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The Way We Once Traveled: Helicopter Transfers to the 1964 World's Fair

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

The 1960s were a great time to hop a helicopter ride in New York. These were the days when buying a First Class ticket on Pan Am or TWA meant the inclusion of a chopper transfer to the airport, and helicopters weren't yet clogging the skyways above the rivers, causing the accidents and concerns that exist today. In 1964 specifically, families keen on spending a day at the 1964-1965 World's Fair could take a scenic ride on New York Airways' helicopters from Manhattan out to the fair at Corona Park in Queens.

Landing was the fun part, actually; the choppers set down atop the first completed structure for the fair, the Port Authority Exhibit Building, which counted the helipad, a restaurant ("Top of the Fair"), cocktail bar and 360-film feature theater as attractions. Coincidentally, the 360-degree film shown was also shot by helicopter, as the cameras dangled and captured the beauty and geography of the New York region.

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Inside Paribatra, the Helicopter Departure Lounge at The Peninsula Hotel Bangkok

The 34th floor may not sound like so high, but in an area with no other skyscrapers to challenge it, the Peninsula Hotel Bangkok's Helicopter departure lounge might as well be in heaven. Named "Paribatra" after HRH Prince Paripatra Sukhumbhand, Prince of Nakorn Sawan, the Pen's helilounge is one of those sweet secret spaces often heard of a city, but rarely visited. The only ways to access this one? You must either book a helicopter flight transfer for a grand chunk of change or rent out the place for a private function with others who appreciate aviation history; in other words, it's hardcore.

We managed to sneak around the helilounge recently, and though the helipads remained out of reach (for now), we did sink our heels into the rich carpeting, get up close with jet engine parts as wall decoration, and drink in what may be the best view in Bangkok, of Bangkok. You see, The Peninsula sits on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River, opposite like 90% of the central district. Therefore, The Peninsula is essentially gazing over at the metropolis, with the helilounge winking.

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Monaco Travel / Helicopter Travel / Holiday Travel / Monte Carlo Travel / Heli Air Monaco / Helicopters / France Travel / First Class Travel / → All Tags

From Nice to Monte Carlo in 7 Minutes on Heli Air Monaco

How do you make flying to the Cote d'Azur even more glamorous? By taking a helicopter transfer from Nice International Airport to Monaco, of course.

We were lucky enough to hop this speedy leg of a long journey from the U.S. to Monaco on a recent work trip, and we can't recommend it enough. Sure, the drive from Nice to Monte Carlo doesn’t sound bad at around 30 minutes (or, we’re told, 20 minutes by scooter). But why not reduce that trip to seven minutes and throw in staggering views and the inimitable glamour of helicopter travel?

Heli Air Monaco has over 20 daily flights between the airport in Nice and the Principality—from 110 euros each way. For this price, you get the aforementioned speed, views, air of fabulousness, and the ease of checking your bags straight through from the helipad in Monaco to wherever your final destination may be.

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New York May Loose all its Tourist Helicopters, if Brooklyn Gets Its Way

Army helicopters follow President Obama's copter off the Wall Street helipad

There once was a time—not too long ago at all—when booking a tourist helicopter trip over New York harbor and around the Statue of Liberty was part of the usual Big Apple must-dos. Everything really changed, however, when an Italian tourist family was killed in summer 2009 after their helicopter collided with a small private plane over the Hudson River. Following this tragedy, more air traffic rules over water went into place and the 30th Street Heliport was closed to tourist traffic, although this latter development was mostly due to neighborhood noise complaints.

It's noise complaints that could continue to kill tourist helicopter flights over the city, as Brooklyn residents target the Wall Street heliport—the last Manhattan heliport offering quickie sightseeing flights. Thus far there's been rallies and petitions, but the choppers continue.

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President Obama's NYC Helicopter Cavalcade Hovers Over the Harbor

Two Chinooks leave the heliport, with the Staten Island Ferry in background

One of the main roadways has been closed off by a police barricade during evening rush hour, emergency vehicle lights are flashing all over the crowded downtown business district and the river nearby is teeming with police boats, their blue lights echoing the red ones on land. What the heck is going on?! In New York City, there are a few quick assumptions you can make, surely one of which is that President Obama is in town, and with that you'd be correct.

This is what went down yesterday evening, as we took advantage of a gloomy, cold day to be the only ones strolling through the newish Brooklyn Bridge Park, directly across the East River from Wall Street and the Wall Street Heliport. It's a cute little heliport right on the water, one which we've flown from before, but a few years back when $99 8-minute chopper flights to JFK operated several times a day.

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On the Helipad and Inside the China Clipper Lounge at The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong

A couple months ago we took you inside a place very few get the privilege to see: The Peninsula Tokyo's Helicopter Lounge. Although the hotel doesn't have the go-ahead quite yet to begin helicopter transfers, that didn't stop them from looking ahead and building the space, complete with vintage airplane parts and Japanese aviation memorabilia.

Today however we have something perhaps even better—a tour of the Peninsula Hong Kong's functioning dual helipads and helicopter departure lounge, which sees actual passengers paying actual hundreds of dollars for either sightseeing tours or super-quick flights straight from their hotel to Hong Kong International Airport. In fact, while we were checking out the place, two ladies were awaiting the arrival of their heli pilot before taking off on a snappy spin around Victoria Harbour.

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Travelzoo's Local Deals Beat Groupon's Butt with $99 Helicopter Lessons

Forgive us for even bringing it up, but Groupon Groupon Groupon. We're so tired of hearing about it, especially since we've never scored anything worth writing home about from the site (spa deals and meals at restaurants we've never heard of seem to make up the bulk of offerings), but there's a potential good that can come of group buying for discounts: cheap travel. We're always on the look-out for worthwhile travel groupons and while there haven't many/any, there comes an interesting one today from the Groupon-like site Travelzoo Local Deals, for a $99 Helicopter Lesson and 30-minute flight.

The $99 Travelzoo special is cut down from $265 and is available to anyone who can make it to Lincoln Park, NJ for the session. Or...Travelzoo's Boston deals has a $99 helicopter deal too.

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Exclusive: Inside the Helicopter Departure Lounge at The Peninsula Hotel Tokyo

If we ever win a prestigious international award or become US Ambassador to Japan, we know where we're having the after-party: The Peninsula Hotel Tokyo's Seven Seas Pacific Aviation Lounge. We're just going to call it the "heli-lounge" for short, because that's exactly what it's original function is, not to host parties. The Peninsula Hotel indeed has a private helicopter departure lounge tucked away on its top floors and we managed a rare peek inside.

Although we tried to give the best idea of the space with our photo gallery below, the heli-lounge is one of those places you must physically be in to properly appreciate the awesomeness (not to mention the open-air view over the Imperial Palace and Gardens). Peninsula Hotels are famous for the luxurious (and often, vintage) modes of transportation they have available for guests, and airport-to-hotel helicopter transfers are a signature service at The Peninsula Hong Kong, so why not in Tokyo too? Here's the thing: the Tokyo hotel may have this heli-lounge, but it doesn't yet have the helicopter flights. Bummer. Actually, great...

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It's Half-Helicopter and Half-Airplane; It's the DiscRotor!

Everybody's talking about new airplanes these days, specifically the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A380 Superjumbo and even the Boeing 737s with new "SkyInterior" (more on that tomorrow). But what we'd really like to see hit the blue skies above is something totally new, really fresh...like a helicopter/airplane hybrid called the "DiscRotor."

According to AviationWeek, Boeing has been working on this baby for over a year, along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program. What that means is when/if the DiscRotor does lift off, it'll be for military use only, for a while at least. But take just a second to imagine what kind of fun travelers would have flying to their destinations in an aircraft that has almost the range and speed of an airplane, with the pinpoint takeoff and landing accuracy of a helicopter.

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How to Ride the $10 Million Hermes Helicopter for Free

When Eurocopter created l'Hélicoptère par Hermès—the Hermes helicopter—with the French luxury fashion house back in 2007, we're sure they didn't have a workhouse future in mind for it. But alas, if you've paid $10 million to buy one of the things, as a Tokyo aviation company did for the purpose of running helicopter shuttles between downtown Tokyo and Narita airport, then you're going to want to get your money's worth from it.

The Hermes helicopter has been flying the Tokyo skies for over a year now, whisking the world's creme de la creme off on 30-minute flights to the airport, when usually it would take 2 hours by car or train. If you book this on your own, expect to shell out just over $700 for the one-way flight, but thankfully there are other ways to enjoy it for free...

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Monaco Won't Settle for Anything Less Than Helicopter-to-Plane Transfers

You know, we don't get to talk about The Principality of Monaco enough. It's been a while since we last tripped over the postage stamp-sized country, but we're thinking it could be about time to return, especially if they're talking about doing direct connections between helicopters from Monaco and flights from Nice International Airport.

The news comes from HeliAir Monaco, who already keep the waterfront buzzing with 70,000-100,000 per year at the heliport. Currently, you can take a helicopter from Monaco to the Nice Cote d'Azur Airport in six minutes, but you've then still got to check into your flight and go through security. HeliAir is however renovating their heliport and in the final stages of making it possible to check in and clear security at the heliport, allowing you to go straight into the departure lounge for your flight from Nice.

We once did this with the old Wall Street-to-JFK helicopter service for a Delta flight, and it hearkens all the way back to the days when Pan Am flew upper class passengers from the top of their Midtown HQ direct to their waiting flights at JFK. But we're not talking about JFK; this is Monaco. Thus, we're surprised they haven't already had this in place. The price of a one-way flight from Monaco to Nice Airport now? 103 Euros.

[Photo: HeliAir Monaco]

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Take A Helicopter To Ski Where (Mostly) No One Has Skied Before

Adventure sports company Canadian Mountain Holidays is already taking reservations for their winter packages, with a Canadian heli-skiing vacation scheduled for March 13-20. To save you the trip over to Wikipedia, heli-skiiing is when you crave downhill isolation so much that you actually book a helicopter to take you into a remote mountain region. The Tour D'Adamants vacation package - guided by TV sports commentator Bob Roll and Tour de France competitor Ron Kiefel and presumably part of the company's Powder Masters program - revolves around a stay in the isolated Adamant Lodge.

The vacation sounds awesome even before you begin to muse about the near-total lack of other humans, at which point it becomes exquisite. The price tag is where things begin to get a little problematic for us: $10,100 per person. So while we've been known to argue that remote vacations are literally invaluable, we find ourselves having to revise that number downward to mostly invaluable.

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