The Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino is located off the Las Vegas Strip, and was the first all-suite casino in the Las Vegas area. It made its debut in 1990 as a locals’ casino, owned and operated by Marnell Corrao Associates.

The Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino’s claim to fame is built on two things: spacious suites and scantily clad waitresses.

Every room in the hotel is a suite, open and uncluttered, decorated in warm neutrals. Perhaps the size of the rooms is intended to compensate for the frenetic crowds on the lower levels, where every day is a billed as a carnival.

The exterior certainly reflects the Mardi Gras madness happening inside; the Rio’s buildings themselves are bright red and purple, with gigantic masks hanging from the ceiling.

True to the essence of a Brazilian Carnaval or a Louisiana Mardi Gras, visual overload is the order of the day. On the main floor, the stunning Masquerade Village (recently revamped by Dick Foster Productions) is a roving party of acrobats, mimes and sexy dancers.

Dance along on the side, or for a small fee, you can get in costume and hop on one of the floats. The costumes are garish – think Carmen Miranda meets Cirque du Soleil – and that’s part of the fun. Throw on as many layers of beads as you can and move to the sinuous bahia beats.

Samba your way through the lounge and play some slots along the way, but leave time to visit the tropical paradise outside, complete with a sandy beach alongside the lagoon. You don’t have to be tall and tan and young and lovely to visit the Rio’s Ipanema Beach (although it certainly helps).

Waterfalls, Jacuzzis, and poolside beverage and food service will help you relax and gear up for another night of reckless abandon inside. Although Las Vegas is famous for catering to guests with a Y chromosome, the Rio Hotel and Casino bucks the trend. Their Ultimate Girls Night Out package includes access to the Flirt Lounge, designed by women for women.

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
3700 W Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89103

Bacara Resort & Spa is a luxury resort in Golita, near beautiful Santa Barbara, California.

“Bacara” (pronounced bah-CAR-ah) is a made-up name that’s meant to evoke the loveliness of the California coast, which is everywhere on display at the resort.

Bacara doesn’t have quite the same cachet as the fabled Miramar and Four Seasons Biltmore because it’s actually in Goleta. But the setting–a dramatically pitched valley in the lee of a sea cliff that opens onto a wild stretch of beach–is its secret weapon.

But as you look down from the top end of the Bacara resort, near the palatial reception building and arrival court, gas seeps are the last thing that come to mind.
From there, you see what resembles a ritzy Spanish Colonial-style condominium complex fanning out around two opulent pools on a terrace above the sea.

The Penthouse suite is 2,000 square feet and has recently undergone a total overhaul. The suite’s new look and feel is stunning. From preferred food to flowers, lighting or music, guests receive a totally tailored experience.

Within the suite there’s ample privacy. Each of the two bedrooms is housed in a separate wing.

Price: $10,000 per night.

Bacara Resort & Spa
8301 Hollister Ave.
Goleta, CA 93117
Tel. (805) 968-0100  (877) 422-4245
www.bacararesort.com/

For the English socialite worried about getting shot, oversize paramilitary gear simply won’t do. Fortunately, London’s super rich can now maintain their security without sacrificing style.

On July 14, Miguel Caballero, the world’s only producer of “designer bulletproof fashion,” started selling his high-security garments at posh London department store Harrods. His new collection includes blazers, raincoats and suede jackets, some replete with a comforting stab-proof lining.

Customers get to select from three levels of ballistic protection. For instance, a polo shirt that can withstand a slug from a 9-mm revolver costs roughly $7,500; a version for about $9,800 protects wearers from automatic weapons, including mini-Uzis.

The Colombian designer began producing high-security fashion 16 years ago while studying at Bogotá’s Los Andes University, where his classmates–many of whom were the children of politicians–wore protective vests that were heavy and nondiscreet. Fast-forward to his latest leather jacket, which weighs a trim 2.6 lb. (1.2 kg) and doesn’t scream bulletproof.
Full article

Self-drive holidays have been a popular vacation choice for decades and with destinations ranging from luxury camping parks to extreme and untouched wilderness, road-trips can be as laid-back or exciting as you choose.

Imagine the scenario, you’ve just arrived at a beautiful location, it’s time to eat and there is the most amazing sunset across the mountain ranges.

But instead of having to haul your chairs, table and BBQ outside, you simply push a button and in less than 20 seconds you are looking at the view from your own private veranda.

Country Coach’s Veranda series of luxury motor coaches incorporate a veranda which is designed to transform your living area into a luxury suite with a view. The veranda is essentially a 4.6 foot wide by 13 foot deep steel desk with railings.

It is created by lowering the coach’s side wall and is separated from the interior by 12-foot, three-section glass doors, which can be opened wide to increase the living space.

The deck is designed to bear 3000 pounds of weight and the railings are built to residential code. The dual-layer steel deck floor is covered in easy-to-clean vinyl and can be lowered in less than 20 seconds and raised in under 30 seconds.

There are a number of floor plans available and standard features include side-opening bay windows, a utility plug-in with 120 volt power receptacle and power-roller day and night shades for the doors. Optional extras include a 37” LCD high definition television, stainless steel bbq and outdoor folding table and chairs.

The Veranda is currently in limited production. For more product details, got to
Veranda Country Coach

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, established in 1935, is among the oldest and largest regional professional repertory theater companies in the United States.

The festival reports that in 2007 total attendance in its three theaters was 404,730, with patrons seeing an average of three shows and almost 90 percent of the audience traveling more than 125 miles to attend.

While it’s called a Shakespeare festival, have no fear, there are plenty of different types of theater to choose from – even different kinds of Shakespeare, for that matter.

There are also modern plays, such as the comedies “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler” and “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner,” along with classics such as Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge.”

This is the place to indulge yourself in theater, and no one makes productions more accessible. Besides its guides to the plays, OSF has numerous tours, lectures and talks, all designed to enhance and deepen your experience of seeing the work on stage.

The festival has nine plays now running; four are Shakespeare, three are very different types of classics, and two are modern . (See accompanying reviews and schedule.)

“The whole theater scene is what draws the people and supports all the good restaurants and other things we have here,” Smith said.

Situated just outside the Oregon rainbelt, eastern- facing hills hover over Ashland, reflecting a perpetual glow – golden in the summer and gleaming white from snow in the winter. “The festival is the magnet, but once people get here, they immerse themselves in a cute little town for three or four days,” Smith said.

“They get caught up in the fine dining, the galleries, the wine-tasting, and it becomes an experience that is far more than the theater.”

Source: Marcus Crowder Sacramento Bee

It’s destined to be the world’s largest cruise ship – when launched next year, Royal Caribbean’s US$1.24 billion Project Genesis will be 1,180 feet long, and carry 5400 passengers (6,400 at a pinch).

It’s the most expensive ship in history, and it’s longer, wider and taller than the largest ocean liner ever built, (Cunard’s QM II), 43 per cent larger in size than the world’s largest cruise ship, (Freedom of the Seas) and remarkably, bigger than any military ship ever built, aircraft carriers included.

In a world where choice of amenities count, Project Genesis has yet another trump card – in the the center of the ship is a lush, tropical park which opens to the sky.

With its intention of taking the best of the land to sea the aptly-named “Central Park” spans the length of a football field. The aim is to make the park a public gathering place like a town’s central park, with pathways, seasonal flower gardens and a canopy of trees.

Aiming to give the ship a number of distinct districts, the Central park neighborhood is one of seven neighborhoods to be unveiled on Project Genesis. Each neighborhood will provide vacationers with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences based on their personal style, preference or mood.  Full article

A black Maybach 57 rolls down the Strip ferrying another big dreamer. The luxury sedan passes the glittering gambling palaces and heads north to the Sahara Hotel & Casino, an aging, down-on-its-luck landmark that hardly seems fit for this well-heeled passenger. Except that he’s the owner.

“Wait until you see this place,” says Sam Nazarian, a 32-year-old real-estate entrepreneur and nightclub impresario from a wealthy Beverly Hills family. Over the past few years he’s injected new buzz into the Hollywood club scene and now intends to resurrect the forlorn Sahara with the same kind of cool.

The odds, as they say, are against him. Mr. Nazarian has never run a casino, and he is entering the business in a downturn that’s fleecing existing casinos and snuffing out new ones. Gambling revenues are down. Room rates are falling. Some companies have filed for bankruptcy protection and others are poised to.

But Mr. Nazarian, a tall, husky bachelor in a dark suit capped by a baby face, says his hotel and casino will have an edge over competitors. It will serve a market that he says has been priced out of Vegas: the young party crowd that’s dropped a fortune at his Los Angeles clubs and restaurants.

“There is an alienation of the high-energy, youthful crowd,” says Mr. Nazarian as he strides through the Sahara’s lobby, where he has already spent about $2 million in furnishings and décor.

Mr. Nazarian might be just another Vegas mark but for this: Where he goes, celebrities and moneyed youth tend to follow. His current slate of Hollywood-area hot spots — Area, Hyde, Foxtail, S Bar, Katsuya — draws such names as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Full article

Aerospace engineers have been busy over the last four years, secretly working diligently in a Mojave Desert hanger. Their goal: develop a commercial spaceship to loft rich tourists 62 miles above Earth.

This ambitious venture is the work of British billionaire Richard Branson and American aerospace designer Burt Rutan. Last week, the team rolled out their ship and it will begin a rigorous flight test program that space tourism advocates hope will result in the first suborbital joy rides by the end of the decade.

Interest is high and already 250 wannabe astronauts have paid $200,000 or put down a deposit for a chance to float weightless for a mere five minutes.

The commercial spaceship, named White Knight is a twin fuselage ship with the same wingspan (140 feet) as the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a World War II bomber.

The SpaceShipTwo is the size of a corporate Gulfstream and is capable of carrying six passengers and two pilots. Both ships will be built wholly from ultralight composite materials.

Source: Alicia Chang (AP)

Booming wine consumption in China is leading to a growth in locally produced wines but as Chinese tastes become more sophisticated, local wineries are finding that they need to play catch up in terms of quality and vintage.

According to China Organic Agriculture, Demand in China for foreign wines, including those produced in California, is growing rapidly. In 2007, the import of wine into China totaled approximately 54 million bottles, representing a 125% growth from 2006, according to the latest report of the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

The market share of imported wines in China increased from 6.6% in 2006 to 10% in 2007, while industry analysts project that share will reach 18% in 2008. Total wine consumption in China is expected to increase 65% from 2001 to 2010, a growth rate 6.5 times faster than the global average.

Dozens of wine enterprises have set up operations in the region, which has the latitude roughly similar to the Bordeaux region in France.

The coastal city of Yantai, home to over 10,000 hectares of vineyards in Shandong Province is regarded as China’s Bordeaux by the locals.

Many of China’s leading winemakers are expanding rapidly to cater to change in China’s taste buds, and the surge in demand for wine.

Once drinkers of beer and local spirits, many professional Chinese are choosing instead to toast to what they perceive as the more refined and healthy image of grape wine.

By 2011, Chinese drinkers are expected to down more than 1.1 billion bottles of wine or 828 million litres of wine a year, double the figure in 2007, according to a study by the International Wine and Spirit Record in London.

More than 100 wineries have opened since 1996 and there is an estimated 500 vineyards across China, which supply 95 per cent of the wines consumed domestically.

Great Wall Winery, one of the leading local brands in China produces over 50,000 tons of wine each year from its 3 main production areas in North China.

The biggest consumers of wine in China in 2003 were people aged between 35 and 44. The age group that drank the least wine was the over-55 age group.

Price is a major consideration to most Chinese, and imported wine is out of reach to most consumers. A domestic bottle of wine may retail for as little as $3 while imported wine is generally $10 to $20 a bottle or more.

According to a Datamonitor report Wine in China: a market analysis, the influence of western eating and drinking habits, along with rising incomes, have been the keys to market growth.   Source: AP

The Mandarin Oriental is located in scenic San Francisco California. The luxury hotel’s 158 guest rooms occupy the 38th to 48th floors of a downtown tower that’s currently the third tallest in the city.

This means top-of-the-world views. The lobby and restaurant are down at ground level.

The Oriental Suite is 1,200 square foot, with an 800 square foot terrace.

Donna Karin, Bruce Willis and Whitney Houston are among the privileged guests to have seen the stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz from the suites terrace.

An extravagant interior, complete with exquisite furnishings, luxe finishes and an irresistible spa style master bath, is second to none.

Rate: $3,500

Mandarin Oriental
222 Sansome Street
Financial District
San Francisco, California
415-276-9665 or 800-526-6566

Source: Elite Traveler

Photo courtesy of: Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa

The Tidepools Restaurant is set among koi-filled lagoons with a backdrop of waterfalls, at the luxurious Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. The restaurant has a reputation for fresh fish, seafood specialties and rich flavored char-broiled steak and prime rib.

Tidepools Restaurant provides a distinctive open-air setting in Polynesian hale or thatched roof huts. Savor fresh Pacific Rim style cuisine gazing over the lush grounds and the azure Pacific Ocean.

A consistent winner of the prestigious Hale ‘Aina award, Tidepools draws repeat guests who rave about the fresh island fish and steak options including oven-roasted ono crusted with banana and macadamia nuts, seared opah topped with blue crab and lobster, or garlic and peppercorn rubbed prime rib.

Salads feature fresh island-greens and the desserts are luscious. Don’t miss this delightful experience.

Tidepools Restaurant
Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa
1571 Poipu Road,
Koloa, Hawaii, USA 96756
808-240-6456
Visit their web site