Jaunted

Airports / Airport News / AUH / Hotels / Jet Lag / Layovers / Abu Dhabi Travel / → All Tags

Would You Pay $12 an Hour to Sleep in an Airport Terminal?

Thanks to our site siblings over at HotelChatter, we’re pretty darn familiar with the hotel and motel options in and around the world’s airports. However, when it comes to just staying put right inside the airport there’s a new option that could be even more convenient than the airport hotel. That’s only the case if you’re cool with sleeping in some pretty tight quarters, as it looks like some kind of sleep pod recliners have made their way into the terminal.

They've only recently arrived overseas, in Abu Dhabi to be specific. Technically they’re calling them GoSleep, and they’re designed just for that purpose—to go to sleep.

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Dubai Travel / Police / Cars / Crime / → All Tags

Dubai's Latest Tourist Attraction is an Exotic Police Car

Take a break from the glitz, gold, and the world’s largest building on your trip over to Dubai. Not that those aren’t all part of the overall experience over in the United Arab Emirates, but now there’s something else that’s also screaming for a snapshot. Just be sure not to get too close to this thing, as you certainly don’t want to see the inside of it.

We’re talking about the newest car in the garage over at the Dubai police department, as they just scored a pretty ridiculous cruiser. The Dubai police now possess their very own Lamborghini police car—yep, you heard us correctly. At first you were probably a little surprised to hear this over-the-top news, but then that you remembered that it’s Dubai—it makes perfect sense.

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Geek Travel / Comic Con Travel / Dubai Travel / → All Tags

Where to Find the Middle East's Own Comic Con, Kicking Off This Weekend

This weekend geeks from around the world with descend on Dubai for the annual Middle East Film and Comic Con.

The convention, taking place on April 5th and 6th, will feature the usual mix of international celebrity guests (including Alan Tudyk, Sean Astin, and Warwick Davis), panels, vendors, video games, and cosplay.

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Airline News / Airlines / Emirates / First Class Travel / In-Flight Comfort / Airplanes / Airplane News / A380 / → All Tags

Your Chance to Get Naked on an A380 May Be Threatened

One of the craziest things you can do—at least legally—at 35,000 feet is to strip down to your birthday suit and take an in-flight shower. We’re not talking about a quick refresh in the airplane lavatory with a first class amenity kit, but we actually mean hot water, soap, and shampoo while on an airplane. Right now it’s only available to first class flyers aboard Emirates' A380 flights, but if Emirates gets their way there might just be a few less in-flight showers moving forward.

It sounds like Emirates is considering what a lot of carriers have already done, and shifting some of their planes to just a two-class configuration. That means just business and economy, no first class. The plan is to cram more seats into the oversized airplane, and more seats means more money. We’re hardly airline industry economists, but it’s pretty clear how this new move would benefit Emirates in a good way.

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Fashion Travel / Dubai Travel / Shopping Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags

Have a Drink with 'Vogue' in Dubai

We were a little excited, but not particularly surprised, to learn that Condé Nast has chosen Dubai as the site of the next Vogue Café and GQ Bar. That's right: next. It turns out the media brands already own several other cafes in Moscow and Istanbul (we know, we thought it was a little random too).

But expansion is the name of the game, and setting up shop in the world's most consumer-driven city seems—at least, to us—like the next logical step.

While GQ Bar will open in an as-yet-unnamed hotel later in 2013, the Vogue café will open before the end of the year inside the Dubai Mall—the world's largest shopping center—which houses 1,200 retail outlets, including iconic stores like Armani, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Burberry, and Marc Jacobs. And an aquarium.

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Airline News / Emirates / In-Flight Cell Phones / Travel Tech / Aeromobile / OnAir / Airlines / Technology / → All Tags

Call Me, Maybe? Now You Can from an Emirates A380

Now you can talk for as long as your cell phone battery will allow on your next long-haul flight with Emirates. The airline just announced the technology to allow passengers to use their mobile phone to make and receive calls while 38,000 feet up in their A380s. This is just another notch in the belt for the airline after being the first to offer passengers satellite phones in 1993. Remember those?

The first super jumbo equipped with the technology took off last week with at least one passenger using the service to call home on a flight from Dubai to Munich. It seems like all went well because the technology will be offered on all A380 jets the airline takes delivery of and they'll even retrofit the remaining 24 aircraft. Best of all, typical roaming charges apply and there's no additional charge if your provider has an agreement with OnAir or AeroMobile, the providers of the service.

We have a feeling that the phone bill will be a shocker enough.

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Soccer Travel / Island Travel / United Arab Emirates Travel / Theme Park Travel / Madrid Travel / → All Tags

Madrid's Soccer Team is Planning Its Own Island and You're Invited

Real Madrid is about to have something in common with Sir Richard Branson—their own island. The Spanish football club is joining forces with the United Arab Emirates to create a "luxury island."

The island, just off of the UAE coast, will be a combination luxury resort and amusement park with a 450-room, 5-star hotel and even a museum just for the team's history. And of course it can't be a UAE-built attraction without its own yacht club.

Scheduled to open in 2015 and costing about a billion dollars to create, Real Madrid Resort Island will be just another themed mini-world to join the likes of Palm Island and Ferrari World. We'll see if it actually comes to pass.

Soccer fan? Island fan? Just plain curious? Check out the first video of what to expect, below:

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Etihad / In-Flight Meals / Airline Food / Airline News / Airlines / → All Tags

Etihad Airways Has a Farm, EE-I-EE-I-O

When it comes to airlines of the Middle East, it seems like there's pretty much nothing they can’t do. The latest carrier to spend money on a crazy idea is Abu Dhabi's Etihad, as they’re looking to do a little in-flight farming. They might not be truly growing stuff at 35,000 feet, but they’re getting behind the local food movement firmly on the ground.

Etihad just called up the local Agway—that’s our guess—as they placed an order for a whole mess of chickens and a few beehives. The organic eggs and honey will be served to passengers in the hopes that this kind of service will differentiate them from some of the other fancy pants carriers in the region.

Etihad was quick to comment that they’re the first airline in the world to offer up this kind of service, which obviously isn’t too darn surprising. The eggs will currently find their way only to the Diamond First Class cabin, so don’t be surprised if your omelet or egg sandwich doesn’t exactly look farm fresh all the way back in coach, though offering more organic items further back in the plane is in the works.

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Airplane News / Airplanes / Boeing / 787 / Boeing 787 / Boeing 787 Dreamliner / Etihad / New Routes / → All Tags

Airports from Dublin to Delhi to Have 787 Dreamliners When Etihad Gets 'Em Delivered

As more 787s begin to roll off the assembly line there’s plenty of carriers prepping their planes for new routes. Even when the deliveries are years away, the airlines are just like us—they enjoying dreaming. Etihad is the latest to think about the future, and they’re already itching to share their plans.

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In-Flight Dining / Etihad Airways / UAE / First Class Travel / Middle East Travel / Airplane Food / In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / → All Tags

First Class Food from a Five-Star, Onboard Chef? It's Coming to Etihad.

This is some next level stuff. First Class in-flight meals on Etihad—the Abu Dhabi-based airline—are now being prepared by a qualified chef. No, really; one person is dedicated to cooking, preparing and plating the meals served in the front of the plane. Yes, you read correctly: cook!

Etihad announced the hiring of 110 restaurant-caliber chefs to fly back and forth from Abu Dhabi to a handful of cities while preparing the menu for the Diamond Class cabin. The chefs will also be responsible for contributing to the evolution of the menu and meal choices both in-flight and on the ground in the each of the airline's lounges. Each chef will need at least 6 years experience in a 5-star restaurant to be welcomed aboard, and there are even some Michelin-starred restaurants that have lost their chef to the airline.

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HotelChatter / VegasChatter / → All Tags

Sneaking a Peek at Abu Dhabi's Shiny New Park Hyatt

Our sis site HotelChatter does a bang-up job of covering the latest news and trends in the hotel world. We're also including a few links from VegasChatter, the newest member to the family. So check in and stay awhile.

HotelChatter:
· Sneak peeks inside the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
· Three Euro resorts for skiing (including Branson' Swiss chateau)
· Inside a room at the Swissotel Chicago
· Hotel-shaped jewelry. Yep, it's a thing.

VegasChatter:
· Tourist helicopter crashes into Lake Mead
· Which hotel has their own tennis courts?
· One fun thing at Encore, Wynn and Fashion Show Mall
· Things we learned during Cirque Week

Videos / DXB / Dubai Travel / Flight Attendants / Flash Mobs / → All Tags

Whoa. Dubai Airport Pulled Off a Shockingly Excellent Flashmob (Video)

Usually we're pretty critical when it comes to staged flash mobs, but trust us that this one is pure awesome.

It happened recently at Dubai International Airport, and the performers are meant to represent flight attendants, Dubai airport employees and passengers passing through. We're pretty sure they're all hired for the purpose, however.

Okay. No more talking. Just dancing.