RAILROADED: Eurail is offering one extra
free day of rail travel with six-, eight- or 10-day Eurail
Selectpasses purchased from its five authorized North American
sales agents -- ACP Rail International, Rail Europe, Destination
Europe Resources (DER), Flight Centre and OctopusTravel.com -- from
Feb. 1 to March 31. The passes are good for first-class rail travel
in three to five, out of a total of 22, European countries
connected by train or ferry. To book, contact Rail Europe, which
offers free shipping on Web orders, at http://agent.raileurope.com or (888) 382-7245; DER at
www.der.com or
(800) 838-3903; ACP Rail International at (866) 9-EURAIL and www.eurail-acprail.com; Flight Centre at (866)
WORLD-51 or www.flightcentre.com; or OctopusTravel.com at (877)
330-7765, and www.octopustravel-us.com.
MONEY
MATTERS: As of January, Turkey dropped six zeros from its
national currency, so yesterdays 1.34-million or so Turkish liras
per U.S. dollar are now simply 1.34 new liras to one dollar. Take
care: Both old and new lira coins and banknotes will be in
circulation and use for one year, until Jan. 1, 2006, when older
currency will be withdrawn. New banknotes have been issued in 1, 5,
10, 20, 50 and 100 new lira denominations, and coins have been
minted for 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 new kurus and 1 new lira. For more
specific information, go to www.tourismturkey.org.
NEVER TOO
YOUNG: VisitBritain partnered with guidebook publisher
Lonely Planet to develop a new youth guide to traveling, studying
and working in the U.K. The new 96-page Experience Britain guide
highlights 14 cities in Great Britain, as well as a Top 5 list of
things to do and see in the countryside. The guide also includes
information about studying and working in Britain, as well as
British pop culture, including fashion, film, music and sports. For
more information or to request a copy of Experience Britain, call
(877) 899-8391, send an e-mail to [email protected] or visit www.visitbritain.com/rocks.
INN-SIDE
STORY:
" Boutique and
lifestyle hotel marketing group Design Hotels welcomed new member
property Casa Camper, in the city center of Barcelona, Spain. The
20-room, five-suite hotel -- designed by architect Ferran Amat to
reflect the simplicity of the traditional Mediterranean countryside
-- opened between Las Ramblas and the Museum of Contemporary Art in
early January. Rates range from about $229 to $320 per night.
Design Hotels now counts 137 members.
For reservations, call (011) 800-37-46-8357.
" GLA Hotels is
offering a guaranteed U.S. dollar-rate of $350 per night through
Feb. 28 -- albeit with some blackout dates -- at five small luxury
hotels in England and France.
Participating properties are the Cadogan Hotel in London; Royal
Riviera in St. Jean Cap Ferrat in the south of France; and the
hotels Lancaster, Montalembert and Bel-Ami in Paris. For more, call
(888) 452-8380 or visit www.glahotels.com.
" Radisson Edwardian
opened a new $1 million spa and fitness complex at its newest
London hotel, the five-star May Fair. Open to hotel guests and the
general public, the spa, which uses its own Pevonia product line,
offers treatments such as massage; facials and micro-dermabrasion;
manicure and pedicure; medical aesthetics, such as Botox and
Restalain injections; mud baths for one or two; body wraps; and
spray tans. The May Fair offers a 10% discount on all treatments in
multiples of six, 10 and 15, as well as other perks. For more
information, rates and reservations, call (800) 333-3333, or www.radissonedwardian.com.