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Tags: Spa Travel / Virgin Atlantic / LGW / London Travel / Airport News / → All Tags
Nice Moove: Virgin Atlantic To Add Cowshed Spa To Gatwick Airport
The cows have come home: Virgin Atlantic's clubhouse at London's Gatwick Airport will be closed until the end of November for renovation, including adding a brand new Cowshed Spa for its passengers.
"Cowshed Spa" sounds like an oxymoron, like that other British invention Shabby Chic, but the premium spa brand was named for the original purpose of the building that houses its first location, at the Babington Hotel in Somerset county. (There are no cows there now.) Its six locations in England include one in the London Heathrow clubhouse, where passengers can get treatments like hot stone facials and full-body salt scrubs. Cowshed is also the official spa of the SoHo House in , or so we hear because we can't get in.
Tags: Dublin Field Trip / Castles / Spa Travel / Tourist Traps / Ireland Travel / → All Tags
Why Just Visit An Irish Castle When You Can Stay In One?
All this week, Jaunted contributor CMB will be giving us notes on her Dublin Field Trip. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.
If touring a castle in Ireland just isn't enough and leaves you wanting more, then why not sleep in a castle? it's the easiest way to live out your fantasy of being a royal, and you're in luck because there are plenty regal Irish castles that have been turned into luxury hotels.
One of the best castles-turned-hotels is the Dromoland Castle in Co Claire, just a few minutes from Shannon, making it easily accessible via the Shannon International Airport. It's also an excellent home base for visiting tourist traps in western Ireland, like the Cliffs of Moher and of course the Blarney Stone.
Tags: What Recession / Abercrombie & Kent / Spa Travel / → All Tags
Abercrombie & Kent Discounts For Rich Recessionaries
Do you have money to throw around yet? Because we've been in this recession for a fair bit, and hopefully people have been more frugal, luxury tour providers like Abercrombie & Kent are betting on people wanting to spend whatever savings they've scrounged. Because of this, you can now take advantage of slashed prices on trips like a 17-day excursion into India, which is now only $9,625. They're right that selling that same trip right now for its original price of $13,000 is a tough push, but $9.625 is too close to five figures for us yet.
Closer to home, the city of Myrtle Beach has already declared that the recession is over because a poll is up in showing "interest" in it as a vacation destination, even though bookings are down. And after a spa industry group reported that spa trips were up 18 percent last year, spas everywhere promoted themselves as a staycation with an edge. Keep in mind that some of these trips easily hit the four figures, and we're still not convinced that spa vacations or A+K tours are the best decision to make, even at the end of a recession.
Related Stories:
· Abercrombie & Kent offers ‘Christmas in July’ sale to spur holiday travel [LA Times]
· Myrtle Beach area travel desires rising [The Sun News]
· U.S. spas seem recession-proof, says industry group [Reuters]
[Image: Abercrombie & Kent]
Tags: Cheap NYC / Spa Travel / New York City / Events / → All Tags
NYC Spa Week Will Cover Your Face in Bird Poop
It's just what we've always dreamed of: paying $50 to have a stranger give us a milk bath. Or how about paying $50 to have the same stranger cover your face in bird poop? If either of these scenarios sound appealing, then get psyched for New York City's Spa Week, April 13-19, when the creme of the city's spa crop discount select treatments to a single Ulysses S. Grant.
Of course reservations are recommended as early as possible, but you've still got a few days to ring up your choice of over 80 spas, like Completely Bare for a bikini wax or Saks Fifth Avenue for a mani/pedi. We however would like to believe that you're the intrepid sort, who might be intrigued by the Geisha Facial at Shizuka Day Spa. Nicknamed the "Bird Poop Facial," the $180 (but only $50 during Spa Week) treatment has reportedly been tried by the likes of Victoria Beckham, so you know it's going to be a winning conversation starter.
For those who would rather not cover themselves in guano, Spa Week is a notoriously prime time for freshening up for spring on the cheap. Register your basic details here first, before the list of available spas and services unveil themselves, and remember that saving money sometimes means loosing inhibitions.
Related Stories:
· Spa Week [Official Site]
· Geisha "Bird Poop" Facial [Shizuka Spa NY]
· Spa Week: April 13-19 [About.com]
· Cheap NYC Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: insideSocal]
Tags: What Recession / Spa Travel / → All Tags
True Life: I'm At A Spa On Long Island
It takes a little chutzpah to open a spa in an economy like this. Naturally in any climate developers would look for the perfect place to develop that dream getaway, without anything that might make a potential customer blanch. But like a foaming hot tub pool, we're not quite ready to get into the Allegria Hotel and Spa just yet.
On paper, the Allegria looks like a perfect plan: A luxury hotel in a mostly condos-only strip, with big plans for LEED certification. But we can't get over that the hotel used to be a nursing home -- as in two years ago. (Then it had 170 rooms; now it only has 143.) Gut reno or no, paying $199/night or more for Grandma's old place, with the added bonus of being nowhere in particular, gives us the shakes. At least at the Spa Castle the old people get to play along.
Related Stories:
· November 2007: Long Beach's New Welcome Mat [NY Times]
· Allegria Hotel and Spa: LEED on the Ocean in Long Beach [Green Buildings NYC]
· Los Angeles Spas Celebrate Detoxification, Ogling [Jaunted]
[Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World]
Tags: Shopping / China Travel / Shanghai Travel / Food Travel / Spa Travel / → All Tags
Over the Top Luxury Still in Fashion at Shanghai's 3 On the Bund
When planning a trip to cultural hotspot Shanghai, you will invariably encounter the the simple yet enigmatic name of the city's most luxurious shopping and dining destination, 3 On the Bund. Occupying the stately Union Building on Shanghai's Bund, a thoroughfare running alongside the Huangpu River, No. 3 began welcoming the moneyed locals and well-heeled tourists back in 2004.
At first, No. 3 was a revolutionary repurposing of one of the Bund buildings, the strip of which had fallen from grace over the years and were rapidly descending into disrepair and vacant space. After the introduction of upscale dining with M on the Bund and the Shanghai Gallery of Art, the Michael Graves-designed spaces filled up with 5-star tenant after 5-star tenant.
