Luxury firm eyes UAE
Scott Dunn, a United Kingdom-based luxury-travel company that specialises in tailor-made holidays around the world, has launched a new website (www.scottdunn.com) and toll-free phone service (800 035 703 722) aimed at travellers based in the UAE.
The company offers specialised advice from its travel consultants, who each spend a month every year visiting their own specialist areas and experiencing the thousands of properties that the company has on its books. It offers everything from family and group travel in Europe to skiing or honeymoons in Africa.
New posh wheels deals
Travellers heading from the Middle East to popular destinations in Europe can now factor high-end luxury car rental into their plans with Hertz, which has just launched its “Dream Collection”. Featured cars are the Maserati Ghibli and GranTurismo, Aston Martin Vantage and DB9, Bentley Continental Flying Spur and Range Rover Sport, and they are available for hire in selected locations across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. The price for a Jaguar XK convertible starts at €230 (Dh1,149) per day.
“International travellers from this region are getting younger,” says Sunita Gomes, Hertz’s commercial director for the Middle East and Africa, “and they want to experience the things they’re familiar with when they’re on extended business trips or holidays. And now they can arrange the car they want for the duration, too.”
It certainly opens new possibilities for driving holidays, as Europe has some of the world's best and most scenic roads and Hertz, says Gomes, will soon also be adding some of the most desirable supercars available to the fleets (www.hertzdreamcars.com).
Asian adventure offers
Backyard Travel, an online, Bangkok-based travel agency specialising in holidays in Asia, has cut the price of three of its fully-guided individual tours of Indonesia this summer by 10 per cent.
The first tour, “Meander the Mountains — Bali by VW Convertible”, is a three-day trip in a convertible Volkswagen amphibious vehicle that drives to black lava fields, active volcanoes and ancient temples. The discounted price is from US$328 (Dh1,205) per person, excluding flights, valid until August 31.
Also on offer until August 31 is its “Devotions and Diamonds – Discover Southern Kalimantan” tour, a four-day trip that takes travellers to the less-visited southern part of Borneo. Travellers stay in a lodge and explore floating markets, trek through bamboo forests and learn about the local process of polishing diamonds. This trip is now $474 (Dh1,741) per person.
Until December 31, the nine-day "The Jewels of West Java" trip, which takes in hilltop temples in Bandung, bathing in hot springs at the Tangkuban Perahu volcano and cruising on a small wooden boat through the Green River Canyon near Pangandaran, costs from $1,529 (Dh5,616). All trips are available through www.backyardtravel.com.
[ rbehan@thenational.ae ]
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