Friday, November 13, 2009

Darwin Hotels: a Synonymous for a Soothing Stay


by admin
Filed under Hotels

Darwin, situated in the northern territory of Australia, is a lively city that boasts every thing from picturesque landscapes, beaches, parks and gardens, colorful festivals, variety of food and wine, nice shopping areas, exciting nightlife, sporting spirit and quality of hotels. Being a cosmopolitan city, it is the perfect place to relax and get involved in to various enthralling activities. The city, due to its closeness with some of the popular Asian countries like Singapore and Jakarta, as well as important hot spots of Australia, hosts number of travelers frequently from all around the world.

Despite been knocked down many a time by earthquakes, Japanese bombs, and cyclones in its brief history, this city has always managed to regain its popularity among tourists.

Positioned in close destination to the Southeast Asia rather than the rest of Australia, Darwin is considered as one of the multicultural city in the world. As a great destination to explore, the city features some of the outstanding attractions like Kakadu National Park, the Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land, Bicentennial Park, Cullen bay marina, and Mindil beach sunset market. Other important sites in Darwin that draws number of tourists to this city include museum and art gallery, botanic gardens, Old Man Rock, and Smith Street Mall. It has a relaxed outdoor lifestyle and enjoys a warm weather thereby attracting ample visitors in huge bulk throughout the year. Being a popular tourist’s destination, there is a good selection of hotels in Darwin.

As per the inflow of the tourists, whether traveling for some business purpose or just for a leisure vacation, Darwin host wide range of hotels and other accommodation options that caters the requirement of all type of tourists. From business centers to exciting dining options and from variety of things to do and see to fine accommodations, this city offers something for the pleasure of all its visitors whether bag packers or lavish travelers. The hotels of Darwin set a nice example for the quality of hospitality. Some of the well renowned luxurious hotels, seaside retreats, serviced apartment or comfortable budget hotels to hostels bed and breakfast and campsites, you can select from any of these accommodation options, as per the desire and budget.

Darwin Hotels not only provide excellent staying facilities but also take care of the comfort level of every guest. You will find standard well appointed rooms in most of the hotels that are provided with a set of modern conveniences and certain basic amenities like a comfortable bed and attached bathroom.

Travelers can easily find accommodation of their choice in every area of the city whether its downtown town area or Airport area. If you are looking forward to a luxury hotel in Darwin then put up in any of the best star hotels and resorts of the city. Close proximity with many commercial and business centers, the airport area hotels of Darwin are the major choice of selection for the travelers visiting the city. Hence it will be true to conclude that Darwin amidst number of pleasurable sights also comprise nice options of luxury and budget hotels that cater the need of all types of travelers.

To avoid any disappointment in the course of your trip, do not be hasty while looking for an accommodation in Darwin. In order to get a true synonymous for a ‘soothing stay’ make reservations for the hotel of your choice through any of the websites that avails detail information on these hotels.


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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Focus: Changi Airport Singapore

Changi Airport has been voted Best Airport in the World at the Business Traveller awards for the last 22 years. Tom Otley goes behind the scenes to find out how the airport achieves its success.

Arriving into Singapore, late at night after a long flight from Europe, Changi Airport doesn’t immediately strike you as world-beating. Depending on your airline you might arrive at any one of the three terminals, ranging from Terminal 1, opened in 1981, to Terminal 3 (pictured below), which opened last year.

Each of the three terminals handles a similar number of passengers (around 20 million per annum), but in the case of T1 which is currently undergoing a three-year renovation programme, the interiors are simply a less cluttered version of the older terminals at Heathrow, albeit with carpets minus black tape hiding the rips, and with an unrivalled selections of shops and restaurants, a cinema and a swimming pool on the roof.


Take the Sky Train between terminals however, and visit T3, and you get a sense of how far airport design has come in 30 years. T3 is so astonishing, that if you ever have the chance to use Singapore Changi for a connection, I’d advise leaving a couple of hours between flights to give you time to explore. You won’t regret it, the place is a marvel.

Why? Well how many airports have a butterfly garden, koi carp pond (outside the Singapore Straits Bar), free internet access with more than 500 terminals for the use of all passengers, or a post van which circulates around the airport selling stamps and postcards allowing you to send messages to friends?


There are three cinemas, an outdoor swimming pool, three airside hotels and a five-storey high “Green wall”. So popular is this 300-metre long feature that while I was watching a wedding party arrived at the airport and the bridge and groom had their photos taken in front of the wall – all the more astonishing since Singapore is hardly short of stunning vistas that might act as a background.

Part of the attraction of Changi and particularly T3, is that you suddenly realise what airports can be like. One of the visions was to have a natural light in the airport, and this has been achieved through having a complicated system of computer-controlled “butterfly wing” skylights on the roof, and louvres on the ceilings of the terminal allowing for the optimal amount of natural light to come into the terminal so that inside it resembles the magic hour in the morning just before sunrise. It helps people with jet lag, apparently, is pleasant for those working in the terminal and also means the green wall and the plants inside the terminal get enough natural light to survive.


The building is air-conditioned – you can see some funny-looking porthole-like devices in stands around the terminal – and what’s interesting here is that they only air condition the building up to a certain height, with higher levels allowed to be considerably warmer. It’s a clever environmental point – why air-condition the higher levels when there’s no need to, and also of course it saves money.

In the immigration area to one side of the green wall is a large sandstone wall with a relief which says “Welcome” in dozens of languages, and there are a number of water features – no mean feat when other airports struggle to provide drinking water fountains. However although grand gestures such as these are fine, for travellers it’s the attention to detail which will impress. There are many areas of comfortable seating gathered around large flatscreen TVs. Normally these are places to avoid, since the TV dominates, creating noise pollution to passengers who are not interested in whatever programme is playing, but at Changi each of the comfortable chairs has speakers built into the arms of the chair, allowing the person sitting there to hear clearly, but without disturbing others.


There is shopping, of course, more than 200 shops in T3 alone, and these are organised into different zones – or “cluster shopping” as it is referred to – including a FIFA-licensed shop, Ferrari and luxury brands such as La Perla and Montblanc. I was walking around the area mid-afternoon, the quietest part of the day (peak periods are 0600-0900 for arrivals and then 2200-0100 for departures). As such, the airport seemed even more spacious than normal, and it’s clear that the shops and boutiques don’t spill out into the concourses.

For long layovers (minimum of five hours) the airport also runs a special two-hour bus tour of Singapore. You simply surrender your passport to the agency which runs the tours and then head out of the airport. There are three terminals in total at Changi, four if you include the budget terminal which is a free seven and a half minute bus ride away (they are very precise here). T1 is the oldest, having been opened in 1981, and is currently undergoing renovation. T2 completed its renovation in 2006, and T3 is brand new, of course. Connecting them all is the quiet and efficient Skytrain service which runs every couple of minutes.


Catching the Skytrain is easy, and so I also toured T1, wanting to see for myself the swimming pool on the roof of T1, and the outdoor spaces - though many of them are frequented by smokers because of Singpore’s rules about smoking indoors (the same as in the UK – only in designated and contained areas).

But T3 was the main draw, and I finished the tour in the Butterfly Garden, which can be accessed from two different levels, and which has more than 1,000 butterflies, and nearly 50 butterfly species native to Singapore and Malaysia in an open-air enclosed garden with a curved roof made of stainless steel mesh. This keeps the butterflies in (well imagine how long they’d last with jet engines around) but allows for wind and fresh air. There’s even yet another waterfall. If they ever build a T4 at Changi, it will be interesting to see how they top T3.

For more information visit changiairport.com.

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81 Geylang Hotel Singapore

The Location of Hotel 81 Geylang in Singapore is of great advantage to travelers. It is just 10 minutes away from the Central Business District and 15 minutes away from the airport. The hotel boasts of 88 pleasant rooms that are equipped with standard facilities of its class. All the rooms are airy and spacious. The furnishings inside are chosen carefully and arranged in a manner whic h gives the interior decoration a decent and tasteful appearance. Travelers looking for no-frills accommodation will surely find the hotel a very cozy place to lodge in; those who want to enjoy Singapore without wanting to spend much usually lodge in this hotel.

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Singapore beckons UAE tourists


By
Sean Davidson

The number of visitor arrivals into Singapore from the UAE is expected to record zero per cent growth this year but will not slip into the negative. The city-state also hopes to grow total numbers from the Middle East by at least 10 per cent next year, Singapore's tourism board told Emirates Business.

Total visitor arrivals from the UAE into Singapore stands at 37,000 till date. For 2008, the total figure stood at 51,000. November and December have historically been a peak season and should easily account for the 14,000 difference, said Aw Kah Peng, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

"This year we think the UAE arrivals will be on track for last year's figures. Over the last five years we have been seeing double-digit growth. Yes, it is a small base but you have to start somewhere. For us most of the visitors from the UAE are either coming from Dubai or Abu Dhabi," Peng said.

While acknowledging that the Middle East was still a very small base, Kah Peng said the board would work to grow the number by more than 10 per cent in 2010.

"The Middle East is still very small as a base for us. We got just more than 114,000 people coming from the region. Considering the 10 million visitors coming to Singapore that is a small fraction and we must grow it. For 2010, we will look to grow the number to somewhere between 130,000 and 140,000," she said.

Today, 80 per cent of Singapore's total arrivals are from the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for seven of its top 10 markets. Emerging economies have added more travellers and Singapore is poised to tap into those markets.

"We know where our market is and how in some ways it has shifted over time. Two to three years ago we found the Middle East a region that we had to focus on so we set up an office here to have a real presence on the ground. We are using this office to create awareness, and to run promotions and marketing campaigns," said Peng.

Jason Ong, Area Director, Middle East and Africa, STB, said: "We are trying to grow a lot more of our local population arrivals. We are going to develop more programmes and more focused campaigns. We are trying to reach out to them through networking events. It's a very niche market.

"We are pitching more of a precinct, an area, and a lifestyle segment. A lot of them like the Orchard road area in Singapore, which is like Asia's Champs-Elysees. So we're trying to push the area a lot more."

Singapore reported a 7.1 per cent increase in tourist arrivals for September over last year, boosted by holidays in neighbouring countries and its Formula One Grand Prix.

Hotel revenues fell 28 per cent to S$140 million (Dh367.91m) in September as hotels slashed room rates 31 per cent to attract customers, the board said.

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