The Bahamas
Bahamas - part two... I was served the most amazing tea, "Harney & Sons."
O.K. safe to say I'll get carried away and ramble due to my on-going love affair with The Bahamas so let me apologize in advance but I hope you'll have as much fun reading my stories as I've had living and writing about them. I'll try not to ramble off hither and yon.
If you really want to elevate your little 3-day jaunts to Atlantis, Paradise Island purchase the Gourmet meal plan and I'll walk you through why. Atlantis has something like 30+ food establishments, I'm not going to be quite so generous and call them all restaurants because they're not. Anyway, with choices like Dune, NOBU, MESA just to name three and breakfast too. We go off resort for our lunches and that way we get to have a non-resort, local experience because we go bonkers for the fresh Conch and the Grouper too. Back to the resort buy the meal plan and then select where you want to eat each night and make your dinner reservations while you're still at home, and make them well in advance. That really is the only way to eat where you want, when you want and on a 3-day whirlwind it's worth it because dinner is more enjoyable that way and special because the choices at Atlantis are so fantastic the only trouble you'll have will be selecting just one! For our latest trip we dined at Bobby Flay's MESA in the new all-suites, The Cove, Atlantis. We also dined at Dune which is up the beach at The One & Only Ocean Club and NOBU.
As I mentioned breakfast is in the meal plan and The Cove has this interesting dining concept called Mosaic which consists of cooking stations where your food is cooked to order. Everything is incredibly, beautiful, well presented and fresh everything from caviar to fresh figs interspersed in and around the cooking stations. All of this beautiful food is being served in a beautiful, elemental space which is about its wood, glass, natural light & stunning water features. The glass walls play a Zen trick of bringing the outdoor garden into the dining spaces so it's this beautiful, organic experience.
Table side the waiter has left for me the most wonderful tea box and in it are teas from Harney & Sons. Well, neither my friend nor I had ever heard of this tea company but the selection and the packaging were just wonderful so I selected the "Paris" blend. Well, when I opened the package which was foil lined I might add it unleashed these aromas one of which was pomegranate all coming from a silk sachet, triangular in shape. Aroma of the tea brewing in my cup along with the beautiful space and food transports you. But then that is part of why we love going to the Atlantis resort, they handle the details and we love Mosaic we ate breakfast there each day. On our third night we were going to have dinner there but tropical storm Noel caused them to close The Cove and move everyone into the Royal Towers so we're lucky that we popped into NOBU earlier in the evening and had sushi in the relaxing lounge at NOBU which is right off the casino floor so from the lounge you can see the flash of the casino through the glass entryway but you're in another world sound-wise. NOBU is another experience which transports you to a very special place where everything that hits your senses seems to open them wider.
Back to the amazing tea; I stopped drinking coffee over a year ago. I'm one of these people who had to have surgery and ever since I've had no interest in drinking coffee, apparently this happens to some people after surgery. I don't miss it in fact, I'm really enjoying drinking hot and cold tea. The selection at Harney & Sons is simply wonderful so much so that we've ordered three times and given one gift of their teas since we've returned the first week of November.
Here's a great clip about The Cove, Atlantis that I found on YouTube:
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Atlantis, Paradise Island, - Part 2 - where to begin...
12/03/2007 18:05 Filed in: travel
I
apologize for the technical problems we've
experienced because they've certainly distracted us
from writing and publishing updates here at
blogMerit. I apologize again because I was really
enjoying engaging my readers and then immediately
upon returning from a fantastic trip to Atlantis
everything came crashing to a stop.
Now, I've had weeks of life back at home which is also my office so I'll double back now and walk you through the trip because it makes for a fun and interesting story.
First off, I booked our airline tickets through this great, new-to-me website for booking and buying travel. Travelation.com was put in front of my by one of those travel websites where you have a series of buttons to choice from when it comes time to actually 'search' for your itinerary. Well, much to my surprise the airfare was $100 less than all the other websites I had been to so now I include them in my research for any type of travel. Oh, and the itinerary was a pain-free, 1-stop in Atlanta itinerary on Delta Airlines. Cool beans. Travelation.com rocks!
As I've said in earlier posts this would be a return trip to Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas, actually part of New Providence Island. We went for the first time exactly a year ago and we returned this year because we've discovered it to be pricing sweet spot for both the resort and the airfare to get us there -- equally important to note is you have this mega-resort to yourself because it's not crowded at all. Yes, there are people but nothing compared to what it must be like during peak travel periods. Not being a fan of crowds this holds a lot of appeal for me.
We were in The Bahamas by 12:30PM, how sweet is that, that's a full day in my eyes. No real wait for our luggage passed through Bahamian immigration all problem free. We love it there and we have the biggest smiles on our faces now that we're back in The Bahamas, beautiful people, food and islands, a truly wonderful place be. Bahamians love their country and we understand at least some of the reasons why hence the giant smiles on our faces while we're there and every time we talk about when we're back home.
We were in a taxicab in a few minutes, next stop the Royal Towers at Atlantis, Paradise Island. Yippee! I used to live by the Pacific Ocean so when I'm by the sea, to coin an old expression, happy as a clam! Arriving at the grand vehicle entrance at the Royal Towers is fun and you're immediately attended to by professional, bellman who intercept your luggage leaving you with a claim check to have them delivered to your room after check in. I find the staff of Atlantis to be efficient and swift in most situations. Fantastic, my holiday is underway sooner rather than later, I think to myself.
Now, let me sidebar for a moment to give you the background on how I booked our room at Atlantis for this trip. Since this was a return visit we traveled as guests of the casino. So we started out booked into a comp'd. room in the Coral Towers the offer we offered almost monthly after returning home last year. So, that what I booked for us to start with but I didn't really want to stay in the Coral Towers because we really liked the Royal Towers last year. Well, two weeks later I rang the VIP Services desk here in the US and I was assisted by a very pleasant lady who placed me on hold and when she came back on the line she was able to move me to the Royal Towers and comp. the first night and $125.00 each for nights two and three. Perfect, of course I jumped at it. Now, back to the lovely woman who checked us in.
Arriving at the front desk a woman motions us towards her, very pleasant and professional while I engage her in conversation and request that she please provide me with the best room she can with an ocean view. Her immediate response was, yes sir and I'm selecting a room that's ready now. Would a room on the 12th floor on the ocean side be to you're liking. Indeed it would, I replied. We crossed the lobby at the Bell Desk to arrange for our luggage to be brought up to our room.
From the moment we opened the door to our room I could see the Atlantic ocean through the sheer drapes at the balcony door. Spectacular, in turned out our room was on the top floor of this particular section of the East, Royal Tower. Here's a photograph I took from our balcony, not a French balcony but a balcony with two chairs and a small round cocktail table. What a beautiful Atlantean view from our room. It's energizing to me.
I'll stop for now and continue the story of our return trip to Atlantis, Paradise Island in my next post. Stay tuned...
Now, I've had weeks of life back at home which is also my office so I'll double back now and walk you through the trip because it makes for a fun and interesting story.
First off, I booked our airline tickets through this great, new-to-me website for booking and buying travel. Travelation.com was put in front of my by one of those travel websites where you have a series of buttons to choice from when it comes time to actually 'search' for your itinerary. Well, much to my surprise the airfare was $100 less than all the other websites I had been to so now I include them in my research for any type of travel. Oh, and the itinerary was a pain-free, 1-stop in Atlanta itinerary on Delta Airlines. Cool beans. Travelation.com rocks!
As I've said in earlier posts this would be a return trip to Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas, actually part of New Providence Island. We went for the first time exactly a year ago and we returned this year because we've discovered it to be pricing sweet spot for both the resort and the airfare to get us there -- equally important to note is you have this mega-resort to yourself because it's not crowded at all. Yes, there are people but nothing compared to what it must be like during peak travel periods. Not being a fan of crowds this holds a lot of appeal for me.
We were in The Bahamas by 12:30PM, how sweet is that, that's a full day in my eyes. No real wait for our luggage passed through Bahamian immigration all problem free. We love it there and we have the biggest smiles on our faces now that we're back in The Bahamas, beautiful people, food and islands, a truly wonderful place be. Bahamians love their country and we understand at least some of the reasons why hence the giant smiles on our faces while we're there and every time we talk about when we're back home.
We were in a taxicab in a few minutes, next stop the Royal Towers at Atlantis, Paradise Island. Yippee! I used to live by the Pacific Ocean so when I'm by the sea, to coin an old expression, happy as a clam! Arriving at the grand vehicle entrance at the Royal Towers is fun and you're immediately attended to by professional, bellman who intercept your luggage leaving you with a claim check to have them delivered to your room after check in. I find the staff of Atlantis to be efficient and swift in most situations. Fantastic, my holiday is underway sooner rather than later, I think to myself.
Now, let me sidebar for a moment to give you the background on how I booked our room at Atlantis for this trip. Since this was a return visit we traveled as guests of the casino. So we started out booked into a comp'd. room in the Coral Towers the offer we offered almost monthly after returning home last year. So, that what I booked for us to start with but I didn't really want to stay in the Coral Towers because we really liked the Royal Towers last year. Well, two weeks later I rang the VIP Services desk here in the US and I was assisted by a very pleasant lady who placed me on hold and when she came back on the line she was able to move me to the Royal Towers and comp. the first night and $125.00 each for nights two and three. Perfect, of course I jumped at it. Now, back to the lovely woman who checked us in.
Arriving at the front desk a woman motions us towards her, very pleasant and professional while I engage her in conversation and request that she please provide me with the best room she can with an ocean view. Her immediate response was, yes sir and I'm selecting a room that's ready now. Would a room on the 12th floor on the ocean side be to you're liking. Indeed it would, I replied. We crossed the lobby at the Bell Desk to arrange for our luggage to be brought up to our room.
From the moment we opened the door to our room I could see the Atlantic ocean through the sheer drapes at the balcony door. Spectacular, in turned out our room was on the top floor of this particular section of the East, Royal Tower. Here's a photograph I took from our balcony, not a French balcony but a balcony with two chairs and a small round cocktail table. What a beautiful Atlantean view from our room. It's energizing to me.
I'll stop for now and continue the story of our return trip to Atlantis, Paradise Island in my next post. Stay tuned...
I Won at the Atlantis Casino in The Bahamas...
Let me tell you the story of how my friend and I
wound up at
Atlantis, The Bahamas.
It all started with an email, I don't remember who
sent it but there was this crazy, low priced
mini-holiday to the one of the two Fairmont resorts
in
Bermuda.
So, I looked into the
Bermuda
offer and realized that it was a large, conference
hotel. Next. Ended up at this great website, which is
now gone called Sunburst Vacations well we located
this promo. package for 4 days, 3 nights at Atlantis,
Bahamas in the
Royal Tower,
airfare and ground transportation to/from the airport
in
Nassau
for this incredible price of approximately $700.00 so
we went for it! We also added the gourmet meal plan
and so we each ended up paying around a $1,000.00
which if you break it down -- for us figure the
airfare is $350.00, which leaves $650.00 for three
nights in the
Royal Tower
which is a savings of approximately $550.00 from rack
rate to stay at Atlantis in the
Royal Tower.
We had excellent itinerary on
American Airlines
so I also added some nice frequent flyer miles to
my
AA account.
So, with our vacation package booked and paid for I
set about researching where we should dine out of all
of the fantastic choices available at Atlantis, they
urge you to secure your dinner reservations as soon
as possible to ensure getting to dine where you want
when you want. I booked us at Fathoms for the first
night, Nobu the second night and Cafe Martinique for
our third and final evening. I will write about the
amazing meals in separate blog posts so you'll have
to come back and it's worth it suffice it to say we
enjoyed all three but Nobu and Cafe Martinique were
extraordinary. However I will tell you about dinner
our first night at Fathoms. The interior of the
Fathoms dining room looks through this floor to
ceiling, wall to wall glass into one of the huge
aquariums that's part of what is called, The Dig.
You're looking into millions of gallons of water
while all sorts of marine life swims up to the window
while you're eating your dinner it makes for a unique
and memorable experience. The service was fantastic,
I've read tons of the negative reviews about the
service at Atlantis and we had no problems, in fact
I'm impressed with the level of service we enjoyed
considering the size of the resort. Our service was
attentive and on par with what we expect at that
level of travel but I digress a bit here so... After
dinner we decided to hit the casino and try our luck.
As luck would have it we were in its company that
evening. The casino at Atlantis is beautiful, less
Vegas more of a European influence with two
stunning
Dale Chihuly
glass sculptures depicting the Fire and Moon theme of
the casino, they're spectacular. The casino is quire
large but not overwhelming at all, it claims to be
the largest casino in the
Caribbean.
We're primarily slot machine players these days. My
friend and I went our separate ways wandering around
playing whatever machine caught our eye. So, who
knows how long we'd been gambling at this point my
friend was sitting at a machine and winning so I
turned away looked around and found this slot machine
with Tabasco pepper sauce graphics on it and I
thought to myself, "I like Tabasco." So, I sat down
at the machine and put in twenty dollars and hit "Bet
Max", nothing. Hit "Bet Max" again and the machine
starts paying off. What, I won!? It kept counting,
and counting and counting, until I had won $1,200.00
from two bets totaling less than $4.00. I couldn't
believe it, my first night at Atlantis and I had just
won back the cost of my mini-holiday plus a couple
hundred more. This works for me! I was on cloud nine
plus my friend won over $700.00 dollars. I will post
more about this trip because I have to tell you about
the amazing dinners we had at Nobu and Cafe
Martinique as part of our Gourmet meal plan; more on
this and how we took in the local food scene going
off the resort for our lunches. Always more to come
later...
Plus we're planning on going back this fall and staying at The Cove, Atlantis, their new, all suites, boutique hotel. It was under construction when we were there as was the new spa and expanded water park. The Cove's suites all enjoy water views because they've built the hotel right on this little point where Paradise Beach and Cove Beach meet, therefore creating breathtaking ocean views from each suite. I'm so excited. I can't wait to relax on the beach, nap, nosh and write. Here are some of my favorite travel resources to help you plan your next business or leisure trip. I research several websites before I make my decision best to make more informed decisions and the internet provides a wealth of information if you know where or how to look for it. Enjoy your day.
American Express
Cheap Caribbean
eBags
Expedia
Ghurka Fine Leather Goods
Hotels.com
Priceline
Travelocity
Plus we're planning on going back this fall and staying at The Cove, Atlantis, their new, all suites, boutique hotel. It was under construction when we were there as was the new spa and expanded water park. The Cove's suites all enjoy water views because they've built the hotel right on this little point where Paradise Beach and Cove Beach meet, therefore creating breathtaking ocean views from each suite. I'm so excited. I can't wait to relax on the beach, nap, nosh and write. Here are some of my favorite travel resources to help you plan your next business or leisure trip. I research several websites before I make my decision best to make more informed decisions and the internet provides a wealth of information if you know where or how to look for it. Enjoy your day.
American Express
Cheap Caribbean
eBags
Expedia
Ghurka Fine Leather Goods
Hotels.com
Priceline
Travelocity
Posh Getaway to The Bahamas where the James Bond film, "Casino Royale"...
08/10/2007 17:05 Filed in: travel
I've
written about my wonderful trip to
Atlantis,
Paradise
Island in The
Bahamas well I'm also writing more articles about
that trip but this new one just made it to the front
of the queue! Kerzner
International owns
Atlantis and they also own the exclusive
One &
Only Ocean Club which is
also on Paradise Island. Well, there are travel
opportunities right now that are simply unheard of in
terms of the savings, a couple would save
approximately $4,000.00 dollars which is an unheard
of travel opportunity. This is a very elegant,
private, exclusive resort, celebrities book into the
ocean front villas. This is a brief post is brief to
quickly share this opportunity with others. Check
back or subscribe to receive my series of articles
I'm writing about The Bahamas.
Imagine lying on the beach looking at that very caribbean blue water for six glorious days and 5 heavenly night, including airfare beginning at $1,129.00. I'd be flying from Chicago so my airfare would be no more than $400.00 U.S. dollars and the package per person costs $1,269.00 so that leaves me $869.00 U.S. dollars for five nights hotel (garden view room) at the One & Only Ocean Club. This is an incredible value for one of the most exclusive beach front resorts in the world. They filmed the latest James Bond film here, "Casino Royale". Check back or subscribe for an more in-depth article I'm writing about my recent trip to The Bahamas.
Save on Vacation Destinations and Package Deals
Imagine lying on the beach looking at that very caribbean blue water for six glorious days and 5 heavenly night, including airfare beginning at $1,129.00. I'd be flying from Chicago so my airfare would be no more than $400.00 U.S. dollars and the package per person costs $1,269.00 so that leaves me $869.00 U.S. dollars for five nights hotel (garden view room) at the One & Only Ocean Club. This is an incredible value for one of the most exclusive beach front resorts in the world. They filmed the latest James Bond film here, "Casino Royale". Check back or subscribe for an more in-depth article I'm writing about my recent trip to The Bahamas.
Save on Vacation Destinations and Package Deals
