Luxury Travel Resources
Jan 27, 2016, 7:27 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London
Programs: No program whatsoever
Posts: 284
Luxury Travel Resources
As I go about my morning coffee and daily ritual of checking FT Luxury Hotels and a handful of industry blogs, I wonder: which websites / media outlets / blogs devoted to luxury hotels and travel do you find the most useful?
Jan 27, 2016, 9:42 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Boise, ID
Programs: Virtuoso
Posts: 617
Great idea!!
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
Jan 27, 2016, 10:56 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London
Programs: No program whatsoever
Posts: 284
Great idea!!
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
In case anyone is interested, this is the Virtuoso Best of the Best for 2016:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/virt...ebest2016/#/12
Jan 27, 2016, 6:12 pm
#5
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Palo Alto, CA, USA
Posts: 3,222
The travel section of the How To Spend It by the Financial Times:
http://howtospendit.ft.com
http://howtospendit.ft.com
Jan 27, 2016, 9:04 pm
#6
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 1,644
Great idea!!
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
I have one to add - in case people do not know, Virtuoso puts out a few publications and they are available as apps or by contacting your trusted advisor for the complimentary paper version. Six times a year, Virtuoso Life is published and is a magazine about luxury travel. Once a year, the Best of the Best is published and it is a (large) book with all the properties in the network listed with a description, picture, property tip, and Virtuoso amenities.
I find this Flyertalk forum better than most things for a source of info. I don't find Gallivanters any help these days and that American site fernandoshideaways or whatever it's called isn't on my radar.
Last edited by Pausanias; Jan 28, 2016 at 4:23 am
Jan 27, 2016, 9:15 pm
#7
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Philadelphia
Programs: BAEC Silver, SPG Gold
Posts: 465
Luxury Travel Resources
I look at Virtuoso as a start as they have extra amenities (full discourse am Virtuoso advisor) - hotels are reviewed annually before acceptance in the program. I also consult Conde Nast Gold list, Small Luxury Hotels and Mr&Mrs Smith as well. I follow many luxury bloggers and travel vendors on Twitter too
Jan 27, 2016, 9:48 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...l#post11345980
kind of interesting >
- Elite Traveler is found primarily in private jets, and looks great
(BPA audited circulation: 89% private jets and 9% first class lounges)
- Departures/Centurion also do not sell newsstand (nor subscriptions)
for amex plat, but "purchased from American Express Publishing by Time Inc"
Pausanias, what about sophy roberts for example?
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...%20article.pdf
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...jan13_oman.pdf
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...%20article.pdf
- Elite Traveler is found primarily in private jets, and looks great
(BPA audited circulation: 89% private jets and 9% first class lounges)
- Departures/Centurion also do not sell newsstand (nor subscriptions)
for amex plat, but "purchased from American Express Publishing by Time Inc"
Pausanias, what about sophy roberts for example?
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...%20article.pdf
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...jan13_oman.pdf
http://www.sophyroberts.com/assets/w...%20article.pdf
Last edited by Kagehitokiri; Feb 2, 2016 at 6:36 am
Jan 27, 2016, 9:53 pm
#9
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,413
The AmEx publication Departures is basically about luxury travel with some emphasis on FHR properties. (Travel and Leisure magazine is more mass market IMO.)
Jan 31, 2016, 2:17 am
#10
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: England
Posts: 1,361
A lot of people hate them, but I do enjoy "top XX hotels in the world" lists. I cannot be bothered with reading a massive editorial on every property and these lists I find useful to skim through and then pick out some that look interesting and do more search. Some sources I use:
Can you please give some examples?
- Financial Times Travel and How To Spend It
- Telegraph Luxury
- Conde Nast UK/International
- Travel + Leisure
- Departures Magazine & AMEX special offers. AMEX special offers have made us aware of a lot of places that we then booked, such as La Reserve, Alila Villas and a lot of the English Relais Chateux properties. I think it is what originally made us start staying at The Berkeley and then subsequently The Connaught.
- Tatler
- Mr and Mrs Smith
- Scott Dunn - I find their website the best travel agents website I've ever come across. They will only put a property on here that they have been to and they also have incredible navigation to filter your choices, such as based on the best time to visit or the type of holiday. I also like that their own staff review it
- Carrier is another UK TA that has a really good website and fantastic brochures
- Five Star Alliance - often turns up when doing a Google search for "5 star hotels in XXX"
- Trip Advisor
- Booking.com - I find this most useful as you can only give a review if you've been there and booked via booking.com. You also have hotels on there now like Velaa and Cheval Blanc, so it can often be easier to find rates on here than the hotels own website. I will type in a city and date, filter by 5 star, order by Reviews so I have the highest rated properties at the top, then work through the list and do more research into the properties that stand out.
- Obviously Google
Can you please give some examples?
Jan 31, 2016, 4:42 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London
Programs: No program whatsoever
Posts: 284
A lot of people hate them, but I do enjoy "top XX hotels in the world" lists. I cannot be bothered with reading a massive editorial on every property and these lists I find useful to skim through and then pick out some that look interesting and do more search. Some sources I use:
Can you please give some examples?
- Financial Times Travel and How To Spend It
- Telegraph Luxury
- Conde Nast UK/International
- Travel + Leisure
- Departures Magazine & AMEX special offers. AMEX special offers have made us aware of a lot of places that we then booked, such as La Reserve, Alila Villas and a lot of the English Relais Chateux properties. I think it is what originally made us start staying at The Berkeley and then subsequently The Connaught.
- Tatler
- Mr and Mrs Smith
- Scott Dunn - I find their website the best travel agents website I've ever come across. They will only put a property on here that they have been to and they also have incredible navigation to filter your choices, such as based on the best time to visit or the type of holiday. I also like that their own staff review it
- Carrier is another UK TA that has a really good website and fantastic brochures
- Five Star Alliance - often turns up when doing a Google search for "5 star hotels in XXX"
- Trip Advisor
- Booking.com - I find this most useful as you can only give a review if you've been there and booked via booking.com. You also have hotels on there now like Velaa and Cheval Blanc, so it can often be easier to find rates on here than the hotels own website. I will type in a city and date, filter by 5 star, order by Reviews so I have the highest rated properties at the top, then work through the list and do more research into the properties that stand out.
- Obviously Google
Can you please give some examples?
Jan 31, 2016, 8:14 pm
#12
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Philadelphia
Programs: BAEC Silver, SPG Gold
Posts: 465
Luxury Travel Resources
Twitter Luxury bloggers I follow
Paul from A Luxury Travel Blog
Ana of MrsOAroundtheWorld
Kim Marie of Luxury Travel Mom
Tiffany of Luxe Tiffany
Katie of La Jolla Mom
Nancy of Luxe Travel Family
Matt of Landlopers (not always luxury)
#LuxTravelChat weekly luxury chat
Paul from A Luxury Travel Blog
Ana of MrsOAroundtheWorld
Kim Marie of Luxury Travel Mom
Tiffany of Luxe Tiffany
Katie of La Jolla Mom
Nancy of Luxe Travel Family
Matt of Landlopers (not always luxury)
#LuxTravelChat weekly luxury chat
Feb 1, 2016, 11:03 am
#15
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,007