W Retreat & Spa on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico is offering Energize by Tara Stiles, the first program in the property’s new Fit Retreat initiative for more health-focused getaways.
As part of Ms. Stiles’s partnership with W, the high-profile New York yogi created a program for the resort where guests can practice yoga with Ms. Stiles or other teachers trained in her Strala Yoga style.
The customized three-day or five-day programs incorporate yoga sessions, outdoor activities like kayaking and snorkeling, and healthy meals, many of which were inspired by Ms. Stiles’ cookbook, “Make Your Own Rules Diet,” scheduled to be published next month. Read more…
The Jacaré-Açu, which explores the Rio Negro.Credit Rainforest Cruises
The largest protected area in the Amazon River basin, the Central Amazon Conservation Complex in Brazil covers nearly 15 million acres. Now, one river cruise company will offer passengers more exposure to the Unesco World Heritage site by running longer trips there.
Rainforest Cruises recently began selling seven- and eight-day sailings aboard three ships.
The 18-passenger Tucano now schedules weeklong journeys departing from Manaus, Brazil, and traveling up the Amazon tributary Rio Negro.
Passengers can take small-boat tours into tributaries, where the intrepid can swim in the river and fish for piranha. Rates start at $3,229 per person, double occupancy. Read more…
Twentieth-century Paris was renowned for its literary and cultural figures, and now visitors and residents alike can see the city through their eyes with a new iPhone application called TravelbyArt.
The app has 20 tours that unearth the lives of notable names such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the one- to three-hour tours include information about where they lived, the studios where they worked and the restaurants and bars where they ate and socialized. There is also a timeline feature for every figure that shows the chronological course of his or her life in Paris.
Easy to follow offline maps that don’t require an Internet connection and transportation tips are included, but the maps also are linked to the phone’s internal GPS so users can see exactly where they are.
The Hemingway tour, for example, starts at Hôtel d’Angleterre in St. Germain de Prés, where the author stayed the first time he came to Paris with his wife in 1921. Read more…
The newly expanded Picasso Museum in Paris. Credit Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Walkabout
A weekly capsule of travel news curated by our writers and editors.
At Home Two of three people diagnosed with Ebola in the United States flew on commercial flights shortly before falling ill. To put that in perspective, on an average day, about two million people fly with United States airlines. Still, travel agents say customers are asking whether it’s safe to fly. (USA Today)
Abroad Despite the fact that the main safari destinations in southern and eastern Africa are thousands of miles from the Ebola-stricken countries of the west, industry leaders say fears of the disease are keeping tourists away. (CNN) Read more…
While pirouettes and grand jetés may not get a porter to your room any faster, a little basic ballet training might improve their grace upon arrival. At least that’s what JW Marriott is hoping will come of a new employee training program it has developed in partnership with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago.
The hotel’s Poise and Grace Program is a series of video tutorials led by the Joffrey’s artistic director, Ashley Wheater. In them, Mr. Wheater demonstrates core movements and mind-sets practiced by professional dancers in order to achieve the seamless flow of a ballet sequence.
The training focuses on four areas: warming up the body, proper breathing techniques, the flow of movement and a connection with the audience. In essence, to think and act as if they were on stage- or perhaps in a Wes Anderson film.
“In ballet, we learn to foster self-confidence and to make a genuine connection with those around us, which are crucial skills for anyone in hospitality,” Mr. Wheater said in an email. “Through proper technique and practice, those elements become second nature so that each person in the hotel has the foundation to approach guest interactions in a thoughtful and fluid way.” Read more…
Dresden, the final stop on the tour.Credit VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations
“Berlin to Dresden: Hidden Gems of Eastern Germany,” a new trip for 2015 from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations, features connections with local residents, a lesson in sauerkraut making, and wine sampling at a local vineyard. Bicycling routes follow easy terrain with optional rolling hills
Stops along the way include the landscaped gardens of Potsdam’s Sanssouci Park and palace; the wetlands and waterways of the Spreewald, a Unesco biosphere reserve; and a trip to the sandstone peaks of the Bastei, in Saxon Switzerland National Park.
Travelers to the Galápagos Islands looking for a luxury experience usually explore the area by cruising.
They now have another option in the 14-room Pikaia Lodge on Santa Cruz Island. The property is located in a secluded giant tortoise reserve and has sweeping views of the islands and the Pacific Ocean.
The building itself is constructed from recyclable steel, glass and natural stone and decorated with sustainably cultivated Ecuadorean teak wood furniture and bamboo wood floors. Read more…
Courchevel in France, part of Les Trois Vallées, where you can dive under a frozen lake.Credit Patrick Pachod
France claims the world’s largest ski resorts; Switzerland claims it created winter tourism, and will celebrate 150 years of snow play in 2015.
Both countries aim to encourage Americans to visit the Alps this winter, not just for seemingly endless runs and riveting views, but for novel attractions including ice-diving, ski-jogging and suspension-bridge-hiking.
Les Trois Vallées in France, one of the largest ski areas, encompassing 380 miles of interconnected runs, recently introduced the world’s highest zipline at 3,230 meters (10,597 feet), effectively a unique ski lift stringing one peak to another.
This winter it will introduce ice-diving,scuba diving below the frozen surface of Lac du Lou, and “jogging on skis,” after-hours uphill hikes followed by ski runs down. In the 3 Vallées town of St.-Martin-Bellevue, novices will be able to try the winter sport of biathlon with the French Olympic medalist Vincent Jay as the instructor; participants will use air rifles for target shooting on a cross-country ski course.
The resort is offering the “Ultimate Tequila Tour” as a daylong immersion for lovers of the distilled blue agave spirit.
The nine-hour tour begins with a private helicopter ride from the resort to the town of Tequila, where guests tour the family-run José Cuervo distillery, a Unesco World Heritage site.
The first stop is the agave fields studded with more than 25,000 maturing blue agave plants, where a sommelier explains the process of jima (harvesting) and the growth cycle. Guests will be able to plant their own agave plant.
That is followed by a tour of La Rojeña, said to be the world’s oldest distillery (established in 1795 at the time of the Spanish conquest), where a sommelier will discuss the varieties of tequila found onsite and take guests on a tour of the underground cellar to taste sips from a barrel. Read more…
The Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux.Credit Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux
With its new children’s concierge service and junior family suites, the five-star Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux in France has turned its attention to an emerging demographic: young travelers.
Each of the new suites sleeps up to four guests, and has a spacious bedroom, separate living space with a sofa bed and two adjacent bathrooms.
The hotel’s general manager, Yan Vacher, has established a partnership with Bonpoint, the upscale French children’s wear brand with a flagship store a block from the hotel. Read more…
