Ever been to Taiwan? We have, but apparently not enough tourists do get there, so Taipei County has decided to create a "coastal amusement resort" similar to the waterfront of Dubai. There'll be restaurants, gardens, hotels and miscellaneous skyscrapers. Developers plan to spend about T$10 billion (more than $300 million) but take just three years to build.
According to spokesperson Chou Hsi-wei:
It's bigger than Disneyland, a lot bigger. It's a huge, huge place. Only like this can you get international tourists to come.
Um, really? Maybe promoting some interesting local culture or highlighting something unique to Taiwan could work too. Couldn't it?
On Tuesday, Paramount Pictures unveiled plans to open a theme park in South Korea, a country that's already crammed with movie studio resorts. Six months ago, Universal Studios announced its intent to open a similar venture. The trend started back in 2006 when MGM revealed plans for their Studio City theme park and film academy. All three theme parks will be located within an hour of Seoul.
The movie studios see South Korea as a "fast-growing and attractive market" because it's popular with Chinese tourists. The execs also cite the almost magical hold Korean pop culture has on the rest of Asia. Paramount expects to host over 5 million visitors during their first year in South Korea with attractions based on movies like "Mission: Impossible" and "Tomb Raider."
Paramount's "Movie Park" and MGM Studio City will both be neighbors in Incheon, a city that's about a half-hour west of Seoul. The Universal Studios park will be headquartered to the South in Hwaseong, which is connected to Seoul by subway. When all of the construction is completed in 2012, South Korea will offer visitors a world-class combination of theme park entertainment and barbecue the likes of which has not been seen anywhere in the world since Dollywood opened its doors in Nashville in 1961.
Ever stayed at a resort, enjoyed your breakfast, then wandered down for a day poolside only to discover that a bunch of other tourists have "saved" all the good spots by creeping down at dawn and leaving their towels there?
We have, and we hate it. But not as much as one British guy who recently got his revenge. At Viana Marina, a resort on the Italian Riviera, the bus driver for a group of Welsh tourists decided that his poor customers had complained one too many times about the early morning towel layers. He collected up every towel from every sunbed--which he claims, fitting the stereotype, were all left there by German tourists--and burnt them in a beach bonfire. Perhaps it's a good thing the Germans are creating their own exclusive Italian resort where such behavior will probably be greeted with smiles rather than smoke.
We know Germans love to travel--they seem to pop up all over the world. And while some of them will hitch up their lederhosen and go adventuring independently, others like the security of knowing there'll be German speakers and a few Bratwurst wherever they go.
Which presumably is why German tourist operator TUI thinks buying an entire Italian village in Tuscany was a sound business decision. For 250 million Euros (US$336m), TUI now owns all 8 square miles of a medieval Tuscan village named Tenuta de Castelfalfi. Only it won't be named that for long, as the new German owners will be renaming it the Toscana Resort Castelfalfi.
The only deed not handed over was that of the church, which remains in Italian hands--but the Germans have to pay for its upkeep in their new village. TUI's proud that soon "it will offer 3,200 customers a genuine rural experience." Genuine German-Italian, that is.
Update [2006-8-22 22:37:50 by Katherine]:Whoops! Wrong island, wrong continent...at least we got the right ocean. Jude Law was actually on St. Martin's in the Isles of Scilly. It hosts a population of 142 people, give or take a few, and there's only one hotel on the island (if you're feeling low-key, there's also a campsite). St. Martins Hotel is superfancy - the landlord is the Prince of Wales. See? Fancy!
Pretty, pretty Jude Law is taking a luxurious beach vacation on St. Martin in the French West Indies. Where might this Apollo be resting his head of golden curls every night?
A good guess is La Samanna Resort, a rather exclusive property with a private beach. The pictures on the website are drool-worthy and apparently accurate, as the resort consistently tops "best-ofs" like Traveler Magazine's Gold List.
La Samanna is one of those "anything you can think of" hotels, with a spa and tennis and restaurants and Pilates and water sports. Probably not that kind.
How many lame jokes can we make about tennis matches or game, set, love in telling you about Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick's lovers' getaway? The king and queen of tennis took a break at the Bacara Resort outside of Santa Barbara, a beachfront property than earns highly varied reviews. The concept is fantastic, but some visitors believe the service doesn't equal the rather high price tag.
Still, it's a popular resort of celebrities and other A-listers who want to spend all weekend in a caban or on a massage table (the spa is a centerpiece). It's also a place for L.A. parents to send their kids, accompanied by nannies, of course. We know of at least one industry dad who sent his two daughters there every weekend with their nanny, with wads of cash and instructions to give the little ladies whatever they desired. The staff is made up primarily of UCSB students, and no Gaucho was shocked to hear that David Hasselfhoff "cut himself" "shaving" in a hotel recently. The man has been tearing up Bacara suites for years, ravaging furniture and savaging the minibar.
If we were to rank some of our most nightmarish potential vacations, a weekend in a family-friendly resort alone would rank pretty high. And yet, Jini Reddy from the Guardian seemed to enjoy herself at Center Parcs, a family friendly resort in England. Perhaps she has access to some high-grade narcotics that we've never heard of, or maybe she recently had a lobotomy; either way, a weekend at Center Parcs in England sounds dreadful to us.
The Center offers stays in a villa with its own kitchen plus plenty of spa and activity classes--it sounds similar to a cruise--with the caveat that everything is paid for a la carte. Mostly, we cringe at the idea of being stuck anywhere with that many children for a weekend, or worse, an entire week. We'll take our chances with those dirty pigeons in Trafalgar Square, thank you very much.
The tiny town of Karwar, on the coast of the Arabian Sea and a two-hour drive from the Goa airport, isn't much of a tourist draw in itself, but from Karwar the island of Devbagh is just a five-minute boat ride away. The Devbagh Beach Resort there is kind of an anti-Goa -- there are no nightclubs or flashiness, and the guests are middle-class Indian families rather than backpackers from Nottingham or Tel Aviv.
What you have here in abundance are amazingly beautiful surroundings. You're likely to have the clean, extremely long beach almost to yourself -- there might be some locals from the fishing village nearby dragging their nets through the surf. The resort itself is wooded with casuarina trees, a kind of evergreen, keeping things shady and relatively cool.
Staying here isn't roughing it. The cabins and huts aren't fancy, but they are wired for electricity and therefore have the ceiling fans that become essential very early in the year. The meals, included in rates, were elaborate and good, with prawn curry and other seafood served at just about every meal. There's also a nightly bonfire on the beach, with fish grilled right there in front of you. If you want a break from Goa craziness, then Devbagh might be just the place to take it.
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by amandak
