-famous shopping district, the new Hotel Missoni Kuwait promises to lure quite a few fashionable globetrotters to the shores of the Arabian Sea. Why are we so effusive […]

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Ever bed down in a “pod” hotel at the airport? Managed by Yotel, these genius “pods” offer a place of rest for international globetrotters between flights. (Book a four-hour stay in a tiny capsule for pennies.) Yotel runs pod hotels at Gatwick, Heathrow, and Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. Up next for Yotel: a 669-rom hotel in […]

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Hot off the press. The Grosvenor House Hotel– the “Grande Dame” on Park Lane in London– is up for sale, and The Wall Street Journal is reporting that this could be the priciest hotel ever to hit the real estate market in Europe. We’re talking $753 million. According to one source the property could have […]

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