Talking Travel: New Deals, New Hotels, and Wow, Traveling During the Summer is Expensive

We're so chock full o'deals this edition that Talking Travel had to be pushed back two hours to get them all in.

A little bird whispered in our ear this morning and said that the first of two Rosewood Hotels in Beijing is finally approaching its opening. The first one will be in the Jing Guang Tower, not far from our offices. The 283-room hotel will feature the first Rosewood Sense spa in Asia. Rosewood's Silicon Valley location in Menlo Park is famous as a seen-and-be-seen location, and pretty soon we may be able to say the same for Beijing. We should be getting a sneak peak soon, so stay tuned for a first look.

Good things come to those who wait: if you're in the mood for a shopping weekend, a couple of days' break, or a visa run, take a look at Dragonair fares for July 17-23. The Swire Pacific-owned (think, The Opposite House and EAST Beijing) airline is offering flights to Hong Kong for RMB 1,820 on those dates, including tax. That's cheap. Your correspondent may very well be taking advantage of that offer.

Otherwise, in terms of summer travel, forget it. Now I remember why I stay and sweat it out in Beijing every year: it's too damn expensive to go anywhere else. Checking fares to go to Europe (Estonia) for a wedding in August, I looked at fares to London Heathrow, and came up with RMB 9,000+ as the lowest fare, on Finnair. Of course, Heathrow is the most expensive airport into which to fly, but yikes.

After that nice deal from Los Angeles that United Airlines is a similar deal from Boston, for USD 870. Now that Hainan Airlines is handling Beijing to Boston non-stop, while flying from Beijing to the U.S. is still reasonably expensive, at least our friends can come visit for less. USD 870's not a bad deal.

Having been served only by regular charter flights for years, Beijing to Guam is now getting its first regularly-scheduled service. Dynamic Airlines will fly to the U.S.-administrated island every five days, the flight takes five hours. Guam has been on the wrong side of US visa policy for years; visitors to Guam require a full US visa in order to land. Contrast this with the nearby Northern Marianas Islands, namely Saipan, which issue their own visas, and have benefitted handsomely as a result, also because of regular charter service from both Beijing and Shanghai.

There are now JW Marriott Hotels on both sides of Beijing. In addition to the one at Hua Mao in Chaoyang District, the JW Marriott Hotel Beijing Central just opened to serve the Financial Street crowd. Sounds like we're about to travel west for yet another champagne brunch.

Speaking of the JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing and JW Marriott Beijing have named Tarik Temucin as Hotel Manager, arriving in our fair city by way of Istanbul and Sanya. Welcome, Tarik!

Sundara, Bali's hottest beachfront restaurant and bar, at Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, showcases world-renowned Master of Mixology, Javier de las Muelas, along with Spain's Michelin star chef Carles Tejedor, during two extraordinary culinary events on July 23 and 26, 2014. Booze and Bali? I can't imagine any of our readers would have the slightest interest in that pairing. More info on that here.

Singapore Airlines is about to start flying the Airbus A380 to Beijing. That's great, if you want to get off the plane at the same time as 470 of your closest friends. At least you can use the in-seat power to charge your iPad for your wait at immigration.

Last but not least, for the second time in as many months, a plane on which I was flying did a go-round, this time apparently signaled by Beijing air traffic control. It's unnerving.

Did I miss anything? If so, email me and I'll include it in Thursday's edition. In the meantime, check out Get Out, the Beijinger's monthly travel column, all about Macau in the July issue that's now available throughout Beijing.

Until Thursday, one road flat safe.

Photo: Wikimedia