If you’re looking for a perfect cruise experience, your best bet is to choose a small or “boutique” liner.
That’s the guidance from the most recent edition of the Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships.
It suggests that the 11 best cruise liners in the world are considerably smaller than the massive cruise ships that we’ve seen launch over the past year or so.
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Marc Jacobs has launched its first e-commerce site (marcjacobs.com).
The new e-commerce site is playful, unique and innovative and brings the online storefront alive through a mix of whimsical illustration, photography and video.
The look for Marc Jacob’s first e-commerce site was designed to go back to the roots of the Marc Jacobs brand, which is fun, entertaining and engaging.
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InterContinental is to become the first chain in the industry to pilot technology that allows guests to open their guestroom with a smartphone.
The group will roll out the technology, designed by OpenWays, to two US Holiday Inn properties, gathering feedback from the first guests to use the system.
Travelers staying at the Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago O’Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown will have the option to enroll in the program prior to their check-in date.
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German automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz have released details on the electric scooter concepts they plan to unveil at the Paris Motor Show next week.
The scooters, which will be presented by BMW and Mercedes-Benz under the MINI and Smart brands respectively, are hints at the direction both companies could take with electric mobility in the future.
MINI’s Scooter E effort is based on the current production MINI cars, with 11-inch wheels and a “powerful and robust appearance,” which, combined with the large, round front light and radiator grill, evokes the MINI four wheelers.
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The winged “B” hood ornament that adorns many of Bentley‘s famously luxurious cars has forced the company to issue an unusual recall.
The British firm filed its recall with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) after discovering a problem with the mechanism that ordinarily ensures the sleek adornment swiftly retract in a crash.
“There is a potential for the ‘B’ hood ornament’s retracting mechanism to become corroded. This may lead to the ‘B’ hood ornament not retracting as intended when a vehicle is involved in a crash,” NHTSA said in a recall notice.
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Marriott announced September 21 that its landmark hotel at St Pancras station in London will open in May 2011, after two years of delays.
The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel has taken more than ten years to reconstruct, with its doors remaining firmly closed as the renovated St Pancras opened its doors to Eurostar traffic in 2007.
It will finally reopen exactly 138 years after the original hotel on the site, the Midland Grand Hotel, opened its doors in 1873.
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Orkney’s mythic distillery is releasing their oldest and most prestigious dram yet: the Highland Park 50 year old.
Designed by renowned jewellery designer Maeve Gillies of MaeVona, New York, each of the 275 bottles produced is crafted by hand from sterling silver.
Available exclusively at Harrods until the end of October. This bottle can be purchased here – Price: £10,500/$16,450.
Porsche has released the first details about the 911 Speedster ahead of the Paris Motor Show.
It pays homage to the 356 Speedster, the first model to use this name and will have a production limited to 356 units.
Designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Porsche Exclusive, the convertible features an aerodynamic body kit, black accents, and tinted headlights.
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If you’ve ever wondered exactly what goes into running a hotel, Accor hotels chain is giving its customers the opportunity to find out.
A total of 41 hotels across Switzerland will be opening their doors for one day in October to allow visitors to find out exactly how things work behind the scenes.
Each hotel is compiling a specific program on October 10, ranging from bar workshops at the Novotel Bern to housekeeping demonstrations in the Ibis Locarno.
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Evian has partnered with fashion designer Issey Miyake – known for his innovative and minimalist style – to unveil its fourth annual limited edition designer bottle.
Miyake joins a celebrated line-up who have unveiled designer bottles for the brand since 2008, including Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Paul Smith.
The new bottle design is decorated with an imaginary, shimmering flower; a symbol of youth and the evian signature message, “Live young.â€
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Porsche Design has just unveiled their latest advent calendar which will be sold for 1 Million USD each and just a single piece per continent will be available.
The world’s most expensive advent calendar measures 1.75 meters in height and is made from brushed aluminum with double-coat finish surfaces.
The advent calendar conceals 3 special highlights: a Porsche Design P’6910 Indicator in rose gold, an individually customisable Porsche Design Kitchen P’7340 and a motor yacht, 8 and a half metres long.
Behind the calendar’s 24 windows many other highlights by Porsche Design are hidden. These include sunglasses made of 18 carat yellow gold, writing tools and cufflinks.
A limited edition leather blouson made from hand-woven lambskin nappa, as well as a travel assortment from the French Classic luggage series are also on the list.
The calendars, strictly limited to five in number, are available on request via the worldwide Porsche Design Stores. Source: Autoevolution – Luxurylaunches.
Air France has unveiled its new business class cabin, saying that the new two-meter bed is one of the longest on the market.
The airline, which is investing some €110 million in its business class cabin, will offer the new seat on long-haul services from the end of this year.
The lie-flat seat bed uses a footrest to extend its length to over two meters in the bed position and is 61 centimeters wide.
Iconic British fashion label Vivienne Westwood is to launch a collection of watches at Baselworld 2011.
The company has signed an agreement with Zeon Limited, which will design, market and distribute the timepieces under the Vivienne Westwood brand name.
The watch collection, consisting of a range of ladies and men’s watches, will retail between 100 to 500 GBP and will be available in stores from fall 2011.
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Japanese artist Takashi Murakami‘s outlandish manga visions overwhelm the Chateau of Versailles, and not everyone is happy.
Unbelievably, his metal, fibreglass and acrylic sculptures manage to dominate the vast chambers of Versailles, with their marbled walls, gold leaf capitals and celestial ceiling frescoes.
But while French monarchists have denounced as “illegal” the exhibition, the artist himself says that he is quite used to what he calls “Murakami-bashing.”
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Bono and his wife did not only appear in the latest Louis Vuitton campaign, now the French luxury brand and their own eco friendly brand Edun have collaborated on the Keepall 45 Travel Duffle Bag ($4,900).
All proceeds of the sale of the bags go to the Conservation Cotton Initiative, a company that helps the development of eco-friendly and organic cotton farming.
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French carmaker Citroen and French clothing brand Lacoste have collaborated on a brand new concept car to be revealed at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.
The buggy-looking concept certainly has a lot of reference to the image of Lacoste, one that promotes a colorful, vibrant, and sporty lifestyle.
It features golf ball-style alloy wheels plus several parts that resemble sections of a tennis net on certain sides of the body.
The concept’s interior is also replete with Lacoste references including t-shirt-inspired seat trims that hits close to the French clothing brand’s overall style.
One of the coolest features of the door-less concept is the T-shaped structure that extends back to the boot like a “backbone”.
It hides an auto-inflatable hood that deploys all the way along the backbone to form a soft-top roof to somewhat protect passengers from the elements of natures.
At 3.45m long, 1.80m wide and 1.52m high with a 2.30m long wheelbase, the concept model is roughly the same size as a Citroen C1.
Power comes from a three-cylinder gasoline engine, with the French firm claiming that it offers “plenty of performance on tap to power a vehicle of this size and weight.”
The new Quentin Mackay ipad case brings an innovative, attractive, protective and stylish housing to the market for your beloved electronic companion.
Under the ‘LUXOLOGY’ philospophy Quentin Mackay merges Luxury and Technology together.
The luxury cases are made from a flexible 3M resinated carbon fibre trimmed with a smooth black calf and internally half lined in the house red calf suede.
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Passengers looking for the best inflight experience would be wise to stick with the Virgin brand, if the gongs handed out in a recent award ceremony are anything to go by.
Last week, the Airline Passenger Experience Association’s (APEX) annual Passenger Choice Awards lauded both V Australia and Virgin America for providing the “Best Overall Passenger Experience”, in the small and large airline categories respectively.
The awards are based on an online survey conducted earlier this summer, in which passengers were asked to evaluate their aviation experiences.
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What happens when legendary 152 year old Parisian jeweler Boucheron meets Horological Creative Lab MB&F ? A JWLRYMACHINE…
Stay tuned for the JWLRYMACHINE’s world premiere, on October 5th 2010.
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Lotus and Maserati have released the first images of their latest supercars due to be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show.
The British Group Lotus brand said yesterday that that the new Elite will redefine “modern classic” when it is released in spring 2014, priced around £115,000.
Its 5.0 liter V8 gas engine can deliver a top speed of 315 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of between 3.5 and 3.7 seconds.
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The Hainan Rendez Vous, Asia’s first and only exhibition exclusively dedicated to business jets, large yachts and luxury lifestyle will return from April 1st to April 4th 2011 at the Visun Marina in Sanya (Hainan Island, China).
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