Jaunted - Tag: Richard Branson

Sydney: V Australia Can't Wait To Get You Down Under With An Aussie Rock Band

amandak — 2009-10-23T08:58:20-05:00

The always spunky Richard Branson and his Virgin team are no slouches at putting together clever promotions, and this time his Aussie long-haul airline V Australia has got a smart one going called Jet with JET.

One jet, of course, is the plane that V Australia is going to fly you in from Los Angeles to Sydney. The all-capitals JET is the great Aussie rock band that will be on the plane with you, and then will perform at the Homebake Music Festival once they back to Oz.

New York: Richard Branson Was With Us In Spirit Last Night At Le Bernardin

JetSetCD — 2009-10-22T09:33:41-05:00

How do you throw a launch party for a luxury catamaran without the boat or its owner present? Well, if you're Virgin Limited Edition and Richard Branson and his new Necker Belle are unavailable to party, you just down canapes at one of New York City's best restaurants: Le Bernardin.

Surrounded by Virgin's signature red rubber duckies and with visions of Virgin Limited Edition's luxury properties—Swiss ski chalet and Moroccan retreat, anyone?—dancing in our heads, we managed to make it through a few Blue Margaritas at the Necker Belle party last night. Officially to welcome the twin-hulled beauty to the Virgin group, the event also showcased these other small and carefully curated properties owned by Branson through his Limited Edition Label.

Marrakech: Join Richard Branson Under The Moroccan Mistletoe This Christmas

amandak — 2009-10-05T12:53:04-05:00

We're not ashamed to be fans of all things Richard Branson, and with the Christmas season approaching scary fast, we're thinking Richard's ideas on how and where to spend Christmas sound pretty good. If you want to avoid the shopping mall headaches and escape the northern hemisphere cold, Virgin's Kasbah Tamadot Resort in Morocco has some very tempting Christmas deals.

There are five or seven-day packages over the Christmas and New Year period, and they'll certainly be a little bit different from your average gift-swapping, carol-singing festive season. Packages include festive Berber feasts, guided walks in the Atlas Mountains, market excursions and a ride on the resident mules. Booking soon would be a great idea, because these are special, limited-capacity vacations.

Play With Richard Branson's New Toy For $88,000 Per Week

JetSetCD — 2009-09-15T10:28:53-05:00

When we aren't out jetting around or hopping a high-speed train, we like to fantasize about that other form of transportation: the almighty ship. So to allay our own curiosity as much as yours, we're spotlighting yachts with either notorious owners or histories...or both. Know of a bootylicious boat? Let us know.

Who doesn't dream of owning a lush private island in the Caribbean? Perhaps Virgin Group head honcho Richard Branson, who has been living the dream since 1979, when he purchased Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands and turned it into a private resort.

If you can't afford to take over the whole island for your vacation, at a cost of $47,000 a day, then how about chartering his new catamaran yacht, the Necker Belle, for a mere $88,000 a week? She'll be fresh from a makover (she used to be the Lady Barbaretta) in February 2010, just in time to catch the end of the rich exodus to the Caribbean in winter.

San Francisco: Happy Virgin America Day! Another Absinthe Cocktail, Please

JetSetCD — 2009-08-07T09:41:57-05:00

Today might be a happy one simply because it's Friday, but do you know what tomorrow is? Even better than Saturday: it's Virgin America Day! That's right—the airline of mood lighting, web 2.0 personalities, and in-flight sexting is turning two years old on 08-08-09, and San Francisco's Mayor Newsom is making it official by declaring tomorrow Virgin America Day.

VA will be celebrating in their own way as well, by introducing new features on flights. First up is Shop Red, kind of like duty-free, but they'll only be selling the little packets of "Help" Remedies, which combat headaches, stomachaches and sleep troubles. You'll soon also be able to watch their "Best Of the Web" content and a whole channel of BoingBoing content. It's web 2.0-tacular!

Virgin Galactic Determined to Send Folks Into Space

juliana — 2009-07-28T17:58:58-05:00

While we thought their collection of songs for an playlist in space was just a joke, it looks like Virgin Galactic is still really serious about putting civilian folks into space. Richard Branson reportedly sold about a third of the space travel start-up to a Middle Eastern investment fund to speed up the

The AP reports:

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson signed a deal Tuesday to sell about a third of his space travel startup Virgin Galactic to a Mideast investment fund, giving the venture an influx of cash at a time when the global recession has dried up funding sources.
Aabar Investments will pay $280 million for a 32 percent share of the company, according to the agreement that also gives the wealthy Persian Gulf sheikdom of Abu Dhabi a chance to set up its own space flight industry.

Branson of course, conducted the signing much like he does anything else related to his Virgin companies: he don a black Virgin flight suit and took his first ride in the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, designed to launch a ship into space (pictured, above, last summer). Virgin Galactic is expected to take off from Sweden in 2012 with flight tickets costing $200,000 a piece. Hmmm...we'll see about that.

Columbia: Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free

BS — 2009-06-25T08:47:16-05:00

There’s been a lot of talk about 2009 being the year the music festival died, (see Summercase, Langerado and the San Francisco Blues Festival), and the long-rumored next casualty has been the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Despite being a hit in its first three years out, concert organizers have waited forever to announce any details on dates or lineup, leading many around the music blogosphere to assume the fest wouldn’t be able to pull it together this year.

Well our old billionaire buddy Richard Branson must have taken those nasty rumors personally, because Virgin has announced that not only will the show go on, but they don’t need to make any stinkin' money on it anyway. That’s right, this year’s concert is 100-percent free.